Tuesday, Dec. 02, 2008

Counter move: Council yanks lobby remodel off agenda

Public reaction to $343,000 project fuels decision

Modesto leaders have canceled tonight’s City Council agenda item relating to a $343,000 customer service counter, a spokeswoman said this afternoon.

“They’ve decided they want to perform further research and analysis,” public information technician Jessica Smart said.

Council members were scheduled to approve $6,500 worth of extra design work to remodel the counter, on tonight’s consent agenda, which is typically approved without discussion. Public reaction to today’s front-page Bee story changed Mayor Jim Ridenour’s mind, Councilwoman Kristin Olsen said this afternoon.

The configuration of the 9-year-old counter on Tenth Street Place’s second floor affords cashiers too little security and causes some customers to bump their heads on payment booth windows, officials have said. And customers in wheelchairs must do business through a back door, they said.

Finance officials envision heavier, more secure glass and a new particle-wood veneer counter with seven access windows instead of five. They’ve waited more than five years for the remodel, Finance Director Wayne Padilla has said.

But news of the project caused a ruckus from people who say spending more on a counter than two median-priced houses, while leaders wrestle with a budget gap of more than $2 million, is counterproductive.

Ridenour and City Manager Greg Nyhoff “realized there is a lot going on here that needs to be evaluated,” Olsen said.

Olsen had said in today’s article that she would pull the item from tonight’s consent calendar, forcing discussion. But Ridenour and Nyhoff removed it from the meeting agenda altogether, Olsen said.

Smart and Olsen said the remodel would be vetted at a future council finance committee before returning to the full council for deliberation.

The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m.

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or 578-2390.