Over the past several years, the City has made incremental improvements throughout the facility, including upgrading the Detective Bureau, Records Division and Locker Room within the Police Department, the Fire Department's administrative offices, and the Utility Billing, Building and Safety, and Reception Counters on the 3rd floor. The proposed CIP project to redesign the 3rd floor office space has been a goal for many years and is a continuation of the necessary upgrades required to improve building safety and enhance employee efficiency and collaboration.
The 3rd floor Redesign and Furniture Purchase project has three main priorities:
- Bring current office furniture up to date to improve both safety and the ability to reconfigure spaces as time goes on;
- Design enclosed offices for mid-level managers currently in cubicles, in order to facilitate private conversations; and
- Bring individuals within the same department - who are, in some cases, currently working on separate floors - closer together for the sake of increased efficiency, collaboration, and innovation.
The majority of the 3rd floor contains office furniture that is original to the building and is in need of replacement. At the time of purchase 39 years ago, the workstations selected were not designed to accommodate the technology staff uses today, specifically the use of computers. Additionally, the cubicles have experienced significant wear-and-tear; however, the original furniture supplier no longer carries parts needed to make necessary replacements and adjustments to the cubicles, leaving no easy solution to properly improve existing work spaces. Exhibit A includes photos of some of the many broken baseboards and illustrates the challenges with cubicle power and wiring. Additionally, current cubicle configurations are inconsistent and vary in size across the organization. Exhibit B shows examples of current mismatched cubicles and variances in configurations. The design phase of the project will assess and standardize appropriate work station sizes based on employee position and true space needs. Since City employees spend 8-10 hours per day at the workstations, staff recommends improving the safety and quality of their environment by purchasing improved office furniture and reconfiguring the layout to maximize and properly allocate space.
In addition to revitalizing and standardizing work stations, the project includes designing enclosed offices which will increase privacy for six mid-level managers. Currently, these managers are situated in open cubicles that do not foster the necessary enclosed privacy required for managers to work and converse with employees and community members. Exhibit C shows the existing cubicle space being utilized by these managers. As part of this contract, PeopleSpace will be expected to determine the footprint of these offices in order to maximize space on the 3rd floor, and to ultimately furnish the offices. The structural design and construction of these offices is not a part of this scope of work and will be coordinated through a separate contract with another vendor.
The last project goal is to consolidate displaced departments and use city office space more resourcefully. Two departments, Administrative Services and Management Services, have multiple employees working in various areas of the building, which can lead to challenges of isolation and inefficiency. One example is the Human Resources and Purchasing Divisions which are located in the center of the 3rd floor, with the rest of the Administrative Services Department located on the North wing of the floor. Staff recommends relocating these two divisions within the rest of their department area. The second example is the Communications and Marketing Division which is located on the 2nd floor, while the rest of the Management Services Department is located on the 3rd floor. Staff recommends relocating this division to the 3rd floor, which would consolidate the Management Services Department. If PeopleSpace determines these consolidations could all be accommodated on the 3rd floor, this would potentially leave the office space on the 2nd floor vacant, creating an additional leasing opportunity and revenue generator.
In order to initiate the project, staff issued a Request for Proposals in May and received responses from 1) Tangram Interiors and 2) PeopleSpace. Ultimately, PeopleSpace was selected based on their competitive pricing that will allow the City to comprehensively renovate the entire 3rd floor within our current budget. Additionally, PeopleSpace has extensive municipal experience having partnered with neighboring cities, such as the Cities of La Habra, Buena Park and Newport Beach. Lastly, PeopleSpace proposed solutions which would encourage collaboration and take advantage of underutilized square footage, such as outdoor spaces. Staff will partner with PeopleSpace to begin work on the design phase immediately and is projecting the furniture purchase and installation will occur later this calendar year.
While working to meet the project goals, staff will ensure the furniture selected will be classic and timeless, in order to preserve it for years to come. Once the design phase of the project has been completed, staff will provide an update to City Council prior to construction of private offices and installation of the product. This project will also work in tandem with ongoing efforts to increase security throughout the 3rd floor. |
William Gallardo, City Manager
Prepared by: Jenn Colacion, Management Analyst and Melissa Davis, Management Analyst
Concurrence: Chris Emeterio, Assistant City Manager; Cindy Russell, Administrative Services Director; and Tony Olmos, Public Works Director
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