City Hall to Spend $850,000 on Furniture for New Building

Members of the Laguna Niguel City Council could be sitting on—as well as be surrounded by—$850,000 worth of new office furniture when City Hall opens Oct. 15.

City Manager Tim Casey presented the proposed budget for the upcoming year Tuesday night, which includes a furniture purchase of no more than $850,000 for the new City Hall—with one exception: Council members Linda Lindholm and Mayor Gary Capata are insisting on their current council chamber chairs, even though, according to both, they need reupholstering. 

"They are the most comfortable chairs you could sit in," said Mayor Capata.  "You could sit in those chairs all day."

"They are so cushy," added Lindholm.  "If they can find some new chairs exactly like them for less than the cost of reupholstering these, then fine.  But I want to keep these chairs."

Casey is not even remotely in agreement.

"We never contemplated that we would be taking this 20-year-old eclectic mix of furniture with us when we move," Casey said. "We are furnishing the new City Hall from the ground up, brand new."

New, but at a cost of $850,00? Some might ask if the old furniture would suffice.

"We haven't spent any money on replacing furniture over the past few years in anticipation of this move. Most of the furniture at this office is over 20 years old and we anticipate getting another 20 years out of the new purchase. Yes, some of the stuff is still usable, but most of it is pretty beat up and won't fit into the new office space," Lindholm said.

What Does $850K Buy?

Casey said the furniture purchase includes fixed stadium seating for the council chambers, work stations, cubicles, stacking chairs for the community room, shelving, file cabinets and more—and that they negotiated the purchase at a bargain.

"First of all, we are lucky that we aren't being charged for removal of the old furniture," Casey said, while presenting a paper showing bid packages from three furniture liquidators. 

Green Cube won the deal with its proposal to remove all of the furniture from the building at no cost to the city; Green Cube plans to sell the fire-resistant file cabinets in the clerk's office for $1,800 and auction off many of the other items.

TR Trading said it would remove the furniture at no cost, but refused to move the steel case workstations in the community development department, so it didn't get the bid.

Chris's Business Network said it would remove all of the furniture for $5,000.

Deputy City Manager Pam Lawrence stated in the documentation for the proposal  that: "The liquidation companies have noted that due to the varying styles, colors, manufacturers and age of the furniture, there is little or no value associated with its liquidation. Although it would seem that there should be some value to the furniture, the cost to the liquidators to remove the furniture is balanced by its limited auction or recycling value."

The city will be donating two desks, 10 conference room chairs, two guest chairs and one bookcase to the and one desk, three file cabinets and two bookcases to the

Casey also said that the new City Hall is 15,000 square feet larger than the

Interior Office Solutions won the contract to furnish the building with a bid of $850,000. The city had originally estimated the job at $1 million.

"Our architect originally had us planning to spend $25 per-square-foot for the new furnishings," Casey said. "We managed to get a pretty good deal here at around $21 per-square-foot for middle of the line, lifetime warranty furnishings from Interior Office Solutions.  A lot of this stuff will have to be custom built."

No New Street Name

The council also settled on a street sign name for the new City Hall.  The address will remain 30111 Crown Valley Parkway, but the street signs will say Civic Center Plaza.

More about the budget:

• The total budget is $41 million.
• The operating budget is $29.4 million, the same as the previous year.
• There will be no cuts to programs or services.
• Medical/dental/and vision insurance are expected to increase by $79,000.
• One part-time accountant will be upgraded to full time at a cost of $58,000.
• The city will probably hire a full-time maintenance worker for the new City Hall at a cost of $69,000.
• The Orange County Sheriff's Department contract is expected to increase by $142,000, but the city will be saving $387,000 by no longer having to make lease payments for the City Hall.