York County Council delays action on new administration building

York County will move forward on an $89 million bond without funding for a new administration building.

The County Council voted 4-3 Monday night to have a “study group” look into the costs of building the new county headquarters and report back to the council by April 18.

Council members Britt Blackwell, Christi Cox, Michael Johnson and William “Bump” Roddey voted in favor. Robert Winkler, Bruce Henderson and Chad Williams voted against.

The council then voted 5-2 to move forward with the original bond, with Cox and Winkler voting against.

Johnson proposed that the $19 million bond for the administration building be stripped from the overall bond issue. Instead, he proposed the issue be sent back to the same citizens’ committee that formulated the bond referendum list and come back to council with its proposal within six months.

The council voted last March to go forward with building a new county headquarters on South Congress Street in downtown York, despite concerns a different location outside downtown would be a cheaper option.

While Johnson said he supports the project and said the county always intended to bond the building separately, he said the way the bond has been brought up alongside the other, voter-approved projects muddies the waters in voters’ minds.

“It just doesn’t look right,” he said. “Most people didn’t know. ... We have to thoroughly communicate this to the public.”

Johnson’s motion failed, with Johnson, Blackwell and Cox voting in favor. Winkler, Henderson and Williams voted against. Roddey abstained.

York County had planned to include funding for the new administration building alongside other plans for $89 million worth of other projects that went to voters for approval on Nov. 3. County officials say bonding all the projects together will save the county money in the long run, but activists have accused the county of going around the voters to finance a project they weren’t asked to approve.

The GPS Conservatives for Action PAC publicly endorsed the referendum items – primarily focused on security and space concerns at the county’s court facilities – before November’s vote, but said it would oppose spending on other county building projects it doesn’t see as priority needs.

Referencing council chairman Blackwell, GPS President Paul Anderko called the planned county headquarters on York’s South Congress Street “Britt’s Taj Mahal.”

On Monday night, Anderko said council had “shocked the citizens” by moving forward with the proposal.

“You need to look at the integrity of the county council,” Anderko said. “That’s what is at stake.”

Winkler, an advocate of the downtown location who represents York, said moving forward with the project now was the most financially sound path, pointing out the county would save at least $200,000 with a joint bond issue.

“Most people I talked to knew the plan” was to move forward with the building separately, Winkler said. “If people in the other districts didn’t know, I fault their councilmen.”

Because the $19 million bond to construct the building would cost less than 8 percent of York County’s total tax base, the council isn’t required to seek voter approval before issuing a bond for the project, unlike the longer list of building proposals in the referendum. Another $5 million will be taken out of the county’s fund balance to fund the project. The impact of the debt service on the bond would be equivalent to $6 a year on a $100,000 home.

The bond was given initial approval in a 6-1 vote at council’s Dec. 7 meeting. Cox cast the only vote against the proposal.

If ultimately approved, the bond would build a new facility next to the current county offices in the Agricultural Building, a 60-year-old structure county officials say is too small and outdated for the county’s modern needs.

Blackwell said he was committed to building the new headquarters downtown, but after November’s referendum, “we have an issue with public trust now.”

“The average person does not see what (I) see every day,” Blackwell said. “I talked to my parents and even they were foggy about it.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 9:05 PM with the headline "York County Council delays action on new administration building."