York County administration building bond is back

The York County Council changed its mind for the third time in as many meetings Monday, voting to put a $19 million bond for a new administration building back into a county bond package.

Council members had narrowly removed the item from the other $89.9 million worth of projects in the package with a 4-3 vote just two weeks earlier, but reversed themselves by another 4-3 vote Monday night.

Britt Blackwell, Christi Cox and Michael Johnson voted against restoring the administration building. William “Bump” Roddey switched his vote of two weeks earlier to join Bruce Henderson, Chad Williams and Robert Winkler in supporting the administration building.

Roddey said he supported one bond package as a more cost-conscious way of getting the building done, citing worries construction will become more expensive if the project is delayed.

“This is supposed to be a conservative council,” he said. “This is the more conservative move.”

Roddey said he also was concerned about whether the project could be met in the timeline laid out at the last meeting, when the council voted to have the same study committee that vetted November’s bond referendum return a recommendation by April 18. Roddey said committee chairman Chet Miller told him he had trouble convincing members to come back to review the administration building again.

Cox opposed Roddey’s motion, arguing it was not a legal amendment to her motion to approve the bond, since she offered it “without amendment.”

“We need to approve what the voters approved,” she said. “I’m committed to do (the administration building), but we have to do it the right way. Let’s not sneak this in.”

The $89.9 million bond was approved by voters Nov. 3 to address space and security concerns at county buildings, primarily at courtroom facilities at the Moss Justice Center in York and the Family Court facility on Heckle Boulevard in Rock Hill.

The initial version of the bond issue voted on by the County Council on Dec. 7 also included $19 million for construction of a new county administration building on South Congress Street in York, next to the current county offices in the 60-year-old Agricultural Building. Another $5 million for the new headquarters would come out of the county fund balance.

But the inclusion of that funding along with spending that needed voter approval to pass caused complaints from some activists that it sidestepped possible public concerns. The GPS Conservatives for Action PAC group was particularly critical of the additional bond, especially after the conservative group publicly endorsed the listed items on the referendum.

GPS President Paul Anderko said he had an understanding from county leaders that the referendum projects would move forward without the county spending money on other projects he characterized as “wants” instead of “needs” – at least until after the referendum projects are completed, which could be delay work on a new admininistration building for years.

On Dec. 21, the County Council voted 4-3 to remove the administration building from the bond package, instead waiting for a “study group” to report back on the proposal by April. York Mayor Eddie Lee spoke before council Monday to ask them to reconsider.

“This administration building needs to be replaced. We do not need to study that,” Lee said. “It no longer is adequate as a county administration building. It is not secure. It is overcrowded. It does not serve our growing population effectively or efficiently.”

The council voted last March to move forward with building a new administration center at the York site, even after a team from the consulting firm Cumming Construction Management presented studies suggesting an alternative site on Arrow Road would be more than $1 million cheaper and highlighted some environmental concerns about the Congress Street location.

Cox said previous studies of the new administration building site met the criteria she wanted the new study group to employ.

“It was a bad study,” she said. “We spent $250,000 on a study that didn’t tell us anything.”

Because bonding the new administration 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 another bond. If approved, the impact of the debt service on the bond would be equivalent to $6 a year on a $100,000 home.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 8:56 PM with the headline "York County administration building bond is back."