Another meeting, another round of questions, some familiar answers—and Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke remains frustrated in his efforts to stop the School Department from moving to the old federal building on Main Street.
But Rooke is not ready to give up. Instead, he’s planning to ask his Council colleagues to support an effort to strip funding for the building’s lease from the city budget.
Barring that, he said, he’s also considering filing a lawsuit to stop the deal.
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Rooke has been questioning the move since last year, when the (since departed) Finance Control Board signed off on a deal to relocate School Department employees from their outdated home on State Street to the former federal building at 1550 Main Street. That building was left mostly vacant after the majority of its tenants moved to the new federal courthouse, just up State Street from the School Department headquarters.
The city signed a 10-year lease with MassDevelopment—which bought the building from the federal government—that calls for the city to pay rent of $10.86 per square foot, as well as contribute $2.8 million for renovations to the building.
Those extra costs drive the cost up considerably, says Rooke, who calculates that the final cost will be more than $21 a foot—considerably more, he maintains, than the city would pay for better quality space elsewhere downtown. He’s called for the city to put the lease out for public bidding (something it wasn’t bound to do by law, since the deal is between two government entities) to ensure that taxpayers are getting the best deal.
The owners of Monarch Place and the former Sovereign Bank building at 1350 Main Street have both expressed interest in renting space to the School Department. Rooke told the Advocate that after talking to those property owners, he’s confident that the city could get a much better deal at one of those sites. (Last year, Rooke received a $250 campaign contribution from Evan Plotkin, an owner of 1350 Main Street. In 2007, Plotkin gave Rooke $500. The councilor previously told the Advocate those contributions had nothing to do with his call to put the project out to bid, adding that perhaps Plotkin just appreciates his efforts to make sound business decisions for the city.)
Mayor Domenic Sarno has repeatedly defended the School Department move as necessary to keep a prime piece of downtown real estate from sitting vacant. He’s been backed by politicians including Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Rep. Richie Neal (who was instrumental in getting the new federal building built), as well as by the Springfield Republican, which has editorialized in favor of the deal.
“The only explanation I’ve been given from the administration through the media is, [Sarno] doesn’t want the federal building to go dark,” Rooke said. But, the councilor added, there are property owners throughout downtown who are struggling with vacancies; why not find a spot that both helps a business and gets the best deal for the city?
“All of the positives you get from transferring employees … downtown will be the same amount of benefit whether they’re in the federal building or Sovereign Bank or Monarch Place,” Rooke said. The additional benefit, he said, would be significant savings for taxpayers.
When Rooke, chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee, recently held a meeting on the matter, a City Hall attorney warned that if the city tried to back out of its lease with MassDevelopment, it could face a lawsuit.
Rooke scoffed at that idea. “We’re not going to get sued by MassDevelopment,” he told the Advocate. “When was the last time a government entity sued another government entity?”
But the city could face a different lawsuit, Rooke warned: he said that he’s talking to a local real estate attorney about seeking an injunction to try to stop the lease. Rooke said he’s looking into whether councilors can access city money to hire an attorney, and is also considering paying for the suit out of his own pocket, perhaps with contributions from other city officials who share his position.
First, however, Rooke plans to ask fellow councilors to vote to excise from the city budget the line item for the rent for the new School Department headquarters, with the goal of forcing the Sarno administration to seek competitive bids.
“Before we make a decision, let’s go out to a public [bid] and let’s really solidify the fact that it is the best deal for the taxpayers,” Rooke said. “If it is, great—I’ll buy the sandwiches for the ribbon-cutting.”
