Reno would ruin Kelowna mayor's view

Ron Seymour Saturday, 14 April 2012 Kelowna Daily Courier: 
Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray could lose his prime lakeview office, but gain extra security in a proposed renovation of City Hall. Council will decide Monday whether to spend nearly $400,000 to reorganize the layout of the building's third floor. Fourteen workstations and four meeting rooms would be added, along with new washrooms. Future renovations of other floors would add 36 more workstations and another eight meeting rooms. "The City Hall renovation plan allows the city to comfortably delay expansion or replacement of City Hall, which has already exceeded its current design capacity," reads part of a report to council by infrastructure planning director Randy Cleveland. Total cost of the proposed renovations to the third floor is $1.6 million. Of that, $1.2 million will come from an insurance payout the city received when the Pavilion building in City Park burned down last spring.  The balance of the insurance payout, amounting to $657,000, will be used by the city build new washrooms and concession space lost in City Park when the Pavilion was destroyed. Currently, the mayor's office directly overlooks Water Street, with an expansive view toward Okanagan Lake. But in the proposed redesign of the third floor, the mayor and council offices are shown in an area further inside the building. Gray would have only a partial lakeview. City manager Ron Mattiussi and two other top employees would have the best lakeview offices. The floor's proposed re-configuration is said to increase security, because members of the public will no longer be able to walk directly into the mayor's office without permission. "(It) increases security for the mayor and council as well as staff, improves operational efficiencies, addresses building code deficiencies resulting from updated legislation, and increases meeting rooms," Cleveland says.