The city’s Civil Service Commission today will consider extending a controversial lease for hundreds of thousands of dollars a year rather than moving to the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Building rent-free.
This year, the commission will pay $517,000 for its office space near Invesco Field at Mile High. Its lease expires at the end of the year, and officials are considering trying to renegotiate a reduction in that agreement rather than move downtown. Rent downtown would be free, but it would cost about $30,000 to move.
Commission director Earl Peterson said that he is only considering options but that there are several advantages to having a facility stay in the neighborhood. Businesses have grown up around it and parking is plentiful and cheap compared with downtown, he said.
“I certainly understand the financial constraints that we have to look at,” Peterson said. “But I also look at the functionality of the operation and how this organization has changed over … five years.”
But critics say there should be little debate.
“It’s a no-brainer,” said Susan Casey, a former mayoral candidate who was on the City Council when the original lease was approved. “For them to do anything but signal that the right thing to do is to move – they should be questioned about any other decision.”
The commission’s lease at 1570 Grove St. has drawn fire since shortly after it was approved. Casey and two other council members said in 2000 that they would never have voted to approve the lease had they known of the owner’s close ties to high-placed city officials.
Jim and Janet Rivas – friends of then-commission director Paul Torres – bought the building for about $1 million three weeks before the city began lease negotiations. The city approved a multiyear lease for just over $3 million.
Torres resigned in 2000 after a Denver Post investigation found he had hired friends and family for commission jobs. Peterson said Thursday the lease had passed through at least four city bodies – including the auditor and mayor’s office – before it was approved.
“As far as the rent and the lease … it was done through the appropriate channels,” he said. “I think the controversy at that time had a lot to do with situations external to the facility. … There were other issues, and I’ll leave it at that.” The Civil Service Commission recruits police officers and firefighters. It also conducts background checks and disciplinary actions.
City Councilman Rick Garcia said the Grove offices are more accessible than the Webb building. There are also benefits for employees having confidential, discipline-related meetings away from downtown. Still, he said, the fiscal realities are hard to ignore. “If all things were equal, I think having a separate site out of the downtown area would be most ideal. … It is a question of, ‘Is the economic equation enough to offset the other issues?”‘ Garcia is proposing extending a short lease while the city mulls opening a public-safety training facility at Stapleton.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-820-1657 or at gmerritt@denverpost.com.
