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Compromise is the grease that gets things done
Police station to library move good deal for Ferndale
Op-Ed by Jon Mutchler, published in Ferndale Record Journal, Dec 2, 2009

Married? Then you understand compromises. Try building a house as a family (we've built two in Ferndale) and you'll earn your advanced degree in the art of compromise.

Effective governing requires finding common ground. Compromise is the grease that gets needed things done.

Your council reached a reasonable, good, and win/win compromise regarding the police station and library challenges.

Their recent decision can be summarized as follows:

1. The city will repair and reopen the old Boys and Girls Club building.  Costs are essentially covered by the insurance settlement following the 2007 fire.

2. Following that, our library will make it's first move to this building and serve our community in this temporary spot for perhaps 1-3 years.

3. The empty library will be remodeled and expanded to serve as the new permanent police station. Centrally located and adjacent to the Public Works Department, this is a terrific location for our officers and their vehicles.

4. The library will embark on a successful fundraising campaign which already has seed money of a $1,000,000 private gift, an initial commitment of $1,000,000 from the city, and a lovely piece of property on Main Street. Once completed they will move out of the old Boys and Girls Club into a new library.

I personally like the economics of this plan. Although not exactly what I campaigned for during the election it meets the primary social and economic values I stated: "We need to build a modest police department now; but this isn't a good time to spend money on a new library."

(Note: if in doubt about the need for a police station, read the 2006 WASPC assessment that highlighted our station's gross deficiencies in "workspace," "protection," "safety," "privacy," and its various code violations; pages 28-29. If you need a copy of these pages, send me an email and I will forward them to you).

Here is the simple math: During this building and economic slowdown it is less expensive to build. Contractors are bidding significantly less than they were two years ago. Converting the library into the police station could come in at around $5,000,000 or less. Additionally, historically low interest rates today bring down those borrowing costs.

Contrast the cost of converting the library (into the police station) with building a new station on a piece of city land. According to my inquiries we are saving about $1,500,000. And most of that savings will and should go toward the new library. As stated earlier, $1,000,000 has been promised so far by council.

During the campaign I stated my support for an overdue and sorely needed police station to replace our inferior, unsafe, and outdated rental facility. But I didn't want to make any commitments to new library.

So in my way of looking at things we are only paying for the cost of a needed police station (something the city has promised the community for 24 years). But we're also getting a library with no additional direct costs to city government.

I share the goal of some on the council to keep this revised police/library project at around $6,000,000. That's very doable. Contrast that with the $8,000,000 proposal that was recently on the table for these two projects. Or the cost of a complete "law and justice center" that was contemplated a year ago at around $11,000,000. Compromise.

Still, can we afford it? This debt can be serviced using the revenues the city receives from the solid waste tax. This is the tax we charge all of Whatcom County residents for the privilege of bringing their garbage to Ferndale. Put another way, we are moving ahead with this project without raising our property or sales taxes.

Jon Mutchler