The new LVMPD “headquarters” is now open for business. Employees are slowly moving in. At the cost of over $1,000,000.00 per month rent. Brand new furniture for everyone. Three times the cost of what it was costing Metro to rent the previous buildings that it replaces. Technically it isn't even a "headquarters" because the specific things necessary for it to be classified as one were not added to the buildings because they would have cost too much. Like the appropriate security measures that were originally asked for. Since it was way over the initial cost, they had to cut out those very things to save money.
It still remains unnamed. Three guesses and the first two don’t count as to what it does get named? Doug Gillespie LVMPD headquarters? The rumor is he wanted to get the building in place to show the previous sheriff he could do what the other guy couldn't. And as for naming something this monumental, so huge in LVMPD's history, how about honoring one of the officers who dedicated their lives to the cause? Or even allowing the employees and former employees to pick a name?
Sheriff Gillespie describes it as “not a fancy building, but it’s a nice, practical building”.
How practical is it? No freight elevators in the buildings. The furniture and equipment will have to be lugged up the passenger elevators or the stairs, increasing the cost of moving, I’m sure. Certainly increasing the length of time it will take to move in.
No reasonable roof access for maintenance to the roof mounted equipment, such as air conditioning units and communication devices.
Flooring not suitable for easy cleaning, mostly carpet.
Not enough power to the buildings, therefore not enough power for individual offices (department e-mails were sent out forbidding anyone to bring personal appliances, such as coffee makers, fans, heaters, fridges, etc). There's barely enough power to run the necessary computer equipment.
Keep your eye out for possible necessary upgrades in the future, which will then increase the cost of the buildings yet again. But I doubt that anyone will ever hear about that if LVMPD brass can help it.
And every LVMPD substation is supposedly built as “essential” buildings, meaning they can withstand more of what Mother Nature can dish out, such as seismic occurrences, except for some reason, the LVMPD “headquarters" was not built to these standards.
The building is supposed to “improve efficiency and internal communication”, but I’ll bet the e-mail is still the internal communication of choice, whether you are sending it next door or to another building on the other side of the city. And to tell the truth, communications won't be much improved by having the units closer together, because the main issue keeping the units from talking to each other in a more timely manner was THEIR BOSSES.
Speaking of "efficiency", taking over 40 police officers off the street to provide security for the buildings 24/7 doesn’t ring "efficiency" to me. Why not hire private security at half the cost? If it’s good enough for the military, it should be okay for the local police.
If I pushed the right buttons on the calculator, the total Metro will pay for the “headquarters” is approximately $367 million. If that is three times what they were originally paying for rent, we would’ve saved approximately $245 million by avoiding renting the new building. Over $8 million a year savings? And we are cutting our officer’s pay and benefits for a third year in a row?
The county has an option to buy the buildings in 3 years; LVMPD will have paid almost $37 million by then. Then they can buy it at “fair market value”. Has the county or police department ever bought a building after leasing it? And rumor has it that LVMPD actually signed a 30 year lease anyway. Who actually benefits from this overpriced, underwhelming project anyway? Doesn't look like the county, city, or LVMPD in the long run. What is it about the buildings we seem to get for our administrators lately? They all seem to be underbuilt, lacking the necessary elements to work efficiently, designed poorly, and overpriced as well as taking longer to complete, just like the Regional Justice Center. Is the same person getting the bid to build them, because the same issues always seem to come up, and the same issues continue to plague each project. If you don't believe me, wait until the next rain and go visit the newer substations; they all leak in the same places!
Sheriff Gillespie added, “It’s not going to be a money-saver. We never said it would be”. I guess the $14 million, over and above everything else, that Metro spent for “tenant improvements” didn’t save any money. Yet Councilman Gary Reese said it would “save money and make the department more efficient”. So who's right? And where did Reese get his version of the story, since he had to vote to allocate money for the buildings. The "headquarters" supposedly has a computer-controlled lighting system based on the employee’s schedule. Not sure if that was a great idea. In 23+ years on Metro, my schedule changed like the wind. And the last thing you wanted me to do was mess with a computer program so I could have my office lights on.
I guess I’d have to put a service request in to the IT department to help me with the computer controlled light switch. How much is that service call?… (read here)
