Overview
- The City Council voted on Wednesday to let City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert conduct due diligence and enter preacquisition talks for possible new City Hall locations.
- The council appropriated up to $3 million for the work with roughly $2 million set for exploring City Hall sites and $1 million for evaluating relocation of 911 and emergency operations.
- Two council members, Adam Bazaldua and Paula Blackmon, filed court papers asking a judge to hold the city manager and city secretary in contempt and to void last week’s 9–6 council vote that rejected the repair plan; a hearing is scheduled this week.
- Tolbert must report relocation options and the findings of site inspections to the council by the end of August, a step aimed at producing apples‑to‑apples cost comparisons with renovation estimates.
- Preservation advocates including I.M. Pei’s children urge saving the architecturally significant building while officials cite widely varying repair estimates and potential downtown redevelopment value as reasons for studying relocation.