WARREN Consultant: Offices should be together

Consolidate for efficiency and user-friendliness, consultants say.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- City offices should come together in one place, a Cleveland consulting firm has said.
"The city of Warren would function more effectively and efficiently if located in one facility on a campuslike setting," according to DLZ, the architectural and engineering consulting firm, which completed the study this year.
"By creating a campus of buildings, functions can be grouped in such a way as to allow for a 'one-stop' concept," the consultants wrote in the report that was presented to city council Tuesday.
City offices "are scattered across the city at six different locations in nine buildings," and the public must go to multiple locations to do business with city government, the consultants noted.
Handicapped accessibility at city offices is also severely deficient or nonexistent, they said in the report titled "The City of Warren Multiple Building Study."
In the study, for which the city paid $35,000, the consultants wrote of the need to bring together departments that work closely with one another and have to work closely with the public.
Council President Robert A. Marchese said he would appoint members of a committee to study consolidation on Oct. 12. He asked council members to submit their concerns and suggestions to the committee by Oct. 17 and said he hopes city officials can reach a consensus in about six months.
City Councilman Alford Novak, D-2nd, said he'd like to know what it would cost to add three floors to the two-story South Street building that houses city council, the police department and municipal court.
If the building were to be expanded, city employees could be required to park in the downtown parking deck to alleviate the parking shortage at the South Street building, Novak said.
Police Chief John Mandopoulos said the building was designed to be up to five stories; the detective bureau is cramped; and police are running out of room for evidence storage.
"There's a way we can combine and have some [Trumbull] county departments in with city departments for the good of all and at the same time cut utility costs," the chief added.
Council members also discussed with the administration the problem of urban blight.
Saying that transients are breaking into and living in vacant houses, Novak recalled council members had once discussed having the city establish its own demolition crew.