State agency relocation plan puzzles Wichita legislator

A state legislator is weighing in as several state agencies plan to move from their long-time home in a municipal building in Wichita despite attempts by city officials to convince them to reconsider.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, said he is unsatisfied with the reasons state officials have given for planning to move out of the Finney State Office Building next year, especially after the city of Wichita offered to drop their rent from $11 per square foot to about $6 per square foot if they renew their lease.

“It’s way cheaper than anything these nine agencies will get anywhere in the city of Wichita or commercial office space,” Ward said.

State agencies have had regional offices in the eight-floor building named for Joan Finney, the state's first female governor, since 1994, when it was converted from a department store into offices. Ward was on the city council when the transition was proposed.

About 700 state employees currently work there, with the largest chunk affiliated with the Department for Children and Families.

The Department of Administration handles state agency leases. Chuck Knapp, a spokesman for the department, said he is confident the agencies will get a competitive rental rate elsewhere.

“Wichita is a good market to be looking for rental space, and we’re focusing on downtown rental space,” Knapp said.

Knapp said cost was "not a determining factor" in the decision to leave the Finney building. Agencies' needs simply have changed since they first moved in there, he said, and there is little Wichita officials can do about it.

"They have been very aggressive in trying to keep us in that space," Knapp said. "But they just have no control over different agency missions and the current needs of our agencies and their customers.”

Some agencies need a loading dock, Knapp said. The Kansas Corporation Commission needs a structure that can withstand an F5 tornado because it has some sensitive paper files that haven’t yet been digitized. And the Department for Children and Families has changed its service structure from case workers to a "team" approach it says yields faster results but also necessitates more waiting room space and would be more efficient if all its employees were on one floor.

"Staff (currently) have to travel back and forth between floors to retrieve information to address clients’ needs," Theresa Freed, a Children and Families spokeswoman, said via email. "As lobby areas become congested, we run the risk of violating fire codes."

Wichita city manager Robert Layton and Mayor Carl Brewer have responded to those concerns by offering to renovate the building at a minimum investment of $6 million.

A letter from Brewer to Gov. Sam Brownback states that after he and Brownback met in July, the city assigned a local architectural firm to "craft a workable compromise."

But Brewer wrote that that effort hit a brick wall after the city staff and architects met with Diane Bidwell, DCF's Wichita Region director, and developed a tentative plan to deal with her agency's infrastructure concerns.

"When the staff and architects approached Ms. Bidwell in a second meeting on Aug. 14, she declined to provide an organization chart to assist us in proceeding further," Brewer wrote. "She clearly indicated she did not care to stay in the downtown area, citing security issues, parking access and the presence of sidewalk vendors and homeless citizens in the area."

Freed said any attempt to renovate the Finney building would inconvenience DCF clients during construction, but area crime was also a factor in rejecting the renovation plan.

"Crime is certainly a concern," Freed said. "Just this summer a staff member was attacked with a knife as she was leaving the building to go to her vehicle. Transients often gather in the parking garage where State staff have their vehicles."

Brewer wrote that his staff pulled the crime data after hearing of Bidwell's concerns and statistically, those concerns are "not supported by incident records maintained by the Wichita Police Department."

Ward said he found security concerns to be an unconvincing reason for the agencies to leave the Finney building.

“There is no evidence that there is more crime in this area than anywhere else,” said Ward, a former prosecutor in Wichita.

Ward said he believes there must be some other reason that state officials haven’t yet made public.

Other members of the Wichita delegation are satisfied with the reasons provided.

Rep. Steve Brunk, R-Wichita, the chairman of the Joint Committee on State Building Construction to which Ward was recently added, said crime is just one part of a much larger picture.

"That's more a side issue," Brunk said. "The main thing is the configuration of the building just doesn't fit the needs any more."

Brunk called the building "functionally obsolete" and said no amount of concessions on cost or renovation is likely to keep state agencies there.

"Even if they gave us the building, it just doesn't work," Brunk said.

Wichita leaders have been loathe to give up, with Brewer as recently as last month imploring Brownback to step in and make a "responsible business decision" that keeps the state in the Finney building.

"A vacant building in our downtown area would be a serious setback," Brewer wrote, "considering the millions of dollars of private investment that have recently been dedicated to our downtown development effort."

But Knapp said the decision to move is final for a number of agencies, and the city is now fighting for a deal to keep at most 100 state workers in the Finney building after next year.

“DCF is not staying, I will tell you that," Knapp said. "Neither is KCC.”

Whether the decision is really final or not, Ward said he believes it deserves more scrutiny.

"The reasons they're giving just don't merit that type of change," Ward said.