The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday directed county staff to look for a new place for county offices, somewhere other than Westdale Mall.
This after they asked Westdale’s owners to say by Monday whether the county’s leases could be extended past April, and did not receive a response.
I liveblogged the meeting.
Supervisor Ben Rogers asked Mike Goldberg and Gary Jarvis to make certain Westdale is not interested in extending the county’s leases. Goldberg was happy with interpreting Westdale’s lack of response by Monday as a definitive no. “The no-response is a definitive response,” he said.
The mall sent a letter to the county saying either the supervisors should buy the mall for $18.5 million by March 30, or get county offices out of the mall by April 30. The county wrote back asking for an extension on their leases, and gave the mall six days to answer.
Rogers and Linda Langston pushed Goldberg and Jarvis to get somebody on the phone and get a clear answer. For the record, mall ownership’s representatives, Cushman Wakefield of Minneapolis, have been easy for me to reach in the past month. They don’t tell me anything, but I can get them on the phone.
The major unanswered question of the meeting is whether FEMA will reimburse the county for the cost of second move since the flood. Langston said the question has been asked of FEMA, but “they just aren’t quick.”
Filed under: County Government
The Hot Beat 
FEMA money comes straight from the pocket of the taxpayer.
As a taxpayer, I’m going to say that I would be very unhappy if Fema funded a second move for the county.
Unnacceptable.
Either way, we will pay. If it isn’t covered by FEMA it will have to be covered another way.. taxpayers will foot the bill regardless.
It is a question of whether it is Federal money or Local money that pays for the move.
Not to mention, the next location will likely be temporary and the taxpayers will foot another moving bill.