Nearly $930,000 of upgrades to City Hall have been put on hold after City Council’s finance committee voted Tuesday to table awarding of the construction bids.

That set in motion impassioned discussion between the committee and Mayor Gabriel J. Campana.

“We have the money,” Campana said, referring to a bond and use of about $557,000 toward some of the project cost.

“You have to understand we are talking about taxpayer dollars,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Katz.

Instead, the committee recommended that city codes enforcement officers do a study of what facilities are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Campana called the move stalling on council’s part.

“Let’s not politicize this,” Councilwoman Liz Miele said. “We’ve had no action plan,” she said.

“The mayor has had 11-plus years to come up with plans to address all the problems related to City Hall infrastructure, including accessibility,” Council President Randall J. Allison said.

“He failed to do that and is now frantically attempting to accomplish things,” Allison said. “That’s a recipe for failure and making mistakes.”

“Ditto to that and for his failure on Grafius Run flood-mitigation,” said Councilwoman Gerry Fausnaught.

“We’ve had a plan for four years,” Campana said, adding he’s been blocked by council at every step.

After 1995, the state Department of Labor and Industry gave such buildings a five-year window to meet accessibility compliance.

“We did that in Loyalsock Township,” said Joseph Gerardi, city codes administrator.

The city awaits a decision by the Center for Independent Living Roads to Freedom, which had representatives at the meeting, who said they would contact officials in charge of enforcing federal accessibility law.

Both candidates for the mayoral race in the Nov. 5 general election – Democrat Councilman Derek Slaughter and Republican businessman Eric Beiter — have said they favor exploring another location than City Hall for some city offices.