SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

A Williamsport City Councilman says he is glad to see a “solid, comprehensive draft” study for the future of City Hall and city government done but is not pleased with council having to revise it nor that it took three months longer to release than originally planned.

“I am pleased we have the draft study but there are other problems that the draft poses in that it is misleading and does not accurately reflect the city departments’ needs,” said Councilman Vincent Pulizzi of the BKV Group draft that council budgeted $85,000 to be done.

The draft report examines options of renovations, reconditioning and moving into existing space, or building a facility that would include police headquarters.

Pulizzi, who is a fiscal conservative, said the city did not anticipate a “template version” that it has to revise. And, he added, whatever decision on reconditioning or rebuilding will be pricey, requiring the city to be drawn into a borrowing scenario and add debt its taxpayers can’t afford.

“This draft work requires us to take more time and edit the study to accurately reflect what our true spatial needs are and this was part of their job they were paid to do, Pulizzi said.

Pulizzi said the city can use the analysis that is valuable, but it includes aspects of what would work from a perspective of “national standards” – such as a police department with 80-plus officers, projecting staff 10 to 20 years in the future, he said.

“We have 51 officers and they have difficulty maintaining that complement,” he said.

Additionally, the draft included an indoor firing range for police to practice their shooting skills and the Williamsport Bureau of Police Chief Justin Snyder said that is not what the department wants, Pulizzi said.

Sure, the architects said they can revise and produce a new version in coming weeks, but Pulizzi added that with such high price tags on the proposals the city must emphasis the importance of exploring further regionalization of its public safety department, which the Bureau of Fire has begun to do with its mutual aid and regional agreements with nearby fire companies, he said.

The public safety departments are the bulk of the salaries and benefits for the city each year in the budget, Pulizzi said.

“We need them and we want them to be the best and most cost efficient, it is a balance act,” he said. “But there are wants and there are needs and the city council now has to weigh what those are,” he said.

During their introduction of the draft report, BKV Group said the company would require four to six weeks before they could provide an updated version of the city hall and city government needs study.