Press release from the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury:

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has released the second report of their 2023-2024 term, entitled Humboldt County Facilities: Owning vs. Leasing. The County of Humboldt pays close to $500,000 every month, nearly $6 million per year, to lease office space for employees throughout the County. Would the money be better spent in the long run on owning these facilities instead?

The County currently leases more properties than they own – 53% vs. 47%. We limited our investigation to office space within the City of Eureka, which accounts for 90% of the lease payments. Most of these properties have been under lease for 25 years or more. One of the larger Department of Health and Human Services facilities, 929 Koster Street, has 30,669 square feet, accommodates 169 county workers, and has been leased for almost 50 years.

Long-term leasing is more expensive than building and owning facilities, with 7 years being widely accepted as the point where ownership begins to save money. Whether leased or owned, consolidation of operations for increased efficiency and enhanced customer service is a concern. The 2020 Humboldt County Facilities Master Plan calls for building infrastructure and consolidating operations. Progress has been slow.

The Grand Jury determined that there is little excess capacity in county buildings, that citizens would be better served by having services consolidated in fewer locations, and that in the long run owning facilities saves the taxpayers money. We acknowledge that the current state of County finances prohibits making these investments and urge the Board of Supervisors to explore alternate means of funding, to include issuing bonds. We urge our elected officials to look not just at next year but at the next 10 or 20 years, and to make the best decisions for our future.

If you want to serve your community in a unique way that could improve local government this is your opportunity. Applications to serve on the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury can be found at https://humboldtgov.org/510/Civil-Grand-Jury. Additional information provided by the Civil Grand Jurors Association of California can be found at https://cgja.org/.

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DOCUMENT: HCCGJ Report: County Facilities

PREVIOUSLY: In First Report of the Year, Grand Jury Recommends Civilian Oversight Board for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office