Guilford County has always had a particularly interesting use of county space: In the past, some prime county-owned real estate – such as the county commissioners’ office space on the first floor of the old Guilford County Court House – went completely unused for years, while other county offices were jam-packed with workers.
Well, now, at the request of Guilford County Manager Mike Halford, the Guilford County Facilities Department, along with an outside consultant, will be conducting an effort “to provide the County with a comprehensive space study and facility condition assessment.”
At the end of the process, Guilford County, which has land, buildings and office space sprawled across the county, will know exactly what real estate it owns, its condition, and how it’s being used – and, therefore, hopefully, put that space to better use.
The county will also get a better idea of how much money it will need to spend on facilities’ repairs in the coming years.
The study, which is expected to take about a year and cost just over $1.1 million, will, among other things, “Inventory, catalogue and evaluate the current space utilization of Guilford County Properties,” and “Evaluate the condition of occupied Guilford County buildings to provide an updated capital spending forecast for maintenance and repair.”
In addition, it will generate accurate and up-to-date floor plans for existing county-owned buildings and will map the current use of space by county departments.
Things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and one of those things is the amount of office space that workers need – since remote work is now more common. That will be taken into account in the new study. One goal will be to, “Develop a plan for growth to strategically project space needs to minimize future space costs and increase effectiveness of County service providers.”
1.1 million to cost the taxpayers…if that is accurate. Hard to believe this info is not already known. Guess upper management jobs with the county are lax in performing their duties. Guess money is available with all the increased taxes we get to pay.
I would think that with post covid workers moving to hybrid or full time work from home it is very easy to lose track of some much space at the county level. While one department manager may have the info at finger tips, another may not have tracked so closely. Most facilities organizations only track what department space is allocated but not utilized. Fairly common to run this type of analysis from time to time in order to take a holistic look a space management. A bit surprised the facilities department can’t do the leg work themselves. In past with other companies I have been asked to summarize space utilization of my teams via standardized survey tool.
Governments are inefficient. They do not work for the money they waste; the money comes flowing in by use of legislation and the heavy hammer of execution of threats. Governments play favorites. Therefore, when an idea comes along that may help fix a problem caused by inefficiency, that is a good thing. Consolidating usable space and renting out the excess space and selling superfluous property to property tax paying entities is a good thing.
The tax money spent on the consultant’s study will be worthwhile if positive action is taken by the County as result of the study. The report should be made available for public view.
There should be no more “remote work.” The COVID emergency is over. It is time for the county employees to get their butts back to their office. All government workers have used this excuse to have play time at home and produce nothing. If you want to work at home, fine, but not if you are being paid by my taxes.
Agreed.
You base your insight on your own personal observations? Of course, you do, ignore all the studies and analysis about work from home that have positive results. Grumpy Nelson says you cheat if you work from home so must be so!
I’m obviously in the wrong line of work and need to be targeting governments for contracts. $1 Million to do a office space usage study? And then they’ll spend another million to determine how to move forward with results of the first study. I’ll do it for half a million.
This a wonderful idea if the county will heed and put into practice the recommendations. If there is land and facilities not being effectively used, sell, sell, sell but only to buyers that will pay property taxes. Other governments and nonprofits are not beneficial buyers, neither of which contributes to the tax base.
What in the world will they come up with next to waste taxpayer dollars? Unbelievable.
Will the final report be available to we that are paying for it?
It’s propostetous to spend a dime on a study. The liberal socialist planners that Hayek,the economist warned us about should do the simple study. They’re running the county. They should know their assets down to a hammer.
I disagree that this is a waste of money. A disinterested, nonpolitical third party should be able to take inventory of space, buildings and land and provide a report to be used by decision-makers to move in a direction that benefits the people of Guilford County. I am taking a leap of faith that the contractor selected was hired based on credentials. The report should be made available online.
As far as cost, take a look at the salaries paid to lawyers of Guilford County and Greensboro. Their salaries continue year after year, after year with no return for benefiting the residents of Guilford County and Greensboro. At least with the consultant, there is a onetime payout, and the return could be saving Guilford County taxpayers money. At least Guilford County will have consolidated information that it does not currently have.
So, you want nonpolitical third-party mystical people to work for free? Good luck with that.
Chris, the basic point is, we the tax payers want the assholes that work for us to do some damn work instead of using our money to hire someone else to do it! It’s no complicated stupid!
This whole thing sounds like make-work to me. I suppose the new facility will require hiring more parasites to fill it up?
Dear Government, I would like to offer my services at 1/4 of that cost.
Sincerely,
Anyone Else in the World Besides the Company that Just Fleeced you out of 1.1 Million Dollars to Walk Through a Few Buildings with a Measuring Tape and Clip Board.
Health and Human Services are currently telling some employees that they will be working from home starting in the middle of October