August 11, 2005

City hall opens for business

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

Standing in the plaza that serves as the foreground of the new city hall complex, you can’t help but be impressed with the grandeur of it all.

“This is a time to honor the past and celebrate San Jose's future,” said Mayor Ron Gonzales at the new City Hall grand opening on Tuesday. “This building matches our stature as one of America's great cities.”

Granted, a large part of it was the mood, being in the presence of 24 former mayors and council members and the towering success surrounding a project decades in the making.

In fact, the last time the city moved into new digs was 37 years ago, when they settled into the single-story building on First Street, one that now pales in comparison to the state-of-the-art design that utilizes natural light for energy conservation as well as comfort, one that also incorporates the very technologies that put the Silicon Valley on the map.

Outside, hundreds gathered, drawn to the familiar melody and lyrics of the national anthem, while an eclectic group of color guards representing city hall, SJPD and the fire department proceeded with the inaugural raising of the Unites States, California, San Jose, and city hall flags in the plaza near the new 110-foot glass dome rotunda.

The stadium-like seating in council chambers was a hit with those in the audience, as was the airy, open feeling the structure evoked. Several other nuances delighted visitors—the bamboo garden behind the structure, the Fifth Street “parade” project, and the interactive water structure that cascades toward the shimmering rotunda in the plaza along Santa Clara Street, using recycled water that flows down tiers of granite slabs. Overhead, giant misters generate fog-like clouds around the rotunda in an effort to cool the plaza.

Gonzales called the return to its roots a return to the “heart and history of our city.”

A white carpet procession of past and present, as well as future mayors and city council members led up the sweeping entrance to the new chamber for the first official council meeting in the new digs.

The new City Hall chamber performed flawlessly, with plenty of seating, admirable acoustics, and not a bad view in the house-even if there wasn't a clock to be found on the wall.

“I’m pleased that we’re joined today by so many people who have contributed so much to San Jose as our city has grown and changed,” Gonzales stated, as he addressed former and current elected officials for their service over the years. “This is a time to honor the past and celebrate San Jose’s future. This building matches our stature as one of America’s great cities.”

Once underway, the session took on a familiar tone, with the invocation, provided by Saint Joseph Cathedral and Basilica Monsignor, J. Patrick Browne, followed with a historical presentation by Superior Court Judge and official San Jose historian Paul Bernal.

The agenda was kept on the light side, partly to give council members some time to acquaint themselves with the new high-tech monitors and computer screens that record their votes electronically.

The meeting closed on a final ceremonial note, as Gonzales and City Attorney Rick Doyle issued a surprise commendation to Deputy City Attorney Carol Overton, who will soon leave an 18-year legal career with the city to assume an appointment by Governor Arnold Schwarzeneg-ger to serve as a judge on the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

“It’s a very well deserved appointment,” said Doyle. “She made my job a lot easier.”

A white carpet procession of past and present, as well as future mayors and city council members led up the sweeping entrance to the new chamber for the first official council meeting in the new digs. Photos by Kymberli Brady.

“I’m going to miss everybody so much,” Overton replied. “I’ve been very fortunate to work under the leadership of Rick, my supervisor for the past 18 years and who I have so much respect for and who has shaped me in so many different ways.”

In closing, Gonzales took a quote from Winston Churchill, who once said, “We shape our buildings and therefore they shape us,” Gonzales expressed a similar vision.

“My hope today is that the way we have shaped our new city hall will shape the way city business is conducted for many years. We brought our city services to one place, to make it more convenient and easier for residents and businesses to do business with city hall and easier for our employees to communicate with each other and with the community they serve.”

“This is your room,” he added as he dedicated the building to the citizens of San Jose and formally declared the city open for business.

From the back of the hall, those four words elicited more response than any other moment in Tuesday’s grand opening ceremony, unless of course, you count Gonzales’s quick-witted response to Ross Signorino’s request to put a clock on the wall.

“It’s 2:21,” Gonzales said, looking up from his watch to address the familiar gadfly.

Deputy City Attorney Carol Overton receives a standing ovation for 18 years of dedication, and good wishes for her new post as judge on the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Photo by Kymberli Brady

“Thank you,” Signorino replied over the laughter in the room.

“Just a public servant Ross,” he said.

But as sexy as it is, the complex, designed by Richard Meier, has also been a high-maintenance undertaking that saw the tally rise from an original estimate of $214 million to nearly $390 million without batting much of an eye.

“We’re in the free-rent period,” said Councilman and mayoral candidate Chuck Reed. “It’s a great place to work and awfully expensive, but we don’t have to start making the mortgage payments yet. When we start making those payments that will be a lot of money that we can’t spend on police, fire, parks, neighborhood services, and things like that. We’ll be paying that for 40 years before we’ll start seeing the savings.”

Reed also said that the new building leaves no room for growth, including new council districts as the city continues to grow.

Although the ceremony is over and city hall is for the most part open for business, the celebration and dedication festivities will continue on Saturday, Oct. 15, which will coincide with the completion of the rotunda and the official opening of the entire city hall complex.