Collaboration – it’s a word that we often hear used to describe Coconino County, the City of Flagstaff and public agencies in Northern Arizona.
When budgets are stretched and resources limited, governments partnering with each other or the private sector can be essential to providing quality services to the community while saving taxpayer dollars. Collaboration in our community is essential to the success of our economy, and to enhancing the quality of life for our residents.
This month, Coconino County and the City of Flagstaff have partnered to issue a Request for Information (RFI) for possible development projects, including a Courthouse Development Project, and to ask for ideas on potential projects for other uses both in the downtown and in other parts of the greater Flagstaff area.
Here’s how this partnership came about: The city’s municipal courthouse is inadequate and last November, city voters passed Proposition 412 which authorized the city to bond $12 million for a new courthouse and parking facility in the downtown. This means that city voters said “yes” to funding a new city court building.
At the same time, the county has been working on its Facilities Master Plan. The county needs to expand the space in the existing County Courthouse and to eventually look for better space solutions, perhaps outside the downtown, for some of our non-justice related services.
Given that we both have these needs, is there a way for the city and county to work together?
The city and county do want to work together as often as possible, especially if it means we can stretch our limited dollars further. Doing an RFI is the first step in this process. Coconino County and the City of Flagstaff will invite the business community, developers, residents and other stakeholders to submit ideas and their visions for these projects. As we move forward on our projects, we want to make sure we are not missing the opportunity to be part of something that would increase the benefit to our residents.
This RFI is an example of your local governments proactively engaging the public in a process to generate ideas. We’re seeking all ideas that will enhance the city and county court project, and perhaps other areas of Flagstaff as well. We want to see all ideas that meet our needs, but we are also interested in any other ideas from partners who might see a way for the new court space and other potential projects to encourage business development, parking solutions, housing, diversity, public art, civic engagement, recreation and gathering spaces.
What happens after the RFI? The best ideas generated by the RFI will be used to create the Request for Proposals (RFP). This is the normal way that governments choose who will do the work to design and build a new public building.
While the county and city could have simply put out an RFP for a joint facility, we are instead doing the RFI first so that we can be open to all possibilities, including a public/private partnership. Both units of government have had success in public/private partnerships and we wanted to explore this possibility for the Courthouse Redevelopment Project and other service needs. Public/private partnerships can leverage the expertise of the private sector to share costs, mitigate risk and increase financial rewards. They can also increase business development opportunities, create new jobs and save valuable resources.
This process of adding an RFI might take additional time, but we think it is well worth the effort to explore additional opportunities. We want this to be a completely open and transparent process to allow for all the best ideas to come forward. We hope that this collaboration will lead to new facilities and greater parking options, while also keeping the best interests of the entire community at the forefront.
Over the next month, we look forward to meeting with stakeholders, hosting public meetings and to receiving a wide variety of innovative responses. If you have ideas, be sure to plan to attend one of these meetings. FBN
By Cynthia Seelhammer
Find more information at coconino.az.gov/developrfi.