SOUTH PORTLAND – At the start of what was scheduled to be a 45-minute workshop session on a proposed public services complex Monday, South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey said he could “not stress enough the need for staff to really understand where the council’s stance is on this project.”

Three hours later, Gailey got his wish, with four of six councilors clearly in favor of taking a bond question to voters in November. Even the two councilors least enthralled at the $19.5 million price tag – Mayor Tom Blake and Councilor Alan Livingston – support the basic concept, to pull the public works department out of its outdated facility on O’Neil Street and move it to Highland Avenue, under a shared 97,800-square-foot roof with the transportation and recreation departments.

“I think I’m the odd man out,” said Blake. “I kind of feel this November is not the time, but it appears that is the wish of the council and I will give it 100 percent effort, because there’s no question in my mind we have a need.”

“That’s where I’m at, too,” said Livingston. “I want it, but right now I would have trouble going for this November. I’m not quite there yet. I need more info.”

Among the information presented to councilors Monday was the $12.75 million, seven-bay building design prepared by the city’s engineering firm, Sebago Technics, as well as its $4.2 million development plan for the 15-acre site that is home to the transfer station. Neither plan was much changed from the last presentation to the council in early November. The building remains “very functional and utilitarian,” said Sebago’s senior project manager, Dan Riley, although projected costs are up from $18 million announced last fall and the $10 million added as a “place-holder,” ultimately unused, in Gailey’s capital improvement plan for 2011, when the project was first broached.

Instead, Riley spent much of his time reviewing alternate entry points to Highland Avenue, as well as a subsequent $2.8 million project to link the site to Rumery Road in 2019, both of which would necessitate juggling wash stations, fuel islands and other ancillary structures around the building complex.

Much of the balance of the time was given to payment options presented by the city’s finance director, Greg L’Heureux, as well as a protracted discussion on the value of keeping the city’s $8 million fleet of vehicles under cover and out of the elements.

L’Heureux gave a lengthy analysis of how much money might be saved, assuming that indoor storage would add two years to the life of each city vehicle. However, Councilor Gerard Jalbert called out L’Heureux, who had prefaced his comments by noting that he’s “a number cruncher” and “not a car guy.”

“Is there some kind of really good reliable, supportable, verifiable data that says a vehicle will extend its life by a year, two years, three years?” he asked. “We need a little more data on this that we can point to. Most of this appears to just be guesstimates. We need something a little more solid.”

Gailey also joined in with evidence, both anecdotal and gleaned off the Internet, claiming the city would save money in the long run with a building big enough to keep the majority of its fleet indoors. However, Livingston questioned how city staff can make claims on how many years might be added to the life of a vehicle when it does not now track vehicle life or maintain a replacement schedule.

Livingston’s larger concern was that voters might reject any new bond with payments starting this year on the $41.5 million borrowed to rebuild South Portland High School. That bond payment will add 17 cents per $1,000 of property value to next year’s property tax rate. Adding in the first $1.5 million payment on a public services garage in 2017 would add 35 cents to the tax rate, for a cumulative hike of 65 cents counting ongoing school bond payments, said L’Heureux. That would make the tax bill on the median priced home of $195,000 about $127 higher in 2017 than it is today. And that’s before any additional increases to salaries, insurance fees for fuel costs.

In what seemed a brake check, Blake reminded his fellow councilors that estimates have the city entering budget season with the school budget nearly $3 million in the red and city coffers off $2.8 million in previous revenue, potentially lost to state budget cuts in sales tax sharing, excise fees and equipment tax rebates.

“There are too many unknowns,” said Blake. “We have no idea what the state is doing and neither do they. That scares me.

“We may be looking at layoffs this year,” he said. “I feel very uncomfortable telling 10 people they’re losing their jobs and then turning around and asking for a $20 million facility.”

Still, most on the council seemed to take solace in an alternative funding option presented by L’Heureux. In November, the council appropriated $500,000 from the city’s $9.3 million undesignated surplus account into a reserve fund for a public services complex. It could boost that reserve to $1.28 million, he said, and use $715,000 the transportation department now has in reserves, reducing the total amount to be borrowed.

Assuming voters approve the bond in November, the city could wait until May 2015 to borrow the $5.5 million it will take to relocate the transfer station, then borrow $14 million in May 2016 for actual complex construction.

That, predicted L’Heureux, would reduce the hit to the tax rate in 2017 from 65 cents, cumulative including ongoing high school payments, to 38 cents. There would be one smaller hike in 2018 before debt service starts to fall as older bonds are paid off, assuming there is no additional borrowing

Like most on the council, Linda Cohen preferred that option to borrowing everything up front so construction could start in late 2014, or phasing in the project through multiple years, which L’Heureux said would add to project costs in the long run due to duplicated engineering services at each phase.

“I don’t think anybody in this city is made of money,” said Cohen. “I don’t think any of us on the council are rolling in it. We don’t want to see our taxes go up any more than anyone on a fixed income does, but I think we need this facility.

“I say let’s go for November,” said Cohen. “Costs are only going to go up from here. Interest rates are going to go up. There’s not going to be a better time to try and do this.”

Gailey added that costs could be reduced further if the council can manage to set aside a nest egg larger than the $1,275,000 assumed by L’Heureux.

“That number is conservative,” he said. “I’m sure we can come up with another $1 million to $1.5 million. We’re going to be selling Roosevelt School. We’re going to be selling some other property. We have the ability to offset that [property tax] spike. We have the time. We just need to have the focus on building that reserve account to flatten that spike down.”

Still, some on the council said that any spike is justifiable, considering the age of the public works garage, built in 1936 with sections on site dating to the 19th century.

“This project should be a go,” said Councilor Patti Smith. “Every time I think about this year and, ooh, it looks like it [the tax increase] is going to be high, I think, how about all those other years from 1930 to 2013 that we didn’t do anything with this thing. I mean, that’s a long time to squeeze life out of a building. Taking the long view to me is a no-brainer. It’s what we need to remain a top-notch city in southern Maine.”

Smith also repeatedly refereed to the proposed public services garage as “the last big project for the city.” However, Gailey noted a long-held council goal to replace City Hall, while Blake reminded everyone that the school department has begun a process that may lead to building an all-new middle school within the next decade.

Given the city’s capital needs, including environmental remediation that will be needed at the 6-acre public works property on O’Neil Street before it can be subdivided and sold off as building lots, the council has a tough row to hoe convincing the public to support the new facility, said Blake.

“Ultimately, the voters are going to decide,” said Jalbert.

“I can’t read the public on this,” said Blake. “I really don’t know what they want, other than they don’t want tax increases.”

Blake said the council will tackle the issue again at a workshop “in late March or early April” in order to gather additional facts and figures individual councilors and city staff can then use in a “marketing plan.”

Gailey stressed that councilors should not think of themselves as “trying to sell” the project, but as attempting to “educate the public.”

“This is going to be one of our main tasks over the next eight or nine months,” said Blake. “We are going to have to work hard at this. I don’t want to go to a bond and lose.”