LYNWOOD — By unanimous vote Tuesday, the City Council agreed to spend $7.8 million to tear down and rebuild the City Council Chambers and its Annex Building, replacing the annex with a state-of-the-art 20,000-square-foot, two-story facility.

While the dollar amount could cause an uproar from residents wondering where the funds will come from, audience members at the meeting deemed the project necessary given the conditions of the current Annex Building.

“That building is falling apart,” said one audience member who preferred not to give her name. “And when it rains, you see buckets of water all over the place because the roof leaks.”

The Annex and Civic Center Capital Improvement project is something that has been in the works for at least 15 years, said Councilman Ramon Rodriguez, who said he remembers hearing about the plans back when he was on the Planning Commission.

“The bottom line, is that this is something that we need to do, it’s something that needs to be done,” Mayor Maria Santillan said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. “The buildings, especially the Annex Building, are in critical need of renovation … not only because they’re old and falling apart, but because there are a lot of safety issues at hand, too.”

Employees at the Annex Building, which houses the engineering, planning, building, business license and code enforcement departments, and part of parking enforcement, “can’t vacuum and photo copy at the same time, because it blows the circuits,” Santillan added. “I believe that’s why we all agree that this is something that needs to be done, and right now is a good time to do [it].”

A report prepared by the city manager’s office and the Public Works and Engineering Department estimates the Annex renovation and parking construction would total $6 million, while the council chambers renovation is being estimated at $1.6 million.

The big question on everybody’s mind is where will the funds be coming from, considering the state of the city’s finances and the national economy.

City staff has identified approximately $4 million in available funding for a capital improvement project, most of which consists of bond proceeds remaining from several city bond issues — funds that are legally restricted and can only be spent on capital projects.

No one from the audience spoke about the project, for or against, Santillan said. “I think everybody was pretty shocked about how poor the conditions at the Annex really are,” she said, adding that a slide show accompanied the staff report. “Everybody saw how much this project is needed. [But] I’m sure someone, somewhere will find a way to criticize us for approving this item.”

From opening up the bidding process and requests for proposals to its completion, Santillan estimates that the project may not see a grand opening until sometime in the spring of 2012.

“We want people to know that this project isn’t something we just thought we’d do because we have nothing else to do, because that’s not true,” Santillan said. “We’ve done more than $10 million worth of capital improvement projects in the city within the last couple of years only … there’s a lot of improvements that have been completed, including a lot of street improvement projects.”

While the combined estimated costs of the proposed Annex and council chambers projects total approximately $7.8 million, applying the available $4 million bond proceeds to these costs leaves an unfunded balance of $3.8 million.

According to the agenda staff report, staff proposes that the council authorize the issuance of new bonds to finance the $3.8 million.

In adopting the resolution on Tuesday, the City Council also authorized staff to issue requests for proposals for the renovation projects, along with authorizing staff to request proposals from regional bond underwriting and consulting firms.

Built in 1952 by Los Angeles County, the Annex Building was first used as a county library. The city acquired the building in 1981 to serve as a City Hall Annex. As background, the city back in 1960 had about 139 total employees. The city’s population was about 32,000.

Today, the city has approximately 225 budgeted employees and the population is near the 80,000 mark.

As the population grew, so did the need for services, yet the city continues to operate with an Annex Building that once only served 32,000 residents.

The Annex Building is currently a 5,400-square-foot facility. A 20,000-square-foot facility is being proposed. The new facility would house the existing programs/departments, as well as additional ones like the Public Works Department.

“Basically, the new facility would be set up as a one-stop development/permitting center, where businesses and developers could go to obtain all their city licenses, permits and utility services,” the staff report said.

“Many other cities have adopted the one-stop center approach with great success; the benefits to the public would be tangible and obvious.”

Additionally, the current council chambers are 925 square feet in size with an adjacent 250-square-foot conference room that was constructed in 1960 as an add on. The chambers currently seat 70 audience members, of which 10 are used by staff members during council meetings.

The new chambers are proposed to be 5,000 square feet, with 144 seats for the public, plus public restrooms.

In the last 15 years, there have been several conceptual plans to renovate the Civic Center, but none have come to fruition.

Simple renovations and upgrades to either buildings have been deemed more costly by staff members. Neither can be expanded without incurring significant expense for required structural modifications to the concrete walls and roofs.

Another recent discovery is that the council chambers are not entirely compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Improving accessibility for disabled employees and members of the public would make the building fully compliant.

The staff report concludes that over the last three years, the city has intensified its efforts at repairing and rebuilding city streets, upgrading traffic signals, curbing crime, building new parks, and improving the safety and appearance of the city by trimming every city tree. However, there have been no significant upgrades to city facilities since the Civic Center was built in 1953.

“Over the last couple of months, city officials have conducted several tours of City Hall for corporate representatives considering investing in the city, but it may be difficult to convince potential investors, as well as bond credit rating agencies, that Lynwood provides the kind of local economic conditions worthy of investment and high credit ratings if city facilities do not portray the positive economic picture we’re trying to present,” the staff report states.

Companies submitting proposals to perform the renovations must commit that at least 25 percent of their employees on the project must be local residents.

This $7.8 million project could provide employment for more than 100 people working for the construction companies for a period of 9 to 12 months.

Staff recommended that council direct that requirement from companies in order to qualify for the award; that bidding firms must agree that their construction crews on this city projects be made up of no less than 3 percent of Lynwood residents.

Council members on Tuesday night changed that to a minimum of 25 percent.