Correction: An earlier version gave an incorrect figure for the cost of the furniture.
BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Redwood City taxpayers are going to pay $500,000 a year for new furniture at city hall, despite residents’ questions about the spending.
The contract is with Pivot Interiors Inc., a Santa Clara company, to supply and install Herman Miller brand furniture.
Resident Rona Gundrum told the council that $1 million on furniture seems excessive.
“I would hope you could get nice ergonomic furniture for less than that.”
Another resident, Chris Robell, noted that Herman Miller has some of the most expensive office furniture one could buy.
“I know ergonomics are important…but think long and hard given your other priorities, spend $1 million to add housing or save (the money) so you won’t tax us further,” Robell said.
The item was initially on the council’s consent calendar on Monday, which is where a batch of items are approved with a single vote. However, Councilwoman Diane Howard asked to have the council vote on the item separately so the council could get an explanation from City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz.
Stevenson Diaz said that generally, the city replaces its furniture every 20-25 years, and will hold on to furniture until it can no longer be used. The city doesn’t have a set schedule for replacing furniture. She said Herman Miller is a state-level distributor, which allows the city to purchase it at a discount. She said the city buys from one brand “because if anyone has tried to mix and match Legos with knock-offs, you know they don’t.”
Stevenson Diaz also said the council previously instructed her office to decrease the amount of worker’s compensation claims the city receives, and making sure employees have ergonomic setups is an important way to mitigate those claims.
“Redwood City, like most cities, is self-insured, so we don’t have as big a pool as if we were insured by a huge company, so workers comp claims hit closer to the bone,” said Councilwoman Kaia Eakin. “If you can give goodwill to employees by having an ergonomic setup…and not incur workers comp claims seems smart to me.”
Ultimately, the council approved the contract extension from $500,000 to up to $1 million with a unanimous vote.
For self proclaimed Socialists, the RWC council sure enjoys their $2000 chairs. Good perk for workers too, now that they have to show up in person. One of my coworkers just quit because they have to go back to showing up in the office. No one knew they had two jobs and they put in an eight hour day here.
There are so many companies selling barely used high end office furniture due to a dramatic increase of employees working from home. That’s been all over the news lately!
Redwood City should be all over that! It’s easier to
Just order new, but REALLY??
But they don’t show up in person or put in an eight hour day. Redwood City Hall is only open 10-4 Mon-Wed. So a $1M in new, high-end office furniture to prevent carpal tunnel from an 18-hour work week. All while we’re saber-rattling about cutting fire/police, and raising taxes *again*. Tone deaf!
I just wish maybe they would think about how the just expanded parking meter times and how maybe when you say we need this revenue! It seems silly to spend A million dollars on new furniture! Maybe they should to Google and Facebook or companies who are down sizing might have some furniture for them!
They raised the sales tax a couple of years ago and told us that it was for police. Turns out it all went to pensions. They didn’t even apologize for lying to us. Now they’ve found $1 million for new office furniture. While residents are scraping by, paycheck to paycheck. Unbelievable. I’m not voting for any incumbents in the next election.
How many workers comp claims did the city have while their workers were working from home sitting on their $30 Ikea chairs? Must have been a ton. Never mind that this logic if applied across the board would have the city buy Mercedes for city cars, Mont Blanc pens, 4 hour work days with massage vouchers and on and on. Only the best to keep city employees happy and content paid for by people who stand 8 hours or more for work or get carpal tunnel clipping coupons with just reasonably prices scissors. tone deaf doesn’t even begin to describe this.