Among the highest priorities of elected officials is to carefully spend taxpayer dollars. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors takes this into account with every decision we make.
A perfect example of how our philosophy is put in place to benefit the public was shown in Kearny Mesa.
On Dec. 17, Supervisors cut the ribbon for the new Medical Examiner and Forensic Center. Replacing a 47-year-old building, this complex will house the medical examiner along with the county veterinarian in a single structure.
While other government agencies struggle with infrastructure funding backlogs, the county takes a different approach. We carefully monitor our infrastructure needs and when new buildings are necessary, we get them built.
That is what happened in this case. What the public gets is a state-of-the-art, green building that not only saves energy, but actually came in under the estimated $85 million budget. We have set aside money to pay the entire cost.
Started in February of 2007, the two-story, 84,000 square foot center was built at the County Operations Center at 5555 Overland Ave. Designed by Harley Ellis Devereaux and built by ProWest Constructors, it replaces two buildings that totaled 22,000 square feet.
This is the county’s first large-scale Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building, which means it will be operated very efficiently and meet standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
At the Medical Examiner building, those efficiencies translate into more than just hard dollar savings. Having the two agencies in a single location delivers other benefits, such as allowing better teamwork when our region faces human and animal threats like avian flu and West Nile virus. It also includes classrooms that allow ties with local universities, an expanded toxicology lab, and labs for plant pathology and entomology to diagnose plant pathogens and insects.
The public also will find it easier to access the building and its services, starting with the 117 free parking spaces. Unfortunately, a visit to the Medical Examiner can be a difficult time. For that reason we have added multiple counseling rooms to provide privacy and confidentiality for grieving family members.
The medical building also will be integrated with our larger County Operations Center Development project, another ultra-efficient development under construction that will allow us to better serve the public. The first, $188.5 million phase will open next year.
Both of these projects are real-world examples of how your county government is investing in keeping its buildings up to date, improving access and service for residents and designing projects with state-of-the-art efficiency features that are friendly to the environment and taxpayers, our priority customers.
