Farmington Mayor Todd Larson stood in about 4,000 square feet of vacant space covering nearly half the second floor in the spacious, three-year-old City Hall.
"It kills me to see this empty," he said, standing near tall, sunlit windows overlooking downtown's main street.
The city is looking for someone to rent that airy space, possibly Farmington Area Schools. The space originally was intended for Dakota County Technical College, which backed out when the economy went south, Larson said.
Filling City Hall's open spaces could help new Administrator David McKnight plug a potential $367,000 hole in the city's 2013 budget. The council set up the possible shortfall last month when it approved using that amount of fiscal disparities money -- received from a metro-area tax-base-sharing agreement -- to help fund the 2012 budget.
McKnight has warned that using such uncertain, one-time funding for ongoing expenses is "a dangerous practice."
The administrator said everything is on the table as he looks for ways to fill the 2013 budget hole -- including staff cuts and a major departmental reorganization to reduce costs -- in case the fiscal disparities money disappears. The council, on a 3-2 vote, offered some help by setting aside $141,000 in the 2012 budget as a reserve fund. If not needed for an emergency, McKnight could use the reserve to reduce the 2013 budget gap to about $226,000.
Farmington schools staff met again this month with McKnight to talk about renting space, said Superintendent Jay Haugen.
"It is something we are looking at seriously," he said. "We will see if it lowers our overall costs." He said he expects a facilities review plan will be done in a month to see if consolidating offices at City Hall would enable the district to save money by closing some old buildings.
