MONROE — City staff are packing up and moving in after more than two years scattered across makeshift offices throughout the municipality.

Monroe City Hall is once again occupied by city staff, who have been filtering in with unpacked boxes and equipment for the last week. At the Monroe Common Council meeting Monday, Comptroller Bridget Schuchart happily announced that she and her department had moved back into the building. 

Assistant City Administrator Sam Liebert said he and City Administrator Phil Rath did not wait before picking up their computers, packing their vehicles with supplies and bringing them to the building roughly a block from City Hall Annex. Rath and Liebert have shared the open space also designated as a meeting for point for council members for months since leaving the westside fire station. They were sorting out their offices at the beginning of the week, going through some materials which had been packed away in outdoor storage containers for two years.

“A lot of stuff seems to be in fairly OK condition,” Rath said. 

Liebert, who began his position just over a year ago, has never had an office in City Hall. The flooring project, which was meant to remove asbestos tiles from the decades-old building, began in mid-August 2016. 

It was slated to last six weeks. Then, there was a moisture problem. New flooring material would not stick to the underlying cement. The company hired to do the work, KPH Environmental and Construction of Milwaukee, proposed a change order to include additional work to ensure the floor would be secured. Council members felt the cost of the change order, which exceeded the original estimate for the work at $163,000, was too high. The city had originally budgeted just over $150,000 for the entire project.

The group declared KPH at fault for the project failing after rejecting two offers made by KPH Contractor Dan Scharf for a solution at the end of 2016. 

In July 2017, Liberty Mutual, the insurance company that was tasked with evaluating whether their client, KPH, was to blame for the replacement problems, struck a blow to the city by denying its claim that KPH was to blame because of cleaning agents used by the company. The adhesive later applied to ensure the new carpet squares in offices and vinyl tiles stuck was ineffective as a result, the city argued. If the claim had been approved, the city would not have been responsible for the costs of finishing the flooring project. 

Instead, after multiple discussions with newly hired contract attorney Jeff Younger, the city filed a lawsuit against KPH. Council members decided May 1 to hire Fundamental Designs LLC of Monroe to complete the work for nearly $103,000. Rath had said at the time that company representatives had visited City Hall before bidding to complete the project and expressed confidence in being able to complete the work. 

Liebert has an office farther into the building than his predecessor, Martin Shanks, had during his tenure. Rath has also relocated, moving from the first office on the left at the entrance to the far-left, northeast corner of the building near Liebert. Schuchardt is now on the right, south side of the building where the city assessor used to be housed. 

Arianna Voegeli, who left the building as administrative secretary, will return as city clerk. She was only in the building five months before being relocated to a cramped, shared office in the westside fire station. Now she looks forward to relocating to Rath’s former office space, even if she will be a bit delayed in her return. 

“I am very excited to go back,” Voegeli said. “I’m super excited to get back to City Hall.”

Voegeli must remain at the fire station because of a posted notice far in advance of the upcoming Board of Review meeting Thursday. However, she plans to pack up her boxes immediately after the proceeding. She plans to be conducting city business at City Hall on Friday. 

Rath said the parks and recreation departments will be returning later than the rest of the building. Plans include having utilities supervisors in the building, which is a different practice than in the past. Rath said the two years away from the building has helped staff evaluate how to better connect people and provide more access for visitors to the building. He also said work had taken longer on council chambers, but the city plans to host its first meeting from City Hall in over two years on Oct. 1.