Steve Bloom/The Olympian
General Adminis-tration Director Marsha Tadano Long hopes some groups will be able to move back into the Legislative Building early this week.

'Landlord' serves eviction notice at Capitol

GA leader Long must find homes for ousted officials during repair project

PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published April 15

OLYMPIA -- After more than a month and a half locked out of the domed Capitol, a handful of state employees will return Tuesday to the earthquake-scarred Legislative Building.

The Legislative Code Reviser staff and some Capitol cafeteria workers will again set up shop inside the building, and other staff and officials with offices at the east end of the building will be allowed inside.

The House might even have the option of holding floor sessions in its regular chambers if there is a special session past April 22, though the Senate is still a question mark.

By the end of April, most Legislative Building occupants will be able to return.

But not for long.

If the Legislature approves a repair plan that's currently in favor, the earthquake repairs will be blended right into the long-planned, $90 million renovation that will take in both structural repairs and plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning work.

The building is likely to be vacated in the fall, and probably won't be open again to the Legislature, state officials and the public until 2004.

At the center of the flurry of activity on the Capitol Campus is Marsha Tadano Long, the director of state General Administration, commonly described as the "state government's landlord."

After the Feb. 28 earthquake, GA sprang into action, immediately commencing work to ensure the safety of the Legislative Building.

Now, Long's responsibilities are shifting from short-term earthquake response to something perhaps even more complicated: How to keep state government operating for the next several years without use of its principal headquarters.

Long sat down last week to talk about preparations for the Capitol renovation.

Q: So the plan at this point is for the earthquake repairs to blend right into the Legislative Building renovation?

A: Right.

Q: That being the case, it's going to be some time before life is back to normal on the Capitol Campus. When do you think the inhabitants of the Legislative Building will be able to move back in for good?

A: Oh boy, it's kind of hard to estimate right now. We have an expedited schedule that's been introduced as part of the capital budget.

If the Legislature passes that budget and funds the project as well, we would actually start the rehabilitation project about 18 months earlier than we had originally planned, and on that schedule then, we would be finishing up the work in 2004.

Q: But that's still up in the air?

A: Well, it is. I think until we get the money appropriated, (and) budgets passed, we just can't really move forward on it.

Q: In the Legislative Building, you've got the Governor's Office, the State Auditor, the State Treasurer, the Secretary of State, and the two houses of the Legislature. Right now, where are the most likely temporary homes for those folks?

A: You're asking me questions now that I can't answer (laughs). Obviously, we have the Sunset Life building (in Tumwater). We have a lease for that right now. The Treasurer and the Auditor have their headquarters operation there. So that is available to us. Past that point, we don't have anything that we've committed to.

Because this project is moving forward so quickly -- you know, we thought we would have another 18 months to figure this all out and find the best places for everyone. So we're really scurrying. We're just looking real hard right now.

Q: There's been a lot of talk that the House and Senate chambers will move into the Joel Pritchard State Library Building. Is that a possibility?

A: We've been asked to do two things. One is to look at configuring the first floor and the basement floor of the Pritchard Building for House chambers, and primarily to be occupied by the House and its staff. Then we've been asked to prepare a scenario where we've got both the House chambers and the Senate chambers in the Pritchard Building. We have done both.

Q: Under the first scenario, would the Senate stay in the John L. Cherberg Building?

A: I think so. I think the two houses are trying to figure out how they want to use that Pritchard Building. It will pretty much be designated as a legislative-use building, as opposed to the executive branch.

Q: There's been some concern raised about having to move the library out of there, with thousands of state documents. Have you looked at where it could be moved?

A: I think the idea that has gathered steam is to leave those stacks in the Pritchard Building and not move them. They're pretty much all in one back area. It's short space, it's about 7 feet tall from floor to ceiling, and it's not really set up to be office space anyway.

The thinking now is that it might make sense to just leave them there. They'd still be accessible to the public and, of course, the library -- but we wouldn't go to the expense of moving them, because that space that would be vacated really is not good space for office workers.

Q: Do you think you'll use the opportunity of these moves to make any permanent changes, or can everybody pretty much expect to return to their original homes once the repair work is done?

A: One of the things that's hard right now is that, because the time frame is so short, we're pretty much responding to immediate demand, finding a place for people that will work for them.

The direction we have right now was really addressing the immediate rehabilitation of the building, and we haven't addressed if there'll be any changes after the rehabs. Right now we're going into this with the understanding that everyone returns back to where they were.

Q: In the last few days, we've heard that the House and Senate might actually be able to go back into their chambers if there is a special session after April 22. Is that a possibility?

A: We're actually anticipating that the west side of the building, where the House is primarily, that people will be able to move back in Tuesday. That side was always in pretty good shape. Remember, it was the east side of the building, where the Senate and the Governor's office are, where we had those stones -- the displaced stones around the dome. That was a real danger. Because those stones were not secure, that really kept us from doing any kind of interior work. ...

On the House side, we've done all this work to secure the ceilings. Once folks can get in, I think you'll be interested to see how we have buttressed the inside of the House rostrum -- some of that marble was shaken up. It's not very attractive, but it is secure. That marble's not going to come down.

We haven't done too much in terms of cosmetic repairs; it's mostly been the safety aspect. So, we're anticipating that will be available on the 17th.

What I heard today -- and this tends to change -- is that the cafeteria workers will be able to go back in, but only to prepare food. They have a little mini-stand in the O'Brien Building, so they'll have more offerings available.

The code reviser is going to go back in -- they were pretty darn squeezed up -- and the tour program is going to go back in. Of course, no tours yet -- but just to have a little more breathing space. Those will go in next week. Things are moving well on the east side of the building, the Senate side.

That may be ahead of schedule. We had anticipated that would be the end of April. It's looking now like there's a fair chance it will get done beforehand.

We're just really going to stay in touch with the tenants and let them know what to expect.

Q: When, then, would that building be closed for good to start the full renovation process?

A: All I can tell you is that according to the language in the supplemental capital budget, that building would be vacated by the middle of September -- Sept. 15.

Q: Legislators, especially House members, seem to be growing weary of their close quarters. Is there concern that this is what it's going to be like for the next three years? Are you worried that all these moves and the temporary quarters will disrupt the work of state government?

A: Remember that the temporary moves we're going through now are really due to the earthquake.

I think these things have tended to become blended, because now with the earthquake we've had this interest in starting the rehabilitation project much sooner.

Q: Has the earthquake damage or any other lessons learned from the earthquake changed the way you're going to approach the rehabilitation?

A: We knew that there was a certain body of work that needed to be done related to earthquake mitigation. So the earthquake did confirm that that work needs to be done.

And then, of course, we had some additional damage that was not anticipated. There were some other things we learned from the earthquake that we did not realize.

For example, the columns around the colonnade -- we did not realize that they were not secure. ...

Q: When people start going back into the building over the next few weeks, there's probably going to be some nervous folks. What are you going to say to people who tell you they're afraid to go back into the building?

A: One of the things we're going to do -- (GA project manager) Andy Stepelton and (consulting engineer) Mike Wright will brief employees before they move or, if they want to, after they move back in, let them know what's been done in terms of assessing the building, what they found. ...

I'm convinced the building is very safe to be in. I would work in that building if my office were there. I wouldn't have any concerns at all about having my daughter be there, for example.

The good news is that the things we've learned are going to help us. But that building overall did very well.

Patrick Condon covers the Legislature for The Olympian. He can be reached at 753-1688 or at condonpatrick@hotmail.com

Marsha Tadano Long

- Position: Director of the Department of General Administration

- Background: 27 years in state government service. Long was appointed director of General Administration in 1997 by Gov. Gary Locke after previous service at the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Licensing and the Commission for Vocational Education.

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