New leader defends cost of her desk, office refresh
Porter commissioner says it is needed for office hours, hasn’t been done since 1992
Before Barb Regnitz had even been sworn into office as Porter County’s newest commissioner, representing Center District, she had already embarked on an office renovation.
That included a new, $3,900 desk setup, as well as fresh paint and carpet tiles, new LED light fixtures and, yet to be installed, new blinds and under-cabinet task lighting for the desk.
Materials, including those already on hand by the county, totaled $555.90 so far, and labor cost another $419, according to documentation from the county’s director of facilities, Daniel Sullivan, provided to the Post-Tribune by county attorney Scott McClure after a public records request.
Neither Regnitz’s predecessor in the office space, fellow Republican Jeff Good, who chose not to seek a third term in office, nor the other two commissioners, Jim Biggs, R-North, and Laura Blaney, D-South, invested any county funds in sprucing up their offices.
“In this case it was especially needed because I knew I was going to have regular office hours and be here every day,” Regnitz said, adding that the old furniture from the office wasn’t thrown away but repurposed someplace else.
Regnitz, a Republican, defended the purchase and the office refresh and said she maintains daily office hours to meet with other officials and members of the public, and also pointed out that the office hadn’t changed since the Porter County Administration Building, at 155 Indiana Ave. in downtown Valparaiso, first opened in 1992.
Why a comprehensive renovation approach for the commissioners’ offices, or any in the building, hasn’t been planned, budgeted and executed over a piecemeal approach isn’t immediately clear, but Biggs, commissioners president, said commissioners have talked in recent years about renovating their offices but it’s a logistical nightmare.
There’s nowhere to move furniture to while an office is being painted, for example, and because of building hours, the work could only be accomplished on weekends when it’s closed.
Regnitz asked for a new desk and additional storage because of her plan for office hours, Biggs said.
“I said that’s fine if we have enough money for it,” he said, adding later that if Regnitz was only going to be in the office a couple of days a week, he wouldn’t have agreed to the expenditure.
“Nothing was done that didn’t need to be done or we couldn’t
afford,” he said.
The health department is undergoing a renovation, he added, and several departments in the administration building also have had upgrades.
Additionally, Biggs said, Good turned in his office keys in early December, opening a window of a few weeks when the office could be redecorated before Regnitz was sworn in on Jan. 1 and took over the space.
In a text message, Good said he left the office the way it was when he moved in.
“I did not even get a new chair. I spent nothing,” he said.
Likewise, Blaney, who is in her 10th year as a commissioner, brought items from home, including two chairs, a side table, décor and a small couch for her children to hang out on when they were young and came to the office with her, but purchased nothing with taxpayer funds.
Biggs, for his part, previously served as commissioner for two terms in the 1990s. Now halfway into a second term after running for the post again, he’s back in the same office. John Evans, who used the office for 16 years between Biggs’ terms, left the office alone, Biggs said, and he hasn’t changed it since he moved back in, in part for what he called sentimental reasons, since he was the first commissioner to occupy the space when the building opened.
Regnitz wasn’t the only one to get new furniture. She said the commissioners’ executive assistant, Melanie Massey, also got a new desk, similar to the one Regnitz got, but didn’t get a new chair, at a cost of $3,448, according to documents provided by Regnitz. That purchase, Regnitz said, was necessary because Massey moved into another office space and the furniture there went to a small office on the third floor with commissioners assistant Curt Ellis.
Regnitz, according to an invoice from Dunes Office and Shop Equipment Inc. in Chesterton, ordered the desk, chairs and storage cabinets in “Aspen laminate” on Dec. 22 for $3,907, including assembly and installation.
The funds for the renovation came from the local income tax fund, out of a budget line item for office equipment.
Regnitz also pointed out that Vicki Urbanik, the outgoing auditor, ordered new chairs for her office from an office supply store in Milwaukee. In all, the office got nine new chairs at $466.24 each, as well as a task stool for $551.85. The total of that invoice, including shipping and handling, was $5,166.01, according to documents provided by Regnitz.
Urbanik said she asked the county council to budget for the chairs during fall budget hearings because they were falling apart and the council agreed to the need. She said the chairs were the only significant furniture purchase in her eight years as auditor. The council approved the purchase with money from the Auditor Non-reverting Fund.
Biggs said Good also had the kitchen area in the commissioners office renovated, including a high-end refrigerator, and the kitchenette in the auditor’s office was renovated at the same time, though with more modest accouterments. The kitchen upgrade in the auditor’s office, Urbanik said, was at the direction of the commissioners, not her office.
Still, Biggs said employees can’t randomly decide they want new furniture or other upgrades because they don’t have control over what’s done or the spending. There’s also no policy or set amount for such requests.
“I think common sense has a great deal to do with it. What’s the need and do we have the money at the time to solve it?” he said, adding of Regnitz’s office, “It’s not so much a renovation as making some cosmetic changes.”
Regnitz expects her office to stay as it is for a long time.
“Whoever comes in after me, this will be done for another 30 years and I think at a pretty reasonable price, too,” she said.