Beverly Hills : Workers Back in City Hall

After more than a year in temporary quarters, City Hall workers moved back into their refurbished offices over the weekend.

Although construction workers were still roaming the halls performing last-minute jobs, employees said they were happy to be back in the 59-year-old building, which was rebuilt at a cost of about $11 million.

After the move, employees gave City Manager Mark Scott a T-shirt with the city’s “Beverly Hills--Better Than Ever” motto marked up to read “Beverly Hills--Better Late Than Never.”

A secretary said she was upset about a cartoon in a local newspaper that showed liveried footmen using a luxury car to ferry boxes of paperwork from temporary city offices to the landmark City Hall, whose Mexican Baroque tower juts up above Santa Monica Boulevard.

“We worked our buns off all weekend, and we didn’t get paid for it either,” she said.

Except for the 3-year-old fire station and parking structure, the rest of the Civic Center complex, whose cost is expected to exceed $120 million, is still not occupied more than two years after the original completion date.

Plans call for the police and library staff to move into their new quarters in August.

The final stage of the Civic Center project was sidetracked by design changes and other delays caused by discovery of ground water under the new police station and the need to remove asbestos from the old library.

Dedication ceremonies are expected in the fall, after work is completed on an outside courtyard and landscaping.