Bargain-Hunting Politician : Encinitas Council’s Top Shopper Hopes to Furnish New City Hall

Gail Hano was born to shop.

And she’s a tough customer, having honed her skills on the north shore of her native Long Island (say Long-GUY-land). In years past, she’s been a regular Bloomingdale’s bargain-hunter and has run with the price-checking pack at Macy’s and Gimbels.

“I was fortunate to have raised kids and not have to work,” said the Encinitas councilwoman. “So when the chores were done, what did you do? You go shopping. And I’m a real bargain-hunter.”

Hano began applying her experience in the name of city taxpayers on Friday, looking for ways to save money on furnishings for the new city hall. She nosed around a local store for retail rates, and got on the horn to catalogue companies and business contacts scrounging for a cheaper price.

There’s a political purpose behind her energetic undertaking.

City officials have come under fire for their plan to spend $115,000 on furniture for the newly purchased building in Vulcan Square near downtown Encinitas--including a $1,900 coffee table and $1,800 apiece for six leather chairs to grace the public lobby.

At a council meeting this week, an angry citizenry confronted the council--that had earlier approved the expenditures without, officials explain, knowing exactly how the money would be spent.

“Give me a break!” self-proclaimed Encinitas activist Betsy Schreiber blistered the council. “I don’t know what these people think they’re trying to build here, the Taj Mahal?

“In these economic times, there are a lot of unemployed people who resent this kind of spend-free attitude. We have little faith in our public servants to begin with. The idea is they have no concept of living in the real world. And this proves it.”

Council members admit they originally gave the go-ahead for the purchases. But Hano says they were taken aback when they recently received the specifics on how the money would be spent.

Leslie Suelter, a city management analyst who is coordinating the purchases, said: “I guess it gave them (the council) sticker shock.”

So Hano, who is seeking reelection this year, has volunteered to hit the streets, to eyeball the newspapers and discover once and for all, if better bargains can be had.

She’s not, she says, going to places that sell $1,900 coffee tables. “The city staff said, ‘What do people want us to do, go to Target?’ And the response as we’re hearing it is, ‘Yes, shop at Target.’ Because that’s where everyone else shops.”

The furniture fiasco is only the tip of the iceberg of citizen complaints about how the city is spending taxpayer money on its new complex, which officials bought for more than $5 million earlier this year.

Since the city began renovating the 30-year-old building, several unexpected cost overruns have emerged, such as extensive spraying for termites, removal of asbestos-backed floor tiles and a roof replacement that will cost more than $220,000.

Local real estate experts said city officials had no business negotiating for themselves on the purchase of the property and that seeking some expert advice would have saved them a lot of money.

“Anybody with any ounce of brains knows that if you buy a building built in 1961, you’re going to have problems with hazardous materials, especially asbestos,” said Warren Cobb, a local commercial real estate broker.

Encinitas City Manager Warren Shafer, who has taken plenty of heat for decisions involving the new city hall, said Friday that the price was reasonable for the coffee table and chairs because the designers intended the lobby to be the showcase of city hall.

“Actually, the prices we received from the bidding process were lower than we had anticipated,” he said.

Shafer is tired of the armchair quarterbacking going on around city hall and the community.

“You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” he said. “People complain about the city wasting money on all these consultants. So if we had gone that route with the new building (purchase), we would have been criticized, too. So take your pick.”

Hano says it’s too late for her to do anything about the construction controversy. But the furniture is no done deal.

Hano said Friday that she thinks it’s sinful for the city to spend $900 apiece for council member’s chairs and $131 a shot for spectator seats. “Some of the council members have complained that their chairs are not comfortable,” she said.

“Well, this isn’t their living rooms. They’re not there to fall asleep.”

Activist Schreiber echoed that sentiment.

“There’s some gross negligence going on here, a bunch of spend-happy people,” she said. “When I moved into my first house, we didn’t even have furniture. My mother-in-law gave us some old rattan furniture and we made do with that.

“These people can do the same thing. They’re like little blind mice touching everything and say ‘I want this’ and ‘I want that.’ A $2,000 coffee table. Preposterous.”

Hano says there’s nothing wrong with much of the furniture the city is already using. “Just because we have $11 million budgeted for this city hall project, that doesn’t mean that we have to spend every last penny of it.”

So Hano has tightened her jaw and gone to work. Finding a really good bargain, she says, opening the door to an Encinitas furniture store, takes persistence. You start with retail and work your way down from there.

Hano, whose husband once worked for Gimbels in New York, spent three years of price-shopping to refurbish her living room alone.

“We got the bill for the furniture right about the same time as we heard about all the budget cuts in Sacramento,” she said, referring to the council. “How can we think of laying off police and firemen and then go out and spend that kind of money on leather chairs?”

Hano says she’ll report back to the City Council on her bargain-hunting discoveries in early September. Until then, she’ll have her eye out for a sale, any sale.

“You have to remember, the cheapest is not always the best,” she says, on the run. “Furniture has to be able to wear, it has to last. But you never, ever, pay retail.

“Especially when you’re spending someone else’s money.”