The Board of Directors passed Resolution 2015-02 on January 6, 2015, declaring the administrative building and parking lot as surplus and authorizing the marketing and sale of the property. Why are we doing this?
KID has been working very hard to improve service delivery and become more responsive to the needs of our community. We have heard and are responding to suggestions for improved service and communication. New highly skilled staff members, improved service through increased hours of scheduled coverage, and a substantial sustained investment in a strategic capital improvement program are but a few of the changes implemented over the last five years.
Having separate locations for our Operations and Administrative Office groups has been another challenge for the KID. Consolidating locations will directly increase internal communication and facilitate providing more timely information to customers. It will also improve management accessibility and oversight, improve staff development, and increase daily operational efficiency.
KID’s Administrative Office has been in downtown Kennewick for decades, and in 2002 KID renovated a key downtown building to help anchor the City of Kennewick’s revitalization efforts there. Although it has worked well for some aspects of business, it is out of the district and remote from half of the district’s employees. It is not large enough or in the right location to fit both halves of the business. We believe that it makes better sense to create one unified space to be shared by all of KID’s 57 employees at the KID-owned Ely Street property. A new building located there will provide a more central location from which to serve our customers. Beyond the functional benefits of consolidation, we believe this move will be the most effective use of our operating budget in the long term.
The Board of Directors and senior management believe, based on evaluation of the potential return on investment, that consolidating the business on our current operating site is the best way to utilize our resources to improve our service delivery and improve organizational efficiencies. This decision will provide improvements now and anticipates future needs of our growing customer base. The Ely Street location will be within the KID boundaries, in the heart of our customer base and the center of our district.