First, the administration wants to hire a consulting firm for about €80,000. "The firm is to summarise the available expert opinions to give an overall picture of the structural condition of the building and determine the need for further expert opinions," explains deputy city spokesperson Marc Hoffmann. The inspection contract, which is to be awarded in the next few days, will run for six months. "Then a final evaluation of the results will follow," says Hoffmann. He left open the question of when the administration will present a final draft resolution to the council. One alternative to renovation would be a new building on the site of the former state authority building on the B9, which the city wants to buy. The prepared utilisation concept for the site includes, among other things, a "technical town hall" with up to 1500 workplaces.

The town hall is in need of renovation. This is especially true for 188 reinforced concrete columns on the parking decks under the building, which have been damaged by salt. The Bonn Municipal Building Management (SGB), which was in charge until recently, also warns about the condition of the building's technical equipment such as ventilation or fire dampers.

The SGB wrote in December that failures could be expected at any time and that the operability of the building was at risk. "The medium and long-term renovation and construction compensation measures to be implemented will depend on the recommendations of the external consultancy and will be communicated after the first results are available," announced Deputy City Spokesperson Hoffmann. Acute measures, however, would be "carried out independently of the basic evaluation".

At the end of February, Lord Mayor Dörner had taken the responsibility for the town hall away from the SGB and transferred it to a new staff unit headed by Town Director Wolfgang Fuchs. The task of clarifying the future of the administrative centre, including taking into account remote and mobile working practices could "not be successfully managed in the classic administrative structures", Dörner had explained at the time. The "personnel transition" from the SGB to the staff unit still had to be discussed. In fact, however, the staff unit has not been given its own posts, as the press office reported on request. SGB employees are assigned to it on an hourly basis.

This was probably because of a disagreement between Dörner and SGB head Lutz Leide. It concerns the 35 most severely damaged parking deck concrete supports which, according to experts, must be shored up by 2023 at the latest. Leide had explained that the town hall would "in all probability" have to be vacated during this measure - the SGB was therefore already looking for office buildings to rent. When the expert was interviewed again, however, they said a support procedure would be possible which would allow the offices to remain in operation. This planning is underway, according to the press office. The shoring-up measures are to be completed by mid-2023. "According to current findings, it is not necessary to vacate offices," says Hoffmann. Monitoring the damaged concrete pillars, as required by the expert, is to begin only after that.

If the council ultimately decides on a full renovation of the town hall, the administration will probably move into rented buildings after all. The staff council circular states: "The administration and the staff council are already in agreement that, if a decision is made in favour of renovation, this will not be considered during ongoing operations."

Original article: Andreas Baumann

Translation: Jean Lennox