For all those who’ve been wondering when all that retrofitting work at City Hall will be done and the old building reopened, there’s now a target date: July 1, right when the new mayor and six new council members take office.

Actually, some city staffers may begin moving in as early as June 1, assuming most of the construction work is done by then. The moves are expected to take place on weekends in June and July.

But don’t expect things to be exactly as they were three years ago when the building closed for its $300 million retrofit. Of course, the mayor’s office and all the council offices will move back. But there will be some shuffling around of departments and staff.

For starters, the Department of Building & Safety, which had occupied much of the fourth floor of City Hall, will not be returning. The department will remain at its current location, at Figueroa Plaza. Seems those class-A digs are much to the liking of staff and permit-seekers alike.

With an entire department moving out, you’d think there would be a lot more space for other departments. But apparently, that’s not the case. Many Public Works employees who had been in City Hall will have to remain in their current Spring Street offices. Word has it that they are not happy with those dingy accommodations and were looking forward to moving back to City Hall.

According to Reginald Jones-Sawyer of the city’s asset management office, the new layout will provide more square footage per occupant, meaning there will be fewer denizens of City Hall than before.

“People were really crammed into the old building, so the City Council approved new space standards that have less people per square foot,” Jones-Sawyer said.

In addition, the seismic retrofitting involved the placement of huge braces inside the building, taking away some of the available space.

Also, Jones-Sawyer said, some departments have gotten bigger over the last three years.

Olympics Absence

At last week’s unveiling of the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics, there was much talk about how L.A. leaders were united in their support of the bid.

“One big advantage L.A. has is the unity of its leaders behind the Olympics,” said David Simon, president of the L.A. 2012 Bid Committee. “In Atlanta, before the 1996 games, the mayor and the city council didn’t speak to each other for months.”

But if there is so much unity in L.A., then where was the L.A. City Council? Not one representative from the Council showed up at the Dec. 5 briefing atop Staples Center.

Bid Committee Chairman John Argue said that he personally invited Council President John Ferraro to attend. Ferraro, of course, was one of the big guns who helped bring the 1984 Olympics to L.A. But Ferraro has been battling a long illness and has been forced to cancel most of his public appearances in recent weeks.

As for other council members, it may simply have been a case of bad timing. The Council was not in session last week, as many members flew to Boston to attend the annual League of Cities meeting. And this week, Argue himself is scheduled to be out of town.

While bid committee officials reassured members of the media last week that the Council is fully on board the effort, some friction may already be occurring. Within hours of the press conference, Councilwoman Laura Chick, who is running for City Controller, announced that she would introduce legislation this week barring the use of public funds as a condition for submitting the bid.

“Past history shows us this decision is the right one,” Chick said. “Recent history teaches us that we need to codify this decision in no uncertain terms.”

Chick was referring to the cost overruns that plagued the Democratic National Convention. Despite pledges to the contrary, DNC host committee officials last June had to ask the City Council for $4 million in additional funds. And last month, City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka released a report revealing that the total cost to the city of putting on the convention was $36 million, more than three times the $11 million that city officials had expected the city would have to spend.

Riordan, Goldberg Allies?

L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan and former City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg clashed frequently and bitterly during Goldberg’s tenure on the Council. Privately, Riordan often said Goldberg was his least favorite council member.

But how things change. Within hours after being sworn in as a state Assemblywoman, Goldberg and Riordan seemed to be teaming up on some key legislation on the Belmont Learning Center. Apparently, both Riordan and Goldberg looked at the mess at Belmont and independently reached the same conclusion: If the Los Angeles Unified School District is going to finish building the 5,000-student high school atop an abandoned oilfield, it is going to need legislation shielding it from lawsuits.

Riordan publicly unveiled a plan early last week; LAUSD observers said that Goldberg apparently had been mulling over similar legislation for a week or two before that. (The Belmont site, at Temple Street and Beaudry Avenue, is within Goldberg’s Assembly district.)

Goldberg’s office would not confirm that she is seeking such specific legislation; a staffer only said that Goldberg is concerned about the fact that the Belmont school is sitting half-finished and that she is considering what legislation she should introduce to help resolve the situation.

As of late last week, neither Goldberg nor Riordan had publicly announced that they would work together on this legislation; privately, however, one observer said their staffs have talked about the issue.

Airport Marketing

Critics have long blasted Los Angeles World Airports for not doing enough to market Ontario International and Palmdale Regional airports. The criticism has come from both opponents of the proposal to expand Los Angeles International Airport and from boosters of Ontario and Palmdale airports.

Finally, last week, LAWA decided to act: the LAWA Board of Commissioners approved a request for proposals for consultants to “develop and market” the airports. A final contract would last three years and would involve preparing an air service study for Palmdale and the implementation of a strategic three-to-five-year marketing plan for Ontario.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached via e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.