Supervisors approve move out of WWII era building
Auburn, Calif. – The Placer County Elections Office's warehouse is set to move to Rocklin from North Auburn.
The Board of Supervisors today approved a $6.25 million acquisition agreement for a 54,503-square-foot office and warehouse building in Rocklin.
The move will bring most Elections Office warehouse operations to south Placer, where a majority of the county's population resides.
The building also presents an opportunity to expand the Placer County Clerk-Recorder and Elections Office services to south Placer.
While the decision to move services to Rocklin is yet to be determined, board members Jim Holmes and Cindy Gustafson expressed interest to continue Clerk-Recorder and Elections Office services in North Auburn.
"This property presents an exciting opportunity to provide residents access to vital records, marriage licenses, real property records and more in Rocklin and North Auburn," said District 3 Supervisor Jim Holmes. "The possible service expansion will take some time to determine, but the prospect to provide residents convenient access to these services in two locations is positive."
Located at 3715 Atherton Road, the building includes over 20,000 square feet of office space, accommodating the majority of the Elections Office operations and staff from North Auburn. The site can also serve as a voting center as well as a ballot drop-off location.
"The new office space and warehouse will increase our efficiency and savings," said Placer County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters Ryan Ronco. "It'll help us serve more customers where they live, store all of our equipment in one location and ultimately save tax dollars."
The warehouse's amenities include climate control, which is ideal for preserving documents and voting machines, as well as ground-level loading docks.
The current Elections Office warehouse, built during the World War II-era, was determined to be too costly for a much-needed remodel, coming in with a near $6 million price tag.
The Elections Office anticipates the new building will save tax dollars by storing their voting equipment closer to the majority of their polling locations.
The current warehouse building is not big enough to accommodate the Elections Office's newly-purchased state-mandated voting equipment.
The approved building acquisition also includes $2.6 million in funds for repairs and work required to accommodate the new elections equipment, as well as funds for additional maintenance, architectural and engineering design to be performed in fiscal year 2020-21.
Remaining funds required for construction of the office space, voting center and a training and meeting room will be requested in future budgets.