An office switch at the state Capitol for Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and State Auditor Claire McCaskill has prompted some controversy.
The switch was approved last week by the Board of Public Buildings, which consists of Kinder, Gov. Matt Blunt and Attorney General Jay Nixon, and will take effect in January. Michael Keathley, commissioner of the Missouri Office of Administration, said the switch was based on the space needs of Kinder’s staff. Kinder’s current office is 1,228 square feet and holds only three of his seven staff members, while McCaskill’s is 1,605 square feet and houses four staff members.
It’s about space and proximity, not politics, Keathley said.
“McCaskill’s office in the Capitol is largely ceremonial, and she has additional office space in the Truman Office Building. The lieutenant governor does not.”
Samantha Brewer, spokeswoman for McCaskill, doesn’t agree.
“We’re not happy,” she said. “This is obviously an office grab.”
Although the move would occur after McCaskill leaves office, Brewer said McCaskill is particularly bothered by it.
“It’s not giving the next auditor a chance to have any say in the process,” she said.
Keathley isn’t concerned about fairness to the next state auditor, rather space and proximity. He said he is “fulfilling his statutory responsibilities” as described under Chapter 37 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, which says he is responsible for the “complete inventory of all real estate, buildings and facilities of state government and an analysis of their utilization.”
Keathley said the lack of space in Kinder’s office forced the staff, which has grown from three in 1988 to seven today, into the basement of the Capitol in an area intended for storage. In a prepared statement released June 21, Kinder expressed his support for the proposal and said, “The Lt. Gov.’s basement office, where half of my staff is housed, is unfit for daily operations due to constant water leaks.”
The office switch was not initiated by Blunt or Kinder, Keathley said. Keathley recommended the switch based on the fact that McCaskill’s office is bigger, she has additional office space in another building, her office is a flight below the Senate chamber and on the same floor and around the corner from Blunt’s office, where Kinder spends much of his time, and the fact that the auditor would be moving out anyway.
Brewer said that if the move hadn’t been approved, all that would go with McCaskill when she leaves would be a desk and a rug. Now, additional time and money must be spent moving the entire office to the first floor.
“Everyone who’s moved knows it takes money to move,” she said. “You have to factor in the cost of the move and any renovation.”
Keathley said the cost would be “negligible.” He said that they move 140 to 160 offices in the Capitol around each election year due to term limits. Keathley added that most of the moving would be done by the lieutenant governor’s staff. He said he did not consider the time the staff would spend moving their offices a taxpayer expense or a waste of time that the staff could spend performing their other duties.
“For as long as anyone can remember, this has been the state auditor’s office. Now, suddenly, the lieutenant governor needs to be closer to the Senate,” Brewer said. The auditor’s office has been at its present location since the Capitol was built in 1917. The lieutenant governor’s office has been in its current location since 1988 when it moved from the third floor to the first floor when then Lt. Gov. Mel Carnahan took office.