City Council committee meetings could become more accommodating to larger crowds.

Plans to expand the mayor’s conference room in City Hall and renovate the offices in the police department basement are on track for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins April 1.

The City Council has approved a budget that includes $150,000 for the renovations. City Administrator Keith Riesberg said he expected to bring bids for the work before council in the coming month.

This is expected to be the first of three phases of renovations to City Hall, all of which were prompted by recommendations from an architectural study performed in 2007. Riesberg said he expected the second and third phases to be completed in the next two years.

Consultants from SFS Architecture, of Kansas City, in its 2007 study, found the city would outgrow its facilities within 10 years. City Hall was constructed in 1973 and has changed little since.

“Our city has changed over the years, (as has) how government does business, so it was time to look at what makes sense,” said John Simmons, community development director.

In the first phase, the mayor’s conference room will be enlarged, eliminating a kitchenette, closet and other unused space just outside. At times, the existing room can barely accommodate the public who attend the council’s committee meetings, and the doors have to be propped open, with overflow seating outside the room.

The basement of City Hall — which contains the police department’s detective, drug enforcement, traffic and community policing divisions — also is included in the initial remodeling phase. Some of the officers’ existing offices are converted from storage rooms or closets.

Detectives will see the greatest change, as two walls will be demolished and rebuilt to make a sergeant’s office smaller and make way for more room for the detectives. The lighting and computer wiring will also be reworked.

Some of the police department divisions could be reorganized, and space for two traffic officer desks will be added. The existing office for the traffic unit is shared by the officers and used to be a closet.

Officers are expected to move from the basement to the recently purchased building across the street from City Hall, the former Bryant Motors property, during the renovations.

Outdated office furniture will be replaced with work stations throughout City Hall as part of each stage of renovations.

“A lot of the furniture we have, it’s geared more for typewriters than computers. ... Some of our furniture simply needs to be replaced,” Riesberg said.

The other two phases include remodels of the first-floor offices occupied by the city clerk, finance department and collector, and the second-floor space that includes the public works, building and community development departments. Officials are unsure which floor would be renovated next.

Each floor will have a designated transaction counter, under the proposed plans. The first-floor offices are expected to have a more open floor plan to make sharing information among employees easier, instead of having each department separated by walls.