After 8 ½ years and public expenses approaching $100 million, Stockton’s new city hall in the Waterfront Towers got a partial opening this week.
A city office will be open for payments for utility bills and some permits, marking the first time the building will serve its purpose since the Stockton City Council decided to buy it for $13.6 million in 2017.
At the time, city staff led projected renovation of the 1980s-era buildings would cost roughly $11.8 million for a total public investment of about $25 million.
Instead, construction took years longer than planned, and costs spiraled largely without public scrutiny or council review, a 2025 investigation by Stocktonia found.
From 2019 to 2022 the council signed major contracts for the design, management and construction of the remodeling, worth about $44.5 million total. Internal city and contractor documents obtained by Stocktonia showed those costs had grown to at least $62 million by mid-2025 — on top of the original purchase price — but that almost all of the cost increases happened outside of the public eye.
Instead, under an obscure but wide-reaching city policy, the city manager, city staff and contractors can decide on the extra spending themselves without presenting the changes at council meetings.
In all, Stocktonia found, while the City Council voted to increase the contracts by about $4.2 million, staff approved increases of at least $17.5 million. The council approved increases nine times, but staff and contractors increased the total spending at least 33 times.
The policy allows certain contract costs to increase by up to 10% without council approval, and then — once the council approves even a small increase that crosses the 10% threshold — to increase by up to 10% again. The cycle can repeat indefinitely, meaning that as cost overruns grow, public oversight becomes less and less frequent.
The original purchase was recommended during the tenure of then-City Manager Kurt Wilson. The unseen cost increases through mid-2025 were all approved by then-City Manager Harry Black. But any other city manager wields the same authority, and the 10% contract increases are not confined to the new city hall — the leeway applies to countless other city contracts.
After Stocktonia’s investigation, the council approved repeating that process yet again, voting in favor of a $1.1 million spending hike which now allows city staff to spend up to $6.9 million more without further approval.
And construction remains unfinished: While some departments moved in this week, according to a city news release, completion is not expected until summer.
Beyond the three main contracts for design, management and construction, the project comes with other expenses including parking lot construction, meaning the total cost could approach $100 million or more.
Last week, city spokesman Tony Mannor said he’s unsure when the remaining departments will move, because the Public Works Department has not given him a schedule. Public Works Director Peni Basalusalu didn’t provide that information when asked by Stocktonia via email.
City Manager Johnny Ford’s office and city councilmembers’ offices will likely be among the last to move, because they’ll be on the top floors, Mannor said.
“The order may change, but right now the plan is it will be a bottom-up transformation of city departments,” he said.
For the city services now located at New City Hall, public counters are in Building Two on the first floor at 501 W. Weber Ave., next to the Waterfront Warehouse — open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and closed every other Friday, the release says. On the first open Friday each month, counter hours are 8 a.m. to noon.