2008 Woodie Awards
Houston Street headquarters cramped
By Regis L. Roberts
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: News
Originally published: 11/20/08 at 1:18 PM CSTLast update: 12/9/08 at 10:42 AM CST
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In giving his pitch for developing Playland Park, Chancellor Bruce Leslie has emphasized the need for one headquarters for district personnel to replace offices at Houston Street, 201 W. Sheridan and 7990 Pat Booker Road.
Roger Castro, interim director of information technology services, said there hasn't been much talk around the offices about the prospect of having a new headquarters at Playland Park, but more space is needed.
"We don't understand why faculty's complaining about us getting a new building when they have nice, beautiful buildings, and look at where we work," Michelle Rios, assistant payroll manager, said.
However, faculty's main complaint about Playland has been the proposed price tag of $116 million.
Faculty Senate Chair Paula McKenna has said that she understands that a new headquarters is needed.
Castro said the building houses several departments, including information technology, internal audit, fiscal affairs and all of its sub-departments such as payroll, budget, treasurer and loans.
"I'd say divisionally probably about eight different offices - eight different departments - are housed in here," he said.
Although he has an office of his own, many offices in the building house at least two people, Castro said.
Senior payroll assistant Linda Loessberg has her own office, but she is still cramped in by her desk and filing cabinets.
Helen Ochoa, an executive secretary in the fiscal affairs department, showed off makeshift offices that were made from hallways, 10-foot-by-10-foot offices housing three people and an entire department that fluctuated in temperature from one room to the other.
"This office back here, we always have problems with the air," she said of her area of the fiscal affairs department. "It's overheated; there's no air circulation."
Rooms throughout the building were uncomfortable for the people in them. Castro said he is lucky that his office is one of the few offices where he can regulate the temperature.
Most of the building has to have air and heat controlled at the facilities office on the San Antonio College campus, he said.
One problem has been with restroom facilities, Castro said.
Each of the two floors has one restroom on the west side of the building, Castro said, an inconvenience for people on the opposite side.
"For the hundred or so people we have in here, that's not very good," he said.
Just last week, the one water fountain on the second floor was finally fixed after weeks of being broken, he said.
"We do have a water fountain on the first floor, but it's ridiculous to have to walk downstairs to get some (water)," Castro said.
One other problem has been the neighborhood the building is in, he said.
A homeless shelter is about a block away, he said, and homeless people stand around the building when people come in and get off work to ask for money.
They are mostly harmless, but he said one employee was accosted by some homeless people.
"A couple of people approached her and actually made contact with her," Castro said. "They were admiring her jewelry, her earrings, her necklace. She was able to back away from them and get away.
"For a while there, she wanted someone to accompany her out of the building when she left every day just to make sure nothing like that ever happened," he added.
Day laborers also congregate across the street and they will, on occasion, try to jump in the back of people's trucks or make their way into someone's car if it's unlocked to look for work, he said.
Castro said the main concern, above all else, is space.
Departments do not have much room to grow, making it almost impossible to bring on new people, he said.
They don't have anywhere to go unless more options are presented, he said.
There have been reports of rats in the building, but Castro said they generally stick to one area of the building.
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