Harford County employees will endure at least another year in basement offices and hallways stacked with old files because County Executive David Craig won’t revive a $82 million proposal for new offices.

The County Council voted 5-2 to turn down Craig's plan Tuesday night.

The plan called for erecting two new buildings in Bel Air: One would have combined the council offices and several government agencies at Main Street and Churchville Road. The other would have replaced the existing Health Department on Hays Street with a new, consolidated facility for the Sheriff's Department.

“Right now, we're stuck where we are,” said State's Attorney Joe Cassilly, who would have got the building now occupied by the Sheriff's Office if the new offices were built.

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“If we expand into a basement room currently used as records storage, we could add maybe two new people over the next few years.”

Council President Billy Boniface said Wednesday that the council could not sign off on the plan because it gave Craig an $82 million spending limit at a time of shrinking government revenues.

Boniface said the county couldn’t afford the Bel Air complex and a $9 million, 9 percent raise for county employees.

Treasurer John Scotten said building the new facilities, closing rented offices and leasing or selling existing county-owned buildings could cost less over 30 years than the planned “alternative financing” of letting a private contractor build the new offices then rent-to-own them over time.

“Right now we're spending that kind of money anyway,” Cassilly said. “The question is, do we spend it on a coordinated plan to consolidate or do we keep spending that money on a bunch of rental properties?”

Some on the council worried the bill authorizing the project was too open-ended.

“It gave the administration basically a blank check and allowed for the purchase and lease of five different properties,” said Councilwoman Mary Ann Lisanti. “It included no finite timeline or objective for what we'd be building.”

Craig said the setback would not affect plans to build a new county office building in Edgewood along Route 40. That building will include a larger Southern Precinct for the Sheriff's Office and new offices for the Health Department.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com