Jonathan Anderson

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

WISCONSIN RAPIDS - Mayor Zach Vruwink could soon be sitting behind a new $5,000 desk, paid for by city taxpayers.

The desk is one of 26 pieces of new furniture totaling nearly $42,000 that Vruwink wants to purchase for the mayor’s office and two City Hall lounges, according to a proposal to buy the equipment.

Under the plan, Vruwink’s personal office in City Hall would get $9,959 worth of new furniture, including:

A $5,154 desk and credenza. The desk has a list price of nearly $11,000, but it and other products have been discounted by Wausau-based furniture company Environments, records show.

An $897 work chair

Six other chairs at a cost of more than $1,500

Two tables totaling more than $1,300

An $888 magazine rack

A $157 floor mat

Vruwink’s executive coordinator, Jennifer Clark, would get $8,572 of new furniture, including a $6,800 workstation, $897 chair and a $621 book case, while the lobby of the mayor’s office would get eight chairs totaling more than $4,900, a television shelf and audio-video stand for $1,700 and two tables for $408. The lobby serves both the mayor's office and the rest of City Hall's third floor, Vruwink said in an email to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin after an initial version of this story was published online

The request also includes more than $13,000 for new furniture in City Hall’s first and second floor lounges.

It is not clear who sought the particular pieces of furniture, but city Finance Director Tim Desorcy said on Wednesday that the mayor’s office would have been responsible for working with the furniture supplier to determine what exactly to purchase. Clark prepared the furniture proposal and brought it forward to the City Council, Desorcy said.

Vruwink and Clark are the only two people who work in the mayor’s office.

A city committee on Tuesday night voted to recommend buying the new furniture. After that meeting, Vruwink had said efforts to replace furniture throughout City Hall began before he was first elected in 2012. Costs to do that have been consistent among departments and money for the furniture is available in the city's budget, Vruwink said.

“This was all part of the replacement cycle,” Vruwink said.

Desorcy could not say how much the replacement effort has cost overall, but Vruwink said the City Council already approved spending more than $72,500 in recent years on various furniture replacements elsewhere throughout City Hall.

Some furniture that has been replaced had been used since the building opened in the late 1970s, according to Desorcy, who said veneer was peeling off aging desks and that in one case duct tape was holding a computer stand together.

The new furniture is separate from $1.7 million worth of renovation work done on City Hall in 2011, Desorcy said.

The city sought estimates from three companies to supply the new equipment for the mayor's office, Desorcy said. The city chose the firm that had the lowest price, according to Council President Terry Dolan.

Dolan, who voted in support of the furniture replacement on Tuesday, said the purchase is necessary to properly maintain equipment and to ensure employees can work effectively.

"It is City Hall," Dolan said. "You've got to have a good work environment."

Still, Dolan acknowledged that if the money for the furniture had to come out of his own pocket, he would have made a different decision.

"If you're asking me would I buy a $5,000 desk for my home, no I wouldn't," Dolan said. "I'm pretty conservative."

The City Council will have a final say on the furniture purchase at a May 17 meeting.

Jonathan Anderson: 715-898-7010 or jonathan.anderson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @jonathanderson.