Butler County can save nearly $300,000 by ending leases for some county offices and moving them into underutilized or empty floors of the Government Services Center in Hamilton, according to the results of a yearlong office space study.

The study of all county-owned office space found that 25 to 40 percent of it is unused or underutilized. Commissioners have made it a priority to balance the county’s projected $80 million budget next year and are searching for ways to close a $1.5 million deficit, including asking county offices to keep spending in check and examining how county facilities are used.

In January, commissioners contracted with Lorenz and Williams Architects in Dayton — the firm that designed the Government Services Center in 1999 — to study all the county’s buildings and determine how the space could be best used to maximize cost savings.

Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, who spearheaded the space study, and county Administrator Charles Young estimate $257,481 will be saved in 2013 with the implementation of phase one, which includes relocating the law library to the Government Services Center. Carpenter said getting the pieces to fit in the right places and accounting for employees, services and public convenience is a challenge.

“It is not as easy as putting offices into empty spaces,” Carpenter said. “There are so many moving parts and they all line up like dominoes — if you move one office one place, it affects another office.

Some proposals have not been well received, including one to move the county’s law library, now located in the Robinson Schwenn building on Journal Square, into the super courtroom on the second floor and relocating Veterans Services to the county administration building. Commissioners and common pleas judges have come to an agreement that the large super courtroom — which is vacant most of the year — be used for multiple purposes, but not for the law library.

Law Library Director Joe Hodnicki told commissioners earlier this month his preference is to relocate to the first floor, but any location in the Government Services Center is welcome.

Carpenter said Veterans Services will not be moved, which means easy access to parking and a separate first floor entrance will be maintained.

“That was never a real proposal, just some ideas people had as we were talking about possibilities,” she said.

Plans now call for the law library to move to the seventh floor where space has been freed up from the shrinking of Job and Family Services. That move is scheduled for January and is projected to save the county $95,000 annually.

Job and Family Services and Children Services operations in Middletown have been moved to Hamilton, saving the county about $116,000 annually. The agencies’ building on Central Avenue in Middletown has been declared surplus property and will be sold. Future plans call for Job and Family Services and Children Services to be housed together in the county’s facility on Fair Avenue.

“It will be a tight fit, but we think it can be done,” Young said.

Additional costs savings in 2013 will come from renegotiated contracts on leased spaces, including Workforce One, Family Connections and the records center. The renegotiated Workforce One lease will save $8,381 annually, a new lease for the SWORTC building that facilitates regional training for foster parents and children services workers is $25,200 annually, a new lease for Family Connections will save $10,600 annually and the records center lease has been amended with a cost savings of $2,250 annually.

Future plans under discussion include moving the grand jury room to unused space in the court wing, relocating the public defenders office to the grand jury space and moving the jury gathering room from the first floor to the super court room.

Carpenter said the vision is for the Government Services Center to be the justice and commissioners department building with the first floor reserved for departments with high foot traffic and public transactions. Currently, the first floor is under used as conference rooms.

Freeing up space on the eighth and ninth floors may mean more departments moved into the space in the future. The floors can also be used for conference rooms lost on the first floor.

Young said while cost savings is a key component of the plan, making services and operations more efficient for employees and citizens must also be considered.

“In some cases, it may not make sense to move an office,” Young said.

Commission President Don Dixon, who has been vocal about getting county offices into county-owned properties, said he is satisfied with the progress.

“Would I like it to move faster? Yes,” Dixon said. “But I have learned after many years in county government and politics, nothing moves fast.”