The Champaign City Council voted to move the City Facilities Master Plan to a regular city council meeting at their study session Tuesday night.

The plan is designed to deal with maintenance and construction issues in city buildings before they become a larger problem. The program will be outsourced to a consultant, who will evaluate the needs of city structures, including the city building, the police station and the fire station.

“We know that our needs will exceed our resources, so it is good to prioritize,” said Public Works Director Dennis Schmidt.

Deb Feinen, Council member At-Large, said while she was not thrilled about using a consultant to do this job, it is a necessity.

“I think it’s good that we can prioritize these issues,” Feinen said. “We can prioritize cosmetic things on a lower level. It is an important piece of planning for public works.”

The only council member to vote against the plan was Dist. 3 Council Vic McIntosh, who said he thinks that the Public Works department has the means to do the inspections and repairs themselves.

“Most of these consultants get their information from our own staff,” McIntosh said.

Schmidt said if this was passed, the city would have the means to complete a lot of the repairs within three to four months.

Champaign City Council meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the City Building.