The Dunkirk Common Council has ratified an expansion of City Hall space leased to the Public Defender’s Office.

The public defender is taking over a conference room and two offices, one of them formerly the mayor’s office, on the second floor. The Public Defender’s Office already leases space on the floor.

The Common Council used to hold most of its committee meetings in the conference room. Councilwoman Nancy Nichols told the OBSERVER that committee meetings will likely move to the first floor of the Stearns Building. That building adjoins City Hall and its second and third floors are already used for city offices. It’s where the mayor’s office moved to.

The first floor of Stearns was once a doctor’s office but has been mostly empty for years. Nichols said the city Department of Public Works will have to do some minor work to get it ready as a meeting room.

The expansion for the Chautauqua County-administered Public Defender’s Office has been in the works for months and was approved by the county legislature in April. Dunkirk’s Common Council approved it unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting.

Dunkirk will be getting a bump in revenue from the increased rental of office space, according to Tuesday’s council agenda attachments. The county will now pay $2,750 a month for its City Hall Public Defender’s office space, up from $1,150 a month before it took on the extra rooms. In 2026, the rent goes up to $2,875 per month. In what is now the final year of the contract, 2027, the rent will be $3,000 a month.