SAN DIEGO -- Voters should decide whether San Diego moves ahead with a proposal to redevelop the City Hall complex, Councilman Carl DeMaio told a City Council committee Wednesday.

"This is such an important project, and public trust is so important, that we should allow the public to participate," DeMaio told the Rules, Open Government and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

His comments came at the first of two hearings on the proposed new City Hall before the full City Council considers the issue in July. The committee's second hearing is set for June 10.

The board of the Centre City Development Corp. -- downtown's redevelopment agency -- voted last week to recommend the city enter into exclusive negotiations with Gerding Edlen, a Portland-based developer already selected as the builder of a new City Hall complex.

Gerding Edlen has proposed replacing San Diego's aging, 1960's era City Hall building with a 34-story, 964,000-square-foot, glass-and-steel tower with an adjacent council chamber, parking, retail and public plaza.

Supporters of the proposal argued the current City Hall has inadequate fire suppression systems, lacks necessary seismic retrofitting, contains asbestos, is not up to code and is deteriorating.

"Right now our City Hall is a blight," City Council President Ben Hueso said. "It's dysfunctional. It's not serving the public's needs. It is a horrible place to work."

Confined spaces and inadequate circulation also make the building "very, very unhealthy," Hueso said.

"This building is a virtual biological petri dish," he said. "If somebody gets sick in this building, everyone gets wiped out on that floor."

The civic center complex is comprised of five structures: the City Administration Building, Development Services Center, City Concourse, Civic Theatre and Evan Jones Parkade.

It would cost about $125 million to make the buildings functional for the next 30 years, according to CCDC.

"Each building is in very poor physical condition," Jeff Graham, CCDC's vice president for redevelopment, told the committee.

Millions of dollars would also be saved by redeveloping the City Hall complex rather than continuing to lease office space at locations around San Diego, proponents argued.

San Diego is now forced to lease several downtown buildings at a cost of about $13.5 million annually. Those leases are set to expire in 2014.

According to a 51-page assessment recently completed by the consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle for CCDC, redeveloping the City Hall complex would be more expensive in the short term, but would save the city money in the long run.

A prior study found that San Diego would see more immediate savings by constructing a new City Hall.

DeMaio, an ardent critic of the plan to redevelop City Hall, questioned the accuracy of the financial analysis.

"There's a lot of manipulation in the numbers, and I am very concerned about that," DeMaio said.

DeMaio said the studies don't reflect San Diego's "competitive position" in leasing downtown office space amid the current recession.

He has argued the city should shelve the project because of San Diego's ongoing fiscal challenges.

"There are a lot of things wrong with the proposal that I hope we keep in mind before we move forward," DeMaio said.