St. Petersburg is getting closer to a new police department and it is clear it is time for a new one.

Two years ago Mike McDonald took Bay News 9 on a tour of the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Two years later it’s clear it’s worse.

The police department is in disrepair.

“Regrettably I don’t think you have enough time to have me enumerate those for you,” said Mike McDonald, Assistant Director of the Administrative Services Bureau for the St. Petersburg Police Department.

There is limited air conditioning, bad wiring, cramped offices, offices in closets, damaged floors, no hot water, falling ceiling tiles, and no space for evidence.

The list is long but Mayor Rick Kriseman said Saturday a solution is closer than we think.

“I’ll be asking our city council to approve an agreement with Pinellas County that will provide the final $20 million in penny funding needed to build in one phase a new police station,” said Kriseman during Saturday’s State of the City speech.

Saturday Mayor Kriseman made the announcement McDonald has been waiting nine years to hear.

The city has the money to build a new police headquarters.

“The simplest way I can frame it is it will be a 21st century law enforcement facility,” said McDonald.

McDonald said a bad economy held up this much needed project.

Now the mayor has the Penny for Pinellas tax money to finish it off.

Mayor Kriseman’s spokesperson Ben Kirby told Bay News 9 they are crediting the mayor’s relationship with the county and also an improving economy.

“Unquestionably it allows us to be more efficient it would allow us to be more effective we would clearly be able to manage cases more effectively.”

St. Petersburg City Council and the Pinellas County Commission still have to approve the money for the police headquarters.

There aren’t any designs for the new department just yet.