Just add fundraising! Optomistic?
Phases 2, 3, and 4 of the Los Altos Community Center Master could be built mostly by private fundraising. Mayor Val Carpenter at her presentation to the Los Altos Financial Commission meeting March 19, stated that the current thinking is that private fundraising can be tapped to pay for the majority of the $80M to pay for those later phases. Phase 2 is the $16M sports fields and pools. Phase 3 is the Library, and Phase 4 is the transformation of Bus Barn theatre to a Performing Arts Center. Mayor Carpenter thought fundraising efforts could be easier because with the Master Plan in place, the zoning is pre-approved. Get your fundraising thermometer here.
Rec. Dept. to be the Key Tenant of a New Community Center Building
The mayor explained that the current tenants of the Hillview Center have been given notice that they will not be tenants in any new community center building. She said the rents are not much. However the Recreation Department courses will be using the new facility. She said the City gets 70%+ of the course fees. She explained that the City Recreation Deparment believes it can expand its course offerings — “demand is there.” In fact, a $2,000 survey is going to be conducted to assist with the planning for the expansion of the recreation department offerings. A resident in attendance at this Financial Commission meeting, Gerry Madea, himself a former Financial Commission member in the 1980’s, said that the Rec. Dept. has been running with about a $250K subsidy for years. (LALAHPolitico has cannot confirm or deny this alleged shortfall at this time.)
How the City might pay the $16M for the New City Hall
Val Carpenter explained to the group of us that the Phase 1 (city hall, community-rec center, police station) financing plan was for a $65M bond measure. The bond measure would be to approve a $35 per year tax per $100,000 property valuation. In addition the City plans to pay directly for the new City Hall, costing $16M. Russell Morreale, City Director of Finance, indicated that about $10M of the $16M could be withdrawn from the $35M in City reserves by 2014, which is the earliest construction is likely to start for Phase I. The other $6M of the $16M could be raised by the city going directly to the municipal bond market. Other options are also being considered.
Financial Commission Draft Work Plan
After the mayor’s presentation, the Financial Commission continued its meeting. Among other things, they agreed on a draft work plan. Three of the items included were 1) A study of the City’s debt capacity. 2) How to structure the $6M in direct city bonds (if City Council decides to move forward with Phase I after getting the poll results in April), and 3) A study of pension options for the City. The desire is to lower reliance on CALPERS to the extent that is legal and beneficial. The draft work plan will be discussed with the Mayor April 3 and then revised as needed.
So where is the money for the pools?
EDITORIAL COMMENT:
The City propaganda about the Community Center Master Plan is “misleading by omission.” Most people have the impression that the city is going to eventually pay for ALL of the Los Altos Community Center Master Plan phases. If the ONLY thing fans of — swimming, soccer, baseball, Bus Barn, the library — are getting out of this is pre-approved ZONING, forget it! Everybody STILL has to do their own fund-raising. Well, thanks for next to nothing.
There appears to be some sort of tacit “business plan” for a vastly expanded recreation department which is going to cost-justify a posh $30M+ Community Center Building.
This new Recreation Dept. is still going to have to compete with Community Center of Music and Arts, the YMCA on Grant Ave. and many other suppliers. If the Los Altos Recreation Dept. is subsidized now, what is the risk of a much larger subsidy with a new building? Show us the numbers. Maybe most citizens are OK with an even larger subsidy — some will say it’s for the greater “welfare.” But let’s be explicit.
Last word: Let’s remember that a “fix up” of the Hillview Center would cost less than $10M. Couldn’t our Rec. Dept. carry on nicely with that?
Learn More: This page has links to ALL this site’s info and analysis on the Los Altos Community Center Master Plan