We really wish we shared the city’s excitement for a partnership
with the local branch of the YMCA to manage the new Indoor
Recreation Center opening in September.
We really wish we shared the city’s excitement for a partnership with the local branch of the YMCA to manage the new Indoor Recreation Center opening in September.
“This is a time for celebration,” Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy said as the city council voted unanimously to approve a joint-management proposal. “This is a wonderful thing.”
But we hardly find a plan based on a lesser of evils worth celebrating.
By partnering with the YMCA the city shares the financial risk of the center to a tune of about 35 percent.
The city’s number crunchers estimate that under the partnership the new Indoor Recreation Center will lose $205,000 the first year and $144,000 the second year, but make $67,000 the third year. Without the YMCA, the city estimates it will lose $62,000 in the center’s third year.
Of course, the number crunching comes from the same city staff that predicted the Aquatics Center would be in the black by year three. This year the Aquatics Center and Community Cultural Center are estimated to cost the city $1 million and the Aquatic Center cost local taxpayers $403,000 last fiscal year.
The bottom line: A plan without the YMCA will cost taxpayers $411,000 in three years, $282,000 with. Where’s the plan that will launch the center without any negative budget impacts?
And the city’s projections for the latest Redevelopment project only hold true if the center attracts 455,000 visits each year – that’s a little more than one visit per month for every Morgan Hill resident or about 1,250 visits per day. Those visits won’t be cheap either – an annual pass for an adult is estimated to cost $624, a family pass for two adults and children under 18 is $876, and a day pass costs $7.
So at the end of the day there’s little for us to throw a party about. We’ll have an Indoor Recreation Center that costs more to use than our local gyms, a management team that is only partially responsible to voters (the public will have no sway with the YMCA), and a financial plan that assumes the IRC will be an instant hit. If the center fails, well, the city will only be on the hook for 65 percent of the overages even though we spent millions building it.
It’s especially tough to feel festive about the partnership while other RDA projects – such as the library – are cutting corners on construction even though the county covers all the operational costs.
Granted the partnership will only last for five years and the YMCA does bring expertise to the table, but the city should have found the best plan for its residents, not one that, for lack of better words, settles for the least worst solution.
