The new multimillion-dollar playhouse basically sits empty.
The
“fast-tracked” Aquatics Center could lose up to $300,000
annually.
The new multimillion-dollar playhouse basically sits empty. The “fast-tracked” Aquatics Center could lose up to $300,000 annually.
The Community Center is losing hundreds of thousands more than anticipated. Of the $1.6 million in annual costs only $600,000 is offset by revenue. The Council wants to put $26 million in a sports center with indoor pools (in addition to the aquatics center), on the “fast track”. The city is pulling from reserves just to maintain what we have, with a deficit growing to $1.4 million annually.
In order to sustain these projects, Council violated principals of the master plan (the very plan Council approved) by compromising the city’s gateway policy for the sake of revenue. Council exceeded the $147 million plus in RDA funds and is borrowing millions from other resources (parks) in breach of the public’s trust to build within the voter-approved guidelines. Such is the shortfall that a parcel tax and other taxes are under consideration – much of which is unnecessary if projects were built to scale.
The deficit could spawn a proliferation of auto dealerships, fast food outlets, strip malls to fill a growing money pit. There is more …
The city raised our water rates. Not because the cost of water has risen, but because staff significantly increased operational costs (telephone, printing, etc.) causing the reserve to plummet. The study was purposely limited to how to maintain the reserve. When Council limited the scope it also limited the public’s debate, and its inclusion in the decision-making process. When comparative rate data with other agencies and conservation measures were sought, Council balked. We still don’t have a viable, measurable and effective water conservation plan. Who should care? There is plenty of ground water. All we have to do is drill more wells or can we?
We can’t. Our water is at risk and some of it has been found to be dangerous to our health.
The city reacted slowly to the perchlorate problem, underscoring its severity and extent – promoting legal limits as safe when no amount can ever be justified. Detected in December 2000, it wasn’t until January 2003 that the city began testing all wells on a closely regulated basis. San Martin is now devastated, and the slow-moving current of underground toxins will surely spread to other city wells and eventually reach our neighbors in Gilroy as there is nothing that can stop it.
The problem is uncontained and its true affects are unrealized as local fruits and vegetables are now suspect and losses to our local economy and property values could exceed hundreds of millions. Enough?
We lost round one for library construction funds and if we don’t fund in round two, the library could be reduced and the cost to the city could be millions – millions that have already been spent. The fire protection contract, paid initially by selling trucks and property, is due to expire and its renewal will also cost millions only this time we have nothing to trade. The Fire Master Plan calls for a third station but we will build an aquatics center for competitive water polo long before we will address public safety, seniors or other needed services.
In the proposed budget, there is funding for aquatics but is no money for the library. Where are our priorities?
Appointed advisory groups such as the Parks and Recreation Commission are misused when Council fails to involve them in the decision-making process or takes on projects and policies that are clearly their purview. Council cannot be effective when they spend time selecting paint, tile and carpet and complain that meetings are too long while policy issues and vital public safety projects are delayed. Mired in minutia, Council even got into when burgers are served to allow In-N-Out to violate the gateway policy.
Polices, formulated through an extensive nearly three-year public process, paid for by hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds, that should have stood the test of time are apparently timed to when lunch is served. It’s difficult to think that the recently approved 20-year master plan couldn’t survive its first test. There is even more …
We also violated the Recreation Master Plan when new facility estimates include up to 50 percent non-residents and the marketing plan includes residents from Gilroy, Hollister and San Jose. These are truly regional facilities. Findings in the Recreation Master Plan (page 36) clearly state that Morgan Hill residents are to be served “first and regional recreation needs as a secondary consideration” and again “only” if there is community benefit. There is little benefit in a competition pool unless you happen to be a paying spectator sitting in the proposed 5,000 seat bleachers.
We hire consultants for work that should be conducted by city staff from a simple water rate analysis, and recreation use fees to a part-time handbook, and what has been prepared is problematic. The Health Foundation can’t keep the doctors we have and the dollars we invest are consumed by the salary of yet another consultant who failed to recognize the importance of not only getting doctors, the right doctors but keeping them.
We are in trouble and trouble deep with ever increasing liabilities and decreasing resources. The state’s $38 million plus budget deficit in a sea of declining revenues, high unemployment (nine-year high), and increased costs is truly the “Perfect Storm” and we have placed ourselves right in the middle of it with misplaced priorities, a false reliance on consultants, astonishing self interests, and failed policies. What to do?
It’s time for a good old Town Meeting. It’s time we bring everyone together to restate and reaffirm our values, to identify needs, not in council chambers were you can be limited to a two-minute statement, but in a forum where we can openly discuss issues and identify common solutions in the best of American democracy. Are you interested? Let The Times know and perhaps we can put one together. It’s time we talked.
