'Eliminating Subsidy Would Doom Pool' Says Former Swim Club Board Member

The Municipal Tax Review Committee is planning to advise the city to zero out the subsidy for the community pool. Jon Sakol, who served on the board of the Piedmont Swim Club before the city took over the facility July 1, says that's impossible.

To cover about half the projected cost of pool operations this year, City Council of about $380,000 from Piedmont's general fund. The Municipal Tax Review Committee has judged that expenditure to be unsustainable if the city is to balance its budget and maintain a 15 percent reserve.

The of the report the committee plans to send to council suggests the subsidy be replaced with user fees or a special tax. A that four of the nine committee members have additionally signed on to gives City Council a July 1, 2012 deadline for eliminating or offsetting the subsidy with cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Sakol told the committee Wednesday that in order for pool operations to be self-sustaining the city would have to make up for the loss of the $1,500 initiation fee that the club charged new members and start making the Piedmont Swim Team and the school district pay for the more than $100,000 worth of water time that the club had granted basically for free.

To make the ends meet, Sakol calculated that the city would therefore have to draw in 550 resident pass-holders—100 more than the club had members when its lease of the pool ended—and add 125 non-resident pass-holders too.

"That would take a few years, not a few months," Sakol said.

Historically, the club had to make up for a 10 percent annual turnover in membership and never netted more than 70 additional new members in a year, according to Sakol. , the city had sold only 259 passes to residents and 41 to non-residents.

Sakol said the city compromised its ability to sell passes when it made a political everyday except Sundays and Holidays, instead of just on Friday or Saturday each week as the club had.

With all that in mind, Sakol said to the committee, "no financial analysis could lead you to the conclusion that the pool can exist as a public pool with no subsidies."

The upshot of recommendation for eliminating the subisdy, said committee member Bill Hosler, is that the city should be considering the financial consequences of decisions like the takeover of the pool before they are made.

"It appears the decision was made as one of I want something, and I don't want to think about how it's going to be paid for. … That's ridiculously irresponsible," he said.

Committee member Bob McBain argued that the with the Swim Club for a new lease was valid, citing the council's objections to the initial proposal for a 15-year rent-free lease and concerns over legal liabilities. But he had no qualms about saying that pool operations should be cut back or the facility shuttered if the subsequent financing doesn't make sense.

"I think the view was, let's see if we can work this thing," McBain said. "And if it doesn't work, then basically just shut it down."

Chairman Michael Rancer suggested there might be other alternatives, such as limiting the pool season.

"It's not just a question of $380,000 or zero," he said.

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