Tax Endorsement Could Include Blair Park Financing Recommendation

Unless the city adjusts its fiscal policies, the Municipal Tax Review Committee is projecting Piedmont will have a deficit of approximately $2.2 million by the end of fiscal year 2016-2017 and fall about $6 million short of what's needed to maintain a 15 percent general fund reserve. In order to throw their support behind an extension of the municipal services tax that is set to expire in 2013, some committee members are asking for guarantees that the proposed development of Blair Park won't put the city further in the hole.

One suggestion to require funds to cover the maintenance of the planned playing fields for 10 years be put in escrow before ground is broken at Blair Park drew vociferous objections from the project's backers at the tax committee's meeting Wednesday.

"That's a poison pill we've never seen any city require for a project like this," said Jessica Berg, president of the proponent Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO).

Berg reiterated PRFO's promise that it would pay all the costs of construction and that the facility would be sustained going forward by fees from the youth sports clubs that are the intended users.

"The sports clubs are not in a position to pay 10 years of fees out front, that's just unreasonable," Berg said.

for the project, though rough estimates of the construction itself have been well into the millions. Eric Havian, a member of PRFO's executive board, told the tax committee Wednesday that his group is still trying to get a handle on the numbers. 

Havian said it looks like replacing the turf on the large soccer field planned as the center piece of the development will cost $250,000 to $300,000 after 15 years. He said regular annual maintenance would be much less than the $30,000 to $40,000 the Piedmont Soccer Club alone is currently paying to rent fields in Alameda.

"All these numbers, on an annualized basis, are well within the capability of the sports clubs," Havian said.

That wasn't enough to satisfy committee member Steve Weiner, who's very worried the development of Blair Park will go the way of the .

The undergrounding beneficiaries had agreed to pay the $4.3 million estimated for the work, but the city was ultimately saddled with the bill for more than $2 million in overruns when contractors hit bedrock.

The development of Blair Park, Weiner said, "is an invitation to undergrounding overrun on steroids."

"If you object to the escrow account, I suggest you come up with a better way of protecting this city against future liability," Weiner said to the Blair Park proponents. "I appreciate your good wishes and your intentions, but I personally need something stronger and more reliable than that."

Committee member Bob McBain sided with PRFO, characterizing the escrow concept as "draconian". He disputed the idea that the committee's support for a tax extension should be contingent upon a financing plan for Blair Park.

"The two really aren't related, and I'd hate for this [demand for an escrow account] to be viewed by anyone in the community as a way for people who do like the project to try to kill it," McBain said.

Committee member Eric Lindquist said the committee's goal was to ensure that any city expenditures beyond essential services are revenue neutral. For example, he suggested the , which has just been taken over by the city, should also pay for itself.

"This isn't about for or against a project," Lindquist said.

As an alternative to requiring escrow, Chairman Michael Rancer proposed that the committee could recommend City Council adopt a policy that user fees be the sole source of funding for operations and maintenance of any recreational facility.

"To the extent that those are insufficient then it will result in reduction in services, but it will not result in a subsidy by the city," Rancer offered.

The committee continues deliberating on its recommendations Wednesday, July 20, at 7:30 p.m. The meeting will convene in the Police Department's Emergency Operations Center.

Does the city need guarantees that the construction and maintenance of sports fields in Blair Park would be fully paid for by the project's backers in order to get your municipal services tax vote? Take the poll.