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By CLARK MASON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
An overflow crowd packed the Santa Rosa City Council Chambers Tuesday to implore city leaders not to close municipal swimming pools and the senior center.
“We have major community angst,” noted Mayor Susan Gorin. And for the next two hours, more than 40 speakers demonstrated some of that anxiety, pleading with the council to preserve those and other programs threatened by ongoing city budget problems.
Council members later offered hope that the programs might yet be spared.
Parents said closing Finley and Ridgway swim centers would be tragic for the children and the Neptune Club swimmers, many of whom ringed the council chambers Tuesday.
“I would be heartbroken to learn I can’t keep swimming,” said Casey Dillon 11. “I’m terrible at any sport involving a ball. I feel swimming is my sport.”
“It keeps kids off the streets and out of trouble,” added Donna Burch of Santa Rosa.
Senior citizens were equally passionate about the possibility of losing the senior center on Bennett Valley Road.
Some carried signs reading “Save our Senior Center,” “Don’t close out seniors!” and “Remember we vote.”
“The center addresses the isolation people feel,” said Paula Fenster Brust, who said she plays bridge and can get legal and tax advice at the center in addition to a subsidized meal. “This is my pseudo family. They care if I’m here.”
The council took no action Tuesday, but is under the gun to close a $7.5 million gap in the projected $110 million general fund for the next fiscal year, which begins in July.
Mayor Gorin said in the past several years the city has slashed $30 million in the general fund. But City Council members are pondering making another $4.7 million in cuts.
They include closing a second fire station on a rotating basis, laying off an assistant city attorney and eliminating vacant positions, including two downtown police officers, two motor officers, a narcotics officer and domestic violence/ sexual assault detective.
But it was the swimming pools and senior center that were the big topics Tuesday.
In the end, council members indicated the beloved facilities will be spared, perhaps through community donations or even a public-private partnership of some type.
“I know we can do this as a community. We can pool our energies and save these facilities,” Gorin said, adding that citizens may also need to pass a parcel tax or sales tax and city employees will have to make more concessions.
Councilman Ernesto Olivares said new models should be explored such as having the YMCA involved with the pool.
“There are ways to keep them open, but make them cost-effective,” he said.
“Closing the pools is a much more painful alternative than finding a public-private partnership,” said Councilman John Sawyer.
“We are defined by how we take care of our most vulnerable and our elders,” said Vice-Mayor Gary Wysocky, who said he favors keeping open the senior center and swim centers.
More than 5,000 people take swimming classes every year at the facilities, advocates said, where they learn water safety and lifesaving techniques.
Advocates spoke of the myriad benefits the facilities provide, from fitness and instilling discipline in young swimmers, to a place that provides therapy and recreation for disabled people.
Neptune Swim Club coach Dan Greaves said the swim program promotes a healthy lifestyle in high school youth and tournaments bring a 1,000 people at a time to the city to eat in restaurants or stay in hotels.
But with news that the swim centers might close, community donations to keep them open were gathering momentum. One speaker said an “aquatic trust fund” had grown from $1,400 last Thursday to $3,170 by Tuesday.
Closing the Finley swimming pool would amount to a $208,000 savings and Ridgway closing would save $96,000.
Charles Hall said he was surprised to see the senior center on the chopping block. “It’s one of the smaller potential savings,” he said of the estimated $102,000 in savings city staff estimated in closing the center.
Speakers on Tuesday lobbied the council to drop a variety of the possible reductions, including cuts to homeless programs, dropping a neighborhood revitalization program and getting rid of an advanced city planner who they said helps with obtaining grants, achieving affordable housing goals and green house gas reductions.
Others objected to the possibility of eliminating a code compliance program, a $200,000 savings. Supporters of code compliance said it ensures properties are maintained and helps prevents such things as unsafe electrical wiring and faulty roofs.
Besides cuts in the budget, there are proposals to raise revenue including charging $5 per vehicle to park in the upper lot at Howarth Park on weekends. City officials said the 83 parking spaces are at a premium on busy weekends and could generate $200,000 a year.
Another proposal is to raise fees in recreation programs by 15 to 25 percent for an annual ongoing gain of $331,000.
But park and recreation officials acknowledge the programs will become less affordable to lower- and middle-income families.
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Hmm…how about cutting the City Council’s hours and pay to start with?
How about cutting services that many people have decided are entitlements, but they really aren’t?
How about letting the churches go back to taking care of the homeless and needy?
How about if there is no building going on because it’s too expensive, cutting the permit department?
How about cutting the top management staff who spend their time in meetings trying to come up with ways to cut expenses? It’s the guys and gals at the bottom that actually do any work anyway.
How about cutting the fees charged at Parks & Rec so that more people can afford them, thus increasing revenue by increasing class sizes?
How about charging bicyclists fees, requiring them to register their bikes to pay for the demands they place on the City to provide bike lanes? Charge them a fee for all their fancy riding gear too!
How about opening a public gun range in the City Limits to provide training and practice for those who choose to be educated and trained when the time comes that seconds count…and you’ve laid off all the emergency services?
Seems there’s lots of ways to cut services, increase revenue that don’t affect critical needs.
By the way, hunters and fishermen pay a 10-11% tax to the Pittman Roberston & Dingall Johnson funds on everything they use for their sport which goes towards conservation, wildlife management and habitat management; which is BILLIONS of dollars a year! Bicyclists and hikers don’t pay a dime into anything like this! Isn’t it about time they do?
Code compliance programs should pay for themselves through fines and building permits. If they don’t, they should be cut.
Why are so few cuts being made to Public Safety? Add some real cuts to jobs, and you might see some real concessions… None of the other unions will agree unless Public Safety also feels some of the pain.