I am very disappointed the Marchione Administration and 6 park commissioners would even CONSIDER a preliminary $40,000,000 parks bond for 2009. Specifics of the proposal were described in detail by Parks Director Larsen (photo above) at the last Council study session. (Please look for "comments" below this story for elaboration).
Citizens just finished spending 6 hours of their evenings participating in Mayor Marchione and Richard Cole's "Budgeting by Priorities" (BP) workshops. When Parks Director Larsen discussed "the number" ($40m), I never heard him refer to the BP workshops or citizen requests for more park services. I think it was a councilmember who remembered a vague request for more natural open space.
Did you know, Council recently approved $2,300,000 in taxpayer money for 0.9 miles of park "trail" --a 15 foot-wide black-topped 'road'? (Click on the title of this story to read all about it. )
Only last year, the Council proposed and passed a $637,122 park bond and allocated an additional $605,000 of capital improvement funds (CIP) to our parks and recreation program. In addition Council passed city-wide impact fees on developers. For an eye-opening summary of where our 2007 park levy and capital dollars will be spent READ THIS.
As a result of last year's park levy, our property taxes increased on average $21/year. The proposed $40,000,000 park levy alone would increase our property taxes an average of approximately $140/yr per household. The increase is over 6.6 x last year's increase! It's almost equivalent to last year's "fire & police" increase of $143/yr/household.
Gas is over $3.60/gallon, fruit and vegetables are now priced by "the each" rather than "the pound", we burn gas in traffic jams because city roads can't keep up with growth, and the needed fire station in North Redmond isn't built. The list goes on.
Yes, you can read Richard Morrises informative reports here about the splendor of our parks. They truly are what makes Redmond, Redmond. But, at what cost to further the park system?
Did you know, every year 5% of our General Operating Fund is transferred to our Capital Fund? Most interestingly, 19% of the total 2007 - 2012 Capital Fund of $216,000,000 is allocated to Parks! Yikes! That's $40,000,000!
$40M (proposed bond) + $40M (capital) + $637K ('08 levy) = $80,637,000 total park & rec. budget allocation -- wished for by the Marchione Administration in 2009... This isn't counting impact fees.
My goodness! This can't be real! Is it a hoax? I feel manipulated. When citizens cry "NO" to this incredulous $40M bond proposal the Council is then positioned to say "NO" to many of the citizen's requests for funding their projects. It appears the Marchione administration is "conditioning" us to lower our expectations for our budget priorities. In the least, he's applying the fundamental principle of negotiations: "start high".
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REF: All of my research was taken from Links to city documents on the sidebar of this blog (scroll down) and by searching "levy" in the blog search engine .
CC: Council, Mayor, Parks Director, Parks & Trails commissioners
Mayor Marchione emailed me after this draft was first published. He said a preliminary idea for the proposed $40 million parks bond was 'promulgated' by the Park & Trails commission, not his Administration. Some evidence points to the contrary. I reviewed the entire tape of the joint Council - Park Board Study Session.
ReplyDeleteThe administration had their hand on the rudder in this joint meeting. The Council President usually opens study sessions. Mr. Marchione opened this meeting. Mary Bourjuignon was the first to segway the general conversation to a budget conversation. Cindy Jayne was the only commissioner to announce the $40M number. CHAIR OF THE PARK & TRAILS COMMISSION (Sue Stewart) ASKED TO "ERASE THE NUMBER" AND "IGNORE IT ALL TOGETHER". Obviously, the Park & Trail commissioners had no overarching desire to promote the $40M idea! The Administration led by Parks Director Larsen, described in detail how he would spend the new levy funds, as follows: 1) major reinvestment in reconstruction of capital/maintenance items like major road & trail repaving and rebuilding of rockeries, drainage realignments, restrooms, electrical box and lighting work, even repointing the schoolhouse brick morter! 2)new trail links and development, improvements to recreation programs, acquisition & development of parklands to accomodate 100's of sports teams waiting to "get on". Mr. Larsen recommended most of the specifics for spending. Sue Stewart mostly wanted to get Anderson Park online but seemed frustrated by the damand for cricket play areas. The majority of the commissioners prefered land aquisition over park development & Maintenance & Op. i.e. "Open the gate and they will come". Cindy Jayne was the only commissioner asking for a balance between aquisition and M&O. Peter MacDonald the Commission Vice Chair worried about our population increasing 20%, 10-15 years out. He wanted to fund the "missing trail link" to the Watershed Preserve and the Bear Creek trail.
Parks Director Larsen "stretched it" by describing how dire the climate was and the need for additional funding owing to "reduced" real estate taxes and impact fees -- attributed to our SLOWING economy!! He said construction material costs were "up 35-40% from 3-years ago". hmmm!
Thus, I beg to disagree with Mr. Mayor. The Administration had just as much input, if not more,into setting the preliminary parks bond number at $40 million.
I've asked the commisioners, council and mayor to comment here, with full transparency. Citizens too, of course.