Tag Archives: Sammamish Community Center

“Common Sense Sammamish” omits vital information

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I’ve been critical of the City of Sammamish for omitting risk information from the data provided the public over the proposed public-private Community Center with the YMCA.

My household received a mailer October 15 from Common Sense Sammamish. The mailer is a campaign against the Community Center and while it identifies the website, there is no information about who is behind the mailer, or who is funding it.

There is a phone number on the website that answers with Columbia Fitness Center. Cy Oskoui is the CEO of the two Columbia Fitness Centers in Sammamish and he, along with two others, wrote the opposition statement in the Voters Guide.

We believe voters have a right to know this connection to the mailer, just as they have a right to know the risk factors that the City should have disclosed.

It is unclear whether the mailer violates election laws for disclosure and whether financial and registration filings with the State are required. We couldn’t find any when we searched the Public Disclosure Commission website. We have inquired of the PDC about this.

Update: Hank and The Frame Guy (see Comments) were able to find the PDC filings. From experience, the search engine is sort of hit-and-miss, and thanks to both for finding the information.

The mailer does not reveal the Top 5 contributors (or in this case, the only one) as required by law, but since Oskoui is not a professional, this error and omission may be considered “technical.”

Nonetheless, I think it important that voters know the connection between “Common Sense Sammamish” and Oskoui, the CEO of the two Sammamish fitness centers, who will be directly impacted by the Y-Sammamish center.

Columbia Fitness in Issaquah closed some time ago and the lease for the one in Saffron (across from the Safeway complex) expires in 2015. I recently rejoined this one (at a monthly individual cost that is $4 less than the price proposed by the Y, by the way) and it’s not well populated when I go. This, of course, raises the question of just how well it’s doing anyway and whether the Y might be an excuse to close it when the lease expires. (“Enquiring minds want to know.”)

As for the flier’s claim jobs will be lost: well, yes and no. Columbia (and perhaps Pine Lake Fitness Center) jobs might be lost. But one presumes these may be offset by the Y, so it could be a wash.

Risks for Community Center-YMCA deal

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I appeared before the City Council Oct. 9 to make a public comment about something I read in the Sammamish Review concerning the proposed YMCA-Community Center deal and advisory vote.

The article, at this writing, is not on the paper’s website. The paragraph that caught my eye was this:

“Councilman Don Gerend said he didn’t think voters should worry about the prospect if the YMCA backing out of the agreement several years in if the facility is running a large annual deficit–the council would never sign off an agreement that left the city at risk for that.”

I disagree with this statement and appeared at the meeting to say so. (Also at this writing, the tape of the meeting has yet to be posted to the city’s website. My comments are within the first 15 minutes of the meeting when it is posted.)

There is no doubt in my mind that if the Community Center is running a big deficit that the YMCA would come back to the city council to renegotiate the contract. Nor is there any doubt the if the Community Center becomes a black hole the Y wouldn’t seek to walk away. A contract is only as good as the next crisis and then it’s a starting point to renegotiate.

In an unusual move, several members of the council broke from practice and commented on my comments. Mayor Tom Odell said the Y has every motivation to make the deal work: a $5m capital investment and a $1m investment in staff and support time. I agree. But what if the deal doesn’t work? Fiduciary duty demands you change the deal or take the loss and get out.

With respect (and I meant it), I said Gerend’s remarks were naive and blithely dismissive of voters. Council Member Nancy Whitten said it was her understanding the contract would have a mutually-agreed termination clause. If Whitten is right (and I suspect any contract would include such a clause) Gerend’s statement is also misleading.

Councilman John Curley remarked that if the Y can’t make a go of it as a 501 (c) 3 and with taxpayer dollar support, then no private enterprise could do so.

If the Y walks, I said the city will have 100% responsibility for the Community Center.

Citizens have a right to know the risks of this deal since they are being asked to vote on it.

I have yet to decide how I will vote in the silly advisory vote, but I do know that the city isn’t forthcoming to the citizens with all the facts, details and risks so that voters can make an informed choice on the Nov. 6 ballot. By law the city can’t promote the vote but I believe it can sit down with the paper and answer a series of detailed questions posed by the reporter. I suggested the city do so.

Previous posts I’ve written on this topic may be found:

Citizens for Sammamish Community Forum

Why the Advisory Vote is a Bad Idea, Part 2

Why the Advisory Vote is a Bad Idea, part 1

Another risk factor: The Y’s representative told the Council on July 16 she did not know when the operation will break even. Any business plan should have this projection. The inability to answer this question suggests there is no business plan.

Frankly, if I were on the Y board and my staff came to me asking to spend $5m but didn’t have a business plan to say when the project would break even, I’d fire somebody. (Like Mitt Romney, I like having this option.) If I were on the city council and staff came to me seeking $25m and there wasn’t a business plan for this project, I’d throw them out of the room. (Only the city manager can hire and fire in the city manager form of government.)

I don’t have any philosophical issues with public-private partnerships under certain circumstances and if the deal is structured properly. It’s a way to stretch dollars and turning government functions over to private enterprise to operate more efficiently is a well-known principal advocated by both political parties (but mostly Republicans, which thereby perplexes me with our local critics who are Republicans opposing on principal this public-private partnership).

But up to this point, this deal seems to be poorly thought out and rushed to put it to an advisory vote, subjecting the citizens to voting on something on which they are largely without facts.

Debating the Community Center

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There was a debate Monday night over the pros and cons of the proposed public-private partnership between Sammamish and the YMCA for a $30m community center. The City Council authorized an advisory vote in the November election.

The election statement, and the pro and con arguments, appear in the King County Voters Guide here.

The City Council’s resolution authorizing the advisory vote is here.

As we’ve previously written (and here), we think an advisory vote is a waste of the $50,000 it will cost to hold it.

We weren’t able to attend the debate but it was video taped.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Advisory election for Sammamish Community Center is a dumb idea

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The idea of having a “non-binding advisory vote” for the Sammamish Community Center is unnecessary and a waste of time and money.

The City Staff and City Council have studied this thing to death. There have been numerous public meetings. Money and time has been spent on professional consultants. Let’s get on with the decision-making. We elect the City Council to make decisions and policy. We don’t need more stalling and needless expense.

If the Council insists on having a vote, at whatever is the cost of doing so, make it mean something by having it binding. Having a non-binding advisory vote is just silly. We already have a Park Commission whose opinions and recommendations are often ignored by City Council. Having a non-binding advisory vote means the prospect is very real that the Council will simply ignore the voters and do what it wants anyway. Save the time and money: show some political courage and backbone and get on with a decision now.

Common sense on the Community Center

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It appears that common sense may prevail on the proposed Sammamish Community Center.

That’s the project, readers will recall, that last year was headed toward a $64m, 98,000sf extravaganza that would have been the biggest city community center in King County, according to some.

It would have been roughly 2 1/2 times the size of our City Hall at roughly seven times the cost of the building.

Note that now City officials are putting the price tag of City Hall at around $28m, “including land costs.” I think this is somewhat misleading, but I won’t argue the point.

We already own the land on which the Community Center will be built, the so-called Kellman property. This was purchased not so much with a Community Center in mind; affordable housing was one preferred use, a folly–but that’s another story. So the original Community Center concept at $64m was breath-taking. It got a lot of justifiable push-back from the public and some council members who were fiscally alert and not interested in a Taj Mahal. The City was also charging ahead alone rather than partnering with a private entity well-versed in operating community centers.

According to this article in the Sammamish Review, the City is now talking with the YMCA about a sharply scaled down project that is priced at $29m for a 64,000sf building (the City Hall is just over 39,000sf). Further, Council Member Nancy Whitten thinks the YMCA should deed over the property it owns near the Pine Lake Middle School as part of the deal–an idea I think has great merit.

Kudos to the City for coming around to considering a solution that wasn’t even on the table.