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Last-gasp bid to save Willard Pool eyes city subsidies

June 29, 2010 3:46 pm by Tracey Taylor

An eleventh hour attempt to save Willard Pool, at least for the summer, has been hatched by the head of a Berkeley neighborhood association and will be presented at tonight’s City Council meeting by councilmember Gordon Wozniak who supports the idea.

The proposal, conceived by George Beier, the President of the Willard Neighborhood Association, would see money diverted from subsidies currently given to city employees for membership of the YMCA. The city provides $230,000 a year to subsidize YMCA memberships for its staff. According to Beier, employees pay $15 towards membership, while the city picks up the remaining $45, and an estimated 425 staffers take advantage of the offer.

Beier says if the subsidy was eliminated altogether, Willard Pool could re-open permanently, and if it were reduced from $45 to $30, the city would save $77,000 which is almost enough to keep Willard Pool open for the rest of the summer. “The city would still pay half of the cost of the membership — still a great perk for the staff. And we could keep Willard Pool open. I urge you to reduce the YMCA subsidy from 75% to 50%. It’s a small cost for each staffer to pay – and a huge, huge benefit for our neighborhood and our city,” wrote Beier in a letter to Mayor Bates and the City Council.

Willard Pool is due to close for good tomorrow after Measure C, the ballot proposition that would have funded rehabilitation of Berkeley’s four pools, failed to garner enough votes to pass earlier this month.

“The pool is an incredibly valuable community resource. It would break my heart to see a closed sign there,” said Beier. “Some people say band-aids aren’t good, but when you’re bleeding, a band-aid is the perfect thing.”

Beier believes his proposal could keep the pool open for the rest of the season, which requires a total of $81,000 in funding, and that “a more creative solution” could be found for next year.

“I feel that keeping open a neighborhood pool and provide swimming lessons for our children is a higher priority than subsidizing YMCA memberships for city employees,”  said councilmember Wozniak whose district includes the Willard area. “The city is extremely generous to give 75% subsidies on YMCA memberships. A 50-50 split would be enough. It would be a great and fair outcome if this proposal is passed.”

Last week Wozniak, along with councilmember Kriss Worthington, put forward another proposal which might have saved Willard, as well as other resources. This one would have involved diverting funds for street repairs in their districts. It failed to pass, receiving four of the necessary five votes.

The approval for subsidized YMCA memberships for the next financial year is also on the agenda at tonight’s council meeting.

17 Comments

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  • witort

    How does saving $15 x 425 staffers = $77,000? (calculator sez $6,375)

    Measure C received 60% of the vote, let’s get together on this one, people.

  • http://www.tktaylor.com Tracey Taylor

    witort: The membership sum cited is for one month, so it’s $15 x 425 x 12 which comes to $76,500.

  • tizzielish

    I think the city pays $45 each month for each city staffer that takes advantage of this employee benefit. . . If the city reduceds it’s monthly contribution by $15 a month for twelve months for each of the 425 city staffers who take advantage of this benefit, the city would save $15x425x12=$76,500.

    I am heartsick that access to summer swim lessons for some of this city’s kids (the kids who live near Willard can still take swim classes at the other public pools, right?) will be significantly reduced when/if Willard pool closes. I think this is an unconscionable situation. Given Willard’s location in the South end of our city, which is where many of the city’s poorest residents live, seems like class warfare to me.

    But I don’t see why 425 city staffers should be asked to subsidize Willard Pool’s budget. How would people reading this blog feel if their employer informed them that their employee benefits will be reduced this year to fund a public amenity? Just because people work for the city doesn’t mean their employee benefits are up for grabs by the rest of us.

    Why not, instead, ask each of the people who voted for this measure to kick in some money for Willard pool?

    I understand the sense of panic that must be felt by someone like Beier, a leader in the Willard neighborhood, but I don’t understand why he thinks his plan to take money from 425 city staffers is a reasonable approach. That employee benefit is not really public money, not if it has already been promised to 425 city employees.

  • tizzielish

    I have now more carefully read the information, and I realize the the city council will be voting this evening on whether or not it will fund YMCA memberships for city staffers for the coming year. So the employee benefit is not already guaranteed to those 425 employees. . . still, Beier proposes robbing one aspect of the city’s funds to pay for the Willard pool. . .

  • Michael

    “Robbing?”

    I think the term is budgeting, and it’s what we elect councilmembers to do. It’s all general fund money, and the council’s job is to prioritize potential expenditures, and allocate the money accordingly.

    If the council thinks the perks for the staffers (plenty of whom don’t even live in Berkeley) are more important that summer pool access for half the city, that’s their call to make. Judging by the Berkeleysider comments after the defeat of Measure C, I’d venture to say that the majority of voters don’t find the gym subsidy too compelling.

  • visitor1

    While I am not a long time resident of Berkeley the fact that the city of Berkeley has been paying subsidies to the YMCA for employee membership is absolutely outrageous! Why to the YMCA employees and for example not the employees of Berkeley Bowl or employees of Crepe Vine or the employees of the Cheese Board. Are you telling me that the employee use of the YMCA honestly costs the YMCA the money it receives from the City of Berkeley.
    Even in the murky gangster city of Chicago ( my home town) knows this is not Kosher!
    Get a life and give this money back to Willard Pool where it belongs!

  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    Perhaps a good perk for city workers is that they receive fee-based city services gratis or at a discount?

  • Diane

    I’d much rather my tax dollars went to a public amenity that all could use, than to a perk for city employees. I worked for years for a big F’500 company, and even there I didn’t get my gym membership paid for. I think I got a 25% discount on a national chain, which seemed great to me. Now I can’t afford a gym membership for myself at all (I gave up the YMCA when business slowed for me last year). Seems like a “nice to have”, hardly a “must have” for city government.

  • Elmwood Neighbor

    It’s really not that outrageous that the city of Berkeley has offered such a benefit. Please note that it is not just available to folks who work at 2180 Milvia. This benefit is offered to fire fighters and, I’m guessing but can’t confirm, to members of our police force. Efforts to keep employees healthy and fit is a good thing. These are not greedy workers trying to take away the summer pleasure of small children. The City of Berkeley offered a benefit and 425 workers accepted. And now all of sudden people are posting about them as though they were heartless.

    Also, I believe the city of Berkeley and city workers are negotiation to voluntarily take pay cuts in order to prevent the loss of 77 positions.

    That it may be time for the city of Berkeley to end some of these perks is one thing. The city if facing a budget shortage of over $16 million. Even if the city recouped the $76K from YMCA subsidies, would keeping the Willard Pool open be their first prioritiy?

  • Elmwood Neighbor

    It’s really not that outrageous that the city of Berkeley has offered such a benefit and the cost of $76K is pretty small change in terms of the overall city budget. Please note that it is not just available to folks who work at 2180 Milvia. This benefit is offered to fire fighters and, I’m guessing but can’t confirm, to members of our police force. Efforts to keep employees healthy and fit is a good thing. These are not greedy workers trying to take away the summer pleasure of small children. The City of Berkeley offered a benefit and 425 workers accepted. And now all of sudden people are posting about them as though they were heartless.

    Also, I believe the city of Berkeley and city workers are negotiation to voluntarily take pay cuts in order to prevent the loss of 77 positions.

    That it may be time for the city of Berkeley to end some of these perks is one thing. The city if facing a budget shortage of over $16 million. Even if the city recouped the $76K from YMCA subsidies, would keeping the Willard Pool open be their first prioritiy?

  • http://basiscraft.com Thomas Lord

    Elmwood,

    These are not greedy workers trying to take away the summer pleasure of small children. The City of Berkeley offered a benefit and 425 workers accepted. And now all of sudden people are posting about them as though they were heartless.

    I hope I speak for all here who think the cut might be a good idea when I say that, no, this isn’t based on any perception of greedy employees who are heartless. Not at all. (If there is resentment of City employees on that axis – and I think there is – I don’t think this Y subsidy is central to it.)

    It’s a fine benefit but also about the right level of trade-off to consider relative to Willard pool, after the recent political disaster. Blame the elected bosses.

  • Diane

    Outrageous benefit? Not at all. Necessary in the face of deficits and inability to keep city services available? Sure. Sometimes hard choices need to be made.

    I have declining business revenues this year. My own budget planning dictated that I decided where money goes, and what I need to keep spending money on, and what gets cut. Thus I cut my gym membership, and decided to bike everywhere instead. It was a fiscal decision. I do not think it’s unreasonable for Berkeley to look at its own budget and make some similar, and hard, decisions in the face of limited funds and gaping needs.

  • Elmwood Neighbor

    Thomas,
    I have no problem with the benefit being cut. I was just taken aback by the tone of visitor 1′s comment.

  • tizzielish

    I support keeping Willard open. And I understand that somethings things that used to be in a budget have to be removed because finances have changed. When money is tight, you have to look at whatever you can.

    I’d like to read numbers. How many kids swim in Willard in a summer? I’d like to compare that number to the 425 city employees.

    I’d also like to hear from the YMCA: I am absolutely certain that some of the 425 city employees are eligible for financial aid at the Y. The city should have employees apply for financial aid before the city pays all that money on their behalf. It looks to me like this payment is as much about a benefit to the Y as it is a benefit to employees.

    And the Y is also a great asset to this city.

    Visitor1 says ‘give this money back to Willard where it belongs’ . . the money was never Willard’s.

    I think there are quite a lot of things that could be cut in this city’s budget that a majority of Berkeley residents would like to see cut. I’d like to see a thorough analysis of other discretionary expenses. I am just fine if the city keeps Willard open by cutting back on an employee benefit. . . but it is not right, in the big scheme of things, to make those 425 people pay for an expense that should be rightly born by the whole city.

  • tizzielish

    In a different direction. . . I have mixed feelings about the failure of the pool proposition in the June election. I didn’t like the way it was written. I voted for it, though, and I wish it had passed because it seemed like our city pools needed a hail mary pass. The right way to provide good pools for our city has to exist and I didn’t think that proposition was right.

    Now I am reading about the library shenanigans. Before I lived here, the library got the citizens to fund library taxes and that voter initiative said it would use the funds for renovation. Now the library board (or whoever is doing it) wants to tear down use the money in ways that were not presented when the initiative was on the ballot. Now the library is not just using the money in unforeseen ways, it is asking the city to give library real estate perpetual zoning privileges. The library doesn’t want to have to go to the city planning board to get approval of its plans. This situation reminds me of why I resisted the pool initiative.

    I wish we could write propositions tightly so that future politicians (library boards are politicians, make no mistake) can’t finagle the money to be used in ways unforeseen when the money was voted for. I know that life is unforeseeable . . but that library tax inititiative never gave voters the impression that libraries would be torn down. . .

    I don’t trust public representatives with tax dollars these days.

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  • Michelle Pellegrin

    Berkeley has been unique in that its employees during this recession have been asked to give up nothing. They have voluntary furlough days but this means time off. This is very different than other government agencies where there are straight across the board cuts in salaries in recognition that revenues are limited and no matter how much good one wants to do, changes have to be made.

    It is a large and complex question and the world is changing. But this question about the pool staying open is not large and complex. What is particularly sad in this is that Berkeley, which has some of the highest paid city employees in the country, makes such a big deal about a $15 increase by and will instead choose to close a community resource in the densest part of Berkeley which has a paucity of these services. For a city that talks about youth services and their value this is even odder.

    There should be no question about this. Services to the community–public service–is the reason for city government. Treating employees fairly is a part of this equation. Treating them like kings at the cost of our children is absurd.