City Council Caves In Again on Arroyo Funding

March 22, 2001 -- It looks like the long-running dispute over Arroyo funding is over for a while.  The Arroyo lost, but that's hardly news.  The next battles will be when the capital budget goes to the City Council, which will divide up the funds.  But what chance will Arroyo improvements have when:

  • the Rose Bowl's debt is enormous;
  • the neglect of the Arroyo is longstanding and seemingly endemic;
  • the City Manager, who will frame budget recommendations, sits on the the board of the Rose Bowl Operating Company?

Here's the Star News account of the denouement:

Arroyo funds for golf course, Rose Bowl -- March 22, 2001

Below you'll find the full background on the issue.

BEC Meeting - February 7

The Pasadena City Council Business Enterprise Committee (BEC) deadlocked at their meeting of February 7, 2001 on what to do about the Arroyo funds that have been collected from Brookside Golf Course use fees over the last 15 years. The four member committee was deeply split about two key issues: 

  1. How much money is actually available? and 
  2. Should the funds be used for Rose Bowl and golf course improvements in addition to parks and natural areas in the Arroyo? 

The funds result from a clause in the 1985 contract between Pasadena and American Golf, the private firm that operates Brookside Golf Course for the city. The clause provides that 10% of the greens fees should be dedicated to "Arroyo improvements." An additional 25% is dedicated to golf course improvements. $3.4 million has been collected since 1986 for the Arroyo improvements, but city staff was unable to shed any light on the original intent of the provision, contending instead that the clause obviously gives the Council latitude to spend the funds on the Rose Bowl and golf course as well as parks and natural areas. 

The controversy erupted last summer when city officials revealed that the Arroyo funds had been languishing in an obscure Rose Bowl Operating Company account for several years. City Manager Cynthia Kurtz and Rose Bowl Operating Company General Manager Darryl Dunne recommended that the City Council should use the funds for Rose Bowl and golf course improvements in addition to parks and natural area improvements. Then in December at a dramatic meeting of the BEC, Pasadena finance officer Jay Goldstone revealed that the City Council has authorized $2.7 million in Certificates of Participation for Arroyo improvements using the Arroyo fund to pay off the COPs. 

Last night, after two months of anticipation, Mr. Goldstone presented the city staff financial report on the Arroyo funds. A thick report, buttressed by mind-boggling numbers and documentation (not provided to the public), could not obscure the fact that there has not been any strict accounting for the funds since they were first established in 1986 or since the Certificates of Participation were issued in 1992. Only in recent months has city staff developed a list of expenditures to charge against this account. 

Here's what they propose the money was spent on:

Rose Bowl Improvements                    $1,660,231
Arroyo Related Projects  $  316,438
Kidspace Design            $  316,438
Central Arroyo Master Plan $    30,000
Lower Arroyo Master Plan $    35,055
Jackie Robinson Field landscaping $    54,948
Brookside Park Bathrooms  $  304,479
Total Arroyo                     $  740,920
TOTAL ROSE BOWL & ARROYO                    $2,401,151
 

Particularly glaring is the inclusion of $316,438 in design funds for the controversial Kidspace Museum at the Fannie Morrison Center in Brookside Park. The report leaves unanswered a series of questions: When was it determined that this expenditure should come out of the Arroyo funds? Why doesn't this come out of Kidspace's Prop A funding? Was this expenditure ever authorized by the City Council? For what other developments does the City pay design fees? Shouldn't the City be reimbursed for such costs? 

It is a sad commentary on Pasadena's neglect of the parks and natural areas of the Arroyo that in 15 years the only major legitimate improvements city staff can identify are the Brookside Park restrooms, a bit of landscaping and some minor planning expenses. 

The city staff report contained a new, audacious recommendation that would further diminish the fund.  Staff recommends charging the Arroyo fund for all the debt service associated with the related 1992 Certificates of Participation, even though 60% of the money has been spent for Rose Bowl improvements. That will reduce the amount now available from previous estimates of $2.5 million to $1.5 and make available only about $30,000 more annually, even though $300,000 is collected each year. And those funds, according to the staff recommendation, will all be available for Rose Bowl and golf course use. 

Vice Mayor Bill Crowfoot supported the staff recommendation as a principled stand against "Arroyo elitism." Council member Paul Little concurred. Mayor Bogaard and Council Member Madison, both instrumental in raising the Arroyo funding issue, were unable to convince their colleagues about the original intent of the fund or to stop its bleeding. 

The matter will go to the full Pasadena City Council on Monday, March 19, 2001 without a recommendation from the Business Enterprise Committee.  The City Manager's recommendation remains unchanged.
 

Read the excellent Star News coverage of the Arroyo funding issue: