Arroyo Funding Fact Sheet - 2002

  • The Pasadena City Council was informed last June that $3.2 million that should been devoted to Arroyo Seco improvements was diverted to obscure city and Rose Bowl Operating Company budget accounts for fifteen years.

  • The funds were part of a 1986 contract between the City of Pasadena and American Golf, which manages Brookside Golf Course.  That contract specified that 10% of golf course fees should be set aside to beautify and enhance the Arroyo Seco. An additional 25% is set aside for golf course and Rose Bowl enhancements.

  • In 1995 The City Council dipped into the funds to pay for $2,000,000 in Rose Bowl improvements. 

  • In a report to the City Council on November 13, the City Manager joined with the Rose Bowl Operating Company to advocate that the funds should no longer be dedicated specifically to the parks and natural areas of the Arroyo. “All Arroyo Funds and the interest earned on these funds may be spent for any capital project in the Arroyo, including the Golf Course and Rose Bowl Stadium,” the report recommended.

  • The Recreation and Parks Commission took a very strong position disagreeing with the City Manager and the RBOC.  They unanimously passed a resolution stating, “All Arroyo funds (past, current, future), including interest thereon, be spent on projects in the Arroyo, excluding the Rose Bowl and Golf Course.”

  • At a dramatic meeting of the Pasadena City Council's Business Enterprise Committee in early December, it was revealed that $2.7 million in certificates of participation had been issued in 1992 to upgrade the Fannie Morrison Center and restore the Arroyo Seco.  City officials were directed by the committee to prepare a factual report detailing just what happened in the past and how the money was spent.  That report was presented to the meeting of the BEC on Wednesday, February 7 at 7 pm at City Hall.

  • The City Council also diverted $2 million from the Arroyo fund for Rose Bowl improvements in 1995.

  • In addition to the $3.2 million from golf course fees, more than $4.3 million in County Parks bond funds have gone unspent in recent years:

    • $1.9 million for Hahamongna Watershed Park approved by voters in November, 1992;

    • $1.4 million for the Lower Arroyo approved at the same 1992 election; and

    • An additional $1 million approved for Hahamongna Watershed Park in the 1996 election.

  • Last March California voters approved an unprecedented $2 billion bond issue for parks and open space projects statewide. An additional $2 billion was approved for flood, river and watershed management

  • Pasadena’s sad record on Arroyo spending and care could doom future fund opportunities for one of Southern California's greatest natural treasures.

 

Read the news stories about the Arroyo funding issue