If things had gone according to plan, George Phillips would be
cutting the ribbon on the Alameda Boys and Girls Club’s new
25,000-square-foot home. Instead, he is waiting with bated breath for a
legal opinion that could finally push that dream forward — at the
expense, some say, of parks and open space in Alameda and, potentially,
across the East Bay.
Faced with a deadline that could put the club’s new home further out
of reach — and an insurmountably bad economy that has been
merciless with nonprofits such as his — Phillips began looking
for public funding sources to cure a $2 million shortfall in the club’s
fundraising. And he believes he has found the right one in Measure WW,
the $500 million regional parks and open space bond approved by more
than 70 percent of East Bay voters in November 2008.
“There is a pressing need for new services,” Phillips said. “We need
to be out there.” And he thinks the recreational programs the club
offers are in line with the purpose of the bond.
But his request for $2 million of Alameda’s $3.4 million share of
the parks bond has sparked outrage among park and open-space advocates,
who say the money is meant to be used for desperately needed upkeep of
the city’s existing parks and to create new ones, including two that
have long sat on city wish lists.
“Everyone knew this bond money was going to establish new parks, to
save wild rivers,” said Jean Sweeney, a local open-space advocate. “I
think the voters would feel very deceived. I personally would campaign
against any further bond measures if they start giving (the money) to
private organizations that don’t have public access.”
Alameda’s City Council is waiting to make a decision until they get
word from bond counsel for the East Bay Regional Park District, which
distributes the bond money, on whether Phillips’ request is a
permissible use of the funds. Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant
said at an October 6 meeting that the decision could take up to 30
days. It was not yet available when a reporter asked about it this
week.
If the request is approved, it will mark the first time the money
was given to a private entity operating on property not owned by a
municipality. (The Oakland Zoo, which was specifically listed on the
ballot as a beneficiary of the bond funds, is city property that is
being run by a nonprofit.)
City staff have since come up with a plan that would required the
club to pay back $1 million of the $2 million they are requesting, with
the money to be used to finance park and open-space projects. They are
also drawing up a city use agreement for the facility.
Phillips’ club has been homeless for nearly five years, since he
sold its Lincoln Avenue building and decided to head west (the club has
been operating programs on a smaller scale in one of Alameda’s public
housing projects and at a nearby middle school). Phillips said he
didn’t think it made sense to pay $2 million to retrofit the building
without creating a single new program for the youths he serves. And the
island’s demographics have shifted in recent years, pushing the
lower-income, at-risk youth the Boys and Girls club has traditionally
served more predominantly into its West End.
The state-of-the-art facility, which Phillips expects will serve
3,400 youths, would include a gymnasium, teen center and game room, a
computer lab, learning center, arts and crafts space, and a music and
dance area. It will also offer free medical and dental services and
additional services from other local nonprofits.
With a 99-year, $1-a-year lease on a 1.5-acre parcel of school
district property and $6 million in hand, Phillips broke ground on his
new facility in January. At the time, he expressed confidence that he
could raise the additional $2 million he’d need to get it built. But
fundraising slowed to a crawl.
Faced with the pending expiration of some of his grants, Phillips
began looking elsewhere for money. He said the idea to use the city’s
Measure WW funds came up during a brainstorming session with City
Councilwoman Lena Tam. (However, Tam said the club came to her with the
idea.) Phillips, who once sat on an East Bay Regional Park District
advisory committee, got an e-mail from its grants manager, Jeff
Rasmussen, indicating that it could. Tam put it on the council’s
agenda.
Tam said she thinks leveraging the city’s money into the Boys and
Girls Club is a good investment that could provide services for the
entire city — services she says its cash-starved Recreation and
Parks Department is struggling to provide. And Tam said giving the
money to the club for its West End facility will help correct an
inequity in the way regional park bond money was distributed in the
past. The vast majority of the city’s allotment from Measure AA —
a prior parks bond — was spent in the city’s more-affluent East
End, she said.
But park and open-space advocates said the city has its own needs,
and that the money can and should be used to prop up the city’s own
sagging parks and to create new ones along the estuary and the former
Belt Line property, which the city had just won the right to buy for
under $1 million, thanks largely to Sweeney’s efforts.
The Recreation and Park Commission’s original list, which had been
okayed by the city council, included renovations to recreation
buildings at three parks and resurfacing of a fourth park’s basketball
and tennis courts. The commission voted unanimously to oppose the
club’s funding request.
“We feel the parks and playgrounds and recreation programs should
benefit from that money,” commission chairwoman Terri Bertero Ogden
said. “We’re going to have to start closing down our parks if we don’t
start maintaining them.”
Phillips said the club won’t be able to move forward on its new
building — which its leaders feel will be the most important
building in town — without the city’s help. But even if the park
district’s bond counsel gives their blessing, it’s not yet clear how
the council will vote.
“Do we want to stretch the ballot measure?” asked Councilman Frank
Matarrese during a public hearing on the request. “Should we? If
something on the list is taken off, that project is not going to get
done. Does the Littlejohn recreation center not get built? We may not
like it, but it’s going to be a discussion of this or this, a city
asset or an asset that belongs to somebody else. As venerated as the
Boys and Girls Club is, was that the intent of the use of that
money?”
