As we move within one year of the Nov. 6, 2012, election, we are waiting for the City Council to begin serious debate on a new pools ballot measure, as the Berkeley pool users community is proposing.
Since the Council's Sept. 27 work session on the pools and parks, Council members and City staff have been evaluating Berkeley's many needs and considering how to package them for an election. Council members are also considering several other options including a tax for street paving, watershed management (storm drains and creek restoration) and assorted parks/waterfront projects. City staff presentations on these topics can be seen here, here and here, respectively.
The Berkeley Pools Campaign is proposing a pools ballot measure similar to last year's Measure C, which received 62.2 percent of the vote, along with much-needed research into best practices at other Warm Pools and preparatory work for budgets and drawings.
The City Council has not yet set a date for discussion of election planning. We hope the Council will not wait until the last minute to do so.
Separate yet related to this process is a wild card: the Warm Pool lawsuit, which is being heard at the U.S. Ninth District Court in San Francisco. As we have said previously, the Berkeley Pools Campaign has no involvement whatsoever in this lawsuit and we take no position on it. However, the case certainly is of great relevance to the fate of Berkeley's Warm Pool as well as the outdoor pools, and for this reason we are tracking it closely.
On Nov. 10, the plaintiffs filed a motion (PDF viewable here) asking Judge Susan Illston to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the City and School District to keep the Warm Pool open and operating while the trial proceeds or until a similar public facility is provided as a replacement.
A declaration in support of the motion (PDF viewable here) was submitted by Dori Maxon, executive director of the Special Needs Aquatic Program (SNAP), which provides classes in the Warm Pool for children with disabilities. Her declaration explains how the Warm Pool's 92-degree water provides great physiological and psychological benefit to the disabled in general and to children in particular.
Judge Illston is expected to rule on the injunction request before the City's announced Dec. 15 closure date for the Warm Pool. The School District has announced that it will demolish the Old Gym, which contains the Warm Pool, in early 2012.
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