Below is a list of questions and answers about Measure C, our pools ballot measure in the election of June 8, 2010. Although it received "only" 62.2 percent voter approval, just shy of the two-thirds required, the details of Measure C are very useful to help understand the results and how we can move forward to another ballot measure in the November 2012 election.
How can you propose adding to the tax burden when the economy is struggling and the city is forced to make budget cuts across the board?
Simply: it’s now or never. Two of the city’s four municipal pools are scheduled to close permanently in the next year. Willard Pool, which is decaying and decrepit, is scheduled to close in July, 2010 [update -- its last day was June 30], and the indoor Warm Pool — which serves seniors, disabled adults and children — will be demolished in late 2011 or early 2012. Because of the recession and worsening budget cuts, the city has no money in its General Fund to repair and fully operate the pools. This budget crisis is expected to get tighter in future years, which means additional budget cuts will put further pressure on the two remaining pools, at King and West Campus. Only through Measure C can the funds be raised to rebuild the pools and keep them operating during tight economic times in years ahead.
Can the city afford a new bond measure?
Because of the city’s cautious fiscal management and its relatively low level of bonded debt, Berkeley has a Standard & Poor’s bond credit rating of AA+, putting Berkeley in the highest 1 percent of cities nationwide. This is a vote of the highest confidence in Berkeley’s ability to assume new debt responsibly.
How did Measure C come about?
Measure C is the result of years of community organizing and public process. The city’s aging pools have long had worsening maintenance problems, and budget pressures have forced reductions in hours. Swimmers have organized year after year, showing up at City Council meetings in their wheelchairs, in swim goggles and swim caps to ask for more funding for the pools. Swimmers even held swimathons to raise money for pools operations, but the pools’ decay continued and the budget pressures increased. In 2008, the City Council and School board formed a 10-member citizen Pools Task Force to study the problem and recommend solutions. The Task Force held many public meetings around the city, and in May, 2009, the task force released the Pools Master Plan, which recommended a bond measure for the pools. In February, 2010, after more public input and debate, the City Council voted unanimously to place Measure C on the June 8 election ballot.
I thought we voted money for the Warm Pool several years ago. What happened to that money?
In the November 2000 election, 77 percent of Berkeley voters approved Measure R, a $3.25 million bond measure to remodel the existing Warm Pool in Berkeley High School’s Old Gym. Measure R was part of an agreement between the City and the School District in which the City would pay for rehabbing the pool and the School District would pay for rehabbing the rest of the Old Gym building. However, the deal collapsed soon after the election because the School District found that the seismic retrofitting costs for the Old Gym would be much higher than expected, and long-term projections for the overcrowded High School campus showed that extra space was desperately needed for additional student facilities. So the School Board voted unanimously to demolish the Old Gym and build a new gym/classroom building exclusively for students. Measure R bonds were never sold, taxpayers never paid a cent, and Measure R can no longer be used.
Can’t the Warm Pool at Berkeley High School be renovated in its current location?
No. The School Board voted unanimously to demolish the Old Gym and remove the Warm Pool from the High School campus. This decision has been extremely popular among High School students, faculty, parents, and the broader Berkeley parent community because of strong dissatisfaction about the extreme overcrowding on the High School campus. The School Board members say they are dead set in their decision and there is no chance they will change their minds. Demolition is scheduled for early 2012. The School Board has provided extra land at West Campus – which is owned by the School District – to allow construction of the Warm Pool next to the existing outdoor pool.
How much will homeowners pay if the bond issue passes?
Annual cost will be $38 for a house of 1,000 square feet, and $70 for a house of 1900 square feet (the citywide average). For comparison purposes, $70 per year is the same as $5.83 per month, or the cost of one night out for pizza and the movies for a family of four.
How much will renters pay if the bond issue passes?
Zero. Landlords will not be allowed to make any automatic rent increase. Any rent increases on existing renters would have to be approved by the Berkeley Rent Board.
What about the warm pool at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA? Can’t it serve Warm Pool users?
The YMCA’s 92-degree warm pool is only 3.5 feet deep and thus cannot serve the disabled and others who need a range of depths. It is also too small, and YMCA administrators say their pools are near maximum user capacity and cannot handle a significant increase. Also, parking near the YMCA is extremely limited and a large percentage of Warm Pool users need nearby disabled parking.
What about UC Berkeley pools?
Despite the claims of Measure C opponents, UC Berkeley has no Warm Pool. Its 81-degree outdoor pools are open to the public only during limited hours, and they do not have the capacity to absorb a major influx of city users. Berkeley’s municipal pools are located in the main residential areas of Berkeley and are convenient to nearly everyone in Berkeley neighborhoods.
What about the Berkeley High School competition pool? Couldn’t it serve the needs of Barracudas and Masters teams?
The Berkeley High School competition pool is solidly booked with the school's own aquatics programs every weekday afternoon after classes, and at many other hours also. It has no capacity for use by non-school teams.
Many Warm Pool users are not from Berkeley. Why shouldn’t this be a regional facility, with funding from surrounding cities, like the Joint Powers Agreement that is paying for the Gilman Sports Fields?
A Joint Powers Agreement might seem like a good idea, but it was tried and didn't work. City officials negotiated with neighboring cities to try to persuade them to contribute funds for the Warm Pool. Their answer was a flat “no.” So like previous years, when Berkeley showed its leadership by creating the Senior Centers and the Ed Roberts Campus by itself, it’s up to Berkeley voters to provide needed facilities for our elderly and disabled. Under Measure C, the new Warm Pool (and the other outdoor pools) will charge higher admission prices to non-Berkeley residents, so they will not be subsidized.
The Warm Pool is 92 degrees, which is much warmer than the 81-degree temperature of the outdoor pools. How unusual is this? Is such warm water OK for most people?
The 92-degree water is optimal for many elderly people, the disabled, infants and small children, and beginning swim instruction. The Berkeley Pools Task Force, which was convened by the City Council and School Board and functioned from September 2008 to May 2009, examined aquatics industry standards and guidelines for water temperature for the Warm Pool, and eventually recommended a 92-degree Warm Pool.
The Bay Area's two largest warm pools -- the Betty Wright Swim Center in Palo Alto and the Timpany Center in San Jose -- are 93 degrees and 92 degrees, respectively, and they offer a wide variety of programming for all ages, early swim classes and sessions for the elderly and disabled. The pool at the Janet Pomeroy Center in San Francisco is kept 90-93 degrees, with programming for children and adults. The Downtown Berkeley YMCA holds all its parent-child swim lessons and its preschool swim lessons in its small, 92-degree wading pool. The American Swim Academy has four 92-degree pools in Fremont, Newark, Livermore and Dublin, which offer the whole gamut of swim classes for toddlers and children.
Are there other 92-degree warm pools in the Bay Area as large as Berkeley’s?
The gold standard of warm pools is the highly successful Betty Wright Swim Center in Palo Alto. Its pool is 93 degrees and it measures 2,940 square feet, about 30 percent larger than Berkeley's current and future Warm Pool. It is open 75 hours per week – four times as many as Berkeley’s current Warm Pool – and has a budget more than three times higher than the projected budget for Berkeley’s future Warm Pool. The Betty Wright Swim Center is part of Abilities United, a 42-year-old, multi-services center for the disabled in Palo Alto that receives heavy funding from the state government and Silicon Valley corporations. This long track record could not be replicated overnight in Berkeley, but it shows that Berkeley’s plan for a more modest Warm Pool has great potential for future fundraising and overall success once it is built.
The Timpany Center in San Jose has a warm pool that is 92 degrees, 2,550 square feet. It is run by the Kinesiology Department of San Jose State University, and it offers swim lessons for children, plus a variety of programs for the elderly and disabled.
Why do the pools have such limited hours? Will Measure C increase the time pools are open?
Measure C will increase operating hours and programs overall by a projected 25 percent. Measure C will improve the facilities themselves and will add features for less-well-served groups such as young children and competitive swimmers. This should bring in more users and, we hope, even more extended hours. Without Measure C, budget cuts will inevitably force more cutbacks in pools hours and programs.
Can we get an alternative to chlorine for Berkeley pools? I’m concerned about health risks.
We are looking into non-chlorine alternatives because we, too, are concerned about the reported effects of chlorine on allergies and asthma. Our main focus now is to pass this ballot measure, but as pool users, we want our pools to be as safe and pleasant as they can be.
Will the new construction use solar and other green technologies? Can pools costs be lowered this way?
The Warm Pool will have a micro-turbine combined heat and power system (hot water cogeneration), and all the pools will have the latest energy-saving versions of pumps, heaters, filters, automated pool coverings and building design. The Warm Pool building will have a large solar PV installation on the roof, and will be mostly solar powered. At the other pools, solar panels will be added. See the Energy Efficiency page of our website for more information.
I heard that a swimmers group opposed the last school ballot measure. I have children and don’t want to support a group that opposes our public schools.
No one involved in our Berkeley Pools Campaign opposed Measure A, the schools parcel tax in 2006. A tiny handful of other pools advocates, none of whom is involved in our campaign in any way, has fought the School District over many issues, including the 2006 schools measure. In contrast, our campaign strongly supports the schools, and Measure C would give much-improved pools to King and Willard Middle Schools and would support after-school swim programs. For all these reasons, Measure C has been endorsed by the School Board, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the Berkeley PTA Council, and they are actively working in support of our campaign.
Who is the opposition to Measure C?
The principal opponents of Measure C are BASTA and Berkeley Can Do Better, two groups that represent Berkeley's faction of ideological conservatives (yes, they exist even in Berkeley!). These two organizations also opposed the schools parcel tax in the November 2006 election, the November 2008 branch libraries bond and emergency services parcel tax, and Measures H and I, the schools ballot measures in the November 2010 election. In all of these campaigns, they used the same empty claims -- that the city has too many facilities and services, and that any needed repairs could be paid for just by "eliminating waste" in the regular city budget. All of these ballot measures wound up winning landslide victories, showing that Berkeley residents want to preserve and improve our beloved city rather than letting it crumble and wither.
Measure C's opponents are saying Measure C would increase pools maintenance costs by $3.5 million per year, with a further annual increase for inflation. Is this true?
It's completely false. Measure C provides $980,000 annually for programs, staffing, hours and maintenance, adjusted for inflation, largely to offset projected budget cuts. Measure C’s total expenditure by 2040 is capped at $3.5 million, most of which is the normal repayment of bond principal and interest.
How would Measure C affect the city’s total annual expenditure on the pools?
The answer is complicated, but the short version is that the city’s aquatics system’s net expenses will rise about $463,000 from the FY2009 level, in inflation-adjusted terms. This amount includes about $250,000 that is targeted for a net increase in hours and programs at all the pools, plus increased operational costs.
The longer version is this: The City Manager has estimated that under Measure C, FY2013 net expenses for aquatics will be $1,613,000. In comparison, FY2009’s net expenses were $812,783, not counting the $250,000 paid by the School District (for water, utilities and maintenance at the Warm Pool and water at West Campus) that the city must now pay from its own budget. When adjusted for an expected 2 percent rate of inflation, the FY2009 total expense for aquatics becomes about $1,150,000 in 2013 dollars. Hence, Measure C would result in an inflation-adjusted increase from $1,150,000 to $1,613,000, or $463,000. Of this amount, $213,000 is caused by the increased cost of the new and remodeled facilities (including full maintenance to ensure that the new and rehabbed facilities are kept in top condition and do not suffer the common practice of deferred maintenance of past years), and $250,000 is for additional hours and programs at all pools.
The City Manager has projected that because of citywide budget cuts, the city’s General Fund contribution to aquatics will be slashed from the FY2009 level to merely $635,000 in FY2013. Measure C provides $978,000 annually (to be adjusted for inflation) to supplement the $635,000 from the General Fund, to equal the total annual cost of $1,613,000. Of the Measure C funding, $728,000 is to fill the funding gap, and $250,000 is to provide a net increase in hours and programs at all pools.
The City Manager’s calculations were deliberately conservative and did not include any significant increase in revenues at the pools. However, it is reasonable to expect that the new and rehabbed pools will attract many more users, including medical and physical therapy referrals at the Warm Pool. These increased revenues could result in further increases in hours and programs.
I notice that the official Measure C description on the ballot refers to creation of "Community Facilities District #2." What's that all about?
Measure C is structured as a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District. This is unlike most previous ballot measures in Berkeley, which have been either a General Obligation bond that pays only for capital costs (like the branch libraries measure that was approved by voters in 2008) or a parcel tax that pays only for operating expenses (like the emergency services measure approved by voters in 2008). A Mello-Roos CFD, in effect, is both a General Obligation bond measure and a parcel tax, paying for both the capital expenses (rebuilding the pools) and operating expenses (keeping them open). Given the city's outlook of worsening budget cuts in coming years, it is necessary to combine these two elements to ensure that Berkeley residents are able to enjoy the pools that they have paid to rebuild. For more information on Mello-Roos CFDs, see here. Berkeley's Mello-Roos CFD #1 was created by Measure Q, approved by voters in the November 2000 election, and it pays for emergency services equipment at the fire and police stations.
