Poway council decides how to spend surplus funds
City Council members have nailed down how they would like to spend about $22 million in general fund reserves that have been designated for use.
Meeting in a workshop session Tuesday night, the council informally endorsed a staff report that has $9.2 million of the amount going toward construction of the proposed Mickey Cafagna Community Center in Community Park. The center will replace both the old community center and the senior center and is estimated to cost about $19.2 million to build. That figure includes proposed upgrades to the neighboring swim center.
The balance of the money needed will come from the city selling certificates of participation. The financing method was successfully used to build both the City Hall and sheriff’s station.
Mayor Steve Vaus and Councilman Jim Cunningham both stressed that certificates are nothing like the controversial capital appreciation bonds used by the Poway Unified School District to finance campus renovations. Cunningham suggested the city take steps to make the process transparent to residents so no questions will be raised.
Three members of the public, Joy Fodar, Richard Spilton and Mark Barry, spoke regarding the community center during the workshop. Each suggested the city might be better off financially by remodeling the existing community center and senior center, and expressed concerns over the projected annual costs of proceeding with the certificates.
At the urging of Cunningham, the council increased the amount of reserves to be earmarked for the upgrading of sports fields at Tierra Bonita Elementary and Twin Peaks Middle schools, from $750,000 to $1 million. Representatives from the city and the school district will begin talks next month on a field improvement plan being advocated by local youth sports groups. A scaled-down version of the project now has a price tag of $4.5 million.
Approved surplus allocations include: $2.8 million to boost an underfunded employee pension plan, $2.6 million for expansion of a utility line undergrounding project along Espola Road, and $2.1 million to purchase from the defunct redevelopment agency a 5-acre new car parking lot in the business park. The lot holds about 700 cars and is used by the Poway Road auto dealers. The city is negotiating with the dealers for them to pay rent for use of the lot. Through the post-redevleopment revenue allocation system the city will receive back about $400,000 of the purchase price.
A final allocation of $50,000 will be used to repair and upgrade the Iron Mountain Trail.
Last summer the council decided that the general fund reserves should equal about 45 percent of annual operating expenditures. To do that will require keeping about $18 million in the fund.
At the time of the 45-percent decision, the city’s general fund reserves stood at $33 million, or about 82 percent of annual operating costs. It had been built up over the city’s 35-year history.
