The Mission Bay Park Committee (MBPC) has laid out the specifics of a plan designed to make the Mission Bay Aquatic Center (MBAC) more accessible to the public and more accountable to the city.
The aquatic center has operated on city-owned land rent free since 1975 and the facility’s original lease expired in 2000. The proposed lease would be for 15 years with an optional 10-year extension.
The board voted 6-4 in February to open the site up to other bidders.
“The Sports Center is an excellent amenity but I support the idea of an RFP (Request for Proposal) to get the most we can get,” MBPC District 2 Representative Judy Swink.
As Mission Bay Park revenues continue to go to the city’s dwindling general fund, committee members have made boosting lease revenue and revamping lease negotiations top priorities.
“The city has historically done a very, very poor job of overseeing their leases,” said Bob Ottilie, acting MBPC chairperson.
The committee’s recommendations to the city’s Real Estate Assets Department include a requirement that the city actively oversee the Mission Bay Aquatic Center’s lease. Furthermore, the city would receive rent from the facility at a rate competitive with other bidders.
Under the lease proposed by the MBAC, the aquatic center would pay up to $10,000 in rent to the city, or 10 percent of revenue generated by non-collegiate users.
Who is using the aquatic center ” and, more importantly, who is not ” concerns many board members who feel the facility caters to an elite group of college students and alumni, at the expense of young people and disabled users.
The center is home to the aquatic programs of both San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). SDSU spends about $160,000 a year and UCSD approximately $70,000 per year in subsidies. Student fees cover additional expenses.
The aquatic center is open to SDSU and UCSD students. Faculty, alumni and university staff also receive discounts on classes and equipment rental.
In response to a California Coastal Commission mandate that the public have access to the center, persons taking extension courses at SDSU or UCSD can also use the facility.
At the MBPC’s March meeting, committee member Rick Bussell of District 6 said that the board’s decision to open the site to other bidders wasn’t based on the quality of the center’s programs but on the continued subsidization of alumni who can afford to pay.
Youth groups make up one-third of the center’s more than 14,000 users, while alumni only account for 19 percent, according to MBAC director Glen Brandenburg.
Committee members questioned whether those percentages accurately reflect user hours.
“It (the MBAC) is an asset that belongs to all the people of San Diego,” Bussell said. “We want to make sure the resources are available to those who have a need.”
Under the committee’s proposal, the center would be “required to serve the aquatic needs of San Diego youth, students of San Diego County colleges and universities, San Diego nonprofits, the programs of primary and secondary schools, and the disabled.”
The measure is designed to eliminate the “continued practice of providing preferential treatment” to alumni, faculty and university staff, Ottilie said.
“They need to meet all those needs first,” Ottilie said. The committee further recommended that the aquatic center’s RFP bidding process contain a provision on education and outreach to all San Diego County youth groups and disabled communities.
At the MBPC’s regularly scheduled May meeting, about 50 supporters spoke on behalf of the aquatic center and the opportunities it gives to students, children and schools.
The goal, said Ottilie, is to “maximize outreach to all schools rather than some.”
Now that the city’s Real Estate Assets Department has received the MBPC’s recommendations, it will be up to them to move the suggestions up the city’s chain of command.
It could be awhile, however, before the Parks and Recreation Department and City Council weigh in on the MBAC lease because Mayor Jerry Sanders has declared a moratorium on all new leases until the city has hammered out a new lease policy.