| (Dec 8, 2020, 9:45 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com provides for comparison below salient recent public actions/statements by City of Long Beach management and by 5th district Councilwoman Stacy Mungo regarding an artificial turf soccer field proposed for El Dorado Park West (along Studebaker Rd. between Willow St. and the Parks/Rec HQ building.)
On November 30 in the 8 p.m. hour, the agenda item, accompanied by a city management memo (signed by LB's Direc6ors of Public Works, Parks Rec and approved by City Manager) appeared on the City Clerk's website. At some point by December 4, the Fiscal Impact section was revised and now appears in revised form on the City Clerk's website. However both memos' Fiscal Impact sections indicate that the project's total cost is $3.11 million. This is consistent with a $3.11 million total cost shown in a City of Long Beach Measure A brochure. Councilwoman Mungo hyperlinked to the brochure in a newsletter promoting an October Zoom meeting on El Dorado Park projects during which neither she nor Mr. Lopez mentioned the $3.11 million total sum in their presentations. Councilwoman Mungo has since contended that the $3.11 million sum was a "typo." For the record, as of dawn Dec. 8, $3.11 million remains city staff's publicly represented total project cost in both its original and revised Fiscal Impact statements. Amnesia file: Taxpayers were initially told that the El Dorado artificial field's cost was covered within FY14 (Schipske) and FY 15 (Mungo) City budgets to complete three artificial turf fields (Admiral Kidd, Seaside Park and El Dorado Park). On November 21 2019, city staff told LB's Parks/Recreation Commission that $1.5 million was available to cover the El Dorado Park field's cost (excluding maintenance.) But internal city records, obtained by LBREPORT.com under the CA Public Record Act, show that within weeks city staff realized the $1.5 million sum was much as $900,000 short, consumed by installation of the Admiral Kidd and Seaside Park fields. In a Feb. 11, 2020.email, then-acting City Manager Tom Modica told subordinate staff: "This project goes back several years -- it was originally awarded funding, then that funding was used to fund the other artificial turf fields as they were project ready, and now are back to finding funding to honor that original commitment and complete the project..." Mr. Modica added $850,000 to the El Dorado Park field's FY21 budgeted cost, bringing it to $2.35 million, which the Council voted 9-0 to approve in its Sept. 8, 2020 vote to approve a FY21 City's spending budget.] On Sept. 8, 2020, the Council voted (without dissent) to a approve the $2.35 million line item for the El Dorado Park artificial turf field as part of the City's FY21 budhet. City staff then swiftly put the project out to bid and received bids lower than had been anticipated. In its Dec. 8 proposed Council action, City staff recommends approval of bids for construction/installation plus materials of the artificial turf field totaling slightly over $2 million. Councilwoman Mungo tells recipients of her Dec. 6 newsletter that the sum is $1.85 million. She does this by omitting city management's 10% budgeted contingency cost (common for major City of LB public works projects) of $185,347. Based on the Fiscal Impact text for the Dec. 8 Council item (initial and revised texts), a roughly $760,000 additional sum brings the project's total cost to $3.11 million. The sum will be for [revised Fiscal Impact text] "design, construction, construction management, labor compliance, and project oversight. Total project costs are supported by $761,644 in FY 14 one-time funds along with $2,350,000 Measure A funds that are budgeted in the Capital Projects Fund Group in the Public Works Department. Sufficient appropriation is budgeted in the Capital Projects Fund Group in the Public Works Department for the capital costs." [Scroll down for further.] |
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In other words, although the Council will vote on Dec. 8 on whether to accept bids totaling a little over $2 million (portrayed by Councilwoman Mungo as $1.85 million), the Council's vote will tacitly approve city staff spending the full $2.35 million that the Council approved by its Sept. 8, 2020 FY21 City budget vote PLUS about $760,000 more budgeted to Public Works that could otherwise be used to fund other Public Works items in Council districts citywide (including CD 5.) Councilwoman Mungo's Dec. 6 newsletter statement that she is "So glad to see this improvement has come in well under the original estimated and inflated cost of $3.1 million" is unintelligible since senior city management has TWICE publicly stated that it plans to spend over $1 million ABOVE the bid price to cover for the project's $3.11 total cost. Councilwoman Mungo's Dec. 6 statement adds: Please note that we did confirm with our Public Works team that the initial posted agenda item contained an error in the fiscal impact statement regarding the total cost. They have committed to correcting it before consideration Tuesday." Councilwoman Mungo's Dec. 6 statement leaves unclear whether the "correction" pertains to the already once-revised city management memo or indicates some subsequent revision will occur not yet revealed publicly (as of midafternoon Dec. 8.)
City staff's agendizing memo also implicitly acknowledges that although the project as currently proposed won't include field lights (strongly opposed by neighbors), these may indeed be added in the future. The Dec. 8 agendizing memo states that the "Project will not include field lights at this time." [emphasis added.] Veteran park protection advocate Ann Cantrell (who supports using El Dorado park's natural turf instead of plastic turf) has also raised an issue -- not denied by city staff to date -- that using the artificial turf field will require consuming costly potable water instead of now-reclaimed water, imposing additional fiscal (and arguably environmentally unfriendly) taxpayer costs. A majority of Councilmen citywide, not Councilwoman Mungo alone, will decide whether to approve the El Dorado Park artificial turf field in their Dec. 8 vote.
Dec. 8, 1:55 p.m. Text previously published by LBREPORT.com from Councilwoman Mungo's Dec. 6 newsletter reiterated nearer the top of our news story. Councilwoman Mungo's Dec. 6 newsletter indicates city staff will make some additional "correction" to the $3.11 million sum but leaves unclear if that has already been done in revised agendizing memo or remains to occur prior to the Council meeting...
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