+ Dec. 8: City Staff Will Seek Council Approval To Spend $3.11 Million Total Cost For El Dorado Park Artificial Turf Soccer Field, Council Approval Would Launch Construction/Installation
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Dec. 8: City Staff Will Seek Council Approval To Spend $3.11 Million Total Cost For El Dorado Park Artificial Turf Soccer Field, Council Approval Would Launch Construction/Installation



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(Dec 1, 2020, 11:55 a.m.) -- On December 8, city management will ask the City Council to approve spending an estimated $3.11 million total cost for the controversial El Dorado Park artificial turf soccer field.

The agendizing memo co-signed by Public Works Director Eric Lopez and Parks/Rec Director Brent Dennis, states in its Fiscal Impact section:

FISCAL IMPACT

The total project cost, excluding maintenance, is estimated at $3,111,644 and includes the contract award amounts of $2,038,814 including contingency and the 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.

City staff's agendizing memo also implicitly acknowledges that although the project as currently proposed won't include field lights (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.]

The now stated total cost is over twice was taxpayers were initially told, growing during Councilwoman Mungo's term of office to exceed the artificial field's publicly represented $1.5 million cost (presented to LB's Parks/Rec. Commission on Nov. 21, 2019) and exceeding its Sept. 8, 2020 publicly budgeted FY 21 amount of $2.35 million (which city management increased a few months earlier by $850,000.) On Sept 8, Councilwoman Mungo joined her Council colleagues (9-0) in voting "yes" on the FY21 City budget that included $2.35 million artificial turf line item. Following the Council vote, city staff swiftly put the construction/installation project out to bid...and bids came in generally lower than expected

However city staff now acknowledges the artificial turf project's total cost will be more than three quarters of a million dollars more on top of the $2.35 million Councill budgeted sum, and seeks Council approval on Dec. 8 for total project costs of $3.11 million.

If a Council majority approves the $3.11 million spending item on Dec. 8, city management's memo says "the project is anticipated to be completed this fiscal year by Sept. 30. 2021."

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Taxpayers were initially told that the El Dorado artificial field's cost was covered within FY14 (Schipske) and FY 15 (Mungo) Cirty budgets to complete three artificial turf projects (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, sought 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 two other artificial turf fields (Admiral Kidd and Seaside Park)

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 approved adding $850,000 to the El Dorado Park field's FY21 budgeted cost, bringing it to $2.35 million, and received no publicly stated objections from Councilwoman Mungo or any other Council incumbents.

On Sept. 8, 2020, the Council voted 9-0 to approve $2.35 million budgeted cost as a line item within the City's overall FY21 spending budget.

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A City-published online brochure, linked by Mungo (but not discussed) in her Oct. 22 "Neighborly News." listed Measure A funded projects and cited the El Dorado Park artificial turf field's total cost as $3.11 million. That sum is consistent with the Dec. 8 Council agenda item seeking Council approval on Dec. 8 for a total sum of $3,111,644.

The sum is effectively citywide taxpayer money. Council members citywide have the choice on Dec. 8 of approving the $3.11 million spending item or not approving it and allocating the sum to City needs elsewhere.

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Specifically, the December 8 agenda item recommends the Council award a contract to Byrom-Davey, Inc. of San Diego, CA, for the construction of the artificial turf field in the amount of $1,323,115, with a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $132,312, for a total contract amount not to exceed $1,455,427.

The agenda item also recommends a Council resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute contracts with FieldTurf USA, of Calhoun, GA, on the same terms and conditions afforded to Region 4 Education Service Center Contract No. R162203, through Omnia Partners, for the purchase and installation of artificial turf for the Project, in the amount of $530,352, with a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $53,035, for a total contract amount not to exceed $583,387. It would also include eight years of maintenance for the artificial turf field in the amount of $144,000, with a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $14,400, for a total contract amount not to exceed $158,400 (roughly $19,800 per year) until the Omnia Partners contract expires on May 31, 2022, with the option to renew for as long as the Omnia Partners contract is in effect.

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City staff's Dec. 8 agendizing memo describes the project as follows:

The Project will replace the existing sports field located south of the Parks Administration Building with a 210-foot by 315-foot artificial turf sports field. The El Dorado Artificial Turf Field is the largest of the three originally planned fields, with a project area of 151,000 square feet (SF). The field itself is 24,000 SF larger than the field at Admiral Kidd Park. The Project will be constructed using cork and sand infill material, like the other completed artificial turf sports fields. Instead of using a full-length perimeter fence, the Project design has been revised to use natural boulders, which will help protect the new artificial turf field. The Project will also include ADA access to the adjacent parking lot and the sidewalk on Studebaker Road.

Additionally, the Project will increase playability as artificial turf fields are available year-round, which will help meet the huge demand for soccer fields since they will not have to be taken out of rotation as we currently do with natural turf fields. Natural turf fields have a six to eight-week renovation period where use is not scheduled to reestablish a healthy, durable strand of turf. Natural turf fields are also susceptible to reduced scheduled play for safety issues related to inclement weather. The Project will not include field lights at this time. Consistent with existing City practices, field permitting priority will be given to City programming, Long Beach Unified School District, and local youth leagues.

The $3.11 million total cost was reported (first again) by LBREPORT and The Beachcomber citing a City published brochure on Measure A funded projects. 5th dist. Councilwoman Stacy Mungo linked to the brochure in her Oct. 22 "Neighborly News" but didn't mention its listed $3.11 million total cost. She subsequently used her "Neighborly News" to tell recipients that "there continues to be a lot of misinformation about the turf field," charged that "a newspaper headline inaccurately published that the field would cost $3.1 million dollars":and said city staff indicated in an Oct. 22 Zoomed meeting that "construction" costs are $1.3 million, "Hopefully that paper will acknowledge their typo," Mungo wrote.

As Councilwoman Mungo either knew or should have known, the artificial turf project (like other major public projects) involves more than "construction costs." These include items such as construction management, labor compliance and project oversight (referenced in city staff's Fiscal Impact statement.) The artificial turf field was publicly budgeted by a Sept. 8, 2020 Council vote (in which Mungo voted "yes") for $2.35 million. The bid cost of construction and materials came in at roughly $2 million but that understates taxpayers' real total costs. The Dec. 8 Council agendized item, on which the Council will vote, shows the artificial turf project's total cost is $3.11 million.

LBREPORT.com is unaware of any instance in which Councilwoman Mungo used her "Neighborly News" newsletter to alert her constituents to the artifical turf field's increased cost from $1.5 million to $2.35 million (which she voted to support in the FY21 budget.) To date she has not retracted her "Neighborly News" claim that the $3.11 million total cost was "misinformation" or a media "typo". Nor has she used her "Neighborly News" to acknowledge the artificial turf project's $3.11 milion total cost is now agendized for a Dec. 8 decisional Council vote..


Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.


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