The Vashon Park District commissioners passed the district’s 2015 budget at their meeting last week and are expected to vote next week on the upcoming levy and on proposed changes to user fees for park and school facilities.
Prior to voting on the $1.1 million spending plan, which the board had finalized last month, commissioner Scott Harvey submitted a new proposal to change user fees, asking to suspend the rules and vote that evening, as changes would affect the budget. The board declined to do so and passed the budget 3-1-1, with Doug Ostrom abstaining and Scott Harvey voting no.
The user fee proposal the board is slated to vote on next week is similar to the proposal Harvey submitted in December and contains proposed fee increases for using the island’s athletic fields as well as school gyms, classrooms and meeting rooms. It also calls for decreases in fees for using Paradise Ridge, Ober Park and the Vashon Pool. Doug Ostrom suggested dropping two elements that would have reduced fees at the pool, saying they were causing too much contention, but his motion was not seconded.
Mark Nassutti, one of the members of the Friends of the Vashon Pool to attend the meeting, said he and others in the group know of no one who finds the current fees unreasonable and that they would prefer that district funds go to support a year-round pool season, a long-standing community desire.
“That is where we would like your support,” he told the board.
Harvey’s proposal has its roots in an ad hoc finance committee report the board passed and sent to the state auditor in July, indicating part of its plan to restore its financial footing would be to increase fees. This plan, however, would reduce revenue by about $5,500, a move Harvey said the district can afford.
In recent months, Harvey has said he believes some fees must increase and some must decrease, creating more parity between user groups regarding how much they pay the district compared to related district expenses. So far, Harvey’s efforts have received support from Ostrom, but other board members have been critical. At the last meeting in a sometimes heated exchange, Joe Wald, who was elected chair, and Bill Ameling, who was part of the subcommittee that called for increasing fees, strongly criticized the proposal.
“To me it is political bullshit to punish the users,” Ameling said, referring primarily to those who use the sports fields.
Later he indicated he will propose to have the director set fees.
“The board should not manage fees,” he said. “It is her budget to balance.”
After the meeting, Elaine Ott, the district’s director, said the responsibility to set fees has been hers all along, and changes she might request are to be recommended during the budget process. She added that the current fee structure is working smoothly.
“My position is I do not want to change fees,” she said. “I have not proposed fee changes because I do not feel they are necessary.”
She noted that wholesale changes would require considerable administrative work, including changing the district’s forms, website and database. Additionally, she said, if she were to propose changes, there would be specific reasons for doing so.
However, she added, board members have the right to raise the conversation, and Harvey is trying to address the issue of fairness in a broad manner.
“I don’t fault him for his efforts in that context,” she said.
In other business, commissioners agreed to put a four-year levy before voters this year to replace the district’s expiring levy. The levy will be at the same rate — 50 cents per $1,000 — with the election to be April 28. Next week’s vote will make that official.
The park board will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Ober Park.
