By TRUMAN O’BRIEN and CAROL IRELAND-MCLEAN
For The Beachcomber

First, the good news.

As you read last week, the Vashon Park District has finally managed to get the VES athletic field improvement project to a point where it can fulfill its purpose: to provide improved space for kids to play sports on Vashon.

There won’t be any lights or a concession stand — at least not yet. There also won’t be permanent bathrooms, and the pre-fab toilets that have just been purchased (and paid for with a five-year loan of   $40,455 at $781 per month) won’t be hooked up to the sewer line that was installed with taxpayer money — there’s no money left for the connection fee. The commissioners voted to borrow money for these toilets, when the district can’t find the funds to open and operate the toilets they already have at Jensen Point or the Village Green daily. They are already discussing if, and how, to limit access to these restrooms, perhaps by putting them behind a locked fence.

But the fields are usable, so congratulations to the district commissioners for getting the project to this point. It sure hasn’t been easy. If the commissioners wish to take a victory lap for their performance, they’re welcome to it, short and undeserved as it may be, because the bad news is that these fields come at quite a price.

The project, two years late, is still incomplete. We may or may not get further grant money from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office for the project, but whether we do or not, the park district budget will continue to be impacted by this project for years to come.

The fact is, if the park district ends the year in the black as General Manager Elaine Ott has predicted, it will be because of some very fancy financial footwork. By delaying payment or borrowing to cover several capital expenses (bathrooms, lights, parking, the sewer line), the district bought some badly needed breathing room, but that’s all it is. The reason there’s no money for a permanent bathroom, or a sewer connection, is that, once again, the VES project has gone significantly over budget in a very short period of time.

In 2008, the commissioners thought they’d need $1,138,876 to complete the project, of which only $125,000 would come from our voter-approved maintenance and operations levy. To date, more than $1.8 million has been spent, of which $1.5 million will come from our levy. As just one example of significant cost overruns, Mike Mattingly, rehired after overseeing the first problem-plagued phase, originally estimated that his salary this year would be $17,000. He has now collected $30,500, with more to come.

Maintenance on buildings at Point Robinson has been pushed back for the third summer, and park district operational expenses are now managed by short-term debt. This is the equivalent of living off your credit cards and not changing the oil in your car because you spent the money on video games and candy. The picture isn’t rosy, and the prognosis isn’t good either. The commissioners have gutted the district to pay for this project out of pocket and left the district financially vulnerable.

Commissioner David Hackett presented a “white paper” last October for his vision of what the district should be — to provide only facilities and fields with no programs, no scheduling of programs for anyone and minimal staff and maintenance. By stripping the district of all available cash to support the field improvement project, he has pretty much brought his vision to reality. One of the results is that the district no longer has staff who can check program or coaches’ insurance forms to confirm that the district is named as additionally insured. This alone places us all at tremendous risk.

Now, Vashon may also be at risk of losing the Tramp Harbor fishing pier because of the state Department of Natural Resources’ push to remove old creosote pilings from Puget Sound. Whoever owns the pier will be responsible for paying to have the pilings removed (and according to King County tax records, that’s VPD). It seems likely that this big and unforeseen bill will be headed our way soon. And that, my friends, will put the park district in a very bad financial spot indeed. There is, by commissioner Bill Ameling’s own admission, no money to take that dock down. And sadly, there’s surely no money to rebuild it.

We certainly don’t wish to be purveyors of doom, but we believe all of us had better start paying attention. Rather than our commissioners congratulating themselves, we think a better and more productive response would be for them to undertake a thorough examination of how they managed to overspend their budget to this extent. It sure would be nice to know where the heck that money went, wouldn’t it? Maybe we could learn something that might be useful in the future.

Our dear little park district is on very shaky ground.

— Carol Ireland McLean and Truman O’Brien are former Vashon Park District commissioners.