Councilwoman Sherri Myers yesterday refused Mayor Ashton Hayward’s request to place on Thursday’s council agenda the bid award for the proposed Bayview Community Center after the council learned the cost had jumped another $1.9 million to a total of $10.15 million. The original budget for the center was $6 million when it was presented to the community a year ago.
Councilman Larry Johnson, whose district contains Bayview Park, said that he didn’t find the price tag for the new center unreasonable.
Myers, who has fought for $2 million to put sidewalks and street drainage on Burgess Road for eight years, disagreed. Her vote was critical because the add-on item needed five votes to put on the agenda and only five council members were present at the agenda review. She said that she had not had enough time to review the item.
Yesterday was the second time Mayor Hayward and City Administrator Eric Olson had blindsided the council with a last minute cost increase for the community center. In September, they presented a $2.25-million cost increase and the final drawings for the facility after 5 p.m. on the eve of the council’s last budget hearing. Neither the media or the public had time to review the plans, which limited the citizens’ ability to comment on the proposal.
A poll commissioned by Inweekly immediately after the city council vote for the project found 80 percent of city residents and 69 percent of District 4 residents, which includes Bayview Park, said the Hayward administration failed to give them sufficient notice to view the final plans and comment on them.
The Bayview Community Center will cost more than the combined costs of Woodland Heights and Theophalis May Community Centers, which cost $3 million each. Both centers had to be downscaled with the construction estimates came back above the budgets. The Sanders Beach-Corrine Jone Center costs $5.1 million, and it’s a third larger than the proposed Bayview Center.
If Myers doesn’t change her vote by Thursday, Olson has suggested the council waive its rules to allow the award to be put on the agenda. Another option is for the council to hold a special meeting later this meeting when Councilmen P.C. Wu and Brian Spencer are available. The council discontinued holding two monthly regular meetings three years.
