May 18, 2006

City council rejects proposed demolition of 10 community centers

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff writer

The city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to stop the proposed demolition of 10 community centers in response to a city staff proposal to save money through demolition of the centers and creative “re-use” of other centers with the help of nonprofit organizations.

The council backed Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez’s motion to not use a demolition list as city staff works to keep centers open. Staff will report back on June 6 with a report on how to keep the centers open for another six months and hopefully longer.

Councilman Chuck Reed had concerns that the “request for qualification” process, which screened interested nonprofits was too harsh. Even the nonprofits that seemed the most promising, Ken Yeager said, were backing out because of the high cost to operate the centers. Not including staff, maintenance and other costs for the North Side center were $171,000.

City Auditor Gerald Silva told the council that he did not believe that the cuts would help save as much money as city staff had advertised. Many of the centers already use nonprofits, are open few hours, and have few programs. Councilwoman Nancy Pyle said there wasn’t enough information on the financial aspects of the problem for her to make a decision.

There were concerns that the Meadowfaire Community Center in one of the oldest neighborhoods in east San Jose, would be closed while ready volunteers stood by. The president for the Meadowfaire Community Association said she had five volunteers ready to be fingerprinted and do whatever it took to keep the center open.

Councilman Dave Cortese said he personally knew of several nonprofits who may be interested in the center and wasn’t sure that the city had done a thorough enough job of reaching out to them.

A president of one of the nonprofits interested in operating a community center in the North San Jose area was outraged at what he called the dishonest process engaged in by city staff. He said his nonprofit was not given the chance to be a part of the process and was outraged that while community centers were closing in poorer neighborhoods Almaden just got a brand new “lavish Taj Mahal” of a community center.

Speaker after speaker expressed similar grief over the possible demolition of the centers where their kids go every day after school and stay out of trouble and out of gangs. Many said they had just found out that morning about the plan to demolish the centers they use everyday.

However, it appears the general public weren’t the only ones surprised by the demolition plans. Councilwoman Linda LeZotte also said she had not heard about demolishing the centers until she received a memo from staff earlier that morning.

Councilman Cortese and some public speakers suggested “mothballing” some of the centers until nonprofits could be brought in to run the centers.

One speaker suggested that if the city wanted nonprofits to buy the tall order of running the centers, they should be given much more freedom in running them.