Fees for the Las Positas tennis courts at Elings Park will reportedly jump from $155 in 2012 to $495 in 2013, making them the highest public tennis court fees anywhere in the United States.
The tripling of the tennis court fees has many residents fuming, and pointing the finger at the Nancy Rapp, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Santa Barbara who purportedly pulls in a cool $158,000 in annual salary. The problem goes beyond the Parks and Recreation Department and to a lease with the for-profit Elings Park group; however, The Las Positas Tennis Group is taking matters into their own hands, urging the Santa Barbara City Council to get involved to maintain low cost, public access. The group has also put together an online petition… for more information about saving pubic tennis at Las Positas click on the image, above left, and/or CLICK HERE to sign the petition.
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Non-issue. If there ever was a poster child for Pay to Play, this is it.
After more than five months of discussions with a disgruntled group of Las Positas tennis players, the Elings Park Foundation announced this week that its previously proposed fees have been reduced by 25-39 percent, and that the hourly use fee has been reduced to $8 per day.
$8 per day is the highest rate in the nation, apparently.
No wonder there’s never any one there.
Is that $8 a person or $8 a court per hour?
From City of Scottsdale, AZ website:
Court Fees (Evening fee begins at 6pm daily):
Singles Tennis
$4 Day per 1.5 hours
$8 Eve per 1.5 hours*
Doubles Tennis
$8 Day per 1.5 hours
$12 Eve per 1.5 hours*
Rates seem very reasonable. Very little is free in the world.
Tennis players should be glad they don’t get charged as much as the city golf course, considering I believe the Las Positas courts were facing a million dollar refurbishment challenge (Check my facts on this one).
Parks and Recreation as a city service always seems to get the short end, which is too bad. And no, paying Nancy Rapp $150,000 a year is not too much for the nature of her job. Paying city and county line employees on average $100,000 a year is where we need to be drawing the line, which is why so many present services are getting cut – to pay for pensions and benefits past city councils awarded so freely.
But good managerial talent at the top is worth it. Nacy takes her job seriously and is doing a great job under the present circumstances. One more department that has to be all things to all people and in a town where too many young people still claim they are bored and there is nothing to do. (!)
Personally I would like to see more city resources go into Parks and Rec and would love to see a whole range of recreational activities be free for our residents. But prior city councils have put far more emphasis elsewhere, along with granting unsustainable employee benefits, so P&R as well as city infrastructure maintenance unfortunately now have to take a back seat until we elect a new city council majority with a different set of priorities.
I also think it is time to audit the Integrated Pest Management program demanded by the past city councils to see if there has been any measurable benefit for the additional hours staff now have to put in to keep an acceptable level of park maintenance. An area where the theory is nice, but without any way of measuring whether it has been objectively effective this would be one area where maybe costs savings and shifting to other P&R needs could take place.
At some point, i hope a new city council majority can stand back and take a good look at what it eating holes in the city budget and with new eyes re-examine what the comprehensive needs of the city should be. We are built out and planned out. Maybe we don’t need more innovation in environmental services, or planning or transportation or subsidized housing or vagrant services. Maybe we need to assess how we can best take care of what we have right here and right now.
Does this mean, Jibber-jabber, that you are claiming that “line employees” at the city and county are really paid an average of $100K per year?
Also feel free to define how no pesticides applied on the city parks is a “measurable benefit”.
SOURCE: KSBY:
Mike Stoker, former county supervisor, said, “In recent years, the cost of the average county employee has increased dramatically.” The group of former supervisors told the crowd in 2007-2008, the average cost of a county employee was around $91,000.
Compare that to 2011-2012, it’s projected to be about $129,000. Stoker said, “It’s gone up during this recession when in the private sector there were decreases to most employees.”
A quote from a biased and motivated Mike Stoker from five years ago is the source of these facts?
SOURCE: NOOZHAWK – CITY OF SANTA BARBARA
Beyond each municipal employee’s base salary, which ranges from $3,000 to $20,000 monthly, Santa Barbara provides special pay, health plans, workers’ compensation, vacation time, retirement benefits and pensions.
Nonunionized staff receive comparable benefits to union staff, but their cuts or concessions come without negotiations.
Benefits include medical plans, life insurance coverage and possible monetary allowances for mortgage loans, uniforms, tools, safety equipment and transportation.
Paid time off includes jury duty, holidays, sick leave and vacation time depending on the employee’s years with the city. The allotted time off ranges from 96 to 224 hours per year.
With the exception of hourly workers, all employees can cash out their benefit plans to a certain degree, including vacation time, sick leave and benefits.
Wow! If we are counting up all those benefits, retirement savings, holidays, sick days, and insurance, the city of Santa Barbara don’t pay much when compared with other cities and corporations if all these kinds of expenses are converted into cash equivalent value.
What is the average total compensation, and what is the median compensation? And for how many different pay classifications?
A $40,000 a year public pension is the equivalent of having $1 million in the bank earning 4% interest.
Typically the value of collected benefits add an additional $10,000 to a public employee’s salary per year, but the benefits count as tax-free compensation.
Since you claim other cities pay more than Santa Barbara, what do know that other cities pay? Please do not include Stockton or San Bernardino.
Corporations make products or provide services to raise revenues. Municipalities tax in order to raise theirs. Are you suggesting higher taxes, Mr/Ms Right?
Disliking the source of the county information for the average county employee compensation does not discredit the nature of the information. It would make no sense for Stoker to lie about this during a campaign because this is public record – go to the state Controllers Office or the county itself for the raw data.
Most public employment today is at-will. Monetize job security and regulatory protections as well when comparing public employees to the more typical at-will status of private industry or corporate employment.
Correction: most public employment is NOT at-will. Job security in the public employment sector is heavily protected by aggressive public employee union bargaining and public-union friendly legislation and regulations coming from Sacramento.
Published in Daily Sound: FEBRUARY 2011 – from SB County Taxpayers Assn:
QUOTE:
“Here is the letter that was sent by a portion of the former county supervisors to the current county supervisors on this issue:
Hon. Board of Supervisors
County of Santa Barbara
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
As individuals who formerly have held the positions you now occupy, we appreciate the financial difficulties facing Santa Barbara County at this time.
For this reason, we absolutely cannot support the financial priorities of the County of Santa Barbara for fiscal year 2011-12.
The County is facing a deficit of $55 million or more in its general fund budget, approximately one-quarter of the total general fund budget. Moreover, pension costs are projected to account for approximately one-third of the fiscal year 2011-12 general fund budget.
In these circumstances, to grant raises to county employees of from anywhere from 6 percent to 14 percent would be a great mistake and would threaten the quality of life and public safety in Santa Barbara County.
It also would result in the loss of county jobs. In recent years, the cost of the average county employee has increased dramatically, from $91,000 in 2007-08 to a projected $129,000 in 2011-12. This cannot continue.
We call upon you to negotiate with county employee bargaining units to rescind all raises already given or scheduled for 2010-11, 2011-12, and beyond. Santa Barbara County simply cannot afford any raises for employees at this time.
Thank you for your consideration.”
UNQUOTE