Tomlinson says she’ll put fully funded aquatic center in her budget

After months of Columbus Council being unable to decide how the beleaguered Columbus Aquatic Center would be operated, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson announced an executive decision Wednesday.

In her fiscal 2017 budget, the center will be funded fully at $1.2 million and will be run by the city, as opposed to a private vendor, the mayor announced in an email to all Columbus Councilors. Ultimately, that decision is contingent upon council’s approval of the mayor’s budget.

Following council’s failure Tuesday night to arrive at a level of funding for the center, and a failure to determine who would operate the facility and for how many hours, Tomlinson sent an email to all 10 councilors Wednesday morning.

The email states that Tomlinson will fully fund the aquatic center at $1.2 million for 89 hours a week of operation in her fiscal 2017 budget, which will be presented for council’s consideration on April 26. She states the following in the email, which is public record:

“After last night's meeting and the inability to reach a directive or consensus for the direction of our Aquatic Center, the administration will propose the following in its proposed FY2017 budget:”

It states that in addition to being fully funded, the administration will propose where the money will come from to hike funding from the current $825,000 to $1.2 million. That would be from some combination of 17 options that City Manager Isaiah Hugley submitted earlier to council.

“Should you wish input into the mix of that combination, we welcome your input,” the email says.

It also states that operation of the facility will remain with the city’s Parks and Recreation department, and that a “professional full-time Aquatic Center director will be hired to manage the facility, direct programing, and market the facility.”

It further states that negotiations with a third-party vendor chosen through the city procurement program will be abandoned, “absent a majority vote of council.”

Council is scheduled to meet three times before the mayor presents her budget on April 26, but one of those, next Tuesday, is a work session, and another on April 5, is solely for proclamations and resolutions. The only scheduled business meeting before the budget is presented is on April 12.

“This administrative proposal will be amended only via a motion, second and majority vote of council before or after the budget process. We will no longer operate under the seeming, but fleeting, ‘consensus’ of Council. I think we have all experienced the ineffectiveness of that course,” the email states.

Council has been debating the funding and operation of the aquatic center for over a year, since before the first vendor hired to operate it was ultimately dismissed for poor performance.

Tomlinson’s email ended with a reference to Tuesday’s meeting, which had some councilors insisting on a fully operating 89-hour week, after others the week before insisted on maintaining funding at $825,000.

“There seem to be two consistent entities,” Tomlinson said during the meeting. “One says there is no consensus that there is money to fund it at more than $825,000. That was clearly the consensus last (week). But then we’ve got the consensus that 45 hours is not acceptable. OK, that’s a non sequitur because $825,000 buys you 45 hours.”

The private company chosen from the procurement process said 89 hours a week would cost $1.27 million a year and that the current budget of $825,000 would keep the facility open for 45 hours a week. Parks and Recreation Director James Worsley has agreed with those numbers, and in fact gave council that assessment long before the bid process was completed.

Several councilors were absent from the meeting at the time the aquatic center was discussed.

“For those of you who were unable to make our council meeting last night, I commend to you the replay on line or on CCG-TV for a full understanding of where we presently stand,” Tomlinson wrote. “I welcome your feedback, yet surely all agree it is time to move forward.”

After receiving the copy of the email, the Ledger-Enquirer, under the Georgia Open Records Act, asked Tomlinson for any further emails concerning her declaration. She provided what she said was the only response she had gotten as of Wednesday afternoon. She was out of the office Thursday and Friday.

The lone response was from Councilor Judy Thomas, who asked if taking hotel-motel tax money from entities currently receiving those funds and applying it to the aquatic center was part of her consideration. It was one of the 17 funding proposals Hugley presented to council.

“It may,” Tomlinson responded, saying she and her administration intend to meet with the leaders of the entities that benefit from the tax, “and see if we can come to an acceptable proposed course.”

Thomas, an at-large councilor who represents the city as a whole, said she supports Tomlinson’s decision to put the aquatic center on the city budget.

“I think that it is appropriate that we deal with this in the total budget process,” Thomas said. “That way, we can weigh this issue along with all the other issues that we’re going to have to be making some decisions about, in Parks and Rec and in the entire government.”

Councilor Skip Henderson, the other at-large councilor and chairman of the Budget Review Committee which is about to tackle the fiscal 2017 budget, has stated publicly that he supports sticking to the current level of funding.

Henderson said he agrees with Thomas that going through the normal budget process is the ideal way to determine the center’s future, but he’s not sure that the option of using a private contractor is off the table yet.

“There may still be time to discuss (the private company option),” Henderson said. “But barring any action taken by council, she’s doing the right thing. That’s the proper way to address it, to bring a recommendation to the budget process. Then we’ll have another to wade through it and see if that’s the way we want it to operate.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Tomlinson says she’ll put fully funded aquatic center in her budget."