Update: Council sidesteps vote on Aquatic Center budget

Columbus Council stepped away from a decision tonight on whether to approve a contract with a private pool operator to take over the Columbus Aquatic Center.

Faced with a proposal to approve an $825,000 contract with a suburban Atlanta company, which would cut the hours of operation from 89 hours a week to 45, council voted to remove the issue from the table.

The company, American Pool Service of Georgia, bid $1.27 million to operate the facility for 89 hours, but could operate it for 45 hours at the current level.

Councilors Glenn Davis and Pops Barnes were adamant that they would not vote to approve a 45-hour contract.

“I’m not going to vote for 45 hours,” Councilor Pops Barnes said. “I’m just not going to do it.”

“I cannot approve 45 hours,” Davis said. “I can’t approve what’s being presented here.”

At that point there was no need for a vote on the proposal because there were only six councilors present at the time of the presentation, so even one person objecting would have meant an inevitably inconclusive vote.

Councilors Judy Thomas, Bruce Huff, Tom Buck, Evelyn Turner Pugh, Davis and Barnes were present. Councilors Skip Henderson, Mike Baker, Gary Allen and Mimi Woodson were absent for the presentation.

The aquatic center broke ground in late 2011 and opened in the summer of 2013. But even as it was under construction, newly hired Parks and Recreation Director James Worsley was telling city leaders they had not allocated enough money to operate the facility. He estimated the full cost would be about $1.2 million.

That amount, $1.2 million, keeps coming up. It is still the amount that Worsley says will be needed to keep the facility fully operational, and it is roughly the amount American Pool Services says it would charge for 89 hours a week.

Some councilors insist that the money just isn’t there, while others insist that cutting back on hours just isn’t acceptable. The disconnect clearly frustrated Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and to City Manager Isaiah Hugley.

Hugley said councilors suggested that the administration should move forward with 45 hours at a work session last week. A week later, council effectively blocked taking a vote on the contract because it meant fewer hours, and told the city to bring the issue back at yet another work session next Tuesday.

“We need a decision. We need some direction,” Hugley said. “I hope that we can get to the point at the next business meeting, either a decision or some clear direction.”

Tomlinson said two factions on council will have to come to terms with each other.

“There seems to be two consistent entities,” Tomlinson said. “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.”

But Tomlinson said they would bring the proposal back to council next week at a council work session.

“We can discuss it again at our next work session,” Tomlinson said. “But at our next business meeting, we just absolutely have to have, not a consensus, but the budget and who is going to have the definitive oversight of the day-to-day operations of the facility. We have to have those two things done and they have to be in the form of a vote.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 11:15 PM with the headline "Update: Council sidesteps vote on Aquatic Center budget."