Realistic math still not in picture

Before the Columbus Consolidated Government budget for fiscal 2017 was approved at just north of $270 million, Columbus Council and the administration managed something of a compromise concerning the chronically dysfunctional Columbus Aquatic Center.

Former Parks and Rec Director James Worsley had told the city in 2012, when both he and the swim center were brand new to Columbus, that it would take at least $1.2 million a year to run the natatorium adequately and keep it open 89 hours a week. The budgeted amount of $825,000 for FY 2016 would pay for only 45 hours a week, although Worsley’s department kept the center open for longer hours by having some of his managers work double duty.

The whole dragged-out dispute, with some members of council basically demanding a Cadillac operation at a Yugo price, came to a head when Mayor Teresa Tomlinson put a line item of $1.27 for the center in the FY 2017 budget.

Council rejected that sum, but city leaders settled on a middle-ground figure of $990,000, which would keep the facility open 60 hours.

That brings us to where we are now … except for the part about revenue projections for the Aquatic Center being increased 63 percent even as operating hours were reduced by a third.

What, and whose, was the thinking there? Even if the natatorium had been fully funded at the mayor’s proposed $1.27 million, expecting a 63 percent spike in revenue seems optimistic to the point of fantasy.

Not surprisingly, first-quarter numbers fell far short of that projection: The center has taken in about 13 percent of that figure so far. (This time last year, it was at 27 percent.)

Parks and Rec Director Holli Browder told council her office is assembling information for vendors to provide programming services (program fee revenue right now is at 1 percent of the year’s projected total), certainly a move in the right direction. A new change in the inclement weather policy, which last year cost the center at least one swim meet, should prevent that from happening again, but it won’t solve the immediate money shortage.

There should be a group of people assembled specifically to deal with these issues, and in fact there is — at least on paper. The Columbus Aquatic Commission was created last year. It hasn’t met yet, because so far there are only three members.

It’s easy to be cavalier about other people’s money, even when some of it comes out of our pockets along with everybody else’s. But to have this much trouble operating a world-class venue, given the relatively small gap between what it costs to do it right and what a city with a $270 million budget is spending to do it wrong, passed ridiculous a long time ago.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Realistic math still not in picture."