PORT ANGELES — The William Shore Memorial Pool District’s plan to outsource management of Port Angeles’ public pool is dead in the water.
The Clallam County Family YMCA board, which was negotiating a contract for management of the public pool at 225 E. Fifth St. with the metropolitan park district, voted Wednesday to withdraw its offer.
The move came a day after members of the park district commission’s advisory committee and several pool users protested at a public meeting the proposed contract with the YMCA.
Pool commissioners gave the advisory committee a month to create a proposal for in-house management, and were planning to consider the competing plans — an in-house plan as well a proposed contract with the YMCA — on March 23.
In a written statement issued Wednesday, the YMCA board said: “It has never been our goal to compete with the district or its advisory committee in the management of the pool.
“We wish the district the best of luck and know that it will work hard to make William Shore a success.”
The YMCA’s withdrawal is not seen by the advisory committee as a victory, said advisory committee member Steve Burke.
The issue for the committee, he said, was that the commissioners were only considering one option.
“We’re not anti-Y,” Burke said, “we just don’t want to pay more than we should to have the pool run.
“In a way, it’s kind of a bummer.”
Burke said that in a month the advisory committee may find that the YMCA could manage the pool more efficiently than the park district, and that he would still like to see that as an option.
Reason for YMCA decision
YMCA board President Laurel Black said the decision was made in response to the advisory committee’s “strong desire” to have the pool managed directly by the park district and the commission’s requirement that the nonprofit organization give pool employees priority during its hiring process.
Black said it was anticipated that many employees would be rehired, but added that the issue for the YMCA was that the park district would have too much say over hirings.
“It’s hard to run the pool when you don’t have authority over staff,” Black said.
At the commission’s Tuesday meeting, the advisory committee and some pool users objected to the use of another organization to manage the pool on the park district’s behalf.
They told the commissioners that voters last spring were under the impression that the park district would manage the pool directly when they approved its formation.
They also said they were worried that the YMCA would make a profit off of the proposed $363,552 per year contract — which commissioners say only would cover the expenses of running the pool — and questioned the objectivity of a commissioner who also sits on the YMCA board.
Commissioners said that the purpose of outsourcing that service was to save taxpayers’ money.
The YMCA was the only organization to submit a proposal by the deadline in November.
Holmquist on boards
Also Tuesday, pool commissioner Gary Holmquist defended his position as a YMCA board member in regard to the proposed contract.
“I’m not a part on either side in the detailed negotiations of this agreement,” Holmquist told Burke.
“The first time I saw this contract was when it was handed to myself today.”
Holmquist, the former election coordinator for Save the Pool PA — which worked to keep the public pool from closing through the creation of taxing district — said that he followed the recommendations of metropolitan park district’s attorney by recusing himself from contract discussions on the YMCA board and refraining from voting on each board.
“I did not participate in any discussions with the YMCA committee or committees that were involved in putting this proposal together,” he told the Peninsula Daily News on Wednesday.
Burke said he was satisfied with the response and that advisory committee dropped its complaint over whether Holmquist could be objective.
Legislative intent
Mike Chapman, pool commission chairman and a Clallam County commissioner, said Wednesday that he agrees that the commissioners became too focused on contracting pool management and acknowledged that they strayed away from the “legislative intent” by the creation of the park district.
The move was in response, he said, to dropping property values which would decrease revenue for the taxing authority.
Chapman said the commissioners should have tasked the advisory committee with coming up with a budget plan to manage the pool directly last fall.
“We never looked at ‘Plan A,'” he said.
“If a mistake was made on my part, it was out of desire of wanting to keep costs down,” he added.
Burke said the advisory committee will place an emphasis on reducing operating costs and increasing revenue in its budget proposal.
YMCA’s proposal was its second attempt at managing a pool in Port Angeles. In 2006, a ballot measure to build a new pool and have the nonprofit organization manage it, failed.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
