Fourth in a series.
Seal Beach Lifeguard Headquarters is in bad shape. That’s not news. (See “Seal Beach staff to re-evaluate options for Lifeguard Headquarters building,” May 13, 2021, at sunnews.org.)
City Council and staff discussed the Lifeguard Headquarters more than once during the five-hour, sometimes meandering, Strategic Planning meeting held earlier this year.
They didn’t take any action, but there was talk of taxes an bonds.
“I think we heard this from everybody: Lifeguard Headquarters, apparently it’s falling
down around your ears, chief,” said Carol Jacobs of Baker Tilly. Jacobs was the consultant who led the meeting.
“That’s kind of what I’m hearing,” she said.
District One Council Member Joe Kalmick said that as they were sitting there, the cost was escalating.
“It started at $9.2 [million], now it’s at, what, 13.5?” Kalmick said.
“If we don’t do something about it, it’ll reach a point like the pool where it’ll have to be used until it literally falls down,” Kalmick said.
“We’re closer than you think,” said Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey.
“We have only one bathroom available,” Bailey said.
Kalmick said the city had been forced by circumstance “and possibly our own inertia” to kick several cans down the road. He suggested that at some point, the council would have to make decisions on things, such as food service on the pier.
The conversation turned to license plate reading technology, but the Lifeguard Headquarters came up again.
Apparently referring to money that the city has committed to several projects, District Two Council Member Tom Moore said if they didn’t do anything with the money, the city would be getting in a worse and worse position.
“If the pool’s going to really cost 18 million maybe we put that money towards the lifeguard station … everyone uses the beach for a million people in the summer or whatever it is, if we can at least make a decision, let’s use this money constructively for one thing at least,” Moore said.
Later, there was a discussion of hiring pollsters to gather information on what the residents think. For example, a tax to fund Lifeguard headquarters would be a special tax, which would require the approval of two thirds of voters through a ballot measure.
Later, Jacobs suggested looking at the city’s set-asides.
The adopted 2023-24 budget shows more than $1.39 million committed to a pier restaurant, more than $4.39 million to a swimming pool project (as estimated for Fiscal Year 2022-23) and $866,312 budgeted for revitalization.
“Would you like to have staff look at reallocating some of this money to some of your um your number five priorities, and you’ve got I’ll go from smallest to biggest,” Jacobs said.
Later, Jacobs said the Lifeguard Headquarters and the pool were such big ticket items that the council and staff would have to figure out how to get them done. “It’s not going to get done with your little $6 million,” she said.
After the meeting had lasted for about four hours and 20 minutes, City Manager Jill Ingram asked if they were potentially looking at setting anything aside to start the Lifeguard Headquarters conversation. She said she was seeing some yeses and some noes. (During the Strategic Planning meeting, council members sometimes responded to questions with nods of their heads or raised hands.)
“I feel like we’ve got our high priority project set aside and yet we’re still setting aside money that we’ve got available now, without even having a conversation unless you’re looking to bond the entire amount of the Lifeguard Headquarters,” Ingram said.
She advocated having a conversation about the balance of the pool money if the city was going to focus on moving forward with a Lifeguard Headquarters project.
Earlier in the meeting, council members put dots on a list of projects and it appeared the swimming pool project was no longer a priority.
Turning toward the subject of issuing a bond, Ingram said Seal Beach was on a 15-year bond for the fire station. She was referring to Fire Station 48, located outside of Leisure World.
According to staff, the city would have to disclose everything that could impact the city’s ability to pay the debt.
District Five Councilman Nathan Steele said Seal Beach would have to have free cash flow in the budget to issue a bond and Seal Beach has the ability to finance “Zippo” right now.
Jacobs suggested that Ingram and staff go back and think about the things they had been talking about.
“We’re going to focus on getting a Lifeguard headquarters or we’re going to focus on doing some hard infrastructure improvements, because that’s what we decided is important,” Jacobs said.
Near the end of the meeting, Steele said he loved the idea of a bond issue but Seal Beach had to come up with cash flow to support a bond. He said Seal Beach needed to figure out how to get more money.
