City Council meeting preview: turf, ice rinks, pension obligations

A late meeting preview today.... my apologies. First, the bad news.

The city has some economic downturn-related bad financial news to deal with. Because the pension fund for the city's fire and police departments is not as strong as in previous years, the city is required by a 1999 agreement to cover a cash shortage to the fund with a direct contribution of nearly $1 million. I imagine that was a provision that the city thought it unlikely would ever come back to hurt them- as long as the stock market is growing, most pension funds are growing. Right now, however, the pension fund is hurting: city staff estimated its value on November 30 at around $84 million, compared to about $122 million in June. Harsh.

There are a couple of interesting long-term informational items on tonight's meeting, with no immediate consequences. First, the city is reporting on a requested informational item on the benefits of artificial turf. If I recall correctly, Sid Tyler made this request during a discussion of the local/county/state water crisis. The benefits it seems, are first with water savings, but also a financial savings of $44,000 per year on average per three-acre park for maintenance savings. Of course, converting to turf would require an upfront cost. The report also estimates artificial turf can support an additional 25 hours of use weekly. The city is currently working on bidding a contract for a turf field at Robinson Park, which will be redone this spring.

The next item is for a $26 million city ice rink. The city wants to make space in the Pasadena Convention Center where there is currently a rink, and is interested in building a stand-alone facility next to the Vina Vieja park in eastern Pasdaena. I believe the new information here is the cost estimate.

Finally, the city is looking at a $18.5 million contract for new infrastructure at the Pasadena Water and Power facilities. I don't know if this is particularly significant, but at $18.5 million, the contract is enormous.