fair market value, or not

The residents and taxpayers are paying OVER 300k per year to keep the pool open year-round. Yet somehow, the City Manager sees fit to give a 100-strong private swim team HUGE discount to use our pool, in direct disregard of the stated Councils standard fees, and amounts to PENNIES on the dollar of the actual worth. The HUGE discounts come right out of the taxpayers pocket into the private swim team’s pocket! $1100 a month, at least, for YEARS! There are NO CONTRACTS, contrary to the City Managers initial opinion, NO use agreements, just a secret handshake deal that nobody knows about. Why has the Mayor and Council allowed this to go on for YEARS? As for charges at other pools, it is by lane for teams. At MDC there are two or three club teams practicing at the same time. They charge $8 per 25 yd. lane per hour. Miami Dade charges $7 per lane per hour for short course or $9 per hour for 50 meters. Hialeah charges $45 per month per swimmer. It will be interesting to see what this supposed contract will propose as fair market value for practices and meets. Perhaps even more interesting will be the discussion and the voting.

Fla is #10 in most unemployment at 8.1 %

In 2008, the country lost 2.6 million jobs, and in 2009 at least 2 million more jobs are forecast to disappear. Minneapolis-based retailer Target Corp. said Tuesday that it will cut an undisclosed number of workers at its headquarters. Elsewhere, specialty glass company Corning Inc. said it would cut 3,500 jobs, or 13 percent of its work force, as demand slumped for glass used in flat-screen televisions and computers. And chemical company Ashland Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 jobs, freeze wages and adopt a two-week furlough program. Roughly 40,000 layoffs were announced on Monday by a string of companies, including Pfizer, Caterpillar and Home Depot. Florida is #10 in unemployment at 8.1%, HIGHER THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE OF 7.2%. No relief is seen for this year and until next year. Earth to Council- are you listening? How much longer can you pretend it has NO EFFECT on Miami Springs? How much longer can you pretend that costs are "immaterial" and "irrelevant", Mr Garcia? Mayor? Council? How much longer can you guys remain unconcerned and not care about receiving or paying fair market value?

pool giveaway

The pool is both an asset and a liability. The residents who use the pool do NOT get to use it at 15% of the going rate, do they? The rate last Summer was $2.50 for adults and $1.50 for kids. The MDAC swim team DOES get to use our pool for less than 15% of the fair market value. The fair market value to use our pool for swim practice for three hours a day for 6 days a week was established by Gym to be $200 a month. How this was decided is not at all clear, because he has said in the past he had NO IDEA what other pools were charging! The fair market value is WHATEVER Gym says it is? Since when? When he says it was to encourage more Springs kids to join, it make NO real sense because the swimmers have gotten NONE of the benefits, and therefore there is NO incentive for them to join. The only one who benefitted was the MDAC owners, at the expense of the Springs taxpayers. It would be very interesting to see how that $200 giveaway has worked as an incentive for Springs kids to join!Another giveaway, plain and simple.

questions persist

The City Manager has said in the past that he doesnt charge by the lane, like other pools do, and that he charges a flat monthly fee, as he wants. He has decided for the past 2.5 years+ that $200 a month is fair market value for the use of our pool for swim team practices. How did he arrive at that number? On what basis? It is obvious that the MDC pool is worth SIX+ TIMES more than our pool, for some reason. What would those reasons be? Is it possible that there are any other comparable pools in town that only charge for-profit, 100-strong swim teams $200 a month for three hours a day and six days a week? Even at $500 a month, it is still considerably less than HALF what they were paying at MDC! We are trying to determine fair market value and the MDC pool is the only comparable pool found to compare with. It is assumed that MDC is heated. Were they at MDC four years ago because our pool was closed during the Winter? During what years was our pool closed in the Winter? It would be helpful to know because it could indicate how much money was saved back then, as background information. Have the costs of chemicals, etc gone up significantly in the past four years? How many years were they based at MDC? Has MDC said how much they would charge NOW to have a for-profit swim team there three hours a day, six days a week? Are there any other pools in town that charge a flat rate per month, and not by the lane usage and times, for for-profit swim teams? If every OTHER pool in town charges by the lanes and times used, why are WE the exception? Did he just pick that number out of a hat? Did he do ANY research into what to charge BEFORE deciding to charge $200 a month? Or was it completely arbitrary, as it appears, with NO concern for getting the fair market value and a fair return for the residents?

who is being protected?

Well said, and precisely to the point. It is the taxpayers that pay the City Managers salary and they must be his first priority. Nobody should be gouged, but neither should anybody get a free ride. Fair market value is reasonable, and probably charged at the other places where they swim, no? Why not here?