Field-use pact must be kept

When Daily Pilot editors suggested it might be time for my return to

column writing -- specifically to keep an eye on Costa Mesa city

government -- a predicament was immediately evident. How well can one

be a watchdog of government while an official of that government?

How to answer the pickle wasn’t nearly as immediate, but a

solution eventually surfaced. I’d simply steer clear of tidbits and

occurrences that had to do with my gig as a parks and recreation

commissioner.

This still left plenty of opportunities to chew on other city

matters, and it preserved the lingering threat that some published

notion of mine might earn a stroll down the plank on the parks

commission ship of state.

In the case of Costa Mesa’s partnership with the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District, where our shared use of sports fields is

concerned, there are whiffs of smoke at City Hall suggesting that the

partnership isn’t popular among some City Council members, and that

it has the potential of going up in flames. Indeed, the concept was

broached during the council’s Aug. 9 study session.

To the extent that having no field-use partnership with the school

district represents a devastating blow to organized youth sports

leagues in this town, forceful commentary on the subject trumps the

tight-rope act separating the journalist from the parks commissioner.

So, here goes.

Since 1997, Costa Mesa and the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District have enjoyed a contractual partnership that permits the

school district to use city parks and facilities and that allows

youth and adult sports organizations and city-sponsored athletic

leagues to use school district fields. In government vernacular, we

call the contract the joint-use agreement.

Costa Mesa’s role is to serve as the permitting agency for all

fields in Costa Mesa, provide basic maintenance and establish and

administer a policy for when, how and to whom field use is allocated.

From time to time, the city and the school district have tightened

a few bolts and added a quart of oil or two to keep the arrangement

tight and smoothly running. In fact, for nearly a year now, the two

governments have been huddling to produce a retooled joint-use

agreement to build in assurances that school-district-owned fields

are maintained in a safe and playable condition.

The really stinky news is that the current effort to refine the

joint-use agreement seems to have sparked a slowly smoldering notion

among some council members that Costa Mesa might be better off if it

simply scraps the field-use pact altogether.

It’s a rash and dangerously short-sighted view. Under the current

agreement, Costa Mesa controls the permitting of 68 playing fields.

Fifty-six of those facilities are owned by the school district. A

mere dozen are the property of Costa Mesa. Scrapping the joint-use

agreement would gut Costa Mesa’s ability to grant permits at more

than 80% of the athletic fields located within the cities borders.

It would turn that permitting over to the school district, which

has no obligation to permit the 56 playing fields on its properties

other than what’s called for under California’s Civic Center Act, no

obligation to give Costa Mesa residents first priority if and when it

does permit use of its fields (under the city’s permitting auspices,

fields are permitted first to Costa Mesa residents), and no

obligation to waive fees related to field use (currently, the city

waives all fees for field use by youth leagues with more than 90%

Costa Mesa residents).

Indeed, the elimination of the joint-use agreement would

dramatically reduce youth and adult sports leagues’ access to playing

facilities, would significantly increase the cost to participate in

those leagues, would open a new avenue for Newport Beach residents to

receive permits for field use at schools located in Costa Mesa, and

would place an undue burden on individual school principals and

school district officials to focus on recreation instead of

education.

That the idea to dissolve the field-use partnership between Costa

Mesa and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District would occupy

anyone’s thinking at a time when Costa Mesa is confronted with a

growing and persistent demand for field use from its residents defies

not just explanation, but common sense.

The field-use partnership must be protected.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a public affairs consultant and chairman of

the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission. Readers contact him

at [email protected].