Dick Poirier watched his son compete in junior tennis tournaments at the Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park and now enjoys playing on those same courts in senior tennis matches, so the Mililani resident welcomed a new policy allowing dedicated funds for the area’s largest park.
As chairman of the Mililani/Waipio/Melemanu Neighborhood Board, Poirier supported a bill that would reinvest rental fees and other revenue collected at the 269-acre park — equipped with aquatics and sporting facilities — to help pay for much-needed improvements and maintenance.
"We all love (the park). We all use it," said Poirier, who also serves on the park’s advisory committee. "What we don’t want to see is it deteriorate."
Bill 75 became law last week without Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s signature. Revenue from the fund will be used to supplement, not replace city funds appropriated for repairs and other costs at the park, also known as CORP.
Introduced by Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin, the proposal passed third reading last month.
"The city is constrained at this particular point to maintain all of its parks with the limited resources we do have," said Martin, who, along with Councilman Ron Menor, attended a small gathering at the park Wednesday to certify the bill. "By creating the special funds or special accounts, you provide our community with that level of assurance that the cost they’re paying for are reinvested right back into that particular facility or service."
Groups that use the city’s parks are charged fees, but revenue typically is put into the city general fund.
City administrators prioritize new facilities and other capital improvements. Creating a separate fund will allow the park’s projects to bypass the lengthy capital-improvements approval process, supporters said.
Some city officials, including Caldwell, had said the fund would set a "bad precedent," pointing out that improvement and repair costs exceed the revenue generated at the park.
City Budget Director Nelson Koyanagi also opposed the proposal.
"Revenues generated by the city’s approximately 300 parks help offset their maintenance but do not come close to covering the costs," Koyanagi said in a statement Thursday. "(Bill 75) sets a bad precedent in establishing a dedicated fund with new administrative costs to record, track, report, and audit CORP’s disproportionate revenues and expenditures."
The park was allotted a budget of about $1.2 million for fiscal year 2015 and has been "relatively stable" throughout the past few years, according to the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services.
Revenue generated from fees charged at the park totalled about $170,000 during fiscal year 2012, $188,000 for 2013, $200,000 for 2014 and nearly $123,000 for fiscal year 2015 as of February.
Supporters of the bill said the fund would allow for a "cushion" whenjuggling several improvement efforts.
"If you just rely on the general fund, sometimes you get it (funding), sometimes you don’t," Poirier said. "You have to plan ahead."
Menor also stressed the importance of the park to the community, adding that his sons played sports at the complex.
"The opponents of this bill were looking at this park as just another community park," Menor said. "But in reality it’s a much bigger park. It’s a regional park."
Opened in 2001, the park nestled in Waipio along Kamehameha Highway features, among other things, a tennis complex, an archery range and numerous baseball and softball fields. The complex has served thousands of visitors and residents who play in many tournaments.
The complex was renamed in 2007 for Patsy Mink, the former congresswoman and City Council member. Mink died in 2002.
A similar bill to establish a fund for the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park, also introduced by Martin, passed the second reading unanimously last week and was referred to the City Council Budget Committee.
Martin, who used to live in Waipio Gentry and has attended several functions at the park, said these types of funds are "something that we should consider for other facilties that have a high utilization rate."
