A Letter on the Absence of a Council Vote on Termination of Swim Club Negotiations:

March 7, 2011

Dear Council Members,

The approved minutes of the Feb. 7 Council meeting state that “the Council directed the City Administrator to terminate negotiations with the Piedmont Swim Club regarding the lease of City property at 777 Magnolia Avenue and begin the process for the City to assume pool operation.”

However, there is no record of a resolution or a vote on the issue, which was noticed as an informational item only. > Click to read more…

A Letter urging consistent treatment of leases under City policy

Dear City Council Members,

I see that Mr. Grote has recommended you consider a no-rent 10-year lease proposal from a private organization for exclusive use of the City-owned property at 801 Magnolia. > Click to read more…

A letter from the President of the Piedmont Swim Club:

The Piedmont Swim Club has finally obtained a quote on the million-dollar pollution insurance the City demanded we purchase as part of a new lease.  The annual premium is $10,325, with a $10,000 deductible, for the $1 million of coverage the city insisted on.  At the Feb. 7  City Council meeting, City Attorney Tom Curry said he was concerned about liability to the City from chlorine somehow leaching into the ground, and Council Members Fujioka and Wieler stated that this lease provision was non-negotiable despite the unknown cost and questionable benefit.

The chlorine is stored in one-gallon plastic jugs, four jugs to a plastic crate. The jugs contain mostly water – the actual chlorine content is only twice that of ordinary laundry bleach. If a jug were to spring a leak, the containment crate were to also leak, and chlorine were to then find its way through a 4-6 inch thick concrete slab, some part of that gallon could get into the ground  – where, presumably, it would make the ground-water safer, as it does the water in the pool.  A spill of more than a gallon would require the spontaneous leaking of multiple jugs and multiple crates. > Click to read more…

A Letter from Tim Rood, President of the Piedmont Swim Club, concerning a Piedmont Post article on Swim Club lease negotiations.

Your February 9 article’s suggestions that the City staff didn’t know about the renovation in the 1990’s that removed the pool gutters and that the language the City was seeking in the new lease was needed to prevent a similar occurrence was wrong on both counts. First, both the Club’s and City’s lease proposals required the City’s prior approval of projects over $25,000. Second, the City approved the renovation plans that removed the gutters in the 1990s – the renovation plans stamped “Approved – City of Piedmont” are on file at City Hall. > Click to read more…

A News Release from Tim Rood, on behalf of the Piedmont Swim Club:

What Piedmont Swim Club Has Agreed to:

1.  We have agreed to a 15 year lease, which gives the city two buy-out rights.  First, if the city builds a new pool facility, it can terminate the lease, provided it gives each member of the club at the time of termination a pass to use the new pool free for one year.  Second, after five years, the city has an annual right to terminate the lease, if it gives each then member of the club a one-year free pass to continue to use > Click to read more…

Piedmont Civic Association Editorial:

The Piedmont Swim Club public-private partnership was an efficient and cost-effective model for years.  We bought memberships when our kids were toddlers learning to swim – enjoyed the pool as a family for a number of years – and usually sold the membership when our kids’ interests turned to tennis or soccer.  We counted on a new young family in town to buy our membership, repeating the cycle.  In years past this is the way memberships transferred from one family to another, though a more recent policy has discontinued the practice of allowing families to transfer memberships, replacing them with a non-refundable initial fee.

Recently, however, the specter of our community pool closing hangs over the Piedmont Swim Club (PSC) like the Sword of Damocles.  Piedmont’s long-standing tradition has ground to a halt and memberships languish due to the City’s refusal to offer the stability of a lease longer than three years. Though memberships have always been available for purchase by any family in Piedmont, fewer are willing to participate when their buy-in is more likely to be lost than transferred.  Membership has been declining to the danger point as the City repeatedly denies PSC a long-term lease.

A few residents have urged upon the community a “free community pool”.  Unfortunately, talking about “free” pools is the equivalent of discussing unicorns.  They do not exist.  Every pool costs (lots of) money to operate.  So, sadly, debating whether our community should enjoy a “free” community pool is no more fruitful than hunting for unicorns.  Instead of discussing mythical creatures, we must forthrightly discuss two issues – how pool costs may be minimized and who will pay those costs. > Click to read more…

Response from Piedmont Swim Club Board of Directors:

Dear Piedmonter,

Josh Bernstein’s email was forwarded to a member of the Swim Club board by one of its recipients. We’re concerned about the misinformation Josh is sending to the families with kids in PUSD and Piedmont Swim Team programs and would like to set the facts straight.

The families who pay dues to the swim club are the ones who provide all the funding for the pool, except for the $15,000 the Swim Team started paying a few years ago, which covers about 2.5% of the expense of running the pool. Swim Club families receive no taxpayer funds, but we do subsidize the PUSD and PST to the tune of over $100,000 a year, by providing free use to PUSD and very low cost use to PST at below-market rates – much less than they would pay to use any other pool. The city will charge them for that use. > Click to read more…

The Piedmont City Council will meet in closed session with its negotiator on the subject of the the Swim Club lease and the City’s labor negotiations on January 3rd at 6:30pm in the Conference Room of City Hall.

The Council’s open session will include the first reading of the adoption of the 2010 California Building and Fire codes, which will alter Chapters 5 and 8 of the Piedmont Municipal Code.  (Read Proposed Municipal Code Amendments)

The proposed revisions include adoption of the California Green Building Standards Code without any amendments or alterations.  > Click to read more…

The Piedmont Swim Club has released information on the status of lease negotiations and requests community input.

A letter from Tim Rood, President of the Piedmont Swim Club  to the community dated 11/29/2010:

The Piedmont Swim Club lease expires on June 30, 2011.  Negotiations for renewal of the lease are at a critical point.  The City Council will be discussing > Click to read more…

A Letter from Clive Chandler on the Piedmont Swim Club Lease

There are at least three alternatives available to the City Council: > Click to read more…