After Anchorage's ombudsman raised questions this month about a quasi-government agency's unprecedented gift of public funds for covered tennis courts, Mayor Dan Sullivan on Friday proposed the agency instead build the facility itself.
At a work session with Anchorage Assembly members, Sullivan distributed a new proposal to allocate $800,000 from the Anchorage Community Development Authority budget to a "multiuse facility" project at East Anchorage High School. The authority's board in May voted to give the money, which amounted to about 8 percent of its annual budget, as a grant to the Alliance for the Support of American Legion Baseball, despite having no history of giving out cash grants.
In Sullivan's new proposal, which he said was based on a suggestion from Assemblyman Bill Starr, the authority would become the project developer.
"This puts development in the hands of the ACDA and solves that problem of being a grant to one organization versus another," Sullivan told Assembly members.
Alliance president Steve Nerland said Friday the organization would instead serve as an "unpaid consultant" under the arrangement. He said the Alliance just wants to see the project done.
The retooled proposal comes after ombudsman Darrel Hess said he was looking at the public process associated with the grant and the extent to which the agency told the public money might be available. Earlier this year, an official from the authority told the Anchorage Parks Foundation that it didn't offer grants and wasn't set up to receive applications. Hess said he didn't find evidence of wrongdoing, but said the grant was an example of "poor public process."
ACDA gets most of its money from city parking meters and parking citations. As well as managing parking garages and Anchorage's downtown transit center, the authority has pursued public-private partnerships through land sales and redevelopment in Government Hill and Mountain View, projects mainly associated with adding to the city's housing stock.
Sullivan said at Friday's work session it "might be better" for the authority to manage the East High project until it sets up a more formal grant process.
Also at Friday's work session, Sullivan circulated a newly signed agreement between the municipality and the Anchorage School District about the maintenance and operation of the facility. The facility has been described as a steel-framed fabric roof cover over East High's six tennis courts, and Sullivan and other supporters say it could accommodate various sports and community activities.
According to the two-page agreement, the city will own the structure and be responsible for maintenance, the cost of which Sullivan said Friday would be "minimal." The agreement also says the city will pay to resurface the six existing courts.
The district would in turn be in charge of opening, closing and securing the facility, the agreement says.
The city Parks and Recreation Department will handle scheduling, the agreement says, but the district would have "exclusive use" of the courts during school hours on school days.
ASD would also get priority for district-sponsored tennis events at all other times, according to the agreement.
The East High structure is the latest iteration of ongoing efforts to extend Anchorage's high school tennis season after the closure of the Alaska Club North dropped the number of indoor courts from nine to four. Sullivan said in December that the idea of a weather cover for the East High courts stemmed from conversations he had with high school tennis coaches. Sullivan himself is a former head tennis coach at West High.
On Friday, the authority's new executive director, Robert Shake, and other staff members came under hard questioning from Assembly member Amy Demboski, a former mayoral candidate. Demboski said she didn't understand why the project needed to move forward now. She noted that multiple board members had been changed out recently and suggested approval of the East High project was associated with those changes, something Sullivan has denied.
"This was not a slam dunk that everyone agreed upon," Demboski said.
Demboski also questioned whether the authority could afford the project, given it is still evaluating what could be major maintenance costs for the Seventh Avenue garage downtown. The authority has reported about $1.5 million in cash reserves and $6 million in investments to draw upon for the East High facility. Most of the cash has come from the redevelopment of the Northpointe Bluff site in Government Hill and the sale of lots for residential development, Shake said.
Brian Borguno, the authority's parking director, told Demboski the repair costs for the garage could range between $1 million and $20 million. The exact figure won't be known until August, he said.
Demboski said she wanted more details on how the authority would respond if the repair cost turns out to be on the high end.
The Assembly had been set to deliberate on the East High project funding request Tuesday. But several Assembly members said Friday Sullivan's new proposal represented a significant change that may require reintroduction. That would push action back into July, past the end of Sullivan's term.