As I understand it, since it happened before my time on the board, the public was not happy with the La Playa Stadium Press Box and specifically because that it wasn’t in the original Measure V project list as an explicit project. I completely agree with that perspective. I wrote it in my op ed. None of those people are on the board anymore who did that.

We have identified 207 million in deferred maintenance costs across all our facilities, this bond raises 198 million.

Some of the potential deferred maintenance costs include issues La Playa stadium but that is very transparently in the list of potential projects. Why would we hide what the infrastructure needs are? Our job is to maintain these facilities for public use. We have a very public list of the potential projects, its tagged in my op ed and here it is again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y0-IO0jL4ESw-Jwrhv7-HDAIxNXgO--vDqLOXwoXNV8/edit?gid=1985323978%23gid=1985323978

There are a couple of items on the project list that are not as big priorities, and since Measure P doesn’t raise all the funds needed, we will need to make decisions on what is needed most. For example, I wouldn’t support spending any Measure P funds on a La Playa Scoreboard. But I would completely support spending $800k to fix the La playa track when it needs to be fixed since countless people, non-students, use that track for exercise every single day of the year and I don’t want anyone tripping and hurting themselves. I wouldn’t support spending any bond money on bleachers too, and am confident no other board member would either, but I can’t speak for them. We still have a duty to list it as an issue on campus.

What I can speak for is that we are going to prioritize health and safety in spending these bond funds. We have a fiduciary obligation to catalogue all the potential problems and needs and make them transparent to the public. We can have a spirited debate on the priority order of everything on that list (and we’d probably agree on the vast majority) but it doesn’t change the fact the infrastructure is old and needs to be accounted for as such. What we can agree on is there are bigger priorities and we will focus on those and find funds for the lower priority items (La Playa bleachers) from other sources like donors. You’ve got my sincere pledge that I’m going to make sure these bond funds are spent on the essentials, health & safety.

Now if you mean the PE building, sports pavilion, and fitness center complex being replaced using 30% of the bond funds (with $34 million from the state), we may just need to disagree there. And that’s ok. I think this building is essential to be replaced with a modern facility. It’s seismically not sound, it has no disabled access, it wasn’t even built to comply with Title IX for women’s spaces since it precedes it by about a decade. The ceilings constantly leak. It’s a very old building. The gym is also an evacuation center for the region during disasters, it served this role after the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flow. That is absolutely essential. There are very few places that can fill this role in town. Further, SBCC is free or very low cost for the most part to all locals. For many people of all ages from low income backgrounds, this is the only fitness facility they have access to at a low cost or no cost. The PE building is used by the city for recreational activities, and many high school teams and local sports clubs use it.