Kids These Days:

One budget idea offered in this space last week was to take the $39,000 Costa Mesa will gain from granting a permit to a Santa Ana-based basketball league to play their games in the downtown gym for six months on Sundays and use the money to restore the Westside youth programs cut by Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilmen Gary Monahan and Eric Bever.

The idea was also mentioned at the City Council meeting last week.

The permit had recently been approved by a unanimous vote by the Parks and Recreation Commission, and everything looked good.

Finding a Westside fire on which he had not yet thrown his wet blanket, Bever, who remained nearly mute as he cast his multiple “no” votes to end the youth programs, decided that he wants to reopen the permit hearing.

The reason given is that he wants to review the process for notification of the city’s residents that the gym will be closed to them on Sundays for a minimum of six months.

Last Wednesday, however, Bever supposedly commented on last week’s column online in which he questioned the profitability of the league permit arrangement due to higher gym expenses.

Someone identifying themselves as Bever wrote: “Dear Mr. Smith, Costa Mesa’s facility-use-fees are not pure profit, and it is doubtful that after all costs are tallied that much, if any profit exists. The $40K you mention goes toward deferred maintenance, utilities, staff and all costs associated with making the facility available, including the cost of building and maintaining the structure, the sports amenities, the restrooms and parking lot, plus: lighting, water, sewer, heating/cooling, trash hauling and clean-up. Depreciating citizen-owned assets to fund today’s programs is questionable planning. We’ll be begging for cash to rehab the facilities when that day comes. Heavier use speeds the process.”

I asked Bever online for a clarification: “Dear Mr. Bever: Thank you very much for your comment. Perhaps I received some bad information that you can clarify: Doesn’t the city incur those expenses whether there are nine people in the gym (the Sunday average) or whether there are 29 for a league?”

Receiving no response as of last Friday, I called Jana Ransom, the city’s recreation manager, and asked, “Are there more maintenance costs involved with a greater number of people using the gym as a result of this permit?”

“No,” Ransom replied.

Bever’s supposed comments may be the first time a City Council member has complained about overuse of a city facility. And if he is so focused on profitability, he’d better start taking a look at closing all of the city’s parks.

It would seem that with a $19-million budget deficit, the city should already be begging for cash, and Bever should not be taking steps to lose $39,000 from the basketball league.

Raising cash is just one issue with the budget. Expenses are another.

As of April 30, the legal and other expenses to handle the Benito Acosta case have cost the city a whopping $439,168.51, according to an official in the city clerk’s office.

Yes, readers, while Mansoor and Monahan moan about the budget deficit and Bever sits nearly mute on the dais pushing the “no” button to help cut programs for kids, the entire City Council has been paying out what is probably now nearly half a million dollars to remain involved in this fiasco.

I’m all for making sure that the city sends the right message, but this case is completely out of control.

There is no justification for this reckless spending while the city is laying off staff and cutting youth programs.

It is particularly embarrassing for Mansoor, who wrote in a Daily Pilot column March 16, “State government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.”

Based on the absurd amount of money being spent on Acosta, it is fair to say the city also has a spending problem.

At the gym Thursday night, one basketball player was certain he knew why Bever called for the rehearing.

“They’re stalling,” he said. “They know that if they delay this, it will be too late to start the league.”

Another thought occurred to me: Perhaps this basketball permit request is the ACLU’s idea.

After all, there are plenty of gyms in Santa Ana and around the county.

Wouldn’t that be something?

STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Send story ideas to [email protected] .