Funding for Community Center called into question

A recent report that the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center is operating in the red has forced a debate over whether the 30,000-square-foot center on Malibu Hills Road in Calabasas should be a money-making facility, or a community service operation that the two cities will have to continue subsidizing.

The Agoura Hills City Council recently called for an audit, and a meeting later this month with Community Center officials could force a decision about the future of the facility.

The center opened in 1999 with three banquet halls, activity room, a gymnasium for basketball and volleyball, a dance and aerobics room, a rock climbing wall and a fitness center.

Although the building is in Calabasas, both Agoura Hills and Calabasas created a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) board to oversee operations.

Funding for the Community Center has gradually been reduced, however, which put a strain on the facility's finances.

"As city support has decreased over the years, the center's deficit has increased, causing the center to tap into our reserve fund, which is currently down to about $160,000," said Jeff Rubin, Calabasas' community services director.

"When the center first opened, (the cities of Calabasas and Agoura Hills) were putting in approximately $110,000 apiece for a total of $220,000 annually," said Rubin.

For its part, Calabasas contributed $55,000 from its general fund and $55,000 from Los Angeles County maintenance and servicing funds.

About three years ago, Calabasas and Agoura Hills began reducing the subsidies. Instead of $220,000, the cities gave a combined $100,000 to the center.

Two years ago, the cities didn't give any general fund monies to the center and only used $50,000 in county maintenance and servicing funds to keep operations going.

"With that, we've seen over the last couple of years that the center has run at approximately a $50,000 deficit per year," Rubin said. "We're looking at potentially the same deficit this year."

Recently, Calabasas and Agoura Hills each gave $25,000 to the center to make up for the deficit.

Not your

Tennis and Swim Center

Although Calabasas has had major success with its city-owned Tennis and Swim Center in Calabasas Park, the Community Center in Lost Hills has presented other challenges.

"This thing was built . . . along the lines of a community recreation center," said Calabasas City Manager Tony Coroalles. "It's not like the (Calabasas) Tennis and Swim Center where you have locker rooms and it's mostly a fitness and health facility, although fitness and health provide around 50 percent of the revenue for that center."

If the JPA opts to run a moneymaking facility, the center might have to expand its fitness programs, Coroalles said. While the fitness room takes up only 8 percent of the Community Center's space, it brings in half of the facility's total revenue.

The gymnasium, on the other hand, takes up 36 percent of the center, but generates only 20 percent of the revenue.

Some programs try to pay for themselves. An after-school teen program at the center offers homework support to students from A.E. Wright and Alice C. Stelle middle schools in Calabasas.

Registration fees, funds raised at Friday night rock shows and donations from the Community Center Alliance, a fundraising group, help support the afterschool program.

Calabasas city staff and the Calabasas City Council prefer the center be viewed as a public service entity rather than an operation geared toward making money, especially since the facility doesn't have the showers or locker rooms to support a bigger fitness operation.

According to Agoura Hills City Councilmember Harry Schwarz, "Cities should not be in the business of running private enterprise."

And Ed Corridori, the former Agoura Hills mayor who helped start the Community Center, said the local cities should not be expected to write a "blank check" for the facility.

Agoura Hills officials want the center to undergo an evaluation and see what works best.

Recognizing that the Community Center should not be competing with private health and fitness businesses, Calabasas at least wants the facility to be partially self-funding.

"If a 24-Hour Fitness or a Fitness L.A. or one of these things were to open in the vicinity, the (community center-if it catered more to fitness,) probably would not be able to make it," Coroalles said.

In search of solutions

The JPA could raise registration and rental fees for the center to remove the deficit, but the Calabasas City Council reportedly is opposed. According to Calabasas City Councilmember Mary Sue Maurer, some nonprofit organizations are seeking other venues to host their events because of the already high rates at the Comunity Center.

It's time for the JPA cities to resume an active role, says Calabasas Mayor Pro Tem James Bozajian.

"I think that, without question, we're not going to be able to offer the services we offer there now unless the cities contribute," Bozajian said.

"I think it would be a shame to not have some community center where we can have people come, and not make it outside of their affordability . . . I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the cities to contribute," he said.

According to Calabasas Mayor Dennis Washburn, the cities originally intended the center to be as close to debt free as possible.

"I would say that (the center) is well worth whatever it takes us as the cities of Agoura Hills and Calabasas to invest in not only the symbol of, but the functioning facilities of a real community recreation center, education center, cultural center and all the other things," Washburn said.

"We've actually scared a lot of the activities away from the place by virtue of what it costs to consider it as a self-funding facility . . . in the community. I think that we shortchange ourselves in being so ambitious to make a profit on a facility like that," Washburn said.

Other means of funding the Community Center still might exist.

"I think it would be helpful for us to think again about what opportunities there might be for grant funding, for partnership funding and looking for organizations like we do with our runs and Gates Canyon Park," Washburn said. "There are folks who would be willing to underwrite if we would make the needs known and the programs worthy."

The JPA will review the matter at 6:30 p.m. Thurs., April 27 at the Community Center. The agency is expected to decide whether or not to conduct a market analysis, which would help the JPA find a steadier path, Coroalles said.

"The point of the market analysis is to find out if we're providing the right services at the right price for the demand that's out there in the market," Coroalles said.

A market analysis isn't the same as an audit, he said. An audit can be the result of poor money management, which is not the case at the Community Center.