Understand the choices in park elections

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, July 28, 2004

The old wheeze in those notoriously suspect Chicago elections used to be, “vote early and often.”

While we can’t recommend grabbing two ballots, islanders on Sept. 14 will have the unusual challenge of voting for parks twice — seven times, if you count park board races — in the same election. Voters will decide the future of their local parks both long- and short-term, first through the proposed creation of a Bainbridge “metropolitan” park district, and second with a one-year, $2.567 million maintenance and operations levy to keep parks open while the new district gets off the ground and the old one is dissolved.

There are an almost maddening number of permutations – okay, actually just four – but while the election is still six weeks away, voters should start thinking now about the implications of their choices. Possible election outcomes include:

Metro No, Levy Yes: In this scenario, islanders opt to stick with the status quo. The metropolitan park district option is rejected, the entity now known as the Bainbridge Island Park and Recreation District is retained, and a one-year levy keeps parks open past Jan. 1. (Remember: since the failure of the last levy in February, current funding expires at the end of this year.) The district would have to float another, two-year M&O levy sometime next year for operations in 2006-07, and the cycle repeats ad infinitum.

Metro Yes, Levy No: The metropolitan district is formed,

but parks shut down anyway for want of funding. The gates don’t reopen until January 2006, when the new district starts collecting a regular, year-to-year tax levy in the same manner as the fire district.

Metro No, Levy No: The new park district is rejected, and the current district shuts down until voters approve a new levy.

Metro Yes, Levy Yes: The new metropolitan district is formed, and over the next year assumes the holdings and assets – parks, pools, the whole shebang – of the current district. A new park board operates side by side with the current board (although the two may well have overlapping members) until the transfer is complete and the current park district and its board are dissolved. The one-year levy expires at the end of 2005, when the new year-to-year metro park levy kicks in.

Got all that? Excellent. Now, complicating matters somewhat is the selection of the proposed metro park district’s board. Voters on Sept. 14 must select all five positions on the new board, although it appears that all current park commissioners are seeking “re-election,” as it were, to the new board as well. And conceivably, some new faces could be elected to the new board, only to see the board never formed should voters reject the metro district concept itself. At least there’s no filing fee.

Lastly, park constituents should consider the margin

necessary to achieve various election outcomes. While the metro park question needs just a simple majority – 50 percent, plus one vote – to pass, the one-year operations levy (as always) requires 60 percent support. So folks interested in enjoying Bainbridge parks and related programs in 2005 should vote for the levy regardless of where they stand on the metro parks question.

Our view: islanders should vote “Yes” for parks, twice, and emphatically – once for short-term funding, and once for long-term stability. And we’ll repeat that as the election draws nigh; mail ballots go out around Aug. 25.