Reader Response - YMCA

Perhaps you should have spoken with the two representatives from the YMCA before maligning their simple thank you gesture to the council for doing what the council was contractually obligated to complete for 11 years and failed to do so. Your implication that anyone associated with the YMCA has previously threatened to remove council members who did not support renovations is totally baseless. You will not find any record of YMCA leaders, either staff or volunteers, who have made such a statement.

While it is true that the YMCA has pushed for the Council for several years to make needed and contractually-obligated repairs on a building which was in disrepair when they took it over in 1995, the YMCA has worked with city staff and each sitting council for the last 12 years to be an enhancement to the community through programs and services for our residents. While members of the community may make comments to the Council in the public comments session of any council meeting, the YMCA leadership has never threatened any council member with retribution for their stance on completing needed renovations.

To paint a wonderful community asset and established charity with such a gratuitous swipe is irresponsible. Saying thank you to the Council was a simple courtesy acknowledging the infusion of, yes, taxpayer dollars, in a city-owned building in which the YMCA is a tenant.

Rick Donahue

Disputed statement from the blog’s council summary:
Two representatives of the YMCA thanked the council and city staff members for the YMCA pool renovations. Absent from the comments was any mention it was taxpayer money – not from the personal funds of council members. Perhaps YMCA administrators were attempting to balance their comments over the years, implying council members would be removed from office if they didn’t support the renovations.

Editor's Response:
First, I want to thank you for writing with your concerns.

In looking over what we wrote, I think that the point that was being made is that thanking the city council is not the same as acknowledging all of the taxpayer funds that have been spent on the YMCA facility. While I am sure that the YMCA representatives gave the council a warm and happy feeling, there are many who still question the expenditure of funds. One thing that I have been concerned about is the apparent refusal of the YMCA to provide detailed information on where the users of the City-owned facility live. If 99 percent of the people live in Mission Viejo, then at least one could say that those taxpayers are getting a return on investment. On the other hand, if only 25 percent of the facility users live in Mission Viejo, then the cost/benefit equation does not look as good.

I like the "Y" and participated in many programs when I was younger. To the best of my knowledge, no money was given from the community government where I lived to the "Y". All money came from private donors, program fees, and volunteers.

It somehow seems like the YMCA should be providing reports to taxpayers showing how our money is being spent so that the citizens can determine how they feel about supporting the YMCA in Mission Viejo. Right now, I have no real idea what it is costing Mission Viejo, but I see a never-ending stream of items on the Mission Viejo check register paying for various bills. Why?

Finally, the collective recollection of Blog staffers is that there were threats made by people supporting the YMCA at City Council meetings. Emotions do run high during these disputes, and people rightly tell the council that the individual council members will be held accountable at the next election. However, it is a fact that such threats were made by people supporting the YMCA, and that is what we reported. If the YMCA administrators did not make the threats themselves, they also did not distance themselves from those threats at the time they were made.