Somebody Else's Money
by Dale Tyler

Mission Viejo, as a city, has a number of parks, a library, community center and other facilities that are freely available for public use at no charge to the user. All citizens of Mission Viejo pay taxes to fund these facilities that they may use or not as they choose. There are other facilities, namely the “Rec Centers” and the “Tennis Club” that require a fee be paid, either daily or monthly, in order for anyone to use those facilities. The Rec Centers are publicly financed health clubs while the Tennis Club features a number of tournament-sized courts and changing rooms throughout the city. The Rec Centers and Tennis Club were deeded to the city by the Mission Viejo Company after the company ceased marketing new housing in the city. The city, through taxes collected from all of the residents, has paid millions of dollars to operate and improve these facilities since that time.

At our most recent city council meeting, the City Budget Workshop, a select group of citizens came to lobby for improvements to their favorite government-funded benefit, the Mission Viejo Tennis Club. This followed their performances at the Mission Viejo Community Service Commission meetings, where the commissioners voted 6-1 (Brian Skalsky voted no) to approve a $7.5M addition to the Tennis Complex on Marguerite near Trabuco. The council agreed and approved the plan as requested by the Tennis Club members, city staff and the commission.

However, there are many questions about why the citizens of Mission Viejo should support the private recreational activities of a very small number of people, some of whom are not Mission Viejo residents. While the members of the Tennis Club pay a fee for the use of the facilities, that fee covers only a small portion of the costs associated with maintaining the Tennis Club facilities. The rest of the money, including the $7.5 million to $20 million that the improvements will cost, will be paid by the city (after accounting for the 200-percent budget overruns that are typical of city projects).

For example, why shouldn't the Tennis Club fees pay the full cost of maintaining the facility? In talking to some of the members after the recent Community Service Commission meeting, I came away with an overwhelming feeling that they think they are entitled to their Tennis Club. They are convinced that the citizens of Mission Viejo owe them top-grade facilities, regardless of the cost, that they would use for their own enjoyment. The fact that their fees did not even cover the costs, let alone the millions needed to improve the Tennis Club to their standards, did not concern most of them in the slightest. One did allow that he could see how I thought it was wrong for me to pay for their fun. Most simply said they were entitled to continue to use the Tennis Club and that the city, not they, should pay to operate and improve it.

This sense of entitlement is, of course, the height of arrogance and selfishness. I would expect better from those who describe themselves as personally fiscally responsible. They claim that their pet project increases home values throughout the city as justification for their demand that the city spend great sums on their private entertainment. Yet, there is no evidence whatever supporting this claim. For this to be true, there would be higher resale values closer to the Tennis Club locations and less effect the farther away the house was from the facility. It is hard to imagine how the presence or absence of a facility that is used by a tiny number of residents would have any affect on a buyer's willingness to pay more for a house, unless the buyer has a tennis player in the household. In fact, because Mission Vijo taxpayers are forced to subsidize the Tennis Club which allows out of city players to use the facility, it would be more likely that houses out of town would be more valuable because they don't have to pay the taxes. In short, this is all about spending taxpayer money for the entertainment of a few, without the slightest justification.

It is instructive that the people supporting the Tennis Club expansion at the Council Meetings think so little of the rest of us that they are willing to have us sacrifice improvements and maintenance in other city facilities so that they can have their fun. During the Budget Workshop, not one said that city park maintenance was more important than their precious tennis courts. It is also interesting to note that the MacLean, Ury, Kelley trio on the city council feel that the needs of certain Tennis Club members are more important than the needs of the rest of the citizens. For proof of these assertions, one only has to look at the directions given to staff at the Budget Workshop.

The Tennis Club fiasco is, in many ways similar to what is happening in the State of California. A small group of individuals feels that the city (or state) owes them a certain benefit and they could care less about the rest of us. Most of us in Mission Viejo believe that small government is the key to maintaining our freedoms, because that type of government spends little and thus taxes the same way. Mission Viejo, through the efforts of City Staff, some members of the City Council and small groups of self-important individuals is becoming a welfare state for the well to do. The rest of us need to stand up and say “Enough! Stop wasting our money on foolish projects”. I'm sure there are members of the Tennis Club who do not support this boondoggle. I'd like to hear them speak out against waste and reject this project publicly. For the rest of the Tennis Club: Stop spending somebody else's money!