City, park district clash over leases

An escalating feud between the Carbondale Park District and the city, now ongoing for two years, hit some of its most sour notes yet during Tuesday's meeting of the Carbondale City Council.

The council informally agreed at the meeting to offer the park district a temporary extension of leases on two park properties owned by the city, but that decision came only after several council members tore into a recent letter sent to the city by the park district's attorney, calling it "ludicrous," "unacceptable," a "direct insult" and a "slap in the face," among other terms.

"The park district has overextended itself financially ... so it wants money from the city, and I say no," Councilman Jeff Doherty said.

That letter, dated Jan. 23 and responding to a lease offer from the city made late last year, asks for the expired leases on Turley and Tatum Heights parks to be extended for two years, as the city offered, but again asks for the city to pay an annual stipend of $150,000 to the park district for the purpose of maintenance - the same request that sparked the fissure between the entities two years ago.

The cash-strapped park district remains hobbled by debt left over from the construction of Hickory Ridge Golf Course, as well as its inability to raise funding through any mechanism other than its property tax levy, which is capped. While the city owns the land on which some parks are situated, including also Evergreen Park, the park district also owns some of its own properties, including Hickory Lodge, the Super Splash Park and the golf course. In recent years, the park district has faced increasing criticism over the declining condition of some of its facilities.

In late 2018, the city council voted to put an advisory referendum in front of voters asking, "Should the City of Carbondale and the Carbondale Park District explore merging their operations?" In April 2019, about 71 percent of voters approved the measure, although little progress has been made since then.

In his Jan. 23 letter, park district attorney Michael Twomey said the city's lease offer without the $150,000 stipend appeared not to have been made in good faith. Twomey also continued a previously stated line of argument that voters didn't fully comprehend what they were voting for last year.

"I would like to once again point out that there is no statutory or procedural possibility of merging the two entities," Twomey wrote. "I would also like to note that the voters could not completely understand what they were voting yes or no to on April 2, 2019 based on the language of the proposal."

Several council members deemed that an insult to voters. Councilman Adam Loos went on the attack, asking if anyone associated with the park district would be willing to rent him their house, free of charge, and then also pay him a stipend. Loos also said he would resist any attempt at landlord oversight over how he uses the home.

"The city has been very helpful to the park district, but as you can see there is simply no majority for bailing them out again," Loos said.

Mayor Mike Henry called the park district's offer "unacceptable," while Councilwoman Jessica Bradshaw lamented that it "seems like there's not much of a way forward" for the two entities. Henry suggested the council extend the leases for two years with no additional money and no additional oversight while the organizations come up with a solution or the city council is able to "make a more definitive referendum."

"We need to start right away on what the future is going to look like," Henry said.

Councilman Tom Grant agreed about getting the lease situation out of the way so that leaders can get to the work of carrying out the voters' will from last year's referendum - a sentiment that was echoed by Councilwoman Carolin Harvey, who encouraged her colleagues to simply start making progress.

"We are getting so bogged down," Harvey said. "Let's move forward and do what those 71 percent of voters asked us to do .... It's almost a year later, and we have done nothing that 71 percent asked us to do."

Said Doherty: "We're failing them by not getting on with it."

The council concluded by asking the city manager and city attorney to send the park district an offer to extend the two leases for two years. The two leases have been rolled into one document.

Kathy Renfro, executive director of the park district, said the district's board of commissioners will consider the proposed lease at its next meeting March 18, adding that the board was anticipating a simple renewal of the leases before moving on to larger questions raised by the referendum.

Renfro said she didn't believe Twomey intended to antagonize the council or voters with his January letter, and pointed out that the drafting of the lease ultimately didn't play out as agreed to during a joint meeting of the board and city council last summer.

At that meeting, the two bodies agreed that their attorneys would work together to draft a new lease, but as Renfro pointed out, in the end the city drafted a lease unilaterally and sent it to the park district for approval.

Renfro praised Carolin Harvey's comments at Tuesday's meeting and said the park district wants to work cooperatively on solutions to the issues on the table. She said the city and park district need to focus on mutual goals in order to move forward.

"I believe the park district's goal is to remove this from a competitive arena and begin cooperating," Renfro said. "We all want, I believe, the same thing: better parks."