By CC Stone

Having spent the last two months living and learning in the Netherlands, France and Italy, I’ve gained some perspective on public works, public servants and their lasting impact.

Open space and public parks matter to communities, and their existence depends on people with vision and those with the drive and talent to make that vision a reality. Once in a while you get a leader who’s got it all — Lorenzo (“The Magnificent”) de’ Medici is still highly regarded some 600 years after his death for his contributions to the city of Florence.

On Vashon, we’re lucky to live in a naturally beautiful place with lots of land and not too many people. We don’t need big public monuments to make Vashon special. This, I think, is the way most of us like it and want it to remain. The downside is that we’re all dependent on a small number of people to take care of business   —  those who are willing to work, for little or nothing, to make life better for the rest of us. Good civil servants are essential to good governance. Great civil servants are a community treasure. Everyone who steps up to take a turn at these jobs deserves our thanks, if not our support.

We’re fortunate to have the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, founded in 1989 by a group of citizens with the requisite vision, drive and talent. Today, the land trust has grown into a healthy nonprofit organization. One hundred percent of its funding comes through donations or grants. In 2009, the operating budget was about $400,000, with five paid employees, two full time. Their 15-member board has produced a healthy balance sheet; the organization enjoys broad community and financial support; they are well-respected by other state and local organizations as a partner, and they have a big pool of volunteers to call upon when needed.

The Vashon Park District was founded in 1983 by some of the same people. For the first years of its existence, the park district was a nonprofit with no public funding and very modest budgets and goals. It was run by a dedicated band of volunteers, including people who showed up to mow the grass or to drag an old set of bed springs around the baseball infield to smooth it out before a game.

The last voter approved park district levy was passed in 2009 for 45 cents per $1,000 of valuation, so owners of a $200,000 house pay about $100 per year, a $500,000 house about $250. This last levy is currently providing the park district with budgets of around $1 million per year (2012 and 2013) — more than twice that of the land trust. Interestingly, according to an Oct. 21, 2009, Beachcomber article, “The proposed levy would not fund major park projects like field overhauls or park remodels. It is spent only on the daily operations and maintenance of the island’s parks and properties.”

Well, that’s not how things turned out.

The park district has struggled to meet its budgets due to unplanned expenses and cost overruns on the ambitious new athletic fields, among other things. Even though the levy funds were supposed to be only for maintenance and operations, the money was diverted to the VES project.

Although many people have put in a lot of time and effort on this project, it remains unfinished.  There is no doubt that sports enthusiasts will enjoy these fields for years in the future, but continued spending on the project is a concern to many citizens and should be thoroughly and publicly addressed. Maintenance costs for the fields are unknown at this time, but might reach as high as $50,000 per year on top of  loan payments for money that’s been borrowed for the project. Private donations to the district have dwindled, and controversy about the project has become the norm.

The comparison between the land trust and the park district, the one, a nonprofit run by volunteers, and the other, taxpayer funded and run by elected officials, is stark and not at all favorable to the park district and its recent commissioners. It brings up an interesting question: Might we have a better functioning, more responsive park district without public funding?

In Florence, the community labored for more than 140 years to complete the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiori. Everyone knew the massive project (to build the most magnificent church in Christendom) would be the work of several lifetimes. They stopped when they ran out of money or into trouble. They started up again when they figured out how to solve the problems that obstructed progress.

The new board members might want to consider this approach regarding further capital spending on the VES project. It’s in no one’s interest to see this resource shut down and unlikely that King County or the State of Washington would be interested in that outcome. Without this imagined pressure, there is no good reason to keep on spending before the scope of necessary work has been 1) prioritized 2) defined and 3) put out to bid. To proceed in any other way is the equivalent of having your house remodeled on a “time and materials” basis, instead of with a contract, and then getting a payday loan to pay for it.

We have just elected two new commissioners and returned another one to office. All three have said they want to restore the district to sound financial footing and institute good business practices. They will have the three votes necessary to make that happen. I, for one, hope they use them for the good of the entire community.

— CC Stone is a  community activist.