Belvedere examines contracts with recreation committee

Belvedere wants to update its agreements with Tiburon and the Ranch.

The City Council appointed two members Monday to be liaisons in developing new leases and agreements for the Ranch, formally known as the Belvedere Tiburon Joint Recreation Committee. The liaisons are Sally Wilkinson and Kevin Burke.

Belvedere and Tiburon created the recreation committee in 1975. It uses participant fees rather than tax revenue for recreational spaces and programming for residents on the peninsula. The Ranch offers about 500 classes.

“I think the Ranch, the recreational service, is a wonderful resource for both our communities, and they’re doing well financially,” said Belvedere Councilmember Peter Mark. “I think we just need to balance and look at how it’s paid for and the most equitable way to do so,”

Robert Zadnik, Belvedere’s city manager, said the various agreements and leases for facilities and programs are expired or have terms that are not enforced. Some areas have no lease at all, like the Tiburon tennis courts, Belvedere Park or the Tiburon Community Room, even though the Ranch has used the spaces.

The Ranch has leases for the Belvedere and Del Mar tennis courts, the Dairy Knoll Center on Ned’s Way and the Belvedere Community Center.

Tiburon and Belvedere cover the cost of liability insurance in an 80/20 split, and they allow municipal facilities to be used for programming at no cost.

Wilkinson said the Ranch has been expressing concern about outdated or nonexistent contracts.

“It’s sort of been begging the city and the town and the Ranch to sit down and try and put together hopefully evergreen contracts, or at least for a sustained period going forwards,” said Wilkinson, who is Belvedere’s representative on the Ranch board. “There was consensus that a committee should be formed because it’s not just the lease arrangements, it’s the financing and funding arrangements as well.”

Zadnik said that in the past the committee was in a deficit spending cycle, but now it has a surplus and has developed a “robust” reserve over the past three years.

The municipalities gave the Ranch a total of $193,326 in American Rescue Plan Act funding during the coronavirus pandemic, when in-person programs were suspended.

“The timing is good to take a closer look at agreements and arrive at something that is fair, beneficial and sustainable for all parties,” Zadnik said.

Zadnik said the staff hopes to bring new agreements to the City Council by mid-year.