Commission Impossible

Is it the bag of money stolen by those cool surfer presidents in the greatest movie ever...Point Break?

...or maybe the amount of money used to buy an "art" chess table. Wait...I know, it's a picture of the bag 'o dough for Mr. Yeates that the friends 'o park hauled down to Sac on their bikes.

Lon -

I just did a quick once over on the letter and found a few substantial errors, mis-statements, and gross exaggerations. I’m sure there are more, but I’m not a lawyer.

1 – Page 2, the entire discussion regarding the legality of framing the disk golf project in that manner. The law firm state that the city never performed the environmental review and that the course was never authorized. I think this is incorrect, as the city did do some sort of review and came back with a “negative declaration”. My understanding is that in EIR speak this means, “there is nothing to worry about, go ahead with the project.” I would also posit that the city did approve the project when they set aside money for it. I am sure you can find the exact minutes and statutes dealing with this. However, from my perspective, the city did do a review and did approve the project. This was not good enough for the members of FOBP, so they threatened to sue (they weren’t yet a group, but the current members are the ones who spearheaded the initial threat of legal action, and FOBP are definitely behind this latest legal salvo).

2 - Footnote 27 on page 10, in addition of the text of said page. My recollection of the infamous "checkerbloom incident" was that it was most likely an accidental by-product of a mountain bike jump. Neither disk golf nor the presence of a disk golf course had anything to do with this. By phrasing the letter in this manner, the law firm is pinning the vandalism on disk golfers with innuendo and whisperings.

3 - Page 10 in discussing how a 25 foot buffer in not sufficient because there is no way to ensure the buffer of adhered to. This is the case with any trail, access, or visitation and is not endemic of disk golf?!?!? The only way to ensure the 25 foot buffer is to have armed guards, razor wire, and prison walls. It appears the lawyers and FOBP want no access whatsoever.

4 - Page 10 and 11 - the discussion of checkerboom and knotweed as the crown jewels of conservation. My understanding is that the plants are neither endangered nor threatened. They are actually one step removed from that. There is no reason, mandate, or law whatsoever to mitigate for them. Indeed, the city did NOT mitigate for them when they built the new Horseshoe Lake compound. By stating these plants need this type of protection, the FOBP are making the city hit unreasonable targets that are not required and are ridiculous.

5 – Treating the facilities at the trailhead as part and parcel with the disk golf course. The trail head, trails, parking lot, and possible bathroom structure will all be planned for regardless of course implementation. The trailhead has an unfortunate name of “Disk golf Trailhead”; however, the city wants that trailhead there for access to the park with or without the disk golf course. By insisting that the facilities are part of the course, the FOBP and the lawyers are making disk golf pay for sins it did not commit.

6 – Page 21 states the disk golf course is in OS-1 and RCA zoning. This is incorrect. I don’t recall the exact zoning for that parcel of land, but it is definitely not OS-1 – I am sure you can fill in the exact zoning. In fact the zoning for the 25 acres in question, the development/use standards are much more lenient than even lower park.

Overall, I can’t believe that the FOBP got what they asked for and now want more. The city has spent $500,000 and 4 years kow-towing to the threat of legal action. If we jumped in the way-back machine, I wonder how much money/time would have been sent if when the first letter was received, the city said, “bring it on”. It could not have been worse than the poo-poo platter we have ended up with.

With the $500,000 uselessly spent, the city could have hired another maintenance person for Upper Park; they could have completed any number of projects; they could have saved 1000s of man-hours spent on this project; they could have spent the money on a couple of parking charettes. Regardless, the money could have been usefully spent. Instead, we caved to a bunch of babies and gave them their way. When their way ended up giving them some results they did not like, they now cry harder. It’s now time to give them a timeout and ignore their histrionics.

With Friends like these, the City definitely does not need enemies.

Dave Brobst

I can't elucidate just how disgusted I am with the "friends".

Oh and for the CI challenge, that stack of money is $500,000, the amount of taxpayer money "fiends" have forced the city to waste on useless and never ending studies to protect the park from flying discs and errant humans that use the park.

Or it could be the amount of money the council will have to offer the next city manager to entice him/her to take the job.

The Friday Night Awards:

withannee - best comedic post, assuming you were kidding

Dave - informed citizen award, with a minor correction. The disc golf area is OS1. But Yeatsey was incorrect in the zoning overly. It is RMA (a lower threshold for conservation) not RCA. But none of that really matters. Examples of OS1 and RCA areas include; Caper Acres, the picnic tables play structure and baseball fields at Wildwood Park, and even that monstrously large Nature Center building.

Disc golf is no different than other activities allowed in OS1 and RCA zones, let alone RMA zones.

Anthony - brevity in post award, and a follow up award of winning the CI challenge. That is an image of $500,000. Roughly the cost of the Master Plan for Bidwell Park.

It looks like I'm missing the Kelly Meagher roast damn! And I wouldn't be on the computer on a Friday night if my wife and son weren't watching a really, really, really, really, really bad movie right now.

Lon