City College faces upwards of $350M in capital needs

By Marco Gonzales

News Editor

City College’s formidable task of budgeting and prioritizing over $350 million in deferred capital needs overshadows many campus wide interests, namely the supporters of the Performing Arts Education Center (PAEC).

Chancellor Arthur Tyler has recently formed a capital planning committee to integrate vested faculty and student interests within the future capital developments of City College campuses.

Fred Sturner, the director of Facilities Planning and Construction and co-chair to the planning committee, said the current capital needs could exceed $350 million. Sturner was hired in September 2014 to form a ten year master plan to budget capital needs.

City College has apparently lacked competent budget measures for years, Sturner said.

He said the school must focus on capital renewal and reinvestment in order to acquire a more accurate budget plan.

“Everything has a different life cycle, so making just one average number out of it (the budget) never gives you an accurate representation of deferred maintenance needs,” Sturner said.

Sturner said he intends to prioritize capital priorities by facilities directly affecting the health, life and safety of the City College population.

The Performing Arts Center Coalition does not agree with Sturner’s priorities.

During the March 25 Performing Art Education Center Teach-In at the Diego Rivera Theatre, many students and faculty expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s vague explanation for monies purposed towards the PAEC.

“If this had been the normal course of events of any project we have worked on, you would have occupied this building for five years now,” said Doug Tom, the PAEC’s leading architect who joined the project in 2004 along with 25 other firms.

The PAEC’s sustainable structure was to utilize geothermal wells to heat and cool the building. The central plant for these pipes had already been constructed in the Multi-Use Building in 2010, Tom said.

Sturner said the PAEC was not the only project set forth in the Community College District General Obligation Bonds in 2005.

In these bonds, monies were

purposed toward the construction of the Multi-Use Building, seismic upgrades and construction for the Chinatown, Mission and John Adams campuses, as well as a new Student Development Center which has not yet broken ground.

The PAEC only ever had a total of around $70 million in their budget, according to Sturner. Sturner said mismanagement of the 2005 bond money diverted additional funds away from the PAEC project.

“They had intended, I’m sure, to transfer more money on that $70 million,” Sturner said, “but it had never materialized because it had been eaten up by inefficient management and planning.” Now that the state has removed funding from the PAEC, along with the money already spent on the geothermal wells and construction oversight, the PAEC only has $34 million left.

The coalition’s president, Rafael Musni, expressed concern over the possible misuse of monies and budget maneuvering by the administration.

However, the PAEC was not the only capital investment set forth in the 2005 bond language. Many other important and vastly expensive capital projects for City College were also permitted.

“The PAEC seems to be placed on the back burner for the administration’s priorities.” Howard Scheiman, a member of both the coalition and the capital planning committee, said.

Sturner is focused on fixing a decade-long budget mess.

“You put a new roof on, in 25 years you need to put a new roof on again,” Sturner said. “Why do we always wait till the roof is just dead and wonder where we’re going to get the money?”

@mijo_marco

mgonzales@theguardsman.com