Council Members Raise Mif Albright Land Swap Questions

A controversial proposal to swap the 12-acre Mif Albright nine-hole golf course, part of the city's Chuck Corica Golf Complex, for an equal amount of privately owned land in Harbor Bay Business Park is back in the news again.

Two Alameda City Council members, Lena Tam and Doug deHaan, have placed related items on the agenda for the council's Tuesday night meeting. A citizens' group, meanwhile, is circulating a petition that asks for changes to the City Charter provisions that govern such a land trade.

Tam wants a majority of council members to to waive the confidentiality of a memo prepared by the City Attorney and dated Nov. 11, 2011. The memo provides legal analysis of a charter provision regarding the preservation of parkland through sale or exchange.

In light of the citizens' petition, Tam says, "The public would benefit from a review of this legal opinion on the charter provision and waiver of the attorney-client privilege would help inform the community discussion regarding Article XXII , Section 12 of the Charter."

DeHaan wants the question placed before Alameda voters in November.

He writes, "In 1992, then Councilmember Lil Arnerich requested the City Council place before the voters of Alameda an amendment to the City Charter. The council approved the motion. Staff drafted the amendment as Measure C and put it before the voters on June 2nd 1992.

"The people of Alameda overwhelmingly passed Measure C with 83% of the voters approving the measure. This resulted in Charter amendment Section 22.12 to secure the parks and specifically calls out the Chuck Corica Golf Complex as a park.

"The people believed public parks were safe and could not be sold without a majority vote of the people. They never imagined that a couple small ambiguous sentences intended to allow the Council some minor administrative decisions would be interpreted so broadly to allow the selling of Park Land by as little as three council votes (simple majority) which is even contrary to the selling of any city property which requires four council votes (super majority) as per City Charter, Art III Sec. 1 0, note (a).

"Despite the storm of protest and our improved efforts towards transparency, such a proposal could again be considered. Particularly, given the difficult financial times and competing interests, our parks remain at a high risk.

"Citizens have made their feelings clear on this issue with statements before Council, the planning board, in town hall meetings and with numerous letters to editors published in our local papers.

"Therefore, to ensure that such ambiguous interruption would not again brought forward without due consideration of the requirement of vote of the citizens, it is proposed the Council give direction to place the proposed charter amendment on the November 2012 ballot and thus enable the people to vote on whether to remove the exception enabling the possibility of consideration of a swap/sell of park land without a vote of the people."

Under the land swap proposal, Harbor Bay developer Ron Cowan would be permitted to built houses on the Mif Albright site and would, in exchange, construct playing fields on 12 acres of land on North Loop Road.

The issue has been relatively quiet for the past three months, with city staff looking at alternatives that would provide long-term financial stability for the golf complex.

Also on the agenda:

• Vice Mayor Rob Bonta is asking fellow council members "to immediately initiate the process for the City to consider and adopt a prevailing wage resolution/ordinance/policy in Alameda."

• A recommendation by City Manager John Russo for the city to "opt out" of a countywide ban on single-use, carry-out plastic bags in grocery stores was pulled from council's agenda late last week. With no action from the council, the ban will take effect in the City of Alameda when it takes effect in the rest of Alameda County. You can read more about the ban at the StopWaste.org website.

The council will meet Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers, 2263 Santa Clara Ave.

A special city council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m., also at City Hall. At that meeting, council members will hear a staff presentation on a five-year city budget forecast. Also that night, they will hear a report on a survey of voter support for possible utility and sales tax increases.

Agendas and staff reports for both meetings are available on the City of Alameda website.