Accolades to Our City Council

I think of all the good things the City of Santa Barbara has done right. All that hard work, with all good intentions, mostly executed properly. And then I think of that one occasional thing that detracts from all of that good hard work: 90 percent well done, then 10 percent wrong or even bad.

But the public remembers and focuses on the 10 percent poorly executed and negative results.

If this rings true, then the city may want to focus on correcting the “wrong decision” in order to avert broad negative public evaluation.

Here is an opportunity for our City Council to correct a wrong. At least 485 citizens have signed up and complained about the Las Positas tennis court giveaway by the Parks and Recreation Department and the City Council for $1 per year on an 18-year lease. The benefactor of the giveaway is Elings Park. They were given the six best public tennis courts, and Elings uses the profits from those courts to support its non-tennis operations and to pay a large salary to the director.

A public facility should not be turned over to a nonprofit organization (Elings) which then sublets or contracts the facility to a profit-making company to the detriment of the tennis-playing public.

To the City Council: Right the wrong, cancel the lease, and return the courts to the public.

To the Public: Remember, you do have a vote in November!