The board of directors of Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, has decided to move young, vulnerable children entrusted to their care, to what they call Sunset Recreation Center. This is the very same asbestos contaminated; black mold infested Broadway Middle School that the board purchased without taxpayer approval. The only thing that’s really changed is a small, sad banner at the front of the building claiming that it’s now a recreation center.

Is this the best that we can expect from this board of directors? They are placing the young children of this community in a building that has been professionally identified as having asbestos, black mold and lead paint among other problems. They are actually moving the children out of a clean and safe building in favor of Broadway Middle School. Is this what you would want done with your children? Are you going to allow this outrage to continue?

The board of directors has placed you $2.5 million further in debt without your consent. You own a building that will not be safe and usable unless you spend, in my estimate, at least twenty million dollars more. We can’t know for sure, as the board didn’t do the part of due diligence where you figure out what it will cost to rectify all deficiencies before making a purchase decision. They did a fine job of identifying the many faults and then completely ignored them and made the purchase.

So, where do we go from here? I believe that the people of Seaside need a new board of directors that will not only listen to the taxpayers, but will also make it easier for them to participate and contribute to the operation of the district. This will begin with having board meetings at an hour that an average citizen can participate. Five fifteen is the perfect hour to hold a board meeting if you want to prevent citizen participation. This is the board that you have now.

I am a candidate for the board of directors of SEPRD. I oppose Celeste Bodner. I am working with the following people as I am concerned about how SEPRD is being run. I support their candidacy for the SEPRD board as they support mine. They are; Al Hernandez, Jackie Evans, Patrick Duhachek and Stephen Morrison. Please vote for us in the May 18th election. The future of SEPRD is in the balance.

John Huismann

Seaside