City continues to keep power on at YMCA

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

For a second straight year, the city of Las Vegas has bailed out the Durango Hills YMCA because it could not afford to pay its electric bill.

The Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to allocate $217,733 to pay the power bill so that the nonprofit organization that operates out of the city's building at Cheyenne Avenue and Durango Drive won't have to cut back on services.

But a condition to this year's gift, which brings the total to more than $417,000 the city has shelled out to Nevada Power on behalf of the charity, is that the city will conduct an audit of the YMCA program. "It's a darn good idea to have an audit," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "I can support it (the utility payment) for one year. We'll have an audit done to see that you are running a tight ship."

The city hired the YMCA in 1999 to run the then-Northwest Leisure Services Center to determine whether the city could save money in staffing costs by partnering with an outside agency. The city built the $7 million center, and the YMCA agreed to cover all operational costs, including utilities.

Although Councilman Lawrence Weekly supported the utility payment, saying the YMCA has done a "fantastic job" providing services to keep kids off the streets and to give seniors worthwhile activities, he added that the argument for privatization is based on the idea a private agency "can do a better job (financially), but that has not been the case."

Councilman Michael McDonald took a similar approach: "The last thing we want to see is any facility fail, but privatization should be self-sufficient."

Councilman Larry Brown, however, said the YMCA has saved the city $750,000 this year alone in operating the center, and he said the city pays the utilities at all of its other buildings.

"It (the partnership) has been very successful ... for the benefit of our citizens," Brown said.

Mike Lubbe, president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Southern Nevada, said the city's generosity " will allow us to bring more programs to kids and families."

Last December, when the city paid the YMCA's power bill, Lubbe acknowledged that the organization had wanted to run the facility at no cost to the city, "but at this time it's not possible."

Deputy City Manager Steven Houchens warned that, depending on what happens at the Legislature next year, the city may not be in a position next December to play Santa Claus with the YMCA's power bill. He recommended "a single year approval because of the uncertain nature of revenue sources for the city."

The first sign that the partnership was not working as planned came in February 2001 when the YMCA officials asked the city to cover the year's utility bill, which was projected at $136,500.

By December, the organization was facing a shortfall in projected revenues required to cover the cost of running the center, so its leaders asked the city to cover the utility bills for the remaining three years of the contract.

At the time, council members Lynette Boggs McDonald, Weekly and McDonald voted against the measure.

On Wednesday Boggs McDonald suggested that pending the outcome of the audit, the city should consider making the YMCA's utility payment a line item on the budget so the organization would not have to come back year after year to ask for the money.