At a Special Meeting called by the Cordova Recreation and Park District Board of Directors on Monday, April 11, the District outlined the chief details of their Resolution 15/16-47 concerning the Cordova Community Pool Renovation, and listened to timed comments by Rancho Cordova City Manager Cyrus Abhar, City Attorney Adam Lindgren, and interested citizens Dan Lynch, Mary Nesel, Joyce Higdon, and Susan Roa.

Public notice of the meeting on Sunday evening at 5 p.m. met the legally required advance notice for Special Meetings of 24 hours, and included a copy of the resolution, which was made available at the meeting as well. Mayor David Sander and Vice Mayor Donald Terry responded with a letter that was also distributed at the meeting. Due to the short notice and the fact that four city council members were out of town on Monday the representatives for the City were City Manager Cyrus Abhar and the City Attorney. The meeting was convened at 5:30 p.m., Monday, April 11, at the Hagan Community Center on Chase Drive.

The result of the resolution was, in effect, that the District would proceed with the pool renovation without further negotiation and outlined the processes they would follow. Bob Thurbon, District counsel, presented the broad details of the resolution, which Board members said provided an answer for each of the deal points the City had requested in March.

The City did not agree that their points had been met with the resolution, and the Mayor and Vice Mayor’s letter stated the following. “If CRPD decides to move forward with the process as proposed by their staff, we will be recommending to the City Council that the City formally withdraw its current offer of funding and direct staff to not consider any future funding requests for this project.”

All District Board members were present at the meeting:  Chairperson Rick Sloan, Vice Chairperson Terri Leimbach, and members Inez Reyes, Michael Yearwood, and Brian Danzl. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Leimbach said that the resolution answered the City’s requirements. “They had every right to say, ‘listen we can’t guarantee you funding until we see a new design and bid process,’ And so the District said, ‘okay, we will do that.’”

District Administrator Jim Rodems felt that the Board made the right decision, saying that the City said they would be able to come to an agreement in 30 days. “We gave them a significant amount of time beyond that and we just couldn’t come to an agreement,” Rodems said. “I think the Board felt they needed to move on this project, it’s been held up long enough.”

Previous 2x2 meetings of two District Board members, two City Council members, and members of their respective staffs had resulted in an impasse in negotiations in March.

“We have a long history of working collaboratively on many projects together,” Abhar said. He expressed the City’s “deep sense of frustration and regret that CRPD did not provide for adequate public process and public input and public debate over such an important decision. We are clearly very puzzled about the urgency of this action tonight and why it had to happen tonight, and why it couldn’t happen next Wednesday when they have the regular Board meeting.”