Bond Issue May Be Asked for Huntington Beach Pier

Faced with a fund shortage and a November starting date to begin work on a new pier, the City Council on Monday may decide whether voters should be asked to approve a bond issue to keep the project on track.

The old pier, closed since July, 1988, because of structural deterioration, is scheduled to be torn down starting July 23. Construction of a new pier is scheduled to begin Nov. 1, but so far the city has raised only about $7.5 million of the new pier’s estimated $11-million cost.

Mayor Thomas J. Mays has said he believes that a professional fund-raiser should be hired to obtain the remaining $3.5 million.

“I don’t think we should go for a bond issue except as a last resort,” Mays said.

But others on the council, including Councilman John Erskine, have said that putting a bond issue on the city’s ballot this year is a logical and proper way to raise money needed to build the new pier.

In an interview, Erskine said he is putting the issue on the council’s agenda for Monday night. He said the council needs to make some basic decisions about financing and whether a bond issue should be on the ballot this year.

“I think it’s time to fish or cut bait,” Erskine said. “We need to make a decision.”

He added that he favors hiring a professional fund-raiser as well as having a city bond issue.

“We still have a little shortfall in the amount we need for a new pier, and we also need some money for a bare-bones plaza for the pier,” he said. “I think we should use the bond measure to pay for the basic structure of the pier and the plaza, and the money that comes from the fund-raiser could be used for the extras.”

Councilman Wes Bannister said he favors going only for a bond issue, adding that big corporations in the city are already inundated with donation requests from numerous civic organizations and charities.

“My feeling is that the major donors are already saturated with all the fund-raising that’s going on,” Bannister said.

He added that a bond issue should be used to pay the remaining cost of the pier and also to finance a pier plaza. But he added that the plaza bond “ought to be separate from the pier bond issue; the people should have the right to make the choice on this.”

Mays said no bond issue should be pursued until a final, concentrated fund-raising effort has been attempted.

“I think we need to tell the public that we’ve tried all other methods before we go to a bond issue,” he said.

City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga said last week that a bond issue should be pursued only “as a last resort.” He said community support for a new pier appears to be strong and that money most likely can be raised without a bond issue.

Uberuaga acknowledged that time is running short as the city faces the pier-financing questions. He noted that the city has scheduled calls for bids on a new pier to be advertised in May and opened June 18. A construction contract, according to the city’s schedule, is to be awarded July 2.

But Uberuaga said the city will not have the $11 million for the pier by July.

“This is unusual and not fiscally prudent,” he told the council recently.

Another stumbling block for the council is lack of agreement on whether the city should build a plaza at the head of the pier. The proposed plaza, which would start at the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway, would offer an aesthetically pleasing approach to the new pier and enhance downtown redevelopment, according to its supporters.