From:
To: City_Clerk
Subject: WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA ITEM 5 – Additional $94,813 to Mack5 for Construction Management Date: Monday, July 7, 2025 4:51:23 PM
Dear Mayor Cruz and Councilmembers,
My name is dr. elita layà, a long-time San Pablo resident and university professor. I am submitting public comment on Agenda Item 5, which proposes a third amendment to the Mack5 construction management agreement—adding $94,813, bringing the total contract to $1,197,206.
This amendment is part of a broader pattern of incremental project cost increases that deserve closer public attention.
When first introduced, the Regional Training Facility was described as a $30–32 million capital project. Since then, its costs have steadily expanded—now totaling over $47 million when accounting for bond debt, general fund allocations, and federal COVID recovery funds.
That represents a 54% increase from the original $30.47 million bond authorization in 2021—an escalation of more than $16 million in just a few years.
The Mack5 contract alone has increased by more than 35% since 2022—from $882,925 to nearly $1.2 million. While cost increases may be common in complex projects, they are not insignificant, especially when considered alongside a 30-year $32M lease revenue bond requiring $1.7 million annually in debt service, including $1.1 million in interest this year alone.
After the previous Mack5 amendment was approved in December, and in response to the absence of City-led financial forecasting for the Regional Training Facility, community members co-authored The Math Isn’t Mathing: A Community-Based Feasibility Report.
The report modeled revenue outcomes across a range of realistic and generous usage scenarios, using confirmed public data and comparable facility benchmarks.
The findings were deeply concerning:
The facility does not currently generate enough income to cover its annual debt burden; In all but the most optimistic scenarios, the facility is projected to lose $13–$49 million over 30 years;
The only publicly known usage contract—Richmond PD’s—is worth $5,000 over three years. No additional regional agency contracts have been shared with the public with specific
budgets.
In this context, tonight’s amendment—while modest on its own—highlights a larger issue:
The facility’s cost has ballooned, while its revenue plan remains unclear.
So, I respectfully ask:
What is the full, cumulative cost of the Regional Training Facility as of today— including all capital, soft, and reserve-funded expenditures?
What thresholds, if any, would trigger a formal reassessment of its financial viability?
What is the City’s plan for publishing a long-term revenue and expenditure plan, inclusive of staffing, upgrades, and operational costs? I want to be clear: this comment is about ensuring that as public costs rise, so too does public transparency.
To that end, I urge the City to:
1. Release a comprehensive public accounting of all Cop Campus expenditures to date, including general fund and reserve transfers;
2. Table this allocation until a public-facing breakdown of all future Cop Campus expenditures and maintenance needs is released;
3. Create a comprehensive financial projection for the facility—including future costs for staffing, upgrades, and operations;
4. Develop a realistic 5–10 year revenue projection, based on known contracts and usage assumptions;
5. And establish a community-led Ad Hoc Task Force to evaluate the project’s impact, assess pathways for alternative uses, and ensure ongoing alignment with community priorities.
Because the lease revenue bond used to fund this project did not require voter approval, it is even more critical that the City intentionally and proactively engage residents in decisions related to the largest capital investment in San Pablo’s history. This city is no stranger to hosting special meetings, town halls, local events, virtual listening sessions, and even Google Forms to gather genuine community input— especially when decisions involve less public funding, far less long-term impact, or potentially "controversial" conversations. Yet, we deserve that same level of engagement here—especially as costs rise and the scope continues to evolve.
We are not asking for perfection—we’re asking for partnership. And partnership begins with clear numbers, open communication, and shared responsibility.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
dr. elita layà
San Pablo Resident
References:
The Math Isn’t Mathing: A Community-Based Feasibility
Report: https://tinyurl.com/CopCampusInFeasibilityStudy Petition (266+ Signatures): https://www.change.org/p/stop-cop-city-bay-area-repurpose- san-pablo-s-47m-police-complex-into-a-community-hub
Data, Reports, Records, and FAQ info from: StopCopCityBayArea.com —