From Mark’s post about cricket fields (emphasis added by me in bold):
2022 Budget Planning , at our annual budget planning retreat we discussed parks planning. The mayor desired progress to be made at Jobson and Samuel Farm parks, myself and other council members, expressed concerns on spending any money at Samuel Farm due to Sunnyvale not owning the property. The mayor pushed and $6.2M was added as an “unfunded” capital improvement item for Samuel Farm. [http://townofsunnyvale.civicweb.net/document/33886…](https://l.facebook.com/l.php…]-R&c[0]=AT0xR1z99isUMb_14aBLgD5bEjgqlbnjFO92GnsoTdT3MQ3aXafP1GAPgEfkeiBK-3sTnlpGC-dLaEjenqtLeJ6jr6HqydEiF-VUstVpBpR9dPU7GFB0G5aLYcfvh0jFJSMGulMJc5j9on1aAk3uQsgS1XsIFwxyflTCYjeY)
The September 12, 2022 Town Council meeting agenda and video is here: https://townofsunnyvale.civicweb.net/document/33886/?splitscreen=true. The relevant portion is at the 1:30:00 mark of the video, where they covered “Item 11: Hold a public hearing and discuss the 2022-2023 proposed budget.” For capital improvement projects in the Town (which would include new fields for parks), the 2022-2023 budget was $496,774 (slide 18 of the budget presentation).
An “unfunded” capital improvement item is like a wish list. Until it is funded, it’s an aspiration but nothing concrete. Because the Town can’t afford to fund all the capital improvements we want right now, many projects are included in the general capital improvement plan but listed as “unfunded.”
For example, $10 Million is listed as an unfunded commitment for design and construction of a Library/Rec Center/Pool. A new police station has an unfunded commitment of $9.375 Million. Another $1.975 Million is an unfunded commitment to design & construction of a Service Center / Animal Control Facility. Jobson Park is given $4.65 Million of unfunded commitments, and Samuell Farm North had $6.2 Million of unfunded commitments, as Mark said. All the capital improvement projects for 2022-2027 (funded and unfunded) are shown in the tables below:
I listened to the whole 2.5 hour meeting. Twice There is no discussion of cricket fields at all.
Now, to be fair, Mark’s post says that parks planning was discussed at the annual budget retreat, not this meeting. But if Council members actually felt that putting an unfunded commitment to make improvements to a park was going to delay Jobson, or that it was going to be misspent on cricket fields, none of that was raised on any video or meeting minutes I see.
