After being closed for two months, the Santa Clara BMX track is set to reopen on May 31, but it’s yet to be seen whether the track will be able to hold sanctioned races instead of serving just as a practice track.
The track closed April 1 following a dispute between the Santa Clara Police Activities League (PAL), which leases the track from the city, and the volunteer management group that ran it.
PAL accused the group of financial mismanagement — a claim the volunteers have vehemently denied — and is currently conducting an audit of the finances.
Since the closure, PAL has purchased its own insurance for the track and found a new management group to run it. But USA BMX, the sport’s national governing body, has refused to sanction the track for races if PAL is in charge.
Justin Travis, who runs new track development for USA BMX, said at a May 24 Santa Clara City Council meeting that PAL has been “unwilling” to work with them.
On April 15, he said they made the league an offer to pay them money to immediately reopen the track. The offer, however, was ignored, according to Travis.
Travis could not be reached for comment about whether additional progress has been made since the meeting.
As the city of Santa Clara owns the land, the council has served as a sort of mediator of the debate surrounding the BMX track. USA BMX notified the city earlier this month that they want to cut PAL out entirely and instead partner with the city.
But with 11 vacancies, Santa Clara’s Parks and Recreation Department doesn’t have enough staff to take on the venture, according to city officials.
PAL President Mike Walke denied any unwillingness to work with USA BMX in his remarks to the council on Tuesday, and said the league is “committed to paying all track operation expenses.”
“We are completely open as a board to open negotiations back up with USA BMX so we can negotiate to get that track sanctioned,” he said.
The council voted 5-2, with council members Anthony Becker and Kevin Park dissenting, to bring the issue back after PAL completes the financial audit.
But Becker and Park wanted a more of an immediate solution.
“If we can’t get a resolution for a sanctioned track as soon as possible, then one of the only options that I’m going to think about is to as a council direct staff to bring back to us consideration into termination into a PAL lease contract and that won’t benefit anyone,” Park said.
Replacing PAL as the lease operator, however, could take three to six months at a minimum, according to city officials. And in the interim, the track would be closed.
As for the audit, PAL’s auditor Rich Gordon said they can’t complete it until the former volunteer management group gives them access to certain accounts. Gordon said they currently have an unreconciled difference of $136,000 for 2021.
In an interview, Nick Valencia — who ran the track for six years — denied any embezzlement and said the difference was money that came from private lessons that he then reinvested for “upgrades around the facility.”
He said he was allowed to use the track for private lessons — something PAL has signed off on for some of its other sports it oversees, Valencia noted.
The former track manager hasn’t spoken to PAL members in several months but remains confident that they’ll be able to have a sanctioned track once again.
“It’s just a hope that the city can really figure out what they had there and right the ship in the correct way,” he said.
In the meantime, many of the riders are left without anywhere to race.
Christine Marron, whose three sons ride at the track, told the council that last week her sons were “desperate to race” so she made the 60-mile trek to the next closest racing track. The 90-minute commute got her sons there in just enough time so they could run a few laps before the race began.
“They don’t ask me to practice,” she said of the need to sanction the Santa Clara track. “They ask me to race. There’s a difference.”
Impassioned pleas from dozens of parents and children flooded the council chambers Tuesday evening, with many of them asking the council to take over the track from PAL.
But the majority of council members indicated that their hands were essentially tied — leaving PAL, the former volunteer management group and USA BMX to work out a deal.
“We only hold the lease and that’s it,” Councilmember Karen Hardy said. “We don’t operate the track. We don’t have an agreement. We don’t do that. No matter how much we might want to do something, if we do not have the power, we don’t have the power.”
For Valencia though, he’s going to continue to search for a new location for the program since the track is set to close eventually to make way for the Related Santa Clara project — a 9.2 million square foot mixed-used development that will bring 1,680 housing units and 5.7 million square feet of office space to the city.
Source: www.mercurynews.com