Photograph courtesy of Hakone Foundation
The city will turn over control of Hakone to the Hakone Foundation.
New Lease Better Defines Roles Of Foundation, City, Hakone Gardens
Saratoga residents to park at, enter gardens for free
City to pay for gardener
By Kara Chalmers
On Oct. 18, the Saratoga City Council voted unanimously to support a new lease with the Hakone Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Hakone Gardens.
Hakone--one of the only authentic 16th-century Japanese gardens in North America--is located in the city, off Highway 9.
The foundation has operated the gardens since 1994, under an agreement that the city spend $672 yearly in insurance coverage and approximately $67,000 for a special gardener--which the foundation then repays to the city.
The terms of the new lease requires the city to spend $250,000 for maintenance and repairs over the next four years, at which time the foundation will take over. The city will also spend $250,000 of its CDBG funds, federal grant money, for issues raised in the Americans with Disabilities Act, over the next five years.
The main difference in the new agreement is that the city will now pay $67,000 for the gardener's salary for the next two years, but will phase out the costs over seven years. The foundation then will assume the cost.
The city has pledged to keep the road, water, sewer and electrical systems in good operating order throughout the life of the lease, said City Manager Dave Anderson.
According to Foundation President Dan Pulcrano, in the agreement the city will turn over the gardens in good condition and help the foundation pay the gardener's salary. He said that because of the past ambiguous relationship between the city and the foundation--the foundation was a city commission but was also a nonprofit organization--the city did, in fact, pay expenses outside of the previous agreement. He said the new agreement conforms more to reality by acknowledging some city support for the gardens while capping and defining it in the long term.
Pulcrano is the executive editor of the Saratoga News and CEO of its parent company, Metro Newspapers. He has been the foundation's president since June 1999.
The city benefits from the agreement since two city council members are entitled to two seats on the board of the foundation, and one council member is entitled to a seat on the executive committee, which was not a part of the previous contract. One third of all board members will be residents of Saratoga and all residents will be able park at the gardens for free even if, in the future, Hakone institutes an admissions fee to nonresidents. Today, anyone who parks must pay $5 but, otherwise, admission is free.
"It's very good for the city because over the course of the lease, we believe that tens of millions of dollars in revenues and fundraising will occur and that this money will be invested in really just polishing the jewel and improving it," Pulcrano said.
The agreement has been in the works for a year and a half, Pulcrano said. The last operating agreement between the city and the foundation was signed in 1997 and expires in 2004.
Until now, the foundation has operated under the direct control of the city council, which had appointed the foundation's board of trustees. Pulcrano said this had provided a challenge for the foundation's fundraising efforts. In March 2000, Pulcrano said he asked the city for a long-term lease that would give the foundation more autonomy and more security so it could raise more funds from donors and attract more people to be board members.
"We can concentrate on running the foundation and gardens as opposed to politics," Pulcrano said. "This allows us to make good long-term decisions as opposed to short-term political ones."
The new agreement will allow the foundation to elect its own board of trustees. The relationship between the city and the foundation will now be solely a landlord-tenant relationship.
Pulcrano also said that since the foundation can use volunteers, has the expertise in managing the garden and has fewer levels in the decision-making process, the foundation can run the facility at a much lower cost than the city could.
"There is a limit to where the city can or has the ability to spend the money to maintain any entity," said Councilman Evan Baker. "Quite frankly, I think this one's right at my limit."
The council voted to accept the new 55-year lease agreement by 5-0, but in the negotiation's final hour, the chair of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission, Judy Alberts publicly questioned if the city followed the correct procedure throughout the lease negotiations with the foundation.
According to Alberts, since Hakone is also a city park, the lease agreement first should have been brought before the commission, the way other parks issues are usually handled in the city.
Alberts wrote a letter to the council, dated Oct. 14, asking the council not to vote on the agreement but to refer the item to the commission first for a recommendation. But council members, who had to decide if the commission's input would have been relevant in this case, went ahead with their decision to accept the lease agreement.
The parks and recreation commission only has the power to make recommendations to the council.
On Oct. 19, after the decision, Alberts said she recognized that many people put a lot of time and hard work into the lease negotiations. But she said she still feels the commission should have been apprised of the situation earlier and that the process should have included more input from members of the public.
According to City Attorney Richard Taylor, before the lease can be finalized, it needs to include language that states the city and the Hakone Foundation will cooperate in opportunities to secure grant funding from the state.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
