‘Grand Bargain’ has something for everyone, but little official support

In a single vote, Tri-Citians could fund an aquatics center in Pasco, a public market in Richland and a performance center in Kennewick.

Individually, similar past efforts by local public facilities districts have failed at the ballot.

But one high-profile advocate with a passionate following on social media insists the outcome might be different if the Tri-Cities Regional Public Facilities District offers voters a “Grand Bargain.”

The bargain would involve one regional vote with a new venue for each — even if that means three smaller projects instead of one big one for all.

“I am certain that all three of them would have a fantastic chance of passing,” said Adam Brault, unofficial spokesman for the group working to link Pasco’s aquatics dreams to Kennewick’s performance center and Richland’s public market.

In the face of flagging support from public officials, Brault and his supporters are lobbying the regional district to package the three projects and present them to voters in all three cities.

The thinking is that some Kennewick voters may not be interested in a performing arts center, but they may vote for the Grand Bargain if they know it will include an aquatics center in the area.

Similarly, a Pasco voter who doesn’t care about swimming, may agree to a two-tenths of a percent sales tax increase if it includes a Richland public market, like Pike Place Market in Seattle.

The regional facilities district board last met in October and won’t meet again before March. Its leader, Richland City Councilwoman Sandra Kent, did not respond to the Herald about the plan, but an administrator confirmed that the full board hasn’t had a chance to discuss the idea.

The bargain would pay for Brault’s personal effort to create a public market in Richland. The market would be contained within a larger mixed-use project of office space, parking and apartments.

Brault and a partner have a development agreement with Richland to turn a George Washington Way site, currently an unsightly hole, into a strip mall. They’re trying to convince the city to support the more ambitious, market-anchored project.

The market proposal requires about $18 million in public money to avoid saddling the property with debt from a traditional loan. Servicing that debt would push rents above the “affordable” level for the florists, produce vendors, growler fillers and the like who would populate the market.

Brault’s enthusiasm has caught on with some. Supporters have bombarded public facilities districts and city officials with letters of support.

Just this week, after a Richland consultant advised the city council that the market could go in either of two places, more than 100 wrote letters supporting Brault’s preferred site, 650 George Washington Way, over the alternative in Howard Amon Park.

Even if Brault, a software company owner, gains support for the Grand Bargain, he’d also need to get a change to state law that would allow a public market to get public facility district tax money. It doesn’t qualify under the current law.

While the bargain sounds promising in theory, a lack of official support could doom its chances of advancing to the ballot. The proposal could only be put to voters by the regional facilities district, with a sign off by the individual districts in Kennewick, Pasco and Richland.

That’s where support runs thin.

Kennewick Public Facilities District, which wants to build a 100,000-square-foot Broadway-style performance center between Three Rivers Convention Center and Toyota Center, is undecided if it wants to put its $40-plus million project to a regional vote.

Its previous request for a one-tenth of a percent increase in the sales tax for a $20 million expansion was rejected by 57 percent of voters in November 2013.

Corey Pearson, the Kennewick district’s executive director, said city leaders are discussing if the performing center belongs in the Grand Bargain. But he observed that each of the cities has grown in recent years and could probably support projects individually.

Richland and Pasco also express little interest in the three-project idea, though for different reasons.

Richland’s facilities district is laser-focused on operating The Reach center, which it owns and manages. Asked about the Grand Bargain and public market, president Frederick Raab forwarded a message he previously shared with Brault: The district’s sole interest rests in the Reach center at Columbia Park.

“After over a decade of delays and fund-raising issues related to the Great Recession, we built the best, readily-expandable facility we could with the funds on hand. Our priorities are to operate this facility sustainably and to expand it as funds become available,” he wrote.

Pasco, stung by the regional rejection of its aquatics center plan, also is unlikely to join the deal.

In an unusual August election in 2013, the regional facilities district went to voters for the first and, so far, only time.

Its pitch: Raise the sales tax by one-tenth of a percent to fund an aquatics center in west Pasco. Pasco voters favored it by a margin of 57 percent. They were outvoted by Richland and Kennewick, which opposed it by a similar margin.

Stan Strebel, assistant city manager and author of a report on why voters rejected the center, said the facilities board is developing a smaller plan it wants to submit to just Pasco voters.

“It takes all three cities and a majority of the members of the regional public facilities district board to agree on a project or a set of projects. I believe that the Pasco board does not see that happening,” Strebel said.

But until that happens, Brault and supporters are letting organizations around town know there could be a new way of getting a project done in the Tri-Cities.

“We’re trying to start a communitywide dialog that asks the cities to cooperate for the greater good of the region,” he said.

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 7:43 PM with the headline "‘Grand Bargain’ has something for everyone, but little official support."