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Popular Seal Beach pickleball courts taken over by councilman’s nonprofit

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The nation’s fastest-growing sport has hit a speed bump in Seal Beach, where a city councilman’s nonprofit organization has been designated as the official pickleball operator for 17 municipal courts and angry residents are sounding off about a potential conflict of interest.

“This is a power grab to line the pocketbooks at our expense,” resident Anne Potter said in response to the City Council’s 3-1 vote on April 11 to enter into a one-year agreement with the Seal Beach Pickleball Association, whose president is outgoing Councilman Mike Varipapa. “Someone is wanting money from the sport that is number one in growth throughout the country.”

Councilwoman Schelly Sustarsic cast the dissenting vote, asking that the measure be tabled so that she could obtain more information about the agreement. Varipapa, who is term-limited and will leave office later this year, recused himself from voting.

Conflict of interest

Seal Beach City Manager Jill R. Ingram insists the SBPA agreement doesn’t pose a conflict of interest for the City Council or Varipapa.

“As a member of the board of directors of this nonprofit community group, Councilmember Varipapa abstained from participating in the City Council decision to consider and approve the memorandum of understanding between the city and the SBPA, announced that he had a conflict of interest, and left the room while the item was being discussed, all as required by law,” Ingram said.

Although Varipapa abstained from voting, there is still an obvious problem with the City Council’s decision to award an agreement to the SBPA, said John Pelissero, a professor at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

“Typically, it is not good government practice to engage in a contractual relationship with a member of the city council who has a private interest in seeking to operate a city-owned facility,” he said.

Varipapa has a conflict of interest because, although he recused himself, the perception may be that he used his position as a council member to benefit his nonprofit organization without a competitive bidding process or adequate public debate, Pelissero said.

“The common good is an important ethical standard and can only be met if public officials demonstrate that the public interest outweighs any personal or private interest in a decision,” he added.

The agreement gives the SBPA complete authority to coordinate and promote pickleball activities at the bustling Seal Beach Tennis and Pickleball Center, effectively wrestling away those duties from popular, longtime operator Brenda Danielson. Danielson has contracted with the city since 2014 and remains in charge of the center’s tennis operations, where she is paid $3,600 a month.

Varipapa did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment on the agreement.

However, SBPA Director of Operations Todd Okamura told the City Council last month that the nonprofit’s seven board members are eager to get to work. “We have momentum to continually build pickleball,” he said.

Contract terms

The agreement requires the SBPA to pay the city 10% of its net profits derived from event fees as well as merchandise, food and beverage sales.

It appears the agreement will be more lucrative for the SBPA and less financially beneficial for Seal Beach than Danielson’s contract, which required her to return 20% of gross proceeds. Danielson estimated that before the COVID-19 pandemic, she paid the city $8,000 to $10,000 annually from pickleball operations.

Seal Beach Mayor Joe Kalmick could not explain why the SBPA and Danielson’s payment requirements differ. “That is the way they (SBPA and city officials) wrote it,” he said.

Additionally, the city did not respond to a Southern California News Group request for a copy of the SBPA’s business plan.

Popularity soaring

The debate over whether the SBPA or Danielson should manage Seal Beach’s pickleball courts comes at a time when the popularity of the sport — which combines the elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong — is booming locally. Courts at the Seal Beach Tennis and Pickleball Center are full virtually every day.

Additionally, paid pickleball memberships have increased from just five in 2020 to 180 currently, with thousands of people playing at the center as drop-in users, according to city officials.

Danielson is responsible for much of Seal Beach’s pickleball success, former City Councilman Ray Ybaben said.

“Since Brenda took over the Seal Beach Tennis Center, there has only been harmony, laughter and a good positive spirit among all members (of) tennis and pickleball,” Ybaben said. “There may be a suggestion now and then, but complaints are rare.”

However, that kumbaya vibe has given way to “bad blood, discontent and growing animosity” between the Varipapa and Danielson factions, Ybaben said.

Ybaben believes Varipapa has concealed his real intentions for Seal Beach pickleball from the City Council while working quietly with municipal officials to establish the SBPA, which was registered with the state in November 2021.

“Why the council supported a fellow member who had kept them ignorant of his goals … is beyond reason,” he said.

Varipapa’s involvement with the controversial SBPA agreement also is creating a buzz on social media.

“It is just plain wrong to have our city councilors approve a memorandum of understanding for a sitting councilman so he can take it (the tennis and pickleball center) over without question and appoint his friends to be on his board with no approval process,” pickleball player and Seal Beach resident Marilyn Cicerone wrote on Nextdoor. “If all of you citizens of Seal Beach allow this kind of wrongdoing, there will be no end to how politicians can yield their power to do these types of takeovers.”

New management

Danielson, who is a certified tennis pro, said she had no warning that her management of the pickleball courts would soon be ending. However, there were subtle hints along the way, she said.

At a Feb. 24 meeting, she said, Seal Beach Recreation Manager Tim Kelsey told her a nonprofit was going to be created to help pay for more frequent resurfacing of the pickleball courts.

At the time, Danielson had already purchased medals for an upcoming pickleball and pizza tournament scheduled for April 30 and had arranged for staffing. But Kelsey pulled the plug on the event.

“Tim called me and told me I had to cancel my pickle/pizza (event) because the nonprofit was going to launch on that day,” Danielson said. “I asked if they could move it and Tim said no.”

Danielson said she tried to move the tournament to another date, but Kelsey said she couldn’t proceed with any new events.

During another meeting on April 6, Kelsey and Seal Beach Community Development Director Alexa Smittle asked Danielson for her opinion on the SBPA.

“I let both Alexa and Tim know that I felt that this entire organizational change has been handled in a very disappointing and unprofessional way,” she said.

Danielson said that before she began managing the Seal Beach Tennis and Pickleball Center, it had struggled for an identity.

“Members of the community wanted to remove tennis courts to make the place more community-friendly with things like a basketball court and climbing wall,” she said. “The center has gone from a ghost town to booming with a full parking lot the majority of the day.”

Danielson is particularly proud of bringing pickleball to the facility, where round-robins, leagues, and sanctioned tournaments are regularly held. So she’s confused why she was pushed out.

“I have never been spoken to about any complaints in eight years,” she said. “If anything, I am disappointed that the city did not hold a competition for the pickleball contract. I would have been happy to compete for the work and believe the city would have gotten a better deal.”

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