America’s Cup may cost city millions

from blog/sfgate.com, by John Coté,Stephanie M. Lee

Hosting the America’s Cup could cost San Francisco taxpayers up to $21.7 million if fundraising by an independent committee fails to meet a $32 million target over three years to defray the city’s costs of hosting sailing’s premier regatta, according to a new report completed Thursday.

The city controller already has found that “significant additional fundraising” is needed to reach that target, although Mayor Ed Lee and other city officials have expressed confidence that the fundraising committee, headed by philanthropist Mark Buell, will raise the money.

The new report by the Board of Supervisors’ budget analyst, Harvey Rose, notes that the $8 million considered already raised for the current fiscal year is in pledged funds, not actual cash, and is short of the $12 million fundraising target set for Jan. 31…

Reimbursement cap

Rose’s report recommends capping the event authority’s reimbursable expenses and controlling costs by requiring that all reimbursement be based on third-party engineer estimates, rather than actual expenditures, to control costs.

Stephen Barclay, the event authority’s point man on negotiations with the city, indicated earlier this week that the additional repayment options are needed to safeguard his group’s investment if in repairing the piers that are decades old they discover they need to do dramatically more work.

Rose also recommended reinstating a provision in the deal that had been lopped out after the board approved it in 2010 that would give the city a 1 percent fee on future resales of condominiums at Seawall Lot 330…

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