MiraCosta officials: More marketing required for bond effort

By: DAVID GARRICK - Staff Writer | Thursday, March 2, 2006 10:21 PM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- The key reason MiraCosta College will wait until 2008 to put a bond initiative on the ballot is that a recent survey showed not enough likely voters were familiar with the college to support a bond, officials said this week.

A telephone survey conducted by a Bay Area research firm in January showed that 43.6 percent of the voters likely to cast ballots on such an initiative did not know enough about MiraCosta to support or reject a bond.

The money from the bond would fund new classroom buildings, an aquatics center, a theater and other campus amenities.

"We are going to need a strong marketing effort to make sure that voters know about us and why we need the facilities that the bond would pay for," said college President Victoria Munoz Richart. "It's very clear that members of our community support us when they know about us, but 43 percent said they have no opinion."

A bond would need support from more than 55 percent of voters to be approved.

College officials had been considering the November 2006 ballot for their bond initiative, but the need for extra marketing and some concerns that they might be moving too quickly made 2008 a better option, according to MiraCosta governing board President Rudy Fernandez.

"We think that trying for this in November would not work out for the community," said Fernandez. "We'd rather be cautious and correct and make sure that nothing falls through the cracks."

Discussions began in December about a potential bond, which if approved would be likely to yield about $550 million for construction and renovation projects.

"From December to November is not a lot of time, so it is better that we go in '08," said Fernandez. "When people want to do something they always want to do it quickly, but there is a right way to do things."

Richart said the delay will also allow the campus to complete a comprehensive facilities master plan this spring, which will help the college iron out exactly which projects might be included in a bond proposal.

The extra time will also be spent exploring other funding options, such as revenue bonds, said Richart.

"There is an entire spectrum of financial options," she said.

If a facilities bond for MiraCosta is approved, property owners within the district would pay up to $25 each year for every $100,000 of their assessed property valuation. The district includes all properties in the Oceanside Unified, Carlsbad Unified and San Dieguito Union High school districts.

The survey, which was conducted by the Center for Community Opinion in San Ramon, found that 91 percent of survey respondents who were familiar with MiraCosta had a high opinion of the college.

Also, there was strong alignment between the priorities addressed by the bond projects and the priorities of the 800 people surveyed.

These two findings prompted Brad Senden, who coordinated the survey for the center, to conclude that there is strong potential for a successful MiraCosta bond.

The survey found that residents showed stronger support for renovating and modernizing existing facilities than they did for adding new facilities.

Fernandez said the new marketing campaign will need to stress the importance of adding new facilities to support careers in health care. The campaign must also focus on the community impact of the proposed aquatics center and theater, he said.

"Arts and sports enhance the community and make it more well-rounded," said Fernandez. "We need to focus not just on the needs of the work force, but also of the entire community."

The MiraCosta governing board launched a long-term campaign in December to make MiraCosta an arts and cultural magnet for North County. The board also decided in August to revive MiraCosta's athletic program, which has dwindled down to two sports.

Other potential projects that the bond would fund include studios for digital arts, new classroom buildings on the Cardiff campus, a new career center on the Oceanside campus and the development of a new campus near McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad.

Contact staff writer David Garrick at (760) 761-4410 or dgarrick@nctimes.com.

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