Councilmember Cindy Bass is threatening to hold up rec center projects if her district doesn’t get more money

City Councilmember Cindy Bass is threatening to halt Mayor Jim Kenney’s signature Rebuild program to revitalize parks, libraries, and recreation centers across Philadelphia if the administration doesn’t allocate more money for her district.

Bass, who chairs the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee, is refusing to hold a vote on a resolution approving Rebuild’s Project Statement, which is needed for the administration to move forward on Rebuild projects during the budget year that begins July 1.

Her price: $20 million.

» READ MORE: Philly’s soda tax is paying for upgrades to rec centers. But Mayor Kenney and City Council disagree on the pace.

“There’s one more Council session, so I think there’s an opportunity here for the mayor to step up and recognize that there was an error made and correct it,” Bass said. “We are receiving so much less and have so much need, and I am just really disturbed that this man thinks that this could be OK.”

Bass’ 8th District stretches from Chestnut Hill in Northwest Philadelphia to Nicetown in North Philadelphia, and includes all or parts of Germantown, Mount Airy, and Olney. It is slated to receive $31 million for improvements to public spaces funded by Rebuild, which was adopted in 2016 and is funded by Kenney’s tax on sugary beverages, known as the soda tax.

» READ MORE: A timeline of Philadelphia’s soda tax

That puts Bass’ district in the middle of the pack when it comes to Rebuild funding. The average allocation is $39.5 million per district.

Three of the 10 Council districts are slated to receive less than that through Rebuild, with the lowest funding level being $7 million for Councilmember Brian J. O’Neill’s 10th District in Northeast Philadelphia. Six would get more, with a maximum of $59 million for Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson’s 2nd District, which includes parts of South and Southwest Philadelphia.

Rebuild Executive Director Kira Strong said the administration worked with Council to identify the facilities that were most in need of repairs, and noted that Council approved the list of 72 sites that would benefit from Rebuild when the program began. They also took into account the needs of the surrounding neighborhoods, she said, prioritizing areas with more crime and greater public health disparities.

Strong said it would be a grave mistake to halt Rebuild projects at the beginning of a summer when leaders are fearing the city’s gun violence crisis could reach new heights.

“Especially right now, considering what’s going on in our city with gun violence, I don’t think we want to stop the momentum of bringing really high-quality public assets online, so to me that would be the real impact and the real shame,” Strong said.

Kenney sent Bass a letter on Thursday, urging her to allow the vote to go forward and copied all Council members.

“If the Rebuild legislation does not move forward, all active design and construction projects will be forced to come to a halt,” the mayor wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Inquirer. “Not only will progress to lifesaving improvements stop in neighborhoods across the City, hundreds of construction workers, architects and designers will be forced to suspend all activity, costing countless jobs and creating financial instability for these businesses.”

Kenney wrote that 12 Rebuild sites are either under construction or will be soon, and that 33 more are in the community input or design phases.

Because it is tied to the sugary beverage tax, Rebuild’s funding is fixed, and it’s not clear how the administration could meet Bass’ demands without taking money away from projects in other districts.

So far, neither side is blinking.

“We all assumed that money would be spent more equitably, and to see that it looks like one district in particular seems to be receiving so much less — it demands explanation,” Bass said.

The committee reconvenes Tuesday.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the district that is receiving the lowest level of funding from Rebuild. It is Councilmember Brian J. O’Neill’s 10th District in Northeast Philadelphia.