Regional Park Budget Deliberations May Affect American River Parkway

With budget deliberations going on throughout the Sacramento County, the Regional Park sector searches for a way to most effectively cut $1.3 million out of their budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Many of the initial budget submission's proposed cuts could directly affect Fair Oaks residents who utilize the American River Parkway.

At the County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday Rob Leonard, administrator of the Municipal Services Agency, offered changes to the proposed budget that would put safety of the pathway as a number one priority.

The initial budget submission recommended a deletion of 8.4 positions, including two park rangers and one maintenance worker.

Leonard spoke on behalf of Regional Parks and urged the importance of saving the two park rangers and one maintenance worker, offering funding from the Habitat Restoration Program to maintain the positions.

Rather than cutting 8.4 positions, Leonard recommended cutting six positions, which include: the deputy director, administrative services officer, budget officer, reservation specialist and two positions from planning. Furthermore, in the midst of budget cuts former director Janet Baker has resigned.

Susan Peters, board member who represents district 3, said she commends parks for putting safety first, keeping rangers staffed at 14 and instead cutting administratively.

“It illustrates that they are willing to keep our parks clean and safe,” said Peters, during Tuesday's meeting.

Warren V. Truitt, president of Save the American River Association (SARA), said cutting this much of the administrative staff kills the fundamental structure of parks.

“They are taking that institutional memory of parks away,” Truitt said. “All those administrators have been in the business a long time and know how to get things done. They are taking away a lot of people who know what they are doing.”

As cuts have been made at the county level, non-profit agencies, like the American River Parkway Foundation (ARPF), have increased their volunteer hours to cover for inadequacies.

“We have our volunteers out there just cleaning up, being present, maintaining invasive plants, etc. We can't do mowing or trimming because that is a county function, but we make sure things remain clean,” said Dianna Poggetto, executive director for the ARPF. “Appearance is important – if garbage is not being picked up a number of people may not come see the parkway.”

The county recognizes opportunities the ARFP, and other organizations like it, offer in its time of need.

Leonard presented volunteerism from the ARFP as a solution to budget cuts in the meeting.

Leonard said the workload of the recreation supervisor, proposed to be eliminated, could be contracted out to the ARFP.

Truitt said this kind of workload transfer may be seen as a conflict of interest.

“The foundation would then get money from the county to cover the workload,” Truitt said, “and under county charter 71J it states you must use county labor first before you use any volunteers.”

Truitt believes there are other ways to restore parks without contracting out help and cutting administration completely.

Truitt is also a member of the Grass Roots Working Group, which was created in a resolution drafted by SARA. This group was developed to save and fund parks.

“The Grass Roots Working Group did a year of research and polling and found that 73 percent of the Sacramento community would support a one-eighth of a cent sales tax to fund parks,” Truitt said. “We recognized that we didn't need one-eighth and said one-tenth was enough. So we came up with the idea of 'A Penny for Parks' - making the sales tax a penny for every $10.”

The purpose of "A Penny for Parks" is to take the park district back to the 2008-09 budget year, which Truitt feels is the last year when parks were sustainable for safety and cleanliness.

Truitt said the Grass Roots Working Group presented this idea to the Board of Supervisors on May 24 and asked them to start the legislation.

“They told us there were other alternatives and wanted to hold off,” Truitt said. “But they have yet to tell us the alternatives, which I think is pretty absurd. In the meeting on Tuesday I asked them to make these alternatives known because we're the public and we should know what the alternatives are.”

While the board did not mention any alternatives on Tuesday, Peters said she thinks parks need to look at new business models.

“The old business model is not sustained, so we need to look at something different here,” Peters said. “Some examples of positive, new business models are Gibson Ranch and Effie Yeaw.”

Truitt said he believes alternatives the board is referring to would be similar to the recent changes to Gibson Ranch and Effie Yeaw Nature Center.

Gibson Ranch is now privatized under the lead of Doug Ose and Effie Yeaw Nature Center is now being run by the American River Natural History Association, a non-profit organization.

“As long as the entity who is put in charge is following the plan that was established for that area then I don't see any reason why new business models wouldn't work," Truitt said.

Truitt said he is happy the park ranger positions trying to be saved, but is weary of the usage of Habitat Restoration Program's funding.

“This money is meant to buy additional park land, but I understand if this is the last resort to save park rangers. It's important to maintain the safety of the park, but I think there are other options,” Truitt said.

At the end of the day, no one is happy that further cuts are being made to Regional Parks, and members of Fair Oaks are mostly concerned about what the best way to make the inevitable cuts will be.

“I don't envy anyone who is an elected official, because they are all having to make tough choices,” Poggetto said. “I don't think any of them were elected thinking they would have to make this kinds of hard decisions.”