FYI: ‘Nature hates calculators.’ –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grow me the money

The county’s parks administrator appeals for more money to keep our region green

BY ANNE QUINN

Some of the best things about SLO County life may be free, but Pete Jenny said that it takes millions of dollars to maintain them. Jenny is manager of the Parks Division of the SLO County Department of General Services.

Half the $4.7 budget for county parks comes from the what the county puts aside in its general fund. The other half comes from user fees. The county’s budget allocation for parks, currently $2.3 million, is drawn from the same revenue source that funds county libraries and roads. And it's not enough, Jenny said.

That's why Jenny has made an "at issue" request to appear before the Board of Supervisors during their budget hearings June 11—13 to appeal for $197,500 more in funding than is being recommended by the County Administrator’s office.

The Parks Division head is hoping residents who love parks will join him in his appeal. "I can make all the pitches in the world about money and parks, but what I say won’t matter if people don’t say that parks are important to them," he said. "Parks are the pressure-release valve that keep us from becoming LA."

Recommended funding for parks in the 2001—2002 budget is the same as it was last year, $2.3 million, according to Gail Wilcox, assistant county administrator and budget director.

Prior to a 15 percent increase in parks funding from the county’s general fund last year, county parks revenue had been frozen for 10 years, Jenny said, while cost-of-living increases for its staff of 35 increased and so did such expenses as electricity and gas.

"It takes a lot of electricity to heat a pool, and we’ve got six," Jenny said.

The Parks Division held its ground by deferring maintenance projects. "We’ve tried to do more with less, but now we’re at the breaking point," Jenny said.

"Clearly they have limitations. They are not able to increase user fees without limiting access–no one is going to pay $30 a person to use a park," said Wilcox. "But the Board of Supervisors needs to weigh in on the level of general fund revenue that should go to parks. It’s a policy issue for the board and not a staff decision."

District Five Supervisor Mike Ryan said that Jenny’s at-issue appeal is unusual. "Most departments don’t go at issue during the budget process. One or two departments at the most will ask for more funds," he said. He isn’t ready to comment on what his reaction will be until he hears why Jenny is appealing the budget allocation. However, the cost of construction of Dairy Creek Golf Course, which Ryan dubbed a "boondoggle of county funds," apparently still rankles. "That thing cost us $12—$14 million to build," he said.

Jenny isn’t asking for additional funds for Dairy Creek. The county’s three golf courses are operated separately from other parks, he said, explaining that user fees support the golf courses entirely and that in this respect they’re run like businesses. "There is really a financial firewall between the golf courses and other county parks," he said, adding that construction of Dairy Creek was closer to $8 million, not an excessive cost for a new course given today’s rigorous environmental standards.

District 2 Supervisor Shirley Bianchi said she believes county parks do need more funding, mostly "due to that stinking ERAF fund."

According to Bianchi, during the recession of the early ’90s, then-governor Pete Wilson "stole" a proportion of county property tax revenues by diverting them into a state fund called ERAF–the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund. "Then, when times got good you would think we’d get it back," Bianchi said. But the state is continuing to divert the money. Bianchi said she will be "very receptive" to Jenny’s appeal. "I know Pete is very dedicated to our parks."

Planning for the county parks system has also been in limbo. Future plans are outlined in the recreational element of the general plan, which Jenny said has not been updated since 1968.

"Because county planning was not updating the recreational element, the parks department has devoted staff time to developing a master plan we hope to be able to present to the County planning commission and the Board within a year," Jenny said.

That master plan does not include a greenbelt, such as the one that the City of San Luis Obispo has been aggressively pursuing.

"A greenbelt implies going around something. At County parks, we have a little bit of a different role. We’re filling in all the blanks around the cities," Jenny said.

However, without a viable county parks department the blanks may be getting smaller.

Although General fund revenues are increasing, the percentage these revenues set aside for parks shrank from .80 percent last year to .76 percent this year, Jenny said.

Last year’s county budget was $293 million; parks received $2.3 million. This year, the budget has grown to $382 million but parks is being allocated the same $2.3 million. (Much of the increase in this year’s budget is due to one-time expenditures such as $32 million to finance the building of a new county government center, Jenny said.)

This year's budget is further pressured by the recent bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which owes the county $7.4 million in property taxes. The county is preparing for that crunch by setting aside in $1 million reserve fund should those taxes continue to go unpaid.

Even in the face of the spending restrictions imposed on the department, the county Parks Division has acquired and added a boardwalk system in the stand of diminutive oak trees in Los Osos known as the Elfin Forest, added campgrounds at Santa Margarita Lake and El Chorro Regional Park, and completed the first leg of the Bob Jones Bike trail in Avila.

Complicating the Parks Division ’s request for increased revenue is an infusion of funds that parks will soon receive from the voter initiative Proposition 12 ,which passed in March 2000.

Jenny said similar parks bonds were passed "every couple of years in California until the 1990s, then stopped. Prop. 12 is making up for a decade of neglect."

Prop. 12 funds are distributed statewide on a per capita basis. SLO County is due to receive some $904,000.

When they’re considering Jenny’s appeal, it will be hard for the Board of Supervisors to set aside the fact that the Parks Division head has $904,000 in state funds in the offing.

Supervisor Khatchik "Katcho" Achadjian said that the supervisors "shouldn’t ignore how Prop. 12 funding will play in the picture." But Jenny points out that "Prop 12 money is earmarked specifically for capital improvements and can’t be used for staff costs or to buy more gas."

While many voters may have hoped the money meant more land for parks when they punched their ballot, in reality much of it will be going to fix such things as "dilapidated 25-year-old restrooms," Jenny said.

At Lopez Lake alone there’s a $3 backlog of such projects, he said. Much of the Prop. 12 windfall will be used there to upgrade restrooms, replace electrical systems in the campgrounds, and pave roads.

At Santa Margarita Lake campground, there are no showers–another shortfall the County hopes to fix with Prop. 12 funds.

The $904,000 SLO County will receive is a fixed amount. However, there’s an opportunity for more if the County can win one or more of several block grants Prop. 12 makes available. To qualify, projects must meet exacting and specific requirements. One that might meet the test is the county’s collaboration with the City of SLO to manage Bishop’s Peak.

"We operate the top of the peak for the state, and the city acquired the lower stretches through its greenbelt program. Hikes are led out there by docents in the SLO Stewards program. Bishop Peak is a community collaboration, and Prop. 12 grants will be awarded to cooperative management projects such as this one," he said.

While Supervisor Achadjian acknowledged that the county Parks Division has a legitimate need for increased funding due to increased expenses, he said that Jenny’s appeal will have to be weighed against competing priorities of other community services such as libraries.

"When you’re a department head you have a responsibility to see your department needs as a priority, but my responsibility is to everyone," said Achadjian. "This is a very challenging time for us. We get all this information in a draft budget–which needless to say is quite thick–and all are worthy causes, which is what makes our community such a great place."

Jenny agrees this community is a great place, and he is hoping that a successful appeal for parks will encourage everyone to get outside and enjoy it. Æ

Reporter Anne Quinn likes to play on the monkey bars, but gets sick on the merry-go-round. E-mail her comments and ideas at [email protected].