The State of CA State Parks

State parks will stay open for at least 2 years

"SACRAMENTO Gov. Jerry Brown announced Tuesday that he had signed several bills to keep California's state parks open and ensure greater spending oversight after a scandal in which parks officials hid $54 million."

In a recent newsletter California State Parks Foundation President Elizabeth Goldstein appealed to its 130,000 constituents:  "…lawmakers have introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 1478 which will appropriate $20.5 million in State Park and Recreation Fund funding to keep parks open. In addition to allocating this funding, AB 1478 also includes several other important provisions.

• Prohibits the California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) from closing or proposing the closure of a state park in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 fiscal years.
• Strengthens the State Park and Recreation Commission to improve their ability and capacity to provide oversight and a more meaningful connection between the public, park stakeholders, and the parks department.
• Provides a one-time appropriation to ensure that all ongoing internal and external investigations into the DPR are fully funded.

Send a Message to Your legislators now.

In a follow up press release, Elizabeth Goldstein wrote:

“Governor Brown made the first important step toward restoring public confidence in California’s state parks by signing AB 1478,” said CSPF President Elizabeth Goldstein. “Putting this bill into law is a sign of good faith on the part of California’s government that all the hard work of communities, organizations and donors across the state who stepped up to support their parks is recognized and appreciated. —CSPF

Now I usually don't blog about news headlines, let alone bulk email newsletters, but so much confusion has risen around the California State Parks scandal—I decided to look into it to see if I could make some sense of it. It's a case of defending what's mine—to use the California State Parks Foundation slogan.

What I do know is that most of the 70 California State Park park closures are located in the Greater Bay Area. And for some reason many people are blaming Governor Jerry Brown for the closures instead of the politicians who created the problem. Inheritance.

My childhood state park, Camp Taylor was one of the 70 parks slated to be closed—as in boarded up, gates locked—along with Tomales Bay as there weren't enough state funds to keep them open. We grew up on the slopes of Mt. Barnabe, swam each summer in Papermill Creek, and gathered huckleberries each fall on Tomales Ridge. My natal stomping grounds. This was becoming personal.

Add to that list of slated September closures:  Marin's China Camp, Benicia State Recreation Area, Mariposa's California Mining and Mineral Museum, San Mateo's Gray Whale Cove State Beach, Providence Mountains State Recreation Area (already shuttered) and Monterey's Zmudowski State Beach.

Most of my favorite Santa Cruz beaches have also been laid out on that September chopping block. Even the fabled Antelope Valley in SoCal—some 25 parks in all—better than the original 70 parks slated to close last year, that's nearly one-fourth of all our state parks. Sonoma's Goat Rock, and Rancho Olompali, the gates are already locked.

Goat Rock had locked gates, September 2011, as did most coastal beaches from Sonoma to Mendocino and Del Norte.

There was a $22m shortfall in the California State Parks budget. Private funders have stepped forward to keep several more popular parks including Henry Coe and Mugo Point open.

Rancho O;ompali (old Martin Ranch, aka Grateful Dead commune), on the slopes of Mt. Burdell—closed

Many California state parks have already transferring operating costs to private and public partners. Other partner takeovers, including one plan for a local favorite of mine, Austin Creek State Recreation Area in Guerneville, are pending.

Whereas this public and private partner solution keeps our state parks open in the short term—what implications does it have two years or ten years from now? Does this mean our state parks are now in the hands of private concessions? With no control factors in place?

"I think it's a lost opportunity to take action to reclaim our parks before it's too late. I worry that once they're lost, they may be lost forever," said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. "It's very hard to reclaim a resource like this once you've let it go." —Huff Post

Meanwhile rogue Parks and Recreation bureaucrats (whose appointments date back to the Pete Wilson administration) were sitting on two huge slushpots of unaccounted for surplus money ($54m) that chould have been used to keeping California State Parks open.

It's unclear how much of the money is dedicated for specific purposes or can be used generally on things such as staff salaries or to keep parks open.  —HuffPost

BTW, that surplus wasn't in the California State Parks' own budget but in other Parks and Recreation departments' budgets. Lest you think it's a recent development, that $54 million surplus has been accruing interest for more than a decade.

Rogue's Gallely: The Parks and Recreation Fund squirreled away $20.3 million while the Off Highway Vehicle Fund hid another $33.5 million. Neither of these vast sums was reported to California's state controller. Seems like more than an oversight.

Apparently the agencies did such a good job hiding the slush fund that Ruth Coleman, the California Parks Department director, who was hired during Pete Wilson's tenure, and has led the agency since 2003, hadn't a clue. She took the fall and unfortunately the name of California State Parks was sullied during the scandal.

Understand that California State Parks had nothing to do with this fiasco. But it certainly has had a negative impact on legislative attempts to secure long-term public funding for California State Parks at the ballot box. I happily would've paid a higher vehicle tax on two cars if it meant I had an access pass to California State Parks. How cool is that?

California voters in November 2010 rejected Proposition 21, an $18 registration fee for vehicles that would have raised an estimated $500 million for state parks. —HuffPost

I'm fairly certain that the Off Highway Vehicle Fund deliberately hid their excess funds. Before the scandal broke, I remember reading a small article stating that they jealously didn't want to "share" their take. Parks & Rec could also have hidden their surplus for similar reasons—neither wanting to bail out the beleaguered California State Parks. Call it petty sibling rivalry taken to the extreme.

Good old Arnie squandered CA's surplus budget and put California into a $15.7 billion deficit. But he had no idea that the umbrella oprganization, California State Parks and Recreation, was sitting on a surplus—or I'm sure he would've spent that windfall too. 

But the actual deceit goes back much farther, at least to Wilson's time. So credit Pete Wilson with this mess, perhaps even Gray Davis—but not Jerry Brown. Let's hope that our newly appointed nine-member State Park and Recreation Commission are better stewards than the last lot.