County Parks to Be Spared in Budget Cuts : Cost of Closings Would Be More Than Savings

Noting that closing county parks would cost more than keeping them open, the Board of Supervisors tentatively voted Tuesday to maintain eight parks that county administrators had recommended be closed.

By a unanimous vote, the supervisors restored $300,000 in park funding that Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey had targeted for elimination in his effort to trim about $10 million from the county’s $1.3-billion budget. However, the supervisors did not specify where the $300,000 should come from in the budget, deferring that decision until later in their deliberations.

Though not underestimating the dilemma posed by what Hickey has described as the county’s “most difficult fiscal crisis since the passage of Proposition 13” a decade ago, the supervisors strongly indicated Tuesday that they are unwilling to sacrifice parks--one of the county’s most popular services--to solve their budget problems.

“This is one of the last things I’d vote to remove from the budget,” Supervisor Leon Williams said, echoing remarks made by several colleagues.

The eight parks affected by Tuesday’s action are Otay Lakes, Wilderness Garden Preserve, Louis Stelzer Park, Quail Gardens, Eucalyptus Park, Lincoln Acres Park, Goodland Acres Park and Mt. Helix Amphitheater.

When Hickey unveiled his budget proposal last month, most of the supervisors immediately took issue with the recommended park closures--perhaps because, as one county official put it at the time, “No one wants to be remembered for closing parks.” The supervisors also characterized the $300,000 needed to avoid the closures as a relatively small amount, even at a time of severe budget constraints.

Regardless, any uncertainty over the parks’ fate was eliminated when county administrators explained Tuesday that closing the parks could cost more than $1 million--more than three times the parks’ current staffing expenses. Layoff costs and the expenses involved in removing equipment and barricading the parks would total about $500,000, while another $600,000 in grants is tied to the parks, according to Robert Copper, director of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen pointed out that the recommended park closings would generate long-term budget reductions, with the closure costs being a one-time expense, while the $300,000 would be an annual savings.

But the supervisors, worried more about their immediate than long-range economic woes, argued that closing the parks would exacerbate rather than alleviate the county’s fiscal 1989 budget problems.

“We’re gaining really nothing dollar-wise by closing them this year,” Supervisor George Bailey said.

“The $1-million cost of closing seems to make no sense,” Williams added.

In a related action, the board adopted Supervisor Susan Golding’s recommendation that the county spend $266,590 to hire seven new park employees, primarily to seek funds available to San Diego County as a result of statewide voters’ approval this month of Proposition 70. Of the $776 million in bonds for park acquisition, wildlife and coastal conservation authorized by the measure, county officials estimate that San Diego County could ultimately receive about $40 million.

“The money is available . . . but the county does have to apply for it,” Golding said. “If the county doesn’t spend it, some other jurisdiction will.”

Only Bailey opposed Golding’s motion, faulting the statewide program for not being self-financing, thereby forcing the county to spend its own limited funds to pursue the state dollars. But Golding contended--and her other colleagues agreed--that the county’s minimal investment would be offset many times over, noting that additional revenues available would lower the net cost for hiring the new workers to $212,590.

Left unanswered Tuesday, however, was what other areas of the county’s budget will be cut to provide the added park funding.