Carson Parks Director Quits Amid Discord Over City Budget : Spending: Officials say Howard Homan resigned and left on vacation this week. He had been parks and recreation director since 1969.

Carson’s parks and recreation director has resigned from his job, while the City Council this week continued budget deliberations that targeted his department for the steepest cuts.

City officials insist there is no connection between the resignation of parks Director Howard Homan and the ongoing, often acrimonious budget negotiations. However, community members and city staff speculate that Homan’s resignation was forced by the City Council and City Administrator Jack Smith because of Homan’s outspokenness in opposing proposed cutbacks.

Homan, who has been the city’s only parks and recreation director since the position was created in 1969, went on vacation Tuesday and has been unavailable for comment. He resigned Monday, according to Mayor Vera Robles DeWitt and Councilman Michael Mitoma, but it was unclear when his resignation takes effect.

DeWitt and Mitoma declined comment on the circumstances of the resignation, saying the issue is a personnel matter.

Homan’s departure comes at a time when the council is deliberating on a $29.2-million spending package for the 1990-91 fiscal year. The proposed budget represents a decrease of $700,000 from what the city spent last year.

The proposed parks and recreation budget of $6.1 million for 1990-91 is $2 million less than the previous budget of $8.1 million. About five full-time and 30 part-time parks and recreation positions, many of which are vacant, are proposed for deletion.

Under the latest proposal, park hours would be reduced in the summer months and during the city’s 12 holidays, and would be closed Sundays during the winter months. In addition, volunteers, instead of paid city employees, would be encouraged to officiate all sports activities.

The council hopes to vote on the 1990-91 spending plan at its Oct. 16 meeting, more than three months into the fiscal year that began July 1.

Last year, the council passed a $34.8-million budget but spent only $29.9 million after instituting a hiring freeze and cuts in capital purchases midway through the year to keep down an anticipated deficit. However, the city still spent $2.2 million from its reserves to balance the 1989-90 fiscal budget. There is now $7 million in reserve.

DeWitt, who pledged in April when she became mayor to come up with “a balanced budget document in a timely manner,” has publicly criticized Homan and other department heads on numerous occasions for the delay in getting a budget approved.

On Wednesday, DeWitt said: “There’s no relationship at all” between her criticism of Homan and his decision to resign.

Homan has said that what the council wanted in terms of a parks and recreation budget “was never that clear.” The Parks and Recreation Department’s initial budget proposal of $9.1 million was pared down to $6.1 million after several revisions were ordered by the council and Smith.

Marvin Clayton, a longtime Carson community activist, speculated Wednesday that Homan was forced to resign and faced termination if he refused.

“I don’t believe for a minute that Howard would voluntarily resign,” Clayton said.

Clayton also aired his allegations at Tuesday’s council meeting, along with another community activist, Milton Flores. Both said they had been told by city insiders that Homan had been fired. Homan did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

On Wednesday, Clayton said Homan’s resignation was related to continued clashes with City Administrator Smith over the parks and recreation budget, in light of anticipated city cutbacks. Smith declined to comment.

Homan has been “uncooperative with the city administrator,” Clayton said. “(Homan) feels he knows what will and won’t work. He knows what it takes to make the department work. He voiced his opinion,” but the council and Smith “didn’t like it,” Clayton said.