Strapped State Parks to Cut Hundreds of Jobs, Reduce Services : Recreation: The Santa Monica Mountains District could lose one-third of its full-time staff. An anticipated $22.9-million budget shortfall is blamed.

The state park system, anticipating a $22.9-million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, will cut hundreds of staff positions and reduce visitor services at parks throughout the state, including those in the Santa Monica Mountains, park officials said.

Although specific closures and service cuts have not been determined for the 275 park units, officials said they are certain to reduce management and supervisory positions by 30% during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The financial crunch is “probably the worst the department’s ever had to go through,” Sherry Reser, information officer for the Department of Parks and Recreation in Sacramento, said on Friday. “Things . . . are pretty grim.”

State parks and beaches within the agency’s Santa Monica Mountains District could lose about 20 of 60 full-time staff members, and there will also be reductions in seasonal employees, said Daniel C. Preece, district superintendent.

“Certainly, we will try to make reductions that do not reduce visitors’ opportunities to enjoy” the parks, Preece said.

“We’re very sad,” he said. Although the cutbacks will force the agency to improve efficiency, Preece said “much of it will be reduction in what we consider important programs.”

The Santa Monica Mountains District includes Topanga, Malibu Creek and Point Mugu state parks, Will Rogers and Los Encinos state historic parks, and Leo Carrillo and Robert H. Meyer Memorial state beaches.

Friday was the deadline for park system employees to comment on a proposed reorganization plan that includes the 30% cut in management and supervisory staff.

State Parks Director Donald W. Murphy said the preliminary plan is under review by the Resources Agency--of which the department is a part--and will be submitted in final form to the state Department of Finance by April 1.

Murphy, who appeared last week before an Assembly subcommittee to discuss the system’s fiscal woes, said the loss of $22.9 million “would destroy the park system as we know it,” according to an account in the Sacramento Bee. Murphy could not be reached for comment Friday.

The proposed cut reflects both the savings imposed on all agencies and a multimillion-dollar shortfall in park user fees.

Critics complain that lawmakers have steadily reduced appropriations for the park system while relying more heavily--and unrealistically--on user fees to make up the difference. For example, lawmakers appropriated about $54 million to run the parks last year--contrasted with $69 million 10 years ago when the system was smaller.

Meanwhile, projected revenues from user fees have been overly optimistic, leading to the current predicament, critics say.

“We have not supported our state parks in a way that reflects the benefit that we get back from them,” said Lynn Sadler, natural resources director for the California Planning and Conservation League.

“Any time you get a disturbance like this, people bail out if they have options, and you often lose the best people because they’re the ones who can go elsewhere,” said Murray Rosenthal, Southern California state parks chairman for the Sierra Club in California.

“I see it as a disastrous thing for . . . one of the great park preservation programs in the country,” Rosenthal said. “We’ve amassed this great representative collection of real estate, and now we’re not in a position to either safeguard the user or safeguard the resource.”