Parks and Recreation Services May Be Privatized to Save Money : Rancho Palos Verdes: The city is losing $200,000 a year running the department. Proponents believe that private enterprise or nonprofit groups can do the job.

Faced with a projected budget deficit and looking for more ways to save money, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes may be forced to shut down its Parks and Recreation Department and contract those services out to private companies.

Officials say the city is losing at least $200,000 a year on parks and recreation operations, despite higher user fees imposed last year. Although the City Council has balanced the current budget by cutting deep into services, it has warned that the hard-pressed city of 42,000 faces still more deficits if it does not reduce spending further.

The hope is that either private enterprise or nonprofit groups can contract to provide some or all of the parks and recreation services, which currently cost the city about $1 million a year.

“We think privatizing can save us that $200,000 loss and maybe even make us some money,” Councilwoman Susan Brooks said. Private enterprise should be able to rent or lease city facilities, operate programs more efficiently and still make a profit, she said.

Asked if other cities had successfully tried this, she said that was something that “we want to find out. . . . The council has asked the staff to do a study and report back to us.”

Councilman Steven Kuykendall said the goal is to restructure city services and cut costs by changing the traditional role the city has played in parks and recreation programs.

“We’re not sure what we’ll propose here,” he said. “Depending on what the staff finds, we could go all the way, lease the entire system out to a private operator . . . or just spin off parts of it.”

For example, the city could contract for the maintenance and operation of the parks, or it might find an organization, such as the YMCA, to lease the municipal swimming pool and run the aquatic programs, he said.

Rancho Palos Verdes, largest of the four cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, has 372 acres of parkland, most of it undeveloped. Many of the city’s 11 parks offer spectacular ocean views, attracting visitors from across the South Bay.

Perhaps the most popular park is the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, which includes a marine museum that is a favorite whale watching spot.

The city also offers a variety of recreational programs, including summer concerts, organized sports camps, youth classes of all kinds and programs for senior citizens and the developmentally disabled.

Revenues from these programs topped $800,000 this year, up 5% over last year because of fee increases. However, income still fell short by $200,000.

That operating deficit does not include the department’s administrative or maintenance and operation costs, Kuykendall said. For example, the budget for mowing the lawns, irrigating and maintaining the parks is absorbed by the Public Works Department.

“If you add all of that in, the shortfall is more like $800,000,” he said.

So far, Kuykendall and Brooks are the primary advocates of privatizing parks and recreation. Mayor John C. McTaggart opposes the idea of turning the entire department over to private enterprise.

“Maybe some aspects of this are possible, like finding someone to run the swimming classes, but I’m not in favor of turning the whole department over to a private entity,” McTaggart said.