Board Delays Vote on Seeking Corporate Donors for Trails

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday postponed a decision on whether to ask corporate donors to maintain county trails instead of collecting a new fee from hikers, bicyclists and equestrians--although park officials say the donor plan was tried before and flopped.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who proposed the “adopt-a-trail” alternative Tuesday, said the county could raise $450,000 a year from corporate donors, eliminating the need for the new $23 annual fee on trail users.

County parks and recreation officials, however, said outside the supervisors meeting that they tried such a program last year, and it didn’t work. Henry Roman, assistant director of the county Parks and Recreation Department, said an effort to solicit community and corporate support for upkeep of the county’s 330 miles of trails last year fell far short of the goal.

“There really was not a lot of interest from a corporate standpoint; they were going through tough times too,” Roman said. “Possibly there is a change of heart. The question is, to what degree?”

Antonovich’s program would resemble the successful statewide adopt-a-highway program, in which companies and individuals pay to clean up particular stretches of highway and are given credit with signs posted alongside the road.

Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon told the supervisors that he thought it would be virtually impossible to raise enough in corporate donations to eliminate the annual fee program, and urged them to keep charging the fee or risk having to shut down trails for lack of upkeep. Dixon said that even if corporations decide to help, “I just don’t think it’s going to come back that generous.”

Nevertheless, the supervisors voted unanimously to give county parks officials and private hikers’ groups two weeks to solicit contributions from local businesses and gauge their support. After that, the supervisors will vote on whether to replace the annual fees with the adopt-a-trail program, or keep both in place.

Supervisor Ed Edelman said that he supports the adopt-a-trail program in principle, but that the county should stick with the $23 fee, at least for the time being, because of mounting budget woes.

“I think we have to be firm here and realize this is something we have to do,” Edelman said.

The effort to charge trail-users for a pass began Jan. 1 and was due to become mandatory Monday. The supervisors voted Tuesday to waive enforcement until they take up the issue in two weeks.

The plan was approved last September. So far, the county has raised only about $7,000 from the passes, far short of the $150,000 goal set for the first 12 months, Roman said.