Drive Urges City Control of Recreation Programs : Camarillo: A local attorney gathers about 1,000 signatures calling for the council to study takeover of the Pleasant Valley district.

Alarmed by cutbacks in Camarillo’s park and recreation services, a local resident is campaigning for the City Council to consider taking control of the independent Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District.

Kadi Kiisk, a 29-year-old attorney, said she has gathered about 1,000 signatures on petitions calling for the council to study whether taxpayers’ dollars would be better spent if local parks and recreation programs came under city control.

“I just want to get a study done,” Kiisk said. “I just want to get the biggest bang for our buck and the taxpayers’ money.”

As a result of her signature drive, the City Council will consider the issue at its July 28 meeting.

The Pleasant Valley park district encompasses nearly all of Camarillo plus unincorporated communities such as Las Posas Estates and Camarillo Heights that border the city. It was founded in 1962, two years before Camarillo was incorporated as a city.

Like the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District in Simi Valley and the Conejo Recreation and Park District in Thousand Oaks, which also predated their respective cities, the Pleasant Valley district has continued to operate independently of Camarillo city government.

Funded entirely by property taxes from residents within its area, the district has an elected five-member board that manages Pleasant Valley’s nearly 20 parks and numerous sports and recreation programs.

But the state’s fiscal crisis has cost the district about $715,000 in property tax revenue over the past two years.

Reeling from the cuts, the district’s board has laid off about a dozen employees, reduced park maintenance and delayed development of new parks.

The board also saved money this year by not opening Freedom Pool, an outdoor pool at Camarillo Airport that is usually open during the summer.

Kiisk, a lap swimmer, said she grew concerned about Camarillo’s recreation services when Freedom Pool did not open this year, forcing her and other swimmers to rely on the city’s only other pool, the indoor Pleasant Valley Pool on Temple Avenue.

Kiisk said Camarillo residents may be able to improve their park and recreation services by merging the park district with the city, which so far has not been significantly affected by the state’s budget problems.

The park district could come under the city’s control in one of two ways, officials said.

Parks and recreation services could become a city department, and thus merge the park district’s budget into the city’s General Fund.

Or the park district could continue as a special district with a budget separate from the city’s, such as the Camarillo Sanitary District, but with all decisions on its operation made by the City Council.

Either way, the district’s elected five-member board would be dissolved.

The city has explored the possibility of reorganizing the district before.

In 1984, a study showed that Camarillo would get nearly $100,000 more in property taxes than Pleasant Valley received at the time if the city took over park and recreation services.

Planning consultant Robert L. Braitman, who helped prepare the study during his tenure as executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission, said recent state budget cuts have changed the distribution of property taxes so much that it is no longer certain that the city would get any more tax revenues if it took over the park district.

But Braitman said he believes that merging the district into the city would save money for Camarillo taxpayers by reducing overhead.

Some park district officials said they are cool to the idea of even studying a possible merger with the city.

Board member Melville Vincent, who has sat on the Pleasant Valley board for 17 years, said such a merger would not necessarily mean more money for park and recreation services.

Instead, Vincent and other park officials said, budgets for parks and recreation are more vulnerable to being shortchanged when they are controlled by city councils than when they are managed by independent boards.

When cities have budget problems, they will cut their parks departments’ budgets before they reduce other services such as police or streets maintenance, Vincent and other parks officials said.

Vincent said he believes the Camarillo residents who support Kiisk are blaming the park district for the recent cuts in recreational services.

“It’s not because we’re no good,” he said. “It’s because we have no money.”

Yet board member William G. Marsden supports examining a possible reorganization of the district and said he even signed Kiisk’s petition.

Marsden, who worked for the district for 22 years before he was elected to the board in 1989, said he wanted the issue to come before the City Council to show the public that city officials do not want to take on a cash-strapped park district.

“I wanted the people to find out that the city is not interested in taking us over,” he said. “Right now, the recreation district is a liability.”

If, however, a study showed that merging the district with the city would benefit residents, Marsden said he would support such a change.

“If it’s good for the district or recreation as far as the whole Pleasant Valley goes, then I’m in favor of it,” he said.

At least one council member plans to vote for studying a possible merger of the city and the park district.

“I’d like to see a study done,” Michael Morgan said, stressing that he does not want to “start a feud” with park district officials. “I don’t think it’s up to me or that board,” he said. “I think it’s up to the community.”