DANA POINT : 2 More Won’t Serve on Parks Committee

Underscoring an increasingly bitter rift among city officials, two former members of the defunct Capistrano Bay Parks and Recreation District announced this week that they will not serve on the city’s new park and recreation advisory committee.

Robert Wilberg and Tom Crump, who were president and vice president of the Capistrano district board, informed City Manager Stephen B. Julian that they would not serve on the temporary committee created last month.

Lynn Muir, another of the five publicly elected former district directors, has also said she will not be part of the committee.

All three of the directors expressed concern that the City Council broke a “gentleman’s agreement” that would have allowed them to serve out their elected terms on a new city parks and recreation commission, rather than a temporary committee. That choice shows the city is not committed to continuing a viable park and recreation program, Muir said.

“The people in this city are the ultimate losers in this,” Muir said. “The park district as we knew it will be micro-managed to the point it will completely deteriorate.”

Crump agreed, saying the “city manager and City Council did not keep their promise” to keep the directors in an important, decision-making role.

“My decision was a way of making a statement that I thought the thing was mishandled,” Crump said.

Julian said he had recommended that the council create a commission, but also warned the directors that the council was concerned with how many commissions the city has.

“I told them I couldn’t guarantee what the City Council would do.”

The rift between the park board and city officials has widened since last October, when the board, faced with a dwindling budget, voted to dissolve the 28-year-old independent district and merge with the city. Park officials insist they were promised they could continue their terms as members of a parks commission, a promise most council members say was never made.

Ultimately, the parks officials rebelled when the council discarded the commission idea and voted in November to create a seven-member advisory committee--including two members from the city cultural commission and one from the human resources commissions--that would automatically disband next summer.

City Councilman Mike Eggers, who helped craft the committee concept, called the directors’ decision not to serve “a tragedy.”

“You have people for whatever reason basically thumbing their nose at trying to do something positive for the city,” Eggers said. “Instead . . . they are basically taking their ball and going home.”

Eggers said the directors should be relieved that the city agreed to absorb the district. He estimated it would cost the city $500,000 a year to keep current programs afloat.

“That park district was flat busted. It was like a car with four flat tires,” Eggers said. “If the directors are concerned with being elected officials, filing opens in March for City Council.”