Featherly Park Management Vote Postponed

The Orange County Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission postponed a vote Wednesday on whether to recommend canceling a lease with a private company that a report says has mismanaged the campgrounds at Featherly Regional Park.

The report, prepared for the Orange County Employees Assn., found that placing the campgrounds in private hands has left them in disrepair. More than 20 inspections by county officials since early 1995 mirror the report’s conclusions.

“It was the consensus of the commission that the park was not being maintained properly,” commission Chairman Don Bankhead said after the meeting.

But to give itself time to study the legal ramifications of a vote to cancel the lease, and because the agenda listed only a discussion and not a vote on the park question, the commission postponed a vote to its next meeting on Nov. 12, Bankhead said.

The campgrounds are the only ones among the county’s 20 regional parks managed by a private operator. The commission’s recommendation would be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors, which could decide against renewing the company’s five-year lease when it expires in 1998. Under the lease agreement, if the contract is renewed, it will be in effect 30 years more.