San Diego Is Mismanaging Mission Bay Park, Study Says

Mission Bay Park, the 4,200-acre aquatic playground that attracts millions of visitors each year, has been mismanaged by an ineffectual city bureaucracy that has allowed the park to suffer from pollution and excess commercialization, a county grand jury report alleged Tuesday.

The grand jury, acting as a watchdog of local government, said the San Diego City Council and city staff members have continued to siphon millions of dollars from Mission Bay Park to pay for projects elsewhere in the city, despite promises to the contrary.

The result, the report said, is that large areas of the park, which is best known as the location of Sea World, are closed for long periods to swimmers and boaters because of pollution.

A 1994 study found that the park needed $171 million worth of improvements. The city has spent $3 million.

Both mayoral candidates, county Supervisor Ron Roberts and Superior Court Judge Dick Murphy, said they agreed with much of the report and pledged to pump more money into water pollution control projects.

City officials declined comment on the report until the city prepares an official response as required by law.

But the city official in charge of coordinating various departments, whose duties include tending Mission Bay Park, said that the critical report should not discourage visitors from coming to San Diego to fish, swim, windsurf, water ski or boat on Mission Bay or stay at the hotels that ring the park.

“If someone is planning to visit Mission Bay, they should come on down and enjoy themselves at the prettiest recreational spot in the state,” said Tim Rothans, assistant to the San Diego city manager.

Rothans said the recent increase in the number of posted health hazard warnings along the shoreline is the product of a stricter monitoring system imposed by a new state law. He noted that until recently, the number of days per year when pollution warnings are posted had been declining.

The grand jury heard six months of closed-door testimony from dozens of city officials, environmental activists and executives of businesses that lease property along the waterline in the park.

“It’s nice to have some support for what we’ve been saying for so long,” said Donna Frye, leader of STOP (Surfers Tired of Pollution). “The question is whether anyone will do anything about it.”

Considered the largest aquatic park in the West Coast, if not the nation, Mission Bay Park logs as many as 17 million visitor-days per year. The park is between Interstate 5 and the ocean.

The report said the city has made pollution worse by failing to redesign the bay to permit greater water circulation. Also, the city has no employees assigned to ensure that boaters and others do not dump waste water in the bay, the report added.

While many of the issues are not new, the report comes at a politically significant time.

Sea World, which leases property from the city, is seeking to expand its operations, over the objections of some environmental groups. And the two Republican candidates are seeking to portray themselves as park-friendly as they attempt to succeed Mayor Susan Golding.

Murphy, who served on the City Council in the early 1980s, said the report documents “a shameful neglect of the city’s stewardship of the park. These pollution problems should have been solved before.”

Roberts said the report confirms his view that the city’s finances are in disarray, with money being shifted away from parks, including the city’s venerable Balboa Park.

“There’s a lot going on in the city of San Diego that I would call mismanagement, yet no one is held accountable,” said Roberts, who served on the council in the late 1980s.

Although the report is unflattering to the City Council, at least one incumbent found its portrayal accurate. Councilman Byron Wear, praising the report, said the city needs to commit more than “bureaucratic babble” if the park is to prosper.