California ?is still moving forward to cut services,? official says
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
While some other nonprofit agencies are calling for refunds of money they raised to save some California?s parks from closure, Benicia State Parks Association is still intent on getting permission to keep the buildings of the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park available to the public ? and is being ?careful? as it accounts for its donations and their use, President Carol Berman said.
Meanwhile, the city of Benicia is in the midst of changing its payment plan for providing minimal services at the Benicia State Recreation Area. Economic Development Manager Mario Giuliani said Tuesday that staff will ask City Council to approve a change in its Memorandum of Understanding with the state that would establish quarterly payments by the city of $15,500.
That donation was offered to the state in exchange for providing and servicing two chemical toilets and two garbage bins at the State Recreational Area, and to pay for water to the park?s drinking fountains and the volunteer-maintained Forrest Deaner Botanical Garden of native California plants and trees.
Giuliani said state officials agreed Monday that instead of a single, up-front check, Benicia could give its donations in quarterly payments.
Though he characterized the modification as ?slight? and ?subtle,? Giuliani said staff still saw it as significant enough to need Council endorsement. The Council will see the recommendation Aug. 21, he said.
The California Native Plant Society is negotiating its own agreement with California so local volunteers can have vehicle access to reach the 3 1/2-acre botanical garden after the DPR locks the park to other vehicles.
?The state is still moving forward to cut services,? Giuliani said.
The SRA, a 500-acre park that is home to endangered plants and wildlife, is on Benicia?s west side. It also borders Vallejo.
Berman said the financial scandal that led last month to the resignation of Department of Parks and Recreation Director Ruth Coleman has led to greater scrutiny of her group?s own application to provide services to the historic park, 115 West G St., in the heart of Benicia?s historic downtown shopping district.
?They?re being careful,? she said. ?We were careful before.?
The document does more than say the association can train docents to guide visitors not only through the pre-Civil War-era Capitol that is the only surviving legislative building outside Sacramento.
The association also wants to be the caretaker and for its docents to be the guides to the Fisher-Hanlon House and its Victorian garden that once was a family home dating to the city?s early days.
Under an earlier agreement with the state, city staff has been maintaining much of the historic park?s grounds and its external restroom since May.
Berman said staff members at the DPR?s various levels are scrutinizing the document to determine who pays for Internet service, telephone and other utilities and how the document addresses other details before accepting the association?s offer.
The association is one of several nonprofits that applied to provide services in hopes of keeping open some of the 70 state parks that had been slated for closure July 1.
That closure list was issued as one of several cost-cutting measures as Gov. Jerry Brown sought to trim California?s budget deficits. The closures were expected to save $22 million a year.
However, $54 million in hidden DPR funds were suddenly uncovered last month, state officials announced July 20.
John Laird, Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, which oversees DPR, said that $34 million of the recently uncovered money had been under-reported from the Off Highway Vehicle Trust Fund, which collects license fees and fuel tax money on off-road vehicles, and the other $20 million had been under-reported from the Parks and Recreation Fund, which collects parks revenue.
The under-reporting may have gone on as long as 12 years, Laird said.
The fallout from the discovery was immediate and still is ongoing.
Coleman, who said she hadn?t been made aware of the hidden money, promptly resigned July 20. Acting Deputy Director Michael Harris was fired the same day.
Chief Counsel Ann Malcolm, who joined the DPR in 2010, left last week, as has Jay Walsh, a special assistant to Coleman. Remaining staff at the Natural Resources Agency have not elaborated on the departures.
Officials said they might investigate former Deputy Parks Director Manuel Lopez, who resigned in May after an October 2011 demotion when Coleman learned he had approved $271,000 in park employee vacation paybacks without getting the proper authorization to do so.
Lopez also is among those named as a defendant in a discrimination lawsuit filed by an employee he fired last year.
But while he has said he wasn?t aware that the vacation buyout was a violation, Lopez refused to accept any blame in the parks finance scandal.
Instead, he said he told Coleman at least five times in recent years about a surplus in department funds, a claim Coleman has denied.
Unlike the Benicia State Parks Association, some other groups are demanding the return of money they invested in keeping their targeted parks open.
The Henry Coe Park Preservation Fund, which gave $279,000 last May to keep that San Jose-area park open, has asked for a refund.
In Sonoma County, a bicycling organization, Bike Monkey, was instrumental in raising $55,000 to prevent Annadel State Park?s closure. The organization wants $40,000 of that money back to give to Sonoma County Regional Parks when it takes control of Annadel.
Brown has ordered Attorney General Kamala Harris and the California Finance Department to examine not just the DPR funds and how the irregularities developed, but to expand the probe to other state departments as well, according to a statement by Finance Department spokesperson H.D. Palmer.
So far, that department has uncovered two funds in California?s transportation department that show a $450 million difference with earlier reports, Palmer said.
However, a semiannual report issued by the Department of Finance said California is borrowing five times the money from its special fund accounts than it did four years ago.
The department is looking at 560 special fund accounts to seek out any more secret money, and its discoveries may be announced later this week.
Four years ago, California borrowed $749 million from special funds, the revenue from which comes from user and industry fees. Lately, the semiannual report said, the state has borrowed more than $4 billion, which Palmer said was the state?s solution to the recession.
Both houses of the Legislature may conduct hearings to determine whether departments have been under-reporting their money.
Meanwhile, the California State Parks Foundation delivered a letter last week to the governor and leaders in both houses of the Legislature, saying the scandal ?has damaged the public?s confidence and undermined the urgency and necessity that we and park partners across the state so clearly and vehemently articulated.
?Our efforts, and the efforts of dozens of community organizations that scrambled to get up to speed, build capacity, and conduct outreach to their communities to raise funds in these recent months, is the reason why there is a temporary but real safety net for parks, as was announced by DPR just days before parks were slated to close,? President Elizabeth Goldstein wrote.
?An erosion of the public?s confidence in our state park system is heartbreaking,? she wrote.
?Our state parks have been used as a political football in recent years and have been repeatedly held hostage to broader budget and policy fights.?
Goldstein wrote that the foundation supports the state?s determining how and why the irregularities took place, and urged the state to follow a four-point plan as the inquiries are made:
1. That the state auditor conduct an independent, ?autonomous and unimpeded audit? concurrent with other investigations;
2. That the ?found? DPR money be dedicated and appropriated to state parks and recreation purposes. ?To contemplate that those funds could be siphoned and directed to another state budget purpose would add insult to injury,? she wrote;
3. That state park system operations funds should be used to keep parks open in a way that matches or leverages investments and contributions made by communities, and provide seed funding for enterprise projects and proposals to generate revenue and make the park system more self-sufficient; and
4. That an independent body of qualified, skilled citizens be impaneled to assure ?transparancy, public engagement and participation? in the oversight and guidance of the DPR.
?Californians need to have confidence in a standing body made up of dedicated citizen volunteers whose responsibility it is to ensure that DPR is maintaining fidelity with its public trust requirements, protecting our park resources, maintaining public access to parks, and fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities,? she wrote.
Goldstein suggested a strengthened State Park and Recreation Commission might handle the duties, but added that the panel would need members who are experts in such areas as park management, finance and accounting, the protection of natural, cultural and historic resources.
?We at CSPF feel a commitment and duty to all park visitors to ensure that these scandals do not define our state park system,? she wrote in her letter to Brown and the Legislature.
?You, as leaders of our state, have an obligation and an opportunity to restore confidence and rebuild this system for California.?
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Source: http://beniciaherald.me/2012/07/31/after-scandal-parks-group-careful/
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