Pink Slips and the New RAP

 

Layoffs at the City's Rec and Parks Dept. tear at the "Thin Green Line" holding our neediest communities together.

 

On Monday, Feb. 8, Recreation and Parks employees received telephone calls informing them they were subject to layoffs. The next day, about 150 employees met with management, who said the dismissals would begin in March and continue through June 30, when union contracts covering tens of thousands of city employees will expire.

None of the 125 employees identified for dismissal in a Feb. 8 memo is in management. One is a trash collection operator, one is an archivist, two are project directors, and three are park rangers. The other layoffs - 118 staff - were all from the Recreation Division.

 

The division operates about 160 neighborhood facilities, and organizes numerous special programs, from sports and art to at-risk youth services and senior centers. Many of these recreation coordinators and directors grew up at parks, earned college degrees and returned to the community. A few are reformed gang members. Together, they are a "Thin Green Line" helping youth navigate tough neighborhoods, and are vital to any successful safety plan.

 

A case in point: the entire staff at the South L.A. housing-project cluster - Jordan Downs, Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens - received dismissal notices. This is same team that initiated One Watts, a program that engages youth in a recreation-academic program at Markham Middle School.  Partners include Markham, Character Counts, People for Parks and the County Department of Parks.

At the Feb. 9 City Council meeting, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa directed RAP to prepare a 3- to 5-year reorganization plan that includes escalating contributions to health and retirement benefits. The mayor is also pushing RAP towards full cost-recovery, which will mean charging fees for sports, arts, daycare, swimming and other programs that will be out of reach for low-income working families.

Fewer programs, escalating fees, idle kids, higher unemployment - the outline of the new RAP is a nightmare vision. This is not the road Los Angeles should take.

Summit Takes First Step Toward Creating Alliance to Save Parks

On Oct. 23, 2009, People for Parks hosted a Crisis Summit to Save Los Angeles Parks at the L.A. River Center. The County of Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, the Verde Coalition, the L.A. Conservation Corps and the Trust for Public Land co-sponsored the summit, which convened leading parks and recreation stakeholders, including professionals, activists, advocates and nonprofit groups.

Click for list of speakers, panelists and participants >>>

Click for photo gallery of Summit to Save L.A. Parks >>>

PFP President Jack Foley described the Summit’s purpose as understanding potentially drastic budget cuts now bearing down on the City and County, and identifying short-term and long-term strategies for maintaining park and recreation services, especially in communities with the greatest needs.

PFP co-founder Carlyle Hall, County Supervisor Gloria Molina and City Councilman Tom LaBonge recalled the late 1980s when similar cuts arising out of Proposition 13 “killed” many urban parks in Los Angeles.

Molina and LaBonge, who heads the City Council committee overseeing parks and recreation, described an earlier time, when they were young and enjoyed family outings in Los Angeles’s parks and open spaces. They called on Summit participants to organize public support for their legislative efforts to maintain quality parks and recreation programs despite the budget crunch.

City Controller Wendy Greuel and the County’s Norma Garcia described the impacts of reduced budgets on public parks and recreation. Only one in three children lives within walking distance of a public park in Los Angeles, which has always ranked low among American cities for access to green space. Today, residents of South L.A. and other inner-city neighborhoods are losing ground. Operations, maintenance and programming are being substantially reduced in many existing urban and suburban parks.

The City has already cut 25% in general funding for parks over the past three years. County parks, meanwhile, took a 5% cut in 2009-10. Overall, a picture emerged of still more difficult rollbacks on the way. Beyond revenue cuts, both departments have experienced substantially higher expenses, due to increased demand for public parks and recreation during the current economic recession and because they must now pay for their water supplies and other utilities. The County is working with water districts and other utilities to reduce costs by investing in recycled water systems.

Summit panelists emphasized the critical role parks play as community social centers and alternatives to gang life. They recommended the development of new funding strategies to meet the growing need for public swimming pools, senior centers, exercise courses and other facilities.

Summit panelists discussed how forming partnerships with nonprofit groups (like AYSO and Boys and Girls Clubs), with private sector companies (though adopt-a-park and similar programs), and with public agencies  (from housing authorities and school districts to public works departments) can help parks and recreation departments to manage and leverage their resources.

Public Participation

After each panel, Summit participants made extensive comments and recommendations. A broad consensus emerged among panelists and participants about three key action items:

• Identifying new funding sources to preserve parks as part of the safety net;
• Developing partnerships with nonprofits, private sector companies and public agencies to supplement services that public parks provide; and
• Establishing a broad community coalition to advocate and provide support for parks and recreation as a critical public service and high budget priority.

In their concluding remarks, Jon Mukri, General Manager of Recreation and Parks, and Joe Edmiston, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, spoke of the need to increase the visibility of new parks recently opened by Mayor Villaraigosa and the City Council, and the importance of elected officials being responsive to park users’ needs.

Thirty of the panelists’ and participants’ recommendations were posted following the discussions.

Click for list of recommendations >>>

Next Steps

To effectively build the kind of coalition the Summit speakers and participants strongly endorsed, we need to organize a steering committee and a broad alliance that includes public officials, business and labor leaders and non-profit organizations. Together, we want to develop a broad campaign to support and promote our parks.

No matter how successful future partnerships with other entities might be, parks and recreation departments will need a fair share of public dollars to provide their critical community services. Voters should be polled about possible revenue raising measures. A variety of other funding sources should be explored. This is a difficult time for many working families, but their needs for public parks and recreation services greatly increase during hard economic times.