Sylmar : Parks Official Paints Grim Picture of Cuts

The budget cuts are $8.2 million less than originally anticipated, but county parks are still going to suffer, John Weber, assistant director of Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, said Monday.

“Two weeks ago, I had the unpleasant task of laying off a number of people and demoting a number of others,” Weber said at a luncheon of the Sylmar Chamber of Commerce at Olive View Medical Center Monday. “It’s a whole lot better than it could have been, but it still translates into the loss of people.”

Altogether, he said, funds for parks have been reduced by more than $2.7 million.

As a result, the county will be forced to rely on greater volunteer involvement to maintain and patrol its parks.

“If you think that tax dollars are going to take care of the problem and if you think that you can just tell people like me to manage better, forget it--it’s just not going to happen,” Weber said. “The Department of Parks and Recreation has gone from over 2,200 employees in the late ‘70s to just over 900 now and I’m managing as well as I can.”

Weber said he has held about 17 recruitment meetings in and around the San Fernando Valley and has compiled a list of several hundred prospective volunteers who have expressed a willingness to help keep the parks clean, green and safe.

Already, the county has begun turning over operations for several of its parks to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the city of Los Angeles.

“It is perfectly clear that we are trying to find other agencies to manage our parks,” Weber said. “It hurts us when you build, design and nurture something along from its infancy to give it away, but the reality is our responsibility is to insure that those facilities are there and are well-operated for the public’s use. And if it appears to us that another agency can better provide service than we can, then we are being silly if we don’t work closely with that agency.”