Friday, February 15, 2002

Park District Doesn't Need the Money
By Karen Weber, Friends of Parks

'THE East Bay Parks are priceless jewels," says the campaign literature for the EBRPD's Measure K, and that's certainly true. But EBRPD is using -- misusing -- this natural love of parks to suggest it needs an additional new tax, and that is not true at all.

A closer look at EBRPD reveals skewed priorities, not insufficient funding, as well as dramatic waste; these problems will be increased, not ameliorated, by providing more money.

Firstly, EBRPD has plenty of money. They have claimed their revenues are lagging for years, to the point where no one doubts them, but their own financial records reveal the opposite: Their revenues are booming -- up over 29 percent in two years.

Proof is found in the district's most recent financial report, reproduced at www.friendsofparks.com/chart.htm. Log on and you will see a decade of annually increasing revenues, increasing well beyond inflation and parkland growth.

This is so because the district is funded by a levy on the property tax which grows two ways, with real estate valuation and with any new development. So much for the district's statement on the ballot that a new additional tax is needed to "keep pace with inflation." Surely the district should not be rewarded for misleading its constituents.

The fastest growing segment of the district's revenue sources is "interest." That's right. Money in the bank. The district gets interest the same as we do. That per-year number has tripled to $5.1 million. That figure suggests well over $100 million in the bank. That's a year's budget for the district and quite a nest egg for anyone. Have you banked a year's budget?

The district claimed in its ballot statement that its field staff has increased by only 9 percent over 10 years. Given that operating revenues about doubled in that time, one can only wonder what was done with their money.

Where they holding tight on field positions to make the case for this new tax? They were not buying land with these monies because land acquisition is out of a separate fund. As their former personnel director, I know about how money is spent: Generous management salaries, extraordinary benefits and consultants galore.

Examples of each: General Manager Patrick O'Brien takes home a higher salary than the governor -- and he and all his managers are getting another raise right after this election.

Benefits add 53.9 cents for every dollar of payroll. This buys, among other things, a pension package that allows long-term workers to retire at their three-year average salary. Could you retire at essentially full salary?

Consultants are the biggest excess. They are not traceable in the budget, so their contracts grow and grow unnoted -- pollsters, PR promoters, lobbyists and lawyers -- generally selected without competition and paid whatever they ask. This is an arena ripe for scrutiny.

If voters allow EBRPD to bait and switch -- ask for special new taxes to pay for basic services -- they lose two ways: Regular budget funds get freed up to be used without any constraint. And then, when the sunset clause is supposed to kick in, EBRPD can say it must continue the tax or else "layoff the new field staff paid out of it." Make no mistake, this new tax is forever.

MEASURE K is not the way to go. Not only is it conducive to waste, it taxes the poor disproportionately. The smallest home pays the same as the grandest mansion, and the business sector pays nothing.

This is an unfair, unnecessary new tax. Even the most ardent parks supporter, knowing the facts, should say no on Measure K.

Karen Weber was EBRPD's Personnel Director from 1977-1996. She is now a member of Friends of Parks, and in that capacity signed the ballot statement opposing Measure K. She lives in Oakland.