The real cost of "chargebacks" as outlined by Rec and Parks

"...although (Recreation and Parks) is one of 30+ City Departments, (Recreation and Parks) alone has contributed $151 million (19%) (almost one-fifth) to reducing the City's projected budget deficit of $800 million over these last several fiscal years through paying the indirect/support costs."

What follows is the cover letter from the Department of Recreation and Parks' formal response to the Mayor's Budget for FY14. The new budget takes another $64 million in chargebacks and $8 million in other required payments away from Recreation and Parks programming.

(typos are probably our fault.)

---
April 23, 2013
Honorable Paul Krekorian, Chair
Budget and Finance Committee
City Clerk, City Hall Room 395
Los Angeles, CA 90012
ATTN: Erika Pulst, Legislative Assistant

Dear Councilmember Krekorian:

The Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) respectfully submits this letter to assist your Committee in providing a deeper explanation of RAP's budget. In order to understand this budget, the Council and your Committee must look at the fundamental structural changes that have occurred to RAP's budget over the past seven years. During this time, a City policy shift occurred that affected both RAP and the Library Departmental budgets. It must be noted all RAP monies are "people dollars" used to enhance quality of life, resident programs helping to keep people active and healthy, and youth programs designed to build strong citizens and, thereby, encouraging youth against gang activities. The Department must be viewed as the most non-threatening public social service agency in the City of Los Angeles and a critical arm of public safety.

Summary

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners understands that the City has been in a dire financial crisis since Fiscal Year (FY) 2007-08 and the need exists to effect tactical solutions anually to address the City's structural deficit. While tactical decisions are critical in effecting immediate reductions, these decisions will most assuredly affect all future operations. It should be noted that I was one of the few General Managers that openly supported the Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP). I did this as I had extensive knowledge and practical experience with the Federal Government when the military was faced with drastic cuts in funding which necessitated the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program, Also, ERIP provided a more sensible program to reduce personnel costs while maintaining the dignity of the exceptional employees of our City. As an aside, the City benefitted from BRAC with the addition of a long term lease for land associated with the former Air Force Base at both Fort McArthur and Whites Point Nike Site. Over the past few budgets, there have been many questions directed at RAP as to why cuts have had to be made, such as a reduction in pool hours or elimination of year-round pools, program reduction/elimination or fee increases (such as community gardens). A complete list of programs that have been reduced or eliminated is provided as Attachment A. These reductions are a direct result of budget decisions necessitated by the worst recession in our country's history.

Attachment B - click on image to enlarge

Since FY 2007-08, RAP's discretionary budget (that portion of the budget which provides programs and services) has been effectively slashed from 100% to 67% of total funding available (See Attachment B). This occurred through the aggressive application of a new City policy of cost recovery for indirect costs necessary to support the direct costs of providing services to millions of our City residents. This system of cost recovery was introduced benignly to recover taxpayer subsidies to golf operations and parking garages. I agreed with this effort, as the RAP General Fund should not subsidize costs that could be absorbed by the users and program payers. Since FY 2010-11, all of our golf operations and our parking garages are fully funded by users. There is no direct subsidy associated with our golf operations and parking garages. However, once this process began, further cost recovery efforts for indirect costs were directed against RAP's General Fund budgetary accounts. Since FY 2007-08, RAP's cumulative payments toward the City'S stated deficit of approximately $800 million has been $151 million or roughly 19% of the total City deficit (See Attachment C). The Department's annual operating budget from all sources is roughly $189 million or approximately 2.7% of the City's total budget of$7.2 billion. It should be recognized that these funds were "people dollars". These "people dollars" went to offset costs of program participation and to maintain City-owned facilities within our park system. The loss of these "people dollars" meant that RAP's full-time staff plunged from a high of over 2,100 to approximately 1,400 or a 30% drop. Additionally, part-time staff dropped from over 6,900 to approximately 3,500. The attached graphs (Attachments D and E) illustrate the increase in RAP funding indirect costs of operations and the decrease in funding for direct costs of operations or actual program dollars.

Attachment C - click to enlarge

In addition, under another new City policy, RAP was directed to begin "self-funding" a portion of its operational budget. This means RAP has to save a portion of one fiscal year's budget to fund next fiscal year's budget. This amount has grown from $1.25 million (FY 2006-07) to a proposed $7.0 million for FY 2013-14. This forces RAP into a constant "juggling act" and eliminates or reduces programs/services during the fiscal year that were to be provided, as approved during the budget process by the Council and Mayor.

Again, referring to Attachment A, RAP has made efforts to focus on core functions and has been forced to make decisions to reduce or cancel those activities that although felt important and even critical to the community, had to be reduced or eliminated as they did not fall within the core functions of a Charter established department. These cuts were not made willingly nor would have been made had the Department not had to absorb support costs of operations never born by RAP in over 100 years of its history. This list is expected to grow over the next several years as RAP is forced to expend more funds on indirect costs. The increase this next fiscal year alone is $4.0 million dollars for a total of approximately $47.5 million. RAP simply does not have the long term ability to continue to finance this level of indirect cost reimbursement to the City's General Fund nor can we continue to self-fund a portion of our own budget each year.

There is some good news; the proposed FY 2013-14 budget provides RAP some one-time City capital funding to rehabilitate and rebuild Celes King III pool and Lincoln Park pool and to install automated locks in restrooms. Separately from the budget process, RAP was able to identify some one-time funding to perform deferred maintenance to improve safety and reduce liability claims, continue some unbudgeted programs such as aquatics at Hubert Humphrey, G1assell,and Peck pools (for FY 2012-13 only) and continue to develop new parks under the 50 Parks Initiative. 


Staffing 

These last few years have been tough for both the residents and the employees. Reductions in costs have resulted in the ERIP, furloughs and layoffs. Fortunately, these tough reductions have kept our great City solvent. Unfortunately, these reductions have been accomplished without any ability to control the areas where employee reductions occurred. The ERIP took a whole level of experienced and critical managers with no ability to backfill through existing City forces. Currently, through both retirement and transfers to other City agencies, departments are losing another level of critical managers who in normal times would be groomed to take on increasing levels of management responsibilities. The City has also cut almost completely the influx in low cost new employees filling the roles of apprentice or low skilled trainable and valuable future leaders. This was a tactical decision to arrest the spiraling personnel and other employee costs but has had and will have severe detrimental costs in both service delivery and direct costs of doing a unit's work.

I will use only one work group in this discussion, our critical men and women who work as Gardener Caretakers. The Department employs over 370 men and women (from a high of 551) who fill the critical task of keeping our parks clean, green and safe for our patrons. The Department of Recreation and Parks has projected ahead some simple facts. The average age of a Gardener Caretaker is 52 years. Their tasks include but are not limited to: the cleaning of restrooms, children's play pits, bike path maintenance, maintenance of our parks, etc. Using a simple direct formula, the Department can expect to lose over 3-4% of these employees each of the next few years further depleting our workforce who are performing critical maintenance tasks. This not only effects RAP's operations but also has City wide implications. For example, RAP is provided funding ($2.0 million from the City General Fund) to perform landscape maintenance at City public buildings (non-RAP owned) but we can no longer shoulder this burden as we simply do not have the staff to complete this work. This is especially true given that RAP has continued to expand the number of parks, facilities and acreage which needs maintenance.

Additionally, cutting off the influx of new and low cost employees is driving our productive cost per unit of work. With the reduction in workforce and using more costly long term employees our cost per unit of work is up while our unit of work produced is down. More or increased cost per unit of work while decreasing work actually completed results in a productivity cost death spiral. Almost every workforce series and classification is affected by these facts. As we find our economy getting stronger, we need to take a more long term strategic vision on our City workforce and core functions.  

Fleet Equipment Replacement and Maintenance 

I would also like to bring to the attention of your Committee that RAP has been able to make productivity gains in our maintenance of parks and facilities by "routing" our gardeners. RAP established approximately 240 maintenance routes with assigned crews throughout the City. Instead of having stationary assignments, crews utilize large fleet equipment (trucks, large mowers, etc.) and small fleet equipment (small mowers, trimmers, etc.) to move from park/ facility to the next park/facility to perform critical maintenance tasks. These productivity gains are being threatened. Due to fleet reduction mandates, RAP has trimmed its fleet to extremely low levels and the large and small fleet equipment is aging. RAP has been informed that at least 62 pieces of equipment originally designated to be MICLA funded were pulled from the proposed FY 2013-2014 budget. Additionally, due to reductions in Department of General Services Fleet maintenance personnel, our equipment sits un repaired in shops. If this trend continues, eventually staff will not have the equipment it needs to adequately do their job.  

Conclusion 

Like other City Departments, RAP incurred budget reductions (positions cuts, layoffs, ERIP, etc.) over these last several fiscal years to help close the City's budget deficit. But RAP and the Library Department also incurred a new City policy of paying indirect/support costs which historically were paid from the City's General Fund on their behalf. The Library Department was somewhat assisted towards this effort with the passage of a voter approved ballot measure which allocated a larger percentage of the City's property tax dollars to them. However, RAP was not so fortunate and has had to absorb these costs from its operating budget at its same property tax allocation percentage. And although RAP is one of 30+ City Departments, RAP alone has contributed $151 million (19%) (almost one-fifth) to reducing the City's projected budget deficit of $800 million over these last several fiscal years through paying the indirect/support costs.

Another new City policy directed to RAP was to self-fund a portion of its own operating budget which is currently $3.8 million to a proposed $7.0 million in the next fiscal year. Our future ability to self-fund part of our own budget and pay $50+ million annually in indirect/support costs is not sustainable. We also have a large infrastructure of facilities that is continuing to age and the deferred maintenance list of items is continuing to grow. Something must be done to address these myriad of issues, or RAP could be facing tough decisions on whether to continue to provide highly subsidized community programs or to transition to a more passive park system dependent on for-profit or non-profit agencies to provide sports and community programming, which we don't believe any Angeleno wants to occur. We can turn this situation around but we must be treated more fairly in the future. Our budget dollars should be treated as service dollars to be used by our people to service the City's people. We are a critical arm of public safety and must work together to balance community needs against fiscal reality.  

Thank you for your continued support of the Department of Recreation and Parks. Should you have any questions, please contact me or Regina Adams, Executive Officer, at (213) 202-2633. 

JON KIRK MUKRI
General Manager  

ETI National refuses to publish outgoing Trail Coordinator's last message

Published as received:

TRAIL SAFETY!

Serious Concern in the Equestrian Community 

 Equestrian Trails, Inc., National chose not to publish Lynn Brown’s last message in the magazine as National Trail Coordinator.  I believe it is essential that a copy of this message is given to every member of every ETI Corral in the organization   nationally.  Lynn deserves to have her point of view published as a long time board member of ETI, and as the National Trails Coordinator for more than 15 years.

Lynn Brown’s Final ETI Trails Coordinator Message:

 “ETI’s Mission statement is “Dedicated to Equine Legislation, Good Horsemanship and the Acquisition and preservation of trails, open space and public lands.”  For years, I have successfully worked with public agencies all over the State of California to produce equine legislation, acquisition and preservation of trails, open space and public lands for the benefit of preserving the equestrian lifestyle into the future.

“I do not agree with the current direction the President of ETI is taking regarding mountain biking on crowded urban trails, or as members in a new Corral. Nor do I support his exclusion of the voices of ETI corrals in this important issue. Since January, incalculable damage has been done to ETI, not just to the members and reputation of this organization itself, but to all the equestrians in the state, and in the U.S. who are trying valiantly to preserve their peaceful bike free hiking/equestrian trails for the future.

“The best course of action is for me to resign as National Trail Coordinator. I cannot support what I consider to be a disastrous course of action.   It is very sad that ETI’s name will be now used all over the U.S. to promote mountain biking on trails.

“In the future, I will be directing my resources and knowledge toward goals that help preserve the equestrian lifestyle, concentrating my efforts throughout California. Locally, I’ll continue working with the City of L.A. and the L.A. Equine Advisory Committee among the many other open space preservation groups where I function successfully as a member.  I will be available to help any equestrian/hiking groups.  Of course, I am not abandoning the many struggles we all face, I am withdrawing my energy from ETI National.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve ETI for all these years.  I wish you the best of luck.”

      --Lynn Brown

Protecting the Trail User On Single-Track Trails:

Many Mountain Bikers are often after the thrill of the downhill challenge.  Unfortunately, some mountain bikers disregard and destroy trail signage and the trails, and do not consider the risks they are imposing on other trail users from their thrill seeking adventures.  On single-track trails, even the ordinary careful biker is still a danger.  The rest of us are left to figure out how to safely use the trails that we originally built for hikers and equestrians.

From Mary Kaufman:

      “ETI National has already taken a stance on this issue: ETI National, represented by ETI Trail Coordinator Lynn Brown, has been adamant about not sharing the trails and for very good reason.  It's not safe and downright dangerous!” – Mary Kaufman, President ETI Corral 54.

All the Education in the world will never  result in making single-track trails safe for  multi-use. For the horse, Instinctive Nature will kick in no matter the level of training that horse has achieved when confronted with a fast moving object, whether from in front or coming from behind, coming from above or below. The sudden and unexpected threat of a fast moving biker can undue even the highest level of training.

We are concerned that since January 2013, ETI may be going down an ineffective path with the mountain bike organizations.  These organizations  are  well funded, and so very astute and clever in placing themselves in the forefront of the battle over single-track trails throughout the United States with all government and park agencies.  If we hikers and equestrians do not voice our objections to these serious safety issues and join together to form a coalition to protect our interest in trails, we will lose all of them through our fear of an encounter with mountain bikers.

The information here is critical to the survival of ETI National.  We are  also attaching a Mountain Bike Tutorial to this email so that it becomes public knowledge.

If you have not yet heard about the tragic encounter that fellow equestrian Crystal Costa endured, we encourage you to read on:

“…in the January issue of the ETI National Magazine, on page 37, there is a full page ad regarding supporting the recovery expenses of Crystal Costa.  Crystal … a Tevis Cup endurance rider…became a paraplegic as a result of coming off her horse due to an encounter with a mountain biker. 

“One of many articles written about this incident can be viewed at: http://www.auburnjournal.com/article/injured-rider-returns-home-family-friends-horses-and-dogs

“ ‘Always find out if there is a bike race on the narrow trails and on trails where you'd never think there would be bike,’ Costa said. ‘Riding horses, riding bikes, hiking out on the multiuse trails, it's a gamble.’

“It's not a matter of "providing training" for the equestrians or, for that matter, for the mountain bikers.  It's a matter of safety.  Paraplegic Crystal Costa is very clear about that.   …those of us concerned with the safety issues mountain bikers cause will be helpless to fight it.”    [from Mary Kaufman, ETI Corral 54]

We would like your comments, suggestions, and particularly your documentation of  any incident/experience with mountain bikes– via email.

 Sincerely,   

--Stephanie Abronson, Equestrian Trails, Inc., Life Member, Corral 36

--Gwen Allen, Past National President Equestrian Trails, Inc. & ETI Corral 22

-- Sharon Richardson - President, ETI Corral 22

-- Jeffrey Davidson, ETI Corral 36

--Mary Kaufman, President, ETI Corral 54

--Elaine Macdonald, Area Trail Coordinator for the Antelope Valley and Board Member of ETI Corral 138

Overheard at yesterday's Griffith Park Resources "Board" (sic) meeting:

After reading through this laundry list of Griffith Park action items, you just have to wonder about the priority of agencies who are ostensibly tasked with the environmental health, care and protection of this urban wilderness park.

ACTION ITEMS: 

• Work on the new foot/bike/horse bridge crossing the LA River from Atwater Village into the park cannot begin until migratory bird nesting season is over, which is anticipated to be the end of July.

• Traffic study was just completed at the Zoo entrance by the Autry. Traffic calming solutions may include a traffic light. Yes, a traffic light in an urban wilderness park. Something is really wrong here.

• LA Opera wants to simulcast its opener on big tv screens on the Wilson-Harding Golf Course.   w-t-f?

• LaBonge is still talking about adding cell towers on water tanks throughout the park, same as he has been for the past four years or so.

• LAPD wants a 'public' horse arena on the Atwater Village side near the new bridge that they will have preferential use of... but the public can use it when they're done using it.

• The LA Zoo - which is on Griffith Park property - will be 'offering' preferential parking for $5. Looks like paying to park in our City parks now has a toe-hold.

• The Eco-Moron Award-winning LADWP Holiday Light Festival is finished as a vehicle event, but it may move entirely into the LA Zoo as a foot traffic event with all of the lights and noise. I'm sure the animals will love it.

• LADWP will be rebuilding the tree root-damaged sidewalks on Riverside Drive at LaBonge's behest. What do ratepayers think about this?

• the GP Senior Center in the Friendship Auditorium parking lot wants LaBonge to re purpose (? kick LA Shares out?) the building by Mulholland Fountain for an "Arts Center" that they will be using.

• LaBonge wants a trail from Lake Hollywood to Cahuenga Peak on LADWP right of away.

• After physical attacks upon both an LAPD officer and a peace officer Park Ranger by illegal flower vendors at the Forest Lawn entrance to the park, a public safety task force will be working on this issue.

• Related to the above issue, the Headworks plan calls for the removal of the fence that helps keep illegal flower vendors from completely impacting every inch of that section of roadway and park. This decision was called into question and may change.

Soboroff's parks commercialization plan completely misses the real parks funding problem

In a recent commentary on KPCC,  Parks Save chairman Steve Soboroff bemoans the huge funding cuts suffered by City parks during the past five years. Not surprisingly, Soboroff claims that the cure to these cuts is:   (drum roll)  commercial partnerships!  No surprise coming from Soboroff, but City parks stakeholders already vehemently rejected the first real attempt for blatant parks commercialization two years ago when Warner Bros tried to blanket parks with advertising for their Yogi Bear film. SoCal Connected covered the complete public rejection of this attempt in detail. So this is probably a non-starter.

In all honesty, Soboroff's push for commercialization as a cure to parks budget cuts completely missed the real issue. The truth of the matter is that recent parks budget cuts are actually a brazen and shameless violation of the Los Angeles City Charter, something Soboroff fails to acknowledge, much less address.

In 1925, realizing even then that parks are one of the first cuts made when funds become tight, the Citizens of Los Angeles saw fit to protect City parks outright from being decimated during times of economic hardship. They wrote directly into the City Charter that a percentage (.0325%) of City property assessed valuations would go directly to the Parks Department  (the Parks & Playgrounds Dept at that time) for its exclusive use. The Charter-mandated parks funds are controlled by the Recreation and Parks Commissioners solely for use by the Dept. of Recreation and Parks.


When the City Charter was updated in 2000, this City Charter mandate was continued by the People of Los Angeles, reaffirming their protection of City parks. These dedicated parks funds still constitute the majority of the budget for the Department of Recreation and Parks and parks programming today.

Unfortunately, as this most recent budget crisis hit, City officials began looking anywhere they could for new monies.  In 2008,  Mayor Villaraigosa's top aides came up with a plan to get their hands on these dedicated, Charter-mandated funds: chargebacks. The scheme would cover budget holes through charges levied on the Dept. of Recreation and Parks by other City departments under Villaraigosa's "Full Cost Recovery" plan. Their oft-quoted rationale was 'Recreation and Parks should have to pay their bills'.

And boy, did they pay! Last year a record $50 million was charged back from Charter-mandated parks funding, representing 36% of the entire fund. "Full Cost Recovery" is incremental, so the budget for FY14 will take even more of the dedicated parks funds from our parks.

The Charter mandate for City parks was enacted precisely to protect our parks from these hard times. Yet these chargebacks proffered by Mayor Villaraigosa and supported by the entire City Council completely violate this mandate of the people of Los Angeles. 

Clearly the City knows they have no legal right to chargeback these Charter-Mandated funds from either the Department of Recreation and Parks, or Libraries. The Library Dept. had the same Charter allocation as Recreation and Parks. Unfortunately, when voters passed Prop L for Libraries in 2011, they had no idea that the City had covered their legal butts on chargebacks by adding a second part to Prop L forcing Libraries "to pay their bills" - effectively removing the Charter-mandate for Libraries. But not for Recreation and Parks.

The results of the City's City-Charter violation could be devastating. Recreation and Parks has outlined the consequences of chargebacks in recent budget process documents, warning that the pursuit of "Full Cost Recovery" may ultimately result in the complete loss of the recreation function of the department (pg. 215 of this document).  Imagine no money for recreation in a city the size of Los Angeles! This is simply criminal. Yet our electeds continue to shamelessly ignore the damage from chargebacks. A lawsuit by the Citizens of Los Angeles against our own government is likely the only thing that will correct this willful violation of the City Charter and force our representatives to do the right thing.

We wrote up a full listing of the various chargebacks in FY12 with an analysis of each ( Mayor's Budget for Rec and Parks Target's LA's Most-Underprivileged ) for those interested in the detail.


You might think that, logically, the chargebacks would be equitable among the many City departments. But they aren't, hitting Recreation and Parks and Libraries by far the heaviest.

One of the chargebacks to the Dept. of Recreation and Parks (a City Department) forces them to pay the Dept. of Water and Power (a City-owned utility). Forcing the Recreation and Parks commission to "willingly" pay the Dept. of Water and Power is simply one way to launder the Charter-mandated parks funds for the General Fund through the Dept. of Water and Power. The City Council then withdraws those funds, now clean and free of the Charter-mandate and lost within lump sums in the hundreds of millions of dollars from LADWP allocated for the City's General Fund each year.

If  the Dept. of Recreation and Parks must pay LADWP, then there is one burning question that demands a public response from City officials before any new budget is signed:

If, as the City Attorney repeatedly claims, Dept. of Recreation and Parks must pay their LADWP bill the same as any other rate payer, then why doesn't the Dept. of Recreation and Parks receive franchise fees from LADWP for the thousands of acres of park land and park resources they use -- just like LADWP would have to pay to any other ratepayer whose land and resources they use?

Wouldn't this be both playing fair and helping our parks as one would hope our electeds would want to do?

Sadly, the answer is that the exchange would probably be an equal exchange, and losing those General Fund dollars nicely laundered through the Bank of LADWP is not on our electeds' agenda. That said, Eric Garcetti is a signatory to Parks Save and if elected, he must be made to keep his pledge and correct this ongoing crime against the will of the People of Los Angeles.

Frequent hiker rescues highlight need for additional Park Rangers

The four-day search and rescue of two hikers found less than a mile from their vehicles in OC's Trabuco Canyon last week has highlighted the recent significant increase in these expensive and dangerous activities. Modern Hiker has a good discussion of this issue today and LA Weekly published an article addressing this issue with some focus on City parks. Griffith Park seems to have a helicopter rescue every other week with amateur hikers going off-trail.

Earlier this week LAFD, after a third helicopter rescue above Veterans’ Park, broadcast this:

*UPDATE: Veterans Memorial Park Trailhead* LAFD helicopter hoisting uninjured boys from precarious location (2 trips w/ 3 victims each) to awaiting Fire Engine transporting to parking lot. LAFD had similar incidents last 2 weekends in nearly same location. LAFD reminds hikers to REMAIN ON TRAILS. – Erik Scott###

Calling our Mayor, CAO, City Council, Budget Chair Paul Krekorian, and Mayoral Candidates Eric Garcetti (a Parks Save signatory) and Wendy Greuel:  

If there was ever a clear argument for more Park Rangers this budget cycle, this is it.  When Park Rangers are in the field and interacting with hikers, educating hikers, and are on-site managing the sensitive resources that contain trails, the number of these types of incidents decreases. With respect to City parks in particular like Griffith, there are such few Park Rangers left right now that these parks are essentially not patrolled and are a veritable free-for all. No one is “home”, so anything goes, and this doesn’t just enable unprepared hikers but it allows vandals to damage these resources at-will.

I personally can vouch for people reaching out to resources like Rangers when they are on-site. On busy days, park neophytes who make their way into Amir’s Garden keep me from getting any work done at all with the questions about trails, preparation, distances, difficulty, wildlife, etc. And that’s A Good Thing. I answer everything and direct them to additional resources. Exactly what Park Rangers should be doing as part of their vital job duties – if we actually had any Rangers.

The bottom line is that we need a more reasonable management standard for our urban wilderness areas that is primarily proactive (Rangers, volunteers on-site) as opposed to reactive (expensive and dangerous Search & Rescue).

Time to correct this and hire more Park Rangers and a Chief Park Ranger this budget cycle.

LAFD's helicopter transport service makes hiking GP hills 'a breeze'

Thinking of taking a hike in a City park that is too difficult for your fitness level?

No Problem!

LAFD's helicopter transport service is available 24/7 at no out-of-pocket cost to you.
City taxpayers will pick up your hiking tab!

Hundreds of spontaneous outdoorsmen just like you have already taken advantage of this great offer in the past year.

Happy adventuring!

(yet another) Distressed Hiker Hoisted to Safety in Griffith Park

"Living With Mountain Lions" (the video)

Zara McDonald, founder/director of the Felidae Conservancy Fund gives an information packed and fascinating presentation on the relationship between and challenges faced by mountain lions and humans as our worlds increasingly overlap (guess who loses?). This event took place on Monday May 14th in Tujunga, CA. The community arranged this presentation after a young male puma was tragically and needlessly slain by a Fish & Game Ranger a few weeks ago in the Sunland area.

Public presentation: "Living With Mountain Lions" May 14

Mt. Lee Drive closed through March

From the BOE:

Mt. Lee Drive is closed -- and will remain closed through March -- from Deronda Drive to the Mulholland Fork, due to an upslope water-pipe leak that undermined the road-bed. Councilman LaBonge introduced an emergency motion earlier this month to make sure restoring this critical public safety route got top priority. Since then, plans have been approved and a contractor retained to do the work, which is underway now and will continue through the end of March. You can still hike up to Mt. Lee Drive, above the closure, from the Griffith Observatory. The following is from the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, describing the road-repair project.

On the evening of January 27, 2012, a washout of the Mulholland Highway developed approximately 1/5 of a mile northeast of the intersection of the Mulholland Highway and Deronda Drive in the Hollywood Hills. The Bureau of Street Services closed the road to vehicular traffic. Since this section of the Mulholland Highway is essential in providing access to the Mt. Lee Communications Center (one of the City's major emergency communication facilities), the roadway is being repaired on as a matter of urgent necessity.

On Friday, February 10, 2012 the City Council adopted a Motion (CF 12-0210) which directed the Bureau of Engineer to immediately begin design and construction to repair the road. On February 10, 2012 the Bureau of Engineering issued a construction order to an emergency on-call contractor to start repairs, and work began Saturday morning, February 11, 2012. The repair will realign the road by removing the hard bedrock along the slope above the road, and filling the washout with angular rock. A storm water catch basin and dispersal pipe is also included as part of the final repair.

Construction is proceeding on an expedited basis. The construction is scheduled to be substantially completed by end of March 2012, provided no unforeseen conditions are uncovered that may prolong the grading operations. Gene Edwards of the Bureau of Engineering is the Project Manager (213) 847-0463.

Park pic of the day

View toward Bee Rock on Saturday morning.

Taken from the canyon between Amir's Garden and the Boy's Camp.

Los Feliz Village Holiday Festival this Saturday

Griffith Park to remain closed today

The temporary closure of Griffith Park on Thursday due to damage from high winds and fire danger will continue today.

Park officials are planning on opening Griffith on Saturday.

Griffith Park trails impacted by DWP work - update

Update on the park trails mess comes from Lynn Brown - National Trails Coordinator for ETI National:

GRIFITH PARK TRAILS UPDATE

The restoration work of replacing one old water pipeline in Griffith Park between the L.A. Zoo and Los Feliz Blvd is now finished. Currently, DWP is working on street restoration to be able to open it to normal traffic. As soon as the street is restored, DWP will follow with the restoration of the hiking and equestrian trail that has been closed to equestrians for nearly two years. Bikers will return to riding on the street, and the bridle trail will be open only for hikers and horses. The restoration plan, as agreed upon before the work was started, is to remove the pavement, and restore the trail surface with decomposed granite. Improvements to the existing trail includes installing woodcrete fencing between the street and the trail to run from the Ranger Station to the northern end of the golf course on Crystal Springs Drive.

Unfortunately trees were lost during the pipe construction, but new trees are to be planted along the trail. There is a plan to reestablish a formal tree canopy along the trail. DWP hopes to finish this section of the project in December 2011 or early January, 2012.

The next phase of pipe construction will begin possibly in early January, 2012, with digging the pipeline trenches on Zoo Drive. The process is open trench installation, digging deep trenches to house the pipes to be laid. All of this is to replace aging water pipelines for the City of Los Angeles.

The good news is that during the first phase some of this work will take place at night. Later, work may be done around the clock also, as necessary. Vehicle traffic along Zoo Drive will be impacted and flagmen are to be helping with those potential problems.

Work will begin east of the Victory Bridge and continue east past Pecan Grove. The hiking and equestrian trails will not be impacted directly, but there will be considerable noise and disruption along the street which may affect trail users.

The parking lot at Pecan Grove will remain accessible during construction. However, this work will not disturb the access through Patterson Tunnels and the trails that lead past the Condor cages along Skyline.

At Live Steamers, the trail known as Rattlesnake which accesses the park will remain open. Horses and hikers can come through the dirt parking lot across the street from the Live Steamers, cross the street as usual and continue on to favorite trails. The parking lot is next to the Griffith Park Service yard, currently filled with mountains of dirt, across the street from the Live Steamers. It will become a “laydown” area for DWP. DWP will use this area as a base to store materials, dirt, some pipe, machinery and to also house office trailers on site. The area will be enclosed with a fence about 40 feet west of the bridle trail crossing.

Warning signs will be posted for equestrians and hikers on affected trails.

DWP has been responsive to the idea that the office trailers will be parked closest to the dirt trail that leads from Tunnel 6 to Martinez. Since trailers are stationary and facing outward, they should not cause spooks to horses. Moving machinery and other activities will take place closer to Zoo Drive. Entrance to this laydown area will be on the western most point of the triangle shaped lot. Trucks, and other heavy machinery will drive in at the farthest point from the bridle trail.

This dirt parking lot across from Live Steamers has historically been the parking area for equestrians trailering in to ride in the Park. It will now be used by DWP as their laydown area for the next 2 ½ years. There will still be a small area in the laydown lot where trailers may park. However, as announced previously, horse trailer parking for out of town trailers will be in a designated area across from Martinez Arena.

To follow the construction progress the public can go to the DWP Webpage (link here) … Look at Unit 1B which will refer to this current construction work. There are different designations for various phases of this construction project. The Webpage of Unit 1B should be up for viewing by the end of November.

Amir's Garden receives a 'Best of Los Angeles' nod

Last week, LA Weekly was kind enough to select Amir's Garden as the best picnic oasis inside Griffith Park in their "Best of Los Angeles 2011" edition.

As the volunteer caretaker and steward of this special place since Amir passed away in 2003, I'd like to thank the Weekly for the award and write-up. The recognition for Amir's beautiful rest stop and ornamental garden in Griffith Park is very much appreciated!

Author Reuben E. Reynoso's write-up on the garden does bring up an issue that needs discussion. In it, he not-so-subtly suggests that visitors may want to bring wine to the garden and toast Amir (and then not to blame him or the Weekly for doing so).  This likely comes from the garden's and its founder's history. Amir's weekly potluck through the 1980s and early '90s often included wine. After all, when not caring for the garden, Amir Dialameh worked as a wine expert at Greenblatt's Deli on Sunset for years. A glass of red wine before bed was a part of his heart-healthy daily routine.

At the end of November, I will now have been caring for the garden as Amir did for a full 1/4 of the time he put in. That's 8 years at some 900 volunteer hours per year spent in the garden. In these past 8 years, the appearance of alcohol in the park - and in the garden itself - has definitely increased. And not in a positive way.

So I ask:  when you toast Amir for his beautiful gift and you want to use alcohol of some variety,  please respect the garden, the park, and everyone who enjoys the park by raising your toast outside the park.

Amir Dialameh in another lovely garden.

Credit: Farrokh A. Ashtiani

Today is a much different world than it was 20 years ago, for better or for worse. One contributing factor right now is the lack of any Park Ranger presence in the evenings and precious little during the day. No Ranger presence has made it obvious to anyone looking that no one is watching the store, anymore.

Over the summer, the amount of alcohol party trashings of the garden went from annoying-but-occasional to every weekend with one or more of these inappropriate uses of Amir's beautiful gift taking place. Just two weeks ago, I spotted four kids off-trail near Amir's with a telltale blue box in hand. When Park Rangers found them, these park patrons had 36 cans of beer prepped for a big afternoon.

It is illegal to bring alcohol into the park, and the law is for everyone: you cannot have one set of laws for some and not for others. Please don't bring alcohol to Amir's Garden, even for a simple toast.

If you are compelled to toast Amir in his fantastic garden, as anyone might be,  many non-alcoholic drinks are out there for you to choose from. Sparkling grape juice is my personal fave. Good stuff!


Read Farrokh Ashtiani's wonderful tribute to Amir at the time of his passing here.

Biggest darn rattler in the park successfully relocated

Remember her?

More than 4' long and 14-15 rattles.

They don't come much bigger than this in Griffith Park:

In 2009, this grandmomma rattlesnake, looking very pregnant, scared quite a few visitors around Amir's Garden for a couple months. At the time, Park Rangers were patrolling for her so that they could relocate her safely to a less-traveled part of the park.

But Grandmomma suddenly dropped off the map. No sightings! As the garden caretaker, I seriously had eyes peeled for this gal. When she disappeared, I was worried something or someone had gotten to this beautiful creature before she could be safely moved. That said, rattlesnakes are territorial, and big ones maintain big territories. She could be anywhere in her territory.

Meanwhile, as we wondered where she might be, this photo kind of went viral throughout the park community. People kept asking me if I'd seen the big snake they saw in their email. I had to say 'no'.

At the end of August this year, Grandmomma suddenly reappeared in Amir's Garden. Terrified calls from garden visitors again went to the Park Rangers and this time they got up to the location just as she was leaving the area. They carefully placed her in a travel container and moved her to her new home in the park.

Here is Grandmomma circa early September 2011 - 15+ rattles strong but not so pregnant, cruising into her new low-density home where she won't terrify too many humans. What a gorgeous girl!

Congress of Neighborhoods Invades City Hall

John F John Jr

NC System Throws a 10th Year Birthday Party

From every corner
From every background
From every walk of life
They gather in peace with a common hope for a better future
The City of Angels shines down upon this day ~1913

On Saturday September 24th volunteers from all corners of Los Angeles gathered at City Hall for the 2011 Congress of Neighborhoods. It was standing room only inside the historical John Ferraro Council Chambers as a crowd of of nearly 600 crammed together for opening ceremonies. The Pledge of Allegiance was followed by greeting from Cindy Cleghorn who chaired the volunteer committee that organized the event.

Mayor Atnonio Villaraigosa proclaimed that Neighborhood Councils are here to stay and proceeded with a series of softball remarks that made solid commitments to nothing. BH Kim, the General Manager of DONE gave what could be labeled his most inspiring speech to date. He comfortably addresses the room of savvy community activists many he knows on a first name basis. Mr. Kim pointed out specific projects that different NCs had accomplished to engage stakeholders, like The East Hollywood NC ArtCycle he attended the prior weekend. When each NC was mentioned a variety of shouts and clapping could be heard from the different camps throughout the room. Then he offered a call to action and encouraged further regional organization and for NCs to take positions on the Krekorian motions that will be up for Council vote later in the year.

The day then broke into a series of workshops and panel discussions. From broken side walk to pension reform, and from conflict of interest to social media, Los Angels neighbors talked, listened and exchanged ideas.

Throughout the event GGPNC Public Safety Chair Andrea Laderosa mingled with fellow community leaders and spoke of how important it is for Los Feliz residents to be represented. It is clear that she is serious about this philosophy as she can be seen volunteering for nearly every community event in and around Los Feliz and now making her presence city wide. She easily exemplifies the best of Los Feliz and the type of positive change one person can bring to a neighborhood.

The event was a huge success not because it solved any of the problems facing Los Angeles, clearly it did not. What it did do was give credence to the ten year old Neighborhood Council system. There was a sense that BH Kim was addressing an emerging giant. The mechanism for regional collaboration on united causes is now in place. And at long last the voice of the common citizen may become louder than whoever has the fattest wallet on any given day

Breached! GGPNC using invalid bylaws

By John F John Jr

GGPNC STILL CAN’T FOLLOW THE RULES

The Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) has confirmed that the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council (GGPNC) has been conducting meeting, appointing board members and distributing public funds under the wrong set of bylaws.

It is a staggering violation of public trust. Tax payer funds available to the GGPNC are now being distributed by a board that was wrongly appointed.

This breach of established rules is sadly only one in a long line of nefarious conduct by the board under the helm of Los Feliz Forward for the past year. Whether they are violating their own rules or those mandated by the State of California makes little difference to those in charge. Once again neighborhood stakeholders have been hoodwinked by a small handful of angry men.

Los Feliz Forward was the brainchild of board members Tomas O’Grady and Mark Mauceri, both formerly from New Jersey. Shortly after relocating to Los Angeles they cleverly effected the hostile take over of the GGPNC. It could be argued that this was was achieved by exploiting vulnerable community groups. Disturbing messages of ethnic bias began to pop up in and around Los Feliz, a sort of double reverse hate speak. See [homophobe] and [ethnic].

They then spent the next year passing sweeping changes to bylaws that were once heralded as best practices by DONE. The process for pushing the bylaws to vote often involved cutting off public comment or posting agendas that didn’t meet minimum Brown Act requirements. It was the exact behavior the Brown Act was designed to protect against. Former board member and long term community activist Tom Wilson actually left the board because he was so frustrated with the lack of due diligence.

Ironically they had all the votes they needed to legally pass anything they wished. But it appears that they are so accustom to gaming the process that they are simply unable to play be the rules.

During the May meeting nine new board members were appointed to the GGPNC. They did this under the new set of rules that had been rushed through during the past year. However, the GGPNC neglected to wait for the bylaws to receive final approval from DONE. Nine senior members of the board who had spent decades donating their time to Los Feliz were not allowed to vote under a controversial provision of the new bylaws. This of course affected the potential vote count of every candidate running, some winning a seat by only one vote.

The new bylaws also affected who might have chosen to run for an appointed position. Senior board members had little hope of winning a seat with the” Los Feliz Forward only” voting block. It is safe to say that Tomas O’Grady’s and Mark Mauceri’s Los Feliz Forward has had an unfriendly history with the senior members of the GGPNC board. And in fact the average age of the GGPNC board has dropped about twenty years since the May appointments. The deep well of experience with the neighborhood, the park and with city and state government has been swept away. Now you will find the President allowing painfully long debates over which balloon to choose for a street fair.

GGPNC President Ron Ostrow who use to lecture his predecessors from the Robert Rules of Order as if he were a Parliamentary preacher now has to face the general board and try to wordsmith an excuse for what can be described as a major and unprecedented screw up. One can expect his delivery will be flawless. The only hope for a clean get away is that DONE some how forgives the breach of rules. The fact that to undo this arrogant mistake would be a gigantic mess might play in their favor. To make the invalid election valid would likely take more resources than DONE has to offer.

However it should not take DONE, or endless calls to the City Attorney, or the Code of Civility, or the State Brown Act, the GGPNC bylaws, or even Robert Rules of Order for the most casual observer to concluded that something is habitually wrong with the leadership of this neighborhood council.

The cure in whatever form may have to come from DONE. The leadership of GGPNC appear unable or unwilling to heal themselves.

City Council's Parks committee has a new chair

Councilman Paul Krekorian will be the new chair of the City Council's reformulated "Arts, Parks and Neighborhoods" committee when City Council returns from recess in September.

Tom LaBonge ruled the previous incarnation of the parks committee - lovingly nicknamed the Arts, Parks and Old Farts committee by those doomed to frequent it -  for nearly a decade. During the LaBonge era, parks and recreation in Los Angeles have become almost extinct.

Here's hoping that Krekorian will bring fresh energy and positive ideas for healthy parks to City Council, while keeping billboard forests from becoming LA's 21st century version of "open space".

[KPCC] Battle over billboards in City parks

[KPCC] The battle heats up over billboards in Los Angeles city parks

Aug. 23, 2011 | Katherine Butler

Image:  KCET

Welcome to the battle over billboards in Los Angeles city parks.

Could our city parks really be filled with dazzling billboards and distracting advertisements crowding park benches, picnic tables, and fence space? A law exists against using public space for signage. However, citing cutbacks, the Parks and Recreation (corr: Recreation and Parks) Commission is looking into ways for corporations to “donate” money in exchange for advertising space in the city parks. In fact, some have accused the city of actually selling public space to advertisers.

Last year, the city almost allowed super graphics from Warner Brothers 3-D movie “Yogi Bear” to populate “fences, shelters, picnic tables, trash cans, light standards, walkways, and other structures in Holmby Park, Pan Pacific Rec Center, and Lake Balboa Park.” After a public outcry, the plan was delayed and ultimately canned after the movie's premiere date passed.

The opposition to such ads has quickly grown. KCET launched an in-depth investigation of billboards in public spaces. (See their report here.) Meanwhile, the nonprofit Friends of Griffith Park has stepped up to the plate as the voice of public concern.

Recently, we spoke with Bernadette Soter, a founding board member of Friends of Griffith Park and current vice president of outreach for the organization. She answered the questions below.

There was a hearing on August 9th where the Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) of the L.A. City Council heard plans for a proposed new sign ordinance containing a provision for “comprehensive sign programs.” What happened at this hearing?

"LA City Council is moving ahead with revisions to the existing sign ordinance, but whether or not those revisions will permit commercial signing in parks and city-owned spaces remains to be seen. The proposals have been advanced outside of public view. The public is now learning of them and is beginning to speak out."

Why exactly is Friends of Griffith Park opposed to the idea? Is it an aesthetic reason?

"If successful, this radical re-writing of our sign laws will not only alter the purpose of our parks, it will expose the people who use them — especially kids — to commercial exploitation. The children who play in our parks should not be offered up as marketing targets. Parks are retreats from our urban milieu and the relentless drumbeat of commerce. They are also a core city service and do not exist to generate revenue. Not to mention, there is language general enough to allow digital signage."

Read the rest of this important article at KPCC's website.

SW Museum supporters sue... finally.

Kewl.

Southwest Museum supporters sue city, fearing site's extinction
August 3, 2011 | 3:27 pm

Years of wrangling over whether the Autry National Center has a right to shed a costly and inconvenient subsidiary, the Southwest Museum, has spilled, perhaps inevitably, into the courts.

Southwest backers are asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to overturn two recent decisions by Los Angeles city officials allowing the Autry to undertake what it has characterized as a routine gallery renovation at its Griffith Park museum. Opponents say the remodeling would be the first step in an irreversible sequence that would end the Southwest’s nearly hundred-year run in Mount Washington as the home of a prized collection of Native American artifacts. ...

Read the rest at the LA Times.