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By DEREK MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
SACRAMENTO — A state oversight board on Wednesday approved a controversial proposal that could lead to for-profit companies operating in 11 state parks, including six on the North Coast.
Critics fear the action could pave the way for these parks to be taken over by commercial interests or undermine nonprofits that are planning to submit their own bids to run the parks.
Despite earlier statements to the contrary, state parks officials on Wednesday said they will not seek to turn over the operations of entire parks to concessionaires.
The parks targeted include for 4,000-acre Sugarloaf Ridge State Park east of Kenwood and 700-acre Austin Creek State Recreation Area in Guerneville, which the state plans to bundle with nine other parks in an attempt to make them more financially attractive to bidders.
“We’re not willing to say that we don’t have the authority to enter into an RFP (request for proposal) with a concessionaire to run an entire park. Are we doing it? No,” James Luscutoff, chief of the Concessions, Reservations and Fees Division for state parks said after Wednesday’s hearing at the state Capitol.
The two members of the state’s Public Works Board who were present for Wednesday’s hearing unanimously supported giving the state the authority to seek bids from concessionaires.
Among the possible concessions are operation of campgrounds, restaurants and day-use facilities, said state officials.
Parks representatives also said they are hoping to generate what they called hybrid proposals that would combine private concessionaires and nonprofit groups as a way to keep parks open.
Some critics of the state plan have said that nonprofit groups would not be able to manage parks if denied the revenue that comes from campgrounds and other fee-based services.
The board on Wednesday also approved giving the state the authority to enter into an agreement with Sonoma County to temporarily operate Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa.
The action comes a day after county supervisors unanimously authorized Regional Parks Director Caryl Hart to open negotiations with the state about taking over operations of the popular 5,000-acre park.
State parks officials are facing a July 1 deadline when 67 state parks are to close statewide as a cost-savings measure. They describe their efforts with the concessionaires as just another option to keep these parks open. They also note that the state currently has about 200 concessionaire contracts statewide.
But concerns were heightened last week when a spokesman said state parks could consider giving these private and potentially for-profit entities the right to run entire parks.
Michael Harris, the acting chief deputy director of state parks, on Wednesday described that a “miscommunication.”
“There has been an unfortunate amount of misunderstanding and well-meaning concern on this subject. To the extent state parks is responsible for that, I apologize,” he said to the public works board.
One of the most vociferous critics has been state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who last week accused the state of wanting to turn parks over to “Wal-Mart.”
Evans was said to be ill and unavailable for comment on Wednesday. The senator’s chief of staff, Tom Roth, said Evans remains concerned about the direction the state is taking with concessionaires.
He said the statements made by Harris that the state isn’t intending to privatize the parks “wasn’t a clarification. This was a change in policy.”
The state nevertheless now has the authority to bundle Sugarloaf with five Central Valley parks, and Austin Creek with four parks in Mendocino County, for the purposes of seeking bids from concessionaires. The state estimates that each group has combined annual revenues that exceed $500,000.
Some nonprofit leaders have expressed concerns that the concessionaire bidding process could put them at a competitive disadvantage or delay approval of their own bids.
“What we are asking is that you give us a chance. Give us an opportunity to do what we can do,” Carolyne Cathey, executive director of the Mendocino Area Parks Association, told the public works board.
Harris, in his testimony before the board, said nonprofits have an advantage in the process.
“All things being equal, nonprofits have a leg up,” he said. “Nonprofits are rooted in the community. We value that tremendously.”
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@Money Grubber like Halliburton did such a great fiscal job in Iraq.
The parks will be cared for much better by private operators because their contracts depend upon actual performance.
And they won’t be shooting us in the back with a tazer stun weapon like the government Park Ranger just did to the lap dog walker in San Mateo County last week.