By Ben Adler / Capital Public Radio
An independent commission is calling for the “fundamental transformation” of California’s archaic State Parks system, including the creation of an outside organization to help raise money and coordinate volunteers.
The Parks Forward Commission formed as the California Department of Parks and Recreation struggled to recover from a dark time in its history: a financial scandal amid deep budget cuts that nearly led to park closures. Its mission, from Governor Jerry Brown and the California Legislature: Lay out a road map for the system’s recovery. That road map is now pointing the way.
“A certain group of stakeholders and a certain group of parks employees think this is just a money issue,” says the governor’s Natural Resources Secretary, John Laird. “You just give more money to Parks and everything will be fine. What this report demonstrates is that there are many, many structural issues wrong with Parks.”