Cordova Parks: Community Losing Faith
It appears that there have been some some misguided plans and an inability in many areas to simply involve the community to improve Rancho area parks. It may be time for another change in leadership or a change to the structure of the CRPD. Clearly, the park district is not meeting the needs of Rancho Cordova residents and it’s time for the community to come together to make a change.
Recently, Cordova Towne residents met with Cordova Recreation and Park District officials to discuss the state of long neglected White Rock Park. Residents were dissatisfied with the maintenance, amenities, and security of the park in their neighborhood.
“Our park has been neglected for far too long,” said Ryan Lundquist, who’s lived on nearby Croydon Lane for four years. The swimming pool hasn’t been filled in two years, the tennis court is cracked and sometimes a “bad element” sets up camp in the park, he said. White Rock Park has gotten so run-down, Lundquist said, that his family’s motto has become “We drive to other parks.” There is more coverage available here.
There are some glimmers of hope. The regional Mather Sports Center at Mather Commerce Center is moving forward and looks to become a regional gem with softball fields, a skate park and more.
There are also major signs of problems within the park district. Last year, the Park District Administrator was forced out and David Edmonds was brought on board to right the ship. One of the major failures of the CRPD has been the inability to find funding, a suitable location or a landscape architect for the long awaited Rancho Cordova Dog Park. Although many volunteers have been diligently raising money for years and have selected a site at Hagan Park, the CRPD has failed to completed the requested upgrades.
Last December at a town hall meeting in the Anatolia neighborhood there was a lengthy discussion about parks and the new 25 acre Anatolia park being planned. At the time there were 3 neighborhood parks completed in the area; Argonaut park, Eagles Nest park, and Sandpiper park. The newly appointed Cordova Recreation and Park District administrator David Edmonds was on hand to share information about park development in the area and answer questions from residents about park amenities. He explained that the CRPD had pooled all available resources to try and meet the goals of the parks master plan for the new 25 acre park in Anatolia, but came up short. He explained that money for parks comes from developer fees, when they pull building permits, and not enough permits have been pulled by developers to fund the completion of all the master plan amenities.
The park district administrator stated that they are going to move forward with the first phase of the park development in the Spring of this year. The first phase would have included a softball/baseball complex with 2 lighted fields, 2 lighted tennis courts, 1 lighted basketball court, a group picnic area, multiple play areas including a water play feature, soccer fields, restrooms, concessions, along with a parking lot and small maintenance yard. Now six months after that statement, no development work has been started.
City Council members and Vice Mayor Dan Skoglund have been active participants in listening to the concerns of residents, but what action will Mayor Budge and the City take. If Rancho Cordova hopes to continue to progress into one of the best cities in the west and truly embrace the motto “City Life. Reinvented.” we’ll all need to focus some time and attention on our parks. The California Park and Recreation Society has developed a series on parks and their impact to a community. You can view them here.
The City’s of Folsom and Elk Grove have been innovators in this area with the new Folsom dog park opening August 16th, which the City of Folsom donated 100K, and Playground Partners in Elk Grove which brought 300 volunteers and $300,00 in donations together to rebuild Morse Park.
It’s time for the Mayor and City Council to take the lead and work actively with the CRPD to make the changes necessary to improve our parks so that Rancho Cordova can become the “City of Recreation”. Do you have an issue or question about parks in your neighborhood. Tell us your opinion in the comments.
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Posted by Geoffrey Sakala
on Aug 6 2008. Filed under Viewpoints.
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David Ivazian is running for the CRPD board. He has been a financial watchdog at their meetings for three years, and he knows more about the CRPD than the current board members. He frequently calls them out on waste, fraud, and illegal actions.
The CRPD administration would *hate* to see David elected to the board. Why? Because he exposes their cozy little world of backroom dealings, fat salary increases, and pension giveaways.
Please vote for David Ivazian for CRPD board in November. He is the first step in taking back our parks!
@Rob
Maybe David would like to share his thoughts on the waste, fraud and abuse by the CRPD. I would encourage you to submit an article for us to publish. We would also welcome any CRPD board members or staff to also submit an opinion piece on the state of our parks.
@Geoffrey,
Thanks, I’ll encourage David to send you an article.
-Rob
Dear Concerned Citizen:
I am very happy and proud to announce that I am a candidate for the Cordova Recreation and Park District (CRPD) Board of Directors. There are no incumbents running this time around; however, there have been 7 individuals who have entered the race.
I would like to state in a most positive way, that I am the most qualified candidate in the field. For over 2 ½ years, I have personally attended the vast majority of the CRPD Board meetings. I have listened and learned about what is happening in the District, first hand. Many times I was the only public citizen in attendance, but that did not stop me from critiquing many of the problems facing the District. During that time I have reviewed and critiqued 3 separate fiscal budgets. I have been instrumental in protesting, what some might call, the illegal assessments via the Park Assessment District that the California Supreme Court ruled in July 2008 contained unconstitutional special benefits.
The CRPD Board has been lax when managing the People’s money. In essence, this agency has become one that supports public employees over the general public’s welfare. When major corporations in USA were facing bankruptcy, these firms ceased offering Defined Benefit Pension Plans as contrasted with the more business friendly 401K plans; however, our Board adopted in 2006 a new Defined Benefit Pension Plan that has cost the District hundreds of thousand of dollars. Recently, the final Budget, which was approved for the next fiscal year, shows a 33% increase in personnel spending and hiring. What for? In September 2007, the Rancho Cordova City Council sent an embarrassing and threatening letter to the CRPD Board Chairman stating that the management and leadership of the District was in failure mode. And to make matters worse, over the years, many of the major projects in the District were being accomplished behind schedule and the actual costs greatly exceeded budgeted costs. I can attest to the problems, because I was there and have written many articles describing, in detail, these failures.
The CRPD is a very large and complicated District. We have the new and the old communities. We have the City of Rancho Cordova competing with communities such as Rosemont, Larchmont, Riviera East, Mather and Gold River that are outside the City limits. Within the City you have the new areas ( Sunridge and Village of Zinfandel) competing with the older areas of the City that contain parks that have been allowed to deteriorate. This complex maize is a nightmare for those who lack proper management and leadership skills. There are the problems associated with recreation and park activities, with City/Park District maintaining different requirement goals, with our agreements with the various school districts, with the utilization of police to protect park interests, and finally, with the American River Parkway stakeholder overview.
Yes, the District faces a myriad of problems. Yet, we must move beyond the problems and commit to the community. This election is about who can best help turn the District around. I have the management and leadership skills, which will enable us, the people, to turn the District into a Dream. The most important first step that I have argued is to develop a master plan and strategy for the whole district. The City of Rancho Cordova must be involved in the process, for ultimately, they also have the right for City parks to resemble their ideals. Then, again, the older sections of the park district must be renovated to bring back pride to each separate community and neighborhood. All of the communities must get actively involved in this process.
To me, it is all about bringing all of the communities together to represent one goal: A first class Board leading a first class District containing first class Parks and first class Recreation programs for all.
I am asking for your support and vote. If you believe that I can make a difference, please relay this message to your friends that live in the District. If you have any questions, please contact me at ivazian@sbcglobal.net or telephone at (916) 635-2299.
Thank you. We Can, and most importantly, We Will be successful.
Sincerely,
David A. Ivazian
Candidate for the Cordova Recreation and Park District.
11117 Moose River Court
Rancho Cordova, California 95670
I would like to know about the “fraud and illegal actions” by CRPD that Rob asserted in his email. Was that truthful?
> I would like to know about the “fraud and illegal actions” by CRPD that Rob
> asserted in his email. Was that truthful?
I believe that it is truthful and correct:
* The district pushed through a Special benefits assessment District, with associated assessment, which does not accrue any demonstrable benefits to those of us in the SBAD. Part of the campaign was an oft-repeated pledge that the money would not be used for more administrative cost or overhead.
* The district raised (these are ballpark numbers) about $670K with the assessment, then promptly added about $650K in new spending to retroactively expand pension benefits for existing employees.
* State law (backed up by court decisions) puts the burden of proof on the agency that benefits from an SBAD to prove that the promised benefits are actually being provided specifically to the assessed property owners. If no benefits have accrued, then the SBAD is effectively repealed. Several of us have asked the district to provide this proof, and have been ignored.
I believe that the SBAD campaign was deliberately deceptive — hence fraudulent. The fact that the SBAD has provided no demonstrable benefits, yet remains in effect, is illegal. The fact that the district is expanding employee benefits while parks throughout the district are suffering from massive neglect is wasteful (and shameful).
So waste, fraud, and illegal actions. There you have it. Sorry it took so long to reply; I did not revisit this page after I posted the original comment.
By merely 15 votes, the race for the remaining CRPD Board seat went to Rick Sloan, who got 8,565 votes, compared to Perry Metzger who received 8,550. Rick personally met and talked with residents in Anatolia and surrounding neighborhoods. Mark Baxter was handily elected with 11,236 votes — a vote of confidence: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1431464.html
Yeh, as Ryan noted, congratulations to Mark Baxter. He is one of the good guys. http://www.ranchocordovapost.com/2008/11/05/ranch...