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	Don't All Cities Have a Parks Department?
	by Elliot Mulberg
	Many cities have a parks department. Some don't. In Sacramento County, of the seven cities only three do, Sacramento, Folsom, and Galt. Cities like Sacramento and Folsom that provide all services are called full service cities. If you consider the cost of facilities, equipment, and personnel it is very expensive to be a full service city.
	Yet many communities desire local control over land use and some essential services such as law enforcement. The desire to become a city without all the services fostered a new form of city government called a contract city formed under the Lakewood Plan. The idea came about in 1954 with the incorporation of Lakewood in Los Angeles County. At the time the population of Los Angeles was growing rapidly going from 400,000 in 1940 to over 1 million by 1954. The county was concerned that as new cities were formed they would reduce the need and quality of the county work force. The Lakewood plan allowed the new cities to contract with the county for services yet retain local control. New cities could provide an enhanced level of services without a major investment in facilities or equipment. The plan allowed the county to maintain staffing and provided new cities with ready, knowledgeable, well-staffed municipal services departments. In subsequent years new contract cities would assume control over certain county services and allow single purpose municipal governments or special districts to provide remaining services.
	In Sacramento as the population grew there were many communities that wanted more local control. In order to incorporate they had to go through the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo). LAFCO, is not a comedy club in Old Sacramento, rather it is charged to preserve prime agricultural land, discourage urban sprawl, and to quote a court case "City of Ceres vs City of Modesto" prevent the wasteful duplication of services" during incorporations.
	Recently LAFCO formed three new cities, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, and Elk Grove. None of these cities could afford to be full service cities. Each is a contract city. They contract for planning, police, public works, and animal control.
	Other services like parks and recreation are provided by special districts. The process by which they go through LAFCO involves collecting signatures of 25% of the registered votes, going though the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) which entails an Environmental Impact Report and a Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis (CFA). These two documents identify the service providers, those services provided by the new city and those that will remain with the special districts. The CFA determines whether the new city will be fiscally viable, that is whether the new city can afford to provide services.
	In Elk Grove, incorporated on July 1, 2000, LAFCO determined that the city would provide limited services, planning, public works, police and animal control. Other essential services , sewer, water, cemetery, parks, and fire, were to be provided by existing special districts. Waste water treatment is provide the Sacramento Regional Sanitation District provides sewers. The Florin Resource Conservation District and the county zone 40 district provide water. The Elk Grove-Cosumnes Cemetery District provides cemeteries. The Elk Grove Community Services District (CSD) provides parks fire and emergency services.
	While some communities like to have the same service provider for each service, it is sometimes beneficial to have a city and special districts provide services. In full service cities there is one budget and revenues are allocated among each department that provides a separate service. In the City of Sacramento the parks department competes with the police department and other essential services for funding. It is not uncommon when a full service city faces a budget shortfall the parks department is the first to be cut. This occurred several years ago in the City of Sacramento and most recently in the City of Richmond. Similarly the county, last year, was seriously considering very limited funding to county parks.
	Special districts on the other hand have dedicated funding for their specific services. Generally they are funded by property taxes, special assessments, and charges. Even if the City of Elk Grove was facing severe budget cuts, the CSD and other special districts would still be able to provide services. The CSD parks department receives its funding through property taxes and assessments. Additional funds for new parks come from developer fees.
	So the answer to the question "Don't all cities have a parks department?" is no. That's OK because we have special districts like the Elk Grove Community Services District to provide parks and recreation programs.
	Elliot Mulberg is a student of effective and efficient local government. He is also a member of the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo).
	The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent those of the Elk Grove Insider or any other entity.
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