Editorial: Saving a special place / Let supervisors fill park funding gap

The San Dieguito River Park is one of those fantastic big-dream projects that help give a community a unique sense of place. It serves as symbol that people here care enough about the natural environment to form a partnership of governments to preserve a swath of open space for a park stretching 55 miles from the coast at Del Mar to Volcan Mountain in Julian.

So it was particularly lamentable when Mayor Jerry Sanders and the City Council said last fall that San Diego – the biggest financial contributor in the partnership – could simply no longer afford it, after 21 years, because of its $179 million budget deficit. Effective Jan. 1, San Diego cut its $319,000 share of funding through June 2011 for the joint authority that manages and works to complete the river park.

With an operating budget of only $1.4 million, the loss of San Diego’s funding forced the joint authority to institute furloughs for its 11 employees and it is now considering laying off several employees, including the executive director.

Park supporters, led most vocally by county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, have not accepted the San Diego cutback quietly.

Now they see hope in a report from the city attorney’s office saying it would be legal for San Diego to use Water Department funds for the river park if it could be shown that the park protects drinking water in the city-owned Lake Hodges reservoir near Escondido. The city used Water Department money for the river park until 2006, when the legality of that was questioned by the county grand jury.

But Mayor Jerry Sanders opposes the use of Water Department money for the park and he is right to do so, for many reasons.

Here’s a better idea: If each member of the Board of Supervisors took just $63,800 from their taxpayer-financed special slush funds of $2 million apiece, and gave it to the river park, the loss of San Diego’s money would be covered. The river park authority would be saved and supervisors would be the saviors.

Wouldn’t that be better than simply whining about those lousy ne’er-do-wells at City Hall?