St. Mary's County commissioners on Monday reviewed the county's enterprise funds and heard a proposal to begin charging a user fee at two popular waterfront parks.

The discussion covered four enterprise funds — Recreation and Parks, Wicomico Shores Golf Course, Solid Waste and Recycling, and a now-privatized medical adult day care operation — and a proposal to charge $5 per vehicle for in-county visitors and $10 for out-of-county visitors at Elms Beach Park and Myrtle Point, with a season pass priced at about $20 for county residents.

The enterprise funds are intended to be self-supporting, county finance staff said. Jeanette Cudmore, deputy chief financial officer, walked commissioners through the Recreation and Parks fund, saying requested operating revenues for 2012 total about $2.5 million and the department projects a small positive excess of revenues over expenditures ($29,497 in the materials). Wicomico Shores Golf Course budgeted roughly $1.5 million in revenues for 2012. The Solid Waste and Recycling enterprise shows higher expenditures than revenues in the county submission, producing a shortfall that the general fund has subsidized; staff said the shortfall in the package was about $1.2 million and that the general fund currently pays the difference.

Phil Rollins, Recreation and Parks director, told the board the waterfront parks are “getting so much use and activity that we need to have additional staffing supervision” and proposed charging the vehicle fee to generate revenue to pay seasonal staff, buy supplies and, when needed, pay off-duty police for busy holiday weekends. Rollins said the Recreation Parks Advisory Board had reviewed the concept and “endorsed it.”

Staff said the proposed fee and the revenue estimate are included in the enterprise fund submissions and that the county would pay seasonal staff from the fee revenue. Commissioners asked staff to return with a written plan showing projected revenues, staffing costs, badge/sticker options for residents and details of how the fee would be implemented and enforced. Elaine Kramer, chief financial officer, said staff would provide the additional information and add the proposed fee to the revenue line in the summary-of-changes materials.

The discussion also touched on the county's past privatization of medical adult day care; county materials show a general fund subsidy of $586,396 in 2010 that, staff said, was reduced after the program was privatized on July 1, 2010.

Commissioners did not take a formal vote on the user-fee proposal at the work session. Staff was directed to refine the concept and return with cost and implementation details at a future meeting.