Speakers from the Sierra Club and California State University, Bakersfield, told the Kern County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 7 that county parks show repeated maintenance and safety problems and urged a professional, long-term approach to repairs.

"Your parks need new management to address ongoing and repeatedly noted maintenance and security issues," Eddie Lane of the Sierra Club told the board, citing recent photographs he distributed that show restroom conditions and unauthorized off‑road vehicle use on park lawns. Lane noted the county has leftover funds from the previous year's budget that could be used to bolster parks management.

Antje Lauer, a member of CSUB's Department of Biology, focused on riverbank erosion at Hart Park. She said the damage followed El Niño events and warned that short-term fixes had not lasted. "These river erosions happened because of the El Nino events like 2 years ago with a lot of water rushing down the Kern River," she said, and urged the county to consult hydrogeologists, landscapers and botanists to design durable repairs.

Supervisor Sherman Parlier asked for a presentation on the MyKern app and how it could be used to report park issues and improve response. Jeffrey Hill, Kern County's chief general services officer, told the board that "Every park in Kern County has at least 2 signs on it that has contact information and a QR code to the app," and that the app directs users to report issues and that the county receives and responds to those reports. Hill said signs will be posted at parks still under construction once projects are completed.

Lane and Lauer urged that repairs be made to last, pointing to climate-change-driven increases in severe weather as a reason to consult technical experts before rebuilding riverbanks. The board did not adopt a specific funding measure at the meeting but asked staff to bring forward information on the app and related processes.