Sacramento parks staff outline cuts to address $66 million structural deficit; commissioners pressed for alternatives

Jackie Beauchamp, director of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, told the Parks and Community Enrichment Commission on April 16 that the city faces a $66,000,000 structural budget deficit and staff have developed preliminary baseline strategies to help close the gap.

Beauchamp said the department maintains 243 parks and parkways across roughly 4,000 acres and operates with a workforce described in the presentation as 678 FTE (the transcript also referenced 1,437 individual employees). She said the department’s current operating budget is about $65,900,000.

The baseline strategies presented include targeted staffing reductions and program adjustments. Beauchamp said the package that staff shared with council includes the elimination of 102 FTE (the presentation also described this as “over 86 filled positions” in the transcript) and identified a baseline that represented about 11.2% of the general fund for the department. Staff described one community-center scenario in which eight center locations would reduce operations from six days per week to four — a 27% reduction in operating hours — and outlined aquatics reductions that could close four standalone pools and cut neighborhood pool schedules from six to three days per week; staff estimated those pool changes could reduce roughly 12,000 visits per summer.

On park maintenance, staff said some specialty landscape and maintenance activities were among the services being considered for contracting. Beauchamp warned that contracting may not reduce service-level impacts but could affect quality, community relationships and the department’s ability to respond quickly during storms or emergencies.

Beauchamp also described prior years’ reductions, noting several rounds of vacancy eliminations and reorganizations the department has already implemented to reduce costs. She said the city manager’s proposed budget will be released the week of April 28, with a council overview in early May and final adoption scheduled for June, and that the proposed budget will reflect selected strategies after further discussion.

Commissioners pressed staff on public engagement and timing, the department’s long-term planning, and outside funding opportunities. Commissioner Boone asked when community members can meaningfully engage; Beauchamp urged participation at town halls and budget surveys and said staff are improving program performance metrics to better demonstrate the value of services. Commissioner Lavor asked whether park rangers could apply for outside grants; Beauchamp said the department has a grants team and pursues opportunities and cited a recent smaller grant for AEDs as an example.

Several commissioners urged pursuing sustainable, long-term revenue sources (including potential ballot measures) rather than repeated annual cuts. Commissioner Lang and others noted multi-year projected deficits and warned that repeated reductions risk permanently scaling back services such as pools, after-school programming and older-adult services.

Chair closed the discussion by stating the item was "received and discussed only" and no commission vote was required.

Ending: The commission did not take a formal vote on the budget strategies; staff said the city manager’s proposed budget will be released the week of April 28 and that additional public and council deliberations are scheduled in May before final adoption in June.