Board pauses parks adoption after outcry over proposed arts cuts; staff told to return with funding options

An unusually large and emotional public turnout at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting on June 24 pressed the board to preserve county support for local arts organizations after Parks staff identified the cultural contracts as part of a plan to close a parks budget gap.

Parks Director Jeff Gaffne presented the department’s plan to restore requested services the board had asked for at an earlier hearing — including seven‑day year‑round operation at the Simpkins swim center, portable restrooms in county parks, and extra‑help maintenance hours. To close the roughly $594,434 hole tied to a previously proposed pay‑to‑park change, the department proposed a package that would have eliminated the county contract with the Arts Council ($170,000), reduced the Museum of Art & History allocation ($77,000) and trimmed county cultural services ($12,000).

The proposal drew dozens of speakers representing arts organizations, educators, museums, and community grant recipients who said cuts would damage youth programs, arts education, tourism and local microeconomies. Jim Brown, executive director of Arts Council Santa Cruz County, told the board that eliminating the county contract would “kneecap our ability to leverage $100,000 in matching funds” and threaten grants to more than a dozen organizations.

After more than two hours of public comment and internal discussion about legal limits on Measure K and Q discretionary funds and about alternatives (transient occupancy tax allocations, targeted parking fees, community matches, or supervisor discretionary allocations), the board voted 5–0 to delay final parks adoption and directed staff to return on June 30 with concrete options to maintain Arts Council and Museum of Art & History funding. The vote included direction to explore eligible Measure Q/K uses, fee adjustments, program timing changes, and limited contingency draws as a last resort. Several supervisors signaled willingness to use district discretionary funds to help bridge gaps.

Parks staff told the board they could present a menu of options by June 30, including delaying equipment purchases, modest fee increases for venue rentals, targeted use of county Measure Q eligible line items (vegetation management and deferred maintenance), and limited program reallocations. Director Gaffne cautioned that making parks whole would likely require a mix of approaches, and that fully restoring cuts without offsets would leave other maintenance areas reduced.

Votes: The board voted unanimously 5–0 to defer final parks budget adoption and instructed staff to return June 30 with options to preserve arts funding and to identify contingency sources.