California Coastal Commission deadlocked on beach fees

A divided California Coastal Commission will settle a dispute between State Parks and Sonoma County over whether to dramatically expand the number of beaches on the Sonoma coast where day-use fees are charged.

The panel was deadlocked, 6-6, at the end of a three-hour hearing Wednesday in San Rafael called to consider an appeal by State Parks after the county denied its bid to install self-pay stations at 14 beaches along 35 miles of coastline.

State law requires the commission to address an appeal unless a majority of commissioners vote to deny it. That means by the slimmest of margins, the 12-member board charged with managing California’s world-class coastline now takes control of the issue.

County officials argued the action could set new precedent for the commission intervening in a local government’s management of coastline that falls within local jurisdiction. State parks officials argued the opposite, saying the precedent would be restrictions on the agency raising money to sustain parks in Sonoma County and across the entire parks system.

One thing is certain: Wednesday’s action sets the stage for another contentious hearing before the commission, at a date yet-to-be determined.

Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, who presented the county’s case Wednesday, said after the hearing that he was disappointed by the outcome.

“I think the commission sent the wrong message to local governments that have certified Local Coastal Plans,” he said.

The hearing to decide the matter could be months away, given the commission’s meeting schedule and time needed for State Parks to submit information and data on the fee proposal requested by commission staff. That includes baseline data on how many visitors use the beaches in question, how much revenue the state expects to collect with the new fees and how the money will be spent on services and amenities on the Sonoma coast.

State Parks is proposing to charge visitors $8 for an entire day or “up to $3” an hour at the beach locations. Visitors would be allowed to park for free for 15 minutes.

The fees would be implemented on a sliding scale adjusted by a number of factors. Peak days under the proposal could be any day from March 1 to Nov. 31, seven major holidays - including Thanksgiving and Christmas - or any day where the temperature reaches 68 degrees or above.

The new fees would apply to sites stretching from Bodega Head in the south to Stump Beach in Salt Point State Park in the north. Popular spots on the list include Goat Rock, Shell Beach and Salmon Creek.

In her brief remarks to the commission, Dana Jones, Northern Division chief for State Parks, said that revenue from new fees would go back to funding services and facilities on the Sonoma Coast, under a funding formula whereby half of the revenue generated within a park district goes back to that district.

That funding seems far from certain, however, given that such revenue can go back to the district where it originated only so long as the local district and state system on the whole meet revenue targets. The money otherwise is pooled in the State Parks Recreation Fund and dispersed statewide.

Janelle Beland, undersecretary of the state’s Natural Resources Agency and a non-voting member of the commission, said the Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District brought in $1.3 million in revenue in fiscal year 2013-14 and incurred $4.6 million in operational costs.

She made the case that the district’s operations are being subsidized by fees charged at parks elsewhere around the state. She said people who pay those fees “have the same complaints” that people opposed to fees in Sonoma County have.

“They don’t like the money going to another county,” she said.

Several commissioners who supported the board taking up the issue expressed concerns for the financial plight facing California’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“They have a horrendous problem to deal with,” said Commissioner Gregory Cox, a San Diego County supervisor. “For years, they’ve been underfunded. Yeah, they’ve had some issues in the past that they needed to work out.”

Cox likely was referencing a 2012 financial scandal in which it was revealed the Parks and Recreation Department was sitting on a surplus of $54 million at a time when the agency was threatening to shut down dozens of parks for budget reasons. Department officials maintain they have implemented new financial practices to prevent a similar situation from reoccurring.

Nevertheless, the proposed fees are enormously unpopular in Sonoma County. Of the 880 comments presented to the Coastal Commission prior to Wednesday’s hearing, only two people expressed support for the idea.

Mike Reilly, a former Sonoma County supervisor and chairman of the Coastal Commission who testified Wednesday, called into question how commission staff could have arrived at its recommendation that the matter amounted to a substantial issue for the commission to take on. Reilly called the staff’s report the “most equivocal” he’d ever read on similar subject matter.

“I went through the report four or five times, and I wasn’t sure what the final recommendation was,” he said. He urged the commission to send the matter back to the county.

Commission staff found that Sonoma County had valid reasons for rejecting the state’s proposal in 2013 to install the self-pay stations. The county’s reasons included concerns that the fees would reduce coastal access opportunities for Sonoma County residents, particularly those earning a low income. The county also complained about the lack of detail about the fee proposal itself.

Nevertheless, commission staff sided with State Parks’ contention that the issue has potential statewide ramifications for how the agency fulfills a legislative mandate to generate more revenue to fund operations at sites across California.

Commissioners who were against taking up the fee issue said the matter needed to stay at the local level. They also criticized State Parks for updating the fee proposal with information that was not available to Sonoma County officials when they denied the state’s application two years ago.

As late as Tuesday, State Parks submitted new information about the proposal to the commission. The agency also called on commissioners to find there was sufficient reason for them to take the case, and to immediately conduct a second hearing Wednesday to rule on the merits of the state’s proposal.

Usual practice is for the commission to set the so-called ?“de novo” hearing at a later date in a region as close as possible to where the matter resonates. Commission staff dismissed the state’s request on the grounds that the meeting needed to be properly noticed with the public.

“To run over a local government who denies your request, and then come to the state agency after changing your plan, without any local input, without any public hearing - it’s just not right,” Commissioner Mary Shallenberger, a state appointee, said. “It’s just not the right way to run this government, it’s not the way to run parks and it’s not the way to protect our coast.”

However, county officials also came under fire for arguing against the state charging coast fees while at the same time, the county charges fees at several coastal parks it manages.

Carrillo acknowledged the inconsistency and told commissioners the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is weighing whether to drop fees at several county parks as a result of the current fee debate.

Coastal access advocates, along with a handful of Sonoma County residents, expressed opposition to the fees during Wednesday’s public hearing.

Una Glass, executive director of Coastwalk California and a Sebastopol city councilwoman, recounted a time in her life when her father lost his job and one of the family’s few affordable pleasures was taking strolls along the beach. She told the commission that $8 - the amount State Parks wants to charge for all-day access to the 14 beaches - probably doesn’t sound like much, but to people who earn a low income it represents “a lot of money.”

The North Coast’s legislative delegation also sent a letter to the commission rejecting State Parks’ appeal on the grounds that the issue is a local matter.

You can reach Staff Writer ?Derek Moore at 521-5336 or ?derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.