The Cambria Community Services District has proposed retiring the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Commission (PROS) and replacing it with a Standing Committee. As vaguely defined in the Board discussion of July 20th, the objective is to bring PROS in line with the other existing standing committees. The benefits of this structure will be, uh, umm, er, – well, I’m not sure there are any. 

As a critic and a supporter of the PROS Commission, I admire the passion of past and current Commissioners to protect and nurture the areas under the PROS charter. 

However…

The problem has been the lack of tangible action that stems from the Commission not having a clear, easily understood charter supported by a set of policies and authorities linked to a primary mission.

Over the past year, new participants have brought momentum to PROS activities, barbering issues down to an identifiable set of actions and finding success despite the absence of a healthy organizational structure and governance.

Good, but not sustainable. Hence, the proposed change to the PROS raison d’etre.

What’s The Goal? 

What changes with this realignment? What problems are solved? There may be some administrative improvements, but how will this conformity improve the practical operation of an unfunded, murkily defined, and under-resourced organization?

Is the cart being placed before the horse?

Clarity brings Clarity 

The Board should invest in an organizational expert to address these complexities. Simply put, the rasher of maps, plans, documents, and rules and requirements built up over the life of PROS needs untangling, simplifying, and memorializing so everyone who wants to understand the rules can go to a single, vetted, accurate source.  Create a simple, clean set of responsibilities, define an organizational structure to manage against those responsibilities, and implement a governance model.

A Road Map

A good start would be to take each component of the organization’s title and articulate a set of definitions for each subset.

• What are Parks?
• What is Recreation?
• What is Open Space?
• What exists today?
• What is the desired future state?
• What are the requirements for successfully managing each of the areas?
• What are the funding sources for each practice?

• Who functionally manages these departments?
• Who manages all the interdependencies, complexities, and competing objectives of each function?
• Who manages the critical knowledge base and oversight required by outside agencies, existing authorities, and future project opportunities?

• How will the existing plans and obligations be examined, integrated, tossed aside, or restructured?
• How will budgeting and fiscal oversight be managed?

And on it goes.

Whatever structure – Commission, Committee, Legal and Defined Parks and Recreation department- must be thoroughly reviewed and put before the public before moving forward.

In The Meantime

Interested citizens can attend the next PROS meeting and see where current projects and activities stand. The session is Tuesday, August 1st, at 10:00 am at the Vet’s Hall. The meeting will also be accessible via Zoom. For Agenda and Zoom links, visit the CCSD Website HERE.

Upcoming August 10th and 17th CCSD Board meetings will have the proposed changes on the agenda. Board schedules appear on the CCSD Website under the Calendar section.