Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

illh® E-Z SLIDER [J)iirrce(C1t(Q)rr~~ The things you can find in public files , that Parks & R ec would rather you didn 't know... By Lane Campbell it's not a beautiful necklace ... but as a motorcycle control cable it's GREAT! E-l SliDER is a rep lace me nt cab le for mos t pop ular dirt bikes, un iversal fit, and is constructed of the finest materials to give smooth and effortless movement . No lubricat ion regu ired . FEA T URE S: • • • • • • Woven steel inner wire Nylon inner sleeve Wound steel condu it Cotton sleeve insu lator PVC outer jacket Ca dm ium pl ated fittings $3.95 sugge sted retail price Dealer and Distributor inquiries welcome Chides Importing Co . P.O. Box 837 Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 446-2002 No Bribe. No Ride 1976 JACK PINE 1ST OVERALLThe Vikings Are Coming! Cycle Center Hodaka '" Bu l t aco '" KTM 12 1300 East Edi nger A ve. Sant a A na, CA 92705 7 14-835· 782 1 Wheels within wheels, sto ries wit hinstori es, T he details of California Parks & Recreation Department's (mis)m anagement of the Off-Highwa y Vehicle Fund are enough to push one investigator to the point of sensory overload, Or two investigators, Or three. It 's already bigger than one littl e newspaper. It's big enough to involve the legislature , Each a nswered qu estion poses more qu estion s in a wideni ng chain reaction . It will ge t to a po int at wh ich only someone with clout will be able to for ce more answ ers . Here's where we are - "a t this poi nt in time:" To k ill something . sp lit it Last week we wondered aloud what had ha ppe ned to the people of Pa rks & Rec's OH V sectio n a ft er it was d issol ved a nd its res ponsibi lities scatt ered . Today , we ca n trace each of them , find who rose , who fell. As of O ctober, 1974 there was a Trails and Off-Road Vehicl e Sect ion , whose su pervi so r , R on R awl in gs, repo rted to Ru ss Porter, Ch ief of the Grants a nd Stat ewide Studies Division. In this gr oup at the tim e wer e: Bruce Kenned y, an Econom ist later class ed as a Parks & Rec Specialist ; Mer ick Ch a ff ee , a Man a gem ent Ana lyst/Train ee ; Charles Will ard, a P & R Special ist ; and a sten o , Penny O'Halloran , T here was a vac ancy for an ad di tio na l P & R Special ist. T his tin y un it sh a red responsibility for moto rized a nd non -motorized t rail recreation at the tim e. Wha t it a lso did was unify both co mpone nts of OHV Fund managem ent (p lan ni ng for state projects plus ma nagem ent of matching gr ants to citi es and co unt ies) in a wa y that dovetailed with the originally-intended 50-50 breakdown of Pa rks & Rec-ad m in istered OHV funds. As of October , 1975, Rawlings' Tra ils and O RV Unit still ex isted in its old spOt , ' b ut the und erm in in g crossc urrents ha d alread y begun . Bru ce Kenn edy h ad le apfrogg ed Rawlings into the Director 's Office and was now an Assistan t Depu ty Director. It was Kenned y who th is yea r would write his boss a memo adv ising how th e Depa rt ment would " look bad;" and it was also Kennedy who signed the Depa rt ment's rebutta l of the OH V Fund audit on behalf of Director Rh od es. Two new men , Ba rry Jones and Richard Troy, show u p in th e Trails and O RV Unit directory, Willard had been shunted to the Statewide Studies Section u nder Norman Hongola who in turn reported to Russ Porter. Herbert R hodes had been in th e Director's saddle about a year. Then , in July 1976 came th e big shuffle . j us tified as bring' g t h e Departm ent int o a " f u n c t io n a l" organization s t r uc t u re , Rh od es form alized th e ch ange in an August 3 mem o , Under th e new situ a tio n . the Trails & ORV Un it is no more. Its for me r em ployees a nd its responsib ilities a re p arcelled out among other or ga n iza tions as follows : A new Planning Division is created. with Bru ce Kenn edy named as its acting hea d (a s of Ju ly. 1976 ). H on gola 's Sta tewid e Stu d ies Section is renamed Statewid e Plannin g and placed in this divisi on . Troy a nd Chaffee , formerlv of Tra ils & O RV , a re placed in th is 'u nit with seven oth er fu ll-t imers , sten o O ' H a ltoran and three pa rt -time students . Ru ss Porter's ou tfit is renamed th e Gr ants a nd Local Assista nce Office: in effect , th e "st u d ies" ha lf of his res po nsib ility is what 's been given to Plann in g . Wh at 's le ft is t h e m anagement of gra nts to loca lit ies. Rawlings is still here , supervisor of a "Special Programs Secti on ," He has two employees left , W illard an d J ones. As t o wha t h a s h a p p e n e d t o Rawlings a nd why, t he follow ing transcript bears witness. It is pa rt of a n int erview co nd ucted by Steve Schutte of th e Auditor Ge neral's office during th e co urse of the Pa rks & Rec au di t. This interviewee is Rawl ings' boss, Russ Por ter. Schutte; Ron Rawli ngs occupied a posi tio n classed as Senio r Pa rks & Rec Special ist based on cert a in du ties and respo nsibilities. A significant amount of , th ose . . . were taken a way . Why? T his res u lts in the O H V Fund bei ng charged for a Senio r po sit ion that is not performing the du ties justifying the position . Porter: Som e respo nsibilities have gone to others. It was no t m y doing - it was th e Director's O ffice. Ron has a certai n lack of cre dibility with th e Director's Office , T here were co ncerns about conta cts with oth er sta te agencies and with the legisla - . ture .. . things were done without going through cha n ne ls, .. It was felt that he was a pawn of the O HV int eres ts .. . Between you a nd m e. Ron was difficu lt to supervise. He did things pretty m uch h is own way . . . (Sch u tte notes on th e interview transcript . "Nothing in writing re th e foregoing . ") Nothing in writing - incredible. Without any overt pe rsonnel a ction suc h as a demotion , th e man has been stri pped of duties and su bo rdi na tes. pigeonholed . hogt ied . placed in a n organizational holding pattern based on the unwritten assertion that he "lacks cred ib ility" with th e Director'S' Officel How N ixonian can you get ? 6 As if tha t weren't enough, consider th e corridor conversa tion overheard by our co rres po ndent in Sacrament o .!.... t hat bega n " Hey. you still in th e ORV program ?" " " W ha t p rogram? (m uch laughrer):" The repartee continued for half a minute and ended with the punchline; "W ell. if you want to kill something,& sp lit it up ." Nothing clandestine about these people - they know what tliey: want , and th ey feel so secure they don't care who hears , ., Where the power lies So much for ancient history. As .of now , Parks & Rec is set up with fOUI major Divisions and a half-dozen "O ffices" whi ch offer general staffrl support to th e divi sions. OHV poli cy , has to fit in the chinks and cracks f th is "functional" organization, H T he Planning Division has al read ( been lightly 'm ent ioned . Under Bru c ( Kenned y's stew ardship. this d ivision is supposed to pinpoint "recreational., and preservation defi ciences" and set ' program priorities, Remember we asked ea rlier who do es that ? Th Planning Div, does all sta tewid planning for th e OHV p rogra m in competition with a half-d ozen ot her . p ro g r am s. A ll la n d a cqu isi t ion pro posals hav e to cle a r Pla n n ing , as ~ well. i' Acq uisiti on and De ve lo p m e n u Divisio n manage s all lo ng -term expenditures for land and major:i equipment items, whi ch would incl ud i a ny real esta te for OH V parks. OHVs are never specifi call y m entioned in tlt is d ivision 's 22 m ajor "m issions" as call e & : ou t in the Pa rks & Rec organizatiolh _ manaua l. Nei th er is one person or,~ group of persons spelled out as having OHV la n d ac q uisition responsib ility. The actu al running of all partJ') l incl uding Holl ister Hills, comes under Opera tions Division , whi ch is split int \!'J fo ur geographic districts . Holl ister .. H ills is in Dist rict 4 , whose District Su p erviso r , M ilt on M . F r ink ~.q r ep o rt ed ly t o ld o t h e rs in th s;, a department he had no int ention of reducing th e pa rk's overstaffi ng . Inl~ mem o to his Ch ief, Fri nc ke wrote q " T h e r e is no thin g to -co m p a r a tten da nc e figu res with in prior yea rs. just off-the-cuff verbal est ima tes by some peop le , .. " ( A n a sse rt ion directlv cont rad icted bv t he sta te's aud it) '" .. . I a m not c~ncern ed th at o ur at te nda nce is suffe r ing a pprecia b ly, if at all , from th e fee structu re, . . " T he gu y did, in the interest ofgood PR , reco m mend lowering some fees, bu t you get th e idea he wants t he rest of his empire left alo ne , th ank you. T ha t mem o was dated Au gu st 5, about the same time that Rhodes wa s form alizi ng the orga niz a tional sh uffle. Interestingly e nough , tw o months lat er , Acqu isit ion and Development d id a m ass mailo u t of user q uest ion n a ires a n d spo n so red an October 24 user meet in g in San J ose. Was it a rea ction to publi c op in ion; or, kn owin g of t he coming a udi were th ey gathering public in put to cover their beh inds? Finally, th e bi g winner in the' reorganizat ion (and bellwether to management thinking these days) is Ja mes P. Try ner 's R eso urce Preservat ion and In t e r p re t at ion Division. Tryner's a career m an, a good one, who makes no sec ret of his long association wit h the Sierra Clu b, Even the new name of his ou tfit is a catchall of p reservationist lexicon . A i year ago, it was ca lled the Resource Management and Protection Division , and Tryner had under him two Secti on s wi th e ig ht fu ll -t im e em p loyees . Toda y, he's got a mini -

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