OC Parks Failed To Be Inclusive With Strategic Plan Survey

Sounds....sketchy

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/2...d-to-be-inclusive-with-strategic-plan-survey/

Following last week’s column about OC Parks’ upcoming 10-year Strategic Plan, an outpouring of emails, online comments and telephone calls criticized the agency for failing to widely publicize both the project and a survey.

Dozens of park volunteers, hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians said they were never informed about the five-week survey conducted in early summer and that they wanted to have input.

Some said they feared publicly criticizing the park, saying they didn’t want to upset staff. Of those who responded to my invitation for input, only one person defended the process, Mary Fegraus, founding executive director of Laguna Canyon Foundation.

My review of the survey found that a resounding 37 percent of survey participants work with the park, were government officials or county staff.

I also discovered the outdoor community at large as well as non-park users were unaware of the plan and weren’t included in the survey.

A week after my interview with OC Parks, nothing had changed on the Strategic Plan website. Several people told me they expected to be able to fill out the survey after writing to park officials.

Many, however, did receive a bounce-back reply: “On behalf of OC Parks, thank you for your email. Your feedback will be taken under consideration as we continue the planning process for the update of the strategic plan.”

\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\





Here is the Original Story:
In case you don’t know it — and you wouldn’t be alone — for the past half-year OC Parks has been conducting surveys, holding workshops, facilitating focus groups to determine the future of our outdoors.

For a public agency with an annual budget of $159.5 million, the possibilities for its next decade strategic plan are exciting. But there are buts.

The last major undertaking for a 10-year strategic plan was 2007. For the new one, OC Parks already is preparing to analyze the “public’s input,” develop priorities and present the new strategic plan to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Opportunities for more parkland, better facilities, “responsiveness to changing Orange County demographics” is wonderful. But OC Parks’ methodology of getting that “public input” is worrisome.

A review of the survey shows that a whopping 37 percent of respondents were either advocacy groups, elected officials or county staff.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Joe Bernhardt, vice president of OC Wheelmen — and a regular volunteer with OC Parks. He acknowledged it’s possible he missed something in his blizzard of emails, but noted, “I haven’t seen anything.”

Consider that our parks are so jammed with hikers and mountain bikers competing for space that there are frequent arguments. A new cast on my right ankle is just one testimony to the numerous injuries on busy Saturdays.

Yet the survey would have you think that mountain biking in county parks is insignificant.

The survey states 77 percent of respondents walk or run, 63 percent hike or run and a measly 15 percent mountain bike.

It reports that 16 percent of park visitors are Latino and 11 percent are Asian. Never mind, those statistics fail to mirror county demographics. They fail to recognize the diversity of people who love our parks.

I got empty air when I asked OC Parks for specifics on the survey statement that it contacted “partner organizations, OC community-based organizations, and others.”

The only organizations OC Parks named for me were arguably partners: “Friends of Harbors Beaches and Parks, Newport Bay Conservancy, Laguna Canyon Foundation, Caspers Park Foundation and SHARE Mountain Bike Club.”

There were no additional “community based organizations.” There were no “others.”

Here is how the tax-funded agency connected to its larger public: “in an email blast to all county employees asking them to share (the survey) with their friends, family members, neighbors, park users, constituents, etc.”

If you don’t know what “etc.” means, ask any kid who goes out to play before finishing their homework.

Without an honest scientific survey that includes engaging regular citizens who don’t use the parks, we will never know why these people don’t visit one of the county’s most precious resources.

Understand, OC Parks is an enormous organization. By its own admission, it is responsible for “60,000 acres of parklands, wilderness, historic sites, and coastal areas.”

This includes a zoo, beaches, 150 miles of bike trails and nearly 350 miles of existing and proposed dirt trails.

BEST KEPT SECRET
KH Consulting Group handled the survey which went from June 10-July 14, less than five weeks. The consulting company’s bill is still in the ka-ching stage. But its final bill could be as much as $206,793.

Passive methods to connect included Facebook and county websites. Twitter, county newsletters also were used.

More than 20,000 “announcement postcards,” OC Parks says, were distributed at a variety of county events such as Concerts in the Parks and handed to people who drove into parks that have gate arms.

That means many of the people who visit our most popular parks were omitted.

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, Peters Canyon Regional Park and others — thankfully — offer open access.

“I didn’t know about it,” said Ian Morton, day manager at the Path Bike Shop, a landmark center for the cycling community. “It’s funky because we’re on wheels already.”

A review of mainstream Orange County media found nothing about the strategic plan or the survey. The Orange County Register, the OC Weekly and a variety of other publications appear to be unaware.

During the survey period, I happened to have interviewed dozens of people in the outdoors while writing columns about local mountain lions, top five county hikes, wildfire danger and mountain biking. No one mentioned the survey — including OC Parks.

OC Parks said they made available 21,000 “announcement postcards” at various parks. During the same period, I visited county parks at least twice a week and drove several times to at least three. No postcards were visible.

Additionally, I’ve written hundreds of columns on the outdoors over more than a decade and have repeatedly reached out to OC Parks. Yet I only learned about the strategic plan a few days ago by accident.

I happened to be researching Aliso Woods after breaking my ankle mountain biking at the park and figured it was time — once again — to emphasize trail etiquette in our increasingly crowded parks.

Instead, I stumbled on the strategic plan it its survey.

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY FOR INPUT
KH’s “Summary of Input from Stakeholder Workshop” offers such off-the-shelf statements as, “hiking and biking are important exercise opportunities”; “for young people, establish walking routes to parks with pathfinder signs that show distance”; “park ranger enforcement (from ‘arson’ to ‘dogs of (sic) leash.’”

I’ll mention, in March I wrote about beefing up enforcement for dogs on leashes after getting bitten by a doberman while mountain biking. Since then, I have observed no increase in enforcement.

I talked to OC Parks Deputy Director Jonathan Nicks on Friday about the survey as well as the strategic plan. Nicks was conciliatory and during our conversation he acknowledged there was room for improvement.

Several times, Nicks said the survey reflects respondent percentages, but not necessarily true percentages.

He agreed county parks typically have demographics that to some degree reflect country percentages, not the low numbers the survey reported for Asians and Latinos. He also agreed mountain bikers represent a significantly higher percentage of trail users.

“To get this kind of feedback,” Nicks told me as our discussion continued, “shows we could have done a better job. It disappoints me and our park system.”

Yet Nicks didn’t stop there. He went so far as to reach out for more input. “Hopefully, we can correct it as we move forward.”

The first step is to offer your comments about the next 10 years to OCParksSP@ocparks.com.

 

A great way to get involved and give back is to sign up to be a volunteer for OC Parks. I signed up this morning in an effort to become an ambassador at Santiago Oaks to help educate new users of all the hiking, biking and equestrian groups. We are trying to make an effort to keep things friendly between the user groups and not have any hostile encounters. It happens within every user group. But we all have to do our job to keep our parks beautiful and friendly in order to keep them open for our continued enjoyment. So, I strongly encourage as many of you that are willing to please sign up to become volunteers at our local OC Parks. You can choose your level of involvement. It will never be a perfect system, but the more that each one of us can do individually, the more a collective effort will be recognized. So, be cool, be happy and let's have fun in our great outdoors. Peace out!

 

Well stated, @horsebikerider. Thanks for joining up!

 

By requesting "input" I wonder if they are referring to the "survey" that was posted. It was a very generic survey that did not lend itself to outside comment or request for suggestions.
And I agree with Suz, stay in touch with the system in a positive way so they are respectful to our opinions.

 

Thanks Kay!

 

Thanks Jim!