We're relieved that the Saratoga City Council seems to be backing away from terminating the city's Recreation Department in an effort to save money.
The Recreation Department rates very high in cost recovery for its programs, recovering some 91 percent of its direct costs, according to Recreation Director Joan Pisani.
We realize the City Council has to cut someplace to make up for some $1.3 million lost when voters failed to continue the utility users tax. But it seems penny-wise and pound-foolish to abolish a department that actually goes a long way toward paying its own way.
And even if the Recreation Department didn't pay its way, how do you put a dollar value on youth sports programs that build character and keep young people busy with worthwhile endeavors?
As one recreation commissioner suggested, it is much cheaper to spend money on young people to help them grow strong and secure than it is to spend money on prisons to incarcerate them when they've gone astray.
We had heard that some members of the City Council do want the Recreation Department to phase itself out within a year, while other organizations take over its recreational functions. But the council majority seems to have changed direction. At least they're giving lip service to the importance of recreation.
We would encourage the city's elected officials to look elsewhere in their efforts to cut the budget. The Sheriff's Department is far and away the city's biggest expense, at some $2.2 million a year. While everyone appreciates police services, we're sure that some cost savings could be implemented here. The communications contract between the city and the Sheriff's Department is coming up for renewal, and maybe that would be a good place for tough bottom-line negotiations.
The city of Monte Sereno studied the issue of police services and found it could save money by letting its contract with the Sheriff's Department lapse and doing business instead with the nearby Los Gatos Police Department.
While we're not advocating doing away with the Sheriff's Department as the provider of police services, we are suggesting that city councilmembers should stop treating the Sheriff's Department as a sacred cow and take a good hard look at the services provided, with an eye toward savings.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 12, 1997.
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