King County may shut down 39 neighborhood parks

King County Executive Kurt Triplett will propose shutting 39 neighborhood parks Jan. 1 as another step in closing a $56 million budget shortfall next year.

"This is a difficult day for me as King County executive," Triplett said Monday as he announced plans to mothball the parks in unincorporated areas stretching from the Federal Way area to north of Kirkland. "I'm zeroing out all local parks funding from the general fund. ...

"We're simply out of tools and out of money."

Unless cities, school districts or other public or private agencies agree to take over the parks, he said, county workers will put fences around playgrounds, severely reduce maintenance and lock parking-lot entrances.

Persuading the Metropolitan King County Council to stop funding the parks won't be easy, Budget Chairman Larry Gossett said.

"There will be stiff resistance to cutting the parks among some council members," he said. "As the chair of the budget committee I still hold the position that everything has to be on the table for consideration for reductions of the county budget."

Gossett said he hasn't taken a position on park closures but generally believes public safety, public health and human services are higher priorities than parks. "Providing critical counseling for a woman who's been raped, at the time she needs it, would be more important than keeping a park clean at this time," he said.

Triplett's staff said closing parks would eliminate 13 jobs, and the county would apply two years of savings — $4.6 million — to the 2010 budget. It's part of a budget plan still under development.

Other proposals by Triplett:

• Reduce $17 million in overhead charges and in the executive, budget and strategic planning offices and possibly Metropolitan King County Council;

• Use about $13 million dedicated from sales taxes to pay for mental-illness and drug-dependency programs. The money would go toward funding existing programs including Drug Court and Mental Health Court;

• Negotiate concessions from labor unions equivalent to this year's unpaid 10-day furlough, saving $8.5 million.

This could be the second time in a decade the county deals with a budget problem, in part, by asking cities and other agencies to take over local parks. Since 2002, cities and other entities have become owners and operators of 11 swimming pools and 52 parks, mostly within their borders.

Voters in 2003 and 2007 approved property-tax levies for parks, but those levies were designed to maintain regional facilities such as Marymoor Park and Weyerhaeuser Aquatic Center, not the neighborhood parks now in jeopardy.

Parks on the mothball list are in unincorporated urban areas adjacent to Seattle, Burien, Kent, Renton, Kirkland, Issaquah, Renton and Federal Way. They range in size from 1.2-acre Green Tree Park outside Kent to 44.5-acre Maplewood Park near Renton.

Fourteen of the parks are in areas voting this year on incorporation or annexation to an existing city. Fourteen others are in areas in which there may be annexation votes in 2011 or 2012, Triplett said.

Because the county doesn't have the same taxing authority that cities do — particularly to impose a utility tax — Triplett said the county is subsidizing local services in urban areas with countywide taxes intended to pay for regional services such as courts and elections.

The Legislature this year boosted car tabs by $5 — with an opt-out provision — to keep 47 endangered state parks open.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com