Caryl Hart, head of Sonoma County Regional Parks, to step down with legacy still on the line

Caryl Hart said Donald Trump's election fueled her decision to seek work beyond her post overseeing county parks.|

Caryl Hart, who brought the forceful voice of an advocate and the big plans of a visionary to her post leading Sonoma County's regional parks, announced to surprise Wednesday that she will resign in June, stepping down as a failed tax leaves an uncertain future for the parks she championed.

Hart, 59, who was hired as the Regional Parks director in 2010, informed county supervisors and her staff of her plan to step down via letters and emails. She cited a “delay” in going back to county voters with a sales tax measure for parks and Donald Trump's election as president as the primary reasons she is departing county government in five months.

Reached by phone at her Occidental home, Hart said she plans to work with the North Bay's congressional delegation on combating Trump's plans for public lands and forests.

“I feel that my talents at this time are best used addressing those incredible threats, and that's what I'm going to do,” she said.

The announcement comes two months after a tax measure to support park funding failed by just over 1,000 votes, out of nearly 70,000 cast. Hart on Wednesday reiterated she felt “devastated” by the loss.

“It was horrible,” she said. “We put all our heart and soul in it. It came so close.”

Measure J, a half-cent sales tax measure, would have generated an estimated $95 million over a 10-year term and, according to supporters, was needed to fund an overhaul of the parks system, including a vast expansion of public lands offering new recreational opportunities.

Hart on Wednesday said she was planning to announce her departure around this time whether Measure J won or lost.

Had it passed, the county would have had the funding to refurbish and expand the 50-year-old park system, a transformation that Hart sought from the beginning of her tenure.

The measure's defeat stalled that movement, and Hart said recent discussions at the county made it more likely that officials would wait until June 2018 to bring a second measure before voters. Hart said she would hope to steer that initiative to victory and said the park agency has strong leaders to pick up where she leaves off.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane, a close ally of Hart's and the only remaining member of the board that hired Hart, on Wednesday said she was “heartbroken” to learn that Hart is leaving.

“She has absolutely been an on off-the-charts leader and champion for parks, not only regionally, but also statewide and nationally,” Zane said. “We couldn't have gotten a better leader. Her loss is going to be deeply felt.”

While Hart was at the helm, the county expanded some parks and added several landmark properties, including open space on Taylor Mountain and North Sonoma Mountain and the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail, boosting the overall network up to 11,000 acres.

The department has about 100 employees, roughly the same number as when Hart took over in 2010. The number of parks increased by 12 - to 56 - during her tenure. The total budget also increased by about $7 million, to around $24 million this year. The system derives funding through user fees, the county general fund and other sources. Hart implemented a more entrepreneurial business model for the department, overseeing a 60 percent increase in day-use and camping revenue. She also spearheaded strategic marketing of park memberships - the annual passes that cover day-use fees for a calendar year. Membership has risen by nearly 50 percent, to 25,000 passholders.

Hart created the park department's first natural resources division, and supported expanded recreation programming and community outreach. She also co-founded the Sonoma County Parks Alliance to develop alternatives to State Parks' proposal to close sites under its jurisdiction in the county. Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa remained open under the county's management in 2012 as a result of that work.

But Hart's grandest vision of opening vast new tracts of county-owned lands to the public, creating miles of new trails and tackling years of deferred maintenance in parks, was dealt a staggering blow in November when voters in unincorporated areas of the county narrowly rejected Measure J.

Hart's public statements in the wake of the defeat attributed the loss largely to voter confusion and opposition to the way the tax was structured - applying only to sales outside city limits. She sought even in the immediate aftermath to lay the groundwork for a second proposed tax measure, one that she had hoped could go before voters as early as June.

Hart joined the county with an impressive resume. She co-founded LandPaths, the nonprofit open space group, and at the time, she was chairwoman of the state Park and Recreation Commission, overseeing California's state parks. She'd also recently received a doctorate from UC Berkeley in environmental policy and management.

But she was an unorthodox bureaucrat, as the wife of former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and the vice president, from 1995 to 2009, for their Sebastopol-based recording and production company.

“Caryl was unique,” Zane said. “On the other hand, she didn't have a lot of high-level management experience. She was a little of a risk in that way. But we wanted someone who was a change-agent, who had an entrepreneurial spirit and who had great vision. That's where we put her.”

Craig Anderson, who was hired by Hart as executive director of LandPaths, praised Hart on Wednesday for her “incredible energy” and as a person who “wouldn't take no for an answer.”

Her strong-willed leadership got her in trouble in some cases. West county residents responded with skepticism and opposition to plans to link public wildlands in the west county with a network of trails and public shuttles and a new visitor center on the shore of Bodega Bay.

Still, “as jarring as it might have been at the time for some, she was the right piece of the equation at that time,” Anderson said.

Without need of her county salary - she gave it up for several months on a leave last year to campaign for Measure J - Hart had more freedom to speak her mind than many appointed government officials.

“I'm not doing it for the money,” she said. “I'm doing it for my passion and love for parks.”

In December, county supervisors approved giving Hart a two-year extension on her employment contract that reduced her to part-time hours, or the equivalent of two-thirds time. Her annual, pro-rated salary under the deal was $117,656.

Come July, Hart said she'll remain committed to her mission of securing a long-term funding source for county parks.

“Everything I set out to do, I feel I've accomplished,” she said, “except for getting a permanent funding source (for parks) and that's going to have to wait until next year.”

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 707-521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.

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