DeVore charges cottage misuse

Alicia Robinson

After putting himself on the firing line with two bills to preserve

homes at El Morro Village, 70th District Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has

taken aim at a state parks employee for what he alleges is improper

use of state facilities.

In a letter sent Friday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, DeVore

charges that Crystal Cove State Park Supt. Ken Kramer “managed to

obtain rent-free use of one of the renovated historic cottages [at

Crystal Cove], allowing him to rent out his home for several thousand

dollars per month since last summer.”

Such an arrangement would be inappropriate, DeVore said, because

Kramer has been involved in decisions that led to the eviction of

residents from the Crystal Cove cottages, and he is a party to

ongoing efforts to evict residents at the nearby El Morro Village

mobile home park.

The cottages and the mobile home park are on state-owned land

designated for park use. DeVore recently introduced two bills that

would allow residents to remain at El Morro for up to 30 years, while

the state collects the rent money to reduce its budget deficit or for

state park use.

DeVore also sent a letter regarding Kramer’s residence to

California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman. At press time DeVore

said he had not received responses to his letters.

“I’d like to know the policy within the parks department as to how

they discourage or prevent the appearance of impropriety or breach of

the public trust,” DeVore said. “My main point was to register my

concerns as quickly as possible that it might get into the system,

and we might work to put a stop to these evictions.”

Kramer referred questions to the state parks director’s office. A

state parks spokesman said providing housing to park rangers and

maintenance workers is a long-standing practice and is widely done at

parks across the state.

“[Kramer] is not, nor are any park employees, living there

rent-free. They have to pay rent, but there’s more to it than that,”

said Roy Stearns, deputy communications director for the state parks

department. “They’re on call 24 hours a day, and being on call 24

hours a day, they’re not entitled to any type of extra pay.”

On-site employees pay $148 a month in rent, plus taxes and

utilities, and Kramer is trained as a peace officer and lifeguard and

provides park security, Stearns said.

When former tenants first began leaving Crystal Cove, the parks

department hired a private firm to provide park security for about

$90,000 a year, so having employees on-site is cheaper, he said.

“It’s a little like having the firemen live in the fire station

next to the truck, because we can do our job better,” Stearns said.

But DeVore thinks the fact that Kramer had a part in decisions to

evict other people from state property where he’s now living is a

conflict of interest.

Because Kramer is providing the state with services, the reduced

rent would appear to be a form of payment as opposed to a

questionable gift of public funds, said Matt Parlow, a professor of

property law and state government at Whittier Law School in Costa

Mesa.

“The problem, of course, is that if legitimately under the lease,

these people [in the cottages] were supposed to move, the state had

the right to move them,” Parlow said. “The fact that he’s moved into

one [of the cottages] does raise eyebrows in terms of whether he got

a sweetheart deal.”

Stearns said he doesn’t know if Kramer is renting out a home he

owns, but he doesn’t see an issue with that.

“We don’t put them [in the parks] because it’s a plum; we put them

there because we need their skills there,” he said. “My feeling about

his private home is if he’s managed his personal finances well enough

to have a private home before he moved here to this site, that’s his

business.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.