Sacramento's lease agreement with nonprofit to protect a bocce court comes as city reveals structural deficit
SACRAMENTO – New numbers are out showing how bad the City of Sacramento's structural deficit is. The new figures for the 2025-26 fiscal year put the funding gap at $62 million.
How that impacts the city parks next will be up to the city council.
At East Portal Park, a new lease agreement between a nonprofit group and the city will help protect a neighborhood bocce court.
"The city has nothing to do with maintaining these courts, or anything," East Portal Bocce Club member Romano Luchini said. "We do it all ourselves."
Former Sacramento councilmember Steve Cohn is an East Portal Bocce Club member.
The club has just entered into a 10-year lease agreement to use and maintain this court for the city. The decade-long deal is meant to prevent the court from sinking into disrepair.
Cohn says the city should consider lease agreements in other parks too.
"I think absolutely they should," Cohn said. "This may not be an exact model for park financing problem that they're going to have but they should be open always to partnering with the community."
The new lease agreement comes as the city reveals its new structural deficit numbers, a city-wide funding gap of $62 million this coming fiscal year that has grown to $130 million in four years.
Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum will be one of the votes determining how to fill that multi-million dollar budget gap.
"It's going to be difficult," Pluckebaum said. "In the near term, what we're going to have to do is reduce expenses."
The city parks already have $118 million in unfunded maintenance.
Tennis courts with no nets, overgrown weeds, and full-length cracks are just some of the repairs needed.
At East Portal Park, a lease agreement is now serving to keep this part of the public park clean.
"Saves a lot of money for the city, and no hassles," Luchini said. "As long as we have control, we're going to maintain."
Aiming to protect city parks by rolling out new ways to save, the parks department is set to appear before the city council with their budget update next week.
The city will have to approve the budget by June 30.
