The Hayward Area Recreation and Park District is an independent special
district sanctioned under California Law for the performance of local government
functions. Special Districts range in size from small to very large (HARD
is the largest parks and recreation special district in the state) and often
crosses political boundary lines, such as city and county borders, to serve
a common community of interest. This is especially true of HARD since our
boundaries cover not only the City of Hayward, but also include Castro Valley,
San Lorenzo and other unincorporated areas such as Ashland, Cherryland and
Fairview. Special Districts have a clear identification between their agency’s
name and the services provided (Recreation and Park District, Mosquito Abatement
District, Water District, etc), which has resulted in a high level of responsibility
and accountability to the public. According to the State Legislative Analyst,
independent special districts have consistently shown the slowest rate of
spending growth for local governments. We believe this is due to the aforementioned
high degree of accountability to the public and to the specific nature of
the services provided by special districts. HARD is considered an independent
special district because we are directly accountable to our constituents,
not another layer of local government, and have an elected board that sets
policy.
