Recreation Board wants clear city agreement
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:52 p.m., April 10, 2008
Updated 01:52 p.m., April 10, 2008
The Emporia Recreation Commission has been frustrated for years by its lack of a written agreement with the city. On Wednesday afternoon, the rec commission gave city commissioners and staff a series of options to finally set in stone who takes care of what and who reports to whom.
Recreation Commission Director Tom McEvoy laid out six potential options for governance setups with the city at the Lee Beran Recreation Center. In the setup favored by the rec commission, that agency would be its own entity, with a written intergovernment agreement with the city.
A recreation director would be contracted by the ERC to run the parks department and report to the city manager, while the recreation commission would be responsible for athletic field maintenance. The Emporia Zoo would be a separate entity reporting to the city, with its own budget, director and staff.
McEvoy said after the presentation that the recreation commission board passed that particular governance model in October 2005, but it didn’t go any further.
“And the city had their issues back then with their budget and everything, and so it was just backed off at that time,” McEvoy said. “And then, when (City Manager Matt) Zimmerman came on board, that was one of the things he wanted to get moving on, was the governance issues.”
He said the major things to be worked out were funding, accountability, and the direction of both the city and the rec commission.
After McEvoy laid out the ERC’s most desired governance model, City Commissioner Jim Kessler and Mayor Julie Johnson had questions about what the parks director’s accountability would be.
“What if ... the director is not doing anything for the parks, and is being derelict in duties?” Johnson asked. “So does the city manager have the authority to fire the director because the parks aspect of the job isn’t being done?”
Recreation Commission Chairman Roger Hartsook said that in that case, the city could rescind its agreement with the ERC with notice. But the city couldn’t fire the parks director because the ERC would be paying his salary.
Zimmerman said one thing he had recommended that wasn’t outlined in the ERC’s plan was that the city manager perform one of the performance evaluations of the parks director, which would be submitted to the rec commission.
“That’s another way of trying to get some input into the decision-makers, not dissimilar to what we do at the RDA, for example,” he said.
City commissioners had other questions about how the proposed governance model would split responsibilities.
“I think that everybody in this room wants to go the same direction,” Recreation Commissioner Jennifer Bennett said. “I only feel like we need a marriage counselor to get there.”
Zimmerman said at the end of the presentation that the issue would be placed on the agenda for an upcoming city work session.
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Posted by scrutinizer (anonymous) on April 10, 2008 at 11:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
WOW! Talk about the tail wagging the dog! Who is the ERC to be dictating to the City? A tenant, that's who. They rent a building from us on 4th Ave., destroy the interior with incorrect operation of the utilities, and then demand that we fix it. And guess what? WE DID!!!
The ERC has done a poor job of attracting clientele to the pool, too. They have had 3 director's in the short 5 year life of the facility. Nice job on the hiring end! It is the Park Department that props that facility up with it's personnel and resources.
All the facilities used by the ERC for its programs are owned by the City. Why should the CC turn over the reins to a tenant and trust that they can manage the taxpayer's property any better than they have in the past? It won't happen!
What should happen is the ERC should dissolve, the City should form a Parks and REC Department and finally hire a director that can keep up with the work that is out there.
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