10-14-2015 Council Workshop Minutes

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 14, 2015 make sure that kids are engaged. He felt that the Program Assistants should be sent to the parks and recreation conference as well. He noted recreation opportunities for the changing cultural as well as aging population are things that the Parks & Recreation Department should be working on. Horwath felt that to pull back because of declining participation was a backwards way of doing things. Miller asked how moving parks maintenance to Public Works was going. The Director indicated that the jury is still out on that. He indicated that the system is somewhat cumbersome as he is getting calls that previously would go directly to the Parks Maintenance Supervisor. The Director reported that he takes the calls and forwards the information/request to the Parks Maintenance Supervisor. Miller commended the Director for taking the calls and not telling callers that this was no longer his job. The Director reported that this is a level of service that he would like kept up. Keis asked if reducing the position to half-time would result in these calls being directly appropriately. The Director felt there needed to be a full- time position to take daytime calls. He also noted the research that he does on things like sports turf, which he was not sure the Public Works Director would do. The Director indicated, however, that the big issue is to have a full-time staff person to take calls. Keis asked for an estimate of the number of calls per day that the Director addressed. The Director estimated an average of two calls per day for items such as whether a sports clinic is still on if weather is bad. The Director felt that this was a level of service that the public is owed. Keis suggested that front desk staff could answer questions of that nature. Horwath stated that service levels are critical to quality of life and felt that staffing levels had to be appropriate to people's needs. He felt response time was important. The Director felt that the Parks & Recreation Department ran lean compared to other cities because of its administrative staff. He felt that residents were getting a good return for their tax dollars. Keis stated that his question was if there was not a full-time Parks & Recreation Director in the office, what would not get done and how many calls would get missed. Joriman reported that his kids participate in multiple sports such as swimming, lacrosse, and football and participate in the Cities of Little Canada, Roseville, Maplewood, and Oakdale. Joriman felt that the service in other cites was more impersonal than it was in Little Canada. He also felt it was difficult to get information in other cities. The Director noted 5