01/22/2004 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

A review of past budgets indicates that the Recreation Department was staffed in 1997 by a Department Head, an Athletic Supervisor, and an Administrative Assistant. The 1998 budget shows a Department Head and an Athletic Supervisor. Staffing today would be somewhat different because the Public Works Director probably would be the department head, but there would be additional duties related to supervising the Community Center. I built my projection around the hiring of a senior program supervisor and a junior program supervisor. I think that two full-time personnel would be needed to run the recreation programs and the Community Center at the level the City Council seems to want. I established salaries for both positions near the low end of salaries shown in the Stanton Report. These may be a little too optimistic, in which case actual costs could be several thousand dollars per year higher. The attached spreadsheets compare the current YMCA operation to a potential City staffed operation. The YMCA operation appears as set in the 2004 budget in the column headed "YMCA 2004", which includes the YMCA recreation programs that aren't on the City's books. The City staffed operation appears in the column headed "CITY 2004." This depicts a hypothetical situation where the decision to change was made some time ago and the transition period was over. The two staff members would have progressed to step 3 on the pay plan. The total subsidy for the Community Center/Recreation operation with City staffing comes out remarkably close to the total subsidy for the operation with YMCA staffing. I have said before, and still say,that the total subsidy with a City operation will probably be plus or minus 10%of the total subsidy for the YMCA operation. It will depend on the exact decisions made in setting up and running the department. Council Member Stigney requested a 5-year projection of the City operation. Doing this would require layering guesses on top of estimates on top of assumptions. To provide something toward this request, I prepared the second spreadsheet with the last column headed "CITY Full Seniority." This assumes that both staff members have progressed to step 5 on the pay plan. This increases the total City subsidy by$8,435 to$296,028 per year. In conclusion, I really can't make a financial case for replacing the YMCA with a City staff run operation. The City Council will have to decide based upon how you feel about service delivery. Respectfully submitted, CAAA.G4, lM Charles Hansen