City unease over park performance

Council angling for management shake-up
By SHELLY BLANCHARD, Editor – Grapevine Independent

The Rancho Cordova City Council, expressing frustration with management at the Cordova Recreation and Park District (CRPD), this week took the extraordinary step of pressing for change at the top.

Acknowledging that the CRPD serves a constituency that is wider than the city, council members offered help to their counterparts on the park board to establish and adopt “best management” practices they believe are lacking.

“We have serious concerns about the management of the district,” a letter signed by all five of the city council members said. “We believe the weaknesses of concern to our city are affecting park facilities district wide. Without significant management changes and improvement, we are concerned all the district’s parks will continue to lag.”

The letter does not identify their target by name, but appeared to be aimed at CRPD Administrator Greg Foell.

The relationship between the city and park district is critical. While the CRPD is charged with running parks and recreation programs within the city limits, it is the city council that determines fees on development that actually build parks.

The city has also flexed its muscle in enacting a park renovation fee on new development that will pay for renovation of older parks in the city. Without the city’s help, there is little hope the park district would be able to find the kind of money it will take to bring older parks up to modern standards.

While the council letter is short on specifics, discussion during an open meeting of the city council Tuesday was revealing.
City council members expressed concern about the failure of the park district to perform on the promised renovation of White Rock Park, about continuing blight conditions at the abandoned swimming pool at Federspiel Park, and wondered aloud why the park district has failed to produce a master plan in a process that has dragged on for several years.

While the city has taken the unusual step of enacting a park renovation fee on new construction to renovate and remodel older parks in the city, so far, there have been no improvements, council members lamented.

In the letter to park board members, city council members infer they believe the situation to be so serious, they may have to “fundamentally restructure” their relationship with CRPD.

During the council discussion, Mayor David Sander told colleagues the city is entrusting nearly $1 billion in park development projects to CRPD in the future, but joint meetings with park board members and staff level discussions have done little to give the city assurance that the money will be well-managed.

“It’s so obvious when you look at the small things,” said council member Linda Budge, who worried out loud about the quality of construction in new parks, and lack of progress in the old.

“We never get anywhere,” she said. “We give them money and they can’t spend it.”

Sander said his ire was stirred during a session of the California League of Cities last week, when park professionals held up Folsom as a model for park building. Sander said of the contemporary park models presented, CRPD is accomplishing none of the goals in Rancho Cordova.

“We were not talking about some exotic locale,” he said. “We were talking about the city next door.”
Council member Ken Cooley urged colleagues to take a broad view in asking for fundamental management change, being mindful that CRPD represents a larger constituency than the city itself. He convinced fellow council members to focus on management practices rather than individuals. In the end, the council was united.

Meanwhile, the city council are not the only ones complaining. Board members last week received a letter written on behalf of a group of CRPD employees complaining about low morale and have reportedly requested to meet with the board directly.
Park board members earlier this summer began a self-study of management practices by holding a two-day retreat with a management consultant.

The findings of that study have not been released to the public, or to city officials. A Grapevine Independent request for the report has also gone unfulfilled.

Similar Posts:

• June 11, 2010 – Park District Moving Forward With Big Plans For White Rock Park
• September 1, 2010 – Letter to the Editor:Theft and Administrator Misconduct at CRPD
• August 24, 2010 – Community Comes Together for White Rock Park Groundbreaking
• August 9, 2010 – Join the Community for the White Rock Park Groundbreaking Ceremony
• August 6, 2010 – Four Candidates File for Two Open City Council Seats in Rancho Cordova

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Posted by Geoffrey Sakala on Sep 20 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.