Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 11-26-2007 special agenda — reading text

Recreation Department that are recommended for implementation. Included in the Parks and Recreation Department are aosing the Creative Senior nter, Red~cing the LiblClry hours from 64 to 50, creating an internal recreation user fee committee c targeted at non-city residents that use the facilities, reconsideration of cmrent private contractors, providing landscaping to the library in lieu of private contractor, and considerntton of tranSferring the Museum to another organization. Recommendation # 39: dose the Senior Center and achieve the higher level of savings of 185. 78.. Staff and the citizens who utilize the Oeative Senior Center are willing to explore all opportunities to offset some of the expenses at the center. Members have expressed many concerns and have stated " The Recreation Center for the elders of our community is just as important, if not more so, as a baseball diamond or tennis court is for children. Companionship and having a place to congregate reduce the number of people our nursing homes and assisted living. Suicide, Alcohol in Abuse, and Drug abuse is greatly reduced in Seniors that are active in their community and have a place to go". Staff is cmrently researching gnmt opportunities for the Creative Senior Center to offset future expenSes. Grant acceptance does not occur immediately and will require time for research and application approval Staff Recommendation # 1 - The Creative Senior Center continue to opemte with increased membership fees and class fees being installed. Using FY 06-07 numbers, an increase in membership fees ($ 1.00 per month) and class fees ($ 1.00 per month) for city and county residents and other events would provide and additional $6,500 in revenue. Senior Center members have expressed various ideas to offset expenses, such as rummage sales, craft shows, partnering with local businesses to sponsor events, as well as raising fees to help support the continuation of the center. Staff is cunently researching grant funding c opportunities to offset expenditures at the Creative Senior Center. Preparing grant 51  applications and receiving acceptance is time consuming and will require more time for implementation thanMAG~ suggested implementation date of January 2008. Staff Recommendation # 2 - Staff reduction of all three Part Tune Recreation Specialist positions at the Creative Senior Center for an annual savings of $27 ~625.00. The Senior Center would he staffed with one full time City Employee, a Part Tnne Custodian, and a volunteer program would.be installed to offset the reduction of personnel The volunteer program would consist of monthly membership fees being waived in exchange for working volunteer hours at the Senior Qnter. In addition, the Senior Center's fees for memberships and classes ( as mentioned in Recommendation # 1) would increase to raise revenue. Staff will continue to research grant funding opportunities. Recommendation # 40: Reduce the number of LibJ2Q'hows per week from 64 to 50. An estimated $ 000 annually would be saved. 32.. The current h"braty hours are: Reducing the hours at the FOIt Walton Beach LI'brary from 64 to 50 would result in a schedule such as: c The recommendation fromMA G resulted in a $32,000 savings to the city for the reduction of hours from 64 to 50. ' Ibis results in the loss of personnel at the Librnry. Staff Recommendation - Reduce hours at the Libnuy from 64 hours to 56 hours. This result would produce a savings of approximately $15, 000 with the loss on one ( 1) Part Tune employee at the Lt"brcuy. In addition,upon retirement or resignation of a full time employee at the the 1ibrnry~ position not be filled for an additional annual savings of 32)000. All savings include regular wages and benefits. ( It also needs to be stated thatgthe Libraty Co- op funding factors operational expenses into the equation for Co-op funds. A reduction in salaries would include a reduction in Co-op funding). Once implemented, the library hours could be reduced to the recommended 50 hours. The libtary; open 56 hours~ would be as follows: c 52 c Recommendation # 41: Create an internal recreation user fee committee with a goal of mising an additional $ 75.. 000 in revenue in parks and recreation per year particularly ta~ eted at non-city residents that use the city facilities. The Cityis cun-entlyworking with the County to develop a Recreation Co-op to provide the county residents the same rates as city residents. The Co- op will genemte funds depending on County participation numbers. In addition,the Countywill supply funds strictly for field!parklbuilding upgrades factored in for capital improvements. 1hese upgrades would include improvements such as, light rep]acem nts, building renovations, and field enhancements. Staff Recommendation - Provide staff time for the development of the Recreation Co-op with the County; Currently county resident fee' s for recreational activities is double to that of the city resident fees. Currently; City residents pay $20.00 and County residents pay $40.00. The increase in county fees would result in a decrease in participation and the revenue end result would be the same. In addition, the league quality would decrease with the decrease in participation. Recommendation # 42: When the Deparbnent needs to reconsider its cunent appropriate.. private contIactor relationships at the next negotiation the city opportunities. needs to halt any city subsidies of operations to those Essentially.. private money making opeations as soon as this is possible. c The contmcts for the Fort Walton Tennis Center and the Emerald Coast Dirt and Ven were recently approved through Council on September 25, 2007. The City of Fort Walton Beach is in a cont.rnct with both operators through September 30, 2010. The city has researched the benefits of funding contractors compared to hiring additional city employees and found that it was in the Otis best interest to supplement a contractor as opposed to hiring additional employees. The Emerald Coast Din and Vert contrnctor is supplemented $2,000 for insurance and 6, 500 for maintenance and operntion of the facility for a total yearly expense to the city of 8, 500. The cost to hire a full time employee to nm the B:MXfacil tywould be approximately 45, 000 including regular wages and benefits. Staff researched the comparison of staffmg the Tennis vnter with City Employees as opposed supplementing to a conttactor in JWle of 2001. At that date, the citys resean:h indicated that it was a cost savings of $ 27,510 with supplementing a contractor. Those numbers were taken from expenses in 2001. The contractor, in a recent restructure of the contnlCt, receives an annual supplement of $18, 000 as opposed to $30,000 received since 2004. Staff Recommendation - Continue to operate the Emerald Coast Dirt and Vert and Fort Walton Beach Tennis Center as outIined in the recent contract extension. Upon completion of the contract,the city can re- evaluate the contract and decide jf it is still in the best interest of the city to supplement a contractor at both locations. C... 53 If;.. Recommendation # 43: The Department should provide landscaping services to the LibIaty and not hire a private contrnctor when those services can be provided by Pams and Recreation Department with existing personnel 1he Parks and Recreation Department' s Parks Crew cunently has ten (10) employees plus a Parks Supervisor. The Parks Crew is responsible forthe maintenance of twenty three (23) parks including 53 playground assemblies, twenty (20) tennis courts, twenty (20) athletic fields, three ( 3) recreation centers, three ( 3) exercise tracks, the Tennis Center, and the Heritage PaIk and autural Qnter for a total of 143 acres. In addition the Parks Crew maintains all irrigation installation and repair at all sites, and provides daily cleaning and stocking of restrooms at ten (10) park/field sites. In the past ten years the aty has consttUcted the Fort Walton Landing, the Gty:Hall Athletic Complex,Sound Park,the Fort Walton Beach Library;the Ferry Park Exercise Trail,the Hedrick Athletic Complex, and the Oakland Soccer Complex for a total of 40 acres plus the Ferry Park Exercise Trail. Over that of time the Parks Crew's personnel has been reduced by 1.5 FIE. period