COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE SPECIAL COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, November 12, 1998 2:11 p.m. - - - Resolution No. 980687 - Authorizing the Special Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs to hold hearings and to conduct a full review of the operations and maintenance of the Recreation Department's facilities, including, but not limited to, types of programs, number of youths and adults served, hours of operation, conditions of facilities and equipment, current funding levels for programs, personnel, materials, supplies and equipment, and accountability and performance measures in place for both programs and maintenance staff; and further authorizing the committee to evaluate programs and maintenance procedures available in other comparable municipalities, recreation departments, and to make recommendations on policies and funding changes. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JOAN KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 I N D E X Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis . . . . . . Philadelphia Recreation Department 5 Deputy Commissioner Carol Rice. . . . . . . . 34 6 Philadelphia Recreation Department 7 Tom Fox, Maintenance Director . . . . . . . . 54 Philadelphia Recreation Department 8 Eric Iffrig, Director of Planning . . . . . . 70 Philadelphia Recreation Department J. Blaine Bonham, Jr., Vice President . . . . 71 Philadelphia Horticultural Society Maitreyi Reoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Program Manager for Philadelphia Green Bonnie Raines, Coordinator. . . . . . . . . . 81 After-School Program, Initiative of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth Michael McCrea, President . . . . . . . . . . 90 Philadelphia Recreational Advisory Council Leroy Simmons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Center Germantown Council John Lafley, Executive Director . . . . . . . 108 YMCA on Green Street John Sorello, Chairman. . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Friends of Vernon Park Curtis McAllister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 President of the Stenton Park Advisory Council John Helman, President. . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Grays Ferry Youth Access Center Harold Fulton, Volunteer. . . . . . . . . . . 123 Lonnie Young Rec Center 3 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 (Index, cont'd.) Gloria Johnson, President . . . . . . . . . . 129 Friends of Parkside-Evans Bob Turino, President . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Upper Roxborough Civic Association Stephanie Andrews, Director . . . . . . . . . 145 Friends of Philadelphia Parks Kathleen Paulmier, Co-clerk . . . . . . . . . 148 Greater Germantown Recreation Network Tom Grabe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Germantown Monthly Meeting Sally Kennedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Greater Germantown Recreation Network Greg Paulmier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Democratic Ward Leader, Germantown Doris Gwaltney, Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Carroll Park Neighbors Steering Committee Bertha Parker, Secretary. . . . . . . . . . . 187 Friends of Carroll Park Fred Mauer, Private Citizen . . . . . . . . . 188 Yvonne Downey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Joan Henry Ken Knight Knight Family of the Dell East John Boyce, President . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Friends of Gorgus Park Warren Haskins, General Manager, Dell East 212 4 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good afternoon. My name is Councilwoman Donna Reed-Miller, Chair of the Special Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs. The public hearing is now in session. The committee members in attendance this afternoon are: To my left, Council James Kenney; Councilman Rick Mariano; and to my right, Councilwoman Joan Krajewski; and a special appointee this afternoon to this committee, Councilman Michael Nutter. Will the clerk please read the title of the bill.
The title of the bill is Resolution No. 980687, authorizing the Special Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs to hold hearings and to conduct a full review of the operations and maintenance of the Recreation Department's facilities, including, but not limited to, types of programs, number of youths and adults served, hours of operation, conditions of facilities and equipment, current funding levels for programs, personnel, materials, 5 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 supplies and equipment, and accountability and performance measures in place for both programs and maintenance staff; and further authorizing the committee to evaluate programs and maintenance procedures available in other comparable municipalities, recreation departments, and to make recommendations on policies and funding changes. Thank you.
Before we get started, Councilman Nutter would like to make a brief statement, and any other members of the committee can also do that.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Just very briefly, the primary purpose of this resolution and today's public hearing, and there may be others follow up today, depending on how far we get, I think I can speak not only on behalf of myself but for many members of the Council that we are deeply concerned about the Recreation Department, we care about its programs, we care about its facilities, and whether on the operating side of the budget or the capital side 6 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 of the budget, try to do the best we can to support the Department. The Department has been certainly very cooperative in this process, and today's hearing is for the purpose of working with the Department. This is not an inquisition, this the not for the purpose of trying to do something other than something positive with and for the Recreation Department. It has done well in the past, in our view, with, at times, limited resources. And we would like to figure out responsibly how to in a targeted fashion increase those resources and only improve the welfare of these recreation facilities and the programs they provide for the young and not so young, and that was the reason the introduction of the resolution. It received tremendous support from my colleagues. And that is -- certainly for myself, at least -- the tone that I would like to take today. There may be things that come up that some might not be too pleased with, and we will ask questions. At times, they may be tough questions but they are only for the purpose of getting to the truth and then trying to figure out how to 7 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 make things better going forward. So I appreciate the Chair's indulgence, and I look forward to hearing the testimony of the Commissioner and any members of the public who really do care about recreation in Philadelphia. Thank you, Madame Chair.
And we care about the employees also, as am reminded by Councilwoman Krajewski. They are also hard-working and also at times under very difficult circumstance. So there is, I believe, on both sides of this room today, people have one primary goal, and that is the support of the Department of Recreation, commissioners and deputy commissioners, and workers to make system as best as it possibly can be. None of us will sit here and say that it is perfect, but it has come a long way over the past six or seven years, and we'll hear more about it in today's testimony. Thank you, Madame Chair.
Thank you Councilman, Nutter. 8 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 And Councilman Nutter has basically expressed the views and sentiments that are part of the Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee and other members of City Council. I just want to note for the record that we've been joined by Councilman Frank Rizzo who's also a member of this committee. There's a prepared list of testifiers. And the first on our list is Recreation Commissioner Mike DiBerardinis and anyone you want to bring with you. For all testifiers, when you come to the table, please speak directly into the mike, spell your last name for record purposes, and, you know, you can say any other identifying information you'd like to give us. (Mike DiBerardinis and other Rec. Dept. ) COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Good afternoon. My name is Mike DiBerardinis, D-I- capital B -E-R-A-R-D-I-N-I-S. I'm the Recreation Commissioner for the City. And with me, to my right is Maintenance Director Tom Fox, Deputy Program Commissioner 9 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Carol Rice, Deputy Program Commissioner for Program Development, Bill Carapucci, and Joanne Mangano, who's are Administrative Service Manager, and Eric Iffrig, who's the head of Planning and Construction Division. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Miller and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on the day-to-day operations of the Recreation Department and review with you the changes and gains we have made in meeting the needs of our city's neighborhoods and its children. In 1993, the Department adopted a new broader mission statement. We dedicated ourselves to invest not only in our employees, but also challenged ourselves to expand and update our core services throughout the City, with the particular emphasis on underserved communities. We also reaffirmed our commitment to listen to both staff and the community to improve our operations. We challenged ourselves to engage with community-based organizations, major institutions, and corporations in serving our young people and to find ways to build real 10 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 prevention alternatives. During the first years of the Rendell administration, we focussed on expanding our organized sports programs across the City and reintroducing them to the neighborhoods where they had disappeared over time. We enlisted the support of our professional sports teams, local companies, a new cadre of volunteers, and expanded support of our longtime adult volunteers, and, I must say, as well as support from individual Councilpeople in fund-raising efforts, and we appreciate that as well. That effort over the course of about two and a half years expanded organized youth opportunities to some 25,000 new organized slots for young people. Some of the results of that work in 1992 and '93, we radically expanded our pool season, with the help of many of Philadelphia's bigger corporations. In 1994, we raised a lot less money because we had pledged to run the pools on our operating budget and not look to the companies for that support, but we raised a smaller amount of money and opened up a brand-new program called "Swim for Life," which is a 11 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 developmental and competitive swimming program that each year now serves 375 participants over the summer. It is worth noting that this summer, we had the longest swim season in the Department's history. In 1994, we also put together a community corporate and department alliance where we expanded our ice rink season from 9 weeks to four weeks and substantially increased both the 12 time for free skating and organized sports 13 activities. 14 I'll also say that through that effort, we have significantly increased the day-to-day maintenance and look at our five ice rinks around the City. And, once again, we had support from this Council in that effort.
During the last three years, the Department has made expansion of cultural programs a priority. In addition to adding the Mural Arts Program to the Department, we have increased the availability of both performing and visual arts to every neighborhood in the City. We have raised over $740,000 that's 12 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 outside of our operating budget, that's public and private fund-raising for the Mural Arts Program, and we have raised $200,000 for the Cultural Arts Program. As a result of both City operating dollars and these fund-raising efforts, there are now 36 mural workshops as part of our after-school program. Our Environmental Program is now a part of our after-school program as well. We have sites that are involved in 11 our dance initiative, and we have doubled the 12 number of children participating in performing 13 arts programs over the last 2 years, from 2,136 to 14 5,516 participants per week. Also during this 15 time, with the direction and support of City 16 Council and the administration, a major capital 17 investment program was begun. 18 In 1992, when I was appointed 19 commissioner, we had 70 centers with leaky roofs 20 that needed to be renovated, our outdoor lighting 21 system was in such disrepair that 12 light poles, 22 those 40-foot light poles, fell between July 1991 and July 1992. In the last five years, $61 million have been invested in our system in capital investment. Roofs and heaters, outdoor 13 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 lighting systems, as well as courts, play equipment, and parks, have been renovated and upgraded. We have new facilities at Hawthorne Recreation Center, at the Mander Pool, and at Fox Chase Gymnasium. 8 million reconstruction project at Lonnie Young. That's now in the design phase. Our Maintenance Division has played a critical role in this program expansion and in protecting the capital investment. Our crews have rehabilitated six major facilities and seven smaller ones that were abandoned and had been closed for years. They completed renovations in the five youth access centers and upgrading those facilities to handle the increased traffic. They are currently working on three of our older facilities to upgrade them, and there's two more in the planning stages. We have repaired and reopened three previously abandoned swimming pools and concluded renovation in two neighborhood park buildings. They have been an integral part 14 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 in community, corporate and department playground raisings. The most recent one was at Belmont about a month ago, in West Philadelphia. J. Myers Youth Access Center and is operated by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. In addition to these special initiatives, the Maintenance Division has worked on improving its day-to-day functions. With the help of this Council and the administration, the Department been able to improve and expand services. Increases in our operating budget have allowed us to staff every A center with a full-time custodian, and that happened a few years ago, and that was the first time that was in place in over a decade. We have increased our authorized positions from 190 to 219. That was a typographical error -- I was getting tired last night when I typed this. It's 219. 15 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 We have raised our number of completed work orders from approximately 5,000 to 12,000 annually. We have a preventive roof program for pools, roofs, heaters, and lighting systems. We have created a tree crew that does systemic trimming and taking down the dead trees.
Today, through the work of the Maintenance Division and the cooperation of our program staff, and the Managing Director's Office, and our volunteers, we have all but eliminated graffiti from our buildings; that doesn't include the play equipment and the retaining walls and courts, but on our major buildings, and we're proud of that effort. We hope to move forward and begin to treat the rest of our physical plant. I believe that the Recreation Department has accomplished much over the last few years. We have used our increased operating budget funds to deliver tangible gains to the youths of the city and the neighborhoods they live in. We have been a good partner with corporations and major institutions in meeting our 16 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 shared mission of service and youth development. C. 47, which has radically increased the number of lunches and snacks and food that we distribute as part of our summer camp program. And we join with our Advisory Councils to improve the level of programs and service to all our centers, and we're very proud of that relationship and work very hard to maintain it. With that said, however, the Department continues to look to the future. We are consistently dedicated to both expanding our programs and services and understanding and wrestling with our challenges. With the vision and support exercised by this body and the mayor, my department has established over 125 after-school programs in the last two years. And our goal -- by the end of this year, we hope to be at 150 after-school programs 5 days a week, 3 hours a day. These take place primarily at our centers, but also in churches, schools, and community centers. 17 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Beginning last year, we began a special program to involve girls in economically- distressed neighborhoods in sports program. We did a survey, and we found that the poorest neighborhoods had the least opportunities for young girls to participate in sports. It was a great success, and we plan to double the participation this year from 150 to 300 participants and raise $17,000 in outside funds to support this program. Just last year, we established our first citywide roller hockey program. Participation has skyrocketed to over 3,500 participants. We are now retrofitting some of our physical plant to support that program and we're creating rinks all over the city, and we plan to expand this program again this year into new neighborhoods that traditionally don't play hockey in any way. This summer, we plan to establish our first neighborhood summer golf camp with golf instruction in short courses at our recreation centers throughout the city. We have also begun an extensive 18 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 training of 15 of our staff in a unique violence prevention program in cooperation with the Physicians for Social Responsibility. And this program is called "Peaceful Posse," and it's really a great way of our staff beginning to mentor young people -- young boys in particular -- about what it is to be a man and to value the attributes of resolution and creativity in their lives. The Maintenance Division has also engaged in new approaches to its work. We have begun to work closely with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and various Friends groups to upgrade the infrastructure, maintenance, and programs at our parks and squares. This program has significantly improved the conditions in many of our parks, and the program, I believe, now is poised for a major expansion. We have also expanded the use of seasonal workers to provide custodial at our B and C centers. We spent about $225,000 annually in this program and are actively examining the possibility for its expansion. The Division is also planning a new 19 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No.
980687 project designed to tackle, in a systemic way, the repair of damaged fence lines, and we have hundred of miles of fence lines in our system. Now, we know that we have made great progress, and we're proud of it. We know that we have not accomplished these things alone. We also know that we still have challenges and obstacles to overcome. However, we are open to looking at our problems, and we know we have room to improve if we want to meet our mission in its fullest interpretation. I thank you for your time and attention.
Okay, thank you, Commissioner. Are there any questions from any members of the committee? Councilman Rizzo.
Commissioner, it's a fine report. Just in reference to security around the facilities, I know that you have to spend a tremendous amount of money to keep people overnight, I understand, at some of the pools. Have we gotten any money budgeted for electronics 20 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 surveillance, TV cameras, or anything like that? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: No, we haven't, Councilman.
Is it something you'd like to do? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, we're examining the -- I think -- my view is we're going to have to spend the money for the overnight security, particularly around our swimming pools. If there's a group of kids at 2 o'clock in the morning swimming unsupervised, that's a really dangerous situation. So it's our belief that we cannot rely -- at least in that instance -- on electronic surveillance because the intervention has to be immediate in order to make sure that no one is in that pool when it's unsupervised. On the other hand, the general security is an issue not only with the Department relative to vandalism, but also it's a very serious consideration for the staff who work by themselves late at night at these facilities, and we're trying to address that and think about that. But we haven't considered -- and 21 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 probably maybe should consider -- the electronic surveillance as a possibility in that examination.
All right, my last question is: Camp William Penn, it's one of your charges; is it where you want it to be? Are there additional monies needed to get that in shape? 'Cause I was personally involved in raising money this past year to send some young people with Mary Mason to Camp William Penn, and I'm just concerned that that is, you know, up to snuff. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I would say that each year, we have improved the operation of the camp, and I think you can appreciate this. We have to run a facility that's a few hundred miles away from our base of operation. It's 600 acres and offers a tremendous programmatic challenge as well as a maintenance challenge. I think we have made great strides in improving the way the standards of operation are at the camp -- our recruitment of staff, our retention of staff from year to year, the quality of the programs. And we've also made a great effort to make sure that we recruit effectively 22 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 from every neighborhood in the city. What I would say about the camp is that it's underutilized. And I think that if I was going to sort of look at the camp critically, I would say that there's warm-weather months, and during the warm-weather months of the year -- and this is an implied criticism of the Department -- we could use the camp during the months of May, June, and the early part of July and in September for activities, but we don't. We have expanded, we have hosted a number of -- and we're beginning to do that-- we have hosted a number of activities that are Non-Camp-William-Penn-related in the last few years, with an eye to filling our five-month warm-weather season where we do have an opportunity for weekend trips, for other groups using it, for the Department to use it in relation to its other programs.
Commissioner, if I can just ask on that same point. Commissioner, are you saying that you might be able to use Camp William Penn in May and June and September? I'm assuming because of the 23 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 general population using the camp, you must be talking about the weekends? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Yeah -- yes. I mean, when the school's out in June, before we open up our camp, that school's out, but there's good weekend use and special uses --
Right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: -- that the camp could support if we would, I think, spend some time and energy examining how to use that resource to support programs here in the city, separate from the normal camping experience.
My final question: Is the facility up to code, some of the buildings equipped with smoke detectors and all the things that are necessary? 'Cause I've heard that maybe there's a need to take a really hard look at that maybe, L&I have visit it to make sure that there's no 22 possibility of a terrible situation developing there. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right. Well, first of all, most of the facilities are 24 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 warm-weather. So the young people sleep in essentially screened-in cabins where the front of it is screened, and there's no bathroom facilities and there's not -- it's sort of a -- --
It's camping. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right, very good. But it's not like a log cabin with bathroom facilities and a kitchen, so the sleeping facilities are rather rudimentary. But the measure of standard is the American Camping Association, so they're the nationally-recognized body that surveys camps all over the country and establishes a report card for accreditation, and we've met the accreditation the last three years. But that's not to say that I'm not averse to engaging our own regulatory agencies like L&I in helping us examine it with more in depth relative to safety and, you know, its ability to function in its capacity as a camp.
Well, thank you for that. Commissioner, my final statement is: Is that camp eligible for any funding? Could we 25 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 change or do something that would make it eligible for federal funding or state funding because it's a park versus a camp? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Mm-hmm.
Are we totally funding that operation or are there possibilities of some outside funding. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right now, the camp is not exclusively but primarily funded by operating budget dollars. We do raise a small amount of funds to support the camp. And, you know, we connect with Mary Mason's effort every year, we do some additional fund-raising for refrigerators and equipment and things like that to support the camp. We blend in some of our existing programs. Our Environmental Camp interacts with Camp William Penn. But I think you're right. I think there is some possibility for us to examine through the park, like through that -- right, like the Department of the Interior or DER, that there is that possibility. But, again, to be completely honest with you, we have not completely explored them, PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 but that's a good idea look, and we'll certainly begin to look into that.
I'd be willing to help with Harrisburg. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Good. I thank you for that, and we'll take you up on that.
Thank you, Councilman Rizzo. Commissioner, I have a question as just part of the Councilman's question regarding pools. And in your statement, you said that this was the longest pool season in the Department's history. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I didn't say the easiest.
Oh, okay, "long" meaning number of days or longest meaning tired days. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right. 27 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
Okay. What is the pool season? I mean, when I was a kid, it was from May until Labor Day. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's right, and we began opening our pools on June the 3rd and completed all our openings by June the 14th.
Okay. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Or June the 17th. And what we did is, we put ourselves on a really rapid timetable to get 80 pools open in a very short period of time because the public schools, because of the their extended school day, shortened their year, and we wanted to be available the first day of summer for the public schools, we wanted our system to be fully operational.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: And with the exception of a handful pools, in which we had some minor mechanical problems, or one pool that's scheduled for major capital renovations in your 28 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 district --
In my district, right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: -- we were up and running at or near full capacity. And at the end of the season -- and this is basically driven by availability of lifeguards -- around the middle of August, all those young men and women who are college students, who are the majority of our lifeguards, go back to school. And if, for instance, a guard says, Look, I'm going back August 24th, but I want a few days off, I'm checking out on the 18th, there's nothing I can do to keep them there. If I want them to come back next summer and guard for us, we've got to let 'em go. If they go back -- and most schools now go back before Labor Day. Near the end of the month, we're hit with significant loss of guards. However, we kept up, over that Labor Day weekend, we kept pools open through Labor Day weekend, 24 which is a a lot for us at that time. 25 So beginning around August 15th to 29 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 August 20th, you begin to see the beginning of our pool closings. We always keep -- do our best to keep around to open up through the Labor Day 5 weekend, up till Labor Day. 6
Okay. So there's 7 no standard set amount of weeks that the pools can 8 remain open. 9 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: The average 10 weeks -- what I would say is that this year, the 11 average length of the season for each pool was 12 longer than it had ever been and the number. 13 I compute the number of days we operate 14 times the number of pools we operate, and that's 15 how we compute the length of the season. 16
Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: So we ran 18 at almost full capacity in terms of the number of 19 pools we had open open and the number of days 20 those pools operate. So it's the number of days 21 time the number of pools. 22
Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: And that 24 equals what we call our "pool season." 25
But it's true, 30 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Commissioner, I mean, I think what the Councilwoman is also getting at is that every pool does not stay open necessarily the same number of days throughout even the longest pool season -- COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's correct, right.
-- or what you might calculate number as pool days -- COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right.
-- throughout the seasons because of particular issues regarding that pool, either opening problems or difficulties or closing because of possible loss of a lifeguard. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's correct.
So Pool A could be open X-amount of days, Pool Y could be open Y-amount of days, but it all gets calculated in this larger thing called "average number of pool days." COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's right, exactly.
And there's also 31 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 -- people kind of think that because a pool opens early, it closes early, when that really doesn't have anything to do with it, it sounds like. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: We do try to average out -- to be honest with you, we do try to average that out but there's sometimes forces beyond our control that might necessitate we -- like might want to keep a pool open, let's say, till September 1st, but if we don't have the guards, we can't do it. And this is not necessarily -- I would say this is not primarily a budget issue as it is a lifeguard recruiting/retention issue.
Okay. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Although if we recruited more and more lifeguards and were able to keep longer, then it could, if that becomes possible, could become a budget question. But right now, it is fundamentally a recruitment and retention issue.
One more questions regarding pools and then. . . What is your policy on draining pools? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Oh, boy, 32 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 okay.
That seems to be a problem in my area all the time, the area where I live. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I might let me Commissioner Rice addressed that after I make my initial comments. There's a couple of formal and informal operating procedures in the Department, and one of the informal sort of quick but quick phrases is, "If you can't run it safe, don't run it." And if we have a pool that -- and we had this in a number of situations, and it took a little bit of a radical response to it, where pools would have bricks and stones and bottles thrown into it, or where we would have overnight swimming that we could not control, even with the cooperation of the police, instead of just not running that pool, which that would mean, because the only way you can really keep the pool safe or clean out of glass, lots of glass, is you have to drain it, you just have to drain it. Or if you can't keep it filled overnight and keep away the -- 33 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
The swimmers. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: -- late-night swimmers, who I have a lot of sympathy for, but it's very unsafe, I would -- and until I was told to stop -- drain the pool. And the two things that I wanted to do so is, one, safety; and the other is not rob the rest of the folks, who are willing to play by the rules, the opportunity to swim by the day. So we kind of we went to some extreme measures to protect people who couldn't protect themselves or to protect the rights of most everybody else to swim during the day.
Mm-hmm, okay. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: So it's a waste. Believe me, I know it's wasting of a resource. But you've got to make these decisions from time to time, and I figured, Well, let's err and do something, and maybe somebody might get mad at, us but let's do it anyway and see what happens.
Okay. Miss Rice? 34 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Go ahead, Carol. COMMISSIONER RICE: Carol Rice, R-I-C-E. In addition to what the commissioner said, that we have looked at this over the years, and I think that the number of pools that are being drained has significantly been reduced. And, you know, we are well aware of the environmental issues and, you know, the costs and so forth. So we encourage people only to drop them or drain them when there's a real safety factor involved, which includes the glass, those kinds of things and the night swimmers. But with the help of the Police Department, we've cut down on a lot of those things, and I think our number of drainings have been significantly reduced.
Thank you, Madame Chair. I hadn't planned to start off with pools, but maybe I'll ask those questions and then 35 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 go to some other areas. With regard to these places that need to be drained, either Commissioner DiBerardinis or Deputy Commissioner Rice, have you looked into the prospect of what I've seen at least in some private, kind of homeowner situations is retractable pool covers? These covers are supposed to be fairly incredibly strong and durable. And literally, for safety purposes, you're supposed to be able to walk across a pool. It would obviously keep out -- I mean, I'm not encouraging people to walk across them, but they can prevent someone from falling into the pool. I don't know what they cost, and they would be, you know, a one-time expenditure, and there doesn't seem to be much maintenance that goes along with them. But you could cover the pool every night, not have to drain it, and not have to worry about glass and debris and all that other kind of stuff, or nighttime swimmers. Has anyone looked into that, you know? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's interesting that you should raise that. When we 36 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 were having a problem at Vare, I wanted to do just that. I actually asked our Maintenance Division to see if they could --
Make one? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: -- make one, right, exactly. And -- but then, the whole legal question that cropped up is, What if somebody slips underneath one? Like they're there late at night, they decide to go in and swim, they get past our watchperson or disregard it, they get underneath it and then begin to drown and can't themselves out of the pool.
Right, right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: If, God forbid, we have a guard that doesn't -- a person that doesn't show up, we don't detect it soon enough, some little ones get underneath there. So I was, based on the legal -- like the liability issue had been run off of that idea. And to be honest with you, I didn't go it beyond it at that point. I said, Geez, if I got to start working with the attorneys, I'm never going get this up, so we decided to let it be. 37 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 But we might -- you know, it's worth looking into again.
We may try to provide some assistance on our side in terms of making the inquiry and just, you know, getting the pluses and minuses. Lastly, Commissioner, we know this is an annual problem with the young people, especially at the August-September time period, going back to school, as we lose our young people who may be lifeguards going to college or some other service away from us. Have we made any attempts to recruit locally? If we're losing students to other cities, then other cities are students losing to Philadelphia. People are coming back to our, you know, 80-some odd colleges and universities in that same late-August/early-September time period. That may be an opportunity for us to say to the young person who lives wherever, You could have a job for, you know, two or three weeks lifeguarding in Philadelphia if you're coming back to your local school or university early. And then, lastly, for those -- 38 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 everybody doesn't go away. I mean, some Philadelphians actually do go to Penn, Drexel, Temple, and a wide variety of school. What, if anything, are we doing at own local schools to have local people take those couple weeks at the tail-end of the summer, early September? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I'll let -- Carol's in a better position to respond to that.
Maybe they're just too busy at that point. COMMISSIONER RICE: No. We have hired lifeguards all the way up until the end -- I mean, if someone is qualified for that. This past summer, we worked out with Temple University that those people who needed those credits in the physical education area or whatever to -- if they served as lifeguards, that that would be part of that credit, they would earn the credit. We hope to expand it to all of the other universities so that while the youngster has to pay for the credit at the school, they're being paid by us, which really covers the cost of it.
To help offset -- 39 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 COMMISSIONER RICE: So we're trying to do those kind of innovative ways any way that we can to make sure that we have qualified lifeguards.
Okay. Let me ask you a couple questions about our non-water-related facilities, our regular recreation centers. Again, going to some parts of the resolution and the title, I'm trying to get some assessment of the quality of our recreation programs, how well do they function and operate, hours of operation. You provided the committee with a significant amount of information since we last met -- after-school programs and the like. Who evaluates the quality of the various programs that we operate in our centers, whether it's regular daytime programs, after-school programs, night programs, Mural Arts Program, any of these various programs? Who develops the programs and then, subsequently, what's the evaluation mechanism on these programs? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, there's a number of ways programs are developed. 40 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 At a center, the Advisory Council -- let me just we go through a few ways on how they're developed. The recreation leader at the facility and the Advisory Council generally meet to determine what are the priorities, what programs would the community like to see at the facility.
Is that a formal process, is that an informal process, is it somewhere in between? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: It's a formal -- the relationship between our Advisory Councils and the Department is outlined in a rather thick manual that is a formal document that is signed by me and by the President of the citywide Advisory Council and signed by as many of those councils as we can induce into signing it, which most have.
Right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: And that outlines the role of the council and the leader in the sort of day-to-day operations of the facility and the program development, so it's formal.
Who is in charge of 41 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 the recreation center? Who is formally responsible for operations of a rec center? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, the day-to-day programmatic operation of the facility is the recreation leader at that facility, and that's either leader or or 3, depending on the size of the facility.
And if you could just refresh my recollection, is one -- COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: 3 is the highest.
3 is the highest. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right. If you're Leader 3 --
It starts at 1, and then you move up. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Leader 3 runs an A center, which has major indoor, major outdoor.
Right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Gymnasium, swimming pool, ball fields. B center is missing one of the two; either it's missing a major indoor or missing a major outdoor, it has one missing the 42 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 other.
So you only get a 3 in an A center. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right, right.
Okay. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: And then at C center has neither. Generally, they're the one-room -- they have one or two rooms, program room, small and probably a field and a basketball court, play area, something like that.
And is the leader in charge of the maintenance person, or does that person work for -- COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: The leader sets the priorities for the maintenance -- the leader -- in the best possible situation, I will tell you that I don't think this is uniform, but it is something that we want to happen in the centers, is the leader is supposed to establish on a weekly basis what the priorities are for the custodials, where we have a permanent custodial person. They're supposed to set the agenda.
And the permanent 43 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 custodial now is at the 46 A centers? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: 46 A centers and or B centers. We have full-time 5 permanent staff, custodial staff. 6
Although we have 7 more than 25 B centers, right? 8 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Absolutely, 9 yes. 10
We have 72 B 13 centers. 14 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's 15 right, that's correct. 16
But you have 25 17 maintenance people. 18 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: We have 23 19 assigned to other than A centers. 20
All right. So 21 there are 50-some B centers that don't have a 22 maintenance person. 23 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's 24 correct, full-time. 25
Full-time. 44 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Or permanent custodial staff.
Okay. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: So there's a form that's developed that the Maintenance Division developed that is weekly set up, that's given to the custodial staff, and that's the work they're supposed to do in that given week. That custodial staff person, though, is supervised by a Maintenance Division supervisor -- district caretaker supervisor whose job is to not only supervise that person, but, in the non-staffed facilities, the crews that clean those facilities that are crew status. So that person is supposed to manage, inspect, and take care of sort of the quality relative to the district. And the custodial maintenance function's within the district.
Okay, all right. Let's get back to program for a second and then I want to go into maintenance. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Okay, so that's one way done. Another way it's done is we develop 45 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 broad initiatives within the Department.
Right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Like our expansion of our -- like, for instance, we have street fleet hockey. We developed the resources for that, we pitched it out to our system who's interested, we made a special effort to pitch it to neighborhoods where hockey is not being played. That's from downtown. Swim for Life, we raised the money, we offered it, and then we demand it; but first we offer, then we demand it, that each district have a program. So that's another way that it gets set up. Sometimes programs are funded by City Council which, again, like I said in my testimony, after-school programs are a tremendous opportunity for the Department. We get special funding, we move that program out to the field. Other times, people come to us where we host, where it's not essentially a Department-run program, but we host a range of other organizations who -- like, for instance, there's a United Junior Soccer League. A lot of local 46 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 sports organizations participate in our soccer league but also participate in the United Junior Soccer League. We would host those leagues and programs. Within that, there's a category of fee-for-service programs. If it's a cultural program or an educational program that we do not offer necessarily and people want that program, then we give the Advisory Council and the leader the latitude to establish a fee-for-service at the facility. That's program another way the programs get set up.
More often times than not, the fee is usually somewhat small or nominal -- COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right.
-- to cover the cost of the person coming in to run that program. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right. But, again, that fee is not set by the administration but in the local neighborhood to meet whatever the needs are.
Let me ask this question: Of the centers we have, what percentage 47 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 would you say are running at capacity, below capacity, or over capacity? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I asked that about a month ago -- I don't have the numbers yet -- in anticipation of these meetings. But my sense is that it's running very close to capacity within our system, so I'm going to guess -- it's probably a pretty good guess, and I don't have the figures to say it for sure, but I would say if you had to grade the system, I would say we're at about between 85 and 90 percent capacity system-wide. There are -- I would also say that there are some facilities where we're not programmed at that level, to be honest with you, and that would be going to a whole other level of guessing, but I will take a shot at it if you wouldn't mind.
The centers where it shows we're operating under capacity, is that due to lack of information to the communities about what programs are offered, lack of bodies at the location to run programs? Is there some level of organization between the leader and Advisory 48 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Council? Why does that happen? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: We do have some that I think are below an accepted level of programming. And I would say the first line of responsibility is ours, the Department's. The second is probably the that responsibility of the level of organization that surrounds the center is not at a high enough level that it creates the resources and also pushes us to do more, so that is probably at a low level. And I would say third, it's an issue of the physical plant. Maybe the plant's not up to speed to either welcome people in the way they should be welcomed or to accommodate the kind of usage that people may need.
Okay, back to the point of operating at the 80 to 85 percent capacity. What is your belief about the level of needs that exists or the universe of people out there that could be served, that cannot be served possibly even if you were operating at capacity? I mean, let's say there are a certain number of kids or not-so-young folks who want to do something, within reason, at a rec center. 49 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Now, I understand we can't accommodate everybody that comes into the door, but how are you addressing those needs and concerns? And if you can't expand the building, if you're not going to add on to it, where do you get other program opportunities to serve a need out of there, not just dealing with capacity issues? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, I think the level I put out is a very high level of functionality in a system that's as old as ours, but it has a lot to do with the capital.
We recognize your accomplishments and could praise you all day for them. (Laughter.) COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, I'm not looking for praise but I want to back off whether that's a bad number or that's a good number. We are, again, aggressive and we want to program off-site, off our recreation sites. Since '93 we expanded and we have a relationship with the School District where, I think, in '93 or '80, the school gymnasiums became available for 50 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 programs from October to March, so that boosted --
Who runs those programs? COMMISSIONER RICE: Leaders in the community. And there is the opportunity for those locations, for instance, that are small and don't have gyms to run sports programs, for those places that needs drill team practice locations and the places are small. Those kinds of programs can be run.
I have somebody I need to put in touch with you to talk about drill team practice locations. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I know.
Go ahead. COMMISSIONER RICE: I know who -- COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: They're tough to place, I'm telling you.
Right. They're a little loud. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: In addition to that, so that's a growing area, and we're very aggressive in -- you know, we want to continue to build that relationship with the School District 51 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 second area where outgrown our facilities and move off site is we've expanded the our use the indoor pools. COMMISSIONER RICE: Up to nine indoor pools. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That we run for public use in the non-school hours and finally in our after-school program, we're now establishing and running programs with churches schools and community centers so we've pushed beyond our physical plant there as well.
Maintenance issues who is responsible by position for the general maintenance an cleanliness. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: By position?
Yes. Who's day-to-day responsibility is it? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Where we had a permanent person, that person was responsible in working with the leader.
That's at the 46 A centers? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Yes and the 52 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 other or B centers. 3
Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: To work 5 with the leaders, create the priorities, do the 6 work. And then that custodian, however, reports 7 to a person who's in charge of the grounds 8 maintenance functions in the district. So there's 9 that person and then there is the crew, and each 10 district has a crew in the non-staffed sites 11 relative to custodial services. 12
Let me understand 13 this. 14 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Okay. 15
On average, how 16 many centers are in a district? You're saying 17 that the district has a crew? 18 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right. 19
And that crew has 20 the responsibility for how many centers? 21 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, about 22 15 centers and playgrounds in a district. 23
Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's 25 rough, but that's close. 53 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
All right. So the ones that aren't -- I have to do the math. There are about seven or eight that the crew is responsible for going through and cleaning those facilities. And how often are the centers cleaned, is there a standard? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: The best we're doing is between 7 and days. The crew 10 gets around to the unstaffed sites. 11 However, just to continue the discussion, we have instituted a seasonal program where we hire -- we spend about $225,000 annually and we deploy seasonal staff for 6 months, not for the whole year, for periods of about 6 months to clean the facilities, 20 hours at a B facility and 10 hours at a C facility. But that's not -- they're not there the whole year, but they support the crews. So that's pretty much the system.
Commissioner, one of my questions was to have some clarity around yearly versus seasonal, and some of the centers in the charts that we were given don't have anybody. There's not that many, but what makes the 54 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 difference here? Who says what center can get a yearly seasonal and another center gets a seasonal and then another one doesn't? COMMISSIONER RICE: I think Tom should answer that since we're talking specifically about the maintenance department. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Custodians.
Beyond the A centers, for a 40-hour caretaker, it really depends if there's a caretaker in there presently and probably based on the level of activity or if there's a lot of older-adult activity in those centers. In other words, if you have a hundred of B's and C's altogether, you have an individual in there, you know, a caretaker. The level is based on the level of activity. There's probably more in those areas than anything else. The second consideration would be the size of the facility, the amount of rooms, square footage in the building, the amount of bathrooms.
So this is a roving crew -- at least what I call a roving 55 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 crew? Do you think the roving system here really works? I used to drive by a playground almost every day just to check it out for myself to see if it was working, and I didn't think it was.
It kind of stayed dirty too long. It's better now, though. It's better now, but it was. . . COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: What we have tried to do is, through the program that Carol talked about, with the seasonals, with trying to provide seasonal hours to sites throughout the system and to encourage the program staff to do some of that work at the smaller sites, we've attempted to sort of fill those. Those situations occur less than they have occurred in the past, but it is a tough -- it's a tough -- it's a tough hoe. But I think, hopefully, you've seen sone improvements because of interventions we've developed over the last few years to try to not have that problem with scheduling, and then increasing resources so that we don't have the 56 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Monday or Tuesday after the weekend where the place looks, you know, it looks pathetic.
Like they had a parade. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: It's usually tough when I'm driving around a soccer game with my son and we see trash barrels filled to the top. And people were really giving it to me. And they didn't want to hear about it 'cause they were hosting a game. So I understand that.
Okay. How many vacancies would you say you have in the maintenance/custodial department? And then how are they built and how long does it take?
Presently, we just filled 4 semiskilled laborers, so I believe we have 12 in the grounds and custodial area for our equipment operation, and the 8 semiskilled laborers.
Okay. I have one more question. I may come back to that later. But how long does it take for a work order, a reasonable time, to get processed and handled?
Well, it does depend on what the work order is for. 57 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
Okay. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Let me try to take a shot at that. There's three things that drive our Maintenance Division, maybe four. One, I drive them crazy, but there are three other things that drive the division. There are seasonal programmatic seasonal demands. You got to get the pools ready, you got to get the heaters ready, you got to get the ice rinks ready, you got to go ahead and get the field ready. So, literally, we're like farmers, we are seasonally driven too, and that's a -- that's a big bulk of our work. For instance, you know, the indoor light at the gyms have to be ready when we move inside in October. So that's number one.
But, Commissioner, isn't this part of this problem of being seasonally driven where you're constantly asked at times to do conflicting activities or overlapping activities, and one group of people who might be 58 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 doing one thing today are then shifted to do the high-priority seasonal thing? I mean you can't mess around and not open pools. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Right.
From whatever it was that they were doing before the pools were about to be open, which then slows down what it was normally working on. I mean, isn't that true? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, I would like to say --
I'd like you to say yes. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Well, I'd like to say we do a good job of fighting that, and I think we're pretty good at structuring, and we spend a lot of time structuring the work within the divisions so that you can move into that and maybe there are other answers to this question from Tom to try to expand on this, but let me just try to finish this. The second thing that drives it are emergencies.
Right. 59 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Dangerous situations, exposed wire, things that we just cannot avoid taking care of.
Right. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: And then there's the work order system. I mean, so there's three. And then the thing that I do like, an initiative that I maybe think is important, that the community is telling us is important, like up at the Councilwoman's center, Waterview, I went up there about eight months ago. And, I'll tell you, I was depressed. It was a mess. And we -- you know, that's what we call the special request that comes in from the outside and forces -- you know it's not a lot of them but when they come in, they've got to get done. So there's really four. What we try to do is get good enough and structure our resources in a way that we do that well and when we're not doing the seasonal work that we line up our work in a way that we get the other things done effectively, it may not be in a week as Tom said. Hopefully, most of the time it is, but hopefully, the orders get done in 60 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 due time. So I would say a week -- I don't know, I think a lot of them do get the job done in a week in some of the trades.
Okay. I'll just wrap up with a couple questions. But, Commissioner, you and your staff will be able to stay here for the remainder of the hearing? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Yes.
I didn't really hear the number of vacancies in the Maintenance Department. Did you say what it was?
One other thing before you leave. The work order, if someone calls me, which they have, and said, you know, I was using X, Y or Z playground and there was a problem there, and it's been three weeks now and it hasn't been corrected. So really, the three-week number is just not realistic. I mean it's just not a number.
As the Commissioner said, there are so many factors that play in our ability to do this. 61 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
Let's just say it was a problem with an electrical wire. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That would get done.
We had an example where someone called and told me that somebody was at the center doing something. And in that process, they sort of cut some type of electrical cable. This was on the outside, and it was three weeks later and it still hadn't been repaired, maybe four.
That was a contractor putting in a ramp in the back of the center. The responsibility to repair that is the contractor's who did it. Our fellows went out just to make sure that the situation was safe and notified the proper people.
It's the contractor's responsibilities but you don't have any oversight in terms of them repairing things like that in a timely fashion? Because it 62 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 impacted the little league that practices there.
I think the contractor's information was that he was not going to be able to do it in a very timely manner. In the meantime, he turned them off at night. That would be the case there. Otherwise, they'll remain on.
Do you have a written recreation inspection program where, on a regular basis, centers are inspected, either by the district person or an outside person, as a part of the Recreation Department? Whose primary job is it to go around and inspect other centers for cleanliness, safety, those types of items and then report back to someone so that you and the deputy have a real sense of what's going on in the field? 63 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: No, but there is -- there is a chain of command and the district caretaker's supervisor is responsible for the inspection of the facilities to see if, for instance, their on-site person did, in fact, meet the priority list of work that needed to get done to get that center clean. And beyond his or her inspection of the facilities within the district, we do not have a formal standard checklist beyond that chain of command. And then, obviously, he or she reports to their manager, and that's it.
Given the level of investment in recent years in our centers from an operating -- I'm sorry, from a capital standpoint, and one of the impetuses behind this resolution is investing a significant amount of money into centers to get the physical plant to a physical level and standards. My concern is some of the deficiencies. Many of them are in the maintenance and custodial area. Do we have, in fact, established standards? How often is a center inspected? What is the center's condition matched 64 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 against by way of the Department's mission and program to say that the centers should look like this? And if it doesn't, who does something about it? Do you think that we should move in the direction of standardization of cleanliness, safety features and factors at our centers? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I think we're getting closer to the culture of the Department embracing a new level of accountability, which I am very happy about. But in all honesty, I was really pushing this a few years ago and wasn't making enough progress, but now it looks like we're ready and poised to move into that arena again.
One last comment. I, at least, and many members here would like to partner with the Department to go to the next level of using technology, using computerization and standards to make the Department again what we'd like it to be. I think Councilman Mariano's trying to get in. Thank you. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Thanks, Michael. 65 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
Commissioner, I grew up in the golden age, in the sixties, in the platinum age. There was a lot of federal money coming down, and you could do whatever you wanted. I remember Chubby Checkers. We went everywhere when I was a youth. Now, I know you don't have that kind of money and the only way to get that kind of money is to raise taxes, which is not acceptable, especially at least six months before a primary election. If we raise taxes -- let's all be realistic, people are moving out in droves, and we as a Council are trying to bring people back. I don't know what the answer is. It may be corporate donations, I think we're starting to look at that again. Now, I know this video surveillance thing is big and is going to come into the future. Some municipalities are doing it on the street corners, and certainly people won't like it with the ACLU, Big Brother's watching all the wireless remotes. They put 'em down at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and are recording so someone could see that. 66 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 And I just wanted to ask Mr. Fox a question. Tom, I have a little interest in some of your maintenance. I know there's not enough electricians filling all the spots, but if the money was there, what could we do to help you get more capital money, more operating money, actually, for maintenance? And how many more would you hire?
A couple things have changed that have made us at least better -- we're not perfect but we're better. One is, the vehicle situation has changed dramatically. I would say a couple years ago it was not very good.
It's improved dramatically. I would say just numbers-wise that the percentage at least in the shop getting preventative maintenance or repairs has been below 10 percent for a couple years. Now, that has dramatically changed our way of operating. 67 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Supplies are available, we have a specialized system now. Purchase orders used to take months to get, so if you wanted a certain piece of lumber to prepare bleachers or whatever, it would take months. Now you can do that order today, and by Friday, I'd have a purchase order and can have this stuff next Monday. So those kinds of things make us better. Where do we need to go from here? I think it's important to have extremely well-trained skilled people who want to work. And recently, we've been very, very blessed with getting those kinds of people to fill some of our positions.
The other question I want to ask the Commissioner, unless Tom wants to help out, is I know there's a lot of problems with graffiti. Do you have a graffiti team? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: We made one up, and here's what we tried to do -- take care of the buildings. We can't focus -- I cannot focus beyond the buildings if I went beyond the building, there would be light poles, retaining walls to take care of, and we would never tackle 68 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 all the other problems. So what we've said is we want to get graffiti off of our building and we've had much of it taken off. If you go around your district, you'll see a tremendous improvement.
It's good, yeah. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: What we've done is a couple of things. First of all -- and we got more money in the operating budget for paint. We provided each facility with paint where the building was painted. So you provide them with the paint, the brushes, the rollers. That was step one. And we asked people to do this in part of an initiative to make centers look good. Where we had brick or stone, we purchased high-pressure cleaners. So we have four, I guess, four high-pressure cleaners, and some of the district bought them, and so we have a handful of high pressure and rollers and the chemicals to take it off, and we blow it off. But then there's another part. The Managing Director's office, when we come up against something we can't handle beyond our capability, the Director's been very, very good 69 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 with program, staff, the supplies, and Managing Director's Office has really allowed us to almost eliminate the problem off our building. Taking up some of the staff.
The only other comment or question I want to ask is, they had night court at 24th, 25th. I go down there, and they have the night court. If you need graffiti removed, I understand they're glad to paint rather than go to jail or get fined some amount of money. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: I think the focus on graffiti has made doing it a little more risky. It's not as easy to do as it used to be, and people aren't as loose about doing it 'cause they know if they get picked up doing it, there's a little penalty for it.
Councilwoman Miller has a question. I'm the Vice Chair. She had to leave for a couple minutes. She said that they installed a new heating system, installed it but can't hook it up because PGW wouldn't certify the use of the staff. Tom, did you find out something about that? 70 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Why don't we get Eric Iffrig on this.
Eric is the most overworked, smartest man in the whole city. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: He'll tell you that yourself. (Eric Iffrig comes forward.)
Eric Iffrig, I-F-F-R-I-G, Director of Planning, Recreation Department. At Mowery, the gas blow has been installed, the gas line's been installed. PGW won't authorize the service until the flue has been cleaned. There was a problem the contractor had there with the subcontractor. In the meantime he's had a propane tank installed and that will be rectified within a day or so. Again, the whole thing should be rectified within a week.
Thank you. You stick around 'cause we got a lot of good questions.
Councilman, any other questions for this witness? No other questions for these witnesses from anyone?
No, I'm actually 71 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 done with the Commissioner for the moment and his crew of people. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: We'll be here.
Thank you. The next witness is J. Blaine Bonham, Jr., Vice President, Philadelphia Horticultural Society. (J. Blaine Bonham, Jr. and Maitreyi Reoy come forward.)
Good afternoon, Madame Chair, members of the committee. My name is Blaine Bonham. That's B-O-N-H-A-M. And with me is Maitreyi Reoy, Program Manager for Philadelphia Green. And today we're here -- actually we're here to sing the praises unabashedly for the Department of Recreation, and we're seeing energetic participants with them in a program that is becoming a model for across the country, and that is the Neighborhood Parks Revitalization Project. Which was started in 1993 through a 72 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 grant from the William Penn Foundation. As you know, Philadelphia Green has been involved for many, many years working with communities on various aspects of turning vacant lots into open space and greening streets. And in 1993, we began this project with the Department of Recreation to reclaim the derelict neighborhood parks which had become eyesores and places of danger and avoidance in many of the communities. With this grant from the William Penn Foundation, the partnership that we have is not an idle one, it's not one in name only. We work with every member at every level of the Department of Recreation staff, from the Commissioner through to the seasonal employees. And this partnership is what we liken to that of a three-legged stool. One is the public sector, the Department of Recreation. The second is the nonprofit sector, which is us. And the very important third leg of the stool is the community. And this partnership, we think, can serve as a model for revitalizing the 100 parks in the Department of Recreation's system, and they can form the heart of the communities that they 73 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 are in. Recently, we were invited to apply for a national grant for this project, and we were told by the potential grantor that the work that we had done with the Department of Recreation was a model for the entire nation. They have an extensive parks program in cities around the country, and they hadn't seen this kind of cooperation and success in revitalizing parks. Since the project began in 1993, Philadelphia Green has raised over $1.6 million to put into this project. The Department of Recreation has contributed over $500,000 in capital investments in these parks, and the community itself has raised $350,000 outside of the Department of Recreation and Philadelphia Green. So it's really generated a lot of income and leveraged the investment that you have made. Today you'll hear stories from folks that represent these parks. And if you had been at the enthusiastic park gathering last night that Councilman Mariano attended, you would have seen 500 people from those various parts celebrating those program. 74 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
Madame Chair, members of the committee, I would like to take this opportunity to take you back to 1993 when we first started the parks revitalization project at Philadelphia Green. When we first looked at the parks, we were looking at a partnership where we saw a strong commitment of residents to effect change and reclaim the parks for a great potential for neighborhood spaces to become family rooms of the neighborhoods, as they once used to be, yet had fallen victim to years of neglect. The challenges were very daunting as we worked to decide how to go ahead to get rid of the dead trees, trash heaps, and derelict buildings used for illegal activities like prostitutes and drugs. There was vandalism, there was graffiti. The first step was the Department of Recreation to clean and paint and clean and paint and clean and paint. They removed bags of trash, got rid of dead trees, and in one case, took done an abandoned building. These were seemingly small steps but significant in that this signaled to the community that someone was finally home in these 75 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 neighborhood parks. As the first steps gained momentum, relationships with one another grew stronger, and excitement for new programs and activities then started to bring new users into the park. There was intensive planning efforts into the community realized with the support from City Council as well as the Department of Recreation. I'd like to tell you a little bit about some of the successes. In the last five years, parents and children have returned by the droves to use the new playground at Carroll Park, reconnecting parks to people. Group development at Vernon Park with the Friends of Vernon Park has grown from three to four volunteers to a dynamic organization. And local organizations like the YMCA, the YWCA, the Central Germantown Business Council, the Center in the Park, the Fight Against graffiti at Wharton Square, determined to rid the park of graffiti, painted the building 16 times one summer. Finally, the park attracted thousands of people and put on the map in Roxborough. We have bike cops in Elmwood Park that have transformed the park. Amazing things have 76 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 happened at the nine parks. We worked with the Recreation Department's Maintenance Staff to renovate the park house at Gorgus Park completely with in-house support. This is a building that was unstable for years, and it is now a great 7 community facility. 8 And they have coordinated with the 9 Water Department to -- 10
I heard it was in 16 Roxborough somewhere. Sorry, sorry. 17
There were drainage problems 18 at Vernon Park, and we coordinated with the Water 19 Department to alleviate them. 20 Much needed beautiful new murals have replaced graffiti at Norris Square Park, Carroll Park, and also at Vernon Park. Instances like these are no longer an exception. This partnership has seen incredible successes, but also points to the work still left 77 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 to be done. We would like to protect our investments that have been made in these parks. Too often we hear in the community that it's or 5 20 years ago since a fountain has worked or since 6 a park house was last seen and used. 7 So we would ask for increased 8 maintenance to revisit these problems that we are 9 facing. We also believe that the effort of 10 employing seasonal workers in the City parks needs 11 to expand and continue. We are delighted to hear 12 about the new appointment of the district manager 13 position focussing on neighborhood parks with the 14 Department of Recreation. We'd like to see a 15 permanent staff team focussing on neighborhood recreation. We also believe that additional staff should be added to the team such as skilled professionals who can take care of our urban forests much better. In addition, the Department of Recreation needs to have performance standards for the level of maintenance that they offer to the neighborhood parks. The partnership that we are working with is community-driven, and our best work happens at their schedule. We believe the 78 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Department needs to respond better to these flexible schedules so that the partnership can grow. The park site are underutilized, and they need better structured programs and activities so that they can become a vital resources in the community and involve children and seniors in structured programs. The department of recreation has excellent programs in their staffed centers. These need to be stepped up into the neighborhood parks. Better coordination also needs to happen between City agencies. Trash is the number-one complaint of park users, and trash collection of the park should be coordinated with the Streets Department. There is a project currently underway at selected parks where collected trash is brought to the curbside at these parks. This system needs to be evaluated for its effectiveness. However, in the end, we believe two systems of trash pickup in the city is inefficient, and there needs to be a concerted attempt to coordinate a better system. We also need better lighting in our 79 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 parks to make them safe. This is almost as important, if not more so, than lighting the streets, because when you light the streets, the activity that you want to go away from the streets ends up in the parks, so there needs to be a citywide effort to coordinate lighting our public spaces better. The Water Department, as I mentioned before, recently came to the rescue at Vernon Park, but we need to be better coordinated with the Water Department. Finally, there needs to be immediately more police presence and efforts of better policing with the park groups as well as the Department of Recreation. So in closing, why do these parks need help? Because we believe that kids need a safe, clean, green place to stay in. We believe that the equation is safe streets and safe parks, and it's those two together that make safe neighborhoods. We believe that quality urban public spaces play a key role in community revitalization. Better neighborhoods need to have better parks. 80 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 And, finally, I would say that in each of the nine parks -- and you will hear more from members of some of our park groups -- there has been a revolution. With your support, the other nine neighborhood parks can join in. Thank you.
Thank you. Before you leave, can you spell your first and last name for the stenographer.
Yes, I'll do that. M-A-I-T-R-E-Y-I. And the last name is R-E-O-Y.
Thank you. I know that a lot of work done was at Vernon Park by the Central Germantown Council, and it really looks different now. I rode by there today and noticed it, and I'm well aware of Friends of Vernon Park and their activities.
And there's been no small investment by the Department of Recreation. And I feel that if we all do our part, we can make the parks a beautiful part of the neighborhood and protect the investments that we're all making. 81 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
Okay. Does any committee members have any questions? (No questions.)
I'll call three people up at a time just so we don't end up getting a late, but I want to make sure that everybody will have an opportunity to testify. The next people on the list are Michael McCrea, Leroy Simmons, Bonnie Raines -- I'm sorry I forgot you, Bonnie. Bonnie is with Children and Youth, and you and Michael McCrea can come up at the same time. (Ms. Raines and Mr. McCrea come forward.)
I'm Bonnie Raines, R-A-I-N-E-S, Coordinator of the After-School Program Initiative of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, the region's major child advocacy organization. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you just for a few moments about the 82 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 importance of recreational facilities in the lives of our young people, particularly in their after-school time -- a lot of time of time in the development of children and teens. After four years working of working intensively all across the City to start and expand after-school programs in partnership with schools, churches, community organizations, and libraries, PCCY believes that Philadelphia has a real right-now chance to take programs to scale and serve all the kids who need to be safe and surprised when school is out. The commissioner talked about the readiness to go to scale and really do the job, and we couldn't agree with him more. We need to expand opportunities for kids through these after-school programs, to develop more programs, and to improve the quality of the offerings. Our city government, with your leadership, has recognized the importance of structured, age-appropriate activities, supervised by interested and caring adults, and has invested in the Recreation Department after-school programs that cover homework, arts, recreation and sports, 83 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 and social skills. We commend the leadership of Council and of the Recreation Department in making this happen. We all know, and recent research and policies confirm, that all citizens want safe, stimulating, enriching activities for children after school. A new national policy that has just been announced overwhelming supports after-school programs. The policy found no significant differences in support for after-school programs among Democrats, Republicans, and independents. In the most comprehensive survey done of voter attitudes, attitudes on this issue were the same. People want safe affordable after-school enrichment programs. And here's the kicker. Eighty percent of those surveyed would be willing to pay higher taxes to provide after-school opportunities. I just wanted to tell you that news just broke, and I think that's pretty exciting. The critical question today as we examine resources to support any efforts for after-school programs is whether enough is in 84 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 place to meet the needs most especially in neighborhoods where the recreation facility is the only space caring for kids when school is out. We've been working with the schools to address the issue as well and are gratified that we are coming to a time when resources can be combined and plans can be made to have staff from the Recreation Department work in the schools in the non-school hours to make a difference in many neighborhoods of the City. And we've heard today about those staff in schools and also in churches. And I can tell you, those programs would not be there if it were not for those recreation personnel. The community can benefit from a combination of all these resources and from our governmental institutions working together. When we have successfully gotten to scale, when our programs are serving young kids and older kids, when they are meeting the needs of children and their families, Philadelphia will be a safer, smarter city. But we are not there yet. We have begun the effort to reverse the trend. We have 85 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 more and we have better programs now than we used to, but there are tens of thousands of kids in Philadelphia who need but do not have the kind of opportunities they could have. In New York, the after-school neighborhood programs, supported by a combination of private, city, state, and school funds have been credited with playing a major role in lowering the juvenile crime rate.
The same is true in Tucson and Boston. We have miles to go in Philadelphia. Programs need to provide safety and to meet kids's interests. They need to welcome kids and have enough supervision to provide the kind of programming that is needed. Too many of our rec centers have inadequate staffing and supplies, too many lack the support they need to reach out to the families in the community to develop the kind of programming needed, and too many buildings are inadequate and not ready for the new importance of their role. For the most part, many recreation centers can only offer one room and one staff person. Often the room can serve only 10 or 12 children. As word is spread in the community that 86 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 a program is there from 3:00 to 6:00 every day, where will the second and third wave of or 4 kids be accommodated? Parent fees probably cover 5 the cost of minimal supplies and no more. At 6 current funding levels, such needs as recruitment 7 and outreach to school and community, training, 8 snacks, enrichment (such as trips), and bilingual 9 support personnel cannot possibly be met. 10 For after-school programs to come up to 11 the standards of solid youth development programs, 12 to meet the needs of the children and families in every community in the City, the Recreation Department needs more. We believe that most Councilmatic districts should be able to deliver some kind of programming for 4,000 youngsters but all are far short of the mark. We are working with the State, with the School District, and with private providers to develop more funding. We believe the City's steps in the last two years have been good, but should be doubled, and we can tell you approximately how much we think that will look like, and we renew our call to ask you to be creative in seeking ways to raise funds from the surplus, to an additional 87 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 charge for events at the publicly-funded stadiums. Every time someone pays to watch a team play, maybe they could pay a small percentage so that our kids could be in a winning, safe team in their neighborhoods. Further, we urge you to seriously consider the following recommendations: Two after-school program leaders per center and maximum occupancy of space inside and outside. Regular training and technical assistance to develop staff skills as youth development workers. Someone in each district to provide outreach to the community, recruit volunteers. And create a welcoming building. What I mean as a "welcoming building" is a sign outside announcing the after-school school program, a variety of activities inside and out, and a sense of connection to the neighborhood, public and parochial. When I visited a rec center a couple days in the afternoon, I pounded on three doors that were locked before someone finally came to 88 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 the fourth door. There was a very nice after-school program going on there three out of the four days, and they were locked in for safety sake so that nobody could just be wandering in and out of those doors, but it did not exactly create a welcoming sense to the community. And I think it was a matter of staffing resources. Another recommendation is a focus on one or two programs in each district with facilities that are pretty okay. And use these programs as demonstrations for the best of what a recreation department after-school program can be. Feature arts, sports, and homework support. Have tennis two times a week provided by the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center (now doing after-school instruction). Have chess, visual arts, the Reaching Higher for Reading program. Infuse other facilities with those best elements. What I have also observed is that those centers with active advisory councils will scrounge and fund-raise for more resources for their after-school programs.
We need to make sure that communities that are overwhelmed with poverty, vandalism, and crime have that support as 89 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 well. Can we not have a baseline of quality for after-school programs for all kids in the City, no 4 matter what their address is? Quality after-school programs that are recreation- and arts-focussed will be tremendously cost-effective in terms of positive outcomes for our young people. The space has to be in decent space, welcoming, with enough room to be able to accommodate the number of people who want to use it. The staff have to be trained for this new and expanded role. The quality of interaction between adults and kids is what counts. The Commissioner and the Department have begun a major effort; it needs to be provided funds to make a difference at the community level to support more kids and to serve them better. The ages that need to be served in every community cover a wide range; we have to be able to meet those needs. At the citywide level, there needs to be a person administratively in the Department with the responsibility to continuously improve the quality of programs. The Mural Arts Program 90 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 of the Department reminds us that we can have top-notch programming sponsors by the City; we should spread its influence and its quality. One staff person per center is not enough for an after-school program. We need staff that are trained and provided enrichment opportunities. We need to get out there and do the best work we can do with our kids at the end of the school day. That committee deserves to be met with adequate resources. That is what City Council can do something about. PCCY will do with a we can do to push policy, but we get pretty tired sometimes since we've been doing this now for four years, and we're glad to see some changes that are making a difference. We urge a redoubling of that effort and we look forward to the expansion and enhancement of a good start in rec facilities all over the City. Thank you. )
I'm kind of upset that Mr. 91 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 Mariano kind of left. I appreciated his acknowledgment. We volunteers don't get paid and are often get confused for a city employee. I don't know if that's good or bad.
Yeah. As President of the Philadelphia Recreation Advisory Council, I represent a coalition of over 150 volunteer organizations, each representing local recreation centers and playgrounds around the City of Philadelphia. I. Get to go to all of them across the City throughout year. I go from one end of the City to the other and I see thousands of volunteers who work 40 or 50 hours a week and then come home to spend or hours a night at their local rec center. That shows me and tells me that they realize the importance of these services, not only to their family but to the entire community that they serve. By going to all of these centers, seeing them across the City, it's easy to see the difference it makes to the quality of programs offered by the Department of Recreation. 92 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 You talked about capital money. Actually, in the last years, the number is over 4 $75 million in capital in the last 7 years through this administration. And the reason for needing all of that was the extremely deteriorated of probably, I would say, most of the centers due to lack of proper maintenance on a regular basis that happened over a long period of time. The staffing levels over time decreased to a point where there was just not enough employees to do the required maintenance at each facility, especially the skilled trade positions got so bad that some of centers had to even close. From a staffing level of over 1400 -- I believe it was about 1425 -- there were only 496 employees only 6 years ago. Today the number, I understand, is up to 562. Not only have all the centers that were previously closed been reopened, but the hours of operation of many of the centers has been increased from 2 in the afternoon till 10 at night. , which increases the number 93 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 of hours, which also increases the load on the facility, which means more work itself. And without the additional employees, it just puts more on the already existing system. All of the increased usage has occurred with a very minimal increase in full-time positions. So it's kind of not hard to see that we do need more people in those positions. It's imperative that we allow the Recreation Department to operate with enough new maintenance support to protect the capital investment that have already been made. Actually, there are currently 109 maintenance employees serving over 200 centers, and it doesn't take much to see that those numbers don't add up. There are two ways that we think would have an immediate impact on the situation. First thing, we need to hire additional full-time maintenance employees to increase the time or actually decrease the amount of time that work orders sit and lay. I think they have done a good job in improving the length of time work orders get completed and work gets done on that but it can get better with the additional number of 94 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 employees. There is only so much you can do. The other thing is, we need to hire part-time custodians, which is something we could do on a limited basis because some of the centers that don't have any custodian, so that each facility, you know, would have somebody there at least in part dedicated to just cleaning the facility and doing just the basic day-to-day operations, do the floors, sweeping floors, making sure glass is cleaned up on the playground, even if only on a part-time. As far as capital improvements, one of the problems with that is the procurement process is extremely too slow to me and very cumbersome and not effective. The way that it works now, it can take four to five years to complete from the time the funds are put into the capital budget until the completion of construction. For example, my center at Feltonville, funds were put in the capital budget for it starting in 1993 for a new heater.
For the last 4 winters, the building has been without heat for periods of anywhere 6 to 12 weeks each winter. When the heater did work, there was no 95 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 thermostatic control, so it ran all the time, using about 1600 gallons of oil every 2 weeks. Finally, this past April, the old heater was removed. In May, the new gas heater was delivered, but now it's November, the middle of November, and the contractor said he will still not be finished installing it for 4 to 6 weeks. All that shouldn't take five years. That's pretty much the bottom line on that. For ADA construction in the building, construction for a handicapped chair-lift started in mid-July. It's now the middle of November, and it's not going to be completed for four to six weeks, which really means our entire downstairs has been closed since August, including the bathrooms. And so, believe it or not, this is probably closer to the norm than the exception when it comes to the length of time to procure the capital work process and length of time it takes to get everything done. As far as program staff at Feltonville, we run an after-school program and a summer day camp that serves over 130 children every day for almost 7 weeks of the summer. The Rec Department 96 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 is only able to provide us 1 camp director at 35 hours a week, 1 adult counselor for 35 hours a week, and 1 junior counselor for 20 hours a week. You know, for 130 kids, that's just not enough. In order to have enough staff to handle such a large number, we had to hire additional staff, which we spent last summer, and it was over $8,000 in additional salaries to have enough people to go on the trips that we need to take to go to Dorney Park fulfilling summer for them.
I don't want to interrupt you, and you've made a number of good points. The one I wanted to hone in on was: Have you been able to put any -- even a rough estimate together of what a kind of additional funding from your perspective or your contact with the Citywide Advisory Council, what kind of dollars do you think we're talking about that would make a significant impact on the Recreation Department?
Well, for me personally in dealing with the different centers, I think we really need between a million and a half to 97 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 $2 million incrementally. You're not going to make it all up in --
Right, I understand that you. Okay, so a middle and a half to $2 million. And what would you spend it on?
Part of it for full-time maintenance people to target upkeep and work orders. Not every skilled area needs additional people. Plumbing is certainly not an area where we have adequate staff to take care of that area. And we only have where one locksmith for the entire city. They're the targeted areas that just really need additional support for full-time people. The other area is part-time. I really think for a lot of the day-to-day operations, instead of hiring seasonal part-time people, we could go out in the neighborhood and recruit them on a limited basis. I know they do it at Gorgus Park as well. You know the gentleman that does that, I think he's supposed to be here later, but it would allow people that live in the neighborhood to work there. Most of the time 98 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 people already volunteer at the center anyway, and someone could come in and clean the place every day, that roving district crew, cleaning the place, going out and doing other things.
Could I encourage you, even if it's in rough-draft fashion, to forward to the Chair, under the lettered of the Citywide Advisory Council, a proposal on both the funding, total dollar amount, and proposed use of the funding?
I think I can get it as a breakdown, how many people to hire, part-time, full-time people. I can get that for you.
Just for one second, I'd like to go right back and ask Miss Raines to do the same and probably for some of the items that were mentioned earlier from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. I don't know, Blaine left a ton of people. I'd like you to offer that kind of information, which would be very helpful. 99 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 You may have some of the same numbers, you may have different numbers. The committee is going through a process kind of prior to budget. If we get it all together, we might actually come out of it with something most of us could live with.
Sure. The cost of about a thousand dollars per child per year for after-school programs.
As I said, with summer camps, we need to be provided with two full-time and part-time staff for the summer. The only other option would be hiring more people or turning kids away. And turning kids away is not an option. We must serve every kid that wants to participate, so I'm just not going to even consider turning them away, that's absolutely not an option.
I understand. 100 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687
My next point is a sore point with me, which is liability insurance. You and I discussed this, Mr. Nutter, a couple years ago, when Risk Management told us that anyone we paid to work at our center would not be not covered by the City's liability insurance, and that because we signed the checks that paid these people, we would also not be covered. And I, as a volunteer, was also told that I was not covered. Now, I was kind of insulted, I'll be honest with you, that the administration would try to pull that off. We spent the better part of, what, nine months going back and forth over that.
That tells me that somebody just, you know, just doesn't get it. They really just don't get it.
Wasn't a part of that problem addressed with the new kind of omnibus liability?
No. Since we signed 101 PARKS, RECREATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS - Res. No. 980687 checks of people working in the centers, we were, in turn, their employer, you know, indirectly their employer. So, therefore, because we were hiring somebody to work in the same facility and they weren't a City employee, then we were also not covered. I mean, the cost of that liability insurance would add an additional $25,000 a year for us.