Jacob Vaughn
Audio By Carbonatix
Dallas Park and Recreation board members pushed back against their “worst case scenario” on Thursday: budget cuts in the millions that will impact services across the city.
In a briefing, parks officials told the board that a 15% reduction in the department’s budget is expected in the upcoming fiscal year. In dollars, that amounts to more than $13.1 million. City officials have already warned that upcoming annual budget deliberations will require some “hard choices,” as sales tax revenues have slowed and other expenditures, such as police spending and employee health insurance payments, have ballooned.
According to Thursday’s briefing, the Park department has identified $4.5 million in efficiencies and new revenue to help offset the reduction, but an additional $8.9 million in cuts, many of which will impact core services utilized by Dallasites, will be necessary. On the chopping block are services like litter pickup and park mowing, Dallas ISD partner programs, aquatic center hours and four recreation center facilities.
Department Director John Jenkins warned that the service cuts come after years of the department slimming down, and are now unavoidable.
“I don’t have a lot of efficiencies that I can find anymore. I’ve been reducing staff levels, I’ve been eliminating positions over the last three years,” Jenkins said. “I don’t want anyone to have the false assumption that I’m able to find you $15 million, $14 million in cuts without service cuts.”
The briefing suggested that four community centers, Arcadia, Marcus Annex, the Teen Tech Center and Umphress be closed. The cuts could also see recreation centers limited to 40 operational hours a week, and delayed hours for Bachman Indoor Pool and the Bahama Beach waterpark.
Five aquatic centers — Harry Stone, Bachman, Tietze, Fretz and Exline — could move from being open six days a week to only four. Programming for Dallas ISD students could also be cut down from five days to two. The department is also exploring the privatization of the Cedar Crest golf course.
Board member Fonya Mondell called many of the suggestions “non-negotiable,” asking department officials, “Where do you expect these people to go” when so much programming is slashed.
Other board members argued that the proposed closures would be felt “disproportionately” by certain council districts, especially those in the city’s southern sector. Three of the four facilities recommended for closure are south of Interstate 30. District 5’s Grady McGahan said that reality “stings” after last year’s decision to close nine of the city’s community pools, the majority of which were located in southern Dallas.
“How do we keep these kids still engaged when … we’re part of the zip codes that have the highest incarceration rates and we’re not offering those services there anymore?” said McGahan. “Nobody wants to lose anything. But our impact with kids and saving those kids that [need] the guiding light that our incredible park system does for them is important. … Those are going to be hard pills to swallow.”
Jenkins acknowledged that much of what was on the table Thursday will be unpopular. Referencing the department’s decision to move litter cleanup to two days a week during the ‘90s, he said, “all we received were complaints.”
He assured the board that any finalized service cuts will be implemented over time, and he encouraged the board to begin considering what it would look like for the department to “wean itself” off the city’s general fund as a primary source of revenue. The state’s cap on property tax revenues and the voter-approved mandate that 50% of new city revenue be used for public safety have left the parks department with “structural issues,” he said.
“This is not the first time that we’ve been asked for a budget reduction since I’ve been here in my 33 years. It won’t be the last time,” Jenkins said. “In financial downturns, we had to contract. We got in good years, we had an opportunity to expand our services. That’s just the nature of what’s going to happen as long as you have city government.”
