The head of the Baltimore City Recreation and Parks Advisory Board sent a testy letter this morning to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, challenging her to implement reforms the board has been pushing for several years. "Since our Advisory Board was appointed four years ago, the Department of Recreation and Parks has had three Directors and faced at least three budget reductions," reads the letter, which was signed by all five members of the board (there are three vacancies). "Last year, the citizens of Baltimore were threatened with recreation facility closures right before the height of the summer season. This year, seven of thirteen pools are slated for closing. While we certainly understand the demands of a budgetary crisis, we are concerned that the continued threats to our recreation and parks system send the wrong message to our citizens about our priorities, particularly when the Department of Recreation and Parks is already in a precarious position." The open letter (see below) came about after years of reaching out to the mayor and her advisers, Board President Carolyn D. Wainwright says in an interview, "but for the most part our experience is that the administration has just not been very receptive to hearing about needed improvements. . .but instead uses the department to slash budgets. To say that you're going to close seven of 13 walk-to pools right before summer is kind of ridiculous." Mayoral spokesman Ryan O'Doherty did not immediately respond to an e-mail from
City Paper.
The Department of Recreation and Parks has had management and budget problems for years. When Gregory Bayor took over as director in 2010, Rawlings-Blake said it was a new day: "We will no longer accept mediocrity or the status quo," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement
. Last month Bayor announced he was leaving to take a Parks chief job in Tampa. In a statement, Rawlings-Blake praised his tenure: "I would like to thank Mr. Bayor for his service to the citizens of Baltimore and for increasing staff morale in the department during the last two years. Mr. Bayor has laid significant groundwork, creating new public-private partnerships with local businesses, foundations, and community organizations that will strengthen recreational opportunities for Baltimore going forward. We wish him well in his future endeavors." As
recently noted, those "public-private partnerships" for administering the city's beleaguered youth recreation centers went over poorly among residents. In its letter, the Parks Board asks the mayor to keep the rec and parks budget flat this year and earmark more than $1 million for the pools. It recommends an "in-depth evaluation process" of the department's "financial, programmatic, personnel and management policies and practices using the accreditation guidelines as set forth by the Commission on Accreditation for Parks and Recreation Agencies," a nationally known accreditation organization. It also seeks an audit of the department, which was requested by the board years ago and never done. Last month, City Councilman Carl Stokes (12
District) introduced a bill to require an audit of every city agency every other year. Although administration officials said they had no problem with that, Stokes met with opposition in a private meeting before the bill was introduced (
Mobtown Beat, March 28). Wainwright says the board meets next on Wednesday evening, April 25, at 7 p.m. in the
Howard "Pete" Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park. She says she hopes board members and others will hear budget information from interim Parks Director Bill Vondrasek. [scribd id=90855253 key=key-1ofzx2blc27g2rggq419 mode=list]
