Photograph by Robert Scheer
Recreation Director Joan Pisani said she thought she was supposed to phase out her department.
By Sarah Lombardo
The Recreation Department has been given another chance. But it's a chance the City Council said they always had.
The council clarified last week what they had in mind for the department, quelling rumors that they intended to eliminate or phase it out.
Instead, said Mayor Gillian Moran, staff was instructed to simply play with the numbers to make the department more cost-efficient.
"The direction was to propose a budget in which the extent to which the city was subsidizing the department was reduced," Moran said.
At a joint meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission and the City Council last Tuesday night, commissioners told the council that the word on the street was that the council had decided to get rid of the department. The news came as a shock to many of the council members.
"I was surprised that the issue came up again," Councilman Jim Shaw said. Shaw said he thought that it was clear from a previous town hall meeting that the council supported the Recreation Department. "I think that having the department here in Saratoga is something that the community wants, and I don't see any reason right now for getting rid of it," he said.
The misunderstanding seemed to stem from a Feb. 20 town hall budget meeting, at which council members went through each function and program in the city and deemed it essential or nonessential.
Recreation Director Joan Pisani said it was her understanding from that meeting that she was supposed to begin phasing out her department.
"[That meeting] was when the council was going to come up with what was going to be cut," Pisani said. "So, the directive for me was to find other people to do it and try to enter into partnerships within the schools--basically to find my replacement."
Parks and Recreation Commissioner Jennifer Crotty said she came away with the same conclusion, adding that she heard the council agree that the city should not be in the recreation business.
"I think what we heard was some of the council members say at the previous meeting that it was it was up on the chopping block," Crotty said. "They didn't actually say that, but it was definitely a feeling someone could come away with."
But city council members say the department is not on the chopping block; it just needs to work the numbers.
"What I am going to do is spend some time in the next week-and-a-half and go through [the Recreation Department budget]," Pisani said.
Pisani said each program within the department will need to be evaluated and the costs and revenue weighed. Fees, she said, will have to be increased to pay direct costs and possibly offset the department's indirect costs as well.
"Every program we have makes money; it's just a matter of how much it makes," she said.
Crotty and the other commissioners met on Monday night to begin deliberating the issue. Crotty said the commission tackled where to cut and thought of ways of enhancing the department's revenue, including raising program fees.
Crotty said the task of bringing a department that is already recovers 91 percent of its costs will be tough, but she thinks everyone is committed to maintaining recreation services in Saratoga.
"I have full confidence that we'll be able to do it," she said. "But it will be hard."
"I think people here in Saratoga want recreation programs," Pisani said, "and they confirm that each time they sign up for a program."
But, Pisani said, although the department and its services may have another chance, the department will have to concentrate on money-making programs.
"Gone are the days when you used to do things just because they were fun and good for the community," she said, citing the Easter egg hunts, breakfasts with Santa and fun runs that used to be a part of Saratoga. "Those are things that we would not even consider doing now because everything is fee-based."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.