2006-09-11Official Minutes
Approved by Parks and Recreation Board 10/9/06
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CITY OF SOUTHLAKE
PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD MEETING
September 11, 2006
MINUTES
Board Members Present: Mary Georgia, Chairman; Mike Mills, Vice Chair; Elaine Cox,
Emily Galpin, Ken Goodman, Elizabeth McCracken, Katrina Peebles and Bobby Rawls
Board Members Absent: John Slocum
Staff Members Present: Steve Polasek, Director of Community Services and Steve
Moore, Recreation Superintendent
Guests: None
REGULAR SESSION
Agenda Item No. 1. Call to Order
Chairman Mary Georgia called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
REPORTS
Agenda Item No. 2. Administrative Comments:
A. Open Government Training - State Law requires all elected and appointed
officials to complete training on the Open Meetings Act and Public
Information Act. Training is available online at www.oag.state.tx.us, or in
video and CD formats through the City Secretary's Office. Record of
Completion documents will be maintained in the City Secretary's Office.
Deadline for completion is the November Parks Board meeting.
B. Management Study - Matrix Consulting Group completed a management
evaluation of the Department of Community Services. The results determined
that overall the department performs very well in a number of areas. The study
offered some opportunities for improvement, which staff is currently in the
process of implementing. A copy of the Study will be attached to the approved
minutes on file in the Office of the City Secretary.
Mike Mills will email specific clarifying questions concerning the study to
Steve Polasek to have addressed by Matrix Consulting Group.
C. FY 2006-07 Budget Update - The proposed FY 2006-07 budget was approved
by City Council on September 5, 2006. The second and final reading will
occur on September 19, 2006.
September 11, 2006 Parks Board Meeting Minutes
Page 1 of 5
Official Minutes
Approved by Parks and Recreation Board 10/9/06
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D. Park Board Report at City Council Meetings - Park Board members
volunteered to present the Parks Report at City Council meetings as follows:
October 3, 2006 - Elaine Cox; January 2, 2007 - Mary Georgia; March 20,
2007 - Mike Mills; and June 5, 2007 - John Slocum.
E. TRAPS Region 2 & 3 Conference, November 10, 2006, in the Double Tree
Hotel in Farmer's Branch - Members were invited to attend and asked to
notify Linda Carpenter if they would like to attend.
F. Parks Maintenance Rodeo, October 4, 2006 in Mesquite - Park Board
members were encouraged to attend to support the Southlake parks team.
CONSENT AGENDA
Agenda Item No. 3A. Approval of the Southlake Parks and Recreation Board meeting
minutes of August 14, 2006.
Minor corrections to the minutes were requested on page 3A-3, line 38, page 3A-4, line 2
and page 3A-4, line 34, 3A-6, line 16.
A motion was made to approve the minutes as stated.
Motion:
Peebles
Second:
Mills
Ayes:
Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, and Peebles
Nays:
None
Abstention:
Rawls (absent from 8/14/06 meeting)
Vote:
7-0-1
Motion carried.
REGULAR AGENDA
Agenda Item No. 4. Public Forum
Chairman Georgia opened Public Forum. Being no one present to speak during Public
Forum, Public Forum was closed.
CONSIDER AGENDA
Agenda Item No. 5A. Consider: Absence of Parks and Recreation Board Member(s) -
(Standing Item) - The Board considered the absence of Bobby Rawls from the August
14, 2006 meeting.
A motion was made to excuse the absence.
Motion: Mills
Second: Goodman
Ayes: Cox, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, and Peebles
Nays: None
September 11, 2006 Parks Board Meeting Minutes
Page 2 of 5
Official Minutes
Approved by Parks and Recreation Board 10/9/06
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Abstention: Rawls
No Vote: Galpin (absent from the vote)
Vote: 6-0-1
Motion carried.
Agenda Item No 5B Election of Parks and Recreation Board Officers for 2006-07
Board members favored maintaining the current Chair and Vice-Chair positions. Park
Board member John Slocum expressed an interest in serving as the secretary at the
previous board meeting.
A motion was made to elect Mary Georgia as Chairman, Mike Mills as Vice-
Chairman and John Slocum as Secretary.
Motion: Rawls
Second: Cox
Ayes: Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, Peebles and Rawls
Nays: None
Abstention: None
Vote: 8-0
Motion carried.
Agenda Item No 5C Recommendation of Park Dedication requirements for Stratfort
Gardens
Director Steve Polasek recommended this item be tabled until the next meeting since the
applicant was unable to attend to make a formal presentation to the Board.
A motion was made to TABLE the Stratfort Gardens park dedication item.
Motion:
Rawls
Second:
Mills
Ayes:
Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, Peebles, and Rawls
Nays:
None
Abstention:
None
Vote:
8-0
Motion carried.
Agenda Item No 5D Recommendation of names for city parks currently referred to as
The Cliffs and Oak Pointe
Director Polasek presented the item. Public input for names was sought through the City
web site and newspaper articles; however, no public input was received. The following
names were recommended by the developers of each site:
1) Cliffs Park (to include Sally Dinsmore Oien Butterfly Garden) for the 14.92
acres of park land within The Cliffs at Clariden Ranch development on North
White Chapel Road
September 11, 2006 Parks Board Meeting Minutes
Page 3 of 5
Official Minutes
Approved by Parks and Recreation Board 10/9/06
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2) Oak Pointe Park for the 8.19 acres of park land located within the Oak Pointe
development on Ridgecrest Road, north of Dove Road
The names are allowable within the existing guidelines in that they recognize a local and
geographic area.
A motion was made to name the parks the Cliffs Park (to include Sally Dinsmore
Oien Butterfly Garden) and Oak Pointe Park. An amendment was added to require
signage consistent with City design indicating areas as City parks.
Motion: Rawls
Amendment: Mills
Second: Peebles
Ayes: Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, Peebles and Rawls
Nays: None
Abstention: None
Vote: 8-0
Motion carried.
Agenda Item No. 5E. SPDC Matching Funds Request from Keep Southlake Beautiful to
purchase as animated trash receptacle
Director Polasek presented this item. Keep Southlake Beautiful (KSB) requested $2,000
in the FY 2006-07 matching funds budget to purchase of a trash can in the shape of a
hippopotamus to encourage children to pick up trash and keep City parks clean.
A motion was made to approve $2,000 in matching funds for the purchase and
delivery of the proposed animated litter receptacle (the Hippo).
Motion: Goodman
Second: Cox
Ayes: Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, Mills, Peebles, and Rawls
Nays: None
Abstention: McCracken
Vote: 7-0-1
Motion carried.
The board recommended looking into more opportunities like this purchase if the hippo
program is successful at Bicentennial Park.
Agenda Item No. SF. Appointment of three (3) Park Board members to serve on the
Neighborhood Park Design Work Group
This item was presented by Director Polasek. The Neighborhood Park Design Work
Group will participate with the consultants, Halff and Associates, and staff in the
planning and design of Annie and Royal Smith Park and Liberty Park at Sheltonwood.
Park Board members Ken Goodman, Elaine Cox and Emily Galpin expressed interest in
serving on the work group.
September 11, 2006 Parks Board Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 5
Official Minutes
Approved by Parks and Recreation Board 10/9/06
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A motion was made to appoint Elaine Cox, Ken Goodman and Emily Galpin to the
Neighborhood Park Design Work Group.
Motion: Rawls
Second: McCracken
Ayes: Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, Peebles and Rawls
Nays: None
Abstention: None
Vote: 8-0
Motion carried.
Agenda Item No. 6A. Discussion: Southlake 50th Anniversary Time Capsule
Staff recommended the parks and trails master plans, a picture of the park board in the
Southlake 50th anniversary time capsule to be buried in Rustin Park in November to
represent the parks and recreation department.
The Board offered a couple of suggestions. One was to include a list of all past and
present Park Board members instead of a photo of the current board. Another was to
include a Stampede tabletop book or something else representative of the Southlake
Stampede project. Other items suggested were the Nature Center concept drawings, the
draft concept plans for the redesign of Bicentennial Park, the City's very first Park
Master Plan and a "wish" note.
Suggestions should be submitted to Steve Polasek.
The Board will revisit this item at their next meeting.
Agenda Item No. Adjournment
A motion was made adjourn the meeting at 8:30 p.m.
Motion: Mills
Second: Peebles
Ayes: Cox, Galpin, Georgia, Goodman, McCracken, Mills, Peebles and Rawls
Nays: None
Abstention: None
Vote: 8-0
Motion carried.
D
Mary Georgia, arks & Recreation Board air St a Polasek, Director
Community Services Department
Attachments: Item 213 - Management Study
A cassette tape recording of the meeting is available for check-out in the
Office of the City Secretary.
September 11, 2006 Parks Board Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 5
Management Study of the Community Services
Department
CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS
matrix
consulting roue
4322 North Belt Line Road, Suite B-112
Irving, TX 75038
v.972.871.7950 f. 972.871.7951
CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS
Management Audit of the Community Services Department
1. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report, which follows, presents the results of our analysis of the organization,
operations, and services of the Community Services Department.
1. INTRODUCTION
This introduction describes the study's objectives and the approaches utilized by
the project team. Following this is a summary of the report's key findings, conclusions
and recommendations.
The principal objectives of the project were as follow:
• Document current workload and service demands faced by the Community
Services Department.
• Evaluate service levels and identify service level issues, including identifying
those areas in which service levels fall below industry standards and
expectations and service demands unique to Southlake.
• Evaluate Community Services Department management systems and
recommend adjustments that can contribute to long-term departmental operating
and service delivery effectiveness.
• Evaluate the Community Services Department's facility needs and plans.
The project was conducted utilizing the following methodologies:
• During the initial stage of the project, the project team briefed employees in a
series of kick off meetings to describe the scope of the study, their opportunities
for involvement and to answer their questions.
• Then, staff at all levels of the organization were interviewed to document how the
Community Services Department is currently organized and functions. This
included determining the basic responsibilities of all staff members assigned to
the organization.
• The results of these initial interviews were documented in the form of a
Descriptive Profile of the Community Services Department. That Profile, once
completed, was reviewed with departmental staff to ensure accuracy, and once
corrected, was employed to support evaluation of organization, staffing,
workload, and service levels during subsequent stages of the project.
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CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS
Management Audit of the Community Services Department
• At the conclusion of the initial phase of the project, we developed a detailed list of
issues related to organization, operations, and services based on analysis of the
information developed during initial interviews and other data collection activities.
This issue list was reviewed with Department staff in a progress meeting, and
once reviewed, provided the basis for the more focused analyses conducted
during the remainder of the project.
• Once the issue list was completed, we conducted follow-up analyses to further
evaluate issues and improvement opportunities. As findings related to service
programs, staffing levels, and management systems were developed and
documented, they were reviewed with staff from the Department and refined
based on the results of those reviews.
• Based on staff reviews, recommendations were clarified and refined, and are
documented in the exhibit that follows this introduction.
The section, which follows, provides a summary of the key findings, conclusions
and recommendations to be found in this report. It is important to place any analysis
such as this into a complete context.
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This section provides a summary of the project team's findings and
recommendations. It is important to recognize that there are both positive attributes of
the Community Services Department identified by the project team as well as the
opportunities for improvement. The first sub-section, below, provides a summary of the
positive findings by the project team.
(1) Summary of Positive Findings of the Project Team
While the primary focus of this study is on opportunities for making
improvements, the project team also believes that it is important to identify areas in
which the Community Services Department is already meeting or exceeding
performance targets and expectations. These are summarized in the points which
follow:
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CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS
Management Audit of the Community Services Department
• The existence of a comprehensive Master Plan with park inventory and
projections related to the future needs of the community with regard to park
inventory and facility inventory.
• Future community needs (park lands and facilities) have been prioritized within
the Master Planning process.
• Significant interaction exists with community groups, athletic associations, and
citizen advisory committees.
• Major assets, including facilities, parkland, and equipment, have been inventoried
(while the level of detail may vary).
• Policies and procedures have been developed and compiled into manuals for
critical areas including employee procedures, volunteers, and safety procedures.
• The City makes extensive use of joint use facilities with the School system.
• The utilization of volunteers for assisting staff in providing programming is good.
In some areas of programming, such as evening and weekend programming,
volunteers provide a critical role in the provision of services.
• The City provides significant targeted services for Seniors and Therapeutics.
• The City is making good use of the internet for promoting programs to its citizens
and for enabling citizens to conduct online registration.
• Contractors are utilized for targeted maintenance activities including right-of-
ways, Town Square, and City facilities.
This has been a summary of just a few of the positive findings identified by the
project team. The following section provides a summary of the project team's findings
and recommendations for improvement in the Community Services Department.
(2) Summary of Improvement Opportunities and Other Recommendations
This section provides a summary of the project team's recommendations for the
Community Services Department. This summary is provided in the matrix, which
follows. Recommendations with an identifiable cost impact are highlighted inn bold.
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CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS
Management Audit of the Community Services Department
1. Recommendations - Recreation
Recreation staff should run utilization reports for all programs following each program session to
determine utilization of program offerings. Programs with heavy utilization should be reviewed for
additional sessions. Programs with light utilization and/or no registrations should be replaced with new
program offerings.
Additional program offerings should be developed to address the preschool and youth clientele.
The Department should expand on its evaluation of course offerings by soliciting additional citizen
feedback through a variety of methods including telephone surveys, expanded review of customer
comment cards, and soliciting feedback from those individuals registering on-line for current programs.
The Community Services Department should enhance the tracking of expenses by program offering to
enable comparison of expenses to the Revenue Cost Recovery Policy.
An annual report by program should be developed that shows the actual cost recovery percentage
achieved and whether it is in compliance with the adopted policy or not.
The cost recovery policy should be reviewed and updated every two to three years and presented to
the City Council for approval.
The fees charged for programs should be adjusted following review of the annual reports to ensure
that programs remain competitive) priced.
The Department should develop a marketing plan that supplements the current course catalog. This
effort should identify methods for enhancing public education regarding course offerings and reach
additional customers. Programs that are underutilized or that become available after the course
booklets are typically distributed should be a primary focus of this plan.
The Community Services Department staff should meet annually with neighboring departments to
explore opportunities for the joint hosting of courses or activities that they are unable to provide or
support through sufficient registrations on their own.
The five year CIP should be expanded to identify potential projects for an additional five years.
Projects in the second five-year period should be prioritized but do not require detailed cost estimates.
The benefit is educating all involved parties regarding anticipated future expenditures that will require
funding sources, even if these are existing facility expansions, remodels or changes in use.
Discussion should begin regarding the replacement of, and appropriate location of, a new maintenance
facility. This facility should be programmed into the annual CIP program based upon the identified
priority.
A long term facility replacement schedule should be developed that identifies for each building, athletic
fields, and major recreational asset (such as playgrounds), the remaining useful life and anticipated
date of either remodeling or replacement. Absent this type of planning exercise, the Department will
be unable to adequately plan for and maintain facilities at the desired level.
The planning and construction of the Recreation Facility should be given high priority in order to meet
the needs of the community. Designated space within the facility should be allocated for programming
needs of the Department.
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CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEAS
Management Audit of the Community Services Department
The Community Services Department should explore the utilization of the Senior Center as a location
for additional recreational programming for the short term. In the alternative, commercial space
should be considered for rental to provide additional space for programming efforts.
The City of Southlake should work with the Athletic Associations to clarify field utilization and
scheduling practices for programs provided by the Community Services Department.
The fees charges to Athletic Associations should be periodically reviewed to determine if they are
sufficient to cover the full costs, or an acceptable percentage of costs, of maintaining fields for use by
the Associations. Survey information could also be utilized.
The Community Services Department and the School District representatives should discuss as part of
the quarterly joint use committee meetings to identify additional opportunities to resolve utilization and
scheduling issues in an attempt to limit the number of schedule changes that occur following approval
of a schedule. Additional staff meetings should also be held.
The project team recommends that a Business Manager position be created.
While a survey should be conducted to confirm this, the project team's estimate of the cost
impact of this recommendation is that the cost of this would be approximately $60,000 per year
in salary and fringe benefits.
The Community Services Department should be authorized an additional administrative position to
enable it to accomplish the additional management responsibilities outlined in this report.
The cost of this position is estimated to be $51,300 per year in salary and fringe benefits.
2. Recommendations - Parks
The City should immediately transition the mowing crew in Public Works to the Community Services
Department.
In order to increase parks maintenance service levels, the City should plan for hiring additional
maintenance personnel. The City should target a "B" level of parks maintenance. The City should take
a phased approach to this change in order to evaluate the effectiveness of staffing increases and
mitigate the impact of increased personnel costs.
The estimated cost increase associated with salaries and benefits is estimated to be $332,526.
An increase to an "A" level would approximately double this cost to $649,000.
The City should continually evaluate the potential cost and service effectiveness of contracting out
additional parks maintenance services. An RFP process which asks for specific cost estimates on
various maintenance functions.
The Department should develop a more comprehensive and detailed inventory of parks and facilities.
The City should adopt service level, including quality, standards for the maintenance of the City's park,
landscape, open space, and urban forests stem.
The Department needs to develop an annual work program.
The Department should develop a weekly or bi-weekly scheduling system.
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CITY OF SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS
Management Audit of the Community Services Department
An inventory of work activities performed by the maintenance division needs to be verified and
completed.
Performance standards need to be developed for parks maintenance activities.
A monthly performance report should be generated comparing planned versus actual performance and
costs.
Park, landscape and open space condition assessments should be conducted every six months with
actions taken backed u b a work orders stem.
Once the Community Services Department implements a maintenance management system and
arrives at estimates for performing maintenance activities, the costs of providing service in house
should be evaluated against the current cost of maintenance contracts.
The City should ensure that maintenance contracts are re-bid every three to four years to ensure
competitive pricing and to realize the full benefits of contracting for service.
The Department should implement a vehicle and equipment maintenance system as part of an overall
maintenance management system.
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