The staff at the Park People office received a number of calls last Thursday morning from concerned citizens who apparently choked on their Cheerios while reading
Charlie Sykes’ column “Parks Proposal Benefits Everyone” in their MyCommunityNOW newspaper. It seems that County Executive Scott Walker has finally found a voice in the wilderness to assist in his rationalization of the accelerated destruction of the Milwaukee County Park System. On the surface, Sykes’ regurgitation of Walker’s attribution of clear thinking sounds plausible, but when looked at in the context of its effect on the park system it is exposed for what it is – irresponsible.
Sykes’ attempt to lend credence to the swap of competent full-time employees for more seasonal employee hours may sound rational to his general audience but doesn’t pass muster when confronted with reality. While seasonal employees are a valued and important part of the staff of the Parks Department, this proposed switch to an even greater dependence on these “here today, gone tomorrow” employees will lead to a further decline in our once vibrant park system for the following reasons:
- Seasonal employees require copious hours of training before they are effective. In fact, nearly all of their training is currently conducted by a full-time Park Maintenance Worker, the same position that is proposed to be cut. The responsibility for competent training will fall to a greatly reduced force of full-time employees who will be asked to train an even higher number of these transitional employees. This is a recipe for further dysfunction.
- These temporary staffers require much more supervision than dedicated full-time staffers. In keeping with the continual reduction in field staff, the supervisory ranks are at an all-time low and struggle to keep a watchful eye on their charges while keeping up with their myriad other duties. A good work force is one that has a stake in providing a quality product while keeping on task. With an even greater dependence on a transitional workforce that has no real stake in the operation, creating that “buy-in” is a harder sell and keeping them on task over the long term is a wish.
- Because of low wages and lack of benefits a high percent of seasonal employees are college and high school students who are not available during the school year. This is especially problematic during the early- to late-fall period when park personnel have the task of mending the hundreds of athletic fields that were tortured during the main sporting season. Local sports enthusiasts have already taken note that their “fields of dreams” have turned into nightmares over the last number of years due to lack of maintenance. This bad dream will only be exacerbated by this further reduction of available, competent full-time staffers.
The list could go on, but with some consideration for brevity, it should be noted that this trend towards a seasonal work force is nothing new. In the mid-‘70s there were more than 1,100 full-time employees staffing our parks. In the mid-‘80s the number had dropped to a still reasonable 760. This year, the number of full-time staffers is about 260 able bodies.
The Parks Department deserves to be complimented for developing the efficiencies necessary to keep our parks in fairly decent shape during this decline. For many, it may appear that there is nothing wrong with this proud department, but those with a good memory can point to a number of unfortunate consequences that have resulted from this loss of full-time staff due to budget reductions.
Winter recreational opportunities have dwindled. The parks now offer only one groomed cross-country ski trail where once it offered four. Ice skating rinks have been reduced from more than 60 to a bare handful. Both of these reductions are because of staffing cuts.
Summer picnics have suffered because of a gross lack of maintenance to the parks’ fleet of picnic tables, which number in the thousands. These tables were constructed and maintained by full-time staffers during the winter months. While some new steel-leg replacements were built a few years back, the bulk of this fleet are the older wooden-leg models that were built as long as 25 years ago and are in dire need of some loving care. They will not get it because of the reduction of full-time staff.
Building maintenance has suffered. Winter maintenance has suffered. Many park paths do not get plowed or salted anymore.
You get the picture….
The bottom line is that if you truly value a quality park system and believe that the spiral of reductions to our once-envied Milwaukee County Parks Department should stop, here and now, don’t listen to the weak rationalizations of Charlie Sykes. After all, he is merely toting water for his own personal county executive, Scott Walker.
