Lawrence staff weighs membership fees to avoid deeper parks and recreation cuts

City of Lawrence Parks, Recreation and Culture leaders told the City Commission on July 15 that membership and spectator fees could reduce planned cuts to services if the commission directs staff to proceed, but they would not fully eliminate the department’s $1.8 million reduction target.

The report, delivered by Luis Ruiz, director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, said the department’s general-fund budget is “approximately $18,000,000” and that the city charged the department with finding a 10% reduction — about $1,800,000 — during this budget cycle. Ruiz presented two scenarios: one that relies largely on reductions and modest program fee increases and a second that pairs reductions with new membership and spectator fees.

The two scenarios differ in scale of service impacts and revenue estimates. Without new membership fees, staff projects roughly $1.4 million in departmental expenditure reductions and about $370,000 in additional revenue from modest program fee increases such as a $1 increase to aquatic admissions. With membership and spectator fees, staff estimated the additional revenues could be in the range of $500,000 to $750,000, which would reduce but not eliminate cuts and would leave fewer positions eliminated and smaller reductions in parks maintenance and recreation center hours.

Ruiz emphasized the purpose of the proposal in plain terms: “The purpose of…