Mesa parks officials outline fee updates, pool heating charge shift and $1.5 million replacement contract

Mesa Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Director Andrea Moore told the City Council during a study session that staff are proposing a set of updates to the department’s fees and charges and presented a separate procurement request for replacement parts and minor repairs.

Moore said the changes reflect comparisons with similar cities, rising staff costs and the department’s schedule to implement fees ahead of summer registration. "We are on a different cycle than the city's other fees and charges review because we implement our charges as of April 1 in advance of our summer registration for our camp programs and aquatics," Moore said.

The most notable fiscal changes Moore identified are an aquatics pool heating fee and increased field supervision fees. Moore described the aquatics charge as "a dollar 50 per lane per hour, and only during seasons when we have to turn the pool heat on." She estimated the pool-heat assessment will generate about $50,000 in revenue for the city, and said the fee is not new to user groups: it was previously charged to those organizations by Mesa Public Schools and is being shifted to the city now that the city manages the utility accounts for pools under a new intergovernmental agreement.

Moore said groups that rent pools are expected to "not see a change" in overall billing because the city’s lane‑hour charge should correspond to prior season charges the schools applied: "They're used to paying it," she said. Council members pressed for clarification about how the schools charged (Moore said schools had charged by participant or by season, sometimes cited as $25 per person during cooler months) and whether the lane‑hour approach would raise costs for youth groups. Moore said the department expects no fiscal shock to typical youth users.

On sports fields, Moore said increased staffing costs are driving a revision to field supervision fees; supervisors are present when sports complexes are open for rentals. Moore explained that for complex sites the department staffs a site supervisor and clarified that for single ball fields the standard practice is one supervisor per field. Council members asked whether that supervisor rule applies to soccer/multiuse complexes; Moore said staffing is assigned per complex for multiuse fields and per field for ball fields.

Moore also described changes for the city-managed venues called the Post and the convention center: the department will add a fee for the neon garden (anticipating an opening) and expand amphitheater fee ranges to accommodate nonticketed rentals. She confirmed the Post’s heavily discounted internal city rate remains available for city-sponsored events, while private rentals that received promotional pricing in the first year will move toward the full private rental rates. Moore gave the example rates used in the presentation: $250 per hour for the main room during regular business hours, an evening/weekend overtime rate described in the presentation at about $350 per hour, and an internal city rate of $25 per hour for city-sponsored events.

On room rentals and program fees more broadly, Moore said many line‑item changes are clarifications and wording updates; some small packages (for example a previously listed “birthday party package”) have been removed because customers prefer to rent rooms and provide their own supplies. She said most recreation center room rental increases are modest and intended to improve cost recovery.

Procurement: Moore and staff also described a cooperative contract to purchase playground and park replacement parts and components. The contract is a cooperative agreement through Mohave (cooperative contracting) and the value discussed in the presentation was $1,500,000. Moore said the contract is intended for replacement components — for example a slide panel, climbing wall piece or other replacement parts — and is not a construction contract to build a new park. "At $1,500,000, that's not enough to construct a park," Moore said.

Council members asked how often the department makes exceptions or discounts for city departments or nonprofit partners; Moore said discounts remain for events the city directly sponsors (for example downtown activations and city-produced events) and those will continue at reduced rates. Several council members emphasized the Post’s role in activating downtown and asked staff to continue monitoring usage and market rates as the venue matures. Moore said the Post has hosted dozens of events since opening and that the majority were city functions.

No formal action was taken during the study‑session presentation; council members asked questions and advised staff to continue refining the proposals and to bring formal ordinances or updates forward through the appropriate consent or action items on a future council agenda.

Ending: Staff said they will provide more detailed comparisons of market rates when the fee ordinance is advanced to an action item and will return with recommended motions for any fee schedule amendments or contract authorization required for the cooperative purchase contract.