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Park staff say system is understaffed by roughly 100 FTEs; current maintenance scores equate to about a D+ under present resources
Summary
Deputy Director Avi O'Tom and parks staff told the council that maintenance staffing is roughly 20% below 2002 levels even as acreage and trails expanded, that parks condition assessment (PCA) reporting implies parks are being maintained below desired standards, and that staff use targeted assessments and equity tools to focus resources.
At the study session, Avi O'Tom, deputy director of parks, and Tori O’Reilly, division manager for park maintenance, provided a detailed account of how the department carries out day-to-day maintenance and how current staffing and standards compare to need.
O’Tom described staffing models by park district and specialized teams. "Most parks in the city ... are maintained by crews of 2 to 4 maintenance staff members who are responsible for about 6 to 8 parks and visit each of them 2 to 3 times a week," he said. He explained that although the Park Condition Assessment (PCA) showed roughly an 87% achievement rate against the department’s 80%-performance standards, the effective condition when multiplied out is far lower: "If you do 87% of about 80%, you end up with a number a little bit short of 70%... in a way, we're basically saying our parks are at about a D plus level of condition with our current maintenance efforts."
O’Tom said a detailed task- and acreage-based analysis produced by staff analyst Lisa Diebold shows the department is approximately 100 full‑time equivalents short in field positions to achieve a higher service level (twice-weekly full-service maintenance for most parks and three times weekly for larger parks). He added that staff currently spend more time addressing trash and litter than they would if the additional staffing were available, and that the time trade-off reduces landscaping, turf work, tree trimming and other longer-cycle maintenance tasks.
Staff described mitigation efforts: outsourcing pocket-park and custodial contracts, coordinating about 28,000 volunteer hours annually, managing 18,000 hours from sentencing-alternative programs, and working with partners such as the Conservation Corps and local foundations. O’Tom and Cicero emphasized that specialized parks (Emma Prusch, Happy Hollow, Lake Cunningham) receive dedicated staffing and sometimes dedicated revenue streams (for example a gas-station lease at Emma Prusch) that support higher maintenance levels than typical neighborhood parks.
Councilmembers asked about procurement timelines and ways to speed repairs; staff said procurement and supply-chain lead times are a constraint and that limited administrative capacity slows contract processing. Staff recommended building a master plan that would also identify where dedicated maintenance teams or funding could sustain high-use or marquee parks.
