Officials say Parks & Recreation spending includes one‑time items; department seeks hires to fill vacancies

Councilmembers questioned an apparent 8% reduction in the Parks & Recreation budget and asked why staffing remained flat despite high demand for programming and maintenance at heavily used parks.

Councilmember Gauthier asked officials to explain an approximately $7.3 million reduction in the Parks budget and why staffing levels appeared flat while parks such as Malcolm X Park and Clark Park need more on‑site support. City budget staff said the FY25 estimate included one‑time items such as site prep associated with the Lemon Hill project (about $5 million) and youth sports funding that were not recurring; removing those one‑time items would make the baseline more comparable year‑to‑year.

Sue Slauson, Commissioner for Parks and Recreation, told council the city’s parks system is large and expensive to maintain — Philadelphia has more pools and rec facilities per capita than most large cities — and that the department’s funding was not cut but that the FY26 difference reflected nonrecurring FY25 items. On staffing, Slauson said the challenge is hiring rather than securing operating funds: the department has recruitment campaigns, a full‑time recruiter for Parks and Rec, public hiring events and advertising to fill vacancies. “The funding is there. We need the people,” she said.

Councilmember Gauthier requested a line‑item list of the one‑time FY25 expenditures that drove the apparent reduction. Budget staff agreed to provide a list and said Parks and Recreation would supply details on vacancy fill plans and hiring events.

Ending: The administration pledged to provide a detailed list of FY25 one‑time items that made FY26 look smaller and to work with council offices on recruitment assistance to fill Parks & Recreation vacancies so programming and maintenance can scale to meet neighborhood needs.