Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Parks And Recreation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Syracuse parks officials seek ordinance increases, software subscription and summer hiring waivers
Summary
Commissioner of Parks Saisha Byrd proposed ordinance amendments to raise spending caps for parks and pool repairs, asked for an extension of a procurement waiver, requested a TreePlotter subscription and two residency waivers to hire summer staff and lifeguards.
Saisha Byrd, Commissioner of Parks, told the Syracuse City Council at a study session that the Parks and Recreation Department will ask the council to amend several ordinances to increase spending limits and to approve temporary hiring waivers for summer programming.
Byrd said Item 9 would amend an existing ordinance to raise an unspecified line item from "not to exceed $75,000" to "not to exceed $100,000" to cover additional costs for parks upkeep and canine-related equipment and care. Item 10 would raise a separate emergency pool repair authorization from $60,000 to $160,000 "to cover additional costs for... emergency pool repairs," she said, adding that pools have required monthly repairs in recent months.
Byrd described Item 11 as an extension of a procurement waiver for a vendor the department has used previously; the waiver will be rebid in the next budget cycle and is intended to bridge service needs through June 30 or July 1. She said the extension is meant to keep services in place until the new procurement is completed.
Item 11 also included a request to subscribe to TreePlotter, a tree-mapping software used by the forestry division to identify urban heat islands and prioritize tree planting. Byrd said TreePlotter helped identify First Ward Cemetery as one of the city’s hotter areas and that staff have used the tool to target canopy plantings.
Items 12 and 13 were requests for residency waivers allowing the department to hire summer instructors and lifeguards who do not live in the city. Byrd said the waivers were first adopted previously because the city could not recruit enough qualified applicants from within Syracuse to maintain programming and pool operations. She told the council she would provide data on the percentage of city residents hired in prior seasons when asked by Councilor Line.
Councilors asked for follow-up details: Line asked Byrd to provide numbers about the share of hires who were city residents; Byrd said she would provide that data. Several councilors expressed support for using TreePlotter data to target plantings in neighborhoods with low canopy cover.
No formal votes were recorded in the study-session discussion on these items during the portion captured in the transcript. Byrd said the waiver will be rebid and the department will return with procurement steps during the next budget season.
