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Supervisors hear appeals to restore recreation‑director hires as budget office defends holdbacks
Summary
Supervisors heard pleas from rec staff, parents and unions to reinstate hiring of vacant recreation‑director positions after Mayor's office canceled older requisitions amid a roughly $229 million city deficit. Budget staff said the department lacks a hiring list and is preparing a staffing allocation plan; the committee forwarded the resolution with recommendation.
Supervisor Tom Ammiano opened the discussion on a resolution urging the mayor to reinstate hiring for vacant recreation‑director positions, saying he was "very concerned about the short staffing of our rec centers essential to running the rec and parks." He framed the issue as both a neighborhood and violence‑prevention priority.
Denny Kern of the Recreation and Parks Department told the committee that the FY 2007–08 authorized complement included roughly 196 budgeted recreation‑director and assistant director positions and that an 11 percent attrition holdback left about 174 fundable field FTEs in the current year. He confirmed that the mayor's executive order canceled requisitions open prior to 07/01/2007, which resulted in eight rec‑director requisitions being canceled.
Budget Analyst Deborah Newman agreed with the department's figures and said the department is phasing out the assistant rec‑director classification. Newman added that there is "no current list to hire off of," so even if requisitions were available it could take about three months to have someone on the payroll permanently.
Mayor's Budget Director Nani Kala Reddy told supervisors the executive order was a spending‑slowdown tool in the face of a roughly $229,000,000 shortfall and instructed departments not to fill nonessential requisitions. She said the mayor's office relied on departments to manage operations and that the decision was part of a larger set of spending‑slowdown options across city government.
The committee then heard nearly three hours of public testimony from rec‑center staff, parents, neighborhood leaders and union representatives. Speakers gave local examples—Helen Wills Playground, Eureka Valley and Hayes Valley rec centers—and described programs for kids, seniors and special‑needs residents that they said rely on long‑term rec‑director staff. SEIU 1021 and rec directors urged the Board to classify rec directors as essential personnel and restore hiring.
Supervisor Peskin urged collaboration between the Board and the mayor's office to find budget tradeoffs; in that spirit the committee moved the resolution to the full Board with a recommendation. The record shows continued work between the Board and the mayor's office to identify options for restoring at least the requisitions that had been canceled.
The committee did not adopt a final budget amendment at the hearing; the matter will proceed to the full Board.
