Rec & Park outlines new data systems, flags need for hundreds of staff to meet maintenance standards

Giambi Gumbiatti, general manager of the Recreation and Park Commission, told the Budget & Finance Committee the department has reworked performance measures and is rolling out new data systems to support program delivery and capital tracking. The department said it will use a recreation-management system (CLASS), a total-managed-asset work order system (TMA), and a capital-tracking tool (Impact) to produce more accurate data for programming, maintenance and capital project outcomes.

Gumbiatti said those systems will allow staff to track program registrations, retention, volunteer placement and the performance of capital projects (on time, on budget, completed). He said the department has cataloged park functional areas so it can calculate staffing needs at a park-by-park level and then aggregate those needs citywide.

Using those calculations, the department reported it needs an additional 227 gardeners and 37 custodians to meet Prop C maintenance standards across the park system. Gumbiatti acknowledged that number is large and the department does not expect to hire that many staff in a single budget cycle; instead, he proposed pilot projects that staff selected parks to the calculated FTE levels and track outcomes early in the next year to validate the calculations before broader hiring recommendations.

Supervisors asked for district-level breakdowns and suggested posting facility-level staffing and volunteer-hour data so constituents can see gaps and advocate for resources. The department agreed to provide summaries by supervisor district and to work with the Controller's Office on measurement refinements.

Next steps: Rec & Park will return with district- and park-level FTE summaries, run pilot staffing at sample parks to validate the model, and continue working with the Controller's Office on measurement definitions.