Parks director: Denver manages roughly 600 park contracts; department weighing community benefit, capacity and charter limits

Joel Clark, executive director of Denver Parks & Recreation, told the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee on Wednesday that the department manages around 600 contracts covering leases, concessions, professional services and park uses.

Clark said Parks follows city procurement rules and internal processes — including Executive Order 8 thresholds, DSPO requirements and charter provisions that affect allowable park uses — when deciding whether to renew contracts, put services out to an RFP or provide them in‑house. "We start with kind of the alignment: how does what we're doing align with our game plan for Healthy City," he said.

The department uses a decision matrix that weighs community benefit, operational and programmatic needs, internal expertise and capacity. Some contracts are short (about 30 days) while others can be multi‑decade arrangements; Clark noted a wide variation in durations, including long‑standing agreements put in place decades ago.

Clark gave several concrete examples. For nonprofit occupancy of park buildings he described a tiered approach: Parks first asks whether internal staff could use the space; next it assesses whether programming would directly enhance the park user experience; and then it considers nonprofit partners with aligned missions. Clark cited the Park People’s long‑running use of Fleming Mansion as an example and said the department evaluates whether continued occupancy still best serves the park.

For services that require specialized operations, Parks uses for‑profit concession agreements. Clark pointed to recent action on a concession at Evergreen Golf Course and said upcoming RFPs will include sites such as Skyline Park. He said the department also distinguishes permits from contracts — for example, many pool programs and temporary vendors operate under seasonal permits rather than multi‑year contracts.

On recreation programming, Clark told the committee the department has added nearly 150 new swim‑lesson spots this season by adjusting permited time and the schedule. He said Parks is designing a new fee structure to improve cost recovery when full facilities are rented so that core programs remain accessible to My Denver card holders; any fee change would require city council approval.

Committee members repeatedly asked for more detail on specific leases, including the length of the Levitt Pavilion lease and terms for partner organizations. Clark said he did not have every lease detail in hand and offered to provide a schedule of lease terms, cost‑benefit information and outreach plans for items that will come before the committee.

Clark also acknowledged shortcomings in communication, telling the panel, "we probably have missed the mark" on notifying some nonprofits and communities when contracts expired or operators changed; he said some contracts being decades old contributed to the gap in expectations.

The committee requested follow‑up materials and Clark said staff would supply the lease schedules, RFP histories and the outreach documentation for affected operators when those items are docketed for committee review.