Parks & Recreation and Free Library outline FY27 priorities as council presses on trees, pools and rebuilds

Commissioner Susan Slawson and Free Library President Kelly Richards presented their departments’ FY27 budget priorities to Philadelphia’s Council Appropriations Committee, answering detailed questions about staffing, deferred maintenance and service delivery across rec centers and branches.

Parks & Recreation asked for a general fund obligation of $89,318,447 for FY27 (a decrease of $518,345 from FY26 estimated obligations) and framed the budget around hiring and retention, summer service delivery and environmental programs. Slawson emphasized citywide meal and youth‑work plans—PPR expects to provide more than 800,000 meals and approximately 1,100 career‑connected learning jobs next summer—and said all 63 operational outdoor pools will be supported as part of a 70‑pool inventory. The department outlined safety steps including a summer rangers program and joint planning with the Philadelphia Police Department.

Urban forestry and a large street‑tree backlog drew sustained scrutiny. City forester Erica Smith said the pruning backlog is roughly 25,000 trees (an estimated $5 million to complete) and the removal backlog about 3,500 trees (roughly $3 million). She told council the city currently spends about $1 million annually on street tree work and that eliminating the backlog would require multi‑year funding and ramping contractor and staffing capacity; PPR plans to hire additional inspectors and move from a reactive to a proactive inspection model.

Council members also pressed PPR about pool readiness and lifeguard recruitment. PPR said it has incentives to recruit lifeguards (including sign‑up bonuses tied to early registration and free certification training) and will continue an aggressive hiring and outreach campaign; the department said 63 pools are expected to open this summer while seven will remain offline due to rebuild or maintenance work.

Security infrastructure and maintenance was another thread. PPR reported 178 sites with approximately 2,357 cameras installed and acknowledged ongoing maintenance and replacement costs; council members asked for lists of sites still needing design and install and for district‑level camera inventories. PPR said technology advances are enabling cameras at park sites without buildings by using standalone recording boxes.

On the library side, Free Library President Kelly Richards described systemwide priorities: expanded Saturday hours systemwide and planned Sunday hours at select branches, investments in workforce capacity and $33 million in the mayor’s capital plan to replace HVAC systems across the system to reduce closures and improve year‑round access. Library staff said building condition assessments have been completed for 10 branches so far and that the full portfolio will be phased; they cautioned that full remediation of the highest‑need branches will require tens of millions in additional capital and that assessments can become dated without timely capital followup.

Several council members pressed for lists and timelines: a roster of which libraries have condition assessments and which branches have imminent health‑and‑safety risks, a district‑level list of rec centers with cameras, and further detail on pool‑furniture and shade equipment disparities between sites. PPR and the library agreed to provide followup materials to the council president’s office, including lists of camera locations, pools offline this summer, and branch assessment reports.

Commissioners also confirmed a major rebuild for Carousel House—an adaptive recreation center long closed for structural issues—has secured roughly $40 million in construction value funding and that the project is in final design with bidding expected soon; PPR estimated 18–24 months of construction once work begins and said interim programming for affected users has been routed to accessible sites.

Committee members and department leaders agreed to continued followup as the budget process proceeds; no formal appropriations votes were taken during the hearing.