Community Center Operations Analysis

Yesler Community Center

New 2012 hours for community centers, teen life centers and Late Night programs

• Community Center Hours 2012
• Teen Life Centers and Late Night Sites Hours 2012

Letters to Geographically Based Community Center Groups

• Southwest
• Central
• Northeast
• Northwest
• Southeast

Packet of information for presentation at the Parks and Seattle Center Committee meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, September 22

• Community Centers information packet

Packet of information for presentation at the Parks and Seattle Center Committee meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, September 15

• Community Centers information packet

Joint Mayor McGinn/Councilmember Bagshaw Proposal for the Operation of Community Centers

• Brief description of the proposal
• Frequently Asked Questons
• Map showing proposed community center service areas and service levels
• Chart showing proposed service areas, service levels, and professional staffing
• How proposed service level points were assigned
• City Council timeline for consideration of the proposal

Documents Presented to the City Council

• Official response to the Council Statement of Legislative Intent, July 12, 2011
• City Council Staff Report, August 4, 2011
• Parks and Recreation summary of current (2011) community center services, August 4, 2011
• General information about facilities (age, square feet, location, class registrations, child care registrations, budget)
• Matrix showing options for the City Council, as presented in response to the Statement of Legislative Intent, August 18, 2011

Public Process

• Summary of the public process
• Comparisons with other cities
• Survey results

Response to Community Center Statement of Legislative Intent

In early July, Parks and Recreation submitted a response to the City Council’s Statement of Legislative Intent.  Below is the response: 

• Response
• Attachment C
• Attachment D

Options Review

Over the past five months, ideas for changing how community centers are run have been developed with the help of the Community Center Advisory Team (see below).  Now it is time for the broader community to weigh in on the options that have been suggested.  Information on each of the options are listed below:

1. Geographic Management
2. Tiered
3. Tiered with 2-3 Closed
4. Close
5. Increase PAR Fee
6. Resident Discount
7. Volunteers
8. Reprogramming Underused Spaces
9. Long-Term Lease

We are asking the public to rate the options by filling out a brief online survey.  Responses to the survey will be tallied and sent to the Mayor and City Council to help inform future decisions regarding community center operations.

The survey deadline is July 8.  If you wish to mail in the survey, please send it to: Susan Golub at 100 Dexter Avenue N  Seattle 98109; or via e-mail to Susan.Golub@seattle.gov.

Public Meeting Questions

Two public meetings were held to review the nine options. At both of the meetings, time ran out before all questions from the public could be answered. Here is a link to the unanswered questions with staff responses.

Background

As part of Seattle Parks and Recreation’s need to reduce General Fund support by $10 million in the 2011 Budget, the Department converted 5 community centers to "limited use" sites. This involved a significant drop in public operating hours for these community centers and reduction or displacement of programming.  However, these changes saved about $1.3 million.

In part as a response to these changes, City Council passed a statement of legislative intent (SLI), the Community Center Partnership and Planning Analysis SLI , that directed the department to conduct research and analysis on:

1. Increased partnerships for the management and operations of the City's community centers
2. Increased partnerships for planning and fundraising for the City's community centers
3. Alternate management, operational and staffing models for the City's community centers

The department anticipates that the research and analysis will result in identification of a range of options for changes in how recreational services are provided through our community centers along with a discussion of the pros and cons of each option.

Community Center Advisory Team (CCAT)

To advise the department in evaluating community center operations, the Community Center Advisory Team (CCAT) was formed.  Here are links to the CCAT membership list , meeting schedule and June 2, 2011 meeting agenda .

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