January 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 39

Responsibilities
and Governance

T

raditionally, parks and recreation agencies have been defined by their dual
roles of managing parks and running recreational facilities and programs.
While department profiles indicate that those continue to be the two most
common roles for park agencies, responses also reflected a wide range
of typical duties, including caring for and conserving open spaces, managing
major sports or aquatic complexes, assisting in historic preservation, and
overseeing community gardens (Figure 3). Not shown in this graph were duties
such as managing large indoor or outdoor entertainment venues (35.4 percent),
administering farmer's markets (19.3 percent), and maintaining public cemeteries
(26.6 percent).
For any agency conducting a benchmark
analysis, it is helpful to compare data with agencies structured and governed similarly. In other
circumstances, boards, commissions and even
elected officials may be seeking ways to increase
productivity of board meetings, procedures, or
decision-making. The table below shows how
responding agencies are using each type of governance structure:
Governing/Trustee/Policy Board
For what is the governing board responsible?
Approves policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.1%
Approves staff hires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.0%
Approves budgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.8%
Sets tax rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.5%
Trustees of fees and charges revenue. . . . . . . . 51.3%
Capital budgets and projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84.2%
Interacting with the public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.9%
Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3%
Advisory Board
For what is the advisory board responsible?
Reviews budgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.3%
Reviews policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.8%
Reviews staff hires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4%
Reviews fees and charges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.5%
Reviews capital projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78.4%
Interacting with the public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.0%
Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6%

FIGURE 3

Percentage of Responding Agencies that. . .
Operate parks and
facilities

97.1%

Provide recreation
programming and services

96.4%

Actively manage open
space

82.4%

Conduct major jurisdiction
wide events

80.1%

Administer or manage
tournament/event quality
outdoor sports complexes

57.9

Manage major aquatic
complex

55.5%

Maintain jurisdiction
public areas
Manage historic properties
Administer community
gardens
Maintain street trees and
medians

49.5%
44.2%
39.3%
37.6%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

2012 Parks and Recreation Special Report 	5
January 2012 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2012 - Parks & Recreation
