Audit finds unpaid fees, lax rental practices at six PARD rec centers

The Office of the City Auditor has found widespread issues within the Austin Parks and Recreation Department related to inconsistent fee charges and collections for facility rentals at some community recreation centers.

An audit report released Tuesday revealed that from January to July 2023, staff at six recreation centers — Austin Recreation Center, Dittmar Recreation Center, Gustavo “Gus” L. Garcia Recreation Center, Montopolis Recreation and Community Center, Northwest Recreation Center and South Austin Recreation Center — often undercharged customers or failed to collect deposits as required by city policies. In many cases, customers were allowed to rent facilities without paying on time or at all.

The report is not on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee.

The audit reviewed 215 rentals during the first half of 2023 across six of the 20 recreation facilities managed by PARD. It found that nearly 95 percent of the rentals did not include a required deposit based on information entered into the RecTrac system used to manage bookings.

Data in the report illustrated the severity of mismanagement, with Austin Rec Center recording no deposits collected on the 161 bookings that occurred during the six months examined.

Additionally, staff often charged incorrect fees, including in one case where a $200 deposit was charged instead of the correct $400 alcohol deposit. This resulted in an estimated undercharge of $3,799 over the six-month period.

The inconsistencies stemmed from different interpretations of rental policies among PARD staff. While the city’s rental guidelines mandate a $55 per hour staff and utilities fee for all rentals, some employees applied this charge only to after-hours events, causing further confusion about what customers should be paying.

The report also highlighted a significant issue with overdue rental fees, with a total of $24,867 in unpaid balances. One recurring customer alone accounted for nearly $23,600 of this total, having booked 105 rentals at Austin Recreation Center without making the required payments. Some of these fees dated back to 2022.

PARD’s management of rec center usage for events came under scrutiny last month when a separate audit report found the manager of Montopolis Recreation Center used the facility for a birthday without making a reservation or paying the required fees. Upon learning of an investigation into the booking, the employee entered a back-dated reservation into RecTrac and made a partial payment of the $420 that would have been required.

Audit staff collected feedback from PARD staff at the facilities that expressed frustration with using the RecTrac software, with some stating they hadn’t received followup training since their initial introduction to the system prior to 2020.

PARD has acknowledged the findings of the report and is taking steps to address the issues. This includes updating the RecTrac software used for managing rental transactions and providing mandatory training for staff to ensure proper procedures are followed. The department is also revising its rental guidelines to ensure fees are applied consistently and reviewing its cash-handling procedures, after concerns were raised about the lack of separation of duties in collecting and depositing payments.

Interim PARD Director Angela Means stated in a memo that the department will continue to monitor its rental processes to ensure accurate fee collections and prevent further discrepancies.

Means also said the RecTrac software has been updated with the appropriate fee requirements, and staff participated in two training sessions in late 2023 and early this year covering proper rental procedures and use of the software.

Her memo noted that all information packets regarding rentals have been updated with correct information, with program supervisors instructed to verify the accuracy of rental fee codes.

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