Council pushing for more parks maintenance funds

City Council members Paige Ellis and Alison Alter are pushing for amendments to add staff to the Parks and Recreation Department for ongoing maintenance needs. Each of them have a number of other recommendations for budget amendments. Ellis wrote on her City Council Message Board post that she would like to add “$1.5M for 16 new Grounds & Maintenance Full Time Positions with a plan to add a comparable number in future Fiscal Years until level of service deficit is closed. I’d also like to request the one-time funding of $740k for Grounds Maintenance Capital Equipment. This one-time line item would likely not need to come from the General Fund. This proposal has broad community support.” Council members Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, Chito Vela, Zo Qadri and Ryan Alter also expressed the need for increased parks maintenance. This is not the first inkling that parks maintenance staff needs to be increased.