Alejandro Valverde
                             

"Dallas City Budget Cuts, Demand More Choice"

Dallas City Manager Ted Benavides and Dallas Park & Recreation Dept Director Paul Dyer submitted their proposed budget cuts to Mayor Laura Miller and the Dallas City Council last week. Their proposed budget cuts are clearly ill conceived. On the surface, their plan is simply an attempt to railroad the citizens of Dallas to adopt tax increase. Cutting direct citizen service delivery positions without addressing cuts to administrative staffing levels is very short sighted.

As a resident & taxpayer of the City of Dallas, I would like to share the following budget proposal that is not currently considered at this time. Currently, part of the budget cut proposal for the Dallas Park & Recreation Department includes reducing recreation center operating hours at a cost savings of $371,804. Unfortunately, this will call for layoffs of approximately 69 Recreation Assistant B full-time & part-time employees. The impact of these layoffs will call for a dramatic reduction of citywide recreation center operating hours.

Historically, the Recreation Assistant B position represents the front-line citizen service delivery representative of this organization. They offer staffing for after school programs, citywide youth soccer initiatives, cover weekend/special event staffing assignments and coverage for revenue generating (quinceañeras, baby showers, family reunions, etc.) private reservations.

Therefore, I offer a different approach that may save the citizens of the City of Dallas over a half a million dollars. Equally, I urge Mayor Miller and all her colleagues on the city council to demand for more choice in budget cut proposals from City Manager Ted Benavides and his department directors.

As an example, there are currently 6 districts within the Dallas Park & Recreation Dept. Each district is managed by a District Manager who oversees assigned recreation centers and maintenance service yards. I propose cutting down to 4 districts thereby calling for layoffs of 2 District Manager positions at an estimated cost saving of approximately $110,000. Additionally, I propose expanding on the current concept of grouping management of recreation centers. By grouping management of an additional 16 recreation centers under a total of 8 Community Program Managers approximately $400,000 would be reduced from the budget. The overall effect of these proposed cuts would be a savings of over $500,000 from the operating budget of the Dallas Park & Recreation Dept without reducing a single operating hour from any recreation center in our city.

The concept of grouping management of recreation centers is not new. There are many recreation centers within the Dallas Park & Recreation Department that already operate under this concept. On a smaller scale, I recommend an immediate audit of all city departments to identify a long-standing practice of ordering bottled water that is strictly consumed by city personnel. Even a cost saving of 1 full-time or 1 part-time city position would be well advised. Why should taxpayers drink tap water from a water fountain when city employees drink bottled water provided by citizen generated tax revenue?

Mayor Laura Miller and council representatives have made it known they seek ideas from the citizens on how to address this very important issue. My proposal reduces the budget by over $500,000 without reducing one operating hour from any recreation center in Dallas and targets a total of 10 employees who are not front-line citizen service delivery staff. The current budget proposal of the Dallas Park & Recreation Department includes a plan to cut approximately 69 front-line citizen service delivery employees at a cost savings of $371,841 and vastly reduces recreation center operating hours on a citywide scale. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out which proposal better serves our city.

Who drafts these budget cutting proposals which are sent to the Mayor and council representatives? Do you really think they would draw themselves into the mix to be cut? Or do you think they would first offer the little guys and little gals within their department for budget cuts knowing the public will not take too kindly to the negative (reduced operating recreation center hours) effect resulting from cutting these employees?

I urge Mayor Miller and all members of the Dallas City Council to demand for more choice presented to them by City Manager Ted Benavidez. We elected Mayor Miller and our council members to make the right choice as they seek to address the budget woes of the City of Dallas. At this time, I only see the little guys and little gals of the city who are being offered up as sacrificial lambs.

Respectfully,

Harry O. Trujillo
Dallas, Texas 75211-5206