HomeMy Public PortalAbout2001.01.16 PRAC MinutesRECREATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES- January 16, 2001
I.ROLL CALL AND CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. Committee members, Scotty Davenport, Bill
Murphy, Neil Thompson, Mike Lenzi, Kris Sal Dana, Terry Lewis, Todd Sholty, Dave Faurot
was not present. Director declared a quorum. Also present were Director Peckham and City
Manager Robert Strope.
II.NEW BUSINESS
Strope gave a history of the recreation fees and a handout on a fee structures for the committee.
Director Peckham discussed scholarships and a handout on topics for discussion. Committee
members decided to wait until the next meeting to vote on chairperson and vice -chairperson.
Lewis and the committee agreed that top priority was fee structures, fee waivers and out of city
surcharge. Lenzi asked Director Peckham for copies of the budget, rec. cardholders and current
fees.
IV. NEXT MEETING
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 23`d, 6:OOpm at the Library.
V.ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:20pm.
Respect fi}lly submitted,
f
Bob Peckham
Acting Chairperson/Rec. Director
City of McCall
Date: January 16, 2001
To: Recreation Committee
Cc: Bob Peckham
From: Robert ope, City Manager
RE: Fee Structure
Welcome to the Recreation Committee and thank you for taking your time to help us improve our
recreation department. Last fall the City Council approved the formation of the Recreation
Committee as a separate entity in part to address the unique recreational aspects of the City's
services. In creating this committee, the Council also charged you with the task of developing a
recommended fee schedule for all programs offered by the Recreation Depaitnient by the end of
March 2001. This is a significant task and will take a great deal of time and effort to accomplish —
and hopefully you were aware of this when you volunteered. In any case, I am confident that you
will be successful and offer both Bob Peckham's assistance as well my own to help achieve this goal.
I took the liberty of doing some brain storming with Bob in advance of this meeting to help get things
rolling. Listed below in no special order are some of the thoughts that came out of those efforts. The
end result will be a formal recommendation to the Council that has fees for all programs, addresses
the equity issues that exist between those who pay City property taxes and those who do not but still
benefit, addresses the cost/benefit aspects of programs, and addresses the cost effectiveness of the
programs. We all know that we will need to use property tax dollars to help pay for recreation
programs, that we don't have many, if any, programs that pay their own way. It will be difficult to
avoid a discussion of what programs should be offered, so I would recommend that first and foremost
you focus on what the fees should be for the programs currently planned or completed this year and
last. By taking into account the cost/benefit aspects and the cost effectiveness you may end up
recommending a fee that makes a program no longer viable, but will have done so from a cost
perspective rather than a "should we offer this" perspective. You will have ample opportunity to
open the debate on what programs the City should offer and which it should not in great detail in the
months to come, but ask that you not lose sight of the March deadline. There is currently some
discussion of the gym program becoming a private entity, which is a viable option but not a done
deal. In light of this, please develop your fee recommendations as if the City will continue the
program as opposed to betting on it going private. So, the brainstorming thoughts:
• Basis for fee -how do we decide what to charge for a given program this is the key question
for all fees and critical to the discussion with Council in March?
• Rec Card is this a viable solution to the out of area surcharge issue?
• Out of City surcharge -what is the right amount, based on what?
City of McCall
• Multiple child discounts?
• Multiple program discounts?
• Annual or monthly unlimited fees--$XXX a year, paid up front gets you all gym programs,
$YYY a year gets you all non -gym program except adult tourney's or team events.
Refunds -what is the policy, who grants approval for exceptions to the refund policy?
• Recruit a kid get a free session for on -going programs where you have an hourly or weekly
fee. Not good for other things because it can become a "buy one, get one free" situation.
• How much of the cost of the program do the fees need to cover?
• One size fits all fees we must have a Council approved fee before we charge it, by
developing a set of fees that can be used for multiple programs we can accomplish this for
example you set a dollar amount for a six week, two hour a week session of basic level
outdoor recreation activity. This same "program" fee could be charged for fly tying, canoe
paddling, or underwater basket weaving provided the amount of time required is similar, the
cost of the instruction is the same, and it makes sense. By having a half dozen of these
templates approved you give the rec depaitiuent the flexibility to offer a program to see if it
will be well received. If it is, and you want to make it permanent, you can always add
specific programs to the annual fees approved by Council. I say annual because I think we
should have an annual review and update fees as part of the normal budget process.
• Scholarships who should get them, should there be some work in exchange for the
scholarship?
• Fee waivers -junior coaches, etc. Of key importance here is what can we legally do in terms
of the employer employee relationship that this can create. If we are in essence paying the
junior coaches by reducing dollar for dollar their fees for time spent coaching we may be
across the line. We may also be hiding important information like the actual cost of
running a program. It may be more advantageous to actually pay for the services and not
reduce the fees —and it may be required by current labor laws.
• Free classes -who can get them and under what circumstances. This is an overlap with fee
waivers but we have a history of giving employee coaches some free classes for their kids.
Back to the concept. The thoughts as outlined above do not begin to address the complexity of
setting fees in McCall, but rather scratch the surface in an attempt to help focus the early discussions.
To put it in snapshot perspective if you can answer what the fee is, why it is that amount, and the
impact the fee will have in both budgetary and participation terms you will have answered 90% of the
questions Council will ask. I again thank you for your generous contribution of time and effort and
wish you the best!
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