Mayor Mike McGinn and City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw have released a proposal for community center operations in 2012 that keeps them open and professionally staffed.

"This is a tough time for budgets at all levels of government. The City is no exception. But negative circumstances sometimes force us to rethink how we do business and come to a better solution. That’s why we’re announcing today that we are changing how we do business in our community centers to be more flexible and responsive to community needs, to preserve direct services and reduce operating costs," announced Mayor McGinn on his blog.

In response to the continuing need for budget reductions and direction from the mayor and Council, Parks staff examined alternative models for staffing and operating community centers. Parks worked with citizens, including teens and seniors, City Council staff, Mayor’s Office staff, City Budget Office staff, labor unions, and members of the Park Board to analyze data, hold public meetings, conduct a public survey, and design the alternatives from which the recommended model was chosen.

The recommendations for community center operations in the City’s 2012 budget are based on this data-driven analysis and process to examine several models for staffing and operating community centers. These recommendations reflect a savings of $1.23 million in staff and operating reductions.

The level of service and staffing model for each center is determined by a set of criteria that include: the condition of the building and the costs of maintaining it, past use of the building for drop-in use, paid use, and rentals, and the number of patrons served by scholarships. Each of the Community Centers received points based on the criteria and with consideration of potential economic justice impacts determined the service level of each center.

The preferred operating model would consist of five geographically-based service areas, each with five community centers staffed by a team. Within each area, the centers would provide varying levels of service and each team would be led by a Senior Recreation Coordinator. This model preserves services to the greatest extent possible by keeping the centers open with varying levels of service.

Bitter Lake, Loyal Heights, Green Lake, Ballard, and Magnolia are grouped into one geographic service area.

Community Center staff will work with the people in the community to establish operating hours and decide on programming, and will try to avoid duplication of programs within the service area. For example, within a geographic service area, one center may open early while another stays open late; one may specialize in sports and another in the arts.

Ballard has been identified as a service level 2b, while Loyal Heights is considered a service level 1.

This means that the Ballard Community Center would be open for general use 25 hours per week, while the Loyal Heights center would be open for 70 hours per week.

This proposal is expected to save $1.23 million on an annual basis, of which $784,000 is achieved through staffing and operating reductions. This number also includes $446,000 from Parks’ nonprofit partner the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) that would partially cover community center expenses. ARC will continue to provide child care and registered programming outside of the hours when a center is open for general public use.

On September 15 and September 22, the Park and Seattle Center Committee will discuss the proposal and the effects on Community Center operations, programs and public hours.

For more information on the proposal, visit http://seattle.gov/parks/centers/operations.htm.