Parks and Recreation staff presented an overview of the department's 2024 financial results and key performance trends, telling PRAB that operating spending reached approximately 96% of budget while capital spending lagged at roughly 34% of its CIP budget.

“I will caveat this that we did transition financial systems on January 1, so we are kind of living in two systems right now,” Jackson, the department’s finance presenter, told the board. Jackson said the department’s operating spend reached roughly 96% of its budget and noted that “best practice for budget is you're spending 95 to a % of your budget.”

Key takeaways from the presentation:
- Operating vs. capital: staff said operating expenditures were nearly fully realized in 2024, while capital project expenditures were limited by staffing, permitting and the long lead times of construction projects.
- Cost allocation and internal services: the presentation noted an increase in cost-allocation charges in 2024 tied to IT, HR and centralized services; staff called this a citywide reallocation that increased department internal-service charges.
- Recreation Activity Fund (RAF): staff said earned revenue in the RAF rose (Jackson reported roughly 16% year-over-year earned-revenue growth), visitation at recreation centers increased by more than 20% year-over-year, and golf operations have seen sustained growth (staff cited roughly 46% growth over five years for the golf enterprise).

Scott Schuttenberg, deputy director, said the golf program will hire a dedicated director. “We’re really excited. We'll have a new director of golf starting with us later this, later here in April. David DeMartino comes with great experience, in municipal golf courses and tons of energy and passion. So he'll be starting with us here in mid April,” Schuttenberg told the board.

Staff cautioned that revenue growth has begun to plateau in some areas and that long-term pressures remain: cost escalation in capital projects, wage and benefit increases tied to citywide living-wage decisions, and uncertainty in sales-tax revenue were all cited as continuing fiscal stresses.

Equity and access: staff said the department continues to subsidize community-benefit programming and financial-aid services; the board discussed trade-offs between fee recovery for adult programs and subsidizing youth, older adults, and priority populations.

Next steps: staff said the department will use 2019 as a baseline for trend reporting, continue quarterly briefings to PRAB, and align the department’s budget development with the city's long-term financial strategy and the 2025 budget cycle.