County board looks at options to operate park system
Trending
ESCANABA -- The Delta County Board of Commissioners voted this week to direct Interim County Administrator Ashleigh Young to research whether the county can hire a non-governmental entity to run the county's parks.
The discussion of the parks Tuesday during a special committee of the whole meeting at the Delta County Commerce Center was unexpected, as the commission had explicitly stated the agenda for the special meeting would only include a discussion of the job description for the county administrator when the meeting was first set during the March 21 regular commission meeting.
"I'm not OK with adding something to this, to this, venue when it was supposed to be this. Because there may be people that have something to say about the parks that might not be here," said Commissioner Steve Viau, who with Commissioner John Malnar, voted against adding a discussion of the parks to the agenda.
The request for the discussion was made by Commissioner Bob Barron, who raised concerns the county would not be able to make a decision about the future of the parks' management without knowing if hiring a private-sector contractor would violate existing union contracts.
"We need to make sure that we don't step anywhere that we shouldn't in the process of looking into it," said Commission Chair Dave Moyle.
After more than a decade of managing the parks and the adoption of a controversial 10-year contract with the county late last year, Delta Conservation District Executive Director Rory Mattson announced at the Jan. 17 commission meeting that the district intended to terminate its agreement with the county, effective May 15. He later returned to the commission, saying the district would be willing to manage the parks through the end of the year if the county had a contract in place for the rest of the year by the May 15 termination date.
Part of Mattson's terms for the temporary contract was for the county to have someone in place to shadow the conservation district employees and learn the ins and outs of park management. Most of the discussion by the board about how to manage the parks has revolved around a county employee being named to serve in this shadowing and management role.
However, there has also been some discussion by the board about hiring a third-party, private contractor to manage the parks in much the same way the conservation district has. Barron said Tuesday that the commission needed to make a firm decision on its direction with the parks, but that it couldn't do that without knowing the legality of a private contractor.
"We're going down a path but we haven't made that decision to go down that path," said Barron.
Because Tuesday's meeting was a committee of the whole meeting, the board was not supposed to vote to take action on any items but were allowed to vote on recommendations to the board a whole, according the Delta County Clerk Nancy Przewrocki, who serves as the board's parliamentarian. Despite Przewrocki's clarification of the rules earlier in the meeting, the board voted unanimously to direct Young to find out if a private contractor would run afoul of any existing union contracts by the April 4 regular commission meeting.
Viau also requested the commission be provided with the financial costs of managing the parks. While this information will likely be a major part of the discussion on the county's plan moving forward, it is unclear if the commissioners will have this information by the April 4 meeting.