As the new Crookston arena takes shape on the town's northeast edge, there's excitement in the community in anticipation of an opening in early 2010. But, according to some city council members and other officials, there is also a concern among some in the community that the current Parks & Recreation staff that will spend much of their time managing and maintaining the new, three-rink facility as well as interacting with the public while doing so, won't be up to the task.
Those complaints and concerns voiced to council members spurred them to ask City Administrator Aaron Parrish and Parks & Rec Director Scott Kleven to come up with a plan that might alleviate those concerns and increase the chances that the new facility receives the attention, maintenance and supervision that it will command once it's open and operational.
The proposal crafted by Parrish and Kleven, which could potentially result in Scott Riopelle, the assistant parks and recreation director whose main job is managing the Civic and Sports arenas and their staff, losing his job, triggered about 90 minutes of sometimes spirited discussion at a joint city council/park board meeting Tuesday evening. With a consensus elusive, everyone agreed to meet again after the council's next meeting on July 14 to see if they can't agree on a future path.
The proposal, while not crafted necessarily to save money and in actuality doesn't, essentially eliminates Riopelle's position, but encourages him to apply for the newly created position of Park Superintendent. The position would still be the main manager of the new arena, but the job description at this point wouldn't include much of the arena scheduling that Riopelle is responsible for. The current Park Foreman position held by Tom Clauson would disappear, too, and Clauson would be encouraged to apply for the new job. But if he didn't get the job, Clauson would be able to slide into a park maintenance position for the same pay.
Discussion
Much of Tuesday's debate centered on perceptions of Riopelle and his staff, and pressure from the public to make the changes necessary to ensure a properly maintained facility and make sure the staff is supervised and sufficiently motivated to do their job and do it well.
Park board member Larry Brekken, saying he likes the concept Parrish and Kleven crafted, said that if changes in staff aren't made as the city transitions to the new facility, the city and the Parks & Recreation Department will lose the "respect" of the community. The last thing anyone wants, he added, is to be sitting down three years from now wondering by the new arena isn't being managed and maintained better.
"So you’re saying we're treating a symptom and not a disease?" asked park board member Gary Warren, also the coach of the recently discontinued UMC Golden Eagles hockey program.
"Exactly," Brekken replied.
A big part of the problem, Kleven said – and something the reorganization tries to address, too – is Parks & Rec maintenance workers jumping to the Public Works Department whenever there's an opening because the pay is better and Public Works jobs don't include evening and weekend hours. Kleven said in recent years he's lost several great arena workers to jobs in Public Works and elsewhere.
The problem with the current system, Parrish said, is that Public Works and Parks & Rec maintenance personnel often work side by side doing similar work, but the Public Works staff are making as much as $4 more an hour. Such a climate can't help but lead to morale issues and a desire for the Parks & Rec staff to move to Public Works the first chance they get. The reorganization simplifies the maintenance classifications and cuts the potential pay gap in half.
Council member Keith Mykleseth suggested a "compromise" that would have both Clauson and Riopelle staying on the job with modified position descriptions. He suggested that Riopelle, who, unlike Clauson, isn't in the union, work at the start under a six-month probationary period. At that point in time, if things aren't working out, Mykleseth said changes could be made. Parrish said he didn't think state public employees rules would permit someone who "never ceases to be an employee" to be placed on probationary status, even if the employee's job has been modified.
"If the consensus here is that the same situation will work in the future, we can do that," Parrish said. "But I've been told otherwise."
Council member Wayne Melbye said added supervision needs to be a big part of any changes, but staff also need to be held accountable when they've made it clear they aren't performing as they should. Documentation and the use of security cameras at the new arena could help in that area, he said, as could the superintendent position being housed at the facility.
"I don't know if it's a labor union thing or what the heck it is, but I know for myself that when things aren't working, you get public input, you show the camera video or whatever, and heads roll," he said. "People do what's expected of them and if not, you take care of it. We're kind of beating around the bush here; are we really attacking the problem?"
"There's a lot of lack of morale in that department and there are reasons for that," Parrish responded. "You just don't fix that by rewriting positions descriptions. You don't get the public confidence back with that."
It's likely that, with Kleven having a lot on his plate already and the Park Superintendent position not doing as much facility scheduling as Riopelle does now, that some type of "coordinator" who schedules hockey and baseball would be hired. Unless, Mayor Dave Genereux added, the city lets the Blueline Club take over hockey scheduling and other operations. Crookston is a rarity, he said, in that it coordinates so much youth athletic programming.
"Something's gotta give," he said. "We don't have enough supervision presently. We need a position do do more supervision. Someone needs to do more scheduling. Is it a paid position, or is the Blueline Club a possibility? If we want better supervision, maybe we need to move in that direction because, what I've been hearing for years, is that not enough stuff is getting done."
Council member Marlys Mjoen said the "problem" had been brought to Parrish's attention, and the reorganization is his and Kleven's attempt at an improvement on the current situation. "This is a problem that's been in the public eye for some time, we've been getting pressure from citizens and we've put pressure on Aaron to take care of it," she explained. "Anytime you make a change it's not going to be popular with some people and that's what makes it very difficult. It's not easy when you start talking about people's jobs. Aaron has done what we asked him to and brought this forward.
"I don't want to let people go or have to change jobs, but we need to have good supervision at the arena and we need good supervision of all of our seasonal employees all year long," Mjoen added.
Next steps
Making a decision is somewhat time sensitive, Parrish said, because planning is underway on how to best operate and maintain the new arena, and what programming to offer there.
Although there will be further discussion on July 14 and council members want input from park board members, the board has no official role in the decision, which will be up to the full city council.
Crookston —
