Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 80

those studies were published, the merger of city and county governments was approved by
voters, and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government was formed. The former City and
County parts of the Louisville/Jefferson County Parks Department were consolidated. However,
the impact on the parks and recreation system finances was not substantial since both City and
County parks were already being operated by one agency before merger.
More recently, the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit park advocacy group, has begun
compiling an annual survey of park systems around the U.S. (operating and capital). In 2015, the
TPL Park Score compared the $50.97 that Louisville spent per capita for parks and recreation
spending compared to a few of Louisville’s competitor cities: Cincinnati $203.08; Indianapolis
$27.35; Nashville $73.49; Lexington, KY $73.52; Charlotte, NC $51.43. Louisville ranked 72 nd out
of 75 cities in overall scoring in this study. (Additional information about this study is in
Appendix F.) However, this statistic also includes the operating expenditures of the Parklands of
Floyds Fork, E. P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, and Waterfront Development Corporation (which
are not operated by Metro Parks and Recreation Department) in the total.
Caution must be exercised in comparing studies across time because the basis of
accounting may change from study to study. In addition, the comparisons may not be
appropriate in some cases because some rankings are for the city only like Cincinnati and do not
include Hamilton County parks, and some, like Louisville, Indianapolis and Nashville, are for
merged city and county governments. Nevertheless, the sense of the reports is undeniable:
Louisville/Jefferson County has historically ranked low in expenditures compared to both its
neighboring cities and competitor cities.
In 2012, newly elected Mayor Greg Fischer appointed a task force to conduct an
operational review of the Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation Department. That review,
though never formally accepted by the Metro administration, revealed critical issues about
funding for Department operations. Citing the then most recent figures available from the Trust
for Public Land survey –“City Park Facts – 2011” which was based on Fiscal Year 2009 data, the
report stated that “Parks is grossly underfunded.” Pointing out that the 2009 expenditure of
$34 per resident was well below the median expenditure of $56 for the 100 most populous
American cities at that time.
Among the consequences of underfunding of operations was the deferral of
maintenance of structures, a paucity of organized programs at community centers, and a lack of
progress on the Department’s strategic planning goals.
The Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation Department responded in several ways to the
challenges of declining resources. Because as much as 70 per cent of the operations budget is
devoted to personnel, it was necessary to reduce staffing. Most significantly the summer
seasonal staff was cut, leading to longer intervals between park mowing, less maintenance of
planted areas, and fewer program offerings. Summer camp programs which had been
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