M Focus on: Parks & Environmental Services
Parks departments face summer staffing during a time of shortage
By JANET PATTERSON | The Municipal
The summer of 2021 proved to be a struggle for seasonal staffing for businesses and city operations alike around the country. Cities as large as Denver reduced the number of flower beds in parks and the frequency of trash pickups because of fewer seasonal workers. The city of Des Moines, Iowa, like others across the United States, raised pay rates by $2 an hour to attract new employees and entice former summer helpers to return. Some municipalities even offered sign-on bonuses in the hope of getting the number of employees needed to operate pools, parks and summer programs. According to Vic Garber, deputy director of the department of parks and recreation for the city of Charlottesville, Va., “The bonuses and increases simply haven’t solved the problem.” While Charlottesville held the line on its hourly wages for summer workers, he said, colleagues in neighboring cities found a raise was not the key to hiring enough people to do all the seasonal work in municipalities. 32 THE MUNICIPAL | OCTOBER 2021
“It even affected our restrooms. We usually have 18 staff for our parks and trails, but this year we had only six people, so we haven’t been able to clean as often as we used to.” According to a recent story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the reasons for the reduced appetite for jobs are not completely tied to money. The story cites lack of child care, fear of COVID and inferior working conditions as reasons people surveyed gave for not taking jobs in a market that is crying for help. Money is still a factor, though, with unemployed workers in Georgia receiving up to $665 a week. That’s the equivalent of $16.63 an hour. The Journal-Constitution story adds that 80% of those receiving jobless benefits in Georgia made less than $10 an hour. While unemployment benefits don’t affect seasonal workers as much as full-time
ABOVE: Parks like this one in Green Bay were hard hit by fewer seasonal employees to operate pools and playground programs as well as provide routine maintenance on facilities. (Photo provided by Green Bay, Wis.)
employees, James Andersen, assistant director of parks, recreation and forestry in Green Bay, Wis., noted other factors among the pool of potential seasonal help. “We usually hire young people who are in college, but we’ve hired some high school students. Now parents are more interested in having their kids in programs that will build their resumes for college. With school and those activities, the students don’t have time to work.” Andersen said when he began working for Green Bay Parks and Recreation 10 years ago, local youth were preferred for the city’s seasonal jobs, but since that time, the city has had to cast a wider net to harvest the talent needed for seasonal positions. In Charlottesville, Garber said city officials had to make decisions about how many facilities and programs would open without a full
