The Parks and Recreation Commission is in a state of emergency as it struggles to stay afloat after a hefty budget cut from the city of Yazoo City.
In fact, the commission has enough funds in the bank to make one more payroll as it attempts to cut an already bare-boned budget. In the midst of the financial turmoil, one commissioner resigned this week, and another said he would be resigning within the next two weeks.
The resignations come at the possibility of layoffs and programs being eliminated in an effort for the Parks and Recreation department to survive.
Michelle Curry, financial advisor, said the commission has $3,901 in the bank as of its monthly meeting Monday night. She added that the commission has already used its surplus funds.
“The surplus has been used,” Curry said. “It is no longer there. Every dime spent forward will be closely looked at and whittled down.”
The Parks and Recreation Commission then approved suspending all non-essential spending within the department without board approval. Unless it is payroll or a recurring bill, it cannot be paid without permission.
The Parks and Recreation Commission had to make extreme cuts in its upcoming budget after the city of Yazoo City decreased its contribution for the second year in a row. The city of Yazoo City contributed $130,953 to the commission in the 2016-2017 year. However, that figure has decreased to $76,233, or 1.5 mills, in the upcoming year.
With less funds to operate, the board said it will be forced to close the swimming pool and eliminate the Campanella Park baseball and flag football. The commission planned to do its own concession stand to generate revenue. That idea has been scrapped with the new budget. The commission also desired to hire a grant writer to acquire more revenue and funds. That hire is no longer an option.
The commissioners said during Monday night’s board meeting that they know the community will be upset about the swimming pool and Campanella activities being cut. But they said they had no choice with the amount of funding they were provided.
“You are at a point where you have to make drastic cuts,” said Lilli Evans-Bass, commission board attorney. “Whether it be salary and wage cuts to cutting programs, you have to make the cuts. Legally, you have to be able to balance the budget.”
“We’ve cut and cut the past two years,” said Chairman Wade Yeates. “We can barely pay people to do work.”
Mayor Diane Delaware was present at this week’s Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Yeates explained to Delaware that parks and recreation are operating with the bare minimum.
“I’m asking for help,” Yeates told Delaware. “Ultimately, if I had been able to attend (the city council meeting today) the only thing I would say is that we need money. And I assure you it is not the first time it has been said. It was known that we needed more money.”
Delaware said the city of Yazoo City needed to make cuts, and it did make cuts.
“We do run a city, and we have to cut things and reassess the way we spend money,” Delaware said.
Delaware added that all the parks and recreation commission has to do is ask for help, but it is up to the entire Board of Mayor and Aldermen to decide. Yeates said the commission has shared with city leaders what it needed to survive and those needs were documented in Parks and Recreation’s proposed budget, which requested for $117,000 from the city.
“That proposed budget…that was what we needed,” Yeates said. “The choice was made not to give it, but it could have been.”
“Certainly,” replied Delaware. “You don’t ever have to stop asking.”
Delaware said that she sees areas where she could make cuts in the Parks & Recreation budget.
Yeates said both the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors have always said they wanted the Parks and Recreation department to improve, adding that they would provide more funding if they saw that progress. He said progress has been made with new director Sedric Hudson, yet the funding was cut rather than increased or remaining stable.
“Hudson has made great improvements, but nothing has come with it,” Yeates said. “He was told, ‘if you do it, we will be behind you.’ Now we are getting cut. If we were not cut, we would not even be having this discussion.”
Yeates said one financial burden that fell upon Parks and Recreation was opening the swimming pool this year despite the lack of funding. Operating the pool was a net loss for the commission. Had the pool not opened, the commission would have enough in the bank to make a few more payrolls.
“But we were told to make sure we opened that pool,” Yeates said. “We were told, ‘we’ll take care of it.’ But it didn’t happen.”
The commission experienced a $5,857 loss with the swimming pool operation.
Delaware said no one shared with the city council about the swimming pool figure. But Hudson had made reports to the city council about the matter.
Delaware left the meeting shortly after, saying the commissioners were “looking at me like dollar bills.”
Commissioner Gary Haymer submitted a letter of resignation because he said he is “tired of fighting.”
“This has been the best Parks and Recreation board ever, but we are the only board being cut,” Haymer said. “And she (Delaware) thinks it’s funny. It’s not funny. We have asked and begged. No matter what we do, we can’t move forward. You can’t go to the city council. She’s (Delaware) already got her mind made up. I am not going to keep fighting for them to sit back and laugh.”
Haymer added that many city leaders have served on the commission and understand the financial struggle.
“They all know because they have sat here,” Haymer said. “But now they are doing the same thing that was done to them.”
“Maybe they want us to dissolve,” added Commissioner Mac Gaston.
