Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman at 1:00 AM | Comments

The relationship between the city and the township regarding the parks and recreation department took a bizarre twist in Northville Monday night.

The city council approved sweeping changes to the Parks and Recreation Commission by-laws and the shared services agreement that effectively replaced the commission with a board made up of elected officials. The changes guarantee that the township will have a stronger representation on the commission—they effectively put Supervisor Mark Abbo in charge of it—and will limit the input from the city side of the equation.

The goal, according to officials on both sides, is to get the decision makers more involved with setting parks and recreation policies and priorities.

This is something that’s been discussed behind the scenes for several months. Those familiar with the issues probably saw signs of it. The township board approved, not too long ago, a resolution that they would discuss potential parks improvements with their city counterparts before they went ahead with them. Their recent dissatisfaction with the priorities outlined in the new Parks and Recreation Master Plan caused them to schedule two study sessions—one that took place last month and another that’s scheduled for tonight, complete with a facilitator.

Even so, I was surprised at the speed with which these changes hit the public forums and the quickness with which they were granted approval, albeit on a 3-2 vote of the city council.

It was probably inevitable that the township would want a stronger voice in the direction of the parks and recreation department. As board members are apt to point out, they provide most of the funding and nearly all of the land.

This, though, is a poor way to execute a reasonable concept. There’s a difference between wanting to have more authority and getting absolute authority and I’m concerned that that’s the way this is heading.

Consider the changes: the township representatives will be the supervisor, the clerk and another trustee. The supervisor becomes the chairperson, who also appoints members to any committees formed and is a member of the administrative committee, which has the responsibility of reviewing operational matters as well as the ability to appoint or—to use a euphemistic term—un-appoint the recreation director.

The city has two representatives, either the mayor or mayor pro-tem and another council member. The sixth member is a member of the Northville school board.

I understand the concept of having the decision makers more involved, but I don’t like taking this role out of the hands of the volunteers who have worked so hard for so long. I think there has to be a better way to accomplish this other than telling former commissioners: thanks for all the hard work, we’ll be in touch if we need you in the future. And how can you kick someone off a board and then turn around and ask them to serve on a subcommittee?

I’m also surprised that these changes could come up and be decided without so much as a public hearing and I’m more than a little disappointed that the city council didn’t table the issue to come up with some other alternatives or allow more people to weigh in on it. I don’t care how long this has gone on behind the scenes. Recreation is a huge quality of life factor and residents deserved more warning that this issue was coming up.

Maybe the city council thought this was the best deal they could get. You could see it in their eyes, though, that they weren’t happy. You could tell from their hesitancy that they didn’t like it. To approve it anyway shows an appalling lack of leadership.

Putting electeds in charge of the commission depends, too, on the people elected into office. It might be good for the present, but what about the future?

That might be best evidenced in a line stricken from the by-laws, perhaps because its language is obsolete: Section 2.1, which lists the qualifications of commissioners: “have demonstrated tangible evidence of his/her interest in recreational activities.”

Abbo has said that he wants to keep the public involved in the process and that things can be tweaked as this new plan moves forward. We’ll see how that pans out but right now, it looks like city residents will ultimately lose under this new system.

Originally published in The Journal Newspapers on March 8.

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