Killeen Parks and Rec Director Addresses the Fee Hike Controversy

Antonio Murphy, executive director of  Parks and Recreation for the city of Killeen, talks about why the fee increases related to activities at the Lions Club Senior Center and others were necessary due to the current economic condition. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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SPEAKER_01 0:35

I'm joined today by Antonio Murphy, who is the executive director of Parks and Recreation. How are you doing, sir?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I'm good, Kevin. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Yeah, that's too bad. So Parks and Rec has been pretty busy lately. I mean, you guys have been taking on a lot of different like initiatives and stuff like that. I mean, recently, like the Fort Hood Regional Trail got renamed to George General Cavazo's Trail, and then there was another uh park in the Fountain Oak subdivision, which got named to Yao Family Park. So and I know that there was also a directive not too long ago to work on some of the are they called accessible parks or are they uh accessible parks are acceptable or inclusive uh play areas. Yeah, how where do things stand with that right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Uh we are moving forward as we have a plan uh where we're doing uh renovations upgrade of our parks with some of the older equipment. We're incorporating new features that are adaptable and inclusive in nature to bring about an experience for all of the citizens of Clean.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah, and I think that's great. And I've attended one of those town halls where there was a lot of people like that were very interested in that sort of thing, the inclusive parks. Uh, some people mentioned like like having children who had like sensory issues and stuff like that. So I think all that sounds great.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

It is very beneficial. In my arrival here in Kaleen, one of the areas that due to circumstances of things that happened with COVID and the quarantine, some programming got stopped, some opportunities got missed, so we're trying to re-engage.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, you came to Kaleen from Savannah, Georgia. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. What has that transition been like?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

It's not really been big of a transition. You know, getting used to Central Texas and the uh the weather has been a big change. But other than that, parks and recreation, no matter where you do it at, it's pretty much the same. You have some of the same challenges in and out, always trying to do more with uh less and benefit bringing community together. So it's just getting acclimated to where you are and ingratiating yourself in that community, which I feel like Kaleen might be my forever home. It's the first place in a long time that I've set down some roots.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

That's great. And how do you think, and you mentioned COVID briefly, but how do you think things have changed since COVID, like before and after, in terms of parks and recreation?

SPEAKER_02 2:59

It meant not so much because of COVID, but it made mindful of community. That time being isolated and separated, we found right after people really wanted to be re-engaged by getting outside, being involved, connecting with their neighbors, one of the other. And we're still in that building process. We're still building those blocks to re-engage community. You know, during that time, we have our youth who are very much device-friendly and internet savvy, so it was easier transition for them. But what we're seeing now as they return to schools is the disconnect from the socialization aspect. A lot of our seniors during that time were very much forced into isolation. So you're seeing a concentrated effort to again re-engage and get them that socialization aspect. And when people return to work, you know, there was a the big demand, rush, rush, rush, go for work. But we're also seeing families getting out and individuals getting out to enjoy our parks and be connected, one with nature, whether that's walking on a trail and or, you know, enjoying one of our nature parks or coming to one of our youth athletic events or adult athletics.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

So yeah. No, I think you're right. I think that like the socialization aspect like became it became more obvious how important that is to the community and to the generally speaking, the world, because we were stuck at home for like ages, not able to leave and interact like normal people would do. I mean, humans are social creatures after all. You know. So originally, and correct me if I'm wrong, this is in South Carolina. You were studying for a degree in sports management, and now you're our Parks and Rex Executive Directors. I was just kind of wondering like how that change was made.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

True to form, every so many years, I wanted to reinvent myself. After severing four years in the Navy, I decided to return home and go to school with the original idea to be a chemist. A semester as a chemistry major, realized, hey, while I'm good at it, it's not something that I was passionate about or wanted to do. I've always had a natural love of sports, played sports, you know, that kind of ex-athlete who wanted to stay kind of close and centered to it. So my undergrad degree is in sport management with the idea of going on to become the next big-time sports agent. And I stumbled into my passion by a relative who worked in recreation. I actually went to his job, hung out with him one afternoon, and saw the direct impact that he had on the youth in the community, the connectedness he had to the community. And it made me remember as a kid coming up through a parking rec system what that benefit was. So I was drawn in right then, and I've been doing it for 22 years, wouldn't have changed a thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah, and I can relate to that too. I think any journalist will tell you that that we we like doing journalism, but a lot of us want to write novels and do other things like that too. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Definitely understood.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah. But I did want to ask you a couple of questions about some more recent, I guess you could say, initiatives from the Parks and Rec Center. One of them has been selling naming rights. The Lions Club Senior Center and the Aquatic Center kind of come immediately to mind. And I was just wondering, like, in terms of using the selling of the naming rights as a revenue source, do you think that's been like kind of helping a lot, or do you think it's been benefiting you guys?

SPEAKER_02 6:27

It has definitely been a benefit. It has spearheaded a lot of park projects and jumpstarted them to get them going. There are a lot of future projects that the income that's coming from those naming rights will fund to be able to do updates and renovations and modernizations to our parks. And we're always looking for more opportunities for uh the business community to get involved as well. So it's been a again, building that community, finding the synergies between what is public-private business and bringing them together to build community.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah. I mean, I have to be honest, this this is coming from somebody who's from New York, but like Shea Stadium was the home of the Mets, and then it became Met Life Stadium, I believe. And I always found that to be a little bit of like uh I kind of missed the name Shea Stadium, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Def definitely understood to a much lesser degree when we're talking about naming rights for local municipal recreation. It doesn't take on something as large and as lummy as associated with a following, such as a professional sports team and stadium naming rights. A lot of time is invested in it because you either grow up a fan or you mule the community and you identify certain things. It's like the giant green wall in Boston, the green monster. So when you start to add those little changes or those names tweaks, again, new generation will embrace older generations have memories tied to naming rights. So it never kind of transitioned. In our case, we're fortunate enough that First National Bank is a major partner here in Kleene, a major mainstay in Kaleen. So it is a win-win for us. A lot of the employees who work there are our community members who are taking advantage of our parks, have their children playing in our athletic leagues. So we we are good as again building the community, showing that forward-faced connection from how business translates to parks and recreation and the city in general and how we all come together to accomplish a goal.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Yeah, and I think that's a fair point. I mean, I think that when people grow up with a certain thing being named a certain way, they might have more of an attachment to it. But as people are coming up and growing up, they they might not mind so much.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

My personal belief is that names come and go, memories will always stay the same. You growing up at Met Stadium, going to Met Life, it will always be Shea Stadium to you, no matter what they hang on the building. So again, you can never erase the memories. And that's what we try to build as community, whether we're a first national bank and hopefully we'll have a long and prosperous relationship with them. But if it should change down the road somewhere to something else, it'll always be for whatever generation that comes through, Lion Clubs Park, kids who have hit their first home run on the baseball fields or played in our rec league basketball leagues, or if you've come there to work out, that first welcoming place that you had is a memory coming to Kaleen or being a resident of Kleen.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yeah, and I think that's completely fair. Now, earlier this year, there was a you presented the parks master plan, and there was a lot of different parks named as needing to be renovated or needing like some kind of like rehab work and that sort of thing. I just was wondering like where you guys are on that.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Continuing right along, a lot of the parks that were rated poor, we have updated and modernized those. So we're doing a phase plan where we touch every side of Kleen. Of course, the southwestern side of Kaleen is the fastest growing uh with new home developments. Through parkland dedication, we're ensuring that we're able to institute and build and bring online new parks. But our older parks, we're showing them love and attention and going back and modernizing and update just to once again re-engage communities on all sides of town.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, I think that's fair. Did want to ask about something that was pointed out to me. Kaleen like has a higher population than Temple. Uh Kaleen's like, what, like 160,000 estimated. Uh, but Temple has more parks than Kaleen. And I was just wondering, like, why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Can't really speak to the actual why. I have my opinion. You know, uh, for a long time, Kaleen was viewed as basically a transient community where the military here, you go be here for a brief time and people transition out, and it's always a changing face. And then in the last few years, from my research and my knowledge, Kaleen has experienced astronomical growth in the last couple of years. Doing across the industry of park and recreation, the late 80s to mid-90s was a time of feast of famine. A lot of recreation opportunities were shattered all across this country. And what you're seeing in Kaleen is a period of time where there may not have been municipal resources to build new parks. So the ones that they had, they were maintained, but over time, where an attrition takes place, so didn't necessarily get an update needed. And we're now putting that process and that preventive maintenance plan together and executing it as we see fit.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah, and the idea of Kaleen as a transient community and becoming something more along the lines like how you mentioned that you're starting to put roots down here and that sort of thing. I mean, it's interesting because a lot of people like lived in Austin, for example, which is an hour and change away from Kaleen, but but many of them moved uh at least. I mean, I this is a kind of like a little bit anecdotal, but I feel like it's it's it's sort of representative. But a lot of people who were priced out of Austin because of the rise in prices moved to Kaleen because they could find housing that was very affordable and and a place where you know maybe they could like either commute to work or or if they had a local job and that sort of thing. And I mean, are you I mean and you you mentioned it before. I mean, the this this this type of change has kind of like made parks and recreation take a sort of a different approach than maybe it had in the past. Would you kind of agree with that?

SPEAKER_02 12:32

I definitely agree with it. Nobody could it have predicted the boom that came. Of course, again, hate to relate back to COVID, but when people were coming out of isolation and they were able to work remotely, people were looking for a place where they could establish a foundation. Austin saw a boom from the California migration. Of course, that would filter out to the outer researchers, which would be clean. And you're seeing people looking for a quality of life. They're not necessarily looking for the hustle buzzle of a major city. They're looking for somewhere where 99% of their needs can be met, whether that's uh through a social communal aspect, whether it's from a religious organization, or just resources, things like movie theaters, restaurants, all within their storefront within five to ten minutes. That puts Colleen in a unique position because we're just far enough out of the shadow of Austin to establish our own identity as an urban oasis, but it comes and it takes time with growth.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, it definitely takes time. And I guess there's a lot of like, I guess when people don't see stuff happening like right away, they kind of they kind of like look to like blame someone.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Well, that's a function of we are an instant gratification society. You know, everything is pretty much microwaveable nowadays. You see it where you can get modular builders and have them thrown up in three to six months, all things being equal. But quality comes with time. And working in municipal government, working in parks and recreation. We want to build a sustainable model. We don't want it to be here today, gone tomorrow. So we take the painstaking effort to invest, engage in our community to see what their needs are, and strategically plan. Um there's not a fountain of money that we can just throw at a project and hey, it's there instantaneously. So we have to be very pragmatic about how we go about building opportunities, whether that's on the program side or updating our infrastructure amenities.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah, and I mean, just like looking at it from like a future perspective, I mean, I think a lot of like city departments, like if they're being like reasonable about things, like realize that there there are some long-term like implications to how quickly Kaleen is growing that it needs to adapt to. I mean, just in terms of like, for example, water, like that that's something that the city of Kleen is playing for by being a part of the Central Texas Water Alliance. And so I I think that in a way Parks and Rec is also just is just kind of like an another spoke in the wheel in terms of like like this the this version of city planning.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

To speak to that, the one concept that needs to be addressed and put out there is that more so than localized, things are becoming regionalized now. It's not just Kaleen, it's the neighboring municipalities. And how can we build a synergy to better play off of each other and maximize the benefit for the region as well as our city, but definitely touching the region. When we talk about infrastructure needs, the roads don't stop when you reach Harker Heights or you reach Copper's Cove. There's still a lot of major work to do. And Kaleen is doing its part by trying to update its infrastructure within the city limits, but we also got to plan for growth. Things like uh mass transit, getting a better system, that is a regional need. So again, balancing that timeline with how the city grows versus the exponential growth that's being seen across the region, it is a fine process, and then you have to go through it with a fine-tooth comb. You can look at anywhere in this country and see any number of rush jobs, and that within five to ten years the infrastructure is crumbling. Kleen is very pragmatic in the fact that we want to do it slow, correctly, painstakingly, so that we don't have to keep coming back fixing the mistakes that were made before.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Right. Yeah, and just just offhanded comment here, but the but the uh one of the legislative priorities for the city of Kleen is like adding Kleene as a bullet train stop in the future. So, I mean, so uh so these things aren't being considered at the at the city government level. Now I did want to ask you, because this obviously got a lot of attention, there was you you presented at the not the last meeting, but the previous meeting, and full disclosure, it was an extremely long meeting. It was nine, nine and a half hours, and and you know, it was it was rough for anybody to deal with. But but in any case, you spoke at almost the very end, and and and you know, it's tough because it was like almost like midnight, like like by the time we got over, and they're asking these questions about like the fees and like how the fees are increasing. And you know, I mean it might not have been like the best like way of like like of like uh doing that. I mean, not saying that at all that it's your fault, but like I mean, it just it was just incredibly bizarre. But in any case, the fees were something that were discussed. I mean, some of them are like $10 or $20 for like the Lions Club Park and some other facilities. Like I think I think the Aquatics Center and also the Rosa Hereford Center, which isn't open yet but will be soon. So I guess that's part of planning ahead. Yes. So I just wanted to ask you about that, if you could like maybe like respond to some of the concerns that the city council members were trying trying to address, and you know what you basically thought about the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

My my thoughts were is that mine is a position to provide information, a wealth of information for them processes. Unfortunately, we're at a time in this country and this economy where costs are skyrocketing across the board. We see it at our gas pumps, we see it at our grocery stores. Unfortunately, parks and recreation and municipal operations are not remiss from those economic increases. Looking long term, we're talking about sustainability. We have a wealth of citizens who enjoy the services that we provide and the programs that we provide, and we were looking, how do we are we gonna be able to maintain five years down the road, ten years down the road? That became okay, how do we do some type of cost recovery? What what what models are out there that work that we can pop factor in trying to implement here in Kaleen? So we we did each year when we go through budget cycle, we're tasked to benchmark cities of similar size, similar scopes, and what what they are charging for similar services. I can say this with the utmost confidence that the fees that were proposed were some of the lowest fees found amongst our benchmark cities. As a matter of fact, they were the lowest fees. It is an unfortunate reality, but we had to uh look at a model that would introduce something to help stave off some of the cost of certain programs. I'll take our fitness instructors for our group fitness classes, very qualified, highly skilled capable, but their costs are rising. They're contracted employers with us. So as they saw increases in the insurance that they were required to carry to be able to offer those classes, purchasing of supplies and equipment, those things have gone up on them. And yet and still they've been here, dare I say, five to ten years, and have not seen an equitable adjustment in the rate of pay that they're receiving. That was a mistake. We buy supplies for those classes, and as those costs go up, with our budget being flat for the last five years, we are incurring those costs. So it's taking more for us to operate.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah, and I think that to some extent, and probably a greater extent, the clean council does at least recognize that because the last meeting that I just attended, there were 10 people who got up there and asked for funding for their respective organizations. And I think that that part of what you were saying kind of like plays into like what they were like. Prices have increased for like basically I would say pretty much everything. And I don't really see any way that people can deny that. Now, if what if the council decided not to increase fees uh for those particular services or activities? What would happen?

SPEAKER_02 21:47

We we've come up and crafted an alternative. I don't want to, before it's presented to council, I wouldn't wouldn't want to speak on the details of it to give them a chance to review it and formulate their questions, but we do. Have an alternative if they should choose to do uh decline to offer any fees, we're still gonna continue to operate. We are actively engaged in the pursuit of grants, opportunities, the public-private partnerships with naming rights, signage, those things will help extend the life of it. But as I said during the council meeting, when we're talking about sustainability, at a certain point in time, we can't continue to kick a can down the road. If we don't start to address this now, next year it's going to be worse. Everybody, I'm quite sure, they're almost tired of hearing about the disabled veterans' existence and how it adversely impacts the city of Kleen because the state chooses not to reimburse at an appropriate balance level. That's an issue that's above my head while it impacts me. I kind of have no dog in the fight, and I'm going to dance to whatever records put on. But it does when we have a significant veteran population who has earned the right and respect of being exempt from some property taxes, but this government still has to operate. This municipality still has to function. We're trying to squeeze everything we can from the tax dollars that we get. But again, when we're talking about building roads, the materials for roads, those costs have gone up incrementally. The price of concrete, depending on what day of the week you look at, can jump three, four dollars, just depending. So, you know, when you're looking around the city of Khalina, you're looking at the building projects, you're looking at parking rec improvements, or you're looking at public works, new needs for infrastructure, whatever the rate rate increases that were proposed. It is not done from a haphazard point of reference. It's not done with a willful intent that, hey, we want to charge more just because we can. We're trying diligently to maintain a certain standard and quality of life and sustainability. Our master plan spoke about it for Parks and Rec. The 2040 plan spoke about building a system that had continuity and sustainability going forward from 2040 on, and we're working towards that. A lot of those points that were identified in those market manuals and studies and guides, where you're seeing us implementing, we're on the front side of it now. Again, Instagratification Society, we want it quick, we want it fast. From us, we want it right. We want to do it, and we want to be able to say with this reasonable certainty that you don't have to worry about next year coming back asking for additional increases because we were short-sighted and we didn't factor in inflation or growth. Yeah. At a certain point, will there be an opportunity to have to come back and say, hey, we might need to do a fee increase? But I personally believe and my staff believes it is not something that we should have to turn around year in, year out. Hey, now we want to charge five more dollars. Now we want to charge $10 more. We're looking at if we implemented this fee now, it'll give us some room for the next three, four, five years to be able to still offer the same quality of program, to be able to give our contracted partners a much needed pay increase while we can't pay them what the open market would, to fairly compensate them because they do enjoy teaching and being a part of what we have at City of Clean Parks and Ray. But again, as their costs go up, just like anything else, if you it's passed on to the to us as a consumer, and we are trying to stave off to a point. Nobody wants to hear today that somebody says, okay, we have to shatter programming. If you look across this country and look at other municipalities, I just seen an article where the city of Dallas is looking at closing for recreation centers and had 20% budget cuts by the grace clean's not there. And we're everything we're doing is so that we don't end up there.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah, I totally see where you're coming from there. And I mean, as you pointed out to the council that night, I mean, I mean, I don't think that funding for Parks and Rec has increased much over the past five years. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 26:10

No, our budget has been very stagnant. It's been able to maintain its current level for the past five years. While everything is going up, we have been plateaued.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, I think that's the story of a lot of uh different like organizations across the municipal or otherwise across the country as well. And you also mentioned that you have a very skeletal staff. They do a lot of heavy lifting.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

I have a very dedicated and motivated staff who loves the concept of being able to engage and build community and build relationships. But when you're looking at a city the size of Kaleen, if you want to just do a comparison, the park and rec departments are a little bit more robust, dare I say. Most of my employees are doing triple and double, double and triple duty. We execute events, we have a robust calendar of events, we have our regular routine programming, we're operating a fully functional family recreation center with one to come online hopefully soon, mid construction, and it's building those schedules so that the community has an opportunity to take advantage of. It does no good to open up a new facility that's only open a small window when we have people who do shift work. It may not benefit them. Does no good if we can open up and do singers, but we gotta close in the afternoon so we can't service youth. That striking that balance and that um finding that fulcrum point, that leveling is unique. But again, we're in it for the long term. We have identified the problems, we schedule our staff, they take their vacations, they take their breaks. We're looking at ways to be able to increase our volunteer efforts, as well as bring in other supports from some federal programs that run, as well as some state funds programs. So getting so many more subject matter experts to come to the table. We're also looking into partnering with our local civic and um nonprofit community to kind of help bounce out. Whereas, and I'll use you me and you, you have a passion for putting pen to paper and writing. I do a lot of technical writing, but I wouldn't dare say I have a passion. But if we started a young journalist club, possibly being able to bring youth into the news center and see how it operates and getting them exposed to what it is to be able to write a news article, what makes a good news article, that is the type of partnerships that we're looking to build, taking other areas of expertise and bringing them in an environment that's accessible to youth, seniors, and our community as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah, I mean, thank you so much for like these comprehensive answers. I really appreciate it. I mean, I mean, it can't be easy to like to get in front of the council, and sometimes you have to tell people things that they don't necessarily want to hear but are true. And I've and you know, but you know, as in as far as their concerns go, I mean, I mean, councilman Anthony Kendrick mentioned about the youth programs and how a lot of like the youth might not be able to afford the new increases should should they happen. I mean, is there like a contingencies is there like a contingency plan for like situations like that where like we again we are looking at every grant opportunity, public-private partnerships.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Uh we have drafted a model that was once used pre-COVID of having a scholarship and donation model. So as a matter of fact, you can go to our parking rec website if you wanted to do a youth donation and make a donation to Parkinsonal Rec, you could, or you could make a donation to the animal shelter. So there are tools in place. It is getting the word out and promoting what those tools are to get the community engaged. But we are exploring every possibility. We understand that in this economy, it is challenging for the slightest increase on a family or on an individual. We're not trying to price anybody out. We're trying to keep opportunities to keep all of our constituency and all of our citizens engaged. Again, it's about sustainability. That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Well, that's all the questions I have, but is there anything else maybe you want to mention that maybe I didn't bring up?

SPEAKER_02 30:35

No, right now, like I said, we're in what is our busy season. I would encourage citizens to look on the hot days that Central Texas can bring. Please take advantage of our water park at the Zenter Family Recreation Center or visit our uh swimming pool over at Long Branch Park. Nice way to cool down and a nice engagement opportunity, and support your parks and uh rec organization by spending an afternoon or a day in the park.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

Okay, great. Well, Antonio Murphy, Executive Director of Parks and Recreation, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Thank you, Kevin. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

All right, and that has been our show for today. This has been the Insight Clean podcast brought to you by KDH News. It's produced by Hamida Botchwe. And I am Kevin Limity, one of the hosts.