2014-02-26 Minutes Salary Commission

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Parks and Recreation services impact the entire island. Knowledge of all of our County parks and facilities and their needs are crucial with over 200 facilities island -wide that services almost every resident of the island as well as tens of thousands of visitors each year. We serve the islands patrons from toddler to kupuna and even death (cemeteries). The directors are constantly meeting with patrons, communities, visitors, vendors, and others to improve the lives of everyone on the island. This is a huge responsibility with plans that go far into the future. Planning for the future includes annual events, creating new programs that bring people from other islands, the mainland or other countries to promote the island, and bring revenue to the island plays a big role for the directors. The Merrie Monarch, Ironman, Cherry Blossom Festival, Mayors Cup, Magic of the Seasons, and Fourth of July are just a few of the events we either manage or play a huge role in. These events bring people from all the islands and around the world. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT The directors have cultivated ever expanding Friends of the Parks Agreements that have provided for better services at our parks, fundraising for facilities, manpower to build playgrounds, paint buildings, and general clean-up of areas. The efforts of the directors to create these agreements save thousands of dollars each year, assist with improving our services, and beautify our parks. We assist many Boy Scouts with their Eagle Scout projects to beautify our parks. LAVA VIEWING/WAIPI'O RANGERS These two programs focus primarily on the historic and cultural significance of Kalapana and Waipi'o Valley. Sharing our rich cultural history has proven to be rewarding for the visitors to the island and our local inhabitants. Contracts were developed with this end in mind while being mindful of patron safety. The assumption of these programs by Parks and Recreation has further served to lessen the need for emergency response by Fire and/or Police. ADMINSTRATIVE RULES We are striving to become more self-sufficient and this comes fully under the purview of our Administration. The director's work on determining what would be acceptable increases in fees for parks, facilities, camping, golfing, vending, etc. Meetings and public hearings with the community at -large regarding those changes are attended by division heads and the directors. Public testimonials must be taken into consideration before finalizing the proposed amendments. We also have 10 other administrative rules that required updating and the directors and staff had to go through the same processes. Again, consideration must be made of public testimony; careful thought must go into the impact to communities with each change.