WESTFIELD – A subcommittee of the Parks & Recreation Commission is slated to begin a discussion of the reorganization of the department next week.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said Monday that he requested the commission to begin that discussion with the goal of having a departmental reorganization in place by July 1, 2012 the beginning of the 2013 fiscal year.
The reorganization is needed because the P&R Department was absorbed into the Community Services Department, a department created during the tenure of former mayor Richard K. Sullivan.
The Community Services Department was created by combining the P&R, Council On Aging and Veterans’ departments. Ann Marie Heiser, then the P&R director, was appointed to head the new Community Services Department, pulling the director’s position out of the P&R Department structure.
Heiser left city employment more than three years ago to take a post in Virginia.
The Community Services Department was created through ordinances approved by the City Council.
The council has already approved ordinances to separate the Council on Aging and the Veterans’ Services departments, but has yet to act on the P&R Department, which still does not have a director’s position or funding
“There are a lot of issues to be hashed out about the structure of the department,” Knapik said. “I’d like to have it corrected by July. I have asked the commission to develop a proposal for restructuring.”
“The department has had an interesting evolution over the past decade.”
That evolution includes rolling the P&R Department laborers into the Department of Public Works early in the decade. The department then consisted of a director, program coordinator and clerk.
The department was then reduced to a program director and clerk when the director’s position was pulled into the Community Services Department. Jim Blascak has been performing both the duties of director and program coordinator.
P&R Chairman Ken Magarian said this morning that the Reorganization Subcommittee was formed to push the issue forward.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time, nearly four years,” Magarian said. “We’ve been without a director ever since Ann Marie left. We need that full-time position back.”
“We have so much going on,” Magarian said. “We have the (Park Square) Green coming back on-line, new parks associated with the (Great River) bridge project, just so much opportunity.”
“Right now Jim is working 60-hour weeks. We can’t ask him to work 80 hours a week, we need that second position,” he said. “I know it’s not the opportune time to ask the city for funding, but we have to do something.”
The restructured department, with a budget to reflect that structure, would be included in Knapik’s 2013 budget, if he feels the additional funding is justified.
The City Council would also have to revise city ordinance to support the restructuring of the department.
