City Commission to consider consultant contract for Park and Rec review
City Commissioners will be asked during their Oct. 7 meeting to approve a $94,792 contract with Matrix Consulting Group for a comprehensive free study, cost allocation plan and operational efficiency review of the Great Falls Park and Recreation Department.
City officials have been discussing the finances and fee structures within the Park and Rec department for years, an issue exacerbated by the operating deficit at Aim High Big Sky, the indoor aquatic and recreation facility that opened last summer.
In June, the city issued a request for proposals for an assessment of the department’s fees, costs and operational efficiency. The review will include programming, membership, rentals, admission fees, maintenance and other service-related charges.
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The cost allocation plan is to develop a model “that accurately reflects and recovers both direct and indirect costs for the department and the city. The operational review will assess workflows, staffing structure and “opportunities for consolidation of maintenance and support functions. The goal is to enhance coordination, optimize resource utilization, and improve overall departmental efficiency,” according to the city.
The city received six responses.
An internal committee reviewed the responses based on “methodology, qualifications, community engagement strategy, operational analysis, cost of services, and examples of prior work. Following this evaluation, three firms were invited to participate in follow-up interviews with the selection committee. These interviews provided an opportunity for each firm to elaborate on their approach to the RFP, present their methodology, and outline their process for delivering findings and engaging in post-contract follow-up,” according to city staff.
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California-based Matrix Consulting Group’s proposal was mid-range on cost and “reflected a strong grasp of cost recovery principles, fee structure analysis, and organizational review. Notably, the proposal emphasized community engagement as a key priority. Matrix Consulting offered multiple strategies for gathering input from Great Falls residents beyond standard digital surveys, demonstrating a commitment to inclusive and comprehensive data collection,” according to staff.
The study will be funded through the Park Special Revenues account.
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Park and Rec is currently without a director as the former director, Steve Herrig, resigned at the end of April.
City Manager Greg Doyon told commissioners in August that the city had received about 60 applicants and three made it to interviews, but he was going to readvertise for the position, which is currently posted with a salary range of $130,000 to $150,000.
Doyon said the position has a specific need and skillset and the city needs someone in the position who has good business sense for upcoming budgeting due to legislative changes and funding constraints.
He said he wants to get Park and Rec out of the “victim mentality” since public safety is a priority and resources are dwindling.
It’s not that Park and Rec isn’t important, Doyon said, but the city has to prioritize needs.
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The current city budget includes a $91,000 increase to the parks budget for watering due to the city’s utility increase that commissioners approved June 3.
The proposed budget includes general fund subsidies of:
- $100,000 for Aim High rec center
- $80,000 for swimming pools
- $100,000 for Civic Center events
During summer budget meetings, Doyon said that he’d emailed commissioners in November 2024 that they needed to start talking about budget priorities and use of general fund dollars. He said he told them they needed to consider whether a service, program or fund was considered essential or nice but not necessary.
“I know that is offensive,” Doyon said in June, as all departments add value, but some are absolutely essential for the city to function and commissioners needed to review whether other entities could provide those services or if the city could generate revenue in other ways, plus what criteria should be used in deciding general fund allocations to those services.
It “gets tough,” Doyon said.
Commissioners had some work sessions in the meantime, discussing nonperforming funds and staff outlined their efforts to bring those funds back into performance in a May 9 memo.
That memo includes nine city funds that have been called a number of things over the last decade, but essentially are not generating enough money to cover expenses and in some instances have required general fund subsidies.
One of those funds is the city golf fund, which has struggled for years, at one point owing the general fund about $1 million.
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The fund now owes the general fund $678,251, bringing the deficit down since CourseCo, a private company, assumed management of the two municipal courses in 2019.
In January, commissioners voted to extend their management agreement contract with CourseCo for another five years. That agreement includes a requirement to pay off the remaining debt to the general fund. It also sets aside funds annually for deferred maintenance and other capital improvements.
The fund currently has a cash balance of $356,412 due to proceeds from the Pasta Montana property sale, which staff is using to reduce the general fund debt to $321,839.
Other park and rec funds will be addressed in the operations and fee study, for which the city released a request for proposals on June 23.
The city is planning to sell the former recreation center on 2nd Avenue North, which was closed last summer as the Aim High Big Sky Recreation Center opened and has been leased to a private operator.
Doyon said for years that he would close that facility when the new pool opened, consolidating it and the former Natatorium into one facility, and that the city may need to sell the building depending on finances.
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This fall, Doyon said he recommended selling the building with a minimum price of $800,000 through a public bidding process with the sale awarded to the highest bidder, contingent on a four-fifths affirmative commission vote.
Proceeds from the sale would be used to pay off cash deficits of $115,031 in the recreation fund and $64,031 in the Multi-Sports fund.
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Any remaining funds could be used to replenish the swimming pool fund, “which took a significant hit after the opening of the Aim High Big Sky Recreation Center,” according to staff’s May 9 memo, since $180,000 was transferred from the pools fund to the new Aim High center for startup cash flow and a portion of the pool’s general fund subsidy was diverted to Aim High.
The proceeds from the old recreation center sale will be one time funds and should not be used for ongoing operations, staff wrote in their memo.
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The Aim High center had a cash deficit of $155,910 as of March 31 and revenues were $335,154 under expenses.
Operation of the Aim High facility will be a primary focus of the park and rec operations and fee study, according to staff, but it wouldn’t be completed in time for the budget that began July 1 and additional general fund support was required.
Doyon said during the June 26 budget meeting the study will be used to determine if the city can continue operating the pool or will need to hire a private contractor as it did for the golf courses.
Local governments are limited on how they can set user fees and the center was established to be accessible to residents, but the city is still evaluating whether it can support itself, Doyon said.
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The city was granted a $10 million Defense Department grant toward the facility that the city matched with $10 million.
The Multi-Sports complex has been a challenge for years, Doyon said, and external users will likely need to pay more or find alternate locations, or there may be a reduction in fields. One option could be an entity leases its own field.
The existing model isn’t working, Doyon said, and it is being reviewed through the park and rec operations study.
In the case of these troubled funds, Doyon said in June that commissioners had agreed to muddle through for awhile as they weren’t prepared to eliminate those programs or services, and staff will adjust operations as best they can, but some services won’t ever meet resident expectations.
Eliminating services is a political decision, Doyon said, and he’d seen commission after commission wrestle with that idea when he’d recommended shuttering properties or services before, but commissioners didn’t do it, as “eliminating desired services is a tough balance to achieve,” and services, while expensive, are valued by the community.
Doyon mentioned that the city could look at selling underutilized parkland or parking lots, both discussions that have been had in various iterations over at least the last 12 years.
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He said he was quite certain he’d hear from community members about floating that idea.
Former Mayor Mike Winters suggested selling underutilized parkland roughly a decade ago and community members were strongly opposed to the move that went no further.
During a May work session, Mayor Cory Reeves said he was “really passionate about developing undeveloped parkland and getting some housing in there. People are gonna lose their marbles.”
City staff have said in numerous meetings and Doyon reiterated the point during the budget work session that housing is needed, but it typically doesn’t add much to the tax base.
Over the summer, Doyon directed city staff to review the existing code and clarifying the process for selling, leasing or transferring any parkland, an issue highlighted by a request from Toby’s House over the summer to use a portion of Carter Park. That request was later withdrawn as the organization found an alternative location.
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Doyon said during the June 26 budget work session that if the city were to eliminate the Park and Recreation department to give more funding to public safety, it would have a significant impact to parks, facilities, programming and general quality of life.
“Can you imagine if we had non-maintained park areas of the city,” Doyon said.
It would invite vandalism, gophers, unmaintained open space and reduce recreational outlets for all ages, which would have an impact on recruiting employees to existing or potential businesses in the community, Doyon said, if those green spaces weren’t maintained and there were few desirable amenities.
Doyon said, “I can’t imagine the impact on law enforcement,” if city parks weren’t maintained, as they’d become attractive nuisances, increasing patrol’s workload and ability to effectively patrol.
Commissioner Tryon requested a look at the budget with no tax increases.
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Staff laid out three scenarios during the June meeting of what the budget would look like if commissioners cut costs.
Staff recommended none of the scenarios.
In one scenario, the city would cut about $4.8 million from the budget, effectively eliminating the Park and Rec department, severely limiting natural resources, likely closing neighborhood pools and limiting other operations; it would also cut planning department positions and eliminate Civic Center events.
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In a second scenario, without the inflationary factor, a substantial portion of Park and Rec would be cut, including some trails, likely closing neighborhood pools, limiting other operations and impacting programming.
That scenario, without the inflationary factor, would include a $443,000 cut.
A third scenario would include a $457,000 reduction, cutting four of the five current patrol vacancies at the Great Falls Police Department.
Word of those potential budget scenarios got around and The Electric received several messages over the summer from city staff asking if their department was being cut or if rumors of cuts were true.
Tryon said he appreciated staff putting together the document showing how cuts would impact actual people and positions.
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“If you’re not going to take a little bit of an inflationary increase on property,” Tryon said. “There’s a price for that.”
He said looking at cuts to Park and Rec, “I sort of doubt that people want that. Does the public want that, I don’t think they do.”
The scenarios laid out the costs and it was “good to just see it,” Tryon said.
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