Petition Requesting Extension of Existing Contract Through 2019 (January 2011)
This petition was presented to the Essex Junction Prudential Committee on January 10, 2011 and to the Essex Junction Trustees on January 11, 2011. It reads as follows:
"Dear Essex Junction Prudential Committee and Village of Essex Junction Board of Trustees: We, the undersigned taxpayers/residents of the Village of Essex Junction, request that the Essex Junction Prudential Committee and the Village of Essex Junction Board of Trustees honor the history of success of the Essex Junction Recreation and Parks Department and preserve the current governance structure under the Essex Junction School District. We request that all existing agreements, ordinances, and relationships be maintained. We request that no more time, effort, energy, meetings or tax payer money be spent debating Essex Junction Recreation and Parks governance and that the Essex Junction Prudential Committee continues to provide administration and oversight of the parks, personnel, and programs. Further we request that, without any changes, the existing contract between the two entities which expires on June 30, 2011, is renewed at least through 2019, when the bond debt is paid off."
The orignial petition and signatures (812+) can be viewed below.
Petition Requesting a Governance Change (August 2010) & Counter Points
Village resident Joyce Stannard authored the petition which asks for a governance change and cites nine assertions why municipal governance would be better than school. Here are the nine assertions and nine counter points authored by the Recreational Advisory Council to demonstrate another perspective.
| Petition Assertions | Another Perspective | |
| 1. Potential savings in tax dollars and better financial oversight in the future via local government. Currently CCSU charges the recreation department $83,000 a year to process payroll, accounts receivable/payable. The cost may be considerably higher when all data is received. | Services provided by CCSU includes financial oversight, payroll, human resources, maintenance support, accounting and information technology as well as limited support in the areas of curriculum, student support and legal services. There may be a nominal decrease in expenses for CCSU if they no longer administered EJRP. However, it is unknown what the costs of administering EJRP would be under Village governance. | |
| 2. The Village of Essex Junction owns the parks land it makes sense to have the Village manage recreation and parks dept. | EJRP has been administered by CCSU on behalf of the school district for 40 years. The facilities, programs, and debt belong to Essex Junction School District. Voters continually pass the recreation budget with no objections. There has been no tax increase for 8 years. | |
| 3. Under local government there would be oversight of activities/projects planned for our village parks. No more surprises of ripping out ball fields etc. | There is plenty of oversight with the current governance structure. A volunteer Recreation Advisory Council, representing a cross section of the community, meets monthly to advise and develop EJRP. The director is supervised by the Executive Director of Operations / Chief Financial Officer of CCSU. The Prudential Committee, elected by the Village taxpayers, has ultimate oversight of EJRP. The Village Trustees must approve permits for significant land improvements. Annually, Village taxpayers vote on the Rec. budget and capital plan. | |
| 4. School department’s core mission is education-not recreation. Schools must focus on education. | Schools and EJRP have similar goals of offering educational, extracurricular and athletic opportunities. Schools do this with youth, while EJRP does this with the entire community - children, adults and senior citizens. Rec. programming is closely connected to educational programs and supplements and compliments school curricula | |
| 5. Transfer of EJRP to municipal government would be a transparent (no effect) move to users of recreation and parks in EJ. No personnel/staff or program changes. | This is speculative and unknown. To simply state that this is going to be easy is irresponsible. A transfer of governance is extremely unpredictable and there are many questions that need to be answered. | |
| 6. Essex Junction is the only full-service community in the state that doesn’t have its parks and rec dept. under municipal government. |
This is not true. Our state capital, Montpelier, has a recreation department that is run by their school district and there are other ways that recreation is administered in towns. The Randolph recreational programs, pool, and ice rink are owned by the Town but operated by the Boys & Girls Club of White River Valley. Recently, St. Johnsbury Academy has offered to take over the recreation department in St. Johnsbury from the selectboard. In some cases, multiple communities share their park services by creating recreation districts, such as the Jericho Underhill Park District and the Winooski Valley Park District. Additionally, Essex Junction is not a full-service community. Some services are not managed by the Village, and are provided by or shared with the Town, like the Assessor’s Office and police department. We also have a separate water and sewer district, as well as a regional transportation authority. Our recreation department is so successful because it has tremendous community support and solid leadership. Additionally, a separate rec budget allows the department to thrive because revenue generated by EJRP is used for rec related purposes only and cannot be used for other municipal expenses. |
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| 7. EJRP belongs with other Essex Junction departments managed by municipal government, i.e., EJ Fire Dept., EJ Library, EJ Planning, EJ Zoning, EJ Public Works, EJ wastewater, and EJ administration. | Considering the services that EJRP provides and the fact that 40% of the Department’s programming is sited in the schools, EJRP has more in common with the day-to-day operations of the school district (creating and evaluating programs, continuing education, operating public and athletic facilities, working with families and kids) than the municipality. There are advantages of collaborating with principals, athletic directors, IT personnel, administrators, guidance counselors, and teachers. Municipalities (Village) are primarily responsible for providing infrastructure and basic services. |
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| 8. The Village enacts ordinances and zoning regulations which govern the park lands. Makes sense to also have EJRP under Village governance. | The Village enacts ordinances and zoning regulations which affect all businesses, residences and individuals. These ordinances and regulations apply to EJRP now, and always will, regardless of who the governing entity is. | |
| 9. It’s a known fact that if the legislature forces schools to consolidate, the Essex Junction School District would have to give up governance of the rec and parks dept. to the municipal government. Let’s do it now rather than later. | If change is mandated due to merger of the Village and Town municipalities or unification of local school districts, the community would have ample time to plan for either of these changes. Any transfer of governance for any other reason should result in a demonstrated gain in efficiency, improved delivery of programs and services, or a significant savings to the taxpayer. There is no crisis or evidence that warrants immediate change. Our recreation department is highly successful – one of the best in the state. |