Audit Zings Parks & Rec Management Practices
Multiple Weaknesses Highlighted in July Report
By Dave Felice
After many years of controversies and several executive directors in Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department, an audit released in July sharply criticizes the agency’s management practices.
“…Our audit revealed that DPR needs to improve contract administration practices,” City Auditor Tim O’Brien noted in the report. “Specifically, DPR does not have formalized and up-to-date policies and procedures and roles and responsibilities are unclear. DPR also lacks controls to ensure reliability and accuracy of information entered into the contract administration system.
“In addition, controls related to on-call contracts need to be enhanced and DPR is also at risk of losing institutional knowledge at the management level owing to a lack of segregation of duties and documentation surrounding contract decision making. Contract administration weaknesses identified negatively impact DPR’s ability to properly manage contracts.”
Denver’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is one of the city’s largest departments, providing programs, services, facilities, and park amenities serving more than a million residents and visitors each year.
The department is currently headed by Executive Director Allegra “Happy” Haynes, who oversees approximately 240 urban parks, parkways, and natural areas, covering nearly 6,000 acres.
The department also has 14,000 acres of mountain parks, eight golf courses, 24 lakes, more than 80 miles of trails, 10 off-leash dog parks, 309 athletic fields, 27 recreation centers, and 29 indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
“Through stronger controls for contract administration and addressing concerns regarding DPR’s current management structure, DPR can ensure that contracts are effectively managed and continuity of operations is not affected as a result of executive management turnover,” O’Brien summarized, in the audit.
Community activists and longtime critics of the department responded with calls for accountability. Larry Ambrose, a community activist and former president of the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation, called for the resignation of DPR Director of Finance and Administration Fred Weiss.
“If ever there were an opportunity to call for the resignation of an entrenched bureaucrat, it is now,” Ambrose said.
“The audit demonstrates the dysfunction of Parks and Recreation,” said Tom Morris, a long-time parks advocate.
Much of the difficulty cited in the audit is based on DPR structure of putting both contract administration and finance functions in the same division, headed by Weiss. “Oversight of both of these functions are assigned to one individual (and) this arrangement decreases the transparency of the activities,” states the audit.
The audit highlighted a lack of policy for contingency and succession planning. With “the inevitable departures of key staff members at the highest level … DPR will not be positioned to transfer knowledge between leadership and staff in day-to-day contract administration activities.”
Meeting with the audit committee for the presentation of the audit, Weiss defended the parks department practices, noting that many of the contracts are not subject to complex technical details. He says the department disagrees with the conclusion that procedures on the number and size of contracts need to be enhanced.
In other instances, DPR agreed with audit recommendations, including the need for succession planning, development of policies on contract administration, and more clearly defined roles and responsibilities. However, the Parks Department disagreed that Executive Director Haynes should separate administration and finance functions.
In a written statement, City Councilman Christopher J. Herndon, MPA, who repre-sents Park Hill, thanked O’Brien for the audit.
“I appreciate all the good work Auditor Tim O’Brien does in ensuring our agencies are functioning as efficiently as possible. I’m pleased to see Denver Parks and Recreation is implementing some of the recommendations from the latest audit in an effort to continue improving how we serve our citizens.”