WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 Eddie, I'll go ahead and read it. 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:04.020 Thank you. 00:00:04.020 --> 00:00:11.960 Work session A PRB21-036, receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the beneficiary 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:18.820 of service workshop with 110% reviewing the smart approach to cost recovery. 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.760 Thank you. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:23.900 I'll go ahead and kick it off. 00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:29.980 So if you remember over the past, I guess, two and a half years, we've been working on 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:37.420 resource allocation, subsidy, cost recovery initiatives for the department. 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:41.860 We had approved that last, I guess, January of 2020. 00:00:41.860 --> 00:00:43.800 And then COVID hit. 00:00:43.800 --> 00:00:48.760 So things just kind of went to the side at that point in time. 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.720 But this the earlier this year, we kicked off another process with with Jamie Spock 00:00:54.720 --> 00:01:01.100 and 110% in regards to a similar process, but a little bit of a different kind of view 00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:02.460 and approach to it. 00:01:02.460 --> 00:01:07.380 So we want to try to use all the tools that are available to us to identify ways that 00:01:07.380 --> 00:01:12.300 we can operate smarter, be more aggressive in certain areas for revenue generation and 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:17.540 make sure that we're really pricing ourselves in an appropriate manner based on really the 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:24.700 needs and desires of the city and the leadership, whether it's staff, boards as yourself, as 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:25.820 well as city council. 00:01:25.820 --> 00:01:31.020 So Jamie is going to run us through some discussion and some exercise through the through that's 00:01:31.020 --> 00:01:36.660 part of this cohort that we're in and I want to take the the joint excitement away from 00:01:36.660 --> 00:01:37.660 Jamie. 00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:41.700 So I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Jamie. 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:42.700 Appreciate that, Gary. 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:43.700 Thank you. 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:44.700 And I appreciate all of your time this evening. 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:46.900 I'm going to do a quick audio check. 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.220 Jerry, I'm looking at you. 00:01:48.220 --> 00:01:50.700 Can you give me a thumbs up that sounds good? 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:51.700 All right. 00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:52.780 Terrific. 00:01:52.780 --> 00:01:56.700 As Gary mentioned, I'm Jamie Sabak, I'll get into a bit of my background here in a moment 00:01:56.700 --> 00:02:02.860 concerning my obviously facilitation and leadership of this process from the consulting end. 00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:07.900 But I certainly want to, again, extend my appreciation to all of you this evening. 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:16.840 We often, of course, as you know, have a lot of connection with staff, but we very much 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:21.260 appreciate and value the opportunity to meet at any time with representative community 00:02:21.260 --> 00:02:25.880 members as we go through an exercise around cost recovery. 00:02:25.880 --> 00:02:28.860 Can you go to the next slide, please? 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:34.060 So we're here tonight, of course, as you know, to engage in this rather abbreviated work 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:39.060 session, we simply call it the beneficiary of service work session, and we're going to 00:02:39.060 --> 00:02:44.020 get into some activity in the latter part of this presentation, but I want to set the 00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:48.600 stage with just giving you a bit of a backstory and some context regarding this process in 00:02:48.600 --> 00:02:52.660 particular and the approach that this organization is taking. 00:02:52.660 --> 00:02:55.540 We have been leading cost recovery efforts in the US. 00:02:55.540 --> 00:02:59.060 We've worked in 40 of the 50 US states as well as Canada over the last 10 years and 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:02.900 really carved our lane in this area of cost recovery. 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:05.660 And frankly, we think about it a bit differently. 00:03:05.660 --> 00:03:10.820 And we think about it in terms of local park and recreation systems and local government's 00:03:10.820 --> 00:03:15.020 commitment to financial discipline and financial responsibility. 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:19.540 As you all know, and as Gary just mentioned, we all one of the probably the few times in 00:03:19.540 --> 00:03:22.940 our history, we will all have been experiencing the same thing. 00:03:22.940 --> 00:03:29.020 And of course, that was a pandemic, a lot of social unrest and a public health crisis, 00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:30.020 frankly. 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:35.400 And so in 2020, all organizations, frankly, had to rethink how they did business. 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:40.640 And we among the many pivoted, if you will, and we had to adapt to the new reality that 00:03:40.640 --> 00:03:42.420 we were in the midst of. 00:03:42.420 --> 00:03:46.980 And so while we were doing comprehensive cost recovery projects, which takes six to nine 00:03:46.980 --> 00:03:49.180 months, they're very immersive, very intensive. 00:03:49.180 --> 00:03:54.840 We work with a board such as yourself, councils, community representatives, as well as staff. 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:57.580 We had to create a more accessible and affordable approach. 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:00.540 And we called it very simply a virtual cohort. 00:04:00.540 --> 00:04:06.120 And the cohorts are an opportunity for organizations of similar size in the same geographic region 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:11.860 to work alongside one another, as well as partnering with us in these efforts. 00:04:11.860 --> 00:04:17.180 You can see this particular cohort consists of, of course, Denton, Texas, as well as Loveland, 00:04:17.180 --> 00:04:21.940 Colorado, New Braunfels, Texas, and Parker, Colorado Parks, Recreation and Open Space. 00:04:21.940 --> 00:04:27.460 And since July, we've had 41 organizations sign on to do this work out of 10 different 00:04:27.460 --> 00:04:28.460 states. 00:04:28.460 --> 00:04:29.760 So it's really created some momentum. 00:04:29.760 --> 00:04:35.680 And I think, frankly, as much excitement as can be created around cost recovery as any 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:37.580 process can. 00:04:37.580 --> 00:04:40.700 But we feel very privileged to work alongside these four organizations. 00:04:40.700 --> 00:04:42.940 And I'm not saying this just because you're on the line. 00:04:42.940 --> 00:04:47.740 But I will tell you that this has really become the standard bearer cohort. 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:52.580 Denton, Loveland, New Braunfels, and Parker have really been exemplary in terms of partners 00:04:52.580 --> 00:04:56.740 to go along with us in this journey, if you will. 00:04:56.740 --> 00:05:01.580 Next slide. 00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:07.740 So a team of five have worked either out front with your staff or have been behind the scenes, 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:12.140 if you will, Eric Perrone, Allison Smith, Nick Venditti in the top, Carol Butler in 00:05:12.140 --> 00:05:17.460 the bottom left, and myself, I'm Jamie Sabak, who have all been working with the staff to 00:05:17.460 --> 00:05:23.940 facilitate, lead, and, you know, if you will, journey through this exercise. 00:05:23.940 --> 00:05:28.820 Real quickly, we've got quite a bit of practical experience as well as obviously experience 00:05:28.820 --> 00:05:30.500 in this particular area. 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:34.500 I myself have been in the public park and rec space over 30 years, 20 as a practicing 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:35.860 park and rec professional. 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:40.300 My last professional position was a superintendent for the city of Boulder, Colorado, park and 00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:41.300 recreation system. 00:05:41.300 --> 00:05:46.060 And the last 11 years, I've spent some time in higher education, as well as, of course, 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:47.980 serving as a consultant in the field. 00:05:47.980 --> 00:05:52.540 And as I mentioned, we've really carved out our lane and we focus completely on this type 00:05:52.540 --> 00:05:53.540 of work. 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:54.540 Next slide, please. 00:05:54.540 --> 00:05:57.540 So our agenda this evening is pretty straightforward. 00:05:57.540 --> 00:06:01.700 I'm going to do my best to honor the 75 minutes that have been granted with you. 00:06:01.700 --> 00:06:05.940 I'm going to spend probably about 30, 35 minutes getting into some of the details concerning 00:06:05.940 --> 00:06:10.660 why is this work so incredibly important to our space today, of course, the local government 00:06:10.660 --> 00:06:11.660 in general. 00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:14.820 But more importantly, I'm going to share with you the methodology and the process that we 00:06:14.820 --> 00:06:15.820 use. 00:06:15.820 --> 00:06:18.900 And then I'm going to hit a quick pause and ask if you have any thoughts, comments, questions 00:06:18.900 --> 00:06:24.260 for me before we actually get into the second part of our time together this afternoon, 00:06:24.260 --> 00:06:27.260 this evening, which is the beneficiary service exercise. 00:06:27.260 --> 00:06:30.500 I'll share with you what next steps are, and then we'll close with additional thoughts, 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:32.760 comments, questions that you may have of me. 00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:35.020 Next slide, please. 00:06:35.020 --> 00:06:36.020 So we start here. 00:06:36.020 --> 00:06:40.580 And what I'm sharing with you, we shared with the staff as we kicked this process off. 00:06:40.580 --> 00:06:45.220 While we call this the smart approach to cost recovery, and our profession has gravitated 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:50.180 to the term or the terminology cost recovery over the last three decades, for us, it's 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:53.460 a much bigger, much broader 30,000 foot exercise. 00:06:53.460 --> 00:06:58.580 And it's really about how park and recreation systems and professionals in particular think 00:06:58.580 --> 00:07:03.420 about how they're going to manage the finite fiscal resources we have available to us. 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:07.060 In the '80s and '90s, we were speaking in terms of limited resources. 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:09.940 And today, the rhetoric, if you will, has changed. 00:07:09.940 --> 00:07:12.940 And we're now speaking in terms of finite resources. 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:17.380 We start asking ourselves, how do we rather than asking for more of what doesn't exist, 00:07:17.380 --> 00:07:20.240 best use what we have available to us? 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:23.140 And for us, again, this is an exercise in financial discipline. 00:07:23.140 --> 00:07:27.820 And for many organizations, this is their commitment to continuing to be financially 00:07:27.820 --> 00:07:32.620 disciplined while some today are actually now saying, OK, this is the moment in time 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:35.940 where we really have to get serious about this kind of work. 00:07:35.940 --> 00:07:38.420 Next slide, please. 00:07:38.420 --> 00:07:43.620 So we set the stage with every professional we work with by just simply asking them to 00:07:43.620 --> 00:07:48.740 ask themselves a bit of a rhetorical question, but at the same time, really charge them with 00:07:48.740 --> 00:07:50.020 answering this question. 00:07:50.020 --> 00:07:53.220 And that is whether or not we're smart about managing money. 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:57.940 And clearly, we're speaking in terms of smart about managing and investing and spending 00:07:57.940 --> 00:07:59.500 taxpayer resources. 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:03.980 If we've worked in this industry, we understand that we've been privileged to be the stewards 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:05.620 of other people's resources. 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:07.740 It's not our checkbook, essentially. 00:08:07.740 --> 00:08:11.900 So we set the stage by asking folks to ask and answer this question, because it does 00:08:11.900 --> 00:08:16.460 become a pillar, if you will, of this process and this exercise. 00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:18.180 Next slide, please. 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:20.940 In addition, common language is incredibly important. 00:08:20.940 --> 00:08:25.500 I've been in this field for a very long time, and unfortunately, more often than not, I 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:30.580 see professionals and I hear professionals conflate cost recovery with things that it 00:08:30.580 --> 00:08:32.380 actually is not. 00:08:32.380 --> 00:08:35.500 We need to understand what cost recovery really represents. 00:08:35.500 --> 00:08:36.500 Next slide, please. 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:41.180 And that is it's simply the recovery, if you will, or the offsetting of the cost associated 00:08:41.180 --> 00:08:42.380 with delivering services. 00:08:42.380 --> 00:08:46.700 Now, some organizations may say, well, we're going to recover a portion, a percentage of 00:08:46.700 --> 00:08:48.300 our overall expenses. 00:08:48.300 --> 00:08:52.260 Well, others might suggest that there are some services that we need to recover all 00:08:52.260 --> 00:08:54.460 of the costs associated with. 00:08:54.460 --> 00:08:58.740 And maybe in some cases, we want to generate excess revenue, so we'll have an excess cost 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:04.300 recovery expectation simply because it allows us to reinvest in our own systems. 00:09:04.300 --> 00:09:06.300 Maybe it's to take care of our infrastructure. 00:09:06.300 --> 00:09:09.140 Maybe it's to address inequities in our community. 00:09:09.140 --> 00:09:14.620 But the reality is cost recovery is not solely conversation or an exercise in diminishing 00:09:14.620 --> 00:09:15.660 service menus. 00:09:15.660 --> 00:09:18.260 It's not about pricing people out of the market. 00:09:18.260 --> 00:09:22.860 It's simply a philosophical underpinning for how we're going to invest, again, taxpayer 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:23.860 resources. 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:25.060 Next slide, please. 00:09:25.060 --> 00:09:28.260 Alternatively, we need to understand what subsidy is and what it's not. 00:09:28.260 --> 00:09:34.620 And if we think about it in a very broad stroke or through a broad stroke lens, it's taxpayer 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:35.620 resources. 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:36.620 Next slide, please. 00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:41.700 But we also understand, and I think this has become a more granular conversation today because 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:46.140 of this past year, that subsidy is really a benefit provided by government. 00:09:46.140 --> 00:09:51.220 We make choices to provide this benefit to certain populations, certain interest groups, 00:09:51.220 --> 00:09:52.440 what have you. 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:57.300 But it's intended to be a subsidy provided to remove some kind of burden, often considered 00:09:57.300 --> 00:10:02.160 in the overall interest of the public, and given to promote a social good, affect a common 00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:04.700 good or an economic policy. 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:09.220 And as organizations and professionals go through this work, it begins to crystallize 00:10:09.220 --> 00:10:13.860 and begins to poke the barrel a bit about whether or not we've been investing in the 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:17.300 subsidy resources in the most responsible, effective way. 00:10:17.300 --> 00:10:21.260 As we think about it, are we investing subsidy dollars in the best way so that we can have 00:10:21.260 --> 00:10:24.060 the greatest impact on our communities? 00:10:24.060 --> 00:10:27.620 Or simply, are we doing things as we have been doing them? 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:32.940 So again, these become very important definitions, terms for us to understand, and they really 00:10:32.940 --> 00:10:37.220 set the stage for this work, and I think they crystallize the importance of this work at 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:38.220 the same time. 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:40.020 Next slide, please. 00:10:40.020 --> 00:10:43.380 I also think it's very important to provide some context. 00:10:43.380 --> 00:10:48.700 I believe that all of you would agree that history is the best teacher that we have, 00:10:48.700 --> 00:10:53.700 and when I started teaching in higher education, I became a better student of our world and 00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:55.340 our profession. 00:10:55.340 --> 00:10:56.500 And next slide, please. 00:10:56.500 --> 00:11:00.340 So it's important for us to understand that our profession was built on the backs of public 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:03.820 lands, open space, access. 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:09.100 When we were created, if you will, our foundations were public spaces. 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:11.740 Boston Common was the first public land in the U.S. 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:15.940 It was intended to be accessible for all, and we know that there were many marginalized 00:11:15.940 --> 00:11:22.060 populations in 1634, but the nobility was that I could go into this park, I could self-direct 00:11:22.060 --> 00:11:23.060 my activity. 00:11:23.060 --> 00:11:26.460 I didn't need a local park and rec system to do that for me. 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:32.420 I didn't have a yoga class in the park, or there wasn't a playground here or a recreation 00:11:32.420 --> 00:11:36.740 facility, and so this became the birthplace of our profession. 00:11:36.740 --> 00:11:41.180 And over time, we evolved like everything else. 00:11:41.180 --> 00:11:44.500 Late forward 200 years, the National Park Service was established. 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:50.180 The most iconic city park in the U.S. came to life, Central Park in New York City, and 00:11:50.180 --> 00:11:56.340 we started to then see more interest in government-led activities and services. 00:11:56.340 --> 00:12:00.100 Fast forward even a bit more into the earliest 20th century as a result of the Industrial 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:05.060 Revolution, we did see a bit of an expectation that government was going to provide structured 00:12:05.060 --> 00:12:06.660 activities for us. 00:12:06.660 --> 00:12:12.220 Let me leap forward again, and in another 40, 50 years, we started to see more neighborhood 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:17.060 centers and community centers come to life in certain communities, and unfortunately, 00:12:17.060 --> 00:12:20.380 what happened in that moment was government was doing okay, and we started to provide 00:12:20.380 --> 00:12:25.380 more and more services without the expectation that people were going to pay a fee. 00:12:25.380 --> 00:12:29.420 What happened was, however, we started to add to all the physical inventories, our assets, 00:12:29.420 --> 00:12:33.720 our infrastructure, and we weren't necessarily putting money away to take care of those assets 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:34.720 into perpetuity. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:39.960 Fast forward to 2008, we saw the recession, and that was really when our profession began 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:43.380 to think about becoming lean organizations. 00:12:43.380 --> 00:12:46.580 We were expected to do more with less. 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:47.580 Next slide, please. 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:51.940 And where we find ourselves today is truly a profession of something for everyone all 00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:55.580 the time, and we recognize we cannot be that. 00:12:55.580 --> 00:13:00.100 We recognize we're going to have to make difficult decisions about where do we best invest in 00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:03.060 order to have the greatest impact on our communities. 00:13:03.060 --> 00:13:08.980 We also understand that there are far more competitors, frankly, similar service providers 00:13:08.980 --> 00:13:10.380 today than we've ever had before. 00:13:10.380 --> 00:13:15.340 Other public sector organizations, the private sector, and nonprofits are providing similar 00:13:15.340 --> 00:13:20.060 kinds of services to those that public parks and recreation has over time. 00:13:20.060 --> 00:13:24.180 So this is a bit of a tipping point for our profession to begin to understand again that 00:13:24.180 --> 00:13:26.700 we have a set of finite resources. 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:31.300 We have in many cases accumulated significant physical assets, and we've got to figure out 00:13:31.300 --> 00:13:37.660 how do we most responsibly use those taxpayer resources so that we become as financially 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:40.100 disciplined as we possibly can. 00:13:40.100 --> 00:13:42.460 Next slide, please. 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:47.020 So I'm going to share, again, a little bit more context for all of you this evening as 00:13:47.020 --> 00:13:51.660 we set the stage for the importance of this work and the methodology that this organization 00:13:51.660 --> 00:13:54.940 at Denton Parks and Recreation is following in this moment. 00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:59.420 I'm going to share very quickly a couple of research studies that were done in 2017 by 00:13:59.420 --> 00:14:04.700 Penn State University, and they've really become pillars for our profession right now 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:09.860 relative to how we have gotten to where we are and what this may all mean for us moving 00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:10.860 forward. 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:17.940 As these two research studies were considered, and they were led by Andy Mowen at Penn State 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:23.620 University, who was a 20-year park and recreation professional turned academic, he wanted to 00:14:23.620 --> 00:14:28.260 really dive deep into what was the public sector's balance sheet looking like, right? 00:14:28.260 --> 00:14:33.380 Every municipal system, the state systems in our country that represented parks and 00:14:33.380 --> 00:14:37.020 recreation and what he found was what you see on the screen that was representative 00:14:37.020 --> 00:14:41.780 of how the public sector was managing its resources, and I think it's safe to say that 00:14:41.780 --> 00:14:45.780 if all of us looked at this and it was our personal checkbook, it was our personal balance 00:14:45.780 --> 00:14:50.380 sheet, we would hit pause and understand that we were going to have to do things differently. 00:14:50.380 --> 00:14:55.340 But the public sector was expending at a higher rate than it was actually generating revenues, 00:14:55.340 --> 00:14:59.140 and this really opened the door for him to begin thinking about the direction he wanted 00:14:59.140 --> 00:15:01.340 to take these two particular studies. 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:02.780 Next slide, please. 00:15:02.780 --> 00:15:07.980 Very simply, the first he did was really to test the hypothesis whether or not parks and 00:15:07.980 --> 00:15:13.100 recreation was considered an essential service in its community, and while many professionals 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:17.700 believe parks and recreation is essential, we also recognize that not everything we do 00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:22.260 could classify or qualify as essential, meaning a must-have. 00:15:22.260 --> 00:15:27.540 And so he interviewed many folks just like you, policymakers, advisory board members 00:15:27.540 --> 00:15:29.820 representing communities across the country. 00:15:29.820 --> 00:15:35.380 He and his graduate assistants interviewed over 810 individuals from different states 00:15:35.380 --> 00:15:39.780 and different places within the U.S., and what you see on the screen is a very simple 00:15:39.780 --> 00:15:43.180 snapshot of the results of what he heard. 00:15:43.180 --> 00:15:47.980 Ninety-five percent of folks personally used their local park areas, while 99 percent agreed 00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:51.580 that their communities benefited from local park areas. 00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:55.180 These local government officials said that parks and recreation was indeed a solution 00:15:55.180 --> 00:15:59.500 to some of their top issues, you know, the things that they were concerned about, things 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:04.620 like preventing youth crime or promoting community quality of life, but they were less likely 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:08.940 to view parks and recreation as a contribution to their number one concern, which was attracting 00:16:08.940 --> 00:16:09.940 and retaining business. 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:13.980 You know, we think about it very simply as affecting the economy. 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:18.380 So while six and seven of these folks agreed that parks and recreation was well worth the 00:16:18.380 --> 00:16:22.780 investment, right, the taxpayer resources being spent on it, they indicated that parks 00:16:22.780 --> 00:16:27.020 and recreation was likely to be hit with the largest cut in funding when the city, town, 00:16:27.020 --> 00:16:29.540 or county suffered budgetary pressures. 00:16:29.540 --> 00:16:32.620 Again, this was in 2017. 00:16:32.620 --> 00:16:38.340 So this really began to challenge us to think a little bit differently about our place and 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:40.540 the food chain, if you will. 00:16:40.540 --> 00:16:42.340 Next slide, please. 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:45.740 The subsequent study he did, and by the way, if you're really interested in more of the 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:48.480 details of this work, I'm touching on this at a very high level. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:52.660 Both of these studies are available online if you're, you know, interested in digging 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:54.580 into the details a bit. 00:16:54.580 --> 00:16:59.660 But the second study was incredibly profound, and interestingly enough, he titled it The 00:16:59.660 --> 00:17:03.460 Great Recession's Profound Impact on Parks and Recreation. 00:17:03.460 --> 00:17:07.700 And there were a number of things that resulted from this, a number of insights that he and 00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:13.220 his team were able to share with our profession, with all of us. 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:16.980 But one of the things I think is so important for all of us to understand, particularly 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:21.660 our boards and our councils, is what I'm going to share with you on the next slide here. 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:25.500 And there were a number of data points that, again, resulted from this work. 00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:28.220 Next slide, please. 00:17:28.220 --> 00:17:30.700 Including what you'll see on the screen here. 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:34.780 And that is how we were investing or spending our resources. 00:17:34.780 --> 00:17:37.620 You can see this is a bit of an aggregate slide. 00:17:37.620 --> 00:17:42.340 But the suggestion was in the year 2000, we were expending as local park and recreation 00:17:42.340 --> 00:17:45.460 systems $35.5 billion. 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:52.100 And of that total, 66% was being directed to operating, while 33-34% was being directed 00:17:52.100 --> 00:17:53.100 to capital. 00:17:53.100 --> 00:18:00.820 If we fast forward to the belly of the recession, 2008, we were expending almost $41 billion. 00:18:00.820 --> 00:18:05.300 Now you can begin to see the difference in the percentage being directed to operating 00:18:05.300 --> 00:18:08.060 in contrast to what we were spending on capital. 00:18:08.060 --> 00:18:11.540 So we started to shift more of our resources into operating. 00:18:11.540 --> 00:18:13.720 We were reluctant to make reductions. 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:16.500 We were reluctant to reduce services. 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:19.980 We were more willing to defer our maintenance, right? 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.940 Defer infrastructure investments. 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:28.700 And finally, if you look at 2013, and we obviously are, we're all, you know, with bated breath 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:34.320 waiting to see what 2021 is going to look like, but we saw a pretty significant de-escalation 00:18:34.320 --> 00:18:37.480 in expenditures between '08 and 2013. 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.380 We expended $32.5 billion. 00:18:40.380 --> 00:18:46.260 But you see now, we were investing of that portion, or that total, 80% of those revenues, 00:18:46.260 --> 00:18:51.820 those resources rather, not revenues, towards operating, and only 20% into capital. 00:18:51.820 --> 00:18:57.060 This has contributed significantly to the infrastructure crisis in parks and recreation. 00:18:57.060 --> 00:19:03.180 We built, we grew, yet we weren't necessarily thinking about the long-term and how we were 00:19:03.180 --> 00:19:05.740 going to take care of those assets. 00:19:05.740 --> 00:19:10.540 And this has really created some challenging conditions for us as a field, as an industry, 00:19:10.540 --> 00:19:13.260 as a profession across the United States. 00:19:13.260 --> 00:19:18.620 As we're seeing organizations now with 400 million, 500 million, in some cases over a 00:19:18.620 --> 00:19:23.380 billion dollars in maintenance backlog, because they were aggressively growing and building, 00:19:23.380 --> 00:19:26.900 and they weren't considering how they were going to take care of those assets once they 00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:28.580 came online. 00:19:28.580 --> 00:19:34.060 So all of these things have really begun to help us understand, better understand the 00:19:34.060 --> 00:19:39.020 importance of this work, and really set the stakes for the conversations with, again, 00:19:39.020 --> 00:19:43.860 community representatives such as yourselves, council members, and so on, about the critical 00:19:43.860 --> 00:19:47.980 importance of us being very thoughtful and intentional and intelligent in the decisions 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:51.260 we're making in terms of taxpayer investment. 00:19:51.260 --> 00:19:52.260 Next slide, please. 00:19:52.260 --> 00:19:59.820 Now, if we fast forward to today, what we see are a number of analyses, a number of 00:19:59.820 --> 00:20:05.220 surveys and some indicators helping us understand what it is we're in for over the course of 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:07.180 the next couple of years. 00:20:07.180 --> 00:20:13.700 In June of last year, right in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, our National Association, 00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:19.100 the National Recreation and Park Association, started to do some analyses of what was happening 00:20:19.100 --> 00:20:23.500 in our world, across the United States, parks and recreation systems, fiscal realities. 00:20:23.500 --> 00:20:27.980 And you can see some of the data points on the screen, again, suggesting that we were 00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:31.100 going to be in for a bit of a rough ride. 00:20:31.100 --> 00:20:36.380 The one that's most provocative, as it relates to the last slide, again, from 2017, is that 00:20:36.380 --> 00:20:42.020 one in five organizations have zeroed out their capital budgets, and many of those organizations, 00:20:42.020 --> 00:20:45.500 of course, have large inventories of physical assets. 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:48.500 Next slide, please. 00:20:48.500 --> 00:20:56.740 We also were privy to additional surveys, such as the one out of Boston University. 00:20:56.740 --> 00:20:57.740 It's the Menino Survey. 00:20:57.740 --> 00:21:02.900 It's rather popular with the International City County Managers Association. 00:21:02.900 --> 00:21:07.140 You'll notice here on this slide that schools are going to take and expected to take the 00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:11.460 largest reduction while parks and recreation was close behind. 00:21:11.460 --> 00:21:16.140 Next slide, please. 00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:21.460 And then in January, the State of Local Government survey revealed that 68% of those responding 00:21:21.460 --> 00:21:26.140 to the survey expected to see moderate, significant, or major financial adjustments being needed 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:28.620 due to the ongoing pandemic. 00:21:28.620 --> 00:21:29.620 Next slide, please. 00:21:29.620 --> 00:21:36.180 So, again, it really speaks to the importance of this particular type of work in this moment. 00:21:36.180 --> 00:21:40.580 I do want to point out, however, that while many organizations suspect that they're going 00:21:40.580 --> 00:21:45.180 to be challenged from a bottom line perspective, we do have many that have committed to cost 00:21:45.180 --> 00:21:50.900 recovery work, committed to financial discipline, that have remained okay, maybe not as healthy 00:21:50.900 --> 00:21:58.340 as they hope to be, but a neighboring community of yours, Grapevine, Texas, Kevin Mitchell 00:21:58.340 --> 00:22:00.100 is a director there. 00:22:00.100 --> 00:22:04.340 He has committed to cost recovery and he was one of the folks that said, "You know what? 00:22:04.340 --> 00:22:05.740 We don't have to do this work. 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:09.260 We're doing it because we want to stay fiscally healthy." 00:22:09.260 --> 00:22:13.940 So we understand through our work that we've got a continuum of different kinds of agencies' 00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:14.940 realities. 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:19.700 And for those that are really in crisis, the city of Napa was charged six months ago with 00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:23.360 reducing 60, six to zero percent of their budget. 00:22:23.360 --> 00:22:25.900 We have some organizations like Grapevine saying, "You know what? 00:22:25.900 --> 00:22:27.060 We've put reserves away. 00:22:27.060 --> 00:22:31.380 We've been smart all along the way, and we just want to make sure we stay that way." 00:22:31.380 --> 00:22:35.900 And we appreciate the fact that there are all kinds of organizations today gravitating 00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:36.900 to this kind of work. 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:39.780 And of course, that includes Denton Parks and Recreation. 00:22:39.780 --> 00:22:44.340 Next slide, please. 00:22:44.340 --> 00:22:48.620 Just to give you maybe a broader perspective on some of the realities and conditions that 00:22:48.620 --> 00:22:54.580 have been affecting our field for a long time, arguably some of these for two decades that 00:22:54.580 --> 00:22:59.820 have in some ways been compounded based upon the pandemic and social unrest and all of 00:22:59.820 --> 00:23:03.640 the other things we experienced in 2020 and continue to experience. 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:05.220 We know we have economic uncertainty. 00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:07.140 None of us have a crystal ball. 00:23:07.140 --> 00:23:09.460 People are projecting what may or may not happen. 00:23:09.460 --> 00:23:14.060 We've got economists saying 2021 and 2022 are going to be more challenging than 2020 00:23:14.060 --> 00:23:15.240 and others saying, "You know what? 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:18.620 I think we're going to be rebounding here pretty quickly." 00:23:18.620 --> 00:23:21.060 So we don't really know what's going to happen. 00:23:21.060 --> 00:23:25.060 We do recognize we've got increasing disparities and needs in our communities. 00:23:25.060 --> 00:23:30.700 We had that before the pandemic, but now a light has been shown on the fact that inequities 00:23:30.700 --> 00:23:36.700 are a part of every community's reality, in some cases significantly more than others. 00:23:36.700 --> 00:23:40.480 We've got a lack of revenue diversification in parks and recreation in general across 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:41.740 the United States. 00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:46.740 Most of our reliance, of course, is on taxpayer resources, and we just need to simply understand 00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:51.940 that when we have a reliance, a heavy reliance on a particular resource, it increases the 00:23:51.940 --> 00:23:53.900 risk of volatility. 00:23:53.900 --> 00:23:57.560 We have many in our communities who do not understand where their taxpayer dollars go 00:23:57.560 --> 00:23:59.420 and where they may not go. 00:23:59.420 --> 00:24:03.500 We have many that believe that simply by virtue of paying taxes, it entitles them to every 00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:08.220 service that they would like and more without having to pay fees and charges, and we know 00:24:08.220 --> 00:24:10.900 that's not a reality in many communities. 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:16.420 There are, in some cases, unreasonable expectations based upon, again, I pay taxes therefore these 00:24:16.420 --> 00:24:20.940 are the things that I expect and I desire and I demand and I want of local government. 00:24:20.940 --> 00:24:25.860 We have found out through this year in particular, unfortunately, that many systems do not have 00:24:25.860 --> 00:24:27.620 sufficient reserves. 00:24:27.620 --> 00:24:29.100 Many have struggled. 00:24:29.100 --> 00:24:32.460 Some organizations have actually, some parks and rec systems have actually shuttered their 00:24:32.460 --> 00:24:38.860 systems and hopefully that's a temporary reality, but that did happen because of lack of reserves. 00:24:38.860 --> 00:24:42.700 We recognize again that we have incredible maintenance backlog in our field. 00:24:42.700 --> 00:24:48.540 I mentioned $400, $500 billion maintenance backlogs and every day you pay attention to 00:24:48.540 --> 00:24:52.660 what's coming out of our National Association and there's another organization acknowledging 00:24:52.660 --> 00:24:57.540 that, hey, we are in desperation here in terms of taking care of our assets. 00:24:57.540 --> 00:25:01.100 You know, in some communities, we have struggling competitors. 00:25:01.100 --> 00:25:07.340 We also recognize particularly when small, even if there are competitors, small businesses, 00:25:07.340 --> 00:25:13.140 private sector businesses go out of business, it dilutes the very tax base upon which we 00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:14.140 become dependent. 00:25:14.140 --> 00:25:18.140 So how might we think differently about that and then of course our history and the list 00:25:18.140 --> 00:25:19.140 goes on and on. 00:25:19.140 --> 00:25:23.100 But while it might seem a bit doom and gloom for many of us in the field, we recognize 00:25:23.100 --> 00:25:27.420 this is really an opportunity for us to think differently about how we are again investing 00:25:27.420 --> 00:25:28.420 our resources. 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:31.340 Next slide, please. 00:25:31.340 --> 00:25:37.300 So this is an exercise as we see it in connecting reality with policy is how do we help organizations 00:25:37.300 --> 00:25:41.860 connect their conditions and realities with the cost recovery practice and policy that 00:25:41.860 --> 00:25:46.220 they may choose to use as their strategy moving forward. 00:25:46.220 --> 00:25:51.220 Next slide, please. 00:25:51.220 --> 00:25:54.060 I also like to share this slide often. 00:25:54.060 --> 00:25:59.340 Some of the staff here have heard me talk about this probably more than they wish was 00:25:59.340 --> 00:26:00.340 reality. 00:26:00.340 --> 00:26:05.500 Nonetheless, most people in parks and recreation, I believe I've been around the block a long 00:26:05.500 --> 00:26:08.420 time, three decades, I can't believe it. 00:26:08.420 --> 00:26:12.080 And most people that gravitate to this work have big social service hearts, right? 00:26:12.080 --> 00:26:15.140 They want to do good by their community. 00:26:15.140 --> 00:26:20.100 And what we need to understand very simply is in order to do the good work, the necessary 00:26:20.100 --> 00:26:25.420 work, affect community needs in our community today, this becomes a bit of a necessary evil 00:26:25.420 --> 00:26:27.920 for some who don't gravitate to the data, right? 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:31.880 We don't necessarily want to talk about the bottom line, you know, we want to focus on 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:35.020 community need and social good and all of that. 00:26:35.020 --> 00:26:38.460 But simply it's a reminder for us that this is a balancing act. 00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:42.740 In order to do the good work our communities must have of us in this moment, we've got 00:26:42.740 --> 00:26:44.140 to be able to pay the bills, right? 00:26:44.140 --> 00:26:46.180 We've got to be able to write the checks. 00:26:46.180 --> 00:26:52.140 So it becomes a bit of a foundational way of thinking about the importance of this work. 00:26:52.140 --> 00:26:55.580 Next slide, please. 00:26:55.580 --> 00:27:01.100 So I'm going to share just I'm going to take a few minutes additional of your time here 00:27:01.100 --> 00:27:05.220 and go through the methodology so you understand exactly what the staff's been doing. 00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:08.620 And then I'm going to hit pause in a couple of minutes and open the floor for thoughts, 00:27:08.620 --> 00:27:09.620 comments, questions. 00:27:09.620 --> 00:27:14.460 So we use a methodology as we help organizations and we work alongside organizations create 00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:19.900 a cost recovery strategy that can work by using a methodology called the three-legged 00:27:19.900 --> 00:27:20.900 stool. 00:27:20.900 --> 00:27:26.300 It's been evaluated pretty aggressively and intently over the last couple of years. 00:27:26.300 --> 00:27:29.860 And we're happy to say that organizations are seeing a lot of success with it. 00:27:29.860 --> 00:27:35.060 And fundamentally the idea is we follow these three legs in order to create the seat, which 00:27:35.060 --> 00:27:38.820 is to create a tax investment and revenue enhancement philosophy that makes sense for 00:27:38.820 --> 00:27:42.980 organizations, aka a cost recovery strategy. 00:27:42.980 --> 00:27:48.180 I'm going to break each of these down to give you a little bit more detail concerning what 00:27:48.180 --> 00:27:49.180 each means. 00:27:49.180 --> 00:27:52.780 So if you go to the next slide, please, we're going to look at service categories. 00:27:52.780 --> 00:27:55.940 And next slide, please. 00:27:55.940 --> 00:28:01.060 So service categories very simply provide us a different lens through which to see our 00:28:01.060 --> 00:28:02.100 services. 00:28:02.100 --> 00:28:07.300 We break our systems down very traditionally into service areas like those you see on the 00:28:07.300 --> 00:28:09.900 screen in the white font. 00:28:09.900 --> 00:28:13.500 So you sports, we have a sports division, we have a seniors division, we may have a dance 00:28:13.500 --> 00:28:14.900 or performing arts division. 00:28:14.900 --> 00:28:18.180 With parks, of course, we might have events and so on. 00:28:18.180 --> 00:28:21.780 And functionally and operationally, that makes all the sense in the world. 00:28:21.780 --> 00:28:26.340 But when it's come to us determining cost recovery expectation based upon service area, 00:28:26.340 --> 00:28:28.460 it's created some social values challenges. 00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:33.820 And we unfortunately make assumptions based upon how much we think things should cost 00:28:33.820 --> 00:28:38.780 or how much we think people can pay or what cost recovery should be for different service 00:28:38.780 --> 00:28:39.780 areas. 00:28:39.780 --> 00:28:43.220 So to give you a very concrete example, if we look at the little boy on the left, we 00:28:43.220 --> 00:28:47.580 might suggest that while he's participating in a service like T-Bow that falls in you 00:28:47.580 --> 00:28:52.300 sports, and the gentleman in the middle, let's assume for a moment he's an older adult, but 00:28:52.300 --> 00:28:55.220 he's going to take a learn to swim program for the first time in his life. 00:28:55.220 --> 00:28:57.620 Let's assume this is a bucket list item for this guy, right? 00:28:57.620 --> 00:28:58.940 And he just wants to learn how to swim. 00:28:58.940 --> 00:29:00.580 He's always wanted to do it. 00:29:00.580 --> 00:29:03.700 And let's assume for a moment the little girl on the right, she's part of the dance program 00:29:03.700 --> 00:29:06.300 and she's taking an intro to ballet class. 00:29:06.300 --> 00:29:10.340 Well, we have made arbitrary decisions as a profession around what cost recovery is. 00:29:10.340 --> 00:29:16.260 We might say, well, sports is valued highly in our community or hypothetically, the mayor 00:29:16.260 --> 00:29:18.820 in town is the president of the local little league. 00:29:18.820 --> 00:29:22.940 And so we tap dance around what things should be priced at or how much cost recovery should 00:29:22.940 --> 00:29:23.940 be. 00:29:23.940 --> 00:29:27.300 Alternatively, may we say the gentleman in the middle, while he's an older adult, we 00:29:27.300 --> 00:29:31.620 might say, well, we don't want to charge seniors anymore because they're on fixed incomes or 00:29:31.620 --> 00:29:35.700 they'll go to council or we just assume they can't pay. 00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:38.780 And the little girl on the right, we may say, we might assume again, in some communities 00:29:38.780 --> 00:29:43.340 that performing arts tend to attract a more affluent population, therefore we should have 00:29:43.340 --> 00:29:46.080 a higher cost recovery percentage. 00:29:46.080 --> 00:29:50.140 And I'm being somewhat facetious, but this is in many ways how we have determined cost 00:29:50.140 --> 00:29:51.140 recovery. 00:29:51.140 --> 00:29:55.380 And we've pitted, unfortunately, these services against one another rather than thinking about 00:29:55.380 --> 00:29:56.380 them differently. 00:29:56.380 --> 00:29:58.420 Next slide, please. 00:29:58.420 --> 00:30:02.420 So if we start to see these services through the lens of service categories, we start thinking 00:30:02.420 --> 00:30:06.680 about what services do we offer that are similar in purpose. 00:30:06.680 --> 00:30:10.820 And while we had a U sport, t ball program, a learn the swim program, and an intro to 00:30:10.820 --> 00:30:15.060 ballet class, they could fall under these different service areas. 00:30:15.060 --> 00:30:19.020 But the reality is they're all introductory level kinds of activities. 00:30:19.020 --> 00:30:20.420 So the purpose is the same. 00:30:20.420 --> 00:30:23.860 We're trying to introduce people to certain activities. 00:30:23.860 --> 00:30:28.300 And ultimately what that allows us to do is to see them similarly when we start thinking 00:30:28.300 --> 00:30:31.100 about cost recovery expectation. 00:30:31.100 --> 00:30:33.140 Next slide, please. 00:30:33.140 --> 00:30:37.500 Now one of the resources that was provided to you that we're going to be using here just 00:30:37.500 --> 00:30:41.520 in a few minutes to go through the exercise are the service categories that represent 00:30:41.520 --> 00:30:46.400 all of the services provided by Denton Parks and Recreation. 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:49.860 I believe you've got 12 categories here, if I'm not mistaken. 00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:53.900 The average is right around 12 of all the organizations we've worked with over time. 00:30:53.900 --> 00:30:57.580 I will tell you the fewest we've ever seen were nine and that was on behalf of the biggest 00:30:57.580 --> 00:31:02.260 system we've ever worked with, which was Austin Parks and Recreation, who had 12,000 courses, 00:31:02.260 --> 00:31:04.260 classes, events and activities. 00:31:04.260 --> 00:31:08.300 The most we've ever seen was 15 and we've seen it from Milwaukee, we've seen it from 00:31:08.300 --> 00:31:10.340 Oregon City and a few others. 00:31:10.340 --> 00:31:13.540 But I'm going to get into the details of each of these categories here shortly and we're 00:31:13.540 --> 00:31:17.180 going to walk through them very deliberately so that we're all on the same page about what 00:31:17.180 --> 00:31:21.660 the categories are, what they mean and we'll provide you some examples of the kinds of 00:31:21.660 --> 00:31:25.580 services that would live under the umbrella of each category. 00:31:25.580 --> 00:31:28.100 Next slide, please. 00:31:28.100 --> 00:31:33.100 So first leg of the store service categories, Denton has a set of working draft of service 00:31:33.100 --> 00:31:37.020 categories we're going to be using to go through the beneficiary of service exercise this evening 00:31:37.020 --> 00:31:40.500 with all of you, next slide, please. 00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:44.340 Beneficiary of service very simply is connecting the dots between the services you provide 00:31:44.340 --> 00:31:47.020 and who it is that benefits from the service. 00:31:47.020 --> 00:31:52.060 I want to reflect back for a moment on the notion of arbitrary decision making, right, 00:31:52.060 --> 00:31:57.660 and just kind of pulling numbers out to say that a cost recovery goal for a particular 00:31:57.660 --> 00:32:00.020 category might be X or Y. 00:32:00.020 --> 00:32:04.300 In our profession, again, we may have been setting cost recovery targets based upon service 00:32:04.300 --> 00:32:09.540 areas like we would suggest that all aquatic services are at 50%, but the challenge with 00:32:09.540 --> 00:32:13.180 that is we have a number of kinds of services we provide in service areas. 00:32:13.180 --> 00:32:17.260 For example, in aquatics, we might have a Learn to Swim program and we also may offer 00:32:17.260 --> 00:32:22.420 a master swim team and we begin to understand that there might be a disconnect here by suggesting 00:32:22.420 --> 00:32:28.580 that both of these categories should be at 50% by virtue of who benefits and as an example 00:32:28.580 --> 00:32:33.140 of what I mean by that, we might believe that a Learn to Swim program in our community is 00:32:33.140 --> 00:32:38.820 significantly more accessible to more people than a master swim team that requires a particular 00:32:38.820 --> 00:32:42.300 ability or skill or mastery in order to participate. 00:32:42.300 --> 00:32:48.700 So we might suggest a Learn to Swim program, next slide please, would be in a beginner 00:32:48.700 --> 00:32:55.540 level category, for example, go back please, there you go, beginner level activities category 00:32:55.540 --> 00:33:00.540 while a master swim team might be in a competitive level activities category and as we start 00:33:00.540 --> 00:33:04.660 thinking about who benefits, we understand that the beneficiary of services for these 00:33:04.660 --> 00:33:10.660 kinds of categories is going to likely be different, next slide please. 00:33:10.660 --> 00:33:14.180 So you have as your other handout, your other resource that we'll use this evening, the 00:33:14.180 --> 00:33:19.980 exercise I'm going to ask you to complete tonight and I'm going to very kindly, gently 00:33:19.980 --> 00:33:24.820 and at the same time boldly ask you not to start this exercise until we get to that place 00:33:24.820 --> 00:33:28.340 in time because I'm going to be sharing some additional information with you that I think 00:33:28.340 --> 00:33:34.460 will help you as you actually complete the activity, next slide please. 00:33:34.460 --> 00:33:38.900 And finally, the third leg of the stool is cost of service and that's where we dig deep 00:33:38.900 --> 00:33:44.420 into the cost of service analysis and identify costs associated with delivering services. 00:33:44.420 --> 00:33:48.420 And what you're going to be doing this evening is helping Denton Parks and Recreation begin 00:33:48.420 --> 00:33:51.560 the evolution of their cost recovery strategy. 00:33:51.560 --> 00:33:55.700 So tonight's contributions, everything that you share this evening, your responses to 00:33:55.700 --> 00:34:01.020 the activity along with the responses we see from the staff are going to allow us to place 00:34:01.020 --> 00:34:06.300 the categories on the continuum from the categories in the bottom left being the service categories 00:34:06.300 --> 00:34:11.340 you believe align most with the common good to the service categories in the top right 00:34:11.340 --> 00:34:15.780 being the categories you believe provide for a more individualized benefit. 00:34:15.780 --> 00:34:20.220 And again, I'm going to get into some significant detail here in a moment about how this exercise 00:34:20.220 --> 00:34:23.100 will work, next slide please. 00:34:23.100 --> 00:34:27.000 So I just mentioned cost of service, this is the last leg of the stool, if you will, 00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:31.660 and this work has been going behind the scenes, if you will, behind the curtain for the last 00:34:31.660 --> 00:34:33.020 eight weeks. 00:34:33.020 --> 00:34:37.900 We've worked side by side with your staff to collect revenue data, to collect expenditure 00:34:37.900 --> 00:34:42.900 data so we're able to ultimately provide to you the costs associated with delivering every 00:34:42.900 --> 00:34:45.140 service within your organization. 00:34:45.140 --> 00:34:51.780 And I have to make a quick call out here, Megan and Caroline have stepped up as your 00:34:51.780 --> 00:34:56.860 project leads, but somebody who's not with us this evening who has really done a tremendous 00:34:56.860 --> 00:35:01.740 job all along the way has been Heather Gray, and I just wanted to recognize the work that 00:35:01.740 --> 00:35:07.700 she has done in working with our team to ensure that we have the right information and data 00:35:07.700 --> 00:35:09.700 to help us go through this work. 00:35:09.700 --> 00:35:10.940 Next slide please. 00:35:10.940 --> 00:35:15.940 I think it's important for all of us who serve our communities, you know, serve in the public 00:35:15.940 --> 00:35:20.860 sector to understand that unfortunately the public sector for many years had its thought 00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:26.980 about costs similar to that of a teenage driver, I often use this example, but unfortunately 00:35:26.980 --> 00:35:30.780 many teenage drivers, probably a lot of us believe the only cost associated with driving 00:35:30.780 --> 00:35:34.460 a car was gas, right, we didn't understand we had to plate the car and we had to insure 00:35:34.460 --> 00:35:36.940 the car and all of these other expenses. 00:35:36.940 --> 00:35:42.140 And that unfortunately again is how the public sector has articulated and illustrated cost 00:35:42.140 --> 00:35:43.140 recovery performance. 00:35:43.140 --> 00:35:48.660 When we say we're at 60% or 70% cost recovery and we have not accounted for all of our indirect 00:35:48.660 --> 00:35:54.100 costs, we're not telling a true story and we're misrepresenting reality and unfortunately 00:35:54.100 --> 00:36:00.580 it's not helping our communities understand what it really does cost to provide services. 00:36:00.580 --> 00:36:04.600 The exciting thing from my perspective and the optimism from my perspective is that we're 00:36:04.600 --> 00:36:11.060 seeing a huge shift now and many public sector organizations are now accounting for all costs. 00:36:11.060 --> 00:36:13.200 Next slide please. 00:36:13.200 --> 00:36:18.320 So once as a result of your work and of course the contributions of the staff, we've plotted 00:36:18.320 --> 00:36:22.540 your categories in the continuum, we've completed the cost of service work, it's allowed the 00:36:22.540 --> 00:36:26.860 project team to determine what they believe to be reasonable and realistic and credible 00:36:26.860 --> 00:36:29.580 and attainable cost recovery goals. 00:36:29.580 --> 00:36:36.500 We'll see the evolution if you will of Denton Parks and Recreation's cost recovery strategy. 00:36:36.500 --> 00:36:38.140 Next slide please. 00:36:38.140 --> 00:36:42.460 So I want to share with you just a couple of examples of what these strategies can look 00:36:42.460 --> 00:36:43.460 like. 00:36:43.460 --> 00:36:48.860 Again, while every organization uses this methodology, all of the strategy continuums 00:36:48.860 --> 00:36:49.860 are different. 00:36:49.860 --> 00:36:53.980 The one you see on the screen just was completed a couple of months ago, this is River Trails 00:36:53.980 --> 00:36:56.380 Park District in River Trails, Illinois. 00:36:56.380 --> 00:37:00.580 You can see their service categories on the continuum from again those in the bottom left 00:37:00.580 --> 00:37:05.540 aligning most with the common good to those in the top right being more individualized. 00:37:05.540 --> 00:37:09.980 You can see their cost recovery targets listed below their categories and these were set 00:37:09.980 --> 00:37:13.300 based upon their current cost recovery performance levels. 00:37:13.300 --> 00:37:17.180 So they analyzed how they're currently doing in order to make intentional and informed 00:37:17.180 --> 00:37:20.340 decisions about what direction they can go. 00:37:20.340 --> 00:37:21.660 Next slide please. 00:37:21.660 --> 00:37:26.100 And another one that's just completed a couple of months ago that I personally like a lot 00:37:26.100 --> 00:37:30.600 is Oregon City, Oregon's financial support and sustainability model. 00:37:30.600 --> 00:37:35.900 And there is actually Mimics Lewisville, Texas's Parks and Recreation, Lewisville, Texas Parks 00:37:35.900 --> 00:37:40.980 and Recreation model in that this organization chose not to call out cost recovery goals, 00:37:40.980 --> 00:37:45.100 they call out subsidy goals, meaning this is how we're going to spend and invest taxpayer 00:37:45.100 --> 00:37:46.100 resources. 00:37:46.100 --> 00:37:51.180 So you can see a subsidy goal there and while we all know it means the same thing, the optics 00:37:51.180 --> 00:37:52.180 are different. 00:37:52.180 --> 00:37:56.500 We're helping our communities understand here's how we're investing taxpayer dollars. 00:37:56.500 --> 00:37:59.380 The other thing I want to point out about Oregon City is very quickly is if you get 00:37:59.380 --> 00:38:03.580 up to the special events category and then skill based advanced competitive, it's just 00:38:03.580 --> 00:38:06.140 slightly right of center. 00:38:06.140 --> 00:38:11.240 They have chosen not to no longer subsidize those service categories, understanding they 00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:14.980 have a huge debt as it relates to infrastructure. 00:38:14.980 --> 00:38:20.140 They can no longer count on the amount of general fund resources they have historically. 00:38:20.140 --> 00:38:24.740 So they're shifting more towards a system needing to be a bit more self-reliant than 00:38:24.740 --> 00:38:26.480 they have in the past. 00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:31.260 And by not subsidizing some of the services that are more individualized in nature, they're 00:38:31.260 --> 00:38:36.740 able to reinvest in their infrastructure and they're also making a very bold commitment 00:38:36.740 --> 00:38:40.100 to inequities in their community. 00:38:40.100 --> 00:38:47.020 They're planning on doing a very aggressive tree planting campaign and marginalized communities 00:38:47.020 --> 00:38:48.740 in Oregon City area. 00:38:48.740 --> 00:38:53.220 They want to build up their needs based assistance program. 00:38:53.220 --> 00:38:57.500 They're currently wanting to commit to the 10 minute walk campaign so that every household 00:38:57.500 --> 00:39:00.700 is within 10 minutes of a public space and so on. 00:39:00.700 --> 00:39:03.760 So they're being very aggressive in their model in this moment. 00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:08.220 But these give you an idea of a couple of the examples of the kinds of strategy continuums 00:39:08.220 --> 00:39:09.900 that result from this work. 00:39:09.900 --> 00:39:11.500 Next slide, please. 00:39:11.500 --> 00:39:12.900 So this is where we're headed. 00:39:12.900 --> 00:39:16.660 Again, I can't understate the importance of your contributions this evening. 00:39:16.660 --> 00:39:21.100 Your participation is incredibly valuable to this process as representative community 00:39:21.100 --> 00:39:22.100 members. 00:39:22.100 --> 00:39:25.020 But you're going to help us plot the categories in the continuum this evening. 00:39:25.020 --> 00:39:30.220 Ultimately, once the cost of service analysis work is done and the goals are set, Denton 00:39:30.220 --> 00:39:36.460 Parks and Recreation will have this updated cost recovery strategy to utilize. 00:39:36.460 --> 00:39:37.460 Next slide, please. 00:39:37.460 --> 00:39:39.860 So with that, I'm going to hit pause. 00:39:39.860 --> 00:39:43.060 And I want to see if anybody has any thoughts, comments, questions before we actually get 00:39:43.060 --> 00:39:47.860 to the exercise. 00:39:47.860 --> 00:39:55.500 Well, I'm not seeing any and I'm not hearing any. 00:39:55.500 --> 00:40:00.700 So I think we should get to it. 00:40:00.700 --> 00:40:03.700 Caroline, are you driving? 00:40:03.700 --> 00:40:06.580 Okay, great. 00:40:06.580 --> 00:40:09.020 All right. 00:40:09.020 --> 00:40:13.300 So we very simply call this the beneficiary of service group exercise. 00:40:13.300 --> 00:40:17.540 And while it is a group exercise, I'm actually being asking you to do the activity independent 00:40:17.540 --> 00:40:18.540 of one another. 00:40:18.540 --> 00:40:22.660 But we're going to bring you back all on screen and we're going to be sharing the results 00:40:22.660 --> 00:40:25.140 with each other and, of course, with me. 00:40:25.140 --> 00:40:27.340 We have adapted, just like all of you, to the new reality. 00:40:27.340 --> 00:40:31.820 We used to do this work in person and now we do it in this Zoom platform. 00:40:31.820 --> 00:40:34.060 So we have found it to be fun. 00:40:34.060 --> 00:40:42.060 I hope that you all find this a bit of fun as well in the midst of a very important and 00:40:42.060 --> 00:40:43.220 serious exercise. 00:40:43.220 --> 00:40:45.940 So if you go to the next slide, please. 00:40:45.940 --> 00:40:48.200 So we're going to start with your categories. 00:40:48.200 --> 00:40:50.700 And some of you may have printed these off. 00:40:50.700 --> 00:40:52.300 If you've got a hard copy, that's great. 00:40:52.300 --> 00:40:56.500 If you've got a copy that you just want to put up on your screen as I walk through these 00:40:56.500 --> 00:40:59.420 that is easier to see, that's fine as well. 00:40:59.420 --> 00:41:01.680 But I'd like to deliberately walk through the categories. 00:41:01.680 --> 00:41:04.900 It's important that we all understand these similarly. 00:41:04.900 --> 00:41:08.300 Once I walk through the categories and the definitions, I'm going to hit pause for a 00:41:08.300 --> 00:41:13.460 moment, see if anybody has any questions for me or for any of the staff on the line who 00:41:13.460 --> 00:41:17.740 actually led the development of this list. 00:41:17.740 --> 00:41:21.460 So we're going to start at the beginning, beginner and introductory activities. 00:41:21.460 --> 00:41:25.940 And I just want to mention as well that these are in no other order right now than alphabetical. 00:41:25.940 --> 00:41:27.140 Okay. 00:41:27.140 --> 00:41:33.600 And these categories again represent the entire service menu of Denver Parks and Recreation. 00:41:33.600 --> 00:41:38.680 So beginner and introductory activities are activities that introduce a skill or practice 00:41:38.680 --> 00:41:43.060 or provide a basic understanding of the fundamentals of a skill. 00:41:43.060 --> 00:41:47.620 These services require little to no experience in order to participate. 00:41:47.620 --> 00:41:52.380 And you can see some of the examples listed there are Adapted Rec, Exercise Class, Sports 00:41:52.380 --> 00:41:57.100 Clinics, Water Tots, Intro Swim, and so on. 00:41:57.100 --> 00:41:59.740 Your next category are your community events. 00:41:59.740 --> 00:42:03.860 These are large scale events that appeal to a broad portion of the community regardless 00:42:03.860 --> 00:42:08.340 of age, regardless of ability skill or family composition. 00:42:08.340 --> 00:42:13.180 These events are highly intensive and typically occur on an annual basis and registration 00:42:13.180 --> 00:42:15.540 is generally not required. 00:42:15.540 --> 00:42:20.060 You can see some examples there include Arts and Jazz Fest, The Blues Fest, Cinco de Mano, 00:42:20.060 --> 00:42:23.100 Fourth of July Jubilee, and so on. 00:42:23.100 --> 00:42:25.220 Next are your community outreach services. 00:42:25.220 --> 00:42:31.580 These services are offered internally or through community partnerships intended to address 00:42:31.580 --> 00:42:36.940 life challenges through maintaining the quality of life, independence, and connection to community 00:42:36.940 --> 00:42:41.060 by linking or providing resources for those in need. 00:42:41.060 --> 00:42:45.760 Examples here are Meals on Wheels, Resource Seminars, and so on. 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:47.780 Next are your enrichment activities. 00:42:47.780 --> 00:42:53.060 These are activities designed to develop and/or enhance life skills, promote socialization, 00:42:53.060 --> 00:42:58.460 self-sufficiency, usually led through staff and/or volunteer supervision. 00:42:58.460 --> 00:43:03.980 Examples here are tutoring, after school care, day trips, and so on. 00:43:03.980 --> 00:43:06.140 Next are your equity services. 00:43:06.140 --> 00:43:10.060 These are services that focus on addressing community inequities, providing for improved 00:43:10.060 --> 00:43:12.300 access to leisure opportunities. 00:43:12.300 --> 00:43:16.980 Your example listed here is Play in the Park, Mobile, Recreation. 00:43:16.980 --> 00:43:20.220 Next are your intermediate, advanced, competitive-level activities. 00:43:20.220 --> 00:43:25.140 These are activities which provide a structured format in order to advance or master a skill, 00:43:25.140 --> 00:43:27.740 practice, or to compete. 00:43:27.740 --> 00:43:32.980 Examples include sports leagues, tennis classes, dolphin swim team, and so on. 00:43:32.980 --> 00:43:38.460 Second page, the next category, your monitored access, drop-in access services. 00:43:38.460 --> 00:43:43.500 These are your parks, recreation facilities, and activities available for drop-in use, 00:43:43.500 --> 00:43:50.340 are non-registered, non-instructed, but they're monitored by staff and volunteers. 00:43:50.340 --> 00:43:56.140 Examples here are things like lap swim, open swim, fitness rooms, rec pass activities, 00:43:56.140 --> 00:43:57.780 and so on. 00:43:57.780 --> 00:44:00.980 Next are your non-monitored open access services. 00:44:00.980 --> 00:44:06.120 This is open access to your parks, park amenities, and recreation facilities that does not include 00:44:06.120 --> 00:44:09.080 staff and volunteer supervision or oversight. 00:44:09.080 --> 00:44:14.580 This includes things like multi-purpose courts, your playgrounds, fishing ponds, trails, public 00:44:14.580 --> 00:44:17.720 art, your parks, et cetera. 00:44:17.720 --> 00:44:19.780 Next are your private, semi-private activities. 00:44:19.780 --> 00:44:24.100 These are activities conducted in a one-on-one or small group setting designed to ensure 00:44:24.100 --> 00:44:28.080 maximum gain related to a specific topic or skill. 00:44:28.080 --> 00:44:33.140 This includes things like sport, private lessons, personal training. 00:44:33.140 --> 00:44:34.280 Next are your rentals. 00:44:34.280 --> 00:44:38.320 This is space and facility rentals, which provide exclusive use of public spaces and 00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:41.580 places by an individual or group. 00:44:41.580 --> 00:44:46.340 Examples include multi-purpose room rentals, gym rentals, park rentals, pavilion rentals, 00:44:46.340 --> 00:44:48.460 and so on. 00:44:48.460 --> 00:44:50.800 Your 11th category are your resale items. 00:44:50.800 --> 00:44:55.520 This is consumable and non-consumable goods for purchase at various parks and/or recreation 00:44:55.520 --> 00:45:00.180 facilities, things like food sales, beverage sales, et cetera. 00:45:00.180 --> 00:45:04.400 And finally, your special events, these are events designed for a target market, market 00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:06.880 niche, or a specific interest. 00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:08.900 Registration is typically required. 00:45:08.900 --> 00:45:15.560 These are things like athletic tournaments, Halloween carnival, extended trips, and so 00:45:15.560 --> 00:45:16.760 on. 00:45:16.760 --> 00:45:21.840 So those are the 12 categories along with definition and some examples to provide you 00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:27.020 a sense of the types of services provided by the organization under the larger umbrella 00:45:27.020 --> 00:45:28.760 of categories. 00:45:28.760 --> 00:45:35.080 Any questions concerning any of the categories at this point before we get to the exercise? 00:45:35.080 --> 00:45:46.380 All right, hearing none, let's get to it. 00:45:46.380 --> 00:45:48.380 So this is the exercise. 00:45:48.380 --> 00:45:49.380 Please bear with me. 00:45:49.380 --> 00:45:51.760 I'm going to spend just a couple of minutes walking through this to make sure again we're 00:45:51.760 --> 00:45:57.360 all on the same page and then I'm going to hit pause on my end and have you all actually 00:45:57.360 --> 00:45:58.960 go through the exercise, the activity. 00:45:58.960 --> 00:46:03.480 But please, again, I'm going to be very gentle yet bold. 00:46:03.480 --> 00:46:06.880 Please do not begin the exercise until I've finished the instructions because I believe 00:46:06.880 --> 00:46:10.880 there will be some things I'm going to share here that will be very helpful to you. 00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:14.560 So I'm going to start at the beginning, financial resource allocation philosophy. 00:46:14.560 --> 00:46:19.960 Just simply think about that as a cost recovery strategy, provides a foundation for differentiating 00:46:19.960 --> 00:46:23.920 services based on who benefits and therefore who should pay. 00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:27.960 And it's important to note economists in the US economy have differentiated goods and services 00:46:27.960 --> 00:46:29.200 in this manner for decades. 00:46:29.200 --> 00:46:31.000 So this is not our way of thinking. 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:32.200 It's not a new way of thinking. 00:46:32.200 --> 00:46:36.680 It simply connects the dots between what we provide and who benefits. 00:46:36.680 --> 00:46:41.960 And by determining the beneficiary, it becomes a primary driver for how a public park and 00:46:41.960 --> 00:46:47.000 recreation system just as Denton Parks and Recreation would begin to make informed and 00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:50.880 defensible taxpayer investment decisions. 00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:55.280 Following this particular concept and model, each of your categories, the service categories 00:46:55.280 --> 00:47:00.480 we just walked through, have a specific set of characteristics, which essentially in this 00:47:00.480 --> 00:47:05.200 case are the definitions and examples that provide a rationale for who should pay, whether 00:47:05.200 --> 00:47:09.280 it's the taxpayers, the individuals, or both, and to what degree. 00:47:09.280 --> 00:47:14.320 Ultimately, this allows you to align how you invest taxpayer resources with who benefits. 00:47:14.320 --> 00:47:18.120 But keep in mind, tonight's exercise is solely about beneficiary. 00:47:18.120 --> 00:47:24.180 We're not asking you to determine cost recovery expectations or pricing or anything like that. 00:47:24.180 --> 00:47:29.920 Simply asking you to think about who benefits from the categories of the system. 00:47:29.920 --> 00:47:34.400 So what's important to help here are the two definitions in the middle or the belly of 00:47:34.400 --> 00:47:36.160 page one. 00:47:36.160 --> 00:47:40.640 It's important we understand what we mean by common good and what we mean by individualized. 00:47:40.640 --> 00:47:44.880 Often we use those terms in the public sector, but we really don't get granular about defining 00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:46.080 them. 00:47:46.080 --> 00:47:50.760 So common good services or those services that are accessible, they're of benefit to 00:47:50.760 --> 00:47:54.560 all in a community, and they provide universal value. 00:47:54.560 --> 00:47:58.920 Essentially, these are the services that contribute to the common good and can be characterized 00:47:58.920 --> 00:48:04.400 as essential or your must haves, having community wide interest and far reaching impacts. 00:48:04.400 --> 00:48:09.640 Alternatively, your individualized services provide exclusive benefit to the individual 00:48:09.640 --> 00:48:14.120 or individuals and can include constraints or barriers to access. 00:48:14.120 --> 00:48:19.320 Essentially, these services benefit the individual more than the community as a whole, can be 00:48:19.320 --> 00:48:24.240 characterized as discretionary or your nice to haves with less of a community wide impact. 00:48:24.240 --> 00:48:29.760 Now, real quickly before I give you the final pieces of information that are going to help 00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:37.120 you here, if you are a very literal thinker, I've added some definitions on page two to 00:48:37.120 --> 00:48:39.840 help get even more granular with definitions. 00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:43.440 So if you're wondering what does accessible mean, what does barrier or constraint mean 00:48:43.440 --> 00:48:49.280 in this exercise, what's the difference between community need versus community want, what's 00:48:49.280 --> 00:48:53.560 a discretionary service versus an essential service, we've given you some deeper definitions 00:48:53.560 --> 00:48:54.800 to help. 00:48:54.800 --> 00:48:58.800 So please feel free to use that resource if you'd like. 00:48:58.800 --> 00:49:00.760 So here is, this is the exercise. 00:49:00.760 --> 00:49:07.160 I'm going to ask you to, you're not prioritizing, but you're going to rank the 12 categories 00:49:07.160 --> 00:49:14.280 we just reviewed from the number one category being the category that you believe aligns 00:49:14.280 --> 00:49:15.880 most with the common good. 00:49:15.880 --> 00:49:20.920 Again, that would be the number one category to the category of services you believe aligns 00:49:20.920 --> 00:49:23.360 most with individualized benefit. 00:49:23.360 --> 00:49:28.120 So number one service category will be the one you believe contributes most to the common 00:49:28.120 --> 00:49:29.120 good. 00:49:29.120 --> 00:49:32.920 The number 12 category will be the one you believe is the most individualized and the 00:49:32.920 --> 00:49:36.400 most specialized, and then you're going to work towards the middle. 00:49:36.400 --> 00:49:42.120 Now suggestion, been doing this for a while now, many people find value in approaching 00:49:42.120 --> 00:49:46.400 this from a book ends approach, very simply meaning you'll determine what category you 00:49:46.400 --> 00:49:48.360 believe aligns most with the common good. 00:49:48.360 --> 00:49:51.200 Then you'll determine which one you think is most individualized and then work your 00:49:51.200 --> 00:49:52.200 way towards the middle. 00:49:52.200 --> 00:49:58.400 If you're more of a linear thinker and doer, you'll just go one to 12 or 12 to one. 00:49:58.400 --> 00:50:01.280 The other thing I can't emphasize enough, and I mentioned it before, but I'm going to 00:50:01.280 --> 00:50:02.440 mention it again. 00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:06.160 Please don't self-talk about what you think things cost, how much you think it should 00:50:06.160 --> 00:50:10.360 be priced at, what you think the cost recovery expectation should be, whether you think it 00:50:10.360 --> 00:50:12.120 should be subsidized or not. 00:50:12.120 --> 00:50:14.720 That has no bearing on this exercise this evening. 00:50:14.720 --> 00:50:18.720 Trust me when I say we'll get there as we get towards the finish line of the process. 00:50:18.720 --> 00:50:24.080 But tonight is simply about you determining who benefits from the services provided by 00:50:24.080 --> 00:50:25.520 Denton Parks and Recreation. 00:50:25.520 --> 00:50:30.840 Do they align more with the common good or are they more individualized? 00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:36.720 So any questions before I actually ask you to get started? 00:50:36.720 --> 00:50:40.920 All right, next slide, please. 00:50:40.920 --> 00:50:42.680 So here's what we're going to do. 00:50:42.680 --> 00:50:47.400 With boards and councils, typically the sweet spot to complete this exercise is right around 00:50:47.400 --> 00:50:48.400 10 minutes. 00:50:48.400 --> 00:50:49.400 So I'm going to give you 10 minutes. 00:50:49.400 --> 00:50:55.280 I'm going to put my mic on mute and I want to just give you a little quiet time to do 00:50:55.280 --> 00:50:56.280 this work. 00:50:56.280 --> 00:50:59.320 We'll check in with you in about 10 minutes, see if anybody needs additional time. 00:50:59.320 --> 00:51:01.320 If you do, happy to grant it. 00:51:01.320 --> 00:51:02.840 You really need some additional time. 00:51:02.840 --> 00:51:07.280 We may ask you to just turn your homework in, if you will, to Gary. 00:51:07.280 --> 00:51:10.800 But most folks get this done around this 10-minute sweet spot. 00:51:10.800 --> 00:51:16.120 So I'm going to ask Caroline to advance one more slide, and we're going to put the categories 00:51:16.120 --> 00:51:19.600 on the screen for you in the event you don't have a copy with you. 00:51:19.600 --> 00:51:22.160 And again, we're going to give you a little quiet time. 00:51:22.160 --> 00:51:25.920 I'm going to check back in with you in about 10 minutes, and we'll see how you're all 00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:29.800 doing, okay? 00:51:29.800 --> 00:51:41.840 Any questions before you get started? 00:51:41.840 --> 00:51:57.120 Okay. 00:51:57.120 --> 00:52:12.560 [Pause] 00:52:12.560 --> 00:52:28.000 [Pause] 00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:43.440 [Pause] 00:52:43.440 --> 00:52:58.880 [Pause] 00:52:58.880 --> 00:53:16.160 [Pause] 00:53:16.160 --> 00:53:31.360 [Pause] 00:53:31.360 --> 00:53:46.560 [Pause] 00:53:46.560 --> 00:54:01.760 [Pause] 00:54:01.760 --> 00:54:16.960 [Pause] 00:54:16.960 --> 00:54:32.160 [Pause] 00:54:32.160 --> 00:54:47.360 [Pause] 00:54:47.360 --> 00:55:02.560 [Pause] 00:55:02.560 --> 00:55:17.760 [Pause] 00:55:17.760 --> 00:55:32.960 [Pause] 00:55:32.960 --> 00:55:48.160 [Pause] 00:55:48.160 --> 00:56:03.360 [Pause] 00:56:03.360 --> 00:56:18.560 [Pause] 00:56:18.560 --> 00:56:33.760 [Pause] 00:56:33.760 --> 00:56:48.960 [Pause] 00:56:48.960 --> 00:57:04.160 [Pause] 00:57:04.160 --> 00:57:19.360 [Pause] 00:57:19.360 --> 00:57:34.560 [Pause] 00:57:34.560 --> 00:57:49.760 [Pause] 00:57:49.760 --> 00:58:04.960 [Pause] 00:58:04.960 --> 00:58:20.160 [Pause] 00:58:20.160 --> 00:58:35.360 [Pause] 00:58:35.360 --> 00:58:50.560 [Pause] 00:58:50.560 --> 00:59:05.760 [Pause] 00:59:05.760 --> 00:59:20.960 [Pause] 00:59:20.960 --> 00:59:36.160 [Pause] 00:59:36.160 --> 00:59:51.360 [Pause] 00:59:51.360 --> 01:00:18.560 [Pause] 01:00:18.560 --> 01:00:23.760 >> All right, I'll just do a quick check-in. Does anybody require any additional time? 01:00:23.760 --> 01:00:30.960 [Pause] 01:00:30.960 --> 01:00:35.760 >> I require additional copies because I have messed this one up rewriting it five times. 01:00:35.760 --> 01:00:50.160 >> Okay. You need a little bit more time, Jerry? >> No, I'm good. I'm good to go. 01:00:50.160 --> 01:00:56.160 >> You're good? Okay. All right. >> You know, I know you understand this very well, 01:00:56.160 --> 01:01:02.960 but the more you think about it, the more deeper a hole you dig about what's important and what's not. 01:01:02.960 --> 01:01:11.600 >> Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, Caroline, I'm going to ask you to stop. Yep, that's terrific. 01:01:11.600 --> 01:01:18.400 And my additional ask is for staff or any others who are not going to be sharing their responses 01:01:18.400 --> 01:01:27.200 with me, if you would kindly take yourself off camera, it'll help me as I count the responses. 01:01:27.200 --> 01:01:33.120 So all right, great. All right. Well, this is how this is going to work. And I hope you 01:01:33.120 --> 01:01:40.240 have fun with this. So what we very simply do is I'm going to work through the top of your list to 01:01:40.240 --> 01:01:46.720 the bottom. I'm going to call out each category one at a time. And simply by showing me the 01:01:46.720 --> 01:01:52.000 appropriate number of fingers on your hands, you're going to tell me which position you 01:01:52.000 --> 01:01:56.640 placed each category in. If you prefer to use paper and pen, that's great. If you want to write 01:01:56.640 --> 01:02:02.720 a one down on a post it and put it up to the camera, that works just fine for me. I'm going 01:02:02.720 --> 01:02:06.960 to ask you to keep your hands up until I make sure I've captured everybody's responses. And while we 01:02:06.960 --> 01:02:12.080 have this recorded, I apologize for that. While we have this recorded, I just want to have to go back 01:02:12.080 --> 01:02:16.080 to the tape only as I need. So I'm going to ask you to keep your hands up until I've captured 01:02:16.080 --> 01:02:20.640 everybody's responses. And then I'm going to go on to the next category. So as an example, 01:02:20.640 --> 01:02:25.200 we'll start with beginner and introductory activities. I'm going to say in which position 01:02:25.200 --> 01:02:31.120 did you place beginner and introductory activities? Hypothetically, if you put it in the number five 01:02:31.120 --> 01:02:35.280 position, you're simply going to show me five fingers. It's going to be that simple. And then 01:02:35.280 --> 01:02:41.280 we'll go through the list of 12 until we've captured everybody's responses. The final thing 01:02:41.280 --> 01:02:47.040 I want to share is if you decide you want a little bit more time to do this, please feel free to do 01:02:47.040 --> 01:02:52.480 that. But I'm going to ask your responses within about 24 hours. If you can get those to Gary, 01:02:52.480 --> 01:02:56.800 he can make sure he gets those to me if you have any changes to your responses. Because sometimes 01:02:56.800 --> 01:03:02.160 you decide, oh, maybe I want to change an answer here and there. So I don't want you to feel like 01:03:02.160 --> 01:03:07.280 tonight's the final answer. If you need a little bit more time, please take that. But just please 01:03:07.280 --> 01:03:11.360 make sure you get your responses to Gary within 24 hours. Because what happens is if it could be 01:03:11.360 --> 01:03:16.560 too much time, it falls off the radar, and I never hear from you again. So I just want to give you 01:03:16.560 --> 01:03:19.840 that option and that alternative as well. David, I see your hand up. 01:03:19.840 --> 01:03:22.560 Yes, how would you like us to show you 11 and 12? 01:03:22.560 --> 01:03:29.040 Well, great question. So 11, very kindly, just put two, you know, put two digits up like this. 01:03:29.040 --> 01:03:33.360 And for 12, do a one and a two. Thank you for asking. I appreciate it. 01:03:33.360 --> 01:03:38.720 All right. You guys ready? And smile and have fun with this. This is fun. 01:03:38.720 --> 01:03:44.320 All right. We're going to start at the top. Beginner and introductory activities. In which 01:03:44.320 --> 01:03:49.200 position did you place beginner and introductory activities? And please hold your responses up. 01:03:49.840 --> 01:04:00.320 So I make sure I get everybody's answers. Great. Thank you. Okay. Next category, 01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:03.840 community events. In which position did you place community events? 01:04:03.840 --> 01:04:18.160 Great. Thank you. You guys are so good at this. All right. Next, community outreach services. 01:04:18.160 --> 01:04:25.840 Which position did you place that category? James, can you back up just a bit so I can 01:04:25.840 --> 01:04:38.640 make sure? Yep. Great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next, enrichment activities. 01:04:48.240 --> 01:04:58.640 Diana, is that a two? Okay. Great. All right. Thank you. Next, equity services. 01:04:58.640 --> 01:05:16.000 Great. Thank you. Next, intermediate advanced competitive activities. 01:05:18.640 --> 01:05:24.000 That's the 12. James, is that a one? 01:05:24.000 --> 01:05:33.440 Okay. I'm just going to clarify for everyone. Your number one category should be the category 01:05:33.440 --> 01:05:38.800 you believe aligns most with the common good. Your number 12 category should be the category 01:05:38.800 --> 01:05:45.440 you believe is most individualized. Just clarification. All right. Great. Thank you. 01:05:46.960 --> 01:05:50.800 Your next category, your monitored access drop in access. 01:05:50.800 --> 01:05:54.400 In which position did you place monitored access drop in access? 01:05:54.400 --> 01:06:10.640 Great. Thank you. Next category, non-monitored open access. 01:06:17.920 --> 01:06:24.880 Great. Thank you. Your next category, private, semi-private activities. 01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:34.400 Jerry, can you pull back just a little bit for me? I'm sorry. Yeah, that's 10. 01:06:34.400 --> 01:06:41.920 Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Alana, can you show me one more time? Great. Thank you. 01:06:44.080 --> 01:06:48.160 Next are your rentals. In which position did you place rentals? 01:06:48.160 --> 01:06:51.680 Deanna, you didn't even have to move much on that one. 01:06:51.680 --> 01:06:59.680 Can you see this? My computer's bad. I got to buy a new computer this week. 01:06:59.680 --> 01:07:02.720 Yep. No, you're good. You're good. Whoever sells computers out there, call me. 01:07:02.720 --> 01:07:10.080 James, I didn't get yours on this one. Rentals. Okay. That's all right. 01:07:11.920 --> 01:07:17.600 All right. We're almost to the finish line. Next, resale. In which position did you place resale? 01:07:17.600 --> 01:07:32.880 I'm sorry, Jamie. That's 10. Okay. Got it. Got it. Deanna, do you have one for me on this one? 01:07:32.880 --> 01:07:40.320 Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. Last but not least, special events. Which position did 01:07:40.320 --> 01:07:51.280 you place special events? All right. Terrific. Thank you. 01:07:51.280 --> 01:07:59.920 Okay. Caroline, would you mind putting the slide deck back up, please? 01:08:07.520 --> 01:08:19.120 Advance to the next slide, please. Next slide, please. All right. So just a quick review, 01:08:19.120 --> 01:08:24.160 reminder that your contributions today are incredibly important to the placement of the 01:08:24.160 --> 01:08:29.680 categories on the continuum. We're going to be taking your responses along with those of 01:08:29.680 --> 01:08:34.640 the staff who participated in this exercise about a week and a half ago. And we're going to be 01:08:34.640 --> 01:08:38.800 plotting the categories on the continuum again from those in the bottom left, aligning most with the 01:08:38.800 --> 01:08:43.600 common good to those in the top right being most individualized. And as you can see on the vertical 01:08:43.600 --> 01:08:50.160 axis there, the intention is that we will begin to have cost recovery goals set so that those 01:08:50.160 --> 01:08:55.360 categories that align most with the common good can justifiably receive more subsidy dollars, 01:08:55.360 --> 01:09:00.640 more taxpayer resource, and have a lesser cost recovery expectation than those categories in the 01:09:00.640 --> 01:09:06.160 top right that will have a lesser investment of taxpayer dollars and a higher cost recovery 01:09:06.160 --> 01:09:10.560 expectation. But this creates a graphic representation and illustration of the 01:09:10.560 --> 01:09:14.960 department's cost recovery strategy moving forward. And we simply refer to it as a continuum. 01:09:14.960 --> 01:09:22.800 Next slide, please. So next step is very simply, repeat message here, we'll be synthesizing your 01:09:22.800 --> 01:09:28.240 responses along with those of the staff from the work sessions that were conducted that will allow 01:09:28.240 --> 01:09:33.840 us to design the first iteration of the cost recovery strategy, which is very simply a beneficiary 01:09:33.840 --> 01:09:37.760 of service model, meaning there won't be any cost recovery expectations or goals on there yet 01:09:37.760 --> 01:09:42.240 because we haven't completed the cost of service analysis. So we'll simply have the categories on 01:09:42.240 --> 01:09:46.800 the continuum. That becomes the beneficiary of service model and the first iteration of the 01:09:46.800 --> 01:09:51.600 cost recovery strategy. And behind the scenes, I mentioned behind the curtain, we'll continue 01:09:51.600 --> 01:09:56.320 to conduct the cost of service work, ultimately getting to the place where that cost of service 01:09:56.320 --> 01:10:02.720 work is finished. We'll meet with Gary and Megan and Caroline and the rest of the team will unveil 01:10:02.720 --> 01:10:07.920 the results of the cost of service analysis, which allows them to see current cost recovery 01:10:07.920 --> 01:10:13.280 performance levels for every service within the system, which also includes how much taxpayer 01:10:13.280 --> 01:10:18.480 dollar is being directed towards every one of those services. Ultimately, that information along 01:10:18.480 --> 01:10:23.760 with some other guiding principles will help that team determine what cost recovery goals can be 01:10:23.760 --> 01:10:29.600 for the foreseeable future. The typical strategy continuum right now is anywhere from 24 to 36 01:10:29.600 --> 01:10:36.560 months. And I'm certain that Gary and team will continue to keep you updated and kind of in the 01:10:36.560 --> 01:10:42.400 loop in terms of the development of that strategy, that cost recovery strategy continuum. So those 01:10:42.400 --> 01:10:46.560 are the immediate next steps in the process. And we're probably about four weeks, three to four 01:10:46.560 --> 01:10:54.720 weeks out from completing this particular project. So Caroline, with that, there's a final slide here 01:10:54.720 --> 01:10:58.960 just as a placeholder to see if anyone has any thoughts, comments, questions they would like to 01:10:58.960 --> 01:11:06.080 share before we wrap up this evening. Yeah, I do if we have time. Go ahead, James. You first go. 01:11:12.720 --> 01:11:17.200 Well, I'm muted. There we go. Now I got it. Okay. Yeah, it just wasn't going, the hand wasn't 01:11:17.200 --> 01:11:24.480 grabbing the thing, right? Probably because I'm a clutch, okay, normally. But I just, how do you 01:11:24.480 --> 01:11:30.720 factor in anything, like went for replacement, like playgrounds, you typically have to replace them. 01:11:30.720 --> 01:11:36.720 You cost, you would put that in there like every 10 years we're going to place a, you know, and then 01:11:36.720 --> 01:11:42.080 you put that factor in when you do the overall cost now. So I'm just trying to figure out, you say 01:11:42.080 --> 01:11:50.240 capital monies. I saw that, but what cost you consider that to be capital or just to be maintenance? 01:11:50.240 --> 01:11:58.560 So right now we're working with the staff to collect the expenditures data that is more 01:11:58.560 --> 01:12:03.520 operationally focused. They will have the opportunity and ability if they want to go down 01:12:03.520 --> 01:12:09.920 deep and start calling out depreciation or connect the dots with capital. They certainly have the 01:12:09.920 --> 01:12:16.480 ability to do that right now. We're keeping it very focused on the operating expenses for the system, 01:12:16.480 --> 01:12:22.080 but our hope and our expectation for many systems, depending on whether or not they want to take 01:12:22.080 --> 01:12:26.160 advantage of it is to really start thinking about the things that you're speaking about. 01:12:26.160 --> 01:12:30.320 How do we connect this to our asset management plan? How do we think about replacement costs? 01:12:30.320 --> 01:12:37.120 And this for us is always a, let's start somewhere exercise because for some organizations and not 01:12:37.120 --> 01:12:40.560 necessarily Gary's crew here, but some organizations, this is the first time they've really, 01:12:40.560 --> 01:12:46.000 you know, dove into the details of these indirect expenses and the capital expenses. 01:12:46.000 --> 01:12:51.440 So this is this more high level, let's get the party started. Let's start collecting this 01:12:51.440 --> 01:12:56.880 information. But our hope and intention with every organization we work with is let's get deeper, 01:12:56.880 --> 01:13:00.800 right? Because all of the things you mentioned are expenses associated with delivering services. 01:13:01.360 --> 01:13:07.600 So absolutely. Good question, James. Yeah, thank you. The guy reminded me of this is, 01:13:07.600 --> 01:13:11.120 it's no good to buy a Cadillac if you can't put gas in it. 01:13:11.120 --> 01:13:20.480 If you can't take care of it, then why get the car in first place? That's, you know. Sure, absolutely. 01:13:20.480 --> 01:13:26.560 Other questions for me, I'm going to certainly pass the controls and Mike back to Gary to close 01:13:26.560 --> 01:13:30.480 tonight, but I want to open the floor for any thoughts, comments, questions you have for 01:13:30.480 --> 01:13:37.520 for me this evening. I mean, just as a thought from me, a lot of these seem to be dovetailing 01:13:37.520 --> 01:13:45.920 together. No, I mean, the rental and the resale and it's like, it's not an either or proposition, 01:13:45.920 --> 01:13:51.600 right? I mean, all these dovetailing together, there's no reason why we can't have community 01:13:51.600 --> 01:13:59.840 events and the resale and you know, it's a it's a it's a great exercise and made my head hurt, 01:13:59.840 --> 01:14:07.920 but I appreciate that where you're going. Yeah. Also is, I'm trying to keep my personal experiences 01:14:07.920 --> 01:14:13.440 out of it that I know I see what I saw in the past and how I've worked in the past with different 01:14:13.440 --> 01:14:21.200 groups. This is a great exercise. I appreciate you doing this. Yeah, you bet. You bet. Thank you, 01:14:21.200 --> 01:14:25.840 Jerry. David? Yeah, just to add on to that, I think one of the challenges I think probably all of us 01:14:25.840 --> 01:14:32.800 have with it is it's very difficult to to kind of eliminate importance because it has nothing to do 01:14:32.800 --> 01:14:37.520 with how important it is, you know, from this exercise and that's it. That's kind of a challenge. 01:14:37.520 --> 01:14:42.480 I know it was for me. Yes, it is. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, David. Thank you. That's good. Yeah. 01:14:42.480 --> 01:14:48.560 And keep in mind, that's why I often emphasize the word ranking and it is about beneficiary and 01:14:48.560 --> 01:14:52.320 that's why we create service categories. I want you to imagine just for a moment if we would have 01:14:52.320 --> 01:14:57.920 had service areas like youth sports and adult sports and seniors and it becomes a very different 01:14:57.920 --> 01:15:03.840 exercise. So categorization as I mentioned earlier as I walked through kind of the, you know, the 01:15:03.840 --> 01:15:09.920 foundations for tonight, service categories help us diminish social values debates. If I'm a ball 01:15:09.920 --> 01:15:14.400 player, that may be all I'm interested in, right? That's the most important thing to me. If I go to 01:15:14.400 --> 01:15:18.720 the senior center, that's the most important thing to me. If I have a child in an afterschool program, 01:15:18.720 --> 01:15:22.880 that's the most important thing to me. So the categories really level the playing field and 01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:30.080 it allows us to see things a little differently. So yeah, you're spot on. Frances? Simply stated, 01:15:30.080 --> 01:15:36.320 thank you for including us in the process. Of course. Yeah, I appreciate your contributions 01:15:36.320 --> 01:15:45.360 tonight. Absolutely. Alana? Hi, yes. Thanks for having this. One thing I was just thinking about 01:15:45.360 --> 01:15:53.440 is when we're looking at like the three-legged stool for cost recovery, I see that there's a 01:15:53.440 --> 01:16:01.200 lot of emphasis on like the social benefits and the fiscal benefits. So I don't see a lot in here 01:16:01.200 --> 01:16:11.040 about the environmental benefits of the services. So I'm not sure what you mean by the environmental 01:16:11.040 --> 01:16:20.320 benefits. So we know like we're specifically talking about the benefits of, you know, 01:16:20.320 --> 01:16:26.160 the resale. I would say that's more of like an economic thing and then the community stuff, 01:16:26.160 --> 01:16:32.160 kind of like the social stuff. And it's really emphasizing that a lot of the opportunity that 01:16:32.160 --> 01:16:38.800 the parks has is preserving our nature. Of course. And I understand that's non-monitored open access. 01:16:38.800 --> 01:16:45.680 You have it as, you know, an option, but just to like clarify that you have to balance the economic, 01:16:45.680 --> 01:16:53.680 the social, and the environmental throughout. Sure, sure. And yeah, and keep in mind, we weren't 01:16:53.680 --> 01:16:59.200 speaking in terms of social or economic benefit. This was about does a service align with the common 01:16:59.200 --> 01:17:05.680 good, which you might perceive that as the environmental benefits to our community, right? 01:17:05.680 --> 01:17:11.360 The common good versus an individual benefit. So it wasn't, I wasn't, I hope there wasn't a 01:17:11.360 --> 01:17:17.040 misunderstanding about the beneficiary being the common good versus the individual, because there 01:17:17.040 --> 01:17:21.920 really wasn't a reference to social benefit or economic benefit. It was about who benefits in 01:17:21.920 --> 01:17:30.400 your community. Okay. Okay. Can I throw something in just real quick? Yeah. Yeah, please. As you were 01:17:30.400 --> 01:17:38.880 going through your presentation, the operational costs struck me. Okay. And I remembered how Gary 01:17:38.880 --> 01:17:46.480 and Drew, as we're going through all these plans, the more native we go and the more natural we go, 01:17:46.480 --> 01:17:52.720 it's going to cut the operational costs down. I mean, it's going to require less maintenance. 01:17:53.520 --> 01:18:01.120 And so that's where I was thinking that the environmental aspect, Elena, came in, that as 01:18:01.120 --> 01:18:08.400 it's designed correctly and how we have input in the design, that's going to be a huge impact on 01:18:08.400 --> 01:18:13.760 that. Yeah. And what you're speaking about are the costs associated with delivering services, 01:18:13.760 --> 01:18:20.560 right? So maybe in Alana's case, you know, we're thinking about conservation, preservation efforts 01:18:20.560 --> 01:18:25.840 that the organization's making. Those become costs associated with providing parks to your community. 01:18:25.840 --> 01:18:30.320 Yeah, yes. So we don't have, you're going to notice those categories are the deliverables 01:18:30.320 --> 01:18:35.040 to the community. They're experiences you provide. They're not the costs. So we don't have maintenance 01:18:35.040 --> 01:18:40.000 costs in there, right? You know, things James was mentioning, those become part of the cost of service 01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:45.360 analysis, but they're not services you're providing to the community. They're costs associated with 01:18:45.360 --> 01:18:50.000 delivering those services to the community. Does that make sense? Yeah. They're the costs 01:18:50.560 --> 01:18:56.640 associated with deliverables, but they can be transferred to another category that we save here, 01:18:56.640 --> 01:19:01.920 we pay here, right? Yeah, potentially, depending on the cost, yeah. Yeah, we're not paying Peter 01:19:01.920 --> 01:19:07.200 so much we can get Paul more money, you know, one of those. There you go. Yeah, yeah. 01:19:07.200 --> 01:19:13.600 Any other questions for me this evening before I turn it back over to Gary? 01:19:13.600 --> 01:19:19.440 I have no questions, but I'm really glad I don't have Gary's job to make these decisions. So 01:19:20.400 --> 01:19:25.840 you go, boy. You're good. There you go. There you go. All right. Well, once again, I very much 01:19:25.840 --> 01:19:32.720 appreciate your time this evening as a pleasure virtually meeting all of you. And it's, I'm happy 01:19:32.720 --> 01:19:37.360 that you were willing to do this this evening because it really helps strengthen this work 01:19:37.360 --> 01:19:42.000 for the organization. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, Jamie. 01:19:44.720 --> 01:19:50.640 So Jerry, I guess to follow up your question that this entire process helps guide us and helps with 01:19:50.640 --> 01:19:58.480 the decision making process when everything from setting our fees to, you know, justifying fee 01:19:58.480 --> 01:20:06.080 increases or adjustments, you know, continuing with certain programs. So this really helps us 01:20:06.080 --> 01:20:12.720 make that decision. Everything from staff to board to city council, you know, especially during 01:20:12.720 --> 01:20:21.440 budgetary processes. So this is a, it's a big map, I guess, for us to help us in that process. 01:20:21.440 --> 01:20:26.800 Well, that's why we're here, man. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. So we'll definitely be 01:20:26.800 --> 01:20:31.840 reaching out with you with updates and summaries here in the near future as we kind of wrap up the 01:20:31.840 --> 01:20:40.240 cohort. But wanted to appreciate everyone's time as this special meeting. And I guess I'll turn 01:20:40.240 --> 01:20:49.040 it back over to to the chair. Okay, does anybody have anything else today? I love your bus. 01:20:49.040 --> 01:20:56.480 It's not mine. It's actually my parents. I let them sit here so that I can borrow it. 01:20:56.480 --> 01:21:03.680 Okay, well, I guess we'll see each other in a couple of weeks. Jamie, thanks again. 01:21:05.200 --> 01:21:10.320 Bye, everyone. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye. Here.