The Riehl World: Carlsbad’s $50,000 Pyramid

by Richard J. Riehl on July 5, 2009

The power of the pyramid prevailed when the Carlsbad City Council voted unanimously at its June 9 meeting to accept a report prepared for the parks and recreation department by a Colorado consulting firm paid $50,000 for their advice. Pyramids were all the rage in the 1970’s, with advocates claiming structures shaped like Egyptian pyramids unleashed magical powers that could preserve foods, clarify thinking and improve your sex life.

From the praise the city council heaped on the pyramid model of cost-recovery for Carlsbad’s parks and recreation programs, you’d think council members believe the power of this pyramid will help them escape the wrath of special interest groups. If they raise fees they can always blame the pyramid.
It makes good sense to base the funding of resources on who benefits most from using them. That’s what the cost-recovery pyramid attempts to do. The base level of the model represents resources that provide the greatest benefit to the entire community. The top level represents resources providing the greatest benefit to individuals.

Follow the jump for the rest of the story. . .
Councilman Mark Packard wanted assurance that the special interest groups bought into the model. He asked GreenPlay consultant Karon Badalamenti, “Did you ask them where they’d rank themselves? How close were they to what the staff is recommending?” Badalamenti replied, “I can tell you the pyramids were not that far off. If it was off, it was off one level, people perceiving that there might be a little more community benefit than individual benefit. You have to buy into the premise that it’s based on beneficiaries.”

And that’s the trouble with all artificial models, not just pyramids. They’re only as good as the way they’re used. Like art appreciation, identifying who benefits most is often in the eyes of the beholder. Slotting programs based on their relative benefit to the community depends on who’s doing the slotting. The buck stops with the city council.

The pyramid model ranks programs, not program participants. Members of youth teams, for example, come from wealthy families as well as those for whom any fee increase means they can’t participate. In cities by the sea, you could make a strong argument that it’s in the community’s public safety interests for everyone to know how to swim and that access to public swimming pools shouldn’t depend on family income.

Trips for senior citizens were mentioned as activities that benefit only a small number of individuals and could therefore command higher fees or privatization. But what does it say about our community values if we abandon the needs of those with fixed incomes who depend on these trips to maintain their quality of life?

The cost-recovery pyramid, like all cost/benefit models, gives the impression of objectivity after subjective decisions have been made.

Badalamenti explained that the model is a tool that can be adjusted according to the city’s needs, values and the local economy. In introducing the report, however, Parks director Brian Albright pointed out that the average subsidy provided by cities for their parks departments nationwide ranges from 65 to 70 percent of total costs, while Carlsbad subsidizes 78 percent of the cost of its park programs. He added, “obviously we want to raise our cost recovery percentage.” But Badalamenti said the city council could decide the current subsidy is right for Carlsbad, pointing out the wide variations among cities: from Denver and Miami at 84 percent, to Boulder, Colorado, at 5 percent.

Before they implement the model, maybe the council should give further thought to the overall goal of the plan. Why is a 22 percent cost recovery unacceptable? With the city sitting on a $40 million general fund reserve during these hard times, why should raising fees be a budgeting priority?

The city paid GreenPlay consultants $50,000 for their advice, according to Mick Calarco, recreation services manager. As consulting fees go, that’s a modest amount. But it does raise the question of whether the pyramid model will be an improvement over the rental fee schedule ladder already in place. The lowest fees are reserved for Carlsbad resident non-profit civic/social organizations, with highest fees charged to non-resident commercial, business, political, profit making and religious groups.

Unlike the pyramid model, the current fee schedule appears to be based more on resident status and ability to pay rather than the nature of the activity.

Parks and recreation commission chair Sally Lyons told me, “Nothing is perfect. It can be altered as times change.” But city council members who believe it will make their decision making easier might have better luck on the first floor of that pyramid in Las Vegas.

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at RiehlWorld2@yahoo.com

{ 0 comments… add one now }

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: