Thursday, September 24, 2026, 10:45 a.m. (Denver time), Parr-Widener Community Room, Room 389
0:40 Warning it transmission
0:42 looking to department's
0:44 actions. We are in a chief
0:46 operating Good morning, Chris
0:47 Heinz, Denver's the morning.
0:50 There are lots Vine District.
0:54 9 Kevin Flynn, southwest
0:55 numbers district tax
0:55 preparation. Finance just
1:00 insights. The public to
1:03 Fullerton take effect or
1:04 department reached. Good
1:05 morning. John Martinez, deputy
1:09 executive director of torture
1:09 trying prevent a manager's
1:10 department of Parks and
1:14 provided key distant second,
1:15 the Mansour District Good
1:17 morning. Diana Romero,
1:18 Campbell, Southeast Denver
1:18 district people to have a
1:24 chief financial officer, a
1:27 custom means just thank you so
1:29 much. The team for parts of
1:29 the act from to join across
1:30 the city. And thanks for all
1:36 your work on project said
1:37 here's Thank you, MADAM Chair,
1:39 link Good morning, everybody.
1:40 Thank you so much for having
1:41 going to go. And so is this
1:44 renowned miked everywhere? Ok,
1:47 I'm gonna go real quick. And
1:48 also departure Gration. I have
1:51 the most amazing group of
1:53 people who really run this
1:54 operation and like it to stand
1:55 up here and move the slides
1:57 today. Really, this is the
1:58 dream team that makes it all
1:59 happen and delivers all of
2:01 those special moments of joy
2:03 and all of the awesome
2:04 programs and projects every
2:06 time one of your constituents
2:08 walks into a parked box and
2:09 direction so and just go down
2:10 the line back here. So, you
2:11 know, it was in the room with
2:11 us today as well as certain
2:14 park. Our current state
2:19 director policy and strategic
2:21 initiatives instead of like
2:21 one to go in reverse director
2:24 player does it concern Hanley,
2:28 director of a thoroughly and
2:32 the director park operations.
2:32 Tony Bennett is director
2:35 recreation and see operations
2:38 maintenance said House and a
2:38 recreation director,
2:41 Kingsville director of
2:43 Recreation. Good Morning,
2:45 Shannon Dennison director
2:46 Denver Mountain Morning. You
2:48 us marketing and
2:52 communications Good morning.
2:53 Elisa Humboldt Park direct
2:56 clerk. I made a mistake. I
2:57 didn't realize I didn't go to
2:58 the phone. Sometimes if I MAY
3:00 interrupt just go online and
3:02 actions from council members
3:05 that are outlined my policies.
3:06 Thank you. MADAM Chair, Paul
3:07 Kashmann, South Denver
3:12 District 6. And the council
3:19 endorses also think you can
3:21 you know, yeah, I wasn't here.
3:25 I'm sorry for counts it comes
3:28 to terrorists not impossible.
3:29 Well, I'm not man most of you
3:30 have that you know, somebody
3:31 from this team at some point.
3:33 And I think it's always good
3:36 to faces to names when in the
3:37 room together. We're very
3:38 excited today to be here to
3:39 present the proposed budget
3:41 for parks and recreation for
3:43 2027 start with yours. Just a
3:46 reminder about our mission. I
3:49 think you know when you're got
3:49 our mission by this is what we
3:53 have down on paper for mission
3:54 vision and then really want to
3:56 highlight throughout this
3:56 presentation. Some of the
4:00 h#
4:00 things that we worked really
4:00 o#
4:00 protecting and
4:02 preserving within this budget,
4:03 including recreation hours,
4:05 you'll see no reduction in
4:06 recreation hours anywhere
4:08 across maintaining our current
4:10 park maintenance levels, which
4:11 is really important because
4:12 that's where people are. Every
4:13 single day was very important
4:15 to us. And that impact
4:17 everyday on people's use. And
4:18 then on capital projects, our
4:20 team meets with each of you
4:23 and your offices every year to
4:25 talk through capital projects
4:28 for our 6 year cip that we get
4:29 things kind of in the hopper
4:31 to be moving forward. And so
4:32 any delay to that puts
4:33 projects that the community is
4:36 hoping for or expecting for
4:37 has been asking for delay. And
4:37 so we worked really hard to to
4:38 try to keep those projects
4:43 moving And again, some of our
4:44 strategic priorities for
4:45 Twenty-twenty 7. You'll see
4:47 over here on the other side.
4:48 Again, just a reminder of some
4:50 of our guiding principles for
4:52 the game plan adapt, connect,
4:54 diversify, reinvest, and grow
4:55 the drive what we But some
4:57 other highlights for 2027. We
4:59 will be opening. A brand new
5:00 wrecked center in Westwood
5:04 currently on pace to open in
5:05 the summer 2027. We're going
5:07 to continue our landscape
5:08 transformation projects. You
5:10 see a couple listed out here.
5:11 You'll see this throughout the
5:14 presentation. This is really a
5:16 key part our role in climate
5:18 resiliency and also creating
5:19 those resilient landscapes,
5:20 but also in reducing our water
5:22 use. Denver parks and
5:23 recreation is Denver. Water's
5:25 number one customer. So when
5:26 we hit things like drought,
5:29 our ability to meet that
5:31 moment is arguably the most
5:32 important one across the city
5:34 as a single group we have over
5:39 1100 almost 1200 individual
5:39 accounts with underwater. And
5:42 so part of that continuing to
5:43 transform landscapes, go
5:44 through parks, looking at
5:47 areas that are not being
5:49 actively used for recreation
5:50 at where we need that turf
5:51 grass so that we can continue
5:54 to have the water and the
5:55 resources to keep those places
5:56 where we do have active
5:57 recreation, where we want
5:59 folks to be able do those
6:01 kinds of things in our parks
6:02 as well. And we've had a lot
6:04 of success with that. The
6:05 projects that department has
6:06 done in the past combined with
6:07 I've talked to in the past
6:09 about our central control
6:10 system where we worked out a
6:13 smarter sprinkler system
6:14 across our system that can
6:14 tell when it's raining. And so
6:15 we're not watering when it's
6:16 raining when something breaks
6:19 something. It's driven over by
6:20 a car and all the sudden
6:21 spring water can be turned off
6:23 on an iPad. We don't need
6:25 somebody to get there. All of
6:28 those things have really come
6:29 together in this year of
6:30 drought where we are on pace.
6:32 We met every target that
6:33 Denver water sent for us their
6:34 goal to reduce water
6:37 so far during what was a very
6:37 consumption by 20% every month
6:40 hot and dry summer. We also
6:41 see neighborhood park
6:42 improvements continuing. These
6:44 are a lot of the projects that
6:46 you all and your constituents
6:47 are always reaching out to
6:48 that are in our neighborhood
6:49 parks and so continuing to
6:51 move those projects forward.
6:53 As I mentioned on our seats 6
6:55 year Cip plan, we have some of
6:56 our bigger projects that are
6:57 scheduled to open back up at
6:59 Civic Center and skyline in
7:02 downtown in 2027 continuing to
7:05 plant trees. We banned in
7:06 front of you talking about our
7:07 tree canopy areas where we're
7:09 continuing to try to increase
7:10 our tree canopy, but also the
7:12 threats to our existing tree
7:14 canopy, including drought. So
7:15 we had different were able to
7:17 be smart with our water use
7:19 and have a different watering
7:21 planned for areas that have
7:22 trees, that areas that don't
7:23 to make sure that our trees
7:24 were staying alive. But also
7:25 now with the emerald ash borer
7:27 having been found in multiple
7:28 locations in our city. We know
7:30 that about 20% of our tree
7:32 canopy is Ashton is at risk.
7:35 And so continuing. To not just
7:39 treat some of those high value
7:42 plant a plant because it takes
7:42 older trees, but continue to
7:44 many years for those trees to
7:45 take the place of ones that
7:47 we're going to lose from
7:49 emerald ash and then working
7:49 on all of our bond projects
7:52 that are out of ira bomb that
7:53 we're very excited about
7:54 moving each of those into some
7:58 form of being started this
8:01 year and will continue move
8:01 into design and delivery and
8:03 27. And as I mentioned, our
8:05 our water, conservation and
8:06 drought management. We
8:08 anticipate other than water
8:10 year what the weather will
8:10 hasn't hasn't look yet at next
8:12 bring over the winter. But we
8:12 anticipate it being another
8:13 year. We have to actively
8:19 manage for water. Use. Some of
8:20 the philosophy steps again,
8:21 that I want to really
8:23 reiterate as we're looking to,
8:25 how do we cover will walk
8:28 through some additional costs
8:29 maintaining our current
8:29 within our budget, really
8:30 service levels talked about
8:31 that from the recreations
8:33 item. The parkside minimizing
8:37 any impact community would
8:37 setting the mandatory
8:38 expansions that will talk
8:40 about bit more detail in a
8:41 second and leveraging revenue
8:47 opportunities that we have.
8:48 Also city council priorities,
8:50 the documents that you all put
8:51 out, go through all of that
8:53 and try to align our work is
8:54 as we can with the areas that
8:57 overlap with So a couple areas
8:59 highlighted Climate resiliency
9:00 called out as a priority by
9:02 city Council. You can see that
9:04 across our budget, our
9:05 landscape transformations,
9:05 treating resilient
9:06 environments or use their
9:09 water usage, planting trees,
9:11 key to making sure that our
9:12 canopy as healthy and we're
9:12 preserving as much as we can
9:14 and conserving water. And if
9:16 you take out across those
9:19 budget areas, 14 over 14 and a
9:20 half million dollars. And then
9:23 also the bridge You know, our
9:24 bridges are generally a little
9:24 bit smaller than the ones that
9:26 you heard about probably from
9:28 Dottie in the previous
9:28 presentations, but also our
9:31 key connectors for folks using
9:32 every day. And we have a lot
9:34 of them that are aging or or
9:36 or close repair. And so you'll
9:38 see that we also have almost 2
9:38 and a half million dollars
9:39 going into bridge repair and
9:44 replacement. Everything that
9:46 we do. We look at through that
9:48 equity lens on the next slide.
9:51 You'll see our equity And as a
9:53 reminder, take the city's
9:54 equity indicators and then we
9:55 overlay park specific
9:57 indicators on top of that to
9:59 inform the work that we do. So
10:01 that goes you know, our
10:03 investment on the capital We
10:06 also always look at from a
10:07 program standpoint from what
10:07 we're doing and what we're
10:09 investing, tax dollars. We
10:11 look at go through this on on
10:13 the slide after Kind of that
10:15 individual benefit. And so
10:15 community benefit versus
10:16 just touched briefly there.
10:19 And walk you through that
10:20 again. And then again about
10:22 preserving the hours at the
10:23 recreation centers. Top
10:23 priority for us in the 27
10:29 budget. Here you can see
10:30 again, this is not gonna look
10:33 exactly the same as the city's
10:34 equity map because we go and
10:37 we put park indicators like,
10:38 do people have a 10 minute
10:41 walk, access, total park
10:42 acreage for 1000 residents and
10:44 then also our 10 year
10:45 historical capital Investment,
10:48 which helps us to see with
10:49 more granularity where we
10:50 putting dollars over the last
10:52 10 years so that we can make
10:53 sure that we're investing
10:54 those in the areas. This is
10:56 that as we move forward, that
10:56 that need it the and that
11:00 haven't had those investments.
11:01 And then our this is the
11:03 individual versus community
11:05 benefit kind of parent that we
11:06 always look at things. We look
11:07 at when we're providing some
11:09 of those services like our
11:11 recreational services, for
11:12 example, is what we're
11:13 providing mostly have an
11:13 individual benefit to the
11:17 individual, was using it or is
11:18 there some sort of community
11:19 benefit? Is that somewhere in
11:20 between? Is it mostly
11:21 community benefits? And so
11:22 you'll see some of the things
11:25 we'll talk about our golf
11:26 Enterprise which it was
11:28 largely individual benefit for
11:31 somebody going out and playing
11:32 round of through our rentals
11:32 where there's some
11:33 community-building happening
11:36 in team sports and to our our
11:37 youth programs, whether that
11:41 be through first tr golf
11:42 program that really opens the
11:43 doors kids who who have no
11:45 previous experience with golf
11:46 to learn how and have access
11:48 to our courses. Are you sports
11:48 programs that we have
11:49 throughout our rec center that
11:50 have a lot of community
11:54 benefit? Here you'll see are
11:56 kind of or chart most in a
11:57 couple different versions of
11:58 this organized a little bit on
12:00 our cost centers with our
12:01 parks, recreation. You heard
12:04 from a lot of folks here, from
12:06 planning design, construction
12:07 forestry, our mountain parks,
12:08 and then the admin functions
12:10 of what we do with finance
12:11 marketing safety. Those kinds
12:15 of things. All right, getting
12:17 into some of our our metrics
12:18 are our system usage. If you
12:20 remember this, this no longer
12:21 goes back far enough to show
12:22 kind of the covid years. But
12:26 there was a huge drop in our
12:27 rec centers because they were
12:29 closed during covid. But a
12:31 huge bump up when people were
12:33 during covid and were able to
12:35 go outside or weren't able to
12:37 go inside. They went outside.
12:38 And so these are huge bump in
12:40 park usage. We expected to see
12:41 the opposite happened as we
12:43 came out of covid are rec
12:44 centers ramp back up and they
12:45 But what we didn't see was
12:46 really a draw. People got used
12:47 to being in the parks and
12:51 spending time in our Berks and
12:53 that usage state at near
12:53 record levels in state height.
12:54 And you see that our rec
12:55 centers continue to to grow
12:59 and use such as well. There
13:00 are a lot of different
13:01 performance metrics of all of
13:03 our different teams across all
13:05 of our divisions use in their
13:07 work. A couple that wanted to
13:10 highlight here today are my
13:11 Denver usage, which is our
13:13 free access to rec centers and
13:16 programming youth aged 5 to
13:19 18. You can see continues to
13:20 grow are continuing work to
13:22 provide the kind of access and
13:24 programming where young people
13:25 feel safe. They feel engaged,
13:27 something that they want to do
13:28 and where they want to be. And
13:29 we can stun you to see growth
13:32 As we're doing that acres
13:34 converted. That's our