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Issued: June 2003

SUMMARY

Of four original recommendations reviewed, we found two implemented, and two partially implemented. At the time the original Employee Safety audit was issued, in April 2001, there was considerable work to do to strengthen the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) safety program. Since then, incident management procedures and practices and safety data quality, analysis and distribution are greatly improved. Furthermore, for FY 02, the Director increased department emphasis on safety training for all regular employees. However, we have found that standard operating procedures (SOPs) and training are two areas still in need of significant attention. Both a communicated set of SOPs for all job locations and a systematic training program should serve as the foundation for preventing injury incidents on the job and holding department employees accountable in the event of an injury. It should be noted that the originally projected implementation date of the SOP recommendation, October 2003, has not passed, although it will likely take significantly longer to fully implement the recommendation.

Evidence collected in the current and original audits suggests that many employees do not recognize imposed, standard procedures for performing their job. This is due in part to PARD's policy that leaves development of SOPs at the discretion of the individual site managers. Strengths in safety performance also appear to be due to individual site managers. Familiarity with the concept of standards varies throughout the department. We speculate that supervisors tend to emphasize an employee's experience on the job rather than imposed expectations.

While we found several improvements in the area of training, many PARD positions still lack training requirements, and controlled, consistent training records. Since the original employee safety audit, the Aquatics division has been designated the safety trainer for the department and offers classes including back injury prevention and slips, trips, and falls prevention — addressing leading causes of injury on the job at PARD. Also, hazard communication and disease prevention training classes have been added to the menu of classes since the audit, following a safety consultant's evaluation of PARD safety. On the other hand, tests of personnel records show decentralized oversight of many supplementary courses, and incomplete use of the TRAIN system to track training impedes assessment of training coverage. Compliance with training requirements for employees injured on the job is also weak.

In the course of follow-up work, we found that PARD lost its budgeted Safety Officer position effective February 2003, with the transfer of that staff person to another City department. In addition to this setback, PARD's Fleet Manager has retired leaving no replacement to respond to and oversee follow-up on all department vehicle accidents. In order to overcome these issues, the Division Manager of Aquatics is currently charged in his SSPR to "manage the department's safety program," and a request has been placed with Parks Police to fill the Fleet Manager's safety responsibility. In addition, Safety Committee members have also been mobilized to contribute to program improvement efforts, beyond their committee responsibilities. In order to dedicate safety resources for FY 04, however, PARD will need to find a vacancy and re-classify it as Safety Officer or request a new position in the proposed budget.

The current staffing structure raises three concerns:

• In the event the Aquatics Division Manager leaves the job, will safety responsibilities continue to be a duty of that position?
• In summer months Aquatics is occupied with its core activity, which can cause setbacks in departmentwide safety administration.
• PARD is a high-risk department, without a staffed, budgeted safety officer.

We found that a lack of staff in this area may compromise incident management follow-through: appropriate corrective actions, indicated by injury incidents, have not been consistently implemented in PARD.

Click here to go to our audit request form to request a hard copy of this report (Report No. AU03201) or download the entire text of the Employee Safety: Parks and Recreation Department Follow-Up audit report (Size: 179 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. Click here to view original audit report issued in April 2001. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files.

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