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Issued: February 2002

SUMMARY

This report presents findings and recommendations from our audit of parks maintenance performed by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). This audit was undertaken because parks help establish Austin as a great place to live and to visit. As a major investment in the economic, environmental, and cultural life of the City, parks are a high priority of the City Council.

Available data on the condition of City parks is mixed.

We cannot generalize directly about the condition of Austin parks because PARD has not developed clear maintenance standards, useful performance measures, and comprehensive data on the condition of park assets. From the available evidence on the condition of parks and our own observations we are able to draw these conclusions:

• City recreation and senior center supervisors are satisfied with many areas of park and facility maintenance.
• Voice of the Customer surveys since 1996 show that customer satisfaction with the condition of City parks is declining.
• Our observations supported the validity of the Voice of the Customer survey information insofar as overall park conditions were poorest in areas where citizen satisfaction was lowest.
• Generally, larger parks are not maintained as well as smaller parks.
• Parks in the Operations Division’s North District are not maintained as well as those in the Corridor and South Districts.
• Daily servicing of parks emphasizes custodial duties that improve appearance, but maintenance and repair that maintain the asset’s value are largely deferred.
• We observed significant unmet and undocumented maintenance needs in all parks we evaluated.

PARD’s data on maintenance backlog does not provide a standard for judging the condition of parks or describe the extent of unmet maintenance needs.

PARD has made two significant efforts to characterize the maintenance backlog. These efforts and our own observations indicate that there are many unmet maintenance needs. However, PARD’s efforts to characterize the backlog are not useful because PARD has neither defined the terms necessary to discuss the backlog meaningfully nor developed standardized information on park conditions. Moreover, the methods used for estimating costs to address backlogged items were neither sound nor rigorous.

The City of Austin does not manage parks according to fundamental asset management practices.

Authoritative literature emphasizes certain fundamental practices for managing a large real estate portfolio. In managing the parks system, the City of Austin needs to improve in respect to the following practices.

• The Operations Division does not have a comprehensive maintenance inventory of parks and facilities.
  The Operations Division does not have a complete inventory of park assets that provides full information on each asset that is relevant to its maintenance. This is a necessary first step in maintenance planning for a large system.
• PARD does not routinely assess the condition of park assets.
  PARD does not perform routine documented assessments of the physical condition of buildings, parks, and amenities. Without condition information in place, PARD is unable to demonstrate effectively monetary and human resource needs for routine and preventive maintenance to the City Manager or to the City Council.
• PARD lacks a comprehensive strategy for reinvestment in park assets.
  Austin’s maintenance investment per acre and maintenance investment as a percentage of program expense are among the lowest of all the cities compared. Maintaining the value of a real estate portfolio requires reinvestment in each asset based on its value and maintenance needs. Developing a reinvestment strategy requires planning operations based on reliable cost estimates for each activity undertaken, and results in a shift to preventive maintenance. PARD has not developed a strategy that targets reinvestment levels and funding sources.
• The Operations Division has not defined and separated maintenance duties from other duties to ensure accountability.
  The Operations Division has wide-ranging responsibilities, including both maintenance and non-maintenance activities, as well as activities that are not related to parks. A wide range of responsibilities is not necessarily inappropriate, but controls are required to ensure that resources are used for their intended purposes. To ensure that park maintenance is not short-changed, activities must be categorized and accounted for separately, and operations must be guided by standard operating procedures.

Critical park maintenance management information is unavailable.

Pervasive management information problems hamper PARD’s ability to manage maintenance. PARD purchased a maintenance management software package, but it is not fully implemented and data is not reliable. PARD is unable to monitor the cost of maintenance activities by facility, and some reported performance measures lack credibility. Failure to capture management information inhibits PARD’s planning and resource management. Moreover, managers lack a systematic way to meet maintenance priorities and make informed budget decisions.

Click here to go to our audit request form to request a hard copy of this report (Report No. AU01306) or download the entire text of the Park Maintenance audit (Size: 1.75 MB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files.

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