"Yes" on Park Question

When Michael Nutter was a city councilman from a West Philadelphia district spanning much of Fairmount Park, he may well have represented more trees than constituents.

Once he became mayor, Nutter moved quickly to boost the budget of the perennially underfunded 9,200-acre park system - adding $2.4 million this fiscal year, with a pledge to increase spending by nearly 50 percent over five years.

Even as his administration grapples with cutbacks likely to hit Fairmount Park's budget as well as other city departments because of the national financial crisis, the mayor's credentials as a park advocate remain rock solid.

"We will do everything we can to preserve the park's budget," Nutter told a citizens forum last week.

So voters can take heart that Nutter is recommending they join him next week in approving a plan to streamline accountability and oversight of Fairmount Park.

A proposed City Charter change on the Nov. 4 ballot would merge the quasi-independent Fairmount Park Commission with the city Recreation Department, creating a combined parks and recreation agency directly under the mayor's authority. It would replace a commission whose members are chosen in secret by the city's judges, acting at the behest of local political leaders who may or may not have had Fairmount Park's best interests in mind.

Nutter supports the reform as the best means to preserve the park and recreation programs by streamlining their services and maximizing efficiencies in maintenance, planning and other functions. With the combined department under the mayor, Nutter and his successors would be fully accountable for Fairmount Park's upkeep - long lagging because of stagnant funding.

The city's largest park friends' group, the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, also believes that the realignment will encourage more private donors to partner with the city to bolster park maintenance and recreation programs. That's vital.

City Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Blondell Reynolds Brown drafted the charter measure in 2006. The merger was also recommended several years ago by the Fairmount Park Commission's own strategic plan. It would put Philadelphia in step with most major cities that have combined parks and recreation departments.

Even so, all the elected park commissioners - who would be replaced by an advisory panel of mayoral appointees - and some park and recreation advocates are wary of the change, or opposed, despite the mayor's vocal support.

The rallying cry of these park advocates - "keep the Fairmount Park Commission in their critical role as stewards of Philadelphia's public lands," as one goes - makes for a great sound bite. But it summons up images of park lands being despoiled or sold off, and that's the polar opposite of merger advocates' intent.

For one thing, a newly configured parks and recreation advisory board named by the mayor from Council nominees would be charged with establishing guidelines for any use of land. With community input as a further safeguard, park and recreation facilities could be better preserved.

An earlier version of the merger proposal hadn't been vetted by park advocates as well as this one. And it wasn't until Nutter took office that he could deliver on his pledge to increase park and recreation funding - a key reason to support this governance change.

Even if Nutter has to backtrack on spending now, there's no doubt he understands the value of polishing Fairmount Park as a valuable gem. As the mayor seeks all the tools necessary to do that, Philadelphians can help him by voting YES on the parks and recreation ballot question.