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Recreation Commission Meeting March 3, 2003 Mr. DiSalvo met with representatives of Hot Stove, NOSO, and NOSA, and Chris will meet with them as well. The concern with those organizations is that there is nothing in writing as to what they provide. For protection of the Recreation Department, there should be contracts for documentation. He then opened the floor to anyone with insight as to how to approach these entities to accomplish this. He further stated that in the past there’s been a “gentleman’s agreement” between them and the Rec, but it’s also been a case, more or less, that they tell the Rec what they want, not the other way around. While they are in control and know what they are doing, Mr. DiSalvo wants to avoid any conflicts or confusion in the future. Ms. Hayes said that there has been some controversy in the past over the hockey fields and the Hot Stove fields, and, she agreed, to a smaller extent, the high schools. She confirmed to the Commissioner that he was right in stating that the Rec Center is the buffer between the organizations and wants to have something clear. Mr. Baxter stated it might be a good idea to get financial reports from the organizations. Mr. DiSalvo replied that they are giving ball-park figures to the Recreation Center and further stated that, although the organizations are entitled to time in the fields, some time must be allowed for the residents of the City. Mr. Baxter said that it’s hard to tell how many residents/non-residents are using the fields in the city, particularly when the fields are being reserved. Mr. DiSalvo said that, obviously, residents should have first right to their use. Mr. DiSalvo then said that he had an interesting meeting with the Ticket Booth’s Head Cashier. He knows that the ticket booth functions need to be completely restructured. Apparently, years ago, the Secretary I position used to be the supervisor for the Head Cashier. Both of them are Union positions. Someone figured out that there should not be Union over Union supervision. Pat, the Secretary I, passed away. Then everything was being thrown at the ticket booth. The ticket booth shouldn’t be doing half what they’re doing, which has taken away from the actual service aspect, i.e., taking care of the patrons. When Mr. DiSalvo met with Sandy Gimino (the Head Cashier) today, it was made clear that taking care of the patrons is her primary responsibility. Mr. DiSalvo will meet with other workers to make sure they are not placing their responsibilities on her shoulders. It is such a mess now that it will take two or three months to clean up. People who haven’t been doing their jobs correctly will have to be totally retrained. With the reorganization on that (the financials later), right now about 5% of the income is slipping through, that’s over $100,000 the Recreation Center is missing over the top. If the Recreation Center can recoup about 10% of what’s being lost, that will be about $200,000. Everyone will just have to do what they are supposed to be doing, and everyone is capable of doing that. There was discussion about the figures, and Mr. DiSalvo reiterated that 5%, or $100,000 can be recouped, right off the top. When he met with Hot Stove, NOSO and NOSA, he was told that a percentage of their teams were never billed. The record keeping needs to be tightened up. The ticket booth needs to be streamlined, so that if you’re just coming in to skate, you don’t have to wait behind registration. The ticket booth should be for pay as you come in patrons, and major registrations should be brought back to whoever is in charge of the department and organized from there. Individual registrations should be on one side of the booth or to the office, and paying patrons should have a fast-moving line on the other side of the booth. It should be a lot easier than it is right now. Page 2