RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 26, 2010, Freeport-Baldwin Leader
Why no legislative oversight on parks?
Concerns over the raising of permit fees for county fields.
Why is Nassau County raising field use permit fees for county parks without legislative approval? Democratic Legislators David Denenberg and Wayne Wink, along with parks advocate Bruce Piel of PARCnassau, posed this question at a press conference on Monday at Eisenhower Park.
“Under the Mangano Administration, field use permit fees are being tripled, from $12 per hour during the day to $35 per hour and from $50 per hour at night to $100 per hour,” stated a press release from Legislator Denenberg.
“Once again, the county executive is flip flopping and increasing park fees despite blasting increases while he was a legislator.” He added that “all increases to park fees must be approved by the Nassau County Legislature pursuant to state and local law.”
Legislator Denenberg is also concerned about the creation of a Nassau County-run adult recreation league program that will divert 50% of its fees into a “Friends of Nassau Recreation” count. According to Legislator Denenberg, these funds should go in the Nassau County General Fund.
“Instead of recreational league fees going back into the cash-strapped county’s general fund, the County Executive has decided to put half the leagues’ fees into an account which does not have legislative supervision,” said Legislator Denenberg. “The Parks Department can spend funds from the “Friends of Nassau Recreation” account without legislative approval.”
But Republican County Executive Edward Mangano disagreed with Legislator Denenberg’s assessment of his program. “The former Democrat majority and prior administration allowed for-profit leagues to overtake our parks while eliminating county-run programs. The abuse of our fields was so prominent that one private company had every single field on Sundays from 8 am to 5 pm. These past practices resulted in high costs for residents using our fields for recreation,’ said County Executive Mangano.
“Just as the county took back our parks from for-profit camps, I will forward a pilot program to the Legislature that takes back our fields from for-profit leagues. Under this program, the county will receive more revenue than last year while running its own league with lower costs for players.”
Although Legislator Denenberg commended County Executive Mangano for creating county-run recreational leagues, he said “placing league fees in an unregulated, unsupervised slush fund only leads to cronyism and corruption.”
Mr. Mangano replied that “although for-profits will continue to be able to utilize our fields, I will ask the Legislature to raise their fees to more accurately cover the costs of operations, including part-time employees, lights, and irrigation systems associated with the fields. “Unfortunately, the Democrats on the county Legislature have continued to make irresponsible statements about my plan prior to obtaining the facts,” said County Executive Mangano.
“Rather than protect private companies making profits off our fields, they should focus on protecting Nassau taxpayers.” But Legislators Denenberg and Wink still want an answer to their question about legislative approval. “It is troubling that this is the latest example of an effort to avoid legislative approval for a matter that has historically been within the purview of the Legislature,” said Legislator Wink.
Bruce Piel added that the Friends of Nassau Parks is being run “like a slush fund for parks.” Mr. Piel explained that the Friends group was founded in 1982 by civic-minded individuals to raise money through donations from private companies and individuals to fund recreation programs that the county could not afford.
“It fell into disuse in the ’90s and the parks department took it ‘in house.’ But monies collected by Friends of Nassau County Recreation are not subject to legislative or other government oversight,” said Mr. Piel. “This is unacceptable!”– Laura Schofer
