Contact:
Danielle Viguerie
Ph: (504) 658-1063
daviguerie@cityofno.com
City Council Votes to Level the Playing Field
New Orleans, LA – June 2, 2010 – Yesterday, all seven members of the City Council passed an Ordinance that was put forward by Mayor Landrieu by request, which will lead to the improvement and reformation of the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD).
The Ordinance, which calls for a vote in October to amend the City’s Home Rule Charter, puts the decision to create a new governing structure for the City’s recreation department to a vote of the people. If affirmed, a public private partnership will be established to form the new NORD Commission, which will serve as the governing body to manage the City’s recreation transformation. This model was recommended after several years of evaluation of “best practices” of municipal recreation by the City Council Youth and Recreation Committee, the New Orleans Recreation Department Citizens Advisory Panel (NORDcap), co-chaired by Rod West, Roy Glapion and Bobby Garon, and a month of close partnership with the Landrieu Administration.
The new NORD Commission would sidestep the pitfalls that have plagued NORD due to a lack of continuity among public officials. Among the goals of the new NORD Commission are equity among all neighborhood recreation facilities and programs, as well as making sure that there is adequate funding for the Commission to succeed.
The proposed make-up of the Commission is delineated in a separate Ordinance that was filed today by Mayor Landrieu and City Council President Arnie Fielkow. The proposed make-up of the Commission will consist of thirteen members that serve terms of five years organized on a staggered basis.
Under the current proposal, the Commission will be comprised of eight public officials: the Mayor, the Chief Administrative Officer, the Deputy Mayor of Operations, two members of the City Council, the superintendent of the Recovery School District, the chairman of the Orleans Parish School Board and the Chairman of the City Planning Commission; and five appointees who possess relevant expertise in several critical areas such as arts or culture, sports, accounting or finance, law and consumer involvement. The proposed make-up ensures broad subject matter expertise and diverse representation on the Commission, including representation of Council districts.
A critical component to the success of the new Commission will be to ensure a level of funding that can bring forth change. Through consultation with members of NORDcap and other experts, Councilmember Fielkow is advocating a doubling of NORD’s current level of funding to bring the Commission to $10 million annually. He will try to secure this funding and has received commitment from the Landrieu Administration to significantly increase NORD funding. In addition to the Commission, a separate non-profit entity, the New Orleans Recreation Development Foundation, will be created as a private fundraising body that will work to supplement the public dollars allocated to the Commission. The New Orleans Recreation Development Foundation leadership will be required to meet regularly with the leadership of the NORD Commission in order to ensure that the private sector funding harmoniously leverages the public Commission’s mission.
“Funding of NORD is woefully deficient right now and needs to be at least doubled in order to function at a level that is acceptable,” said City Council President Fielkow. “People ask, ‘Can we afford it?’ I tell them that we can’t afford not to reform NORD. I would prefer to pay on the front end and support a program like NORD rather than pay on the back end and have to rehabilitate kids who, through lack of care by their city government, turned to the streets,” said Fielkow.
