Citizen’s Drive Aims To Save Recreation Centers, After-School Programming

Terry O’Grady has been vocal —  very vocal — in the fight to keep Hillsborough County recreation centers open and after-school programs in operation at those centers.

So much so that his numbers-crunching has become the basis for the so-called “Hagan Hybrid” proposal that Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan will bring before his colleagues today, Aug. 24, at the commissioners’ budget workshop meeting at 1:30 p.m.

“I took what was approved by the county commissioners as their budget-cut numbers, the same amount of personnel, the same amount of operating expenses, the same line items, and I built a program that retains 30 parks and the after-school program,” O’Grady said in an interview with Brandon Patch. “The bottom line is that the director of parks and recreation says my numbers are wrong but the commissioners know they’re correct. I’ve got five commissioners voting but it took them a long time to understand.”

O’Grady said he discussed with commissioners (and/or their staff members) who agreed to meet with him over the past week and discussed the following salient points:

• The commissioners have earmarked $7.5 to $8 million to run the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department, of which the after-school program is an offering, and which O’Grady said now accounts for roughly 30 percent of the recreation center’s budget.
• With the budget allocation for fiscal year 2012, Mark Thornton, director of the department, has proposed running nine to 11 recreation centers (to be re-branded as regional centers), including two new centers to be built, and to staff the centers with 97 employees, of which 54 workers would be full time. The proposal had originally called for closing down the after-school program at all county recreation centers. This would be accomplished within the $7.5 to $8 million budget, including operating, personnel and indirect costs.
• O’Grady crafted a budget, using the same dollars and budget categories, that in turn would keep 27 to 30 recreation centers open, employ the same 54 full-time and 43 part-time employees and keep the after-school program running at those recreation centers.

“In addition,” O’Grady said, “properly managed, marketed and implemented, we will generate $2.4 million in fee revenue, which means the program could reduce the cost to taxpayers to $5 million.”

O’Grady said his numbers work based on 2,000 kids signing up, of which more than half would pay the $45 weekly fee and the remaining, who meet low-income thresholds, would pay $15 a week. “That would average out to $30 a week, which for 40 weeks, at 2,000 participants would account for $2.4 million,” O’Grady said.

This past year, he added, the after-school program in Hillsborough County started with 2,040 kids and ended with 1,882 participants.

Moreover, O’Grady said, if 1,000 participants qualified for School Readiness grants, that could net the program another $1.2 million, “but I’m not even counting that,” he said. “That’s my backup."

O’Grady said he asked for and received meetings with the county commissioners (and/or their staff members) who voted against a measure that closed the vast majority of recreation centers. He met with Sandy Murman, Kevin Beckner and Mark Sharpe; he was not able to arrange a meeting with Al Higginbotham or any of his staff members.

According to O’Grady, he believes the votes are there now to approve the Hagan Hybrid proposal. Indeed, previous Brandon Patch reports show that is likely indeed, with Murman, Beckner and Sharpe apparently ready to join Hagan, Victor Crist and Lesley Miller, who voted not to close the recreation centers and after-school programming at a budget workshop meeting in July.

At that meeting, the commissioners as a board agreed to revisit the issue at the Aug. 24 meeting.

“I guess a lot of people come out and talk about this issue emotionally,” O’Grady said, in reference to a strategic meeting at the Brandon Recreation Center, a rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds and a subsequent rally, again, at the Brandon Recreation Center. “I look at these numbers like I would if I were running my own business, and I run three of them.”

By his accounting, O’Grady for more than 20 years has volunteered “probably more than 20,000 hours” to the recreation department and has certified more than 20,000 coaches over 18 years.

“I certified all the coaches in Hillsborough County youth sports,” he said. “I’m personally certified with three national organizations. I handcrafted a coaching certificate in sports psychology, about positive reinforcement for our young kids. It’s not about how to win and play games. It’s more about understanding why they’re out there for the kids."

O’Grady said he has also run the county basketball program, has been on the staff for the District 13 Little League and had been involved as a coach and president of various league organizations.

As for his drive to save recreation centers and after-school programming, O’Grady said he stepped up to the plate “because I have a lot of friends in parks and recreation and I know a lot of parents and they needed somebody to step up and look out for their interests."

“I’m doing this for the community, friends and the kids in the community,” he added. “It’s the right thing to do in hard economic times."

But O’Grady himself is a not a die-hard proponent; he has his limits as well.

“I’m the first one to say if you don’t sign your kids up we will close it down,” O’Grady said. “I’m not running for county commissioner. I don’t want Mark Thornton’s job. I have three businesses of my own, nothing related to parks and recreation. I’m a fiscal conservative Republican. What we’re proposing is within the proposed budget. I am not outside that framework. I spent hundreds of my own hours on this and I’m not making up numbers."

Toward that end, O’Grady said he supports the following:

That two full-time employees be at each park that has an after-school program. “Do not open a center with a part-time employee for the after-school program,” he said. “No, that is not acceptable. We don’t want a part-time program."

Oversight is necessary. “I insist they have oversight and an implementation committee and I’ve asked and volunteered to chair it,” he said. “There has been so much damage done to this program we need to rebuild it and not sabotage it.”

The community must step up as well. “We give the parks six months from the start, which takes us to April, to prove that they can sustain a viable after-school program,” O’Grady said. “If they can’t, I advocate we shut the program down and close any park that can’t demonstrate the ability to run a viable program with a minimum of 50 kids. I’m going to be the first one to say, ‘If you don’t sign your kids up, we will close it down."

O’Grady said he also is fighting to keep current employees in their current positions, noting a movement to have them quit and reapply for the available jobs under new job descriptions. In some cases, he said, people who have successfully done their jobs for decades would not be considered qualified to do those jobs under the newly determined education requirements.