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Agenda Item 8DAGENDA ITEM # 817 JANUARY 28, 2 ©13 AGENDA ITEM NO. DATE: CITY OF A`T'LANTIC BEACH CITY COMMISSION MEETING STAFF REPORT AGENDA ITEM: Early Openings for Dutton Island Preserve SUBMITTED BY: Rick Carper, P.E., Public Works Director L DA'Z'E: January 4, 2013 STRATEGIC PLAN LINK: Goal 12 Marsh Master Plan Improvements - tangentially related to goal of increasing access and usage of City Marsh Preserves. BACKGROUND: In late summer 2012, in response to user requests (particularly fishermen-) for earlier access, the City Commission directed Staff to conduct a trial of opening Dutton Island Preserve at 6:00 am on Saturday and Sunday as a change from the scheduled opening at 7:30 ain. After determining that Parks loading on Saturdays required an additional Ranger, Public Works rearranged Ranger schedules in order to accommodate the request, and applied the early opening to Tideviews Preserve also. Initially, in order to minimize overtime, the change was accommodated by assigning an additional employee to come in on weekend mornings which resulted in one less employee here on Mondays and staff leaving early one day during the work week. As park activity has declined and days have gotten shorter in the winter months, the coverage requirements for a full weekend day became less which has allowed Public Works to return to a single Ranger covering Saturdays and Sundays. As the clays get longer and park loading increases, this will become a scheduling issue again. Based on Banger observations, most weekends have seen a few park users (typically one to three cars) taking advantage of the earlier opening time. The people taking advantage of the earlier opening have obviously given positive feedback with the new opening titre. Assume an average of two cars per day, this would equate to roughly $58 per car, if early openings are managed exclusively by overtime. Because Ranger manning is very thin for the amount of work associated with parks trtaintenance, if directed to continue the early openings, overtime is the recormnended way to address this requirement with only PW support. One alternative previously discussed to reduce Staffing impacts was having an on -duty Police Officer open the park at the early time since Officers are already on the clock. However, the Chief of Police has cautioned that officers would not always be available to open the gate because of other, more important duties and complaints would be expected from the public who expected the gate to be opened at a regular time (See attachment). AGENDA ITEM # 8D JANUARY 28, 2013 Staff also investigated whether preserves needed to be locked overnight at all. Because of the camping activities occurring at Dutton Island Preserve, Staff felt that locking that gate as currently is done was a necessary safety precaution. However, locking the gate at Tideviews Preserve, from an operational aspect may not be necessary. Early users frequently park outside the gate on W. 15' Street and walk into the preserve. Leaving the gate open would allow users to park in the parking lot and reduce PW maintenance of the W. 15` Street shoulders. Security cameras already in place at the entrance allow the Police Department ECOs to monitor the parking lot and entrance road on a 24 hour basis. BUDGET: Staff earlier estimated it would cost about $3,000 per year in overtime pay (Account 001- 6020 -572 -1400) for just the Sunday early opening. To meet the desire for both weekend days and holidays using only overtime would cost approximately $6,000 in overtime, although if able to return to single ranger coverage as done for winter months, this amount may be reduced to approximately $4,500. The current total year Parks Maintenance Division overtime budget is $5,300 (38% already used for the year). A budget modification will be required to support early opening later this fiscal year. RECOMMENDATION: Consider whether the Commission desires to continue providing this extra service at this cost per use. ATTACHMENTS: City Manager's Follow -up Report from July 23`d Commission Meeting REVIEWED BY CITY MANAGER: AGENDA ITEM # 8D JANUARY 28, 2013 July 16, 2012 MEMORANDUM TO: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission FROM: Jim Hanson City Manager SUBJECT: Follow -up Report Opening Times of Dutton Island Preserve; A request was made at a recent Commission Meeting for the City to look into options open Dutton Island Preserve on weekends at 6:00 a.m. rather than the current time of 7:30 a.m. as for other City parks. The City can bring employees in earlier on those days to open the gate, but there would be an additional cost of approximately $3,000 per year. The Public Works Director reports that the earlier opening time can be accommodated on Saturdays by a scheduling change for the weekend Park Attendant. However, opening the gate earlier on Sundays would require the payment of approximately 1 '/z hours of overtime every week. A suggestion was made that police officers on duty should be able to open the gate at this earlier time. On most Sundays, the Police Dispatcher could send an officer to open the gate at 6 am. However, there would be a significant number of times when all of the officers are tied up on other more urgent matters. If the public were led to expect that the gate would always be opened at 6 am on weekends, then it would inevitably lead to complaints about the times when the police were not able to meet this timeframe. Consequently, if the City Commission wants these gates opened at an earlier time, paying for the additional overtime on Sundays is the best option. Debatable Motions; At the last Commission meeting, I made a statement that a motion to defer was non - debatable. That statement was not correct. The motion is debatable. The appropriate pages from "Robert's Rules of Order" are attached that outline which motions are debatable and which are not.