Staff shake-up at Mill Creek MetroParks continues

February 20, 2016 at 12:10a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Mill Creek MetroParks’ staff shake-up continued this week with four additional dismissals.

The park system eliminated the positions of plant curator Ellen Speicher, ranger Vince Thomas, development assistant Lanore Jones and gardener Beth Molvin, said Mill Creek MetroParks Executive Director Aaron Young.

Those positions were part-time jobs at Fellows Riverside Gardens, which, along with the operations department, took the brunt of staff cuts. Of eight other employees dismissed last week, two worked at the Gardens – including longtime horticulture director Keith Kaiser.

The park system cut five operations positions last week, including operations director Perry Toth’s job, and veteran outdoor education manager Ray Novotny’s position was eliminated from the recreation and education department.

Some who were dismissed from their positions were offered the opportunity to fill other vacant positions with the park if they were qualified; others were offered severance packages.

In addition to job eliminations, two park employees – volunteer coordinator Bridget Beck and exhibits coordinator Norma Roden – resigned their posts. The Vindicator also heard multiple reports that some volunteers had chosen to end their association with the park system in response to the job eliminations.

Jeff Harvey, president of the Audubon Society/Mahoning Valley, who volunteers to lead some of the nature center’s programs, said he no longer will volunteer after he wraps up his current commitments to the park.

“Why should I volunteer my time when they don’t even show an interest in having a full-time naturalist?” he asked. “When you get rid of your naturalist – an award-winning naturalist like Ray Novotny – you’re saying you don’t care about wildlife education.”

Michelle Spernak, a volunteer at the Gardens, said she will continue to volunteer, but knows of many other Gardens volunteers who will not.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said of the departures.

Another staff dismissal is expected next week.

MetroParks officials say position eliminations are part of an “internal reorganization” plan that will save the park system $13 million over 15 years to make up for a projected $15 million capital-improvements shortfall.

Implementation of that plan comes three months after the park system won approval at the polls of a 15-year, 1.75-mill renewal levy paired with an additional 0.25-mill for capital improvements.

The levy will generate roughly $7.6 million annually, about $1 million more than the current levy. The park’s general-fund appropriations budget for 2016 is $9,438,750.

The first round of terminations and their handling – Vindicator staffers witnessed employees being summarily dismissed while park police officers were made to stand by – raised the ire of some community members, many of whom took to social media to express their indignation.

In an interview Thursday, Young defended the decision.

“We cannot continue to operate the way we’ve operated in the past and not continually ask for more money. We can’t ask taxpayers to fund inefficiency,” he said.

He pointed to a 2013 strategic plan for the park that, while stating that the park system was “in a sound financial position with respect to operating revenues and expenditures, fund balance and investments in capital projects” and was debt-free, did identify a “gap” between general-fund revenues and expenditures.

The report indicates that between 2006 and 2011, the park’s revenues were decreasing at a faster pace than its expenditures.

That portion of the report caught Young’s attention, he said.

The plan does not identify a need for staff cuts; it instead seems to focus on a need for raising activity fees, better cost recovery and getting a levy passed. According to the plan, all facilities except Mill Creek Golf Course and the Gardens had lower-than-expected cost recovery.

Young said he felt adjustments to how the park system operates needed to be included in an effort to become more efficient.

In the run-up to the election, and since, Young has said that the organization needs to become more “sustainable, organized, efficient and proactive.”

“I inherently believe that it is an obligation of this organization to spend the taxpayers’ money wisely, and that is becoming more efficient,” he said.

He noted two quotes attributed to Albert Einstein that he admires: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” and “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

“We chose to address the first so we can enjoy the second,” Young said.