by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Mayor John Peyton has his sights set on taking the City’s park system from the nation’s biggest to the best, but the head of Peyton’s parks task force says improvements are necessary before the system can even be considered adequate.
Rufus Pennington, of Margol and Pennington law firm, was tabbed by Peyton in March to lead a group of local parks advocates charged with assessing Jacksonville’s current system and recommending ways to turn it into the national best. But noting that the City has no set budget for capital improvements and little organized support from the private community, Pennington told a City Council committee Tuesday that Jacksonville faces a long climb to the top.
“We have to walk before we can run,” said Pennington. “There are things that need to be addressed before we become decent, let alone the best.”
Although the City has already amassed the largest national stockpile of park lands, Pennington said more would be needed. If the City hopes to maintain that land, it will likely have to fund a recurring budget for capital improvements, he said. The creation of an entity with the ability to make decisions and spend money independent of the political process would help the City maintain a long-term strategy for its parks and would encourage private donors that their money would be well-spent, he said.
Pennington’s presentation drew a lot of nods from the Council members, but heads started shaking no with the mention of an independent parks authority.
“When I hear you say ‘commission,’ I hear independent authority,” said Council member Gwen Yates. “I’m not sure I’m at that level with you.”
Council member Sharon Copeland said “adding layers of government tends to bog down the process,” and said Council member Pat Lockett-Felder also opposed a parks commission.
Pennington said he understood the reluctance to consider creating more government. But he said a commission freed from the political process would be the City’s best chance to focus its spending.
“It’s an undesirable situation when every time there’s a new budget and a new Council, you have to invent where your capital expenditures are going,” he said. “You have to figure out some way to filter out the directionless political bartering that has an undue influence.”
An independent commission would give credibility to the park system, he said. And convince would-be private donors that decisions would be made objectively instead of politically.
“Right now you have parks decisions being made in a back and forth between 14 different Council districts and the mayor’s office with the park system caught in the middle,” he said.
The task force has not endorsed the idea of an independent commission, but Pennington said a task force subcommittee would recommend it to the mayor. Peyton’s transition team made a similar recommendation as did a recent study by the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.
Pennington’s words echo suggestions from a national expert in city park systems that addressed the task force as it was beginning its work. Environmental author Peter Harnik said the parks’ evolution would be most effective under the guidance of a single group. He also recommended the City commit more money to capital improvements.
According to the most recent numbers available, Jacksonville spent about $80 per resident on its parks. That number put the City in line with the national average of about $89. But most of that money was spent buying land. The City spent only about $37 per person on upkeep, about $20 below the national average.
Peyton has pledged to spend $13.5 million over the next three years to turn more than 40,000 acres of untouched land into parks that compete nationally.
About 60 percent of the money will come from State and Federal agencies. The City will contribute about $5 million left over from the City’s $360 million Preservation Project.