Chicago Park District board members were told Monday they should begin charging children for recreational classes at park field houses, but park officials were less than enthusiastic about the idea.
They were more amenable to another suggestion from the investment banking firm of Bear, Stearns & Co.–raising parking fees at the Grant Park and Monroe Street underground garages.
Bear, Stearns, which prepared the report for free at the request of the park district, said the higher fees for parking and classes could bring in an extra $2.5 million a year in revenues. But the park district`s executive vice president, Jesse Madison, said the extra money wasn`t worth the political heat of charging kids for classes they have long enjoyed for free.
”That may be the right thing to do economically,” he said, ”but politically it may be the wrong thing to do.”
Board president Walter Netsch said he`d be willing to consider charging for recreational programs and classes in affluent neighborhoods but not in poorer parts of town.
”Different areas of the city have completely different needs,” he said. ”In Portage Park, there`s tremendous demand for our programs, and they might be willing to pay a fee. But I don`t like the idea of charging in poor neighborhoods, where the parks are underused.”
The report said the park district could bring in an extra $350,000 a year by charging children $7 for each class they take at a park district field house. The district now offers most of its classes for free to children under age 19. The report also suggested raising adult fees $5 per class to bring in another $250,000 and charging higher fees for people living outside Chicago.
The report noted that park district classes are considerably cheaper than those offered by suburban park districts, private businesses and organizations such as the YMCA.
For example, the park district charges adults $27 for 11 two-hour sailing lessons, about one-tenth the cost of similar lessons from private instructors. Six one-hour tennis lessons cost only $20 or $30, depending on the student`s skill level. The fee for most adult arts and crafts classes, which meet once a week from October to May, is only $10.
Bear, Stearns also called for a 25 percent increase in golf-course greens fees, which now range from $3.50 to $5.50, and charging $2 a person per hour at certain heavily used tennis courts, most of which now are free. It said the district also should consider raising boat mooring fees at its Lake Michigan harbors in exchange for improved services at the marinas.
In the suburbs, children have long been charged for park programs, suburban parks and recreation officials said.
”There has been a big trend in the last ten years of supporting recreation programs more with fees and less with taxes,” said John Hedges, director of Oak Park Parks and Recreation.
Hedges said fees for Oak Park`s eight-week programs range from $10 to about $30, depending on the cost of materials involved and level of expert instruction required.
The Arlington Heights Park District charges about the same for its programs, said Sue Quill, general program director. Quill called Chicago`s free programs ”very unusual. Most park districts or parks-and-rec agencies charge a fee at least to cover their direct costs.”
The Bear, Stearns report called for raising parking fees 75 cents at the Grant Park garage and 50 cents at the Monroe Street garage, but Netsch said he favored a hike of $1.
Parking in the Grant Park garage now costs an average of $5.25 a day at the north garage and $4.50 at the south garage. The Monroe Street facility charges $4 a day. Those rates, the report noted, were last raised three years ago and are about 50 percent below the fees charged in comparable private garages.
In other action Monday, board attorney George Galland submitted an ordinance that limits Madison`s hiring authority. The ordinance is expected to resolve a dispute between Madison and Netsch over patronage. Netsch reportedly has complained that politics, rather than professionalism, was the main qualification of several officials Madison has hired in recent months.
The proposed ordinance, endorsed by both Netsch and Madison, gives the park district board the sole authority to hire and fire six top officials:
general superintendent (a position currently vacant), executive vice president, board secretary, board treasurer, general attorney and
superintendent of employment.
The ordinance, which was sent to the board`s committee of the whole for consideration, does not affect nine top positions Madison already has filled with people who have political connections to City Hall.
