Pleas to maintain after-school programs move Parks Tacoma board members to tears
More than 60 people turned out to plead with the Parks Tacoma board to maintain the agency’s beloved afterschool programs at a May 18 board meeting.
The hours of public comment came as the agency seeks to rectify a $9 million budget gap, the result of Parks Tacoma’s flawed revenue projections and “gaps” in its financial oversight, agency leaders have said. To help mitigate the deficit, Parks Tacoma is working on an amendment to the 2025-2026 budget which proposes eliminating programs like Beyond the Bell and Club B – which offer free or low-cost after-school child care at Tacoma’s elementary and middle schools.
Multiple Parks Tacoma board members were moved to tears after hearing emotional appeals from people who spoke of how essential those programs have been to students and families. Speakers criticized board members and parks staff for allowing such a deficit to emerge and detailed how the programs have served a critical need in Tacoma for free or low-cost childcare.
Stephanie Johnson, a Beyond the Bell site lead at Edison Elementary, said at the meeting the program has provided Tacoma’s youth with a safe space, kept them off the streets and out of danger.
“My question is why someone like Shon Sylvia can make $530,000,” she said referring to the former executive director and his half million dollar payout, “and we’re asking for our students to make up the deficit.”
Parent Sarah Perkins said Parks Tacoma should prioritize cuts that wouldn’t negatively impact the city’s youth.
“The community should not always be the first place government looks when it needs something to cut,” she said.
Park board members acknowledged the difficulty of the situation. Board president Matt Mauer said the community was right to criticize the board and the agency’s leadership for allowing it to end up in this situation. Mauer and other board members repeatedly apologized to the attendees for the cuts on the horizon.
“This is a horrible position to be in. Your distrust in us is completely warranted, and I’m going to work diligently and my colleagues are going to work diligently to try and re-establish that trust,” said Mauer, appearing to hold back tears.
The proposed cuts won’t be final until the board approves the budget amendment at the end of June. But Mauer said the agency likely will need to implement cuts before the end of June to capture as many savings as possible. Parks Tacoma spokesperson Stacia Glenn said those cuts have included reducing irrigation at parks around the city and the cancellation of the Mosaic Arts and Culture Festival, which have saved $365,000 and $162,571 respectively.
George Schaaf, director of parks and recreation for Parks Tacoma, said the cuts outlined in the proposal constitute a 15% reduction to the agency’s budget for the year.
But “because we only have half the year left, it’s going to feel like a 30% reduction,” Schaaf said.
Gwen Voelpel, who had served as Parks Tacoma’s director of business administration and planning since March, took on the interim executive director title after Sylvia’s resignation. Voelpel was supposed to work for Parks Tacoma in a temporary capacity, so the agency contracted with an executive search firm and paid a one-time finders fee of $7,500 to select Tony Piasecki to do the job for the next six to nine months, Glenn told The News Tribune. Piasecki, now the third person to manage Parks Tacoma since April, served as the city manager for Des Moines for nearly 15 years.
The board at the May 18 meeting unanimously approved Piasecki’s contract, finalizing his compensation at $135 per hour starting May 19. He’ll also receive a bank with 40 hours of leave for vacation and another 40 hours for sick leave that would not be eligible for cashout, according to the contract.
Parks Tacoma’s budget deficit has raised questions about a lack of oversight over its finances and management. The board asked former executive director Shon Sylvia to resign in April after it learned of the circumstances that led to the agency’s budget deficit.
The Parks Tacoma executive director is the sole employee of the Parks Tacoma board. The News Tribune found that the board, which was required to conduct annual performance reviews of the executive director, did so about three times in the nearly 10 years Sylvia served as executive director.
Sylvia isn’t leaving with a clean break. His employment contract mandated that he receive a nearly half million dollar payout for his departure, which includes compensation for unused sick and vacation time as well as one year of severance pay, or $271,430. Sylvia still works for Parks Tacoma as a “special adviser,” earning $49,572 for the work he will do in that capacity until the end of June.
The announcement of Sylvia’s departure came less than 24 hours after voters approved a $155 million bond measure to fund capital projects at Parks Tacoma.
