Will PenMet bring back Fox Island park hosts? Staff researching liability, best practices

After a second meeting dominated by angry Fox Island residents, the PenMet Park Board opened the door this week — just a crack — to reconsidering the district’s July decision to end the district’s park host program.

Board President Amanda Babich directed district staff to “conduct further research” and consult with the Fox Island Community and Recreation Association about whether the program could be renewed.

Reading a written statement at the Sept. 7 board meeting, Babich maintained that the park host program has been a “problem since its inception,” but conceded that “there are some appropriate duties that park hosts perform” that are “beneficial to our park system.”

She directed staff to research other park host programs and see how they manage liability and other issues, and to identify PenMet parks that could benefit from a renewed host program.

Asked about the liability, cost of the program, and comments at the meeting, among other things, Babich told The Gateway Sunday that PenMet wouldn’t be able to answer all of the questions in time for publication.

“PenMet has general legal counsel that advises the District on all matters related to legal liability,” her email said in part.

Hosts evicted

Many Fox Island residents were dismayed in July when the Peninsula Metropolitan Park District sent registered letters evicting the resident hosts at the Fox Island Fishing Pier Park and the DeMolay Sand Spit Nature Preserve and declaring the 17-year-old park host program ended. In the July 16 letter, PenMet Executive Director Ally Bujacich said the program is “no longer the most effective method to assist in operating these District assets.”

The hosts, Ed Lewis at the fishing pier and Brett Marlo at the sandspit, were popular on the island and credited by neighbors with controlling the after-dark trespassing, bonfires and teenage drinking parties that once plagued the parks.

Lewis and his wife, Lynn, lived in a recreational vehicle; Marlo and her two daughters lived in a “tiny house” of her own design. Lewis had served six years as a park host; Marlo served four. They were given until Oct. 1 to leave.

The hosts opened and closed the park gates, cleaned up trash, enforced park rules and performed some minor maintenance. They were not paid, but received free utilities.

Ally Bujacich, the park executive director, pointed The Gateway to a seven-page FAQ, which said, “Some of the park hosts’ decisions and interaction with the public have not met PenMet Parks’ expectations for customer service.”

Lewis left Sept. 1 after putting his RV in storage, and has been traveling in Germany.

Fox Islanders still angry

During the Sept. 7 meeting, Fox Island residents once again queued up to protest the decision to end the program, as they did at a board meeting Aug. 3.

“This decision just makes no sense to any of us,” said Linda Healy, who lives on Seventh Court. “The sandspit is a nature preserve. What’s going to happen when everybody in the community finds out that nobody’s watching the gate anymore?”

The district has said it will replace the park hosts with security cameras and “increased staff presence” at the two parks.

Glenn Hanson, who lives on Ozette Drive next to the fishing pier, said he’s been keeping track of how that’s been working out.

“On four nights out of six, the gates have been closed well after dark, including once at 11:17 p.m.,” he said. “The first night, someone didn’t have a key, so they used a stick in the lock instead.” He said the pier, which Lewis used to hose off daily, hasn’t been cleaned since July 19, when park maintenance employees took away the hose.

In her statement, Babich said the district is “addressing deferred maintenance issues at all park properties.”

Trouble at the boat launch

Rob Moore, who lives on Kamus Way, noted that Fox Island has only three public spaces — the fishing pier, the sandspit and the boat launch, which is owned by the Bureau of Land Management and has been a source of trouble.

“The people who live around the boat launch are subjected to beach fires, underage drinking, loud music, kids shooting paintballs at cars, kids racing cars back and forth across the bridge, illegal fireworks at all hours, and out-of-control trash,” he said. Now, he said, residents are worried these problems will migrate to the other parks as well.

“When kids sneak down to the sandspit and build a fire — and they will — how will you, the board, take care of it during the night?” Moore asked.

Several speakers took aim at Babich and Ally Bucajich, the PenMet executive director — sometimes in rudely personal terms — for failing to engage with residents or answer questions about the decision.

“We have talked to numerous park professionals, including the last four executive directors, and none of them can figure out what you are doing,” said Hanson. “We can’t either, because you won’t tell us. You have not given us one single reason. Not a fact, not a figure. When I asked Amanda how much the security was going to cost, she said, ‘Go file a (public records request.)’”

The district FAQ said because the program was started “administratively,” no public meeting or explanation was required to end it the same way.

Peggy Power, an island veterinarian who has been organizing a petition to bring back the hosts, said “It’s obvious” that the cameras and additional employee time will cost more than the park hosts ever did, but that the district won’t talk about that.

“What is the plan, how will things be better, what will this cost, we ask?” Power said. “No numbers of existing or future costs are given, emails are not returned, no analysis with dollars at all.”

‘Come see us’

Kenneth Higgins, who has lived on the island for 60 years and is its unofficial historian, said residents feel ignored by the board and frustrated by the lack of hard information.

“There have been no meetings or attempts at meetings, or to provide us with detailed information,” he said at the meeting. “You’ve given us no opportunity to counter the claims that were produced on your postings on the internet. I ask you, please give us a chance to meet with you and to either convince us that you made a good decision, or reconsider the decision that you made.”

The invitation was repeated by Jim Braden, president of FICRA, the Fox Island community association.

“Come see us, visit with us,” he urged. “We’d very much like to have you folks come over and hear what we have to say.”

Liability and dilapidation

Babich, reading from a prepared statement, repeated some of the district’s earlier arguments against the host program, and added a new one — that it was a liability risk.

“The district has been advised that the amount of liability and risk that the current version of the program presents is much greater than any benefit that has been experienced by the program,” she read.

In addition, she said, the district “has experienced the dilapidation and destruction of district assets and facilities; a lack of performance measures that could have provided quantified data; inconsistent, non-existent or outdated contracts; appropriate duties that were not performed or performed inconsistently; employees living on district property for reasons not affiliated with their job duties and long-term residencies that are not consistent with industry standards or best practices.”

“However,” she continued, “we understand that there are some appropriate duties park hosts perform that neighbors, park patrons and district representatives know to be beneficial to our park system and that is why the district is increasing the staff presence at selected parks, placing security cameras and addressing deferred maintenance issues at all park properties.”

She also asked staff to find examples of contracts for park hosts, performance metrics for park hosts, and examples of risks and liability management plans.

“Moving forward, I would like to ask the staff also to follow up and provide updates, conduct further research on best practices in park host programs, including: examples of other like programs of hosts in day-use parks” and to “identify which parks could benefit from a park host, using quantifiable data such as park visitor counts, ... maintenance requirements, staff operating time and park services.”

Mixed reaction

Most of the Fox Islanders had left the meeting by then, and only learned of the development later.

“Of course, we are gratified to see PenMet move toward a more responsive and fiscally responsible position,” said Power in an email to The Gateway. “This is, after all, what citizens have been asking for from the beginning.

“Let’s be clear, however, in recognizing what we’re seeing. This is damage control, in changing a decision that should never have been made without more study and consultation two months ago. Inexperience and poor decision making has been revealed, and this is a public agency that does not inspire confidence.”

But Moore, who had been one of the more passionate speakers, held out an olive branch.

“How about if we all back off a little,” he said. “I believe there is still some common ground. All our group has ever asked is, ‘Can we just sit down at a table and talk about this?’”