PRCF 2021-22 Annual Report

Annual Report FY 2021 / 2022

Mesa City Council

Mesa operates under a charter form of government with citizens electing a mayor and six councilmembers to set policy for the City.

Mesa’s councilmembers serve terms of four-years, with three members being elected every two years. The mayor is elected at-large every four years. The mayor and council are elected on a non-partisan basis. The vice mayor is selected by the City Council.

The Mesa City Council believes that its people, not leaders, are what makes a City great and actively works to encourage citizen participation in the decision-making process. Whether it is through neighborhood meetings, advisory boards and committees, telephone calls and letters, or email, the Mesa City Council sets policies based on the input and needs of its citizens.

John Giles (Mayor)

Mark Freeman

Julie Spilsbury

Francisco Heredia

Jenn Duff

David Luna

Kevin Thompson

Parks and Recreation Advisory Board

The Parks and Recreation Board shall be composed of eleven (11) persons appointed by the Mayor with the approval of the Council for staggered terms of three (3) years each.The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board shall advise the Council on the operation and development of all City parks and recreational facilities and on the recreational program of the City.

Nycole Leybra (Chair)

Troy Campbell

Robert Ingram

Jacob Martinez

Amelia Romney

Claud Cluff

Kimberly Forest

Rob Giles

Cindy Hayton

Jo Martin

Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much.

– Helen Keller

Mission:

We contribute to a healthy and vibrant community by providing exceptional experiences and services to those who live, work and play in Mesa.

Commitment:

• Being responsible stewards of parklands, facilities and finances, and transparent in how we manage these resources.

• Providing safe spaces and places for people to enjoy and recreate.

• Working together to focus on services that meet the ever-changing needs of our community.

Thank you for joining us in our journey to provide parks, recreation, and facilities to our treasured community. I am proud to present this annual report with our highlights and accomplishments from Fiscal Year 2021/2022. It represents the heart and soul our staff, volunteers, and partners pour into our amazing programs and resources.

By the summer of 2021, things were starting to get back to normal across the state as the pandemic pressures eased, especially for Mesa Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities programs, events, and more!

The recreation centers and summer camps were open and filling programs, but numbers were still lower to ensure proper staffing levels and to accommodate social distancing.

The aquatic centers had an increase in online reservations for private rentals. They were also able to bring back public swim passes, which was a huge success! In the summer of 2022 4,221 pool memberships were sold resulting in 22,162 visits to our aquatic centers. Staff received positive feedback from patrons who enjoy the membership option. Everyone was excited to get back out again into the community. Through strategic planning and recruitment efforts, Mesa was one of the largest cities in Arizona that did not have to shut down pools for the summer due to low staffing levels.

During the mid-year adjustment process, we were approved for 5 additional Park Ranger positions. These additional positions significantly increased the number of visits our Park Rangers were able to make to the parks this year.

The appeal of our outdoor concert space and smaller convention center continued to draw people to Mesa in record numbers. Throughout FY 21/22 our Department did not just return to normal, we began to thrive.

We continue to add to our toolbox with systems that help with water and energy conservation. Centralized irrigation controls, water budgets based on landscape needs, centralized building automation systems have all helped with reducing our irrigation water use and lowering electric utility demand.

With this tremendous interest and momentum in all of our services, we launched an initiative to update our comprehensive master plan. We have reached out to all areas and demographics of the City of Mesa to capture the community’s priorities, interests, and suggestions for improvement. We look forward to the finalization of this plan in FY 22/23.

Message from the Director, Andrea Moore

WHO WE ARE

We are the stewards of 5 community recreation centers, 9 aquatic facilities, 3 dog parks, 2 professional baseball stadiums, as well as the convention center, amphitheatre, tennis and pickleball center, golf course and cemetery. We also maintain 2,063 acres of developed parks and open space that include 209 city parks and retention basins. Our facilities maintenance division maintains 437 City buildings that amounts to over 6.9 million square feet of building space.

Department Work Groups

The Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities (PRCF) Department is comprised of three divisions as well as the administrative team. These work teams provide comprehensive year-round support, programming, and maintenance for a wide variety of facilities throughout the City of Mesa.

Administration

Division Deputy Directors and support staff oversee programming, athletics, operations, marketing, parks maintenance and facility maintenance.

Planning and Operations

The backbone of PRCF, Planning and Operations division, is responsible for being the stewards of City facilities and laying the framework for projects within the City facilities and Department. The division is comprised of landscape, field and parks maintenance, facilities maintenance and project managers.

Recreation

Our recreation division offers year-round opportunities that include aquatic programs, tennis and pickleball, fitness and outdoor programs, inclusion services, community events, park rangers, adult and youth sports programs, and day camps when school is out of session.

Commercial Facilities

Our commercial facilities division manages our Convention Center, Amphitheatre, City Cemetery and, along with the management company Paradigm, oversees the Dobson Ranch Golf Course. This division also oversees special events in parks and within the City of Mesa.

AQUATICS

In FY 21/22, a lot of exciting things happened with the aquatics program. Rhodes Pool was freshened up with new plaster over the winter, and a local artist added a new colorful mural to the wall behind the FlowRider “surf machine” which has brightened up the backdrop for people surfing in the desert.

In gearing up for summer staff recruitment, our referral incentive program really paid off. We hired 96 new employees that were referred to us by a current staff member. In the spring of 2022, 186 new lifeguards received certification training through 5 different training sessions. After all the training, hiring and onboarding was completed, aquatics had a total of 282 part-time and seasonal employees, including cashiers, pool managers, and new and returning lifeguards. To increase our ability to teach swim lessons we offered 3 classes to certify swim lesson instructors which helped us gain 77 new instructors.

Having full staffing allowed us to open all nine pools for public swim and expand some of our program areas. In the summer of 2022, an additional dive-in movie was added for all to enjoy, one in May and another in June. Both dive-in movie events sold out with over 400 attendees at each! The Aquatic staff provided over 4,800 swim lessons during the summer, filling them at 91% capacity. Finally, the swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo teams had almost 2,800 participants this year.

ATHLETICS

Youth Sports

The City of Mesa established a partnership with the Phoenix Suns to enhance the Youth Basketball Program. There were 275 participants. The partnership included some once-in-a-lifetime experiences for players, and they received enhanced jerseys, coach’s shirts, and raffle prizes for participants.

In February 2022, City of Mesa Youth Sports partnered with Major League Wiffleball (MLW) to host their 1st official Wiffleball Tournament at Riverview Park. The tournament attracted 18 teams from across the valley and two teams from California.

City of Mesa Youth Sports offered a football camp in April 2022. This camp included special guest coaches who all played in the National Football League (NFL). The NFL coaches provided on field instruction and motivational speeches. There were 110 participants registered for the event.

Adult Sports

Adult sports staff started two new programs in 2022 that have been a huge hit for Mesa Residents. “Mesa Hikes” takes participants to various trails around the state.

The second program, Recess for Adults, continues to be a big hit. The program allows adults to explore their inner child with such activities as hide and seek, relay races, indoor soccer, floor ball and a trip to Rhodes for the FlowRider.

In January 2022, the Senior Softball League had an average of 12 teams that played in a 7-week program. The league attracts visitors to Mesa from other states and several teams from Canada.

Athletic Field Rentals

One of the most popular events that take place at our baseball and soccer complexes are athletic tournaments. In FY 21/22, a total of 71 tournaments were hosted in Mesa.

Mesa rental staff created additional partnerships for tournaments held at Hohokam and Fitch fields. The Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) hosted two different tournaments for their Division 6 and Division 4 Baseball Championships. AIA hosted a girls fastpitch state level tournament at Fiesta Sports Park bringing in hundreds of visitors to Mesa.

Mesa Tennis & Pickleball Center

The Mesa Tennis & Pickleball Center (MTPC) was selected for the USTA 2021 Outstanding Facility Award. MTPC saw over a 250% increase in tournament attendance.

MTPC has hosted a variety of tournaments in FY 21/22. The most popular was the first ever “Glow in the Dark” Pickleball tournament, where 50 participants played this fun sport under blacklights with glowing balls.

YOUTH PROGRAMS

Our youth Fun N Fitness mobile recreation program is a partnership with several Mesa Public Schools to provide after school enrichment and recreation opportunities for students. We had over 3,400 students participate in this program.

This year 12 different youth summer camps for kids ages 6-12 years were held. Staff worked with our partner, Mesa Public Schools, to schedule the camps at different campuses across the city. There were 901 participants in these camps, and Mesa Public Schools provided over 2,100 meals to kids attending the camps through the extended summer food program.

Young teen volunteer opportunities were available through the Teen Leadership Training (TLT) to assist with various activities and Junior Lifeguards that assist and learn from the Lifeguards. These volunteer programs offer valuable life skills and exciting work experience. We had 61 TLT Trainees that contributed over 7,400 volunteer hours at 12 summer camp sites. We had 254 Junior Lifeguards that contributed over 13,800 volunteer hours throughout our 9 pools.

FRONT DESK

The front desk operations saw dramatic improvements this fiscal year. Revenue for registrations and reservations had a combined average increase of 180% over the previous fiscal year (+231% for registrations and +130% for reservations). Then, the total number of registrations and reservations also saw a year-over-year increase, with an average combined fiscal year total that was 228% higher than the previous fiscal year. In January 2022, an online reservation system for ramada rentals was softly deployed, with an official marketed launch in March 2022. Since then, online ramada reservations have accounted for 33% to 45% of monthly ramada reservation totals.The last two quarters of the fiscal year consisted of the rollout of a new fee assistance program, aptly named the Mesa Recreation Scholarship (MRS). The MRS discount recorded significantly higher participants than preceding fee assistance programs, with 2,474 unique members by June 30, 2022 (comparatively, the preceding fee assistance program had 1,163 unique members during the same period of the previous year).

ADAPTIVE PROGRAMS

The adaptive programs have returned to regular programming to continually meet the needs of the community for individuals with developmental disabilities. The Off-Broadway Theater program performed its first public production since the pandemic. The Lion King Jr performers wore elaborate, handmade costumes on stage across 3 nights and performed for about 1,000 people. Other new developments in adaptive programming were opportunities for volleyball, air rifle, indoor boccia, pickleball, adaptive water sports day, and snow day. For snow day, the City of Mesa partnered with Snowbowl in Flagstaff and the children were able to have an adaptive lesson such as snowboarding. The adaptive programs had approximately 645 participations with members of our community who partake in our services.

RECREATION CENTERS

Red Mountain Center

• Total number of membership packages sold: 14,511

• Total number of visits to fitness classes: 106,386

• Total number of daily visits (drop-in, no membership): 13,870

• Total number of membership package visits (visits from people who had a membership): 92,516

• Total number of private rentals: 331

• Total number of people attending rentals: 14,445

• Tenant Partners

º Oakwood Creative Care total attendance: 3,991

º Aster Aging total attendance: 8,351

• Total number of visits to RMC: 151,422

Eagles Community Center

• Afterschool monthly average enrollment: 53

• Summer Escape weekly average enrollment: 48

• Number of private rentals: 193

• Number of people attending rentals: 5,993

• Total number of visits to ECC: 24,592

Jefferson Recreation Center

• Afterschool monthly average enrollment: 53

• Summer Escape weekly average enrollment: 57

• Number of private rentals: 5

• Number of people attending rentals: 248

• Total number of visits to JRC: 12,785

Webster Recreation Center

• Afterschool program monthly average enrollment: 51

• Summer Escape weekly average enrollment: 45

• Number of private rentals: 23

• Number of people attending rentals: 4,526

• Total number of visits to WRC: 21,662

Special Interest Classes

• Total number of people enrolled in classes: 4,637

• Total number of times people attended classes: 18,249

• Number of classes offered: 672

PARK RANGERS SPECIAL EVENTS

Park Rangers hired 5 additional staff midway through the year for a total of 12 rangers and implemented a new dispatch system to receive direct calls for service, both of which increased their ability to better serve our community. The Park Rangers also implemented new digital daily patrol logs to increase efficiency and save time collecting important data. The Park Rangers do more than enforce the rules and regulations of Mesa parks, they also serve an important role in connecting with community members and educating residents on how to enjoy nature. This year, they were able to reinstitute outdoor and nature based educational programs, including seasonal campouts, nature play events, aquatic habitat structure building workshops and scorpion hikes.

The Mesa Park Rangers recorded 24,120 park visits. They issued 733 total citations, cleared 218 warrants and took a leading role with the City’s homelessness outreach efforts. They made 34,719 homeless contacts resulting in 3,325 homeless resource assists and 299 community court referrals. They partnered with the Mesa Police Department 13 times to conduct high enforcement co-operative events in parks.

In FY 21/22, Merry Main Street’s Winter Wonderland Ice Skating Rink was moved to its new, permanent location at The Plaza at Mesa City Center. This year’s attendance exceeded prior years with overall participation at 15,850 during the 38 days of operation.

In the spring, City Council approved the creation of a citywide Special Events Office. This office will centralize efforts to collaborate, produce and coordinate the City’s major events, such as AZ Celebration of Freedom, Celebrate Mesa, Veteran’s Day Parade and MLK Parade, as well as commercial events produced by outside organizations.

COMMERCIAL

Mesa Convention Center & Amphitheatre

Reopened in July 2021 after 16 months of closure due to the pandemic. Event activity and revenues in FY 21/22 far exceeded pre-pandemic numbers.

REVENUES: $3.2M

FY 18/19 (pre-pandemic)

$6.5M*

FY 21/22 (post-pandemic)

ATTENDANCE NUMBERS:

240,700

FY 18/19 (pre-pandemic)

226,200

FY 21/22 (post-pandemic)

*includes $1.8M federal grant which was used to support the restart of operations in what became a very busy post-pandemic concert year.

AVERAGE CONCERTS PER YEAR: 10

FY 16/17-19/20 (pre-pandemic)

The Cemetery expansion project continued through FY 21/22 with completion expected in August 2022. Once completed, the expansion project on the northern-most portion of the Cemetery will add approximately 2,200 plots and include an urn garden and reflection seating areas for visitors as well as a sculpture from British sculptor, Elliot of London.

SALES: 508 Grave Plots Sold

73 Niches Sold

SERVICES:

75 Niche Inurnments

118 Ash Inurnments

521 Grave Interments

CONCERTS IN FY 2022: 23 (post-pandemic)

GOLF COURSE PARKS MAINTENANCE

Park Maintenance (PM) worked hard to support the return of services to pre-pandemic levels. Among these was a full return of MLB spring training, summer Aquatics programs, recreation league sports offerings, and a full slate of special events. The Department also placed a heavy emphasis on water conservation in the face of the continuing drought affecting the Colorado River. PM was able to reduce water by 14% through the hot months of May, June and July. PM was also very busy mapping each asset in the new GIS database. This asset management and data collection effort will still be ongoing for the next few years.

Dobson Ranch Golf Course

Through strong partnerships with the City of Mesa, local schools, group homes, Dobson Ranch HOA, Junior Golf Association of Arizona and other youth organizations, Dobson Ranch has become a safe, inclusive, and fun place for kids to enjoy while learning the game of golf.

Dobson Ranch now has 42 driving range bays equipped with TopTracer Range technology. The TopTracer technology combined with affordable prices, music, contests, high quality balls, ladies’ clinics, food trucks and several other activities, make the range at Dobson Ranch one of the largest and most visited ranges in Arizona.

103,971 Rounds of Golf Played $2.9M Green Fees Revenue $904,600 Range Fee Revenue $596,900 Leasehold Improvements

4,856 Work Orders Completed

3,062 Facility Inspections

PRCF Project Management

6,062 Sports Field Preps 180 Aquatics Facility Cleans

10,729 Environmental Inspections

FACILITIES MAINTENANCE

7,414

Work Orders Completed

1,006

Preventative Maintenance Work Orders

$5,306,936

Invested in Facility Infrastructure Projects and Improvements

In a time of rising energy costs, Facilities Maintenance has been working to add our energy management system to more City buildings. This system gives Facilities Maintenance more control over buildings to make energy usage low when buildings are not in use and to ensure rooms and buildings are adhering to City temperature standards. These conversion efforts help the City work toward our climate action plan goals for reductions in energy usage. These efforts were also recognized at a national level, as we received the Smart Buildings award from IDC Government Insights on April 6, 2022 during their Fifth Annual Smart Cities North America Awards. Facilities Maintenance also joined in the asset management and data collection effort, and they implemented Cityworks as their work order management system.

Project Highlights

Project Name: Total Project Cost: AZLabs Chiller Replacement $1,321,874

Tower Replacements at Senior Center and Red Mountain Library $1,318,928

MARKETING

The Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Department (PRCF) Marketing Team of two, provided more photography and videography of programs and events, bandwidth to train staff in using social media platforms and creating content, and in-house graphic design than ever before.

Increase of 11.10% from FY20/21

Total Impressions 7,518,860 Increase of 304.60% from FY20/21

Engagements 325,999 Increase of 317.20% from FY20/21

Engagement Rate 23.06%

Collective (AMP, CC, PRCF)

INSTAGRAM

Followers 6,927 Increase of 47.80% from FY20/21

Impressions 401,214 Increase of 225.90% from FY20/21

Engagements 9,179 Increase of 48.50% from FY20/21

Engagement Rate 43.71%

Facebook Posts with the most Impression FY21/22

SVOG (Shuttered Venue Operators Grant) $1.8M: This grant was used to support ongoing operations for concerts in the Amphitheatre.

USTA (United States Tennis Association) $4,700: This grant was used to increase tennis participation among youth and adults at our facility.

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community- Lehi Sports Park $90,000: This grant was used to help build the Lehi Sport Park building. It houses restrooms, an office, utility room and storage.

Gila River Indian Community-Fun and Fitness Mobile Recreation Unit $20,100: This grant was used to expand the reach of our mobile recreation unit with the purchase of an additional trailer and more equipment.

Major League Baseball Players Association $5,000: This grant was awarded to us by the Mesa Hohokam Foundation and will be used to launch a pee-wee baseball league.

Foundation for Mesa Parks and Recreation $39,100: This funding provided making waves and positive play scholarships, supported an adaptive nutrition program and new programming like pee wee sports and teen activities, expanded Park Ranger engagement programming, contributed to transportation and event costs at summer camps, and more!

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

Financial accountability continues to be the standard for PRCF. In conjunction with the City’s financial policies, we continued to work proactively in FY 21/22 to balance costs while growing the best services for our participants and the citizens of the City of Mesa.

Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Annual Budget

Total Budget

$98,283,602

Full Time FTE: 230.00

Part Time FTE: 108.5

Focus on fiscal responsibility

*Commercial Facilities was moved out of the Enterprise Fund and into the Restricted Fund.