May 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 16

RESEARCH

* FTEs per 10,000 Residents -
The typical park and recreation
agency has 8.2 FTEs on staff for
each 10,000 residents in the jurisdiction served by the agency.
* Responsibilities - Operations
and maintenance, programming,
and administration are the main
responsibilities of park and recreation workers.
Budget
* Annual Operating Expenditures
- The typical park and recreation
agency has annual operating expenditures of $4,898,633.
* Operating Expenditures per
Capita - The typical park and
recreation agency has annual operating expenses of $88.30 on a
per capita basis.
* Operating Expenditures per
Acre - The median level of operating expenditures is $7,556 per
acre of park and non-park sites
managed by the agency.
* Operating Expenditures per
FTE - The typical park and recreation agency spends $99,016 in
annual operating expenditures
for each employee.
* Distribution of Operating Expenditures - At the typical park
and recreation agency, staffing
costs account for 54 percent of
the operating budget.
* Operating Expenditures Dedicated to Parks or Recreation -
The typical park and recreation
agency dedicates 44 percent of
its operating budget to park management and maintenance and
43 percent to recreation.
Funding
* Sources of Operating Expenditures - Park and recreation agencies derive 61 percent of their
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Parks & Recreation

operating expenditures from general fund tax support.
* Park and Recreation Revenues
per Capita - The typical park
and recreation agency generates
$19.38 in revenue annually for
each resident in the jurisdiction.
* Revenue as a Percentage of Operating Expenditures (Cost Recovery) - The typical park and
recreation agency recovers 22.9
percent of its operating expenditures from non-tax revenue.
* Five-Year
Capital
Budget
Spending - Park and recreation
agencies will spend a median of
$6 million in capital expenditures
budgeted over the next five years.
* Targets for Capital Expenditures - On average, 54 percent of
the capital budget is designated
for renovation, while 32 percent is
geared toward new development.
* Value of Deferred Maintenance
Projects per Agency - On average,
park and recreation agencies have
$17.4 million of deferred maintenance projects on their books.
Policies
* Park and Recreation Policies -
Four in five park and recreation
agencies ban the use of tobacco
products at most or all of their
parks and facilities.

Compare Your Agency
With Its Peers
The 2021 APR and NRPA Park Metrics are not standards, but vital starting points for a larger discussion.
These resources allow park and recreation professionals to make informed
decisions and support a persuasive
case for greater agency funding.
A valuable feature of Park Metrics
is the ability to identify agencies of
similar size, budget, location and/

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or jurisdiction type, which allows
for a deeper peer-to-peer connection
and exchange of information. For
example, the typical agency serving
a jurisdiction population of 65,000
has 61.2 FTEs on its payroll. If your
agency has 71 FTEs, an outsider
may conclude that your agency is
overstaffed. By identifying your peer
agencies, you are able to counter this
charge because you learned in your
conversations with peers that your
agency delivers a wider breadth
of amenities and services than the
typical 65,000-resident park and
recreation agency.
We look forward to hearing about
the ways you and your agency use
this data and the peer connections
you make. Please share with us how
your agency has used data from
Park Metrics and the 2021 APR to
identify opportunities for improvements and to make the case for
greater funding and staffing.

Thank You
The NRPA Research team would like
to take a moment to acknowledge all
those park and recreation professionals who made this report possible. We
know this has been a difficult year for
everyone, and your commitment to
sharing data and advancing the field
through your participation in NRPA
Park Metrics is incredibly appreciated. Whether your agency represents
a community large or small, whether
you have contributed for one year or
many years, whether you collaborated with co-workers or tackled the survey alone, we thank you for making
this possible. If your agency has not
recently submitted data to Park Metrics, please consider doing so today.
We are here to help.
Melissa May is NRPA's Senior Research
Manager (mmay@nrpa.org).

May 2021 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2021 - Parks & Recreation