Council dismiss proposal for volunteer Parks & Rec commission

By Barbara Taormina

REVERE – The City Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation met this week to discuss a motion from Councillor-At-Large Juan Pablo Jaramillo and Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio to amend the city ordinance on the City’s Dept. of Parks and Recreation to increase activities for youth in the interest of public safety.

Despite the good intentions behind the motion, committee members rejected the proposal.

While there were some specific ideas discussed, such as leaving the lights on longer at city basketball courts, parks and other athletic facilities, Argenzio said the key piece of the motion was re-establishing and reconstituting the commission on Parks and Recreation. Argenzio stressed it would be an advisory board with no decision-making authority that would offer suggestions to the Parks and Recreation director who would make the final call. The commission members would be nominated by the mayor, approved by the council and members would be volunteers. There would be no stipend. Argenzio said that through the commission the community have more input on city facilities and programs and that would be a “healthy” change for the Parks and Rec department.

The councillors proposed a commission made up of at least one male, one female, one youth, one member of a non-profit organization, one member of a commercial organization engaged in youth sports, a union member from the Department of Public Works and one city councillor.

Argenzio compared the would-be commission to the advisory board for senior affairs and he stressed repeatedly that decisions would ultimately be made by the department’s director.     However, in the draft ordinance presented by Argenzio and Jaramillo, new regulations from the department director would require approval from the commission.

Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya was the first committee member to respond to the motion.

“I can’t vote for this,” she said adding that she felt it would undermine Parks and Recreation Director Michael Hinojosa, who councillors and the community feel does a great job. Residents often post high praise and compliments for Hinojosa on city web pages.

Other committee members echoed Guarino-Sawaya and suggested there was no need to fix something that wasn’t broken.

The committee voted against sending the motion to the full city council.