Westfield City Council rejects creation of parks department and board

The Westfield City Council on Monday night narrowly rejected an ordinance that would have created a new parks and recreation department and board.

The council voted 4-3 against the ordinance. Councilors Joe Edwards, Scott Frei, Mike Johns and Troy Patton voted against the measure, while Jake Gilbert, Cindy Spoljaric and Scott Willis voted in favor.

Westfield Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Chris McConnell told the council that the aim of creating a parks and recreation department and board was to attract more state and federal funding to the city to build parks and trails.

The department would have been staffed by city employees, while the mayor would have appointed four community members to the board.

Westfield is the only city in Hamilton County that does not have a parks and recreation department. Currently, the city’s parks operations are handled by the Westfield Public Works Department.

Westfield has 11 city parks, including the two-year-old Grand Junction Plaza in the city’s downtown. There are nearly 94 miles of trails in Washington Township, including about 86 miles inside Westfield’s city limits.

McConnell told the council in May that a parks board is necessary to apply for state programs, such as the Indiana Trails Program, Land and Water Conservation Fund, Next Level Trails Program, NextLevel Conservation Trust and the President Benjamin Harrison Trust Fund.

In subsequent meetings, some council members expressed concerns about how the parks department would be funded and how board members would be selected. On Monday, Spoljaric argued community members could apply and the city council would then send suggestions to the mayor.

“I’m trying to think of a nice way that we all win here if that’s doable,” Spoljaric said.

Patton based his objection to the ordinance on the city council not seeing a budget for the proposed entity.

“We don’t have to have a department of parks and recreation to have a board to get this funding, so I don’t want to create another department where we then assign people,” Patton said. “I don’t think we should actually establish a parks and recreation [department] until we see the budget because I can’t imagine approving it without seeing the budget first.”

Westfield Chief of Staff Jeremy Lollar said the money for a standalone parks and recreation department currently exists and it would come from the city’s public works department.

“As we introduce the budget, you’ll see the parks department separately, but again, not new money,” Lollar said. “Money that’s already in the public works department that will just go under a new appropriation number.”

However, Patton still objected without seeing a budget.

“For me to vote on a new department of parks and recreation without seeing a budget, there is no way I would get behind that because we don’t do a very good job in the operational side of understanding our expenses and controlling our expenses, so that’s my opinion,” Patton said.

No other council members addressed the proposal at the meeting before Monday’s vote.