The reorganization of Peachtree City’s recreation employees, including the elimination of two positions, has led one resident to author a critical letter to the City Council.
George Martin, a former recreation commissioner for the city, noted that the reorganization and the elimination of positions held by Leisure Services Director Randy Gaddo and Recreation Facilities Manager Scott Christopher was a “virtual secret” kept from citizens until the vote.
“I am shocked that citizens had no input whatsoever in the reorganization plan developed by the new city manager, particularly with the impacts to recreation,” Martin wrote. “I understand that not even the leisure services commission was consulted or notified. You have made a very dramatic change in our city and have said the average citizen has zero input hiding behind the cloak of ‘personnel matters.’”
Meanwhile, new City Manager Jim Pennington said Thursday that the goal of the reorganization was to improve recreation services for residents and also tournaments that draw guests from out of town.
Pennington acknowledged that the city has a growing amount of tournaments coming here, and so it needs to work with tournament promoters to make sure things run smoothly.
Part of that means involving the entire city, including the fire and police departments, so all can be on board with the events, Pennington said. For example, at a recent lacrosse tournament, Peachtree City EMS crews had to transport several players who suffered concussions, Pennington said.
At its June 16 meeting, council was criticized for the 26 hour advance warning about the reorganization, but it unanimously approved the changes, which represented a significant change to the city’s entire organizational flow chart.
At Monday’s budget meeting, a plan was unveiled that would eliminate 11 recreation positions which would be replaced with six new recreation positions. There is no guarantee that any current employee will be re-hired for any of the new positions.
In his letter, Martin noted that the city’s recreation opportunities are one of the reasons the city has a very low crime rate, and are “a much cheaper and better investment in long term safety than just adding more cops to fight crime after it happens.”
Martin also noted that recreation tournaments come here because of the years the recreation department has spent “cultivating good programs and facilities that are the bedrock of large tournaments.”
“Soccer, football,lacrosse, baseball, basketball, BMX generate a significant percentage of the hotel/motel tax revenue for this city,” Martin wrote. “All because a Recreation Dept. created a collaborative environment with the many different athletic associations and thousands of volunteers over the past 14 years.”
