The New Orleans Recreation Department is . Mayor Helena Moreno knows city residents . She has instituted a promising process to fix it. The biggest early task, though, is finding a new CEO.
At on the CEO search at the Milne Recreation Center, community participants made clear their expectations and demands for the new leader will be challenging. They want someone with the requisite experience managing recreation programming and facilities management; someone who is inspirational and engaging; and someone who either knows well or adapts very quickly to what one audience member aptly described as this city’s neighborhoods that are “cultural enclave[s]” which are “very distinct, very different and very personal.”
That combination of CEO attributes already would be a rare package. Left unstressed by the audience, but also of utmost importance, is that the new CEO must have the interpersonal skills to manage the complex interplay between the NORD Commission that hires and directly oversees him, the NORD Foundation that raises money to help support the organization, the city government’s Department of Parks and Parkways, and the city’s elected leaders.
(But no: He ɴDz’t be expected to leap tall buildings in a single bound.)
From 155 applicants, the NORD Commission will whittle down to three finalists to be presented at an Oct. 6 forum at the City Council chambers. Whoever is hired will face a plenitude of complaints about NORD facilities and operations. While audience members said some quite nice things about on-site personnel at NORD facilities, the satisfaction level with the overall system, according to interim results from a survey o was 30% very dissatisfied compared to just 9% very satisfied, with other responses bunched evenly in the middle.
Just to cite problems mentioned by the 50 audience members in attendance at Milne, they range from a swimming pool out of use for five years to a showerhead unable to be turned off for seven years, to massive scheduling snafus, communication lapses and plenty more.
When Moreno on Aug. 14, she found overgrown fields, clogged lagoons, nonworking commodes, broken benches and invasive trees. In an Aug. 18 interview in her office, she said that although a lot of those “cosmetic” things are primarily the responsibility of the NORD Commission, she now is directing the city’s property management department to start “painting tables and benches, fixing bathroom doors, fixing some flooring,” and other things that ɴDz’t “cost a lot of money.”
For longer-term solutions, the mayor has been proactive. Her transition team included an advisory group on NORD operations, and once in office she appointed a task force led by Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso and Chief of Staff Kevin Ferguson. It will look at longer-term operational improvements for the system, including whether the balance of authority between the commission and city government might need to be tweaked. She also appointed a new batch of people to the NORD Commission and has encouraged revitalization of the NORD Foundation.
Reports are that the mayor’s task force is open-mindedly considering all management options (some of which might require amending the City Charter), from the NORD Commission going fully independent all the way to rolling it completely under the oversight of the city government, or perhaps just lesser but focused adjustments.
Commercial real estate executive Ryan Berger, who served on the transition advisory group and formerly was board chairman of 18th Ward, a nonprofit that provides sports programming largely outside the offerings provided by NORD, was elected this month as vice chair of the NORD Foundation. He praised the new administration’s “methodical and community-engaged path toward real improvement at NORD.”
Berger is confident that whatever emerges, clearer lines of responsibility and more collaborative and efficient operations will result. In turn, that should give the foundation a greater ability to “mine strategic partnerships, with more willing donors who will be confident their dollars will be better shepherded.”
Moreno said much the same.
“NORD isn’t a fiefdom,” she said. “The people of the city have waited too long, so we have to get a new CEO … (and then) grow our partnerships. How do we bring in partners to provide as many opportunities as possible?”
New Orleanians are famously enthusiastic about sports and recreation. If the right, dynamic CEO is found, with a more supportive and efficient governing structure behind him or her, the CEO should find a great opportunity.
Former City Council member Arnie Fielkow, speaking from the audience at the forum, said the right CEO will arrive and fall in love with the city and never want to leave. Put another way, Fielkow aptly said, “Applicants should see this as a legacy job.”