Sorry, but we’re closed

If you own a business, your hours are dictated by your customer base, not your own convenience. You make money by keeping your doors open when demand for your goods and services is highest, and by closing them when demand is lowest, if at all. When hard times strike, you inevitably work more.

Government exists in a different realm. Tax revenues pour in regardless of the performance or efficiency of the public sector. Although select government offices have adopted hours that better serve the working public, many resist (North Las Vegas City Hall, for example, is closed on Fridays). When hard times strike, governments inevitably do less.

As they should. If businesses are scratching for survival amid a limping economy, government must live within its means. But when governments go about the business of cutting back, the principle of customer convenience should still apply. Take the city of Las Vegas proposal, not yet final, to close various public recreation centers and swimming pools on Sundays.

Parks and recreation are among the most popular public services because of the enjoyment they provide. And when household discretionary spending is tight, an afternoon at the park or a trip to the city gym or pool is an affordable, healthful diversion.

But parks and recreation are frequently targeted for cuts because the loss of these amenities — unlike cuts to “neighborhood services,” the city’s vehicle fleet or parking enforcement — makes constituents squeal and more likely to later accept higher taxes and bigger public-sector budgets.

Thus, in the face of the current economic downturn, the city is leaning toward closing an undisclosed number of its multimillion-dollar recreation centers and swimming pools (just in time for summer) for half of every weekend — a decision obviously made for the convenience of city workers, not recreation center customers.

Imagine if any of the valley’s private-sector gyms announced they were closing on Sundays. Competitors would quickly make sure these business closed the other six days of the week, as well.

Rather than adopt a blanket policy that suits government hours, the city should carefully examine each recreation facility’s periods of peak and least usage and adjust hours accordingly. We’d be surprised if, at some locations, Friday nights were busier than Sundays.

But if the city is really serious about cutting costs in parks and recreation, the obvious solution doesn’t involve closing gyms or pools. Park maintenance is among the most bloated entities in all of local government. Most large businesses, including many major hotel-casinos and the valley’s biggest homeowner associations, use private landscape maintenance companies to cut grass, trim trees and bushes, clean grounds and haul away trash. The reason: These businesses provide better service at significantly lower costs.

The city of Las Vegas employs 141 people in park maintenance under an annual budget of $17.9 million. The annual salaries of park workers start at $34,381 — more than a first-year teacher in Clark County — and top out at a whopping $91,224 for maintenance supervisors. And taxpayers are on the hook for their full pensions and retirement health care costs, as well.

It’s preposterous that residents will soon have less access to public recreational facilities while paying top dollar for the maintenance of their parks. The city should consider contracting many of these jobs to the private sector — where folks work Sundays when it’s required.