× Expand Photo credit: Milwaukee County Parks

Metro Milwaukee’s time-honored heritage of free and inclusively accessible parks is on the fast track to ending. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, also a part-time real-estate developer, wants to relentlessly monetize and privatize parks, including through “innovative new revenue streams.” Plans are moving forward to collect enough money from paid parking, rentals, permits, fees, concessions, sponsorships and fines to ultimately eliminate all tax-levy support of park operations. Although Abele has not publicly admitted this goal, parks insiders say it has become common knowledge.

Parking Meters Planned Throughout County Parks A “work group” of county officials and members of the business and nonprofit community (but no park advocacy groups) have identified 40 “potentially viable locations” for parking meters in parks. Most of the county’s lakefront and other popular parks are targeted. See the full list of "potentially viable locations."

During a September forum hosted by Friends of South Shore Park, panelist and parks veteran Jim Goulee said he learned of the scheme to make parks completely self-funding by 2024 while meeting with parks staff last spring. Goulee recently retired as executive director of Park People and is now board president of Preserve Our Parks, an advocacy group. Another panelist, Laurie Muench, corroborated that she was told of the “100% self-funding” goal by then-Parks Director John Dargle Jr., while on a temporary assignment with Milwaukee County Parks.

Dargle first challenged their statements from the forum audience but reluctantly admitted that Abele does expect Milwaukee County Parks to generate ever more income, with “no upper limit” for that goal. After the meeting, Dargle said Abele originally wanted 75% of the 2018 parks budget to come from earned revenue (a 50% increase), and that they compromised on 62%. When asked about the 75% target, Abele spokesperson Melissa Baldauff did not deny it, responding in an email: “We definitely approached the 2018 budget process with an eye towards more partnerships and more innovation and adjusted accordingly as more information became available.”

Latest Shake-up at the Parks Department

No reason was given for Dargle’s abrupt resignation on Thursday, Nov. 30, after four years on the job, but some insiders muse that maybe he was not shaking the parks’ trees for cash aggressively enough for Abele. That’s despite Dargle having increased parks’ revenue from 46% in 2016 to 50% last year (within a $40 million operating budget). The median for peer systems is 29% from earned revenue, according to parks reports.

On Wednesday, Dec. 20, Abele appointed County Administrator Jim Sullivan to head the Parks Department, pending Milwaukee County Board approval. An internal memo touted Sullivan’s prior experience with the department as a lifeguard in the 1980s, and he led the Child Support Department since 2011. Abele also announced he was appointing James Tarantino as the Parks Department’s chief of business services.

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The county’s economic development director since 2015, Tarantino oversaw the handing over to the Milwaukee Bucks of 10 acres of prime Downtown land for $1, as well as the sale of the Lakefront Transit Center site (assessed at $9 million) for $500,000 to developer Rick Barrett for his Couture project. Despite overwhelming citizen objection, Tarantino has also been pushing plans to intensively develop a large portion of land impacting environmentally significant habitats within the County Grounds in Wauwatosa.

The Mission of Milwaukee’s Parks

Abele and other county officials repeatedly assert that fiscal challenges ordain that park visitors must pay directly to fund operations. Baldauff explained, “Paid parking will help sustain the parks in the long term, and if it also contributes to more families walking, riding their bikes, utilizing the trails or taking transit, we think those are positives for the community as well.” (Bus transit does not reach many county parks, including most lakefront parks.)

Goulee said, “Constantly charging citizens to use parks—including through parking fees—goes against our local parks founders’ commitment to creating parks and recreation with free and open access for all. This represents a departure from the very mission of our once-great county parks system.” Goulee added that there should be much more input from the whole community about how inherited public park assets are stewarded.

Other U.S. park systems also face fiscal challenges, however, no other U.S. urban system is attempting to operate solely with earned income—or even close to that goal, according to Peter Harnik, founder of the Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence. That’s because publicly funded, free and open parks are proven economic drivers, including by increasing property values and promoting livability and public health. Instead, Abele appears to be inspired by Republican Gov. Scott Walker and public service-slashing state legislators. Since 2015, they have mandated that Wisconsin state parks function without any tax support. As a result, ever-rising fees to enter Wisconsin’s parks are the highest in the Midwest.

Here’s what citizens can expect as Milwaukee County accelerates a pay-to-play model for parks.

Parking Meters in Many Parks

About 2,500 spaces in 40-plus parks and parkways have been deemed “viable” locations for paid parking by an appointed advisory “Paid Parking Work Group.” The preliminary list includes most of the Milwaukee Lakefront and other popular parks, such as Brown Deer, Mitchell, Washington and Whitnall. Proposed rates would be up to $2 per hour (though Milwaukee County officials have floated rates up to $3.50 per hour) and enforced from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. at least six days a week. Free parking is being considered on holidays and one day weekly.

In an email, Baldauff wrote: “The paid parking program will…return needed revenue to [the Parks Department] from asphalt space that currently does not contribute to the upkeep of our green space.” She said it also “will contribute to greater turnover of vehicles in spaces…in high-demand areas.”

Ever-higher User Fees

Nearly all citizen-paid charges for park services and facilities increased in 2018. Goulee, who worked for Milwaukee County Parks for 33 years, retiring as a regional manager, said no studies have been done to evaluate how ever-rising and new fees might depress park usage—and thus collected income (to say nothing of public health). Such “price elasticity of demand” studies are standard good practice.

Double Hits on Citizens’ Wallets

Most parks targeted for paid parking already impose user fees or permits for aquatics, dog parks, disc golf, golf, horticultural destinations, marinas, picnic areas and recreational centers. Some host beer gardens and restaurants. Even “free” recreation—beaches, playgrounds, trails and summer concerts—could effectively cost $2 per hour for parking.

More Enforcement and Fines

The 2018 budget calls for increasing citations and fines from 3,400 in 2016 to 4,500 (for things like parking after 10 p.m. and unpermitted activity). An additional “park ranger” is the Parks Department’s only new full-time position.

Less Access and Equity

The Public Policy Forum documented disparities among Milwaukee County Parks by their locations in a 2002 report. This de-facto two-tier system of parks—for haves and have-nots—will be aggravated as more facilities require payment, including for parking. Abele touts “public-private partnerships.” However, when agreements are not rigorously monitored, vendors and leaseholders can effectively limit access and equity through prohibitive charges, policies and creeping encroachment. For example, Parks friend Debra Manske said Ferch’s Beachside Grille in Grant Park has increasingly restricted, to paying customers, public space near its concession.

‘Anything Goes’ in County Parks?

Several parks staff expressed concern that no written criteria exist for private ventures allowed in parks, or how the public’s interests will be protected. Hence, are some of these recent developments simply the shape of things to come:

- Incongruous ads for a medical clinic recently began popping up in numerous parks.

- A truck with a sponsor’s logo was a jarring presence at last fall’s China Lights at Boerner Botanical Garden.

- A Parks Department survey asked if trail users would be willing to pay to access recreational trails.

- A proposed beer garden in Pere Marquette Park would fell mature trees and privatize much of the riverfront park.

County on Fast Track to Paid Parking

The County’s Paid Parking Work Group lacks citizens representing “Park advocacy groups,” as mandated in a 2018 budget amendment. Although it includes Dawn St. George, the new executive director of Park People, that nonprofit’s board recently expressly prohibits most advocacy. Other committee members will include county staffers, Supervisor Marcelia Nicholson, Joe Bartolotta and Keith Trafton of Bartolotta Restaurant Group (which manages several establishments in Milwaukee parks) and Jeff Sherman, co-founder of OnMilwaukee.com. Scott Fisher, owner of Gift of Wings in Veterans Park, reportedly will join the committee. Laurel Maney and Gina Spang, Historic Water Tower Neighborhood officers, wrote to several supervisors in late November asking that the neighborhood advocacy group be represented on the committee. They said their request was never acknowledged.

County administrators intend to issue a “Request for Proposals” (RFP) soon, with the goal of launching a full-blown, privately-run operation as soon as Sunday, April 1.

Executing a countywide paid-parking operation will face challenges—not the least in terms of math. According to Sandra Rusch Walton, spokesperson for the City of Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works, the city has “approximately 7,200 metered parking spaces.” Revenue derived from meters in 2016 was nearly $4.9 million. That operation relies on internal staff and city owned and operated infrastructure.

In contrast with the city, Milwaukee County officials intend to hire a “turn-key operator” through competitive bidding. The approved 2018 budget anticipates nearly $1.7 million in net revenue from parking. However, citizens would need to pay up to 10 times that amount since the county would stand to pocket only 10-15% as it does in other parks-vendor contracts.

In what scenario would citizens be willing and able to pay tens of millions of dollars a year to park in their own county parks?

A public-input meeting about paid parking in parks will be held on Tuesday, February 6, at 6 p.m. at the Domes Annex, 534 S. Layton Blvd.