Arts and Parks plus Information

It is hard to believe that my time with the City Works Academy is half over. I've learned so much already - and there are five sessions left to keep me on my toes.

Tuesday, October 12th we met at the Dougherty Arts Center on Barton Springs Road. The building itself is rather funky, reflecting an origin as a naval training center. The inside is anything but military. The main entrance leads into a lovely, well-lit art gallery which presents new artists throughout the year. Behind the gallery is a large auditorium where stage events take place. Beyond that you will find classrooms for every sort of artistic activity: painting, sculpture, jewelery making, acting, music and more. The academy students really enjoyed touring the facility to see the range of classes offered - the students were having a great time. Isn't it great that our city offers these artistic learning opportunities?

The Dougherty Arts Center is just one of many facilities managed by the Parks and Recreation Department. The PARD manages 247 parks, 50 miles of paths, five golf courses, 110 tennis courts, fifty one swimming pools including Barton Springs and Deep Eddy, twelve cultural arts centers, twenty recreation centers and four senior centers. Although Barton Springs is a big money maker, the money collected there goes back into the city's general fund rather than to PARD. I think that is a shame, since it is obvious that the department is underfunded and needs more funding than it is getting right now. Fact: the PARD has 581 employees and a budget of over $53 million.

I didn't know that 3-1-1 services evolved from 9-1-1 services after 9/11 2001. The federal government decided to initiate the 3-1-1 service to focus 9-1-1 service on serious emergencies. The City of Austin's 3-1-1 service will give assistance on almost any city service-based non-emergency problem a citizen has. The staff members of 3-1-1 took a different approach to showing us how their job works. Rather than giving us an overview of staffing and funding, we broke up into teams to try and answer some typical questions that come to the department. As it turns out, a simple question can have a complicated answer. Training for the 3-1-1 information ambassadors is intensive and is being constantly updated so that when a citizen calls, they will get the most current answer. The 3-1-1 service center works 24/7 and answers over 1,000,000 calls per year. Most calls are handled in less than three minutes. All calls are recorded and calls are graded (however telephone callers' phone number is not recorded).

The Office of Communications and Public Information is a small department with a big, big job. With a budget of $1.6 million and around 18 employees, the office seeks to keep Austin citizens and employees of the City of Austin informed about our city government. Currently the office is working on a redesign of the web for the City of Austin. The office also handles staffing and programming for Channel 6, relationship with the pubic media (commercial television stations, newspapers etc.), and efforts for citizen involvement in our city - City Works Academy is just one example of this effort.