Austin gets a new parks director
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
City manager T.C. Broadnax has tapped Jesús Aguirre to lead Austin's Parks and Recreation Department.
Why it matters: The city parks director is one of a handful of city officials whose decisions most directly affect Austinites.
The intrigue: His appointment on Monday comes as the City Council contemplates new ways to boost funding for the development and maintenance of parks — including, potentially, adding a parks user fee to Austinites' monthly utility bills.
- No dollar amount has been attached to such a user fee at this point.
- Other possibilities include expanding the department's relationships with nonprofits, such as the Trail Conservancy and Pease Park Conservancy, even as the city is auditing those partnerships.
The big picture: Over the past decade, the city has acquired at least 96 additional parks and more than 1,500 new acres, for a total of roughly 15,200 acres maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department.
- "Our parks tend to be heavily loved, but underfunded," Austin council member Leslie Pool said at a City Council meeting last week.
- Meanwhile, the redevelopment of city parks can become a political hot potato — last year, an effort to remake Zilker Park died in the face of opposition from neighbors and environmental groups.
By the numbers: The parks department oversees a slew of facilities. Those include:
🏐 25 recreation and senior centers
🎨 Six cultural centers
🖼️ Three museums
🎭 14 performing arts venues
⛳️ Six golf courses
🏀 48 basketball courts
🏊🏽♀️ 34 swimming pools
💧 11 splash pads
🌳 355 parks
🛝 190 playgrounds
🪦 Five cemeteries
Between the lines: Aguirre, who holds a master's degree in business administration from Arizona State University and a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Texas, has led parks and recreation departments in the District of Columbia and Seattle.
- He has also served as CEO of Waterloo Greenway, a nonprofit that operates and maintains a 35-acre urban park system in downtown Austin.
What they're saying: "Austin is at a pivotal moment of growth and change, and parks and recreation are essential to ensuring our communities remain healthy, vibrant and inclusive," Aguirre said in a news release.
Follow the money: Aguirre will oversee a department of more than 800 full-time employees, with an annual operating budget just north of $125 million.
- Axios asked for Aguirre's salary but did not immediately get it from the city.
- Other finalists included Angela Means, the interim head of the city parks department, and Oscar Carmona, who has served as a parks executive in Houston and Dallas.