""It's been challenging in recent years for residents of the city who wanted to access baseball and soccer fields, which require a fair degree of maintenance," Becker said, recapping the origin of the working group. "The city had set up a variety of contracts with local organizations - some nonprofits, some for-profit, to maintain those fields in exchange for priority, and in some cases, exclusive access to use those fields, which made it more difficult for individuals who weren't part of those organizations to get access to those fields.""
""The ball-field contracts, the resolution states, "were developed over many years to address specific localized needs and maintenance challenges, but have inadvertently created barriers to public access." "These contracts were written in a somewhat loosey-goosey style, and so there isn't really a lot of clarity around what happens if you don't do what you're supposed to do," said Board Member Lane Becker, who led a board working group created last year to address the public-access issue."
Parks and Recreation Board plans to vote on a resolution calling for greater public access to city-owned baseball, softball and soccer fields. The resolution calls for standardizing and clarifying contract language with outside organizations that maintain and use the fields. Existing contracts were tailored to localized maintenance needs and have granted priority or exclusive access to some organizations, creating barriers for other residents. The Parks and Recreation Department is already updating contractual language. A March 2025 city audit guided the working group's recommendations, which cited inconsistent implementation and unclear enforcement of public-access terms.
Read at Austin Monitor
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