On Open Letter to the Hutchinson City Council

Regarding conversation around the future of the Hutchinson Recreation Commission

Members of the Hutchinson City Council,

First, thank you for your service to our community. It is a difficult, and often thankless job - one in which everyone at one time or another is a critic - even though few of those critics seem willing to put their thoughts and ideas into action by running for the seats you currently hold.

I’m writing today to summarize my thoughts on the matter of the Hutchinson Recreation Commission and the idea that it might come under control of the city government. I’ve visited with a number of you, and with other stakeholders, and I have made my position clear. I believe that any move toward dissolving HutchRec is a misguided idea that would lead to a reduction in service to the community, increased staffing costs for the city, and a future in which community events, activities, camps, and more are compromised in the name of efficiency.

Currently, the city of Hutchinson is warning residents of a nearly failing water treatment plant. Recently, a collapsed storm water pipe created a washout that forced the closure of a busy intersection (11th and K-61). The limestone walking trail at Rice Park is nearly grown over in places with crabgrass. The Martinez trail is functionally unsafe to ride a bike or jog in places due to the lack of upkeep. Several potholes have become the subject of regional news stories.

Yet, I’m supposed to believe, despite all the evidence and history to the contrary, that moving HutchRec underneath the city’s stewardship will ensure it is protected and improved for future generations. HutchRec has demonstrated its ability to manage its meager budget well. It has grown its services and offerings in Hutchinson, all without ever increasing its mill levy. The City of Hutchinson cannot say the same.

Talk of this study has been presented as an effort to find efficiencies. I might suggest that the City first take the plank from its own eye before worrying about the splinter in another’s. If efficiency in city government is the goal, I might offer that more savings could be found by looking at the biggest portions of the city’s budget first, rather than an outside agency with a relatively small budget. This is a far more common sense approach.

If you need help with suggestions on possible cuts that are worth additional study, I have a variety of ideas I’m happy to offer. I’m sure I could find a number of residents who likewise would enjoy the opportunity to present their suggestions during public comment at city council meetings - and have them met with the same vigorous support from a majority of the council.

The 2011 study - commissioned by lay people on the city council and the school board at the time - indicated the city would incur additional costs and staffing if it absorbed HutchRec. I don’t know that those supporting yet another study have considered that they might be spearheading another, far more expensive effort, that will yield the same results. Using taxpayer dollars to conduct a study in the uncertain hopes of finding something that wasn’t found in a previous study might be the most inefficient way possible to find efficiencies.

Additionally, while this council might make commitments to protect parks and recreation funding, you have no control or power over the actions of future councils. During every meeting this year, you’ve had a group of people who have expressed their passionate belief that the city government should not manage any such amenities. It is not unlikely that people with such a mindset might secure a temporary majority on the council, and while there, enact policies that create lasting and permanent harm to our community’s future.

The core issue is not whether HutchRec would be better managed under the city, but the inability to draft a suitable agreement to govern the relationship between HutchRec and the City of Hutchinson. When everyone is getting along, the old gentleman’s agreement might work, but where there is conflict, contracts are required. The public doesn’t care who is to blame for the impasse - they want you to figure it out without all this public bickering.

And that brings me to my next, and perhaps most crucial reason in asking you all to move beyond the moment we’re currently in with dignity, respect, and real stewardship and leadership.

This effort around HutchRec is a war of choice.

There was no real public outcry demanding the city take over the organization. It is clear there are personality differences and lingering grievances that are the primary drivers of this effort. Some people have been treated poorly. Mistakes have been made, and relationships have been damaged. There was a suggestion made during one public comment segment of one city council meeting - but there has not been a groundswell of demand from the broader public for change on this front - save the handful of people bending the council’s ears.

However, this discussion is hurting our community. It is creating unnecessary divisions. It is asking people to choose sides, and it is spilling over into other areas of government and community life, and it is highlighting a level of dysfunction that negatively affects community morale, and the view residents have of our hometown.

Most perplexing to me is that you’ve chosen to have this fight on the heels of the community’s support for an additional sales tax to support the City’s ongoing efforts to move us to a better, more hopeful place. Three weeks before the March 3 vote, I’d never have given the sales tax question a shot of winning - but a number of community advocates lent their support for the effort and voters approved the measure. Yet on the very night those votes were being tallied in support of the City, the first public salvo of this unnecessary fight was launched during the public comment section of that night’s city council meeting.

For a moment, there was a sense of hope and belief that our community had a plan and the resolve to move ahead. I talked to so many people who thought that maybe after so many years of just getting by and trying to survive, that there might be a path forward, that we might have the right leadership in place to realize our full potential.

I will never understand why city leadership chose to immediately waste all the goodwill that was created in that moment. To squander the faith and hope it had created in residents, and to trade it in for a petty fight that isn’t rooted in public demand, public safety, economic development, or community good.

In fact, I worry that should this fight continue, this moment and this council’s actions will become part of the lore that’s told about Hutchinson’s slow and continued decline.

You likely know the stories - that Hutchinson leaders in the 1950s declined its chance to have an Interstate Highway come through town and that’s why we never grew. Or how USD 308 in the 1960s didn’t want the hassle of running buses, thus leaving the district landlocked and ceding much of its potential tax base growth to nearby districts.

We have voluntarily converted a moment of hopefulness and unity into a moment of anger and division. There are plenty of forces working to sow division in our communities without creating it ourselves where none naturally exists. In fact, I’d argue that at this moment we’re behaving exactly as those at the federal and state levels of government want us to behave. In their long-term starvation of local governments - through the deployment of unfunded mandates, changes in tax policy that have stripped local governments of resources, and a refusal to fund property tax relief and assistance for more than a generation - they hope to further erode the effectiveness of local government. And done right, local government is the last place that puts people above party or politics. Instead of fighting amongst ourselves, we ought to be joining together to protect our community and demand better from our state and local governments.

Hutchinson has long struggled with its view of itself, and I believe that has been the biggest barrier to realizing our full potential and effectively building the future our children and grandchildren deserve. We have endured loss, and we’ve struggled to adapt to a changing world and economy, just like nearly every small or mid-sized town in America. We have allowed the naysayers to wield the biggest microphones, and as a result, they often have an outsized voice around policy discussions. Those of us who love and care for this community often aren’t eager to speak up for ourselves, or our community - especially in an environment where people feel free to harass and ridicule others in public. This practice must stop if we hope to be a part of building a stronger, more resilient, more hopeful community - one that can envision a future that’s more than the loss we’ve experienced in our lifetimes.

In this moment, that can start with you - the people who have been entrusted to lead our community for the next several years. You have a choice in this moment - a choice that will set a tone for the community’s future and send a signal to our residents about whether or not our leaders are committed to real change in Hutchinson.

We can continue to engage in this fight, and move forward with efforts to move a popular 80-year-old organization under City control. But the fight won’t end with a study or a city council vote. Kansas Statute allows for a protest petition and a public vote, the cost of which will be borne by the city. There will be a very public battle between the supporters of HutchRec and the supporters of the City. I’d place my money on HutchRec prevailing in such an election, and we will end up right back here - with the City of Hutchinson and HutchRec forced to find a way to work together. Except there will be more bad blood, more resentment, and numerous fractures and collateral damage created throughout the city’s institutions and residents.

Let’s suppose the city should prevail, any cut, any program that isn’t run as it was before, will be cause for additional criticism of the City. The grievances that are now directed toward HutchRec will be lobbed at the City - and it will be added to an already large pile of grievances people readily hold against their city government.

And all the while, there would have been efficiencies and savings to be found if only the City had looked inward and sought to clean its own House first.

If it’s a fight you want, there will be enough reason to fight in the future. There are conversations and decisions on the horizon that will eclipse by magnitudes the discussions surrounding the proper role of HutchRec. I hope you’ll foster an environment today that preserves our ability to approach those conversations with clarity and purpose.

The most direct and cost effective solution to any disagreement with HutchRec is to create a framework for working together in the future, not to dismantle what is proven to be working well. After my conversations with stakeholders, I mapped out a plan to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding between the agencies - something I know has been promoted by Councilwoman Goss for at least a year. The immediate solution is for this council to compel staff to engage in those conversations, and for the HutchRec Board of Directors to do the same - and commit in good faith to reaching a fair and workable compromise.

I believe that every problem in the world can be solved, if the people involved really want a solution. We owe it to the residents of Hutchinson to work toward a solution that doesn’t create unnecessary divisions, doesn’t ask the community to pick sides, and that elevates the long-term wellbeing of our community above all else.

Sincerely,

Jason Probst