Mercer Island revises field use and reservation policy

Mercer Island recently revised its policy for field use and reservations, aiming to ensure that all user groups are given a chance to use parks and city athletic fields.

Other goals include “administer[ing] a system of prioritization for field allocation that is rational and transparent” and “collect[ing] fees to help offset the cost of maintaining and scheduling city parks and athletic fields” by re-prioritizing field allocation for different groups.

Instead of having a Ballfield User Group (BUG), the city is now inviting all field users to attend field scheduling meetings, said Bruce Fletcher, Parks and Recreation director.

“Even though we have revised the policy, much of the criteria remains the same,” Fletcher said.

All organized outdoor athletic field usage on city-owned property, the South Mercer Playfields and the Mercer Island School District elementary school fields is scheduled through the Mercer Island Parks and Recreation Department.

The changes were spurred by a parent advocacy group worried about “inequities in the process” of field allocation, said former City Council candidate Tom Acker, one of the group members.

“This truly was a collaborative effort with the community, the City Attorney, the City Finance Leader, the head of Parks and the Deputy City Manager,” Acker said. “Our hope is these efforts will provide more access to parks resources for all children and sports teams on the Island.”

The BUG existed in some form since 1991, and consisted of established organizations whose primary mission is to serve youth and/or adult populations of Mercer Island and who are regular users of parks and ballfields.

These include Mercer Island Parks and Recreation, the Mercer Island School District, Mercer Island Boys and Girls Club, Mercer Island Youth Soccer Club, Mercer Island Boys and Girls Lacrosse Clubs, Mercer Island Adult Soccer Association and the Stroum Jewish Community Center.

BUG members provided feedback about field conditions, scheduling conflicts, coordinated field use and acted as a sounding board for the Parks and Recreation staff.

The Parks Department was evaluating the Athletic Field Use Policy in March, when parents, mainly of kids involved in the Nowland Premier Soccer Association, complained that their group was practicing on a baseball diamond.

Acker said he was happy with the new guidelines, which are more “equitable” and offer a “clear priority network that everybody can support.”

Instead of policy review sessions, user and staff feedback and meetings with the BUG, where policies, procedures and fees were developed, policy review sessions, now field user roundtable meetings will be held quarterly in order to increase communication among users and with city staff, discuss upcoming projects or maintenance impacts and collaborate to solve scheduling conflicts or major changes to field requests. Meetings will be open to any individual or organization that utilizes Mercer Island fields.

“Recognizing that the Mercer Island Parks and Recreation Department is a public entity with a mission to provide the public with access to quality facilities and services, recreational use of the city’s athletic fields will receive priority over select or premier organizations, in general,” according to the new guidelines.

The old priorities were:

1. Ballfield User Group (BUG) members in priority order

2. On-Island non-BUG users, historical users

3. Off-Island users, new users

Athletic field allocation priority will now be as follows:

A. Mercer Island School District and Mercer Island Parks and Recreation

B. Tier one (listed in order of priority):

1. Nonprofit youth, recreation-based organizations, which have a minimum of 75 percent Mercer Island residents.

2. Nonprofit adult, recreation-based organizations, which have a minimum of 75 percent Mercer Island residents.

3. Nonprofit youth and adult organizations that are not recreation-based, which have a minimum of 75 percent Mercer Island residents.

C. Tier two (listed in order of priority):

1. Nonprofit youth, recreation-based organizations, which have less than 75 percent Mercer Island residents