Ballot measure 15-210 is an Ashland City Charter change asking voters to support moving Ashland Parks & Recreation (APRC) employees from reporting to the parks director to reporting to the city manager. This seems odd for a couple of reasons, but mostly because the city is struggling to retain and manage their current staff.

Consider this: over the past four years, one APRC superintendent was laid off responding to the COVID pandemic. Over that same time period, the city has cycled through three finance directors, three city attorneys, an HR director, three administrative assistants and two city managers. High city staff turnover is the recent norm. Vote “no” on Measure 15-210 to keep management of Parks & Recreation in the hands of stable, knowledgeable staff who report to a parks director who is supervised by five elected APRC commissioners.  

Mike Gardiner

Ashland