Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation is a state-funded government department of the Mayor's Office, in charge of organizing and/or funding recreational events in the city.

About
Parks and Recreation organizes or sponsors fun events in the city. The department operates out of an office at the Cerberus Business Center, and has never had its own official government office inside of Denis Labarre City Hall. When the department first started out under Mayor Andi Jones, the Parks & Rec Director owned both the business account and bank access. But after the impeachment of Mayor Abdul AlRahim for embezzlement, Mayor Emma Gaine shut Parks & Rec down. To survive transitions of mayoral leadership, Mayor Bunny revived Parks & Rec as more of a public sector business balanced by a separation of duties--making sure to restrict bank access to an independent accountant. The Parks & Rec duties became split between the business owner, the Accounting Manager, the Director, the Assistant Director, and several Supervisors. Re-elected Mayor Andi Jones brought Parks & Rec back closer to her original vision of it, entrusting the department's spending to one Director.

Department History


The Parks and Recreation Department started as an initiative by Mayor Andi Jones to oversee the Andi Jones Farmers Market and the Dean World market stalls, as well as organize fun events and fundraisers across the city. Parks & Rec Director Nancy Drew ran the department under Andi, then under Mayor Denzel Williams. At the beginning of Mayor Abdul AlRahim's term, Nancy resigned due to job dissatisfaction and received the first and last salary for the department (as well as unexpected severance pay). She then transferred Parks & Rec leadership to Department Head Mari Mckay, who continued to hold events every week with an allocated budget. Due to perceived suspicious bonuses from the Abdul administration to Parks & Rec employees prior to his impeachment, Mayor Emma Gaine defunded the entire department.

Revival and Expansion of Parks & Rec by the Bunny Administration
Mayor Sabith "Bunny" Cohen brought the department back and expanded it, hired Ethyl Winkelfiddle as its Accounting Manager, hired Charlotte "Charlie" Greene as its new Director, and eventually promoted Niki Reynolds to Assistant Director.



As the unpaid Parks & Rec Owner, Mayor Bunny set up a separation of duties where the Accounting Manager paid the Parks & Rec Director, Assistant Director, and Supervisors a weekly salary. Parks & Rec Owner Bunny paid the Accounting Manager's weekly salary to avoid a conflict of interest. The Recreation Coordinators received pay per event. Parks & Rec partnered with Orpheus Entertainment to buy event products like stages and microphones at special discounted rates from "Super Vendor" Nancy Drew (the first Director of Parks & Rec).

Shakespeare in the Parks & Rec under the Mickey Administration


On June 16, 2022 in the Mayor's Office, Mayor Mickey S was thrilled by a showdown where Parks & Rec Director Charlie Greene refused to work with Deputy Mayor Ricardo Perez because she felt micromanaged and didn't trust him to supervise a department inherited from Bunny. Assistant Director Niki Reynolds tried to mediate a compromise where she would work with Ricardo on the budget. However, Niki ended up resigning from Parks & Rec on July 8, 2022 due to personal and professional reasons. Charlie eventually promoted Mid-State Outreach Supervisor Pact Nicely to Assistant Director. Recreation Coordinator Ashley Justitia was promoted to Mid-State Outreach Supervisor.



With Charlie Greene staying on as Director and Pact Nicely as the new Assistant Director, Accounting Manager Ethyl Winkelfiddle only paid the Director and Grant Coordinator Supervisor weekly salaries going into August 2022, with the rest of the Parks & Rec employees receiving pay per event. Unpaid Parks & Rec Owner Sabith "Bunny" Cohen continued to pay the Accounting Manager's weekly salary to avoid a conflict of interest. Due to Charlie's discord with Ethyl, Bunny clarified that the Accounting Manager had final say over the budget and was never meant to work under the Director--but also should not tell the Director how to do their job. Also in a Parks & Rec meeting on August 7, 2022, Bunny clarified that supervisors could relocate (rather than cancel) their events if necessary, that small flexibly-dated events were acceptable, and that it was better to overbudget events rather than underbudget them. Charlie also later clarified that if a Parks & Rec employee worked for a local business that the Grant program was funding an event for, that the business could not pay the Parks & Rec employee for the event.

Going into October 2022, Bunny rewrote the scope, budgeting, and expectations of Parks & Rec to encourage the employees to reach out to local businesses to sponsor, fund, and staff their events for free. At a Parks & Rec meeting on October 4, 2022, Director Charlie Greene announced that Parks & Rec would no longer categorize supervisors by territory, and that Peren Meliamne will formally lead the Squatter's Markets every Sunday at Dean World. Bunny announced that Accounting Manager Ethyl Winkelfiddle was leaving Parks & Rec (and being replaced by Isabeau "Izzy" Navarro), and advised the employees to avoid the appearance of impropriety anytime the Parks & Rec Grant program funded an event for one of their businesses. Charlie revealed her promotions of Sooty Gamwich and Gold Gala planner Kaiden Maverick from Recreation Coordinator to Supervisor. Unfortunately, Parks & Rec employees began to suffer from longer train times into the city and fewer train tickets.

On November 22, 2022, Parks & Rec Director Charlie Greene went to Purgatory as a sacrifice to Norman Bones to save her friends Bryce Miller and Jeffy Coldiron. With Accounting Manager Izzy Navarro on indefinite sick leave and Bunny settling business affairs in Nashville, Parks & Rec fell behind on budgets and back pay. Although Charlie returned from Purgatory on December 15, 2022, she ended up quitting Parks & Rec (and turned to crime) shortly before the Mayor Mickey S administration ended in January 2023. Bunny returned Parks & Rec's unused funds back to the State Account on March 20, 2023. She also cleaned out the inactive Parks & Rec employees and offered to transfer the department to Mayor Lang Buddha.

Rebirth of Parks & Rec under the Andi Administration
Parks & Rec stayed inactive under the administrations of Mayor Lang Buddha and Mayor Sexton "Hardcastle" Cohen. Instead, the Mayor Sexton administration ran weekly Flea Markets (as a replacement for the Farmer's Markets) and started state-funded event grants to sponsor applicants' business events. The original founder of Parks & Rec, Mayor Andi Jones, brought the Department back closer to how she originally envisioned it. On August 15, 2023, Mayor Andi officially hired Bryce Miller to lead the Parks & Rec Department, allowed him to sponsor events with state-funded prize money, recommended that he hire Reina Vergara as a design/marketing supervisor, opted to pay Bryce per event, and asked him to have current Parks & Rec owner Bunny transfer the bank account to him. Mayor Andi transferred a starting budget of 3.5 million dollars to the Parks and Recreation account.