Parks landscape maintenance contracts

At a glance

• What: Two multi-year landscape maintenance contracts (downtown parks, riverfront and other parks) for $166,388 in the first year, with four renewal options that could total nearly $1 million.
• Where it stands: Approved 6-1 on October 13, 2026 after being pulled from the consent agenda.
• Next: City manager to update council before renewing; council asked for a deep dive on parks funding and in-house capacity.

Concerns raised

• Council Member Hess: staff report had no cost comparison with in-house work and did not quantify any staffing or equipment gap; funds are already budgeted; money could go to Weaver Park flooding, dugouts, a play structure or community center hours.
• Council asked whether the work is supplemental or something to bring in-house, and wanted a check-in before the first renewal.

Staff response

• Peter Wall: downtown park maintenance has been contracted since about 2009-2010; the riverfront contract began in 2021 and was dropped after Helene; in-house staff have not kept up since.
• The contracts came from a request for proposals, so renewal terms could not be changed; the city manager decides on renewals and agreed to update council first.

Sources

• https://youtube.com/watch?v=5lHSiRrfdpk (Council Agenda Briefing Worksession, 2026-10-08; auto-generated captions)
• https://youtube.com/watch?v=g3e1oN6oXN4 (City Council formal meeting, 2026-10-13; auto-generated captions)

Discussion time

About 16 minutes across 2 meetings (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Log

• 2026-10-08 - Council Agenda Briefing Worksession - Briefing on consent items D and E; Council Member Hess asked for parks staffing numbers and said he wants a closer look at the contracts; staff to follow up.
• 2026-10-13 - City Council (formal meeting) - Pulled from consent by Council Member Hess; staff explained the contract history; approved 6-1 with requests for a parks funding deep dive and a pre-renewal update.