Parks Agency in Crisis? 

Abbott Firing Will Hurt Parks and Recreation Across Massachusetts

Governor Romney's abrupt firing of Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Kathy Abbott last week is deeply unsettling.  Abbott was probably the best qualified Commissioner the state has had, bringing a combination of training, experience, work ethic and personal commitment to the state's parks and recreational resources. 

Abbott spent the last year and a half trying to build an effective department and to find ways to do more with less and less money.  Her efforts focused on staff training and development, resource assessments, building partnerships and reaching out to the public to engage them in the process of stewardship.  The 2004 DCR annual report shows an astonishing amount of progress, and truly exciting plans for the coming years.

Abbott's efforts were hampered by an administration and a legislature who refused to adequately fund parks and recreation in Massachusetts.  The system has over $728 million in capital needs; DCR's operating dollars, used to pay the people that do the work, have been cut by 31% since 2001.  While Abbott always supported the Governor publicly, and accepted the burden of running an under-funded agency with grace and determination, she continued to demand more internally.  She fought hard with the Governor, demanding more funds, identifying areas where the department was unable to meet its obligations, and insisting on running the department professionally.  That said, the fiscal 2005 budget for DCR recommended by the Governor was fully $16 million more than that offered by the legislature.

With DCR now in a management crisis, CRWA believes the Stewardship Council, created by the legislature in 2003, must step in to the breach and identify why activities such as plowing have not been adequately addressed.  Our analysis of the department indicates that it is severe under-funding rather than mismanagement that has led to the current crisis.  Indeed, that Abbott was able to run the system as well as she was with ever tightening budgets and the tremendous inertia of the former MDC system is a testament to a very capable manager.

For more information about how the Stewardship Council should respond, click here.