NORD panel is seeking input

An advisory panel guiding an overhaul of the New Orleans Recreation Department has launched a Web site to generate new interest in its recommendations -- and to elicit more suggestions.

The panel's proposal, submitted to the City Council two months ago, calls for the creation of an independent board to manage the recreation programs and facilities, tapping a dedicated financial source.

Local officials, including council President Arnie Fielkow, who pushed for creation of the panel, have maintained that the department has been in steady decline, beginning long before Hurricane Katrina devastated many of the city's gyms, playgrounds and sports fields.

Entergy New Orleans President Rod West, the panel's co-chairman, said he hopes to use the Web site, www.nordcap.org, to gain additional feedback from residents about the plans.

West, who expects the City Council to consider the proposal after next year's election season, said the launch's timing "has everything to do with keeping NORD and the recreation issue in front of people's conversations."

Concerns related to political races shouldn't become a distraction, he said.

"It gives us a better chance to have open and honest conversations about what we want for our recreation department and for our children," West said, "without it being marred in the politics of the day."

The advisory panel -- led by lawyer Bobby Garon and Roy Glapion Jr., son of a former councilman, as well as West -- plans to meet with residents and neighborhood associations in the coming months for their input on the recommendations. The agenda is based on findings of a report on NORD prepared by a consulting firm hired by the City Council: Bucher, Willis & Ratcliff. The report was released last year.

The panel calls for a 12-member New Orleans Recreation and Playground Commission, supported by a property tax that would start at 2.5 mills and eventually grow to 7.5 mills. The property tax would require voter approval. Additional money for city recreation programs would be raised by a dedicated foundation.

A second proposed voter initiative, a change in the City Charter, would merge NORD with the Parks and Parkways Department, now responsible for maintenance of many of the city's recreational facilities.

After more than a year of research, panel members need to "get the information out and take this show on the road," West said.

Fielkow, a former Saints executive, has pushed for an overhaul of the city recreation department since joining the council in 2006.

He and others have pushed, for example, for stabilizing NORD leadership, where the top post has seen high turnover. That argument was renewed again last month, when Larry Barabino Jr. resigned as recreation director to take a job with the Children's Defense Fund, ending a tenure marked by criticism over the pace in restoring playgrounds and pools.

Keith Wright, the department's deputy director, has taken over Barabino's duties at NORD, said Nagin administration spokesman Ceeon Quiett, a move she described as "a very seamless transition."

Since the panel's recommendations -- considered a work in progress -- were unveiled in August, Fielkow said he has received "a significant amount of input, and it has been largely positive."

He said the reorganization effort "will be enduring and pay dividends for generations to come, so it needs to be done right."