Lifeguards and Seasonal Employees IFC

[Paige Ellis]

Colleagues,

I’m bringing a resolution to the March 24th Council Agenda to help address the critical lifeguard shortage we are facing as a city. Council Members Harper-Madison, Kitchen, and Tovo are providing their input as cosponsors, and I invite others to join us.

After two years of closures, our community is looking forward to being able to swim at their neighborhood pools once again. Since 2020, many pools have been closed due to COVID, supply chain challenges, and lack of contractor availability that have affected planned repairs and improvements. Now that most repairs have been completed, the one remaining impediment to opening our pools is staffing them fully with trained lifeguards.

This week, PARD announced that Barton Springs will be closed for an additional two days per week due to a lack of open water certified lifeguards.

In order to address this and the general shortage, PARD has launched a robust marketing campaign complete with hiring fairs over spring break, paid advertising, and more. As a former lifeguard myself, I plan to attend one of their events next week to help drum up support.

PARD also announced in a memo yesterday that they are considering offering hiring bonuses for seasonal employees, which I fully support.

My resolution asks the City Manager to consider further strategies to incentivize recruitment and retention of lifeguards and other seasonal employees, and provide the budgetary impact of those strategies for Council consideration.

Some strategies could include:
-Waiving the training fees required to become a lifeguard
-Providing incentives or bonuses for full-time/longer-term commitments
-Increasing hourly pay for all or specific employee classifications
-Partnering with the Austin Parks Foundation and other stakeholders on creative solutions to fund these ideas

My intention with this resolution is to identify funding, provide amplification, fill any gaps, and clear any barriers that may exist in the hiring process. This is an effort to enhance the strategies already underway and to help expand the good work that PARD is already doing across Austin.

Working my way through the ranks of lifeguarding from trainee to instructor taught me valuable lessons and was a fun job to have in my high school and college years. And it’s even a great job for adults! We need to get creative so that we can enjoy all of our pools in all parts of town as the summer heats up.

Thanks so much and I look forward to our discussion,
Paige Ellis

[Steve Adler]

CM Ellis,

Thank you for bringing this resolution. I’m eager too for our pools to open and would like to sign on as a co-sponsor to explore ways we can keep our pools open this season.

-s

[Alison Alter]

CM Ellis,

Thank you for bringing forward this resolution to amplify efforts to hire lifeguards and other PARD seasonal employees. Like you, I am a former lifeguard and know the valuable lessons these employment experiences teach. I would like to be included as a co-sponsor and would ask you to please consider adding a line encouraging the City Manager to also explore ways to address transportation obstacles of prospective staff.

Regards,
Alison Alter