A critique of rec staff's running of the rink

Friday, Feb 14, 2025, a letter to people who wrote to the city

Dear park friends,
-- since I wrote about my Wednesday adventure with Dufferin rink staff and the police, there have been a lot of letters (as well as a pretty decent snowstorm). I'm grateful for the nice things many of you have said about me, but -- as many of you have also written -- the main concern for our group is the quality of work in the park. Since it's winter, that concern is highlighted at the rink.

The problems at the rink are:
-- Only three four-hours slots a week for the snack bar, with only three items for sale, but two and sometimes three staff assigned
-- a disorganized skate lending operation
-- mainly young, barely supervised part-time staff who say "it's not my job" far too often, for example:
--it's not their job to shovel the snow off the rink access routes, or chip away at the courtyard ice so people don't fall
-- it's not their job to help the zamboni driver during ice maintenance
-- it's not their job to keep the board games organized, or to pick up litter inside or outside the building
-- it's not their job to help out at the market
-- it's not their job to get to know the rink users and welcome/chat with rink visitors
-- it's not their job to protect community postings (e.g. the celos display about remaining repair issues was taken down 6 times)

This sorting out allows a lot of sitting time, and also it lets rink staff focus on what they feel is their job. It is their job, so it appears, to make their friends welcome at the rink building including in the kitchen, the skate room, and the part-timers' office.
-- it is their job to make sure that I do not take anyone inside the hidden kitchen, to show the equipment that's there. This a directive from management.

That's what's been going on. In the past three weeks the situation has become worse. Low quality of work is not unusual in other parks and rinks, except that Dufferin rink has more staff assigned.

Now the summer jobs press release has gone out. At last Sunday's ribbon-cutting event, I mentioned to Councillor Bravo and to Parks and Rec's general manager Howie Dayton that the quality of city youth jobs needs discussion. On Monday I asked Counc. Bravo's executive assistant if I could call her to brief her. Wyndham agreed to talk on the phone on Thursday. However, yesterday she said she wouldn't have time until next week.

I haven't heard back from Councillor Bravo or the mayor's office about the letters from park friends. Perhaps some of you have.

I did however get an email yesterday from Parks and Rec's director of management services, Aydin Sarrafzadeh. The email expanded the places that they'd like me to stay away from to include "other recreation facilities." It also said that "The Parks and Recreation Division will be undertaking an investigation regarding these incidents and in accordance with our Code of Conduct and Human Rights and Anti-Harassment Policy, over the next few weeks." It ended by saying that staff would be in touch with me to arrange a conversation, as part of their investigation.

Sounds like this will take a while. They should take all the time they need.