Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien called on the city to improve maintenance of city parks rather than purchasing additional park land in an audit released Thursday.

In the audit, O’Brien said the Department of Parks and Recreation isn’t doing enough to keep existing parks clean and safe, while continuing to purchase additional land. This comes as the city shut down Civic Center Park last month over safety and sanitation concerns.

“The city has millions to spend but a lot of work to do before the parks are in the condition expected by anyone who cares about our city,” O’Brien said. “When the public sees graffiti, human waste, drug paraphernalia and unsafe conditions at parks, it’s reasonable for them to wonder where those tax dollars they approved went.”

The audit team found that several city parks failed on-site evaluations based on Parks and Recreation’s maintenance standards. Grounds for failure included graffiti, exposed electrical wires, human waste, drug paraphernalia, needles, deep holes and other conditions deemed hazardous to humans and animals.

The failed parks were Civic Center Park, City Park, Confluence Park, Harvey Park, Joseph P. Martinez Park, Overland Pond Park, Rocky Mountain Lake Park, Thomas Ernest McClain Park, Greenway Dog Park and Montbello Central Park.

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As the conditions of these parks have declined, the city has spent park-designated tax revenue on new land to expand the park system “on several occasions,” the audit said.

“Buying new land to give more people access is important, but so is keeping the parks we have clean and safe so they will last for all future generations,” O’Brien said. “Maintenance and adequate staffing of parks will protect park users today and in the future.” 

The voter-approved Parks Legacy Fund can be used for both land acquisition and park maintenance. The city does not specify how the budget should be divided between those priorities.

Criticisms of park maintenance surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as Parks and Recreation was forced to close its facilities and lay off or furlough over 1,000 part-time employees and 74 full-time employees in 2020, the audit said. In addition, many department employees were delegated to assist at COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites.

In total, the department estimates it had 100,000 fewer hours staffed for park maintenance tasks in 2020 compared to 2019. These tasks include mowing, trimming, litter pick-up and trash removal.

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Despite this, the audit said the department has continued to take on more land, creating even more need for staffing and maintenance.

“We found Parks and Recreation earmarked millions of dollars even before the pandemic for purchasing new land that went unused,” the audit read. “It’s possible the department is neglecting preexisting park assets in favor of making plans to buy more land.”

The audit also found that Parks and Recreation hasn’t sufficiently informed the public of when the Parks Legacy Fund is used. Of 32 fund-supported projects, only three were announced as related to the legacy fund, the audit said.

Other concerns raised in the audit included the department’s need for succession planning, its definition of “supplanting” in the use of the fund and it not adhering to guidelines for administrative costs and distribution of its annual report.

Parks and Recreation said it agreed with all of the audit’s recommendations.