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Q&A
Council Member Krishnan questions Parks Commissioner on lifeguard staffing and pool operations
3:28:54
·
6 min
Council Member Shekar Krishnan questions Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue about lifeguard staffing for the upcoming beach and pool season. They discuss the number of lifeguards needed, current recruitment efforts, and plans for senior swim programs.
- The Parks Department aims for 1,400 lifeguards to fully staff beaches and pools with two shifts, but can open all facilities with 1,000 lifeguards.
- Commissioner Donoghue reports positive progress in recruitment, with a 45% increase in new recruits last year.
- The department has expanded lifeguard training locations to four out of five boroughs to improve accessibility for potential recruits.
Shekar Krishnan
3:28:54
I want to conclude my questions for now with focusing on lifeguards.
3:28:58
You mentioned it too.
3:28:59
Pool and beach season is about to start.
3:29:00
Memorial Day is around the corner.
3:29:02
How where my understanding is we need about 1,600 lifeguards give or take to fully staff our pools and beaches.
3:29:09
Where are we?
3:29:10
Is that the correct number?
3:29:11
And where are we in relation to that?
3:30:21
So a 1,400.
3:30:23
Can you just break down what what is if you're at what are the two shifts that the 1,400 would cover?
3:31:58
Got it.
3:31:58
And is senior swim coming back this summer?
3:32:14
How are we on track to getting back to the original three days of two hours a day for senior swim?
3:32:20
Is that coming back or now?
3:32:30
Okay, great.
3:32:31
And just going back to just couldn't get a clear sense.
3:32:33
Where are we numbers wise now compared to the 1,400 that
3:33:48
So that was my question to you is how does it, understanding you don't have an exact number yet, how does it compare generally to the number of people?
3:33:59
My last couple questions.
3:34:00
Just how many retention bonuses were paid to lifeguards who stayed through the peak season?
3:34:13
And I want to also thank you, First Deputy Commissioner Rodriguez Rosa, for your work to expand the testing and training sites.
3:34:21
Is there a thought to expanding them further to create more sites across the boroughs to make it more accessible for young students in particular who could be good for life rapport positions?
3:34:54
Thanks.
3:34:54
Those are all my questions for now.
3:34:56
I'll turn it back over to the chair.
Sue Donoghue
3:29:13
Yes.
3:29:13
Thanks for the question.
3:29:14
It's not 1,600.
3:29:16
It's 1,400 is the number we have put out there.
3:29:19
And that's really not to fully staff.
3:29:22
That's in order to have a second shift.
3:29:24
So we have been really pleased with the fact and we've seen an increase in our lifeguard numbers year over year and it's a testament to the incredible work of the team behind me and first deputy commissioner and her team.
3:29:38
Last year we got up to nine thirty lifeguards and we had a 45% increase in new recruits.
3:29:45
Again, a testament to the incredible work that's been done.
3:29:48
We need about 1,000 lifeguards to fully open our pools and beaches.
3:29:53
We have all faith that we're going to get there this year.
3:29:57
Again, there's been so much work done on recruitment, on outreach to the Lifeguard core.
3:30:05
And the 1,400 number is so that which we absolutely want to get to and it would get us closer to where we were pre COVID would get us to be able to have a second shift.
3:30:15
So an early morning shift or a late afternoon shift.
3:30:17
But the number really to fully open our pools and beaches is a thousand.
3:30:29
Sure so our pools and beaches are pools are ten to seven and beaches are eleven.
3:30:36
Help me out here.
3:30:42
Ten to six for beaches.
3:30:43
Eleven to seven for pools.
3:30:46
And so, year, as I said, got to 09:30.
3:30:53
At January, we can open all of our pools and beaches to that one shift and be able to fully open pools and beaches.
3:31:01
We did that last year.
3:31:02
We've been able to do that the last couple years even in a very difficult hiring environment and a national lifeguard shortage.
3:31:10
We were unique in our capabilities in being able to do that versus other municipalities that were closing pools and beaches.
3:31:16
Incredibly proud of that work we've done.
3:31:20
So at 1,000, we can be fully open.
3:31:23
The 1,400 would allow us to have an early morning shift for lap swim, say, or for senior swim.
3:31:32
What we did the last couple of years, again thanks to our incredible public programs division, we incorporated a lot of that programming.
3:31:40
We had senior swim in a number of our pools during that one shift.
3:31:47
So we worked really hard to continue to have some of that great programming, lap swim and senior swim.
3:31:54
But with that thousand number, we're able to fully open our pools and beaches.
3:32:01
We hope so.
3:32:02
We did it last year.
3:32:03
It was incredibly popular.
3:32:05
The seniors at Astoria and many other places just love that programming.
3:32:10
We know how important it is.
3:32:12
That's why we worked really hard to make sure we could do
3:32:22
You mean during the one shift having that.
3:32:26
We are absolutely planning to do that.
3:32:37
we knew?
3:32:37
So we're not able to tell you that yet because we are in the phase of we have people in training.
3:32:43
We won't know that number yet until we get through those.
3:32:47
Had qualifying tests, 68 different qualifying tests all across the city.
3:32:53
We've now moved into the training phase, which I'm really pleased to report.
3:32:58
We expanded those training opportunities.
3:33:00
It used to be just in one location in Manhattan.
3:33:04
We now have training locations in four out of the five boroughs enabling ease of getting to training for life guards.
3:33:11
We know we've made it a whole lot easier.
3:33:14
So they're in that sixteen week training program and we need to get through that training cycle and then we'll know where we are in terms of numbers.
3:33:22
Have also, again thanks to the really hard work of the team, added an accelerated program, a shorter program that's targeted towards college students and returning lifeguards.
3:33:33
So we can offer both the intensive training, the accelerated training, all with the idea of really increasing those numbers.
3:33:41
And as I said, we had a 45% increase in new recruits last year.
3:33:46
We're looking to meet or exceed that goal this year.
3:33:53
We're ahead of where we were.
3:33:54
We're really feeling confident we'll hit our goals.
3:34:06
We had approximately 600 returning lifeguards receive this bonus for summer of twenty twenty four.
3:34:32
We worked really hard to do that this year.
3:34:35
And as I said, are proud of the fact that we have expanded training locations in four out of the five boroughs.
3:34:40
We'll absolutely look to continue to do that.
3:34:43
We know that it makes a big difference and makes it much more accessible for our teens and folks to be able to get to this training, which is what we want.
3:34:52
So absolutely, we're going to continue to work on that.