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City Manager's 2005 Budget Memo Page 17 of 27 V. Recommended Budgets for the Public Works and Parks and Recreation Departments. A. Parks and Recreation. This department's budget is especially difficult because many sup- porters of parks and recreation activities vocally resist any cuts to those services and some supporters, in my experience, resist change coming from outside the Parks and Recreation community of advo- cates. Our general purpose state aid has been cut $700,000 and it is not coming back in 2005 or anytime in the foreseeable future. (IF general purpose state funding ever does return to Roseville, I recommend it be used only for specific, one-time projects or improvements and not for on-going salaries or operating costs.) Considering this economic reality, considering the city spending priorities set forth above, and considering the budget cuts in other departments in this and previ- ous years (e.g., the loss of the Assistant City Manager position), cuts in the Parks and Recreation Department are warranted. The ques- tions are where, how, and when. I begin with recommendations I made last year: eliminating the full- time Naturalist position and the Custodian position within the P&R Department. As for the Naturalist position, revenues have not in- creased appreciably in the Nature Center over last year. The Friends of the Harriet Alexander Nature Center include some incredibly hard-working volunteers, but membership revenue is minimal, pro- gram attendance and revenue generation at the Nature Center are minimal, and no other Nature Center revenue sources or cost savings have been identified in the past year that would allow us to save this position.