Burbank Parks and Recreation tries to maintain service levels during the summer

The six-month hiring freeze throughout Burbank’s city departments has department heads thinking hard about their core services.

As the city continues to figure out how to get out of its recurring deficit, each department head has been doing what they can to maintain service levels.

Keeping the thousands of residents and visitors happy throughout the year is the main goal for Judie Wilke, director of Burbank’s Parks and Recreation department.

“We’re doing well, under the circumstances,” Wilke said.

Annually, an estimated 61,000 people use the Verdugo and McCambridge recreation centers, 68,000 seniors are enrolled in the senior nutrition program, 1,488 children participate in summer day camps, 15,000 music fans attend the Starlight Bowl’s summer concert series, more than 20,000 children and adults sign up for sports programs and a countless number of people visit the city’s parks each day.

Wilke said summer is arguably the busiest time of the year for her department, in which roughly 240 employees oversee various programs and facilities.

Though it may appear to the general public Wilke has enough people to run the programs, the parks and recreation department’s staffing level is down about 11%, with 30 vacant positions she cannot fill because of the citywide hiring freeze.

In addition, Wilke said she is expected to lose more employees due to retirement or people finding other work, which will put more of a strain on her existing staff.

“But even during our busiest of seasons, we have a very dedicated group of hard-working team members that always do their best to provide quality service to our community,” Wilke said.

“Even with all these vacancies that we have, our team is really working together — some people have taken on new assignments and some people are taking on additional hours. We’re doing everything we can to ensure that there hasn’t been an impact to the service levels that the community is used to,” she added.

Though she is confident the summer months will go by without a hitch, the parks and recreation director said she and her staff will have to reevaluate programs that will be offered in the fall.

Like the library services department, reducing the operation hours at the various city facilities might be necessary to save money. Though Wilke does not want to, some of the programs offered, such as the senior nutrition service and sports programs, could be eliminated.

Wilke said one key factor might help her department get through the hiring freeze — the hundreds of volunteers who help each year.

Many volunteers already help with the senior food deliveries, and many are being trained this summer to help as camp counselors.

However, she said her employees are the ones who are and will be putting their time and effort into keeping the department’s level of service high.

“No matter what, this team is going to make sure that those core services are happening in this community always,” Wilke said. “We’re going to muddle through this, and we’ll make it through.”

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio