Is the KC Parks and Rec department costing the city millions? What an audit claims
A recent financial review of the Kansas City Parks and Recreation department claims it misreported financial details, lacked adequate records to track its revenue and failed to enforce contracts and collect fees from users of parks facilities.
City Auditor Marc Shaw told the City Council that these issues could be costing the city millions of taxpayer dollars.
The report led to a fierce response from Parks Director Christopher Cotten, who argued the auditors shared false or inaccurate information and failed to understand how parks and recreation programming works.
So what exactly does the audit claim? Here’s a closer look at what the audit found and how the department sees it.
Are the issues the audit brought up costing the city millions?
The audit claims the department failed to consistently collect fees from park users in accordance with the department’s policies. Shaw said that may have resulted in under-collected revenues that would have bolstered the department’s budget.
The audit found that the department charged different prices for similar activities. It showed an example of the department entering multiple agreements with Platte County using a revenue split where the parks department only collected 15%.
The audit found that this split was only used for partners in Platte County. That agreement also contradicts the department’s approved pricing policy that uses a 40/60% revenue split for league activities.
This information was brought to the attention of the department’s leadership. Shaw said one leader acknowledged the problem is costly.
“According to one parks official, over the years the department could have missed collecting millions of dollars,” Shaw said.
Meanwhile, the audit also claims the department allows outside groups to use facilities without active contracts, allowed late or incomplete payments from facility users and did not stop unauthorized activities.
For instance, the audit claims the parks department’s facility reservations website directed users to an external group when seeking to use baseball fields in Platte County, instead of the department’s athletics division. The external group hosted a tournament where participants were charged $150 a day, and all proceeds were retained by the external group.
The audit says the external group confirmed it had sold access to city-owned parks without an active contract to host the event or approval from park officials.
“The Parks and Recreation Department did not effectively administer or monitor some multi-use agreements, thereby increasing the risk of fraud,” Shaw said.
Cotten, the Parks director, fiercely defended the nationally accredited department, noting the department has more than 500 different contracts, and it has been working to address disconnects between the department’s finance and recreation divisions.
He also said the department has made strides in recent years, adding that the finance division has been “in turmoil for decades.”
“But to be clear, there is no missing money, there is no embezzlement, no unscrupulous deeds being performed,” Cotten said. “There’s only a dedicated staff working to do the hard work to continue to put forth our national prominence.”
Is the Parks department misreporting its finances?
The audit claims the department reported to the auditors that its most recent fiscal year budget was $33 million that came from the Parks and Sales Tax Fund. However, Shaw said that figure was outdated.
The audit states that the department received $64.8 million from the tax fund that year, nearly twice as much as parks officials reported to auditors.
Shaw said the department has a total budget of more than $100 million. That $100 million figure is reflected in the city’s 2025-26 approved budget. Shaw argued that the level of funding made KC Parks and Recreation one of the better funded parks programs in the country.
“Despite this, parks leadership repeatedly suggested its budget was insufficient,” Shaw, the city auditor, told the City Council.
Cotten argued that the audit incorrectly claims that the department does not have a grasp of its budget. He said he meets with the department’s finance manager to discuss budget issues “almost daily.”
He also pointed to a 2019 Urban Land Institute report that found that the sales tax fund “does not provide KC Parks with sufficient revenue to pay for operations.” In the meantime, he said the department has enacted more than $36 million worth of park improvements because “we’ve been budget conscious.”
Is the Parks department not keeping enough records to track finances?
Shaw said that Parks leaders have claimed the department has between $80 million and $400 million worth of deferred maintenance because of budget shortfalls. But the audit claims the department would not provide documentation of the deferred maintenance backlog upon request.
Additionally, the audit found that the department’s finance division is not tracking money owed to the department, tracking late payments or issuing invoices to park users. The audit states that “in most cases” of underpayment from facility users, the department’s finance division was unaware of non-payment and did not know how much was owed to the department.
Shaw told the City Council that these issues may be related to poor financial controls that stem from unclear roles and responsibilities among staff. He said staff reported that they were not aware of financial policies and operating procedures.
“These deficiencies left leadership without reliable financial information, limiting its ability to assess the department’s financial health or make informed operational and resource allocation decisions,” Shaw said.
Cotten argued the department has conducted multiple studies and plans that showed more than $400 million of deferred maintenance, which he called “unfunded issues.” He also pointed to the 2019 Urban Land Institute report that showed the department had $60 million of deferred maintenance at the time.
“The fact of the matter is that over the past few years, we have worked diligently at the request of Mayor (Quinton) Lucas to get a firm grasp on our issues,” Cotten said. “We are currently doing the hard work of ranking these unfunded issues in order to have a better plan of addressing these needs,” he added.
