7:00am | After more than twenty years in Long Beach’s massive Parks, Recreation & Marine Department and the last 12 years as its director, Phil Hester announced last week that he plans to retire. As the head of a very unique and diverse department, Hester and his team have gained national recognition and fostered a very outdoors-friendly atmosphere that has made Long Beach a magnet for archers, swimmers, sailors, bikers and athletes of all kinds.
He caught up with the lbpost.com for a phone interview shortly after announcing his retirement, which will commence sometime around October.
So you’ll be officially retiring sometime after this year’s budget process?
I think in fairness to the department and City Manager, I think I owe it. I want to anyhow, to kind of finish this particular budget year.
How long have you been considering retirement?
For the last six months maybe. I was going back and forth and thinking about what options I had, financially more than anything else. I just got to a point of saying that I’m getting older and I want an opportunity to do some other things, maybe travel, etc. I’ve been working forty years and don’t take a lot of vacation time so maybe I’ll look into some other opportunities.
What makes this job in Long Beach different from other places?
It’s a great job, I told the City Manager this, it’s just a super super job, you won’t find an opportunity with such diversity. We have the marinas and the golf courses and ranchos, historical sites that we have here… Long Beach is just a great city.
I think we’ve been able to do a lot to improve the city with park space and new facilities and dog parks and beaches, skate parks, etc. So I don’t think you could ask for a better job and I thoroughly enjoyed it the whole time I’ve been here.
When you look back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
The biggest thing from when I was director was when we finally updated our Open Space Plan, which was in 1992. We were operating with policies from 1973 and it really changed our whole philosophy and changed the parks to being a top priority. As a result of that we’ve been able to double the parks since I’ve started and we’ve gotten more grant money for open space. From a park side, that’s one of the things that I’m most proud of.
There’s also the Riverlink Plan. We’ve been very actively implementing that, purchasing property up and down the L.A. River and starting at the mouth all the way up to DeForest park in North Long Beach and we almost have all of that together.
Which projects didn’t work out that you wish would have?
One of the things I wanted to do was get the Belmont Plaza Pool redone, we’ve been struggling with that for a long time and just haven’t been able to get over the hump with what we want to do there. Obviously, the other thing is the proposed sports park and we just haven’t been able to get that thing off the ground. The other thing we’re working on now is the Alamitos Bay Marina. That one’s closer but the other two are still challenges or will be for the next person.
Any idea on who your replacement may be?
That’s obviously the City Manager’s decision but I think there will be a lot of interest in the position. As I said, it’s a great position and very unique. The City Manager’s background is in Parks and Rec so he understand the needs and I’m confident he will make the best decision.
When did you inform the City Manager of your decision?
Last Friday (May 28). He called me Tuesday (June 1) morning and wanted to see if I had changed my mind.
How have the budget difficulties affected your department and its services?
Like all the other departments, we’ve obviously had a lot of challenges, we’ve made a lot of changes in the way operate. We’ve had to eliminate some things that we probably shouldn’t be doing.
On the positive side, it’s really helped us with what our priorities will be in the expectations of the public. We haven’t had to lay anybody off, we’ve been able to find new ways to do things. So nobody’s lost their job, but I mean, that’s just part of what the City’s gone through like all cities, so you have to be positive and try to be creative and look at partnerships with other groups and I think we’ve done all those things.
I think that in the future what we are now and the way we’re organized is what we’ll be in the future. Most cities won’t go back to the way they used to be eight or ten years ago. We’re trying to protect our parks and have safe parks for people to use and those are our main priorities that we’re really focusing on.
Where do you see the department in the next five, ten years?
It’s hard to tell. The financial management have done a really good job of putting together some other plans and the key is going to be the willinginess of the unions to take part in some of the solutions. If they will, the overall community effects will be much less than if they don’t participate. If they don’t participate then I have to anticipate that there are going to have to be some very different decisions from our department and other departments in the city as far as benefit package and pension reform.
You came to California from Virginia, do you plan on moving back east or are you sticking around?
Oh yeah, I’m a Long Beach man.