photo by: City of Mesa, Arizona

Luis Ruiz

Despite being intrigued by a new possibility in Lawrence, Luis Ruiz was not expecting to seriously consider making a jump to the Sunflower State.

Ruiz, who was born and raised in Miami and is a first generation Cuban-American, went to school at the University of Miami and spent at least a decade working in the Sunshine State, with stops in local government like Miami-Dade County and at the music school for his alma mater. He then moved in 2005 to Arizona where he worked for the city governments of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.

But after his children went off to college, a job posting on LinkedIn for Director of Parks and Recreation and Arts and Culture in Lawrence, spoke to him. As he went out to visit Kansas during his interview process, Ruiz found his doubts of not wanting to leave a big city “melt away.”

“I kind of fell in love with the city,” Ruiz said.

He took the job as director in May. Then in July, the city released its initial 2025 budget that his department could face service cuts, something Ruiz — and other city officials — was not fully aware of when he took the job.

But Ruiz has been happy with the work he and his staff have been doing in his time since and is looking forward to using his position as parks director to create more vibrancy to the community on a smaller budget.

“That’s the creative work to figure out: how do we continue to provide the quality of life services that the residents of Lawrence deserve,” Ruiz said. “I am up for the challenge.”

After nearly 20 years in Arizona, Ruiz said he was not actively looking to move away from his job, Ruiz felt this kind of job combined all his past work.

During his career, Ruiz worked in roles that touched both sides of the Parks and Recreation, Arts and Culture description in Florida and Arizona.

For a time, Ruiz worked at the University of Miami’s School of Music as Director of Operations. He then worked for Miami-Dade County in the Department of Cultural affairs, where he helped run the programming for performing arts venues in the county.

When he moved to Arizona, he began working for the City of Phoenix, helping run the convention center and performing arts venues. He did the same kind of job in Tempe, Arizona, before moving to work for the City of Mesa — a massive suburban city to Phoenix — running commercial operations for its Parks and Recreation department.

Since he had done parts of both in his career, he was excited at the option of bringing all his experience in those situations together.

But another aspect of the role that intrigued him was that the job was “something totally new.” After living in some of the biggest cities in the country, Ruiz said he was struck by the natural beauty around the area during his interview process, and thought the mission of adding arts and culture was a big selling point.

While the perception of a parks department being focused only on maintaining green space and highlighting natural features of a town is understandable, Ruiz said he found the role of his department touches much more in the community through things like special events or other programs.

“Parks and recreation isn’t just a grassy field with a fenced perimeter. It’s more about how you enhance people’s lives and that adds to the culture,” Ruiz said.

Along with combining his previous roles, Ruiz was excited by the prospect of developing and implementing a comprehensive master plan for the department, something he had done in previous roles.

But the first challenge that came up was facing budget cuts in his department. Ruiz said he had worked through tough economic conditions before like the 2007 Recession, but that it was clear when he got to Lawrence it was still facing different conditions coming back from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Because of the differing policies surrounding lockdowns and masking mandates in Arizona, things opened up much more quickly there compared to Lawrence, according to Ruiz. Ruiz said COVID was not spoken about as much working in Mesa and that Lawrence seemed to have seen its progress stunted for bouncing back to pre-COVID conditions. Ruiz said that the city has found it tough to hire part-time workers like lifeguards, which has made it harder to get many facilities’ hours restored to pre-COVID levels.

Now, the budget cuts are going to create more challenges for providing services.

Ruiz feels throughout his career he learned how to find ways to do cost recovery that helped make governmental programming sustainable. After making changes to the budget for 2025 that included cutting three vacant positions, the final budget will be approved Tuesday night. Moving forward, Ruiz said the shift for the department will be less about looking at trimming expenses, but looking at ways to maximize the services that the department provides.

“(We have to) figure out how we realign our community’s expectations with what we can afford to do in meaningful ways that continue to enrich people’s lives,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said that doesn’t mean adding more entry fees — a touchy topic after a city proposal to add entry fees to recreation centers and the Prairie Park Nature Center in Dec. 2022 that was scuppered after public outcry in Jan. 2023 — but in finding out when the department’s services are used the most.

Ruiz noted that when the department was told it needed to start cutting expenses, it noticed there was a “dead time” in the middle of the day for both revenues and traffic at some of the recreation facilities. In the mornings and evenings, there was programming like classes or rec sports leagues that were often underwritten by program fees. Ruiz said that focus of searching for the “low-hanging fruit” that are costly financially but don’t affect too many people is the goal during the time of budget uncertainty.

“We’re going to get through this together and make this have as little impact as we can,” Ruiz said.

But once the budget is approved and there is less uncertainty moving forward, Ruiz said he hopes to start working towards a comprehensive plan for the department. One of his key aims is to better activate the Kansas Riverfront, looking for an expansion of trails or developing more recreational opportunities along the important natural resources, Ruiz said.

Another key focus would be to pursue other funding sources for the department that aren’t just the city. Ruiz said the city has a couple of undeveloped parks “just sitting around” that are not usable yet because of a lack of funding. Finding additional streams — whether grant funding or philanthropic options — can help the department sustainably expand. He also wants to continue on the arts and culture front to host bigger special events that make residents proud of the community and make people want to visit.

Although he is facing a new challenge in a new state, Ruiz said he appreciates Lawrence’s history and is just hoping to build on the foundation of the city. But as the city enters a new era, Ruiz hopes to balance the needs of the community in making the parks a point of pride.

“It’s not about building the shiniest, biggest new facilities,” Ruiz said. “(It’s about) enhancing our parks, and making them a focal point and useful and a place for leisure and relaxation.