photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commissioner Mike Courtney speaks to a gathering in this 2025 file photo.

New City Commissioner Mike Courtney — the top vote-winner in last month’s elections — said he’s confident a new fundraising foundation would allow the city to avoid implementing new user fees for city recreation centers

Now, he’ll work to convince his fellow commissioners of it at next week’s meeting.

“My overall pitch to the commission will be that we have talked about fees, but we haven’t tried the foundation approach and asked the community to fund this itself,” Courtney said.

Courtney has created a multi-point plan to eliminate a set of user fees that are scheduled to begin next month. Courtney shared a copy of that plan with the Journal-World ahead of Tuesday’s commission meeting. Details of the plan include:

• Creating a new foundation that would allow individuals and businesses to make donations that would directly serve the parks and recreation department. A previously completed master plan by the city found that foundations — if properly marketed — are raising $1 million to $2 million per year in communities of a similar size to Lawrence.

• Delay hiring a new parks and recreation director until 2027. By continuing to use an interim director, the city would save $103,000 in salary and benefit costs.

• Reallocate $250,000 from the city’s 2026 budget to help fund the department while the foundation is getting established. Courtney is recommending the $250,000 come from $2.1 million of 2026 funding that is designed to boost the city’s fund balances, which are a type of savings account the city relies upon for unexpected expenses. The city in past years has been depleting that fund balance, and commissioners during the budget process decided to replenish the account with $2.1 million in new funding. Under Courtney’s plan, the account would still be replenished but to the tune of about $1.85 million rather than $2.1 million.

• Conduct a complete review of all parks and recreation classes, with the goal of increasing the number of the most popular classes and reducing or eliminating classes that have low enrollment numbers.

Courtney frequently talked about the idea of a community foundation for parks and recreation while campaigning for the City Commission. He said the idea seemed well received by residents, and he knows it is more popular than the proposed fees that would cost a family $20 per month or $200 per year to access the exercise rooms and other amenities at the city’s recreation centers.

He also said the foundation would be more popular than another idea that has been discussed: Raising property taxes to provide the parks and recreation department with additional funds.

“After talking to so many people in town, I just feel that rather than saying we need more taxes to do this, you are going to get a lot more generosity by asking them to give to a foundation,” Courtney said. “I think it is going to be really eye-opening for people in Lawrence.”

City staff has estimated that the new membership fees for the recreation centers would generate $450,000 per year. Courtney said he believes the plan he’s proposing could cover those expenses in the near term and contribute significantly more than that in the longer term.

The city also has proposed new spectator fees that would be charged to people watching tournaments at Sports Pavilion Lawrence in Rock Chalk Park, which hosts many basketball and volleyball events on weekends. That new spectator fee — which would be in addition to the entrance fee charged by the private operators of the tournaments — is projected to raise about $250,000 per year. Courtney said he is fine with allowing the new spectator fee to go forward.

The past City Commission approved all the fees in September when it approved the 2026 budget. The fees are set to begin Jan. 5. However, two of the five commissioners have changed on the commission since the budget approved, with Courtney and Kristine Polian both winning seats in the November election.

The parks and recreation fees were a big topic during the elections, with many voters speaking against them. Courtney and Polian both campaigned against the fees. A city survey taken earlier in the year also showed widespread opposition to the fees. City officials in July shared the results of a city survey that found 61% of respondents strongly opposed the fee idea, while another 20% somewhat opposed the fee idea. Only 13% of respondents expressed some level of support for the fees.

City staff members continued to push ahead with the fee proposal, noting that many area communities — ranging from Eudora to Overland Park — charge membership fees for access to recreation centers.