The Bismarck Parks and Recreation District will hire a consultant to provide a fees and charges study despite misgivings by some board members that the cost is too high.

On a 3 to 2 vote the Bismarck Park Board approved hiring GreenPlay Inc. at a cost of $40,490 to review the park district's fee and charge structure and provide a recommendation on what they should be in relation to the district's tax revenues.

Board members Paul Quist and Jennifer DeForest opposed hiring the consultant. Quist said he feels the work can be done in-house and DeForest said she was unhappy at how much the consultant was charging.

"For almost $41,000 … isn't this something we can do ourselves? Even if gross errors were made, we're liquid, we can make changes," Quist said.

"I agree with Paul in this case," DeForest said. "I know we put out a request for proposals, but over $40,000, that's an exorbitant amount. Just compare with other facilities in the state. That's a lot of money to recover from somewhere. To raise fee enough to recover will take a long time."

Board member John Sagsveen said that the fees and charges analysis was something the board had talked about for nearly a year.

"We wanted to know if our fees are in line with the rest of the county and establish a philosophical basis with fees and charges in relation to taxes," Sagsveen said. "It's important to get outside input and I don't think we have the expertise to to this. I think this is something we need. We have to have fees set properly so taxes are set properly."

The district has been criticized for its lack of transparency when it comes to its financial areas, board member Mike Gilbertson said. He said he feels the study will provide the type of transparency the public wants and it will be provided by an objective third party.

Board president Mark Zimmerman said the staff does work full time and he didn't think they had the available time to take on another assignment of this type, just as the board members themselves probably didn't have the time to devote to such a study. He said it will be an exhaustive comprehensive study of all the district's programs and offerings.

"I don't know where staff would have the time or the park board have the time and expertise to take this on," Zimmerman said. "This is not just a study for one or two years, but will be providing us a philosophy for many years.

District director Steve Neu said that the RFP had been advertised nationwide and mailed specifically to several firms. But this is a specialty and only two RFP responses were made.

Work could begin early in January and be completed by the time the board begins the process for the 2009 budget in May.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel .)@bismarcktribune.com