Parks and Rec Director James Worsley leaving the city

Columbus Parks and Recreation Director James Worsley is leaving the Consolidated Government to take a job in Chesterfield, Va., he told his staff in an email this morning.

In today’s email to department employees, Worsley called the moment “bittersweet.”

“I would like to inform you that my last day with this fabulous Parks and Recreation Department will be July 21, 2016. My family and I will be relocating to Virginia and thankfully we will be closer to our immediate family members.

“As I reflect, I recognize that together we have built an accredited agency and a nationally award-winning department over the last five years. I am certainly proud of our accomplishments. I truly hope that each of you will continue to excel in your respective areas of the department.”

Chesterfield, population 327,000, is a suburb of Richmond.

Worsley came to Columbus in March of 2011 and took over a department that had been plagued by controversy and even criminal behavior.

Six months earlier, in September of 2010, Columbus Council voted 6-3 to fire former Park and Rec Director Tony Adams for insubordination. His dismissal was on the recommendation of City Manager Isaiah Hugley, who said Adams repeatedly denied signing a contract with Nike for a city-run youth basketball team that Adams coached.

Adams and two others were arrested and charged with felony misappropriation of more than $200,000 in money connected to the Nike-sponsored youth team.

In March of 2011, Adams, former recreation specialist Herman Porter and East Marietta Basketball Director William Fox each pleaded guilty before Muscogee Superior Court Judge John Allen, who ordered them to pay the city restitution and placed them on probation.

Four years later, in 2015, the formerly scandal-plagued department won the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association’s (GRPA) highest award, the Agency of the Year Award for cities with a population of 150,001 and over.

Worsley has recently been frustrated by Council’s lack of decisive action concerning the Columbus Aquatics Center, which was under construction when Worsley was hired. From the beginning, before the facility opened, Worsley advised Council that it was under-funding the facility to the point that it would never reach its potential.

After having to dismiss a private pool management company originally hired to operate the facility, the city allowed Worsley’s department to run it on an interim basis. After months of operating in that manner, Council insisted in maintaining the funding level at $850,000 a year, which Worsley said was insufficient to maintain the 89 hours a week that patron were used to.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson then included full funding of $1.27 million in her proposed FY17 budget, but council balked at how some of the funds were arranged and cut it back to $990,000. Worsley said that would only provide for about 60 hours a week, and services at the center have since been curtailed.

Tomlinson said the city has been “very fortunate” to have Worsley.

“James did a great deal to take us from worst to first,” Tomlinson said. “He turned the department around. He was asked to spin gold from straw and he did.”

Tomlinson said she thinks Worsley’s frustration with the recent budget sessions probably contributed to his decision to l eave, but she didn’t think he would say that publicly.

“He’d never say that,” Tomlinson said. “He’s a consummate professional.”

Worsley said, “Absolutely not,” when asked if the budget frustrations contributed to his decision.

“That had nothing to do with it,” Worsley said. “Anywhere you go, you’re going to have opportunities and rough patches that you have to handle.”

Worlsey said, as he said in his email to employees, that he and his wife wanted to move closer to their families.

“We’re all ecstatic about moving into a new chapter in our lives.” Worsley said.

Tomlinson said Worsley would be making about 40 percent more than the $90,675 he makes here.

“We continue to pay directors just below the market, and other communities will continue to be looking to hire them away,” Tomlinson said.

This story was originally published June 21, 2016 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Parks and Rec Director James Worsley leaving the city."