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OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL:
Phil Hester, Director of Parks,
Recreation, and Marine Department, City of Long Beach
 A
consummate professional, Phil Hester Director of Long Beach Parks,
Recreation and Marine, has more than 35 years of parks and recreation
experience. A Southerner by birth and education, he served as Virginia
state director of recreation and the first director of the Chesterfield
County's Parks and Recreation Department. While there, his department
was named the best operated in the country by the International
Association of Park and Recreation Executives. In Virginia, Phil helped
establish more than 85 new park and recreation agencies and was active
in the Virginia Park and Recreation Society, serving as its President.
Phil came to Los Angeles in 1986 as assistant director
of the county parks system. Two years later, he moved to Long Beach as
Manager of Parks. He had this position until he was appointed to his
present position in January 1999. Continuously, he has had to deal with
shrinking budgets while maintaining and improving services. He oversaw
the shift to contract services for landscape maintenance, pursued an
aggressive land-banking program, and modernized and equalized recreation
in one of the most diverse cities in the country. A highlight of
2006 was when Long Beach won the Gold Medal award as the top parks and
recreation agency in the country (cities of 250,000 or more) from the
National Recreation and Park Association( lt{RPA)P. he has also served
as a professional s a member of the prestigious American Academy "for
Park and Recreation Administration and is o distinguished member and
judge for IIRPA. Helping to energize the nonprofit Partners of Parks in
Long Beach, Phil created a public private partnership to build a
two-month-long Long Beach Sea Festival, launched plans to rebuild the
largest municipal marina in the country,
and still managed to be one of the most liked and
respected department managers in the Southland. His leadership can be
seen in the numerous high-level administrators in cities across the
state who point to Long Beach as their starting point. |
