FRANKLIN – The City of Franklin Parks Department recently received Tier III status from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). In a letter to Parks Director, Lisa Clayton, Director of TDEC’s Recreation Educational Services Division, Gerald F. Parish, Jr. said, “You have successfully completed the Tier III Level of the Tennessee Parks and Recreation Benchmarking Program as part of the Department of Economic and Community Development 3-Star Program. This certification is in effect for five years. You can be proud of your Parks and Recreation Department and the goals that they have met in order to complete this Visionary component of the 3-Star Program. Completing this recreation assessment at the Tier III level has allowed you to create a benchmarking system to measure your participation in parks and recreation services against other departments in Tennessee and shows that you provide a solid level of services and facilities to the citizens of Franklin.”
According to the TDEC Recreation Educational Services Division, benchmarking is a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice with the goal of increasing efficiency and quality of products and services, while reducing costs. This allows organizations to develop plans on how to adopt such best practice, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance.
“This is quite an honor for our Parks Department to receive the three stars,” said Parks Director Lisa Clayton. “Our staff has worked extremely hard to be one of the best in the state, and the country. Our goal is to provide the best quality of life for our citizens and our community for many years to come.”
“I know our citizens and our Leadership Team is very proud of the accomplishments of our Parks Department,” said City Administrator Eric Stuckey. “Parks Director Lisa Clayton has assembled a top notch staff who really care about this community and the excellence of our parks system and the services we provide.”
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