Christina White, director of the Miami‑Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS), told the county’s Efficiency & Oversight Committee that the department is facing a large deferred‑maintenance backlog after recent cuts to capital funding.

White said PROS’s overall portfolio includes roughly 308 parks, 40,000 acres of passive and active lands, 60 recreational centers and 22 miles of beaches. She told commissioners the department’s total budget is about $290,000,000 with a general fund subsidy of $124,000,000 — a $13,000,000 reduction from the prior year — and said the capital improvement program was reduced by $73,000,000 to a $369,000,000 allocation. "We have over $550,000,000 in aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance," she said, urging the committee’s support to prioritize life‑safety and regulatory needs.

White outlined measures the department says it has adopted to save money and improve responsiveness: installing smart irrigation across 46 parks (which the presentation attributed to a savings of 154,000,000 gallons of water), introducing mobile field‑painting robots to cut field striping labor costs, bringing turf restoration work in‑house (estimated savings of about $350,000 annually) and reorganizing field operations into three regional hubs to reduce travel time and speed repairs.

Commissioners praised the presentation and asked staff to meet with district offices to review prioritized deferred‑maintenance lists. The committee’s vice chair, Miranda Orbis, said she would coordinate with White’s team to align district projects. The chair asked that department staff provide prioritized project lists and meet with commissioners in their districts.

White emphasized programs that were retained despite cuts — including after‑school care, summer camps and senior programs — and said the department will pursue revenue opportunities and updates to partner agreements that may be brought back to the commission for review.

The committee did not take a formal vote on funding; White said she would set up follow‑up meetings and provide lists and timelines for prioritization.