Off the CUPF: Community Use of Public Facilities

Series 2: CUPF's New Simplified Fee Structure | Discussion and Informative Session

• Derek Ross and Ramona Bell-Pearson • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Are you aware of CUPF's New Simplified Fee Structure? Did you know you can reserve a parking lot to host your outdoor events? You have questions, we have the answers. Join CUPF Director, Ramona Bell-Pearson and Communications and Outreach Specialist, Derek Ross, as we dive deeper into CUPF's New Simplified Fee Structure. In this podcast, we will once again be joined by CUPF Financial Administrator, Vanessa Lopez-Cuevas. Joining us for this Series 2 discussion is CUPF Operations Manager, Ron Maxson Jr. This discussion and informative session will include a breakdown of CUPF Core Services and the new fee structure's impact on our services, which also includes schools and government buildings. Don't forget!! July 15, CUPF Opening Day Reservation for Outdoor School Facilities. Due to the length of this podcast, this episode was split into two podcasts. For more information, listen to Episode 7 | Series 3: CUPF's New Simplified Fee Structure | Discussion and Informative Session.

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Welcome to Off the Cuff

Speaker 1

Welcome to Off the Cup a community use of public facilities podcast. We are one of many county government podcasts that focus on sustainability and innovation, all while making sure our community is aware of the services the county provides. Are you looking to reserve an outdoor indoor facility at a library, school or county building? How about the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza or the Clarksburg Cottage in Montgomery County, maryland? Available venues are here to be reserved and we are the office that can make it happen. We are Cuff and thank you for joining our community podcast.

Team Introductions and Updates

Speaker 2

Let's get started. All right, Hello everybody and welcome back to Community Use of Public Facilities. Off the Cuff podcast. I am Derek Ross and I am joined. Matter of fact, I am smiling. I'm happy I have the team here. It is so many great people in this room and we're recording and we're getting ourselves started. So, Ramona, how are you?

Speaker 1

I'm fine. Thanks, derek. How are you doing?

Speaker 2

I'm good, I'm good, I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay, I feel better, I feel better. But, ramona, let's start. Highs and lows. Give me some highs and lows, well, the highs are.

Speaker 1

It's spring I like that and it's getting warmer. The rain is starting to back off a little bit, so I think that's good. And that's good from a community use standpoint, because it means we don't have outdoor events canceled. It means that people are more in a mood to reserve space and get out there and do things, so we're happy.

Speaker 2

Okay, I like that. I like that. I'm feeling I got a nice high. I think you know what. We have been going down to the various buildings Cuff buildings, facilities and taking pictures. We're getting ready for a virtual tour at the Civic Building. So this is a good high. We're doing really good with that. I'm enjoying it. I like pictures. I like images and I'm working with some people that really have told me so many great things about what we're trying to do for Cuff, so we're going to get it done, ramona. So you know we have some individual that's back with us.

Speaker 2

Yes we do, Hello Vanessa.

Speaker 3

Hi everyone I am going to. I'm going to say that I already have a good high. I'm going to say that our budget has been approved. It was officially approved last week and I know that the official date I think it's the 15th, but we're past that. So I just want to say I'm very happy. All that work is underway, it's done, and now we are. Are we allowed to say lows? I don't even. I'm just going to say a low. I'm sorry to dampen everything, but we are in year end. Our year end for our budget is June 30. So the finance team is doing a lot of preparation to close out loose ends for the year end, the fiscal year end. So that's my low and my high, but I'm glad to be back. Thank you for having me again.

Speaker 2

Of course the seat is always open. Vanessa, I see, thank you for having me again. Of course, the seat is always open.

Speaker 3

Vanessa.

Speaker 2

I see it's always open. Ramona, you know we have a very, very special guest with us. We do we do we do? This individual, to me, is one of, if not the most important person I've met in 2025. I'm messing with you. I've known Ram for a very long time, but, ramona, please introduce Ron. Please introduce this wonderful individual.

Speaker 1

I am happy to do that. Derek Ron is one of the most trusted people that I have at Cuff and he is our core service manager. He is the manager for the largest team in the office and primarily does a large percentage of the business operations that we do. So when you have customer service issues or you're dealing with most of the functions that community users have, they're dealing with Ron's core service team and he is handling the majority of the permitting for the permits and deals with a lot of the customer service issues when people aren't quite as happy as they should be. But he gets some thank yous too, so he's a good guy.

Speaker 2

And Cassie Ron. Please introduce yourself.

Speaker 4

Well, thank you for that introduction. I'm glad to be here. This is my first time on this podcast with Derek, so thank you for the invite. I've been in this office for almost 24 years. Coming up in November would be 24 years. Wow, highs and lows are, I think, the same. For me, the same item as a high and low is that I'm retiring.

Speaker 3

Effective.

Speaker 4

August 1.

Speaker 1

And it's disappointing because I he thinks he's retiring.

Speaker 4

It's disappointing because I think he's retired Little, do you know? The low part of that, I guess, is I enjoy my job. I enjoy the customers. I've been very involved from the ground up with a lot of the projects that we do here and yet the high is, you know, I'm excited to retire and move on to doing something very different, still community-based, but just move out of the area to be with family and enjoy something new. So I can't wait.

Speaker 2

Can I come too? Is that is it?

Speaker 4

No, I got it.

Speaker 2

I'm just going to go follow your family around, ron. We're just going to enjoy retire. I'm just going to say I'm retired. If you retire, I'm retired. But welcome, ron. Welcome, ron, to Off the Cuff Podcast.

Using Parking Lots for Community Events

Speaker 2

It is awesome to have you here. Matter of fact, I told you in the email, ron, and Ramona and Vanessa, that is a great. You know what we're going to do a group hug. When this is done, it's over with y'all, but thank you. Thank you, ron, I appreciate it, appreciate it. So, before we get started, I know that there's so many questions that come about with Cuff and I try to incorporate a little. Did you know? So from a did you know? Standpoint, did you know you can reserve a parking lot to host your outdoor events? And I say outdoor events, but did you know you can reserve a parking lot? Ramona, tell us about parking lots. Sure, sure.

Speaker 1

We get a lot of interest for parking lots, believe it or not, anywhere, from people needing maybe overflow parking for an event that's close by or people that want to do a food drive or some type of donation service, and they have drop-offs and pickups. During COVID that was very much a big use because there wasn't access to interior facilities and people would use parking lots for that. People even use parking lots for church services and for events that would otherwise have been indoor, because only things that weren't restricted as much were outdoors. But now that we have the restrictions lifted, you find people using parking lots for just a variety of things and it's interesting to see how creative some people can be with those uses.

Speaker 2

And I know, since we have Vanessa that's bringing the finance and Ron doing the core services. So Ron from a core services angle parking lots.

Speaker 4

What can you tell us about parking lots? I would say parking lots are. They're hard to come by sometimes because we have to reserve, obviously, spaces for people to park if there are groups inside the building. So sometimes that's a disappointment to groups trying to get a parking lot. But we also have some that are traditionally in a area where they're serving the community with a farm market. Sometimes communities will get together and do a neighborhood flea market or a yard sale. We've had auto shows where they bring classic cars. Sometimes we've had bicycle groups that come and do training for little kids on bicycle safety, which is really cool. How do you put on their helmet? How to, you know, ride in traffic or alongside traffic or avoid an area where there may be no sidewalk or no bike path, and how to maneuver around those little obstacles while they're driving. So it's pretty cool. We have a lot of different uses that people request for parking lots.

Speaker 2

I'm always interested when I'm looking at traffic because I'm like parking lots, and then when you mentioned so many different uses for a parking lot, that's pretty unique for the community and, vanessa, I definitely want to bounce it to you as well from your angle of it, from parking lots. If I say parking lots to Vanessa, what is, what does that mean?

Speaker 3

Well, as Ron mentioned, sometimes they're difficult to come by. So I know people can hop online and go to active Montgomery and rent the parking lot. But sometimes, if it's not available or not that it's not available, maybe there is a large event or some event happening that is not going to allow them to be able to use the full parking lot We'll have to refund the money and then find another place for them to to be relocated. You know so I think sometimes it's it's it might be difficult to come by and you know core team is always available to help and assist the customer find another adequate space. But I did want to also mention that during the pandemic we had a lot of exercise classes on parking lots.

Speaker 3

They had Zumba, like dance classes and stuff. So just putting that out there that that was happening during COVID. It was different times. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for putting that out there that that was happening during COVID it was different times.

Speaker 2

Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you for putting that out there. To exercise classes, ramona, let's let's get back into this conversation about we're talking about fee structure we're talking about now we're just going to get into like, some customer service before we get into that. So, as the director, can you give us an idea? What does customer service mean to you, and we can kind of elaborate that on later? Why are we talking about customer service?

Speaker 1

But what does it mean to you? Customer services is a major goal and objective for our agency. We are a community use agency, so we are intent on facilitating access to space, whether it's meeting space, congregation space, entertainment, sports activity space, just space. And a lot of the community thinks and this is what we often have to convey when we're doing our customer service mode they think, because these facilities are government facilities or school facilities, that they have already paid for them because through their taxes they do support the schools and the government facilities being built. However, that doesn't include the maintenance, the upkeep, the turning the lights on, turning the lights off, turning the heat on, and we always have to make them aware that the funding that goes for that comes from the permit fees that they're paying. The schools do not have the ability, in addition to giving your children or our children a free education, they don't have the ability to pay for after-hours use of those facilities or weekend use of those facilities. So we often spend part of our customer service time engaging the community in an educational standpoint of saying this is how your money's being used.

Speaker 1

I will say that we often will get additional follow-up of well.

Speaker 1

When I used the facility, it wasn't as clean as I thought it should be or the facility's old and it didn't have as much equipment as I thought it would, and our answer is well, we try to keep things up.

Speaker 1

However, there are a large amount of people that are using these facilities and what may be new or clean at one hour or one month starts to get some wear and tear as it goes along.

Speaker 1

And while we do attempt to do upkeep and maintenance, we aren't able because, as I said, it's school facilities and we're not the ones responsible for rebuilding and maintaining those facilities. We do contribute, through the permit fees that we get, to the resources for that, but our permitting fees don't cover all of that. So schools have their own schedule for repairs and upkeep and maintenance. I will say that Cuff has done quite a bit in terms of listening to our community and hearing that there were problems with not having resources like nets for volleyball or nets for soccer or goals, et cetera, and we did invest quite a bit of money about a year ago in getting those for certain schools. We looked at how the use was at the schools, what type of use and where the most need was, and that's how the distribution was done, so we've tried to make sure that we can respond when we can, on what level we can Wow.

Speaker 2

Wow, wow. And before we jump to Ron, vanessa, I know, like I said, we come in with the finance portion of it. When I say customer service, what do you think about when I say customer service?

Speaker 3

I try to always look at what the customer needs and sometimes they come to us and they're saying that you know, the fees are kind of difficult for them to pay and I always try to make sure that they know that we have subsidy programs to assist them and they can go online and apply. Every year we have a new bucket of money. We have a fee facility assistance program for our school use and then we also have a community access program for our Silver Spring Civic Building. So there's always those two subsidy programs that people can apply for every year.

Speaker 3

And I also want to like piggyback on what Ramona had mentioned. You know we are an enterprise fund, meaning that all of our expenses, everything that we do, is paid for by the customers, by the permits, by the reservations, and in fact 85% of all our operating expenses go back as reimbursements to MCPS because, as Ramona mentioned, also to be able to pay our overhead expenses, our staff expenses, our office space. So really, at the end of the day, we don't have so much in excess. So just letting everyone know that it's a give and take.

Speaker 2

So wow, ramona, I said this last time. When Vanessa talks, why are we here?

Speaker 1

Like she could explain the whole thing, just broke it down for us.

Speaker 2

I guess I can just pack up my bags. This is your microphone, take it Vanessa. So, roms, we got a good idea from well, we got a good idea from Ramona and Vanessa about customer service, and I'm leading this to you throwing an alley-oop, just getting your impression of it. When I say customer customer service, I'm also merging in core services. Now, I don't want to blend them two together, but I think that there may be a separation of it, or how would you compare customer service and, from your role, core services?

Speaker 4

That's a good question. I think there's. The way I see it is that we all are providing a level of customer service to our customers, from finance to our child care folks, to everyone, including the staff that are on site at public schools and on site at county buildings. So that's really more of the customer experience. And I look at it holistically, as the customer experience is from the time that that customer begins to reserve it online or sends an inquiry to our office about how they go about reserving space. So it all starts there. Is that a fun process for them? Is it easy to get the information they want? Is it easy to reserve the space the first time they try, all the way down to when they have left? And when they leave the parking lot that day, how did they feel? Did they? Were they frustrated by something that went on? In that whole experience? I mean there's parking lot that day. How did they feel? Were they frustrated by something that went on? And that whole experience? I mean there's a lot that happens in between there. So the customer service part of it is something that we do, something that we deliver, but that customer experience is the part that I think weighs heavy on my mind is what is it from A to Z and that's where all the parts of Cuff come together is trying to make sure they need a refund. If they, you know, overpaid for something or they underpaid, you know, how do we collect that money, how do we give the refund, how quick does it go back? All of those things and I can say from you know my perspective finance like moves a refund quick. Years ago in the county government, if you needed a check it was a couple months before you might get that check, and now it's like seven days, and so that's another part of that customer experience.

Core Services Team Structure

Speaker 4

So the difference, then, with core services is we have a customer service component. The team is broken down into three or really four primary squads we call them. One focuses on community and partnership assistance. So inquiries, initial inquiries from the customers, initial inquiries from one of our partnership agencies, anything like that that comes through, is handled by one single squad. Then we have another one that focuses on priority use, such as our leagues, our cultural and religious groups, large events. They also look at the artificial turf fields when they're holding tournaments, things like that. They focus primarily on that. And then we have one for the Wheaton Urban District events and activities. So the facilities that are in downtown Wheaton. We have a squad that focuses nothing but on those few facilities there, because they're all typically they're large events that are outdoors, with the exception of some community meeting rooms. And then the fourth is technical and process support.

Speaker 4

So that squad helps internally. It helps us make sure that our stuff's taken care of. They run data reports to do quality checks to see did things go through the right time, the right way and on time for the customer when they did something online. They also are there to support staff if they're having a technical issue. They deal directly with our vendor, our software vendor, which is very difficult sometimes to go through, and so we have that point person that works with them directly just to make sure that they understand the problem, they can recreate the problem and they can fix the problem. And then they work directly with, like I said, with our IT to make sure it all comes together. So that is. You know, we have one squad that's quote unquote customer service, but really all of those squads work together to deliver the customer experience in the end. Wow, all right.

Speaker 2

OK, all right, I said Vanessa, ron talks, I might as well just go and pack up to Ron, ok, all right. Well, I can't do it now. Well, I'm saying well, I'm ready to reserve something right now if I could. So I guess you answer my question too, when you mentioned the holistic approach to everything I have. What is CuffCore services? But I feel like you answered it I feel like you did. I don't know, Did he, did he? I think he answered it. I think he did.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I will add though, in addition to core services that Ron was describing he touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to pull it out as a thread to say people often for the first time they'll see face-to-face the person who opens the door at the school. And that's a contingency of people that we have under our umbrella who are part-time working for us to make sure that customer service, make sure that community use happens, and those are building service workers. Those building service workers are part-time for what's called the ICB, the Interagency Coordinating Board, and they are working to assure that the doors open, the place is clean, the heat is on, et cetera, and those people do a very hard job. They are great at what they do. I really do appreciate their support.

Speaker 1

Some of them are full-time MCPS employees in addition to working part-time for us, and they will, through the week, be the ones that are there when your children are there during the day. They have evening shifts because they do split shifts, and the evening people that are there as building service workers are the ones that the community users see when they come in, anytime, you know, like after six or before midnight, maybe sometimes a little later, and then on weekends they're there from like six, seven in the morning until whenever the last activity ends on Saturdays and Sundays. So that's a hard group, hardworking group of people, absolutely, and they're very strong with the customer service aspect for us too.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, there's no doubt that customer service is a strong component in Cuff, and thank you for that, ron for core services too. I know we mentioned customer service, but you took it to a whole nother level when you started going down the line about what else that we're doing with Cuff as well too. So core services team Shout out to core services team. Thank you, ron. Thank you, appreciate it. You're not retiring Anyway.

After-Hours Support and Operations

Speaker 1

He's in denial.

Speaker 2

I'm just getting like a nice picture of Ron and just put it in the hall and just have, like you know, one of those. He's a dartboard. No, no, not a dartboard. We wouldn't do that, ok, vanessa, did you?

Speaker 3

have anything that you want to talk about. In regards to just anything dealing with core services, I just want to say that Ron runs a tight ship. Ron runs a tight ship and I think that every time that finance has an issue that kind of crosses over, we have some situations that we have crossover between the financial team and core services. Core services is phenomenal. Whenever we have something that we need to have done, we send a request. There's a core services email listing and we just send it there to that box, and they handle it. Within an hour or two it's resolved. So I just want to say that they're great.

Speaker 4

Well, that's a great point because the staff that are assigned to that box we have at least four or five eyes on that incoming customer service box all day long, monday through Friday, from 8.30 to 5.

Speaker 4

They monitor it.

Speaker 4

There's, like I said, several of them, so if one misses it or they're involved in a phone conversation or dealing with another issue, there's somebody else to see it.

Speaker 4

Of course, sometimes there's more coming in than they can just grab immediately, but they're on top of it and this was a change we made probably about four years ago three and a half to four years ago and it has been well well received by the public because they know that if they send us a central email inquiry to the CUPF at Montgomery County MDgov, they're going to get a response. It's not going to just sit in someone's email box. So you know and kudos to my team because I can tell you they are all on top of it and that makes a big difference in the whole customer experience idea of trying to accomplish that, because they are able to handle it. They're all cross trained. So I talked about the different squads, but they're all cross trained on all four squads. They can actually handle what is in a squad different than the one that they're typically assigned to, which is a great feature.

Speaker 1

Ron was talking about the Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, 830 to 5, whatever business hours you're operating in, but we do have after hours lines and the after hours line is very available.

Speaker 1

It either will be answered or we'll have a voicemail that you can leave a message on, and there is a response to that on the weekend, in the evenings, because we have what are called weekend ICB supervisors and they're the ones that manage the staff I was speaking about earlier who are in the schools after hours and on weekends, and they are the ones that get those calls and will return the call, return the message that's left. They will be often the ones that will go to the school and resolve issues Like, for example, if for some reason, the building service staff isn't there or doesn't hear to come unlock a door, then they would respond and they have master keys and they open things up and they do what needs to be done. I've even had one of my managers, who is a woman, go in and go into the boiler room and pull the boiler apart and make sure that the heat would work. So they're very talented people. There are two of them Linda Gardner and Travis Jackson.

Speaker 2

Shout out to them.

Speaker 1

And they do an excellent job and they both are well trained in in the facilities and how to manage them. So that's who you get after hours. Ron's team is during the operation hours, but even they reach out to linda and travis at times, because linda and travis work monday through friday also. They just alternate on the weekends how they do it and um and they'll. They'll sometimes have to be responsive to the core service team.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. I don't want to get into songs and get into trouble. Literally I think I brought it up before it is a family affair. We are definitely working together, collaborating to get this done. Ron, once again, thank you. Shout out to core services. Well, thank you everybody. We'll be in touch, take it easy.

Speaker 5

This. Take it easy. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County government. Connect with us via cable, facebook, instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.