On April 4, 2024 Austin City Council voted to name the bathhouse the “Joan Means Khabele Bathhouse at Barton Springs Pool”. Lifeguards led the initiative.

As a teenager, Joan Means Khabele led swim-ins and protests at the pool that led to it being opened to everyone regardless of race, so it is fitting that the Bathhouse be named after her. When she was young she was not allowed in the building or in the pool but she changed that by protesting. Let’s recognize her significant contributions to making Barton Springs and Austin a better place for us all.

We successfully advocated for a $20 living wage in 2022. In 2023, it rose to $20.80. In 2024, it goes to $21.63 and in 2025 it will rise to $22.28. Our goal is $27 by 2027.

A living wage means workers can pay their bills and have a little left over at the end of the month. Most lifeguards for the City of Austin live paycheck to paycheck. In a time, when inflation continues to erode our purchasing power and workers in Austin struggle with lack of affordability, our wages need to increase in order to pay for rent, food, gas, etc. Many lifeguards are also students, so they need to pay for educational expenses.

In 2024, lifeguards got no bonuses as we did in 2022 and 2023. For the future, bonuses could be zero and instead wages could be restructured for the same cost as would be spent on bonuses.

In a City Council work session in 2023, there was discussion of restructuring the lifeguard pay scale as a more predictable, efficient, and effective way to incentivize hiring and retention. Restructured pay rates in Aquatics should reflect different levels of responsibilities and encourage lifeguards to return each year.

Lifeguards should not be the lowest paid city employees. Lifeguards have special skills that other employees do not have. Lifeguards are responsible from their first day of work with saving lives and may be called on to perform CPR. Lifeguard starting pay should be one dollar above the city’s minimum wage.

The pay rate for Barton Springs Open Water Lifeguards should be three dollars above the rate for a first year lifeguard. The position of Lifeguard 2 should be raised to one dollar above a starting lifeguard, instead of 25 cents. Head Guards to 1 dollar above LG2s. Open Water Head Lifeguards to one dollar above Open Water Lifeguards, Facility Managers to 3 dollars above the rate for a Lifeguard 2, and other Aquatics positions should be adjusted accordingly.

If the Aquatics pay rate is not restructured for summer 2025, then the bonuses that were in effect in summer 2022 and 2023 should be reinstated for 2025. In Spring 2023, there was a shortage of lifeguards causing Barton Springs and other pools to be understaffed. All pools were not open until mid-June in 2023 when they should have all opened on the first day after AISD let out for summer. We support a $500 hiring bonus, $500 end of summer bonus, and a $250 advanced certification bonus for a total of $1,250 available bonuses, as was done in the past.

In 2022, we persuaded City Council to create 13 full-time lifeguard positions with full benefits. We need more full-time lifeguards to be added in the next budget.

Seven additional full-time lifeguards should be added in the next budget.

Currently, all but 13 lifeguards are classified as “temporary” employees, even if they have worked many, many years continuously on payroll. As temporary employees we do not get full benefits and in the winter many lifeguards must take second jobs. Those lifeguards who work year round should be offered “regular” full-time status or “regular” part-time status. Ordinary workers deserve “regular” status.

Every person living in the U.S. should get extra pay for working on holidays. Right now, managers in Aquatics get holiday pay, but lifeguards and cashiers at pools do not. Holidays, for example Memorial Day, Juneteenth, July 4, Labor Day, and others should include everyone. If you work on a holiday, you should get extra pay, including temporary employees.

Every worker deserves the ability to accrue paid time off. Right now, lifeguards can accrue paid sick days, but not paid time off to use for personal leave. Every worker deserves the ability to take time off and go on vacation.

The city of Austin should change its policy and include the concept of consent in the personnel manual. It should also specifically include a policy on “sexual exploitation”. The University of Texas at Austin has a policy on relationships between employees that does include definitions of consent and sexual exploitation. The City of Austin should adopt a similar policy. The future of Aquatics and safety of teenagers working for the city depends on PARD addressing the issue of sexual exploitation of its young employees.

Open water certified lifeguards working at Barton Springs Pool should get paid three dollars more than an LG3 working at a regular swimming pool. When the starting pay for lifeguards is $22, then OWGs at Barton Springs should get $25. There should also be a yearly bonus for moving from a regular pool to Barton Springs of $500.

Health care is a basic human right. Right now, the only affordable health insurance rate is offered to employees who average more than 30 hours a week annually. Temporary employees are eligible to purchase health insurance after 12 months. Many year-round lifeguards have our hours cut from November to mid-March, so it is difficult to average 30+ hours the entire year, even if we work full time from March to November. The rates for under 30 hours a week are too expensive for anyone to afford. No one who has affordable insurance at the 30+ hours rate should lose that rate.

Victory! As of January 2024, City of Austin Aquatics changed its policy and now allows women lifeguards the power to choose for themselves whether to wear either one-piece or two-piece swimsuits as part of their uniforms. The swimsuits are offered for free at the Aquatics office. We advocated several years for this change. Thank you to the lifeguards past and present who spoke up to make this policy change a reality!

Currently all lifeguards can be fired “at will” because unlike “regular” City of Austin employees, lifeguards do not have civil service protection. Right now, lifeguards can be put on a “one-shot”, meaning if they get written up for something, they will get fired if they are written up for something else, no matter how trivial. The one-shot system allows unethical managers who have personal grudges to abuse their power and target those subordinates whom they hold grudges against, such as ones that spoke out for safe workplaces during the pandemic or who speak out for better pay and benefits. There should be no more firing “at will” or “one shot” status after 2 summers or 12 consecutive months.

Article IX, Paragraph 1 (B) of the City Charter should be amended to state that “temporary” employees who have served at least two summers or 12 months are classified as members of the “classified civil service”.

The 2012 ballot language creating the Austin Municipal Civil Service system said: "Shall the city charter be amended to provide a civil service system for most city employees who are not already covered by a state civil service statute?" It was not clear to voters that long-term lifeguards and other so-called “temporary employees” would be excluded. Some of us have been continuously on payroll for years and years.

The governing body of a municipality on its own motion may submit a proposed charter amendment to the municipality’s qualified voters for their approval at an election.

Lifeguards should get a step increase in pay each year that they work in order to encourage lifeguards to return each summer . The City of Austin should encourage lifeguards to come back every summer in order to have enough experienced lifeguards on duty.

Currently a head guard makes only 25 cents more than a lifeguard, a facility manager at Deep Eddy Pool or Bartholomew Pool makes only 50 cents more than a lifeguard. This creates little incentive for people to take on positions with more responsibility. Head guards should make at least $1 more than lifeguards and facility managers should make $3 more than lifeguards.

We succeeded in getting PARD to provide $400 training stipends for people who complete thePr lifeguard course with the City and work 80 hours. People who apply to work for the City of Austin should be put paid for the entire required 40 hours of initial lifeguard training. The training certification provided by the city is not transferable to work at any lifeguard job except for the City of Austin. There is no other job in the City of Austin that requires unpaid city provided training.

We also succeeded in getting PARD to agree to pay lifeguards who attend training to teach lifeguard classes for the two days of Lifeguard Instructor Training (LGI) training. Before, training to be an LGI meant lifeguards had to make themselves unavailable for regular shifts and were not paid for attending the LGI training class. We fixed that. However, the LGI classes currently cost $100. They should be free.

Victory! We spoke at City Council and won the right for all City of Austin temporary employees, including lifeguards, to purchase dental insurance through the city when they become eligible to purchase health insurance.

For two years, we advocated that the City of Austin should offer bilingual pay stipends to lifeguards and pool cashiers in order to improve equity for people who visit pools and for staff members providing a vital service.

On July 21, 2024, Austin Parks and Recreation announced that lifeguards and pool cashiers are now eligible for bilingual pay.

This is an equity issue that will improve service and access to pools for a significant percent of people in Austin, as well as being fair to bilingual staff with language skills who provide a needed service to patrons at the pools, facilitating communication both during emergencies and non-emergency times.

Lifeguards have advocated several times to the Parks board to change the name of Barton Springs Pool, which is named after William Barton, a man who moved to the area around the Springs in 1837, bringing with him people he had enslaved. He lived for only 3 years on the land around what became Barton Springs before his death in 1840. He also advocated for the extinction of indigenous people.

“Whether the land that includes Barton Springs belonged to William Barton is up for debate, said Sarah Marshall, who works with the Historic Preservation and Tourism Program for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. “The land wasn’t actually granted to him when he moved [to the Little Colony]. That was disputed later on. But the springs and the creek were named after him posthumously,” Marshall said. “William Barton was known as someone who wanted to participate in the extinction of Native Americans,” Marshall said. “And the fact that he enslaved people, we just want to make sure that that’s known as well,” she said.

In November 2023, the Parks board finally listened to lifeguards and recommended changing the name of Barton Springs Pool.

The city of Austin should change its policy and include the concept of consent in the personnel manual. It should also specifically include a policy on “sexual exploitation”. The University of Texas at Austin has a policy on relationships between employees that does include definitions of consent and sexual exploitation. The City of Austin should adopt a similar policy. The future of Aquatics and safety of teenagers working for the city depends on PARD addressing the issue of sexual exploitation of its young employees.

After we complained many times about the issue, PARD in July 2024 adopted a new policy regarding dating between managers and lifeguards, but it does not address managers in their 30s and above who date teenage lifeguards, many of whom start with the city when they are 15, 16 or 17. The City should adopt a policy that defines consent and protects teenagers from being groomed for relationships by their much older managers.

Many lifeguards live far away from the pools they are assigned to work. The free bus pass is useless if taking the bus to work takes two hours. Many lifeguards often rely on other people to drive them to work. A transportation stipend would allow lifeguards to get to work.

We succeeded in advocating that uniforms and equipment should be provided free of charge. Lifeguards used to have to purchase their lifeguard uniforms, shirts, hopsacks and other equipment. Now, they are provided free to City of Austin lifeguards.

The City of Austin should offer some sort of educational savings plan for staff to save for college, similar to the GI bill for veterans. For example staff contributes 8 percent and the City contributes 15 percent, so that after three or four summers staff can save a significant amount for college.

All City of Austin employees who work outside should be paid a $500 bonus at the end of August.

Aquatics should make arrangements each Nov-Feb to rent an indoor facility to hold monthly in-services so that lifeguards are not spending 4-6 hours starting at 7 or 8 am outside in and out of the water in weather below 50 degrees. There have even been in-services in the 30s.

Schedule a lifeguard to act as Lifeguard Advocate to listen to lifeguards, recommend how they can deal with any issues not being addressed by other avenues, represent lifeguards when necessary, and propose solutions to Aquatics. The Lifeguard Advocate should be chosen by lifeguards themselves.

Lifeguards are a natural fit to become paramedics, firefighters or 911 call-takers as they get older and have a few years of lifeguarding experience. The City of Austin should make it easier for interested lifeguards to apply and be accepted to training academies for other public safety positions in the City of Austin.

It is currently too burdensome to acquire a bus pass, an ID or a Zilker Parking pass. They should be given out during the hiring process in the aquatics office or at the 1st in-service.

Many lifeguards live far away from the pools they are assigned to work and do not have cars. The free bus pass is useless if taking the bus to work takes two hours. Many teen lifeguards rely on other people to drive them to work. A transportation stipend as suggested by Council member Alison Alter would help lifeguards to get to work. Another option is to use Pickup! by CapMetro for lifeguards or a shuttle.