 Ron Swanson made his first appearance in the pilot episode of Parks and Recreation , where he repeatedly denies Leslie 's requests to pursue turning a construction pit into a park because he does not believe the parks department should build parks at all . He agrees to green @-@ light the project only when city planner Mark Brendanawicz ( Paul Schneider ) secretly cashes in an unspecified favor in exchange for the approval . In a deleted scene from the episode " Canvassing , " Ron tries to leave government employment for a previously offered job at an Internet flower company . However , when he finds that business is now doing extremely poorly , Ron sadly realizes he will be in his government job for a long time . In the episode " Boys ' Club , " Ron attends a disciplinary hearing with Leslie after she gets in trouble when the underage April Ludgate ( Aubrey Plaza ) is seen drinking alcohol on a video on the Pawnee website . Ron interrupts half @-@ way through the review , defends Leslie and angrily berates the panel for aggressively questioning her . Although Ron claims he did it only due to his hatred for bureaucratic procedures , it is implied that he really did so out of respect for Leslie . 
