Library Board - Regular Meeting

Okay, well, good evening and welcome to the September 10th, 2026 Alameda Recreation and Park Commission meeting. It is wonderful to be back together again after our recess and to be welcoming fresh ideas and perspectives this evening. Could we begin with a roll call, excuse me, a roll call, please?

Commissioner Sorensen? Here. Commissioner Bell?

Here.

Commissioner Burney?

Here.

Vice Chair Swartz?

Here.

Chair Ades?

Present, thank you. Thank you. The first item on our agenda is non-agenda public comment. Members of the public may speak for three minutes regarding any matter not on tonight's agenda. Commissioners will not respond to comments or answer questions. The city welcomes speakers providing public comment, but please be advised that this is a limited public forum. And as such, speakers must stay on topic if speaking to a particular agenda item. And if speaking during non-agenda public comment, they must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. If speakers fail to follow these rules, they'll be warned, and if they continue to disregard the rules, their opportunity to speak will be ended. Do we have any non-agenda public speakers tonight?

We have two speakers in person. The first speaker is Adrienne Alexander.

Welcome, Speaker Alexander. Good evening.

Good evening.

my name is adrian alexander and it's kind of odd to be on this side of the podium today um i came tonight to welcome our two new commissioners and to thank you for volunteering to keep our parks in great shape and take good care of them i'm also here so you have somebody to talk to tonight my very first meeting there was a lovely lady dorothy freeman who came and said i just want you to have somebody to talk to and not a chair so that's why i'm here I also wanted to give you just some tips that I've learned through this process. It's a great idea to familiarize yourself with the agenda before tonight. Sometimes you have questions in there that you will write down and maybe questions you want to talk to Director Long about. So if you kind of do that in advance, it's really helpful. Staff is very open to call them, talk to them anytime. You're in great hands. And if you have a real specific question, call Director Long and talk to him about it. You may not agree with him, but you can have an open discussion with him about what you need to do. And the other thing I'd like to ask you to do is go up to the office and introduce yourself to staff. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I think, are the best days to go up there. Introduce yourself to the staff. You may know some of the people already, but they're a wonderful group of people. And it's just amazing what 14 full-time people can do in this city. Be sure you go to some park events. Go to a movie night. Go to an aquatics event. Go to the base and look at the homeschooling programs they have. And greet the park maintenance staff. If you're at a park, introduce yourself to them. Tell them how great the park looks. They love that. And they're a great group, too. I'm sure that Director Long and Chair Radiz will come up with a tour of all the parks so you know where they are. There was a few after I've lived in this city all my life that I didn't really know where parks or where they were. So I hope that will happen. And I want to just say this, that parks are part of the infrastructure of this city. And the pathways into the park, through the park, our buildings are old. They need a lot of work. They need roofs. They need gutters. They need interior maintenance. And I just want to say that if the bond issue passes, I hope that you will promote the parks to try to get a small piece of that money to do some of the work that we need to do. And that's all I have to say. And good luck, and thank you again.

Next speaker is Mark Klein.

Welcome, Speaker Klein.

Thank you, Commission. The topic I wanted to talk about today was around long-term field planning and availability. And obviously, this is something passionate to me, having two young children in Alameda. and being a homeowner. As part of my research, I found recently a parks improvement plan that was commissioned by the city back in 2012. That plan called out the shortage of fields even back then. It identified that there were deficient by about six diamonds that could be used for baseball and softball, as well as six rectangular fields that could be used for soccer, lacrosse, frisbee, and the like. Obviously, we're 14 years past that. In that time, Estuary Park, I believe, has been built. So that is one new diamond and one new soccer field. But that is obviously counteracted by the long-term plans to remove several of the soccer fields for housing on the point, resulting in a net decrease in fields to the time of 2030, which is what they plan for that. So my ask of this commission is to help advocate for long-term field availability. Obviously, there is a shortage of fields, and it is only getting worse, frankly, especially with the removal of fields from Wood Middle School, realizing that is not owned by the city, but that does put even further pressure on ARPD, as well as other fields that are coming in and out of accessibility for children and for use that want to be able to stay active. I think it's a very important part of Alameda, keeping our children and our adults as well active in sports. And I hope that this commission can help with the long-term planning, knowing that it's not easy in an urban environment. Thank you.

Thanks very much. Our next item is our staff communication from Recreation and Parks Director Long.

Good evening, questioners. We've got a slew of things coming up. Even though that technically summer is over, our real summer is starting. As everyone knows, it's the recent weather. We have a volunteer coastal cleanup. These take place every second Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. at Seaplane Lagoon. This is organized by the Community Action for Sustainable Alameda, CASA. Our Alameda Walk series takes place on Saturdays at 9 a.m. You can find more details on our website, but the next one is taking place on September 12th at Crown Beach Walk. It's hosted by East Bay Park District. The next one is on September 26th at Bay Farm. It's Bay Farm Walk, and it's hosted by Devin Evanosky. We have a Starlight Movies in the Park. Our final feature this season is Jurassic Park. It's taking place Friday, September 18th. The event opens at 6.30 with the movie showtime starting around 8 p.m. or dusk. This is going to be taking place at Gene Sweeney Open Space Park. Then our movies will resume back in the spring of 27. It's the 42nd annual Coastal Cleanup Day, which is Saturday, September 19th at 9 a.m. from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Crown Memorial Beach. And East Bay Park District is hosting that at the shoreline and other shoreline sites. So if you want to get involved, please check their website. Our Rhythmics in the Parks events, there is a Native Boogie and Beats, which is scheduled for Saturday, September 19th from 12 until 2 p.m. at Lincoln Park. You can experience the richness and soul of traditional powwow dancing and drumming. Then the 9th Annual Blues, Brews, and Barbecue will take place Sunday, September 20th from 12 until 6 at Washington Park. Enjoy world-class blues. Oh, there we go. I thought I wasn't on mic there. So we're going to celebrate world-class blues musicians, local craft beverages, and barbecue vendors. The Filipino Island Fest is taking place on Saturday, October 3 from 11 until 8 PM. And this will take place at 2151 Ferry Point out on the tarmac and celebrate Filipino culture, community, and belonging. And then we're having the fifth annual Alameda Pride in the Park taking place Saturday, October 10th. The main event starts from 12 until 6 p.m. at Chechenyo Park. And then the block party starts at 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Alameda Ave between Park and Oak Street. For some department highlights, the Leisure Club will be attending an exciting baseball game between the Oakland A's and the Seattle Mariners at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento on Sunday, September 13th. And transportation snacks and lunch will be provided for that. ARPD has started a new school year with programs offered for youth preschool age to teens. Our youth flag football is being offered for K-7th grades Saturday mornings from September 12th through November 21st at the Estuary Multipurpose Field. And then sign-ups are underway for individual and team adult basketball leagues. Games are slated to begin Monday, September 21st at the Alameda Point Gym. And our teen program is gearing up for the 21st annual Teen Haunted House. The teens interested in building this project can attend and attend planning meetings starting September 15 at the VETS building. For our programs, our Tiny Tops registration is open for the fall season, which runs from September 8 through December 11. Our recreation after school program registration is open for the 2026-27 school year. The following sites have availability, but are filling up quickly. We have some at Bayport, Kruse, Lidecker, and Washington, but not many spaces remain. Our special interest classes, our current offerings include steam, dance, Lego robotics, karate, and drums, and many more. Our community rec program is joining us for games and crafts on Wednesdays from 3.30 to 5.00. at the following dates and sites. So September 16th and October 7th will take place at Gene Sweeney, and September 30th will take place at Washington Park in the upper area behind the basketball field, or the basketball courts. Our Teen Underground Center is open for drop-in Monday through Friday from 3 until 6, and that's throughout the school year. And our UTC After Dark, our Underground Teen Center After Dark, this is a new program that features a variety of engaging and safe activities for teens to partake in. Monthly themes include Mystery Escape Night, Glow in the Dark Art Night, so you can check our website for more details to sign up for that. There is a Fear Overload Scream Park. This is a field trip on Monday, October 12th in Newark. This field trip takes place on a non-AUSD school day and is geared towards teens volunteering for the Teen Haunted House. They'll explore professional set design, special effects, and character creation. Our adult registration is open for specialty classes like salsa dancing, Akaido, and many more. We still are offering the open gym Sundays at the Alameda Point Gym from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. This is ongoing year-round. Our indoor roller skating is still taking place every Wednesday from 9 p.m. until 10.30 p.m. at the Alameda Point Gym. And then tennis, our private and group instructions are available and lessons are available, and you can sign up for those now. And then at Mastic, there's a couple of key programs that were being offered. It's Transportation 101 and Senior Clipper Cards. They can learn about various transportation options available to Alameda residents. If you bring your ID to receive a senior Clipper card, this starts on Friday, October 2nd at 10 a.m. in the media room. And then we're hosting a caregiver support group. This takes place on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 11.30 in room E. It's a welcoming space that offers connection and recharge through shared experiences. And then for aquatics, we have our SNL Swim Center. The fall swim lessons are now available monthly. The next session begins on September 13th. So please sign up and join us for those for some of the last days of what I would call our Alameda summer. I'd like to do a couple staff recognitions. We'd like to thank Essie DeVille for her work with the SEEN Summer Teen Volunteer Program. She and rec assistant, Ashley, sorry, Kanade has supported 111 or 118 volunteers. interviewing, training, and coordinating assignments with summer programs. These volunteers help all throughout the system. And she particularly helped monitor the engagement, evaluated performance, and created positive experiences. And then congratulations to Park Supervisor Oscar Ledesma, who was selected to attend the Alameda County Local Government Leadership Academy. We're excited for him to have this opportunity to enhance his leadership skills and professional development. Recently, for project updates, the Franklin Park basketball court renovation was completed this week. And the adjacent lawn area was also restored and is scheduled to reopen on Monday, September 14. The Longfellow Recreation Center was recently painted, including the restrooms and building exterior. The cozy cocoon feature at Godfrey Park Playground was repaired. And then Lidecker Park Playground replacement has officially started, and construction is underway. Meanwhile, the basketball court will be open, and the ball field will remain open throughout the project. And only a small section of the parking lot is going to be impacted for a staging area. for construction. Now there's a couple of things that just staff are working on. So one of those is the AUSD joint use agreement. So staff are currently working with AUSD trying to go through and try to come up with a plan for what the next joint use plan will look like. As many of you know, the Aquatic Center has started construction. Construction fence is up. You'll see activity starting. They're currently working through the preliminary construction items. getting all the submittals and everything ready. So it pops up quick, then it pauses, then it's going to start in a real force soon. So we're excited for that. And then I want to welcome the two new commissioners, both Eric Bell and Rhonda Swartz. And so welcome you both, and we hope to have a really good couple of years together and have a good time. Thank you. Thank you all.

Thank you, Director Long. Do we have questions for Director Long?

I have one. So I've seen the school district's been posting on social media about the pool opening, saying October still. And I know there's been some, they've been actually commenting back on some residents asking about a official opening date. So can you just clarify when the pools plan to be open to the public, assuming everything finishes on time? And then why that specific time frame?

So ARPD has planned to start operating Emma Hood in January 1. We did that planning budgetarily at the time, because we didn't know when the construction timeline was due. I think, as most people, if they drive by the pool right now on October 1, it is not a highly likely opportunity for it to be open. I do think the school district thinks at some point in October, it'll have water in it. It'll be functioning. whether or not they've got everything worked out. So ARPD will be offering programs starting in January of 2027. And we did that strategically because of the unknowns. Should something happen where it is open earlier, ARPD will evaluate and look at if we have to maybe shift programs from Ensignel. We may not operate both, but we may look at that opportunity. But it's still up in the air, so we don't have a confirmed date from AUSD as of yet.

Great. Thank you. And then I actually had this down on the next meeting agenda, but is it still going to come, the joint use agreement, is that still going to come to us at some point for some feedback?

So generally, those contracts don't come before this commission. But I'm happy to bring those details forward to you all. And I'm happy to do so. I think we're trying to figure out the timing on it. And we're trying to look for a way November-ish, December-ish timeline on that. So we'll try to hit it for either the November or December meeting to bring you at least the high points of what we're trying to navigate.

Yeah, great. To confirm, so the current joint use agreement is just for the pools, but I think that's expanding to include the new Ensenal field.

Is that correct? So in discussion with the school district, because of their timeline and the construction projects they have going with both Otis and at the gym at Ensenal, they requested that we separate the two. So the first joint use will just be about the pool usage. And then we'll bring forward a larger agreement about other items. Great. Thank you.

Our next item is Commissioner Communications. Commissioner Bell, welcome. Would you like to go first?

Sure. So I think I'll just take this time to reintroduce myself or introduce myself. My name is Eric Bell. I'm a 15-year resident here in Alameda. I've always enjoyed the parks. I've always enjoyed the programs that ARPD has put out, especially I have very fond memories of events at Lidecker and at Rittler and even at Harrington Park during the pandemic. That was my getaway place. Professionally, I'm a professor and I'm a CPA. So that means as a professor, I prefer simplicity and explanations. I think it's possible. And as a CPA, I'm very concerned about making fiscally wise decisions. So that's what I believe I bring to this role. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy basketball. The gym at Alameda Point is, for some reason, those rims are very nice to my shot. So I'm a big fan of that place. I also enjoy running. I participated in the 4th of July 5K run for the last several years. And again, just commending ARPD because it's very well organized. It's very well executed. And the last thing I want to say is I I'm looking forward to my role here as a city commissioner and looking forward to attending both the movie night on the 18th as well as the Bay Farm walk that's happening on the 26th. Great. Thank you. Commissioner Burney.

I would just like to welcome our two new commissioners. It is always an honor and a privilege to serve the city of Alameda, and I hope you all have a good and successful time on the commission.

Thank you, Commissioner Sorensen.

I'll introduce myself. I'm Rhonda Sorensen. I was born and raised in Alameda. I grew up across the street from Kruse Park. I was actually a park director at Godfrey as part of my recreation degree from San Diego State. Married 41 years. I have two daughters. I have five grandchildren under the age of six. So we utilize the parks a lot. And we play. We go to that as well. I played tennis for 27 years and now play pickleball mostly at Harbor Bay Club. I love to garden and cook and read. And I just signed up today for line dancing at Mastic, which probably none of you are old enough to go there yet. So line dancing may be a new favorite thing. So I look forward to being part of the parks and want to keep them safe so that everyone can have fun in them.

Terrific. Welcome.

Thank you. Thanks.

I'll echo the welcome to our new commissioners. So very excited to have you and excited to get to know each other and work together 11 Thursdays out of the year. I spent a lot of my time at the pool this summer, which you can probably tell by my very gnarly goggle tan. I do want to give a shout out to one of the staff members, Hero Short, who's a lifeguard and swim instructor. He was very great with my very rambunctious five-year-old, very patient, great communicator with us as parents about what they were working on. Definitely the biggest strides he's made in his swimming since we started the program. So I wanted to give that shout out. He did eight of his 10 lessons with him this summer, and he was a wonderful instructor. I did spend a lot of time at the Alameda Swimming Pool Association, which I know is not related here, just because I know just with our lack of pool space. So very excited to knock on wood that this was the last summer of a single aquatic facility, and we can hopefully get some more pool time for everybody by next summer. Appreciate the comments, Director Long, on the opening date. I know AUSD has been responding. I just wanted to make sure it was clear to the public on what the plan was. And do appreciate the comment on the consideration if it happens to open early, do we move programming to the new pool, just considering it's a larger space. So really excited to see that. So, so close to looking like it could have water in it. It's been a very long two years on a one-year project. and really excited to see that come to fruition. Thank you.

I'll echo my colleagues in welcoming our two new commissioners. We're fortunate to have your contributions and hope you enjoy this experience. For my part, I used the break while we were off in August to finish a personal project visiting the last of the 41 city parks and recreation facilities listed on the city's website. So I was able to check each of those off now. which is a wonderful experience. My general reflection, having now visited all 41, is to see a city that takes great pride in its parks and to see residents that thoroughly enjoy their parks. I echo that comment that parks are city infrastructure, vital city infrastructure to support the quality of life that we enjoy so much in Alameda. And I think as we'll hear when we receive the report on the summer activities, ARPD isn't simply a parks operator. It's one of Alameda's largest community service and youth development institutions that we're fortunate to have on the island. So it was great to see that live and in action. Always happy to discover a hidden gem. I was already familiar, of course, with the bigger parks, Cruzee, Washington, Lincoln. But my great discovery on this journey was Marina Village Park. which is a small strip of land right behind the Pacific Lighthouse Restaurant. I was there at about 7 o'clock in the morning one weekend. And with the development's fountains to my left, with the city of Oakland skyline to my right, and the marina, along with all the dog walkers there on the water, it felt like you had your own little strip of heaven all to yourself. So if you haven't been down there, Recommend it. It's a little bit off the beaten path, but worth the worth the effort to to get to With that we'll move forward in the rest of our agenda The next item on the agenda is the consent calendar the consent calendar consists of routine items that are considered together and acted upon with a single motion and unless a commissioner requests that an item be removed for a separate discussion. Tonight, the consent calendar includes item 5A. It's to approve the minutes of our July 9, 2026, Recreation and Parks Commission regular meeting. Are there any clarifying questions from commissioners about items on tonight's consent calendar? I'll ask simply, Donna, for this item, do the new commissioners abstain from voting? Yeah.

I would say yes, they abstain.

Terrific. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on an item on the consent calendar?

No public comment.

Are there any requests from commissioners to remove this item from the consent calendar? In that case, can I have a motion to approve the consent calendar, please? I make a motion to approve. And I'll second that. And a roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Bernie?

Approved.

Vice Chair Swartz?

Yes.

Chair Rediz?

Approved. Thank you. The motion's been approved. The next item on our agenda is our regular agenda item 6A, which is to receive a report, the Recreation Division Summer Recap 2026. We'll have a report and a presentation. Commissioners can ask clarifying questions. We'll have public comment. The commissioners will discuss and offer their own comment. There is no motion to make on this item tonight. Welcome.

First of all, I want to say good evening to the rec commissioner. Also, good evening to ARPD staff, former ARPD staff and commissioners. My name is Patrick Russi. I'm the recreation manager for the city of Alameda. And as I was sitting in the audience listening to you guys speak, I was like, oh, I was going to talk about that. I was going to talk about that. So you're going to see some of the things that you guys were talking about. Alameda has a rich history. Their parks have been around for over 100 years. And it gives them some unique characteristics. Whether that was a real locomotive at Washington Park or an iron rot fence at Lincoln, a trapeze, a giant bumpy slide, or a jungle gym, these are just examples of past and current rich characteristics of each park. I am proud to stand here and say I was a participant in the park. I've grown up in Alameda and now for many years have been a steward of the parks. One of our taglines has been ARPD, keeping play alive since 1895. And it's been stated that ARPD is the third oldest municipal recreation in the state of California behind Los Angeles and San Francisco. Recently, we may keep adding to this character as we've been doing new programs and new parks and new pool facilities to serve Alameda better. And I think that's what makes Alameda special, is the parks and things. ARPD continues to grow, innovate, and provide fantastic summer programs. So what does that mean in 2026? Well, let me continue the story of what makes ARPD a special place. I'm proud to call it home as well. The overall theme this past summer was 2026 totally rad rec summer. Oh, sorry. I'm supposed to be pushing that. Sorry about that. And it was a retrospection of looking at the 1980s and 1990s. Now, most of the staff weren't born in the 80s or 90s. So it was really making a connection, drawing things out. But it was a super fun theme. And we carried it throughout all the programs throughout the entire summer. And that's what made it special. The rest of my presentation is going to focus on mostly summer youth programs. But rest assured, there are a lot of adult programs nestled into all of these things. But I'm focusing on youth. And I would say Alamedians are truly blessed to be able to utilize local parks. I mean, I think someone mentioned it earlier. A lot of people go to the parks. I mean, you go for a walk, go to the playground, go to the pool, go to have fun at basketball, and all of that. That's what Alameda is all about. And I couldn't be more prouder to be here and to talk about it. We have people that, I mean, I'm not even going to talk about the amount of picnics and rentals and facility usage that we have. I mean, they're off the charts. So the highlight of the ARPD season was spectacular. But I just want to tell you a little bit about, before I get to there, but that's fine. You can stay there. I want to tell you about the back history of what happens every summer. Summer starts in November and December. It doesn't start in June. It starts for us in November and December. We look at our evaluations. We see what was successful. We see what we can improve upon. And then we start planning for that next year. We have to have our programs out by February, because that's when people want to register for the summer. So it's really an ongoing process. And one of the things that I think people don't realize is the amount of effort we take to interview and hire a lot of young people. And I think that's something that's overlooked, the amount of development that we do with young people. Usually I get somewhere between 150 to 175. applicants and I always tell them I said don't be surprised if you don't get it this time but please come back because there's not a lot of room for everyone we usually hire around 75 new employees but that goes with all our returning employees and so this last summer we had about 280 employees for the summer part-time Each staff goes through, either if you're new, you have to do an onboarding training. You have to go through a training for your particular field that you're in. If you're in aquatics, you're going to be doing a different training. If you're in rec, you're going to be doing a different training. We monitor and we evaluate them. And at the end of the summer, we tell them how they did. So it is a lot of development, and it's crucial. I mean, if we didn't do this development, then you wouldn't have the success that we have. And I think that gets, I know we talk about all these great programs, but it's really about the personnel that you have to make it successful. So I just wanted to point that out. And I also wanted to say how much time and effort the full-time rec staff do. No one ever sees that, because we're doing that all day, every day, behind the scenes. OK, now I want to talk about Alameda Walks. I know it was brought up earlier. I'm very passionate about Alameda Walks. I was one of the two people that started Alameda Walks over 20 years ago. 23 to be exact, with the Alameda Collaborative for Children's Youth and Their Families, or what we like to call the ACCYF. It's an organization. If you're not familiar with it, it's an organization that It represents the city, the school district, and the county. And we come together. We meet once a month every year. And it's mostly made up of organizations that deal with families, children, youth, and their families. And I've been a member with them since I've been here. The reason why we started Alameda Walks was because back in 2004, obesity was a big issue. And so we wanted to get people up and off their couches. And so Audrey Lord-Hausman, who was the leader of the collaborative at the time, we got together and we said, hey, let's start this walk program. And so that's what we did. We went out on Saturdays. And we originally started, it was three Saturdays a month. from May to October. And that's where it all started. And I cannot believe we're in our 23rd year this year. Most other people have dropped out who used to be involved in this, but I'm still going strong on it. And I really love the event because I've actually seen families come through. I've seen kids grow up from when they were being pushed by their parents to now walking on themselves. So it's a great walk. They've kind of morphed. We've become more informational. We talk about things. I have learned so much as I'm a native Alamedan, but I have learned so much by just listening to people over the years talk about Alameda walks. And so like we said before, we do have a walk this Saturday. It's going to be at East Bay Regional Park. And then we have the Bay Farm walk on the 26th. So please come out. And I always like to say we get to learn a little bit about the Isle of Style because I call that the Isle of Style, Alameda the Isle of Style. Just recently, we became a member of the Children's Movement of California Healthy Lifestyle Pledge, which is an organization dedicated to prioritize youth and prioritize legislation and initiatives that focus on the development of youth. I'm proud to see what we're getting. I'm getting newsletters and information about that. And it's nice to see what other people are doing, and then connecting with them, and seeing how we can continue to move forward with our pledge for youth. Because I think youth is where we need to develop, and we continue to develop. Next slide. Community events. You guys already stated it. To me, this is the fabric of Alameda. It's the community events. People come out, they support Alameda, and it is just awesome. And my favorite one of the year is the Sandcastle Sand Sculpture Contest. It's been 58 years we've been doing it. It's a combination between the Baby Women's Club, the East Bay Regional Park District, and the Alabama Recreation and Parks Department. And I have some baby women who have been to like 56 of them. They come out every year to participate in. This last year, we had 95 entrants. between the two divisions, with about 492 participants, and then about 2,000 spectators that come down and watch this. And particularly last June was a wonderful day. It was a perfect day. No wind, not too hot. It was perfect for being down there. And I just think it's one of the best events of the year because it's free. And everyone can come out and create. And you don't have to be good at doing anything. You can just make it out of sand. And if it doesn't work out, oh well. You still get a ribbon to go home and say you participated. So I always say, you're a winner anyway. Just show up. um the other thing we have and it was mentioned was the starlight movies in the park series um we've had five this year uh starting in may uh and then uh so far we have 800 participants um and hoping to get more and the last one that's coming up um next friday at um jean sweeney The other thing that we do that we're directly in support of and we support is the Rhythmic Cultural Works, who puts on the performance and art and learning series every year. It's been, I think, I want to say the fourth year. I think it's the fourth. I could be wrong on that one. But they usually put on a series of multicultural events throughout the year. This year, they did one Unity Fest at Chichen Yo Park back in June. In July, they did a Soul Theater event. In August, they did a circus night at Sweeney Park. And then they're going to be doing the one next weekend, Native Boogie and Beats at Lincoln Park. So really good regular attendance on those. You could have 50 to, well, their biggest one, the Unity Festival, they got I know they got less, 500 plus. But their other ones are more geared to about 50 to 100 on the events that they do locally at the parks. So please, if you haven't seen one of them, come out. They're really cool. And Rhythmic Cultural Works does a fantastic job of educating and getting people going. You know, so I was asked to talk a little bit about the challenges. So community events, challenges. Never can predict the weather. Just doesn't happen. And there's a lot of competition in the Bay Area on events. I mean, I always say, that Alameda has a special event at least every weekend somewhere. And sometimes two or three special events going on. And that's just not just the city, but all the nonprofits and all the school and radium and all. I mean, there's just so much going on in Alameda and this little island. So there's a lot of competition on that that does make, you know, sometimes people have to make choices. So we all try to coordinate with each other. But it doesn't always work out that way. But I like to say community events bring families together. They spend time together, and it enlivens the community spirit of Alameda. And I think that's true, as you guys have been talking about. And our biggest event was the 49th annual Fourth of July parade. So last year's theme was America Turns 250. We had celebrated both America's birthday at 250 and the Alameda Fire Department's 150th birthday. Commissioner Bell said, or someone said, they ran the pre-race, the charity race, before the parade. And so that usually happens. And it's gone from 800 to 900 to 1,200 to almost 1,700 people in the last couple of years run that race before the parade. So much so that this year they actually had a shuttle running back and forth from the finish line and back to the front line so people could get back to watch the rest of the parade because they wanted to watch the parade. This year we had over 250, I mean, there was 185 entrants in the parade. and a wide, diverse amount of people. And that's the best thing about it, is it doesn't cost you anything to be in the parade. You just got to sign up. We have our seven categories, as you can see on the slide. And usually there's about 60,000 spectators. We do get a fair number of people that come off the island. Locally, I know there's other parades in the Bay Area, but locally, I think we're the closest parade for a lot of people. So a lot of people come out. A lot of people participate that aren't from Alameda as well, because they want to just share being in the festivities and stuff like that. So that's always great. But I also, you know, I'm always one, I'm not going to sit up here and stand up and say it was all ARPD. But yes, we are the main people that put on the parade. But there's a lot of people that help in the background. We meet throughout the year. There are members from the AMP, Public Works, Fire Department, the Police Department, the Environmental Division. the manager's office, and the Coast Guard. And we're meeting usually about starting in November for the next year. So I have a little bit of time off, and then we'll start doing 2027, which is actually the parade's 50th birthday. It will be next July 4. So we're looking forward to that. So again, some of the challenges are you just never know who's going to sign up and never know what issues are going to come up and who's involved in what. Again, I can never predict the weather. Sometimes it's super hot. Like a few years ago, it was really hot. And there are other times where it's not that hot and it's really cold or windy. So it is kind of tough when you're putting those on. We always, as a staff, are always, no matter what we're doing, we're always evaluating and looking at how we can be better. Over the last couple of years, We've kind of tweaked on how the lineup goes to make it smoother when they're entering into the parade. We've done a better job of keeping the gaps down by staging people out there a little bit better so we're not getting those huge gaps in between the different floats. And then this year, we talked about doing a separate meeting with the equestrians to make sure that they were on board with all the different things that they have to deal with. So like you said, in recreation, we're always thinking about what we can do better. And that's, I think, a great thing. New slide. OK. So the rest of my slides are going to go sequentially age-wise, pretty much. I'm going to start down with our preschool programs. We have our We Play program, which is a parent-child or caregiver-child program where you can bring your child to the Veterans Building Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And they put out games and crafts and do music and songs. And it's mostly geared for six months to three-year-olds. And it was originally started with Smart Healthy Babies and ARPD many, many, many years ago. And I think it's been pretty successful over the years. I know I took my son there when he was at that age. And it continues to be a great social environment. It also allows maybe the caregivers to come together, too, because a lot of people do come with their caregivers. But it lets them socialize a little bit, too, as well as the children to interact with each other. Again, that social interaction is key to development. We had over 165 kids just for the summer program. My numbers are all about just that eight week of summers, just to let you guys know, not the whole year. We also had our summer tots program, which is basically our tiny tot program during the summer. It doesn't change much of what we're doing, but we offered three two-week increments this last summer. And I would like to say, as a product of the Tiny Top program, that our program prepares the kids well for school. We focus on self-care and motor skills, good old Jack Capon motor skills, self-regulation, social expression, and then small on the fundamental academics. People want to do the academics a lot more now. But if you look at any of the learning curves, the academics is the really small part on the top. It's the social care, social interaction, and self-care that really makes a difference. We had 49 children in total in the three sessions. And then lastly, we did our Tenderfoot Camp, which is our outdoor education camp. It's modeled after our day camp program, which I'll talk about in a little bit. Our Tenderfoot camp happens all outside. So the kids are just in the parks and stuff like that. This year, we actually did it in two different parks. We did one at Lincoln, and then we did one at Lower Washington and the Crown Beach area. So we split it up in half. And they were one week at a time. And we had 94 total for the summer. Again, I think this is the most difficult age group right now. It's very challenging because there are lots of competition for this age group. And I would say even within our own department and outside of our department, most people want to do programs for this age group, and there's a lot of options out there. TK has kind of changed the landscape. We went from just having preschool, five, and then going to kindergarten. And now we have this TK realm. And not that there's anything wrong with TK, but it does change how you deal with your programming. And some TKers are having the maturity to graduate to go on to the larger programs, and some do not. So we're kind of doing this 50-50, where we still offer programs with the little kids that TKers can be involved in. And then also, if they're ready to go to the bigger programs, we give them the opportunity to go to the bigger program. It's that longer day effect. But I will say ARPD is still a great place to have your first recreational experience. I mean, whether it's at We Play, Tots, or Tenderfoot, I mean, it's just a great place to get you ingrained in going to the parks and enjoying the parks and being outside. Next slide. Thanks, Donna. So this is probably our biggest growth area that we've had in the last couple years is the specialty classes and camps. When it was during COVID, everything shut down. And in fact, a lot of places went out of business and didn't come back. But now we're about five years removed from that, five or six years removed from that. And now you're seeing a lot of companies come back or new companies coming out there. And so the offerings that we've been offering have soared. And I think parents are looking for a lot of diversity and variety. That's one thing we provided this summer. We had over 1,700 participants in all our different classes, which included dance, coding, science, anatomy, physiology. I mean, there were some judo, martial arts, a lot of exercise classes. I mean, both for youth, and there were some for adults as well. So don't think we let you out. STEAM, science, and cooking. were like the top three around. I couldn't believe how fast the cooking classes sold out this last summer, so much so we're probably going to add a few more for next summer. But they were like one of the first group of classes that sold out. Let's see. Yeah. Challenges include it's always difficult to retain. Sometimes you're using outside contractors, and sometimes you're using in-house instructors. And so when you're using outside contractors, you're only as good as who they hire and who they bring over. We're very good that we have a person monitoring it, and we really work with those companies to make sure that we get the best and make sure that if they're not cutting the mustard that we get another person as soon as possible. So we monitor those pretty well because we have to. They're outside contractors, but they're also a representative of ARPD. And we want to make sure that they're doing just as good of a job as we're doing with our own program. But we do a lot of in-house. We do have a lot of in-house instructors. And that's another spot we've grown in the last couple of years. But again, it's always hard to retain and keep part-time people. They move on. You know, creative opportunities open young minds for greater possibilities. And I think that's what we do with allowing them to pick and choose what they want to do. All right, new slide. Our next program is our World of Wonder program, or our WOW program. This is an all-day rec care that takes place at five different sites in Alameda. We have Bayport, which we focused on our TK to 1s. TK Kindergarten and 1. So we had a site that was really dedicated just for the little kids group. They did a little bit of a shorter day. They did 9 to 4. But then we had Franklin, Cruzee, and Washington that focused on our second graders to fifth graders. And they were all day, 8 till 5.30. And then we had Godfrey, which actually had both sets. of groups, from TK all the way through 5. I will have to say, Godfrey was one of the most popular, because it had all the groups in it. And especially with siblings, that was a very favorite place to go. They love the totally rad rec summer. Each week they had themes going on. They did special events. We had a Star Wars special event. I think we had an Amazing Race special event. There was a bunch of other special events that ran around the themes. And we also did walking field trips. And something else that we do a lot is it's called a WowX, which I don't think people quite know what it is. It's the ability for a parent to sign up to go to two programs. So if you wanted to do swimming, and also go to the park, and you needed to be all day, we'll walk you over to the swimming center, then walk you back to the park site. If you wanted to do a science class from 9 to 12, but then you needed all day care, Cruzee site would walk you over to the Lincoln Park, and you go back. We strategically plan where these WOWx programs go so that we can get the kids back and forth from the parks. Some a little bit more walk, some a little less. But I'm all about getting out there and walk, so get out there and walk. We had over 1,216 participants this summer in all of those programs. And again, could there be more? Yes, there could have been more, for sure. And I'm always tweaking whether I need to switch the age groups around or switch sites around. It's weird. Sometimes it's weird what hits and what doesn't hit. But the variety and the all-day rec care just makes it easy for parents to do. And they enjoy it, too. A lot of the kids love it. Again, like I said, TKK has slowly but surely been changing. And so I'm thinking about adding another TKK site as we go into next summer, just to balance out what works great. It's hard to have a site where you have TKers and fourth and fifth graders because they really don't do the same things. They all want to do the same things, but they can't always do the same things. And then the other thing is we just have a lot of competition. I mean, there are AEFs doing programs. The church groups are doing programs. The young naturalists are doing Camp Edmo. I know the school district contracts out several of their sites to other camps. So there is a lot of competition on this. So it comes down to marketing and getting out there. And I think we're lucky because we just have a new marketing person in our office. And I think by redoing some of our sign-ups in our website and promoting, I think we'll get the word out. people love our programs but i think there are people who just don't know about our programs and there's a lot of new people in alameda there's a lot of people in alameda don't um so next slide is our day camp program and this is a program that's been going on for 73 years it's really one of the vaunted programs that have been around but it is it is a challenge right now because Kids' outdoor education is not necessarily what they want to do. But we still have a fair number of kids that want to come out. They do hiking and orienteering and archery. And they have crafts. And they do fun in nature. Hidden Cove, we have three sections. They're all day camp. Hidden Cove is strictly for TK to first grade. Trail Zen is second to fifth grade. And then the Trail Blazer program, which is awesome, is a two-night overnight up in the Oakland Hills. And last year, we had over, I think, 45 people that went into the hills for a two-night overnight into the hills. Then they usually have field trips on Fridays where they go to some of the East Bay Regional Park, swimming holes like Don Castro and Cole Canyon or Lake Anza or something like that. We work, some of our programs really work in tandem with the East Bay Regional Park District, not only with the Sandcastle Contest, but our day camp program takes, a lot of it takes place on their property, and I can't, I can't shout out them enough. They're really good partners on a lot of these things that would make it great. The weekly themes are chosen as well. Obviously, they brought in the rad summer as well, but they also weave in the environmental things of cleaning up and being stewards in their community of nature. And to me, I push this one because I think we all need to get off our phones more and get out into nature. So I can't push it enough. And that'll be my challenge next year is to really market it a little bit and get it out there better so that we can get more people back to doing those things in nature. It also competes a lot with the other programs. And like I said, As you can see, we're competing within ourselves, and then we're also competing without Out. Choices have to be made sometimes, but I'm always pushing the ones I think are great. Our team program. So our team program is also another great choice for multiple reasons. One, if you just want to do something fun, sign up and go on one of the field trips. They do two field trips a week. And you don't have to do anything else. You can just show up to the field trips. And they do some great field trips. They go river rafting. They go to iFly. They do paintballing. They go to Santa Cruz. They go to Great America. et cetera. There's more and more. So if you're a teen, get out there. Don't stay at home and play on your video games. And then if you want more and you want to be there all day, we have our summer adventure camp. And the staff there does a great job. They're there all day from 8 to 5.30, just like our WOW program. And they have themes, and they go around. They do a lot of walking field trips. They still do crafts and have fun together. They play games. They hang out and socialize. And I just think teens need a place to do that safely and interact and play successfully together. And we do that with, like I said, a safe environment. Sorry. And mostly when I say teens, we're mostly talking about tween teens, just so I'm clarifying. Mostly sixth graders to ninth graders is usually where. Not to say that we don't deal with the older kids. Sometimes they want to show up on the field trips. During the school year, we do a lot more with the sophomores to seniors with our leadership programs and stuff, and the haunted house and stuff like that. But also one of the things that I think they do great at is they also take the kids and they use public transportation. because I don't think people know how to do it anymore. So they actually take them out on going to the ferry or to take the bus or whatever. And I think some people, that's enlightening because now, oh, wow, I can do that. I don't need to drive. I can do that. Or they walk or they ride their bikes and stuff like that. So I think those little learning things that we put into our programs are essential to make it. The other thing that we do is our free underground teen center, or UTC. That's open every day, year round. But during the summer, it's 12 to 5. And anyone can show up. Doesn't cost anything. Just walk in. We always have two staff members there. They're always doing fun activities and playing with the kids. That took a big hit during COVID, some of those programs. And then, of course, The longer the time goes away, then you have to reinvent yourself and get it out there. So in the last few years, we've seen an increase on that every summer of participants in there. So I'm thrilled to have 356 individuals that came to the Underground this last summer. And I saved my best for last because I wanted to talk about the volunteer program. I think that's another one that when I started with about our leaders, this is the base of what makes our leaders great is our volunteer program. We usually get a lot of interest, application. And our staff is very picky. They don't just take everyone who applies. You have to really want to do it. It's not because your parents signed you up. Because they won't say, well, why do you want to be here? Because it's really, you're going to be doing the effort. But they interview them. They train them. They monitor them. They assign them. These volunteers are part of Day Camp, WOW, our Tiny Top program. our sports program and our steam our steam program as well and they go out there and they help assist and and monitor the kids with the regular staff but then they get you know they get some learning seeing what it would be like and then they also get to do a lesson themselves or do an activity that they get critiqued on. It's sort of like their final project of the week. Most of them sign up for a week at a time. Some sign up for multiple weeks, but most of them sign up for a week at a time for a different program. So they critique them and evaluate what they could have done better. And again, for me, this is where our leaders start. Many of the leaders were volunteers who are currently leaders. They started in the volunteer program. So, I think it's, again, one of those, no one really talks about the team volunteer program, but it really is essential to creating character development and making sure that we have good leaders in the future. So, let's see. And I also want to say the staff, and I know it was mentioned earlier, and I will go to Aquatics in a sec, sorry. I just want to say that the staff that did this, Essie and Ashley, did a fantastic job this summer. It was flawless. The working with the staff that was on site, as well as the candidate, as well as them evaluating them, they really just did a wonderful job of making sure that we were going to have a continued great candidate pool going forward. So challenges, I'm sorry. In teens, constantly changing. Trends are constantly changing. Teens are fickle. They don't like everything you do, or they don't want to be. Sometimes they want to be a kid. Sometimes they want to be an adult. You never know. And we're competing with technology, obviously. And as we stated earlier, most of our sites are old and not technology driven. sites or outside sites and having fun. But those are the things that make it challenging. But creating opportunities for teens to have fun and give back to the community is what makes Alameda so special and makes them, if they stay here, that's what they think about when they're as adults. I've been here long enough where I know I've had generations of families that have gone through and I've dealt with. And so they always remember the little things. Just remember that. They do. Our aquatic program, again, our core mission of aquatics is to provide opportunities for the public to become water safe. And I think that's our biggest thing is that we want to do it. It used to be back in the day it was called the Swim to Live program. Back in the day, which thankfully we don't hear anymore. We used to hear the sirens go off all the time when there was someone drowning at the beach. And that doesn't happen as often as anymore. I'm happy to say that. But again, and we developed a program that was only part of the year. during COVID. And then out of COVID, we developed a program that's now year round. Unfortunately, we've never really had, due to the pools being either one off or one off, we never really had the full slate of this. So we're still trying to figure it all out when we get all the pool stuff going. But again, it goes back to what you said, Drew. It really goes back to the key of the staff. and the people that are working with those kids one-on-one. Because that's what your child's going to remember. They'll remember hero. I know they will. And maybe they'll want to be a hero to someone else. So we also brought back some lessons for our WOW. It was one of our WOWx programs, which was great. We would walk the kids over. Also for one of our cooking and steam classes from Woodstock, we'd even take the little kids and they would get a water experience and then go walk back to their site and do the rest of their camp at the other site. We did that a few years ago. With space, it wasn't great. This year, we were able to find at least the space to get it back in there. So I love the crossovers that go on at the different camps, because I think it makes it fresh for everyone and keeps everyone moving forward. Let's see, we had over 1,000 swim lessons. um this year um and mostly those happen usually in the afternoons and evenings um at at it well right now at ensign l swim center oh everything's happening in cell zone center one thing that grew this year immensely was our camps we had a lot more participants in our camps and it goes back to that variety thing that i was talking about because people just want to have variety and we have a very creative supervisor on this and they like to do merperson and pirate camp and cardboard camp and you know bugs life camp and and they culminated each week because usually lessons are monday through thursday so on friday they would do a field trip and often would go along so bugs life they went to fairyland and it's pirates life exploratorium and stuff like that which was new this year and people really liked that and there was a a big increase in number of campers from the previous year. Now, again, we've only been doing it a couple of years. Let's see. We also have a partnership with Stacked Adventures, where we do a camp where whoever signs up for this camp, they spend part of the week in the pool. And they also spend part of the week on the estuary, in the estuary with Stacked Adventure doing paddle boarding and kayaking. So they get both an indoor and a more open lake experience. Again, very successful this summer. doing both the pool and the open water experience let's see and then similar to the team volunteer program I don't want to not miss them out because aquatics require a certain amount of level of certification they don't fall into our volunteer program they have a special volunteer program that they call the aquatic interns that's also been successful as a feeder most of the staff who are interns then become leaders when they can be lifeguard or water safety instructors. So those development programs that we offer that don't get the highlights, those are essential for our programs to be successful. As always, we offer lap and free swim. But because of the limited space and because of the demands of all the competing groups, it's not as much as we want to offer. We want to offer more. And hopefully in the next few years, we will be able to offer more and more consistent times and more a variety of times for both lap swimming and free swimming so that anyone can go out on a Friday afternoon or Saturday and just go swimming just because they want to go swimming. I remember when I was a kid, I used to love riding my bike over to the pool and just do free swimming on Friday afternoons, because that's what we used to do, especially on those hot days. Again, hopefully with the ongoing, when Emma Hood opens up, we'll have more flexibility. And we're hoping that... The high school swim seasons, we have to work around them. But we're getting, with our agreement, hopefully some space, time carved out so that we can do a lot of programs that we haven't been able to do in the past. Mostly we've been geared to the weekends and the evenings, but hopefully we're going to do some more day type things. Planning and scheduling has always been a problem. Maintenance has always been an issue, unfortunately. But hopefully with new pools coming on, there won't be as many maintenance issues. I also want to say that the aquatic program also did a dive-in movie during the summer. They had like 95 people that showed up. They've been doing it for the last couple of years at night, on a Friday night, and they also participate in the Bay Area Pool Operators Association lifeguard games. Over the last few years, they did win a Spirit Award and several first place in some of the individual categories. They, again, are looking forward to expand on private pool parties, which is something we've been talking about. People want to do a pool party, and we just haven't had the opportunity, but hopefully we'll be able to expand on that as we go forward. Thanks, Donna. Our sports program so our sports program has been successful the last few years We do a lot of this in-house. We used to do a lot of it out contracted out But right now we do a lot almost all of this in-house So we're hiring staff and training them and doing this out out at a couple sites we do have mainly we do it at the alameda point gymnasium during the summer and at tillman park so we try to do opposite ends at the gymnasium we offer all sports camp volleyball camp cross country camp basketball camp fight football actually cross country camp took place at sweeney park because it was nice to use the trails so but And we had, again, 1,500 campers, over 1,500 campers that took place in our sports classes. Beyond sports just means that they didn't play soccer and Ultimate Frisbee the whole day. They got to do some crafts and they got to play some games. And it was sort of like a combination of having some fun but also getting some skills in soccer and Ultimate Frisbee. We also did, this was also one of the things we did with Crossover, our STEAM program, which is at Lidecker. and spent their morning doing their program. But then in the afternoon, they went to Tillman and played sports. And the Tillman kids did their program in the morning, and then they spent the afternoon doing STEAM classes at Lightacre. So it was really successful that they had this crossover. People liked it. We just tried it out for a couple weeks, but it was very successful. So we're hoping to move forward on that next summer as well. All right. STEAM, yes, with the STEAM program, sorry. Participants get a new experience and they get to explore a totally different area for ARPD. We also offered tennis lessons. I will be the first one to say that since COVID, tennis, pickleball, have exploded and we just haven't been able to keep up with the demand on it. We definitely need to expand more on our tennis and get more instructors out there because it is a big need for instructors right now. um especially in youth as a lot of people are are i don't know what it is they're renewed they like tennis now and they want to play tennis now so um it's a great thing um and like you said earlier we still have our drop-in plays on sunday night for basketball and our roller skating is really excelled i mean there's about 50 usually between 40 to 50 every wednesday at 9 to 10 30 i would never guess that people would come out but they are there And they love it. So we're trying to offer some other opportunities. We're thinking about doing a kickball league, or we tried a dodgeball league, but that didn't kind of go. So if you have any ideas about adult sport things you want to see, we are trying to give opportunities for adults to also come out and have fun. So please let me know. Next slide, sorry. So community recreation. Of all the things I've said, this is what makes Alameda unique right here, is that we provide recreation for everyone, no matter what. And that, to me, makes Alameda unique. And I've always said that makes it special. I don't know of any other department that ever offers what we offer free to the community. And we have grown this program more in the last few years. We do recreation classes. There's going to be a class on Saturday, a free yoga class to come out and just try out yoga. If you've never done it, come on out and try it out. There's a whole schedule of programs. We go out into the park several times a month during the school year and during the summer and just have games and crafts for anyone who shows up in the park. And there's a whole schedule on that. During the summer, obviously, it gets ramped up. This summer, we actually split it off. And I did two different things. I did one part of the program was our drop-in program where we did two park directors at a site from 1230 to 430 at Lincoln and Sweeney. You could show up. You could have fun, play games. They did events. They had activities. They were always doing stuff at a site. I purposely picked those sites because they were busy. And they had enough clientele to keep them busy throughout the year. Where then I switched it up this summer was I did the mobile rec program, which I tried to go to places where we don't always go to. To Whale Park, to Bohol, some of the new parks. We don't have centers there, so generally we don't deal there. Maybe I'll go to Marina Village Parkway there next year. But it was fun. There were days where there were a bunch of people out there, and then there were days where there was only a couple people. And I told the staff that went out, All you're there is to be a positive influence to everyone. Tell them what we're doing. Get people out there. Just get them involved. And that was our thing. But as you can see, we had over 973 total in all of those drop-in. The second and third one, the rec classes, I do not have the number on that one. But on the youth recreation and mobile rec, we had over almost 1,000 kids that just got to play. And that's the key about Alameda. But if you have any other suggestions, let me know because I'm always thinking about that Go ahead and Donna I Always like to say Alameda ARPD is the place to be I want to thank you for allowing me the time to come in and present this summer But I don't want to end it right there. I want to say one more thing. I Remiss not to shout out the staff That works really hard And that's not just the full-time staff. And I know that they do. And I thank them every day. But there is a lot of part-time staff that make everything happen, that don't get the shout out. And they're not the full-time people. And so I just want to shout them out and continue doing the best that they can do. And it does truly make Alameda a wonderful place this summer. So thank you. Any questions? I'm here to answer.

Great. Thanks very much. Are there clarifying questions?

I have a question. I might have an additional question depending on how you answer these questions. You kind of hinted at it in your presentation, but are all these age groups at capacity or near capacity?

I would say no. I would not say there are some that are sold out within each of the groups. But is there more capacity? Absolutely. I did research over the last three years, the last three summers. And the last two summers have been consistent in terms of enrollment, but it has been down from three years ago. Not by much, but again, as I stated in my presentation, I think that's because of all the other groups that have come online. And I also think that we kind of rested on our laurels in Alameda. And we didn't really market as much as we should have been marketing. And everyone else was marketing a lot. And I think out of sight, out of mind a little bit. So we learned our lesson. And I think that's something that we're going to really, as we go forward in the new year, you will see a lot more marketing on our end. And so I'm hopeful that we'll get all those things back and more. Because I also think that when everyone leaves, we're the only ones there. I mean, this is not the first time it's happened. I have a long career in Alameda. And lots of groups have left for whatever reason, or because of COVID or something like that. But we stayed. And we're the ones that are always going to be doing it. And we're the ones they call us when they need a group to come in, because they know we'll say yes. Because our mission is to have recreation for everyone. So keep asking questions. I'm all ready.

So the plan is to continue to try to get more enrollment. Will we have the staff for more people if more people sign up?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, like I said, I have to turn away a lot of good people just because I don't have the numbers. But if I had more numbers and I knew that going into, I would hire more people to do it. And like I said, we have great feeder programs, so that's awesome.

And then my last question is, are any of these programs in danger due to low participation? That's a great question.

So something that we've been talking about, well, I would say two in particular. One I really don't want to see, but our tiny top programs because of TK has really changed that. I mean, Tiny Tot, when I first started my career, was the bell cow of Alameda. I mean, we had seven sites. We had full capacity. Everyone went there. But over the years, the rules have changed. And we've changed how we do the public school. Which is all awesome. It just changed the way we have to change the way what we're doing. We haven't changed quickly enough. I'm trying some new things to see what will hit. So Tiny Tots is always going to be. I don't think we'll have a problem finding Tiny Tots, because they're always there. It's just finding what they want. and getting it out there to make sure that it's successful. I think the last few years, we've tried a few different things. But again, like I said earlier, we're our own worst enemies because we're always offering the same things at the same times. And we have to do a better job of staggering offerings so that we don't compete not only with outside ours, but with inside our own programs. And that's tough. There's so much that we offer, and so it sucks up. The other program that I would hate to see go, but again, it goes back to that, what I was saying in my presentation, is the day camp program. And not because I think it's still a great value. I just think that kids nowadays just don't see it as a great value because we haven't marketed it that well. And I think we can market it better. And I think it'll grow back to success. The beauty is that we totally know that kids like to go camping. We totally know they want to go out there. It's just a matter of getting them in and staggering them out differently. We used to go four weeks up in the Oakland Hills. And then when COVID hit, we switched and get them in town. Because, of course, busing has become a huge cost that It prohibits. That's why we don't do as many field trips as we used to do, because it just costs so much to get a bus to go anywhere. So those are the two that I really would like to focus on, to answer your question.

OK. And is there anything you need for the commission to consider in helping you with these programs?

That was one I didn't think of. I mean, again, I listen. I'm a crazy guy. I'll be on home. If I wasn't here, I'd be listening to you guys. So I always kind of pay attention to what you guys are talking about. And I don't have a problem asking. I know Adrienne, as a former commissioner, she'd come in and I had no problem telling her things. So I'm always open. If you guys have something that you want to see differently or if you see something, I know, Drew, you've mentioned some things in the past. I mean, I want to know. I want us to be better. I want us to be more efficient. I want us to be here forever. That's been my goal forever.

And my last question is, how are you marketing these programs?

Well, so we do our summer guide, and we also do our social media guides and things like that. But our challenge at our department is our website has not been very... efficient, I'll say. And we're working on that and getting it to be more efficient. And so I think that's good. We used to do so much more back in the day. with the school district. But then they changed their rules. And now it's just they do mail out. They don't do mailers like we used to do. They just do social media posts and things like that. So it's just kind of finding the right mix of going out there. We do have kids that go to the sites and promote things. In the spring, we go to many of the spring programs to promote our summer programs. From February through May, we're constantly promoting. And I will go anywhere to promote. I also go in Oakland and do different things even to get people to come in and sign up or apply for a job. But yes, marketing is probably the biggest thing we need help on.

OK. All right. Thank you. Other questions?

So first of all, thank you. This was enlightening and eye-opening. And one of my questions, which was already asked, was about the marketing. Because with the exception of maybe the WOW program, because my kids participated, or Underground, which my kid participated in many, many years ago, I was not even aware of these things. But a second question I wanted to ask is, how does ARPD partner with programs like Alameda Little League and Alameda Youth Basketball, Alameda Youth Soccer. How does it partner with those programs in order to increase participation and awareness?

So funny you should mention that. So I will expand this even more. I know our aquatics program works with the swim teams to promote definitely for lifeguards and water safety. We work closely with Little League and Soccer Association and all of them. although the ones you mentioned I can't think of right now. But I have great relationships. I think right now, currently, all the presidents are really good. We've just had some turnover of a few of the presidents just recently. So I'll give you an example. We do a hoop shoot every year. I don't know if you're familiar with the Alps Hoop Shoot. And so that's a citywide free throw shooting contest. And we work with AYB and the Vipers and all of them to promote to come to the Hoop Shoot finale. This year is going to be in November, not December. They switched the date around this year. So I'm always willing. I work with a lot of people. I've worked with the library. I've worked with, like I said, the Youth Collaborative, which is the network of all those things. So I'm always willing to work with anyone and collaborate with anyone. But if you have any other avenues, let me know.

Can I just chime in there? Oh, sorry. So one of the other ways we work with them as they sign up for those user groups sign up to reserve spaces in our park, we have their mailing list. And so they're on our marketing e-blast so that every member of all of AYB, Vipers, all of them, they get our information as we put out promotional materials. So it's not just isolated to internet and those things. So once you're in our system, when we send things out, it goes to lots of people. I think our last distribution list is about 36,000. So we try to get as much out to our partners as well.

And we work closely with them. And we definitely have a good relationship with them.

Any other questions? Question for Schwartz.

um so pat thanks so much this was very eye-opening and um i think we talk a lot about parks projects and park maintenance and we don't always talk a lot about the recreation side so really appreciate taking the time to to go through all the details especially during a very busy summer um you know my my son has started kindergarten so uh we will definitely have some wow and day camps uh in the future this summer uh for sure with two working parents um So one question on the swim lessons. Is that the total number of lessons for the whole summer?

The amount of people that were in the lessons.

OK, cool. So if my son took 10 lessons, he counts as one of those not 10.

OK, great.

Then that number looks really good. How does that compare? And just top of your head, how does that compare to last year? I know there was a lot of construction going on last year that might have impacted it. Was it growth?

I would say it was pretty consistent. I mean, I would say most of our things were pretty consistent. Like I said, two years ago, I think we hit a peak out of COVID, and then the competition started back up again. And so, again, we kind of dipped a little. Revenue-wise, we did not. Our revenues have been up in the three years that I looked back in. But number-wise, a little bit of dip, but the last two years have been pretty consistent.

Great. Cool. And I'll be definitely interested to see, when we're here talking about this next year, how having two pools versus one, and especially just You know, we hate to drive across the island. You know, I don't know how many people are driving from Bay Farm to Ensenal High School. And so I would also be interested to see if just location-wise and having a pool in a more central location, it kind of impacts some of these numbers around free swimmers, lap swimmers.

Well, for sure, lap and the free swim. I guarantee you that we get more opportunity because that's something that's sorely needed.

Yeah.

Definitely.

Especially on these nice days. I've been very busy at the pool this week, especially at just like 10 AM on a Tuesday. People are finding their time to get to the pool when it's 85 degrees out. Absolutely. All right. Those were all my questions. Again, appreciate all the details here. This was great.

Thanks.

Great, I'll add my thanks for that really impressive portrait of scale and breadth. It's incredible how much the department is able to produce over the course of a summer. So thank you for the really impressive presentation. As you were speaking, you ticked off each of the questions I was going to ask as you went one by one, leaving only one to remain. I'm curious about affordability and access. Were scholarships fully utilized this summer? And were there any programs in particular where price appeared to be a meaningful barrier to participation?

So I will say that, and I'm not sure how familiar, we as a department have set aside about $20,000 a year in scholarship money. Generally, it usually is about $30,000 7,000 to 8,000 during the school year, and about 12,000 to 13,000 during the summertime, because that's where the most need is. So yes, we did go through that 20,000. But we also have the Friends of the Park The foundation, who also contributed this year, a few thousand dollars, too. And I also want to shout out, there are a lot of individuals who every year send a check to pay for anyone, a campership or taking an aquatic lesson. There are people that just do it every year annually as nice, just they want to make people get into recreation. So could there be more need? I'm not sure. This has been the first kind of the last two years have been we've been finally getting up to the max. So I don't know. Again, it depends on what happens with the economy and all this stuff in the next year. year or so. We're in a good place because, like you said, we have that dedicated $20,000 and I still have funds from the Friends of the Park. But if that was a need, I would definitely be the one to come out here and shout it. I don't ever want to turn people away. We do do a, just so you know, we do do a sliding scale. It's usually between 25% to 75% off depending on need. And people who have to apply and kind of state their need. And I will say that people that have a good story or have a good description of their story often gets better percentages because we're people and we like to hear a good story.

Great, thank you. No problem. Is there any public comment on this item tonight?

No public comment.

Is there any further commissioner discussion or comment?

I'll just say one more thing. And I think I've already mentioned this to you. I've definitely mentioned it to Stacy. I think I've mentioned it in this forum. But the flexible swim program this year was incredible. And so we do a lot of travel over the summer. So it was really nice just to have that flexibility. So I want to make sure that you hear that directly. That is great.

You know what? It was in my notes, and I skipped that flexible part. But that was new this year, and it was successful. We still need to tweak it a little bit, because there were some parameters that we didn't anticipate. But yes, it is coming back, and it'll be out there in Flexible. We were just talking about that the other day. Great. Thank you.

I have one more question. Any other comment, please?

I think I know the answer to this question. But is there any particular desire and interest to offer open water swimming. So Commissioner Swartz is into swimming, but I'm into triathlons. And therefore, I do a lot of open water swimming. And I remember when I transitioned from pool swimming to open water swimming, it is a big difference. So I was just, and if I had to do it all over again, I probably would have learned it when I was younger. So I wouldn't have been, the shock wouldn't have been as bad.

It's funny you say that, because I've been a big promoter of trying to do either a triathlon or an open water thing with East Bay Regional Parks. and do something in the estuary for that. I haven't given up on that dream yet, but I definitely want to see something like that. Because I think, again, now that we're doing this crossover with Open Water, with Joe Stack and all that stuff, I think that we're getting closer and closer to that. That is one of the personal goals. OK. All right. Thank you. Great, thank you all.

Thank you again for the presentation. No problem.

Thank you guys for listening.

I think we'd love to make a look back like this over the summer, an annual occurrence. And I think you heard among the commissioners an interest in trends and changes year to year. And so for my part, my only piece of feedback would be in future presentations, if you could give us that perspective of how things are changing from year to year. OK, no problem.

Thanks very much. Thank you.

OK, we'll move on next to item 6B, which is an introduction and preliminary overview of potential recreation and park user fee adjustments for calendar year 2027. As before, we'll have a report and presentation. Commissioners can ask clarifying questions, followed by public comment. The commissioners from there will discuss and offer further feedback. Again, there's no motion to make on this item tonight. Director Long.

Good evening, commissioners. We're here tonight to kind of give you, because we know we have a couple of new commissioners, we want to talk about kind of the process we're going to go through for the next couple months about how we look at our fees, how we look at usage, and just kind of want to walk you through kind of how we do that, just so you have a little bit of perspective so that when we come in October for a workshop about things that we may propose or not, that you have a global perspective of what that looks like for us. So we have some high-level challenges. As you heard from Pat, we have about 280 part-time employees that start in the summertime. We also have our 11 full-time staff. But we also are fighting the same things that you all face with inflation, costs going up. Every year, there's a cost of living adjustment on all the part-time salaries. As you come back through and repeat service with us as a part-time, there are steps that you go through as well that we account for as well. So in general, if we are not increasing our fees by, or expenses at least, from the general fund by at least 3% to 5% a year across all programs, we actually suffer reductions. So we actually will have less hours to offer our staff, which means we have left programs to offer in that. And so we do a big balance of the market demand, covering costs, but then also balancing out those subsidized programs, what programs get subsidies, and trying to keep costs for the average user to a reasonable amount. And we try to make it so that we never really are exceeding any of the market. So we do market comparisons. We look at neighboring cities. We look at other areas about what is the going rate for any of these types of different activities. And so staff are in the process of doing that now, comparing with other municipalities, comparing with other private programs. But I just wanted to give you the kind of global effect of what we have to look at. We are a completely general fund department. So that means everything that we increase or offer is an expense to everyone in Alameda. There's no special fee that generates this. So what we try to do by balancing out all the programs we offer is managing what is a reasonable cost to deliver that service, knowing that none of it ever covers the full cost. So we are always operating a perpetual cost recovery in our department for programming of about 50% to 55% of actual costs. So I just want to make sure that everyone understands that our revenue may be up, but overall, that just balances out so we can offer you more programs. Right now, like just for example, our revenue last year was about $5.5 million. Our entire department revenue or expenses is teetering around $16 to $17 million. So the revenue generated really is only covering the the basically some of the program costs meanwhile we still have all the admin overhead all the park maintenance overhead and all that so we're not trying to recover everything that's not that's not our goal we want to provide a service and opportunities for people to get out there and enjoy which is also why we have so many free programs, like the teen program and the community rec. I mean, if you look at some of the numbers around community rec of having 1,000 in it and then having camps that only had 1,200 in it, we're having a good impact by providing some of these free services. It also gives people experiences with our programming. So they may not be in our program yet, but they come and visit a community rec program. They're like, oh, is that what you're offering over here? And they also get to explore that as experiential opportunity to market, so to speak. As we look at our cost recovery goals, again, some of you have seen this triangle before, but we try to keep the lowest cost that affects the largest group of people. And so you end up seeing less increases on those. And as you go up to semi-group and smaller camps, and then you get up to the individual, That's when the prices and the higher cost recovery goes. So really what we're trying to do is keep minimal fee increases on the vast group. So our group swim lessons, our group classes and things like that allow us to do that sort of marketing split. now pat was talking about we have a lot of outside groups that do work for us we have a lot of our own groups then we also have kind of a revenue share between all of those and like for example at the mastic senior center the revenue share between the instructor and mastic is a 80 20 or 75 25 so the instructor gets a lot of the fee which allows them to keep from raising the fees on the seniors. So it lets them keep classes more affordable, yet there's not covering a lot of overhead from ARPD, even though we're doing all the marketing, all the admin, all the invoicing. We're basically doing all of the effort on the back end when they can just focus on the actual class. That split changes when it gets to whether or not an operator is using our property. If it's our property, it's a 70-30 split. And if it's using the operator's property or their, like if we're going to Joe Stack or whoever, the revenue split ends up being like a 60-40. So they end up getting more. I may have reversed that in my head, sorry. So if it's their property, it's 70-30. If it's our property, it's 60-40. But anyway, so we already have kind of a built-in structure so we can try to balance out in order to try to keep things a little bit lower. So as we look at that, we're trying to figure out ways to mitigate the increase of expenses. We try to increase the participation in order to have a balanced cost recovery program. So as part of the process, so staff are going to review all the programs now. We're looking at our fee increases. They're doing the market research with other cities. They're going to draft recommendations that we come to the workshop for. We're going to come and share those with you in October. which will have a dialogue. Now, what will happen when we draft the recommendations, if there's specific increases on, let's say, field rentals or aquatics, we send those out ahead of time. So we want to make sure the user groups all know what we're proposing. And then when we come here and present it as a workshop, it's another avenue for them to have a dialogue with us. We're not trying to price anybody out of the market. We really are trying to make sure that we can provide reasonable costs so that people still have that access to getting out to our programs. Then what will occur is we'll come back to you in November to present sort of the final, after we take the feedback. And then you'll all make a recommendation to city council as to whether or not you think we should approve them. Or you can make a recommendation to city council, you can approve this, but we recommend you change this. Hopefully we'll have addressed those comments by doing the workshop. so that we can bring you guys a final package that we all can stand behind and make a recommendation to council. So that will happen in December. Now, the city has a financial annual year starting July 1 through June 30th. Generally, the city fees all come on that cycle. But our programming starts pretty much that spring, summer. So if we were to wait on that, we would have programs that are divided between one fee cycle and another. And balancing that out is just really complicated. And so what we end up doing is we bring it as a separate item. I think it also gives the community another avenue to actually discuss the fees, to really understand them. And it's not buried in all the city fees and documents. So I kind of like the fact that we're doing this, that we're very transparent about what we're doing and why we're doing it. And as Pat was saying, we do have the scholarship program. We've been pushing it for the last couple of years. We've been utilizing all the funds. And I will say, I think as more information about that comes out, and I know the affordability crisis in the country now, there will be more demand. And so advocating for keeping that community rec and advocating for keeping the scholarship program, even during fiscal tight times, is going to be important to hang on to. And so it's just one of those things that are making sure that we can continue to provide the service for everyone. Last thing we want is anyone turned away because they can't afford a program. And the department will pretty much make sure that doesn't happen. But there is a cost. balance that we have to do with what we can provide and if we're going to continue some of those. So just want to make sure you understand as a perspective of what we're seeking as support when we come for this. Again, we're not a a business that's running to create revenue or a service that happens to make revenue to offset the services we provide. So just want to make sure people understand that. And sometimes things can get lost when we're talking about revenue and recovery, when it's really the focus is, well, how many kids did we help this year? And how many people did we develop? And that is the passion you'll see in Pat, his staff, and everyone. And again, I just want to point out, he only has like 12 staff. who do all of this programming. And their responsibility and roles, when they now have 280 staff to take care of, they didn't get any extra supervision. So it's a real burden, and it's a real success story for what they can provide for Alameda. That's all taken into part of that discussion around fees and that component. But that's the process we're going to go through. And I'm just going to keep this short tonight, because when we come back, it'll be a much longer discussion. And I know Chair Radiz and I talked. One of those things that we're going to talk about is, some of the subsidies that we give for programs. There's a subsidy for aquatics. There's a subsidy for the athletic field rentals from what is currently market rate. And so when you look at those things, and it's looking at the value set of what we're trying to provide, is trying to make sure that there's alignment with if this is a core value of the community and what they want to see, this is a subsidized program. And so it's a balance of how we do that. And it's also looking at it from the equity lens of making sure that we're giving that on a relatively reasonable balance to make sure that we're keeping that bar super low. And so that'll be part of the discussion in October as well of looking at, you know, and that does unfortunately come down to a numbers game, unfortunately, a little bit of, you know, there is some imbalance between programs. But then it's looking at, you know, the value of said program. We live on an island. Everyone should know how to swim. You know, water safety is key. We have deep water in the estuary. We have shallow water in the bay. But it's still water, and it's everywhere. And it's only getting higher. Unfortunately. But with that, we'll come back to you guys in October with some proposals and hopefully get your feedback, get residents' feedback, and then make a solid proposal in November and then approval by council in December. So with that, I'll close it for any questions you may have. And we'll go from there.

Thanks very much. And I want to thank you, Director Long, for engaging us so early in the process. And commissioners, this is a great opportunity at the outset to provide helpful feedback to inform moving forward. So with that preamble, I'd just ask for any clarifying questions of Director Long. I have one.

Do we know when in October yet?

I'm not sure what they mean. What? Next meeting will be October 8th.

Okay, so it'll be at the next commissioner meeting. Correct.

We're just titling it a workshop.

I'll ask one question. So the fee proposal, historically, or is there a plan to separate out a fee structure for a for-profit organization or event versus a non-for-profit organization or event?

So the way the structure works is we have resident fees, non-resident fees, and then we have resident non-profits, and we have non-resident non-profits. And then usually what any group on the outside of that that is a for-profit, they pay the full non-resident rate generally. So unless they're a full, we have a requirement of you being a 75% Alamedan organization, in which rate you'll get the resident rate for that. But the way it's pretty much broken, so much of our space is occupied by solely nonprofits that we really don't have capacity to really support many for-profit agencies. There's a few adult teams, but mainly everyone that we give space to is a nonprofit, just from a capacity perspective.

Other questions? In that case, I have two clarifying questions. The first is just from an information availability standpoint. You shared the triangle that we're familiar with. And I'm curious, as you climb higher from higher community benefit to group benefit to individual benefit, do you have any pre-existing principles within the department for how you think about cost recovery as you climb that triangle?

Yeah, so the goals basically are to have a very low, and we don't have a set percentage for the broad, broader base. As you get higher up into the individual, like for example, an individual tennis lesson, you're going to be paying more toward the market rate in that $39, $40 a lesson. Whereas if you're taking a group lesson that's knocked down to like the 15 level, and because it's divided out amongst multiple people. As you get closer and closer to the top, it does tend to get to be more cost recovery, because the actual act of the individual benefiting usually should cover the majority of the cost. We don't have a ton of those, but that's how it generally works. So it's a low percentage, a medium percentage, and then a high percentage.

So the free rec programs, for instance, those would be 0% cost recovery, effectively. And then a private tennis lesson would approach, say, 100% cost recovery.

It would be close to.

Are there any services that get all the way there, where you're effectively charging market rate?

Right now, I don't think we have any that fully cover market rate or the full cost of delivery. So it's a balance of that. And it also depends if we're using outside contractors, inside contractors, because the expense level changes somewhat by salary. But it's close. I would say the individual is close to cost recovery.

And then the second question I had was with regards to thinking about the cost of service delivery. How do you think about calculating? So we've got the numerator and the denominator of cost recovery, right? So how do you think about the denominator in terms of the cost of providing services? So the cost of providing an hour of field availability, for instance, or the cost of a single swim lane? How does that get calculated?

So basically what I was saying is it's sort of a numbers game. So you can take out the number of acres we have, the service level we provide for athletic fields, for example. And then you look at the revenue you can generate from that. And then you can numerator, denominator, where you can see that if you're generating $300,000 or $350,000 off of field rentals, yet it costs you $780,000 to deliver it, you're still only operating at that 50% level. But when you look at the impact of the number of people who use it, and then you start looking at the soccer club has 3,000 kids in it, Little League has 1,100 kids in it, and you start to balance out the numbers that are using it, you can understand why you're not pushing up really hard on that number, because it is affecting such a large group. So we'll do that. I mean, if we look at aquatics, we can look at it everywhere down from the rental income versus the lessons versus the camps. And you can look at the camps themselves are less of a subsidy because it's a specialized thing that you're doing. Whereas when you're into a group swim lesson or you're doing a senior lap swim, you're down to $3. So generally, in the last year, we've been subsidizing in that program about $750,000 to $800,000 of what it costs us to deliver. And so it's kind of balancing out over that value of like, One death is not worth $800,000. So we try to look at how we provide those services. Okay, great.

So it sounds like you do have the sense of basically the cost of what it is to provide a unit of whatever the service might be. Yes, we do. OK, great. And you actually went towards my last question to clarify, which is how do you think about the scale of the affected community? So for instance, the impact that setting a fee might have on providing an entire Little League season, for instance, or providing an entire season of soccer, right? And the number of kids, the number of adults who may be participating. How do you think about the downstream impact of the fees that we set and their impact both on the communities that use them and the parties, the partners, who ultimately contract with us?

Yeah, I think that's a very subjective question in how we do that. And so what staff have done over time is we look at the participation and we look at the number of users or the Alameda Point gym, for example, and how do we keep the rates low enough so that people will have access to that and understanding that it's one of the only facilities in the area that have four gyms in it. So it's looking at kind of the quantity and then trying to make sure that the increases you're putting forward aren't trying to impact those kids and those adults from actually accessing the property or the activity. So that's really how we're looking at it. But then it's also looking at life skills and what are they actually learning? What's the value of that? And granted, when you start trying to assess value to it, it's challenging because they're not always all the same. One's a skill set. One will keep you alive. And so you try to have to think about that as you're looking at it. And so we're getting better and better at trying to quantify and evaluate those impacts. And then there's also history in this. A lot of that going on of if you get someone used to an incremental increase versus a large increase because you waited for a long time, it actually helps everyone adjust instead of, well, now this is going to be a huge increase on us, and we have to increase our rates dramatically, where you could actually amortize it out over a period of years where people could slowly adjust as well.

That's really helpful to hear. In asking these questions, I'm trying to think around the corner to the feedback we might receive during a community forum and thinking about, for instance, the percentage of any group's particular budget that field rental or space rental effectively is going to affect both their own budgets and then the fees that they pass along to their users. So it's helpful to, you're right, so much of this is very subjective. So it's helpful to hear how much of this you're considering in advance and how much is provided as feedback from those partner groups.

Yeah, I mean, staff take a long time to look at this. They don't take fee increases lightly. Yeah. because we do understand the impact. We also know sometimes we just have to ask the general fund for the money and just say, well, we want to do this, and we're going to subsidize it. Our revenue is not going to offset it, but we're going to provide it. And so it's having that conversation, and then that's where I get to get into the room argue with all the other departments about why I'm more important or why the kids are more important. And that's where it also takes community involvement to understand the value and the quality of life it delivers and just how much that has an impact on why people stay here or whether it's the partnership with the schools and the quality of the schools, but it's also You can go to the park every weekend here, and that grass is not going to be over your ankles. And it's not going to be filled with trash. And you're going to have a clean, safe space to use. And there's a lot of value in that, but there's a cost to that. And so we're just trying to mitigate that so we can keep the level of programming up so that you do have as many choices as we do. And so that's how we balance it out is mitigating it with incremental fees.

Great. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Is there any public comment on the item?

No public comment.

In that case, we'll return to the commissioners to offer any feedback or any further questions for Director Long. In that case, I'll just offer one parting thought. Last year's fee approval process was really interesting. I feel like I learned a lot. And one lesson that I took from the process is that fee setting isn't simply a question of identifying the cost of a service or finding a comparable market rate. Given the subjectivity that's involved in so much of this it's easy to to pick at any particular rate or any particular fee increase Until you're really debating, you know ultimately about values, right? What are we going to prioritize? So ultimately I feel like what would be great for us to leave this discussion with as a group is a set of policy decisions about which recreational activities that provide those broader community benefits that the city is ultimately going to choose to subsidize and to what extent. So when we start talking about this in a workshop setting and then ultimately as a set of fees to approve, I'd love for us to have a sense of what those priorities and values and principles are that are ultimately, to your point, defensible in the form of the fees that ultimately are expressed. So thank you again for bringing this to us.

We'll look forward to seeing seeing the proposal come October Will we get a preview of these fees around the same time we receive the agenda for the next meeting or will we get them earlier than that?

The fees will be posted when we post the agenda. But if a commissioner would like to have an idea or a preview, we can do that. The point of the workshop is to bring some proposals, to have the discussion, and it's not final. So that's really our ultimate goal is to have that time as the time for you to talk about it, review it. You're not going to be approving them in October. It really is give us your feedback. Let's get the community's feedback. And then staff will go back and assemble a final proposal. And we'll bring that back to you all for approval.

The only reason I ask the question is because I think you mentioned earlier of giving some groups a preview ahead of time. So I was wondering, around the time you do that, would it be possible to also share them with us? Or will it be that everyone will see them at the regular cadence we get the agenda?

We'll be happy to. We will share them with the user groups ahead of time. But if the commissioners want to be copied on those, we are more than happy to do so.

Would build on Commissioner Bernie's comment that I recall from last year that there was like a zoom call if I remember right Around the November timeline time frame when the rates were previewed to the affected groups and that there was a sense I remember when we discussed it as a commission subsequent to that point There was a sense that there wasn't much feedback during that zoom call. So we had we had the sense that okay there was there was broad acceptance and I'd suggest that, to the extent that it's possible, if we could have some targeted outreach to the groups that are going to be affected by fee increases to invite them to this October forum, it might be a productive way to invite that feedback rather than simply presuming that we're good ahead of time.

Yeah. And when you share them with those user groups, I can't speak for the rest of the commission, but I would at least like to see them at that time. Would that be possible? We can do that.

We will likely be completing them, though, close to the end of the month. So it will be very close to the same time the agenda does get posted, just so you're aware, the user groups and the commission will likely get that information at the same time. Okay. Just so. All right.

Thank you. Wonderful.

Is there anything else?

Okay. Wonderful. Thank you, Director Long. OK, the next item on our agenda is our next meeting on October 8, 2026. Do we have any agenda items that folks would like to put on that agenda? Director Long?

So like I said, we're going to be bringing the workshop. And I think that might be complicated enough to have a good discussion without keeping people here too late at night. But if anything pops up in between, we will think about that and let you all know.

I heard two other prospective agenda items. The first was a suggestion of a park tour, especially for the new commissioners. And the second is I believe we have a governance item for October as well, consideration of chair and vice chair for the upcoming term. Yes.

The tour will probably be like we did the last time. It'll be a special meeting. So we'll pull all of you all about what you think about as a good date and time. And then we'll publish a special meeting ahead of time. That way it lets it be a little bit more dynamic and it fits your schedule a little bit better.

Okay, great. The last one would be if it fits time-wise, I'm mindful of not going over, but if there's time for a brief look back on sports field allocation for the fall, just a brief report on that would be helpful if it fits within the time that we have available.

Okay.

Great. Okay, the final item on our agenda is adjournment. Can I have a motion to adjourn, please?

I make a motion to adjourn.

I'll second that. And a roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Commissioner Bell? Yes. Commissioner Burney?

Yes.

Vice Chair Swartz? Yes. Chair Radiz?

Yes. Thanks very much, everyone. This meeting is now adjourned. We will see everyone in October.