Library Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the 09/11/2025 Alameda Recreation and Park Commission meeting. May we have a roll call please to start?

Sure. Commissioner Schwartz. Present.

Commissioner Kearney.

Present.

Commissioner Rollins. Here. And Chair Ricchese. Present. Thank you. The first item on our agenda this evening excuse me. This evening is non agenda public comment. Members of the public may speak for three minutes regarding any matter not on our agenda. Commissioners will not respond to comments or answer questions. The city welcomes speakers providing public comment but please be advised this is a limited public forum.

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 this evening? Thank you. In that case, we'll move forward. Our next item is staff communication from Recreation and Parks Director, Justin Long. Director Long.

Thank you all commissioners for joining us tonight. Wanna start off with our upcoming citywide community events. We've got a bunch coming up. October's a and September are busy month for the city. The monthly coastal cleanup is taking place Saturday, September 13 at 10AM at Seaplane Lagoon.

Bring gloves in a bucket. This is sponsored by Casa and Doar Marine. The international coastal cleanup, Saturday, September 20, taking place again at Seaplane Lagoon sponsored by Aqua Meridian, Casa, and Dora Marine. And then the Island Running Festival takes place Sunday, September 21 at 07:30AM at Faction Brewing. Benefits go to the Alameda Education Foundation.

The eighth annual Blues, Brews, and Barbecue will take place Saturday or sorry, Sunday, September 21 at Washington Park at 12PM. Enjoy blues music, local breweries, and barbecue. The family fun ride around Alameda is taking place on Saturday, September 27 at 9AM. The everyone will meet at Lydecker Park. There's info available for everyone at alamedaparks.org to sign up.

This benefits our parks department. It's a good fundraiser for our friends of Alameda Parks. The second annual Filipino Island Fest takes place Saturday, October 4 at 11AM at 2151 Ferry Point. This is the the runway just past the radium area on the base next to Seaplane Lagoon. The fourth annual Alameda Pride is taking place on October 11.

Everyone is welcome. There'll be a five k fun run and walk starting at 9AM to 11AM at the Elks Lodge. And then from twelve until five, we'll have Pride in the Park at Chichenyo Park with family friendly entertainment and music. And then from 6PM till 9PM, there'll be a block party at Alameda Ave with, again, more music and dancing. You can go to alamedapride.org to donate or to find out more information.

We have our own department's upcoming events and activities that are in this month. So we have the Alameda Walk Series. This is Saturdays at 9AM. The first next the one will be taking place on September 20 at Kruse Park at the intersection of Otis and High Street. And then the following week at September 27, it'll be taking place at Chichenyo Park at the intersection of Encinal and Park Ave.

And then we have our starlit movies in the park series. This is the last movie of the season. It's gonna be Sonic the Hedgehog three, and it takes place Friday, September 26 at 06:30PM at Leidecker Field. I wanna give you a little update on some department projects that we have ongoing. First up is the aquatic center.

So we received the 100% drawings in early August sorry, mid August. They've been submitted to our permit office and so we're waiting for basically some comments and then we'll be able to move once we receive our permits, move into bidding and contract award with hopefully construction starting in January. And then we have Estuary Park Phase 2. This has been a long time coming. It's a five acre addition to the existing Estuary Park.

This will include everything from pickleball courts, a full basketball court, inclusive playground, restroom building to service both sides of the park as well as two dog parks, a large lawn area for everyone to play. So we received bids from that in September. The contract is going to be awarded at the second meeting, council meeting in September. And then hopefully we'll or sorry, October. And then hopefully we'll be doing work with a contractor for mobilization, hopefully starting in December, again in January as well.

And then right now we have survey for the Lydecker Playground replacement is live, and so we encourage people to log in and give us feedback on playground designs. That will be open until the nineteenth of this month. Some highlights from our summer programs. So our summer programs, we had over 6,700 enrollments in all of our programs across the city and all of our different sites celebrating the seventy second year of day camp in Alameda. Our summer tots and cooking classes had about 200.

The Hidden Cove, Trails End, and Trailblazers had just under 300. Our World of Wonder program camps had over 1,300. Our youth field trip programs had about a 157. And then our STEAM classes had about just under 500, which was great. And then our teen trips and teen volunteer programs had over had 520, which is a big number this year.

Our youth sports, we had over a thousand kids join us. And then for our parks and playground program, the one that we brought back this year, we were to account for about eight twelve kids that were served in that free program this summer. And then our aquatic camps had just about 300 people participating in the individual camps there. We had over 500 in private lessons, over 900 in group lessons, and our star babies had over about two fifty. Our fall programs are underway, so feel free to register if there's availability, but we have a lot that are still available for everyone to use, so check those out.

For aquatics, registration is open for private group and adaptive swim lessons for all ages. Our drop in public family swim is available on Sundays from 04:30 until 06:30 throughout the fall season. Our pumpkin patch pool party is gonna take place on Saturday, October 25 with registration for that beginning on October 1. Space is limited. We encourage everyone to get out there.

Last year, the pump the pools were full of pumpkins and everyone was having a good time. Our teen and tween, our group, we've got our haunted house is under its planning and efforts right now. This year will be the twentieth teen haunted house. Volunteers will earn community service hours. Registration deadline is September 19.

You can check our website for more details on that. Our Alameda Youth Committee, AYC, is recruiting. They provide a great opportunity for teens to gain leadership and make new friends and have fun. The meetings are held twice a month. And we've been continuing to facilitate the Queer Teen Alameda Center, QTAC program, for sixth to twelfth graders at the underground teen center at the Veterans Memorial Building.

This is Fridays from 6PM until 9PM. And if for more information on that specifically, you can go to alamedapride.org or .com. Sorry. Our sports programs that we have for elementary and middle aged school students at the Alameda Pointe Gym, we have after school pickleball Monday through Thursday, and then homeschool PE, Wednesdays and Fridays. Our youth flight football league takes place on Saturdays at Estuary Multipurpose Field and our group tennis lessons take place at Saturdays at Kruse Park.

Our adult programs, we still have our open gyms going every Sunday night from 6PM till 10PM at the Alameda Pointe Gym. And then we also have tennis and pickleball lessons. Group and private are available and we're still hosting our pickleball lessons at the hub. And then our adult softball league is currently underway. We have both the women's men's and then our co ed division. Those are underway. So our registration for those are currently closed. For Mastic, we've got a lot of updates for there. The caregiver support group takes place all Wednesdays in September and October at 10AM in Room E. This this share ways to support and empower other caregivers.

The diabetes support group takes place on Wednesday, September 24 at 10AM in Room D and it meets every fourth Wednesday of the month. The transportation 101 clipper card for seniors, that takes place on Friday, October 3 at ten a. M. The Media Room and learn various transportation options available to Alameda residents there. The Medicare and the annual enrollment period is October 14 takes place October 14 at 10AM in the Meeting Room where you can learn about information on upcoming changes for the twenty twenty six year.

The Massey Senior Center advisory board meets every third Wednesday of the month at 09:30AM in Room D. Everyone's welcome. MasTec provides counsel on all matters with accomplishing the center's mission around additional programming, helping fund the facility, and, improving the overall operations. Some statistics for July and August, lunch meals served were just under 3,000. Bags of grocery distributed were about five forty.

And Mastic is a distribution site for the Mercy Brown Bag program which provides free groceries to low income seniors in Alameda County twice a month. For parks, our operation staff replaced and replenished playground fiber at various parks to maintain safety and fall zones and an ADA compliance. Irrigation was installed and 10 trees were planted at Lower Washington Dog Park. It was closed there for a little bit so they could do some more work. We're right now recruiting for our park technician.

This is the individual that will fit into our teams to help make small repairs throughout the parks. They'll be able to do welding, carpentry, things that we hire small contractors to do now that we can assist with a rapid speed and efficiency on those. So we're excited to get that position filled. For volunteer opportunities, at the Lincoln Park Rose Garden, we're seeking dedicated volunteers to help assist with the ongoing maintenance with deadheading, pruning, weeding, and fertilizing. This is a year round effort that requires a few months or a few hours per month.

So if you enjoy gardening, please just reach out to ARPD and we'll connect you with that group. And then we have some park highlights. Belia Yabovic, she would dedicate twenty two years of service to the city before her retirement. Throughout her tenure, she maintained the entire landscape at the O Club, bringing exceptional care and special touch to everything from hand watering and pruning and maintaining the beautiful grounds. We send our heartfelt thanks to her many contributions and congratulations and happy retirement.

This summer, we had a lot of really good staff. There's a couple we'd like to to call out. This summer, Caitlin Emegg served as our World of Wonder coordinator, and she brought all the energy and creativity and strong leadership to all five of the programs. So she was going around and making sure everything was running smoothly and all the staff had everything they needed. And she just had a really great attitude and just was super well organized, and the kids loved her and staff loved her.

So thank you, Caitlin, for making this summer memorable. And then Rina Arcee Marino. She played a a key role at the teen development program this summer supporting the over a 120 teens and helping guide their activities and feedback. She also helped lead the youth field trips, ensuring that the trips were safe and enjoyable. So thank you RC for your fantastic work this summer. So with that, that's the end of the director's report.

Wonderful. Thank you commissioners. Any follow-up questions?

For the coastal cleanup, will students be able to get community service hours?

They should be able to. They should bring their sign and slips with them.

Okay, good. Estuary Park, is it still on schedule for the finish or has it been pushed back at all?

So Ashwar, we'll get a little bit more details when we get the contractor on board and get a construction timeline. But the goal is to try to get it completed by the 2026, is what we've been saying all the time. I do want to note that this time it does include, we put in for two additional shade structures and also the two additional pickleball courts. So there will be a total of six in this project.

Shade structures, you know me, that's my So belly the STEAM classes, I'm excited because Wood Middle School's a STEAM school and we are the only STEAM certified school in the district. You said there's about 500 people. I'm curious, how long has it been going on with the STEAM? Is it only been a couple of years?

Believe it's only been a few years, but it's been a solid couple of

years. Two to three,

think. Yes.

Would love to work with you on this for the future for students. It's close to our heart. And that was the last thing. Thank you.

Two quick ones. Thank you for the question. Had the same question on Estuary Park when was the expected open date. I know Commissioner Alexander asked, well, it was two months ago now about the impacts the road construction had with the final numbers on the summer programs. How off is that from, I'd say, last year considering we still only had one pool last year?

Yeah. We're still reviewing the financials exactly to just determine just how far off it was. But the last we looked at it, it was about $120,000 in revenue lower than previous. There was quite a bit of construction. And when the detour flipped, it became even more problematic. And so we're definitely understanding that there was definitely some pushback. Yes. All right.

And then I have a couple of comments on the aquatic center from the City Council meeting I'll talk about in my comments. But does the final construction drawing, was that does that have kind of the double plan on the two different parking spots allocations that were discussed? And then when would City Council review and decide on the final move forward on that?

So the plans did include the add alternate for the reduced parking. And then once we get permitting, we'll get a better idea of the schedule that coming back before council, but it'll probably come back in, I'm guessing probably early November. It really depends on the feedback that we get.

Great. Thank

you. I have one question about the aquatic park. Would there be disruptions to the open park in terms of pedestrians using it while it's being constructed or that hasn't been determined yet?

For the construction of the Aquatic Center, there should not be an impact to the Cross Alameda Trail. The contractors will have to do what they can to minimize any potential impact that could happen. I'm not saying that there won't be any because we abut the Alameda Trail. So there may be some impacts, but we'll well notify public if there's any and we'll do everything we can to minimize partial trail closures during that.

Thank you both for your questions about the Aquatic Center. I have just a request for status or updates on three other capital projects, the Skate Park, De Pave Park and the Wave Pool, whether there had been any change in status on any three of those?

So the Skate Park we just received everything, it was like 65% construction drawings. So once we get those reviewed, we'll have a better idea of the feedback on the changes that we need to make. And then hopefully over the next two or three months, we'll be able to get that to a construction document level so we can try to get cost estimation and get some bids for that one. D PAVE, we're still looking at grant opportunities to try to fund that. And so as we continue to work that process and do that, we'll be able to bring more updates about that. And then what's the last one, sorry?

The wave pool.

The wave pool. I think there's been ongoing conversations internally with other departments and legal to determine what next steps need to be. So there's not been a lot of development in that. So but we'll have more, we'll have another update for you at the next month's meeting.

Great. Thanks No very further questions. Okay, great. Our next item tonight is commissioner communications. Commissioner Bernie, would you like to start us off?

Yes, I just have one communication and this is for the public to please read the signs before you enter the tennis courts. I was actually going I was actually well, not going, I was at Washington Park to do a practice session for tennis. And in the practice area, I actually saw a family I can't say it was a picnic, but they had chairs and they were setting up and they were using it using one of the courts to have their to allow I guess to have their kids play around just with I think motorized bikes or I don't have any kids, so motorized bikes or tricycles or whatever. Anyway, and I was able to use the other court, but the family did eventually leave, but those are not what the tennis courts are for. And we have wonderful parks, we have wonderful access to our parks.

And therefore, obviously if it was just more than just me there and someone would come in there, that would be an inconvenience to them and they wouldn't be able to use the tennis courts for what they were intended to be used for. Therefore, I would just like to send a reminder to please read the signs and that is not what the tennis courts are for. And it was actually I think a week or two ago. So just want to send that reminder out there to the general public.

Great, thank you. Commissioner Robbins.

Thank you. I took the time to go to every single one of our parks since the last meeting. And again, to your whole team, just kudos to how well kept everything is in all the parks. It just goes to show with the sorely lacking amount of money this department has, how amazing you've been able to do things with our park system and that's it.

Wonderful, thank you. Vice Chair Schwartz.

Yeah, I know I wasn't able to make the July meeting, but I did review the recording. Just want to share a couple of comments from that. So share the excitement about something as unique as a surf pool coming to Alameda. Really interested to hear more and hear get some more public feedback on that. The only other point I would like to add is there was some strong interest when we were designing the City Aquatic Center on a splash pad.

I know that was well outside of the realm of the scope of that project. But this seems like potentially an opportunity to maybe add that as part of the overall park development. So just wanted to throw that out there because I know there was quite a lot of interest in a splash pad. I think we're starting to see a lot more of those around The United States. I did also attend the City Council meeting a couple months ago on approving the final design and budget for the aquatic center.

I I didn't attend the planning board meeting. So I was pretty shocked at the majority of discussion being around parking, especially while we were asking for more money. So I do share staff's concern about decreasing parking. It can definitely cause some frustration for surrounding neighbors, nearby businesses, and especially those patrons who aren't with an easy walking, bike, biking or transit. We have to remember we have Bay Farm Island that's not too close to Jean Sweeney for those that live out there.

So definitely would love to see push staffed if we can have any creative solutions to address some of City Council's concerns like can we do some other type of pavement that's more eco friendly? Obviously, might be additional cost to that, but that's a balance that I think council should look at. I definitely think we can still find a solution that's not going to cause frustration for patrons and neighbors while also meeting our goal of being more green and sustainable. So I just want to put that challenge out there to staff because I do share the same concern with if there is a lack of parking. Lastly, did see the survey on the Lydecker Playground, so just wanted to give props to very three very different, very unique designs.

So really interested to see what the community's input is there, but did really like how kind of diverse the options were and thought that was a great bounce. Thanks.

Great. Thank you. I'll add my congratulations to the staff for a successful summer and then reflect back that we were had a very ARPD summer in my own family which was great. High marks given to the pickleball camp. An entire afternoon of pickleball was well received and sent our home son or sent our son home tired each night which was great.

The second high marks to the teen tween adventure camp both in terms of the off-site field trips which were exciting and age appropriate. I think I think our our son found them really really engaging as well as the ability for the first time to experience the underground teen center. So a great introduction to that that kind of on ramp to to that facility. And then lastly, just a fun anecdote to share about how all this can tie together. So my son went to the ultimate frisbee camp this summer which I understand was the first time that had been offered.

Proceeded to then continue on to go out to the middle school Ultimate Frisbee program that's offered here in Alameda to discover that several of the kids who went to that Ultimate Frisbee camp and who had discovered the sport through that camp are now continuing on to play with that team. So really neat to see that follow through in the same sense of Commissioner Robbins observing about STEAM programs leading into schools. Fun to see that on the athletic side of things as well. So thanks and congratulations for a great summer. Moving forward, the next item on our agenda is our opportunity to approve the minutes from our 07/10/2025 meeting.

Do we have a motion to approve those minutes, please? I'll motion. Wonderful. And a roll call vote please.

Commissioner Robbins.

Yes.

Approved. Approved. Approved. Thank you. The motion has been approved. The next item on our agenda is our regular agenda item 6a which is to receive a community recreation and special interest classes update. We'll have a report and presentation then the commissioners can ask clarifying questions along with an opportunity for public comment. Following commissioner discussion, we'll have the the final opportunity to offer comment. There's no motion to make on this item tonight. Welcome.

I think it's can you hear me?

Yes. Yes.

Thank you so much for this opportunity. My name is Daria Nyberg. I'm a recreation assistant for ARPD. And I took over two programs in fall two thousand and four, Community Recreation and Special Interest classes. Sorry, I'm using this first time, this equipment. Oh, Okay. Thank you. Okay, so let's start with community recreation. What this program brings to us. It's accessible for all ages.

It's engaging and enriching. It promotes healthy lifestyle and choices and provides community outreach. I chose a specific picture that you could see how different age in participants. One is two years old, another one is a senior citizens. And they all can find something to do in this program.

So community recreation consists of a few parts. One of them is crafts and games, as many people could experience starting from February 2025. We started to do educational crafts in different parks and then bring awareness about different environmental aspects. And also having fun with community and helping them to put together some crafts and then learn how to use their different materials and fine motor skills for little ones. For school children, that would be more like education for different subjects of nature.

The other part is outdoor classes. Since we started to do in fall twenty twenty four, when we do, for example, Zumba class or yoga class open for everyone and it's free. So you can come to the park at specific time when we are known and then participate in the class with a professional We have a special program partnership with Housing Authority for youth and seniors. When we come to the sites, for example, youth site is Esperanza Housing. And senior programs have a couple of sites and now we're expanding to two more.

So will be total four from this fall. And we bring awareness about recreation plus some for use. We bring like a sport programs, different games to entertainment and take care of them without parents and taking them to the park, for example, Woodstock Park, for one hour twice a month. And youth outreach, we usually do like once a month, and then we rotate different facilities. Another program, which is kind of combination of crafts and games program, but it was brought from past time parks and playgrounds.

During summer, it was there at four sites. And we also did crafts and games, but it was more hours and then simultaneously in a few parks. In the future, it will be incorporated with crafts and games, and it will be just one program through the whole year. And now I'd like to show you some pictures about community recreation. On the first picture, you can see how we do games and sports.

And as a picture, do an educational craft there, a bird feeder, for example. Our staff are helping younger children and teaching adults if they need any specific help or have some questions. There is a yoga class and another picture when people participate in Washington Park. And the last one, it's also an educational craft when we learn about plants in our environment. And then we give them seeds, dirt, and biodegradable containers when they can take home and explain their families or friends and then put more plans in our environment.

The other program has a special interest classes and it brings us variety of choices, fostering creativity and new experiences, promotes civilization and enjoyment. And you see the Lego class in the picture of the young boy. This one, what kind of parts we have for special interest classes. It's different creative arts programs. For example, we do drawing, modeling, filmmaking, music.

Enrichment in sports, it's like a drama, performing camps. Our sports camps are we do soccer games and cheerleaders this summer, for example. Dance and fitness, it's like salsa dance, ballet dance, kid's fitness dance as well. Specialty programs that we mean when we do, we call them after school and homeschool. Homeschool, it's the morning programs mostly oriented for people who are homeschooling and they have time in the morning. And after school, it's any program which can be taken by children when they finish school programs. And where we do all different kinds of arts, science, programming, some of their math as well. And one more, we put it separately. It's called S. M.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics. This is mostly for like a primary school when kids can learn about all these together in different pieces. And also, if they're more interested in some specific topic, they can go to another class which has more, let's say, programming class, for example, or engineering class. Or maybe move to like art class programs. And you can see on the picture it's like a slime which can be used for many different science or even arts.

And the drink is also slime. And then we would like to show you like different pictures so you probably can identify some of the classes which I mentioned. There's cheerleading class. The second picture, it's a NASA program when they learn about science in different planets and what they consist of. Another one that's a filmmaking when they do small episodes of films and learn how to do like producers part. Is the next one is the slime one. Slime, again, could be art and could be some different science. You can see acting class. You can see drawing class, performing class. Also have a boat sailing class and our art class on the last one.

More pictures, and we want to show you how it works in the combinations.

For

example, I specifically put Engineering for Kids that you could see what kind of program they have. The first picture, it's the Engineering for kids camp. And you see they learn about the different parts of the rocket. And this could include some physics. It could also include some art. You can see the boy with the rocket. And then he's very happy and he just built it. And then they do experiments to see how it flies, which is like the most fun part of the experiment. And they learn about what happens if you put different pressure, PCI, or if you change trajectory, you can move their equipment a little bit. And sometimes they do even labs or competitions who can send their rockets further.

And that was one of the most successful camps. We did some different modeling. You can see on the second picture how they'd move objects and do different shapes. There's a cooking class over there, a chess class on the bottom, and they get some awards when they finish the program, and more of acting classes than their science line classes. I would like to draw specific attention for STEAM and Cooking because what we do in house, it's our RPD direct programs.

We have, for example, Cooking, these two pictures where you can see that they learn not just like us to see how someone else cooking, but they take active parts. They do starting from measuring and where they can also, for example, learn what's fractions the because when we tell them how much to put, it's not always one, two, three. They also can learn about the temperature. But at the same time, they do, like, they have some fun, maybe create recipes and then make friendship, socialization and engagement. And then as a two pictures, can see STEAM classes.

One of them is just different creativity, making some different arts from cardboards and lava lamps. That was one of the most popular experiment when they learned some science and then take a very fun object home to show their parents. So just a little bit statistics. So fall twenty twenty four, we have a full semester starting September to December. We serve three forty eight children. Next semester, ARPD has winter and spring. It's in one semester. January through May, we serve eight forty six children. And it's, again, like two semesters, winter and spring in one. And summer is the biggest time.

It's only eight weeks program. And we change camps like every week. And there was total seventeen fifteen children. So we're always looking for some improvement and ways ahead and what we can do more. We had some different feedbacks for different mediums, and we decided we'd like to increase offering of the classes, depend on community needs, and see which classes they like most.

But maybe there are some gaps that we don't have. And if we can, we will try to put together. Second, it's about community recreation program. We have different parks programs, but we have mostly yoga and Zumba and then a little bit of other programs. So we'd like to spend more and maybe offer different classes in the park for community.

It's an open area in the park outside. Also parks itself. So we mostly use the main parks in the beginning because it's only started this winter twenty twenty five. It was more like Lincoln Park, Sweeny Park, and we kind of a little switch rotation with other parks. Starting from fall, we're going to involve Bay Farm more and some Thurser or less known parks to reach other parts of the communities.

Again, it's a free program. The website, again, because of the summer we had many people, many children, parents, and adults as well. We had some feedback that this may be like a search mechanism would need like small improvements. And we're slowly working on this like step by step. They also would like to see more pictures and then know more what is in this class, what it consists of, so just like improve some small navigation system and information.

And we would like to bring more awareness in, like, what we do to different groups of people in their community because I also received some feedbacks that, oh, I have never heard about this class. I have never heard about this camp. And even we send the magazine, our activity guide to every family, probably during like time before the program actually starts, they might not maybe not everyone has it again. And even we have it in office and libraries, people still not always know about this well. So we try to spread more information about different channels.

And we're, like, happy for any help and outreach. Another one, it's not last but not it's the National Kids to Park Day that we started to do this May, 05/17/2025. It's celebrated on the May on different cities. Alameda joined from this year. We thank you for the partnership. There are family services, Friends of the Parks and Alameda Free Library, also rhythmic. They had their buses there and they spread information. And their library were given books in different materials. We had classes which we usually have in the parks. You can see martial art class.

You see there was a fitness class, a yoga class, Zumba class. We also had skateboarding demonstration, steam demonstration. We made some experiments and bouncy balls. Our sport programs, we could show some different games and play with public and do different crafts. So it was very successful. And we will do it another year. Please follow-up us on the mass media. We don't know exact day, but it will be some day in May. And location was still decided. And the last thing, so I like to show you, like a variety of our people and our programs.

So like we're all inclusive. We have special needs people participating, and it's actually one of our parks programs. Like that's all our faces. ARPD is for everyone, for teachers, for kids, for adults. If have any questions about some pictures, I will be happy to answer. There's programming, there's writing, there's skateboarding, obviously, and more pictures about slime, drawing, and science. Thank you so much for this opportunity and for your attention. I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions.

Thank you. Commissioners, questions? I

have a, I guess a very novice question with a son still in preschool who's still year round all day, not a lot of holidays. So are these programs, are they full day programs or are these more like an hour on Saturdays type thing?

During the summer we have camps which starts like 08:30 till 05:30PM. For the preschoolers, we usually have three hours because their full day is very difficult for them. But if they are six years old, they can participate in a full day program. We also have non school days in camp during semester. But most of them during semester are classes when we have one hour, two hours, or an hour and a half class. And it could be one time a week, two times a week, some of them weekdays, and some of them Saturdays. Great.

Last question. How and I'm glad you brought up the ages because I've been looking through the ARPD guide with upcoming like Columbus Day and we're going be around for spring break. How flexible are you on the ages as someone with a July son birthday? So he's actually five all of kindergarten. Is it kind of flexible just based on really their grade? Or is it like he's gotta be six if it's the

full day?

It's really dependent on the program and the teacher. Some programs are like morning programs, homeschooled actually by level, not by age. And they're very flexible. Our STEAM program from six years old only because we have three to five shorter program. We make exceptions, but we're trying to stick with their main age. And then other camps and other science programs, some of them open from five years old. Some of them open from six years old. But again, if we have one case scenario, we can always try to help and accommodate if it's possible. And if it's a good fit for your child, we can do that.

Perfect. No other questions, but overall, thank you. I love all the creative classes you've come up with and interested to see what other creative things you come up with as well. So thanks for all your hard work.

Thank you.

Have you done any outreach to the school system? And because I think just by advertising, said some people don't know about it. I would imagine in the grade schools being able to even create flyers that the kids can take home with to their families would be maybe a great way Some get the

word out

of the programs, some of them we have already, some of them very new for this semester. And we're trying to outreach as much as possible. So all help are greatly appreciated. Some of my people have brought some information to Olimita High School and St. George's College. But we would like to because we have different age. Some of them are youth age. Some of them are So teen age, up to 17 or we really need more help to bring awareness about our programs to everywhere possible. And then I'm very happy to work with schools and thank you so much for this opportunity.

Yeah, just wanna chime in Commissioner Robbins. We work with the school district as we can. There's a lot of regulation around what we can provide to the schools to send out. They control what can go out. So we make recommendations when we can, but it's by the specific school principal but also by AUST about what can be sent out with the kids.

So what we do is with all the kids that are in our programs, we always provide extra information which is why we also have our ARPD tents at every single event in the city so that we can try to get the information out. We're willing to supply our guidebooks to the school districts and schools so that they can hand them out as needed but we work with the school district as we can.

I'll talk with you offline about this. Okay, thanks.

I have a question. Oh, think I have two questions. But the first question is how widespread is this across the island? Is this just concentrated in certain parks or does it rotate to parks all over the island? I'm just curious as to really just amount of access. If it's at Washington Park, for example, then it doesn't really help people or it might be more of an inconvenience to people at Bay Farm or if it's at other parks across the island.

If it's the community recreation, if you mean like parks when we have a class in the park like Zumba or Yoga Park, we try to do like a main park like Sweeny or Linkell, but we now I mean, we did rotation and now we add more rotation. So let's say we're going to do like Tillman Park or Park or Guthrie Park, Longfellow, Littlejohn, and as much as possible starting from this semester. Walker Circle we did. Washington we did. So we're trying to diversify to different parks to make sure we can bring to all different parts of the island and all communities.

And when we do arts and crafts program, that's the same things. We do it twice a month. And we try to do the main park where many kids are coming, so we make sure we serve the kids and all ages. So if adults or teens would like to do our crafts and play games, we're very happy. And we are trying different parks which we did not maybe did before, and it's not the mainstream parks.

And if you mean classes, we have a few places where we do it, veterans building, light daycare. During the summer, we use old club in Lincoln, so we spread wide. And Saturday classes, we're starting from this Saturday to Tigman as well. So as much as the program growing, we can do some morning classes in different places and Saturday classes. But we also have after school program wrap which is in seven community centers specific time. So most of the times that we can bring in different facilities which is connected to that but not always the same.

Okay. And then my second question is, you mentioned that you're going to be increasing the class offerings.

If it's possible, we're trying to see if there's a demand. We try to bring the variety mostly based on what people ask us during the summer. And also, for example, we'll know the needs of some communities, like homeschool communities. We're looking for different options, whatever is possible.

Okay, so my question is does that work in the reverse? This isn't a negative, it's just that I'm assuming that if a class that you realize is not in demand, that you'll make a decision to remove that class.

Yeah, like if some classes doesn't have a minimum, so we have unfortunately canceled class for let's say, like if it's less than five people, it's like we cannot start the class even if that people really want it. And in some areas when we can see there is not maybe enough interest, we try and either make some changes or adapt or maybe not even continue some direction. Because maybe there is something else and people prefer like a different program. Yeah, so it's really I mean, we didn't have to cancel many classes because of some other program, mostly because right now people keep coming and saying like, oh, we just learned about it. Can we switch the day or time or location?

And yeah, we cannot switch for this semester, but we're trying to learn more what class is needed. Like sometimes in some location, a different class is needed. So we might just switch them and then start working.

And I now have a third question. What is the medium or way for people to suggest their ideas as to what type of classes that they would actually like to participate in or actually want that might not be currently available to them?

I mean, the easiest way, we have like ARPD Magazine with all of our email contacts. And it's also an RPD website. We're very happy if you don't know to whom you would like to mail. Let's say you don't know Joey, Stacy, Christina, or me. Please email RPD main email address a front desk. And they always forward it to us. So we're very happy if someone contact us and suggest something. And actually, that things happen. We implement it in some ways. During the summer, we did surveys after each class and after each camp. And then there was specifically, I put the line like, did you like this craft? Did you like this subject? Would you like to see more of these? Or would you like to see a different one? And some people actually took time and explained.

Some people skipped the question. So that was another one. We also send email blasts with my email. If people go to the bottom, they can see my email address. And I'm very happy to facilitate if there will be some information about the classes I'm covering. I will give it to my colleagues and then mention it to Justin as well and see what we can do. That's the main ways. And we also open Monday to Friday, 08:30AM till 05:30PM. And everyone welcome to come. And then the front desk, very nice and helpful people, will always take information or bring it to the person who would like to talk to you.

And then we're welcome. Please give us information. We really would like it. That's our purpose, we're serving the community.

And then I know there has been discussions about working with working with schools. What about working with the local businesses, especially as it relates to STEMSTEAM in terms of there might is that an option or idea? Because I'm assuming especially some of the older kids might be thinking about pursuing that as an actual career and therefore the opportunity to actually talk to some professionals who are actually in that area.

I mean, like they want some teens to come and help us with

something or just

someone to do this thing. Because we are open for both opportunities. Like if someone 16 would like to come and help us with something, technically, are different hiring opportunities. If not now, then summer for sure. We also have proposals with businesses can send us about different classes.

And like some of them, new vendors were coming recently knowing that, Okay, you do this class, but I'm also doing it. So again, like the best way to send the main RPD address, if you don't know exactly to whom to address it, And we will respond. We always respond within a couple of days. We usually respond all emails, if not the same day. So we'll contact the person and get more information, explain how we work. And if that fits them, fits us, we're going to put a possible proposal for like next semester and they can maybe become working with RPD as

well. Okay. Terrific. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? Thank you. Further comment from the commissioners' feedback? Okay, in that case, thanks very much for your presentation.

Thank you so much again Moving for this

forward, the next item on our agenda is regular agenda item 6B which is to receive an update or rather to review and provide feedback on a city of Alameda LGBTQ action plan. We'll follow the same format as the previous item. Welcome. Thank

you. Good evening. I'm Amy Wildridge, assistant city manager. It's wonderful to be here before you. I'm here because council member Tony Daysog originally brought a council referral requesting council consider an LGBTQ sanctuary city.

And council instead chose to direct city staff to create an LGBTQ action plan with the intent of, what are we doing locally? What impact can we have locally? And really focusing on what we're doing and what we can do here in Alameda. So I met with our city's executive team, which is the department heads of all of our departments, and we created this list of what existing city partnerships, programs, services, and actions we're currently doing, as well as started brainstorming opportunities. I've also met with the Social Services Human Relations Board.

Last night I met with the Library Board and tonight with you. And then I'm going back to City Council on Tuesday to review this list. We did update it, so what you have printed in front of you and what was uploaded today to the website is the most recent version that incorporates all the comments from both Schrub and from the library board. I also organized it just a little bit differently on the opportunities, which we'll get to in a second. So I'm not going to go through all of these since you have it before you and for the public it is in the packet online.

But just to highlight in terms of currently what the city does, in terms of some buckets, ARPD itself works closely with Alameda Pride, which is a local nonprofit. And ARPD supports both Pride in the Park, this year is October 11, as well as QTAC, which is the Queer Teen Alameda Center. They started this last school year meeting once a month, Fridays, at the Veterans Building, which is offered at no cost by ARPD. And they shifted to weekly in the summers, and now we're continuing this school year weekly. And then they do once a quarter bigger events.

So Queer Prom is a huge success. There were over 80 teens there, which was amazing. They're doing a Halloween event. So ARPD is a critical component. Really, it couldn't happen without them.

And certainly LGBTQ communities are acknowledged in our sanctuary city. We are citywide in a number of policies and in our city charter and our bargaining units with all of our staff, we're upgrading to updating to gender neutral language. We certainly conduct the clerk's office conducts civil service marriages for everyone. The Alamu Free Library does a lot of programming for Pride Month as well as outside of Pride Month. They recently had a really successful trans mini film fest that a lot of people came to, and they have specific LGBTQ focused books in their collections.

And the other one I think is good to lift up is our economic development campaign. I am Alameda, you've probably seen it on social media. So for Pride Month they specifically focus on LGBTQ businesses, just like for Black History Month they focus on black owned businesses, and so they try and lift up different communities. If we keep scrolling down, APD, I also want a police department lift up that they track hate crimes so we can have better data, and they also do procedural justice and sensitivity training with all of their officers. Moving on, I want to highlight some opportunities.

If you can keep scrolling a little bit. Thank you. So the way this is organized now is some opportunities which really require, in our opinion, minimal staff and funding. So they're the lower hanging fruit, right? They're easier for us to achieve.

Some things are like, currently, the city already does a proclamation for Pride Month, but we could add in March doing a proclamation or in some other way celebrating the International Transgender Day of Visibility. We can do more education about LGBTQ resources. On the website in particular, we do, at the city manager's office, receive emails and calls of people who are concerned during this current administration, both transgender as well as immigrant communities of, hey, what is the city doing to support us? And one thing we can do is pull together resources and make those available and really put those out for people. We also want to explore more ways we can collaborate with the school district.

They're all residents too, right? And we need to be working closely together. The school district has an LGBTQ roundtable as well as an LGBTQ coordinator, so we want to find ways we can intersect and collaborate better with them. Some other opportunities you see here are someone lifted up the library board last night. If you notice for all the heritage months the ARPD office and Mastic and the City Hall, we have the banners that go up, the different heritage months, and they have images of famous people on them.

And someone said, well, maybe we should be lifting up stories of Alameda people and finding ways to do that and what people are doing here. You probably know we have gender neutral restrooms at the Aquatic Center. There's the two locker, male and female locker rooms, but also two gender neutral and family restrooms with also showers. And one thing that's been talked about at all of these conversations I've had is the importance of gender neutral restrooms and how it serves actually quite a few people, like families. If I'm a mom with a young son, my son is now 16, but when he was little, you know, it's easier to bring him into a family restroom or a gender neutral restroom than it is necessarily to a women's restroom.

So there's benefits to some of these things for the broader community. One thing that was also brought up at the library board last night was ensure that we have anti bullying policies for all of our community facing programs, whether it's ARPD or library, and then also ensure that we're doing sensitivity training for LGBTQ communities, again, for community facing programs. So those are limited staff and funding required opportunities. One that has the most significant cost is important, but is a high ticket cost, the gender neutral restrooms. And we're looking at that wherever there's the opportunity, but we don't have the dollars right now to just start renovating every single restroom.

We would love to at the library, but it will be a big project. And then the last three came up at the library board last night, and we just don't quite know the resources required yet. But one is if an opportunity comes up to potentially join lawsuits. Another is develop some sort of consortium with immigrant communities and other at risk communities. So there's power in number, right?

And lastly, develop and support a network of people to actively advocate. So the concept was if someone who is transgender needs to figure out certain documents or go to court or something, have a network of people here in Alameda that are willing to go with them or to support them in some way. So that's what we have so far, and then I'm happy to answer any questions and would love to hear your ideas, your reactions to anything that's on here and any additional ideas you may have.

Wonderful, thank you. Commissioners, questions?

Okay. Just increased inclusivity of bereavement leave for Citi, huge. I'm so happy that we're working towards that for individuals. The Trans MiniFest, wasn't able to attend, but I have two individuals from my school that went and they were just so happy to be able to feel that freedom to be who they are as individuals. The city council adopted legislation for the agenda for the specific legislation focused around support of human rights.

I was very happy to hear about that. That made me feel good. I was really bummed that we were not able to become a sanctuary city and I think that at least they are giving individuals the rights that they should even though I think they should have done that. I thought that was really wrong of them. The communication on city platforms is huge.

I think that needs to be really pushed because there isn't a lot of stuff for LGBTQ plus transgender people. It's not easy to find. I think the search engine, it could go with what she was talking about with the activities and the website. I think the search engine itself just in general needs to be worked on as a whole. I've even had problems with it.

Definitely add Domestic Partner Registry. I think that's huge. Include resources for LGBTQ individuals and families on the website. Again, goes with what I was just talking about and the search engine needs to be improved. Really explore collaborative opportunities with Alameda Unified School District.

I haven't done it, I think a good enough job of being kind of a liaison. So I'd like to work with you on this because, we have the LGBTQ coordinator but they are stifled by the school district. The school district kiboshes a lot of things and we need to have an advocate and I'm a tenured teacher so they can't do anything to me and I will yell and fight as much as needed to try and get them to finally open up a little bit more and communicate and work with the Park District. And I'm on my limited term here as well, so I'm up for raising hell if we need to raise hell with the school district. The other thing, the encourage including pronouns and signatures, I think that's huge because it's just common in the world nowadays.

And lastly, the consortium for the immigrant communities and other risk communities. That's so important in today's world. And just because Trump's there and if he leaves, we've got a lot of other individuals that have really, think, horrific policies towards that. So this is something that's going to stay with us for the rest of our lives and we're going to have to work against it. So I think that's a huge thing that we need to do to protect individuals.

And the gender neutral bathrooms, the big community nobody ever talks about is women. Every theater production I go to, every concert at any venue, the women's line is super long and the men are just walking in and out and I'm just constantly saying to the women, just go into our bathrooms. It's stupid. So I think the women should be, we should be looking at that closely because it just makes sense to have gender neutral bathrooms. It has nothing to do with LGBTQ stuff. It's just general common sense that we go to general neutral bathrooms. So those were my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you. May I add a couple Please. Of agree on the gender neutral, it's actually state law now too, so as we're required to update wherever we're physically able to And that's actually why at the gym we very intentionally, even before that law was in place, put in gender neutral restrooms because the flow of it goes much faster with the high volume people that are at the gym. I did want to point out in terms of the sanctuary city because I forgot to mention it, LGBTQ is mentioned in our existing sanctuary city policy. We just don't have a separate LGBTQ sanctuary city policy that was originally requested.

So I

just wanted to clarify that.

Wonderful, thank you. Other clarifying questions?

I have one, maybe a few. What's the next step once this goes to council? Is it just reviewed? Is there a timeline to when this will be implemented? I guess my concern is there's an action plan but given my experience actually working for well, I worked for the federal government that it can take a long time and something like this shouldn't be least not everything in this plan should take years to implement.

So, I was just wondering that is the next step that this goes to counsel and they'll discuss what they can or is it just just goes there and just sits?

So the the intention is definitely to do something about this, not for it to just sit. So it'll go to council on Tuesday. They'll provide their input and direction to council on what they want us to prioritize. That's why I broke it down into what the resource level is required, and I was excited to see that most of it was under that bucket of minimal resources required. So what I would then do after given direction by counsel is to start working with our different departments on how to implement these.

Because many of these don't take a huge amount of effort. It just takes someone in the senior manager's office to shepherd it to make it happen. So some things will take longer, like collaborative opportunities. Anything like that is always going to take a little more effort to develop. We have relationships, for example, with AUST, but just talking to them and figuring out where we can intersect, something like that will take a little bit longer.

But in that case, we meet with we just had it this week. We have an Alameda Unified School District city subcommittee that meets every quarter or so with two of their board members and two council members. And so it's a great place where we can start to lift up ideas like this and talk about it directly with council and board members of how do we want to what do we want this collaboration to look like. So, you know, I would say our intent is to start moving some of these forward within the next six months easily.

So for any I would assume, especially I know you mentioned having to have general new bathrooms. So any new parks, so D Pave, Estuary, they're all, I'm assuming, similar bathroom setups to how Bull Hole, Immigrant Circle is where they're all individual stalls?

Yes. If you look at all of our new parks like Whale, Seaplane Lagoon, the when we do renovations like at the gym, they're all the gender neutral. And like you'll see at De Pave And Estuary, there'll be six gender neutrals there. So everything will follow that procedure now.

Perfect, great. And I agree with a four year old son, it's much easier when you have mom taking him to the bathroom to have that option. So meets multiple purposes beyond just the LGBTQ community. Thanks.

I just have a comment and a specific related question. The comment is in hearing what you were describing, what I was struggling to visualize as you shared was just how far out the frontier is that these policies and procedures can be pushed beyond the government functions. And my specific question related to that is to what extent can these policies be applied to organizations that do business with the city or in this specific case people who perhaps rent a facility from the city. How far is that kind of point of leverage that can be effectuated?

It's really interesting. I'll certainly add that to the list and I think that's something that we need to analyze. There's a lot of companies and businesses consultants that enter in agreements with the city. And certainly we can put requirements on that within reason. In terms of renters, policies we'd apply to renters, so we'd have to kind of brainstorm that and what would or wouldn't apply. Yeah, so I think it's certainly something I'm happy to add on here in terms of analyzing, like what policies and what of these actions may apply to those groups.

Yeah. Wonderful. Great. Do we have public comment on this item? No. Further comments from the commissioners?

I mean I'll add on Commissioner Rady's. I think that's a great point. As a board member for Alameda Aquatic Masters, I think if we get programs that are renting pool space, field space, maybe having agreements on especially around like some of the anti bullying policies, some of the exclusivity policies, I think that a great point too, how far reaching can that go, especially from a parks department, organizations that are renting space. Is there a way to, great, well, part of renting space from us is signing this agreement to abide by these policies, a seems like a great way to try to extend that out.

Other comments?

Can I just add one comment? I just also want to point out that the city leadership has also representative of quite a few gay and lesbian people who are helping lead the city and so should acknowledge that the city itself and its executive team does have a good comp from Lent of gay and lesbian people on it. So it's helpful as well.

Yep. Definitely in in in on on our executive team and and throughout our organization. And and so we we work hard to ensure folks feel comfortable and welcomed here across all communities.

My last related suggestion or comment, another community that is I think potential to be reached are all the different from a leadership standpoint, all the different volunteer leaders that either are parts of these organizations, coaches, just volunteer leaders within organizations that work with the department. There's probably a great training opportunity there as

well. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving forward, the next item on our agenda is regular agenda item six c which is to receive an update on physical public art in Washington Park. This item will follow the same format as the previous two. Welcome.

Hello. Good evening everyone. My name is Jackie Kali'i'a. I am a development manager for base reuse and economic development, and I also manage the city's public art program, and I am secretary to the public art commission. So our public art commission has selected Washington Park as the location for our next public art grant, and I'm here this evening to give you all an update about the status of the project.

And, before I begin, I'd like to share some background about how Washington Park was selected. Alright. So in, 2023, the city released a public art master plan, and it recommended prioritizing sites for public art across the island. And we're very fortunate to have public art fellow, Jack Denham Conroy, who's been with us for the past two years. And he conducted a year long research study on future locations for public art.

Part of his, research was to develop five criteria to rank the suitability of the sites. So looking at the geographic equity, where is art already located, are there pieces of the island where art is missing, the visibility, the safety, environmental suitability, accessibility for members of, all abilities in the city, as well as community input. So several sites were ranked according to these criteria, and for community input, Jack designed a survey to garner feedback about what the most, ideal sites were, and, the survey was taken by over 300 residents and employees here in Alameda, and the survey findings were input ranked and resulted in three primary locations, and staff presented these findings at the Reckon Park Commission back in April 2024. So this map here is existing art in Alameda, so it includes, it's basically a score about how close proximity and locations are to existing public art. So there's on-site art, so our city's public art ordinance requires that any, developments $250,000 or more are required to have a 1% fee that can be put into the public art fund or it can be delivered by the developer, which is considered on-site art.

So that's what explains what on-site art is. And there's also the public art fund, which is when those in lieu fee payments are used to develop a grant for an artist that the city would then commission and then, create the art with the artist. There's also the facade grant program, which I also manage, and, we have funded some murals throughout the city using that fund. Also had a small grant program that's no longer operating. It's defunct, but that was in 2020.

And finally, there is also privately funded art, which is included in this research study. Okay. And here are the locations suggested by base reuse and economic development staff, members of public works, and the Reckon Park department as potential sites for future public art in the city. This was created along with the development of the city's, public art master plan that was approved in 2023. Okay.

So the final three sites were the Main Street Ferry Terminal, Washington Park, and Neptune Park. And these were the three selections from our public art commission, and staff looked into suitability. So we spoke to different departments to determine suitability for these sites. Due to flood inundation at Neptune Park as well as the forthcoming reduction in service at the Main Street Terminal, Washington Park was ultimately selected as the most suitable for the location for the city's next physical art call. And we also met with Reckenbach staff and as well as the Public Art Commission to do a walk through of Washington Park and to review potential locations within the park.

And two final locations were selected. Those two locations will be included in the forthcoming RFQ, which we'll disseminate in mid November, and ultimately one site will be selected, and that'll be based on the proposal that we receive. Okay, so let's talk about the locations. Location one is adjacent to the playground, and because it's away from the busy road, this really offers an opportunity for an engaging sort of interactive piece of art, which we think would be really exciting. There's also location two and that's near the park entrance, actually very close to the existing sign, and this presents an opportunity for sort of a gateway piece that could welcome park goers.

And these were two sites that our public art commission wanted to have both because they both offer such unique opportunities, and they didn't wanna limit the artist with having to only choose one. So the call will include both. Alright. Here's a side view of location one. I'm sure folks are familiar with this spot and this very tree. Alright. And here's location, two. Again, that's towards the entrance there. So the artist that submits to this could potentially propose, like, quite literally a gateway, or they could propose something entirely different. So we're we're not really it remains to be seen what the artwork will be, but we have, some unique locations to work with.

And then here's a timeline of the RFQ. So again, we're looking to do the open call in mid November. I know it's an interesting time because we're leaving it open for eight weeks so that folks have plenty of time to apply, and we cast a wide net. We will be, having the deadline in January, so it is in the middle of the holidays, but we do, we've been eager to get this project off the ground, so we're gonna hopefully run through, January. And then we're also committing, sorry, creating a review panel, and I'll get into that next.

But the review panel will ultimately decide who the artist is, and there's gonna be a short list of three artists that we'll select, and they're going to be offered a stipend funded by the Public Art Fund, which will, allow them to create a maquette, which essentially is a small scale version of the artwork. And our plan is to go to Washington Park on a weekend, bring the maquettes, and share it with the people, and give them an opportunity to give feedback so that it's not just the review panel making the ultimate decision, but it's also considering feedback from, the public. And the goal is to have this ribbon cutting and unveil the new artwork in April 2027. So a lot of folks are surprised to find that it takes so much time to do a physical piece of art, but there are lots of regulations, lots of engineering questions, and we've already been in contact with Matt and with Pat and looking into the cost of site preparation, which is also included in the budget for the $200,000 grant that we're looking at for public art, which we've set aside about 50,000 from the fund for site preparation.

Okay. So the panel, which which brings me to the next point, is subject matter experts, and we are going to have two members from the Public Art Commission to participate. One, Recreation and Park Commissioner, one lucky commissioner, and also a member of the Rec and Park department, a staff member, and then two members from the neighborhood around Washington Park. We want to make sure we get the neighborhood perspective. So the panel is going to screen the applicants and score them based on criteria, and we're also going to create the short list, and all panelists will be required to submit a conflict of interest form as well.

And this evening, I would like to ask for a volunteer from the Reckon Park Commission to participate on our panel. We only have one spot available, and if you're eager to do it tonight, we can make that selection. But if you need more time to think about it and chat with me about what the responsibilities are and what goes into that, I'm happy to set up a call and we can have that conversation offline. But ultimately, we want to make sure that we have guidance and expertise from our Rec and Park Commissioner. And it would be lovely if there is a dovetail with someone who has an interest in arts and or has a background as an artist that would ultimately be a really good mix. So that's the end of my presentation. And, let me know if you volunteer and are interested in the panel.

Thank you for being here tonight. Yeah. Questions from commissioners?

I don't think I have any questions. I am very torn on locations one and two.

I know.

My son loves to spin the rocks at Gene Sweeney, so I get the interactive artwork. But I do also find myself driving down Central 56, seven, eight times a week. And so having that piece at a very busy intersection and visible not only from the park but for drivers is also pretty enticing. So no, I'm actually I'm really excited for kind of either option. I think they're both great options. I love that you're kind of leaving it open ended to the artists and allowing that to kind of come into the decision making process because they both kind of have their plus and minuses there. So I think that's great.

Thank you.

Clarifying questions, Commissioner Robbins.

No clarifying question but comment.

We'll have comment in a moment.

Okay.

All right.

Clarifying questions?

So what happens if the subject matter experts differ than what the public wants?

We're hoping that they will take into account the feedback from the public. That's the ultimate goal.

Yeah.

So but we have heard of local jurisdictions, neighboring cities that have conducted similar searches, and, they had to restart the process after they got the maquette. The public did not support it, and so they started all over again with the open call. So we're hoping that will not be the case, but we can always pull the rip cord if people are not in favor of it. And again, I've been I'm part of our, public art administrators network, and it includes a lot of folks from local cities nearby, and I'm I'm in consultation with many of them to sort of discuss what is the the process. We've only done one other call, that was the rock spinners as well as the, mosaics.

So, we're learning, and, hopefully, there will be an agreement between public feedback and panelist feedback.

Okay. And so as it relates to the type of individual you're looking for to volunteer, would prefer that someone either is knowledgeable in art or has an interest in art?

I think an interest would be great. Just just someone who's excited about public art and also about parks as well. But definitely folks who are moved by art or enjoy even cultural art. I know this is physical art, which is another branch of our public art program, but anyone who's been to even one of our great events in the park like Blues, Brews, Barbecues, that's also part of our art here in Alameda. It's expressed differently than say a sculpture, but I think anyone who has any experience or interest in that would be wonderful. But again, it's not required, but it's just an ideal

Okay. Yeah.

Terrific. Thank you.

I do have a clarifying question. Please. I'm a little confused. Washington Park has been around forever. It's incredibly well populated. It doesn't need another art piece. We have all kinds of other parks that need art pieces. So my clarifying question is, we have a brand new aquatic center going in and that end of the Gene Sweeney Park has no art associated with it and we have a gorgeous new aquatic center going in, why wasn't that picked as opposed to a park that everybody already goes to anyway and doesn't need a piece of art on it?

It's a very good question, commissioner Robbins. And I'd like to share that Pat actually, Pat Roussey with Parks, did a presentation about the aquatic park opportunity, the aquatic center opportunity for public art. And, it was part of our research, and it was presented to the Public Art Commission as an opportunity for, the site and location for future public art in the city, and ultimately, it was not selected. And that was a decision, that came from our Public Art Commission. And they did mention that they might consider it down the road as a location, maybe in 2027, for example, because we do these semi annually.

They do take a long time. As you can see, this project can take up to two years, but they said it would be nice to revisit that at a later date. But ultimately, those three locations were selected and just based on suitability, that's where we landed at Washington Park. But I do hear your concerns and there are other folks that have contributed that thought about Washington Park already being well attended by members of the public. But we did consult with Rec and Park Department to select locations that would not interrupt the already ongoing activities. So that includes all the summer camps, those types of things, which we wanted to make sure we're not impeding on any of the existing activities at the park. So yes, we did consider the aquatic center and unfortunately it was not selected.

Thank you. Is there public comment on this item? All right, commissioner discussion, feedback. Yes, Commissioner Robbins.

Yeah, I was very vocal about this when you guys came to us before. The whole idea of going to one of our parks that's already seen by everybody when we have so many other parks like Linear Park, yeah, it's not high traffic, but it would bring people to the park. And we have so many other parks that don't have artwork in it. And why the city council is throwing money at a park that already makes money, is already busy when we have so many other parks that art would have done wonders to bring people to those parks. And I was very vocal about this when you did come.

And I'm just really displeased with the commission for I think it's like why put more art in a park that everybody sees already when our responsibility is to get people to all of our parks and these other parks is where we should be spending that money at, not at Washington Park. That's my comment.

Thank you. Others? All right. I'll ask the question. Is anyone moved by the request to join the selection committee?

I'm not an artist. I'm

not an artist, but I would volunteer to do it if no one else has any strong desire to.

I think part of it is as well that it doesn't need to be an artist. It's just someone that's gonna have the best interest within the park setting as well on how to integrate it and kinda collaborate amongst that. So not required.

Yeah. I'm happy to if no one else has a strong desire to.

May I ask just a point of order. Do we need to have a motion to appoint that volunteer or no?

I don't believe so. You can just select one and you don't have to make a motion to do so.

Okay. Does it require a vote or no? Does it have to be made tonight?

Was wondering if Adrian

Well, the other thing none of

us are interested in hearing.

Wait Adrian, he answered. Oh.

You guys may want to hold and email Commissioner Alexander. I

am happy to temporarily raise my hand but offer it up to Commissioner Alexander as well.

Terrific. Thank you for resolving

that. Okay.

Wonderful. Any other comments? Alright. In that case, thank you for being here tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank Okay. Our next item on the agenda is our next meeting on 10/09/2025. Do we have any agenda items that anyone would like to put on that schedule? Director Long?

We'll probably bring some updates on our team programs and then looking at I know I gave you guys kind of a little bit of a budget overview and what happened over the summer and over the last fiscal year. So we'll do a small report on that to kind of give you a high level overview of how our programs where I mean you saw some numbers here, but you can kind of get an idea of just our cost recovery and how programs went. Thank you.

I believe there's I know there's some overall kind of city budget discussions going on. I think Parks and Erexham Park is for November. Are we is that going to be is that budget overview something that's going to overlap or is there any preview we can get before that council meeting?

So I'm trying to see if it will be available at that time in October. But if it is available, I'll bring you an update. This is about the infrastructure meetings that are being held and the type of need that we're looking for, for long term for potential bond act. So we will if it is ready for the October meeting, I'll bring it forward with you.

And then it doesn't have to be a whole presentation, but I'm finally seeing a lot of construction equipment over by the old Emma Hood. I think I saw the last presentation they did about opening the softball field had a summer twenty twenty six open date. So if there's any kind of update on how the timeline of what that's looking at. And summer is a very vague thing, and I'm sure you're having to plan two different potential scenarios for next summer. So we'd like to hear maybe if you guys have thought about what those different scenarios would look like.

Maybe three, maybe there's one pool half, two pools half, one pool all, two pools all. So just love to hear if you can give us a brief summary on and maybe October is not the time for that, but just potential on that planning process and what hopefully that project completion is looking like.

If you would like a little update now, I can give that to you. We just met with the school district and they went over timelines of multiple projects. They're slating for the Emma Hood pool project to be completed in June '26 if everything goes on schedule. They are planning on the Wood School opening in June '26. They will then be relocating the Otis kids in June '26 into the temporary school on the former alum site.

The track and field at Encinal should be doing a soft opening in December and so which would be great, which will also free up athletic fields for other users for ARPD because we've been taking all of the programming into Ashuori Park and other parks to help support the schools. So that should be happening. The specific softball field opening, it'll probably be I would probably say it'll be a few months after the pool opens because they're still dealing with a few other issues. There will be a lot of discussion around the tennis courts coming up just because of their condition and ongoing activity. So we may still be hosting the high school teams for a period of time.

Yeah. They look pretty bad right now. So yeah.

Commissioners?

At high school. Which Ensignal? Alameda.

No. Alameda High is

Oh, they're not even yeah, usable. But that was part of the construction processes. They were supposed to resurface those courts. That was part of the whole contract.

The well, I will would it's a better question towards the school district, but they were contracted to build an additional tennis court because they were consuming one of them. They'd not intended to damage the courts. However, the lack of maintenance has caused them to deteriorate very rapidly. So that's going to be in part of the conversation with the school district about how do they address that and in what timeframe.

Other potential October agenda items?

Sorry, this is actually just another question. How do you see how impacted is the is Krusy going to be do you feel like by the construction for the two years for Otis Elementary?

The good thing for the park is all the construction will be happening outside of park property. The Cruisy neighborhood will be impacted probably for eighteen months to two years for construction. Our biggest concern right now is how we're going to get our after school kids from the Woodside to Cruisy. And so it's too far for kids to walk, so we're going have to look at some kind of transportation provision in order to get the kids there. I know the school district is also looking at providing a transportation site from the Kruse neighborhood to the Wood School. So that's all in process and being worked out currently. Great.

Okay. Hearing no further suggestions for agenda items, the last item on our agenda is the adjournment. Can I have a motion to adjourn, please?

I would like to make a motion for adjournment.

And a vote, please.

Commissioner Robbins?

Yes.

Commissioner Biden?

Yes.

Vice Chair Swartz?

Yes. Chair Yee?

Yes. Thank you. The meeting is now adjourned. We'll see everybody in October. Thanks very much.