Parks, Community and Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

Or my workout journey that I that I could do that. You gotta give me a good let me walk. Let me just walk up and down the trail for a little bit, but even still, it's enough to, like, get my blood pumping.

And there's flowers that one could look at along with the trail. I don't know.

I've got

lemons or whatever.

Yes. So and you know I love a good flower. So

The other thing I wanted to bring up, and then I'll turn it over to you and let you close this out for whatever whatever else you you know, the 13 other things you have on your list. I mentioned the we talked about the Brown Act, and I I made a tongue in cheek, although not really tongue in cheek, comment about the Sorry. Not the legislature. But a change is coming next year. The state legislature has mandated that all cities above I don't I think it's over a 100,000 residents have to allow remote comments. So we always stream our council meetings.

Mhmm.

And you can watch them live. Mhmm. Well, I think we have about an eight second delay. Yeah. But we've not allowed call in comments.

Mhmm.

We preferred people to be in the room. And frankly, during COVID, when everybody was doing meetings, you know, through Zoom or through Teams or whatever, there were a lot of what they called Zoom bombs. So a lot of cities went away from allowing anonymous people, anonymous faceless keyboard warriors from calling into their meetings. But, you know, the world's a little different place now, and and we need to accommodate as many people as we can. So the legislature has mandated that at least it's going to affect us, and and I'm not sure what other cities. Most most other cities in California, we're going to have to allow public comment during our our council meetings via electronic means.

So is that live? Can it be prerecorded? Or okay.

Like, you you'll you'll I I don't know the mechanism yet. We're we this just can't this the governor just signed this bill, like, a week and half ago. Got it. But it is coming. So I kinda wanna mention as we get into next year, it has to be live by 06/01/2026 Mhmm. Or 07/01/2026. So we'll be bringing that feature to our council meetings in the future as well.

So shout out to IT department. You got some stuff you gotta do.

Get on it. Oh, they're not in IT anymore.

No. They're not. But I thought that that well, in my head, was was your the the liveness of it. I don't know.

No. You're right. No. It it there's so it's a combination of our our city clerk will need to be involved. Your team will need to be involved, and then IT to help facilitate just the technological element of it. Yeah.

Oh, man. See? And and I bet you there's probably an AI fee feature to that too because then you have to accommodate yeah. There's a lot of different things to consider in that. Man, there has there's a full time job of just keeping up on the legislature.

Well, I I I think they come up with 3,500 bills a year.

I'm still convinced they used shot GPT. Yeah. Nobody's writing 3,500 of anything.

And it's not like they get paid by the bill. I was like, what is going on here?

Like, you're just cranking these out. But, you know, hats off to them that if that's, you know, your area of expertise, dang it roll with it.

That's one way to put it.

Well, I don't really have any parting comments. This is our second anniversary episode. I feel like now we're making some really good traction. We've gotten some phone calls about people really finding benefit in some of the stuff that we're talking about. Maybe not everything, but some of the stuff that we're talking about and really helping to demystify what they thought government was or is. So I'm hoping that we continue to do that and continue to provide value to folks.

I know that I look forward to our conversations. Because we have a lot of fun even though we we try to keep this, you know, as as official and as responsible as we can. We have is this fun, you know, to to kinda I wish we recorded some of the pre banter banter.

I feel like we'd get in trouble if we do that. Yeah.

We might,

but it's a lot of fun. That would be a fun outtakes kinda episode.

Just

I don't know. We have to do some some bleeping in there, and there's some some like, wait. We can't mention that. But yeah.

But it's been good. We yeah. I don't know that we thought we'd get to through sue sue sue. We didn't really know where this was gonna go when we started two years ago. But I I feel like it's there's some we like you said, we we were providing, I I feel like, some value to some folks. I'd love to provide more value to more folks.

Yeah.

And if there's something that they wanna hear or or even just curious about, like you said, pio@FontanaCA.gov. Yeah. With that, I'm Ray Ebert.

I'm Monique Carter.

And this has been the Fontana Unlocked podcast.

And so we're now we're we're now we're filming in Still City Hall. Very shortly, we'll be filming somewhere else, but I I'll give you more. Know if

you a walk through when we

do that. We are gonna do a walk through. I have all kinds of things planned. But production is provided by Oliver Garde Galvez. I was about to say Gardez. Oliver Galvez and Brandon Alcantar, who's a little bit sick today, so you guys hear us coughing in the background. But research and fact checking if we had any real research that was happening was done by Ashley Martin.

And note taking for future episode ideas.

Yes. Was through was by Ashley Martin. And with that, I'm Monique Carter.

Driving around Fontana, I'm sure we've all noticed more potholes. And due to heavy rains, the number of potholes on our roads has increased. Our team fill in the ones they know of, but sometimes some are missed. And that's where you, our residents, can help using Fontana three one one. That's right.

Fontana has a 311 system. This system allows our residents to easily request services from our city, like filling in potholes, of course. But with Fontana three one one, you can also request to clean up graffiti, illegal garbage dumping, fire hazards, and many other services. So let's harness the power of 311 together to fill in as many potholes as we can. Let's work together to get all the potholes in our city filled. Download the Fontana 311 app or dial 311 within the city limits to report a pothole in your area now.

News, Fontana. K Font TV is on demand. That's right. Now you can watch your community in action at your convenience, which means watching any program anytime you want without having to wait. Just go to the website watch kfun.fontana.org and enjoy K Fontana TV on demand in full high definition quality on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. If you have an Apple TV or Roku, download the free CableCast ScreenWeave app and select city of Fontana to watch K Fontana TV on demand right on your television. K Fontana TV, your station for community information.

Hi, everyone. Jasmine here from Healthy Fontana with my buddy, Ria the red strawberry. Welcome to the Central City Park Community Garden. Did you know that gardening has several health benefits? Gardening is great for the whole body. Not only does gardening help you be physically active, but it could also help you fight stress and improve your mood.

A community garden is also a perfect place where neighbors can come together to plant fruits, veggies, flowers, and herbs. For more information on how to lease your plot, contact the Cypress Neighborhood Center at (909) 349-6988. ADA compliant plots are available.

And for even more healthy living resources, contact Healthy Fontana at (909) 350-6542 or visit healthyfontana.org. Happy planting. When

approaching a railroad crossing while driving, never stop on the tracks. Always wait for traffic to clear before crossing, and always assure that there's enough space for your vehicle to clear the tracks with no overhang. If for any reason your vehicle is stuck on the tracks, get out of your vehicle and find the blue and white emergency notification sign on the right side of the crossing. For help, call the emergency number on the sign and give them the location and crossing number at the bottom of the sign.

Hi, City of Fontana. Welcome to the City of Fontana Emergency Preparedness Program, also known as Ready Fontana. The City of Fontana is subject to a variety of disasters, including earthquakes, floods, fires, and more. It is important that we recognize that people helping people and communities coming together are the key ways lives and property can be saved during an

Driving around Fontana, I'm sure we've all noticed more

Our athletes work so hard, and this acknowledgment means the world to them and our entire program. I am beyond proud of these young athletes, not just for making it to nationals, but their commitment, teamwork, and heart. Fontana JV cheer is something truly special. Thank you.

And why don't we have the commissioners and the council come out and out to the front and we'll take a bunch of good old pictures. Would you like to say something, ma'am? Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. I had no guess.

Hello, everyone. How are doing tonight? We want to make sure that we cheer these young people on. I tell you, going to your games and seeing you all perform has been such an honor for our great council and our community. So we're gonna take this picture, but all you parents out there, we wanna give you a big hand because of your efforts to make sure these young people got what they needed.

Alright. Let me get in there. Good? Alright. Alright, boys.

Let's do it. You ready? Go right ahead. Go ahead. Go Go ahead. Ahead. Ahead. Go

ahead. There

you go. Again, these boys, eight under, eight you. Mount Baldy champions, Westcon champions. And when they went to North Carolina, they took seventh in the nation. Alright.

And I'm gonna give it up to coach Eddie here because he's got real good things to say about them all.

Thank you. Alright. So we touched on that a little bit. We wanna thank the parents. It all starts with the parents. Without you guys, nothing is possible. So we appreciate the all the long nights, all the practices, six month season. Let's give it up for the parents. Thank you. I also wanna thank the coaching staff, the teen parents. Without them, this is also not possible. It makes our life easier as far as communicating with the parents, getting things organized, and making sure the boys are ready each and every week for the games. So thank you, coaching staff and parents. And then we also wanna thank the city of Fontana for the recognition. We go out there and represent the city with with pride.

So thank you for having us up here tonight. Thank you. Yep. And now for the the boys. So look at them, eight and nine year olds, and they like to have fun. They're a little no noisy right here, but once it's time to play the game, they lock in, and we touched on it. There were local champions, regional champions, and they went all the way to North Carolina to represent Fontana in in nationals, top seven in the nation. Let's clap it up. So, I mean, the season was amazing. You guys should

be very proud of yourselves.

Every week was a was a a journey to get to the the the the big game. Right? So every week they delivered. Even though we finished a little short in the biggest stage, you guys should be very proud of what you guys did this season. Let's lock in, and we touched on it. I'm gonna finish with the quote, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Those who endure, conquer. So sometimes you gotta endure to take it to that next level. So let's lock in for next season. Let's give it up for the eight U Hots. Thank you, everybody.

Alright. Get in there. Let's get some photos. I'm sorry. I'm I'm skipping I'm skipping a step every time. Miss May madam. Slide over, gents. Slide over, guys. Get in there real tight.

Want something? Yes.

Just just real quickly, just understand, all of you are gonna get certificates. Okay?

Yes.

From this great council.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright? You guys go. So let's give them a big hand. We are so proud of all

of you. Go that way. There we go. Slide over. Slide over. Everybody in there? Alright. Everybody right there, step forward. Step forward. Step forward. There you go. Good. Perfect. Alright. You guys good? Y'all good to slide over? Are you gonna stay in the middle?

Where you want?

You wanna slide over, Phil? Yeah. Thank you, sir.

I'm tall.

That's beautiful. That's perfect. Okay. Anna, you're you're in the bad you're in the bad spot, Anna. There we go. Moe Moe, you can see everybody. Ready?

One more I wanted to add. Not only did all of our athletes accomplish on the field, off the field practice and everything else and commitment by the parents. But one of our more proud accomplishments as a league in general, especially most of them, everybody, I want to say 84% of our league, and we broke 500 students or athletes, maintained 92% or higher for the school year. So not only are we athletes, they're definitely Little Scholars. So many of them won recognition from the conference as Little Scholars, and then I wanna say we had 64 ish, I could be off, don't quote me, as National Scholars.

So they were 96 or higher. So a phenomenal athlete, but even better student, which speaks volumes on what they were able to accomplish because of how smart and how disciplined, how structured they are, which is an example of what their parents are doing at home. So once again, thank you guys. Appreciate it.

Well done. Thanks. Alright.

Well, thank you to all the young scholars and families that made it out this evening for today's presentation. With that, we'll move on to item number b. So we'll introduce superintendent Michael Wright.

Thank you. I'm bringing up Doug Johnson, community services supervisor for senior services.

Good evening commissioners and members of the audience. Tonight, I am honoring a few of our outgoing members from our Senior Advisory Board. So, Carol Smith is making her way up here right now. For those that aren't aware, the Senior Advisory Board is a group of senior members that are voted on by their peers. They offer some enhancements to our programs. They plan activities and they act as a liaison between a senior community and our center staff. So they're very important to us at the senior center and they are play a vital role us in in having communication and that relationship with our senior community. So tonight, we are honoring Carol Smith and Joy Quester. She couldn't be here tonight. Joy couldn't be here but Carol is here and we would like to honor her with a plaque.

Thank you so much Carol for all you've done with the advisory board the last couple of years. We really appreciate it. All your support to the senior center has been very appreciated. So, you. Yes, thank you.

All right. Thank you again, Carol. We appreciate it. So now I'd also like to introduce our twenty twenty six Senior Advisory Board. They're coming up on the stage right now. We'll start with our Chair, Kathy Potts. We have Melva Basher coming next. Our vice chair, Dolores Hernandez. Board member Vernon Hernandez. Christina Calderon.

Our treasurer Eugenia Torres. And Betty Sandoval. So this is our two thousand and twenty six senior advisory board. They've already done some great things in the month and a half that they've been on the board and the rest of the year. So so thank you for all you guys do.

Alright. Thank you again, everyone.

So welcome once again to our twenty twenty six senior adviser board members. And with that, we'll move on to presentation item c. I'm gonna introduce community services manager, Chrissy Samples.

Thank you, commissioner Valles. It is my pleasure to introduce two new expand Fontana Expanded Learning Program staff, new administrative technician, Taylor Grimes, and our new recreation coordinator community services coordinator, excuse me, Joelle Johnson. So come on up and say a couple words.

Can I sit down?

Can I sit down?

Hi. My name is Taylor Grimes. As she stated, I'm the new admin tech for the FELP program. I've been in the public sector since I was 17. I just came from Omnitrans. I'm super excited to be here, totally up for the challenge for whatever CSD has to throw at me, and I hope to be a valuable asset to the team and sit about me. Thank you.

My name is Jelal Johnson. I'm one of the new FELP coordinators. I'm coming over from the city of Ontario where I was over youth sports and adult sports. Just me being younger, know what after school programming did for me and my life. So I'm really excited to see what I can add to the program that I'm part of. Well,

welcome to you both. And with that, we'll move on to special presentations item D, and we'll introduce Public Works Manager, Mr. Dan West.

Sorry. Good evening, Chair Baez. Thank you very much. Good evening, Commissioners. It's great to be here tonight. As you stated, I'm Dan West, Public Works Manager. It's my pleasure to introduce Ryan Roseberry, one of our parks and landscape supervisors, who's gonna be providing you with the public works updates for this evening.

Thank you for having me here tonight. I just wanna go over a list of few of our big projects that we have going on in the city right now. Off the bat, Ralph M. Lewis soccer fields, synthetic turf replacement is happening right now on Fields 1 And 2. We expect to be completed mid March. Coming July, we'll continue with the two other fields on Fields 5 And 6. Our in house staff right now is currently doing ball field renovations in preparation for the league's opening mid March. With the rains, it's pushed us back a little bit. So it's great for California, but it's bad for ball field renovation time. Restroom renovations is currently happening at Bill Martin, Southridge and Oak Park.

We are completely stripping down all the paint, excess paint and replacing any fixtures. So those are gonna look brand new at those locations, which is gonna be great. Heritage Neighborhood Center, we are currently, replacing the pool plastering on both of those pools at that site. It hasn't been done in over twenty years, so we're excited to get that going. Playground wood chips, will be placed in May at all the parks throughout the city.

Security lights and pavilion will be, painted at nine locations starting in March. So that's very exciting too. There's a lot of these inner city parks that haven't been touched with painting projects, especially in the pavilion areas where residents are renting the pavilions out. It's going to be nice to touch those up and make them look new. Jesse Turner Basketball Court, the contract is currently being routed and demolition is going to start within the month, so which is great too.

Sycamore Hills rubber surfacing is gonna be replaced. That's soon to be scheduled. Kohler Park restroom and shelter roofs are both gonna be replaced. That's currently being scheduled as well. Southridge Dog Park, the West one is 95% complete, so we're very close to opening that one up. The East is at 50%. The exercise equipment on the PE Trail is 95 complete, and we're looking forward to setting the date for the ribbon cutting. So, you very much. Appreciate it.

And we're also available for any questions, if you have any.

Were there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Commissioner Glass.

Just wanted to say thank you for the updates. Thank you. What's going on? Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Alba.

Alright. Good job. I just wanna echo what vice chair, Glass mentioned. We appreciate the updates and also your hard work does not go unnoticed. I always notice your crew out there, putting in a lot of work.

They're also very courteous, I'll say that, when they're at the parks and stuff like that. They've been very mindful of myself, my children, and my family, and I see them doing the same thing with other people. Safety is obviously a very big concern with them, so they make sure to, you know, cone stuff off and tape stuff off. So, just want to give a special thank you to you guys and your entire team. You know, it's a lot of manual labor, a lot of hard work, but it does not go unnoticed and they play a very vital part in the city and obviously the maintenance of all our parks. So thank you to both of you guys and the entire team.

Thank you. Appreciate those comments and we'll make sure they make it down the chain to everybody involved.

And welcome Mr. Roseberry. You're in good hands with Mr. West.

Thank you. And

with that, we'll move on to public communication. This is an opportunity for citizens to speak to the Parks Community and Human Services Commission for up to three minutes on items not on the agenda, but within the Parks Community and Human Services Commission jurisdiction. The Parks Community and Human Services Commission is prohibited by law from discussing or taking immediate action on non agendized items. Madam City Clerk Key, are there any requests to speak from the public? Hearing none.

Thank you. And this will bring us to our consent calendar items. All matters listed under consent calendar will be enacted by one motion in the form listed below. There will be no separate discussion on these items prior to the time commissioner's vote on them unless a member of the commission requests a specific item be removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Does any member of the public wish to address the commission regarding any item on the consent calendar before the vote is taken? And hearing none, we'll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Alba, I'll make a motion.

Commissioner Alba, motion. Can we get a second? Second by Vice Chair Glass. Seconded by Vice Chair Glass. And then we'll cast our votes. Are we on the iPad?

We're waiting on commissioner Glass's vote.

She pushed it. Do you wanna take a oral?

I I got it.

Okay. You got it. So motion passes. Next items are new business, and there are no new business items noted. So we'll move on to commissioner comments. If we will start with commissioner Alba.

As always, I just wanna thank the city for all the hard work. Just to reiterate what I always do, but all the hard work does not go unnoticed. I've heard just a lot of positive feedback over the last few weeks in regards to a couple of the parks, Jack Bullock being one of them as well. Looking forward to Little League season that's gonna be starting up here shortly and just all the other events that we have ahead of us. So it should be fun.

As always, I I appreciate seeing Fontana PD at the parks doing extra patrols or just typing reports there. And that that's pretty much it for me. Once again, I appreciate all the hard work that everybody puts into the city. Without without that, none of this is possible. So with that said, good night and God bless.

Thank you, Commissioner Alba. Vice Chair Glass?

Thank you. Just wanted to congratulate again all the young folks today of all of their accomplishments and going elsewhere and winning and coming number four, number seven. That's great. Congratulations and welcome to the seniors. Also congratulations or welcome to the new staff. Thank you, Public Works, again, for all of your hard work and things that you're doing. And thanks to the CDF staff. I just always, always, always want to say thank you to all of you for all of your hard work, everything that you do. Jessica, thank you for helping me out so much. I appreciate you with the keeping me in line with the checks text messages and stuff, so I do appreciate that.

And, Daniel, I just want to say, again, thank you to I know it's your team, but I want to thank you and the management staff and and also for the team. So I'm looking forward to Saturday to all of the events that's going on on Saturday. So good night, everyone.

Thank you, vice chair Glass, commissioner Ordonez.

Just like my colleagues, just wanna congratulate all of our young athletes as well as our newly appointed team members, employees. It's it's great to see the excitement in their voices and and just everything that they are hoping to do for our community. So that's that's always great to hear. Thank you to Public Works for the report. And, yes, again, thank you to all the team in community services. They definitely do an amazing job, and I think we are always awe at everything that you guys can accomplish. And then I'm also excited for this Saturday. So thank you.

Thank you for everyone's comments today. And, again, echoing the sentiment, thank you Fontana staff for all that you do. Welcome, miss Grimes and mister Johnson. We're excited for the things that are coming. And right when you thought we're just getting started, it's almost March, and Christmas is almost here. So don't blink. You'll miss something. But definitely, if you haven't made it out, get ready because we put the fun Fontana puts the fun in the summer. So definitely looking forward Director Schneider.

Thank you. I don't have much. I do want to thank our commission. This microphone is loud. I want to thank our commission for your involvement with the state of the city.

I know I spoke to you guys before that evening started and I was thoroughly impressed with your acting skills and how well you represented the city. I know on behalf of all of our department, we're very grateful to have all of you and work great team, but I was very proud of our involvement with the state of the city. Obviously, I'm biased, but I really do think that we have the best community service department anywhere around and I love to tell everyone about it. So I'm proud to be a part of this team, I'm proud to be alongside you guys and I just wanna thank you and congratulate you because that video was awesome. And I also wanna give a shout out to all of our staff and that were in on those videos as well. So thank you guys so much and have a good night.

And with that, thank you director Schneider. We'll introduce superintendent Michael Wright.

Thank you. I have no comments because everyone has already said everything that I would like to say. So thank you again to all of what everybody has already said. So have a good night.

Thank you. And with that, community services manager, Chrissy Samples.

Thank you, chair Valles. I would like to invite the community out this weekend to one of the best events in February. We have many this weekend, but I am biased. But please join us for the Jazz Fest at Miller Amphitheater on this Saturday from three to 7PM, packed with activities and live entertainment. And that's all I have for tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. And now we'll turn the time over to community services manager, Gino Ferrara.

It's a little low right here. Alright. Good evening, commission again. Thanks for putting up with our youth sports teams out here. They're a bundle of joy. That's for sure. Just wanna touch on a quite a few cars quite quite a few events we have going on just in the next couple weeks. Tomorrow night, we have our first Little League opening day at Coyote Canyon. And then next Friday, we have a car show and a opening day ceremony. And then on Saturday, the seventh, we have the team leadership summit, and we have two other Little League opening days.

We've got next next week as well, we have youth basketball championships. We have middle schools, playoffs, and championships, and I will get you guys all those dates. And I just put out a brand new three month calendar to include May, so everything this spring is listed on there. The Teen Leadership Summit is at Harupa Hills High School. It's at 10AM, and we'll hopefully, we'll see all of you there. Next week, we start spring swim lessons. We are in full swing for everything. We're also in the middle of summer recruitment for all of our programming. And just as usual, there's just not a dull moment around here. So I appreciate all of your guys' support and appreciate everybody who is here tonight. So thank you all.

Thank you everyone for your reports and comments. And with that, we'll adjourn to the next regular Parks Community and Human Services Commission meeting on 03/26/2026 at 7PM at the Steelworkers Auditorium located at 8437 Sierra Avenue in Fontana. This parks community and human serve