Parks, Community and Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

I think so.

You're about to perform at stage right here in Fontana. Yeah. So what's your first impression of the venue and the city

so far?

Oh, it's a beautiful venue. Nice venue. I heard it I heard that it was open about a year. And so far, we're it feels great to be playing within the year gap in in this place. So it's definitely a beautiful place, and we can't wait to rock rock it tonight. Yes. I guess that.

Fontana is known for its, like, vibrant and diverse culture. So how important is it for you to connect with the city's energy during your performance?

Well, you know, I mean, that's what regular music is about. It's about connecting with the people everywhere you go, you know, so it's definitely very important to connect here in Fontana, like Stage Red.

Good evening, everyone. I would like to call the meeting to order of the Parks Community and Human Services Commission at 07:05. At this time, we'll start with the roll call and let the record states that secretary, Alba is absent. Commissioner Gras is present. Commissioner Gilbert Roldan?

Present.

Commissioner Anna or ordinance? Present. And let the record show that chair Faiz is absent. Please note that with the exception of Alba and Valles, all other commissions commissioners are present. We can we please stand for the invocation that will be given by commissioner Raldan and the pledge of allegiance that will be given by commissioner Ordinis.

Okay. Please bow your head. Bow your heads, rather. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thank you for blessing us and keeping us and, allowing us to attend this, meeting after a long summer, and, and a hiatus.

Please, send a special blessing to the staff of the city of Fontana for their outstanding work during the summer. Also, a special blessing to our first responders out there. And most of all, a very special blessing to the community members of Fontana. Amen.

Amen.

Please stir me in the pledge of allegiance. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready. Begin.

The flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

This brings us to our special presentation. And I would like to introduce Director Snyder, who will give the staff forward to cover the special press presentation items.

Thank you, madam chair. It's my pleasure at this time to ask our sports coordinator, Nick, to come on up. We have a special presentation for an incredible young group, junior roller derby recognition, and he will provide the report for you.

Thank you. Good evening.

My name is Nick King, youth sports coordinator here in the

city of Fontana. At this time, I would like to invite council member Philip Cawthorn up to join in the presentation. It is with great pride and excitement that I share some incredible news with you in the city of Fontana tonight. Two of our local athletes, Alyssa and Audrey Pessina, have just returned from Brisbane, Australia, where they both won gold medals at the twenty twenty five Junior Roller Derby World Cup. Alyssa and Audrey were selected to represent Team USA this summer, and they did an outstanding job.

They completed against teams from around the world, including Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and Sweden, and went undefeated throughout the tournament. In a hard fought final, The US Team defeated Sweden to bring home the gold. Both athletes skate with the Foxtails Junior Derby, their home club based right here in Fontana. We're incredibly proud to recognize them tonight, not only for their, representing our country, but also for representing our community with such talent, dedication, and heart. Please join me in congratulating Alyssa and Audrey on their incredible achievement.

All right. Doesn't hang out with politicians very much, otherwise he would have known we get to talk every single time. Daniel Snyder is over there laughing right now. But it's an honor to be here with you young ladies and that you guys represented not only The United States, but your guys' hometown of Fontana. So we are extremely proud of you and all 230,000 residents that are packed in here tonight and watching online, know that the Foxtails and Fontana are now gold medalists around the world,

and you

guys have represented us well. So, I have had the opportunity to watch these young ladies go and skate, and if you would too, we're going to give you guys an opportunity to talk a little bit about the program, and how young girls can get involved, because as a father of a young girl myself, I'm extremely excited that she's getting old enough to finally join. We got roller skates the first time we went out and saw you girls, because you inspired her. So remember, you guys are, you young ladies, are very much the idols of young girls at the moment. Okay, they are looking up to you, they love you, they want to be just like you two are when growing up, because my daughter is like, I need the pads, I need the helmet, I need to be able to push my brother around.

They are practicing and I am like, oh my poor son is going to be in for it. But they are extremely excited for the city to be here and that you girls once again have demonstrated that the Foxtails can do anything when they set their minds to it, that you guys are willing to roll through it, take the punches and the hits. It's a sport that I cannot play because I watched them and I was like, I would get pounded every single time. But if you're interested, you guys talk about that in a minute. But this is on behalf of the city, this is for Audrey. This one is for you my dear. Thank Thank you very much. And this one is for Alyssa. It doesn't look quite as good as your gold medals, but we'll take them. A few words? Which one wants to talk? Okay. Coach is gonna talk. Good. Alright. Fine.

This is a very remarkable achievement for the both of them. They've been playing derby more than ten years. So it's a very high level achievement that they completed. They tried out different cities around The United States over close to 400 skaters tried out in total, and they made the top 20. So that's quite of achievement for themselves.

Having coached them for many, many years, I've watched them develop, watched them grow as people and athletes. And it's been an honor to be part of their journey and watch them compete at that high level. And as one of them ages out into the adults, they'll be taking those skills and abilities to the adult level. Luckily, still have Audrey for a couple more years. But it's only, like, a tip of the iceberg for them.

They're gonna be challenging at all levels. And, you know, it's a great accomplishment, like how you said, about them being raised here in Fontana, gone to school, but elementary, middle school, high school now. And they also have the younger sister who's gonna be there at one point, guarantee you. But also, if I can, we actually have a gift for you, Councilman. For all the years and times that you've been out to support us, you've even called the first whistle at one of our games.

The team from the year that we went to national championships from the Fox sales We are giving you a little thank you photo for all the assistance and help and support that you've given us throughout the years. So thank you very much.

Can you tell us a little bit about the program as far as the age ranges when the girls can come out?

Oh,

yeah. So the it's Foxtails Junior Derby. We're based right here in Fontana. We practice at Jack Bullock Park. We're all over social media, Instagram, and Facebook. Just just search Foxtails Junior Derby at Foxtails Junior Derby. We have a website, www.foxtailsjuniorderby.com. You could email, message, the social medias on the website, any sort of information. We are six to technically 18 years old. And we are coed. So you mentioned your son.

So Oh, there.

He's more than welcome to come in and help and help on the team. So that's wonderful that we do all sorts of different skill levels. We do beginning. Right now on Thursdays, we do beginning training. So we have coaches there right now with the beginner skaters learning how to skate. You don't even need to play derby. If you just wanna go and learn how to roller skate, they're there to teach you how to skate. Tuesdays and Sundays is our advanced levels. And Sunday specifically is for the advanced national team that they can go and practice. So we're open to the whole community.

You don't have to live here in Fontana in order to sign up and skate with us, but a large majority of our skaters are all based here in Fontana. And over the last few years, we've had quite a large success going to champs, having skaters represent The United States, earning gold medals, traveling the country. So if that's the kind of opportunity, we're here for those people that want to challenge themselves.

Charles, you want to add anything to add? No? Okay. All right. If I can have our commissioners come out here, we'd like to take a photo with you That's okay. Daniel?

No, thank you. Great. That's what I

was gonna do. Yeah. Got them. Don't worry. I won't forget them. Hey, you're doing great. Hey. It's like I've done this once or twice.

Okay. I'm gonna turn it back over to director Snyder to give a public works update.

Yes. I will be introducing myself, and I will be giving the public works update. Unfortunately, Dan West was not feeling well today, so we hope wish he feels better. I'm going to talk a little bit about just a few projects. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them as best as I can. But the one major thing that we're very excited about is Seville Park. There's an amphitheater there that we are going to be tearing down and creating pickleball courts. So it's currently in design design phase. Hopefully, by spring twenty twenty six, it'll be completed. So it's gonna be going pretty fast, but we're really excited.

I don't know if you've all been there, lately, but taking down that theater area and putting pickleball courts is gonna be, a great resource for our community. In addition, at North Tamarind Park, we have two new gazebos that are under construction and to be expected to be completed by the end of this year. And then we have the Southridge Dog Parks that we just had a groundbreaking, just a week ago. That's construction is on the way. One park is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The second park would be following shortly after that, hopefully, by summer. And then lastly, we have the Ralph m Lewis artificial turf replacement. That's our big sports complex up to the north, and that construction is scheduled to begin in January, and we're we're going to be replacing the turf on fields one and two. And, hopefully, that will be done before February so we can get our programs back up and running. Other than that, if you guys have any questions about any of those, I could try to answer them. If not, we can table till next month with Dan's here. But, yeah, whatever you whatever questions you have.

No questions. No questions.

Okay. Thank you. Alright. Thank you so much. Alright.

So I'm gonna turn it back over to you again for special events. You wanna update? Update.

Okay. And then I will be introducing our special events supervisor, Bianca Morales. You all know her very well, and she will provide an update for you.

Good evening, commissioners. Commissioners. We had an exciting summer, as you are all aware of. So I am here just to recap all of our, wonderful events that we had. So we kicked off summer with our seventieth annual Fontana Days Run, which took place on June 7.

This year, we did sell out, as we have for several years now, at 2,100 participants that partaked in anything from our half marathon to our five k all the way to our children's dash. Of course, this year was very exciting, not only because it was our seventieth year, but because we had a wonderful celebrity involved in our event. And then we led into our summer concert series. This was an eight week series that took place June 12 through August 7 at Miller Park Amphitheater on Thursday evenings from seven to 9PM. Our band selection this year ranged anywhere from a Mana tribute to Selena to Taylor Swift, nineties cover bands all the way to Beach Boy Classics.

Every night was a huge success. In addition to the entertainment, we had several food vendors out there. We had arts and crafts. The Strikers came out to several of the events, and we had some inflatable attractions for the children. This was all free for the community to enjoy.

And then we had our family fun nights. This year, we had two family fun nights on June 14 at Sycamore Hills Park and then July 12 at Oak Grove Park. Each of our family fun nights consisted of entertainment from Rockstars of Tomorrow, which is a local youth organization that comes out and performs. And then we also had game booths out there, food vendors, and then each night ended with a concert. I'm sorry, a movie after sunset.

And then, of course, our fourth of July celebration took place on Saturday, June 28 at Summit High School. This year's headliner was Oso Motley. The event was very, very well received. We had almost 5,000 community members that came out to enjoy the free event. We had a huge vendor area, roving entertainment, attractions for the kids, face painting, and other informational booths like our Healthy Fontana out there.

And then we added a separate photo area that guests can walk through and actually enjoy. And then our Spring Street night market took place on July 19 from six to 10PM on Spring Street. This event consisted of over 40 food and novelty vendors that, filled up Spring Street from Sierra all the way to Juniper. We had game booths, crafts, art graffiti artists, different photo areas, and lots of, community booths that were out there highlighting their area also. We do have our Spring Street night market coming up again in October, so be sure to be on the lookout for that.

And then, several of our co sponsorships that took place, these are ones that were submitted during the February filing period. So we had our Walk for Warriors event at Fontana Park Park on July 5. Our Night to Remember Foundation did an event at Jesse Turner on August 2. The Love Fontana event took place on August 9 at Miller Park. A Juneteenth play took place on June July 20 at Stillworkers Auditorium. And then our CAP Resource Fair took place at Miller Park Amphitheater on August 2. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have about any of our events.

Do any of the commissioners have any questions or comments?

More of a request. I was wondering if, you could provide me maybe with a list again again of the sponsored events or cosponsored events.

The cosponsored ones?

Just like I can remember the dates of when those events are actually going to occur and then possibly be able to attend some of those.

The upcoming ones? Yeah. The upcoming ones.

Absolutely. But, no, it's just a good presentation. I attended a couple of the events, and I enjoyed all of them. I got a picture with Courtney Cox, which is pretty cool. So that was cool. But I was sad I couldn't join you guys for the fourth of July celebration, but I'm hoping the next one for sure, I will be there. Thank you.

Yes. And trust me, summer is not our only time. Fall continues with all of our events. So please be on the lookout for them. We have our National Public Lands Day this Saturdays at the Nature Center. So hopefully you'll come down and join us for that also.

Thank you.

Yes. Great job for you and your staff. I'm going to say a little bit more during commissioner comments, so I'll save that for that time.

And I would just like to say, of course, I attend quite a few of the events. And you guys are doing an amazing job out there. It's well attended by the community. So I just wanna thank you so much for all of the hard work that all of the staff is doing. They're doing an amazing job, so thank you.

Thank you.

I also wanted to add something real briefly. We always talk about the special events and then also the cosponsorships, but Bianca and her staff also deal with, special event requests that come from the public. So if, water of life, for example, they're having their thirty fifth anniversary, which is pretty much gonna be a festival that's gonna take over Fontana Park, and that all goes through, Bianca and her staff. So even though that's not our special event, it's it's their special event. So they they still have to manage that, which is, a lot of work too.

So it's not only those events. It's those additional events that come in occasionally like that. So I I wanted to take the time to thank Bianca and her staff because this one's a very big one. And they on a short short turnaround time, so they've done a great job with that. So and it's Diana's birthday, so she's not here tonight. So we wanted to give her a little shout out on her birthday too. There's so many birthdays, and we keep forgetting. Shout out, Diana.

All right. So Director Snyder, I'm going to turn it back over to you for the East Annex presentation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, it's my honor to introduce Michael Wright, our community service manager. He gave you a tour earlier. He's going to give a little bit of a presentation for our public. But I wanted to thank Michael and Jessica personally because this has been a big, big move for many, many weeks, tons of packing, tons of organization, and everything that you can imagine. And both of these two were the leaders of this move. Me and Christie just did what they told us to. So they deserve all the kudos kudos in the world to make that because it's been very, very smooth. Like, you guys saw, we're only we've only been there for less than two weeks, and it's pretty much intact already. So they did an incredible job. So I just wanna make sure that they before Mike gives his presentation. So So

thank both of you. Presentation done.

Hi.

Welcome, commissioners. I'm very excited to give you this presentation tonight and to the public. But if we could roll the clip so everybody understands what oh, never mind. He's going to roll it right now.

And we still

All right. So I'm going to stretch here. As you are aware, we took you on a tour of our new facility. And so this is a video that's going to talk about where we are now located, where we came from, and where we're located now.

Do I have to edit?

Hi. I'm here at the community services department, but we've got some exciting news. We're moving to a brand new building to better serve you. Starting September 22, you'll find us right here at our new location. This move provides our staff more space to better serve you.

So we have moved to 17001 Upland Avenue, right here off of right here in the Civic Campus. So we're we're very excited. We would like to thank, all our leadership, city council, city manager for this investment in in our department. It's nice to be on the Civic Campus finally, and we're looking forward to great things in the future. So come visit us. 17001 Upland Avenue, and we look forward to seeing everybody out there.

Any questions or comments from my from the commissioners?

Just wow. I I really love the new building, and I think, it's very welcoming, and I I love that it's close to City Hall. I'm hopefully, that helps, you know, with the residents being able to locate. I know there might be some where they're still probably gonna be going to that building, but it's an amazing building. I think a lot of great workspace for you guys, and I'm I'm glad you guys were able to get that.

Any comments? No. No comments? Okay. Thank building. Thank you so much for the tour today. I do appreciate it, and it's a beautiful facility. So I just want to say thank you again for letting us see everything. Alright. So this concludes our special presentations.

Thanks to everyone. And this brings us to public communications. This is the opportunity for citizens to speak to the Parks Community and Human Service Commission for up to three minutes on items that are not on the agenda, but within the Parks Community and Human Service Commission's jurisdiction. The Parks Community and Human Service Services Commission is prohibited by law from discussing or talking or taking immediate action on nonagendized items. City clerk, do you have any public communication request?

We have no, public communication request.

Thank you. This brings us to the consent calendar. All matters listed under the consent calendar will be enacted by one motion in the form listed below. There would be no separate discussion on these items prior to the time commission votes on them unless a member of the commission requests a specific item to be removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Does any member of the public wish to address the commission regarding any items on the consent calendar before the vote is taken?

There are no requests to comment. Thank you.

And commissioners, please state your name before speaking and then making a motion or offering a second. Approval of the of the minutes of the 05/22/2025 Parks Community and Human Services Commission meeting. Approval of entire consent calendar with one vote. And I'm sorry. Are we doing it on the okay.

Commissioner rolled in, motion to approve.

Commissioner Adonis, motion to second.

Sorry. I'm hitting yes, but it's not doing anything. Three

in favor. The motion passes.

Okay I'm sorry was I supposed to say motion made by commissioner and then second or

no you're fine they announced it

thank you

okay Alright. Motion carries. This brings us to new business, and I'll introduce director Snyder who will call staff forward to cover new business. And there's no new business, so do we just keep moving on?

Yes. You're just moving. Okay.

Alright. At this time, just bring us to commissioner, communications and reports. And I'll start with commissioner Rodan.

First of all, we had we've been off for the summer as far as the meeting. However, the Parks Community and Human Services staff was very busy this summer, I have to say, providing superior service and professional interaction with the community. The one thing that I noticed from the Fontana days to the to the Spring Street Market to the volunteer appreciation event. The staff was there greeting community members, and there was nothing but smiles and happiness that was conveyed with each and every staff member that I spoke to. I'd like to, though I went to, quite a quite a few events, there's, there's a couple that I wanted to highlight.

And one was the Empire Strikers Soccer Clinic. Your staff did a tremendous job. That day, it was hot and very humid, but they were engaged. They were there assisting the community. They were very helpful and very professional out there.

I also have to make a comment about the way the clinic was presented. I did go over to the city of Rancho Cucamonga and observe their clinic. And I would have to say that the clinic in Fontana at the South Fontana Park was far superior. I hope I don't get any blowback from this. But I only call it like it is.

Also, at Dodger Dream Field, the special needs baseball clinic. It was a joy to go out there and participate with, with your staff. They were very helpful, very professional with interacting with the, with our special needs community. And I have to say that all the parents that were out there had nothing but great things to say about the staff and the work that they did. So great job. Continue the good work. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And we'll turn it over to commissioner ordinance.

Thank you. Well, I kind of already said what I wanted to say earlier, but, yes, fantastic events. I had a lot of fun in every event. Just how my colleague said, all the staff is always very welcoming. There's a lot, and I hope to eventually, at one point, remember everyone's names. But every time they would see me, they would always greet me. And it's it was just an incredible time to be able to see everything that we do here in the city, and how we engage our community, even just through the social media posts as well. Like, you know, I'm always reminding our community of what's available, what the the department has to offer. So thank you again for all your hard work. Please thank all of the staff for all of their hard work as well.

Thank you. And I just would like to echo my fellow colleagues. Like I mentioned before, in reference to the staff, you guys are doing such an amazing job out there. I can't really pinpoint because every time I go to an event, you guys are just you're you're you're just amazing. But I would like to say, I went to the farmer's market. I hadn't been there in a while. And I went to the farmer's market, and I was just blown away. It has been seemed like revamped, but it's it's very, very nice with all the vendors. There was a lot of vegetables and fruits and stuff. My kids came out, and we went out there to the farmer's market. So just wanted to say thank you again for all the hard work that you that the staff is doing.

Okay.

Alright. So now we will turn it over to the staff and for their communications, and we'll start off with director Snyder.

Thank you, madam chair. I don't have much. I just wanted to wish our city clerk Jermaine Key a happy birthday. I also wanted to wish you a happy birthday as well and our staff member Diana a happy birthday. And oh, and Tony as well. You're good at this. Thank you. But I also wanted to thank the commission for all your hard work. I know that you all are at many of our events. And I know I can speak on behalf of all of our staff. We appreciate you guys being there. You all are our eyes and ears, so we appreciate it. I also wanna say I genuinely appreciate at these events when after the events, you come back to me or you email me and say, hey. Here's these business cards. I've met these people.

They wanna work with you, partner with you. So I've reached out to a couple of them. We're actually working on some things. So that's exactly what we envisioned you all doing for us. So I really appreciate it. And keep bringing us any comments, concerns that the public has because you all get our eyes and ears. So we appreciate that. Thank you so much.

All right. So we'll turn it over to manager Michael Wright.

Thank you. I first want to just say thank you to our staff, An amazing summer. They had eight summer camps, nine weeks of summer events, citywide special events, just all kinds of things. We have a summer packed of nothing but activity. We are so blessed to be able to give that to our community.

It's such a joy to do that. And I think all of our staff do it, and I think it shows in the quality of programs that we produce out there. So I want to thank the staff for everything that they do all summer long. And the crazy thing is, is today, I had my first meeting for seasonal hiring. So everyone out there that wants to work for Fontana, it's right around the corner. We open these jobs open in December. So if you want to apply, it will be open in December. But we are planning for our seasonal hires already for next summer. So thank you so much again to the staff. But we go right into Halloween.

We're right around for Halloween now. Halloween Howl is on October 18 at Fontana Park Dog Park, from three to five. And then we have pumpkins in the park, and that's not a pumpkin patch. It's actually a a Halloween event at our centers. Cypress, Don Day, and JT on October 25 from two to five And then we have Nightmare on series, actually, on Halloween at the Fontana Community Senior Center from 11:30 oh, no, eleven a. M. To 01:30 p. M. For all our seniors. And with that, I would like to wish everybody a happy birthday, Faye, Germaine, Diana, and Tony.

Oh, and Pumpkinpalooza, yes, on October 4 at the Fontana Aquatic Center. Thank you, Bianca.

See you, Chris. Alright. So we'll turn it over to manager Christie Samples.

Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to give a big special thanks to a few groups tonight. I can't believe it's fall. I can't believe school already started. I feel like I was just in summer. But I wanna give a big thank you to our FELP team, the Fontana expanded learning program, who has now been in school for almost two months. And it's been go from the minute, first day of school, and we have over 3,000 kids registered in that program. So huge special thanks to the team that have put in so much hard work training this summer and being prepared for the participants this year. Also, a big shout out to the MIAC, the mayor's youth advisory committee.

They had their strategic planning meeting this last weekend, and they are some of the most amazing group of youth, and I can't wait to see what they have for us this year. And a big thank you to the Fontana Arts Hispanic Heritage event team. It was one of the best teams I've seen out there yet. One of my favorite things is our events and seeing all our staff from across the divisions come out and work together, and this one was no exception to that. And it was a wonderful night, and the event staff did an amazing job.

And thank you to the community for coming out to join us for the night. And please mark your calendars for two upcoming Fontana Arts events. We have Edward Montgomery's workshop this Saturday at the Art Depot Gallery at 03:00, and tickets are on sale now for the youth community theater, Alice in Wonderland Junior. So please visit our website at recreation.fontana.ca.gov. No. It's recreationca.gov, and register or buy your tickets now. So that's a great show to be a part of this October. That's all for me.

May may I add one thing? I I forgot to give a a special thank you to the IT department and our public works department. They did an incredible job in helping us move into our new building. So I just want to say thank you to them before we leave tonight.

All right. Thank you all for your comments. We will adjourn to the next regular Parks Community and Human Services Commission meeting on 10/23/2025 at 7PM in the Grover W. Taylor Council Chambers located at 8353 Sierra Avenue, Fontana, California. This parks community and human

service