Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It is 05:40. I would like to call the meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission to order. City Clerk, would you please conduct roll call?

Yes. Commissioner Baraza? Yes, present. Commissioner Calia? Is absent. Commissioner Dolan is absent. Commissioner Duran? Here. Thank you. Commissioner Kucharski is absent. Commissioner Miller? Present. Thank you. Commissioner Trio? Present. Thank you. Vice Chair Ward? Present. Thank you. And Chair McCoy?

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. We do have some commissioners that are out. Is there a motion to excuse the absence of commissioner Dolan?

So move.

Thank you. Thank you commissioner Baraza. Thank you commissioner Miller. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Absent is excused. Is there a motion to excuse the absence of Commissioner Calia? You Commissioner Miller. Is there a second? I'll second that. Thank you. Commissioner, I want to call you by your first name all the time. Commissioner Duran, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Absent is approved. Lastly, commissioner Kercharski is out. Is there a motion to excuse her absence?

So moved.

Thank you commissioner Trelio. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Thank you Commissioner Miller. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Absent is excused. Please we will now begin the pledge of allegiance. Will everyone please stand. Thank you. We will start with the approval of the agenda. City Clerk, are there any changes or proposed changes to the agenda tonight?

There are no changes.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Thank you Commissioner Miller. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Thank you Vice Chair Ward. All in favor say aye. All opposed say no. This item is approved. We will now move on to approval of minutes.

Do you need me to slow down? Okay. Are there any changes to the minutes from 12/15/2025, City Clerk?

There are no changes.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved.

Thank you Commissioner Trelio. Is there a second? Thank you Commissioner Miller. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. This item is approved. We will now move on to member reports and comments. As a reminder, this is a time for commission members to report anything they feel important for the public or commission to know but is not a time for discussion. Commissioner Barraza.

Madam chair, I wanted to thank Mayor Jerry Dyer and Council Member Maxwell for setting up a mechanism to give money to soccer clubs, low income communities to pay the fees that are required to participate in soccer leagues. I thought that was a very nice effort and I'm assuming that that may be in addition to the $150,000 that this commission recommended annually for low income communities for all the areas in the parks in our city. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Commissioner Duran?

No other comments for me other than happy to be here for our first January meeting of 2026. Good to see everyone.

Good to see you as well. Commissioner Miller. Thank you. Vice Chair Ward.

Yes. Thank you, Chair McCoy. I wanted to use my member report to provide the public with some information about the EAAC grant program. So approximately 131 of the year two EAAC grantees have accepted their award contracts and funding's gone out to 92 of them directly or to their fiscal sponsors. For the 39 that were not yet funded, many are working through insurance or city right of way issues.

But if there's any awardees who have resolved all those issues but not yet received their funding, please let the Arts Council or members of this commission know so we can help you follow-up on its status. We all want that money to get out into the community and into the hands of those who are awarded grants. The next item, I'm hopeful the city of Fresno and the Arts Council can communicate about whatever remaining reporting items are open so they can release the funding for the year three EAAC grants, and this commission will hopefully have on its agenda at the next meeting, a hearing to appoint the cultural arts subcommittee. Both of these things need to happen soon, so there's mechanisms to share all the community feedback that was gathered about the grant process in the past year, and so that we have tools to distribute that information with the public and start to make those changes. And I remain hopeful that we can separate out the operational grants and get an RFP in place for those grants more quickly so they're aligned with the organizational fiscal years that begin on July 1.

And the project grant program needs a more time intensive, community informed revision. And those grants can be funded hopefully on a twelve month cycle from the date of award, not aligned with the city's fiscal year. Right now, the project grant recipients are in a frustrating position of getting funded halfway through the award cycle, submitting reports on two quarters of unfunded activity and then rushing to complete their projects. This can be avoided in year three and future years if we uncouple those two grant types. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Trelio.

Nothing to add, just good to see everybody and happy new year.

Thank you. Yes. Our first year of the year, I mean our first meeting of the year so it's good to see everyone and we have a pack house tonight. It's good to see everyone and let's get it moving and get it started. We will now move on to city administration and park staff reports and comments. Does anyone from the administration have any reports or comments for the commission?

Nothing this evening, thank you.

Does anyone from the park staff have any reports or comments for the commission?

Thank you, Chair. Good evening, as you all have mentioned, happy new year. Excited for the year ahead of us and all of our goals and working with you all to continue enhancing our parks, expanding programs and building the stronger partnerships. As mentioned earlier last week, we held a press conference at Fort Miller Middle School to announce the youth scholarship program. This is in addition to the youth fee waiver that I believe you all are familiar with.

This is $50,000 of Measure P funding to implement a competitive grant program for non profits to manage the youth scholarship program. The goal of this youth scholarship is to reduce financial barriers for Fresno's youth to participate in recreational programs who serve youths ages three to 17. Funds may be used for registration fees of these various leagues and or necessary equipment up to $300 per eligible youth per year. Of that money, a minimum of 50% of the scholarship awarded to eligible youth must be used for sports or recreation activities not currently offered by the Parks Department. So we offer a number of youth activities.

So really what this is hoping to do is to get kids who might not be served by our programs ages 12 to 15, 16, 17 into leagues that they can continue advancing their skills and playing those sports. Just the timeline and key milestones of this program here, as I mentioned last week January 21, the grant solicitation was released. February 11 applications from the non profits are due by 3PM. Shortly after its selection committee will begin and our plan is by mid to late February have those recommendation of those non profits for award. Soon after that, we will then start working with the non profits to grant the agreement process for the awarded applicants.

And then March 2026, so just about two months from now, issue the notice to proceed so that money can start getting granted out to our youth. So for information, you can come to the City of Fresno's website, is fresno.gov/parks and in there you'll see a banner that says a youth scholarship program that will have all the information for the applicants, for the families or anyone interested in that. That concludes my comments. Thanks, chair.

Thank you. We will now move on to unscheduled communication. Would any other member of the public like to speak on any issue within the jurisdiction of this commission? You will have up to three minutes. As a reminder, if you would like to comment on a scheduled workshop and discussion items, now is the time to make those comments. If you would like to make a comment regarding any of the scheduled hearings, comments will be taken when each item is called. And the first card I have is Melissa Padilla.

Good evening chair and members of the commission. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to sincerely thank you for opening your youth grant program for taking the time to hear me the last time I stood before this committee. The access matters and it speaks volume to your willingness to listen and invest in our youth recreation. It directly reflects the mission expanding access, strengthening community engagement, and using sports as a tool for positive development.

It tells our families, coaches, and young athletes that our city values youth sports and community driven programs. I'd like to extend an invitation to each of you to attend our upcoming California US state wrestling season events that kick off at the Selenge Arena. These competitions bring together athletes and families from across the state, and they showcase wrestling not just as a sport, but as a vehicle for discipline, academic focus, and long term youth development, creating a pathway to success that is sparked here in our great city. And I hope parks will come and witness these amazing milestones and choose to be represented in the sport of wrestling. I also would like to propose your support for an upcoming national wrestling training consortium is who we represent, and we're in collaboration with other local wrestling nonprofits, and we'll be hosting national wrestling training at the Justin Garza High School.

Through this Olympic style wrestling, we serve youth and families who often lack access to structured recreation, mentorship, and high quality coaching. Wrestling is one of the most affordable sports, but access to training, safe facilities, and educated coaches is where the real gap exists. With this community event, it is just the beginning of our work to close this gap as our goal is to make this a free community event open to all wrestlers, coaches, educators, and young adult wrestlers, this training directly improves athlete safety, coaching standards, and access to high quality instruction, pillared here in our city. With park support, local businesses and nonprofits, and hopefully council member Paria and District 1, we can remove cost barriers, elevate coaching education, and reinvest knowledge through sportsmanship back into Fresno's youth. Thank you again for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to community sports.

I look forward to working with you. Thank you. And here's our USA wrestling schedule that kicks off March 7. And then, of course, we have our CIF Masters in mid February here at the Saland Arena, and then our state tournament is in Bakersfield.

Next Thank

speaker, Will Edwards.

Hi, my name is William Edwards. I was here about a year ago. It was over Melody Park. You guys had actually linked me with someone named Ozzy to help me revamp the park in some way. And unfortunately, that never came to fruition. He did try to work with me at a certain point and we talked about a lot of things, but unfortunately, they just never came true. We wanted to get a new rail in the park was basically the bare minimum that we were hoping for, and it ended up just never happening. They did put in rails. They were unfortunately cheap. They broke.

And then we talked to them again being like, can we get something better in there? And it just I never heard anything back. It just stopped. So basically, happened was we got a rail removed from the skate park instead of getting more obstacles in the park. So I don't know if there's anyone I can talk to. Hopefully, someone can reach out to me at this point. Maybe someone else that can help me with it. But at this point, I just feel very, like, done over almost, and I'm just hoping we can do something about it. There's a lot of people that go that park, and I'm hoping that we can, like, get something there because there's a lot of people that are upset about it. And that's pretty much all I got on that one. But thank you guys. Thank Please reach out. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, Devin.

Hey. How's it going? My name is Devin Mullins. I'm here in the the same favor as Will Edwards there. I think we've kind of forgotten that skate parks are also, part of the parks in itself, and skateboarding is a nationally recognized form of sport. It's in the Olympics now and everything. Plenty of kids that do it. Granted, sure, it is a third party sport. It's not, you know, any of the natural, you know, football, soccer, anything like that, but we do have our own sport. Plenty of kids go to these parks and everything.

A lot of them have fallen in disrepair. Melody Park, Keiser Park, Cary Park, all those, they're modular skate parks. A lot of them are like black plastic ramps and everything. Melody Park had just got redone. Will Edwards, he put in a lot of effort with that guy, Ozzy. But unfortunately, they've already fallen in disrepair and everything as well. So, I mean, we're suffering as well. We do have you know, I work ten, twelve hours a day. I still wanna go, you know, do my sport, decompress my exercise. There's plenty of kids that go there.

We brought plenty of kids with us too that are locals of these parks as well. And I'm hoping that we could definitely get something done about it. If anybody could reach out to us, that would be awesome. We just want to we don't want to be forgotten as well. We don't want to get the crumbs left over. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Roberto Torres.

Good afternoon to all

the present and

all of my companions that are here. My name is Robert Torres. I am a

coach. I

want to know why they're taking our parks away.

To

become better

to problems the

courts and in the fields. That is all. Thank you.

Madam Chair, could I clarify something, please?

Yes. Sorry, can you translate what Commissioner Barraza is saying for the public please?

I would like to inform

you I

would like to thank you for coming to this very important meeting. I'm not a professional. I just wanted to bring up the issue of the use of the court. Commissioner, I'm just going

schedule is the next item, but unfortunately, the item was listed as a workshop.

That there can't be presentations of the community during a workshop.

The Chair

has told me that it is possible for you to bring your concerns before the workshop or after. So if you decide to comment on the topic of the court. And that way you can make your comments during the segment. Thank you, For letting us fix this in this manner.

Thank you.

You. Might as well stay right there. Next speaker is Erica Tortino.

Hello. Good evening, everybody, and, I'll introduce myself. My name is Erica Tolentino, and I'm here on behalf of, the whole community here regarding to the subject about the soccer fields and the parks being taken away from them. So I'm here in presentation just because I'm one of the coaches. Me and my husband, we have a our team in there, Poblanos.

So this has really had a great impact on taking away the parks as many families, many it's not only the kids, but it's the whole families who come and enjoy Sundays. So being the parks taken away has created so much a great impact also for the players, also for the families, and also, as you can see, for the refs. So I would like to see if there's anything that on your part you guys can discuss this matter and given, again, the parts for us, which that will be great. And we appreciate also if you guys do take a little bit of your time to go ahead and focus on also, like I said, it's a sport, and it's been such for the longest time and not taken away. It's created so many issues with us.

But if there's anything that also us community that we can do to make this possible, we will greatly do our part to have them back again. And that's all I'm here for, to go ahead and speak for the community, for the players, for the junsters, for all our kids who also practice this sport. So I will really appreciate, like I said, if you guys do take the time to go ahead and discuss the matter and taking the parts away from us and bringing it back to us. If there's anything in our part, we will be greatly do our part to go ahead and make this possible. You for

your time.

Are you able to still use the fields or you're not able to use them anymore?

We are not able to use any of the parks. We are using schools, which we do appreciate it. But as you can see, if we get the parks back, that will be so much better because there are so many many teams and there are so many families that have use for them. And like I said, it's not only the families, but it's also the kids who have been affected because it's soccer. Like my son, he's only 10 and like, he's in he can't he can't play anymore because of the the because of this impact, his coach decided to just to go ahead and take the get out of the league and look into other maybe into another but if we get the the parks, that'll be a lot greater for us.

Because like I said, we're I feel like soccer shouldn't be banned from anywhere, but if there was a reason as for us to be banned from the parks, then I believe so. If there's something that we can do to make possible as to get them back, of course. If we are here because we want them back, for sure, I know that if you guys speak up as to, hey. We got rules, and I need you guys I need you guys to follow-up and and do what you guys need to do as a community as to have them back, of course, everybody who's here will support us to, take care of them and do our part to have them back.

When's the last time that your soccer league has used the park?

When was the last time that we used them? I'm not so sure when was the last time when it was taken away from us. I do have the the owner of the leak. He has more information

about it.

Get that information. I was just wondering if you knew it off the top of your head. I could get it from one of the other speakers.

About eight months ago they were Yes. Taken away from

Thank you so much, Erica.

Yep. Thank you so much for listening to me and hopefully you guys can go ahead and talk it off and we can have something going back to us. Thank you.

Next speaker is John Liu.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and fellow commissioners. As a former community college trustee for eight years, I will tell you how proud I am of your service and my connection with my Southeast Fresno community where I was raised since the age of four. I am here to speak on behalf of football soccer as you know, the most popular sport in the world and I care about my local community. Thanks to Mr. Humberto Campos who developed the Hispanic Soccer League, they have about 129 teams, 15 to 20 members per team plus children, family members, and people like me who are retired that go to the parks to enjoy a friendly match.

As a referee, I am a state one United States Soccer Federation referee emeritus. I've refereed Fresno State, Fresno Pacific, Fresno City College, etcetera. And I can tell you I have a distinct distinctively different attitude about the safety of these games, how important they are for the community and that safety has to be number one. So I understand your concerns. I would be honored to be on a committee to offer a viewpoint about maybe finding a way to resolve any issues that you may have concerning some of the things that may have occurred.

I can tell you with the San Joaquin Valley soccer league where I refereed for thirty plus years, I have been to every single park in this city. I have refereed on all these different levels, and we have not had major problems. And I expect that we won't in the future because you have a community that cares about the safety and well-being of everyone that comes and participates. Thank you for your time and your attention to this very important matter.

Thank you. Next speaker will be Jose Pacheco.

Good afternoon to all.

My name is Jose I am a coach. My

team's name is PLEVES FFCE.

Yeah. I

was funded in 2020

I

lived in Mendota. And played in the league there. I'm in Fresno, and I met the Hispanic League, and I fell in love with it. We are wondering why we can't play in the park. I was talking to my son and letting him know that I was coming to City Hall.

And

my my son was encouraging me to come because he was wanting to go to the parks because they like to play in the playgrounds. Mhmm. Soccer. He plays in a in a team called La Makina.

In

the same league, Hispanic league. We were wondering why we stopped playing for so long if the parks are supposed to be for us.

The team has

seen the same thing, why is the league not there? That's why we are here. We are wondering when the kids will get to use the parks again.

Our

team was formed to help with all of that, with the families, the kids. Who has restaurants here in Fresno as part of the the team. Thinking of our kids But our kids families so that they can have fun.

So that they know that they can have

fun and other things outside of the home, outside of the tablet, TVs, video games. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. Speaker Oscar Campos. That's good. Thank you.

Good evening. Just to shed a little light on a lot of the people that just came up here, maybe you guys are, you know, missing a little bit of context. But well, first of all, wanna thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Oscar Campos, and I'm here representing our amateur adult and youth soccer organization, Fresno Hispanic Soccer or Hispanic League, that has served the Central Valley community for over seventeen years. Before I continue, I do wanna acknowledge the fact that the city has recently taken positive and meaningful steps in supporting the soccer community.

We've seen the addition of futsal courts, improvements and renovations to existing city parks, and increased investment in facilities that benefit youth, adults, and families across Fresno. It's also encouraging to hear that we're an interest in bringing a USL professional soccer franchise back to Fresno. That momentum shows that soccer is moving forward in the city. It's in that context that I'm here today not to point fingers or to point place blame, but to speak not only for our organization, but for soccer organization citywide so that we can all benefit from clearer policies, better facilities, and a stronger partnership moving forward. Just to shed some light, in March, an incident occurred at JSK Park that resulted in our organization being suspended.

Thus, what these, people here are speaking about. The city provided us with the suspension letter citing specific municipal codes and penal code violations, and we took this seriously, reviewed the codes, and made internal changes to address the raised concerns. In September, a separate incident occurred, unfortunately, involving different circumstances, which ultimately led to our indefinite suspension from all city parks. I'm not here to deny any of these incidents occurred. I'm here to ask for fairness, consistency, and a clear path forward.

Over the past several months, I have documented multiple instances of other organizations violating the same rules and penal codes cited in our suspension. In those cases, I have not seen comparable enforcement or consequences while our organization remains sidelined despite our efforts to comply and cooperate. Soccer is a sport with no age limits. It brings together youth, adults, and entire families. Our organization provides structured, insured, and organized recreational opportunities for people of all ages.

When an organization like ours is indefinitely suspended without a defined corrective process, it doesn't just affect us. It affects the broader community that the city is actively investing in. With Fresno moving forward, improving parks, expanding futsal, and potentially welcoming professional soccer again, I believe it is important that all levels of the soccer community are supported, including grassroots and amateur organizations. So today, I'm respectfully asking for a defined set of expectations, a corrective plan, and a fair opportunity for my organization to be reinstated so that we can once again operate responsibly within city parks and continue serving our community. We wanna work with the city. We wanna be part of Fresno's growth, and we want to up the opportunity to move forward together. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Next speaker, Leo Valadevia.

Good

afternoon. My name is Leo Valdivia.

So coach Hispanic Soccer League.

I am the coach for the Hispanic League Soccer League. I do have a question as to why we're not being let play in the city parks. I think we all have a right to play in the parks. All the kids on my league are

My my team.

On my team are

twenty Twenty to 22.

20 to 22 years old.

And

they always ask me why are other leagues playing and we're not.

Europeans

all have the opportunity to play in the parks. I have my family and grandchildren whom I'm whom I'm also taking to the park.

Playground.

And they like playing on the playgrounds. And right now in the schools where we're using usually playing, we're not they're not letting us use the playgrounds. I don't think it's fair that we are not being let play on the fields, and we're all human, and we should all have a right to play in the parks.

Football We all

commit mistakes, and I think that rules should be applied to all leagues the same and equally. I would like to be given the opportunity to play again because football is so popular amongst the entire nation. And I would like to be given the opportunity to be able to play again in the parks. And that is it. Good afternoon all.

I have two questions.

The

first is the taxes that we pay in Fresno, part of that goes to the security of Fresno?

Parks. I don't know.

Mhmm. And the parks.

Security of Fresno parks. Uh-huh. That's the first question because football soccer

I have noticed that in the parks when we are playing, I have never noticed a security guard or a police officer. The second question is about a comment that I heard made of the $50,000 for a grant opportunity for children. The question is if there is that grant opportunity. If there is this opportunity for sports, why would you stop a league from playing?

Yeah. The the football.

The soccer.

Uh-huh.

Stopped from playing eight months ago. If we are also making programs for children.

Nonprofit? Why are

you stopping a league that is also a nonprofit? That has to do with children. Those are my two questions. I hope it helps in something and thank you for listening to me.

Thank you. Next speaker is Ivan Doratas.

Good evening, madam chair and members of the committee. I thank you for the opportunity. I have two two issues or topics, if if you may. If I may. First of all, Hispanic League, they've been they've been around for many years helping the community and providing this entertainment that keeps a lot of people away from, you know, causing trouble.

Sports do that. They help, you know, the community stay in the right path. Now my name is Ivan Dorantes. I've been coaching for over twenty years. I've coached, you know, club, recreational, school.

I'm now a coach at Edison High. We were valet champs last year. And throughout the years, over this twenty years or so, I've noticed that a lot of a lot of and this is my second topic, I apologize if I just jumped to it. But, over the over the years, I've noticed that a lot of kids graduate from high school or go to high school, but don't get the chance to go play club because club have tended to be to get expensive. They tend to, over over the years, have tend to to make it an elite sport, know.

They charge a great amount of money every month, and a lot of a lot of families, low income families especially from the West Side, don't have that opportunity. You see a lot of clubs in Clovis, you see a lot of clubs in North Fresno, but on the West Side, which is where Edison is, those kids don't have the opportunity that a lot of kids have. And the only reason is because they don't have the funds. So I took it upon myself to build or start a nonprofit org with the purpose of getting all these kids to learn the sport, to advance in the sport, to prepare them, to get them to get them to to to the next level. And I was asking, was here, not only like I said, talking in favor of Hispanic, but to see if if there was a possibility that the city can sponsor us as a nonprofit, a field where I can have all these kids trained.

Because as of right now, we don't have a soccer field where we can call home or we can call, you know, we can train. We just whatever we find a spot, then we'll we'll practice there. But but so I was trying to see if I can get the city to sponsor us in that way. So I appreciate your letting giving me the opportunity, and I've I've I've spoken to mister Jose, about this. And, if you guys decide, in favor, please please let me know.

Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anyone online? Okay. Before I close unscheduled communication, I want to go back out to the public to see if they have any comments in regards. Please bring your cards up, please.

And our speaker is Mario Capilero.

Good afternoon.

League that

was born in 1910.

Hispanic. Yes. Hispanic League and this one, it's the they're the oldest leagues. Hispanic. Adam Soccer League. No. I hear them

speaking of Hispanic League, but not of Adams. We don't talk about Soccer Sam or Central.

We have been

working with the parks department. When the pandemic was going on, During the pandemic, they were saying that if the restrictions weren't lifted, there weren't going be any parks for us

to play.

Before the restrictions were

Various

leagues started playing.

I would

go to parks and let them know that there were leagues out there playing. Why wouldn't I get the permission to play?

They would tell me

that they didn't have permission either. If they

If want to play,

but then we would have problems later on.

So

I waited. Waited until the governor lifted the restrictions. In the meantime, all the other leagues had already started playing. When they told me that I could start reserving That's when started doing it. Told me that all the other leagues that hadn't respected your restrictions that these people that are commenting Because they're saying that I talk bad about them, but it's not about that.

Adams' acronym is? Sporting Friendship

of the world. It's the

sporting friendship of the world, acronym in Spanish. And I would put that when I reserve put Adams as the acronym and then put the full name at the bottom.

They asked me to choose

the acronym. And they were thinking it was two leads. We haven't had any issues with any of the parks.

Hispanic. Not

going to

speak bad

of the Hispanic League. Now if we think of like Walmart,

if Walmart doesn't allow their

Walmart didn't allow a certain market to go up in their place. It would become a monopoly. Just an example that I'm trying to give. Universal and it's necessary. Our league was born in 2010,

so been

almost sixteen years.

Servicing many children, young children that have

been born with a sport.

We've been building

it.

Young kids are speaking, I'm also a coach.

Have a group person

that is also a referee that came up to speak. We agree that all of the referees are prepared

to take orders

all of the kids and it's the same thing that you guys should do. Just put order.

Six. Thank you. Yeah, I need you to fill out a card though please. Can you fill out the card? Is there any card there? I need it for a record. Yeah, I just needed to have it here for a record please.

Like to promote is improving our policies and policies to improve the number of soccer facilities fields for the kids. And also, one of my jobs was was to go to all the parks and to take a look and see what was going. So another policy I like to do or or suggest is to promote safety in all facilities, not only soccer, but softball fields, football fields, all the all the amenities or facilities that you have for all different sports. I'd like to promote a policy that we improve that. I think that I've seen a lot of violence, not only with the sports, but other constituents of use of the parks and so forth.

And so I think they would go a long way into improving. Because I've seen soccer. Soccer is not one of my favorite sports, but I've seen the magic that they've done with the kids. And they are right. These gentlemen are right. The kids, we owe it to the future of the kids. And it's also helping the kids helps promote the one Fresno concept that the mayor has. So I suggest strongly suggest that we work on our policies that aforementioned, and I thank you for your time. And as always, we appreciate you as a community.

Thank you. Anyone else in the room.

Good

afternoon to all. My name is Humberto Campos.

Spanish Soccer League.

And I come as the president of the Hispanic League. Am specifically here to ask for your support in producing more courts and fields for the community.

I

think it's important because football or soccer has increased a lot in our community. Having more fields available in courts would be I'm not here to talk about any any league. I respect all. I think that if we've grown over the last eighteen years, we have close to 120, sometimes 150 teams. I think it's been because of our great work.

So we're going to continue forward sponsoring this great sport. Suspension that we received. I think it was a little unjust because when you punish somebody, you should investigate. Investigate how things really were. It's not just that two people were in a fight.

That had nothing to do with the league. And they would have blamed and they put the blame on our entire organization. We don't promote violence.

We

don't promote alcohol. Sadly, in this sport, it will always happen. So we would like for your we would like to ask for support if PD

When

there are problems like this.

However,

sometimes we do call them and they don't come.

I

have received insults telling me that it's not my part. They have told me off.

Sometimes

because I'm just trying to resolve a problem. But sometimes just one person is not enough with so many people. So the first time first thing that everybody tells me is it's not your park.

So

it's important to control the violence. And us as a league, we also do punish people that cause problems.

I

hope we can solve

this soon.

For the entire community that's been supporting us for

a while. Thank

you.

Thank you. I have one more card. Cesar, you want us scheduled or you want the other item on the agenda? You come up. Okay.

Hello. First and foremost, peace. My name is Cesar Castamayor. I'm a community organizer with Integral Community Solutions Institute. I work with system impacted youth and youth involved in the justice system.

And what I wanted to have a conversation with you and and hopefully get some answers is, Romaine Park basketball courts continue to be not in good shape. We've been back in 2015, I remember coming into the city planning commission and saying that the water fountains in the park don't work, and they still don't work. The water comes out very low. If you look at the basketball courts in Romaine Park, they're they're they're they're dread. They're they're the the flow is ripped up, and every time it rains, they fixed it.

Every five years, they fixed it, but it keeps going back. There needs to be better solutions to allow for for more traffic back into the park. I appreciate the the access into the facility inside for the basketball, for the hoopers. But I think also I don't wanna lose sight that there's not just soccer, but there's also American football leagues that are also in the parks that also be need to be accounted for in in in the same in the same tone, accessible to community. And and the last thing I wanna say is that we continue to see the city be very exclusive on who they work with.

We need to have more inclusivity, and I wanna go back to some of the beginning conversations when this parks commission was was being constructed about participatory budgeting processes so community can have more say so and feel more empowered to make decisions that impact us every day. And I think if we don't have more of inclusion in community, we're gonna continue to see people come up and continue to complain and complain and complain. The best thing that you guys can do is push city council to have more participatory budgeting processes that allows people in community, regardless of citizenship or anything, but allows for community to to have a voice. And I think that's the best best way moving forward.

Thank you. I will now close unscheduled communication, and we will now move two, workshop overview of the parks athletic facility reservation policy. Will someone from the parks department please begin the presentation?

Good evening. My name is Christy McIsaac and I will be representing the athletic facility policy overview. Alright, so there are a few updates from the last overview done in July. I do ask that you save all your questions until the completion of this presentation. So, some of the things we're gonna talk about is purpose, policy implementation, policy overview, reservation information, and then looking ahead.

So the purpose of the policy is to help further measure p, our dedicated parks sales tax measure, as well as the goals of the park's master plan by guiding access, reservations, and use of the city's athletic facilities, by residents, community organizations, businesses, and nonresidents, and provide equitable and reasonable access to public facilities. This is the first form of athletic facility policy. It establishes expectation for reservation holders and improves maintenance and rest periods for grass fields. In fiscal year twenty four, implementation of this reservation policy and application process was represented, or was presented to align with measure p, and comply with the Fresno Municipal Code.

Christie, I'm sorry, can you change the slide?

We're still on this one. I'm just going over my notes. And then in FY '25, the first year of the policy and the application process was implemented. FY '26 and '27, we'll continue to monitor and revise as needed. There's your next slide, Erin. So now we're gonna go over some policy implementation. So it's effective 03/11/2024. So we informed reservation stakeholders via email. So there was two technical workshops that were held in March, so March 20 and March 21. Staff and park rangers were also present at this workshop in March.

This information was also presented at PRAC on 07/21/2025. And we are working on getting an additional workshop in this coming February to review the policy once again, as well as provide information on any updates since the policy was first rolled out. So a policy overview. Reservations are required for exclusive use of a facility. Reservations will take priority over non reservation use, including drop ins.

Applicant representative is responsible for all activity conducted during the reservation period by teams, observers, parents, coaches, coach assistants, referees, empires, friends, families, visitors, etcetera. I do wanna note that all parties related reservation should also follow our park rules and code of conduct. Applicant must be assess assessable throughout the application process and present during all times and dates of event reservation. Reservations cannot be transferred to another organization. Reservations may not be used for any other purpose than the reserved purpose.

Publicizing of events using our facilities require a reservation. And then we are going to, in this next slide, go over the two different reservation requests, which are occasional reservations and advanced reservations. So, first we have occasional reservations. So, who can reserve these? These are for individuals playing with friends or family. It's not for leagues or programs. Applicants or nonprofit representatives must be at least 18 years of age or older. When can they reserve? They can reserve same day reservations, may be available. Same day reservations except facilities as is.

Reservations require site preparation must be made at least seventy two hours in advance, but no more than four weeks in advance. And then what they can reserve? They can reserve any regional or neighborhood, athletic facility that has availability at the time of reservation. Any individual may reserve no more than twice per month. And then there are three ways that they can reserve.

They can go online, they can call, or they can come in in person, and we'd be happy to help them. Insurance is typically not required for occasional reservations for individual play. Standard reservation waivers are required though for participants. Our goal here is to ensure reservations are used only by occasional users, which are individuals playing with friends and family, and again, those reservations are no more than twice per month. Now we have advanced reservations.

So, I'm gonna go start with who can reserve. So, reservations are for leagues, for regular practice, games, tournaments, clinics, programs, special events, activities that collect revenue, and again applicants or non profit representative must be at least 18 years of age or older. What can they reserve? Again, can reserve any regional or neighborhood athletic facility that has availability. They will go through an application process, so how they apply is they go online and they can reserve the fields courts or other city facilities within that application process.

When they can apply, advance reservations can book recurring reservations for three months at a time. Advance reservation applications shall be submitted quarterly. The department will review all requests and approve field reservations in accordance with the review process and allocation of facilities section of the policy. So on this screen, you can also see our reservation dates, applications open, when they're deadline for consideration, and then when we would respond to that application. So, goal here is to ensure that reservations are confirmed in advance to organize recurring or planned activities.

Advance reservations do require insurance that meets the city's insurance requirements. We reserve these advance reservations on a quarterly basis, and we follow an application submittal process that includes a time frame to submit applications. All applications submitted by the deadline for consideration will be reviewed, scored, and ranked by the criteria listed in the policy. The scoring topics were put in place to further the purpose of Measure P and the goals of the park's master plan. The topics include youth and senior recreation programs, serving the city of Fresno residents, benefits to surrounding neighborhoods, good standing, and total number of people served.

And there are more details on the scoring process that are outlined in the policy. We always highly recommend that submission to have an advanced reservation meets our deadlines, but we will still take applications after the deadline has passed. Any late requests submitted after the quarterly deadline will be processed on a first come, first served basis and will be subject to availability after the applications submitted in the consideration time frame are served. Then we have reservable days and hours. So, most of our or all of our reservable hours are eight a.

M. To nine p. M. Outdoor courts, indoor gyms, and diamonds are reservable every day of the week. Grass fields are available to reserve on Thursdays through Sundays. This applies to both occasional and advanced reservations. The only exception into the grass field availability is the regional sports complex, which is available to reserve every day of the week. The reservation time slots are based on the City of Fresno master fee schedule. Speaking of fees, oops. So, the fees on the chart reflect our standard fee rates, and follow the city's adopted master fee schedule.

Organizations with a valid nonprofit ID number qualify for reduced fees. The fee will be reduced by 15%. A reservation is not confirmed until it has been paid in full. All payments must be paid in the form of exact cash, debit, credit, cashier's check, money orders, or business checks may payable to the city. Occasional reservations must be paid at the time of your of the reservation. Advanced reservations must be paid at least thirty days from the date of response. Reservations not paid by these time frames will be canceled. It's not moving over.

Not sure why it's not coming over.

Thank you.

We have refund, cancellations and transfers. So, it is the responsibility of the reservation holder to notify the Parks Department immediately when an approved reservation date is no longer needed. And changes to reservation or cancellation request must be submitted to the parks department by email. Or the play line at least ten days a business days in advance of the reservation date to be considered for refund. If a cancellation is received less than ten days before the reservation fees will be forfeited.

All refunds will be subject to a $15 processing fee. If a refund is authorized credit card refunds will be issued back to the card used for payment. All the forms of payment will be fine refunded by the city issue check. If city Or if the city does not guarantee filled availability for requested changes. And if your reservation is impacted by whether it may be transferred to another date within two weeks of the original reservation.

Pending availability. This policy also includes details related to refunds, cancellations, and transfers within the policy. Now we're gonna go over code of conduct and corrective action process. So our code of conduct, it is the commitment of the city of the Fresno Parks Department to ensure that all park facilities are free from negative, aggressive, and inappropriate behaviors, and that the environment is geared towards providing high quality programs, services, and facilities in the atmosphere of respect, collaboration, openness, safety, and positivity. So we do want the parks to be an enjoyable and positive experience.

If the city observes any activity that goes against the policy, park rules or code of conduct we will follow a corrective action process that is further outlined within our policy. The city reserves the right to remove patrons from facilities or programs via suspension or other means deemed appropriate by the city.

So,

we do have two steps within our corrective action process. So, step one is a warning. It'll be given a written notice to the reservation holder. Step two would be a meet and suspend. So meeting with the reservation holder and organization representative to discuss the violation and then prepare an outline of circumstances including terms of facility.

The following steps will be taken by the director or designee to address and resolve complaints and violations. The city reserves the right to combine or skip steps depending upon facts of each situation and the nature of the offense. And those who are given corrective action have a right to appeal this decision, which is outlined in the policy. As far as our application process, so our athletic facility reservation application, both occasional and advanced are available online. There are some required information that they'll be required to complete within that application.

There's also some optional information that maybe doesn't apply to all of our application holders, and they will have to acknowledge and confirm some of the things at the very end of that application. We do have a scoring process. So, to further the purpose of Measure P and the goals of the Parks Master Plan, Youth and senior recreation programs may take priority over other requests. The department will follow this criteria when reviewing request dates and potential scheduling conflicts. Allocations will be made based on total score using this scoring criteria.

If two or more advanced applications receive the same score, a lottery selection will be used to determine which request will be selected. And the city has the right to limit field reservations per customer. If requesting to reserve multiple fields, the requester may be asked to rank them in order of priority. I wanna give you a little overview of the athletic facility reservation information. This is updated as of December.

So total by facility type will give you a breakdown of what is being requested with within these applications. So as of December 2025, we have had 139 diamond requests, two twenty one field requests, 17 indoor gym requests, 10 hockey rink requests, and 33 sports court requests. But the total of four twenty application total have been scored with some organizations submitting more than one application per quarter. Last July, the total of applications that we presented to you was at two forty five, so within the last six months, an additional 175 applications were submitted. That is a 71% increase.

183 separate organizations have submitted an advanced application as of December 2025. When previously presented in July, there were 93 organizations that had submitted an application. This is 90 additional organizations that have submitted an application within the last six months. This is almost a 97% increase since the last time it was presented to you. Within the four twenty applications submitted, we were able to accommodate 61% of those applications, and 17% requests were approved modifications due to conflicts, whether that be internal or external.

So, looking ahead, we'll continue to collaborate with staff and park rangers. We're gonna collect feedback from the community, and we are going to hold another athletic facility reservation policy community meeting to ensure all community members are up to date on all our athletic facility reservation policies and procedures. And I appreciate your time today. I'll take any questions. Thank you.

Let me turn my mic on. Thank you for that presentation. I'd like to talk a little bit about the corrective action process. When there is unwanted activity happening at the parks or someone is like drinking or whatever it may could be, and you're and they're given a written notice to the reservation holder. Step two is meet and suspend, right? Correct. So, when they're meeting are they discussing any type of compromise or are they just automatically kicked out? So, there is

an appeal process, so they're not, there is a time or opportunity for them to appeal the decision that has been made. We do collect all the evidence that we can on our end before we suspend any sort of organization or person from within our parks. And then at that point, at director's approval, we do go ahead and suspend, but they are given that opportunity to appeal that suspension. And again, that is given to our director for final approval.

And how is evidence collected?

It just depends on the situation. So sometimes we have video evidence, sometimes we have police reports, sometimes we have staff and park ranger reports as well. So, there's a collection of things that can be collected, we try to collect as much as possible that we can, sometimes it's community members that are providing us that information as well that we have to look further into. So, it really just does depend on the situation and what we're able to collect, but if we collect as much as possible to make that decision.

And when you say video, from my knowledge there's no video or any cameras at the park, so is there cameras at the parks or you have videos being submitted by?

Typically it's by the community and so if we can utilize that video for evidence purposes then we will, but I know that there is some of our parks at this time that are now having some sort of video, but for the most part it is, our community members that are videoing and submitting that information to us, but we do go ahead and further investigate, if we can find any further information on that.

So correct me if I'm wrong, did you just say some parks are now starting to video cameras put inside them?

Yes, and I want to direct that question to Erin because I don't have it off I'm interrupt

that for you. So the cameras that we now are installing are kind of temporary in nature. They're similar to what you see at like a Home Depot, Lowe's, the malls, they're the solar panels that are aimed at our vehicles more so for the break ins. We're having fuel lines cut from our trucks, we're having Cadillac converters. So it's really an attempt to focus those eyes on our vehicles and those are monitored 20 fourseven by a service. They're not monitoring our fields, they're not monitoring the inside of our community centers. There are parking lots protecting our assets.

Okay. Another quick question, once you meet and discuss the activity that took place to violate the use of the park, how long is the suspension?

That depends, go ahead. That depends on the violation, and the extent of the violation and the offense. So, if it is a safety to our community, that might have a longer suspension if we see that

the safety as in

as in people are being harmed within our parks. Okay. So we obviously wanna make sure that everybody's safe within our parks.

So when harmed, are you mean like typical fist fight

or Again, a physical So, altercation, we wanna make sure that we are ensuring that our parks are a safe community for everybody to enjoy. So, again, it just depends on the information that we're collecting and how long we think that suspension should be. And again, that's at director's approval.

So, what's the typical length of a suspension?

Months is usually the length of

the months?

Is what we've given, yes.

Has anyone ever been banned?

So, currently have one right now for reasons I won't go into here in this public setting, be happy to share with you through other, I'll check with legal counsel on how we can do that, but don't want to put that out. It is pertaining to a organization so I don't want to put that information up but we do have one.

No, just a yes or a no is pretty good for me. I'm just asking because some people do make mistakes sometimes as people that are attending these games or activities at the park that tend to cause the the commotions. So just wanna know even though it may not have been for instance if I made a reservation for a park but then I have other people who are coming that are not part of my group are making noise and making trouble. And I know that the reservation is in my name. I'm responsible for that.

So how long would that typically suspend me from being able to make another reservation? I I got my question. Thank you though. So can you answer my question please?

I'm sorry. I was

So like if I, you know, I know I'm responsible. Say for instance, I'm having a game and you got some people that are visiting the park that are not a part of the group and they bring alcohol or whatever to the park but the reservation is in my name. Typically how long is that suspension or is that a warning?

So I think you're if you're talking about like a picnic pavilion, you're having something like that, that's a little bit different than I think a sports league that has an ongoing reservation. In that case where maybe you have a family reunion and say one of our picnic shelters and your guests come in, you sign the document that basically states you're responsible for your individuals We haven't had one like that yet, it really is case by case, but in something like that, I think that would typically start off with a warning process that's here depending on the severity of that. I'm not naive to say people don't drink in our parks, we go and look at our parks and there's beer cans and the trash cans. I'm not sitting here saying it's because of that group, know it happens out there. I've seen it in our picnic civilians, I've seen unfortunately in some of the top lot areas.

So in that case, if we had evidence to say that it was your party, more than likely we'd start off with some sort of a warning and look at is it something that is a frequent reservation holder that continues to have this problem then we go on from there, but typically it'd be a warning to start.

Is it the same for any leagues that are trying to reserve the park for games?

As far as the warning? Yes. So I'll give you an example. We've had leagues where they're parking on the lawn and that's a violation of our policy. We're trying to enhance the turf and keep our fields as playable as possible. Park rangers have gone out and documented, hey they're parking on the field, we've asked them to move, they won't move. So that's something that definitely gets a warning, that's not an immediate suspension. So we try to work with the legs as best as possible knowing the demand for sports in our parks. So that is something there that did result in a warning letter. But then again if it did happen again where then we would then sit down and look at something beyond a warning letter.

Now if that was a let's say they're parking on the lawn, next week you go out and they have I don't know they painted the field or something like that. That would kind of be a separate warning on a separate item. I wouldn't kind of put them back to back, it wouldn't come as one, would come as two separate

Are we doubling up on Park Rangers when these parks are being reserved for like league games, football, basketball, soccer?

So we share our reservation schedule with PD, Park Rangers have all of our league schedules and even our one time reservations, picnic pavilions, they have picnic pavilion reservations, they have our advanced and our kind of day of reservation. So they have all of that available to them. Now if you know there's potential issues with a big group coming in, they will circle through for instance some of our facilities, they're popular parks not just for the sports fields, tot lots popular, the walking trail is popular. So in those instances on weekends, they know their presence is probably required there a little more frequent than a pocket park. So knowing what's going on in our parks has helped them get through and patrol those on a guess a higher level.

And we're still under the 20 of the park required park rangers that this measure costs for, correct?

We are. I believe we're at 19 right now. So we are right there.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Barraza, you have any questions?

Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I want to thank a lot of the folks from the soccer leagues. Something that I want to thank you for is all the volunteer efforts that all of you put in the coaches, the players, the parents. I know that I have personally seen Mario, Beto, some of the other folks doing the hard work before, during and after the games. They worked very hard, all of them, all the leagues to upkeep the facilities.

Part of the problem is when we overload the use of the facilities after a while they get worn and right now because they punished the Hispanic Soccer League at Pilbara's Park, it looks beautiful. Well, but we need more soccer fields so that we can accommodate the demand for soccer and not just necessarily, I'm not saying that they were relying on punishment to upkeep the facilities but it just happened to be the outcome. I wanted to make an observation regarding the process, something that you folks have not discussed at all is the appeal process. One of the sections of the city ordinance, section five zero nine under the category of permission to use designated park areas and conduct group activities, it says any interested person may appeal any decisions of the director made under this section and related to an application for a permit for the use of a special activity or group activity to the city manager who immediately hear and consider the matter in grant, grant with conditions or deny the permit or deny the permit or grant the permit. In other words, either uphold the decision of the director or change it.

I don't think you have informed Hispanic Soccer League that there was an option available to them. That's one observation. The other observation that I want to make as we review the policies and hopefully we have an opportunity to make recommendations to improve policies. I personally think that would be very useful to have an independent review process. The thing that kind of worries me is that I think that your investigative part is very limited.

You just go and punish because of what you see. I mean, I'm sorry, happen to have read a lot about this case, the case of the Hispanic Soccer League on the media. So it's public information, in addition to the fact that I have been in conversations with representatives of the Hispanic Soccer League. I, in that particular instance, the part that I did not like was that a league that has more than 125 teams, you decided to punish everybody. Punish the teams that were engaged in doing something wrong, whatever that was.

Part of the other problem and our board chair said, our commission chair did a very good job in describing how sometimes you tackle the problem that occurs at the parking area just because the league happened to be associated with that. The leagues themselves have their own rules. Both I've heard, heard Mario, I've heard Beto that they have their own real, they punish their players when they don't behave. And which is a very good thing. And I think that there probably needs to be a better discussion between the soccer leagues and the City of Fresno.

The other part that I think is not very clear is the role of the various participants. I'm talking about the Fresno City Police Department, what exactly is their role? Well, last time I heard it was to enforce ordinances and and and and take people to jail that don't behave. Well, why can't they do that at the parks when it's necessary? You heard that the enforcement on the part of the soccer leagues is very hard because they're not police officers and they hear, they're reminded of their family when they go and try to ask someone to stop doing some misbehave action.

And think there needs to be more dialogue between all the folks, all the leagues. And it's true that every league, on the size of different types of issues and needs. So there probably should be review of those issues. The last time you had a workshop was 2020, I believe it's '24.

So

it's now gonna be, we're going to the second year. So I think that it would be very useful, in the matter that this item was listed unfortunately, was listed as a workshop, and I was hoping that it will be in a hearing. But I think now that we're having the benefit of your presentation, which is a very good presentation, which is a little bit similar to what we heard before and were wonderful the first time that you gave us a lot of good information. But I think it's more about what can we do to promote sports. Soccer happens to be a very important sport and is the fastest growing sport, but we are not, you know, obviously we as commissioners support all the sports, basketball, softball, baseball, everything.

And I've heard of incidents in the other sports too. I haven't follow-up as to what punishment you administer there. But there are problems that I think can better be solved if we work together. I hope that for a future discussion that this matter can be scheduled as a hearing so that perhaps the community along with us commissioners can make recommendations. How can we do things better?

We all want to promote sports at all levels, even football. I recall that our chair and I did a pass the motion with the support of the commission to support the creation of more facilities in those areas. And that's awesome because we all care about fixing problems and it's not about creating an adversarial relationship. You folks at the City Parks Department work very hard, you do a lot of good things. So, it's not like it's all terrible.

The point is, when we run into issues, how do we work together? Something else that I learned from the soccer leagues that have used school facilities, they have told me that at the schools, there happens to be a lot of fencing around. And guess what, that allows them to control who access the games. They have to have better control where they can not allow somebody to go in if they happen to have beer or whatever other problem. So the environmental areas of where the sports are played for the safety, from the safety standpoint is also very important.

The only thing I also requested, and unfortunately I don't see anyone from the police department, I was hoping to have the police department because they are our police, and that means in our city, they're the folks that play soccer are also entitled to have a little bit of help. And because of that, I would like to see what has happened with public safety at the parks since we added the park ranger classification. And it was promised at one of our hearings that we will have a report on that. I thought that now it would have been, I added the word public safety to my request on this topic and I hope we have a conversation on that only for the purpose of making things better. We're not trying to place blame on anyone other than whatever is necessary because of the policies that have to be implemented.

But I'd like to have a continued, more constructive discussion of this topic of how we can do things together to, you know, I heard such a beautiful example of a gentleman says, you know, I take my kids to play soccer, but also my younger kids go and play at the playgrounds. That's what it's all about, public enjoyment of our facilities. And at the end, we all paid the taxes. They made an observation about taxes and now with Maisher P, every time we go to the store, a fraction of that sales tax goes to Maisher P. That's the reason why all of this is relevant to all of us. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Sorry, Commissioner Duran?

Thank you. Nothing at this time. Thank you.

Commissioner Miller?

Actually, I just

wanted to thank our translator. That was a heroic last minute pivot and I really just want you to know how appreciated that was.

Vice Chair Ward.

I just want to thank you for the presentation and thank all the community members who took the time to come out and speak around these issues tonight. And as Commissioner Brazos was saying, maybe there'll be something where we're able to weigh in and maybe share some thoughts on how this can continue to improve. Thank you.

Commissioner Kerchorski.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the facility reservation information. I had a couple of questions on that. Of the 22% that cannot be accommodated, what facility type was that? Is it one or a combination?

That can just be a combination of all different facility types and that usually is either because it's unavailable at the time, it could be an internal reservation that we have, programming that we have, external reservations. If they're submitting again, if they're submitting after the deadline, then it's on a first come first serve basis. So if that facility is already being reserved by another organization or party, then we'd have to deny them. We do our very best to supply them with other facilities that they can reserve if they like. So, we're always looking for other ways to accommodate their reservation requests.

Yeah. Was it mostly for soccer? Is it mostly for baseball? Do you know?

I I would have to run some numbers on that and see what it was mostly. I know most of our reservations are soccer fields, so that's the majority. And then, close second, I believe, is Diamonds, so I would have to run some numbers on that to give you a better example of what is that 22%.

You. Mr. Kotrzywinski just to chime in on that. Sure. Typically most of our conflicts are due to lights. So everyone works till 05:00 or so. So right now light lit fields are at a premium. That's something that we've tried to incorporate in some of our future designs and even retrofitted some of our existing parks like Collegian that we just added some sports lighting to. So that one now has reservations where last year it couldn't because it was too dark. So most of them revolve around lighting. Unfortunately, think about the summer months when it's one hundred and five nobody wants to go out and play at 02:00, they all went to later hours. Most of it revolves around lighting.

That's super helpful because that led to my other question which was in your planning how are you accounting for the 22% and it sounds like you've identified the major issue which would be lighting.

Correct, yes. So a lot of our new parks coming online have field lighting. So the Southeast Park that we're building there will have lights on the soccer fields. Dolores Huerta has a soccer or has lighting on the open green space. So just to kind of mention a few, but yeah, lighting is kind of a key component to most of our open space designs because it is, it has come at a premium. So whether it's baseball, football, it needs the lighting just based on our elements.

Yeah, it sounds like if you got the lights installed that you already have planned to be installed, then you think that 22% could go down to like zero possibly?

Ideally, it'd be great to be able to accommodate everyone's request, But I think down the road that would be the plan. But I think too, one thing Christy mentioned, the organizations that submitted application that was at 96% increase over the last year. So I think again just making these fields in our facilities more available and more competitive because years ago a lot of these fields were what I'll call monopolized. You had organizations and no fault to any organization, they had exclusive rights to fields for a full year. And so now we've kind of we've pulled that back and to make them more equitable.

We go through a three month span and again we aren't reserving them seven days a week. We leave them offline Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for a couple of reasons for the fields to rest and hopefully the grass to kind of restore and kind of have a chance to get back to what it was. And two, allow the neighborhood that surrounds that park to be able to use their facilities as well. So oftentimes again sports is a great amenity. I played sports growing up all the way to high school and forth. It's something that I always back. But again, some of the neighborhoods felt like they couldn't use their facilities because they were being used by organizations seven days a week rightfully so. But again, this allows us to allow the neighbors to utilize their facility as well.

Yeah, that's also very helpful information and I guess if there's a recommendation that we should make for more fields or something, I'd like to see if that is something that we should do as a commission to help get these requests down to, you know, accommodate everybody's request, obviously, be the ultimate goal. I know you guys are working hard. Thank

you. Thank you.

Commissioner Trulio.

No questions at this time.

I have one more question. When a reservation is made to using a park, how can I frame it? It's the parks department going through making sure that all the amenities are up to par like the bathrooms are clean, there's soap, there's paper towels, if there is a missing basketball hoop on the court is that being put up?

Yes, so our facilities are serviced seven days a week. We have a morning opening crew that comes through, opens the park, services the restrooms and then we have an afternoon group that comes through and checks to make sure the restrooms are full of paper products, so things of that nature. In addition to that, we have our maintenance team and our area teams that go around and any missing nets, any damage volleyball nets, whatever that may be gets reported, may not like if it's a volleyball net, we had one damage the other day. It's not a simple fix where we just repair and put it right back up. That one took a couple days.

Basketball nets usually same day, but yes we do check for those facilities, our lighting, we make sure that that's available for the guests to use. We will though, I will tell you if we do have rain or we do have elements that aren't conducive to playing sports, we will cancel reservations for their safety as well as other park users.

Yes, the field is a liability. Another question, how often are we going through the parks, checking the amenities, making sure that they are in fair or excellent condition?

As far as like playing courts and fields and

And basketball hoops, volleyball nets, tennis courts, etcetera.

So as I mentioned the area managers that we have, their team go out on a regular basis. So they're being checked probably weekly for things like cut fences. They're looking at safety concerns or maybe a tot lot, but the visual stuff that we can see just driving by is typically checked daily by the crews that are opening the parks and the crew that goes back that second afternoon. In addition to that even Park Rangers are reporting things to the Parks Department through our 311 service Fresco are reporting things through that as well as the community members. So we have a lot of different I guess conduits back to the Parks Department for those type of issues and concerns.

Now if it's something larger than that unfortunately we've had to let's say shut a field down, We will try through social media get that message out to the community members that we're aware of this, we're working through it and it may be a few days longer than you're used to.

So typically you can put up basketball courts in a day, correct?

The net?

The net, yes, not the court, I'm sorry, Like the yes, go ahead and draw a whole court in one day.

Like for instance, we had Lions Park, we just opened that with the new basketball courts there. Nets were down that morning and they were back up that afternoon once staff notified their supervisors and those got put back up.

But can you take a look at Romaine, which is a highly utilized park on the outside, even though I know they do have the gym, but the outside is also utilized as well. You're talking about

the basketball court.

For the basketball nets.

We actually have in that one, I think one of the guests here mentioned the basketball surfacing. We actually have a project in the queue to get that replaced. So it is breaking apart and that will be replaced. So that'll be a clean surface for them to play upon, but I will have the basketball checked as well.

I think that park needs we need to really make sure all of our parks are good but that park was the first park to have the skate park that I was a part of bringing to the community and out of that we got the BMX park that was built at Mariela Brown. So just making sure that those parks are pretty much up to par because they're going to be utilized just not for the basketball courts or the toddler lot, but they have skate parks and BMX parks on there as well.

Yes. And I think, I don't know if you all follow the parks Instagram or Facebook accounts, you'll see that we receded, aerated and fertilized about 29 facilities this past fall. The transformation at Pilbos is amazing. JSK, El Radka dog park, Todd Beamer Dog Park, I'm trying to think what other, we've got a number of them in there that all went from hearing from the audience here of we're playing on dirt type of deal, going through and aerating, reseeding, fertilizing and really putting those on a cycle where we can be proud of what we're offering to the community. And again, that's going to continue this spring too with the Bermuda treatment, so that was a fall treatment, this will be a Bermuda treatment.

And really now with landscape maintenance being in the parks department, it's a little easier to manage that make those happen more frequently. So we expect some good things with that.

One more question before I know got questions, it's the New Year. I know that there were some talks with the four community centers, the West, how is those talks coming along with like the sunset, yeah, those parks?

The four, so you're referring to sunset, Maxi, Mariela and Frank H?

Yes,

sir. So those community meetings were held, it really comes down to funding the overall, some of those are pretty high ticket items. I believe the last capital report we presented those numbers. I don't want to give you numbers that are incorrect, just to kind of put in context Sunset with that site being redesigned was upwards of $18,000,000 to really do that the right way. The others have price tags similar if not higher.

So are they moving forward or are they just sitting stagnant

right now?

So right now we're looking at various grant opportunities, we're looking at phasing some of those pieces into our capital portfolio. So we're looking at creative ways to get some of

those

amenities built and out there for the but in Sunset's case, think that one was a complete demo and rebuild and that one a year ago was $18 plus million to redo.

Okay. Thank you. Vice Chair Ward?

Yes. Director Geary, since you were just speaking about the I think was the Park facility kind of repairs and maintenance aspect. Since we heard earlier this evening from the gentleman who were talking about the Melody Park skate ramp rail that broke and then was missing altogether, is that something where is it considered a repair and that rail will be replaced or is that not on the same kind of schedule as basketball hoop nets and volleyball nets and things like that?

I actually pulled the work order data before coming over here today. So I can tell you since we met last year, repair started back in March 2025 and another repair of about $7,600 was just made November 2025 to those ramps. So all in all, I believe its total cost was about $11,000 we put into the skate facility there in the last year, just damage to the skate ramps, the surfacing on a skateboarder, probably going to get chastised for not knowing the technical terms. But the speaker wasn't wrong, are modular, they're not concrete, they're not as hardy as those features. We did go and put the railing in and I know we did have to remove that and they are looking at replacing that, but we have not let that one go.

Like I said, we've spent almost $11,000 in the last year repairing various items out there.

And why are they moderate or as you put it instead of concrete to where it'll last longer?

I think that came down to funding. We have a couple of those. We have the one out at Melody, we have the one out at Cary Park and we also have the one out at Kaiser. Those are all modular features that we have to go in and I think it was pitched at the time when I was in the Parks Department as I guess, I don't want to call them obstacles or device that you can move and you could kind of change the look and feel of the park, so it wasn't the same park each and every time you went out to experience it. But I don't believe that's been the case there. So we are looking at other solutions to kind of harden up the surfacing where it still is rideable for the users. But yes, we have not neglected those. We are repairing those. We are getting those repaired in a timely manner.

Because you would think I recall, I think you said November?

2025.

Yes. And now we're in January 2026 and they need repairing again?

I will find out what additional repairs, but I'm just telling you right now since last March, we've spent about $11,000 on repairs, installed lighting, repaired the fence, removed an old skate rail, installed two new ones, moved some benches. October we removed that skate rail that was not installed by the city staff is what my notes show here and then just recently removed and replaced damaged deck panels. Deck panels are the technical term, not the boards going up. Like I said, that all comes out to $10,800 is what we've done in the last year out there. Just Melody alone, not counting the other facilities I mentioned.

Okay. Just thinking that we might want to spend more for good quality so we don't have to keep repairing since it is a highly utilized part and look into some better materials however it may be. I'm not that familiar with all that term, I'm sorry if I'm butchering up but I'm just saying to avoid to keep spending, my grandmother always said that you spend for what you want so it can last longer. So if we spend and make the investment, we won't have to keep going back out and repairing in two or three months.

Right. And I don't think that repair was the same repair that was previously done. I think the boards or the deck ramps or panels have gotten weaker. So in some areas, it's just we're kind of chasing. So those are things that we're aware of and making repairs to and who knows there may be new technology that is something that is more durable than the old systems out there.

Okay. And maybe having conversation by doing community meetings with the skaters and BMXers is very helpful from my experience when we built out. We learned a new lingo, new terminology, we learned what worked, what didn't work and what was needed and what was not needed and it made our research easier to be able to decide what was best.

Yes, and I know our staff out there has worked with the group here. So I know we do have the contact information and we'll circle back with them.

Thank you. Any other questions on this item? Commissioner Barraza?

Yes, Madam Chair. As you know, the Southeast Fresno Regional Park is scheduled to be finished at around this summer, I don't know, maybe August 2026. That obviously is going to bring more soccer fields to be available. A little bit concerned to what happens to the Southeast to the Hispanic Soccer League since they've gotten a what do they call them, indefinite termination of their access to park facilities. For one thing, I would like to have further discussion, maybe not so much to the specifics of their case because obviously there are some confidential matters that probably cannot be discussed in public.

But I think in terms of improving the overall process of renting facilities, I feel that that's something that should be discussed as a hearing to have the opportunity to make recommendations on how to improve things. There's still, there's some items that I feel should be improved. And then the other part is, I mentioned the appeal process that the Hispanic Soccer League has not used. They have the right to appeal to the city manager and I don't know if they have been notified that they have that opportunity. Do you know, have they been notified?

We work with legal counsel and feel free to jump in here, city attorney, but we followed the policy as drafted with the administration and city attorney. Did check on that request that you had Commissioner Baraza, but I'll turn it over to City Attorney if there's anything to add to that.

Are you asking whether they have the ability to appeal to the CMO, is that the question? It's

That's very clear. I read the municipal code and it says that they have the option to appeal. I don't

believe the policy, the way it was approved was that or written is that the director has the final say and I don't believe it allows for does not allow it to go beyond the director's decision. But correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that's what's in the policy.

Okay. I respectfully disagree with that because I read the same policy and what I hope that doesn't happen that it does moves up to a court process when it gets more complicated for everybody. But anyway, I kind of was hoping to continue a discussion about the policies and procedures because I feel I'm very concerned that soccer is not getting the attention it deserves and in fact, it's being set back with the way the policies that are being applied. I think we need a better dialogue with the soccer community, with the teams, with the various organizations that are also entitled to use the facilities that are funded with Measure P. And so, you pointed out City Attorney that you have stated that you don't think that they have, they're entitled to appeal to the city manager.

Have you read the municipal code that pertains to this?

Yes, I have read the municipal code, but under the policy for the reservation, the way it's currently written is that the director has the final say in regards to any appeals decisions under the policy. And so, I mean, unless at this time if there's any concerns, I mean, they could always reach out, I guess, to the CMO or to counsel. But per the policy, the director has that authority or makes that final decision, sorry.

Okay, and the option of moving up to the city council, obviously, is always there, so I understand. I was hoping if there's interest in the part of this commission to continue this matter and have a further discussion and perhaps come in with recommendations on areas of the policy of leasing facilities that could be improved if we're able to schedule this matter as a hearing for a future commission meeting.

City Attorney, is that within the guidelines of the commission?

It is not. It is actually outside the realm of what the Measure P provides. However, that is something we can I can put together a memo and update the council or the commission?

And I think our intent as Christy mentioned is to meet with all the groups, not one in particular, but all of our reservation groups and see what's working with this policy, what isn't working with this policy. So I think that's slated to happen in the next thirty days to have I think what you're kind of leaning towards, but again to hear from all groups, not just in one in particular because to be honest with you, other groups have gotten written reprimands and other notices not just soccer. So it's been other groups have got the same thing. So we want to hear from those folks as well what's working, what's not working for you.

I think that would address what I'm trying to address that we have a dialogue with the community and really all sports, not necessarily only soccer because I've heard of problems with baseball and softball where they've had fights. So, safety is important to all of us in all areas. I think there will be a good start if there is a meeting with the community that our director indicates will take place where all folks are invited, there's an open meeting for everybody. And then from there, we'll see what happens next depending on how the community feels, whether in fact our city is addressing the issues that the community is bringing up and if not, well, then there may be other steps that could take place and the community always has the option of going higher in the scheme of things. I think I feel comfortable that if we have within a month's time a community meeting where everybody is invited and discuss the policies and allow the community to express any further concerns.

And hopefully, reason will prevail and there'll be improvements to the policy, which hopefully that should be the outcome.

Thank you. Any other questions in regards to this presentation? Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now move on to hearings, ID number 20Six-eighty9 hearing received public input on expanding access to arts and cultural grant program.

We skipped over the discussion.

Oh, skipped another one. See, I'm ready. I'm like, I thought we talked about this already. Discussion items, we're still, We will now move on to discussion items. ID 20Six-one23, Discussion twenty twenty six Expanded Access to Arts and Culture Subcommittee meeting schedule. I would like to begin the discussion regarding the twenty twenty six expanded access to arts and cultural subcommittee meeting schedule. Does any member of the commission have any comments or questions regarding this item? Vice chair Ward.

Yeah. I guess I was surprised to see this on the agenda because the subcommittee has not yet been appointed, but I guess maybe this is an opportunity for the commission to hear an update on what is happening with potentially having that subcommittee have meetings this year?

Yeah. I think for me, I wrote some things down that from previous from the last round that we had and the outcry from the public to have those meetings made public. I propose an ad hoc subcommittee with self imposed open meeting requirements. Have it continue to start and stop at the end of each annual year and that way I can appoint or the chair can appoint new members if we'd like each year. And I think because if we have it put on a as an item on our meetings, we only meet every third Monday, and I don't think that will serve the the public correctly.

So, that's just one of the recommendations that I have. I don't know how anyone else feels about it.

I think an ad hoc meeting is needed. I don't I think we were back and forth on if we could have it be like not ad hoc because of the funding and the availability and all that. So if that's still a no go then ad hoc should be in place I would say.

And I do recall the last meeting of the subcommittee after the grantee, the grants awards have went out, that meeting was made public and the notices did go out and I did I was able to watch that on Zoom. So, you know, for people who cannot come in person, at least they'll be able to still follow along, right, and still be able to provide comments.

That might be one of the things we have to work through. I think that the city's contract with CMAQ to be able to broadcast its various boards and commissions. It goes into place far in advance of, you know, the fiscal year starting, and so it can be difficult for the city to expand or add. There are certainly a lot of committees and commissions for the city that are not able to be a part of the CMAT contract. This is a a subcommittee that has a much larger or increased public interest than some of the other things and I think that that's something that we will wanna look into to see if there's a way that people can participate remotely or watch it, a recording or something since it is not a part of the CMAT contract.

And then I think another thing we would have to look at is kind of meeting location and timing. It's kind of part of the same question, but that one subcommittee meeting that we did have that was ultimately at the last minute able to be seen on Zoom, it was during the day and we got a lot of comments from people about how they had to leave work early or miss work to attend the meeting, but part of that was by having it when the city hall was open, then it didn't require additional time for the security guards to stay late. So maybe there are ways that the subcommittee, if it meets at city hall, that it could overlap at times that there are already other meetings here and that it wouldn't be like a new ask that is again outside the budget for the city hall security guards to like stay after hours.

So Chair, if you don't mind kind of on the lines as Vice Chair Ward, having that meeting held within the PRAC meeting would be an option. So, would have our PRAC meeting and within the PRAC meeting we would have excuse me, City Clerk can help me with this, I might stumble on this. So, within that meeting we would have an item that would be a hearing item or would be a hearing item to be a hearing item for the subcommittee to meet within the PRAC meeting. So we would have our regular PRAC business and that would move into a subcommittee meeting that would then be on the agenda, would be open to the public and would be available through the Zoom options?

It would essentially be a joint meeting. So it could also be a discussion. So if no action was taken, would be a discussion, but, it would be on your agenda. And then in, bold, it would have a header that says joint meeting with the subcommittee, and then you can do that.

My fear, I thought about this over the break, my fear is that we only meet every third Monday of the month so that means that the subcommittee will only meet every third Monday of the month. Those meetings will only be public when we have stuff that's getting ready to come up that requires more than them meeting once a month. So we will still have to have them come in here regardless and have a meeting if we propose to have a standing committee versus if we had an ad hoc committee they can meet as many times as they need to be able to do what they need to do to make this a fair and equitable process. This is the third year of this. We should be able to get it right this year.

My hope, praise and that we should be able to satisfy members of the public especially because we heard a lot of outcry for these past two years and being able to be able to participate in more of these meetings and being able to have more of a say and and and just being able to review the process. So I'm I'm looking at an ad hoc committee versus a standing committee and that's what I'm proposing. And how often?

Yeah, I just wanna say we need to meet a lot more than once a month and the fact that we haven't had a subcommittee for more than a hundred days is very problematic because depending on what is being updated, a lot of the things need to go to the commission for recommendation and then go to city council for review and consideration and adoption. That all adds a lot of time on the back end once there has been the chance to have the public input and make proposed revisions. So, again, kind of the comments I made earlier in the meeting during the member report section is the operational grants to be closely aligned with the July 1 start of the fiscal year for these organizations. We need to get going on those particularly. And then I do think it's the project grants that need a lot more significant revision, especially I noticed during the listening sessions, there's a real disconnect right now between the cultural arts plan and the applicants even understanding what the connection is for that to then the projects that are supposed to be carrying out, the goals of the cultural arts plan, and we could have those projects run on the twelve month award cycle from when they're funded, so that doesn't need to have the same kind of artificial restriction of the timeline that we've been working on in the first two years.

I think part of the problems that have arisen in year one and year two is that we have been in a pretty big rush to try to get things out just so it can get started because the RFPs by contract have to be available for a minimum of sixty days. And so, it all just adds up to an enormous amount of time. And, if we were to have the subcommittee start its first meeting on February 23, I think that is definitely not gonna be enough time to get any sort of grants out by July 1.

Madam chair.

Oh, again, we will be behind again in year three. So, like, we have to make a decision here. Commissioner Barraza?

Madam Chair, I understood that the status of the subcommittee had already been decided.

That was

the And year that our city attorney had advised us that it was possible for that to be a permanent committee. And if that's the case, then the rules that have to be followed under a permanent committee is having the compliance with, I guess, the medi act and all those kinds of things. I happened to I was feeling already comfortable to go that route and I think now we're suggesting the possibility or making it an ad hoc like they used to be. I mean, is that the way we all agree or is it just

And that's why we're having this discussion right now. And once the Arts Cultural Plan Subcommittee's work was finished, they were disbanded like any other subcommittee. So now we have to put them back together regardless if it's gonna be new members or the same three members that were on the previous subcommittee. We still have to announce that and get it and then get a resolution for that as well. That's the protocol.

So until we decide how we're gonna have these meetings public, we won't have a subcommittee. So that's why we have this discussion item going on now. My fear is that we're not gonna get a subcommittee put together until February 23 like vice chair said and then we're gonna be behind and then there's gonna be another rush. And then because of us being behind and because of us being another rush and rushing through the process when in the announcement of the grantees come out, we're going to be flooded again because we missed the mark. This is year three though.

Didn't we pass already a resolution to create a subcommittee that would be a permanent committee?

Don't believe so. Can you

That correct has not happened?

No, you have not passed a resolution that establishes a standing committee. Okay.

I have a question. Is the option for having the sub meeting within a PRAC meeting have to be completely separate from ad hoc or can some of the ad hoc meetings have that Has

to be one or the other if I'm not mistaken, but I'll refer to city attorney.

So you can have an ad hoc and you can open it up for public to attend those meetings if that's what the commission would like. But a standing committee, you are required to be subject to the Brown Act and so they will have to be open meetings. But an ad hoc you if the commission wants to open it up to the public, they can do so under with even an ad hoc.

Can I make a suggestion that we do the ad hoc with an option to add an ad hoc to one of these meetings if needed to have more public participation? I don't know if that's an option, if it is I'd like to suggest that.

You can respond.

I think what you're saying is to have it as an ad hoc committee that does make the effort to try to have the open meetings like the last ad hoc subcommittee did do. I think that was great. And then I think what you were saying though is that for the months where it aligns or makes sense that we could also have some of those subcommittee meetings occur during a prac meeting or at the end of a prac meeting or something. My concern is it is almost 08:00 at night, some of these meetings run extremely late and if if all of our meetings were at 8PM on a Monday night, I think there would be just as much concern and upset, you know, about people not being able to meaningfully participate because of when the meetings are occurring. But, I don't think that it would be a problem to have some of the ad hoc subcommittee meetings, you know, during the PAC commission meetings if it if there was time available and it was a time that they did need to meet.

And, one of the things about this subcommittee is it it like does a bunch of work before things are recommended to the commission and then it kinda goes quiet. So, then there's no need to meet and then it resumes work, know, a kind of a later part in the cycle. So, it comes and goes, you know, kind of throughout the year on kind of a rolling basis, but I do think that having it, you know, having some of those ad hoc meetings attached to the PAC commission would definitely be within the CMAT contract and then we can, I guess, figure out what we can do to try to make other meetings as open and accessible as we can?

I think that would be kind of confusing to the public though. So I believe either we're going to do a standing subcommittee or ad hoc subcommittee because if we have two separate ones, they're not gonna it's gonna be confusing because it sounds confusing to me right now. I don't want to me, I think it's better for us to have an ad hoc subcommittee. I don't think it's beneficial for us to put it on our agenda because we only meet every third Monday of the month. And we're just now getting to this discussion item as you pointed out in this 07:52.

So if people are waiting to hear that subcommittee, they might not be able to hear it until 08:30 or 09:00. And by then, people are going to leave. So I prefer for the subcommittee to have their own separate meeting from the Parks Commission. That's my recommendation.

I agree whatever form, whatever timing works, I I think it needs to be a subcommittee that's open and accessible and the ad hoc will allow for the increased meeting frequency and I think that's required.

And I agree. Any other comments from any other commissioners? No?

Just a question, I guess, on my insight and understanding. During that process, heard from the community about transparent and not having access to it, how does the ad hoc handle that? How do we I guess relieve their concerns that they have the ability to hear and know what's going on. I think I heard that loud and clear that they didn't get that opportunity.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, there's no subcommittee that exists right now. So that was I think that's one of the reasons why this item was a little bit of a surprise on the agenda. But I think there would be different ways we could try to increase accessibility, like if the meeting is going to be at City Hall to have it maybe during the lunch hour when the alternative meeting room is open or something like that where people might have a window of time that they could attend. And then that's what I'm saying or maybe have the meetings at times that other, if it's after hours on days that other commissions meet after hours, so that way it's not an additional ask on those resources.

But I think we need to look into what can be done as far as other methods of virtual attendance, if it has to be run through the city or if there's other ways that it can be made available through video

Can from other please come up Doctor. Chavez?

Chair McCoy, members of the Commission, Liliago Salischato is the Executive Director of the Arts Council. Chair McCoy has made an excellent suggestion and member Ward also has contributed to something that is very workable, maintaining the subcommittee as ad hoc at this point because we need to meet more frequently than just once a month to get at least the general operating support grants out in a timely way so that people can receive funds within their fiscal year so that they can start their fiscal year July 1. That's important. So it's gonna require the subcommittee to meet multiple times very quickly to make those decisions to be able to bring to you a recommendation at your February meeting that you can possibly adopt or if need be, carry over to your next month's meeting, but at least you have potential to get something decided in February. The idea that a meeting, if it's ad hoc, be made open to the public is very doable.

We've done that before and all we have to do is provide the announcement and we can even, even if it's not CMEC, we can even make the meeting on Zoom and send out Zoom links so people can participate. So it is possible, it's just to announce it and make it accessible and make it in a space that's large enough to manage those that attend. And actually in the Arts Council's new meeting room gallery, we have plenty of room for the people who want to attend. So I I would be in agreement with the recommendation coming from Chairman McCoy and member Ward. Thank you.

Thank you.

Make a motion.

Can we make motions under discussion items?

I think you just let us know how you wanna move forward with the subcommittee, whether you want standing or

Ad hoc. Ad hoc.

And can I appoint the members now or do I have

to wait? No, we need a resolution in order to move forward with that.

Just trying to knock it all out. Okay.

Don't you need some direction as to how to prepare the resolution? Would you need some direction as to what the form of the resolution?

Well they have to prepare it and bring it to us and then we'll be able to read it correctly like last time.

So is it going to be both ways? Yes. Standing committee and the next

No, it's going to be ad hoc, not a standing committee. Okay.

You have a consensus already?

I don't think we have to vote on it.

I'm okay with that. So if we could

Yeah. I think we made it pretty clear. I think I just wanted to bring it back to have a discussion item because there were two different recommendations that were made. I just wanted to hear the difference of the recommendations to be able to make the decision and just to be transparent for the public. Yes, I support that. Thank you. That's all you needed?

That's all I need.

Alright, we can move on. Now we can move on to hearings at 07:57. Hearing number ID 26Dash89, hearing to receive public input on expanded access to arts and culture grant program. Would any member of the public like to make a comment regarding this item? You have up to three minutes. And I do have a card here from Isaac Ariz.

Yeah. Hello? Hi.

Hi. This is about the skate parks, and I think, like, there's just, like, low maintenance on skate parks. And I feel like

We could put it on the next item.

Feel like you should keep up with it more.

Go hold on. Yeah.

Sorry. No. That it should be

This will go on

the next item. Yes.

So the the next one that I call, I'll bring you back up so you can speak.

Oh, yeah.

Because this one is for the arts. Alright. You can might as well sit right there because I'm a bring you right back up. Uh-huh. Thank you. So does any pub any member of the public have any input on the expanded access to arts and culture grants program? Do we have anyone online, Mary?

No. We don't.

Okay. I will now close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this item? We will now move on. ID number 20Six-ninety1 hearing to receive public input on allocations related to Measure P, updates to the parks master plan and cultural arts plan and annual parks department budget and capital improvement plans. Would any member of the public like to make a comment regarding this item? You have up to three minutes for comment, and I bring you back up Isaac Ariz.

Yeah. So what I was saying is, like, the parks are, like, really low maintenance and not, like, too bad, but it's just, like I feel like the city could keep up with it a little more. And, like, there's, like, a lot of cracks in a lot of parks, like, lions, remains, for example. Probably some other ones too that I can't really think of, but they all I feel like it could be a really easy fix for the city. I don't know.

That's why I think it's, like, low maintenance because there's, like you could use Bondo to, like, cover the cracks. And yeah. Like, I don't know. That's pretty much all I could think about right now. Oh, and the lights too. I feel like a lot of the skate park lights, like a lot of them don't work, and I feel like a lot of them need a lot of lights. And felt yeah. I don't know. That's it pretty much.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Do we have any other member? Any more cards? No. Do we have anyone online?

No, we do not.

Okay. I will now close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this item?

Madam chair, yes, I do. Actually, my question is for William. So the rail in particular, a concrete, I'm sorry, a metal rail serve a better purpose as opposed to the concrete for actual grinding in particular?

So we had a rail

in there already. Come up, please.

Come up, please. Sorry.

Thank you.

Yeah. So

we had a rail in there already. It it got dented. So I kinda I ended up doing like an Instagram post being like, this park has been over like fifteen, twenty years, somewhere around there, and it's been there for a long time. It did have some hole in the ramps. They did manage to like maintenance the ramps. So that did help all the the prefabricated ramps that were at the park. But when I talked with Ozzy at that time, we were just running some ideas. We wanna try to get the park redone. They're like, that's not on budget right now. So it felt like we just kept going down the list of, like, what we could do.

They did add lights as well on one side of the park that helped a lot. But as far as the rail goes, we just never got another one after that happened. They I think they put in some like Amazon rails that were like they broke they broke like almost instantly. And it it wasn't probably meant to be insulting, but it's kinda like we were looking for a really nice the rail there was really nice beforehand. So we just wanted a replacement version of that rail.

And I even sent over to Ozzy now where to find the rail to get it ordered for that situation, but I just never heard anything back. But just for that park alone, we just we lost an obstacle when we were trying to make it better. So I did send over the information to find that perfect rail for that park. But like I said, if you guys wanna reach out for any more information, I'd be more than willing to help.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Now a time

to make recommendations for the budget? No. No.

Right? Or yes, I don't know.

No because it's not on the

It's not on the

activities, Just

write it down and hold it.

Right. Maybe for the next meeting or

You do it in May.

Okay. Okay.

Alright. And then maybe we

can work with Parks to

help figure this out to make a solid recommendation that will be received well.

Yes. I agree. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other commissioners have any other questions regarding this item? Alright. That clock on the wall said it is 08:05. Like I do in all our meetings, would like to join this meeting in the memory of Doctor. Francine Napuda who is greatly missed. Thank you all for coming out and putting up with us. And enjoy the rest of your evening and we will see you next month. Thank you.