Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

. . Thank you.

533 I now call this meeting of the Parks Recreation and Arts Commission to order city clerk. Would you please conduct roll call?

Yes Commissioner Barraza Commissioner call ya Commissioner Dolan here Commissioner Duran here Commissioner Kucharski is absent Commissioner Miller Vice Chair Ward? Present. Chair McCoy?

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Is there a motion to excuse the absence of Commissioner Kercharski?

So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. We will now begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Will everyone please stand?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We will start with the approval of the agenda. City Clerk, are there any changes or proposed changes to tonight's agenda?

There are no changes.

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

So moved.

Thank you, Commissioner Dolan. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Barraza. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. This item is approved. We will now move on to, do we have any minutes to approve? None? Okay. We will now move on to unscheduled communication. Will any member of the public like to speak on any issue within the jurisdiction of this commission? You will have up to three minutes. If you would like to make a comment regarding any of the scheduled hearings, comments will be taken when each item is called. Do we have any cards?

We have no one online or in the chamber.

All right. Going once, going twice. I now close unscheduled communication, and we will now move on to hearings. ID number 26-789, presenting the Mayor's Parks, Afterschool, Recreation, and Community Service Department, Department of Public Utilities, Public Works Department, and Police Department for fiscal year 2027. Will someone from the Parks Department please begin the presentation?

Well, that's being pulled up. I know we didn't have member comments today. I just wanted to highlight last week the official park score came out. And I'm not sure if any of you up here have seen that, but just wanted to note that we've moved up 12 spots since last year. So last year being at 98, this year we're at 86. That's awesome. So while we're not in the top 50 yet, we're definitely trending in the right direction. And it's very encouraging. And thanks to the commission, the administration, council, and, of course, my parks team and Public Works and DPU, we're going in the right direction. So we are extremely excited to announce that and look forward to next year approving upon that number. So thank you.

Thank you. And you said 88? 86.

And just to note who we're ahead of. I know you'd probably be interested in that. It's always a competition, right? Phoenix, Arizona, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma City, just to name a few of the larger cities that are on that that we are now ahead of. So great, great accomplishment.

That's good to be in front of Bakersfield. Friendly competition. No shots intended. But yeah, they've been ahead of us for a minute. So it's good to, even though this is great news, We still have a lot of work to do, but I'm glad that we're out of the 90s from when we first started the parks conversation, right? So we got to continue on investing and finding new places to build parks. All right, you ready?

Hello and good evening, commissioners. It's nice to see you guys once again. I'm Tujong, business manager with the Parks Department, and I'm here this evening to present to you the Parks Department fiscal year 2027 Measure P Mayor's proposed budget. Before I begin the presentation, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank just our incredible staff from the Parks Department. These are individuals who've played a instrumental role in our budget bill this year. I want to first thank Director Aguirre and Assistant Director Shelby McNabb for both their leadership, guidance, and support throughout the entire budget bill. I also want to thank my direct support staff, James Jackson and Maria Castro, for their dedication and their support. They played a vital role in our budget bill this year. And they're actually here with us tonight as well. I do want to extend a thank you to our Parks Capital team, grants and contract team, along with all of our program area and division managers for lending their insightful perspective for us during this budget bill. Last but not least, a special thank you to our fellow colleagues from the Department of Budget, from the Budget Office, Department of Public Works, Department of Public Utilities, and Fresno PD for their support. with tonight's presentation. We do have staff from each of those departments here with us this evening, and they will be speaking about their portion of the Measure P funding as well as answer any questions that you all may have. So without much delay, let's proceed with the presentation.

Do you want questions after your presentation?

Yes, yes. Please do save your questions until the end of the presentation. Thank you. All right, so tonight's presentation will consist of the following. We will provide a breakdown of the fiscal year 27 Measure P proposed budget, which will include an in-depth look at each expenditure category, along with revenue and appropriations. From there, we will transition to department budget overview, where you'll hear from our sister department along with our parks capital team, in which we will discuss highlights from fiscal year 26, in addition to providing a preview of upcoming projects and activities for fiscal year 27. Then the presentation will pivot a little bit, and we will then look at key dates in our fiscal year 27 budget timeline. This is an opportunity for us to give you guys some insight regarding our budget scheduling, including the timeframe that we have from now until when the budget gets adopted. And then lastly, we will review fiscal year 27 budget recommendations made by this commission, and then also That will be an opportunity for us to explore additional budget recommendations for fiscal year 2027 Okay, so the following slide is a summary of our fiscal year 27 measure P mayor's proposed budget this table breaks down the expenditure categories that are housed within each department and as you can see we have both revenue and appropriation outlined in this table, so Starting with revenue, category one, two, three, four, and six revenue are budgeted under the Parks Department, with category five revenue being budgeted under the Department of Public Works. So as a reminder, revenue consists of beginning balance, which represents our projected carryover from fiscal year 26. In addition to the carryover, there's also sales tax revenue projections that derives from our consultant, HDL. And then we have other revenue, which accounts for interest. So in total, our base proposed revenue for fiscal year 27 is approximately $116.8 million. And in the next few slides, we'll dive into the appropriations for each expenditure category. So in terms of appropriations, category one, as you all may know, is divided into two sub-funds, one being for existing parks and facilities citywide, and the other for existing parks and facilities in locations designated as highest needs. There's a little bit over 22 million appropriated in the parks operating from category 1 and in addition we have 1.5 million in citywide and 542 in highest needs dedicated to the park ranger program And lastly we have 3.4 million from citywide and 9.9 from highest needs allocated to parks capital project Similar to Category 1, Category 2 also consists of two sub-funds, one for citywide and the other for highest needs. As we take a closer look at Category 2, you will see that the majority of the appropriations are in parks capital, mainly designated for acquisition and new development of parks, with some appropriations in parks operations to account for irrigation and maintenance at new park locations. And then moving on to category three, which is dedicated for senior programming, youth job training, and veterans. And for your information, and as you guys may know, category three also accounts for the least amount of funding compared to other categories. excluding Category 6, which is for program implementation. So funding under Category 3 is housed within the Parks Department with an operating budget of about $4.5 million. Again, going into program delivery to support our senior programming, youth job training, and veterans. And then we also have our category four, which is funding dedicated to the expanded access to arts and culture. And as you can see, we have a carryover balance of 12.5 million, projected revenue of 5.8, with interest at $175 for a total of $18.5 million in revenue. And in terms of appropriation, there is roughly $12.5 budgeted in FY27, which includes admin costs as well. And then lastly, we have Measure P expenditure category 5, which is housed predominantly in the Department of Public Works and Public Utilities, with the exception of $31,600, which is under the Parks Department. And this appropriation is to fulfill the Milburn Overlook Capital Project. which consists of project management costs, construction costs, and permitting costs. So overall, category five is split into three different sub-fund, with sub-fund 2705 intended for safe walking and bike trail, 2707 for San Joaquin River Parkway, and then 2708 for street beautification. In total, revenue for Category 5 is about $14 million, with a little bit over $12 million in appropriation. Next, I'm going to hand off to my colleague from Beautify Fresno to go a little bit more in-depth about their portion of Measure P. You want us to go through the whole presentation first?

We can't ask about what we've just seen, right?

Yeah, the plan was to go through the entire presentation and then questions at the end, just to kind of keep the flow going.

Okay.

Good evening, Commissioners. I'm Mark Standriff, Director of Beautify Fresno for the Department of Public Utilities. and the City of Fresno here to present just kind of some of the highlights from our fiscal year 26. The activities and the results have been funded through Measure P funding. Our quad crews were created a couple of years ago to specifically and proactively pick up and remove illegal dumping and other large piles of trash. These are a total of four crews. We've divided the city into quadrants, and each one of them focusing literally on a daily basis the trash that they see and they pick up as they go along. Measure P funds two of those four quad crews, which saw a dramatic increase in the amount of tonnage that we collected in fiscal year 26, nearly 4 million pounds off the streets and alleys and corridors in the city of Fresno. translates into a 27% decrease in the number of 311 and Fresco calls that we get for illegal dumping. And that's a number that is consistently seeing a decline, which we feel is obviously a positive result. On the volunteer side, we enjoyed a record number of events. In fact, over 9,000 volunteers participating in 151 cleanup and beautification events throughout the city of Fresno. We removed a little over 100,000, 102,000 pounds of trash through our volunteer efforts, removing 100,000 square foot of graffiti, planting 50 trees in partnership with both Caltrans and with Tree Fresno. We also like to do major events where we get a large group of people working pretty much citywide. Those events include our National Day of Service, which is always on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in January. The Greatest American Cleanup is part of our affiliation with Keep America Beautiful that happens around Earth Day in April. The Mayor's Citywide Community Cleanup Day, which takes place in August. And then finally Fresno Youth Service Day, where we get our students ages K through 12 cleaning up around their campuses in the city. And with all of those activities, we provide not only all the materials, which are the paper pickers, the trash bags, safety vests and gloves, but also for some of the bigger events as kind of an incentive and a thank you, we provide free T-shirts and an opportunity for them to come downtown and to celebrate with us after the event is finished. Since this is the America 250 year, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation's birth. The mayor has really wanted all of our departments to try to find ways to celebrate. So this year's greatest American cleanup was very special. All of our volunteers got red, white, and blue tie-dye t-shirts. They were very attractive. And a record number of locations, 25 citywide. Again, that's the most ever that we've done. The number of volunteers, 1,820. Removing a record nineteen thousand two hundred pounds of trash in a two-hour period On the Saturday right before Earth Day in April We're also working with the depart the parks department on a kind of a special cleanup that happened literally just before the greatest American cleanup and that's Easter Sunday tends to be a very active day for all of our parks and unfortunately The amount of trash that's left behind is something that was of concern, not just to the Parks Department, but for Beautify Fresno. So we partnered with them to create a special Monday after event. And this is getting volunteers to get up early on the Monday morning after Easter and go out and to kind of help service those parks in need in the area. Not the major parks or our regional parks, but some of the others that are in neighborhoods that get a lot of activity. And so we increased the number this past year from 7 to 11 parks with a total of 50 volunteers That were out cleaning up on that Monday morning Speaking of increases. We also increased the number of our beautify Fresno clubs This is a program that started back in 2022 with an idea from Mayor Dyer to try to engage local students again ages K through 12 public and private And all of these schools are representing each one of the school districts that have schools and students within the city limits. And that would be, obviously, Fresno Unified, Central Unified, Clovis Unified, and Sanger Unified. And so these clubs are provided leadership opportunities as well as volunteer opportunities. We invite them to come and participate in our events, but we also work with them to create their own special cleanup or beautification event. And that could be anything from a campus cleanup to painting the street numbers along the curbs to creating or restoring community gardens. We've even had fashion shows where the students have used recycled materials in order to build and then model their creations on a runway. And so we've increased our number of Beautify Fresno clubs to 27 now. Here we have citywide. One thing I also wanted to mention, it was a very special project that we're working in cooperation with our parks department. We get a lot of requests from local churches during spring break week. They'd like to find opportunities for their youth to be able to participate in some kind of cleanup or beautification event. Last year, I'm sorry, the last fiscal year, it was Muscato Center. This year it was Romaine Park. And so we had 300 students from 12 local churches repairing the walking trail that's around Romaine Park. We did the community garden. We planted two more gardens in front of the Reading Beyond program over there. We removed graffiti off of the bike. The BMX park cleaned up the tot lot and actually filled in a low area that was unfortunately depressed over the years and tended to flood consistently. So we got them out there with shovels and rags and filled in the low areas there were. And then also on those days, it's a two-day project where we picked up trash in the Hidalgo and Belmont and First neighborhoods. So a very productive two-day process. And I want to thank Director Aguirre and his team from Parks for working with us on this major project. And then something special that we did this year, we got a grant from the Xerxes Society, which is something that is promoting pollination and having plants that will attract bees and butterflies into specific areas. So we decided to get out to San Pablo Park. And we had a group of about 20 volunteers on a Tuesday morning out there planting 100 climate-smart native wildflowers from the habitat kit that was provided for us through the Xerces Society. And I'm looking forward to this next fiscal year because we just got approved for another grant, and we'll be looking for locations with our parks department. So that's all for my presentation today. I'm going to turn things over to our park ranger program with the Fresno Police Department.

You probably don't have to do that very often. People are taller. Good evening, commissioners. Rob Beckwith. I'm a deputy chief with the police department. And for the second year in a row, I get to go behind Mark, so my voice does not sound nearly as good as his. So my apologies for that. I'm here just to give you some brief updates on the Park Ranger program. I know most of you, if not all of you, are very familiar with it. Again, just a quick reminder, we're allotted 20 park rangers. I'd like to stand here and tell you that we have 20, but the reality is right now we currently have 18. that is because for actually good reasons in that a few of our park rangers have actually decided to come police officers and have been hired as Fresno police officers so we're currently short two and are in the hiring process for hiring those additional two we exhausted our previous list, so we had to do a new recruitment. We recently received the names and are beginning interviews to try to fill those two positions. And that will, after the interviews, consist of a voice stress analyzer test and then a background. So I think we've said this before. Again, we're working very hard to get to that 20. But most importantly, we want to make sure that we hire the right people. So it's important that we vet and that we take our time with that. We get the right folks for our parks. When we're fully staffed, we'll have four park rangers that are assigned to each of our policing districts You see the times there from early morning, 6.30 to roughly 10 o'clock in the evening. The salary ranges are listed there. Once the park rangers have completed a year of service, they go from park ranger one to park ranger two. And I believe currently the 18 that we have are all in the park ranger two status. Again, this slide just really covers their duties. I would really highlight the visibility. I think that's the key to our park rangers, is that our community sees them in the parks. There's a feeling of safety that that gives them, and it's certainly a deterrent to crime or other things that can happen in the park. So first and foremost, I think the visibility is very important. They're also responsible for being our eyes out there in the parks, either identifying people that shouldn't be there, that are potentially going to commit crimes, and then ultimately reporting that so that we can get officers out there to handle that. I will say that the park rangers communicate very frequently with the park staff. That's a very, very important part of this program. It's something that Director Aguirre and I talk about quite often, and we make sure that that's happening because that's really what we've seen been a key to the success of this program. They do have the ability to write citations. Typically, those are going to be parking citations that may occur in the parks. And lastly, the community engagement piece. Nothing makes me more happy than to hear reports from the districts when these park rangers are interacting with some of the youth in the parks and how refreshing that is to see because as a police department, that's what we want to be doing. We want to be engaging with the community. Lastly, this slide is, again, just, it again goes to the piece about the communication that I talked about that we do bimonthly, the director and myself. We really take a close look at how things are going, where we can improve, and I think that that's been a key piece. to the success of the park ranger program. So again, as I said in the beginning, I don't have a lot of new information. I do think it's shown, it's continued to be a success for both the city and the police department. So I'm sure there'll be questions later, but that's my presentation for now. Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm not sure who I'm supposed to turn it over to, but I bet he's right behind me.

All right. Good evening, commissioners. I'm Scott Moser with the Public Works Department. Here to talk about category five within measure P, the safe walking and biking trails. So first wanted to highlight as we wrap up fiscal year 26, already in June, what are some things looking back over the past year that have been accomplished? So some of those are design-related, getting projects ready for construction. Others are construction progress. So one project we're really excited about, of course, is the River West Eaton Trail Extension in partnership with the San Joaquin River Conservancy. And we are closing in on 100% approved design plans for that project approaching an advertising date. Also, on the construction front in the southwestern portion of our community, we're now substantially complete on what was once called the TCC Southwest Trail, about seven-tenths of a mile. The city council has named that the Raj Al-Hakim Jr. Trail. So that's just now in the landscape maintenance period wrapping up. Then... We've opened, of course, the Midtown Trail, segment four along McKinley Avenue near the airport. And just those two projects right there, that pushed our total citywide trail network up to 65 miles. I don't think the city of Fresno is recognized probably enough for that, and we're working really through the active transportation update, the website and information to really publicize a lot more of where are these trails throughout the community. But 65 miles, we're excited. Then two other segments remaining on the Midtown Trail. Those are 95% complete funding all in place to then get those out to bid and into construction. We do have one class four protected bike lane project In the design phase, that's along Blackstone Avenue. Measure P is contributing some funds, but it's largely funded through state grants, through the AHSC, Affordable Housing, Sustainable Community Development, some work tied to a housing development known as the Dakota. Then also maintain the citywide, the Highway Litter Control Service, And we're on track to install over 1,000 new trees in the city of Fresno once again in fiscal year 26. And I do want to, as I mentioned that, I want to also introduce two staff who have been very pivotal to this effort. One, Yvonne Diaz, my administrative manager, who's our department budget officer. And then also the guy out there whose team's getting all these new trees planted and trails maintained and such, Vince Patlin, our manager of the Landscape Division. All right, one area I wanted to highlight, this is one of the three sub-programs under Category 5, is the San Joaquin River Parkway Program, represents 18% of Category 5. So what does that do? What does our crew do? We have a bullet point list here. I won't read all of those. Commissioners, you have the slide before you. But a whole host of duties for that full-time crew along the San Joaquin River Parkway end-to-end. In addition to that, We also have $250,000 in the budget for minor capital work along the San Joaquin River Parkway. And those dollars are planned out through regular coordination meetings with the conservancy staff and then also the Parkway Trust. And then lastly, as parks... As two had mentioned, $31,600 of that is included in the parks budget for wrapping up Milburn Overlook. Here are some photos highlighting the San Joaquin River Parkway crew. This is a dedicated full-time crew. 64 new trees planted in the area with irrigation, so those will be sustained over the years. We had a native garden irrigation restoration project. and then even some minor trail work. On the lower left of this slide, you'll see this is out in the Riverside Golf Course, northwest Fresno area, and just there was a very short gap in the trail system. And between some that new development installed, the city had built a capital project for a trail there over 20 years ago, and a short gap section was filled in. Also, our crew is underway right now. One of the high-priority areas identified by the Conservancy was just addressing some deferred maintenance at Camp Pashayan. So a lot of cleanup at the site, work on the restroom. So those are some of the things just that our crews have been undertaking. Thank you. Big picture on the capital side, you have the overall numbers, of course, on the slides. Our parks team went through at the very beginning of the presentation, but this is a snapshot of the capital projects included in the mayor's proposed fiscal year 27 budget for the Public Works Department. Just going down that list, under the first category, the 47% of Category 5, the trails and protected bike lanes. You'll see a relatively small dollar amount, $214,300 towards the Shields Trail, Blackstone to Fresno. That's predominantly funded by Measure C and some dollars coming from Caltrans. But there's a match there. We have protected bike lanes proposed on California Avenue. This is the Complete Streets Project. Um, also Emerson linear trail. Uh, this is one that's been going through the design process, uh, the past few years. That one is now really, uh, shovel ready. And the proposed budget includes 2.5 million, um, for this trail project. Uh, this is really between, uh, Marks Avenue and West Avenue, uh, where there are some very large, uh, grassy, uh, median islands. Well appreciated by the community, but something that's come out of that community engagement over the years is a desire to have actual walking paths and trails in that area. The design phase of the Fancher Creek Trail, Chestnut to Peach, mentioned the Blackstone project earlier. Uh, we are proposing, um, in the mayor's budget, uh, $500,000 for a west of, uh, state route 99 west for the whole west area. Uh, a trail feasibility study to really take, uh, trails that are just the lines shown on the general plan and to actually do the feasibility study to see which side, which side, like if it's a canal, which side of the bank should that be on, how wide, and to take that into a concept design. to work to move a lot of these projects forward to get those moving. And then the design phase of a Herndon Avenue Trail Valentine to Prospect. That's a gap-filling project in the system. With San Joaquin River Parkway, there are some matching funds proposed in Measure P to go with the state dollars at $1.5 million for the River West Eaton Trail Extension project. A quarter million renewing that minor capital I referred to. And then in the major street beautification litter control category, one proposed item is, of course, continuation of the freeway litter abatement effort. That would keep to weekly service on the 41, twice a month on 99, 168, and 180. That goes with $200,000 of Caltrans funding and $100,000 from Measure C. And then lastly, the tree planting program. Measure P funding towards that beautification of our streets in the city with street tree planting. And that would go along with other capital project funding, all told to once again deliver on the $1,000 net new trees to be planted in the city. With that, look forward to questions at the end, but I'll turn it over to our Parks Department. Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners. Joseph Bertalli, Projects Administrator for the Parks Department. I have an opportunity here to... I guess let me jump ahead. to talk a little bit about our high-level highlights for FY26. So for our new parks, we have four new parks in construction or pre-construction. One of them is in pre-construction. We have two new parks in design. In capital improvements, we have 18 capital improvement projects completed or completing in FY27. And I'll talk a little bit about those in the next slides. We have 31 capital improvements in construction or pre-construction. And we've had 14, or actually 12, capital community engagement events. And we have two more coming up this month. We'll close out the year. On the next slide, we have some highlights of our programming. So 68% of our youth sports participants have utilized the youth fee waiver. So that's very successful. In 2026, Camp Fresno registered remains strong. We have over 1,228 registered with another 100 since this was sent out, so we're over 1,300. We've launched the Tech Easy digital literacy classes. For seniors and individuals with disabilities, we've reached 112 senior participants and 54 of the adaptive recreation participants. And we distributed over 107 take-home devices. Our senior hot meals has increased by 20% this year, so that's also another improvement. And we continue to... pursue local grants, state grants, and federal grants to support and enhance the programming at our parks. The next couple slides, or the next few slides, we'll be talking about our projects, the projects that are completing this year, the projects that we'll be completing in the next fiscal year and beyond, and then I'll turn it back over to for the budget timeline. FY26 projects, kind of year in review. These are projects, the new projects are projects that were completed this year, include projects relating to, or started this year are projects relating to rehabbing existing amenities, add new amenities, and create designs for new features or new parks. Our completed projects include court resurfacing, sports fields lighting, softball for tot lots, a community center rehab, park restrooms, shade structures, and more. And these new contracts that have been signed on this year also represent a lot of design contracts or construction contracts towards these projects. So this next slide includes projects completed for Completing in FY 26. So there's a few of them are still kind of finalizing their completion But just to highlight a few out at Caligian Park We added field lighting for the two soccer fields and a volleyball court at Logan Park We converted the tennis courts to multi sports courts, which include tennis pickleball volleyball Futsal and bike polo at Romaine Park. We installed it to get a dedicated futsal court and And we're completing renovations of the south building at the CAP Center. That's one of those projects that's completing kind of this next month. And then we've made improvements to Vinland Park, including adding shade to the play structure there. So this next slide are projects that are completing this year, or some, sorry, this next coming fiscal year, and then some may go into FY28 just a little bit. So some highlights here include the new Dolores Huerta Park, nearing completion, the Milburn Overlook that we've talked about a couple of times, and that's nearing completion as well. At Roding, we have restroom projects. We have pickleball courts with basketball and futsal. We also have the Pine Grove Picnic Shelter that we're repairing. At El Dorado Park, we're designing improvements there, and then we'll go into construction. We have the Southeast Fresno Sports Complex that's getting close to completion. It's probably still a few months away before going into the landscape maintenance period. And then Radio Park as well. We have renovations that are underway there that should be completed in FY27 but in the beginning of 2027. And these projects that are completing this year or this coming fiscal year and potentially into the next represent over 25 acres of new park space, 19 sport courts, 13 restrooms, 12 shade structures, 11 tot lots, seven exercise stations, five lit sport courts, two lit fields, two dog parks, two splash pads, two gardens, two fields, one of them being synthetic, one pool remodel, and a skate park. And that's not to mention Hundreds of trees that we're going to be planting or that have already been planted as part of many of these projects. Benches, picnic tables, drinking fountains, all of that as well. So pretty excited about all the things we have coming. And then these last two slides that I have are the slides that were projects that we're seeking funding. So we have projects that are in various stages of design. Many of them are even completed with design. And we don't have funding to complete construction on those. And so these next two slides, I'll just jump to the last one there, will continue to pursue funding opportunities for these projects, which include those state grants, federal grants, grant opportunities along with Measure P funding as well. And so I think I'm going to hand it over to Tu.

all right so in regards to our budget timeline just regard the 528 please so for tonight's we've introduced the fiscal year 27 mayor's proposed budget to the Commission on top of that we will also entertain any additional budget recommendations that the Commission may have for the department to submit in budget proposal so following tonight's meeting next week will mark the beginning of a series of budget presentations that's it's going to occur so citywide departments will begin to present their proposed budget to council and in regards to parks our budget meeting is actually scheduled to occur on the 8th which is a week from today following the council budget hearing the 16th of June is the council meeting that Council would then begin to vote on their budget recommendations or budget motions and then Following that week on the 23rd is when City Council can then adopt the fiscal year 27 budget but ultimately they have until June 30th to adopt the budget and All right, so this slide right here is really intended to give the commissions just two templates in regards to making a budget recommendation. So the first template really pertains to making a motion in support of programming or operations. So the first template reads, so if I were to make a budget motion for programming, I would essentially say or suggest I want to recommend to allocate an amount not to exceed X amount of dollars for a program providing X service. So similar to operations capital, the language within that is consistent with the prior one as well. So you want to just provide this as a reference for the commission. All right, so the next two slides provides an overview of recommendations that were made by this commission from November 17, 2025. So I believe there was a total of about nine recommendations that were made and will be included in our budget presentation to council next week. Any additional budget recommendations that are made tonight will then be added to our presentation that will be delivered to council next week on the 8th. So that concludes our presentation for tonight and we will then open up for any questions.

Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Is it okay for me to, do I need to go to the public first or stay here? Because it is a hearing.

You can go out to the public first.

OK. Would any member of the public like to provide a comment regarding this item? You will have up to three minutes. Do we have any cards? Anyone online? All right. I will close public comment. Does any member of the commission have questions or comments regarding this item? I'm quite sure we do. I can start the questions off. Can I have someone from the Parks Department come up to the podium, please? So thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. Yes. Would this be the only time this commission will have a chance to make any recommendations?

I believe so. Yeah, I believe so, yes.

Okay. Secondly... I have it written down here somewhere. I noticed that projects that are being completed in 2027, why is it taking so long for the HVAC system to be installed into Maxie L. Park's center? I mean, I remember going to a press conference and speaking about three years ago, if I recall, saying that what Councilmember Arias said that this was going to get done, and it still hasn't been done. So, like, what's the holdup? What's taking so long?

So, yeah, that was last year where Arias, or last fiscal period where he was pushing for that. We didn't have funding initially, and so we had enough. When we started the project, we had, I think, about $1 million in Measure P funding, but when it came down to it, we needed more than that. And so we had to go back out and look for additional funding, which we were able to get CDBG funding. In their processes, we have to go or had to go back out and do the environmental and all the work that you have to do for CDBG. And so we were just granted, I believe it was the beginning of this year, through that process, the access to the funds. And so the city's capital department, capital projects department, is working towards getting that out to bid and getting that done.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Other question for the Parks Department in Category 4 for the Arts and Cultural Program. Does the balance include unpaid grants for Round 2? And how much of that is it?

I don't have the exact breakdown with me right now, Chair McCoy, but we can definitely provide you with a more detailed breakdown of what the exact allocation is for category two, if there is any appropriated there.

Okay. I'm just asking because I can't speak for other commissioners, but I'm still getting phone calls about not receiving their funding from round two, but we're already getting ready to begin round three. So the sooner we can wrap up round two, then round three hopefully can go a little smooth. But just wanted to know the dollar amount that's included for the unpaid grants that were approved in round two would be helpful.

Yeah, we can definitely provide that in the trade memo for you, Chairman Coy. Okay.

And then I will go ahead and go to Commissioner Barraza.

Madam Chair, excuse me. I wanted to confirm or clarify that the nine recommendations that are already listed, that those are already in, or whether do we have to ratify them again, or what would be the process? Do we count that they're already in?

I believe we did those in December, correct? So they're already going to be going forward? No.

They were part of the consideration in the mayor's proposed budget. So anything you come up with today will then be presented to council during my budget presentation next week for consideration.

So do you need a motion and a second to get them in the list, or can we already use them because they were already approved by the commission for previous budget years?

I'll ask city attorney to answer that.

You don't need a motion for the ones that were, I believe, approved back in December, because there was a motion already made back then.

I would like to make a motion then that the existing, I'm a little bit deaf, so if you could please.

You don't need a motion because you already made one in December.

That clarifies. Thank you. The one project that I wanted to get clarification on is it's a pocket park on Tulare. And I believe, I don't know if it's the 11th, But I wanted to know, and I noticed it listed here, does it have funding already? And is that already going to be implemented? Or do we need to ask that that project get funding?

I'll answer that, Commissioner. So you're referring to the pocket park on Tulare and 11th there on the south side of Tulare? We are carrying over seven hundred ninety three thousand from fiscal year 26 and in the mayor's proposed budget He added another six hundred thousand bringing that up to one point just shy of one point four million So we do have enough construction funding to build that next fiscal year. Do you know how much money is?

Allocated for that one point four million dollars just shy of it one million three hundred ninety three thousand. All right Thank you very much The other question I have, I had a community member that requested the possibility of getting funding to teach like an academy of sports. Is that something that the department does now? Or what could be possible there? And I'll be candid. It is a soccer. organization that's asking, does the parks department teach soccer to our youth?

I'll go ahead and handle it while Shelby makes her way up there. But yes, we do have soccer programs within the department, mainly for our youth. I know we have a bitty soccer program. We do soccer clinics. If it's kind of above and beyond that with maybe the teens, that could be an area where an outside organization could assist. But we do offer those services currently.

Okay. Thank you. Another question. Madam Chair, I had some questions regarding the presentation. Do you want me to address those later or to deal with the recommendations now? Or how do you want to handle it?

Think I can go in any order if you want to continue going through your questions and then come back and make motions or make motions While you're asking questions, I think that's appropriate city attorneys. Am I correct?

I I'm gonna ask the questions now if that's okay. Is that okay? Yes, go ahead and ask your questions The Fancher Creek Trail When is that scheduled to be completed and how much funding has been allocated for that project?

I

All right. So the Francher Creek Trail, that is in the mayor's proposed budget carrying those dollars over from 26 into 27. That is $564,300 for the design phase. As far as a completion date for construction, we do not have that yet because the construction funding has not been identified. that would typically come the following fiscal year.

Something that drew my attention on page 19, you have a trail feasibility study, and you show the amount of $500,000. Is that a generic allocation for whatever comes up, or is it a specific location that you have in mind?

Yes, that is. What's proposed in the mayor's proposed budget is a west of 99 trail feasibility study to take all planned trails in the general plan, including those, for example, in the southwest specific plan and a number of areas kind of north of Clinton all the way up through a bit north of Shaw. There are a number of trail alignments shown on the general plan. that really have not gone to any type of feasibility study. It's essentially a line on the map where it's not defined, is it on the west side or the east side of the street, north or south, how wide. So more planning work needs to occur, and particularly there's a large concentration of those trails within the southwest Fresno-specific plan where the proposed budget proposes to take that and really develop roughly like a 30% plan for all of those trails to then be able to identify grant funding to have better concepts and be able to turn them into concrete plans instead of lines on a map.

Thank you. And then finally, Madam Chair, I have a question for Police Department representative. In regard to the use of the park rangers, I noticed somewhere there you said that they issue citations. And that's one question is how many citations, if you could give me a sense of a total. But the other part that's more important is public safety in the parks. What impact have the park rangers had on improving public safety?

Good question. The first part of your question, I cannot give you a number today on the citations. It's something we could research, but I don't have that today. The second part of your question, what impact they'd have, when we look at our crime numbers, specifically in the parks, those numbers really mirror the crime statistics that we see in the city, which is a decline across the board in crime. But what stands out the most to me is, in looking at those numbers, is auto theft, vehicle burglary, and larceny. So more of your thefts. Some of your other things that are not increases but not huge changes are things such as assaults, things that are more interpersonal that are a little bit harder to control. But on the things where, as in the slide, the visibility, really matters. I think those numbers support that the park rangers have been not solely responsible for those declines, but certainly instrumental based on their visibility.

Is beer consumption still a problem in the parks and what is the role of the park rangers to deter that problem?

Well, I wouldn't classify it as a problem, but certainly it does occur, alcohol in parks. And simply the park ranger's responsibility, again, is to be observant, to be able to report that. They can ask people not to do that. But again, we don't want to put our park rangers in a position to jeopardize their safety. So again, that would be an observe and report type situation. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Can you stay up here for a second, please? Yes, ma'am. A couple of questions. We've been stuck at 18 for a while, right, with the promising of we're recruiting, we're going to get two more on staff. Can you tell me how many of the park rangers have actually went on to be police officers? Do you have that number?

I believe it's either two or three. I know for sure two, but for some reason I think it's three. It's two or three. I can't give you an exact number. I'm sorry.

It's OK. Is the park rangers, this component, this program, is it like an entry level for recruitments or for people who are looking to become police officers that maybe this is a way for them to experience?

It can be. I don't think we intend it necessarily to be that, but it certainly can be. Very similar to our community service officers where there is that introduction to the police department and public service, and some do choose to go that way, and others simply would just prefer to not be in that officer role and more in the professional staff or the civilian role.

I know my worry is that this is being used as a tool to be able to go on to the academy and become a police officer, and that's not what this was intended for.

No, ma'am, and I will say that we, and I know this wasn't your question, but we do not have a recruiting problem. the problem that we have in the police department is very similar to what we're seeing with these two positions that you're talking about is finding qualified applicants that can pass a background. So so we absolutely are not looking for the park rangers to be recruiting.

I noticed that during your presentation, you really lit up when you talked about community engagement, but I didn't have that same type of light that you had when you were talking about community engagement. because every time I see our park rangers, they're always in the car or in their truck. They're never interacting with the community that's at the park, right? Or they're parked at a store and they're in their car. So I have often walked over to them and say, hey, how do you like being a park ranger? And they're looking at me like, And I'm like, well, I'm Chair McCoy. I'm the commissioner. I sit on the commission and then they get to talking. But I don't see any interaction with the park rangers when people are at the park. I wish they would act more because I often see them in their cars and not out. So just wanted to bring that to light that that's my community engagement that I see when I'm out there that I don't see them engaging at all. And that's a problem.

That's disappointing to hear. And I think my response would be that, you know, we're dealing with human beings. They're not perfect. But I know that I do hear of the positive engagement that takes place. And, you know, sadly, I wish you were able to see it. And that does concern me, and I'll make sure that I pass that message on.

Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions for the police department?

Sayid.

I just hit it one time and that's it.

I would like to know how many policing districts there are.

There's five policing districts.

OK.

Thank you.

Any other questions for the police department on park rangers while we have them up here? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Duran, do you have any questions for any department?

No? Commissioner Miller?

by Chair Ward.

Yes, this question is for Scott Mosher. It was about page 27, the projects completing in fiscal year 27, 28. You have on that list the roading park restroom rehab. We have been hearing at this commission a lot from the concerned citizens of, oh, you're, sorry, yeah. about the concerns around the restrooms. Can you tell us more about what that is and if you think it's going to satisfy the concerns of the individuals who frequent Roeding Park, especially utilizing the different, I think, sports facilities there?

Right. So the restrooms that will be, excuse me, the restrooms that that project is actually going to be replacing the restrooms 100%. It'll be a, prefabbed restroom that's built off-site and then they'll bring it on-site. We have them at Hinton Park. Dolores Huerta has that type of restroom. So you can kind of see what they look like. But yes, we will be putting in new restrooms. As far as other issues that come around the restrooms, new restrooms won't necessarily solve

I think something that community tennis participants have been mentioning was the direction that the restrooms face, maybe that they face away from the courts and that it would be safer if they faced the lighting in the courts. Is that anything that would be addressed or is that not being considered at this time?

The design for the restrooms was completed, I don't want to say a year ago, but probably about a year ago. The restrooms have been designed, and kind of how they are set is already in place.

Commissioner Ward, I just want to add to that. So the restrooms that we are implementing throughout our entire network of parks are different than the traditional restrooms that you've seen in the past, where you have a walk-in with stalls, urinals, and the big. These are going to be more similar to what Joseph was saying in Hinton. So you'll have four stalls. But each one will be individual, where you'll have the toilet on the inside. It's small enough where you cannot bring a bike with a trailer behind it. The water fountain and those things will be on the outside. So it'll deter folks from camping, let's say, in the restrooms. We'll still have an ADA restroom, which is a little bit larger, which we have to do. But again, that's been successful in other areas where we've had issues with some of the historic restroom problems. So we hope that this continues to solve that problem.

And I've seen the restrooms in Hinton Center, so they are completely different, and they're a lot nicer.

They are, and I think one of the other components to some of the technology, so we, you know, oftentimes our staff goes out to unlock the restrooms in the morning. There's automatic locking and unlocking features, so we set the timer to come on at whatever time, let's say 6 a.m., The restrooms then are unlocked and open for the community versus waiting on us to get around and open those, and vice versa too. So in the evenings, we can control those. And let's say we close them at 9 o'clock. They'll lock up. If somebody is in the restroom, there is a button to get out. But again, it has some of those safety features and some of that technology, which will help us try to keep these safe and clean.

Okay, great. And I think my next question is actually for you, Director Gary. A few months ago, we had heard some comments from members of the public who used the skate parks, and they were saying that I think it was the quality of the materials that were used to fix up the skate park were of were such that they were deteriorating faster than expected and that they had asked if perhaps there was a way that we could maybe recommend utilizing a higher quality material or something to make them more durable. And at that time, we didn't really have a sense of what that might cost or involve. Is that something that you can?

So yes, after that meeting and prior to that meeting, we'd been working with that particular skate group out at Malady off of Shields there. Since that meeting, we've gone through and we've replaced the rail Excuse me, I'm not a skater. So I think it's called a rail that they grind across. See, I'm getting my terminology. And so we've gone with a thicker gauge. We actually engaged the community there. They've kind of officially kind of signed off, given us the thumbs up. It's in place right now and holding strong. So we're confident that that will continue to be the case.

OK, great.

That's all my questions. Thank you.

They have their own language. I learned that. BMXers and skateboarders, they have their own language when it comes to designing.

Just like the teenagers, right?

Yeah. Commissioner Kalia? Just one time, that's it.

The gentleman that was just here, I forgot your name, regarding the public works, you've got two pages saying seeking construction funding. So that's not in the budget you've got here. That's something over and above that you have to raise the money for?

Correct. We have money for design in those cases, but not necessarily to complete construction.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Karchoski.

Yeah, I have three questions. One is on the parkway, one is on Camp Fresno, and one on just general projects overall. So I'm looking at Director Aguirre, maybe you can answer them all.

You can start with the parks and then as Mr. Mosier gets, is the other one for Public Works? You said the Parkway?

Yeah, Parkway. I'll start with that.

If you want to start with the parks projects, I can go and answer those.

Oh, the general one? So I saw on this list, kind of nice, that you went from 18 completing to this next fiscal year going to complete 31. That's like double the amount. It's pretty awesome.

What page are you on? I'm sorry.

It goes from page, I guess, 25 and then 27. But you have a review on page 21. It goes from 18, completed or completing. And then it goes to 31, which is like a double, which isn't really awesome. I guess my question more generally is, are we expecting to see it double again? Or what does it look like for the upcoming years?

I think some of that's timing. As we've gone through the design and acquisition, some of these do take a little longer. I think it's just kind of the timing of some of these projects coming to fruition. I would love to say it would double next year and get that park score down even lower. But again, I think we're trending in the right direction with the state federal grants that we've been able to leverage, measure P dollars towards and get some of that. I hope that number goes up. But again, I think it's just kind of from what we've seen as far as some of the grants maybe not being available. I don't want to say that number will double. I'd love to keep it kind of consistent. But again, oftentimes, that's those early projects that had just design dollars that you all, along with the administration, have funded to get to construction. So I think it's kind of a combination of items.

Okay, so we're seeing on here projects that are finally getting to construction, mostly.

Correct. So if you think about, let's say, the acquisition of land, we've got to go through the negotiations, purchase the land, then we go through the design process, then we go to bidding, and then construction. That there on a perfect... is probably two and a half to three years from start to finish. Any delays along the road obviously delay that. But that's, in essence, what we're seeing. So when we first started this, I know a lot of folks were very, I don't want to say impatient, but eager to get projects built right. Measure P was enacted in 2021. We got the money. I think people were expecting to see projects immediately pop up. But I think now that hard work that we did early on is now starting to pay off. And that's what we're starting to see. We're starting to see things go vertical. and parks open and new amenities arriving in our parks.

Yeah, that's exciting. I was just wondering how optimistic I could be. My other question on the parkway was just, it's like a million dollars for the trail crew. And so I was just curious, what were the properties that you guys do the maintenance on or deferred maintenance on? And they're only the ones in the city of Fresno boundaries. Is that right? Because I know the parkway goes much bigger. There's a lot of need. I was just curious. I saw Camp Paschean, Jensen River. Is it Woodward Park? Do you happen to have a list of all those?

We do. And also our landscape manager, Vince Patlin, is here in case I miss any. That's correct, ranging from Camp Pashan, the riverside section of the Eaton Trail, going on down to the entire Lewis S. Eaton Trail that's within the city, Jensen River Ranch, McMichael Loop Trail, the restroom in that area. So that crew handles all that work. And we're doing a lot more with the trail crew along the parkway than we are in the rest of the city. Unfortunately, I'd love that we could have more resources in the rest of the city. But good news for the parkway is Measure P really firewalls and restricts those dollars to the parkway. So we're able to actually proactively, on a weekly basis, we're out filling in gopher holes doing a lot more maintenance. Our goal, I think, is really like an A-plus level of service out there. And then recently, there's a conservancy-owned property, Jensen River Ranch, so it's just north of there, and we have an agreement now with the conservancy. Our crew is also maintaining that property. And that's the crew we're geared up as River West comes online, then we'll take on those trails as well.

Yeah, River West. That's what I was wondering, I guess, was there more property that the crew could take on in the city of Fresno, boundaries or not?

I think yes. What that will do is as we take on more for just regular maintenance, that will diminish the crew's capacity to handle some of these minor projects in the area. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it through the budget process. Right now, we're just excited and geared up to hopefully in July, the goal is to put the River West project out to bid, get bids open, and award a contract in October, then get that built. As that does come online, then we'll face that challenge of the crew's maintenance, assignment, and then how we continue to handle some of these minor projects that honestly make a lot of sense to deliver with an in-house city crew. We found that's really low cost versus going through a long process for a right of design, bidding, construction.

Great.

Does that answer your question?

Yeah, it does. I think a list would be helpful if I can talk to somebody, just so I can look at it next to a map. I just wanted to get a better idea of where you guys were and where you weren't, because I can see some improvements in other areas. And the parkway is quite confusing in general, because there's so much different ownership. And I don't know who's doing what where. And so just getting them.

And we're glad, our team's glad to help with that.

OK, thank you. That's all I had. Appreciate it.

Director Mosher, could I ask you to? I just have a quick question for you.

You're ready to ask them.

Go ahead. note with great delight that you have planted 1,000 trees this fiscal year.

Is that correct, or is that since... We will by the end of June. Okay. Yes, that is correct.

What percentage of those are irrigated with reclaimed water? The purple pipe, do you know? Is it all of them? Is it none of them? Is it some of them?

The percentage irrigated with reclaimed water is fairly small. Vast majority of these are... Trees and areas where the recycled water system has not yet been built out to that area. Wherever we have access to reclaimed water, we absolutely 100% do that. But a number of these are, for example, in either southeast Fresno, where we don't have the recycled water mains yet, or anywhere central, northwest, northeast. And if there are further questions on the recycled system, I know we do have my colleague from DPU who could perhaps better speak to that.

Okay. My only hope is that we can move more and more, obviously, towards reclaimed water and trees as we continue to build the canopy. So thank you. Thank you.

I have a question for you, Scott. I notice that there is a California Avenue Complete Streets in Southwest Fresno. Besides the trail that has been named after the young man, what other trails are planned in Southwest Fresno?

There are quite a number adopted in the Southwest specific plan. Currently, we're in construction. There will be a trail built along Church Avenue from Walnut to Martin Luther King Jr., and then also a trail being built along Jensen Avenue, just west of MLK Boulevard as well. But there are a large number within the plan that follow some of the irrigation canals. provide a lot of connection and so with that in mind that's where we saw that some great work had been done in the specific plan but a really a next step was needed to try to get those projects to become a reality it's also funding correct yes and that's that's the reason for in the mayor's proposed budget to make that investment to take a next step with that trail system

That plan is a great plan to revitalize Southwest Fresno. If only we can get some funding to implement the whole plan instead of pulling things out of it and doing piecemeal funding to complete those projects, it would be beneficial to complete the whole plan. My other question is, how many trails are in Southeast Fresno?

I don't have that mileage off the top of my head, but Southeast we have We have a number of sections along Jensen Avenue that are in place. It's not continuous. It's just there in place where development has occurred. We have trails along Temperance Avenue and then a growing number on the Fancher Creek Trail system. And again, a lot of that's been done by new development, but you do see within the capital budget this Fancher Creek Trail chestnut to peach project moving forward.

What are the city's plans to connect the city with trails where we can bike to places and use our electric bikes and stuff like that?

That's an excellent question. Currently, we've been in the community engagement process and update process for the active transportation plan. The overall goal is to go from our current level of about 60 miles up to 200 miles of Class 1 off-street trails in the city. Many of those are found or proposed running parallel to the irrigation canals, but there are also a number that are along major streets, like in southwest Fresno, Church Avenue, for example, southeast along Jensen or Temperance, but a number are along the irrigation canals.

I would like to see that connection to be able to bike the whole city just going through the trails and showing the connectivity. I think that would be awesome and hope that we can get that done soon. But I don't have any other questions for you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Just a quick question about Al Rapka's new dog park. Why do we need a new dog park?

I mean, maybe we do, but I just want to know. That's a 90% design. It does not have construction funding, and that's to create a small dog park. So currently, Alratka has one large dog park. The previous council member who was in that seat motioned for money to design a smaller dog park. So just north of the existing dog park connected would be a small dog park. So you'd have a small dog park and a large dog park, similar to what you have like at Roding. and other dog parks. But we don't have any construction funding currently. It's just showing as a design at this point. Thank you.

Any other questions regarding this presentation?

Yes, I have one again for this gentleman. What's your name again? I'm sorry.

Joseph. Joseph.

Joseph, okay. Joseph, is there any, you said there's no funding for some of those projects. Do you have any idea where some of that money can or will come from?

So we pursue grants as one opportunity. So there's different state grants, federal grants. We had pursued a grant for one of our parks that we didn't end up getting it. But we basically pursue grants as well as measure P funding if that becomes available enough to cover the projects. Thank you. You're welcome.

Director Geary, have you heard, have you had any demand in regards to beach soccer? Like kind of like beach volleyball?

Beach, soccer, we have not. Beach volleyball or sand volleyball, we have a couple courts, Quigley and Collegian, that we're going to be modifying a little bit and enhancing. But no, not beach soccer yet.

Okay, not yet. All right, we can talk offline.

Is that a new sport coming?

Yes, a new sport coming. So you know I'm always trying to stay ahead.

Very popular in Brazil.

Yeah, very popular. And it's a group out here that's training that does it. So that's why I'm asking maybe we can bring some type of programming to our Parks Department when it comes to that and get our kids interested in that since they're already interested in soccer and other things. Maybe that's a new sport that we can add to the list.

Yeah, if you have contact information, please send them my way. I'd be happy to meet with them. Okay, cool. Thank you.

Any other questions in regards to any of the presentations that we heard tonight?

I had a quick question on the Camp Fresno. It says on the completing cabin replacements. I was curious what percent cabin replacements are going to be complete because I think I heard from you before, Director Geary, that there needs to be a lot of cabin replacement happening up there.

Well, we're excited that we have two. new cabins that were, um, replaced. So, um, that's a start, um, seeing that we have over 60, um, two bedroom, one bedroom. Um, it'll, it'll be a lift, but we'll have to gradually get to that point. Um, you know, some of these replacements will, will, um, we hope we'll replace old cabin sites where, you know, cabins, um, over the years, you know, a tree has fallen on them, you know, storm damage. that we've had to demo. Now those have become tent sites. So down the road, if funding is available, we would like to then restore those, the infrastructures there, the sewer water running to those. So I think it could be an opportunity to look at some existing grants. I know we were working with the federal government on some FEMA dollars. That's how we were able to get the first two constructed. So we're hopeful that there could potentially be some additional dollars to get more of these replaced.

Thank you. Any other questions?

I do want to note for Commissioner Ward's sake, you'll notice in the proposed budget there's over $300,000 for a new cultural arts plan. So that was something I know you talked about and we had programmed in there. So I just wanted to highlight that.

All right. Would any commissioner have any budget recommendation motions they would like considered? Commissioner Barraza?

We're ready for the motion.

Yes.

I will make a motion that we present with the additional items that this commission has added, they'll be presented to the city council for approval.

Second that. Do we have to say all in favor?

So you're not making any other motions? Is that my understanding?

He just wants to make sure that these motions get to City Council. I believe that's what you're saying, correct?

Okay. Yeah, that's fine. You can second it and then all in favor.

I second that. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Commissioner Duran, do you have any budget recommendations? Commissioner Miller? Vice Chair Ward? No, thank you. Commissioner Collier? No.

No, I just want to say thank you for the funding for San Joaquin Trails and what have you.

Thank you. Commissioner Kercharski.

Possibly. I have a question. I heard today that in order to really expand on the work, we would need to have more grants written from other sources. So I guess my question would be, does the Parks Department feel like they have enough grant writing capacity to really go after that? And if they don't, is that something we can... Suggest as a commission that would be helpful To get you grant writing capacity to go after some of this stuff because I'm hearing I Heard a lot today will be their state grants or federal grants and I know that those things take time and resources to apply for yeah, and I can have Shelby come in fill in any gaps, but you know we have a Larger team than the parks departments ever had in regards to grant writing

Is it enough? I guess it's really never enough, right? But I think we've been successful with our team in the two Prop 68 grants that we have, Dolores Huerta and Radio. In addition to that, a lot of the programming funding that we've received from the state, federal dollars. So I think we have a pretty efficient team that is well-versed in the grant writing process and has been successful. I think at this point, we're okay with where we sit Now down the road, that could change, but I think right now with the team that we have and everything we have on the plate, on our plate, I think we're in a good spot.

And no motion at this time for me, recommendation. Commissioner Dolan?

Nothing, thank you. I don't have a motion, but I have a request. We have wellness on the Wednesdays. They take place every Saturday at the little park on Fresno Street. The last three or four Saturdays that it has been taking place that the participants actually had to clean up the park themselves. There has been dead animals on the park that has been there for a while that they had to remove themselves. So I'm just asking that we pay a little special attention to that park because that park is being utilized by the community residents in that area. And other residents are coming from other parts of town to do yoga, to walk, to run, to exercise. And we do have some vendors that set up there. So please pay a little bit more attention to that park and make sure that it's up to par because that's not a good look to go there and the participants are removing things from the park that should have already been removed.

Chair McCoy, are they reserving the facility? Because typically when we see reservations, we...

I can reach out to them to see if they're reserving the facility. Maybe that's a process that we need to go through.

It would be helpful to know. But again, that doesn't excuse the fact of, you know, if there's trash that hasn't been picked up.

And kids, what if kids would have seen those animals there, you know? Agreed. Right.

So... Yeah, we can definitely make sure that's an earlier part of our maintenance route in the morning. I'm not sure what time they get there. I think they get there at 8, 9 o'clock in the morning.

8, 9 o'clock, yes.

So we can shift our rotation. Maybe that's the first site we hit in case there is anything that's unsightly that we want to get rid of before they start.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, so...

It is. Chair, I'm sorry not to interrupt you, but city attorney, does the commission need to recommend the budget in addition to the motions here to council? I think there was language last year where they recommended the budget to be adopted as presented.

I think so.

No, per the ordinance, the commission only has to make recommendations to the city council for budget allocations. They can make recommendations, but they don't have to approve it.

So they don't need to recommend the budget, the mayor's proposed budget to council?

No.

Okay, thank you.

You sure? Because I kind of remember doing it.

It says, review staff recommendations for budget allocations related to this ordinance to ensure consistency with the ordinance and expenditure plan. Make recommendations to the city council for adoption of expenditures in connection with the annual budget process and any amendments thereto.

Okay. All right, well.

Would you like us to endorse your budget?

Put a stamp on it, right? It would be nice.

If you want to make a motion, you're more than welcome to.

Last year, we did make a recommendation that the city council adopt the proposed FY26 budget for the parks department with the commission expressing support for the department's proposed allocations and priorities. So that was the last.

Alright, can you read that because I don't have that I? Asked for a motion.

I think the motion that you made a commissioner Barraza kind of covers that but You can include in that motion to adopt the proposed FY 27 budget from the parks department Would you like to amend that last motion so then we're covered everything So we have to remake the motion

No, you can just amend it and add the presentation that we just seen today to be recommended to city council.

To include, to adopt.

To include, to adopt.

The proposed FY27.

I make a motion that adheres to that language that the clerk read to be presented to the city.

To adopt the proposed FY27 budget for Parks Department to the council.

I'll second.

I'll second.

All in favor? Thank you, Commissioner Barraza. Thank you, Commissioner Miller. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say no. It is 7.03. As always, I'd like to adjourn the meeting in memory of Dr. Francine Aputa, who's definitely missed. Thank you all for coming out. Enjoy the rest of your evening. I'm glad it wasn't six hours.

so so Thank you. . . . you . . Thank you.