Parks, Arts, & Community Services Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the April 10 meeting of the Parks and Community Services Commission. It's nice to see folks in the chamber here tonight. We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. And Commissioner Kamala will lead us in the pledge. Thank you, Commissioner. Ms. Fetua, the roll call, please.

Let the record reflect all commissioners are present for tonight's meeting.

And up first, we have the presentation on bridging the gap of social services in aging services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, so we do have Lucy Singh and Angel Bear Franco, who did at the CPRS conference up in Sacramento. CPRS is the California Parks and Recreation Society. It's an organization that pretty much most of the cities kind of belong to, and it's really great networking, a resource community for sharing information. And they were able to be part of that conference up there just a couple of weeks ago. And we would like to provide them the opportunity to present here to the commission tonight.

Afternoon, commissioners, staff, and members of the public. My name is Andrew Berfranco, recreation coordinator for the Costa Mesa Senior Center. I'm here today with my colleague, community outreach worker, and licensed clinical social worker Lucy Singh. Thank you for allowing us to share our experience at the twenty twenty five California Parks and Recreation Society or CPRS conference. So, as a member of the aging section board for the CPRS, one of the goals that we had for the past year was to present a signature session for the conference.

After serving professionals in the aging section, social services kept coming up as a subject that many wanted to discuss, and that's how we came upon this topic. We called it bridging the gap of social services in the aging services. There's many cities with senior centers that actually don't have a licensed social worker on-site that's dedicated to assisting seniors with social services. So the purpose of this presentation was to actually showcase how these senior centers can provide social services without the needs of a social worker and creating that base so that they can do the same thing for their cities. There we go.

So, this was the team that presented during that session. President-elect Dana Clark from Long Beach, region one representative Kim Burrows from the city of Emeryville, and then myself, Angel Bear, and Lucy from the city of Costa Mesa.

So, this is basically our framework for the presentation on how to provide social services in a senior center. So, the first point is, what is social services support? And defining that, it really depends on the senior center and the needs and the staffing that they have. Ideally, it's great to have a social worker that can provide support to seniors coming to the center requesting services and resources. But a lot of the senior center out there, they don't have the budget or the staffing to do that.

So, her presentation really focused on things to consider when you're developing a social service program. So, number two is incorporating, working with community partners to be part of the social service support and utilizing their services and expertise to address the issues that seniors experience. Number three is the funding source, which is really important to be able to have adequate funding source. Looking at even support from nonprofit grants to help build up the social service support program. And the last one is basically we address wellness check and abuse cases that we encounter at the senior center and how to go about addressing them with seniors who are experiencing those issues.

Something we were able to do during our session was actually provide a one on one consultation that is commonly seen by Lucy. It's dealing with housing and foreign language speakers, being able to utilize an intake form that we have at the senior center in order to determine exactly the resources that people need, the preferred language that they would need assistance in, being able to connect them to resources in the community. And after doing this brief breakdown, we opened it up for the room. There was 80 participants in that room, and we asked them how many of them had social workers on-site. Three of those people raised their hands.

Two of them were from the same city. So, what we did was we started asking people what are some of the cases that they have seen at their centers so that we could guide them step by step on the best way to answer and to respond to the multiple cases that they've seen. For many of these professionals, because they aren't educated in social services, it's the first time they're encountering these situations. They may not know exactly how to provide the resources or the steps necessary to actually be able to provide assistance. That part of our presentation ended up taking about a little more than twenty minutes, and that actually leads me into one of the highlights that we received.

They did surveying for all the sessions, and some of the feedback that we got was that this was one of the best sessions attended by that participant that week, which was a huge highlight for us. And that guided problem solving that we did was one of the things that they wanted to mention. And one of the things that they criticized was that they actually wanted it to be longer. Our session was only allowed sixty minutes and twenty of that was dedicated to that problem solving guidance that we provided. Another thing that was highlighted for us was we handed out USBs with available resources, with intake forms, partnership packets, everything that they needed to actually be able to take back to their cities, review them with their directors and legal departments so they can actually create their social services programs.

And we had multiple people come up to us after the session and tell us that thanks to everything that we were able to provide that they were gonna go back to the cities and do that exactly. So it fulfilled our goal and we're very happy to see that. And then some of the takeaways that we had from the conference outside of the sessions. The conference had featured a keynote speaker named Kyle Sheel and he spoke about the importance of not allowing your ideas to die and how exactly to record those ideas in any situation that you're in, carrying a notepad with you, taking those notes, and then advocating for those ideas. The creation of the advocacy team for the CPRS state board.

This team is actually now responsible for tracking state legislation that would impact parks and recreation. So, we have a voice at the state level that can represent us and actually advocate for us. And then team bonding, I've been working with Lucy for many years and just on a professional level, it's nice to actually be able to interact with Lucy also outside of a professional level and just create that bond in both cases.

For our presenter session, we definitely, through feedback from our participant of the presentation, we're looking at, traditionally, our senior centers are places our seniors go to for activities, programming, exercise, and congregate lunch program. But, it's definitely evolving in the sense of the seniors are coming to our center or contacting our center to request assistance to navigate through resources and services because you can get really lost in that. So, for us, seeing that need and also how to for the senior every senior center, how do they address that with the staffing. Of course, for staffing structure, that also I'm changing because, we're looking at a lot of times, the seniors will come out to the front desk asking resources. It's basically, I think it's a goal for us to train our staff and volunteers with the knowledge and empower them with the resources and information that they feel comfortable when seniors are coming to the center asking for transportation resources, mental health services, that they're able to provide the information and kind of guide our seniors through the process.

For the session that we attended, definitely it was a pleasure meeting a lot of the other professionals, sharing ideas and networking and learning about the cities they come from and the senior center that the aging population they work with and be able to provide support to our community to address some of our aging populations needs.

That's our presentation and would be happy to answer any questions the commission has at this point.

Thank you so much for that. We really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. Commissioner, questions, comments? Vice Chair Wright.

Hey, I just want to say congratulations. I mean, it sounds like our city's leaders in the space. So I'm really glad that you guys got to go and educate other cities on what's working for you. Can you talk more about the training for our team members on problem solving better? Is it like just awareness or a technological accessibility? What are you guys figuring out?

We have regular staff meetings where we're updating and also hearing from our other staff. Could be friends, facility, or special committees regarding some of the things that they experience monthly. And then, some of them is like when they bring up dilemma about seniors they encounter. It could be behavior issue or cognitive issue. Someone's coming to ask questions quite a bit.

Of course, I'm there. I'm available to provide that support. But, also, for me, being available to talk to our staff when they have questions and kind of educate them on some of the basic resources. Of course, when it gets complex, they're definitely I'm available. They could come to me.

I'll meet with the clients and do assessment and provide resources. Think for them, having some basic knowledge. When someone comes and asks about transportation, kind of going through, we have our transportation program as well as some of the other ones that are available in the community and trying to get them connected. And then, I think regarding other senior centers that do not have a social worker, I think it's important to have to develop like a guide or training that the early staff can go through with their staff regarding some other common issues that they experience or resources that our seniors are looking for.

Yeah, so if I'm understanding correctly, out of that entire room, it was us and one other city that has a social worker, two other cities. Is there a reason for that? Like, do we have special funding for that? Or we've just prioritized that as a city?

So, our social service program is partially funded by the Community Development Block Grant. We're able to Of course, the city also provides support. Some of the cities, I know especially up in the Northern California, in the rural area, their cities are small. I talked to someone who their population was 14,000. They don't really get a lot of people coming to the senior center versus ours.

Some of them may not be aware of their grants available. In our presentation, we did give them a website of like a government website where you could provide for grants. We also our center also gets support from Hogue to provide transportation services, and the Orange County Transportation Authority. So, sometimes it's regarding the funding the city or the county have available. Some of the city are small and they don't have the capacity.

Or some of them are maybe new to the senior center. And so they may be still in the development stage of we're realizing and looking at what needs the seniors have, and then how to address that.

What would you say is the biggest need, topic wise, that we get asked for help with?

I think definitely, as I mentioned previously, transportation, also legal, because we have community legal aid that come to our center. They're actually here today. Once a month, they come to have their legal staff come and provide no cost twenty minute consultation for seniors. And a lot of them have issue regarding housing, could be end of life or estate planning, things like that, and being able to have that. Because legal consultation is very costly.

So, having that available and help the legal staff can help navigate through that. I think we're seeing more individual with health and especially mental health issues, maybe with COVID and after effect, there's still seniors are experiencing some of the loss. Also, their family, there might be family strained or they're just losing their friends and their support, also independent. So, those are things that definitely we have resources, there are no costs, and we can refer them to and get them help they need.

Yeah, that's amazing. So for transportation, is it many of them don't have vehicles or they're unable to drive themselves? Is that the primary?

I think that could be the case if they are living alone. But, part of it is also, I think, with traffic and just like nowadays, just I think the traffic transportation, people are driving really fast and they're, you know, rural age unfortunately. Or, just navigating through some of cities or the traffic is just really heavy. They don't necessarily feel comfortable like going to Hogue. If they're going to hospital, they have to park a certain area and then get to.

They might not be able to do that. So, transportation, they don't have to worry about like, oh, I got to park here, get the ticket, or having that validated. I think that they feel better about that. Maybe they're already anxious about their medical appointments, but I think not worrying about transportation and getting there, it helps them a lot.

Thank you so much. I know we have a really successful senior center program, and that it's a source of community. I know some of them come every day. So, and

let us

know how we can always continue supporting you guys.

Commissioner Garcia Arcos did I see? Okay.

I just had a brief question. Have you had the opportunity to work with Labors of Love? I know that's an organization that is funded through the city of Costa Mesa. And if you have, can you walk us through how you connect the senior centers with that organization?

A lot of time when we refer seniors to need services, I find that they need a little bit of hand holding and knowing about the pro process. Yeah. Definitely, we have flyers available for labor love. I've been in contact with Bertie, who oversees the program. And she updates me on, like, the program. I know recently, she updated me. There are several volunteer that will work with hoarding cases, which is wonderful because some of our seniors do have that situation. It takes a special person to understand that dynamic to help and also someone who's really passionate and compassionate. So, definitely. I have clients I refer.

I try to get a sense of what they need, if it's appropriate, because we wouldn't want to refer someone that might need other services appropriate for the volunteers to go and help. I had, last year, connect one of my veterans to them, and he needed help with weeding and also like tree trimming. And, she actually sent me pictures of the volunteers there helping, and we actually highlight on our weekly city snapshot. That was very exciting.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for sharing. For those that don't know, Labors of Love is an organization that you can get involved. It's the first Saturday of every month, and it's only three hours from 9AM to twelve noon. So, if anybody wants to get, know, wants to trim some trees or pull some weeds, it's a really good organization to get involved in. Thank you.

I'm really inspired to hear about how influential your participation was in the event. And it made me wonder about whether there are I know we're in a particular budgetary environment where grants I don't know the state of certain grants, especially in social services. It's beyond my knowledge. But I do have to wonder if there are certain grants available for the train the trainer model that it sounds like you offered in a miniature format at this event that could potentially both position the city of Costa Mesa as a leader in this way, but also perhaps bring some money to the city to develop tools or instruments or things like that that would be of value to us. Because it felt to me like you were really out there training the trainers, if you will, people who would be on the ground or at least experiencing some of these issues in their communities.

So again, just an idea if there are possibilities. Commissioner Doran Parker, did I see that you have a question?

Okay.

Thank you. A couple of things. One is, I just want to applaud the city for acknowledging the needs of a social worker in our city for senior centers. There's many opportunities out there but without a social worker to do the professional intake and understand. We know, just the work I do out in the community as a volunteer, there's growing needs.

There's a lot of seniors that are being abused by their families, either because of the housing they provide or it's not your child type abuse, but we don't know. I appreciate that usually it's a social worker that would uncover some of the issues and come in. One of the areas which we all know as seniors I now have a mom who's 92, we're starting these discussions of should she be driving at night, You know, she's independently living in an active senior community. But one of the things I had heard about ten years ago, NPR did a big story on it. Senior centers are now doing these transportation give a ride, get a ride.

And I know Newport Beach has started looking into that before COVID, but it's where seniors are still driving and they offer rides, and then they log it in. And so when they no longer have access to their car or transportation, then they're. And what was happening was seniors were less lonely. They were able, like you had said, there's I mean, to go to Hope for an appointment is a huge undertaking. If you have mobility issues, if your heart isn't functioning as well, or your lungs, where are you going to park? They send you to that five story beam of and then you have to walk. They have no cart. So I don't know. I'd be happy to kind of undertake that. I know there's some liability issues.

But from what I read, and they've been doing updates, that's been huge to have that network because then it's senior and senior social. They also started finding out which seniors didn't have groceries, which ones needed a little bit more help. And I'm sure you've heard of that, but it was mostly back east. But I would love to see us kind of train the trainer, where you have like I'm a senior now this week. I turned 65.

Yay. And so I know I could be a senior that could give rides, as I think I'm responsible still with my ride. And I would love to have a login and my husband. So that's the only thing I was going to say is I know, as we we referred to, especially our chair, the dollars coming from stability federal funds may not arise consistently. I'm hoping we'll be pushing back and asking and asking. So I think some of these innovations where we have to train the trainer, give a ride, get a ride might be a good solution. But I want to thank you for leading in this space, and our seniors in Costa Mesa are really, really fortunate. So thank you. Commissioner

Ledger.

So I was actually originally saving this for our commissioner comments, but it fits with this presentation. As the senior liaison, I toured the senior center this month, and it is absolutely amazing. I really actually look forward to now retiring to hang out there. There was just a lot of fun. So we're talking a lot about the resources they offer.

And you already mentioned everything I had written down to mention. But there was a lot of fun there, too. And I really recommend everyone tour it, because I found out that there was resources there for my neighbor. He's still in the hospital, so I did get the information for once he returns home. But for the past three years, my husband and I have been taking care of him.

So it was nice to know that there is something out there that helps us help him. There was something else on that. Oh, yes. Along those lines is, it would be nice if we could get that out to the community who's not seniors, so everyone could be more aware, so that they could help their neighbors. Because like I said, it wasn't until I toured it that I knew that there was help for my neighbor, that it didn't all have to fall on me as his neighbor. So, thank you.

Any other questions or comments from commissioners? Thank you so much for coming tonight and sharing that with us. Okay. It is now time for us to open up the mic for those in the public who have comments on something not on tonight's agenda. We'll start within the chambers first.

Good evening, Commission. Jay Humphrey, Costa Mesa resident. You may all be aware that every year, lately, we've had

an air show in Huntington Beach. And I wanted to bring something up to the city because

apparently, Huntington Beach did not feel it was necessary to inform Costa Mesa and Newport Beach that they, in fact, had to do an EIR on that air show because of the impacts that would happen throughout the area. Their air show area covers not just Huntington Beach, but covers five miles circle centered upon where the air show actually happens. That area includes Fairview Park, Talbert Park, Randall Preserve, which their EIR called Banning Ranch, which is what its former name was, and other areas within the city of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, affecting the community, the people who live here, as well as fauna and what have you in our parks that have protected species within it. It also is happening about the time of the normal migratory bird time. For those reasons, that's why they're required to do an EIR, but they did not include Costa Mesa or Newport Beach in that EIR actively.

And they've had no, that I know of, no public meetings in Costa Mesa for the public in Costa Mesa to be able to comment on it. I don't know if our staff was able to actually respond because I know they found out, but they found out very late in the process. So that's one of my questions if our staff was actually able to actually respond or request an extension or whatever. So it is important for us to keep in mind that we, Costa Mesa, has the same responsibility outward. If we're going to have a process that causes some kind of impact on our neighbors, we have to make sure that they're included.

So I'm bringing it to you because it certainly affects a large percentage of our park lands here in Costa Mesa, not to mention the community. And as you're just talking about, the seniors of the city, many who have lived who live in that active fly zone area. Remember, those planes have to fly on the way to doing their their stuff. They don't get there just magically by not going over the city. They have a long glide into the process. So, please keep that in mind. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Are there any other members in the

public who would like to speak?

Oh, thank you.

Hello. My name is Sergio O'Tellis. I'm with the Coastal Corridor Alliance, used to be known as the Banning Ranch Conservancy. And so recently, there's three eighty seven acres that were preserved from development, and eventually, it's gonna be open to the public. So I'm here to invite the public, the community, to to help us be part of the process by giving us feedback on why you would wanna see there, how you would wanna participate while preserving preserving the natural for flora and fauna.

And the our partners, the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority, hold a title. And we are, working with a team of consultants, to come up with a plan for public access and also to prepare for the sea level rise. And so there's a lot of different ways you can participate in the planning process, giving that feedback through our our website, roundupreserve.org, through email emailing me, texting me, texting any of us, but also by by participating in person in one of our workshops that we'll be hosting, an open house workshop. And there's gonna be four of them in total. The first one would be on Zoom on Thursday, May 15 from four to 5PM.

The second one would be in person at field work in Costa Mesa, Wednesday, May 21 from seven to 9PM. The third one is on May June 2 from seven to 9PM at the Norma Community Center. And the fourth and final one would be from four, to six at the Newport Beach Civic Center. And the the Randle Preserve, it's located along the Santa Ana River, so parts of Costa Mesa, Newport, and Hampton Beach. So we really want we need your feedback. We we want your feedback. We don't wanna design and preserve based on what we want, but we want the community just to be part of it. And we want the community to enjoy it. And so we need the community. We don't wanna design and preserve for the community.

We want the community to design it for themselves because we want them to enjoy it, not just this generation, but then generations to come because it's been preserved forever from development. So thank you very much for your time. If you have any questions, I'll I'll be here. Just come find me. Thank you.

Thank you. It might be good

to get the website too and get those dates down so that we can share them. Thank you.

Yes. Good evening.

Hello. Hi. Good evening, PACS, Commission, staff members, members of the public. My name is Alisa Ochoa, and the response to my letter at last meeting was encouraging, and I was invited to speak here tonight, not as a member of the Arts Commission, but as a Costa Mesa resident who cares deeply about our shared spaces. And before I continue, I just wanted to commend the awesome work that the staff at Senior Center is doing.

I know personally how crucial those services are and having been a long time caregiver to to aging parents, I know how crucial that kind of support is needed in our community. But anyways, I my day started with a small but meaningful moment. I was tackling a mountain of laundry before work when my 10 year old son came over and asked, can I help? I was like, sure. That sounds awesome.

So we folded close together and that simple gesture reminded me when we collaborate, even the heaviest loads become lighter. And that's what I see as possible here in our city. In recent years, I've seen the exciting growth of how art shows up across our city, from local businesses like Northgate Market, exhibitions at the senior center, and the increased participation of our utility box programs, and the growing events at ArtVenture. But there's one area where we can grow even more, and that's public works. I don't have answers, but I do believe the path forward begins with listening and collaboration, and this can effectively lead to protocol.

The Arts and Culture Master Plan gives us a solid foundation, and now we just need a partnership across departments and a shared understanding that art isn't just an add on. It's a vital part of our community. It's a vital part of our identity as the city of the arts. And as a parent and an artist who regularly visits our parks, I see a huge opportunity to bridge recreation and art. They're not separate in my mind.

Public spaces bring people together and art can invite more voices in, elders, families, artists. And that's why I'm especially excited about the skate park. With art, it becomes more than a place to skate. It becomes a destination, a place where people can feel connected, grounded, and seen. Public art helps parks stand out, and it brings attention, partnerships, and civic pride.

It's one of the most cost effective ways to build community and well-being. We have an opportunity to build on that by connecting earlier across departments when projects are taking shape. It doesn't require big changes, but just some shared intention and process from the start. Thank you for your service, and I look forward to speaking to you another time.

Thank you very much. Ms. Fetua, is there anyone on Zoom who would like to make a comment?

If you'd like to speak, please raise your hand if you are on Zoom. Chair, there are no hands raised.

Okay. With that, we will conclude public comment and turn to Commissioner comments and suggestions. Commissioner Ledger,

I would like to begin with you.

Thank you. So I already mentioned part of what my comments were going to be on the other presentation, so we'll skip past that. I also went on a police ride along with the Park Rangers. It was a very busy month of March for me. So we saw a lot of the issues with Harper Park. I do have emailed city council and city staff. I know we all saw the same issues, so I know we're all up on that. I was already aware of the issues for Fairview Park. And since Commissioner I want to make sure I'm saying your name right. Kamala?

Kamala. Kamala. Since Commissioner Kamala is the Fairview Park liaison, I did ask him to check-in with that committee on if some of the ideas are feasible or not. So we are working on that. And I do want to say we really do need more communication from the police department. It was just such an eye opening to go on this ride along to see these issues. And it would help if we were getting regular updates from them. And also want to say I appreciate the airshow information. I was not aware of that, and that is very important. And for the Banning Ranch information,

is there any way we could get that emailed out to us? And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Kamala.

All right. So first off, just wanna say thank you to Council Member Pettis, Director Gruner, and Deputy City Manager Reyes for their time. Back in March, we sat down, kinda chopped up some ideas, some questions about Harper Park and the next steps there. So thank you guys for your time there. Also, huge thank you to Costa Mesa PD, especially Officer Paolo. I did my ride along as well. Know, got to see the Costa Mesa Jail. I'm glad to say in twenty years in Costa Mesa, I've never seen it. So I was able to see it, but we were able to hit a ton of the parks. I got a ton of great feedback from him, just some ideas.

We went to Harper and I saw our coverage at Harper. But something that's interesting and we can talk about it another time is when we saw the Watcher Commander and I saw the cameras that are available through the city to monitor areas like Lions Park or the Joanne Bike Trail, it had me thinking, could we leverage that force multiplier in other areas to to address some of our issues? So huge thank you to them. And talking about Banning Ranch or the Coastal Corridor Alliance, Oster Paulo took me across on 19th And Balboa, which was technically Newport Beach, walked down where the fence was broken, and we were able to see a a community living there, which surprised me. Other than the shopping cart on the side, you wouldn't know that there were people there.

But we walked in there, and we were able to see a community of people living there. And really, it makes me think sometimes that when things move, we I know I get frustrated by the speed of things sometimes, not just here but in my daily life, but seeing the progress of areas like Fairview and Talbert and what could be there existing on that area of the Benning Ranch made me feel like, hey. Yes. We're moving in the right direction. We're we're cleaning up the area.

We're we're protecting our spaces. But then it also makes me think what services can we provide to help individuals who are living in that situation. So it was really eye opening to know you're you're right by million dollar homes and then there's also 30 tents. Some of them actually had pretty crazy solar panels so it wasn't just a little tent. So just thank you to to everybody, and and it's always great to get feedback.

Thank you. Commissioner Doran Parker.

Yeah. Thank you. It must be the theme of ride alongs. So, of my big projects was ride along, and I arrived and there was some exciting activity. So, they were able to show me how they booked things in, items and drugs and such.

And then we went on, since I now kind of over connected with a different district than I was before. So we went to TeWinkle, so walked around so I could understand and see where the changes are going to start to happen, hopefully, if we have a vendor that can do the work, which I know which is really important. Went by the skate park to see really what was going on. It actually was a day where they had Barkfest, where they had lots of dogs and cats and adoption. And it was really nice to see it over by the I'm calling it the Tennis And Pickleball Park now because there's and we walked around there to see all of the work that's there.

And it's interesting that you mentioned about the unhoused. When I went on this ride along four years ago, Costa Mesa was starting to really put their arms around what was happening on our streets and on our sidewalks and in the bushes. And they really dug in about the unhoused. They opened a temporary shelter. They ended up recently opening up a more longer term stay.

And when I went with the Ranger Garcia and Ranger Matt, as I called him, where there used to be lots of tent and material, and they were having to go deep in every night to find people that were unhoused, in crisis, They just got out. They said virtually the city, there's always going to be some unhoused. But I was amazed, and I need to congratulate the entire city team and the comprehensive nature. It's been amazing. They said they really they understand who's on the street.

They understand what their needs are. They try really hard to get them in a safe place. And they really think in terms of how do we help these people have a better life and not be in the spot. But they also know that there are certain individuals that use the unhoused population for drugs and for crime. And so they're really focused on that versus going after people who are in house. So that was very exciting. And I was really happy to see that. It was nice to do the ride along in the other places and to see all the parks so used. TeWinkle is so incredibly used. I couldn't believe the number of families that use it, the number it was amazing. And that's all I

have now.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Houston.

Thank you. I actually had a I guess more of a question for staff. As I mentioned before, I'm really excited about the skate park project, and so I know that there was a community outreach done as it related to the design, and so I've been really excited about the idea of kind of partnering up with the arts department, and so I guess I was hoping maybe to just hear from staff a little bit about how the community outreach programs get off the ground, so that maybe we could explore that in the future. Thanks.

Thank you. Commissioner Garcia Arcos.

Hey everybody, thank you for making it out today. Just wanted to mention a few things that we're celebrating this month and the following month that's coming. So two weeks from now on the twenty second through the twenty seventh, we'll be having our 90 in Tucson, Arizona. I really hope the city has budgeted for our arborists to join that meeting. It's once a year and I'll be the one hosting for the Spanish portion of it on Thursday.

So hopefully I get to see some familiar faces. And then we also have May 17 as many of you know is Love Costa Mesa Day. We've already walked the property in Shalimar. I had a few commissioners come out. And, yeah, we we planted 65 fruit trees and city trees total throughout the the street of Shalimar, Wallace, and I believe we also did a little bit of James.

And so that was really nice. And now we're going to bring in California natives. And it's going to be a time to be able to have an educational booth. We're going to bring in more professionals. So if you want to learn a little bit more about composting and worm casting and organic ways to bring back life in the soil, it's going to be a great opportunity.

For May 3, we are going to be celebrating Dia de los Ninos along with Sergio Taez over there. And so with other leaders, we're coming together to celebrate events that are dying out. Like we come to this country and sometimes we forget about what we used to celebrate like Dia de los Muertos. So we want to be very intentional. And this is one of the first celebrations that we're going to be doing along with bright youth.

So we're really excited about that. And then tomorrow, tomorrow we have Know Your Rights. We're empowering the community to know what scenarios can play out if immigration approaches you. So to kind of give a little bit of peace in their mind, because I know some families are not going out of their homes fearing that their parents are going to be left alone or could potentially be in situations where they can't help themselves out. So that's all I have for that.

And I did have two questions. Jay Humphrey mentioned about the air show. And I wanted to ask staff, did we ever reply to that? And also I wanted to see if we did ask for an extension because I know that that show is really invasive. And I remember a few years back when I was walking Fairview Park and it was right above a few I mean what felt like feet from the ground.

So that's one of the questions and so, no, it's actually all I have. That's my only question. And I wanted to also say thank you to Sergio. Sergio with the Corridor Alliance has reached out to the community. We've done a few events in Shalimar and also near the area with our community. So I'm really excited for you all to reach out to them. So thank you.

Thank you. Director Gruner, do you wanna maybe respond to those in your director's report? Or do you wanna respond now?

I can respond now. Okay. Thank you. I would have to look into the air show and and see if we were contacted. And I can certainly follow-up with you, you know, via email.

Vice Chair Wright.

Hey, everyone. How's it going? I'm really excited for our meeting today. The agenda is beautiful, and I can't wait to dig into it with everyone. Some things that come to mind for comments not related to the agenda is I would like us to circle back on the Park Ranger data conversation that we had a few meetings ago.

I feel like there was kind of a consensus that the raw data would be nice to have. And hearing Commissioner Ledger talk about having more frequent updates, that would be super helpful. I agree with her on that. Another thing that I wanted to bring that was coming to mind is with all of our upcoming projects and just all of the programming that we do, how are we ensuring we're connecting with the public the best way possible, or even lowest cost, highest return on investment channels, whether it's seniors or people whose neighborhood park is getting improved, such as TeWinkle or even the coffee shop we're getting, the cafe we're getting at Lions Park. And I really think some type of short term signage, even like a yard sign, cool project coming here soon.

Scan QR code to see what's happening could be a great outbound channel to people that are using those locations frequently anyways and have no idea that a million dollar grant is coming to that park, for example. So oftentimes, I feel like I'm in on the secret, even though it's not a secret. It's just in an agenda that's kind of hard to find. So I did want to just reshare that idea that I've seen could have a big impact on our exciting projects we have going on. And finally, have just a personal note, I have recently been participating in a program at the Aquatic Center.

And what I uniquely appreciate about it is its affordability and that it is available outside of working hours. So I feel like that is really missing in the private sector sometimes. And I have really been enjoying swimming in this lovely weather. So thank you, City of Costa Mesa. And yeah, that's it. Thanks.

Thank you. Just a few comments. One is just a plea to those of you who are in the chambers now and on Zoom. Stay with us for the whole meeting. I'm really excited about what's going to be at the end. And I'm not going to talk about it in any depth, but just really would invite you to stay. And if you aren't able to stay, please listen to this. This is the first of many conversations. Send us your thoughts. Email us.

Let us know. And a thank you to the public who came to talk about collaboration. I think that the end of the meeting will be an opportunity to move forward on that in exciting ways. I want to thank Laura Fotua for getting the minutes online, the past minutes online. I know that people have been asking about it, so I just want to acknowledge it's a lot of work to do that. Thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. I was not able to attend the pickleball meeting. So I am hoping we will get maybe an update on that. I'm kind of curious to hear how that went.

And I think that's it. Ready to dive into tonight's agenda. Okay, moving on to the consent calendar, do commissioners have any comments or questions about the minutes or the department report?

I do.

Okay, Vice Chair. I just

have a comment on the minutes. How are the minutes written up? Just a question. Who writes them? You write them? Good job. I

really

feel that specifically these minutes encapsulated our conversation really well. I thought it was possibly written by AI. It was so good. So good job. And yeah, I would like to approve them.

Any questions or comments? Okay. Does someone want to make a motion? We have to make a motion, yes. It's my second time running the meeting. Okay, anyone wanna make a motion?

Do we have the motion? Motion to approve. I'll second.

One second as we get the vote going.

One

moment. Everyone may vote on your dais. Motion carries seven-zero to approve consent calendar items. I do also want to highlight she does review them for me as well, so it's not just me.

Human beings are always better than AI, but that's just my personal take on it. We are now on to the monthly report. Director Gruner.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's go ahead and pull up the presentation. You will notice that I no longer have the clicker. Oh, I do get the clicker. I thought I lost all trust with the clicker. Apparently not. I'm just waiting for it to come up. There we go. All right. So yes, this is going to be my director's update.

And as we heard tonight, we have the first presentation from our senior center social services team. And as I mentioned in the last commission meeting, we're going to have a few more of those moving forward. I think it's important just to highlight some of the programs, activities, and just the operational aspects that the team is doing on a day to day basis, just to kind of share with the community and kind of highlight and that out to the forefront. So these are not necessarily in any type of particular order, but I'm looking to have the aquatic staff come in and also the teen staff and provide some teen updates in addition to the senior center itself. Tonight we just heard one aspect of the senior center, which is the social services part.

And I also want to bring forward the three-one-one app and have our manager kind of walk us through it and kind of give a little bit more information on it and provide some, hopefully some data that we're trying to collect out of there. That's something that we're currently working on. So it's not quite available just yet, but it's something that we are developing and we certainly will provide for you. I did receive a few questions and requests from some of the commissioners, and I want to certainly recognize the commissioners that are going out there. I know Commissioner Kamala and Commissioner Ledger are really engaged in the community and really reaching out and talking to people and getting some really good information and asking some really good questions, which is great.

And that's really what this commission should be doing, really getting out to the community, talking to your districts, residents, and getting some information that we can address and then obviously provide that information back to them. So one of the things is Harper Park. It's an ongoing issue. It has been an ongoing issue for the last year and a half. I wasn't here at that time, but it's my understanding that all of a sudden there was a fence put up and that really kind of precluded people from entering the park area and really created quite a bit of stir amongst the community members.

And the end result of that was removal of the fence with the understanding that we're going put a park ranger out there full time. And obviously that's not really conducive for the long term. It was a pilot program, and it's still continuing today. And it's really a high level discussion between the superintendent and the city manager on how we can resolve that. And we're making quite a bit of progress in identifying some barriers that could be potentially put up but yet still provide access for the residents to go into that park space.

And that's something that we're working on, and we're getting close to it. I know it's been quite a while, people are getting wondering why it's taken so long, but there's just a lot of sensitive issues that kind of go into that that really is at a high level conversation and discussion, and that will be occurring relatively soon. So more to come on that. Regarding park equipment update and bench repair, that is something that we evaluate on a continuous basis. We have the three eleven app, which is great.

Residents can certainly use that and notify staff if there are concerns, whether there is broken bench or a broken swing or something that could be a hazard to a user. And I know our maintenance team goes out there relatively quickly and assesses and see what needs to be repaired, how it can be repaired, and they do a great job at doing that. And for example, I know we have a few requests coming through for example over at Moon Park. There was a water fountain on March 4 that was identified, and our team went out there within a couple of days, repaired it. One thing I will say that's important is when a user submits a notification of something, there is a button that allows there's a little icon, so to speak, that allows you to get a response back when it was fixed.

And it's important to click that. Otherwise, you're not going get a response. So just make sure you click that, and then we'll notify you saying, hey, this has been repaired on this date, at this time, and here's what was done. And thank you for letting us know, and we'll continue doing that. So it's important just to make sure that that is checked off and then we can provide that feedback to the user.

In regards to yeah, kind of talked about the Costa Mesa three eleven submissions. So we certainly encourage everybody to utilize that tool. It's a very effective tool. Pretty much we try to have a relatively quick turnaround time, ideally within forty eight hours or seventy two hours of getting out there, identifying it, and then hopefully also repairing it, just depending on what the circumstances and what is required on repairing it. In regards to CIP projects for fiscal year 'twenty four, 'twenty five, and 'twenty six, we're going to have a great presentation here tonight that's going to really dive into that and we can further ask some questions regarding the CIP projects and the process.

And it's really an educational form and really provides some good input and feedback to you guys. One of the things that kind of came up was the Fairview Park user group meetings. That is something that we will certainly consider. Fairview Park, obviously the big topic over there is the fly field. It's not a secret.

It's a very contentious topic at times, and we certainly want to try to find a collaborative way of resolving that. And at some point in time, we will certainly reach out and hopefully have a meeting with all the user groups there to really come to an agreement and resolve the issue with the fly field and come to terms with that. It's something that the council has certainly made a very strong point of that they want to try to find a compromise with the fly field, and that's something that we're currently working on internally. And there's quite a few things that go into it, assessing other locations and working with HSS, for example, and making sure that their needs are met, which we have been doing for quite some time. And I think we're getting a little closer to a resolution here, but there's more work to be done.

And when that time comes, we can certainly have that meeting with all the different user groups and present that to the console as well. All right. Now, some of the funner highlights. So I want to highlight that we have a senior co ed softball league. Speaking of seniors, they're 60 years and older, and they play every Saturday, and they go out to TeWinkle Park, and they have a coed softball game pretty much every single Saturday, and they've been doing that for a number of years.

And it's just really great to see their energy, their enthusiasm, and just being out there, you know, and and just enjoying the great sport of softball and the camaraderie that comes with it. On March 29, we have the Color Rush over at the Downtown Recreation Center. We had over 30 youth, and you can see a little picture down there. And they just had a really fun time, just, you know, basically it's kind of like tag, you know, and just kind of throwing these color balls, so to speak, and they kind of explode and you get, you know, colored up in different colors. And it's competitive, it's fun, and it brings the youth out and kind of engage in a lot of great camaraderie on that as well.

And I just want to highlight that we have our free swim lesson program, and that's in collaboration with the Newport Mesa Unified School District in the city, and that's actually kicking off next Monday. So that's going to be really exciting. We have pretty much all the slots are full. We have 48 students out there, And so we're looking forward to continuing that. I know I've mentioned that in previous meetings, but I just want to mention that one more time since it's starting on Monday.

See, I knew I would have problems with this clicker at some point. All right. Speaking of some of the facility improvements, over at TeWinkle, at the baseball fields, on Field Number 1, we're going be installing two individual batting cages. And we had a preconstruction meeting this morning. And construction should be beginning at the end of this month. This is very exciting. We've been working with the youth sports council, and I know that this is something that they've been wanting for a number of years. It's just exciting that it's finally happening and we're installing some batting cages over there. Yeah. And there will be some additional improvements in the future as well that we're looking at regarding some of the drainage issues.

But at least we're making some progress over there and installing that at the end of this month. At the Bellari Community Center, I know I believe last month I mentioned that we had some improvements over there, and those improvements continue with the addition of air conditioning. I know it sounds a little it sounds like a little outdated, right? I mean, pretty much every facility should have air conditioning, but it's one of those things that we are working or leasing from the Newport Unified School District, and it's something that we're installing over there in the Adobe Room. That's the large gathering room that a lot of people rent out, and so we're excited to finally have some air conditioning that we can provide there for people to enjoy.

In addition to that, we installed, I believe, six cameras, security cameras that will provide some security measures. We do have a very robust, I would say, TK school program with about 30 kids who are aged between three to five years old, and so it's important that we have some security measures in place, especially all things considered nowadays, as unfortunate as that is. And then going to the blacktop and asphalt project, we did have the outreach meeting a couple of weeks ago or three weeks ago in regards to the pickleball courts. We had a great turnout. There was about 50 people there, and we had some really good discussions and input and feedback.

The initial thought was that we're going be installing permanent pickleball courts there with permanent nets. However, the feedback that we got is that was not something that was necessarily desired in that location simply because of parking concerns as well as the noise level and the number of people that will be utilizing those open courts. In addition to that, it's not really asphalt is not really the ideal surface for pickleball, for competitive play, I would say. It would be more a concrete base, like a tennis court. And that would not be feasible in that area.

So that was another concern that people brought up. So we kind of compromised or the compromise from the community was basically to install the pickleball court lines. And people can bring in a portable net. As a lot of residents there are actually already playing on the street, and it would be nice to have something a little bit more legitimate in regards to an actual playing area, and then people and kids and families can bring down a portable net, set it up, enjoy a game of pickleball, and then take the net out, off, and then go back home. So that is essentially the plan for that space, in addition to replacing the existing basketball hoops and obviously providing new asphalt for that area.

And that's something our kids in our after school and as well as the TK program utilize as well on a regular basis. So it will be a great benefit for them. So we're looking forward to that. Just a quick Fairview Park update. The Fairview Park master plan at the last meeting I mentioned was going be going in April.

So that has been tentatively planned for May 20. We certainly need a little bit more time in regards to fine tuning some of the master plan draft recommendations, and so we're working on that. And at that meeting, we're looking to present the technical findings, present recommendations, and the well, assess or address the Harbor Sworn Society fly field. We're also looking forward to award a contract in August for the Mesa restoration project, and we had a site visit from the USC school from urban ecology, and we had three graduate landscape architects and one undergraduate environmental engineer who took a site tour of Fairview Park to get a better understanding of its elements and kind of the work with the restoration that we're doing there. So that was very, very exciting to have a school such as USC come out and take a look at our parks.

Again, want to highlight the social services program that we heard from tonight. It's a year round, no cost mental health service to seniors ages 50 and older. If you have a loved one that could benefit from this, please call us at (714) 327-7550. And I think with the present tonight, it kind of shows you the value it can bring to a community. That is definitely rare, and it's something that we certainly take a lot of pride in. And now for some of the upcoming events. This Friday, April 11, from 06:30 to 08:30 at the senior center, we have the wild west dance. It's an all abilities friendly dance. Come on down. If you have somebody that could be interested in that, please do so.

It's a great event. Again, it's about networking and camaraderie and just having a really good time at these dances. And we try to do about four dances a year. So it's something that certainly has grown in popularity and interest. And I believe at the last dance, we had about 50 people there. So it continues to grow with each dance after each dance. We also have Spring Fest coming up, of course, on April 19 from ten to two at Lions Park Event Lawn. And some of the featured events is going to be a treasure icon, photos, music, arm painting, games, and live entertainment. This is a very, very popular event. It was actually my first event that I attended last year when I first started here.

And I believe we get anywhere between 2,000 to 2,500 people coming out. So it's a very well attended event. I'll be out there looking forward to it. So come on out if you get a chance and certainly interact and participate with your kids if possible. Earth Day Festival is coming up as well on April 26 from ten a. M. To two p. M. And that's going be here at City Hall Lawn. Education and free activities are going be available. And some of the giveaways well, we're going to have giveaways in games, food, and free compost and raffle prizes as well. And then we have the access resource fair coming up on Saturday, May 3, from ten a. M. To twelve p. M.

At the senior center. It's about health and wellness and recreation, and we'll have some free raffle prizes and refreshments as well. That was another event I attended last year. Really good turnout, a lot of great vendors who really provide really quality services to those of need, And so I'm looking forward to that as well. If you get a chance, come on out. It is a very unique type of resource fair. And so, yeah, please come on out for that, if you can. And then the Safe Splash Bash is going to be on May 17, the same as Love Coast Mesa Day. And that's going to be at the Downtown Aquatic Center. Basically, May equals Water Safety Month.

So we definitely want to highlight being aware when kids are around pools or even adults for that matter. A drowning can happen within a couple of seconds and it is silent. You don't typically hear it. One example I had, I was actually watching my kids at a pool and a family came in and one of the kids was probably about three, followed her siblings, and the siblings were jumping in, and this little girl jumped in. Well, she was going to the bottom.

And so I jumped in and was able to get her out of the pool and get her the assistance that she needed and let the parents know. And she didn't know how to swim, obviously. So it's important to be water wise and water safe, especially now that we're reaching the summertime and it's just so readily available and many backyard pools and kids just jump right in and just being vigilant of what a drowning looks like. And it is a silent event. This girl didn't make peep Just jumped in and down she went.

So it's very, very important. So hopefully, please come out for that. It's very educational. We'll provide CPR and first aid basics and some safety demos as well as some life saving water skills. And that summarizes my presentation. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for that. Why don't we start with Commissioner questions and comments, and then I'll open it up to the public. Commissioner, questions, comments. Yes, commissioner.

Thank you, Director Gruner. I feel like that whole first slide was answered to my email questions as I look back on my notes. So thank you for that. I think I went back, I looked at the 3111 app. I think we'll have to play around with that a little bit more to see the follow-up on the ones that I had submitted. In regards to Harper Park, I know we discussed a meeting with the city and Newport Mesa. Is there any update or progress from that meeting as of now or direction?

I don't have an update right now, but I will be reaching out to a city manager and having that discussion and kind of seeing where we are with that.

Perfect. And then I think the other, I think we got most of the items on there. Again with Harper Park, I know one of my three eleven submissions was like a bench with rebar sticking out. Would that be something that we'd have to wait for a bigger scope or?

No. If go ahead. If our maintenance maintenance manager can go ahead and address that.

Thank you. Yes. That's that's something that I believe was was sanded down and addressed shortly after that submission. So the bench wants to replace, but they're able to sand down, remove cut that rebar out and sand it down and make

it safe. And

I think that was it from my list and persistent emails. Thanks.

I'm gonna go left to right. Is there anyone over here? And then I'll okay. Vice chair, right?

And then I will come

back I'm this also gonna talk about the three Row in One app. I love it. You guys are so fast. My specialty is in cracked sidewalks, uneven pathways. And literally, I feel like it's in twenty four hours it gets fixed. So my question is, estimate, how many submissions do you get on a monthly basis, and what is the most popular submission type that you receive? Do you know that?

I don't. I don't have access to that data, and we do receive requests in multiple venues. So we receive direct emails, calls to our maintenance number line, and we do receive through calls, and those get entered into a separate work order system. So we don't have anything that puts all of those together in one place.

Well, I'd be dying to find out what people submit the most. How do people find out about the three eleven app right now? I know it's in the spotlight, but where else could they find out about it?

Well, they can go on our website. They can find out about it that way. It's in the spotlight, and I know we have sent out numerous spotlight highlights on the three eleven app, you know, trying to get the word out, and then of course sharing it, word-of-mouth, I think, goes a long ways in just letting people know and make people aware that that's available to them. So we do try to highlight that in meetings like this. And of course, we'll listen through social media. We'll continue to just promote it. And again, it's rolling out and getting that information out and word-of-mouth a lot of times is certainly beneficial. But yeah, we're doing everything that we can to get that information out.

Yeah, feel like with public works nothing speaks quite as loud as a before and after picture. So if I could just suggest, yeah, on social media or even in the magazine examples of things you can submit in a before and after. Because I think that's something too.

People don't even know what

they could submit. I even learned from looking it up. So yes, just wanted to give a shout out to the app, and I love it.

Yeah, do know that there's a YouTube tutorial that was presented or put together and provided, so we can certainly highlight that as well, And it kind of goes into more details of what the three eleven app does and how it can benefit the community. Ms. Futua, do you have a little bit more to add to that?

Yes. So if you were to log in to YouTube and literally type in Costa Mesa three eleven app, you will receive the options. We also have a Spanish version as well on how to utilize it.

Commissioner Ledger.

Thank you for the update on Harper Park and that presentation. One thing is, is there a way just for the future when we get new appointments or new employees to get them the history on ongoing issues like that? Because I'm pretty well versed on issues in the city or history of the city, excuse me. And I knew there was an issue with Harper Park. I just didn't follow it, because it wasn't it didn't seem that big of a deal than it really is.

And when I reached out for information on the history of it from the city council, I was referred to a resident by one of the council members because he didn't even know the history of it, I guess. So it'd be great if we could, when it's a big issue like that or with like with the airplane, the model airplanes in Fairview Park, I'm aware with that issue, but somebody else may not be. So when it's an ongoing issue like that, it'd be great if we could get some sort of history for new appointments or new electees. Thank you. I

want to weigh in on the 3.1 app, too. I really appreciate how speedy the response has been. So I will say I was impressed. I used it the other day. The situation in my neighborhood is that we have a lot of gang graffiti. There's a lot of tagging. That's my neighborhood. It's all the time, a lot of places. So that's just a daily kind of thing that we deal with. And so I decided to use the 3.1 app.

And it was on a utility box, not one with art, technically on Toyota's property. But so somebody came out and painted over it within, I would say, a little bit over twenty four hours. The problem is that you could still see the graffiti underneath it. And so I guess I was wondering one, I was like, could we do another coat of paint? But I was actually wondering, with our graffiti abatement processes, when do you decide to paint over? And when do you remove it? I mean, my husband and I were just talking about graffiti removal. And sometimes that's the most appropriate. And sometimes painting over it is. So I was just curious if there's a process for that, or how you make that decision.

Yeah. Thank you for the question. So it really depends on the surface and the location, on whether they're going to paint over or remove. So without knowing that particular box, it'd be hard to give an answer why they decide to paint over. But typically, we paint over. If there is we do tend to see some bleed through occasionally. You don't know until it dries a little bit. But typically, they're pretty good about going back and going over it again if there's little bit of bleed through from the color that was tagged. Sometimes, unfortunately,

You need two

coats. Need two coats. Yeah. You don't always know until it dries.

Okay. So I will resubmit that.

Yeah, but we do sandblasting, sand removal.

That's what I was wondering.

Yeah, painting over straight cleaners and removers as well. It just depends on the surface.

Okay. One idea, and I was actually, now I'm realizing this was on the previous director's report, I think. But I was thinking about when I was looking at youth classes and stop me if I'm not allowed to talk about the previous director's report here. But it's related to some ideas in the current director's report. We do offer things like cheer, noticed, in the city.

And for the older girls, like fourth grade and up, they tend to not be as well represented. It's like one third well attended. Just want to put out there that there's definitely a growing movement for girls volleyball in Costa Mesa. And something that I hear among the teen girls is they're looking for more places to play volleyball. There are a couple of parks where you can go and play, but that would be a resource that you could get the teen girls out to the parks, and they would utilize the space.

And just putting this out there, the volleyball coach for Costa Mesa High School was just voted coach of the year. So there is investment happening in our city around trying to get at least Costa Mesa High School competitive with the local schools. So just an idea. Money is tight, but that would speak to teen girls for sure. I think it's time to open it up to public comment. Is there anyone in the chamber who would like to make a public comment?

I think I missed. I'm sorry, Tim. I missed, but you reminded me. The other growing interest with girls, third grade and up, is flag football. It's huge.

And so I would love to see the city and go out into and join the spaces at the schools. And, really, it's it's a very low cost entry with a belt with flags and a football, and it's it's growing dynamically. So I would as you were talking about volleyball, all of a sudden, was like, oh, my gosh. That way I forgot to talk about because I a couple of my neighbors' girls now that are in second and third grade, and they're on my asphalt in our cul de sac. And so now we've, as a neighborhood, invested in them, and they're over at Kaiser Park, over at Kaiser, trying when the soccer's aren't going on. So that's a big, huge, huge increase. So thank you for talking about volume.

That's a good point, right? Because it's going to be an Olympic sport in Los Angeles. Let me take Commissioner Garcia Arcos, and then we'll come back this way. Commissioner.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation. I did have also the same situation with our district is we're struggling a lot with the graffiti. And not only in city side, but also in the back alleys. And I know the back alleys are more what is it, private property. So I know that if it's not visible, then you guys can't really do anything about it. So can you explain to us the process of what we can do to hold those owners accountable for that? Like to maybe report it, send it to you, you would directly communicate with them, you would figure it out? Or do we have to figure that part out?

That would be an issue that code enforcement would address. You can contact them directly. You can submit that through the Tyler three eleven app. You can contact staff directly, and they would help refer that to code enforcement. But I think I mentioned in the past meeting, just about any avenue you take, we have a great staff that's going to get it to the right person to get that taken care of. In the end, that's going to be a code enforcement issue that they would address with a private property owner.

I'm going take one more commissioner, question or comment, and then we'll open it up to the public. For real? Sorry

about that. I just wanted to add on to the flag football. The school district does have a program beyond athletics that comes out during recess to teach the kids different sports depending on the season. And flag football has been extremely popular. And, yeah, it is amazing to see these girls out there with the boys because at the schools, they're not separating them by gender. It's just by grade. And they're holding competitions for all the sports. And, yeah, the girls are loving flag football.

Thank you all.

Yeah, there's no question that girls flag football is exploding in popularity. It's everywhere. So, it started, I believe, my daughter actually played in it about eight years ago, and that's kind of when it was starting off. And I remember playing down in Irvine at the regional park. It's just amazing how quickly that has really grown in the last few years. So it's exciting.

Last call for public comment in the chambers. Is there anyone on Zoom who would like to make a public comment?

No hands are currently raised at this time.

All right. Thank you all. We will move on, because we do not have any old business, to new business. Item number one is donation of a memorial tree bench and plaque at TeWinkle Park. And Mr. Ryan, I turn it over to you.

Thank you, Chair Brown, Vice Chair Wright, commissioners, good evening. The next item before you is a request to receive a donation of a tree and memorial bench to be installed at TeWinkle Park. For the newer commissioners, this was assigned to the PACS commission, use your responsibility through council policy. That policy is an attachment too. If you wanted to take a look at that just for the guidelines, page one and two are in particular address tree donations and park furniture donations.

The city received a request from Mike and Carol D'Alessandro for commission approved to install a donation in memory of their daughter Sierra who passed away in June 2024. That request is attachment one in your packet. The donation items include a tree, a memorial bench, and a plaque that'll be adjacent to the bench. The donation would be installed at Te Winkel Park. A little bit of background.

Sierra was a lifelong resident of Costa Mesa and graduated Estancia High School. She was a scholar athlete and played a key role in leading the Lady Eagles, the CIF basketball playoffs. Her first job was actually as a city employee working for the Parks and Community Services Department at the Balearic Center. Obviously that had a huge impact on her life. It was just shared with me that she moved on to college in Bozeman and continued on with the city of Bozeman in that similar capacity, and eventually went on to be a fifth grade teacher in Maine.

So obviously, those early times at the Blerick Center had a huge impact on her life. Sierra is survived by her parents, Mike and Carol, who are with us this evening, and her siblings, Haley, Kyle, and Gianna. The Alessandra family has deep ties to the community with all four children having participated in local youth sports and educational programs. They've lived in the Mesa Del Mar neighborhood since 1998. Though Balearic was a special place for Sierra, obviously, after a family discussion, they chose Timuco Park for the memorial due to its proximity to their home.

The bench and tree will be located on the Upper Fill Pond on the West Side, which is far removed from any of the project area for the upcoming. I know that was a question that that maybe came from a couple of the commissioners. But you can see the the star in the upper part of that map that's on the screen, that's approximately where the bench would be located. It's located near a bridge, a pedestrian bridge that crosses what we call the Upper West Side Fill Pond. The tree would be located across from the bench, across from that pond, and the star located just below.

So again, here's just an up close shot. The bench is represented by the red rectangle at the bottom of the screen. The arrow is kind of a rough area of where the tree would be. So it's a nice view from the bench. You can see the tree from there. It's a great great overall spot in the park. The picture on the right, I believe that's the family discussing with staff the actual location of the tree. And they're kind of picking it out right there, along with the family of ducks and the Canadian there in the foreground.

We are just as a heads up, we're having a problem on the dais here with our screens that's not moving the presentation. We can see the larger screen, though, obviously. But the ones in front of us aren't working.

It looks good. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Laura. So the next slide on the left there is an example of the bench. You can see the plaque will be the bench will be installed in the concrete slab, and then the plaque will be installed in front of the bench. On the right is just a sample. That's one that we actually use when we do a tree installation in a plaque.

It's encased in that concrete. But there you can just see what the plaque is gonna look like beneath that bench. I think I mentioned that I don't know if I mentioned, but that that particular bench does match the existing furniture that's on-site now. The family and staff agreed that the southern magnolia would be a suitable tree for the location. It's a medium sized tree.

It's got great fragrant white summertime blooms. It's thick growing. It's dense and it's evergreen shade tree. I think it'd be a great tree for that location and to serve as memorial. So in conclusion, staffs reviewed the suggested location, determined that it is suitable for the bench, tree, and plaque. The installation will have minimal physical impact on the city. The donors incur the cost of all the donated items. Staff just supplies the labor to install. The submitted request does meet with the council policy that you have before you. Therefore, it's recommended that the commission approve the donation request from Mr. And Mrs. Del Sandro in memory of Sierra. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for that, and thank you for hanging in for this whole we're a talkative group, so thank for waiting with us, being patient. Commissioner, comments or questions? Yes, Commissioner Garcia Arcos.

Yeah, just have a question. I've noticed that there are a few trees that I've noticed with the same situation. And what are we currently doing to make sure that these trees are healthy? There's a phrase, preserving trees for generations to come. So how can we ensure the family that this is going to be a healthy tree? Could the family go out and pull the weeds around the base if needed to? Could they put shells? Or what do you do to address any problems if any of these trees come with those problems?

We do have Thank you for the question. We do have a maintenance contractor that does all that provides all the labor for all of our trees, especially our our donated trees. They are responsible for maintaining and clearing the plaques if they're associated with a tree, and they're responsible for some of the tree care. We did just institute a small tree care program through West Coast Arborist, so that'll help with some of our newly planted trees. I think there was much needed catching some of these issues early on and addressing it right away, which will help preserve that tree and have it grow in its proper manner.

But, no, there's there's no requirement for for the families to to provide any maintenance to the tree. That's that's all on the city. If if a tree were to fail in this in this instance, it would be replaced with this by the city at no cost to to the donors the requesters.

That's great news. Thank you.

Commissioner Ledger. I just wanted to comment that I absolutely love the choice of a magnolia tree. Just they smell so wonderful. So I like that. That's all.

Commissioner Doran Parker.

Yeah. So as that's my district now, I suppose, or overseeing it. So I had asked the question, and I was given sort of the map of where it's going to be its perfect location. And it really will not interfere with the upgrades that we're planning on. And I love the choice of where the bench is, but also the tree is beautiful. So, yeah, good job.

Any other questions or comments? Someone make a motion to approve the Yes.

We do have to open up for public comment.

Oh, I'm so sorry. No worries. It is now open for public comment. Is there anyone in the chambers who would like to ask a question or say something?

Good evening, Chairperson Brown and, Director Groner, commissioners. Thank you so much for, considering and supporting this, this project. Special thanks to mister Ryan, Valente Martinez and George Cortez before he retired to, and actually Mayor Stevens and our neighbor Katrina Foley for helping us to initiate and, define this project. As mentioned, you know, Sierra Sierra was one of our own. You know?

She was born and raised in the city, graduate of Estancia High School 2017. She worked at the Parks Department, and it really launched her passion to work with kids. When she went off to college in Montana State, she worked for many years with the city of Bozeman in kids programs. When she moved to Maine to become a fifth grade teacher, she again did work with kids. And, you know, she unfortunately passed away last year from an unknown heart defect.

It was very, very traumatic. And this is a special place to us, Tealinkle Park. We've lived in Mesa Del Mar for twenty seven years. We go there daily, walk our dog. It's a place we we used to take our kids. They still go there and just it's a perfect spot to sit and remember and reflect and enjoy the beauty of our parks. We're really fortunate here in Costa Mesa. So, again, I thank you very much for your and support. And thank you, Mr. Ryan.

Thank you for coming tonight.

Yes, sir.

Yeah. So, just had a couple of comments and a couple of questions. And it kind of goes along the lines of what Christian was saying. So I guess the question would be, is there a way we can prioritize native trees rather than trees that are native to this area? Because I know if a tree is not native to an area, it's, more likely to to get a disease, fungal infections, and all that kind of stuff because it doesn't belong to this habitat.

So is there a way we can prioritize and actually do native trees? Because I know those are natural, native to this habitat. Less like they require less maintenance, which is less money. They require, the less likely that they'll get an infection. So It's just I guess the question was that it's native trees rather than trees that aren't native from here would be more beneficial for everyone.

Thank you.

Is there any public comment on Zoom?

I see no hands raised.

Okay. Any final thoughts or questions from commissioners? Commissioner Garcia Arcos.

Yeah, I think that was a really good point. Like, who chose the tree and what's the reason behind the tree? Is it because of all the water that it's being watered around the grass? Because I know magnolias love that. And if they plant them properly above grade level, not too deep, it's gonna do just great. But I just out of curiosity, I wanna understand who chooses the trees and what's the reasoning behind it.

Thank you for the question. Yeah, so usually it's a collaboration between the requestor and city staff to determine what type of tree would work best in that area. In large parts, putting a native tree in an area that is no longer native habitat most likely would not work. Most of the trees that would be in this, native to this area, tend to be low growers, low that spread out. There's not a lot of tall shade trees that are native to this area. And again, putting them in an irrigated lawn area, it's just not compatible. In other projects, we look at at native trees and prioritize native and drought tolerant trees.

So if you want to

are there any other commissioner comments or questions? Yes, Vice Chair Wright, just in time.

Hi. I was watching in the back room. And I just wanted to say thank you for honoring your daughter in this way and for being generous with the city. And I really hope that you're able to go there and feel her presence and just enjoy a beautiful space with her and with your family. So, thank you for allowing us to very publicly take part in this moment for you. And I hope that you guys feel peace about it.

Okay. I am open to taking a motion. Is there a motion to be made?

Yeah, I would love to make a motion to have a certified arborist, if not already, on staff to be present for this planting and informing the family when it's going to be done and having a little educational overview of the proper procedures.

So is that a motion to approve the tree bench and plaque with the addition of a certified arborist? Does that does that work? Is that Okay. So hear a motion. Is there a second? Second. All right. There is a second. Commissioner Kamala?

Commissioners may vote on your dais. Motion carries seven zero to approve the memorial tree, bench, and plaque at 2 Ankle Park.

And thank you both again for coming out tonight. Okay. You will now turn to item number two in new business, which is the capital improvement program, park projects update. And I believe it is Director Satharaman, the mic is yours.

Thank you, Chair, and Vice Chair, and Commissioners. Hope you can see the presentation. Let me see. I just want to make sure that it's working on your

great.

But

it's working, right? Or is you want me to change it? Okay. So, in this presentation, I want to go over a overview of the CIP process and also talk about what's being proposed for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as our five year plan. I want to make a small change in the recommendation.

I don't want to call sorry about saying it's a receive and file, but we want your input actually in the process. If you can provide us your input on the one year CIP as well as the five year CIP we will make sure we will incorporate that in our city council comments. I want to thank director Gruner here and also our manager for parks, Rob Ryan. It's a collaborative effort that we go through almost every year, actually every year, with with other department directors, other managers in my section to to come up with a CIP. And so the CIP, capital improvement program, is financed from multiple funding sources.

And, it includes federal and state grant funds. Some of them let make sure this is the right. Yeah. Some funds have restrictions. I'll go through that in the next slide.

But all most of these projects, pretty much all the CIP projects, especially the big ones, they go through multiple levels of oversight. We have coordination with other departments and make sure that we follow all the required procedures for the projects. I put in that the CIP threshold is 30,000. That is to get on the list of the CIP projects. So, we have a lot of maintenance projects that we do on a on a on an on an annual basis, on a monthly basis that doesn't come into the CIP, but they're being done.

These include like painting the restrooms. It includes surfacing of our sports courts. Some lot of different smaller park projects are covered under a different set of projects. We just call this building maintenance program or park maintenance program and it covers a lot of those smaller projects. As for the funding sources, general fund is the most unrestricted type of fund.

I mean, it can be used for to fund many types of projects. So that's that's why it's called unrestricted. When it comes to Cultural Arts Master Plan Fund, these are restricted for that particular function only. Gas tax can be used only for road maintenance projects on on the public right of way. We have golf course improvement fund, which can be used only for golf courses.

Again, these are not all the funds. I'm just showing some of the funds that that are available for us. Park development fees is the one that is for the development of new parks and and playground facilities. And and part development, how we collect them is through development impact fee. When when a new project comes in, we have development impact fee and that generates the park fees.

I just want to point out in the last at least many four, five years, this fee, we were not able to collect too much too many dollars on that on that fund because of the lack of development. Once there are some projects coming down the road, which will see some of these funds, but they are coming down the road. Maybe there are some that are approved and when they start construction or when they get permits, we will see influx of part development funds. The CIP project by definition is a multiyear program. If you look at our operating budget, every single dollar in that operating budget goes away at the end of the fiscal year.

It becomes it goes back into the general fund. If there are money left over, it goes back to the general fund to fund the next year. CIP projects, they carry on from year to year. So, if a project is funded two years ago and we didn't get to it, the money is still there in that particular project. It doesn't go away.

Projects are not completed in one year. It is because of the complexity of the projects. If look at even projects like the park expansion that we are working on, it takes multiple levels of effort. We have to go through a community outreach program. We have then we get a preliminary design going. Then we do more outreach. And then we design. And then, then, once the design is done, we get the permits for construction. Then, we go to bid. And then, we start the construction phase.

And then, there's ongoing maintenance and repair. So, it's each project goes through that kind of cycle, especially the large projects go through multiple cycles like this. Smaller projects, we get it done much faster. If it's a playground replacement, we get few designs from the playground manufacturer. We bring it to you and get your approval, and it gets implemented right away. It doesn't take too long, but some projects take longer time. And our projects do get a lot of awards. It's on our 4th Floor. The lobby, we keep adding to this wall. And it's we're very proud of getting all these wonderful awards.

And some many of these are park projects. Like, you know, we we we cut awards for the library project and and Lions Park Playground, you know, things like that. Now, how do we so how do you identify projects? So we look at the city council priorities, goals, objectives, those are important. We want to make sure that we our projects align with the goals and objectives.

And also, know, the the confirmed to whatever the immediate priorities are. For example, council said, active transportation is important and we have lot of active transportation projects. Same thing with commissions, community, and community feedback. Again, we hear from different meetings. We note down, we have that in our pocket, and then when the time comes, we propose all those projects.

We look at our own facility needs assessment. Again, this is something that is going to come up in the next few months because we are starting a project for park assessments and that will guide us on how to fund or how to prioritize projects on the road. We have department requests. Each department comes to us with requests on what they like to see. We get requests from police department, fire, parks. They come to us and say, you know, at the DRC, we need these improvements. At center, we need some improvements. We gather that kind of information. And then we have the budget constraints too. So we get all these requests, but then we have to mesh it with the budget.

We want to make sure that we don't exceed whatever the limits that are provided to us by our finance department. And I just want to point out one thing in the bottom that there is a requirement that our general fund has a minimum allocation for road projects. This requirement is mainly, it's called maintenance of effort. It's to get the gas tax and measure m two funds. We get almost 7 to $8,000,000 of those two funds.

They require us to invest at least a couple million dollars every year of our money towards road projects to get these $7,000,000 to $8,000,000 in funding. So that's something we have to keep in mind. So what's being proposed for the twenty five-twenty six CIP? So, unfortunately, it's not a big, long list. While we're recommending 23 projects

Could I interrupt you for one second and just Yes, please. Are there any is it Okay if there are any very particular you gave a really DELL: great explanation in terms of some of the background. Are there any questions from us around that first part of the presentation, maybe before we move into this, which are specific recommendations? VANILA

Yes, no problem.

Any qualifying

Any or questions you might have right now?

I have a question. So the general fund, is that where the capital improvement fund gets pulled from?

So the capital improvement, the CIP fund is a general fund. We have a code for general fund, it's 101, but when it is called capital improvement, it becomes 401. So, it is on the city's general fund.

Thank you. And also, how do you get an award for a CIP?

We submit So, the different organizations, they ask us to submit nominations. So, all cities submit, all consultants submit, different people submit for awards. And, we put in our project and see if we make it. And it's definitely competitive, 34 cities, all of them submit, Caltrans submits, everybody submits, and different categories, and we hope we get an award.

If I can just add to that real quick. For example, at CPRS, they have awards that they provide and they issue out to for various categories, whether it's a new aquatics facility, a new park, or a new center. And during the opening session, they will highlight and award these awards to cities and different design groups and organizations that have implemented or have constructed a new building. So CPRS, the conference that we just heard earlier, would be a place where those awards would be provided as well.

Okay. Thank you.

Sure. The 2526, so we have 23 projects that are being proposed. Again, this has to go through multiple rounds of reviews. The total CIP is 28.7, while it looks like a big number, 12,000,000 is from a bond that we are trying to secure for a fire station project and almost $6,900,000 are grants that we received for some transportation projects. So that's part of the 28.7.

So it's it's it's if you take that out, we're talking about a much smaller number. And and here are the different funding sources for this for this CIP. As you can see, the top two funds are the bond financing and grant funds. The next is gas tax. Again, this is funding that we get for road projects. And gas tax has two different components. So you see a two point nine and a million dollars down the road, down the sixth number below. So the top one is called road maintenance account. It's Senate Bill one. The other one is a gas tax that we normally get every year.

So we are allocating $1,000,000 of gas tax towards capital projects. As you can see, the capital improvement general fund is only 2,000,150. It's substantially less than what we typically fund in a normal year. And you can see some other different types of funding that's out there. So, it's hard to see here, but these are the 23 projects.

And, I'll just within that, in your attachment, have the parks projects. And, as you can see, it's only $550,000 worth of park projects. And, and this is for upcoming fiscal year. And, mainly these monies are to keep the parks going with whatever maintenance needs there are for the time being. As you can, I just down that, you know, few slides down, I'll talk about what else is happening with the parks?

Then we get into the five year CIP. So the five year plan is our projects that are deferred, that are being proposed this year, but we are not funding it. So they get deferred to a future year. Or they could be projects that were identified based on some plans provided by priorities by the council or commissions committees that we get and they're not being funded and those get into the five years CIP. Anything that is not funded in the current year we try to put in the five years CIP.

I just want to point out anything from the years two and beyond are not appropriated. There is no funding that is provided by the budget. It is there for numbers but there is no money associated with it, real money associated with it. For the upcoming budget, we went through the five year a little bit in detail, and we cleaned out some of the projects that, as staff, we felt, you know, were there for many, many years. And some of the origins we couldn't really also understand.

But then there are projects that are really not feasible. So we kind of we took some of those out. And I also tried to be more realistic as to what can be done even at '26, '27, and '27, '28 because there is so much uncertainty in the funding at this time. And, we'll make adjustments to the five year CIP based on this park assessment that I was mentioning to you about. And that that will give us a good guideline.

The Ferry Park master plan that is underway right now, that will give us a good guideline of what three of your projects should be included in the five year CIP and beyond. So, again, we want to come up with a nice long range parks CIP based on data driven decisions using these two studies. And, with your input based on the next item, actually. That all that will play into how we want to develop the future CIPs. So, you can think about the upcoming five year CIP, it's there, but it's going to be revised based on maybe in the next few months before the next budget, I mean '26, '27 budget, based on all this input, we will have a more realistic five year CIP.

So with that, this is in your attachment to this is the proposed five year CIP. And just quickly, want to touch even though we have very few projects, wanted to touch base on the couple of projects that are included. This is the first time we are doing. We added some gas tax funding. Like I mentioned, gas tax can be used only on public right of way.

On streets, on trees that are on the public right of way, we are looking some gas tax money to take care of the ongoing maintenance. And this is to address any issues that we have with the wind events and rain events. We want to make sure that we take care of these parkway and median trees. And this is not totally parks related, but just want to point out that there is a pedestrian safety festival that we will be planning. And this is the idea is to close off a portion of Harvard Boulevard between Newport and West 19th Street, between courtyards in the triangle and create some kind of a festival.

The idea is to have four of these in a year. We got a federal grant for this one. But, again, this is a federal grant. So, we okay. So, I just wanna point that out. Now, as I mentioned, we have very, very small CIP for the upcoming year. But here are a few of the projects that we are working on, and we'll be quite busy getting through these projects. We gave you a detailed update on many of these projects. You know, just want to point out Ketchum Livebolt is right now in the permits phase. We are trying to get permits from our building division.

And once we get it, we'll go for construction bids. The goal is to start the project late August, September timeframe. Lines work is nearly complete. The cafe is almost, I mean, we're talking about a month or so from completion. Completion. It's coming very close. Shalimar Park is a month behind Ketchum Leiboldt, which means it will be under construction in September. Skate Park, again, we will be done with the design and we'll go to bid in July timeframe. Hopefully, start construction in October. So a lot of these projects are in a good phase.

Brentwood Park, we are trying to meet with our council member to get that project started at this point. Citywide park assessment will be underway very soon. I think Rob is working with our finance team to get a contract going. We have a draft canopy assessment that we are reviewing right now. So there is a study that's already completed that we are want to make sure that it is good and we'll come to you with a presentation on that.

And you know where the favorite part master plan is. And the other two projects are also in kind of in the implementation phase. And you'll see some work done in the next few months. So there is a lot of work that's going to happen between now and the next year or year and a half. Lot of ribbon cuttings and lot of groundbreakings.

So that's what we're looking for in the next year with these projects. And I just want to share the calendar for the budget. So we are on the fourth line of this today, coming to you with the CIP, and we will be going to council on April 22 with the full report again, a similar report, but going over the entire CIP with the council. And planning commission, we are planning to go on May 12. Planning commission has to do what they do is they ensure that the CIP conforms to the general plan so that is their role so they have to do that and then we will come back to the city council budget session this is not just CIP it is talking about the entire budget, operating budget.

Again we go back to finance and pension committee and then finally in June, we hope City Council gives us final approval for the next year's CIP, next year full budget, operating and CIP budget. So that's the schedule for the calendar. With that, we can answer any questions.

I just want to say first how much I appreciate this presentation, and just acknowledge for a moment Vice Chair Wright and I have really been working with you all to talk about what's important to us. And in the four plus years that I've been on this commission, I've never had access to this kind of information, this kind of background. So I really appreciate how city staff has been really present and willing to meet us. Because just for those commissioners who are new, this kind of presentation is not something we've gotten in the past. And it was I'll speak for myself.

I found it hard to provide substantive or important feedback, because I didn't actually know what I was supposed to give feedback on. And to be honest, I didn't know how the processes worked. And so for those it privileges people who have been doing the job. It privileges people who have background in this kind of information. And even for those of us who have been in government of some kind, doesn't mean that you necessarily understand city government.

So I just want to say thank you. I think this is an important beginning for us to understand how processes work, which should hopefully make us a better commission, and just to help make more informed recommendations or ask more informed questions. If you all are game, I was actually going to open it up to members of the public before we dive into our questions and comments, just because I feel like folks have been sitting out here. So does anyone object? Okay. The floor is open for those in the chamber who would like to make a a comment, and then we'll go to Zoom, and then we will get our chance to ask questions and make comments.

Good evening, commissioners. I'll make some more comments on the next agenda item, but this is a milestone meeting, as chair Brown just mentioned. So I wanna tip my hat to staff, director Gruner, director Seth Raman, chair Brown, vice chair Wright for getting the commission here.

And I

appreciate director Seth Raman's comments about this is not receiving file. Hopefully, the commission commissioners will make changes. Well, I won't say that. Take a take a look at

it,

and if you see something that you think should be different, I urge you to voice your opinion and possibly get a vote from the commission on that. In particular, if you look at if you look at the schedule here on parks, I would ask that you look at item number 76, bike trail lighting Cornerstone Joanne Bike Trail. Those lights were vandalized about a year and a half ago. They have not been repaired yet And, that line item or that project is scheduled for future, which is beyond five years. That would mean that it would take the city six plus years to repair that and I don't think that is acceptable, quite frankly.

I think that line item, that project should be moved forward. I would also ask you to take a look at number 105, Westside Park Development. This item has been on the five year before. It's kept on getting deferred. Raja and I have had several conversations on this forum, so he's aware of what I'm gonna say.

But, that's also in the general plan on the open space. One of the priorities of the general plan open space element is to have more parks, as you're well aware of, in the cities in the city. And open space, particularly, this would be on the West Side. So I would it doesn't have to be $12,000,000, but potentially the city could be setting aside half 1,000,000, million dollars maybe a year, certainly before five years from now. The other two, I would say, is 87 And 89 Harbor Park Marina View.

These initially were forecasted for '24, '25. They were deferred to 2526. Now they're being deferred until '27, I guess 2829. I don't know what the condition of this playground equipment is, but the fact is they were planned two years ago, then they were planned this year, and now they're being deferred another three years. So maybe ask some questions about those neighborhood parks. And I think this will that's it. Thank

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Just a just a couple

of things. I realized, Lions Park, also also known as the Airplane Park, I realized that some of the trees there, like some of the coastline oak trees, were, the canopy was raised. So they were I feel like they were over pruned. And I just wonder why why they did that to those trees.

Thank you. Are there any public comments on Zoom?

There are no hands raised at this time.

Okey dokey. Our turn. Who would like to go first? Yes, Commissioner Ledger.

What kind of festivals and where are what kind of grant is for the festivals?

So, it's called Safe Streets for All. It's a federal grant. So, we we have two of those grant right now. One of them, we already awarded a contract. It's for doing say for school improvements and that's under way. This one we started our discussions with federal administration. It's not allocated yet. The funding was given, but not appropriated yet.

So, we do have the funds, though it's not something that could be canceled, like grants are being canceled all over the place right now?

At this point, those funds were not appropriated to us. I mean, they said you have the money, but they haven't given it to

us But we don't.

Okay. And then, so with the mention of the light poles, would that be something we'd work with the police department on, the park rangers? Because I know the park rangers watch that trail. So how would like, are they keep gonna get be getting vandalized if we keep putting money into it? And what can we do with the police department to prevent that so it's not a constant ongoing cost?

Unfortunately, it is an ongoing issue. There is a theft of copper wire that's been going on. So it's not just so we lost there was vandalism along this part of Harbor Cornerstone Trail, all along the Joanne Trail that's south of the golf course, many parks. I think there are seven or eight parks that were that the virus was stolen. So, I mean, it's we we did address a lot of parks and and and some parks multiple times.

We and and our PD is aware of it and the set of cameras and the you know, Fairview Park is another one. So, so we, they, they have cameras and they caught some people with this crime. It's a routine issue that we try to work. But wherever we can, we try to fix it. For example, on the Jo Ann Trail that's on the south side of the golf course, we worked with Edison to put alternative lighting.

Now they have overhead lighting all along Jo Ann Trail that wasn't there before, and that's lighting the whole trail right now. But along the Cornerstone Trail, we got good tree canopy there, so the light's not going all the way to where the trail is. So we know that there is an issue that we need to address. But the funding need is significant. It's $400,000 that we need. And at this point, it has to be general fund money, which are not available at this point.

Thank you, and I also want to thank you for this report. It really does help, especially when residents are e mailing us or coming to the meetings and wondering what's going on, and we have no idea what's going on either, so now it just shows that everyone's in the know, and we could even direct them to this presentation online later. So, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And as people have other questions, we invite those as well. Commissioner, other commissioner comments, questions? Commissioner Houston.

Thank you, and thank you for the presentation. So, you know, I'm one of the new commissioners, so I have some maybe rudimentary questions, but I just want to kind of get up to speed. So for some of these projects that are underway right now, like Ketchum, the Skate Park, Shalimar, am I understanding it right that so those have been on previous CIPs, so the money is already set aside? And then moving forward now, we're basically looking at what money will be spent for the upcoming fiscal year?

That's correct.

Okay, thanks. And I just had a question, I guess, specifically about number 92, which talks about the parking lot and playground rehab. I was hoping you could share a little bit of info about how that would get allocated. And then I guess for my understanding on the bigger picture, if let's say we came in under budget or that money wasn't all used, does that go back to the CIP general fund? Or you were mentioning money sort of reverting back, but what would happen if we came in under budget for specific line item?

Yeah, that's a good question. So as I mentioned, anything that's in the CIP stays in the CIP budget. So if this $100,000 is not spent, it'll still be there for to address any other items. With that, maybe let me have Mr. Ryan talk about how we do these parking lots and playground rehabilitation.

Thank you. Yes, so the parking lot playground rehabilitation, those funds are generally used through as a kind of a maintenance or or repair. So for instance, on an annual basis, we have a certified playground inspector that goes out and inspects. It's a third party. It's actually done through a contractor, BrightView, as part of their contract requirement.

And that certified playground inspector goes out and inspects all of our playgrounds on an annual basis. They produce a report with different issues that they may find in the park, and those are generally labeled one through four, one being that needs to get done like today. Four is more of a cosmetic thing that can wait or be deferred. So generally for the playgrounds, we use those funds to address kind of those ones and twos and threes that we get citywide. So we do wind up expending those funds.

The same is for the parking lots. Staff goes through and assesses the parking lots at various parks. Those are categorized by need, what we find out in the field. We work with our engineering team to make those repairs.

Thanks. I just had, I guess, a quick follow-up question, too, just for reference. So I'm looking at basically '92 to '94, if we kind of classify those as maintenance funds. Can you just give me a picture of how that compares to previous years? I mean, understand the budget constraints, but I'm just I'm curious, I guess, to get a reference point what that looks like, say, over the past three years, if we're tight this year or if we're kind of sticking with our typical budget on that.

So for those three particular items, it's pretty consistent. I think in the past, we've split up the parking lot and the playground, but it's been a fifty fifty proposition. So it's the same funding amount just just combined together. But I believe the other two are are fairly fairly consistent.

And those security lighting are mainly for again, some of them were used to repair any vandalized street the lights. But sometimes it's the lights are so rusted out that sometimes they have to replace the whole poll. And we have done that at some of the parks. We went ahead and replaced using this fund.

Commissioner Kamala, do you have a question?

Did I see that in your eyes?

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, so I think thank you again for the presentation. A lot of great information. I think you answered my question about the major projects already on the CIP. A couple of questions I have is, is there any way for us to see, I guess, on these projects how long some of these projects have been deferred for? And then first question.

Second question is, is there a process to move projects up based on just need change, budget change, anything like that? And then third question is for repairs, small repairs that city maintenance takes care of, does that fall in the CIP budget? Or if it's under that $30,000 threshold, it doesn't hit CIP?

So some of the smaller items, I mean, it's covered in our operating budgets. Like, if there is a swing that needs to be replaced, something like that, that's usually covered. Same thing with any bench replacements. But if, let's say, we have replaced an entire slide or entire piece of equipment, we come to the CIP to make those repairs. Again, It' something that we need to work with our operating budgets.

We have worked with our CIP and we try to make sure that we use funds appropriately to get the maximum. We don' want to lose the funds that are in the operating budget at the end of the fiscal year, so we want to make sure we use those funds, too, and knowing that there are some of these if at all there is a need, we can come here or this can roll over to the next year if there is any leftover. But with these small amounts, not often that we see rollovers of these funds. Maybe small dollars that may roll over, but generally we try to use them up.

Commissioner Doran Parker, though I will say, Commissioner Kamala, I think that's an interesting question around how long some projects have been deferred. That's something I would be interested in talking about too. But Commissioner Doran Parker.

Along that line, when we're deferring projects, especially full playground equipment replacement, it would be really helpful if when we see it's kind of online, and we've been asking how long has things been on there, It would be really helpful for us to understand how long ago those playgrounds were installed. It really looks like many of our parks were installed on the same year. I mean, almost looks like the same not only design, but you see the plastic degrading at the same rate, though some parts of our city is worse than others. Like, where the airplanes fly over, it degrades faster than and we're ones that have been in the thing. So I think it would be very helpful for us and I think the city council so we understand the mandatory recycling.

I mean, there's some repairs you can keep going, but most of those that were from the '90s don't have ADA accommodations. A lot of their swings didn't exist. So I think, for me, if we could add that on there, that would really have us have a better idea of the scope. And then if we understand that, then some of these replacements are so far over the use. Because I know whenever you put in public buildings whether it's a building, there's a use, whether it's playground equipment, whether it's a door, whether it's a parking lot.

And then I'm certain many of these playgrounds are way over their useful life. But that'd be really important for us to understand as we talk about priorities and what we have to do. And I know it doesn't help. And I am sort of afraid to understand the vast number of playgrounds that really are overdue. But we really need to get our hands around that to understand, is that going to be a $7,000,000 project? And is that going to be really critical? Has it reached the critical stage? And I think, you know, when you're just changing bolts or things or a swing bottom, that's different than what I'm seeing across the city. So it kind of goes after what we've been talking about. That would I believe that would really help us, and I think would help the city council.

On that sorry about Commissioner Kamala, didn't answer that question about how long let me talk about a couple of the playgrounds that have been deferred, which is Harper Park and Meridenaville Park. So I am thinking they've been deferred maybe two years right now, as of now, because we replaced So, we've been doing at least one, sometimes two playgrounds a year and like the the three that I remember offhand, and maybe miss Ryan can talk more, but Pinkley Park was replaced not too long ago, three, four years ago. Then we had Tanager. Then we had Jordan Park. So these three, of course, Lions Park Playground is a big one that was done.

But then next in line for us was Meridian View and Harper. And we were not able to fund it last year, and again, we are not able to fund the upcoming year also. You can say it's now pushed another year or so. We hope we get more of the park funds and other funds that will help towards adding projects down the road, but that's kind of the timeline we are looking at.

I guess a follow-up question to that. In terms of grant funding, like the 400 ks that we got, for us, what would be the process to that? Is there any drive to look at more grant funding options to help?

So unfortunately, there are not too many grant funds that would go towards replacing playground equipment like that. We try to work with our playground manufacturers to get the best deal we can get. Usually, they offer us rebates and stuff like that. That's what we go after. We were lucky with Shalimar and Keshem Naiwort because that was actually it's it's not a grant, it's an earmark.

We we are calling it grant, but our state senator came through and said, well, we'll give you $10,000,000 and, I want you to get work on these two parks, fave park and led lightings and all that kind of stuff. Is more his allocation of state money, direct allocation towards these projects. Know, a similar thing when when supervisor fully came to us and said, I'll give you money for the cafe and the skate park. I mean, they were specific. I mean, so that's all we can use for. So but otherwise, we had to come with city monies to to do a lot of these playground improvements.

We are we are working with our governor affairs manager to look at expanding our grant and looking for specifically parks grants. We just had a conversation just a few days ago, matter of fact, between with Director Gruner and, like I mentioned, our government affairs manager to try to capture and and seek out more grants. 2023 was just a a banner year for us for grants, and we're really fortunate to get that funding, that kinda direct funding that we've never seen before. We'd like to try to replicate that. That's probably not gonna happen, but I think we're gonna be a little bit more diligent looking for future opportunities.

Folks on this side. Yes,

Commissioner.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask a question about the CIP. Is there information on each line item that can kind of give you information of what the plan is for the future? For example, like Shalimar Park has $3,500,000 Is that counting the $1,000,000 that's already been allocated to the funding? Because I know it's not, as you mentioned, it's not part of the CIP, if I'm not mistaken. And is there any way of seeing that information if we wanted to read up on it?

So the five years beyond the one year, so year '26, '27 and beyond, we don't have a specific write up for each of those projects. Those fundings are not identified or available. So the 3,500,000 is for the expansion of so one one of the things that the city council did do is to purchase a building adjacent to the existing Shalimar Park. I think almost $2,000,000 is going to be spent towards that one, towards acquisition. And then there's an I think in the upcoming meeting, the council is going to talk about relocation assistance and all that.

Now, after that is acquired, we will be going through, a small project to make sure that we demo the building and we create a temporary area at that point. But the 3.5 is to do the next phase of that project. So, whatever comes out of committee outreach meetings and all that will be that. And we don't have money, that's one that we can go after grants. I mean, that's a good project that we can go after grants.

Yeah, thank you for explaining that. And then a lot of the comments, a lot of the answers that, a lot of the questions I had were answered. I did also want to thank you for that presentation, very detailed. I wanted to also echo what Sergio Taillas was mentioning. As I was walking by we call it Airplane Park because of the airplane.

We grew up saying that. But, Lions Park. We I noticed that the Coast Life Oaks were like, the canopy were raised and the olive trees were raised. And and there are some practices that I'm noticing throughout the city that could be funds that can be allocated for trees that actually need the services. Have you thought about potentially repurposing that those funds, maybe saving from specific areas in the CIP? Because I know that now you're allocating to the tree maintenance. Is there talks around that subject?

I'm just trying to do you have anything to that?

So are you The plant canopy. Yeah. Are asking about the the specific trees at at Lions Park? Or or so

In general. Because I've noticing that these practices are throughout the city. It's just a little bit more obvious and unnecessary at Airplane Park.

So So I get guess it'd it'd be a definition of what's unnecessary. So we trim trees for various reasons. Some of that is for for clearance, for line of sight, for visibility, for people that get under the trees and enjoy them. So there are some practices that are in urban areas that we probably wouldn't do out in a naturalized area. So there's different techniques that suit that particular area for different reasons. I don't know if that answers your question specifically, but

Yeah, no, I understand. And if we were to show pictures of before and after, I can have people completely disagree on the practices that were made for those specific trees. I'm just kind of like concerned of these living organisms that were, you know, not they don't have a voice. So I'm just like preaching it, you know. But I think I think it's a really good idea to see what's necessary and what isn't. And to all the commissioners and staff here and the public, when you raise up the canopy, it's a practice that's you know, it serves a purpose. But a lot of times, it's the easiest thing to do on a tree. So you can check off the list on the number of trees that you have to hit just from my observation.

Yeah. That would not be a reason for trimming those trees. It's not just checking off a list. We only trim a tree when it's requested or necessary. So a little bit more context is probably needed for that discussion.

Okay, thank you.

Vice Chair Wright, do you have thoughts, questions? Yes.

I wanted to let everyone else share it first, kind of take it all in. Obviously I'm feeling very positive about this presentation. I'm very passionate about our budget and our CIPs. So something I noticed already is it is simplified. And I can tell that you kind of weeded out some older, maybe more random projects to the point where it fits all on one page, which is awesome.

And then also delineating like the future column I think is super helpful instead of randomly assigning it a year. So, am I understanding correctly that future projects category, are we intending that that is likely going to be a grant funded project?

So, we want to add more lines to the list down the road, so it's not the intent to keep it short. The future column is there because at this point, it's unknown as to when we can move it to a fixed year that is certain. When, you know, when there is more certainty of funding and we know that, okay, you know, I can forecast next three, four years how the economy is going to be, then then we know that, okay, we can fund projects every year. So, at this point, that clarity is not there. So that's why see a lot more projects in the future column.

It's not necessarily that they're all grant funded. We like to get grant funding and that help us in doing more projects too. So it could be city money, it could be grant money, it could be different funding sources.

Okay. That's helpful. I have a question about the park maintenance assessment. When do we think that would get done, and then when do we think it would be presented to us?

We think it should get started in a month or so based on our approval from finance and then we think it's going to take about three to four months for them to get their initial draft. So we should be coming to you in that time frame, maybe August, September time frame.

Will that encompass like walkways, landscape, like literally everything in the park or just maybe components?

It's going to be they'll walk the park, know, assessing mainly the park equipment, existing facilities if there are any within the park like restrooms and things like that. So is that is that what that your understanding is?

Yeah. That's correct. It'll be it'll be assessment of of existing infrastructure. They'll include the playgrounds, existing restrooms. There'll be some general comments on maybe walkways, trash cans, benches. Those

will

be the smaller items will probably be more of a a generalized group rather than an individual photo of a trash can, and here's the condition. But the the playgrounds will probably be a little bit more more more detail to those. But, yeah, it'll be a full full park assessment. The most of the smaller items will probably be more of a generalized comment on the conditions.

Yeah, like picnic shelters.

Picnic shelters will be included. Any existing infrastructure will be included in that assessment.

Great. I'm really looking forward to seeing that, and I think that will be the leading indicator for a lot of this planning, obviously. I'm kind of surprised or curious about why parkways and medians is on here. Is that typically under the scope of parks? It feels more like a public works category in my mind, even though I'm happy to see it.

Yeah. So some of the parkways and medians, we do come to you, especially when it's new median with landscaping. We did come to you for approvals of the landscape palette and shared the designs of those. It's just because of the landscaping and that feature that's out there, so we generally included that.

I know it's required for it to all be drought tolerant now, right? Any non recreational city property can't have grass or something?

So in the medians, that's correct. You can't have irrigated grass in the medians. But as a city goal, we're looking at drought tolerant, native and drought tolerant.

Thank you for answering that. I kind of just wanted to get into the so for this year, it looks very practical, and it makes a lot of sense. I think it's maintenance is kind of a de facto priority at all times. So then I just wanted to look at the following two years, projects that don't seem to fit that, and ask a little bit if you could expand on it. The skate park parking lot and parking space expansions, why are you thinking of prioritizing that? And also, does that have to do with the expansion and just anticipating higher traffic there?

So, yeah, the skate park, as you know, the expansion is already funded and scheduled. We know that the parking lot, we are not adding any new parking as part of that expansion. And and there may be need for additional parking down the road. So so we have some preliminary ideas of expanding the parking lot because we have some space in that area to to do that. It's just identified as a placeholder to see if there's any funding down the road.

We can we can accomplish that. But but it's it's not it's not prioritized over something else. It's it's it's it's just listed as another project. And if there is a you know, if we have, you know, funds to do a playground, we would definitely prioritize that one over that.

Yeah, another one that kind of surprises me is in two years, Butterfly Gardens. Similarly, was that just kind of a draft placement there?

It is a draft placement, and as you may know, we are recommending differing some projects this fiscal year, and Butterfly Gardens is one of that. We are taking away $100,000 of Butterfly Gardens from the current budget. So, it's just trying to find a place for it later.

Okay, thank you. Okay, so some other things on here since we're being a little bit more practical on the actual CIP is that I think are important to just discuss, get on everybody's minds is I'm thinking about the accessibility to parks graph in the open space master plan draft. So we have already identified pretty specific areas of the city that we can invest in down the road, so I think that's really important to know. We have that data right there. Another thing that has come up in the past when we've discussed CIPs is prioritizing neighborhood parks and those projects just because they wouldn't be applicable for a big fancy grant or it wouldn't be a park expansion.

So, I do kind of lean practically towards prioritizing those in the general fund budget just because we know it might continue getting kicked the can might be continually kicked on with those projects because they're not going be able to compete. Two other things that I think we hear a lot about from the community and I'm not seeing on here are community gardens. So either expanding our community gardens. Our community gardens are revenue generating. A extremely successful community has come out of them.

It appeals largely to renters, which is a huge portion of our residents, and it has like what a two year wait list or something crazy. So it is such a verified, successful program. I would love to get that back on here. I think it used to be. And then another thing that I have noticed gets talked about by the public a lot is this concept of fencing at our parks, And whether it is due to children running around, a lot of our parks are on major streets, so you've a safety issue, or off leash dogs.

Fencing, I'm really curious about just if it was a line item, if we could eventually assess where low fencing could fit well. I even remember when there was a I think it was Heller Park, a kid got hit by an e bike and he came into city council and the dad was like, There really should be fencing at Heller Park, right? And I also mention it because it's not a foreign concept. A lot of parks in Europe have low fencing, specifically around the playgrounds, and it's really helpful because then your kid can kind of be more free to play, and adults can kind of sit back with a little bit more peace of mind. I'm going

to interrupt for one second and say some of these suggestions, this might be good in terms like the way that I hear you're talking is prioritizing ways that we can understand park projects. So some of what you're saying I think is really applicable, too, for the next agenda item. And I think so absolutely. And please continue, but I just wanted to interject to say that, number one. And then number two, I think what I hear because you don't want to just receive and file do we have specific recommendations? So are you asking for community gardens to be on there? And this goes to everybody. Vice Chair Wright can finish. I have a few, very few comments. And then I think it's like, do we have specific asks that we would like to see?

Otherwise, we're going to receive and file, right? So Okay, back to you, Yes. And then I'll jump

agree with you. I was kind of torn. Because it's not deriving from more of a qualitative description word, I wasn't going to save it for the next conversation. These feel more specific project or like a line item that I would suggest. But it's kind of hard to put any of us on the spot and be like what would you like to have in the city of Costa Mesa in the next five years?

Remember it right now. So those are the two themes that when I look at this I don't see it there. I do feel like we've heard a lot about those in the last few years. Yeah, I can pause there. I do have a question about the CAFE as well. Are we going to run that ourselves, or did we decide on licensing with a small business?

Maybe Doctor. Brunner can talk about that.

Yeah, so we are looking to issue out an RFP and to get a local vendor that's already here existing in Costa Mesa to operate the cafe. So we are putting the scope of work together currently, and we'll be issuing that out, and then we will see what kind of response we get. So that will be the process for that. So we'll be an outside contractor, yes.

Awesome. I wasn't sure if we ever decided on that. And then just a comment. So with the festival happening, did you say it's going to be what are the intersections going to be again?

It's on Harbor between Newport and 19th.

So that strip.

That strip. It might expand, but that's kind of what we're

Yeah, yeah. I'm so excited for that. That is really awesome. But I do think it's worth noting that Harbor And Newport Boulevard don't have full four way crosswalks, and the crosswalk of 18th Rochester across Newport Boulevard, which is the easiest path for East Side residents to go to the library, doesn't have a crosswalk. In any way that we can influence I know that's Caltrans, right?

Newport, unfortunately. Like it just feels so ironic as we're gonna do this really innovative festival and shut down the street that we really need a crosswalk there. And all those businesses I think would benefit from better walkability around that area. So I'm so excited. I will definitely participate. And yes, great job. Great job on the five year. Thank you.

So I'm excited for the festival, too. And I think it's going to bring attention to precisely those issues, right, when people are hanging out and experiencing it, because that's my neighborhood. I'm just a block or two away from there. So I just wanted to say I'm excited for the festival. I know this is something that Council Member Reynolds has been in conversation with some city staff about, but the idea of sidewalk poetry.

And just thinking about this festival and thinking about how to bring arts into different parts of our city at a low cost way, wouldn't it be interesting to do some sidewalk poetry well chosen poetry, of course but in these certain areas where people could come and experience festival and then engage with something like that. Because here's my recommendation. I mean, I say this all the time, but I don't have a park within a ten minute walk. And the closest park to me, I have to cross that crazy intersection with my kid to go to Lions Park. That is the closest park.

It's about a fifteen to twenty minute walk. And I just don't feel comfortable sending my daughter across those busy streets. I see you nodding in the back. You know exactly what I'm talking about. So what I would advocate for, for a variety of reasons, is I would like to see the Westside Park development be back on the CIP.

And I'd like to see some consistent work towards it. When we move to the next agenda item, I have a variety of reasons as to why I think the Westside Park development is important. And I just want to take a moment and pause and say, one of the problems of sitting up here is that you could be guilty of just having a pet project, that you're going to come and say, and then I want you to do this, and then I want you to do this. Right? And so what I'm hoping with the next agenda item is that we'll be able to have some conversation that will be ongoing about general priorities that will guide us, that can guide city council.

One of the priorities and I'm going to say this word out loud is an equity issue. So it's one thing for us to look at these parks and to look at the maintenance issues, which I think are an issue for safety reasons. But what that continually does is it privileges the people who already have the resources in their neighborhoods. And so then as a city, I think we'll need to really wrestle with, well, what does it mean to not do West Side Park development? And just acknowledge, it means that people who live in certain neighborhoods and I'm one of them do not have parks in their neighborhood.

How do we feel about that as a city? I think it's unfortunate. And I wish we would have gotten started on this earlier so that we could be in the position to see like we've already started. We just need to go a little bit further. So I'm going to advocate that I think we should have some money now. I don't know what that money should be. But I think it needs to be real development. Really, this is a project that speaks to people who don't have these resources, and we think that's important. So that's what I would advocate for including on this CIP. And then in the next conversation, I'm going to begin I'll continue justifying why that is.

But I do think it's an equity issue. But I also would argue beyond that that this has been a priority. As folks have mentioned, this has been a priority of the council for many, many years. And so it's unfortunate we haven't been able to do it. Things happen. Life moves. But this is a chance to begin to reconcile that. So that would just be the comment that I would make, that I recognize we're in a really tight budget situation. But to begin to address some really very real physical inequities and to provide resources for our kids and our families, that would be an important one. I'm inspired by the flag football conversations.

I'm inspired by volleyball. These don't have to be big fancy parks. But to have a space where I mean, I'll just speak personally all the kids in my neighborhood could walk to would be really, really great. So that's my $02 I don't want to take too long. I know we have the next agenda item. But I wanted to propose that, see if folks had comments, concerns, support.

Yeah, I I know we're still all getting educated on this, and I definitely would love to culminate to some type of suggestion and agree just to take advantage of this opportunity that we're going to be able to give some feedback to counsel formally. I know we just started discussing actually adding a specific either type of project or moving something up, so I do want to hear if anyone else has something that they'd like to see bumped up or added. And then if possible, I would like to vote on a suggestion to a recommendation to counsel. I see.

And just a reminder, this is our recommendation, right? So this is our commission's recommendation. We're not the ones who are ultimately going to make this decision. But if we don't weigh in, if we don't make a recommendation, then there will not be a recommendation. So we could make the recommendation. And staff, city council could decide, thank you very much for that feedback. But we are not in a position to do that. And then they make that decision. So I just want everyone to be clear. We don't need to be sitting in the staff position of having to decide this is actually what happens, and this is the money that gets associated with it. But we do have to weigh in with what we want to see. Yes, Commissioner Doran Parker.

So you bring up an interesting point. When you have a far horizon that seems impossible to get to, I've always been of the notion, we don't have a complete plan or idea what is this going to look like. And we're not going to. We all of a sudden have a building on Shalimar that's going to be now torn down, you now suddenly have green space in a space we never thought would be possible. So what I would like to recommend as we go forward is as we come up with the priorities being one is the West Side, is that we begin to have staff set aside in a fund that cannot be touched.

That it's a set aside fund that's earmarked for this plan. And if this is the priority we feel that's critical that keeps getting set aside when you're talking about a green space, it doesn't mean we're not going to get to $12,000,000 in five years, I guarantee you. I don't foresee any opportunities from the feds or even the state that will be able to be recovered enough for them to come in and say, here's $12,000,000 to build these three intersecting little neighborhood parks. Because that's going to be purchasing land. It's going to be or collaborating.

It's going to name me. So I would like us to agree that this right now is we recommend to the city council that we put aside $250,000 this year just to start with an amount. And we know that it has to be a zero sum game because they're deficit spending. But that we put aside and begin a fund that says the Westside Neighborhood Funds. We just because we might be able to also build it up to $1,000,000 And then we can go to some of our electeds and say, hey, we have $1,000,000 Can you put in five?

So I just I think to keep pushing something out without putting some dollars in is disingenuine. And I know our city councils say they want to do it, but nothing has been put in a fund. So maybe that's a way to recommend. And I'm just I know we don't have a quarter of $1,000,000, but that's my recommendation. You don't get what you don't ask for. And let's start there because of the inequity. And then I'll bring up I have three main issues I'm going to bring up with priority. Some of that has to do with maybe different ways we get there. But that's going to be my recommendation from us that we begin this fund and we throw out a quarter of $1,000,000 that we're going take somewhere else from the general fund.

Madam Chair, if I may, there is already $250,000 in that particular project from the previous allocation that is sitting in

that So

let's increase that by another 2 and $50,000 Then

you're just want to point that out.

Yeah. Then I think we need to add to that.

Other folks? Yes, Commissioner Garcia Arcos.

Yeah, I just wanted to add also, like the more we talk about this, the more we manifest it. And also maybe an opportunity opens up. Remember speaking with Arlis Reynolds. And I gave her the idea of like, hey, this lady unfortunately passed away, and I knew her son. And so they were selling the house. And she's like, you know what? The city's looking to buy the house. So hopefully they can hold off on it. So it opens up opportunities for the public to be able to weigh on, hey, there's an opportunity here. We may not be ready now, but in the future we might. So just wanted to also share that information.

I really love Commissioner Dorne Parker's idea. I fully support it, and I think it's a perfect example of how we can make better suggestions to counsel when we're informed on how the process works.

Other priorities? Yes.

I guess just one question. I know I believe you discussed priorities like one, two, three, and four. How I guess, how is that assessed? Who assesses that? Because understanding that would help kind of align with what our priorities are and and how we move things across the board on the CIP.

I mean, the priorities are established by council, by committees, commissions, by department. So it's multiple sources that come into play. And the budget is put together, is presented to different bodies at that point, and come up with the approved budget. So it's a process that evolves over a few months.

Yeah, because thinking of some of the projects we want to look at, I'm not exactly sure how many parks are part of that joint use agreement with Newport Mesa in terms of a funding standpoint, It wouldn't completely be the city. It'd be partly Newport Mesa. So it'd be interesting to get a list of that and see if that kind of where it crosses and where we don't necessarily have to find the dollars and cents for it.

I mean, so there are some parts of the budget that you don't see. For example, for the Newport Mesa School fields, we do the temporary lighting for that one. In this year's budget, are buying several portable lights. That's probably a quarter million dollars is going towards lights that that help the for the for the youth sports. So, I mean, there are other you know, so so there are some other funds that are being used to help with youth sports, to help with paying for the Newport Mesa.

I'm not totally sure about the joint use agreement Doctor. Gruner can talk about. There are other things happening too. That's not reflected in the capital improvement budget.

I'm ready for a motion if other folks are ready for a motion.

Yeah, I'll go ahead and move that we receive the updated report, but also recommending adding a quarter of $1,000,000 back to go add it into the Westside plan to begin to scaffolding to building it to become a reality

with appropriate yearly disbursements to continue developing the plan, the resources.

So starting from the next fiscal year?

Yes, starting because we're looking at twenty five-twenty six is what you're asking for our

input on.

Yes, yes.

Because this past one is already done.

I second that motion.

You may vote on your dais. Motion carries seven-zero to recommend to receive the updated report and recommend to add a quarter of $1,000,000 to begin scaffolding with appropriate yearly disbursements. Yep.

Yeah,

exactly. Do folks need like a stretch break? Because we're moving into the last agenda item. I think stand up, do your stretch, do what you need to do. How about are you ready to introduce this, Director Gruner, the final item tonight, which is the Park Capital Improvements Principle and Values Workshop. We're gonna have a workshop in PACS.

Did you guys wanna take a break now? Take a recess break?

Are we allowed to actually take a recess? I thought it was pretend Yeah,

can make

I can make a motion we can recess for five minutes. It needs to be let's have it. It needs to have

a second. I second that motion.

Do you want ten minutes? I'm asking because you all I'm looking at staff once. I'll rescind that and put a new motion for ten minute recess. So we will be back

at 09:05. Yes.

Do we have a second?

Second. We have to vote on it, believe it or not.

You may vote on your dice. I know. Motion carries. Seven zero.

Welcome back. Thank you for being patient with us. We're ready to talk about the last item on the agenda. Once I get a motion that we can come back from adjournment. What's the motion exactly?

I'll make a motion we are back in session.

Thank you. And a second? Vice chair, right? Is that a yes?

No. Looks like Commissioner Houston.

Houston. Houston.

Will second that.

Thank May

vote on your dice?

Okay.

Commissioner Ledger, we're voting on

Welcome back.

Motion carries, seven-zero.

Too bad. All right. We're on to item number three of new business, which is the Park Capital Improvements Principle and Values Workshop. And Director Greener will begin this item. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. So this item came about with the request not just from the community but also from the chair and the vice chair during discussions at the agenda prep meeting to establish certain criterias and principles and just have a framework to assess upcoming CIP projects for the future, following the guidelines of the current processes that the city already has adopted and following the, you know, the objectives and the mission and value statements of the council and the city as a whole. And we felt it was an important element to kind of redefine that here for the commission itself. And so we want to bring that as a discussion item.

This is not something there's really no vote that we're doing tonight. This is really purely a very high level discussion and kind of how we want to frame future processes of evaluating CIP projects and how they benefit the community. And so we want to bring that to the forefront here tonight. This is going to be a long term process. It's not something we're going to be resolving tonight.

But we want to kick it off. Realistically, there's probably going to be you know, one or two study sessions where we can really dive in, get some community feedback, and kind of determine what is important to the community. Also want to get the commission again engaged in community events where we can have dialogue with residents and really kind of get some good feedback so we can really create a nice framework as we're looking at future CIP projects, particularly in NovemberDecember timeframe, so that we can provide a comprehensive recommendation to the council and the CIP. So essentially, this is kind of like a kickoff event. We don't really have to dive into great detail, but at least get thinking about what that is going to look like and then kind of bring that together as we get closer, not only with the park maintenance assessment program but also for future CIP projects that may not fall in line with that particular assessment part that we're going be doing in the next, you know, pretty much probably three or four months that that part is going to take.

And so that way we are kind of put in a place that we understand what the community needs are, we have the principles, whether we're looking at, you know, equity or whether we're looking for accessibility, sustainability. Again, safety, I think, is a great component that was brought up tonight. And I think that should be part of the discussion and part of that dialogue. Again, these are just recommendations that we're going to be providing to the council. These are not actually we're not necessarily approving projects per se, you know, that's going to be moved forward, but it's going be recommendations that we can provide to the council so they have a better structure and a better guideline of what the community wants based on the recommendation from the PACS.

So with that, I will leave it up to the chair for dialogue and discussion, and we'll go from there.

Just a moment. I want to say thank you, Director Gruner, and to Ms. Villasenor, who is not here, for just the support for this kind of workshop. This is just the first of what will be probably a couple or maybe several. That's up to us to decide what we want to do. I would also say that we should think creatively. So I'm always pushing for public engagement. This is one public, and we're engaging in this way. There are other actual members of the public out there. But we can start thinking about how we might initial conversations that's all it is, is a conversation out and about.

One proposal that I just wanted to float now for you to think about is, do we, as a commission, want to staff a booth at Earth Day? Would a couple of us at any one time go to Earth Day and talk to people and hear from people about what are their priorities? How are they thinking about this? What would they like us to consider? So I just want to put that out there.

If people are interested, we're going to need to move quickly. And of course, with the Brown Act, we'll need to decide how many of us are there at any one time. One piece of advice for staff, especially as we're taking notes, is as much as we can get as possible I think will be really helpful to capture in the notes. And that as we move forward with this, I don't want it to be some huge lift for staff in terms of creating some flashy new document. If there's a matrix out there that already exists that we can easily repurpose for what we're going to talk about, let's do that.

So just something structurally as we're thinking about it. I would propose, if you all are game, but this is the style that I'm kind of used to in my professional life, that this can be a bit more free form. So normally, it's like I go Commissioner Houston and then Commissioner Garcia Arcos. I'm actually proposing, once we get to our thoughts, that if somebody brings up a topic of value or a principle and someone else wants to weigh in on it, I actually think, let's talk about that value and that principle then and see how people are thinking about it. One, I think it might help for the note taking, right, so that we're thematizing it.

And two, I just think personally, I would find it helpful to see, is there consensus around this? Not that you all have to weigh in on it. So that's what I propose, open to other ideas. But actually, I do think it's really important at this point to open it up to comments from members of the public, because they have been very, very, very, very patient. So those of you who are in the audience who would like to come and say something, come on up. And then we will go to Zoom. Let me turn on the mics.

Alright. Hello, madam chair, members of the commission. I'm David Martinez, and first of all, it's great that this item is actually on the agenda. Just wanna say kudos to all of you. So for this item, I think it's important that we I we emphasize equity for our parks. I live on the West Side in the same area that chair Brown lives in. I can't get to a park without crossing either Victoria Harbor or Newport. It's terrible. I don't have access to park space. I would hope that other people have easier access, and I hope that's something that can be prioritized in the CIP.

I think a different thing that should be prioritized is interconnected, inter intersectional issues, sustainability, and maybe you say put a solar panel as a shade structure at a park, and that's a CIP project. For I know we have our storm water master plan in progress. Maybe a storm water basin is part of a future park improvement. For the pedestrian festival, that that's no longer pedestrian festival. That's a pop up park.

And our open streets event that is in a previous budget somewhere, that's also a pop up park. So I'd like to see intersectional CIP projects also prioritized. Key criteria. Yeah. Environmental impact, demand for the project. I think it's a great idea to go out into the community. I also think demand from previous documents is important. We have a very very long list of previous plans that we've looked at. I think the Brentwood master plan was like 2008. I don't know.

Like like it's it's that's probably wrong. But like it's been a very long time since we've updated some of these plans, the open space master plan. Like, seeing what's in those documents and then actually using those documents to create the CIP process and prioritization. I think it's important that you all with your experience that with going out into the community and actually going into each of these parks, you see what actually needs to happen. And then I'll end with saying, don't just talk about the parks.

Indoor public space is also important too. I'd like to see more access regular access to places like the Norma Herzog Center to Balearic if it was just open generally. And, I don't know, that's probably not CIP, but that's just budget generally. But, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes. Mr. Dubota.

Good evening. I second Mr. Martinez's comments. He said them better than I could, so I won't try and repeat them. But I think he had some very good ideas, very good comments. And again, I just wanted to compliment Director Gruener, Director Seth Raman, Chair Brown. I was interesting, she mentioned the Brown Act. Kelly Brown mentioned the Brown Act. And Vice Chair Cheyenne Wright on working with staff to bring this forward. I've been campaigning, if you will, or urging this commission to get involved in CIP projects for a year plus.

Also, Fairview Park Advisory Committee, same thing. And, I think, with everybody, staff and the commissioners, you guys have made really good progress and appreciate it. Appreciate, Commissioner Doran Parker's motion. And that's what this is, I think, all about, is making motions where you may have different ideas than than staff. Not to say staff is wrong or you're wrong or they're right.

Whatever base but you can have different opinions. And bring those opinions forward. In this case, counsel will decide. Just last night, the finance committee, director Seth Raman was there. The staff presented a couple projects, about six or seven projects to defer because of budget concerns.

The committee as a whole recommended some different projects. So it's okay to have different opinions. Hopefully it can be resolved between staff and the committee or the commission. But if not, it goes to counsel. They decide. So, and again, thank you to staff and to the commissioners. I think this great. I'm sure, overall, the committee, or excuse me, the commission, as well as staff and the public will benefit from it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone on Zoom?

At this time, there are no members on Zoom.

Okay. All right. It's our turn. Who would like to go first? Commissioner Ledger? And just a reminder, if we can all weigh in as we want to kind of attend to various elements of it.

I do. I wanted to add to the equity in the parks is that was mentioned at the last meeting as well. Sometimes the people that come to the meetings to ask for things are just the people that could afford to miss work to come to the

meetings and ask for things.

So, I do like that it is being brought up not to prioritize those, along with equity in the parks, though. If we were to

look back at the history of Palorino Park, when I did my police ride along, I was shocked that they still have the no sports allowed sign up. Do we need

to vote to remove that, or can we remove that?

We'll take a look at it.

Yeah, thank you. So we'll get back to that. But yeah, so just making sure everything stays I mean, I can't exactly say equal, because I

don't want to give too much to somebody who may already have enough. Just Okay, that's it for now.

Other folks on the equity issue, other ways to think about the equity particular elements? Yes, Commissioner Dorne Parker.

When you're talking about crosswalking, that's what I love to do is take ideas that's going to crosswalk in the middle. Equity is about, with the raising temperature, about creativity on how we ensure that all of our green spaces have shade, have drinking fountains, have underneath, but also opportunities as one of our members here said that I was going bring up, is solar and how to have the solar then define and create the evening lighting or the I have kind of three areas, and this is about sustainability and equity, is if we don't have drinking fountains in where our children are playing, we don't have a way for them to play on a hot day. If we don't take shade beyond trees and do materials and really get creative on how the space up high can have shade, it's not equitable for anybody to be around in the heat of anything going on in the rain. So I would like to see a priority on how to crosswalk all of that. When we're looking at repairs of spaces that now have wood pieces, what does it look like to put a shade structure over that?

We know that that'll have to be replaced every five to ten years before you put it in there. So I would like to see all of that combine, so it's not just here's a drinking fountain, but it's really looking at all those parts that create an equitable use of whatever space the community can use.

Other thoughts on equity down here? Commissioner Garcia Arcos.

Yeah, just adding to the CIP budget to maybe consider having more native trees as part of our list and considering having a plan for those trees that are potentially going to die pretty soon. I know that the parkway is limited with resources within the soil biology. And so after time, trees will eventually die. So can we have a plan with the CIP budget to potentially replant those areas? I believe we've been doing that with Shalimar because a lot of the pepper trees there are starting to decline.

And then now we put in jacaranda and crape myrtles and a few other species as well. But can we do that maybe more on the West Side that doesn't have enough coverage that you'll see from research that you guys paid for?

I would just add one element also to the equity conversation, which goes back to the community gardens and to think about community gardens as an equity issue. And if you were to think about something super simple like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, like nutrition and food, Community gardens are actually a really critical part of that, especially then also thinking about climate change, adaptability, all of that. So as we're thinking about equity issues, a particular line item around the community gardens for me would be a very concrete example about how to prioritize. So just to think about that specific project that I know has been a priority of ours unofficially for a while. Open to other ideas?

Other concerns?

Just to on the equity note, thinking about it from a different angle, two things that come to mind is the benefit of investing in park space in neighborhoods that haven't historically had it is that it will also increase all the surrounding property values. And so just from a purely business perspective with the housing crisis and just trying to make every part of Costa Mesa more valuable, that is an opportunity there as well. And then equity doesn't even necessarily mean only Westside. It could also mean what you're talking about with the community garden. So making sure that our services reflect the fact that we have a lot of renters in this city who don't have backyards and can't have gardens in their backyards, or our senior services, right, addressing the seniors, the senior community.

So equity, I think, is, I mean, we're in public service. So it's kind of our duty, in my opinion, is to represent all of the residents of Costa Mesa and to really dig into the demographics of every neighborhood and ensure that that park next to them adequately addresses their needs. So that's some other extra thoughts I had on equity. I have more that I could share. Okay.

So as I was preparing for this conversation, was really torn because I just feel like you can't really escape this whole funding sources reality about priorities. And so there is almost like my practical brain couldn't allow me to really think about the values outside of how is it going to get funded and the timing in which it would get funded anyways. And so what was helpful for me was almost breaking down the different practical purposes of a project first and then assigning the value to that. So for example, for a maintenance project, you're clearly going to have safety as the ascribed value there. I also think that community engagement goes hand in hand with that, because oftentimes we're hearing from the front lines until we do a wide scale assessment.

For grants, though, I lean more towards innovation and ambition and typically things that are related to the environment are more likely grant applicable. Whereas something that David's comment made me think of is when it comes to just our existing parks and facilities, the value that I think of is optimization. So instead of all this pressure to keep building new exciting things, what if we really valued making the most of what we have and ensuring that it is accessible to residents. So what I think of is the school fields and the joint use agreement. I think of our indoor spaces that are not accessible at all times or for free, or I think of parks that are right across a busy street with no crosswalk.

It's like, what is the point of having these things if we don't make sure that they're accessible to everyone? So that's kind of how that framework was really helpful to me because sometimes we're going to have restrictive economic years, and that's where we're more going to go maintenance oriented, But then other years we're going to have grants and that's going to be more of an ambitious year, you know. So I'm opening it up in that framework. I want to see if it resonates with anyone. I see Commissioner

I'm going to weigh in one moment before we do this. I just want to go through and say the things that I heard are around priorities around maintenance, which is related to safety, priorities of community engagement. And we might think about how that gets built in, What does that mean for us? How high the value? The third thing is innovation with the intersectional, multidimensional aspects of the environment. And then the fourth is super interesting, optimization. All right. I think Commissioner Ledger wanted to speak, then Commissioner Doran Parker.

I was going along those lines is because when we're saying we're establishing core principles and values,

is this something like we're going to be reminded of every meeting to make sure. Because working at an elementary school, they

do this in the classroom for each classroom and then post it so

they could point it out each time somebody is breaking one of those.

I think ideally, though I would love to hear Director Gruener talk about this. In my world, I'm envisioning that when this is ready to be like a rough draft, that that's something that we would be able to revisit. And really, that it would be a living document. And so that as we hear from others not like every meeting we're revisiting this, but every three to six meetings or something like that.

So what I would like because what I was

thinking is we have the underneath it, like

you were saying, like equity, what all falls under equity, you know, safety, what all falls under safety. So maybe in the agenda at the top page, we could just have like the heading, equity, safety, you know, whatever. So we're just deciding on like a, you know, small few principles, and then there's things that fall under it that don't need to be in there.

I love it. So, I think that's something that we'll continue working towards, and that as we have something concrete, that feedback, I think, would be really useful. Commissioner Doran Parker?

Yeah. The Vice Chair tapped on two of my three items. So let me start with one of the things that drives me crazy is we taxpayers pay for so many resources that are not interconnected where they need to be. And vice chair brought up, We have these green spaces that the school district owns, but we're taxpayers. We actually own that ourselves.

We also have a community college down the street that has huge green spaces, community resources. We have to tap those resources. We have a water district. We have a sanitation district that also has spaces where they house their big tanks underground, but they have items above. They have meeting spaces.

So I really believe that in times of pulling back of resources, we've got to dig in, and I'm a thirty thousand foot person, and we have to ask each of our CEOs in these institutions, along with our elected officials, to get around a table, figure out what resources are lacking here, what resources are in abundance there, and how is that going to work. Right now, a good example in cities is I'll just bring it up there's not enough pool spaces. We know that. So they have this world class pool they put in Carnomar High School. The high school owns it and the liability till three p.

M. Then from three to six a club comes in, an international water polo club. Their liability takes over and their, what do you call, lifeguards take over. It's 06:00 on the dot, the city moves in with their lifeguards and their people. So that pool is optimized for the community in three different ways that not one of the entities has more of a liability than they need to have.

Because a lot of times we say, oh, you know, we can't afford it because we can't afford the liability. That was innovative because they don't have enough pools that we have. We know the city of of Laguna Beach doesn't have space, and they don't have pools, and they have huge water polo. So what they did is they took over the high school. They jointly are rebuilding the high school pool to be Olympic ability. So that's what I'm talking about. For us to sit in our silos and not recognize the opportunity, it's perfect timing. The other one is safety. They're all interrelated. So my whole thing you all laughed dogs off leash, pickleball, but pickleball has lots of opportunities.

Dogs off leash, mini fencing, and making sure that we're safe on our bike paths. They're all interrelated when we have safe places for our bikes to be stored. It's all interrelated. You can't deal with one without the other. We have opportunities even at our parks where our community is already making these mini dog parks, But because we don't look at it in a way of how they're being used, we haven't fenced the playground.

We haven't fenced in with little fences where the dogs are off leash in these corners of these parks, and we don't provide the resources, which is the pooping bags and the trash. And so then we get mad because there's dog feces everywhere, which means then you can't use it. So these are the interconnectivity, the crosswalking that right now we don't have the benefit of funding, but we have the benefit of innovation and connectivity. And so I that's my 30,000 foot, and those were my three things. So thank you, vice chancellor, for bringing this up right away.

Others? Yes, Commissioner.

So I think I'm looking at the list I drafted up before this meeting. I had, like, eight points. I won't go through them all because I think we touched on a lot of them. Right? Equity and accessibility, yes. Sustainability and environmental stewardship, for sure. I think we talked about connectivity.

Go slow. Go slow. I

think we talked about connectivity, connecting the parks, the neighborhoods, the schools, but also transportation, like how do we get there, how many major streets do you have to cross. Those are all important but I think what I had at number one at the very top of my list was community centered planning, right? Because it's it's not for us to say, hey, this is what equity looks like. This is what sustainability looks like. Every neighborhood that we represent, every community pocket of Costa Mesa we represent wants something different similar to pickleball. We thought we'd put pickleball at Blerick. I mean, it came out and said, we don't want that here. Right? I I'm by Tanager and there's pickleball there. I see it all the time.

I have never played pickleball. But I'd like to one day, but I haven't. So if you ask me living by Tanager, I'd be like, I don't I don't really need pickleball, but everybody else might. So I think that community centered planning's gotta be at the very number one top of everything that we look at because we may think what equity may look like for a community, and I might say every community park needs pickleball, but that community might be like, yeah, that community might be like, well, we don't want pickleball here or, you know, I'm not picking on pickleball. It looks fun, but I'm just saying. So I think community center planning, number one, by far, on top of my list.

I'm going to weigh in here just because that was my value number one as well. So more community minded, exactly, more community minded, which is an increase in voices, right? And I think that that's really important. And as you were talking, I was thinking about what does that mean practically? And I think it means an opportunity for us to identify an increase in what kind of voices, who matters to us. So that could be a conversation that we have as well. For me, I'll say youth matters. Teens matter. Multiple languages matter. As we're thinking about who do we want to engage with, I do think that that community minded planning will lead to better parks.

It will lead to innovation. I mean, it's what tonight is beginning to move towards, which is how to open up conversations so that a variety of people can feel like that they can participate. And I will also say, perhaps unrelatedly to that, but I have it as part of that, I do think, as the city of the arts, I think we need to be thinking all the time about art and art and parks. And I'm hearing that from people. I'm hearing that from a variety of communities who have been even participating in our meetings. I'm going to go this way, and then I'll come back to you, Commissioner Ledger. Anyone on this side want to talk? Because we're dominating over here. You have more? Okay. How about Vice Chair Wright and then Commissioner Ledger?