Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It is 05:35. I now call this meeting of the parks recreation and arts commission to order. City clerk would you please conduct roll call?

Commissioner Baraza. Commissioner Collier.

Present.

Commissioner Dolan?

Here.

Commissioner Duran is absent. Commissioner Kucharski is absent. Commissioner Miller? Present. Commissioner Trio is absent. Commissioner Ward is absent. Commissioner Chair

Present. We do have a quorum. Thank you. We will now begin with the pledge of allegiance. Will everyone please stand?

Ready? Salute. I need to go back. I skipped. Do I have a motion to excuse the absence of Commissioner Duran?

So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you commissioner Barraza. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Aye. Do I also have a motion to excuse the absence of commissioner Kercharski? Thank you commissioner Miller. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you commissioner Dolan. All in favor say aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Do I have a motion to excuse the absence of commissioner Trelio?

So moved.

Thank you Commissioner Dolan. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you Commissioner Barraza. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Lastly, is there a motion to excuse Vice Chair Ward's absence? What? Is there a motion to excuse Vice Chair Ward's absence?

I do. Second.

Thank you commissioner Collier. A second? Second. Thank you commissioner Dolan. All in favor say aye. Aye.

All

opposed say no. Now we will go to the approval of the agenda. City clerk are there any changes or proposed changes to the agenda?

There are no changes.

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

So moved.

Thank you, commissioner dowling. Thank you, commissioner miller. All in favor say aye. All opposed say have minutes? It's not on here. Is there a motion to propose to approve the minutes from the date? Oh, here it is. 03/16/2026. I'm looking on this side. I forgot you did it. This. I motion to approve the minutes from 03/16/2026. Is there a second?

I second.

Thank you, Commissioner Collier. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. We will now move on to subcommittee reports. Does the measure P five year evaluation subcommittee have an update and would like to provide to the commission?

Madam chair, we're ready to make a presentation as the item is scheduled at the agenda.

Thank you. Does the EAAC subcommittee have an update and would like to provide to the commission? I like to provide an update on behalf of the subcommittee. We had our first open subcommittee meeting last Wednesday. It was well attended.

We are currently going over the guidelines. The city did a well, the parks department did an excellent job of going through the guidelines page by page and asking for feedback from the public so we can make this process better and a better experience for a lot of our community members seeking to apply for arts grant funding from Measure P. And I would encourage everyone to come out to our next meeting on Wednesday, Hopefully, it'll be in this chamber. If not, we will be back in the room that we were in. And what's the name of that room?

It'll be here in the chamber? Oh, it'll be here in the chamber, so we'll have more room. You guys came out last week and showed out. It was standing room. I really appreciate that. So I hope to see everyone back out next Wednesday. And we will now move on to unscheduled communication. No. City administration. I'm really trying to get this meeting over with. Right? Commissioner Barraza, do you have any reports or comments?

I just want to point out that having celebrated Easter Sunday, it's an opportunity to see how important our parks and our city are. And in many places, we found that the sites were overloaded, very full and that's why we need more parks, more green space in our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Miller?

Nothing for me at this time. Thanks.

Commissioner Collier.

Nothing at this time.

Commissioner Dolan.

Just a comment. It was lovely to see the public usage of our beautiful jewel of Roading Park on Easter Sunday. To see that full of happy families was a great experience. So happy to be part of that.

Starting to warm up. So we're gonna start seeing a lot of activity at our parks and hopefully a lot of great programming for our youth and activities to do. And hopefully we'll get to talking about a new park that that's gonna be built hopefully to supply the needs of the city as it continues to grow. We do need more parks because they do be highly utilized and oversaturated with people and we wanna make sure that we give everyone the same experience when they go out to the park. Looking forward to that. Now we're gonna move on to city administration and park staff reports and comments. Does anyone from the park staff department have any reports or comments for the commission?

Thank you, Chair. Erin Egeary, Parks Director. Just to echo your comments about last week's expanded access to arts and culture, that meeting was well attended. Thank you to the community members. Many of you are here today.

Thank you all for coming. Thank you for your input so far. We're over 40 comments just from that one meeting and we look for more. Upcoming, we have sent out an email to our just shy of 15,000 recipients letting them know our next upcoming listening sessions when they can come back to the subcommittee meeting giving them some of those those details they're gonna beat they're gonna be in need of but just while I'm here next actually this Wednesday I apologize April 22 Ted C. Wills will have our first listening session for the community.

That'll be 05:30PM to 07:30PM. Again that is for you all to get your input into the department for the grant guidelines. We want to hear from you. Those of you who were here last week heard often from Assistant Director McNabb give us your comments early and often, that's probably going be our motto for this. But again, looking forward to those comments this week.

And then also on Saturday, April 25 at Maxey Parks from one to three p. M. We will have another listing session there in Southwest Fresno for the residents who may not be able to make it during the week and then next week Tuesday April 28 we'll have another listing session for the community at Mosqueda in Southeast Fresno So that'll be 05:30 to 07:30. And then just want to share, as chair mentioned, next week we'll be back here in chambers for the standing subcommittee meeting. I do want to talk about a couple items this past week in the Great American Cleanup took place.

We had a number of our parks that were a part of that El Ratka, El Dorado, Cultural Arts, Jaswat Singh, Culver Park, Riverbottom, Rodin Park, and Woodward Park. So thank you to the community who came out and offered their support with various cleanup items throughout the facilities. It's appreciated. And then lastly, Boots in the Park, another great event that we got to highlight. You know, another one of our crown jewels at Woodward Park.

We had almost 15,000 people come through Boots in the Park. So great job to the Parks Department, great job to our special events, and another successful Boots in the Park. So last item, I haven't got the second time I've said last item, but Camp Fresno Chair, you mentioned upcoming weather and starting to see these programming efforts. So registration is off to a strong start here in Camp Fresno. We have eight forty four registered campers for this year. So the excitement is definitely there. There's still spots. So anyone who is interested in having your child attend one of our camps, whether it's overnight or day camp, please visit the park's website. Be happy to work with you all and get your youth signed up to experience the Sierra. With that, I'll conclude my comments. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. We will now move on to unscheduled communication. Will any member of the public like to speak on any issue within the jurisdiction of this commission? You will have up to three minutes. As a reminder, if you would like to make a comment on a scheduled workshop item, now is the time to make those comments. If you would like to make a comment regarding any of the scheduled hearings, comments

will

be taken when each item is called. Any comments related to expanded access to arts and culture will be held until the appropriate hearing item. So I have Camilla Sutherland.

Thank you very much for letting me come up and speak. I am coming up to talk about, we've talked about all the things going on at the parks, and we have a great facility at Roading Park, the tennis courts. I'm part of the Roading Park Tennis Club, and we've been playing tennis out there forever. I learned how to play there a long time ago. But, we are having a tournament coming up, and we were informed that we need to pay a fee for court reservations, which is $1,200 a day. We have, there's 11 courts out there that have been newly surfaced, we're going to be using those. And it's a two day tournament. We do charge, we're working with the Central California Tennis Association to put this tournament on. We do make some money, but we split that with the CCTA. They use it for the other tournaments around town.

Last year we did this tournament, and we made $800 That, with the $1,200 a day for the two courts, is not leaving much for us to, we have to come up with a lot of money for that. And along with what you'd said earlier, let me back up, Armed Forces Day is what we're celebrating that day, because Armed Forces Day is coming up. We make a donation to the Armed Forces Commission through Paul Leffler, a $500 donation. So, were thinking that's quite a bit of a fee for us to pay to reserve the courts. So, we wanted to know if there's a way that we can work with the Parks and Rec to help sponsor it to maybe shorten or lessen that amount.

We also do a lot of court volunteering. And like they were talking about the last week, and we did our Earth Day with our high school kids. They have to do community service work. So, they came out on Saturday and we cleaned off the courts. And our courts are always cleaned by the maintenance folks out there.

But the pine needles and the leaves and the dust underneath the benches take up a lot of work, extra work that we felt we could do, because since we used the courts the most. So, wanted to talk about, we do some work to help support our courts out there. We provide camps free for juniors to come out and play tennis. Some of our high schools, Fresno High, McLean, Central, Edison, come out there and use the courts and we try to help them out with that. So, I just wanted to find out if there's a way that we can work with the Parks Department to see what we can do about that fee for the registration for this tournament coming up on May for Armed Forces Day.

Thank you. Thanks. Next speaker will be Adam Barlarkian.

Hi there everybody, my name is Adam Balakian and I'm also a tennis player out at Roding Park. I just wanted to invite the committee and everybody in the audience tonight to our first Central Valley Beginner Tennis Day event. It is gonna be on May 9, Saturday May 9 from 9AM to 1PM. It's a completely free tennis event for the entire community. Everybody can come out.

It's specifically designed for beginners. We run community tennis at Rodent Park, and a lot of people tell us that they're nervous to come out or intimidated because they've never played tennis before. And this event is completely designed with that sentiment in mind. We're going to have all the equipment available, so if anybody doesn't have a racket or needs balls, we're going to have that. And we're going to make it a very welcoming community. So we would love the support of the committee, the council, everybody in the audience as well to come out. And I have flyers available. I'd love to be able to give one to each member of the committee if that's approved. Excellent. Well, appreciate your time, and You thank you

can give them to city clerk and

she give

them to us.

And I have additional flyers for anybody in the audience who would like one as well.

Thank you so much.

Of course.

Next speaker, Melissa Paduya.

Hello. It's been a while since I've been here, but I'd like you guys to know that I watch faithfully thanks to the CMAC. And I love the Community Media Access Collaboration. They just selected me to be part of their Empowered Her cohort to do a documentary on women's wrestling in the Central Valley. And I'm the executive director for Consortium Bi.

And I'm we I'd like to invite everybody to the free wrestling community event at Justin Garza High School. I spoke about it last time I was here, and we partnered with Lamar College and California Army National Guards and local coaches to host this resource to spark wrestling in our community. And it will be held May 16, again, at Justin Garza, that's Central Unified. And next weekend, consortium will be at Spring Fest. This will be our second year.

We reached over 900 people last time we were there, and we're going to promote the sport of wrestling. And we're gonna promote the event upcoming. And the kids who are there are wrestlers will be at a tri county tournament in Tulare, our Central Valley Wrestlers, and that's where the community will be. It's a new event. Central Valley Wrestling Association hosts about six spring wrestling tournaments, and we've done four already.

We have a few more coming up. We just had the state championship at the Saland Arena. It's one of five tournaments located at the Saland Arena. There were about 3,000 wrestlers competing alone for a Fargo qualifying spot. So, they'll go and and train to wrestle to represent California in Fargo, Indiana. And, 3,000 wrestlers plus their families. So, it was a two day event. A long two day event. It does require a USA membership card, but there are many resources to establish that card. We have a free kids card program for children 14 and under to get a Judy Rider free kids card, as well as a high school program.

And, that offers you the ability to wrestle here and internationally and regionally. And, so, there's also an upcoming event in October. It's a training for coaches and clinics. So, I just wanted to invite you guys to that. And, I have some more copies of any of the information if you guys would like it, and I've left a copy with Shelby as well. Thank you for hearing me, and thank you for your dedication to this committee.

Like I said, I've been watching.

You guys have been very busy and I appreciate your leadership. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. You guys are busy. All those flyers. Yes, please make sure we get a copy of all those flyers. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your work. Alright. Do we have anyone online?

Johannes, you have three minutes.

Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes. Thank you, commissioners. I wanna thank you as always for allowing public comment via remote participation. And I wanna state that it should be so for all city meetings for all times as a matter of accessibility. So, again, thank you for that.

Keeping my comments for the the the expanded access to arts and culture grant application to its proper time, I wanna speak unscheduled about the the grant's application review committee handbook or the ARC handbook, which I understand is yet to be developed into a draft. As this commission and the city of Fresno work to repair the damage Fresno ARC's council did to this grant and to measure p as a whole, I ask that the development of the the ARC, the application review committee handbook, and all aspects of the ARC be developed with the same transparency and the same intentional incorporation of community input that the grant application guidelines appear to be doing so far. The exact same process of public draft document, public subcommittee meetings, public comment portal, multiple listening sessions, and accessible and transparent accountability towards incorporating the input actually made by the community, like, that that this grant is meant to serve. Maintaining full transparency will help repair the trust that was broken. And actually incorporating community input, taxpayer input is vital to keeping that trust.

Deafening silence from our commissioners, deafening silence from the, like, the people carrying out this this measure p grant program is not gonna repair trust. I deeply appreciate at least what I've seen so far, and I hope that I continue to see it. I also asked I also asked that the ARC Handbook include in no uncertain terms application review and scoring sessions that are fully open to the public, fully on Zoom, and fully recorded. Those who are currently applying can only hope to learn and improve their offerings if they are given access to these scoring sessions. Those who have never applied can only hope to be encouraged if they're given access to the scoring session.

That's the goal of measure p and the arts and cultural plan, to expand the access to build these smaller arts and culture orgs. Any desire to keep our panelists hidden or anonymous don't apply in this case, and there are ways that we can work in that ARC handbook to make sure that everyone feels heard, feels safe, and feels unharassed. But that must be done if people want to learn and grow, if our community wants to learn and grow for arts and culture. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. I have Sarah Parks. You have three minutes, and it's for unscheduled communication.

Great. Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you, chair McCoy and commissioners. And I'm sorry I'm not with you in the chamber tonight. I just wanted to make a quick comment about the workshop for the five year report to the community on measure p. I spent some time looking at it this morning, and I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed at the kind of lack of information that I thought we might see in the report. And a majority of the document is actually just restating the ordinance guidelines. So I also spent some time looking at the parks department annual reports, and they are fantastic.

And I would just love to encourage the commission to add some more information about the progress that's happened over the five years since measure p was implemented. I think this report is an opportunity to celebrate the major win that we've seen with the new parks that have come online and all of the great maintenance work that have happened. And so I just would love to encourage you to to perhaps add a little bit more. I also do wanna acknowledge the fact that this reporting process is happening during the same time that you all have been working so incredibly hard to address the issues with the cultural arts money and the grant. So I wanna acknowledge your incredibly hard work, and thank you for your service.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Thank

you.

Jasmine, you have three minutes for unscheduled communication.

Hello, my name is Jasmine Moore. I am a a an EAAC grant recipient. I was awarded 90% of the funds for my project, flourish the artist development.

This is for unscheduled communication. The comments can be heard during our hearings. So if you can come back to us during that time, please. I have no others online.

Okay, I will go ahead and close and schedule communication. And we will go ahead and move on to workshops. ID number 20, workshop measure P five year evaluation of the program. The five year evaluation subcommittee is going to present. Will someone please begin the presentation?

Madam Chair, first of all, I'd like to thank the members of our subcommittee, Commissioner McKay Duran, Commissioner John Dolan, and also from staff Sarah Gaetan, who helped us with providing documents when we requested them. This five year evaluation is provided pursuant to section seven, fifteen oh nine of the ordinance, which states that the commission shall have the primary authority on behalf of the city to every five years submit an evaluation of the program to the public and the City of Fresno, item seven. This five year evaluation report is being provided pursuant to that ordinance. One of the things that we have done in our subcommittee, we've listed excerpts of measure P that identifies the proportions, the amounts that have to be allocated in accordance with the requirements of measure P. And, in your, do you have a, if you go to, actually, the first, the second page, or the first page has the agenda, which is all of the items that are listed in the evaluation.

And, the evaluation has all those items. And, Commissioner Dullen and I are going to present sections. And, Commissioner Duran was actually supposed to present the middle part. But, if he doesn't arrive, we will share that with you in writing, because you have that already listed in the report. But, the, so you have all of the various sections.

So, if we could go to the next. This one here is the breakdown of where the money of measure P is supposed to go. We have discussed this many times at this commission meetings. One, that the 46% of the funds are supposed to be allocated for existing parks. 21.5 to new parks.

And, you also know that half of that money has to be allocated to the highest needs neighborhoods. And then, we have an allocation that goes to arts and culture, 12%. For trails, 11.25%. And, for youth and senior citizen programs, 8.5%. And, in reviewing all the various reports that we get from staff when the allocations are made, we feel very comfortable, the members of our subcommittee, to point out that the city of Fresno is compliant with those allocations as prescribed under a measure P.

So, that is the statement we make under finding one. If you could please go to the next page. So, finding one, we developed a series of findings that apply to the various sections. And, so that first finding points out that the city is complying with the proportional allocation of the funds as it is stated in measure P. Moving to finding number two.

Under the Cultural Arts Programs category, the City of Fresno has expanded access to culture and art funds experience overall to city residents. So, there have been several millions of dollars allocated to emerging and existing arts organizations. And so, the funds of HOPE have reached a lot of people in our community. And, it is in our opinion, it has had a very positive impact on our neighborhoods in parts of our city. However, we believe that there's some room for improvement in terms of the distribution of these funds to some of the communities in our city, including Southeast, Southwest, and South Central.

In this regard, our subcommittee recommends that we should increase the level of technical assistance that the city of Fresno provides to community organizations, especially those that are not incorporated. And, that would help make more organizations, nonprofits, eligible to receive those funds. We also think that the documentation of the existing organizations of what services they provide in what areas would probably give us a better picture that you are probably doing already a very good job of reaching out to communities that are normally that normally do not have access to cultural arts experience. So, I heard before that there was going to be more information, more documentation required as the arts, cultural arts grants were being allocated. And we hope to see more of that documentation so that we learn about, before we criticize you folks, we want to know what it is that you're doing to reach out to all parts of our city.

That would be very beneficial. Also, I read a section of measure P that points out that there should be an annual allocation of the culture arts programs. We have not met that requirement. And, think that it would be important that, to the extent we can, that we continue to make allocations on an annual basis, provide those opportunities to the public and nonprofit organizations on an annual basis. I also wanted to point out that this evaluation did not, did look at all reports that had been previously provided to us as a commission, but we did not get into the issue of the fraud problem that the police department, FBI, and I know you might have read in the media that they have already identified the person that was involved.

And, I think the amount gets into the $1,800,000 So, we did not, that was not the subject of our evaluation because we felt that we did not have information pertaining to that. And, so I wanted to point it out. The other part of information that we did not include in the report, and actually, we have provided a copy to our city clerk, it is now in addendum to the report, has to do with another requirement that we have in under measure P, which is which says that it is the intent of the voter voters in adopting this ordinance that the expenditures made pursuant to this ordinance shall supplement the levels of funding, the levels of spending. And, that's important to note, spending. At first, we thought it was funds budgeted.

So, it's really the funds that are expended by this ordinance and the additional expenditure should not supplant the twenty seventeen-eighteen spending levels. What our committee had, perhaps, a lack of information, we were not really sure why in a letter that was provided to us, there was a reference made to the general fund expenditures, And, in the ordinance requirement, it doesn't limit the expenditures of the city to the general fund. But, because there are other expenditures that occur related to grants and also capital improvement fees, revenue that is received by the city, so we thought that perhaps all of the revenues that are expended by the city should be included. However, we left it open so that we have an opportunity to hear from, at the appropriate time, from our city attorney and also from staff if there is a justification as to why we're limiting the funding level amount identified to just the general fund. So, there was a question.

And, to complete that other finding, the documents that we were able to review from the annual comprehensive financial reports, unfortunately, did not have clearly identified the amounts that even if we were to rely just on general fund allocations, we were not able to determine that because there was one amount related to capital outlays that was not broken down. And, unfortunately, that amount pertains to the entire city of Fresno. So, we did not have enough information to be able to arrive to a conclusion whether the city is currently complying with that requirement or not. And, we also had a suggestion or recommendation that perhaps when the city does those annual audits, that they ask the auditor to evaluate or identify the amount that Nation P requires, the level of expenditures that each year the city of Fresno has to comply with. And, I don't know how that's been done, but unfortunately, as we ran out of time, we did not have that information.

So, we thought we identify the pending matters or the pending data that we still need to review to be able to arrive to either the conclusion whether the city of Fresno is compliant with, I think that's called a maintenance of effort requirement. That's just what I think it's called. But, that's my part, and I would like to now pass it on to my colleague, Mr. Donlin, Commissioner Donlin. And if you could tell us about your part, and then we can open it for any questions the Commission may have.

Sure. Can you advance the slides? There we go. Oh, go back. There we go. So, you can see the finding here that the equity planning embedded in Measure P oversight, the annual audits required, Traceable audit numbers. The corrective action taken. We've corrected the highest need neighborhood map. And we redefined that as a commission. All of this work was informed by over 1,400 survey responses.

And due to that input, it weights park condition and poverty more heavily than it did in the beginning. And at least 50% of the park funds directed to the most underserved census tracts, as we defined it by the commission. So that's what you see here. What I do want to do is take a moment to point out that the work that you see reflected here is attributable to the work of the subcommittee, Commissioner Barrazza, who did a tremendous amount of work on this. But I will also say that I think, and I think former Commissioner Parks in her previous comments during unscheduled communication touched on this.

This is a real weakness in the way measure P is written currently. Evaluation of something as complex as Measure P and the expenditures in the various categories is maybe the most important thing we can do. Particularly in light of some of the things that have happened over the last year in discoveries. Having said that, evaluation is a very complex and sophisticated process. It is not something that can really be undertaken by three unpaid laypeople on a subcommittee and give you anything other than a gloss, which is basically, however, in good faith, that's what you have here.

So I think the Submission is in agreement. Parks and city staff were incredibly helpful. But they are also stressed with capacity issues, particularly this time of year as budgets are being developed. So this is a weakness in the process. We need to make room for outside consultants, if necessary, to come in and really conduct the sort of sophisticated analysis of this expenditure every five years. It can't be left up to, again, well meaning, hardworking, but volunteer laypeople to pull this off. Thank you. Oh there's the conclusion.

Oh I was like is it, you just dropped the mic on us like that, that's the end? Alrighty. Does any member of the commission have any questions regarding this item? Do. I have a head full of questions.

Do the subcommittee feel like that there was some guidance needed to prepare this five year evaluation report?

Yes. The language is very, very general. And again, just taking existing information without any analysis or way of delving into that on a more formal level of an audit or anything else that's involved in an evaluation process is incredibly difficult to undertake. Right? So again, I think outside guidance on this, the committee can form a very valuable process of oversight and supervision and translation and interpretation as opposed to actually trying to crank those numbers out themselves would be a great step.

Outside guidance or someone assigned from the department to guide?

I am well, speaking purely as an individual. I don't know the answer to that. I don't know what is better. But I will say, again, this is not a criticism of city staff. This is not a criticism of the work of the committee. This is just, I think, trying to say realistically, what is the capacity of those bodies in a time when they have full load of other work as well to try to delve into this in a way that is more than simply churning the information that's in front of us as opposed to analyzing it.

Understood. Not taking a crack at no one. But since this is the first time that this has been done, that we kind of need some guidance and some tools in place to make sure that we give out a transparency report. So that's why I'm asking those questions. Questions.

Again, speaking only as an individual commissioner, I would say that it is easy to underestimate how complicated real evaluation is. I don't think that that is for it to be a worthwhile endeavor that really gives us real information and helps guide future decisions. I think that is best served by having an outside contractor come in and work with the subcommittee or with the commission as a whole. That's, again, just my own personal opinion.

Thank you. Same question to you.

I think something that is being done that I think is well done is the format that park staff uses when the budget allocations are presented. They are mindful of the very specific proportions, and the format they use actually complies with that. And in fact, makes it easier for an evaluation. But we will run into areas where we may not totally agree with city staff interpretation, and it's healthy. And one has to do with this issue of the general fund expenditures being used as the base of what measure B requires.

And there's probably a good justification, but we were not able to see it. The only document that I was able to see was a document that was prepared by the budget department, I believe, that said that the level should be $14,000,000 because it only looked at the general fund component. Obviously, if you add other forms of revenue like grants, and that amount will be higher, so the requirement, the level of funding required for the city will be higher. So, I'm not saying necessarily that it was intentionally reduced, but I'd like to know why was it limited to just the general fund? And, that's a pending question whether we can clarify today or down the road.

I think the supporters of National P deserve an explanation because it is clearly a requirement that the city not supplant funds that the city actually be supplementing the allocations. We need more money for parks, but not use measure p as an excuse to reduce funding of parks. And, I think we understand what the purpose of that is, but we need to have that clarified for the benefit of the public.

Agreed. Understood. Thank you. Commissioner Miller, do you have any questions? Commissioner Collier?

Not at this time.

Commissioner Kerchoski? Do you have any comments?

Yes, just You can tell, right? Thank you, chair. Commissioner Brazza, the memo that you're referring to, this was for a few of you probably in your filing cabinet way in the back, but this was something that was issued back in 2021 when we first initiated measure P, the point in time expenditure data that was in the Parks Department. Commissioner Baraz is correct. At that time, culture and recreation, which is called out in general fund, was $13,960,448.76 and then the capital outlay as commissioner mentioned shows in the report 11,000,196 and that's what he's referring to.

That wasn't broken up. That's citywide. So in that memo it breaks that out. So at that time parks had expenditures of $850,808.98 getting us to the number that you were spot on with your comment of $14,819,300 That's the level of funding and some of the items that Commissioner Barrazza mentioned there's two other items that were in that CAFR reports you have grants special revenue fund so some of those are revenues that fluctuate CDBG you know parking revenue, things that aren't true kind of staples of here every year you're going to get X amount of dollars. The other line in there was other governmental funds that's like our park impact fee.

So a lot of those funds fluctuate. At the time that this was developed, our budget office and finance office came up with the general fund here with those numbers getting us to that 14.8. So going back oftentimes these grant special revenue funds, a lot of them are restricted to specific activities versus just being general fund, which is a little more flexible in the parks world. That's why those were left out. But again, in this report here, know oftentimes it's not completely laid out for you. Hopefully that explanation gives you a little bit of background as to why the other two categories weren't considered, again, and why general fund was considered getting us to that $14,819,257.7

Question, where would any of the grant funding fall under like for instance, 60

Proxy eight, correct. So in our budget when you go through you'll notice different funds. So we separate those money from our other Measure P funding sources, general funds. You'll see in our budget, you'll see like a state or federal grant item and you'll see the Prop 68, you'll see the per capita grants that received. Even some of the items we kind of consider grants like Fresno Unified when we get money for like swim lessons, OTS, things like that. All that's separated and it's not part of general fund, it's all separate. Because every year with OTS while we've been successful in receiving it, it's not a guarantee. It could go down, it could go up or it could go away.

Question, what year was that? I may be off a couple years, but I think it was 2014. 2015, the Parks Department had agreement with Fresno Unified School Districts to open up the schools with playgrounds to be used as parks on the weekend. Has there been any talks about that until we get some new parks built up?

I think you're referring to the weekend recreation program, the green space. So I know that around and again mind you I wasn't here but I believe right before COVID, Shelby, is about when that expired. So you aren't too far off 2016, 2018, somewhere around there. We do have those agreements with Fresno Metropolitan Flight Control District to utilize their green space. We've talked with Fresno Unified on expanding access but I know right now we're working with them on the blue space with the poles.

But that is something that comes up in conversations from time to time. Obviously we need to expand our green space, our footprint there. Right now with the parks we're building and some of the other opportunities with flood control, they're great. But we realized there are going to be potentially some conversations with Fresno Unified to try to get back into. It may not look the same. It may not have staff members passing out balls for folks. Think that's how it ran typically. They were on the track at Bullard High School offering equipment for folks to use. It may look a little different but again, it's something that we're open to having.

When you say you have an agreement with the flood district, is that using the basins?

Correct, that using their basins. For instance, Rotary West Park is one of the basins we use. Basin XX which is off of McKinley and Hughes by Adams Elementary. That's another one we utilize. Corozo which is off of Olive just east of Chestnut Nut by UN Elementary is another one. So we have a number of these. Figgarden Loop, the basin in the back is another one we use. So the Dog Park, I believe it's Ah-one over off of Sean El Cap, that's another basin that we utilize. So we work closely with them and we do have project that's in the design phase now to open up three actually two new sites and add amenities to a third site that we're actively in an agreement with them on.

Will they be counted as parks?

They will be on our green space, they will be on our website and they will show in our GIS layer. So in some cases, we'll have maintenance agreements that maybe we maintain irrigation, they mow or we mow. We'll work on those details but yeah those will show as park facilities and count towards our green space.

And what type of amenities will be because it's a basin.

Correct.

So it's really not really closing the disparity gap really between us having new and built parks versus you know so like what amenities would you be putting on there and what type of sports would you be able to play and will families be able to have picnics or little small gatherings there or birthday parties? Because that's what we really use the parks for.

Can I add to that? Ask a question in addition to that. Would you count those then, Director, as a, towards Measure P's building of new parks?

I've got to go back and look. I believe that design money came out of ARPA. If I'm not mistaken, there's a portion of ARPA and some general fund. I'd have to go back and don't quote me on that, I'll go back and look at it. But again we have some of the amenities such as Manchester, which is off of just North of Shields on, is that Fresno or 1st Street? I think it's 1st Street.

1st

Street. So that one there, we have a design to add a modular skate park in there. There's a design to look at a potential splash pad in there. Basin XX looking at adding a walkable pathway, soccer fields, green space where we can play football, soccer and in some cases potentially look at lighting to light those up in the evenings. Other amenities in our basins, tot lots, Rotary West has a tot lot, Carosa has a tot lot and working with flood control because oftentimes those are seasonal.

When I say seasonal, we open them up this month and then we close them in October because when the rain comes, we ever get rain and they need a place to divert waters, that's their first So in those cases though, you have the top shelf like Manchester where flood controls, they've been open to leaving that facility open twelve months out of the year because you've got the top shelf where you have the basketball courts, the top lot, the restroom and then leaving the bottom floor open for rainwater or the diversion of other storm water. We would then fence that off, which would then make it a year round. Corozas kind of in the same ballpark. So realizing that some of these are only useful for six months isn't beneficial to some of the surrounding neighborhoods. So trying to work out how get to that point.

Some of them are just going to be nonstarters just because of the recharge component that each of these have and just the fact that these are potentially large holding facilities for their operation.

I'm trying to make sense of it because if we're gonna spend money to upgrade these basins to be used for six months out of the year, I'm not understanding why we just don't take that money and look for land and build a new park because we did do a def a highest need definition. So it's, like, 50% now of the city. So we should be able to find some type of parcels or something like that to be able to build a park instead of just doing a piecemeal approach or putting a new band aid on a sword.

I would second that. I think it is a category that's useful as green space, but I don't think that's the same as a developed park and shouldn't count toward the goals of Measure P in that regard.

And I agree. Obviously we want to expand green space in dedicated parks. I think in category two, you have the citywide and the high needs component to that which allows us to go out and look. We are looking at acquisition, looking at new parcel. Sometimes in the inner part of the city it's a little tougher.

We'd love to build a 10 acre park. In some cases you're only going be able to build a half acre park. Those are things we continue to look at and things that we continue to try to plan as the city needs continue. So obviously with the heat maps that we have when we develop the Hyacinth neighborhood, we use that and we can see where those park deserts are to look to see what's available to truly build that out and give that community a twenty four hour or twelve month out of the year facility, not a six month.

Yeah, it just makes more sense to me to do that. Speaking on the contract with the school districts, that's just a temporary fix as well. But it was something that was very useful because a lot of community members don't have a park that they live by but they have a school, right? So being able to utilize the school during the weekends for activities or the playground or just to hang out with your friends, you know, would be ideal but that's still a temporary fix. So thinking about, you know, like building parks in our neighborhoods that don't have access to parks, right, would be like on my list of things to do, number one, right?

And it just makes more sense to me because like Commissioner Barraza said, Measure P is not supposed to supplant the parks budget or take off any responsibility from the city to keep adding funding to the parks budget. Measure p is supposed to supplement the parks budget so we can be able to close that disparity gap, go up in our park score instead of constantly being last and being able to provide some nice and healthy parks to our community members so we can create the one Fresno that's being talked about. Yes, we do cleanups all the time, but when are we really gonna see some change and really start seeing some parks in our neighborhood that we can utilize with community centers, right, with programming. So a lot of different resources and I can go on but I'm gonna stop right there. And thank you.

Madam chair, the question I have is, it the ordinance speaks about transmitting this to the city of Fresno. So is that what's the next stop? Does it go to the council or the city manager or who gets it?

Commissioner Barraza, our plan is to take this to city council for their approval. Wonderful. May, we have a date coming up. Yeah, we will take Before it next

the budget is released?

It's before the budget

This is going to be included in the budget or not?

No. This will be its own separate item, separate from the budget. We're going to take this item as a department to city council highlighting the five year evaluation that the subcommittee put together and taking to them for their review and questions and action.

Would their suggestions from the subcommittee be shared with council as well?

I know we have this report here. I'm not sure.

Well the comments we heard tonight from the commissioners that were part of the subcommittee, would those comments be shared with city council as well? Think it's valuable to share those comments with city council because it shows that even this is something new so some guidance and some templates and somebody there that's able to answer those questions from these commissioners, would be helpful because we don't wanna repeat the same thing. If we're hearing that something is needed, we should be able to bring something to it because we don't wanna recreate what's going on. I'm not saying any embezzlement will happen, but just what we're hearing from the public when it comes to our arts and cultural arts grant. We want to make sure that we get the five year plan right so the public can be satisfied and we're being open and transparent at the same time.

Commissioner Barasso.

Madam Chair, this is a draft prepared by the subcommittee. Now it's before our commission and then our commission has to ratify it and then it'll be ready to go to the council.

So we can still provide comments on this before it goes to council? Yes. Okay, thank you.

I had a question, if that's all right. Sure, Okay. I was curious on the municipal code where it says 2017, 2018 spending levels. Was that actual dollar amount or is it a proportion of the general fund for that year?

Those were actual expenditures

during that time frame.

So it doesn't change over time, it's just that number always?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. And then I just wanted to add to the conversation about the basins. As an idea for parks would be maybe looking at them more as natural spaces for conservation and maybe like nature walks or native habitat for pollinators and native plants and things. So it can ebb and flow with the water levels and be good for maybe birds or other native species, less of like a traditional park, and maybe investing in that kind of infrastructure in a better space than a basin. But kind of maybe doing a design element in that direction would be an innovative idea.

And Commissioner Kotarski, I know one of the early design concepts talks about that exactly, having kind of the wildlife component to it. Because you've got Basin Exec, which is McKinley and Hughes. You've got two sections. You've got kind of an open green space. Then you have an area that's typically full of water. So utilizing the area that I'll call dry for now with some sort of a walkway and almost like an osador, have the walkway that goes out to the water area that's fenced and you can see the different ducks and birds and excuse my not too familiar with all the other ones, but have something like that with us, even some of the natural plantings that go on in there. So that is one of the design components that did come up through the community outreach process.

Great, thank you. Or we

could just build some new parks and leave the basins alone. That's my preference. But, yeah, we'll see what happens. Does any other commissioner have any questions in regards to this presentation? Thank you. We will now move on to our next workshop which is ID number 26Dash501. Update on expanding access to arts and cultural grant program. Will someone from the Parks Department please begin the presentation?

My mic on now? Okay.

Yeah, there you go.

Getting situated. Good evening, my name is Shelby McNabb, and I'm an assistant director in the parks department. I'll be providing an update on the expanded access to arts and culture grant program this evening. Let me just text the clicker. It doesn't like to work for me.

It's gonna work halfway through like it did last time.

You can do it manually then? Okay. Alright. So, I'm gonna start with general updates, followed by a more specific update for cycle two grantees, and the upcoming cycle three call for projects. During the last PRAC meeting on March 16, the EAC cycle three PRAC subcommittee was formed with three PRAC members.

The following week, on March 26, the Fresno City Council authorized the addition of three new positions in parks to support implementation of the EAC grant program. During the week of April 6, the positions were posted to the City of Fresno Careers homepage. Within a few days, there were over 17,000 views on social media and more than 900 application clicks. The positions closed later this week. We may consider extending them, depending on the number of applications from qualified candidates.

And we expect an update on the total number of applications that were submitted later this week, but seeing some great interest so far on those new positions, which is really exciting. In addition to initiating the hiring process, we've begun working with our information Services Department to build out our digital platforms for grant administration, establishing space to store applications and a portal to house grants through their grant lifecycle. And while we're working through the hiring process, our existing team members are keeping Cycle two and Cycle three moving forward, as we have some urgency to address Cycle two and also proceed with the Notice of Funding Opportunity for Cycle three to make those funds available within the fiscal year. Okay, it's working for me now. You're right, I had to warm up.

Okay.

Do you want questions at the end?

I think so, yeah. It's a short presentation, so I can take questions.

Okay, I'll just wait. Okay.

All right, for Cycle two, so switching gears over to Cycle two specifically, staff have been working with the City Attorney's Office and RIZC to prepare two different agreements. The agreements are undergoing the final round of review and should be ready very soon. One agreement is for the cycle two grantees who have not yet received any funding. This includes grantees that had a contract that was executed but not yet funded, grantees that experienced maybe a bounced check when their payment was processed, and grantees who may have still been in the contract negotiation phase and had not yet obtained a signed grant agreement with the Fresno Arts Council. All of these scenarios fit in with the group that has not yet received any funding.

This means the group that has not gotten the 90% initial payment. The second agreement is for Cycle two grantees who have received the 90% of their funding but are owed the 10% upon completion of their grant. So, there's two separate agreements based on the situation that the grantee is in. Funding has been identified to allow us to proceed with entering into the agreements, and there are quite a few agreements to enter into. When PRAC approved awards for Cycle II, there were a total of 134 applications recommended for award.

Since that time, five organizations have declined their award, bringing the total number of awards to 129. Based on our record reconciliation, we anticipate there being 32 organizations or projects who have not received any funding, and 97 organizations or projects who received 90% but are owed the 10% at completion. This totals to 129 contracts we will need to enter into one for cycle hundred and twenty nine for cycle two.

For the previous cycle. That's correct.

To accomplish this task, we will begin the process of contacting cycle two grantees and or their fiscal sponsors directly via email within the next thirty days. The email will include the next steps along with instructions to access necessary documents and a copy of the agreement shared with them via a system called SharePoint. There'll be a survey link in the letter that we send to update any points of contact for your organization so that we can ensure we're working with designated individuals. And SharePoint will be the file sharing platform that we use for cycle two, where we'll house all of the documents. As you can imagine, 129 documents with any supporting materials that go with it creates a lot of documents, and so we'd like to do it in the most organized fashion possible.

Meetings and technical assistance will be offered in person with virtual option to support organizations through the process, to review the materials, answer questions that they may have, and create an FAQ to help guide them as they work to contract for cycle two. And all communications will come from the expanded arts@fresno.gov email address just to centralize the communication across so many grantees. So we ask that you check your emails to make sure that that is an approved sender and it's not going to to spam. So, that's the update for Cycle two. I'm gonna now go over Cycle three, and again, we'll have time for questions at the end.

I know that's a lot of information. So, the Cycle III, which is the going forward new cycle of funding, the Notice of Funding Opportunity to make those funds available must be released by 06/30/2026. So, we have a very aggressive timeline, but we have many ways for folks to participate in the process so that their voices are heard. Cycle three subcommittee meetings started last week, as Chair McCoy mentioned, and all materials following those meetings will be published on Legisar. Right now, we have the recording published to YouTube, and we're working with the clerk so that we can get the link directly loaded onto Legisar.

There was a great turnout and a lot of participation in person and virtually, and all comments were transcribed into a spreadsheet to support transparency. The spreadsheet will be published to the City of Fresno website and shared with PRAC members so that you'll be able to review personally every single comment that comes in related to Cycle III guidelines and the feedback that they're providing. We also intend to go over every single comment that comes in to make sure that it's reflected, responded to, and acknowledged. During that meeting, we went through an annotated discussion draft of the guidelines page by page during the subcommittee, allowing for commissioners to ask questions or give feedback on every section of the draft. I believe it's at 18 to 19 pages.

It is attached to legislator the agenda if you'd like to review it, But, we went paragraph and line by line at times, about an hour and a half going over the guidelines. It was a very productive conversation, and there was a lot of excellent feedback provided by both the commissioners and the community. The public was afforded the opportunity to comment during the meeting, and we also have opened an online opportunity to give comments. You'll see the link there on the slide. The draft guidelines are open for public comment from April 16 to April 30 at 3PM.

And, the comments are unlimited. So, we encourage organizations and individuals to make as many comments as they'd like. We've linked the document so they can cite the page number that they're referring to just to help us tie everything. But, we really welcome any of the feedback that can come in. We also have community listening sessions scheduled for the upcoming weeks.

I'm gonna share a calendar here. The calendar gives an overview of the outreach and meetings being held in April to inform cycle three efforts. Listening sessions are being offered at community centers in Central, Southwest, and Southeast areas of community the based on the feedback that we've gotten from PRAC. And, we are offering evening and one weekend session as well, because we understand folks might have day jobs that they need to get to first. Those are all virtual, so if you can't make it in person, we encourage you to attend virtually.

As was mentioned, we've sent out an email to all of our email subscribers. We've posted on social media, and we encourage you to share with your networks as well so that we make sure everyone can have a chance to give some feedback on the cycle three guidelines that we are developing with the subcommittee. We will also have a subcommittee, again, as Chair McCoy mentioned, next Wednesday in the chambers, 05:30 p. M, available on Zoom as well. So, within the next thirty days, we'll begin reviewing applications for the team that will support implementation of EAC so we can initiate the interview and hiring process.

We'll also begin contacting Cycle II grantees and our fiscal sponsors to initiate the contracting process, as well. We'll continue to collect feedback for Cycle III, continue building a grant portal to help manage the application and scoring and grant management process for Cycle three, and begin building out the EAC website with more information for both Cycle two and Cycle three. As we've done for the past few months, we'll continue to provide updates to the PRAC monthly. The next few meeting dates are posted on this slide for upcoming PRAC meetings. Additional contact information is also listed.

Now it's time for questions.

Okay.

Thank you, Shelby, for that presentation. You know I have some questions. I'm a be a little selfish and go first. So let's be clear. When we have our subcommittee meetings, those meetings are only for round three, not the previous round. So any questions that need to be asked about the previous round needs to be asked here at this meeting, correct? Yes. Or they can reach out through the website or whatever, right?

Yes. We will also have technical assistance meetings for cycle two scheduled in the near future, so they'll be able to get some more information if they have a specific question. But the cycle three, the subcommittee meetings through the resolution that you all passed, is very narrowly focused. So if someone comes in with specific questions for cycle two, we will have to end the comment and not have that discussion just to make sure that we're adhering to the Brown Act.

Do you know when those TA meetings are going to be scheduled?

I have some tentative dates. I just need to verify the room availability, and then we'll be able to communicate that out. That information will also be included in the letters that the grantees receive so that they will be able to choose a meeting time that works best for them.

And when will those letters go out to the second round of grantees?

So, within the next thirty days, they should hear from us. What that entails by letters going out, it means getting the final grant. For example, for the folks that haven't gotten a grant agreement, it means getting the final grant agreement back from city attorney. And then we've got to populate their unique information into that grant agreement, and then send them a letter and get them started. So, you should hear from us within thirty days. And if you don't, then I will be giving an update on who hasn't. But our goal is to get that out because we expect to have the agreements finalized within the next five or six days.

So we have a 129 contracts that have not been paid yet or partially paid. Correct?

Yes. So there are some who have been paid but need the 10%, so their payment would come upon completion of their project and their reporting requirements. And then there are others who have not yet been paid anything.

Okay, so they have to wait another thirty days on top of them already waiting about ninety days so far, if not longer?

Yes. And I will say that I I understand the struggle that comes with that. I also will assure you that we are working nights and weekends. We are working in place of approximately six people that that aren't in place currently to try to help. We have the three new additions, and then we have others on various other assignments. And so we are working very hard, a lot of hours, to do this expeditiously, but I do want to make note that we also wanna ensure that we're engaging with the community for cycle three. And so we're trying our best to address cycle two while keeping cycle three in motion.

I understand that, and I appreciate that. And I do appreciate the subcommittee meetings being open to the public, and we're moving on to cycle three. But I find it hard to proceed on with cycle three when we still have all this other stuff going on with cycle two. I mean, a lot of these out of a 129 contracts, I'm quite sure that a lot of these contracts depend on the funding, and then they gotta wait another extra thirty days. And then they're already receiving fees on top of fees, and then the city doesn't feel that it's their responsibility to take care of those fees even though it's not their fault that this has happened with everything that has taken place with the Fresno Arts Council.

So I'm kinda having I'm I'm having a hard time to understand that that this is gonna be taken care of in a timely manner and that everything is going to be received and that they will be able to move on. Because they can't even apply for cycle three because cycle two is not completed and they haven't done their reporting. So that's really unfair because a lot of these nonprofits and a lot of these artists depend on this money to keep their programming going. And now they're in a jam. So even though if they do get everything done for cycle two, it may be too late for them to apply for cycle three.

So where does that leave them? So it's really an unfair process. I'm sorry that it may come off that I'm coming hard on you. I'm not coming hard on you. I'm coming hard on the process.

Right? It's really an unfair process, and I really feel for the arts community right now because they have taken a hit. And it seems like that nothing is not getting done fast enough, which I do appreciate the hours that have been spent on this this with the parks department and city officials and things like that, but we need to get this done. We need to get these funds out, and we really need to get this going so they will be able to compete and and apply for round three because their programming depends on it. And this is what measure p was created for.

That's why the arts portion was written in the language, and now it doesn't even seem like that. It's just really disheartening. Right? Another question. With the SharePoint accounts, would this also include them receiving their funding through these shared accounts? Or is it just for them to upload documentation?

So, the SharePoint account is a secure file sharing system where they can upload documentation, review the contract that they're provided, and review other materials that will be needed. For example, anyone in the city that's gonna be paid by the city has to be set up as a vendor in the Tyler Munis system, which is what we use for financial transactions. So, there's a packet that individuals, if they've not already done so, their organization would need to fill out and submit. And in order to make sure that we're collecting all the required documentation, we set up those individualized folders with secure access so that they can transmit the materials there without worrying about, you know, the file getting lost in email or unsecure file sharing.

Okay. So this has to be done as well. So this will be done in the next thirty days as well?

It's already set up.

It's already set up. So all one twenty nine of these people are in that system

right folders are labeled, and there are subsections with all the folders that are needed. I do wanna address the fact about the the speed and pace at which this is being done. I understand your frustration with the process. I can assure you that I don't think anyone in the city could do it faster. We have the a team, the existing team assigned to this project, and we understand the urgency.

And if we could do it even faster, we would. So I do want to acknowledge the frustration I share with you but we are working diligently to get that done and I also would like to comment on the the cycle three we under the measure P ordinance need to make funds available annually So, we've got to get the Notice of Funding Opportunity out by June 30. It's not negotiable. In an ideal world, we could quickly move through Cycle two and then get to Cycle three, but we've heard from the community that they want those funds to be moving. And my final response is just that in the guidelines, I think we should hold space in cycle three for the cycle twos that haven't yet completed their project, because the term of their award should be appropriate.

It should be a full year to deliver, and that shouldn't preclude them from cycle three. So, I think that's a very valuable comment that we should contemplate in the guidelines because you bring up a good point.

I agree. I agree. And also, just a little communication. I'm still receiving calls from applicants who haven't received funding or all of their funding and they say they have no communication when they call or leave or send an email. So just a little communication like we're working on it. Just a response, not just to go silent. When you respond, it it goes a lot a long way because it lets someone know, okay. They've seen it. They hear me. They're working on it. Be patient. It's coming. But when you go silent and there's no response, and then it's like, okay, well what's going on? Am I gonna get it? What's going on with this?

What's going on with that? They're already starting cycle three, but they haven't finished cycle two. So it just creates a whole bunch of other things. But I do appreciate all the work that's being done on this. I know that it's a lot and it's easy for me to sit up here and say, you need to do this and you need to do that because I'm not the one that's actually putting in the hours making sure that everyone gets paid.

So I do appreciate that not trying to take shots at anybody because it's a frustrating process all the way around. Right? So I do appreciate all the time and effort that's being spent in spent on this, but we need to kinda, like, get it going as soon as possible so we can just really focus on on round three and focus on updating those guidelines and be transparency to the public and put this behind us once cycle two is completed.

Yes. And in the email, will say that organizations that have emailed and asked questions tend to get a very tailored response, and it may not necessarily tell them, for example, we get a lot of questions about, where do I send in my reports? It's due. And, the response is to hang on to them, and additional information will be provided. So, they're going to start to get that information, but I do want to note that we make every effort to not respond.

It may not be the response that they're looking for, and I feel for them. But we want to make sure that once we start collecting information, we're doing so through SharePoint so that everything is in one place, and we don't have to go back and forth or say, hey, this is missing. So, I do appreciate their patience. I know patience runs thin when money is involved, but I can assure you that we're making every effort to be timely.

I appreciate that. And one more question. Sure. When will we receive those comments from the subcommittee meeting so I can keep on working on mine?

So we're working on getting those posted. Sarah, I know we have the spreadsheet typed out. Okay. Got them posted today then.

Okay. So are you sending them to all commissioners or just go on the website and get Okay. I appreciate the email, please. Thank you. And I have no further questions. Commissioner Dolan.

Shelby, thank you for the presentation. And while I agree with Chair McCoy that this is an incredibly frustrating process, I do also want to acknowledge that city has really pivoted and worked very hard to try to correct this. And it's a most unfortunate situation that you guys have inherited. And I appreciate the hard work that goes into getting back up to speed. Can you just I believe you said there's three positions added. Can you, in a general way, give us a job description of what those positions are about?

Yeah, so those positions include a community outreach specialist, a community coordinator, and then the program administrator. So, in their roles, there will be one individual, the outreach specialist, augmenting Sarah's team, doing the community outreach, the listening meetings, the front end of the guideline development, facilitating the sub commission meetings, and so forth. So, that'll be really the front end of the operation. On the back end, the contracts and the invoicing and the reporting and the numbers people. On that team, we're augmenting a grants team that we had in place, and we're adding the community coordinator.

That person will be dedicated to responding to all of the emails that are coming in and helping to give updates from our staff assistants who are processing the invoices for payment and things. So we've got our front end and back end. And then the person overseeing it all will be doing very much what I've been doing, and that is making sure that we set our schedules, we adhere to them, we provide reports to you all. We troubleshoot if there's a systemic barrier to getting something over the line. It's a very broad scope of work.

In the job description, those are posted. I believe the positions currently close on the twenty second and twenty third. But we did detail areas of experience that we would prefer that they have, though not necessarily required. It is preferred to have, you know, arts and culture experience, grant administration experience, experience with nonprofits, experience in the government realm. Really a wide range of experience, because I will tell you there are many steps behind making funding possible, as you may understand from, you know, working in organizations.

All of you have that level of experience. So, there really is going to be that head person in charge, which will fill in kind of the things that I've been running point on. And then I will intend to stay engaged just to make sure that the transition is smooth and seamless. But, we're really augmenting the existing teams and asking our teams to do more with this extra help to make sure that we are getting things moving quickly, but in a way that doesn't sacrifice transparency.

Thank you. And are these positions devoted solely to the Expanded Access to Arts and Culture program?

Yes, these positions are.

Okay, thank you.

But they are also a lateral, if I'm correct. Right? Like, once they can also move over and be able to apply for other positions within the city. So it's like a lateral position. Correct?

They are positions that are job classifications with within the city, and so I know we're administering, you know, cycle three of awards, but if for any reason we weren't administering in the future, those positions could be reassigned to work on other grants, other projects, other programs within the city. So they are focused during this assignment. And then as things roll out, if there's any difference after cycle three, then they could be reallocated because they're not so unique that they you know, then wouldn't have a role. So, those are permanent positions, and I will say that we're reallocating even existing roles that we have within the department to lend their expertise to standing this up. So, you'll have a mix of some new staff, but you'll also have the security in knowing that we have staff who are familiar, are experienced, and know how to navigate the city.

So, we'll get that augmentation, but yes, they could be reassigned in the future should that be necessary.

So, once everything takes place with round three, those positions end, and then they're able to apply for other positions, or do we maintain them for round four?

They're currently allocated to the Parks Department, so they don't end their permanent positions. And we will get through cycle two, stand up cycle three, and then start to talk about cycle four,

please. You probably can't answer this question. I lied. I said I didn't have no more questions, but I do. Has there been any talks about anyone being able to fill the role that the Fresno Arts Council did, or is it just gonna be housed under the parks department, the city, the this portion?

Measure p explicitly says that we need to partner with the Fresno Arts Council or their successor agency.

So has it been a a agency yet that has been coming up in mind, or or we're trying to get through all this first before we start thinking about that?

Yeah, we're trying to get through all of this. The city has a resolution from the 80s that designates the Arts Council, so that's a whole separate thing, is the designated arts entity. I forget which year of the 80s, so it's an older resolution.

Bought me '89.

Yeah. But in any case, that is something that would have to be part of a different conversation. I will say that as we share materials, I have partnering in a sense that they're sharing the information. So, if we're missing any artists on our email blasts and social media, I do appreciate that effort to collaborate in that way. But that's a whole separate conversation for another day, I think.

Chair McCoy just to kind of stay on that same note, we're concentrating on just getting cycle two paid out right and get cycle three in a good spot where we can and then we'll look at that when that time comes. Right now our focus is on cycle two and cycle three.

Just wanted to ask that question to be transparent with the public because there's so much going on. Just want them to know you know some of the things that we may know but they don't know right? Or vice versa.

So president Arz's counsel will still be involved in cycle three.

I was asking us.

Sorry. Okay.

Commissioner Coglia, did you already say what you were gonna say?

No. I think commissioner Dolan was finishing up. I just kind of like

jumped Sorry, just wanted to follow-up on Director Egger. Fresno Arts Council will be the partner organization in cycle three then?

No, think what Shelby was saying is that they're sharing everything that the city is sharing out about round two and the subcommittee meetings and round three. So if in case they're missing someone, that the Fresno Arts Council is still sharing the information to reach that art community, which is great. Okay. Did I put words in your mouth?

No. You said it perfectly. You could we could trade.

Come up here. No.

Thank you.

Commissioner Kerchinsky? And then I get to you, Commissioner Kalia.

Thank you for the presentation. I want to say thank you to the city for finding funding for the grantees who would have lost funding because of unfortunate behavior. Yeah, I just want to say thank you for that. I think that's really great. I was curious maybe I haven't been following as closely.

Know that money doesn't grow on trees. So the money came from somewhere. I was wondering what the trade off was for the city to maybe isn't getting funded. Because now we're replenishing the folks that you know lost their funding from the, I don't know what you call it, the case I guess, the fraud. Yeah. I don't know if anyone can answer that. So

the funding is general fund, but I'll have to get back to you on the trade offs associated with it.

No problem. Just curious. Thanks.

That'd be helpful if we can get that information so we know what we're looking at when it comes to that because I'm quite sure that it's gonna be paid back through some type of yeah, that would be helpful. Commissioner Collier?

Mr. Dorland asked about the skill sets of those three people. I was going to ask that. But we talked last time, and some of the people from the audience mentioned about hiring an arts director, a cultural arts director. Did that come into your discussion at all?

The focus of this role is hiring the program administrator. I think there were a lot of great comments on that, but this program administrator will fit within the Parks Department. They will report in through me up to our director in the current recommended funding or the staffing structure.

Also, I didn't mean to put you on the spot last time when I asked how many grants haven't been paid, how many people bounce checks, whatever, whatever. You informed me on some of that tonight, and I appreciate it. I know how much information you have to plow through to get this so I appreciate that and I appreciate your report.

Thank you.

Commissioner Miller? Okay. Commissioner Barraza.

Thank you Madam Chair. A couple of things. I would like to request that the comments that are submitted by the public concerning the guidelines that it be provided to this commission in advance to our meeting where we're gonna discuss it. When we're gonna discuss the final wording of the guidelines. Because we, what the public tells us is very important, and we want to have the opportunity to review that so that we're connected with our community, the folks that are paying the taxes and they're using the taxes.

That's, I just wanted to make that request. The other thing, the positions you have, three positions that you're going to fill, will that allow you to expand the outreach and the, can't read my handwriting here, the technical assistance that we think we need more of. Because I don't know if we have enough organizations that can be fiscal agents. And, it would be good to expand that to the extent we can. And, so I'll let you answer that question.

Would that allow you to expand the work that was being done by the Arts Council in terms of outreach and the technical assistance?

Yes, so the positions that we selected, Community Outreach Specialists, was chosen for that very reason. Our intention is to expand outreach and make it available in different modes. So, the technical assistance meetings, making sure that we're recording that, making all the materials available, having them in locations and at times where folks can attend. So, that will allow us to. We also are working through hiring some temporary staff to give us some additional support as well.

And, those folks can help us with the flyer distribution and making sure it's getting to places that maybe people aren't tied into the email system, social media. Really, intention is to do more outreach and technical assistance, and I would invite the community to share some of the areas where they may have struggled in the past and the type of technical assistance they'd like to see. So, we're always open to feedback. If we have a miss somewhere and we need to address it, we're happy to look at that. And then, going back to your initial comment about the feedback and the comments that are coming in, we intend to update the website at least weekly with all of the public comments that we're receiving for transparency purposes.

So, they will all be logged and accessible to anyone in the community that would like to access them, but we'll make sure we send them to you directly as well.

And then, the other thing that I like to examine is the ratio of how much money goes to the emerging organizations and how much goes to the established organizations, with the possibility of expanding the funding for the emerging organizations. At least that's something that could be subject to further discussion. I'm assuming that the subcommittee would be looking at that, but if that doesn't come up, this commission could have a review of that. But, I just wanted to point it out that that's important because it was actually mentioned by presenters here, members of the public, that they asked us to reexamine that. And I think it would be good timing to take a look at that.

And we heard it Wednesday too, so it's noted. Good.

Okay. Thank you. Uh-huh. Thank you madam

chair. You're welcome. Other questions from the commissioners before I close this out? Thank you Shelby.

Yep. Thank you. Alright.

We will now move on to hearing items. ID number 26Dash487. Hearing to receive public input on expanding access to arts and cultural grant program. Would any member of the public like to make a comment regarding this item? You will have up to three minutes for comment. Anyone online?

Yes. I have have Johannes. You have three minutes.

Hi. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you, commissioners. As I comment on the expanded access to arts and culture grant program, I wanna stress how this grant and measure p will only survive if this commission engages the public with respect. I object strongly to your behavior shown to miss Jasmine during unscheduled communication in tonight's meeting, and I demand you apologize and give my fellow member of the public her time back for unscheduled comment. The grant program's success and frankly, its survival is directly tied to what happened tonight. You cut a citizen's audio.

You would monitor her simply for introducing her context as a grant recipient, and you did not even give her the opportunity to continue her comment on unscheduled topic. To be clear, this is a violation of the Brown Act and rule number 10 of rules of procedure for city council. But moreover, this is a chilling effect on this commission's first amendment and transparent public engagement. I hope this commission understands the gravity of where we are with this grant program. Less than a year ago, we listened to Fresno Arts Council claim black hair braiding was not real culture, that we need art for art's sake because uppity emerging applicants were asking for money their communities didn't need.

Over $1,500,000 of this program has been lost by the Fresno Arts Council's incompetence. Extraordinary damage has been done to community trust. But today, I watch you cut off the first amendment participation of a black woman. I am a black man who got to speak with the benefit of the doubt. Am I simply a more important taxpayer than miss Jasmine?

Measure p will not survive if community trust is not repaired. This is just a single example that happened barely an hour ago from this moment, but I hope you understand how dangerous your flipping approach to public engagement is for the survival of this grant and for the survival of measure p as a whole. Frankly, I have much more to say about the grant draft guidelines, but everything else I have to say is just about this exact problem, this exact topic. Y'all seem to have with engaging the public respectfully. Everyone in this meeting right now knows how hard opponents tried to kill measure p before it was even enforced by a court.

Everyone in this meeting knows how those same opponents are giddy right now for the chance to kill measure p when they can prove enough bad faith. Please do better. Please do consistently better, and please listen to your public. I yield the rest of my time with the hopes that you'll apologize. Thank you kindly.

There is no one else online.

Okay. I will close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this item? Alright. We will move on to the next hearing item, which is ID number 26Dash488. Hearing to receive public input on allocations related to measure p, updates to parks master plan and cultural arts plan, and annual parks department budget and capital

improvement Excuse me, chair. We're gonna have to take a pause for a moment. We've lost quorum. So we just have to pause for just a moment.

Just a moment.

Actually she's in the room, so you can start and go back to the hearing. No you can just go back to mention the ID number that we are going to receive, public commenter.

So I gotta read it all over again. ID, okay we're gonna move on to the next hearing, ID number 26Dash488. Hearing to receive public input on allocations related to measure p, updates to the parks master plan and cultural arts plan, and annual parks department budget and capital improvement plans. Would any member of the public like to make a comment regarding this item? You will have up to three minutes for comment, and I do have a card in my hand.

And I would like to call Adam back up, please. We have to wait for him too?

I mean, I don't have to, but I was kinda for him.

Oh, it's okay. We can you can.

Sure, sounds good to me. Okay, good evening commission. My name is Adam Belakin. As I said earlier, I help facilitate community tennis at Roading Park. And one of the things that we've been hearing from a lot of people at Roading Park is regarding the bathrooms and just how they're very lacking in maintenance.

And I brought a quote from somebody who has been coming out on Tuesday nights to community tennis just to express how bad the bathrooms really are out there. She says, I literally don't drink water before I go to tennis, and then I leave to go home for a safe bathroom. We did a community outreach event at Campus Point, and people were asking, oh, you guys play out at Roating Park? Like, isn't it not safe out there? And, you know, for the last year and a half, we've been working so hard to change the connotation of Roating Park to show.

For example, we just did Carnival Night last Tuesday. We had, no joke, about 120 people out there at Roading Park for carnival night. It was a free event for the community. We had cotton candy, popcorn, a face painting, all this fun stuff, completely free for the community just because people are volunteering their time to try to help with the courts, especially with all the money from Measure P that's going into there. And another thing I want to bring up to the commission, as part of Measure P funds is with these bathrooms.

So we've been talking to Aaron for a while and we know that the plan is to replace the bathrooms at the park. But, we know, my understanding anyways is it's gonna be another year before those bathrooms are replaced. And, one of the things with the bathrooms, if you ever go out to Roating Park and look at them from the perspective of the tennis courts is that they're facing away from the tennis courts towards the main street. So, at night when the tennis players are pretty much the only people out at the parks, not only are the bathrooms currently not in great condition, but no one can see the bathrooms from where we're at. So, it doesn't give off a very safe, environment.

And, I've talked to people at the parks department, my understanding is at least as of now is when they put the new bathrooms in which they're going to spend a ton of money on is that the bathrooms are still going to be facing away towards the street away from the tennis courts and also far away from the tennis courts. So, if maybe that's something we could address to have the bathrooms moved a little bit closer to the tennis courts which again are the only things really being used out there at night And also, to have them face towards the tennis courts so everybody can make sure you know, just the safety of the people at the parks is paramount and that everybody feels secure and safe while out at Roading Park. So, we have plenty of time to make this happen if these bathrooms aren't being installed until next year and I would encourage the commission and also the director of the Parks Department to maybe revisit these bathrooms before they're put out there. Because five years from now, especially if community tennis and other tennis programs keep growing, we're going to not want to have to revisit this issue and spend more money to fix these bathrooms when we can just do it correctly the first time.

So, thank you all. I appreciate your time and thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Elizabeth Laval.

Good evening, commissioners. I'm Elizabeth Laval from the Fresno City and County Historical Society. So many good comments coming through everywhere. I would just like to request that the commission, as you're calculating what an established organization versus the emerging organization funding is, to remember to include that almost every fiscal agent, fiscal sponsor is an established organization. And to calculate how much additional funding is going out to the community as a result of these established organizations being fiscal sponsors for two, four, six, eight, or more organizations, because that is part of the outreach that the established organizations can do that some of the emerging are not ready to do.

And that includes a lot of work, mentorship, fiscal management, and hopefully leading people to become five zero one(three)s on their own. But it does take a lot of effort, and that's coming from the established orgs.

Thank you.

Ms. LeVaughn? Madam Chair, may I ask a question?

Sure.

You're a fiscal sponsor. Just out of curiosity, how many organizations do you sponsor?

We submitted applications for six this year. We received partial funding for four. One of those four has not been funded yet. We are in that organization group that was the bounce. And we intend to go between whatever the guidelines say in the future. We will continue to we did last year as well. So this is our second year, we intend to continue to do that. For us, six to eight is about the maximum that we could do with the mentorship and the fiscal management that is required.

Okay, thank you very much.

In the next thirty days. Do we have anyone online? I will now close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this item? Before I adjourn the meeting, I wanna respond to the previous comments.

I do apologize to to Jasmine being cut off in the middle of her comments. It should have been announced that this is the time for unscheduled communication, and any comments regarding the EA the EAAC grant or our social cults cultural arts grant will be taken during our hearings to where she would have the proper place to be able to make those comments. So I do apologize for that. But as I read the script and set it up, I do state that this is unscheduled communication. Any comments regarding any hearings on the agenda will be taken at that time.

So I do wanna apologize to Jasmine for her comments being cut off, but it was it was read at the beginning of the meeting. And there is a place for anyone to be able to make a comment in regards to our Measure P updates, our Parks Master Plan updates, our Cultural Arts Plan, and our annual Parks Department budget and capital improvement plans. The Commission asked for this to be a standing item on this agenda so we can make sure that we keep our meetings going and that we give the public an opportunity to make comments. But, again, I do extend an apology. So it is 07/22.

As always, I would like to adjourn this meeting in memory of doctor Francine Napuda, who was greatly missed. And thank you guys for coming out, and enjoy the rest of your evening with your family. Meeting adjourned.