Cultural Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Today is Monday, August 10th, 2026. This is the regularly scheduled and hybrid meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission. This meeting is being recorded. If joining by Zoom, the application will notify you that this meeting is being recorded. Please press continue when prompted to stay in the meeting. use the raise hand feature in zoom when you'd like to speak on an item and please lower your hand when you're finished speaking please unmute when called to speak and mute yourself when you're done speaking if you're calling in by phone identify yourself by name before speaking on an item press star 9 on your phone to raise and lower your hand and press star 6 if you are participating by phone to unmute right welcome to the parks and recreation commission meeting i now call to order Parks and Recreation Commission meeting of August 10th, 2026 at 7.03 PM. You guys are muted.

Can you hear me?

Oh, that's all right.

There is an echo? Yeah.

There's one video which says Kimberly. The other one says Roberta Jones. Both are muted.

Can you hear me now? I'm coming up from your computer. Where's it coming out?

Yeah, I think the audio is on.

Can you still hear us?

I'm on mute. Can you thumbs up if you can hear us? Okay.

Perfect. Thank you, everyone, for your patience. We'll go back to taking a roll. Commissioner Caldwell. Caldwell, even.

That's a good answer.

Commissioner Chu. Here. Commissioner DeMarco, I'm here. Commissioner Forte.

Yeah.

Commissioner Ganesh. Here. Chair Rupet.

Yes.

And Commissioner Susan.

Here.

Congratulations, everyone. Full attendance. Sticker for the meeting. Been here a long time. Right. We have one item for this consent calendar. Item 1A, 26-848. The approval of the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting minutes of July 13, 2026. And those have been provided to you in your meeting packets. Are there any comments or suggestions for edits? Yes.

No comments. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

I second the motion. Excellent. That was Commissioner Forte making the motion and Commissioner Chiu for seconding. And now we'll take a vote. Commissioner Caldwell?

Yes.

Commissioner Chiu? Yes. Commissioner DeMarco is yes. Commissioner Forte?

Yes.

Commissioner Ganesh? Yes. Chair Gupta?

Yes.

Commissioner Souza?

Yes.

The motion passes unanimously. We will now move to the public presentation section of our meeting. This portion of the meeting is reserved for members of the public to address the Parks and Recreation Commission in any matter and not on the agenda that is within the commissioner's subject matter jurisdiction. Staff, do we have anybody in the waiting room on Zoom? No, sir, we do not. And there's no one here in person either, though we invite all members of the public to join and have robust conversation in future meetings. With no comments present, we will move on to general business. That's item 226-849, review and finalize Parks and Recreation Commission work plan goals and activities for fiscal year 26-27. This was also provided in our packets. Folks, remember at our last meeting, we had gone through the notes of that commission goals and activities plan to date. We made a couple of edits. And the goal with this evening is to review these updated goals and activities for recommendation to council. The city staff noted before our meeting started that there isn't notated in these goals and activities where a subcommittee might get formed. But I think that that's okay for the time being in as much as once the council approves them, we can take care of that housekeeping. So we'll get started on goal number one. Historically, we would drive this on the shared screen? Historically, you are correct. If that is not possible, it's okay. You can learn. I can read? You can use my notes here if you want until I get there. Goal number one. Attend and visit citywide special events, activities, parks, and facilities to inform Parks and Recreation Commission recommendations to the City Council. Our first action, create a draft park visitor and event survey tool, traditional, that means physical paper, and electronic to be administered by staff and supported by the commissioners. QR codes may be available on park bulletin board signage and posted to the website. I invite any questions, concerns, or edits, and then we'll move on to the next line.

So I just imagine we want to just place a huge QR code on the board at the entrance to every park, right? Just so it's easy for visitors to see it.

We've had conversations about where that signage would go in the past, and it's not been easily agreed upon where the best place is for that because different people approach from different avenues. And it makes sense in some contexts if there's a park building and there's a space for bulletin board posting that it would go there. It'd kind of be on a case-by-case basis, historically, is what that kind of conversation has driven to.

But yeah, I think that we'd be open to... New restrooms, tennis courts, play areas, things that...

It'd have to be... Weather-friendly, what materials are they going to be printed on, right? They can't just be random paper, because that's not going to last very long.

Yeah, I mean, ideally, we could come up with a baseline survey that even if it's something as simple as tell us report an issue with the park or tell us about tell us how you like the park or any number of things that's pretty standard they can you know when they click on it it'll it'll almost launch a portal or a form that'll say what park are you at what are you reporting how was how was your experience so on and so forth so yeah it could be pretty generic so you're talking about generic rather than a specific qr code for each part yeah correct yeah i think that'd be better and then when they launch it'll have the ability to type in or to interact with the so that it And then we'll be able to capture that data. And then, you know, we've seen it. Kim and I have seen it. Really good examples on some cities that have undertaken updating their park signage to actually have it integrated into like a rules of the park or things like that. So, yeah. A lot of our park signs, we're also in the process of updating. Or looking at our park, we don't actually have. Ordinance any park board to rules. So once we're able to update or create some park ordinance and or city ordinance, or we call it city code here in Santa Clara around rules and then post some of those rules, we'll need to update a lot of these signs as well. So. It's all...

I think of it as... You don't have any rules in...

There are no ordinances. Yeah, it's inconsistent.

Because there's like leash laws, right? That that's...

Yeah, but they're not always posted. Yeah, there's some things. And those came into, it's an interesting point because those really came online when they started bringing dog parks in the city. But they weren't like bolt-ons to an existing list of park rules. England Park after hours. Or no alcohol. There is a park hours rule.

Rule somewhere. It's 30 minutes after desk.

I believe it's posted on the signs. 6 a.m. Well, signs posted aren't necessarily make it. A rule, of course. That's where we're up against.

We want to work it into the official city codes and we can standardize it across all parks too, right?

Not the survey, but the rules. The rules, correct. Yes.

And that wouldn't necessarily be a goal for this commission because staff are going to work with council. Correct.

I was just tying that into how we might integrate a QR and something that's the QR will be static, but then the behind the scenes can change based on how we...

So I stop at Tamien Park all the time. And I noticed that in the picnic area there where the barbecues are, there's a sign that's about this big that has about 12 rules. So if a policeman comes, if someone says there's a guy over there, he's barbecuing and he's not supposed to be barbecuing. A policeman comes, he has no rules.

no ordinance no rely on to enforce that rule okay some of those some of the rules some of them yes some of them no then there's and i i was trying to look at to whether or not we had anything that said you'd have to something as simple as following posted signs posted rules yeah but i i had a hard time finding that in our um city code also so in some cases in other jurisdictions that I've noticed or worked in, where there's an absence of a rule, if there's something that's cited or posted that park or visitors need to follow at least the posted signs, even if it's, so which one is the default, right? Yeah.

But for this action item, okay with this first line?

Yes.

Excellent. Line two, the commission will review that park visitor in advance survey responses at least annually to inform potential recommendations for city council. At least annually allows us the flexibility to do it more frequently, but doesn't box us into doing it, you know, once a meeting. Any concerns, questions, or suggestions for edit?

Sounds good.

Excellent line three commissioners will visit one park and or facility each month with the goal of visiting all parks and facilities over the course of their four-year term. We agreed that this was a 48 park or facility visit total over the course of four years and that is just shy of the total park roster so you might have to double up one month or be an overachiever like Commissioner Chittum.

I have now blocked the hour before the meeting, and I'll visit parks every month before. Right in. Right. So then check. Then I'm done for the month. Well, it's an excellent plan.

Yeah. We should all follow your lead.

I agree.

Do we have an authoritative list of the exact locations you want to visit?

Yes. The Parks and Rec Commissioner visit form, there's a whole list of parks, including like the Creek Trail, which I that counts as a park.

So the last was sent to all the commissioners.

I took it upon myself to create a Google Maps trip itinerary of all the parks. I failed to send it out to you guys. I will send it out to you in the next couple of days. It bunches the parks in close proximity. So if you visit one park, then you can also choose to visit some of these other parks. And it has all the parks on that Google Maps. So I'll share that.

Perfect. Thank you, Chair Gupta.

Is it LSAP? That's the Lawrence Station?

Station Area Plan. It's because they're not named yet, and so that's why they're... Is that over in those townhomes? The ones by Costco, the Sunnyvale Costco?

Yeah.

Okay. Off of Lawrence Expressway. Yeah.

And just on this item, has Sukrit's name been added to the form?

Let's see.

Let's see. I don't think so.

Because when I filled out the form Saturday, he wasn't on there.

He's not on there.

On the actual form. Yeah, because the drop-down menu of the commissioners.

So you can count on us. Thank you. We'll take care of that.

I'm rolling. I said that right. I did a report twice in like three months.

And I guess after you visit every park, maybe you can just spend like five minutes writing a report on, I guess, the state of the park or thoughts for use.

That's what the form is for.

And I have a notes app that I keep.

And if you see urgent issues, put them on the MySantaClara app.

I've had trouble with the MySantaClara app lately. It says it's not connected and it's saving its drafts and then there's no way to access drafts.

And that's your firstborn male child. Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

Works fine for me.

You pressed the wrong button. You need to go back to the beginning. Don't make me pound the gallop.

All right. I'm hearing no edits for 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 1, 4. Record Commissioner Park visits via online form provided by staff. Receive monthly summary report regarding Commissioner online form activity. Edits.

Did we say monthly?

Suggestion. Yeah. So our intent would be. be calling on people who haven't visited their park. As a staff report action item, I would just say, give you the cliff notes of the visits so you could see that your own

You're holding yourselves accountable.

Yeah, that your record is seen by everybody else.

Sounds good. Excellent. Ryan Fogg. Attend at least two events per year, one of those events being the annual Art and Wine Festival. And in the notes column, while attending citywide events, parks, and facilities, commissioners may interact with the public to learn about their experiences. Postcards, business cards, be made available to hand out to the public. concerns, suggestions, or edits for Line 5.

Sounds good. So, Sukrit, this is another email you have from us on your availability for Art and Wine Festival to volunteer, and we'll have to get you fingerprinted.

Oh, yeah, I'll just respond to that. I'm available that weekend, so I'll be there.

And then the last item in Goal 1 is on the next page, if you're following along on a hard copy. Identify the honorary tree lighter. says in the notes to identify the under a tree letter by October.

Which means we need to start doing this.

Yeah, we need to start thinking about it now and maybe even have a discussion about it in September to see if anybody has anything to throw out there so we have a vote by October.

Yeah, so everybody should come next meeting with shortlist.

Perhaps some names of people that you think should be on the Friends of the Parks and Rec.

Honor them and then ask them to do work. That sounds good.

That's right. That's the way to do it. All right, that concludes the recitation of goal one. I heard no concerns, edits, or suggestions. And so I think goal one is fine.

Yeah, I think that captures where we want to move forward towards.

Yes. Perfect. Excellent. Goal number two. Listen, I don't know that we need both numbers and letters in our goals. That's a very easy thing.

Because they're all, none of them have b's. Correct.

Two parts. If you wanted to, you could letter the individual lines, but I don't think that's necessary.

Yeah, I was going to suggest a way to reference them.

Goal number two, conduct an annual review of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan implementation. Line one, create a subcommittee whose purpose will be to identify partnerships with school districts, community groups, institutions of higher education, and local businesses to facilitate collaborations and partnerships to advance the Master Plan goals and objectives. Yeah, and the new friends of the whatever will fall into the community. A is B. And this goal may be adjusted later to be more quantitative as community partnerships are built.

We don't want to speak on behalf of the city.

Correct. And so any concerns, thoughts, suggestions for goal two, line one?

Or bullet A? We need to constitute a subcommittee. Will we be doing that in this meeting or in a subsequent?

I think it makes sense for us to wait and make sure that council approves our work plan goal before we create subcommittees and issue a charge to them because technically this hasn't been approved yet.

Is there a formal approval to this?

Yeah, this gets submitted to the council. The goal is for this to get submitted to the next council meeting, I think, right? Okay, 24th. So that we can have it in place for our next month's meeting.

So then next month's meeting, our homework is what subcommittees do you want to join and tree lighter nominees? Yep. Great. And visit a park. Yes.

We have lots of homework.

I know. It's really great. Okay, so I heard no concerns or edits for line one. Line two, as required, seek community input. Review park rehabilitation designs and park development project designs for compliance with master plan goals and objectives, as well as city park and play standards.

Yes.

Thoughts, concerns, suggestions, edits.

We should all get a copy of the city parks and play standards. Or a link to it. I'm sure it's somewhere.

It used to be linked, but based on... No, no. We had to update all of our web accessibility in that document.

It would be good for us to know because by the time we have a thing to review...

If there was a link, it would be easy, but we will send it.

Since we've shared it out...

All right. That means goal two is locked as well. Excellent.

You are speeding through. It's so hot in this room.

Well, that's motivation. Goal three, review the annual Parks and Recreation budget, programs, and services outcomes, and where applicable, provide recommendations to the city council. A lot of sub items. Wait a minute. So action item one, receive annual budget updates from staff. This would include a biannual cycle of major presentation of the operating budget and capital budget cycling in every other year and the true ups that we would get in the off year. We would get measure out general obligation bond project and expenditure updates and receive reports in May annual. any concerns about reviewing the annual budget updates from staff?

The only question I had is currently, how are we tracking The park inventory, the amenities, and what our needs are. Like, for example, you know, take Warburton Park has so many amenities. And what is the level of the needs of improvement? You know, do we need to plant some trees? Do we need to rehab the turf? Do we need to do paving? Do we have a comprehensive document?

Well, we have the Kitchell, but... And then the master plan kind of does that same... The goal with coming... On the parks division's work plan, as they round out their management team, will be to do an initial park assessment as well as ongoing park assessments. Okay.

So that kind of ties into 2B, if we're calling it that. Because then we're looking at park development projects with compliance to the master plan. Yeah. But that ties into the CIP projects, so I see where you're – they're all related. They're all related.

Yeah, and then as such, we'll also be creating like a 10- to 20-year – Maintenance calendar? Yeah, 10- to 20-year capital improvement plan that has all the parks on it. Right. And as part of that, it'll have some high-level – amenities it won't have everything listed but it will serve as a guiding document for decision making in terms of where and then we'll rank and rate them we'll cross check the Kitchell report if their own assessments.

That is what I was looking for as far as, you know, just some type of a document that lists all of our entire park inventory, all the amenities. And

Well, we have something general that's customer facing that'll tell you all that stuff. Right. No, I know. But not from a capital plan. Right.

Yeah. The Kitchell report did that. That's already out of date because it's 2018. Yeah.

So we just need it.

Yeah, it's almost 10 years old.

And then the master plan came in. So there needs to be a circle back. Yeah.

And it sounds like Commissioner D'Souza wants something more succinct, like the Kitchell report is very detailed and very dense.

Well, whatever we end up creating as a working, a work tool, we'll share it out. Okay.

Yeah. I was looking for some type of a spreadsheet. Yeah, I understand.

Yeah, it may not have, it may not be 100% what you're thinking, but it'll be something. And then we'll take that and we'll work off of it.

Yeah. Was that satisfactory? Do you have concerns about goal three, item one?

Yeah.

So is that, should we tie it to the budget or should we tie it to the master plan?

It's tied to the budget. So it's both?

Yeah.

I think that what we were talking about is covered. We're talking about data from the master plan that already exists and reviewing that and possibly informed by visitor feedback. And we talked about that in goal one. And the budget implications are covered in goal three. I think it's all listed. It's just in different places.

I see it more related to capital project budget.

Yeah. It will be.

It'll be the three to five project plan.

It'll be the bigger plan for which we base our three to five year board plan off of. Yeah. And the, you know, the foreseeable future is tied up a lot in Measure I. We will have some smaller like the pickleball actually although pickleball is also a measure i funded um frog project so if you if there's a lot of it's a hundred million dollars worth of projects although almost half of it is um swim some swim center or other swim facilities related. There's still $50 million worth of projects. So by the time we... We need the list for a lot of reasons, but not to generate work. Yeah. We need... We need to know what our... We need to have an assessment of what our needs are. Yep. And we need a... a rhyme and reason as to how we're going to allocate resources going forward. Absolutely.

Do you think it's covered under the existing goal as written or does it need additional text?

I think you may have like another item there as under the capital project is to develop a comprehensive needs assessment.

So under a, there'd be like III, under three to five year project plan, then there's like a longer term plan?

Yeah. Needs assessment. Because, you know, $50 million doesn't go very far.

But we're also talking about your work plan and your annual review. Right.

Yeah.

Just keep a three to five project plan and understand that the needs assessment goes into the development of the three to five project plan. Yeah.

I mean, you can put in parentheses based on needs, based on the long range capital plan. I mean, we have a three to five year project plan that we'll be bringing to you all. It'll be based on the 10 to 20 year plan. Yeah, it's not really a master plan. Yeah, it's not a master plan. It's just ongoing. The master plan talks about assessing and prioritizing already. So we don't have it yet, but it says that that's a goal of the master plan. So if we say that it's based on the three to five year, based on the goals outlined in the master plan, do that. You could be specific, you could be general.

Yeah, but that's, this is the, it's the commission.

Yeah, it's the commissions. I don't, honestly, I will tell you that staff won't have the list you're thinking of during, it won't be complete during this, this year.

Fiscal year?

During this fiscal year.

No, it will not.

I mean, we're going to start it this fiscal year.

It took County Parks about three years to develop the plan.

And the capital budget is a two-year plan, but it is five years out. And it does change based on council priorities. And sometimes we can't even...

Well, we'll create, we will. So it'll be a 20-year plan, but council has the autonomy to say it. And they can order it and they can move this up. This is not on the schedule for 10 years, but with the right number of council interests and votes, they can move projects. They'll have the...

Well, I'm just formatting and I'm frustrated. Okay.

All right.

Sorry.

Moving on to goal three, item B, review annual program and service delivery outcomes, which would include customer satisfaction reports, total annual program event participant and membership reports, total annual facility usage and rental reports, total annual MySense Eclair service requests, total annual park maintenance and capital improvements performed, including trees planted and maintained, as well as pathways, sports courts, fixtures, irrigation facilities, and playgrounds added or rehabilitated. Finally, staff will provide annual reports to the commission in February for the previous calendar year. Is that too specific for your staff? It seems like a lot.

I think a lot of these things we either already do or should be doing. So we already handle my Santa Clara requests. We already track facility usage and rentals. We already track programs, total programs, event participant and membership reports. Sometimes some of our programmers are doing satisfaction reports. We can probably work through all of our different program areas to make sure we have a standardized follow-up with customers, either per program or on a collective basis. and all the other maintenance things we're doing. So yeah, we just have to track it and report it.

Excellent. Are there any concerns, thoughts, or suggestions for edit for goal three, line B? I think it's fantastic.

And this is, for the record, we're going to try to do this annually, not based on the fiscal. Correct.

Yeah. And that's why February for the calendar year.

Yeah, what we did the previous year.

And finally, goal three. How would this work? Would we have separate meetings where we just collaboratively go over this together or would we split this up?

This would come to us in a staff report or as an agenda item for review from the pertinent city staff during one of these meetings. Okay, perfect. Cool.

Yeah, a lot of these will do presentations that have PowerPoints with data for you guys to see.

Lots of graphs.

Yep.

We can't meet separately with all of us unless it's properly noticed.

So you guys Brown Act or something? Brown Act. No more than three.

That's why we can have a subcommittee as long as it's not quorum. Those can meet separately. So the number on the subcommittee is limited. That's why, okay.

Two to three minutes. Yeah.

Because if we get four, then that's a quorum and that we'd have to properly notice the meeting. Not that you can't have additional meetings.

It's a lot more paperwork. Okay. Goal three, item C, review annual Wade-Brummel and the grant and scholarship requests in accordance with established policy. And the Wade-Brummel scholarship applications we brought to the commission for review in July. Okay.

Do we have any coming?

It's August. We do have one coming next month. I don't know that saying it by month is as needed. It's more that they're going to come before review period if that's okay with the commission because as they come in, we want to be able to bring them to you as they come in, not wait until...

Except that I think that there was a conversation at one point. Yeah. We wanted to make sure we knew how much we were giving out that year. Rolling. We informed decisions about people who are submitting things on time versus.

We're certainly going to ask. We are asking for their applications once.

And maybe it's first come first served if after they're all late.

Yeah. Yeah. You're going to have a doozy come to you. What's the doozy? What's the organization? It will be a doozy and you'll be able to figure it out. Perfect.

All right. That is goal three locked in.

Lead brummel is always a doozy.

It's never easy.

Yeah.

Great. Moving on to goal four. Collaborate on Park and Recreation Commission bylaws with goal of adoption by June 2027. Goal A, review adopted city charter.

It hasn't been adopted, right? Still under debate?

It's dead.

Dead.

There's some charter review. There's some very limited charter review things that will be coming forward as part of the November election. Some minor things, correct?

No, it's going on the ballot. Public Works. Public Works.

Increasing the threshold from $1,000, work of $1,000 to work of $250,000. The authority of the city manager has $250,000 signing authority right now, so it just is aligned.

Everything else got thrown out. It was a design bill part of it also. Yeah. I just read it today actually.

So should we remove that? No, because I think this understanding the city charter informs how you want to move forward with your roles and responsibilities and operational bylaws because you belong to the charter and you had some good feedback to the charter. And so perhaps instead of having those items in the charter, perhaps they want to be operational bylaws if they're not in conflict. So you'll still have to review the charter. This is subcommittee work. This is meaty subcommittee work.

And that's the develop operational bylaws. Our notes should be developed subcommittee.

Right. So we need to call out.

The review clerk issued commissioner roles and responsibilities. There's really not much there. It's like two pages.

Okay.

So I think we can remove that as a goal. Everybody can just do that. And then the subcommittee can review. Use the charter and the roles and responsibilities to develop operational bylaws.

I'll just keep it. I'll just keep it. Okay.

Well, good. I've already published that. It couldn't be a note rather than an action. Yeah, I see what you're saying. But there's nothing other than to review it while you're working on this goal.

It's an error.

It seems like a lightweight action to support creating a new.

Because we've all reviewed the charter and we should have all reviewed the roles and responsibilities. Those should already be done. I don't know why we have to use goals.

I don't know if all of our members have done that.

They should have.

Well, when you get ready to break. It's an action item associated with the larger goal. It's just saying this is something we should do in support of this goal. Either you did it or you didn't. And you could have already done it or somebody else could have said, you know what, I refreshed myself. I don't think it adds.

Any other strong feelings about its persistence or removal?

The thing, the big one here is to develop operational bylaws. Yeah.

Chair Gupta, are you looking to say something?

I think it'll be fine to just leave it as it is. It calls out, you know, particularly like when new commissioners join, but that could happen in the middle of the term. It'll be good for them as a reminder.

And the clerk issued roles and responsibilities has a copy of the charter in it.

It's a one-stop shop. Okay, that takes us to the end of our work plan goals and activities document for the fiscal year 26-27 year.

I only see two subcommittees.

Is that right?

Yes, you're anticipating to want to go back through them again.

One of them is officially called out in the types draft and the other one is just this last one for the bylaws.

Okay.

The one that was typed in was for goal two. I don't think I can see that anymore.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So having gone through the draft as currently stands, we've gone through the main broad strokes of implementation of the master plan, the participation in facilities assessment and activities, budget review, and bylaws, operational bylaws creation as broad strokes. Are there any things missing as a last hurrah for folks to add to for the upcoming year?

Do we want to have a budget subcommittee?

Because we haven't had these formal reports yet, I don't even really know what we would charge that subcommittee with.

It feels like there might be a lot of data, more so that we'd cover on a regular meeting.

Do other folks feel like they already know that they'd want to commit to something like that? Or are folks interested in seeing how the first cycle plays out?

Can we add subcommittees off cycle of the approval? Yeah. OK, then never mind.

Great. Any other thoughts about things that are missing or changes overall that folks would like to table? Hearing none, I am open to entertain. a motion for the recommendation of the existing draft to council.

I make a motion to approve our draft priorities and work plan for fiscal year 2026-2027.

I second her motion. Perfect. That was Commissioner Chu and Commissioner Ganesh as second. We'll take a vote. Commissioner Kolba.

Yes.

Commissioner Chu. Yes. Commissioner DeMarco is yes. Commissioner Forte. Yes. Commissioner Ganesh. Yes. Commissioner Gupta. Chair Gupta. Yes.

Yes.

Commissioner Sousa? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. The next agenda item is the City Staff Report. Does staff have any items they would like to report on? This would be Parks and Recreation Director, Dean, or?

Just a couple of PSA's, Published Service Announcements. So our last concert of the season is this Friday, Alive Oak Park with Pajamu. Thank you everyone who noted email me back about art and wine shifts. I noted your preferences and location preferences. So we'll get those. Staff will be working on your schedule, working on those. And then also coming later in August are pickleball and tennis community meetings. We're doing one online and one in person, and we'll send you those dates. And then you wanted to know two council items that are coming your way that are park and recreation related. So at the meeting on the 18th, council will be reviewing the agreement and contract approval for group four to do the phase two ISC project design. And that's just for design at this point. So you'll see that agreement get posted. And then also on the 24th, they have requested chairs or representative from the commission attend the council meeting because the council will have the work plans on the consent calendar. And so it would be great if the commission determined their who a representative that could attend the 24th. That would be great. We will try and get Commissioner Ganesh a shirt by Art Wine. And then September, we see a developer who's working on the park at Prune Ridge. As you know, the Prune Ridge site is up for proposal for a new development. There's a pretty fair large park in that. And so... They want to begin their outreach. And so the process is that they come to you first, initiate an open public comment, and then they would do initial outreach at Art and Wine and hold a public meeting after that. What's the cross street on Prinridge?

Like where?

There it goes. Saratoga. 400 Saratoga Avenue. Where are the golf courses?

Okay.

So there's a proposed pretty... That's 1.7 acre park. I was going to say just under two.

Thank you. Really close to Parkway Park. Well, there's a lot of parks over there.

It's adjacent.

It's right down the street to Henry Schmidt. It's currently a golf course property.

They're making the golf course a lot smaller and building apartments on a portion of it. Really?

Yeah. It's on the same side of the street as Henry Schmidt Park, only a block south.

Yeah. Um, and so next month we would have the developers here. Um, you just asked to have the tree letter nomination discussion. So we'll have that on the calendar and then you'll likely have a wait for a more consideration next month as well. So, I think.

Yeah, so the agenda for that.

Yeah, Monday before it's Monday before. So, if it was Monday after I'd be in a little me too.

Yeah, it would already. Yes. Yeah, but it's sensitive for sensitive. Okay.

All right. That's my report.

I had a question about last month you mentioned about fingerprinting.

You're already fingerprinted.

Okay, so I'm good.

All right. You would have heard from me if you were.

All right.

We've heard from Derek if you were.

Yeah, not this Derek, a different Derek. He tried to tell me I wasn't fingerprinted. And then he looked again. Actually, HR looked again.

Good for them.

And they found you and you were legit.

Is it lifetime? Do we ever have to re-fingerprint? No.

Not with our agency. If you go volunteer somewhere else, you'll likely have to get done because fingerprinted all over. Background check.

We can't share it.

But if you're Nutcracker volunteering and then you're volunteering for Art and Wine, it's the same agency.

For any other things you want to volunteer for.

Pickleball tennis community meeting facilitator. Just kidding.

That does not sound like a good job.

Do you have any other items? Okay.

No, no. I just, off the record, that's not further.

Okay. The final agenda item is the Commissioner's Reports. Commissioner, it's your opportunity to share any city-related activities you have participated in that have not yet been discussed. We'll start with Commissioner Caldwell.

I visited Central Park over the weekend to look at the improvements in the parking lot. And it's come out really nice. Looks really good. And then just checking out Henry Schmidt Park probably weekly to see the improvements there. And a lot of dirt going back and forth. So it's like the pile's over here. Now it's over here. Now it's over here. So I'm waiting for something really exciting to happen.

They poured pour in place today. They poured some pour in place today. Or they're doing it tomorrow. The parking lot was like it was ready for something.

And then, of course, Maywood Park found an issue over there the other day with a barbecue. Put that on the My Santa Clara app. It says it's in progress.

It tells you what the... And you attended the street dance.

You attended the street dance. That's right. Thank you for reminding me.

Did you dance?

Yeah.

Thank you, Commissioner Caldwell. Commissioner Chu.

Today, I went to Henry Schmidt to see the progress, and it also seems like things are moving, but I don't know if necessarily where the progress is. Lickmill Park in my neighborhood, it seems like the trash is not being picked up as regularly, so I put it on my Santa Clara app. And also, we had trouble with the irrigation system going off at all times of the day and night. But I put it on my Santa Clara, and it was fixed the next day.

Both of those? Yeah. Great. The trash, was it over the weekend or was it on?

It was from like Thursday to Monday. So it's just the weekends included.

Sorry to interrupt. How concerned are you about when the sprinklers go on in the parks where the water actually goes? Because it's like soaking walkways and stuff like that. Is that just something we're going to have to deal with? Because I don't know if... I can't really tell if those sprinklers can be aimed or not. They have...

They have the ability to have certain calibrations, but it's not like a home sprinkler.

And the problem with Live Oak was it was going too much, so then it was flooding the sidewalk. It was clearly not intentional.

Something was broken.

Yeah, and we just finished ballet intensives. I signed up for the fall classes for more ballet. So it's good. It's my daughter's last year.

And a single tear rolled down her cheek.

I have my last first day today. Mine's on Thursday. But this is going to be your last Nutcracker. My last first day today. Yeah, it's the older one that's more important. Wow. You're being recorded. This is going to be your last Nutcracker. So we have a lot of, there's a lot of lasts coming up.

Ask your kids to watch the replay of this meeting.

The emotional is harder for the first one. I'll be ready for the second one. It doesn't feel real. She's old enough to fly the nest.

Thank you, Commissioner Jim. For myself, today was the first day of school in Santa Clara, and so my kid went into first grade for the first day. We walked through Bowers Park to get to Bowers Elementary, and so we'll be resuming my jaunt through Bowers. Everything looked good. We were doing an acro class. We did an acro class over the summer. Claire really loved it. She went to the... K-pop summer camp. She loved that. She's enrolled in a number of different rec activities this fall. So we're looking forward to some guitar lesson. Oh, yeah. And the macro class. So lots of things on the horizon for the city. Very excited. That's it for me.

Commissioner Forte. Attended a couple of the night markets. A couple of the World Cup watch parties. Friday night concert in the park at Central Park and also the street dance.

Commissioner Forte.

Commissioner Ganesh. So I visited a couple parks my first time. One was Home Ridge Park. Very, very happy with the new playground, everything. Families love it. I actually went with my baby cousin over there. The basketball court is in pretty bad shape. It's deteriorated a lot. But other than that, the park has been very, very well maintained. Happy with that. I also went to Mary Gomez Park. So overall, I think the park could use a small, I guess, revamp, especially the area around the tennis course. There's a few walking paths, picnic tables. They've all deteriorated quite a bit. Also, there's a lot of unused space in the park around the tennis course where just a lot of leaves have piled up, not used for anything. So I guess in the future, if you want to add more picnic tables, community gardens, whatever, it's a good place for it. And I also flew my RC helicopter quite a bit at Milliken Elementary. And yeah, I guess I don't have access to the forms, but I did come up with quite a few. There's a lot of unused space in that park as well, which I have a few ideas on what can be done there. So I didn't get to attend any events this time, but I guess next month I'll be volunteering at the Art in Mind Festival and try to attend a couple other events. Thank you, Commissioner Ganesh.

Chair Gupta. Thank you. Well, first of all, thanks for accommodating my in-person absence there. And for direct to chair the meeting, thank you for that. It looks like I will likely not be able to attend in person next month either as things are going. And it's also likely that I may not be able to participate in the Art and Wine Festival. But other than that, so not entirely directly related to Santa Clara, but in Irvine, last week there was the National Swimming Championship. Last week was the Junior National Swimming Championship. And this week there is the Pan Pacific Swimming Championship. I did watch several of the Junior National Championship events. I am very happy to report that Santa Clara Swim Club won the gold for the four by 50 meters freestyle relay. In fact, they broke the national record. So that was awesome. And what brings me particular delight is my son was part of that team. And so he's a national record holder now, which I had never, ever dreamt of. Congratulations. Thank you. The reason I bring up all of this is, sorry to keep reiterating, but as you all know, I would love for these championship meets to come to Santa Clara. We've hosted some in the past. It'll be great when the ISC is back online. And of course, we'll have to wait for end of phase two before we can really host anything of this significance like national meets or international meets. But other than, of course, all the fun and joy that comes with it, there's... the significant revenue that can come to the city, to the businesses and to the city itself. And so it'll be great to see these championships come to Santa Clara. And again, with my absence from the city itself, I've not visited any parks.

Thank you, Chair Gupta. Last but not least, Commissioner Souza.

I attended the street dance, and I was very pleased to see that it was probably the largest crowd I've ever seen at a street dance. Good spot. And I think it's because of the venue.

Yeah.

It's a really nice venue, and plenty of parking, and good access, and just a really good band. Yeah. Um, as far as park visits, I visit the parks by bicycle. So I spent a Saturday and I visited, uh, Harris last house, uh, Everett Alvarez, Henry Schmidt, Mary Gomez, Steve Carley, and Warburton, um, parks. And I did notice, um, As the commissioner noted that I did see some areas that needed paving. But I also did notice that there's an area at Mary Gomez just north of the swimming pool. There's a nice grassy area there. is begging for picnic tables yeah mary gomez is weirdly weirdly oriented it just it seemed i i was looking at it my first thought was why aren't there picnic tables here because it's a beautiful grass shaded area so um but yeah all i was uh Actually, the first time I'd been at Warburton Park in probably over 40 years since I took my son's swimming lessons there. But the parks all look good. But, you know, I didn't notice it needing the deferred maintenance of the paving. And also, I am signed up for... classes at the Senior Center through December. If you need to find me on Wednesdays, I'll be at the Senior Center.

Getting small. Highly coveted classes. Harris Last House is not part of the Parks Department. And I heard that the landscaping is done by the Streets Department?

Parkways and Boulevards. It might be contracted.

Is there a reason why it's not part of the Parks? Because it is. It's a lovely...

It's a property, so it's considered like a real property asset.

Around the corner, have you been to the Berryessa Adobe?

Yeah.

And Jefferson Street?

Yeah.

Yeah. And what's the other one behind the Triton? Heaton Inman House?

Jackson Brown?

The Heaton Inman House. It's behind Triton Museum.

Jameson House. Jameson House.

Jameson House?

That's the one that's for events.

Well, I was... Everett Allard's park is just a cute little gem, how it's in a sunken bowl there. It's really a neat park.

Thank you, Commissioner Souza. Thank you, everyone. Our meeting is approaching its end. I want to go through a last list of reminders and action items. As Commissioner Chiu observed, we need to start bringing our tree layer nominees ideas to our next commission meeting. So if you know folks who have been long-standing members of the community or folks that you are interested in building a relationship with and want us to consider, please bring names to our next commission meeting the second Monday of September. Similarly, if you know already what of the two subcommittees you have the most interest in, we'll talk about that, assuming that our work plan goal is approved by Council at the September meeting. Mark's dissertation, as always. We're going to get a final schedule of our shifts for art and wine in the next little while here.

Yep.

Excellent. If you've not committed to an art and wine shift, but you can, Please be sure to let Kim and her folks know. And since Chair Gupta confirmed that he is not likely to be back for the September meeting, that suggests to me that he will also not be here for the August 25th council meeting that Kim said council was hoping to have a representative from all the commissions for work plan goal submission.

I nominate Vice Chair Marco.

Good.

I second.

Good. I don't know that that was something that needed to be motioned, but... Well, it is now.

So, I know. Forte. Forte.

If anyone else wants to do it.

No, that is good. I feel that's great. Thank you for doing that. And I will attend remotely.

I think you'd represent us very well.

I think the item goes on at like 1230 a.m.

But it might be at 7 p.m. That's probably right. That works perfectly for me.

It'll be my daytime.

Well, if you are back and you want to represent us, let us know and you can certainly have that honor.

No, I'm happy for you to represent in person. And like I said, I will attend remotely.

Okay, thanks everyone for coming to tonight's meeting. Our next Parks and Recreation Commission meeting will be on Monday, September 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m. here in the Sparaceno Conference Room. Commissioners. When is the city council meeting? Your city council meeting? Oh, boy. Tuesday, August 25th. Okay.

I think we should all, if we can, show up to support you as you present for us.

He doesn't have to present unless he gets pulled. And there's a question.

Sure. So then you're in the hot seat.

But it's nice to have more people there. Just friendly faces. Okay.

Any idea what's on the agenda? So early. Okay. Yeah.

Or late. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. I can ask. Yeah. As far as I think it's pulled out from the consent, that will really speak something about what we are doing here.

All right, commissioners, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?

I motion to adjourn the meeting.

You're just really the pushing part. Commissioner Ganesh has seconded. I just said because you're so loud. doing.

Oh, yes.

Commissioner Chu. Yes. Commissioner DeMarco. Yes. Commissioner Forte. Yes. Commissioner Ganesh. Aye. Commissioner Gupta. Chair Gupta.

Yes.

Commissioner Souza. Yes. And that motion also passes unanimously. If no objections, I will now adjourn this meeting at 8.02 p.m. Nice use of the gap.

And that was exactly an hour. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

My wife is excited about the first day of school, too, and the fact that she does not.

I don't know.

Going to the school where she taught and taking bagels and juice to the right corner.

That's nice. I want it turned on. Just close the application.