Cultural Heritage Board - Regular Meeting

Why don't I say it here? Yeah, thank you. The recording is starting now. We previously did roll call and public comment on non-agenda matters. If you need additional information, you can check through the minutes that will be reviewed next week.

Okay. Please vote for the April 22nd, 2026 meeting minutes. If you will approve them, Board Member Cruz. Yes. I approve. Board Member Spence.

Yes.

Board Member Vogel. Yes. Board Member Pond.

Yes.

Board Member Rivas. Yes. Vice Chair Castillo.

Yes.

Chair Quant.

Yes.

The minutes of April 22nd, 2026 are approved as written with a motion from Board Member Paul Castillo. And a second by who? Jack. By Jack Pond.

Thank you.

And the motion carries with a vote of seven yeses.

Great. Moving on to item five, recreation and parks updates. Emily, would you like to give us an update on upcoming events and park projects?

Yeah, thank you, Chair Pond. I will take all the updates today because our maintenance supervisor and our superintendent, and our Deputy Director of Recreation are not here today. So July is Parks Make Life Better Month. I realized it's June, but next month, but we won't have a meeting, is July, and Recreation and Parks is celebrating with a proclamation at City Council on July 14th, and we would love as many of you to be in attendance as possible. That will be very close to the beginning of the meeting, and it starts at 4 p.m. If you're looking for something to do on July 11th, we have two opportunities for you from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. One is the 25th Annual Senior Expo. And that is for not just 60 and over, but family and friends as well. Realizing I didn't write where that is. I assume that it is right here. But it's also on the recreation webpage. Discover tribal opportunities, learn about benefit opportunities, search out recreation and fitness programs, and there's free health screenings. And secondly, there is a park a month at Southwest Community Park. Parks maintenance. So we last, what was the date? Is that for the 11th as well? Yes, they're both, yeah. They're both July 11th from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Last meeting, and maybe at previous meetings, we handed out these little cards, and they're also on the table in the back. And they have contact information, how to get into different parts of the parks, sorry, the recreation parks divisions. um to make contact with staff um one of the things on here is the park maintenance email address park maintenance is moving away from that email address as a method for the public to report maintenance concerns and so moving forward um for board and community members please use my santa rosa um or call transportation to report issues. The number of public service is 707-543-3800. And there's some on there Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. And the intent of this change is to improve customer service and streamline. As for planning project updates, I'm thrilled to announce that the South Davis Public play area revitalization project is open to the public. That project I've been working on for many years, and so I'm just thrilled to see it open. And thrilled to, when I go out there, every time I've been out there, there are kids playing on it. So that brings me so much joy. And by the end of this week, Cook School Park, the new play equipment should be available to the community. We got the playground inspected yesterday, it passed with flying colors, and we just need to get the construction fencing down. And the special part about Cook School Park is that it is a PlayCorps national demonstration site, which is designed to encourage youth physical activity. And we got a grant from PlayCorps and the California Parks and Recreation Society, about $116,000. for that new equipment. Thea already announced the positive information about the Southeast Greenway, so I'll skip that. Construction began on the Gallaudet's tennis and football court project, as well as the community garden project at Kiwanis Springs Community Park. And those should be done, I think, by the fall. There's also the Howard Park Tunnels and Pickleball Court project. And that, unfortunately, has been delayed by the late spring rains, but also unexpected subgrade conditions. And it is moving forward again. They've come up with an approach for the subgrade, and that is continuing to move forward. It is just a little behind. As Kim sent out a while ago, We'd like you to hold the date of September 23rd from 2 to 4 p.m. for a parks tour on Road to the Trolley. With that said, that may change and be happening at an October meeting or the way to next year. But I want you to have that date saved on your calendar. And finally, I have to share that this is going to be my last meeting with you. I'm going back to North Carolina to meet your family. But I am so appreciative of the opportunity to work with each one of you and to have served alongside you. I look forward to great things in the future.

What are the gas prices out there?

I'm just kidding. Gas taxes are much lower. I'd say they're paying like $3 to $4 a gallon. Wow.

Thank you for everything. Thank you.

Yes, you're welcome. And with that, I'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you, Emily. I learned about this several days ago and have been naturally reading you or so. So we'll save our comments and queries of appreciation for Emily until the end of the meeting, if that's okay with all of you. With that, any questions from the board or staff on the update?

This was a good question. The Howard Park, do we know how long the delay is? Or are we talking months, years?

Oh, yeah. It's definitely months. OK. No, it's just going back.

I don't know if you have an update. Maybe we'll be resuming work on Monday. And then I think we're looking at .

Thank you, . OK. And budget-wise, what does that do with the budget of power?

They're on the council agenda.

We are adding contingency through city council, but I think we may not need it. So I think we are looking okay. We're still working out the change order for the subgrade issues.

So we don't have final numbers yet, but it'll be pretty close to within budget. And if you want to monitor it, you can take a look at the city council agenda too. There would be, if there was changes, it would be included on there.

So is it, I don't know, is that how it works? Like they've approved a budget and then something comes up that is going to push it over. They have to go back or?

It depends. It depends how much it is. It depends if there's agency built into the contract, but it depends.

Yeah.

Okay. I would say more often than not, they don't usually have to go back. Usually there's contingency built in. Would you say the same, right? Yeah.

There is.

Yeah.

We're looking at potentially exceeding the contingency we have built in, but not by a lot and possibly not going to happen.

So still working through that. But generally process-wise, usually it could be built in. If need be, it can go back to council to add additional funds to it.

So we're close to budget and only slightly delayed. Is that accurate, Krista? We'll take it.

Any other questions from the board? I have to staying with Howard Park is their signage up at the courts themselves, letting the public, who is very eager to get back on the courts know what's going on and. A tentative rescheduling date or something some information.

We took down the outdated signs and now that the project's going to get back underway starting on Monday, me and Scott are going to create new signage and provide a web update.

So there will be signage, accurate signage up by, say, the end of next week?

It depends on the sign shop, but it's possibly, I'm going to order them tomorrow.

Not that I play pickleball, but I know there are an awful lot of people who are cruising that street looking for progress. And I'm sure signage, the sooner the better. Even if it was just temporary signage, until you could get the sign shop, there's always the lamination machine.

Yeah, that's what we had out there. The one that takes a little bit longer accurate. We could put one of those up and then create proper signs.

What do you think, Keating? You think pickleball players would like?

Well, they would like, yes, they would. But, you know, as long as they see activity out there as of Monday, that'll satisfy them.

Well, I would like to see signage because an informed public is an informed public. And to keep us informed, could we please get an email reminder about the City Council Parks Make Life Better event? And an approximate time for when that would be on the, as best possible.

It's the first thing on the first thing.

So if we could get an email both with the date and also the time would be huge for people who can be forgetful at times.

I will forward on the meeting invitation. Thank you so much.

Anything else from the board? With that, we will move it to public comments on this item. Seeing none, we'll move on to item number six, which is member report and updates from the committee. And Carolina, you're not at the end, so I won't start with you, but I will start with Madonna.

Thank you so much. What I would like to share is while I am at various parks walking events, The bikes, the electric bikes that are flying by, not only me as a person with disabilities, but more disabled people, it's very alarming. The rapid speeds they are going, not to mention also the honored elders that are on sidewalks or trails that are just... afraid. Other than that, everything's looking beautiful. Thank you. Carolina?

I was at Galvin Park because I have friends who walk their dog and it's always a concern or it's an ongoing conversation and everything looked wonderful. I wouldn't, they probably don't want me to say that, but everything looked wonderful. Everybody was behaving and You know, they all know each other, so they were all greeting each other, and it was great. So I was glad I went, and I was really glad to see it sort of up close and personal. So I'm glad I went. Great. Jack?

No report. Pam?

Hi. On May 16th, I visited Olive Park with Robert Ash that morning for a park cleanup. I think we were maybe one of four that showed up, but we were there. uh and uh he i got an exclusive tour with robert which was really nice um and we did a cleanup along the way real sharp eyes robert has because i couldn't pick up he moves quick um and so we were going along um the greenway, uh, there. And it really made me, um, visually see the, you know, that that is a really critical trail and connector between East and Santa Rosa, especially along the Creek. So, um, to the earlier comment from Thea about being on the sites and really being there present to visually see how important like the, the area is, um, and the people who are using it. Um, really, really eye opening. And of course, because of its scale, you know, it will constantly need a lot of love to make sure that there is enough cleanliness so that folks feel safe to use it. A lot of bike folks on there that we saw, and I could see that especially with a little more increased speed because it's a wide connector, that if there's too much trash there, it can cause a lot of injury. So, you know, very important for us to get out there and have our communities clean it, even just bits. You know, me and Robert only got through a small bit, but... you know everything counts uh robert and his crew have done a really good job of it already but you know i think about what happens when robert needs to take a sick day or he wins the lottery and wants to move to you know somewhere um let's do our best as you know board members and um to to set our um to get our communities out there uh either to use that uh pathway in that trail um or just to keep it clean as best as we can. I'm currently working on getting some folks out there to support Robert, especially since we saw that there was a decrease in the volunteerism that day. So we're going to see what we can do to get more folks out there. Yeah. If you have folks interested in doing that, send them my way and I can connect them with Robert.

In my heart. Mm-hmm. Nothing to report currently, but I'm looking forward to the park a month in August, which is in Rankin Valley, right in my area. So that will be my first park a month, but I'm looking forward to that. You'll enjoy it.

Paul? Yeah.

I have to admit, I didn't join, but I saw the park a month later. I was there for a kid's birthday party. It was great to see so many people involved. That did happen to have a good turnout, which was very nice. But I did poke around and say hi and all that good stuff. But I will do better next time and actually participate. Another quick update. My kids are actually in the swim lessons, and it's going great. I just want to say everyone does a really good job. It's very thorough, timely, and it's been awesome watching so many people out there. It looked like back-to-back-to-back classes for like a two-and-a-half-hour span or whatever it is. So getting a lot of use out of the new pool and cleanup, so it's great to see.

Thank you. First, I'm going to do a plug and you can yank me if I go. So not only is Robert a great volunteer, but he's also head of a group called Friends of Prince Memorial Greenway. We have a Facebook page, which I have the sometimes pleasure and sometimes hectic nature of maintaining. So please join it. Encourage people to join it. And you will see things about City Surveys, Southeast Greenway, the Greenway to Greenway ride that is coming up. And it's a great way to share information with fellow lovers of parks, greenways, and people who want to make things better.

Is that okay?

Yes. Okay. What's the page name? I can put that in the minutes. The name of the Facebook page?

Friends of Prince Memorial Greenway. So I had the pleasure of attending the restoration rivet cutting on Colgan Creek on May 14th. It's not a park, but it is adjacent to what is going to be a park and parks. Wreck and the water, the creeks and Stewart and water, they're all connected. And the fact that they work so well together, not only today, but planning for the future, it's a good thing to be able to praise the city of Santa Rosa from doing. Also, I was able to visit South Davis Park. I cannot encourage strongly enough for everyone. It is a small, vibrant park that Emily was engaged in. I still remember being out there in the wind with your easels and charts that were blowing around. And the people who live in the neighborhood love their little park. And we love our red, white, and blue play structure from 1990. which looked like it was from 1770. Why would we want new stuff? And Emily's battling the wind and showing options. And the community had input. And what they got, it's just wonderful. It's just wonderful. So please go check out. And you can't miss it. It's the park with all this color. And there's a zip line that you're not supposed to try out if you're a grown-up.

That's true. I'm just saying.

I'm just saying. Also, I had the good fortune to attend the Whitewater Rodeo, which was put on by the Creeks Department, but was in Santa Rosa Creek at Prince Memorial Greenway. So it is a park. And there were children making boats, screaming with delight in the creek. having fun like kids in today's age don't get to have often enough. It was sponsored by the Creeks Department. Shout out to Kyle and Michael, who are two overgrown kids themselves. It was just so joyous to see Santa Rosa Creek alive, alive with people, as well as fish. Today, a green heron was spotted on, fetching its breakfast out of the creek. It was about this long. Also, The partnerships that are happening on Prince Memorial Greenway between Parks Maintenance, the volunteers, and Art in Public Place is doing cleanup on the murals. It is just so wonderful to see things happening and different aspects of the city and volunteers working together. I cannot say enough good things to see that happening. Last but not least, I have to go to the rural cemetery where my heart lies. The Veterans Day tours went off really well. It's a great event for both the city parks and also lovers of history. And a huge shout of appreciation to park maintenance team for coming up and spending an entire day. Wednesday morning, weed whacking the rural cemetery. There were at least a dozen of them. There were at least 11 park trucks up in the cemetery, people who were coming through walking. What's happened? What's happened? To be able to say joyously, park maintenance is helping us out. So as a result of that. I didn't know what to do beyond the cookies that one of our volunteers baked for them. So I wrote a letter to the editor, which did get published. And I was quite happy about that. I also held on to Mayor Stapp's hand, I think more than is appropriate, at a public event while I sang his park maintenance song of praise. And he said, you're not going to harass me about something? No, I'm actually going to tell you how wonderful. So he was very pleased with that. And also, they're getting a shout out in the cemetery newsletter that park maintenance, again, the partnership, I cannot say enough good things about partnership between volunteers, park maintenance, and other aspects of the city that benefits all. Sorry, I will now step down off my soapbox and say, where am I? Public comments on board member reports. Seeing none, we will move forward to Item number seven, our first scheduled item is our July is Parks Makes Life Better Month presentation. And I will turn it over to Nathan.

All right, let me get this thing up on the screen. Before I read over the proclamation to you guys, I just want to give you a little bit of background on how this proclamation came to be. And a fitting place to start is the California Park and Recreation Society, or CPRS for short. It's a statewide professional organization whose mission it is to advance the park and recreation profession through education, networking, resources, and activism, uniting members in their commitment to improving people's lives, CPRS strives to educate policymakers with the premise that parks and recreation is an essential community service. As part of that effort, CPRS launched the Parks Make Life Better public awareness campaign to highlight the broad benefits that parks, trails, open space facilities and programs provide to Californians of all ages and backgrounds. This proclamation joins the statewide effort by formally recognizing July 2026 as Parks Make Life Better Month in the City of Santa Rosa, affirming our community's commitment to equitable access to parks and recreation as a cornerstone of public health, community identity, and quality of life. And now I will read the proclamation that will be brought to City Council in next month's meeting. whereas Parks and Recreation promotes physical, emotional, and mental wellness through organized and self-directed fitness, play, activity, and whereas Parks and Recreation supports economic vitality by partnering with local businesses, nonprofits, and community groups, and whereas Parks and Recreation creates memorable experiences through youth sports and activities, teen and senior programs, adult enrichment, and free community events and whereas parks and recreation fosters social cohesiveness by celebrating diversity promoting social equity and ensuring all people have access to its benefits and whereas parks and recreation supports human development and countless learning opportunities fostering growth and people of all ages and abilities and whereas Parks and Recreation strengthens community identity by providing facilities and services that celebrate local heritage and culture and whereas Parks and Recreation facilitates community issue resolution by providing safe spaces and key points of service that help our communities heal, And whereas parks and recreation sustains natural resources by protecting habitats, connecting people to nature and promoting ecological stewardship. And whereas parks and recreation remains versatile and innovative in delivering vital facilities and essential services during emergencies. Now, therefore, it may be resolved. This is where the mayor would say on account of the city of Santa Rosa on behalf of the entire city council. Recognize the importance of equitable access to local parks, recreation, trails, open space, and facilities for health, wellness, development, inspiration, and safety for our community. Do hereby proclaim July as Parks Make Life Better Month. Go park. Go to the park.

Thank you, Nathan. Any questions or comments from board for staff? Okay, seeing none, we'll open it to public comments on this item. Seeing none, we do need to take a vote on this item. Can I have someone move this forward?

You can use the recommendation from the agenda. So can I get a motion? Mm-hmm.

A motion that staff recommends the Board of Parks and Recreation supports the City Council's Parks Make Life Better Month Proclamation.

I second. Thank you. That's Pam and Madonna. Thank you for picking me up.

Can we get a vote? Can I see a show of hands for supporting the Parks Make Life Better Proclamation? Thank you. We have All yes. So the motion is passed.

Great. We're moving on to item 7.2, which is the Measure M first for all update. And Scott Wilkinson is going to give us an update, a very thorough update. But before he starts, a show of hands for folks who were not in the city, who really aren't familiar with the whole rollout of Measure M. over the past eight years so that he knows how much background to go into. Okay, Keating, Paul, are you familiar? Were you living here when Measure M?

Not when it passed, but I've been through the presentation and got some background on it initially.

Okay, so everyone else is familiar with it? Great. Thank you. Scott?

Yes.

Ready?

You bet.

Are you trying to shorten my presentation?

No.

Should I sit over here? Last time I was up there, but.

Whatever you prefer.

I want to sit. That's good.

Okay.

Yeah. Probably better. You have a mic right there too. Okay. Good.

Keep it bouncing. Okay. Nope. I was just confirming that you.

Oh, yeah, we're good. We're good.

Hello, Chair Quant, Vice Chair Castillo and members of the board. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Scott Wilkinson. I'm a parks planner with the City of Santa Rosa. And tonight I'm going to provide an update, as Chair Quant said, on our Measure M Parks for All expenditure plan. I'm going to give a brief overview of the measure and run through the current Measure M expenditures. Proposed allocations according to the three main investment areas, park capital improvements, park maintenance and recreation. Given that the part capital improvements is sort of my wheelhouse, I'm going to do my best to cover those other two areas based on my current knowledge of the entire scope of the investment that we're up to. that we're doing in those other two areas. Um, clumsy way of saying that, um, if I'm not able to answer questions in those other two areas, I can certainly come back, uh, with it, with that information at the end, but we will have time for questions and answers, uh, at the end, uh, of this hopefully, um, engaging presentation. Um, so, uh, This will include highlights on capital projects, enhancements to parks, maintenance levels of service and the delivery of recreation programs and activities and events to date through the end of this fiscal year. Twenty five, twenty six, which we are right at the end of here this month. And a look at proposed allocations for fiscal year 26-27 and through the end of the current 10-year term of the measure and highlight some possibilities in subsequent years if the measure is reauthorized this fall. Hopefully this will give you a picture of how important this funding source really is in helping the city continue to provide park and recreation resources and services to the community in the future and beyond the year 2930 fiscal year, which is the current tenure when the current tenure term of the measure ends. So Measure M, what is Measure M? You can go to the next slide there, Nathan. As I said, it's a 10-year measure. It's a one-eighth percent countywide sales tax that sees a revenue breakdown whereby two-thirds of that goes to the Sonoma County Regional Parks and the other one-third to the nine cities of which Santa Rosa is one. What does that mean? Well, an 8 cent tax, just as an example, adds 3 cents to a $25 purchase and 12 cents to a $100 purchase. Like I said, this has become a super important issue. revenue source for the city and county and the eight other cities. And the tax is indeed up for reauthorization this fall. The county supervisors are scheduled to approve placing it on the ballot next week at their meeting on July 7th. A yes vote will not increase the current sales tax, but simply extend the one eighth percent sales tax until repealed by voters in the future. So extending the term beyond the 10 years. In 2019, which was the first year of the measure, Santa Rosa Council approved initial priorities for the first two years that included repairing fire damaged parks and roadway landscapes, community outreach, around how the measure could be used. And the creation of a condition assessment report, which I described briefly in that last CIP meeting when I was in front of the board in February, that also has become a tool to help us prioritize the investment of these funds and other funds that we use to improve the parks. Through the community outreach process and overall allocation framework was established and approved by council in 2021, which sees 50% going towards capital projects, 40% towards maintenance, enhancement of maintenance levels of park maintenance and 10% towards the recreation programming and activities by the recreation team. Next slide. So for these previous efforts, priorities are being set along with a variety of other factors such as pre-existing funding for projects and an eye towards providing equity throughout the four quadrants of the city. For capital project areas, really two areas of investment improving came out of the process, improving existing amenities and creating and expanding parks and recreational facilities. And given current levels of funding, really, and the costs for projects in the second category of creating and expanding projects, The real needs in the current system, we really are kind of focusing on that first category, improving existing amenities and sites within our system. That's not to say we do have projects for new parks, but the vast majority of expenditures on the capital side really are about increasing or renovating existing park facilities. Excuse me. For park maintenance, priorities center on two main areas, maintaining parks and recreation facilities and managing vegetation throughout the park system to reduce fire risk, particularly in our open space parks. Thankfully, the fire department has taken on managing the bulk of the areas associated with mitigating the fire risk components so parks and maintenance can use Measure M funds to focus on keeping parks safe and clean and on the enhanced level of maintenance and particularly on our athletic fields, which was one of the things that came through strongly in the public opinion, public input through the outreach process. On the recreation side, priorities really go towards developing and expanding programming and activities and events. For both maintenance and recreation categories, we recognize there are actually projects that are sort of more capital in nature that really go towards supporting an enhanced level of maintenance and also providing additional recreation programming. So you'll see that we've created a distinction between spending in these two categories. on programs and supplies versus kind of more improvement projects to those facilities that support those activities and programs. Next slide, please. At the meeting in February, I went over the Parks Capital Improvement Program sort of more broadly. And you'll recall that this slide illustrates how the city is organized into quadrants. providing a framework for how one of the main sources of funding for capital parks is determined, the park development impact fees, otherwise known as PDI, if you're into acronyms, that are paid by developers of residential housing units. So Measure M funds, in contrast, are more discretionary and able to be allocated across the city to park projects, maintenance work, and recreation programs. However, The quadrant framework really remains helpful to keep in mind as we seek to invest equitably across the city. So you'll see the quadrants represented in this next series of diagrams and slides to help understand how we're sort of spreading these investments across the city at the same time. So for this update, like I said, I'm going to focus on the current year planned expenditures for next year, which is year eight of the measure or fiscal year 26-27, and planned expenditures next. from the last two years of the measures, years nine and 10, which are just that projections because we don't have that money yet, along with some ideas about how parks and recreation will put this funding source to work beyond year 10 with the successful reauthorization of the measure if that happens. This map highlights investments of Measure M funds to date through this current fiscal year or the first seven years of the measure, essentially. In the case of most of the projects, I should note that Measure M is not the sole source of funding, but it's used in combination with grant funds and the PDI funds, as I talked about last time. The four projects on the left with the fire damage roadway landscape, along with the fire damage roadway landscape project are complete and the two court renovation projects and the community garden will be finished later this summer or fall. Next slide. Just highlighting a few of these completed projects that were done with a mix of funding that included Measure M funds. So Finley Aquatic Center, Dutch Floor, a significant renovation of the Dutch Floor Neighborhood Park, and to playground renovation projects, Cook School Park, which will be opening at the end of this month, and South Davis Park, which was mentioned, opened earlier this month happily. These photographs are not very exciting. They are meant to share what early construction looks like at a couple of projects, Kiwanis Springs Community Garden there on the left and the Galvin Park Ports, which is a little more picturesque right now than the Howarth in terms of big machines out there anyways on the site. So, um, but Howard's park, as we mentioned earlier, I'm getting, getting, uh, up and running again on Monday. Um, So this is a summary of the current and planned expenditures. You'll see on the top the actual amount allocated to the parks capital improvement area of investment in the amount of $12 million. And in terms of expenditures to date, we have spent a little less than $5 million. So with the available capital allocation, less that spending. You can see essentially the balance that we have at the end of this year still available. That is available but encumbered or allocated to projects as you'll see further on in the presentation here. This map captures projects through next fiscal year, 26-27, planned projects, the two court renovation projects coming to completion this summer and fall. I mentioned the garden at Kiwana will be finished, wrapped up later this summer, and we'll be rolling into the larger project across the street there, the Kiwana Springs Community Park, and three new projects that are currently in various stages of design. the rink and valley community park playground renovation mlk junior park that's a significant renovation of that wonderful neighborhood park and a smaller project to renovate the natural play area at bayer neighborhood park yeah it's just the numbers a little covered up there but oh nice

That's always there, though, huh?

That's okay. So this table looks at year eight of the measure and adds to the remaining balance the allocation of $1.5 million, which was included in the recently adopted budget for the city, leaving The leaving eight point seven million which have been allocated to this list of projects with the bottom set likely spanning into fiscal year twenty seven twenty eight in terms of completion. Here's a look at the projected allocations to Parks Capital projects in years 9 and 10. As I mentioned, projected just based on what we think will be coming in terms of revenue in those years and a variety of projects that are included here in the greater capital and part of the greater capital improvement plan that are in need of additional funding, including pending projects that are already mostly funded but will likely need some additional money to get done, and projects that are a bit further out that we also will be also allocating PDI funds to, but Measure M could potentially contribute to the funding mix of those projects. And so here's where the idea of extending the measure really comes into play and is important for us in these longer term projects that we want to share with you and the community that we're trying to, you know, strategize for getting done into the future.

The covered number is 3,151,000. For those who can't see it.

Thank you, Nathan. And then quickly here is a diagram showing that set of projects laid out on the quadrant map to give you an idea or a sense of how they're arrayed throughout the city. These are mostly all renovation projects of existing parks with the exception of a new community park, Roseland Creek Community Park, and a new neighborhood park, Lower Colgan Creek Park, both in the southwest area of town there. Moving on to parks maintenance. A big part of the story to date has been expanded year round and seasonal staffing levels and a robust schedule of ongoing community volunteer activities, such as the previously mentioned signature park a month program that is in its fourth successful year happening the second Saturday of the month from 9 to 12. This is a map of all the park sites. the program positively impacted in the past fiscal year, 25-26. And I know Keating mentioned the August meeting, but for those of you that are interested, next month or event, but next month, July 11th, it will be happening at Southwest Community Park. So a few pictures of this wonderful activity at four of the parks from the previous map. Again, very positive impact on the upkeep throughout the system and just a really wonderful community building event as well. Typically, the crew does a focused follow-up day where they send a lot of energy towards that park to really follow through on the objectives that were started by the community there. park so it's kind of a double whammy impact the actual amount allocated to the parks maintenance budget is 3.8 million in terms of expenditures to date you can see that number 1.6 million across this general list of efforts, general maintenance, staffing, weed abatement, volunteering, volunteer staffing and activities, and then spending on improvements or replacement projects, sometimes referred to as deferred maintenance type of projects. You can see the list of things that that we've spent on today in terms of the maintenance investments. including purchase of supplies and equipment, such as a compact sweeper. You can go to the next slide now, showing a few images of these. Again, a park a month trailer that supports those events. Dump grinder, compact path, and bikes lane sweeper, kind of a mini street sweeper that's really effective in helping the crews maintain pathways throughout the parks. And then a shot of West Steel Lane that was where the play area surfacing was replaced. This table looks at year eight and adds to the remaining balance the allocation of just over $1 million, leaving $3.3 million for parks maintenance expenditures going forward, which will again support some of the same annual efforts listed before and a variety of replacement and park improvement projects including Galvin Park Courts 1 through 6, the resurfacing of those. Those courts aren't in as bad shape as the rest of the courts, so they're only receiving sort of a surficial level of resurfacing rather than a complete rebuilding. Also, park signs, frontage improvements, pathway lighting, and site furnishing replacements. restroom updates, irrigation controller updates, and additional supplies and equipment as needed, also on the list. Again, looking at the projected world, projected years nine and 10, allocations to park maintenance, approximately 2.5 million, which will again support some of those ongoing efforts throughout the system moving forward. On the recreation side, Measure M funding has been key in spurring a variety of new programs and community events, as well as important recreation facility upgrades. This diagram highlights some of these investments that have been made to date. Unfortunately, there is a typo on this map that I must point out. before people get too excited. Steel Lane Recreation Center is not receiving new tennis and pickleball courts. Rather, it should actually read a new hub room flooring for the sort of gym-like space within that. So I suppose maybe someday they could sponsor a pickleball program in that room on the new floor. But I apologize for that typo on this particular slide. But you can see the highlights of some of the investments that have been made to date here. Pool heater replacement at Findlay Aquatic Center, a paratransit stop and lobby upgrades at Findlay Recreation Center, and upgrades to Camp Watom and Howarth Park, including our new archery station and water bottle filling station. And the planned or in progress improvements, like I mentioned, at Steel Lane, pool replastering at Ridgeway Aquatic Center, and also a contribution to the Galvin Park court projects in the way that they are providing new opportunities there for pickleball and enhanced tennis play at that facility. actual amount allocated to the parks um recreation budget here you can see is uh just under one million dollars um in terms of expenditures to date through the end of uh years one through seven again, this fiscal year, you can see the list of both programming and supplies and also projects that were in support of a variety of activities and programs there as well. Following a couple of shots here, Camp Watots has been a super successful program now in its third year and growing every year. Earth Day, St. Patrick's 5K, and a new holiday pajama party, all of which have been funded with Measure M monies. This coming fiscal year, measure funds will support ongoing programming and supplies, as well as a couple of projects that were mentioned previously. Going forward and projecting again into years 9 and 10, the measure will continue to support these programming and supply efforts and facility improvements such as the Ridgeway Pool replastering and potentially funding other projects such as renovating the sand volleyball courts here at Finley Community Park.

The number was 629.

OK, thank you. Again, projected. A few next steps. We would obviously like to hear your feedback, the board, and incorporate those into our strategy going forward. Measure M website website update that we're working on currently continuing to work on individual project and program work plans and providing updates at quarterly citizens oversight committee meetings, which we do a regular basis up at the county offices. So, with that. The next slide, please. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have as a board.

Thank you, Scott. We'll start with Paul.

Just a couple of quick questions.

Yeah.

i guess research or surveying like i'm thinking this is gonna go i know there's a lot of tax increases across the board is there a sense of where people are leaning on this one i would recommend not getting told that like the voting yes or no fair enough sorry that's a good call then is it for another 10-year term and if i hear you right this is in perpetuity until repeal

Correct. That is language on the measure right now that it's going to be until repealed by voters, I believe.

Okay.

That's how it's stated.

And just a note on the discussion of the measure. I think you can have a neutral conversation, but I would not speak positively or negatively about the measure or expressing, you know, you should all go vote for it. You should not all go for it. Things like that should be avoided.

Fair enough. Noted. No campaigning. No campaigning, yeah. Exactly. We'll go to the next.

So at this point, I would like to say, aren't we all glad that Hannah is joining us at all of our meetings? I certainly appreciate having you here, Hannah.

He did? I think you said, yes, I think you said the allocation was 50% capital improvements, 40% maintenance. For the first seven years, capital allocation got $12 million, but park maintenance only got, let's call it $4 million.

Yes.

And maintenance should be 80% of capital. So how does that work?

Right. Very observant.

I'm a tax accountant.

Oh, good. Scary. The answer to that question is that I mentioned that that split was approved in 2021, which it actually went into effect the fiscal year 22, 23, year four. So before that, it was all going towards grouped into that first category, capital, if that makes sense.

Okay.

So the other two, maintenance and recreation, really started in year four in terms of getting their own dedicated allocation.

Yeah. Year four going forward.

Right.

Okay. That makes sense.

If I may interject, as I recall, we were trying to recover from Tubbs fire damage to our parks, and we were putting most of our measuring money into that.

The first short list of initial things that Council directed funds for did include response to the fire as well, yeah.

Were you here for the fire? It was that, but also the parks condition assessment and also all the Measure M outreach we did to try and find out how the public wanted to spend Santa Rosa's Measure M dollars. So, yeah.

Were you here during that Tubbs fire?

I came in 2020.

So it was everything from irrigation lines melted. It was the parks got hit. pretty hard and Finley Center got hit pretty hard because it was, as Jack knows, it's where all of the dislocated people came. So there was some bailing out to do. We'll go to Madonna.

Unfortunate about the pickle walls and the still laying.

Probably going to get a bunch of calls on that now.

Yeah. But I loved all the pictures, even of the construction. And I think my favorite probably would be, since I'm a fan of hot cocoa marshmallows and Christmas movies, would be the Christmas pajama party.

Thank you. Thank you for always coming and presenting.

Carolina? Yeah, thank you very much. This is always horrifying, but we need to read it and absorb it. Thank you for bringing it in.

Jack?

Yeah, thank you for a very clear presentation. However, for my part, I think I need more study, more investigation. So I'd like to know what the website address is if you...

It is on one of the slides, one of the earlier slides. Yeah. But like I said, it's on the third one. It does have quite a bit of information. It also has a link to the county website that has additional information more broadly that probably will have some information to Vice Chair Castillo's question and point about that in terms of polling and things like that. Is that okay?

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, but like I said, one of our tasks here is to provide some updated information on our site as well, but it is up and it does have some information for you.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for a good report. Thanks.

Pam? Hi, thank you for the presentation. I was wondering when we're looking at... the parks maintenance allocation. If in that category under general maintenance staffing, is that, I feel like I can take a guess, but is that to maintain current maintenance staffing or does it include future hires or other positions available? Can you use measuring for that?

Yeah, for additional staffing, yeah, than we had previously, yeah, and enhanced levels of service.

Yeah, so for the allocation, it is inclusive of, fingers crossed, maybe additional...

Yeah, there was an additional, in particular, there's an additional limited term supervisor position that is going to be added as well here in the budget. So, yeah, trying to increase the staffing and capacity that our crews have to take care of the parks.

Yeah, and that, so the allocation, well, I'm kind of going back and forth a little bit, but... it is mostly for maybe some of that maintenance thing versus maybe like programmatic or recreational stuff. Like, is there other, what I'm trying to get at is like other additional staffing. I just know that, you know, it'd be probably a huge benefit to Parks and Rec to, just have additional staffing, and is that part of the future allocations of measures?

Yeah, I mean, for the recreation side, staffing is certainly a part of that, too, in support of the programs, like that Camp Watots program or some of the other TOT programming that is going on takes staff resources, so that's included in some of the spending.

But is it, like, to maintain current staff or for additional staff?

That's a new program that was developed with Measure M funds, for instance. So it's expanding the offerings is what we're able to do with the new funds.

But that's for that particular program, right? Like in general, like recreation programming is the allocation for just to maintain like you know, current programming or rec staff, or is it inclusive of like potential, like hiring of additional staff?

It's focused on additional staffing more than anything else. Again.

Yeah. So we use it to hire additional temp staff. Okay.

Relying on our existing permanent staff.

Okay. That's awesome.

Right. So it has to be something new.

basically you can't remove something from your current budget so this has a budget put forward for X amount of positions I can't say oh I'm going to get I'm guaranteed to get some measure on money I'm going to actually take away and just use that measure for that it has to be

new and sparkly that's what i was curious about that's what i wanted so thank you and that that's actually one of the things i mentioned the citizens oversight committee that we have to report on to them every year is our baseline of of uh maintenance of effort that we have every year so that we we can they can see that we're using it for new uh yeah yeah and i know we're talking about staffing but i'm guessing that also includes them for like the capital improvements

It's a common grant term, so if we get money from the federal government or state government, it's a common piece of that. I'm not an accountant, but I would assume we see it quite frequently.

Do you know that two of our staff members are funded through Measurehead? I love that. So we have increased staffing.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. But my other question, which I feel like Scott kind of answered, but it's close to dinner time for me and I'm like, I apologize if you're repeating yourself, Scott, but yeah, for the projections that you were talking about for the maintenance costs of the renovations and other capital improvements is, oh wait, hold on. Oh, I'm wondering if the projections are made with the basically cost of maintaining some of the new improvements? Or maybe when you were already looking at the renovations that were made, maybe you already had had that in mind. Sorry, I'm realizing I can't read my own handwriting. Basically what I'm getting at is in doing the projections for future costs and like the allocations, when you're thinking about the capital improvements, you're also, that's what that maintenance piece of the pie is talking about is like maybe like maintenance of those future improvements or also current maintenance that is needed?

Well, I think part of your question has to do with sort of how that projected allocation for future years, the revenue that we haven't received yet, how is that determined? A little bit, yeah.

When we build a new project, are we also thinking about the additional costs to operate and maintain.

Yeah, and if that's part of the parks maintenance allocation, basically, that we're talking about.

That allocation is going to increase as we have parks come online, basically, or if that's the percent amount and it is inclusive of what we're anticipating. Is that right? I don't have the answer for that. Okay.

And maybe that's into the weeds and I'm more asking not to be, you know, a tester, but more like out of curiosity and being a nerd.

Yeah. I don't know that I totally have the answer for you on that one, but yeah, maybe that I'm not completely understanding the question either. Okay.

But isn't this sort of the same question with any like new amenity that we add, or we also thinking about, are we increasing our budget to be able to maintain it? And generally not just for Santa Rosa, but for a lot of agencies, that's awesome. Not included.

Yeah.

I mean, we're going to have the same amount of number of maintenance staff to continue to take care of, like when we add a hard acreage, you know, add maintenance staff to take care of that. But that was like generally, and that's common throughout the school.

Yet, you know, this funding source does allow us to increase staffing, maintenance staffing above current levels. So the hope is that, yes, as we add, you know, facilities or even improve an improved facility requires oftentimes a higher level of maintenance than previous, you know, to maintain it at that newer level for longer. So, yeah, I mean. It's definitely something that we think about and this measure helps with that for sure. I mean, at a basic level.

I have a question. Of course. I don't think it's probably on the website, but from year to year, the Is the revenue of Measure M going up every year? Has it been consistently? Or are there population declines that have caused sales tax declines? it has been pretty, what does that graph look like from year to year?

It has been pretty consistent really, um, over, over, over the first seven years.

It has been. Yeah.

Yeah. It has, it really has been. And, um, and, and the average, the average has been to, to, to the city of Santa Rosa has been right about $3 million per year, give or take. So, um, But it has been pretty consistent in that range.

So, Scott, you know I stay up at night thinking of questions to ask you. First, correct me if I'm wrong, but since I was on this board when Measure M came forward, what we were told, again, correct me if I'm wrong, You have your base level staffing when it went into effect. And we'll use park maintenance. Let's say they had 17 pre-existing park maintenance numbers. We could not pay number 15, 16, and 17 with Measure M money. But we could pay numbers 18, 19, and 20. And we cannot dip below those benchmark figures. I think it was from 2019. We'll just say it was in 2019. And because things have gotten more expensive, it would be hard for us to dip below that because things have gotten exponentially. But that is the safeguard. That is the trigger that is probably looked at regularly in your quarterly meetings where there's representatives saying, Of both the county and every city's. Parks department at these meetings. When you go over stuff much more in depth than we do. And then an annual report is issued.

Yes.

Yeah. And that's available on the county. Measure M site. And you can see what Katadi did with their money or what, I don't think Kenwood's listed, but that's another story. So in watching city council a couple of weeks ago during the budget hearings, Dan Hennessy of Transportation and Public Works was looking for money and he suggested there might be a potential shift in the allocations. Do you have any information on that?

First of all, you are correct in what you said initially. And I believe benchmark is the – you said the word benchmark, and that's appropriate. In terms of the shifting of allocations, yes, one of the beauties of this as a source of funding is – and I think I mentioned it earlier – that it is discretionary in nature so that we are able to – move it to projects or programs and maintenance activities as needed, which is great. So have we moved money from where we anticipated using it to another use? Yes. Can I go through all of those shifts for you right now? No.

And that's a staff level decision. It's not something that comes before the board, this board for approval, or even before city council. It's a staff.

Yes, it often is, except it is approved as a part of the budget often and was last year when those significant shifts are made. Yeah.

Are you talking about the 50-40-10 allocation? Yes.

Oh, no, that's not changed. I mean, that's just a solid framework.

I thought I heard Dan Hennessey say that that might need to be adjusted given the current fiscal situation. I could have misheard, but if you would look into that and get back to us, perhaps. at another meeting if that happens? Sure.

But I will say to that point, I'm sorry, I sort of misunderstood the question a little bit. And I also mentioned this in the presentation, you know, within maintenance and recreation, there are project type of efforts that we have deemed worthy and within those categories. So there is, again, some flexibility on that level to use the funds for things that are beyond strictly a program, say, in the recreation category.

Yeah, the overlap. Having served on this board for a number of years, I know that we stockpiled Measure M money, the city of Santa Rosa, for a number of years. And staff has been making a tremendous effort in getting it out there and actively working for us in projects. So the amount of projects that have... come online in the last several years has definitely increased. So the numbers that we look at are more of a cumulative expenditure rather than a yearly expenditure. Is that Fair to say that we've been burning through the money pretty good lately, huh?

Yeah. Yeah. And that's particularly true of capital projects, right? Because they often span more than one year versus like a maintenance budget is really could be looked at more on an annual basis. So, yeah, you know, it's a rolling, more of a rolling kind of a story that we're doing on the capital side.

So that leads me to my next question, which is not fair, but you can make something up. What percentage of either staff, like park maintenance or capital improvements, pick a park update, what part of the funding is actually Measure M funds? And I know it depends, but if you could give us an example.

The rankings.

Yeah, I mean, it really does depend, you know, on the capital side. You know, for instance, the court projects are majority Measure M funds. Sorry, the court? The court renovation projects, the two that we have going right now, are majority Measure M funded because we just didn't have another source of funding ready to go for those. And they were projects that needed to happen. So that worked out. But in other cases, it might be a much smaller percentage just to close the gap on a project, to complete a smaller project, or even a small amount of money on a larger project. In terms of maintenance and recreation, I don't have that percentage kind of right in front of me in terms of the budgets. you know, numbers, but I can certainly get that to you.

It would be good to know. It would be just because even though you have great graphs and great slides, there's a lot of stuff that I don't understand. And I'm sure when you go to your quarterly county meetings, this is the kind of question they ask. And we want to hold you accountable because we want Measure M to continue on indefinitely.

You know, I think that's a great bit of input there. And to the extent that we could portray that, I think would help educate the public.

Also, I love seeing the Measure M signs up. There's one at South Davis. There's one on the side of the Street Sweeper. This is what we are doing with the money right now for the good of Santa Rosa.

Absolutely.

And I think only two more questions. My pages don't have numbers. I apologize when I reference to measure and recreation allocations. It says at the top 974-689. And then it says expenditures 226 with a balance anticipated of 748 in June 2026 I I thought I heard you say that all of the money was spent that was allocated for recreation did I mishear you um I don't know that I said that and it depends I'm sorry my glasses just broke um But the goal is to have money. Is the goal to spend everything we've got so that we just have that million with the next year? Or is the goal to have a reserve on both the recreation side and the park side?

I wouldn't say there's a goal to have a reserve. I mean, you know, we we have been and are still to some degree sort of, you know, catching up a little bit with the amount that we've received in the first seven years. But I think in all of these different three three areas of investment, we we we we catch up or spend all the money by year eight is the idea. Whether that, you know, happens for sure, you know, or it rolls slightly like in the case of the capital projects into the following year, year nine. That may be the case, but that's what we're showing right now is the goal is to get to the point by year nine and 10 that we're only allocating the existing revenue or that current year's revenue coming in.

So the reality is we're kind of making hay now with our money. And once we've spent Our bank, it'll slow down. We won't have as much. We will have that million and change a year rather than the two or three million that we've been allocating to get rid of the reserve. Is that is that fair?

I think that's fair.

And then it would be probably talk about.

Yeah, and then it becomes an exercise that's more kind of a regular part of the budget, and it's based on that year's projection and less so on sort of a rolling balance that we have to work with, I guess.

Well, it's both very exciting and it is also a reality check. Measure M.

Anything else from the board? I had one last silly question. What is a Parkamon tool trailer?

There was a tool trailer. Lorenzo, you want to take that one?

I'm sorry if I'm speaking out of turn here, but Parkamon, you should really see it in action. Go to one of our parks. It's loaded with tools, paintbrushes, loppers, rakes, and that's where the volunteers go in to... to get the tools that they prefer and they get to work.

Garbage bags, gloves.

It's in the trailer.

It's a huge, full-on trailer. lorenzo is selling himself short lorenzo is one of the supervisors for park maintenance he's also the volunteer lead for park maintenance when you show up at nine o'clock there is someone smiling in a green t-shirt who will say hey what do you want to do today having a good time do you want to do you want to it's kind of like preschool for grown-ups It's also where students can get their community service hours. You will have park maintenance workers working side by side with you. There's laughter. There's never blood, right? I hope not. And it is a joyous, it's like a rolling party. And this shed on wheels that Measure M funded What's in there, Lorenzo?

You name it, it's in the trailer. And on top of everything, there's a snow cone machine.

That's what I've been hearing about.

Oh, and also the boom box. There's music. You've got to have music and part of that.

It's an activity for the community, and we're happy to provide it through major events.

Thank you. With that, I will open it up to public comments. Do we have anyone from the public who wants to speak on this item? Seeing none.

I'm not sure about this, but I think the income every year has been around $2 million for Santa Rosa. We get more than anybody else does because they're the bigger city. And you're right about the marble in the funnel held up money for a while and the marble got released and now we have this gusher of activity. Thank you very much for all the things and it is gonna slow down a little bit. You asked the question before about declining population. Will that change the income funding? I would say the bigger problem, and that's not just with Measure M, but it's with everything in the city, It's Amazon. Every time you buy something online, the city loses money. And so the more you can buy locally, the more all of this stuff is going to get funded. That's my soapbox for today.

Thank you. Thank you, Thea. Bringing it back to the board one last time for additional comments or questions. Seeing none, we'll move on to item eight, future agenda items. Any items to bring before this board?

I think a potential update on measure of post-election would be what happens. And then maybe, I understand that a lot of the funding initially went to surveying and things of that nature. And now that all that's taken care of, maybe a projection what they believe the next 10 years will look like or whatever it may be, but some sort of update if possible. far after November, I assume. So a very future agenda item, but I think it'd be valuable info going forward.

Anyone else? So my, it's not an agenda item, but to keep our next meeting would be in August to keep the board apprised before the next meeting of potential staffing for this board. This is kind of the boo-hoo part of the program. We depended on you, Emily, and I'm sure whoever steps in to fill your receipts along with Kim and Hannah's and everyone else's help will do a good job. But I, for one, would love to know ahead of time. And I don't know if it's appropriate for other board members to, this isn't a future agenda item, but it is also our future to weigh in on that. Would that be appropriate?

Weigh in on a staff assignment or just be aware of who is ultimately assigned?

You tell me.

I think it is probably not appropriate on the weighing in on who will be assigned. I think, of course, and you know, I'm sure someone will be, I don't know the process of it, but obviously you will, of course, be informed of who will be assigned. And I just don't have a timeline for that. I'm not a manager. But yeah, I don't think a weigh in on who is assigned is appropriate.

And that is being worked on and

Great. I don't think we need to bring this back before the public. So if there's no other future agenda items, I would like to conclude this meeting and call adjournment at 535. Consider it done.

Look how I...