Arts and Culture Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Today is Thursday, September 3, 2026. This is a regular meeting of the Cupertino Parks and Recreation Commission. This is a hybrid meeting and will be recorded. For the members of the public wishing to address the Parks and Recreation Commission on Zoom, the Zoom application will notify you that this meeting is being recorded. Please press continue on the Zoom application. Stay in the meeting. Use the raise hand feature when you would like to speak on an item and to also lower your hand when you finish speaking. Please unmute when called to speak and mute yourself when you are done speaking. If you're calling in by phone, please identify yourself by name before speaking on an item. Press star nine on your phone to raise and lower your hand. Press star six if you are participating by phone to unmute. And as you know, the speakers are limited to three minutes. Okay culture so welcome to the September 3rd, 2020 school but in a box and the creation commission meeting. No, and I call the meeting to order at 7, 0, 2. I don't call staff can you please connect that all call mission about him present and it here.

Yes, that's true again. Yes, yes,

Thank you, sir. Let's moving on to the first time out of the business. Approval of the minutes. Item one subject is the 6th, August 6th, 2026 Park and Recreation Commission meeting minutes. And the recommendation for us is to review and approve that. And you have all the draft minutes attached. Are there any classic clarification questions or comments on that? Okay. If none, I think... Looks like we need to ask for a public comment on this item as well. So do we have anybody on the phone or speaker cards? I don't see anybody here for speaker cards, but anybody on the phone?

We do have one speaker, Nori.

But is it for any public comment on this minutes?

Yes, she's raising her hand for this item.

Okay.

I don't know. Oh, Laurie just put her hand.

Oh, I see. Okay. So there are no speakers. I think I'll close the public comment now and invite a motion.

I'm actually going to do a motion to approve the minutes, which I reviewed, and I was so proud to see that it was ended with 829.

Oh, we have to use the buttons? But I think then I'll go for the person who pressed the button first. Oh, I didn't know. I'm so sorry. No, it's okay. Commissioner Stanley.

I move that we approve the minutes. Okay.

So I think Commissioner Stanek, thank you for the motion and then seconded by Commissioner Bono. And for vote, staff please.

Commissioner Bono?

Yes.

Commissioner Stanek? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

The motion carries unanimously.

Thank you for sharing it. Let's move on to the next item. Any postponements? No.

Excellent.

Okay, now comes the oral communication. We'll now move on to it. And this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the Commission on any matter within the jurisdiction of the Commission but not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes. In most cases, state law will prohibit the Commission from making any decisions with respect to a matter not on the agenda. The Commission or staff may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed. The Commission may request staff to report back at a subsequent meeting. As a reminder, comments can also be emailed to parkandrecreationcommissioner.cupertino.gov. If any member of the public would like to make any comments here, I think they will have to fill out a card or raise your hand on Zoom.

Staff, right now, do we have people on Zoom?

Yes.

Great to handle it. Okay.

We have on Zoom. Our first speaker is Nori, followed by James Zane. Welcome, Nori.

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you for this opportunity. First, 10 new trees were planted in Memorial Park parking lot a couple years ago, but all those trees were removed last December when solar panel construction started. said that those trees will be replanted along the walkway in the park. It has not happened. What happened to those healthy new trees? And second, I spoke this subject in park and recreation and bicycle pedestrian commission and council meeting a year ago, but nothing improved. Bicycle is considered a vehicle as it is a machine used to transport people and subject to the same traffic as motor vehicle. For the reason riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is prohibited. because unsafe for both cyclists and pedestrians. City Memorial Park specific plan said since the park does not feature any designated bicycle trails, bicycle riding in the park is discouraged due to the potential conflict with pedestrians. However, city has not done anything. People are injured by bicycle in Memorial Park. I know people who were injured by bicycle. An elderly woman was taken to hospital. I was almost hit by bicycle a few times. There are many family with small children, seniors, senior who use walker and cane, people with baby stroller, people with a dog, people are using AirPods and people using cell phone in the park. Those people cannot move quickly when the bicycle come so fast, especially bicycle come from back. And e-bike, e-scooter, e-moto ride so fast. We do not have enough time to move. Park is no longer a safe place for the people and the children who are walking, jogging, and playing. Cyclists and pedestrians cannot share another walkway in the park, and the city built the bike lane just like a street protects pedestrians. Otherwise, it might cause more injuries. Bicycle, especially e-bike, e-scooter, e-moto should be banned from park and place the warning sign at various location in the park. Those people said to me that there are no signs, so they can ride any place in the park. even around the playground. There are many cycling trails in the park for cyclists to ride. Thanks for listening.

Thank you, Nori, for your comments. Appreciate it.

Okay, our next speaker is James Zeng. Welcome, James.

Hello, can you hear me?

Hi, yes, we can hear you.

Yeah, I just joined and I want to use this opportunity to report an injury incident happened to my seven-year-old daughter in Jordan Park last Saturday. It's a terrible fracture of her right leg. She just got the playground and joined the merry-go-round sphere with other, I believe, seven or eight kids together. The sphere is spinning, and suddenly there is a parent or an adult man joined accelerate the miracle non sphere to a extreme high speed and my daughter was thrown off and got the terrible fractures. My concern is I remembered this equipment is hard to accelerate to such terrible speed before, but recently, why it can accelerate so fast? It's quite dangerous for kids. I want to know, do we need some maintenance or change to this equipment recently, this year? Does this issue exist to other similar park in Cupertino? I think we should do something to limit the speed of such spinning equipment. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, James, for your comments. And for others in general, the open meeting last proven the commission from discussing or taking action on items that are not on tonight's agenda. But at the same time, the city council is aware of this. At Jollyman Park, the minutes and audio recording from this meeting will be publicly available and will provide a record of James, your comments. And thank you again for coming here, taking time to address the commission this evening. Really appreciate James. Thank you.

We have no remaining speakers here.

Okay, thank you. So then we will move on to, since nobody is there, so I think we'll close the oral communication. And old business, I don't see any old business in it. So let's move on to the new business. And item number two, subject is PARC amenity improvements project update. The recommended action is that we will receive an update on the CAP, Capital Improvement Programs, and the park community improvements project staff. I think you will give some introduction to start with it. Yeah, please.

I think all of you very much have heard multiple presentations from Susan Michael over the years. And you had requested as part of our work plan to incorporate an update on the park amenities and the different projects that have been completed as well as those that are pending. And so Susan's here tonight to provide the commission with it. Thank you, Susan.

Thank you. I am Susan Michael. I'm the CIP manager. And thank you commissioners for having me. And we're going to try to give an update on the park amenities project. First of all, give a little background and we'll summarize the work that's been done to date. And we'll talk about what the next steps. So a little background. Were you the only commissioner on the commission in 2021? I wasn't. Well, I was a little bit, I think. I wasn't in the midst of the weight of it, but there was at least four meetings, commission meetings, to go through and develop a list of recommendations, priorities for putting amenities in the park. Things like trash cans, benches, ping-pong table, sand tables. We went through many, many different iterations. We went through every site and came up with recommendations based on input from the community and Parks and Rec, Public Works, and all the things. Came up with some great recommendations for where to implement all of this. what the amenities were prioritized and where they were prioritized. So you'll see those in attachments A and B, those were the outcome documents from 2021. And it's worth noting that the implementation has to consider budget, site constraints, maintenance, product availability, potable water and CIP coordination. So from 2021 to 2023, We had 19 hydration stations installed at various parts, one bench or a picnic table, and it relates to the summary table that was developed by you. Striping was put in for one of the Pickleball Courts Memorial. We put in two outdoor table tennises and one large barbecue table. This was documented when I came to this commission in 2023. And I came with attachment C, which is a 70-page document that not only has the table and the summary of what was done, but also a part-by-part survey showing, as best I could graphically, where those things are. So since 2023, we've installed six more hydration stations at Drinking Mountains. We've got 73 benches and tables we've put in. Striping for one more set of pickleball courts at Memorial. Three more large barbecues have been installed. Five bike racks and a number of trash and recycling trios. And that is going to be documented in an attachment sheet. And it's also here. But it's just a lot of detail to go through. So the gold... Things show the things that have been updated since 2023, and then the yellow at the bottom is also updated. And the black numbers, I didn't, I was trying to see what I could cut on one page, so I don't have, the black numbers are the ones, those three columns that you see, or ones from the original recommendations. And then I had the installed columns after, but I took out a lot of the black ones just because I had to put it on the page. One thing that is at the end is the dog bag dispensers. And DOLA amenities was a separate city work program on them. So I didn't go into the detail of that. But there were amenities installed. I don't have the details, but I know that everywhere you go, you see a dog bag dispenser. So that's been successful. I wanted to show a few pictures. As you know, we did the playground at Jellyman. I think there's like nine picnic tables and nine benches there in just the playground. And so I think there was a total of 27 for the park that were updated. So we did a lot of amenities at Jollyman. Creekside, this is a picture of the barbecue that was installed at Creekside. Similarly below that at Portal, that is the barbecues in the center of all those green tables. And at Linda Vista, we did install two benches at the Dola. And that is just a smattering of the benches and tables that were installed everywhere. I also have on the left a little picture of what we call a trio, which is the three-part trash recycling organics trash assembly that we use throughout the state. So the funding status, we did, We were, it was a five-year program and over the five years we had $300,000 or $600,000. We still have $351,000 and I will say that a majority of amenities installed over the last three years were paid for by other sources. So that's why we have the $350,000 left. We are recommending to use that money. I feel like in summary, I don't know if you've been able to look at the chart, but in a good majority of the intentions of the original Commission recommendations have been met we've greatly increased amenities in the parks and so we are in the need I think is that we install some stage structures if we can at Blackberry farm there's two our recommendations are to try to put a shade structures at Blackberry farm picnic area and Linda Vista picnic area they're both areas that generate revenue in their popular areas and having shade would be really good. We're in the process of trying to get the cost for that right now. I don't, I would say just off the top of my head, maybe $120,000 each. But like I say, we're still trying to figure it out. One of these pictures, so the Blackberry Farm picnic area at the bottom left is the existing fabric structure. We're thinking that we can do something like that because it's the least expensive and very effective and easiest to maintain, that we can do more like that and basically get the most bang for our buck. The areas, the two photos on the right, Blackberry Farm steelhead and Blackberry Farm bull owl. The star is on two trees. photos from the website actually. Those trees have been removed. One was diseased and one fell down. So it was a major impact to the shade in that area and that's why we were thinking that it would be good to put shade back in that area. And then Linda Vista is the picture where the barbecue is on the left and that area is, it gets a lot of sun. And it's well used, so we'd like to put some shape structure up there somehow. So that is my presentation. I'm open for questions.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Yeah, no, I'm coming there. So, yeah, let's go for any clarifications question for now, then we'll go to public comment, and then we'll come back for discussion. So, clarification, your light is always on, so I'm not sure where you have it. Oh, I said, okay, I just looked at it. Please, please go ahead. No, I saw this and I said, okay, there's something beaming. Please go ahead.

This clarification question, does it include the cost differential between a fabric shading versus a permanent shading, or does that go into the other part of the questions? It's a clarification question. I'm sorry.

You can ask. I think you're just asking that that's a clarification.

What is the cost difference between the fabric shades versus a more permanent shade? And what is the timeline for the fabric shade to stand versus a more permanent structure?

I don't have that information. We have gotten prices on one set of prefabbed units that aren't fabric structured structures and those were It might be less expensive, but they also were a little, we weren't as impressed. There are some beautiful prefab ones, gorgeous, but the cost is going to go up. But we haven't had the time to really look into this. So we went, we're trying to get pricing and delivery and all that stuff from the fabric people because we know the price they offer. We know the type of product they offer. And we just replaced those fabrics. fabric of a blackberry farm i want to say it was 20 16 20 years but that lasted yeah the maintenance crew says those are the easiest to maintain because when you have a um a solid structure it just accumulates stuff um so they they're a fan of the fabric which i was surprised but it depends on the speed the structure So we just, we're trying to reach out to, we'll have to reach out to multiple sources.

See, that would be the center for us.

One, the one part of this that is part of the cost is the engineering. Exactly. So we got a rough cost of $50,000 for this. I don't know. So like I said, we're just at our beginning stages. Yeah. We have a lot more investigation to do, but this was the direction that we're...

Absolutely. If you can find it, that'll be helpful. Sure, for you. You win for us. Oh, yeah. Thank you. The second one, that can wait, but I'll let the other information ask questions.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I have a question about the shade as well. When you put the fabric over the barbecue, is it heat resistant, the heat that goes from? It has to be. I personally don't want to put the shade over.

You don't want to put it directly over the barbecue. Okay. Taste that to the barbecue. Got it. Like at Portal, or sorry, Linda Vista, I think, and I was working with Kevin, who's our ground supervisor, and he knows the patterns. I think he would like to put it over the serving tables. We haven't talked to Parks and Rec about all that. More questions than answers, but yeah. Okay, that makes sense.

Thank you. Quick question. You mentioned earlier, obviously, that the maintenance crew takes care of them in maintenance, and you said costs were $50,000, blah, blah, blah, in the engineering side, but to bear the cost of the cleaning crew, is that a different budget, or how is it attributed? Does it mean that the money is only for structural basis, that does not include the maintenance of it, or the replacement of it? I'm just trying to understand.

So typically the CIT project would pay for the engineering and the procurement of the materials, the installation, And then the grounds crew would maintain it. They maintain all of our parks and our fields. Sometimes we have contracts for that. Like meeting after events, I don't know how that is. That's not CIP. This fund does not cover those things. Perfect.

Just wanted to clarify that.

And the maintenance is also not covered by the CIP.

And I just wanted to confirm, indeed, barbecue or way ahead of separated from the city area.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not exactly seating area. I think I'm stuck with the selling tables.

That's where they said. So that's where it's located.

That's just one idea. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Any more clarification?

Oh,

So of our original list, are you saying we've done everything on it and so there's nothing else to do from the list?

I wouldn't say that.

For example, 80% of it.

We've installed the table tennis tables being on tables. I think there might be one more on the list. They're not being used.

Oh.

So there's other maybe I can't believe that we don't have hydration stations left, but even in 2023, we said at that point, if there hasn't been a hydration station installed, it's because it's cost prohibitive to get the water to that location. So there might be a million, but in general, I think the project was set up in order to address a gap. And actually what's happened, the funding, like a lot of times the grounds, covers the gas so if they notice that the park needs to replace the picnic tables, they replace the picnic tables. Sometimes it's about setting up the amenities. In that case, we've made significant progress. And so that in that sense, the project has met its original objectives. I'm not saying that we've put everything off the list. You'd have to go through and Look at the specifics.

But you're saying it's essentially complete for what you see the needs are now? Yes.

Thank you. Commissioner Buono. A clarification. We're talking about the budget and we have over $341,000. If most of what we hear and saying that whatever we're set to do has been met, will it go back to the general fund?

If we decide that the $351,000. It can go back to the general funds. There has been times we've defunded projects. Council has made this decision, recommended it, multiple things. The project funding is still there and can be spent on amenities. And the shade structures was on the original list as an amenity. I don't think we had... When we looked at the... tables, the original tables about where things should go. There was CIP under shade structures, like it was meant to be a CIP project, which is for me confusing because everything's a project. But in any case, we see a need. It seems to fit the objectives of the project. We think we should, we'd recommend moving forward with that. And it wouldn't hurt to have park and rec commissions buy in on that, if you will.

Thank you.

I have one other clarifying question. Thank you. There was actually, maybe it is my confusion. There was somewhere in one slide, I saw that one bench installed, but then there was another slide that said 73 benches installed since 2023. What did I miss? Read or, what did I miss?

One bench was installed? So, oh, between when the report was originally done in 2021, And when I came back to give a report on 2023 about the progress of the amenities, only one bench had been installed. And now 73 have been. And it's a combination of benches and picnic tables.

That's fine. That's good. Thank you. One other thing I noticed was in Jolingman Park, the bench structures, they look more appealing than the one that you showed in Creekside Park. The other thing is in Creekside Park, the distance between the bench and the table is very far. It's not comfortable. It is more ergonomically accurate and better in Jollyman Park.

I asked Kevin about this briefly. For example, when we were doing Jollyman, we went with an aesthetic for that park and it happened. We obviously tried to work with our current status and those benches and tables are of a similar the same manufacturer that we use it the way I was told was that on the east side of town there was a certain like standard and then it turned out there was like another standard and on the west right and it's just that's it's not wasn't intentional just that park has it and so for example with Creekside yeah if we need a new table we get there rather than having three tables that are different yeah

But they're not economically right. So maybe a correction is needed, or at least some discussion among the staff, because it's so comfortable and so nice. There are economic principles between the distance between the seating and the table, and because they're permanent, you can't just move it either.

Yeah, no, it's annoying in the middle.

Yeah, exactly. So is there something you can focus on and think about for the future, the long term? It comes down to what money we have. I know, I'm talking about which ones in the future.

I personally would like to move forward with the wood slat thing. It's Ipe wood. Apparently it doesn't require a lot of maintenance. It's great. for example, at Lawrence Middy, we're going to be using, we're going to be putting in concrete tables because that's the most durable and easiest.

And I have no problems with that.

It's going to have that kind of.

No, that's not my point at all. My point is really, please, you all think together to come up with standards for the distance between that, because that is a huge science in and of itself. And that's important for us to have standardization.

Thank you. Thank you. Any planification? No. Again, and the last one. You mentioned that you mentioned earlier that if the person buying into returning the money that we should do that, how so what does that mean? Like, are we supposed to put a motion to that or something or? Did I hear you well?

No, no, I wasn't talking about giving money back. Okay, because I said the way I understood it.

Okay, hey, that's why it's a clarification question.

Okay, no clarification question. I do have a couple. So, number one, we did this I do remember last time in my term, we did the assessment of all the park amenities by the staff. We, the commissioners, went and checked it too. I do remember everyone. And then we collected some public. I know it's a long time, but since it's completed, Do we have a plan to do? Because I know that a lot of things are going on, but I'm sure that some other areas may be deteriorating or people may need more. Do we have another assessment or you do periodic assessment of what are the new amenities needed in every park? Do we have a list? I know that's a list we prepared. I do remember that spreadsheet. At that time, it used to come in my dreams every time. My question was, are we planning to do a revisit of that assessment by the staff, by commission? Because it was a very useful study. Commissioners went in every part to check it out and come back. check the notes, and then we collected feedback from people when we walked around. So are we planning to do one more round? Because there is a fund that sits there that I wanted to see can do nearly. So that's the basis behind that question.

There's no plan. There's a couple of things, though. We do have a personal record system master plan, which has a good amount of information in there as well. And... Everybody is welcome to give us feedback. I think that what you're suggesting might be a more intentional feedback loop, if you will. Let's look at the park, people that use the park, and what are the users' wishes and desires, also keeping in mind that our budgets are limited. There is a number of initiatives out there. The big one is Memorial Park. For example, we have a vision for that. And, of course, we don't have to do it as it's planned. We have a guide, and it will also make a change as time goes on. But that would be a big part of it. And if you go to other parts, what was I thinking of? Oh, so it also, the grounds people, for example, I know John and the people that, use that park on a regular basis. Our friends with the grounds team that manage to maintain it, they're very fond of each other. The grounds people that are out there every day know what's needed and they are definitely communicating with all of us about what they need. And so they've made various suggestions like the shape structures, The other thing that comes to mind from the past is the paths need to be, some of the paths need to be improved. If we had money, we might add a path around up at Hoover. There's no path, and it kind of screams for it. It's just a matter of fitting that in with the more important, like, keeping things maintained well. So, and other initiatives that are in play, like, and we just want property that's going to become a part two. So there's a lot going on, but that assessment is not planned.

Okay. So maybe I'll reserve that one for the comment section because I have some ideas. So I just want to check, is there any initiated, but it looks like it's not yet started. So, okay. I don't know what's coming in. Perfect. So the second question I have is, um, So one of the main reasons you mentioned that we have 351k available is because a lot of things are paid by other sources like sponsors or, because I haven't, maybe I need to put a disclaimer, I haven't did the complete report on where the sources are, if it is already mentioned in the report. What sources funded many of the other projects where we had this 351k sitting there still? Just want to know.

Any key...

In fact, it wasn't sponsored funds or from any other funds.

It wasn't sponsored funds. It was mostly grounds. And we had a transition from Brian Gabbos, who was a supervisor, to Kevin Green. Kevin didn't know that he could use the park amenities fund. So he's been taking care of these funds. So it's just a matter of which five. And it's not inappropriate. I think it's beneficial. And that's part of why, like, the money for the shade structures would still be appropriate because he spent the money. Yeah, you get it. Got it. Yeah. It's all good.

Fantastic. Okay. Yeah, that's at this point for my questions on clarification questions. So if there's no clarification questions, I think we need to see for the public comments on this item before we move on to comments. Steph, do we have anyone on the, not anyone in the room, but on the Zoom?

We have no speakers shared.

If that is the case, I'll close the public comments now, and then I'll open it up for the comments or discussions to the commissioners. So if you can, Commissioner Suami, please.

Commissioner Bono and I have been talking about this in the past, about benches and other people donating. How many donations have we really had, 73 benches, and how they were distributed across the multiple... parks that we have. And are there any parks that did not get benches? Or did all the parks get equal number? What was the reasoning behind distributing the number of benches per park?

Different reasons for all of them. I don't know of any donations for you. No. It wasn't donations. So, for example, like I said, there were and our numbers are a little off here. So he's got And like a great number of things were added to Jollyman. Before Jollyman's all-inclusive program started, they had already purchased five picnic tables to be installed, but that was after the 2023 presentation, for example. So, and I know that the DOLA created the need for benches, so those were added related to a couple of the DOLAs. Sixteen picnic tables at Memorial were replaced. Wilson Park had four tables replaced. Two benches were added at the Wilson Park basketball court. We added two benches at the ceramic studio at Wilson Park. Four benches were added at Monta Vista near the preschool entrance. So sometimes it's just a matter of a need was identified and it was something that we could do.

How is the need identified? There's so many parks. And I don't see, I see that Joliman has really many amenities, but I don't see commencement or even anything matching that at Wilson Park. Wilson seems fairly bare. What's the reasoning? Why are we distributing resources across?

I can't answer that. I'm basically following the lead of the people that are in the field and they're addressing things as they see them. So if you've identified a need for another park for more amenities, I think the easiest thing is actually to email me and Kevin. You could also put in a 301.

I would completely agree because it would be good for us to have kind of a high-level principle, how many amenities per park, because it feels like Jollyman has so much going right now. And Wilson and Portal Parks literally have nothing going on. And so if we have some kind of an overriding principle, equitable distribution of resources across the parts, because in the past, Jalman didn't used to have so many people. With so much resources that has been put in there, it is now fully crowded. And I would be willing to bet that similar situation would be the case for other parts, like Wilson, for much of other things. It's all right. But of all the parts, I notice just jolly man, jolly man, jolly man. It's just why I love what's happening there. It doesn't feel fair to the other parts. So jolly.

Sorry.

Actually, I have one comment to piggyback on that. What about if we would do an assessment at Wilson and portal of the items that we would want to see, not really to spend it, but open the door for donors. We have, I'm just kidding. I'm just throwing a number. We have 20 tables and 30 benches that could be good for 10 years and some amount of money who wants to donate and create that based on needs. But an assessment, I think is more than needed than... It's empty here, empty there. We would like to know what can we put and get maybe the advice of the workers there that can tell us where, what would fit where. Exactly. And then we'd have an amount and then we can take and go back to the public and or have a platform that says we have this available for you guys to, you guys decide exactly what type. letter, not letter, concrete, not concrete. Do you guys figure it out? But do you figure out the price as well? And then once the assessment is done, then we can try to look for owners to get those XYZ items.

If I were to just add on that, 351,000 users have left. Might be helpful to see which parts have had less love and see if we can give it more.

Any other comment? Okay, so I'll start it. Go ahead.

Yes, my comment is sometimes it's confusing between when we're doing a park upgrade like it. The live oak? The little three oaks. Thank you. And then there's another one over there. Poor thing. But yeah, so it's a little confusing of when is Public Works doing a whole reset and refresh of a park versus amenities. And so we want to make sure that we're not trying to put amenities in when they're doing a refresh. And I know that you coordinate that and you can see that, but I don't think we, I certainly don't have a good sense of, of that. And, and for those refreshes, you know, I know that we have a lot more seniors now than before. And, you know, some senior amenities be really beneficial at our parks. And I don't think when we looked at amenities, it was very limited in terms of what we, were allowed to comment on swatter stations and tables. And it wasn't, oh, can we get a all-inclusive swing? Although we put that, we put a whole column in for inclusive items, and then it, not sure what really happened with that if it got incorporated. So those are my comments. Let's try to make sure that we have a comprehensive view and that the commission understands where it's going.

Next question.

Sorry?

May I ask a question? Please. What is senior amenities? Senior amenities. Senior amenities. I would say fences and stage structures.

Off the top of my head. Yeah. And maybe I'll add to. I do have a complete list on the seniors on when they go and they want to stretch and they wanted to really Because they're working for a long and then they can just do. So we have a long list even recently sent to us by a senior citizen to the council and then I got forwarded to it. So I can send that to you. Yeah, I will send it because it's a long list of things sent to the mayor and then it got forwarded. I would love to have these amenities in the park for seniors. That's exactly what you said. I have a long list.

And you know what I saw in New York? I saw an area where you have a concrete area where wheelchairs can actually, I know it sounds odd, but you know, it's for one in a wheelchair. If it's little sides, just for them with a little sign, they can rest there and not moving or being trapped. Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah, so great. And if no comments, I will add some more comments on it. Definitely on Commissioner Stanek's comments on it. So I really would love to see, given that population, senior population is increasing and that there are a lot many things, not just benches, but we want the mobility The benches are okay. They sit there and do what we want them to move around and stretches and stuff. So definitely would love to have those. Again, we will send the list through Carolyn. I will send it to you. You can forward it or Rachel has it too. But I will send it out. The other one, as many of the commissioners said i would strongly recommend that we need to do one more assessment to see all the parks and as commissioner senate said there are maintenance which is completely on them the activities they do might be broken for example memorial park uh on the washrooms and things. They said, oh, it's only one, and it is crowded, and it's not clean. There's a lot of people lined up there, too. So they were asking about it, too, when it is going. So we do have some need of some of those basic amenities in the park, where it's a large crowd, or events happen more often, like Memorial Park. Definitely look into it, and maybe I can discuss with you or Rachel. I would love to see that assessment done again, which we have done it. We actively worked with it, and it really benefited us. By the way, thank you so much. And I saw three benches, one we recommended. Overall, now I see I just noted on three versus 27. That's fantastic. A lot of implementation done. Great. Then the, what were the four or five years? A lot of needs are changing. So we would like to do a reassessment. And then do as commissioner Swami said, our best, all other parts are really performing and what the needs are. People are taking it for granted that that's all we have kind of, but you should really. Tell them, hey, what do you want? It's not a wish list, but what is their need? But again, at the end of the day, we will go by the priorities. And as Commissioner Bono said, people may be ready to do sponsor and donate. And then, of course, we do have a 351k. How do we effectively use it across the park? I think it's very important. That's one of the biggest things for this commission. And I would like us to do this one. All right. I think I'm sure everyone will be actively involved. in going and meeting people, walk around and make a note. Literally last time we went and make a note on each one, talked to people, came back and shared that. And you all did it. It's a fun, good exercise too, because that's an opportunity for us to visit all the parks. Also, that's an excuse to go there too. so again i'll just put it on the table um we will see how this assessment whatnot i think maybe ellen will discuss offline on on with you and and see um what are the next steps are but i think it looks like everybody is interested to do this but we don't want to do ad hoc there are ground staff they know exactly what they wanted to do public works in these what upgrades to be done that's great but there may be new amenities needed

So we'll, and again, you can help us or Carolyn, you can help us.

How do we start on this one?

If you have to do a reassessment.

So.

Yeah. Perfect project.

Awesome.

And I would just add at about the same time that the park amenity project started was also about the same time that the master plan was adopted. Right, and I think all of you were involved in that process, although I wasn't here, I've read it, right? And I know that there's several, actually most aspects of that have yet to be implemented, right?

Correct, I know it's long.

Right, and that effort did not go unwarranted, right? Unfortunately, the effort got approved at a time when the city's economics did not match the needs that were identified in the master plan, right? So logistically, I think a lot of the stuff that you're talking about is identified in the master plan, but hasn't had an opportunity to be funded and played out into fruition. And so I do think a lot of the work has been done. Now, trends change, needs change. A tree gets taken out, a tree falls down, right? with the need for shade and the location at Blackberry was not until the trees are no longer there.

So things didn't exist nowadays.

Correct. So I don't want to say that, um, that everything flips overnight, you know what I mean? But I do think that the master plan is still fairly current and the work that went into it should be very valid to what this commission put forward the number of meetings that were made publicly and that input still should be something that should be pursued as funding becomes available so just want to make sure that that's noted oh yeah i think

Yeah, I'll just close that one, and then Commissioner Swamy, I'll get to you. So the master plan at the time when we worked on some of them are really long-term, like three to five years kind of long-term vision, we had it. Some of them are maintenance activities too. But I agree with you, master plan, a lot of work to be done still. But yet, I think these kind of small wins would be really, really good. So we should do that too. But let me pass on for now on Commissioner Swan.

Yeah, one of those things we were talking about, and it's basically a repetition of what I said earlier, but the comment that let's go ask the neighbors what they want. Sometimes people will not be thinking, what do I want in the park? And sometimes I think there should be a combination of using what is working in some of the parks we have made changes in Because, you know, if we look at Jaluman Park before and after, oh my God, the number of people that show up and stay there for so long has gone dramatically, which is such a happy thing.

If you weren't... Ask people, hey, what do you need?

They may or may not be able to articulate it quite as well. So my recommendation would be to take a combination of what people may want, but it was working in some of the other changes that have been made and how it has become such a lively place. So we are not purely depending on people's assessment or something they have not paid attention to. If you just ask me, hey, what do you think about this? I'm like, oh, I haven't thought about it. Really? And I might not really have the full-fledged thought process. So let's learn from what has worked also, not rely purely on what people are asked at a point of time where they haven't been thinking about it.

We did a survey. We did a survey, and then we got all the survey results. We didn't ask, but we also asked when we were walking in the park. That's right, because most of the... I'm not substituting both. My comment was we did a complete... Earlier, citywide, they sent a survey to everyone, what kind of niche park body you want.

I wasn't contradicting you. It's supplementing.

It's really important to have a full frame. Absolutely. Thank you.

Having said what I said, I love the idea of shade structures. I think they're much needed and to have them at Blackberry and Linda Vista would really be an improvement. And so I really hope that you do continue to pursue that. They're expensive. I know I work up at Hidden Villa and we just I got a grant from Rotary for a shape structure. It's like, how can it be this expensive? And it just is. And a shape structure itself is like $5,000.

Yeah. Everything else.

Yes. Yeah. So I really do think, you know, I really like where you're going with it. And I just, I'm happy to see that. So I like the initiative. Thank you.

And I think one of the, sorry, just to make, because I was told that too, it's a revenue generating area that, and without, since those trees are gone, people may not come. So I think if you don't do it, the revenue and the people coming in will go down. So it's protecting the revenue. This may be a must to do kind. So otherwise people will say, okay, I don't want to come to picnic because it's always hot sun or rain, whatever. Sorry, Commissioner.

I just wanted to add to that. No, I second that. Definitely in the end of a status, you know, it's a must have because the picnic area is so beautiful and huge. But in summers, it's so hard to have a party there because there is no shade. We always look for shades and which is like all the way down. There is one picnic. Yeah, I'm so excited about that as well. Thank you.

Excellent. Excellent. I think very good discussions, comments. Looks like not much anymore. But thank you, Susan. I appreciate that. I think giving us an update, very good update. We are so happy, especially 3 to 27. I couldn't even fathom that. That's awesome. And then we will discuss the next steps on how do we get more inputs, collection inputs out there. We'll keep you busy. Thank you. Really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Absolutely. And thank you for being so receptive to our viewpoints. That's why I'm here.

Awesome. Okay. Thank you all. So now we'll move on to the next item of the business and legend is staff and coming towards staff. This portion of the meeting is reserved for staff to provide any updates on matters pertaining to the commission and for commissioners to report on any commission-related activities they have taken part in since the prior regularly scheduled meeting. Staff, I'm sure that you have a long update.

Oh, no, I'm just kidding.

And no questions or comments by commissioners during the presentation slides. Thank you. I'm always told.

Thank you so much. And before I get started, I appreciate you. Thank you for being here tonight and we'll be in touch. Okay, Carolyn McDowell, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation. Thank you very much for having us here tonight. I have a quick, but I think fun update for you. So let me get rolling. If my screen cooperate. This is always funny. Give me one sec. Okay, so hard to believe we were talking before the meeting got started about the fact that it was already. And we are 2 thirds of the way through the year, but Blackberry farm has had a very successful season. You'll hear more about that when that group comes to speak with you. But for your notes tonight, the facility is closed on September 28th. Picnic rentals are currently on the weekends, including Labor Day Monday. available from 10 to 6. So if you're still interested in hosting an event on this summer, we do have some spaces available, Cupertino.gov, Blackberry, or BDF calendar to view the detailed schedule. So that's the first thing I have for you. Next, I have Teen Movie Night, our will be taking place on Friday, September the 25th. It's specifically designed for teens in grades 8 through 12, and will be hosted by the Youth Activity Board. By the way, if you follow us on social media, the Youth Activity Board was featured today, and it's 14 new members for this school year, 11 of which are returning from previous year. So we anticipate that they're going to be super productive because a lot of them have experience already. Anyways, that's our side. The movie night is at Quinlan here from 630 until 830 with doors opening at 6. It is a free event with no ticket required, but we are asking our teens to RSVP, so we'll have a headcount for dinner and snacks. If you want to learn more, Cupertino.gov slash teen movie night. Next, I have for you a new event. Super, super excited about this one. It's called Pumpkin Pool Looza. And it will take place on Sunday, September 27th from 10 until 1130 a.m. at Blackberry Farm Pool. The pumpkin pool, Luzette, features a floating pumpkin patch. So it'll include swimming, pumpkin decorating, games, music, and of course, seasonal activities for the whole family. This too is one effort to bring intergenerational programs to Cupertino. And registered participants can choose a pumpkin from the pool, or excuse me, costumes are encouraged. This is a new event and we're super excited for folks to participate in this. So it is in the latest activity guide. If you didn't already see it and want to register your family, we'd love to have you. Also a new, let's see what's going on. Okay, Lindsay. Plan B.

Okay, one sec.

Slide number six is not showing up. It's not showing up. Seven or eight.

Okay. We were having problems earlier.

So, Lindsay, I'm going to... Can you stop and then Lindsay can share? Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. Slide six, please. Sorry about that, folks. But another new event this year is a pumpkin succulent craft project. Thank you, Lindsay. It will be Thursday, October 1st from 5 to 6 at McClellan Ranch Preserve. One of the fun things about this one is taking place in October. Not only is it a decor that you can use for the Halloween event, you know, holidays, but also mine generally lasts through the year when I make them. And so I use it often for my Halloween center or excuse me, Thanksgiving centerpiece. So just a little side note, they do last a long time. And if you're crafting and want to join us, we would love to have you register for this unique decor fall event.

That's going to be our, Commission meeting, then.

It is. But it's before. It is.

Can you go to the next slide?

Thank you so much.

Okay, as opposed to butchering the name, I'm going to use the English term of Island Sounds, which is what we learned that this was translated into last time we met. This is an intergenerational event hosted by our seniors and our staff on Saturday, October 4th from 10 to 4. And this one is at Community Hall. pre-registration is recommended and tickets will also be available at the door while supplies last um this uh this event features the diversity of the pacific islanders and has music dance um and i believe some munchies that go along with that so again october 4th from 10 to 4 at community hall Next, you should have received an email, I believe, last week from the city as it relates to the community service awards. That will take place on Wednesday, October 28th at 6 p.m. Doors will open at 530. It is here at Quinlan. And this event combines the commissioner's dinner as well as the annual Crest Awards for a night of excellence and service to the community. Commissioners are allowed to bring one guest to this event and the RSVP is due by Friday, September 18th. So I strongly encourage if you haven't already done so to please do so. And after that date, your spot will not be guaranteed because we will open tickets to the public. So again, if you haven't RSVP, please refer to the email from Vikram or visit Cupertino.gov slash crest. Okay. and last but not least um hopefully you all saw the fall activity guide and that's where all these things that i've spoken of are featured um we do have the schedule available at cupertino.gov slash rec schedule um our facilities are closed on monday september 7th for the labor day holiday minus blackberry farm and cupertino sports center but there is quite the diverse offering of programs through December, which it's hard to believe we're already at that point in the year, but there's a number of quality activities as well that'll be featured in future commission meetings if you haven't already seen them in the activity guide. So that concludes my report for this evening. Sorry for the technical issue with our PowerPoint, but thank you so much. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to respond.

Thank you. I think the clarification questions. There's no comments. Any questions?

Just a question. I didn't see Plunge up there.

Are we having Plunge? We do, and I'm going to put it on the October one. The next one is, give me one. Oh, because you said Blackberry Farm was closing. It is that we do have our number of dates. Okay, so it's not part of that. Plunge is in October, yes. If I correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it's October 10th, Saturday. Yeah. So, and I will mention to you that it is very cool, but we do have wait lists. So if you are not already registered and want to be added to the wait list, just feel free to give us a call at the desk. You're welcome.

I love the pumpkin loser. Me too. You all come up with this and what's the process? It takes a lot of resources to do anything new. Where did you decide how many events is possible to add based on how much available resources you have? And then the process to say, here are the few options and we will do this instead.

Just walk us through that. Okay. So first things first, I will say that Parks and Recreation professionals are the best crooks. Because we all share and borrow and steal from one another, right? So I mean that jokingly, obviously. But we all attend different networking groups. We all attend conferences and workshops, et cetera. And a lot of times, myself included, we'll present at those. We'll talk about what is working in our community, what challenges we have, and what, you know, trends we're finding in the profession. Similar to the professions you're in, I'm sure, our profession is a little bit different in the sense that we're all super willing to share, you know, particularly... across the country and different programs and services and facilities that we have. And then we also take the opportunity to go visit other people's events, programs, facilities, et cetera. Sometimes, for instance, when I attend a conference, wherever the conference is featured, they will actually have tours scheduled of a new facility in that area, that sort of thing. So those are the types of ways that we generate different ideas. We also have a super creative and talented staff. So sometimes they're original ideas, right? And they're unique to whatever our community is interested or has come up with. So from the brainstorming and implementation side, that's kind of the creative, right? Everything else is budget related. So we are constantly looking as we go from session to session in the activity guide, how our rooms are used, how to maximize our facilities, what programs are trending in an upward directions, which ones are kind of flat which ones are trending downwards right and do different things to either promote those programs and try and lift them up or to have them cycle out what was a trend at one point you know classes you know for ages were like jobs or size and that sort of thing in the 80s or whatever there are new trends right now right thank goodness the tights and all that stuff went away with all of that right so there's constant trends with the things that we are bringing to the community And we use the available funds to implement that. So sometimes it's a matter of cycling out one program to then fund something new that we give a try.

Anything else?

Or not? This is then new. And then sometimes we're adding something new. And in the succulent craft class and the pumpkin palooza, those are two new things that we are bringing.

What is to make it justice?

I don't have that off the top of my head. I don't have that off the top of my head, but. We do a really nice job of making sure that the revenue covers the expenses. And so, you know, sometimes it's a net neutral. Sometimes it's not. But those are the things that we look at when we're bringing new programs and services. Thank you. Thank you for the question.

Awesome. I don't have any clarification questions. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Awesome. And now I think for the commissioner's report. THE COMMISSIONER.

I MISSED AUGUST TO SAY WE HAD THE MOST FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS EVER. I WAS COMMENDING COUNCIL AS WELL. THEY DID A GREAT JOB. IT WAS WONDERFUL. LOVED IT. I LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE.

THANK YOU.

ANY OTHERS?

I do have some quick updates from my side. So after the two events, one is on August 16. This is a There is an inclusive youth talent show happened at the community hall. This is mainly for the individuals with or without intellectual and developmental disabilities. And it was a musical and a lot of show. I think maybe around 50 plus young adults and youth and the kids participated. It was fantastic. I didn't realize that they come and perform, and if you just close your eyes, it's like a harmony, and it is fantastic. So I really enjoyed it. I've been invited, so I was participating in it. And, of course, the other one is just on August 13th. Bobatina happened in the library near the community hall space. They call Bobatina, looks like, every year. At this time, I went and met a lot of students from all over, not just Cupertino, but Sunnyvale, one student from San Ramon. they were all present and they have all the booths and talking about the Boba dinner is just that call because a lot of Boba, if you want to have it, so you can go on to buy those Boba, but walk around and all the students were putting those booths, talk about, and many of them, I told them they should come and check out the community grants we have because many of the students here, which I haven't, seen them here asking for a fund, but they were doing fundraising, recycle, how to really help kind of, and sanitary, how to supply for people in the areas where completely underprivileged. Everyone, it was so good to see students from here, Cupertino, high school students, Monta Vista, everyone teaming up. and then even doing it globally. And they were asking, I was just checking with them, what is that funding? How do you do it? So they said, I just need $500,000. And I was talking about, did you ever think of coming to Park and Recreation Commission when we do these grants? Many of them are not aware at all.

You have to have a 501c3.

It looks like a lot of them had a nonprofit in it. So I just asked. It looks like many of them have no idea. And I said, okay, maybe at school level, because they're all participating from the schools, somehow we need to tell them these grants are available, our own students and kids in Northern Africa, they come up with such a great idea, but they don't know, they were just looking for funds. But I had many, they had given me the cards and I had given my thing and said, reach out to us and I will send you the link on how to go and look into it. But it was very heartfelt event too. That's pretty much those two events I think, sorry.

I have a question for you, and that is that I don't think we've heard, as mayors meet commission chairs, because we haven't had a presentation in a long time, and I think probably all of us they were on.

No, not every month.

But we haven't had a...

I attended one.

Yeah, he's... Since we had the transition in chair, we have had one and you've attended one.

I attended one.

And then the council's been on break, but there's another one coming up. Okay, so we haven't...

Yeah, maybe at the time. I do have that update, so I still noted down completely. I will send out. That was two months back, but I still have that one.

I think you left one of our meetings early.

Yeah, that's just before that. Thanks for asking.

I was going to ask exactly the same question.

That's what is on me. I will try to get that one. But they moved to once in two months and recently because they were on break in August. Now, possibly they will. I will keep it. Absolutely, I'll keep you all updated. If not, we used to do write it up and send it out. Right? If not, that should have been. Yeah, I will. I will absolutely do. No more comments on it. And I think for the future agenda item is I think the next one, that's item number three, upcoming draft agenda item. Is there anything, this portion of the meeting is reserved for the chair or any two commissions to propose a future agenda item within the jurisdiction of the commission? Yeah, I just want to make sure.

It may not be something that we do anything about, but I think it's something that the community could be interested in and a presentation would be really useful of why do we only have 100 days at Blackberry Farm? We have this wonderful amenity and we are limited. We limit ourselves to 100 days. And there's some history there and some And I think the question comes up a lot. I would really like to see a presentation on what is that and what are the options? Is there something that we could understand? What's limiting us there?

Got it. Okay.

So I think we need a second for that, if it's coming from me, unless it comes from the chair.

No, I think what it says, just proposal that will be added there. So that's all of them and without any discussion by the commission. So I don't think that we need to vote it. We need a second for this too. Oh, I didn't say that. Okay, please go ahead. I not mentioned. So any second. Okay. Seconded by Commissioner Bono. Did you support that? Do we need to, again, for a second, visit what? Just to make sure that somebody is second. Thank you, that's my question.

They're supportive of that.

Absolutely. Commissioner Shrekanth?

No, go ahead. Okay. There was an email about seniors programs where, you know, People are having seniors are having trouble getting registration, especially being the residents of Cupertino. Should we discuss that sometime in the future? I would like to propose that as an agenda item.

The chair and I have spoken about this leading up to today's meeting and logistically, I let him know because he brought it to my attention as well. Logistically, I let him know that the manager at the senior center has been out on leave. This is actually his first week back. And so I have posts. So he was scheduled to come tonight. But I postponed him coming to a future meeting. And at that meeting, you can provide an essay on them. He's been away during some of the emails that have taken place. We did have a switch that was self-insolved that day. And the email that you receive, the individual did get registered in the class that day. But there are some things that are adjusting. And so we can provide an update when we do the senior services. Sounds good.

And do we need a second on that? No, it's already dispensed.

I would not mind even a second, but I would like to ask something related to that.

Just a second before we close.

Are we making this into an agenda item?

No, there's a proposal, and if somebody seconds it, we'd like to make sure that...

I think I'm confused of the process because it's already added in the agenda.

Maybe I'll add some quick comments. I should not make a lot of comments here, but I brought this one. Kelly and I discussed at length, and I would like to bring it up because I want to see why the residents are not prioritized compared to because it gets closed and whatnot. And it looks like it's... bigger things on implementation is being discussed, not just this one, because it's not easy and the manager goes out. So right now they were discussing it. So that's why we couldn't bring it to this, otherwise we could have brought through. It's being discussed, it's being worked on.

and make it to the next one operational issue that already has it's been okay we're already addressing okay it's really not a policy item for the commission it is operational okay something that we're working on and the manager can provide that update okay um and i also referred uh the chair to Rational memo that was sent to the council. I'm not going to get the data and try, but it was related with a number of topics. 1 of which was senior membership resident priority, et cetera with the understanding that there were going to be some membership fee changes and some different changes in that we were. working to build those changes from the time the informational memo to the first of the year. So those are all things that are taking place on an operational level that really don't require a vote or a second. I assure you they will come to you as soon as possible.

So, yeah, there's a planned update, so I don't want to bring it up now.

But I think it's the right question. I brought it up because thanks. I just made it for the records. Commissioner Swamy also would like, so I just made sure this Commissioner Swamy seconded on it for records.

Helen, I completely hear you that it's an operational issue. Fantastic. Two things as we would just like to provide a short recommendation if it's possible for you guys to consider when you're thinking about the operational part is yes, the fee structure sounds great. Another recommendation that sounded very valid to us was about the timeline.

Sorry, you're asking to put something on the agenda?

No, I'm just making a comment to the comment that I heard. All I'm saying is, as you guys are considering that, look at the timeline as well as the months. That's all my recommendation is.

So I think maybe, yeah, I think we will discuss it.

I'm not discussing it.

I'm done. I know.

I was giving them a priority, something to think through.

It's not on the agenda. But there's nothing on the agenda I don't want that to be. But it will be an input to Monday.

And it's not going to be on the agenda because it cannot be on the agenda. So this was just a minor recommendation, a suggestion, if you will. But we can move on since they have tabled it. Let's not discuss that issue to the committee until it is settled.

Okay, so we got two items proposed on it, so you might have taken it staff, right? Or one is on the senior registration one, which will come through a presentation from the manager, and then why we have only 100 days on the BlackBerry form. These are the two tasks. Excellent.

Ideally, there is only one item, right, for agenda.

Yeah, yeah. Agenda item one, but I just put it there. The first one is it's already being worked on. Yeah, yeah.

The updates, we'll wait for the updates.

Update from an agenda. Yeah. You got it. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Awesome.

I think that's pretty much. Oh, my God. What time is it?

So our meeting is now coming to an end. That's great. It's a great discussion. Thank you. I think we will all go a little early to celebrate your long weekend. The commission meeting next will be on Thursday, October 1st, 7 p.m. here in the Quinlan Community Center Conference. So I now adjourn the meeting at 8.21.