Parks and Community Enrichment Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, and welcome to the Thursday, June 4th, 2026 Parks and Community Enrichment Commission meeting. This meeting is now called to order. Will the clerk please call roll to establish a quorum?

Yes, Chair. Commissioners, could you please turn your mics on? Commissioner Langer is absent. Commissioner Uribe is absent. Commissioner Robbins, Vice Chair Robbins, I'm sorry, is absent. Commissioner Laver?

Here.

Commissioner King? Here. Commissioner Vasquez? Present. Commissioner Flores?

Here.

And then Commissioner Lange is absent. And then Commissioner Flournoy? Here. And Chair Gaines? Here. You have a quorum, Chair. Thank you.

I would like to remind members of the public and chambers who wish to speak on any items on today's agenda, please turn in a speaker slip before the item begins. You will have two minutes to speak once you are called on. After the first speaker, we will no longer accept speaker slips. We will now proceed with the land acknowledgement, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. So please rise. Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands. To the original people of this land, the Nisenan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Miwok, Patwin Wintun peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe, may we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples, history, contributions, and lives. Miigwech, thank you. Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. All right, so the first item today is approval of the consent calendar. Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on the consent calendar? There are none, Chair. Thank you. Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on the consent calendar? Commissioner Vasquez.

Thank you, Chair. Yes, I would like an update on the follow-up log that's on the consent calendar. I've got two items that have been there for quite a while, so I'm hoping for an update. And maybe we can discuss it at the end in comments, but I just want to make sure that during the follow-up log, I'm saying that I would like the follow-up log updated, please.

All right. Well, I do not have that on me, so I'm going to ask if maybe, Shannon, if you were able to pull that up and we can add that to maybe the end of the agenda?

Or do you want to talk about it now? Let me pull it up.

All right. And that way we can know exactly which ones we're talking about. Perfect. All right, while we're getting that, any other commissioners like to speak on any items?

So there you go.

There we go. Sorry about that. And commissioners will work on the creation of a draft policy standardizing community engagement to present to staff. And the action taken is at the chair's discretion, may include in future agenda item as discussion time allows. The next item is the park bond, and I just recently talked to our attorney, and she is working on drafting a response regarding this item.

Do we know when?

Well, at present there is not. So really the legal advice you would need is if and when there is a park bond moving forward. Up until that point, there isn't. So it's not particularly time sensitive. So if it seems like we are going to be moving forward with a park bond, I'll get you a memo timely.

Director Beecham? Oh, was that you? Are you technically?

I think I'm a brown knight, but I think they just changed it. Perfect. That's it? Thank you.

All right, so it sounds like... I am the action, so I'll look into that. I'll have an update in August. All right. Would any other commissioners like to speak on this item? All right. Is there a motion and second to approve the consent calendar?

Motion to approve.

I'll second. How's that? All right. So we have a motion from Commissioner Laver and a second from Commissioner Vasquez. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? All right. Thank you. The motion passes. All right. We will now proceed to the discussion calendar. Item three, Cesar Chavez Plaza renaming kickoff. Is there a staff presentation?

Good evening, commissioners. Jackie Beecham, director of Youth Parks and Community Enrichment. I want to start by thanking our team for helping to move very quickly on this item to support our city leadership team in addressing this very important issue that we are facing regarding Cesar Chavez Plaza Park. They've been very supportive in helping to move the item forward. And also the city manager's public information office, Gabby Miller specifically, who's been really wonderful in working with our team. So we can be prompt in responding to coordinate with the community, with our parks commission, with our council offices to address this. So as you know, the city is initiating a community-led process to rename Cesar Chavez Park. This is part of a broader effort to ensure that public spaces reflect the values, history, and diversity of Sacramento today. The renaming process will center community voices, honor local identity, and create opportunities for all residents to participate. So what will the process look like? it will begin here with you, with our Parks Commission. Our Parks Commission will serve as a kickoff for community outreach and engagement efforts. Mayor Kevin McCarty appointed a subcommittee of three council members that will help guide the renaming process, and they have asked, along with staff, that Parks Commissioners support community outreach efforts within your networks and districts to help ensure that the process remains inclusive and community driven. Our goal is to ensure that the new name of the park reflects Sacramento's culture, history, and shared values, and that we have an opportunity to engage with and hear feedback from diverse communities and all perspectives across our city. So a little bit of a history. There is a very robust history to share regarding the park, but just a quick background. We had a landscape designer named John Keating that created a plan for the park in 1872 that shaped the informal plaza into a landscaped park. The landscape plan was the first introduction of structured walkways and the prominent establish of the formal plaza as a civic and social hub, and had increased use for public gatherings, markets, and events. It evolved into a central gathering place for Sacramento residents. It included livestock auctions and farmers markets and reinforced its role as the city's front yard and an important setting for the city's major civic building, which is City Hall, where we are today. In 1966, the Plaza Park was redesigned and developed to add support amenities and infrastructure improvements. And again, in the 1980s, another comprehensive redesign involved a fountain restoration, cafe and seating areas, performance stage and event infrastructure, and the introduction of public-private partnerships to help fund improvements and programming. Also around this time, a historical marker was installed commemorating the Pony Express centennial and significance in Sacramento history. Sacramento is one of many U.S. cities used as stops along the Pony Express. In 1992, a small building was constructed to house public restrooms and a restaurant cafe, which is visible still today. So what do we hope to achieve through this process? As you all are aware, the park name has become a subject of concern for city leadership and for our community. To maintain trust and ensure public spaces remain welcoming for residents, we are initiating a process that is grounded in transparency, equity, and broad community engagement. We want to use this as an opportunity to build strong connection between the park and the community and hope to identify a name that will truly reflect community voice and the culture, history, and values of our city. So a little overview of the engagement plan. through several phases. The kickoff starts here tonight, and we'll continue with some of our other commissions. We have a project webpage that is officially live. It's not shared in your packets, but I can share it with you right now. It's cityofsacramento.org slash ccrenaming. It includes a link to the survey that is not yet live, will be live next Friday, timeline, FAQs, and more. We'll have temporary signage available in the park and surrounding areas. We'll have a press release available, social media messaging, and we'll do extensive outreach with partners, cultural groups, and our downtown stakeholders. This will also include special partner toolkits that all of our commissioners, all of you, all of our council members, and other partners will receive. Phase two is where we'll be seeking our community input. That will be from June to July. That will include our online survey that opens up June 12th, so next Friday, and will be open through July 24th. That will be a mobile-friendly survey where we'll have continued outreach and engagement also at our park through many of the current activations that you see happening there. If you've been out and about so far, we have concerts in the park that happen every Friday night in the park. We have Bodega Market. We just had one today. Those are every Thursday in the park. several other special events. There's a lot of activation happening in Cesar Chavez and around the park right now, as well as other council events that many of you have seen happening in your communities and districts, along with movie nights, concerts in the park, and many other summer events. So we're asking for commissioners, subcommittee, and staff to help promote the survey and any engagement opportunities. Phase three will be a staff review and subcommittee alignment happening in August and September. So UPC staff will be compiling and analyzing all of the data and input received, feedback that we received through the survey, and applying the naming criteria with the city's naming policy. We'll present the findings to the mayor and the mayor-appointed subcommittee for early alignment and guidance. And we'll bring the final recommended name that the subcommittee and mayor recommend back to this commission. The commission will review the recommended name and the findings and will forward the final recommendation on to city council in October. After council considers the final recommended name, we are looking forward to a council adoption of a final name in late October or early November. So how can you help? Outreach is going to begin again here with all of you. We'll be providing each commissioner with a partner toolkit that will include flyers. I believe you all have a sample, and I can talk through that in just a moment. It's going to be a partner toolkit. You'll have flyers, shareable graphics that will have accompanying text for social media that will help to amplify the outreach. It'll be available in English and Spanish. We ask you to share this information in your districts, with your networks, on your social media, to help really encourage survey participation. If there is an event, other community partner, opportunity or idea for any sort of outreach that you wish to support or want to recommend, we welcome that feedback and also invite you to participate and share this information with anyone you see fit. If there are in-person engagements, like I mentioned, concerts in the park, council or community events. We also welcome you to attend those events and encourage participation in the survey. And again, we will be coming back to this commission after the subcommittee has reviewed the community feedback and is prepared to recommend the final name for council consideration. So the flyer that I presented to you, or that you see there, it's not in the presentation. This is just a sample. of what you're going to see in your park and toolkits we'll be providing you. There are half sheet flyers that you'll have access to that have a QR code. It will take you straight to the website and the survey link available in English and Spanish, the flyers will be. There will be park signs out in the park here, surrounding areas, and also available for placement throughout the city and other park locations, any other locations you'd like to take them. Again, also social media signage with digital photos and accompanying text to build a post. And the website that we have will, again, outline the timeline. It has FAQs and has a much more detailed history of the park. I shared a very high-level overview, but it has a very robust history of the land to help our survey takers be a little bit more informed about the park space. All right, so this is a very unique moment for Sacramento to shape the identity of our very central public space. We are committed to supporting our city leadership in making this process open, transparent, and genuinely reflective of the community voice. And we want to thank you very much for helping us to kick this off and share in this very important work. Again, we'll have our partner toolkits available for you next week prior to the survey launch, which will be on June 12th. We have a lot of work to do, and we are really looking forward to working with all of you and helping us to do that outreach within the community. I'm happy to take any questions.

I had one question.

Oh, one second. Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item? There are none, Chair. Thank you. Are there any commissioners who would like to speak on this item? Commissioner Labor.

So I had a question on how are you going to try to prevent what happened with the crisis or the issue that the name got rechanged or you can stop the name of Cesar Chavez, are there ways that you can mitigate that? That's kind of a hard question, but if you pick some name and then 20 years later someone's going to not like it,

Well, we're hoping to do very extensive outreach. We would research any name that we receive. That's typically what we would do with our naming process. This park was named long ago. Our naming policy, though it does require some updating, does require that staff research any particular recommendation prior to moving forward with a name. We are open to exploring names that are not after individuals. The survey, when you have an opportunity to take the survey, that we are asking our participants to do some reflection on personal values, on values of our Sacramento community, and really thinking about Sacramento's history rather than maybe particular individuals as we're exploring what potential opportunities for names might be.

Yeah, I thought that'd be a good idea to look at other options other than a name of a person maybe. Absolutely. That'll be considered. Yes.

Commissioner Flournoy.

Thank you so much, Jackie, for the informative presentation. You kind of partly answered it already, but I was just wondering what kind of questions is the survey asking? Because I know we want participants to fully understand the history of the park when they're suggesting a name, but what questions are being asked specifically, if you can answer that?

I can actually read the questions for you. If you give me a moment, I'll grab my computer. Okay, thank you. Thank you for your patience. Okay, so as I mentioned, we're really trying to get participants of the survey to kind of get them thinking prior to just making recommendations, though we aren't just providing a list of names. We are open text, allowing any recommendations for names to come forward. The questions will begin with an overview. Again, we are leading survey takers to the website, which will have a very easy access link to the survey, but also open up with information more on the history of the park where survey takers can read a little bit more about the land. So we'll provide a background on the park and ask the community that as they consider future name ideas to invite them to reflect on the history, cultures, and values that matter to Sacramento. So we ask what themes or stories they feel should be reflected in the new park name. And we list several options where the survey taker can select one, multiple, or none. And it includes indigenous history and stewardship, Sacramento's early settlement and founding, cultural diversity, nature, ecology, and environment, community gathering and civic identity, the farm worker movement and agricultural heritage, labor worker rights several options to really get people thinking and considering their values. We also ask if survey takers would like the park's future name to reflect a historical or cultural theme. And if so, what historical, cultural theme they feel is important to highlight. And then we ask them, of course, what name they would like to submit for the park and why they think the name is meaningful for Sacramento. So very open-ended, giving everyone an opportunity to share to share their feedback. We also take an opportunity, optional of course, to find out more about who our survey takers are and get information just about general park use. Who's visiting the park? Why are they visiting the park? For what reasons? That will help us as we move forward in this process and really think about activating Cesar Chavez Park a little bit more once we find a new name for that space and see what sort of improvements we can make there as well.

That sounds really comprehensive. Thank you.

It should take less than five minutes, though. Commissioner Vasquez?

Thank you, Chair. And that was my question. How long would it take?

Less than five minutes.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

It has four required questions.

Beautiful. Okay, great. And then you're talking about naming convention, and to answer a question over here, can you please send to the commissioners the current naming convention, the current naming policy that we have, and then any proposed changes? I'm hearing you say that it needs some updates, so hopefully that's a part of the process that we would be involved with.

Yeah, so the naming policy is linked on the website. It'll be available to commissioners and anyone who's at, it's actually available now if you visit cityofsacramento.gov slash ccrenaming. a CC park renaming That's something it's on our list to do and it's a citywide policy that will need to be We will need to be addressing as something that we are we have been considering it would certainly bring to this commission for recommendations Commissioner Flores All right, thank you chair

With the survey, I know I have a lot of questions, but I didn't want to get too far ahead. Regarding the survey and the ability to list names and ideas, is the survey also flexible? You did mention, so maybe you can expand on it a little bit more. If a community member says, I like this name, and then is there a field that says as to why? Yes. Now, is that an open field? like a thousand characters two thousand characters because i know having conversations with staff it's also it's always been the vetting process like anyone can just say hey let's name it the joe flores plaza because joe is cool right like right i mean that technically is the the history and the vetting but like is that the vetting itself the quality of vetting like anyone can I suspect we'll get a lot of names that are quality, but how do we know it's quality unless they help us in doing some of that heavy lifting? Because let's say we get a culturally significant, but it's not in my purview or I'm not aware of it. How are we addressing some quality names that may come up and then some of the reasons why, but if that reasoning is of quality, like kind of what Commissioner Laver was kind of asking about, right? Like how do we know some of these potential names rise to the top in a sense, and some of them are just like, like I said, the Joe Flores Plaza, like that's low on the list, right? So that was one question I do have is that level of vetting, like let's say we get 30 names, 20 names are quality, how do we know that they're quality is my question first.

You know, that's a really great question. This process is obviously very unique and new for us. We've been through the renaming process before, but not in this way. And so it's hard to really tell what the turnout will look like, but I would imagine that there will be many, many, many recommendations. And I think depending on the frequency and some commonality between some of the names is what we would first use to kind of narrow down sort of top list of recommendations. And then once we have a list of the most frequently recommended names, start vetting them based on that data. But we really won't know until we have an opportunity to analyze and evaluate what some of the recommendations are.

I guess part of the fortunate thing sitting in this seat for quite a while is this is not the first time a name has come to YPSE and Commission, and there was multiple names, and this office and this commission being able to handle such a charged and emotional event. So to see it again is, and especially with national implications in So I know we've done it before and we can do it again. But given that some of us in this room were there that time, is... the issue of like ballot stuffing, right? Let's say somebody bots it, right? Like you get a thousand Joe Flores plazas, right? Like how are we going to help mitigate some of the potential online shenanigans of ballot stuffing, for lack of a better phrase? Is there, I know one of the phases says, hey, go back to the subcommittee. And so I know I have a question about the number of names probably presented in the subcommittee that will then trickle down to us in the commission. Is it going to be one? Is it going to be three? Is it going to be five? Are there some of the parameters in this roadway to November of, like I said, shenanigans in that sense? Unfortunately, there will be some of that. The number of potential names, and then the quality of the names, and then is there a top 10, top five? Because if we're going to be fair and equitable, Making a motion is not necessarily fair and equitable in itself if there's multiple names. If it's one or two, right, you vote for one or you vote for the other. But let's say there's three quality names, five quality How are we going to be fair and equitable to five given the parameters of making a motion at the end of the day, right? So given that I was there that time in 2019, August, and some of our staff lived through those battle wounds, and we know the importance of names and changing names and making sure the history of a name is correct. So to front end mitigate some of those issues, I suspect some of those conversations were had in the background with the subcommittee, with the mayor's office. And so can you at least help us illuminate on some of the thought process? Since we're not there yet, but we have to at least know it's coming because it has came before. So if you're able to, can you tell us some of that thought process?

Yeah, and again, I think a lot of it we will kind of discover as we go through the process. But I know there won't just be one level of criteria applied to the evaluation. It won't just be what name has the most number of votes or recommendations. We'll be evaluating what are Sacramento's values? What are we seeing reflected and what's the cultural value of the recommended names? Those are the sort of things that we'll be looking at. And I think it's the subcommittee's goal to bring forward a name that's most reflective of what the, this is a community-driven process, it's most reflective of what the community desires to bring forward, and with the least amount of controversy, and something that is very representative of Sacramento as a whole. And so I don't believe that the subcommittee would move forward conflicting or controversial choices. I think their goal is to bring something forward to the Parks Commission that is gonna be most agreeable and supportive by the larger community. At this juncture, our plan is to just have this one survey. But if we got to a position, we have a flexible enough process where if we needed to have another go out and have a final survey or do another assessment, say, hey, we have these top five names, right, or we have, that are very different, then that might be something we would consider doing as well. That's not off the table.

Okay, because, yeah, that's one of my concerns. Well, because we play a part in it, but given... foreseeing what is going to happen, who's going to take care of that burden of eliminating 20 good names to five to two to one, right? Like, is it going to be us? Are we going to get the five? Is the subcommittee going to help do that? Or, you know, like you said, I know this is going to be a fluid conversation, so things could pivot, but... Again, given what we have done together before in 2019, and then we want to get this right, and we have a playbook to kind of follow. And then all the conversations we've had since 2019, you know, we've had... you know uh we went through the covet era and then i know this commission has been very um well intentioned and when we do get namings of parks and elements that it does have that level of equity i think we had an equity lens before the city even coined it you know the equity filter equity lens because we kind of did it one back 2019 then obviously the racial reckoning of 2020 2021 and then all the names that's happened since, right? We've always asked, hey, what kind of criteria did you make in these names before we pass it to? And I want to also reflect that part. I know we're talking about the plaza across the street, but then I would also, again, sitting here for a long time, AT A PREVIOUS ITERATION OF THIS COMMISSION WHERE THEN CHAIR GOOD AND VICE CHAIR LAVELLE DID A SUBCOMMITTEE OF LOOKING AT ALL AT THE TIME 230 NAMES OF THE PARKS AND AT THE TIME IN 2020-2021 WHERE WE WERE ALL LOOKING AT NAMES THAT WERE PROBLEMATIC THEN WE DID DO I THINK THE STAFF REPORT 2021 SEPTEMBER IS WHEN CHAIR GOOD GAVE RESULTS THAT A COUPLE OF THESE NAMES MAY NEED TO BE EXPLORED. AND I KNOW THIS ITEM IS A RECOMMENDATION TO STAFF, AND SO HOWEVER WE RECOMMEND IT TO YOU, I'M NOT TRYING TO WRITE THE STAFF REPORT, BUT I THINK THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY THERE TO AT LEAST RECOGNIZE THE HISTORY THAT THE COMMISSION HAS LOOKED AT THE ENTIRETY OF THE PARK'S NAMES. AND I THINK WHAT STOPPED THEN WAS Well, because we have the naming policy, it's by city council decree making a special circumstance that we can then move forward in making a name change happen. Well, now we're here. Now the special circumstance happened, there's a special committee, and now we're on this pathway. So I think when that staff report to city council does happen, if that part of the commission's report Is reflected that hey, we did look at these names back then, so it's not a new item and we're not doing it because it's it's sexy in the news. No, we did it in when it was a major issue in 21 and 20 and validate that work. AND MAYBE THAT WHEN YOU WRITE A STAFF REPORT AND GETS CAUTIFIED AT THE END OF THE DAY, THEN THAT'S THE MECHANISM TO THEN EXPLORE, OKAY, HEY, IN THE PLAZA EXAMPLE, WE DID IT LIKE THIS. HEY, THERE'S THESE TWO NAMES THAT GOT IDENTIFIED. LET'S USE THE PLAZA EXAMPLE THAT GOT CAUTIFIED IN 26 AS THE STARTING POINT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THOSE NAMES. SO I WANT TO BE REFLECTIVE AND MINDFUL OF THE PREVIOUS WORK DONE AND THE PREVIOUS WORK AND POSSIBLE WORK TO COME ON SOME OF THOSE OTHER NAMES THAT WERE OUT THERE, THAT WERE IDENTIFIED. AND THEN THIS STAFF REPORT COULD BE THAT MECHANISM. AS WE REFERENCED OR THE STAFF REPORT TONIGHT REFERENCED THE, YOU KNOW, THIS NAMING POLICY, RIGHT? THERE'S A REASON WHY THE STAFF REPORT DOES ALL THAT. SO I WANT TO AT LEAST, I DON'T KNOW IF IT GOES TO THE CHAIR OR GOES TO STAFF THAT, HEY, JUST ONE LITTLE BLURB OF, HEY, COMMISSION AND 21 DID TAKE A LOOK AT THAT. I know I wanted to get that off my chest and then again just validating the multiple conversations throughout the years that this department is ready for an item like this with huge implications right in because this this Plaza topic is. Hits home in my family, in my community specifically. I have grandparents who immigrated, who live in the Central Valley, and farm working is a big part of my history. It's a big part of my in-laws. They're the ones that immigrated. So my son is a product of that. So when the news of this came down, and that immediate reaction is that we gotta change the name. Okay, yes. Believe women. Let's do this. Let's do it fair. Let's do it equitable. Let's do it transparent. Given that we've had all these battles in the past, we're ready for this pathway. And this is not something that is going to be taken lightly. Like I said, there's going to be a million names coming and they're all going to be great. There's going to be some shenanigans. And so we have to prepare for that because And so I know all these conversations have been had, but I just at least want to if this is the kickoff that we acknowledge that part, because this this journey is going to take many twists and turns. So if we can address some of these things before those twists and turns do happen, that we were prepared for it today in June as a collective team, because I suspect whatever commission meeting that does happen, it's going to be a full night. And I hate to be the bad guy to try to pick between five awesome names, right? So, but we'll see how fluid this is and we'll go from there. And I know we'll have many other questions, but just, these were some top of mind and I know I'm working on the naming project. I have to follow the same process too. And you're right. It is to reflect Sacramento values and literally across the street is one of our shining park spaces and let's name it correctly. So with that. I know I rambled, but it's very personal to me in this case, and we're ready for it. I appreciate that feedback. Thank you.

Commissioner Laver?

So were the subcommittee members of those city council?

That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

And when we bring forward the recommended name to Commissioner Flores' points, There will be extensive background information that supports the recommendation that's coming forward that will be available with, that comes with the recommendation that shows why that name or names are being proposed for consideration. And I wanna acknowledge the important role that this commission plays in this process. We're starting here with this commission and we'll be ending with this commission in this process. And I think that how we navigate This very unique situation will also help us to inform potential updates to our naming policy, right? I think it's a great opportunity for us to take all of that into consideration as we're looking at potential revisions and can learn from this experience as we go through it. So thank you for all that feedback. Commissioner Vasquez?

Thank you, Chair. Which districts are on the subcommittee?

We have the Vice Mayor in District 3. We have Mayor Pro Tem District 6. And we have District 4, Council Member Pluckybaum.

All right. Well, it looks like there are no other comments. So thank you so much. We look forward to participating in this process. Thank you. All right. So this was review and comment. So we will move on. to our next item, which is item number four, 916 state updates. Is there a staff presentation?

Hello, I'm gonna get us kicked off. Good evening, I'm Sarah Musser, Park Maintenance Superintendent with Youth Parks and Community Enrichment. I'm here tonight to introduce Jennifer Holden, who's proposing a new community-based initiative called ParkSketchers. As you all know, one of our ongoing goals is to encourage residents to discover and connect with park parks throughout the city, including some of our lesser known neighborhood parks. Programs like park sketchers support that goal by bringing community members into our parks for shared experiences that foster creativity, community connection and appreciation for public spaces. The concept is very simple, bring people together in parks to experience them in a new way. By activating parks through positive, low barrier activities, we can help residents build a stronger connection to their local parks while highlighting the unique character of parks across Sacramento. Jennifer is here tonight to share more about the program, its goals, and how it would operate. So at this point, I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Jennifer.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you this evening. I had this idea. If you've known me for a while, I am the Mangan Park Neighborhood Association leader. I've been active in civic matters for five years on a variety of subjects. And I get into rooms where people have conversations about stuff that's on their minds. And so the Park Sketchers pilot program is an outcome of some of those conversations I have had with a variety of communities as I, you know, skip my merry way across Sacramento neighborhood associations and art chat rooms and, you know, also as a neighborhood association leader, just what our concerns are about our parks and going to parks around the city. And some of you have gotten texts from me where I'm in a different park that evening taking pictures and I will pop you some pictures of parks in your district So I love parks. I love drawing. I love sketching. And I am happy to share an idea with you. Sarah did a pretty good job setting it up. I'm going to kind of get a little quick here at this point, which is we could invite people to come together in their parks with whatever drawing materials they have. And if it's their binder paper and their pencil or their ballpoint pen, that's fine. All ages are welcome. It's a city park. Everybody's welcome. And you choose a part of your park sketch, draw, or if you do come with, you know, watercolors or something like that, you can paint. And we, you know, it starts off by we all come together, we say hi, we talk a little bit about what we love about the park, and then we go find a corner of that park and we sketch it. We draw it, we paint it. We have about an hour, hour and a half, come back together, share our work with each other. um talk about what we saw in the park that we really love or admire or appreciate i think this is a great place to discuss 3-1-1 programs on how to report anything in the park that you might have also noticed that you want to report to the city and then people take pictures of their artwork to send into a parks department email address and their artwork about that park can be posted on social media and distributed across the city networks as a way to Promote that park in that community and it gives the community something to rally around to share And to remember a great day they had together in the park so that's the basis of the activities and It's my idea to focus on underutilized and underrepresented parks to build community. You can hear that. When people come together and they look at the same thing together enough, when they have something to share with the broader community, it builds community. Increase access to visual arts opportunities. Sacramento does not have the strongest visual arts community for a city our size. I'd love to help get that going. And then, yes, we're going to... Get people into their parks. Oh, I am so sorry. And I'm going to emphasize the part that no art experience is required. If young families want to come in with their young children and a box of crayons, great. Any art medium is welcome as long as it's non-toxic. This program can also promote, if you pack it in, you pack it out, leave the space cleaner than when you found it. Not that it's a trash cleanup, but we could definitely promote, you know, If it's ruining your picture, you could pick it up and put it in the trash can. And then also just, I think, sharing the artwork with each other. I have been to some events outside of Sacramento where we did this. And it is kind of touching to see what people notice and to see the park in ways you never thought you'd see it when you see it through other people's eyes. So here's a little nitty gritty. Why is this a city thing? Why can we not just do this one park at a time? So why am I here talking to all of you and putting this forward? Because every city council district has some parks that are underutilized or underrepresented. This is about promoting parks broadly in general across the entire city. There are parks that people live a block away from and they don't know are there. So it's not enough just to have a great little drawfest one day in the park and I'll go home and be happy. This is a little bit of my passion about parks. Across the city, everywhere, the entire park system, making certain that it is as activated as possible and people know about the parks that are near them that they maybe didn't know were there because we've got so many parks and some of them are kind of quiet. So how does that work? We have eight city council districts. We have 12 months out of the year. We have two months out of the year when being outdoors for two hours at a time isn't going to attract a lot of people.

I'm thinking like December and July or August.

Meanwhile, that leaves us 10 more months in eight city council districts. So we could do one park in each city council district every year. And that would take up eight months worth of time. So every city council district would have one park represented. And it's my current idea that we would reach out to the neighborhood associations in that council district and ask them to nominate the parks. Have them do a little search of all their parks and which ones do people know and which ones don't know, do they not know. And then tell us about it and we kind of take a little survey. And then if we've got two more months left over where the weather is good, participants, the people who do show up to a couple of events a year at least, we ask them what they want to do for the last two months. Do they want to do a well-represented park, something that would be very inspiring for them? And then we have two months that are kind of participant vote. And these would all be daytime. These would all be the weekends. I'm thinking Saturday or Sundays. We can adjust the time of day based on the weather. And maximum amount of time would be about three hours. I don't, at this point in time, see any of these being so large that we would need to worry about being permitted for a park event. I think we're going to be under the 50 people. And we can have a casual gathering starting at a certain time. And with an ending time, I think we're going to find two hours is about right, but we can advertise it as three just in casers so that we've got a little coverage. And do you have any questions? How have I done? Is this Sarah's turn?

Yeah, I'll take it.

All right, there you go.

I think the idea is to really think about programs like this to kind of incorporate into our 916 day events, which is why it's kind of fallen under this umbrella. I don't want to wrap up this item yet and open it up to questions because I do want to invite Deanna to come up and give her her usual 916 day updates. And then after that, we'll be here to answer your questions.

Good evening, commissioners. My 916 day update so far is we have done a few site walks. One at Sacramento Softball Complex with Commissioner Uribe. It looks like that's going to materialize into a 916 project. There's a lot to do out there. San Juan Reservoir and Stotch Park in Commissioner Robbins' district is also, both of those things are viable 916 projects. And then Southside Park and Grant Park in Commissioner Laver's district have been walked. So my update to you is if you have any project ideas you would like to pursue for 916 volunteer events, please reach out via email with available dates, times, locations, and I'd be happy to schedule some time to go and check them out. And then from there, we can decide on what tasks can be completed by volunteers. Do you guys have any questions? Nope. Okay. Please reach out.

Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item?

There are none, Chair. Thank you.

Commissioner Vasquez?

Yes. Thank you, Chair. My questions are of the Skechers program. Is this an existing program? Is this a proposed program? Where is it housed? What would the fees be? What's the staff time? I'm very confused as to is this an idea of a program or is this an actual program?

This is an adaption of a program that's focused a different way. There is something internationally known as the Urban Sketchers International. They are fairly professional. They travel the world, and they work professionally as illustrators and artists. They focus on cityscapes. So most of the cities around us have an urban sketchers group. Sacramento doesn't have one, which is a little odd. However, when I think about the population of Sacramento and who lives here, I found myself thinking it's not about starting up a cityscape sketching group for us. It's really about pulling communities together around something common, like their parks, to fall in love with their parks. So this is not an urban sketcher's thing. The other thing is urban sketchers tend to be professional artists. There's a little barrier to entry. You kind of have to prove that you're ready to get in there. And I wanted something that was low barrier, something that the high school students could do, that families with young kids could do. Everybody would be welcome to come in and do that. So you can hear how I have been to some urban sketching events. I have met the people and learned about their organization and taken something of the idea but adjusted it for what I see as the needs of Sacramento and why Sacramento doesn't have one. You know, we've got a different sort of population. We have different needs, and our parks have needs also. We have this amazing park system. So I'm trying to, you know, make some adjustments to fit. Does that help you understand?

Yes, Ms. Holden, I understand the concept. I think it's a lovely idea, and I just want to thank you for your continued service in Sacramento to all of our districts and all of our parks. You've been in a very challenging consistent advocate I appreciate that in you and I think maybe my questions are a little more technical and budget related thank you is this an existing program is this something we're proposing what budget would fund it and what would the budget be this is not an existing program it's a pilot program so it's an idea that we have you know come with Jennifer to

you know, incorporate it into some of our 916 day events and some of our already established events to enrich them and build them up a little bit more. You know, we're always trying to expand our reach throughout Sacramento. So any additional thing that we can add that's fun, that's going to bring people out, we want to do. And so putting a spotlight onto our parks is something that's very interesting. It's something we're very interested in doing.

Wonderful. And I'm hearing, I guess I'm curious, would this be promoted through YPSE? Is this something that registration would happen through YPSE? I'm hearing that the art would be shared through our social media, so I'm assuming there's marketing team hours there. What is the proposed amount of dollars this would cost the Park Department?

We don't have a budget established for that yet. As I said, it's just going to be incorporated into some of our events already. It's going to be volunteer-led. by our Jennifer that just kind of came up here and gave you this spiel. But I mean, I can hand that off. There's really no budget that would be needed. It's show up. We're already out there. Bring your family. Get to know your park. There's no cost associated to that.

So would it go through our registration process?

We're still in the works of figuring that out. Whether it needs to be a preregistration program or just a drop-in, there's still behind-the-scenes things that we're still trying to figure out. We're just providing it to you as information that, hey, this is an opportunity that we've been engaging with the public about. Great.

I like that it's in our 9-1-6 day realm or bubble or sphere, if you will. But I am very concerned about our budget which is so depleted at this point. And I'm concerned that we have an existing facility, our 28th and B skate park that is shuttered to the public for a $60,000 save and that we're piloting new programs. So I would like to, you know, maybe at the end of the day, come back around to what's it going to take to get our existing programs that we've lost back or existing facilities back up and running. before dedicating staff time to new projects. This one sounds like it could be very easily run through neighborhood associations and 501 nonprofits. So I'm hoping to lean onto them. Happy to share out this information. Thank you so much.

Commissioner Flores.

Yeah, thank you, Chair. Maybe Jennifer can come back or... are there any, because this is pilot, is there any demonstrations coming up, any pre-volunteer dates coming up already that's kind of incorporating this? Whether it's the schedule program itself or like a, yeah, maybe it is a neighborhood association type event that's at a park, right? Is there already a couple of, I'm a visual learner, I'm a doer, so I need to see it to kind of fully embrace it. Is there any couple of them coming up on the calendar informally so we can see it and be like, oh, wow, this is what this presentation was about, you know? Yeah, I guess that's my question.

At the moment, they're not. This is a pilot program, so the pilot, the program itself would be our, hey, we're trying it out.

Can I jump in real quick? And correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm hearing this under 916. So is this being presented as like, so I've been slacking. I haven't done anything. So I could say, hey, since I haven't done anything for 916, can I do a park sketchers thing for that? And that's kind of like the pilot. And that's how it would be kind of tucked under this. And that's kind of how we would be paying for it, because I have to do something anyway. for 916. Is that how you're hearing it? And that's like how we're going to start out as the pilot and why it's a part of 916.

Well, I think what we're seeing is a supplement to those things. So it's an additional add on benefit to 916 day. We're already in the park. We're doing a cleanup and You know, sometimes we end early, sometimes, you know, but there's a lot of other things that can happen. So we've had tablings out at our 916 days, we've had SWAG, we've had different organizations coming out. So this is just another thing to that. I think this commission wants transparency, wants to give feedback, and so this is what we're trying. Hey, we're gonna add an additional component to some of the things we're already doing at zero cost or very, you know,

just staff time that's already working on 916 day there's nothing additional here just an outside partnership that would be helping to facilitate you know an add-on to our already awesome 916 days thank you commissioner king yes um thank you for sharing thank you jennifer for coming um i have spoken with jennifer several times about this program um what i loved about it is that it is a partnership between parks and community-led, I'm gonna call it an organization. And it is something new. I think it's unique, because it is very low barrier and free. So it is simply an organized way to bring people who sketch together in our parks. And I see it as a great way to provide programming and partnerships with our community organizations, our neighborhood associations, and I'm hoping that this pilot will help to build more things like this. I've spoken before about partnering with community-led organizations. How can we provide free programming that are low cost or low barriers specifically for city staff? and i think this is a really good example of how that can work it is new it's something that we don't normally see because we're often seeing already robust programming from provided from our city and our city staff so this is just to supplement the programs that might have gone away or been reduced as a alternative in activity engagement whatever you want to call it I'm excited about this. I've seen some of Jennifer's work. It's beautiful. I think she's been very thoughtful about this presentation. So again, thank you, Jennifer. The amount of research that you did was really amazing, and I really do appreciate your work on this, and I'm excited to see this move forward, just to see what it will be like. So I am excited to attend. I have zero artistic ability, so just wait for that. But from what I've seen, I think this could be a really great free program for our city, OF SACRAMENTO AND WHATEVER WE WANT TO CALL THEM. PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO. AND SO, YES, THAT'S THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR. AND SO I HOPE YOU KEEP THAT IN MIND. BUT I, YEAH, I DON'T THINK, I DON'T THINK THIS IS GOING TO TAKE A LOT OF FOCUS AWAY FROM OTHER PROGRAMS. I THINK THE CITY STAFF ARE ALSO FOCUSED ON THOSE AREAS AS WELL. This is just in addition to. But maybe I'm wrong. I'm eager to see what your thoughts are.

Commissioner Flournoy. Thank you, Chair. I was just wondering how outreach would work for this. Would it be added on as a side note to 916A outreach? So like, hey, volunteers are going to come work on this park. And if you want, you can also bring your sketching materials and you can come join the Sacramento Park Skechers. So how would that work specifically?

I think it's gonna be a joint marketing effort. You know, hey, we have 916 Day, and we're also gonna be featuring the Park Sketchers program. You know, I could also see where, you know, it happens outside of a 916 Day, you know, in coordination with another event. So it's gonna be, Park Sketchers are gonna be there as like, hey, we got more stuff.

Nice, okay, that makes sense, thank you. Commissioner Flores? Yes?

Thank you, and I don't want to take too much longer on this. For example, I live near Bell College Community Center. If I wanted to do the outdoor activity, the Monday, Wednesday, Friday outdoor 8 o'clock class with the older folks that do the mobility, that's a free class, correct? Yeah, that's a free class under the community. I'm stepping back from 9168, but this is still YIPC related, at a community center. of a program that is often, correct me if I'm wrong, the lead person does it as a volunteer, but it's structured as somebody who can then, there's like 50 people, I see them every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, right? So given that framework, and I think that kind of goes to what Commissioner Vasquez is kind of saying, There are mechanisms to do something cool and awesome under an umbrella that is low-barrier, low-resource, volunteer-led, and then people come through. So I think there's a there there. I don't know if 916 Day umbrella is the mechanism, but like, you know, Bell College can use all the programming from volunteers and because there's the dog park, there's a trail, and there's this, and there's that. And that's walking distance from our neighborhood. And don't sell yourself short. I know you said five years. I know we've been working together since 2019. So that's more than five years. So I think there could be a there there. And I know council member is always doing events under their umbrella that utilizes UFC and stuff like that. So I think, I don't know if 916A might be the, that could be the first touchstone, but there's other paths and other umbrellas that this could fall under. And like I said, I have to see it in motion to be like, okay, well, maybe it needs to be over here. So there's a there there. And yeah. Just, you know, food for thought. Thank you.

I can't answer your question about the community center, though.

I saw staff, I know we're talking about community centers.

They're coming up later, and that might be a good question for them.

No, I know that's community centers, but I know, because it's U of C, and I know we're talking about 916A, so I apologize for kind of going outside.

No, I just wanted to answer your question.

No, and I don't think I had a question. I think I just rambled and made a statement, but in... IDENTIFYING A PATHWAY TO, IF THIS IS SOMETHING TO MOVE FORWARD WITH, I THINK THERE ARE AVENUES TO EXPLORE OTHER POTENTIAL OTHER PARTNERSHIPS OR OTHER AVENUES OF ACTIVATION, LIKE I SAID, MAYBE EVEN UNDER COUNCIL UMBRELLAS. AN EXAMPLE, LIKE I SAID, THERE'S THIS NICE PERSON WHO DOES STRUCTURED STUFF WITHIN THE COMMUNITY CENTER. I KNOW THERE'S A RELATIONSHIP THERE, BUT IT'S AT, I BELIEVE, AT ZERO OR MINIMAL, LIKE, YOU KNOW, SO. because there's other tangible examples that are currently in the system that is mindful of the resources that we do and do not have, but not to let a bad idea, a good idea go to waste. So, thank you.

Commissioner Vasquez. Thank you, Chair. I would like to acknowledge Commissioner Flournoy's idea to do a Chalk It Up type event for 916 Day, which is also artistic, bringing community together to create art for 9-1-6. And I believe that the advice from the fellow commissioners was a 9-1-6 day event has to be a park improvement process. So I'd like to revisit having chalk it up if this is the way we're going to go with 9-1-6 day having art events in collaboration and in tandem and make sure that that idea can be captured. I think it's a really good one. Separately, Deanna. I have a question for you. District 6 did our tree planting earlier this year, at which point I handed out our 916 Day hats. I think my question is, are you expecting another event out of District 6 for 916 Day?

I haven't had one come across my desk. Is there one I should be expecting?

I'm so glad I asked. So I thought our tree planting was our 916 Day event. Okay. So then we'll whip up another one. Okay.

Commissioner Lever.

Thank you very much for your comments. I just had a question on you'd mentioned like a process or a formula how parks are picked. Can you explain that a bit? There was like a period you talked about eight months, 12 months. How does that work again?

There's eight districts. The goal is to have 10 events. So eight would be within those districts. So District 1 would have one, District 2 would have one, District 3, so on and so forth. And then the two remaining to get to 10 would be up to the group to vote. Now this isn't a stand in stone thing. This is just an idea. This is just an idea of how we would select the parks within the first round. We'd also love recommendations from you all. I think Jennifer mentioned that you know your parks better than a lot of people. So I think you can make recommendations on parks that might be good for the Park Sketchers program. This is part of what we're here for, is to hear recommendations of parks that you think would be good.

And then multiple parks would be picked in each district?

One park for each district each year. One park. And then there would be, this is a goal. It's not, you know, that's what was presented. So we want to do 10 events, and there's 12 months out of the year. So each district would get a month, and the remaining two would be voted on or decided amongst the folks that are participating in the park sketchers program.

Have you looked at grants potentially or ways to help fund your goals or what do you think?

At this point it's just a pilot program and we're expecting zero cost to implement it.

Then my last question is do you have ways that you can measure the success of what you're doing?

Yes, we can do informal surveys as well as formal surveys as we do for a lot of programs to measure so we have quantitative and qualitative data.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right. Any other questions for 9-1-6 Day? All right. Well, this item is receive and discuss only. So thank you, and thank you so much, Jennifer, for sharing your idea, and I can't wait to see how it comes to fruition. Thank you, all of you. All right, so this was receive and discuss only. No vote is required. So now we will move on to the next item, which is item number five, Civic Engagement Unit 2025 Overview. It looks like there will be a staff presentation.

Good evening, Commissioner. Sean Swanson, Recreation Manager. I work with, among other teams, the Civic Engagement Unit. I'm gonna give a brief overview of the report that was included in the agenda for the Receive and Discuss item, and then I'm also gonna use the opportunity to give just a little bit of an update on what we anticipate for the Civic Engagement Unit in the upcoming year, as I know it was one of the items that was of concern with the budget discussions. So to start with, the Civic Engagement Unit empowers Sacramento youth with knowledge, resources, and opportunities to advocate and engage with their communities. The Civic Engagement Unit is comprised of two primary components. The first being its support for the Sacramento Youth Commission, which was established in 1993. A highlight of it was that in 2025, the number of members appointed to the SAC Youth Commission reached an all-time high of 18, where commissioners engaged in eight business meetings and 10 capacity training sessions facilitated by YPSE staff. The Youth Commission is a commission just like this commission is here. I mean, they meet in these chambers and have similar types of duties, produce a work plan, and all the similar things that you all do as commissioners. The second major component of the civic engagement unit is the Summit City Hall program. The Summit City Hall program is in person at City Hall where participants are immersed in local government firsthand and gave invaluable insights on how to become an active citizen in their community. The City of Sacramento's Department of Youth, Parks, and Community Enrichment has partnered with Natomas Unified, Twin Rivers Unified, and Sacramento City Unified School Districts for over 12 years to bring this program to life. And it's really a collaborative program that is run in conjunction with their staff, and then we have MOUs for those programs. At the end of the program, students present an ABSCI project called Project City Hall. They develop the project in small peer groups and presented at city council meetings, right? A city council meeting new for 2025 was the offering of semester at city hall and offshoot of the summer at city hall program, incorporating many of the same principles and focuses. Although this one is run entirely by Yipsey staff and it's done in a format that balances with the school year's availability of students. I'd like to draw your attention to the slide where we've got kind of an overview of some of the key demographics and just kind of describing the program. The first one is a breakdown of how many commissioners we've had seated in the Youth Commission. And as you can see, we've had an increase year over year with 18 seated throughout the year in 2025. It's a reminder that we have two seats for each commission or for each district and then three for the mayor's office on that commission. And those are appointed by the council members and through the same kind of process that you all would have gone through. Currently, we do have three open seats for the commissions, four, six, and seven. The second one is a graph showing the participation amongst our districts for all of our civic engagement programs. Now this is a combination of not just the youth commission, but also of all our summer city hall and sinister at city hall participants. The third graph shows the education level of our participants. Now it's not the final education level that most of these participants are going to achieve. It's truthfully the grades that they are in at this point in time. we tend to have very high achievers that gravitate towards these programs. But I think it gives kind of a nice breakdown of like who, what age is worth kind of serving right now. As our summer city hall program is largely focused on the 10th and 11th graders, you see a higher participation level there. But our youth commission is all the way up to age 22 that we have on there. So that's where the college representation is on that. And then if you also look at the graph that shows the different ethnicities and race that we have in our participation, you can see that we're actually serving a really diverse group that I think is well representing the Sacramento community. So there's a lot of kind of key things that I think are going really well with the programs. And then I'd like to just give a little bit of a update kind of where we're at. As we were in the budget discussions, Civic Engagement was facing some and well, we haven't seen our new budget yet, but it's looking promising that we will have some restorations on there. Originally, there was looking like Summit City Hall may be a program that was getting cut. We anticipate that it is gonna be restored. And so the good news about that is that We did have in place for this summer still a version of summer at City Hall, even though we currently don't have the staff that would be running that program. Currently, we only have one staff dedicated to civic engagement. And to be fully functional and run full programming, we would want at least two full-time staff and then a couple part-time staff associated with that. We anticipate those being returned in the next fiscal year for our budgets on there. And we have created a program where we're still going to be running a It's modified slightly. We're gonna run two different cohorts, the Monday-Wednesday cohort and the Tuesday-Thursday cohort, and then both cohorts meeting together on Fridays on there. We're still gonna serve approximately 80 youth. We actually just bumped up the wait list, or the capacities on there and brought in several students off of the wait list. But we believe from this one on here, and then with the restoration of those positions, we'll be able to return to full normal summer at City Hall operations for future fiscal years. And that's the updates I have, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you so much. Clerk, are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item? Chair, there are none. Thank you. Are there any commissioners who would like to speak on this item? All right, I will start. So thank you so much. I know this A program means a lot to a lot of people, a lot of young people who have participated in the program. So I actually just have a demographic question for you. I don't know if you would actually know this, but under the race and ethnicity where it says two or more, do you guys, is the box just two or more, or do you actually ask what the two or more races are?

I believe we don't ask what the two or more races are. I think it's just two or more, but I can double check on that and get back with you.

Okay, perfect. Because just, you know, a lot of studies have gone into data and like that those could be very different things. I mean, and have very different outcomes for young people depending on what that is. And then also, I see that it is a very diverse group. But I notice that we do not have a category for American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native American students. So that could be zero. Or we could be grouping them under other. And you guys know I feel very strongly that we do a land acknowledgment. And then we don't do anything for our native people. I don't expect you to have that number, but if you could email me and let me know if there are any native students that are a part of this group from last year.

Yes, I'm fairly sure that it is a category that we do let them select, but I will double check on that for you.

Perfect, thank you. All right, no one else has added their names to the list, so if that is accurate. Like I said, this is fantastic information to see. I see all the districts represented. I can't tell if mine is the 5% or the 6%, but Either way, I'll definitely make sure that District Ada gets that number bumped up because this is a very, very important program and I love that everyone has advocated to make sure that you guys get those positions back because as we all have seen with this budget stuff, civic engagement is very important and our young people need to know how this works in the real world so they can continue to advocate for themselves. So thank you so much. And, yeah, no one else has added themselves to the list. It looks like you got off early. I was like, you got off early tonight.

Commissioner Vasquez. Thank you, Chair. I think I did have a question earlier, and I'm glad you brought up the stats. And forgive me if this is the wrong presentation. I don't have an agenda in front of me tonight. Is this the one where District 1 had more participants than any other district? Is that this presentation or the next one?

I believe District 1's representation and participants on this was higher than other districts.

Significantly so, correct?

Yeah, I believe so, looking at the graph.

Yeah, to what do we attribute that?

I think their demand for, or they tend to have a significant amount of students participating in the Summer at City Hall program. And that may be partially as a product of where students So in the summer city hall program, traditionally the school districts play a big role in selecting who the students are that participate in the program. So they select, each school district has a certain amount of slots that they have on there, and then they're the ones that select where, or who the candidates are that they're gonna put into the program. And I believe in this year it's possible that they had selected a higher proportion of ones that were particularly in D1.

Do we have more districts in D1, school districts? I mean, do we have, what is it, like, Natomas and Twin Rivers? Do they all encompass D1? Is that maybe the, maybe they should have less slots if they have more districts. I mean, I'm just trying to figure it out, because I remember looking at this graph, and it was significantly, it was like D1 and everybody else. So how do we...

Yeah, we can certainly look at that, and I'll take that into consideration as we look at MOUs for next year on there. They do pay for their own students as a portion of it, as an MOU, so that is a portion to consider as we look at how we budget it as well.

Commissioner Florinelli.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to say thank you so much for this presentation. This program is very important to me because I was a part of this program for two years as a participant and then a peer mentor. And so I'm very glad that students advocated for it. And I'm very glad it will be returning. So thank you so much.

All right, thank you. So this item was receive and discuss only. No vote is required. So now we are gonna move on to the next item, which is item number six, community center's overview. It looks like staff is coming forward for a presentation.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Samantha Vu. I'm the Recreation Superintendent supporting community centers for YPSE. As you guys may know, community centers manages and operates 15 community centers and clubhouses throughout the city of Sacramento. Our dedicated team of 38 career professionals, including our program supervisors, career program team, customer service staff, and custodial work together to ensure these facilities remain welcoming, accessible, and responsible to community needs. Community centers truly serve as a lifeline of community care and support through our programming for all ages and abilities. Whether we're supporting youth and teens during after school hours, or providing opportunities for older adults to stay active, and connected, or offering safe and welcoming spaces for community gatherings, our centers truly play a vital role in strengthening our neighborhoods and enhancing quality of life. In addition to our core services, community partnerships are essential to our community. Partnerships with organizations such as Sacramento Public Library, the YMCA, SISTABES, CalAsian Chamber of Commerce, Youth Explosion, among many others, expand programming opportunities to better meet the diverse needs of the city. The highlights from this fiscal year, 2025, include 2,038 youth and teens enrolled in the Summer Oasis programs across nine park and community center locations, $129,000 awarded through the YPSF, or the Youth Program Scholarships, which provided access to recreation and enrichment opportunities for 193 participants through April 30, 2025. 1,082 rental permits were issued for weddings, family celebrations, community meetings, and special events. And then more than $288,000 in rental fees were waived for nonprofit organizations and community groups, which helped reduce financial barriers for accessing our public spaces. The reservations office, which is part of the community center team, issued 526 youth athletic field permits 225 adult athletic field permits, and then the youth athletic field permits served approximately 14,000 to 15,000 participants. In 2026 so far, youth participation has increased to an estimated 16,000 to 17,000 participants. The city continues to support access to 245 athletic fields through fee reductions and waivers. In 2025, we waived over $104,000 and more than $87,000 waived so far in 2026. If you haven't already, I know Joe seems really familiar with our community center programs. I would like to invite each of you to visit your local community center, whether that's during our summer programs or even just checking out our senior programs, which have been such a huge hit lately. So with that, thank you, and I'll be here if you have any questions.

Thank you. Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item? There are none chair Thank you. Are there any members of or are there any commissioners who would like to speak on this item Commissioner Florence?

Thank you Sam, thank you for the name check I was gonna name check you back right now, too. Oh No, I wanted to recognize, you know community centers. We all know play a big part of this city and when I was at that one council meeting where I both the aforementioned older folks who do Bell Coolidge Monday, Wednesday, Fridays took up literally that whole section right there, but then they were shouting you out. So just kudos to you and the team of how really important community centers are when a catalyst event like budget talks come, how, very important, it magically becomes, right? So just whatever you all are doing, keep doing that because the community, as you saw, really appreciates the efforts that the staff, the treatment and customer service that staff gives back to the community. FEEDS ITSELF, AND IT WAS VERY BEAUTIFUL TO SEE HOW HAPPY THEY WERE TO SEE YOU AND YOUR TEAM. SO I JUST WANTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT PART, TOO. AND THEN I KNOW ANTHONY IS RIGHT THERE IN THE WING. I KNOW HOW TO CREATE AN EVENT AT MARRIOTT PARK THAT REQUIRED SOME PERMITS. AND THE STAFF CUSTOMER SERVICE WAS AWESOME. EVEN THOUGH, YES, I AM A COMMISSIONER, BUT I WAS JUST A REGULAR JOE CITIZEN AND JUST THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF MAKING SURE EVERYTHING IS CORRECT TO CREATE A USE SERVING EVENT THAT, YOU KNOW, PASSED MUSTARD AND TO RECEIVE You know, I'm always happy when I get that email that says, here is your permit because you earned it, right? So, because we did it the right way, but we can't do it the right way without staff saying, hey, don't forget this, don't forget that, what's your trash plan, what's this, what's the safety plan, all that stuff, because it's those details that make an event safe, but with staff... WITH STAFF MAKING SURE THAT IS A PRIORITY BECAUSE THEN IT'S THE INVISIBLE LOGISTICS BEHIND THE SCENES AND THE APPRECIATION OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL AND THAT MAKES COMMUNITY CENTERS AND I KNOW ROBBIE AND I WE DO A COMMUNITY CENTER EVENT IN OCTOBER. IT'S A IT'S A FOCAL POINT IN THE COMMUNITY IS SOMETIMES GOES UNNOTICED BUT WHEN WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT THEY WOULD NOTICE IT BACK SO JUST YOU KNOW LIKE I SAID KUDOS TO THE TEAM THAT HELPS OUT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ASPECT OF IT THAT GETS SOMETIMES GETS LOST IN EVERYTHING THAT'S OUT THERE BUT WHEN WE SEE THIS PRESENTATION EVERY YEAR I ALWAYS TRY TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ALL GET YOUR FLOWERS BECAUSE WITHOUT THESE COMMUNITY CENTERS IT'S NOT THE PINEL CENTER BUT YOU KNOW MY. My bell coolage is small but mighty. You know, it's very appreciated. So thank you very much.

Also, thank you for showing up. I know it meant a lot to them going back to them after that meeting. And if you guys didn't get to see it, there was, I think, a 93-year-old senior who has been tending the bell coolage for quite some time. So it's been a really great experience to watch us really make that center more robust. So I appreciate it. Commissioner Vasquez.

Thank you, Chair. What are our proposed changes? Do we have a budget update or what's proposed for community centers going forward?

Currently, there are no proposed changes for community centers. We worked really hard the last couple of years to make sure we're able to sustain our programs. So there's not going to be no major changes at this time.

Beautiful. Thank you.

All right, well, I will just say you guys all know how I feel about community centers. I live in District 8, and the Pinnell Center is, you know, really a central focal point of our district. You can see, you know, obviously by the visits, you know, how important the center is to our neighborhood. I had spoken a couple months ago about the work event that I was able to have for the state of California there and just how proud I was to share the community center there. I'll be having... A family event there. My grandma is turning 95 this month. We're having her party there. It's just really great to be able to have something in the community, local. I grew up in South Sac between District 5 and District 8. So that's always been a part of my Sacramento story. So I love our community centers. And I will give a shout out to Bell Coolidge. My son has taken dance classes with Joanna for Joanna Joanna's kids are it for the last three years and I just recently I had to go to her studio and it's actually out in Carmichael and when I made that drive and I thought to myself never again and he would not be able to take you know afford because she's very affordable so he would not be able to take affordable dance classes if it wasn't for her being a partner of the city of Sacramento and offering it at Belle Coolidge because I'm not making that drive so so grateful and know that the city has partnerships um like they have with joanna who's fantastic and like i said three years he's been taking classes with her so the classes that are offered through partnerships at the community centers um the staff um like i've been able to get to know the staff at the pinell center um you know thea at the front desk at pinell if you guys get to know her she's she Walks me through all the paperwork all the time. You would think I'd know how to fill it out by now. But she's fantastic. Like I said, the people at Bell Coolidge. So if you guys are not familiar with your centers, make sure you go. But we're just really grateful for the staff and the centers and all that they do. you know, for the community. So, you know, always great to have you guys. Thank you for all of this. It does not go unnoticed.

Thank you so much. I'll bring those flowers back to our team.

All right. Well, that was receive and file only. No vote is required. So we are going to move on to the next agenda item, Department of Youth Parks and Community Enrichment Highlights.

Good evening. Again, Jackie Beecham, Director of Youth Parks and Community Enrichment. I am going to kick us off with our highlights and begin with a quick update on where we are at in the budget deliberation and adoption process. And then I will allow our Assistant Director, Shannon Brown, to close out with some overall department highlights. So just want to share, as many of you are aware, we've been navigating over the last month and a half or so on budget deliberations. I last presented to you an update on the proposed baseline strategies that were included in the proposed budget. And I want to express my appreciation to many of you who showed up at Council and advocated for the Youth Parks and Community Enrichment Department to ensure that all of the really critical programs and services that our department provides for the community were heard and I believe all of your voices were heard because I'm hopeful that the outcome that we'll see on Tuesday will be in favor of restoring many of the programs and services provided by our team. So we heard on May 12th there was a discussion based on feedback from the deliberations on May 5th where council members had identified the top three restorations among members to identify funding strategies. Of those three top items, two of them were from our department. One of them were the restoration of our wading pool operations, and the other was the restoration of our recreation swim hours at all of our neighborhood pools. At that meeting on the 12th, majority of council voted to Restore those items so we are expecting to see our waiting pools and our recreation swim pool neighborhood hours restored with the adopted budget on June 9th also at that meeting and council discussed additional items that were in the majority or top number of council memos that were submitted among council members and Council came back and discussed those items at the following council meeting Items discussed that were from YPSE included positions that support our older adult services department, included 26 park maintenance worker positions, included summer city hall positions, two positions, Sean spoke briefly about those, and two positions from our youth workforce development program. Council, majority of council voted to identify funding to restore all of those items. So we are hopeful that on June 9th, all of those items that I just mentioned, including our pools, will be part of the restorations in the proposed budget that goes before Council. There still are some reductions that we're facing. Besides the items that I mentioned, we have several vacancies that will be eliminated. We will continue to be identifying operational efficiencies to ensure that we are operating as efficiently and responsibly as possible. I'm really proud of the work that our team has done over the last several years to continue that work. We will continue to have a deficit next year, even with these restorations. But this is really great news for us if the budget is adopted with these restorations. I think it just really shows the value that our department and our team brings to the community. So happy to answer any questions, but We won't really know until we get through the 9th and hopefully can bring back more information to you in August when we return from break.

Shannon? Thank you. So for the department updates for 28th and B Skate Park, for summer we have camps scheduled at the skate park. There are no open skate park special events for summer as attendance in the hot months is limited. The RFP for the skate park operator is currently open on planet bids, and all the current providers have been notified. And the bid will close on June 5th. Pending award notification and contract execution, the city anticipates operations beginning fall of 2026. For summer 2026, we have several skate camps provided by Rob Skate and Yaw Skate. Registration is open and spaces are available for youth ages 7 to 14, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon. We have time blocks of June 15th through June 19th, June 22nd through the 26th, July 6th through the 10th, July 13th through the 17th. And then the next skate block would be For youth ages 7 to 12, with Rob Skate, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, July 20th through the 24th, July 27th through the 31st, and August 3rd through the 7th. In addition to our seasonal and internal programs and contracted camps and classes, we're open for rentals. For example, on May 30th, Project Lifelong rented the facility for a youth event. SkateMD hosts their skate clinics. They're several times a year under the fee waiver for the youth with disabilities and fully supported by volunteers. At the North Natomas Aquatic Complex was recently a site of the 2026 TYR Pro Swim Series. a premier four-day meet featuring top-tier national and international athletes and served as a high-profile platform for Olympic veterans and rising stars gearing up for future trials. Over 19 Olympians from multiple countries traveled to Sacramento along with 350 other elite athletes to compete for over $100,000 in prize money. The meet was run in partnership with DART and USA Swimming in coordination with the city. The venue received high praise and is recognized as a world-class facility suited for National Circuit events. The summer aquatic season is starting at our neighborhood pools and as local districts start their summer break. North Natomas Aquatic Complex began its summer rec swim this week. Johnston Robertson Doyle will open June 7th, and the rest of the neighborhood pools start on June 13th. Our Junior Giants program is underway with nearly 900 youth ages 5 to 17 participating in T-ball, baseball, and softball at Land Park. Our hands-on parent and volunteer training event is coming up this Saturday, June 6th, from 10 a.m. to noon on Diamond 3. Practice and games begin next week. If you are interested in volunteering, visit our website for more information. Expanded learning updates. Come celebrate with us Saturday, June 6th, as our fourth hour is celebrating its 40th year anniversary. The party will be at North Natomas Aquatic Complex. All of our splash pads are open citywide and functioning for the season. Our park rangers responded to over 1,020 calls for service and over 160 homeless response calls. Over Memorial Day weekend, our rangers responded to 100 calls for service, posted 90 picnic permits, and supported multiple special events over a three-day weekend. And our rapid response team completed seven park cleanups last month. And those are it for updates. Thanks.

Thank you. Are there any commissioners who would like to speak on this item? All right. Oh, yes.

Commissioner Vasquez. Thank you. There, thank you for the update on the skate park. So at this time, it's just seven to 14 or youth camps in blocks that are paid to private contractors. Do we have any idea as to when it would open back up to the public or have free open, not free, but open public skate for adults? I know the last time we cut the ribbon at the skate park, I think the average age of the participants were between 35 and 45 years old. So we've lost the ability to serve that population. Do we have any ideas as to will we be able to recapture that?

I believe once we receive the bids from the potential contractors that want to operate the facility, then in the fall we would definitely gear up and know what open camps or open skate time we'd be able to provide. But until we get those, we really need to see what they're offering for operation of the facility.

But we'll provide you an update as soon as possible. So we're asking them to tell us what they can provide instead of saying this is what we want you to provide.

We provided a scope of what our needs are, but again, when they provide the proposal, we'll have really in-depth of what they would be able to support. Great. Thank you, Shannon.

All right. Thank you. Well, we are going to move on. And since we are past 90 minutes of this meeting, I'm going to flip the schedule a little bit. And I'm going to move directly to public comments matters, not on the agenda, just in case we run out of time. So are there any members who would like to speak on this item?

There are, Chair. We have two, Carla Black and then Zeus.

Good evening. Okay. Good evening, chair and commissioners. My name is Carla, and I'm asking that this commission, I'm asking this commission to publicly agendize and discuss the city of Sacramento's proposed Title 17 cannabis zoning changes. Staff and council seek to put drugs next to parks and youth-centered programs. This commission exists to protect and enhance and promote the safe parks, recreation spaces, and community programs for Sacramento residents, especially for children and families. Yet today the city is considering rolling back longstanding protections that were specifically designed to keep cannabis businesses further away from youth-serving spaces, residential neighborhoods, churches, parks, and other sensitive uses. Please ask yourselves, Why are we moving highly intoxicated, highly addictive, cancer-causing products closer to the very parks, recreation facilities, and youth programs this commission worked so hard to support? And this is not theoretical. Just recently in Sacramento, an armed robbery at a cannabis business turned into a deadly gun battle involving a dispensary security guard and armed suspects exchanging gunfire. These are the types of public safety risks that come along with this industry. armed robberies, violence, impaired driving, and dangerous criminal activity. Children should not be placed closer to these environments. Because these are proposed zoning changes directly affecting parks, recreation spaces, youth activities in neighborhoods, quality of life, this commission should have a voice in the discussion before irreversible decisions are made. I respectfully ask that you add Title 17 to a future agenda publicly discuss the impacts these changes have on parks, youth programs, families, and surrounding neighborhoods, and formally oppose weakening these protections. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Zeus. You have two minutes.

Hi, Chair and Commissioner. My name is Zeus and I am nine years old. I like swimming and playing baseball and playing with my friends at the park. I know that cannabis is a drug and drugs make people's brains sick. I'm asking the parks community. Parks and community. Enrichment. Enrichment. commission to please discuss the city's new cannabis zoning changes at a future meeting this commission is supposed to protect kids like me so i don't understand why the city wants to move cannabis businesses closer to places where me and my friends play baseball and where other kids play. Drugs are harmful for everyone, especially young people because their brains are not fully developed. And these drug stores have even been involved in robberies and violence. Please think about my safety and kids first. I ask you to please discuss helping protect Sacramento's children and neighborhoods. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much for being here and for your comments. We really appreciate it. All right, clerks, we are gonna go back to commissioner comments, ideas, and questions. Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item? Commissioner Vasquez.

Thank you, Chair. I was absent last time, so I do have a double for you today. Happy Pride Month to everyone. Happy Gemini season to all of our Geminis. I've been very inspired this week thinking about our role as commissioners with budget cuts, seeking to possibly cut commission time in half, cutting from 10 meetings to possibly five meetings. And I've been thinking about my Geminis and how my favorite Geminis have the ability to see all sides of an issue. That's their special talent, right? And I feel like as commissioners, that should be our special talent as well. That not only do we listen to what our community members are asking of us and to their requests, but also watch the implementation of our parks plan 2040, make sure that that's in alignment, talk to our council offices, see what their wishes are, and hear from YPSE what their constraints are, what their goals are, what their plans are. That really is seeing all sides of it, and then combining in our own expertise to help advise the policies that are within that draft plan, or excuse me, our finalized plan, Parks Plan 2040. And I really enjoyed seeing in our agenda the points in the Parks Plan in our agenda this month. I really enjoyed seeing the actual policies pulled into the staff reports, and I hope that we can continue that going forward. If we were to cut our time down in half, the basis of that was determined last meeting I saw to be based upon how many meetings did a commission cancel? What is the work plan of that commission? How much of that work are they actually getting done? And that is why I asked for an update on our follow-up log, because our work plan for the year has only one thing on it, aside from 9-1-6 Day, which is for us to decide how do we want to amend any policies that we have for civic engagement. And it is such a poignant time for that with what is happening now. So, you know, we're halfway through the year and we haven't got it on our agenda yet. That's something that we need to do. If we feel that our commission needs to have 10 meetings a month, or excuse me, a year, as opposed to five, we really need to make sure that we are not just receiving updates, but also completing the work that is asked of us, of our community members. You know when I asked for this item to be put on our work plan for the year Earl Warren Park was going through there Choose the new amenities after a fire meeting and I thought that could be a really great way to watch a process from beginning to end and Figure out collaborate with the things that we have asked for in the past You know how many voices were there? How was that community engagement? managed. I think that's a really good way of starting it. And now seeing the Cesar Chavez naming, having already a QR code and a website and a way for the entire city, not just District 4, to engage with, I think that's another really great example of a process we can watch from beginning to end. See, does it really cost more? How many more people can we reach out to? And Jason Wiseman came to Colonial Village and made the demonstration, showed the proposed choices, opened up the survey, and now I have questions. The survey closed. What was the result? How was the community notified of the result? What was the result? What did we choose? Did the budget affect that? I have so many questions. I would really like for us to understand, going forward, the way that this is written in the follow-up log is that the commission will come up with a plan and present it to YPSE. But I think that's not written correctly, because this is a collaborative process. And this is what this commission is intended to do. It's intended to see all sides of this issue, to work with the department, to see if the policy needs to be amended, to work with the community to figure out how do they want to be heard? How do they want to participate in our parks plan? Do we need a change to policy? So I have a couple of requests as this comes up and as this is agendized, using Earl Warren as an example. Jason, I thought you did such a great job at that community meeting. So Mr. Wiseman, bravo. I thought it was great what you showed up with there. But the questions I would have for us to get started in our work plan for the year are from YPSE, what is the current protocol for community engagement? Specifically when we're asking them to weigh in on park amenity, park naming here is a really good example as well. What do you currently do? What's your current protocol? What would we like to see changed as commissioners What are the next steps in our work plan? How are we going to come together? In what month are we going to look at what is currently happening? What else do we want to happen? And how can we go forward so that we have a report at the end of the year? And if we do get cut down to five meetings, how are we going to prioritize that work that we need to present back to? Council. I heard in the Cesar Chavez renaming presentation that we really want this to be inclusive and community driven. That's exactly it, right? How do we use that as the theme for making sure our community engagement with our neighborhoods is inclusive and community driven? When we open up those surveys, do we want to have a standardized number of days? And if we don't reach the number of folks that we wanted to reach, What is the next standardized step? How much longer do we open it up for? What are the next steps as to how we're doing that community outreach? Who else are we engaging to share our messaging, aside from us commissioners and aside from YPCE? What community partners are we using to share out that messaging? And again, how are the results displayed? Folks who took those surveys and took the time, they're asking me like, What happened? And I don't really know, right? So how are we publicly posting those results? Can we do that? How could we do that? What's the best way to do that? Were our namesake families notified? This Saturday, you can all come down to Artivio Guerrero Park at 9 a.m. to do a mulching volunteer event along with the surviving family of Artivio Guerrero, right? I think this is a really wonderful event. way to make sure that our community is engaged and that our families who have namesake parks are engaged. Did we notify Earl Warren's family, who is local, that we were making amenity changes in their park? I think we should do that. And I think that's a really great protocol to write into park changes. So if we could hear back, what are the current policies or protocols when you're doing community engagement? Because I know you have some. so that we can collaborate together on our work plan to see if there are any changes needed at all. What languages do we want? How do we want to incorporate equity? I, for several years on this commission, have been asking how are we prioritizing amenities that are being changed? How are we prioritizing where those dollars are going to parks and how do you get in line? Why is this not a public-facing process? How do people know that their requests are being listened to and where they are in the pecking order of when their parks will be fixed. So I would really like to know, you know, we were just relying on the park equity tool to do that. It was coming and now it's gone. We're doing the seed tool now. And the wonderful seed folks who developed seed came to us and asked us, what equity protocols do we want to see built into the seed tool for parks? And we haven't reached back out to them with any. We have some great ideas as to how we can use the seed tool. But we need to get that back on the agenda to express to the people who are holding our equity measures what we want to see, how we want to use it, and then rewrite that policy into the parks plan. That really is our charge as commissioners. I really, really love that a toolkit is coming for Cesar Chavez. How can we make sure that this park is a... Correct me if I'm wrong. Is this a regional park? Is Cesar Chavez? No, it's just a D4 park. So what is the difference between engagement for a regional park and a community park? Is there a difference in budget? Is there a difference in how we're reaching out aside from language changes? Who are our main partners, our nonprofit partners that we're reaching out to? And how can we write a protocol to make sure that we have a current list of those family members of the namesake parks of the current folks who are taking care of their parks, the current volunteer groups who are in those parks all the time, how are they corralled? How do we know who they are so that we can reach out to them? Can we build a little bit of policy in so we check those boxes when we are engaging our community? So I would really like to see this get onto the agenda so that we can receive these kind of answers back so we have a place to start from. You know, if this is something that needs an ad hoc committee, maybe we create one. If it's not, then we just need to start working on it so that when this conversation comes to city council about what is the Parks Commission doing, what is their purpose, what is the reason that they're meeting 10 times a year, that we have an answer, that we are doing work, that we are making sure that our communities are heard, that we are doing what we said we were going to do. Is it time for a citywide update on the naming convention, on the naming policy? I think so, yeah. I really like what you said, Commissioner Flores, about there's work that's already been done. And how is that captured? Aside from going back and rewatching a September 2021 meeting, how do we incorporate the reason that we made changes to policies into existing policy so that information is there somehow and somewhere? I think that's really important. I really think it's a good idea to have new programs like park sketchers and pilot programs and art programs and different ways that communities can use our parks, but I want the pecking order of how our funds are being spent to be honest and fair and that we understand what is waiting and what is next so that we can incorporate those local partners. We can find ways to minimize the cost to the department because I know when I see the 916 day end of year wrap up, I feel like the largest budget there is staff time. It's our marketing team. It's community engagement. That is huge. It's so big every year that it makes me wonder, is 916 Day worth it? Is it? Of course. It's a great idea to have a citywide 916 Day led by parks. Of course it is. But that is a huge expense to reach out. How do we make sure that those dollars are captured best? How do we make sure that they're used in the best possible way? So that's my requests for the follow-up log. And the follow-up log itself, we had discussed in the past that when responses come back, that they would be posted on the follow-up log. But I am receiving emails that are to the entire commission that I can't respond to because that would violate the Brown Act. So I'm not able to have that discussion. I feel like that's an endgame for our discussions when we get information back. So I would like to see the answers that were coming on the follow-up log directly to us be put on the follow blog as originally was intended. And I have received a message while up on the dais about the Skechers plan. I have a request for Mayfong Park. I will share that with you now. Wonderful. Wonderful. Okay, great. So I would also, I would like to say some thank yous. We're coming to the end of our school year here, and I have in District 6 a school that I have worked very closely with, which is West Campus High School. And I have some specific thank yous. One of them is to Lynette Megan, who does not ever fail to ask me, when is the L&L application coming out? How can I get the L&L application out to our students at West Campus? When is this going to open up? I'm so grateful to Lynette Megan for continuing to have that relationship open with District 6 and with me as a parks commissioner, because she cares so much about the students at West Campus. The Foundation for Excellence at West Campus has done such a wonderful job doing the same thing, asking me, what are your volunteer events? How can we get our kids involved? So thank you to them. And most importantly, to the students, specifically the graduating class of 2026, who have shown up to volunteer with YPSE in every single district. In every district, I have worked with kids from West Campus. Students, congratulations. I'm so proud of you. Happy graduation. And thank you so much for all of the hours that you have brought to your parks. I hope that when you come back and visit them someday that you look at the trees that you planted, you see the backboards that you painted, and you remember them fondly. So thank you so much to West Campus. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Laver?

I just had a follow-up question on the public comment about the cannabis. I mean, they need to go to the Planning Commission. Our commission here doesn't handle that. Is that correct? Am I asking the right question or not?

Oh, I was just going to say that I think the comment I can talk with staff and we can determine whether or not there's an appropriate forum, an appropriate discussion to be had here in terms of proximity to parks, but I think you're right. I think more likely it is at the Planning Commission, but we'll have a discussion with staff.

Also, tomorrow morning there's going to be a company coming to Southside Park and I wanted to invite Jackie to come They make a donation to GTS, and a private company is going to spend about two to three hours cleaning the playground and park and spend ongoing collaboration for about four or five years or longer that these companies reach out to me, and I feel blessed that that happens.

All right, thank you. This concludes today's meeting agenda. Thank you for your participation. This meeting is adjourned.