Parks & Recreation Board - Regular Meeting

Deans of the city for a long time, and we have a lot of qualified individuals that can, you know, help out in a positive way, but that right there is not anything good. The other question is, what's going on with that parking spot up there at the old Thompson's Island with that area right there? I know right now y'all found that crap in the in the bridge or something like that. And but that spot up there, we used to park there. Never had a problem. Why is it not being used? We have an excessive flow of people coming to the river, and the city decides to take away park spots. You know? For years, I've been parking on Cheatham Street. And the other day, drove up there.

I noticed y'all got those signs up there. And, you know, then you go to the Dunbar area, then you notice that all the university students are parked over. So when is this gonna stop where you're funneling students traffic in other directions? You know? Sooner or later, smarter decisions have to be made to address the issue because this ain't working. I said, it's not hard. It's not hard. You drive out there, and if you have any kind of training or experience, you'll be able to see him.

The Dunbar area, just for clarification, what area exactly in the

Right there by the little Calibus area. I know there's a bunch of cars parked there, and I know they're all college students that are coming up there. Why is that neighborhood now being flooded with flow from over here pushing that way? You know? So just, you know, so yeah. I noticed, you know, the river? And I don't know if this is miss Williams. I've never met her. I've heard of her. But, again, just like last time when I was here in my little four wheeler, the marshals are not following the law. They're supposed to have their flags six feet high and all that stuff. And you ought to see some of the things that they're doing with their flags. They're not in compliance. Y'all want pictures? That's fine.

I don't mind doing that, but I want consequences. It's pretty simple. You know, there's section of transportation code and, you know, we work rest of that was chased at and Stanridge and some other folks. So just just some things that, you know, we wanna we would like some feedback on it. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Ramayan, for your comments.

Maybe we can

try to answer some of those by email and.

Did you provide an email?

Did you provide your email?

I believe I might have it. It hasn't changed. Okay.

I got it then. Okay. Our next item is our previous meeting minutes from January 15. Do we have a motion to approve those, please? A motion to approve. K. Can we have a second for that? I second. Thank you, Jojo. Is there any questions on the minutes from last month's meeting? If not, can you call the wrong person?

Dan Alden?

Approved.

Jojo So to?

Yeah. Approved.

Aye. Derek Gribblin?

Approved.

And Repet?

Approved.

Johns Meiges?

Aye.

Motion passed.

And if you wanna

Read the next notes?

Yes.

Item two, receive a staff presentation, full discussion, and provide feedback regarding the proposed city marshal office mission statement.

You can stand or sit.

Yes. Okay. Well, I'll stand mostly because I'm vertically challenged, so otherwise, you won't get some. I'm wanting to get something in front of this board. Obviously, you are the Parks Advisory Board. Thanks, Tiffany Williams. I should start with that. I am the new city marshal. Previous history was I was at San Marcos PD for almost eighteen years, was the interim filling doing double duty, and then moved over to the marshal's office officially in October. So we are, kind of redesigning, reimagining what that office looks like.

And I say that in conjunction with our city ordinance, that designates us city marshals department that is responsible for city facilities, green spaces, parks, also municipal port. In doing that, and looking at the websites and what our mission statement was, it was pretty lengthy. And if any of you have ever been in the business of creating a mission statement, you know that if you have to take more than a breath, it's too long. It's something that is easily forgettable, and that's not what you want your guiding light to be. So in that same vein, what we were trying to do is come up with a new mission statement that gave us kind of a guiding light, a better guiding light, much shorter, much more concise, and wanted to come in front of this board.

We are also gonna seek some other public input avenues, but wanted to come in front of this board, share our two mission statement options. I'm actually gonna ask you the same questions that's going to go out in a public survey get your all's feedback. So if at any point in time you see me, hopefully, shut up and sit down and I start typing, we're gonna try and capture all of that to refine it or just get your opinions on it and get some of the answers to those questions. So, miss Case or director Case, did you have the opportunity in their packets to share the two mission statements?

Yes, ma'am. I included the memo.

Excellent. For the sake of I'll read them out loud just in case someone doesn't have the packet in

front of them. Yep.

We're about to share it. Bring it up online. Oh, wonderful. Then I will spare you my reading to you.

Please do. Okay.

Are you okay. I'm ready. Option one, the San Marcos City Marshals Department serves the community by safeguarding parks, green spaces, and city facilities, and by standing alongside city partners to support safe, accessible, and well managed public spaces for all. Option one. Option two. Mission of the San Marcos City Marshals Department is to serve the community through care, presence, and partnership, supporting parks, green spaces, and city facilities while collaborating with city services to enhance the quality and safety of public spaces. Now I will also caveat before anyone goes, hey. Did you run this through chat GPT? Oh my gosh. Yes.

So many times of refining much lengthier and trying to figure out how do we get in a little bit of everything, and then remembering and trying to violet boil it down to its finer points. So those are the two options that are currently on the table. I'd like to throw a few questions at you all, and then whether you want me to ask them all at one time, and then we go back to each one or just take them one by one. I'll leave that up to you all. One, I guess just on knee jerk alone, which of the two mission statements does this bore or do you all individually prefer? Does either one of them resonate resonate more strongly than anyone's?

Okay. Not hearing anyone jump in just yet. I'm gonna ask you a question back in response to your And just having worked on a number of mission statements before for the charter and other things, does no. You you start out with the marshals department serves the community, and it's kind of the same in the in the second one. I was just trying to get a feedback from you of what is the main mission of the marshals department. Like, what do you see it as?

I see it as I'm gonna go a bit off script and speak very candidly that and I base this on my exposure at SMPD and knowing some of the history there of it should be much more intensive in our parks and our green spaces, the collaboration with city facilities. And I don't I don't know historically that that has always been the way that it has been. I can only make some assertions about why it has been under different guidance, but I go back to our city ordinance where it says, like, this is your purview, green spaces, your city parks. And so for me, our city marshals department should be working much more closely with our parks division and also having conservation training, conservation awareness, and being able to be those extra eyes, right, of not just the public safety aspect, the education, not just from the penal code law, but also the things that crossover into laws that impact the parks, whether they be state or federal, and having just some of that awareness, that is what I see as being our mission. So how do we get back to service to the public while maintaining, obviously, our public safety purview, but also embracing more of the conservation considering that our parks are quite the gym in San Marcos.

I think if anybody was paying attention to our most recent council meeting, you got to hear how people really value those. We need to be more in line of doing that on the daily. That was a very long winded answer, and I have no idea what you

think he answered it or not.

I think he did. I mean, I got and you you mentioned more intensive than it's I mean, that was the word that you used. You meant that than it has been in the past

Yes.

From a conservation stand as well as an educational standpoint as well as the public safety standpoint. Right? So which one of these options has those words most?

I would say which one has the ability to encompass it more without just completely cornering us into, like, this is what we do, you're like, well, it is At what point? Right.

Did you try to work in conservation and education, the specific words in there?

It was a longer one, and this is what after I actually what I initially tried to do is take all of the different facets, the different departments that are under our purview. I should say divisions. That's clear. We are a department. Our divisions are we have a patrol division, which is who you see out in the parks in the summertime. Right? So you have your deputy marshals and you have your park rangers. Your park rangers who are out there can enforce class c's, but their primary is medical support. They have EMT training. We are working to cross train our deputy marshals in that same as well.

So that's our patrol division. And then we also the fire marshals actually are underneath our city marshals department for their TCOL compliance only. So we maintain their cert their state certification. Then we have parking enforcement and towing compliance under the city marshals department. And then we also have municipal court.

Now with municipal court having moved to its own building, we are now completely responsible for all of that security from the screening to the intake to the courtroom, all of that. So I tried to take a mission statement and, like, mention each of those departments, and it was a little over a paragraph long. And then trying to expand on each of those divisions and what they would focus on, and it just it got it was just far too long. So this was the refined, and I pitched it out to some other directors, sought their feedback as well. How can we bring this back where we can say this is our mission statement?

But, yes, now you can see where and one of them for me when it speaks to enhance the quality and safety of the public spaces. To me, I'm like, I can work conservation into that. I can I could apply a broader interpretation of conservation into the quality of those public spaces? That's how my mind read it.

I think those words are really, really striking and and attractive to me, conservation education. Number two stands out to me a little bit more because of the word presence because I think that the public feels more comfortable when they see you. And I know in the past, y'all have been short staffed, and we're gonna get no it would but more people arriving every year, especially in this the summer season. And I think that that allows the public to to see that you're trying to be present. You're trying to be seen.

And then it also allows the marshals department to advocate for marshals.

Indeed. So well, that's actually another component of the marshals department. Again, going a bit off script, please forgive me, miss Jamie Lee. Please do keep me honest. If ever you're like, you went too far. Rabbit Trail. Get back here, Alice. When it comes to the parks, that's actually another component of the city marshals department is recognizing there does come a point when you cannot continue to throw people at it. You can't continue to throw, in this case, cops at a problem. When we're talking about the conservation, what other things can we do?

And so having already had a relationship built with director Case from having worked in the city and coming back and going and her being like, what do you think of the idea of the fence? And I was like, oh my gosh. Yes. How can we how can we funnel folks so that they have more touch points of education? Because otherwise, we we can't keep throwing you you can throw as many people as you want, but you're never gonna be able to educate that many people or have how can we increase our success possibility? And so the fence was a really great one. And so just coming up with other ways also of how can we support the goals of safety and conservation? Well, one, you gotta have folks who can come through a touch point, and maybe it doesn't even have to be police officers. And in this case, it wasn't. It's park ambassadors.

Like, what are other ways though that it enhances what we do and vice versa so that we can also keep the main thing the main thing when it comes to being the certified peace officers. We wanna focus on the safety and the education, mostly the education when we get the chance, but then the safety when we absolutely have to. How can we stay focused on that without continuing to throw cops at it? And so we we're finding more and better ways, and now that's coming back for the second year. But that is very supportive of our goal of also working and building better relationships and partnerships with other city departments to accomplish the same task.

And the managed access was actually in a recommendation from the board. So it wasn't my my my brainchild. It was

Well, wherever so thank you. Board from where this came from, she was like, what do you think? And I was like, can we start tomorrow? And she's like, calm down.

We've asked the same question.

So so I I love the idea, but it was huge for us because that just so you all know from this board since that now I know that that was your brainchild. You may have told me this, and I forgot. No. It's okay. I just wanna take the credit when it was Fair enough. Collaborative. But knowing that that came from this board, I was not out there in 2024. I was out there in 2025, and I got to hear the feedback. And initially, it was not positive. Right? Lots of people who were like, quite frankly, what the hell is this fence? It's absolutely ugly. Many other colorful terms. But as the summer went on and when we would have the opportunity to talk through, it's temporary. We're testing it.

It's managed access. This is why. We got there was such a shift in not just the the neighborhood, the the residents around there going we've seen so many less issues with parking, with trash, with people blocking our driveways. Just folks it again, it brought in metric of organization to what was otherwise chaos. And it helped on so many fronts to where we didn't need the same number of cops that were brought in at the July 4 in 2024.

They had to bring in cops and contract peace officers to just deal with the crowds. We still contracted in 2025, but not to the same level and same number because we just didn't need it. You were able to bring organization to something that was otherwise chaotic. So just so you all know, it was huge, and it was a huge benefit to us. The deputies that were out there this past summer were like, we were afraid of summer twenty twenty five. And summer twenty twenty five was much more pleasant where they actually enjoyed coming to work. So that's my long winded way of saying thanks for that.

What other ideas you got?

So it just a follow-up question then is is first off, I didn't know the marshal's office did all No. I

didn't know that. But

the main role that you think that the public thinks the Marshall's office is park system?

Yes, sir.

I'm just gonna make a suggestion on item two, but, you know, think about it

Okay.

Through in the second line, mission of the San Marcos City Marshals Department to serve the community through care, presence, and partnership. I might add our care, the word our, just simply because I think it shows that, you know, you're a you're a person you're a group

of people.

They're human beings, not just a department. And and I agree with Ben. The if you can work in somewhere in there, I think in any you could even replace word. But if you can work in conservation and education, I think that

would go a long way as well.

Just the words.

Okay. Work in all sorts.

I like this I like option two a little bit better, I think.

You were about to mention replace. Is there a specific word that you were thinking to replace or not sure yet?

I mean, I think everything's important, and it and I don't think it has to be so short and so sweet. I think it can be too short and too sweet. Having written mission statements for two charter city charter amendment processes, that's all that's the first page, and it went from three pages Yeah. To, like, a short two paragraphs. And then said, well, this is not long enough.

There's so much more that needs to be said about the mission statement of the city. And so they expanded it by another couple of paragraphs. And that's the whole that encompassed the entire mission statement of the city itself. But so I understand brief brevity on it, and I I get that, like, you know, that fewer words sometimes often have more impact, but it doesn't mean to be super short.

Don't sacrifice meaning for brevity is

what I I would say. Yeah. Add to it.

Excellent.

Any other thoughts that you have or front contentions? Yeah.

I was gonna comment gonna ask, you know, which that pretty well with talking about different areas like parking and towing. And but then you come back around like, no. It's parks. So I see that here, but it it's really more than parks, you know, from what you said.

It is.

And I don't know. You

kinda box yourself in here. But, I mean, I've seen marshals pull over people for traffic violations. Yes. Park on, you know, post road doing speeding.

Yes.

So it's not just parks. That in my mind, it it's it's broader than that. I agree. I think option two has a little bit more to that. But, you know, only other comment I might ask is, you know, in in large corporations, but, you know, it's not just a mission, but, like, what's your vision? Do you have a vision statement as well? Maybe you can move some of that to your vision and, you know, make your mission. This is you know, we can help support San Marcos or Hays County. It's not just these areas. The whole community.

Yes. Well, this is the public facing portion. So, yes, we actually have then an internal I will find it as I hopefully am able to

That's a good point. Okay.

So I will work to find this. But, yes, this is our public facing mission statement. But internally then, it's not just the visioning, But then the, okay. What is our our this is our mission, public facing, but how do we get there? Right? This is the what. This is our guiding light. But now how are we gonna get from here to there? What's our internal? And so ours is Oh, I found it. Did you? Okay. Now please.

Yeah. So your internal value statement, good teams have rules. Great teams have standards. Rules tell you what you can't do. Standards define what you won't accept. We set and adhere to standards.

So this is one that internally I got a a resounding where internally, that's what our the employees that are that are there from the fire marshals to parking the deputy marshals, whether regardless of whether they beat patrol and municipal court, was like, yes. Like, hey. We've gotta start. We what are our standards? What are the things we're not willing to accept? I don't want to be the city marshal who says, well, these are our rules. If we have to adhere to rules, we're already missing a point. So what direction are we going? So to speak to your point

of yes.

Our jurisdiction actually is citywide. But to rein that in, as at one point in time, city marshal department also had a motion. I still struggle with trying to find the way that it's and then the way that it was actually implemented that went well beyond the scope of what is dictated in city limits. So I was like, that stops now, and we're going to bring ourselves back to what is our main focal point. We have absolute glorious purpose. Running traffic in places of I want you on ATVs and UTVs and out on foot in the parks. Running traffic can be a component of it, but it should not be the main focus.

K. So that's you're seeing Marcus' mission, but, you know, there's marshals all over. You know? Is there, like, you know, like, gang worms? They can go anywhere and do anything.

They are statewide. Yes.

Then you have, you know, local police, and you got you know, to me, you know, like marshals, you

know, think, you know, you can

jump on planes and go capture somebody. You know? It's like you got Yeah. Where where is like, from a

Like, town

of New Jersey. Government standpoint, what is your authority? You know? Is it just parks? I mean,

Great great question. So I can clarify. So your city marshals are just that. They are not commiserate with US marshals. We are the same certification level as any San Marcos police department officer is. It's the same TCOL license. So we are anywhere that is San Marcos territory and per the penal code. There are certain areas in which you can act outside of your geographical jurisdiction, but we are beholden to the San Marcos jurisdiction. We, at the city marshals department, even more specific in San Marcos, our focus should be green spaces and parks and all that. We've been through that.

But that does not prohibit us from if San Marcos PD needed help or if they were calling for help. They can come help us, and we can help them, and there is no issues with jurisdiction. But we are dedicated city marshals to the city of San Marcos with the point of alleviating some of that specific law enforcement and public safety in areas where San Marcos has the whole rest of the city. Hey. You all focus on what you focus on. We got this, but we can still interplay when we need to.

Mhmm. This is something like enforcing public safety, and that's, like, to me, that's your main mission. Right? And then maybe say, well, in particular, you know, these are our focus areas, but your jurisdictions, it's not just those spaces. Yes. But, I mean, to me, I might see this and, like, get pulled over for speed. I'm like, you can't do this. Like

And and they absolutely can, and that's a that's a component. You're bringing up a very great point that I'll I'll have to send this back to Russell, one of our communications guys, of saying, like, how do we how do we explain what a city marshal is? Because you are not the first person who's been like, I don't understand. You're like, well, it's a cop. And they're like, I still don't understand if we haven't even crossed that bridge. Maybe we're putting the cart before the horse.

I mean, to me, it's like, this is park ranger.

Mhmm. And people yeah. People very frequently get those two. You can use them interchangeably, but our park rangers do not carry guns. But they carry everything else, but they are EMT medical specific. Yeah.

I don't

I don't read that.

Got it.

So what which one do you like?

I would say two probably sounds

closer to

to avoiding. Jojo,

do you have any anything any comments or thoughts? A little bit

their mission statement, but a little bit in the sense of, like, maybe it should encompass, like, you were saying the certain words that like, I like the words you were highlighting that I think that they should add into that statement. I think that would really kinda sweeten it

up a little bit for me.

K. K. So what I think what I think I've heard from the board is option two looks I'm sorry, Derek. You wanted to add. Apologize.

The only I say two things. Everything I vote on is to make it better for the community, people that live here. And the other thing is public safety. And you got your work cut out for you. You're gonna need some some more help. So, hopefully, we can help you get some more money and some more people because

We're working on it.

Friday night, I almost I probably should have called it, but it was so chaotic down there. I've seen there was a drug deal in front of me and my kids. There's people on dirt bikes at Children's Park.

At Children's Park?

Yes. There's people on dirt bike. Two kids on well, they were college kids probably on dirt bikes. And then there was a drug dealers were right next to us as we're getting in our cars. And so Yeah. Well, you're gonna have your work cut out, and we're gonna have to get some money through parking and stuff to to get some more people for you to cover more hours. It was it was pretty pretty crazy. This is after dark. You know? This is in the evening. We go to it's right at right at sunset. It just it lit up. Yeah. And there's still all the little kids and parents as well. You know?

And there was a couple down the block, you know, but there were still hails. I said kids. Drug deal. Dirt bikes. And stuff was was definitely I was ready to leave with not having my kids there.

Absolutely. And that is a shame. I'm sorry for that experience. And one of my other endeavors that is is is personal to me of that previously I don't wanna say there's been per se bad blood, but there has been some barriers to a better working relationship between the city marshals department and the police department. I think that was one of the reasons why I may have been an attractive candidate to fill this role full time is because I already came from the police department. And a lot of times, the San Marcos police officers, I did not know as much about specific park ordinances. There were many times this past summer that I was like, hey, Jane. Can they do this? And she's like, oh, no. Sweet thing.

Here you go. And she's sending me screenshots, and I was like, I've been here. I've been a cop in San Marcos for seventeen years, and even I didn't know to the specificity. I would like to bridge the gap much better with our San Marcos police officers so that when you don't have a city marshal available, again, we're much more interchangeable and that they know it. Mister Amaya, to his point, even spoke to that. He sure did corner one of our San Marcos officers who didn't know those rules of which have already been very clearly rectified and explained. But yet that officer didn't have that information. I was like, we gotta do a better job at some cross training and education. So already in the works, but still clearly much more work to do.

Oh, so ongoing. You're with the growing population. We

can see

more people.

Okay.

Eric, did you have an option that kinda stuck Two two is good. Sounds like board's saying two looks like a good suggestion with maybe some minor modifications and, you know, an emphasis on conservation and education. And I think those are good. Okay. Emphasis

might be

good. But,

yeah, does that help?

It very much helps. So I'm just gonna do a quick readback of the notes that I took from you all of the what I think are the salient points. So gosh knows if I missed a salient point. Please do let me know. But our care, instead of just care, it's more specific and humanizes.

Add words education and conservation if possible. Perhaps it's too short and sweet, and we're sacrificing meaning for brevity, being clear about what our vision is and what actually the city marshals are. Maybe start there before we in this public survey that we're gonna do, start with what the city marshal's office is, our jurisdiction, to help people have a better foundation before we go into the mission statement. Delineate better between law enforcement and park rangers if possible. Not sure that's specific to the mission statement,

but overall, that would be helpful.

All of you seem to be leaning towards number two, and then it's just make it a better place for the people who live here, focus on public safety. And then I did capture some notes so that I can share that with some folks over at the PD at night, and that jives of some other reports that I'm aware of as well.

Did you type all

that while we were talking?

Yes. She's wicked fast. She'd be

a bright city clerk.

I didn't see her type. Okay.

Is there I don't wanna get is there anything else that merits I not to go off script, but since you have me here and this conversation kind of touched on a few areas, is there anything else that I can clarify, answer, air traffic control guidance?

Can you come back, you know, after after things really heat up, maybe after the July 4, and and talk to us a little bit more about maybe the, you know, the progress we're making with Of what you need. Yeah. The dates you may have, that kind of stuff. Yeah. We can maybe

do a post July 4 update at our August meeting.

Great. Just I would be looking for you want observations. You like to know what do we need. Is there any other specificity that you would be looking for so I can make sure that I capture that or am prepared with that that data or information?

I think it's important for us to get a picture of what you're seeing. Some of us are there, but not all not, you know, all day for a couple of days. And it it's not just the holidays, I think, that we all have talked about on a number of occasions, but it's the it's the locals experience. You know? How do we how do we provide our green spaces and our park system for the locals to be able to enjoy seven days a week because they're off on weekends too.

And, you know, that's always been a strong call to action, I think, for this board is, you know, how do we how do we enhance their experience? Another thing. And balance the whole tourism thing and, you town visitors and whatnot.

The other thing I noticed being in in positions, you know, where stuff comes down and you get stuff implemented, and sometimes it's from, you know, our recommendations or whatever. Yeah. If you think it's crazy, like, let us know. You know, stuff like that. Like, it worth throwing an idea at you.

You get the refined version of me. If I thought it was stupid, you would probably hear some expletives, but I'm trying to rein that in and be a better version of myself.

But no. That's I mean, there's sometimes, you know, decisions come down

Yeah.

That people don't aren't aren't in your shoes. And you know right off the bat that Yes, sir. Hey. This probably isn't a good idea, guys, in here as well. You know? Or this is a great idea, and let's push for more. Like, pay parking. If you think that's a great idea and we need to do more of it, let us know.

It is a great idea.

Yeah.

If our true mission is to provide for better conservation, education of our parks, and be able to maintain them from here and into the future

You need to push it.

You that there has to be some sort of that I'm not I'm not looking to price anyone out. I'm not looking to like, can't do it for free.

Not anymore.

Not anymore.

Try that.

We did try that.

So It used to be you, and you'll remember. It was like you talk about paid parking or managed access. You were just some kind of crazy person who was never gonna be heard from again. But now it's part of the mainstream conversation and stuff.

Excuse me. Lots of changes. So Vince was I I can't I cannot say enough because of any time. If I have learned anything in my time in law enforcement, anytime that you can bring any semblance of organization to a chaotic scene, your chances of success go up exponentially. And that's what happened to sharing the parks with defense alone.

And it did things that, otherwise, if you would have said them in perhaps more direct turns, it would have been off putting, but it helped along with those things of mitigating the amount of stuff people were able to bring in. If you can mitigate the amount, that means there's less likely that will be left behind and or end up in river. What does that mean? Less trash. That's our that was our goal because people were responsible for carrying it in.

Like, Defense has just had such bad organization and made people more responsible and made it less accessible that now you've legitimately had to carry it in. All of a sudden, folks got a lot more selective about what they were gonna bring in for the day and how long they were gonna stay. Game changer. And then the fee, I don't know if that also came from this board or was it yes. I and I don't I don't care if it's a penny. Anything. Anything. I know that's not a lot of money, but just something where someone has to make a contribution to get to enjoy a thing when they are not from here.

Yes.

Beautiful.

From us else from us?

That's the

glorious thing about being about five months into this is I don't know what I don't know. And every day I learn something more that I'm like, I learned something new today. It just turns out that leads me to learning. I don't know five other things that I really need to know. So I have no idea what I need.

That's right.

But you can come back and tell us.

Excellent. Anytime. Excellent.

Well Thank you so much.

Thank you all for your time and for your input. I will leave that here. Thank you for letting me use the tape.

Thanks, Denise.

Appreciate it. And I will look forward to coming back in August. And

Yeah.

You better be here in August. That's all I have to say.

I will be. It's gonna be fine. It's all gonna be fine. Don't quit on me. It's gonna be fine. Bye. Okay. Bye. Thank you. Okay.

I mean, what was the item termination words?

Yes. Excellent. Yeah. Receive a staff update, and we'll discuss them regarding park park's immigration fund.

So just real quick, I'll touch on the higher level ones. So I did update in your packet on your spreadsheet regarding the Capes Park and Capes Dam And Mill Race items. We have scheduled our stakeholder meetings. Those are small group meetings with various stakeholders, like the River Outfitters, the historical people, the Meadow Center, SMRF, historical city staff. So lots of moving pieces, but we've got those scheduled.

So we'll do those on March 9. Is it? No. I didn't know that they would be considered weapons. There's not necessarily natural area Okay. Involvement. Yeah. No. I don't currently have them on the list. River Foundation, obviously, and Meadows Center. Also, some additional research folks from the university, Doctor. Bonner, Doctor. Meitzen. Then we have TPWD, US Fish and Wildlife, Texas.

Same employee?

Yes. Yeah. She she is part of the research branch group. Then we have state and then US Fish, like I said, the fish hatchery folks since their intake is just downstream. So we've tried to cast a a broad net there. The community open house will be held on April 22. The survey will is scheduled to go out, the online survey, March 20 March 22 and run until May 1, I think. No. March 28 and run to May 1.

What is the survey?

The online survey regarding the the dam.

Exactly what

the questions are. I the consultant hasn't provided me with

That's all city residents that the survey?

Yes, Oh, I mean, it'll be open to anybody because it'll be an online survey. We'll be asked if they're a Saint Marcus resident. Yes. That's that's standard. We ask them to enter their ZIP code. Mhmm. So, anyway, we do we do ask those questions. So that's the biggest one there. So that is moving.

And just to clarify that, once that gathering occurs and you formulated a little bit more information then

We'll be we'll be coming to this group because you're also a stakeholder. So because you're a governing body, obviously, having you all outside of a posted meeting is an open meetings violation. So we'll have your stakeholder time during your your regular meeting. Need to talk to the consultant, but I'm thinking we could probably do it next month after we do the other ones on March 9.

And will the will the the consultant, Friesen Nichols, be here when that occurs? Or

I'm pretty certain because they're the

ones that are conducting all of this local for breaks.

Yes, sir. Yeah. It's not being done by city staff. It's being done by them.

But they'll be here

at the meeting for us? Yes, sir. And we'll be able to get enough time for I don't wanna say a creamer. But Sure.

I mean, if we if it Creamer updates. Absolutely. And if you would prefer to have a separate workshop for that, we can. It would be germane to to the topic. Just a light agenda around all that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, thankfully, we we don't have as far as I'm as I'm aware, we don't have anything kinda coming down the pipeline that would be laborious or or anything. So but I'll I'll confirm with them.

Okay.

Yes. And if they're not able to be here, then what we'll do, we can also we'll figure something out.

K.

Because I do I think it's important for you guys to hear. Okay. Next, the park plans are went to the Neighborhood Commission again last night. I'm gonna send them a memo as well as some additional information just kind of reminding them of what we're asking of them as far as their feedback and not necessarily trying to necessarily we're not going to completely redesign the the plans. We don't have the time as far as the time on the contract or the money to be able to do what we've what what you guys have spent a lot of time doing already.

So making sure that that's clear.

Why why would we do that? Why would they do that?

There was some conversations where they were kind of wanting to potentially see some things changed.

What's the

what will we do?

They they wanted to one of the parts of the conversation last night was starting over. And I told them that that was not an option.

Based on what?

Just charge. Just their conversation based on that that was what they said. There was one member that stated it, and then another one stated it as well. So what their opinion was that drove that, it went unsaid, but they said that they felt like it should just start over. And I told them that that was not an option, that we don't have the funds in which to start over. And we've already invested quite a bit of time and money into this process already, so we've been doing it for over a year now.

Sounds like a good feedback. First test.

Oh. I think it's important that they understand that we've been working on this for a really long time. Yeah. And the point of this board is this is what we do. Right. And we take we take in information from professionals in the city Work out, you know, these problems and these ideas that can create exactly what we created. Mhmm. We also I think we got public input multiple times. Right?

Yes, sir.

But I think that might have been the opportunity to voice those concerns. I hope they understand that we worked really hard and disagreed and agreed and then tried really hard to figure something out. You know? So the industry that's lost its something.

Well, every board has a charge. We have our charge to you know, as the the final stop for council to create the plan and send it on the council for approval. That's our role when it comes to parks, open space, and other parks facilities. Their charge is different, and it's a neighborhood perspective and access to equity and things like that. But it's not review or rewrite of other orders.

That product, is that made clear? Think that was made clear?

Have not had I have not spoken those exact words to them.

But at this point, they could they could I mean, they can still, you know, go to the council.

They can provide their recommendation, but it's not but their recommendation will just will be a supplement

Right.

To but what's going to be presented to counsel is what this body is has adopted

I see.

Along with the process, and the counsel will ultimately have the discussion and make the decisions. Now if the council directs us to rework the designs, at that time, we will rework the concepts. But I'm not I I'm not going to rework the concepts at at at this point until the council wants to see something different because, ultimately, they have to adopt it. Yeah. But we were previously, we had planned to go to the work session on March 31.

That's going to be pushed because I I don't think that they're at a point where they're ready to adopt a recommendation of their collective thoughts based on last night. So we'll push it to to April and Yeah. Go from there. I mean, we're we're okay on timing as far as we wanted to make sure we have these done for when we enlist the of a bond committee, and that's not gonna be for a couple of years. So K.

So there's there's that. Jessica, was there anything that maybe I'm forgetting? I don't have anything offhand. Bart, was there anything that you needed to mention that has come to your mind?

No, ma'am. We're we're moving along.

Alright. Any other questions about all of our stuff that we have going on?

I have a comment. I heard that the Me and My Dance completely sold out. It was a huge success. I did not get tickets, unfortunately.

Oh, there it goes.

Cut off. They were like, we're full. The me and my goddance little girl. Oh. Oh.

Not waitlisted?

I didn't get waitlisted, so

they were like

Like, there's too many people in front of you, buddy. Like, it's not gonna happen.

I get it.

I did.

No. It was I heard it was awesome.

Thank you. They they enjoyed you with that stuff.

Huge. I had one question that Eric kinda reminds me of. Did we ever do the miss beautiful?

We have not done it in a while, and I know that that was something that you enjoyed. We'll have to I'll have to talk to staff. I think it might have been something that was obviously kind of shelved during COVID. K. I'll often talk to the staff that organized that because I'll be honest, I don't

For anybody who has has never been exposed to it, it was a and it was for special needs kids, and it well, not kids and adults too. And it was a super inspiring event. So it was I think there was a talent portion, if I remember.

It was a it was a pageant.

It was a pageant,

and it was really, really fun. And they the participants were ranged from kids that had severe disabilities too. So everybody kiss me, and it was just it was really amazing. Again, do those arcs of

the country, but they stopped.

We we stopped during COVID. I think that we lost a staff member that was organizing it.

Jennifer.

Yeah. So we lost Jennifer shortly after COVID, and I'll have to look into into that a little bit more.

It wasn't just so much the participants. The the people that participated. It was their families that were Yeah. So appreciative and thankful that this city did this for for their children. And it was you know, some of them would say, oh, I we haven't seen her this happy in a long, long time. So I I just thought I'd bring it up.

Appreciate it.

Yeah. Becomes an option.

Yeah. Jessica just confirmed. She was like, yeah. Whenever Jennifer left, didn't really have a staff member that at the time to kind of continue continue it on. So we can we'll we'll look at it and see what what we can do.

Okay. Anything else for me, Jerry?

That is the end of my updates. If

there's nothing else, seeing no press for public, I'll go ahead and declare us adjourned at 06:25. Thank you, Jojo, for participating and being online. Oh, and before we turn the TV on, one of our fellow board members, Charlie Hickman, has been with us for about a year or

Yeah.

He's relocating and has to get off the board. And I

think this he was this this was supposed

to be Would have been his last name.

Obviously, he couldn't make it, but just wanna thank Charlie publicly. He did a great job. He's very involved and very detail oriented, passionate about the park system and the neighborhoods that's surround.

So We will have two

new faces next meeting. So we had Peter rolled off and so did Amanda. And so those two spots were filled, so we'll have two new members

join us. Yes.

So if Charlie happens to watch, thank you, Charlie, for your service, and we will be excited to meet our new colleagues. Thanks, y'all. Thank you, y'all.