Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

it's not like it doesn't

But then I'll need to now. Oh, oh.

Yeah, the computer died.

Are they all coming? She said just do it alphabetically with David.

Hello. Yeah.

recording in progress okay um so go ahead vice chair you can be in uh i'd like to call to order the meeting notice for today please join me for the pledge of allegiance Roll call, please. Present.

Present. Present.

Present. The meeting agenda is posted 72 hours prior to each meeting at the following locations. City Hall, the Crowell Public Library, and the Stoneman Building. The meeting agenda is also posted on the city's website. The city welcomes public input. At this time, the public may address the recreation commission on items that are not on the agenda. Pursuant to state law, the recreation commission may not discuss or take action on issues not on the meeting agenda. To ensure that everyone, including those joining us remotely, are able to hear all speakers clearly, please speak directly into a microphone. I would now like to ask Manager Padilla to explain how public comment will work.

We will accept comments in three ways. We'll take in-person comments for each item. Please fill out a speaker card and turn it into me if you wish to speak on an item. We'll also accept comments from our Zoom participants. To give a public comment via Zoom, please utilize the raise hand function. When using this method, name yourself so that your first and last name are reflected for the record. the comment is regarding a public agenda item please indicate which item comments will be accepted only until the end of the public comment period for that item staff will acknowledge individuals who have requested to make a comment at the appropriate time i will then state the amount of public comments we have received by email for a particular agenda item due to technical limitations associated with gathering printing and sorting email public comment the city has instituted a 3 p.m. cutoff the day of a Recreation Commission meeting for emailed public comments. This is to ensure there is a sufficient time to gather and provide the emailed comments to the Recreation Commission. Any comments received after the 3 p.m. deadline will be included in the public comment record but will not be provided to the Recreation Commission during the meeting. Thank you.

Does anyone here wish to speak at this time? If so, please state your name and address for the record.

You can go to the microphone, Mr. Flynn.

John Flynn, 1178 Sherwood Road. As I said, my name is John Flynn. I'm a former Recreation Department Commissioner. And also I'm here tonight, though, as a proud member of the Committee of San Marino Residents that was formed to support Measure U on November's ballot. Measure U is the San Marino Service Preservation Measure. The goal is to renew and restore San Marino's longstanding utility users tax. Since 1992, voters in our city have approved this modest tax on our utility usage to help provide a stable, locally controlled source of revenue for our general fund. The money raised in this way helps pay for day-to-day services in our city, including police, fire, paramedic, public works, street and sidewalk repairs, library and recreation programs, and emergency preparedness. The utility users tax is the third largest source of revenue for the city after property taxes and the public safety parcel tax, and is vital to the future financial stability of San Marino. The Committee of San Marino residents is spreading awareness about the need to continue this crucial source of revenue and are encouraging all eligible voters to vote yes on Measure U this November. For more information, we invite voters to visit the City of San Marino's website for details on Measure U. Thank you so much for your time tonight.

Thank you. seeing as we don't have anyone else here today uh present in the chambers uh do we have any public comment requests submitted electronically thank you okay next is commissioner reports do any commissioners have anything to report at this time Seeing as we don't have any reports, we'll move on to the next item. The first item on the agenda is the approval of minutes. Are there any questions from the commission? I would like to open the item up for public comments. Seeing as we have no one in chambers, do we have any public comment requests submitted electronically?

We do not.

At this time, I'll bring the item back to the commission for discussion. Do I have any comments, questions from the commission?

Okay, do I have a motion? I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of July 13th, 2026. And a second?

I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of July 13th, 2026.

I just need a second.

Oh, second. I'm sorry.

Thank you so much. Roll call, please. Aye. Aye.

Commissioner Pasqua. Aye. Commissioner Ton. Aye. Vice Chair Reikland.

Aye.

Motion passes. Okay.

The second item on the agenda is the Director and Recreation Manager Report. Can we please have a presentation from Director Covarrubias and Manager Padilla?

Yes. Thank you, Vice Chair Reikland. That report begins on page eight of your agenda packet. The agenda packets.

We do get email yeah. Thank you, I confess, thank you.

Perfect.

So page eight, do you have that?

Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So on page eight, we begin with a personnel update. So we're happy to announce that our two part-time coordinator positions have been filled. We have two internal candidates that did outstanding on the interviews and I have no doubt will be key contributors to the recreation division to help out with special events, programming, senior programs. and youth services as well. Their names are Edith Yanez and Zach Loher. So they began last week as our two new part-time coordinators. That in turn left two vacancies, actually three vacancies in the recreation division, which are a child development specialist and two recreation specialists. So that's what we're currently recruiting for. Secondly, our recreation commissioner, as all of you know, Stanley Wu, unfortunately had to resign from the board due to a new position that he has. So with that being said, we are opening the commission of recruitment for the recreation commission, and that is open now on the city website. The application is available and open through October 12, 2026. So if you know anybody that would be interested or would like to spread the word out, you know, we do need one more commissioner. Once we have that commissioner on board, we'll go ahead and we'll reorganize the board and have a new chair and a new vice chair. So. That is happening right now with the Recreation Commission recruitment. Please help us spread the word and try to get somebody to help us out. And, you know, that's one thing about our chair, Stanley Wu, was he was a big advocate, was very vocal, supportive. He would attend council meetings and he would always provide us some really great feedback. So if you know anyone like that, you know, we'd really, really like to have him as one of your colleagues.

Do we have any applicants currently?

No, the position just opened last week, but there's no one has submitted any applications. A lot of the times people tend to wait till the last minute. So that might be the case, but if we could get them sooner, then we could start writing that process as well. All right. Thank you. and um as far as the manager's report everyone got that report does anyone have any questions on any of the programming that was taking place oh excuse me i'm sorry i missed a spot we do have some upcoming commissioner volunteer opportunities and that's on page nine So we have our trunk retreat and dance party that's taking place on October 23rd from 6 to 9 p.m. So we'll need some help handing out candy from the Recreation Division trunk, as well as helping with selecting winners for the costume contest. That's always a fun activity. Lots of kids, lots of families really participate and they really, really enjoy. get into the spirit of halloween so you know if you're interested in participating in any of those uh opportunities please reach out to manager padilla her email is listed there and then home for the holidays uh the tree lighting ceremony is on december 4th so we'll have some opportunities to volunteer at that space as well whether it be the information booth or handing out um some treats or some warm drinks to the community for that event so again if you have an interest in participating and helping out during those times you can reach out to manager padilla and her emails that sit there on the agenda packet that concludes the director's report do you have any questions for me okay.

So I have a quick question. Um, are we going to go over, uh, the concerts at another meeting?

That's correct. Yeah. So we'll have a lot more agenda items for you in the November, November meeting. That'll be, um, concerts, a selection of the bands and a few other items. Um, we're going to start really preparing for summer to be honest with you. So it sounds like it's early, but we need to get all this information going and, uh, and spread out and and start working on it because we have to provide all this information to our analysts kristen which you might notice is absent she's in on a well-deserved vacation so um we need to get all this information to her by march so that goes into the summer guide into production so we will be starting to touch on some of those items in november okay yes thank you sure no problem are there any other questions from the commission

Oh, can I ask about the puppy love dog potty? Because I couldn't make it, so I was wondering how that went.

Yeah, absolutely. Manager Padilla? Yeah.

I was also not there, but I did get a good report from Supervisor Victoria Marshall and it was well attended. They had a lot of giveaways. They had about 100 and I think I don't have the right number, but around 100 to 150 participants. And then they did a costume contest like we always do. They had like three prizes contest or three winners for the dog party, the costume contest. And they had the Pasadena Humane Society out there giving out information. And then also CLO, they were out there giving out pup cups. And then we also had the treat table and stuff like that. But I heard it was a really well attended event.

Thank you.

Yeah, so the exact numbers are 200 participants, two-legged friends, and then we had 111 four-legged friends. So, this was a good amount, pretty standard to what we get that event. It was great weather. A lot of the council members were there as well. So, it was really well attended. Kudos to Supervisor uh victoria marshall that put everything together as well as some assistance from um one of our uh well one of our former uh specialist um carla gonzalez who now moved on and got promoted to a human resources analyst so good for her and she was still out there helping support that that event so thank you for asking any other question on the director's report

I'd like to open the item up for public comments, seeing as nobody's present in chambers, do we have any public comment requests submitted electronically?

No, we don't.

At this time, I'll bring the item back to the Commission for discussion. Do I have any further comments, questions from the Commission? Okay. No motion is required for this item, so we'll move on to the next. The third item on the agenda is the 2026 4th of July event recap. Can we please have a presentation from Director Covarrubias and Manager Padilla?

Yes, thank you so much, Vice Chair Reikland. We're setting up a PowerPoint slide, so we're going to set that up right now. Right. Perfect. So what an event. This is such a fantastic 4th of July in my mind. 12 years of being here, I think this is probably the smoothest, best organized event that I've been a part of. And that includes the parade as well. It was just such a great day, great weather, and really not a whole lot of problems that I have to report. So that's really, really great news. I'm going to start off by sharing with you A little bit of the background and the history of the celebration. So San Marino has celebrated the event since 1965, so that's 61 years. There's a community parade, family activities, entertainment, and a great fireworks show at Lacey Park. It's about 20 minutes long. Recreation has managed the event since 2006, which is about 19 years, and the community services department has managed the community parade now for the third year after the Rotary Club handed it off to the city. This year we had 34 groups that participated in the parade, along with 439 total participants that we had marching down that shorter parade route. The San Marino City Club also hosted the pavilion and they have been doing so since 2014. And attendance this year increased by a whopping 24%. So attendance, if you can see here, this is the last five-year attendance estimates, which are pretty close to being as 100% as possible. Three-year average attendance is about 10,658. So you'll see there, It went up to almost 12,000 participants. Just to let you all know, for an event this size, the max is 13,000 people at Lacey Park. So we were pretty close to meeting that threshold of 13,000 participants or attendees.

Sorry to interrupt. Is there a reason we saw this uptick? What do you guys attribute that to?

So we analyzed the information that we had, and we believe that it's because it was a weekend event. People decided to stay in town, we believe, as well as there were some fireworks shows that were canceled around town. Some of them converted to drone shows. So I think there was a lot of people that liked the fireworks and the color of them and the smell and all those things. So we feel that was also a contributor was that Instead of going to drone shows, they prefer to come over and watch fireworks as well. As far as the weekend observation is concerned, we haven't had a 4th of July on a Saturday in a while. The last one was supposed to be during COVID. And so that one was canceled. So we can't... refer back to a lot of data as far as Saturday attendance to compare if there was like a big difference or if this is really in line with what's happened over the past years. But for now, this is what we can attribute to. Next year, we'll be on a Sunday. So we'll be able to see a little bit more if that's something that the weekend, it does actually keep a lot of people in town instead of them going leaving town for that event.

Do we know the breakdown between residents and non-residents who showed up?

We do. So the breakdown, let's see here. These are only pre-sale numbers that I can give you because the day of the event, everyone pays the same price when they're up at the register. So pre-sale wristband for residents was $6,900, so $6,900. Pre-sale wristbands for non-residents was about $1,950, so $6,900. That's a breakdown. The majority of the people that are purchasing the wristbands are residents, Santa Marina residents. So that's in line.

Do the wristbands cover the cost of the event or does the city subsidize?

Pretty close. The city subsidizes. We recover approximately, the last study we did was about 70, 80% of the cost of the event, which is kind of unheard of, to be honest with you. A lot of other local communities, they provide the show for free. So, you know, the fact that we... This year, we made approximately about $93,000 or so. I mean, that covers a good majority of the hard costs associated with it. Obviously, there's some soft costs like Angie's time, my time. They're already in our salary employees, so there's no additional cost, but there's some overtime and things like that.

Yeah, that's great. Thank you.

Yeah. And just to give everyone an idea, the standard recovery rate for special events nationwide is about 10 to 15 percent recovery. Right. So these are community benefit programs and events where it's all about community. So I think the city does a great job collecting as much as they can. And it's obviously not a deterrent for people to stop showing up.

You also know what the recovery was for the previous years just it's it's usually around the same amount.

Yeah, it's usually around the same amount. I mean, obviously, it could go down a little bit on recovery, you'll see the attendance was about 9500. So and then the year before was 10,500. So it fluctuates a couple percentage points, but it's usually in line.

The costs don't change much based on number of participants.

Right. The cost, the biggest cost change are usually the fireworks shows. So fireworks are what costs the most in the event. And that's the only thing that really can increase when the tariffs were put in place. We saw a big jump. It was in the budget. They actually couldn't give us providers pricing for the next two years because they didn't want to commit to anything. So yeah. All right. Moving on. So here are some fun event statistics. There are 4,021 fireworks that are shot and displayed. We usually give out about 2,500 toys at the Family Fun Zone. We had 439 parade participants. 34 parade entries this year, all of which are mainly community groups. So it gives them a platform for them to promote their services and what they do for the city. 45 water-filled barricades were used for the event, and that includes some in front of the firework, in the fire ring to avoid any of them shooting into the crowd, as well as 30 barricades that were placed along the parade route. We increased the ADA parking spaces. Last year we had 25, and part of the discussion or conversation was last year that we needed to increase some more. So we found five more spots in the St. Albans side parking lot. So we were able to get some more assistance there. We had 11 community volunteers that came out to help us out in various sections of the actual event. So that was great to have them. We had five food vendors and event partners, and we had zero significant incidents or accidents. So there was nothing. There was a few lost childs, you know, which happened pretty common. But no significant incidents or accidents to report on this event. And here we're going a little bit more into detail about what we feel went really well this year with the event. So one of the top things that happened was that Lacey Park was actually closed on July 3rd. It allowed ample space and opportunity for staff to set up for the event. Didn't have to worry about any pedestrians or any camps or any groups being in the field. rigs go through the park and allow for an easier setup. The tap to pay system at the Virginia gate worked really well. Last year we were having internet issues, but this year everything worked well. People were just tapping their card. It was very efficient. There was no long lines to process any payments. The day of the event, we sold 1,352 wristbands. So that's quite a bit for a single day. So we're really happy and excited that we were able to get that working well. The new parade route also was well-received by participants. The 20-minute fireworks show, if you were there, was really spectacular. Pyro Spectacular is one of those premier names, one of those really recognized and world-renowned groups. So they've been doing this show for 50-something years, actually since the beginning, with the exception of two years, that they weren't able to provide that service. But they always do a phenomenal job, and they're really, really great people to work with. um city inter-department coordination was efficient and effective and that's our inter-department um groups with the san marino police department san marino fire department public works all of the groups that we work with um you to make sure that the that the spectators and the attendees are safe everything worked really well with them there's a lot of coordination a lot of effort a lot of work um to make sure that we caught as many areas of of uh of a doubt and that we addressed all those areas effectively and efficiently, especially the parade route, trying to make it safer. we did not receive any attendee complaints. This year was one of those, well, actually the first year that I've ever experienced that where there were no complaints about anything from the beginning of the day. So it was, like I said, one of the smoothest and best run events that I've been a part of. And I complained about no ice cream, Eddie. We'll get to that. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. That's true. That is a, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we concur with that. But but it was overall everyone else. There was no incidents. And kudos to manager Padilla. She really was at the forefront of running the event this year. She took the reins and did a phenomenal job with her team, despite us being short staffed in the recreation division with the two coordinators that were gone to the frozen supervisor position. angie on top of every other duty that she had throughout the summer did a phenomenal job so thank you manager padilla for your hard work and uh making this a success um let's see the event continues to exemplify san marino spirit of community this is one of those just events that creates core memories for san marinians and so we're happy to contribute to that and to make this a really festive and fun event for for everybody And going to some areas that didn't go so well, the parade staging needs to be extended by one block next year. So part of the discussion that we had when we changed the parade route was that we offered one block as a staging area. It was much too busy in there. There was not enough space. We had to create three lanes instead of the usual two. So we are planning on extending it by one additional block. And it was in your staff report. So we're going to just go one block further. That'll give everyone some more spacing and some more opportunity to line up a little bit easier, as well as reduce a little bit of just the chaos that was taking place in that area with City Staff Limited, with that limited space that we have there. Another thing that didn't go so well, we had a new vendor for restrooms, for the portable restrooms. The company delivered us some equipment that we weren't really satisfied with. They were mismatched, didn't look uniform and nice. And they were also late with their delivery. They were delivering things the day of in the morning. I don't think very many people noticed. The people that were lined up since 3 in the morning, they were on the other side when they delivered the final stalls in the park. So that's one area also that we're addressing. Another area is that we want to really mark off a dance area in front of the stage just to give some people opportunity. There was some budding up closer to the stage. There was some space, but we feel that we can better align it or better indicate or mark it. as to where the dance floor is actually going to be happening because people really get into the groove of things with these great bands that we have and we want to make sure that we give them an opportunity or a space to dance.

Can I make a comment on that? Um, in addition to sort of marking out the floor, I think marking out a lane to get to the floor. Cause I think people had to kind of step on blankets and, you know, it was a little tough to get to the dance floor. So yeah, easy access would be good.

Yeah, absolutely. We'll definitely put that in the notes as well. And we'll communicate that to our public works team. Thank you for that. Um, So the ice cream, this is the heartbreaker. So one of the two vendors that pulled out of the event was one of the ice cream trucks. So we were really disappointed with that. We were on them. I don't know how many times we saw them in person. A couple of times I was I was trying to convince them, you know, not to pull out. in Spanish, in English, in any language that I could possibly communicate. And unfortunately, they had to pull out. So we are going to be evaluating that area and doing some modifications and adjustments. Believe it or not, it's really difficult getting ice cream trucks. They're really popular, but we're going to follow some leads with some other groups. I already talked to that same ice cream truck, which is really popular and they have really good products. And they've committed again this year that they're going to be there. But just in case, we're going to explore some other options just in case, you know, something starts to falter.

To prevent that going forward, is there anything we can ask for like a sizable deposit? And I think that would prevent people from backing out last minute like this.

We currently charge them $150. Yeah, it's going to be like $1,000. Yeah.

Can't we have two ice cream trucks?

That's the avenue that we're exploring. Yeah, because there's always a line with their catering truck anyway. So we are exploring a second option. We hear there's one in town that might be something that we might get a lead on. So we're hoping to explore that. But yes, we'll have hopefully two ice cream trucks next year. Dave and I will go to Costco.

i was gonna say this stock like butter pops yeah yeah you know yeah yeah i think two trucks makes just even the line that develops there makes really good yeah no absolutely yes yeah competition they'll you know yeah they had there's plenty for everyone there's enough for everyone Yeah. Did they give just because I don't know if it was because it was Saturday, maybe there were other events that were bigger that they were going trying to get to or what?

We're still kind of I mean, even me talking to them in Spanish and English, I still had trouble understanding why they canceled on us, because we had communicated to them the year prior that we wanted them again the following year. And they do come to our other events. And so they told us they were going to be there. And if it wasn't that specific truck, it was going to be a second truck that provided the same products. It was part of their group that worked those events. And so as we got closer to the event, They said that their other truck got committed to another event in Ladera Ranch, I believe, or somewhere over there, but that the second truck would be here. But then within the couple of weeks, they said their truck was having mechanical issues, and they weren't able to fix it on time, which... we were hoping that they would tow it and i mean that was recommended as well so that was the reason that they gave us and the other vendor the same day canceled on us so they they pulled out and they said they had some um issues with their um with their trailer on the way to the event so easy out yeah so we'll work on that definitely we have some ideas on what we can do um The other issue that we had during the parade was that there were some gaps that were developed between entries along the parade route. So even though the parade was shorter, there was some gaps where the bicycle riders got to the park way ahead of everybody else. So it creates a little bit of confusion with the spectators. They don't know if the parade has started or ended or what's going on. So that really boils down to, like, we do need some more assistance with volunteers. We're... Part of our goals for the year was to bolster up the teen advisory group that we have in the library. So we want to also have them do community events to sign off on some of those community hours. So we're looking into that and incentivizing that program as well. Now that we have our two coordinator positions, that frees up some time for Manager Padilla to work with Manager Ashley Watts, which is our library manager. And they're going to be able to assign that program and see what we can do to, again, bolster our volunteer opportunities and get a group of people to help us out. It was really difficult. having um aligning all of the groups in the most small space and then just having them go in order and with no real focus or with no real people along the parade route to speed them up or slow them down it just made it a challenge so despite it being a shorter route there were still some obstacles with that so we're going to work with our police department a little bit more and we're really going to try to get some more volunteers to help us with the parade route

This is maybe a little bit of tangent, but I was just thinking maybe to get more buy-in from the, what was that group you're talking about? Teen advisory group. Teen advisory group.

Mm-hmm.

We maybe because I feel like I'm trying to remember back to when I was a teenager and why I would be involved with something or choose to do something, give them some more buy in and say, like maybe inviting them out to one of these meetings where they could present ideas for the community, something like that. I think that'd be really good to engage them and, you know, maybe spark more volunteers to want to do something like this. And actually, yeah.

Absolutely. That's a great suggestion. And those are all ideas that are on the table right now. We want to make them feel like they belong to a group. So getting them matching T-shirts, vests that are cool, like badges, things like that. There's a party at the end of the year that we're going to do for them, hopefully, for helping out and volunteering. based on points, you know, all of these things are things that we really want to focus on to try to get some more community help and get this group of teens that not only help their community, but also become recreation staff or library staff down the road. So kind of like a feeding system. Your first job is working summer camps at, you know, with the kids in my own community. So we've had some of those stories where we've had some of our, our participants like in the free wheelers. Um, now they're a library clerk or they work for the summer camps and what, and when they come back from college, you know, so those are all like great success stories that we really want to just multiply. So, um, So, yeah, we're going to be focusing on that, and that's one area where we feel that we can really get some more assistance by the teen advisory group and helping us out during that parade. It makes it hard because it's the summer, but, you know, we're hoping some kids stay in town. OK, so looking ahead, considerations continue to inform the public of the dog policy. So we instituted that dog. No dogs allowed in that policy. We did find that some people would say their animals were service animals. So when that happens, unfortunately, we can't do any more question. But we did have some people take their homes back. I mean, sorry, take their dogs back home, you know, which really, I think. was a good thing for everybody involved. So, you know, we'll continue to inform the public about that policy. They could have possibly just set that just to get in, but they know a little bit better for next year that their puppies. So we'll monitor that for the 2027 event. Again, seeking more volunteers for the parade. Evaluate options for replacing food vendors who canceled on short notice. And at this point, if you have any other thoughts or feedback from the event, if you attended or if you thought that you saw things that went well, things that we can improve on, we would greatly appreciate any feedback or comments now.

So for the volunteers, who do we seek? Are they like teenagers, college students, residents, anyone?

Anyone. Yeah. The parade, we would like more adult volunteers, to be quite honest with you, in the staging area. But the teens, what we want to do is place them along the parade route with signs telling people to go slower or faster, which is a little bit safer. You know, we want to make sure that everyone feels OK and comfortable being in those spaces. So adults would be great for the parade. The teens for the actual event itself are great because they monitor like the game booths, hand out prizes, do crafts with the kids. They do bingo with the kids. So, you know, that's more in line with teenagers. But we will take anyone that is willing to or wanting to help volunteer for that time span. Yeah.

Do we have do we have anybody at the elementary schools or any of the schools that maybe is a representative for the city that can help kind of publicize the needs?

Yeah, that's actually a very good suggestion. We can publicize that the only during summer school. I don't know how much they blast during that time of the year. Well, Lisa, do you know how much do they blast the school children by any chance during summer? Yeah, so that's one area that we'd have to find out how we can communicate that. Even if we start promoting that in May or putting a bigger snippet in the guide, we would try to reach out and try to get some more volunteers. But yeah, that's a great suggestion because we do send e-blasts to the schools on a weekly basis, and they send it out to the community. Yeah, we'll put some more advertisements, some more. We'll go talk at the schools. We've done that before, the PTAs. Those groups, we can approach them about helping us out. SMCAA also has helped out in the past. And even Rotary. Rotary founded the parade. They handed it off to us. So maybe there's some Rotarians that might want to help us.

Yeah. Yeah.

I've got a couple. Are there other comments? One comment on that. The other places to look for, like, teenage maybe would be, like, San Maria Little League probably would have some people in the softball league, and also Boys and Girls Scouts. You've got them right up there. You know, they might... have some people looking to get badges. So that might be helpful. I did want to say, I mean, y'all did such an amazing job. It was such a fantastic event as always. And yeah, I, I, It did seem to run very, very smoothly and really, other than the ice cream issue, was really delightful. And other than kind of the issues that you brought up, I just wanted to bring back up something that we started talking about last year, which was sort of the size of spaces that people are sort of saving in the mornings. And I know we talked, I think, at the event that there weren't complaints about it, but I was definitely... sort of aware of groups that were that had these huge spaces blocked off and they were just kind of sparsely populated and when we get to 12 000 people it's really kind of unfortunate um that kind of the prime viewing areas are are not really packed in with people so I know it's not something to start a discussion about again tonight, but I think I'd like to put on the agenda at some point rethinking what procedures could we put in place that might help that out without putting staff in a awkward position of policing it, but maybe something at the gate that we could at least remind people to be cognizant of their neighbors and things.

Yeah, and we did take some steps this year. I feel like some people really listened and it did kind of help. We were making announcements the entire morning with a megaphone from the stage. People received the information while they were waiting in line. We had staff go up and down reminding them. We had two staff members on the field reminding people not to tie things around trees or making them bigger than they needed to. But there is always some areas where, you know, it is restrictive. The employee area I noticed was fairly vacant. We're going to reduce the size of that. So that's immediately... Or open it up.

I mean, I don't think it's a bad idea to have that, like, kind of...

tied off and then open it up for latecomers who didn't save spots in the morning the last two years the last two years we've already seen that it's not as uh as uh as uh full as it was in the past with family and friends so we're gonna take it down like substantially and uh provide some more viewing area there as well um but yeah so we we did try to take as much of a proactive approach we highlighted i think in the program as well and then sorry good

We also made new signs, and we put them on the gate around Lacey Park where people line up in the morning, letting them know, be neighborly, only save this amount of space. So we hope that helped a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, there's always groups that just take a little bit more, and they think that a lot more of their friends are going to come and all that. So yeah.

If space is a big concern, have we ever considered bleachers of some sort in the back?

I don't think that's ever been brought up. Let me write that down.

Latecomers are people who don't want to spend all day saving a spot. They could show up and we could even sell us bleacher tickets and that could be an extra source of revenue.

Yeah, I will add to that. I'm one of the latecomers only because my family likes to go to the beach. So when we come back, we're one of the people... Outside on the streets watching the fireworks with no music and like we had an opportunity to be inside, even in the outskirts, we would take that but we also know it's just overly filled so, you know, having that option would be great.

Yeah, we can definitely look into bleachers. That would be an interesting idea.

That is an interesting idea. There's a city club area that you can purchase, but it's not cheap, and so having nominally reserved seats somewhere else. You still get a great view because you're elevated.

Yeah, I mean, the park is so wide, I think that fireworks are usually over the trees. So usually you get a pretty good view from anywhere in the park, except of where the employee section is. The palm trees do kind of get in the way there, which is why that area is there. But you can still get a good show or you can still get a good view for sure.

That's your California picture postcard view.

yeah yeah yeah fireworks behind the palm tree yeah it's pretty cool so um so yeah we'll look into that bleacher option and see if there's somewhere we can even place it and what the cost associated with that probably wouldn't happen this year this fiscal year um but we can look and start getting pricing collecting information right thank you commissioner that's a good suggestion yeah i mean how much is like the rose parade charge for a bleacher ticket like

I've never done it yeah they're not cheap but I'm sure if you sell the tickets for like 50 bucks and they're reserved yeah you know you probably get some residents who'd offer that absolutely that's a very interesting point thank you so much yeah sounds like a good idea yeah yeah any other uh questions from the commission

At this time, I'd like to open the item up for public comments. Seeing as there's nobody in chambers, do we have any public comment requests submitted electronically?

Oh, we do not.

At this time, I'll bring the item back to the Commission for discussion. Do I have any further comments, questions from the Commission? OK, no motion is required for this item. So do we have any written communication or public writings for distribution?

We do not.

Okay. Then this meeting is adjourned at six 43 until the next meeting on November 9th at 6 PM in city hall council chambers. Thank you. Thank you.

Great meeting vice chair for more years.