Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Meeting of the Parks and Rec Commission to order at 06:32PM. All members are present except for commissioner Johnson, who is absent and unexcused. Alright. Approval of park and park and Parks and Recreation Commission minutes from August 12. We have one set of minutes for approval. Are there any objections or changes to note? Alright. I see no objections, so the minutes stand adopted. We will move to public business from the floor. Time for members of the public to address the commission on non agenda items.

And I believe Elise is going to speak. Thank you.

Hello, chair Jorgensen, of the commission. I'm Lisa Swarm Burke, deputy city clerk for the record. I just passed out a handy little PowerPoint for everybody. This is one that, we've adapted from boards and commissions trainings we've done in the past. So, you know, several of you who've been through those trainings, this will look really familiar.

But we're trying to be better at coming to commissions as they start their new cycle for the year and just getting everyone on the same page with basics of how a commission works, what you're here to do. So what you guys did with approval of minutes, that was awesome. Thank you for doing that by consent. Jessica, just so you know, typically, we will have iPads with all of your agenda materials in front of you. Right now, apparently, there's an issue with the iPad passwords, but all of the agenda materials are also published ahead of the meeting too.

So just basically going through come to the meeting prepared. If you have questions about what's going on ahead of the meeting, reach out to Bridget or Lisa. There's a section in here on quasi judicial hearings. The Parks and Recreation Commission doesn't do quasi judicial hearings, so you don't need to worry about that. A big thing is ethics in public disclosures.

So just remember that you are appointed officials, and you're serving in an advisory capacity to the city council. So when you're interacting in your official capacity, just be aware that it could be a public record potentially. And, also, we have some information here just like basics of the Open Meetings Act. So try not to have, you know, extensive written conversations about items that you're gonna be considering as a commission via email or on social media because those can be considered violations of the Open Meetings Act. For the code of ethics, it doesn't like, it's all really based on financial interest.

Right? So that's an indirect or direct. I'm not I can never say pecuniary benefit. So just the part I have in here is the core part. So if you have a financial interest in a decision that's, has a substantial possibility that would give you a financial interest, and that would change the outcome of this decision, that's kind of the threshold for you guys.

With you guys, it's not gonna come up very often. You're again, you don't appropriate money, and you're giving advice to the city council. But just be aware of if there's, you know, another organization you work with that comes before you. Just just be aware because we have, of course, like, the official adopted code of ethics, but then just also thinking about just thinking about if how things look. Right?

So if something looks like it could be a conflict of interest, always just on the side of declaring, hey. I'm on the board of such and such organization too. We're talking with them about this item. Just on the side of being careful. Other than that, we have, some information on the role of the chair in here.

You guys

are gonna select your chair here pretty quickly. The chair presides over the meeting and, guides the conversation along, so all of your conversation goes through the chair. Staff might set aside time ahead of the meeting to talk to the chair or provide the chair a cheat sheet. And then just just be kind, be respectful, always make sure you're allowing space for each other to speak. Everyone on the commission is an equal.

Just making sure that the majority rules, but the minority has the right to be heard and to attempt to change the minds of the majority. So remember, no member has the right to dominate the discussion and be mindful of allowing equal opportunity. The next few slides in this little packet are about the Open Meetings Act. The big thing to remember on the Open Meetings Act is that anytime you have a quorum of your body in this room or outside of this room, that could constitute a public meeting. So just be aware in a small town that if you're at an event and you're chatting about things, try to keep the conversation away from commission business and only do commission business in formal open meetings.

Yeah. Violations of the Open Meeting Act can be bad. Executive sessions, we're not really gonna cover that. You guys would never really have a reason as a board to go into executive session. So but the rules are you can here's the exception. The Open Meetings Act for executive sessions, Those aren't kinds of things that are really going to apply to you guys as a body, so we'll skip over that. And then that's basically all I have left in here as executive sessions. Mostly just, yeah, go through the chair, be respectful, ask questions, and thank you all for being here. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Elise. Alright. Well, that seeing that there is nobody else from the public here, we will move on to our next item, which is the election of the Parks Recreation and Cultural Services chair. So we will now elect a chair. Is there a motion to nominate somebody for the chair? And is there a second? Go ahead.

Sarah, you've done such a fine job. I'm gonna motion that you just continue to maintain that chair position.

Okay. Thanks.

Motion by Commissioner Robita, seconded by

I second that motion. Okay.

I accept your nomination. Sure. Okay. So motioned by commissioner Robita, seconded by commissioner Rush to nominate commissioner Jorgensen Owen as chair of the Parks and Recreation Commissioner. Accept commissioner, do you accept? I do. Any discussion for this nomination? Do you have anything? Welcome, Jessica. And do you have any so okay. No discussion. We will go next

No, Sarah. I'll just I'll just add just, thanks. It's a little extra work doing all of this and just appreciate your time and extra effort. You've got some, you know, additional duties besides us behind the scenes and just recognizing your time, and thanks.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. So alright. We will go ahead and vote. Please respond with a yay or nay. And shall I go do you want me to go down the just all okay. All those in favor, say yay. Yeah. Okay. That's four. And that's and we don't have another commissioner on the line, so the vote passes. K. Sorry. I just read gavel. Pass your gavel. And I was like, okay. Okay. Yep. Real good there. Okay.

Alright. Moving on to the election of the Parks Recreation and Cultural Services Chair Pro Tem. Is there a motion to nominate a Chair Pro Tem?

Anybody? I nominate Jeremy Pro Tem. Okay. Skip. Or do I say chairman Robita?

Chairman Robita or commissioner. Yeah. Commissioner. Yep. Okay. I will can I second? Okay. I was just double checking. Usually, we have more people here. I will second, the nomination for commissioner Robita. Commissioner Robita, do you accept that nomination?

What's the cliff note version of my duties? I'd be running a meeting when you're not here?

Yes. That's yeah. Okay. That's really it. And I I'm very rarely not here.

Right. I was doing that math too.

So Okay.

Sure. I'll I'll accept.

Okay. Alright. Yeah.

I I'm usually maybe gone for, like, one meeting a year or so. And Lisa will take a would would take good care of you. So alright. So that is an you are accepting that nomination then? Okay. Alright. Commissioner Rabida accepts the nomination. Any discussion regarding this nomination? Alright. Seeing none, we will go ahead and vote, with, all those in favor say yay. Yay. K. Yay. All those, opposed? Nay? K.

Alright. Four

yeas and no nays. The motion passes, and welcome commissioner Robita as our chair pro tem. Alright. And do I need to do anything further for the the election? Okay. Just double checking. We don't do this very often. Alright. So moving on to unfinished business, which would be, which we have our twenty twenty five Parks and Recreation Commission goals to review. That was in the agenda packet.

And just a reminder, I believe we, and, Lisa, correct me if I'm wrong. These goals came up in a work session in was it March or April? Somewhere around there. Okay. In in late spring.

And we were we wanted to have some goals, one for just so that we all had a a strategic plan moving forward for commission. And, also, we were getting ready to meet with the city council. Part of our job as commission is to be that kind of go between with the Parks and Rec department, the public, and the council. So we wanted to have some goals in mind. I think we were my personal opinion, we, I think, bit off a little bit more than we could chew with with the goals, especially for an annual goal.

There was quite a bit in there. So I'll just go ahead and kind of start with you. Let's actually, let's let's go kind of goal by goal. We did take several things and kind of put them into goal number one, which was trail development, which included interconnectivity between the different trails, a title 16 easement partnerships if we can work with, like, work on trail ordinances during development, walking trail partnerships. So maybe partnerships between maintenance DOT for right of way easements, monthly trip monthly commission trails report, bike to work program, and then working with the DNR state parks on paddling trails.

All of of these, I know that we did do commission trails reports for the most part. We we kind of petered out there at the end. But, well, I'll let you you all discuss. I I I would like to mention that I think a lot of the things that we kinda came up with looking back now, a lot of things we came up with aren't necessarily things that I think commission can do. They're kinda more department things.

Easement partnerships are working with people on, like, easements and right away, that's going to be the city. That's gonna be whether that's park maintenance or most likely, like, capital facilities and and and those folks. So that's not any I don't think that those are goals that would really help push commission forward. So that's just my my takeaway looking through several of of these goals. But any discussion or thoughts on the trail development goal that we had?

Trail development only?

Yeah. Just starting with that. We'll kinda go goal by goal. There were, I think, four or five of them.

Yeah. I like having a oh, can we have a note? Mhmm. Yeah. I like having the goals, but I think one thing I wanna look at this and something you mentioned is, like, well, we did have the trail reports that commissioners did do. But someone were were to ask me, it's like, what do you what did the Parks and Recreation Board do for trail developments? Like, well, we talked about this and this and this and this and this, but that didn't really happen. So I feel better or because we did do one thing, but I'd feel better doing a goal that in the 2025 or whenever this goal is listed, we can say, you know, we we talked about this, and we committed,

and we did this, and

we completed this in March 2025. And we can just knock off one at a time, one at a time. I'd rather have two or three small goals that we actually do opposed to, like, having a list of 10 that we hit one.

Fully agree. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I I might think goals should be we should probably we should make our goals according to smart. They should be measurable, specific, actionable, all of that. So I think this was ambitious and shows that we have we have a lot of hungry commissioners that wanted to do a lot of work. But, yeah, I agree that I think two two goals, maybe three that we can measure. Go ahead. Commissioner Rubita.

Yes, sir. Just as a general statement, I just reviewing the packet ahead of the fact. I mean, yeah. There's a lot on paper here, and I'd rather work something smaller, more measurable too. And, as you said, a lot of this just seems a little out of our league, so to speak. You know, Citi's gotta work on easement, for example, and we'll maybe be part of that discussion, but ultimately, we're not driving it the way that I know Zoni is. Yeah. I I don't know if it'd be good to sort of more methodically just cross some of these out and have that discussion.

We can certainly, yeah, we can certainly do

that. Now.

Yeah. Or because because we're coming up on the end of the year, and we'll be coming up on 2026, and we'll want to have some goals for 2026. So, yeah, I'm I'm I'm good with us kinda looking through what we have, and maybe definitely we can cross some things out that we say this is not ours.

Yeah. I mean, the very bottom, it's you know, paddling trails are interesting. It's not even city property. I Yeah. Just think we could promote something like that, so to speak, and it could be part of the tourism package, you know, to come to Valdes and paddle. But, we don't even have a jurisdiction out there. Right? So what does the city have to do with that? And then, yeah, something like the bike to work thing. I mean, that's near and dear to me, but ultimately, it's just kind of a program thing. So a little report back on that, Bridget, that's sufficient for me. And I don't know if there's a heavy lift from the commission here.

Go ahead.

You know, I'll be I'll be completely honest. I don't know that the goals were disseminated is when they were down to staff in the best way possible. Some of these things are kind of news to me in a sense. I did look over these once I started, but it might have been just with the changeover directors. We never really revisited much of these after we after I had started. So, Jeremy, just to kind of we it's it would be great to reflect on some of these and and come up with some new or revisit. That way, I can I can bring it down to staff?

Yeah. So I'm happy to do another kind of work session, so to speak, the way we did with this one because I think we do have a bunch to chew on. I mean, we can do it now, but just a thought too.

Well and right now, we're we're reviewing our goals. Yes. I I do agree that I work session would be in order, and we can do that for either December or if we want to kinda wait and have some time to kinda look over this and start fresh in January, that would be appropriate. I think that would be appropriate too.

I'll, I'll shut up after this, but I guess, you know, number five was kinda near and dear to me just kinda developing these relationships with different community service organizations already active with parks and rec assets and people.

And Mhmm.

You know, I think even just within goal number one here, we're talking about DOT. We're talking about, you know, trail partnerships. Like like, we're already kinda touching on this number five. Anyway, I I like that idea. I'm gonna champion that one. Just noting it intersects here already. So that's it. Thanks.

Ben, any thoughts? Oh, you already said so. I I apologize. And commissioner Tran, any, any thoughts so far? I know you're kind of jumping in at the deep end here. So alright. Can we see goal number two real quick just for my refreshment? Okay. And, again, I think this is great, but this wasn't, I believe, disseminated down to the rest of the parks and rec staff. It also this also hits on capital facilities in a way if it's a if it's a project and they're gonna be building something to cover a playground.

I think the one thing that who oh, and I don't see this here. I know we had talked about oh, developing pop up programs in existing facilities, like a pop up day at, like, the Civic Center and stuff like that. Again, that would be on staff. Not that I don't think that this is great. Go ahead. In looking at some

of these, there's there's things in here that staff are doing. Mhmm. So, again, reviewing these, looking at, you know, implementation of playground capital replacement program. We're looking at, again, retiring different playgrounds and and equipment replacement right now. So it's just something that doesn't quite happen overnight, but it is it's already on one of our goals for park maintenance that we've already started. So, know, again, there there's things like that that we can probably cross off in the chart.

I would say the one I think where commission can come in is if you get to a point where you are looking at covering a playground or making a significant change to a playground, that's where we can champion that project for the Parks and Rec department. We can champion that with counsel. We can also go to the public and and ask for support, ask for, you know, information, buy in, that type of thing. So that's kinda where we we come in. But as far as actually getting getting it done, that's more going to be on the department.

So so that one's kind of off our list. So goal three, please. ADA compliance. Again, this is going to be something that parks maintenance, capital facilities, public works would be addressing. So, yeah, again, we can champion these plans for the public. And if you hear of something, like if you are chatting with somebody in the public that's comes across an issue with ADA, you can certainly bring that up. Commissioner Rubita.

I get I get the sense too when Ken was here that this was not a goal. Like, this had to be done. So it's kind of phrased a little wrong too.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Just to speak to that, Jeremy, yes, it will have to be done at some point, and it'll have to be done if we touch any specific playgrounds, obviously, or sites that that we have to take those things into account. So yes. Yes and no. I can't. It's not gonna happen overnight, but it is something once we do go through our, playground replacement plan as we slowly do that, then that will be this will be obviously very important.

Yeah. Any other thoughts? Yes. Go ahead.

It was myself and ADA. I I was pretty much ignorant with ADA. This semester, we have one of my students has a service dog.

Okay.

And so I learned everything. I learned a lot about ADA, but, you know, still there's on that one specific part, I do know, but I'm sure there's a lot of programs and people out there who have special needs that we have no idea about and having some way they can contact us or have some sort of box that says or some sort of information to go to Bridget or someplace that says, what about having this for my daughter, my son? My gosh. I never thought about that. Mhmm. Maybe we don't know because we just don't know.

Yeah. And I guess just to, follow-up with that, we did actually hire, a pair of this last year. I don't know if we can definitely call that. We call it support aid at this point, but, I did work with the schools to, again, kind of grab some of them that are off during the summer. So that is something we now budget for as a support aid that can help with behavioral issues at summer camps that we're able to accommodate more kids. And it's been great. We've had really great successes last year. So that is something we've done that we could do that was more we can make a change now.

The full time or is it?

It's it's specifically for summer fun camps. Yeah.

Makes sense. Yep. Commissioner Trent, any thoughts on any okay. You and always feel free to raise your hand or or pop up, and we'll get you. Okay.

Let's look at goal number four. So right now, I've I've kind of, as far as thinking ahead, like, goal number two, goal number three, solidly kind of outside of our scope. And then we've got goal four, which was innovative outdoor recreation. So the disc golf, the ski hill, a potential pump track, the gun range that we have, pickleball, all of these kind of, you know, non I don't wanna say nontraditional because they're still kind of traditional, but these types of outdoor recreations. Again, falls really under the department as far as whether they're developing whether it's parks maintenance putting more disc golf or improving the disc golf course or installing a pump track that's parks maintenance.

Outdoor recreation programming of, like, pickleball or or something like that that falls under the recreation department. I think, again, we can be champions of innovative outdoor recreation. And if we know of somebody that has an idea, we can certainly put them in touch with Bridget and and her team. But as far as us making any sort of progress or or changing anything, I think we can just kind of be that liaison. Did you wanna say something about the disc golf?

Okay. Yes. And I I think this is actually kinda a good segue into that. So I you know, the the commission's kind of role in this would be an outlet for these different groups. Like, let's say, for disc golf, they came and they spoke with the commission. You know, this is what they wanted. This is how many participants they had. It's a really great way for them to, again, champion something, for you guys to champion something that the public's really interested in. But recently, we hadn't really heard anything from Disc Golf for quite some time. I'm not sure who I ran into at post office, but

they knew me.

And they mentioned just, you know, no one's really interested. We kinda just fell off, that's

why we didn't come back.

And I kinda have something in my director's report about that too just to maybe come up with a process or guidelines for these different groups that come to you guys with, again, as champions for these different facilities or activities. Having a having a set of guidelines or parameters that they work by to say, hey, you know, you come to this many meetings, you show this much data, and we wanna see it for the next two years that you have this much these many this many participants and this percentage of growth. So just a little heads up on that, just kind of brought that to light that maybe when we have people come and champion these products before we jump the gun and replace infrastructure or put a bunch of different resources towards that, we gotta have buy in. So just just food for thought.

Any feedback or any thoughts on on that number four? Go ahead, commissioner.

Those bridge all data on what you said too. I think there's things just moved at a slower pace than what maybe people think as well. And we you know, I bump into that with my line of work where people expect action now, and it's like, no. There's a budget cycle. There's things. You know, there's people that department heads to talk to and sort of tempering those expectations as well with a document like that.

In this goal four, I like this part, especially with the gun range because that's something that we that the commission did work with. And when I first got in the commission, you know, Carl was out there and, you know, brought people in here that we helped him get started and showed interest in. So people can say, what do you guys do, or what's your what is your progress? What have you done? Well, we helped with the gun range. That's something that we can count that as as one thing that we've done to support local recreation in the town.

Yeah. Yeah. We had a lot more, I think at one point, we had a lot more traction with the gun range when especially when we had Carl on commission and then Rhonda Wade and her team. But they they are no longer we don't have a an agreement with her and that group anymore, do we?

No. I have not heard from them in my my six months.

Okay. So maybe that's something I mean, that's again, it's not it's not on us, but we can as as commissioners out in the public, if we know somebody that's got some interest on the gun range and would like to see some work done, we can certainly, again, put them in contact with Parks and Rec and and maybe champion that goal or maybe a day at the gun range to clean up and stuff like that.

And I guess we have been doing that. We do a yearly gun range cleanup with the Coast Guard. It's just maybe switched hands a little bit. Sure. Cool.

Alright. So so kind of, again, I would say this innovative outdoor recreation, we can be there as kind of champions of of different outdoor recreation facilities and programs, but that's gonna, again, fall on Bridget and her staff. So and then goal number five, which I kinda liked this idea. I think it was a little a little much. Having so CSO events, which heavily use most CSO events somehow touch parks and recreation, whether that's grooming trails or using their, you know, trash cans and things for for their event.

So we had talked because part of our job is being liaisons in the community. So let's enhance those relationships and that communication by having some meetings with these groups to make sure that we're helping. I get the idea of sorry. And I'm I'm I'm speaking out of turn here, I think. But I get the idea of, like, the relationships, and I like that aspect. But we really don't have any say as to like, yes, you get trash cans or no, you will be groomed. Like, that's on Bridget and her budget.

It actually is technically it's economic development. It's part Oh, the partner that even is the liaison with these CSOs. So that's there's just it's it's just something that we're not necessarily responsible for directly. And while, you know, we do keep in touch with our different different contacts, It it's gonna be a it's a bigger discussion with with another

department. So, yeah,

I'm not

as helpful as as we think in that sense.

Any other thoughts on it as it comes to, like, the the pre and post events, meeting? Go ahead.

I'm just processing here because, yeah, this was the one that I really ran with. Gosh. I really enjoyed the discussion, say, with the disc golf club when they were came through. And, yeah, I agree. Maybe we got ahead of ourselves with certain things. But, like, that style discussion, thought was really cool and powerful. Or no. Yeah. As I said before, there's just all these CSOs touch parts and rec assets in some way, shape, form, and I just see this as a venue to yes. CSO can just kind of explain what they did and report back and, you know, there's a little bit of accountability, so to speak, with Citi money.

Yeah, ultimately, you gotta kind of establish these these columns. And but that said, I don't know how you sort of pick and choose who comes to a meeting when, you know, there's gonna be that element. You know, you're gonna be seen as being, like, favorites to one or the other. I don't know how you'd manage this, but I like this idea. Maybe it's not executable by us, though.

Well, I think it also has to be by invitation. I don't we can't, like Elise is gonna hop. Yeah. Go ahead.

Just kind of looking at all of these holistically and what your purview is. And just a reminder is just going back to your powers and duties as a commission. Your second power and duty is to receive, consider, and evaluate public input opinions and recommendations regarding the parks and recreation programs of the city and advise the city council and planning and zoning commission of any findings or recommendations. So, really, that is a good role for you in the sense that if you can find a way to have actually, for both of these goals, I think these are both you and your role of getting public input. Right?

And being the ones to go gather that input and bring it back to counsel. So that's really, really your role here. How you go about doing that, that's probably something you're gonna need to figure out in a work session. But I know council really you know, they had the meeting with you guys last year where they went over these goals with you. They really wanna do that again, you know, even early in this coming year as they wanna have more of a dialogue with commissions instead of commissioners just being kind of, like, out there not really having direction, not really knowing what they want to do.

So I think if you can find some structured ways to reach out to these CSOs and get feedback, and if you can find some structured ways to reach out to these user groups on the goal number four and get feedback, that would definitely be within your purview. You don't necessarily have act like, you can't necessarily make a change, but you can bring that information to counsel and say, hey. We've heard a bunch from these disc health people, or, you know, this specific event, it was great, except for they didn't have enough bathrooms.

And Elise, can I ask you a My question, question on goal number five is where does this get muddy with economic development since it is not you don't oversee CSOs? Right. Where is it muddy and is it

That's really hard because, right, because Martha's the liaison for the events to the city. So you don't want to give you don't want to give the the event coordinators the idea that you're now the liaison. But I think that's what's the challenge for you all, right, is to figure out how you go about getting that feedback without muddying those waters. Because getting the feedback, that's absolutely in your purview. You

you know what I'd add to? Ultimately, somebody comes before us, and it's gonna be this kind of cliff note version. You know, those details are gonna happen with you, Bridget, and your staff. We don't need to know the specifics of how many trash cans and where they're getting set. But, you know, I just want some general sense of, hey. We could really use some trash cans from the city. You know, if that's the sort of thing I'm searching for here with

this dialogue.

I kind of and I know that this is something that we can kind of and maybe we can maybe this is one maybe we kind of move these together under the fostering relationship kind of category. And when we get into the nitty gritty in a work session, I think what we could potentially do with CSOs is invite them, post their event, and say and if they want to come and talk about it and just give us like a report. Like what happened? What did you do? What and specifically in ways that affected Parks and Recreation staff.

And then from there, if they decide to come and they speak and they do a public appearance and they say, hey, we had these Gold Rush days and we were you know, we think city the of Aldi's and the parks parks and recreation because they helped us with x, y, and z, and it went really well. But we ran out of, you know, toilet paper in the bathrooms even though that's not parks and rec. We can hear them. You know, they they get to kinda say their little thing, and then, you know, we can if if there is anything Parks related that would then need to go to counsel or somebody else, you know, that that can shift up. It's not you know?

But that way, it's by invite, they're just simply providing us kind of like a, hey. This is how it went. We also then are aware of all the ways that Parks and Recreation is touching these events. That's just kind of my off off the cuff kind of thought. But I think this it was good to go through these, and

I

appreciate deputy clerk's the deputy clerk's acknowledgment that I'm that number four and five are good, and they do kind of you know, they do fall under that purview of receiving public input. We just and I think maybe for our work session when we go to discuss goals for next year, maybe what we need what we need to do is figure out how does that look. How are we how do we structure this in a way that is part is within our purview? And I don't have that answer. So that's kind of something to, I guess, noodle on here. So Go ahead. Yes. No. No. No.

Please do. I think relationships and communication is so important in this small town, especially that everyone knows everyone. Mhmm. And I think because we do have an amazing outdoor you know, I always can't say at the college, you know, we have a million dollar classroom. And, I mean, everyone's in outdoor recreation. But my question is, why aren't there people in the audience asking us, the boards, like, with the commission? Like, can we do this? Can we do this? Can we

do this?

And so I'm asking myself, what can we do to bring people here so that they know that they can have be more approachable to them? It's like, well, we can't talk to the board because they're way up there or they're not gonna do anything we ask them to do. Mhmm. So we have we have, you know, the the skaters and shooters and bikers and climbers, and they should be out there asking us to do some things. And I was just thinking because, you know, during the summertime, we had to do the trails, and we were responsible for, you know, doing a trail, getting some feedback on the trail, and do the same thing for commissions. You know, okay. There's different organizations out there. Maybe every commissioner pick one or two and reach out to them personally and say, hey. I'm Ben. You know? They're on the board, and I I hear you got this going on. Come to our, you know, commission meeting and come talk to us and help us, you know, lead you in the right direction.

I think that's that's excellent. Yeah. That's all that's all good stuff. And, yeah, I think that's kind of probably the way that it's gonna have to happen, is us going to them and pulling them in. So

Makes us reachable. It makes us, like, oh, Mhmm. We're on the same thing.

Any other thoughts or discussion regarding this kind of this review of our 2025 goals? Alright. We will move forward. Actually, yeah, I'll wait until commissioner. Okay. So moving forward to report. So director Rich has a report for us. Alright.

So I have a long long one for you guys today. So I just wanted to give a little bit of an update. We're kind of moving through the budget process. It is next week, I believe, on the agenda. Obviously, feel free to come support and and Blueface.

I know Sarah might have is gonna probably talk about that a little bit more too. So just to kinda give an idea, Civic Center had a increase in their budget for 2026 focusing on doing more outreach, attending more conferences, working with economic development to market the civic center in Valdives as a destination rather than necessarily a hub, trying to refocus and try something new at the civic center, try and change the fee schedule, maybe get some weddings, conferences, retreats. Just try something new. So I'm really excited to see where that goes, but there was an increase in that budget to allow for us to kinda get out there and and do some research and attend some of these expos and things

like

that. Robert's really excited about it, so it's cool to to see the fire under that, and it's nice. Park maintenance, we did see a decrease in our in our annual budget for 2026. Nothing out of the ordinary. A lot of our goal this year is to at least my, you know, my goal coming in is taking a look at operational efficiencies and inefficiencies. Seeing, you know, where where can we do things a little bit different? How can we make this sustainable? You know? And and these aren't these aren't a bad thing. So I just wanted to make sure that when you see that it's not a bad thing, it's it's something that we proposed and just trying to be good stewards of of what we're given.

Rec, we saw a 13% decrease. One of these is we are doing the compass activity guide in house. We have a lot of talent on our team. I have no doubt that we'll be able to complete that with no problem. It saves us about $30 a year, so it's a big chunk. We were able to, again, tighten up on staffing and utilize staff in areas that we really need them. And, again, it's we're not trying to stress employees or put more work on anybody at all. It's just, again, finding operational inefficiencies and addressing those appropriately to, again, be more sustainable. Know, thinking towards the future. I'm gonna be here a long time.

And then for the library, same thing. They actually saw an 8% increase in their budget. So they but one of the big focuses over there is to, again, focus on operations. Let's take a look at what we're doing. Let's do what we do well. Let's let's work on our foundation as a team. So there's really nothing being there there's no cuts per se. We did eliminate 1.4 employee that worked fifteen hours a week. We haven't had that position filled since, I think, May. So we saw that, but, again, we've got a hundred and eighty hours worth of staff time at the library and ninety six hours of coverage that's needed.

So I am very confident that we are able to find areas in which we can improve efficiencies over there as well. We are focusing on youth services. It's incredibly important for our community, and it drives a lot of those numbers at the library. So that's another thing that's very important to us. But again, there's there's just some operational inefficiencies in areas that we can work on.

So that's kind of been my goal this year is to take a look at that. We will see still many of the same programs that we have seen, and really not very many changes in that sense. So, again, 8% increase for the library. Let's see. So while I am away, I will be out on maternity leave starting in January. January 15, I will be gone for three months. I plan to be back by April. So, again, I I'm gonna be around. I'm sure you'll see me. I'm not really gonna stay away that long, but officially, I will be out.

Cole Beck, our park maintenance supervisor, will be interim director while I'm away. He is wonderful. He he knows a lot. He's a great resource, So I'm excited to kind of see him work with you guys as well. And then, obviously, I will be back in April, and things will move forward as per usual.

Let's see. So I kinda mentioned it earlier, but a process for groups that come to commission and want support are those, again, champions that say, again, disc golf. They want so and so or they want this amount of money for these different baskets, etcetera. So I think this was a good example of, well, you know, it was something that we saw a lot of gusto for. Sometimes things fall off.

Sometimes they do, and that's unfortunately what happens a lot of the time. And I don't wanna say that I'm more hesitant, but I I do tend to take I wanna see I wanna see some dedication. I wanna see more than just a year, more than just two years. Like, two to three years would be optimal to see interest within the community because trends are trends, and we work in trends. And I just wanna make sure we're putting resources towards things that will stay or things like pickleball, outdoor pickleball.

And taking a look at what we already have and being able to accommodate with what we already have is a totally different story. They want more outdoor pickleball courts, let's take a look at Alpine Woods. I actually think we already painted lines out there. Taking a look at things like that, how can we fix some of these things and help these organizations or these recreationists on some of these lower hanging fruit things we can do right now? And then for those that do have these larger or bigger projects that they'd like us to focus on, having some guidelines for them just so that, hey, like, we want we wanna see this.

And if you can do this, then we're gonna continue to focus on this or we can, you know, establish it as a goal. So that's something that I'm kind of again, I'm about to be out for three months, but that is something I want you guys to think on, and maybe we could work on establishing some sort of set of guidelines for that. We are running into our Christmas and our our holiday season, so there's a turkey trot coming up. So that's on Thanksgiving Day. Registration is open. Please join us at the rec center. It's always very festive. I hear Jill has turkey hats, turkey leg hats for everybody, so please. Thanks, Sarah. I have pictures.

I

I have I have She's she's I've got

some good photos of that.

We also have the tree lighting coming up. That will be taking place December 4 at the Civic Center. Cookies with the City Manager is right before that, so we are partnering with the communications department to put that on. There may be some, a few different changes to that, but we're again excited. I wanna say we're close to our fortieth year, and just correct me if I'm wrong, but we're pretty close, if not already. So that's been a tradition that's been around a long time. We have a

fact checker.

Okay. Because I can't remember if it was the fortieth. I think we're close if it's not already. So that's something that's, again, was developed. The tree lighting was developed by the Parks and Recreation Commission, I believe, back in the eighties, seventies or eighties, at least, yeah, looks like it. So we've been doing that since, and again, I have attended probably 25 of these. So I just, I hope you all can come out and support that and check it out and just, again, be there to support the tradition. Alright. I think that's I think that's the majority of what I've

got today. That was a lot. Alright. Awesome. Any questions for director Rich regarding her report? Okay. Alright. Well, we will then move on to commission business from the floor, and we'll go ahead. We I always like to start down the dais. So we'll we'll start with commissioner Tran. Do you have any anything on a non agenda item? Okay. Alright. And welcome. Alright. Commissioner Rubita, any commission business?

Welcome, Jess. Just gonna mention that I I ran the, not ran, biked up on Meals Hill quite a bit this fall as did others. I've been getting lots of reports from people that are walking, biking, and generally super thumbs up. Yeah. One of the questions that keeps popping up, though, and I don't have an answer to is if those trails are going to see additional worker bed surface laid down. And I guess I'm a little confused on this one. So, Bridget, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you right now if if, yeah, so now things are gonna get smoother and flatter up there.

So I believe they did some work on alder flow this season. You should have seen some some some product dumped up there, and I know our team was working on that. I will just say that there's going to be continual work happening on that on that part for the foreseeable future. So more brush cutting, and I'm I'm assuming that they will continue to lay more more product.

K. Next question. I'm getting asked and don't have an answer for. Was there any at one point, there was talk about connecting that over to the water tower and some of that and, you know, alternative entrance exit. Is that

still not have an answer yet.

K.

I I do believe that that there's still property that is like, property that we don't have easements for. Okay. So that it's an easement issue as far as I know. And I I believe I I believe I was told that as recent as, like, a a few like, a month or so ago. K.

And and with that park too, I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen the original plans and how much things change and and the direction of trails and just because of the nature of land. And so, again, some of these questions, I wish I could give you a definitive yes for now. But

No. That's fair. And I'm not surprised to hear there's gonna be more work coming up. I guess my thought is, you know, so you just spent a lot of money on trails, and now it's up to us to spend a little bit of money on a mountain bike that's decent quality and, you know, learn to ride because I don't wanna ride on a gravel road. I'm happy to have a little bit rougher bed surface, and a modern mountain bike that's full suspension eats that stuff up.

It is no big deal. Those trails are probably not going to feel fun on your $100 carbon store bike, unfortunately. And wanna be inclusive, but, you know, at a certain point, we need to invest in our own tools to go enjoy what the city has brought us. And I just don't wanna see a paved trail up there. I'm looking for deep mountain bike experience.

Okay. Couple other ideas I'm thinking about in the hopper here. Had a bunch of other conversations here recently too with ski season starting up about the rope tow, and people are kinda questioning, is it time to move the rope tow? You know, I've been in town for about twenty years now, and winter continues to get more and more wonky at sea level. I, skied down here once last season, and that number just continues to dwindle, dwindle, dwindle.

I was in Cordova this fall with a bunch of work, and their rope towed at Their lift did not even run last year at sea level, you know, recognizing that there's probably some money to find. There's probably some permits. I have no idea, you know, what other locations got discussed back in the day. You know, that eight mile area is definitely kind of logistically easy to move a snowcat to for the 10 mile folks in that neighborhood. Yeah.

I'm not other you know, I'm not really sure where to go. I'm just recognizing that it should be nice to get that up and running sooner and do a little feature proofing, so to speak, because we continue to have kind of wonkier winters, and that's just gonna take some time to have those discussions. I'm trying to get ahead of that now. I also would suggest there needs to be a public outreach of all of it. Just let's ask people what they want.

Ultimately, it's city money and your taxes kind of paying for this stuff. Right? So it's an idea. Other thing I'm kinda thinking about was I I mentioned this in another meeting at some point too, but it's kinda that relationship conversation I was talking about. You know, years a year ago, two years ago, there was, some drone footage flying over the snow lots, and it just struck me like how you've got all these naturally sculpted features.

And Mhmm.

Could you work with the snow machine club to basically run a big Supercross event, like, right in town in our snow lots? You just straight up shut down some city streets. You got, you know, loop de loops through town. You just invite the neighbors out to go watch all of this. You know, that said, I own a sled. I don't wanna listen to constant snow machine traffic in my backyard, and nobody else does either. So, you know, this isn't, like, all winter sort of thing. This is an event. This happens one weekend. It'd be a very unique thing.

I don't know that anybody else doing this sort of thing right in their town. But I know that in the past, you know, we did a big snow machine jump thing out of the sea otter of Reed Park. That was ten some years ago too. That was well attended, and, I just thought it was a neat, you know, it's potential for a knee key event. And there's there's definitely a motor crowd around here, so just another idea. And that was all I had. Thanks for everybody's time.

Alright. Go

ahead, commissioner Rush.

I did all what Jeremy said. I'm not a snow machiner, but one of my first years here, we had the had the races at the hospital for the senior centers now. And as I saw the kids doing the snow machines,

that was really cool.

I'm having I'm not I like the the noise in the back of my yard, but that was for one day Closer to the hospital too. Welcome, Jessica, to the commission, so hope to hear your input. So welcome. Welcome. Nice to be back. We haven't been here since August. And thanks to Sarah for being our to being our chair again. Looking forward to a good winter. Winter's right around the corner. Alright. That's

it. Okay. Just a couple little things. So we we talked about our goals. We reviewed them.

I think our next step would be to, one, review the master plan. We we do have that comprehensive master plan. So we should I think we should do a a work session to review the mass not and not review the master plan in the work session, come prepared by reading the master plan. But look at the master plan, look at the goals that we had this last year, and then come we can have a work session either in December or January, to come up with some goals and, for 2026. And by goals, I mean, like, two really measurable goals, that we can we can really chew on and work on for 2026.

I guess the question would be, would you like to do a work session in December, or should we we do we start off the year with with a nice work session in January?

December is month.

December is next month. Yes. And yep. So we're we're looking at either December 9 or, I guess it would be January 13? Okay. So anybody has preferences?

I always say sooner is better. Okay. But that's just it's just this is less than a month away.

Probably more January myself. Okay. Just

That'd be more January. Okay. I I I'm happy with January. I I like kinda starting off fresh and, you know, December around the corner and holidays. Yeah. So okay. So we'll tentatively plan on, and I'll I'll talk with Lisa and well, Bridget will be out by that point. So Cole will be with us, but we'll we'll do that in our January. So we'll have a January work session before our regular session to kind of, come up with our goals for 2026. I just wanted to re remind everybody kind of a repeat of what Bridget had mentioned.

There is a public hearing on the city budget next Tuesday, November 18, 6PM. So, and as commissioners, part of our job, like like has been mentioned, is we are we are the champions of the parks and rec, and we we do we do make recommendations to council. I don't know if we necessarily have a recommendation to council on any of the proposed budget, but I think it's good for commissioners to come to council meetings on occasion. This would be a good good one. It's also really interesting to watch the whole council the whole budget session.

So Tuesday, 6PM here in council chambers. Support support the Parks and Rec department. And then hope to see some of you at the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day again, and I tell you this every year. It just warms my little heart. I started the Turkey Trot in 2014, and I'm so happy that it is an official city of Bellies tradition. Makes me happy every single year, and I I probably have six different turkey hats. So I will be wearing one of those, and hope to see you there. Alright. That's all from me. And I believe then that takes us to our adjournment.

Next meeting is scheduled for December 9 at 06:30 here in Council Chambers. Seeing no more business to come before the commission, we adjourn at 07:31PM.