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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-23 Parks & Recreation Summary MinutesAPPROVED Draft Minutes 1 1 2 3 4 MINUTES 5 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 6 REGULAR MEETING 7 April 23, 2019 8 CITY HALL 9 250 Hamilton Avenue 10 Palo Alto, California 11 12 Commissioners Present: Jeff Greenfield, Jeff LaMere, Ryan McCauley, Don McDougall, 13 David Moss, and Keith Reckdahl 14 Commissioners Absent: Anne Cribbs 15 Others Present: Council Member Cormack 16 Staff Present: Daren Anderson, Kristen O'Kane, Natalie Khwaja 17 I. ROLL CALL 18 II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, and DELETIONS 19 Chair McDougall: Do we have any Agenda Changes, Requests, Deletions that are not in 20 the agenda as provided? If not, could we move on to Oral Communications then? 21 III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS 22 Chair McDougall: Kristen, please. 23 Kristen O'Kane: Oral Communications are for members of the public to speak. 24 Chair McDougall: Do we have anybody who would like to speak on a topic that's not on 25 the agenda tonight? Thank you. 26 IV. DEPARTMENT REPORT 27 Chair McDougall: Department Report. Sorry about that, confused you. 28 Daren Anderson: Hello. Daren Anderson with Community Services Department. I've got 29 a few items for you, a couple of FYIs. There's a project coming up in Palo Alto Unified 30 School District at Hoover Elementary School that involves building some new classrooms 31 APPROVED Draft Minutes 2 that may involve moving portables onto the grass field. This project would start in June 1 and go until 2023. There are other possible impacts from the project that may affect the 2 adjacent parkland at Mitchell Park. It's the student drop-off and pick-up that would be 3 impacted. They're looking at other alternatives that may involve using the parking lot at 4 Mitchell. With our last experience with the solar project at PAUSD, we wanted to bring 5 this to your attention as soon as I became aware of it and ask if the Commission would like 6 to form an ad hoc committee to meet with staff and ultimately with PAUSD staff as well 7 and see if we can weigh in and help with input on this project. Perhaps I could finish the 8 Department Report and we can come back to that. 9 Chair McDougall: Thank you. 10 Mr. Anderson: Another event is unaffiliated but happening at Mitchell Park. The Utilities 11 Department is replacing two transformers, so the power will be out to the park from May 13 12 through May 15. This will include the restrooms, the tennis court lights, the irrigation, the 13 water feature, and all the park lighting. They're going to do their best to get it completed 14 as soon as possible. We'll make sure that we inform all the adjacent groups, the library, 15 the schools, the community center, and everyone in and around the park. We'll have it 16 signed really well. Just an FYI that's coming. 17 Commissioner Moss: Does that mean the library and the community center will be closed? 18 Mr. Anderson: No, I'm sorry. The light control will only be going on in the park itself. 19 It's just the power inside Mitchell Park. This other FYI is unsubstantiated. A fisherman 20 reported a gar up at Foothills Park at Boronda Lake. A gar is an invasive fish, usually the 21 result of an aquarium release, which is kind of interesting. They can grow from 1 foot to 22 9 feet long. This isn't the first time we've had this happen. Ten years ago, we had a similar 23 report, and we did the same thing we did this time. We contacted California Fish & 24 Wildlife Service. They send out a biologist. We electroshocked parts of the lake looking 25 for this fish. Electroshock is essentially putting in a battery-powered electrifier. It shocks 26 a little portion of the lake. Fish are stunned momentarily and rise up to the top. You can 27 see if you've got any invasive ones, in particular this gar that we're looking at. In this 28 instance, the Fish & Wildlife biologist came out again and did a survey and didn't find it 29 again. Just wanted to let you know if you hear about it, we're on top of it. We're 30 communicating with people that are fishing at the lake on a regular basis to educate them 31 about what the gar looks like and if you catch them, please do not re-release it. We'd like 32 to capture that, freeze it, and call Fish & Wildlife Service. Just an FYI, there are five of 33 the seven gar species that are native to the United States, but none of which are in 34 California. 35 Ms. O'Kane: I have some things to share as well. I'm Kristen O'Kane, Community 36 Services. Mine are about two special events that are coming up. The first is Palo Alto 37 Day. As you probably know, hopefully, this year is Palo Alto's 125th birthday. There's an 38 APPROVED Draft Minutes 3 event occurring on King Plaza this Sunday at 2:00 to celebrate Palo Alto Day. It's a 1 community event put on by different members of the community, not just the City, to 2 celebrate and to open a time capsule that was buried here in City Hall 25 years ago. There 3 were three time capsules buried 25 years ago, one to be opened in 2019, one in another 25 4 years, and maybe another 50 years after that. We're going to open that. We're going to 5 have just a fun celebration. There will be some singing groups. I encourage you all to 6 attend. The actual program starts at 2:00, but there's some music that starts at 12:45. Again, 7 King Plaza this Sunday. The second one, I wanted to remind everyone of the May Fete 8 Parade that is happening the following weekend on Saturday. I do have a request. We are 9 looking for some judges to judge the floats at the May Fete Parade. If anyone is interested, 10 we would greatly appreciate it. It requires that you get there a little bit earlier, 9:15, but 11 you do get to vote on all the floats and make some kids feel very special that day. If anyone 12 is interested, please let me know. Again, if you haven't let Stephanie Douglas know if 13 you'd like to walk in the parade, please do so, so we can make sure we have the right 14 number of people accounted for. Two fun community events coming up. I hope to see 15 you there. Thank you. 16 Chair McDougall: Daren, would you like to go back to the question about the ad hoc. 17 Which school did you say that was? I'm sorry. 18 Mr. Anderson: This is Hoover Elementary. I think it might be helpful to form an ad hoc 19 if the Commission feels that would benefit the process. I'd be glad to work with the ad hoc 20 and connect them with PAUSD staff and see if we can discuss this project in more detail. 21 Vice Chair Greenfield: I'd be happy to be involved with that. I live down the street on 22 Waverley Street. I know part of the transportation plan they're talking about is potentially 23 opening up Waverley Street as a one-way road for drop-off. I know Hoover School is 24 trying to do some outreach, so this is a good time to plug the message a little bit for the 25 people who are listening. As part of the construction, the loop through the school area will 26 be closed. It'll be dead-ended on the side adjacent to the home on the other side. Traffic 27 will either have to turn around and then go through Waverley Street or go back out the way 28 they came. It's a problem any way you look at it. I'd be happy to be involved with that. 29 Chair McDougall: Is there anybody else who would like to join that? I hate to think you'd 30 do it alone, so I'll volunteer to participate with you. 31 Vice Chair Greenfield: Love to spend more time with you, Don. 32 Chair McDougall: People are going to start talking. That's good. I think we should make 33 sure or certainly express the appreciation that the School Board reached out. That should 34 not go unnoticed. 35 APPROVED Draft Minutes 4 Vice Chair Greenfield: I just had one question regarding the utilities issue at Mitchell Park. 1 Will that affect the tennis and pickleball courts? 2 Mr. Anderson: Yes, the lighting on all the courts. 3 Vice Chair Greenfield: No lights on May 13 through 15. 4 Mr. Anderson: That's correct. 5 Chair McDougall: Any other questions for Daren or Kristen? In that case, I'd like to move 6 on to approval of the minutes. 7 V. BUSINESS 8 1. Approval of Draft Minutes from the March 26, 2019 Parks and Recreation 9 Commission meeting. 10 Approval of the draft March 26, 2019 Minutes was moved by Commissioner Reckdahl and 11 seconded by Commissioner Moss. Passed 6-0, Cribbs absent 12 2. Recommendation to City Council to Adopt a Park Improvement Ordinance at 13 Mitchell Park for Constructing Two Pickleball Courts, Converting Tennis 14 Court 5 into Four Pickleball Courts, and Restriping Courts 6 and 7 for Dual 15 Use. 16 Chair McDougall: The next item is recommendation to City Council to adopt a Park 17 Improvement Ordinance at Mitchell Park. I'd like to invite Adam Howard to participate 18 with Daren to make that presentation. For the audience, I have three cards here. The 19 process will be that we'll hear the presentation. If I have cards, you'll be invited to speak, 20 and then the Commission will speak, and then there will be a motion. Thank you all for 21 being here. Remember the thoughtful and peaceful approach that we've witnessed from all 22 of you before. Adam. 23 Adam Howard: Thank you. Good evening. Adam Howard, Senior Community Services 24 Manager. Thank you for having me here. Yes, we are here to receive a recommendation 25 to send forward a Park Improvement Ordinance for the Mitchell Park courts. A brief 26 background as we've discussed this before. We've seen an increase in Palo Alto in 27 pickleball play. Our first step to help with that solution was to update the Court Policy to 28 allow pickleball play to happen in Palo Alto. August 28, we brought a recommendation 29 for changes to the Court Use Policy to the Commission. You sent it forward to the City 30 Council, who approved it on October 15. Again, we realized that was the first step and 31 what we needed to do was provide some designated space for the pickleball users. 32 February 19, staff held a public meeting to discuss redesigned plans at Mitchell Park. On 33 February 26, we came back and reported that to you. What you'll see is the same plan 34 APPROVED Draft Minutes 5 designs from that previous meeting with a little bit more detail and in the form of a PIO. 1 The paperwork in front of you is some changes that took place since the PIO was sent. 2 They're really just changes to the note section of the diagram. The wording is the same, 3 but in the note section some things didn't correlate with the picture that you see. We wanted 4 to make sure that those corrections came forward to you. For tonight, the Park 5 Improvement Ordinance focuses on these six things: the removal of four trees and 6 replanting additional trees according to the City Arborist's replanting recommendations; 7 install two new pickleball courts and new perimeter fencing that is currently outside the 8 passive grass area and adjacent to the existing tennis courts; install a new concrete walkway 9 along the exterior of the new pickleball courts; convert one existing tennis court, Court 5, 10 into four dedicated pickleball courts; stripe the two existing tennis courts, Courts 6 and 7, 11 into multiuse courts; and install one drinking fountain adjacent to the courts for everybody's 12 use. This is an overhead image of Mitchell Park Courts 5, 6, and 7. You have seen this 13 before. We'll go into a little detail of each of those steps I just talked about. First is the 14 removal of four trees. The red large circles are the current locations of those trees. Just a 15 picture of those trees, three palm trees and I don't remember the name of the larger tree. 16 You can see where they are adjacent to the tennis courts currently. Those would be 17 removed. The recommendation would be to replant. At this point, we're looking at 18 replanting seven trees in Mitchell Park. Most of that will go in the new landscaping area, 19 but some of them might go other places in the park. This is the overhead of where the new 20 pickleball courts and perimeter fencing will remain. We're basically bumping out the 21 current perimeter fence to this new red line. That's where the two new pickleball courts 22 will go. We would install a new walkway along the exterior of the fence. That's what the 23 yellow image represents. That way we have a concrete walkway around the new existing 24 perimeter fence. This shows the conversion of Court 5 into four designated pickleball 25 courts. We would then dual stripe Courts 6 and 7 to provide both tennis and pickleball use 26 with the previously mentioned designated times for each sport. The red circle is where the 27 water fountain will be located. There is also a water fountain in the Magical Bridge 28 Playground, so this will be the second water fountain in the area. As an overview and 29 recap, this proposed plan gives eight designated pickleball courts, which does include the 30 two recently redesigned paddleball courts; four designated tennis courts, which are all lit; 31 and two multiuse courts, which make two tennis courts or seven pickleball courts, all with 32 lights. If the recommendation goes forward tonight, next steps are to bring the Park 33 Improvement Ordinance to City Council in May and, while doing that, finishing the 34 Planning Department permits. The hope would be to get Council to approve the contract 35 in July with construction starting in August and completion in October. Questions or 36 comments? 37 Chair McDougall: I'd like to go to the public speakers. If anybody is planning on speaking, 38 I'd appreciate it if you'd submit cards now. We've had the situation before where people 39 have wanted to speak afterwards, and I'm afraid we can't allow that. I'll wait one minute. 40 APPROVED Draft Minutes 6 While we're waiting, to go in the order the cards were submitted, I'll start with Harvey 1 Alcabes . I hope I have that right. Next is Kay Carey, if they can be ready. 2 Harvey Alcabes: Hello. My name's Harvey Alcabes. I'm a longtime Palo Alto resident, 3 have been a tennis player for a while. In the last year, I started playing pickleball. I've 4 found that it's something that a lot of people really enjoy. With the tennis courts, there's 5 generally been—pickleball is very, very fast growing. Even from last summer until now, 6 there is a lot more players. In one court, we can have 16 people playing in what would be 7 one tennis court, where up to four people could play. I just want to recommend that the 8 Council approve this request. 9 Chair McDougall: Thank you. Kay Carey followed by Ann Lemmenes [phonetic]. 10 Kay Carey: Good evening. I'm Kay Carey, a longtime Palo Alto resident, past president 11 of Palo Alto Tennis Club. I've recently tried pickleball. It's certainly fun. This has been a 12 very thoughtful plan that has been put forward by the Rec Department and is a useful 13 compromise so that we can have both tennis players and pickleball players getting court 14 usage. I hope, though, that the Commission is going to be monitoring the usage of the 15 courts because ultimately it would make a lot of sense to think about Cubberley as a 16 pickleball center. For example, I believe $80,000 is being spent for the two new pickleball 17 courts. It would be interesting if instead $100,000 was spent to light two Cubberley courts, 18 which could be mixed use, that is eight pickleball courts or two tennis courts. Just a 19 suggestion because the parking problems at Mitchell are severe. Cubberley makes sense 20 as a pickleball center. It doesn't have a nice little viewing area, which would be a wonderful 21 thing to put in. I just wanted to make the suggestion that, as you are continuing to monitor 22 it, you might be thinking in terms of where do you want your pickleball center to be. I 23 think it would be difficult to have it at Mitchell Park. I certainly commend this plan as a 24 good transition plan. Thank you. 25 Chair McDougall: Thank you. Ann Lemmenes followed by Lee Caswell. 26 Ann Lemmenes: Hi. My name is Ann Lemmenes, and I'm a Palo Alto resident and 27 property owner. I want to thank you, first of all, for all your hours, days, weeks, months, 28 and years of work on this project. I think the proposal is really a good one. It doesn't 29 overly benefit pickleball nor unduly harm the tennis community. Thank you very much. 30 Chair McDougall: Thank you. Lee Caswell followed by Monica Williams. 31 Lee Caswell: Hi. My name is Lee Caswell. I'm a longtime tennis player and an even 32 longer time Palo Alto resident. I do recommend moving forward. It's a very thoughtful 33 proposal, a balance of pickleball and tennis. What I wanted to talk about just for a minute, 34 though, was the nature of this game and how, from a community standpoint, it really does 35 by compressing the skillset allow people to interact in a way that is indicative of how we 36 APPROVED Draft Minutes 7 want Palo Alto to behave. We're bringing people from different ages. I've played with 1 everyone who's a pickleball player here at different times. Although I was a competitive 2 tennis player, I'm able to play with a group of people that is a big range of folks, different 3 sexes, different ages. It's really been my pleasure to be part of that. I am the spouse of a 4 School Board Member, so I do happen to just run into people from all different schools and 5 kids who are participating in sport where it's not easy to enter tennis the same way as it is 6 to get into pickleball. I'm really enthusiastic about having dedicated courts. It's a pretty 7 big drag on the pickleball players to bring all these courts in every week. The setup and 8 downtime with this are quite an effort, and I think this is going to go a long way towards 9 improving the enjoyment of the game, number one, and also a little bit on safety too. Thank 10 you so much. 11 Chair McDougall: Thank you. Monica Williams follows by Susan McConnell. 12 Monica Williams: Good evening, Chair McDougall and Commissioners. I'm Monica 13 Williams, President of the Palo Alto Pickleball Club. I want to thank you for this proposal. 14 Four years ago, an article in the Mercury News called me a 73-year-old pickleball goddess. 15 That was four years ago. I'm absolutely delighted that you have brought this to fruition. 16 We're looking forward to having this facility at Mitchell Park. We'll be able to teach a lot 17 more youth. This gives us the possibility of people just coming in and playing rather than 18 having to put up a net. That's why with our youth we want to have them be able to come 19 onto the courts and practice. There's nowhere else to do that without putting up courts. 20 Having the dedicated courts is really fantastic. Thank you so much. I want to also say that, 21 for those people who are not speaking tonight, we want to respect your time, so we don't 22 want to take too much of your time. To have those people who are supporting pickleball 23 to stand up please. Thank you. That looks like 100 percent. Thank you, and the proposal 24 is fantastic. Thank you very much. 25 Chair McDougall: Thank you. Susan McConnell. 26 Susan McConnell: Hi. My name is Susan McConnell, and I'm a member of the Palo Alto 27 Pickleball Club and a resident of Palo Alto for 46 years. For 18 years, I captained many 28 Palo Alto USTA teams until my knees gave out. This past Monday morning when I arrived 29 at Mitchell Park to play pickleball, there were 44 people playing on three tennis courts with 30 people waiting to go on the courts. I looked when I came in, and there were, I believe, only 31 two tennis players on your newly resurfaced courts. We have a very vibrant pickleball 32 community at Mitchell Park. In fact, there's a vibrant pickleball community throughout 33 the United States. We support the plan proposed by the Palo Alto Parks and Rec 34 Department to change one tennis court, Number 5, into four dedicated pickleball courts. 35 Dual lines will be put on Courts No. 6 and 7. This is a fair compromise. Tennis players 36 will have 21 lit courts instead of 22. Thank you. I sure hope this goes through. 37 APPROVED Draft Minutes 8 Chair McDougall: Thank you. I'd like to now convert to talking with the Parks and Rec 1 Commission. I think I'll start, David, with you. 2 Commissioner Moss: Thank you. I've been starting to play pickleball, and I've noticed 3 this camaraderie, and I think it's fantastic that you have this focus in one geographic area. 4 I noticed that there are two pickleball courts that used to be paddleball courts, and almost 5 nobody uses them. Having that focus is really great. I'm very happy that you're creating 6 this center in Mitchell Park and not, for instance, putting two or three courts at Cubberley 7 and two or three courts somewhere else. I don't think they'll be used like they're used at 8 Mitchell Park. It's just fantastic. I also heard for the first time a seating area for watching. 9 I've never heard that before in the year and a half. I don't know if that's possible, to put a 10 two-layer bleacher or something like that somewhere. 11 Mr. Howard: This has been part of the conversation. We looked at a full set of bleachers, 12 but we couldn't put down a pad due to the proximity to the creek. In the landscaped area, 13 we do hope to include some picnic-style benches so people can sit and enjoy the shade and 14 the game. 15 Commissioner Moss: Can you tell me what is between the two new courts and the existing 16 Court 5 in the way of fencing? Is there a half fence, no fence? What's between the two 17 when you're done? 18 Mr. Howard: Between the courts, we'll have dividing fences basically that are used in 19 pickleball. The cement walkway that's there now will be removed so all the surface will 20 be the same. They'll just have little dividers that divide each of the courts. It'll be a very 21 low—I don't know if I'd call it a fence. It's 3 feet high. 22 Commissioner Moss: There's one that already exists between Courts 5 and 6. There's a 23 little half fence that—is that going to be similar between … 24 Mr. Howard: It would probably be even lower than that. That fence will be extended a 25 little bit so that tennis and pickleball could be at the same time without interference. 26 Commissioner Moss: I'm really happy to see, every time I go by there, the ability of the 27 pickleballers and the tennis players to share Courts 6 and 7. I encourage us to keep working 28 on that. That's working out great. Thank you. 29 Chair McDougall: I'll go to the other end. Commissioner McCauley. 30 Commissioner McCauley: Adam and Daren, this has been a long time coming. 31 Congratulations, well done. 32 Chair McDougall: Commissioner LaMere. 33 APPROVED Draft Minutes 9 Commissioner LaMere: Appreciate all your hard work on this. It's a great plan. A couple 1 of things that came to mind in terms of long-range thinking. I was really excited to see you 2 able to bump-out and use existing land and expand things at the park. To continue to look 3 at our different parks and how land can be used in efficient ways is exciting. I know we've 4 talked about it a lot, but to continue to study where can we put lights up and where does it 5 not impact the residents and what parks can we really put lights up whether it's for tennis 6 courts, soccer fields. Our population is growing. It's going to get more and more impacted. 7 To continue to find different ways to utilize our space. Congratulations on this. I know 8 you guys have worked very, very hard. You've engaged the public. Excited to see this 9 plan come to fruition. 10 Commissioner Reckdahl: I'll say me too. Thank you very much. I also appreciate the 11 October completion date. That's very good. I know you've worked very hard to squeeze 12 that through. I appreciate that. Refresh my memory. What are the dedicated hours right 13 now in Mitchell Park for pickleball? 14 Mr. Howard: Currently? 15 Commissioner Reckdahl: Currently. 16 Mr. Howard: I'm not going to remember the—it's Mondays and Wednesdays for one 17 group. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the next. Maybe they remember which one is which 18 off the top of their heads. The remaining evenings is first-come-first-serve. 19 Commissioner Reckdahl: We do have some evening slots right now? 20 Mr. Howard: Right now, it's 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday and Wednesday are one 21 sport, and 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Tuesday/Thursday is the other sport. I can't remember 22 which night is which. 23 Commissioner Reckdahl: Do we get a lot of pickleball in the evening? 24 Mr. Howard: Yeah, especially now that the weather's improving. 25 Commissioner Reckdahl: These new courts, we're not going to put lights up. Do we get 26 extra light bouncing off the courts? Are they playable in the evenings, these new courts? 27 Mr. Howard: We're not sure. There is going to be some light, but we don't know if it'll be 28 enough light. We're not positive about that. We can't redirect, so we're not positive. 29 Commissioner Reckdahl: The current lights are fixed? 30 Mr. Howard: Yeah. 31 APPROVED Draft Minutes 10 Commissioner Reckdahl: If we wanted to add lights to these courts down the road, is this 1 minor? I think it's like $100,000 to do a court. 2 Mr. Howard: Daren might remind me if I'm wrong. I think they gave us a quote of $70,000 3 if we wanted to light the addition. 4 Mr. Anderson: I might add that there's also the permitting process, which is more 5 complicated when it comes to lighting things. Of course, the adjacent courts are lit, so that 6 will help. It's not a totally unlit area. Adding additional lights in parks is sometimes a 7 challenge. As Commissioner LaMere pointed out, as we try to maximize space, we'll 8 certainly be looking at options to light a number of areas. 9 Commissioner Reckdahl: The fact that we already have lights there, I assume that would 10 simplify it. 11 Mr. Anderson: I would think so. 12 Commissioner Reckdahl: This $70,000 quote was including the fact that they could tie 13 into the existing lights? 14 Mr. Howard: Right, because they had been to the courts before, so they knew that. 15 Mr. Anderson: I just wanted to qualify that that $70,000 wasn't fully vetted. It was an 16 envelope estimate. 17 Commissioner Reckdahl: Just a rom estimate. I appreciate that. Finally, I like the benches 18 at the trees. The fact that they're movable will be a feature because in the morning the sun 19 is going to be coming from the right side. If you want shade, you'll want the benches on 20 the left. In the afternoon, it may be reversed. The fact that they're not fixed is a good thing. 21 How wide is that strip of grass right now? Is it 10 feet? 22 Mr. Howard: Currently or in the design? 23 Commissioner Reckdahl: When they build it. 24 Mr. Howard: It was roughly 10 feet. 25 Commissioner Reckdahl: If you put the trees in the middle, you could move the picnic 26 table back and forth, something like that. Thank you very much. I look forward to this 27 being heavily used. When I walk through the park, pickleball is very heavily used more so 28 than tennis. This is the right decision. 29 Chair McDougall: Commissioner Greenfield. 30 APPROVED Draft Minutes 11 Vice Chair Greenfield: I'd like to thank staff and the community for the collaborative effort 1 in getting to where we are today. It's been a long process. A lot of people have been along 2 for the ride for a long time. I'm happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have 3 nitpicked plenty of details within the ad hoc. I'm happy with things as they are. 4 Congratulations. 5 Chair McDougall: I can only echo the appreciation for the work, Adam, and the stamina 6 that has gone into this. We should also commend pickleball particularly and the tennis 7 people for both their persistence and stamina in this because it's been a necessarily long 8 process. You've done an incredible job of making sure everybody's voice was heard. I 9 have no other comments or questions, just to say thank you to you and everybody that 10 worked with you and helped you. With that said, if there are no other comments—I turn 11 and look at Allison. We have developed the practice of inviting Council Member Cormack 12 to speak at our meetings on our topics. The next thing that happens with this item is it goes 13 before Council. She has suggested it would be inappropriate to participate today because 14 she'll be participating on this in the future. Thank you for your understanding. The next 15 thing would be a motion. The motion would be—would somebody like to give us the 16 specifics of the motion? Is that a slide we could look at? 17 MOTION 18 Commissioner McCauley: I would move to recommend that the City Council adopt the 19 Park Improvement Ordinance that's before us. 20 Chair McDougall: Is this the definition here? This would be the appropriate wording. 21 Ryan, would you like to … 22 Commissioner McCauley: I move that the Commission recommend to the City Council 23 that it adopt the Park Improvement Ordinance at Mitchell Park for constructing two 24 pickleball courts, converting Court 5 into four pickleball courts, and restriping Courts 6 25 and 7 for dual use. 26 Chair McDougall: It is useful to add anything about "and the appropriate amenities" or 27 does that come with it? 28 Mr. Anderson: You can leave it as is. The PIO includes that, and it gives us a little 29 flexibility. 30 Chair McDougall: Do I have a second? 31 Vice Chair Greenfield: I'll second. 32 APPROVED Draft Minutes 12 Chair McDougall: Anybody in favor? All in favor please. Anybody opposed? With that, 1 it's passed unanimously [Cribbs absent]. Thank you again to the attendees. Thank you 2 again to the staff and the Commission. 3 3. Preparation for Council Study Session 4 Chair McDougall: The next item on the agenda is preparation for the Council study 5 session. Kristen, do you want to start off and provide some context? 6 Ms. O'Kane: We have, as you know, a joint study session. It's currently scheduled for 7 May 6. I was just trying to pull up the time. It's a little later than we usually do because 8 there's a special order and another study session that same day. We had also, just a side 9 note, planned for the Cubberley joint study session between Council and the School 10 District. That's been moved probably 'til later in the summer. That one is not on May 6. 11 Typically the process for these study sessions is the Chair and the Vice Chair and staff will 12 meet with the Mayor and Vice Mayor. In this instance, we met with the Mayor and Council 13 Member Cormack, which was actually a really good fit for the study session. The Vice 14 Mayor will not be there on May 6, so he deferred to Council Member Cormack. What we 15 did at that meeting is just talk through what Chair McDougall will likely present at the 16 meeting on behalf of the Commission, which would be accomplishments from the previous 17 year and then priorities for the coming year or the current year. I'll turn it over to you, 18 Chair McDougall, but it would be good for the Commission to know generally what the 19 presentation will be and if there's any particular focus you'd like to take the study session 20 and a little bit of choreography maybe would help as well. I'll turn it over to you, and I'm 21 here to answer any questions that you might have along the way. 22 Chair McDougall: Thank you. We met with Mayor Filseth and Council Member Cormack. 23 I want to thank her for being there and her participation in that meeting. It was very useful. 24 I'd like this not to be my presentation but our presentation. What we have in front of you 25 is—I said earlier today that it was a summary version, but then I changed that to say it was 26 a redacted version because that seems to be the term of use these days—what we presented 27 that day. I put it this way so we're not sitting here saying, "Remember the bridge. 28 Remember that." Hopefully, most of the things that we would remember are here. I would 29 suggest that the presentation or discussion be more or less in this direction. What we really 30 need to do is see if we can come to agreement of what we'd like to achieve. Would we like 31 to achieve the fact that they should be confident that the Parks and Rec Commission is 32 doing a good job or should we try and achieve the fact that they should be looking at 33 something in particular? Should we achieve some warnings about what we think is coming 34 in the future? There's any number of things that we can do. Through this conversation, I'd 35 like to invite Commissioner Greenfield to interrupt me at any time because he was 36 instrumental in doing this. The agenda we had for that meeting was we just put up the 37 priorities and thoughts and what the citizen input was. We talked about highlights and 38 APPROVED Draft Minutes 13 activities and celebrations. I put in the guiding principles outcome that we had from our 1 meeting. I didn't think priorities covered what we were trying to do. It says CSD-PRC 2 projects. None of these are our projects. They're very much CSD projects, and they're in 3 fact Public Works projects that CSD is substantially leading. To that end, we wanted to 4 make sure it was understood what our role was relative to the overall organization. I did 5 talk about funding sources and some of the data that I've used before. I don't think that's 6 meaningful in a general Council conversation. What I learned from this meeting is if you 7 want to talk in big numbers, you can. That doesn't last for more than about 30 nanoseconds 8 before it's in small numbers. The small numbers are, number one, not our business and, 9 number two, they're way too movable to bring in front of Council in this fashion. The thing 10 that I bolded there was the challenges and projects of interest. I'll count on Commissioner 11 Greenfield to help me talk about that. Under the introduction, it's useful to continue to 12 reinforce that Parks and Rec is really responsible for what I would consider to be—I've 13 used this term before—scarce and valuable resources. I put up the Council Priorities 14 because climate and sustainability are part of that. I put up the Mayor's values—he didn't 15 argue with them—from his presentation, which included sustainability in nature and 16 sustainability in fiscal responsibility, and a Health City Healthy Community, and being a 17 good neighbor. I did talk about the Citizen Survey and the great marks that the parks and 18 open space received in the Citizen Survey. The recreation highlights, I'm not going to go 19 through them. You can read them. The parks highlights, the open space, the infrastructure, 20 and the concept of partnership development, the fact that we had had several different 21 organizations come and speak to us and we look to engage with those organizations. The 22 highlighting has more to do with—in fact, in some version of it there was color in there, 23 which were the ones the Mayor called out in his speech, not necessarily the really 24 important—there are things that were more important than others. The priorities. These 25 are divided into sections. Priorities are part of both the CIP and Master Plan projects. 26 They're listed there. There are specific park projects. There's specific CSD projects, the 27 Cubberley Master Plan and recreation opportunity analysis. You might throw BCCP up 28 there earlier. Those are just activities that are going on. As you talk about priorities, for 29 this Commission and for the City climate change is incredibly high. Certainly from my 30 position, funding needs and opportunities and strategies are important. In terms of 31 challenges, we said there was projects of current public interest. We think the Baylands 32 BCCP, including the ITT building, including the 10 acres, will solicit and involve 33 community conversation. The Ventura plan will clearly include that. We would happily 34 present them with a really nice racket sports package. There's the whole conversation of 35 park dedication. Projects of potential public interest, the Foothills creek hydrology and 36 restoration. Funding strategies, we talked a lot about that with Council Member Cormack 37 and the Mayor. The other in terms of challenges is clearly climate change. That's a very 38 quick overview. I would invite comment, first, from Commissioner Greenfield about that 39 meeting and how we should proceed with the Council. 40 APPROVED Draft Minutes 14 Vice Chair Greenfield: One thing we're certainly mindful of is we're talking about a 60-1 minute meeting. There are 14 individuals who all like to talk on varying levels. We want 2 to jump to the meat of any meeting as quickly as we can. That's really what the outline of 3 the pre-meeting with the Mayor and Council Member Cormack was. We outlined a number 4 of things, ran through them quickly, highlighted the last item, which was the challenges 5 that we wanted to spend the most time talking about, getting feedback on specific projects, 6 what makes sense. One thing that we did hear, which was useful, regarding the 10.5 acres 7 at the Baylands—there has been previous guidance from previous Councils that that area 8 would be targeted towards recreation development. It would behoove us to address this 9 with the current Council to make sure the guidance is still the same before we move forward 10 with trying to develop that. That is a priority for the Commission right now, to figure out 11 what we're going to do with that land. It's a good time to be talking about it. Before we 12 can make very specific plans in a specific direction, we need some guidance. Be happy to 13 have your comments on that as well. 14 Council Member Cormack: This is an area where each Council Member has various 15 background and understanding, and we only have one member of Council who has a long 16 history of experience. The recommendation that you all bring forward should probably 17 include pros and cons, some information on both sides in addition to what you recommend. 18 Personally, when I get staff reports, if there are a couple of options and I have a better sense 19 of why there's been a particular recommendation. It's possible that the Commission may 20 not agree. That's fine, recognize that. Just doing a holistic approach, not just some people 21 a while ago said that. Maybe that will be stare decisis, and we'll stick with that. That would 22 be my one suggestion in that area, especially with respect to sea level rise. We've got a 23 bunch of things going on now that's new information. 24 Chair McDougall: Is that recommendation specific to the 10.5 acres or any of these topics? 25 Council Member Cormack: It's specific to the 10.5 acres, but it's also general to me. 26 Vice Chair Greenfield: In the section of projects of current public interest, the BCCP and 27 the 10.5 acres, Ventura and the racket sports all speak for themselves. You may wonder 28 what park dedication is doing on that list. It's something we've talked about but hasn't been 29 a specific project of effort. We were looking for guidance on is this something that is 30 important to the Council to pursue because there's question about how much effort we 31 should put into pursuing it. Actually there were questions about dedicating parks before 32 we came up to it in this portion of the presentation. The general feedback we got is there 33 is interest in looking for park areas that should be dedicated. Right now, I have a liaison 34 role with Kristen, and I'll pursue that. If anybody wants to join me on that effort, they're 35 welcome. 36 Chair McDougall: I'm going to Council Member Cormack if she has any other points of 37 guidance from that meeting. 38 APPROVED Draft Minutes 15 Council Member Cormack: The upcoming decisions—if you start with the achievements 1 from last year, that's the important thing to start with. Don't sell yourselves short, and make 2 sure staff gets all the credit that they deserve. The upcoming decisions is definitely where 3 we should spend most of the time. It's always helpful for any of us to get a heads up before 4 something arrives. There are two things on this list that might not jump out to your average 5 Council Member. One is the recreation opportunity analysis. I'm not sure that's something 6 that people would necessarily know about. You might want to spend a little time talking 7 about taking a step back and where that came from at the retreat. The other thing, when 8 we had the budget presented last night, one of the items on the list of how we are going to 9 achieve our fiscal sustainability did include public-private collaborations. While I realize 10 it's early to talk about fundraising, it's probably a good time to mention that it's on your 11 radar, your planning horizon, as you look for appropriate projects and appropriate partners. 12 I encourage you to mention that. Those are the things that jump out to me from this list. 13 Vice Chair Greenfield: Regarding the Foothills Park Buckeye Creek restoration project 14 and hydrology study, as you know in 2017 we passed a motion recommending the middle 15 option of three in terms of the restoration of just the upper portion of Buckeye Creek in 16 Wildhorse Valley in the $4 million range rather than recommending the full-blown $10 17 million project which would include that area as well as Las Trampas Valley and the 18 Buckeye Flats 7.7 acres. Some guidance we got is if we were to find outside funding 19 sources for the whole package, we shouldn't worry about the fact that we've only 20 recommended the middle option. In the event we were able to find someone or some group 21 that was interested in pursuing the full package, we can solve that problem later. Find the 22 money, and everything else will fall into place. 23 Chair McDougall: I'm going to start at the other end. Ryan, do you have anything to add, 24 any suggestions, anything you'd like to achieve? 25 Commissioner McCauley: This is a very thoughtful approach to the meeting with Council 26 Member Cormack and the Mayor. Well done on that count. Having a brief handout that 27 perhaps lists the 2018 accomplishment might be good. It doesn't need to be lengthy. It can 28 probably be what you have here, maybe with a few words to describe some of the things 29 the Council Members may not be aware of. That way, we can spend maybe five minutes 30 on that and then spend the majority of the time talking about what we foresee coming up 31 in the next year. On that note, there is another item, which several people know about on 32 the Commission, which is access to Foothills Park for students from neighboring 33 communities. I don't know if there was any feedback on that topic. I'd be interested to 34 hear thoughts on that. The ad hoc committee—we can talk about it more when we get to 35 the ad hoc updates—has been moving forward with that concept. We can discuss it in more 36 detail at the ad hoc update phase. I'm curious to know where that one stands and whether 37 we should talk about it with the Council or not if for no other reason than to let them know 38 that we're exploring it. Thoughts on that one? 39 APPROVED Draft Minutes 16 Chair McDougall: You and I talked briefly about this. The biggest concern from both of 1 the participants was what problem are we solving. I would encourage the ad hoc—however 2 we go about it—to try and answer that question. If we think we can answer that question 3 articulately, then we could bring it up as there's a problem we're trying to solve, and we 4 should solve it this way. If we can't answer that question articulately, then—I don't know 5 what expression to use—we should keep our powder dry. Bringing it up as a possible 6 discussion could sidetrack everything else and could cause—I worry that a negative 7 minority could escalate into something that we'd never achieve what you'd like to achieve. 8 Commissioner McCauley: I entirely appreciate that sentiment. I hear you. The ad hoc has 9 talked about this may not be the best forum in a session with the Council, which is very 10 compressed and quick, to bring up a topic that probably deserves a more in-depth 11 discussion. In response to the question you posed, which is a totally fair question, it's a 12 question of social justice. There are perhaps competing narratives about how we got to 13 where we are with Foothills Park and the residents exclusiveness requirement. One is that 14 Palo Alto was the community that stepped up to preserve that area and put the money up 15 in the first instance. Other communities weren't willing to pony up at that point in time. 16 Palo Alto somewhat understandably said, "Okay, but this is going to be for Palo Alto 17 residents." There's a counter-narrative, which some of us have probably heard, that Palo 18 Alto is a white-flight suburb of the 1950s and '60s and exclusive resident facilities and 19 parks and things like that were a symptom of those sorts of mentalities, which effectively 20 were to keep the riff raff out of what was an exclusive area. I'm not going to try and resolve 21 what narrative is the right one. That's, at least in some people's view in our community, 22 what is underlying the whole issue. It really is a social justice issue, which we can either 23 clean up ourselves or probably become the headline of local newspaper or perhaps even be 24 on local newspapers that Palo Alto is potentially still promoting that sort of exclusiveness 25 in a facility that in most places would be open to the entire public. There are probably 26 multiple ways to accomplish it. This proposal was intended to be a targeted way. It's a 27 pilot proposal to study whether there would be any impacts from allowing students from 28 neighboring communities that are socioeconomically disadvantaged schools to come to 29 Foothills Park. The park is a resource that is underutilized. Actually it's pretty significantly 30 underutilized. Many of our resources within the park system are overutilized. We have 31 excess capacity. That's really the genesis. I didn't mean to speak for so long, but that's the 32 answer, at least from my perspective, which is it's a social justice issue that we can either 33 rectify ourselves or become perhaps publicized in ways that we don't want to be publicized. 34 Chair McDougall: I've got understanding and notes of that. I appreciate your passion on 35 that. I'll go to Commissioner LaMere. 36 Commissioner LaMere: I don't have anything additional to add; although, I do support 37 Ryan in his comments as well as exploring the Foothills Park and the pilot program. 38 APPROVED Draft Minutes 17 Chair McDougall: Thank you. 1 Commissioner Reckdahl: I'm not necessarily opposed to investigating this. I don't think a 2 Council joint study session would be the place to do it. I'd be afraid that it would swamp 3 all our other discussions. We have a lot of very nebulous things. We will have new 4 parkland at Cubberley, Ventura. The 10.5 acres, what are we going to do there? That's 5 very nebulous. The 7.7 acres is very nebulous. How to approach funding, there's not a 6 clear answer to that either. Normally, we do the churn and then we shut up and listen. In 7 this case, we want to listen to the Council and see what they have to give us guidance on 8 these areas. These areas are areas where there isn't an obvious answer, and guidance from 9 the Council will be needed. 10 Chair McDougall: That's a good point. We want to make sure we don't spend an hour 11 talking, but we spend 15 minutes addressing and identifying issues and making sure that 12 we're listening and getting guidance as opposed to tell them what … Commissioner Moss. 13 Commissioner Moss: That was going to be one of my questions. You had said in the 14 beginning that this was our presentation, not your presentation. Are you going to divvy 15 this up among the seven of us, three of us, four of us? As you said, you don't want to 16 monopolize the entire 60 minutes with us just talking heads. You want a discussion. I 17 don't know how you want to handle that. Do you want the liaisons and the subcommittees 18 to be prepared to talk about any of these issues in greater depth in 60 minutes? What did 19 you have in mind? 20 Chair McDougall: There are two answers to that. One is I'm not sure I want anybody to 21 talk in greater depth in any of those. We want to identify topics and issues. We want to 22 be very careful about us talking so much in greater depth that we don't hear. On the other 23 hand, I would like to go through the various ad hocs and have a representative of an ad hoc 24 talk about some of these topics rather than me simply going through the list. We have a 25 slide of accomplishments. We have a slide of priorities. I could take ad hocs and divide 26 that up. I would try my best to create what's called a tick-tock, which Joe Simitian is very 27 famous for creating tick-tocks, so that we really knew minute-by-minute what it was we 28 were trying to do. We can't control the Council speaking, but we can control ourselves 29 speaking. If everybody knows that he has this topic and he has two minutes and it's not 30 free form, we'll use our light here or something. I would prefer to divide it up. I would 31 know what priorities people have by what ad hocs they're on. 32 Commissioner Moss: I did want to hear if Council Member Cormack had any more 33 comments, but one other question. There are some things here that are more controversial. 34 They're not fully fleshed out, for instance, the AT&T property, things like that. How much 35 detail do we—do we even bring those up or is this the set list? 36 APPROVED Draft Minutes 18 Chair McDougall: This is not necessarily a set list. We did not put the AT&T property on 1 here because there's already action on that, that probably can't be discussed in a setting like 2 that. Kristen, do you have comments to add on that? 3 Ms. O'Kane: I do. I just wanted to chime in a little bit. What Commissioner Reckdahl 4 was saying is based on past practice. My experience is the best part of these study sessions 5 is the dialog between the Council and the Commissioners. The way to accomplish that is 6 to give the most time for that dialog. If everyone is participating in the presentation, it's 7 going to take a long time for that presentation. My recommendation is the Chair and Vice 8 Chair give the presentation together. It's not their presentation. They're there representing 9 all of you. Then the conversation, more feedback, and dialog with Council can take place. 10 That would be my recommendation, and that's based on how we've done it previously. I'd 11 welcome your thoughts on that. I would be worried that all of a sudden 30 minutes would 12 pass, and we would not have heard from the City Council. 13 Chair McDougall: With that approach, I would go out of my way to make sure that 14 everybody participated in answering. Any kind of conversation that got started, I would 15 not want to be the one or necessarily Commissioner Greenfield to—a topic comes up 16 maybe almost random as opposed to—Commissioner Reckdahl, why don't you talk to that. 17 If you're comfortable talking to it, then do it. If you'd rather not be the one to talk to it, 18 bounce it back. We want to get everybody engaged in the conversation. I would be happy 19 at the end if I—unlike these meetings where I don't think I talk the least, I'd be very happy 20 in this meeting if I was the one who talked the least. 21 Ms. O'Kane: It's good to maybe do bigger picture items instead of focusing on specific 22 project updates at the study session. If a Council Member asks, that would be appropriate. 23 We don't want to get into a discussion about a particular project necessarily as much as big 24 picture priorities. What does the Commission want to move the needle on? What sorts of 25 policy issues are there that the Commission would like to see come forward or changed in 26 some way? That's my recommendation. 27 Commissioner Moss: I'm assuming in this dialog we may not have answers. It may be 28 that they will ask us questions and give us several months' worth of work to do because of 29 this, rather than us being able to answer all their questions right there in that 60 minutes. 30 Is that right? 31 Ms. O'Kane: That has happened with other Commissions as well. It's something to 32 consider. Something happened like that with the Human Relations Commission. They did 33 get a project out of their study session, and they were happy to take it on. Staff can help 34 with that. If it seems to be too much or out of the realm of what you're interested in, we 35 can follow up afterwards. 36 APPROVED Draft Minutes 19 Commissioner Moss: The example that we had here was funding. Mayor Scharff said, 1 "What about funding the entire 20-year Parks Master Plan tomorrow? Can you do it?" We 2 spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we could fund it. We didn't get very far, but we 3 spent a lot of time on it. 4 Chair McDougall: I thought it was very generous of Commissioner Moss to say that the 5 Council might give us more work. Does anybody else have any comments? If not, I would 6 redraft this a bit, find a way—I'm sorry, Council Member Cormack. 7 Council Member Cormack: The good news is for the first time we're evenly matched, 8 seven on seven. You won't be completely outnumbered. I want to address head on what 9 Commissioner McCauley brought up. It's actually already in the press. There is some very 10 strong language that some people are using. We should all be prepared in case this becomes 11 an issue that is relevant to the people who live here and to people who don't live here. It's 12 totally up to the Commission. I'm not taking a position on whether you should or should 13 not bring it forward. In my experience, things that can be controversial are best well 14 thought-out in advance. If you decide to bring it up, fine. If you don't, that's fine also. It 15 doesn't mean you can't work on it. I'd encourage you to think long and hard. I would 16 expect the Council, as we always do, will look to our Boards and Commissions to make 17 recommendations and manage initial hearings on that line. I just want to address it head 18 on. It is a topic in the news. This would be the appropriate place for it to be considered. 19 Commissioner Reckdahl: It's possible that after we shut up and start listening, one of the 20 Council Members may bring it up. If they want to bring it up, I have no problem with that. 21 If they have some insight to guide us, that could be appropriate. 22 Chair McDougall: The important thing that we've just been reminded of is we need to be 23 well prepared. 24 Vice Chair Greenfield: I have some more comments on the Foothills Park access issue. I 25 was waiting 'til we finished talking about the bigger picture of how we're going to handle 26 our joint session. 27 Ms. O'Kane: I just want to make sure—this isn't an agendized item. We don't get into a 28 discussion on it. 29 Vice Chair Greenfield: I'm just passing comments from the Mayor's session. This is some 30 additional comments. 31 Ms. O'Kane: Thank you. 32 Vice Chair Greenfield: We did broach the subject at the meeting, which is probably clear 33 but wasn't explicitly stated. In addition to the question of what problem are we trying to 34 APPROVED Draft Minutes 20 solve, other questions that were posed for us to consider are is there significant unserved 1 demand, what are options to addressing this issue. If the issue does exist and there is 2 demand, does Foothill Park need to be used as part of the solution or are there other 3 solutions in place or is there demand being met by other open space areas already? The 4 underlying question as well, which maybe we got some answer to just now, is what is the 5 appropriateness or priority of using staff resources for an investigation of this effort. If this 6 is something that Council isn't going to support, then we're not well served to use staff time 7 on this. It's a bit of a chicken and egg issue. We need to figure out how to get guidance 8 on this before we're shut down from pursuing it. 9 Council Member Cormack: A slightly different recollection. What I remember talking 10 about is prioritization. We all have to choose. What are the things we're working on, and 11 where do we want to spend our time? If this is what the Commission wants to prioritize, 12 then that's appropriate. If there are other things that the Commission wants to prioritize, 13 that's appropriate as well. I didn't personally talk about staff time. It might have been 14 someone else in the meeting. Really more about prioritization. If it's at the top of the list, 15 then you should talk about it with us. If there are other things that are more important, then 16 I encourage you to put those at the top of the list. It's agnostic as to the topic. 17 Commissioner McCauley: We can perhaps talk about this a little bit more when we get to 18 the ad hoc committee updates. As a general matter, from my limited experience of being 19 at one of these study sessions previously, it makes a lot of sense to be as structured as 20 possible. Your tick-tock idea, Don, is a very good one. Without stepping on any feet 21 because I recognize that we view our Council Members as our bosses in this context, you 22 as the Chairman need to be assertive to actually keep us on schedule. I recognize that the 23 last time we went through this exercise, it's easy with Council Members to go off on lots 24 of different tangents and down many different rabbit holes. I would be assertive. That's 25 my last piece of input. 26 Vice Chair Greenfield: One other comment I'd like to make not related to any specific item 27 for discussion, but in general, for the meeting between the Parks and Rec Commission and 28 City Council. The last time we met was almost two years ago. We didn't get a meeting 29 scheduled last year. I'd like to recommend we put calendar reminder items to start next 30 February or so looking to schedule the Mayor's meeting, which would be followed by the 31 joint session, so we can make sure to include this next year. It's valuable time. As 32 Commissioner McCauley alluded, we're meeting with our bosses at this meeting. These 33 one-on-ones at least once a year seem like a reasonable practice. 34 Council Member Cormack: I'll point out that we all serve the public. 35 Chair McDougall: Unless anybody has more comments, then I'll work with Commissioner 36 Greenfield and do a little more homework, find a way to appropriately distribute it, and 37 commit to you now that my goal would be to make sure it's a discussion that we learn from 38 APPROVED Draft Minutes 21 and that it's not my conversation. It's everybody participating in the conversation. You're 1 free to kick me in the shins whenever that's inappropriate. With that, I would like to suggest 2 that we move on to the next topic, which is … 3 Commissioner Reckdahl: I have one question. The fact that we haven't had a meeting in 4 two years, do you want the accomplishments to be listed for the last two years or just for 5 2018? 6 Chair McDougall: As soon as Commissioner Greenfield said that, I made a note to think 7 back to the previous year. I don't think I'd want to go through all the accomplishments. If 8 we did a moonshot the previous year, we should add the moonshot in there. 9 Commissioner Reckdahl: Especially if there are any open issues with any of the projects 10 that we did in the past. 11 Chair McDougall: If there's any particular accomplishments that anybody's particularly 12 sensitive to, if they could inform Natalie—to keep me out of Brown Act problems—I'll 13 work with Natalie to collect them. Thank you, Natalie. Any other comments on that? 14 Relative to the agenda, I don't know that we're looking for more things to put on the agenda 15 as opposed to things to move on the agenda. Maybe Kristen can give us a little input of 16 what's in front of us. 17 Ms. O'Kane: The next item is the other ad hoc committee updates. Did you want to … 18 Chair McDougall: I'm sorry. I skipped that. 19 4. Other Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison Updates 20 Chair McDougall: I would invite Commissioner Greenfield, since it's in front of us and 21 he's done a nice job of championing this, to make comments on what we have in front of 22 us. 23 Vice Chair Greenfield: I had recommended a little bit more streamlined approach, which 24 isn't exactly what's in front of us. It's more similar to what we used a couple of years ago. 25 Rather than adding the meeting date and attendees, simplify things by putting things in a 26 single column with all the update information. Put things in a format that Natalie can paste 27 right into this document. Each monthly update would be in a single column, and the 28 document would be updated. A new column would be inserted for the new month, and the 29 previous month would get shifted to the right so you could see a history of all the updates 30 for each of the particular ad hocs or liaison roles. We can either have separate tabs in a 31 document for ad hocs and liaison or everything sequentially in one document. It would be 32 nice if there was a location that could be hosted where everyone can access this document. 33 I don't think we should have Brown Act issues if all of this information is then presented 34 APPROVED Draft Minutes 22 in a meeting because it's then public information. It'd be very useful for the individual ad 1 hocs to see what's happening month-to-month. A year later, we can at a glance see is it 2 worth our time to have this ad hoc or would it make more sense to reduce it to a one-person 3 liaison role or is it something we need at all. 4 Chair McDougall: I'm going to suggest that we continue to discuss and work on that and 5 work with Natalie and Kristen. The idea was that we didn't spend a lot of time on this 6 because we already had the information here. Does anybody have a burning interest in 7 commenting on anything on here that either they submitted or they see? 8 Ms. O'Kane: The reason why it's not printed is there were last-minute additions. Our goal 9 is to—Commissioner Greenfield and Natalie and I will work on it too—is to get it on a 10 monthly schedule so you're all expecting it, we're expecting a response. We'll be able to 11 track it as we move along. It is a work in progress, but we're working on it. 12 Chair McDougall: This is a great improvement from last month's when Commissioner 13 Greenfield was the only one who submitted something. Now, anytime there was something 14 submitted or an ad hoc happened, we've got a decent report. I appreciate everybody's 15 participation in that. 16 Vice Chair Greenfield: An important part of the process is for Natalie to send the 17 Commission a reminder three or four days before you need the reports done. We need to 18 be disciplined in making sure we get a report in. The goal is for each ad hoc to send in a 19 report of some form even if it's "no update this month," which will be reasonable some 20 months. It doesn't have to be formal meeting notes from gathering as a meeting. A lot can 21 be done online together or reviewing an update. For example, the pickleball plan was 22 reviewed by the Park and Facility Use Policy Ad Hoc this past month, but the ad hoc didn't 23 actually meet. 24 Chair McDougall: Are there any incremental additions that people would like to talk about, 25 liaison meetings or anything else? 26 Commissioner McCauley: I was going to offer a quick suggestion. Maybe it will be easy. 27 I hope it will be something that would streamline this. It would be to remove a couple of 28 these columns, as Jeff was mentioning. You can figure out which columns to keep. That 29 doesn't matter so much. Definitely you're going to keep the status update column. Perhaps 30 you just keep in one spreadsheet or one document the prior status update so that you have 31 last month and this month. That way it's really easy. You can just move it over and create 32 a new column. 33 Vice Chair Greenfield: That is exactly the plan. It would be four columns. It would be 34 the ad hoc group, the members of the ad hoc, the staff liaison of the ad hoc, and the current 35 month's update. That's all that would be in the packets that would show up on a monthly 36 APPROVED Draft Minutes 23 basis. The master document would include all the extra columns exactly as you've 1 envisioned. 2 Commissioner McCauley: I would like to talk about the Foothills issue just very briefly 3 again, but we can talk about other items first so that they get their due. 4 Chair McDougall: If we're not careful here, I'm going to create an ad hoc to create ad hoc 5 reports. This morning I got a call from Bob Moss, the Chairman of the Library 6 Commission. The Commission is asking for a joint session with the Parks and Rec 7 Commission and the Library Commission. I've suggested that we have a pretty heavy 8 agenda for the next several months and agreed that we should set up an ad hoc/ad hoc to 9 meet with a couple of their people. They have five Commissioners, so two would be the 10 right number for them. If I could get two volunteers from here to meet with them to plan 11 a joint session, that would be appropriate if anybody is interested in helping with that. If 12 nobody's interested in helping with that—David, thank you. I'll see if I can find somebody 13 else to work with them on that. It's important that we plan this. We need to know what 14 we're trying to achieve and not just have the two groups. Certainly we don't have agenda 15 time in the short term to do that. Is there any other liaison topics that haven't been 16 discussed? David. 17 Commissioner Moss: I have several questions about the purpose and the use of this, not 18 the specifics. 19 Chair McDougall: I'm going to suggest that we not spend more time worrying about the 20 reporting format. Maybe people could submit comments and questions about the reporting 21 format to Natalie. Natalie can work with Commissioner Greenfield and Kristen to come 22 up with something that works for them as well as works for us. 23 Commissioner Moss: That was not my question. My question was what do we do with 24 this information in this meeting. Do I ask questions about the Foothill Park status? 25 Chair McDougall: The idea is we don't have to have presentations. You should have read 26 this ahead of time. If you've got a question about it, now's the time to ask the question. 27 Commissioner Moss: Do I ask it in the meeting or do I just … 28 Chair McDougall: Right now. 29 Commissioner Moss: … email the attendees? 30 Chair McDougall: Right now. 31 Commissioner Moss: For the Foothills Park, I've always thought there ought to be a Los 32 Altos Day or a Menlo Park Day or whatever. I'm wondering if the ad hoc can discuss that 33 APPROVED Draft Minutes 24 as well. When you talk about the next steps for 7.7 acres, when will that be an agenda 1 item? How close are you to having that be an agenda item? 2 Commissioner McCauley: I'll look to Daren, but I think the answer is there's a public 3 outreach process that needs to happen in the first instance and some design 4 conceptualization that will go along with the public outreach process. I expect it's going 5 to be late this year at the earliest. 6 Mr. Anderson: That's exactly it. 7 Vice Chair Greenfield: Would we need to identify funding before we pursue a public 8 outreach process? 9 Mr. Anderson: No, I don't think so. We keep funding in mind, of course, throughout the 10 process. As you know with our capital program, we cannot submit a project before it's 11 been planned out, so no placeholders. If the funding is indeed coming from our capital 12 program, no. What we could do is engage with our partners to figure out what's doable 13 within the partnership and existing resources there. We've been talking at the ad hoc to 14 some degree with some of our very preliminary thinking on the 7.7 acres that that would 15 be part of it. In fact, we've already engaged Grassroots Ecology. They've already given 16 me a conceptual plan for what we could do. Now, it's the vetting process, work that through 17 with the ad hoc and, as you say, agendize it with the Commission. 18 Commissioner McCauley: With respect to the Foothills Park neighbor days or whatever 19 we might call that concept, the committee hasn't discussed it further from when David 20 raised it this past October, I think it was. The two items that we've discussed—the principle 21 one is providing access for students. The other one that we've kicked around a little bit and 22 actually—there's two different committees that both have a stake in this. The other is the 23 Parks Rules and Regulations because allowing people who are not residents of Palo Alto 24 into the park requires an amendment of the Park Rules and Regulations, the Park Municipal 25 Code. We've talked at a very high level about some of the partner organizations like 26 Canopy, Environmental Volunteers, Grassroots Ecology, providing access to some of their 27 volunteers who are doing good work in Palo Alto but otherwise wouldn't be able to access 28 Foothills Park. Those are the two main ones that we've talked about so far. In terms of the 29 neighbor days, I certainly would be open to the idea. It probably needs to be fleshed out 30 how we go about it. I welcome your thoughts on that. 31 Chair McDougall: Are there any other comments on that? 32 Commissioner McCauley: I'll try to be very brief, but I'll take 60 seconds to talk about 33 what the ad hoc has come up with thus far on the Foothills access for students from 34 neighboring communities. 35 APPROVED Draft Minutes 25 Ms. O'Kane: I'm not sure if we can have—we're getting into a discussion item that wasn't 1 agendized. 2 Commissioner McCauley: I'll be very careful not to make it a discussion but an update of 3 where things stand. The proposal that's on the table at the moment is to allow PAUSD 4 students who are not residents of Palo Alto as well as students from neighboring 5 communities in school districts that under State standards are determined to be 6 socioeconomically disadvantaged. The only school district that would apply to is 7 Ravenswood. To allow them access to the park as a pilot for a one-year period, study the 8 effects, if any, and then make a more permanent recommendation whether to allow those 9 people into the park on a more permanent basis. Daren and his Ranger staff have been 10 excellent in providing feedback on that proposal. We first talked about it in the ad hoc this 11 past October, I believe it was. We've talked about it at a number of meetings since then. 12 That's what the proposal within the ad hoc is at the moment. John Aiken has provided 13 some input and feedback from the recreation side and recreation programs that are 14 happening in the park already. I just wanted everyone to have a sense for what that was. I 15 think it'll be coming before the Commission. I don't know what our agenda will look like 16 in the next couple of months, but probably before too long it'll be before the entire 17 Commission to weigh in on. 18 Chair McDougall: Thank you. With that, I'm going to ask Kristen to go to the item I talked 19 about before. 20 VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR MAY 28, 2019 MEETING 21 Chair McDougall: Now, we can talk about the future agenda. 22 Ms. O'Kane: May is looking to be a pretty busy month so far. Daren will be here with our 23 Baylands Comprehensive Conservation Plan consultant to present the draft conservation 24 plan. That's going to be a pretty big item. We also have two park projects. Peter Jensen 25 will be coming back with the Rinconada Park Improvement Ordinance, asking for a 26 recommendation for the Commission to recommend that Council approve it. He was also 27 planning on coming back potentially with a proposed plan for Boulware Park, which is due 28 for park renovation. That will not be a PIO but an introduction to his proposal. 29 Chair McDougall: In the short term, we're pretty well set with what we're bringing forward. 30 Ms. O'Kane: That's right. 31 VII. COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 32 Chair McDougall: Are there any other comments or announcements? 33 APPROVED Draft Minutes 26 Vice Chair Greenfield: The Rules and Regulations Ad Hoc is looking forward to coming 1 to the Commission soon with potentially a discussion item of rule changes which would be 2 followed by an action for approval. This could either be a single agenda item to approve 3 the action in a single meeting where there'd be an opportunity for review, discussion, and 4 amendments to that, and a follow-up meeting. We'll probably be on target for having some 5 discussion in the June agenda. 6 Mr. Anderson: That's reasonable. 7 Chair McDougall: I'm going to mention one other thing that came out of the meeting with 8 the Mayor and Council Member Cormack. At the last meeting, I did mention that we have 9 had an awful lot of climate change-related presentations, GSI and the trees and so on. It 10 would be interesting to know if there was an overarching committee or look at that within 11 the City. Council Member Cormack suggested there was—what was it—a committee 12 going to look at that and suggested that maybe somebody from the Parks and Rec 13 Commission would join that. I'm mentioning that now as a reminder to all of us that that 14 would be really useful if we could do it. 15 Council Member Cormack: That was embedded in the staff report for our Earth Day study 16 session. There will be a group coming forward. It was just one sentence. There wasn't 17 anything more on that. I think that'd be worth considering. 18 Vice Chair Greenfield: I wanted to bring up Cubberley as a potential agenda item for the 19 meeting in May. Is this something that would be appropriate for us to schedule? 20 Ms. O'Kane: We talked about that. I'm worried about May going 'til midnight. Once I 21 have a Council date for when—the plan for Cubberley is it will likely go to Council, not a 22 joint study session with the School District, to talk about certain aspects of Cubberley, one 23 being housing. The School District will have a similar meeting with their Board, and then 24 we'll do the joint study session later. The timing on when we come to the Parks and Rec 25 Commission is important. I can see whether Rinconada and Boulware Park could move 26 from the agenda. I expect that will also be a rather lengthy item. I'm trying to be respectful 27 of Commissioners' time limits. We'll work with you and Chair McDougall on that. 28 Vice Chair Greenfield: I agree that we shouldn't be aiming for more than three agenda 29 items. The question is would Cubberley have a higher priority than one of the park 30 discussions for that meeting. That's what I'm hearing from you, that may be the case and 31 we'll talk about it. 32 Commissioner Reckdahl: The slides that you went over at the last City/School meeting 33 were very good. You could go over them in 10, 15 minutes just for information only and 34 no so much getting our opinions but keeping us in the loop. That might be some value 35 added there. Since they're already prepared, it would be minimal preparation on your part. 36 APPROVED Draft Minutes 27 Ms. O'Kane: I forgot to mention earlier May 9 is our next Cubberley community meeting. 1 It's our final meeting. I really hope that you all come and help spread the word. It's 7:00 2 at the Cubberley Pavilion on Thursday, May 9. 3 Commissioner McCauley: This is the earliest we've finished a meeting in a very long time. 4 I feel necessary to be really short. On the topic of park dedication, Jeff, you were 5 suggesting you might want some help or assistance. I'd be more than happy to help. Should 6 we have that be an ad hoc? 7 Vice Chair Greenfield: It was an ad hoc last year. At the retreat this year, I was the only 8 one interested, so we decided one person does not make an ad hoc. I became the liaison. 9 We could easily open it up as an ad hoc again. 10 Chair McDougall: Are you volunteering? 11 Commissioner McCauley: I am, yes. If others are in agreement, then … 12 Chair McDougall: Why don't I work with Kristen to formalize that as an ad hoc? 13 Commissioner Moss: Are we going to have a Boardwalk grand opening? The last one got 14 rained out. 15 Mr. Anderson: That's with Public Works Engineering right now. They have not 16 rescheduled one. As soon as they do, I'll be sure to let you know. 17 VIII. ADJOURNMENT 18 Meeting adjourned on motion by Commissioner McCauley and second by Vice Chair 19 Greenfield at 8:40 p.m. 20