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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-12 Parks & Recreation Commission Summary MinutesAPPROVED APPROVED 1 1 2 3 MINUTES 4 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 5 SPECIAL MEETING 6 May 12, 2023 7 In-Person & Virtual Conference 8 Palo Alto, California 9 10 Commissioners Present: Chair Greenfield; Commissioners Amanda Brown, Anne Cribbs, 11 Nellis Freeman, Shani Kleinhaus, Joy Oche, and Bing Wei 12 Commissioners Absent: 13 Others Present: 14 Staff Present: Daren Anderson, Lam Do, Javod Ghods, Peter Jensen 15 CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL 16 Chair Greenfield called the meeting to order and asked for a roll call. 17 PUBLIC COMMENT 18 Andres Mediavilla commented on behalf of a group of neighbors that live by the 19 Timothy Hopkins Creekside Park asking for a solution to remove an individual, who is a 20 convicted felon for assault and arson, who has been camping there for over a year. The 21 police and fire department have been called in the past but cannot legally remove this 22 individual and he has refused to leave. He asked the Commission to review an email he 23 had sent previously with attachments of the police reports and issues the neighbors had 24 encountered with the individual. 25 Graham McNicoll, resident of the community by the Timothy Hopkins Creekside Park, 26 stated he is also affected by the transient individual in the park. He added that the man 27 yells, is racially abusive, swears and threatens violence making the park unusable. He 28 makes fires and cuts trees down in the park. He asked the Commission to find a solution. 29 Suzi Emanuele-Manbeck, resident of the community by the Timothy Hopkins Creekside 30 Park, agreed with Mr. Mediavilla and Mr. McNicoll adding that the individual has other 31 campers that stay with him who have been encroaching on the property they live on, 32 peeping in their windows and urinating in the walkway. She stated the community feels 33 threatened and unsafe. She also asked the Commission to find a solution. 34 APPROVED APPROVED 2 AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS 1 Chair Greenfield introduced and welcomed Commissioner Bing Wei to the Commission. 2 He gave an outline of the agenda for the meeting. He asked everyone to look at their 3 profile on the Parks and Recreation website and add or update their photo and bios, if 4 needed. He stated all the existing Commissioner terms will end on March 31 in either 5 2025 or 2026 so this group will work together for at least the next 2 years which will 6 allow for flexibility in terms of when they reorganize and elect a new Chair and Vice 7 Chair. He stated that City Council may rearrange some of the appointment timeline. The 8 next retreat will be in the next 11 or 12 months. He stated he would be referring to the 9 new workplan, liaison and ad-hocs as the FY24 workplan, etc. aligning with the City of 10 Palo Alto’s fiscal year, which runs July 1 to June 30. Reference to the previous workplan 11 would be called calendar year ‘22/fiscal year ‘23 plan, which is hybrid because it was an 12 extended term being run through December 13 to May 31. 13 BUSINESS 14 1. Review CY22/FY23 Parks and Recreation Commission Priorities and 15 Accomplishments – Vice Chair Brown - Discussion 16 Vice Chair Brown presented a slideshow starting with the three major priorities that were 17 identified at the CY22/FY23 work session and the progresses and accomplishments 18 completed toward these issues. 19 2. Establish Priorities for FY24 - Chair Greenfield – Action 20 Chair Greenfield presented slides outlining the purpose and duties of the Parks and 21 Recreation Commission and slides outlining the Master Plan including its roadmap, 22 principles, goals, periodic review on Policies 2.G and 6.A and an Action Plan which 23 covered a comprehensive view of the Master Plan projects and programs. He presented a 24 slide showing an example of the actual Action Plan Spreadsheet layout. 25 Commissioner Anne Cribbs asked where the Action Plan Spreadsheet was located. 26 Chair Greenfield answered that it will be attached to the Agenda. 27 Commissioner Wei queried how often the Action Plan will be updated. 28 Chair Greenfield answered the document was created in 2017 and has not been updated. 29 It has been attached to the Master Plan which has not been updated. An update to the 30 Master Plan would require City Council approval. He asked if the Action Plan is for the 31 Commission to update or if Council oversight will be needed. 32 APPROVED APPROVED 3 Commissioner Kleinhaus stated there have been a lot of changes and some that were 1 impacted by COVID and that priorities might have changed since then. The surveys that 2 were the baseline for the plans and action items were done in 2015. She stated the plan 3 needed updates. 4 Commissioner Wei questioned if they should add things that come up such as the three 5 public comments addressing their neighborhood park. 6 Chair Greenfield stated that was outside the purview of the Parks Commission and 7 should be discussed with the Staff. He stated if there is public comment to an item that is 8 not on the agenda, typically the Commission is not permitted to comment on it but it may 9 lead to a future agenda item. 10 Commissioner Wei asked how to bring those comments to the Staff or City Council. 11 Chair Greenfield answered that at the end of the meeting there would be an opportunity 12 to talk about future agendas and that would be a good time to bring those comments up. 13 He next presented slides highlighting the Master Plan prioritization process and a future 14 project evaluation. 15 Commissioner Kleinhaus commented there have been many discussions about balancing 16 all the projects with the ecological impact and how to look at the project and consider 17 ecological implications, benefits or potential impacts that are not beneficial and how to 18 juggle that. She stated relying on the environmental review process to identify problems 19 is not sufficient. She suggested adding a box for that to the Master Plan future project 20 evaluation. 21 Chair Greenfield stated that he did not see financial and staff resources included on the 22 Master Plan prioritization process slide. 23 Commissioner Kleinhaus commented she did not know if that belonged there or not but 24 that they needed to speak for nature. 25 Commissioner Joy Oche questioned if that could go under “expressed need” on the 26 future project evaluation. 27 Commissioner Wei questioned if there was a consultant available to seek advice. 28 Chair Greenfield stated reaching out to the people that started this Master Plan and that 29 having a consultant to assist with this would require funding. 30 Commissioner Cribbs inquired if the Commission’s intent was to change the Master Plan 31 or explain where the Master Plan was at a particular time and then move on in their 32 agenda to look at their priorities as they aligned. 33 APPROVED APPROVED 4 Chair Greenfield stated as they looked at creating their priorities from a bottom up 1 approach, they will look at City Council’s priorities but also focus first on the projects 2 they deem as priorities and see how they fit in and align with City Council. 3 Commissioner Kleinhaus stated sometimes there are opportunities that are not going 4 through Council. 5 Chair Greenfield read through the review process steps. He next presented a slide 6 outlining the Master Plan Review suggested priorities. 7 Commissioner Cribbs stated looking at the Master Plan is good and that there are things 8 clearly missing because the world has changed so creating a separate list of the things 9 that are missing would be useful. 10 Chair Greenfield stated the top priority would be to review and update the Action Plan 11 and the biggest near-term priority would be to look to see how to use the Action Plan in 12 conjunction with the next CIP process. They will talk with Staff to figure out the 13 timeframe on that. They will look at the Master Plan and identify what is missing and 14 what they need to make better use of, figure out how to move forward with the CIP 15 process and scope out the secondary priorities. He stated they should have an annual 16 checklist of things they should be doing. 17 Commissioner Freeman asked if the Workplan should be part of the checklist. 18 Chair Greenfield answered they have been working toward that and part of the 19 evaluation of the Action Plan was deciding if it is something that makes sense moving 20 forward. The vision was that the Action Plan would be easier to adapt on an annual basis 21 than the Master Plan. 22 Commissioner Kleinhaus commented that making citywide surveys available would be 23 helpful in looking at whether what they have in the plan reflects the sentiments 24 expressed. 25 Chair Greenfield stated when the Master Plan was getting created, there was a binder 26 notebook given to each of the Commissioners and a digital copy containing all the 27 resources that were gathered throughout the process and they were looking to locate 28 these. 29 Commissioner Kleinhaus stated she had the surveys. 30 Chair Greenfield asked her to forward that information to the Commission. 31 APPROVED APPROVED 5 Commissioner Cribbs stated it would be great if they could all see a copy of what was on 1 the Action Plan and check off what they have done and that she would love to hear what 2 the Staff thinks about the usefulness of the Action Plan at some point. 3 Mr. Anderson stated they had other methodologies for tracking those things that have 4 been successful but that does not mean that this would not be better. He was all for re-5 examining the Action Plan and going with it through their partners in Public Works 6 Engineering. He also believed the program piece needed fresh perspective. 7 Commissioner Cribbs questioned if he recommended they allocate money to have 8 consultants to do this. 9 Mr. Anderson stated his answer would be to do it with Staff and the peers. 10 Chair Greenfield next presented a slide listing Staff Priorities for managing CY23/FY24 11 CIPs. 12 Mr. Anderson gave explanations and progress of the priorities listed on that slide. He 13 stated there are a lot of projects for their small Staff and some of them might have to be 14 moved to the FY25 Capital Plan. 15 Commissioner Cribbs asked if there is any way to know a projected timeline on these. 16 Mr. Anderson answered a lot of them were out of their control and a projected timeline 17 would just be a guess. 18 Commissioner Freeman commented there should be “living timeline” for the 19 Commission and the public. 20 Mr. Anderson agreed that the public and Commission have a right to know what is 21 planned but that if he puts a timeline out there and they miss it, people get upset with 22 him. He stated they can do that but it will have to be known that it is slippery and can 23 move a lot. 24 Commissioner Freeman said that if they had a timeline, they could provide qualifications 25 of why things were not happening. 26 Commissioner Kleinhaus said instead of a timeline providing a general status at each 27 meeting would be helpful. 28 Mr. Anderson stated he would be happy to provide a snapshot of where they are at. He 29 provided explanation of the next slide which was a continuation of the Staff CY23/FY24 30 priorities. 31 APPROVED APPROVED 6 Commissioner Oche asked how hiring hourly coaches for recreational programs ties in 1 with the public programs. 2 Mr. Anderson answered that the recreational programs are the public programs but the 3 number of offerings they can have are limited to how many coaches they can recruit. 4 Commissioner Wei asked if the vacant positions were due to lack of talent or 5 commitment. 6 Mr. Anderson stated he did not know the answer about the lack of coaches. The division 7 manager position was more of a cost-saving thing as he moved from that position to the 8 assistant director position and the division manager position just stayed vacant and they 9 made do with the number of Staff they had. 10 Chair Greenfield felt a lot of factors played into the lack of coaches such as it being part-11 time work, not at the best time of day for availability and low compensation. 12 Commissioner Wei suggested using students for coaches. 13 Mr. Anderson agreed and stated they had to get creative. He stated Vice Mayor Stone 14 suggested reaching out to the senior community to fill those roles. 15 Commissioner Oche questioned if there was specific criteria for the coaching positions. 16 Mr. Anderson stated there were certain levels of experience needed for some parts. 17 Chair Greenfield next provided explanation of a slide outlining PRC’s alignment with 18 City Council’s priorities for the calendar year and changes were made in the wording of 19 the FY24 Parks and Recreation Priorities after discussion. 20 Commissioner Kleinhaus made the motion to accept the new Parks and Recreation 21 Commission Priorities. Commissioner Freeman seconded the motion. The motion passed 22 by a 7-0 roll call vote. 23 3. Establish and Assign Parks and Recreation Commission Ad Hoc Committee and 24 Liaison Roles – Chair Greenfield – Action 25 Chair Greenfield shared a slide outlining and discussing the existing Parks and 26 Recreation Commission Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison Roles from the past year and 27 plans and changes moving forward for the next year. The following changes were made 28 to the Parks and Recreation Commission Ad Hoc Committees for FY24: 29 • Recreation Projects changed to reflect only Wellness Center/Gym. 30 APPROVED APPROVED 7 • CIP Review folded into the Master Plan Review. 1 • Funding Opportunities changed to Grant Opportunities. 2 • Website Refresh moved to Liaison. 3 • Playing Field Policy and Projects Ad Hoc was added. 4 • Recreation Program Review Ad Hoc was added. 5 • Racquet Court Policy moved to Liaison. 6 • Urban Forestry moved to Liaison. 7 The following Liaison Roles changes were made: 8 • Baylands Tide Gate and Baylands Comprehensive Conservation Plan were 9 merged. 10 • Field Users was removed. 11 • Racquet Sports was added. 12 • Side Walk Vendor Policy was removed. 13 • Skate Park was added. 14 • Sustainability and Biodiversity was changed to reflect only Sustainability. 15 • Urban Forestry was added. 16 • Ventura Plan was removed. 17 • Age-Friendly City was added. 18 • Website was added. 19 Chair Greenfield discussed how many members each Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison 20 would require. He then inquired which area each member was interested in serving on. 21 • Commissioner Wei agreed to serve on Recreation Program Review and Grant 22 Opportunities Ad Hoc and Baylands and Youth Council Liaison. 23 APPROVED APPROVED 8 • Commissioner Oche agreed to serve on Recreation Program Review, Wellness 1 Center/Gym and Grant Opportunities Ad Hoc and Age-Friendly City, 2 Sustainability and Youth Council Liaison. 3 • Commissioner Kleinhaus agreed to serve on Master Plan Review and Bicycle/ E-4 Bike Access Policy Ad Hoc and Baylands and Foothills Nature Preserve Liaison. 5 • Commissioner Freeman agreed to serve on Bicycle/ E-Bike Access Policy, 6 Wellness Center/Gym and Playing Field Policy and Projects Ad Hoc and 7 Cubberley, Golf/First Tee, Park Amenities, Racquet Sports and PAUSD/City 8 Liaison. 9 • Commissioner Cribbs agreed to serve on Playing Field Policy and Projects and 10 Grant Opportunities Ad Hoc and Aquatics, Cubberley, Dog Parks, Funding 11 Partners, Racquet Sports and Skate Park Liaison. 12 • Vice Chair Brown agreed to serve on Master Plan Review and Park Dedication 13 Ad Hoc and Community Gardens, Dog Parks and Website Liaison. 14 • Chair Greenfield agreed to serve on Master Plan Review, Park Dedication and 15 Playing Field policy and Projects Ad Hoc and Foothills Nature Preserve, 16 Hawthorns (MidPen) Area Planning, Safe Routes and Urban Forestry Liaison. 17 Commissioner Cribbs made the motion to accept the Parks and Recreation Commission 18 Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison Roles assignments. Vice Chair Brown seconded the 19 motion. The motion passed by a 7-0 roll call vote. 20 4. Develop FY24 Calendar Year Workplan – Chair Greenfield – Action 21 Chair Greenfield stated they would not get to the work plan item. 22 COMMISSIONER/BOARD MEMBER QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, 23 ANNOUNCEMENTS OR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 24 25 Chair Greenfield announced each of the Ad Hoc Committees should plan to meet 26 between that time and the May meeting as necessary to bring a draft report plan ready to 27 be approved at the next meeting. 28 Mr. Anderson reiterated the Staff will email out the current draft of the template for the 29 Workplan. Each Ad Hoc will write in their Workplan item and email it to Staff. They 30 need to have those by 1 p.m. on May 17, 2023. 31 32 APPROVED APPROVED 9 ADJOURNMENT 1 2 Meeting adjourned at 4:10PM 3