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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks Commission minutes - 07-12-17.docx Yakima Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting Minutes for July 12, 2017 Commissioners Present: Vice Chairman Paul Williams, Jo Miles, Roger Lewis, Matt Tweedy, Stacy Hackenmueller, Brynn Kloster and Dulce Gutierréz, Yakima City Council Liaison Absent and Excused: Chairman Rod Bryant, Rosana Bravo and Josette Gonzales Staff present: Ken Wilkinson, Parks & Recreation Manager and Jenise Sanders, Administrative Secretary for Parks & Recreation Call to Order Welcoming everyone in the audience and viewers watching on YPAC, Vice Chairman Paul Williams called nd the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. at City Hall in the Council Chambers, 129 North 2 Street, Yakima, Washington. Introduction of New Parks & Recreation Commissioner – Brynn Kloster Ken advised that long time Park Commissioner, Tom Hinman’s term has expired and he decided not to reapply for the position. That left an open position and Ken introduced Brynn Kloster as the person that has been appointed to fill that position. Brynn stated that she was born and raised in Yakima and has played sports her whole life. She stated she coached fast pitch softball at YVC after graduating college. She took at job at Yakima Valley Tourism and was not able to continue coaching. She stated she has a son that is very involved in golf and that takes much of her time also. Paul welcomed Brynn to the Parks and Recreation Commission. Approval of the Meeting Minutes of May 10, 2017. It was Moved by Roger Lewis, Seconded by Stacy Hackenmueller, to approve the Minutes as written from the May 10, 2017 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting. The motion carried unanimously. $50K for Kids - Update Ken reported that the Special Meeting with City Council in June was to discuss earmarking additional funds for children’s programs this summer. Ken referenced his report that is included in their packet. He stated Parks staff was able to meet with these organizations to discuss their programs and how it would fit with the City Council’s vision. Salvation Army did not run their program this summer at Milroy but may be looking at partnering again next year. OIC of Washington already runs a Summer Day Camp program at the Henry Beauchamp Jr. Community Center for 100 kids and will be looking at increasing that number by 20. The Four Square Church runs Camp Robertson at Robertson Elementary and they were not able to increase their numbers due space and their agreement with the School District. Ken stated that the YPAL program at the Washington Fruit Community Center will be able to increase their programming to take part in this funding for summer programs. Joe Willis, Executive Director of the YPAL, quickly put some activity programs together; soccer program, culinary program with Pastor Shane Niles and a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program. Ken advised them the two Parks and Recreation programs are at Kissel Park and the newest one at Miller Park. Ken stated that the Kissel Park program is directed by Kim Lopez, under the supervision of Tami Andringa, Recreation Supervisor. He reported there was a waiting list of about 80 for the program that serves just over 100 per summer. In one afternoon, they were able to add 30 more kids to the program from the waiting list. The Miller Park program is new this year and Downtown Kiwanis Club donated $4,000 to help that program get underway. Juan Arias will be running that program also under the supervision of Tami Andringa. That program was originally geared toward 50 kids and they were able to quickly pull a team together and is now able to accommodate 75 kids. Matt Tweedy asked how much of the $50,000 has been spent. Ken advised that there is only about $3,400 after the money that is allocated for OIC, YPAL and the two Parks and Recreation programs. Matt commended the Parks and Recreation staff for being able to get all of this organized in just a few short days. Ken stated that his biggest concern was being able to staff the programs with quality personal in such short notice. Recruiting staff for the summer programs usually begin in February. Matt asked Dulce Gutierréz if this is going to be a permanent line item in the City’s budget. Dulce stated that is highly doubtful. She stated that the City will hopefully create a youth development plan, in which they will try to find a funding source so that it is not coming out of the General Fund in the future. Roger Lewis asked what OIC is. Paul advised it is Opportunities Industrialization Center. Discussion followed regarding the programs and training they provide for both youth and adults in the community. 2018 Parks & Recreation Fees Increase Discussion Ken advised their packet includes the current fees that we use for our fee ordinance. The last time that the fees were increased was 2013. Ken stated that it is important for Parks and Recreation to keep fees as low as possible, the higher the fee usually means lower participation. This increase may be necessary due to the increase in our operating costs, especially minimum wage. Many of the temporary staff were making $9.47 per hour and that increased to $11.00 per hour, an increase for the Parks budget of about $67,000 in 2017. Minimum wage will be increasing again in 2018 to $11.50 per hour, which will be about another $25,000. Staff began discussing an increase of about 6-7% across the board. Ken stated that once staff makes the adjustments, it will come back to Park Commission and then go before City Council in the form of a Policy Issue. City Council will make the decision to say yes or no or suggest making smaller increases. The 2018 Budget planning process begins toward the end of July. Ken stated he would like them to review the spreadsheet and give feedback. Matt asked where the bulk of Parks revenue comes from. Ken stated it comes from park and picnic shelter reservations along with children and adult program fees. Matt asked if the fees are the same as what we charge the School District or other private organizations. Ken stated we have a joint use agreement with the School District. We charge them very little or no fee for the facilities that they use of ours and we in turn use their facilities. They do pay to use Lions Pool and Fisher Park Golf Course. Matt asked what percent of Parks budget constitutes the revenue from these fees. Ken stated that of the $5.6 million, roughly ¼ of it comes from fees, ¼ of it comes from in lieu tax, which is the tax on utility bills, and the rest comes from property tax. Matt reiterated that $1.3 million comes from fees. Ken confirmed that and stated that it can fluctuate from year to year. Matt asked if Parks gets a push back from out of town groups renting the ballfields for $550 per day or do they think that is a bargain. Ken stated that is a bargain for the service and the quality of the facility that we provide. Bill Wells and his staff, under the supervision of Tami Andringa, put forth quality fields to provide quality tournaments. Matt suggested instead of a 6-7% increase across the board, may cherry pick a few of the one that could handle a larger increase rather than increasing some the one that we are trying to keep affordable to the community. Paul agreed that increasing the fee on a space or facility rather than an individual participation fee may be better. Paul also stated that we will at some point have to increase fees in order to keep quality employees. Stacy Hackenmueller agreed with increasing fees in some areas to help subsidize other areas. Discussion followed. Stacy suggested possibly increasing fees for out of town users and leaving the community member fees the same or possibly looking at different areas of the city having increased fees and other low income areas stay the same. Discussion followed. Ken advised that the staff will discuss and bring the proposed fee increase back for Park Commission to review. Jo Miles requested that along with the proposed increase fee schedule, we also have a copy of the revenue page from the budget that shows each of the line items we are proposing to increase. Ken advised we will have a revenue chart with 2016 & 2017. 2017-2022 Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Plan Update Ken advised there are a couple of rough drafts of the Comprehensive Plan that Park has been working on for the last year for their review. Ken stated there are over 600 comments that were written in the surveys that were taken. Ken stated that some of the comments are very critical and some are very positive. Ken advised that we are changing the layout of the new Comprehensive Plan and all the work is being done in- house. Keeping the work on the Comp Plan in-house and not having to pay a consultant is probably saving Parks and Recreation close to $30,000. Jo asked if there is a plan to group all of the aquatics comments together and volunteered to help do that. There may be a way to do that using the keyword feature. Ken stated that he appreciated that people took the time to comment. Matt asked if there were certain topics that were commented on repeatedly. Jenise Sanders advised there were a lot of aquatics, swimming pool, spray park and dog park comments. Matt asked what type of comments they were. Jenise reply that most of them were that we need more water, whether it swimming, spray parks or even waterparks or aquatic centers, and people love the dog park. Discussion followed. Roger asked if we could generalize from the survey what people are saying. Ken stated that most people like what Parks and Recreation is doing and they want us to do more. Ken continued that the big question is where is the money going to come from. Jenise stated that the comments are from the mailed, online and all the paper surveys that were returned. Stacy asked why the online surveys were not included in the data report. Ken advised that for the survey to be considered scientific, you can only use the data from the mailed survey returns. The information from the online and other paper surveys will still be used in our information gathering, just not included in the scientific data. Discussion followed. Stacy commented that the majority of the people that returned the survey were senior citizens. Ken stated that is true but we also know that a lot of the people that take surveys are answering for their entire family, not just themselves. Dulce stated she would like to get a list of comments that are related to public safety. Discussion followed. Jenise will send the comments to all the Park Commissioners for their review. Ken thanked staff for their work on the Comp Plan. Randall Park Improvement Update th Ken reported that Park Maintenance will begin removing the trees in the 48 Ave. parking lot possibly tomorrow. Everything in that parking lot will be removed and will be completely redone. Construction will st begin August 1. TTC is the company that received the bid for that work. The Streets Division will be repaving the parking lot. The renovation of the pond is to begin late this month or early August. Stacy asked when the parking lot will reopen. Ken advised it will be at least one month. Ken stated there is thth parking at the dog park on 48 Ave. Jo asked when the 44 Ave. parking lot is going to be redone. Ken said that it will most likely be done next year along with the walkways. Stacy asked if Parks staff has used Facebook to let the public know about the work being done. Ken stated we will be sending out press release. Matt asked if the pond work is going to be done by the same company as the parking lot. Ken advised it is a different company. Discussion followed. Eastside Swimming Pool Ad Hoc Committee Update Ken advised we are calling it the Community Swimming Pool Ad Hoc Committee. Ken reminded the Park Commissioners that he had done a presentation to City Council at the end of May on the possibilities of a pool on the east side of town. He stated that City Council determined that a committee should be formed nd to study the issue further. The first meeting will be held next Monday at 5:00 pm in the 2 Floor Conference Room. The committee will be comprised of three Council Members, Dulce, Avina and Holly, three Park Commissioners, Matt, Stacy and Josette, and three Parks and Recreation Staff, Ken , Jason and Jenise and three Community Members. Ken advised that there are five applicants for the three Community Member positions. A brief interview will be held on Monday night to decide which of the three will serve on the committee. Ken advised that they will decide on purpose statement and decide on a set number of meetings and go from there. Dulce asked when the deadline is for applications for Community Members. Ken advised the deadline was today, but it is still on line for now. Manager’s Report Ken stated it has been very busy with some irrigation issues and extra vandalism, but that is normal for the summer months. Ken advised that Leslie Richards has been hired as Recreation Program Supervisor at th the Harman Center and her first day was July 5. She is originally from Alabama, but did work for a while in Tacoma. He stated he is going to ask her to come to the September meeting. Jo asked if there is a reception planned for Leslie. Ken said there is a meet and greet tomorrow after the Seniors Inc. meeting at about 2:00 pm at the Harman Center. For the Good of the Order Matt asked about the status of the Gardner Park bathroom. Ken advised that we are still waiting for PP&L to get there to hook up the power and put in the new meter. It has been over 3 months since the building was complete. Dulce stated there was a transient sleeping on the sidewalk at Miller and one of the Park Maintenance staff was there to help ask him to move. Dulce asked if there is a communication line between park staff and the bicycle police officers. Ken advised that we have been instructed to just contact dispatch. Adjournment The next Parks and Recreation Commission meeting will be August 9, 2017. The meeting adjourned at 6:34 p.m.