Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the February twelfth, twenty twenty-six Alameda Recreation and Park Commission meeting.

Uh, could we start this evening with a roll call, please?

Sure.

Uh Commissioner Alexander present.

Uh Vice Chair Schwartz here.

Uh Commissioner Radiz.

Sorry.

See what happens when Donald's not here?

Uh Commissioner Bernie.

Present.

Commissioner Robbins.

And charities.

Present.

Thank you.

The first item on our agenda this evening is non-agenda public comment.

Members of the public may speak for three minutes regarding any matter not on the agenda.

Commissioners will not respond to comments or answer questions.

The city welcomes speakers, providing public comment, but please be advised that this is a limited public forum.

As such, speakers must stay on topic if speaking to a particular agenda item.

And if speaking during non-agenda public comment, they must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city.

Great.

Welcome, Speaker.

Hello, everyone.

I came to the December meeting and I asked for you all to offer indoor roller skating at the Alameda Point Gym, which you did the very next day, and we were offered a trial session for January, and every single session sold out.

Everyone is so grateful and appreciative, and I wanted to officially say thank you for giving this skating community this space.

And during this time when there's a loneliness epidemic among adults, the fact that Alameda Reckon Park is taking an active role to combat this and offer a community space.

I wanted to thank you, and I wanted to say that if you care to join us, just text me your skate size.

He has my phone number.

I've got lots of skates, and we can accommodate you.

Thank you.

Our next agenda item is our staff communication from Recreation and Parks Director, Justin Long, Director Long.

All right.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Just want to go over what we've got going on this spring, and so we'll just jump in for some upcoming citywide community events.

There's the monthly coastal cleanups that are taking place Saturdays, February 14th and March 14th at 10 a.m.

at Seaplane Lagoon.

This is organized by Community Action for Sustainable Alameda known as Casa.

The City Alameda Winter Warming Shelters are open from 6 p.m.

till 7 a.m.

through April 30th, 2026.

Services include showers, dinner, breakfast, case management.

More is available on the city's website under the Housing and Human Services Division.

We have our storytelling and drumming festival taking place Saturday, March 14th from 12 until 3 30 at the Mastic Senior Center.

This event is for all ages, music, stories, puppetry, and crafts.

And then we have our spring shindig that will be taking place Saturday, April 18th at the Alameda Point Gym.

And so save the date and check out our website for more details.

For some upcoming recreation events and activities, the Teen Center will host a kids' night in on Valentine's Day for children ages 5 through 11.

And this is brought to you by the Alameda Youth Committee, and that'll run from 5 p.m.

till 9 p.m.

And the Teen Center at the Veterans Building.

President's Day Monday, February 16th is observed by the city and our office as well.

So most of our programs are not running on that day.

On February 18th, community recreation will host crafts and games at Jean Sweeney Open Space Park from 3 30 to 5 p.m.

And this is a free event for everyone.

Summers just around the corner.

Just want to let everyone know that the 26th summer activity guide should be hitting your mailboxes shortly.

And it is the PDF is live on our website currently, and registration will go active on February 18th for all summer camps, summer programs, etc.

And then there's the Friends Dine and Donate Fundraiser, March 5th, taking place at Saltbreaker out on Alameda Point.

10% of all proceeds will be donated to the friends of the parks.

I want to give you guys some project updates.

We anticipate that project opening by the end of this year.

Also, we've got a really good news here for a lot of folks.

The Sweeney Park Trail Connectors construction is going to start on February 3rd, 2026.

Oh, sorry, I misspoke.

February 23rd, 2026.

So just about two weeks, we're gonna start construction on those connectors.

Also, the uh Alameda Aquatic Center is going to go out to bid at the end of this month with uh awards due at early April, and then we'll review the prices and award a contract in early May.

The City View Skate Park is uh got 100% uh design documents complete.

Now we're looking to get whatever approvals we need and then select a contractor and get quotes for that work.

So we're hoping to start that construction sometime in the fall of this year.

Um some highlights from uh the month.

The annual uh rose pruning held in Lincoln Park, took place on January 17th, and we had about 50 volunteers in attendance, and so we uh want to sincerely thank the East Bay Rose Society for their dedication and their care for the Rose Garden in Lincoln Park.

We had over 150 party goers at who attended the fourth annual family uh snowball dance that was held at the O Club on February 6th.

Uh our aquatics uh swim lessons for all ages, is open uh for beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes.

These swim lessons are offered on Sundays at the NCNL Swim center.

You can sign up for those on our website.

Um we've got a lot of camps that are taking place during President's Week.

We are now entering the AUD President's Week off.

So we have Cooking Explorers, Mad Science, Intro to Basketball, Martial Arts, and more.

So some of those are full already, but there's a couple that have slots still.

So if people need to, please check out our website.

Teens Taking Technology is going to take place on February 26th at 4 p.m.

at the Massick Senior Center.

So where teens assist seniors with electronic devices, smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Also, ARPT facilitates the queer teen Alameda Center QTAC program for ages six through twelfth grade, and that takes place at the Underground Teen Center, Vets Building Fridays at 6 p.m.

It's also supported by Alameda Pride.

Our youth sports program.

We're still offering after school pickleball for middle age school kids, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 5 30 at the Alameda Point Gym.

There's homeschool PE Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m.

till 12 p.m.

at the Alameda Point Gym.

And we'll also be hosting a series of presence week camps.

For our adult programs, we're continuing to offer our open gym on Sundays, 6 till 10 p.m.

at the Alameda Point Gym.

There's tennis, there's private and group lessons that are available.

You can contact us via our website or give us a call and you can sign up for those.

And then we're still offering pickleball drop-ins on Fridays from 9 30 in the morning until 12 p.m.

at the Alameda Point Gym.

Massick has a lot of good programs going on right now as well.

The ARP tax aid program phone line is open.

The numbers 510 747 7501, where you can reserve an appointment.

This is where you can get seniors can get help filling out their taxes.

They're organizing a trip to the Stonetown Shopping Center.

Members will take a beloved and bustling Stone Tall Mall in San Francisco on February 20th from 9:30 to 4:30.

Also, we have the Mastic Thrift Shop bag sale.

It's coming up on February 21st from 10 a.m.

until 1 p.m.

at the social hall.

You can fill two bags of clothes and shoes for just $5.

They're also having the multimedia art reception Tuesday, March 10th at 11 a.m.

This is in the Mastic lobby where you can come and celebrate artwork that is created by the Mastic community.

And then Massick did something really unique this past month where they were able to do a podcast run by fourth and fifth graders at the Love Elementary School.

They discussed how meaningful social connections support well-being and how Mastic creates opportunities for individuals to connect, build friendships, and have and feel a sense of belonging.

The Leisure Club on Thursday, February 26th will celebrate Chinese New Year with a delicious meal at the China Villa Restaurant on Bay Farm Island.

And then we have park maintenance.

So staff assisted the city's housing and human services team by participating in the annual point in time count for homeless individuals on our city.

Park maintenance also hauled off 10 loads of debris from shoreline along Veterans Court, Bay Farm Island, NCNL Boat Ramp, and NCNL Beach after the last storm activities.

And then mid-December, we did a turf replacement at Little John Park along the hillside along Buena Vista Avenue.

This will help with efficiency and irrigation and reducing our water usage.

I'd also like to point out a couple staff recognitions, especially in parks.

Congratulations to Catherine Frazier on her promotion from maintenance assistant two to gardener.

She holds a degree in broadcast communication from San Francisco State University and brings uh dedication, versatility, and strong work ethics.

We're very happy to have her on our team.

And congratulations to Raymond Rivera on his promotion from maintenance worker one to maintenance worker two.

Raymond is highly motivated, takes great pride in his work, and brings genuine appreciation for parks and everything he does.

So with that, that's my update for the month.

Thank you.

Do we have questions for Director Long?

Director Long, my only question this evening is I'm curious whether there are any uh public meetings over the next month coming up.

Um I'll have to double check with you.

I'm not sure if there's anything right off the top of my head.

I I do know that the city's meeting with AUSD is a joint meeting on February 25th.

It's usually a daytime meeting.

I can get you the time for that, but it's a public meeting.

Great, thank you.

Moving forward, our next item is commission, excuse me, commissioner communications.

Uh Commissioner Alexander, would you like to go first?

Sure, thank you.

Well, first of all, I would just like to thank IARPD for all their hard work they've done the last few months.

I know that over the holidays there's always extra things, extra programs, and they're always working really hard.

Um, I attended the breakfast with Santa, that's an annual event they have down at the O Club.

Um, it was nice to see so many teen volunteers down there helping.

Um kids always seem to have a good time.

Uh, Santa's there, and you should as soon as you walk in, Santa was sitting as soon as the kids came in.

So they had a chance to talk to Santa, see Santa, and I kind of stood there and watched and it was interesting to see the kids' reactions.

Like, okay, I know what I'm supposed to do, but I'm really not sure I want to go up there.

But you know, the parents were able to take pictures, it was really really cute, really nice.

Um, I went to the Elks Hoop shoot contest down at the Oak Club.

I want to thank the Elks for sponsoring that.

I think it's probably been about 50 years they've done that at least.

Um, very well organized, they had a lot of volunteers, very well set up.

Uh I went to the North Pole swim with Santa, and I got in the pool with Santa, and I have pictures to prove it that I want swimming with Santa.

What a great event.

I'm telling you, it was not that warm that day, but the parents were there at the kids and they were in the pool and they were having a good time, and just really well done.

The snow machine was blowing snow all over the place.

Um great fun, great fun.

And it'd be nice if more families could attend, but I understand it's kind of cold, but think about it for next year.

Put some long johns on and try to try to do that.

Um, I attended one of the team group meetings with um Ashley's and Death, and taught the kids how to make um Deccomes Reese.

So that was an interesting time.

It was fun.

I feel like I was back in the classroom.

Um, last uh just the other night I went to the snowball family dance that they have down at the base, and that was the cutest thing ever.

There was a little three-year-old boy in a tuxedo.

And I tell you, I said if I could give you a prize, I would give you a prize for the best outfit.

Had little girls in sequin dresses, the dads were dressed in Texas red suits and ties, and they're all out on the dance floor with the DJ.

Really, really fun event.

And what was nice to see, there were 11 and 12-year-old boys and girls there too.

It was just a younger kids, so it was kind of nice to see that.

So if you don't know about that, I would check that out for next year.

Um the ball fields are full.

They're out playing baseball everywhere.

Those pickleball courts at Leidecker are jammed packed every time I drive by there.

Um, the lights at Leidecker on the basketball court, my neighborhood teen kids are really enjoying that.

They're loving riding their bikes down there.

They all have the lights on their helmets and all that.

So they're having a really good time down there playing basketball in the evening.

So hopefully that will continue to be a good thing.

Um, I think that's about all.

Oh, yeah, I was down by Estuary Park to see what they're doing there.

Just a lot of dirt, but it's kind of nice to go down and see what happens in a couple weeks.

So that's my report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bernie.

All right.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was on Bay Farm Island, and I saw, I guess, I guess it's a plaque.

But it had the planet Neptune on it, and it gave a description of the planet Neptune, and it had the distance, and it's the Alameda solar walk.

So I didn't know what that was, but I look it up, and apparently there is a path on Bay Farm Island that starts at the beginning of where you enter it from the bridge, and you can walk.

The distance of the oh more.

A real a realistic distance of the solar system from the bridge all across the coast of Bay Farm Island.

And I was actually able to walk that, which was pretty fascinating because it gives you some, it's a scaled version of the solar system.

So you start at the sun and you slowly, as you walk along the coast of Bay Farm Island, it'll start at the sun, you go to Mercury, you go to Venus, you go to Earth, then you go to Mars, then you walk a really long way to Jupiter, a really long way to Saturn, a really long way to Uranus, then Neptune, and all the way to Pluto, which ends up actually being a 3.8 mile walk.

And I actually did try to record it, but my phone actually died because I underestimated the distance.

But I say this to say that it is the it was it was I think in response to a contest a couple of years ago.

It is actually maintained by ARPD.

So therefore, I would just like to say I was able to walk that I think two, three, about two, three weeks ago.

But I found it really fascinating.

So if you're into space, if you have kids and you want to show them what the distance between all the planets are and the solar system, I would recommend going to Bay Farm Island and walking.

I think that was a Boy Scout on our project, is that what they call it?

Yeah, because we approved that a couple years ago.

Yeah, that's what that was.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

So and that's my report.

That's great.

Commissioner Robinson.

Uh the Aquatics Center, I do want to just put a plug in for them because I'm there almost every week because I'm playing tennis on the tennis courts and I stop in and say hi to the staff and appreciate the work that they're doing, and it's so much fun to see uh youths as well as adults uh at the at the swim park.

Um I would encourage anybody to go down and just take a look at what they have and how fortunate we are to have that aquatics park.

Um the skill version of the solar system, it's interesting that you just said that because as a middle school teacher, we uh encourage our students to go there because it's the solar system is one of our modules and it's at the end of the year.

Uh and it is a fantastic thing that the Boy Scouts implemented, but uh luckily we as the Perk and Rec uh do take care of it.

So I do appreciate the work that you do with that.

Uh, been playing a lot of tennis and uh pickleball, Lidecker Park as well as Lincoln Park for pickleball.

And I I know as um I'm a captain of a tennis team out of what's called Laney Tennis Association, and we are out of Ensignal uh High School, is where we play.

And we are uh we have WAPA, which is a great place for tennis, but we don't have any other place where we have four or more tennis courts uh available to be able to play tennis at.

And I sure do hope that the Alameda High School gets their tennis courts resurfaced and open uh as soon as possible so that more people in the community are able to play tennis, and that's my report.

Thank you.

By Chef Schwartz.

I want to first start by thanking Director Long, Matt, Stacy, ARPD staff for working really closely with the aquatics community over the last several weeks uh to get aligned on a fee schedule that's equitable and mutually beneficial.

I am conducting some additional due diligence.

So uh thanks there.

I I'm I understand I think that's going to city council next week.

Um speaking of aquatics.

Um, for those of you that don't know, there's a new uh Aqua Warrior class, I believe, that launched in uh January.

Um it happens to overlap with uh Masters swim.

So I have been uh peeking over there quite a lot.

Um the instructor brings some tremendous energy.

Um I've actually been really impressed with the consistent attendance, which is really uh, you know, um speaks to the strength of the program.

The unseasonally warm temperatures probably don't hurt.

Um, you know, but it it's um I've I've honestly been surprised with the attendance um given it's winter um and and how engaged uh some of those are so really really excited to see that um added back.

Um haven't spent much time at the parks recently.

Uh my son's been much more interested in trips to the zoo and the academy of sciences.

Um, but again, speaking of the unseasonably warm weather, it's been really great to see um how busy the parks have been during the winter here, especially over the last couple weeks.

Uh, and that's it for me.

Thanks.

Wonderful, thank you.

I'll keep my remarks uh short this evening.

Uh for my part, uh, one of the things that I really enjoy about the winter season is watching the fields uh come back after their seasons of heavy use over the summer and the fall.

Uh and it's equally as exciting to see those uh access restrictions lifted as we turn back into the spring, and folks get uh back out on the grass, which is uh which is terrific.

I want to note I'm not sure if this was an issue, uh, but I was out at the Cruzy Park tennis courts a couple of times over the winter, uh, hoping to use uh the courts uh after dark and the the light activator uh wasn't working.

I don't know if uh my my uh experience was unique or whether I should um report that the next time it uh next time it happens to me, but repeated attempts to turn the lights on uh didn't uh didn't work.

Um I have a similar uh field issue to report um after uh playing uh pick up ultimate a couple times over the winter.

There's something wrong with the field because I came off that field just feeling incredibly old and uh and out of shape, so we'll we'll try to do something about that.

Um I did attend uh the open meeting uh between uh the community members and representatives of Alameda Little League in November out at uh Little John Park.

It was great to see folks come together and communicate and find common ground.

Um and I'll continue to signal my my interest in the the broader subject of uh field allocations and fees and how they figure into the budgets of uh various nonprofit and community groups um across the uh across the community.

That just remains a just kind of a fascinating um alchemy and set of relationships that uh um that perhaps there's some good work to be uh done there in that area.

Um that's my report.

Thanks very much.

Uh moving forward, the next item on the agenda is to approve the minutes from our December 11th, 2025 meeting.

Uh, could we have a motion, please to approve those minutes?

I make the motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second that.

And a roll call vote, please.

Oh, sorry.

Double duty.

I'm telling you without Donna.

Anyway, um, Commissioner Alexander.

Yeah.

Uh Commissioner Schwartz.

Yes.

Commissioner uh Bernie.

What is it?

I wouldn't have.

Okay, okay.

Uh Commissioner Robbins.

Yes.

And uh Chair Radiz.

Yes, the motion uh has been approved.

Uh the next item on our agenda is regular agenda item 6A, which is to receive or rather to approve the City of Alameda Recreation Parks Department Park Priority Prioritization Plan for fiscal year 26-27.

Uh we'll have a report and a presentation.

Commissioners uh may then ask clarifying questions.

Uh we'll have public comment and then the commissioners will discuss and offer for offer further comment from there.

Uh, we'll need to make a motion to recommend uh or not approve at the end of our discussion.

Uh Director Long, the floor is yours.

All right, good evening, commissioners.

Um as the director, um, every year we bring before you guys a prioritization of parks.

It's not on there.

Um, thank you.

Um, and so this is our uh 26-27 uh fiscal year of projects that we're proposing.

Um, and so we'll kind of walk you through a little bit of the history of how this is funded and how we make the decisions as we um start to make these selections.

So annually we we receive some capital funding that comes directly from the general fund to support various different areas that we have to uh do capital work in.

One of those is playground replacements.

Uh we're also, since the ADE transition plan was approved.

There's so much that is dedicated to parks annually to start covering a lot of ADA issues that are there.

Um, we do uh we get funding for paving and walkways as a standard amount, and then we have what we call the park improvement fund.

So as you well know, many of our parks are older and they have aging infrastructure.

And so my predecessor years ago was able to start getting annual funding.

Previously to this, it was all emergency-based funding.

There was no funding that was just generally allocated for these capital repairs.

So now that we have these funds, we work to uh allocate them annually on projects that are categorized primarily first for safety, because we have a lot of issues with the aging infrastructure.

For example, playgrounds have a lifespan of about 15 years.

As you'll see this year, there is a zero number for that, and for our fiscal uh 25 to 27 years in order to reduce the impacts to the general fund, we were asked to reduce that fund to zero.

We often have larger projects, and so we need these funds to build sometimes year over year in order for us to be able to complete a project.

So what you'll see sometimes is a reserve fund in these different funds, but it's so that we can address larger items that we're we're not generally funded for.

This is what we call the capital fund balance area.

So this is where you can kind of look at what we have, sort of in our reserve that is uncommitted, so that we can spend them on larger projects.

So one of those is playground replacement.

Right now, all of the funds that are in that are dedicated, and so there really is no money for an upcoming playground in the next year other than what has already been identified in our park planning.

Our paving and walkways, we use a lot of these funds the last couple years to do shoreline, and now we're trying to go and target.

We've done a lot at Checheno.

Um, and so what we're trying to do is target the areas where we have trip hazards, areas of uneven pavement, areas that have been unattended for years, and trying to go through and systematically repave different areas, also making them ADA accessible at the same time.

And then there's the park improvement fund.

Now, this is for basically all unassigned amenities.

This could be, you know, pads under picnic tables, this could be fencing repair, this is light repair, light upgrades, irrigation upgrades.

So this kind of covers all the infrastructure that helps support the parks, and so right now it has a reasonable fund in it, but a lot of those funds we are even allocating toward other things at this time, which we'll go over in just a little bit.

And again, we need these things to build over time sometimes because the average playground, you know, is inching up near half a million dollars now, and so for us to be able to cobble together 300,000 one year and another 200 the next gets us to a point where we can actually replace one whole playground every other year.

So we're working to do what we can.

We extend the life through our operating budget for small repairs, slide repair, swings.

So we're able to do ongoing maintenance, but it's really when it's hit the end of its lifespan that these funds are utilized.

And we wanted to give you a little idea of what we get for operating.

So it just kind of gives you a little bit of an idea here.

So we get about 150,000 a year for tree maintenance.

Um park operations itself gets about 300,000 a year for uh, you know, various things that they need to do.

Uh field maintenance, we spend about a hundred thousand dollars a year on, for this is what we're funded for.

We spend more than that, but that's what we're funded for.

Um, irrigation and fencing, as you well know, uh many safety concerns were brought up over the last year around netting at uh Washington Park Tennis Courts, we're putting new netting in at Little John, we're upgrading fencing and netting at Lincoln, all for patron safety and property safety and all these different things.

So that's what that kind of goes to.

And again, you know, irrigation, as you guys well know in our drought restrictions, we are trying to target our irrigation to be as targeted to areas that we wanted to live so we can reduce our water usage.

Um, and again, a lot of those systems are old, and so we spent a decent amount of money last year modernizing, so our system is now in an adaptive, I wouldn't say AI level, but it is learning its system, the weather, and adapting its times, its coverage.

So we were using technology to really try to use our water in a smarter way.

And then tree planting.

As you guys well know, we're actively trying to plant more canopy here in the city of Alameda.

The urban or forest tree plan will be coming sometime in the spring or summer of this year in front of City Council, which will talk about how many trees a year we need to plant to try to achieve our canopy cover.

We also try to keep parks open as well and playable, but we're looking at taking advantage of every possible place, whether it's volunteer or even with staff to try to increase the canopy here in Alameda.

And so again, these operating funds are only covering a portion of what we actually need annually, so we have to tap into those capital dollars sometimes to make those replacements or fix those assets.

We're constantly doing a balancing match between our capital and our operating budgets.

These were the projects that rose to our highest amount.

Some of them have been funded for multiple years, and some of them are new.

The Lidecker Playground is substantially past its lifespan, almost 20 years old.

And so we've already done all the community input as we've brought here before for approvals.

Now we're in the point we're entering into contract and selecting the contractor so we can get that work done this year.

The Longfellow Hardscape.

So there's a large portion of Hardscape that's around the rec center facility that has two half courts, a handball court.

It has not been in a decent condition for some time.

So we're going to be targeting that for safety and access issue as well as improving ADA access into that park.

Like I say, the Franklin Basketball Court is also in very rough shape.

That paving outside of that half court there.

It also has other play areas in it, not just basketball.

And then the skate park expansion.

This has been on the books for a little bit.

The friends of the park have been working with it.

We have funding dedicated to it, but we're also taking funds from our unassigned infrastructure to actually make this happen.

And then there's the trail connectors that's been ongoing for a couple years.

It's been funded through various funds through public works.

We have a county transportation grant, there's money from our own department.

And like I said, we're happy to announce that this one is actually going into construction at the end of this month.

So this has been ongoing for a long time.

This is not to say that we won't handle other projects as they come up, and that we aren't working on other projects that are in the list that you see in your attachment.

These are just some of the highlights that we're putting up here on the screen.

There's other projects like the community garden project that we're moving along, as well as the aquatic center.

And so we also have some what I would call our large capital projects, as you guys have well heard of.

Is going out to bid at the end of this month.

That project had an original budget of 30 million.

This last budget cycle we had to ask for an additional 5.5 million for that project.

Estuary phase park park phase two under construction is about a $7.2 million project.

It had a $5 million budget, so we had to borrow from future park diff from development to do that.

But we needed to make sure that that's happening, and that's including the alternative that added the two extra pickleball courts.

So there's a total of six there now.

So that'll be opening.

We've brought over the master plan over the last year and a half for your approval.

This is unfunded at this time.

We're looking for funding opportunities and grants to do this.

But again, these are these are projects that are considered medium and high priorities.

It's just that funding is a a struggle.

And then the Clement Dog Park, as you know, the Clement Tilden traffic circles under construction right now.

So as that project continues, there's $75,000 that was allocated to those two dog parks that'll be adjacent sort of to that Starbucks and the funeral home there.

So we'll be able to add those amenities in the coming year, year plus, depending on the construction.

The dog parks are in the last phase of the construction.

So just want to give you guys an idea on that.

And so that's kind of a high-level overview of our projects for this year.

We're happy to take questions or public comment on this.

And so we're if you guys that's it.

That's our presentation for this year.

Thank you.

Commissioners, clarifying uh questions.

We'll move to comments later.

Questions to start.

Um can you go through just what each of the priority factors mean?

I think I think some of them are self-explanatory, but can you just give us summary of what like resources means, funding means previous priority under the priority factors?

Sure.

So let me just pull that up for one second.

Yeah, perfect.

So everything is based, you know, as you well know, um, like resources that we have available, you know, whether we have funding already, if these have already been previously prioritized by either council or this commission, equity.

We look at where we're spending money across the island.

Um the city has a very extensive equity map and data that we look at as we're trying to pick projects.

Um, public safety is critical to this, as well as you know, projects that have already been in a year of progress or planning, or we're trying to get approvals through long term, and so that's kind of how we're we're we're building those, and then we build everything into high, medium, and low based on staff resources, based on the funding availability and the likelihood that staff can complete it.

Perfect, thanks.

Um I have a couple questions.

Um, you mentioned so from you'd mentioned that there's basically non-no unallocated money for playgrounds.

So is that just the Liedecker replacement is the only thing, or are any of these other ones listed on here have that money set aside for the future?

So, right now the only funds available are for the Lidecker playground.

We're dependent on future budgets and future capital budgets in order to build funds for those upcoming uh playground replacements.

Got it, great.

And then um, I believe you might have addressed this previously, and glad to hear that they're the Gene Sweeney connector is starting, but I believe there was some uh unforeseen issues that caused the delay.

Can you just kind of repeat that for the community?

Sure.

Um, as part of the trail connectors project, it is gene swinging used to be an old rail yard.

Um the initial phase cleaned up the majority of the park to industrial commercial levels.

Um there is still a small portion of the park on the southern side that is still owned by Union Pacific.

When we did original, we have an easement over that at the end of A Street and the end of Wood Street in order to connect into the park when we did the original um sampling, those samples tested higher than what the cleanup goals were for the project.

And so we've been working with uh DTSC, the Department of Toxic Substance Control, the state, in order to get a soil management plan approved for basically the last year and a half, almost two years, and we've we finally gotten there.

Um, so and to do that work on UP land that we don't own.

So that's really been the long-term struggle is to get final approval from that organization.

Right, and then um I think it's under the future, but I see there's Gene Sweeney phase two.

Can you explain uh clarify what's included in that because there's obviously separate for the aquatic center, separate for the trail connector and then separate for the community garden?

Sure.

In the original master plan approved in 2014, there was a large segment in the middle that was meant to be an open naturalized area that has trails and potentially a bike trail around the outside edge of it.

Um, and so it's really completing the segment from where the playground stops until basically where the future community garden and aquatic center are.

So that's really the next segment that we have to try to complete uh as a future project.

It's just we need to be able to do that on some priority level.

Perfect.

And then last one, uh, I see on here uh hopefully we're not making it up because now I can't find it.

Um, the fitness equipment at Washington Park, is that something that's getting replaced or is that net new?

So there's currently existing equipment at Washington Park, but it needs to be replaced.

Um that is probably one that will probably look at our operating dollars in the coming years if we have or even in in this year or the next year, whether or not we have some funds that can replace those.

I think the goal was to think about sort of long term, um, what would we really want instead of just a series of little events they now make?

If you've been out to Bay Farm Island by the petite donut facility at a restaurant out there, there's an outdoor fitness gym that is there.

So we really want to get feedback in the coming year about what people want instead of sort of just replacing what's in kind to make sure it's useful for the community.

Perfect, that was it.

Thank you.

Others, Commissioner Bernie.

I have two questions.

The first question is so I see the staff level of effort, and then you have to recommend the staff priority, which for majority of them are high, but then I see for the staff level of effort, those numbers vary.

Can you explain what that means?

So, not just for your staff level, but the reason why a lot of these are also high is because we're taking into these other factors, whether it's safety-related, whether there's funding, or there was already things dedicated to it.

So it's not just only on staff level, but we have to take that into consideration.

So it's a lot of it is based on whether or not work has already been done and whether it's gonna take extra effort to do that.

So for example, um, I'll just put this out here.

Uh two of the people in this room are the ones of the three-person team that are working on all these projects.

So when we're looking at staffing, we're not talking about having a ton of project managers out there to divide this across.

So we have to see how much work's already been done in the previous years to get the groundwork for some of these.

So that's why some of them are uh high, medium, and lower.

Okay.

Okay, and how accurate are these estimated costs?

I know you know that in the beginning of your presentation that it was estimated cost one year, and then the following year it might have increased by a million or five hundred thousand along those lines.

So, how accurate are these costs right now?

Well, in today's dollars, they're relatively accurate based on the work that we've recently done.

You know, like for example, when we redid the Little John basketball court, so we get a good idea on what paving services cost.

We have a good idea about what playgrounds are costing by going out and talking to these manufacturers.

So these I think are pretty reasonable for what where we currently are.

Um again, we will gladly take anything that comes in lower, you know.

Um, but but we do a pretty good job when we do estimates, we get multiple quotes.

So we have a good idea of what the market is bearing.

Uh for the larger projects, those are a little bit harder.

Like the D pays when we estimated that at 25 million, that was in last year's dollars.

And then by the time we get it to the point where it may be over the goal line, that may be 35 million.

It just depends on how long it takes and how long it gets there.

It was like, for example, with estuary, it was originally phase two was designed in 2014.

It took us this long in order to be able to build the funds and find it.

So that project value from like a four and a half million dollar budget, this last year went out to bid at 7-2.

So it's that sort of balance that we have to do with the timing of the projects and the cost, but if if they're getting done this year and we're trying to get them done this year, we're pretty confident of the costs.

Okay.

Commissioner Robbins.

Um, thank you for this exhaustive list.

Um, our comments we're gonna do later.

Okay.

So I think you all know my comments.

Um, the just for clarification, you you brought up the like just as an example, trail connectors 900 uh K.

How much of that is funded through ARPD?

Because you said that there were other uh organizations.

Yeah, so the majority of it it came from uh public works accounts of leftover accounts that we had, also left over capital accounts, so say a project came in under what the value was.

We reallocated it toward the trail connectors, and then there is about a hundred and eighty thousand to 200,000 grant from Alameda County Transportation uh committee commission to help build these.

So it took a little bit of stone soup to make that one work.

Okay, so but that's that's out of parks.

We're we're probably in there for you know a hundred and fifty or hundred and sixty thousand of that.

Okay.

That's it, thank you, Commissioner Alexander.

Um, first of all, I'm glad I don't have to balance your checkbook.

That's the first thing I want to say.

Um I'm glad that you brought this up because I think it's important for the public to realize what we do with the small amount of money we have, and knowing that two people in this room are doing 90% of the work here, I think it's another thing that needs to be brought up.

We don't have a planning board of eight, nine people or in the department that are doing this.

So I know things take a long time.

I've been on this commission for almost eight years now, and I don't want to tell you what we started with eight years ago, what we talked about that is still on this list.

So it takes a long time, and I know everybody wants their thing done, but it's hard, it's really hard to figure out what we're gonna do, what we're gonna replace, and then you know, make everybody happy.

So I just want to say I just really appreciate all of your hard work that we have in our department, and um I know that a lot of this has been a priority for a long time, and it's nice to know that some of it's you know the shovels are going in the ground soon, and I just wanted to say thank you for that.

Thank you.

I have a clarifying question.

We received uh communication this evening from uh I always reverse it, walk bike alameda, bike walk alameda, asking about the the connectors project, and it seemed by the tenor of the letter that they were concerned that the project was out of the prioritization list.

Is that the project that we see here currently reflected in the the project prioritization list?

Yes, the same project, okay.

So, is there a different source of their confusion or I think what has happened is because this has taken so long.

We are just about to send the communication out because we just got approval to do this.

I see.

So notices should be going out to the neighbors any day now, and we're getting the communication out that we have our contractor lined up.

So it's very last minute, even for us at this point because of the late time approval.

Understood.

Okay, so it's just communications passing one another.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Um, okay, in that case, moving uh forward.

Do we have public uh comment on this item?

Yes, we do, and we have one that is online that we could address first.

Uh Denise.

Welcome, Speaker.

Hi, this is Denise.

I'm the one who sent in that letter from Bikewalk Alameda.

Um, so I just wanted to say thank you.

I'm so excited to hear that that construction project is happening after Lowe's many years.

Um, that's it.

Just wanted to say, you know, just echo my thanks for for getting this project moving.

Thank you.

Wonderful, thank you.

Any other speakers?

Yes, the remaining are in person here.

Uh Rod Harris.

Welcome, Speaker Harris.

Hi, I've brought Harris.

I'm part of a large pickleball users uh group here, and we just want to say thank you.

We see all the hard work that the staff has put into it and the commissioners and thank you.

Next we have Alison.

Sorry.

Hello, my name is Alison Taggart Barone, and I live on the West End of Alameda.

And I'm here tonight to request that you make the community garden a at Sweeney Park a high priority for the staff work plan for 26-27.

Since Sweeney Park was planned and built almost 15 years ago, Alameda's has still been waiting for a community garden.

In fact, when asked during the outreach phase of the develop of developing the park, the community said that the community garden was in the top five things they wanted to see.

All five things have been completed except for the community garden.

Alameda is a fantastic place to live with amazing amenities, but there's no community garden to speak of.

Community gardens are good for the environment, they're good for building community.

They help address the issues of resilience, food insecurity, and sovereignty, and social isolation.

They encourage physical activity while building connections to our neighbors, and they provide places to educate our youth about growing food, healthy eating, and civic engagement.

Please make the community garden a high priority so we can start planting now.

Thank you.

Welcome, Speaker.

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Director Wong.

Picture yourself on a beautiful Saturday in January 2014.

Wilma Chan is there.

She gives a gorgeous speech about food insecurity because that was a big deal for her.

Lovely woman.

Anyhow.

Jim Sweeney was there with a wheelbarrow.

We were getting rid of blue uh blackberry bushes everywhere.

He was helping build a demonstrator, a big raised garden bed, with using that hammer like Jimmy Carter.

Two strokes and it's the nails in.

Anyhow, it was a beautiful day.

A lot of Alamedans were there, a lot of kids and adults, and a lot of staff from Wilmachan's office.

Alameda Backyard Growers was also there.

Imagine if the sky had opened, and a voice had told us in February 2026, no garden.

No community garden.

Now I take very seriously what Commissioner Alexander just said.

I really appreciate, and I know with Director Long as well as Amy Woldridge before him.

There was so much work done, and I was on the original steering committee for the community garden all those years when we planned things.

We even made a rule book, the first rule, no nudity.

I mean, you know, Justin, that's in your archives somewhere.

Okay.

In any case, we worked really hard on this.

So Supervisor Chan's office was with us.

Um, the Alamanti County Master Gardeners were with us.

Um we had a um we had uh anyhow, we had a lot of different groups with us and would come to speak.

We toured uh five different uh community gardens in Sacramento at one point.

Um we did a ton of work on this.

No garden, medium priority.

The other day I attended the workshop for the strategic plan, and it wasn't even on the strategic plan.

It wasn't.

The tool lending library with the shovels, that was on the strategic plan.

The aquatic center was on the strategic plan.

I was there when Amy Woldridge suggested why don't we put uh an aquatic center here, and then we can that can help bring the rest of the money.

Jim Sweeney is still with us.

Wilmachan is not.

Let's please, please make this a high priority finally.

I'll be 85 if I have to wait another 12 years for this thing.

So please, I beg you, high priority.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Claude Bartholoma.

Sorry.

Welcome, Speaker.

Bartholomew.

That's okay.

Nobody can say it.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Claude Berthlonio.

I'm a resident of Alameda.

I live right by Washington Park.

Just say I love what ARPD does.

My dog and I walk through that park every day, and we love using the parks in Alameda.

It's part of why I moved here.

Um part of that reason was to have outdoor space to grow things.

Um, and I have had some success at my apartment on the my little patio growing things, unfortunately.

Last week without warning, my landlord locked all of the outdoor spigots.

So my gardening days are probably numbered there.

Um, I've been hearing about the community garden volunteering with Alameda Backyard Growers since about the time I moved here, and remember thinking, oh great, we're gonna have a community garden soon that I can go and grow things and meet neighbors who are interested in doing this and have a sense of community, but we still don't have it.

So I'm here tonight to ask you to make it a higher priority and to make it something that the folks in Alameda can use.

I like about half the city am a renter, and most of us don't have anything more than a balcony that we can have a few thoughts on, but we have a hunger to do much more.

So there have been plenty of good times to do it.

The next best time to do it is right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Liz Warmadon.

Welcome, speaker.

Good evening, charities, commissioners, Director Long.

My name's Liz Warmer Dam, and I'm the president of the Alameda Backyard Growers.

You heard a little bit from some of our folks.

We're a 501c3 nonprofit here in Alameda.

We've been around for over 15 years.

You may know us because we pick people's fruit in their backyard and we set it to the Alameda Food Bank.

We host workshops to help people learn how to grow their own food, and we run five seed libraries in the community.

As Marla and uh others have said, over a decade ago, the city created the Gene Sweeney Community Garden Steering Committee.

And that, together with staff prior to Justin, ABG works super with worked with Supervisor Chan, Alameda County Master Gardeners, Casa, landscape architects, just to name a few, to design the space to create an operating manual and even bylaws.

The city took our work and then actually hired Claceworks, which is a very reputable landscape architectural firm, to create detailed plans.

And then when money was tight, staff looked for grants, but that never they were never successful.

Most recently, as you probably all know, the aquatic center was located in the space where the community garden was supposed to go.

We, along with staff and community members, have spent hundreds of hours planning and designing the community garden at Gene Sweeney.

Needless to say, we are getting frustrated and feel like the garden is never gonna happen.

We're extremely grateful that it has been placed on the work plan as a medium priority for this coming year.

However, it needs to be built now.

It needs to be a high priority.

I actually worked on city staff for many years, and I know if things are not a high priority, they don't get done.

And that is not to be disrespectful to Director Long, but things happen and they're busy, so we need it to be a high priority.

Please, I'm asking you to designate the community garden at Jean Sweeney Park to be a high priority.

We need to get it done.

I appreciate your time and everything that you do, and we do really have a pretty amazing park and wreck and park department.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ellen Dyer.

Welcome, Speaker Dyer.

Hi, thank you.

Um, my name is Ellen Dyer, and I live on the West End of Alameda.

I was born and raised in Alameda.

I went to Payton Elementary School.

I went to the Academy of Alameda.

I graduated Ensignal High School where I was a part of the gardening club.

Um I recently graduated from college after studying plant biology.

Um, and at Laney, I took some horticultural courses.

It's going swimmingly.

Um, and I'm back in Alameda for this foreseeable future.

While I was away, I gained a huge appreciation for living in California.

It's so wonderful here.

Um, and specifically in Alameda.

Uh, we have an amazing community here, and even more amazing growing climate.

I'm not sure if you knew, but we can grow food here year-round.

That's pretty incredible.

Um, but sadly, if you don't have a backyard that's not available to you, that's pretty difficult.

Half of all Alamedans live in apartments and they don't have anywhere to grow the food, and that really needs to change.

Um, community garden makes so much sense to me and to my community of growers.

Um, so why not provide people with a place for them to grow their own food?

Um, with so much food insecurity and cuts to a lot of safety nets.

Um, seems kind of like a no-brainer.

I don't know when the last time you guys had your hands in the dirt, but it is truly a euphoric feeling.

Um so it would be such a great thing to have a community garden at Sweeney Park.

Um please put it as a high priority so we can count on it being built in my lifetime.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lastly, Bridget Evans.

Welcome, Speaker Evans.

Hi, Chair Radiz and Commissioners, and Commissioner Long?

Commissioner Long.

Director Long.

The first time I heard about Jean Sweeney Open Space Park was from Jean Sweeney herself sitting on the porch of a Victorian after the Alameda Legacy Home Tour, and she was so proud that we were gonna get this park.

The next time I engaged with a park was right here in this room when Amy Woldridge held a charrette, and we all got little stickers, and we were all allowed to choose the things that we wanted the most, and my first red sticker went right there on that community garden, and so did my husband's because he loved me.

Um in 2014, I joined the committee that was working on designing the park, and it was a beautiful design.

It had a community fruit orchard, it had a forager's lane where people could go st could go harvest fruit.

Um it had demonstration gardens, it was beautiful.

And then we came back here in 2014 and City Council approved that original design, and in 2016 again, City Council approved a modified design.

After that, periodically, Marla and I would get these urgent emails from Danielle Mueller saying, help, I'm going for a grant, it's due in two days.

What will Alameda Backyard Growers do?

Can you help us?

Um, and we would of course say, Of course, we'll come and we'll do some educational programs.

We're happy to do that.

That would be awesome.

And she would send the grant applications off and nothing would happen.

In 2021, we met with um Amy Woldridge at a distance meeting, and she told us that we weren't going to be getting certain parcels of land, so she presented us with a modified and much smaller version of the garden.

2022, the aquatic center came up, MacDab where our garden was slated to go, and we said, okay, well, we won't object with the idea that we would be able to leverage the aquatic center for some of that grading, um, the remediation, the parking lot.

But of course, that hasn't really happened.

Um it's now 2026, 13 years, and we don't have a garden.

Can you guys please move it to high from medium so that we could maybe get a garden?

One of those um, and then we could have some equity.

Thank you.

Okay, it's time for commissioner comments.

Before we get to the comments, I want to ask just uh a further clarifying question uh to Director Long.

Uh Director Long, would you just um for our benefit clarify?

Is the community garden at the moment on the prioritization project list for 26-27 or not?

It is.

It is okay, and then further clarifying what to what degree does the inclusion of a project uh on the project list?

Um, what what degree of certainty does that convey in having the project completed during that time period?

Well, any of these projects that are on this list, it means that it's in our work plan for doing work in 2026.

That is whether it is planning or getting it toward construction, if it spans over into the next year, because some of these projects may, but it means that we're actively working on it as as our team with Matt and I and Eric that that it is in our work plan for this year and that we are actively working on it.

Okay.

But it doesn't imply that inclusion means that it'll be completed during that time period.

We're not able to guarantee that that any of these projects will 100% be completed this year, depending on anything that we run into with construction.

But they are planned to have work start and be worked on in this year.

So at the moment, the community garden is planned to be worked on during this during this time period.

That is correct.

Yeah.

And the nuance between a project's prioritization medium versus high, what does that carry?

So in in all reality, if it is on the work list, it is deemed that we are working on it.

And so it it doesn't give it a great distinction.

I will admit, yes, some of these projects that are higher priority, and yes, the like the aquatic center, for example, um and things like that.

Since I've been here, we're at a higher priority because of the funding and trying to get that thing built.

And it has taken a significant amount of my time.

I'm not going to deny that at all.

Um, but now that that is getting to a point where it will go into others' hands, I will be able to withdraw from that and be able to concentrate more on supporting Matt in these other projects.

And so that is how I plan on doing that work.

Um, but in reality, everything on here, whether it is high, medium, is getting worked on.

Um, but some of those just tick up a little bit higher because of the politics behind it.

Okay.

And in in previous forums, we've seen the community garden presented alongside or in coordination with the aquatic center.

In reality, are those two projects linked, uh dependent on one another, independent of one another?

What's the relationship between the two?

Um great, glad to clarify that question for you.

Because of the aquatic center, and as we've seen having had to have already increased its budget, we separated the funds that are dedicated to the community garden away from the aquatic center, so that we would not have those on the chopping block should the aquatic center even come up higher.

And so those are coming out of our unassigned park uh annual park funds that we are going to dedicate up to 400,000 to the community garden to get at least the first phase done.

And that's our dedication and that's what our promise to uh the community.

And so uh at the moment the project's funded from your standpoint, correct.

Okay, wonderful.

Okay.

Chair, I have one question I want to.

I can have that clarifying question.

Um, I know we sat here, and when we approved the aquatic center, we wanted the community garden as part of it, and that was important to us.

They went to council, we asked council for the extra money for that, and as Director Long just said, we took it from another fund to be sure the money was there for the garden.

Isn't it true that we have to get the pathways done before the garden construction can start?

The trail connectors project is a critical portion of getting that project through, which has taken a decent amount of time to do.

Um the community garden will build off of that pathway and to help um, you know, sort of the design layout and that component.

So it's a critical component for people being accessing the community garden.

So the pathway project is supposed to start at the end of this month, correct?

Correct.

And how long do you anticipate that project to be?

Guesstimate.

Depending on weather and uh full working additions, the project shouldn't take more than a couple months.

Couple months, yeah.

Okay.

So then when that's done, then we can discuss a community garden, correct?

Well, we're hoping to be working with the groups in between them, so that we can have be further down the road.

All right, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Is there any construction reliance between the two, like the aquatic center?

You plan on doing like grading at the same time for economy scale, or they are truly now separate projects?

I think at this rate either truly separate projects because of the type of work that has to be done at the aquatic center for shoring up the ground, so it'll be completely different scale at this point.

Right.

Okay.

So what I'm hearing tonight is there's a the distinction.

There's a concern about something being labeled high and something being labeled medium.

What exactly does that indicate then?

Because what I'm hearing is that it doesn't matter.

That if if it's as long as it's on the project list and it's funded, then there is a very good chance that it's going to be able to something's going to happen during the year.

But obviously you have the recommended priority of something being high and something being medium.

So what is just so everybody know what does that indicate?

Again, it is a very slight difference because of the amount of staffing we have.

Again, um I'm trying to figure out I it it's not an extreme distinction.

If it was a low priority, it probably wouldn't be worked on at all.

And just to be honest with you, um, and so the distinction between the high and the mediums in here, like again, there are some that are already moving along that are very fast paced, whether it's estuary under construction or the the aquatic center, you know, going out to bid and those things.

Um they've taken a substantial amount of time.

So, you know, as those start to ease, we're gonna be able to put our attention toward these other ones.

Um I I'd I'd be I'd be happy to move it to a high ranking and I would support doing that.

Um I I don't think in the next month it's gonna change the work plan that we currently have on our plate, but I am hoping that as soon as we get to the March and the April that it really will.

It sounds like the removal of the trail connectors dependency was was an important roadblock to be to be removed.

It's not just an important roadblock about just the trail connectors, but that soil management plan allows us to have a soil management plan for the entire park.

Technically, right now, I can't plant a tree unless DTSC gives me approval and I submit a soil management plan to them.

The whole reason why we spent so much time on the soil management plan, it now covers the park in totality.

So whether it's the aquatic center, the community garden, all the processes are in place for what needs to happen for the soil at Gene Sweeney.

So it took a long time to get that done.

Um I mean, you'll even hear that you know, kids have been building jumps and digging ramps in that park.

They should not be for health and safety, they shouldn't be doing that.

And this is one of those things that this will come to a resolution so I can do that.

Uh I've been working with Matt here.

We've recently found clean dirt that we've brought to the facility, and we're going to continue to do that uh as it becomes available.

But that soil management plan basically handcuffs us to what we can do and not do.

And again, as as the backyard growers know and a lot of the community members know, uh, we've had conversations around whether a fruit orchard can exist now or not, depending on those soils, how raised beds have to be, and we're trying to work out creative ways to get as much done with the funding we have so we can get this garden up and functioning within time frame, if not before the aquatic center.

Thank you for clarifying.

Uh commissioners, let's open for comment, please.

Um I can't remember who might have, and I think one of uh the commissioners talked about this a couple uh months ago.

I'm looking down at the operation stuff.

I would definitely be interested to see, especially these ones where staff uh effort level is one on maybe where we could reach out for maybe some potential volunteer opportunities from students, organizations, um, to kind of just one help with oper opex costs, right?

If you can get some volunteers to do some drain cleaning after a storm, um, you know, I definitely would be interested in in if we can make a kind of formal outreach on on that to kind of just help with some operation um operation you know expenses uh for for parks.

Um otherwise I think this is uh a great thorough list.

Um, you know, I think which is similar comments to last year.

Um, I think it covers a lot of things that you know to to Commissioner Alexander's point, we've been talking about for actually quite a few years now.

Um and you know, I'm happy to um, you know, I've been I I was involved, I've heard a lot from the uh community garden members being a swimmer uh with the aquatic facility, and they were very gracious to say as long as you give us a garden, you can put a pool there.

Um, and so uh I would definitely um be up for recommending to bump that up to uh a high.

Thank you.

Well, in this course of discussion, whether it's medium or high, I don't know really whether it makes a difference.

You know, it might make a difference to you, but I don't know that it's gonna get done any faster.

Because we have to get those pathways in first.

So once those are done, I truly believe that the next step is going to be working with you to get that garden started.

So even if we move it to high, it's not gonna get done any faster.

And I and I sense your frustration.

I've been at all those meetings, I was at all the pool meetings, all the community meetings, and it takes a long time to get things done.

I we I have a lot of frustration.

I've been on this for eight years, and there's things on here that still aren't on this list that should be on here after eight years, but that's just the way it is.

But I think you know that we're committed to building that garden as soon as we can.

We've given the 400,000 dollars out of another fund, taking it away from something else to be sure that you have it.

So I hope that you know that we are committed to that.

I trust Director Long that he's committed to it too.

And as soon as those pathways get done, I think we can start some progress.

So to me, I don't know whether it makes a difference.

If we change it from medium to high, it's still gonna get done in the same amount of time.

Thank you, Commissioner Robins.

I I want to echo uh Commissioner Alexander's words.

Uh, the two of us, I call us the OG, the old guard, because we're we've both been on it almost eight years, and there are things on this list that we were hoping would get done uh within the last eight years, and they're still on this list.

Um I still have to laugh at the sports complex because uh it's never gonna get built in my lifetime or or even probably in the next 25 years.

Uh and and I say this every month, and I'm gonna say it again to everybody who's listening to this.

Uh, we need more money, and we as a L meeting people need to pay more in taxes.

That's just the truth.

Our school system is underfunded and underpaid, our parks and rec, we what they do with them the money that they have is phenomenal, and and the fact that they are able to even just keep a lot of the buildings that both uh Commissioner Alexander and I have been you know wondering about why aren't these buildings being able to be taken care of, and that's just basic needs that we have that somehow or another every year, year in, year out, the parks and rec do a great job taking care of that, but we have to pay more taxes.

That's just all there is to it, and and I wish our commissioners uh or our city council members had the guts to say it, but they're all so scared to be reelected that they're not gonna say it.

Uh same thing with our Alameda Unified School District board members.

They're too scared to say it, but we need to pay more taxes across the board because we we have two point uh 3.3 million in things that need to get done here, and and we're not gonna be able to get them all done.

And and uh most of that is just basic improvements and or projects that were needed anyway.

So we as a community need to put our money where our mouth is.

Uh, and people like you, God bless you for coming here and speaking out, because if we don't have you speaking out, it won't rise up to the general community, but we need more money, and and and the only way that's gonna happen is if our city council members pass some kind of resolution and/or say, hey Alameda is worth us sticking our necks out and asking the people to pay more in taxes.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you, Commissioner Bernie.

I've been on this commission for about what three years now, I think so.

But I am aligned with what Commissioner Robbins is saying.

Because the reality that it comes down to from what I've been hearing tonight, it comes down to the amount of staff that we have.

We don't have enough people.

And in essence, you get what you pay for.

It's really just the reality of the world that we're in.

And if you if you pay low amount of money, you get a low product.

And I do commend the commission.

The I mean, not the commission, ARP ARPD for basically trying to do what they can with the limited funding that they have.

And but I'm also on I'm also understanding of what I've been hearing tomorrow tonight as it relates to the community garden.

And from what I'm hearing, I'm getting the impression that it, I understand, I understand that it matters whether it's it's a high or medium, but based on what director Long is saying that it's not going to change how these things are being done.

But I do trust in what he's saying, and that it will get done to the best of the ability that they can.

But I do think it goes back to Commissioner Robins' point in that we need more people, we need more money, and that would make things go in a more expedited manner because we will have the funding and the resources to make that happen, and therefore based on but I do have one question though, just to clarify.

Which, if in case that happened, it goes up in cost.

There's the reason why these are a little low because they don't take a lot of effort.

So, for example, um, you know, in field mix top off annually, that happens in a regular scheduled work maintenance, so it's not additional things that are outside their normal scope.

So that's why in the operations budget, that's why a lot of those things, whether they're considered just regular ops, are a little bit lower.

Okay, and as it relates to the community garden, because I have my in a long time ago.

I worked for the federal government, so I know how a lot of these things go.

Is there anything tangible or a sign that would help the community realize okay, this is at least more further in progress than where we are now that they could perhaps look for throughout the year to let at least to let them know that we're making some progress on it on it being worked on.

We're hoping to have a meeting here in March to kind of go over from our last one in November with the groups to kind of see where we are, what we're looking at from ideas, and sort of get some uh additional buy-in at that point so we can start moving with sort of lining up the plans.

Often we break some of these projects into smaller projects so that we can get a better deal, and so we may be doing some of that in this part of this process.

I've reached out to even uh Jonathan DeLong over at the Reap Center about utilizing some of their workforce to help us build this.

Um he does a workforce development program.

We're looking at different ideas to do that, but you know we'll they'll be expecting a meeting in March that'll have some decent substance in it.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you all.

Hearing uh Commissioner Robbins and Commissioner Alexander, I can feel uh the Legion of the converted uh growing.

Thank you both for your comments.

Um, I I live uh in a in a world of high high priority projects and not enough hours in the day, so I certainly sympathize with uh with your position and really commend the entire department in the discipline that enforces on the prioritization process um and the thoughtfulness uh with which you've uh you've put this uh this list together for the upcoming year um specific um to the to the community garden I think what what I'm hearing is uh is a shared interest between the community the department and the commission in in seeing this happen we've all we've all sat in the same meetings and and heard the same uh the same interest and commitment and so um I think we'll all uh with that interest um keep track of the project as it uh as it moves forward and it's heartening to see it remaining on the list and not to have um the the primary budget constraint the funding for the project itself be uh um uh be a roadblock to to moving forward um with all that being said um what what I feel comfortable doing is recommending that we approve the project list uh as it's currently constituted um is anyone else comfortable making a motion to that effect that's one more question please um I and I don't know if you know the structure long but I know there's been discussions about potentially having an infrastructure bond uh I would assume this election cycle do we do you know where that currently stands with city council um I did I could not give you a full update as to where we are I know they've been talking about it but I at this point I can't give you an update on it yeah I don't know if um this obviously is looking way too far ahead um and there's too many ifs but um if that does come to fruition it would be great um to maybe get an update on if that were to pass potentially what things on here would move up if that were to come to fruition so just because that is related to this uh would love to see that if that bond uh did get approved to go on to the ballot thank you just real quick I I want to further um what uh the commissioner just said it would be great and if it does get passed for us to if not next year obviously we do this every year um but then revisit and see about where then we can move things from medium to high and and what from the interest that we see from the community and please come back again as often as possible to keep it in the forefront not only of us but anybody that's listening uh so that these priorities can be um taken care of thank you any further comments okay in that uh in that case uh I'll reiterate the uh the interest in recommending the project list as currently uh uh proposed uh is there a motion to that effect I'll make that motion and a second please I'll second and may we have a roll call vote yes uh commissioner alexander yes uh vice chair schwartz yes uh commissioner bernie yes commissioner robbins yes and Chair Radig's yes thanking the motions approved uh the next item on the agenda is our next meeting on March 12th 2026 uh do we have any agenda items that anyone would like to put uh onto that session I think we already discussed about the issue with the community garden what that's going to be in March correct what was that the the concern about the community garden at least any type of progress would that be in the mod I can include that under my director's update as to where we are okay uh director long do you have anything to add to the next agenda?

Uh we may be bringing some of those policies back to you that we brought earlier for uh final review and maybe adoption to see if we captured all your comments.

Thank you and Commissioner Robbins and could we just get another update on the linear parkway or linear pathway and what's gonna be happening there.

Sure thing okay great thank you anything else all righty.

In that case uh the next and final item on the agenda is our adjournment uh can I have a motion to adjourn, please?

I will motion to adjourn.

Thank you.

Second?

Second.

And finally, roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Alexander.

Yes.

Vice Chair Schwartz.

Yes uh commissioner Bernie?

Yes.

And Commissioner Robinson?

Yes.

And Commissioner Radiz.

Yes.

The meeting is now adjourned.

Uh we'll see everybody in March.

Including Donna.