I've never recognized them.

I thought we didn't know that.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to uh Facebook.

That's what I've heard about.

Okay.

But anyway, we do have a little four people.

But if you look at the phase, it's a little bit more than joke.

Uh yes, we can do that.

I've written everybody to do that.

Come on, everybody.

And it doesn't look like anybody who's joining from team.

I'm showing eleven o'clock, so I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order.

Um first item of businesses roll call.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the public services or uh councilman Bryant?

Here councilman Johnson Dr.

Anthony Coleman.

I believe he is absent.

Councilman Chris Gibson.

Here councilwoman Ann Williams.

I do not see her in attendance.

Ann said she would be here, so she might be running just a little bit later part.

Uh Councilman Brian Emerson.

Yeah.

And Councilwoman Janice Porter.

Here and if you don't mind just for transparency and clarification, if I could get the commission to introduce yourselves.

Jackson.

Do you want parts and recording as well?

Uh yes, ma'am.

Okay, I'm Marilyn helping.

Tina Hook.

John McPhine.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, hey, Tom Fielder with the API.

David Daniel, partners and react advisory board.

Okay.

Thank you all for being here.

Just a couple of quick housekeeping items real quick.

When you speak for recording purposes, if you will restate your name when you make a comment.

I want to keep this pretty organized, but I also want to be able to take good notes in this environment is probably not the most conducive for April to do so, and I apologize for that.

Um I think the the purpose of this meeting is you know fairly simple.

I I think that we just need to align shared priorities between this this group of individuals to make sure that um we have the infrastructure and the programming in place to propel our park system forward as well as the uh you know the um integrity of the city moving forward.

Uh I don't want to get into any past conversations about what has transpired.

I just want to uh focus on how we're gonna react moving forward, and um this is the brain trust that's going to propel us into that in into the future.

So thank you all for coming.

Um I will let Coach D give any introductory remarks from your group that you would like to give, and then we'll we'll start.

Well, I'm David D.

I'm chairman of the Harpson Recvisory Board, and basically that's been our position is to advise we generally meet quarterly.

Um the meeting is for the most part uh been directed by the agendas provided to us from the parks and rector.

Um and Mr.

Jim Stearns, of course, was in charge in the last meeting and and did a great job.

Uh generally we're there to listen to what plans are.

Oftentimes we offer suggestions, um, whether it be as little as hey, we need some coaching training and uh uh basketball area or we need some uh parent training in okay, don't shoot me, but it uh soccer parents, you know, uh and things like that.

Uh we oftentimes, if we're asked to serve on uh 10-year park plan, I think uh John McPyke has served on that.

Uh Jay Clavinger is now with uh helping with the new uh rotary park redoing that.

He was one of the original planners to help plan that operation.

So basically, we're we're a cheerleading operation.

Uh I don't think that we really have a lot of teeth.

Uh I don't think that we've had uh a lot of authority to really do anything.

Um I think is most of us in the room, me certainly included there's some things that like city stars.

I thought it was city, and I think we all kind of got a little egg on our face on that, and uh I will say this.

Uh I I know that I've been involved in the planning of the of the ridge athletic complex as far as the school itself.

Other than that, pretty much nothing else.

Uh we are entering a time when uh we need to be swinging for each other and not against each other for sure.

Uh that that complex itself cannot fail.

It it has to uh it has to move forward.

Um I think that you have to take the people uh with the AMP board.

Everybody needs to be playing on the same team.

I mean absolutely on the same team.

Uh we might not always agree with each other, but when we come out swinging, we're swinging for each other and not against each other.

And we got a little against swinging right now, it seems to me.

Um, and and listen, we can talk about things that have happened in the past.

Uh hopefully that is of no fault of anybody in here, with the exception of maybe we just let things go on without question as much as we should have, as deep as we should have.

Um so I I don't know.

I invite any one of the advisory board to speak up and uh did I lay it out there?

Did I get is there any questions from anybody?

Well, with that being said, you mentioned Mr.

Stern's presentation at at your y'all's last meeting, yes.

And there was one thing that he said in regards to you know making making our park system affordable and accessible to all children in Jonesboro.

And I think that is one of the most important aspects of this conversation today, but we've also got to find a parallel path for sports to sports tourism in Jonesboro to your point on the right, baseball, softball.

We're leaving a lot of dollars on the table potentially from sports tourism that we've got to find a path for.

So I'm I'm speaking just because maybe I'm the oldest athletic guy in here, okay.

And uh so right now we kind of have a mixture, it looks to me like in our parts and rec department, okay.

We have some that's that's uh uh been run by city stars, which now we understand is really a vendor, okay.

Baseball is kind of run by a vendor, uh soccer was run by rec, okay, city stars, but we also have club soccer, uh, which is our local most local brand, I guess is Revolution, and I know less probably about soccer than I do some of the others, but uh so in sports tourism, okay, the the group that's been hired uh and and I've only I've met with them one time sports facilities to help run the ridge, the third party vendor, uh they're they're interested in making money for themselves, and then by doing that, they're gonna make money for the city, Tom Craig.

Okay, um so if you're gonna they're gonna have connections, they're gonna have connections to big big time possibilities for athletics, okay, to bring in teams, uh AAU, J O, and it could be it could be car shows, dog shows, any number of things that could happen.

Now there has to be a marriage, there has to be a marriage between the city and this group.

Okay, I'm just gonna use uh the icebreaker volleyball tournament uh that we just recently had, correct, Jim?

Yes, approximately 100 teams a little less, maybe used page 16s, 86 teams, used all of these facilities around town, and uh if if the icebreaker goes to the ridge next year, okay, we move that off of the school campus, which which helps on facility usage for the school districts, reduces a little liability to the school districts if it could happen.

Um if that if that goes to the ridge, with the rigs, this this sports group out there, they're gonna want to make money.

So there's gonna have to be some you're you're gonna have to set some parameters of what it's gonna cost the icebreakers to be out there.

So that's why you have to be married up.

You you just you just have to.

Um I know this to like I I'm I went to Memphis uh a couple weeks ago.

I well, Martin Luther King day.

We were off uh and met with the uh the Germantown Legends Soccer League, which is uh a big club, and uh we we he was he was great, and uh I think he's even maybe presented here before uh he's assistant at University of Memphis Soccer Coach, and he's got a good idea.

Well, for the A and P to make money, there has to be heads and beds and people eating restaurants, okay.

Well, for that to happen, you have to have teams from afar.

You you need to get the St.

Louis's, the Nashville's the pulses, the whatever to come in to Jonesboro, and in order to do that, Jonesboro needs in soccer, um they need to have a club where people from St.

Louis know when they come in here they're gonna get great competition.

They're not gonna spend the money if they can't get the competition.

Whereas you have this past weekend we had uh basketball in town.

Right.

Yes.

Okay, and was that a city deal?

Um some city teams, but it was another organization to put on the tournament.

Okay, so we had a vendor outside outside vendor, and it it's it's local teams.

That vendor is I'm assuming because I don't know, uh making the money for that tournament, and then he pays the city a fee.

That's correct.

Okay, okay.

Uh does the city get anything else out of that?

Concession sales.

Concession sales, is that it?

Yes, that's right.

Okay, he paid for everything else.

That's our officials.

His his tournament gave speakers, everything.

Okay.

All right, well good.

What anyway, if you get the local, if you get the local teams, the rec team, they're gonna be here, but they're not spending the night.

So, in order to in order to baseball may have the something going right now, uh, but we compete with uh what's the Snowden?

Is it Snowden down there in Mississippi?

Yeah, something.

But the reason they get them is they have the connection, their their outside vendor has a con a connection to what is there, three.

There's perfect game, uh three different baseball pitch, uh perfect pitch, perfect game, and isn't there one more?

I wish Randy was here.

Uh but he can pull those teams, and he pulls the best teams and the the travel teams that the ones that's gonna spend the night, they want the best competition where they can be seen.

So uh you know, you we need to take care of our youth first, and I've said this all along since the very first that we started the ridge.

There's three ways to look at the ridge.

It's a money-making facility.

Now, if that happens, people in this area are gonna balk a little bit because they're used to getting facilities for free.

Okay.

That's that's one thing.

The second thing is the ridge can operate pretty much at a level pace, uh, where you you just make it enough to maintain and operate your maintenance operation costs are are good.

Now, this is David Daniel, okay, speaking here.

So the third thing is that we hope this sports facility makes enough money that we can reduce the cost to our kids and our citizens that pay the tax money that maybe we have to subsidize.

Okay, there's a possibility that we the facility could actually lose money.

Okay, and there's three ways of looking at it now.

High in the sky, this sports sports facilities group comes in here and it goes crazy, and the projections are good, and uh and it's it's great for everybody, and that's that's what we really need.

That's what we need to have.

Uh now I think with what's happened uh as far as uh accountability and stuff.

There's been a move in the right direction by Jim what he what he gave us and got started as standard operating procedure as far as the finance uh in the recreational side it's moving forward, and uh I don't I don't know have any other questions that I can help you with guys that I've that are responsible for the football and the was there, yeah.

Aaron's here, the basketball, Steven, soccer.

Pretty much summed it.

I mean, yeah, I think he did a pretty good job.

Okay.

I'm gonna ask for two more statements and then I'm gonna turn it over to the group for commentary and questions and brainstorming.

Um Mr.

Stearns, you asked for a moment on the floor to kind of go over what you talked with your staff about.

I'll let you go first and then I want um Tom to talk about the AP stance as well as the public facilities board stance jointly.

Thank you.

Jim Stearns, Director of Parks and Rec.

I've got a lot of information.

I don't I don't think we need to do all of it.

Our first meeting with Parks Advisory Board was kind of a kind of a filling in some details and looking at what we're playing on in the future.

And we discussed a lot of different things at night that afternoon.

And going forward, what I left with that meeting was that we really need to be more prepared in our parks to direct our energies towards reaching these goals so they can support us in the advocate for working towards the master park plan.

And so that you know, there's a lot of stuff that we could talk about as far as parks.

Um but really what we've talked about as a staff is created a unified vision for what we're looking for for parks.

And we come up with a lot of different ideas.

And really it goes down to us as I'm gonna say we want sports to be accessible for any kid that wants to play.

That's number that's property number one.

I mean, that's really gonna be our focus is to make every effort that we can to create programs that kids want to play in and grow those programs, make it as for as possible.

In addition to that, and I'm gonna be real quick just to give you guys a summary.

We're we're fully in the mode to support all the sports juris when we can.

We assisted with 189 events last year outside of what we do at Parks and Rec and Use Sports.

Um at community centers, we have 50 different events, we had the icebreaker, we had the week air tournament, we have four high school tennis tournaments, we had eight basketball tournaments, we had three one three-day pickleball tournaments, we had the NDA tennis organization that puts on a handful of tournaments, and then we help with the Juneteenth Parade Community Fair and Fireworks, and that was just at the community centers.

Southside Softball Complex had 70 events last year.

70 events.

Um hosted the Freedom Fest 4th of July.

We had 16 softball tournaments averaging 34 teams each.

We had seven cricket matches.

Um our local cricket organization is the regional champ.

Um, and they brought people in from all over the mid-south to play cricket at South Sider.

We had five Miracle League events, we have two car shows, we had 38 senior citizen league morning games.

Um, just got some clarification on it this morning.

This senior citizen morning league draws teams from Ash Flat, Blyville, Osceola, all over the Mid South to come and play the senior league.

There's some some retired Arkansas State University professors who kind of organized that, and they're they're coming every every week to play in Jones World.

Joe Matt Campbell had 41 events last year.

We had nine baseball tournaments, we had a kickball tournament, we had three 3v3 um soccer tournaments, we had the fourth of July Fest.

Um we had we had soccer camp, Christmas Park, City Star Spring and Fall Soccer, a Derek Car Show Motorcycle Rodeo, First Touch Tournament, Football Skills and Drills, Hispanic Spring Summer, Fall League, Adult, J A SA, Adult Spring Fall Um Soccer, and Soccer Tournament.

We have junior high soccer with 34 teams.

We had National Guard training, bringing people in for National Guard training, we had NFL flag football, we had soccer tryouts, revolution tryouts, we had rugby, um, state league spring soccer, state league fall soccer.

And I can go on, and uh we had William Buck Baptist hosted a tournament here uh with four teams.

We had 22 different events at Craig Forest Park.

We had a two-day Renaissance fair that brought people in.

I think as far as Idaho with some of the vendors, um, and we had people from all over the mid-south that came and stayed.

Uh, we had the Nike at two-day mountain biker race out there.

Um, some we had a uh a promoter that started Sunset Session concert series at the Band Shell every weekend that brings people from from the mid-south.

Uh we had two disc golf tournaments.

I think we have a national disc golf tournament coming back to Jonesville this year.

Um, the Gearhead Endurance Challenge Run that'll bring people from all over the mid-south, sift six different 5K races, um, car show and concert for tornado victims, um, A State brass in the forest and bike ride against trafficking, study sports at 25 different events, um, 13 ATA um trap tournaments with competitors from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, as well as Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Alabama.

I mean, it's a lot in addition to us really our focus is use sports.

So we're partners with the city.

We love Jones Goro, and we want to make Jonesville grow with and any time we get an opportunity to showcase um our parks and our parks team, we want to do it.

We have great facilities.

We have as nice a facilities as you'll see anywhere.

Now, would we like them to be a little better and upgrade and make some improvements?

Certainly, and and as the need arises, we certainly want to do that.

And so, with all those sports events that we put on, we also often forget as well that our parks team helps maintain all of downtown.

We had 16 events outside of parks that we help with downtown.

And I'm sure I've missed some, but the Marty Golf Parade, Spring Flame, Oasis Art Festival, Downtown City Mile, Meet Meal Main, the Skirmish Gravel Ride, Paint the Town Red, North Side Reunion, Barbecue Fest, NDA Pride Fest, Out of the Darkness Walk, Fall Fest, Trunk or Tree, Christmas Paragraph, Joyce Fest, 211.

Those are all the things additions of Parks and Rec that we work with.

And so we're in when it talks about sports tourism and Jonesboro Tourism.

Man, anything we can do to help.

We're on the same page.

However, our focus is still mainly going to be youth sports.

Youth and adult sporting opportunities where we are.

The Master Park Plan includes a lot of things that we need to work to really make Jones Bros Parks Rec system better.

And we're only scratching the edge.

We need more parks.

We need more opportunities.

We need everybody accessible.

We need to continue to be diligent in continued connectivity to get people where they can bike to the parks, where they can walk to the parks, where they have access regardless of their situations.

We need to look at things that we can do in parks just to be more consistent how we do our business apart.

There's a lot that we do, and I'll just tell you where we are now with this.

It's expensive for us to help with all these events.

It takes a lot out of my budget.

An average two-day softball tournament cost me 2200.

Average two-day basketball baseball tournament costs me about 2200.

The mountain bike race cost us $6,000 to put that on.

And we didn't put that on.

We just provided a facility and we upgraded our facility to meet their needs.

But it's expensive for us to help with all that that takes away from some of the other stuff that we would like to be doing in park.

We just got to be realized that we're aware of that and we're tracking those things better, just so that we can be better stewards of parks and do better by the citizens of Jones World.

And so my staff has worked really hard on what is the lead with this too.

So we will have our schedule in place by March 1st.

That's our goal this year.

Something we've not done before, but we'll have our 26 athletic schedule in place by March 1st.

At that point, the facility calendar will be open for any additional events that someone wants to bring with the city of Jonesboro.

We're not going to sacrifice you sports for other events.

But we want to work in conjunction.

And so that once that's in place, any other organization, because we have many vendors, other organizations that put on events in our city, and we want to be great partners.

And we are.

Same question I asked before.

These schedules be on the Gunn's Fairwell page, right?

Yes, okay.

But are they going to be also vended out to KIP, KJPN, and all of the radio stations and TV stations?

Yes.

The reason why I asked that because everybody doesn't look at that web page.

Everybody doesn't want to look at the Jones Brad Sun.

So could that be other flyers or these type things to put out in the community specific and low-income areas where people can be able to uh attend some of these events?

Yes, sir, certainly.

So this year our our staff got divided up and went to all the open houses of their schools with with flyers of all the upcoming events.

So we're trying to reach that community.

We're trying to reach all of our communities we're parking with to get that.

We're we're currently, we do not have a marketing social media person.

Um that's a position that we'll be filling in the next month or so.

Um that's that's that's we I feel like personally up and went to all the open houses of the area to with flyers of all the upcoming events.

We're trying to reach that community, we're trying to reach all of our community partner with you at that.

We're we're currently, we do not have a marketing social media person.

Um that's a position that we'll be filling in the next month or so.

Um that's that's that's we I feel like personally, and my staff is will probably agree that's gonna be one of the most important positions that we can bring into parks.

I think I think that position makes or breaks us.

We've got to start exploring different avenues to meet all the kids that want to play and all the adults who want to participate in our activities.

So we've got to do a better job than just using the Jonesboro AR.gov website as well as the parts.

That person that you look at that person will be a bilingual person because of uh the Hispanic integrated.

That's a great question, and I certainly um we can look at that as we start interviewing it.

We I hope to find the absolutely best qualified person for that position.

Um, but if that needs to be a uh job description or if that needs to be a recommendation service.

Tom, you want to go ahead and give your statement, and we'll open the floor.

Yes, sir.

I'm Tom Fielder.

I'm part of the ASC commission, and uh Jerry Morgan, our chairman was not able to be here today, so he asked me to sit in first just a couple of things for me, not from the commission itself.

I a lot of unfortunate things have occurred here recently, but I can't help but wonder if it's not given us an opportunity to do a reset and done correctly, you know, with uh this committee.

Um I think you guys could really help the AMP spend their money wisely.

I don't know if you guys are aware.

I I wasn't familiar with y'all, you may not be aware how much money we have just for the parks.

It's it's committed straight for the parks.

There's one percent of every head that's in a bed that goes, it's it's gotta go to our parks department.

It's a lot of money, and we we've always relied on really one person, I guess, to make those recommendations, and I can see where hey, this committee and working with us and even the facilities board.

Maybe we can spend that money a little more productively.

Uh so that's that's just my comment.

Uh I have a uh email uh that was sent to us by uh Matt Modelski.

Um he's uh he's the chairman of the public facilities board, and then Jerry Morgan, he uh he he said in here that uh he uh he agrees fully with Matt's email comments.

So I'm just gonna read it so that you guys are kind of aware of some of the thinking uh as we go forward and maybe make some maybe there's some changes that that are made.

Uh and keep in mind I I think Jim's department uh does a great job.

They do a lot.

Um I don't know how many staff you have, but I'm sure you don't have enough.

Uh so I uh I and that's why we're here.

I mean AMP is here to help, and that's the bottom line, but I I don't think you as a just one guy can keep up with everything that's that's happening.

Uh and that's that's what this whole committee uh can do for us uh keep commission.

So I'm just gonna read Matt's email and then uh I'll hand it back to Chris.

He says, I appreciate what you're doing with an initial working session to discuss the restructuring of the parks and rec board.

This newly constructed board should be able to create a positive pathway for youth sports and sports tourism.

As I mentioned to you, I may not be able to attend Tuesday's meeting accordingly.

I wanted to provide you with my initial thoughts of the board's structure and purpose.

The structure, I understand the board would answer to the public works committee of the council.

I would ask that that board have two to three members or designees from the AMP Commission and two to three members were designees from the public facilities board.

I understand the remainder of the board would be composed of city council members or their designees.

I believe this structure will provide the board the opportunity to have broad community outreach while leveraging the three entities that have been most involved in the ridge athletic facility project.

The purpose.

I would hope the city council empowers the city parks and records to ensure youth sports programs, provide high quality recreational opportunities for all children.

But it's our it is inclusive regardless of income.

Maintain uniform safety training and conduct standards, allow sports-specific operating models, support elite pathways and sports tourism without displacing recreation, and operate with transparency, accountability, and public trust.

And lastly, work with the parks department to ensure programming and facility availability.

I would trust the board would create standards for each activity, not necessarily dictate how the programs are delivered.

As we know each sport may organize differently, but every program using public facilities should have standards to adhere to some initial standards might include the following.

Any program, not tournament or event using city facilities, must have access and inclusion, provide a recreational pathway or partner with one, offer sliding scale fees or accept scholarships, publish enrollment criteria, prohibit exclusion based on income, the safety and quality, should be annual background checks for all adults, minimum coach training requirements, written child protection policy, emergency and injury protocols.

There should be transparency and accountability, published fees and refund policies, periodic scheduled reports and recommendations to city council.

Ensure that selected program providers are meeting required standards, and that there's a formal grievance and appeal process from the sports tourism side, create standards used to identify capable vendors who will provide tournaments and events, establish defined tournament and showcase windows by sport and seasonal that generate hotel stage spending, coordinate programming to create a symbiotic relationship between events and recreational programs, help create tracking data for event impact to continually grow and improve events to maximize opportunity, and consider the efficacy of facility stewardship funds versus economic impact created by events.

Thank you again for your time and dedication to these issues.

Look forward to working with you all.

Matt model that's speaking.

So with that, I'll I'll just turn it back over to Chris.

Those those were some of our thoughts.

Thanks, Tom.

I'm going to go ahead and open the forum for the commissions first, and then I'll get to public questions afterwards.

So give us just a few minutes to be able to do that.

Okay.

I apologize.

I'm not walking out on you.

I am walking out of the I I wouldn't make one time though.

Thank you for your comment.

Okay.

I'll go ahead and open someone.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, I'm Maryland Clayton.

Uh I just would like to say a little background on city stars, and probably other than Charles and maybe Tina.

In 1999, the four school districts in our area, uh, and Jones Burrow, where I worked at that time that took the lead, we wrote the grant for city stars.

And the grant was written with the four school districts in the city limits, and it was we read a partnership at that time with Jason Wilkie, and the idea was kind of going back to one thing that Tom just said.

It was a sliding scale scholarship program to make sure there were no children that could not participate in any kind of sport that could be offered.

At that time, there were no city stars, and it started with basketball.

And so our money paid for jerseys, it was a sliding scale that the parks did not have to go look for who met the sliding scale because of the partnership with the schools with parent permission permission, they could then say yes, that person would qualify for a scholarship, or that person could play for a minimal amount.

So then I'm just saying the original idea behind city starters was just making sure that we're allowing every type of uh uh young man, young lady, whatever, to participate in sports that wants to, and that we're not limiting them based on availability of things.

So I just wanted, you know, that was long time ago, things have changed, but I think it's important we look at where we started.

I just wanted to mention that.

Thank you.

Which one?

Uh Charles Colvin on this commission.

I I guess the question after uh listened to uh Jeremy Mark's comments, I want to make sure that I'm hearing correctly what you appoled a few minutes ago.

Uh you proposed that uh some uh people from AMP be on this commission.

Also somebody from the utilities buildings commission.

Public facilities, yes, sir.

Okay, public facilities, okay.

And now the book was which one city council.

I mean city council.

So that's what you proposing, right?

That's and that was uh Matt Monoleski that from the public facilities board that sent that email uh to Jerry, I believe, and Chris.

And Dr.

Coleman, if you'll recall, um it's been a few weeks ago at council.

This also came up and suggested that me as chair of public services be on this commission, right?

Um, as well as an AMP representative or two and a public facilities board representative or two.

Carol has a review committee.

Um she has reviewed that ordinance or was it an ordinance or resolution that was passed?

Um I believe it was an ordinance that created that commission originally back in the day, um, and set the number of people that are on it.

So we may need to amend that if we're adding positions to the board or commissioners, it's a parts commission.

Um, or if it's going to be created as something new, we would need to do another some more legislation to create that committee and how it would work and who would be on it.

I did express, as you know, Chris, in an email, some concern about um the commingling of the AMP commission and the parks facilities board with the way financing has been done for the new bridge.

Um there was a lot of care taken to make sure we were separate entities to make that financing work the way it needed to work.

And I strongly recommend it, and I think that's probably why Matt at the end said with the approval of legal counsel at the bottom.

I strongly recommended that those two entities who both have private legal counsel that are that are experts in bonds and financing.

I think it's still Michelle Algod and uh Ralph Waddell.

And I recommended strongly that they reach out to them.

They may not have had time to get that opinion back from them to make sure that it's not going to pose a problem for them to sit as voting members, you know, for someone from those commissions to sit as voting members at this one.

Um still sit on a community.

They could sit ex officio and maybe not have a button.

That's what their legal counsel needs to tell us.

And if their legal counsel gives it the thumbs up, I think everybody thinks it's a good idea.

I don't know.

I'll let y'all speak for yourselves.

But I just wanted legal counsel to say it's okay.

The ordinance set has to be changed.

If you're adding members, if you're changing the makeup, I do think it would be cleaner to go back and also your numbers may change.

And it limited it to seven.

I believe is what I read on it was a middle.

So seven to twelve.

Is that what it's said?

I didn't bring it with me, but I'm not sure.

Yes, we've got a right here.

All right.

I knew that they amended it.

It started at like five, and then it got amended later to more.

So everybody is confusing is calling this a commission.

This is not a commission, right?

It's a committee.

What the ordinance did in 1995 was eliminate the commission and create a planning and advisory committee.

Right.

Uh the reason was it's a commission has to approve payments for certain things.

They were meeting to have to uh buy a lawnmower of white.

Honestly, that's what happened.

And then when Mayor Bronell brought this idea uh uh from a commission to a committee, the seven people that were on that commission at that time were grandfathered in, I guess you could say, as a part of the committee, and then five new members were uh uh added to that.

So what I'm saying is if you want to go over the number that is there now, we would need to make some amendments to that.

And if you want to designate certain positions, like one has to come from AMP, one has to come from facilities board, one has to come from you know soccer, you know, basketball, however, you want to designate it, we would need to amend that that legislation just to make it clean and to make sure we know who's appointed and for what's why I asked that quite Chris because basically um one of our habits that we need to make sure when we change or doing something so the public can really understand what we're doing is to make sure we make have a clean I said clean audit or clean resolution for artists, that type of thing, and I think that needs to be brought up.

Okay, thank you.

I do know that those two uh entities have reached out to their legal teams.

We're they're just waiting for some feedback now, but I would like this group's thoughts and input on what we think that might look like going forward.

You don't have to give it to me today by any means.

Um, but would we we would we do it as terms expire or how you would like to see that structured moving forward?

I think it would be beneficial if the email Tom just read from was would be shared with this.

I'll circulate that absolutely.

Hey Chris, just to clarify uh Matt mentioned it would report to the public works that it would be public services, that's correct.

Chairman, do you feel like there's a sense of urgency like when we need to have this completed?

Uh I don't think we need to drag our feet by any means, but uh we've got one swing to make this thing right, and I I think we need to take our time and be very methodical on how we how we go about it, but I would like it to be very timely as well.

Because we meet again, public services meets again in February.

That's well as his February.

We meet again this month.

That's correct.

Yeah, I can understand that.

I'll go ahead and say this that in my opinion, government tends to either take too long to make a change, or it's a knee-jerk reaction, and I don't think that we want to do either.

Two weeks is not enough time.

It may be an emergency.

Jim's got his going to have his schedule out.

Is there anything that we can do from providing opportunities for vendors to have heads in the bed as we talk about?

I think that that is up to Jim's schedule.

Well, and I I think it will be to an extent up to this group to start vetting some of those vendors to see who is the best fit for Jonesborough as well.

So just unclear, so that proposed committee would replace the parking recognizement board.

Uh I'm not saying replace.

Uh I think that we incorporate that group into this board.

Well, that's what I heard from the letter that that that'd be an incorporation, but even if there's an incorporation back to uh the stunken, there still needs to go back to the council to do with and an artist uh redo the artist uh or dismiss one and do another one uh to get this totally clear.

Well, I think one group that uh was not mentioned that I would like to see up our discussion is schools because I think it's very important that they're uh be at the table since it's which it's their children, and of course our parents' children, but uh that they're with every day that they need some input as well on that group.

So the who that the schools, public schools.

Well, that's how it started.

Yeah, I know that's that's why I think it's still important that it's done.

So, what is the goal?

I mean, what's the end goal of expanding the revisory committee?

Uh, you know, as far as an end goal, as I as I said when we entered when we did introductions, I think the end goal is to align these two groups to where we're looking at not only our local residents, but we're looking parallel path for sports tourism.

And I think we've uh I think we've got to turn over every rock we can to strike and both.

I don't disagree.

I just because I know what the role of parts direct is.

I mean, I I know what I I think I know what our role is, and and and I and I see being a good partner with that, but I mean our I mean I I'll be honest with you, the icebreaker.

I want to I want that to be somebody else's tournament in January.

I'd love the icebreaker to be the grand opening event of the ridge where I'm not in the tournament business.

Because one, it takes my staff away from their jobs for the weeks prior to putting that excuse me if it couldn't, you know.

But but let me let me let me say this part part of the goal.

I I think it's kind of like the elephant in the room uh at this point.

You know, we went through a legislative order that was clean, okay?

And I did ask this question was city stars and also involved in the the legislative order.

Well, I don't I don't think it was.

But I think if we're gonna if we're gonna have sports clean, uh toll direction, then when we did it with finance, because that's really part of the problem.

Well, if we didn't finance, then that needs to be a toll art that clean cleans the whole house.

Or if the city starts or another group involved in the city, it needs to be an involvement, not a separate entity that makes it because right now I uh I think the elephant in the room is is where the finance is going and how the finance is going to be taken care of.

But maybe a lot of people don't want to speak to that, but I don't have no problem speaking to it.

You know, we either either get it done right or don't do it.

And so when legislators come in, when the articles come in, they're looking at our books and the finances shouldn't be any question because right now that's the elephant in the room there questioning about the finance, how the finance was taken care of.

Just that simple.

I don't like up and down crap.

I you know, just call it what it is, let's move on.

And Jim balance sheet every day, every event that cleans it up.

Yeah, balance sheet every day, every event cleans it up.

Jim, you're back to cleanup.

So I know you're trying to put policies and procedures into place to clean up.

So as Dr.

Coleman said, we don't have a 2.0, if you will.

You know, we went through a deal recently at the city, we had to pass an ordinance to allow a city employee to work on cars.

I guess we have a city ordinance that you know doesn't allow city employees to do business with the city.

But clearly, at least in the city stars example, there were city employees working for a vendor.

So on an ongoing basis, what will our policies be around how city employees, particularly your employees, can or can't work for any vendors, whether that be the third party at the RAC or any other vendors that do business with the city.

That's a good question.

Um, and I don't know the answer to that at this time.

I really don't.

Um I can't speak with the ridge or the rack, but we we don't want to be in the tournament business.

And I I don't need that as bad as it sounds, but I mean, other than outside of maybe our end of the year city stars basketball, end of the year tournament, or city stars volleyball, that is our league.

We don't want to be, we're we don't need to be in the fundraising business that city stars was in previously.

So we're I'm gonna call ours use sports because city stars.

The the icebreaker was a fundraiser for city stars, and I would envision those type of events to be done by the ridge and expand on that 8090, 16s, 816s, where they draw competition from farther away than what we did.

I I don't I don't envision that being our role in Parks Rec.

Certainly we would assist with that at asked, but but our our role is really to be use sports, not fundraising for travel sports.

It's not the role that I envisioned for parks and rec.

And I don't think it's a role we all envision for parks and rec.

The the week care tournament that this weekend, they have pulled themselves away from their regular duties for the last two weeks to get ready for that tournament, and that's outside of really what we need to be directing our energies toward.

Um when the basketball tournament this weekend, that was an outside entity to put it on.

We provide facilities for that and concessions.

That was the extent of our relationship.

Um so I I envision us continue to be a good partner with organizations, um, but not be in the tournament business to so to speak.

Yeah, yeah, I think if you want to bring things to the head so we to meet so we don't be here all day.

You know, you got both of them from uh Jay, uh Chris and also Jerry, and I think the basic thing is to some kind of motion needs to be brought up, or we're gonna look at this for another two weeks or whatever back to the time level, make sure it's the legal uh direction that we're going into so we don't all get in trouble over over not just money but doing a concession direction.

I'm not talking about concession money, but I'm talking about ethics of what we need to be doing to show the public that we're doing the right thing for this community and for the people of this community.

I think that's that's the issue.

You know, we need a motion to either say that we're going to look at this, combine this or look at this and and and and put a date on it so it don't go you know, kicking the can down the road, you know, two or three months.

Is that makes sense, Chris?

It does, yeah.

Mr.

Chairman.

I just wanted to be real clear.

I would not have come in here if I was part of proposing replacement.

Everything that I've read and heard, it's about having that seat at the table.

As the AP commission, uh, we get limited information sometimes about how we're spending this money.

We're talking several hundred thousand dollars.

So that's all that's all we're looking at is hey, how can we get a seat at the table?

We can all work together, and that's the same with I can't speak for PFP, but it sounds like they may have a little money as as things go down the road that we want to be able to put in place.

So no replacement.

I couldn't have shown up here and done that.

You listed as it was with this committee, is how I read it.

So I might have a question for you with what you just said.

Um you said that parks and rects get money based on heads in the bed.

So if we give up tournaments, does that take away money from AP?

No, no.

If we're just focusing locally, it's the hotel.

So when people stay in hotels, there's a four percent tax that goes to the AMP commission.

One percent of that comes to just four parks.

And we have we have done several things.

I mean, the the fields, the the soccer fields, the turf.

Uh I think we're just completing that.

Uh, and go back years and it it was uh even before the one percent was committed.

You have to have a thousand acres.

Is that right?

Thousand acres of of parks before you can enact that one percent that would go towards your parks.

Okay, and so for clarifying.

Yeah, that's and so I'll answer.

But that that's the first thing that really made sense to me.

Not only that is as much of everything, but for them to want to be part of the decision on how we spend parks money, I understand that 100%.

Yeah, that that that that makes expanding the committee and add an AP person on there a no-brainer in my opinion.

Not not to do a new jerk reaction or anything like that, but that makes sense.

But like I said, it just seems like we're so muddy because we are concerned about financing, and I'll assure you that my team accounts for nearly every penny that's spent in parks and rate with events that we control.

Outside vendors, I have no control over how they do their money outside of concessions, and so I can't speak for how they do any of their business, nor do I want to be in their business.

But if it's an event that we put on, I I can assure you we have process in place right now that I'm confident that would pass an audit at this moment in time.

Now, is it perfect?

No.

Is it evolving?

Yes.

Will it continue to change throughout the season as we move from field court sports to field sports?

It will.

But but that's the challenge that we're ready to take because we want to be accountable and transparent for the money because it is the elephant in the room.

And we don't ever want that question to ever arise again in the history of parks and rec.

And so we've addressed that head on and feel confident that we have position in place.

And so with that part, I feel good about that.

But the outside organizations, I I don't want to speak for them.

Yeah, I can't make them do tickets, I can't make them be cashless.

I can't make them, I can't tell them how to run their business.

I can control what me and my staff do every single time somebody walks through the door, whether it's the pools, whether it's concession, whether it's an outside event if we're if we're the ones with that on.

But yeah, but I understand that, and and and I'm looking forward to what you do as a council person.

Yes, sir.

But again, you know, I always go back to statement that there's an element in the room, elephant room.

Either we're gonna add committee members or we're not gonna add committee members.

Well and that's that's not a decision to be made today that's a decision to be made at the next public um services meeting because we're not we're not voting today.

Today is a special voting meeting Chris that's not what I'm asking that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying there's still an elf and room to look what can we look at in a down the road but whatever whatever's going to happen it needs to happen and move on.

Agreed.

And Dr.

Carlos that's not what I'm asking that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying there's still an elf and room to look what can we look at you know down the road but whatever whatever's going to happen it needs to happen and move on.

Agreed.

And Dr.

Callman along those lines I would make a move make a motion that this committee work toward establishing the sports commission outside of outside of the parks advisory outside parks advisory you got a question.

So what happens that what's happened to the city's dark money well who's going to control that years.

I mean should you take it over that who's going to be the head of that who's I guess it's a big program for the lot of money.

Yeah someone's not the you don't have to hire somebody else and run it I guess so something's going to happen.

Currently that's that's going to be fine Brian do you want to speak to that just briefly yeah the city actually brought on boroughs who was at the past legislative audit and work with the city on our legislative audits for the past dozen or so years maybe a little bit more and so he's currently working with finance staff on and Jim with the collections procedures and and checks and balances and balance sheets and making sure that all cash is is accounted for and that the online sales and ticketing systems are accounted for and our finance directors stay for fees actually here as well that could and it provide a little bit more detail but so right now again all the funding that goes through parks is following a you know a statement process or system or process that doing for cluster of finance on simply from what we've done for software cities run software for a really long time and that is part of our legislative audit process and those have been part of plain legislative audit so I've got full confidence that the system and finance department is put in place to cover those will be you know we'll be able to cover the former city stars processes but kind of like what was happening we the discussion was versus our about city stars actions being taken under the guise of the city this is kind of putting together as you go because it's a it's a really large program that's what I'm there and so as staff needs become available and we may have to come back to council and ask for more money for more staffing position but right now they are they seem to be getting by but we're not the busy part of the summer so you know there's that's why the statement was made that we're going to have to evaluate as we go and if the if the money came in justifies adding additional staff to not make sure that's properly accounted for then I would expect that request to be coming at some point.

Well the question also answered is was city started to vendor so who's going to take that vendor position over that's my question can I city take it over can I speak a little bit about council my understanding from the board um I hate to say the board because I think we found out there was a little bit of a different board than what we understood originally but some of the members of the board that were outside of the city is that they voted to disband or dissolve City Star's 501c3 and allow and turn everything money anything they had back over to the city of Jonesboro.

So my understanding is that entity is going to cease to exist.

But someone's got to take over that position in a different way but that that hand all those committees and that's tournaments and all that that's what Jim is calling youth sports he's the the parks department has taken over the youth sports part of that and as he was saying he's trying to get out of the tournament business and having other people maybe handle the tournaments but to the to the question of having some control over our vendors I'm happy to do some some research on that and see what other cities do in Arkansas that have these types of commissions do they put certain requirements on a 501c3 or a nonprofit that wants to come in and hold a tournament in their town do they require them to provide some kind of information on like in the past I don't know that that's ever been ever been the case if you know we haven't really delved into whether that 501c3 I don't want to say we don't care but we're not running that tournament or we're not running that theoretically we're not running that event we're not running that 5K if they say they're raising money for the Heart Association and if they're a 501c3 and they want to have a 5k at our park we don't look into whether they're really giving money to the Heart association right that's not been something we just let them rent our park to do their 5K so if that's something that you think is a city we should look into then I need to do some research on that and on how legally we would do that and whether we could limit the rent

We're not running that 5K.

If they say they're raising money for the Heart Association and that they're a 501c3 and they want to have a 5k at our park, we don't look into whether they're really giving money to the Heart Association, right?

That's not been something we just let them rent our park to do their 5K.

So if that's something that you think is a city, we should look into, then I need to do some research on that and on how legally we would do that, and whether we could limit the renting of our parks to you know what we consider a legitimate with the Secretary of State 501c3.

You know, I would I can look into that if that's the direction that we want to go, Dr.

Coleman.

If that's what you were trying to do.

I think that's part of it.

Right.

I think it needs to I mean that's what I thought you were saying.

Is can we check the credibility of our vendors that are wanting to come in and use our parks facilities for fundraising events, and that's a bigger job.

Also, but I think it may need to be looked at, and and I think that something might need to be a policy needs to be created for council to look at on that if that's something we want you to do.

And I'm happy to look into that and see what's basically what we can do.

We need to whatever it happens, we need to walk.

I use my statement.

We need to walk out just with a clean issue, so when it comes back for audience or whatever, we don't have to look back.

Right.

I mean, I can remember a time in the past where we had someone saying, Hey, there was a there was a 5k, you know, at one of the parts that said it was raising money for this, but I don't think they ever gave the money to that.

Well, I mean that may be fraudulent, but it wasn't something that we ever had any requirements to look into is whether it's a legitimate 501c3 that's asking to rent, you know, they're just paying to rent it, just like if you wanted to rent it for a birthday party.

Who would actually look into that?

Exactly.

And that's what I'm saying.

That's a big job.

I think that's kind of overstepping our power.

It could be a lot of due diligence.

But I mean, that's essentially what I'm not driving people away.

Correct.

And so if if that's if y'all want me to at least look at if any cities have policies in any way on that, I'm happy to look at it and research it and do that if that's what you're asking.

I just want to put it back.

I think we need to worry about keeping our house clean and uh yeah, all the 501c3s that might come in to want to rent our park and roll.

Yeah, anybody's policy for a vendor that comes in the city of Jonesboro.

I mean, I work for City of Jonesboro.

I have to have insurance, I have to have all this kind of stuff for that.

There's no reason they don't have to have injured too.

And what is one of the things Jim and I had talked about is we want to have a better system of making sure that there's a contract, right?

That there's an agreement that they signed and agree to that this is these are the terms of what you're gonna do, and this is and we've been looking at what we have and what we need in that respect, but again, it's it's a lot, and so it's taken us a minute to kind of plow through some of them are sneaking up on us, and it's like, oh yeah, we might need a contract for that, and some of them we still have time, but we're trying to work through as each event starts to come forward how we want that to look with contracts with outside entities as well.

Carol, how would you compare the similarity to like the instance where we waived and let the guy work on the cars, even though it took a job as how would you compare that to a city employee running any sort of vendor?

Well, I think vendor is different to me than nonprofit.

I know Jim was using the term interchangeably, but the rule with doing business with the city is a state law that says if you're gonna profit from doing business with the city if your construction company or your lawn mowing service or your mechanic service is going to profit from doing business with us, you have to you have to say that I own this company that's asking for this contract, and it has to go in front of council, and council has to approve that and it's public, everybody knows.

Hey, I work for this company that wants to do business with the city, and council says yes or no, you can still do business with the city while working for the city.

And I'm thinking of employees getting a job there, a job with the nonprofit, whatever, and it could be a soccer club, it could be a city stars 2.0, it could be whatever.

I just want to say a lot of the nonprofit jobs are not jobs in that they get paid, and across city employees, you're gonna find that many of them have to be able to do that.

Well, I'm and I'm only thinking of money because of the situation with the city.

Right, yeah, right.

And so maybe we look at that, and that I don't know.

I think the general rule is if you're employed, I'm gonna try to use an example.

If you're employed at animal control as a kennel master, but you want to work part-time for the parks department or whatever nonprofit at their tournament refereeing games because that's what you do on the side.

There's no rule because it's not the same job you do for the city.

Like, I think that it depends.

And my understanding, and Jim may have more insight on this, is that for the most part the people that were being paid, you know, to do whatever at a tournament, that wasn't their day job at the city of Jonesboro.

There could have been a little overlap, but for the most part, that's what you're trying to keep separate.

Is that and that has to do more with HR and overtime and more so than ethics, but yes, I think we could look at a policy on if you are paid by the city of Jobs or an employee and you want to be paid to work somewhere else that that needs to be disclosed in there.

I mean, we could look at that.

I don't know that there's a state law on it specifically, like there is for if you're 100% profits profiting as the owner of the company that's contracting with us or a partner in the company, but we can look at that.

Our policy already requires employees to disclose yes, it just doesn't come to council or their spouse or their spouse, immediate family members, you know.

And we fill that out council, we fill out every year.

Yeah, we all have to do that, yeah.

And department directors have to do that.

I don't know that every every employee doesn't have to do something like that, but they do they are formal.

They don't put out a formal that formal paper paperwork that we do every year.

But that's but the employee is hired for any job outside of their city position, are required to disclose that to those as well.

And legislative audit also requires any documentation if you've had uh an employee or their spouse or whomever, they want that documentation because typically any outside employment has to be approved by your director.

So if you see on this police and fire, if you see police and fire who sometimes have you know security job other jobs that they do outside of law enforcement or being a fireman, those jobs are approved by their supervisors.

So you're saying again to approve one of these guys and the department guys to help with something get paid that the firemen are asking police department guys, you know, they're at the movie theater or whatever.

Those are all approved jobs on their own time, and those are all approved by the chief or his administration.

This way, do we go from here?

Well, I'm gonna hear the rest of the comments from the committee.

I've got one question that we carol had triggered in my head that the city stars board has abandoned.

Uh obviously there were some funds that were that they held.

Uh is the youth program that Jill's been talking about, picking up taking them all running soccer basketball.

Uh is that funded?

And how is it funded?

Is that funded through city funds right now, or have we absorbed any funds that city stars may have had?

We did absorb those funds.

I'm sorry, I believe those funds were turned over to us, the ones that they still have.

Their original charter, and I can't speak to a remainder for it, but when they dissolved, they turn over their funds and operations to the city.

I can get you a copy of that if you if you'd like to have it.

So what we're currently done is we're we're we're working closely with finance on how we absorb that money and and continue to run use for us at the level that's expected.

And so we we haven't finalized that the whole thing yet, and and of course uh my boroughs are consultant is going to give us some advice on how that influence to go in.

We looked at a couple of different options and we just don't have a final answer.

That's it.

But eventually use force would be a city run program funded, budget approved by the council as we go forward.

Most of us thought it was already.

And in my opinion, with the advisory board with some additional members and and a guide that's already mapped out that meets all the criteria for a sports commission.

I don't need why we need to form another ruling body or directing body if we have a plan in place and we have an advisory board that obviously we've identified needs some additional members, makes a great point that they'd like to know how we spend their money and how we decide that.

I think that's great, but I don't I don't my personal opinion is I don't see where we need an additional ruling body committee to direct how we run our business.

That wouldn't be the sports commission, wouldn't it?

The additional members it wouldn't be two separate bodies, it would they would that would become the sports commission that you're required to do.

So this would no longer be the parks direct advisory board or advisory committee, it would now be part of whatever we named it.

I thought Mr.

Bryant.

Yeah, I I had I had a motion for us to do it separate, Chairman.

I didn't get a second, but I didn't know the motion that we can't vote on anything at this meeting anyway.

This is a special called meeting, so that'll be conversation for public services on our next vertical.

Just keeping open dialogue for certain for future meetings, certain anything else.

So the question would be if it was changed to a sports commission with the folks that's been on the planning advisory committee with a few additions.

Would there be a separate committee to advise the original ordinance that said to buy city council or long range planning, so on and so forth for the parks and recreation department?

Would that commission take that charge as well?

Yes.

Yeah, Jim, to your point, I could see value in both.

I'm not married to either.

I mean, I I get what you're saying.

You kind of want to get out of the tournament business because you got enough to do, and I got 100% agree.

I could see the advantage of the Sports Tourism Commission focusing on that, and the Parks and Rec Committee still has an important purpose too.

I mean, how do we how do we build a new parking lot at Crack Ed Forest?

And how do we think that about this and think about that?

And how do we add more parks?

I do think there's so much there, because to your point, there's so much in that master plan for us to accomplish in 10 years.

I could still see there being some advantages to the parks and recommends that how do we make this 10-year plan happen?

And the Sports Tourism Commission is still saying how do we get heads and beds?

I still think there could be some advantage to each having its own focus.

But won't they have a place to that be their focus?

For the ridge specifically, so that really would be.

I mean okay.

Any other any other common committee or the commission?

Okay.

Uh Jack Sample uh Parks and Rec Sports Advisory Committee.

So are you saying that your sports tourism would focus more on your heads and beds and tournaments?

And keep your advisory committee that will solely focus on like I said, our city parks and our rec league sports.

Well, that was my thought process because I I've worn GM out because I go to Crooked Forest a ton, so sometimes I send you a message like, hey, such and such bathroom needs this.

So I mean I'm I mean, not necessarily always down to that granular level, but I still think there's a really important role for the parks committee to wonder and see all of the things that there are and to envision how we accomplish the 10-year plan.

I just think that's a really big task.

I think the sports tourism is a really big task, and I just think there could be some advantage to divide in Concord.

That tournament money that's coming in.

Is that not help funding your government parks?

Sure.

I just think that from a focus perspective, there's still advantages.

I think the two different committees look at two different things.

Is that sports commission be a duplicate of something that's already going to happen on the ridge?

Well, I mean, that the ridge being one of the facilities, right?

I mean, we still have a lot of other facilities.

Yeah, but the region will operate separate.

So we're not gonna have any really input.

We can't follow and say, Oh, we'll do this next month, and then they're gonna say, I you know, we'll this deal.

Well, the bottom hall would be part of the bridge.

You have softball and baseball, and then on the football, uh what they're doing is well, and ultimately, I'm sure sports facilities will want to bid on potentially running all of this if we go down that road at some point, so there'll probably be some synergies down the line if we go down that road and have interest.

So who's going to direct that?

Who would direct which parts are figure out what role we're taking?

Well, I think ultimately somebody else I think that will be public service.

I think it'll be public services ultimately.

And a lot of file wanted to have this meeting today to get input on the directions.

So don't we already have an advertising promotion tourism board?

I mean, why can't Craig Ricker work with Jill on bringing in tournaments?

Why do we have to reinvent a wheel or create something else?

I mean, on availability and stuff like that.

So I mean, or shock, you know, Joe Mack, there's not people playing, you know, on that we're not having rec leagues on this weekend, recruit a tournament.

Um, I mean, do we have to I mean Tom could weigh in on that, but Craig's a staff of one, right?

And I imagine Craig's got a sample.

So Craig is paid by the AMP commission by the city.

Uh we are a separate, we are separate from the city.

Now we rely on a very good working relationship with the city, and I think that's the only way that everything will uh maximize is us to continue to work.

I don't know the answer, Jay, on Craig.

I'm sure there's some working with, I'm sure there's some calling that can happen uh if Craig hears about something, but as far as him uh actually working for the parks, I mean that that would be hard because he is doing other no, I'm not saying working for the parks, I'm saying working on tourism, and he more specifically you know sports tourism, and and I didn't catch what you said, LJ.

Yeah, no, I was just saying he's a staff of one, and I think he's got his hands full, you know.

Uh the region's eventually gonna be built, then what I mean.

I know, I mean, you would know more about what Craig does on a daily basis, but I know, like if the skirmish gravel race or whatever comes to town, he's raising money and getting sponsors and so on and so forth.

So I'm just imagining Craig's got a lot to do.

Yeah, and I can't speak to what everything that Craig does, but uh, and then when you throw the ridge in, we have hired a company that will so Craig won't he'll work with them, he'll have an office there, but he's he's not running that facility either.

Um, but he is working on Jonesboro tourism, and some of that may include tournaments that Jimmy.

There are several models across the tournament.

I know you're there are several models across the state, and I will task public services with taking a look at some of those models moving forward, so we will make the right decision.

Well, I I think one of the goals of this is just a more collaborative approach on you know rec leagues, you know, tournaments, you know, who gets what, who gets the weekend, who doesn't, having a transparent open discussion about it as you know, by whatever you know, committee or advisory board you want to have rather than one person saying nope, y'all can't have it that weekend.

I think it's just about having more collaboration and transparency, communication, all those keywords amongst a group of people instead of just you know one person going, no, I can't have it that weekend.

And then and and no, I 100% agree, and that's part of the reason why I challenge both guys with getting their schedules in place by March 1st, is so that we know what dates are available for whoever whatever customer wants to come and host an event at our facilities.

So that's why it was so important for us to really so that one person couldn't say that that now these are all the dates that are that are free in all these facilities.

You tell us what day you want to have it.

But one point of clarification I want on that, Jim, is obviously when you say the calendar is gonna be set in March for 2026, and then people can come.

There's already some outside tournaments and stuff that what do you mean rephrase that?

Are there already outside tournaments that you know baseball or soccer or basketball groups or have you already on the calendar because if you're trying to set it and have a tournament in 2026, but you can't really schedule it until March of 2026, you're not gonna be able to have a tournament.

Softball was booked most likely pretty solid by November of last year.

So softball calendar was kind of set.

Baseball very similar from I wish Randy was here to do he's not baseball was pretty similar.

So what we're trying to do is we're trying to set our city youth leagues of what dates available, and and the staff, but what I challenge them with, um, and I'll just use Stephen specifically, is he knows what soccer tournaments go on in Germantown, Conway, etc.

And so we're gonna plan our league when those tournaments are at their places, so that's not a date that we're competing to have a tournament with.

So he's gonna open up dates.

So the challenge for him was what's the best date that I could break my season up to allow someone that wouldn't have a tournament at Jonesville to be most successful, and so it wasn't just like let's fill our calendar, it was to really push some thought processes behind it, and so that we could make it that whoever we partner with, us provide facilities when I say parker, when they want to have a tournament or place that gave them the greatest opportunity to be successful.

I mean, it's the same thing we talk about in the 5K world.

If Parable's got a 5K, the Jones wants a 5K, and now Tyranzo is going to have a 5K.

We're competing for the same amount of runners to three, five.

It doesn't work, and so that was the example I used to them, is why I use it here.

I want to definitely look at what they knew was happening in the mid-south that is our competition, and to create opportunities for our partners to be most successful because for us it's the same thing.

We want we want Bits and Eds, we want people to come to Jones World.

I can't very well dictate that this is the weekend you can have it if that's the same weekend of Jerbertown has one of their tournaments.

It does it's not fair to any organization to give them that weekend.

So the challenge was for him to find the weekends around our season that work best.

So we're not we're not just dictating what weekends, we're also looking at all those outside factors because we want to.

I mean, the more successful they are, the more successful we are, and the better rules when our parts are voted.

Um, but most of those tournaments, like I said, softball, um basketball, this volleyball tournaments are always the same weekends, all of those big events.

We we added those to the calendar on the weekends they always were, and then we try to figure out leagues to make it more advantageous to outside organizations having their events to be more successful.

To wrap up, I've got two community individuals that wanted to just give a brief statement, and then we're gonna entertain a motion to adjourn.

Matt, do you want to I'm Matt Daniel, I'm a civilian.

Um while the phrase expert is talking a lot.

I don't consider myself an expert, but I do have a lot of experience, specifically in the athletic world.

Um, I've been all over the country in all different kinds of sports.

Um I'm in support of the three entities that represent the people, the A and B and the uh public facilities board as a checks and balances, and I think the Jim's point and what his question was is why have that if you've already got something in place.

I don't know if you change the name of the commission committee, whatever you change, or you change up the people or whatever, but I think it provides a layer of protection both for the administration, for the parks department, and for the community.

I think it levels that out.

The second thing that um I would recommend, I think that we're going through a storm right now, but with that storm, I think that we understand that collectively, I'm so glad that we're part of a solution-based conversation because I think this rising tide from the salt.

The second thing with that on top on that topic is I think that you have to, if you're gonna go with a vendor model, which I think is something that we ought to examine.

I think that this group can decide if that's the best fit for everything.

Currently, don't work like we said earlier, don't worry about baseball boosters as a vendor.

They run themselves, they write their check for the city of Jonesboro, they don't write the check the city stars.

That those things happen.

There will be some sports where vendors may offer to run the rec league.

That would take a load or leverage employee help, social media help, and all that for our park department currently, um, which we are clearly under staff, and Jim's got a task ahead.

But what about my job?

What's that?

Well, not my job.

So I'm I'm getting at that.

Thanks, Aaron.

I appreciate that.

Where the need is, there will be sports, for example, in the sport of basketball, which is one of your jobs, Aaron.

If I was a basketball guy, which just so happens that I am, I wouldn't want to run a rec league.

Okay, because I can bring in tournaments here without having a base program.

So that is not something that I as a vendor would want to run, therefore, we need a rec league program that would be supported by the city, which is Aaron's job.

So the city would be supported by filling the stock gaps or become facility managers and support those things where they can report their outside income and maybe they support the tournaments and they can make more money.

So although it's a little bit challenging and what those things can look like, it's actually can be advantageous to people just like Aaron.

So I think that when you do that though, you have to establish tier one priority vendors.

Because, for example, if Joe and I want to put on an event on the same weekend, how are you going to determine whose event needs to be hosted when?

Well, you do that by setting qualifications or here's what we were looking for in the perfect world.

In a perfect world, we want somebody to provide whatever these things are just group decides.

This is what we're looking for.

And if we get those things met, then we establish as a city as a committee that Joe is the priority tier one vendor.

He hits priority in the sport of basketball.

And we understand that he's just gonna run four tournaments a year, and he gets primary dates because based on the relationships that he has to bring in sports tourism to the city, that's what we're gonna go with.

He doesn't want to run a city youth program.

That's where Aaron comes in.

Does that answer your question, Aaron?

Well, I guess sort of, but the way you phrased it of having a vendor, it would be like the vendor would run my part, and I wouldn't have a job anymore.

No, that's how I took that.

No, so for example, this weekend the basketball tournament that we couldn't service because you had to get ready for that.

Used to be our tournament, correct?

It used to be our tournament.

The basketball tournament this weekend used to be the city's tournament.

We couldn't service it.

We farmed it out, and then we paid gym managers that are city employees to do that.

All I'm saying is let's do that above board checks and balances for everybody that protects Aaron, protects Jim, protects the mayor, protects the city.

That's it.

It's pretty plain and simple.

Now, in concept, there are details and details are where it gets really money.

That's where the clarity and accountability can help clear the mud of things that we've already been through.

That's where that makes sense.

Now, based on that experience, this I've already had my role with revolution and executive board and all that kind of thing.

This committee doesn't fit me, but I've also learned a lot about city government in the last year because I've taught myself and I've learned because this stuff is so important to me.

I don't have any kids involved other than one daughter still involved in youth sports in the city of Jonesville.

She has one more year of elementary basketball.

This is not about me or my family, this is about everything.

So I'm happy to be a sounding board or answer any questions today or moving forward to be part of a solution that balances this thing out just to help educate whatever that means means in a in a partial role to support people just like Aaron, people just like Jim they're trying to get right, but also the youth of our city.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Yeah, so I think this is suggestion to have members of the school board on the commission because they're the ones with the kids.

But I think we also need to have some active parents because we're talking about you know the kids, but we've got the parents who are involved, and so on that seat of the board or coming to the table with the seat, is that there needs to be some parents, active parents in any of the sports, because they're the ones out there with the kids, and we've got to listen to them.

You know, all of us can come up with all these ideas, but they're the ones out there that have you know see it do it and play it with the kids.

So I think the parents and I think the schools, um, they have to have some seat at the board to have some say of what goes on.

Thank you, Ped.

One more comment, and then we're gonna call adjournment.

I'm actually on the superintendent crackhead.

I really don't have a whole lot to do with use for it.

But to go off of like what LJ said, you know, a sports tourism commission or what have you, right?

For the sports tourism side.

We have a master parks plan that got put in place by city council that the city of Jonesboro spent, you know, quite a bit of money on nothing in there speaks about sports tourism, nothing in there speaks about travel teams or what have you.

You know, we're parks and recreation, not parts of sports world.

We provide low cost, no cost sports opportunities for the low-income community, high income community, what have you in the city of Jonesboro?

That's what all these guys' jobs are, including mine.

You know, I provide a facility for the community of Jonesboro.

I love having events and outside people come in, but that's ultimately not my job.

My job is to provide for the community, the community of Jonesville.

Mark's job, community jumps for football, stage's job, community adjournable for soccer, so on and so forth.

So the Sports Tourism Commission, great idea.

I'm I'm all for that, you know.

But that doesn't impact what we do as far as in my personal opinion.

That's where I still.

Thank you.

All right, I will entertain the motion to adjourn before I do so.

Did you have something else?

Motion to adjourn.

So all in favor, say I'm saying aye.

There's food over in the corner for the working group.

Please help yourselves.

And thank you for your time.