How do we give us a hug I want to call the June 10th, 2026 Monterey Parks Recreation Commission meeting to order.

Melissa, will you take roll call?

Yes.

Recording in progress.

Thank you.

All right.

Chair Ono.

Here.

Vice Chair Buaya.

Here.

Commissioner Crampton.

Here.

Commissioner Nazal Garib.

Here.

Commissioner Reed.

Here.

Commissioner Schmidt.

Here.

All right.

And we will have teleconference participation at this meeting from Commissioner Nazal Garib and Commissioner Schmidt.

Pursuant to the California Brown Act rules for just cause attendance.

Commissioner Nazal Gareeb, I will ask you a few questions first.

Can you hear me well?

Yes, I can.

Were you able to hear our proceedings on this end up until now?

Yes.

Do you have a copy of the agenda for this meeting?

Yes.

Please give us a brief general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely.

Health issues, I would say.

Just to not go into detail.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Is anyone over the age of 18 with you in the room?

No.

Perfect.

And Commissioner Schmidt, I'll do the same.

Can you hear me well?

I can.

Were you able to hear our proceedings on this end up until now?

I was.

Do you have a copy of the agenda for this meeting?

I have a digital copy, I do.

And please give us a brief general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely.

It would be health issues as well.

Perfect.

And is anyone over the age of 18 with you in the room?

No.

Okay.

And the Brown Act requires that any votes taken during the teleconference portion of this meeting be taken by roll call, and that each member participating remotely shall participate through both audio and visual technology.

Perfect.

Information on participating in this meeting and providing public comment, including remotely by Zoom or telephone, is available on this meeting's agenda, which is online at iSearch Monterey.gov.

Remote commentators, you will be muted until it is your turn to speak, and a timer will be shown on the screen.

If you are connected on Zoom, the timer is accurate with no delay.

In the chamber, we ask attendees to please keep your phones and devices muted to prevent audio interference with tonight's meeting.

Consistent with the First Amendment and the Brown Act, individuals have the right to speak at public meetings, which includes the right to criticize or support city policies or actions.

Are the updates on Monterey Sports Center marketing and branding efforts?

This is not a project under CEQA Article 20, Section 15378, or and under General Rule Article 5, Section 15061.

Nicole.

Thank you.

I'm going to introduce Lori, who is our fitness supervisor from the Monterey Sports Center.

Laurie, you're welcome to probably come up to the podium and probably need to turn on the microphone.

It is on.

Hello, hello, hello.

Hello.

I'm Laurie Tate.

I'm the fitness supervisor at the Sports Center.

We recently updated our logo.

And if you look at the screen, you'll see our old logo is at the top, which was established in 1992.

And then we just refreshed and kind of updated the look of our of our logo with the one on the bottom.

So that's I wanted to show kind of the old and the new.

And there's one pictogram in the logo that doesn't represent anything that we have at the sports center.

If you look, it's a gymnast.

And actually, that program was supposed to be housed at the sports center in 92, they thought, but it never actually came to be that way.

It ends it's at the the well, is it called the youth center?

It's called Ellistora, how it's called the Use Center.

So we um we updated that with a pictogram that represented our group exercise area with a yoga pose.

So that was the pictogram and everything else was just kind of updated.

Um we brought in Kelly McKay who designed the recreation logo a few years back, and we really liked the clean look, the clean colors that she chose, and we wanted to get that same feel within the logo.

So we brought her in and had her do our market research.

So if you want to go on to the next, that's just our brand and bodies a commitment to promoting a healthy lifestyle through innovative classes, state of the art equipment and a supportive environment for all ages.

So as most of you know, the sports center has four really distinct different areas, and so we want that logo to really um represent those areas um in the best way possible.

Next one.

There's the pictogram.

So what Kelly found is that our logo in itself had a lot of recognition within the community.

So we didn't want to change the look completely.

We just wanted to update and refresh.

So this was something she included in our style guide.

So each pictogram represents each excuse me area of the sports center.

So you have the weights for fitness, the aquatics, the pool, the court sports for the gymnasium, and the group exercise with the the yoga pose.

Um and we updated the font as well because the font looked a little bit dated, so she made it really clean and I think crisp.

Next one.

And there's the color palette.

So we changed the color palette to kind of reflect kind of that vibe of ocean community, um, felt like the sports center, so definitely a different um color palette that we'll be implementing with merchandise with you know, kind of the look and feel at the sports center.

So, um, and we felt we wanted it clean and timeless, kind of like recreations, and so we felt like she really hit the nail on that next Monday.

And there's just the color palette in actions, the different colors, different ways to utilize, and we're we're just implementing now, so you're gonna see these changes throughout the next year.

And I wanted to show some examples of things that she included on things that we've actually implemented.

Some of our flyers already looking like this.

Um, we're looking at doing some banners um on the exterior of the sports center, so wanted to include something looking like that, and then some merchandise.

I think there's one more of merchandise as well.

She created this one for in particular for merchandise, which I love it, looks great on a sweatshirt.

So that's something that we definitely want to implement.

Um we love the dog scarf, so those are really cute.

So anyway, she had some great ideas, and that is about it.

I think the last one's that logo we can use for merchandise.

Any questions?

All right, thank you.

All right, if there's no questions from the commissioners, uh open it up to public comment.

All right.

If you're in the council chambers and would like to make a public comment on this item, please identify yourself.

None.

Okay.

If you are online and would like to make a public comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature or star nine if you are on the phone.

And it doesn't look like there's any online.

So we're good to go.

Perfect.

Public comments are now closed.

Moving on to our second presentation.

A presentation of the potential partnership with the boys and girls' clubs of Monterey County at the Casanova Oknol Park Center.

Not a project under CEQA, Article 20, Section 1538, 5378, or under General Rule Article 5, Section 15061.

Shannon.

It's been a very busy day, so this was done quickly in some ways.

This is a partnership, and it would give us the opportunity to do things with limited resources.

So next slide.

So have a diverse community with community engagement, intergenerational health.

We're also focused on economic and environmental sustainability with maintaining existing facilities and also holistic design and phasing of those facilities that we're bringing in, including anything new.

We have to make sure we've got it being sustainable both economically and environmentally, and then accessibility, not just in terms of making sure things buildings are accessible, but also that the people have access to them ideally close to where they live.

So what has come about with Casanova Oknol Park Center, next slide, would be that this is all the City of Monterey neighborhoods.

And the Casanova Oaknol um Park Center, if you go to the next slide, is in the of course the Casanova Oknol neighborhood.

And we've kind of over time started referring to this um section as North Monterey.

Um and via Del Mani, um, Del Mani Grove, Laguna Grande, Del Mani Beach, that kind of portion of Monterey.

Um, it is a little bit um cut off in some ways with um the highway and um Fremont Avenue and um the kind of that interchange right there, but it's still within you know a five to ten minute um drive from the El Estero Park Center.

Um, but when we um went through COVID, there's been a lot of changes.

So that's kind of what where we're at at this point.

Next slide.

And that's just a photo of the center.

It looks a little bit different now.

The oak tree unfortunately has been removed, um, but it's still very well maintained, this building.

Next slide.

So um where we're at um is this is just a potential view of what this um facility could look like if it's utilized by the boys and girls club.

They've had a chance to take a look at the space and imagine their programs in it.

Um it is about 2100 square feet of programmable space that doesn't include the restrooms or the staff office or the kitchen, um, but the building itself in the large programmable areas are roughly 2100 square feet.

Next slide.

So the Casanova Oknol Park Center was built in 1991, right around the time the sports center came on to be.

Um it was built on a residential lot and next to a park, and it was built with the resources and the money that was available at the time.

There was always plans for an expansion.

There was plans to add parking um to the lot next door.

That over time has never materialized.

Either the city didn't have funds to purchase the property, or the um property owner was not willing to sell, you know, wanting, you know, a premium, and the city, you know, obviously can't do that.

So the building is the size it is.

And prior to COVID, the center was staffed every day, five or six days a week.

We had both full-time, regular part-time, which is a benefited position, and part-time seasonal staff in that building.

We offered a preschool, after school, and other recreational programs, and this was with approximately 31% cost recovery, which is very good.

But the um the it never recreation programs are supposed to be affordable, and it's definitely didn't cover the full operating costs.

Um it had good cost recovery, the programs that were offered there were popular and um well liked, but with the size and the space limitations, that was kind of where we were because we could only have a preschool operating at the same time at one time, and then we kind of switch over to the after-school program, and so it was kind of limited us to what we could do.

Um, the other uh factor there is post-COVID, there's been a lot of changes, not just to the staffing situation, but also to that neighborhood.

So the recreation division um pre-COVID March 2020 had 15.75 full-time equivalents.

Um this fiscal year right now, we have 9.75 full-time equivalents.

We actually have a vacancy, and proposed to freeze that vacant position.

So we're gonna go back to 8.75 FTE, and that is to offer right now pretty much more than we did pre-COVID in terms of programming.

We have about 160 hours of programs per week, um, August through May, which is considered our slow time, and then this also includes our programs, our event planning, our permitting, parks and rec commission.

Right now, June, July, um, even a little bit of May.

Our programming hours are about 420 hours per week at four centers and 11 outdoor locations, including as far as Toro Park.

So we're doing amazingly well.

We're bringing in more revenue than we did before, but we're doing it with less people and we're just stressed uh in terms of what we can do.

So the Casanova Ok Noel Park Center was not fully reopened post-COVID, just really because of staffing levels, because we just cannot be at another building in the way that we were.

We are able to staff the Schultz Park Center, the Hilltop Park Center, and the El Estero Park Center right now with one full-time employee managing all of those operations, and part-time staff.

So that's uh kind of our staffing situation at our centers, is we can dedicate one full-time employee, and just we're not in that position to do that with the amount of staff we have and add Casanova to that.

So Casanova is open when we have a scheduled program or event, and otherwise it's closed.

Um, there's also been some changes to that neighborhood since quite a bit of time.

It's it's been a little over, oh, I don't know, six years, quite six years.

But um, in that time, the school district has closed Foothill School.

Um, the um neighborhood has changed, people have moved in, people have moved out, um, the um school district has opened their own preschool programs, which are free and all day care, offering um breakfast, lunch, and uh afternoon snack.

So that's also infected our enrollment of our preschool programs.

In terms of the children in the Casanova Oaknol neighborhood, just going by the bus ridership for MPUSD, you can see how many children get off the bus, and that's dwindled as well from when we were there.

So, probably about 20 kids ride the bus that get dropped off on Euclid where we would normally have our children from our after school program.

So that's kind of where we are.

There's been a lot of changes in terms of our staffing ability, but also in that neighborhood.

So if next slide, I think.

So where we are now is again, center has been kind of underutilized due to significant changes in the Conan neighborhood and our own staffing limitations.

That's still a great location.

Location location, you cannot beat it.

You know, the amount of kids that are on that MPUSD bus is probably about closer to 80 or 85.

But we have been having conversations now with the boys and girls club of the Monterey County, and they are very interested in a partnership with us.

That it would be fiscally responsible to provide opportunities for youth in the Castle Nova, Oak Knoll, Del Monte Grove, Laguna Grande, Via Del Monte, and other neighborhoods in the city in partnership with them.

So this partnership would provide for more frequent and shared use of the facility.

It would allow for the city to continue to have access for recreation programs, community activities, and other public purposes, but it would be able for us to expand recreational opportunities, not lose any opportunities.

But really building on what we can do in order to serve all of Monterey.

And then they will bus the children home to their respective neighborhoods using the BG Boys and Girls Club Monterey County buses.

Parents know where they are, they feel comfortable, like when they get off work after 5:30, 6 o'clock, their children are still home.

This would give an opportunity for them to have a truly high quality after-school program.

They provide a meal every day and support for school, and then they would have a way to get those children back home that wouldn't necessarily be dependent on a parent driving to pick them up.

So the benefits to this, it's a city owned property that requires less upfront investment to prepare the facility than for BGC MC use than our original location of 205 Montecito.

It's proximity to diverse Monterey neighborhoods with a high number of school age children.

The outdoor space is unmatched.

The park itself is amazing.

It would keep the park open for public use throughout the day.

We're going to be there this summer for our playground program.

Does not prevent anyone else in the neighborhood from using that park as well.

And then the way that we see this is it's really a cost neutral partnership.

The city gets that benefit of having this service.

We do not intend to sell the Castle Novel Oknol Park Center.

That is not on the table.

We carry costs as is right now for maintaining that facility, for operating it.

The boys and girls club are willing to come in with some of their own significant improvements and staffing.

They're anticipating five to six full-time staff.

If we were to provide five to six full-time staff, I don't know where that money would be.

So really we kind of see this as a true partnership, an equal partnership.

Unlike some of our previous experiences, this is with an agency or a group that is really um high quality and is not asking for a subsidy from the city.

We're trying to do this as cost neutral as possible so that there isn't an additional burden on the city and potentially not on the boys and girls club.

There's mutual reciprocity.

So that is kind of where we're at with in terms of the location.

So what's next?

I think we're referring to it as a license agreement.

If we can come to some sort of agreement between the boys and girls clubs and the council, we would return to them on July 7th to finalize an agreement.

And then ideally the boys and girls club would like to start programming there in early August, which is with the start of the MPUSD school year.

It might be a little tough, it might be a little bit rushed, but when you're talking parents needing to prepare for school, needing to know they have a plan for after school care, it is really best to start with the school year versus like somewhere in the middle of the year or you know in September when parents have already made plans.

Um so we're willing to um work with this uh boys and girls club to try and find a way they're probably, you know, if they have to order supplies and equipment that might take some time.

We have supplies and equipment in terms of like tables and chairs already in that building, um, but they have a vision for it.

It just may take a little bit of time just because we are on a tight time trench for the full um reveal of what they intend to do, which I think we had in a couple of slides earlier.

Kind of they have a vision, they just may not have quite enough time with the quick turnaround from July 7th through really a month later.

I think school year starts like August 5th or something to get that started.

So I know there's been a lot of discussions again.

The city is not intending to sell, we would have hours of that facility both before and after the after school program.

Um boys and girls club operates till 6 o'clock every day.

They do also do school break programs and summer programs, but ideally the evening hours, the morning hours, and the weekends would still be open to city use, and of course, the park would always be open to the public.

So the questions and comments from the commission, and then we can open that up.

Um, what is the age group that would be using this facility?

You said there were like 80 kids that were getting off the bus at this area.

Yeah, so the boys and girls club serves youth six to as um old as 18 and actually kind of beyond that.

But I think they're really searching for six to middle school, you know, eighth grade, ideally.

But they, you know, they help them figure out a plan.

Is it vocational school?

Is it junior college?

Is it college?

And guide them through that process if there's children who need that.

You don't know what the demographics of the group of kids that would be coming.

Um they would be um elementary middle school is the is the goal.

But this the neighborhoods that we're serving, there would there is potentially teens, I guess.

Um I really can't imagine what the objections to this would be.

Have you had any feedback that would not be supportive?

Um, no, not at this time.

I think there's been some concerns that someone that with a city might consider selling.

That was maybe a rumor, um, but that's definitely never anything that's been discussed um amongst the parks and recreation department.

One of the other things that was really important in our discussions, working with um the leadership from Boys and Girls Club was to make sure that this would really serve Monterey.

Um, and they do anticipate that this would be, you know, close to full with with Monterey residents.

Um again, they are looking to get this going on a timeline that would work for families and parents, um, so they can really start to establish that bond in the neighborhood and be the go-to for being that that after-school care.

Um, and I think it's also really important.

We would um backfill with programming if necessary, they would give us plenty of notice.

Um, but they are interested in those school vacation weeks and summer programming as well, which would be again just sort of solidifying that um really good work that they could be doing in the neighborhood.

Also, um I first I like the uh new sports center logo.

I thought that looked really good, really clean.

I have liked this project from the minute I heard it.

I think that um, you know what, that is kind of my neighborhood, and I see so many kids, and I think that that side of Monterey could really use um a place to have these kids go that's safe for them in the even in the afternoon and the evening.

Um, also I am I would like to uh I guess I question is there possible for us to somehow uh take from the large group of retired teachers that we have on the peninsula to see if there's some volunteer work that could be done with this center, also.

I have a feeling there might be um some volume some people that might be interested in volunteering and helping you with this project, especially as we're the staff is getting lower and the needs are higher.

Um otherwise, I I do I really like the project, I think it's a good one.

I'm a huge supporter of uh recreation, obviously, but also a huge supporter of the boys and girls club.

Um, I've been to their big fundraiser several times, and it's always so inspiring to hear the kids who get up and speak who have gone through the program from six years old till they graduate, and they they are just well-behaved, well-spoken, well-mannered kids.

Um, and so I think this would be a fabulous, fabulous partnership.

Yeah, this sounds really amazing.

Um, I have a few questions about the do you know.

Are this uh the five to six full-time equivalents that they're gonna provide all programming, or will they also have uh facilities or custodial to help us out on that staffing?

Um that I I don't know in terms of what they're providing, um, custodial.

We did ask that they be responsible for their custodial, um, but I don't think they're including that five or six in the um in the additional like custodial maintenance, that type of thing.

Um, yeah, it's more programming, and they they have a substantial program.

A lot of people for programming, it's great.

I mean, yeah, what they do at their other facilities um is amazing.

Um, it's definitely um, it is not just uh drop-in after school, um, you know, a little bit of homework help.

It is um very structured, and some of the art those children produce and the things that they uh accomplish are amazing.

So it's great.

That's exciting.

Yeah.

We had the opportunity to take a tour of their seaside location and saw it was kind of um rotation-based.

So uh the kids had so many opportunities of what they could experience during their time.

So I think their staffing would would lend to that.

So, for example, there would be art, music, um, there was a science area, um, just things that were above and beyond interest that they are bringing um and making that available to the kids and really keeping them busy um as well as um the meal planning piece of it too.

So it is a big operation, and that is a significant uh staffing resource that they would be bringing uh to this, which is is really exciting uh to think about what could be offered.

Yeah, that's that is awesome.

Uh, are you guys still putting on the playground gates or is that was that a uh NCIP they got defunded?

Um we will be talking NCIP later, but yes, I think that is an NCIP approved project.

Okay, yes.

That's all for me.

Um, no more questions, Melissa.

Public comment.

Okay, nothing from Christian or sorry for that.

They're muted, yeah.

They don't go hand.

All right.

If you're in the council chambers and would like to make a public comment on this item, please identify yourself.

Okay, we have three in the chambers.

If you are online and would like to make a public comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature.

And we have one online.

So we'll start with the council chambers first.

So if you want to line up along this, and then we'll just take your public comments.

And then whoever wants to go first, maybe you're all good.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Esther Malkin.

I'm the president of the Laguna Grande Neighborhood Association, and I echo Kathy's um sentiments.

We've been supportive of this project from the very beginning, regardless of the location.

Anything that we could do with Boys and Girls Club would be worthwhile.

So I don't want to belabor it, but you our neighborhood would benefit from it.

Um my adjacent neighborhood, Villa Del Mani, couldn't be here today, but he has also that president, has been at every one of the meetings supporting it as well.

So hopefully we can make this happen, and whatever finances have to be found can be trudged up from somewhere.

Thanks.

First of all, I want to compliment the city and the club for trying to come up with this idea.

It's what we've been looking for for going on six years.

We hope that we can continue to use the center, and I've been assured that we can for meetings and meeting with the city staff on on issues.

Um we used to have a program of movies in the park where the neighborhood supplied hot dogs and drinks to anybody who showed up.

And if you've ever seen the flats there in Kona Park full of people, with us and the fire department showing those parks, we always had grand attendance.

We're looking forward to that.

Services for the youth in our area.

We even have a council person whose own kids attended the previous programs, and we've always supported it.

Uh, part of history, I do compliment the city for going into that.

Corner Center was supposed to be twice the size it is, but compromises, cut it down, and so that's where we're stuck with making a whole of a bit of what we can.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chelsea Linovska.

I also live in the Casanova Oaknell Neighborhood Association.

I'll kind of split my comments in two.

One on behalf of uh the neighbors that have so far voiced their support of this.

Uh, we shared out the initial kind of agenda for tonight's meeting with a lot of our neighbors, and many came back and be like, oh my gosh, this is a great idea.

Um, many had previously voiced some concern with the Montecito uh building plan only because the city had not yet actually owned that property, and so the question of acquisition within this time of you know, fraught financial parameters, right?

Uh, led a lot of our neighbors to go, okay.

We get it.

Yeah, that space might make sense from the impact report that was done, but look at we have this building right here, and then lo and behold, you know, now we're saying, Oh, hey, let's utilize this building right here.

Uh, and a lot of a lot of the neighbors are super super supportive and very excited to, you know, see that space utilized again.

So, so thank you guys so much for continuing to plug along city staff and seeing like what other opportunities are there when one door closes, you know.

Usually hopefully some open.

Um, as a as a parent uh whose young child is actually going to be riding the bus uh starting in August and going to our MPUSD school district.

Very excited also for the opportunity to then you know allow for a little bit more balanced lifestyle with work schedules by also having uh this opportunity right there, right off the bus stop, right down the street within walking distance.

Um, and I know that he is also said, and I was like, hey, there might be a program here at the park center.

He was like, the empty building, and I'm like, yeah, the empty building might become something.

So exciting.

Um, so thank you guys on behalf of all of our neighbors, and then also just a public school parent.

So thanks.

Thank you.

All right, so now we're gonna go to the online caller, Richard.

You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Good evening, commissioners.

Richard Rosello, I'm president of the Casanova Oaknell Neighborhood Association.

Um, very excited about this development.

Uh our center is in the heart of this neighborhood, the heart of District 4.

Uh, we had some great programming.

The movie in the park that Mike was referring to had an attendance of 900 people on that grass area.

Try to conceive of that.

It was a wonderful event.

Looking forward to working with the boys and girls club.

Uh, our association has an extended uh membership and email lists, and I frequently get Shannon's emails, and I send them out immediately to every member by email.

I will do the same for the uh boys and girls club.

Whatever we can do to help, we will help.

So use us as a resource, let us be uh an agent of information for our residents.

And I'd like to thank Shannon for going over the history of the changes in this area, but I want to warn you that there's going to be more changes in the very near future.

The city has a 12 million dollar deficit.

MQSD has a 16 billion dollar deficit.

The county is going to run 106 million, and let's not talk about the state because it's in the billions, and the federal government is cut off that COVID funds that started the TK, the preschool, the free lunches.

Uh, a lot of that is going to be coming to an end, which makes this resource even more important, especially for the struggling families.

I want to point out we may be 10 minutes from the youth center, but that was on a period of time that was years ago.

It isn't the distance now, it's the traffic.

It can be unbearable.

North Freemont could be gridlock every day, or worse, and consider that North Riemann is a major evacuation point in case of forest fires.

Uh we're kind of cut off from Monterey by Highway One.

I encourage you to come to our neighborhood and walk to the city of Monterey, try.

Try it, see what it's like, see how dangerous it is on all the conflict points.

We look forward to bringing services here to the people that live here.

And I encourage you to do whatever is possible to make this uh situation come to a conclusion that benefits everybody.

Thank you for your time.

Is that all the public on?

Yep.

All right.

Okay.

Public comments are now closed.

Uh moving on to our next presentation.

Uh presentation on a concept proposal for community garden at Laguna Grande Park through the urban greening grant program.

Uh, not a project under Seek Article 20, Section 15378, and under general rule article 5, section 15061.

Uh Tice.

Thank you, Justin.

Um you see by the title.

There's a we are presenting a proposal for a community garden at Laguda Grande Park through the urban greening grant program.

Um, not a lot of folks know about uh the community garden that exists now.

Um, the right behind us across the road is a small community garden that is uh run by sustainable Monterey, established in 2009.

Next slide, please.

And um it's kind of sits in plain sight basically, but uh pretty soon uh construction behind us will start where um affordable housing project will start, and unfortunately, so will that community garden.

Um so the uh opportunity came up and with through this through the urban greening grant, which uh next slide, please, which uh was kind of uh a good opportunity to take advantage of, which also has some other benefits.

The grant also offers an opportunity to get money for vegetation management within the park as well.

So um, and there's a separate grant that we'll probably tell you about that.

We're also going for money to help with the vegetation management of the park.

But um, as it pertains to the garden, this will be a kind of a two-pronged effort.

Um, as you can see, the uh the notes here community gardens strengthen neighborhoods by uniting residents, beautifying local spaces, and supporting sustainable environmentally friendly practices.

Uh, the proposed location at Laguna Laguna Grande Park utilizes an underused area of the park, and the new location is close to a multifamily housing and offers full sun exposure, water access, and adequate parking.

Next slide, please.

Um I also want to make mention that California, this grant, the urban greening, that's this is a uh grant that's through the California Parks and Recreation and the Natural Rejource National Resources Agency.

Uh, you can quickly show the kind of the overview of where it is.

Um, if you can make sense of it, so where it currently is, and then the new the new project site.

Next slide, please.

Here's a very very basic uh concept plan that our intern put together.

Um and so it's real uh it this is just really basic.

A lot of things can change, but we just tried to add as many things as possible in there, and then if if it comes happens, then we can kind of uh modify that design.

But you can see a bunch of of garden boxes on the perimeter, the white, the blue is the is the irrigation line, a small shed with the rain catchment system off of it, um, some fruit trees, picnic tables, um, all those, all the things that would hopefully make that a really nice space, all new fencing would be necessary.

Um, yeah, next slide, please.

So that as we were talking about where this is coming from.

Uh, this was from uh Prop 4 a while ago, and uh a certain percentage of the money needs to go for this grant.

Um, the urban grant urban greening grant program will fund projects using natural-based solutions to mitigate climate change impacts, such as the urban heat island effect, rising temperatures, extreme heat.

It should be also just be known that um this there is a public outreach community engagement element to this that is required.

So uh as part of the application process.

Next slide, please.

So we're this is again just the concept or uh conceptual plan that's being delivered, and at one point they'll that at some point they'll let us know if this can continue on, and we can then apply a formal application, which which will likely need a the resolution go to city council for approval and possibly come back to the PRC.

But again, the community engagement part will have to be a uh a mandatory part of our application.

Yeah, and obviously we'll if if everything goes forward, there would be some sort of some sort of agreement that would also have to be forged between us and sustainable Monterey if they choose to stay with this program.

So and any comments or questions.

I have a question.

Who serves on the uh sustainable Monterey?

Uh the president is Jeanette Leonito volunteers.

Yeah, exactly.

Yes.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, I have a quick question and a thought.

Um I had a couple of residents contact me with concerns about this project.

And I think the arguments for what they would like to do there is absolutely uh good arguments.

As I thought about it, I thought, what about placing this garden and for a couple of reasons in the back of Montecito Park in that green area.

I think it connects to the boys and girls club at the Montecito unit.

I think the kids could work on sustainable gardening.

Um I think it's closer to residents that don't have backyards.

There's a lot of apartments over there.

Um yeah, I just thought maybe there is a compromise in a solution.

I don't know, Tys, if that could work in that back area, but I don't think we have any programs that we utilize in that grass area.

I don't know, just throwing it out there.

Yeah, it Montecito has been brought up a lot of times.

It is a very well used, very loved park.

It's we we've had we've really struggled to try to say figure out how that would fit there and also fit the needs of of what the community wants for the garden.

So that is a really tight space.

Yeah.

Um so you're going from garden to volleyball court to barbecue area to playground.

That's a lot of basketball court, that's a lot of hard, all kind of used up space for an area that gets used for a lot of parties, a lot of different events.

So you're taking up the the little open space, but it's an option.

Um it's not uh completely off the table, but um it is been one we've tried to look at and even at the front of the park too, but we didn't want it to be too close to the restrooms, obviously.

So yeah, I should have figured you'd thought of this already, but I'm just trying to find a solution here.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll just give a little bit more background of um sort of what started this this conversation, and um, you know, similarly, we're looking for a partnership with with an organization in this case sustainable monterey.

So this really came up because of the housing project, and so trying to uh replace the garden in a new location that would serve a similar size.

And so we did take a look at the size of the garden they have.

It's sharing um about four yards of the little houses that are right behind City Hall.

Um, and there's about 20 garden plots in there now.

Um so we're looking for a space that would be large enough to accommodate that.

There is a wait list there, so um, you know, hopefully have some some room for expansion and allow others, especially if the program is um, you know, put out to the community that it exists and allow for for that gardening opportunity.

So um I don't know if anybody from Sustainable Monterey will um be speaking tonight or um you know has some input to put in.

Um, but we are you know looking to them.

This this was their preferred site.

Um and so that that is also part of um why this was identified.

Um and it also happened to be a good fit for the grant opportunity that we were looking at.

So that's a potential funding source that could make this um really ideal.

Uh however, you know, if if we do need to find funding, this would be again looking at a partnership with an organization that this could be that that cost neutral um type of a situation for the city.

And so those are kind of the the driving forces of what um what brought this about and um and how it's evolving with the particular group that we're working with, and hopefully we'll hear from them this evening.

And then Julieta also has her hand up, so you can go ahead and unmute yourself Julieta.

Hi um good afternoon ties uh this is the best surprise you could ever give me thank you it's a beautiful beautiful idea it's close to me to where I live it's it's a wonderful and it's and it's a bigger area like you said like the one you had uh across the offices there that was a very small area this is a bigger area um I have some questions in regards to how will you guys physically make it work because that's an area that it's slanted towards the back of that football field so I don't know how you'll do it but uh congratulations I'm all for it thank you.

Thank you Julieta but it obviously still early just we're still just at the conceptual plan but yeah you make a good point there we did put in for the budget of grading it so because it would need some earth to be moved a little bit hopefully not too much um but yeah so there's there's uh that has been considered and incorporated in the initial really rough uh budget of the project yeah thank you so and just to add we did look at Montecito that was one of the first locations uh probably a year ago for community garden um and that park has had lots of improvements and it's almost overdone I would say in terms of what's in it and we have um it gets a lot of use and so our um goal is to try and maintain as much green space as possible because that has a value for people to be able to run and play and there's a lot of people who walk their dogs there and there's a lot of children who like to play and it's fully enclosed except for the little park entrance um so it gets it does get a lot of use we have events there quite often um so there is also um even though the 205 Montecito isn't happening right now there is a native plant garden or a ornamental garden in front of fire station 13 so there is another garden there as well it just isn't quite as identified we we need we're gonna work on that too so there's yeah Tys might be able to Yeah that was a project with our with our VIPs and um had some uh a little bit of of input and partnership with MPC horticulture club too so um the idea was to hopefully have a bigger partnership with like native plant society or somebody um because it is a native plant garden uh that we put in there but yeah we never really forged that relationship with somebody on that but uh some point we'd like to pick it back up and finish it off with some nice signage so people know in that neighborhood here's some great native plants that you could that you could put in and hopefully be aesthetically pleasing so yeah and it it's right um adjacent to the library locker that was recently installed so that corner there any other comments I think it's a great idea I like any any community garden is you know wherever it goes is a great idea um and in terms of native plant experts are you uh have you reached out to anybody or uh Nikki we work with Nikki netf and she's really great and affordable.

Well you you're talking about with with that garden yeah well with the gardens in that was done but uh yeah we I reached out to whoever was the president at the time but oh yeah yeah we couldn't get them to it was tough all right um no more with no more uh comments also for public comments all right if you're in the council chambers and would like to make a public comment on this item please identify yourself okay we have two perfect and then if you are online and would like to make a public comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature.

Looks like it's only two in the council chamber.

So we can go ahead and start with the council chamber.

Whoever would like to go first.

Hi.

Excuse me.

Hi, my name is Jason Anchu.

I'm the community garden manager currently at the Monray community Garden.

Um we are obviously in support of this project uh and trying to get uh relocated.

It was sad when we learned that we would have to be moving, but we know affordable housing is important in the city.

Um, but we are sad to be displaced, and we really love that community garden.

So finding a new place in the city is very important to us.

Um we did talk about different locations.

I know you mentioned Montecito Park.

I did visit that park too.

I live in the North Monterey area as well.

Um, but that park, the great greengrass there is very utilized, and I think it would people might be upset that they would lose that.

Um and the Laguna Grande Park is one of the, I guess, one of the few locations we even found, because we know in Monterey there's not that much open land that the city owns to be even providing or a city garden uh for community garden.

Um so we definitely would love to work with the city with communities for sustainable Monterey County um to try to get this done.

Um, even put in some sweat equity in there and try to help get it done.

And um, yeah, we are looking forward to that and hopefully have it um hopefully built and set up before we have to move out of our current community garden.

A lot of our members uh like myself live in either apartments or condos.

We don't have the opportunity to garden.

This is our only opportunity to have a garden to grow fresh vegetables and things like that.

So that's uh all I had.

Thank you.

Good afternoon again.

I'm Esther, the president of the Laguna Grande Neighborhood Association.

Um, just a little bit about me.

I've lived in Monterey 25 years, and thirteen of those have been in the Laguna Grande neighborhood.

I am um an avid gardener myself, and almost all the houses in that area have yards, so it would be mostly Villa del Monte people that could benefit from not having yards.

Um, that said, just FYI, you're not talking about putting this in Monterey property on Monterey property.

This is seaside-owned property.

And um, I'm not sure if you guys are aware of the problem that we have with that property of the park, uh, that segment of the park, because that's something we I'm gonna talk about in public comment.

But that area is designated and already funded for an NCIP project that is also having all kinds of problems because it is a seaside property, it is not owned by Monterey.

And they had an MOU that's been expired for five years, and right now, when anything comes up over there, it's who's gonna handle it.

No, it's a hot potato, nobody wants to do anything that involves money, whether it's Seaside or Monterey.

So you should be aware that that is not Monterey property.

Um that said, a couple of years ago, one of our board members proposed a community garden, and the neighborhood um board members decided against it because we have a very heavy homeless population in that area that you do not have over here where the garden is now.

Um we decided that we were worried it would attract more homelessness, and um it's seasonal homelessness increases there, so it would coincide with when your garden activities would probably be producing.

So you don't want to encourage more homeless people to come there to raid the garden for lack of a better way to put it.

That said, um we actually support community garden and are happy to come up with a plan to share that space should the NCIP project and this project both be approved because right now it's all in limbo.

Um, another thing that you know I want to point out is in 2009 when this community garden was proposed.

They went to the neighborhood association and they have not come to us.

Nobody really even knows that sustainable garden uh sustainable Monterey exists.

Um, sustainable seaside goes to JPA meetings and they they engage, but we haven't had any exposure other than residents that are involved in that garden here.

Here, nobody knew that we had a community garden in the city.

So we'd be happy to collaborate on, you know, making these two things happen at the same time with funding and support.

Any more public comment?

All right, uh public comment is now closed.

Justin, could I speak to the um I think the public process and the land ownership piece?

Of course.

So this would be sort of the the first stop along the um you know, community input and public process opportunities here.

Um we do understand that this is a section of land that is um co-managed through the JPA, and so um we would be looking to work with uh sustainable Monterey and you know have a presentation and information brought through that organization as well.

Um, and you know, Monterey would be prepared to be taking on uh the ongoing maintenance, and the way we would do that is through some type of an agreement with the nonprofit organization.

So we would have that in place so that you know, through that organization, Monterey would be responsible for it.

So that that's sort of what we would need to present uh as a next step to utilize this particular space.

Um there is an NCIP project that approved some funding for fitness equipment.

Um, I believe that came through the Parks and Rec Commission as a general concept as well, um, but there is not a formal um you know plan that's come back yet, and there is not the full funding amount that's needed for that project.

So that's that's some of the reasons why that hasn't moved forward yet.

Um, and you know, I think as part of this, we would um you know we need to come back and really talk about the the layout for that.

So um again the the reason for the community garden is because of the displacement with the housing project.

So that was sort of what we were responding to as far as to see if there's an appropriate space you know on city land in park space.

Thank you.

All right, moving to presentation four.

Uh presentation on the status of the parks and recreation department operations for February 2026 through May 2026.

Uh, not a project under C Article 20, Section 1537, and under general rule article 5, section 15061.

Nicole.

All right, thank you.

I'm going to um start us off with our department overview.

And this overview is um going to cover the time span since we were with you last um where we stopped at January from the update.

Before we get into our particular division updates, I'm going to give um brief update on how we've been doing with our budget planning.

Um, and that we're actually going to be at the city council meeting on June 16th for the city's budget.

And so I have a few few slides to start with that.

So this first slide gives you an overview.

I wanted to start off by just pointing out the many areas that our team oversees and is responsible for.

Uh, you can see it's everything from parks to trees, uh, community centers and buildings, the sports center, uh, cemetery, campground, beaches, um, many different things from pickleball courts to tennis courts.

Um, so an exciting array of um of things that are overseen.

Um, and this over this is overseen by our staff of um currently around 40 full-time staff, uh but a lot of part-time staff that really help us um take care of and provide these opportunities.

Our staff is made up of teens, retirees, adults with special talents.

They lead our fitness classes, they lifeguard our pools, uh, they lead our campers and take on um taking care and responsibility for our playgrounds, trees, and parks.

So very important work that's being done.

Next slide.

Um I wanted to give you a look at our current budget year, which is the FY26 year, as compared to our proposed budget that we're going into for FY27.

You can see we do have a slight increase, about two-tenths percent increase.

But while we do see this increase, I think everybody recognizes that this won't keep up with some of the escalating costs that we're going to be seeing, and especially in areas like our utilities and insurance, those things are rising faster than this budget can keep up with.

Also wanted to point out our significant revenues that are brought in.

That is a very important piece for our department in providing these services.

So in particular our recreation and sports center revenues make up a significant amount of revenue coming in through our department.

Next slide will highlight our department revenues.

So just to discuss the revenue a little more.

This includes covering, you know, the 45% revenue covering our costs includes our parks operations as well.

So things like maintaining playgrounds and beaches, we don't charge an access fee for those.

So that's spread out about you know over all the type of work that we do.

To keep up with our revenues, we are, I think last time we were with you, we did our updated fee schedule that did make it through city council.

Our fees are increasing by about 10%.

This was uh over two years, so we did not have a fee increase last year.

Um, but just trying to keep up with market rates and make sure we continue to keep our revenues stable with our our expense and cost increases.

And then the third thing here that we just want to point out is really a significant amount of our revenue is coming in through our online platform, and that's really been a huge efficiency for our department over the last several years.

Um even with the uh slight increase to the budget, so I won't call it a budget cut, um, but we are we are seeing some reductions, and um I would do want to highlight the reductions to our staffing levels because again it is the people on our team who are doing this work and taking care of the vast amount of spaces and amenities that we offer.

So the staffing reductions include two park maintenance worker positions.

Um, those have been frozen and will remain frozen, so those are not included in this budget proposal.

One recreation specialist, Shannon talked about this position earlier, and part of the reason why we are struggling to keep up with providing the amount of services that the community is looking for.

This position also remains frozen in this proposed budget.

Our management analyst, um, this is reduced from it was a full-time position, and we're currently doing an employee share program.

Um, you may know Mark Ackerman, who is part of our city manager team.

He's going to be working with the recreation department, parks and recreation for.6 FTE, and sharing that with the city manager's office.

That in that area, I mean, obviously, we especially with that significant amount of revenue that we bring in throughout the year, that position is so important for us, and we will have other staff members who will have to assist and help out with the tracking and keeping up with all of our the business side of our operation.

Um, and then the final change is that we are, it's sort of a net neutral change.

Um so we are removing an assistant urban forester position.

That position is not currently filled.

It's something that has, it was previously on the frozen position list, but we are proposing in this budget adding an urban forester.

So this gives us a little bit of hierarchy within our forestry division, where we will have we will still have the assistant urban forester that is currently filled, but that position that's vacant would become an urban forester position.

In addition to the reductions to our staffing level, in order to assist the city with the structural deficit, which is around 10 million, the departments were asked to make further cuts to our budgets that were outside of our staffing area.

And so for us, our services and supplies accounts were reduced by about 10% as well.

That is very challenging because last year's budget also included a cut of about 7% to our service and supplies accounts.

So we're getting very lean and shrimp on what we're able to provide.

And next slide.

Yep, thank you.

But we know that there's more work to be done.

We are likely to see further reductions citywide in the future years.

And the challenge for our department, although it may seem a little more simple to cut things that may not be mission critical, that may seem like fun and nice to have items, because as we have we've seen in what I've just shown you, we do have our positions.

Our staff is bringing in a significant amount of revenue along with that work.

And so when you cut positions and lower your level of service, you're also cutting that revenue that comes in.

And so where you think you might be seeing a lot of savings, there's sometimes very little to uh no savings that can be found there.

Um just to give like a simple example of this.

If we run a yoga class, we need you know make the decision to eliminate that instructor for that particular yoga class.

That yoga class probably brought in more revenue than it cost to run and implement that.

And so if you take that over everything that we're doing and how those funds are going back into providing those services, you know, it really puts us in a situation of having significant um negative in impact on our community services and what we're able to do for our residents without seeing a lot of benefit and savings from that.

Um I also just wanted to highlight on this slide, you know, just the amazing amount of touch points that we have within the department.

Um, so four million visitors coming through 65 over 65,000 participants taking advantage of our programs in one way or another.

Um, and the sports center uh visits 587,000 visitors coming through the sports center on an annual basis.

So really incredible work being done.

Um, you know, we worked very hard this year, and I think we have more work ahead of us to try to get to where we need to be as as a whole city, and and we're pulling our part um to be uh part of that of that solution.

So happy to answer questions or go into any more detail, and of course, my colleagues are here as well with all the details of their operation areas.

Um I'm gonna turn it over to Tice, and we're gonna go through the rest of the department overview.

All right, thank you, Nicole.

Um, as you can see, a little quick update on the Good Grande.

We have a couple upcoming meetings, but um up there 13th of July and 12th of October.

But uh just we had a uh April 19th, um we had the 50th anniversary.

Got to see a few few of you up there for the celebration at the park, which was really fun on both sides of the park.

Um we had all a lot of city, city of Monterey um departments and divisions that came to kind of help jazz it up, if you will.

So that was fun, especially the fire department got to show off the brand new ladder truck with the biggest uh flag I've ever seen.

So that was that was a lot of fun.

But yeah, so when also up there, you could see the seasides started or trying to start their side of the of uh a grant to help with their uh vegetation management.

Um and obviously we just talked about we'll be able hopefully have a little bit more flexibility if we're able to get some grant money as well through uh urban greening or uh coastal conservancy grant, which we're going after.

Next slide, please.

Uh park division, a lot of our normal uh statistics you see up there, the plants uh that were planted.

I will say I'll kind of jump to the bottom of that 991, 500 of them were done with the Green Cadre group, which was really great.

Um, specifically in the wharf parking lot, we had some bio swells that kind of were overtaken by some invasive species.

So they ripped that out and put in um a lot of uh native sedges in there, which was a pretty big undertaking.

Um, but obviously, there's the gophers, the sea lines, everything.

We have to kind of clean up.

Um, a lot of staff time for um illegal camps and irrigation line repairs that time of the year.

Um, and then also we got um got started on seasonal weed eating through our green belts and parks.

Um so that's went underway in May, but uh, I'm sure this could be a long one, especially with that half an inch of rain we got here just a few weeks ago.

So uh next slide, please.

Um did we haven't met in a while, but obviously cutting day.

Um Chair Ono got to see you there at uh cutting day as usual, got to see a few people.

So that was a lot of fun as usual.

Um we did some landscaping projects as you can see the list there.

Uh Hilltop was a really cool one.

It was one of my, and I'm partial to because it's one I've been looking at since I became a parks worker, uh, upper row on the slope across the lawn.

So please go take a look.

We're really yeah, thank you.

I'm very happy with it.

Um guys did it, the crew did a really good job.

Tracy and Balta kind of led that one.

Um wood chips on the playgrounds.

Uh we got jet mulched, a bunch of the new uh mulch in there, which is great via Paraizo, Deer Flats, Fish Flats, Ferranti, and Dennis the Menace, which always just gives a really nice fresh look, if nothing else, um, but also obviously makes it um a safer uh play area for everybody.

Um we were also very busy kind of coordinating some NCIP projects.

Delmonte Beach was a big one.

That was uh they're very successful getting a lot of money to do some boardwalk repair.

Um so we had a contractor go in there and did a lot of feet worth of uh of boardwalk repairs.

I don't have the number off the top of my head, but um turned out very good, and I think we'll still hopefully have a little extra funding to maybe continue doing that.

Um, and then also the basketball courts is another big one.

Um, Veterans Park and Via Paraizo got um a much needed uh you know upgrades to their basketball facilities, so that's looked really good as well.

Uh next slide.

Uh forestry, uh busy as always.

Mike Topes been really doing a great job being the only our only forester right now tackling most of our most, if not all of our tree issues.

Um what you could see up there, Arbor Day.

We had a great Arbor Day event with Grand Cadre as well, where they planted over 50 trees, and these weren't just a trees, these were 15-gallon Monterey pine trees.

So these were not easy to huff around and put in the ground, so they did a great job planting.

And this was in April when we had kind of a drier stretch there.

So that was some, it was not easy, easy digging.

Um, but they did a great job, knocked it out.

Uh fuel reduction projects that we did through our cowfire grant, um, Iris Canyon Greenbelt.

The um we had some off of uh Don Davy, Don Davy Park.

We did some some work there with contractors, so that was really good.

Um, and that it's ongoing.

We're actually starting up, we started a project today on Don Davy Lane just below the mall with Totes Tree Service doing fuel reduction work in there.

So that's that's which is a much needed area.

So that whole Iris Canyon Don Davy is gonna get hit and some major improvements in there.

So it's a it's a and we know it's a much needed area because of the amount of illegal camps that we we have to abate in there.

So uh next slide, please.

Uh tree ordinance update uh back on April 21st.

April was a busy month.

Uh we had a we brought to city council finally the um staff recommendations for the ordinance after all the the public outreach and the data collection and analysis.

Uh we finally had the opportunity to bring some staff recommendations to the council.

Um but the the big caveat there was that this any of the changes to our ordinance was going to trigger trigger CEQA.

So triggering CEQA, therefore meant uh environment impact report, which could cost 200,000 roughly.

So that's a big decision to make, and especially with the budget concerns that we have right now.

So the city council's kind of defer uh basically deferred on it for for now.

And uh, but in the meantime, we are going to be making some upgrades to our website and the kind of the application process.

So no changes to the ordinance, but just how our application is and accepting payment.

We're hoping to make that a little bit easier and um as streamlined as we possibly can without making those changes.

So uh, but we'll yeah, hopefully we'll get we'll like you said June 16th will be uh interesting night for all of us, and that'll have some or implications for this as well.

So and uh pass it on to Shannon.

So we'll try and go through this really quickly.

We have a very full agenda.

I'm sorry about that, but um lots been happening, and I'm gonna skip over a lot of staff efforts just because um there's just been so much going on.

So that's a photo from one of our outreach events, um, spring into parks with our staff and um trying to get the word out on all the things that we do and summer um programming.

Um, and then of course, all the different operations within the Monterey Recreation Division there.

Uh so one event that we did have, um, and we utilized city council chambers um and Colton Hall Lawn was our sixth annual um bunny hop photo op and extra fun on a Saturday, March 28th.

So we use Colton Hall and um Council Chambers, the bunny is visiting, um, and we get family photos, and then we utilize the lawn space.

There's face painting, my museum wheelie mobile, carnival games, free activities.

Um, it's a multi-generational event.

In this case, we had um siblings who have attended year after year.

I remember those children when they were babies.

They announced their little brother who they were like, we don't like boys, but we get a little brother, and so it's just great.

We get to see these kids grow.

Um, and there's tons of egg hunts everywhere.

Um, there are families that do their own egg hunt, but this is truly an event where people can come have a really good quality picture using their own phones, um, and have a nice relaxing time.

And I'm just we did so many years of doing a traditional egg hunt, and it was over in 30 seconds, and children were crying and trampled and everything.

So this is just uh it came out of COVID as a COVID-safe way to have an event, and it just has now expanded.

So it's great.

And we were planning for next year on Saturday, March 20th.

So it's always a Saturday before the weekend of Easter.

So summer is here.

Um we've actually already started our summer camp programs.

Um that's a photo from beach volleyball camp utilizing the outdoor beach courts on window on the bay.

Um, so Brent Almario, our sports coordinator is um working to run those programs, and we also have Challenger International Soccer at Solicito right now.

So summer camps are going.

Um, the other thing that we're doing right now is training all of our summer staff for day camp playgrounds and uh campkin sabi.

Uh a huge effort takes many, many days at CPR, first aid, um, but then just how to work together, how to communicate, how to manage children, how to be inclusive, what to do with bullying, you know, everything.

We touch on everything, um, and really hopefully setting them up for success and lifelong um benefits.

We um have a seven-minute video right now of all the staff that we could remember who started in parks and recreation as their first job, and then have moved on and continued working in some sort of government agency.

And we'll point out Justin Ono, who was a playground leader, who is now on the commission and works for the city of Carmel.

So, you know, that is what we do.

We have had multiple generations of families participating in our programs, whether they're doing swim lessons or attending Cam Ginsabi.

Camp Gonsabi will have 73 summers this year.

Day Camp 69, the playground program is actually older than both Camp Kinsabi and Day Camp.

Same thing with our field outdoor sports programs.

So things are going very well.

It takes a huge effort to get that done, and it's the entire team is recruiting and hiring and interviewing and fingerprinting.

So as of now, the revenue for fiscal year 26 for these, in particular, the three camps, is exceeding our revenue projections at about 127.8% of revenue.

There's a kind of a highlight of where we are in terms of enrollment.

And we've got a lot of participants and pretty big wait lists that we I don't know if we're gonna be able to get people off of those wait lists.

Um so we um are doing very well, and we're excited because Monday is the first really big start to summer.

Like that's when everything is rolling at the same time across every like across the city of Monterey, um, and then Camp Kinsabi is busy with um getting their staff trained and set up.

So huge efforts.

Next slide.

Um field sports, um, this again is from February to May.

Um, had our spring track and field at MPC, um Youth Fitness Day, um, at Seaside High.

Um, field sports is offering over 19 sessions of summer camps, um, soccer, beach volleyball, basketball, track and field, and flag football, very um utilizing all of our outdoor spaces.

And then our adult sports are also going very well.

We um had our spring league.

It's a little bit of a smaller league in the spring, which isn't really that small, but because we're utilizing the same fields as pony baseball and Monterey High School, we can't offer as many adult leagues.

So um still 270 participants and 18 teams in um co-rec uh softball.

Um this summer we are offering for the first time our ultimate frisbee league at Solicito.

I didn't have time to pull together another slide, but we are working on programming and permitting for Celisto ballpark.

Um we're actually programming at JAX as well, but um the PECOS League is has not returned this summer.

Um, and we pretty much have booked Solicito every day, every day from before 8 a.m.

to the end of the day.

Um, lights are on the field, um, we are using it.

Um, whether it's our own programs or contractual programs, um we're um we have a group that we're running a 40 and over adult base wood bat baseball league.

Um, we have our ultimate frisbee league, which is new.

Um, some of our um high school athletes are getting some opportunities for some summer training.

So um the amount of people we're serving um is you know, just that was our goal, making sure that the field is utilized in a way that's best serves um Monterey.

So El Estero Park Center, that there is a photo from our Mother's Day brunch for their preschoolers.

They had a low performance, and their parents are their moms are taking pictures.

Um our enrollment is really high.

Our preschool programs, piano, dance, Legos, those are all really high enrollment.

Gymnastics continues to be full, with four days a week and wait lists.

We also have fencing that is full.

Every time we offer sourdough baking, that's full.

Again, hosted our piano recital and preschool Mother's Day brunch.

So full slate of summer programs, summer camps indoors at the El Estara Park Center.

And then additionally, they're getting, you know, still planning ahead for the next round of programs after summer.

So kids create and kids night out, among other things.

Hilltop is going well.

We've got our usual adult ceramics, but now we've added some youth ceramics workshops.

Those are also full with wait lists.

Our other programs that are really not necessarily full but have high enrollment or Pilates, dance, piano, theater.

We offered a spring break program.

We've had five blood drives in the February through May, with 176 people getting their blood drawn.

Toddler enrichment programs returned for the first time after COVID.

So let's get messy and those type of things were been offered.

Another full set of summer camps at Hilltop, Tiny Tots summer camp, dance, STEAM and Robotics, working on preschool enrollment for the next school year, which start will start in August.

And then we've got about 6,609 participants in that time frame.

That's not necessarily a tent daily attendance, that's just participants.

So Hilltop is busy, busy, and they're hosting our staff training right now.

So Schultz, again, things have been very busy.

Offered either with us or volunteers, Alliance on Aging, AARP, we have a meals on wheels, daily, senior produce through the Monterey County Food Bank.

We offer some socials in partnership with Gateway and Hope Services.

We had a trip to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

And then in addition to all those ongoing programs, we're planning for the next series of senior luncheons and fall trips.

So I normally have a what's next slide and a bunch of things to say.

What's next is summer.

A lot of summer.

And this is kind of an example of our branding, which ties in very well to what the Sports Center is doing.

And it's very clearly the city of Monterey.

Monterey, City of Monterey, those are the Monterey recreation colors.

You can see the city seal in the corner.

So it's all about continuing that branding across the Sports Center, across recreation.

You look at our city website, web pages, everything blends and flows.

And so that you see it, you know that's Monterey.

Whether that's Monterey Recreation, Monterey Sports Center, Parks that's telling that story.

And one thing that we're trying to do with our summer in particular is when we're training our staff and also our participants, you know, we've got people with us and our those children with us for probably maybe sometimes in more cases than their parents do during the summer.

And it's building more than where summer builds more than memories.

So we're um hopefully setting a good foundation for the children in our programs, but also the staff that they've built skills that they can use no matter what, even if they don't continue in the field of recreation or public service, that you know, we've set a really strong foundation.

So that is it for us.

There's a lot happening, and it could not be done without the whole rec team who is in.

Some of them who are here today are in orange, but where summer builds more than more than memories, City of Monterey.

So thank you.

All right.

So we'll move on to the Sports Center.

I just wanted to say something as we kind of go into it.

You saw with the presentations from Tice and from Shannon, just the incredible amount of service that uh the department provides for the community.

Uh open spaces that allow people to recreate, to get peace of mind, to exercise, whether it's in an open park or an open space walking through the community, or whether it's in an organized program that promotes social connection and for all ages, all abilities, uh families as well as individuals.

Um pretty amazing thing.

And one of the things that happened a couple weeks ago, Mayor Madame, who is the mayor of New York City, uh put out a statement that the parks, recreation, and library services are essential services for any city or community, and he would preserve all funding for all those programs.

There would be no cuts to any of those programs because of how critical and essential they were to the fabric of a community.

So I think when you see some of the programs that uh Shannon talks about through recreation and what the level of service is, and you think about what we do with our park system, it's pretty amazing.

And I just I hope our leadership understands how vital our services and our programs are for the community.

So, with that, going into the Sports Center.

Um, we are hitting high watermarks on virtually every area of our programming, including our memberships.

We have a significant number of new memberships over the last uh couple of years, and this year has been another upkeep, um uptick in the number of memberships.

The weekly visitors and daily visitors.

If you come to the sports center like today, I was a little bit um amazed at just how active our small pool was.

We had probably a hundred kids in there at any given time learning how to swim from six months old all the way up.

Again, the National Pediatric Association came out with how critical and vital the swimming skill is uh for all individuals to learn, and that's what we do every day.

Uh hundreds of kids are learning how to swim in those pools.

Uh, they talked about the value and importance of everyone learning CPR and AED skills to save lives, and again, that's what we do.

Every counselor that Shannon hires that's working in our camps and programs is trained in AED CPR, first aid.

Every employee we hire is trained in that.

It's a part of our fabric, and so they're taking that out into the community.

Uh so we're we're seeing tremendous um use of the sports center this summer in all of our programs and activities.

Uh John Dreispec, our facility coordinator, uh, yesterday said we had over 2,400 visitors um in a single day.

We're seeing those kind of numbers almost daily now during the summer.

So it's a very busy active place.

That puts a lot of stress on the staff to make sure that all of the youth and kids and teenagers and seniors and families and adults that are all kind of put into those spaces, are able to get along with each other and follow the rules and treat each other with respect.

And so our staff does an amazing job.

Uh, Philip is one of our leaders on the weekends.

It helps basically enforce the rules, make sure the teenagers are following the direction in the facility and keeps the place clean, keeps the place safe.

So we really appreciate our staff and their ability to do that.

Uh we just completed our 34th anniversary celebration, which was a big success.

We uh had about 800 people, we believe attended the event, uh, which was a 12 to 4 event uh on the uh Sunday, uh the 31st, and then the following day on the first, we did a customer appreciation with coffees and bagels for our members throughout the day.

But uh, we had a really good anniversary celebration.

We focused on a carnival theme, so it was really geared towards kids and families, filled the balloons, uh filled the pools with balloons, the beach balls, kids got in there and got a chance to play, had a great time, uh, had the wibbet out, the obstacle course that goes in the pool, slide on.

We had carnival games on the Sun Deck.

We had a gentleman that came in that just did an amazing job twisting uh balloons into different animal shapes.

He even had a uh Yoda that was pretty popular with some of the kids.

Uh we had popcorn, we had uh cotton candy, we had um mafia catering, and she had the best cannolis in Monterey.

Um so great food.

Uh Laureate had uh her folks come out to do kind of a Zumba uh entertainment dance uh type thing, and just a really good uh energy, good vibe.

Nicole was able to come.

Uh our assistant city manager Nat came to the event.

Um so we had a lot of uh just really good energy uh going through that uh event on Sunday.

And what we usually see after we do these, and it was free.

When we do these big free community events, whether it's the Dia de las Muertos or the anniversary celebrations, we see an uptick in memberships afterwards, and that's what we've seen over the last couple of weeks.

We've seen a number of new families and individuals joining the facility.

Next slide, please.

Um, some of the things that are new.

Uh Lori's been able to replace some of our older equipment with some newer designs that people are really uh enjoying and learning.

She continues to add new classes uh to the schedule.

We have uh clearly uh not even it's not even close, the most comprehensive group exercise schedule uh on the peninsula.

We provide uh classes for all levels, all abilities, uh whether it's therapeutic and the senior pool for the seniors, or whether it's uh a bone builders class or whether it's an advanced uh hit class, uh whatever it might be, the Zumba dance classes, the indoor cycling classes.

We have a very comprehensive program, and because we have that group exercise schedule, particularly that level of diversity and reaching so many different abilities, it really is the glue that keeps our memberships so popular in the community.

They have other options, they have other choices, they choose a sports center because of the diversity of the operations that we provide.

Uh, we did get an update in our security system, which has been really phenomenal.

So it's increased essentially our ability to identify uh challenges and issues in the facility as they occur, uh behavioral issues, being able to essentially verify what um is being reported, and being able to take action as needed to essentially mitigate any of those types of challenges.

So we're really uh um benefiting from that in enhanced security system.

Uh next slide, please.

So sports camps and programs.

Um spring sports camp is going really now uh really well now.

Uh counselors and training, uh that program is where we take young people and essentially teach them to develop the skills that will eventually lead to their first full-time job or first part-time jobs.

That has gone really well.

Uh, really big increase in the demand for ping pong drop-in and private lessons.

We've been using Studio 2 when we're not programming it for the individuals to go play ping pong.

We've had as many as 24 people up there uh playing on four tables and rotating, as well as the ping pong table we have in our main lobby, which uh they like to play on, but also the families like to engage on.

Um we've had a number of um programs that we've added in the gymnasium, including the youth volleyball leagues.

We now have 110 participants, and then uh that's leading to some other activities.

Ryan told me on Tuesday night, we had 42 people playing drop-in volleyball.

So we had to add a second court for that number of people to be able to rotate in and play.

So between the Futsal Leagues and the Badminton leagues and the uh pickleball programming, uh the just a lot of activities in that gym.

Uh Ryan Nunez, our sports coordinator, does a fantastic job trying to maximize the utilization of that space and to really uh uh kind of um provide that level of benefit to as many people as possible in the community.

Next slide, please.

Uh, group exercise and personal training.

Uh again, we continue to exceed expectations on personal training in terms of the number of packages, the revenue that comes in there, the revenue is significant.

This year it's going to approach a quarter of a million dollars in revenue just through personal training packages.

Um the group exercise classes I offered is uh have indicated is really extensive.

Some of the largest attendance uh includes Pilates Hybrid, uh Restorative Stretch, Zumba, and Functional Strength.

Again, that program uh Lori runs a fantastic group exercise schedule.

Um she's been with the facility since about a month after we opened.

She came in as a part-time instructor back in 1992, July, and she's been with us ever since.

So you can see the uh level of experience and the level of uh just expertise that we have there, and then her support person, Marcia uh DimaCurio, has been fantastic in terms of helping us coordinate that personal training program and making sure that it's safe and effective and uh in demand.

And then Linda Gully is also here tonight.

Linda is uh contractual for us.

She helps Lori with the marketing, helps with all of the kind of promotional stuff that we put out.

So a lot of the things you see the banners, the flyers, the posters, the new look that we have in the facility in a lot of the updated social media posts, the pictures, the videos, the things that we're able to get out and communicate our message to the community.

That's really a credit to Linda and uh her work working with Lori.

So just want to give that credit to them.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh community engagement.

Uh we were in the Monterey Bay Parents Summer Camp Expo.

Uh that was at Del Monte Center, saw a lot of parents, a lot of kids.

Uh, we're able to share more information about our summer camp programs, which are completely full, swim lesson programs which are full.

Uh so we're able to get those messages out.

Uh, hosted the free somatic breath work workshop on Saturday, April 18th.

Again, Lori coordinates those activities, the wellness uh programs that we do.

So you'll see Lori's name comes up a lot because she has a pretty big portfolio at the Sports Center, and then the uh anniversary with the Carnival celebration that we just did.

Next slide, please.

Uh, aquatics, um, 4,306 group swim lessons, 1,397 participants in private and semi-private.

Again, it's such an essential skill.

This is a big part of our operations.

Uh, Tony indicated that we had 241 lane reservations with groups including California Department of Fishing Game and Wildlife, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey Bay Yacht Club, Hopkins Diver Trainer, Monterey Bay Scuba, and MPS.

We also, we've been hosting uh multiple days for Special Olympics participation.

We get a couple hundred uh volunteers from DLI that come down and work with Special Olympics to give them a great experience.

We just hosted the uh junior guards program with the state uh lifeguard um uh association, and so we're we're doing a lot of work with nonprofits, a lot of school groups, a lot of outside groups that would not otherwise have access to aquatic facilities, and that's in addition to our swim lessons and our aquatic programming.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh what's next?

We are currently offering a new summer pass.

Uh this essentially gives them a 30-day pass to use a facility, uh, a little more expensive than if they had a monthly membership or an auto pay membership, but less expensive than if they were paying drop-in every day.

And it's really popular.

People like having that option.

So that promotion is actually going really well.

We do have uh, again, Lori is coordinating a back to school promotion coming up on August 28th through September 7th, uh, which would include a discount on the personal training package and then a discount on the monthly auto pay, essentially, first month of the uh new auto pay would be covered.

So those promotions essentially create excitement for the opportunity to utilize the Sports Center.

They create revenue that helps us with offsetting our cost recovery goals.

And again, with the staffing model that we have right now, it tends to be all hands on deck with all of these events and activities and programs.

So I I really can't say enough about our full-time and our part-time staff and what they contribute to make that um a really successful operation.

Next slide, please.

Okay.

Any questions or comments?

Um Raizo Park has never looked this good.

I mean, it the ball fields, the courts, the Bass of the New Basketball Court.

It is gorgeous.

And uh I get to use it just about every day.

So uh I wanted to pass that along.

And I'm sure other people that have experienced the other parks in the in the city have the same experience, but I that's my experience, and I just wanted to pass that on too.

I appreciate it.

As you know, Andre takes great pride, especially in that lawn, that green greenest grass, he likes to say in the whole city.

Um as long as it's not running up too big of a water bill.

But yeah, and and there's so many kids playing ball there now.

It's just I love going there on Saturday and watching all the kids play.

So it's that's fun.

And such a variety of people using the park.

Mothers with with pairs with kids and in strollers.

Uh elders, you know, doing their their daily uh walk, uh dog owners like myself, you know, just but pickleball, tennis.

I mean, everything's being used, so it's it's awesome to see.

Um, and I just wanted to say I I'm curious about the fencing and sourdough class.

Well, two separate.

We have a fence, I agree.

They were on the same line of thought.

There was both, but that's very intriguing.

Um I'm uh I'm intrigued by the variety of sports and activities that you offer at the sports center.

That is just amazing and how you accommodate that.

How can you possibly get more people in that sports center?

It's just you've got it sounds like you've got everybody there all the time.

We're ramping up our after hours rentals program.

That's how we get more people in there.

So you'll see that coming.

Okay, all right.

So we're gonna have some midnight balls and things like that.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Thank you very much.

I mean, just stunning, stunning work on all levels.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, it's every time, it's amazing to see what you guys are doing.

Um, Bill, every time we go to the pool on the weekends, it's just packed, and it you see how many people are coming in and out of their families.

It's a really the small pool gets well loved.

Um Tyson, you have did you ever fill that craftsperson position to be able to help out with CQS?

Not yet, but that is one we're hoping to fill.

Right now, it's being um filled with a couple employees kind of filling that role.

So they're pulling double duty, they're doing taking care of their parks, um, and help set up for these parks.

So today, actually, for CQS, they were running up tables and the refrigerator, I think, and a bunch of other things.

So it's begun.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Um yeah, that's just you guys do an amazing job.

Um, my wife finally got into pottery class, so she's there tonight, and she's she's having a great time.

And anyone else?

Uh eyes in the sky.

We like to say, just real quick.

Um, I also have seen Laguna Grande Court is the park's adorable.

Um, and the Delbani beach boardwalk looks great.

The guys did an amazing job on the um walls that they built, too.

It was they just watched them.

They were steady every day.

Um, just real quick, I was listening to the gentleman talking from Kona.

I would love to see the movies in the park again.

I think that was always really successful.

And just as a kind of an aside idea, I wonder if we could move some our possibility of moving some of the senior programs that we have to that um Casanova Oak Null.

And I and I only say that, but just because I believe our population down in that area is lots of children and our senior population is increasing.

Um maybe that's another way to utilize that Casanova Oaknoll.

Um Schulse's full all the time.

They have amazing programs over there.

Um, yeah, it just might be nice to have something kind of on this side of the tunnel.

But otherwise, that's all I have.

Thank you.

With that, no more commissioner comments.

Uh, public comment.

Okay.

Um, if you are in the council chambers and would like to make a public comment on this item, please identify yourself.

Okay, we have one.

And then if you are online and would like to make a public comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature or star nine if you are on the phone.

All right.

We have two total, so we'll go ahead with the chambers first.

Hello again.

So um I'm the Laguna Grande spokesperson, so I'll give you guys a little bit of history.

Um, when I started um paying attention to this park, there really wasn't a lot of attention being paid to it by the regional parks district, the JPA was inactive at all, nothing was happening.

And to echo what was said earlier, the park has never looked better, and that we attribute completely to Tice and even before him, Louie, Karen, uh Shannon, all of the park staff has always been extremely responsive and and very supportive once we the residents actually started speaking up and making sure that our side of the city, which happens to be the lower income side of the city, needed to get attention.

So I am very often at council meetings singing the praises of our staff, particularly parks.

Um, you know, it goes way back, and our parks guys um that have really helped get the park on our little one acre out of the 10 acres of the the big park.

Because I don't know if you guys know, but Laguna Grande Park is the largest park on the peninsula.

And um Anthony does a great job, and before him, Santo, and so those guys have been, you know, really irreplaceable to us, and and of course, Tys's support before he got his big promotion and now um also the vegetation management and all that is extremely important to us because we do have a homeless community there, they have fires back there, the residents their backyards but up to where those encampments are.

Residents have had to use their own hoses to put out small fires back there.

Um, so you know, we've worked with TICE and and the police department and the fire department on fire abatement and vegetation management and all that, and so we really appreciate all the work that they've done to really be a partner for our neighborhood.

Um I did want to mention uh the volleyball games that you have going on at the sports center.

We have a volleyball court at Laguna Grande Park.

And I don't know, most people that I know would rather be doing whatever sport they're doing, whether it's yoga or otherwise outdoors, and so I'm not sure why that volleyball court hasn't been utilized as part of this league or whatever it is that goes on there.

I don't particularly play volleyball, so I don't know what's involved in that.

But um, I just wanted to mention that, but again, thank and thank you to all of you guys for giving your time to the commission.

I mean, this is all volunteer work from everybody, and without you guys, they don't have the support that they need, and we don't have what we you know benefit from as residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, and caller ending 902.

You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Good evening.

This is Nina Beattie.

I am astounded at the number of birds and sea lions that have been buried on the beach.

This is a huge number in just three months.

It doesn't have you didn't provide the breakdown of the birds versus sea lions, but what is causing that?

This is something that's very, very off for this many animals to be dead.

Um I really would like a definition of fuel.

I hear this word used all the time.

But vegetation is not fuel.

Um, and Mr.

Norton's right, Don Davy and all these areas are gonna get hit.

This is habitat destruction.

This is green vegetation destruction in many areas.

And I'd like to know why is the city so busy with tree work right now during bird nesting season.

And in addition, private companies and PGE are doing it.

This commission heard about uh from Audubon a number of years ago.

I last year, year before, that when the old capital site was first, and I'll use Mr.

Norton's term hit by Calfire and Green Cadre, there was huge bird loss there.

This was totally avoidable, and it was unthinking behavior, but nothing has changed in the city.

I've talked with City Forestry, and nothing's being done.

In the last two weeks, trees and bushes were substantially cut, and loud chippers run twice in the same location on my street.

PGE cut down a dead tree next to our driveway and did ridiculous trimming far from power lines of other trees refusing to wait until nesting season was over, and the birds could be heard shrieking in the background.

PGE isn't taking this into consideration at all, and permits seem to be just again being given out like candy, and neither are private businesses.

Last month a neighbor told me about a great deal of cutting in veterans park area.

I requested this commission with the help of the parks and recreation department set rules now to protect birds and wildlife by putting limits on the tree cutting and tree trimming that's done at this time of year because it is not protecting trees or vegetation in the city and is not protecting wildlife.

We need to stop these destructive practices in Monterey.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Almost anyone else?

No, we're good.

All right, with that public comments are closed.

Uh, that ends our presentations.

Moving on to the approval of minutes.

Uh, would someone like to make a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved.

And a second.

Second.

Um, all in favor.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Aye.

We have two people rolling.

Oh, yes.

So we're gonna take a roll call vote.

So, Chair Ono.

Yes.

Vice Chair Buya.

Yes, Commissioner Crampton.

Yes.

Commissioner Nazal Gutty.

Yes, Commissioner Reed.

Yes, and Commissioner Schmidt.

Yes.

Thank you.

All right.

With that, uh move on to general public comments.

All right.

Speakers need to be identified prior to public comment opening.

If you are in the chamber and would like to speak during public comment, items not on today tonight's agenda.

Please stand up.

Please stand in lineup, or if unable, please raise your hand.

Okay.

And then if anyone online would like to make a public comment, please use the raise hand feature or star nine.

And we have two.

So we'll go ahead and start with in the chambers first.

Hello again.

So I wanted to ask you guys to consider agendizing a portion of some future agenda regarding Laguna Grande Park and the border issue.

We're on the border of seaside, and there's a lot of uh problems because the border is a jagged border, and it presents um unique problems that you probably don't have at other parks in the city, starting with the fact that that park again is the largest park on the peninsula, and it is shared with uh seaside as well as the regional parks district, which creates a lot of problems with management.

Um, for example, right now, I just had a meeting a couple of days ago with the city manager and his assistant about a walkway that is along the side of the soccer field, which is seaside property.

Soccer field was paid for with NCIP money, and the concrete is a mess.

And Seaside doesn't want to pay for it.

Monterey doesn't want to pay for it because it's on seaside property, but then again, so is the soccer field in the bathroom that we're already managing.

But now the city manager says to me that they're gonna go to the regional parks district because that portion is owned by them but managed by seaside, but in an area that we maintain.

Have that anywhere else?

Probably not.

So I think it's important for you guys to understand the uniqueness of our park.

Um we have residents that are directly impacted because their homes butt directly up to the park.

And for example, there are I mentioned earlier they've had to put up fire fires with their own hoses because the homeless encampments are a couple of feet away from their backyards.

We've had a home invasion that the homeless person came in through someone's backyard, which was seaside, then a portion becomes Monterey, and then they were in the front of the house when the police department came.

So it was at one point.

Who responds?

Seaside county, I guess would respond to something that's the regional parks district or MPD.

So these are issues that we have.

The homeless encampments back there have been contained and reduced, but we still have ongoing problems, and it is a seasonal problem.

It impacts residents, it impacts wildlife, it impacts water quality.

Those are a number of things that we think that warrant agendizing this park on the parks and rec commission's um radar.

It really is something that you guys really need to have a very specific understanding, and I I'm respectfully uh requesting that at some point it get agendized, um, because it's unfair to staff and the residents to really have to be going back and forth with this so many years and not have it addressed.

Thank you.

All right, and so now we'll go to one caller online, caller 902.

You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

This is Nina Beattie.

I really want the city to take seriously protecting nature, protecting the trees and the forests, and protecting the ocean.

There's a Lakota term metacquiescent, and it means we are all related, we are all relatives.

The soil, the water, the ocean, the trees and plants and birds and insects, bushes and plants are not fuel, they're relatives.

That's what indigenous people realize, and that's what often children know before they've been inculcated by schools and and belief systems.

These plants are relatives, people, essential participants in the ecosystem, and protectors of the environment, protecting us from fire.

That includes introduced species too.

Most monterey human residents are introduced species.

We need each other to survive and thrive.

We need to protect all our relatives.

This way of thinking is the cultural shift in values, thinking and heart that's needed to save what's left of nature.

Nature doesn't need humans, but humans need nature to survive.

Forests don't need humans, and they don't need management.

Humans need forests to survive, and humans need management.

What's being done to the forest is destabilizing the local climate, the fire blocking mechanisms of nature, and it's resulting in destabilizing this community.

It affects all of us increasingly because we are part of the forest.

Harrison Ford recently told this to graduates of Arizona State University.

He said humanity is a part of nature, not above it.

A healthy natural world provides free services to mankind that we cannot provide for ourselves.

The oxygen and the air we breathe, the pollinators for our crops, the fresh water and carbon capture from our forests, wetlands, and oceans, etc.

But we are crippling nature's ability to help us.

People must stand up in this community and represent for nature the source of life itself.

We need to respect and elevate the indigenous people that are being marginalized in many ways killed in cold blood, and that certainly happened here in Monterey County.

He said these communities have long understood that the treaties, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities.

They are relatives to be cherished for following generations to embrace and protect.

We can all play a role by embracing that wisdom in our day-to-day lives by loving the planet, by honoring nature's authority, her generosity, the bounty she affords us, the justice of her example.

Because you said the world you're stepping into, the world my generation left you is a real mess.

We talked about the actions needed in addition to saving nature as our job to move the needle to bring about change.

We need to protect nature.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, and before we go on with the second portion of the meeting, would the commission like to take them on a monitor A5 or just keep going?

To use the facilities or okay, so we'll take them on our A five.

And we'll be back at seven thirty six.

Yes, ma'am.

Recording in progress.

Just have to resume.

All right.

And uh now we're back.

Uh moving on to the the second half of the meeting.

The public appearance appearance items reports on action.

Um the next uh item is to approve this installation of a little free library book distribution structure at Hilltop Park.

This is exempt from CQ Article 19, Section 15303, class three.

Shannon.

Oh, that's all right.

Um so I'm not gonna do too much talking on it other than uh we were um approached by our our friends at the Monterey Library about a little at the uh about a little uh little free library they were given or able to get through a grant.

And so um we have a little expertise of putting these in.

We've had a lot of uh luckily a lot of installations over the last five, six years at uh Laguna Grande, the Spray Avenue Tot Lot, via Paraiso, more recently Archer and Cypress Park.

So there's a lot of l we have a lot of little free libraries out there, which is great.

Adds a lot to our community.

Um I'm always surprised, especially the Dennis the Menace, how fast that one empties.

Um it gets loaded up and then gets emptied out.

So um I'll uh leave it to Kim to kind of talk the rest about the about this little free library that we want to put in.

Okay, great.

Um, I'm Kim Smith.

I'm public service or service manager at the Monterey Public Library, and I'm here representing the library and our friends and foundation.

Um, like Tys said, we have a number of little libraries and parks around the Monterey area that have been up for a number of years now.

Um, we found them to be a great way to promote reading and literacy um and at locations where people walk to in their communities, like lots of families and kids go.

We um like to put them by playgrounds.

Um this one was a grant opportunity from the um children's book author of Dogman.

And he um it was a competitive grant, but the author thought it was such a great project that he ended up donating um a little library to everyone who applied.

So we got this great little library um for free.

Um Tyson and his crew has helped install those in other places.

Hilltop, we thought would be a great location as it's really far from the library.

Um, but it is by a playground and a lot of community members walk through there.

There's the preschool and the um recreation programs inside the community center.

Um and then we have a great system in place where the friends and foundation use books that are donated for um the book sale, the access ones they put in the little library, and they have a volunteer that goes around once a week to restock and clean out any um anything that shouldn't be in the little libraries.

Um so we are hoping that we could add one, um, as an amenity at Hilltop Park.

Any questions?

I'll just add that you'll be making Rachel Dice very happy if there's the come through.

She's been waiting for one for a long time.

So I have to talk about any questions from the commissioners.

Can I make a motion?

Sure to approve the installation of a little library at Hilltop Park.

Sorry, we have to take public comment before we make a motion.

That's okay.

Um in the chamber would like to make a public comment.

Okay.

One.

And then if you are online and would like to make a public comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature or star nine.

There's no one online, so we'll just start with you in the chamber.

Uh yes, obviously, this is a great little uh grow great program.

I just I'm not sure what the process is on location choices.

Um at Laguna Grande Park, it was moved, I don't know, I think after a storm or something that, and it was placed at the end of a parking lot, there's nothing there.

And it's the color of the trees and everything completely blends in.

You don't even know that it's there.

So I'm not sure how that ended up happening, but the ideal location would be closer to the playground or the bathrooms or wherever you're probably considering to put it in at hilltop.

But if anybody you know is familiar with our portion of Laguna Grande Park, the parking lot leads to just nothing, the small parking lot, but it is on the opposite side of any activity that goes on.

So I'm not sure that that's getting much activity at all.

And if anybody's really um using it, it's probably the homeless people because it is closer to where they tend to congregate over there.

And I don't think we want them using those books for their buyers and bonfires and whatever that they might be doing with them.

So just a suggestion to hopefully move it and color it in a brighter way, like the one that it looks like is gonna go to Hilltop because the way that it is now, you don't even it blends in with the background so much you don't even know it's there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that was the only public comment on this item.

Okay, any additional comments?

Um, or someone ready to make a motion.

I will make a motion to uh approve the installation of a little library at Hilltop Park.

I'll second.

Okay.

All right, and so we have to do roll call vote again.

So, Chair Ono?

Yes, okay.

Vice Chair Boya, yes.

Commissioner Crampton?

Yes, Commissioner Nazal Garib.

Yes.

Commissioner Reed?

Yes, and Commissioner Schmidt.

Yes, thank you.

All right, we're moving on to the next presentation.

Uh no item.

Well, yeah.

Action, yeah.

Uh review proposed parks and recreation related neighborhood and community improvement program projects request for fiscal year 2627 and provide guidance to staff.

Not at Project General Sequel Article 20, Section 15378, and under general rule article 5 section 15061.

Shannon, this time, right?

Yeah.

Thank you.

My computer went to sleep on me.

So um we I will go through this pretty quickly.

Um, we are anticipating there being an NCIP program.

They're actually meeting right now in the library um for the next fiscal year.

And the deadline for applications um would be July 31st.

So typically we'd bring a list of projects that we recommend parks and rec commission consider submitting or advocating for, and we make sure that those projects get submitted by the July 31st deadline for consideration.

So, first slide.

Again, these are the neighborhoods um in as part of NCIP.

Next slide.

Um, real quick update on some of the projects that have been completed.

So um, as Tys mentioned before, and we've got a couple pictures.

The El Estero Park Center um playground equipment was updated.

Hopefully, we'll get a chance to show you that on a park tour.

Veterans and via Paraizo Park Basketball Court upgrades were done.

I have not seen veterans, but the appraisal looks great.

And when we do get funding and it's something that we can manage and work with Reggie on, they're more likely to get completed a little bit faster because there really is just kind of one person managing most of the projects with NCIP.

So these are the ones that are done.

And there is a picture of what that El Estero Park equipment looked like before.

And that is the new equipment with the kids on the first day that they got to use the equipment.

That was previously the oldest set of playground equipment in the whole city, over 30 years old.

And it was put on top of a former swimming pool for anyone.

Rachel Dice, you had our swimming lessons out there.

So you know, it's um it was time and we um kids are loving it.

So it's great, and it's very um on uh theme for Monterey.

It's got a kind of an ocean outdoor um blue theme.

So it's we hopeful we'll love it for many many years.

Um, and then to give credit to Tice and his team, they helped us with the fencing and the landscaping, and so the whole area got an upgrade with that NCIP project.

Um Via Paraizo basketball court, there it's kind of hard to see, but that was the previous look.

That is the new court again, another project funded by NCIP and um kind of moved along with the help of um both parks and um public works.

So very happy that that is done.

Projects that are in progress.

Hilltop Park Center phase one and two is in progress.

Our ballpark lights um are in progress.

We've um issued a notice to proceed for the lights so that the vendor can purchase the um materials.

We will have to go back to um city NCIP and actually I think they're doing that this evening, but we'll have to go back to City Council for some additional funds for that because we realized when we went through that the electrical wiring underneath um needs to be replaced.

And hopefully, it's a matter of just running that wire through the existing conduit.

If not, then it's pulling new conduit as well.

So we have to unfortunately get some additional funds to finish that off.

Um the um El Estero large group barbecue shade structure is um there's a contract, there's a purchase order.

We are having that reviewed by building for structural engineering, but hopefully that will be done shortly.

So otherwise that will be blessed.

The uh Kona barbecue area um has a shade structure and a food prep table that would finish off all of that project for the Kona area.

Um Reggie is actually going back to NCIP again tonight to ask for a little bit more funding to get that done.

The um fence project that um installed a new fence all the way around the park was significantly um more expensive than originally budgeted, and so there's a little bit less money to finish off the other parts of that project.

Um we'll be circling back with TICE to look at Jack's Park field improvements.

Um we didn't get the landwater conservation matching funds, so we have NCIP funds for about a hundred K, and then we got the Monterey Peninsula Foundation for 150.

So we need to figure out what we can do at Jack's Park field to improve that um the field, the irrigation, the turf.

So these are all in project in progress, and hopefully some of them will be done in the next um three, I would say two to three months.

The Hilltop Park Center, which we will talk about, is going to be a multi-year project, but it's moving along.

So for fiscal year 27, again, it's the same things.

We're focusing on updating existing parks and recreation facilities, and that means replacing a current amenities, not adding new amenities to parks.

Looking at what is best environmentally and economically.

And again, we're we know that we've got a great park system.

We got a lot of things, our facilities, our recreation facilities, but it's more of like those things are now aging and they need to be replaced.

So that's what we're looking at.

Also, in terms of potential funding for fiscal year 27, that's estimated right around 2.5 million.

So there is limited NCIP funds, unless things change for next fiscal year.

So this past year was six million.

In order to balance the budget and to move some things around, I think they're looking at probably 2.5 million.

But again, that could change based on council direction.

So where we're at with Hilltop is we are proposing submitting another project for phase three.

And we are hoping that phase three would be the last phase, and there is not a phase four, but basically what we've been doing is as we dig into the project, we're finding new things with the building that age.

No, four windows on either side of the building, both the front and all the way down the back for seismic improvements.

That's gonna change the look of the building.

That's gonna mean we're gonna have to paint, we're gonna have to make that look like it was an intentional removing of windows.

So where we're at now with hopefully what we have in terms of phase one and two, which is about $2 million, is we will be able to address all the exterior upgrades, all the painting of the exterior, um, all the roofing, some ADA improvements, but what it doesn't do is really touch the interior of the building, which is kind of one of the main reasons we went along with this project in the first place, is the interior of the building looks like it did when we first opened it.

And so the lighting needs to be done, the interior needs to be painted.

You know, we've had roof leaks, so the ceilings are um have water damage or rust or things like that.

So to actually look like a new building on the inside, that would be phase three.

Um, so that's kind of where we are with Hilltop.

Um, but things are moving along, and we are in the process of hopefully getting that roofing bid out with the plan.

I don't think it's gonna happen in August.

More like September, October of getting our new roof done.

And so we're kind of we are offering programs for those who are taking ceramics, um, but we're slowly rolling out the next set of classes just because we want to make sure we can time that with the roof project.

So we're working on all of that.

So that's potentially one of the projects for the next go-around to submit a phase three.

And those are just some you guys have seen this, some of the conditions of the building now, and hopefully things that will get addressed in phase one and two.

And then again, aging HVAC, the interior lighting, um, all that.

Another project would be to focus on um the next community center that needs improvements, which is the El Estero Park Center.

Um, you know, again, making it look um attractive and more on brand, and we have a term now throughout the city of Monterey Beige.

Um, because at one point we picked a color palette that was great.

Um now it just no matter how clean it is and how well maintained, it looks a little dated.

So we you know need to do some exterior upgrades and then some interior upgrades as we're gonna continue to utilize these buildings to the level that we do.

So El Estero um again needs some windows, some lighting, um, potentially an emergency generator could be something because we typically bring in a generator, the kitchen, um, the exterior doors, making those um ADA accessible, new flooring, painting, parking lot needs improvement, barbecue, um, bathroom.

We've got an issue with our sewer lateral line.

Um, so all of those things um would be uh the El Estero Park Center, and there's just a couple pictures of where we're looking at right now, kitchen cabinets, windows.

Another potential project is we do have um uh the shade structure.

Um the shade structure hopefully is gonna get done.

When we um priced out the shade structure, we realized we have no funding to address everything underneath it.

So we're gonna have a beautiful shade structure, and underneath it is gonna look a little.

So the idea would be uh to uh come in and remove all those picnic tables, um, add um, you know, maybe a cement pad, new picnic tables.

This is our barbecue area, the only barbecue area in the city that can accommodate 200 people with the shade structure right on the other side of the Celisto ballpark and the um baseball field and the visibility, it's gonna it's gonna be very popular.

So addressing that the parkour is another area that could potentially be done.

There's parkour stations scattered along the lake edge.

Um that equipment is the original equipment.

I do see it getting used, but it does probably need a replacement.

There are no pictures of them of here, but the fishing piers need some 11 care.

Uh our dog park could be upgraded.

We've got some ideas on that.

So this is not necessarily a phase two of the shade structure, it's more of a a whole El Estero Park complex amenity improvement project, kind of bundling everything together, hopefully, potentially.

Citywide fuel reduction.

Thank you, Tys, for those photos.

But anything we can do that we typically go to NCIP.

I'm not sure what you guys got last year, but we have to do citywide fuel reduction, NCIP has been a big supporter of that.

So these are right now there are four projects we potentially recommend um parks and rec commission consider submitting.

Um if I were to say top priority, I would say hilltop and fuel reduction.

And then everything else we would kind of roll into next ongoing years.

We can always submit them all, get them in by the deadline, and then if things change or whatever, we can pull them, um, rank them, give them a different priority, but it's it's kind of up to you what you would like to do.

If you support these projects, have anything else you'd like to add.

Um, that's kind of what it is.

But the idea would be to have some sort of guidance from you uh as a commission as to what you would like to see submitted and meet the deadline of July 31st.

And that is it.

Questions and comments.

Um El Estero Park, it's so centrally located.

I'm assuming that people from all over Monterey use use those uh facilities quite a bit.

Is that the case?

It's not just one area, yeah.

I mean, all over Monterey, but then also the surrounding cities and Dennis and Menace is a big draw as well.

Yeah, you get a lot of out-of-towners there too.

We do, yes.

Yeah, we the lake is stocked by U.S.

Fish and Wildlife.

So we'll even get people calling and going, when did it get stocked?

And then you start hearing people fishing.

Yeah, I I guess it's yeah.

Okay.

Fishing, catch and release.

That would be my yeah.

So you were saying earlier that the hilltop is a very high priority.

And because of the structural issues and everything else.

Would not El Estero be like number two for the fact that it's used by such a wide variety of areas of Monterey.

Yes.

And then Solis, we've submitted Scholze as well.

That's on our list, but we didn't include this today just because we're like, okay, we got we gotta finish Hilltop.

We want to get that done.

Um, and then Alistero, and then probably in the future you're gonna hear Schultzy.

Um, yeah.

All right, thank you.

Yeah.

Um I understand their order of what you want to do.

Um, I'm wondering if the boy at the Montecito project or the boys and girls club is worth um submitting some NCIP requests for funding for that.

And I guess I'm wondering, because that's you're looking at an August date.

I don't know how the funding or if the funds can be transferred between projects, but okay.

So the 205 Montecito is at this point not moving forward um with the boys and girls club.

It's the Casanov Oak Knoll Park Center with the Boys and Girls Club, and that is pretty much uh ready to go.

Okay, in terms of the build the the building is in really good condition.

Um it would be more of their kind of improvements for programming, like they um tend to have um access management.

Um, so they have it set so no one enters the front door without checking in and going through a kiosk type thing.

Um, so there are is some improvements I think they'd like to make in terms of like their operations, but the building itself is in the best condition of all of our community centers.

So yeah, it's just so it's kind of a little too small for our operations with our staffing levels, I think.

It's a process question.

What what are we voting on tonight?

So you would be voting on um if you want to submit these four projects um this evening, or you only want to take your top two.

Um if you want to rank these in any particular order, these are the ones that we recommend as staff you consider.

Um, but you don't have to.

You might just say like we support hilltop phase three and fuel reduction, and please submit those.

Um, or you could say submit all four, and we rank these four in order.

It it's kind of up to you to to set them.

Is there a downside to saying to submitting all of them?

Is there less likelihood of or is it just no?

I mean, the the city is is probably has two point, like again, things can change 2.5 million.

If um hilltop phase three is another million and fuel reduction is another million, then there's and there's a lot of other city projects out there.

Um, so you know, but we could submit them all and see where things go and always pull something, um, which we've done, we've pulled things.

I would do um we have to take public comment first before we make a motion.

Oh, perfect.

I'll unmute Julieta.

Give me one moment.

Go ahead, Julieta.

You can speak.

Okay, so this is where I always have an issue with projects is we don't have a defined list of absolute importance of things that need to be done.

Um, so before we say yes to any of this projects, I would like to see safety is first for me or for anyone because it involves people.

The safety of the building is important because people go in, people can have accidents.

So I would like to prioritize safety first, and then I would like to prioritize um electrical and all the other amenities, but we have to do it together before we go on with approving these projects.

And I don't know if you agree with me or not, because it's not clear to me, how can we approve one or the other?

Um it's not a matter, I think of approving on our part, one or the other.

It's really more a matter of proposing to city council what we feel is the most important project or projects.

And I think that's what we are really here to do tonight to um make it in a more concrete as to what we propose to city council.

Thank you, go ahead.

Sure.

I would just add that we do have a um pretty detailed um project uh for the Hill Top Park Center phase one and two, you know, broken down in terms of you know, this is the roof, this is the structural, this is the um sewer lateral, like kind of piecing that together.

And so where we saw an opportunity was you have to fix the structure, you have to fix the bones of a building.

We we did the termiting, now you gotta repair the termites, but again, you dig into a building and then you see asbestos, and you have to deal with that.

So where we saw a clear line of cutting off phase two was let's deal with all the structural, let's deal with the exterior.

The next phase would be interior, um, you know, LED efficient lights, emergency exit lights, um, painting the interior, like that was like a clear cutoff in terms of phase three, like let's fix the bones and the structure and the outside's gonna look beautiful, but then we have to deal with the inside as well.

So we do have a pretty detailed um budget project budget, but again, that can change when they start finding something new.

And we had, I think we shared it with you a pipe burst um on the outside of the building near the kitchen caused us to have to dig into the slab, and that turned into a thing.

So um, you know, that that's kind of where we're at with sounds like a homeowner.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

And then I think Christian has a comment, so Christian, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

So, yeah, I'm I think it's kind of on the same lines of Julieta.

Um basically, I just want to know one through four.

If you could just name the the actual um name of the proposals one more time, one more quick time for me.

Um, I understand the safety thing, I totally agree with that.

It's a great point.

Um having just the basic cost and benefit right here right now behind each one, and the time frame of each each one of these getting from finish to end would make it a lot easier for me to give an idea, instead of grouping them all as all four or top three or top two.

If I had those specific bullet points, the name, the cost, and the time frame, that would be awesome.

Okay, so uh Hilltop Park Center Facility Improvements phase three.

We are anticipating that being um roughly a million.

So um when we originally priced the project, it was right around two plus, and now with all the additional add-ons, we're looking at three um total.

So we have two million, we probably need another million to finish this off in phase three, and that would be a priority.

And the reason for also asking for a phase three now is that we're hoping that as we, you know, we know how long things take, but as we finish the roof and then we move on to the next thing, we don't want to have to have um a gap of as much of as a fiscal year for phase three.

Like we want to just keep it rolling.

The citywide fuel reduction is something that TICE is dealing with on an ongoing basis continuously.

So that would be another um priority.

One point two million.

How much of you this year was approval?

Yeah, 1.2.

And then where that benefits us is that then it makes us eligible for matching funds for Mcal Fire.

Um, if we are then going on to the next thing when we priced uh El Estero Park Center facility improvements at the time, it was probably 750,000.

That was two or three years ago.

I would say that's probably 1.5, maybe.

Um, the El Estero park amenity improvements, um barbecue area would be 150, the park horses, the dog park, the the unknown is probably the fishing piers.

Um that those would be my we've seen them.

They could they need some work, but once you know, when you're dealing with a wet environment and things breaking and falling apart and having to be careful of what ends up in the water, so yeah.

Um 300 3000, 250.

I don't know.

Yeah, it's who knows that the there might be permitting involved with that.

Um, around the lake.

So um yeah, that that's pretty hard to put number on that one.

Yeah, yeah.

That's perfect.

Thank you.

Yeah, and then we are um, you know, in terms of a dog park, we know that there's been ongoing issues with the dog park.

We're we're also looking at potential partnerships for that as well.

Can't go into too much more detail, but we are hoping that there's potential for someone um to give us some guidance, some help, maybe some funding to improve it.

We have an idea.

I think it's just too soon for us to share that.

Yeah, so that could be taken in pieces as well.

Yeah, so now do public comment?

Public comment if the commissioners are done.

I just have one more quick question.

Just based on the list, and all, you know, being say the safety issues because I think the fuel is an issue, but the number of people that are visiting these areas, the number of people that are using the Hilltop Center versus the El Estero and the Dennis the Menace facility.

Well, I would say that the El Estero Park Complex, which is Dennis the Menace, yeah, the ballpark, everything that it probably has more use than more um visitors than Hilltop.

But Hilltop was the facility that like you could look at the roof and you could see it, like you know, so like once you've again started something, you don't want to stop it.

Um, and you know, in terms of what's happening there, it's extremely well utilized.

And the other thing I forgot to mention is um when we finish with the roof at Hilltop, hopefully that will be perfect timing for us to serve as a swing space for the Monterey Fire Department when they do the renovations of Fire Station 12.

So we've identified um a space on the lower level of the building that is gonna become um a fire temporary living quarters for the firefighters.

Um, they're gonna bring in um like a garage, not a garage, but like a canopy type structure for their fire engine um and a shower unit, and they will be using L Hilltop uh for you know how construction projects go six months, and it could be longer than that, but ideally they would come in um right around January and potentially be gone by June of next year.

Could be longer than that.

But that's again another um benefit to addressing hilltop is we keep moving that along.

It serves as a swing station for the for the firefighters.

They um have another NCIP funded project for their fire station improvements.

It is less expensive for them to, you know, and we work together in partnership for the fire department, um, then for them to try and find a modular home, rent a new property, you know, whatever.

So, um, yeah, I forgot to mention that that is another thing that's happening.

All right, now uh any more?

Any more comments, Christian?

Uh public comment.

All right.

If you're in the council chambers and would like to make a public comment on this item, please identify yourself.

Okay, we have one.

And then if you are online and would like to make a public comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature.

Looks like we only have one in the council chamber.

So we'll go ahead and get started.

Hello again.

Um, so with NCIP, I just wanted to give you a little bit of um background on our neighborhood NCIP project.

We had submitted book for a while now, a couple of years, um, for some senior workout equipment to be installed.

And the project passed unanimously through NCIP, and it was gonna go in the location of where this community garden is supposed to be, can is being considered for now.

Which again, we don't mind sharing the space.

We do not want it to be substituted for our project.

That project was grossly underfunded.

I don't know how it happened, that they came up with probably a third of what it would cost to do it.

So that would be something that we would have to request additional funds for, which at the when we're at the point that the city budget can handle it, we would like the city to support us on that, because I have spent many, many hours talking to nonprofits to match funds so that we can build this project with a little bit more than what we intended on, as far as um the equipment.

We would like some shading and a couple of things that we went to, for example, montage and blue zones, and because of this border situation and the park management debacle that we have going on there, nothing can be can be done.

So that's why the community garden all of a sudden getting fast tracked, we're kind of completely flabbergasted by it because we've been at this for a couple of years.

Um I also one of the projects that were mentioned, I think that have been done already, had some funding from community foundation.

And my understanding is is that the city cannot request money or they they can't give money to the city, yet it was given to I think Solicito, so I would like to know now that that precedent has been set.

I've been requesting funding grants being asked for by staff for quite a while, and we're being told that the city can't do it, but it was done.

So we kind of want an explanation on that again.

Our park has never really been a huge priority to the city.

We're on the low-income side of the city, so we can um qualify for some grants, and we originally put in for some senior workout equipment, but we can broaden that because it's really general workout equipment.

What makes it senior?

I I don't know what it doesn't seem like there's much difference.

And before I found out that you guys are addressing the dog park, I was going to bring that up because our dog park is an embarrassment, and that was an NCIP project before it was called NCIP.

If you go, the sign is faded, and the park needs expansion, not just an upgrade and a big celebration when it opens because most residents don't even know that we have one, let alone visitors.

So I think that's important.

Thank you.

That ends public comment.

Thanks, Monsieur.

All right, so Chair Ono, can I just make one comment?

I do just want to clarify the NCIP project with the fitness equipment.

I'm getting caught up to speed on all of the NCIP projects, so I really appreciate Shannon walking us through the process and the projects tonight.

Um the the issue with that project moving forward is really a funding issue.

So there was a NCIP approved funds of about 55,000.

Uh, but the total project cost is coming in uh closer to 300, 350,000.

Um and so it really is the the funding piece that that just isn't there.

I do think I wasn't here again, but I do think we're in a different fiscal situation.

And um I believe Shannon, you started out your slideshow with the slide that really read that what we're recommending and the proposals that you know for staff to um put forward before you is to really maintain and um improve the the facilities and the infrastructure that we have and and that we do have those significant needs, so that is you know kind of where our focus is right now.

Um and you know, I think fitness and equip is important.

You know, we'd love to see a way to move a project like that forward.

Um, we just we don't have the plan or the funding um at this point to to be able to do that, and so we're really just trying to stay focused on things that need to be um taken care of right now, understood.

Thank you.

All right, does anyone want to come up with a motion?

Oh well, strangely no.

I move that we put number one hilltop park center facility improvements and number two the citywide fuel reduction and leave the uh two and three for uh another another time.

Uh wait, you see fuel management, okay.

I'll say it again.

First one would be hilltop park center uh facility improvements, and then the second one would be the citywide fuel reduction as recommendations to city council.

I would suck at that uh mostly to take our vote.

Yes, I'm just writing this down.

Sorry.

Can I add one more thing?

If our total dollars add up, could we not do um not necessarily the building at Dennis Cementis Park, but could we not do the hilltop, the city fuel and the El Estero shade park area?

Would that I mean I'm just wondering, I don't want to be greedy, but well that's that 2.5 is not our total dollars.

It's the entire NCIP for next fiscal year potentially.

So if um NCIP would love to give Parks and Rec all of the funding, we can definitely end it.

No, I think I think they um, yeah, they're um I'm not exactly sure exactly.

Reggie is our expert on that.

Um I think there's they're rather than defunding potentially rather than defunding some of those previously approved projects, they are potentially taking some of that money using that money from this coming fiscal year for the budget.

Got it.

But again, I things have been very fluid, so I can't be sure about that, but he he helped edit this um agenda report, and that is the number he has, and you know, I'm sure they're gonna probably go back for additional funding for maybe fire station or police station, and you know that 2.5 is gonna be gone very quickly.

So yeah, okay.

I would go ahead and agree with the okay.

So we're gonna take the roll call vote on the motion that hilltop park center improvements is one, fuel reduction is two to take to city council.

Chair Ono, yes, Vice Chair Buya, yes, Commissioner Crampton.

Yes, Commissioner Nazal Goody.

I'm not sure.

Sorry.

So no.

Commissioner Reed.

Yes.

Commissioner Schmidt.

No.

And can we talk about other stuff?

So I'm can I talk about uh presenting another um I don't know a vote?

Because I my point was uh getting rid of the three and four to not even give city council an opportunity to decide on the economics of it.

Uh just taking them off the table before they even get to see them, I think is a mistake.

I I could agree with the two and a one with the hilltopping number one and fuel being number two, but then leaving El Estero and Park Community is still on the books for them to look at.

I think it's like not that I'm trying to kick the can down, but it's like we're taking the can completely off the table for them uh as far as economics.

Maybe they were gonna find that uh it's uh more feasible to do one of the other two projects or one of the other three projects.

So I just didn't like I didn't I voted no because I I didn't like taking those completely off the table for the city council to look at, um so I think we did have a yes vote on that, so we'd have to rescind that um vote and and re-start a new motion and the um motion.

I think there was a little bit of confusion on the wording.

So the vote is to send it to the NCIP as a proposal, um, and then it would go to city council.

Anything that got voted through NCIP would then go to city council.

So um the commission vote would be to um your proposal of which projects to send to NCIP.

I'll make a motion then.

I motion that we send all four to NCIP.

Okay, so send all four.

And would anyone like to second that?

I'll second that motion.

Okay, all right.

So we're gonna take another roll call vote.

Chair Ono, yes, Vice Chair Buaya, yes, Commissioner Crampton.

No, Commissioner Nazal Guri.

Yes.

Commissioner Reed, yes, Commissioner Schmidt.

Commissioner Schmidt?

I cut out, yes.

Okay.

And it's yeah, I think so.

And then um, just to also add, so all of these would get submitted by July 31st, unless something changes, these would get um go to NCIP.

There would be that usual advocacy night.

So we usually select someone from or two people from parks and rec commission to go and advocate for projects.

They would rank those projects, they would come to parks and rec commission at some point before it's approved by city council to review all parks and recreation related projects and give our feedback as to like do we support them?

So this would not just be the projects we've submit by July 31st, but anything that comes from the general public or other city departments that are fall within our parks and recreation related purview.

So you'll probably see these projects coming back around.

You could potentially rank them again, or you could you could also see like all of the projects that are parks rec related coming back prior to city council approving the new fiscal year budget, so just so that's you'll see them again, all right.

Um, uh here from staff, Nicole.

Uh no, it's receive report on commission appointment process.

Oh, number eight.

Sorry about that.

Item number eight receive report on commission appointment process and select chair and vice chair for the fiscal year twenty six twenty-seven, not a project under C article 20, section fifteen three seventy-eight, and under General rule article five, section fifteen oh six one.

Shannon?

And this should be quick.

So um every year, July with July 1, it is the appointing a new chair and vice chair.

So Kathy is our vice chair.

She would move to chair.

And Commissioner Reid would be our vice chair.

So serving a one year term as vice chair and then a one year term as chair.

And Commissioner Reed would be the next in line because she has been on the commission the longest, which is not very long, but the longest, and has not had the opportunity to serve.

So that was that's the process.

So that is the recommendation before you is to approve Kathy as the chair, Commissioner Reid as the vice chair.

And I would like to thank Commissioner Chair of Ono.

Um, because this could this is yeah, this is most likely your last meeting unless there is a uh emergency meeting before July 1st.

Um, but yes, thank you for your service and commission.

Thanks for the that is my staff report.

And we have to make a motion.

Yes, so moved.

Oh, wait, do we have to?

I'm sorry.

Any more comment?

Any comments or anything from the commission?

Any public comment?

Any public comments?

Anyone in the chamber like to make a public comment?

No, anyone online?

No.

All right, would anyone like to make a motion?

We moved.

Seconded.

Second the motion.

Okay.

All right.

So we're gonna take a roll call vote.

Chair Ono.

Yes.

Vice Chair Boya.

Yes.

Commissioner Crampton.

Yes.

Commissioner Nazal Gary.

Yes.

Commissioner Reed?

Yes.

And Commissioner Schmidt.

Yes.

Thank you.

All right.

With that, that ends our uh items on our agenda today.

Um, we're gonna move on to closing staff comments.

Nicole.

Thank you, and thank you, Hank, for hanging in there for the the long meeting.

Appreciate everyone this evening.

Um, so I wanted to mention if you've been over to San Carlos Beach in the last few days, you will see that our sea lions have returned.

Um for those of us who've been here for less than a year, it's really exciting.

So, but for Tice and his team, um, it has meant that we do have put some signs up, um, really just trying to get the attention of the public um for everyone's safety.

Um, so you'll see some barricades there.

Uh, the beach hasn't been formally closed, but we're just trying to bring it to everyone's attention because if you go down the stairs, you will walk right into um the beach area where where they are um congregating, and it seems that they're growing by the day.

So I didn't I didn't see them today.

Um we have you know, I just really want to mention our summer programming starting.

We were 8 a.m.

this morning at Hilltop with staff training, and it's so exciting to get to see the summer um, you know, come together after a lot of planning and everything, the staff hiring that goes into this.

So um, I'm just very excited to get out into all of our locations.

We have so many things happening across the city, so um, I'll be very happy to see that.

If any of our commission members would like to reach out to me if there's any programs you'd like to see this summer, um, let me know.

Send me an email or um text message, and we'll try to get a plan to go and see anything.

Um, I'll be making an effort to get to all of our sites.

Um, and then finally, I just want to report that July is parks and Recreation Month, and we will be going before city council on July 7th, uh, with a report and an update on what parks and Rec Month is.

Um, this year's um it's an annual event, and this year will highlight the power of parks and recreation uh and the people who make it possible.

And so I think we heard a lot of that here tonight.

Talking about our our staff efforts, um, our volunteers, all of you as commission members who volunteer time.

These things wouldn't happen without people being behind them.

And I think that we are raising these to be the essential services and community needs that need to be met here in our community for health and wellness and socialization and so many great outcomes from parks and recreation.

So wanted to highlight that tonight here as well.

Thank you.

They have changed their application process.

And so if the city is eligible, of course, that we could potentially apply, but that is kind of how Solicito came to be.

I didn't want to forget anyone and Philip.

So, you know, we're hoping we're starting off, you know.

We do everything so well.

Like we just are hoping for it.

What we want is a safe, fun and kind summer.

Um that's what we our three, my three goals this morning.

Safe.

Is it safe?

Is it fun?

And are we, you know, looking at everything with the lens of being kind and inclusive?

So yes, um, and thank you all very much, and um just thank you to everyone, all the staff.

And this was a long meeting.

I think it's one of our longest, so thank you.

Thank you for your support.

And for the time that you put in here to help parks and recreation.

We really appreciate you.

Um, in this case, um, we're kind of skipping our normal comments.

Um, I wanted to kind of bring attention that we lost uh really important part of our parks and recreation family a week and a half ago.

Her name was Ellen Burton.

Um, you're putting her picture up there, which is was great.

She had um been with us for a really long time.

She's 92 years old, volunteering with volunteers in parks and the aquarium, and I'm sure other things, who's a really spectacular lady.

Um, I got to know her um working with the VIPs for a while, but not to the extent as um Salman who runs our crew now, or Tracy Martin, um, George Sinico, but uh Steve Garcia, who's our park supervisor.

Um, he got to know her for a really long time.

He he helped facilitate that organization that group.

So he wrote something, and this is this is straight from Steve.

So if just bear with me, but it's um it's I think it's done really well tonight.

We recognize and remember Ellen Burton for her many years and dedicated service and her lasting contributions to the volunteer gardeners program and the city of Monterey.

By the time many of us first met Ellen in 2007.

Uh that's about the time he started working with her.

Just but she preceded all of us.

She had already devoted many years to volunteering, had become a respected leader within the gardening community.

During that time, city staff worked alongside volunteer gardeners, and it quickly became clear that Ellen's passion and commitment were at the heart of the organization.

Ellen possessed a remarkable knowledge of plants and horticulture.

She understood how to care for landscapes, how to properly prune, and how to bring out the beauty in every garden.

Under her leadership and guidance.

Volunteer gardeners help maintain and enhance many locations throughout Monterey, including the recreation trail, the sensory garden, Colton Hall, and many other valued public spaces.

Those who worked alongside Ellen remember her dedication and preparation.

She always made sure the volunteers had what they needed, whether it was tool supplies, coffee, or homemade treats during break time.

Ellen created a welcoming atmosphere that brought people together.

Her commitment extended far beyond the gardeners themselves.

She built friendships, encouraged others and inspired volunteers to continue to work.

She loved continued the work she loves so much.

Even after stepping away from her leadership role, Ellen continued to participate with volunteer gardeners.

Her presence and cur her encouragement and continued support reflected the deeper connection she had with the program and the people who became lifelong friends.

Ellen's guidance helped ensure the future of volunteer gardeners program.

Through her encouragement and support, others stepped forward to continue the tradition she helped establish.

Her influence and leadership continue to be felt today.

Beyond her volunteer work, Ellen deeply loved her family.

Her daughter and granddaughter brought her great happiness, and those who knew who knew her could see how important they were to her.

Ellen Burton's impact on the city of Monterey extends far beyond the gardens she helped create.

Her dedication, knowledge, kindness, and love for volunteering left a lasting impression on her community and on everyone who had the privilege of knowing her.

On behalf of the City of Monterey, we express our sincere gratitude for Ellen's service years of service and recognize the legacy she leaves behind.

Her contributions will continue to be seen and appreciated for generations to come.

Thank you, El Ellen, for making Monterey a more beautiful place.

Thanks, Tice.

All right.

With that, we'll uh have closing comments from the commissioners.

Sid?

Okay.

Christian or Julieta.

None, thank you.

I do.

Thanks for sharing that, Tys.

That was a sweet story of Ellen.

Sorry to continue this meeting longer with this question that was probably answered in the beginning, but I want to roll right back to the beginning where we were talking about Casanova and the girls and boys.

Um, I'm just not quite understanding.

There were there was no vote on it.

Um, is this just something that's that's gonna happen with my excitement and and support?

But is this just something that's gonna that's going to go move forward?

Great question.

So tonight was um a really good opportunity for us to present the um proposal in a public setting and get uh community feedback.

We did reach out to the neighborhood association um prior to this meeting and just did some networking to make sure that people knew that would be on our agenda tonight.

Um, and so tonight was to do that um as well as get feedback from the commissioners.

And so, you know, thank you for your support of that.

Um, certainly if there was um, you know, concerns or things that needed to change, um, those would have been things that then our staff would continue to work on.

Um, I think hearing what we heard tonight moving forward on the um the planned timeline that we presented, um, this would be um a license agreement, and so it's our city council who would um you know approve it and put put in place and we would um be working with them on the negotiations about it.

So if there was any um funding or or any decisions that had to be made um that were financial based, then they'll they'll hear those and give us direction on that as well.

Does that answer the question?

Most mostly answers the question.

The last little bit would be if in a perfect world, 100% support, the public uh economics, all that lined up perfectly.

What would the timeline uh Casanova see kids from Boys and Girls possibly?

Um so uh they're trying to align to be um with the school uh schedule, which would be August 5th.

Um, and we do have we've we've already begun our work to make sure that the building is ready.

Um so we've done a lot of just clearing out.

It's it's in really good condition as was brought up this evening, but just making sure that we have everything clean and ready to go.

Um, we're able to support that timeline with some of the um, you know, just tables and and other facility items that we already have in the building.

So um doing that would allow them to uh provide that service for families who would sort of want to have that child care um set and in place for the beginning of the school year.

Awesome, thank you.

Absolutely.

I just want to say thanks again for the hundredth time.

Um it's been a really nice to serve as chair.

Um I'm really excited to see Oak uh Casanova Oak Null utilized again.

Um it's crazy summer of two thousand five.

We had 150 kids at this in the playground program.

It's just so different now.

Um but I'm at that park probably second most after Oak Newton.

So I I'm really happy to see it being utilized.

Um I don't really have m much else.

Um and I just you know, touching on what Tys said, I want to, you know, close out the the meeting in memory of Ellen Burton.

All right.