The Monterey City Council met on May 20, 2025, in an afternoon and evening session. The meeting included presentations honoring retiring Parks and Recreation Director Karen Larson and celebrating National Public Works Week, followed by a lengthy consent calendar, public comments, and major discussions on infrastructure financing options and the future of the Old Capital site park plan. The council also received a report on job vacancies under AB 2561 and considered several professional services agreements.
It is are we recording? Okay. All right. Hello, welcome everybody to our afternoon session of our council meeting today, Tuesday, May 2nd, 2025. I'm so glad to see a vibrant uh group joining us today. I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order and ask Clementine to do roll call and share with the public um some announcements. Councilmember Barber, President, Councilmember Garcia? Here. Councilmember Rash, here, Council Member Smith? Here. Mayor Williamson. Here. And information on participating in today's meeting and providing public comment, including remotely by Zoom or telephone, is available on the agenda, which is online at Monterey.gov slash agendas. Remote commenters, you will be muted until it is your turn to speak, and the timer will be shown on the screen. If you're connected on Zoom, the timer is accurate with no delay. In person attendees, please make sure to keep your phones and devices muted to prevent audio interference with our meeting. And thank you for participating in your city government. Awesome. Thank you, Clementine. With that, we're gonna go to presentations. Number one on our agenda um bitter sweet moment here is to congratulate Parks and Recreation Director Karen Larson on her retirement and recognize her thirty-nine years of service to the city of Monterey. Um exemplifies my entire interaction and experience with Karen. And if anybody hasn't had a chance to interact or participate in the programs that are offered within the parks and recreation department, um, our staff truly truly care and are passionate about the work that they do, and under your leadership, that was exemplified in all the ways possible. So I'm so thankful for for your service to the city. So with that, I will pass it to Hans. So Karen, we almost made you cry with a standing ovation. So I will do my best not to make you cry. And you you remember that. Yes. Good old Ronnie. And so 39 years in the city of Monterey means also a lot of uh different changes that the city goes through, not just new presidents. And uh when Karen started, she was uh hired actually as uh a part-time seasonal employee, and uh she uh held all the positions that somebody held uh is uh is holding right now or held in in parks, uh which is um recreation leader, uh day camp, uh assistant day camp director, uh recreation specialist, all those positions where we're our team members learn uh what recreation means and what recreation means and Karen exemplifies that and and the mayor mentioned it. What Karen exemplifies is is um you you're not in it uh uh for the money, you're in it to provide meaningful uh recreational services, and that is what every one of our team members does in that type of job. Uh it requires you to to understand what the who the kids are to treat the children, uh the young adults, the adults uh appropriately, and to also uh put your stamp on uh on all of those through the programs that we have. By that you have made a tremendous difference in so many lives. If if somebody um comes to an afterschool program, uh chances are that somebody doesn't do something bad somewhere else in the neighborhood. Um and and by having a programming there and being out there and providing the children with with uh and the young adults and the adults with something else to do than being bored, is utmost important, especially uh as we uh uh learned throughout the years that that more and more other media uh are taking over, and at the end it's still all about camp songs and and teaching the kids to have really fun in the outdoors or in in different programs. Um and and Karen took this very very seriously, and over the years uh Karen uh uh landed in a facility that is still in our heart to uh till today, and that will never leave our heart. That is the Monterey Sports Center. And yes, you were a parks and recreation director, but you always were also somehow the operations manager for the sports center. Um and that was very important for us because the sports center was launched, and uh we needed good people in there to work and uh convince the public that this was a worthwhile investment. And as soon as we opened the the sports center, uh you and your team uh excelled all expectations because as soon as it was opened, the city council decided to expand it already, and that was part of the success that you have. When you work the floors, you worked the floors, you were uh working up and down the stairs, you you walked the hallways, you were making sure that everyone was happy, and and you watched me the two times I was actually working out in the in the sports center. No sports. And uh you um you left your mark on the operations center, and with the sports center also, you kept pace about the changes that that we had to implement, and I get to them in a second a little bit more. In 2014, um uh the city manager and the assistant city manager came and asked uh the assistant public works director at that time, uh that happened to be me. Um, do you do you want to uh uh help broaden the horizon of Karen and put her in public works? And so we we we said, hey, if she wants to work in public works, um let's let's start it out. Let's bring her over and and uh uh help um uh use use all the skill sets that she has, maybe for public works. And you came and you and I worked together then in in uh in uh uh as part of my job duties, and uh we promoted you relatively fast also to public services administration manager because you were excelling that in your in your um transferable skills that you possessed, and all of a sudden you had to deal with um grumpy public works folks.