Good evening. Welcome to the June 5th, 2025 Parks and Community Enrichment Commission meeting.

The meeting is now called to order. Will the clerk please call roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Ford is absent. Commissioner Uribe?

Present.

Commissioner Robbins?

Present.

Commissioner Laver?

Present.

Commissioner King is absent.

Commissioner Vasquez is absent. Commissioner Flores?

Here.

Commissioner Riley?

Here.

Commissioner Kangas?

Here.

Commissioner Boone is absent. And Chair Gaines?

Present.

Thank you. We have quorum.

Thank you.

I would like to remind members of the public and chambers that if you would like to speak on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip when the item begins.

You will have two minutes to speak once you are called on.

After the first speaker, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

We will now proceed with today's agenda.

Thank you.

And I would like to invite Commissioner Kangas to lead us in our land acknowledgement and pledge of allegiance.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nisnan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley, and Plains Miwok, Patwin, Wintun peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' history, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Commissioner Kangas.

And now I would like to turn it over to the clerk's office for a special presentation.

Thank you, Chair.

As this is the last regular scheduled meeting before your current term expires, the city clerk's office would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Commissioner Nicole Kangas for her service on the Parks and Community Enrichment Commission.

Your service has been invaluable to this commission as well as the city of Sacramento.

So I have this certificate here to present to you as a thank you from our office.

And if you would like to say a few words about your time on the commission, please feel free to do so now.

I'll keep it brief, but I had such an amazing experience on this commission.

I could go on forever.

It's been an honor to serve on the Parks and Community Enrichment Commission since 2021.

Having the opportunity to give back to my community by driving parks volunteerism and engagement in youth workforce development and community enrichment initiatives has been a joyful and incredible learning experience.

All in the good company of this amazing team.

And by that, I mean fellow commissioners and staff.

Appreciate all of you.

Striving for equity based decision making with fellow commissioners and YPSI staff has been a challenge that we face unwaveringly together within the city's budget constraints.

And while there have been many disagreements at the dais and in our community about the right approach to maintaining our green spaces and programs with fewer and fewer resources,

I appreciate the heart and expertise that each of you brings to these sometimes heated discussions.

We have done some great work together, and I am especially proud of how 916 Day has grown as a result of our collective efforts.

And I wish to thank Deanna Reed for always supporting our big ideas and being our liaison with the marketing team who has created rad, engaging campaigns for volunteer recruitment and 916 Day awareness.

Shout out to Robbie Robbins for being the best 916 Day hype man ever.

I also wish to thank Commissioners Boone, Vasquez, Flores, King, Gaines, Ford, Gallardo Good, Lavelle, Lou, and Herman for providing mentorship and camaraderie during my experience on this commission.

Director Beecham, Ray, and Shannon, thank you for all your patience, guidance, and assistance these past four years.

During my tenure, many of you have become my friends, who I will continue to see often.

And I will also continue to provide support to the commission and YPSI staff in the background as a community member who loves their parks and the programming YPSI offers our wonderful city.

So this is not goodbye, but see you soon, and please stay steadfast in your commitments to making our city better.

Thank you for everything.

Commissioner Flores?

Commissioner Flores?

I didn't know what I was going to say today.

I'm already crying because I take it so personal up here.

And working with you has been fun and awesome.

Last year, I stood right over there advocating on your behalf, and I literally called you sister when we had to fix some administration issues with your seat.

And I know you said it's not a goodbye, it's just we'll see you later.

Because I know my days are, I'm seeing the end than the beginning, right?

And we have done some awesome things together.

And you have been a value-added voice in these last four years with your advocacy, the people you champion,

the community you champion, your family, what you bring, and your voice, and the organizations and systems you do represent,

and the challenges and the battles you've fought over these last few years.

And you continue to fight, and then you also are strong enough to keep going.

That's always been so admirable and what I admire about you, to call you a sister.

And I don't take that lightly.

And, you know, when I have coffee chat with new commissioners that come online, I say,

hey, the best way to learn about a person is when you put in the sweat equity with a person.

And I've put in the sweat equity with you, and you've put in the sweat equity with us,

because you brought that unique perspective.

We all wear multiple hats.

You wear all your hats, and you live your life loud and proud.

And I'm honored to say and work with you.

So I've had a challenging week.

I just got a phone call earlier today that I didn't expect, and I was like, man.

And I knew today was going to be tough.

So it's not a good buy.

But it's been an honor and pleasure to work and serve alongside you.

Commissioner Robbins.

Thank you.

Nikki, it's been a delight.

I mean, it's not easy seeing what you do.

You make it look very easy when it comes to, like, the little things, like making sponsorships with 916-A.

I don't know how you land.

They're like, I'm going to volunteer and do this.

And look, here's a list of things I got done right away.

It's amazing what you do.

But I was going to say, you lead like how I do.

You put your emotions on your sleeve.

You lead with your heart and continue to do that.

And then just be an amazing person how you are.

Just very blessed to have this on the commission.

So keep on doing what you do and never change.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And I just want to say thank you so much for your service, for your positive attitude, for your advocacy, and just everything that you bring to the table.

As Commissioner Flores said, you just bring so much just because you're so active throughout the city.

And so you brought so much just to the commission, just everything that you do, like, with the school district and just across the city.

So we've been very blessed by having, like, your knowledge here.

And I know that we get to keep it because you'll still be around.

But it won't be the same without having you here.

And I still remember the first time that, you know, we got a chance to chat was at the first 9168 that I hosted at LeVar Burton Park where I just got thrown into it.

I had no idea what was going on.

So I really appreciate you being there and supporting that.

And so, you know, you've just always been so supportive.

I know it's not hard or not.

I know it's hard, you know, representing the whole city.

But you've done it, you know, with a smile the whole time and just really active.

And, you know, we just really appreciate that.

And so I just thank you for everything that you've done for us and that you're willing to stay on and still support with 9168 because we literally can't do it without you.

So thank you for still being willing to support.

Because, yeah, we're just so blessed to have you.

Thank you.

And I wish that we still had you for a few more years because I won't get into that, but we should.

But that's fine.

That's for another day.

All right.

So we are going to move on to the consent calendar.

Let me get my script because I was about to go off script there.

All right.

Our first order of business today is approval of the consent calendar.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for the consent calendar.

All right.

Are there any commissioners who would like to speak on this item?

Seeing none.

Is there a motion and a second for the consent calendar?

Motion.

All right.

We have a motion from Commissioner Kangas and a second from Commissioner Flores.

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstain?

Abstain?

Do you say that the motion passes or do I say it?

I could.

You may as well.

All right.

The motion passes.

I can't remember.

You know month over month.

I can't remember what happened.

I'm happy to.

I'll say it.

Motion passes.

All right.

All right.

We are now going to proceed to the discussion calendar.

All right.

So up first, we have our Park Ranger Division updates.

Do we have a presentation?

Yes, we do.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair Gaines, members of the commission.

My name is Shannon Brown.

I'm the Assistant Director of the department.

And tonight, joining me is Carl Tolentino Stanley, the Park Ranger Supervisor.

Tonight, we will provide you a brief overview of the Ranger Division and be available for questions.

The Ranger Division has 15 full-time budgeted positions.

Currently, we have four vacancies and two staff on leave.

So what this means is with staffing challenges, we might only have one to two staff on to field calls during a given day.

The Park Ranger hours of operation are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., 365 days a year.

They're broken up into two working shifts.

The first shift starts at 6 a.m.

And the second shift is a swing shift, starts at noon.

This year, we've had two internal promotions, one being Carl Tolentino Stanley, our newest Park Ranger Supervisor.

And we had Alexander Levia, who was an Assistant Park Ranger and was promoted into the Park Ranger position.

We would also like to congratulate Danielle Luther, our Park Ranger Supervisor, who had her baby boy a couple weeks ago.

And we're very excited for her.

And we really want to appreciate and thank her dedication to this division, which I'm sure she's watching right now in support.

Some of the core services that the Rangers provide are safety and security of parks, parkland, and facilities,

responding to and providing resource information to people experiencing homelessness,

community outreach and education, crime prevention through environmental design,

special event support, and park permit distribution.

Now, with that, I would like to hand the presentation over to Carl to provide an update on our annual calls for service.

Carl?

Yes.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Carl Tolentino Stanley.

I'm the Park Ranger Supervisor.

I'd like to provide you an annual calls for service for April 2024 through April 2025.

Of those, we had 1,921 calls for service received from 311.

697 calls were responded to from SAC PD dispatch via non-emergency or 911.

4,703 completed proactive park checks.

418 permit postings for recreation or picnic permits.

245 administrative tasks, special events, and related.

Of these, 3.1% of calls were cleared with the disposition of unable to respond.

Rangers were unable to respond to service calls due to circumstances such as staffing challenges,

calls received after operation hours, or due to more serious and high-priority calls for service.

Off-leash dog complaints continue to be a trending concern, with 193 calls for service received,

27 warnings issued, 6 citations issued, and over 40 educational interactions between Rangers and park guests.

In early 2024, the Ranger Division created our first-ever rapid response team designated to function as a part of the city-wide incident management team,

working collaboratively with the Department of Community Response, Sacramento Police Department,

code enforcement, and other departments to provide a coordinated approach to issues involving our unhoused community members.

From April 2024 to April 2025, the rapid response team received 2,983 calls for service.

Looking forward to the future, our division is excited to continue our path of growth and development,

continuing to foster partnerships with the community and other city departments,

including the Department of Community Response and the city-wide incident management team.

That concludes our presentation, and I am extending an invitation to anyone here who would like to participate in one of our ride-alongs with one of our Rangers,

and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair. I have no speaker slips on this item.

Thank you. Commissioner Robbins.

Yes, thank you for your hard work.

I've run into Rangers all the time, and I just thank you guys.

I appreciate everything you guys do.

I'm sorry you guys are shorthanded.

I know we always request and then give you guys help and everything,

and once my schedule clears up, I will be going to ride along

because you actually get to see all the issues that we need to see up front and everything else

and what you need as a Ranger to make your day go by better.

So I appreciate all your work.

I just had to say that, but I had a question on the swing shift.

It's 12 to what?

Is it just 12 to whenever or?

Our swing shift is from 12 to 10 p.m.

Okay.

Yeah, that's a long question.

Thank you.

Commissioner Kangas.

What are the qualifications for the vacancies that you are trying to fill?

Just so, you know, as commissioners, we can help try to spread the word.

Okay.

It is so the positions are posted on the city website.

Qualifications, of course, is some college education, some experience in enforcement,

whether it be public or private.

Commissioner Riley.

Thanks.

Thanks, Ranger, for all your hard work out there.

In the period of time from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., is a referral back to 911 and SAC PD,

or what happens in kind of that period of time?

So those calls, depending on where they come from, whether it be 3-1-1 or 9-1-1,

if it's 3-1-1, they're usually pending until our rangers get on.

But if it's an emergency call, we always encourage the public to reach 9-1-1,

and that would defer to the police department.

Okay.

Thanks.

Commissioner Flores.

Thank you, Chair.

Anecdotally, the Del Rio Trail has been online officially about a year now.

How has been the calls of service in this past year to the ranger team,

given that the rangers as a whole has to protect all the other parks,

and then this year we added four-mile trails?

So anecdotally, how has adding an amenity like an additional four miles of trail to the park system,

given the team's bandwidth in this past year?

I would say that, you know, with an addition with that bike trail,

obviously that gives us some challenges in regards to how we patrol the area.

But we always have our staff try to go out there as best as we can,

especially when we have 3-1-1 calls or police department calls during the hours that we're on.

We usually try to address those issues as soon as we can.

And we've entered a new partnership with the American River Bike Patrol,

who are going to be extra eyes and ears for us.

So if there are any other issues that we may not see at the time,

they can definitely provide us with that information where we can come out

and address any of those issues that may there be.

Great. Thank you.

So I had a quick question.

So you had mentioned that you need, like, a little bit of college

and some background input, like, enforcement.

Yes.

Is there a part of the city that has kind of, like,

an internal way for people to kind of become rangers?

Like, I know we have different, like, youth programs and other things

where people can kind of, like, participate in programs

that lead them to opportunities within the city.

Is there anything like that for rangers?

Or are most of the people hired come from, like, outside and then become rangers?

Like, for example, we have Alex Labey,

who was promoted from the assistant ranger to a park ranger.

We do have that avenue where folks can apply for an assistant ranger at this time.

It's a little bit more lenient qualifications for that position

just because it's not an enforcement position.

So I would always, you know, when that position is up,

I would instruct people to go to the website and find it there.

What qualifications do you need to become an assistant ranger?

You know, obviously, if you do have enforcement qualifications

or experience that's always desired.

But just having some college and some experience just in the working field.

So what kind of, like, outreach do you guys do for hiring?

Right now, we try to be out there as much as we can with the public

and spread the word when we do have open positions.

Just due to our staffing challenges, it's difficult to do outreach to folks about our position,

which is why we always try to, when we do have interactions with the public,

we always like to remind folks that please go to the website we are hiring

for a park ranger and park ranger assistance when they're available.

And I'd always like to tell folks, come on and ride along with us to kind of know what we do

and see if it's something that you would like to do.

Perfect.

Yeah, I'd love to see how we can support that more and definitely go on a ride along,

but just figure out how we can get people in that pipeline early on to be able to do that.

Commissioner Flores.

Thank you, Chair.

Maybe this is a question more for Shannon and systems.

I believe in last year's report, last June's report,

it was talking about efficiency seen via technology.

Maybe a little bit of an update on efficiency saw in utilizing technologies and systems,

and I think Salesforce was a word that was kicked around a lot last year.

And so now that we're getting this annual report, how has technology use given bandwidth,

given capacities has helped in efficiencies with the ranger team?

I'm sure you can stay.

Danielle Luther really was instrumental in getting Salesforce off the ground to where

we will be able to use the data and collect the data for council districts to be able to show trends.

We're still, we've developed it, and now we're kind of in the fine-tuning stage.

We were really hoping tonight we'd be able to present some calls for service broken down into council districts.

Unfortunately, a lot of the calls would just kind of not be assigned to a district.

So we're working with our IT department, but we're already seeing efficiencies with our monthly reporting out.

And again, 25 is, you know, 24, 25 is still kind of beta testing, but we are really excited for it,

and we'll be better prepared next year to really share the data that we're collecting.

Thank you.

Commissioner Riley.

Thank you, Chair.

Ranger, are you all post, or is it, what are the, I want to go back to the line of questioning.

Are you guys post-certified on this, or is that not a requirement for the ranger class?

So for our agency, we are not a post agency, but we do require 832 arrest search and seizure for all of our officers who are in the field.

Annual calls and things like that?

Annual calls.

So we don't carry firearms.

We carry less lethal items.

So we don't have to do that portion.

Going down that line of thinking, is the CSO an option for a path for promotion and advancement,

like tapping into the, sorry, community service officer, and I knew you knew what it meant,

but community service officers and the police, I know that there's not always a path forward for them into the police department.

Is that an avenue that you can tap as potential rangers?

Potentially, yeah, but they're their own agency, so we, yeah.

Understood.

No, I understood shared agency between the two, but I just know that there are some folks that go through the CSO paths

that don't have necessarily the educational background or capability to move into post-certified agency,

and so I actually know of a couple of CSOs that I'm going to recommend over to you.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Robbins.

Yes, I just wanted to follow up with the swing shift.

So is there enough calls to surface between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. to possibly make a swing shift in that,

so there is a zero gap for the ranger service?

I'm sorry, can you repeat the time?

So between, there is no ranger service between 10 p.m. to...

Oh, like a graveyard position?

Yes.

I'm not too sure that would be something that we would need to look into, but at this time,

I mean, that would be an interesting...

Yeah, so there wouldn't be any gap between that, so it wouldn't get forward.

Right now, just due to our staffing and during the park operations where the park is technically open,

this is where we have our positions right now, but if there were to be another shift added,

obviously that would give us more eyes and ears to be out there and see what's going on in our parks.

Yeah, no, totally understand being short-staffed, but fill all the voids and keep our parks safe.

So just a suggestion, highly recommend it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Kangas.

I'll be quick because I already spoke, but when you asked about pathways, Hiram Johnson, C.K. McClatchy, Burbank, and JFK

all have criminal justice and law academy.

High school specialty programs where students go from 10th grade through 12th grade in two periods a day

are within those subject matter, I guess.

So it might be cool for you to connect with the college and career team at the school district for Saxon Unified

to offer the ride-alongs and try to get some future recruits excited about the potential opportunity.

Absolutely.

I know Park Ranger position is a unique type of public service and law enforcement,

and a lot of people would like to know what kind of activities we do out there

and positive interactions we have.

Nikki, that's what we're going to be missing after this.

That's what I did.

Commissioner Labor.

I appreciate your service.

Can you share a bit of data on the parks on the C Street corridor like Muir, Grant, and Sutter?

You don't have to tell me right now, but can I collect data at another time of what you're seeing at those three parks

and what's the pattern?

I'm sure we can provide that information at a later time.

I don't have that information like you said, but we can provide that information at some point

and get it to you.

Maybe in a week or so maybe.

So what we could do is if you could provide us specific information,

we can put it on the follow-up log and then provide it that way to you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

What are you specifically?

Just kind of just calls for service?

General, I'd just like to know more about the crime in those three park areas.

Okay.

Yeah.

We can certainly put that on the follow-up log.

Thank you.

And then we do have our park ranger position posted.

We have extended it to June 18th.

So continue to get the word out and we'll look forward to connecting with you on the school pipeline.

Thanks.

Commissioner Uribe?

Yeah.

Thank you.

I'm curious on the folks who make 301 requests.

Like what seems to be like the average response time once you guys get those 301 requests?

I know it might differ from the specific type of requests, but what are we looking at?

Well, it depends.

It goes through Salesforce, of course.

301 is integrated with that.

So it depends on when they get the call and when it's deciphered through to whatever department it needs to go to.

It's a pretty quick turnaround, I'd say, depending if things are described correctly when the person who makes those calls.

For example, if they make it specifically park, that's a key word for 311 and the technology to decipher it to our call list.

So it's really important for folks when they're doing this data on that parking permit.

Because if they aren't detailed in regards to the address or the description, it could go to another list that may not even be related to parks.

Right.

Thank you.

And congrats on your promotion.

Thank you.

Commissioner Robbins?

All right.

Final time.

I just wanted to add the follow-up log to see the calls of service between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

to see if it's highly recommended to have a swing shift for our arrangers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

This was great.

And I think you're going to get a lot of requests for ride-alongs.

Perfect.

Thank you for having me.

All right.

Well, this item was review and comment.

So no vote is needed.

And before we go to the next item, just to let my fellow commissioners know, this is the first time we've ever actually been like super close to quorum.

So if we need to take a recess, we'll actually have to take a recess if anyone leaves the room.

So not to put anybody on blast, but just a heads up.

We have to take recess.

Sorry.

I thought you'd be sitting down before I said that, but just a heads up, everyone.

All right.

So next item, community center's annual update.

Do we have a staff presentation?

Yeah.

So good evening, commissioners.

My name is Samantha Vu.

I'm the recreation superintendent supporting community centers.

The community center team manages 15 community centers and clubhouses located throughout the city.

These facilities are staffed by a team of 53 dedicated career employees, including our recreation manager, our recreation superintendent, our general recreation manager.

Sorry.

General recreation supervisor, program supervisors, program coordinators, program leaders, and developers, as well as our customer service and custodial staff.

This team is responsible for the operation and management of each center, ensuring safe and welcoming environments, and delivering high-quality, diverse programming for residents of all ages and abilities.

Our centers are currently open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and with select community centers that are open on Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

And then some of our highlights from this fiscal year include 981 youth and teens enrolled in our summer oasis program across 10 parks and community center locations, and that number is currently rising.

And then we have $100,000 awarded through the youth scholarship program fund, benefiting 193 participants, and that data was all the way pulled from September 1st all the way to April 30th of this year.

And then we have 1,082 rental permits issued for weddings, family celebrations, and community meetings.

In addition, the last thing I'd like to highlight is that there is $245,000 in rental fees waived for nonprofits and community groups utilizing our facilities.

And this is through a council resolution that authoring fee waivers and fee reductions for community center and clubhouse rentals.

Our community centers continue to serve as vital hubs for connection, wellness, and recreation, and emergency response.

With that, I'll turn it over to Javier Rivas to talk about our leisure enrichment.

Hi, good evening.

Javier Rivas, Recreation General Supervisor.

And our leisure enrichment programs are ultimately an extension of our city programs.

Through collaboration with community partners and instructors who are subject matter experts in their respective fields,

we are able to help fill gaps in service that we may not be able to provide with our own staff or programs.

Utilizing our registration software and other resources,

our leisure enrichment instructors are able to provide a variety of recreation programs and activities

at parks and centers throughout the city.

Currently, we have 27 recreation services contracts offering classes at 15 locations.

And this fiscal year, we've seen over 9,000 enrollments in our leisure enrichment programs alone.

Thank you, and we're happy to field any questions you might have.

Thank you so much.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips on this item.

Commissioner Laver.

I want to read a comment from a constituent.

Let me find it real quick.

Real quick, is this the public comment?

No, it's from the e-comment.

So we actually are not allowed to read those.

Oh, you can't read it.

I didn't know.

But if it's the one that I think it is, I actually emailed it over.

And so we do have a response to it.

I sent it over to...

Okay, good.

Yeah.

Anthony Munoz, Recreation Manager with Community Center.

So we've been questioned on our fees recently when it comes to facility rentals and accessibility

and making sure we're a viable option for the public.

So as Samantha had mentioned in that number that you see up there, the $245,000 fee waivers,

we have a fee waiver program that's available for members of the public to utilize, nonprofits,

neighborhood associations, so they actually can and have the opportunity

to either use the community centers for free or a 50% discount.

In addition to that, we invest in insurance policy that covers meetings of up to 49 people.

So we actually cover the cost of insurance for those lower-end rentals and smaller rentals.

So we recently, it had been a significant amount of time and years since we've seen a fee increase

across the board.

But for us to continue to operate and sustain with the cost of operating all of our community centers,

we made the difficult decision last year to increase rental rates.

But again, covering the cost so that we can remain sustainable and operating and providing

community services to everybody and not just open free space all the time.

Commissioner Uribe?

My question is on the fee waiver.

Is there a specific budget that's within the city parks on this fee waiver?

Is that number on the year?

No, there is not.

So this is a council.

We had a council approved fee resolution back in 2018.

It was not backed.

So our community center division was absorbing the cost to waive these fees.

Last year in the mayor's memo and the budget last fiscal year, the mayor did allocate $300,000

one-time funding to cover the cost because there was, you see, this substantial amount

of fees that we were waiving.

And we will exhaust that $300,000 by the end of this calendar year.

Okay.

Thank you.

So moving forward, there is not, and there is no funding to back our fee waivers in the future.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Director Beecham.

Thank you.

I will add, thank you, Anthony.

You covered that perfectly.

Regarding the fee waivers last year as a budget reduction strategy, we had included in our

proposed or recommendation for a strategy to eliminate the fee waiver and fee reduction

program.

And so rather than council moving forward with the elimination of the program, the mayor

put forward this one-time relief program opportunity funding for $300,000.

So you'll hear later that was not part, to remove that fee waiver program was not part

of this year's budget reduction strategies.

But considering that we are going to continue to grapple with this structural budget deficit

moving forward, that is likely something that we'll be facing in the future.

Commissioner Flores.

Thank you, Chair.

I do want to give a shout-out to the community center team as a whole.

I know they host a lot of different events, especially kid events, holiday events, or seasonal

theme events.

I know in this past year there was movie theme events in my neighborhood.

So I know they do a lot of work.

They're small and mighty.

And I know I live closest to the Bell Coolidge Community Center.

I know that we saw, was it Moana last year?

During one of the movie nights, a lot of people showed up.

So I know that the team does a lot with the given resources.

And so going into our next topic a little bit later, that how foundational these community

centers are, the vast amount of programming that these community centers do.

And the numbers do reflect it, right?

Like there is a need here.

And I know the advocacy, we can only say so much on the microphone, but the numbers speak

for itself.

And so if the neighbors who see the video of this, you need to see what the numbers are

saying and what needs to be, needs to keep going in our next item and definitely in next

week's conversation at City Council.

Because look what, you know, dollar for dollar, look what these programs do across the city.

And look at these, look at the pie chart right behind me.

These numbers don't lie.

So shout out to the community center team doing the hard work, after hours, mosquitoes,

after hours, overnight.

And I know they get the smiles and the thank yous and the photos speak for themselves.

So parks is usually the first department these neighbors interact with, with city government.

And I don't want that to get lost in all these conversations that we're having in month of

May and June.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for your presentation.

I think that my only issue with this presentation is it doesn't give me enough.

Community centers are so important.

I obviously represent District 8 and the Pinell Center is like the heart of our district.

Like everyone knows the Pinell Center.

You can see from the number 28,000 visits last year.

And so I don't feel like this just, this doesn't tell you how important the community centers are.

And so, especially for my, my new colleagues up here, it's so important that you go check

out your community centers.

If you have not, just all of the events that they have.

I know at Pinell they have, you know, Halloween events and holiday events and just so much happening.

I mean, really, really the heart and soul.

Even my son takes dance classes over at Bell Coolidge.

She's taken them for two years.

So the, the classes that are offered that, you know, for a lot of families would not be

affordable to be able to take dance classes for $65 a month.

So that's just, you know, not heard of.

And so I just thank you guys and your teams for all that you do.

You know, really bringing so much enrichment, so much to, to the communities.

And I see how much is waived.

And I don't know how much people, you know, I know that we're live streaming.

I don't know how much people watch this.

But I would be remiss if I did not remind people that no one wants to have fees for things.

We don't want to charge the community to use the community centers.

If it was up to me, it would be free.

And so I would encourage people to go to city council and advocate for a budget that allows

for fee waivers that lowers the price for rentals.

The team at Yipsey does not decide to make it at a higher cost.

There is a reason.

And that is because we are in a structural deficit.

That is why things cost what they cost.

And if the city council would prioritize the park's budget and give the funds that we need to,

then we would be able to lower the cost.

And so while I appreciate the public coming to us and leaving public comments and coming,

I am on your side.

I do not want it to cost money and be cost prohibitive.

But we need to take that energy to city council and tell them when they pass the budget to prioritize

the park's budget and make sure that we have the funds so that we can charge less money

to rent the community centers.

So that is my soapbox.

Go to city council on June 10th.

Leave the public comments there.

They are the ones who decide what happens and who gets the money from the budget.

Commissioner Uribe.

Thank you, Chair Gaines.

You remind, your comments reminded me of a question that I had.

With your guys' report, you mentioned that some of our community centers are leased out to our nonprofits

and talking about budgets and whatnot.

What is the process for nonprofits taking programming or putting programming into our current community centers?

Is that something that is still actively happening?

And what does that look like?

Yeah, that is actively happening.

And when we do this, the majority of the time we go out to RFP for this.

And we are looking for organizations that can cover the cost of operating and running the facility

in addition to producing quality and relevant programs to those communities.

One of the latest ones we had as an example is Johnston Community Center.

We went out.

That's your district.

So a couple years ago, we went out to RFP.

We had a couple organizations that come out that are looking to do it.

But as part of that RFP, they're putting in what types of programs and services that they're looking to operate there.

And we're listening to the community.

We're taking feedback.

And we're looking to make sure we connect the dots for everybody and make sure it's relevant.

So the facilities that are leased out right now, that's what they're doing.

And is that leasing price set at council?

Or is that something that's determined within the city of parks depending on what is needed?

I'm sorry?

The price for leasing it to the nonprofit.

Yeah, we're basically running current costs to operate the facility.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I'll just, I'll add to that.

We're finding that, I mean, we work with several nonprofits and all the community centers.

We are the operators, but we collaborate and partner with several organizations, most of which are nonprofits to come in and supplement or enhance what we're already doing.

So our Meals on Wheels program or a lot of the senior activities that you're seeing, there are a lot of youth programs that occur on the weekends.

And that's where you're seeing a lot of those fee waivers come as well, right, where we're waiving fees for organizations that are coming in and bringing a greater good to the community.

What we're seeing when we are with the Johnson Community Center, for example, we put that out to RFP and did not get any responsive feedback to operate that facility because the cost of operating these facilities is continuing to grow.

And so we are exploring new creative ways of leasing those facilities or working with multiple agencies or partners to maybe, you know, deliver programs in a facility.

As another example, we had the Clooney Community Center that was operated by a nonprofit organization for, I believe, about 10 years or so who could no longer afford to run the facility.

So we had to find a creative way to take that back on a couple of years ago within our existing budget.

And now we're seeing some really fantastic programming that this team is delivering out of that space.

So it always seems to come back to us, and we're happy to take it on, but it does come at a cost, right?

And so we're not generating any revenue, certainly not covering the cost to run these facilities, just trying to decrease that subsidy as much as possible.

Yeah, it's like being creative and moving forward.

Yeah, thanks so much for your answers.

Appreciate it.

Commissioner Kangas?

So it looks like about $365,000 in fee waivers between standard and sports field fees that were waived in the past year, which doesn't seem like a lot in terms of, like, trying to drive funding through donors or fundraising.

Is that something that GIFs to Share could support?

And maybe that's a follow-up log question, but if people were interested in contributing to trying to perpetuate that fee waiver program, is there a pathway for that?

There is.

And we had to get creative, and when we restructured our scholarship program, part of restructuring the scholarship program was to include the fee waiver portion for youth programs.

So that is covered in our YPSF program as well.

So being able to utilize our community centers at a free or reduced rate in addition to the sports field.

So we're being creative in that avenue.

Measure L is an opportunity for us applying for the grant through there.

And then, yes, we've had conversations about potentially doing GIFs to Share or donations, even when it comes to our youth programming, now that that has potential campaigns and things.

That as we've looked at options, and I don't have a timeline for it, but as you go to register, potentially, you know, a donate button or something like that.

But that's something we've had internal conversations about and trying to get creative and engaging the public to assist as well.

Commissioner Riley.

Commissioner Riley.

Commissioner Riley.

Commissioner Riley.

Thank you, Chair.

Anthony, good to see you.

I'm going to show my age a little bit on this one.

I appreciate hearing about the lease agreements, the Clooney Center, et cetera, and some of the others.

And, again, as you know, I have some familiarity with that back in the day.

In the future, I'd really be interested to see some of the innovative ways you're looking at that.

In some of my other spaces, I'm looking at innovative ways to look at that.

So I'd really be interested to have a discussion on that.

I already sent you an email, so let's have a chat on that.

And I'd like to extend that conversation, too.

And I know they don't exist anymore, but back in the day, I found a lot of success with the primary use agreements.

I know they don't function in the same way, but I think that there's a lot of opportunity and there's some innovation out there.

And so, as I said, sent you a note.

Look forward to the conversation.

I don't need a follow-up, Chair.

Thank you.

Director Beecham.

Thank you.

I appreciate all the discussion around this.

It's very helpful for staff.

And I would add, Chair, as written in the Commission's annual report and goals, right, one of the main charges of this commission is to support efforts of fundraising.

And so we would love your support.

We've had these conversations around potentially setting up a gift to share account to help supplement or enhance the current scholarship program that we have or find other creative ways to make investments back in the community to remove some of those barriers.

So I would love to talk more with this commission.

Maybe we can bring it back as an item to talk about how we can really formalize some sort of enhancement to the current scholarship program and leverage all of your networking and your role as commissioners out in the community to generate some additional support for scholarships.

Excellent.

Well, thank you guys so much for being here.

We love hearing about everything happening at the community centers.

And yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

Appreciate your support.

All right.

Well, that was review and comments.

We will move on to the next, which is our 2025-26 proposed budget update.

We have a staff presentation.

Director Beecham has taken the long walk.

Director Beecham has taken the long walk.

Good evening, Commission.

It's more fun to present from down here, I think.

Jackie Beacham, Director of the Youth Parks Community Enrichment Department.

So on April 30th, our interim city manager, Lainey Milstein, released the city's $1.6

billion proposed budget, which is balanced and closes a $62.2 million funding gap in

our general fund.

City Council held its first series of meetings on the fiscal year 2526 proposed budget on

May 13th, and subsequent hearings and council deliberations have continued through the last

month of May with an anticipated budget adoption date of June 10th, which is next Tuesday.

A discussion at budget hearings has focused on the funding gap and budget balancing strategies

available to close the deficit.

Thank you to early action by the city council and continued collaboration across city departments.

The proposed balanced budget uses a mix of $34.6 million in ongoing and $35.2 million in

one-time solutions.

These include prior year savings, some targeted reductions that we'll talk more about, and

revenue enhancements.

As done with last year's budget, departments were asked to identify 15% in discretionary

general fund balancing strategies.

These were reviewed and categorized by service impact to allow our city council to make strategic

choices instead of just across-the-board cuts in all city departments.

This year's proposed budget does include the elimination of 70.5 vacant FTE and 12.8 filled FTE, but fortunately,

due to the thoughtful and strategic work of our YPSI team, our administrative and management

teams, there are no filled positions from YPSI that are slated for elimination.

So while the proposed budget is balanced, the city still faces some uncertainty.

There are federal funding delays that we're experiencing, potential inflation, and deferred infrastructure

needs that will remain a significant challenge for us.

New labor agreements could also add additional costs with each 1% salary increase totaling $4.8

million in additional general fund expenses.

So tonight, we'll share YPSI-related budget information, including the reduction strategies,

impacts, and highlights that are included in the city manager's proposed FY25-26 budget.

So our proposed budget in YPSI is $65.9 million, and it funds 674 FTE.

That equals 360 full-time and over 1,000 part-time and seasonal employees in our department.

The modifications from the FY25 amended to the FY26 proposed budget are due to some expenditure

offsets, you'll see a slight difference there, to address the city's structural deficit, as

well as realignment to support more strategic and efficient operations.

This includes all Level 1 and 2 reductions, along with additional labor adjustments and reimbursement

fund cleanup.

This proposed budget will also continue to support the delivery of services through our programs,

parks, and recreation facilities.

YPSI's budget is administered through several areas of operation that support our goals of

creating pathways for youth development, quality parkland and recreation facilities, lifelong

recreation and learning, and community livability in strong neighborhoods.

All of these areas deliver core services across the city, including youth development, safe spaces

for our youth, families, and our more vulnerable populations, addressing the impacts of homelessness

that are affecting our city parks and open spaces.

You'll see a broken out chart of all of those services here.

The theme for the FY26 budget, much like FY25, is a continued focus on core services while supporting

the citywide effort in addressing the $62 million structural budget deficit.

As part of this effort, there's a 57.3 FTE reduction in vacant positions that results in a 35.87 net reduction in FTE.

It's net because it includes cost-neutral ad deletes where we realigned program and operational needs across the department.

We are consolidating several vacant part-time positions that have been difficult to fill to better support our central and core service areas.

It also includes support for facility operations and aquatics and custodial needs, summer camps, and career-level staffing in our community centers.

Some operating and programming efficiency examples include the realignment of our summer Oasis camp locations that we've talked to you about,

with some capacity adjustments and staff allocations that will better serve our communities,

while also ensuring we're continuing to deliver quality programming.

Formatting's off.

Okay, YPSI's reduction strategies total approximately $2.6 million

through a combination of revenue enhancements and the elimination of 57.3 cumulative vacancies.

These FTE reductions are a result of a thorough analysis of department-wide operations

where the team identified underutilized FTEs that could be reduced, reorganized, or integrated

into operations with minimal to no impact to key service levels and more efficient department operations.

The net reduction in overall FTE, again, is 35.87.

That includes over 20 FTE moving from YPSI's general fund budget to our START fund.

That's offset by grant reimbursements, along with other cost-neutral position changes.

These strategies reflect a thoughtful and considerate approach to solving our budget deficit

without creating any undue impact on our community and on our staff.

Our team spent an extensive amount of time evaluating hundreds of positions and programs within the department

to best meet the budget goals without creating any sort of excessive impacts.

So before we jump into level one strategies, for fiscal year 26,

we've included minimal revenue increases to help close the funding gap,

much different than last year that included a pretty significant revenue enhancement through fee increases.

In revenue augmentations, we've included a 5% program fee increase for the RRR program.

This increases fees from $70 to $74 for a half-day program and $89 to $94 for a full-day program.

So I know initially that sounded alarming to folks, but when you look at the actual increase,

it's very nominal and still well below market rate and other comparable services.

We also still have the Hart Trust Fund scholarship program available.

It continues to remove fee barriers for participation in the RRR program.

Here you see our level one reductions.

This includes the reduction of contracted services for aquatics facility maintenance that will be offset

with the addition of custodial and facility maintenance staff.

So we're adding staff here in exchange for reducing some of our contracted work that's happening at our city pools and centers.

This also includes the discontinuation of a golf subsidy that was temporarily in place during the transition of golf operators several years ago at Land Park Golf Course.

UFC also identified a number of vacant positions in community enrichment and youth programs

where we were able to reduce or eliminate FTEs to achieve savings.

Many of these positions have been difficult to fill in recent years, so therefore they've been left vacant.

Other positions have been underutilized, allowing us to integrate or combine them with other more desirable positions

that are easier to recruit and also retain staff for.

And then to wrap up our level one strategies, we have the reduction of vacant seasonal utility worker positions listed there on the bottom.

That's in park maintenance.

These have also been historically very difficult for us to fill.

So while the elimination of these vacancies will have little to no impact on our core maintenance service levels in parks,

it may result in a delayed response time for some special project requests that we often encounter regularly.

So moving on to our level two strategies that total $900,000 in savings,

and this includes the reduction of 14.4 vacant FTE.

This includes the elimination of 10 vacant park maintenance workers,

which much like the seasonal utility worker in park maintenance,

these positions have been very difficult for us to fill.

We do not anticipate a noticeable impact to core service delivery,

and we are going to continue to focus our efforts on operational efficiencies

and ways to mitigate any sort of potential impacts to service levels.

Also in level two, we've identified a number of positions in community enrichment and expanded learning,

many that have been difficult to fill or were dedicated to school district programs that we no longer operate.

The elimination of these positions also will have little to no impact on service levels,

but it may represent a change in service delivery.

An example would include the programming of the 28th and B Street skate park,

where public access will be maintained and potentially even expanded with some enhanced offerings and support from community partners

and instructors to assist with programming and activating the space.

Camps, clinics, special events, and skate nights will also continue.

YPSI will still be the operators with the goal to continue providing open skate and enrichment opportunities

by utilizing our contracted instructors and providers,

rather than relying on seasonal and non-career staff that have often been difficult to recruit and retain to house at the skate park.

And of course, we have the long-term goal of continuing to identify some alternative funding sources

and opportunities to address the greater issue of maintenance and improvements at 28th and B Street

that would ultimately expand and enhance accessibility and offerings year-round.

So much like level one reductions,

we do not anticipate any sort of notable impacts to core service levels and delivery.

These reductions will eliminate,

they will eliminate our ability to expand beyond current program offerings for youth and older adults,

and they will delay maintenance needs for requests outside of our baseline service levels.

So moving on to highlights for the fiscal year 25 and 26,

as we continue to focus on core services,

the proposed budget maintains funding for key priorities,

including our community centers that will remain open and accessible,

providing safe space for programming opportunities for youth and families citywide.

Our neighborhood pools and aquatics complex will be open five to six days a week during the summer

to provide recreational swimming and water safety opportunities.

This is the first time in over six years,

I actually think it's seven years,

that every single aquatics facility,

including our newly renovated Mama Marks splash pad,

will be open this summer.

So that is a huge accomplishment.

I'm really proud of our team for bringing us to that this summer.

Continuation of youth and teen programs,

including afterschool and youth workforce development programs and opportunities,

as well as the realignment of summer camps to meet the community needs.

And our older adult services at community centers citywide,

including meal distribution and expansion of our licensed respite care at triple R,

will increase enrollment specifically in this program.

And then our youth development support,

including grant management,

data evaluation and policy development on our citywide youth initiatives and the Sacramento youth plan.

As you know,

UFC also supports the implementation of the Sacramento Children's Fund.

And then continued progress and completion of currently funded projects.

There are several happening right now that our park planning and development services team is supporting,

including some improvements at the Sacramento softball complex,

the 20th and B Street skate park,

and several citywide pool improvements from resurfacing pools to slide replacements,

pump replacements and more.

And much like our current fiscal year,

we do anticipate some challenges that we'll continue to face with each year that we're tasked with addressing a structural deficit.

While the strategies included,

the proposed budget did not directly impact service levels for the areas they are being eliminated.

We do know that vacancy reductions will eliminate availability of funding for over time in park maintenance and park safety.

Vacancy reductions will also eliminate the ability to carry over savings year after year that is utilized to address deferred maintenance.

As outlined,

these budget reductions do limit the ability to expand youth programs and services beyond,

beyond current capacities.

Can I continue?

It's okay.

It's fine.

We'll take a five minute recess.

We'll take a recess.

Correct.

As we currently don't have a quorum,

we'll need to take a recess.

Okay.

We'll take a quick five minute recess.

We'll be back at six.

We'll take a six minute recess.

We'll be back at six.

Return from recess.

Like we're buffering.

Yeah.

All right,

everyone,

if we can come back to order.

And director Beecham,

you can kick us back off.

Vacancy reductions.

They will eliminate our availability of funding for overtime and park maintenance and park safety.

Vacancy reductions will also eliminate our ability to carry over savings year after year that we traditionally utilize to address deferred maintenance issues.

Also,

as outlined,

these budget reductions do limit our ability to expand youth programs and services beyond the current capacity.

And we will continue to address the challenge of new park development and added park amenities with no additional funding to support ongoing park maintenance and capital improvements.

And again,

as we spoke about earlier in the community center presentation,

when you heard from Anthony,

we were fortunate enough during the fiscal year 2425 budget process to receive one time community center and fee waiver relief funding.

That balance is quickly depleting.

So we will be challenged with absorbing reduced and waived fees for community centers in our operating budget until that funding is restored.

So once again,

council deliberations will continue with an anticipated adoption next Tuesday,

June 10th at 5 PM.

I encourage you all to tune in or certainly attend if you are available.

Prior to budget deliberations will be the Sacramento children's fund and measure L discussion,

which will be a really great and engaging topic.

So in closing,

I want to take a moment to thank our incredibly up see staff for the work they do every single day in serving our Sacramento community.

You heard from two of them,

two of those groups tonight.

I also want to thank our admin and leadership team.

Many of them are here tonight for navigating these very difficult budget discussions for a second year now in a row.

I'm very proud of the work that our team has done in developing budget strategies that I believe really reflect our commitment to providing service to our community.

Again,

I'm joined by my team and happy to answer any questions.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Clerk,

are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you,

Chair.

Chair.

Chair.

Thank you.

All right.

Commissioner Kangas.

I just want to say thank you so much for your creativity to your whole team.

I know how hard this is.

I've been through it myself at the school district.

It's not a fun conversation.

And I think that the way that you've managed to maintain all the FTE within the department that's currently there,

although it's a bummer to cancel vacancies because I know that you need more support,

just really a great job on managing this really difficult time.

Thank you.

Commissioner Flores.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah.

Like what Commissioner Kangas said, props to the team to get us here in the second year in a row.

And I think the hardest part is explaining it to our neighbors, right?

Sometimes we're the direct lines to the constituents, to our neighbors, because it's not binary, right?

This YPSI division is so multifaceted.

It's just not, let's just do a little here, do a little, or 15% is not just straight haircut, right?

And it's also people's lives.

And so I know in this past, like what, five, six weeks, the numbers have been fluctuating here and there.

But the biggest number has been zero, right?

No one, at least right now, no one is slated to lose a real job, right?

That's a real person.

And I know folks up here on the dais, that's a real big concern that no one, you know, imaginary FTEs or vacant FTEs, yeah, those are numbers in the ether.

But like when it's actual FTE, that's a real person.

And, you know, like I said, it's such a dynamic division.

We know who these people are.

We know the 400 folks that are out there, those who are wearing the green shirts, it's those who are, you know, wearing the vest, those who are driving the trucks, right?

Or it's those, the youth providing services to other youth or the older folks, right?

It just, you know, just even the past couple of presentations, it's not just any one thing.

It's everything, right?

We get all the emails.

I, you know, I don't, I know in my particular district, it's so multifaceted and I get the text messages too.

I was like, I saw a maintenance person measuring.

Thanks, Joe.

I'm like, well, no, you put in the request.

It's, I just try to amplify your voice.

And so, like I said, going back to the original, the original sentence is to explain a budget on a multifaceted division.

It's not binary.

And then there's a 20, at least 20 other divisions in a city budget on top of all that.

And it's not, and it's not us versus them either.

So, and I know that conversation gets lost.

Or other conversations get amplified and, and, and sometimes the, the, what's the saying?

The main point gets lost in some of this stuff.

So, so I know it's, it's difficult for on everybody's end to make sure that the right message or, or, you know, cut through the noise and what's really happening.

And I think that the, at the very least in these last two years, the main number has been zero in these last two years.

And I think a couple of weeks ago, a couple of us commissioners, we were having a post content creation lunch for 916 day.

And one of the questions that one of the commissioners and newer commissioners like, when does the, when does the budget talk, budget talks start?

And I was like, well, if this year may June 10th ends one budget talk, June 11th starts the next budget talk, right?

Literally it's the next day is the next fight.

And so hopefully we can keep that magic number zero starting next year.

And, and I know that's going to be very difficult, but I know the neighbors and the, the, the, the citizens of the city of Sacramento who we serve and we oversee love their parks.

I said it to Sam in the, in the previous item, you know, parks is the, basically sometimes the first interaction that citizens and residents have to have.

And residents interact with the city of Sacramento.

It's these other divisions are after the fact, right?

It's the, it's the community centers.

It is the green spaces.

It is the trails.

It is, you know, the older adult services.

It's, you know, it's a YPSI staff member that it represents the city first and we can never forget that.

And, and like I said, we can, when these mics are on and when we turn them off, you know, our advocacy is, you know, we, we know where we have to advocate, but.

The biggest fight is also next Tuesday, um, to rev budgets reflect values.

Parks is a big, a big division, but we need, we need to make sure it's resourced accordingly.

And, you know, like I said, kudos to, uh, making the tough choices given the parameters this year and going into next year too.

So.

Thank you.

Appreciate your support.

Excellent.

So, um, just a reminder to all the commissioners.

It looks like June 10th is the, the big day, but it sounds like this is what is on the table, what you presented, um, right now with the balanced budget.

And so it's just the conversation that is happening that day where things may change, but this is what we are looking at.

Um, so I see no other speakers in the queue, but if any questions come up at a later date, I know that Jackie is always available for questions.

So if you guys think of anything later, please don't hesitate to reach out to her, um, to ask any specific budget questions.

I know that she's happy to, um, answer anything specifically that may come up, but.

Thank you, chair.

Good luck.

Yeah.

I would also encourage you, um, while we work with the city manager and finance team to put forward the proposed budget, ultimately it's, um, council's responsibility to pass a balanced budget.

And so while they'll continue deliberations on the 10th, you certainly have an opportunity to reach out to your councilor who appointed you to your seat, um, and advocate for anything that you or your community is, um, passionate or, you know, values in relation to our budget.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yes.

Double check on that.

Luckily, I know that my council member loves the parks department.

So if you don't know about your council member, you might want to check on them.

All right.

Well, that is review and comment.

So we will move on to the next item, which is 916 updates.

And I see Deanna heading up here for our presentation.

Good evening.

Chair Gaines and commissioners.

Um, I, uh, my updates for 916 day so far is that marketing has filmed some of the 916 day videos.

Many of you guys were present for these videos.

Um, although some of you were not.

And the project that needs the most help is Del Paso regional.

I'm looking at YouTube right there.

And then, um, so we are going to reschedule some makeup days for videos.

Um, I'll connect with marketing next week, get those schedules out to you.

And then I think what we decided for council members to, um, their schedules are a lot more hectic than us normal people.

So we have advocated for them to be able to film their own videos.

They'll connect with marketing as well, just to make sure their phones on the right settings.

And then they can do pretty much their videos from anywhere, whether it's in their office or outside.

We prefer it outside in a park, um, or at least near a tree.

Um, so we'll, we'll shoot for that and I'll be sending you guys emails on make it make up video dates.

Um, in addition to that, the flyer is almost complete.

We're waiting on a QR code as we have decided to go a different route for the registration process this year,

but still going to have a QR code similar to how we had last year with those lawn signs.

I still have all of those lawn signs in my garage.

We're keeping the same code, but we're just routing it through a different,

uh, website.

And so it should be so much easier.

It should be like one click registration, super simple.

Don't kill me if it doesn't work, but hopefully it will.

And then tonight, um, I wanted to get some opinions from you all on, uh, event logistics, uh, recruitment plans,

how you plan to recruit your volunteers and, um, promotion strategies.

So, um, but before I open up the floor to those, um, suggestions, I wanted to make sure that you guys are aware

that we do have to get these parks permitted.

So we do have to fill out the forms to reserve the parks on the days.

Now that we have the dates, times, locations secured, we just fill out the permit request form, turn it in.

That way we know it's our party and those that we invite.

So, um, but yeah.

So I just kind of wanted to hear from you guys as far as, uh, what your events, what you kind of want to see them looking like,

and what materials you may need from me and, um, how you plan to promote them.

Like I said, the flyers just about done.

As soon as I get that QR code, um, finished, we can put it out for distribution.

So pretty much every summer event, hopefully.

I know you guys have celebrate Natomas, um, district two, we were just out of ribbon cutting.

But if, you know, if it were appropriate, I would have had those flyers out if they were finished.

So anything during the summer and then of course at the community centers, I think we can make larger posters,

hang them up at the community centers and see if we can get folks in that way.

So yeah, just wanted to turn the floor over to you guys and see any other suggestions you may have.

I have a quick question regarding permitting.

Um, so is it that the, the person or the commissioner whose district the park is in, are they kind of taking the lead on this?

Okay.

Yeah, typically.

Perfect.

And then we're just jumping into, to support and rally.

Yeah, I think that's probably the most seamless way just because they're in that district.

And so if there are any questions, you know, they can refer back to them.

Perfect.

All right.

Commissioner Kangas.

Okay.

All right.

Commissioner Kangas.

Okay.

I can't mute it.

Now I am.

Um, yeah, so school doesn't start till mid August, but that gives us a really good month of recruitment of youth volunteers.

Last year at D6 and I wasn't at everyone's event, but D6, there was like 20 kids that came out from Hiram Johnson.

So I think it's a great opportunity for us to, once school begins, if you want to load me up with like all the flyers, I've got my new like pop up bus situation and I can go out to all the different high schools.

Cause all those kids need to get their volunteer hours to graduate.

Um, and I think people have a short attention span.

So being like a month out from the actual events is a good thing.

Yeah.

So please.

I will definitely get with you because I know there has to be certain verbiage on those flyers in order for them to be distributed through the school.

So yeah.

Thanks.

Commissioner Uribe.

I am guilty of not having a video on the marketing too.

So I'll make sure to get on that.

And, uh, one thing that I'm learning, um, as a parks commissioner and just being in a Del Paso Heights is that, well, it's called Del Paso regional.

A lot of the folks in the community, I was like, that's not in D2, that's not in Del Paso Heights.

So it's, it's kind of reaching out to those community folks to say, Hey, this is a park for you.

This is a regional park.

Uh, one thing that, uh, I can ask of you to help us out.

Cause I know the, uh, the council member Roger Dickinson is doing with the neighborhood associations as they meet with, he's actually meeting with them today.

Um, is that they have a listserv, they have an email serve.

So if we can have an email ready newsletter ready for them to forward.

Um, and I know where I'm working with a grant high school students and some of the green, I'm forgetting the name of greenhouse program students.

Yeah.

Thank you, Robbie.

Um, to reach out to those students.

And I know twin rivers has a very specific form you have to fill out in order to get that thing.

So, uh, yeah, great to be working with Robbie.

Yeah.

I'll tell pass the regional stuff.

Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Laver.

I had a question.

We're going to be at Miller park.

Yeah.

Doing the painting.

What numbers, like how many people do you want to come to this event?

Oh, like I can make up a number and they'll just.

Well, I think, okay.

So.

Sean Ailsworth once suggested that we break this up into a two day thing, but I think if we have enough volunteers, I don't think that will be necessary.

I'll have to check with the expert, but.

Um, it's, you know, basically painting the parking lot.

So I definitely think strategy for Miller Park should be contacting the Laurier Commission.

They're very involved in that park.

So I think they would be more than willing to help.

And, um, you know, I would say, I don't know, as far as a number for that project, Sean, do you?

How many people do you think it would take to not break it up into two hours, two, two days?

Well, the purpose of breaking it up into two separate events.

Yeah, it might have to be a two day event then.

We'll have to think more on that.

But I'm thinking, you know, an average that people have for 9168, but we've never collaborated before.

So it could go three times the average if you think about it.

But we've had about, you know, anywhere from 60 to 100 people participate.

So.

I have a question too on the painting.

So we're gonna have volunteers coming out there.

They've probably never used a machine or are they gonna paint these strips by hand or

with a machine?

There's a machine.

We have a parking lot striper, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I'm thinking, you know, an average that people have for 9168, but we've never collaborated

before.

So it could go three times the average if you think about it.

But we've had about, you know, anywhere from 60 to 100 people participate.

So.

I have a question too on the painting.

So we're gonna have volunteers coming out there.

They've probably never used a machine or are they gonna paint these strips by hand or with a machine?

Yeah.

A machine.

We have a parking lot striper, right?

Maybe a small roller.

A roller.

I'm sorry, Sean, you're not on the record.

I need to come up here.

You're not gonna be on the record if you're speaking from the audience.

I'm so sorry.

I just wanna make sure we're doing the right job.

Yeah.

For you.

We'll ask the expert.

Good evening.

Sean Ellsworth, Park Maintenance Manager.

To your question, the lines have already been painted.

So we're not re striping the parking lot per se.

What we're gonna do is use small rollers to repaint where the existing lines are.

So it's fairly easy.

We're not gonna be using a machine to do that.

This is again a volunteer effort just to kind of spruce up that those lines that have been fading for years.

So the rollers will be the size of the strip pretty much?

Pretty close, yes.

That'd be good.

Yes.

Thank you.

Don't go too far.

Do you have a number?

How many stripes do we gotta do?

Not off the top of my head.

I did count it, but I haven't.

But I don't have the number.

Okay.

I was trying to break it down and give us a number.

Yeah.

Sometimes I get again, depending on who shows up, I try not to over commit.

So I mean, it's one of those projects that's very simple.

If we have five people show up, then we'll do as many as five people could do.

If there's 50, we'll do as many as 50 people.

Do we have counts on rollers or brushes?

No, I don't.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

We have a number of materials.

Brandon, if we have a number, we have a number of materials.

Yeah.

So we'll probably have 50.

Okay.

Good.

Yeah.

It's kind of where we find that that number is close to what we're doing.

Yeah.

So if we have a number of volunteers, we can actually have a number for it.

Yeah.

So we'll probably have 50.

Okay.

Good.

Yeah.

It's kind of where we find that that number is close to what we're going to do.

Yeah.

Do you need rollers and brushes?

Do you know a guy?

Yeah.

If I knew a guy, sure.

I would like to get some free rollers and brushes.

Commissioner Robbins might work for Bear Pains.

Yeah.

It's a little, but yeah.

Okay.

We'll talk.

I'll take anything free.

Okay.

So Deanna, I know in the past, the marketing has set up like 50% of the

invites that we can share out.

Do you know if they're going to do that that we can share?

And then I don't know if there's been like evites or anything else?

So they're still working on, they sent over the flyer.

They finalized the flyer because we finally got the last date turned in last week.

So now that the flyer is complete without the QR code, once we get the QR code, it will

really be complete.

They've also created some thumbnails for each event on the Instagram reels page.

And then I'm sure that they plan to do the event pages just similar to how we did it last year.

Even though that's not an accurate when people RSVP, I usually do that times two.

That's usually how many people show up.

So, but it'll be good to know and just have that data.

All right.

Well, we have no other speakers on this.

And is there other anything else you need from us?

Nothing else.

I just want to say thank you to Nikki Kangas and how much I appreciate all of your help

with 916A.

Your contribution to this commission has been immeasurable and we will miss you so much.

But I'm grateful that you will still continue to be with us for 916A.

Once a parks commissioner, always a parks commissioner.

You're not getting out that easy.

Thanks.

All right.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no public speakers on item six here.

All right.

Perfect.

Thank you.

And that was review and comment.

And that is the end of our discussion calendar.

And because we are down to the last quarter of our meeting before we would have to vote to extend,

I am going to take the power that I have as the chair.

I'm going to change up our agenda a little bit.

We would be having the director's report followed by commissioner comments and then public comments of matters not on the agenda last.

But I do know that we have public comments.

So to ensure we do not run out of time, I'm actually going to take public comments matters not on the agenda first.

So, Clerk, do we have any speaker slips for items not on the agenda?

Thank you, Chair.

I do.

I have five members of the public who signed up to speak.

Our first member is Rose Schoen and then Noah McGregor.

Hello, commissioners.

My name is Rose Schoen.

I've been working with the city since about 2019 to create publicly accessible futsal courts.

And for those of you who are unaware, futsal is a court sport.

It's not soccer.

It's played with a smaller ball, 5v5, on a court that's the same size as like a tennis, pickleball, or basketball court.

As a whole in the community, we believe that we should be able to go play on these futsal courts that the city has now either converted to create futsal courts or done new builds.

One of the courts in question, the reason I'm here today is because I sent an email on May 5th to Robbie, Karina Talamontis, and Monica, her staff, asking if the courts at Tanzanite Park were going to be accessible to the public to where you can just show up and play and push a button and get lights.

I received commentary back from them stating that the city has made a decision to use Musco lighting.

I wasn't sure if there had been a vote on this because members of the community that used these courts had not been informed that there was a vote that the lighting system was going to be that or that members of the community who want to get lights will have to submit insurance and permits to have lights turned on.

One of the courts, which is a great example, is Northgate Park where you can show up and play.

Similar to how you can just show up to play at a tennis court, a pickleball court, or a basketball court and you just push a light and go play with your friends.

In the email as it kept going, basically what was said was that the city intends to take down the existing lights at Northgate and replace it with Musco lighting.

When the community found this out, we strongly oppose taking down the existing and fully functioning Northgate Park Futsal Court lights, which literally thousands of people have used and enjoy that park right now as a functioning amenity.

And so we want to know why is the city intending on taking down those functioning lights and we want to figure out how to stop that to ensure that the public can do that.

To ensure that the public can continue to use Northgate Park Futsal courts and also how we can make it accessible at Tanzanite for people to show up and play and enjoy the facility.

Those are my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Noah McGregor followed by Brian Fife.

Hi, my name is Noah.

I'm 14 years old and I live in Sacramento.

I'm here today to speak for me and my friends who play soccer every day at Northgate Park Futsal Courts.

Northgate isn't just a place where we play.

It's our second home after school on weekends during the summer.

We always are there playing and staying active and out of trouble and learn how to be a team.

And the lights let us play safely when the sun goes down.

Without them we don't have anywhere else to go.

Without lights we would have to pay for a permit.

And most of us won't be able to pay for a permit or don't have the money for the permit.

Our families are already working hard.

This would hurt kids like me who are just trying to follow our dreams, stay healthy, and do something positive.

So don't take the lights away at Northgate because it's more than just a park.

It's where our community comes together and where friendships grow and where future soccer players like me are made.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Brian Fife followed by Brianna Fife.

Folks my name is Brian Fife.

I'm a parent of a student of my daughter Brianna who plays at the futsal courts along with her friends and the rest of the community.

Having those lights accessible just as you would go play basketball, pickleball, tennis, I think is a thing that we want to keep at Northgate Park.

We don't want to go through like a permitting system.

I don't know what that even would look like as a commoner in the community having to fill out a permit just for your kids and go play and enjoy life at the park, at the futsal court and whatnot.

You know, it's a good way to keep the community safe.

They're active.

They're doing things positive.

I think the kids don't see a good thing when they just can't show up and have a, you know, a futsal match, a pickup game as you would just as playing basketball or pickleball or tennis or any of those things.

So I think we should leave Northgate alone and I think we should bring Tanzanite back to that same type of push button system.

You know, we pay taxes for these type of things in the community.

I think we should keep the lights so our kids can enjoy a safe place to play and build relationships and enjoy just safe activities in the community.

That's my skill.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Brianna Fyfe followed by Julia Jackson.

Hi, my name is Brianna Fyfe.

I'm here to speak about Northgate and how and Northgate lights and how they should stay on so we can play safely.

Northgate is a community space where people come together to play futsal, train and have fun in a safe environment.

Every day you'll see kids, teens and even adults enjoying pickup soccer, improving their skills and staying active and building relationships.

But if the lights are turned off or if a permit is required, all of that goes away.

People won't have a safe place to play at night and a lot of us will lose one of the few places we can go after school or during the summer to stay out of trouble.

I play there almost every day and I know how important it is to be able to randomly pick up a game of futsal.

Northgate gives us something positive to do.

It keeps us moving, connected and out of trouble.

And it helps us stop that feeling of being bored with nothing to do.

Not having a permit for lights at a public park means kids and even adults will still have a safe place to stay out of trouble and continue playing futsal.

Keeping the lights available means keeping a safe community, a safe and open for the whole community.

That's it.

Thank you for your comments.

Our final speaker is Julia Jackson.

Julia Jackson.

Hello commissioners.

My name is Julia Jackson oil and I'm here on behalf of the Del Paso Heights Growers Alliance, a nonprofit organization built upon the pillars of food sovereignty, health and climate equity.

Our work focuses on cultivating joy, food and inspiration here within district two, but reaching folks throughout the city and county.

Tonight I'm here to discuss how in district two there are no community gardens currently owned and operated by the city.

There is a lack of equity and where city gardens are placed throughout Sacramento with large gaps in city investment for community gardens in underserved communities in both north and south Sacramento.

However, every council district except district two has at least one city owned and operated community garden.

There are many benefits to a community garden with dedicated funding and educational opportunities, including health and safety in terms of health community gardens, increase access to local food and they can increase fruit and vegetable intake.

They can also improve air quality and have an urban greening effect to improve safety community gardens and programming can address underlying health inequities that contribute to violence and beautify the neighborhood.

I am here to advocate for the city of Sacramento to implement a policy and environmental change investment by creating at least two city owned and operated community gardens in the 95815 and 95838 zip codes, dedicated food system funding and educational resources for the population residing in city council district two.

Additionally, I'd like to humbly ask for more time on the agenda in a future meeting to speak more at length about what the community would like to see.

I also have something to leave behind with you all on one side is information about our upcoming events we have this month.

And the other side is information about policies the community is asking for to create and sustain a healthier local food system and support safety.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Chair, I have no more speakers.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And thank you all for being here and leaving, giving your comments.

I always appreciate any time that the community comes out, especially for our young people.

It's just really important for you all to be involved.

And I think I know that we got all these comments down so we can have it on our follow up log.

I know I think that commission will have some some questions that we would like some follow up on to bring back to another meeting so that we can get some answers about the questions that were raised tonight.

All right.

So we are going to go back on to our agenda to the youth parks and community enrichment directors report.

Thank you, chair.

I'll make this quick.

So last Saturday for our park planning team or really for our entire department and city, we celebrated the opening of Mama Mark splash pad in district two.

This is the first conversion of a waiting pool to splash pad in the city and a certainly well-deserved amenity for our district to community.

The splash pad will be operate daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Seven days a week and is accessible to visitors of all ages and abilities.

I want to take a moment to recognize our team, all the teams involved in bringing this project to fruition over the last several years.

Our park planning team, Jason, Jason Wiseman and Jeff Nicka, who stuck with this for quite some time through some challenges.

And of course, our aquatic staff, they spent countless hours over the last several days and weeks leading up to the opening of the splash pad to make sure that it was operating safely and successfully.

Specifically, Sean, who's here tonight, Bill Jackson, Clay Peters and Chris Carver from our aquatic staff.

And of course, Deanna, the superstar that she is in planning events for us with a wonderful grand opening.

And it's SHRA for helping to fund the project.

Also with park planning, Thelma and Hawk Park is going to begin construction this month.

It's expected to open this fall.

It will be a new neighborhood park in District 3 that includes a playground and picnic area.

Camp Sacramento has cabins available this summer.

You can see our website for additional dates.

And our aquatics team, the season is here.

North Natomas and Cluney are offering recreational swimming now.

And our remaining neighborhood pools will be opening as schools let out for summer.

With the opening of Mama Mark splash pad and the grand opening of Southside Pool that's going to be happening in a couple of weeks.

As I mentioned earlier, the city is going to be running all of its aquatics facilities for the first time since 2018.

Summer kickoff weekend at our neighborhood pools is going to be held on June 14th and 15th with $1 admission for all of our neighborhood pools.

Southside pools grand reopening is scheduled for June 14th.

And there will be free admission that day courtesy of our gifts to share committee.

North Natomas Aquatics Complex will be hosting a free recreation swim with a movie night on June 27th.

So save the date.

Moving to our workforce development team.

Registration for the July sessions of primetime teen open June 16th at 4.30 p.m.

Sessions will be held at Bell Coolidge, Oak Park, and North Natomas Community Centers.

And recruitments for fall sessions of L&L will be open in mid-July.

28th and B Street Skate Park.

The skate park is currently closed for renovations.

Some of the improvements include a large viewing area with picnic tables, concrete resurfacing, and some mitigation work to limit our roosting bird friends from entering the facility.

This work is anticipated to be complete in the next one to two weeks.

We do have registration available now for skate camps at 28th and B Street.

The first camp is July 14th to 18th, Monday through Friday, 9 to 12.

It's $162 per skater.

And you can learn to skate with Yass Skate.

It's a week-long camp for beginner to advanced skaters ages 6 to 12.

So please visit our website to sign up.

Also through our leisure enrichment contract process, we are currently seeking skate experts.

We shared information with the commission earlier this week to offer activities such as open skate nights for youth and adults,

camps, clinics, skate lessons, special events, competitions, and more.

The park has availability for programming and open skate opportunities Monday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. except for holidays.

You can join us to implement an occasional skate competition or you can apply to provide consistent skate nights for the community.

We'll also work with interested individuals and groups to find the perfect time and opportunity for you to join us.

You can find more information online or email leisure enrichment at cityofsacramento.org to apply for that opportunity.

And our Access Leisure team, please help us spread the word and check out all the amazing activities that are being offered for youth, teens, and adults in our Access Leisure programs.

There's still space in our two-week day camp for youth to participate in music to grow on.

These are camps that are available in East Portal Clubhouse in July, the last two weeks of July.

This is for youth of all abilities ages 5 to 11.

And our next inclusive play date is scheduled for Southside Park on June 14th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

You can pop on over to the pool after that for the grand reopening.

This program is free and available for youth of all abilities ages 3 to 12.

Quick update on our youth program scholarship fund.

So far we've issued 940 scholarships and $128,900 has been utilized.

For our community centers, Summer Oasis Summer Camps for Youth and Teens begins next week for the North Area locations and then on June 28th for Central and South Area locations.

Again, these are eight-week sessions between the hours of 9 to 12 Monday through Friday.

We'll also be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pannell Meadowview Community Center on Saturday, June 7th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This is a free event in partnership with our District 8 Council office.

There will be live band, bounce houses, community resources, food trucks, and activities for all ages.

And that concludes my update.

Thank you.

All right.

And last but not least, Commissioner comments, ideas, and questions.

Commissioner Robbins.

Yes, I was just going to follow up with the futsal courts and everything.

It feels like it's been an ongoing battle for the three years I've been on the staff on here for the commission.

It's been a very hard process to get this done in finding the funding, and it seems like that's what we've been doing.

And I just got to praise Rose because as an unhoused kid myself, we need programs after 5 p.m.

because there's not a lot of them out there.

Thank God for the staff of settlements and the Grant High School football teams that raised me and made me the person I am today.

So I just got to say thank you for fighting your good fight out there.

Rose, keep on doing that.

Like we said about community centers earlier today, we're going to have to find and see different ways and interesting ways that make this happen for you guys.

And I'm going to keep on finding ways.

You already know I'm always there for you.

I'm running your 5Ks.

I'm over there at the park watching you guys do your things.

So you'll constantly have me as your back.

So thank you for coming out and being an advocate for our community.

Thank you.

Commissioner Laver.

I just wanted to thank Sean and Jason for the McKinley Park.

The ballers were put in the last couple of days and I heard some nice compliments from the neighbors.

Hopefully the car issues might be mitigated there.

I had written an email to Joey.

There's like a punch list of some things that the neighbors are concerned about that we'll let you know about.

But thanks for putting those in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Uribe.

This is a fun one.

So we talk about our community centers.

Our council members have food truck events and at our community centers and our parks where taco trucks come up.

So I've partnered up with council member Roger Dickinson, council member Eric Guerra, Vice Mayor Karina Talamantes, and I am leading an event called Battle of the Taco.

And you can go to SAC Taco Fest dot com and you can nominate your favorite taco because we're trying to figure out for the first time ever who's got the best taco in Sacramento.

So nominate your favorite taco at SAC Taco Fest dot com between now and June 15th.

This is going to be a bracket style competition.

64 of the best tacos fighting head to head online.

And I know you can go and try your favorite taco at some of our favorite parks, you know, the community centers.

I know Karina Talamantes, Vice Mayor Talamantes is having her food truck festival tonight.

And I know Council Member Pluckabomb who's in the audience today is going to nominate his favorite taco.

So battle the taco SAC Taco Fest.

Just have that plug in.

Thank you.

Commissioner Flores.

As we're leaving, make sure we maybe we take a picture with Nikki before we leave.

Yes, I'm like I'm in my pajama pants, but yes, waist up.

All right.

Well, before we head out, I would just be remiss if I did not remind.

We've been talking about the budget a lot, but I cannot stress enough the importance of continuing to advocate for our parks budget.

I know that, you know, we had a great presentation.

I know that our park staff has worked tremendously hard to, you know, find any any cuts that they could that would not be detrimental to the services that they offer to our youth and to our community.

And I hope that that stays and I hope that that is what is adopted by the city, you know, but we never we never know what's going to happen on June 10th.

But, you know, we we've sat here, you know, I know some of our commissioners are new.

I know some of us have been here for five, 20 years on this dais.

You know, but we've had we have people come, you know, we have a lighting issue at parks.

We have areas that do not have community gardens.

We have things that are just are not equitable.

We have things that are not fair that we see that we hear about.

And it comes down to the budget not being fair and equitable.

There is not enough funding to go around and it's continuing to be cut from the Parks Department.

And it's not OK.

And every single dollar that is cut from our department.

Are things being cut from our community centers?

It's the slide at Pinnell not being fixed.

I mean, I'm so thankful that the pools are open, but there are still things that need to happen.

It every dollar that's cut is time that we its community centers not being open on Saturday,

which that is time that the youth need to be there.

There are all these things happening that the park staff cannot do because of the budget,

because it's constantly on the chopping block year after year.

And we're going to be in the same situation next year.

As Joe said, the fight starts June 11th.

So I am just imploring everyone out there, you know, the three people watching right now,

you know, to please go to the city council and to leave the public comments to call your council member.

If your council member is not Mai Vang, who I know is on our side, if it's not her,

please go talk to them and make sure they are fighting for the Parks Department.

Every single dollar counts.

So please, please, please make sure you are standing up and advocating because there are things that are not equitable and it's not okay.

And I know that the Parks Department is doing everything they can to make sure it's happening.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to what the council decides.

So we need to be advocating to them.

So on that note, this meeting is adjourned.

You wait for now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.