Well, let's get started.

Good evening, everyone.

This is Andrew Zachary.

I'm co-chair of the fiscal committee for the Board of Representatives.

With us tonight are the other representatives and co-chair Eric Morrison, Virginia Representative De La Cruz.

I see Representative Walt Goldberg, Representative Adams, Representative Dorsey, and Representative Sanford.

If I miss anybody, please raise your hand or let me know.

And with that, Weinberg as well.

Did I miss it?

Oh, thank you.

Yes, I see you right next to Eric.

And I'm sorry, just uh slip of the eye.

Um no harm, no foul.

All right.

And we are with that.

Uh it's 632, and we're ready for the budget budget presentation uh for this evening's Board of Fiscal Committee for the Board of Representatives, starting tonight with the Bartlett Arboretum, and supposedly Tracy Kay is going to lead off.

Yep, that's me.

Um, Tony, am I able to share?

You should be.

Uh there you go.

It's coming out.

Okay.

Well, Tracy Kay, CEO of the Bartlett Arboretum Gardens.

I'd like to thank the Board of Representatives Fiscal Committee members for the opportunity to discuss the mayor's recommended support for the Arbreedom in fiscal year 25 or 2627.

I know some of the members attended our get to know the Bartlett event back in February, but before we get into the budget numbers themselves, I'd like to give everyone a brief overview of what our organization's all about.

Um the agency overview of the Bartlett Arboretum through a lease agreement with the City of Stanford, maintains a city owned park open to the public, free of charge, down to dusk 365 days a year.

We do serve over 100,000 visitors each year.

Um we were uh noted by the HTTV uh best green spaces in all 50 states is Connecticut's best public green space.

Uh other notables are the Adirondack Park.

So we sort of consider ourselves the Adirondack Park of Connecticut.

Just joking a little there.

Um, but it also should be noted that while we have a lease for the core 64 acres of the Bartlett property.

We also care for an additional 27 acres of city land that includes uh Potter's Field, which was used by the city for over 100 years to bury nearly 400 of its poor and unclaimed dead.

And we uh maintain those other 27 acres uh sort of on a handshake agreement with the city.

Um, the mission of the Bartlett Arboretum is to cultivate and develop an expansive collection of trees, gardens, and plants for all to explore, enjoy and study, and to provide through education and stewardship a greener, healthier, more beautiful environment.

And our vision is to be a nationally recognized center of living collection expertise, education, stewardship, exhibition, and horticultural practices.

Just to give you some highlights of what was accomplished over the past year, as I said, we hosted over about 110,000 visitors that we track through our gate uh counter.

Uh over 15% of those are from out of state based on license plate connects that we we did not count New York State license plates who were really from really out of state, out-of-state plates.

Um we conduct a number of on-site and off-site programming and workshops for community partners, including Inspirica, Children's Learning Centers, Building One Community, Beyond Limits, the Boys and Girls Club of Stanford, and several Stanford Senior Centers.

Uh, we do serve every second grader in the Stanford School system with plant lifecycle programming.

We expanded our partnership this year with West Hill's agroscience program.

Uh I'll get more into that as we talk about some of our projects that we're proposing and trying to continue to support.

We also provide an extended day after school program for a number of Stanford elementary schools that sort of addresses the latchkey situation.

Our staff goes in really at the tail end of the day for parents who are working nine to five and they're in the schools providing some education but also some entertainment for the children who've had a rather long learning day.

Uh, we do hold an annual plant sale that raises more than 25,000 in support for the Arboretum's operations.

We have an eight-week long summer camp.

This year we're close, we're almost two-thirds fully registered.

Uh, 320 campers, 25% are supported on scholarships from private individuals and corporations.

We host successful uh summer outdoor concert series last year, was attended by over 1,500 people.

And two other major free community events are Arbor Earth Day, which will be we have one coming up this April, and our Honey Harvest Festival, which sort of closes out the summer and begins fall.

We graduated 32 members of the Master Gardeners program in cooperation with the University of Connecticut Extension Master Gardener Program and engaged over 100 local high school students in free education programs, internships, and volunteer work.

And one of our major projects that we completed last year was the construction of an auxiliary greenhouse, which is in a sense a temporary site for uh that was funded totally by private donations at a cost of about $50,000 to provide on-site facility for the Arboretum's tropical plant collection as we prepare for construction of the new horticultural complex.

We've increased our volunteer support from the business community, particularly in helping with our grounds.

This is just a partial, it's actually a full listing of who participated with uh corporate events and volunteer events here at the Arboretum.

What we're looking to do in 206-27 is in association with city schools and other nonprofit organizations.

We plan to continue our expansion of workforce development programs in the areas of arboriculture, horticulture, and landscape design.

I should note that two of our current employees as part of this workforce development program come from West Hill High School.

Both West Hill High School Agri-Science Program graduates, one went on to Cornell and has come back to work with us, been here now three years.

And another, we just hired on Monday West Hill graduate who went on to University of Connecticut and is working with our pre-school programs.

We're also looking to work with our partner organizations, including Downtown Special Services District and Mill River Collaborative to help build on existing efforts to enhance the city's urban forestry and landscaping initiatives, which is part of the Stanford 2035 strategies.

And through increased efforts, the Arboretum, we are still looking to provide additional scholarship support for those in need of financial assistance to attend our programs.

While our our facilities are, I mean, our site is open, free of charge.

Some of the programs that we do have to generate revenues for our operating expenses do have fees associated with them.

We're looking to expand our GROMobile program.

Those are our outreach programs.

If you didn't see us in the St.

Patrick's Day Parade, that's our vehicle that runs the materials and supplies to the different community partners we work with.

We're building a vegetable garden to provide education around and access to fresh organic produced produce at Inspira.

We're providing in-person off-site vegetable gardening, planting and maintenance programs for preschools at a number of the children's learning centers of Fairfield County.

We've just started an expanded outreach program on site and at the Boys and Girls Club, thanks to third-party funding source.

We're also looking as an example, we have some partnerships with some interesting programs.

This is coordinating an in-person off-site vegetable garden program for students with special needs at Villa Maria School, but they also work with residents at Villa at Stanford, which is sort of a cross-generational program.

Summary of significant changes with lesson anticipated support from the city in the past last fiscal year.

We were forced to eliminate one part-time position and restructure our seasonal staffing.

The Arboretum's current staff now include seven full-time staff members, three part-time, and four seasonal camp staff employees.

As a result, we've also relied on the support of the Arboretum's 200 plus volunteers, many of whom are graduates of the Yukon Extension Master Gardener program hosted at the Arboretum.

Key challenges as we go forward for 26-27.

We do have a capital project.

It's the Arboretum's Horticultural Complex.

It's been redesigned to address rising cost estimates as well as some of the issues around septic and stormwater management requirements.

Thanks to donated services of a local contractor, we anticipate demolition of the existing greenhouse to begin this spring.

And with the mayor's recommended funding for the greenhouse and pavilion, the Arboretum will have the funds necessary to begin construction within the deadlines to secure project support from the state of Connecticut.

That state of Connecticut support for this project now amounts to $675,000.

Some of the challenges on our operating side, two minor, not minor, but we have two staff changes, one due to retirement and another for maternity leave, which will put additional pressure on limited operating funds.

Funding cuts to various to various federal agencies have limited, but if not outright, eliminated some of the funding that's normally available to us.

Over the past three years, their support to the Arboretum went from 75,000 three years ago, 35,000 last year, the year before, and then zero dollars the current year.

So it's putting a little bit more pressure on us to find additional sources outside of city funding and our earned income to keep our operations sustained is to where they are.

We are also trying to address affordability and livable wages with our staff, so we are looking at ways that we can increase that.

But to get to the requests in the that we made in the mayor's budget, uh there's three major in the capital side, there are three major projects.

We were looking for support on the Arboretum's greenhouse and conservatory project, the Arboretum's new pavilion, and a maintenance built maintenance building upgrades.

If you haven't had a chance to look at the capital budget sheets, the Arboretum Greenhouse really addresses a number of the strategies outlined in the 2035 comprehensive plan.

The mayor has put forward a recommendation of a million dollars for the greenhouse.

The second project, which is associated with that, is the Bartlett Arboretum Pavilion, which grew out of a grant we got from the state during COVID.

They have, since the DEEP found out that the property was owned by the city, that grant now is within the city.

But the overall project we are contributing a significant dollars to, and the mayor has recommended an additional $300,000 to get this project underway.

Well at we want to get started so that particularly with this horticultural complex project because within if we can get started, our building timeline is about 18 to 24 months.

And one of the reasons we want to really drive this project is to help out the agri science program at West Hill.

If you may or may not be aware, but West Hill is obviously going under some construction.

Initially, they thought the agri science program was going to be able to continue to use their plant science building because that's not going to be impacted directly by the new construction.

But the contractor there did not want to take on the liability of having students walking through a construction zone to use that building.

So it will basically not be available to them during the time of construction, which is anywhere from four to five years.

We have made some arrangements with our current greenhouse, the auxiliary greenhouse, to help house some of their collections.

But if we can get our greenhouse project up within the 18 to 24 months, it certainly alleviates the issues that the agri-science program will have trying to get through the four to five years projected where they won't be able to use their building.

So this is why we're really trying to push this project on an expedited fashion to help out our partnership with the West Hill High School.

Probably basically put a tarp over the roof to prevent any further damage from the leaks that are currently in that building.

But we might be looking to finding some private funding to bring that project up to speed quicker than waiting another year for the building to degrade.

On the operating side, um, I just want to give you sort of a reflection of where our budget has been and support from the city.

The Arboretum's projected budget for the 2627 is 1.6 million dollars, and the mayor's proposed budget recommends operating support in the amount of $338,000.

To give you a sense of where we've been, if you look at the fifth line Bartlett Arboretum, in 23-24, our city support was $334,000.

The next year it was cut to $314,000.

Then the mayor tried to bring it back up in a recommended budget last year, but unfortunately, when it was going through the process, the Board of Finance reduced the mayor's recommendation of $345,000 down to $325,000.

Trying to make this up this year, we we asked for $400,000, and the mayor has recommended $338,000.

Without getting into major comparisons, if you do look at the fiscal year 23-24 and fiscal year 24-25 for all the non-city agencies in 23 24 25, we were the only agency to receive reduced funding, about a 6% cut in our budget.

Um over that three year period, most of these organizations have received a 10 to high 10% or higher increase in the support from the city.

But over the three year period, the arboretum right now, if we get funded at 338,000 will only be 1% over what our level funding was in fiscal year 23-24.

Um if we had received normal funding during this period without that one year of cut, uh our funding for next year would have been at about 330 368,000.

If you if we go back and notice that in year 2001, 2002, when we were initially started with the city, we received 350,000 to help operate the arboretum due to uh if you adjust for inflation, that's about 690,000 in today's dollars.

So we've been trying to address um cost increases due to inflation, et cetera.

That's health insurance, property insurance, things of that sort.

And with only being one percent above where we were three years ago, we're just hopeful that as we go forward, we don't have to curtail any of our current services, and that we respectfully ask that the board of reps uh fiscal committee support the mayor's recommendation for capital and operational funds for the arboretum as proposed in her budget.

Happy to address any questions people may have.

Um did I get in within 10 minutes?

I hope I did.

Uh do you want to have uh voting members go first?

Uh I'm having trouble seeing who else might be on the call.

I can take the I'll stop the share.

So thank you.

Um I was gonna ask a question, but please go ahead, Representative Weinberg.

No, okay.

Thank uh thank you, Chair, Co-Chair Zachary.

Uh I I just want to uh uh of course uh the Bartlett Arboretum is in uh district 20, so it's near and dear to my heart for that for many and for other reasons.

Um it it obviously, as you can see, its contributions to the city are enormous and unlike uh other some other uh major cultural institutions in the city, it by uh by terms of its lease cannot does not uh charge admissions for its uh for its over 100,000 visitors a year.

Uh I just want to you know reiterate what uh Tracy was explaining because it's a little it's a little not easy to understand about the um about the cut in uh in what was it 2324.

Um we've we've never really gotten a good explanation for the cut, and it looks like it might have even been inadvertent, but in any case, it just sort of reset the baseline uh for the uh for the arboretum, and as Tracy pointed out, is you know, has has had a ripple effect year after year uh after that uh after after 2324.

So obviously Tracy can provide more details on that if they if if if anyone wants, um, but the reason I highlighted is because if the Board of Finance or the Board of Representatives decides that it becomes necessary to do some kind of across the board reduction in the mayor's proposals uh for our cultural institutions, uh I want to strongly encourage both the Board of Finance and this committee and the full board of reps uh to consider exemping uh the Bartlett Arboretum from any uh any such across the board uh reduction uh uh uh as a way to um to acknowledge the you know that the continuing uh shortfall in uh in city support that it's been receiving every ever since that 23-24 cut.

And with that, I yield.

Uh thank you very much, Representative Weinberg.

And I see Representative Graham has joined us as well.

Thank you.

Um I did have a question, which was as a state, sorry, city arboretum, and as a some interest in how I have some interest in how fundraising works for arboretum and arboretum.

continuing uh shortfall in uh in city support that it's been receiving every ever since that 2324 cut and with that i yield uh thank you very much representative weinberg and i see representative graham has joined us as well thank you um i i did have a question which was as a state sorry city arboretum and as a some interest in how i have some interest in how fundraising works for arboretum and arboretum can you tell me what your fundraising efforts look like and how they've been managed over the last three to five years definitely it it's and and it's uh there's added pressure on the operating side because we have been conducting a capital campaign as you know whenever you're dealing with a capital campaign and supporting that some of your donors say well I already gave to you I'm not going to give you as robustly this year on the operating side but our main sources you know in this year it'll be about 1.3 million dollars will make up there's some hefty corporate support from some of the corporate community here I want to don't want to single out anyone in particular but Synchrony Financial has been very supportive of the Arbedum not just financially but they also provide us with some interns in that side our development team which is really a small group of the development committee then gets diff additional funding through our membership program through our earned income through our uh annual appeals uh through our gala that raises significant funds for the operations of the arboretum and they've been sustaining themselves however to catch up on that I don't I don't want a sort of mini crisis that occurred when our budget was re reduced we've been dipping into our operating reserves at about a rate of 30 thousand dollars a year to try to make up for that loss to keep in pace with that so we do have about a quarter of a million dollars in operating reserves uh but that is uh could rapidly deplete if if we get continued cuts on city support on that um but just to clarify uh I make sure I understood you properly you raise 1.3 million dollars from outside contributions outside the city of Stanford that is provided by the city itself it isn't provided by the city no primarily the city the support the city gives us takes care of maintaining the grounds and some of our utility costs and then um it does help supplement some of our programmatic expenses but primarily it's for care and maintenance of the grounds which it's 64 acres is the core we're responsible for but we also deal with the additional 29 acres that happen to be adjacent and the city which includes the uh Potter's field which does require maintenance as it was left neglected for several years.

Sorry I thought you were done and thank you very much thank you and I see Representative Delacruz has his hand up Sakari uh first a comment uh I concur with representative Weinberg's comment about no across the board costs for the arboretum uh I think they do a job and contribution to the city and perhaps a question for uh um for uh the presenter for the arboretum I'm trying to uh uh recollect the name uh tracy k I'm sorry I should have changed you can call me Bartlett arboretum but uh I was curious uh as you know there's been a considerable discussion on some ordinances passed on the board concerning uh gasoline power law maintenance equipment and I'm wondering how does the arboretum uh handle uh those needs we're slowly converting to electric battery driven uh utility uh utility our uh our equipment uh again that's an investment we're trying to make over time we can't just do it all at once just because we're trying to work through our budget uh but we are moving in that direction I can only say the faster you can move the better the more money you can give us the better faster we can move no I'm saying I did just one point of clarification because I think uh Carl mentioned it um one of the things but I I do think it's very important that we are open free of charge don't get me wrong on that but there is something that ties our hands I want people to know that when this when the state of Connecticut acquired this land back in 1960s they acquired it with um open space funding from the federal government that has a caveat that you cannot charge for any admission to that property that was funded through those funds so that we have a prohibition about collecting uh admission fees we can charge and do charge for our programs and the courses that we run in our summer camp program is probably one of our our major sources of revenue when you look across the board from programmatically um and again we get support from people who provide scholarships for those but I just wanted to make that point that we're we don't even park charge for parking either so that people have access to this facility uh year round every day dawn to dusk.

We can charge and do charge for our programs and the courses that we run in our summer camp program is probably one of our major sources of revenue when you look across the board from programmatically.

Um and again, we get support from people who provide scholarships for those.

But I just wanted to make that point that we're we don't even park charge for parking either, so that people have access to this facility uh year round every day, dawn to dusk.

Thank you very much.

Um that's okay, sure.

I'm very glad that you made that clarification because I was not aware that there was such a prohibition going back to electrification of the loan maintenance equipment.

In these uh the discussions that we had on the 31st board on this, it became very clear that it is more economical to use electricity, a renewable resource than to burn a single use gasoline.

Um came to testify the economics had worked in their favor.

Let alone the environmental benefits.

So consider the the risk payback on the investment.

We're about a quarter of the way there, and we would like to get there faster, but we're we're each time we're replacing equipment, it's being replaced with a battery-driven.

Wonderful.

Okay, thank you, Chelsea.

Uh yield.

Thank you, Representative Dola Cruz.

And thank you very much, Tracy Kay.

Okay, thank you.

Uh uh, Representative Dalla Cruz, you have another comment.

Okay.

I think we are even going to move on.

And in that case, our next presenter is from Mill River Collaborative and Netty.

Thanks.

Let me just share my screen.

Start.

Good evening.

Thank you all so much.

I know this is we're in the middle of a long, long um budget season.

Um, so I will skim through some of these slides and then if you have interest in in greater detail, happy to jump in.

Um, for some of you who may not be familiar with the structure of Mill River Collaborative, um, we are a 501c3 nonprofit that kind of similar to the Bartlett, there's a lot of similarities.

I'll have to to Tracy's references.

Um, our operating city property.

So we have a contract with the city of Stanford.

We are kind of similar to like a Central Park Conservancy, right?

So we're operating everything about the park, everything from capital construction oversight, fundraising, operations, lawn mowing, a lot of snow this year, um, all of the programs, that all happens through the collaborative.

Um, we have a contract with the city that was renewed last year.

Um, we had a 10-year contract, we renewed it for another five years, and we hope to keep going in perpetuity.

Um, and I think a big piece that I really like to emphasize is this core piece of our mission that it's a world-class park in the heart of Stanford.

We really strive to convey the best that can happen in outdoor open space because we feel like everyone in Stanford um deserves access to that.

Um, here's just an org chart um just to give you a reference in terms of the staff that we have on hand.

Um, because we do so much in terms of programming, you can see we have an extensive education um and sustainability division, um, our land care division, because we are responsible for all of the care and safety and maintenance, um, and a significant amount of program staff as well.

So uh the park has been busy.

Um, in 2025, we saw um over 368,000 visits um to the park.

So every single year when we track as we track visits in the park, um, we have growth in that in that realm.

Um, in particular, we did a summer concert series this past year at Live at Five has ended, and so we tried something new this year.

Um, it's three weeks of a range of ticketed but also free events across sort of um spectrums and and interests.

Um so we have over 30,000 people in the park just in one week.

Overall, that program brought 65,000 people to downtown Stanford.

Um people linger in the park.

Uh, the amount of time people spend in the park has actually been growing over the years.

Um, and even in the off season, we see about 5,000 people a day, uh a week coming through the park.

So an extensive amount of use, an extensive amount of, you know, wear and tear in the park that we have to make sure to take care of.

And our team does a great job of making sure that the park looks great.

I want to emphasize too this idea of that this park is for everyone.

I think, you know, historically, sometimes there's been an impression that Mill River is specifically for the downtown or for a certain subset of residents within Stanford.

Our average user trends lower income and more diverse than Stanford as a whole.

And that's something we're really proud of.

I think that we really have grown to be a place where everyone feels welcome, that we try to, our program team works very hard to have inclusive wide range of programming.

And as the park has expanded and the density of downtown and the west side has grown, we actually now at this point have 27,000 people who live within just a 10 minute walk of the park.

And we're not just a downtown park.

You know, you can see 06902 is our most, our heaviest zip code, but we have folks coming to us from every single zip code in Stanford and beyond, which I think is an important piece too in terms of the park as an economic driver.

We're actually drawing people from all around to come downtown and experience all of the great stuff that Stanford has to offer.

In terms of our organizational strategic plan, we have three core areas that we are focusing on at this point in time.

One is organizational excellence.

So really focusing on management of the organization from a collaborative budgeting process, trying to maintain operational expenses at a low growth, which as Tracy noted, is difficult to do in this sort of economic climate.

Um you've seen price increases significantly.

Civic goodwill.

So really thinking about how we are a park, not for the sake of a park, but a park to serve the needs of our community.

Um, and you see that expressed in a lot of our programming and the way that we approach the management of the park.

And ultimately capital completion.

So we're continuing to build out the park.

The master plan was approved about 20 years ago, and we still have more work to do.

And I'll show some highlights of that.

Um, so our education program is something we're very proud of.

Every third and fourth grader in Stanford comes through the park for field trips.

Um, we subsidize the cost of those field trips, including busing, which is a big barrier for Title I schools to be able to enjoy a field trip.

Um we have about 4,000 kids a year who are experiencing on-site field trips coordinated with the district's next generation science standards.

We also have a youth workforce development program that's been going on for over a decade.

Um, hundreds of kids have come through that program and we've we manage, we track them over time and see how you know a 13-year-old who learned how to pull invasive weeds, becomes um a hired staff person who then works at our summer camp or um gets into grad school for environmental education.

It's really exciting to see as the program has matured the outcomes of it.

We also have a strong emphasis on inclusivity.

So we're emphasizing special needs training, thinking about multi multimodal teaching.

We're also exploring accessibility.

So more and more we find special needs teachers are coming to field trips, which I think is something you often don't see.

They tend to just stay away, but they've learned from our staff that we really work hard to make sure that kids in wheelchairs or kids who are nonverbal, we are our team is able to accommodate the needs of those students so they're also able to experience these trips with their peers.

Um, these are just some of our program highlights.

Um, every year we try to do something bigger and better and improve on what we're doing.

Some of our classics, like our Halloween has grown significantly, our Easter trails coming up.

Um, some of our core programs, like Sunday, Fun Day and Fun Saturday morning, those are free programs that are happening pretty much every weekend.

And so they really build a community because people really get to know each other.

Um our goals are to really continue to increase visibility.

Um, we're always up to trying something new.

So if you have a partner organization that wants to try something, um, we love partnering with other area groups.

As the park is expanded, we're um activating more areas of the park.

So our playground opened up last year, the Richmond Hill River Walk.

We're farther south, and so we're able to connect deeper into those neighborhoods.

Um, we're growing more and more partnerships.

So there's programs happening, not just put on by us, but put on by partners.

So we are having more reach.

Um, and our after-school program, which launched two years ago, our goal is to get that to 100% capacity.

Um, we currently have um most elementary schools represented in kids participating in our after-school program and also include financial assistance for that, just like we do for our summer camp.

About half of our kids are on financial assistance for that.

Um, if you haven't checked out our new playground, I encourage you to come check it out.

It's a blast.

Um, it is uh it opened in June 2025.

This was a complete redo of our original playground that opened in 2006.

A really strong emphasis on natural play features, connection to nature and the water, and also an inclusive design.

We'd have a special consultant working with us to think about how plays experience through neurodiversity and mobility challenges to make sure that every kid not just feels that they can get to this playground, but that they actually are part of the play.

So we'll actually have high speed Wi-Fi in the core of the park that, you know, people can work from the park, students can take advantage of that.

So folks have access, having access to high speed Wi-Fi is really important, valuable feature.

And our Whittingham Discovery Center will be a hub for that going forward.

And that was fully state funded.

We also had a generous donation to add to our playground.

So this this summer we'll be putting in a shade structure.

That'll really help enhance the caregiver experience and kid experience of our playground.

And the big project that we have coming up is the community commons development.

Just to orient you, if you can see my mouse, this is Washington Boulevard right along here.

Here's the Whittingham Discovery Center.

The ice rink and fountain is right here.

This right now looks like a gravel lot.

If you've been to Alive at Five, this is where it is.

And so we have secured full uh full funding to move forward on this project.

It's um primarily state and federal dollars.

We were really biting our nails there for a while to see if that federal money would stay, and it did, uh, which was a relief.

And so we are this year we will be moving forward on construction documents for that.

Um, it'll include um a large lawn area for performances and events, um permanent uh restrooms, um, a small and large dog park, um, uh handicap accessible parking, significant amount of garden and trees.

Um we'll have over 100 trees added to this, solar panels along a pergola, and we're exploring the idea of like a small sort of um facility space to allow people to kind of rent and enjoy and spend time in the park.

Um, in terms of significant changes and challenges, um, you know, I mentioned, you know, our community commons funding did stick.

We did unfortunately lose a 17 million dollar federal grant that was going to enable us to take the park all the way to Long Island Sound.

Um, very frustrating to lose that money.

Um it had been, it had gone all the way through Congress.

It had been passed in fiscal 23 at the federal level.

And um, we worked with the city on that grant application, and it would have really been incredible to really finish the park.

Um, we're currently still working with the city on trying to sort of incrementally make progress there through state funding.

And uh my our intention is to be prepared for when at some point, hopefully these types of grant funds come back that we'll have even more design development and a more competitive application to reapply.

Um, another big challenge for us has been a drop in our tax increment financing revenue.

So this is a portion of how the park is funded.

Um, a number of properties all around the park are part of a special taxing district.

For some of the new um Board of Reps members, if you ever want to do a deep dive on TIFF financing, you let me know.

I have a whole PowerPoint.

Eric's seen it before, um, that I did a couple years ago.

Um, and that has been a steady stream of funding that has covered both capital investment in the park but also operations.

Because of the last round of reevaluation of property values, the grand list grew significantly.

Um, and but a majority of that growth was through residential property value growth, single family residential growth.

And so when the mill rate was lowered to account for the growth in grand list, that meant that disproportionately office and commercial properties were paying less in property taxes than they had been previously.

If you're thinking about the whole grand list, that all comes out in the wash.

But if your district is heavily commercial, that means that that district is actually playing less in property taxes than they were previously with the old mill rate.

So last year, as we got our annual calculation from the city for the first time ever, it went down and it went down significantly.

Um I, you know, my PowerPoint says 12%.

It was um over 200,000 that came, you know, late in the budget process.

So we'd already gone through the city budgeting process.

Um, and so that was a significant loss in our ability to fund the park and the park's operations.

So, you know, historically, I've been, you know, if you look at your your budget sheet, I've been really trying to keep our operating ask low in terms of operating grant.

But with that significant drop in TIFF funding, I have asked for a small increase.

And 10% of what we lost last year from TIFF.

One other just um note I'll make in terms of challenges in the park.

One is safety and security, right?

We are downtown and we have we have seen over the past couple of years as it is not unique to Mill River.

It is not unique to Stanford, but um a confluence of uh lack of housing affordability, um, challenges with addiction and gaps in our mental health services across as a society, you're seeing a significant growth in people experiencing homelessness across um across all places.

Um, and Mill River is not certainly not immune to that.

And so, you know, we are seeing an uptick in that.

We have been over the past couple of years really working closely with not just Stanford PD in terms of just eyes on the park and coordinating with them on trouble areas and oversight, but also working with nonprofit partners like Pacific House and Spirica to really help connect people with the services they need.

Um, but it is something that you know, we make sure we actually have um ambassador staff on site whenever the park is open.

So we have people on site to help um keep an eye on things, check things, make sure everything is safe so that everybody can enjoy this space.

Um, so uh again, I was like Tracy and I are very aligned with these PowerPoints.

Here's my grant.

You saw similar Tracy's.

Um in fiscal 22, that was our high watermark um of city operating grant.

Um the board of representatives um cut our budget down to 500,000 at that point.

500,000 has some significance in terms of our operating contract with the city.

That contract actually references that the city would endeavor to um fund the park at a minimum of $500,000 per year.

It doesn't, it can't contractually obligate the city to do that because you can't guarantee money in future fiscal years, but um that's sort of where that number came from.

Um, and so you know, this year we put in a request to increase a bit to make up a portion of that lost TIFF revenue.

Um the mayor recommended a 4% increase.

But you know, as you can see, it's similar similarly, once you're kind of knocked down, it's very difficult to kind of get back up at um significant rate.

But we do um hope that the Board of Reps and Board of Finance would consider a small increase given the sort of um headwinds we're facing in terms of loss of TIFF revenue and also a very challenging philanthropic um environment right now.

Um our um operating budget for fiscal 26, it's just over $3 million.

And just to kind of give you a sense of where those resources are coming from, um we show the proposed city operating grant, um, a portion of the TIFF funds that would be allocated to our operations.

So about half of our budget every year comes from city resources.

The other is a mixture of earned revenue and concessions.

So that's everything from summer camp revenue and um, you know, rentals of the park, um, if you buy a you know, carousel ride or you go skating in the um on the ice rink, as well as private fundraising.

Um, I think an important thing to keep in mind too, and you know, I think this is kind of across the board in a lot of public-private partnerships is that the city investment covers the core functionality of a place, right?

So the, you know, the safety, the maintenance, the care of this, the pace, it the place, it is the foundation.

That enables us to go out to private donors and say, hey, we have this beautiful space.

Would you be willing to help support programming for kids or summer camp scholarships?

So while you you see, you know, a solid, a significant portion of our budget allocated coming from private fundraising, a majority of that funding only exists because of the city investment and also is specifically restricted to particular things.

Um, and so a cut from city funding doesn't necessarily mean that we can move private dollars over to make up that that gap.

Um, in terms of how we spend our resources, so again, this is our proposed um budget.

Our the lion's share, you know, the biggest piece of the pie is just the core of taking care of the park.

The park has expanded um in the past couple of years.

We've you know, brought the the not just the playground, but also we have Greenway North, which now connects the park from the sort of corner of the carousel all the way up to Scalsey Park.

Um, greenway, and then we are also heading farther south.

We're now as far south as Tressor.

Um, and as other portions of Riverwalk come online.

So you know, the private development at 100 Clinton, we're reviewing that with them.

As those pieces of riverwalk from private development come online, they get added to our commitment to to care for this the park.

So as we grow, you know, this this continues to grow.

So we're at this point about 35 acres of parkland.

Um we have a lot of infrastructure in terms of our resources.

Um, we invest a lot in our community programs, and um we have a great time doing it.

So thank you so much and happy to answer any questions.

Well thank you very much, Netty.

Uh do I see any questions from Phil?

Representative Delacruz.

Uh thank you, Cher Sagari.

Uh thank you, Nari, for such an engaging presentation.

Uh, I have a couple of uh comments and questions.

Yeah.

Uh regarding the uh TIFF funding.

Uh I know you're not an expert on TIFF financing, it's very complicated.

But a new building is just about to open right across from the West Main Street Bridge.

You're familiar with that.

Yeah.

Do you know if that will be being a new structure into the TIFF financing uh it will, yes.

So the TIF district has not changed size over the years.

The one modification to the TIFF district, I want to say in 2015, was actually to just expand what was considered park or where you could legally spend TIFF money on.

Um that parcel will come online.

Um, but there is always a lag to the TIFF.

So when you think about it, the money has to come in first and then it's transferred to us.

So you have to get a building online, have that shift its evaluation, right?

It's tax rate.

Then once that's shifted, they're going to collect those taxes in July and January.

The city then calculates what they collected from July and January, tells us in April and transfers it to us in May, and then it applies to the subsequent year's budget.

So there's so there are properties like that apartment building that will come online that will ultimately start, you know, supporting more um of the park that the TIFF district will grow.

But there's there's this sort of lag component to it that we also have to kind of um project out.

Yes, is that what about a year or two lag?

So it's yeah, so it's about an 18-month lag.

18 months lag, yes.

Okay.

Um, I um surprised that with all the high rents that these commercial buildings are as charging, that actually their evaluation has gone down and transfer the tax burden to the residential.

It's part of it is yeah, it's it's um part of it is that when you think about res like real estate growth, even if those buildings get more expensive, the rate of growth in residential is so much higher, right?

And so when your overall grand list, so like all of the properties, all of the value of all the properties gets added up, you take your grand list, you know, consider your budget, and that sets your mill rate.

So your mill rate then applied back to those properties.

If your residential grew a lot and your commercial grew a little, but you were able to drop your mill rate um because the grandless grew so much, it just means that even if the commercial property is worth more, it's contributing a smaller piece of the pie, if you will, to the overall um grandless collection.

This is and this is something that again is not unique to Stanford.

I think you know, Connecticut has to do um, they have to do revals, is it every five years or is it every 10 years?

Every five years, every five years, right?

And so a number at the post-COVID real estate shifts have been significant, and so a lot of cities and towns across Connecticut are grappling with the fact that the tax burden has shifted to residential as residential property values have gone through the roof, which we've been living in a house for 20 years, like it doesn't help you in any way, but you're suddenly your weirdness.

Sorry, sorry, thank you very much.

Okay, thank you.

Uh part of the vision, and this may help with that connecting to the ocean, but of the vision was to connect Bokuzi to Mill River.

But if the vision was to connect Mokussi to Mill River, and the final link that is needed, uh the link is essentially completed, but there is a little piece to connect the roundabout of Lenage Avenue on Polaski to the southern end of Mill River.

Where are those that stand in the budget?

Has there been a budget for that?

That was part of the 17 million federally lost.

So that was so that the basically the the 17 million dollar federal grant that we lost um was covering all of the publicly held pieces to get to Long Island Sound.

I will say though, I have been working with Luke at the city to um he submitted a Greenway grant to the state, which at least will continue that process, right?

The 17 million covered design, construction, everything.

We're now trying to just do it incrementally.

And so we do have some grant applications in there to to at least start with design documents.

Well, do you know this little link that is still missing?

Is just at the best crosswalk across.

I'm going to suggest that we move along.

It's not yeah, I can and I Virgil, you and I can talk offline with Luke about if there's incremental pieces we could work on for that.

Okay, so that mission link is not part of your budget.

No, but I can talk to Luke about it.

I see.

Okay.

Um the last question if uh Chair Sakari will allow me.

The same question that I asked Tracy.

Uh, how are we doing?

Maybe it's we're working on it.

You're working on it.

Yeah.

Okay, Nadi.

Thank you so much.

And I yield.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nati.

Thank you, Nati.

Are there any further questions from the floor or the loud?

All right.

Thank you, Natty.

Appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Have a wonderful evening.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Thank you.

I in light of trying to keep things down to a reasonable limit.

I would like to suggest that presentations be 20 minutes or less.

Um, we have quite a few to get through, and I think people would like to get some sleep tonight.

And I we do want to hear everybody's discussion, you know, what's important, but let's say focused on budget issues if we can't.

Um so with that, the next up is uh, I think William Brink from the WPCA.

Um I don't see him on.

Um, the WPC has been rescheduled.

Uh it has.

Okay, I guess I have an old schedule.

Thank you for telling me.

And then is the Harbor Commission.

Yes, um, Chair uh Zachary.

This is uh my name's Kevin Murray, I'm director of Parsons Recreation.

Good evening, everyone.

Um consideration here if I could to help move this along.

If um uh part of my oversight is uh Terry Connor's ice shrink, um, which I have ice shrink manager, Richard Johnson and also uh E.G.

Brennan golf course and gashima um superintendent of greens.

If they're allowed to go before me, um I will be the last voice you'll hear tonight, and I could consolidate everything in one budget presentation to help the effort move this along.

That would be very impressive.

Yeah, and everyone, everyone's sleep cycle would be a lot happier.

Yeah, I will help with that.

So with that, um, I like to introduce our new ice rink manager, uh Richard Johnson, and he'll share his screen for everyone.

Thank you.

Good evening, everybody.

Um Richard, could you make your screen full screen?

Uh it's unfortunately my screen is small, and I I there we go.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anyway, yeah, I've um I'm the new manager down at Terry Connors Ice Rink.

For those who don't know the facility, it's a uh special revenue fund.

Um, you know, we cover our own expenses, or you know, we try to.

Uh, we're home to Stanford Youth Hockey Association.

They are the oldest youth hockey association in the state of Connecticut, as well as the Southern Canadian synchronized skating club.

Um, they host the Terry Connors Open, which is one of our busiest days of the year.

Uh last year it accompassed uh 63 teams, had about 3800 skaters through here in one weekend.

Um here this has remained unchanged.

Uh, our organization chart.

Uh there's myself, our customer service rep uh Lisa.

We had three full-time operators.

I have since moved out of that position to the management position, so we do have a vacancy at the moment.

Um it's kind of a uh summary of this.

Um Ken Smith, who was in this position, retired on December 31st.

I stepped in a little late in the budget season, uh, but I'm kind of getting a hold of everything.

Um as I've moved into this position and we're down a full-time operator.

Assuming it takes about six months to fill that position.

Um, we will save probably about $60,000 on our operating costs, which will help uh alleviate a big theme of this presentation tonight is going to be the need to increase our fee structure.

Uh along with that is you know, for public act, you know, 19-4.

The the minimum wage is going up to 1694.

Um, and we do have 32 seasonal employees here.

Um, so that does affect us uh pretty heavily.

Um this fee increase that will be going to the to the boards uh will help us maintain the building.

It is you know now 53 years old.

Um, you know, we're keeping you know our budget relatively flat compared to last year, um, which will give us enough to operate and make some quality of life upgrades to the building.

Um just to you know, bring up the perceived value for the customers, um, you know, with them seeing a fee increase on their end.

Uh nothing really discontinued or changing in our our programs and services.

Um thing that has happened very recently um is just we've adjusted our lesson programming schedule uh in order not to have direct competition with the new Wings Arena uh off exit six.

We had same-day lesson programs, uh, which were basically competing for the same time, same people.

Uh so we moved a little bit, they moved, uh, we coordinated with them.

Um so now we're no longer in direct competition with that, and they in turn are going to be recommending their lesson program participants to come and participate in our summer camp program.

Uh so a little bit of cooperation across town.

Uh kind of our challenges and and changes, you know, we're still carrying over the uh condenser tower project from the past two years.

Uh we are hopefully in the final stages of this.

Uh, we've blocked off some time in August for the mechanical upgrades to the building.

This is using grant money.

Um, so that's you know, it is a capital project, but it's not coming out of that budget.

The money's already allocated.

Uh we also have a vendor who's been chosen for the rink.

That'll add about $9,000 of revenue.

Um everything has gone through on that process.

We just need to wait for uh board approval and he'll be in.

Uh it's been about a year process of getting the space retrofitted for him.

Uh and it's everything's ready and set to go.

Um we've also become a little more aggressive seeking our board advertising as a source of revenue.

Uh, and so far in the past few months, we've we've already brought in uh about two and a half thousand dollars and have several more people willing to come in on that, uh, which will help as well.

Um we're coming up on some several maintenance milestones for for equipment, one of our our Zambonis from 2007, uh, a deskant wheel and a dehumidifier.

Um so again, the the ask for increased fees um will get us that bit over our operating expense to go into our fund balance to commit these repairs.

Um anybody that wants to see that too, I've linked it in this.

Uh I did an aggregate of the nearest five near peer ranks to us, uh, and we are currently sitting at about 36% lower than the market average for ice time, uh, which is where this is coming from for the for the fee increase.

We haven't had it for a few years.

Um, and it just you know, not to say we need to compete with the private ranks, uh, but we do need to at least get to where we're a little bit ahead of break even to you know bump up our fund balance and and bring the building up to where it needs to be.

Um this I've linked um.

I can go back well, I guess when we're doing discussions.

Well, I guess when we're doing discussions, if anybody wants to see specifics on the fee proposals.

And just some highlights from 2022 to present, our summer camp enrollment has grown by 44% with a revenue increase of 60,269.

Uh we are the most affordable full-day summer skating camp in the area at 375 per week.

Uh and our two closest competitors, you know, one of them's a half mile up the road, uh, are at 580 and 925 for full day, full week.

Um and then also recently uh we're looking into making some improvements with the energy efficiency of the building and streamlining costs to expand our revenue margin.

Uh we've put a request in for solar for the roof.

Uh we have an excellent roof for solar.

Um there's no no blockage, it's a large flat area um and kind of coupled into that um looking into an a uh AC system that we have on site already attached to our dehumidification.

Um where if we do get the solar installed, we can activate that, which will use electricity instead of burning natural gas all summer through dehumidification.

Um so that would also save on our natural gas costs significantly.

And uh that's kind of a brief overview of what I've got right now.

Uh if anybody has any questions, I I can answer anything specific.

Thank you, Richard.

If you could stop screen sharing, then I can see all the hands.

Okay.

That'd be great.

There we go.

Um questions?

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Um good luck with your new role.

Thank you.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

I don't see any questions.

So the next item, uh Kevin, you want to choose who you'd like to do next.

Yes, um, Hidago Nagashima, he's a superintendent of greens um at EG Brennan golf course, and I'm gonna share his presentation.

Great, thank you.

Yeah.

And uh just for the record, people know if you have a budget book with you.

Uh the Brennan golf course starts at page.

I gotta go find it.

Uh I think it's page 435.

Great.

Great.

Can you um can you guys see that full screen?

Uh we can see the screen, but we if you could make the image itself, the presentation itself full screen, that'd be great.

Okay, you see how I do that.

Um sorry, present and teams.

Yeah.

Um, if you go to uh slideshow.

Uh no, we're not on teams or in Zoom, so that wouldn't work.

Uh I think you go ahead.

Yeah, good even good even good evening, everybody.

Um thank you uh for your service to the the the city.

Um so uh while well Kevin's uh working that out and he's he's better with the computer stuff than me.

I I must be uh terrible at it.

Uh but so um we're gonna go into um our uh presentation here while he's getting things situated.

Um so the golf course is very similar to the ice rink.

Uh all our uh expenses are covered by user fees.

Um so our golfers are our lifeline uh for our um expenses.

Um so if you know the golf course, uh we're uh located next to uh Zodie's uh 19th hole restaurant.

Um we're trying to uh stay uh relevant in the uh in the golf uh community.

Uh and we do that by uh keeping our conditions uh uh as good as they can be and keeping our uh rates low.

Just like the uh ice rink, we are uh looking to uh have a fee increase schedule that's gonna go before the boards, um and that's going to um help with some of our major projects that we've uh or some of our projects that we've scheduled, including bunkers right renovations, um and overall uh condition improvements.

uh as good as it can be and keeping our uh rates low just like the uh ice rink we are uh looking to uh have a fee increase schedule that's gonna go before the boards um and that's going to um help with some of our major projects that we've uh or some of our projects that we've scheduled including bunkers right renovations um and overall uh condition improvements um so uh okay can you guys see that i'm sorry yeah i it's up there so um can you is that barking yeah i mean it it's up there i don't know if if uh everybody can see it uh effectively but i i have it there yep you guys see it yes uh we can see you change the page to what you talk yeah yeah all right so i'm gonna go to the second page yeah so so we have uh an 18 hole golf course uh full uh putting green uh no driving range uh clubhouse uh uh restaurant um so uh again just to say uh we are covered by user fees kevin could you move along yep thank you our org chart has not changed uh we have uh uh last year we were looking to fill a uh full-time position we filled that so we are we are uh not looking to increase or decrease any positions kevin it's off the screen now i'm not sure what's going on it i'm in some kind of weird mode right now can you see that is it the rounds played i don't have i don't have that on my screen hold on one second i'm gonna try to come in and come out again i apologize everyone could you send the whole thing to barber and she could do it i could do that barber can i do that this is christina i'm hosting the meeting can i sense you christina i sent to i sent this to barbara a week ago okay let me just pull up line unless you have a trick i could i could i could pull it up i don't know the trick to show a um and during in teams i don't have uh how do you show uh um a page is there um i'll share my screen is that present in teams is that work or no it doesn't work that way zoom though tonight yeah okay thank you um yes if we can move forward christina or is that you need me to send it to you um no i'm fine thank you okay okay uh can we have the next slide please great so that's our org chart uh it stayed the same next slide please great so if you look you look at our comparisons and I'm not gonna go deep diving into this but uh we are staying steady um projecting uh steady rounds uh we're consistent with the last few years uh and uh next slide please great so we are looking to uh convert our our gas powered uh uh equipment to electric powered whenever we can uh the easiest ones were uh our utility vehicles and we've done that already um so we have four utility vehicles that are electric um we've gotten two backpack blowers which is uh conforms with the um the the uh uh new noise ordinances and as well as we're going green um as far as our other equipment um as they age out we're looking at uh opportunities to transition to electric equipment and uh unfortunately uh a lot of our equipment is very specialized um and the technology is there for some pieces uh but not there for some of the larger uh tractor like pieces yet so hopefully with the next few years uh the technology is gonna catch up and we'll be able to convert um uh to electric um next slide please great so um we are um uh in the process of uh upgrading our our bunkers um and that's one of the big issues we had a uh big issue with our T boxes uh a few years ago and and we straightened that out um we are always looking to prune our trees uh and and make the golf course safer and we work with the city uh tree department to to help that um next slide please so one of the projects on the list is is upgrading our irrigation system um and you think irrigation using water uh and the possibility of using more water i i don't think that's uh the ultimate goal here it's it's to use water more efficiently and effectively and put it where it's needed

Um we are always looking to prune our trees uh and and make the golf course safer and we work with the city uh tree department to to help that.

Um next slide, please.

So one of the projects on the list is is upgrading our irrigation system.

Um and you think irrigation using water uh and the possibility of using more water.

I I don't think that's uh the ultimate goal here.

It's it's to use water more efficiently and effectively and put it where it's needed.

Um and if you know um the golf course, we if you have a uh dry spot in one area and you need to give it more water, you tend to give the dry spot um enough water, but you're overwatering the other spots.

So the new irrigation system is is going to help uh distribute water uh more effectively.

Uh hopefully the net effect would not be using more water, um, but we'll be doing that.

Uh we are uh looking to uh finalize our contract with our irrigation uh consultant, and that will uh help uh move along the project.

And with uh the golf course, we have um we are revenue driven, right?

Uh as a lot of departments are, um, but we are self-sustained by the golfers.

So what we we can't close the golf course to do this, uh, so we'll have to be creative and work around uh golfers and not close the golf course and not make it a dangerous situation.

And we're hoping to do that in the off season and some of the shoulder months.

Uh next slide.

Uh that's that's it.

So uh uh I have um if there's any questions uh for me uh about my presentation, and sorry I kind of uh ran through it quickly.

Um, but the golf course is not looking to increase our budget.

Um we're staying flat uh for the most part, uh except for contractually increased uh uh raises and and wage increases.

Um so uh I'd I'd be happy to answer any questions.

I don't see any questions from the floor.

Anybody have any questions?

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Great.

Thank you all.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Um next is Kevin Murphy.

Kevin Murray, sorry.

Yes, and that's okay.

And I'm sorry to slow everything down.

Um I thought I had a handle on this, but um, all right, so uh to make this move quicker.

Um, I'm gonna do my best um to consolidate everything um for your understanding.

So under the first item uh that I was supposed to speak up um on behalf of the first budget will be the harbor commission.

So a quick um kind of program description of that.

Um the harbor commission is to sell funding and administrative costs or harbor services and provide at no cost to a taxpayer um revenues that um that would result um for harbor safety.

So basically the uh the total operating code, there's no increase.

So we did some reshuffling of the budget as you can see.

Um I'm gonna share my screen.

If you can see that, um, the only reshuffling of line items we did is we increased um the professional consultant um uh budget um to 25,000 versus 21,000.

And we also're not sharing your screen.

If you wanted to do that, there you go.

So um as I mentioned, uh the the professional consultant was increased four thousand dollars and um also I have I increased the gasoline $500 in this budget, but we also uh reduce some areas in central service and miscellaneity contingency funding um to a net zero for the harbor commission budget.

Okay, so that's that's the Harbor Commission.

Okay, um, and I can go on to my presentation for uh Arson rack.

I might need Christina's help on this if you cannot see that.

Would you mind passing it to Christina so she can um display the screen full size?

Christina, can you share that, please?

Thank you, Christina.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Christina.

I did some um adjustments, so I will explain those adjustments while I go through this.

Um the first one is the R chart.

Um as previously uh viewed uh Terry Connors and also E.G.

Brennan as part of uh the programs that I oversee.

Along with that are eight other uh budget programs, park maintenance, um, aquatics, beach and park enforcement, forestry division, um through the recreation.

We have fee supported programs, so self-standing programs, special needs recreation, and also the Star Center.

So this is our full org chart.

You could go to the next slide, please.

Also the marina division.

I forgot to mention that.

Staffing updates through these divisions.

We do have one new position.

It's an urban forester position.

This is under the supervision of the director of operations or designee, which will preserve and expand Stanford's urban forest, oversee those city tree inventory and administer the city invasive species management plan.

When I say new position, we um we did have a vacancy in the forestry department for a tree maintenance specialist.

So the additional funding, so that vacancy funding will go towards that urban forester.

So the increase in the forestry division salary line item has increased.

So that's the increase.

It's about $39,000, and I'll go through that in my forestry increases as I go through this.

Our overall budget increase is 2.6%, which is equal to $89,62 in our entire budget.

The cost drivers there are contracted services.

It's a 154%.

It's 161,000 increase.

This is due to the takeover of Veterans Park.

Veterans Park is a park that is has a lot of sensitive amenities.

The administration is wants to contract that out to the DSSD in regards to running contractors that will oversee the amenities in that park, which are the AV systems, the water feature systems.

So the total management of that park through the contractors will go through the downtown special services.

So there's will that funding that increase will support that oversight.

All invoices will be overseen by myself.

Right now, our park staff doesn't have the specialty training to run these advanced amenities, such as the spray feature, and the AV equipment and the lighting in that park.

Technically, it's it's it's pretty much a advanced museum and the advanced uh technology that needs oversight um daily, weekly uh to make that park run.

So, with that said, is um it's it's that's the increase in that park.

Other contracted services that are within that budget are very important to us.

Um we have Schofield Town maintenance, which is um obviously on a landfill, um, which is reported.

Um, we have soil testing there that has to be reported on.

We have our yeast relief program um in our five parks that's run 12 months out of the year.

Um, all our uh third-party contractors, such as door services, our one vac sewer and drain cleanings, um, our park ambassadors, um, our northern park ambassadors coming out of this uh this contract is uh services line items.

So that's kind of a quick overview of that increase.

Um other increases are building maintenance is 75%, which is $60,000 from last year.

Um we've we've definitely seen an uptick of repairs that are needed within our park facilities throughout our parks citywide, welding repairs, toiletries, um, um, bathroom repair upgrades, sinks, replacement, water fountain replacements, fence replacements, um, you name it.

Um, our dog bags come out of this, our mutmits that we supply for the city, um, which is roughly around 27,000 each year that we um we provide for the the residents of our Stanford parks.

Our land supplies is an increase of 40, 40.6%, which is 65,000.

This is um goal goes in lines with our organic uh athletic field plan um um growth uh organic um soil plan um in regards to our athletic fields, um seed, um organic fertilizer, um it's by ordinance.

Um so we provide unhealthy um planning surfaces for our park fields.

Um we have seen a drastic increase in pricing there.

Um you could eliminate the park maintenance housekeeping because that was not increased.

Um it's still it's still 30,000.

Um I asked for 60, but it was cut by the mayor, so you could eliminate that increase.

Um, so it's flat.

Um we did see some decreases in park maintenance.

Our overtime is down 34%.

Um our electric is down um 8.9%.

Our natural gas is down 18.2%.

Go to the next slide, please.

Yep.

Forestry increases that I mentioned before.

That's the urban forester difference.

So the um the vacancy salary.

The total amount for urban forest position is 117.

So roughly around 89,000 was the vacant salary from that tree maintenance specialist.

So we're asking for the additional money to fund that urban forester position.

We do have some decreases in that line item.

The overall budget is down 3.8% in 2127.

Marina's 2138 overall increase of 2.3%.

We saw that within medical life unemployment.

We do have increase in non-capital equipment, which are lifeguard stands that we provide, swim buoys, swim lines for our beaches.

We did see some decreases.

This is to add another park full-time park police officer.

Right now we have two.

We would like to get up to three full-time park police officers that will provide citywide coverage seven days a week, along with our 16 park rangers that work.

Actually, they're starting March 26th of soon, very soon next week.

And they'll be on till about November 1st.

So with three park police officers and 16 park rangers, it'll assist with quality of life issues and monitoring of all our parks.

Next slide, please.

These are the increases in our few of our programs.

We have slight increases in overtime within our fee supported services under overtime, our contracts, uniforms, our supplies.

These are all programs that we run for our children in our camps, our youth programs.

We do have an increase at the Star Center and contracted services.

I do have a breakdown for that.

If you need more information, our overtime went up there 7.8%.

Our facility per our contract has gone up 1.5%.

We are in our last year in agreement with the church.

So we'll have to renegotiate that that lease agreement in 2027.

Next slide, please.

Some of our initiatives.

Next slide, please.

Um a lot of improvements, a lot of playgrounds going in, hey Gav.

So thanks to uh you know some you got some of you on this board who've passed uh capital budgets um prior and uh the ongoing support that you have shown.

Um we have made uh tremendous strides um the past few years um with a lot of park initiatives um and and park amenities have been you know um really uh goals of mine are have been beginning hit with um a lot of positivity and and use so we're continuing to uh move forward and and and obviously this is a short list of um a lot of um a lot of goals that I have, but um you know, with the support with the administration and and and also you guys, we can continue to build up and I know um a lot of these projects are important too um to continue, but I'll let I'll be happy to answer any questions on any projects.

Next slide, please.

Um again, this is more um you know, uh abandoned uh department challenges, uh kind of self-explanatory.

Um, obviously um we do have a lot of overuse um declining infrastructure that we hopefully would address with some capital funding, um, you know, recruiting and retaining employees, the the rising cost, which was hit earlier with minimum wage, um, you know, the the board of ed custodial union wages increases, which increases our budget, um, the activity on our fields, um, seasonal bathrooms incorporates high rental rates for poor jones within our parks, uh, which are unsightly and they're high maintenance.

Next next page, please.

Um, I mentioned a lot of our um uh things that happen.

I mean, obviously we we have a new bocce court um at Scalsey, which is wonderful.

Um new cove marina has opened in spring of 25.

Um they're putting new utilities currently and right now.

Um we're on year five or organic turf maintenance program, which I mentioned before.

Um, the dog parks, um, the continuation of the Northern Park Attendant Program, which assists with quality of life along with our park police officers and our park rangers.

Um we're working with um uh director de Rubis um and uh uh signs and lines with uh continue um with uh the process of installing safety blue lights and surveillance cameras in our parks, um, which will be at Heroy, uh Leone and Scalsey Parks very soon.

Um continuation of the Pars Community Partnership, 501c, the Hands Protect and Sustained Parks, Open Space, all great stuff.

Um, always looking for grants and opportunities to to be better and and and capitalize on funding opportunities.

Next slide, please.

Through all this stuff already.

So next slide.

Um again, um goals obviously and highlights um, you know, we obviously um capitalize on our volunteers um and um and our relationships with our partners.

Um we also uh you know work with Domus Group that uh concentrates on 35 park easements and um legal dumping locations, which helps the city and helps us.

Um and and obviously we would love to continue the extending of the seasonal bathrooms at seven locations into the off season um and make them 365 bathrooms with our capital uh requests.

So um that didn't come into fruition this past year, but um working with the facilities director, we're very confident going into this year.

We'll have three sites completed um for this coming uh winter uh to keep open in our parks.

Next slide, I think that's it.

I did uh put some highlight uh recreation numbers um for some revenue that was captured um through our star center and some of our non-star center revenue that we collected through our um our seasons for your uh reference.

Next slide.

Uh this is some of our highlights for recreation adult leagues, participants and tournaments, um, kind of a recap of our um our our recreation programs that we offer um our independent uh permanent leagues sanction leagues next slide.

Uh these are our numbers of participants, our children that we service through uh in 2025.

And I believe that's it.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much, Kevin.

You're welcome.

And I see a hand up from Representative de la Cruz.

Hello, Virgil.

Virgil, did you want to speak?

Representative La Cruz.

Okay, my microphone finally muted.

Unmuted rather.

Okay, sorry for that.

Uh Kevin, can you go back to the page on the presentation that had all the budget items?

Page 90, 89, 90, and so on.

That's the capital one.

Uh yes.

Christina, that's um page eight on my slideshow.

Anyhow, uh, I didn't see anything for Borcusi Park.

That's under engineering, um, Virgil.

That's under the engineering department.

That's part that's one of their submissions.

I see.

Okay, thank you.

No need to go back to the page.

So the Borcushi Park budget is under engineering.

That is correct.

Okay, thank you, Kelly.

Uh, I yield with that.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Representative de la Cruz.

Uh, are there any other questions from the floor?

Oh, Kevin, thank you.

Oh, uh, Representative de la Cruz, you have your hand up again, or is that an oversight?

No, I'm trying to lower it.

Uh okay.

Okay, you lowered.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh Kevin, thank you very much for a well put together presentation.

Very thoughtful, nicely done.

And an excellent summary of the work your department does across the whole city of Stanford.

I'm sure it's a very challenging job.

Very challenging.

Thank you.

You guys have a challenging job too, so thank you, and good luck with your deliberations.

And uh looking forward to working with everyone who's coming here.

Uh I believe that is everybody on tonight's agenda.

And with that, uh, we are done, unless there are further questions.

Great.

Thank you very much, and thank you, Christina, for orchestrating this.

You're welcome.

Have good night.

Good night, everybody.

Good night, everyone.

Good night, everyone.

Hi, good night, everyone.