All right, good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to call this regular city council work session to order.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2025.

Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Mayor Sarter.

Present.

Vice Mayor Hastings.

Here.

Councilmember Haney.

Here.

Councilmember Greenberg.

Here.

Councilmember Duffy.

Here.

Councilmember Melton.

Present.

Councilmember Judd.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have quorum.

Thank you.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

One nation under God.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Item number one presentation and discussion of city field usage.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

How are you today?

Good.

We have a very exciting, sorry, Holly Osborne Parks Recreation.

And Kendra Pettis from Sports Entertainment and Culture.

Got it.

Um, we're here to talk to you about some field allocation and our usage that was brought up in a council meeting, I think before the summer.

But um, so we'll kind of go through why we're both here, and you'll understand how we allocate our fields, what our field usage is, um, what we have in our inventory, and what we may not have in our inventory.

So I kind of already gone through that.

So going through so parks and recreation.

Our mission statement is the City of Surprise Parks and Recreation Department mission is to enrich and complement the lives of surprise residents through stewardship of our resources while providing responsive programs which promote and prioritize diversity, culture, neighborhood, family, education, recreation, wellness opportunities.

So we have Asante Community Park.

So that's our current inventory.

So we have an intergovernmental agreement with Dysert Unified School District, and we have a facility use agreement with Ottawa University.

Then we go into field maintenance, we have to maintain our fields, and then anything outside of those first three, is what we can allocate on a first come, first served basis.

And ours go to resident priority.

So what is our field usage look like?

So last year in fiscal year 25, we had 13,000 hours of reserved sports fields.

As you can see, 62% of that goes to our youth sports.

Then we have our special interest classes, which could be anything from our tiny taught sports, keep teaching three and four year olds how to play soccer and football and introducing them to those sports.

Then we get into our field rentals at 17%, and then we go into maintenance.

So looking at our newest facility, the field usage, I wanted to give you an example of how we allocate our time.

So you can see in the orange first step in July, is when we're doing our maintenance.

So that's generally overseeding.

Then we go into youth sports, which is all of the green, and then we go into our special interest classes and sports camps, which is in the pink, and then anything that is not highlighted, is what is allocated in our off peak hours that we would be able to give to rental facilities.

So there are some times that we do double up.

So if, and I'll kind of go through our process, but this is what it looks like.

Um fields at countryside is the one field that we do consistently overseed.

And the thing about overseeding, and that's just because it's a beautiful facility.

But the thing about overseeding is the best time to overseed is in October and March.

But as you can see, we have programming both in October and March.

So we give ourselves a little bit extra time.

You can see that June for us to plant summer grass, especially when we're planting it in May, it takes a lot longer to grow.

So summer is kind of a hard one for us because the field takes us a little bit longer to get it green into that fall grass, and then we go into our winter grass, which is typically in October, but we push it out until November.

So just kind of an allocation of why ours may look a little bit different.

Ours is subject to our already programmed youth sports that we have.

So what do our youth sports look like?

We have in our total of fiscal year, and this is just outdoor, and this is just youth sports.

So this does not include adult sports or any of our special interest classes.

We had 8300 youth in our outdoor programming.

So this is soccer, football, baseball, t ball, softball.

So those are the big ones.

Um, this year we're already for our fall, we're over 3500.

I think we're at 3700 just in our fall eight-week program.

So we just keep growing, which is a wonderful thing, but um kind of what does this mean with our growth?

And why do we only give 19 or 17% to our rentals?

Well, youth sports and youth leagues obviously get the priority, and we try to make these as affordable as possible for our residents.

And we do that one, so our residents get priority, and two, our job in recreation is to get kids involved to teach them the fundamentals of sports and the culture of a team, um, lifelong skills that you'll learn in any sport that you do.

And it doesn't mean that you're going to stick with this one.

If you're you start out in soccer, maybe your kid just wants to sit on the field and look at butterflies, and they always want to sit on the bench.

So that's maybe not their sport, but we want to give them the opportunity to okay, try basketball, try volleyball, and get them into that niche where they can find their skill.

And maybe it's not sports, maybe it's special interest classes, maybe it's lacrosse, maybe it's uh tennis.

We try to give kids the affordable opportunity to find and discover their interests.

So that's what we always think in recreation.

Once they get to that other level of, all right, now I'm in soccer, I want to play soccer, I've kind of grown out of the recreation program.

Then they go into that club.

So the club is typically what our rentals are.

So our club rentals or rentals would be sports facilities, and we have three clubs in surprise.

We have baseball clubs, we have tackle football, we have flag football, we have other things.

Um, and I might look at Jason because I brought him just so you can scare him a little bit of maybe ask him a question, but I'll try to answer them for him.

Um but we do have a high demand for our programs, but what our problem is is our capacity of fields.

So looking at the NRPA, which is the National Recreation and Parks Association standards and benchmarking for our population of 165,000, which is our mag numbers.

We're supposed to have one diamond or field for 7,000 residents.

And then we have we're supposed to have one multi-use sport for 7,000 residents.

So our current inventory, and this does not include sports and entertainment and cultures inventory, is uh we're supposed to have 24 diamonds and we have 12.

So we have a deficit.

Um, and I'm not telling you that to scare anybody.

We are managing and figuring it out.

It's just when we ask, like, why are we behind and why can't we let these other people in on a consistent basis?

That's really it.

It's our inventory is below what it should be.

And that's okay, but it's somebody has to give.

So we we're prioritizing ties, prioritizing our residents as opposed to rentals, and then anything that's left, we will give to the rentals.

So what does that look like?

73% of the field usage goes to our youth sports, then we have maintenance, then it goes into that rental.

So the rental process is on a first come, first served basis with resident priority.

So in season, it's not ideal.

And I know that you guys have probably talked to multiple club owners that don't love our process, but when we're in season, so say we're in our soccer season that has 1400 kids, we let our youth sports coaches book their practices.

So anything after we get everything into the system, the practices booked, we release everything and re-release it on Monday at 8 a.m.

Then they can come in and book it for one week.

So you're gonna have five people that all want Asante or all want Gaines Park, and we're gonna take the first one in.

So then they have to go to the next one.

So I do understand it's hard for them to program and run a club when we don't give them that consistent basis.

It gets a little bit better when we're not in season, and then we'll allow them to say uh you can book it out for a month.

So depending on the field.

So you'll be able to book it out for a month.

So that's how our process currently is.

We are looking at our process to see if there's any room or any way we can make things better for our rentals and more affordable and easier access, but that's kind of what that's our limitations of what we're doing.

So with that, I'm gonna let Kendra tell you about her process and then, or I'm happy to entertain any questions in the meantime.

We do have a question from Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor, for coming.

Uh a little of both, I think.

Can you go back a bit?

Yeah, I guess I have a few.

Let's go back to the fields first.

Uh that calendar there.

So when we built the fields, we had some challenges and uh in construction, right?

Getting getting all the utilities and so forth, or specifically water.

Um, now that we've had the fields for a bit, can we go back and take a look and see if we would have been better served turfing it instead of putting artificial turf on it instead of grass and compare what that would do to our usage rates, what it would done to our costs.

I mean, obviously, we're not going back and change it, but just for future lessons.

Yeah, we can.

And I do have a little bit of a glimpse because we looked at that.

Okay.

So with that, it's we put in some infrastructure to go in, and it was the grass with the sand.

So us making it that higher end field cost less than half a million dollars.

Uh but if you go in and turf it, which is a lot what people do.

So you don't have you can get more people on the field, but you still have to water it.

So you still have to have irrigation underneath it.

And then you have an asset replacement program.

So the use of those fields, especially unshaded, would probably last.

I'm gonna say five years.

And Jason, one of the Jasons, you can tell me if I'm incorrect.

Yeah.

Five or ten of the city.

So it just it depends on that one.

It's so there's a cost, but there's also you said five to ten years.

Yeah, not being an expert, I would think no more than 10 years for I don't know.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we can get you the full breakdown, but we did look at it, and it's it's that the maintenance of redoing it every year.

But it was more than that.

I mean, we spent two million dollars running MWD water over there.

Correct.

And so factoring all that in again, could we get because this is, I mean, we're losing 25% of our time to overseeding.

Yes.

And so that would be 25% more time we would have on our already short fields.

Right?

Yeah.

And there's also the option of we can choose not to overseed.

What would that do?

That would give us all of that November.

Um, just because it gives Bermuda a better time to grow and not have to put in the rye and then kill off the rye and bring the Bermuda back.

So there is a challenge of overseeding every year or doing an every other uh overseed, not overseed.

Okay.

So I mean anything, anything that can get us more time.

And then if you go forward a slide or two to the uh to the national averages.

So, and we all know that we're massively short on parks.

I mean, you've got you have you have a fantastic parks program.

You have a fantastic recreation program, I should say, where we've we've got kids coming in at really young ages and they get to play sports, they get to trail different sports you talked about.

Um, but at some point they get too old for our youth sports and they want to go into club, which you know you've talked about a little bit too.

And it's it's really hard, as you mentioned, to be a club owner because you can't get the consistency.

You can't, I mean, you want to schedule your teams to practice three nights a week, the same place, same time, all that stuff.

They just they can't do it because we don't have the facilities to accommodate them.

And we really, really need more park space.

We desperately need more park space.

And we've and we've had a bunch of discussions up here, and and we haven't done a very good job of giving you guys guidance because we argue about well, do we build, do we keep trying to build, you know, one park here, one park there, or do we stop building one offs and try to save our money and buy one big park to get more bang for our buck?

And that's something we have to work through as a council.

Um, but you're going through the marks the parks master plan now.

And but and before you tell me too much, I know you have a presentation after this.

Is that something we're gonna talk about more in the next presentation?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so I'll hold that question for later.

So that's all I have for now there.

Thank you.

Thomas Mandelphine.

Thank you, Mary.

Holly, I want to do my kind of thinking back off the turf.

Now in the summer, how hot does turf get to not be able to use it?

So that's I don't know the exact temperature.

I believe it's 107, but Kendra, do you have it?

I think it's pretty close close to that.

I think we've we went out and looked at and tested a bunch of them, and uh, even the natural fiber ones still got well over 100, about 1700, 10.

So does the like the reseeding time really will it outweigh not being able to use a turf?

I don't I like either way, but I can't stand not reseeding.

I think that looks terrible.

Yeah, it's an hour and nine.

And you're using black spray paint because you can't see the lines because the grass is yellow.

It drives me nuts.

But I just want to know does it really outweigh the reseeding time compared to not being able to use turf because it gets so hot, which is what I've heard is a problem.

And that's what it is in June, July, August, you wouldn't be able to use it.

But I mean, how many times except for like at eight o'clock at night?

Like how many high school games get delayed because of heat and they're out there with the wet bulb measuring the temperature and delaying it and trying to sprinkle it down and hose down the grass.

So, and then cleaning it.

There's there's always a trade-off, right?

So it's wonderful.

So, like in a facility that I'm not gonna talk about in the next one, but one that we will is like reach 11.

So reach 11 has 12, 18, 18 soccer fields, and they have one turf field um that they use that they can use year-round.

But in Arizona, we're blessed with 300 days of sunshine unless I have an event.

Um but we don't get snow.

So things aren't gonna get covered.

So we get more playtime and use out of our outdoor fields than most.

So we're very lucky in that aspect.

However, we lose the June, July, August.

So no matter what you do, you're not really gonna see that.

So it's the November, December when we wouldn't be on it, but then you also have December.

A lot of clubs take that time off, so you're giving them November back.

And that reach 11 field has water cannons on each corner, doesn't it?

Yes, they do.

So you still have to run water no matter what.

Yes, they do.

And it does have to be fiber.

It does have to be potable and not non-potable for so you can't use MWD water.

So we need more fields.

That's because that would that was illustration however you choose to read it.

So we need to work on that.

Just throwing it out there in case anyone's listening.

Guys, I'm listening.

All right, I appreciate it.

Thanks.

Councilman Grimberg.

Thanks, Mayor.

I can answer the temperature uh question for you on the grass because we dealt with it with our dog parks over at Grand.

And during the summer, you're looking at like 30 to 50 degrees hotter on baked turf than you are with regular grass.

And that's why nobody takes their dogs out there during the summertime during the day because the dogs can't even walk on that stuff.

And I've tried walking out of barefoot.

Not a good idea.

That's all.

Thanks.

Go ahead.

Okay.

All right.

So we'll kind of go through our side of it and our process of it.

So as Holly mentioned, we have an official new name.

We are the sports entertainment and culture department now.

Um, now that we have taken on arts and culture.

So our mission statement is to enrich the lives of residents and visitors, strengthen the community and stimulate the local economy by producing and supporting diverse sports tourism, arts, and cultural events, leveraging engaging programs and strategic partnerships to position the city of surprise as a vibrant and welcoming tourist destination.

And so our rentable field inventory is the eight practice fields, uh, four on each side, the youth baseball complex, which is three baseball fields, uh, the stadium, which is one baseball, and a lot of the rentals are concourse related as well.

And then um Mark Coronado Park, which is uh multi-use eight acres.

Um, and so really when we look at policy, um, when our department was started, our our main goal was to bring in events, um, both sporting and uh tournaments and festivals and arts and cultural events that attract visitors from outside the city limits and support the economic vitality of the community.

And so we really look at that, you know, one of the goals was really to look at how do we bring people in, how do we boost the economic impact, and then how do we kind of get better return on our investment for our facilities?

Um, and so from our prioritization, um, we have a lot of contractual obligations, and so certain facilities are tied to different contracts that give priority during certain parts of the year.

But the overall general waterfall kind of goes, you know, the city and the Rangers and Royals, um, depending on the time of the year for both the stadium and the practice fields.

And so on the city side, uh, Parks and Rec gets first priority.

So again, when we became a department, the goal was to continue to maintain their programming, and then also to find ways to fill in the gaps.

So anytime we weren't utilizing the fields, how can we utilize them?

How can we get a better return on that?

And um, what are the things that we can put in those days and times?

Um, so then after that, um, it's other city departments.

Um, so like Mark Coronado Park is obviously our main event space.

So we have things like gay night, sci tech festival, vetfest, um, a lot of those from a city standpoint, and then we go into um our agreements with DICE art and Ottawa, and then we go into other third parties.

And from uh from our usage, uh Parks and Rec is our highest user, and so they are 32% of our use, and then the Rangers and Royals are at 28%, and then our department with our third-party rentals from our contracts are at 15%, Ottawa's at 13%, and then we have maintenance at 12%.

And so this is uh, so this is uh what Mark Coronado Park looks like from a usage standpoint, and so you can see all the different users.

Um again, we have we do have times that are available, but a lot of it is June, July, and August.

And so, you know, again, the the tough part with recreation is that everybody wants to do it at the same time during the same seasons, and so um there is availability for Mark Coronado Park, it's just not usually the availability that people want.

Um, and this is what the practice fields look like.

So um, there is really not a lot of availability on this.

So as you can see, there's um there's single-day users, there's days that we have two groups on it every day.

There's days that we have three groups on it, and there's days that we have four groups on it.

And so um, there's a lot of times where the teams will be out there, and then our teams will uh redo the fields, and then uh parks and recs will come out there, and then uh third-party rental will come out there, and then Ottawa will come out there.

So it's you know, it's pretty busy.

Um, again, there are a few dates in there that um that we have some availability, and whenever anyone asks, we kind of look to see what we can squeeze in.

But this is kind of what uh my team has to deal with when we are looking for the availability.

So from an attendance standpoint, um, spring training is obviously our largest driver.

We get over 200,000 people between spring training and their MLB activities every year.

Um, our baseball tournaments are over 130,000 people each year.

Our events are over 90,000.

Ottawa brings in almost 6,000.

And so, really, just from uh what we're using on those outside fields and not including tennis.

Um, and this doesn't include anything that's just practice or practice related on the team side or on Holly's side.

Um, but these are kind of the numbers that we're looking at for our specific events.

Um, and so really from a key takeaway, you know, obviously the fields are highly utilized between both of our departments, other departments, and third parties, um, and our agreements.

Um, as Holly mentioned, really the programs that are driving the usage are our resident programs um on both her fields and our fields.

Um, and then we do have external rentals are a little bit different on our side.

Most of ours are contract-based.

Um, so there's not like that open period.

Um then really we from both sides, we have to continue to do maintenance on them for safety and for just quality of the fields.

Um then we kind of went over kind of what the resident side of it does and what the the visitor side of it does.

And then from a challenge side, it's obviously capacity and scheduling.

Most of these new requests that are coming in are at times that are already booked.

Um and then I think Collie kind of talked already about the priority and the equity and how they try to do that from uh from a club standpoint, it would be hard to just give one club every single, you know, Tuesday, Thursday, or every single Monday, Wednesday, Friday for long times.

Um, and then there are some just logistical things that make things tough.

So some of the high demand areas like youth baseball complex and the ranger practice field only have one parking lot.

So when you're doing a youth baseball thing with youth sports, and when we're doing a tournament at the rangers practice fields, there's really not a way to have enough parking for all of that to happen.

So just trying to, you know, it's not just the fields, but it's logistically, how does that work for each each user, each event, and how does that work with the whole campus?

Um case in point, like Esante Asante is a beautiful park.

We have a lot of facilities, but we are limited on parking.

Uh, and we don't want people to park in the neighborhoods.

Um, so we can only and we share with the library.

So if we can't rent the school district parking lot, then we can only do so many rentals at that time.

And so really it comes down to a couple options and and kind of how you guys want to evaluate and and how you want to do it.

Obviously, you know, the current option is to maintain the current balance and continue to prioritize the city youth leagues and the community programs, or we could look at policy shifts of you know, are there other things you guys want to look at?

Do we want to reallocate sometime?

Um, but we are in a position now that we can't add without giving up.

So those are just some of the decisions of you know, priority prioritizing what you guys want to see.

Um, we're not really at a place where I mean there are certain like very specific time frames that we can add, but there's no big thing that we can add without giving something else up.

Um, and then obviously just looking at future expansion and what that could look like in the future and how do we get there?

Um, and then really, you know, when we are planning those types of things, trying to make sure we're planning for all the parties that use those fields so that we can, you know, we can have Holly's team, my team, we can have the local clubs in on the conversation of what makes sense, how many fields do we need, what is that utilization look like?

Are they dedicated?

Are they shared?

I think really just having those conversations up front as we look at the future, whether that's five, 10, 15 years down the road.

I mean, I think this is a thing that's gonna continue to grow.

Um, and so councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mary.

So one of the issues that's always been is the Rangers fields aren't lit.

So that's always been kind of a problem.

I just wanted to ask you since at the end of COVID, major league baseball got rid of a lot of minor league teams.

Are you seeing that they're here longer using the fields more?

Yes.

Because it seems like they're remembering usage is clear out.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're, I mean, we really are almost a 12-month facility now.

So between between all the different minor leagues, between fall league, between their instructional leagues, um, between rehab, they're on all the days that they are allowed to be on the fields, they are on the fields.

And that's something we need to remember when we think about how usage and whether we need more or not.

They are here.

Yeah.

And even the hotel they build, they have computers back there for strength conditioning in the rehab centers.

So they're here all the time now, which is great.

Yeah.

Our facility really is kind of there where they welcome all their players on as soon as they get drafted, they come here first.

They spend a lot of time here.

Um, and so yeah, I think, you know, 20 years ago, they were only here a couple months out of the year, but we're we're at, you know, 11 months a year now.

Okay, so something we need to keep in mind.

Thank you.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can you go back to the calendar you had for all the pretty one?

The the full one.

Yeah.

This one.

Okay, how does this work?

I mean, when do you when do you work maintenance at?

I guess you're you're giving up November and December.

That's the only time you have for maintenance.

We rotate our maintenance.

So we'll start like so for the Rangers, we start our overseating in October.

And so we move things to the Kansas City side, and then we do Kansas City in November, and we'll move shift back over when we can.

And then um the stadium depends on fall league when their schedule is done.

So we are always kind of we don't do everything all at one time.

We kind of have to rotate in as they utilize their fields.

We kind of okay.

Well, I mean, this is an excellent use of resources here.

And I'd like to see the fields filled out like this.

Just we have to build Holly more fields so she can.

I just needed more colors.

And more colors.

I was gonna say Travis spent a lot of time on this uh beautiful picture.

So we we were thank you.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I had a question.

So obviously the conversation's been that we need more fields.

If if today we said, okay, let's let's do more fields.

Is the issue identifying locations to program those fields?

Because I I mean, obviously the Northwest area has a lot of area that can be utilized, or is it a funding and a combination of both?

Like what would be the challenges associated with that?

Yes.

Uh so I thought you were gonna say yes.

I was like, yes.

Thank you for asking.

Uh it it is a land component, it is a cost component, it is a prioritization.

Um, like you said, uh you some want big parks, some want small parks.

I'll take them all.

I'll take whatever you get being.

I'm sure Kendra would too, but it comes down to funding.

Um so we do have 3,500 acres, and we're going through the master plan to see which area of that would be most advantageous.

So that helps us on the land component, but then we would need the capital and operating dollars to go with that.

So it's I think we have land, which is something that we've always been land poor.

And I feel like thank you to your stewardship and all of council that we now have something that's tangible, but now we need to plan it and take care of it and see where it's best utilized.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

See no other questions or comments.

Thank you.

Okay.

Madam Clerk, please read item number two.

Item two, presentation and discussion regarding the city of surprise parks and recreation strategic plan.

Hi again.

My name's Holly Osborne.

I'm the parks and recreation director.

Um, with me tonight, I brought a team of people.

Shannon, our assistant director couldn't be here because she's shockingly at her kids' sports games.

Um, but we have Casey Peterson, Jason Hendricks are both our administrators, and then we have Jason Bond who is stuck and cannot leave.

So we're gonna keep him here.

Uh, but he is our sports manager and he's been with us for 25 years.

So wonderful use of knowledge.

We've already gone through the niche mission statement, and I am going to state um that going through our parks and recreation master plan, we are going to redo this mission statement, make it a little bit more meaningful.

I think right now we're including everything, which is what we always want to do, but shorten it up a little bit.

Um, so our department overview, we now have 3700 five or 37, 500 acres of developed parks before that.

It used to be under 300.

Um, so we've really grown a lot in the last six months, and we're very excited about that.

So that would probably be you'll see that reoccurring theme of what we're planning to do next year or within the next year.

Um, we coordinate citywide events, special events again, weather permitting.

Um, we plan and develop parks and recreation, asset replacement, and capital.

And then we program whatever we can to as many people as we can.

We try to give opportunities for all ages, um, abilities, and beginning skill levels.

So, how does our strategic plan line up with council's priorities?

Well, we know we want to build community experience.

So, from our facilities, our programming, um, and our events, we want to make sure that we're increasing the quality of life for our residents and giving them experiences that they can do in their own community without having to leave.

Public safety, why would you do that in parks?

You're not a firefighter.

We understand, but before we do anything in parks, we want it to be safe.

Before I put on any events, safety is always our top priority.

And when we're doing fields and field maintenance, we want safety to be there, then the safety of our residents from our policies and procedures.

Then once we get all the safety done and then it's pretty, then you can go have fun.

But that's kind of our priority.

So safety is number one.

And then fiscal responsibility anytime that we can, we're trying to be fiscally responsible with the taxpayers' dollars, whether it comes to trying to make a decision to pivot, or if we have events that aren't well attended, how can we maximize that and look at our well-attended events and make sure that we're getting the most for our community?

So I added just a couple pictures in here because I'm a very visual person.

But uh community experience.

So our updating our parsed parks and recreation master plan for our newly McMick and Dam land and the long-term vision of all of surprise parks and recreation.

So that is going to be a very big initiative.

You'll see we're gonna roll out a website coming up.

We're gonna have a survey.

Um since the last time we did it 10 years ago.

And then what do we do with the McMickan Dam land?

How do we preserve it?

How do we give access to it?

What areas are the most advantageous for us to build parks?

What are the rest of the areas that we're going to keep natural?

Um, so that's part of our parks and recreation master plan too.

Um we partner with other city involved uh departments to talk about the 250th.

Mary just gave you your shirt.

We're super excited about that.

Um, starting with our Veterans Day, it'll be incorporated into sparkling surprise.

Two new lanes or two new areas are going to be added for Sparkling Surprise this year.

Um, and then another one is increased programmability.

So the conversation we just talked about, Vera Monte wasn't on our rentable inventory because those are not lit fields and we don't have parking.

So during this fiscal year, we're going to look at increasing the parking and then adding lights to this.

It's already stubbed for lights.

So that way we would have a little bit more program programmable parks, which gives us another diamond and another multi-use field.

Um, and then just so you can see, we just are just started construction on our updated splash pad, which is uh a tribute to our neighbors of Luke Air Force Base.

So if you can see the cute little designs we're working on.

Um, so some of our key projects and initiatives is rescue oasis and OASIS Swim Center.

Yes, it opened last fiscal year, but this is our first year of programming for a full year.

So that is a very big initiative.

Our our department, we made it safely through our first season, and it was a very, very busy season.

Um, we could not have done it without our part-time staff and your support.

So we're very excited to see how that grows and expands for next year.

Parks and recreation master plan and open space, making sure we're preserving that, talked about that a little bit.

And then asset replacement projects is something that's very important to us.

So looking at our facilities when it's aging and making sure that we're adding modern amenities, adding new shrubs when they die, changing out the granite when it gets kicked around and adding new facilities.

So two of our big initiatives this year is Gaines Park.

When Seth opens his new beautiful facility, we want to make sure that the park gets some attention and shade is always gonna be requested.

So we do have two place structures at Gaines Park that will get some shade and an update there.

And then Surprise Aquatic Center will be closed this all winter.

So we're redoing the decking, the plastering.

Um, we're adding a fun element for little kids.

We'll be updating the colors, we'll be updating the the boilers.

So it's a 20-year-old facility.

So that one's gonna get some love now that it's big little brother is here and is taking all the spotlight, we're gonna give some back to the aquatic center.

And then Hollyhawk will be on our list too.

Um, so some challenges as we're growing.

Um, costs are going up, if infrastructure is aging and staffing is more and more difficult because the more we grow, the more we rely heavily on part-time staff and making sure that we're marketing to that group and retaining them and paying competitively.

So opportunities, though, we have a wonderful park system that we get to expand on.

Again, I said 3,500 acres, working with our developers, connecting more open space and trails, um, and then engaging with our community partners.

So through the master plan outreach with the residents and our stakeholders, we can learn what our community wants from surprise as we go through that.

Um, our youth council and our parks and recreation commission getting their input, our 400 strong employees that we have, residents that are coming, and then all of our community partners.

So, with that, do you guys have any questions for parks and recreation?

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks so much for this and the presentation.

So is there everybody need to talk of, you know, obviously pool space?

It's like you get more, but then you have more stuff coming.

And so like a master's swim program.

I know that's kind of, I don't think a ton of cities do that.

Obviously, we do like a city club team.

But I was just thinking, I I participated one back in college, and not only do you get you know, obviously you get people from college there, but you know, is this seniors could do.

I mean, I don't know.

I just I wonder if we ever taken like a look at that or if we even have the capacity, and maybe it's like no, like we don't have you know anything left.

I'd be happy to answer that unless Casey would like to answer that.

Uh we are on TV things that I'm gonna do.

Sorry, they're new, I gotta teach them.

I like how you guys coordinated your outfit.

We didn't actually show that this morning and find the firefire.

Red works, I don't know.

Okay, I think I I appreciate that.

Uh, thank you.

We are in the works of the fee structure in hopes of starting a master's program this January at Oasis.

Awesome.

And that's cool because like those club, I don't know, like I know like club swim, like some of those can be a little more financially sustainable, right?

Then obviously certain things that are offered more as like a service like the rec team or rec lessons and stuff.

So yeah, our goal is just to run it simultaneously with other programming for staffing reasons at that pool, but I think we found a plan for it.

Yeah, if it takes off grade, and then if not, it's you know, it's just another idea.

But we have to do that.

And we've had requests for it too.

So it's not you're not the only one.

Okay.

Cool.

So you're gonna stay just in case I have something else.

To hang out up here under the lights, Councilman Malton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can you can you remind me uh the the Gaines Park uh whatever improvements we make?

Is that gonna be an ongoing project?

Is it gonna be hitting everything at once?

Are you gonna be do we know how the schedule looks like yet?

So Gaines Park um multi-purpose field is we're doing it in conduct conjunction with um the community resource center that's coming in.

Okay.

So the playground we already had going, but we'll also be doing other improvements along with that to the big facility where they're adding the basketball court and the art pieces.

And I hope I'm not spoiling anything.

Um, but adding the playground facility and then looking at the pool is something that's different that will be in addition to that.

So we always try to make sure that we're hitting a district and making sure that we're getting each different park.

So we actually just updated three-star park as well.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Um I'll probably I have more questions offline, but okay.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, thank you, Holly.

So I have a few questions.

First, thank you very much for for the work you're doing on Veramonte Park, especially the parking that's been sort of a headache for the residents over there.

Is and they've they've been patient with us, but it's it's good that we've that you were able to find a way to make things better over there.

So thank you very much.

Um, a couple of things.

We've we've we're always talking about, you know, how do we get more parks?

Do we get do we do small parks?

Do we big parks?

And we and we argue back and forth a bit.

And and what we really need is some data.

And I know we were talking about this a few years ago.

I know probably four or five years ago, we looked at doing about a 50-acre park out where McMickan wouldn't that start sort of in the middle of the conversation of getting all that acreage in here.

We looked at 200 acres, 50 acres of the park, and it was gonna be about 65 million at that point.

And I imagine the price would be much higher for the same exact park at this point.

And really, what we need is is data and options so we can have a data-driven conversation instead of instead of speculating what we think is better.

And the data-driven conversation should look something like you know, these are the places we had to put parks.

I mean, there's a couple of great sites over in district three to put a couple of parks in, and there's probably other sites around the city that are good to put parks in.

The question becomes where do we get the how do we get the most bang for our buck?

Because at the end of the day, you know, we we're looking long term, and all of us want to solve this this recreation field problem.

And so we'd like to see answers.

Say, is it are we better off just you know, build a 10-acre park, build another 10-acre park, build another 10-acre park, or is there a way to come together and is there a scale benefit of building a bigger park all at once?

Right.

So if we build a 50-acre park, is it cheaper to get those number of fields?

You know, so those are the things that we need so we can have reasonable discussions up here and and give you better direction.

Um, so data.

Um, next, you had talked previously, and I think you're still working on this about having uh some programming for more outdoor skills, and with the McMicken Dam.

This are these are things you know, obviously that I want to see more of.

I know you've talked about our tree, but I think it would be great, and you've talked about this also, having some sort of special interest nature classes, maybe with plant identification, reptiles.

Um, one of our one of our uh uh parks and recreation commissioners, a previous one would spend a lot of time out there.

And let's see, and then the the last thing again for the for the parks and recreation master plan.

Um, hopefully we want to find a way that you're working with Floyd's department to incentivize developers who are building out there to do cool things along the park to activate the park space.

Uh, they've got open space requirements.

So again, building that into the master plan and working with Floyd's department to figure out how we can do that and maybe um finance to figure out how we would do that and make it make sense for everybody.

That's trying to find Sandy.

Yes.

Um actually Lloyd has been a part of our master program, master plan program, and actually so is Eric Boyle's to talk about not only the transportation of roads, but the transportation of trails um getting around from a pedestrian standpoint.

Okay.

So they've been a wonderful help, but we will ask for community input, but that's exactly where we want to go is all the places that you just took us.

Okay, cool.

Excellent.

I think that's all I have.

Uh that is all I have.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, mayor.

Uh, I think a lot of my questions were already asked.

The I had to, I guess my first one is obviously, and we talked about earlier just like the funny mechanisms for a lot of these things, but clearly there's a need.

Uh, have there been, and I'm sure there has been conversations with the private sector and how we can kind of leverage those partnerships.

Because one of the things, and I'm sure I'm not alone on this is you know, an indoor dog park, pickleball keeps coming up.

So, you know, and I know that the private sector seems like, especially recently, has really tried to leverage that interest in those kind of areas.

Are we engaged in those conversations at all?

Well, that's a great question.

Thank you for asking.

We actually have a meeting with a developer that wasn't scripted, so you actually did uh but just happens to be we do have a meeting with a potential private partnership um tomorrow.

Um we've worked with them before other people in the past.

Um typically you have to have something to incentivize them, and we've never been able to have land before, which now we have land.

However, there are strings attached to the land and it is not ours.

We are the stewards of it, so we cannot sell it.

We cannot give out 50% of it.

So we are working in within the parameters, but looking at what we can do and how we can expand.

And also part of our master plan program is looking at when we're growing of trying to be more cognizant of land out in the far out future when it's far, far away.

But it takes 10 years, 15 years to get a hold of that land when you're working with other agencies.

So I will keep you posted on how it goes.

We have we've had a lot of interest.

We haven't had anybody come through.

And I think it's typically the developers or the people that want to use it, want to use it at the same time that we do, our youth does.

So that's always the sticking point is what's the priority.

Gotcha.

Okay, that's helpful.

And and I think what I really like about the master plan is especially in my area as we're growing, is I always get, well, why didn't we think of this, you know, five, 10 years?

And so having a master plan, I really like that we're engaging the residents because sometimes it is a guessing game.

And we do our best to represent their interests and their needs, but now we're taking it right to them and say, hey, tell us exactly what you want, and then using that, and I've used that for the transportation master plan as a playbook for us to how do we proceed forward?

How can you work with developers?

How can we as a council support you policy-wise to hopefully get get us more, you know, fields and amenities because we are a growing city, and a lot of that is with families, and so we want to make sure that they're not having to, you don't have to turn anyone away.

I know you guys done have done incredible work with the swim lessons, but now I think our next step is obviously the fields and the programming with with some of these youth programs.

So um, but I'm really excited to be able to have you come up north and present this and then get their engagement because obviously there's really not too much out there for them to do, and I think that'll be really beneficial.

So all right, thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, and my fire is in the council.

One thing that Councilman Judd and Councilman Duffy have been consistent on is definitely park space.

And, you know, we we obviously talk about public safety and and roads a lot, and and those are super important.

And we did a bond a while back.

We didn't obviously have parks on that bond.

Um, and so that doesn't mean we necessarily have to do it because of that, but obviously park space is important, but I definitely agree.

Biggest bang for our buck, um, biggest usage for our buck too, you know, whether it's fields, right, you know, facility, whatever, whatever that looks like.

And as far as you know, big park versus small park, I would like to see what you guys think.

Because obviously, big part, like I don't know, like big parks like Paloma, is it Palm Park and Peoria?

Like, you know, obviously like phase one was built and it's great, but then like phase two, obviously you have you have new elected officials come in, like that is kind of more of a big undertaking.

So, what's the most realistic, you know, way to do this?

And I'd be happy to, you know, hear like kind of your department's expertise on this and just kind of see what we could do.

So we're happy to bring that back to you guys.

I have all the information.

I just don't want to take up too much time.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I'd like to see what the developers are doing in the communities.

I feel like if you have a neighborhood, um, those developers should bring in amenities that bring the community together with those parks.

I don't think it should be sold in the back of the taxpayers of residents to pay for parks.

I mean, we have to provide bigger parks, but I think we need to work with community development, our planning zoning commission and make sure we're on the same page asking, make sure we're asking developers to put in high quality amenities that way they don't have to you know go outside of their neighborhood.

They can have you know those neighborhood parties and build those relationships within each of their communities.

But um I appreciate your presentation.

It was really really good.

I appreciate all your effort.

I know it's a lot to manage and balance all of it, but thank you.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

Madam Clerk, please read item three.

Item three presentation and discussion regarding the city of surprise, sports, entertainment and culture strategic fire.

Okay.

All right.

Um I also brought my team with some of my team here with me today.

So um, we do have Travis Ashby, who's our assistant director.

We have Julie Ackerly, who are is our arts and culture manager, and then we have our newest member of the team, Danica Marlin.

So she is our new um arts and public places coordinator.

Um so I will get started.

Uh I won't read you our mission statement again because you guys just heard that, but our real um our department overview.

So, really, when you're looking at our core services and functions, we have our major league baseball side of things, which is obviously um spring training in their year-round activities and then sports tourism.

So, really our job is to oversee and enhance spring training and and then also to promote sports tourism opportunities that drive national visibility and engagement.

Um, on the spring training side, um, we are responsible for field maintenance, day-to-day game operations, marketing, tickets, sponsorship.

So it's different in every stadium, but our team really does a lot of the actual operational side of it.

Um, from an events and entertainment side, um, our our goal is to plan and deliver a diverse range of events and entertainment experiences that enrich the quality of life for residents and attracts visitors.

And then um, with our new arts and cultural team um to develop and support arts and cultural initiatives that celebrate creativity, heritage, and community identity.

Um, another component that we look at is economic impact generation.

Um, and so really trying to find programs and partnerships that stimulate stimulate the local economic growth and support the city's broader development goals, and then to market and position the city as a pre premier destination for sports entertainment and cultural experiences.

From a strategic priorities alignment standpoint, um, obviously the community experience.

We're really looking at curating high quality sports entertainment and arts and cultural programming that really strengthen the community, um, promote engagement, and then enrich the lives of residents, um, and then also enhance the overall visitor experience.

Um, we also look at economic development.

So we drive tourism-related activity that generates sales tax revenue and fosters a vibrant local economy by pursuing strategic public-private partnerships, grant opportunities, and really just trying to attract high-quality amenities and also support new development.

Um, and then as Holly mentioned, um, we work very closely for all of our events with police, fire, and the emergency management team to make sure all the events and all of our experiences are safe for both residents and visitors.

Um from a city council uh strategic goals, we are part of strategy 3.2, um, which is provide premier facilities, expanding recreation and sports tourism programming to meet forecasted usage and demands.

Um, so we look at maintaining facilities and enhancing the customer experience uh at spring training and other special events, and then really looking to cultivate strategic public-private partnerships to advance long-term planning um and support new facility development.

Strategy 3.3 um cultivate an environment for residents and visitors to enjoy arts, culture, and entertainment within the city of surprise.

So some of the things we're working on is partnering with DICE Art to create create a presenting program at the Vista Center for the Arts.

And we will have something on the next agenda for that.

So that will be exciting.

We're looking to grow the Out of the Park Music Fest by attracting larger entertainment acts.

Yesterday we did announce our headliner, which is Russell Dickerson.

So that's exciting.

We are developing new event components to highlight America's 250th anniversary and working with other departments on that.

And then we are creating and hosting a new roots of creation art and nature festival in January of 2026.

And then really just to continue to expand and diversify locations for public art throughout the city.

Strategy 3.5 identify opportunities for public-private partnerships to continually improve the quality of life for surprise residents.

So we are a couple of the items that we're working on this year is partnering with Rev Entertainment, who is uh part of the Rangers group, their entertainment arm to enhance the college baseball series in February of 26.

Uh, we are also partnering with the NCAA and Rev Entertainment to host the Big 12 baseball championships in May.

And then we're also uh partnering with the NCAA for Division II men's and women's tennis championships in May as well.

Um key projects and initiatives for this year.

Um, and moving forward, uh spring training.

Um, we are looking at renovation and lease extensions.

So we're in discussions with the teams now, and so we'll be bringing updates to you on that.

Um we're working on the presenting program at Vista and the Big 12 championships, and then from a public art standpoint, uh we just had the ribbon cutting for bounce and swing last week.

Um, we're working on the traffic traffic cabinets on cap cactus roads, and then confluencia is we'll be at the multi-gen center.

Challenges and opportunities, um, as we just spoke about limited capacity and and really the increased demand by all of our partners.

So as Holly's programs grow, she needs more time and space.

As Ottawa's programs grow, they need more time and space, and same with the Rangers and the Royals.

Um, so it's fantastic that they're all growing and doing well, but then we also have to find a place for them to do that.

Um, we also have some sunsetting legislation relating to spring training facility improvements that we're working with on the Cactus League to get renewed in the next couple years.

And then, you know, as the world changes, there's always new uh safety and security threats and demands that you know we have to do in order to keep all of our events safe.

So with the prices of those, just comes in factoring those types of things with the event cost.

Um, on the opportunity side, um increased economic impact with growing year-round event calendar and uh new economic development.

So as uh both our team and Holly's team and a lot of the other departments continue to build out more and more events and build that year-round of calendar, and also a lot of our third parties that are bringing in uh new events um that obviously boost our economic impact.

But then on the economic development side with Janine's team, you know, every time they build and develop more, there's more things that the people that are coming to our events will hopefully stay at and eat in those restaurants, buy things in those retail and stay in the hotels.

So there's a lot of opportunity there as we continue to grow as a city.

Also strategic partnerships that can enhance our our own events and and provide new entertainment opportunities.

And then really, as our brand recognition has grown, we've gotten some new opportunities in an industry that we haven't had in the past.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I just want to say how good of a job you guys do with the stuff we kind of throw at you.

Which one was the out of the park music fest?

Congratulations on the headliner already.

Thank you.

And then the big thing is the Big 12 baseball championship, which I didn't even know you guys were working on.

Yeah, it it uh with our partnership with the Rangers and and their team, it came to us and we were able to bid on it and work through it.

So again, some of these opportunities are are growing as we get a little more recognition within the industry.

I can't wait to go to that.

That's gonna be a big deal because and even Travis always complains how Bordie gets in May.

So I think he needs this.

You appreciate this, right, Travis?

I knew you would, buddy.

Thank you.

All right, Councilman Melvin.

So for forgive me this question.

I I'm not a sports ball guy, so have we ever hosted a collegiate conference champion before?

On the on the baseball side, not a conference championship, no.

On the tennis side, we have we do the and we've hosted the Pac West, um, and then we've hosted Ottawa's uh conference championships in the past as well.

All right, this is this is pretty significant.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you, Kendra.

I appreciate it.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, Kendra, I just want to say you're doing a great job, and just to sort of piggyback off of what Councilman Duffy said.

I mean, we throw all kinds of stuff at you, and you you find a way to make it work.

I mean, you you really you've been the main driving force to get this department up and going, and we we've we've changed what you have to do from time to time.

We've recently thrown the Vista at you and and uh and uh and a couple other things, and you're you're just doing an amazing job, and uh, we're just trying to spread you as thin as we can, apparently.

But you're doing great, and I and hopefully we're giving you all the resources you need to continue to uh to do this fantastic job.

So thank you.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh yeah, you you guys are doing an incredible job.

I I remember you know, growing up here, and then you know, the talk was getting a mall, and then it was we were very much kind of thought of as just like a sleepy community, a bedroom community.

And then what really hit me is when I think it was a few years ago when we did the out of park music festival, and a lot of my friends who grew up here, we went to high school here, said, I can't believe this is in surprise.

I can't believe it.

And the experience and and watching you just work your tail off during that event was incredible, and you made it what it was in your team.

And so um, you've done such an incredible job of continuing to move our city forward where we're a one-stop shop.

You can live here, you can work here, and you can play here.

And obviously, it's not just you alone.

You've got our economic development team that has places for people to eat and have entertainment, but the passion that you put into each of these events is incredible.

And I just want to thank you and your team for that because you're really shaping surprise to be something completely different than it was when I was here in a very positive way.

Thank you.

I agree.

I appreciate your uh effort on the presentation, everything you you and your team do.

I've been uh nothing nothing but impressed.

Um, and so we appreciate everything.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colin our tan, a motion to adjourn.

I move to adjourn.

Voice vote all in favor.

All right.

All opposed, we're adjourned.

I have a question.