Seattle Park District Board Special Meeting 11/21/2025

Hold on, it should be.

Oh, wait.

Hot mama coffee.

Okay, awesome.

The November 21st, 2025 special meeting of Seattle Park District Board is going to come to order.

It is 1101 sharp.

I am Joy Hollingsworth, president of the board.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Board member Kettle.

Here.

Board member Nelson?

Present.

Board member Rink?

Board member Rivera?

Present.

Board member Saka?

Here.

Board member Solomon?

Here.

Board member Strauss?

Here.

Board Member Juarez.

Here.

Board President Hollingsworth.

Here.

Eight.

Present.

Awesome.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

If there's no objection, the minutes of the October 21st, 2025 Seattle Park District meeting will be approved.

Hearing no objection, the October 21st, 2025 Seattle Park District meeting minutes are approved.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

At this time, we're gonna open the hybrid public comment period.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have no in-person and no remote.

That is unfortunate.

Well, today each speaker is not gonna have any minutes because we don't have any folks.

So we're gonna roll right in to the items of business.

So we're gonna close the hybrid public comment period.

Will the clerk please read agenda item number one into the record?

Agenda item one, the Seattle Park District 2026 proposed budget for a briefing and discussion.

Awesome, I know that we have our presenters coming to the table, please come.

We got through the intro pretty quick, because we didn't have any public commenters, so thank you Superintendent Diaz, Michelle Finnegan, and also our central staff, Karina Bull.

Yes, and go ahead and introduce, well, you don't have to introduce yourself, but state your name for the record, and you can go ahead and jump in.

Yes, good morning.

AP Diaz, Superintendent of Parks, and you just introduced our team, so we're proud to be here this morning to give you the update.

So, Board President Hollingsworth and board members, we are here for the adoption of the 2026 proposed budget and related legislation.

We have a few items to discuss with you this morning, three agenda items you will be considering.

Okay, first I'll share a 2025 performance update, then I'll review the proposed 2026 park district budget, which remains unchanged since when we were all here in October.

for the related public hearing.

And then Tracy will support the formal part of the agenda.

Karina will support the formal part of the agenda as you consider the six pieces of legislation.

But we give a shout out to Tracy wherever you are.

All right, let's talk about a brief 2025 performance update.

This is where I get to do a little bragging on our department.

As you know, we report formally on our performance through online dashboards and annual reports, both for you all and for the public.

The picture on the left is from our 2024 annual report, which we briefed you on at our June 2025 meeting.

And we'll engage with our Board of Parks and Recreation Performance Oversight Subcommittee on our 2025 performance early next year with you at your June 2026 meeting.

Until then, we wanted to provide a few updates on our operating and capital programs, as well as introduce you to a new item in our reporting repertoire.

So this is the fun stuff.

As you know, SBR expanded our team and grows our services significantly each summer, and we're excited to share some highlights from this summer.

The Dancing Till Dusk program was really, really popular, as always, across the city from Hing Hei to Lake City, from Golden Gardens to Lake Union Park to Alki.

We hosted 17 Dancing Till Dusk events at seven parks with more than 5,100 attendees in 2025. The same team programmed a variety of other summer events, including a Bridgerton event at Denny Park, our first park.

Do we have any Bridgerton fans in the house?

It was very, very popular.

I can just say, like, really people loved it.

We had over 250 attendees and a very popular showing of all five Twilight movies at several parks.

This was like a huge community buzz that got a lot of people excited.

That had combined attendance of more than 4,600 people.

So we have some really talented staff on our teams and they come up with these unique ideas, which we all say, that's not going to be great.

And then the community just loves it.

Twilight, Bridgerton.

Some fun things.

Summer meals, we mobilized to provide free food and activities at seven parks and nine community centers, providing more than 22,000 meals and snacks.

While keeping kids active and engaged this summer, you all have been very passionate and dedicated to standing up as a city to support our community, especially in light of the SNAP and federal funding but we're just so proud that we're able to do this program every summer.

I want to note that this program was formally a partnership with United Way and was staffed by dozens of AmeriCorps members and at the last moment with the federal cuts to AmeriCorps our recreation team had to pivot to keep this program going and supported by dozens of youth interns.

And I think that's really important.

And I know it was meaningful for them because young people are really concerned about the issues that are going on.

With program delivery behind them, the team is now working to determine a sustainable model for next summer.

Specialized programs continued their tradition of overnight camp at Camp Long despite the fire and even invited the broader community to join for Polynesian dancing at an all comers night.

And I just, you know, again, really give credit to our staff that this is specialized recreational programming is for individuals that have some needs and challenges.

And we were so scared with the fire being gone that we wouldn't be able to do that.

but our creative staff figured a way to still do it while we continue to rebuild Camp Long.

Staffed restrooms at Cal Anderson.

This is a first, if you remember, thanks to the resources from the city's participatory budgeting process, we launched a staff restroom pilot at Cal Anderson this year.

This is a very busy site and the restroom has had significant issues with misuse, vandalism, and therefore was often closed for maintenance.

Seattle Conservation Corps members are now working from 8 a.m.

to 8.30 p.m.

to provide safe and welcome access and maintain basic cleanliness.

They also report issues, carry first aid supplies, Narcan, and a sharps container.

They also track usage, and they generally see about 300 visits per day.

So this could be a new model of how we look at some of our public restrooms, as well as we also reach into the pipeline to look at job training and opportunities for people to do this.

So we were really excited.

And again, it directly comes from participatory budgeting.

So we're being responsive to our citizens and what they need.

While summer is a peak season for us, fall is also full of events and activities at SPR.

The annual Pathway of Lights is one of our biggest events of the year, bringing out hundreds of Seattleites, rain or shine, for more than 40 years to walk in an illuminated trail around Green Lake.

If you haven't done that, please, please do it.

It's so much fun.

Led by the Green Lake Community Center and their advisory council, this event is a major endeavor with live music, photo booths, a food drive, and much, much more.

This year, the event will take place on December 15th.

For our youth athletic teams and our community centers, fall means the start of basketball season, traditionally one of our largest recreational programs.

We host dozens of teams at centers all across the city, engaging hundreds of young people, volunteer coaches, and lots of supporting spectators.

The cooler rainy weather is also the perfect time to plant trees.

The photo above is from the recent Green Seattle Day at Beersheba Park, an event put on in partnership with Serve Ethiopians Washington.

This event marks the start of our tree planting season.

Between now and next spring, staff and volunteers will plant hundreds of trees in Seattle.

Fall is also a time to address much needed repairs, as well as prep our assets for the cold and wet months ahead.

Pictured here are just two examples of the great work happening by our Park and Facilities Maintenance Division team members.

As part of winter readiness efforts, our metal and concrete shops tackled a critical upgrade on the Foster Island Trail Bridge.

Aging concrete deck panels were removed and replaced with lightweight perforated galvanized steel panels designed to improve drainage and reduce slipperiness during wet and icy conditions.

Custom ramp transitions were also installed to minimize tripping hazards and ensure safe access for all users.

Our drainage and wastewater crew repaired and replaced and damaged Stormline at Ballard Pool ahead of the rainy season.

The entire repair was completed in a single day, ensuring the area was ready and dry by Monday for Ballard Pool patrons and Ballard High School students.

We've also made significant progress on some long-awaited capital projects.

As you know, projects like developing new parks or major renovations of community centers can sometimes take several years to move through the stages of planning, design, and consideration.

We're excited to report that some major projects in partnership with communities like the Northwest Native Canoe Center, which you can see a rendering of right here, which is beautiful, and the Garfield Superblock broke ground this year.

In addition to those major projects that went into construction this year, we also had many major projects complete construction and open to the public, including new park developments in South Park and the Rainier Valley, a play area and restroom renovation project at Bitter Lake Playfields, and improvements to the I-5 Colonnade and at Chiste Green Space.

We've also looking forward to some anticipated project completions in early 2026, including three much needed renovations of beloved community centers at South Park, Hiawatha and Magnolia.

In addition to those major projects, SPR completed dozens of asset management projects that keeps our system in good shape each year, such as the Ballard Playfield renovation, Magnuson Building 12 roof replacement, the Darn Armini boat ramp project replacement, and many more.

We're excited to announce that we are adding a new tool for communicating with elected officials and the public by releasing the Cycle 2 Capital Project Completions Map.

This online map will now allow people to explore all the projects that SPR completes in cycle two, so from 2023 through 2028. It's being released with a blog post, and the link is shown here.

I think it'll be live very, very soon.

I'd also like to recognize that this was a great collaboration between Seattle IT and Director Rob Lloyd and his team and SPR.

With Seattle IT GIS wizard Patrick Morgan and SPR's capital planning wizard Oliver Bazinet at SPR as the two, Keeley contributed to make this possible.

So it'll be a good tool for the public and for you and your staff.

Next, I'll give a quick review of the 2026 proposed park district budget.

This slide summarizes the proposed park district budget by budget control level.

I won't go into any details as we reviewed this in October in advance of the public hearing, and it is unchanged since that time.

I will, however, remind you that the total operating appropriation is supported by about $5.2 million of one-time fund balance resources.

Therefore, the property taxes to be levied in 2026 are about $131.2 million.

I will now turn this presentation over to Council Central staff to take us through the legislative actions today.

Good morning, board members.

This is Karina Bowe from Council Central Staff.

I am here to present the four resolutions for your consideration.

Board President Hollingsworth, I can describe them now or I can wait until others might have questions for parks and these resolutions are part of agenda item two.

So I can do it now or after you make the motion for that agenda item.

Thank you.

Thank you for that Karina.

Let's hold to see if people have questions regarding the presentation and then we'll jump into agenda item number two if that's cool.

Awesome.

Can we do that?

Awesome.

So right now I'll pause and ask do any of my colleagues have questions?

Board Member Saka.

Thank you Madam Board President and thank you Superintendent Diaz and the Parks Team for being here today.

I love all the work you all do, and good to see some of the wins this year and the roadmap for future success on a going forward basis.

I want to turn for a moment to slide number eight in your presentation, the 2025 Performance Capital Projects, where you talk about the upcoming ribbon cutting ceremonies, calling out two key projects listed there.

the South Park Community Center and Site and Hiawatha Community Center.

The South Park Community Center is, I think, a couple months behind its original schedule, but I appreciate you all working so closely with my office to get that back on, that key project for our South Park community, getting that back on track and on target to open early next year, as was noted here, and Hiawatha Community Center.

That's a saga that spans I don't know, since 2020 at least.

And I appreciate former first lady of the city of Seattle, Sharon Nichols, an Admiral, Mayor Nichols' wife, Admiral district residents as well who worked so closely with me in my office to empower us with the history of that particular project and the importance of doing what we can as a city to open it back up.

And I know there has been a number of delays in part due to COVID, including but not limited to some of the COVID related closures and delays, but we have been working, you all have been working closely with me in my office the last year, year and a half to help expedite and accelerate reopening of Hiawatha and I do look forward to joining you all for both of those in particular just because the community really deserves and frankly is demanding that we get these done.

So appreciate all your hard work to do that and deliver.

When, roughly when are the openings?

I don't have the exact dates for the opening.

I know we've been talking with your staff and our staff, I think, early in Q1.

Some of them are in January.

One of them is in January, I believe.

But I don't have the dates off the top of my head, but we can find out for you.

All good, thank you.

You are inviting me, right?

Do you want to attend?

Yeah.

Oh, of course.

Okay.

100%.

We're bringing everybody.

Of course.

The whole community.

So these will be fun, but I do looking forward to joining you, Superintendent Diaz and our parks professionals and community to get this done and open and celebrate many years of work.

So thank you.

That is all, Madam Board President.

Thank you, Board Member Saka.

Board Member Juarez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And welcome, it's good to see you all again.

And thank you, Karina, for all the work that you do.

I mean, all of you guys, AP.

So I was gonna focus, and if we need to hear more, then we'll get there on the agenda.

I was more focusing on pages 11 and 13 of your PowerPoint, but also, if we're gonna talk about the capital developments, My main concern with resolution 75 and I know you're going to go through that is that from going back to my notes back to August 5th on our public hearing on September 3rd when you did the parks update on the Lake City area rezone for the community center and redevelopment and then we of course passed the rezone on September 9th and then you're here today to kind of give us and I went through your PowerPoint this morning and so I wanted I don't like to do gotcha stuff but I think we did talk what this means is that we have been working closely with not only parks but five other departments for the Lake City Community Center and the housing the affordable housing piece that's been almost 10 years in the making and I'm just gonna do this for the viewing public and for the community that's watching as well just so an overview I know you know this but I want to get it on the record I know that we are working with Mercy Housing on 113 new affordable units that there will be a community center gymnasium a multi-purpose room childcare facility and I also know that these are two and three four bedrooms which were so crucially needed particularly in Lake City and that the AMI here with the incomes are between 30 or 50 and 60 percent of AMI and working with and I know that Mercy Housing has partnered with Family Works to provide services for residents of the new development and we were expected to break ground and I understood from Tracy and some other folks why some of that was being delayed, about breaking ground.

I know that after the rezone that we still have to get the ground lease, the permits, the purchase and sale agreements, and all the things that are to come with this.

And it's not lost on me or anybody that this is the first time that Parks is working with five other, six other departments to do something very innovative and new.

and that is to put affordable housing above a community center that is dedicated to the community and all the needs that they need and all the good stuff next to our library, next to a rich transit spine, next to two light rail stations.

And this is all the things we talked about for at least 10, 12, 13 years about economic development, about transit-oriented housing, all of those things that we've been talking about.

So what I'm hearing from the community and what the concern is is I know that it's going to be a while before we can actually get out there and as we say in my old job, you know, turn dirt, move soil, but it has to get done.

And what I'm hearing and what I want to just clarify and give you all an opportunity to respond to is that we are going to move forward with Office of Housing and we are going to build this affordable housing and that it is going to happen.

And so I'm always of the opinion that there's always space for grace.

And I know how hard you guys work.

And I know that this isn't, you know, we work really hard on this under when Jesus was here, Superintendent Agare, and when Christopher was here.

and this is our district and we're also working on the Northgate Commons with eight stacks and triple the affordable housing there in mixed and commercial rate.

So it isn't just that I'm harping on District 5, but this will be affordable housing in Lake City on Highway 522 with a rich transit spine that services the whole city so people can get there.

So I'm hoping that when we get to your pages 11 where we're there now page 13 and of course the resolution that is supporting this because as you know I chaired parks for six years that we can get some answers for folks because I'm sure there'll be some some sound bites here that I'll hear about in the community which is fine because that's our job to get an update where we're at and closer and making sure that Office of Housing and these other departments, including Parks, are ready to move forward on a commitment and the money that we set aside, you set aside, that we advocated for in six budget cycles to get this built.

So that's where my focus is today and that's why I kind of wanted to have a little I'm just here to get information so people can hear it from parks and central staff where we're at in building these 113 affordable units for the community and for citywide.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

And I really appreciate you bringing that up.

I can tell you and this entire council that Parks and the Office of Housing is 100% committed to realizing this project and to seeing it through.

It's had a rough start, as you've mentioned.

It is a very innovative and creative tool to build affordable housing units with a community center.

and the community center is also going to have affordable childcare, which is also fantastic.

I also believe with you, and I've said this from the time that I've been here, I think that Lake City often gets overlooked because it gets in this general idea that, oh, Northeast and we don't need to put a lot of resources there, but there is a lot of families in need that are waiting for this project.

In the resolution portion, I can let Michelle or our central staff just talk about the funding and why we just pushed it out.

It just meant that we weren't going to be using that funding right this year, but it's still there, so it's more of an administrative function, but it does not reflect at all us taking the money away from the project or us pulling back from the project.

And you've also inspired me.

When I go back, I'll talk to my team, because in that spirit of transparency, is let's do an update for the Lake City community on verifying that these things are going forward, what's happening, and also try to demystify the maybe to the talk of what's not happening or maybe that the project is not going forward.

So if you would give me that opportunity, we'll work with your staff and we'll have a robust document that can go out giving an update and if needed, we can do a meeting.

I'm happy to do that with you because it is an important project.

Madam President, may I do a follow-up?

Absolutely.

The floor is yours, Board Member Juarez.

Thank you.

So the other city departments, and of course we have a new administration coming in and we hope to be working with them as well, with OPD, SPR, FAS, CL Public.

Parks, Office of Housing, Department of Neighborhoods, and of course we've always worked with SPD on the cleanup side and all those other things that we do, and I know that this is unprecedented.

So when I look at resolution 75, and I've done a few of these, and I look at the attachment A, and it's nice to see that you have pee patches and dog leash areas in here.

So when I look at building for the future on the capital side, and I look at the numbers, and this again is just a question, I'm not trying to be critical.

I know what you do for operation and maintenance.

because parks and we passed the initiative I think it was I can't remember what the initiative 47 or 42 for parks so 41 I knew 42 I knew it was in the 40s because that's how old I am no just kidding so can I just ask why in your resolution on attachment A if we put down all the budget summary levels we put down all the operating we put down the capital why we would not list something is important, I think, and innovative, and what I would hope to be a template for cities everywhere, including more in this city.

Why we don't have on the Building for Future, even though you have, is to develop new parks and facilities, why wouldn't we just kind of list out something like Lake City Community Center?

Because it's not in your PowerPoint, obviously, because you, as Councilor Saka just pointed out, the other areas where you're going to do ribbon cutting, Is that something that you would normally do?

Is that going to be highlighted somewhere in your presentation besides a PowerPoint?

It's not even in the PowerPoint actually.

We did talk about it in October when we were explaining what we changed.

And the lakes, while not in the park district resolutions, we do have a separate CIP page specifically to the Lake City Community Center.

So we could, we are highlighting it there.

That's not attached in this package, but just in the cities, on the city side of the house, the CIP does highlight that project.

For the changes here, I think actually from your leadership, Council Member Juarez, we have sufficient cash in the Lake City Community Center project to continue all the work that we're planning on doing with the other departments in 2026 in order to stay on track.

It was simply the bond financing that as we worked with FAS, we don't actually need to issue those bonds until 2027 to your point of when we actually have shovels in the ground.

And so this budget doesn't change anything except for to move the bond issuance into 2027 aligned with the current schedule that is on track with all of those other departments.

And we will be bringing very substantial legislative package to you all next year related to the ground lease and the condo docks and all of that stuff you will see in advance.

We've had many meetings in the last few weeks on all of those various legislative topics.

Okay, two things.

So on the money that is set aside and we're holding to issue debt to build this is there and isn't going to be, I mean, you know how budget gets, everyone starts swarming around for an underspend and I don't want that touched.

Okay, and I've been having to protect that for, what, eight years now.

The other issue is I don't have an October date.

I have an August 5th date, a September 3rd date,

to September 9th when we did the rezone when did we meet when did we talk and again it could be on me when did we meet in October for that piece so this this is what the park district hat on okay City Council hat so in October we had the public hearing on the park district budget and so we talked about how we were moving the bond financing for the park district budget which is aligns with the city's CIP as well, so it's on both sides.

Well, that's one thing I can do, is I can apologize and I can admit when I'm wrong.

So I apologize, I missed that date.

I have every other date on here but that one, and that's probably why, because I was focusing on the MPD, not the city council hat.

Okay, I got it.

Thank you, Madam Chair, President.

Awesome, that's the first time I ever heard you apologize for the record.

Board Member Strauss.

Wrong, that's why.

Well, I just want to keep following out on what Council Member Juarez just said because while she might not have had that date in her notes, I recall it being part of our discussion.

I think I even remember myself saying that we need to go faster.

Maybe I'm confusing those statements with a different presentation that we received, but even though you didn't have the date written on your notes, I recall us being very firm at that time that we need to go faster on this project.

So are you doing public comment now?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Well, you still got another 30 seconds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wrap it up.

Faster, please.

Back to you, Chair.

Thank you, Board Member Strauss.

Board Member Nelson.

Thank you very much.

This is, you might call it an aside, but it's an important one.

I do want to keep the priority of turfing Judkins Playfield front and center.

and this has been mentioned over the course of our budget deliberations because there was a slide that called for pricing that and then I found out that in fact there was already a couple bids that were going to come in and I missed an email that was sent to me on Monday which from, well it was D.

Wright Brooks who sent it to Tralea Jackson who's the president of the CD Panthers and but it does include information about the bid and it says that the upper it basically gives a range and says under 50,000 to study and to study the project itself upper and or lower Judkins and the upper to turf the upper Playfield is probably seven to eight million dollar project.

Lower is probably four to five million dollars.

And so I'm sure this is information actually that came from Eric Gold, who's a principal landscape architect who was one of the bidders.

Anyway, I'm saying all this because this is not a sort of a, hey, why don't we do this afterthought?

in 2022 when the City Council, well, no, when the Metropolitan Parks District approved the 2023-2028 spending plan, we also passed an accompanying resolution, resolution 51. And it was a resolution adopting the Seattle Parks district six-year funding plan for 2023-2028, and then section one of this resolution contains several spending restrictions and statements of intent that apply to the allocations in the spending plan, including statement of intent number one, quote, The Park District Board requests that Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Public School District explore the installation of turf at Judkins Playfield and to provide a report back to the board on the feasibility of this proposal by June 1st, 2023. I don't think it was ever provided to us, but the two bodies, the two jurisdictions, SPS and the City of Seattle Parks did explore the possibility of turfing it and they agreed, yep, it can be done, why don't we go ahead and do this?

So that happened.

and in section one continues, or statement of intent one continues, should SPR and SPSD reach agreement on installing turf at Judkins Playfield, the park district board will endeavor to allocate funding from the park district should adequate revenues be available to do so and to pursue other funds such as general fund or REIT real estate excise tax to support this project.

That's what the resolution says.

So now we've sort of ticked off all that needs to happen except for appropriating the money for it.

And so, and I know that this is late in the game.

What I would like to know is, like the City of Seattle budget, does the Park District budget contain underspends?

It contains carry forward.

So in some of the budget this year appropriated fund balance to offset general fund reductions so we did look at our fund balance as part of this year's budget.

I would just like to clarify we have been talking to the school district about Judkins as you may know but just for people watching that field is actually on school district property and we have a lease through 2020. 38 or something like that.

We have been talking to them about that.

They have yet not confirmed that we can go forward with a capital project there, and so I do think we have it in the slide that we'll continue to study, but we know that this is a policy direction this council has wanted to go, and we continue to have those conversations with the school district.

Great, and also, Superintendent, these are your people that have actually gone out and looked for the bids, and so therefore I know that it's a priority for you as well, so I'm just saying, looks like we have the information, let's do something with it.

And I think it's a good opportunity.

One of my early January is to meet with the new superintendent and their administration.

So I'm going to add this to my list of things that I need to talk about.

So thank you for flagging that.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Let's get this done.

Yes.

Thank you.

That's it.

Awesome.

And I will double down on that.

Would love to have Jackinsfield turf for the CD Panthers.

Not only the CD Panthers, there's other groups that play on that field.

A lot of the kids around Washington Middle School, but we are the turf council.

And just for everyone watching, it is only cork that is in the turf.

It's not rubber anymore.

Can you all confirm that it's cork now?

Sustainable Fields.

Oh, we're not calling it turf.

They're called Sustainable Fields.

Sustainable Fields.

That's so Seattle.

Let's rebrand it.

Sustainable Fields.

I got you.

I love it.

Are there any other questions?

Board Member Saka.

Thank you, Madam Board President.

And yes, I just want to pile on with the love for turf.

and the compelling imperative for us to turf Judkins Park and get that done ASAP, not just for the CD Panthers, but for everybody.

Everybody benefits, especially in including our kids and families when we have more of these turf projects throughout our city, throughout our entire city.

And as the Board President noted a moment ago, yes, we are the turf council or the turf Parks District Board.

Sustainable fields.

But we're doing it in a sustainable manner, and so I just want to just say thank you to you, Madam Board Chair and Council President as well for your leadership on turfs and others here at this at this council, and I'm starting to see a lot of grassroots email organizing on the Riverview playfield in West Seattle, and we have a sly on that one, so let's get that one done next year.

But in any event, thank you.

Go turf.

sustainable fields.

Yes, real quick and I'll just run down the three things.

I don't really have questions.

I wanna say the map thing, the map project, phenomenal.

So often a lot of constituents ask us about what projects are going on and they're surprised by things.

would say, hey, you know, Parks just showed up with some funding and some money and they're starting to do construction on this.

And to be able to have a map so people can see and track stuff and so they know, beautiful.

It's transparent access to the government.

People can get answers quickly.

So love that.

The second thing I wanted to shout out, anytime Parks brings folks to meetings, it's been great.

DeWright Brooks, phenomenal.

I know that's the crew chief in our area and I can't speak for other council members, but oftentimes when they're engaging with the public at some of these meetings that we've attended, they are very engaging and can get stuff done immediately and answer people's questions, which is great because it shows that boots on the ground engagement that a lot of people The other thing that I, and I'm glad that you mentioned it, Superintendent Diaz, which was the feeding program for the summer, I don't think people understand the amount of volunteers that that took to put on, and with the federal government, some of the cuts there with AmeriCorps, just not having boots on the ground, and then the shift that you all made to make sure that there were no disruptions for the food, that kids still got fed, and all of the distribution that you all did for the meals and just the partnership, that's what Seattle's about.

and it was really beautiful to see at a lot of the parks that distribution and people didn't even know there was disruption because you all were behind the scenes doing your thing and people still the kids were able to get fed so I just wanted to give you a shout out there and then obviously the bathrooms that project we know that that is a hot topic in Seattle and we can continue to improve our bathrooms, but the bathroom attendants are always great that we have those to be able to keep the bathrooms clean, accessible and safe for people and cleanly for folks to use.

So just wanted to highlight that there.

Before I guess we move on to the second item of business, Board Member Rivera, I see your hand.

Thank you, Board Chair.

You jogged my memory on something I wanted to also highlight, which is just appreciation to Seattle Parks and Recreation for all your work and partnership on ensuring park safety as all our kids and families are utilizing our parks across the city.

I very much appreciate the partnership.

and all the due diligence.

I know in our city we are in an urban environment and that means the parks become ever more important for kids.

As a kid who grew up in an apartment building as a renter, actually.

Well, my parents, not me, obviously.

But relying on parks is really important.

Not everyone has a yard.

And many of us even that are single-family homeowners don't have much of a yard.

So parks are really important to especially the kids.

and to all of us, to seniors who do their walking and to dog owners who walk their dogs, of course, on leash at the park and to our off-leash areas at all the parks.

All those amenities are provided at the parks.

Parks are really critical to our city.

We love our parks.

And of course, we need to make sure that those parks are safe for the folks that are going there.

And I know you all do so much to make sure that that safety does happen, that the maintenance happens.

Obviously there's more work to be done on the, thank you chair, on the board chair, on the restrooms piece.

That is something that is, I know you're working on we need to continue to work on.

Obviously super appreciate the sustainable fields and the changing over the current fields to sustainable fields because so many of our kids, particularly our public school kids, don't have fields to utilize.

and actually some of our private school kids also utilize those fields because we do live in an urban environment and some of those schools don't have fields either.

And then we have our adult leagues and they utilize those fields as well.

So really wanna thank board chair for her leadership related to the fields in general.

So really want to note an appreciation to you Superintendent and to your team for all the help to ensuring that our parks are in great shape for our folks to enjoy.

There's so much to enjoy and every park is unique, which is really terrific.

And so that means that people from all across the city go to all of those parks.

It's not just for the folks that live there, it's for the benefit of everyone across the city.

So thank you.

Thank you, Board Chair.

Awesome, thank you board member Rivera.

Now we're gonna, if there are no other questions, we're gonna move into the resolution.

So we're gonna read those into the agenda and then Karina will turn it over to you to walk us through each resolution.

Okay, awesome.

Will you please read item number two into the agenda?

Would you like me to read all four into the record at once and have that out of the way?

That would be great, thank you.

Resolution, agenda item two, resolution 75, a resolution adopting the 2026 Seattle Park District budget.

Agenda item three, resolution 76, a resolution authorizing the levy of regular property taxes by the Seattle Park District for collection in 2026. Agenda item 4, resolution 77, a resolution relating to the levy of property taxes, fixing the rates and or amounts of taxes to be levied and levying the same upon all taxable property.

Agenda item 5, resolution 78, a resolution setting the Seattle Park District Board meeting dates in 2026.

Awesome, thank you.

And before I turn it over to Ms. Bull, if there's gonna be no objection, what we're gonna do is take one vote for all four resolutions, similar to the consent calendar.

If a board member would like to vote on a resolution separately, you may request for the resolution to be removed for an individual vote.

Items removed will be considered at the end for an individual vote.

Ms. Karina, will you go ahead and walk us through each resolution?

Sure, and as mentioned earlier, all of these resolutions are the same as the ones that were presented last month on October 21st.

My description of these resolutions is very similar to the title because these are standard resolutions and they're fairly self-explanatory.

Resolution 75 would actually adopt the 2026 Seattle Park District budget.

There are two attachments that show what this budget is comprised of.

Attachment A, shows the budget by budget summary level, and attachment B shows an updated 2023 to 2028 Park District Cycle 2 financial plan.

Resolution 76 is known as the Short Property Tax Resolution, would authorize the city to impose the property tax to collect this revenue, representing an increase in 2026. This is all laid out per the Cycle 2 six-year financial plan.

and then the complimentary resolution is resolution 77, known as the long property tax resolution.

This would actually set the property tax rate in 2026, which will be 44 cents per $1,000 of assessed value of property, which averages out to about $389 annual impact per homeowner.

And then last is resolution 78, not budget-related, but it does set the Park District Board meeting dates for 2026 as follows.

There will be three meetings on Tuesday, June 16th at 4 p.m., Tuesday, October 20th at 4 p.m., and on Friday, November 20th at 9.30 a.m.

As I always say, these dates are not set in stone and can be revised according to the process for sending out a special cancellation notice.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Are there any other comments?

No?

Awesome.

Thank you, Karina.

So right now, colleagues, if you have questions about the resolutions or you would like to remove one of the resolution to be voted individually, now is your time.

You can raise your hand or give me a head nod.

Okay, awesome.

So I'm actually gonna move, I'm gonna move that we adopt resolution 75, resolution 76, resolution 77, and resolution 78. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

It's been moved and second to adopt the resolution.

Are there any other comments regarding this legislation?

Seeing and hearing none, forever hold your peace.

Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk.

Will you please call the roll on Resolutions 75 through 78?

Board Member Kettle?

Board Member Nelson?

Aye.

Board Member Rink?

Yes.

Board Member Rivera?

Aye.

Board Member Saka?

Aye.

Board Member Solomon?

Aye.

Board Member Strauss?

Aye.

Board Member Juarez?

Aye.

Board President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries, and the Seattle Parks District adopts resolutions 75, 76, 77, and 78. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?

Sorry.

Colleagues, are there any other questions?

Well, thank you, Superintendent Diaz, Michelle, Karina Bull, really appreciate your help and all your work on this.

And then obviously for our Seattle Parks Department as well.

Colleagues and central staff and the clerk, this concludes the meeting today.

If there's no further business, the board will adjourn.

The next scheduled meeting for the Parks District Board is scheduled.

Mark your calendars, everyone watching, June 16th, 2026. Next year, June 16th, 2026. Hearing no further business to come before the board, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.