Hey, good afternoon.
The June 24th, 2025 special meeting of the Seattle Park District Board will, the June 24th, 2025 special meeting of the Seattle Park District Board will come to order.
It is 3.38 PM.
I'm board member Joy Hollingsworth.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Board member Hollingsworth?
Here.
Board member Kettle?
Here.
Board member Moore?
Present.
Board member Rink?
Present.
Board member Saka?
Here.
Board member Solomon?
Here.
Is that six present?
Awesome.
Thank you.
We will thank you colleagues.
Um, we will now proceed, uh, to the, if, excuse me, we will now proceed to the agenda.
If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.
I also want to thank you all because this is a back-to-back meeting.
We just finished our full city council meeting, and now we're here at the metropolitan, uh, park board meeting.
So I just want to thank you all for that.
We're now going to proceed to the election of board president for 2025. Are there any nominations?
Council member Moore.
Thank you, chair.
I would like to nominate council member Hollingsworth for board president for the metropolitan park district area.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you for that nomination.
Oh, we're not moving it.
So thank you for that nomination.
Are there any other nominations that would like to take on this task?
Hearing none, can we take the role?
I accept your nomination and can we take, do we need to take the role for that?
We do, we need to take the role.
So a clerk, will you please call the role for the motion made by council member Moore electing me as council president, count, sorry, as board president for the parks district.
Board member Hollingsworth.
Yes.
Board member Kettle.
Aye.
Board member Moore.
Aye.
Board member Rink.
Yes.
Board member Saka.
Aye.
Board member Solomon.
Aye.
Sixth in favor and unopposed.
Awesome.
Thank you all, colleagues.
Let the record reflect.
I meant no disrespect towards our council president, current one.
Thank you.
Next, it is usually...
We'll now proceed to the election of the board vice president for 2025. Are there any nomination?
Are there any nominations?
Past practice has been that the vice chair of the parks committee would also serve as the vice president of the metropolitan parks district.
So I'm actually gonna go ahead and nominate board member council president Nelson.
Board member Nelson is not present today and has been made aware of this nomination and would accept if she is elected.
Are there any other nominations?
Hearing no further nominations, nominations are now closed and we will proceed to vote.
Will the clerk please call the roll on electing board member Nelson as board vice president for 2025.
Board member Kettle.
Board member Moore.
Aye.
Board member Rink.
Yes.
Board member Saka.
Aye.
Board member Solomon.
Aye.
And Chair Hollingsworth.
Yes.
That is six in favor and none opposed.
The ayes have it.
And Council President Nelson is our board vice president for 2025. If there's no objections for the minutes of November 21st, 2025, Seattle Park District meeting will be- Correction, it's November 21st, 2024. Oh, thank you.
Thank you, I was just corrected.
If there are no objections to that, because November 21st, 2025 has not happened yet.
So the minutes of November 21st, 2024, Seattle Parks District meeting will be approved.
Hearing no objection, the November 21st, 2024 Seattle Park District meeting minutes are approved.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes on my behalf?
Colleagues, at this time, we're gonna open up our hybrid public comment period.
Public comment is limited to the items on today's agenda and items within the purview of the board.
Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up?
We have one in person.
We have one in person.
We will start with the speakers, obviously in council chambers first.
Each speaker will have two minutes.
Clerk, I now hand it over to you to read the instructions and call on the registered speakers.
The registered speaker will be called and you'll be provided one minute.
You will hear 10 seconds when your time is a 10-second warning.
That'll allow you time to wrap up your comments.
If you don't wrap up your comments before that time, we will end your public comment to allow us to call the next speaker.
Thank you.
And the first speaker is Alex Zimmerman.
Mr. Zimmerman, before you speak, I kindly ask that I don't want to sit through a Nazi salute today.
Respectfully.
Two minutes.
You will not be interrupted.
I'm not sitting through that.
Thank you.
Two minutes.
You get two minutes.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Zeke Kyle.
PAUSE FOR THE RECORD, THAT IS AN ANTI-SEMITIC SLOGAN, AND IT'S ALSO HATE SPEECH.
YOU CAN CONTINUE YOUR PUBLIC COMMENTS, BUT I'M SAYING THAT FOR THE RECORD.
THANK YOU.
CAN I SPEAK?
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
YEAH, MY NAME ALEXIMERMAN.
I LIVE THIS FOR 40 YEARS.
President of Stand Up America, I support Trump from beginning.
I have 5,000 times I speak in council chamber.
I have 6,000 days of trespass, and you prosecute me five times.
Situation that I have right now is exactly what I want to speak.
Look, room empty.
It's a good sign.
Maybe Seattle degenerative idiot understands this.
Fascism, what is we have in Seattle, supposed to be stopped.
Because my expression, what I made many years ago, stop Seattle fascists with idiotic face.
Everything what is you doing for last 25 years is a nightmare.
I live here 40 years, Seattle, nice, beautiful city.
25 years, we start falling, falling, and falling, and falling.
And right now, we're in bottom right now.
This city only for rich people right now.
How is this possible?
I give you classic example.
What is we doing now?
You, Nazi pig, do it now.
Mayor Karel, for four years, never have one Q&A.
Four years, never have one Q&A.
Seventh floor, close.
What this can be more effective?
Don't call you a Nazi pig.
How is this possible?
Yeah?
Four years, he don't have one Q&A.
His floor closed for four years.
Stop.
Stop.
You're not speaking to anything on the agenda.
If you can speak to anything for Seattle Parks District, I'm not going to argue with you, Seattle Parks District.
It's exactly what I know what I'm doing.
I show you how you operate, what is going on.
It's exactly the problem what we have.
So I find something that is very hard for NATO.
It's exactly.
Viva Trump, viva new American revolution.
Stand up, Seattle.
Nobody here.
It's a good sign.
Wake up, Seattle.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Public comment is now closed.
This is just a reminder when you come to public comment, if it's one speaker, if it's 50 speakers, have to talk about something on the item on the agenda and the purview of this committee, Seattle parks.
Thank you.
I will read item one into the agenda, Seattle parks district update, financial and operational performance.
We have presenters, superintendent Diaz, Justin, I'm sorry if I butchered your name, my bad.
Amy Williams and Tracy Ratcliffe from central staff for briefing and discussion.
So please come to the table, come join us.
Thank you.
We'll shift our energy to some positivity.
All right, awesome.
Welcome.
Thank you, Superintendent Diaz.
Please state your name for the record, and you all can go on and jump in with your presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, President Hollingsworth and members of the Park District Board.
I'm AP Diaz, the Superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation, and I'm joined today by my colleagues, Justin, who you mentioned, and our Deputy Superintendent, Michelle Finnegan, who is here for Amy Williams.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the proposed 2025 Metropolitan Park District budget for Seattle Parks and Recreation.
This presentation aligns with the thorough presentation we provided on the entirety of our proposed 2025 budget this past September 30th, but it's focused today on the park district funding source.
As we walk through the key changes to the MPD today, I hope you will see the efforts made to address the city's general fund shortfall and overall pressures of escalating costs.
I am okay.
Substitution.
Substitution.
No worries, regard everything I said.
Am I not?
We are presenting.
Oh, I apologize for that.
Here I go again.
Was anyone confused?
Was anyone like, what are we talking about?
Tracy down there was like, he's not speaking to what's on the agenda.
I'm sorry.
We are here to present the 2024 financial and performance overview.
I will start again.
And I'd like to thank you for bearing with me.
I had the wrong presentation in front of me.
So we're going to jump to slide number one so that I can walk you through the two main agenda items today.
The first item will be our 2024 year in review.
And then item two will be a proposed park district resolution 74. The first item is to provide our annual financial and performance overview, this time for 2024. As I mentioned, this regular meeting coincides with the release of our 2024 annual report.
So much of what we'll share with you today are highlights from that report, which will all give you a copy at the end of the meeting.
The second item is a review of the park district resolution authorizing a carry forward of appropriation from the 2024 operating budget for SPR and the Seattle Center.
And my colleagues from Seattle Center are here today in the audience.
So let's begin please with an overview of 2024. Here we go, okay.
I'm not the only one having technical problems today.
No worries, you're all good.
Okay.
As part of our year-end review, we'll remind you of some of the organizational affirmations, then provide a little background on the annual report, which is one of our primary accountability efforts for you all sitting in your capacity as PARC board members.
We'll then provide an overview of our year-end financials and wrap up with a few highlights and success stories from 2024. So as a reminder, our city Seattle Parks and Recreation Department is focused around three main pillars, creating healthy people, supporting a thriving environment, and creating opportunities for vibrant community.
Since yesterday was the United Nations Public Service Day, I thought there's no better way to begin than to highlight some of the tremendous public service professionals that steward our park and recreation system.
To do so, we are highlighting three individuals who support the organizational outcomes of a healthy people, thriving environment, and vibrant community.
I'd like to point your attention to Jensen Nguyen, who began as a volunteer with SPR's swim lesson program in 2010. He was later hired as a lifeguard, promoted to a senior guard, and is currently working out of class as an assistant coordinator all at the Meadowbrook pool, where he first learned to swim.
As Jensen said, for me, it's all about giving back to my community.
Swimming is a vital life skill to learn, and there's no better feeling than seeing kids progress through the years.
Next is Emily Hansen.
She's part of our urban forestry team, currently managing the program to plant trees and develop parks, with more than 500 planted in 2023 and 2024 alone.
Emily previously worked as an urban forestry manager for New York City's park system.
As Emily put it, access to nature is so important to one's sanity when living in an urban city.
I chose to work for Seattle Parks and Recreation because of its exceptional parks and vast green spaces.
Emily is seen here using some of our equipment we use to plant large trees.
And I'd also like to acknowledge Laura Wilburn, who started with SPR in 1999 as a temporary recreation leader with the teen late night activation programs and now plans and implements programming through our outdoor activation unit.
Several generations of young people will remember her fondly for her teen tracks, ambitious outdoor adventures throughout Washington's wild lands.
As Laura said, youth programming has always been my passion.
For me, it's the spark that youth get when they get it, the excitement of learning and growing, the aha moments.
The hard work of these folks and more than 1,000 other staff have helped us to be ranked the sixth best park system in the country in 2024 by the Trust for Public Land.
As I mentioned, we're excited to release and present our 2024 annual report highlights today.
We've brought copies, which you will receive at the end of the presentation.
This is one of our core reporting and accountability functions, not only for you as Park District members, but as for the public, which we have undertaken since 2016 to provide transparency and oversight related to the resources provided by the generous Seattle Park District.
As park district dollars are additive to a base budget made up of many other funds, including the general fund, earned revenue, real estate tax, and many more, we now report comprehensively across all funds and all lines of businesses, not just park district dollars.
As with last year, our first year of comprehensive reporting, we've created both a narrative annual report that tells some success stories from the year and a detailed appendix that provides specific financial and performance metrics by lines of business.
2024 was the second year of what we call Cycle 2, the six-year financial plan adopted by the Park District Governing Board that makes major investments in many of our lines of businesses.
In 2024, we continue to make significant strides in fulfilling our Cycle 2 commitments despite some challenges.
I think our Port of Parks and Recreation commissioners pictured here with staff at their December retreat at the Ocean Pavilion summed it up best following their review of SPR's financial and operational performance in 2024. Their assessment of the year captured in a letter in the annual report and in the green box on the slide here says some items are fully ramped up and worth celebrating.
including an expanded park ranger program, restrooms and play areas and renovations, and expanded operating hours at teen life centers.
In some cases, the citywide partial hiring freeze and the other elements of financial uncertainty impacted the department's ability to fully meet its commitments, especially as it relates to restrooms, maintenance, and graffiti response.
As mentioned, we'll go through some more specifics in a few slides, but also have detailed appendices outlining our performance in each of our operating and capital lines of business.
Before we take a deeper dive into the annual report, I'd like to recap the 2024 adopted budget and spending.
You'll see here that SPR's 2024 adopted budget across all funds, including the Park District, was about $321 million, with about 70% supporting the operating budget and 30% supporting the capital budget.
On the operating side, you can see the general fund makes up about half of the total budget, followed by the park district, which supports about 30% of the total budget, which is a little over 67 million.
The remaining 41 million is made up of mostly park fund monies, which captures earned revenues from fee-based programs like aquatics, facility rentals, athletic field permits, and golf, which accounts for about $19 million of earned revenues.
On the capital side, the Park District is the largest funding source in 2024, making up over half of the total capital appropriated at almost $51 million.
REIT, the real estate excise tax, is also highlighted in the table, which as you know varies year to year depending on the availability of funds.
The other capital funds category includes a variety of smaller funding sources like King County Levy funding, leveraged with other funding for play areas and public restrooms, and CDBG funds, which come from the federal government supporting the Seattle Conservation Corps.
But the majority of the appropriation in the bucket is for the central waterfront project, which was $22.3 million.
Before we move to the next slide, we just wanna highlight two technical items related to the park district because we're sitting with you today as the park district governing board.
One is that operating amount in the table represents the budget the park district board adopted in November and doesn't reflect the council budget action adopted by the city council after the park district board's budgeted adoption, which is about a $250,000 variance.
The second is just to point out that this slide and our annual report reflects our total budget.
Therefore, the park district information reflected here does not include about $5 million that goes directly to the Seattle Center's budget to support their maintenance and programming of the waterfront.
This slide is a different view of the 2024 budget organized by our operating capital lines of business and includes the revised budget along with the actuals.
Since we just covered the adopted budget, we'll focus on the revised budget column along with actuals.
On the operating side, the revised budget includes legislated supplemental budget changes like grants and other technical budget changes.
Per the note at the bottom of the slide, it does include the one-time appropriation supporting payment of retroactive AWI to employees last year.
You can see that actual spending came in about $8 million under budget, which is mostly related to the citywide hiring freeze that started in January 2024 to address citywide funding issues across all funds.
About $1.6 million of that was general fund, which lapsed at the end of this year, and 700,000 was planned for vehicle purchases.
More to come on this when we discuss resolution 74. The remaining underspend in the funds that SPR manages includes the park fund and park district, excuse me, including the park fund and park district will be part of the upcoming 2026 budget discussions with the mayor and council.
On our capital side, SBRCIP is large and complex with more than 450 active projects.
Not unlike other capital departments, a budget for a project may be adopted in the year that the project is initiated, but due to the efforts involved, often take several years to complete.
The revised budget is a combination of the adopted budget, capital funding that automatically carries over from year to year per citywide policies and other technical budget changes approved via supplemental budget legislation.
Related to carry forward during each budget process, SPR provides a project level information on carry forward for our two key capital funding sources.
the MPD and REIT.
So that information related to the carry forward reflected in this slide was provided last year and similar information will be provided again for 2024 capital appropriation, carrying forward 2025 with the budget this fall.
On supplemental legislation, the most significant changes resulted from the $20 million in reimbursable grants secured during 2024 as SBR requests appropriations at the time the grant contract is executed.
We also have additional information on some of the projects in various stages related to key performance metrics for cycle two in an upcoming slide.
But before we do that, we'll get a little bit more details of each line of business with a focus on the asset management and capital development lines of business that accounted for most of the revised budget and spending.
As you probably already know, the asset management and lifecycle program life of business includes hundreds of projects within our ongoing capital projects aimed at preserving and extending the life and safety of our existing assets such as play areas, public restrooms, roofs, pavement, hardscapes, irrigation systems, ball fields, etc.
This line of business also includes our major annual maintenance support of the zoo and the aquarium.
Most of the projects in this line of business are planned and in various stages of development, so any shifting of funding would have significant implications on these planned projects, prioritize annually through our asset management plan, and add potential impacts on the MPD Cycle II performance measures.
Switching to the capital development and improvement lines of business, this one includes significant investments underway in 2024 on our major assets like the waterfront and aquarium expansion, the Woodland Park night exhibition renovation, freeway park mitigation, and South Park development.
It also includes funding supporting the upcoming renovations of several of the community center projects and development of the cycle one land bank sites among others.
With this financial context in mind, we will move on to some of the highlights and accomplishments in our annual report.
The full report includes deep dives on all the topics you see here, which you can see are many.
Today we selected a few to tell you more about with highlights from the operating side of the budget in orange and highlights from our capital accomplishments in green.
Along the way, we'll share the relevant commitments we made as part of planning cycle two, along with relevant performance measures and program accomplishments.
I also want to emphasize we're giving you just a small taste of the year today.
You can see all our KPIs and progress against our goals in the annual report appendix.
These next few slides highlight our work around youth and teen development, which I know is very important to this council and the Park District Board.
SBR's three teen life centers are Meadowbrook in North Seattle, Garfield in the Central Area, and the Southwest Teen Life Center in West Seattle, providing safe, inclusive spaces where teens can connect, learn, and grow with leadership provided by nurturing adults.
Across sites, they feature drop-in gym time, game rooms, and recording studios, and staff to provide homework for help, cooking classes, and art workshops.
Cycle 2 enhanced SPR's investments in teen programming, and in 2024, Teen Life Centers expanded operating hours to provide more access to teens, adding Mondays or Saturdays, depending on the site, and in total served over 31,000 youth attendees.
I'm excited to share a quote from Amir, who has been an amazing part of the Garfield Teen Life Center in the Central District.
That's him in the picture leading a job skills workshop in the photo on the right.
As he said, the Garfield Teen Life Center feels like a second home where I can develop professionally while making a positive impact in my community.
Props to Amir.
The late night program provides safe spaces, structured activities, and meals to teens at eight facilities, including teen life centers from 7 p.m.
to midnight on most Fridays and Saturdays.
In 2024, late-night reactivated youth leadership teams, engaging young people at each site weekly or biweekly to develop and run programs, events, and service projects.
Another 2024 innovation was an increase in cross-site collaboration, creating opportunities for young people from across the city to get to know each other, learn to resolve conflicts, and have fun together in a safe and supportive environment.
This included a late night basketball league with a series of home and away games across the city on a weekly basis.
Officers from the Seattle Police Department participated in a kids versus cops game at the Rainier Community Center.
And spoiler, the teens won, but everyone looks forward to a rematch in 2025. maybe a newly elected president might wanna play on one of these team games coming up.
In December, Late Night celebrated, our parks district president.
In December, Late Night celebrated its 35th anniversary in an event that youth leaders from each site helped to run.
As part of that event, SPR created the Late Night Hall of Fame at Rainier Community Center to honor the legacy of the generations of community members, staff and volunteers who dedicate their Friday and Saturday nights to support Seattle's young people.
I don't have to tell you, these are amazing programs, keeping kids busy and active and hopefully away from danger.
Our commitment to young people doesn't end once they leave our parks and teen centers.
We also serve an integral part of serving them through our community learning centers, which we call CLCs.
These lead after school activities, school break camps, and comprehensive summer school at five Seattle schools.
CLCs are partners in student success and principals welcome SPR into their buildings because we support the shared mission of reducing the achievement gap, especially in math and literacy.
We bring unique programming into school buildings, enrichment like art, dance, cooking, alongside culturally responsive mentoring and mental health supports, with a focus on students furthest from educational justice.
In 2024, we hosted 4,800 hours of programming engaging nearly 3,300 students.
These programs are mostly entirely funded by grants and contracts, and in 2024, they leveraged $1.5 million in non-SPR funding, primarily from Seattle Public Schools, King County's Best Start for Kids, the Seattle Department in Education and Early Learning Families, Education Preschool and Promise Levy.
These grants are generally performance based with money flowing only based on programs demonstrating their value to student success and SPR CLC's keep getting results year after year.
Seattle Mentors is an initiative that was launched by Mayor Harrell as part of the Cycle 2, which promotes impactful mentorship, social-emotional health, and career exposure opportunities by connecting young people with caring adults.
As a new program, SBR spent 2023 defining program outcomes, recruiting partners, and training staff.
2024 was a year of moving from pilot phase to an up and running network of programs that served more than 200 youth and engaged more than 30 mentors representing various career fields and providing exposure and access.
In a post-program survey, 98% of mentees responded and reported that they felt more confident in pursuing their career interest with one noting that being able to see more people of color and careers that I'm interested in and having a mentor that worked in the field allowed me to learn more about the career and what I can do to reach my goal.
Mayor Harrell believes that raising our young people is an all of society effort.
So Seattle Mentors has joined Mentor Washington in a recruitment drive, calling for caring adults of all kind to step up as mentors, whether through our Seattle Mentors program or with a community organization, a church, temple, a mosque, we invite anyone listening to be part of the vibrant community we need to mentor the next generation.
Let's talk park rangers.
Moving from youth development, we wanted to build on the park ranger update we provided at our last November meeting.
Historically, a handful of park rangers worked in downtown parks due to an agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
But thanks to some productive collaboration with the police union, our hardworking and dedicated rangers are now educating members of the public, assisting them with events and supporting accessible and safer parks throughout all of Seattle and in every part of our city and neighborhoods.
With the graduation of 13 new rangers in May 2024, the ranger team also doubled in size in 2024. You can see the locations visited and the educational and enforcement activities increased substantially as a result of those changes.
In general, our protocol for when rangers encounter park users breaking park rules is to educate and seek voluntary compliance, which often works.
While we do issue written citations, we do so only after that attempt at voluntary compliance and verbal warnings has been issued.
2024 was definitely a year of learning, the first full year of a cohort citywide operational model, and we continue to assess our approach to adapt and adjust to an ever-changing Seattle.
Now we'll turn to some of our capital accomplishments.
Here you can see a map of the 89 capital project accomplishments in 2020-24.
The icons relate to the detailed lines of businesses that the projects are in, park features, acquisition, buildings, et cetera.
We've been fine tuning our capital project delivery systems for several years now, and I'm excited to say that between our internal innovations and a growing budget, we've continued to increase our capital spending and project delivery annually to build a park system we can all be proud of.
You heard earlier today about the many projects in the pipeline.
The graphics on the left show at a high level some of our programs on the core priorities of cycle two as of December 31st, 2024. On restroom renovation, we've committed to renovating 27 restrooms by the end of 2028. Four have been completed so far, and those show up on the map under the buildings icon.
They are Gasworks, Green Lake, Interbay, and Pathways Park.
We've got an additional four restrooms in construction and more than 25 more in planning and design.
So we're pretty confident we'll hit the mark by 2027. And I asked that question of our staff not too long ago, and they do remain confident that we are meeting our goals and may even be early.
On the play area renovation, we've committed to 33 play area upgrades by the end of 2028. 12 have been completed so far, and they show up on the map under the park features icon.
The 12 completed sites are 26th and Lynn, BF Day, Cal Anderson, Bitter Lake, Dearborn, Dr. Blanche LaViso, Lincoln, Pathways, Soundview Terrace, Spruce Street, TT Minor, and Westcrest.
We've also got five more in construction and 20 other sites in planning or design, so we're confident we'll hit that mark of 33 for cycle two.
On community center major maintenance, we've committed to stabilization and renovation of six recreation facilities by the end of 2028. So far, we've completed one project at Magnuson, and we've got three more in construction, South Park, Hiawatha, and Magnolia.
And separately from this goal of six, Alki is also under construction, led by Seattle Public Schools.
For pool major maintenance, we've committed to three to four renovations in cycle two.
While none are completed or in construction yet, we've initiated design on the four, which are expected to go into construction later in the cycle.
Those will be at Coleman, Madison, Munger, and Meadowbrook.
Here are some other 2024 project completions at Greenlake Small Craft Center, Beersheva Park, and Pathways Park.
Parks are powerful community building infrastructures and great communities support great parks.
It's a symbiotic relationship.
SPR partners with more than 49 community-based Friends of groups that steward, activate, and enliven our parks.
Sometimes these groups even play a major role in envisioning improvements to parks and supporting fundraising to bring those visions to life.
In 2024, SPR is proud to report that these three major improvement projects, many years in the making, and with lots of community support, completed construction and opened to the public.
That is the Green Lake Small Craft, which is a beautiful center if you haven't been there, and it supports our regional park at Green Lake, the Beersheva, and the Pathways Park, which is a fully and all accessible park in every single aspect, and the largest accessible park we have in Seattle.
All of these have been through demonstrated and committed coordination with community groups, the Seattle Parks Foundation, the Department of Neighborhoods, the Associated Recreation Council, and many, many more.
Many capital projects are also in the works.
SPR is embarking on a process of reducing its carbon footprint by identifying strategic opportunities to decarbonize facilities, both as standalone projects and by adding on to existing projects such as Hiawatha and South Park Community Center renovations, which are under construction now.
This work generally entails swapping out old gas-powered furnaces for heat pumps, significantly reducing the building's overall carbon footprint.
Because SBR has so many facilities, this is a big body of work.
But we have met key milestones in 2024, getting approval from the City's Finance and Administrative Services to use an innovative procurement approach for certain decarbonization projects.
The general contractor construction manager GCCM procurement method involves bringing on a construction contractor earlier than in standard design bid build processes which increases quality efficiency and cost certainty of the overall program.
This is a major lift for Seattle that other cities are doing, and I want to thank everybody who helped make that happen.
In 2024, SPR took steps to package decarbonization of Garfield, Jefferson, Rainier, and the Vanna South Community Centers, as well as the Genesee Crew Quarters, together using GCCM.
following the completion of feasibility studies and hiring of a design team.
These sites are all projected to be completed by the end of 2028. In addition, all major CC renovations will assume electrification as part of their scope and projects.
Some examples, Green Lake, Queen Anne, Lake City.
We're also transitioning our vehicle fleet and equipment from gas to electric as much as feasible.
This slide references 14 vehicles converted to electric.
These are fleet replacements, but it is important to remember that while we're embracing this transition to more sustainable operations, it requires electrical infrastructure investment.
For example, in 2024, we installed 51 electric vehicle chargers, experimented with new technologies, tools and products, and made changes to parking lots and staff practices to make sure our vehicles and equipment can stay charged and working.
With additional funding from cycle two, SPR launched the Park Community Fund to advance park equity through a community-led process.
The goal is to make capital investments originating from community that reduce disparities and expand access to quality parks, facilities, and open spaces.
The fund developed its guiding principles and its unique approach to engaging the community in partnership with the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners, community-based organizations representing historically underserved communities and identities, and several city commissions.
In 2024, the fund officially kicked off with a project selection process.
Community members submitted more than 240 ideas, which SPR staff developed into possible projects.
More than 2,900 people were engaged at various stages of the process from submitting project ideas to weighing in on options.
After final review by the BPRC, we announced the 15 selected projects in October 2024. Selected projects include both small and impactful improvements and transformative changes to parks.
These are shown on the next slide.
So you can see some of the tier one projects under the 15 projects selected and the tier two projects.
So very big and small project.
That is a wrap of our 2024 update.
A reminder that you can find a lot more information in the annual report, which we're excited to provide you copies of again at the end of the meeting.
And for proposed park district resolution 74 item two, I think we're gonna move over to our presenters.
Is that the Seattle Center or Casey?
Who's doing that?
Justin, Justin.
Not me.
Not you.
Is that Seattle Center?
I think you guys are joining us.
Okay, if I can invite them.
No, absolutely.
And but yeah, please, yeah, please, please come up.
And before we do item number two, because I believe I have to read it into the record, if that's correct.
Well, before we do, Tracy, did you have any comments about the report?
The annual report?
Not at all.
Nope.
Awesome.
And then colleagues, did you have any questions?
Wanted to like pause here for colleagues just to have some questions at all.
If you give me a head nod, it's hard to find your hand often, but yeah, no.
Okay.
You said no, no.
Did you have any questions?
No.
It's a loaded question for you.
I just wanted to, it was interesting going through the briefing, It's a good opportunity to get the baseline, so I appreciate that.
And it also reminds me to get an update on the various parks, particularly within District 7, because, you know, as I know, you know, you have the 24. I'm looking for the slide that I was looking for.
You know, different pieces are in there, like, you know, talking about community centers.
But I also know Queen Anne community centers on the list.
And then there's, you know, the West Queen Anne Playfield, Big How.
So these different...
just to ensure that they're all tracking schedule-wise and to get a briefing and to be baselined on the various pieces.
So I appreciate the briefing and we'll talk about it with my staff and then likely follow up to get like a baseline in terms of where we are to ensure everything's tracking.
Like I've gotten updates regarding Portal Park in terms of the survey.
But to get the similar across the various pieces, because there's a number of items to discuss.
So thank you.
And thank you, Board President.
Thank you, Board Member Kettle.
Board Member, sorry, Board Member Solomon.
Thank you, Board President Hollingsworth.
I know this is a reflection of 2024 work.
So my actual question may be answered.
as we go forward concerning 2025 and beyond, specifically looking at concerns that have been raised to me about Jose Rizal and the repurposing of the parking lot area there and then closing off that parking lot to prevent some of the late night uncivil behaviors that have occurred there.
So is that coming later on in the presentation or is that a conversation for a different time?
We're happy to brief you on that.
Probably a different time about that and some other safety strategies we have going around the city.
In fact, we were just speaking about that today earlier with staff.
So I'd be happy to do that.
Yes, I welcome that opportunity.
Thank you very much.
Awesome.
Thank you, Councilmember Solomon.
Just recognizing if Councilmember Saka or Councilmember, sorry, Board Member Saka or Board Member Rank have any comments about the presentation before we move on to the resolution.
No, CNN, awesome.
Thank you all.
It was a loaded presentation full of a lot of information.
I really can't wait to read the report.
I think what we do at Parks here is like absolutely phenomenal.
We're super lucky to have you, Superintendent Diaz and your staff.
Sorry, I didn't say Michelle was here.
I was just reading off the thing.
So I apologize.
So I'm glad you corrected me, Michelle and Justin.
I got you.
Thank you.
And the one thing that I love to see and I know the rest of my colleagues is the amount of youth that are participating in late night stuff.
The teen centers, the late night, the late night activities, the food piece, like all those things matter to our kids.
Just a big proponent of that.
I know we all really appreciate hearing about the numbers.
It's one thing to hear that the programs are going, but it's another thing to see 30,000 kids or the amount of people that are impacted every single day from those programs.
I think it puts a bigger picture around like, hey, this is the impact that we're having.
So thank you all for putting that together.
And then now I'm going to read...
Item number two.
Oh, you can do it.
Thank you, Amelia.
Will the clerk please read item number two into the agenda.
Agenda item two, resolution 74 relating to the 2025 Seattle Park District budget increasing non-capital appropriations in the 2025 Seattle Park District budget corresponding to unspent funds from the 2024 Seattle Park District budget for briefing discussion and possible vote.
Awesome.
Amelia doesn't like me reading stuff into the record.
I don't read it as fast.
Please state your names for the record for this agenda item, and you can jump in right into the resolution.
Tiffany Malacca, I'm the Byfront Park Operations Manager for Seattle Center.
Dematris Winston, Deputy Director at Seattle Center.
Awesome, and we're ready for the resolution.
I'm assuming it's a possible vote today, yeah?
Okay, awesome.
I'll be quiet now after you all.
That's great.
Okay, so to close out our presentation, we have resolution 74 before you today related to the MPD operating appropriation carry forward from 2024 for both Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Center.
As we mentioned on the previous slides, SPR planned to cover anticipated expenses for one-time vehicle purchases in 2024. However, the vehicles will be delivered to SPR in 2025, actually in about two weeks.
and carry forward resources are necessary to cover the cost.
These vehicles were planned as part of the ramp up of Park District Cycle 2, specifically to support enhanced maintenance of public restrooms.
Resolution 74 also includes a request to carry forward about $1.3 million for Seattle Center to continue supporting the ramp up of waterfront maintenance and operations.
As you know, Seattle Center is operating and programming the waterfront on SPR's behalf, supported by MPD funding.
If you have specific questions on their carry forward, they are here to answer those questions.
And if not, that is the end of our item two.
Awesome.
Straightforward and to the point.
Awesome.
I will pause here to see if my colleagues have any questions.
I know that this is in, I believe it's in Councilmember Kettle's district, but it butts up to Councilmember Saka's district as well.
You all split the waterfront.
Am I, is that correct?
You do.
Yes.
Okay, awesome.
Yes, there's a partnership there.
Thank you.
That's what I was trying to get to.
There's a partnership there.
I will tell you this.
Anytime someone comes to the city, and this is for people that have lived here for a long time, they go to the waterfront, and they haven't been there in a long time, and they're like, wow.
and they are shocked and amazed.
I ride my bike down on the waterfront all the time, head up to Myrtle Edwards and then over on the track and then loop back through the train and that path back there.
But it is phenomenal.
And so just gratitude for everything that's happened at the waterfront.
I think we have a waterfront now that we are incredibly proud of in Seattle.
And I think that also too, not only what we're proud of, but how we're maintaining it as well matters in the presentation, because that's often the first thing that people see in our city.
I did not recognize if Tracy Ratcliffe had anything about the resolution.
Don't mean to put you on the spot.
I don't.
There's no concerns from staff perspective on the resolution 74.
Awesome, thank you.
All right, well, do any of my colleagues have any questions right now?
Well, I'm gonna go ahead and move that we adopt resolution 74. Is there a second?
Second.
Awesome, it's been moved and second to adopt the resolution.
Are there any further comments?
I will not call the roll.
I'll ask the clerk, will you please call the roll?
Board member Kettle.
Aye.
Board Member Moore.
Aye.
Board Member Rink.
Yes.
Board Member Saka.
Aye.
Board Member Solomon.
Aye.
And Board President Hollingsworth.
Yes.
Six in favor, none opposed.
Motion carries.
Resolution 74 is adopted.
And will the clerk please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?
This is going to conclude our meeting today.
So thank you all for coming.
I don't know if you have any closing comments at all.
Superintendent Diaz.
I just want to, on behalf of the Seattle Center and Seattle Parks and Recreation, thank you so much for your oversight and partnership on these wonderful programs that we deliver for the public.
And what an amazing gift that we have with the park district funding that's vital to our identity as a city.
And we just appreciate your valuable partnership.
Look forward to being back here with good updates for 2025. Thank you.
Awesome.
Thank you all.
And the next scheduled meeting for the Seattle Park District Board is scheduled to be held on October 20th, 2025. But I'll see you all before then.
If there is no further business, the board will adjourn.
Hearing none, it is 4.27 p.m.
and this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you.