Seattle Park District Board Meeting 11/21/24

Good morning, team.

It is November 21st, 2024. Meeting of the Seattle Park District Board will come to order.

It is 10.03 p.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, president of the board.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Board member Kettle?

Here.

Board member Moore?

Present.

Board member Morales?

Here.

Board member Nelson?

Present.

Board member Rivera?

Present.

Board member Saka here.

Board member Strauss.

Board member Wu present.

President Hollingsworth president 9 present.

Awesome, present and present.

Wanna thank my colleagues for fitting this into their schedule.

I know we're in the middle of budget, so I really appreciate you all being flexible for this meeting and also our phenomenal Parks Department for fitting this into their schedule.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

If there's also no objection to the minutes of October 15th, 2024, Seattle Park District meeting is approved.

Hearing no objection, the October 15th, 2024 Seattle Park meeting minutes are approved.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Thank you.

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

It remains our strong intent to have public comment regularly included on these meetings.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have two in-person speakers and two remote speakers signed up.

Awesome.

Sounds good.

Each speaker is going to get two minutes.

I will now hand it over to the clerk to present the instructions for the public comment.

Thank you.

Yes, speakers, they'll be called in the order in which they're registered.

We will hear in-person speakers first, followed by remote speakers.

And speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

And speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Thank you.

The first in-person speaker is John Smart, followed by Demetrius.

Welcome, John.

Yeah, you can do either mic.

You can do the middle one or whichever one you feel comfortable with.

This one feels pretty good.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Hi, I'm here to talk to you guys about the plan for Seattle Public Schools to build Lincoln Field.

I'm very much in favor of the kids having a field for Lincoln High School.

What I'm not in favor of is the way that the Seattle Public Schools is going about trying to requisition the Wallingford play field.

Wallingford Playfield is the only park within a five minute walk shed of over 8,000 residents.

Also, Wallingford is the only neighborhood in the city that doesn't have its own recreational center.

So the area of the city is already very underserved by green space.

And here, Seattle Public Schools came in with a recommendation starting September 19 at a public meeting that they held.

They sent out postcards that arrived the day of the meeting.

So the neighborhood didn't even know that this meeting was taking place and they're taking feedback from the community and then filtering it and giving it to Seattle Parks as part of their joint use agreement.

They want to use a levy that was passed specifically to build Lincoln High School and athletic field And they want to use that money instead to build a half field for Hamilton Middle School, which the money was not approved for.

So I don't really understand the legality of their plan and the way that they've gone about kind of filtering public comment seems extremely biased.

A group of concerned citizens has gotten together to look at a bunch of different spaces that they could build upon and has been kind of sending them their way.

We've gotten very little response from the program manager who's been running the process.

to the point where we're kind of just confused about where they're at.

In a meeting that was just held last night, they went over very quickly all of the different proposals that were made alternative to Wollingford Playfield, and they rolled out a bunch of them using the term, which I thought was very strange, that there was a current use displacement I don't know what that means.

We have a current use in our neighborhood for our park and we are being displaced and yet that doesn't seem to rule out Wallingford Playfield.

They started walling Wallingford and now they seem to still want it despite all these other alternatives being available.

And John, you can send, if you could send us an email to the council as well, you can send us the full length of the comments that you have today and just explain everything going on.

Cool, awesome, thank you.

All right, next speaker is Demetrius and Redwine.

Welcome.

Is it Demetrius?

Demetrius.

Demetrius, welcome.

You can use whatever mic if you want to use the middle or whichever one you feel comfortable.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you, Jesus, for allowing us to be here today.

As a little girl from birth, I was stripped of my name, and so was Elta Lee Redwine.

So was Ruthie Lee Redwine.

So was Ruthie Lee Redwine, and so was Ruby Lois Redwine.

I was stripped of my birthrights in Dallas County.

And everyone in this city knows me.

Why is the state that houses the county that houses the county houses the city, but we're being stripped of our native rights out there in the streets?

I've been pricked and prodded and molested and abused and robbed and assaulted, especially right here in this house, right here, a city-owned building.

White folks, black folks, and natives are out there being poisoned because they've poisoned me all my life.

My mother, her mother, and my mother was born on native land in Cherokee, Cherokee land in Russ County.

But the city and the state has taken over my life for 55 years.

I got my first birthday cake in 2016 from Josephine Guthrie and Ketchikan Alaskan Indian Community because they hired me.

They don't hire just anybody.

I found out this year I'm the Cherokee native.

Took me 55 years to find out.

But for 55 years, I've been raped.

I've been assaulted.

I've been burnt.

Scalded with hot water for no reason.

I was praying.

The police can't come out and help me because I would kill them off.

That's what they do.

Every time I eat some in this district, they poison it.

So, Sarah, Rick, Kathy, Joy, Terry, Y'all I'm coming to y'all neighborhood cuz they gonna start parsing in your food the longer I live the more Thank you Thank you so much, I really appreciate you I know we have two off.

We have two online comments our two online commenters, excuse me, not two online comments and

Yes, the first online commenter is Julie McCleary.

Please press star six when you've been unmuted.

Good morning, Julie.

Welcome.

You might have to press star six, Julie, so we can hear you.

We'll pause and see if you can press pause six, excuse me, star six to unmute.

Okay.

I think I did it.

Can you hear me?

Yep.

Absolutely.

Go ahead.

Welcome.

Great.

Thank you.

I'm Dr. Julie McCleary, Wallingford resident and UW faculty member expressing concerns about the process used to make a major land use decision about Wallingford park.

I know that the plan has potentially changed, but the public process is concerning.

First parks allowed Seattle schools, the organization that wants to turf the field to do quote community outreach.

This brazen conflict of interest is like giving the fox the keys to the hen house.

SPS had no incentive to run an unbiased process and sadly their actions reflected this as they actively rallied schools instead of truly engaging the community.

I have always known SPR to be an equity first organization.

So the endorsement of community engagement that failed to engage the most marginalized in Wallingford is disheartening.

There was no direct outreach to bellwether affordable housing university house retirement Center or any of the 20 apartment complexes that have wallingford park as their only five minute open space access.

Secondly, we heard repeatedly that the decision would be made by Mr Diaz based on public sentiment.

A fuzzy notion made fuzzier by SPS is use of institutional resources to rally thousands of families what wallingford residents were left to fend for themselves or left out altogether.

It's not public sentiment when one side has a bullhorn.

Lastly, I think your role is to ensure alignment of parks work with the city goals such that all residents are afforded the recreation and open space amenities guaranteed to them by their city and paid for by their tax dollars.

Why then were you all not involved in this decision to severely restrict the use of a neighborhood park?

That's the five minute walk shed for six to 8,000 people.

Since we also don't have a community center, this choice would have left our urban village residents zero accessible recreational amenities.

That's not in compliance with the Open Space Plan, the Growth Management Act, nor fair use of tax dollars.

How do you all ensure alignment with city goals if you don't engage with land use decisions on behalf of taxpayers and constituents?

I hope you and Parks will be more engaged moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Julie.

Next speaker is Erica Bigelow, to be followed by Richard Ellison.

Good morning, Erica.

Welcome.

Press star six to unmute.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you loud and clear.

Great.

Hi, my name is Erica Bigelow.

I am a Wallingford resident and a parent of Seattle Public School kids.

I attended the Wallingford Playfield meeting last night at Hamilton Middle School, hosted by Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Parks and Rec.

And I want to share some reflections.

Many people spoke passionately about the play field, raising concerns about mud, dust, uneven surfaces, and sparse tufts of grass that are tripping hazards.

Some even shared stories of injuries from playing on this field.

These frustrations are valid, but the proposed solution covering the field with synthetic turf is not.

Synthetic turf is expensive.

It's harmful to humans and the environment.

It only lasts a few years and cannot be recycled, which saddles future generations with replacement and disposal costs.

The real issue at the play field isn't, of course, the grass.

It's the lack of proper care.

This is a sand-based field.

It was installed in 1999, and it requires consistent maintenance.

Fields like this thrive with regular attention, top dressing, interseeding, weekly mowing, clearing clippings to protect the drainage, and occasional fertilization.

These are not cutting-edge solutions.

They're basic industry standard practices that should be included in parks' budgets.

With proper care, natural grass athletic fields do thrive in the Pacific Northwest.

And I know this because I grew up playing soccer on them from elementary through high school, green or shine.

I also heard concern last night about off-leash dogs at the park.

This is a known recurring problem at the play field, regularly debated on social media.

Off-leash dogs are illegal in Seattle and their activity is contributing to the field deterioration.

So repairs of this sort, it's actually costing parks money.

So I'm wondering why parks isn't advocating the city for resources like an animal control officer to address this issue.

This seems like a very logical and economical step that would solve the problem.

Installing a synthetic field is an expensive and harmful band-aid.

So Wallingford Playfield is a vital community resource, like the other speakers have said.

It's an unscheduled green space that supports youth, fosters recreation, and provides mental health and environmental benefits.

We're asking parks for proper and consistent stewardship to address the root causes of these problems.

Thank you.

Thank you, Erica.

Next is Richard Ellison.

Good morning, Richard.

Just press star six to unmute.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, sir.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Yes, thank you.

I'll be very brief, but my comments relate to the cutting of funding for some environmental education positions, which are primarily at Carkey Park.

It's very interesting to see that Seattle Times did a big spread of People going to the park are looking at the massive salmon runs that are returning this year and the educational opportunities that are provided by the educators, the park rangers, whoever, whatever the official title is for these positions.

But the education center essentially is being, that budget being cut, and then the hope is that other funding will be found from other sources to cover these positions.

And I see also that there are...

unspent funds from the 2023 park funds that need to be allocated somewhere.

And well, here's a place that if you feel like you need to shift money to, I think it's really outrageous that you're going to be cutting environmental education positions at any of the parks because this is a time when we're trying to advocate for youth to have distractions that are not just either TV or crime or playing on the internet in some fashion.

You want to get them engaged in the outdoors.

You want to get them involved in the community.

It's a win-win situation, and to cut park funding at this time when there's really a great need for even more environmental education, climate change having its own personal impacts.

I have been an educator myself in the past.

I have taken students into Carkey Park and looked at the plants and looked at the salmon and rearing areas, look at the impacts from the streams that sometimes get too much water and talk about the toxins that get run off and how that affects the salmon.

And this year, we had a tremendous recovery from all the work that's been done trying to restore the streams.

We see this great thing happening, and at the same time, the city is trying to cut money from it.

Thank you, Robert.

Are there more speakers?

There are no additional registered speakers.

Awesome, thank you.

Well, we have reached the end of the list of registered speakers.

The public comment period is now closed.

I wanna thank the people for their comments.

Thank you, John, for coming and speaking about the park and looking forward to learning more about this.

To be honest with you, this is my first time hearing about it.

So I really appreciate you elevating it and bringing it to our attention and we'll do a dive in it in due diligence.

So anyways, thank you Will the clerk please read agenda item number one into the record?

Agenda item one Seattle Park District 2025 proposed budget for briefing and discussion Awesome, thank you.

We have our phenomenal superintendent AP Diaz, Michelle Finnegan, deputy superintendent, and we also have our phenomenal, I can't not say phenomenal, phenomenal Tracy Ratcliffe to the table and phenomenal Karina Bull to the table from central staff.

Thank you for being here.

Looking forward to the presentation and discussion and y'all can just jump right into it.

Please state your name for the record.

I've kind of already did that and you can just jump in.

Thank you.

Board members, AP Diaz, superintendent, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Again, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Karina Bull, Council Central staff.

And your ordinary Tracy Ratzliff.

Well, good morning, board members.

Thank you so much.

First of all, this has been an extremely busy season for all of you.

And thank you for all of your really hard work that you're doing for our city at this critical time.

And I want to take this opportunity to wish you an early Thanksgiving.

I'm grateful for your leadership and partnership here in the city.

We have three agenda items that we're going to discuss this morning.

First, we'll share a few 2024 updates.

Then we'll review the proposed park district budget updated to reflect the changes that you've recently made on the city side in the proposed budget for 2025 and 2026. And finally, Tracy and Karina will amazingly walk you through the formal part of the agenda as you consider six budget-related resolutions that you'll be asked to adopt.

Item one is our 2024 performance updates.

For the first selection of today's meetings, we wanted to give you a preview of how 2024 is going since we won't meet again until June of 2025. More specifically, our accomplishments focus around opportunities that occurred in 2024 and some efforts on the opening of our capital projects, as well as work and efforts in partnership with the City Auditor and Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, supporting oversight and accountability around restrooms and our community park fund.

and some examples of our expansions that we'll go over today in operations and capital improvements.

So let's talk about operations, specifically the Park Ranger citywide expansion.

We are proud to report that in 2024, we were able to successfully expand the Park Ranger program to a citywide deployment model through negotiations with the police union that allowed our rangers to fully expand throughout the city.

And in June of this year, we onboarded our second cohort of rangers, We have successfully grown this program to 28 park rangers, which was an increase from two.

And as you can see here, that greatly increased the number of parks we could visit and increased both our positive engagements with the public as well as our warnings related to violations of the park code.

At the very best and shortest model of what park rangers do, they are ambassadors for the park system, to interact with community, to provide SAFE AND WELCOMING SPACES AND TO BE OF ASSISTANCE WHEN NEEDED FOR COMMUNITY AND FOR THE ISSUE OF WARNINGS RELATED TO PARK VIOLATION CODE, RULES OF CONDUCT, ET CETERA.

QUITE HONESTLY, THEY ARE PEOPLE THAT WORK IN THE PARK SYSTEM DAY TO DAY, AND OUR PLAN FOR 25 IS NOW GOING TO ASSESS HOW 2024 WENT, THE MODEL, DEPLOYMENT, THE TYPES OF ACTIVITIES, WHERE THEY'RE SHOWING UP, So we want to take all of that into consideration to figure out the plan on how to best utilize them for twenty twenty five.

But we are very proud of this cohort of Rangers and excited that in your time here too we were able to actually expand higher and effectuate the program which is exciting.

Next, we're gonna talk about operations and some direct service highlights throughout the city.

We had a lot of success supporting downtown activation this year.

You've heard in your budget deliberations as well as our presentations that Activation of parks is key and crucial to a healthy, safe and accessible public park system.

In this effort, we had 124, excuse me, 128 hours of busking each week throughout the summer.

We supported 15 dancing till dusk events and 40 movie events with a 15% increase in attendance over 2023. All of this just tells us that people enjoy getting outside, especially during the summer evenings to have fun in the parks.

Relatedly, we are happy to report that our recreation programs are recovering from the pandemic with attendance generally increasing across the board.

Here we'd like to highlight the late night participation 28% over 2023 levels June to June.

And I know that was a topic and a particular point that many of you had in your budget deliberations and I want to thank you for continuing to support and believe in the late night program because it truly is one of the most important and best ways to serve especially teens in Seattle and all of you know the benefits of that program.

So we know it's important to provide safe spaces for our teens and we're glad more kids are taking advantage of these opportunities.

Next, continuing on direct service highlights, the reach of our SwimSeattle initiative is also increasing with more than 12,000 enrollments in swim lessons during the first half of this year and about 1,300 offered for free under the SwimSeattle umbrella.

Just as a reminder, we have great partnerships throughout the city with other entities like the YMCA, no more under and other community groups that have partnered with us with the overall overarching goal and commitment to eradicate as many disproportionate drownings among children of color in seattle and really to just teach kids how to swim and have the life-saving skills needed around a city of water And this program is very successful, and we look forward to continuing to grow it with you in years to come.

Our trails crew also expanded with our Cycle 2 MPD resources.

We've already surpassed the annual goal with over 14 miles of maintained trails throughout the city.

In fact, they are doing so well that they will be assessing whether to change their goal of approximately seven miles per year going forward.

to even more, so a positive note for our environment.

On the capital asset management side, rather than annual goals as part of the Cycle 2 financial plan, we established six-year goals.

We are closely tracking progress towards those goals, including the following areas.

Play area renovations.

We have a six-year goal of 33 new playgrounds and have already completed 12 with five more in construction.

So that's very exciting.

Trees and developed park.

We are on track on our new effort to increase tree canopy and developed parks with a focus on equity zones.

And I can just tell you also in discussions with the executive that we want to have an even greater deep dive with other city departments in 2025, looking how we can better work together under that one Seattle mode to increase tree canopies in public rights-of-way, parks, and other city spaces.

And then ADA barriers.

We've removed 824 barriers so far compared to our goal of 900. Similar to the trails crew, we are reassessing this goal based on the success And as we do, we need to be mindful that each barrier has a different resolution, approach, timeline, and cost.

Some can be simple, some can be a little bit complicated, but nevertheless, they are important.

They are required to be in compliance with the law, and most importantly, to provide accessible play spaces and parks for our entire community, and we're committed to doing that.

Let's talk about some major project capital improvements in 2024. Here's two examples that you see.

One of them is Ho Mai Park in Little Saigon.

Some of you were there to open the park with us, and that includes this beautiful artwork from a local Vietnamese artist here from Seattle.

And we are working to continue some issues around safety in this area, but we are committed to keeping this park activated and open for community.

And we also are proud of the reopening of the play area at Lincoln Park following a renovation.

And this is just two small examples.

In the interest of time, we're doing a lot of work in our city, in our district, but again, reflective of important ways to activate public spaces, transform neighborhoods, and also continue to provide spaces for children and families to play.

We are also in Northeast Seattle in District 4. We reopened the completely re-envisioned Pathways Park.

If you have not been to this park yet, I encourage you all to visit it, even if you have some visiting family members or people from out of town and you want to brag on our city and the park system that you all help govern.

This is truly an amazing park.

It is the largest fully accessible park playground play space in the entire city and one of the largest on the on the west coast and every single detail is has been looked and curated here and even small things that the staff was so delighted to share with me that we have even in our restroom areas and adult changing tables where when adults need those services or adult children or even adults, there's a way to do that with dignity, which is not often encountered in public park spaces.

And it's also just extremely beautiful and fun and just a really great area.

So an example of true city pride.

And we also added a new play area at the Urban Triangle Park, which is just right here in downtown Seattle on Westlake.

That was, I believe, a former car lot.

an enterprise car lot.

We retained some of the unique signs of that old car lot and incorporated them into a play area.

And also, this is the playground that we developed in the style and to give recognition and honor and respect to the stilt houses that existed in Seattle when there was a big expansion of our city and a lot of people were pushed out and literally lived in these homes that were built on stilts.

And the play structure, the actual tree house is a replicated model of a stilt home to continue that historical recognition of our area.

For more project capital completions in 2024, we are thrilled to have completed two long-awaited community-driven projects, the redevelopment of the Green Lake Small Craft Center.

Again, this is a really beautiful space right on Green Lake.

Green Lake is a reminder, an example of a regional park, which means it serves the entire city.

It's actually the most visited PARK IN THE ENTIRE CITY OF SEATTLE, AND IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE ENCOURAGE ALL COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO USE.

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL CRAFT CENTER THAT CAN ALSO BE USED FOR COMMUNITY PURPOSES, AND I ENCOURAGE YOU IF YOU AND YOUR OFFICES EVER WANT TO HOST SOMETHING FOR COMMUNITY OR YOUR STAFF, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

THIS IS A WONDERFUL SPACE AND IS ACCESSIBLE to all of us here.

In addition, we reopened and really had a great day at Beersheba Park, right near Lake Washington.

So many good stories there of a reimagined, truly working with community project to reopen Beersheba Park, bringing people to access the water that they weren't able to even access.

It was so overgrown.

building a community stage, building cooking areas, and even just a much more developed and protected wetland system there and taking care of the land.

And this is really community demanding, as they should, access to the water.

And you've heard some of you have heard me tell the joke when I first came here and I was taken to Rainier Beach in this area.

I, which I found out later was a community slogan, said, well, where's the beach?

And they said, exactly, that's the whole point of this project.

So a really great thing that's happening at Be'er Sheva.

I want to talk about some oversight and accountability reminders.

In addition to highlighting progress on some programs and projects, we also wanted to highlight how we approach accountability and oversight in cycle two.

One, a requirement, and two, very important in the delivery of public programs, public monies, and transparency.

This approach is...

Local agreement and the park district boards resolution 51 summarized here, but our next couple of slides will outline some specific recent examples of how we ensure oversight and accountability of these funds that the citizens have given us.

I want to talk about our restroom audit.

Aligned with Resolution 51, the City Auditor spent valuable time with us this year reviewing operating and capital maintenance of park restrooms.

We are finalizing our review and implementation plan related to their recommendations this week.

And the auditor is expected to release a final report to the city, to you all, to the public by the end of the year.

We would be happy to return to the board in 2025 to discuss this further.

But when the report is released, you'll see some of our preliminary responses TO THE AUDIT AND WAYS THAT WE CAN IMPROVE THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC RESTROOMS HERE IN SEATTLE.

THIS SLIDE ALSO PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON OUR NPD CYCLE 2 COMMITMENTS SHOWING THAT WE HAVE SIX PARK RESTROOM RENOVATION PROJECTS COMPLETED AND ARE ON TRACK TO WEATHERIZE AN ADDITIONAL TEN RESTROOMS THIS YEAR.

These 2023 and 2024 efforts will result in 20 restrooms that used to be closed seasonally remaining open this winter for the first time, except in the very harshest of conditions, but a great improvement and goal that we've been able to realize.

Our primary ongoing partner in oversight and accountability of the MPD is the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.

Just last week, we had a retreat to welcome our newest class of park commissioners and get to know these fine folks.

Thank you for your partnership in getting these commissioners approved, also for recommending Some people from your community and ensuring that we have a really good diverse Group of committed folks from every single district as well as at-large members that work with us Their role extends to all our lines of businesses and funding sources But since this meeting is specific to the MPD today, I'll bring your attention to the green box here which outlines the role of the board and park commissioners identified within the interlocal agreement and And on the next slide, we'll cover this final budget.

Oh, excuse me, final bullet related to the work of the BPRC in supporting the newly created Park Community Fund.

So it's very important that they are with us to ensure this accountability.

I'd like to talk about the Park Community Fund.

Again, something that is really unique and a special part of the MPD funding, because as you know, it specifically focuses and allocates money for the community to come together and identify projects that they would like to see specifically within their community.

This was formerly called the Major Projects Challenge Fund, but we engaged in an intentional process with our Board of Parks and Recreation Commission and community to relaunch a fund to support community-driven priorities with the goal of a more inclusive park system.

In 2023, the program parameters were developed and set in place.

And in 2024, the community ideation and selection process were run.

The result being that 15 geographically dispersed projects were selected for funding, utilizing 2024 and 2025 funding.

We'll talk about that on the next slide, but you can see here a snapshot of our city and where some of the equity projects were selected.

And also, the Board of Commissioners worked really hard, not only with our staff to do the community meetings, but they had some 150 amazing projects that had been proposed and had to work to help with community narrow down the list to something that we could start with.

But again, an example of there's such a great desire and need for this type of program.

In addition to listing the projects selected for funding, this slide illustrates that projects are identified for one of two tiers.

There's an under $150,000 tier and an up to $1.5 million tier.

Projects range from supporting outdoor exercise equipment at Hing Hay and South Park to adding community gathering elements at Holler Lake Street End, such as tables and benches to make the space more welcoming and places to actually interact with community.

Building on the improvements made to the Beersheba Park by adding a basketball court covering with lights, which will allow young people at Rainier Beach to play all year round, even when it rains.

In addition to the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners, the ideation and selection process was supported by the City of Seattle's Indigenous Advisory Council, the Disability Commission, an LGBTQ Commission, as well as frontline partners, Hip Hop Green, Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Lake City Collective, CHAM Refugees, African Community Housing and Development, and Mary's Place.

Again, a really great program and an example where community can actually help identify and select things for their community that they would love to have.

Item number two, we'll now pivot to a quick update on the MPD budget for 2025. As approved through council amendments on the city side, there are a few changes to the 2025 MPD budget for Seattle Parks and Recreation.

We want to note that the changes are not increasing property tax revenues.

However, there is an overall increase of appropriation of $875,000 from what this slide showed in October, appropriation which is backed by the use of one-time a one-time fund balance.

We'll walk you through the specifics now on the next slide.

While the last slide was a summary of SPR's overall budget with the MPD highlighted, this slide shows the total 2025 budget for the MPD, which funds SPR and the Seattle Center for Waterfront Operation and Maintenance.

As stated, the budget you are voting on today is unchanged from what we walked you through in October, except for three items.

The budget adds $875,000 of appropriation backed by the use of a one-time fund balance for the first two items, increasing funding for the Garfield Superblock project by $775,000, $700,000 for capital costs, and $75,000 for community staffing in support of that project.

and the addition of $100,000 to support enhanced programming at existing late night programming sites for teens.

Additionally, through a reallocation of acquisition funding, the budget supports an infield turf conversion at Lower Woodland Park.

As this is a reallocation of $998,000 of planned resources, this change is budget neutral to the overall MPD budget.

As the total project cost is estimated at 1.5 million, this project is also supported by some one-time general fund and park fund resources.

I will now pass this on to Tracy and Karina to walk you through the various budget-related resolutions.

Council member, or council, no, budget, MPD, president, board, would you like for us to describe all of these resolutions, or did you have a plan for teeing them up all at once?

I ideally would love to tee them up all at once, but I want to make sure that my colleagues feel comfortable with absorbing all of the information.

And I will look to my colleagues right now if we tee them all up once.

I see thumbs up.

Is everyone comfortable with that?

Awesome.

So teeing them up all at once is great.

Okay, so the first resolution is 68, and it is relating to the 2024 Seattle Park District budget, increasing non-capital appropriations in the Park District budget corresponding to unspent funds from the 2023 Seattle Park District budget.

In 2023, the maintenance and programming responsibilities for the waterfront, including associated MPD funding, transitioned from Seattle Parks to Seattle Center.

Seattle Center had savings last year and is using those funds in 2024 to support those efforts.

Resolution 69 would amend the 2024 Seattle Park District budget by reallocating and reducing appropriations.

This is a technical resolution that is shifting funds between a few park district BSLs for implementation of the adjusted wage increase payments.

It is budget neutral, just not BSL neutral.

Resolution 70 would adopt the 2025 Seattle Park District budget.

All of you are the council members in that capacity made some changes to that and the Select Budget Committee and Superintendent Diaz just adeptly described those changes.

This would formally adopt that budget.

Resolution 71 would authorize the levy of regular property taxes by the Seattle Park District for collection in 2025. This is known as the short tax, short property tax resolution.

It approves levying the property tax representing the increase above the tax per collection in the previous year.

Resolution 72 is the resolution setting the property tax in 2025. This is known as the Long Property Tax Resolution, and it would set the tax rate at 42 cents per 1,000 assessed value, with the estimated homeowner impact being $341 annually.

And then last is resolution 73, setting the Seattle Park District Board meeting dates for 2025. And those dates would be June 23rd, October 20th, and November 20th.

Those are all of the resolutions for your vote today.

Awesome, thank you.

Thank you, Karina.

I'll pause here to see if people have questions.

I see Board Member Rivera, you are recognized.

Thank you, Board President.

Thank you all for being here today and for this thorough presentation.

Just want to confirm Karina and Tracy please that resolutions 70 and 71 are really related to the voter approved levy.

They're just in line with what got approved by the voters.

It's the implementation of the levy that was approved by the voters.

We're not making our own, we're not levying something that hasn't been approved.

Correct.

And I would say actually 7071 and 72 all have to do with the operationalizing the authority we have underneath the Park District, which the voters approved in 2014, to in fact collect property taxes to fund the six-year financial plan.

Correct.

Correct.

I only selected 7071 because it talks specifically about the money.

And so I just want to make it clear and for folks that are watching that this is really in line with the voter approved levy.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Board President.

Thank you.

Board Member Strauss, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam President.

Karina, can you remind me the dates that are in this Resolution 73 for the following year?

Yes, there are three dates.

June 23rd, that meeting will take place at 3 PM.

October 20th, that meeting will take place at 5.30 PM.

And November 20th, that meeting will take place at 10 AM.

If it arises next year that there is interest in changing any of those dates, that can be done by resolution.

If there is an interest in changing the June 23rd date, there are rules for setting a special meeting if the first meeting is desired on a different date than June 23rd.

Thank you.

And Madam President, my apologies for not bringing this to you sooner.

I believe that I know that I will not be available on June 23rd as a conflict with Association of Washington Cities.

I'm just noting for the record and for colleagues, it will be at that meeting tomorrow.

that I will request any adjustments to our calendar to coincide with our budget calendar.

The reason that we have to have this meeting today before full council is that we pass everything that's in the budget here, and then we move into full council.

And so just for the record, I'm letting you know I might bring a request at that point, and I can already tell you I'm not likely to be able to attend on the 23rd.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Board Member.

I'm actually impressed that you can look at your calendar that far in advance and already know what you're doing.

Madam President, it's because I have no time.

Understood.

I'll pause here to see if anyone has any further additional questions about the resolutions that are before us today that we'll be considering and voting on today.

Okay.

Also for the presentation as well, I love the whole presentation.

Probably my favorite part was seeing the increase, the late night activities and 26% increase in the kids.

That's phenomenal and can't wait for that to continue to grow and be successful.

So I just remember late night being such an instrumental part in my being and growing up.

So that was my favorite thing about the presentation, but all of it was great.

Okay, awesome, I don't see any further hands.

That's agenda item number one, so we will be moving into agenda item number two.

Will the clerk please read that into the, unless you all had finishing remarks, sorry, no?

No, just thank you very much.

Awesome, thank you.

Thank you, Superintendent Diaz.

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

Agenda item two, resolution 68, a resolution relating to the 2024 Seattle Park District budget, increasing non-capital appropriations in the 2024 Seattle Park District budget corresponding to unspent funds from the 2023 Seattle Park District budget.

For briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

I know we have phenomenal Tracy and phenomenal Karina Bull here at the table.

Were you all going to explain this resolution for us so then...

We just, Karina just went through each one of the resolutions.

So you now are ready to vote on each one of these.

Thank you.

Because we teed it up.

You teed it up well.

Thank you.

My apologies.

I appreciate it.

I move that we adopt Resolution 68. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Are there any comments about this?

Seeing none.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Board Member Kettle.

Aye.

Board Member Moore?

Aye.

Board Member Morales?

Yes.

Board Member Nelson?

Aye.

Board Member Rivera?

Aye.

Board Member Saca?

Aye.

Board Member Strauss?

Yes.

Board Member Wu?

Yes.

President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and Seattle Parks District Board adopts resolution 68. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?

Awesome.

Will you please read item agenda number three into the record?

Agenda item three, resolution 69, a resolution amending the 2024 Seattle Park District budget by reallocating appropriations.

Awesome, thank you so much.

I move that we adopt resolution number 69 into the record.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

I cannot say seconded, seconded, seconded.

To adopt the resolution, are there any comments to this?

Seeing none, clerk, will you please call the roll?

Board Member Kettle?

Aye.

Board Member Moore?

Aye.

Board Member Morales?

Yes.

Board Member Nelson?

Aye.

Board Member Rivera?

Aye.

Board Member Saka?

Aye.

Board Member Strauss?

Yes.

Board Member Wu?

Yes.

President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries.

Seattle Parks District Board adopts resolution number 69. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?

Thank you.

Will you please read agenda item number four into the record?

Agenda item four, resolution 70, a resolution adopting the 2025 Seattle Park District budget.

Thank you so much.

I move that we adopt resolution number 70. Is there a second?

Second.

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

Are there any comments to resolution number 70?

Seeing none, clerk, will you please call the roll?

Board member Kettle,

Aye.

Board Member Moore.

Aye.

Board Member Morales.

Yes.

Board Member Nelson.

Aye.

Board Member Rivera.

Aye.

Board Member Saka.

Aye.

Board Member Strauss.

Yes.

Board Member Wu.

Yes.

President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Awesome, thank you.

And for the record, all our viewers on the Seattle channel, who's ever watching this, we're not speeding through this.

We've already teed it up for us to be able to move through the process like this.

So just wanted to clarify that.

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

Agenda item five, resolution 71, a resolution authorizing the levy of regular property taxes by the Seattle Park District for collection in 2025, representing an increase above the regular property taxes levied for collection in 2024.

Thank you.

I move that we adopt resolution number 71. Is there any person that has a comment?

I second.

Oh, sorry.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Are there any comments?

Thank you, Board Member Rivera.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Board Member Kettle?

Aye.

Board Member Moore?

Aye.

Board Member Morales?

Yes.

Board Member Nelson?

Aye.

Board Member Rivera?

Aye.

Board Member Saca?

Aye.

Board Member Strauss?

Yes.

Board Member Wu?

Yes.

President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries and the Seattle Parks District Board adopts resolution number 71. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?

Clerk, will you please read agenda item number six into the record?

Agenda item six, resolution 72, 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, both real and personal in the Seattle Park District to finance the activities of the district for the year beginning January 1st, 2025.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

I move that we adopt resolution number 72. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, board member Rivera.

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

Are there any comments at this time?

It's a quiet group, thank you.

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Board Member Kettle?

Aye.

Board Member Moore?

Aye.

Board Member Morales?

Yes.

Board Member Nelson?

Aye.

Board Member Rivera?

Aye.

Board Member Saka?

Aye.

Board Member Strauss?

Yes.

Board Member Wu?

Yes.

President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries.

The Seattle Parks District Board adopts resolution 72. Clerk, will you please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?

Clerk, will you also please read agenda item number seven into the record?

Agenda item seven, resolution 73, a resolution setting the Seattle Park District Board meeting dates in 2025.

Thank you.

I move that we adopt resolution number 73. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, board member Rivera.

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

Are there any comments?

Everyone's saving their comments for 2 p.m.

Thank you.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Board member Kettle?

Aye.

Board member Moore?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Board Member Morales?

Yes.

Board Member Nelson?

Aye.

Board Member Rivera?

Aye.

Board Member Saca?

Aye.

Board Member Strauss?

Yes.

Board Member Wu?

Yes.

President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Awesome, the motion carries.

Seattle Parks District Board adopts Resolution 73. Clerk, you know what to do.

Please affix my signature to the resolution.

Thank you, my friend.

Thank you, Superintendent Diaz, Michelle, phenomenal Karina, and the illustrious Tracy Ratcliffe.

You have, thank you all.

Just a point of privilege taking this out to talk about Tracy Ratcliffe, all the work that you've done for our staff.

You know parks on the front and the back of your hand.

You have incredible institutional knowledge.

You are a force to be reckoned with.

You are not scared to tell us no as well, which is like I think your favorite word I've gotten.

gotten you to say yes a couple times.

It may be often.

I'm just saying.

But definitely want to thank our central staff for all the work that you've done, Karina and Tracy.

Really appreciate just laying the groundwork, being very patient with us, walking us through stuff, giving us the historical knowledge so we're able to make these great decisions as well.

And then knowing where stuff is.

You know where it is at the drop of a dime.

You're like a walking encyclopedia for knowledge.

So just wanted to thank you.

Councilmember Strauss.

Madam President, just a point of personal privilege to add on to that.

I don't think that the Metropolitan Parks District would operate as smoothly without Tracy.

Tracy, you've been here since the beginning.

Helped form this separate governance system from the Seattle City Council.

And just want to highlight and thank you.

Such good work.

Awesome.

Thank you, board member.

Board member Rivera.

Yes, thank you, President Hollingsworth.

I have a point of personal privilege and then a point of information.

The personal privilege is to also thank, in addition to our great central staff, Superintendent Diaz, who's been such a great collaborator in the time that I've been here and very much appreciate Parks' work with starting a teen night in Magnuson Park, which was very well, it was very much needed and it's been very well attended and very much appreciate the collaboration.

Because when I came here early on and we worked together we talked about the needs of the kids that are living there And this was something that you took to heart so very much appreciate that collaboration And I want folks to know how the city works and how we collaborate together with the departments on behalf of residents and then the point of information is that in as regards the Wallingford play field I want to say that I've heard from constituents and Wallingford is in the d4.

So I've heard from many constituents I have been in close contact with Seattle Parks Department.

I know that SPS is required to do the community engagement and I know that they're required to give that to you all but that's not the only point of engagement with constituents constituents are also Reaching out to me.

I'm passing along the information to parks as well.

And I know that parks is I know that this is not a done deal.

This is something that sps would like to do and they are required like I said to do the outreach and they need to the information, do further engagement, take the next steps and require permission and it is true that it is the superintendent's role to then make a decision on this.

So I wanted to acknowledge for the residents that are here today, thank you for coming to give public comment and for those that gave public comment online that this is not a done deal.

that this is very much at the beginning stages of getting community feedback and I think that's important and especially important because colleagues I want to also note that the way Seattle public schools put this on their website I don't think it was intentional but it is a little misleading in terms of a timeline that they offered that makes it seem like this is moving forward when in fact That is has not been approved and it's very much in the beginning stages.

So I Will be reaching out to SPS to make sure that that is clear because I think it's causing some confusion So wanted to give that information Madam president, thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Absolutely Thank You board member that was that was really helpful and it was really much needed for the public and everyone Next I see board member kettle.

I knew you all couldn't hold your comments.

Go ahead board member kettle.

I

Thank you, Madam President.

I appreciate the opportunity.

I will add my thanks to the central staff.

I primarily work with the public safety team, but I've had the good fortune to work on parks issues as well.

And to that, thank you, Superintendent Diaz and your team, as it relates to new items like Portal Park or working the West Queen Anne Playfield, aka Big How, Smith Cove Park, and then our waterfront, and then working with Seattle Center.

I appreciate that process, because I recognize it's a little bit of a different model, but, you know, IT'S ONE SEATTLE TEAM.

AND SO, YOU KNOW, BASICALLY TO MAGNOLIA.

THAT IS GOING TO BE SUCH AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE WORK THAT WE'RE GOING FORWARD WITH.

SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

AND TO COUNCILMEMBER RIVERA'S POINT, OBVIOUSLY ENGAGEMENT IS KEY BECAUSE THIS STORY THAT'S BEEN BROUGHT UP TODAY IS NOT LIMITED TO WALLINGFORD.

IT HAS A QUEEN ANNE PIECE TO IT THAT'S COME TO MY ATTENTION.

All the departments are probably finding out that district representatives have a lot of contacts out there, and we are told a number of different things.

So for the Queen Anne aspect of the story, definitely want to be engaging.

on this and for the details and then the impacts and then making sure that we have a full 360 on it.

So thank you in advance.

Thank you, Board Member Kettle.

And segue, thank you.

We are super lucky to have a great superintendent like you, AP Diaz.

You are our very own Seattle shine, so.

Wanted to throw that out there.

Thank you.

This concludes the meeting today.

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

The next scheduled meeting of the Seattle Parks District is scheduled to be held on June 23rd, 2025. Hearing no further business before the board meeting, this meeting is adjourned.

It's 1103. Thank you.