Seattle Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee 5/1/19

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the May 1st edition of the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee.

The time is 2 p.m.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Gonzalez, for joining us.

I'm Councilmember Sally Bagshaw.

I vice-chair this committee.

And I want to extend my condolences to Councilmember Juarez who is home ill today.

Let her know that I'm pinch hitting for her and that we will do our best to move forward with this committee meeting as she had planned.

So thanks to all of you for being here today.

There are only two items on the agenda, but both are important ones.

The first is to consider the appointment of Jesus Aguirre as the superintendent of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

And we also have an ordinance regarding the South Park Playfield Agreement.

So first on our agenda is public comment.

And we have three people signed up.

Marguerite Richard is first, Cesar Roman, and William Lowe.

Each of you will have two minutes.

And since we only have two items on the agenda, as I said, Superintendent Tooby, Jesus Aguirre, and the South Park Campus Playfield area, if you will confine your comments to those two agenda items, we would appreciate that.

So two minutes, please.

And Marguerite Richard.

Yes, I'm Ms. Richard here.

I'm kind of a frequent person here and we're going to talk logistics today because I'm very much concerned about my human rights and my civil rights.

I don't know who else to address.

If it's going on in this building and it's happening to me, then I have a right up under the law to address you.

So today, you know, because Ms. Gonzalez is there and the community police commission is one of her babies.

I was insulted by, not assaulted, but insulted by these guards that work here, and Rita can confirm it, that I was never in the meeting today, huh?

If I wasn't in...

Look, look, look, I know what you want to say.

No, what I want you to do is to please stay on the agenda.

Ms. Richard, we have two security officers here.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, wait a moment.

May I please ask her to be escorted?

We do not accept threats here.

Ms. Richard, you're done.

Would you please cut off the...

I'm sure you will be.

That's fine.

Please escort her.

I've asked you please to stay with the agenda.

You better believe I will.

And Cesar Roman, yeah, please escort her out.

Thank you.

Beg Shah may I clarify for the record that I support your decision in requesting and declaring that Ms. Richard was not following their council rules and needed to be removed from chambers.

I also want to acknowledge that I agree with your assessment that the public testifier who just spoke actually was not exercising her freedom of speech but instead subjecting us as members of this committee to threats of violence and we have just recently experienced that three weeks ago from her friend Mr. Zimmerman and I just want to acknowledge that it is behavior that we should not accept and tolerate is threats.

There's a difference between threats And there's a difference between threats and freedom of speech.

We respect freedom of speech.

What we cannot tolerate as public elected officials or as a community or as residents of this great country are threats that unfortunately we see public elected officials subjected to threats many times and unfortunately we see people following through on those threats.

And we have to send a clear message and set a standard of expectations that we will not tolerate verbal threats that could incite violence or turn into violence.

So I just wanna thank you as the presiding chair today for your actions.

I appreciate that very much and thank you for standing up and being consistent.

Okay, next Cesar Roman, you are up and then William Lowe and I'm very sorry that members of the public had to sit through that.

Hi, I'm Cesar.

Hi, City Council.

Thank you for allowing me to speak today in regards to the redevelopment of the South Park Community Center.

I also want to thank SAS for contributing $4 million donation to bring improvements to the neighborhood.

Maybe they can consider donating to South Park Plaza as well.

Give big donations are this week.

As a resident of South Park, for the last few years, I've gotten to know many of my neighbors and families that live in the area, and it holds a really special place in my heart.

However, with all the time I spend in the neighborhood, I often question, who is meant to benefit from all the improvements coming to the neighborhood?

And are these decisions being made with race and equity in mind?

Just to list the projects that are happening in the neighborhood outside citywide, Duwamish Waterway Park, Home Zones, Cloverdale and 8th Street Improvements, South and Elm Grove, South Park Plaza, Pump Station, and Park.

Our local elementary school, Concord International, along with 17 other Seattle public schools, will be receiving budget cuts to their EOL departments next year, which will significantly lower quality of basic education.

Yet, the city and private education institutions are able to allocate millions of dollars towards park improvements.

As a side note, it will only take $2 million to maintain all EOL positions throughout the whole city for next year.

While all these improvements are great, I want the city council to really think about the message we are sending to youth and families from South Park.

It feels a little unsettling that we have to watch a private school come into our neighborhood and take over the field, all while our own public school and neighborhood resources are receiving cuts or are tremendously underfunded.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you in the neighborhood.

Thank you for coming, and I really appreciate your sticking with the agenda and being so clear about your opinion.

Mr. Lowe?

Welcome to City Hall.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is William Lowe.

I am a parks commissioner in this city who happens to be the chair at the present time.

I come to speak on behalf of Jesus Gary and it is a wonderful re-edition to having a superintendent who did not count it as robbery to leave this city.

go back home and support family, found that there was a void when time permitted, and reapplied for the job.

Did not ask for any special treatment, but will let his record, as we have seen, stand in his stead.

We're excited.

We're excited because here is someone who set the bar high, is not afraid to come back, and we're going to set the bar even higher.

I realize that I only have a minute and about five seconds left to speak, but I have probably a full day as a longtime citizen of this great city to speak about him.

Not only has he demonstrated competent leadership, I love his enthusiasm.

And as I was leaving my building today and let the residents know that I was going to come here and speak on his behalf, they wanted the council to know, they wanted the city to know that we're very pleased with the way our parks look.

They're excited about the future.

And they asked me to do two things.

One was if the opportunity availed itself, look for a few more dollars, but I'll save that for another time, but certainly give and heap plenty of praise on the direction that we are taking.

Individually, I'm extremely excited.

Because of the position that I sit in, it is always wonderful to have someone who is not afraid to lead by example.

I come here and I speak on his behalf.

And I thank you for the opportunity to do that.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Mr. Lowe, and thank you for your service.

I really appreciate all the good work that you're doing.

And extend my thanks to your neighbors as well.

Okay, well, we will move on to the next item of our agenda.

Thank you very much for being here.

Would you like to read this in, Nagin?

And also, I want to recognize both Nagin from Councilmember Juarez's office and Lena Thibault from my office.

Thank you both for being here.

Thank you, Council Member Baxhaw.

First item on the agenda, appointment 01306, appointment of Jesus Aguirre as superintendent, Department of Parks and Recreation for a term to April 1st, 2023.

Very good.

So would you please come up to the table and Deputy Mayor Mosley, thank you as well.

If there's anybody else you'd like to have join you, feel free.

Okay, power team.

and welcome to both of you.

And I also want to acknowledge all the people who are here from Parks.

Thank you for your great service.

Christopher Williams, I've been having the pleasure of working with you in one capacity or another for the last 10 years, so thank you for being here as well and for holding down the fort.

Okay, so we really don't need to have introductions to those of us at the table, but for the record, Mr. Aguirre and Deputy Mayor Mosley, if you'd just please introduce yourselves.

Sure.

My name is Jesus Aguirre and I'm acting superintendent at Seattle Parks and Recreation.

And David Mosley, deputy mayor for the city of Seattle.

Great.

Thank you.

Deputy mayor, would you like to say a few words?

Thank you, Councilmember Baccio and Gonzalez.

Happy to be here today to reintroduce a person who really needs no introduction to this council, Jesus Aguirre.

Before I do that, though, Councilmember Baccio, I wanted to take a moment of personal privilege to thank you for lending your staff person Lena to go to our services as we consider our next appointment or nomination to go forward as we were interviewing people yesterday and the day before for the Department of Human Resources and appreciated her support and input into that process.

Great.

Thank you all.

I'm glad you did.

And I'm sure it was a great opportunity for her personally, but also for you to have her on the committee.

Exactly, exactly.

It was about four months ago that Jesus contacted me and indicated that while he was enjoying his work with his family business, that he was missing the work of public service and missing the work of the parks department.

And he indicated that while he's been on this, I'm going to call it a sabbatical, While he'd been on this sabbatical, he had maintained a number of relationships with national parks organizations and kind of continued his passion for public service and public parks and recreation and asked if there would be any interest on the mayor's office staff or the mayor if he were to reapply as we were starting the process of the applications.

We had a wonderful conversation.

I asked him, you know, why did he want to come back.

Some of the, I'm sure some of the questions you're going to be asking him today and I'll let him speak for himself.

But toward the end, we did reopen the process and he did apply.

We had over 100 people that applied for the position.

We selected five people to interview.

In the end, we actually only interviewed three because a couple pulled out at the very end.

But Jesus came up from the search committee as the one that was really, he and another person were recommended to be interviewed by the mayor.

The mayor interviewed both people and is nominating for your consideration today, Jesus Aguirre to be the superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that and appreciate the fact that you did a formal process and that you are allowing us to be involved along the way.

Great.

Jesus, welcome back.

Thank you.

I've got some prepared comments I'd like to read and then be happy to answer any questions you might have.

As I begin, I absolutely want to thank William Lowe for his service on the Parks Board and the rest of the Parks Board and Oversight Committee and all the community members who on a daily basis give us lots and lots of feedback and support on the work that we do at Seattle Parks and Recreation.

I also want to recognize the folks in the back.

The majority of the leadership team for Seattle Parks and Recreation is behind me, and I want to thank them and their teams for all of the work that they do each and every day, again, on behalf of the residents of Seattle.

And then finally, special note of gratitude to Christopher Williams, who really has been steadfast in his leadership of this department for many years, and it's an honor to be able to be considered to join him again and be a part of the team.

And I will say that a big part of whatever negotiation I may have had with the mayor and others about coming back was making sure that Christopher Williams was going to stick around, because that's an important part of the work that I want to do.

So, as I said, I've got some comments, and then I'm happy to answer any questions.

You know, it is an honor to be here today again seeking your support for my nomination to again be the superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation.

And it's especially an honor to have this opportunity a second time.

So as you consider my appointment, I'd like to just briefly address some of these issues that may come into mind.

including the logical questions of why I left the position and why I'd like to return, as well as some initial thoughts on how I will approach the work of Seattle Parks and Recreation to ensure that we continue to support all of our communities, all of our leaders, including all of you, as well as all the residents as we work to make Seattle a great city for all.

So prior, I will say just a quick note on my experience.

Prior to my arrival here in Seattle in 2015, the bulk of my work was in education.

I had the opportunity to serve in education as a teacher, a school principal, a school district administrator, as well as serving as the state superintendent of education for the District of Columbia.

When I transitioned from education into Parks and Recreation, I had the privilege of serving as the director of the District of Columbia's Department of Parks and Recreation as well.

So I do believe that I've got the background and experiences to, again, lead Seattle Parks and Recreation.

As you know, I served in this role from June of 2015 through January of 2018, and I'm really proud of the great work that I and the rest of the team together did during my tenure.

And as to the reasons for my departure, they're pretty simple.

After about 28 years of public service, as the Deputy Mayor said, I made a very personal decision to take a break from public service and join my family's steel manufacturing and construction business.

I decided to join my five siblings to support their effort in honoring the legacy that my parents established when they founded the business about 40 years ago.

And although this business is one that I literally grew up in, working after school on weekends and during the summer since I was in elementary school, and one that my siblings have very ably led to great success, I quickly found that I simply missed the work of public service.

I missed being part of the work to make the city that I live in a great city for all of its residents.

So I sit here before you today asking to return to service on behalf of the residents of Seattle, of the city of Seattle.

During my previous tenure, we did a lot of work to continue to improve on the great work of an organization like Seattle Parks and Recreation.

At the time, our focus was to work to transform ourselves into a results-driven and mission-driven organization.

Worked with the team, those behind me and those throughout the city, to establish ways to just become engaged in ongoing discourse with our communities to make sure that we're actually serving them and meeting their needs.

We worked to open our minds and committed to studying new ideas, learning from experts and stakeholders, including all the very knowledgeable internal stakeholders, the great employees of Seattle Parks and Recreation, as we sought to implement best practices and strategies.

And of course, we also worked to responsibly manage the resources that we were entrusted with and operate with an understanding that we had to do a better job of serving our historically underserved residents.

So, working side by side with these great team members, I'm really proud of the accomplishments that we had at the time.

But still, we've got much work to do.

Our city continues to grow and change, and our residents are experiencing many consequences of that growth.

So, given the opportunity to serve again as the superintendent of this agency, my focus is going to continue to be to ensuring that we serve every resident through our work and through our continued collaboration with all of our community partners and our sister agencies.

One key aspect of this work is an initiative that we're launching now in the coming weeks to determine the strategic direction of the department over the next 10 to 12 years.

This process is ultimately going to yield a plan for how we invest all of our resources to serve all residents through our programs and ultimately through the facilities and open spaces that we provide.

So, this strategic plan will reflect much of the great planning that has already been done, including all of the work behind the 2014 Legacy Plan, which led to the Park District creation, as well as our Parks and Open Spaces Plan, and the many other studies and plans that we do, that we've done in recent years for specific programs and facilities, things like our Community Center Strategic Plan and our Off-Leash Areas Plan as well.

So there's a lot of planning that's already happened.

However, this plan is also going to be driven by the fact that Seattle has changed since much of this planning has been done and continues to change dramatically.

So the growth that our city has experienced has created great opportunity, but also great challenges.

And so the planning process will help us determine how we support our residents as our city addresses issues of affordability, accessibility, livability, as well as the very real issue of climate change.

So I'm excited about this opportunity to engage with our communities in this conversation about what Seattle Parks and Recreation should look like in the next 10 years.

So as we do this, we're going to work to ensure that this process and the resulting plan reflect our values and what's important to our community.

Specifically, as we work through this process, I want to make sure that we adhere to a values framework with some of the following.

So first and foremost, we want to recognize that our work is fundamentally about people.

We create and implement programs and ultimately then acquire, build, and maintain great spaces and facilities that will serve the needs of our residents.

Next, we're absolutely committed to equity.

So our plan must be focused on race and social justice as we plan, in the way we create programs, and in how we build and make our open spaces and facilities accessible to everyone.

We also must be open to a new way of doing things.

The challenges that our city and our residents face are new, so we have to be open to the idea that the strategies that we use to help meet those needs also need to be different.

And they can't be the ones that we've necessarily used in the past.

Our plan also has to be sustainable and flexible to the city that we are, but also open to the fact that we're becoming a different city.

So we'll honor the history of our city, but we also must look towards what our city is going to look like in the future.

As Seattle grows, we must play a role in ensuring that we do so in a way that is inclusive and affordable, innovative and accessible to all.

So we know that these issues, such as demographic shifts, increasing affordability, gaps, as well as issues such as homelessness, will continue to challenge us.

And we must work to be a part of a comprehensive citywide solution.

And finally, our planning is going to be driven by the idea that planning for people is not a one-time thing.

So as we move forward, we must engage in an ongoing discourse with our communities in ways that's accessible and meaningful to them to ensure that we can continue to be responsive to the constant change that's going to continue to affect us all.

Of course, such a process and a plan can't be successful without the voices of our residents, as well as input from the dozens of great community partners that support our work.

Our engagement plan must include input from local, regional, and national partnerships, as well as through an analysis of best practices and trends within our industry.

Another key aspect of this plan and our success moving forward will be the nearly 2,000 full and part-time employees of the Seattle Parks and Recreation team.

Our strategic plan will include input from our team and ensure that as we plan, we also commit to our own continued growth and development.

As a large agency with a tremendously important and challenging mission, Seattle Parks and Recreation can only be successful if our employees are successful.

During my previous tenure at the agency, I was very proud to focus on the amount and quality of professional development that our team members received.

Further, we launched efforts around inclusive decision-making to ensure that the expertise and experience of the individuals actually implementing our work was included in decisions at all levels.

This commitment will continue, and I will work to ensure that all managers are held accountable for supporting and tracking the growth and development of all of our team members.

Finally, as I approach the possibility of engaging in this work a second time, I'm thrilled by the potential that our team and our city possesses as we work together to confront the challenges and opportunities facing this great city.

We have one of the best parks and recreation systems in the country, and that was no accident.

Seattle Parks and Recreation has enjoyed generations of support and commitment from our elected leaders, our residents, our community partners, and our highly dedicated employees.

This continued support will ensure our continued success.

So I want to thank you again for the opportunity and I look forward to working with you and answering any questions you might have.

Thank you very much for being here with us.

I've got a list of questions from both my office, but also a couple of other offices.

Do you have anything you'd like to lead off with, Council Member Gonzalez?

Yeah, I mean, I think my initial question to you was going to be to ask why you wanted to come back, and you talked a little bit about that.

And I appreciate you sharing with us that your interest really in returning from, as the Deputy Mayor said, your sabbatical away from us is because you want to return to public service.

And I wanted to just get a better understanding of what that means to you and sort of, you know, what are the motivating factors that are contributing to your desire to return to public service?

Sure, I think it really just boils down to what motivates me and gets me excited to get up in the morning.

I mean, I think working, even though it's with my family and I very much care about their success, working in the for-profit world just wasn't what gets me excited in the morning.

You know, I feel very...

No offense to your siblings.

Say again?

No offense to your siblings.

No offense to the siblings, but the reality is they're going to be more than fine without me.

You know, I just honestly, I feel like I've been really lucky in terms of the experiences and the supports that I've had.

And much of it is really due, obviously, to the great work of my family, but also to the public entities that have supported me, whether it's You know, the schooling that I've received and also sort of the parks and recreation type of activities that really support a lot of our young people in our cities that are outside of school.

And I think that's such an important thing.

And I frankly just really enjoy being engaged in the work of city government.

I think cities really are the solution to many of the challenges that we have and I want to be a part of that.

I have a couple more.

lines of questioning that I'd like to explore here.

So, you know, I think you left in January of 2018. And since then, I think it's fair to say that at the city we, and this is true across the country, is we have seen a great amount of organizing and mobilization by municipal employees and other employees, in large part fueled by the Me Too movement and other types of movements that really are demanding that we as employers take their concerns around hostile work environment and harassment, whether it's based on race or sex or another protected category, that we exemplify the best standards in the industry, particularly as public agencies.

And I feel like that insurgence has really happened in the period of time since you have been away.

And we have seen the work of the silence breakers here at the city, the change team at the human services department.

There are just, I think there's a lot of interest amongst rank and file employees at the city of Seattle to really challenge us as elected leaders and as leaders of agencies to take those concerns seriously and approach it with less of a, you know, liability litigation HR perspective and more of like how do we really transform a culture to ensure that employees feel like they are working in a safe, non-toxic environment and how are we going to hold ourselves accountable when we fall short of the expectations and the standards we set.

So maybe you can talk a little bit about how you would approach that work and that evolving dynamic within our own workforce, of which Parks and Recreation is not exempt, to, you know, sort of how would you, coming back into the public sector, structure your management style and your interaction with all levels of employees at Parks and Rec to make sure that they feel that they've been heard and that their issues are addressed.

I think that the main approach has been that I'm in the middle of it now is just working really hard to listen and to create opportunities to hear from employees, not just about, you know, their work in particular, but about the concerns they might have.

And I think so that's sort of generally the approach and then making sure that in response to those things, in response to the things that I've been hearing or that I may continue to hear, I think there's several sort of ways to create the kind of culture that you're talking about in terms of making sure that everybody feels absolutely respected and feels like we are listening to and responding and working, actually actively working to make sure that they are part of an effort that allows them to do their work.

And so part of that is awareness and understanding by folks at all levels of the organization about what these issues are.

I think what has happened, in recent years is very powerful, and a lot of it is people are learning, and learning to name things, learning to sort of vocabulary that just hasn't been in the public.

Not that it hasn't been happening, but so understanding what the issues are, understanding that everything we say or do has an impact, good, bad, or something.

a lot of awareness and training and understanding of what our actions mean.

I think then also some very specific training and accountability measures placed on the part of our managers and our leaders to make sure that we're on one end certainly not doing anything that's abusive or hurtful or in any way creating environments where people are uncomfortable, but just as importantly making sure that folks feel like they're part of the work that we're doing.

So not telling someone you have to do this because I say so, but understand this is the mission, vision, this is what we're trying to do.

How do we make sure that people feel included?

And then I guess the last piece is making sure that we have structures both to receive and act on any concerns that are made to any of us at any level of the organization.

and then also making sure that we have structures in place to hold people accountable.

So, you know, when I meet with my direct reports, having those conversations about what they're doing both on the building the awareness both for themselves and for the managers, but also what they're doing in terms of responding to any specific issues that come up.

And in the cases where employees don't feel comfortable going directly to their managers or their managers' managers, they can certainly always come to me, to Christopher as the deputy, as well as folks in our HR team.

And I know that the team over the last year has done a lot of great work around all of those issues that I just mentioned and creating those structures to make sure people feel like they have a place to go.

I would really enjoy getting a better understanding of what your HR team has done in this space to accommodate these evolving dynamics that I would agree with you are extremely powerful and really important for us to, again, hold ourselves to a higher set of standards in terms of how we, what spaces we're creating for our employees to do some of the hardest work around.

Public service is becoming harder and harder these days and more and more subject to public scrutiny.

And it's become incredibly toxic for a lot of folks.

And we obviously want to keep the best of the best at the city.

And I think that requires us to really work diligently every single day to ensure that that we are addressing toxic environments, whether they're like being created by others within the same agency or it's coming from an external source.

It's such an important thing for us to keep an eye on.

You know, one small thing that came to mind as you were speaking, the other thing that we need to do is look at the data.

I think sometimes we assume things are great.

So it's important to look at our, for example, our HR data, our disciplinary data to see if there's any kind of disparate treatment that we're not aware of.

So I think making sure that we have those structures in place as well.

The systems in place are important.

The other thing I wanted to bring up is I'm sure you heard one of the public testifiers, Sasad, who's still here, talk about South Park in particular.

And you and I had an opportunity to meet earlier today where you spent some time talking about equity and how that applies to the work that you want Parks and Recreation to do as it relates to open spaces generally.

And I think Southside brings up a really important question, and I've heard this from other residents within South Park.

When we're building open spaces in a city where there are certain neighborhoods and communities who are experiencing the pressures of gentrification and displacement in a negative way, I have heard many members ask, who are we building these parks for?

Who are we building these community centers for?

Who are we building main streets for?

and who are we building infrastructure for, whether it's schools or roads?

And I think that's an important question for all of our departments to struggle with and would like to give you an opportunity to share with us and with Cesar, who's still here, your perspective as the next superintendent of parks on that particular issue.

Yeah, I think that the sort of broad response to that is that it isn't just a parks and recreation issue, because we are going to continue to try to build and program the best spaces around.

And as you said, that just creates pressures on the community members there.

I think one of the ways that I'm very excited about figuring out how to respond to this is participating in a broader citywide approach to these types of issues, and particularly around what's happening around the Duwamish, what's happening in South Park.

As we as government are investing in a way that we should be, it creates these pressures for the members that are there.

So how do we at the table with our partners in planning and utilities and transportation and neighborhoods, et cetera, how do we create citywide solutions to try to do that?

And I'm not a planner, so my expertise is very limited.

Things like making sure that we're thinking about the impacts that our improvements are having around the need for additional housing, the types of housing that's going to be there.

whether it's, you know, looking to acquire additional spaces to bank them and look for ways to create additional housing.

You know, those are things that, again, I'm not a planner, but I think we need to be thinking about as a city.

In terms of our specific work in Parks and Recreation, I think a couple of key pieces there, in addition to staying engaged there, is whenever we plan or we have the resources to do something in the community, making sure that we engage with them in how we plan it and how we design it, but then also how we activate it.

Because I think the folks in that community can really help us make sure that we're providing spaces that are responsive to their individual needs and hopefully they'll be able to use them.

Well, I have some ideas of some ways that we can support the community in that area and you know, we'll make sure to follow up with you about connecting you with folks within South Park and the Duwamish area generally around potential opportunities for us to support that placemaking that feels like it really is coming from community as opposed to happening to a And then I have one last question that I made the commitment to asking on behalf of Council Member Mosqueda, which is that she wanted to get, she unfortunately couldn't be here with us today, but wanted to get a better understanding from you as to how and what you would do to make sure that public dollars are used to support union labor for parks projects and operations.

Sure, you know, I think I'm very pro-union, pro-labor.

Obviously, you know, I sincerely believe that none of the work that we do at Parks and Recreation can be done without our employees.

We enjoy, I think, really positive relationships with, I think, up to 17 or so individual unions within Parks and Recreation.

That number seems high, as I say, but I think it's pretty high.

And so it is just a matter of continuing to move forward with that commitment.

I think the challenges, and it might speak specifically to some of the concerns that will come up as we approach the work that we do.

There are going to be times when we're being looked at through, looked to through other organizations to help through partnerships, et cetera.

We just have to make sure that we prioritize as part of our values as this is something that's important to us whenever we negotiate agreements, making sure that those are tenants of those agreements.

Yeah, and I think, you know, if she was here, she might encourage you as a follow-up that it's really important for us to not only maintain sort of the existing labor relationships that we have and some of the very good union jobs that we have within Parks and Recreation, but it's also important for us to look at future opportunities, particularly in the context of public-private partnerships, at how we can leverage those public-private partnerships in a way that will also create pathways to good union living wage jobs.

And I think we have some of those opportunities that are going to present themselves down the road here in the near future.

So, you know, would love to hear from you a little bit more, your philosophy around how to or what you would do to promote the opportunity within some of these public-private partnership opportunities to bring in and prioritize some of those union labor jobs?

I guess I'll say that I'd love to have more of a discussion on this.

I think in terms of specific partnerships, I think it's a matter of what it is that we're trying to accomplish and just make sure that that's, you know, I would approach any negotiation or any initiative or any plan that we're doing with making sure that we have a clear set of values and commitments on the front end.

Here's what we're negotiating around.

And that would need to be at the front end of whatever we're doing.

So whatever partnership comes has to include those issues there.

Great.

So I want to say thank you very much because of my list of questions, you've covered one, two, three, four, five, six of them.

So thank you very much.

So we're going to like be.

Fairly quick moving on.

With regard to just a follow-up on the race and social justice initiative, this was something that Councilmember Juarez specifically wanted me to raise, and you've answered part of it already.

But what about promotional opportunities?

We know that part of the respect and inclusion in any department is to identify individuals that want to be promoted, that want to be involved in something new.

Can you talk a little bit about how you will do that and what kind of opportunities you will make for somebody that might not really be thinking about moving into a different section or a different division or moving up into the management ranks?

I think there's a couple ways.

So one, since I first arrived here, I've been incredibly impressed by the department's commitment to providing out-of-class opportunities for folks.

And this is just sort of short timeline opportunities for people to try a different type of work and in a different division, et cetera.

I think those are really powerful professional development opportunities, so continuing to encourage those.

But making sure that we create a a consistent and fair system for who gets those opportunities, right?

So it can't just be, oh, my God, I need someone today.

But if you need someone, let's make sure that we have a process that allows everyone the opportunity to apply for those.

I think sort of the other side is just for everyone having professional and professional development and training opportunities for everyone that is individualized.

So some folks, as you said, maybe don't necessarily want to have a different job.

They just want to get better at what they're doing.

And so providing those types of opportunities, but also other opportunities where, you know, if someone wants to be the next superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation, how can we support them and continue to give them the guidance and the training to do that?

The other piece that I'm really proud of that Seattle Parks and Recreation does and has been doing for a long time is a mentorship program where we really encourage our leaders to take on mentees and help guide them through that kind of a process.

Again, help outline whatever goals they might have for themselves professionally and help them sort of navigate that and provide resources.

Do you have a formal process in place?

So let's just say that I wanted to move or I wanted to have a mentor, do you have a process in place where I can ask for one and you could match me with somebody?

We do, we do, and our HR team does a good job managing that process and, you know, we force these folks behind me and all the managers in the agency to, we push them really hard to take on mentors.

I had a mentor very briefly right before I left, and I feel badly, so I'm trying to reengage.

I'm going to reengage with that person.

But yes, there's a very, very clear process on the expectations.

We provide lots of guidance to the mentors on sort of what they should do.

how these conversations should happen and the types of things they should be engaging in.

Thank you.

And following up on Council Member Gonzalez's question about labor, can you describe a little bit about labor harmony?

And some of the contracts that you may have, we're always looking for opportunities for people in the community, particularly communities where having a new skill set, having an opportunity to work on a contract, maybe someone, an organization with whom we're contracting.

But it gives them a new opportunity to be part of the community and make union wage jobs or at least living wage jobs.

So can you talk a little bit about how we're specifically targeting our own community for these kind of contracts?

I apologize, I'm not sure I follow the question in terms of, are you referring to contracts that we are putting in place?

Correct, we may let a contract and it's construction related that is outside of the work that our own employees are doing.

keenly aware that within our community there are people that don't have the chances to learn those skills.

And so we're looking to make sure we're including them.

So is that something that is in your lexicon right now that you are looking outside?

And I'm not talking about contracting out.

It's just as we are hiring, is that something that you're involved in?

I'm not sure, so I'll have to get back to you.

I'm not exactly sure what specifically were...

Any specific contracts that we're looking at in that regard?

And I will take take on the burden of having asked an inarticulate question, so We'll come back to that and I am definitely not talking about contracting out But as we are reaching out into the community We're just paying attention for make sure that people are included in these contracts yet.

Deputy Mayor Mosley just might add that I Both in 2018 and again in 2019, working with the departments, we laid out very specific goals for women minority-owned businesses to achieve in our contracting.

And I'm not remembering exactly what the goal was and the achievement was for parks, but my recollection is it was pretty high.

So, that's a part of our overall effort, of which Parks is very much a part of our desire to ensure that we meet certain goals in terms of the work that we do contract at, that there be a strong representation of women in minority-owned businesses.

Thank you for that.

And I'm just one to underscore what you said earlier, as I really, I am very grateful for your intentional efforts to respect your employees and to include them in the opportunities to gain new skills and to move into other positions.

We just know that that's something that frankly, that Parks has been really good at, that many people start off as a, you know, at 16 being a summer lifeguard and then can continue to grow.

Would you just lastly talk about community centers as you were describing that for your next 10-year plan that there is much that you're going to be doing.

Items I'm particularly interested in are community centers.

I know you and And Christopher and I have talked over the years that the people in this town love their community centers, but we got 27 of them.

They're expensive.

What you see for the next 10 years?

That's a great question and that absolutely is going to be a key part of our thinking and our planning around the strategic plan that we're engaged in.

You know, a lot of the work that we did around the strategic plan specific to community centers sort of showed us a lot in terms of, like you said, people are very They love the community centers.

They're, you know, the services and the things that community centers provide really are helpful to meeting the needs of our communities.

But I think as we move forward, we need to sort of ask a couple of questions.

So one question is going to be around, you know, is 27 the right number?

And another question is what conditions should they be in?

There's some that we haven't invested in quite some time that are in the queue now, but we've got to make some investments.

But I just want to be very careful that as we make those investments, two things.

One, again, that we're making the investments in a way that's driven by the people that are going to be taking advantage of those services.

And then the other piece, I guess, is that we also need to make investments that are flexible and multi-use, because we know the city continues to change, communities will continue to change.

You know, if there's a community now that is enjoying, you know, an insurgence of young kids, at some point those kids are going to get older and become teenagers and et cetera.

So we have to make sure that these huge investments that we make need to be flexible in terms of serving that.

And I guess the last thing I'll say is just that for me, as I stated at the beginning, everything that we do at Parks and Recreation needs to be focused on people and their needs.

And so everything that we build and acquire and develop and activate and program needs to be driven by the needs of the residents.

So as we engage in this planning process and our communities begin to share what their needs might be in line with these values that I outlined, I think community centers are going to be a key part of that.

It's hard to say sort of what they're going to look like because I don't want to, you know, preempt the planning process, but I do believe they're going to continue to be a key part of what we do.

correct and I know over the last five years anyway that we've been looking at opportunities of at a community center if we're going to be redoing them is there an opportunity for some affordable housing sure on top and I know we've had There's not something that I expect out of you today, but I just want to put that back out there that it's you know if we have 27 of them public property is it's precious and if we can do it so that we can get some more housing units for someone that'll be I think a step in the right direction.

I think it speaks to the need for us to approach these challenges in new ways, and because they're new challenges, so we have to be creative about how we respond.

So I'm going to ask Councilmember Gonzalez if she has any further questions in just a moment, but I want to say thank you, both of you, for being here.

Jesus, for your willingness to come back.

And also, I want to acknowledge, again, Christopher Williams and Paula Hoff.

You've been so helpful.

Karima, thank you for the work that you're doing, too.

You know, City Hall Park, as you all know, means a great deal to me over the years.

The work that we're doing in Belltown now, trying to make sure that we can green up an area that doesn't have a lot of green space.

Smith Cove, goodness knows over the last 10 years you've listened to me. on that and all of the work we're doing now in Fort Lawton and with the public schools, I think we're moving in a really good direction that is focused on people's needs as we're becoming a denser city.

So thank you for that.

Any further questions that you'd like to bring up?

Yeah, but this question is for the Deputy Mayor, and I'm going to give soon-to-be Superintendent Aguirre a little bit of a break.

Deputy Mayor, maybe you can talk to us a little bit more about what the mayor's process was in the search for the superintendent.

You briefly mentioned that you invited his to reapply for this position.

But just wanted to get a better sense of what the mayor's office process was for identifying potential candidates.

And just to give us and the public.

general context and texture of what that looked like.

Certainly.

We reached out to a cross-section of stakeholder groups that have an involvement with the Parks and Recreation Department, including the board and the Seattle Parks Foundation and people that have been active in the parks community centers and other places of engagement.

in one case a former director, and so folks that had been engaged in park and recreation in our community for a number of years to form a search committee.

And I served in that search committee and the co-chairs were Julie Ferris and Thatcher Bailey.

And we had, I think, seven or eight different folks that were a part of that.

We looked, reviewed over a dozen resumes.

As I mentioned, there were over 100 people that had applied.

We narrowed that down through our human resources department to I think about 15 or so folks.

And from that, we selected a subset of five people that we wanted to interview.

We invited those people to interview and we subsequently ended up interviewing three people, the entire search committee.

And the search committee recommended two people to move forward in the process.

After that, Those two people then interviewed with the E-team at Parks, with the representatives from the mayor's office, other department directors that are engaged in this, as well as employees at the Park and Recreation Department.

And that feedback then was presented to the mayor before she interviewed both Jesus and the other finalists.

So it was about a month-long process of engagement and we're very, very, fortunate to have an engaged community in parks and recreation in this community, and folks were willing to give their time and effort to the process and to provide us with their input.

We didn't ask them to rate candidates one, two, or three.

That's really the mayor's job to do that, but to kind of review and give their feedback on kind of the pluses and minuses and fucks that they thought.

And we don't have the benefit of having Councilmember Juarez here, but, and I don't want to put Nguyen on the spot, but wanted to also just get a sense from you in terms of your perspective, in terms of how Councilmember Juarez and her office played a role in that search process.

Would love to understand that a little bit more as well.

One of the people on the search committee was a member of Councilmember Juarez's staff, and she was very helpful.

She didn't in the end end up being in the interview process because she was actually out of town during that period.

But yes, Council Member Juarez and her staff were very engaged in the process.

Great, wonderful, and I don't know if you wanted to add something, Nagina, on behalf of your council member.

That's a great question, yes.

I still have all of the stacks of papers and binders that were provided to us.

It was an interesting process to go through, very extensive.

Can't imagine what it would be like to be an applicant, let alone the interviewer, but we, unfortunately, I was out of town towards the end, so we had a different member, but for the actual, but we had over, I believe, 65 applications.

And I would say probably over a month of the entire process.

And the series would always start with what is the purpose of this meeting?

Where are we at in this stage of looking for folks?

And who are we looking for?

And so that was very much directed by the department.

Hazen reminds me, and I don't know how in the world I could have forgotten this, but Councilmember Juarez actually was on set on the interview process when we interviewed the people that were there.

So he was involved in kind of the selection of who got interviewed, but Councilmember Juarez was actually a part of the interview team.

That's great.

I really appreciate you sharing those additional details and the chair for letting me answer ask those questions.

I just think I just really wanted to express my gratitude and appreciation to both the mayor's office and to to all the members of the search committee and to Council Member Juarez and her office and her staff for making sure that they continue to work collaboratively and in strong coordination with the executive to ensure that not only is the search process one that has a high level of integrity to it, and that we as a council feel like we have a high level of confidence in that search process, but also that we ultimately ended up with.

an excellent candidate who, even though has been in the seat before, you know, it's important to make sure that those processes are in place and that they're coordinated and cooperative.

And I just really want to express my gratitude to both the Office of Councilmember Juarez and to the Mayor's Office for working together collaboratively and in such a coordinated fashion to ensure a really successful outcome.

Appreciate that.

Okay, are we ready for a vote?

Heck yeah.

All right.

So I am very pleased that you are back and I'm going to move that we recommend that you become the director of parks again.

So in that capacity, I'm going to move that the committee pass this appointment number 01306. Second.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

None opposed.

I think things are going to go well for you on Monday.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And again, appreciate your willingness to do this.

Thank you for coming back.

Thank you for the excellent process.

And to my friends in parks, really appreciate your support as well.

Okay.

Guys, I love it when you have a fan club.

That's great.

OK, well, the next item of business, Alina, are you going to read this one in for us?

Sure.

Thank you.

Council Bill 119496, an ordinance authorizing the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into an agreement with Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences to renovate the South Park Community Center site and develop an ongoing relationship Excuse me.

And the South Park community consistent with the terms of the agreement and attachment one.

Excellent.

Thank you.

So we'll get everybody settled in and yeah.

Yep, we've got those.

Thank you.

I've got them all.

Thank you.

We'll work through that.

How about if we start with introductions with you, Ms. Tracy?

Tracy Bradsliff, Council of Central Staff.

Jesus Aguirre, Acting Superintendent, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Paula Hopp, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Rob Phillips, Head of Schools, Seattle Academy.

Karima Edwards, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Thank you.

Welcome to all of you.

Okay so uh Tracy are you going to be saying any of this or would you like somebody else to?

I think I'm gonna since it's executive request legislation we typically allow them to go ahead and present their proposal.

Okay very good.

So we've got a presentation, and I'm going to go through it.

But certainly, both Paula and Karim are the experts and have been sort of shepherding this through.

And of course, Rob can talk about specifics around the school.

But we're here today requesting your support in legislation that will allow us to enter into partnership.

with the Seattle Academy to develop an athletic field adjacent to the South Park Community Center.

This legislation will allow them to begin fundraising and contribute up to a $4 million donation into this project.

We'll go through a few of these slides here and again we'll have these folks chime in, but this project is one that I think is really important to the community and we've heard loudly and clearly from them along the way about the need for continuing to improve our parks and open spaces in that community.

And that community has been very, very active.

Folks like Cesar and others working both with us and the Parks Foundation and others to look for ways to continue to provide these types of amenities for the community.

This particular project is part of a broader project to renovate the entire, both the entire field there, the outdoor open space, as well as, you know, we've got some work also inside the community center.

So once all of this is done, it's part of a broader planning effort.

So the stabilization project for the community center is currently in design, and we'll coordinate with the field to make sure that we don't take things out of commission at the same time.

And then also, there are a few other projects in that community, including the Duwamish Waterway Park that we're working on to continue to provide these amenities for the community, very needed amenities.

Also, this plan is very much aligned with our overall approach to parks and open space across the city.

And in addition to the Duwamish Waterway Park, we also have a land bank site that we're working on in that area.

Do we have a map?

I know where the map is for the play area.

How close is the current site layout to the water?

Oh, I don't think we included an area map.

I mean, is it like, is it a mile away?

I would say it's less than a mile.

It's probably about half a mile.

Yeah.

About half a mile or so.

walking distance for those who are walking.

Okay, please go ahead.

And so a couple notes about this specific partnership.

You know, the department and the academy have been working for quite some time to put this together.

And what this project will do is it will provide a synthetic field turf in that at the site of the South Park Community Center campus.

And I will note that this site will use the cork infill.

I know there's been a lot of talk about the crumb rubber infill, and we piloted cork in one of our other facilities and continue to see good results there.

So we're going to use that here as well.

As I said, the academy is going to donate up to $4 million for the field and for lights.

And it establishes this recreation space for the residents.

Of course, the academy will receive some benefits as well in terms of their In return for their investment, they will get prioritized time at the field.

But the time that they're receiving represents about 7.5% of the total field time made available through this donation.

In addition, one of the things that we hear from the community and actually communities across the city is when we build, and this speaks to a question earlier, when we build these beautiful new amenities, often the community itself doesn't get to utilize them.

And so one of the commitments that we're making here is to make sure after we make these investments that this field will not be included in our overall permitting process for up to five years so that it really creates some exclusive use for that community for a while so they can begin to program and create activities.

So I think that's a really important aspect of this deal that will help us really provide this access to the community.

Can I just push back a little bit on that?

So I understand that 7.5% of the hours are being reserved for the academy.

And then if you said that you're not putting it into the pool for the next five years, what does that mean for youth soccer?

So you've got a little bit of time that's reserved for the academy, and the rest is for people who are living down in the area.

That's right.

Just for informal play.

Yeah, exactly.

And also I think the academy is committed to, and obviously the community center staff is very excited and committed to the idea of being able to create programs and activities for that community.

So not having to go through the permitting system to see if this field's available is what we're actually doing.

So now they'll be able to program and take advantage of that.

Thank you, Chair Baxhaw.

I have some just logistical questions.

So this council bill and the summary and fiscal note represent the entirety of the agreement.

in this partnership?

What you have attached to the ordinance is the key terms that will be on which the formal agreement is actually drafted.

We will not approve the full agreement.

So that's attachment one to the fiscal note is the essence of the terms of the agreement.

Correct.

So then this will eventually, if approved, and the committee recommends a full council approve this, then eventually this will turn into what?

A multiple page agreement.

Okay.

Yes.

And then what happens to that multiple page agreement?

Do we have an opportunity as a committee or a council to review the agreement to ensure that it complies and comports with the terms of agreement and attachment one?

That is not

now anticipated, but I'm supposing that you would not have any problems with letting us see a draft of the agreement before they actually sign the agreement, just to make sure that we think it comports with what the term sheet says that it should include.

But that's not now in the legislation, but I am presupposing that...

Are you suggesting we come back to a future council meeting or...

I do.

I think historically, at least the time that I've been on the parks on this committee, we typically have the benefit of reviewing the partnership agreements and in many instances actually approving the full contents of the partnership agreement as opposed to a outline or a chart of anticipated terms to the agreement.

I just, so I sort of see this as out of practice with the way legislation has come to us historically.

So I can think of, you know, some of the spaces that we've rented out, right, for over in, oh my gosh, why am I, Golden Gardens, for example.

Like there is, there's a, yes.

Jefferson Park, some of the mortgage issues.

There are many experiences, at least since I've been on this committee, where I feel like we have actually seen the full terms of the partnership agreement, or at least draft terms of the partnership agreement, as opposed to just a chart of what the rules and responsibilities are gonna be and part of the reason I'm flagging this is because I think that the issues around around the prioritization of the public space Going to Seattle Academy seven and a half percent of the time while seven and a half percent of the time May not in terms of hours be numerically a lot.

There are concerns in my mind about which hours and which days and which periods of time we're actually talking about, when we're talking about that prioritization of time, because not all times are created equal and not all days during the week are treated equal.

So that's actually in the agreement.

I don't see that.

I believe it's 3.30 to 5.30.

Under field programming, SAS shall, it's the second column, have priority access during SAS fall and spring sports season from 3 p.m.

to 5.30 p.m.

Monday through Friday.

So fall and spring.

And so fall starting when?

When does the fall season start?

Essentially the last week of August through the first week of November.

And then essentially the first week of March through, give or take, the middle of May.

OK.

I can see that my council colleague would like to see this.

in writing and I'm quite sure that Council Member Juarez will say the same.

So let's continue going through this and then suggest that you come back to us with a final contract.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'd be happy to bring that back.

And I think part of what we want to do now also is have some level of agreement so the school, because they have to do fundraising to bring in the $4 million and making sure that we can do that.

And I just want to be really clear, especially for you folks at the table that I'm not in disagreement with the overall concept around the private-public partnership in this space, but South Park is a home away from home for me in a lot of ways.

I lived right across the street from this community center for several years before moving to the junction, but I spent a lot of time in South Park.

I am really invested in this community, and I see myself and my own family in this community, and I have heard time and time again from residents in South Park about the need and the desire to want to have these improvements at the South Park Community Center, specifically because they need more access to athletic fields, to time to play on the field, et cetera, et cetera.

And so I want to be supportive of this and I am in concept, but I also want to make sure that I have a full understanding of any potential unintended consequences that will exacerbate some of the equity and access issues that I continue to hear from members of the South Park community.

So if I could just get a little bit more clarity around that, that would make me feel a lot more comfortable.

And are you comfortable with the idea that it would come back?

without your need to approve the final draft?

You just want to see it before they actually sign the agreement?

Or do you want council approval?

Let's keep going through this.

So can you talk about the partnership conditions?

I think that's maybe I'll answer some of your questions and then the timing and then we can talk about what's going to happen after we've run through your presentation.

Sure.

And again, just sort of as in terms of the conditions of the partnership, the academy is going to donate up to $4 million for lights and the field.

They will receive priority access for fall and spring sports seasons during the hours of 3 to 5.30 Monday through Friday.

And we talked about leaving this, reserving essentially this field for the community obviously outside of these hours.

And then in addition to that, the academy is committed to providing some ongoing programming support at the community, a minimum of 25 hours annually to build on the work they're already doing in terms of volunteer coaching, et cetera.

And for us, obviously, because we're seeking this partnership, because it is going to be critical for us to be able to put together these investments, the site improvements.

You know, very quickly, I will say that, you know, this does align with some of our existing policies and plans.

You know, we've got a couple of other places where we're doing this type of partnership with the fields.

SPU is our partner at an inter-bay field that has a similar agreement.

That's Seattle Pacific University, not Seattle Public Utility.

Yes, sorry, not Seattle.

Yes, Seattle Pacific University.

And as I mentioned before, this, you know, This improvement supports some of the things that have come up in some other plans and needing to provide additional open space.

Obviously, the community is telling us this as well.

It aligns with some of our other projects and priorities.

If I can just slow you down for one second.

On the previous slide, the next to the last bullet, maybe this is something Council Member Gonzalez is exploring, that the Academy has committed to provide at least 25 hours annually of programming in the South Park community.

So that's, I mean, 25 hours is, you know, I mean, if you think about the number of weeks that we have between your summer, your spring and your fall operating times, what does that look like for the community?

Is that one hour a week?

Is it, I mean, how do you, how do you see that actually becoming a reality?

Sure, I don't think we've gotten into the specifics, and I can let Mr. Phillips talk about that, but I would certainly envision that the part of that would be, well, that would be anchored in sort of working closely with the community center staff and the community there to figure out what are some of the things that they need and what we can do.

But, you know, if you want to address that a little bit.

Yeah, and one of our goals is for that to be community driven and not for us to make assumptions about what would be meaningful or helpful.

It could be any number of things.

We have student volunteers and tutors in public schools throughout the city now.

We've helped support the growth of the youth soccer program at South Park previously through a partnership with CMAR.

We've already been in conversations with Concord Elementary about potential STEM programs or, you know, the potential for us to help supply arts programming given scarcity of resources and funding for that in Seattle Public Schools right now.

So we're open to what the community wants and needs, and that includes the community center, Concord Elementary, and other stakeholders in the community.

But we really want that to be community-driven.

And I would say 25 hours is certainly a floor, not a ceiling.

A floor, you said?

Yeah, that's a minimum.

That's not a goal.

That's a minimum.

Yeah.

And how did you all decide on the 25 hours being the floor?

It was just sort of...

intuition?

No, we just, I mean, I think they've been very clear about the things they've already done there and that they are vested in the community and we were just trying to again, leave it open so that the community could really say what they want.

You know, if they don't want more than, say, maybe, you know, running some free soccer camps or clinics or coaching, that's fine.

If they want much more than that, then I think, you know, Rob and the school are willing to do that as well.

I think we're just trying to make sure that, again, we're listening to what the community wants and responding to any gaps that they may have where they could be helpful.

And they're going to need to do an annual public benefits proposal to the department that the department has to agree to.

And then they have to do the reporting back, which is something that we actually instituted a number of years ago with Parks to try to hold leases a little bit more accountable for the public benefits they provide.

So there would be that opportunity, I would suspect, every year to see what does the community want, what can be provided.

Hopefully I understand was going to be more than 24 5 hours Do we have a list of the beyond these 25 hours the list of public benefits that have been discussed?

in terms of as part of the agreement, so the the programming as well as the the four million dollar donation or and the four million dollar donation comes in over what period of time Rob I

I think it comes in over the period of time of the construction.

I mean, it really is, as I understand it, it's facilitating the cost of building the field as a center point of the project.

And they're also committed to, in the agreement, to contributing to the ongoing renewal of these fields.

These fields have about a 10-year lifespan.

So after 10 years, they'll contribute to redoing the field, the carpet, essentially.

And do we have these types of, in terms of this partnership or the character of this partnership, do we, does Parks and Recreation have examples of similar types of relationships in other contexts?

partnerships, I should say.

Sure.

I mean, we've got lots of different partnerships specific to athletic fields.

We have groups, small and large, that contribute to the ongoing maintenance of specific fields in exchange for this sort of prioritized scheduling.

The one sort of key one, very similar to this, is one with Seattle Pacific University that invested in building the field at Interbay and also is investing in renewing, you know, after the lifespan of the field.

So it's very similar to that.

I think the terms are anchored in that and that's been a successful partnership as well.

That one we did actually incorporate immediately into the permitting system and actually has resulted in lots of field use for teams across the city and particularly for the school district.

I was asking the question because I just wanted to see how the public benefits that's proposed in this partnership agreement compare to public benefits that we have agreed to in other similar partnership agreements.

And I know that Council Member Juarez has been very clear on her expectation that the public benefits are real in exchange for these types of partnership agreements.

And it's hard for me to evaluate based on the information I have, how this compares to other similar partnership agreements.

And I would say in both those cases, both the Seattle Pacific University and this one, you know, at least the Parks and Rec Department doesn't have the funding for this field.

And I think this really provides this opportunity, and particularly for a community that doesn't have, I mean, you've seen the field.

It's not in great shape.

So we're really interested in taking advantage of this, doing it sooner rather than later.

Eventually, we could put this field on our capital improvement plan, but this is an opportunity to do it now and to provide that access.

Yeah, I mean, I think the concept of the partnership agreement as it relates to these types of public assets makes a lot of sense to me.

But I think part of that also includes making sure that we have an opportunity to work well with partners to ensure that as they come into a community and take over some of the management and operation issues or of certain aspects of the public asset that we're not displacing the ability of existing communities to get prime time usage as well.

And while I recognize that part of the exchange here is for prioritization of field activity that is of interest to the academy, I also, You know, I'm very conscientious of what that means to a community group that doesn't necessarily understand the terms of the partnership agreement and will perceive the lack of access during the fall and spring, which may be key sports activities times as, you know, as inequitable on its face.

And so I just want to be really, really intentional in our thinking about how we structure that prioritization in a way that works both for the community that is currently there who has very high expectations and reasonable expectations around ongoing usage of the athletic field once it's spruced up and made beautiful and gorgeous, that is not going to be relegated or feel like they're being relegated to a private interest.

No, absolutely.

I hear you very clearly.

Well said.

Do you want to continue with the next slide?

Sure, and we sort of went through this quickly, but I guess the other piece is that this just essentially aligns with some of the other work we're looking to try to support this community in providing continued access to open space.

You know, just a very quick overview of sort of how we're funding this project.

The total cost is about $10 million, but, you know, I hesitate to say that because everything that we bid out ends up costing more than what we hope it would.

But so generally it just gives you the ratios.

You know, we've got obviously the contribution from the academy as well as other funding to.

That's fixed, right?

The academy contribution is $4 million.

The $4 million, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but, and on this, there's some state and county grants, some REIT money, some Park District money, and some other major challenge.

This was also one of the projects that was funded through the major challenge project, major challenge project fund, fund grant, sorry, Park District, that is supporting this as well.

And then, you know, I think, I think it's, Certainly, the idea of making sure that this is something that the community supports is very important to us.

And we've had lots of opportunities to engage with community members and ask them what they would want.

And the overall sort of concept of the site as well as the community center, we've had several meetings.

I think we've had over 17 events that either we've hosted or attended.

And I think we've logged over 700 people that we've talked to over the last 18 months to get input on to this concept design that we're going to show you here in a second.

And, well, I'll kind of go to that.

The, you know, so some of the engagement that we've done actually was really targeting some of the users.

And so, for example, going to the late teen, the late 19 program, as well as the summer day camp participants, going to the playground and waiting pool and understanding sort of the uses there.

And then, again, special events, not just at the center, but throughout the neighborhood.

And so the overall design, in addition to the stabilization work that we're doing inside the community center, this also is responsive to a lot of the input we've gotten, not just from the community, but there was a study, for example, that really highlighted some concerns about the location of the playground.

And so we're moving that clearly to the other side, which I think is a really important part of this.

We're moving sort of the, what's currently a very inadequate spray park, we're moving it over to near where the playground is.

And then really creating this full-size multi-sport field that will allow us to do more there.

There's going to be an outdoor fitness zone, some LED lighting.

I think whenever we put lights in communities, I think there's a lot of concerns there.

I will say just broadly, the technology of these lighting systems is actually really impressive in terms of how you control where the lights can be so it doesn't pollute.

So you've got the down cam lighting you described before and it's not running into the neighbor's windows.

Yeah.

And of course it's going to provide AD accessibility and we're going to renovate the parking lot.

So there's a lot of work that this is going to be a part of.

So this is a current site and I'm sorry we don't have a map but you know this is what the current site looks like.

The community center top center of the design on the left we have sort of where the courts and the open lawn area are.

And once all this is said and done, the concept that we've engaged with the community around and that the school signed up to do is, as I mentioned, we're moving the playground and the spray park over to the, I guess that's east part of the site.

And then we do have, As part of our work around the off-leash area plan, we committed to considering off-leash areas anytime there's a redevelopment for one of these projects.

And this is one that's there as potentially an off-leash area park.

But again, we want to make sure that this is something that the community would support.

And at this point, this is something that has come up as something they would support.

So that's what the plan will look like ultimately.

You know, as I said, we're going to rebuild and relocate the playground that was really important for us just for health reasons as well.

You know, we've had a lot of great actually feedback from the community about this and this need for either some quotes that we heard from some of the communities and sort of how do we, you know, get a field that's open year-round, you know, having time and assistance to get these programs up and running, et cetera, so you can see those quotes there.

And I think there's generally an excitement to make this happen.

Oh, sorry, we have some videos I didn't introduce, but...

Well, like, some out here, and I'm actually proud that we're gonna get that.

I would like to see a soccer field because many people around here like to play soccer, and it would be a good thing so, like, the community could get together.

with the neighborhood that's going to be really anchored in what they want.

So, any other questions?

Nice.

Well, I think the question in front of us is, do you want to see a final contract that is written and includes all the terms?

I would.

I would also like to have an additional conversation around the prioritization of time.

However, I also want to respect that the chair of this committee is not present today and I have not had a, personally have not had an opportunity to speak to Council Member Juarez directly about this particular issue and would like to have the opportunity to speak to her about that.

Can you get a contract drafted between now and May 15th, which is the next committee meeting?

It depends on what you mean by draft, because we have all sorts of lawyers that have to look at these things.

I'd be shocked if we could do something that quickly.

Well, clearly we don't want to delay this.

I hear what you're saying about fundraising and moving forward, but there's enough questions that have been raised here today that I think that we're going to have to ask to put this forward for at least one meeting if you can get a, you know, the bulk of the contract drafted to be approved.

Is there a time pressure here?

Well, I think the time pressure is we They need to really set off on a fundraising campaign, and we really need that $4 million to do the project.

So the thought was if they could get some, you know, sort of a green light from the council that they were on board with this, then they could go out and do that with confidence so that they don't spend all this time raising money, and then at the end of the day, there is no agreement.

I'm not hearing that there is a disagreement about the terms.

I think that if what you're looking for is a green light, that we like the idea, definitely the answer is yes.

I think that for the sake of having something that three lawyers want to look at, that you're probably better off to come back with at least a draft contract.

Plus those that are on the council.

So I'm going to recommend that you can tell your board that we appreciate all the work that's done.

I have no doubt that we will ultimately get to the point where we're supporting that, but I do feel that right now there are enough details that still need to be resolved that we would be better off putting it off at least for the next meeting.

So my understanding is that there was a hope that this would get voted out of committee today and that there would be an opportunity for the full council to vote on this on Monday.

That was the original plan, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

I think these prioritization issues and questions that I have can likely be I don't want to hold up the consideration and advancement of the bill while I get that additional information.

I also think that there is an easy fix to the bill in terms of a report back on the terms of a draft or final version of the partnership agreement to allow the city council to review those terms.

And so I think there's an opportunity to sort of address the two concerns that I have without holding up the bill and requiring another committee hearing on this.

So I would be comfortable with voting the council bill out of committee today with a caveat that I'd like to have an opportunity to resolve some of the outstanding questions that I just rose.

Yeah, but I just you know launched on on staff I think I've already articulated that pretty clearly and I just I'm happy to say it again.

So one is the prioritization issues and the second is with regard to review of the partnership agreement, so I think I Tracy has taken notes and I think she understands exactly where I'm coming from and that those are the two limited issues and I believe that we can work through those over the next several days without creating undue delay of consideration of the bill.

And I think if we can get DPR on the record we don't need to I mean there's two ways to go on that having them bring back a draft agreement after you approve the ordinance with the terms.

just getting them to, as gentlemen around the table and women around the table, to agree to come back to the council with that draft agreement once it is drafted.

Absolutely.

Before you guys sign on the dotted line.

And if they, if we all believe it, and I think we do, that they'll honor that, then I don't think we need to even add legislation or language in the legislation that says, bring back a draft agreement, you know, consistent with these terms before signing.

I think we can take them at their word.

They've been good partners and that would resolve that second issue.

And then we can resolve some of your questions that you have that may mean some tweaking to the language.

I think that might be a little more comfortable before full council on Monday.

Yeah.

And I'm happy to have that conversation off the record and once we adjourn.

And before Monday?

Yeah.

Once again, I will repeat myself.

Yes.

I'm happy to address those two particular concerns with all of you over the next several days between now and before it is up for vote at 2 p.m.

at full council this Monday.

okay yes all right all right that then we are going to move that the committee pass council bill one one nine four nine six second those in favor say aye aye none opposed no abstentions so I think that this sounds like it's clear.

Yes.

And we will move forward with that then on Monday, assuming that the questions are answered.

Thank you very much.

Rob, thank you.

You just went through sausage making.

I appreciate you're all here.

Thank you very much, everybody, for coming today.

And anything else for the good of the order?

If not, the meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.