Seattle Park District Board Meeting 11/19/18

Good afternoon, everybody.

Hello.

Are we ready, parks people?

Hey, guys, you ready?

Good.

Doing business.

We're just doing business.

Okay, we will do a call to order.

Good afternoon.

This is a special meeting of the Seattle Park District Board.

It's November 19th and the time is 3.31.

My name is Deborah Wars.

I'm chair or I'm president of the committee.

I'm joined.

I'll let you go ahead and do a roll call, Jodi.

All right.

Board member Bagshaw.

Here.

Gonzalez.

Here.

Harrell.

Herbold.

Johnson?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Here.

O'Brien?

Here.

Sawant?

Here.

Board President Juarez?

Present.

Six, present.

So with that, we also move to approve the agenda.

Oh, Council Member Sawant, thank you for joining us.

Council Member Sawant's here.

Seven, present.

Okay.

So do I move to approve the agenda?

Okay, I move to approve the agenda.

Second.

All right, motion has been moved and seconded and passes.

Correct?

All right.

Everyone in favor?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

No.

Ayes have it.

The agenda is approved.

So now I'll go to approval of the minutes.

My understanding is that I have three sets of minutes to approve, correct?

Yes.

So I'll just go through them.

We have June 25, 2018, November 13, 2017, and November 20, 2017.

There's no objections.

There are no objections?

The minutes are being approved.

The minutes are being approved.

OK, the president will sign the minutes.

You have a yes or no public comment.

OK.

The minutes for those three dates that I just shared into the record have been signed.

So with that, we'll move to public comment.

My understanding is that we have nobody signed up for public comment today.

Okay.

With that, then we'll go right to the items of business.

So we already have our folks I see up at the table.

Let me just do a quick little chair's report before we go right into the items of business.

Today we have eight items of business regarding spending and operations planning for 2019. Each item has been distributed to members in advance to review.

This is going to be an interesting presentation.

This is a 17-page PowerPoint.

All eight items are within the PowerPoint, and of the eight items, six of them are resolutions that we will be voting on.

Two of them, items two and three, I believe.

One is the Seattle Park District 2018 activities to date.

And then of course the item number three is the 2019 Park District budget, which I understand is about $55 million, 26 million for operating initiatives and 29 million for capital initiatives.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through the PowerPoint and then I'm gonna have the clerk or Tracy will read into the record the actual, resolution number.

So it's kind of embedded, right?

Or what's his name?

It's marbled in there.

I'll let you go ahead with the introductions and begin.

Sure.

Tracy Ratzliff, Council Central Staff.

Selina Elmer, City Budget Office.

Christopher Williams, Seattle Parks.

Donnie Grabowski, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

All right, we have resolution number 23, a resolution amending the 2018 Park District budget by increasing an appropriation.

Great, so I'm going to talk through the resolution, followed by Park District activities, and then the Park District budget, and I'll begin with the resolution.

So this is a resolution that authorizes an appropriation that would allow us to pay off an Interfund loan to the Park District that was used to ramp up the Park District in 2015. This allows the city to save roughly $552,000 in interest savings.

The annual $1.4 million designated for park district loan payoff will be used to repay the park district over the next five years.

This one's ready to be moved.

Okay.

So I move the committee pass resolution 23. Second.

The motion has moved and seconded.

Is there any further discussion?

No.

Seeing no further discussion, let's go ahead and take a vote.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those in favor?

No.

There are no no's.

The motion passes and the committee will recommend to city council to pass resolution number 23. You can go ahead and continue.

Oh, okay.

Thank you, Judy.

Okay, so the next few slides focus on park district activities for 2018. For Fix-It First, SBR has completed eight major maintenance projects this year and has resolved 12 park property encroachments.

Construction work at Pier 62 is currently underway and is scheduled to be done in the second quarter of 2019. The Green Seattle Partnership volunteers have restored over 87 new acres of urban forest, logging in over 33,000 hours of volunteer time over the third quarter.

The Green Seattle Partnership goal is to restore 2,500 acres of parkland by 2025, and we are on track to accomplish this goal.

Next slide.

For the maintenance, for the maintaining of park and recreation facilities category, SPR's Third Shift Enhancement Maintenance Crew worked at 14 community centers making various repairs and improvements including ADA upgrades.

They painted damaged walls, replaced fluorescent lighting, with energy-saving LED lighting fixtures.

The enhanced crew completed work at 43 facilities and specialty event locations, including community centers, swimming pools, buildings, shelters, and administrative buildings.

We've completed off-leash area projects at Genesee, Regrade, Woodland Park, and design work is underway at Jose Rizal, North Acres, and Golden Gardens Park.

Through 2018, SPR has substantially completed improvements at the eight P-PATCH sites listed on the slide, and we're working to complete two more projects at Pinehurst and Angel Morgan.

Next slide.

So regarding programs for people category, as of the third quarter 2018, SPR's partnership with the Office of Arts and Culture funded 32 event projects and five temporary art installations, bringing interactive art experiences and programming to parks.

Specialized programs for people with disabilities served an additional 181 youth and summer programs such as pottery and sailing.

This summer, 54 youth attended a park district-funded week of overnight camping at Camp Long, and 36 teens participated in a Teen Extreme Friday Day Camp.

Our lifelong recreation program serves older adults.

Overall participation increased by 8% compared to the same period last year.

This year, 7,315 seniors registered for 600 activities such as fitness, arts, field trips, and classes.

448 seniors registered for 19 dementia-friendly programs, representing a 38% increase from the same period in 2017. This next slide discusses the building for the future, year-to-date activities for 2018. Through the third quarter 2018, SVR spent $4 million in Park District and King County Conservation Future Funds that we leveraged to acquire four parcels, two located in West Seattle, one in Matrona, and one in Sandpoint.

The Park District Major Projects Challenge Fund allows community groups to apply for $1.6 million annually for park projects each year.

The Park District Oversight Committee has reviewed 14 proposals, and the final funding decisions are expected by late 2018. Prior projects have received funding, including Daybreak Star for capital needs assessment, and Kubota Gardens to construct an ornamental wall in Gates.

SPR collaborated with our urban parks partners, EG, DSA, and NTRM, and supported 3,032 events in our 12 downtown parks.

Jim, item three, the mayor's proposed 2019 park district budget.

Okay, so this next agenda gives us an overview of the 2019 Park District Budget.

In 2019, the Park District Budget represents 23% of Seattle Park and Recreation's overall budget.

Of the total $55 million in 2019 proposed park district budget, 26 million or 47% is for operating initiatives and 29 million or 53% is for capital initiatives.

The next agenda item gives us an overview of the 2019 park district budget.

As you know, the City Council passed four green sheets last week related to the Park District budget.

These changes have been incorporated into the 2019 and 2020 Park District Spending Plan.

In this presentation, the budget slides will be discussed.

Two of these items use a similar mechanism to the $10 million REIT Park District General Fund Realignment Schedule included.

The proposed budget but are both backed by one-time sources.

One green sheet cut $64,000 of REIT, $1 from the Aquarium Project in 2020, added REIT to parks, major maintenance projects, to free up some of the amount of the Park District funding used for the Park District funding for utility costs and reduce the Parks General Fund, redirecting those dollars to fund the OSC Green Pathway Fellowship Program.

Another green sheet, 36-3A-1, used $406,000 in fire levy fund balance to backfill the Fire Station Ventilation Project funding in FAS.

We cut REIT-1 from the project, moved REIT-1 to Parks Major Maintenance, freeing up Park District funding to pay utility costs, which in turn freed up Parks General Fund to be used for other purposes.

A third adopted green sheet, 1018A1, appropriated $130,000 of Park District fund balance in 2019 and 2020 to support two ambassadors at Ballard Commons Park.

This expense is backed by interest savings from repaying the Interfund loan balance early.

A fourth green sheet, 101B, B-1 added three part-time positions in 2019 and 2020 to continue increased public operating hours at Magnuson Park Community Center.

Next slide.

This slide shows that in 2019, this shows the park and recreation budget in 2019. The total 2019 budget is comprised of Park District General Fund and other capital funds such as REIT, Central Waterfront Improvement Funds, and 2013 King County levy funds for a total of $234.8 million.

Of the $234.8 million, the operating budget represents the largest share, or 163 million, or 69% of the total.

And the capital budget represents 71.3 million, or 31% of the budget total.

General Fund is the largest source, $105 million, representing 43% of the total budget, followed by other funds, $78.6 million, or 34% of the total, and Park District, which contributes $54.7 million, or 23% of the total budget.

This slide shows the Park District capital budget, which totals $28.3 million in 2019. Fix-It First is the largest category funded at $17.2 million or 61% of the total.

This category includes the major maintenance and asset management initiative.

Building for the Future is the second largest category funded at $10.8 million or 38% of the total.

This category includes developing land bank sites, major project challenge funds, And then maintaining parks and facilities is the smallest category at $330,000, or 1% of the total.

This category includes pea patch rejuvenation and off-leash dog areas, by way of example.

This slide shows the 2019 proposed park district operating budget.

The 2019 total park district operating budget is $26.3 million.

This includes the Fix It First category, it includes a tree crew, Part of the annual zoo operations support, the asset management work order system.

It also includes maintaining parks and facilities.

This represents the largest amount and includes some of the preventative maintenance programs and enhanced park cleaning.

Programs for people pay for services such as community center operations, lifelong recreation, special populations programs, get moving, job readiness, and other recreation programming.

building for the future includes O&M funding for the 14 or soon to be developed land bank sites.

Funding for performance and strategic planning and the urban park partnership are also included.

This next slide basically illustrates the $10 million funding shift.

And basically what we're attempting to illustrate here is a reduction, the $10 million reduction and general fund backfill by $10 million in park district funding for a net zero change in operating loss on the operating side.

And then on the capital side, we're showing a park district $10 million reduction in capital backfilled by $10 million in REIT funds for a zero net loss in operating rather in capital program delivery.

All right, so Donnie, you want to take this next slide?

Sure.

So this slide illustrates in more detail the REIT, Park District, and General Fund realignment.

As you can see, there are three columns in the table, and you can see that REIT increases, as Christopher mentioned, by $10 million.

The Park District is a net neutral change.

There's a net reduction of $10 million on the capital side and a net increase of $10 million on the operating side.

and the general fund decreases by $10 million.

To give an example of one of the changes in this slide, you can see that REIT increases by $1.9 million for zoo major maintenance, thereby allowing for a $1.9 million reduction on the park district capital side.

And then that $1.9 million is carried down to the operating portion, the operating side where you can see $1.9 million supporting zoo operations support, thereby allowing a $1.9 million reduction on the general fund side for the same thing.

Okay, agenda item four, resolution 24, a resolution authorizing an amendment of the interlocal agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Park District.

Council members, this is the resolution that just recognizes interest earnings from Park District funds as in fact revenues of the Park District.

And we've had a number of discussions about this.

OK.

So I move the committee pass Resolution 24, correct?

Second.

Motion has been moved and seconded.

Is there any further discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

The ayes have it.

The resolution passes.

The president is signing the resolution.

Go ahead.

Agenda item 5 resolution 25 a resolution adopting the 2019 Seattle Park District budget And this resolution would adopt the proposed spending plan for the Park District as we've discussed Okay, I move the committee pass resolution 25 It's been moved and seconded.

Is there any discussion?

Discussion?

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, say no.

Ayes have it.

The resolution passes and the president will sign the resolution.

Go ahead with the next one.

Item six, resolution 26, a resolution authorizing the levy of regular property taxes by the Seattle Park District for collection in 2019, representing an increase above the regular property taxes levied for collection in 2018. This is a resolution that authorizes the levying of the taxes.

I move the committee pass resolution 26. Second.

Is there any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no.

The ayes have it.

The motion passes and the president will sign resolution number 26.

Agenda item seven, resolution 27, 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, 2019.

And this legislation sets the rate at 22 cents per $1,000 of success value with an anticipated collection of $52 million, which is consistent with our six-year spending plan allocation for 2019. We're on 27, right?

Correct.

Okay.

I move the committee pass Resolution 27. Is there any discussion?

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, say no.

The ayes have it.

The motion passes and the President will sign Resolution Number 27.

Agenda item eight, resolution 28. A resolution setting the Seattle Park District regular meeting dates for 2019.

Council members, this sets the meeting dates for 2019 of June 24th, November 18th, and November 25th, 2019.

I move the committee pass resolution 28. Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

As opposed, no.

The ayes have it.

The resolution passes.

And the president is signing the resolution now.

Is there any other matters?

That is all we have for you this afternoon.

Okay.

Yeah.

I think with that, I think we will, except for the next meeting date.

We don't have the next meeting date, do we?

June.

It is June.

Okay.

We'll see you all in June.

With that, we stand adjourned.

Thank you all for coming.

I appreciate it.