Tell me when to start.
Okay.
Call to order, everybody.
Thank you.
It is June 25th, 2018. It's the meeting of the Seattle Park District Board, and it will come to order.
It is 3.52.
I apologize.
We were supposed to start at 3, but we had an unusually long agenda day since we passed a climate change resolution.
We signed a letter supporting the Green New Deal, but that might be next, Council Member.
Thank you, Council Member Bryan.
Anyway, again, it's 3.52.
I'm Deborah Juarez, President of the Board.
Clerk, please call the roll.
Begshaw.
Here.
Harrell.
Here.
Herbold.
Here.
Mosqueda.
Here.
O'Brien.
Here.
Pacheco.
Here.
Suwan.
Board President Juarez.
Here.
Six present.
Thank you.
We'll move to approval of the agenda.
If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
And that will move to approval of the minutes.
The minutes of the November 13th and 19th, 2018 Seattle Park District Board Meetings have been reviewed.
If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.
Hearing no objections, the minutes will be signed.
That was a cough, not an objection.
Thank you, thank you, John.
All right, so let's go right to public comment.
As you all know, we have two minutes, and we have, you want to go ahead and call the names?
Okay, go ahead and have Jody.
So we can use both mics.
Jody, call them in twos, and we'll use mics one and two, and if your name is called, please come here up to the mic one and two, state your name, and you have two minutes to speak to the three items on the agenda.
Thank you.
First, we have Dewey Potter, and second will be Kelly McCaffrey.
So, where's Kelly?
Okay, there you go.
Are you Kelly?
Afternoon.
Okay.
She's first.
Is it on?
Yes.
Okay.
Hi, I'm Dewey Potter.
I represent District 4 on the Park District Oversight Committee.
The interlocal agreement calls for us to deliver you certain items during our work.
The first one is an annual report a midterm report halfway through each six-year spending cycle, and then a report before the upcoming spending cycle begins.
And the other is to review a parks prepared report, annual report, that calls on us to assess how well performance measurement is working, how the expenditures are going of district funds, including interest earnings, and reporting to the superintendent and park board on any implementation issues where we think adjustments might be needed.
At our December 2018 meeting, we adopted a mid-year report and included a cover letter with it that made us, and I'm just gonna hit a couple of the points we made in the cover letter.
One is that we look forward to encouraging new partnerships with public, private, and non-profit groups to leverage the district funds.
The next one is that we continue to look forward to the completion by parks of the performance management, excuse me, performance management system, which will enable us to do our work better as well as park staff.
And we look forward to measurable improvements in some of the excellent programs that have already begun at parks, including Get Moving and Parks for All, excuse me. recreation for all.
Can I ask you a quick question?
Can you state your name again?
You're with the Park Oversight Board, correct?
Correct.
I represent Council District 4. Dewey Potter.
Thank you.
That's what I thought.
I just recognized that you all had your badges on, so I apologize.
Your name tag's on.
Okay, thank you.
And a long-time Parks Department employee as well.
And before being Parks Department, Dewey was eight years here in City Council working with Michael Hilt as a legislative aide, and then went to the Budget Office, so we're happy to see you back, and thanks for bringing your experience.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you, Council President, for joining us.
My name is, can you hear me?
My name is Kelly McCaffrey, and I serve as the Chair to the Parks District Oversight Committee, and I'm also a member of the Parks Commission.
So to continue where Dewey left off, we also, in our cover letter, encouraged planning follow through.
So in the 2017 Open Space Plan, it ensures eight park acres per 1,000 residents.
corresponding to the new parks and open space element in the 2035 comp plan.
To achieve these goals, parks needs over 40 acres of new park land or green space.
In today's market, the 2 million annual district allocations are not competitive.
Also your climate action plan, I heard about carbon neutrality, 2050. We need to leverage district funds in the near term to meet these goals and they require more green.
Also, Parks has seen that project course corrections are cost effective.
The district needs flexibility too.
How can the district maintain service levels with static spending when population has boomed?
How do we capture some of the increased value from soaring real estate to best serve a densifying population seeking community and opportunities for healthy recreation?
As we prepare the next six year spending plan, we want to see rate policy cost benefit scenarios that explore solutions to these growth challenges.
So since the district's purchasing power has weakened, last week the Oversight Committee unanimously recommended that the Parks District hold our tax assessment steady at the approved 22 cents per 1,000 assessed property value in 2020 and adjust the spending plan accordingly.
We believe the district needs the revenue to pay for the continued backlog of capital projects caused by this declining purchasing power and the community demand of the Major Projects Challenge Fund or its iteration.
This maintains rates while capturing the revenue to address the current strain on our well-loved parks.
We ask you to thoroughly read our midterm report cover letter points.
We welcome more regular interaction with the board, and we'll continue to love the parks as we offer our voluntary advisory services to you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next, we have Jessica Farmer and then William Lowe.
Jessica, D5.
That's right.
Yay.
Hello.
So my name is Jessica Farmer, and I serve on both the Park District Oversight Committee and the Board of Park Commissioners.
The Board of Park Commissioners is a nine-member volunteer advisory board charged with consulting with and making recommendations to city council, the mayor, and the superintendent regarding SPR policies for the planning, development, and use of park and recreation facilities.
So I'm going to use my time before you here today to emphasize the importance of SPR's work in advancing race and social justice goals and promoting a healthy environment.
Toward advancing race and social justice goals, SPR provides critical programming, recreation, community building, and employment and training opportunities.
These services enhance health and wellness for individuals and families with low incomes and limited means, including those who are experiencing homelessness.
Through Park District funding, SPR has increasingly incorporated equity considerations into decision-making.
Examples include the new and highly attended Recreation for All and Get Moving programs, the evaluation criteria for the Major Projects Challenge Fund, and the removal of drop-in fees to community centers and programs.
We seek to continue to increase our commitment to the role of SPR in achieving equity and social justice.
Toward promoting a healthy environment, SPR provides leadership in conservation and preservation of public open space to mitigate the real and present climate threats through stewardship, resource conservation, and preservation of carbon sequestering green spaces.
The Seattle 2035 Comprehensive Plan sets forth the goal to reduce carbon through increased access to our parks by transit, bicycle, and on foot when acquiring, siting, and designing new park facilities or improving existing ones.
We look forward to opportunities that can leverage park district funds for strategic land preservation and acquisition that will both help achieve the SPR open space plans, acres per resident ratio goal, and the reduction of carbon based on smart design.
Thank you.
And thank you for passing the Green New Deal.
Thank you.
I am not going to give a presentation today, but just wanted to add that I represent, my name is Pat Copeland, and I represent the interests of people with disabilities.
And what we are discussing today in terms of parks is so important for people with disabilities, and it's been an honor to serve on this committee.
Ma'am, did you sign up to speak?
I did not.
Okay, can we just get your name, just for the record, if you want to write it down for Jodi?
Okay, thank you.
Right there on that piece of paper.
In front of you, ma'am.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
I'm William Lowe, and I'm on the Parks Commission.
I serve as the chairman.
Now, when the Park Legacy Plan was adopted in 2013, no one anticipated that Seattle's population would explode as it has.
And that growth has been taxing our park system in many ways.
First, it makes it tougher to maintain nearly 100,000 more people who are essentially using the same acreage and facilities we had in 2013. There are more cleats on our sports fields, more shoes on our trails.
And that's the first thing.
Secondly, we find ourselves in a position where the vast majority of new housing units are apartments and condominiums that do not provide much, if any, green space.
Now, these residents of those homes are totally reliant on our parks for the breathing room they need to maintain their health.
The same can be said for those of low income residents who do not have the means to travel to recreate.
Now providing equitable access to parks is a matter of social justice.
And then thirdly, we contend that the current building boom has stiffened the competition for contractors and it drives up the cost of our projects.
It is tough to complete these projects with 2013 budgets in the world of 2019 costs.
And then fourthly, we are falling behind other cities in the amount of parkland per capita.
Now to remain livable, increased density must be matched by parks and recreation facilities.
In fact, it is parks that will make this density possible.
But the surge in population has driven up the price of land, making it extremely difficult to acquire new parks.
And to respond, I'm reading notes that have been
I need you to wrap up soon, sir.
Am I out of my time?
Yeah, but you can finish up.
Okay, all right.
Let me just get to the end here with my disclaimer.
When you're the chairman and one of your park commissioners needs to make it to a doctor's appointment, because this was a long day, and I commend all of you for your patience, it's like being the cleanup hitter.
and I'm reading his notes and our thoughts.
And so finally, I would like to just end by saying this.
The revenue that will need to be generated will not solve these challenges by any means, but it will give the department a more funding base to meet the needs of our communities and the expectation of the voters.
And I thank you for offering up this opportunity to share our views.
Good afternoon.
Thank you.
Next two speakers, Amy Doss and Melissa Hall.
I'll put five of us together, but there's actually six.
Okay, hi.
My name is Amy, and I've been playing roller derby in Seattle for eight years, as well as leading PFM Roller Derby.
There are currently six roller derby leagues and four public community centers.
We are primarily women and LGBTQ players.
While we are mostly once in the private sector, we are now more and more in public spaces.
SPR's actions and lack of adequate support has only served to further marginalize our 1,000 plus derby players and tens of thousands of derby fans in the city.
We struggle to get any space and time and gym time at all.
And then we get pushed to undesirable times and spaces in many instances.
We ourselves have been pushed outside of operating hours, which means a higher cost to us monetarily as well.
While being in community centers has been a big struggle in and of itself, after 18 months of it being down, the maintenance department decided that we had to pull our lines up.
The approved tape was no longer approved.
PFM has the only single roller derby track in the entire city of Seattle.
Who supports 86 basketball fields and about 60 soccer fields?
Basketball courts and 60 soccer fields.
With no lines painted or taped, we cannot play our sport.
All we can do is skate around for practicing scenarios and drills.
We cannot play the game of roller derby.
We are asking that you enter a small budget proposal to paint lines at the time at which the floors are already rescheduled to be refinished.
And until the time at which the floors are refinished, all leagues that be allowed to temporarily tape a track to the floor.
This is a small step in the cause for equity and a small monetary investment for the city of Seattle, which will enable us to play our sport as we have, as has been the precedent that's been set for the other sports thus far by the city.
We have the support of the Seattle LGBTQ Women's and Human Rights Commission so far.
Several other commissions and committees have voted to support us and are currently working on their letters too.
They see this as a simple matter of equity.
We hope you do too as well.
Thank you.
Can I have Nagin, my assistant, our legislative aide, give your name and all your information?
If you can hand that off to her and then that way we can follow up with you via committee.
So I'm understanding you guys were a group and you had five minutes.
Is there someone else who's going to speak?
Go, go, go, go.
I'm happy to talk on behalf of the juniors in the Seattle area.
As you all know, Rat City as well as Seattle Derby Brats have lost their practice spaces.
Both teams host national ranking and world ranking athletes, female athletes.
They've lost that space.
We're talking about PFM, which is a community program which offers community services to a plethora of social injustice people that have not been or marginally represented in our community.
We talk about these high-level ranking athletic programs, but those are only the people that made the program.
All of the programs offer introduction to roller derby.
They sell out.
They close the doors on people that want to enter in an athletic field and be part of an athletic community.
And those doors are closed for lack of space, lack of support, and opportunities.
Seattle Roller Derby, PFM would like to open up their junior program, which offers a landing spot for those in transition.
While we figure out what to do with these incredible athletes, we're talking about athletes and offering opportunity for them to perform at the level that they're capable of performing.
So it would be incredible.
We have all these programs and they're all fighting for space to prove that we're good enough to have these opportunities for our kids and adults.
I'm an adult.
I'm an older adult.
I was given an opportunity with PFN and now I am in a draft pool for RATCity.
And this is not something that you think of later in life.
But that PFM opened up the door for not only my kids, for myself and others in the community, Seattle and extending outside of it.
So please consider that for your line equity budget.
Thank you.
My name is Marla Wang Straub.
I understand I have less than a minute, so I'll just add to that.
I also skate with Rat City and PFM, and I'm also someone who never saw themselves actually participating in a sport.
I ask that you see painting track lines as an investment in women LGBTQIA individuals and the communities that Roller Derby can serve.
By training, I'm professional management and organizational consultant.
I have worked with Fortune 500 companies in their leadership programs, their executive coaches, and I've had an incredible amount of resources shown to me.
One thing that is unique specifically about Seattle Roller Derby is the quality of coaching.
It is phenomenal.
And I can say that Investing in the track lines means investing and keeping around this talent, talent that will train individuals like myself, our juniors programs, people who never thought they could be athletes, and there was a wealth of skill there.
If we don't have these track lines, these coaches, these skaters, these skills and this talent pool will leave for cities like Portland who do invest in roller derby.
So just think about what's possible.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is that the whole group?
Okay.
We tried to bring a representative from every team that's currently skating, so we have more people, but we'll...
No, we can.
We have three more.
We have three more.
Go ahead.
Want to let them finish?
Yeah, go ahead and finish.
My name is Shannon Chavez.
My husband and I play a ref for about eight different roller derby leagues.
We primarily skate with PFM Roller Derby, Regenerator Roller Girls, and Puget Sound Outkast Derby, all of which practice and play in community centers.
So we're in three different community centers, three days a week, if not more.
I am nearly 40. I just started playing.
I'm also autistic.
So this is the first community that I've really felt comfortable in and the first team sport I've ever played.
And it's been amazing for me.
And my son is as well.
So I'm super excited about the Junior League opening up for him as well.
He skates with another league, but for him to be able to come and skate with PFM and do all the other things that PFM does, it's great.
And he's welcome.
very confident in this community, and it's very important to me.
So the only thing that's been a negative is worrying about our space.
So I hope you'll consider setting up lines for us.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else before we wrap up?
Okay.
Yeah, go ahead.
No.
I'll just take a moment.
The thing that people might not realize about roller derby is because of the rules, each league has to be majority run by skaters.
And almost every league in the Seattle area is a not-for-profit.
So roller derby is not only a sport, it is a incubator for future women leaders because almost everybody who gets involved with roller derby ends up serving on a board.
I want you to look at this not only as an opportunity to support a sport that's important to women and the LBGTQ community, but as a way to foster women's leadership within our entire community.
Thank you.
Can we have number seven, more low?
Oh, I'm sorry.
She had one more person.
You want to be brief?
I'm Christine on there.
Sorry.
Sorry.
So my name is Christine Nishida.
And I just wanted to piggyback off of the leadership.
So I'm an art teacher, a middle school art teacher.
And roller derby has given me a safe place to learn and grow as a person and an athlete.
But I also see this change in my students as well that have just started.
playing a roller derby too.
So girls who are quiet, girls who are shy become more confident and then start searching for leadership positions.
So please support.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So did we get all the roller derby people now?
Okay.
Who do we have left, Jodi?
Tim Metzer.
Oh, Mr. Metzer.
Hi, Tim.
Last but not least, my name is Tim Mocher.
I chair the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance, a group of 25 Lake City organizations.
I am here at your June 24th meeting to support the Park District Oversights Committee, referred to as PDOC, recommendation to you to retain the current 2019 Park District property tax assessment rate of 22 cents through 2020. This recommendation is intended to provide some level of corrective action to address some of the external changes identified in their mid-January mid-cycle report to you.
This recommendation, if implemented, will generate about 5.6 million additional dollars in revenue and will minimize the amount of any additional tax increases starting in 2021 as part of the second cycle funding for the park district.
The additional revenue will allow DOPAR to address current impacts of growth on park facilities in the lack of adequate park district revenues for the following.
Major project fund, parkland acquisition, additional funding for the six centers being rehabilitated, restoration of funds not allocated to the community center operations, and additional park maintenance, which should include full funding for the removal of needles in our parks, which may in fact be a major public issue concern if this is not being done.
I would also like to lobby two other actions that I've spoke to you actually this time last year that include approving the remaining $501,000 for the community center operations initiative that would transfer these funds from the community center rehab to operations, and two, revise the park district resolution to allow for mid-cycle corrections that will allow increases in the spending plan if needed.
This flexibility is absolutely needed to allow the changes to the spending plan to reflect changes that may occur that are not anticipated, which we saw many of in this last six-year cycle.
I want to thank the City Council for consideration of these recommendations, and I'm hopeful that you, as our Park District Board, will act on PDOC's recommendation as well as my two suggestions.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
We're done?
I think that's it.
Okay, so public comment is closed, and I want to thank everybody who came today to give us public comment.
Did you get your information today?
Oh, you're getting it from Nagina.
Okay, great.
Before we slide into our items of business, which we have three, I'm going to make some brief comments, and then I'll have our folks at the table introduce themselves.
As I shared, we have three items of business, and we have a 25-page PowerPoint presentation, which includes all three items, so in your packet.
You have the PowerPoint, and so this is just because how I lay things out.
Page 2 is item number 1. That's the report, 2018 Seattle Park District's Activities and 2018 Financial Report.
Beginning on page 16 is item number 2, which is the resolution itself, resolution 29, which increases the 2019 budget appropriations to $810,000.
And then beginning on page 17 is item number three, and that's an update on Seattle Parks and Rec strategic plan, the next six-year spending plan.
And the last page, page 24, is the actual SPR.
strategic plan timeline.
So, again, all three items are contained in the 25-page PowerPoint, and when we get to that particular section, I believe you'll let us know when we'll actually vote.
We're only going to vote, obviously, on item number two, which is on page 16. So, with that, I'll let you guys go ahead and introduce yourselves, and you can start the presentation.
Nikki and Comcar, Stafford, and Council Member Deborah Juarez.
Tracy Ratzliff, Council Central Staff.
Donnie Grabowski, Finance Director, Parks.
Jesus Aguirre, Superintendent, Parks and Recreation.
Kathleen Connor, I'm Strategic Advisor and I'm leading this plan.
Well, thank you for the opportunity to share with you an update on the Seattle Park District.
I want to also echo what you said, Council Member Juarez, thanking the public for coming in and give us feedback, especially our members of the Park District Oversight Committee and the Parks Commission.
We appreciate their thoughtful input throughout the years.
As you said, we have three items on our agenda.
I'm going to jump in and start with on the financial side of things.
Actually, we're going to let Donny Grabowski jump in there.
OK.
Next slide.
I'm not qualified.
So this first slide shows the financial context of the park district budget as it relates to the overall parks and recreation budget for 2018. So the total park district budget for 2018 is $54 million, representing 21% of the total $255 million budget.
On the operating side, the park district funds are $14 million, and that represents 9% of the total.
Other funding in the operating is, the biggest funding source is General Fund at $107 million, followed by other funds, which are fees and FVL levy funds.
And then on the capital side, we have $40 million of the $92 million capital budget, which is about 43%.
And then the remaining amount comes from REIT and capital grants.
Okay, next slide.
This next slide pictured here is a further breakdown of spending by the district's four categories, which include Park District Initiative categories, which include Fix It First, Building for the Future, Programs for People, and Maintaining Parks and Facilities.
And then there's a small component for Debt Service.
The first two items are related to capital.
Fix It First is the largest one, and that funds major maintenance, urban forest restoration, and park facility rehabilitation and improvement programs, and the aquarium and the zoo.
And that's followed by Building for the Future at 26%, which includes development of new parks, parkland acquisition, and building of new assets.
And then Programs for People at 9%, maintaining parks and facilities at 8%.
One thing to note in this pie chart slide is at the very bottom it says that the repayment of the $10 million ramp up.
We, back in November of 2018, we paid the park district, the 10-year loan to the park district from the park fund was paid off at the end of 2018.
Yay, good for us.
Yeah.
Okay, so the next slide shows 2018 budget to actuals.
The blue bars represent the 2018 budget, the green bars represent actuals.
The first two categories are operating categories, the programs for people and maintaining parks and facilities, and you can see that these were virtually spent out.
The second two sets, building for the future and fix it first, are capital.
And you can see that the spending on this was around 50% between the two categories.
And this is because unlike operating programs, capital projects can take two to three years to fully spend down.
And the following slide illustrates this in more detail.
Let me ask you a quick question.
So the green is the actuals, and then the blue is the budget, is the actual budget.
So what happened with Fix It First?
Well, yeah, maybe we can go to the next slide.
Oh, OK.
Next couple of slides.
Sorry.
That's OK.
So the financial context, just to give some context to capital spending, the first bullet talks about how it takes typically one to three years to spend down capital projects, the first year being planning, schematic design, the second year being construction drawings and permitting, and the third year for bidding and construction.
One thing we want to point out, though, is that our capital spending has increased over the past several years.
So in 2016-17, the spend rate was 37%.
In 2018, it was 50%.
And let's see, by 2020, we expect to spend 81% of the funds.
Chair?
Oh, I'm sorry.
No, it's okay.
Go ahead.
It's actually following up on your question.
So if we know that it takes multiple years to spend those capital dollars and we have a sense of what the rate is of spending according to sort of the different phases of a capital project, why don't we budget according to these known patterns?
We actually do.
And so, for example, as Donnie said, by the end of the first six-year cycle, we will have spent 81% of the total capital dollars available.
So that 19% is the tail end of those projects that are already under construction.
So when we plan them out, we create a budget for that project.
And some of that money obviously goes to planning, design, and then construction.
But if you go back to slide five, if we were doing that according to how we know these phases go, then we wouldn't be seeing these large differentiations between what we've budgeted and what we've actually spent.
I think we're taking another look at this in the second cycle of the park district planning.
So I think we're looking at timing capital expenditures more closely to when those phases occur.
I think this is the first cycle of the park district, so I think we've learned a lot and that we're going to be applying to the next cycle.
Thank you.
And Council Members, also to remind you, we have an evaluation that's happening now of the Parks Capital Division and how they do their capital projects.
That also may provide us some additional insight and input about any kind of adjustments that might be made to the budgeting process for capital, as well as other issues related to capital planning and actual construction and development.
Okay.
Are you done?
Okay, and so I'm going to give a quick snapshot on some of these initiatives.
As Donnie said, the broad categories are, we have four broad categories of the park district.
On the Fix It First category, most of those resources go to major maintenance projects, which include facility park and play field improvements, a lot of work on forest restoration, community center stabilization, and then some funding to support major maintenance projects at the zoo and the aquarium.
One highlight of that category is the restoration we've been doing at West Crest Park.
This is a large park with over 108 acres of forest that had been overrun by blackberries and invasives.
And so supported by Park District funding, we've been able to increase the volunteer hours and the support of those volunteers and doubled our work crew to begin to plant many more native trees and really are seeing the result of that work.
In terms of building for the future, Park District also leverages funding from the King County Conservation Futures tax funds, which allows us to acquire more land.
And we're continuing to do that.
We're also making good on our commitment to the land bank sites.
As you might recall, 14 properties were purchased with prior levy funds are now being developed through Park District funding.
And all 14 are in some stage of that construction process, whether they're in design, development, or actual construction.
And in fact, we just opened our first one of the land bank sites that was completed just a couple weeks ago, Friday the 14th, and we added a new park to our inventory, Alice Ball Park in the Greenwood neighborhood.
Part of this category also supports our growing partnership with community-based organizations to support some of the programming and activation in our downtown parks.
We've been working with Westlake Park and Occidental Park for a while now and have added an additional nine parks as part of that activation work.
Thank you.
Back up on the West Crest Park restoration project.
I would love to get a sense of the 108 acres that need help.
What progress you've made on that?
I don't need that information now, but a follow up would be great.
And then also, as I always do when we are at this table, I'm just making sure that nothing's changed.
I know that Myers Way is not in under the Parks Department's land banking, but it is still, just checking, it is still a land bank site in the control of FAS, correct?
Yes, it's in the control of FAS.
It's not quite ours.
But still considered land banked?
In that sense, it is.
Not one of our land bank sites, but yeah.
Thank you.
Moving on to the major projects challenge fund, which is another aspect of the building for the future.
And this is one where the PDOC, the Park District Oversight Committee takes the lead.
They made a lot of progress in 2018 and actually allocated all of the funds that were available for this project in the first six year cycle.
And have funded some projects, very exciting projects here, both from facility design studies as well as design and construction.
Another highlight, which I'll take the opportunity to point to the 2018 report that you have here, the cover of it is the wall at the Komodo Gardens that was funded through the Major Projects Challenge Fund in the first cycle of that.
So it is the first one that was completed as part of the Major Projects Challenge Fund.
Another aspect of the Park District is our programs for people.
And this is our opportunity to continue to work to bring recreational activities and programs to communities that we haven't been serving as well as we'd like to.
Part of that is things like scholarships.
We've sort of tightened up our scholarship process to make sure that we're able to award 100% of our scholarships during 2018. And in fact, in 2019, we're supplementing that by an additional $150,000 through funds that are being made available available by Sweetened Beverage Tax Funding.
Other examples of these programs are Get Moving, where we fund community-based organizations to involve participants in healthy physical fitness activities, as well as the folks, our teams in Lifelong Recreation Specialized Programs continue to work in those specialized types of programs to bring additional opportunities for those.
And then another part of this that has been, I think, a pretty good success is part of our challenge internally in serving our residents is sort of the technology.
And one of the projects that's funded through this category is an implementation of a new registration system called ActiveNet, which is much more robust, much more customer friendly, and we've gotten a lot of great feedback already on that.
And it allows us to do better data analysis of who's participating in our programs and how we can better improve.
Thank you.
Just on the previous slide, one of the issues, oops, let me look this way.
One of the issues that I'm very interested in following up with you on is sort of how the earlier public testimony on roller derby fits in with our existing programs that we're offering and just want to underscore I used the word fits because I saw that in an email response to some of the questions about how we can be better facilitating and encouraging the participation in roller derby and I think the the correspondence that I saw back and forth around whether or not we were being all-inclusive of the type of various physical activity opportunities, sports opportunities.
we need to break the mold, right?
There's folks who are not gonna participate in existing sports activities and there's people who've created a spot because they haven't been welcomed into other places before.
I think roller derby is one example of people having greater self-determination and creating a sport that really does fit their community.
And I love that we continue to have advocacy and I just wanna make sure that we as a city and as the Parks Department and in this renewed effort to serve our community, that we're breaking the mold of what we think fits our existing programs and that we're more inclusive.
So we can follow up with it offline, but I just wanted to make sure I had a chance to either give you a chance to comment on it now or let you know that I'd love to chat with you later.
Yeah, I'll briefly comment, but certainly we can follow up.
Certainly, that's precisely what you described as precisely sort of the idea behind these programs for people in the park district.
So these are grants and funds that we give to community-based organizations to create activities with groups that we necessarily haven't been reaching.
So certainly, the roller derby folks could apply for these grants.
So the advocacy that they started is relatively recent, so we're working with them to try to understand their needs.
What will happen is, so that work goes beyond just park district funding, and what essentially ends up happening is, this is a new use that's come to us, and just like everything else, we will then have to figure out how to accommodate them in our facilities.
And that necessarily means of the sort of total pool of, for example, gym time available in the city, we're going to have to figure out where to start taking from other groups that have been using those gyms and not because because any any basically we have to serve everybody so we'll have to have those negotiations with the other groups as well to make sure that we could provide some time for the new groups that come in.
But happy to have more conversations about that.
And this is just to dig a little more deeply into that issue of how we can leverage the expertise in the community.
So the Recreation for All program is a grant program that folks can apply to.
And in 2018, we gave out 25 grants for a total of $253,000.
And these organizations were able to put together 600 new recreation opportunities and serve 6,300 participants.
So again, in addition to reaching folks that we don't necessarily reach ourselves, we also learn from them and are able to build in some of what, particularly on the engagement side, how they connect to the communities.
Of course, a lot of the work that anchored sort of the idea behind the park district is really making sure that we're taking care of the amenities that we have.
So we do a lot of maintenance work in our facilities in 2018. Restrooms are a big part of the work that we do and continue to focus on.
We've made some improvements to our P patches, continued on the leash law compliance, which is one of the biggest areas of concern that residents tell us when they're out in the parks to make sure that folks are complying with keeping their pets on leash.
But we've also been able to make some improvements to the off-leash areas that are in line with our off-leash area plan and working with our partners there.
Jesus, just quickly, I thought the P-PATCH was with Department of Neighborhoods.
We have some P-PATCH properties on Parks and Rec property and some are not on our property.
So we'll work closely with them.
Tracy, I can read your- You have the money, not the program.
Okay.
All right.
Good.
Just want to make sure.
Another exciting highlight for the maintaining parks and facilities that I want to share, in 2018 we launched a parks inspection program.
And this is a program where parks and rec staff working with volunteers will go out and inspect parks and we sort of do a scorecard.
And this is an opportunity for us to get feedback directly from some of our community volunteers.
In 2018 we trained 57 folks and they went out and did 72 inspections.
Our goal is to do 80 per year, so roughly every six years we'll get to all of our parks.
And we're continuing to work on creating opportunities for folks to diversify, the folks who can come and volunteer.
So doing trainings and things in the evenings, not just during the day, but it's an exciting program that we're going to continue to build on.
Chair?
Yes.
Thank you.
Is this information outward facing somewhere, these ratings?
So they're not, and these, so part of our other work is trying to figure out how to add a technology component to this, because these are literally checklists that folks are doing, so we're trying to bring that and do a better job of getting it out there.
But we're compiling it, and we will make it public.
And is one of the items that this rating was done on, does it also include something I think I've recently brought to your office's attention?
The city auditor as part of the navigation team audits actually visited publicly available bathrooms and included bathrooms in parks and identified a need for some continuity of service.
And so I'm just wondering whether or not the ratings included the public restrooms as well.
Would love to see, compare your findings with the city auditor's findings.
Yeah, so of the 72 parks that were looked at in 2018, they did look at those parks that had restrooms on site.
They looked at those and sort of gave us a ranking or data on what condition they were in.
I'd be interested in taking a look at that.
Thank you.
We'll try to get some of that to you.
And, you know, other parts, as Donnie already stated.
Yes, I'm sorry.
Councillor.
Sorry, you said that there were technological upgrades.
Can you elaborate quickly on that?
Essentially, we're trying to move it from paper to actual electronic format so that we can start sorting the data and have better access to the data.
As a follow-up, is there any just like preliminary work thinking about perhaps like smart trash cans or like Wi-Fi enabled trash cans?
I've read articles on NPR about smart cities and the development of how cities are going, and so I think that might be, I don't know if there's a conversation.
We're not that far yet in terms of the thinking with these.
We're doing some of the things, for example, some of our community centers where we're asking people to give us immediate feedback with the little voting machines as they go out, things like that.
We haven't really started doing that with the maintenance facilities, but there's lots of technology there that I'd like to incorporate that gets us more information too.
Okay, let's move along.
Okay.
And then just in terms on the financial side, as Donnie stated, we paid off the loan for the ramp-up operations actually five years early, which is a good news story, and we were able to fund the Smith Cove development through cash financing as opposed to loans so that saves money to the taxpayers.
In terms of our performance management, we continue to work on that.
As you know, you've received a mid-cycle report and the Park District Oversight Committee is continuing to provide that information to you.
And as hopefully you got today was the 2018 report that highlights a lot of the stuff, a lot of the initiatives that I'm talking about now.
And then I'm going to turn it over to our friends here and to Donnie to do Item two.
So this resolution has three parts to it.
Actually, there's two sections in the resolution, three parts to it.
The first two items are requesting a re-appropriation.
I need you to do one thing.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Jodi, can I have you read item number two into the record?
Because we're going to vote on this.
Is that where we're at?
We're on page 16. I can do it.
Can you do it?
OK, go ahead, Nagin.
Item two, resolution 29, a resolution amending the 2019 budget by increasing appropriations.
So what we'll do is we'll go through this slide and right after slide, after this number 16, we'll vote and then we'll have, we'll go into item number three, which you can also read into the record.
But for purposes now, agenda item two is what we'll be voting on.
So we've read it into the record.
So you want to speak and then we'll go for a vote.
Okay, so just to repeat, this is a resolution that appropriates $810,000 in 2019 dollars for three one-time needs.
The first two items are actually a request of every appropriation of lapsed 2018 dollars that we would like to use for the same purposes in 2019. So for the first one is $220,000 to continue the stabilization of new SPR systems, including ActiveNet and AMWO.
ActiveNet, as Jesus mentioned, just activated in November of 2018, so we're still in the process of stabilizing it.
And AMWO is a timekeeping system for maintenance staff, and we have some upgrades that we'd like to do in 2019 to get that up and running.
continue to keep it up and running.
And then the second part of this $90,000 is for the maintenance of 14 developed land banked sites.
There were some one-time vehicle and equipment costs that were ordered in 2018 but not fully billed out.
So we'd like to use the dollars that had lapsed in 2018 in 2019 for the same purposes.
And then the third item, which is in section two of the resolution, is a request for $500,000 in tenant improvements and relocation costs for new leased office space at the L.A.
Bay Office Park for 100 plus staff that are currently housed at the RDA that will be moving to the L.A.
Bay Office Park in November of this year.
Okay, so just to wrap up then of the, we had a $55 million budget in 2018 and you're saying we have about 810,000 left and of that 810, 310,000 is we wanna move into operating and 500 into capital, correct?
Correct.
Okay, so with that, does anyone have any questions before I move for a vote?
All right, I moved the board pass resolution 29. The motion has been moved and seconded.
All those in favor, say aye.
Aye.
All those opposed, say no.
The ayes have it.
The motion passes, and the Seattle Park District's Board Chair will sign it.
All right.
That was done.
Thank you.
Go ahead and continue.
Then we'll move on to item 3 on the agenda and this is just briefly to give the the park district board and the council a quick update on our strategic planning process of which part will be the next year next six year spending cycle for the park district as As you can imagine we
I just messed up again.
Can Nagin read item number three into the record?
Sorry.
Seattle Park District strategic plan next up for next six year spending plan.
Right, and this is just a presentation, so I'm sorry to interrupt you.
No, that's okay.
Thank you.
Sorry about that.
Again, we're launching a strategic planning process that will determine our priorities and our goals over the next 12 years for the entire agency.
And then, of course, part of that is the park district spending plan.
And this strategic plan builds on prior planning efforts and will also take into consideration sort of how our city has been changing over the last several years and what our communities are telling us they need.
As we go about engaging with our communities and getting input, one of the things that we're working to do is make sure that they understand the values that this planning process is anchored in.
So that when we go about and start making decisions about how we're investing our funds, it's clear to folks why we're doing these things.
And on the screen you have sort of the value statements that we've been communicating to folks first and foremost is that we at Seattle Parks and Recreation serve people so that all of the programs all of the facilities etc that we bring in or that we implement or improve are done so with the people in mind.
So making sure that those are driven by the needs of the people that we're serving all of the residents.
Also that we're committed to equity and making sure that as we are serving people, we recognize that there are certain folks in certain communities that have had less and need more from us.
And making sure that as we're making decisions about investments that we start there first.
Part of the work that we do is also recognition that the strategies that we've been using to solve the needs of our residents, because those needs are changing, then the strategies need to change.
So we need to be open to new ways of doing things, including things like partnerships, et cetera, that we've already begun to pilot.
As we go about planning the next 12 years of our parks and recreation system, we need to make sure that we're honoring the history of our city, but also looking towards the future and understanding that Seattle is a different city.
We have to ensure that our work is aligned with the efforts around inclusiveness, affordability, being innovative, accessible, and livable, and to support the rest of the city as we try to solve these big challenges that our residents are facing.
As we plan, we also think about the fact that planning and engaging with our communities isn't a one-time thing.
We have to figure out ways to make sure that we continue on a regular basis to engage with our residents.
If we're, in fact, meeting their needs, we need to know what those needs are, and we can't just ask once.
We have to continue to create structures that create deliberate and ongoing ways to engage, and that's something we'll continue to work on.
And then finally, and I was excited to hear some of the conversation the council had earlier, but because of our role as stewards of 12% of the land and really the work that we do in terms of helping people be healthy and helping the environment be healthy, we can't craft a plan that doesn't somehow address how we can mitigate some of the impacts of climate change on our own operations and in our facilities.
So those are the values that are driving the planning as we're moving forward.
And that's a specific question.
Yep.
What's that going to look like?
Because I know in 2012, 13 and before the 2014 vote, we had quite an outreach to the community.
Lots of people brought in.
We had a an overarching committee that was identifying this, and then we had people that were focused on athletic fields and community centers and open space and every piece of this.
So, what do you think you're going to do differently that can reach communities maybe that weren't involved in the past?
Well, that's a perfect segue into our next slide, and we'll talk a little bit about working on that.
Thank you very much.
It was a softball.
Yeah.
Thank you.
So great, so the next slide shows what goes into, what are the ingredients for the development of the strategic plan.
So the reddish kind of orange colors are things that we've done in the past.
This is an update of the strategic plan that was also, it was called the legacy plan in 2014. And we've done several plans since then and all that work will go into this mix as well.
We're engaging our staff.
And then the green is what we're doing now.
And we're doing more of a robust outreach engagement than in the past.
So we're doing online engagement, citywide survey.
That's an update of the EMC survey that was done in 2016. And then we had two very large parks and rec fests.
And we are having other meeting, going to a lot of different meetings.
And I'll go into it a little bit more.
And then on the right would be trends and data that we've collected over time.
Good.
Thank you.
So what we've heard so far, this is through 2018, we've bucketed them into eight different categories.
And we heard a lot about doing more with equity.
And so we heard earlier about the free drop-in programs, for example, that we implemented about two years ago.
Comfort station, cleanliness and safety has come up over time.
For community building, things with our community centers, these are, as we're becoming more dense and a lot more people have smaller housing units, we need to have a place where people can go and meet their neighbors and enjoy time together.
We also have heard from people that it's important to reduce health disparities.
And then just finally, just again, some examples, youth job training has come up and apprenticeships.
And then easy access to our parks, you know, that you've heard of the 10-minute walkability, how we can get there more easily.
And also have ADA access so that everybody can enjoy them.
May I just throw in a couple of things?
Sure.
A few years ago, and I'm not asking that parks spam people, believe me, but a few years ago we had some great signs in the parks.
And it was, you know, this new park is brought to you by the parks levy.
Thank you for your vote.
I think that was really effective.
And even if it's like you were saying about you're spending more time with additional cleaning in the major restrooms.
You know, something like that that says, you know, we're hoping this is clean, we're adding additional crews, thank you for letting us know if it's not, that kind of thing.
I do believe that people really respond well just knowing that we're paying attention to them.
If we could do some more of that kind of visibility in the parks when you're first walking in or in the restrooms, I think it would pay off, especially if we're looking at things like if we're going to be raising the cents that people will be paying.
I want them to know that we're recognizing, hey, here's some good stuff that came about because of the last time we raised your taxes.
Now if we're going to do it again, here's the next plan.
Thank you.
So this slide shows what we've been hearing in 2019. And again, we've had that social media.
And so on the left, though, we had a weekly survey at a community center kiosk.
So we actually put posters up for it.
We think that most people have access to a phone or a computer and can do things online, but some people don't like to or don't know how.
And so we've had a really great success with that, too.
And we ask about three or four questions, and they're a combination of pictures and actually kind of more open-ended questions.
And some of these survey questions will be in different languages, too, so that's been helpful to get a little bit broader response.
And in the right hand, the upper right, we use some pictures as well.
So people can tell us what their preference is.
In this case, it was natural open spaces got 86% favorable responses versus 14% for gardens and landscaped areas.
What is really remarkable, though, too, is we got 458 people took the time to take this survey.
And we have found overall over 60,000 people so far have seen some of our posts.
and have looked on our website.
And that is the most I know for Seattle Parks and Recreation, and I don't know how it will end up.
It's in the end, so we'll have more detailed reports when we come back.
The Parks and RecFest, I just, let's make sure that we don't do zip lines in ground trampolines.
I'm a little bit worried.
You don't want to?
Yes, I don't want to.
Okay.
I thought you were going to liability there.
I know you want to, but.
I thought you were going to do a slam down and say we're on it.
We're trying to get people to think big at our Parks and Rec Fest, and I would tell you that both children and adults just loved both of those two things.
Yeah, I was going to warn you about that.
So we'll see what happens.
But it wasn't really voting.
We had a bean exercise, but it was very interactive.
And then people, while they were there, took the time to talk to us as well.
So I think we've been doing quite a bit.
We've been also going out, we have these community engagement advisors, and they speak about 12 different languages.
And they've been going to existing meetings and doing a smaller survey.
And again, we've been getting a really good response from that.
Having them help people walk through this small survey rather than just sending it out in the mail has added more of a personal touch to and it's been very positive.
We, again, some of those survey questions also then online will be translated.
And then we did the EMC survey.
It was the same survey that was done in 2016 and that one is in English and Spanish.
All right, and at all the presentations that we've been making, we do ask these four questions.
They try to get at this, what is your big idea?
You know, we are growing, how can parks and recreation help?
What kind of programs do you like?
What park amenities do you like?
And how are these facilities and amenities and programs helping you, serving you?
And so far it's been pretty good.
I think we're getting a lot of things.
And I think what we try to impress upon everybody is that we're really looking for it to be part of the whole city solution.
How is this contributing to livability?
How is this contributing to affordability?
Among other different things that are more the citywide issues.
It's not just parks and recreation alone.
We're thinking about this as a more holistic approach.
And here's the timeline right now.
So the purple at the top is the strategic plan, and we're spending spring and summer.
We're doing a lot of outreach, as you know, and engagement.
And then we'll be crafting the plan and hoping to wrap that up in September of this year, early fall.
We're working, by the way, with the Park District Oversight Committee and the Board of Park Commissioners on it.
And the crosshatch line is the park district financial plan timeline.
That's the six-year plan that we're working toward.
That is, we're doing some technical preparation right now and we'll be ready to go in December of this year.
And then the next one is the PDOC Park Board readiness in the fall.
We'll just spend some time talking about those programs that we have worked on and the parks that we've done.
giving a refresh and reminding everybody what has been done as part of this park district.
And then starting in December, we'll be going out to the public to talk about park district planning.
We have not yet crafted the types of meetings that we're going to have, but we'll be working on that later this fall.
And then the mayor's office will review the recommendation of the Park District Oversight Committee, and that will be early summer of 2020. And then finally, the Park District review will be November of 2020, and then we'll be ready to go for 2021 to 2026.
This is on the website, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
And again, I just want to say too that this is an update.
So this is a refresh.
So we'll see that will certainly impact, you know, the financial plan eventually.
Council Member Herbold had a question.
Thank you.
Yes, a question about the planning process.
Kathleen, we had an exchange back in April trying to give community members in Alki information about the planning process and how it's going to influence the decision making.
And in our exchange, there were three different terms used, one being prioritization criteria, the other being the Parks District financial plan, and the other being the strategic plan.
And it would really help me to know how those three things relate to one another if there's a sequence, like sort of what comes first and what informs which, that would be super helpful.
As you know, the school district, Bexlevy, has scheduled the work at Alki School to come late in 2023. Part of what could be helpful about that to the Alki community as it relates to the community center is it would allow us to align our planning and funding timeline and priorities with the timeline that the school district is pursuing for capital changes to rebuilding the school.
So just really want to understand how the prioritization criteria, the financial plan, and the strategic plan all relate to one another.
Before we begin, can I do a point of privilege here as a chair?
Council Member Bagshaw has six minutes to go get to leave and get on a plane.
So would that be okay if we can, if you can give her a quick answer and then maybe you can fill her Council Member Herbold in offline?
We require a quorum.
Yeah, we require a quorum.
Would that be okay?
And I want to hear the answer to this, too.
So if we can, and then just.
The strategic plan is underway right now, and that governs all funding sources and everything we do.
And then in the fall, we will be looking at how we are going to be prioritizing the whole park district, which would include community centers as well.
And then the strategic plan and that work will inform the development of the six-year financial plan.
So the sequence is the strategic plan, and then Finally, the end result will be the financial plan for six years.
So at what point does a community group say, hey, we think the Parks Department should value in importance the ability to leverage a timeline and funds from a nearby project?
Well, we're certainly aware of the issue and the interest in that particular site, Alki, and so we have noted that, we have it in our documentation.
And then starting in December is when we will have some kind of outreach where there will be formal requests that will be made by the public.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
And thank you so much for wrapping that up.
So in order to be more expedient, I'm going to go ahead and adjourn today's meeting and then I will let you follow up with Council Member Herbold for more detail offline.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Again, thank you.
Thank you guys very much for your presentation.
I apologize to have to rush a little bit of it.
you