March 20, 2023 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] For joining us tonight. Of course we have our hybrid meetings. and it's like maybe our third one. We're. We'll get a few things, but we're doing okay, and I am so happy to be here. I'm back in the place where I started. and you're still right, Mary. It's nice to be back in the building where we were for our last one, and we do have course for the day. I will officially put the meeting forward in 601. Would anybody like to on the agenda motion to from the agenda? Hello. Great Second. Okay. It's a meet up on there, too. I'm just working to make sure that I need a full. You just emailed about 5 months. Okay. Okay. we have a second. The or no folks. Allie Rose, Director of Parks recreation. It's going to share with you a few highlights for your upcoming meetings. Both of them have numbers, some city council topics, and then things happening in that community. I want to highlight. Just last week City Council did talk about the library reallocation. We'll give you an update and your next packet. But the very brief summary is, they said.

[1:13] 10 million dollars is a very small percentage of the cities over routing over 400, nearly half a 1 million dollar budget. We're going to talk about it all with 2,024 budget, because that's how we can be thoughtful and strategic, so that's the cut notes, for we will give you a much more thoughtful summary with your people. Packet this Thursday City Council talking about downtown streets as public spaces. It's going to commitment the city staff, they following the reopening of the West End closure when what the west end of Pearl Street has been close to 6 from 6 Ninth to Eleventh Street. There had been an interest to explore how we could. and the multidisciplinary team of city staff are going to be presenting on that we'll also trick that down to you all. Some of it includes recommendations for some of the street spaces that are adjacent to the civic area on Thirteenth Street, between a Rappaho and canyon.

[2:06] Let me know that your April meeting I want to call out that just 2 weeks from today we'll be doing a study session, and we're doing this so that we can have a lot of time to give. You foundational information and begin together you're in on the 2024 operating and capital budgets right now. We have that outlined it says on here, it's 3 min. And that's a typo. Your appointment is held for 3 h, and we anticipate that meeting 3 h. Our representation will be smaller portions of it, with lots of time for discussion and questions. At your April business meeting. You'll get your first look at the historic fixes plan that you all have been talking about for quite a while. Now that it's been a Covid impacted plan that has taken it's it's taken a while, but under incredible leadership by our planner, Tina Bruce. Here we see that to discuss and then take action in May. We'll continue again as we've done in the past several years for the next 3 months. You're going to be talking about our budget every single month on this runway to your June

[3:06] approval and recommendation of both the capital and operating budgets. I did also want to call out that on April Thirteenth City Council is having a 3 h study session devoted to homelessness topics. They'll be talking about older counties, coordinated, homeless a strategy. And then the team that we actively participated in the same advantage. Public spaces team will also be sharing information on results for our pilot projects and checking in right now that it's very much here. It's been for study session with city council, although right now we are listing questions from the Council. There, things they want to make sure that we address. We will share all of those materials with you all. And similarly, if you have questions, or or would like to discuss it, Of course we can look at providing that opportunity with our new chair and vice chair, because at your next meeting you'll also be selecting your next 4 and 1, 2 new members. If you were not watching Thursday night, we do have 2 new members, Anna, Speaker and Andrew the

[4:05] We'll be joining our board as the April meeting, so I know later. Tonight you all will be talking about how you want to make sure to welcome them. I think those are the highlights as far as community of us. I do want to call out that Saturday, April 29 will be our tree give away at the end of our day. This is the first time we've done this since the pandemic, and we're thrilled to be giving away trees. It's a really fun event. I recommend you. You are interested, and if you don't need me trees, i'm sure you'd reach out to the play foundation and volunteer what's going on? It's just so interesting to me that 5 years ago we just got trees like it's been 5 years since we've given up trees. We did it in 2,019. So I think it's been. It's been a while That's crazy. Yeah, we're pretty excited. I'm excited for you, too. It's great. Okay for the participation. No, Rosa this, since there's nobody I need to read the whole script.

[5:04] I don't think so. I'm thinking we don't have any public participation. It might not be for 4, 30, and I just check the mail works fantastic, so we have no public participation. So we'll go ahead and skip that. and i'm back to the consent agenda. Would everybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes from February 20, seventh, 2,000 twenty- Okay. Have a second. That's it. And then the next item will go to would be the updates from the director. Thanks. So, as always we have. And I think i'm hoping maybe, with some of our great handbook changes. We'll call this something that helps Folks understand that the full minus the minutes. But consent agenda includes updates for my office updates from our planning team that our operations folks either information we don't need any input from the board or anticipate any conversation but their information. We know helps you be better board members, community members, and if you have questions, I've got, as always, a bunch of really smart people here to answer them

[6:17] any questions, chuck you should, or whatever. Well, no, I I'm. So used to being on that side that I am. I know the delay. Okay? Oh, good, okay, okay, fine testing. Do you want to talk about you? You're good. You don't want to talk about any bad thing about the CD. There is a lot I know, updates Mary. I hope you saw on page 10 and 11 for you some snapshots from Beehive. I know You've been really excited about the asset management program, and we might have to send you some updates over the next 6 months. As Mark and his team and our our park up teams really hit the ground running again. We have a lot of new capacity in this area that is really exciting. So I might just send you some emails for fun.

[7:05] all right. Well, then, we'll move on to action items, and there's none. and then we'll go to matters for discussion. I know this is kind of a hefty one. So who on your team? Do you want to pass it to Ellie? The first mount of it? One of the only matter from discussion is giving you the overview of our 2,024 budget strategy and the feed policy. So what Jackson. hey? Our business services manager and Stacey Hoffman, a member of our business services team. They're gonna give you an overview of the next 3 months. I just mentioned. Very briefly in the future barred items that it's going to be a lot of budget conversation. Jackson might make some shaky jokes about how boring some people think the budget are, but as I I tell the team all the time. This is one of the most exciting things that we do. You've heard it said budgets or moral documents. This is true where our money is spent is how we align with community and values, and how we evidence really just incredible stewardship of this

[8:00] communities value for arts and recreation space. So tonight they're here to present the roadmap. And really the most important ask of you tonight. Board members is how we can make sure to be good guides along that trail with you, and so if there is information that would be helpful if there are steps that would be helpful, I know study. You will be traveling for that study session. You and I will be one on one to make sure it will. Also. It's something to think about as we get our 2. It's it's a little unfair. That new Board members join right as we're dive into budgets. There's such a learning curve, but we're all here to help. So with that i'll turn it over to Jackson and Stacy. I'm sorry. So while we're getting this pulled up, and we'll see you have a very the sources for 2023. This is as attachment a in the packet. So you also have the

[9:00] so we'll probably reference this again full of times. We're going through the meeting. But really, please ask questions. As Ali mentioned, we were going to be here for the next 3 months with any budget top we we try to build on the previous months. So today is really about giving you a background as far as where we're at how 2022 finished, and setting myself for the 2023 conversation. I'm sorry. 2024 i'm 2025, 22. Yeah. as ali mentioned budget process is a very transparent process where we are able to talk about what is going on with the financial of the department. It's like. It really does extend over a very long period of time just given the time it takes our sa to to build the budget. and then the various internal tools for looking at the budget across different departments across the city, and then ultimately the city council.

[10:06] So we do have a presentation for you. Thank you for the patience as we pulled up. and i'm going to turn it over to you to get us started. Yeah. So good evening, everyone. First of all, we just really want to thank the crab for your time and your support Throughout the 2,024 budget development process. The prep does have formal approval for capital expenditures from the permanent Parks and Recreation fund. But you also really play a really important advisory role in helping to build the annual operating budget as alien. That referenced tonight our focus a discussion, at least, when you know in our funding, and we will be referencing that sheet that was handed out. and benefits from diverse funding streams, including them like taxes from sales and property user fees, general fund support and on your phone support. So really, as we go through this process, it's important for the prior to understand the various funding sources we have and how that does impact our budget development.

[11:08] We are going to be looking at a high level financial update for 2,022. We'll be looking at goals and a timeline for the 2,024 by the development. And we do have some questions for the perhaps evening. It's kind of a long presentation we do have about an hour, so we did schedule some time to take some breaks, allow for questions and comments. And do you want to just kind of grow up there that, you know that's in our creation is definitely the fun. I think we all know that, but we are certainly that a partner of acronyms and abbreviations, and sometimes I think this is my second language. So if I do start to speak in the afternoon. So you know, please just that pause, ask questions and such All right. This next slide provides our timeline. So really I'm. Looking at this timeline, perhaps involvement is outlined at the top part with staff responsibilities on the bottom.

[12:08] So, as has been mentioned, we will have several touches with the crab over the next several months, relating to the 2,024 budget development in 2 months of the upcoming study session on April, or you will see that that kind of a noon after March at your April meeting we will be looking at a formalization of the policy moving into May, we will be doing a 2,024 budget review with the app. We will be having a second touch on the cip, and looking at that recommended deep policy. And then in zoom we will 2024,000 review, and then you will have the opportunity hopefully approved the permanent parts and recreation cip. Just moving back to that study session. We will be looking at the development of a sea policy which Jackson is going to go over a little bit, and then we will also be looking at our Cis our capital investment strategy. What is that

[13:05] for? 2024 and then also from 25 to 29 on the bottom of the green is just the staff work that will be done all right. So looking at our next slide, we're gonna jump into our funding sources here, and if you look at the chart that we handed out the permanent Parks and recreation Fund is in the last column. This is a capital project fund, and it is funded by property and development excise taxes. This is the one that you're going to hear several times throughout the presentation that you do have approval for. And really, what a Bpr. Uses this funds for is for a cip acquiring land, renovating or keeping existing parks and recreation facilities at this point is a dedicated fund, and it is not used for daily operations for routine maintenance

[14:05] kind of really like the graph on the right hand side, and in, you know, kind of outlined. So for every property tax dollar elected in Boulder, the city of older receives 14 cents, and out of that fourteenth you'll see where parts and recreation receives one sense to support this fund. So when we annualize that out, we're looking at about 3.8 million dollars in funding that's available for the department. The next month to review is the point. 2 5 cent sales tax on, or that is a Special Revenue Fund, and this fund is supported by voter approved sales tax funds. It is one of our more flexible ends for the Department. It can be used to fund daily operations. So you will see, as we renew the uses, that this funds expenditures do go up and down because it is so flexible and supporting the department in different

[15:05] needs. And then again, looking at that graph for every retail tax style that collected in boulder the city does receive 44 cents, and there is a 3 cents here marked for parks and recreation that help support this fund. The fun will fluctuate, you know. Obviously down a little bit you the next. But productions are back up. We do work with Cu economists on the projections for the fund, and those are set by finance in the way basically to their budget about the revenue that we're going to receive. The next fund is on your chart, and that is second to the last. If you're looking at the sources. And this is the recreation activity, bond, or commonly referred to as the raft. This is a special revenue quasi enterprise, fund, and it's funded by user fees and general fund subsidy. The general from subsidy is used for our Internet benefit programming, and we're going to take a little deeper dial in at that in just a moment.

[16:09] but uses for the department. We use this to operate recreation and golf course, services and programs. The budget development. We will spend a lot of time developing this budget. Recreation Activity Fund is about a third of our total budget, and we really need to make sure with it being a special revenue quasi enterprise fund that it operates more like a business. So with revenue and expenses in re-shooting in balance so a lot of time spent in budget development. With R. The general fund is our governmental fund. It is supported by fees, sales, property, and other taxes. and the general fund is managed by finance, and is allocated city-wide. Several different departments for our department the main uses are to support our forestry for Urban Park to bark operations. So you can see that beautiful.

[17:04] the 2 of them, which will be here soon, real estate, which is such a beautiful time of year, and then also department administration. The last fund is the lottery funds. This is a special revenue fund in which the Department has received at State Conservation Trust Fund monies, and this one is pretty restricted, is really dedicated to parks, recreation and open space, site, maintenance, and capital improvements. So it's more of a capital improvement fund not used to support anything operating. Thanks any questions on any of the funds at all. I know that was a lot of information. What's great about this chart, which I think we all love is on the top part. We'll see this is for 2023. You'll have your summary of funds on the top you can see on the current revenue. then the summer it uses, or how these funds support our expenses. It's kind of on the bottom. This is provide a lot of detail, and then some of those

[18:15] it looks like you have a question. Are you asking me? Yes. yeah. for the lottery fund. Does it go up and down with lottery revenues, or what the what governs or limits the $428,000 we're getting this year. So lottery fund is received from a State, and it's based on a per capita formula. So the default amount that we receive to the city is really attributed to how often people are paying, playing the lottery, and how much money is in the lottery fund within that i'm sorry the city gets about 1.3 million dollars a year, anyway. and that's a slip between the 3 departments.

[19:05] We get about a 40%. That that's just open space and then green basically the remainder. So it has increased slightly over the last few years. This is a fun that we tend to. or central finance tends to budget on the conservative side, just because lottery planes are so, they fluctuate so much year over year. But if there is additional running that comes in that's allocated through the adjustment of a process. And then, outside of this the State White Lottery Fund also supports go for grants, and this department has received many Goco grants for a variety of projects. So we do get supplemental funding through Goco grants that are deposited into this fund. But our need for other apple projects and check. We do plan the allocation. Baseline is about 428 year on, and then it will actually

[20:01] that's. True. Okay, Thank you very clear. Victoria. So the general fund seems like I I read this chart as saying that that's something you manage. Put it for saying that it's managed by the city's finance department, and then we get a distribution from that correct. Okay, the Citywide General Fund is about 160 millionDon't quote me on that, but both are close. We general plan is the most flexible, so it's funded by property tax and sales, tax and machine acts. It pays for police fire. City managers off the city attorney's office. The 6 million dollars is our portion of the general Fund budget that we've seen. and then we to manage that funding through the department. You have management that the general fund that's city of all this general fund, and we get, and then we manage our

[21:02] or the decisions made when a new company say is coming in like Google or Yahoo. and they obviously are going to have employees who are going to need our infrastructure, police schools. roads, parks, and and wreck. How do they? How do we make sure that they pay their fair share? Sure. So i'm going to zoom out a little from the company. Specific and new development pays a development excise tax. The E. T. Funding is separate from these armed forces, and it's based on a per square footage. What is the overall? So there's a variety of different departments that receive the et funding, and then we use that on an occasional basis to pay for the increase. population and services that we are providing for. So an example would be to stack up your pool in 2,01922. We used about 4 billion

[22:10] So that's a very direct way that we revenue dollars to pay for expanded services. It's typically one time as they pull out they, the the secondary aspect is because we are getting sales tax dollars to the point to buy some sales sex fund. Any time anyone goes out to eat and boulder. We are getting a portion of their dollars going back to the department. The property taxes assessed on each of those commercial buildings. We are getting a portion of it coming back to Parks recreation. and do they do businesses pay? I assume. equal to residences, because I see the the general fund being kind of owners, taxes and stuff, and such. I would make sure that businesses are also paying a fair share one way. These monies for programs. Us particular.

[23:07] Okay. So on property taxes, businesses in Colorado actually play significantly More, we can send you a there's a really nice 5 min, Fy: I or explainer on the Galler. the Gallagher amendment. That was done. I forget the year, but based business has been on property and boulder, pay a much higher share of property tax than homeowners. So, for example, with the creation of the recent library district, it will proportionally cost businesses more than it will cost homeowners. The rose split the property taxes, 70% of commercial properties, 30% residential. And we can get you those actual numbers. And how do we make sure that smaller businesses are unduly impacted in that larger money makers are What you're talking about is that one? Just that business that small businesses should pay less than bigger businesses. A policy statement that I don't know, is documented in our ordinance to to know that our Community Vitality Department has a small retail support strategy on its work plan for the next 2 years, because, as holder has become increasingly expensive for everyone that is showing up in the commercial sector, and there's a whole retail strategy designed to like. We have financial aid for making sure our community has socio and economic.

[24:25] The city has an interest that the same thing is true for businesses. Thanks any more questions on our phone. So okay. So now we are going to take a look at our uses of funds, so our expenses and I'm. Looking at this charts on the stack columns. The general fund is on the bottom in that lifestyle. You'll see the general fund spend, you know, fairly consistent with expenses from 2,019 up to the 23 approved budget. You know I can make a note 2023, approved Budget. You know there are some increases in that right. We have our services that we're cut down in the pandemic. We we cover

[25:12] false escalation for personnel and non-personnel, and there's some more planned capital. So when we do look at that 2023 approved in the last column, and you will see on the top. It's at 35.9, so I should back up a little bit, and just say it's numbers on the top in red are the total expenses for that year. Okay, 2,019 through 2,022 actual. And then that last column is the approved budget for 2,023. The second is the point. 2 5 cent sales tax fund that is in the green. You'll see the flexibility of the fund, as we look to 2,020. For an example, you'll see a big increase in expenditure for that, and that was really because we were finishing up the 2 large capital projects. See well at the Boulder Reservoir or the New Visitor Center, and then also Scott

[26:02] and your pool. The permanent parks and recreation fund is seen in the yellow, and that's really the cip for the capital. and well fight lottery, and then the capital other in bold, that is, some of the funds. Jackson was referring to with the capital film and Excise Tax, where we also had the Ccrs, which is the community culture, resilience, and safety tax, which voters approved last November, so we will get some one time funding for that. So that's why you do see on that top capital, and it depends on the capital plans and projects will go up and down for expenditure. I'm. I kind of skipped over the recreation at today, but and which is in that darker green on because we're gonna look at a more detailed slide just a moment on that. But total expenditure for 2022. Is that 25.5 million and the 2023 approved Budget is coming in at 35. 5 million All right. How are you done

[27:01] with this slide? I am? Do you know what other cities in the country, or certainly our State are making this kind of recovery. That looks pretty remarkable to me. I think it varies based on the funding for so Stacy mentioned. We have one of the most diversified funding sources with the dedicated sales tax dedicated property tax user fees primarily paying the Recreation Activity Fund. I think if you look at that dark green, the Recreation Activity Fund, you will see huge variations all over the country as far as have indoor services return to pre pandemic levels. Is there a greater emphasis on outdoor activities where people feel more comfortable? But, generally speaking, I think that we all most cities as a whole saw us some sort of stacking reduction in the 2020 continued it's 2021, and there's been a slow ramp back up with our capital projects. I think that we are having the same struggle as anyone else that there is cost. Escalation is causing us to prioritize staffing. It's been incredibly difficult for us to fill. If you look at 2,022, actually, we have about one to 8

[28:01] ongoing stop, and they can see across the department that we're going to highlight. So part of the increase you are seeing is what we assume will happen in 2,023, and we're hoping for the best. There's about 10 million dollars for the veterans golf course that was supposed to be spent 2022 that money is now carrying forward to 2023. So I do think that this trend is fairly consistent with what you see with other agencies. I just want to caution you that it's not an apples to apples comparison. Our funding mechanism is completely different than Greenfield or Eerie, or Denver. But for our department this is a very strong recovery. And this is the 2,019 actual kind of right kind of our last. Normally, your so look at 2019 compared to 2,023. You will see where things have started to recover. We we are planning for the possible. I want to point out. I guess. I just I appreciate the optimism enthusiasm. We are not even with the 23 Budget Sack at 2,019 spending. That was big capital year. We we finished Scott, Carpenter, and the Boulder reservoir. But

[29:07] and then, when you add in cost escalation, we we are not at full recovery, and really that's tied to indoor operations have not achieved this. The free pandemic levels check. I guess I would add that a big difference between boulder and many other communities is a slice of the blue pie there. that is, the general fund, and a lot of communities have much larger general fund apportionments to parks and recreation. and we have this much more varied funding source and and makes Boulder kind of unique. Sorry for the background. Noiser. Oh. I like some fun. Your plans. Yeah, I have. 35 is going by. Oh. thank you for pointing that out. Check in. We will have a whole slide dedicated to general fund subsidy received so great point we'll get there. Hey? This next slide to us our

[30:02] the care uses of funds per budget category. So we do like to break it down, and again, that top number in the red will be the total expenditure for each year. The numbers that are running in the middle of the screen, and that green Are our operating expenditure right? We do like to take a look at what our operating senses are as well, and the blue operating PE is our personnel cost. So that is our non-standard and standard staffing costs and benefits. The operating in the green is the non personnel expenses, so materials equipment services that we consult with and such. So just really focusing on that, you'll see 2019, or 21 and a half 1 million You will see the date down with the pandemic, you know, folding study through 2021. You know we have seen some recovery in 2,022, and to Alice's point there has been a lot of cost Escalation Salaries have increased collecting. Comp. We could see an inflationary cost and such

[31:10] affect those numbers, and do really see that in the 2023 approved budget, just a continuation of those inflationary and increased expenses bringing the operating cost up to 27.2 million The capital that is dedicated to the departments of a lottery. Welcome to, and also from Parks, is seen in that gold. So we'll see in 2019, 2020, those higher expenses due to those larger projects. and then you'll see that continues through the gold color would be the capital from the other funds that the department uses we did throw in the September snowstorm in that green, because that was a significant expense. Back in the 20. It was about a 1 million dollars in September, when we had gotten that unprecedented snowstorm that hit, and then we do have cost allocation and inner departmental transfers. So cost allocation. We are paying for services within the city that support the departments, such as it human resources, and such that we do have a cost allocation that we do absorb in that.

[32:13] So again, it's a different way that the Department looks at our uses, and really does, you know, want to know how our expenses are trending Per Budget category on the app so straightforward. All right. I said that we would circle back to the Recreation Activity Fund and really kind of analyze this. and and this gives the raft performance revenue to expense comparison from 2019 to the 2022 actuals with the 2023 approved budget in there, and this is the one fund, as I had already mentioned. We do want to see that revenue to expense ratio in balance, and we see that in 2,020. And we do see that in the 23 of the budget.

[33:06] as we look to 2,021, you know revenue did come in higher than expenses, and that is really called out with that part of the funding that we received. The department did receive about 600,000 in our funding in 2,021, and that was really to help stabilize our operations. As we looked at 2022 you can see on this chart here that revenue does surpass expenses. But there is a story behind that, right? So if you're just looking at this, the raft does look like it's doing extremely well and flush with revenue. However, there's just a couple of things to note here, about 47 of the revenue earned for the raft was earned by the golf course the reservoir sports and gymnastics, so they accounted for almost 50% of earned revenue in 2,022 centers still have not recovered to full levels of 2,019, and you know we did cover all of our community benefit programming.

[34:05] But as we look at that, 47% golf course had a remarkable season they exceeded revenue it over 2 million. It was an all fine for the golf course, and that was about $600,000 over their budget by what we have done is we have taken that 600,000, and we earmarked that for the flat iron Scott, of course the meetings. So, although that money was not spent in 2,022 right with that project being forward and starting in 23 that 600,000 is kind of already allocated for that. So I just think it's really important as we're looking at that, to see the full picture. We also had about 500,000 unspent for personnel. So this was due to the staff vacancies that we had, and then we also had a big non-standard shortage with life guarding right it was pretty well known throughout 2,022. There are no Life Guards within the State. We had received the brand to try to help attract and retain Life Guards. So we did have a large portion of that I spent for personnel, which is why you just see those expenses a little bit lower. But I do not just know that.

[35:18] But all those high-performing areas did spend their full budget target so maybe it's a question for ally. But what do you attribute the success up the golf course to in 2,022. I'm actually gonna and stacey spent a lot of time out there managing their business. I'd love to have Stacey answer that absolutely. You know. I think what happened is. you know the pandemic Rob, that it was one outdoor activity that everyone could do. It was socially distance you could get out there, and then we really started to see it grow out there. I think people just saved with the activity and kind of revised it. Also, I wanted to, just, you know. Put a call out to Stephanie Monroe's team. I think she's on the call here at the golf course. They have me that go for exclusive.

[36:07] They are really encouraging kids to come out and college students to come out, and all levels of play, all levels of ages to really come to that golf course, and they make a welcoming environment. I do have a like second office there just because it's such a happy place in the background, and they they've just worked, and it's it's just a really wonderful place. If you haven't been to find it. And so, of course, I would highly suggest go play, because it is great. You know, we've gotten a new software system out there. We changed a lot of our business operations, too. So we put all of the booking of the T. Times online. So we've made it easier for people to book a golf course and such. So you know they have taken some business initiatives, and, as you all know, in 2,020, we did implemented passes out there that people could purchase right. So that's another reason, and also the pricing for that, of course, is pretty reasonable for a municipal. Of course in the area.

[37:08] So that's just my perspective on it. Now, I don't know if you have anything to add or no, I actually appreciate you calling out. I'm. I'm sorry I don't have the meeting upside and see Stephanie this here, but I do wonder if our regional facilities and balanced City park, and I certainly support everything. I think Stacy mentioned a lot. And, Stephanie, if you want to add, because you work directly with the team about why they are taking it so much golf boute. Yeah, no, I guess I would only probably add that just industry wise, you know, across the nation golf is is up in in in all aspects. So we are just seeing a really nice high from Covid, and have just really introduced, like Stacy, had mentioned different business practices, process improvements, as well as a lot of younger

[38:04] golfers out, there, especially in the afternoon. So total golf rounds played in 2,022 is 4,773 hot off the press. I just got that from Tom this afternoon. So yeah, good stuff. So can I just ask one question on that. This is tangentially related to budget. You say routes, is it? Are we counting around as 9 holes for 18 holes, because it seemed like the trend nationally is that people are stopping playing 18, and they're playing 9 more, and that's actually getting more people out to play. Do you guys notice that trend. Is that reflecting the data? That's a great question. I don't have that answer. I'm. Assuming that Tom has counted all rounds, I certainly would be able to ask him to break that apart, and i'm sure we would have that data as far as how many 9 holes or full rounds that we we would

[39:00] sold last year. The standard is to base it on anyone who starts on a T. It doesn't matter how many holes you finish so, but number of rounds based on 9 and 18. Will you know booking software? We can't bring it out to see how many people play on the front line back 9, full 18, but I I don't think we've actually done that analysis. He didn't. I was gonna see it's really interesting because our practice area users we also track, and then we're over 39,000 practice area users in 2,022 and if you look back the previous. there was only 31,000. So that's exponentially. And yeah, over 47,000 rounds of golf play. So it's pretty amazing. That doesn't include a practice area use or range. As well. So yeah, those all those areas are are very, very busy. Great? Thank you.

[40:00] Any other questions on this slide. Oh, I guess I do. Look, i'm sorry. So the golfers made that extra money, is it? They made it so they get it. I think what it is that you're seeing is not in direction where we can be a little bit more entrepreneurial, and the services that we are providing ultimately, we chose to reinvest in the golf course, because if the revenue came directly from the developers, and we are reinvesting in that couple of project that will be going under construction very shortly. I think that the emphasis Tina has shared with you multiple times. Is that facility, Isn't: Just for golfers. It's intended to be a community facility. It's tended to be welcoming to the community for a variety of events. We can't currently host tournaments. and there is a huge need. And then he's older subcommittee plan to have more restaurants, space and have social gathering opportunities that that building will ultimately support.

[41:00] And there was no funding. Is this paying for extra things? That work plan for the golf course it's paying for a portion of it collectively, the projects, roughly 10 million dollars. So about 6 to 7 of the budget is coming out of this fund. We do have couple of development dollars. We have permanent parts dollars. We have point 2 $5. So it is a very diversified funding source that is paying for the golf course. I want to add just that it's it is. It is. My 19 has come to you a couple of times to talk about the value engineering with that project. It is way over budget because the cost cancellation. So it's not paying for nice fancy things. It's paying for that that base project. And when we saw the revenues that they were coming in, and because of the cost escalation, I mean, i'll say out loud. We have several conversations where it's like time out. Let's look at this project because it is very expensive. Out of what do we do? What's the level of service. What goal are we trying to achieve with this project? And then how do we pay for it? So, rather than decrease other capital projects? These dollars are available, and they've been allocated to the project cover that cost escalation so really directly. That's what's happening.

[42:07] And and just because i'm not as in it as you when we're in the era of equity and equity and inclusion. and I hear something. I don't like all my it does. But you know, and then I think of people we can't afford all that we won't. Get out there, and you just want to make sure that we have an eye towards, you know. making sure the money goes spread around. Well, I'll say is that the intention is with the new building and not you. Guess maybe even be a little more direct with Jackson was saying, is that the golf course they have adopted this model that patterns where everybody feels welcome. And so the idea, with the new facility. We do intend this to be a revenue positive facility; and as we talked with city council about this capital expenditure, we made a commitment that those stuff, and they agreed. This will be somewhat in our feed policy. Those revenues are going to get reinvested into the system. for I I would hope. You know this is an an idea list. We could be hosting community events at the golf course. We could be providing free registrations and equipment to kids who otherwise wouldn't have access to call so once the building is paid for. And we in this this revenue trend continuous, which we anticipate. So we do think it's going to fund that way.

[43:23] Any other questions you. The Covenant parks and Red funds. We have a policy or a goal of how much of that is stained every year like we don't just pay it down every year Right? It'd be like there's always some amount in our coppers, and i'm wondering if there's any kind of a goal around. That So within all 3 of our funds that we self- it's my. we had several different numbers or categories. We have a pay period, 27 reserve to pay for the 20 seventh pay period.

[44:04] Every 11 years we have a sick indication. Resume as employees leave. We pay out certain balances, and then we have an operating reserve. The target city wide is that every fund has a 16.7% hopper. User so within this fund it's not a whole lot of money, because we have very few operating dollars. But within the capital projects themselves we need a contingency based on the level of engineering we do have. So Mark's been really updating match where, when the project first gets the cip, it may have a 30% cost contingency, because you architectural so much uncertainty over that next 5 years. and then on top of that, we do have an Indian fund balance that we keep it about 300 to $500,000 in this fund. So we don't fully spend it down each year. We basically tear your money over in savings, and I think we are very opportunistic about all of our funding sources Of what is the dedicated funding source? What has the most flexibility. And how do we prioritize what we're spending so that we really are getting the best thing for a buck and utilizing funding in a way that makes sense.

[45:06] Okay. Another question given. Do we have any funds that are held in banks? Or do we keep it all? I honestly don't Everything's all about Gp. Chase. We have a city wide accounting. There is different fund accounting, so there's 42 different from the city wide. The Finance Department is very much responsible for the daily treasury and interactions. How are our names allocated? Invested things of that nature? We just had a control over our money, some of that. But we're all the same proper. So large institution. Yeah. And then, when we are looking to do the next budget development, so for 2024, we will make sure that all those ones are balanced. Right? So we're not going to submit a budget that's going to put us in. It is

[46:00] the other question for all great. Thank you for the questions. All right, moving on to 2024 budget development. So this slide just really Highlights some budget strategy goals with the crab and again, you know, we are certainly requesting your input in the 2,024 budget strategy we're going to be taking a look at some of the 2,022 master Plan primary policy shifts, and then also just a path forward to set recreation on a sustainable path. Texas gonna be talking about the development of the seed policy for 2,024, and then the review of the 2,024, through 2,029 cip is not going to occur this evening, but we will be using the study session for that, and then Marx will be presenting 2 touches on that in April and May. and with final approval for the per parks in June. But we just want to kind of remind the previous role for budget budget development. Excuse me, and that is basically the perhaps shall make recommendations to the Council concerning any appropriation or expenditure from the permanent parks and recreation fund.

[47:15] And the perhaps shall make recommendation to the Council concerning the proposed P. And our annual budget. I believe Michelle and Maze were discussed during your study session that you had back in October. So is there any questions questions on this for your role in our process? Okay, Just looking at some 2020 to vpr master plan. Primary policy shifts, and these ships are going to guide the 2024 budgets development the first one really is that we're planning for the physically constrained level, and with no new funding. We are going to have to evaluate our service levels to identify any community supported reductions. So we're going to be taking a look at our existing funding and what we can support out in the community.

[48:18] We will also be looking at additional alternate funding sources to maintain existing levels of service. So with that we will be looking at grants and donations. How can we increase? That? Is there for one time and fusion from Grant funding that will help specific projects or programs. The Department will be looking at onboarding someone to kind of help steer that within the next quarter. So we're too, so that will be great. We'll also be looking at our additional tax subsidy. So the general Fund subsidy is an ongoing starts funding. We're going to be working a lot of finance in 2024 to kind of set those levels and see how they can support our community benefit programs.

[49:02] And you know, prioritize right. We always have to prioritize and make decisions, and our priority is focused on taking care of what we have, and then also community help and wellness. The third policy shift in this is that we really need to find alternate sources for revenue generation. So the Department does need to get creative in our funding, and you know we'll be looking at perhaps adults paying a full cost recovery looking at our fee policy and our fee structure, and then just explain other revenue, generating opportunities. So is there a service that it would be interested to the community that could help us, you know. generate more revenue, and just really looking outside of the box of those opportunities. This really sets a sustainable path forward on the 2,023 budget development. We presented this slide to Ev to our executive budget team, which is basically our outlined plan to set recreation on a sustainable cap into the future. As we take a look at this slide. We'll see. The first step was the acceptance of the master plan. So check we've done that, and we're really in between 2 and 3.

[50:20] So we are looking at our 2,022 data. We are doing a lot of cost analysis as a department. We really do want to have a really firm understanding of our actual costs of our services that we're providing out to the communities right now. Staff is doing a lot of financial analysis on that. And we're also beginning to categorize services and allocate our subsidy. So out of the master plan it is a priority to fund community benefit programming first, and if we look up to the right box up at the top. you can kind of see our Vpr Service categories with community recreation and exclusive community services basically for the greatest good of the community. Greatest community benefits recreation for this benefit a broad range of users and targeted

[51:09] to promote physical and mental well-being. Well, being, and then we have our exclusive services. Right? So those are more of our specific programs, or more advanced programs, and how we pay for those our community. We would like to have high subsidy support those programs and more of a low subsidy or user fees supporting our so definitely looking to through our development policy. It's really dig into this a little bit deeper, and to outline what that's going to look like for the future. and that will help us move forward into queue 2 through Q. 3, and then we'll be able to build the budget to determine our service level, and also set our fees for the department for the 2024 budget. You know we definitely want to use the scr framework or the sustainability, equity, and resilience, framework in those categories to align better with the city, and also for a holistic approach. And we are talking with finance about

[52:12] ongoing he allocations, which is the Health Equity Fund, in which helps we receive funding to help provide financial assistance for access into our recreation centers, and then also help support our youth services, initiatives through some grants there. So that is our path forward that we call on the Prep. Okay, Taking a look at the Recreational Activity Fund general Fund subsidy here, and that's going to be on your left hand side. The subsidy basically helps the department ensure equitable access and allows us to offer programming that may not achieve full cost recovery, but has the greatest community benefit it makes. Those programs are most important to our community, open and accessible As we look at that to the

[53:07] left hand side you'll see that we do have the recreation activity, our revenue and expenses, and then that line on the bottom is the general fund subsidy the department has received. So as we look 2,017 actual through 2,021 you'll see, the subsidy level was pretty flat right, even though we have more community needed increasing costs and needs. Funding was flat, as we look to 22 in 23 does bump up a little bit, and that is because we were awarded one time funding and fusion for each year, and that was really to help make sure that the raft was sustainable, and that we could keep offering those community benefit programming. As we look over to the right hand side. The 2,023 approved budget in general. On subsidy usage you will see specifically for 2023 the department was awarded 1.6 million dollars. We did receive that one time and fusion of

[54:03] 500,000, bringing that total up to 2.1 million for 2,020 right, and we are very deliberate, and we do prioritize how this is going to be used, and it's really focused on access and inclusion which you can see in the blue, and that it basically supports our expand programming for people with disabilities. It it. It supports our use services, initiative. and such we do have a portion that supports the age based discount. So the discounts that we are giving to you and seniors to our facilities. We have financial assistance that is offered for any bolder resident that qualifies, and that really those 3 categories really taps out the funding that we were awarded in 2,023. And then you'll see that last we have a department funded program manager, and that is being absorbed in the operating budget. That is, for a You services program manager to kind of oversee this

[55:07] services and basically make sure we're reaching those areas, because in the next to plan using teams right, it came out as a priority. We wanted to make sure that we had our focus on that in 2,024 questions. What the the funding was Federal for the 23, that's all. So Gf. Is the general terms. So we have our general funds that we get about the 6 million, and then we do receive that general fund subsidy directly to the raft every year on about Point 6 million over the last several years, and that's what we use to support our community benefit funded program.

[56:01] Don't worry about me. It's all like Daisy Chain together. so I just need to connect. So what we will be doing is, we will be working with finance to take a look at the general fund subsidy, right? We spent a lot of time. If you were on the board last year, you may remember we spent a lot of time looking at, balancing and requesting additional funding, and to make sure the rap was sustainable. So this kind of outlines, those outcomes. and we will be working with finance, like, I said, just to see what those levels will look for 2024, and then also hopefully. some policy around it Okay, 2024 budget development strategy in your packet. We had detailed out some opportunities, challenges, and recommendations in detail. This is just looking at it from a pretty high level, so opportunities and recommendations. And this is what Staff has identified. There will be a question on this in just a moment.

[57:07] but the reallocation of the library funding does give opportunity for additional dollars, and that has been rolled into the 2,024 budget development. And we will be looking at that through the process. We want to make sure that we define a clear budget for operations and maintenance in line with the asset management program. Mark and his team working on that in more detail, to follow on what that's going to look like, hoping for perhaps approval for the permanent parks and recreation funds cip approval. And then, really, we are looking to develop with the policy on it for 2,024, and Jackson's going to dive into that a little bit deeper on the graph there just shows the program benefit and fee balance. As we're looking to develop the See policy. This did come right out of the 2,022 master plan. and it kind of outlines who benefits and who pays right community programming should be supported more by taxes. Why individual programming should be supported more by the user these. So, you know, we will be definitely taking this into consideration as we look at our fee policy and work with. I have been developing that over the next few months

[58:16] to the other side. Challenges, you know no surprise. Revenues are not keeping pace with increased in expenses. This is right out of the master plan. You can see where we do have our current funding on that chart which is outlined on the last in the middle. You'll see where there are identified programming gaps in the current funding and the recommended funding. So you know, the department does really need to be very delivered in our approach, and setting our budgets, and really doing a very good prioritization of everything as those budgets are developed. You know, Another challenge is the age of our assets, and also our unfunded capital maintenance, so that something else we will be exploring to this budget development.

[59:04] Alright, so that's a lot of talking. Is there any questions before we go into your questions, let me have for you this evening Another. Can you go back? So the G. The cap that you have is is programs that you're going to need to cut or program that you want to read. State. This is looking at the current level of service. So our financial consultant and the master plan, consulting, looked at all of our expenses over the last 5 or 6 years, and that our current level of services it costs 8.9 million or is $2.9. What we receive in revenue. But the actual cost to deliver those services is 9.9. So we do have a 1 million dollar. I mean, yeah, it's a close. Got it? And then, similarly for the operations maintenance in the ideal state based on

[60:02] national best practices, would be paying 4% of our year current replacement value every year. We're currently only funding 8.6 million, which is 2.9%. So basically we can't even keep up with the best practices for taking care of what we have. So that would be an additional 3.3 million. Alright? Thank you. Your question. So so so just are you in terms of finding alternative sources of revenue. Are you guys generating ideas about that, and like identifying? If there are potential grants or philanthropic opportunities, or what not available. all of it, if you think of. If you think of the slide that in the master plan we specifically asked for Grav and Council to weigh in on. How do you feel about us being more of a social enterprise. So the the definition of that right is that you're not making money for profit

[61:06] and for shareholders, but to fund the goods that you the good services that you provide. We we got a thumbs up on that policy. That's a shift for us in the past. Only taxes paid for community benefit services. And so this conversation we are just having a golf course. a perfect example. So we expect to be more entrepreneurial. We expect to lean in hard on public private partnerships, grants, and philanthropy. One of the positions that was approved in the 2,023 budget is a partnership position that's been vacant since the pandemic. They are in the final stages of that recruitment right now. That position, in addition to managing our volunteers, will be a grant specialist. Just so you'd be handed up. Yeah, I'd really like to emphasize that idea of having a Grant specialist who can pursue Federal money in particular, I think that the the Inflation Reduction Act there's a lot of potential money on the table.

[62:00] and someone who's skilled in navigating that landscape. I think it's. It's an investment, and it's a risk. But I think that the payoff is substantial enough to make it worth your while. There are lots of things from what I mentioned last meeting about the A tree, my money for tree planning. There is also money for improvements to capital improvements, to increase energy efficiency to move toward more solar power and things like that that I think you should pursue with as much gusto as you can manage. or lots of gusto involved. So, in addition to the parts of recreation, position, central finance is also hiring a a grant specialist, and the intention is that central finance position is going to be those Federal grants, and you know the really large, that the the grants that are specific to parts and recreation, the things that we can find are going to be in the 6 figures the things that are available at that much larger level, the infrastructure over our 6 figures, or 7 figures and more. And so the city is putting a lot of gusto into those efforts. We think that it is opportunistic right now with so much funding available.

[63:09] Yeah, that's great. Thank you. When you design these these graphs on them previous slide. Do do you guys as financial? So experts look at things like a potential recession, the recovery of the average American financially, if their salaries are going up or not, do you do those micro adjusting? So Finance Department actually works very closely with you economics every year, and they are looking at our funding. They are doing the projections. They are looking at what's going on in boulder in our community at large. and they're doing a lot of analysis. They are in the process of doing that work. Now and then they will roll out their recommendations to to the finance department to help kind of steer what our funding sources should look like, what our level should look like. So yes, it's looked at.

[64:07] you know. extremely in detail, great master plan. Specifically, we had Baller to King as a subconsultant on the plan they recommend, or their entire reports included in the touch would be in your but they really specialize in looking at those overall trends of revenues and expenses, and their basic takeaway was, we're on the top 5% performers of parks and recreation departments nationwide. We have experienced a lot of headwinds intel ones on how we're doing. But they were able to analyze basically from the last master plans adoption in 2,014, through 2,020 actual. And then they also provided us a forward looking perspective. And that's where you're seeing this delta. That's on the screen, they said to basically sustain our current level of service would take 33.3 million dollars.

[65:00] We had a similar financial analysis done in the 2,014 master plan, and what was interesting to me is over the course of the 7 years between adoption of the 2 plans, the revenues that they had forecasted in the 2,014 ban ended up about a 1 million dollars a margin of error for the department. And if you're thinking we have a 30 million dollar budget over 7 years. That is very good merchant of Mason. hey? Everyone Sorry for being, for not being in person and for being off camera and helping me with my tech challenges. I just had a question I wanted to go back to to the question that Chuck raised, and also that ally the point you made about the Grants, the person working with gusto on grants. Just a question, probably for you, Allie. How how much would that be that position both of Pr. Or parks and recognition? And then a larger city position. How much would that be integrated with the the Government first team that the city already has? Do you know

[66:06] that's a really good question. I actually think i'll have Jack's answer, because I think he's been talking with Central Finance. But if not so, where are you talking about the city's policy office and setting our legislative agenda when you say our governmental affairs team. Yeah, is it isn't that, Carl: right? Yeah, that team? It just seems like that you know, rather than I mean. Obviously they're It's very skilled than what's happening, particularly at the the level, and it it makes sense to not have those roles kind of operate, you know, independently in departments. They'll be closely coordinated. Carl does lead a city wide partnerships Team and I. I hesitate to use that word, because we're trying to define it right now in our department, as we find that there's a lot of interest in being partners with us, but that usually means people want the city to give them things for free. There is a a a citywide team that Carl is leading around funding. The other thing i'll point out is that we have incredible partners in the climate Initiatives Department, and

[67:04] they actually are, are some of their lobbying. They claim is is the reason the urban canopy and and funding for forestry was included in the Infrastructure or the Inflation Reduction Act, and all the infrastructure funding. So there's a lot of really great people in the city working on these large funding opportunities, and we are working closely with them. I get there. Jason, did that answer your question. Yeah. Perfect. Thanks very much. Any other questions, Chuck. On page 8 of your presentation you had a approved budget of 35.9 million. So I went about the discrepancy between that and the 33 point, whatever that is in the slide you're showing now on page 18 great question. So you can see that mustard toward the very top is capital of that is other funding sources that's typically tap into. So that's the it's. It's about with excise tax. So without that we would be quite close to the 32 million. Mark

[68:13] other thing i'll call out is you'll see the absence of the we have on the point 2, 5 and permanent person, the fund. Basically we use those to fund a capital projects in certain years where we'll see a bigger increase when we're funding a certain project, and then we'll have less money. And then another year. If you look at the average $12 amounts, we are still under that 33 million called at Home Slide 18. So I that's really looking at it, averaged over a multi year period rather than kind of the Eps and flows. We see in individual years. Okay, so we do have some questions for you. Focus on the budget strategy.

[69:01] They are up here on the screen. I would like to get your input to help shape our conversation over the next few months. but it we've identified what the parameters are for the budget conversation. Is there anything else that you would like us to explore on the bottom? We do have opportunities, challenges, and recommendations that were included in the packet as well as earlier on the slide. I just as a reminder my your point. have we? I hate to even suggest it. But if we consider corporate sponsorships. especially with like local corporate sponsors. I think i'm not going to answer your question directly at first. We have been talking about the philanthropy and donations aspects that you want to call out that last year we received over $600,000 in grants and donations to the department, and that was without a grants, and to be person in that position.

[70:00] If you look how much we brought in over the last 6 years, I believe it's about 1.7 million. So we are getting a lot of outside dollars. The city as well as the department do have a naming policy. So what you see with a lot of best practices in the parks and recreation Industry is corporate naming rights, individual naming rights for a dollar amount. You could name a classroom, a program of a facility after yourself. So we do have an existing policy. We're actually looking at that last week, and I believe it's 13 years old at this point, so some of the dollar amounts in there may not accurately reflect inflation, but there is definitely policy guidance that does exist, and I think that is one avenue we could explore

[71:03] any additional areas to focus you all would like to see next few months. Not this fits in. But I just, I. I keep thinking of the proximity and overlap in the area in where your high school is Southern, and I just feel like there's a lot of opportunity there for more partnership. the great opportunity for some income with restaurants. all those kids who go to king supers on their lunch break. Who would benefit both. you know, physically and mentally, as far as health goes, eating something better. And sitting by the lake, I I just think there's a lot there that Hasn't been tapped into as far as a real community center

[72:03] that could really enhance. You know, physical and mental health in that area. If you bring in some money or for shared. I don't know sharing those resources better, so that not pick double or something. I don't know if that's explored right now, or how much that's talked about, but it I mean it. What I hear you identifying as a potential concession or other opportunity for that park. It hasn't been a priority. We've, you know, been working on the reservoir and at the golf course, where I think that will be. A conversation is, as we explore the facilities future which we teed up for you last month. There will be a conversation over the next 18 months, and so I would assume that something like that could come out and could help inform the future of property, and that are. I would love to see that so like there's a potential there.

[73:08] You up Guys work with other departments and say, hey, can you look? Do you see any gaps? I'll look at your if you look at ours, and hey? Yes. we have a monthly meeting with the central finance department to go over what's going on with our departments. We have multiple service areas within Marks migration that are collaborating with other departments on regular basis. open space, housing and services, just a handful of departments across the board. And then what the city is really good at is through the annual budget process. There is a representative from each department that listens to each Other's budget presentations. So we will do something very similar to this with our colleagues, and find opportunities for library opportunities for synergies across departments. So there are a lot of opportunities to do that. So what do you do to put rigor into the conversation?

[74:00] Provocative, and, you know, bring ideas up. That might not be, hey? Good job. Sign off. I think the city as a whole hires very smart, passionate individuals that are great at their service areas. But it's also an opportunity for us to learn about other areas and ask tough questions. I think that some of the examples come through our capital budget development process. Are there better synergies that we can have with transportation for bike pathways. An example with facilities and utilities is, can we use waste water and recovery to help huge a facility? There's just so many great ideas across the board that I do feel challenged every day. I'll add, there's 2 things: Our Central Finance Department is in year, 2 of a 3 year budget process improvement. They're on budgeting for resilience, and it's other stress testing the city's budget, making sure that it is outcome. Based. So in the second year, the key advancements are every single program that the city of program is a service you provide, whether ongoing or ty found, has to be tied to the city strategic framework and it and they have to identify strategic outcomes.

[75:10] And if you can't do it, there's going to be a whole lot of questions and push back because of the Kpis and the way we just did our work. We're actually going to be one of the first departments to go down this pass and block for other departments. Another thing i'll call out you all haven't seen yet. The kick off it's coming. The city of Boulder is going to be a unicef child, friendly city. And through that we're going to create a youth plan. And what i'm really excited that means is that across the city we're going to look at the way we serve you. and we're going to do something called asset mapping, but for for not physical infrastructure. So how are we see it serving kids 0 0 to 5, 5 to 12 team and high school, and in that we'll see where where we have gaps, maybe, where we duplicating or triplicating, and how we operate more efficiently to better serve kids. So I think that's a way to all of the departments are going to be lifting up the on the way we serve kids, and it it's going to have great outcomes that i'm really excited about it.

[76:04] I mentioned that step 2, and we actually got a grant from the children in nature network. So speaking of grants and times all together. a and one of 3 cities in the Us. That it's. It's a small grant, but it's a lot to focus it on a Gis application for not 5 to the park which is working title, and we'll be happy to bring that back to you later on down the road. So you see how that works, kind of together. and it's nice when you combine grams for research and application. and then being my last meeting, just that final push for looking at seniors as well, so much focus on new, and that's great like. There's a very aging population. and less than 2 decades. I'll be joining them. Just want to make sure that we're not doing all you kids and all people on fixed Bunch. It's unable to participate in our society. I would like to think Bowlers E. Everybody city, and that's really that all the efforts around youth and older adults and equity are making sure that the folks who maybe fly or the radar. So what we should bring back, Mary, your question is prompting me is that with our partners and Hhs boulder did commit to become a

[77:19] forget the name of it. Lifelong step near Brian or Megan, if you remember the Hhs initiative. It's a it's a it's a program that's very similar to this child. Friendly city. Mary. But it's it is for what and what's fascinating is that I don't care. What if the age range You look at what really what we're finding is that good design for kids is good design for older adults, and the term is actually universal design. So i'm going to give a really simple example. We know that when there's more times across the sidewalk. You have you as a mother with a stroller, or a father with a stroller Have more time. If you are a person in a wheelchair. You have more time if you are 85, and walking very slow with a cane or you also have some. There's a lot of design principles that that it

[78:00] go across the ages as far as improving accessibility. Okay, so we're gonna move down to question 2. Is there any additional data that you need to help inform your decision making. I think that, as Ali mentioned, we have a whole lot of metrics that we do track on a daily, monthly quarterly basis that we are happy to provide and share. We just don't want to overwhelm you with. How much do we collect? And then you people come in. If you have the time to create a legend about your acronyms. That was a hard thing for me when I first in, and i'm in the business. I you know you know it's not our lingo. We have a Okay.

[79:00] And then the third question is really just. We identified staff's, perceived opportunities, challenges, and recommendations. Is there anything else you would like us to add to this list? As we are talking with our colleagues in the department to develop budget, our colleagues and the Central Finance Department, and just preparing for the conversations with you over the next 3 months. A question, even though I won't be here. But where is the on this issue? Come into play, I mean meaning like to the high school and the playgrounds, and the like, like the clean up, and then i'm talking, budgeting. I'm not talking about. I'm just saying, you know, when they do, the clean up is that public works or it's public, you, you know. So i'm gonna connect Dots a little bit. So we shared in the future board items that on April thirteenth, the safe and manage public spaces team. There's a multi disciplinary team of police utilities, parts of recreation, housing and human services. We're going to give an update on the pilot projects that council funded in 2,021, and all of that data so we could. We could give a deep dive on that tonight. But I wonder, Pam, if it would.

[80:11] You're not going to be here at the April meeting. Here's how it shows up in the Budget is that we're going to be reporting back on these pilot projects and asking for funding for them to continue in 2,020. But I can all go on and missing because I'm: about first. Yeah. Okay. Okay. because it's expensive. I was just wondering if it's your pot or somebody else's pot. I I mean, it's addressing it as a community that's that's covered in a lot of different ways. right? But I want to know who's but it isn't like i'm. I'm interested to know like like in my budget. I don't have any of that, you know it's all in it's all in. Call it works, and in the sheriff's department. It's wondering if there was any that was in our budget. There is some that is in Parks recreation budget is primarily in the general fund. I see. Thank you

[81:01] so other than the equitable access focus. Have you ever put, like the lens of inclusion and equity over everything to look at? How it can. Yep, awesome. So there is a city wide racial equity instrument that we use for any decision making. There's a commence version of this full version, and with any program that it's going to the Executive. But your team for review? We do complete the full analysis on Who's going to be impacted? Who are we harming, or Who are we excluding from some activity based on our budgeting decisions? So it is very much included and embedded in our decision making. And all of our programming staff is aware of that pretty instrument. We use it to make their decisions as well. Yeah, I know this is Marathon. So we have a few more sites. And just to set this one up. Jackson, this is the subject of your study session in 2 weeks, and so the information that Jackson's about to give really is to just soften the ground for the conversation in 2 weeks. So

[82:12] so we're gonna talk the policy development, as many of you know, the Department is seeking Capra accreditation. This is accreditation from the national. All recreation perks association, and really identifies that you are really good at what you do with that there is a requirement within our accreditation application that we have a fee policy. I think this is really good timing, just because we have a whole lot of fees across the department, and some of them come before Crab, but not all of them. So we've given you a timeline back to 2,014 master plan. with the adoption of the 2,014 city White Budget City Council people for the dice Here it used to be your wired. I have certain fees when the city council were included in a full of notice process, and because it wasn't all about a piece it wasn't very equitable or consistent across the board.

[83:10] So in 2,014 the decision was, we to back this out as you where we've talked about this, we access these a whole lot for you when it's been on proud of it. It was in 2014, 16, and 1820, 22, and 23. But there's even years, and then 2023, or when we have increased the access to fees. she worked on the 2020. It was really streamlining it for the golden reservoir and the outdoor pools to be consistent with our 3 recreation centers, and that really focused more so on the consistency of menu options, simplifying what it was for the customer to understand our staff members to be able to AD accurately answer questions instead of having 35 different ways, you could access the facility. So a lot of that work was done in 2,020, and prep is really late in and given a whole lot of policy guidance on the in 2,019, right before Covid hits Tom Mosby and stuffing him and Rover before you, and talked about the golf course at that time we changed the pricing model for the

[84:17] Of course there's the introduction of the pass. There was standardization like the fees. We have a weekly rate, and then a weekend rate, which includes Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and there was a whole lot of proud guidance that was provided to us back in time. So right, now, we're at the yellow flag looking for guidance on 2024 and with that we are going to get your input on a feed policy that helps really document all of our crap. Thanks that we have received this in 15 plus prime numbers. You see one very simplified document. And then there's other areas where we don't feel as if we had very clear community or city Council direction that we are looking for advice, to incorporate into that. He calls

[85:05] this fee policy will really help us embed that in the 2,024 budget development process, and then by having a standalone fee policy, it would allow us to update the fees, you know, in a way that's consistent with the Prep. Direction and guidance, and really simplifies the role process. And American way back here during the years of so these 3 areas of revenue collection are very well documented, and have been reviewed with the crab. As I mentioned the facility access that this is on the 3 rectangular pools in the golden Reservoir. We historically base this on what is our actual cost to deliver the service for the adult resident to access, or one of this. as you can see, we have to see, increases in (201) 628-2020 and 23.

[86:00] All this comes with prior recommendation, is reviewed by city Council as part of the budget process, and is ultimately publicized as a city manager rule which takes effect after 7 days. The benefit level provided really focuses on that to unity recreation. So we had our recreation as a reminder. Stacy showed you a slide that we have community recreation and exclusive recreation is kind of the capture all where users are paying for a good portion of it. But taxes are also subsidizing it to an effect. So we do plan to update this in 2,024. The Next item is the golf course. The golf course does have a variety of different revenue collection mechanisms. We talked about grounds called the 9 or 18 Holes part Reynolds driving range tournaments in the future state a concession air space. So typically this is based on market rate comparison. Last time we updated the fees where it is in 2022, and at that time we said that we weren't going to update any of these at the of course, until the cip project was.

[87:06] So we're not really looking to change anything with the golf course, you know, and the fact that there's so much to evaluate the new clubhouse. And then, finally, we have the recreation services back in 2,014, probably the Recreation Priority Index. This is a tool that all of our programmers use to identify What is the cost recovery. How who benefits and how we pay for it? All of our staff go through this training, not on the basis. And we update our fees through that process. because this I was adopted by a crab. We typically don't come and say, this is how much we're going to charge for. We have about 4,000 programs a year that we offer, and it seems a little ridiculous to bring you 4,000 piece to analyze on a regular basis. So this is where we feel as if we have very clear and direct craft guidance.

[88:05] What we're proposing is taking this out of the pragmat and putting it into a set fee policy. So we aren't really going to go very deep on this in the next 2 months, because we feel as if we have a lot of our questions and answer here because this existing policy here i'll pause for a minute and see if there's any questions. Okay. All I mentioned expanding the recreation priority index to cover other types of recreation services, including facility, access. And I wonder if that is folded into this policy? Development? Yes, and let me say it a little bit differently. What I think, I said is that the Rpi works really well for programs where we design and deliver the program, and what we intend to do with the key policy is clarify the level of subsidy and benefit of other services. So when Jack's all of these, if you look at the benefit level.

[89:07] what we anticipate happening at your study session in 2 weeks is, we're going to talk about the spectrum of community to individual benefit. We're going to agree where these different things live in the Rpi. I can't answer it for all services. I think there is value to an objective tool, though, and I would encourage it to be more than just some words, but some some way to quantify as much as possible the community benefit. We agree. Yeah. Hey, did you have a question? I'll I'll wait. I want it to. You probably can answer it. So on this slide we have 2 additional categories, where we don't feel as if there is consistent or regular crowd, guidance or community City Council guidance. And that's because we Haven't Asked you this really lives in so many different areas that we are trying to grasp our hands around it. But we have grasp is some categorization on the far left side, where we think that there is really 3 additional categories for us to to find a few policy.

[90:15] the first one being rentals and access. This is everything from field rentals for a soccer field to a lane rental for swimming. And as I share that tool very based on the service area of the department that you follow through as well as when was last time. It was reviewed in the session of the So we very much view a lot of this. and there are different ones impacted. So we plan to develop a full formal policy Council access in the third quarter. But what we're looking for to wrap up this part of the budget development process is an overall policy that guides the direction we have, and then we'll dive into the further details.

[91:03] Second line item down is commercial use. So we have a variety of programs that operate in our parks. buildings we lease or partner with, and this is really a commercial activity that's taking place in one of our perks facilities. You need it once again. This varies: Don't. Have a whole lot of guidance, and we view most commercial use as exclusive access given. You have to register for it where there's a paid aspect associated with it. Third category, we have facilitated programming and check. This probably falls more in line with what you have. Programming is where we partner with someone. The Sally mentioned partnership is a very broad terminology, and we have revenue shares that are across the board. So we did try to provide examples, this isn't to call out any specific program. It's really to help you visualize what we're talking about. Gonzo. Tennis and just gardens are 2 examples that we have here, and with that we do have a revenue share, where, for some programs we will be responsible for registration

[92:10] and collect a portion of the revenue for others, we have the partners do their own registration. So there is some policy question around that that we do need to clarify. Once, you know, we view this as a very exclusive use of our facilities, and this primarily impacts the graph. Finally, we have Grants philanthropy and donation. We have an external funding strategy and are very opportunistic about it. But to Elliott's point. There could be some updating thought on that, as far as what we're doing, and we do have a formal partnership with play that I just wanted to call out. So, generally speaking, the top 3 categories Here, you see, on the left hand column is what we plan to explore during the study session with you in 2 weeks, and just wanted to verify that the revenue categories we've identified, or what you would agree we should focus on.

[93:03] So we're down to our final slide. We have 3 questions for you. Staff is develop the parameters to guide development of a fee policy or the next several months. Is there anything else? So it this pertains to the policy. But I would be interested to see what other cities are doing better, comparable cities in terms of like population whatever for their fee policy on this items. And obviously we're not just going to adopt it. But it's a good starting point. and it'd be helpful for us because we have. I have no baseline like what a fee policy should look like. So it' be helpful to see like what you know. Tucson, Arizona does, or whatever it is like just to see what it looks like. We had intended to pull the benchmark identified city so in 2,014. We identified cities as our chosen bedmarks, because they were cities of a similar size, but also we wanted high performing cities. So we looked at cities. We've achieved what are known as the highest standards in our in our profession. They've either achieved the accreditation that you've heard us talk about that we're pursuing. They've won a gold medal by the National Recreation and Park Association, and so we'll be pulling the the cities that we

[94:17] that we've identified. But we also will just look for some locally. There's other. There are Capra credited agencies in our state that are not recognized as our peer cities, but they they do a nice job, so we'll be sharing a few of those. but so on. Number 2. Here the process to create a fee policy. I think you need to look carefully at broader city goals and not just focus on parks and recreation goals. So climate, initiative, transportation. even housing. You know how how are these policies going to impact the other aspects of the city that we

[95:02] that are important and livability. And yeah, but broader city goals very good to 2 and 3 are up there. I'm not going to read them, but would love any other feedback. We have so many people coming to speaking. I don't know what to say. It's not really criticized, but just to say that fees are high, etc. Is there a way that the with them, for example, to today. for you know, please reach out. These are the questions we'll be asking, and so that they do feel like they have some. Input. I think this is a great opportunity, and I think. looking forward a year or 2 by having a fee policy in place, it helps the Prep. Explain to those individuals or organizations.

[96:01] Why, our fees are what they are. It's very consistent there to interpret, and it's in one policy document you don't need to reference multiple different sources. and I think it's part of this process. We do plan to have various engagement with different user groups talking about the changes, etc. It's not like, we would just implement a fee change in January first. It's an effect. There's definitely some outreach that has to go in and notify organizations. Individuals that we are planning to increase fees, Explain the reason behind it is what what was the policy that we received from It's 40. Okay, we will have an exercise for you in 2 weeks, heard your feedback and have noted it.

[97:00] We will make sure that we're looking at what the city schools are across the board. and then also. as well as across the state to share with you. Thank you all for the Thank you all for your questions and engagement really helpful. It's chat. It's a dense topic. It's an exciting. you know. You love your Java, and you could say that you're sitting in March. Well, we can move on to matters from the Department to North Wales. Yeah, I it looks like you're lens. If I don't. Yes, let me share my screen here in a second.

[98:18] Okay. Okay. So we're talking about North Holder Park again. So not not necessarily the concept plan. So just kind of what we're talking about today is more of a schedule update than anything else. So just as a quick reminder, I think the last time you guys saw this was in October, and so what you were looking at in October was to altered this of the of the plan, and discussing what that was like. And then we also we're at the community talking to them. What's the park and have some conversations looking at the alternatives? So where we are at the project is we really need to take those 2 alternatives and all of that feedback. and blend them into one alternative plan. This is not it. This is one of the alternatives to start there just to kind of keep the remembering. We have some staff turn over. So the project kind of one and a little bit of while that that was happening. So now that I've got chronic

[99:17] in this reminder. So what I want to talk about a little bit you saw in the middle was one of our storm water drainage. and then in both of the original alternatives, I guess you can't. Oh, yeah, you can. Okay. So right here you'll see that there was there was a a burning from play, and it was a 4 to 6 foot burn that we talked about putting in there at the end of 2022. What we learned is that Burn would provide some alleviation that issue. But it wouldn't really correct the problem. So we thought, Well, we're doing this, let's take a possible look at the things that are happening so upper this creek 2 mile. but

[100:00] mitigation plan we're going to call it Ug: T. For short, it's almost complete. And so they're actually going to the Water Resource Board this month as well. with their finalized plan. And so in the same thread. The Alpine awesome project is looking at what they're doing with their storm water, and what needs to happen for that? And those 2 plans will tell us some of some very similar things. So what we also learned about. Yeah, like I said the the firm, Isn't really gonna do everything they were hoping to do so with 2 different departments which are on slightly different tracks. But I think we've actually mind our scheduled stuff that we worked out pretty Well, so let me discuss what that is is. So this is just a base map of North Holder Park. I just wanted to share. So like up Here is Del what Ninth Street is down this side. and the center of the area is up here just to give you reference. Right? The shelter in the playground all fields, and then else time kind of comes into here.

[101:07] The 2 main water issues that we're talking about are the water that does she at the top. and then at the bottom. We know we have some kind of savvy or less areas out here as well. What you see here is What we think is actually the problem is that there is Storm Inlet. There's a large box of it, which is a storm inlet, and then the storm water pipe actually goes under the playground. So, as you guys know, play grants usually last 20 to 25 years. So this is a really good opportunity to pair up and fix that storm water pipe while we can. So that's the one issue. And then the second is out time awesome. He's gonna put in a cupboard under ninth.

[102:03] so you'll see that the sort of water pipe from the north will actually feed into that as well. So what'll happen if the bottom of your screen. There is a box cover. There'll be a small depression in the park. and then it'll be graded back from there. So if we're working with that facilities team to have minimal impact on this. the user experience. So what you'll see for the most part is this kind will actually be under 9. You'll see right a bit of a sort of plaza that comes out from Max the outside, both of development. We'll kind of provide an entrance into the park. and then it'll just be kind of recreated down so that it's actually draining into that area. So let's see.

[103:03] I lost my spot here for a second. Okay. Yeah. So So we're in the 2 different departments. So the actual I'm. Only showing you a little part of the stormwater drainage over all in this arc as part of the Ug. T. They realize this is kind of like the beginning of the Upper Goose Creek. And so what they're actually gonna do is look at the storm water throughout the park and work to design an engineer what that looks like. And then we know for the playground area that'll be space. Once we can actually get that under the playground. It's a background moving. We realize that is an urgent need. and then we'll connect that to the output, Balson, and then we still will have an overall for one plan that they'll provide, and then we make. We might need to make further further improvements of in how years from there. So, in addition to the storm water, while we're working on these things. we also are doing the bathroom renovation

[104:07] as part of the improvements to the shelter. The roof was changes. The gutters are repaired, and then they're renovating the 2 restaurant restrooms to be year round. Gender. So what that means next steps is first is working with the utility department. So again they're going to the water resource for tonight as well. They're going to identify funds to design an engineer that full storm water plan. And then we're gonna work with them hopefully to identify. And then the timing construction. those improvements. and that's anticipated to start the design and engineering this year, and then that funding next year in 2,024 likewise the facilities department is completing their design, so they can submit a plumber and a loomar

[105:00] that engineering is under way. We're working closely with them on the design that should be done and submitted by Q. 2 2,023, and then we'll look at that scheduled construction also likely in 2,024. So what does that mean? That's for us. The need side is we're going to complete that renovation on the shelter and the restaurant. and then it since we get a few answers from when that actual design and engineering can happen for the storm water will update that timeline for construction that doesn't mean we're going to stop working on the project. So i'm working this week to get a landscape architect under contract to help us push forward to use that feedback to create that or alternate, and then really start going through our design development construction documents, so that we're all lined up and ready to roll with the other projects with the facilities.

[106:03] and then really coordinating with the Alpine Falls and project as it is on going with that, what that looks like, because the Jason to the Park. It could have lots of meeting one other option or opportunity that we have coming up that we're exploring. It's not on here, because it's in the very early stages is there is a potential to move some of that ground water into from the up time Boston project into some underwater storage tapes that we could put in the park that we would then able to be used for irrigation in the park, so we wouldn't be using it would. Yeah. So it's basically the ground water from those buildings, because we know we can't use it all at once from the that's a good thing. And then it actually It's a big cost savings for the I've also project. If this all works out, we still have engineering discussions to go around with it, but then they Won't have to work on water treatment on the property.

[107:10] either in in the basement so hopefully this not works out. It's in the early like idea stage. But in that isn't going to hold up the rest of this anything that we do with the intakes under one, we still have parks. my engineering background. I do not. Well. not really, but yes, yes and no. It's your question by accident. So any questions on all of that i'm just curious. What what is the out all time, boss? Awesome project going to be like that? What is it going to be in the demo? There's actually one we outline Boston projects. It's a pretty big undertaking, and has kind of lost public engagement around it. So the 2 things that you'll see linked in in the memo are that Upper Goose Creek, 2 Mile plan, and then the outside Boston plan. They're both very

[108:03] large plans that have been like their full time year. Okay. processes. I have to answer any questions about those as I can before we can bring stuff in It's no getting been decided yet. Yeah. So yeah, that i'm sick underway for quite a while. That's all I have for you guys. Any other questions? Yes, yeah. yeah, it's great. Thank you. A couple of questions. One is, you have freedom for heating in the bathroom. and I wonder what the heat source for that warm water will be. I'm sorry I used that a little bit. So you have. You have gradient for heating for the bathroom. and I wonder what the heat source for that water will be I I I don't know directly that I can answer that, or at least have it in the memo for the because I' to do the next one.

[109:02] Okay, it's just nicely situated for solar thermal. So it's probably outside of the budget. But it's something I was just curious about. And then, secondly, is there a broader plan to sort of revision the park, with the development of Alpine balsam, which is going to put 300 units, or whatever of housing directly adjacent to the park. You know there might be need to be some consideration of pathways to the park, and where equipment is located or equipment, but where amenities are located. I know you're not going to move trees around right, but just some thought about how people, how people that are going to be moving there, presumably with lots of kids, will will access and use the park. Yeah, that is true. And so we have thought about that. And so what you'll see to like. I think I mentioned in the memo was. It has grown from let's say it's your original scoping. The original stopping this kind of we're just going to replace the playground and do some minor upgrades and not realize that with that big development we need more in that park right? It needs to be more. It's going to have to serve a lot more. So what you'll see upcoming is, for example, if it

[110:08] this area we'll have an extended nature play, and we're looking at other ways that we can let that part, knowing that's gonna have that growth. The location of it will likely stay where it is. partly because the up time Boston will have a pocket park included in their development. and the other part of that is really how the park is laid out, how the target users like to use the park, and then looking at where the low areas are. So we're talking about sperm water, and we know in far they're commonly the place that we do want the water to collect and take a little bit of time in high water situations to soak in. So what are the high and low areas in the Park. you know, and we don't want to put the expensive background equipment, Any low areas that are gonna stay. So so those are some of the reasons we did look at it. We did consider it. Okay, I'm: i'm thinking more in lines of the Alpine Boston will have this sort of.

[111:03] I think the current plans are for some sort of open terrace kind of structure that opens toward the park. and so it's a natural access point to the park across Ninth Street at that location. and so it's it's a good opportunity there for some sort of entrance features, you know. I don't know exactly what I have in mind, but something that welcomes people to the park at that location. and potentially even a path connecting on the far south edge of the park. You know, that would connect people through to the street, which is, I guess. Eighth Street on the south west corner. So part of the project and we were talking about what? That from that area. So right come down ball some, you know, and it comes to a tea, and you're at this beautiful space, whether you're walking by you're driving right, and that is part of what what we're looking at and on the all time, boss, and

[112:01] a budget for our. And we're looking at what we can do as far as functional art to make that really welcoming space. Small plaza instead of just maybe a you know a rail can be a decorative rail. That's a conversation that's kind of still in the first, but it's being considered on how that is an entrance. and the other piece of that is, we did consider putting in a sidewalk that went to 8. But if you look at the mapping a lot of times when we look at Parks, you'll have a a path that's sort of beaten down, naturally, because people want to be going there, and a lot of times that'll help us to find fire providers. But if you look at 8 it's actually kind of doesn't connect in it really just sort of follows up back around the park. So if there isn't a lot of desire to to go through the Park, and then we are also looking at transportation connections. So we always look at transportation, master Plan as well, and look at where those connectors are. It's

[113:00] i'll find some. It's called a plaza area for sure. Is that how to but answer your question? Any other questions? Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. All right. That's it for matters from the department. So on the matters from the board. alright. I didn't know what this was before it's going to sure we that to the board the attachment is in here. We look at the attachment. Hey? There's his background description for this item. Basically the say is using the Boulder Junction Project as a pilot to this is your liaison opportunities. This is one we'll be talking about more at the April meeting.

[114:05] and so this is a matter from the Board for open for you. All facilitate a conversation and select a number to represent the crab on this task Force for this Jo working for working group. I I would like to volunteer to do this. It sounds fascinating, and I wanted to do one of these liaison. Well, since I join the board, so I think this would be a good. I think I would like it, and i'm happy to discuss if somebody else wants to do instead. But I I think this would be fun, so it seems to me that it would be better place to do it when you bring your new members on. Not that they're probably going to jump at it, but to see the the timeline on this did not allow for that to be clear. This is a opportunity we intend to bring more at the this one is time bound?

[115:05] Yeah. I think it's got to be there. Jason. Check. Do you have any interest. Love it. If Elliott did it, there'd be okay. I need to with you now. I'll sign you up and you'll be. I'll say you'll all of it. Yeah. Great Alright, we'll move on to prom matters. Do you have anything any where they've been? It it's something they experience that you want to talk about. I think we skipped an item your handball. I missed it. I'm on purpose. I I actually missed putting it on. My! So I guess i'll

[116:01] start the the conversation here, so as you all probably saw, and spend a amount of time doing the handbook. And this is one of the situations where I've received very targeted feedback from a lot of you. And I thought about going in and just changing the things that you all but made sense, and that I thought could be changed. And then I realized that I wanted to rewrite it and to incorporate all of your feedback in my rewrite. So I just did that instead, and I provided you with a red line version and a clean version of Redo. and the goal of the rewrite is to make this more readable document to make it more clear on procedures and rules, and just it's a chance for us to really figure out what we really find important about our process, and to clarify that in our handbook and make sure that we have it. It's something that is accessible

[117:03] for everybody to revisit every year, and that the new. These can come on and take this and not like. I remember when I got the handbook I was like, oh, yeah, this is not a this is not like. It's fun to read. I read through it, anyway, but I felt like it could use a little bit more. It could be more readable and accessible. And I I to accomplish that. So i'm hoping today to get this is just the first discussion. So what I kind of yeah. An analogy would be like when i'm advising school districts when they're changing a policy and they have to go on and changing a policy where they're drafting a new policy. They have 3 readings of the end of the policy, so they they get a draft of the policy. They talk about it in one meeting, and then they go back, and they fix it again, and then they bring it back for a second reading, and so forth. So I thought I would treat this process like that where this is our first reading, and we can talk about what the

[118:02] draft looks like, where there are specific areas that you want me to go back and fix or to beef up a little bit, or you know we want to just shift this off the city attorney's office and clean it up, whatever you want to do. But this is just our first chance of several, I think, to talk about this and make sure that it's It's on the right pad. So with that I will open it up to the group to discuss. Okay. I've got some notes here that I will take. Yeah, but I mean on the first round, and they are happy to incorporate further feedback. But yeah. Jack.

[119:00] First of all, I'd like to thank you very, very much for taking this on and making these very significant improvements to the document. You've done a fantastic job of taking at least my input and and including it. So I want to thank you for It's a lot of hours of work you put in. Thanks very much. I really like the content I don't have a lot of changes to suggest. I think of the there's a section of it, and part a where it tends to be a little bit. I'll open to legal ease like you're using item and things like that which I know as a place in legal writing. But I don't think this is a legal document. and so that may be a little intimidating to people who don't know what it means. Can you Can you be specific about like, Where which part are you talking about? Like when I'm describing, or we are describing the the the statutes that apply.

[120:02] Yeah. So the first section Section a, and you have part one part, 2 part, 3 part. And you know you're You're quoting the relevant code. I think that once you quoted it. You don't need to put item after every sentence. You know that this is referring to the previous previous code. and once you said, read this code. I think people will know to read the code. Yeah. So it makes it sound like a legal document to me, not not being a a lawyer. So i'm sure you used to that to that type of stellar writing being a lawyer. But yeah, i'm not. It's a little. Maybe not. Everyone will find that accessible, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. But really that's really my only minor minor knit to pick. I think you've done a great job. There's some typos in there that we can clean up later. But it's it's It's a fabulous job. So thank you. Thanks. good feedback. I appreciate it.

[121:03] Did you strike the entire index table of contents. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna redo that. So when it's like it's finalized, we'll put a new one in. But the existing one is like. yeah. no longer relevant. Yeah. I guess the one little thing that I thought was kind of neat was it started in what? 1961. It'd be fun to see that on the front page, it says, adopted February 2,008 mended 23 like the font. I really felt like it was spooky. Yeah, it was very odd to read someone kind of drinking what they did in the so it's much tighter and professional modern. Thank you.

[122:01] Yeah, inviting. We know how to ali the question for you. But the city and Charity's office. Can you make a with me? And then I can ask them for the materials that they can provide like that. Memo. Okay, Great. Absolutely. Thank you. And what do you need me for this? So yeah, so my, I think the best. Your skills will be really helpful if I after this, if people want to right to me or to you. you better like, with proposed changes to this that they think of after the meeting. or that they want to put into writing. they can send it to you into the and then you can compile that and make sure that when i'm looking back at it that I can come to you and say, let's compile all of the feedback.

[123:10] Yeah. You remember, I think you have a phrase in there. This handbook shall be revisited every 10 years or something, I think. Yeah, I I think I actually put it in for 3 or 5 years. Yeah. And I actually so. One idea that I had was so that there's a there's going to be a letter at the beginning. That's basically a welcome to crab members. And I I can't decide whether it should come from the the current chair or just all members of the proud. But if it comes from the current chair, it would be a forcing mechanism for us to revisit it every year, because then the chair will likely switch over where every 2 years is there's a 2 year chair, and then that would be an opportunity for the chair and other members to like. Look at this.

[124:02] and just revisit the content in addition to the weather changing so. But I think that this should be revisited every 3 to 5 years at the most. Bye. because it just gets stale. and there may be processing, I mean, who would have known like 3 years ago. The pandemic is going to change like the manner in which we present meetings. and so none of that is reflected in this. If we haven't redone this in 2,018, it would have been out of date by now. So who knows what happens in 5 years? Yeah. So and that's typically when I know I advise public bodies. I'm. Representing to revisit there policies, too. It's like, you know, every 5 years so good time to, or when there's a switch over in the makeup of the body. Typically, it's every 3 to 5 years. There's a significant turnover, so it's good time to look at the process.

[125:01] and there may be something in his handbook that doesn't work anymore. You know it's like, oh, wait! We we said this in the handbook. We want to do it this way, but it's a little bit cumbersome, or we don't like that process, so let's get rid of it. I think, Jason, having us do we have a secretary of the Board? You do so. The Secretary of the Board is actually by the code. It's supposed to be the city manager. or the design of the city manager. And I think the designate is Allie. Yeah. So that's that's technically the Secretary. It's Secretary Doesn't need to be. And in fact, it's often not a member of the of the board. Jack.

[126:02] I just got interrupted and forgot what I was gonna say. Something extremely pity and important. Obviously. Well, let me think of it. If you think of it. you can follow up with me separately, or you can email the in Rose Up with your your thought, or you can interrupt the next part of the meeting, and we can go back to it. Okay, I think I was going to suggest that Rosa or you include line numbers on your index version, so that we can make comments on specific lines. especially for typos and things. It's a lot easier to identify them that way. and for future you propose the second. I would say this: the next reading should probably be at the next meeting. I don't think we need to not the special, the study session for the next full meeting, the first meeting for the new, these

[127:03] and that way they can look at the a handbook beforehand, and as a first order of business for them. It's like, hey, is there anything we want to see in this like that Doesn't: make sense. Yeah, it's just welcoming to yeah, Exactly. So. Or yeah, this doesn't make sense, or I like to know more about this process. So I think that'd be great. That'd be good gonna check. I I did remember it was the inclusion of lengths, I think, is a is a good modernization of this. especially if it's available online so that people can just click to follow the links to the various places. And I know you're doing that with the charter and things like that, but I would encourage them. Hey? Thank you. The purpose, or your rational for the chair versus or versus kind of by your welcome letter that I mentioned you about. Yeah, the welcome letter

[128:01] who it comes from is less important to me than what it says. I think that the letter should be to kind of define who the prag is, and kind of the scope of our work a little bit, and also be a welcoming like, hey? You know we're glad to have you in part of this work. If it comes from the chair or the whole crab, or some subset. you know it's it's important to me, and and I I wouldn't leave that open to them to the board just to make that decision. I I put it in here as coming from the current share. But that was just for this place for you. I like it coming from the chair, because you don't get to do much. I I just like we don't what the the role we get to call the meeting, and during the meeting I think it's kinda cool that you get to do. You could have a handbook one year. That's just my goal. Who i'm gonna have to consider is that the new Board members like. So, for example, right now, right, we have 2 new Board members. We'd be in very sending them the Handbook as a welcome to the crab. I'm not sure. I I would hope right that it's part of the procedure that someone sends it in advance of their first meeting

[129:10] the the current chair, Pam. We'll never work with them on the board, and so there's a weird timing glitch in that, if it's coming from the chair, do you have to wait till April, and there's a new chair, and then they they're handled plus for a month to think about it. But there's something different there, because just because they're not on my board. I still care about them. I want the best for them, I mean in my I I have all the chairs that I've worked with. I I have really, and it's been enamored with all like you. You know what i'm saying so I feel like. just because I don't know that I I I wouldn't still like the opportunity. But for the next person, I think Chuck would like the opportunity when he hits off. I that's all. Yeah, no, I I I think that's that's a really good point in the very presumptive

[130:00] we haven't had elections for the chair. Oh, sorry. I just assume. I think, because the especially the old documents so formal that I wrote the letter, it was more friendly, like, hey informal, but not, as I think, when the only touch you've had is with the you know city attorney's office about your own. It's kind of at first, if it's your first time doing something like this. So I just, I hope for yeah, sure you can. What what you want, for example. But just a little more the friendly yeah, the tone should be inviting and yeah and friendly. I completely agree

[131:01] Any other points people want to make or feedback they want to provide. I so ally likes. She has fun with the budgets. I have fun with this. So that just shows you how tomented my mind works. Yeah. that work out in the bright shop that matters. We move on to that matters. Sorry about that. So anybody would like to talk about it's something they've seen been to something of interest. They they concerned about. and they want to bring up to all in the Board. I do. I had a really great

[132:00] meeting with the members of the see you crew the Colorado crew team, or a couple of members about their fees for using the reservoir, and I talked to Ali about it, and it was. I just wanted to say that I thought that the group that I met with was incredibly impressive. They're very passionate about what they are doing, and feel very strongly about what they were speaking to me about, but they did so very respectfully, and it was a really great opportunity to engage with members of the community. and I would encourage everybody to do that if you get. And I've I've offered to me with the folks out of the res a few times, and we haven't been able to to schedule something yet. But i'm still open for that. I think that's one of the best parts of the job is. you know, actually going to meet people. And now that we're kind of in this. it was pandemic ish era, where we can go meet people again.

[133:02] I just think that that's I would just encourage others to do it, and I really enjoyed that opportunity. And it was really important thing, too, because we're here to represent the community. In a way it was good to get out and talk to folks in the community. That's that, Jason. Okay. right? Not really but one thing that I realize. I have like 3 first right near my house. And did we make any money at all from people renting the parks. or aerobics, or Tai Chi, or a little craft there, and yes, but very, very, very, very small dollar amounts. We have a commercial use program than the pilot phase for 10 years. Now it's based on the average number of attendees. It's it's it's self-reported.

[134:09] So that is the policies commercial use and access is one of the listed categories, so that will be updated as part of the policy. The next matter is fat, recruitment, orientation, and sleeping got it. What I mean. Sure this is a matter from the Board. This is where you would talk about that. You have 2 new members, and I think this part of your orientation. You assign mentors. So you might want to start there, and then I see Chuck has his hand up, so maybe it's the vice chair he's offering to facilitate this item. That would be lovely. Unfortunately, my work is interfering. So our research plane just landed, and I have to go access my instruments and get them off before they shut down for the day.

[135:07] So I just wanted to. If you don't mind my interjecting for a minute. Is that okay, Madam Chair. Sure. I I wanted to just say goodbye to to Mary and Pam because i'm not going to be here for the next 1520 min. and I wanted to thank you both for being such great Co members on the board, and i'm going to miss having you on the board, and You're great in sight. and Aries wonderful, wonderful viewpoints and different perspectives. She brings to the board. especially for representing some of the older residents of boulder and and Pam, your expertise and professionalism. Given your your career. It's been so great serving with you. I am I'm going to miss you a lot. and I hope we help. We keep in touch. and I know we will

[136:01] thank you. I'm so sorry to have to run out like this. He he was jokes at the airport and the hangar. One time when we were having an agenda, we're all streams that it's in that world a plane like he someone's got to save the world Shock. We're glad you're doing it. Thank you, bye. since I Hi, Mary! Hi! So let's do this. So here's let's let's pause for a moment and talk about. We'll meet our 2 new Board members. So we have Anna, Sieger, and Andrew, and if, as we send them items, we will send the proud handbook, and some of that can be a process improvement. If you all want to talk about mentorship, we can also facilitate those connections, and then we can resume the appreciation

[137:04] perfect. So in terms of mentors i'll just kinda i'll start off. I'm happy to mentor I one of them. whoever I don't want to pick because feel like I It was seem like a favoring one or the other, so i'm happy to be randomly assigned one of them to met your be a way to pay forward Jason's amazing mentorship of thing. and they raised by an I don't have a plane coming in with instruments. They're just 3 kids. But i'm! I also am happy to to continue like thanks, Elliott, for the compliment, and i'm happy to Mentor and less sunny, or I need. I would like to do that for the happy to put my name in, if no one else. This is only 2. I'm happy to wait another year

[138:03] right? Jason and Elliott will set you up and sign you up anything else. I guess the Board members that you want us to make sure. I know we have your onboarding materials that you all were just talking about anything else that we should be thinking of this. We're about to the draft of the new Handbook. In addition to the whole handbook. we're going to provide them with the Handbook. But i'm assuming it's the existing handbook, not the one that we're fixing. What we do is link to this month's packet and share that the board is considering updating and in the process of rioting the handbook that way they get the full context of the conversation, and note that it's not yet been reviewed by city attorneys, even though Elliott is an attorney, right? And so just in the whole context of it. So we we could do that. Yes. I I would support that

[139:01] was going to add, but I still need your bio. Yes, yeah. And an email. I'm saying it out now, because that's part of the welcome material that's right here. Okay, it is forgot about that I think these letters should be bigger. and I think you guys should have one, too. So like twice as easy. So those were just for today. That's perfect number the old days where we have permanent ones. Oh, yeah, they're coming back. But I think it's a really good idea. I mean having these plaque or paper blankers for you, all would be really helpful. Yeah. So next time there will be the permanent ones that have like the big last name. And yeah, that's nice. And maybe we could even. I don't know if you what it would take to finesse it so that each like Brian varied that his actual role online for people who are hibernating. So if someone's speaking. we can all refer. We're here for watching ever.

[140:09] What? Also, the you sure are all. Cap yup I got here. It took 2 years. I wanted a cabinet. All there was this t-shirt but you know it's just kind of nice I have to ask when you Yeah, yeah. if you are a swag, I don't. I don't. I don't i'm the best. Any other comments about onboarding before we shift gears. I mean, we're coordinating. By this they'll be invited. Okay, yeah.

[141:01] we don't need a form for that. Correct? Okay? Well. it is a meeting. Okay, we have to have a quarter. They were just pointing Thursday night. So all of this is, yeah, and i'm trying to think of like what they would need. So we typically offer them a few one on 1 one with myself. It's just broad department. It's very similar in in a way to what we do to welcome people or teammates, also a budget one on one, but they would get that. It's as part of the study session. So okay, so you're gonna like you did with us. You're gonna be one on one. all right. Yeah. And then we got the mentors. And hopefully between those 2 things plus the packet, they will be sufficiently alerted to what's what they're diving into. We have an opportunity to ask questions. Yeah. And I think the biggest thing is like a 3, 4 month check in right. You don't know what you don't know until you've had a few meetings like.

[142:04] Yeah. and that'd be up mostly to the mentors. I didn't join the height. I love that that nobody did that with me. Yeah. And exercise getting on being, you know, like getting exercise as part of the onboarding should be like, if you're able. Of course you part of the sure. Yeah, that's good. Well, there was a chair 6 years ago, and her name was Kelly White Number Kelly, and she taught me. I can talk It's like we don't walk in the we don't talk to me. We want to talk. We want a meeting with me we want because I' that's how she got speed. All right. What was that? If anything? Obviously, we're we're not going anywhere, all. If it's okay, i'll start with the

[143:01] the appreciation, because we do have a gift from the department and the appreciation for your Volunteer Isn't. Really, I think people forget that serving as a board member is an active volunteerism, and it's a way that you monthly for 5 years got shape the community that you live in. which is pretty special. I hope you both have a list of the projects that you got to in bullets. and just know that we're really grateful. I always I always tell people when they ask what it is to be a board member that the Board best Board members ask us really heard questions and do it with kindness, knowing that you've got a much public service around the table, compared deeply, and work very hard, and you both have done that really, really well for 5 years, and and 3 of them being the hardest year at this department. Maybe it's never had. and you've made our work better. You've helped us provide services, and we're really grateful. So thank you for giving us your Monday evenings, sometimes twice a month. It's more.

[144:00] I really appreciate you and your services on behalf of our team. Just just know that we're very grateful. We hope to see you in the park or in the right centers, maybe teaching, maybe doing maybe doing something with the department, maybe with a red booy around your way. Yes. okay. Thank you both for your service. We're very grateful for. Thank you. I'm gonna put in my office tomorrow. and I love that. You use Art source. He loves them. I love them, too. They did my whole house. I love that.

[145:02] That's a great question. Today. I wrap it from our our directors on this. All. Okay. I love it. It's my house. If I stand on the bed you can see that i'm on the top windows, but I like to walk up and down force because it's flattering change every day. You know they change everything. I love it so this is meaningful. Thank you very much. Who is he to? That's why we're in 5 min. Of course Trevor's family does it, and I love it bye. That was

[146:03] perfect. They connected. I love it. This is a different time of day. It's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. I I just want to say I had such a fun time on this board in large part. You see, I mean, this has been so fun. You guys are such good community. Servants and leaders are so smart and so thoughtful. And when I came on as a new V 2 years ago. You both were immediately. You know. What can we do to help you now? Can we answer any questions? You can some kind. And you've been very patient with me, as I have learned basic concepts, and I really hope we can stay in touch. And I've really enjoyed our the products outside it. You know the board setting and or walks, and

[147:02] really, really open to see if I want to. I do it. Yeah, we need to stay in like this country. which thank you both. You chair really send an amazing example to you out of so thanks so much. Yeah. I also want to say thank you, because you guys both welcome to be in a nice one. I can great conversation and a great example of that. I'm be confident on the sport. So thank you. We started the welcome letter together. and then we started together. It's the same: yeah. Interviewed on the same day yesterday and started the mentoring reintroducing that I think I felt pretty lost for the first 18 months. I will be sure. Like.

[148:03] what do we do? Kind of hurry up and wait and figure it out. So I think you know. like this is kind of a big word that that was one little drops that I put in the hat you don't want to. I I thought of a couple of 2 pages that I will. I won't, say them all, but I think you know one of my big stand up since a couple of things, just not forgetting the middle class. I've always been a voice, I mean. Obviously, we want to support an average people. We have no opportunities. But you know, the middle class is kind of supporting the community and just making sure that those opportunities for the kids of features firemen. you know, mechanics, things like that in in in the city, not just for it looks like absolutely nothing. and I guess on that same vein

[149:02] I'm very much a supporter of a hand up, but not real constant flowing handouts all the time. It's it's it's it's more respectful of someone's integrity. and their ability to. you know, build themselves. You to create opportunities for them to give back into the Those are 2 of my my big things growth must pay their way. That was on my list. and I I did a bunch of things that I that I appreciate. I mean, I've loved beehive and youth involvement the couple of times that kids came, and that was super awesome. And I hope that continues. I love that the department takes care of what we have, and it seemed like that i'm a transition. But that really came about in my 5 years. We're kind of building big and the pandemic. And so you guys turned on a dime.

[150:03] shifted that to that philosophy. the financial sustainability. And I love that you're willing to pull back when it's needed and not just push forward. I love the equity and inclusion training. I don't know if you guys have had an opportunity to do that yet. I think there should be more trainings of all kinds. I mean, you want to build your, you know, Board members tend to be kinda don't get our type of people. and yet there's opportunities to to feed the board, not with a lot of money, but maybe then trainings that you all get on the city level that you could have a big one. Maybe we could. Do you know. one a year we're all board numbers so we can have some of that on the way. One of my favorite experiences was September of 2,018. It was the Osmp Environmental Transportation Board and planning and sustainability. Yeah. and that was awesome to get everyone together talking. And I think that

[151:03] you're not recreating the wheel where there's a lot of cost talk between what you guys have interdepartmental, and we, unless I call up I did probably 3 or 4 people over the 5 years i'd call anybody. How do you guys do this with that? But it might be every department to have a little bit more of that. And the the focus on environmental and climate change initiatives. That's one of my top 3 things that i'm interested in real insight that Chuck gets. you know, during the torch on on that very much. I would, I think, perhaps could interface with the volunteers a little more. and I didn't really get to, you know, interact with particularly. I know who they are, but that would be kind of a fun way to serve. Help us to serve the city.

[152:01] and I think that decision making after my 5 years there still feels like there is a level of decision making that happens before anything gets put out on the table. And you know, I would just like to see one of my things. I looked at area 3 up in North. or he's older or 10 years. I'm hearing 8 to 10 years from developing that. you know, and i'd like to see involvement from more of a grassroots level. You know my thoughts that are things going on in the city that they're not telling me board members and then shining like the gorgeous presentation today on North Alder Park. But I think that there's enough really you than people on board and commissions, as well as citizens who would, who would enjoy, would appreciate and step up to get involved at even earlier stage.

[153:02] And I I feel that there is. There's so much that has to happen at these meetings. and I I still would like to see the crowd members addressing the direction a little bit more. You guys do incredible, shiny top level, you know. I mean university presentations and and it it feels that maybe I just still Haven't gotten over it 5 years later, but that I, that the Board members is more of a listening and maybe not rubber stamping, because we do ask for back of questions, but for a little more involvement. you know, in in how things roll out in the department. Having done the master plan, it feels like you'll potentially will be posting a little bit a little bit of a breather. maybe. No. but

[154:02] and then that that's ha! It's invited. I. We we have updated all the activities, For example. Honestly, Pam and I chatted, and there was a cold plunge. I would to do that polar plunge. I suppose I could have what I can do that, but maybe just remembering that we were here because we want to be involved. And the it was last Saturday. I think the the polar lunch, and then they made what? $16,000, you know. I guess I would have donated. But just remembering that that we really want to be involved with the Chili. Cookoff was great, and volunteered for the tree. Give away, and the play foundation. Now I haven't said much about that, but she's been active in that. It's on my okay. Yeah. Oh, this is something I just learned all close with this. So i'm studying psychiatry in the graduate school, and there's a big push in the mental health field right now to just take that. Have that courageous conversation about

[155:05] what we want to have compassion for one another, and there is a tendency, I think, in our society, just to be quite frank of this fragility, like walking on egg shelves and treating people with. I think, an excessive amount of difference that isn't really necessary to survive as the species together. So the the courageous conversations, and I learned 20 years ago, and one of my jobs. I think it. It just seems to be kept alive and make sure that both ways we don't want to attack the city, and if this city doesn't feel wounded, you know, look at the moons. If if some pretty. you know a straightforward feed that comes comes your way so just to a little plant that we'll see dead. It can. It can be fun, and we can be competing, you know, spouses, and we'll play tennis and then go out for lunch. It doesn't have to be confrontational, but I,

[156:00] I I think. up in the level of courageous conversations is is is something that I would love to see. You know it's on my departure, even though I love to be involved in that. Yeah. thank you. Hello. Well, I just wanted to. This is my first time. Being on a commission. I manage 3 commissions. I manage a Veterans Commission parks for Recognition and Rt. Culture commission, so i'm commissioned out like I do a lot of commission. But I wanted to tell you I am one of you like. Tomorrow i'm back to be we again. So i'm, I'm. I'm excited about you. Sell a servant. This is hard on this side. I feel like I have to keep quiet sometimes, because it's I just because i'm I am one of you. I'm. I'm a public servant in your profession. so I am so grateful. I remember so many things, Ali. One of the things that I love is. I remember when you got promoted.

[157:04] Okay. I remember that I remember all I remember Margo, and you know. Yes. I I remember the beginning 5 years ago. It feels like the beginning to me, because you are still deputy, you know. There's like there's been so much. And then we, Jeff, just Haley back, you know. He moved on, and Charlotte moved on. And so I haven't seen. I have Mora. Is she still with us. She is now working with a gal None of you met. Her name is Amanda. Be that she was a business consultant. She's now started a project Management company all we want to Christmas in helping her. That's nice. But I just wanted to like Regina Brian, Megan, Stephanie Jackson. Christie Charlotte Jeff Margo Stacey and Jackson twice, and it's missed your name and Mr. Name. Thank you, and you, too. I mean it's nice to have you here. I just i'm really so grateful for everything that you've brought to the team, and you know

[158:02] just all that everything you've developed. I have your or chart on my vision board. We do, I seriously do, because I I aspire to have a bigger or chart, and more or more management, because it's just me and 8 supervisors, so I don't have the the buffer. But the thing is that i'm really proud. I wanted to also tell Chuck something, and thank him because I've I've met. I've met friends here. I have friends here. I my board members. I feel like we're friends, and it was Thomas and Jennifer and Tyler and Raj and Valerie and Allie and Sarah. Those are all my friends, too. They're the ones before that's why I said, I really will care about the ones in the future, because these folks have cared about me, too. But we during Covid it's like Boulder really suffered. and it was really important to me that it didn't sync, and it was at a point where it was going to tank, and that really worked hard to to bring it to fruition, to be a funding funding. How would you call it a funding partner for the for the department? And part of my background is nonprofit.

[159:11] charitable, you know, doing philanthropic work, and also creating nonprofits and Grant writing, and it was killing me. So I feel like I stepped up, and I saved it for about 3 months, and I had it it back over. And I that's i'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of that. I'm proud of all you did for that every time I drive by I I didn't have a hand in it, but I I feel like it's during our that during our time. and I feel very proud of us that we stood beside you during the reservoir stress that happened with the concession. There, I I just feel like we had your guys back for that. and i'm trying to think I want to thank Aaron Brockett for having faith in me and Bob Yates for having faith in me and Tara. and what else I wanted to say.

[160:00] Think I want it? Just wanna make sure. I think all the staff for sure. Oh, my goodness! I was telling Tina outside that i'm so excited now because I have. I've saved all your powerpoint. I've said everything that you've all ever done, because you guys are like you said over the top, Nrba. Both are every, you know gold. everything, and I can't wait to even implement one of the things that you've taught me. You're in my own agency. It's been an honest Thank you. Thank you both. I'm grateful. Thank you. I guess that's it. You can adjourn now. I Haven't seen. It looks like Jason. No, i'm sorry. I really don't want to have the last word after these. No, please do, please, to comments, but I just I, for so I wanted to apologize for not being there in person. I've This is a long scheduled trip, but I was really sad to see that it kind of was on the same day as as both of your last days. But I want to thank you both very

[161:01] for being a great Mentor. Even before I was on the board we met for a great walk and talk, and I hope we can do that again soon, and I am just for your and also, Mary. You're just your passion and your enthusiasm, your you know your advocacy for a lot of issues that I think have become front center, thanks to you, and so thank you for that. And. Pam. Thanks for your enthusiasm and your leadership. And so everything that everyone also said. I want to act with that, but I get I hate to be the last word after those 2 great comments, but I I want it to add my thanks as well for for your service and the time together, and hopefully we'll i'm not hopefully. I I very much look forward to. So staying in touch Pam for pizza. We already schedule the time and walk soon, and I I will join Ellie and Italy. I'm happy to do. Yeah. So thank you. I again. I am sorry. I think it's a way in earlier, but sorry I couldn't be there, either. But.

[162:00] thanks to both very much. i'll see you soon. Okay, thanks, Jason. Enjoy your babies. Yeah. And with that meeting it's adjourned. Thank you all.