May 20, 2024 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:42] Hey, folks, I can't hear. Can you hear me? Stephanie Munro, COB Parks and Rec: I can hear you. Can you hear me? I can hear you.

[1:00] Stephanie Munro, COB Parks and Rec: Alright, it might be I'm online. It might be because they haven't let everybody in yet. Did Rosa prompt you to join as a panelist. This is Stephanie. And, by the way. Stephanie. Yeah, she did invite me to join as hey? As a panelist. Yeah, I'm under the weather. So I'm joining from home. Stephanie Munro, COB Parks and Rec: No worries. Yeah. Just give it a minute that usually comes. Yeah, I just thought they were taking attendance and looking up. So I thought maybe they were wondering if I was. Wayland, do you hear me? I do? Okay, Elliot, did you have your microphone on when you were speaking? Maybe not. Okay. Stephanie Munro, COB Parks and Rec: We can hear you now. Thank you. Everyone. Okay? So we should note for the record that we have 4 board members who are present chambers here. And we have one who's online waylon. And we have a few absence. So we have quorum and will. And you can hear us. Perfectly. Thank you. Okay, great. Okay? And we've approved the agenda.

[2:02] So number one issue on the agenda is future board items and tours. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and with that I will welcome everyone to our newly improved Council chambers. I'm ally Rhodes for those watching director of parks and recreation. So this room has been fully upgraded. The digital technology is highly improved to facilitate that virtual or in hybrid experience. And so you will wanna make sure always that you might get on mic. It's more important than before than it was in old chambers. And then other things. Just to note on your upcoming agenda. You do have an item for action at the June meeting, and I call that out cause quorum will be critical. It's always important. We can't have a meeting without quorum but you will be taking a vote tonight. You have a discussion item to talk about the name for the park on Violet and June, you will take action on that. We're very eager for that conversation. You also, your budget conversations will advance from a matter from the department to a discussion item, and that's to prepare for action anticipated at your July meeting other just fun things happening in the department that I hope you're aware of this weekend we will host tens of thousands of people in the heart of Boulder and our civic area and on the Pearl Street Mall for

[3:19] activities related to the Boulder Creek Festival and the boulder boulder. I hope you folks can get down there and check it out. I truly believe this is Boulder's best weekend, and it's where you just see all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. the only other highlight for you. We have a I wanna just note. July is parks and recreation month. Next month you'll hear from us about just the scheduled activities. That's a nationally organized event that we participate in really just an opportunity to celebrate both the benefits that our system provide. But the teammates who deliver it. So we're looking forward to that that date on flat irons. July 20 sixth. That is, in pencil. It will be confirmed at the June meeting. We will wait pending the final liquor license, hearing that is scheduled for mid-june. So once that is complete, we'll be able to put that in pen and send you all a calendar invitation to open our newest facility.

[4:15] and with that I'll hand it back to you. Mr. Chair. Thank you. just so. I'm so I'm aware. Are we doing cause we typically do consent agenda before public participation. Just to kind of get that out of the way. Was this put before for a particular reason? Is there like a scheduling conflict with anybody who's participating. Thank you for calling that out. I thought we were. Gonna propose that when we discussed the agenda, and I'm sorry we missed that we would love to propose switching the order tonight because we have 3 members of our community who are community connectors for the Park on Violet who would love to talk to you about that project. And so, if you don't mind doing public participation before the consent agenda, that would facilitate their attendance. Great. And that's how it's currently listed. So we don't have to amend the agenda.

[5:01] Great. Okay? So we have let me just read my little Intro salvo here. This portion of the meeting is for members of the public to communicate ideas or concerns to the Board regarding parks and recreation issues for which a public hearing is not scheduled later in the meeting. Tonight there are 3 people who have signed up Sarah Mailin. Para Slumsal, and Bernardo Padilla. During this public participation time the public is encouraged to comment on the need for parks and recreation programs and facilities as they perceive them. All speakers are limited to 3 min. depending on the nature of your matter. You may or may not receive a response from the board after you deliver your comments. The Board is always listening and appreciative of community feedback. Rosa, would you please present the additional guidelines and then call on our first speaker?

[6:00] I will go ahead and call on Sarah Malen. Hi! My name is Ceremon. I'm really excited to talk tonight and to be here with you guys. I'm one of the community connectors for the new park on Violet project. Community connectors are people that go out into the community and represent voices that were formerly marginalized or oftentimes get overlooked. I'm the community connector for people with disabilities. I feel this is an important role, because, as somebody with a disability, our voices oftentimes get overlooked, and as a result. They get underrepresented. For example, one thing that happens is sometimes decisions will get made without the consent of people with disabilities. This is unfair, because just because somebody may not be able to talk verbally all the time, or process things as quickly as one may expect doesn't mean that they don't deserve to know what's happening around them, and I would like to change that.

[7:17] The new park on Violet has a name and name it a name called Primrose Park. To me this means a place where you go and hang out, and it feels like home, and I want this to be a inclusive, accessible, and welcoming place for everyone. Thanks again for having me speak tonight. It really means a lot. Okay, thank you, Sarah. We really appreciate your feedback. The next person is paras lemsol. Elliot. I don't have Paris online. We'll go to Bernardo.

[8:02] Bernardo. Good afternoon to everybody. My name is Benado Padilla. I'm one of the community connectors for the for the future of the Park. Next on Violet and this name brings back, you know, pretty most part brings back many memories of my youth growing up in Boulder, Colorado and attending Washington elementary when it existed. I had the awesome privilege of going to a bilingual school that taught us 2 different languages, English and Spanish. This was the case for my peers, who were all from different backgrounds. Once we got into high school. the same group of friends started to call each other primo cousin or cous. This stuck with us until this day. For me the word primo isn't just a blood-related relative. In this case cousin to me was used for anyone who felt like they were more than just friends. This was used for friends who were more like family, no matter where they came from, or looked like there were no boundaries, just friendship to the fullest.

[9:01] This made more sense when when we first were having people over at the park site. we had the great opportunity of seeing the example of the true meaning of the word Demos. We had a group of people that were from Nepal. as well as a group of people that had just come from Mexico. Each group brought their young children. None of them spoke English, the only only their native tongue, however, that didn't stop them from playing with each other. All they knew that there was that they wanted to play. and nothing was a barrier, no language, no. to me that name brings a sense of unity and it and it's something that we need so much nowadays. The fact that the name is in Spanish just brings it a little bit more. It's more unifying in accepting and welcoming. I don't know if that maybe just be a little bit more, but growing up in this lovely community, and having friends that have different colors, different backgrounds, different, everything just made it more.

[10:01] you know, more outbringing to the work, but even well, I had a lot of pretty much growing up that were from Brazil, and I had pretty much growing up that were from Korea. I had, you know it was. It was a sense of family. It was a sense of ownership, knowing that I could welcome them into my home, and I knew I'd be welcoming to their home. That's why, you know, this. This name brings so much memory and so much potential. And the fact that our youth were so involved in bringing this up. Bringing to this name means a lot to me. I thank everybody for their time and for listening to me. Thank you so much, Bernardo. Oh, yeah, do we have pars? Do you have her? Great? Go ahead. Yes, sir. what I think the in a. In the case of the this pilot park, the and basically Napoli's community are

[11:02] Ismaili number. I would like to say the Ismaili number Maybe. I think altogether there are 10 to 12 or 13 families living there. and the the name the Premos is. I think it's a good idea, because because of the children who lives over there, they they don't have a language barrier, even though they don't speak frequently the a Spanish language. but they still know in the case of children. But in case of the adult guys they may have. or the old primos, but it's a very common whoever works with the Hispanic community in their working place. School colleagues anywhere. I believe that everybody has familiar. Everybody is familiar. Knowing the old primos, it's a very common, and it's a like a brother.

[12:15] That's why I would say the name is appropriate for that community. Thank you so much for sharing that. Do we have anybody else who's signed up? Do we have anybody else in the gallery who's here to provide comment. Okay, no. I think that closes public participation for tonight. Thank you to everybody who provided comment. Okay, so, moving on to the next item which is the approval of the consent agenda. And as a reminder, this is an agenda item where we approve multiple things at the same time, including the minutes from the last meeting and various updates from

[13:07] the Department. So I will ask for a motion to approve it a second, and then we will open for discussion, and then we will. After that discussion is over. We'll complete the vote to approve the consent. Agenda. So do I have a motion to approve the consent. Agenda. I motion to approve the consent. Agenda. Thank you, Jenny. Anybody want a second? I second hey, Anna, thank you so much. Any discussion on any of the items in the consent agenda suits. You can ask. Maybe that would be something to clarify with Staff. I just had a question. If on page 7,

[14:01] the adjustment to base supplemental preparations is that part of the consent, agenda or not. it is that update is just an Fyi, for the board is so. I had a question about that. Is that now be the time to ask absolutely. So my question was, what is the process of identifying supplemental appropriations. And who approves those those items? Is this working? Okay? Hi, Anna Jackson, Hye, business services manager. The process is really staff driven. We identify any supplemental revenues that have been received, grant revenues or donations as well as any project carryovers, and then we submit those to the Central Budget Office. Central Budget then rolls those up and reviews those with the Executive Budget team, and then those go to City Council. So the first reading was

[15:08] last Thursday. and this Thursday. and it goes through a two-part process with 2 public readings, and then adoption of the adjustment to base. So there like additional priorities that staff identifies. Is that correct? All of these have already been identified? Within different things that the prop has talked about. So grant revenues and donations goes back to the department. Plan focused on supplemental revenue or non-traditional funding sources. Other examples. I, our equipment purchases that have, are just replacing like for like equipment. And then we do have carryover between years regarding the same project.

[16:00] and then in terms of prioritizing different supplemental expenses. How is that done? I think what you're asking Anna is so and just to summarize. So an adjustment to base. So last October City Council approved the 2,024 budget with the adjustment to base. We're either asking that new revenues be recognized or new expenditures be approved. So, the revenues being recognized, the Health Equity Fund, we anyway. So with expenditures, there's not. I hear, your question about if they're being prioritized. Typically the question is so, something is coming in that is more expensive than what was in the appropriated budget. So the question for us is is that something where that expense can be absorbed, or we need new money, or is there additional money that wasn't approved in this budget that was approved in last year's that we want to carry over, to be approved, to spend this year. So operating dollars cannot carry over, by the way, that the charter is written. So if you had money that was approved in 2023, and you didn't spend it, and you haven't planned for it in 2024. You have to get that adjustment to base to spend that money the next year, even though it was approved the following, that's the source of the term Carryover.

[17:21] Thank you. Are there any other questions from the board about the consent agenda items? I had 2 questions. For the in the update. It's mentioned that the Boulder Creek will. You're working on Pfds and for the Boulder Creek safety can you tell me more about the flag warning system? And who would be responsible for deciding which flag goes up when I believe Regina Elsner, our senior manager. There she is. She's been leading this project with departments across the city, and I'm gonna let her share more about that.

[18:02] Regina Elsner (she/her): Yeah. Regina Elsner (she/her): so a little bit about the flag system. So for those of you that are maybe familiar with the way that Jeffco opened space and city of Golden manage Clear Creek down in Golden Regina Elsner (she/her): they utilize a flag system to change that changes based on the flow of the creek. And basically it's a different kind of it's a tiered warning system. To just give folks and visitors a little bit more sense of what's going on in the creek, and how they can recreate safely. Regina Elsner (she/her): so related to Regina Elsner (she/her): the decisions that were made around the 2024 season for Boulder Creek. Regina Elsner (she/her): because that's a actually quite a large conversation that involves the sheriff's office and other outside agencies. We Regina Elsner (she/her): opted to go with a really trying to provide our recreationists more information. As well as some different signage options around making sure they know where it's safe to take out from the Creek when they're recreating as well as some installation of

[19:13] Regina Elsner (she/her): what we're calling kind of locational markers that are similar to mile markers to help improve emergency response when we do have when there are emergencies in the creek? Regina Elsner (she/her): does that answer your question? It does so oh. so will the county decide then? The if the flow is at a rate that would then be put up, a flag. Regina Elsner (she/her): So we are not implementing a flag system. Oh, you're not for the. Regina Elsner (she/her): No, we are not implementing a flag system, at least not for the 2024 season. It's still a a Regina Elsner (she/her): larger conversation to be had. But the sheriff's office is the the entity that Regina Elsner (she/her): makes the closures on the creek and Boulder Creek is closed at 700 cfs, and that's sort of the threshold. But below that level the creek remains open for recreation.

[20:08] Okay. Thank you. I have one additional question about the team focus at the recreation centers. I think that it's amazing that, we're looking to focus a little bit more on the teens in our community. I was wondering how it's being marketed to the teens and or to the families and to the teens. Are you partnering with Bvsd, or how are we doing that? Thank you for the question. I'm Scott Schutenberg, deputy director. Yes. So marketing efforts have gone out of on social media. We're also working with the Boulder Valley School district. We'll continue to to expand our marketing efforts. And I I my hope would be A lot of it will be spread word of mouth with our teams in our community as well. I think that's probably our best bet. But for now it's it's really been a website and social media push.

[21:04] I don't know if I can just jump in, but I got a question. Yeah, wailing, go ahead. Just to follow up with with Jenny and Regina, if I may just cause, I think last year we lost 3 3 folks drowned in the creek last year. Is that right? Yeah. And you know a lot of the safety efforts. Probably is very difficult for us to reach the people who need it most. I mean, if you hang out by the creek, there's a lot of drinking and kind of casual use of the creek where you're probably not reading any sort of, you know common sense notes or taking drowning classes. So just wondering if there's any kind of encouragement. We probably don't wanna get into requirements, and I'm sorry if I'm wasting time. Here I'm I'm I'm just trying to level up a little here in terms of you know, wearing a helmet, knowing how to get out of one of those I don't know what you call them, but when you get stuck underneath let alone wearing shoes, cause there's a lot of people who are actively drinking and doing. None of those, you know haven't had training.

[22:17] don't wear shoes, don't have helmets, and then, you know, just recommend signs recommending for families and children. A lot of tourists may not know the safe areas. Regina Elsner (she/her): Right. Regina Elsner (she/her): So the signage is really based off of some best practices informed by our Boulder Fire rescue colleagues, and this particularly the Swift water team. And so it is. And it was informed in through conversations with both our city manager's office city attorney's office, as well as risk management to really try and provide our community members additional information how they can recreate more safely in the creek Regina Elsner (she/her): with the caveat that the creek can be dangerous at all levels, whether it's high flow or low flow and just trying to provide them some like if you said, or some of our visitors, with additional information and sort of the informational signage, is going to be placed at

[23:13] Regina Elsner (she/her): various locations along the creek all the way from the western city edge all the way through Broadway. At. And we strategically located those for areas where there's access. Lots of people coming in from parking lots so that they are highly visible. Trying to make them big, visible kind of signage, so that there they'll attract the attention to really get folks thinking about? What does it mean to be? Recreate more safely by the creek. Yeah, wonderful. I I know it's a complex thing you don't want to put rules in that will just get ignored and all that. Sorry. Go ahead. I was just gonna suggest that, Regina, you also provide a brief update on the Ranger presence that we expect this summer along that because I wayla and I, what I think I hear you saying is, maybe there's some folks who aren't gonna read a bunch of signs, and that there's definitely a multi-pronged effort. Here.

[24:01] Regina Elsner (she/her): Yeah, there there is definitely our our rangers are. They are down along the creek quite frequently, and there is a lot that they can do as far as informing and educating our community around like Regina Elsner (she/her): we can't have glass bottles open alcohol containers. Those are against our rules, so they can help inform and educate around some of those things as well as provide citations, if that's necessary through through progressive Regina Elsner (she/her): yeah, compliance. So Regina Elsner (she/her): so there's definitely a multi-pronged approach as well. You know, trying to get out messaging communication. Social media pushes all of those different pieces to help make sure our community can be as as safe as they possibly can be. Recreating in the creek. Yeah, I'm only spending a little extra time on this, because I know, you know, if we lose another 3 people, we'll have wanted to make sure we kick the tires on that is there any kind of coordination with visit, boulder or tourism to let families know like the area around the library is so safe

[25:01] for children, I think, or. Regina Elsner (she/her): We. I've had some very preliminary conversations with the Visitors Bureau, especially as it relates to some of their leave. No trace work that they're they're doing through the Visitors convention Bureau. I think that is a partnership that we should continue to explore and continue to build as well as other potential relationships and partnerships with business community and things like that. Our outfitters to really make sure folks are getting that safe Regina Elsner (she/her): messaging but for again for the 2024 season, we sort of had to prioritize with limited resources and staff where where we thought we were, gonna have the most impact. And that was really trying to get the information out in the field where people might see it first. Yeah, I know it's really complex and difficult. So thank you. And I went to the recent Ranger event at the M. And g fine I was. Regina Elsner (she/her): Soccer. Still sick, but it was a great event just last week, I think. Regina Elsner (she/her): Yeah. Regina Elsner (she/her): it was awesome. Thank you. Regina. Regina Elsner (she/her): No problem. Thank you.

[26:01] And just to follow up. I apologize. I misread that, and thought that the flag program was under some sort of implementation versus exploration. Can you tell me what it would take? Because I think that's a great idea for the creek if I could tell my kids, you know, if it's a yellow flag. Don't, don't go near it. That's just a real easy. Tell. What would it take to get something like that implemented, or what would the process be to get it implemented for the 25 season. Regina Elsner (she/her): So it's just really that further explan exploration and coordination with some of those outside agencies like in particular, the sheriff's office, and the office of disaster management with the county Regina Elsner (she/her): and so that that's primarily the biggest one Regina Elsner (she/her): right now, because they have that control over the creek and the closures. Are there any other questions or comments? I actually had? Yeah, some more questions. So of the Rangers that you mentioned that are going to be patrolling what percentage of them are bilingual.

[27:11] Regina Elsner (she/her): trying to Regina Elsner (she/her): do the the math in my head. I know. Regina Elsner (she/her): I believe at least one of our seasonal Rangers is bilingual Regina Elsner (she/her): and she has actually, this is her second season with us, and she has done an amazing job of creating sort of a Regina Elsner (she/her): most commonly needed phrases for our rangers around, how they can help communicate in different, in Spanish in particular. And then, in addition, all of the signage that we're installing will all be bilingual as well. Okay, great. And then, in terms of the drowning prevention classes. I was wondering if these numbers met your expectations, and if you have ideas about like

[28:02] what factors contributed to certain sessions filling up, or what you might be doing differently next year. Regina Elsner (she/her): I might defer to Scott Regina Elsner (she/her): piece. There. Yes, I'm here. I'm sorry. Can you please repeat the question? I was wondering for the drowning prevention classes if the registration numbers met your expectations. And if you have any ideas about what contributed to the different registration levels and anything, you might do differently for next year. either for, like scheduling or location, or other things? That's a great question, and I will say, yes, I think we were excited to get people signed up in advance. And there's pros and cons to doing registration versus just walk in drop in

[29:00] being able to join. And we are really excited. On June twentieth. We're gonna be doing the world largest swim lesson day. And so that is coming up as well. And so we're hopeful that we'll have a really good turnout for that event, I think, as we continue to offer it to the entire family versus just the children in the community. I think we're gonna have some really great turnout. And so it's still been a little bit cold outside, and so but as it warms up and we start to activate the outdoor pools. I think we'll have a lot more participation. With the the drowning prevention. Thank you. Well, thanks. Any other questions from the board. Okay, great We have a motion, and a second to approve. So all in favor of approving the consent. Agenda say, aye. aye, aye.

[30:01] all opposed. Okay, the consent agenda is approved with no amendments. There are no action items. and we have one matter for discussion information which is the recommendation to name the park on Violet Avenue which I'm really excited to hear. so I'll turn it over to you. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and joining me on the dais, our senior landscape architect, Darren Wagner, and city planner, Charlotte O'donnell. And they'll tell you more about this incredible process. An amazing place. Alright terrific. Good evening, everybody nice to see some new faces and get to know the new board. Rosa, if you could go to the next slide. I just wanna give you an overview of what we're intending to do tonight. And the first is to welcome you to the project. This is, an incredibly collaborative project that we're spending staff time in building relationships and making sure that we're centering equity in in the effort. And

[31:13] we're always thrilled to have, you know, additional members sort of, you know, a part of that project. It's deeply meaningful to us. So we also wanna use the opportunity to bring you up to speed as much as we can for those of you who are somewhat new. And also provide a few brief updates on where we're at. But the focus of tonight is, as Ali said, that to talk to you about the community's recommendation to rename the park. That being Primos Park is the recommendation. And again, you'll take official action on that next month. So thank you, Rosa. So I want to just give you an overview of the schedule or sort of the overall process. The first real step that we took last year was to spend time understanding the community's vision and values. And that was a lot of deep engagement, initiating some relationships and deepening and building others. And I'll talk to you a little bit about what the result of that was that then helped us

[32:09] inform a process of inventorying and analyzing the set of conditions out on the site. So those are both sort of from the technical standpoint in terms of floodplain issues, transportation issues as well as some of the more subjective components of the project which have to do with the perceptions of the communities as it relates to getting to and from the park or other issues that they wanted us to recognize during that process. We've then spent the first part of this year focusing on a set of 3 potential concept plans or ideas that we've taken to the community. We're now in the process of sifting through that feedback and coming up with the final refined concept plan that will bring also to you next month as a way for you to review and see where we are in the process. and then we'll spend the latter part of the year moving into what we call schematic design, and getting more detailed about dimensions and the materials and the phasing for what actualizing the project will will look like. That long bar about final design and permitting you know, this is a a project that involves a lot of engineering, as it relates to some of the floodplain issues that we're trying to address, which means there are

[33:25] conversations and consultations with both the army corps of Engineers and Fema, and often those take some time. So there will be a period of time during which we're we're waiting. But we also, throughout this entire process, as I mentioned before, have really been using this opportunity to start activating the site in ways we haven't before in order to build those relationships, not just with the community members, but also with the space itself. There are significant access barriers to the site. And so it's meant making sure. People know that this is actually already public land. You can already enjoy it the way it is.

[34:02] and if all goes well according to plan, then we hope to break ground before the end of the year next year. Next slide. Can I interrupt you for 1 Si think it would be really helpful if you guys tilted your name tags toward us just especially for the new members, so we can make sure that people know your names. Thank you, Ally, as well. Great and easy process improvement. Thank you, Elliot. Thank you. Continue, of course. Next slide, Rosa, please. So I did just want to give you faces to the names and the voices that you heard earlier tonight. So these are the 3 amazing people that we feel incredibly grateful to work with. These 3 are in paid positions for us as community connectors. They receive a stipend but they are of incredible folks who have relationships with the exact communities we're trying to elevate in the process. And so we're incredibly grateful for what they've been able to do in helping us reach the community in ways we couldn't otherwise.

[35:04] In our first engagement window, which I described earlier had to do a lot with trying to understand the vision and values for the site we reached, at least, for we had at least 400 conversations. At some point. It sort of you can't keep track because you just see them and and are building those conversations. But we went lots of different places. We invited them onto the site and we're really using opportunities for bilingual engagements, not just in English and Spanish, but also English and Nepali. next next slide, Rosa, please. In that process this is what emerged as a set of community values. And I know some of you saw have seen this slide before, but it's something that really is continuing to guide us, and it will continue to set the stage and and be a checkpoint for making sure that we follow through on what the community said was important. And so the the ones in yellow are those 3 that are, you know, emerged as some of the most important values to the community that they especially wanted us to focus on. And so I just wanted to point those on in particular, the loving nature aspect arose in so many different conversations and engagements in such a way that they really are seeing the site as an opportunity to spend time in nature in ways they don't typically get to. Even though we live in this beautiful place.

[36:25] Community gathering is another important concept that you know you heard Bernardo earlier tonight talking about wanting to to bring everybody together and to feel welcome in each other's spaces. This is a theme that also emerge strongly as well as food, arts and culture, and in using the space as an opportunity through design, but also activation and programs and events as a way to celebrate the cultural experiences of a lot of the neighbors living in this community next slide. So one of the other sets of questions that we were asking in the first engagement window was around, what is it that you wanna do here on the site? And for some who had never really been to the site. This was a hard question. And so that's why it's taken us time to help them see and experience and imagine what could be done there, and in others it was easy. So you'll see, like the most popular one was water play. We asked a lot of these questions when it was hot in in late summer in August and in September.

[37:26] but also things like swinging, sliding, going fast. There's this element of risk and and adventure that some folks are wanting there, as well as just getting to play and be free out there in nature. But also, you know, seeing that they wanna use this site throughout the year. And it's not just a summertime activity. And so we're trying to take that to heart also in terms of thinking about what is a year in the life actually gonna look and feel like when this is fully built out, so that we can design for those activities that they wanna do next slide

[38:01] part of that inventory and analysis process that we conducted. I just wanted to highlight one aspect of that for those of you here tonight, because this is essentially a desktop analysis that was done with help from our consultants to try and understand how community members are currently getting to and from the site and what issues there are in that process. So it was easy enough. Sort of from one standpoint to sort of say, Okay, well, there are no sidewalks here. So that's clearly a problem. And we can make some assumptions about you know what it feels like to be out along Violet Avenue, for example. But this was just a start in the process. And so, Rosa, if you could go to the next slide. What we did is then, and you'll just click with me for a second here, so that first picture that'll show up here is that we took these initial findings to the community and what we call it a role instroll, access audit. And you see a picture here again, there's Sarah, our community connector in the middle as well as Angie Jeffords, the executive director of the Play Foundation, who is a huge partner in this process of understanding safe routes as well as a staff person from our transportation department. So they're out here on this. They're one aspect of this community audit.

[39:20] And John in the wheelchair is actually getting the opportunity to see what it's like to move in a wheelchair. He otherwise does not experience physical disabilities. But we're giving him the opportunity to to see what that's like crossing Violet at the intersection with nineteenth and building understanding as we go. And then in the next picture, Rosa. You'll then see that Sarah, our connector. Some of her disabilities are invisible, as she would say, and it makes it hard for her to stand and walk for long periods of time. So it it so happened that that wheelchair we were using to demonstrate with others, became crucial for her to continue moving throughout the audit. We also partnered with the center for people with disabilities, and brought those folks out to help us understand what issues

[40:05] we were seeing. And then in the next picture, Rosa, as we turn the corner into the Boulder Meadows neighborhood. we suddenly realized. And this is what you can't realize when you're doing a desktop. Analysis is that? Oh, my gosh! These sidewalks are incredibly narrow. There are no curb cuts, so there are no ways for wheelchairs or strollers, even to get up and down and off the curbs. And so you're forced down into the street, and if you can, you know, maybe zoom in a little bit, and squint your eyes and see the expressions on people's faces, that is, when the energy went down it became hard and exhausting, and hot, and feelings that you know safety became was an issue. And so the next slide, Rosa, we all ended at what will become the neighborhood entrance for the park, and we all look happy because everybody has gotten their drinks and snacks by this point. But what's important to point out is that even just to get to this spot again. There were no curb cuts, and so those who are always in a wheelchair and experiencing that need

[41:10] had to work hard or get help in order to get into this spot. And so we're looking in over the course of the summer in partnership with our transportation partners and national partners that we've assembled through a grant process. We're trying to think about some of the early action items that we can take to just make a dish, a difference initially, and use those as an opportunity to test out what is working and what isn't working, so that as we continue to go through the design process. We're making that better and and testing as we go. Next slide. Thanks. Rosa. In the second engagement window. We also, as I mentioned brought out a set of 3 different conceptual site plans. And this is a wonderful picture of someone we've gotten to know well, and she was actually the woman who brought and prepared the food for this community event. We've heard from everybody. They're the best Tacos in town. They were incredible, and it

[42:08] built this incredible sense of community at the event itself. And people stayed. Yeah, is that you, Lisa? That's you, Lisa. Yeah, I'm so glad you know. Arena. Yes, exactly. And here she is, looking at a picture of one of the concepts which was, How do we bring food and culture and gathering into this space. So I just I really appreciate this picture because it's sort of helping her see and imagine how she herself, who lives in Boulder meadows and runs this food operation how she could be a part of the park. And like, I said, we're refining and bringing our feedback together, and next month you'll get a chance to see the refine concept plan so you can get your thoughts on that next slide. the focus, though, tonight is on the community's recommendation to name the park. And so I wanted to just paint a little bit of the story, and then I wanna give Charlotte time to to bring even more flavor to it, because Charlotte's played a huge role in this process.

[43:09] So we started out back in September with a chalkboard that we just put out on site and had it out there for a long time, and we had actually 3 versions of it, one in English, one in Spanish and one in Nepali. and we just asked for all the ideas that would come up, and it would rain, and they'd get washed off, and then we'd get more names. and there were beautiful lots of lots of great ideas, Rose, if you go to the next slide. fast forward, then several months we took those ideas to a group of participants in our youth Services initiative program. So these are mostly middle. Some high school students, most of whom live in the Boulder Meadows neighborhood adjacent to this park site. and we said, You're going to help us make the final recommendation. You get to help us sift through these ideas and recommend others.

[44:01] and you can see here that Bernardo and and Paras, our 2 connectors. Sarah, had not yet been hired, but so the 2 of them actually hosted these conversations. And they said to the kids, Okay, so we want you now to. Also, before we make a final recommendation to go out and ask your older family members, your aunties, your sisters, your moms, your grandmas? What it was like, what? What were their experiences as a kid out out in nature? And have they been to this site? And what do they love? What are? What ideas of naming do they have? So that's what you see a screenshot of on the right hand side. And this was all in Spanish. The kids themselves were able to connect, write their notes in Spanish, and then they. We came back together with them and and added those ideas to the list, and then they took a vote next slide, please, Rosa. And then what that initial vote from those kids resulted in is a set of 5 preliminary names that we then took to that community meeting in March.

[45:03] And what's beautiful about this picture is this young woman La is. She's 14, and she is an amazing young leader in this Ysi program. And so here it was that she was actually and the other Ysi kids leading this particular station at the community event. So they were the one answering questions, helping everybody else vote on those top 5 names. And then also, there was a station there where young kids and and of all ages, and we even got older adults drawn us pictures where they got to choose their favorite name, and then envision what that might turn into. If we can imagine a future where, you know, we have staff out on site, and maybe they have a primos park T-shirt. What would that look like? So it was through this process, then, that we ended up with a final recommendation of the name primos, and we have taken next slide, Rosa. We have taken

[46:00] that back out to the community just to make sure that that's what they are are truly looking for. And we've done that in several ways. We did the basics of of mailing notice to everyone in in a half mile radius. But we've done it in other ways. So this is a picture where families have come out to our site, to that neighborhood entrance location that I mentioned. and just spent time out there. In nature with each other, meeting new friends. And this is made possible through a partnership that we have with growing up boulder. And they've built relationships with the preschools in the area and families in the area who have young kids. And it was 3 successive events out there. that in total each time it was about between 40 and 60 people that would show up to these events. And so we had those opportunities to say, what do you think about this name? Is this what you're looking for. And we've gotten amazing quotes back from from the young kids themselves as well as family older adults about what it means. The other thing I just wanna point out briefly in this picture is that there is a Porta Potty there? And that is in part, because

[47:14] in running these initial events, we're trying out a new kind of engagement. Which is that? Let's see how these events work. And we initially heard, like, we have young kids. It's not going to work unless we have a bathroom. So we're running a pilot. We've got a Porta Potty out there for a couple of few months to see how it works. And it's facilitating, you know, really good engagement with the Park already. So I just wanted to mention that, too. Next slide. I just wanted to finish with this, and then invite Charlotte to add anything else. You heard put us earlier. Talk about how, relatively speaking, the Nepali community in the neighborhood is small compared to those from Central and South America. this was actually an experience where Mark and I were out on site, and I had to bring my 2 daughters because I had to pick them up from school, and so they had to come with me and be with mom at work. And we happened to run into this set of kids from Nepal, who we've gotten to know through some of these events and

[48:13] same thing. They had learned English, but still there were some barriers, and as you heard both of our connectors talking about tonight, that didn't matter, my girls, they all just started playing naturally and bearing each other in the sand, and in this real, beautiful expression of what it means to be family, no matter, no matter those barriers. And so it's just. It's been this beautiful process of bringing community together. And the community is feeling really strongly about this recommendation for the name. So before we talk about next steps, Charlotte, I just wanna invite you to add any other flavor colors or quotes. Yeah, it's fun to see the photos and be like, oh, I remember that day. I'm Charlotte O'donnell. I'm a city planner with the Parks and Rec Department, and I have helped, as Darren mentioned in this this naming process, and I was also involved in the naming Histories project that we did a couple of years ago, that you got a very brief snapshot and a link in your memo to more information about that. And so just really exciting to get to talk to the youth about. You know what's in a name? What does a name mean? And see

[49:17] this name emerge in Spanglish, and how that's reflected what they hope for in the park that they hope to hang out with their cousins, but they love living near many of their cousins. That this community has a lot of people that they consider honorary cousins. It's been really amazing to hear those stories. It's also been great to get to teach folks that primos means cousins. If if you don't speak Spanish, and everybody gets to now have that word in in their vocabulary, and that meaning behind what primos means. And some of my favorite moments have been talking to kids and saying primos park, and they instantly get it. They say, Oh, I want to bring my cousins here, and they speak English and Spanish, and they just know. And there's there's a light that that turns on, and I'm excited to

[50:07] see what that means to them as little kids. And then also, as they grow up to to know that it's a place where they belong, and it's something that reflects them. It's for them. It's by them. It's their park. So it's just been a wonderful process so far. And so. Kabina, yeah, talk about next steps. I guess, Darren, yeah, before we answer questions, and next slide Rosa's star last to give you just a preview of what's to come. So again, you'll get to vote on this name next month as well as preview the the concept plan. There is an event at the North Boulder Library, something we're not organizing, but we'll be. We'll have a presence ad, and that's to celebrate the grand opening of that new building on June 20 ninth. Our partners are growing at boulder are will continue to engage young children out on site with us throughout the summer. And then we'll move into Initial City, permitting over the summer just to get some initial feedback on that concept plan. Look to do some early action on the safe routing safe routes to the Park. As I mentioned.

[51:06] there is also another, save the date for you. On Saturday, July 20 seventh, the community in Boulder Meadows will be hosting a neighborhood block party that we're a part of and then we're looking to apply for grant application through the great outdoors. Colorado Grant program, and we are looking to to fill the gap in some of the funding issues that we have and then you'll get a chance in later in September to look at the schematic design as that advances, too. So with that, I'll close and invite any questions or comments. any questions or comments from the board, including those online. Jenny. Sure, I just wanted to say congratulations on a job. Very, very well done. I think the community engagement that you've mentioned throughout these slides, and I'm new. So I haven't kind of been here for the whole

[52:00] process. But the community engagement that you mentioned, I think, is really an amazing way to do it, and it should be used as a case study, or an example for projects through all the different departments, because I think that using the community connectors, getting out, making sure that you include the center for disabilities for people with disabilities in these decisions is really, really crucial. So I wanted to say, thank you for that, and I think that the name is amazing. I cousins are my favorite thing in my family, too. So I I like the way that the community connectors talked about. That the park feels like home and unity and more than just friends like those are just wonderful ways to describe people and and places. So just congratulations on a job with them. I'm really looking forward to voting on the name. anybody else. I second everything, she said. Yeah. Waylon looks like you've put up the peace sign, which I think means you'd like to say something.

[53:02] Yeah, just briefly. It looks like it kind of naturally. Just a question. connects or nearly connects with the library. Is there some? I'm having trouble seeing your video. But is there some connection plan for that cause? That seems like a natural, delightful connection. There is waylon. This is Darren Wagner. Yeah, absolutely. So it's both in terms of the physical connections which we'll be making as well as the programmatic connections in terms of eventual story walks or programs that the library is really excited to lead in the park space. So we've been working hand in hand with them. They'll be working on constructing their outdoor space this summer. So even though they're hosting that grand opening in June that's for the building itself, and then the outdoor spaces will continue to get built out over the summer. But yes, absolutely. It's a great question. It's one of those amazing adjacencies that you kind of always hope for, and it doesn't always happen.

[54:03] Wonderful. Yeah, thank you. I see Rosa pulled up the map. Thanks, Rosa. that this map was about existing conditions, but the library will exist where that orange multi-use path exists up on the what's that top left hand corner kind of for folks that are familiar with this this? Yeah. This map is what prompted the question, because it seemed like it kind of didn't connect. But maybe it did. Yeah, it does not currently, but it will. Correct. Yeah, thank you. For people that live in boulder meadows like if they live like where it says the park on Violet like are they gonna have to go all the way around to the entrance, and then come back along, Violet to get to the park another fabulous point. So the fence itself that exists between our park site and the neighborhood is on the Property Management Company's land. So it's just out just across our

[55:00] our boundary. you'll see if you go out there. A number of neighbors along there have have cut some fence, some gaps in the fence so they can get out there. So there are some that really do wanna to visit the site and then there are others who feel like it's important to have that from a safety perspective. So the details of what that design will look like are gonna have to emerge, especially as we go through the engineering process of accommodating flood waters through there. But we absolutely have heard that at the very least, screening is important for for neighbors who live immediately. Jason and there there is a pathway that the library has just connected into the west side of the park. The Mobile Home Park, and so we'll be able to tie into that at the very least, as well as on the East. Great any other comments? Questions, I have a couple. So one is, you know what was the spark that, like the genesis of this idea, this undeveloped tract of land? At what point did we, as a department or a city say, this would be a good spot for a park, and when did that happen?

[56:14] You probably know the year better than I do. I don't know why, I'm I was just looking. I mean, I know that general history. But you probably know the exact year in the 1987. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I think this property was identified more than 30 years ago as Hey, if you look at. So, we have proximity standards, and these are part of the national standards. You want every community member to be within a half a mile or a 10 min walk of a park. This completes a gap, and well, I'll just say it out loud. I don't know why it wasn't developed 30 years ago, but we're sure glad to be doing it now. Cool. And then in more recent history, somebody said, Hey, this has been shelved. Or let's pick this up. This is a good spot. Yeah. And our most recent Master Plan Department plan update. It was identified as a capital improvement that we needed to prioritize.

[57:04] It's Elliot. You've been around long enough that we've we've kind of been in this mode of. We don't do new things without new money, but when you add an equity lens to our decision making, this is a core service level that we should be doing. And while while we're doing it with an existing funding, it's the right thing to do and developing a new Park on our capital Improvement budget is challenging. Last year 21, we received $750,000, matching Grant from the Land and Water conservation fund, which, as a Federal funding mechanism, and as Darren mentioned, we're gonna continue to the fundraising because a new park is really expensive, and beyond what our cip can fully afford. So we're gonna part of the the fund that begins in July is the fundraising great. That's actually my second question. So thank you for addressing that. And will there be some sort of plaque or something else at the park site that will explain

[58:01] the origin of the name and the meaning of the name. That is such a beautiful question. We are hoping to continue working with our connectors to use that event. On June July 20 seventh, to celebrate the name as sort of a naming ceremony. And as we work that through, we're exploring possible temporary signs that they may want to help us create, to celebrate it in the longer design. Absolutely. We're actually, Ali has said it beautifully that the we, we hope, the the final design actually evidences this idea of primos right that we've like shown through the design of the gathering spaces, and even some interpretive art and signage is appropriate. Yes, that we've pulled that all the way through. Yeah, I would just me. Speaking personally, I think that that would be a really good idea to have something that explains to future generations how this was named and what it means, and its significance, because that fact or knowledge might get lost over time.

[59:07] and I always really like it when I go to a park, and I see some sort of explanation of Who's the person it's named for, or whatever makes it a unique spot. I think that really helps kind of create a timeless impact on the community. And then just kind of nuts and bolts. We are going to vote on this next month. Right? Does Council also have to approve it? Or is the Prabs vote on this the end of the line. Yes, you wanna answer it. Okay. So the Prom actually has authority over naming. So you will get to do that. Now we'll notify we're actually, we'll send a heads up to council by the end of this week. Letting them know that, like the process is going on, and we'll do the same. We'll notify them after you've made the decision. But the final authority rests with prop. thank you. And just in case we name another park, final authority rests with Prab in this case, because it's not being named after a person, or as an organization, or donated or sponsorship naming. There's other policies that apply, if that were to be the case. But because this has been the name that's emerged. Prab has final authority under the park naming and dedication policy.

[60:22] And I just wanna echo some of the comments earlier that I think that the this process has really established a model for engagement with the community. And I think that the process has created a really great result. I mean, the name is really fantastic, and it it reflects what the community wanted. and from the moment I read about it because I went right to the packet, I was like, I just flipped through the pages to see what you guys were recommending to name it. And when I saw the explanation, I thought, man, that just nailed it perfect. So really good job with that, thank you. Thanks for having us tonight. We appreciate it. Yeah. One last question, what's the grant you're applying for? It's through the great outdoors. Colorado. Great program. Okay, thank you, you bet.

[61:10] Okay, so with that. Thank you so much, Darren and Charlotte, for coming. And we will shift to our next agenda item, which is matters from the department. We've got 2 items. One is the 2,024 citywide planning. And then the second is the financial strategy update and ally, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm gonna give you all an overview of several plans that are guiding our work in 2024. The intent of this item is awareness for you only, and so I have no questions for you. However, certainly I'll I'll be available. If you have questions afterwards. I'm going to go through most of it fairly quickly, because the intent again, is awareness of of several plans that are in place. And really this is responsive to a lot of the questions I heard last month.

[62:02] I listened to your April meeting in entirety again, Jenny and waylon. I'm so sorry I missed your first meeting. But I heard a lot of really astute questions on, how do we make decisions? And how do we prioritize? And so the intent of this item is to share with you some. We have many, many tools in boulder to guide decision making. These are some of them. So I am gonna dive in and try and do this fast. So this very first slide that you can see and Rose is gonna advance for me. This is really just a framework on the do, do. There it is. So this is a framework or a graphic to show how it all fits, and the reality is is that every single thing we do should fit within this, and if it doesn't, we shouldn't be doing it. So at the top is the city sustainability, equity and resilience framework. This is a framework that is organized around 6 goal areas that describe the kind of community we want to have.

[63:00] and all of our outcomes should point towards those goals. They say that we want to be a safe community. We want to be a healthy and socially thriving community, and to others the Boulder Valley. Comprehensive plan is a shared document between the city of Boulder and Boulder County, and it governs land use in our community. It also includes a lot of policies for how land should be used and how we should operate the Boulder valley. Comprehensive plan also includes city service levels. So if you've heard the terms before, of Area 1, 2, and 3, those come from the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan, because in it we have outlined with the county the service area boundaries for the city of Boulder. And so, if something is area one, it is within the formal city limits, and gets the full set of city services which are outlined in the plan. So for Parks. that means there should be a neighborhood park within a half a mile and a playground within a quarter mile of every person area. 2 are those areas within the the service or within the

[64:11] the guiding document that could be annexed into the city. Someday both the city and county have agreed, those areas could be annexed. Examples of that include parts of gunbarrel, some properties on adjacent edges of the city, such as the San Lacroo mobile home manufactured home community and then area 3 are those areas that the city and county have agreed should be reserved for their current uses, whether it be rural or agricultural, except for what is called the area 3 planning reserve, and that is in North Boulder. It is north of 20 Eighth Street or Highway 36 between basically Broadway and J. There's roughly 500 acres that are called the Planning Reserve. 200 acres of those are owned by the Parks and Recreation Department.

[65:00] and so you'll hear about the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan update coming up soon on City Council's work, and we'll talk more about that in a minute. The citywide strategic plan and the rest all trickle down from that. The thing I guess I I'll point out from this slide is that at the core of it really are the 1,500 standard employees or more that that make all of this happen. So let's go to the next slide. And I'll talk about the citywide strategic plan. Really, this is just a prioritized list of strategies in support of the Sarah framework. This is new for the city to actually have a coordinated, citywide strategic plan, and the way it developed was staff from all of the city departments, getting together and outlining the work underway aligned with the Sarah framework and prioritizing those that had the most opportunity to advance the outcomes. The next 2 slides highlight some of those strategies I'm again. They were linked in your packet. I'm not gonna talk a lot about them tonight because one they're not fully scoped out yet. But 2. You'll hear about them more.

[66:07] when I give you an update on the Bpr plan in June, because much of that work is really closely aligned with the way that we're implementing that plan. So, Rosa, if you go to the next slide you can just see some of the strategies. I've bolded the words that you can see. Really, they just align with a lot of the work we have in place. So equity focused programs, there's a youth focus there that relates to the child-friendly Cities initiative that our department is harping to lead 15 min neighborhoods, and then the next slide. Strategies 1011, and 12, or sorry 10 and 11 are around our sustainability and resilience goals, and then 12 and 13 really speak to some questions you all had about how we invest in assets and our employees. So again, super fast. Let's talk about council priorities on the next slide. You all had questions about that. So in early April this council that began its 2 year term in November, had a retreat to decide which work they wanted to elevate in their 2 year work plan. This is a comprehensive list, and again it was linked in your packet. So I'm not gonna read it to you.

[67:12] But I will call out the ones that have a really strong correlation with our work. The Boulder Valley. Comprehensive plan. That work is getting advanced because there is an interest in talking about that area. 3 planning reserve and other strategies to address Boulder's affordability and housing challenges. the citywide, long-term financial strategy. I have a whole slide on in a moment. There's a lot of work around homelessness programs and innovations that are really around. Addressing homelessness upstream. We see a lot of the downstream impacts in our system. But that work is around the upstream. And then the climate Action Plan Update. We expect that to align with our work in the parks and Rec system, as I overviewed for you all in February. The next slide is just more of the list. And I'm gonna we're just gonna keep going because I'm gonna give you an overview on 2 of them that most impact our work this year.

[68:07] So one of their priorities is commercial area connections and quality of life improvements. This is generally around the economic vitality of the community, and specifically and immediately, there is an interest in making sure that there is really good connectivity and access between the University Hill area, where we have a brand new hotel opening at the end of the month. and then next year we'll have the University Conference Center and hotel from economic vitality reasons. We really want those folks being able to connect to our downtown area. So there already is work in progress. If you've traveled between the hill and downtown recently, you've noticed, our team is doing extensive cleanup in the arboretum area. that enhances safety for boulder high kids. It also just makes it easier and more noticeable that that is a transit corridor between the hill and downtown. So lots of short term actions in place. There's going to be some improved signage, so that, for example, signs at the top of the hill saying, Pearl Street, 8 min walk, Boulder Creek path, 5 min walk arrows pointing, folks. There's a lot of spots, and especially if you think of you're on the Boulder Creek path, and you're walking by boulder high. You can go left or right

[69:16] if you're not from Boulder. You have no clue where either one takes you. And so we're really excited. There's some temporary signage. And then through the civic area project that our team is leading. We expect there to be some more permanent signage that would align with the branding of that site. The medium and long-term work which, again, really closely aligned with the civic area project, is, gonna look at just the overall vibrancy of the commercial areas in the green space through a lot of the work that is possible when we improve that park. So we're really excited about it. The next one that I wanna make sure you all know is happening is the long term financial strategy. Last month you got a little taste of. And tonight you're gonna get an even deeper recognition that we are having a significant financial challenge in that our costs are growing at a rate that is outpacing our revenues. That's leading to a structural imbalance, which is a fancy term for me, saying, we're spending more than we make as a city, and we need to have some really hard conversations with our community.

[70:15] So we are gonna continue to implement outcomes based budgeting. And this will make sure that the money we are spending is effective and invested on programs that have the most outcomes that are aligned with that Sarah framework. We're gonna be defining core services and service levels. So that's where we look at everything we do and say, Okay, here's what we can afford and anything above that has to be a choice and has to come with funding. We're gonna have a comprehensive fee study across the city. We expect that not to not to replace the work that we did last year with the fee policy that the prab supported. But really we will expand some of that citywide and make sure we have consistent practices, for where and how fees are charged. we expect to explore other funding mechanisms. The Bpr. 2,022. Plan does talk about investing in

[71:07] public private partnerships, investing in revenue, generating opportunities and more. And then finally, we're gonna look at a 3 to 5 year ballot measure strategy. So a lot there. Alright Bpr plan. So this is the department strategic plan that was formally and unanimously approved by the prab, the Planning Board and City Council in 2022. So really, when you ask how decisions are made in parks and recreation. Almost all of it is clearly spelled out in this plan. And we're gonna give you an update in 2 parts this month. We're gonna give you a financial overview to let you know for the planning scenarios in that document. How are we doing? And then next month we're gonna give you an overview of all of the initiatives that that department plan outlines which are in progress which are not yet started and which have been completed. So that'll be the 2 year anniversary of that document. And we look forward to give you an update.

[72:03] I always. I just wanna remind folks with the next slide. I I always appreciate taking the opportunity to remind folks most of what we do is not in any plan, and it is making sure that every single day our 1,800 acres of parkland are clean. They are safe. They are great spaces for the community to play. We operate 3 recreation centers, 4 dog parks, all these trees and flowers. And so it's just I always appreciate the remind, the opportunity to say, yes, there is more. But most of what we do is just operating this system. and every time we ask the community you you often in the board, and certainly ask, we often hear the negative things. But when we ask the community on a statistically valid level, or even in deeper commitment, most folks think we're doing a really good job operating our parks and recreation system. So those results we get in the National Community Survey. They're higher than almost all of the national back benchmarks. So my key takeaway on this slide is we operate a really big system, and people think we do a really good job, and I do, too.

[73:07] So funding scenarios. So these are 3 scenarios that are spelled out in the Bpr plan. I am not going to read to you each of these. And I'm happy to send you this presentation. You're gonna get it again. With some of the capital conversations. This is when we developed this plan in 21 and 22 for each of our services. We spelled out, what would we do in a fiscally constrained scenario? And that's city. Speak, for what do you do with existing funding? Everything in that column we thought we could do in 2022 yellow means something is underfunded and Reds means it is UN unfunded. So your key takeaway for this slide is that with cost, escalation and the incredible just outpacing of costs and revenues. We do not currently have enough money to take care of the system we have today in the way that we are. And so we, those service level conversations prioritization. You'll be hearing us talking more and more about area 3. That is green cause. That is just a study of the land. So that is funded in the planning development services. Budget will come alongside as we look at how to use parkland next slide.

[74:20] As we talk at our facility. Same thing. You see a very yellow story here. We thought we had enough money to start converting some of our artificial or athletic fields to turf, so that they could see increased play that is underfunded. The maintenance of our 3 facilities is underfunded. We have about 40 million dollars for the East Boulder community center facility retrofit. The cost estimates are closer to 60 to 70. The court study. That is just a study again. So that was looking into courts that is green. We have fit into the Cip recommendations to where we could build additional courts, but that'll again be a prioritization conversation.

[75:03] and so then, if you go to the third scenario, this is our programs and services. Well, we said, in 2022 recreation, it's been harder since 2020. Being a very fee fee driven business. We've known, even when we are developing this plan, that to maintain the services we would have to continue, our fee increases. That is green. We are increasingly concerned about maintaining our discounts for youth and seniors. Our financial aid program. That's green. But I just wanna make sure. You see that that's green. Only because we said, if we wanna maintain our service level, it's gonna be through grants and philanthropy. We knew taxes. We're not keeping up with it similar for serving people with disabilities, youth, and teens. Again we were unfortunate. This is green, but I say it's unfortunate. It's not a good green. We knew then that we could only expand services with additional funding. So the although the the services the team highlighted tonight at the recreation centers. Those are not an expansion of services. They're just an adjustment and schedules. So that's some really creative thinking by our team to create more opportunities without an additional expense.

[76:15] So that really, that planning background and lightning speed was just to give you a little bit of the framework. Hopefully, those links will be helpful for you. They are ones that I would save for future reference. Jackson and Mark are going to talk more about the budget in the capital improvement. And again in June, I guess this was this was very sobering in June. You're gonna get the strategic plan update that talks about the work we are doing to advance towards community goals that don't require additional funding. That'll be a little more lighthearted. But it is just really important for folks to know that we are struggling just even to keep up with the way cost escalation is outpacing revenues right now. And on that happy note.

[77:03] I'm gonna wrap up and just know that we will come back to you in June, and I'll pause, and if you had any questions on any of that? Any questions. Nope. Yep. Nope. my, go ahead. Me! Alright. Waylon. Yeah. Hey, Ali, thank you. And yeah, I think, Jenny and I, coming from the campaign, are sadly aware of financial constraints, and again, compliments for doing so much with what can feel like too little, or B too little. And I've already asked you this question. I think, Elliot, but just to surface it generally. And again, I'm I'm still ignorant on this coming up to speed in terms of fundraising or sponsorships. There's so much money in this community in private hands. What are the limitations or guidelines or paths forward for getting those kinds of donations? If that's something we want more of.

[78:10] Just. Your question is, what are the guidelines or limitations on fundraising. From private donors. Yeah. The biggest limited. And all of this limitation. Yeah, I mean the biggest limiting factor. We do have sponsorship guidelines. And so if Wayland Lewis and the Elephant general came to us and said, Here's 5 million dollars, and please create Wayland Lewis Field. There would be. There would be limitations on that. I don't know them all off the top of my head. That's something we can come back to you on with more of just a framework for fundraising. But again, our the biggest strength we have in that side is that we have a highly functioning partner in the play foundation. They are stronger than they ever have been, and we're really looking forward to the work they're doing with their strategic plan. And they are. They're really growing in a way that is perfectly timed for our need.

[79:03] Yeah, so. So we can look at calendaring some kind of a follow-up if that would be helpful. Well, that's something I and I'm sure other members would love to try to help with is some private donations, and maybe in terms of equity, and you know, not having their name beyond everything. But you know sort of sponsored by below a name like primos, that is, is inspiring for the community. Anyway, I'd love to help out with that. Any other comments or questions. Thank you so much. Yes, I hope that was helpful, and we'll keep talking, and I don't mean to be cheeky about that happy note. I. It is important to note how much great work is happening across the department every single day, despite these limitations. And so with that, we are gonna shift directly to developing the 2025 budget with Jackson and Stacy and Mark, and they'll introduce themselves as we dive in

[80:08] in the middle. Alright. Thank you for the transition and Ali for setting that up. I'm Jackson Height business services manager. I have Stacy Hoffman, Senior Budget Analyst and Mark Davidson, senior planning manager with me. We are going to review the timeline for budget engagement, as your packet called out. We are slowing this down to take approximately one month longer, just based on some changes to the city. Wide budget guidelines. With that we had historically budgeted on a one budget application at a time. And now we have milestones that are essentially building blocks that build on each other. So we're going to talk through the milestones with you. So you have a better understanding of that.

[81:09] Generally speaking, we will be coming back to you next month with a discussion item, and then in July we will have an action item. We are going to be talking through both the operating budget as well as the capital budget operating budget will be just for 2025 appropriations, whereas cip is for 2025, through 2030 we are only appropriating funds for 2025, everything in the out years is essentially written in pencil. We do come back and request those appropriations every year. So we are in the midst of budget development right now with Staff and Ali already touched on several of the tools I just wanted to highlight. Once again we do have the Sarah framework, which is the triangle on the top left that captures all of the various plans that guide our decisions. In the 2022 Department Plan. We also have an equity map that helps us inform where our investment dollars will have the greatest impact to the community from an equity standpoint. So we do keep this in mind.

[82:10] as we've mentioned for the last few months. We are in a year 3 of budgeting for resiliency. This is where we are adding outcome measures to determine the impacts of budget dollars and really focusing on realigning our budget to achieve those desired outcomes and have more of a data driven approach. So with year 3, we are looking more at data, and we are evaluating how our investment dollars are working towards those goals. Something that we talk about a whole lot is the racial equity instrument. And this guides how we make decisions to make sure there aren't unintended consequences, and that we are including people who are historically underrepresented in local government. So this is an example of how we use the racial equity instrument. We establish what the outcomes are, collect data determine the benefit and burden, develop strategies, implement them and then report back.

[83:05] So with this, I'm going to turn it over to Stacey, and she's going to talk through more of the operating budget. Yes, so good evening, everyone. Stacy Hoffman. Nice to see everyone again. In putting together this presentation. Now you do have a copy in front of you. We thought it would be helpful just to kind of go over some budget development definitions. Since we do have new prab members on here, and we do have new things for 2025. So for 2025 budget development, we have a milestones. And this was implemented by central budget. And basically what it is is it changes the budget process to have our submittals break down into more smaller staggered segments. And we're gonna go over some milestones that we've accomplished so far. This does help all the citywide departments focus on that. The fact that we're in a constrained environment. And this was really to redirect us to focus on realignments for our budget. So basically directing our existing funding to where it would have the most impact.

[84:11] The 2024 approved budget is the annual budget approved by city Council. It's our spending plan, and it does include our operating and capital budget and the city charter does require that the City Council approve a balanced budget for the following fiscal year. By December first. The 2024 revised budget. Jackson and Ally did touch upon this a little bit earlier in answering Anna's question about the adjustment to base and what that consisted of. So the revised budget does allow us to adjust the budget throughout the year to base processes, and that could be an adjustment to base our cip and operating carry forward which could be cip contracts or other operating contracts that do need to move forward.

[85:00] As we're developing our budget, we do have a 2025 base budget. And this is really our baseline appropriation or our starting point for 2025. We do work with central budget on this and all of our 2024, one time awards, our funding awards and our fixed term positions are reduced out of our base budget. The department does have 4 fixed term positions that are due to come to an end at the end of this year. So they have been reduced out of the base budget, and then you'll see that reflective and the numbers will go over. Our 2025 base cost budget met our milestone 3, which was submitted this past Friday. And this is our baseline budget appropriation plus our base cost drivers. So basically mandatory increases or decreases our contractual inflationary. Government regulation increases, and then we will have our 2025 proposal submittal. That will be at the end of June. That includes all of our base cost drivers plus any identified enhancements. From there the budget will be reviewed by the Executive Budget team and then go through city managers recommended to be released to council at the end of August.

[86:14] So as we look at our milestones, there are 5 milestones. The first 3, we do have the budget program realignment, the budget realignments and the base cost changes. We're going to go over those in a little bit more depth in a moment. Milestone 4 will be that final budget submission, and then milestone 5 will be that final budget decision that I just mentioned. So to satisfy our milestone number one, the first one is our budget programs and budget program is basically how we organize our department. And it will basically have a description to it. We do want our budget programs to align best with our sustainability, equity and resilience framework, and it will be categorized for like areas or work groups that have similar outcomes and performance measures. We did have

[87:10] a big realignment for 2025. The Department now does have 7 budget programs because they best align with our Sdr framework. And the really the most significant change for the Department was to the planning and ecological services and recreation in park operations. So down below, you'll see we do have administration which does line with the Sr. Goal of healthy and socially thriving, which includes business services in our department administration. We have community building and partnerships which is healthy and socially thriving. Our volunteer services. Community outreach, expand in Ysi makes up that budget program and then new for 2025. We have natural resources which encompasses our forestry and natural lands, which is environmentally sustainable for their Sr. Alignment. We have planning and design which is planning construction and historic assets, aligning with healthy and socially thriving. We have the Urban Park Ranger program which aligns with safe.

[88:10] And then we have park operations which is healthy and socially thriving for all park operations, and then recreation really encompasses the rest of the department, so really took a thoughtful approach to just best align our budget. Since a lot of those had been combined and really didn't align great for performance outcomes and measures. The second milestone that the department did work a lot on was budget realignments. And a budget realignment has a net 0 change. So it's basically used to better align our resources that we have. Right? So we did go through a very careful look throughout our budgets, and we looked to align budget within work groups. So this was an opportunity for Staff to go in and perhaps move budget between

[89:03] and expense, such as materials to. Maybe they needed a little bit more money in employee training so they could align within their work group, or we could align budget within the fund. So if there were areas that were under spent of year over year over year, you know, we did look to realign that money there, to maximize our resources and direct our money towards our most important work. When we were doing this, all this, all this did have a focus on our share outcomes and performance measure alignment, and that was completed. In March. the third milestone that we just recently completed this past Friday was our base cost. Changes and base cost changes could be increases or decreases their mandatory requirements. It could be by other government agencies. A lot of it was impacted by city-wide guidelines. And then we did see inflationary increases to ongoing nonpersonnel expenses.

[90:06] So basically, with our base cost increases, we want to make sure that we have sufficient funding for mandatory requirements. We did look at 2022, and 2023 actuals, and we did reassess our 2024 approved budget. Some of these base cost drivers are our personnel wages and benefits. We have equipment. We have our fleet that we looked at. We have energy costs so gas and electric that are getting increased our Enterprise technology fund. So all of our computer replacement, the software that the department in the city uses. We looked at reserves cost allocations, so the allocations that we pay to help fund those internal city departments, such as it and Hr. And then the city did do a look at our revenues. So our sales and use tax property and interest earnings.

[91:02] So this next slide shows the budget calendar overview. I've touched upon milestone one through 3, which have been completed. Our next milestone is Number 4, which is due in at the end of June, and that is really where our budget proposals or any enhancements to that operating budget are due. And then also our cips is due in at that point. From there we'll move on to Milestone 5, where our final budget stories and fund financials will be due, and then from there the budget will move on to city council any questions on that before we start to look at our funds. I do have a couple questions. When we looked at the parks and recreation budget programs with the Serle area for 2025 when you broke them out. Into ecological services and wreck and park operations.

[92:02] Were those existing are those realignments or those additions to the budget. So this was a new concept. That we put in exercise in 2022, where it was our first step in our year. One of our new budget processing, and all departments were asked to kind of align in their department into 3 or 4 budget programs. Alright. So we ours were rather large. We had planning and ecological services which encompassed forestry, natural lands, planning design construction. And then, on the other side we did have recreation and park operations which took care of all of park operations, Belmont, and then all of recreation. When we looked at it again this year. The budgets just really are too large right to manage. We couldn't really go through and be thoughtful as we're looking to do performance outcome measuring. We really wanna have defined measures and targets and outcomes. And because the areas do operate differently. Even though we're one department, it, we felt it was best to break them into those 7 different categories. So it's just a breakout. It's not additional breakout. Okay, alright great. And then my other question is, I'm wondering we're talking a lot about inflationary increases

[93:19] with non personnel expenses. Where do you find that inflation hits park hits park and rack. The most. Yeah, sure. So we have inflationary increases which are based cost drivers for our utilities and electric. We have the janitorial which is projected to go up about 3%. We have a trash removal across the city which will go up 3 to 5. So we are seeing inflation in in a lot of different aspects. Just materials alone. Right? All of our landscape supplies. Our chemicals at our pools, also our chemicals. Really, your chemicals at the pools are are very large one, so they're varied.

[94:03] Great. I think that is it? On the last few slides for me. Alright. Great thanks for the questions. Okay, we are going to look at each fund here, and we are going to start with a general fund, which is a governmental fund. I have put on the slide for everyone that 2023 actual. We did come in about 91% to budget. We do have a revised budget in the general fund of about 6.6 2 million, and our base budget is 6.1 million it does include fixed term positions that have been decreased out of that. The first milestone. 3. Exercise that we did is those but base cost changes. And our budgets. Middle was 6.2 4 million. We are down about 166,000, and that is really just due to those positions being backed out. So the 3 positions for the fixed term that we have there.

[95:09] Looking at our lottery and other capital funds. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this slide, since Mark is going to go over all of the capital in depth. There. looking at the permanent Park and Recreation Fund 2023. Revenue actual is 3.9 5 million. We did come in about 3% over budget. Looking at our 2,025 draft projected budget. We are coming in at 4.4 5 million and really in summary, as we look at our 2020 approved versus our 2025 projected variance. You'll see that we are decreasing in our revenue by about 142,000 or 3%. This is really a combination of interest earnings that will be dropping. And then also our tax property tax projections are not as strong as they were prior in the 2024 budget development, the city just redid the property tax

[96:10] projections about a week ago to basically include the early estimates of SB. 24, 2, 3, 3, 3, which has a likelihood to pass this year. So for the department property tax projections, although they are still positive of about 975,000 in growth, 2025, through 2030. They definitely have flattened. As we look to our expenses, our 2023 actual came in at 5.8 2 million or 63% to budget. We do have a revised budget of 8.3 6 million for this fund. A lot of that is because of the cip carry forward from 2023 into 2024 for those existing capital projects. Our 2025 based budget is 4.8 3 million. We do have base cost increases of about 117,000 or 2% of that. And those are all of our contractual and inflationary, and then also fleet and facilities primarily so that brought our submittal up to 4.9 4 million

[97:21] which is about 69,000, or 1% below the 2024 approved. This fund also does have one fixed term position that was backed out of it which is causing us to look like we actually do have some savings, because that position has been reduced as we look to the point 2 5 cent sales tax fund revenue for 2023 did come in at 11.9 3 million. Again, this fund did come in 3% over budget. We do have a 2024 revised budget of 11.8 million dollars sales and use tax projections have been revised down.

[98:03] However, since we did develop the 2024 budget sales and use tax is flattening. And we're looking at about a one to 2% decrease per year. So, as we look to our 2025 projected, we still have a projected variance in the positive, about 422,000 or 4, but certainly not as strong as it was last year when those projections were put together. And looking at our expenses, we did come in at 62% to budget. Last year. The 2024 revised budget does have a lot of cip carry forward. We're finishing up the golf course and some other cip projects where that budget is sitting, there to support that work that is already in progress. So, looking at our 2025 base budget of 13.1 2 million. We do have some base cost increases of about 500,000 or 4%,

[99:02] which will bring up. Our projection to 13.6 9 million. So approved versus submitted is about 5% higher with all of the inflationary cost drivers. Recreation activity fund for our revenue projections. We did come in great last year, 98% to budget. We do have a revised budget of about 15 million. For this year we have a 2025 projected budget for revenue of 14.4 7 million, and we are showing a decrease in our projection of about 3% or 400 and $80,000. And this is really due to a decrease in the point 2 5 cent sales tax transfer. I think last month we had explained to the prab how we had moved over sports turf expenses into the Recreation Activity Fund. With that we do have a transfer coming from that fund to support those expenses.

[100:09] And then also our community benefit programming. We did in our projections last year. Step down that transfer to the Raf. As we look to redo our fee policy and such. So that is really what's driving that reduction which we'll be looking at further before the final proposal is due in as far as the expenses are. We did come in in 2023, that 93% to budget 15 million dollars for revised budget in 2024 the base budget is 14.3 2 million. We're looking at base cost increases of about 500,000 or 3, just for the golf course alone is going up about 200,000 to make sure that vehicles and assets are funded. So that's a large portion of that increase. So we are looking at a base cost increase submittal of 14.8 1 million, which is about 61,000 or 1% over the 2024 approved

[101:14] alright. So talking about revenue updates on the recreation side, we do have a lot of opportunities with the 2025 fee policy emphasis. As we've talked about previously, we do want to focus on special events and commercial use. This year. We are building a placeholder in the budget, knowing that that process is going to trail behind the budget development process. Additionally, we will be looking at facility access fees. Historically, we've updated these fees every 2 years. Our last update was in 2023 and there had been a 3 year gap while we waited for recreation services to stabilize a little as with any setting of fees, our goals are to align. The fee increases with the cost of providing these services, and we do want to maintain financial aid and access for the people with low incomes to continue to have access to our facilities.

[102:03] I we do have other mechanisms to adjust our fees. And then I did want to call out that later this year you will be hearing more about the marketing plan, and then business plans for the Boulder Reservoir Flat, Aaron's golf course and sports and on the right hand side you will see the 2022 department plan, where all of these recommendations align with the goals and initiatives identified in that plan. So we've identified what the base cost increases are. I'm going to essentially call this scenario one where we've taken our budget realignment and added in the base cost increases. This is likely the lowest amount that you would see in the proposed budget that we bring back to you next month. Our goal is to continue to focus on the fiscally constrained aspect of the city as well as the department, and we will have very prioritized asks related to personnel. The biggest priority for the department is the conversion of the fixed term positions into ongoing positions and then accounting for impacts to minimum and living wage

[103:07] on the non personnel expense side, we are focused on maintaining our current service levels, and basically right sizing budget for areas where we are currently operating services, we recognize that this may not be financially sustainable. So there will be a further conversation about our level of service, looking at the data and usage to identify what's going on. And then, finally, on the capital side. Our intention is to align the capital budget with staff capacity, project, phasing and timelines, just seeing how much we've carried over this year alone, and wanting to make sure that we are really budgeting the amount that is needed in a given year. So we aren't carrying forward significant funding each year. So with that in the green we would have what would come back as scenario. 2. Scenario 2. Is everything identified in scenario, one plus any but budget proposals for what is new.

[104:03] The city direction is really focused on being fiscally constrained, so limited, or no additional funding to accomplish any current goals that we don't really know right now whether we will be in scenario one or scenario 2. That our intention is to provide both scenarios with you. What you saw tonight is really an emphasis on scenario one as kind of the baseline budget that we would expect to bring back to you in June and July. With that. Are there any questions on the operating budget? so my question. I guess maybe it's a little early for my question. But just out of curiosity when you say what's come in the first in the first slide that you had. What's coming marketing plan. Can you tell me more about what that means. Scott, do you want to take this?

[105:05] Yeah. So I directly oversee our our marketing manager, and she's been working for the past 6 months or so on developing a a strategy, a plan for how we're gonna be more effective in our marketing efforts really try and embrace a brand and and a strategy for our department to expand our outreach and and really tie things together in in what we do and improve our storytelling. And so she's put together a marketing plan. We're in final review of that right now. And hopefully, we'll have that done here in the next month or so. So the marketing plan is to getting people to participate more in parks and rep programs. That's yes, and identifying strategies for some return on investment, and where we focus our marketing priorities and the limited budget we have for marketing materials, and marketing efforts. So we do have a fairly limited marketing budget. But we wanna be very strategic with how that money is used. To get the most bang for our buck.

[106:04] Alright. So I will also ask. Then, at the same time. we, you know we have the the plan. The goals over on the right of that first slide with the pursuing non-traditional funding sources. And I I guess I just feel like we have a. We talk a lot about fiscally constrained living, you know, working a fiscally constrained environment which I understand. And then, you know, that was very clear on on what we have, what we're where we're getting our money from. so the fee. So we we're looking at. I'm just trying to figure out what the best way is to procure more revenue without harping on the non traditional funding sources like sponsorships and things like that. And I know last time we talked a little bit about like, well, you know, in our Rec center we don't have big advertisements or anything like that. And I do appreciate that. But I also think that if we're gonna continue to operate in a fiscally constrained environment where we have, where we have yellow on things just like maintaining our current infrastructure.

[107:09] I'm wondering how we can more quickly pursue alternate funding sort or nontraditional funding sources, like. you know, again, maybe sponsorships or or advertising, or, you know, again. And I wanna copy out this whole conversation with, I'm new to the Parks and Rec department. So I you know, I know some of these questions may have already been asked but I I wanna figure out a way to stop saying fiscally, constraints. I don't like the fact that we depend a lot on sales tax, and and we're in a position where sales tax is flattening and property taxes are flattening. And so how can we, you know, get away from those dedicated funding sources and look at something different. And what do you think the solution is? Is it ballot measures? Is it taxes, you know, and I'd like to take fees out of it, cause I I don't think that's the right way to equitably look at creating different revenue sources or more revenue sources. So I'm looking for some ideas and opinions from the experts. I guess

[108:05] everything you just answered is probably a six-hour study session. Just just to be clear. I'm gonna try and summarize it in a few cents. One is this challenge is not unique to Boulder. It is the headline and every association that we're a part of in the conversation, from the landscape architects to the city managers to the parks and Rec. Field. So we are a built out city. We we built things in the eighties and nineties not fully built out. But we have a mature system that is now aging, and we, as a country, have not invested in asset management. And so we have things that are expensive to take care of. That is a structural issue that's not going to be solved with with quick fixes. And so this 2 year financial strategy that I reck that I highlighted with city council, that that is the right answer, because the the easy answers, a hundred $1,000 is a whole heck of a lot of money, and I'm not gonna scoff at it. It's not gonna fix our problems like we're talking millions is this conversation. And so there are

[109:02] I? I appreciate the interest for the quick and easy wins. But they're they're gonna be small compared to the need. And so really, the best way to invest our time and resources is on this 2 year. Financial strategy having a conversation with our community about service levels. The the demands certainly outpace the funding levels. And we've gotta have a conversation about what a park looks like, you know, in the civic area versus my neighborhood park. They're gonna have to look different. So I I think I think the really short answer is, there's not a quick answer, and it's the work ahead of the next 2 years. And there's gonna be a lot of conversations. so you're just gonna I I think that the answer is, you're gonna have to stay tuned because the teams are doing the work we'd be happy to follow up on this philanthropy conversation. But again, boulder typically doesn't get the multimillion dollar grants, there are other communities who need is even greater. And and so for us to get a hundred, $750,000 grant, like we did for the park on Violet. That's humongous. That's the largest grant we've ever gotten. It's probably the tip, the the tip of what we could get is a commute

[110:11] because of just our affluence and the homogenous nature of our community. So I said I was going to be short, and then I talked. I could talk a whole heck of a lot about this. But really I think it's going to be the bite spice pieces that come as we talk about the long term. Financial strategy. I heard the conversation in April. You all are right. As we figure out ways. Our Rec centers are already doing incredible work. They're Q. One numbers not only on utilization but on revenue. They are a light of hope. We haven't fully been able to break it down to see, is the growth among seniors, which is great from a community benefit perspective, but not from a funding perspective. And so we're doing some of that analysis. Now, that'll inform to Scott's point. Where do we really invest in the marketing and the generation? Because the other thing I want to double click it can't be 100% about fees.

[111:02] public parks and recreation is supposed to be about access and about everyone. And so we can't just focus on increasing fees. And I agree with the fees for sure. With. So with what we talked about with the long term strategies, I understand the outcome base defining the core services is huge other funding sources. The Ppps. Then you mentioned the 3 to 5 year ballot measure strategy. Can you tell me what that is? I can tell you we're gonna talk a lot more about it in June. But what we are outlining is so for parks and recreation needs where the community's been telling us really for 2 decades. Now we we would like more. The last parks and recreation specific measure was the renewal of the point 2 5 in 2,015. That tax first passed in 1,995 for 20 years, and that funding was used to buy Valmont City Park. It built the Stasio ball fields. It built the East Boulder community center. That is typically how communities add amenities. The challenge will be, we have to think about the long term strategy, not just to build those amenities, but to operate them and take care of them, so that our predecessors aren't having this conversation in 30 years about how do we take care of these things that that the city built in 2024, and then didn't take care of.

[112:24] So so it's potentially putting other ballot measures on the ballot. That is a consideration. Okay, okay. great. Thank you. I would just use. I would just use this last discussion as a way to highlight an agenda item we have in a second or in a couple of minutes, which is about board liaison rules, and there is a liaison rule for budget development for this next year. So think about that. Thanks. I'm taking up. Yeah.

[113:00] no, I I just I hear some excitement around budget. And I want to just make sure we highlight opportunities. Alright. I'm gonna turn it over to Mark now. We're gonna talk through Cip, and he's the expert sort of Mark Davidson, senior planning manager, and I'll talk us through 2 aspects of the cip tonight. First off. I'll touch on the process and then I'll get into the actual work plan thinking. And I'd just like to highlight. To begin with that this is a partnership across the department to make this happen with the finance team, the planning team park Ops natural resources recreation folks. So we really do work together on figuring this out it was 2022 when the department plan emerged, and then, I think, if you remember, I came to board members who are here in 2023 with what we call the capital investment strategy. And it really, that's what you're seeing in year one is the emergence from that discussion

[114:03] in 23 of what a larger capital investment strategy typically would be doing those. I think the last one was 2,016. Thank you, Ali. And so what we've done in this alignment was when we came out of that thinking was, well, it seems odd to do that. Not in sequence with our department plans that are typically every 6 years. And the Cip couple improvement programs also every 6 years. So with this method, now, we'll be doing it every 6 years. Our Cis to inform the department plan, and the other change we made was, instead of, although you approve and recommend and partially approve the budget for one year. We'll have 2 year thinking on that next slide, please. And here you see that summarized where, as Ali talked about the 6 year capital improvement plan, as you can see, is informed by various different plans across the city, the Department and the Boulder Valley Comp plan. and it's I'll talk in a bit more in a minute about this, but also how our asset management program fits into this. And that's especially true for taking care of what we've got.

[115:04] And then, now, we've really started to really think about 2 year work planning in terms of Saip, because, as you know, it's very hard to complete a project on January first and finished it on December thirtieth. It's unfortunately, projects don't work like that. So this is how we think about project. That's 18 months, 2 years, some even roll over into 3 and 4 years. And then finally, we do have obviously the one year plan to approve next slide, please. And so here's what we did in developing the Cis. And I know, like I said, earlier, previous board members have seen this, but for new board members. You get a sense of the buckets we've created. And first and foremost you'll see at the top there's our asset management bucket, and this is really looking at assets across the system which we've talked a lot about. And this isn't just about maintaining those assets. It's also about thinking about the replacement, and I'll get into more detail on that later. And what I mean by that is when the life cycle is up. What do you do about that? You could just can't keep maintaining an asset past its life cycle cause the costs get too great.

[116:07] The second bucket is for our parks and recreation facilities, and this really starts to think about how we can renovate a park rather than just looking at an individual asset. A great example of that which we'll talk about in a moment is North Boulder Park. and then, finally, if we've got the top 2 assets, which is kind of the on the groundwork, the other aspect of the Capital Improvement Project work is to think about our system planning, and this is to look a decade or even 20 years ahead, and our thinking which I think we've all you've heard the team talk about tonight, and some of the questions you've been asking. How do we sort of think of the long term for our system of parks. So I mentioned this earlier, as when people think about capital improvement program it's often thought about. Oh, that's where you're investing a lot of money in some new stuff or some replacement stuff. Well, in fact, for us, it's it's really critical that we look at our existing assets like courts, play areas, irrigation sports fields. And what we're doing is working really hard at the moment. We're not quite there yet. We've made some good improvements last year, and my hope is by early 2025 we would have in place our full asset management program. That's got things like Crv current replacement value.

[117:22] It's got fci. That's a facility condition index for our major assets. In other words, we know the the life cycle we know the cost to maintain, and we know where they're at in terms of the cost needed, the deferred maintenance and what it would take to replace them. The purpose of all of that is, then that will better inform our capital improvement planning. and the reason for that is, if we don't really think about our assets in that way. Often the capital improvement projects won't know how to identify them. So it's a really good way to prioritize existing assets in the system and taking care of what you got. So now we actually get to have to talk about the process, how we're actually thinking about the work plan for you in line with the budget

[118:04] and what you see in this slide. And I apologize on the right. The writing is a little bit small. but it's basically breaking down our various major assets and allocating funding. This was again part of the capital investment strategy pro process improvements, where, for the first time last year, we broke out the various assets into their major categories. And here you see what we're estimating per year for each of these assets in terms of the spending needs. And then on the right, you see the actual parks with which will be where we're looking to spend that money between 24, at 25, and 26 sorry. And, for example, a good example is play areas at 500,000, typically for a small play area. It's about 300,000 for a larger play area. It's 800,000 talk about cost escalation. We just found out last week. That's that might be closer to 901 million. Now, just because of various materials, you name it construction goals.

[119:03] But that's an example where we've put in an average figure. Knowing as we work through different types of play areas, the smaller ones normally being the 3 to 6 year olds and the larger ones being the 7 to 12 year olds. How do we think about that? And also, how do we factor in teen play areas? For example. I'll get into courts in a bit more detail later. But one of the great things about this approach is we're really starting to identify the needs and how we do take care of what we've got over the next, let's say, 18 months. We'll be coming back to you with much better figures and much more sort of accurate costing. On this, as we flush out our asset management program. We've just recently hired a new staff person for that program. And it's gonna really help us think that through next slide. Okay, now, we'll start a look at what I mentioned earlier, which is our middle bucket, which is the parks and facilities. And what you'll see here is this is a good example, where. no matter what we do in terms of prioritization funding comes from different sources. And this is the

[120:04] community culture and resilience safety tax. You see, that was here before I arrived. So. still getting there, one more word, I'll get it. And we basically, this is a bucket of about for the city as a whole, and a conversation with the community about, you know, about 110 million dollars to spend on projects that are needed across the city which the city didn't have funding for. and Parks was very successful in terms of identifying the needs and actually getting funding for the 3 projects mentioned here. You know, we've brought forward the outline and the schedule and the kickoff for the civic area. Phase 2. It's we working on that from 24 through 27. We've got 18 million dollars in funding. A good example from what Ali talked about earlier in terms of underfunded is, we estimated the toll would be about 40 million to fully do this project. So the 14 million 18 million will pay for phase 2. But we'll likely need a phase 3. Down the road.

[121:01] Pearl Street is a project we'll be looking to do, starting in 25 through 2028 again. That project is somewhat underfunded at probably closer to a 1012,000,000 mark. But we have 3 million funded in it to really take care of existing assets and make basic some basic improvements. And to regarding your earlier question about alternative funding, what might the funding campaign look like to support that for? Especially with the business community. And then finally, as East Boulder Recreation Center. Where we have a focus and really good funding to do the renovation up to 45 million with some out years. That is sort of development funding for the North and South recreation centers next slide. Now, you see. Boulder parks and recreation. Yeah, Cip, as it is within the funding for our own department coming VR. Department, from the various funding sources that Stacy mentioned, and what I'm showing you here is, rather than the obviously the 2025 fund. I'm trying to

[122:02] show here a way that you'll see the whole cost for the Project Bro, and it obviously individual years will break out the funding for this. It just doesn't come in one single year. So East Boulder Community Park has 2 2.2 million pencilled in. And that's really focusing on recommendations coming out of the courts plan, which you'll be hearing about in June. We've got Violet Park soon, hopefully to be Premis Park. where we have currently, this is a good example where we've got 5.5 million, and that includes the Grant money for Park's budget. But, in fact, we're looking at a total budget of round about 18 million, because we're working with the bridge improvement next to the park with Transport Department, and we're working with utilities on looking at the flood plain. So this is a great example where the 3 different departments across the city are working together and collaborating, because actually the the cips for the different departments with this is great example, where, like one was in 2028. One was in 2032, and by doing a collaboration we've brought the timeline together, and the funding together cause that obviously creates huge efficiencies and frankly creates a better project.

[123:11] and then on the right is a project that has been delayed for a couple of years. But I'm happy to say that's moving forward now, and that's North Boulder Park at the north end of the park. with a renovation there. Pleasant View is the one that has come to prab previously. And that's underway. We're hoping to finish that in 2025. And that's focused on the entrance and parking area. As you know, the flat ends. Golf facility, I believe, is due to be completed. June eighth fingers crossed, and that project's been underway for a number of years, but should be finished soon. And then there's a project which we're looking at in a bit, either out of years 2026 through 28 to prioritize some of the asset needs at the Boulder Reservoir, South shore, based upon a capital plan that was produced a little while ago. And there's a good example of some of the syncing that's now occurring in the department. You heard Jackson talk about a business plan to think through, and what are the revenue sources, and therefore we won't do the capital plan till the business plans in place. So we're just getting ducks in a row

[124:13] next slide. And finally, in terms of our capital spending. This is where the funding comes to the department to support our capital improvement program. You'll see the the Reservoir access road has funding, and obviously we'll sync that with the previous slide I mentioned on the South Shore capital project sync it as in terms of bring the 2 together and make those 2 projects work in tandem, and that comes out of our general fund from the city and then impact fees. We have the Boulder Junction Development, which is now in its phase, 2. And that's a major redevelopment of the Boulder Junction area. The impact fees for that obviously identified with that increased park service needs. So East Mapleton was identified as one of the main service parks for that area so that got increased funding there to support that. And then a Pocket Park, within Boulder Junction itself.

[125:05] which we will be hopefully moving through by the end of 2025 in terms of completion. And then, finally, as we've been developing our approach to looking at parks, the we've been thinking about. Some of the smaller scale projects where it's not just an individual asset. But it's not a full blown park renovation, and this is a pilot effort to look first off at Barker, where it's mostly a play area of a small community area on the edge of it, and then Mg, find, which has a large equity component. So we'll be really looking to improve those parks with a smaller budget than a typical renovation project, but, as you might say, elevating the park scores in the quality of the parks and the overall appearance. And that's sort of a holistic way to look at managing assets, not just by the asset, but by the park. And then on the right, you see some smaller projects within there that our capital improvement project capital improvement program works on that aren't the typical asset categories. I can give the example of Scott. Commoda is a rain garden improvement.

[126:11] Finally, then, in terms of the final bucket, I should say the system planning is like, I said earlier. This is where we have that larger outlook. and I've got my reading glasses on. I don't have my long distance glasses tonight, so I'm gonna go to my own piece of paper here. Not that I don't know this off by heart. Here's a good example of us thinking through 24, through 2030, really sort of deeper thinking on how we tie all the various system plans we do together. And obviously at the beginning Ali talked about this in her presentation. and there is something interesting there. It's very hard to sync like the Boulder Valley Comp. Plan, a city wide strategic plan, park plans to get them all perfectly lined up. That never quite happens because of just various competing needs. But you see that we'll be doing the build account plan in 2025. That will help in sort of provide guidelines for our thinking. We do have the city wide strategic plan in place.

[127:12] and we do have the Bpr plan. That was, we now call them not master plans call them department plans from 2,022. So what would that sort of 20, 2829 department plan look like, because you kind of run them on a 6 year cycle. But what you're seeing here is the origin, the origins of an approach to really sort of think more holistically. And I'll give an example at the moment. You see on the far right at the top, right? We're doing a court system plan in 24. There was a need identified for that. We are responding to that for pickle ball and tennis. We also have the Boulder Creek management plan, looking at like a river corridor. What does that look like from a recreation perspective? So on the right are the more sort of individual system plans one of the changes we're hoping to do. There is, you'll see on the third

[128:02] box down is a park recreation assessment 24 through 26. So that would look at all the different recreation activities across parks and identifies, improve or identify the process by which we understand service levels and the cost of providing those services for the activities based upon the facilities and amenities that support them. We'll also have the development of an equity plan and a universal access plan to support those findings. And then we're also looking at the future of our recreation centers, our 3 major large facilities, and what the services should be for those. The idea, with doing all those plans is ultimately we'll be able to come up with a system wide approach to recreation planning. we'll understand the future of recreation centers. This is the second column from the right, and working with Regina, will be able to understand the natural resource needs. So instead of sort of thinking about assets or activities individually, this will be a way to systematically look at what we do. And as a question came up earlier, and, as Ali pointed out, part of this work will set us up to inform a funding conversation in 2026, but then also set us up for our future department plan around about 28, or 29,

[129:17] and then finally, I'll just finish on something. That's a topic which is Elliot, you brought this up as a question, so I'm not putting you on the spot because, you brought this up as question last year. How are you thinking about your funding? And you're underfunded, and you know, what can you do for efficiencies? And you'll see here there's a lot of blanks, and this is what I talked about earlier. We're working for asset management program to really make big improvements and big strides in how we think about that. You'll see there, for instance, shelters and bathrooms and play areas now have. What is a current replacement value for the total cost across the system for those. So that's work we've been doing in the background, based upon square footage age groups that use it. And we've updated it all our cost estimating system for that.

[130:02] The one we've spent a little bit little bit more time on as. And and this is an example of what we're hoping to do. For the rest is the courts. And obviously that was sort of prioritized, based upon the court system plan that's underway. And what you see there is for the current replacement value for our 22 courts would be 13.3 million. And what we're hoping is the future state of that would go down to 5.6 million. And this is a good example of where we've been really researching the asset management program. And what we realized was, even though our courts at the moment are in relatively good condition. The 22 courts most of the time that we're putting into it, and the cost of it is starting to increase because most of them were past their 25 year life cycle. So you see that maintenance increase, keeping it in a good condition, but keeps going up. So when we start to look at different types of courts, and how we do rather than maintenance, what does replacement look like? We've moved to post tension.

[131:02] steel concrete. which is a reinforced form of a code. What that does is, it increases the quote from a life cycle from 25 to 50 years. So if we're putting an investment of about 260,000 for 2 colts instead of, just say 120,000 for a typical sort of replacement that's with quite a bit of an upfront increase in cost. But we're doing that through the 400,000 in the asset management program we talked about the great news is by shifting it also from 25 to 50 years. There's only one replacement every 50 years instead of 2, and we've also got decreased maintenance costs. And when we've done the Calcs for that. we are looking at currently maintenance of courts for the 22 over the next 50 years would be 265,000 a year, and by moving to post tension we'll be able to reduce the total cost of maintenance over the next 50 years to 93,000. So you can see how initial investments will actually save the department money over time through sort of efficient and wise thinking.

[132:04] I hope it's wise thinking, anyway. And the final thing I'll say about that is that you do hear from tennis and pickleball players. They're pretty upset with the where the ball bounces the amount of times. There's puddles in the courts, and the beauty of that is, you'll get a much better quality playing service in there for a better experience. So that's just one example. And as we go through the other assets over the next 18 months we'll come back with similar proposals and suggestions. And obviously we're cost savings as well. Thank you and open it up for questions. Any questions from the board. Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the anticipated cost of the pleasant view Redo is going to be 1.2 million. I think that's that's much lower than I anticipated. It would be. Yeah. And we. And to be honest earlier, we're just looking at that as we're going through permitting. And we've seen some potential adjustments there that we're working on to figure out. And Darren Wagner, who's the project manager, will be able to come back with an update on that once we figure it out. But we're hoping we can keep it within that limit.

[133:11] So it sounds like in some. It's very expensive to upkeep all of our stuff. Taking care of what we have is not cheap. Yes, okay, so with that, thank you so much for those thorough presentations. So the next item, really, the last item is matters from the board. and we have 2 sub items here. The first is we've titled it crab onboarding, which is a couple of different items, and then we've got matters from the Board, which are just our chance as board members to share thoughts we have about park matters that we've experienced or want to share with staff or with the public. But as part of the prab onboarding we have a presentation that's in the packet about the role of the Parks and Rec Advisory Board, and we had planned to have a presentation on this by ally.

[134:11] I'm gonna actually exercise my prerogative as chair to say that I don't think we need that presentation this evening in the interest of time, but what I would just encourage the members of the Board to do those online as well as those present. Is to review that Powerpoint or that presentation, because it really does provide a nice overview of what the functions of the board are, and what our kind of restricted authority is on things. And then, if you want a second look at those high level points on the back of the board. Liaison document that was sent out by Rosa a couple of days ago. It has a kind of an 8 point list of the most essential functions that the Board has. The handbook is also a really good source for identifying kind of the specific functions of the board.

[135:06] And as you'll see, you know, we have limited authority to do certain things. But we're primarily an Advisory Board. And so I would recommend looking at those resources. The second item on the prab onboarding agenda is to do a look at the annual kind of board liaison list, and I alluded to this earlier. But we have a number of roles that we need to fill. and the as again Rosa sent out this document. If you don't have it in front of you. she has projected it very kindly onto the screens. But this basically is just it's a list of projects that are going on within the parks department or in the city of Boulder, where there should be some sort of interface between the prab, and that project and I had the chance to serve on as the liaison with the Boulder Junction phase 2 development. I think it was last year. It might have been the year before that, but that was a really great opportunity for me to kind of represent

[136:10] the Park's interests on the development of that plan which is a multi-agency plan. and, as you can see by the document, there are a number of names that have been crossed off. So Chuck Jason who recently or most recently, were in those roles and are no longer. We also have a couple of projects that are no longer in need of a liaison, and so I'm wondering if we can go through and see if anybody wants to volunteer for any of these, and if we don't have somebody to fill them in. We can follow up with folks individually. If we feel like we can identify people that would be a good fit, especially since there are multiple members who are not here today. So I will say that Bernie absentia, did send me a an email saying that he would like to

[137:05] be. The person who is the point is the liaison for the phase. 2 project, which I think means the civic area phase 2. Project. Does anybody want to arm Russell, Bernie, or object, and say they want it instead. I think. I I would arm wrestle him. I'd also de defer to his experience. But I'm pretty involved downtown, and is interesting to me. but I think Bernie would be fantastic, and certainly knows what he's doing, which I can't claim. You know, Wayland, I was thinking. given your comment earlier about helping with finances and identifying sources of revenue from private sources, that you might be interested in joining Anna or being more involved with the Play Boulder Foundation. If you're interested in staying on that, or if you want to switch out, I'm happy to

[138:06] oblige. Yeah. okay. do you want to stay on the Playbolder? Are you on the Playbolder board now, or are you just a liaison. Okay? And we have a board spot. Right? Yeah. Oh, Chuck was on the board. I would like that spot. You want that spot. Okay. so this is not within the purview of the liaison. But we can make this official. Here's how that works. So in the past, the ancient history. the Prab and the Play Foundation Board were actually very like one in the same that was separated for a lot of really good reasons in the early 2 thousands. So, Jenny, I hear you expressing interest in a seat on the play board. I think they would welcome that. And we will just email that with Angie, who will follow up with you. There is. It is always better when there is a member, a current member of the prab on the play board, because of all the reasons that we talked about tonight around

[139:02] funding. And so I will just pass that along to Angie, and she'll reach out enthusiastically. So just to be clear. This board can't decide that, but play will follow up with you, and I think they will be thrilled that we were voting on that. Yeah, thank you very much for volunteering for that. I would like to throw my hat in the ring. Okay, cool Wednesday nights. Okay. so every Wednesday. No. Do you know how often they? Okay, yeah, the you'll have to connect with them. Okay. Ok? So the first one is the Violet Park development. Chuck was the one who was on that before. It's currently vacant. Any takers. what can you? What what is it in? What is like? What would that entail. Sally? Sorry I was. I should not have been doing that. I was emailing Angie. I was so excited. Which project are we talking about, Violet? Violet? Thank you so honestly. This one's an easier one, because we're nearly at the final stages of the engagement, and and expect wrapping up design in the third quarter of this year. That's when we'll really move into developing construction documents.

[140:13] And so and Mark can chime in if I'm wrong. But I think it's a light lift, and it would just because the community typically a liaison on a project that paragraph at the top. I I can't read that from here. That's okay. But just a deeper level of understanding on the project and guide community engagement on this project, because we're so well down the road, and you all unanimously supported the approach we're taking. It's a pretty light lift. Okay? So I actually, I mean this, this board could assign a liaison to this project. But you're also welcome. Given that there are more spots than there are board members, and some of you may need to take more than one. You could skip this one, and I think it would be fine. Ok. Bernie signed up for the Pacific area phase 2, the Boulder Creek management plan design seems to be off the table.

[141:05] Sunny, you're in the public private partnerships role for now, are you still good with that? Okay, Bernie's doing court systems. I'm doing budget. Sunny and Bernie are doing Rec center futures. The next vacancy is for regional facility business plans. Could you explain exactly what that means? This actually ties to your conversation earlier about revenue generation. So both flat irons, golf course and the Boulder reservoir, we expect those to be nearly fully enterprise facilities under Scott and a project manager and Stephanie Monroe's leadership. They're developing business plans to identify where we should be. Not only just investing dollars, but driving, marketing and revenue opportunities at those facilities Wayland, does that something sound like something? It'd be interesting to you. I mean, everything's interesting but in terms of my skills, I think you know, I have experience with fundraising and no.

[142:05] a lot of the rich folks in Boulder, and I think they should, you know. step forward and pay their way to make sure we're in in good shape and or the civic area. I have a lot of experience downtown. So not particularly to be. To be honest, I don't think it's where I would be that helpful. Sure. Do you think. Ally? Given what Wayland was saying about his kind of profile, skill set? Do you think public private partnerships? Where do you think that'd be best? I think public private partnerships would be good. But I also think some of these projects have 2 names, and I don't. Thinking. Having 2 names on the civic area is a bad thing. That is a I mean, we've got more staff and more community engagement on that project than any other. It'd be appropriate and or not inappropriate to have 2 board members there. So Wayland, do you wanna join Bernie? On the civic area phase 2.

[143:01] I think Wayland Jennings would be less useful than we anticipate. But you know he passed away, but but his name would bring a lot of attention to the project. So he was a bad boy. I don't know. Yeah, I think I'm helpful in civic area. I I honestly. You know I want to be helpful and be wherever folks want me to be. I I do think. you know, if we can have multiple names on fundraising. I think that. And that's something we want. I I think. Really, there's so much money in Boulder and for us to be so constrained looking at equity and moving into this climate era. Further, we should be getting money from folks if we want it. but that's enough blabbing. Put me wherever wherever is helpful. So, waylon, are you saying you'd also like to raise your hand to be a part of the play foundation. Or is that? Am I not following. Yeah, I like to do whatever Jenny likes to do. Basically.

[144:01] I you know Jenny and I are collegial, I think, to put it mildly, I but mainly my interest is just in fundraising, like I said. If if play is the place where that happens. then yes, if there's another fit for that. I think Jenny is the best and fantastic. and you know I don't want to arm wrestle Bernie or Jenny. Are there 2 spots? Well, here's for place, certainly, but the other thing, I'm thinking, is, we can always so next month, when we give you an overview of the work underway, as it relates to our capacity for fundraising. There may be there may be a follow-up on this, as it relates to some of what we talked about with sponsorship guidelines, and others. So certainly, I think we can talk to Angie about seats on the board. I had a strategic planning session with them last week. It is. It's a it's a good board, so I don't think your talents would be wasted for either of you.

[145:04] Yeah. So I'm interested. But I'm also, you know, I'm happy to take a backseat and just be helpful. But I definitely wanna make sure that I'm doing my part in terms of my skill set to make sure we're not constrained in ways we don't need to be. and civic area sounds super fun and meaningful, and I'd love to get to know Bernie and work with him more. What's the difference in the fundraising for private public partnerships versus Play foundation? They're different. And I'm sorry if that's got conflated. How public private partnerships is not about fundraising, but it is about effectiveness with public dollars. So when we partner with others, whether it's another public sector entity or the private sector. Then our our tax dollars can go farther. So it's it's more around the financial sustainability than it is specific to fundraising. And just so I'm clear about the other vacancy, the Rms system evaluation. What's that? What is rms, I'll let Jackson speak to that. It. I'll wing it. The Rec. Management system is the software that we use to operate nearly everything we do that the community touches around recreation system, memberships, program registration facility reservations. The laser on. This would probably be around helping us with the user experience and the customer interface.

[146:22] Jackson's not hopping up. So I think I got it. Okay, thank you for that. So I've only got one responsibility now, and that's Budget. And so I'm happy to take on the regional facility business plans one as Eric also. Oh, that's right, Eric. I know you're a golfer, Elliot. So just so we're clear on boundaries here. I'm just just kidding. That's great. It's actually great cause so often, you know. Think about partnerships for the golf course as I play the golf course right? I just I actually I I it. It's late, and it's way past my bedtime. So I shouldn't be so cheeky. But just know something that we do often miss is that user experience. And so I think that's a great one for you. Elliot, because you are a golfer.

[147:16] Great? okay. So we've got Bernie for the civic area. We've got me for regional facility business plans. We've got nobody so far for Rms. And we've got 2 maybes for play for the board. Should we keep probably like. Let's leave this as it is. And then, when Eric is present for the next meeting, we can let him weigh in on what he wants, and if Waylon wants to think more about which opportunities he wants to jump into, which is totally fine, we can redo that at the next meeting I'd like to, I think, for I think Eric would be good if we wanted to put somebody on Violet Park just to find to finish it up as a new board member. I think that'd probably be a good place for him to be

[148:05] But this is kind of matters for the board, but I wanted to see if you think like I would love the opportunity to. I don't know if it would be adding to this, or if it would be part of public private partnerships. But if there was a liaison for the nonprofits, I mean, there are so many nonprofits like people center for people with disabilities and the thorn nature center and growing gardens. And you know all of these different nonprofits that are in the area. If there is a liaison to for somebody from the board to talk to those people on a you know, by monthly basis, even just to say, You know, what can parks and Rec. What can we do for you? How can we represent you on the board? And just maybe even quarterly, have a report on on nonprofits, and how we can partner more. And this goes kind of back to the Koot Lake conversation that we had before like, if I feel like, if we had a better understanding of the nonprofits that are in our area. When somebody like Koot Lake were to come to the board and say.

[149:08] You know, we'd like to do this we can say, well, you know what. I have a great organization that can help you. I don't know if that's in. In addition to this, or part of something or something that we can add to the agenda to discuss at another time. But just because it kind of goes with opportunities. I wanted to mention it here. Yeah, I mean, I would just suggest, why don't we take this up on our agenda setting meeting? And if there may be room for a liaison role like this. I I would love to better understand the intent. I heard 2 things, and so I don't know if that's a follow up in an email with clarifying it for the agenda. But I I heard 2 things. One is to reach out to them every couple of months and find out how we can better serve them. That's concerning from a work plan level. Because that's what we do every 5 years with the strategic plan update. We do it on a really robust level, and then and then set the plan like, we don't have the capacity to be checking in in that way with folks, and so maybe I misunderstood as a board, like as a as a board member would take on that responsibility, I mean, and really it would be something that anybody could. I could just do it as a citizen, you know, like.

[150:17] just I feel like something that I feel like has been missing is kind of that. I'm I'm sorry it is late. But yeah, like not integration or the ability for different players to kind of be on the same page. And I found this through a lot of the homeless situations, and how people are just kind of off doing their own things and then end up duplicating efforts on a lot of different things. So and again, this this can. This is probably a way larger conversation. But I just kinda feel like the nonprofits are maybe under utilized, not so much how we can serve them, but how we can work together, you know, to provide free services for kids at the New Park, like maybe growing gardens, wants to come out and and create a small vegetable garden that the community can tend to like. How do you put those partnerships together? Is that public private partnerships, maybe? Or

[151:10] you know, I'm just not really sure. But I just I just feel like there's a missing link when it comes to nonprofits in our area, or maybe duplicity when it comes to efforts. I think that that would be a lovely thing to follow up on the way we're talking to play about how they can serve as an umbrella for smaller groups, such as the memorial and such as others. The other place it might fit is, and I think Waylon will, is if you hang tight on that June Update, there's a. So our 2022 plan is organized around 6 key themes, one of which is community building and relationships. You'll hear about work underway to connect the way that the teams is connecting with the youth sports nonprofits. For example, that's one of the we heard a lot from folks during that process. The various nonprofit youth providers. So if you wouldn't mind holding that question, and then let's revisit it after we give an update on that work in June to understand. Okay, here's what we're doing. Now, let's talk about that gap that you're seeing. And just to be clear, I'm I'm

[152:09] offering my services, not volunteering yours or your staff, you know. Good. So I would like to help in some way by being that liaison. Not so much asking your team to do that work. So that's wanna make that perfect. Okay, you guys do a great job. So I don't want to put more work on you. Thank you. Okay. So why don't we pause the liaison stuff? For now I think we've got a couple of leads on some new roles, and we can take this up again next month. I have a question about just what the liaison role looks like. So I was under the impression sort of because I'm the liaison that someone would contact me. So for like parks and recreation, you know. where are we going with that I wasn't really proactive, because I was sort of waiting to be contacted about like, oh, we're having a discussion about this or so forth.

[153:06] Can you help me? Envision what that should look like? It's I would, I would say, for most of these they hadn't taken flight from 23 to 24 in the way that they were originally scoped. We've talked to you all a few times about the way that we're right sizing the cip based on dollars and staff capacity. So it makes sense like the the most robust example right now is the court system plan cause. That project is well on its way. I would expect that. By the end of the summer. You'll have heard from the team on the Boulder Reservoir because they are. We have. We have that separated around the public private partnership and the business plan. Those should be combined and be one person. So we'll come back on this in June. But, Sunny, that project's being scoped now and then you would hear from the team on. This is the timeline. This is what we're thinking. So it makes sense. It's not fun to feel in the dark, but it's because it hasn't taken off yet

[154:02] with that reservoir work. Great? Yeah, you have not done anything wrong. No, you're correct. They should. They will reach out to you. Yeah. and I I've gotten to do, too. I've gotten to do the master plan and the Boulder Junction, and they were both really great experiences. So with that transition to another kind of board role that we've had in the past that we haven't really utilized recently is the protocol for community response. So what we did a couple of years ago is we had so many emails that were coming in to the board on a variety of topics that were seemingly just unending, and it was mainly around. The one of them was the reservoir, which was a pretty major issue, and we assigned roles for each. Basically, we assigned every board member with the responsibility of responding to emails that came in about a certain topic.

[155:00] and that board member would work with Staff on making sure that the community's interest in that issue was addressed. and would respond, not on behalf of the Board, but as a board member individually and and just kind of go out and visit with folks and whatnot, and we haven't really done that the last year and a half. or even 2 years, because it. the volume of emails, has shifted downward dramatically. There hasn't really been a need to assign people to particular topics, and what the topics were, became kind of nebulous, and it's always dynamic dynamic. What the issues are that we need to address. So my my recommendation would be, instead of actually assigning people to what they're gonna respond to. I just think that we should adopt a policy or a practice of just having individual board members respond if they want to. Emails that come in. Presume, as normally happens, that staff will respond on behalf of the department and that we not assign people on on particular topics.

[156:10] I think that's a more efficient use of everybody's time, and it allows board members to respond on a variety of topics and not just feel like they're constrained to respond on one particular topic. So with that, is there any discussion on that recommendation? I know it's kind of like a shot in the dark, because you guys haven't had to deal with this at all. But I could tell you that from experience. This I feel like this recommendation is more efficient. Well, like as an example, the thing that came in about Uni Hill, I mean, I didn't respond. What would be the process is like a case study example. Yeah. So if there was one. if that particular item or that email came in and it was slotted to one particular topic, operations or planning topic, there would be one board member, whoever the board member is that's assigned to that

[157:09] category would be responsible for like responding and engaging with the community on that issue. So you want that to happen, or you I do not. My recommendation is that we dispense with having categories and board members signing up for responding on certain topics. And we just all individually say that we're going to respond if we choose on emails that come in, and that the practice now is that staff will respond on behalf of the department, and then, if we want to weigh in with those folks from the community that are emailing, we can do so and rather than having, like one person assigned to rec center issues or regional facility issues or Park Ops. I mean, I agree with you. I just. I feel like that. Nobody's going to respond ever to any resident that's my only concern, like, if I was responsible to respond to somebody, I would. But if something comes in and none of us feel like we're experts, and then nobody responds at all to

[158:05] to a resident. I feel like, that's a problem as well. Yeah. And that's a really valid point. I try and respond to the I I'd say the productive feedback and emails we get. If people are just kind of yelling at us, you know, I I typically don't respond. Although if there's a nugget in there, I'll say, Hey, you know you raise this issue. I'd like to talk to you further about it. But I have found that it. This kind of free agent system allows board members to at least determine what interests them. What do they really want to engage on? I remember that the person who was assigned to the reservoir topic. Alley. Right? She was my predecessor. She was overwhelmed with emails about that topic, and it became just very burdensome. Yeah, I think that's fine. I'm fine with that plan.

[159:04] If I feel moved to respond. do I need to? CC, everybody, or I'm not supposed to. CC, everybody, yeah, only. And yeah, oh, sorry, Rita, no, just I'm just wondering what if there's communication if we should know about it. Yeah, so and how that works. What I'm proposing is that we basically continue the status quo. So if somebody emails us as a board and CC staff, or they email the staff and CC, the board, and we want to engage with them as an individual board member. We can. You can just email them back and say, hey? I'm sunny. I'm on the board. I'd love to ask you some questions about this, and you're totally free to do that. We should not. CC. The rest of the board ever because that is an open meetings. Issue. So, and just make it clear when you're communicating with members of the community on behalf of yourself, that it's really just you, and personally, and not you're not speaking for the board

[160:08] that do you need to make a motion for that, or Can I ask one clarifying question again? Yeah. This. Thank you. you referenced Uny Hill email. I haven't seen it. That email is this, like, people can email the board. And it goes to all of our emails. And then that's what we're discussing. In this. Is that not clear? I'm not sure what emails or where we're seeing these. It was about the up on the hill. Josh Watson, I think he emailed everybody. okay. but he BCC everybody. So I can't see who he sent it to, but he! He! I guess I'm wondering if I'm on. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it says Hello, Parks and Rec board members. So I'm assuming he put everybody on there.

[161:05] Waylon, I'm happy to forward that email to you. I was, I was uncle. Folks can email the prab in 2 ways. Your individual emails are listed online, I believe. And then you can also, if you email prab at Boulder, Colorado, Gov, it goes to all 7 board members plus Rosa and myself. Wonderful. So one thing to note if someone emails you to just your email and you think it would benefit from a staff response, feel free to forward it to us. We're always happy to chime in with with what we know as. and then you're welcome to offer your opinion, just as Elliot notes that you're speaking on behalf of yourself, and not the board, unless it's a matter on which the Board has voted. Am I allowed to forward this to Wayland? Yes, okay, because you're just 1 one board member forwarding to another board member. Thank you. That's what I was asking. I don't think somehow I got that. I I mean, I know I didn't.

[162:00] Okay, I will send this to you. So here's what I'd recommend is I would like to look at rather than making a motion for some sort of change. Today we've gotten feedback from the board on what we want to do. Moving forward, I want to look at the Handbook to see if the status quo of what we're doing right now for email response is already memorialized there and then, if we need to actually amend the resident response plan, or we just need to move to to get rid of it. And then we can take that up at the next meeting. So we can actually prepare some sort of motion for the board to take. If that's okay. any objection to that? Okay, great, all right. And then, last, but not least, is the matters from the board, and this is the point of the meeting where board members can share what's on their mind related to parks and Rec. Business.

[163:00] and I will just say that Bernie also he emailed me. He gave me a comment that he wanted to share. So I'll read it. So he said, with regard to universal swim education. I was disappointed that the city council did not elevate this initiative as one of their focus areas for the coming year, as expressed in our March meeting. This is an important safety and equity issue, and an area where Bpr. Has an opportunity to strengthen our community through collaboration with Bbsd. I still believe that this is an important goal and a good one for our board to elevate. I hope that we will continue working with Bps staff and community groups interested in this issue in a positive solution, focused manner to achieve the goal of universal swim education in Boulder, both as a part of a programming and facilities discussion. And that was Bernie Bernstein's feedback as part of this segment of the meeting. Anybody else.

[164:01] I had something else. Yeah, so kind of feeding off of what Bernie said. I also was disappointed to see that city council did not prioritize the universal swim, and I was just wondering what we could do within parks and rec to kind of scope out the need or the equity issues that currently exist around swim knowledge in the city of Boulder among children. and so I don't know, like I saw that what you guys did with the kind of the heat map for park equity, and I was just wondering whether something like that might be possible, like a survey of aquatic proficiency heat map to show like, where are the communities where kids don't know how to swim currently so that something like we can start planning how to best approach the problem.

[165:00] and then the other thing I wanted to say was that this entire spring soccer season I went to Pleasant View several times a week, and that northern gate was never open once, except for the boulder cup. I'm just gonna chime in on that one. And then Scott's gonna talk about swim swim lessons and water safety cause that's his area, that type of operational thing feel free to email me the very first week it happens. That's not our expectation. And I'm not sure why that's happening. And I would love to address it quickly. And I just wanna say that for all of you board members, when there is an operational thing that is an issue or a problem. Please let us know immediately, because that's the quicker we can solve it. And then it's just it. Yes, so we'll be following up. Thank you. And I have a couple of thoughts on your your comments regarding the heat mapping and really having a better understanding of who is participating in our our learned to swim programming. I will say, as part of the Rms system, the hope would be as we get some really good data and information collected about our program participants. And we can do a little bit more analysis of of Hu is using our programs and services.

[166:10] I, I think that we need to continue to do that outreach. And part of that is our marketing efforts to different parts of our community and different avenues of doing some of that marketing. And so we'll certainly look into that a little bit more at this time. We did bring back this from lessons just this past summer and our sections continue to fill. So we know the demand is there? We've expanded our staff with Wsi certifications. and we'll continue to do so. And we're currently working with aquatics user groups as well to prioritize pool usage lap lanes and also prioritize swim lessons. So I think that's something that we we have seen a steady increase in swim lesson programming it within the community that we're offering. And I think that's gonna continue to grow. And my hope would be is we'll be able to give you some more specific data around who's participating here in the near future?

[167:07] Okay? And my, my comment wasn't necessarily so much about who's currently taking your swim classes. It's about where which communities kids don't learn how to swim and don't have like essential water survival skills. Cause I think, or based on what I've seen, it's in very certain communities. which have a lot of low income, English language learner, kids. So I, that's what I was thinking was like some type of survey of all second graders, or something like that, like, do you know how to swim and then map that out to the parts of boulder that aren't currently being served by the programming. I think that that type of a thing is something we could include in the scope of the future of the Rec Centers project, because in that project, and in the fourth quarter, third and fourth quarter, are you walking out? I told you to go home. Were you standing up in the future of the Rec Centers project, and we're actually working on the Memo U Mou with Bvsd right now. It would. I mean reaching them in the schools would be the most

[168:13] feasible way to achieve that data. And so we can come back to you to see if that's feasible in the scope of that engagement and doing it under the umbrella of the school district. Cause it's the it's that's the only feasible way we're gonna reach all these kids and understand there's gonna be limitations to that because of there's a huge shame factor here. And so we'd have to think about it's not just to fill out a circle survey when you're sitting next to your friends, and and I know we have experts in our communications and engagement department on how we could get this type of input so I don't have an answer. We're taking the question and we'll include it as we talk about the community engagement on the Rec. Centers project. Just to be clear cause that project is about what are the needs in our community and how our facilities meeting them. We know facility. Space is one of the limitations to such to such a program. So stay tuned.

[169:02] Okay, thank you. Great anybody else. Okay, our next meeting is June Whalen. Anything else. I'll follow up an email in interest of getting folks home. Ok. Next meeting is June 20. Fourth. I will not be here, but Bernie will be running the meeting, and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you all. It's very.