August 26, 2024 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] Okay, thank you. Rosa. Okay, so let's get the meeting started. We've got our build trip today. Hope everybody was able to grab their dinner boxes and let's get started. So the 1st item is the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Second, second Bernie. Any discussion. any opposition to the motion, the agenda being approved. Okay, that passes. I'm gonna hand it over to Ally for future board items and tours. Thank you, Mr. Chair Ali Rhodes, director of Parks and Recreation. I'm going to be super brief, so you all can focus on your retreat. But I don't think you all have met our urban Park senior manager, Denise Dawson. She's joining us for the tour, so 1st wanted to introduce the new face in the room. We're so happy. She joined our team in early June and has jumped right in. She is been a great fit. You'll hear from more from her on certain future opportunities

[1:04] on your future board items. The one thing I want to call out for you is that September 12th is when city Council has their 1st conversation about the city manager's recommended 2,025 budget that will be published later this week, and we can forward that to you when that goes live. There are no changes from the budget that you all look at other than there's some changes in funding sources to support a complete development at primo Spark, which includes the underclass and a transportation bridge. So stay tuned. We'll give you an update on that at your September meeting. They are set to discuss and approve the budget at 1st and second hearings in October. With that we'll hand it back to you. Great. Thank you. any questions on that speaker board. Okay. There's no public participation this evening. and now the next item is a consent. Agenda.

[2:01] which includes the approval of the minutes from the last meeting updates from the director of Parks and Rec. and then planning design construction updates. Do I have a motion to approve the consent. Agenda motion. Thank you, Jenny. Hello! I'm sorry to say. Hi to you earlier. Second, any discussion, amendments hearing none. All in favor. Alright, any opposed? Okay, consent, agenda, including the minutes from the July 20, second, 2024 meeting, are approved. So, Rosie, you can send this to me for signature. Thank you. Then the next item is matter. From the board. we have our study session planning to discuss. We we have a letter from Mayor Brackett and Nicole spear the Mayor pro tem. In response to our letter to council, and then we also have any frap matters that folks want to raise. But

[3:06] let's start with the perhaps study session planning. Anybody like to raise any topics related to that? I can do 12. Okay. so at our last meeting we decided that Jenny and I would kind of lead the planning for the study session. It's been a great opportunity to work closely with Jenny. It's been fun to do that with you. Thank you for your time and engagement. we told them. and asked what topics you all were interested in studying in our study session. and what we learned was that there's a lot of topics we're all interested in more than exactly one meeting. So we'll get into this in a little bit greater detail in a moment. But basically, what we'd like to propose is that we tackle 2 topics at the study session. I'm gonna thank you for what we're gonna make for your recommendations. Pick 2 and then we'd like to

[4:00] consider taking more time on regular meetings to study topics, greater depth. Which I think is think it is something a different way with our agenda. But I think in this forge level of interest engagement in it's obviously could be very much for us. no, okay. So me just off my list here. And again. Thank you. Everybody who suggested topics to us. again, they're alive. I'm gonna talk about engagement. Engagement with the public. I think it's an important topic. We see it all the time. We've seen throughout my time on board. You saw today the special tennis tennis sports. I think it's an area where we would benefit from having more specific pov on how we're going to be involved when and you know what channels of how we're going to have staff support on that

[5:06] and there's some lessons to be learned from other boards. That. So I think that's that's good topic. Great the other 2, Jenny's gonna give us but choice. Yes. So just to recognize everyone's contribution to this study session. At the end, when we were looking at all the topics. We have public engagement, like, Bernie said, and we have we included Ppp. You know, public private partnerships and fundraising is one camping on parks and rec land South boulder parks, bathrooms at parks and mutes. And that was all of the topics that we received. So, as Bernie said, we've decided to go with 2 public engagement being one and then the other 2 that we are looking at to focus on for this study session is public potentially Ppps and fundraising

[6:02] that we included together. But fundraising falls within really the play Boulder Foundation, and they're coming in September to do a presentation for us. So we were thinking we would take fundraising as a whole out and potentially just focus on our opportunities to work with public and private partnerships. as a whole, or focus on youth topics. So we would be looking at taking fundraising out for September and then focusing on public private partnerships for youth. Youth would be like youth programming how we market to the youth youth sports. How they're engaged in city services and things like that. And then public private partnerships would be as an example, like the Food Lake Dog Art memorial that's out there, and how we can help kind of grassroots. Organizations potentially work with the city through public and private partnerships. And that's 1 example of how we can potentially engage

[7:03] nonprofits or the public with the city. So I we'd like to know more about what the city is already doing, as far as public private partnerships goes, because I think that that exists. We just don't know what it is. So that would kind of be that role in that same session. And then for youth, we'd be looking for the department to tell us more about kind of other cities, and how their, how their youth programming works and how we what we're doing now, and how we potentially do it. Better. So and then the camping, the bathrooms and south bullet parks will all come later. So the question for the Board tonight would be, would you rather focus on public private partnerships or programming overall. in addition to probably the key? Every subject? Thank you so much for your engagement on this. I mean, that's really very clear, and represents or reflects just a lot of thoughtful discussions. So thank you both for

[8:02] for doing that I've opened up to discussion from the Board members who are present about the proposed topics. Anybody wanna chime in thoughts. I'm curious. If we can. we'll get an intersection between public private partnerships and youth events. Okay? So I feel like. kind of need, one for the other. You do. And that is part of the conversation that Bernie and I had is. There's there's a lot of services, a lot of nonprofits that are in place for youth that are difficult for them to sign right? Because there's no real central location in general for kids to congregate, I guess. So public private partnerships could also really lend into almost every topic that we have right. It led into camping, blend into bathrooms and things like that. I mean, maybe Ali can tell us what she thinks about those 2 topics, and if we should include public private partnerships with fundraising like with play, or if we should

[9:04] bring it up separately, and then you you know. What do you think? I think you made a good call? Given that Benji is coming to present to the Board about, and you saw in your consent, agenda, that updated mou that actually addresses not only their fundraising goals, but it also addresses their opportunity to serve as a backbone for organizations like the Cooplake group that one or others so And to your point it. It isn't a function of the board raised. So I do think it's appropriate that that get pulled out, but that you be aware of what's going on, so that you can advocate and be supporters. So perhaps, if you have questions after that. That's something that, like the others, could go in the pipeline of Follow ups. But I don't. As a matter for study, I think you made the right call as far as youth. Sonny also nailed it. There is very much happening for youth in our city, and the city does not provide it directly we're a facilitator happens across our fields and our facilities and our pools.

[10:03] But we're not doing it alone. We're a facilitator. And so there's those topics are very closely related. And so you could start with those 2. and I like the way you laid it out. We could give you the lay of the land. Here's what's happening. Here's how it's guided for engagement, because the city's engagement framework. And I'm thinking, like 10 to 15 min presentation, so that then you could spend the bulk of your time studying and discussing the issue. But for both, that's been the framework in the past, we? We give an overview of, you know. Here's here's what the current state is. Here's what the Bpr plan says, which is our you know, our guiding light. And then you can have a conversation. Okay? So you've you've been giving you the lay of the land. We would talk a lot about the public private partnerships that are nonprofit. I think the public engagement piece is good because I've been sort of confused about how we are supposed to respond to emails that we get. And as somebody who also writes city council members, I do appreciate a response. And I think that this Board needs to have some protocols in place on who's going to respond? Because there's nothing worse than taking the public.

[11:11] you know, writes us. They tell us their concerns, and then it just. There's no response, and I think we all of them. We need to have some protocols in place. One of us should respond. It doesn't have to be, you know. very opinionated. It can just you can receive this. Thank you very much, but I think that needs to be spelled out, because I think it's great that people take the time and tell us what their concerns are. That's what we want. But we also need to be receptive as a board to say thank you very much. We acknowledge your receipt of this doesn't necessarily mean we have to take action on it. And so I think that's really good because I've been struggling with that a little bit, and then I'm a little worried about the other ones being very overly broad, you know that like I want to get as much out of this study session as we can, and I feel like some of those topics are a little like you, and seems very like rough, you know, and and I just feel like to get our most out of this time. We kind of need to focus in either ask some questions or focus in on the age group, or

[12:10] that's kind of where I'm at. So do you think that I mean, I defer to Elliot and Bernie on this. But do you think that if we decide to do youth and public or and public engagement. would then those 2 topics come to the board, and we would have specific sub sub questions that we want the city to focus on, or do we just kind of let them present. So but do we narrow right down to the city? From my perspective, we want to be as specific as possible what we're asking the city to present in terms of information to us. So for example, in the past we had a lot of questions about public safety and what is the department spending, doing, related to public safety, like, talk about the urban Ranger program, talk about other initiatives, and and actually talking about like the

[13:09] dollars that are going out the door to actually cover public safety and awareness issues. And they then presented us with very specific information on like, what does the department do in this area? And yes, it wasn't. It could have been more narrow. But like that was a pretty specific. Ask. So if we're gonna do a present. If we're going to ask Staff to do something for us, we want to make sure that it's as tailored to what we want to hear as possible, and they can provide us with, you guys are, have a treasure trove of info, and got people that can present to us. We want to make sure that we're we've got the right people that are committed to come right. We're not going to have like 5 staff members who are just on call. We have, like one or 2 members of the most who like to present to us. If there's specific budget information we want to hear. If there is usage information we want to hear. If there, I what I'm interested in is like, if we're going to talk about youth services.

[14:02] what are some gaps that we're seeing in coverage and how can those be filled through opportunities through public private partnerships? Is it just a money issue? What are those you know. How does that? How do those gaps? Connect to our plan for the things that we want to do as a department and then city. You know. What are the like things that we're kind of. We could do better on that really matter to the things that we've said are priorities. So I mean, I ask you if you want to add anything to that in terms of like staff requests. I think you nailed it. I mean, I'd look to Scott to see if you think for the youth one specifically and obviously we would loop in other things from planning. But I think. as it relates to youth. I think that's very good direction. And we and we have initiatives on our 2022 plan that directly address team programming and youth programming. And so I think it's a perfect opportunity to hit some of those gaps that you referred to and discuss them on how the private partnerships private partnerships could could impact that.

[15:08] I'd be specifically curious to know what? What are the hindrances like? What are the reasons why there aren't? Yeah? Should we lose a partner like, is there somebody who did a swimming program, who isn't doing it anymore? And now we can't offer swim lesson. Something like, you know, where we can stay. Assessment is what I'm hearing like, what's the current state? What's working? Well, what isn't? And it's it's a Scott's point. This is a robust area of studying the 2,022 plan and work has happened since then. And what this plan and just that, there's this is a town with so many resources. What is stopping people from partnering with? Why are they not reaching out to you? Are you not reaching out to them, saying, We have a need that needs filled. or you're not seeing the need that needs to fill. But I want to know why there isn't more or engine like what is what is the what is the hurdle to to that happening? And so maybe there is a list of all the partnerships that exist, and then you could share what you see as a gap.

[16:04] I I would say I'm also interested. Just hear the same assessment against what's separate from the partnership. Yeah, I'm also interested in knowing what we're doing. How is it similar to or different from, what happens? Okay. yeah. I think I think I've heard you say a few times, Emily, that boulder in general relies on these partnerships more than other cities, and I guess. my, you know my my question is, is. why can't park and Rec fill that role a little bit more on our own. If we put some resources into that, I mean. you know, on the way over here. I was talking to a friend about gymnastics classes. They love them, but they fill up with this right? And so there's definitely a need there. That's gymnastics is something that we provide on our own right. There's no partner with there. And you know, I I guess I'm used to coming from communities that had, or parking right, took a more direct role in sort of the programming. Either it's basketball or it's

[17:01] kick ball or whatever it is. And then I'm so I'm kind of interested in. Where are the gaps right now? So we could do this sort of assessment and say, Here's our partners on these, and you know, here are the gaps. And yeah, where? Where are services that fill up with easily, like fast and like swimming lessons. Another example, you know, like it's very hard to get swimming lessons to the extent possible. I'd love an overall assessment of like how programming fits in with other programs that are offered in the city like the privatized software. Yeah, we have that both from again, the 22 plan is where we zoom out and take a 5 to 10 year. Look at the system. You all aren't asking for new work, which is great. It would be a let us talk to you about that work and what we heard from the community, including we had. We had specific stakeholder meetings with. And so, without getting too much into the content, we can do that at the study session I hear your questions. If there's others that would be helpful, it'd be great to have a similar conversation about the engagement. What are your questions? What would be helpful for us to share in advance for your conversation, that one feels fuzzy, and I think that just as an overlay to what you just said. I think the foundation of the presentation would be, what have we sought to do through our strategic planning process?

[18:23] Where are we now. We know that the Master plan emphasizes youth engagement. We have this plan in place where we're trying to do these things. What does it look like 2 years later. And where are some areas of opportunity? And you know what are some ideas that we have? And then we can talk about those things and engage. Yeah, great! The engagement one is Fuzzy. I heard Eric say he'd love to know as a board member, how do you engage with the community. Could you share more about other? What? What you're hoping to discuss there, what background would be helpful from staff

[19:01] to be established? Sorry you're fine, latest per usual. we should definitely establish rules, for when we receive a letter like the one that we got this morning. so we all know, like, okay, like, I can read this and market read, and Ellie's gonna send a response, or whatever But I think it's also worth our time to discuss amongst ourselves like. How do we want to present ourselves to the public like, are we just like I, normally, that receives comments or we want to give feedback. We want to helps the public see different effects on it, whether you just want to receive input and be the tally and all the day, right? and and beyond just the emails we get. Are there other ways to engage back with people in city? What are the appropriate kind of What are the what are the things that we can do as board members? What are appropriate things for us to to be able to say when should we get coffee with someone? When would that not be appropriate?

[20:09] And that's maybe more of an internal discussion? Yeah. And that's more like, I think would be based on the when you say internal. Do you mean amongst the board members? Or yes, I don't think it would be. It sounds to me like it would be a board specific discussion that's grounded in the Handbook, and if we need to like, amend the Handbook in some way, or if we need to talk about like practices or protocols. I don't think this would be a staff driven portion of the meeting. You might be able to provide some historic context for how the board is engaged. I was gonna say, would it be helpful to have when you talked about what you can and can't do. Some of it is governed by the charter. But there's an attorney on the board, and I think you probably feel comfortable representing that if not, I'm comfortable with it. Yeah, I think what would be helpful is maybe some background from you.

[21:03] Yeah, it's similar and different. Their role is so different because they're a quasi judicial board, who, you know, makes land use decisions and other decisions. But yes, we can. We can share some of that. Yeah, we hold stakeholders. And we continue working. And I do that. I don't know. Yeah, I would like to know? Like, if there's a topic, you know that comes up. And we want to get the input from the community. And we, how do we? How do we do that? Yeah. And I think, like, okay, here's 1 operational question that I would love to discuss value. It's like city council has hotline, or somehow people email each other without violating public loss like, how do we get through that? How we get to set these type of one stop breaking law. You can't right now. technology, but it has to exist in an email, you know, you know, and I don't think it's really. That's why we were here. That's why we were left with this office. They want us to collaborate.

[22:20] Yeah, I think it might be helpful as part of that discussion, to go over just like the nuts and bolts of like what the law requires us to do and not do. And then we can. you know, just be clear about kind of where the boundaries are and where we have room. It's like the open meetings. Law is not going to change right? But we might be able to glean best practices from other. It's just not an open meeting. This is recorded. This link is available right now. Any community member, should they choose, would be able to be a part of this same with the tour. It's been so anytime you all meet, right? One and 2 of you. It's publicly noticed, publicly available

[23:14] the word like last year. During this exact meeting we had people from the public to follow us around on a field trip which was actually pretty interesting because it's cool. But our study session, while not a typical meeting, is still a meeting. Purposes of those meetings act. It just isn't. It's more restricted in terms of public transportation. Okay. so, but yeah, I think it's a great topic. I'm supportive meetings, and I think everything should be transparent. I'm not afraid of anything, but I think we need to still find a way to not good. Yeah. And I think that's worth the discussion. I mean, we can't just throw our hands up and say, Well, you know, we can't talk to each other. So that's it. Right we should talk about ways to collaborate, and we should talk about ways to engage with the public more as much as we can. And what the protocols around that are. I think that's a great idea.

[24:13] Did you just say that. Yeah. Sorry. I was busy for that discussion. That was super helpful when you said public engagement. That is not where my head went, and so you just clarified it. In the interest of time. I want to move us along. It sounds like we. If I'm hearing things correctly, we want to hear about engagement and youth services over public private partnerships. But the Youth Services discussion can encompass and incorporate some public private partnership, so you wouldn't mind just giving like an overview of how the city comes to those parts. So here's here's what I would recommend is next steps.

[25:02] Bernie and Jenny. A team of 2 can meet and talk to each other, and I can meet with them. We can create an outline of what we think we will prepare in advance and run it by you, too. You've heard the same conversation. You have the ability to talk to your board members and see. Is that spot on, so we can get you that outline, and then you can true check it. In fact, we could even bring it to the September meeting because you have another meeting between now and your retreat, so we could bring that outline of what we're going to present. You all could say, Yeah, check check you heard us. That's that would be helpful for yourself. Good thanks. The next item on the agenda for this particular item is the response from Mayor Brackett and Mayor pro temps here to our letter. I've read the letter and I don't know if it's worth discussing much about the letter. But I'm happy to open it up for discussion here today. If anybody has some thoughts they want to share about

[26:00] what the letter said. I was just saying it was We put a lot of energy into talking to the City Council about universal swim. which I think is a good and noble pause. I understand. And I think that they need some judicious choices. Yeah. yeah. Anybody else? I would. I would echo that. I thought that it was. It struck me as a form letter that could have been sent to any board. And I appreciate the content of the letter tremendously, and I know Council is working really hard on a variety of topics and those are my thoughts on that. So okay, any matters from the board before we go on our field trip. My matter from board is, I'm excited about filter. So I did float the Boulder Creek about a week or 2 ago I could ship in signage, which was very safe. I could make kids.

[27:04] There's a lot of usage of the creek I was. You don't really realize how many people are in the creek, though you plug it on Sunday, and you're like, it's like. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of trash on the sides, and so I don't know you have it that there's pre cleanups. but that might be something I'd be willing to help Shepherd, because it's it is a little bit sad looking at the trash on who's responsible for cleaning trash? There's multiple teams that support. So the safe and manage public spaces. Team does as much as they can. Our team does as much as we can. Yes, and no. It's been challenging, because there have been hazardous conditions with the creek. But we're actually, I have a meeting next week with the volunteer collaborative to talk about. We know we have several groups that have said, let us help.

[28:01] It is much better. I I know I don't. It's tricky we're working on it. I'd love to be able to welcome community help on that. The other thing we can do. Yeah, I was just thinking that maybe think we did do with the November 22 retreat gave an overview on the safe and manage public spaces program, and everything that that the city does to try and both support people who are in very vulnerable circumstances, and living outside as well as keep our public spaces safe and clean. And I could send that Jenny and Bernie, if you want to see what previous presentations have looked like, just as you think about, or or just the outline that you'll see great. So Staff is organized a really great evening for us. There's going to be transportation for us to these various sites. And is that outside like a van of some sort? We've got a 15 passenger van that we use for transportation for youth recreation. Scott has offered to drive. We have teammates. Some of our teammates are going to travel with us. Some are meetings on site really grateful to the folks. This this tour is something.

[29:11] I think. We started on the request of Trap 4 or 5 years ago. You see the plans, you see, Powerpoints, but to walk the site for them. That's a little bit of value to the conversations coming. So we have 3 thoughts. We're going to try and keep you on schedule both to get everyone home with their families and just make sure we're back here. I I can't recommend a quick pit. Stop if anyone needs to.