January 27, 2025 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] Awesome welcome to the 1st meeting of 2025. Hope everybody had a great holiday break. 1st item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion sunny? First, st do you see a second, my second, Eric? Second, all in favor, say, aye, aye, any opposed right agenda is approved. Alright. Item number 2 is future board items and tours. I'll pass it to Allie. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Happy New Year to you all I know when you commented. That feels like a long time ago, but we haven't seen you since November. I hope you all enjoyed the meeting free December. We did, we'd had a lot of hard work for many months in a row. So glad you all are here. Looking ahead for the next few months what you'll see. Or I just want to call out 2 big things. One is that we're gonna start team up the budget process which, even though it's only January, we will start talking about in March, because everything gets submitted citywide by May, and so later, you'll meet our guest, Charlotte Husky, who is actually the city's budget officer. So she's kind of the face behind when we say Central finance says

[1:19] it, it means Charlotte. So we're gonna start seeing that up. And I'm grateful y'all are having a conversation later tonight to talk about how you're gonna onboard. New members because I'd love to learn from y'all's experience. And how do we do that better knowing they jump in in April when we're deep in budget process. So just flagging that. And then the other thing I wanted to call out is that we are gonna be getting into the exciting design phase on several of the key part projects, and so encourage you all to let us know if you have questions about those, or if we need to be framing up those conversations any more helpfully. Great. One thing just calling out on the Council. Note board. Recruitment closes, Bernie. You and I just looked this up. Is it? Is it tomorrow, or is it the 31st 31, st as of Friday? We have 10 applicants with 4 seats. I I'd love to see more, and so thank you to everyone who's shaking the tree to find really great candidates to help us. You know, deliver a great parks recreation system for the community.

[2:22] so Council will do those interviews very. The process looks very similar to what you all experienced in the last couple of years. One shift being they're not really having a lot of specific questions for the different boards. They are trying to make the entry even easier for folks across the community. And so people, a lot of people apply for different boards and then thus have to prepare for different interviews. And so they've streamlined that they'll make their appointments like a Thursday March 20th meeting. So then those folks will join us at the April meeting. Got it? Remind me, when the interviews are again, is it going to be there throughout February, and they get recorded so that all typically a council member and I and a member of the clerk's office and Rosa are in those conversations. They get recorded so that all the members of council watch them to help inform their appointments.

[3:13] Any other questions for Ally, given. What she said. Are those public or just for council? The interviews and those the recordings are not made public? I don't think I'll we'll have to check and get back to you. The applications become part of the Council packet for that meeting. March 20.th I'll get back to you on the recordings for the interviews, because in the before they weren't recorded, they were. They were done by committee and every council member. Anyway, it's it's gotten easier. Stay tuned. Okay, we can let you know. I just had a question. So, Allison. I replaced Jason, and he had a 1 year term I would have to reapply that formally. It was in the November one. But basically, what we've done is tried to identify you with the seat that you're in. So I'm going to make this up, Eric, you are in Seat 2, and you have one year left of a 5 year term because of Jason's

[4:14] election, and thus resignation. Similarly, the person who fills Elliot's seat will have a 1 year term to finish his his one year sunny for is a different example. Tara was elected to city council, and Sunny finished the last 3 years of her term. I believe Jenny and Bernie are both in 5 year terms and good. Yeah. And Allie, I can resend that list to the maybe it looks include it in the February packet just as a reminder. Okay, yeah. Great. Any additional questions. have you? Well, oh, please. Have you seen any of the applications yet, Ali? Or do you? Okay.

[5:02] I'm pulling up really quick now, just that. And while those are made public. They're not distributed to us as members of the Board. The applications they're not. We can pull them up on the city council. Sorry. One more question on this like, are there given that? You know we're losing Elliot? Eric, we hope, Eric replies, we're losing Sonny like, are there particular skill sets that you think we you'll be looking for to put back onto the board? Yeah, that's the number one question future candidates ask me. There was a board open house on January 14th that I went to, and the good news is is, there were a lot of people who wanted to learn about the Parks and Rec Advisory Board. But I'll tell you the same. 2 things I tell those folks is, one is the ability to govern. You all have seen a lot. I think, just in the last year that there are a lot of pressures on our funds. People care deeply about their parks and recreation, whatever it is.

[6:00] and we have to be able to balance all of those. And and you know, do it constructively. And then the second thing I tell people is that people who. you know, are willing to ask hard questions and make us better, but do it kindly and constructively, because we've got a lot of really smart teammates who work really hard. And so part of part of our role is to to make that work better and to do it constructively. Thanks on sorry. Just add, on the 1st one, when I talk about the ability to govern, I talk about in the next 2 years, the long term financial strategy, the work we're going to be doing around service levels and future brackets that there's a lot of really important conversations coming up. And so that number one piece is just maybe more important than I've seen it in a long time. Great? Okay. So there's nothing further. There, let's go to public participation. Do we have some folks. Now, Rosa.

[7:03] there is no one. Virtually did we check with any of the folks who arrived. So Elliot, I'm the chair of the board. This is our public participation segment, our interview here to give public comment. So just here, just concern. do you want to say anything during the public hearing. You got it for 3 min. You're talking about South boulder rack right now we are. Generally we're we're talking about the long term planning related to the parks and direct, which necessarily includes that. But we're also talking about a quartz plan today. But there's nothing about Southville direct, specifically on the agenda. But we would be willing to hear your your feedback and thoughts about that if you'd like. alright, basically just concerned. Yeah, hold on before you before you talk, let me give a little opening. Feel so just to set set the, you know standards before you talk. 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

[8:22] 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 to and appreciative of community feedback. Do we have a timer ready? Okay? And do you mind stating your name as well? And I just have lots of dreams for the Boulder Rec Center. I know that. Well, I sent letters around to people this morning and thank you for your responses. Just. I know that it's such a huge community in South Boulder that utilizes the South Boulder Rec center, and it varies from

[9:15] people using the gym to people taking classes to people taking classes in the gym. So there's a little conflict there sometimes, and you know I just see all the children who are coming. the teenagers coming from the Rec. Centers, and how important it is for them to have some type of socialization. some center where they can all visit and not be on the phones. And you know there have just been so many studies where kids have a suicide plan. and they have concerns that they're not valid in this life, you know. They they see people who are very famous who are on Tiktok, and they want to be just like them, but they don't have face to face contact with other people, and the Rec. Center is essential for that. I see that with seniors at the Rec. Center as well. Some people said, this is one thing I look forward to all day long.

[10:09] so there are just lots of different pieces to the decision making, and I just hope that as it comes to be that the decisions that are made will consider that it's not just physical fitness, although that's huge. But it's a large part of our community, and years ago we almost lost it. We almost lost Ely Lake City Commission was this close to it, and everybody had to get really involved. Try to protect it. And I just. I'm hoping that you have the interest of mind, body, and spirit of all the people who live in the area and and utilize it. Also, I know you have an energy. You know the climate plan, and if you have all those people heading across Boulder in order to go and get to a different rec center that's going to be huge. I checked out a class at the North Boulder Rec Center last week, and it was a long drive.

[11:08] There was a little parking. I almost turned around, came back. Fortunately somebody pulled out, and I was actually able to attend the class. But I don't think the other rec centers can really take on all the people who would be driving, plus all the pollution that would be added to it too late. Earth. if it's not necessary. If we all have a Rec. Center. That's right down the street. I do wonder about retrofit fitting, you know, if you turn the swimming pool into the Meeting House that you're talking about, and then do an addition and have a swimming pool in a different addition. I don't know because I have person who does that kind of work, but anyway. thank you for your time, and I appreciate you listening and doing your best, please anybody else.

[12:05] Okay, thanks for joining us and sorry to have our backs turned. You? Okay, so that concludes public comment shifting to the next item, which is the consent agenda as a reminder. The consent agenda is something that we approve with one vote with multiple items. This includes the minutes from the last meeting, which is November 18.th So if you have any proposed changes to those minutes, speak up during discussion. And then this also includes updates from the parks and Rec department. So if you have any questions about that, please speak up when there's discussion on this item, so do I have a motion to approve the consent. Agenda, motion, motion. Second, second, Bernie, any discussion? Have a Jenny? I have 2 things. First, st in on page 6 of the where it's identified.

[13:10] where it lists, the future d. Parks and Rec planning design construction updates. There's a link to boulder parks and rec news.org. It doesn't work. Oh. gave me a 5 0 5 error that's frustrating. So I just wanted to bring that to attention. Yeah, same. Oh, no, I got it now. Sorry. Well, here, this was my original error. See? You can see. Okay, never mind. Sorry about that. It works now. And then I just had a question. As far as director updates go. I wondered how the shelter I didn't see anything in the agenda about the shelter. I was just wondering how it went. Yeah, thanks for asking. We don't have the full after Action Review report and it went incredibly well, this is the 3rd time we've used East as a warming shelter. The 1st time was

[14:07] scott Shutenberg was 3 weeks into the job, and I was in Mexico, so I always joke that it was his, his hazing it's amazing how the city teammates have worked, learned to set the building up in a way that serves the guest well, but also protects the building for the uses for which it is intended out the rest of the year. We have learned things about, you know. keeping people occupied and still able to keep the recreation side of the wing of the building open, which I think is a huge benefit, because people see that members of our unhoused community are people, and that we're saving lives. And that co-location, I think, is a lovely thing. It takes a lot of people. So there were over 30 teammates from the city of boulder, and from Boulder County and many other agencies working over the holiday weekend to provide those services. And around the clock there is supervision. 24, 7. I think they I know it was over a hundred unique guests that stayed there, and at most I think

[15:05] the coldest night was Sunday. We had 70 folks. There were folks from focused reentry which helps connect people to services after serving time in Boulder County jail. They were many, many agencies were out doing street outreach and trying to get people into the shelter. We know many community members chose to stay outside, and I feel really I feel really grateful that nobody lost their life that weekend because it was bitter and deadly cold. So thanks for asking. I think it went really well. We have incredible teammates all over the city and the county, who worked really hard to pull it off. What is the threshold to open? Yep, I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but it has to do with temperatures and or snowfall and time length, and so we could add that in a February consent, just as an Fyi. There is a documented protocol to help, because otherwise it's constantly subjective. And it's just, you know, an awful thing, because it's never safe for people to sleep outside.

[16:09] So the the protocol is that folks 1st go to all roads, which is the city shelter, and that's based on some of the lessons from the 1st year, where the shelter wasn't full and we were housing folks and the Recreation Center. It is an okay. Second choice. It does not have the services that are available at the shelter. It's not set up like the shelter. And so now folks go to the shelter first.st They're often brought there. They go through a whole intake, and then there's transportation every evening from the shelter to east. Some folks the shelter is not an option for them, and some of those folks go straight to East. Any other questions or comments. Thanks for everyone's hard work on that. Yeah lot of really great people. I just want to say, I, you know, in reading about the Bill Bauer part, really hoping that that moves forward as planned. Because I know those folks are really

[17:01] energized. The group of veterans that came forward and are trying to help facilitate that. I know that they're excited about it. Community is excited about it. I like the renderings so really excited to see that happen. If it does, I have a question on that, and I apologize that I wasn't here for the November meeting. How how does the the veterans group feel about the designs? Are they happy with it. I I have not been in one on one conversations with that, and I I haven't heard so I I believe so I assume, Coso, because we're moving forward, and I just to be clear as far as the timeline. What would? What would slow things down at this point if they don't meet their funding by January 31, st because this is very much a project that is happening due to the donation. It's not on our work plan. We we know, you know folks desire it to happen, but it was unfunded. And so if they don't meet that deadline that could create some delays. And do you have any sense of how it's going, or you haven't heard anything.

[18:00] I'm sorry I don't have a current state update, and I Mark Davis and our planning manager. He certainly would know. I requested he stay home. He's sick and feels awful. And he was gonna even be online. And I said, Dude, just be sick. It's okay. We'll be fine. So he would have been thrilled to answer that in real time. But hopefully, I can just give you an update at the next. I'm glad also that it has some momentum, because I felt kind of you know, he had a lot of energy, and I'm glad that we're following up with this. you know. At least we're doing our side of it. And we can't like drag this out. Okay, okay, there is no further discussion, all in favor of approving the consent. Agenda. Aye, aye, any opposed? Okay, consent. Agenda is approved, Rosie. You can send those minutes to me for signature. Thank you. All right. We have no action items, no matters for discussion or information. Matters from the department.

[19:01] The 1st item is the 2025 court system plan. And I'll hand it back over to Ali for that. Yeah, I'm gonna get this item started. So you know what you had on your agenda. When we 1st excuse me a moment I have a chip in my throat. We were gonna give you an update on the East Boulder Community Park project that we're pretty excited about. But as we were talking, there's a lot happening because we have really good direction now with the court system plan. And so we bundled it all together so that you knew a lot of the exciting things. So you know, a year ago, 3 years ago. Tennis pickleball. Those folks were pretty frustrated with us because we didn't we? We weren't moving forward and so we are roses pulling up our while she does that I can. I can speak with that. So Bernie, with our liaison, the 2022 parks and rec plan which looks at things at a at a high level, and just as a reminder. That's really important to have that big guidance first, st because otherwise, you know, when Charlotte comes to us and says, No, it's

[20:01] it's it's Bocce Ball. You got to figure out the answer for Bocce ball. You know I don't mean to be mocking it any movement as our community member shared. Any movement is good movement, but we do have to zoom out 1st and check in with the whole community to figure out where we focus our time and our resources. And so, yes, that project confirmed. We got a court thing going on that the pandemic really exacerbated with incredible growth in both tennis and pickleball. And so we worked to adjust our work plan. And when I say adjust, I think our planners would probably say we asked them to do more, and folks in recreation. So we we did do a court system plan that gave us a level of service for courts for both tennis and pickleball. It identified locations where we could build. and it created some some guidelines for how we might operate and build partnerships better. And so the intent of this item is to give you an update on the work we've been doing to take. I hope that you all see we're not. We're not fans of plans that just sit on hell on shelves, we take them and we use them and do them. And so the intent is now that that plan is complete. We have been working to implement it. And so the 1st project we're excited to talk to you about. If you'll switch slides. Rosa is an East Boulder community park. And so I think we've talked to you about this a little bit. But this is real. This is live. It's gonna start

[21:16] getting very real for folks, because we have officially submitted our annexation application. So the triangle of property that is surrounded with the white line. That property is known as Hogan Pancost. It has a long storied history in Boulder it's been tried to be developed multiple times in 2019, the city of Boulder bought it to be able to control development with the intentions that it be used for stormwater, flood, mitigation, and parkland all over the world. Stormwater and parks really are great partners, because parks can absorb stormwater. They can be the green infrastructure that really helps guide. North Boulder Park is another great example of that Pacific area downtown parks. Those are a great example. So we are very, very aware that a lot of this site will be used for utility purposes. You will likely start to hear from folks concerned

[22:08] that we are going to be impacting the way floodwaters hit this area. We are working very, very carefully with very smart people who have subject matter expertise in groundwater and floodwaters, and where those things go we believe that the area where we will be developing. I'm just gonna show this is in this area that's actually adjacent to East Boulder Community Park, about a 4 to 5 acre area, where we hope to build up to 8 new tennis courts. It'd be a net gain of 3, because the 5 courts that exist at the park will be converted to dedicated pickleballs. This is one of the few sites in our system right now, where we can build pickleball with the noise issues that we see with pickleball. There's not a lot of spots in our parks where we can build pickleball and not have issues with sound because of the proximity to housing. And so this is an ideal location. We'll switch those. The tennis will move to that southern end of the property. The courts that are adjacent to the Recreation Center will be dedicated pickleball, and this is also where we are hoping to build

[23:08] an indoor facility and partner with Cu. Their funding would contribute to those 4 year round indoor courts. That would be the home for the women's tennis team. They would use it a fraction of the time, less than 5% the rest of the time it would be available to the community. And through whatever operations we determine there and programming. So we are on the cusp, the end of analysis. Here we have done wetlands, mapping and but wildlife inventories all the things you need to do to thoughtfully develop property. One thing I want to clarify, though this is not undeveloped. Raw property for decades. It was a rodeo ground. It was horse pastures, the area where we intend to build there are existing structures that supported a ranching operation. So there's there's several sheds. There's several buildings. It is not undeveloped raw land.

[24:03] We're pretty excited about it. We? This is the construction timeline parallel to that is the annexation timeline. So we have submitted our annexation application. When that is ready, that'll move through the appropriate approvals which include both planning board and city council. So right now that triangle property is in area 2 under the city and counties agreement in the Boulder Valley Comp plan, there are areas identified that are within city limits. That's area one area 2 is areas adjacent to the city that the city and county both agree are appropriate for urban development area 3 is where the city and county have agreed it should be preserved for rural character, with one exception, which is the planning reserve in North Boulder. So, just to be clear, this triangle is not part of city limits. That's why we're working to annex it, because we cannot build on it until it's part of city limits, is it? 2? Is it area 2. It's 2. Okay. Yep.

[25:03] the timeline that we're looking at does that include the indoor facility? Or is it just for the outdoor? We think it's for everything right. We did get a letter a couple months ago from a neighbor who was concerned about their neighborhood has has every more interaction with the community over that I've not heard anything. I had one email from a group of folks. Well, that it was. I don't know that I bunch of city staff were copied on an email with a bunch of folks trying to determine if they wanted to organize or not. I reached out to one of the organizers, a former city Council member to say, Hey, understand? You might be concerned about this. I'd be happy to talk to you happy to share where we're looking to develop. Just that. You know that northeastern 4 or 5 acres which you know still understand the intents for flood mitigation. I never heard back. we're in regular contact. There is one gentleman who entire owns that entire Southern boundary. He's a former cu tennis player.

[26:01] which? Yeah, it's it. He? I spent a lot of time at his house talking to he and his wife. They shared some concerns just around traffic neighbor, but they're generally supportive of the project. I don't think they'll show up at public meetings to say, Yay, you know, we're gonna do this, but they get it. They're excited. My sense from conversations of people not talking to us, but talking to other folks in the community is that tennis feels like a pretty good deal not housing not a ton of impacts. And so my hope is that with thoughtful engagement and showing folks that we get, and actually, my anticipation is that a lot of the the southern portion of that property will stay fairly natural. Maybe some soft paths, maybe some kids, nature, education and access, but not not a ton of intense development to balance out the intensity and the rest of the park. So I'm hopeful that maybe not maybe not cheering and and big support at city council, but not the opposition we've seen before on this property. Thanks. That was a long answer. I could have just said, no. Is there going to be access? But the access remain the same, the parking lot and everything. Or is there going to be another access point

[27:10] the intention is is that there would need to be a dish. This is the parking for the dog park and the athletic fields. The intention and hope is to be able to add parking right here, but the access would still be through. Here. There could be multi use path access. There's a soft surface trail here. There's actually a street here that opens into this property. It was developed that way with the thought that this would be housing someday. So I think there's maybe some great multimodal access. There's a rich network of bike trails just west of here that we'll connect to. We'll see eventually, like Site plan documents. Yep. you'll see this. We're at the you'll see something when we get to that design concept as will the community. So the annexation just allows it to move to area one, correct, and it's outside. Okay, and then, once it's in area one, do you have to then go back to planning or

[28:09] permitting for your design. The design? Yes. So what will need to happen? There's a few processes. So one is. The annexation is the 1st step, the next step is, there will need to be zoning and a land use. Review around. What zoning is this, and how will the land be used? Planning board won't review the exact, like detailed design. The planning department certainly will, to ensure it aligns with dark skies and energy code, and all of the other things that happen when when you build anything, including us. The parts that planning board and city Council Review is the annexation and the land use zoning alright the next one. So, recognizing sorry, Russell, we just go back one moment. We had really hoped this would be possible, that these courts would be on the ground this year we have been talking about courts in this site for a long time. We could have squeezed in some pickleball court somewhere on the existing park site, but that would have been a short term decision. And so we've kind of

[29:12] dealt with the pain and said, Let's do this right. Let's annex the property. But we understand the tension. We have 0 dedicated pickleball courts in this community. And so we looked at the court system plan and said, Where is the path of least resistance. Where can we build some courts now? And the answer is, Tom Watson Park. Now you can move, Rosa. Thank you. So Tom Watson Park is at 63, rd and Iris. It's the former recreation site. Ibm built it for employee wellbeing for its employees. Since the early nineties it's been over on a hundred year. Easement with the city for our own recreation uses. The intent is is in that red area to build 12 dedicated pickleball courts. Those would be funded in a couple of ways. We have revenues, and several funds came in higher than projected. Last year we have a project that was funded in this area by the general fund that had the work came in at a 3rd of the price. And so there's funding there that can be reallocated to the same location of the community.

[30:12] And we have the courts money and the parking money for 2025 that is going to go to this project. We typically don't use parks money for new amenities. And so we feel like it's important to call out that that's happening here because we are so far below the level of service for this that we are getting to just where we need to be for dedicated pickle ball. The hope is that these are able to be open in this fall. And so we're working fast and furiously. You are going to see with the play builder Foundation. a fundraising campaign, because what our money will not cover is lights, and some of the other amenities that will make this a really great site. Could this be a site that is activated with food trucks? And you have kind of a there's a franchise in in the South called chicken and pickle, you know, and people like to eat and gather and play pickleball. It's a very social sport. So if philanthropy can fill in some of those gaps, then we can do even more with this project. But at the very least there will be dedicated pickleball courts.

[31:05] Once the pickleball courts here are constructed, and the ones we're built in the East. What's how is that? Gonna make a dent in our overall? 22. So I feel like the level of service said that by 2036 we needed. I don't wanna make up numbers from the court system plan we would have, but we thought we wouldn't be at this level of service till 28 or 29, and we'll be there with the courts at East next year, with these 24 courts, 12 at Tom Watson, and 12 at East, we would be where we thought we and I think the expected level of Service system plan. I don't remember off the top of my head. I want to say it was like 28 like, we won't be that far off what we thought we needed. because this, says the the packet says, the recommended additions are 22 dedicated tennis courts of 22 dedicated paperworks, right? And still operating what we currently had as far as current inventory.

[32:02] And so I I think this makes a pretty good dent towards those additional ports. We don't know exactly how many we're gonna be able to fit in the Hope is 12 at Tom Watson, and then at East. I think it'd be wonderful if we were able to to cover more than 4 courts and and have coverage over that. But did you so? The recommendations to to meet the level of service based on population was 22 dedicated additional dedicated tennis and 22 additional dedicated pickleball. Right? So there's still 12 of the additional 22. We're halfway there, and then 4 or 5 at east. No, we'll do more than that. At least 4 would be covered, and then pickleball, pickleball 12 and 12. So we'll be there next year. So we're gonna hit we're gonna exceed for the number. You'll want to look at quantity. Still, right in a world where we don't want people to have to drive to all of our courts. We'll want to keep looking at where they're distributed, and the other thing to consider with that is, you know, we know pickleball and some of the noise around and surrounding pickleball on those shared course. Right now those other shared spaces may turn to dedicated tennis versus remain pickleball and tennis. The one thing we heard in the course of some plan, loud and clear, is.

[33:13] each group wants dedicated courts. They don't want to share the lines. They don't want to share the time. So I I think that's something we'll have to continue to look into. I I believe there was some communication with Bbsd since we last met. I'm wondering if all of the tennis courts that are by Fairview. if if there was ever in negotiation about the public being able to use those during school hours. Yeah, we have talked to them. Those are challenging from a school campus, safety perspective. That, you know, they that letting. And for both Fairview and Centennial we have. We have talked about it, and it's not an easy answer. Yeah, I think they're concerned, too. And I know we'll have a new A joint use agreement meeting coming up here pretty soon. Their concern is access safety as far as vandalism if they're paying for those repairs, what does that look like? So I think we'll continue those conversations. We'll do a new agreement this summer that will kind of outline. The services they provide, and what we provide. So more of those conversations, I think, will continue to occur here.

[34:23] But they're also not really controlling access to those ports not right now, but I think if they were reservable by the public, they would want to control that access and and generate revenue off of them understood. So right now it's kind of like ad hoc. You go in there on the weekends or after school and play. But you can't really, officially reserve it online. Correct? They're not. They're not locked, but they're just there. They they do reserve them to like Boulder Tennis Association reservations at both Centennial and Fairview. It's just that and they're open for drop in use to the public. So I should reframe my answer that because I think someone said something about during school, they're open to the public when they're not used by the school during the school day, just like soccer fields and other amenities. They are close to the public for student protection

[35:12] is there like an example? Our playgrounds open school playgrounds are open. are there not? I'm just thinking. I think I mean at the middle school. That's why, at the middle school and elementary school, I'll be sea fenced in schoolyards. Okay? And there's there isn't the city doesn't. There's no mou to open those up for weekend use. They're open the school district, I mean, we talk when they're not included in the joint use agreement when we talk, and when we talk about proximity and levels of service like for playgrounds, we want everyone within a quarter mile of a playground. We do include those schoolyards because Bbsd has said out loud and it is written, they're open to the community and to the taxpayers outside schools. Will we be doing the refurbishment on this head? Of course Tom wants at the same time the football courts are going in, or those going to be. Those were refurbished in 2023. They're delightful, is included in this project. So if you're ever out there, you, it's 1 of those sites where, just

[36:18] unfortunately, there's not been enough money to do everything to the level. We want this, this investment, this site is going to help in a lot of ways the parking lot is gonna be good. It's gonna activate it. But yeah. it's Cool lake right there, right? Yes, ma'am, it's it's packed on the weekends. How many people meet there to stage there? It's 1 of the outreaches we're gonna have to do and see where else those folks can go because it's a bit of a commercial use, right? Like you have a lot of people. But it's gonna conflict with with a really popular pickleball site, and that's going to be the priority. So I'd love to facilitate. I mean, I have met with groups that run. I have some ideas about maybe moving some of those people over to the reservoir, because every time I run around there's not there because everyone parks there because it's free, right? And then they go to Reservoir. It's empty. And like, Yeah, you know what I mean. There's a lot of parking over the reservoir, and then you could easily start your run at the reservoir, if you you know there was some sort of

[37:10] arrangements I think there is. There is. I think I'm excited to kind of. Look at the reservoir holistically and say, how can we better use that that space? Yeah. yeah. That is a great transition. Scott's gonna just talk about so taking care of what we have is continues to be such a priority. We hear it with the recreation centers. We agree with folks that we've got to do better and find funding for those, for as it goes to tennis courts, Russa, if you'll advance to the next slide, Scott's just going to give an overview on generally courts. Yeah. So you'll see there the pictures of of Columbine and Arapaho Ridge, and I will say that I've been extremely impressed with, we're doing things the right way now. And so the biggest change is using post tension concrete which then extends that life cycle up to about 50 years, which is absolutely huge for us. So hopefully, these these courts, as they get redone will last much longer, and it will actually reduce our maintenance costs on an annual basis which is huge. So over the last couple of years.

[38:12] Ali mentioned, Tom Watson just got done in in 2023, along with North Paulo Park, and then in 2024, we did Columbine, Arapahoe. Those are the ones pictured there this summer. We're excited to get moving with Chautauqua and as you'll see there on this slide, Mo Siegel and and Jennifer Siegel provided a significant gift to be able to make that happen. Do you know, Ali, the timeline, for when that construction will start it's supposed to start in March. Be complete in June. so it will be available for the entire summer, which would be great and then moving forward. The rest of our our courts within the plan are gonna be addressed based on their current conditions are at absolutely they need to be repaired. They'll get. They'll get prioritized. So we're super excited to take care of the existing courts, and I think that's going to be huge for us. Moving forward part of the court system plan was also addressing the maintenance of the courts, and so that was heavily included throughout the plan and the costs associated with maintenance. And and knowing now that we're going to do the post. Attention concrete. I think that's going to be really impactful for making a difference to to lower those ongoing expenses.

[39:21] So when you say, rebuild the multi use cord to such talk when you mean the one that has the kind of tan colored court that's next to the playground. not the one in the leasehold. And further up, yeah, the one that's like, next to the parking. Right? Yeah, okay, we're going to redo that court. Okay? Yep, great. And you, redo, these are you digging? You're taking away all the other concrete and re-pouring. It. Is that right? Okay, yeah, that's a full. It's not just the resurface we're talking about, really. No, we're talking about all the way down to the dirt, the heavy work. Okay, right now, most of our courts were built in the eighties and nineties on a slip sheet asphalt, and the problem with that, with Colorado, with clay soils and expansive soils every time it shifts. That's why you get so much cracking. But we would spend 2030 grand a year to resurface a cord. 6 months later there'd be cracks on it. It's I mean, it has been an exercise in futility in this.

[40:11] This is that you know, it just takes sometimes people to pause and look back, and by spending a whole lot more it is. It is a whole lot more. It's $30,000 to resurface accord. It is 150 to completely rebuild it. But if you look at the I think Mark has done the calculation over the 50 years, we'll save 7 million dollars. 73, 7 million. I wish it were 73. That would be nice. Got a new rec center. So Rosa, can you go into the next slide? So a big part of this is is fundraising right? We mentioned that Mo Siegel is is donating for that Chautauqua, which is is a huge help. But we also know that we don't have enough money to do everything that we want to do in the support system plan. And so with our community partner, the play Boulder Boulder Foundation. They are going to start launching a capital placemaking campaign here within the next couple of weeks.

[41:06] That will focus on Tom Watson as well as East Boulder Community Park. And so the fundraising efforts will be anywhere from $10 to a hundred $1,000. There's different pricing structure and levels on what is included in those kind of donations and naming rights and things like that. And we're excited to get that started pretty quickly and really get the get the word out to the community. We're still working on some of the logistics around donor walls and and some of those kind of things as well, but we are excited to work with them, and and they're really ready to roll on this pretty quickly here on top of that, we're looking at grants. So usta has increased their budget for grants for this next year. Tennis is doing really well across the country. Historically, grants would be up to about $55,000. We're hoping, based on the increased pot of money that might be closer to 6 figures.

[42:02] and so if we're able to pull anywhere between 50 and $100,000 from Usda, that will be a huge increase for us as well, and then Aarp also has a $20,000. Grant opportunity that we're applying for here in the next week, so we're hopeful that some grant funding will will come through as well. And then the fundraising campaign. We have so many passionate individuals in this community. We're really hoping that they they step up and and and share some resources to help us really add on those other amenities like Ellie mentioned to make make the sites really really nice. So next slide. so partnerships. Ali mentioned the partnership with Cu and the women's tennis team and the athletic department paying a portion of a covered facility at Eastbour Community Park. We're very excited about that, and the work that could happen there. We also have an ongoing contract with Gonzo tennis and Gonzo tennis does quite a few programs for us from youth all the way to adults and seniors.

[43:09] from private lessons to group lessons all kinds of things. And so we've been working with Gonzo for several years now have a wonderful working relationship, and he's got an incredible reputation throughout the boulder community which I think is great. The hope would be as we continue to partner with Gonzo tennis to make sure that we're activating each of these new spaces. We're not sure yet, with an indoor facility whether that would be something that would be run by a 3rd party. Contracted group like a Gonzo, or if that would be something that we would operate, or or what that looks like. And so. as far as the operations we still have some work to do to determine what exactly that's gonna look like. But we do see an incredible opportunity right now, and feel really comfortable that there is such a high demand in in Boulder that we'll get that space activated, and we think it'll be very successful.

[44:03] Ali, anything to add on that one just to connect dots on the indoor facility. The intent is that before we go into final construction there's really clear, obviously, with the University we have a letter of intent. We have a lovely relationship. We want a full Iga and and legal commitment for their funding. We want to have completed the full feasibility for the operation to avoid the situation where I'm with so many amenities, we need to make sure there's a business plan and funding not just to operate facility, but to take care of it. So that it is you're thinking of the full life cycle of the facility. Nope. the other piece that came out from the court system. Plan is, is really looking at some operational recommendations. How we reserve courts. Right now our members to the rec centers have access to free rentals or reservations of the courts. near our Rec center sites, so as a member, you can reserve ports at south or east or north. One of the recommendations in that plan was to move away from that.

[45:01] We certainly have a lot to analyze as far as what our fees will be. For renting court space, what's included in memberships, what's what's not included? And how do we provide equitable services across the entire community for for all and so there's a lot of discussions that will begin happening with, and they'll coincide with the budget process. And so, as we look at those fees, we'll look at different comparison communities and what their fees are. We'll also look at our costs for maintenance, for operations, and really try and make some some recommendations for what the fees look like. We also need to look at group reservations and and timing, and how much we leave courts open to the community, and how much we allow to be pre scheduled. And so there's a lot to discuss there. We won't do any of these operational changes until 2026. And the reason is because next fall we'll have a new software, a recreation management software. Jackson's working right now. And there's an Rfp out there for us to look at, potentially replacing active software which will be the registration process for all of our programs and services and memberships and those kind of things. And so it makes sense to change everything all at once. If we have pretty significant core operations changes. So

[46:23] we will develop a communication plan. Obviously, we know fees are very important to the community. We've we've tried not to increase fees. Too high at, you know, and tried to limit it to about 10% a year when when possible. Based on the level of whether it's community benefit or individual benefit. But I think we'll have to really look at that, and then find a way to start communicating early in the fall any changes that would occur in in January of 26. So, regarding the Cu partnership, when do you hope to have that Iga in place, we will have cost. Estimating to a class B phase at March which will enable us to have more than just placeholders in the Iga. So April may ish

[47:13] cause that'll allow us both to proceed on what goes to construction documents? Yeah. April may. Okay. And then which department are you talking to? It's athletics department athletics. But I think it does go to the regions. Athletics, right? Okay? Do we know what the total budget is that we need and opportunity to fundraise for which project I'm awesome for Tom Watson. Are you pulling it up? Can I just appreciate? Can we give a moment for Jackson Height, because the guy is so quick at finding things we have. So what I, I'm gonna class C estimate is based on like past projects and basic square footage. So we have a class C estimate for that project. And I think the gap is

[48:11] estimates 2,016,000 and we have about 1.6 million identified in funding. So 400,000. And that's for everything lighting full new playground, the courtyard for food trucks. So it's the the base core improvements and parking lot are funded. Okay, what about East Boulder? East Boulder is harder because we still are gathering. So we just got back the geotechnical analysis. The wetlands mapping. So some of the costs we don't. So, for example, there's a ditch there that we've got to navigate and figure out. Does it need just a pedestrian costing, or is it going to need to be vehicle crossing for parking? So there's some pretty large costs that are unknown yet that we'll know in the next 2 months. Like, we can tell you, based on projects last year, that completely build 2 tennis courts is $300,000. We're hoping to build 8. And so that's gonna be

[49:06] 8 times 3. So I can't do math. So we're not there yet with East, because there's this is where Tom Watson. You see, it's fast. It's easy. We know we've done. You know, the ground testing. We can just throw the courts down thoughtfully. East is a lot more complicated. Which is why that timeline is is longer. Okay? Yeah. Well, I just wanna say, I think this is great. I think kudos on taking that plan. And this is a lot more progress. I think that I would expect it from. And it's happening quickly. And I think it just shows that we're kind of responding to the public need. And so hopefully, you know, we, there's still work to do on other areas. But I think this is going really well. So I'm really grateful that you get that feedback from people because it's do you get that feedback?

[50:00] I believe that both both, I mean. So we still regularly talk to representatives for both vocal pickleball and Bta. I believe the folks who have been on this road with us totally get it, and are thrilled that 2 years from now we are going to be in a great place. There are some people who are like I want it down. Look at 2 years and everything that's happening like people. This is amazing, right? Like, it's also like, you know, we found a place indoor place to see you. Yeah, that is in their place that they complain. So it's like, you know, you guys are. we're we're working really hard. And I just next time you see folks on our planning team, their workload is way too large. I mean, when we talked about Tom Watson, we said, can we handle another project? And the real answer is probably no. And the way it's happening is that you know, Mark is the planning manager, and he's, you know, a really good landscape architect, and he's he's working with some folks, but it's him doing more, or, you know, so are the indoor courts a bubble at Cu, or here here. Tbd, so if you go to steamboat there they have both a bubble that was built with ski corp in the city, and they have a prefab facility. We are specing out what both might be. A prefab facility would better align with boulders, energy codes, and better stand up just to use

[51:24] the intent with an indoor site here is not that it's a forever thing, really. What we see is that Belmont is a great site to meet a lot of our unmet indoor recreation needs But I don't know that a bubble would be ideal because it's really cost effective. But it might be problematic within our energy code. You can't put solar on it and stuff like that right? You can't put solar on it. It's not a really, you know, like one of the most important things when you hear folks talking about the rec centers is the building envelope. How well are you keeping in that heated air, or that cool air and a bubble is not a good envelope. is Cu. I'm sure they have some opinions about the structure as well. Are they going to be paying any of the ongoing costs of the facility? Right? Like, I mean, that'll be part of the negotiation. And I'm I'm gonna make this up. But I'm wildly making up numbers. Let's say we're going to do a really cool rehab facility. And but it's 3 million bucks and see is like, Yeah, we'll pay that

[52:18] making all of this up people. You never know what part like people are being recorded. But let's let's say that their capital contribution is far outsized for the less than 5% of the time that they're going to use. We would consider that appropriately in the operating conversation as well can they contribute any of the design? Engineering can see you. Yeah. So the way? Well, the way the Loi is written is that they will give us their list of required things for them to make their financial contribution like these are our design requirements. These are things we strongly prefer. And these are things we prefer. We've already had just some, the letter of intent stage. You're spiritually aligned. Right? That's where we are right now. Nobody is, you know. There's no legally binding agreement, but we're spiritually aligned. There are things they don't care about the color of the courts. There are things they do care about? What are they? Gonna is it gonna have the ability to do live streaming? Many of their teammates are from all over the country and all over the world. And they want really good live streaming.

[53:12] So they do get to give that list. It's 4 indoor courts. Is that right? At least, I mean, based on the site. That's what we're thinking is most realistic. Their preference would be 6. That's what, because the more courts you have, the faster a match can go, and the more it's just like a swim meet right? If you have 8 lanes, it goes faster than if you only have 6 but that'll depend on the site and costs. And so you can see the next 2 months and getting a lot of these details is really gonna figure fill in a lot of the gaps for the East Project Center. We know 5, 4, 5, 4, 5. It should be hopefully close. Oh, yeah. And when I mean those were open to the public. But it required that membership fee. This would be different. The ones at Bulge Fieldhouse now require no ownership. You can go online. Any one of us could go online right now and resort to court.

[54:04] And so I'm sorry, just real quick. East fuller will be 12 courts, 4 to 6 indoor. So that right? 12 pickleball, 12. Pickleball, 8 outdoor tennis. Yeah. Net gain of 3 outdoor or indoor at East. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Great, thank you. On on East Boulder Community Park, formerly known as formerly known as yeah. I appreciate that feedback because we have. I mean, this has been a long time coming. Unfortunately, one of you know our our planning timeline got so bogged down with the pandemic, and it took a while to catch up on this one. And and it is happening like the grease is out of the flywheel, and it's moving. No, it's exciting. And I think you get a lot of negative feedback, and I think you deserve positive feedback, as someone who's been on this board for several years and joined in the middle of the pandemic, and have heard about tennis courts and pickleball courts issue for ever since I got in here. This is a really awesome

[55:05] trajectory that we're on. So this is great. Yeah, Bernie, I don't know how much Tina is still treating you as a courtly, as I'm probably not now. So was this all news to you? I'd be curious. Your reaction it was news to me, but I mean it wasn't. I haven't been getting it from Tina. Yeah, but it's great. I think I hope to Eric's point. I hope that the tennis and pickleball opinions are happy. Yeah, I'll say that a person sent us a pretty fiery email last week about the East. Timeline and 4 members of the Boco Board wrote immediately to say, that doesn't represent us. We're thrilled super happy with you. Nice, great, yeah, thank you. Yeah. And thanks for letting us adjust. We thought that there's, I mean this update while while we didn't need your input tonight. You are going to hear from the community about East Boulder community. I shouldn't say the community. You will hear from some people about this development at East Boulder Community Park. And so this was setting the stage. And certainly when we come to the next phases for design and other hopefully, you have more background.

[56:09] Thanks so much. Yeah. Appreciate it. Thank you. Are you ready for the I hear it's undergoing a rebranding. So I am really grateful that so, Charlotte Husky I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. She's the city's budget officer. She works in Central Finance. Her boss is our chief financial officer. She's the architect of this long term financial strategy. We've been talking and hinting about it for months, and she's here tonight to fill in some of the color of the framework we've been been framing. So similarly, this is more of an update item, but really setting the foundation for what are going to be really important conversations throughout the year, because we are going to be consulting with you on levels of service. Not just for infrastructure, but for recreation, so much of the community benefit services we provide are subsidized, and and that's going to be one of the level conversation or level of service conversations to come.

[57:01] The other thing I'll just note is, and well, when you get there, that Jackson also is a key player on this project, and Charlotte will talk about that as we go, so I'll stop talking now. Awesome. Good evening problems. I'm Charlotte Husky, budget officer with the city. It's good to be here with you all tonight. I'm going to be giving a 10 min overview of the long term financial strategy. And the long term financial strategy is really serving as a foundational framework for our finances as the organization. So we're really looking to develop a comprehensive financial plan for the city that is truly not been developed before, and this work is building upon the effort of the Blue Ribbon Commission that was established in 2,008 and 2010, that the city commissioned, and we are excited to be building upon this effort in coordination with a lot of great partners across the organization, and our Financial Strategy committee as well, which is our City Council Committee, comprising 3 council members.

[58:02] So in terms of the long term financial strategy, I'll just walk through a few slides for reference, and happy to answer any questions that you all have after this short presentation. So what does it look like for current and future state of this work that we are embarking upon. So the long term financial strategy was indicated as a 2024 council priority at their Council retreat last year and in April of last year. And so our staff has been working on this effort as part of the development of the long term financial strategy. And so one of the things that we point to when we look at our current state of finances across our organization is that we have a high level of dedicated revenues and dedicated funding. So what that means in terms of what we're looking at in terms of flexibility, of funding and addressing community needs of the moment. For example, we saw a lot of downturn with our recent lessons from the covid-nineteen pandemic. And what we're looking for

[59:10] we're implementing in terms of future state. As part of this project is looking to increase our flexibility of funding, to meet emerging and community and changing needs. We have recognized, and this is part of the recommendations that were put forth with our Blue Ribbon Commission again, that was in 2,008 and 2010 is that our major revenue source of sales and use tax reduces our stability and our predictability of our funding level. So again, this was really recognized, and you all that were here around during the pandemic time, really felt that and saw that in our core services across the organization and being able to meet community needs with that dip in our major revenue source we are looking for our future state to be able to increase stability as well as diversity of our revenue sources as an organization with less reliance on sales and use tax. So there is a lot of potential opportunity that we are thinking about with revenue opportunities. Ali spoke to some of those and just thinking about partnerships and grant funding, for example, and building upon that, but also looking at other potential fee structures and potential taxes, and I'll speak more to that

[60:23] on an upcoming slide. We know and we recognize that we have unfunded and underfunded core City services. This is across the board, comprehensively across our organization, looking at parks and recreation, looking at public safety, human services, homelessness, for example, and we also have expiring funding sources. So when we look at this together, this is really difficult to ensure reliability of our finances as an organization we're looking to as part of this effort of a long term. Financial strategy increase our reliability through establishing guiding principles, identifying revenue sources and community prioritization to meet service level demands

[61:08] last on current state is really just speaking back to some of the short term decisions without a longer term strategy, looking holistically and comprehensively in a multi year approach, really looking at 5 years down the road, 10 years down the road, and developing a long term financial strategy to just focus more comprehensively on our needs as an organization and being able to position ourselves financially to meet those community priorities and community needs can go to the next slide. So what are our guiding principles as the long term financial strategy. These guiding principles were developed in partnership with our Financial Strategy Committee, Midyear last year and building upon and aligning to our sustainability, equity, and resilience framework. As an organization, our fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, equity and resiliency. So when we look at fiscal sustainability and sufficiency.

[62:04] This is really looking to support the stability and the predictability of our core service levels, ensuring the diversity and flexibility of our revenue sources to be able to support and meet community needs. and ensuring that our revenues are at are at a sufficient level to provide city services aligned to community needs. Equity here really focuses on looking at our financial policies and implementation of those policies to advance racial equity and as well as reduce burdens on historically disadvantaged groups. So some of the areas that we're looking at across the organization structures and our policies, for example, as well as our tax burdens and how to look at our tax burdens as an organization. And what populations really taxing. Finally, resiliency is our guiding principle is really looking to focus on our ability to anticipate, adapt and recover quickly to adversity and change. So building, in looking at this in our financial structure, is really looking at our reserves, do we have healthy and sufficient level of reserves across the organization and looking to diversify our revenue sources as an organization as well. Being able to pivot and change with economic conditions

[63:22] next slide. We have received several policy guidance in our meetings with. We have monthly meetings with our financial strategy committee. I won't go through all of these here, these really highlight, the, and align to our guiding principles that I shared on the prior slide. But just to point to a few of them, it's looking at prioritizing the flexibility of our and general purpose. Funding. To be able to meet community needs recognizing the challenges of restricted funding. Again, ensuring our reserve levels are sufficient and high enough to be able to support resiliency as an organization understanding and looking at our development of potential ballot measures and our multi-year ballot measure approach when we're thinking about revenue opportunities as an organization

[64:11] and focusing again on reducing tax and other revenue burdens for historically disadvantaged groups and within that is looking at distributing the tax burden more equitably. I just had a quick question. With the new administration and the move to block Ei programs. I know that that it's been something that's indicated that has to be done within Federal programs as well as organizations that receive Federal funding. Is there any federal funding that the city of Boulder receives. And are you subject to those new mandates? It's a great question. It's something that we're currently looking at. We do fear that we have some requirements associated with Federal grants that we're currently receiving, particularly thinking about transportation grants that may have some implications. We are not at the point to be able to firmly say that that's something that we're looking at. Absolutely.

[65:17] Thank you. Yeah. on that same vein. If it's determined that those grants would be effective. Would this city go along with the do you know, if the plan of action would be just to dismantle the Ddi portion of the city plan. Or it's a good question. I would say that that would be something that we would need to think about further and planning. It is absolutely something that is on our radar for the 2026 budget development process, particularly thinking about the sunsetting of Arpa funds which support a lot of our human services, funding and homelessness support. So it's definitely on the radar.

[66:06] I you know, Ali, can speak to this, too. I know our city leadership is absolutely in in support of equity initiatives, and that that's a core framework to what we're implementing as an organization. So can't say firmly at this point. But yeah. the only thing I'll say is that I mean the city. the Human rights ordinance. We talked about the year. I think maybe it was pre meeting, so I'll just say the city of Boulder passed a human rights ordinance in 1972 specifically to protect folks who are not protected at Federal level. So our human, our local human rights ordinance protects all classes, age, gender, religion, ability, and goes beyond Federal protections for a reason. I know that the the city Leadership city attorneys are looking very carefully. How do? How do we be bolder? And how do you?

[67:02] How how do you navigate what are incredibly uncharted waters for this country, and certainly for our city. So in terms of thinking about the work, plan, and work, streams associated with long term financial Strategy Project. We've got 4 key and primary work streams associated with this work. The 1st is establishing a long term financial plan. So this is really looking at establishing a comprehensive plan for the organization, comprehensive financial plan for the organization. I shared with you our established guiding financial principles that we established with the Financial Strategy Committee last year. We are currently performing a current State assessment that's looking at all of the recommendations that came forward from the Blue Ribbon Commission from 2,008 and 2010, which there was a plethora of great recommendations that were put forward. We're inventorying and updating our financial policies as an organization and prioritizing which comes first.st

[68:06] And we've also identified future action steps associated with this work. And the action steps are listed here below, and 2 to 2 through 4, with the alternative funding mechanisms and revenue opportunities, we're really looking at exploring what opportunities we have alternative funding opportunities we have, and what mechanisms do we have at our disposal? To complete this work? We've begun an inventory of our existing fees across the entire organization, looking at our cost, recovery levels at all of our fees. looking at fee policies that some departments have and inventorying our existing taxes across the board, across the organization. We're also looking and identifying recommendations for existing revenue updates and revenue opportunities, opportunities for fee development and potential alternative revenue sources as part of this work stream.

[69:03] our core service level identification and refinement. So one of the things that I'll point out that Ali spoke to is that we have project managers associated with each of these work streams. Jackson is helping out helping lead this work stream effort for core service, level identification and refinement. And as part of this work, we'll be inventorying our current service levels as an organization defining our core service levels to a higher of needs for the organization and then determining funding amounts required for these core service level increments. So we're really interested in understanding how much funding is required. We know that there's unfunded and underfunded needs across the organization a lot of that is related to core services within the organization. So parks and recreation again, public safety, human services. homelessness, for example. And then the final work stream that we are working on and focusing on is our ballot measure strategy, which is a multi year approach to potential tax ballot measures that we would be bringing forward as a city in 2025, and 2026 that leads to the next slide.

[70:13] So our ballot measure strategy is something that we've been working on in particular with the Financial Strategy Committee over the past several months and thinking about what are we interested and what is our framework and strategy for this multi year approach? Knowing that we have a significant amount of unfunded and underfunded needs, our number that we shared forward with city Council in October of last year was 380 million of that is inclusive of both capital needs as well as operating or ongoing needs. And so in this ballot measure, strategy, multi-year approach for 2025, what does the framework look like? 2025 ballot measures is really focused on a more focused and incremental approach to tax measures. So it's looking at our existing taxes, looking at potentially extending some of our existing taxes, such as Ccrs, for example, we've got key focus areas that we know we have unfunded and underfunded needs. And so we're really focused on funding

[71:14] to take care of what we currently have. So we're looking at those funding opportunities for core services. In 2025, 2026 ballot measures would be looking at a more expanded comprehensive approach to tax changes. And really looking at a lot of potential options on the table that we really wouldn't consider in 2025 key focus areas for 2026 would be looking at unmet needs. Again. taking care of what we have as well as additional investments and services and programs. I think the next one might be the final one. Got 2 more slides. So when which forget, with the recent ballot, initiative, to move council elections from 5 year to even years. When does that begin? So which of these ballot measures is gonna be on the ballot with city Council elections?

[72:09] So I believe I believe both this fall as well as next year are City Council elections. Next year, I believe, is the mayoral election, and this year. I think there are a handful of Council members that are up for Reelection Council next year, also, as well as 23. Yes, I believe so you don't anticipate any ballot measures in 25 that would fund anything other than core services. Currently. No, like, we're like housing project behind us or correct centers correct that anything new would be for 26. That's correct. Yeah, yeah, we're really, we recognize as an organization. And we've had several conversations with city Council over the past year in particular. Just think, just looking at our environment that we're in with our funding environment, looking at our constrained funding and our flattening of our sales and use tax revenue, which I mentioned at the beginning, serves as our major revenue source.

[73:06] Currently, so we really have limited ongoing, ongoing additional flexibility when we're looking at our ongoing revenues as an organization, and we also know and recognize that we have unfunded and underfunded needs. And so really 2025 is looking at focusing on taking care of what we have as an organization. When do when do those come out like? When do those proposals come out the 2020 we can actually go to maybe the last slide. And I can speak to the timeline and dates the 2025. And really this is on an annual cadence. The ballot measures will be brought forward to city council in May of every year, and so there is deliberation and Council determines that as the 1st meeting that they have to review ballot measures that are put in front of them, the final set of meetings that take place usually occur mid year around June July time period.

[74:06] and those ballot measures hoop produces those who proposes those to the city council. We would, we would be developing them as staff, as a city recommended initiative. A lot of this work that we have been working on is really in partnership with the Financial Strategy Committee. So those 3 council members that we've been working with. And so this the recommendations coming forward in terms of what we're proposing and and putting forward is in partnership and recommendations from the Financial Strategy Committee as well. Okay. what is the what are those? If the ballot measure. I'm assuming you want to take advantage of the 25 and 26 selection, because then you don't have another one until 28. So and then you don't have another one until 32, but then 25, and 26. How do you write a ballot measure?

[75:01] That isn't for something new in China is my question like, How do you get it out there and get it passed? Because if you're like, well, we wanna take care of what we have. People are gonna be like, well, you should have been doing that already. So I'm just curious how you write something like that. It's a it's a great question. And one of the things that we're continuing to focus and and focusing on development is the communications plan associated with us. One of the things that we can think to and point to pretty easily. That, I think, is, is. is recognizable by most is the amount of inflation that has hit our capital infrastructure over the past several years and thinking about our community culture, resilience and safety tax, which is a sales and use tax that was primarily focused on capital infrastructure funding. We have essentially planned out all of that revenue of that 15 years. And so that is one of the considerations that we're thinking about is thinking about extending that for an additional 15 years, for example, to have another tranche of projects that we've got projects on the back burner. We've got underfunded and unfunded needs. That that Ali, I'm sure, could speak to as well. But

[76:12] that would be focusing on that effort, but in terms of direct communication, planning and development. That's also something that we're building into the project. And I'll I do. I do think examples are helpful here. Right? So I mean the way it's being described. Yes, we have to take care of core services and part of part of that is, first, st what is a core service to one level, right? The the level to which some folks think a park should be maintained, maybe, is not based on leading practice, or whatever we'll say this is the level that we think is what it should be. This is our funding level. This is the gap we want to fill. There's examples like that all over the city that I do think will be compelling to people, and I think playgrounds is a really good one, so based on the number of playgrounds we have, we meet the level of service for the community. We have a playground within a quarter mile of over 98% of home homes in Boulder. We have money to do inspections and to take care of them. We do not have funding to replace them when when they're at the end of their life cycle. The average age of our playgrounds is over 25,

[77:08] and at the the rate we're at, we're not going to get any better to keep kids interested, to to take advantage of improvements in technology to just take care of them. So, like the playground at North Boulder Park we cannot fix anymore. The manufacturer does not make the parts, and so there's a piece of plywood covering a tunnel that you know. Someone blew up with a firecracker. So the the leading practices is that you refresh those every 15 years for it over 25, and so something like where we can be on a better cycle with playground. So folks in Shanahan Bridge aren't waiting is right like that. We have to prioritize. That means we're having to wait. So there's examples like that over the city that I do think people will find compelling. And where does parks fall into the priority in a ballot measure like I mean, housing is, people are focused on climate and housing. And I feel like parks.

[78:00] If it's gonna be one ballot measure. where does parks fall on the priority. For you guys. Parks is absolutely in the priority for the work that we're doing for the ballot measure strategy and thinking about revenue opportunities. One of the things that I pointed to at the beginning is one of one of the key pillars to this work is really looking comprehensively across the organization at our funding levels and funding needs, we recognize that there are unfunded and underfunded needs that Ali's pointed to and lifted up as part of the work that parks and recreation has done. And so we recognize that this is part of this comprehensive work, and we'll continue to have those conversations as we continue on in this planning effort? Can I have, Jenny? Just one piece about what I hear? The question behind your question is, how will we decide what goes on. So there's there's a whole lot. We kind of talked this about this a little bit in November. and so if I just, I feel the need to say if someone's going to cherry pick comments from a meeting. Just I, we're saying this in the context of how it typically works. Typically and the city has an immaculate record for taxing measures, because we're thoughtful about what we put on the ballot for the community. And so there is typically polling involved. You put out topics and ask the community, help us prioritize what is resonating for you. And it is it is not a practice to put out a ballot measure that you're not really confident it's gonna pass.

[79:25] And so the the community will help inform what gets prioritized. Okay. what about we've talked about bond issues or bonding bond measures. How does that factor into what you're doing here? We are looking at supporting our capital infrastructure. So one of the things that we are exploring is potentially an extension of the community cultural resilience and safety tags, for example, that while it's not traditionally a bond it could be thought of as the same type of

[80:03] funding or financing structure where we've got debt, flexibility with that revenue source coming in. It's all funding capital infrastructure. So the mechanism, I would say, is really not focused on bonds, but more sort of thinking about our current tax structure. Ccrs being one example of that. And I'm gonna ask Sunny's question because I'm sure it's coming next. And I'm super curious. Will South. Will the Rec. Ever be written as a ballot measure, or will it be just part of this long term strategy? Ali feel free to chime in on this one? This is really something that we're looking to incorporate. We know that the future Rec Center conversation is ongoing currently. And I think the current needs assessment is planned for midyear of 2025. We're really interested in incorporating that input and engagement into this larger, comprehensive strategy. And we know that the effort for 2026 in particular and thinking about so adding additional services looking at investments in our programs and in our infrastructure that will be incorporated as part of that. So we've already. We've already planned out incorporating that work and engagement effort that's ongoing into this larger, comprehensive strategy.

[81:18] Okay, so I just wanna make sure. I understand the wording and the The idea behind where? Where South Boulder fits into this? Because I feel like it's both a take care of what we've got situation and a fund, something new situation. And I know there's a lot of people who are really hoping for a ballot measure in 25. So I guess it's like a 2 or 3 part question. But can you just clarify on what you're thinking for? 25 versus 26? And then the second part would be if what the people in South Boulder want is not on the ballot. Measure 25,

[82:04] and they decide to do their own ballot measure. What is your opinion about how that's gonna affect outcomes. Or. yeah, just if I was to advise people about that, I I just want to understand what. So 1st I'll know is that I hear you on the question that both South just is taking care of what we have. But also the the difference with the recreation centers is that we're not talking to 3, 5, 10, even 20 million. It's tens of millions of dollars. So the idea is to incorporate it in 26, because to do a project of that magnitude you don't go out with bubble diagrams. We need to have a much better idea, because if are we building a 25 million dollars field house? Or are we building a hundred 1 million dollars? 60 square foot recreation center? We don't know. And so by the time you need ballot language confirmed we still wouldn't know, and so the it will be I. I certainly cannot commit that. It is on the ballot in 2026, but the intent is to have a better order of magnitude in May of 26, so that it can be one of the items being prioritized. If you were to ask us right now, it's like, Well.

[83:11] okay, do you want to put 30 million on the ballot? Do you want to put 90 million, even in May or June, like we won't know, and I don't think the community would either, and so I wouldn't advise them to put it on the ballot. Because what are you asking the community right like. I don't know what the valid question would be without having just really we talked earlier about. You know, classy estimates, rough order of magnitude we're not gonna have. If you look at the ballot history both around the State and about around the country. When you fund buildings, you've got a pretty good idea of what you're building from a square footage perspective. Is it a pool? Is it not a pool, so that you can ask the voters. And I think if you want to build on that reputation and what we've seen boulder voters, do you want to have a really informed ask. and I feel like the window closes in a couple of days for that communication with the the community?

[84:07] As far as like future rec centers, and then there'll be another window. I assume, opening up. So I'm I'm just curious like, what more do you need to know from the community to to move forward and say, we need a hundred 1 million dollars. It's not needing to know from the community. It's then, okay, you take that and prioritize from people and start looking at building design and getting the cost together. Okay? So I guess what I'm trying to understand is like the at what the timeline. Why, why, there needs to be another year like like, I feel like you're right. We don't know exactly, and it, and I don't. I wouldn't go with a bubble diagram, but I think there's a pretty good idea of what the community wants and needs, and a pretty good idea of how much money that is, and there's always going to be shuffling around and adjustments. But

[85:03] I just I just know the reaction is, gonna be we don't wanna wait another year because could fail. So I just want to be armed with more information. Well, the great news is is we've set up a meeting with folks with Reimagine South Boulder, and including a representative from the city manager's office, to talk to them directly about this plan and to help answer with them directly. So I appreciate you offering to, you know, to liaise and guide folks. But we're gonna we're gonna talk to them directly so that they can understand the city strategy and hopefully go with us. I I believe it's a case similar to tennis and pickleball that yeah, we've got to go through city process and do it in a way that is responsible to voters, and it will be worth it in the end. so it's I. I hear you that we need to paint a little more color to what needs to happen next. And I can. I can pull up the timeline, or maybe we can share more at the next touch base on future of Rec. I don't have it handy. The other thing I just want to highlight. Is that what is funded is that renovation at East Boulder Community Center? And we've got to at the end of this engagement window. Get going on. The design of that facility. The design of another new Recreation center is not in the scope for Perkins and Will. And so part of it is just even looking at. Do we do a contract amendment for them? Is there funding for that? Is that a prioritization? What are the next steps?

[86:21] but I on the note of we we heard folks loud and clear when we did our cip tour folks with you all in August. You kind of got a highlight of the language that we've been using with future of rack, which was kind of Yup South is in trouble, folks. There's new funding, and I think the community made it clear that answer would did not suffice. We are working to identify funding for some of the structure, the infrastructure work that would prolong our ability to operate south so that we're not in a cross our fingers and hope situation so to buy time to be. Have this thoughtful process encouraging absolutely. I mean, I I think that we should do it right, you know, and I don't want to rush in to throw something on the ground, just because you know, but it is also, you know, I hate to see that thing close, you know, like same. And I might quit. I'm cheesy, but like nobody does right like I mean one of the benefits of all this community conversation is, it has allowed us all to say, out loud, we we agree. Our recreation centers are vital to community health and well-being.

[87:22] and it is unfortunate that we are in the situation that we are in with their care. And I am you know, the silver lining and is is that that means we're talking about the value of recreation for our community and the value for public recreation. That's a pretty great conversation to be having. So so just to make sure I understand the the ballot measure in 25 is to just keep South Boulder open a little longer that is not reliant upon a ballot strategy. We are looking for funding within the city budget for some of the projects that we keep it operational. The sewer line is the one that keep right. If that were to fail. It's a it's a 6 figure project, and it would close the building. And so we're working on. Okay, can we? Can we

[88:06] that up in a newspaper? I'm not. I'm not aware of that being a red tag issue. maybe at some point that would be helpful for us to have more detail about what does go to the planning of a new building, so we can speak to our constituents. You're you're gonna get to see it with East right? And so I'll when we do when we do agenda setting for moving forward. We can look at, you know. So it's funny, because if you look at a park and the design process that we do for a park. It's similar for vertical structures only on a 3D. Scale, which means it's more expensive. It's more complicated because you're adding in mechanical engineering and plumbing. And so it just takes more time. It's you get a concept. You go into schematic design, and once you're at schematic design, you like it. You go into construction documents. And so it's, you know, you can't just go from bubble diagrams to a good class B or class A estimate. There's there's a lot more work that needs to happen in between. There also materials, conversations and energy code. And what can be built is a real part of like that? I think so. I mean, I hear your questions like, it's January. How can we not know by May? And we can spell that out a little more clearly.

[89:18] How long would the East? I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to ask the question. I was wondering the 380 million dollars that you said is needed for unfunded projects. What percentage of that is parks and rec ballpark. Half, I would say, yeah. A a substantial amount of that is associated with parks and Rec. And it and it is both capital infrastructure as well as o and m costs and and operations. So is that the largest component of the different city divisions is parks and Rec. Or is there another division like housing human services? That's bigger. The I would say that facilities and fleet which is supporting parks and recreation is is another key area where we're seeing a lot of underfunded items across the board. And

[90:11] you know I don't. I don't know that there's an example in here, but we've got plenty of examples in this building where we've got hookups to A/C units, for example, where there's additional investments that are required within our facilities, and so that that is one that comprises another big portion of it public safety is another great one homelessness and human services, or 2 others that that are that fall within that. But really, when we're looking across the entire needs of the organization, it really spans across across all departments and across all programs. And so that's really the importance of doing this work. But recognizing again that a lot of that is associated with with parks and recreation.

[91:04] Okay, thank you. Great questions. I just had a question. So the how did you think like the future? Rec centers project? How does that compete with the the housing project behind us. This that's a huge gonna be a huge bond measure open balsam right? Yeah. And like, there's 2 huge bond measures right? Is it possible to put those both on at the same time? Or what's the timing of those? What's the who says the priority for those. So I I just want to make sure I'm understanding there's not a bond measure that's supporting this project. All of the need to be right to build it or no. No. the building that we're building for the Western City campus is fully funded. We actually City Council just approved the funding for that last year for that service that we're performing. So there's not a competition there. The affordable housing is actually going to be market as well as boulder housing partners, and

[92:06] and some of the affordable housing funds that we have to support the development of that project so that those projects are funded. And it's just a few years out to coming to fruition. Okay? So you're not going to have to go to the public and ask them for money for that. Okay. what opportunity is there to ask city Council to raise the parks and rec budget? There are several. We've got a whole budget cycle. I don't have a slide on here. But typically, we've got input on community questionnaires that we've got during the budget development cycle. We also have public hearings as part of our city Council meetings that occur every October but I would say most. The budget cycle that we have starts from March and ends in October. And so throughout that period, over the past couple of years we've been really intentional about engaging boards and commissions, engaging community members getting feedback from them on questionnaires that we've shared out to the community. And so that input as well as the

[93:22] the council meetings themselves that we have in October are typically the the points, the touch points throughout the budget process. The annual budget process is it? Does it come like who who says to city council. We need more budget for parks and Rec. Like is the are the citizens really influential in that or and ally? Say, I need more money. How does how does that work like? How how do we, as citizens help influence that in a real way something would happen to be unfunded for Parks to get more funding right. And that's that's the issue.

[94:06] right? And and and I think if we go back to one of the 1st slides. One of the things that we're looking at as part of the the foundational financial framework for the organization that were recommendations coming forward from years of of research is thinking about this flexibility of funding. And so we are currently restricted in how we're able to fund the organization. So even if we, you know, had the top community priority that we wanted to be able to support a department like Parks and Rec, we are hamstrung, based on particular ways that we're currently funding, we're currently funded. And so part of the work of the long term, financial strategy is really looking to be able to increase that flexibility. So we have more ability to shift our priorities to shift our dollars to where the community is telling us to shift them.

[95:06] I don't know if there's can you undedicate taxes? You can. Yeah, the voters would have to right. So, for example, the point 2 5 cent dedicated sales tax when it 1st passed in 1995. The ballot language was for the construction and Improvement purchase of parkland. It's what bought Belmont City Park. It bought area 3 and and for. And it was a very specific list of historic and cultural preservation projects when that that tax was set to sunset in 2015. And so in 2013 we went back to the voters and said, Would you continue this tax? But would you undead keep it for parks and rec, but free up the uses so that we can use it for capital and operations. So similarly, other taxes have gone to the voters that were dedicated, and I forget the year 2017 or 18, a tax that had been wholly dedicated to Osmp.

[96:04] renewed by the voters with a portion of it de-eddicated. And so what happens is. And so there's a whole list of the taxes and their dedications as they come up for renewal, or even in advance of that city Council can refer that as a ballot item, to undedicate the item, the trick is to do it in a way that boulder support generally, not just in boulder. But all over the State and the country voters are not fans of just general money for the city to do what they please with. They just don't trust government in that way. And so it's tricky. So is the climate resilience tax. That's what you're after this time, or is there anything else you can dedicate right now, or you can try to under. You know. we have, 68% of our revenues that are dedicated. So we've got the majority of our sales tax are are dedicated across 6 different 6 different areas, which is a lot. If you look at comparable cities across the front range. We also have a portion of our property tax that's dedicated. So there are. There are a myriad of slices of revenue that we're looking at across the board. And really the intent of this work and project and thinking about this long term, strategy is setting ourselves up for success so that we have that

[97:20] ability and resiliency and flexibility and diversity of our funding to be able to shift where we need to. Yeah, that's great. I think, just as a reminder within parks and recreation. We have 8 different funding sources that we rely on on a regular basis. 5 of those are dedicated that we play a jigsaw puzzle each year to figure out what goes towards capital, what goes towards operating that as much as we benefit from the dedicated. It also creates additional complexity that it feeds right into the increased flexibility would be beneficial, for the department dedicated is good in some ways. I mean, if you run into a situation like Covid, where all of a sudden, you know. At least, you know, you're getting a percentage, and they're not just defunding you completely like

[98:02] yes and no. Right? So I'll give an example like, so if you have well, I can't give an example. I'll get in trouble. I'm gonna make up an example. So let's say we had money dedicated to Bocce Ball right in the pandemic. And you yep, Bocce Ball still happened. But we have people dying because we can't fund vaccinations and we can't fund critical human safety needs. And so dedication really hurt us in 2020 because we did not have the ability to move things that are really nice to have and contribute to quality of life and are great. We had life saving public safety needs for community that that it was really hard. So especially in the pandemic dedicated funds were really hard. Thank you for that presentation. When is this going to be complete. Yeah, if we go to the last slide. One of the things that we're working on now is wrapping up phase one which is really our current State inventory across the organization. Considering revenue opportunities and planning for our 2025 ballot measures, we are looking to complete this work in q. 1 q. 2 of 2026. We know that we'll continue to

[99:16] didn't have some activities related to valid measures in particular, but really looking to to incorporate phase. 2 of this work starting q. 1 of 2025, and then finishing q. 1 and Q. 2 of 2026. Next, major Milestone is, there's a whole lot of work happening to support every May Council gets a financial forecast in advance of budget conversations, and they're going to get the update from the work the Financial Strategy Committee has been doing, and so the full Council will weigh in on some of this. You all are the 1st board to see this because there's a strong parks and recreation connection here that we're intending to create. And so I really appreciate Charlotte coming and giving the time. So that. I mean, we've been kind of hinting and showing this bare bones schedule. So I hope this was

[100:21] okay, so, moving on, the agenda got matters from the board. So we've got 3 separate items. The 1st is exploring a liaison to the long term financial strategy and Ppr budget development, which is appropriate for our topics tonight, do we? We don't have someone currently slotted for this. Correct. So I pulled up the liaison sheet, and if I may, Mr. Chair, I'll just remind folks what a liaison is. 1st is that is that okay? The intent with a liaison is that not that they have any more rights or authorities on a project, but that they are providing input on process and engagement.

[101:12] Have a deeper level of knowledge on a project and in support of addressing community questions. I really think Bernie's you know the way Bernie participated with the court system plan is a really great example of that he didn't have any more input than any of you all. But he really helped as a liaison to those groups. And in bringing to the board just a deeper level of knowledge on the process. So we have talked about having a budget liaison in the past. We had one of Elliot was actually you for 2024. I don't know that we leaned into it. We're heavily. It really. The difference with budget stuff is that the community engagement. The process is a little different. We don't control it. And so I think someone suggested it was the October or November meeting. Does does the prab want to have a liaison to the budget process? I think we're certainly open to it. Having a member who's dedicated to really understanding that. Well, with us, I can see having value. We just would want to frame what is the role, because we're not in control of the process or the engagement. So I I hate to put someone in a seat where

[102:11] we're asking them to do something that's not in our control, so I'm not quite sure what it would look like. But love that y'all are interested. The process or the the engagement right. Central finance. The city controls the long term finance, the city. Yeah. I think some of the thinking around this was that wanted to ensure that someone from the crab was connected with Staff to get a sense of the timing of like ballot initiatives and language on that. If there are city council meetings that are important for people to go to, that someone who's this liaison could kind of spearhead that, and go and and listen in, or you know. Maybe it'll be a representative at City Council meetings which, for someone to speak on your behalf. I'm thinking of your question. sonny. You guys, you you all would have wanted to empower someone or given talking points for someone to speak on your behalf. Yeah.

[103:03] and just to engage with staff at a at a deeper level about this process, even though you might not. Allie might not control the cadence of the process, can at least get the information related to it. That would go beyond what we learn in a meeting. So taking notes as you're talking. This is, I'm not. I think that it's an important position. But I don't think that we can decide until the new board is in place. Okay. I'd love to throw my hat in the ring. But what if somebody comes in? That's like a perfect person? That's very true, but like a good numbers person. I'm not a good numbers person, but I I like to understand the concept of the budgets and why the money is transferred to me. So that's kind of my discussions. I would like to learn more about it and know more about how how it all works. but I'm not sure I'm the right person for it. Okay? And I feel like we've potentially form new people coming in. That's a decision should be made. Then what do you think

[104:07] I respect that? I think that's an interesting point. I don't think that any of the Newbies are gonna be in a position frankly to like jump into budget planning. Yeah. So I think that it if we want to do it. Now, I think, having somebody who's currently on the board go into the position, you know, at least for 6 months or so. Or for several months. Could that actually could be useful to that person? And then, if we want to. We you all, if you want to revisit this in the fall. You know the allocating, the liaison. Then that could be a moment to say, Is there somebody else here that wants to do this? Or should I continue, or just through the budget cycle through October?

[105:04] Great, I appreciate your kind of desire to give them an opportunity I really would welcome. Y'all's input like the timing of board and commissions is what it is, but from a budget perspective like, I just appreciated our October November conversations like, I didn't know what I was. You know what I mean like, how how do we better support folks and jumping into the deep end there. I guess the question on the table is, do we establish this? Well, we've we've already established this position, and this is this is already a listed liaison. I apparently was the liaison last year. There wasn't much going on with this. So I'm clearly stepping off of the board in a couple of months. So we need somebody new. So sounds like you're interested. Is anybody else interested

[106:00] in doing this. I'm interested in Jenny doing it. I personally nominate Jenny. I think you're definitely the right person for this, and think you'd be really the right fit for the board and for staff to like to dig on this. So what are your thoughts? I have to be reelected? Right? Right? Yeah. Excellent. Would you be interested tonight at 1130? I'm actually more interested in the like, the reservoir operations and the business plan, which I think I'm pretty excited about that. I would like if I get reelected. And, Anna, now I think you're the perfect person. Thank you. Alright. Put her on the list. Awesome. Jackson will be your contact on that, and he'll reach out to you with. I mean, it may be the type of thing where it really starts in March, because as they map out the budget process and contacts you 2 could talk about. Does that timing sound right to you if you figure it all out and then tell us I have to say some of the liaison work I've done on the board. Has been some of the most rewarding stuff I've done so for what that's worth.

[107:27] Okay, so we've got some meeting date issues. We've got to address. The 1st is the March meeting is on the Monday that falls on the week of spring break for Bbs Day. So that ain't gonna work. So what do we wanna do? We? Wanna I would probably reschedule and we should look at our calendars to see what makes sense for that, whether it's the week after or it's the week before, and I'd love input from staff, on which one would be better for you all. Emily. It's it's funny, because it changes every year, I I believe, and I'll let me double check the runway for projects. I

[108:07] don't think I could go. I don't think we have a preference this year. There's actually 5 Mondays in March, and so if we went the week after, it would be March 31, st the week before would be Saint Patrick's. Well, I have other plans on Saint Patrick's day. So just kidding. I like the 31st I push for the 31, st the 31, st the only concern I'm just looking. What's that the only concern I have. The civic area goes to city council on April 17, th which means that the packet is due April 3, rd which is 4 days after your meeting we can pull it.

[109:01] Can I just get a pull check from you all as far as preference, and I guess only 3 of you, count, but just for the 31, st or the 17, th because then I would. I would love to do a quick consult with the planning team. As to if moving up a week is good or bad and similar. With the 31, st it could be great, because it's more time for us. But it it for the civic area does create a tight window with City Council's conversation, because we'll want to report to them your input on that that window to engagement and the concepts that have emerged. They'll they'll be eager for the perhaps. Input, so that's just a 3 day turnaround time for us. Again. It could be fine, but I'd love to consult with the planners. That's is that our last meeting that's actually a really good point. So I didn't mean just 3 of you, because it would be everybody here, and it would be your last meeting, and so we would love for those departing, which is the 2 of you like we want you there.

[110:03] I have a I would prefer the 17, th but I could do the 31.st I go either way. I think either way I can make work. We'll be here for sure. I may have a couple of doubts, 17, th but potentially childless. 40 something to my brain. So let's see. Excellent. Okay, I'm sorry I should have been prepared with having that input from the planning team. I wasn't. But I'll consult with them tomorrow and get back to you so that you can get on calendars and plan accordingly. We can do that via email. We've addressed that the May. Can I add something really quick? So I do have an email from Charlotte O'donnell that they would heavily favor march 31.st So thank you. Okay.

[111:01] okay, okay, thanks. I'll talk to them and get back to you all if you forward that to me that would be great or Rosa. Alright. So the May meeting we got Memorial Day. We've got to reschedule that as well. Yeah. So Memorial Day is the 26th typically that one moves up a week to the 19.th I clearly have no opinion that last week at school gets a little rough, but I don't know what's on it yet, but I think it should be fine. No graduating seniors in the house. No. thank you, that's fine for me. right? We have plenty of time on that one that we can plan accordingly. Okay. And then, are we good there?

[112:03] Perfect? So then, the next study session, we need to figure out when to host it, when to actually hold it. We usually do a study session once a year. And it's typically in the fall. And then the past year. We did it like in the In. When did we do it? It was in January, August. We did have 2. We had 2. Okay. Think the interest here is to spend a little more time getting to know each other and familiarizing folks with topics. Is it on more of an onboarding retreat. Jenny. Right, I'll just say, when I was recently sworn in as CEO Regent. The next day I went to a 2 day retreat which was really helpful. And I'm not saying that like it has to be the next day. But I've don't think that it's a problem to shoot right into a retreat after people come on board and actually think it can aid.

[113:08] You know, new board member orientation in a lot of ways, because I I think it helped me a lot. So for what it's worth? When are they? When are they? Announced March 20th at that meeting? Can I ask for others? Input, would it have been helpful that, like we did one on one onboarding? And really, I think the idea is being proposed is that it's a group thing so that people are learning together, having the opportunity to get to know each other. I'd love to if we were to spend the time to create something like that. Would it be valuable? I would have loved that. And before the very 1st meeting, which is, I mean the April business meeting you jump right in. There's business. Right? Yeah, no. I would have loved that. We're proposing for for the entire product, not just for the new members. But yeah, yeah, yeah. So the new. So the new folks so sometime. And we're looking at sometime in April. If you were to do that, April's their 1st official meeting, so it would be in early. It would be in.

[114:01] It can't be late, March, necessarily, because that last week is spring break. Hence the problem we just discussed. So it had to be in April. and the meeting in April is the 2828.th What do we? What do we have in mind? What would this entail? I think it would be very similar to the one that we did, and it would have information on how to communicate information on what your role rules and responsibilities are. you know, just really similar kind of to the last one. What budget means. Since we're jumping right in there, you know, a budget one on one. Yeah, and maybe just like overview on the major projects that we know source of funding. But I thought, Yeah, I think the stuff in the Handbook was really useful, and I think maybe going through some of that stuff earlier in your tenure right away or not. That like kind of what we're here for, what that's probably good and what how to read the agenda, you know.

[115:10] and I mean you and I had that conversation clear things up, and I've already been here like 6 months super helpful. And then I think also it'd be a good time to take the temperature. If you're applying for prep, you have passion about something, so that that would be a good time to take temperature of what people are looking to be involved with, so it can help with agenda setting. moving forward for the year, you know, at least, or or at least setting expectations like, if you have somebody coming in who's going to be all South. They they're coming in because they want cell phone or Rec. I feel like it would be good to have that information, maybe be able to like. I remember my 1st meeting with Wayland when it came to, or as a business. Wayland had like a list this long at the end of that meeting, and then he didn't actually end up saying anything because it the meeting had gone long. But if we can kind of try to get some of that. In the beginning it might be helpful. Moving forward throughout the tenure of the person. I don't know.

[116:08] I I. Here's what I heard so far overview of the role of the board, including some of the handbook items and agenda overview what goes where, how it works communications. Budget 1 0 1 projects in flight. Major projects in flight on the agenda overview. I think it would be helpful to explain. Like this is the work plan for the year. And this is the Bpr plan, because what I think this is part of clarifying for folks the the nature of the board. Any new board member can't come in and say, these are my 5 things, those supersede the Bpr. Plan that was approved by city Council and the planning board right? But it would set up our next study session for topics of interest. Yeah, thank you. Or liaison roles. Right? Yeah. Like, where you would see this plus a study session. Yes, this is like onboarding. And then we would have a say session where we would talk about specific issues, that people are interested in that might not be involved in the region.

[117:06] That's helpful. Thank you for clarifying. All right. We've tracked those things. We just needed a date. We would need a date for that. Yeah. should we do it during normal, like a Monday in April. during, like, what would be our normal business time. just cause it's Monday in April. like the 14, you may reckon if we are meeting on the 28th we made 2 weeks earlier, Nicole. I'll note the 14, th I believe, is the second. Is it that weekend or the next weekend somewhere in there? Bbsd has a 4 day weekend. That's the next weekend. It's the 4 day 1516, 17. No, no, it's 1819, 2021, yeah, the 14th of April.

[118:08] Do you all want to? Do you want us to fully curate facilitate that? Does someone wanna be a partner with us on that? Do you want to plan it yourselves? And we just plug into those items that are us. What how can we support here? I think it would be best for you to facilitate, if that is. we could handle the handbook and some of that stuff. Right? Yeah, I think we can come up with an outline, and then we'll figure out like where the content that we need you to provide and what we can provide. I mean, Jackson's got great budget slides. So I mean, I'm not gonna recreate those. And we kind of already did this last year a little bit. So we have all that already done. We'll work together. How about we bring an outline for a matter from the board for the February conversation, and then from there we can just say, yep, that staff, this is the board staff. The Board think you could easily get bogged down on a really long meeting. I think we should try to really limit, you know. Yeah, I think there should be an element of just like, who are we humans?

[119:15] Totally. That was, it's more getting to know each other. But I don't think we need to, you know, get spent hours. Yeah, on slides and stuff like that. Yep. definitely want to break it up, you know some physical movement. Look at you proposing all this stuff. So most of the board I'm hearing the 31st of March is probably a go to date, and then the 19th of May. This for the 14th of April for the retreat.

[120:04] Okay? great. And then, last, item, this matters from the board, which is, anybody got some on their mind. They want to share. That's related to works business. I have a play boulder update right? Wait on us. Alright. So I I feel like we talk a lot about placemaking already between Pickleball Courts and East Boulder Rec. And Tom Watson Park and Playboy will be involved in that, as was shown on the slides. They're putting together a fundraising campaign for for those things as their staff is handling sponsorship and fundraising materials generally. one of a programming update is their tree Trust and their community forestry. Corp is expanding out of just the city of Boulder and expanding to Boulder County, and it's called the urban forestry, private land expansion, and they are partnering with to support urban forests on private lands and lands owned or controlled by other institutions like school districts, and it's intended to initiate the development of ongoing community based infrastructure, to develop and maintain the greater urban forest activity

[121:22] on lands outside of direct ownership from the cities so really good. And they're getting a a good amount of money from the city from the county in order to facilitate that urban forestry, private land expansion which we're trying to come up with a acronym that's not happening from those particular letters. But it's really long, but that's what it's called. So it's good stuff happening with the Tree Trust and then just an update on their play pass, which is their grant funded equity component. They secured $15,000 in individual donations, and 198,000 from hef from grant funding, and they are also working to explore additional funding opportunities to meet the projected 2025 budget, which is $220,000 for their playments.

[122:08] which helps people from Marginalized communities use bother facilities. There is a date for it in September. Okay, make sure you invite me. Yeah, we're together again. I'm sure that's right. We'll win this time. I'm like 15. He's like a 2. But we I was on the board for that. I was on the committee for the golf last time for the golf tournament last time, and I forgot to include women as like a category. So longest drive was only men. And yeah, so that didn't I? I failed gender miserably. I mean, there's only like 3 female players. But I had a really nice drive on the lunch, so we'll we'll take it. We'll see what happens next year we'll switch it up a little bit and get that going. But the date for the golf. Thank you.

[123:18] That's my cake, all right. Who else? Thank you, Jenny. Alright. Well, I will just say I continue to be grateful for the Perks facilities we have here. Around sledding. So we have, like 3 different options at any given time. Where I live there are 2 in South Boulder. There's Tantra. If you're feeling really ambitious, and then there's that hill that's by Fairview, which is like a little more family, friendly, but also steep. And then, you've got Scott Carpenter, and I've used all of them recently with my kids, and just love the variety and being able to have access to that is really a privilege. So

[124:06] thanks for having that. We got a tube, one of those inner tubes, and he just went all the way to the top and then went all the way down. It's like full speed, almost, you know, nailed like 5 teenagers on the way, and he like slammed into the haystacks, and all of a sudden someone's yard. We got stronger that day, like the research on risk is pretty, and I'm reading. I'm reading all about that, and I'm like, just go for it. He'll learn. you know. So that's a pretty serious sledding hill over there. Oh, yeah, yeah. I was like, you need to go all the way to the top half. Yeah, I mean, it's it's I was over there on a snow day, and like it was awesome because there was every age group was representative teenagers building kickers with skis on. And then you had, you know, their kids. And then

[125:01] it's it's pretty close. That's awesome. Okay? Well, yes, I have I? Just wanna say I, I went to a different city recently. St. Louis. Saint Louis has amazing parks and it really. So that's me that they had a a zoo where every single feature was donated by someone really quite inspiring to see, like that level of fundraising happening. I have no idea what their infrastructure looks like. I'm sure they have a full time development staff. But it was. It was a cool illustration of what's what can happen. Obviously they have more people to ask for money in a city that size. But we just need to see Tulsa. I went to Tulsa. I talked to Ali about that. They've got an incredible park, and the whole entire park was donated by one single oil and gas man. Crazy. beautiful parts. You've got to only ask about tech. We just need to find the right people to try to gentrify. It's also amazing. You know, fantastic museum.

[126:09] Speaking of Pacific Center, we need a Bob Dylan museum in. That's my goal. How about Mark and Mindy? There used to be at least a statue somewhere. Jackson doesn't know what we're talking all right. If anyone else has any. Oh, I'll just give a report of what I've experienced self folder, which is that the coffee cart is still just super popular. So again, say that having amenities like food or coffee in that area seems to be potential revenue. I think it's something to just keep throwing out there and considering seriously. also was sledding over behind Fairview the other day, and just did some cross country skiing around. And again, I don't know. You know, big big impact for a small cost to hire someone to pull around a grooming

[127:15] thing. I mean, there's there's lots of space for that, I would say, even more than there is at North Boulder. And it's kind of interesting, too. It's not just a square. You can kinda go up and down and around. So just again, I think that's something to consider. We don't get that many great snow days. But it's a wonderful place for cross country skiing and just watched by a few times and noticed not recently. But I think before the holiday, like Fairview, students do it, using the park a lot for gym class and for other things. And so again, just feeling like there's so much potential for organized and or unorganized partnerships there with Bbsd.

[128:00] I would love to see more of just a question. What how is it? How did it happen? Nordic Club took over this park instead of instead of harlots. I don't know exactly the history of the agreement with Boulder Nordic for grooming at Foothills and North Boulder Park. It's existed since I've been involved with parks over 10 years. And yeah, I'd be making it up. I don't know the history. so they do. Foothills too, way way north. because they're always I mean, they they practice during the non snowy days all around our neighborhood, like all the time and endless roller skiers. Right? You're roller skiing central now, I mean, I remember seeing that 20 years ago, when I was at south. Yeah. So yeah. So I'm on the Nordic board as well, and you know we have this huge setup at Cu South. But there's very few places that you can actually groom that hold the snow well, and North Boulder Park does

[129:05] and so we had this whole setup, and it sat there. I think they groomed it once in the last 6 years, and they just sold it because it was just getting too much to maintain. It's used out, and I know that they there's an idea floating around to maybe like work on like room on the on the golf course. That would be one option. I don't know if they've approached you to about that. I mean, I think there is a demand to groom other places, but it's like the number of days like it's so very few. If there's some I don't know what equipment you need, and there's there's a lot of other. There's more to it than you think like just getting that rig around is a major, and so like the nice thing about North Pole. They have a little shed there that somebody donated, and we keep it there during the year, and then it goes into deep storage. But it's yeah. You pull with a snowmobile. So you got a sled, and then you have the implement, you drag it. So I thought you were like skiing with a Zamboni. But it's fun to drive. Yeah. South. Boulder was nice, but it would always get tracked out really quickly with dogs. Yeah, it was tough, I think I skied there once, but since I moved here 6 years ago and

[130:10] But I know I mean people. There's people on the board that would like to groom elsewhere. Yeah, I just throw it out there to sound older. I just wish we'd get those winners like that. I mean, this is pretty unusual that we had 2 back to back storms, and you could groom for like 10 to 12 days, you know. Usually it's a 2 day, maybe 3. You can squeeze out of it. Okay, that meeting adjourned. Thanks. Everybody.