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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDraft Minutes - Recreation and Parks Committee - 11/08/2021 RECREATION AND PARKS COMMITTEE Monday November 8, 2021 6:00-7:30 PM Meeting Minutes Present: Mike Simoneau, William Sudbay, Bill Barber, Lauren Wedam, Christy Pilsucki Staff: Holly Rees Absent: Caroline Henne, Jon Pence Guests: Meeting called to order at 6:04pm by Bill Barber. Changes or additions to the agenda None Comments from the public not related to the agenda None General comments from Committee Chairperson Bill meets with Holly on Wednesdays to identify topics that are important to cover in upcoming meetings. We will stop this meeting at 7:30pm sharp. Bill said his goal is to make this committee as useful as possible for Holly, the community and so committee members don’t feel like they are wasting time. Approval of minutes from July, August, September, and October meetings Mike moved to approve the minutes. Lauren seconded with correction of her name in October meeting minutes. All in favor. No opposed. Review Committee Openings- Bill 2 openings, 3 candidates. Holly said City Council will be doing the interviews on 12/6. Holly said the candidates will answer questions at that meeting but the City Council may not decide until the following City Council meeting. The positions should be filled by the end of December. Schedule next 12 months of meetings- Bill Holly shared history of meeting times: have been the second Monday with start times anywhere between 5 and 6:30pm. Committee members shared their availability and preference to keep it on the second Monday, Agreement between committee members present to hold meetings on the second Monday of each month from 4:15pm-5:30pm. Holly will reach out to members not present today. Discussed whether to meet in December, Holly said there have been some years where we have not met. Committee decided to meet on with the goal of preparing the structure going forward starting January 2022 when the new committee members will join. Bill has a conflict the second Monday in December, so will meet on 12/20 instead. Expectations of committee members- Bill Bill’s goal is to work together as a team and make the work important, so members feel they are contributing to the committee and the community as a whole. Mike said it would be helpful for committee members to identify a few things we have passion about and in which we would like to be involved. Bill discussed his desire to have in person presence be the expectation. With some discussion, committee agreed with this as a rule but, on occasion, members be present via virtual option if needed. Holly said we need to keep the virtual option for the public. Discuss policies & priorities / work plan for remainder of FY 2022- Holly Holly said she pulled agendas from June 2020 to July 2021 to compile list of what we did over the last fiscal year for the annual report. She reviewed complied list with committee. No one had any additions to the list. Bill asked about the data for participation in programs. Holly said the annual report does not get that granular. Mike suggested it might be helpful to have some data to provide to community. He said he thinks it will be especially helpful as we move forward with IRF; public will want to know what they are getting for this project. Mike said he imagines R&P already has this data and that we would just need to highlight it. Holly provided a recap of recent retreat that City leadership team and CC had. The focus was on City priorities from now until July 2022. Holly said the purpose was to have CC and Leadership working together on the same priorities and in the same cadence. Holly said, as far as priorities, there was a lot. IRF was included. The list of priorities has not been prioritized yet. Holly said there were a lot of different priorities among each of the committees and all with a finite amount of money to go around. Holly said this prioritization then trickles into the budget process. Holly said this year the process has been a bit different and that usually this is done at start of fiscal year, the work plan trickles up to the departments and then the budget is built around it. Holly said R&P needs to identify our own priorities. Holly said one potential is for a grant to do a Master Plan of parks and open spaces. Holly said this would consider both current and looking forward to gap analysis. Holly said this would be a big project for the Committee if it makes it through budget process. Will inquired what the cost for this might be – Holly said maybe $100,000 as it would require a consultant to do the large, big picture overview which is labor intensive. Will inquired if there is a model of a similar sized city. Holly said the closest thing we have is the NRPA but it is not exactly analogous due to differences in size, climate, etc. but there are some similar based values, (i.e. parks in walking distance). Lauren raised the point of social equity, issues of affordability in South Burlington and different agendas/priorities between groups and how do we provide information to the public to give them perspective about the community? Holly said this is all being discussed and will be important for the next 10 year comprehensive plan. Bill related this back to the Master Plan to identify the City’s priorities. Will said he thinks it will be important to identify comparable cities with comparable lifestyles. Holly will reference the NRPA for this and get back to him. Holly said some of the values of this community like green and sustainable are a lot more expensive. Specific goals between now and June: Mike said he recalls a list Holly sent out recently that might have previously identified goals on it. Lauren suggested bringing these to the December meeting to review and discuss. Holly will send out the list again for committee review and members can bring other goals they would like to focus on in the coming months. After review of all goals, the committee will solidify 2-3 goals to prioritize focus. Review and discuss draft CIP and Budget-Holly Holly said CIP and budget process is a little different this year. CIP usually develops 2-3 months before operational budget but this year they are built in tandem. Holly said the departments submitted budgets and, when they were compiled together, it indicated a 15% increase in the tax rate. Holly said CC recommends a 3% increase and so cuts need to be made. Departments are in the process of cutting and we are about halfway there. City Manager and Deputy City Manager are going to work on the rest. R&P budget is solid, no real concerns about our budget as we are a small department. Holly said she looked at all the R&P work deferred in the past two decades and, with all the items Holly could think of, it came to millions. The request was cut down to about 170,000. Holly said now the question is what to do with all the deferred maintenance? It still needs to be figured out. One possibility is the ARPA funding; it is part of the consideration processes. Deputy City Manager is the gatekeeper of ARPA funds. So far, the priority has been the staff positions that were frozen during the pandemic. These positions are the only thing that has been decided so far. Holly said, as we prioritize goals in December, maybe some of that can be proposed for ARPA funding. Discussion of Parks Maintenance-Bill Bills said he sees how Recreation can be hamstrung when it comes to parks maintenance. He said he believes parks maintenance, which is currently held in the DPW, needs to be moved to our committee. He said he thinks the committee thrives when the two are combined and we handle our own maintenance. Mike said he believes we do have some of the maintenance currently. Holly said we do not do any parks maintenance except the athletic fields which are fee for service. Mike asked what it would cost to do adequate annual maintenance to our properties? Holly said we would need to figure out what the adequate maintenance standard would be and then what it would cost to get there. Bill said that it would be pleasing to the public; people like when things are working, when things are nicer, and we will get positive feedback from public. Mike asked how it is handled in other Chittenden communities? Holly said it is mostly a hybrid in other communities except for Burlington. Holly said there are arguments both ways. Bill said he thinks we are not reaching our potential as a department and committee and members might not even be able to imagine it because we are so used to doing it this way. Bill said he believes we need to set the bar higher. Holly said this is a longer- term goal. Mike said data such as man hours, dollars, how readily it can be shifted over and potential effectiveness would be helpful. Discussion of accepting dedications and maintenance of PUD recreation-Holly Due to time, decision made to defer this to December meeting. Holly said she is looking for reflective input on this next meeting ahead of Justin’s departure. Mike said the less the city takes on in these communities the better. City cannot be tied up caring for all these small little parks. Will agrees with associations taking care of their own properties. Christy is in agreement as well. No quorum at this time in the meeting to make a resolution. Update on Hubbard Park and next steps-Holly Holly said they are waiting for some re-work design plans to come back; themes: reduced parking, shrinking the design of a viewing area, pathway material review to see if there is a non- asphalt option. Mike discussed importance of keeping it accessible for the community. He said this is a larger conversation. Holly agrees we need to have safe and equitable access to it. Update on Wheeler Dog Park- Mike Mike said park is coming. Topic deferred until December meeting. Staff Report (Rec Center, Retreat, Staff Openings, Rec Path, Grant)-Holly Bill asked that, in the future, Holly send it head of time and then it is up to committee members to review it and ask questions. Meeting adjourned at 7:32pm by Mike, seconded by Will. Respectfully submitted, Christy Pilsucki