Loading...
2003/11/17 Parks and Recreation Commission MinutesROHNERT PARK PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 17, 2003 The Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission met this date at 7:30 p.m. for a regularly scheduled meeting at the Rohnert Park city offices, 6750 Commerce Boulevard, Rohnert Park. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. with Chair Stevens presiding. ROLL CALL Present: (5) Commissioners Carlson, Griffin, Hotaling, Rogers, and Stevens Absent: (2) Commissioners Bird and Butler Also present for the meeting was Assistant City Manager, Steve Donley, Finance Director, Sandy Lipitz and Recreation Services Manager, Guy Miller. APPROVAL OF MINUTES — Upon motion by Commissioner Griffin and second by Commissioner Carlson, the minutes for the meeting of October 20`h were unanimously approved as submitted. UNSCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCE/PUBLIC COMMENT Bonnie Black, Best Friends Canine Club, 1065 Hawthorne, submitted four more completed waivers for the Best Friends Canine Club. She reported they now have 108 members, and she has eleven more applications she is holding until the dogs are spayed or neutered. She reported club members have noticed some signs of increased use of the field by other dog owners during afternoon and evening hours. She was also notified that Recreation Services Manager Miller had received an inquiry from the president of the Rohnert Park Babe Ruth Baseball League, the league that uses the Golis Park baseball field, complaining about damages to the field by the dogs. The problems were caused by dog owners who are not members of the Best. Friends Canine Club. Club members have been cleaning up after all dogs, even those that do not belong to the club. She stated the brown spots were caused by irrigation problems and some of the messes were really plugs from aerating the turf. She reported she had received a call informing her that the city wants to move ahead with the establishment of the dog park at Robert's Lake. She said there has been some discussion by city staff regarding the permanency of the Club's permit to use G Park and whether their club would be relocated. The relationship between the dog park and their use of Golis Park was on the City Council meeting agenda for November 12a'. Apparently there was a misunderstanding based on rumor. She emphasized that the club has met all the requirements set by the City and their insurance carrier, Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund (REMIF). Page 1 Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 17, 2003 She referred to an article in the Press Democrat about dog parks in Sonoma County that referred to neighboring cities which all have several dog parks. She said she wanted to encourage city staff that the Club's use of Golis Park should be kept in addition to the dog park at Robert's Lake. She advised that when their request to use the park was approved, nothing was said at the City Council meeting that this location would be temporary, and nothing was said when the club presented the donation for the fence that this would be a temporary situation. Some discussion followed regarding a group of dog owners who may be using Magnolia Park to meet. OLD BUSINESS Defining the Parks & Recreation Commission's Future Responsibilities —Ad Hoc Committee Report — Chair Stevens reported he had attended the last City Council meeting and presented the ad hoc committee's report. He reported he had received some feedback from Council Members Vidak-Martinez, Mackenzie and Flores. The City Council set up a sub committee and will report back to the Commission next month. The Commission asked Assistant City Manager Donley, and he suggested it might be a good time to set up a meeting with the Council so that there could be some dialogue on the Commission's role. Chair Stevens said he got a sense that the City Council is moving towards a different role for the Commission to be more of a Community Service Commission. Manager Miller read from the Council minutes which state that the City Council is waiting for a report back from the Parks and Recreation Commission. Chair Stevens said that the Council did tell him that the Commission should take the issues and come up with a plan. Discussion followed and the Commission agreed to schedule a workshop to discuss their role on December 1st at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall conference room. Commissioner Rogers suggested meeting from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. followed by a meeting with the City Council's sub -committee at 7:30, but some of the commissioners were unable to meet that early. Finance Director Lipitz recommended the Commission be ready to present their recommendations at the City Council's December 9a' meeting since the Council will only be meeting once in December. Commission Goals for 2003 — The Commission discussed whether they wanted to set some of their goals for 2003 that don't apply to any new Commission roles. First, they reviewed their 2002 goals and the tentative 2003 goals. A copy of both sets of goals is attached to the original copy of these minutes. The Commission agreed to keep Goal #1, strongly support a better working relationship with the Cotati/Rohnert Park Unified School District. The Commission discussed Goal #2, review the accessibility of the Ladybug Park 111 playground equipment prior to replacement. Manager Miller advised the City has Page 2 Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 17, 2003 assigned this project to Winzler and Kelly Consulting Engineers. He said all playgrounds need to be ADA accessible, and the Commission is welcome to review the plans for the playground, once they are available. Commissioner Rogers said she believed that the Commission wanted to go beyond the ADA requirements, and Manager Miller offered to ask Winzler and Kelly Consulting Engineers to attend a Commission meeting to make a presentation once the plans have been made. The consensus was to keep this goal. The Commission agreed that the third goal, develop ways to increase the use of all city recreation facilities including parks and pools, should be ongoing. Manager Miller suggested this might be a good goal where the Commission could develop a marketing plan. Assistant City Manager Donley pointed out that the city's demographics are changing due to the population is getting older, which should be considered. Chair Stevens said the Commission has discussed the importance of an indoor pool since it is one of the best exercises for seniors. Assistant City Manager Donley reported City Council is planning to discuss how to use the bond money at their next meeting and to determine how far it will go. One of the recommendations is to add a lap pool. The Commission discussed city demographics. The Commission discussed Goal #4, to assist in the development of a permanent skate park. Manager Miller reported there is a good funding source for a permanent skate park, which would be located in the community fields park. Commissioner Griffin asked whether they should continue to investigate the possibility of developing small neighborhood skate areas in local parks. Assistant City Manager Donley responded that REMIF, the city's insurance carrier, requires any skate area be fenced. He explained it is not for the protection of the skaters but for the safety of other park users who might slip on wet pavement. The Commission agreed to delete the second part of the goal regarding the skate areas. Manager Miller referred to proposed goal #5, to review the Recreation Department's collaboration with University of Sports. He advised the department does partner with several agencies and wasn't sure why this was on the list. The Commission said this was suggested before University of Sports opened for business. Manager Miller said the department has partnered with University of Sports for some joint activities, which we will continue to do. The Commission agreed to delete this goal. The Commission agreed that promoting the use of the. Sports & Fitness Center should be combined with Goal #3. The Commission agreed to keep Goal #7, to establish a permanent dog park, since it is a project currently being worked on. The Commission consensus was that Goal #9, to look at creative ways to reduce expenses, increase revenues and maintain services should be combined with Goal #3 but delete "reduce expenses." Page 3 Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 17, 2003 The Chair asked if the Commission had any other proposed goals and Commissioner Carlson suggesting adding reduction of criminal activity. They agreed to reword Goal #8 regarding vandalism to read, "Work to reduce vandalism and criminal activity in the parks and other city facilities." Commissioner Carlson also suggested including a goal regarding the development of an indoor swimming pool. The Commission agreed with the suggestion. Commissioner Rogers suggested setting a goal to take care of city parks through a community park stewardship to encourage the community to get involved. The Commission agreed this should be a separate goal. Assistant City Manager Donley said that Public Works deals with vandalism in parks every day and one of the ways to combat that is to get people out in the parks each day. Chair Stevens said one of the best ways is to keep citizens informed of problems in their neighborhoods which encourages them to keep watch. Assistant City Manager Donley reported a tremendous amount of time is spent by Public Works cleaning graffiti and fixing problems caused by vandalism. This would be a good way to get citizens involved. Commissioner Carlson suggested this might be a good project that could be reported in the local paper. Chair Stevens said he thinks the community might be willing to step in and help fund a project, such as the indoor pool, if they were aware of it. Commissioner Griffin asked if it is possible to turn an existing facility into an indoor pool. Manager Miller said this has been looked into, but because of the irregular configuration of the city's pools, it would be very difficult. He said bond money could be used for other projects, but in his opinion, the Sports and Fitness Center would be the ideal location for an indoor pool. Chair Stevens said he believes this is a good start on their goals, and they can add to the list after getting further direction from the City Council on what their role will be. NEW BUSINESS Status of Robert's Lake Dog Park — Recreation Services Manager Miller said the city is moving ahead on the dog park project. He advised it is on the City Council's November 25`t' agenda for funding $25,000 to the project although there aren't any specific plans yet. Winzler and Kelly will be working on this project in the near future. They will be consulting with Bonnie Black and other members of the Best Friends Canine Club to get their input. Commissioner Carlson asked about using any of the fencing from the stadium. Manager Miller said they will need plans first since the stadium is still in use. Commissioner Griffin asked if there are any plans to discontinue the Best Friends Canine Club's use of Golis Park. Assistant City Manager Donley said no, but there have been some problems with unauthorized use of the baseball field by other dog owners who are not part of the club. He reported staff is working on this. He said that some of the worst -� vandalism problems in the city are at Golis Park, and we will need to find ways to Page 4 Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 17, 2003 alleviate these problems. Many of the problems are in areas of the park that are not visible. Discussion followed. Status of Field Conditions — Finance Director Lipitz passed out a list prepared by the Public Works Department of city fields that are being renovated. (A copy of the list is attached to the original copy of these minutes.) She reviewed the list and advised that the city's landscaping contractor will be evaluating any sprinkler problems. The Commission discussed soccer fields and fields used year round. Reconfiguration of Benicia and Magnolia Park softball and baseball fields — Manager Miller informed the Commission that the B 1 softball field is going to be converted to a youth baseball field for use by the Cal Ripken Baseball League in exchange for the field they used at Magnolia Park. He explained the city feels this would be beneficial for softball, baseball and soccer leagues and is the process of doing the conversion. He said this will give Cal Ripken two lighted fields that are fenced and can be used for fall ball and tournaments. In addition, the league may use some of the bleachers from the stadium. M Park will now have two softball fields that can be used for tournaments. This will enable the youth soccer league to have the use of the multi -use fields at M Park for a longer time during the year. Commissioner Rogers asked how this change could be publicized since it is a win -win situation for all involved. Manager Miller said he has worked with the leagues involved and they are aware of what is happening. Commissioner Rogers said she thinks this would be a positive item to let the public know about. The Commission discussed having a column in the Community Voice to publicize recreation information. Manager Miller stated the Recreation Department had a column called "News & Notes" for several years that ran in the community newspaper. He said it might be a good time to resurrect the column. Security Measures at City Parks — Manager Miller referred the Commission to his memo dated November 5, 2003 regarding security measures that have been taken by Public Safety concerning security in the parks since June 2003. A copy of the memo is attached to the original copy of these minutes. Manager Miller mentioned that the Commission will need to review the policy for issuing permits to serve alcohol in the parks in January. Commissioner Carlson asked if it would be more cost effective to continue to use rental security officers to give Public Safety officers and Public Works staff time to do other things. Manager Miller said he did not know since this is out of his area of responsibility. Chair Stevens asked about juvenile offenders working in the parks to do graffiti removal, etc. He asked if the Public Safety Director could answer this since it would save money. He asked if graffiti is removed as soon as problems happen, and Manager Miller replied that Public Works has always tried to stay right on top of this, but due to staff reductions, Page 5 Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 17, 2003 some of the clean-up has been delayed. He said in the past this has been a high priority ", for Public Works. Chair Stevens said he would like to see a pin board of the parks that are "picked on the most". He has requested this before but has not been given the information. He said he might call the Public Safety Department about this. Manager Miller said they may be able to at least give the Commission some statistics on the problem. STAFF REPORTS Department Highlights — The Commission did not have any questions or comments on the highlight report for October. COMMISSION COMMITTEE REPORTS Aquatics — Chair Stevens asked Manager Miller when this committee could meet to discuss this past swim season. Manager Miller said not all of the yearly statistics have been received, and the Committee will meet in January or February when all the statistics are available. Golf Course — Commissioner Carlson reported the next committee meeting is tomorrow night. Budget — Commissioner Rogers asked about the city's budget since the vehicle license fee tax has been repealed. Finance Director Lipitz said if the tax is repealed, the city will take a $2,000,000 hit. She said she hopes there will be another source of revenue to replace this funding source. If the money is not replaced, it will affect recreation. MATTERS FROM/FOR COMMISSIONERS Early Learning Institute Programs — Commissioner Rogers thanked recreation staff for their support and help for the ELI programs they offer at the Community Center. She said the only complaint is the smell of sweat in the Garden Room carpet, which is the room they use. Manager Miller said the problem may be the air circulation for that room or it could be due to dampness and problems with water wicking up through the cement subfloor, which has happened in the multi -use room. Discussion followed. Vandalism — Commissioner Carlson said she wonders where parents are when there are vandalism problem in the parks. If parents knew where their children are, vandalism would be reduced. Chair Stevens said he believes this is a social problem. Softball Bats - Commissioner Griffin asked about softball bats and if there is any way to further restrict bats. Manager Miller said the Recreation Department belongs to the American Softball Association and follows their rules, and they have a whole list of bats that have been banned. He said we could add other bats to the list but because we use the same umpires as adjacent communities, we feel it is best to follow the ASA rules. Manager Miller advised the department has also joined a new organization with some other cities in the Bay Area that is meeting to standardize rules. This is one of the areas that may be -� discussed. Manager Miller stated there is litigation regarding bats because this is a Page 6 Rohnert Park Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 17, 2003 nationwide problem. He said there are over 100 banned bats, and approved bats must have an ASA sticker on them. He advised we do use restricted flight balls, which we do have control over. ADJOURNMENT - There being no further business before the Commission, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m. Chair Stevens Secretary Sandy LVItz Finance Director Page 7