SPR Boardroom: Good evening, everyone welcome to the April 24th meeting of the Commissioners for the Board of Parks and Recreation. We've got some folks coming online here joining us. But we'll go ahead and do introductions for the Commissioners here in the room. I'm Ryan Baum. I'm the co-chair, and I'm boards. Commissions represent boards of Commission Seat 7.
SPR Boardroom: Hi, there! I'm John Flynn District 3, Steve Blair at large.
SPR Boardroom: I don't think we have any commissioners online just yet to maybe joining us.
SPR Boardroom: Let's see
SPR Boardroom: we'll be keeping our participants on the call muted throughout the meeting, unless for any public comment.
SPR Boardroom: And we ask the guests in the room, please refraintry and comment unless they're also on call for public comment.
SPR Boardroom: And this meeting will be recorded and posted on the website for future reference. I'll start with the Seattle parks, recreation land acknowledgement, Seattle parks and recreations.
SPR Boardroom: acknowledges and affirms indigenous coast salish people as original caretakers of our waters and landscape, who nurtured and shaped today's parkland.
SPR Boardroom: We honor their legacy with gratitude and appreciation, and will safeguard their knowledge and stewardship as enduring treasures to promote community welfare, cultivate inclusive expressions of nature and recreation, and commit to land acknowledgement for each ensuring generation.
SPR Boardroom: Alright
SPR Boardroom: consent items we're gonna cover meeting notes from the 4th April 10.th And then this meeting in our next meeting. In May. We do have an agenda. Unless there are any concerns
SPR Boardroom: move to move forward today's agenda.
SPR Boardroom: Right?
SPR Boardroom: Let's move forward. So our 1st item is public comment, yeah, absolutely. So we'll be doing 2 min per comment. Today we have 5 folks signed up for public comment.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, great and other Commissioner join. Join us here online.
SPR Boardroom: One, can I ask you to just introduce yourself briefly, and would you represent seat, represent.
Amman Haile-Leul: Yeah. Hi. My name is Aman. I represent district 5.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, perfect. So we're just going to continue on here. When I call your name. If you're online, I will give you permission to unmute yourself. I cannot do that for you, and then we'll start the clock on your 2 min. If you're in the room we'll ask you to come up to the podium, and again, you'll have 2 min for your comments there, and we're going to go in the order that people reached out to me, and so we'll start Terry Christensen.
SPR Boardroom: Denny Blaine Park 4, 19. The red truck masturbator is back in the park
SPR Boardroom: public urination and squatting while looking to see who's around?
SPR Boardroom: 4, 22. Pluck the rich is written in the sand on the north beach.
SPR Boardroom: 4, 23. A male asleep on the beach in the morning.
SPR Boardroom: The smell of marijuana from the park was so overwhelming that it was inside my workplace. I called 911. At 1240 Pm. I asked the park regular who was smoking it to please move. His reply was, Everyone else is smoking too. Sp. Arrived at 8, 38 pm. To investigate.
SPR Boardroom: 4, 24 male asleep on the beach. Same one. I've been attending these meetings since June 2024. I've shown you photos videos and told you what happens in this park on a regular basis. I've sent emails with no response from recipients.
SPR Boardroom: Maybe the recently filed lawsuit will change the way that this nuisance park is managed.
SPR Boardroom: Unfortunately, I don't have high expectations from what I have experienced so far. Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Next up, Peter.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, Peter, I'm gonna go ahead and give you permission to unmute yourself, and you'll have 2 min.
SPR Boardroom: Once you go ahead and start.
Peter Breyfogle: Hello! My name is Peter. I've talked to you guys before. My comment today is in regards to the public comment process. Having observed it a number of times. I requested Seattle parks and recreation. Consider having 2 public comment periods.
Peter Breyfogle: The opening public comment period like you have. Now, that's kind of for agenda item, or things are not an agenda for new ideas or issues.
Peter Breyfogle: And then a second comment period after the presentation discussions have been done on the agenda.
Peter Breyfogle: It's frustrating to listen to presentations, have questions and comments about them.
Peter Breyfogle: and then the only current way to get that taken care of that I'm aware of. It was to come back, you know, 2 or more weeks later. Make your comments, have your questions, and at that point in time. The Board doesn't remember it, or is not refresh on it. The presenter is no longer available, and can't assist in providing
Peter Breyfogle: a feedback on the comments.
Peter Breyfogle: I also think this process might reduce the repetitive public comments that come prior to the recommendations, presentations, and discussions that happen frequently, as I've observed before.
Peter Breyfogle: I know that other Seattle boards and advisory groups use this approach, and I think it can be kind of helpful.
Peter Breyfogle: That's it.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you very much. Peter.
SPR Boardroom: Next up Josh Morris. Okay, Josh, you have permission to meet yourself. Go ahead.
Joshua Morris (he/him): Thanks. Hi, everybody! My name is Joshua Morris. I'm the conservation director at Birds connect Seattle. I'm here today on behalf of the 1,654 individuals, and counting who have voiced their opposition to the Parks Department's current plan to install outdoor pickleball courts adjacent to the wetlands at Magnus Park.
Joshua Morris (he/him): I want to thank Morteza Beirutz with the Parks Department for beginning to include a broader range of community stakeholders and discussions about this project. We appreciate that step towards greater transparency and collaboration. However, the court issue the location of the courts still appears to be off the table for serious reconsideration.
Joshua Morris (he/him): Ortesla mentioned that in balancing computing priorities, if Parks does its job well, nobody will be happy.
Joshua Morris (he/him): I respectfully challenge that idea. Let's reject the scarcity mindset. We can find solutions that serve multiple needs.
Joshua Morris (he/him): One such solution has been proposed by friends of Magnuson Park renovating building 2 large historic hangar into an indoor facility for net sports. This approach would preserve the historic structure, provide the pickleball community with your own play, and provide sensitive or protect sensitive habitat and nature access in the park, I would be excited to support a project like that, and I look forward to working with you all to make it a reality. Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Carol, you have permission to unmute yourself.
Carol Furry: So my name's Carol Fury. I'm here to talk about an alternative site to 24
Carol Furry: pickleball courts at Magnuson Park presently planned adjacent to the award winning wetlands we're so concerned about. If we truly want to build a facility that will be utilized year round, we should be looking at an indoor facility in the north end of the park.
Carol Furry: Perhaps, as Josh Morris said, one of the hangers at Magnussen. Yes, it's more money at the outset, but all the mitigation required to deal with sound and light, as well as meeting regulation court heights.
Carol Furry: For the proposed covers for these courts, 18 to 20 feet tall on these courts. I just don't see this industrial look at this park being appropriate.
Carol Furry: I don't know if you know that Fremont tea chocolate factory is planning a commercial operation. I don't know exactly when they're opening this year, as is Soto urban works and Ethan Stowell, project indoor pickleball court
Carol Furry: as soon as these are available. I don't think we'll see people at Magnussen Courts for at least 5 to 6 months out of the year.
Carol Furry: The advantage of those courts, those indoor courts is providing access, regardless of weather, offering an opportunity for a cafe, a place to wait for a court to open a dry and comfortable indoor venue as well as temperature and lighting control, social interaction and community building.
Carol Furry: We're going to save a lot of money on mitigation at. If if we, if we choose another site. Thank you for listening tonight.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, thank you. Carol and Sherwood.
SPR Boardroom: Hi, my name is Ann Sherwood. I'm in District 4, near the Mics and wetlands, while the rare defect. Law courts are slated to be installed, a bird collision and amphibian monitor, and generally devote time to figuring out how to mitigate nature, loss and biodiversity. Loss.
SPR Boardroom: I'm speaking for the wildlife who live in the wetlands like the Pied build breeds. I watched building their new nest leaf by the ponds that go down, and they dredge down there and look like a leaf on top, and they just do that over and over until they have a nest.
SPR Boardroom: The Greeks can't advocate for their young, so I'll try.
SPR Boardroom: Please build the courts farther away from where a hundred species are just trying to survive. We've taken so much of their habitat already.
SPR Boardroom: Of course I'm not just speaking for the birds, but for the many humans who find peace and quiet in the wetlands, who feel immense comfort and joy, knowing there is protected wildlife out there, even in our beautiful city.
SPR Boardroom: publicly placing value on our few existing natural places, like sends a message to the community that we care about the natural world, not just for ourselves today, but for future generations and other beings.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you for taking the time to listen. And for all you do to help us coexist with and
SPR Boardroom: see.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: There you go.
SPR Boardroom: That's the end of the podcast so
SPR Boardroom: thank you for everyone who came to make public comment online.
SPR Boardroom: Oh, excuse me, all that are in person. We also appreciate
SPR Boardroom: that were sent into the Commissioners. We did get a chance to receive those all on this meeting. So that is another way to provide comment. But many of the same topics, pickleball, Denny blame environment, education and those comments as well. So
SPR Boardroom: thank you everyone for the comment. I think next item on the agenda will be superintendent support. Ap. I don't know if you wanna
SPR Boardroom: make any comments. No, just echo your comments, too. We take all of those written and oral comments into consideration, and we will be continuing to have community meetings on this great yeah, thanks. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: So pleased to walk you through our current updates from our department. So we are excited. This weekend we are going to be doing the South Park Plaza opening, which has
SPR Boardroom: been a long time coming. The fences came down yesterday. We're excited for the formal opening and community celebration this Saturday at 2 Pm. All the public, and of course everyone in this room is welcome to attend. The park has a play area, large plaza seat walls, lighting and abundant landscaping. We worked with the community to include multicultural elements throughout the park, including a large South Park sign made up of a colorful 6.
SPR Boardroom: But metal letters, multicolored tile installations, and indigenous plantings, which all demonstrate the strong, diverse community in the neighborhood. It's going to be a freight park, and I'm looking forward to this opening celebration and celebrating with the community. So just starts at noon. So it's from noon, thank you.
SPR Boardroom: I would have been late summer hiring events. On Saturday, April 26, th from 10 to 3 PM. We'll be having our summer hiring event over at Miller Community Center, which is at 33
SPR Boardroom: 0 19th Avenue, East Seattle. We will be hosting an event and looking forward and advertising for summer beach lifeguards, outdoor recreation leaders, recreation attendants.
SPR Boardroom: and many, many more, and, as the commissioners know, during the season of the summer, our seasonal workforce goes up several 100 people, which support all of our programs. So we're excited to welcome our potential seasonal hires that have
SPR Boardroom: that are coming. 7
SPR Boardroom: at Queen Anne Community Center open house on Tuesday, April 29, th from 5 to 7 Pm. Seattle parks and recreation invites the community to an open house to review the schematic design for the Queen Anne Community Center renovation. So part of our continuous ongoing community outreach, outreach that we do on a couple projects. This event is an opportunity for
SPR Boardroom: community to meet the design team, review the schematic design and provide feedback. The goal of the renovation project is to provide infrastructure improvements and general cosmetic improvements while focusing on decarbonization electrification of the building. And you can find additional information. Anyone listening@ourparkways.seattle.gov. Site.
SPR Boardroom: summer schedule for bicycle weekends on Lake Washington Boulevard has been announced, so, as scheduled the weekends from May to September.
SPR Boardroom: a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 Am. Saturday to 6 pm. Sunday. This is consistent with past years experience and pilot programs that we did to find a sweet spot with the community. We're inviting everyone to get outside and soak up summer sunshine, whether you're walking, biking, rolling, or just want to enjoy beautiful Seward Park, Mount Baker's
SPR Boardroom: park beaches and get views of Mount Rainier and the cherry blossoms while they last. Parking lots are open, and will be accessible from the nearest streets, and we look forward to this wonderful summer tradition.
SPR Boardroom: Okay? Giving you some parks and recreational services updates specifically focusing on aquatics. April pools, day parks, migration joined other public and private aquatic facilities throughout Washington to celebrate the annual April pools day on Saturday, April 19.th
SPR Boardroom: That's A April pool as well. Not the first.st This is a great opportunity to learn important water safety skills, enjoy free swims and play games and win prizes. There were several events at spr pools last weekend, and we have additional session at Ballard Pool on Sunday, April 27, th from one to 2 Pm.
SPR Boardroom: There were 101 participants in attendance at Rainier Beach Community Center. So always fun to learn water safety skills and also get to the pools.
SPR Boardroom: Spring egg hunts. So Seattle parks and recreation offered a variety of free spring egg hunts at our community center sites. We have great turnouts and a lot of happy children. This is something that families and kids look forward to every single year, and of course Easter is a fun time to go hunting for prizes and treats of eggs. We also did a summer hiring event on April 26.th
SPR Boardroom: No, I just announced that that's coming up on April 26.th But summer camp registration, which we talked about last time due to overwhelming interest for nature play day camp, a nature based camp at Discovery Park.
SPR Boardroom: Spr. And park, who are here tonight, and you'll be hearing more about our wonderful partnership with them, approved the operation of a second classroom this summer, doubling the weekly capacity from 15 to 32 participants. Registration is currently averaging about 22 participants a week.
SPR Boardroom: So it's really exciting news. And we're thankful for that ability to do that. We have more wonderful things to say about art in just a moment after they speak parks and recreational services recreation. So here you can see something that people love. And there was discussion of nature tonight. Nature kids preschool returned to Discovery Park on Monday, March 31, st
SPR Boardroom: we are excited to have our nature-based program back in the park, utilizing the annexed classrooms while the Visitor center remains closed. If you remember that Visitor Center has experienced some infrastructure challenges, flooding and other issues that we're working on huge. Thank you to Queen Anne Community Center for hosting the displaced preschool program for the past 3 months
SPR Boardroom: without their support. Our programs were at risk of closure, and we wouldn't have these wonderful opportunities for children to touch the earth and soil and learn about our wonderful ecosystem here in Seattle. So always nice to see these types of programs for children.
SPR Boardroom: It's always eye opening to get a glimpse of the breadth and scope of our work that our facilities division does, and provide to keep our parks and facilities safe and welcoming. Here are 2 recent projects that I'd like to highlight that demonstrate their expertise and dedication. 1st at Green Lake, which you can see the metal shop received a work order to inspect the Green Lake outflow fish
SPR Boardroom: wire because the rotating screens seem to have stopped working, causing the lake level to rise above normal. The mechanism is comprised of a motor driven, tubular shaped screen that allows water to flow out while preventing fish from leaving the lake.
SPR Boardroom: If the rotation is stopped, organic debris from the lake will clog the screen, restricting water flow to access the mechanism. The shop used their truck, mounted Crane to carefully lift the 800 pound unit out of its wall. Once removed, it was discovered that the teeth from the 14 inch steel sprocket, not from a fish, had been sheared off, and the drive chain was bound tightly around the motor shaft.
SPR Boardroom: Our staff work quickly to cut and remove the badly damaged sprocket and reinstall the screen and frame, which can now be operated manually until replacement parts arrive. Great job on the quick response and clever problem solving to get an integral asset back in operation. And I just want to say, this is an example. I met with our facilities. Crew
SPR Boardroom: this past week. They are so innovative and so problem solving and can have can do attitudes and deal with a myriad of issues that we can't even imagine. You know. Just, you know, traditional plumbing and electrical and regular facility maintenance. But all of our unique sites have things like this that are just, you know,
SPR Boardroom: niche and complicated.
SPR Boardroom: and they are a cadre of really talented people who take pride in their work and work hard to find solutions, so that the public and the wildlife can enjoy our parks without interruption. So I just want to give them a shout out. And then at Magnuson Park Wetlands, the natural areas crew which is part of our Nru unit, equally talented people reinforced a beaver notch exclusion fence
SPR Boardroom: to reduce the size of gaps, and to prevent beavers from entering. This work is important to minimize the damage after so much work has been put into the site, and this is an area before many of the commissioners came on board, where, during my early time here we've had
SPR Boardroom: 2 brand new occupants at Karky Park. This is at Magnussen, but
SPR Boardroom: at Park Kharking Park beavers had
SPR Boardroom: showed up, and we kind of didn't know what we were going to do, and our Nru unit said, you know we have these really successful ways to allow the ecosystem to continue to flourish, to allow beavers to explore waters, but not damage, and one of them is this fencing system. Sometimes they're called beaver deceivers because they allow them to build their dams, but not
SPR Boardroom: in a continual quest to try to build bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger areas that then damage the environment. So here's an example, again, of people doing that kind of work so really proud of our
SPR Boardroom: correct, very staff
SPR Boardroom: highlighting our parks and environment division. A little bit more. Spring has definitely sprung. The 1st signs of sun and fires on the beaches are already ramping up at Discovery Park Rangers, Ranger Jones and Usec discovered a large unattended
SPR Boardroom: fire near the lighthouse. Our park rangers safely extinguished the fire with a big stick ensured. The area was secure, and engaged with visitors who had started the unauthorized beach fire. This was a great opportunity to educate them on the parks, fire regulations and designated fire pit locations. So you know.
SPR Boardroom: with great weather and our wonderful beaches and some of our traditions around outdoor fires, which can all be fun. They can also be dangerous. And so it's a good time for us to educate the public about the do's and don'ts of fires. And thankfully our Ranger Cadre, which
SPR Boardroom: we have discussed before, which increased from 2 to 28, are able to mitigate these types of risks for our park system, so I just want to thank them. The Atlantic City boat Ramp Park Security requested vehicle exclusion boulders at the parking lot. Southeast District Senior Staff work with Greg Chat Fern, our Park Senior planning and development specialists and the heavy equipment crew to create a natural vehicle exclusion barrier using logs stockpiled from storm damage.
SPR Boardroom: This solution creates habitats for insects and other wildlife by releasing nutrients into the soil as the logs decompose. Additionally, this acts as a stormwater retention and carbon storage.
SPR Boardroom: Incorporating nurse log habitat into urban parks is an important tactic in reaching our net. 0 carbon emission by 2025. Example of what's called a nature-based solution. This is another example of how parks and environment is working smarter to ensure parklands contribute to climate solution. So again, I'm really always just so impressed with our very
SPR Boardroom: staff members and all of the amazing things that they do
SPR Boardroom: want to highlight the Westlake Park and Don Armini boat ramp projects. On Wednesday, April 16, th the Seattle Parks Foundation, and I believe our Parks Foundation president is online listening in partnership with Seattle parks and recreation hosted a community public house to share the 30% design for the coming update to Westlake Park.
SPR Boardroom: About 100 people attended to share their thoughts about the future of the park, while also talking about what they love of the current park. This project is currently working towards construction in the fall of 2025, with plans to open up in time for the World Cup in Seattle in the summer of 2026. This is a 1st step
SPR Boardroom: foundation and a much bigger project, and you can find out more information at seattleparksfoundation.org forward, slash, reimagine, Wesley.
SPR Boardroom: The Don Armini boat ramp repairs. The contractor has mobilized at Don Armini boat ramp in West Seattle, which you can see here, and it's beginning repairs to the float system. We anticipate the work to be completed.
SPR Boardroom: completed by the 1st week in May weather permitting. Sbr. Requested the fabricator open one side first, st so we could restore partial service. In April the float system was removed in November 2024, because the hinges between the floats were failing, and the concrete on the floats were spilling and crackling. Both docks should be open, may first, st thanks to the great weather we have had, and to again our great teams. So always something to take care of in the 500 plus park system.
SPR Boardroom: wanna highlight, the Volunteer Puget Park Trail Project, which is part of our Green Seattle partnership, one of our best partnerships in our city and system it is Earth day month. Birthday was just a couple of days ago. Green Seattle partnership
SPR Boardroom: had 20 volunteer projects scheduled in addition to events hosted by Sbr and our partners Earth Month as an opportunity to lift some weight off the shoulders of our hardworking ecology team. It's not too late to volunteer. We have more things going on, including a cleanup project here this Saturday, right here at Denning Park. So I will be busy
SPR Boardroom: helping to clean up this Park, doing the opening at South Park Plaza and Salmon Bay on Sunday. So yeah, please join me. Anyone volunteer opportunities can be found on the Green Seattle partnership website and then volunteer trail project at Puget Park. The trails crew teamed up with forest stewards and 12 dedicated volunteers
SPR Boardroom: to prepare for a volunteer work party at Puget Park. The crew installed check steps and slope logs to stabilize and level, reducing the risk of erosion over time. Following this, the team hosted a volunteer work session, where they resurfaced 170 feet of trail, utilizing 7 yards of crushed rock to create a more durable and accessible path, and again a huge shout out to the public, because this is an amazing, amazing partnership
SPR Boardroom: developed over the past 25 years, 40 years, 25 years, I think 20 years.
SPR Boardroom: anyway, been a long time coming and a lot of work, but we wouldn't be able to take care of all of our natural forested areas if it weren't for volunteers in Seattle, people who just love to touch the earth and help us do our work. And it's a wonderful, wonderful partnership, and that is the end of the report.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, that's me. It's not me. But you're supposed to. You're uncomfortable. You don't know but it could be my culture. So it is me, I say, but it's true
SPR Boardroom: mine online, or any of the questions, or any comments, or
SPR Boardroom: it's it was awesome to see all things are going on, especially appreciate the shout out
SPR Boardroom: for what the crews are doing. Whether the beaver example is great, and love the detail of the screen, and what able to do with the parking lot there so and I know my fellow West Seattle residents will be very excited when the boat ramp is back open. It's a bit of a hot community, and so appreciate
SPR Boardroom: doing partial access open that even have that timeline as quickly as possible so great to hear.
SPR Boardroom: And I hope you're joining in South Park. Awesome, so awesome. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: But I will say to Commissioner, Plan joined me on Earth day on was that Monday to Tuesday, Tuesday, and we were in District 5, up at Bitter Lake to dedicate the new playground and new
SPR Boardroom: restroom area asset to the park. And so that was really great. Yeah, to do that already, being very heavily used by kids who are having a great time with the equipment. So thumbs up to the landscape architects who
SPR Boardroom: chose the equipment and design. It seems very intuitive to use. And yeah, kids of all ages were enjoying it so, and it's fully accessible. It's got this really cool rubberized surface. So
SPR Boardroom: very good news.
SPR Boardroom: Thanks. I believe the next item on our agenda agenda is a presentation on art.
SPR Boardroom: Well, thanks for having us tonight. My name is Jackie. I'm the Hillset. I'm the Executive Director for Associated Recreation Council, and tonight I'm joined by my board, President Caitlin, Pentrella, and Second Vice President Garrett Moore.
SPR Boardroom: Tonight. I'm coming here as a partner. Spotlight. We work very closely with Seattle Park and recreation. And so I'd like to share with you what our partnership looks like, and the exciting news is this is our 50th year to be in partnership with Seattle Park and recreation. And we're just thrilled that
SPR Boardroom: we're able to play the role in supporting Seattle Park and rec to really enrich health recreation across the city.
SPR Boardroom: So just a little history about our partnership. We were established in 1975, and part of that was to explicitly support the advisory councils and the programs and activities that were taking place in the facilities across the city.
SPR Boardroom: One big milestone is in 2,001. We actually took over licensed childcare across all the facilities in the city, and we currently run and manage preschool and childcare, both in the facilities in the community centers. But we also have some partnerships with Seattle public schools. But these are all Spr programs.
SPR Boardroom: We are bound by agnostic service agreement, and it goes all the way back to 2,008, and it was really a time to solidify the partnership, to develop a mission and vision and strategic plan, and it was a renewable 10 year renewable agreement. So the last agreement we signed was in 2019, and it will be up
SPR Boardroom: again for review in 2,028, just around the corner
SPR Boardroom: part of what the focus of the 2019 agreement was to really help us lean into improvements and look at financial stability between the partnership. And that's currently where we are. I wanted to mention that we had, as the world did, a very tough
SPR Boardroom: several years in the pandemic, and we were very grateful to our partners, Seattle Park and recreation to help us keep childcare open for essential workers. But as we've emerged in 2023. We really are focusing now on improving our systems, our operational supports to Seattle parks and recreation, but also to focus on our future sustainability.
SPR Boardroom: And today we're here. Celebrating our 50th year. And it's just been a real pleasure to
SPR Boardroom: be part of this very unique partnership.
SPR Boardroom: So who are we? This partnership sometimes is
SPR Boardroom: not easy to understand, but I think I'm trying to break it down to help you see how we who we are and how we work together. So we are actually independent. 501 c. 3.
SPR Boardroom: And we work to enrich Seattle Park and recreation programs across the city, including childcare, including lifelong learning programs. We also manage 4 fiscal sponsored programs. 3 are with our small craft centers, and we also have an agreement with Amy Tennis Center.
SPR Boardroom: One of our biggest managements is the volunteer Advisory councils that exist across the whole city of Seattle, and these advisory councils work very closely with the program coordinators to advise on what programs to offer the community that those centers are in so very customized to the needs of the neighborhoods those centers are in.
SPR Boardroom: and, as you know, park and recreation. They are a city department, and they're responsible for maintaining parks. All of our open spaces and the community center facilities across Seattle.
SPR Boardroom: So how does this partnership work? We are a 501 c. 3, our own independent organization, and we work directly with the Recreation Division of Seattle Park and recreation. And we've taken both acronyms, Spr. And Arc, and we've put them together, and the work we do together we refer to as spark, and I like to think about that not only
SPR Boardroom: the term spark, but what it when you think about when you hear sparks is like
SPR Boardroom: bright spots around the city happening. And I I really think our partnership leans into that space, because together we're able to actually serve more of the community of Seattle through healthy recreation and childcare.
SPR Boardroom: So there is some nuance about how we work together. The department for the most part in our partnership provides support to the facilities, and they drive the public mission of what we do. And Arc actually is an implementer. We deliver programs. We provide staffing through independent contractors who are instructors in the
SPR Boardroom: different community centers. We hire the coaches, we hire score and timekeepers for the basketball season. We provide financial support and we try to help support community engagement across the whole city through through different events. But also we help support whatever the needs are the community center staff as well as they do community events in their individual facilities.
SPR Boardroom: So one quick question are the
SPR Boardroom: employees within a given community center, a mix of Spr and art. Absolutely. Okay. So there's a core Community Center Spr staff, the coordinators, assistant coordinators, several of the support staff, and then within the building you'll see a number of instructors doing recreation. Art hires those instructors. And if those facilities have childcare or preschool programs, those are art staff.
SPR Boardroom: So what we like the community to know is, we don't really like them to know we're 2 separate entities. We like them to have the experience of spark where both entities are serving the community on behalf of Seattle Park and Rec. But we definitely have to manage 2 different employee workforces. It sounds like, though you have good, well-defined paths or lanes, which is hard for me to understand at first, st like
SPR Boardroom: how you know you have a program coming up who decides if Parks is going to run it, or you're going to run it. But I'm sure that is an ongoing dialogue. But at least you do establish those like, okay, we'll take child care. And you know, instructor led programming. Okay, yeah. And I'm going to get into some of our little nuances to help maybe help you understand those boundaries.
SPR Boardroom: but one thing that helps guide our partnership is a master service agreement that I mentioned earlier, and it's really the constitution of our partnership that names. Okay, what roles does spr play, what roles does art play within the spr partnership?
SPR Boardroom: We pretty much are working together also with the community of advisory councils who are giving input to the programs at each recreation center, and they even play a part in how the budgeting process happens for the recreation centers that are providing these programs to the community.
SPR Boardroom: So this Master service agreement is actually, you know, the place we go that identifies who does what? And again, it's a 10 year agreement that's gonna be up again in 2028.
SPR Boardroom: So this this might get to some of your questions. John is these are arts, what I call key roles, and
SPR Boardroom: this is a unique partnership, probably the only one that I have come across in the United States, where you have a nonprofit who's very heavily involved in the implementation of programming partnering with a city municipality.
SPR Boardroom: And it's very unique because of how closely we work together and the services and the benefits community that we're able to provide. So, as I said earlier, one of our largest areas of services is our childcare, and we actually serve preschool and childcare across the whole city.
SPR Boardroom: We also work with the Department of Education and Early Learning, with some preschool programs. So we are aligned to city initiatives as well. We also do the program management, which is all of our recreation programs. We're helping
SPR Boardroom: the centers get basketball instructors, tae fondo instructors, pottery art, and then we support their fundraising activities, help them get donations for the pancake breakfasts, or even get donations for some of the acons they have. That's a role in 501 c. 3 can play is to get some of those sponsorships from the greater community.
SPR Boardroom: One of the biggest areas that
SPR Boardroom: arc also does is we manage financially all of the child care services, and we also help contribute to the scholarship funds, so that
SPR Boardroom: mostly young, the highest need young people in our community have access to the Svr programs. We actually raise money and fundraise to ensure that they have dollars to participate in those. So that's a big role is we're able to get money in for specific needs and help community participate in Svr programs.
SPR Boardroom: And then we also
SPR Boardroom: have to go through an independent audit every year. So we are our own entity, and everything that we do is by
SPR Boardroom: you know, fiscal management is all separate than Spr's management.
SPR Boardroom: The Advisory Council management. We actually have volunteers that apply for those positions. Their termed positions. They actually have advisory councils across all of the active community centers where they make decisions for all the activities at the community centers. These folks work very closely, though with Spr. Coordinators, especially when planning the yearly programs that are gonna take place at their sites.
SPR Boardroom: The other thing that we do is this past year we
SPR Boardroom: we looked across our system and wanted to elevate more youth participation. So we added a Youth Advisory Council that's citywide, and they represent several of the districts across Seattle, and they actually work with us to help advise on
SPR Boardroom: programs. And they participate in some of our community activation events. But it is a great space to have them also part of the Advisory Council system that's been in place for 50 years.
SPR Boardroom: The next key role that we play is development and marketing. We support Svr. Marketing. So some of the flyers, you see some of the signs for childcare and summer day camp. We help the department to design those and make sure they're available. So that we're constantly trying to market. We do the online brochure design that folks across the community can go to the online portal and see what's available in their neighborhoods.
SPR Boardroom: And then with development, a lot of that work is fundraising. We have a Development Department that is constantly looking at ways that we can enhance Sbr's programming through raising dollars and solidifying sponsorships. Is that the Sonia Doughty? Yes, Sonia Doughty is our lead manager for the Development Department.
SPR Boardroom: So she works and has put on a few fundraisers. We do the fund. The fun event that raises scholarships for summer programs that young people participate in
SPR Boardroom: during the summer this year, because it's our 50.th We're doing a little different. We're going to have an actual celebration in the fall. That's gonna raise money for scholarships. But we're doing some online outreach this spring to also secure that dollars keep coming in for scholarships for folks to participate in spr programs.
SPR Boardroom: And then the human resources. Currently, we have 702 staff that are employed with us. We have 83 that are full time staff. Several of those folks work in the childcare system and quite a few of the staff. We're gonna probably have an increase of about 100 for seasonal summer work. That's gonna happen soon. So we actually hire and put everybody through the process.
SPR Boardroom: We also have agreements with independent contractors. So we're we are constantly
SPR Boardroom: working in partnership to fill the gaps across the system and ensure folks are hired to do the good work at the community centers. And then we just also do all the compliance and reporting we have to adhere to all the local city, state, and federal laws. We go through audits, we work with the city. If anything comes up around reporting issues that we need to pay attention to.
SPR Boardroom: But overall, this is kind of the this is always in our Master service agreement just trying to shortcut. It's a it's pretty lengthy agreement. But these are the main areas of focus that we dig into.
SPR Boardroom: And then, of course, just our community impact. I think I like to think arc is a catalyst to get more instructors hired so that more people can participate in healthy recreation across the city. I think childcare has been a huge service to the community, and we're really proud that we're able to manage that body of work. And then we're just happy to have such a robust group of volunteers across the city who are supporting their neighborhood community centers through the advisory councils
SPR Boardroom: we linked with equity, race and equity is part of what
SPR Boardroom: we lead with, and we try to do our systemic work to focus on that. And then just to give you a few examples of some of our
SPR Boardroom: programs that are all done in partnership with Spr. But some that we've really leaned into is we've had the Youth Advisory Council youth at work. We partner with Spr. But the youth at work is a program for young people to have a career pathway to an internship in the summer, and we had 14 young people last year work in our childcare center, and they're all qualified child care workers
SPR Boardroom: now. They went through all the accreditation to do so. We also host 2 big events annual general meeting, which
SPR Boardroom: honors all the volunteers that work with us, and it honors Spr. Staff, Spr. And arc staff that have worked together to support the overall system. So that's coming up a big celebration for us, and we host a annual President's meeting, where all the Advisory Council Presidents come together, and we just kind of do a report out of the whole year.
SPR Boardroom: Again, preschool licensed child care centers and school aged care. And then we have some unique community events that we we do, we? We have leaned into supporting the mayor's initiatives for
SPR Boardroom: activation downtown. So we this is our 3rd year. We're gonna offer a street sports showdown, which one day is a basketball tournament downtown, and the second day is a soccer tournament, and then most recently, on Saturday, we had a great ice eating party to celebrate our 50th and our audience, who, we invited, were all childcare families and their children. So I just show you a series of pictures, just to
SPR Boardroom: make sure you can see some of the lovely folks that we serve in the summer. We take all the childcare to the storm game and our preschools. They work a lot in environment environmental learning about plants and the environment that they're in. The next slide is just some of our youth that we've served. And they they've been really a wonderful group to work with this past year.
SPR Boardroom: And then the next slide is just
SPR Boardroom: really fun shot of our street sports showdown, where one day was all basketball. Second day was soccer. We were just downtown down by the Amazon spheres, and we had a great tournament, and everyone had a really great time, and we even had the sea wolves came out and brought their wheelchair team with them, and they taught all the folks kind of a side activation.
SPR Boardroom: You know how to how to do Rugby in wheelchairs. It was quite a an amazing event.
SPR Boardroom: And then this is just recently we had a great birthday celebration on Saturday. Thank you to Ap. And his team for attending, but this was just a way where we have a strong partnership with one roof foundation. They gave us the space and the rentals for ice seats, and we're able to offer this event free to all our childcare. It's just it was a fun day all around.
SPR Boardroom: and Justin's a former president. So
SPR Boardroom: and then you could just so, looking ahead, it's a it's all about the renewal coming up. It's about adapting to meet Seattle's needs. You know, they've been changing over the years. It's about working with Spr. And you know, together this partnership. I think it just reaches more people in the city. It helps us to be a catalyst to get folks to come out to Spr programs. And we're just honored to be part of this partnership. So
SPR Boardroom: thank you. And we have a few minutes for questions. You could ask our board members and myself if anybody else any questions for us.
SPR Boardroom: Annoying.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, so
SPR Boardroom: it's child. It's childcare. And what are the age ranges for the childcare. So childcare the after school care is 5 to 12 year olds, and those are majority of who we serve, but we serve 3 to 5, 3, and 4 year olds in our preschool program. So we have preschool usually earlier in the day, and then the children come after school and go into our childcare. Are you at full capacity? In the summer
SPR Boardroom: we are hoping to get there. We're about
SPR Boardroom: 4, 75. We want to get to 5, 25 for summer day camp license childcare. But we also support the activity camps that happen at the community centers, and registration is happening right now. So we're we're hoping to get full capacity by the time June rolls around
SPR Boardroom: like, I have one comment and then
SPR Boardroom: and question comment for Spr. I think the Youth Advisory Council is awesome.
SPR Boardroom: partly just to get a different perspective on what actually will serve those communities. And then also, typically, you know in my experience.
SPR Boardroom: organizations, boards, volunteer programs tend to be older people who freed up time and just to develop that civic interest and doing that with a youth group and then trying to keep.
SPR Boardroom: show them opportunities to stay plugged into their community so that they might go on to join a board like this or to volunteer at their community center. I think it's a great way of just getting people into the system of like giving back and contributing. So love that. Yeah, it's a great program. We also have a very intentional outreach campaign going to try to diversify our
SPR Boardroom: our advisory councils. 70% are older
SPR Boardroom: folks in the community. And so we're trying to bridge the Age Gap. But the young people bring a lot to the table and they come to the President's meeting, we let them present to to educate what they're passionate about. So yeah, thank you for that. That's the whole. I guess Justin 1st is the arc budget rolled into the Spr budget. It is not so officially, you know. They're sort of a standalone. 501 c. 3
SPR Boardroom: we would have talked about our kind of revenue that we earn. So a portion of our revenue comes through arc. So there's kind of a, you know, a childcare or recreation programs that run through the arc budget. You know that fee that somebody pays for their child care goes to Arc and then Arc repays the city a 3% fee kind of intended to recoup some of the city costs associated with supporting that program, and that I don't
SPR Boardroom: actually haven't done pure budget in a bit. But you know, pre pandemic. That was about $800,000 a year and then nowadays it's probably
SPR Boardroom: I don't actually know.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, about 700,001 thing just I mean, I don't have the background on how this happens. But you know, hearing some of the work you're doing and flipping through. I've been working with Justin on some budget performance analysis. You know, City Center activation had a 1.5 million budget for Spr. This year, the get moving program about 5, almost 500,000
SPR Boardroom: and mobile, Rec. Almost 2 million budget. And in a time when we were having to make some really tough decisions about eliminating whole programs. It seems like going forward. This is a great opportunity to reach out to Arc and see if they could, even on a temporary basis.
SPR Boardroom: dial up into certain areas where you could scale back, let's say, mobile rep for a year. You know, they could add a few more summer programs and
SPR Boardroom: use that 2 million bucks to save some other things. So I just, I mean, if you guys don't partner at the budget like the budget planning stage and level. We certainly encourage you to, because
SPR Boardroom: it would be a really good relief valve on some years where you really just can't find everything to try to see like. Well, what could Bark step up to do? Because I think you're very nimble, and you know you've sort of taken where we have the ability to be nimble. That's our strength in the partnership. And I think we're we're moving into some conversations next week to look forward and and look at innovative ways that we might be able to
SPR Boardroom: support the sustainability of the partnership going forward. So
SPR Boardroom: I do know, we want to talk about some of those possible innovations. And
SPR Boardroom: and I think we're getting ready to do that next week. Absolutely. Yeah, no, that's great thinking, and our cast also in the past stepped up
SPR Boardroom: in such, in similar situations on various programs. So there's definitely a precedent and room to grow that. But we're beginning to have those discussions. Great. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Can I say one thing? I used to work very closely with Jackie years ago? And I think she is underselling the role of arc in childcare and the child care program. And I think it's still true that it's the biggest childcare provider in the city, and maybe the State. Right? So it is a major operation in terms of caring for young people and
SPR Boardroom: she's definitely underselling sort of the struggles of the pandemic like I want you to picture in March of 2020, when everything shut down and the city said, we have to figure out. We need doctors to be able to go to hospitals, and we need somewhere to put their kids. Arc was one of the 1st folks to kind of set up covid, compliant childcare, and figure out, how do we? How do we bring this thing back online at a time? That kind of the business model of childcare fell apart.
SPR Boardroom: And so, anyway, the art and all of their frontline service providers did, I think, heroic stuff throughout those 1st couple of years of the pandemic under very uncertain circumstances. So I just want to make sure. That's, you know, and we had a great partner, Justin, to help us through a lot of the financial challenges. But it is true. It's something that
SPR Boardroom: I'm very proud that our staff
SPR Boardroom: were the ones that were able to provide the frontline childcare. The financial hit on us was large, because we could only serve 8 children per room at the time. We had to have 2 adults for 11 h programs.
SPR Boardroom: So we did take a huge financial hit. So, being a nonprofit and having a development arm, we were able to go after a lot of the Covid Relief Funds, a lot of the Childcare Relief Funds, and we were close to being out of business. But, thanks to our partnership, we believe that this was essential. We worked together. We built up and rebuilt art so that we can continue to expand.
SPR Boardroom: be here today. But
SPR Boardroom: it was quite the journey. I just want to take this opportunity to to thank Jackie and
SPR Boardroom: both of you for coming as well. Justin is just perfectly articulated it. And it's almost we're so
SPR Boardroom: symbiotic in the work that we do that like
SPR Boardroom: Spr. And Parks agencies are, too. I think we sometimes we undersell. And really, it's hard to contextualize all the things that we do when we serve people, because it's so ingrained in our work. But it really is essential work to the public, and it's an amazing
SPR Boardroom: partnership. There's few partnerships that you can say and this is true of the relationship between Arc and Spr that we couldn't do all of our work without them, and they certainly couldn't do their work without us. And to your point, John, earlier.
SPR Boardroom: when I 1st got here, too, I had those similar questions like
SPR Boardroom: the staff that's working in the centers, and because the public, when they go to a community center or summer camp or childcare, or the small craft center. They don't. They don't distinguish between. These are our employees. These are spr employees like they just expect these high quality services, and the testament of both of us being able to coexist and manage these spaces. It's so unique. But the the tremendous benefit means 700
SPR Boardroom: employees, and I tell this all the time to our employees. I think of those as spr employees.
SPR Boardroom: and even though technically they're not, but they are part of it. They're doing the exact same work with the same heart and passion that park employees have for the public and children. So that's like an additional 700 people that are working to provide
SPR Boardroom: public park programming than in any other city would be park employees. So they're very much. This spark is very much true, and we're so appreciative of the work that you do and how you step up for us time and time again. But really, just step up for Seattle families. And so it's tremendous, and we're excited for the things ahead. So I just I really love working with Jackie, her team and all of the employees.
SPR Boardroom: They are always so joyful to every single spark. Arc employee is really joyful. So it's fun. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: thank you. Basically, Steve, come on, do you have.
SPR Boardroom: And my mom was involved. It's been involved in community centers, entire life. So it's like, yes, something to say.
SPR Boardroom: Employees today grew up in rec centers as well as board members that love programming.
Amman Haile-Leul: Most definitely. I would like to contribute, just saying, I know the impact that Arc has had in my in my area in my neighborhood, you know, and some of the former arc employees that I know personally that have been involved in programs at Bitter Lake, or I always see the
Amman Haile-Leul: the youth, the youth programs, the young, the younger people programs, the preschool programs and how much having those spaces
Amman Haile-Leul: available. Their programs available in our area is is such a huge impact and is foundational, I think, to the work that Spr. Is doing across the city. So I just wanted to put that out there and say, we really appreciate what you guys are doing.
Amman Haile-Leul: Yeah, thank you so much.
SPR Boardroom: Follow up with you as well, because love what you've done in partnership with Seattle public schools, and after school care, and the other board I sit on is the Seattle School Traffic Safety Committee, and
SPR Boardroom: they've been thinking about ways to help even further tank that partnership and get kids to and from the schools and the centers safely. So with you, get the right folks in touch. Thank you. Yeah. Just from a process standpoint, this is great. Right. We have all these complicated
SPR Boardroom: what seemed to us. I think this commission is very complicated. Partnerships so really appreciate when partners are willing to come forward and share their view on how this works. Not just Spr. Staff, right? It really helps us understand some of the complexity, and helps us with better be revise, provide better advice as well. So thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Alright
SPR Boardroom: and I think, Justin, are you up to talk restrooms? In particular, the restroom audit? This was
SPR Boardroom: what was presented to council. It's close. It's it's needed some updates. Oh, good. I appreciate that.
SPR Boardroom: So yeah, if you just give a little bit of background on this. 7, 35,
SPR Boardroom: our restroom audit. So jump to the next slide if you would. So just to give you some timeline, this in 2022,
SPR Boardroom: when the City Council, acting as the Park District Board, passed cycle to the Park district. So they passed their own 6 Year financial plan as a part of that, they embedded within the resolution, passing it just a series of things that they wanted us to think about or specific stuff they wanted us to do, and they also included in their request to the auditor to
SPR Boardroom: do proactively an audit of various aspects of Seattle parks and recreation from capital projects to restrooms, to park maintenance, and not necessarily like, based on any wrongdoing or fear. But just kind of as like, hey, we're putting a lot more money into you every year with this.
SPR Boardroom: with this financial plan. And let's as a basic accountability measure. Quick question, yeah, were those specifically named Audits was one of them. In the meantime
SPR Boardroom: the whole much of the council changed over, including the the key Council member and his staff. Who'd written those those particular items. And the auditor staff had had some limited capacity. And so basically, the new Council and the auditor worked together to say, What would you. Where would you like us to focus and restrooms? Was where they jumped in.
SPR Boardroom: and so
SPR Boardroom: in May of last year the auditor jumped in, and their scope was restrooms, everything, from daily maintenance to to capital projects, renovating them to public satisfaction.
SPR Boardroom: And so they I wanna say, they did what I would consider they did some quantitative analysis, but a significant qualitative process, right interviews with staff right alongs and observations. Site visits things like that. And I think I really want to commend. They were really committed to seeing the work happen at the ground level and hearing from the folks who clean restrooms. Folks who plan new restrooms kind of how how that happens.
SPR Boardroom: So that happened through September in October and November, we started discussing kind of what they think they were finding and you know we could have the opportunity to offer some additional information or start to think about how we might respond.
SPR Boardroom: And then that all culminated formally. In February.
SPR Boardroom: they formally published the audit
SPR Boardroom: we formally published our kind of response of Here are your findings, and here's what we're gonna what we pledged to do about it.
SPR Boardroom: And we presented before the city council on that. So if you really want to go deep and hear what your elected officials think about it. Check out a Parks committee meeting on that
SPR Boardroom: and then from here on out, you know, we have an implementation plan. And so we'll report annually to the auditor on what we're up to until we finish implementation. And so one thing I do want to emphasize is it's been less than 90 days since that audit was released. So much of what you'll hear me say is
SPR Boardroom: kind of. Here's our plan and what we're going to do. But we do have some some stuff. That's already all that we've already
SPR Boardroom: completed, that I get to tell you about. The other thing I want to say is just due to timing issues. We were hoping to have folks from parks and the environment here who actually know this stuff. I'm here as your audit liaison, who is kind of a liaison between the auditor's office and the department, so there may be some technical stuff I don't know. So we can follow up with with those teams if I can't answer any questions for you.
SPR Boardroom: So just some background like nothing that the auditor told us was a huge surprise. Right? We know from public feedback and a variety of ways that we. We ask folks for their comments. We know the restrooms are a place. Folks want us to improve. Our current strategic plan calls on us to to make significant restroom improvements. We put a significant amount of new Park district dollars into that as a part of cycle. 2.
SPR Boardroom: If you really want to go deep on kind of restroom cleaning and restrooms. In August 2023. There was a Bprc. Meeting on this with the actual subject matter experts. So that's a good place to look as well.
SPR Boardroom: and then I just wanna say, you know, we really welcomed the opportunity to get the auditors perspective on how to do this better.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: So in general, we concur with the findings of the audit. And we're starting to implement our response plan.
SPR Boardroom: Today, we'll tell you basically a big picture context. And then we'll tell you about the 4 buckets that the auditors finding fit in and what we're doing about that we're gonna tell you
SPR Boardroom: there's a variety of things that we're doing in direct response to the audit. There's also a variety of things kind of we're already doing, or we were already thinking about, or we'd already put investments into. So we're gonna tell you both those things so it won't necessarily be point by point, like the auditor found this, we're doing this. We're just gonna tell you comprehensively what we're what we're doing on restrooms.
SPR Boardroom: But items with that little magnifying glass are things we're doing in direct response to be honest.
SPR Boardroom: So context and go to the next slide. So we have 129 restrooms in our parks, and these are either standalone restrooms or attached to shelter houses. A small number are attached to community centers, but they've got an externally facing door.
SPR Boardroom: This does not include restrooms inside
SPR Boardroom: recreation facilities. That's a hundred 30, right? Because we just opened up, although we decommissioned another one.
SPR Boardroom: I think we might have just found one, because there's 1 on Motley, that's externally facing. That wasn't a part of the original list. I can't. I don't know. We'll look on the dashboard so. But I will say this question of exactly how many do we have is is hard to track right? We've got so many legacy facilities that.
SPR Boardroom: you know, there's not some database that exists independently of our own staff, just constantly making sure our assets are are updated in there.
SPR Boardroom: So many of these restrooms, close seasonally during the winter, mainly due to the potential for frozen pipes.
SPR Boardroom: And we are weatherizing those as we speak, and that's we'll talk more about that in the next few minutes.
SPR Boardroom: Many of our restrooms are older facilities, right? Our park department came in sort of big growth spurts. And so we've got some older facilities that are
SPR Boardroom: that you know public status. I say that because public satisfaction on a really old bathroom is not going to happen from having more cleaning, it's gonna take a capital project and a major renovation to get people to like that facility again. Right? If you think about Seward Parks restroom right there at the entrance right? It is not going to matter
SPR Boardroom: if you go in there right after somebody has spent an hour cleaning it. It's still gonna be a little fun
SPR Boardroom: until it gets rebuilt. Right so and relatedly. Facility design has varied over time based on preferences. So you know
SPR Boardroom: whether we're building all gender restrooms, or if we're thinking about kind of innovations for maintenance and safety.
SPR Boardroom: let's keep going. Do you know how it says many are closed over the winter? Do we know, like percent, about 60, 60, total, yeah, out of the 129. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: so so we have a lot of challenges in running this system of restrooms in our city.
SPR Boardroom: We always emphasize that we designed the system to meet the needs of General Park users right?
SPR Boardroom: and we work hard to provide access to all. But you could look at our restroom system in a variety of different ways, and say, we have this many homeless folks that a prior audit from about 5 or 6 years ago took a really not direct down restrooms, but on homelessness services, took a look at citywide restroom availability and said.
SPR Boardroom: UN refugee camp standards say, you should have this many open restaurants at any time, and you don't have that so right like, if you look at us through that lens.
SPR Boardroom: we will fail that right, because the whole system was designed to serve the needs of General Park Users. With that said, we understand there's a citywide shortage of restrooms, and we work hard to make sure that our restrooms are available to everybody but that kind of overflow impact of kind of delivery drivers, bus drivers, folks experiencing homelessness. That this is their restroom system just has more impact than the system was designed for.
SPR Boardroom: And then, of course, kind of citywide mental health and drug abuse challenges.
SPR Boardroom: have their impact and kind of we have really unprecedented rates of vandalism and arson at the moment.
SPR Boardroom: you know, as a part of the broader post pandemic kind of societal core behavior uptick, I think our restrooms see, see a huge amount of that.
SPR Boardroom: So, as I mentioned, the best thing we can do to improve public happiness with restrooms is
SPR Boardroom: we're gonna be done. So
SPR Boardroom: you've seen this before, I believe, and you've had Kim from our planning and development. Oh, sorry!
SPR Boardroom: you know. Speak to kind of how we think about our assets in general. So
SPR Boardroom: want to say that this capital renovation part is about this kind of asset, renewal side of this circle. Right? So one of the things we said anytime I'm going to regularly reference what we said we would do as a part of cycle 2 of the parking, so we said we would renovate 27 restrooms? And by the end of 2020. And so we
SPR Boardroom: just we did 0 in 2023. We did 5 in 2024, and we've done 4 more this year. So far.
SPR Boardroom: so we feel pretty confident we'll meet or exceed that goal.
SPR Boardroom: So that's I think, one of the main things we're doing to improve restaurants right? It's just comprehensive renovation. In some cases this means kind of replacing everything in it and putting a better roof on it. In some places it means tearing the whole thing down and rebuilding.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah. Question, yeah, is there a difference in the rate of vandalism and arson in the single stall all gender restrooms compared with the traditional, let's say, open floor plan, restroom, because my experience is that anytime you go to single stall.
SPR Boardroom: They're either always locked, locked somebody by by somebody inside doesn't want to come out, or they're trashed and I don't see that as much in the like
SPR Boardroom: old restrooms that are open plan. I think the community does a slightly better job of managing weird behavior. And.
SPR Boardroom: you know, kind of putting a damper on. But what do you find? Yes, I think that is fair to say, and our staff are kind of ground staff
SPR Boardroom: that I think it's hard to.
SPR Boardroom: One thing I know is that where we've put those single stall restaurants
SPR Boardroom: like Cal Anderson Park right? There's probably other factors influencing whether they're messed up. But yes, I think
SPR Boardroom: I think we have found that depending on where we but then there's also some you know, these new ones at at gas works are single. Stall have not been a have not been an issue. So I think it's partially location. But it does. It's just a fact that it does make it easier for somebody to, you know, make it their their room for the night. Unless there's a staff person there to kind of kick them out.
SPR Boardroom: Come on. Sorry. I just wanna acknowledge. Yeah.
Amman Haile-Leul: Hey? Yeah, I had a question. Relating to that idea of
Amman Haile-Leul: use amongst people in mental health crisis or people experiencing homelessness.
Amman Haile-Leul: What type of input have you guys got as far as like from the homelessness response system or our behavioral health system? For how? These bathrooms are being utilized by individuals in mental health crisis or experiencing homelessness.
SPR Boardroom: I don't think we've done a tremendous amount of collaboration there, you know. I think some of our
SPR Boardroom: some of our staff.
SPR Boardroom: You know we give our I don't. I don't know if this is what you're asking, so please feel free to tell me I'm going down the wrong direction. But our our grounds crews, and our park rangers, and folks like that, I think.
SPR Boardroom: because they regularly interact with folks who are homeless and in and or in some form of mental health crisis or drug crisis. Have
SPR Boardroom: we give them a variety of training on kind of how to engage?
SPR Boardroom: yeah, that's the main thing, I would say, but feel free to tell me you were asking something very different.
Amman Haile-Leul: I I think more. What I was interested in is like, what type of collaboration goes into like the planning process? If there or if there are any inputs in that, and and there's no right or wrong answer is just a just a question.
SPR Boardroom: I mean, I think in in a small number of cases, we have
SPR Boardroom: recognize just the reality of of folks in homelessness. And you know. So places like Ballard Commons Park. There was really intentional process around putting a Portland loo in there.
SPR Boardroom: It's sort of a more, a more durable bathroom. I think we're in
SPR Boardroom: discussion now to try out a
SPR Boardroom: A staffed restroom in hing, hey? And one other park, maybe Count Anderson.
SPR Boardroom: yeah sort of pi, and that would be with a contract through a contract with with a human services, partner.
SPR Boardroom: and then the other thing I would say, is on the planning side. And and we'll reference this in a second. I think we are planning. Folks are continually looking at
SPR Boardroom: looking at design changes from durability, right? Like, how do we make these things less vulnerable to vandalism and theft?
SPR Boardroom: Yeah.
Amman Haile-Leul: Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: So just a few other things that are capital, I would say. Another point, I think, where John was going as well as beyond vandalism and theft.
SPR Boardroom: There also may be aspects of design that can make them more or less appealing as short term shelters. Right? We want everyone to be able to use, so use the facilities to remain access to everyone.
SPR Boardroom: whether unhoused or
SPR Boardroom: in a home in the area. But they're not intended to be places for people sleeping
SPR Boardroom: overnight. So if there are opportunities in design.
SPR Boardroom: I think so. I mean, there certainly are around. I mean, most of our fires happen, because there's a there's sort of a overhang right outside the door, and whether folks are inside or or just under that overhang to stay out of the rain. They light a fire to keep warm, and it, or to or to cook food, or whatever, and it catches. So
SPR Boardroom: I think there are definitely design
SPR Boardroom: one of the things we've we've said with the auditor that we'll do. We were kind of informally doing that but we basically agreed with the auditor. That this is worth kind of a formal update of.
SPR Boardroom: you know, put in one binder, how to what are the standards by. You know what are the materials you use? What are the the design layouts that help and hurt? Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: just some other stuff we're doing. We're gonna do more regular condition assessments. To to know exactly what the need is out there. And then we are kind of packaging restrooms. We're doing capital projects in a unique way which we haven't done as much. This is a little bit boring inside baseball. So we can keep going. But basically, we're gonna hire one contractor to do multiple sites which we think will have both costs and time efficiency.
SPR Boardroom: We can keep going
SPR Boardroom: right. So now we're to find stuff. So the preventative maintenance side. Right? How do we? And if you keep going, this is about keeping things in good working order. So it's in that keeping the asset in service. So this is this is our kind of plumbers, carpenters, electricians. This is keeping things in in good working order so that we they don't break later. Some of the regular restroom preventative maintenance is just really about replacing plumbing parts, looking for leaks, things like that.
SPR Boardroom: So in Cycle 2 and at the Park district we invested in.
SPR Boardroom: we put in money to do more support for preventative maintenance. This really came in the form of more plumbing carpentry, electrician positions.
SPR Boardroom: Our performance oversight team will know that we have struggled to fill those positions, and as a result we have struggled to meet our aspirational goal of preventative maintenance. The auditor pointed that out as well.
SPR Boardroom: And so what we told the auditor we would do is, 1st of all focus on hiring additional skilled crafts. Folks excited to say, we hired 2 plumbers in April, and we've got an offer out to an electrician. It's just a fact that it's a challenge to, you know. Given that we're. This is a very
SPR Boardroom: well paid field. Our pay rates are set by, you know, city ordinance.
SPR Boardroom: so it's not easy for us to kind of cost out bonuses, or whatever that the private sector can do. So just hard for us to to hire these skilled crafts folks. But we continue to really focus on that.
SPR Boardroom: We're also what we're doing now is, you know, we've had this 60 40 goal where we said, we want 60% of our time to go toward preventative maintenance.
SPR Boardroom: And that's really just an aspirational kind of philosophical approach. What we're doing now is developing and kind of piloting.
SPR Boardroom: what are the what actually should happen to each restroom on an annual basis in terms of preventative maintenance? Right?
SPR Boardroom: and and then track. Did we do that right? How well did we achieve doing that preventative maintenance standard? So that's where we're going there. And that stuff is in in development. Now.
SPR Boardroom: the other thing we're doing surprise me as well. I would encourage you to think about not being aspirational here and being realistic. This is what we can do is what we're going to do, and the more that I think you can do that and communicate at the public. I think that's a really big trust builder. And if it doesn't look like you want it to look like
SPR Boardroom: because of the issues that are going on. And and because that's the reality of
SPR Boardroom: to keep it operating service. What you're having to spend in re in repair? I think being transparent about. That is better than saying, Oh, we have aspiration goal
SPR Boardroom: that we're we're just not gonna be in the current environment. And
SPR Boardroom: if you have a pathway that says, like, here, we think we can get there this year's this way. That would be great.
SPR Boardroom: I'm not sure that that path even exists, or you know what it looks like right now. So trying to be very realistic about here, do we spend our time and money?
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, yeah, right?
SPR Boardroom: So on that weatherization question. We also got resources in Cycle 2 that we were committed to weatherizing these 60 that stay that get closed. So we've done 18 of them so far, and we think we're on track for completion by the end of the year, or sorry by the end of the cycle, by the end of 2028
SPR Boardroom: dump ahead. So this just wanted to give you some visuals. So this is Lakeridge playground, one of the spots we did weatherization. You can imagine how difficult it is to weatherize a site that doesn't have doors right? In some cases it's really easy to just wrap the pipes in heat tape. In other cases it's a lot more challenging. And then you can also see some of the.
SPR Boardroom: You can also see some of the
SPR Boardroom: move toward more durable fixtures. Right as a vandalism prevention.
SPR Boardroom: Ap mentioned our skill crafts, folks and the creativity, and of what they do. So these are the other pictures are just some
SPR Boardroom: innovations they have to do to prevent vandalism. I guess locks are sort of one of the main things that get messed with
SPR Boardroom: And so, you know, and Cal Anderson is sort of the place that's been messed with the most. You'll see the data on that in a second. And so they, you know, sort of after many, many times, of those locks being broken and things happening there, they created these gates so that it's it's sort of more durable when
SPR Boardroom: when it's close.
SPR Boardroom: so go to the next slide. So one of the things that the auditor found, and this was a big discussion point at our city council meeting was the auditor found that 20 restrooms
SPR Boardroom: we're responsible for 60% of our skilled crafts maintenance over the year right, and really encouraged us to look at those 20 restrooms and and kind of figure out what was going on. So we we've spent some time on it.
SPR Boardroom: and so on the left. This is tiny, tiny font. So I'm happy to give you more information. Anyone who wants it. But on the left.
SPR Boardroom: Are the those restrooms from the period of the audit, which was kind of June of 23 to June of 24
SPR Boardroom: and you'll notice that Cal Anderson was on the top right, and a a decent amount of those hours are that beautiful
SPR Boardroom: wrought iron gate we just saw, but I think
SPR Boardroom: Many of the other sites are primarily repairs due to vandalism or theft, so that kind of the Rocks Hill, Madrona, Georgetown, Lincoln, while others.
SPR Boardroom: you know, Magnuson Freeway Park. Those have a bunch of hours on them, because there are things like we were installing a bench outside the bathroom, or we were building an Ada ramp up to it, right? So variety of reasons that folks show up here. But vandalism being a huge driver.
SPR Boardroom: what we did was so we looked into what were really the issues with still ongoing analysis, but wanted to share with you what we found so far like kind of what were the drivers at those sites. Is there anything we can do to reduce those sites? And then also really wanted to see like.
SPR Boardroom: are there a small number of sites that continue to be an issue forever, and at least so far, not really like Kelly Anderson, you know, maybe, is a unique spot, just because of the use there, but we also ran the numbers for the the 1st part of 2025, and of course it's only 3 and a half months.
SPR Boardroom: But it's really a different set of restrooms, and a bunch of those weren't open. Yeah, yeah.
SPR Boardroom: Oh, sometimes it's like,
SPR Boardroom: there's 1 in particular very familiar with, because it's about a hundred yards from my house that's seasonally closed, and I can tell you it could show up again. I love the logic of what you're doing
SPR Boardroom: right like, are there problems? Can we use it to prioritize? Can we focus there? It. It's just your time. Appreciate, appreciate the response of this of this. And this is the time that you have. I think it's gonna look a little bit different. Yes, I think that's probably right.
SPR Boardroom: 2 of them are still on there.
SPR Boardroom: And then the other thing, I would say is, what's interesting is, most of these hours are not. There's still vandalism in there. But a significant amount of these hours are kind of refresh the paint due to minor graffiti, right? So kind of a different set of issues.
SPR Boardroom: yeah.
SPR Boardroom: Okay. Now, the really good stuff. Daily cleaning, which we can do quickly. Let's keep going. So
SPR Boardroom: I will point you back to that August of 2023 meeting of the Bprc. If you really want to go in depth about kind of what it looks like. But here's what we said we would do as a part of Cycle 2 is, we would add, staffing to do additional
SPR Boardroom: evening weekend and non peak season. So we did that in 2023,
SPR Boardroom: and of course, in 2024, a hiring freeze and other financial issues kind of made it so that natural attrition and various other things that our staffing well, even though it did jump up to to meet this commitment, had gotten eroded, and with the hiring freeze we couldn't really
SPR Boardroom: maintain that level of service. And one of the things the auditor found was that we did not reach our you know.
SPR Boardroom: our goal of kind of getting to every restroom 2 to 3 times a day.
SPR Boardroom: What we've done since. So far. In 2025, we've hired 44 labor positions. 32 of those are new folks and 10 or promotions, and we're beginning to hire temps.
SPR Boardroom: A big change from this time last year, right? In which we're under a hiring freeze, and really having to deliberate on exactly how to approach the summer. One of the things the auditor found was that during the period of the audit we had significantly lower park maintenance labor hours than prior years. And that's true right, because of these broader citywide financial challenges. And they're not all financial challenges. Some of them are very boring technical challenges, like
SPR Boardroom: we held some laborer vacancies because of these financial challenges
SPR Boardroom: and because we have vacant laborer positions. Our citywide human resources says you have vacant, permanent positions. You can't hire. Why do you want to hire temps? Right? So you know, if you mentioned, we jump up in the summer because of this sort of wonky interplay of financial issues.
SPR Boardroom: union agreements. We we were short workforce last year. So one of the things that's different about this summer, given given where we're at is that we have confirmed, we will have a second shift. So a group of folks who work from 10 pm. To 2, 30 to 1030 pm.
SPR Boardroom: With a dedicated restroom route. Right? So you've got a dedicated restroom out in the morning, and you've you've now got a dedicated restroom out in the evening. You've also got other apartments workers checking in on restrooms. Every restroom, or is it
SPR Boardroom: like every day, every restroom? Or is it some sort of staggered schedule of when it gets 2 visits? So every restroom should, is on a route is on a series of routes that it should get 2 visits a day. Some of them that are kind of you know, the
SPR Boardroom: the Magnusons. The discoveries that see a lot of visits are usually on routes that they get 3 a day during peak season.
SPR Boardroom: That's the plan right and it may, it adjusts. One of the things the auditor said was, adjust the plan as
SPR Boardroom: based on staffing available. Right? And so we'll tell you in a minute about what they're doing there. But basically
SPR Boardroom: it it's I think it's a big step up from last year to have a confirmed second shift.
SPR Boardroom: What's the staffing target?
SPR Boardroom: I don't know. We still have some. I believe we still have some labor vacancies.
SPR Boardroom: I can't. I don't know. We can find out what what it is and where we're at.
SPR Boardroom: You know, we budget with certain assumptions about, you know, a certain percent of vacancies, and there still remain some city wide challenges. But I think
SPR Boardroom: so the the target right now may not be fill 100% of positions. But,
SPR Boardroom: I would urge you think about trying to make some type of some type of commitment that you know folks people could go and be able to say like, this is what we're doing, and if and if you're and enjoying seated rather than a more aspirational goal.
SPR Boardroom: I'll leave my recommendation, like, you know where to clean.
SPR Boardroom: We have the staff to clean every restroom every day.
SPR Boardroom: and we do that, and we're gonna try try and clean high usage ones. More than that, the 2 or 3 times a day.
SPR Boardroom: I I really found with this, I think the auditors finds were pretty brutal in this area
SPR Boardroom: because they're pointing at just a massive disconnect from a public facing comment.
SPR Boardroom: So if I'm a member of the public and I work local restroom.
SPR Boardroom: and I think it's included between 2 or 3 times a day.
SPR Boardroom: and either I don't believe that, because the condition that it's in or where it is being. I think I believe that it's still this.
SPR Boardroom: It's bad. Wait a minute. As opposed to like. We have a lot of rest. It's a real problem. I don't think you're gonna have a strong reaction, that is, oh, yeah. Keeping restrooms clean is easy. Why is this so hard for you? No, I don't think that's gonna be the situation. But it's more about like, Hey, we we're gonna do this, and we can commit to doing this. We have the staff to do this. And this summer. Here's what we're gonna do.
SPR Boardroom: I mean, that means being less aspirational and less full of what you can say. We're actually done. I think that's much more comforting.
SPR Boardroom: Then a yeah sales park says it gets 2, 3 times a day. But I've never seen it right? Or yeah, I guess somebody comes by in the morning.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, okay.
SPR Boardroom: but that this sounds awesome. If you can actually do this right that's a little bit of a push you're getting here sounds almost sounds too good.
SPR Boardroom: You may be right. So I think, and the next slide is our
SPR Boardroom: let me just jump straight to it, go to even the next one. So one of the things they're doing to make sure they can do that. This is tiny, obviously, and it is still in process. But they've done a lot of work since the audit to say, what are the wide variety of things we need to do right? So we've got restrooms. We also clean up play areas. We've got picnic stuff that needs to get sorry we got picnic stuff right? We have parking lots, athletic fields, so
SPR Boardroom: essentially the same staff or the same pool of staff, are responsible for caring for all these assets. And so you know how given, what they work to do is say, what are the standards by which, what should happen at each of these places?
SPR Boardroom: And therefore how frequently should those things happen, and beyond that, right, they've gotten kind of a tiered system of based on staffing availability, whether it's vacancy issues or whether it's there's a special project that 10 people are getting pulled to, or folks are out on leave, or whatever.
SPR Boardroom: so this is a draft. But this is they're really trying to take seriously like, what's the full scope of our the stuff we're balancing? What do we prioritize when we have fewer staff? Right? And so go to them still in process that I'll run to the printers with it yet. But
SPR Boardroom: go to the next slide, and so, you know, restrooms is kind of what what should happen daily, weekly, monthly. Again, this is just the ground side with the grounds maintenance tool. So you're not going to see the the plumber stuff on here but and then and then so our grounds maintenance folks speak 7 languages, and so the the basics of this we've translated into those 7 languages so that
SPR Boardroom: this is kind of a tool that everybody can know, like, what are the expectations? What should you be doing.
SPR Boardroom: So. That's kind of the on the ground side. One of the things we're really doing structure, in addition to hiring right and some training revamps and things like that kind of really. How do we? How do we weigh all the work we need to do and prioritize and restrooms are one of those things that you know, regardless of where the staffing level, how low you get. It's it's among the priorities
SPR Boardroom: next slide. Okay? So how do we know we're doing good. I'll go through this quick so that we're not too late tonight. But the primary measure of our success is public satisfaction with our services. We look at that in a variety of ways we do. Every 2 year public survey statistically valid survey we look at, find to fix it. We really monitor our social media maintenance request line all of that. But we also have a park inspection program.
SPR Boardroom: and since 2017 Spr. Has engaged cohorts of trained volunteers to inspect parks. What they do is really provide park specific and asset specific data on, on how we're doing against our maintenance standards.
SPR Boardroom: And we reported internally. And then we also reported publicly. So in in 2024 we inspected 36, well, we had a goal of getting to 36 parks. We did 43. Our goal is that the average inspected park meets 80% of maintenance standards. And we got to 79%. Even despite those staffing issues. And I think we understand that
SPR Boardroom: 80% may be our goal because we know that the perfect is hard to do under most conditions. And we get that like if if that bathroom is messed up like that's impactful on folks right? But
SPR Boardroom: But I think we've set the goal of where we feel like we can get to given resources available.
SPR Boardroom: Next slide. So this is kind of some of the basic standards, right of what folks are looking for and how you migrate it. And then this is a screenshot from the app they use to just really say, really, specifically kind of what's
SPR Boardroom: you know, what's this look like
SPR Boardroom: and go to the next slide. So we're going to be building off of, based on, the auditor suggests that we collect some better data on whether this is working or not. So we're going to be building off of these restroom the park inspection program to do some restroom specific analysis.
SPR Boardroom: So and we're gonna engage the subcommittee in that right? We've got a couple of different ideas on.
SPR Boardroom: In addition to this kind of what other data should we be looking at to make sure that
SPR Boardroom: we've got? We're tracking against the whole lot better.
SPR Boardroom: And then the other thing we've done. We were already thinking along this way, but the auditor said.
SPR Boardroom: You know, hey, each of your crew chiefs might monitor whether work is happening in a different way. And we think you should really have a comprehensive kind of supervisor monitor program. So those standards have been set and they're in. They're in process now.
SPR Boardroom: when the the volunteers inspect a park? Are they assigned a park to inspect? Or do they choose a park to inspect? But I wonder if there's a structure of parks because you did 43 parks. But
SPR Boardroom: so I think we choose the parks because we're trying to get to a variety of different kinds of parks with different assets, different parts of the city.
SPR Boardroom: and
SPR Boardroom: I don't actually know to what extent I would. I don't. Actually, I don't know if you know Ap. But like, I hope we don't tell the crew, chief. Hey, we're coming to your coming to this place today, right? I don't think we do that, but I but we do select the parks we have in the past also just put out what we call our park survey program where we just put out a sign with a QR code saying.
SPR Boardroom: Hey, tell us what you think about this park, and we rotate those around. Kind of the core staff that we're running that are are in transition. So that is not as robust a program at the moment. But
SPR Boardroom: I believe we're bringing it back. And that helps a little bit with that, making sure we're not
SPR Boardroom: making sure we're just getting a broader.
SPR Boardroom: a broader sense of input are the crew chiefs observing their own crews work, or another crew's work? Well, or is it just my staff? My staff is doing the way I believe the way
SPR Boardroom: we're acting to like the point about are there common standards and expectations? Laying them out is good, and also thinking about how to build that understanding across the system.
SPR Boardroom: But then, frequently, in my experience of these type of OP operations, you'll see differences by shift or crew, chief and when you can find ways for them to see and learn, both from a process standpoint and an expectation standpoint
SPR Boardroom: can be helpful. It's not internal competition. It's not knocking down. It's, Hey, here we are really doing this this back. And we're doing quickly and easily, and their best practices that these crews are doing.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: I do know. The kind of the monitoring program I I really do believe, is within districts. But I think that that is a really good idea. So on the training side. You know that I think they will get kind of cross that. But on this I think that's a really interesting idea. You train the standards, and then you'll see that as different leaders will then vary and emphasize different things. Yeah, which which could be very good because they find faster ways of doing things. They find things they need to coach on. But you do
SPR Boardroom: get that variance again. Yeah. And and there's value in kind of observing outside of your court, too. Right?
SPR Boardroom: I think that might be all I have for you.
SPR Boardroom: yeah. And I think our plan is to engage our our oversight Subcommittee on kind of some of the follow up around how we measure success of this but also happy to come back anytime you all want. Are there going to be other scheduled audits back to the sort of thing we started with?
SPR Boardroom: They're not scheduled. I think it is possible that and the auditor has not indicated that. I think they really looked at that
SPR Boardroom: the what they were asking this is what they scaled to, but it is totally possible that I know as auditors, they can also do unscheduled ad hoc audits. I'm asking about that. I'm basically saying, is there going to be any other process that looks like this. Not okay. Yeah. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: Don't.
SPR Boardroom: Awesome. Yeah. Can you make sure? Can you just review with everybody the timing of next steps of when the report comes here and goes to council, because that's something I'm a little fond of the things that we are responsible for. Is providing a report
SPR Boardroom: to to the community and to the Participant Board acting as City City Council, acting as partisure board on our accomplishments for the prior year.
SPR Boardroom: Further down here, after known as the Annual Report. To do that we kind of have a pretty narrative
SPR Boardroom: piece, and then we have a really comprehensive thing that goes line by line of our operations to say, here was the budget. Here's what they actually spent. Here was their performance target. Here's what they actually accomplished. To. We review all of that with our one of the roles of the Vprc. Is to help us verify that. That's it's true what we're saying and that that. We're confusing that with
SPR Boardroom: you know, we're not just sort of telling a rosy story about our year. And so we go through a process with our performance oversight subcommittee of really looking at kind of performance against budget and against our performance measures. What drove some of those things? What really worked. You know, we're still growing and so that is what our performance oversight subcommittee members have been engaged in so far.
SPR Boardroom: really appreciative of their efforts. So what happened? So now you'll hear from the subcommittee themselves about that work.
SPR Boardroom: and what happens from here is at our May 20 second. I believe it is meeting. We're gonna bring you the. We're gonna bring you an update about the annual report. And we're prior to that meeting. We're gonna send you a
SPR Boardroom: letter. So one of the things that the chairs do is kind of have a letter at the front of the annual report. So I'm gonna between now and then. I'm gonna work with the subcommittee to draft that letter and send it to you all at least a week before that meeting, just to review and make sure you feel good about it, and then we'll come to you on May 20. Second. Give you a little preview of the report, and let you let you know about it. And then
SPR Boardroom: then we finish it up and publish it, and it goes. We kind of time the release to coincide with when the City Council, acting as Park District Board meets for their June 24, th
SPR Boardroom: okay, so June 24, th they mean. So you're going to ask, do we need to vote to approve any?
SPR Boardroom: I don't think officially, you do, I think? Yeah. Well, what you will.
SPR Boardroom: Obviously the letter I want to make sure you all feel good about it in the formal vote, or you just all say that looks good. I think, Paula, you all this annual report has 2 letters. There's 1 from the superintendent and then one from the Bprc. Correct. So it's it's an important part, and it's, I think, a good way the public sees that an oversight body reviewed this as well. So yeah, it's an important letter. Yeah. So I would like to get that out.
SPR Boardroom: And then, yeah, we'll have. We should definitely allocate some time for discussion
SPR Boardroom: on that and any comments and feedback. So the schedule is actually quite tight. And Ryan, I can look into whether or not a recommendation letter from the chair specifically requires a vote under our procedures. Yeah, please let me know. So Justin asked me to put together just a quick summary of remarks on what we've been doing. The reason I got chosen is I was the last one called
SPR Boardroom: I wrote it out just so I wouldn't miss stuff. So our subcommittee consists of 4 Commissioners, Ryan, Tricia, Diamond, Philip Meng, and myself.
SPR Boardroom: We're supported by our strategic advisors, Justin and also Shanika Mcelroy.
SPR Boardroom: and we're tasked with both, providing a 1st look at the annual report and the Intro letter on behalf of Bprc. And then getting a deeper dive into the Spr's data practices. The 24 results, 2024 results to help ensure that the annual report's comprehensive and accurate summary of Park's achievements and its challenges over the last year.
SPR Boardroom: So before he met for the 1st time, Justin shared a
SPR Boardroom: video and orientation video that provided some historical detail on how the parks budget is put together, and why and how it's changed over time, and how to analyze the dashboards. The dashboards are available all year, but they're actually only updated twice, once at Midyear with midyear results and then once with full year results usually in March, I guess, but they're available for the public to see at any time.
SPR Boardroom: So then we had 2 actual meetings we met on March 13.th We reviewed the public dashboards at that point. They just had the Midyear 2024 data, and we reviewed elements of the 6 year Cycle, 2 parks district funding
SPR Boardroom: Shawnee. Nika gave us a presentation on how to view performance analysis through an equity lens which was helpful. And then we heard more about how data that shows up in the annual report and in the dashboards is actually collected and plugged in
SPR Boardroom: to to that import to that dashboard. So from that one we had a couple of kind of highlights, a lot of the parks data regarding program participation and the number of satellites served does come directly from the software used for registration or attendance. So it's quite accurate and pretty reliable. But there are still a number of programs that rely on manual reporting
SPR Boardroom: of activities and results. So the you know, manager or the lead at the end of the day is supposed to tally up how many visitors they had, and send it off to somebody, you know, records it. So obviously, that's less accurate. Typically and the parts continues to work on getting more automation into the system so that the data is just more trustworthy.
SPR Boardroom: This next part's potentially a little confusing. But proceed with.
SPR Boardroom: So the budget's adopted by the city council.
SPR Boardroom: and it's set at what's called the budget control level.
SPR Boardroom: So, to be more transparent, parks
SPR Boardroom: presents their planning and reporting, using a line of business approach, and under every line of business. There are multiple detailed lines of business or dloes. So some examples of that is, there'll be a recreation facilities line of business, and under that you'll find a community centers detail line. You'll find an aquatics detail line. So you have sort of that operational line that rolls up into these umbrellas just for ease of
SPR Boardroom: aggregating. Really, another one is under capital development line of business. You'll have new park development as a detail line and maybe community center redevelopment as another detailed line with its own budget, in many cases its own goals as well.
SPR Boardroom: So then, our next meeting, April 3, rd we're joined by Amy Williams, who's Spr's budget manager. At that time we had the full 2024 results in the dashboard, and Justin and Amy were able to give us some context and color on the end of year report. So we started to identify some themes of what
SPR Boardroom: really drove some of the results that we saw. We helped Justin and his staff identify some of the highlights to talk about the annual report, some of the struggles both to talk to, but then also to maybe dive a little bit deeper. Do some further investigation.
SPR Boardroom: and those findings will inform the letter that you guys will see next time, and then hopefully inform the annual report as well. I think the teams are very receptive to our request for more data or suggestions, which is great. So some of the initial themes we identified were.
SPR Boardroom: that improvements in reporting and data collection are providing clearer insights into parks, utilization and engagement, and in some cases show a greater capacity and opportunity than was previously thought. So we were kind of undercounting, let's say, the number of annual hours that were, you know, planned by the planning office.
SPR Boardroom: saw some promising results from the care team, the concierge presence in parks and the increased range of capacity.
SPR Boardroom: We talked a lot about some complexity in forecasting and budgeting in 24, due to citywide wage increases and some market salary adjustments that were required at the city level. That's why some departments kept a few positions open because
SPR Boardroom: they weren't really sure what their actual salary line item was going to look like at the end of the year, because it was still being negotiated through this citywide agreement. So if you can imagine, if you're a manager of a detailed line of business that makes it quite challenging. You don't really know what you're going to spend at the end of the year. So you kind of hedge a little bit, and maybe you don't hire 2 people as part of that hedge.
SPR Boardroom: and then solid progress for the second 2 goals may not always be apparent when looking at the dashboard because of the multi-year nature of a lot of these projects that will change as we get closer to the end. But you know, as Justin noted, no bathrooms were renovated in 23, because that money was newly allocated. 23 was spent identifying which ones prioritizing, maybe starting some planning. But you know no money is being spent on actual refurbishment, but now it has started and it'll speed up in the next 2 years.
SPR Boardroom: Some areas we identified for deeper dives 2 examples. One is providing analysis of how the metrics time more closely to outcomes. So, for instance, we currently report on like the number of Ranger community hours. And there's a goal about the number of community engagement activities or citations they issue verbal or written. But what that doesn't talk to is like, well did the presidents of the Rangers program help reduce
SPR Boardroom: 9. 1. 1 calls to the parks incidents of vandalism, maintenance hours on the park, so kind of moving beyond, like, how much are the Rangers there? Did they really have an impact which hopefully will inform, you know, next year, when you go to? Should we increase or decrease that program, you'll really need that information to get there.
SPR Boardroom: And then, I think to be more transparent in the discussion with the Council and the public about how things like the hiring freeze and some budget adjustments impacted both the goal set. And then what was met
SPR Boardroom: and what goals are likely to be missed, or will need to be adjusted down. You know we should just be upfront. We thought we would have this kind of funding. Only this amount of funding was allocated. We only could hire 2 out of 6 people. So you'll see our program. Achievement was 20% of what we expected versus right now, you kind of see that 20% that stops there.
SPR Boardroom: If you're the public, you're kind of going. Why didn't we spend that money? Why did you deliver the services? So we look forward to finalizing the intro letter on behalf of all the Commissioners. We'll review that at May 20 second, and we can answer any questions you have. In the meantime, Ryan.
SPR Boardroom: I just want to say, I really, I think last year's subcommittee asked about 4 questions about 2023 performance, I think. These folks, you know.
SPR Boardroom: seeing you know, we look at the State all the time, we know. Oh, this one's down because of that or whatever. But so to see from your lens what looks funny, what looks great? You know what explanation you wanted about that? I think you know you are a
SPR Boardroom: well. It helps remind us to what the public, which is hence. Why, you're here. You all took parts of rent out of Scott and turned him into summer.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, thank you, guys, thank you
SPR Boardroom: to summarize it. So well. So we did have a last item here before we adjourn. We did have an item out on a survey for times. I don't know. Did you get specific responses or not? I got 6 out of 10 responses so far. And we can. We can talk about that if you'd like, or we can push that. Yeah, I'd actually prefer to have that as a discussion with a much larger group of folks. Honestly.
SPR Boardroom: yeah, I'll leave that open for now. Yeah, let's do that. And then next meeting just some quick housekeeping cleanup here.
SPR Boardroom: We're meeting.
SPR Boardroom: I think our subcommittees meeting on on May 8.th Is that right, Justin?
SPR Boardroom: No, no, okay, and then we're may 20. Second, we have the full board meeting.
SPR Boardroom: We'll get the letter out a week beforehand.
SPR Boardroom: and yeah, that'll be good. Hopefully, we have enough folks, and we can follow up on the meeting time here as well. So thank you. Everyone. Thank you. Presenters.
SPR Boardroom: thank you. Thank you.
Amman Haile-Leul: Thanks, everybody.