Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee

MINUTES Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Recreation Center May 07, 2015 Present Leo Rosales – Parks Chairperson Derek Benavides – Members Tito Mata – Member Meri Heggie – Member Damaris McGlone – Interim Parks Director Carlos Velica – Parks Staff Absent Jerry L. Hatley – Member Anisa Gonzalez - Member 1) Meeting called to order by Parks Chairperson Leo Rosales at 12:14 p.m. 2) Approval of minutes • Minutes of last meeting (April 02, 2015) approved on a motion by Mrs. Meri Heggie, seconded by Mr. Tito Mata, motion carried. 3) Chairperson’s Report • Commented that he attended several kickball tournaments and was very disappointed by the Tip-O-Tex tournament held at Oliveira Park recently. Reason being due to a lot of vehicles parking on top of the grass. Also the youths are still kicking the balls into the fence causing damages to it, signage with rules needs to come down due to misspelled words and reworded correctly. • Interim Director commented if he had taken pictures? • Board member Mr. Benavides ask “who communicates to the league coaches and if the youths are being made aware of no kicking toward the fence is allow?” • Interim Parks Director commented “there were several issues with recent improvements at the Oliveira Park kickball area with the Tip-O-Tex organization proceeding with improvements without the Parks department authorization. I had a stern meeting with the president of the league and reminded them of the contract regulations.”  • Parks Chairperson suggested of having Interim Parks Director hand out a copy blank league contract to the board members, so they are able to review it and make any recommendations or changes to it. • Board member Mr. Mata commented that the president of Tip-O-Tex organization is under the assumption that Oliveira Park belongs to them. • Parks Chairperson commented that some of the parks that have concessions stands are being run by outside persons not by the leagues themselves and that the concessions stands should be run by the leagues only. Also wanted to know if there was security at parks during the day? Reason being that there was recently a fight posted on Facebook showing a couple of students fighting at Gonzalez Park. Damaris commented that only in the evenings and only certain parks have security, not all the parks. Have contacted Chief De Leon making sure the police security is patrolling the parks. Parks Chairperson suggested of having PARD and B.I.S.D. security getting together and having them perhaps patrol the parks as well. 4) Public Comment • Board Member Mr. Benavides commented that he was recently appointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission Committee. • Board Member Mr. Mata commented that he was asked to do a proposal by the Parks and Recreation department for the city weight room program he would like to start at the Recreation Center. Went over some of the do and don’ts, safety rules, procedures, guidelines, etc. Board member Mrs. Heggie wanted to clarify with Mr. Mata if someone was going to give classes and if they were experienced and also that we may have to reword some of the sentences, making sure it is carefully worded and understood by the participants. Mr. Mata commented that he was open to any suggestions and/or changes to the proposal and would gladly do the corrections. Mr. Mata also asked Interim Parks Director Damaris how soon he would be able to start the program, reason being that he would like to get it started by this summer. Interim Parks Director Damaris commented “there are some things that may have to take into consideration, starting with repairs at the Oliveira gym, the Parks department may have to look for other options with our summer programs starting next month as well, were not saying no to the program but we have to figure out something and plan it accordingly, you may have to share with the boxing facility for the time being.” • Parks Chairperson suggested to the board members to go over the proposal and come up with ideas and we’ll put it on the agenda for discussion for the next Parks Advisory Board meeting. • Parks Chairperson wanted the minutes to reflect for the record that we are losing a quorum. 5) Director’s Report • Gave a brief update on the KaBOOM playground “ Come support your park!” events, which was held on May 02 at various parks: Garfield Park, Central Avenue Park, Prax Orive, Jr. (Sunrise) Park and Monte Bella Trails Park. • Reported that the department is in the process of hiring summer help for the Summer Aquatics and Recreation programs. Have a lot of stuff going on with summer coming up. • Commented that advertising to repair the roofs at Oliveira & Gonzalez Centers will be advertised on Sunday, May 09 and hoping to get roofs repaired as soon as possible. • Also commented that the Parks department is currently doing an organizational restructure within the department. • Commented that the city wants to do an Adventure run at Monte Bella Park next year. • Reported that the Parks Operation Manager is still working on the issues at the dog park. • Working on lighting issues at the Brownsville Event Center that may need to be replaced as well as eroding banks along the Resaca’s at the Brownville Events Center and the Ringgold Civic Pavilion and will be addressing those issues. • Did discussed the Director position applications being reviewed by the board members with city management and they said not for the hiring process but they did say that this would be a good time for the board members to come up with some by-laws to put in place. 6) Discussion Period a. “Would the COB like to have our advisory board’s recommendation on the candidate to fill the Parks Director’s position? If so, we would like to review anonymous applications to make that recommendation. If not, please state a reason as the Advisory Committee strives to learn its purpose and gain direction.” (Derek Benavides) • Board member Mr. Benavides commented that he would like a clarification on whether or not the board would be able to give their recommendation on reviewing applications for the Parks Director’s position and if the answer is no, after reading the Parks ordinance, section 24-15, section C, which states “That said Committee shall serve as a fact finding and advisory body and make recommendations with reference to park management, etc.” The term park management and it does say fact finding to give advisory, then why would we not be able to make a recommendation and I would follow that with what is the basis of us not be able to not give advisory to a recommendation and what would be the cons to not giving advice.  • Interim Parks Director commented “that it’s not cons providing advice but when you get to a personnel reviewing even if you took off the names, by just looking at the qualifications and their experience it might be easy to tell who you might be reviewing. On the flip side is that the Parks board doesn’t deal with personnel issues and a disciplinary hearing, which Human Resources deals with all that and gives us recommendations and what we can and cannot do.” • Parks Chairperson commented that if he brought up some things we would like to do, is it going to get done? and would city commission take a looked at and decide if they are going to get it done or not consider it? • Damaris suggested the board members in attendance of setting top priorities of what they would like to tackle first for this year and perhaps set some goals on what things need to get done the next month. • Parks Chairperson recommends that all board members be notify to review all the links of what other board committees do and give their recommendations at the next Parks Advisory meeting. Also to notify all board that it is priority that they all are in attendance at the next meeting to discuss any recommendations and start assigning duties to each board member. • Reported that Mr. Ray Arellano, Recreation Events Coordinator has been named Interim Sports Park Superintendent. • Also Steve Hubanks, Parks and Golf Superintendent has retired and Tomas Gonzalez our Parks Maintenance Supervisor is currently overseeing the Golf Maintenance greens. 7) Adjournment – meeting was adjourned at 1:21 p.m.