Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee

MINUTES Parks and Recreation Advisory Meeting Recreation Center October 01, 2015 Present Derek Benavides - Parks Chairperson Jerry Hatley - Member Tito Mata – Member Dillon Vanderford – Member Myrta I. Garcia - Member Damaris McGlone – Parks Director Cory Vander Veen – Assistant Parks Director Carlos Velica – Parks Staff Absent Anisa Gonzalez – Member 1) Meeting called to order by Parks Chairperson Mr. Derek Benavides at 12:02 p.m. 2) Approval of minutes • Minutes of last meeting (September 03, 2015) approved on a motion by Mr. Dillon Vanderford, seconded by Mr. Tito Mata, motion carried. 3) Chairperson’s Report • Comment on wanting to thank the Commissioner for appointing him to the Parks Advisory Board Committee. Also wanted to thank Parks Director Damaris for putting the By-laws for the Parks Advisory Board on the agenda for the City Commission to approve. Would also like to address the City Commission asking them for additional maintenance staff for the Parks department. • Reported that there were some goats roaming free at the Brownsville Sports Park, showed a video of the goats on his phone to the board members and said that they were non aggressive & friendly. He reported them to animal control, which came by to remove them. • Also reported of some power boxes at the Brownsville Sports Park that seem to have smoke coming out of them yesterday (September 30) by the wall near the main gate before you get to 3rd base. • Recommended on putting for the next Parks agenda an action item for a revolving schedule of having Parks Advisory board members attend City Commission meetings and voice their opinions & suggested to the Commission.  • Wanted to know if citizens had access to the restrooms at the Brownsville Sports playground area. • Commented if the BOYSA organization was advertised on the city website or any other websites with information about their organization. Parks Director commented that on the Parks city website are Independent Leagues contact information listed. • Parks Chairperson wanted to know who was in charge of setting the prices at the Brownsville Tennis Center. Parks Director commented that the Brownsville Tennis Association was in charge of it. • Parks Chairperson Mr. Benavides and Board member Mr. Hatley wanted to know what stand do we have and what are the plans for the West Rail project trail. Parks Director commented that it belongs to the county and they will have a decision on what to do with the West Rail project trail. Board member Mrs. Garza suggested of making sure that have plenty of lights and security on the trail. • Parks Chairperson mentioned smoking issue at the park, no one in the stands smoking, only the players and coaches by the fields. Possible solution have Mr. Arellano BSP Superintendent send a simple email to the coaches explaining to them the rules, what actions would be taken and enforce. Board member Mrs. Garza agreed to let all the coaches know before we take the hard stand expressing concerns about staff. PARD Director iterated moving forward the Department is in process of implementing good practices and policies and will support enforcement in an appropriate manner. • Board member Mrs. Garza commented on the restrooms at Oliveira and Gonzalez Park really being in bad shape. Parks Director commented that she would address that issue with Parks Supervisors. 4) Discussion Period (15 minutes) • Board member Mr. Mata would like to discuss three issues; the first issue was having a group picture of the board committee and put it up on the city website. Parks Director commented that she had requested the last time an electronic photo of each board member with bio information, so she would be able to post it on the web page. The second one is becoming actively involved in the community, do a bike run from the court house to 511; to promote wellness and/or have a mother/daughter 1-1/2 mile walk and have a booth as well. Also have kayaking in our Resaca’s. Parks Director commented that there is a kayaking ordinance that she will discuss in the Director’s report. The last issue is having weight lifting activities and do a weight lifting event. Suggested of having a board member attend one of these activities. • Parks Chairperson would like to put on the Parks agenda for the next Parks Board meeting to vote on one special event and set a date on which board member would like to attend the events to represent the Parks Advisory Board Committee. Also put on the agenda to have a group photo taken of the Parks Advisory Board for the city website. • Parks Chairperson commended the Parks department on allowing small business to participate on city events and not just the city doing it. 5) Director’s Report (Damaris McGlone) • In-reference to kayaking in the Resaca’s, there will be at the next city commission meeting an agenda item on a kayaking ordinance to allow non-motorized crafts on our Resaca’s. Parks Chairperson commented that he would attend the next city commission meeting on October 06, 2015 and introduce himself to the city commission. • Commented that the new budget goes into effect on October 1st. Reported that 9 positions were approved by the city commission at the last meeting, 2 full-time Maintenance Workers I positions were approved for the Parks department, which plan to convert them into 6 part-time positions. • Gave a brief report on attending a Texas Municipal League (TML) Conference recently in San Antonio, Texas. Reported the Texas Parks and Wildlife has grants, one in particular is the Indoor Recreation grant which is $5,000 & under match with the deadline of October 1, 2016. We have a year to apply for that grant. • Last city commission meeting the Parks Advisory Board By-laws and Parks Master Plan were approved. Would like to put on the Parks agenda for the next meeting, what top priorities the Parks Advisory Board Committee wants to have a role on the Parks Master Plan. • Reported a couple of vacancies, one is the Golf Course Coordinator position at the Golf Center and the other one is the Parks Operations Manager position for the Parks department. • Cyclobia will be having an event on November 01, 2015 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m... Will forward the Board members the schedule of the cyclobia meetings if anyone is interested in attending and participating in there events. • Board member Mr. Hatley commented that the parking lot at Monte Bella has a lot of pot holes, who would be in charge of patching them up. Parks Director said she would contact Public Works on this issue. • Board member Mrs. Garza had some concern issues on umpiring and officials not getting paid on time. Parks Director commented that some of the issues were not having the proper documentation such as W-9 forms fill out, having the correct information forward to the Finance department. Hopefully those issues have been resolved. • Reported that on November 07 the City Manager will be hosting the City Manager’s Golf Tournament at the Golf Center. • Will email out a flyer to the board members with the Halloween events for this month 7) Public Comment Period • Parks Chairperson wanted to commend management on the umpires at the Brownsville Sports Park. All the softball games are scheduled with two umpires, which helps the games, run more smoothly as to in the past where some games they only had one umpire officiating the game. The attitudes are awesome. Parks Chairperson Mr. Benavides motions to close public comment period, seconded by Mrs. Myrta Garza, motion carried. 8) Adjournment – meeting was adjourned at 1:09 p.m.