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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 04/24/1996Call Meeting to Order: The regular meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m. by President Diane Thies. Agenda Review and Items of Note: No changes were made to the printed agenda. Approval of Minutes: On a motion by Marilyn Barnes, seconded by Rebecca Chavez, the Board unanimously (8-0) approved the minutes of the regular meeting of March 27, 1996. Citizen Participation: There was no citizen participation. Capital Improvement Plan Marty Heffernan gave the Board some guidance as requested on the Capital Improvement Plan. He explained the time lines and said that the project information sheets for the next 20 years will be distributed to the Board within the next month for their review. This will be the basis for their planning. May to August 31 will be spent reviewing projects and obtaining public input. The Board's first goal is to prioritize by preference. The Board will then conduct public outreach meetings and promote projects to council and citizens and recruit citizens who have an interest to present views to council members. Council will then decide how projects will be prioritized (with consideration of information and input from boards and citizens). Council will determine what the ballot will consist of (one question versus many questions), the legality of single subject issue and the amount of tax sought. Multiple choice ballots were briefly reviewed. Council will review whether to renew two one -quarter cent taxes for street maintenance and natural areas. The Board's role during that time is to give input to council on the best ideas. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes April 24, 1996 Page 2 From November through April, Council will have decided on priorities and the Board's role will be to promote the Parks and Recreation projects selected and the total package. In February, the final ballot will be adopted for election in April. Sylvia asked about the public outreach program and can the Board make presentations to various groups? Marty replied that once the ballot language is set, staff can't promote projects so the promotion would be up to the Boards at that time. However, interested groups can form a political action committee and this depends on how involved the Board wants to get. Jean Helburg explained that during Choices 95, staff made presentations. Marty said until ballot language gets set, staff can promote as it is viewed as public education, but once council makes decision on ballot, staff has to step out of the process. Sylvia asked if staff could give advice and suggestions? Marty said yes, prior to November. Jessica asked who decided the Board was best to promote projects? Marty explained that the Choices 95 group made assessments of previous actions and determined what actually worked best, and suggested the City's Board and Commissions would be the best way to market these projects. The same model will be used throughout the City organization. Diane asked how many meetings will it take to prioritize list? Marty said to plan on extra meetings or be able to prepare at home and come together for final decisions. Board members have different interests and will be promoting different items. If Board has projects and ideas not on Est, how long will that take? Marty thinks it might take an extra meeting or two depending on how quickly priorities can be set, how much discussion is needed, and what is accomplished through the public outreach meetings. Sylvia said the City of Loveland had an effective method. They had displays set up around town and received 1,400 responses where the City of Fort Collins had 14 meetings and only had 150 people participate. Jessica asked how successful are neighborhood meetings held by Ann Azari? Marilyn asked if there can be a 24-hour voice mail where people can make voice choice as well as an E-mail location for input. Marty reviewed public outreach process and if board wishes to have more than planned, discussion can start at that time. Jean works with senior advisory board and they would also need to be involved. Marty, added, however, the Parks and Recreation Board is the lead board on all Parks and Recreation capital improvement projects and has final decision, but should still solicit feedback from other advisory boards. Diane asked when prioritizing projects, is there an ultimate number staff has in mind? Jessica said the Board members will want to promote their priorities and there has to be unity from the board, and show united front on the "top 10" projects. Sylvia asked what happens to other 40 projects if only 10 are presented. Jean said keep in mind that these projects are over 20 year period. Each department will prioritize their lists and then Parks and Recreation Board can review all these lists and determine what is important. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes April24, 1996 Page 3 Marty said what will be important is to review the top 20% of projects as they will have the most likelihood of financing approval. Most will not have a chance of receiving funding. Marty said the Board can make presentations to service clubs. Also, discussion has been to produce a video, explaining the process we have gone through, what is on the ballot, what is community benefit, and when is election. Video will be available for checkout from video stores and library and then have number where citizens can call back with ideas. Given the amount of information and type of feedback we need, the Loveland idea and suggestion was something that might work. Council is concerned about having plenty of public outreach. Marilyn said the models Sylvia has mentioned could probably be produced with using industrial arts departments of schools for publicity and distribution could probably be accomplished by using weekenders program. Maybe use concerts in old town this summer as chance for public contact/outreach. Rich asked if we can add inserts in utility bills? Jean replied timing is difficult as bills are sent out all month long and received at different intervals. Jessica said in her marketing experience, she has sent hundreds of flyers and received not one positive response. There is a fear of spend excessive time on preparation and not get public response, and the best is to contact public groups. Diane asked if it is possible to have booths at City Park on July 4? Marilyn suggested putting projects on a portable display. Sylvia thinks this would be a great idea for events at City Park. Jessica agrees that these projects need to go where people are going to be. Marty added sometimes it is a good idea to have people just write their name down that they heard presentation. Jessica said public outreach is difficult thing to do as you can lead horse to water, but how do you get people to pay attention to your information. Marilyn suggested distribution of material with children at schools. Diane suggested brainstorming ideas on our own and bring back them to the next meeting. Jessica suggested having a PSA on Channel 14. Rebecca asked if flyers are used, do we need corporate sponsors to pay for this? Marty said this depends on timing and the latter part of process is where we can't spend City resources. He added a couple of points of information. Staff will prepare two surveys to test citizen tax tolerance, and get feel for general issues. Further down the road there will be a survey with more specific questions to determine what citizens may be more likely to approve. Sylvia asked if it is possible to ask Dennie LaRue to come to the next meeting and give us a couple ideas on how to present ideas. Roger said once we get general ideas outlined, we just need to be convincing, and it is not entirely the Board's job to sell the full package. Marty said citizen advocates can be extremely helpful. He suggest two things: think about material and then give some thought on other ways to reach public. Hopefully, at the next meeting, Board members can make some decisions. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes April24, 1996 Page 4 Marty then moved on to the prioritization criteria. Staff will provide information on each project and will probably inundate the Board with information and will also give downside of not doing project - one question that will be asked is do we have a facility like this and do we still have a need for another and whether or not this project is supported by the Parks and Recreation Policy Plan? Can project be built using other funding sources? Is there an opportunity to share project costs? What are the other barriers such as public opposition? Jessica feels there is a need for a full-time marketing person to accomplish this project. Sylvia said once there is special interest groups involved, they will be out there supporting/promoting. Mike Powers said we have advantage over others as soccer players will be supporting soccer fields, Ekes idea of using facilities to get word out. Through Choices 95, which was a similar process, one - quarter cent sales tax generated $8,800,000. The community did really well with less of an effort than what is being discussed now. Marilyn likes the idea of getting signatures that can be shown to Council showing who had received information. Diane said information can be there and it is not necessary to have board members staffing a booth. Rich suggested attaching something to all registrations, information in the Recreator, information to home owners associations. From this suggestion, Board members started getting quite a few additional ideas which will be easy ways to get the word out as these avenues are already in place. Discussion continued on different ways to communicate these programs and ideas and need was felt to access all avenues, i.e., mass media, e-mail, and direct mail. Marty said he is hearing conflicting ideas asking for clarification suggestions being discussed will probably work better during sales pitch time and City staff will not be available at that time, need resources to fall back on at that time. Marilyn does not believe the open house will accomplish input. Marty said Council was very explicit that these be held and if we don't do this, we need to come up with alternatives. Roger added an open house works well for certain types of groups. Roger added once things are started, we will probably get interest groups coming to us asking for individual sessions and we need to start thinking how we will deal with these requests. 1997 ON Budeet Pr Mike Powers referred to a memo from City Council asking for budget item input from boards. He presented a list that was prepared by staff: new street standards, Forestry will be looking for funds, youth employment, English Ranch Park, Gateway Park (water treatment plant) and stated this is for 1997 outside of capital budget. Roger said he would still like to see updated trail action plan and asked what are next segments -- list of segments of trail that would logically be built and would like to see this broken down into $200,000 increments. Diane asked if there is enough funding for the recreational therapist. Jean would like to add another Parks and Recreation Board Minutes April 24, 1996 Page 5 staff person. Diane said the wheelchair accessible picnic tables and future planning needs to be included in these facilities. After much discussion, the Board agreed that they didn't have any additional budget requests other than what staff is presenting in their normal budget requests. Roger Tartan asked about non-residents fees to pay for some of Fort Collins facilities through fees and charges. Mike said there has been discussion that we are undercharging. Council asked us to do analysis on fees and profit, and are we undercharging. However, statistics show that there isn't enough impact. Mary Ness feels it is important that the City's fields can be reserved for $10/hour, however tournament rent of fields at $30/hour gives the message that tournaments are not welcome. Jean said Council appears to feel these people should pay top dollar for use of Fort Collins fields. Mary still feels people are contributing to softball fields through sales taxes, and tournament registration. Mike explained the LOCO Legacy Grant that we submitted along with other Northern Colorado communities that could generate $7,000,000 to $10,000,000. He said the GOCO Committee reviewed projects and will bring these results to the Parks and Recreation Board. Rebecca commented that the Larry walker fields are under construction.. Jessica asked about Portner Reservoir. Marty responded that it will be filled slowly so the wetlands are not washed out. He added that the developer is hoping that it is filled prior to the Parade of Homes. Most of commitments the developer has made are already accomplished. Adjournment A motion to adjourn the Parks and Recreation Board meeting was made by Mary Ness and seconded by Marilyn Barnes. The motion was approved (8:0) and the Parks and Recreation Board meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alyce Nierman Parks and Recreation Board Minutes April24, 1996 Page 6 Meeting Attendance MUMiiilii Diane Thies Marilyn Barnes Rebecca Chavez Sylvia Crammer Rich Feller Jessica MacMillan Mary Ness Roger Tarum Staff Marty Heffernan Mike Powers Jean Helburg Alyce Nierman