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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Parks and Human Services - 11/24/2015 Parks and Human Services Committee Meeting Minutes Council members: Brenda Fincher • Dennis Higgins • Deborah Ranniger, Chair Jeff Watling, Director Special Meeting - November 24, 2015 - 5:00 p.m. 1. Call to Order: Committee Chair Debbie Ranniger called the meeting to order at 5:09 p.m. 2. Roll Call: Committee members Brenda Fincher and Dennis Higgins were present. 3. Changes to Agenda: No changes to the agenda. 4. Approval of Minutes: Committee member Fincher MOVED to approve the minutes dated October 22, 2015. Committee member Higgins SECONDED. The motion PASSED 3-0. S. Cultural Communities Board — INFO Dinah Wilson, Housing and Human Services Planner, presented a draft of the Cultural Communities Board Ordinance that replaces the current Diversity Advisory Board Ordinance. She conveyed that staff is requesting input from the Parks Committee before finalizing the ordinance. It is scheduled for recommendation at the Operations Committee meeting on December 1 and on to Council for approval on December 8. Mayor Cooke joined the committee at the table. The Diversity Advisory Board was first introduced in 1998 to assist the city in promoting cultural diversity through community engagement and participation. The Board counseled the Mayor on community outreach, hiring practices, policing, budget, communications, transportation and other city activities. In 2008, the Mayor announced transitioning the Diversity Board to the Mayor's Advisory Board, a more fluid, expanded version of the Diversity Advisory Board. Council and staff put forward efforts to address community cultural issues and in 2014, the Advisory Board transitioned into a "Cultural Communities Conversations Council." This action merged with the "Community Engagement Initiative" that is currently managed through a consultant and funded in the 2015/2016 budget. As part of this initiative, the Mayor proposed amending the code to officially disband the Diversity Board and establish a new Cultural Communities Board. The role of the Board would be to facilitate communication and understanding among city government leaders, residents and diverse cultures with the objective of increasing civic Page 1 engagement by and with Kent's diverse cultural and ethnic communities. Dinah Wilson was designated as the lead in this initiative. Ranniger asked for a summary of the difference between this Board and the Diversity Board. Mayor Cooke explained that the Board became unsatisfied and frustrated due to lack of action. It was set up as advisory and not connected to City Council or City Administration. The Mayor then assembled the Mayor's Advisory Team in its place. The team worked for a while, but it too was found to be too loose. Since then, lots of energy has been spent trying to understand all of the new diversity in Kent. The city's goal is to engage the whole community. One year terms are suggested so membership rotates and maintains a broad base of input. This is not a business based group, it's for the residents. The Mayor wants to start discussions from representatives of Kent's numerous cultures to help develop the leadership on a community-wide basis. Chair Ranniger voiced here concern for the name. She's concerned that it sounds like an event planning group. Her hope is to have "courageous conversations" to better embrace the vast cultural community. She wants to make sure it's taken seriously and not misunderstood. She wants to see that it has a budget to create ongoing impact so there is an opportunity to do something significant in the community. Committee member Fincher asked for budget designation for the Board. Racial instances still occur because bias is everywhere and will always be there. Ongoing discussion and training will help us be aware and help to move past the bias to build a stronger Kent. Committee member Higgins commented that he likes this restructuring proposal and would prefer to revisit the proposed one-year terms. He feels it will be ok initially, but there will be lots of work to do with one year terms. He is happy to raise the budget issue and encourages an educational component. He referenced the Parent Academy for Student Achievement (PASA) model through the Kent School District. It has an educational component on how to navigate city government, how to register to vote, etc. The city could potentially partner with PASA to provide classes that could cover more city issues, or the city could offer accessible educational sessions to make sure we are engaging with the entire community. Higgins noted that that Kent is distinguished as one of the most diverse cities. Mayor Cooke clarified that Kent is tied for seventh as the city with the most diversity in America. Committee member Fincher asked about the application process. Dinah responded that it is fair to have an application process and use every communication tool that is available to broaden this initiative throughout the community. Social media, community events, and the Kent Reporter will be utilized. Contacts through organizations such as Mother Africa, KBAC and Kiwanis Clubs will be pursued to help spread the word. Mayor Cooke added Page 2 that the city has been diligently compiling lists of contact information as well. She added that staff will keep Council updated on the contact list so they can fill in any potential gaps. The Mayor said the Board's name has been through about four iterations and it's still open for ideas. She has received comments from citizens that they want the title to include community and cultural. The Mayor requested input from the committee. Ranniger suggested letting the new group get established and having them decide on the name. Ranniger asked about next steps. Parks Director Watling responded that it will go to Operations Committee on December 1 and on to Council December 8. Committee member Fincher asked about the timeframe of meetings. Mayor Cooke anticipates the group to meet at least once a month and prefers that Council and staff rotate appointments on the Board. Chair Ranniger asked about the timeframe for soliciting applicants and launching the first meeting in 2016. Dinah commented that the conversation was launched on Nov 10. Getting the word out for applicants will take time. Watling added that it takes time to vet numerous applicants; it can take 3-5 months. After discussion, Mayor Cooke anticipates taking Board appointments to Council in April and holding the first meeting in June. Chair Ranniger commented that it would be helpful to lay out the goal and timeframe, as well as put some milestones together to help the Council visualize the overall plan. 6. Parks and Recreation Commission Update - INFO Parks Director Jeff Watling introduced Annie Saurwein, Chair and Zandria Michaud of the Parks and Recreation Commission. He commented that the Commission represents a broad representation of the Kent Community, and as staff starts delving into key strategic questions and the future of what parks and recreation services look like, the Commission will play a key role in that effort. Commissioner Saurwein reported that the Commission first met in January 2015 with sixteen very dedicated members, coming from all kinds of backgrounds and careers. Many are long time Kent residents. The Commission has been busy learning about the parks and recreation system through tours and staff presentations. They have done a substantial amount of self-directed learning through media reading and general learning on how the parks system works, how city government works, and how the city budgetary process works. They have been very impressed by the efficiency and efficacy of the Parks and Recreation Department. It is very evident they have produced a tremendous amount with very little and staff has done a Page 3 great job accessing grant funding to complete capital projects over the past several years. Commissioner Michaud reported that the Commission has been involved in several efforts this year with projects such as the Green River Levee, the Parks and Open Space Update, the parks fiscal sustainability and budget efforts, as well as actively following the city's budget. They look forward to seeing a budget that prioritizes parks and recreation. As part of the Parks and Open Space Plan update process the Commission will be reviewing potential opportunities for dedicated funding for parks and recreation however, the Commission wants to make sure that parks is receiving its fair share of existing capital funding. Their preliminary finding shows that the parks and recreation system is receiving a far smaller percentage of their capital ask than other departments. In fact, last year Parks received only 9% of their budget requests. Commissioner Saurwein appreciated the opportunity to be at the meeting and wants to make the conversations with Council to be as effective as possible. She feels the Commission would enjoy a quarterly opportunity to do so, but leave it up to the committee's judgment. Chair Ranniger responded that having quarterly updates and building it into the yearly agendas makes sense. Ranniger also said, spending a year learning the budget complexities and the low funding for parks infrastructure, puts the commission in a powerful place to add their voice in budget decisions. She feels there will be a bump in that this year. Big decisions will occur next year, being a new biennial year. Having the commission attend City Council meetings to voice their thoughts and ideas on the budget would be very valuable. Committee member Higgins thanked them for the report, all of their hard work in attending meetings, taking the tours, and reading the budget documents. He encouraged the commission to attend the Citizen's Financial Task Force meetings. The Task Force is on a time frame toward making recommendations to Council in May or June, and that will help to frame Council's budget decisions going into the fall. Some of the foundational work is going to be occurring in the next 3-4 months. This is an opportunity for the Commission to have an impact on that discussion. He concurred that Council has found it easier to short change parks during the budget process in the past several years more than most departments, and that is a situation Council cannot allow to continue. He is looking forward to changing that during the next biennial budget. Higgins referenced dedicated funding and asked the Commissioners for examples of what other cities are doing for opportunities on dedicated funding. Commissioner Saurwein responded that the most obvious thing is the huge connection between parks and livability; how it brings a lot of employers into to the community. She is seeing cities using B&O tax and dedicating it to parks because it is a flexible funding source. She also sees the possibility of a Page 4 Levy Lid Lift for parks specifically. She doesn't want the city to go into debt, because it's not an effective solution so she recommends avoiding UTGO Debt, or using Councilmatic debt capacity. More cities are taking on fee recovery, not just recreation fees, but using unique funding such as public easements and cell tower leases. This is best for small crowd sourcing projects under $100,000. These smaller projects are a great opportunity for the community to get involved in their neighborhood and it builds enthusiasm around parks funding. She felt fusing the mix of funding packages, as the city did with the Transportation and Parks Levy a few years ago, leaves the voters confused. They should be kept separate. She said the Commission hasn't had a huge opportunity to evaluate different funding sources, but they will be doing that as part of the Park Plan update. Committee member Fincher applauded the work done by the commission. She is grateful to hear how efficient the department has been. She saw examples of that during the park tours she was amazed to see what Park Operations is able to do with so little, such as extending the life of the synthetic turf at Wilson Playfields. In previous park tours, she looked at the parks on the surface. What she didn't notice, was the deterioration in our parks. She thanked the Commission for their report, their efforts and their recommendations in the future. 7. Parks and Open Space Plan Update — INFO Parks Director Watling thanked the committee for their support in creating a Commission. Because this is such strategic time for the department, it's timely to have a great reflective body of residents to help us with some big strategic thinking around our parks system. Watling presented milestones on the Parks and Open Space Plan update. The 2010 Parks and Open Space Plan was updated in the midst of a recession and a key pivot for the department. Four key themes from 2010 carry over to the present update. The focus of the 2010 plan was preserving Kent's legacy through redevelopment, recognizing an aging infrastructure, and reinvesting back into the park system. This led to a citizen advisory group and a lot of hard work taking an old park system and breathing new life into it. Green Kent was another key part of the plan; taking a heightened approach to volunteerism and how it is synonymous with how we steward our urban forest. Another core theme was connectivity and introducing how we can take ideas of urban connectivity into the suburban grid. An effective plan creates a call to action to get more work out of it. This plan is a call to action. Hope Gibson, Manager of Parks Planning and Development commended the Commission on the extensive learning this past year and how they are playing a substantive role in paving the way forward. A park plan continues our eligibility to RCO for funding. There has to be a park plan updated and adopted by June. There will be a draft plan ready for Page 5 review in December through January and the SEPA process goes through February. The plan needs to accomplish a lot, including public outreach. Staff and the consultant developed an online survey with almost 300 responses as well as a scientific survey last fall. A summary of the scientific survey result was recently completed and it will be shared with Council. Staff needs a level of community, commission and Council engagement to achieve the goals of this plan. The initial concept is to take care of what we have and make better use of what we have. With the new level of service (LOS) criteria, the approach is performance based, which is the most efficient for our current needs. With redevelopment, the focus will be on community needs by various region; to review each region and their specific needs, and to better access the performance of the parks basing the LOS on how well the parks are doing. Park classification is currently a standardized system that doesn't always fit each park. The goal is to better analyze each park and look at what we are providing, to look at the needs and wants of the community and plan how we can better reinvest into the system. Watling said this is pivotal work. The fundamental work of this plan will be to take an aging suburban park system from the 70's and 80's and reinvest in it and transform it into an urban park system that will serve the Kent of today and the next 20-30 years. Committee member Higgins asked about the timeline for committee preparation. Watling responded there will be workshops with the Commission and then draft plans the first three months of 2016, with a likely request for adoption in April/May. Watling also talked about scheduling one-on-one meetings with the committee to map out the agendas for 2016. S. Director's Report - INFO Watling spoke to Chair Ranniger's retirement. He thanked her for her service to Kent and spoke to her advocacy of parks, the arts, and place making. He appreciated working with her through good times and challenging times such as the recession. Ranniger said it has been a most enjoyable twelve years. She is pleased to have accomplished all that she set out to do. She hopes that, moving forward with the Parks and Open Space Plan update, the city pursues capital funding to implement what needs to be done and to someday create a regional park on the Huse Farm property on 132nd Page 6 Councilmember Higgins thanked Ranniger for all her work. He referenced all that he learned from her and spoke to her immense legacy. He enjoyed working with her and thanked her for all of the hard work she's put in for the city. Chair Ranniger said that the work is never done. She sees the groundwork she's helped to lay, but there's lots more to be done and more impacts to be made. She sees an exciting future ahead for Kent. Committee member Fincher appreciated Ranniger's accessibility and that she was always on the front line with justice and always ready to speak to diversity. Chair Ranniger adjourned her final Parks and Human Services Committee meeting at 6:18 p.m. Submitted: Ter, Pefva(z Teri Petrole Parks and Human Services Council Committee Recorder Page 7