Wednesday, March 28, 2007

CM PRESS # 112


REPORT FROM THE JOINT CITY COUNCIL/PARKS AND RECREATION STUDY SESSION MEETING OF 3/27/07

PASSIVE PARKS

At a recent Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, the CM PRESS asked the PRC why no action had been taken on the City Council's direction to staff to bring a report to the PRC so that the PRC could take action on making Paularino Park and similar passive parks safe for those who wish to use them for passive purposes.

The PRC then asked staff about this. Staff replied that they had not received direction from the City Council so they weren't doing anything at all.

This didn't comport with the CM PRESS's memory or that of at least one member of the PRC or with the memory of a couple of City Councilpeople. All of us had thought direction had been given and that staff was working on making passive parks safe.

The City Council then had the minutes of past City Council meetings searched, and it was discovered that there was, in fact, direction given to staff.

This miscommunication, if that's what it was, is apparently part of the reason why the City Council called this joint study session meeting of the City Council and the PRC yesterday.

At this meeting yesterday, there appeared to us to be an undercurrent of frustration coming from several City Council members, not only about this passive park matter, but also on other matters relating to parks and playing fields.

Mayor Mansoor cut through the BS at one point and told staff to "Take action on making parks passive or not and have the PRC take a vote on it and do it."

On another point, Councilmember Foley asked staff to explain how something fell through the cracks.

Ms. Foley also told staff that various concept plans need clear time lines. She said that one project was supposed to be done by September of last year but "we're now in March and it still isn't done."


SPORTS FIELDS

The major part of the discussion at the meeting was about finding sports fields. City Manager Allan Roeder advised the Council and the PRC that a lease had finally been drafted with the State of California leasing about five acres of land at Fairview Development Center to the City for five years, and that as soon as the lease was signed, which Mr. Roeder said should happen by the end of this week, the City would start getting the fields ready for sports activities such as soccer and football.

So far so good, but here come the problems as we see them.

PROBLEM 1: When Staff was asked when the fields would be ready for play, the answer was maybe in June of 2008. [About fourteen months!?]

PROBLEM 2: Staff also said that the city would probably use 2 of the 3 or 4 regulation fields on the five acres for the first two years "to let the state get to know our city." [Why not get them all on line ASAP? We're leasing 5 acres, let's use 5 acres.]

Maybe it's time for the City Manager and the City Council to take a look at the organization chart and other matters involved in these various and sundry park related matters and straighten out a few kinks.

It does appear that things are falling through the cracks and things are taking too long to do and that there don't appear to be clear timelines and that there are some some communication problems.

In our view, part of the problem is that oftentimes when City Council members or Parks and Recreation Commissioners "give direction" to staff, the way they do it is so casual sounding or the direction is so wrapped up in other conversations that some on staff may not think they're being given direction or that they're being asked to do something.

It also seems to us that we really do need a "can-do, will-do," attitude on the part of staff, so that things are not shoved to the bottom of the pile, but are handled as quickly and efficiently as possible. Not every job requires massive public meetings or the hiring of consultants or public surveys asking everyone who can be found their opinion of something. Some things, you can just do. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it.

Here, for your information, are the major staff members relating to various park matters.

Public Services Department directed by Bill Morris (714) 754-5343. This department handles many of the physical aspects of the parks. Bruce Hartley is the Maintenance Services Manager over parks, etc. (714) 754-5123.

Administrative Services Department directed by Stephan N. Mandoki (714) 754-5069. Under this department comes the Recreation Services Division headed by Jana Ransom.

WHAT THE CM PRESS WOULD DO

A Rolling Roll Out

1. We would not wait to completely finish all the fields before allowing play on them. Why take more than a year to do this? We would take one month and get one field up and running for soccer. It may be somewhat bare and rough, but we believe it will fill a needed demand. We would open it for play by the first week of May or sooner. We understand that much of the acreage is in fairly rough shape right now, but it is pretty flat and does not appear to be fourteen months rough.

Here's how we would proceed. If the lease is signed on Friday of this week, as indicated by Mr. Roeder, we would immediately call some of the people in charge of the soccer leagues and have them meet us on site Saturday morning at 7 a.m. We would walk off one soccer field and mark it with chalk. We would then ask these coaches and others to tell us what we need to do to make the field safe and playable (forget pretty) and what the soccer leagues can do to help. We would then immediately begin work.

We'd bet you dollars to donuts that in a month we'd have people on that field playing soccer. And isn't the goal to provide fields ASAP rather than beautiful fields? Function first, appearance second.

2. At the same time, we would be working on the other fields to bring them on line in more of a finished first class state. As soon as we get one up and ready for play, we'd close down the rough field, if necessary, and bring it up to a first class state.
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PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING TONIGHT, 3/28/07, 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers.

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