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Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 1 of 10
BOARD OF RECREATION AND PARKS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
July 25, 2007
CALL TO ORDER Administration Building of
Parks, Recreation and Community Services
888 W. Santa Ana Blvd.
Santa Ana, California
5:35 p.m.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE M. Madrid
ROLL CALL BOARD OF RECREATION AND PARKS
MEMBERS/STUDENT REPS PRESENT:
Frank Acosta, Tish Leon, Max Madrid, David Orea,
Julie Stroud, Wendy Tobiska, Juan Guadarrama
STAFF/CONSULTANTS PRESENT:
Gerardo Mouet, Executive Director
Ron Ono, Administrative Services Manager
Lorraine McCarty, Community Affairs Manager
Laura Sheedy, Assistant City Attorney
Katherine Bowers, Cable Consultant
Athena Martinez, Board Secretary
PRESENTATIONS
SPECIAL SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY PRESENTATION – July, 2007
Jack Oakes and Ha Nguyen were present to accept this award on behalf of Central County
ROP’s Ritchey Center.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH PRESENTATIONS – July and August, 2007
Amber Alva was present to accept the award for July.
Peggy Calvert was present to accept the award for August.
CONSENT CALENDAR
MOTION: T. Leon SECOND: J. Stroud
VOTE: AYES: Acosta, Leon, Madrid, Orea, Stroud, Tobiska (6)
NOES: None (0)
ABSENT: (at voting) Havlik, Nguyen (2)
1. MINUTES
Approve Minutes of Regular Meeting held on June 27, 2007.
2. RECORDING SECRETARY’S REPORT
The July 25, 2007 agenda was posted on the doors of the Parks, Recreation and
Community Services Agency Headquarters office on July 18, 2007.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 2 of 10
3. ABSENCES
Excuse the absence of K. Nguyen.
** END OF CONSENT CALENDAR **
BUSINESS CALENDAR
NEW BUSINESS
1. MEMORIAL PARK CONCESSION STAND EXPANSION
Request for Board Action presented for discussion.
In 1979, City Council approved an agreement allowing Southwest Little League and
Santa Ana Pop Warner to build a concession and restroom building on the west side of
Memorial Park.
The 1979 agreement with both organizations has expired, and Santa Ana Pop Warner is
now requesting to expand the existing facility 25 feet to the south to add 500 square feet.
The expansion will be connected to the existing concession building and will end
approximately 10 feet away from an existing equipment building. Adequate exterior
lighting and a concrete walkway to the building will also be provided by Pop Warner.
This new improvement will be under a new agreement similar to the original agreement.
Santa Ana Pop Warner will be responsible for all construction costs and for all volunteer
labor for the building expansion.
The term of the new agreement will be for five years and automatically renewed unless
terminated by either party.
This request went before the Memorial Park Neighborhood Association on July 20, 2007
and was approved as long as sufficient lighting of the area was included in the
expansion.
Staff recommends approval of this request.
Q&A
Q: Why leave a 10-foot gap between the two existing buildings? Why not connect them?
A: Connecting the two buildings would create a barrier to access the sports field and would
also create a roof drainage issue on the equipment building.
Q: What would deter negative activity from occurring in the narrow walkway between both
buildings?
A: The wide walkway will be the main access to the field and concession building, which
would deter any negative activity due to heavy foot traffic, in addition, the existing
buildings are staggered, so the length of the walkway between buildings would be a
short span.
Q: What materials will be used for the walkway? What will the brightness of the light pole
be?
A: The wide walkway will be made of concrete, and the lighting will be increased above the
standards required by Santa Ana Police Department.
Q: Is this expansion solely for the benefit of Pop Warner or the Little League?
A: This request was initiated by Pop Warner to increase storage. Little League elected not
to participate in this request. Once the project is complete, Pop Warner will be
responsible for its use and maintenance. Should the City request use of that facility, it
will be made available provided sufficient notice is given.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 3 of 10
(W. Tobiska left at 6:00 p.m.)
Q: Could “no additional additions” be a clause of the new agreement?
A: There will be verbiage indicating that changes or additions will require City approval.
Motion to recommend to Council that this project be approved as long as concerns listed in
these minutes are noted.
MOTION: T. Leon SECOND: M. Madrid
VOTE: AYES: Acosta, Leon, Madrid, Orea, Stroud, (5)
NOES: None (0)
ABSENT: (at voting) Havlik, Nguyen, Tobiska (3)
2. ADAMS PARK METRO PCS LEASE AGREEMENT
On July 6, 2004, City Council approved a lease agreement with Sprint PCS to install a
65-foot monopine cell antenna, equipment facility, a picnic shelter and to plant three
trees at Adams Park. The tower was constructed to receive a second carrier at a later
date. The revenue from Sprint PCS for this cell tower would be deposited into a special
account designated for improvements to Adams Park.
Metro PCS has agreed to collocate on the existing Sprint cell tower, and will be
constructing an equipment building to the east of the cell tower, a new picnic shelter to
match the existing picnic shelter, a concrete walkway adjacent to the existing play
equipment and the planting of one 36” box tree.
This item was presented to the Board on January 24, 2007. The item was continued
until the terms of the cost of the lease between Sprint PCS and Metro PCS could be
mutually agreed upon.
Metro PCS indicated that in order for this lease arrangement to be feasible for the
company to collocate on this cell site the lease payment to the City needed to be
reduced to $1,000 per month.
The City’s consultant (ATS Communications) will receive 20%, or $200.00, per month of
the revenue for their assistance with the negotiations and construction administration of
this lease agreement. The remaining 80%, or $800.00 per month, will be paid to the City
and deposited into the General Fund.
The collocation proposal was presented to the Adams/Centennial Park Neighborhood
Association on December 12, 2006, at which time residents indicated that the revenue
from the new Metro PCS lease should also be used for improvements to Adams Park.
Q&A
Q: Why would the money for the Metro PCS agreement go to the General Fund and not into
the special fund for the specific park as does the revenue for the Sprint PCS agreement?
A: The Board may recommend that this be the case as well.
Q: Why does the City have a consultant to do this work and why is it not done by staff?
A: In the past, cell providers would approach various City Agencies based on the location of
the proposed installation. As cell towers are a good revenue source, the City decided to
hire a consultant to actively pursue cell service providers on behalf of the entire City.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 4 of 10
Q: Could three trees be planted instead of only one?
A: Three trees were already planted by Sprint. Only one large tree is needed to
compliment the improvement.
Public Comments
Rick Neidermayer, AYSO Youth Soccer Organization
AYSO utilizes Adams Park on a regular basis.
As a user of the park, sees no problem with the cell towers as they look like real trees.
Does not recommend that three trees be planted as this would eliminate much needed
athletic field space which is used by soccer, volleyball and other recreational users.
Motion to recommend to Council to approve the collocation of Metro PCS on the existing cell
tower with the condition that the revenues generated by the Metro PCS lease be deposited into
the special fund for Adams Park.
MOTION: J. Stroud SECOND: T. Leon
VOTE: AYES: Acosta, Leon, Madrid, Orea, Stroud (5)
NOES: None (0)
ABSENT: (at voting) Havlik, Nguyen, Tobiska (3)
3. STADIUM PROGRAMMING
A handout summarizing the recent Request for Proposal to provide a Santa Ana Youth
Soccer Player Development and Community Outreach Program (RFP) at the Santa Ana
Stadium was distributed and discussed.
On April 18, 2005, the Mayor and Council approved an agreement with Toros (a non-
profit soccer club organization) which promised: to serve Santa Ana youth at no charge;
to develop participants as competitive soccer players; to provide participants with
educational support so that they would go on to college.
The Toros program was in effect for two years, however, due to their inability to fulfill
their commitments to the City, the agreement was terminated on June 18, 2007.
When it became evident that the Toros program would be terminated, a second effort to
identify another non-profit player development program began in the spring of 2007.
The terms of the new agreement would include that the soccer organization selected
would receive home field rights of the Santa Ana Stadium, granting priority use to this
organization for practices and games. This strategy would compliment the Stadium’s
regular and expanded use for football, soccer and special events, and would represent a
very small percentage of the scheduled use of the Stadium.
Unlike the Toros agreement, the RFP process was used to select a non-profit soccer
player development program.
The RFP was distributed to the nine existing Santa Ana youth soccer leagues on May
10, 2007, with a due date of June 6, 2007.
The RFP was discussed at a Committee on Field Usage (CoFU) meeting held on May
23, 2007, and an update was provided to the Board of Recreation and Parks on the
same day.
A copy of the RFP was circulated to the Parks, Recreation, Education and Youth (PREY)
Council Committee for review at its June 6, 2007 meeting.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 5 of 10
An RFP pre-proposal conference was held on May 23, 2007 to review and discuss in
detail the specifics of the RFP with all interested youth soccer organizations. Of the nine
organizations invited to attend, six were represented at the pre-proposal conference and
were; Boy Scouts of America Youth Soccer League, California Arsenal Soccer Club,
California Youth Soccer Club, ConquistAmerica Soccer Club, YDSP Santa Ana and
Futbol, USA, LLC.
Of the six organizations represented at the pre-proposal conference, only three
submitted a proposal in response to the RFP. One was disqualified due to the
organization’s inability to comply with the non-profit status requirement.
The two remaining proposals, which were from Boy Scouts of America and
ConquistAmerica, were evaluated by a five-member committee consisting of one
representative from the Community Development Agency, one representative from the
Library, and three representatives from the Parks, Recreation and Community Services
Agency. This evaluation occurred on June 14, 2007.
The evaluation committee recommended that ConquistAmerica Soccer Club be awarded
home field rights at the Stadium due to its exceptional ability to meet the athletic,
educational and community outreach requirements of the RFP.
All five members of the evaluation committee rated ConquistAmerica higher with an
overall rate of 459 points, compared to Boy Scouts of America rating at 320 points.
The approval of this agreement was on the July 2, 2007 Council Agenda but was
continued so that further review could be done by the Board of Recreation and Parks,
which occurred at this meeting and at the Special Meeting of the PREY Council
Committee, which will occur on July 30, 2007.
Bill Cook, Chairman and CEO of ConquistAmerica, was introduced to respond to any questions
from the Board and Public.
Q&A
Q: If ConquistAmerica will not be charging participants any fees, how can they provide all
they promise for free?
A: ConquistAmerica is a large multimillion dollar company, and the soccer club was
developed to provide a community service.
Q: How did Toros fail?
A: Upon review of rosters submitted by Toros, it became evident that Toros stopped
serving Santa Ana youth as most participants were from outside of Santa Ana. They
also were not able to deliver on support and advancement of education.
Q: While watching the replay of the July 2, 2007 Council Meeting, it was clear that other
soccer leagues were protesting the timeline of the RFP. Was this corrected?
A: Yes, there was concern with deadlines. The RFP due date had been extended to allow
leagues sufficient time to draft their proposals.
Q: Will a majority of ConquistAmerica participants be Santa Ana residents?
A: The rosters submitted by ConquistAmerica indicate that 98% of their participants are
Santa Ana youth.
Q: How many laptops will be provided? How much volunteering would be done?
A: Participants entering 11th grade in high school with a 2.5 GPA or higher would enter into
a lap-top agreement while in the program. The lap-tops remain the property of
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 6 of 10
ConquistAmerica and cannot be given to the participant in order to comply with CIF rules
and regulations.
Q: Why does the soccer club only serve male youth?
A: ConquistAmerica has two non-profit organizations – an education foundation and the
soccer club. The education foundation serves female youth and the soccer club serves
male youth. Through years of providing services through both organizations, it was
found that the education foundation engaged and held the attention of female youth
more easily and did not receive the same interest from male youth, as they had more
difficulty maintaining the required 2.5 GPA. The soccer club was developed for male
youth to provide more incentive and excitement about education. Aside from the
competitive soccer opportunities and the lap-top programs, ConquistAmerica also works
with Princeton Review to provide resources to prepare participants for college, beginning
in 9th grade. This additional service, which is provided at no cost to the participant,
would normally incur a fee of $5,000 to $10,000. The primary goal of the two
ConquistAmerica non-profit organizations is to further higher education opportunities for
Santa Ana youth.
Q: What occurs during the soccer clinics, as the RFP requires that four be conducted?
A: ConquistAmerica will provide professional expertise and will work with other soccer
organizations to assist with the development of players and coaches. The clinics would
be at the City’s discretion.
Q: What would the scheduling priority be of the Stadium if an organization is given home
field privilege?
A: ConquistAmerica has requested 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for
practice, and five hour slots on Saturdays and Sundays for games, clinics and extra
practices. During the SAUSD and SAC football season, priority would be given to the
high schools and college and ConquistAmerica would be accommodated elsewhere.
Q: Where do the ConquistAmerica coaches come from?
A: Many are professionals from Peru, throughout Europe and from Major League Soccer.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Rick Niedermayer, AYSO
Did not feel that sufficient time was given to respond to the RFP and to obtain non-profit
status to all youth soccer organizations when the RFP was released on May 10, 2007 with a
due date of May 28, 2007. Did appreciate the due date extension to June 6, 2007, but was
still not enough time.
AYSO met all the requirements of the RFP, but did not submit a proposal as AYSO was not
comfortable with the amount of volunteers it had to offer.
Soccer organizations were initially told that no practices would be allowed in the Stadium,
but as mentioned earlier, ConquistAmerica would be given two days a week for practice.
Recently visited the ConquistAmerica soccer club website and they are already listing Santa
Ana high schools and the Stadium as home fields. How can they be allowed to do this when
the agreement has not yet been approved by Council?
BOARD COMMENTS
F. Acosta
This is a very good program based on premise.
Wholly supports the selection of ConquistAmerica.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 7 of 10
T. Leon
Is in favor of the ConquistAmerica program.
Would like to see more programs like this that would benefit all the youth of the City.
D. Orea
Expressed his belief in the ConquistAmerica program.
J. Guadarrama, Student Representative
Very much in support of awarding the agreement to ConquistAmerica.
Stated that as a competitive youth soccer player himself, he has had to go outside of Santa
Ana to find similar programs and his family has had to pay a lot for him to do so.
J. Stroud
Program is a good one, but would like to see more than 55 participants served, considering
the 6,000 youth soccer players in Santa Ana based on the rosters submitted.
M. Madrid
Is not comfortable with only serving 55 youth, as there is a much greater need in Santa Ana
than that.
4. YOUTH MASTER PLAN
A handout summarizing the development of a Youth Master Plan was distributed and
discussed.
During the February 14, 2007 Council Retreat, the Agency was given the task to develop a
youth master plan.
Staff began to gather samples of master plans from other cities to begin research.
Due to the anticipated costs in developing a master plan as discovered by the samples
received from other cities, and due to current budget limitations, Executive Director Mouet
decided to develop the Santa Ana Youth Master Plan in phases, with the focus of the first
phase being recreation services, gang prevention and the fight against childhood obesity.
The process has begun with discussions at the monthly Youth Commission meetings, as
was also directed at the February 14, 2007 Council Retreat.
The City budget has appropriated $25,000 specifically for the Youth Master Plan.
The progress on the Youth Master Plan was presented at the June 6, 2007 PREY Council
Committee meeting.
Councilmember M. Martinez indicated that the plan be renamed Youth and Family Master
Plan.
A resolution declaring City Council commitment to be a catalyst for the positive development
of young people has been drafted and will go before City Council on August 20, 2007 for
adoption.
T. Leon, M. Madrid, J. Stroud
Expressed concern about adding the word Family to the plan as it becomes too broad and
open-ended.
Expressed concern about the lack of an education component.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 8 of 10
Q&A
Q: When does the work on writing the actual plan begin?
A: Discussion on the focus and direction of the plan have begun with the Youth
Commission, which will be geared to the core business of the Agency as it has been
given lead of this task.
5. BOARD ELECTIONS
Motion to elect T. Leon as Chair and F. Acosta as Vice Chair.
MOTION: M. Madrid SECOND: J. Stroud
VOTE: AYES: Acosta, Leon, Madrid, Orea, Stroud (5)
NOES: None (0)
ABSENT: (at voting) Havlik, Nguyen, Tobiska (3)
6. NOMINATIONS FOR SPECIAL SERVICE AWARD TO THE YOUTH AND COMMUNITY
OF SANTA ANA
Calvary Church of Santa Ana for a successful clean-up of Cabrillo Park on April 14, 2007,
and their continuous care of the park since then.
MOTION: M. Madrid SECOND: J. Stroud
VOTE: AYES: Acosta, Leon, Madrid, Orea, Stroud (5)
NOES: None (0)
ABSENT: (at voting) Havlik, Nguyen, Tobiska (3)
UPCOMING EVENTS
August 4: Antique and Classic Car Show at Portola Park from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
August 5: Sunset at the Zoo featuring the Rib Ribble Education Station dedication.
August 11: Madison Park Walk-a-Thon, Faire and Concert. Walk-a-Thon scheduled from
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Concert and Faire from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
August 11: Concert in the Park at Morrison Park. Table set up begins at 5:00 p.m. with
music from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
STATUS/UPDATES
1. COMMITTEE ON FIELD USE (CoFU) – No report.
2. OPEN SPACE COMMITTEE – No report.
3. SANTA ANA HEALTH AND FITNESS TASK FORCE – Committee discussing holding
meetings on a quarterly basis.
4. EVENTS AND PROGRAMS COMMITTEE – Discussed the marketing of events and would
like to have staff from Neighborhood Improvement attend a Board Meeting to do a
presentation and perhaps participate in committee meetings.
5. GRAFFITI/VANDALISM RESTITUTION – Full Time painter David Peña still out due to
illness. Agency has hired eight Part Time painters to complete work and they are doing very
well. Agency will get back to removing graffiti in parks within a 24-hour time frame.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 9 of 10
6. CABLE UPDATES
Time Warner is improving in customer service.
City will wait to review the outcome of this quarter before taking any action.
Time Warner has removed seven channels from their line up and have left “snow” on
these channels, which looks like an outage to subscribers. Will work with them to see if
something else can appear on these channels.
Testing being done this week.
Summer programming in progress.
Anti-graffiti campaign to cover recent logo competition.
7. COMMUNITY CONTACT REPORTS AND UPDATES – Reviewed.
8. PENDING ITEMS/ACTION ITEMS FOR FUTURE MEETINGS
Update from the July 12 ETAC meeting regarding the trees removed by the County in
the Riverbed.
Staff presentation on the recent improvements/projects being done at Santiago Park.
Request for a more welcoming entrance into Santiago Park when entering from the
Discovery Science Center side.
Update on City Manager’s site visit of the Concord/Cambridge Reservoir.
Windsor Park update.
Presentation by Neighborhood Improvement staff.
COMMENTS
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Barbara LeMere
Would like to see roster requirements stating Santa Ana residents being served raised to
90% from the current 51%.
Questioned that the majority of the 6,000 youth soccer participants are from within Santa
Ana.
Stated that Windsor Park looks like a “dust bowl” and there is currently no running water in
the park’s restrooms.
STAFF/CONSULTANT COMMENTS
G. Mouet
Madison Park Clean-up event went very well. Over 200 volunteers participated. Tillamook
had staff fly in from Oregon to participate and they provided all food and T-shirts for each
volunteer, as well as the vines that were planted. Tillamook has been an excellent
community partner.
Congratulatory comment received from Councilmember Tinajero. He had anticipated
problems this summer with all schools being out of session for the summer, but thanks to
the Agency for keeping the youth busy.
L. McCarty
The new electronic marquee at the Stadium has been installed on the southwest corner of
Flower Street and Civic Center Drive. The marquee should be working pretty soon. Donna
Schultze, Recreation Supervisor, will be in charge of the marquee.
K. Bowers
Pleased to see so much interest in soccer. As an avid player throughout her youth, feels
her participation in the sport was of great benefit.
Board of Recreation and Parks
Minutes of July 25, 2007 Meeting Page 10 of 10
BOARD COMMENTS
J. Stroud
Who is responsible for the Isaac Walton Building? Staff indicated it is under the Community
Development Agency.
Just returned from a visit to New Orleans, Louisiana where there were many nice walking
paths. Would be good to see these in Santa Ana parks.
Would like to receive information regarding when the aquatics season begins, when
recruitments begin for this program, and when and how training is done.
M. Madrid
There are approximately 1,200 runaway youth under 17 each year. Only one shelter in
Santa Ana, the next closest shelter is in Huntington Beach. We need to be aware of this
when considering programs for youth.
T. Leon
The Pio Pico softball tournament had a response of 14 teams in a short amount of time.
Why doesn’t the City have an adult softball league? What would be the procedure to get a
league started? Staff indicated that the proposed league would need to organize
themselves, then contact the Agency to comply with the reservation process and the
availability of fields would need to be determined.
How was the turnout for the lifeguard recruitments? Are all pools fully staffed? Staff
indicated that all pools are open and being programmed. Staff can provide the Board with
exact staff numbers.
F. Acosta
Thank you to the Board for accommodating his new work schedule.
Congratulated T. Leon on being elected as the new Board Chair and passed the gavel.
NEXT MEETING
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. in the large conference room of the Parks,
Recreation and Community Services Administration Building, located at 888 W. Santa Ana Blvd.
in Santa Ana, California.
Motion to adjourn meeting.
MOTION: M. Madrid SECOND: T. Leon
VOTE: AYES: Acosta, Leon, Madrid, Orea, Stroud (5)
NOES: None (0)
ABSENT: (at voting) Havlik, Nguyen, Tobiska (3)
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:17 P.M.
_____________________________
Athena Martinez
Recording Secretary