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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-PRNR-2018-07-09 PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MINUTES PRESENT: Chair Roth Commissioners (6) Berry, Freyburger, Hoffman, Leventry, Moeller, Myers OTHERS PRESENT: Common Council Liaisons - Brock, Kerslick Financial Management Assistant - Swartz City Forester – Grace Deputy Youth Bureau Director – D’Alterio EXCUSED: Shelley Agenda Review: Monika Roth would like to switch the 6:15 PM CEQR Reviews with the Presentation from Schelley Michell-Nunn, so the CEQR Reviews will follow the Presentation. Review and Approval of Minutes: Daniel Hoffman would like the following changes made to the 6/11/18 minutes: Page 2, under environmental reviews – please add “part of” between involves and the golf course. Also add “land” in front of the word exchange. Page 3, After Bill Goodman’s name, add “Supervisor of the Town of Ithaca”. Page 3, near the bottom, The Community Garden paragraph, change Fall Creek to “the vicinity of Northside”. Michelle Courtney Berry made a motion to include comments she made to summarize input from city residents and city staff. These comments had not been included in the minutes. She also remarked that the city’s parks and natural areas are a key selling point for marketing this region, but we are consistently underfunding parks and recreation. We will need to look at this in the future. The discussion further evolved into the level of detail that is reflected in the minutes. The Administrative staff was advised by Dan Cogan to keep minutes concise and not a detail of every word spoken. Monika Roth mentioned that the topic of minutes was also raised at the Commission Chairs meeting where it was noted that some admin staff are taking very detailed notes and others are summarizing key points of discussion. The Administrative staff person will be more aware of what to keep in the minutes from her original notes from the meeting. Michelle Courtney Berry expressed further concern about the minutes. If Commissioners are speaking on behalf of residents as a way to give them more voice, it is important that comments made by Commissioners that reflect the concern of residents be in the minutes. Commissions were set up so that residents have a voice. Since the minutes are part of our permanent record, including Commissioner’s voices will be essential, lest it appear that we did not speak or contribute at meetings (due to any exclusion of our commentary). Date: July 9, 2018 Time: 6:00 PM Location: Common Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, City Hall Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission July 9, 2018 2 Also, Michelle noted that based on staff feedback, we need to address staff concerns that the city often does not have the resources, capacity, staffing, or even the time to supervise volunteers. If the Commissions increase public access and public demands of their municipality, yet we have limited resources, we will have to find a balance or compromise. Monika Roth will be more mindful of this as well when she is reviewing the minutes and asked that the above discussion be captured in these minutes. A motion was moved by Dan Hoffman and second by Ellen Leventry, to approve the minutes after the requested changes are made, all were in favor. Statements from the Public: Caleb Thomas, lives in the First W ard on S. Cayuga St. He has been organizing murals in the community for nine years, not as beautification, but to promote participatory democracy, getting people involved. He would like more community engagement with the parks to provide more of a draw for residents, including murals. Commission Response: The Commission thanked him for his work on the murals and comments made. Guest in the audience – Elizabeth Hageman, a resident in the Town of Ithaca and currently on the Town of Ithaca Conservation Board. Before the restructuring of the Commissions, a town conservation board member served as a liaison on the City Parks Commission. Elizabeth is at this meeting to observe, possibly volunteer with this commission and also to maintain communication between the Town and the City. Monika Roth has her contact information to share with the Commission. Dan Hoffman asked that the comments from the public, that come in by email or other forms of communication, be presented at the meetings, so they can be included in the minutes. Monika Roth is taking the responsibility to respond quickly back to the emails until the commission can discuss it. Perhaps a google document could be set up where contacts are cataloged and reviewed. Presentation: City Policy on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Schelley Michell-Nunn, HR Director and Sue Kittel, former City Employee and co-chair of the City Workforce Diversity. Reviewed City Mission, Vision & Value Statement and the City Diversity Statement. Discussed the Commission Structure, Inclusion and Equity. Each Commissioner was selected intentionally based on experience, interest and a diverse perspective. Michelle Courtney Berry discussed how the notion of color blindness, as often attributed to Dr. King is often misinterpreted as “not seeing color,” which was not King’s original intentions. To move forward with true diversity and inclusion, we must expect discomfort. On many Boards in this community, including this Commission, she is often the only person of color. The Commission discussed whether the location of the meetings might be in a more accessible location, as long as the public is aware of where it is. There is no restriction on where to have meetings. A more informal setting was suggested. No action taken. Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission July 9, 2018 3 Key Point made by presenters – inclusion does not occur naturally; it has to be intentional. We need to set up systems that foster inclusion. Schelley Michell-Nunn recommended working agreements which is a set of standards with how a group is going to work together. Working Agreements: - Participate fully - Speak for yourself/speak your own truth - Listen for understanding - Share the air time - Encourage others participation - Ask questions for clarification - Take risks - Support risk takers Recommended reading, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Tatum. Shelley Michell-Nunn thanked everyone for volunteering their time and having the passion to serve the city on this commission. CEQR Reviews: Scott Freyburger stated there was an email that was sent out on 7/8/18 by Tom Shelley, which summed up what was discussed in the subcommittee meeting. Tom Shelley regularly attends City project review meetings. Monika Roth recommended that we invite Nick Goldsmith, City Sustainability Coordinator, to a future meeting to learn about what he is working on. According to Cynthia Brock, a quick summary of the Morris Emerson Chain Works Project environmental review is that the developer is asking to have portions of it developed to residential standards and the DEC will be putting out an amended record of decision. This will direct the developer about the level of clean -up that will be required to meet the DEC residential standard. Once this comes out there will be a 45-day comment period. The recent comment period was about the Interim intermediate measures and clean-up of soil contamination. The amended record has to do with groundwater. A meeting at South Hill Elementary School run by the developer, not the DEC, reviewed the plan to remove 1-2 feet of topsoil and put in clean topsoil. Dan Hoffman commented that there are proposed development projects that the Commission could make comment on before decisions are made. City Harbor is pushing hard to move ahead and the site plan is probably already submitted or will be soon. Cynthia Brock – The LED street light project is being handled in house by City Staff, she is not sure if that is open for DPW review. This week at the Common Council meeting they are talking about zoning changes in the waterfront area having to do with setbacks along the canal which has to do with water height along the canal. This is different from stream setback. Scott Freyburger stated the town has a stream setback recommendation and the City does not. There is no room for setbacks along creeks in the East End and Fall Creek as they are all developed, the only area where Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission July 9, 2018 4 streams are not developed is West Hill. Many sites are developed, but redevelopment is what we should be concerned about. Dan Hoffman mentioned there is a large lot near Stewart Ave. where the owners may want to build close to the gorge. We have a gorge protection zone, in Cascadilla and Fall Creek, it allows 5 or 7 stories, both are large. Monika Roth would like the Commission to review development setbacks along streams and make recommendations in the form of a resolution that we can send to appropriate BPW . Memorial Policy: Jeanne Grace stated a subcommittee was involved in past years to develop a policy, but they couldn’t agree and it was dropped. 1. The previous subcommittee looked at other municipalities to s ee how they managed their memorial policy and made a recommendation that memorials would not be allowed unless the gift was over $10,000. Based on this recommendation, only people with money can memorialize -concern about equity expressed. 2. The Mayor suggested a wish list of the items city parks need. However, the City is not allowed to solicit donations. 3. Memorials would need a maintenance budget line to maintain the items that are donated for memorials. 4. There needs to be a tracking method to memorial donations. In the past, people are looking for a tree they donated as a memorial and staff can’t find it. 5. Cornell Botanical Gardens will accept tree donations, but they do not label trees. If you donate a bench, you have to renew in 4 years (pay more money) to help maintain the bench. 6. Jeanne Grace stated that money is not allocated by specific parks . Some parks are just mowed lawns and others have more infrastructure needs. If there is a fund for each park, it doesn’t always match up with how we spend mon ey. 7. Ellen Leventry suggested we talk to Cornell and Ithaca College about contributing money to city parks. Ellen also recommends that we scrap the old memorial policy. She was one of the original authors. Monika Roth noted that as per the Parks Plan, the city spends a small amount on parks compared to other cities of our size. Perhaps we can draft a resolution to Council that we strongly support a plan to increase funding for parks over the next 5 years. She also asked everyone to do a little research about what other organizations are doing about memorials and bring it to the next meeting. Jeanne Grace stated that in the interim, we do not have a memorials policy. If we come up with a new memorial policy, we need to figure out: Who will manage the memorial? How will it be maintained? Who will track? Monika asked for a 15-minute meeting extension, Michelle moved the motion and Beth second. All in favor. Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission July 9, 2018 5 Adopt-A-Park program: Per Jeanne Grace the program isn’t working. We don’t have a park that is officially adopted. There are some high level volunteers, but they need to be managed which comes with a cost. 1. Guidelines have to be established for the Adopt-a-Park Program. 2. For Dewitt Park, a veteran group meets weekly and is very active. 3. Friends of Stewart Park have specific large projects they work on. 4. Most parks need park name signs. 5. If a group adopts a park they can’t make decisions of how the parks are managed and to rename the park. Monika suggests we host neighborhood park meetings and hear what the community has to say and what interest they have. Concern expressed about setting up expectations. Michelle recalled some of the challenges of being an Alderperson and managing communit y and committee input. For instance, we reduced the number of committees to consolidate staff time and resources. Yet what do we do about knowledge gap issues? Some of the other committee members that no longer have committees bring information to the tabl e that we may or may not have in the room on the current Commission. Likewise, if we increase public input and by extension public demands increase, and city resources and funding levels remain the same, how can we find balance? We need to be realistic about what we can actually manage and do as a commission. Ellen Leventry mentioned the state parks sponsor a volunteer day. We could host a City Park Day to focus on a couple of parks at a time and get volunteers together to work. Monika Roth feels it could be a pretty big project; we have to figure out how to make it manageable. Need to if we want to proceed with such a day for Ithaca Parks. General discussion on work plan: The Commission needs to make decisions on what will be worked on. We will discuss this at the next meeting and adjourn for now. Cynthia Brock stated that the public has an easier time responding to something being presented than being part of a discussion that is general with a broad overview. The Commission should pick a certain amount of projects to work on. Small groups should work on those items, then present it to the public for comment and reaction, so they’re part of the process. That may be a way to get the community involved. It is hard to get the community engaged unless they know how it effects them. Michelle Courtney Berry makes the motion to move the meeting end time to 8:30 PM, Tyler Moeller second it. All in favor. Announcements: Ellen Leventry brought up the email that was sent to the Commission about water testing in Cascadilla Creek, a student project that wants to be on the agenda in November. Monika thinks it may better fit for a local watershed group. Dan stated that we have to be realistic of the time we can give. We are trying to cover what 4 different groups previously covered. Monika will get more information about the request as we have time to make a decision. Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission July 9, 2018 6 Cynthia Brock feels like it should not go to this committee, it should go to another committee. Michelle agreed with that statement. Monika Roth talked about a 2nd email regarding pesticide spraying to which Jeanne Grace has responded. Only two people in the City are certified to spray p esticides and they take that decision seriously. This issue has been resolved by City Staff. A larger question is whether we need a pesticide use policy for the City staff to follow. Monika Roth – future agenda items: A group met with the Mayor and Dan Cogan to ask if we would consider being a Biophilic City. A city that takes steps to protect its wildlife, water bodies and natural areas. They would like to come to the next meeting to present. The Biophilia group is asking for 20 minutes. Another group wants to present in a future meeting about Wood St. Park playground improvements. Monika Roth and Beth Myers will meet with this group at Wood St. Park on July 23, 2018 at 5 PM to learn more. Ellen would like them to come present in a near future meeting. Monika will invite them to the future (perhaps September) meeting. Dan Hoffman would like to get on a future agenda for southwest natural areas, 60 acres of substitute park land that the city acquired when it deparked 60 acres. The city has never designated it. The City paid to have a plan produced, but none of it has been implemented. There is a proposal to sell some city land to someone who want to develop a business on the end of Cherry Street. Monika will put it on the August or September Agenda. Jeanne Grace suggested Commission members list their top 5 things they want to work on. Monika Roth suggested 1 or 2 items on the Agenda and discuss them fully. Cynthia Brock recommended drop box, where items can be dropped in a file and found easily. Michelle Courtney Berry agreed it would be helpful to have a shared document to see what everyone is working on. She suggested we use a shared GoogleDoc or DropBox. Beth Myers suggested Google Drive. Next Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for August 13, 2018. Adjournment: On a motion the meeting was adjourned at 8:38 PM. Respectfully submitted by, Debbie Swartz Financial Management Assistant