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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/29/2004 PRC MinutesCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION HEARING BOARD ROOM OF S.C.A.Q.M.D.ITHE GOVERNMENT CENTER 21865 Copley Drive APRIL 29, 2004 CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Grundy called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. in the SCAQMD/Government Center Building Hearing Board Room, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, California 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Liang led the Pledge of Allegiance. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Chairman Dave Grundy, Vice Chairman Nancy Lyons, and Commissioners Ling -Ling Chang, Benny Liang and Marty Torres. Staff: Bob Rose, Director of Community Services; Anthony Jordan, Parks & Maintenance Supervisor; Teresa Arevalo, Senior Management Analyst; Sara West Recreation Supervisor 11 and Marisa Somenzi, Administrative Assistant. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None Offered. CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented in the agenda. CONSENT CALENDAR 1.1 Regular Meeting Minutes for March 25, 2004. C/Torres moved, VC/Lyons seconded, to approve the March 25, 2004 minutes as presented. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. 1.2 Approval of Minutes of April 8, 2004 Special Meeting. C/Wang moved, VC/Lyons seconded, to approve the April 8, 2004 Special Meeting minutes as presented. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. 1.3 Received and Filed Transmittal of "Thank you" letter to Round Table Pizza for its support of recreation programs in Diamond Bar. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 2 PSBR COMMISSION The Commission concurred with VC/Lyons' recommendation to have Chair/Grundy also sign the letter. CSD/Rose reported that staff recommended recognition of Round Table Pizza as Business of the Month by the City Council. The business has tentatively been scheduled for an August presentation. 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 2.1 Youth Master Plan — CSD/Rose The steering committee met last Friday to develop recommendations for the implementation of the Youth Master Plan. The document will be completed after the Healthy Kids Survey taken two years ago is updated. CSD/Rose introduced Pam Wooldridge, Research Network, Ltd. Ms. Wooldridge stated that she was included in the consulting team forthe Youth Master Plan. Her responsibility was to design, implement and analyze the random sample telephone survey. Her firm developed the questionnaire in cooperation with the steering committee and task force volunteers. Once the questionnaire was approved by the steering committee and staff interviewing commenced in early December and was completed shortly thereafter with a written report to the City. Chair/Grundy explained that the Commission had raised concerns regarding the survey. Specifically, he was called for the survey and encountered an interviewer who had a problem with English and difficulty reading the questions. He found that his answers were repeated back incorrectly and he had to re -repeat his answer on several occasions. In addition, the interviewer misrepresented the length of the survey. All of these issues left him feeling uncomfortable with the survey and felt that others who encountered the same issues may have not completed the survey. He asked how many people did not complete the survey to which Ms. Wooldridge responded she could get the information but did not have it with her tonight. Chair/Grundy asked if Ms. Wooldridge had statistics from other surveys and Ms. Wooldridge responded "absolutely." Ms. Wooldridge indicated to Chair/Grundy that Research Network targeted and completed 450 interviews. Chair/Grundy asked if Ms. Wooldridge had statistics regarding the demographic of the person who abandoned the call as well as, the demographic of the replacement call? Ms. Wooldridge explained that surveys were based on random telephone numbers and the demography of the respondents is monitored to make sure that it mirrored the community -at - large via the census data. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION Chair/Grundy felt the survey was too long and toward the end of the survey the questions were more complex and wondered if people might have rushed through the questions at the end. Was there a method of measuring whether people were beginning to give random answers? Ms. Wooldridge said she could look to see if the first hundred surveys were measurably different from the second hundred and so forth. She has never experienced that kind of situation. She subcontracts all data collection and specifically does so because there are professional data -collection facilities which conduct these types of survey programs 2417 and are beneficial because they have professionally trained interviewing staff. Secondly, the data - collection service as Computer Aided Telephone interviewing so that the selection of the telephone number and processing of the questionnaire is handled at the computer so the interviewer conducts the survey live allowing the interview to be consistent from interviewer to interviewer maintaining additional interviewer quality. The data collection group she used in this instance is the same firm she has used for the past seven plus years on many different projects. It is a local southern California firm with the head office in Brea and have English and non-English speaking interviewers. In the case of this project more than a third of the community were of Asian decent and 15-20 percent were Hispanic. In those cases she likes to have interviewers available who can address diverse speaking situations. When she received complaints regarding the interviewers she contacted the data - collection firm. At that point 208 interviews had been completed and of that number there were 50-60 that were completed by non-native English speaking interviewers and removed those interviewers from the pool and completed the process with only native English-speaking interviewers. C/Chang said she was concerned about whether the City's large population non English-speaking Asians were fairly represented in the survey. Ms. Wooldridge responded to VC/Lyons that the interview was supposed to be about 15 minutes in length. VC/Lyons reiterated that the Commission would like to know how many surveys were abandoned. She felt it was a long survey, especially for people with small children and wondered if the surveys for that group might not have been completed. Ms. Wooldridge agreed that 15 minutes could be a long time but it took 15 minutes to ask the full compliment of questions. In any interview there were groups of people who, based on their answers, received a questionnaire that was shorter. In addition, the order of questions was routinely rotated in order to avoid bias. Her experience had been that her consultants would alert her if people were baling out on the questionnaire. C/Torres asked if there was current science behind a 15 -minute long survey? Ms. Wooldridge felt C/Torres' concern was valid. She monitors the outcomes of the interviews very closely on a regular basis and had found that 10-15 minutes w as a typically f air I ength o f t ime f or a n interview. Two factors contributed to the success of the survey: 1) the interviewee was told up front that this was something being done for their city government and 2) this was about their community and its youth and that it was their opportunity to APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 4 PSR COMMISSION --provide feedback to the city. C/Torres asked how statistical significance was measured? What was a good ratio of calls to completion? Ms. Wooldridge responded that generally, 10-12:1 ratio is acceptable. For 400 to 600 interviews, 4000 to 6000 telephone numbers would be pulled and processed. Telephone numbers were not pulled from the telephone directory because there were many unlisted numbers. The numbers were randomly selected by using an area prefix and the last four numbers were then randomly generated. When calls were generated to businesses, answering machines, modems the interviewer weeded those out. In this case 450 households were interviewed which generated a 4.7% error range on the random data. In other words, if every household in D.B. were interviewed the results should not vary by more than plus or minus 5 percentage points. C/Torres said he would like statistics regarding the point of termination. Ms. Wooldridge explained that the time she was given by the consultant was 15 minutes at the outset. She had not looked at the data to see if information was available based on when exactly the interview was terminated. C/Torres took exception with the sequencing of questions. Ms. Wooldridge responded that the science dealt with trying not to introduce any sequencing bias by the order of the questions. Ms. Wooldridge responded to C/Liang that the survey was conducted in early December. C /Liang s aid h e b elieved that during that period of the year families were always very busy and he wondered how a 15 -minute interview could be effective. Chair/Grady said that the Youth Master Plan would be used to plan the City's recreation activities for years to come. Anything that would negatively or falsely affect the outcome of the survey would skew the recommendations and ultimately, the overall pian. The Commission needed data that provided a comfort level on which to base those long-term decisions. Ms. Wooldridge explained that these kinds of surveys do not operate in a vacuum and are accompanied by public workshops, outreach to usergroups and community leaders. The telephone survey results were paired up against what was heard from the community in those other arenas. If the telephone survey and outreach programs surface oddities orflew in the face of another public outreach block of input it was cause for concern and should be explored. In this instance, that was done. CSD/Rose confirmed that several public workshops had been held and more were scheduled. These opportunities offered public input and consultants always compared the data. C/Torres felt that nothing said this evening gave the Commissioners a warm feeling about the validity of the data and the Commission's concern was that when the City was paying for this type of service there should be a high degree of confidence in those services. Mrs. Wooldridge responded that she APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 5 P&R COMMISSION had explained to the Commission that there was a high degree of confidence in the data based on her 30 -years of service. She was sorry that she had not been able to alleviate the Commissioners' concerns and she hoped that the data on the disposition report of the interviews would assist the Commission in becoming more comfortable with the data. VC/Lyons asked if there was a breakdown according to age of children in the households? Ms. Woodridge responded that the information was contained in the report. 2.2 Recreation Program Report — RSII/West ClChang asked why ClChang decided to donate funds for one additional "Concerts in the Park" concert? RSII/West explained that ClChang offered to donate the funds during the Council meeting. CSD/Rose explained that the Council voted to.add a concert if a donor paid the cost. During the discussion ClChang offered to donate the $2400. Ultimately, Council approved a motion to add the concert only if a donor could be found to pay the cost of the concert. Chair/Grundy proposed the Commission write a thank you to ClChang. C/Torres felt men's softball could be eliminated. CSD/Rose indicated that RS/Wright suggested a Sunday co-ed program that was included in next year's budget. The Wednesday night adult league no longer existed. Chair/Grundy asked on average how many showed up to play table tennis. RSII/West guessed that about 25 players participated during the course of an evening. RSH/West confirmed to Chair/Grundy that 126 members of the Youth Track Meet out of the 188 registered participants were moving on to the next level. RSII/West responded to VC/Lyons that the Diamond Bar Center was not designed to allow cooking and that such classes would have to be booked at CalPoly Pomona. VC/Lyons wanted to know the deadline for fall classes because she wanted to schedule a "Read Together Diamond Bar" cooking class. She asked how registration for summer day camp was proceeding. VC/Lyons felt the Diamond Bar Center computer program was excellent. She thought the City Birthday Party was a very, very good event and understood it was very challenging because of the rain. Everyone had a good attitude and staff was to be commended for staying with the program. She liked the new layout. CSD/Rose explained that when the Diamond Bar Center was designed, it was intended to have cooking available for classes and not for other uses. The intent was to use "Small ware" that could be used to heat without flame and the plan had not yet been implemented. RSII/West would look into the matter and report back to the Commission. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 6 P&R. COMMISSION 2.3 Diamond Bar Community Foundation Oral Report — C/Torres. C/Torres reported that during this month's meeting new members were given a general overview of the Foundation. The Board was working to define its mission and goals for fundraising. The three areas under consideration for fundraising possibilities were 1) arts, 2) sports and recreation and 3) social and cultural diversity. There was also discussion about changing the bylaws to make it easier to reach a quorum and provide operational changes that would aid in the efficiency of the Foundation. 2.4 C.I.P. Program Report — CSD/Rose a. Diamond Bar Center CSD/Rose reported that the Center had already exceeded revenue goals of $170,000 for the year prompting an increase in fees and revenue goals to $315,000 for 2004105 Fiscal Year. He reported that the City recently hired Bryan Petroff from Brea as its new Parks & Maintenance Supervisor to be in charge of the Diamond Bar Center. In response to C/Chang, CSD/Rose indicated that seniors could use Dial -a -Cab at a cost of 50 cents each direction. There was an effort afoot to get transit companies to place the Center on their routes and that accordingly, the roadway and turning channels were designed to accommodate full-length buses. b. Trail Development at Sycamore Canyon Park C. Peterson and Pantera Park Improvements d. Sycamore Canyon Park Improvements — Phase II Update. CSD/Rose reported that he, CM/Lowry and DCM/DeStefano met last week and discussed Phase III improvements that included the Tot Lot, retaining wall replacement, access from the lower level to the upper level, patio area and portable building improvements. The discussion centered on the projects currently in the works and the limited resources that could be directed to those projects. As the City continues to grow, either hiring new management staff or redirection of resources must occur. As a result, staff looked at the possibility of moving some of the programs to the YMCA, for instance, for administration and moving the portable building to the Sunset Crossing location and leaving Sycamore Canyon Park in its natural setting. If that happened, the other improvements such as the Tot Lot, Patio area and retaining wall would be completed. At some point in the future when the City has the resources to construct a more suitable building, it could be constructed as a nature center, for instance, with classrooms and other amenities originally contemplated. CSD/Rose further reported that staff is talking with the Walnut Valley Unified School District about the possibility of using APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 7 P&R COMMISSION their storage yard instead of the back of Sycamore Canyon Park as the City's Storage Yard. Long term, if Caltrans vacated their facility on Golden Springs Drive the City would move its storage items to that facility. C/Chang asked why political signs were stored in the unit at Sycamore Canyon Park. CSD/Rose responded that Code Enforcement takes down illegally placed signs and store them at the park for a period of time or until candidates retrieve them. CSD/Rose responded to C/Torres that the City is offering day camp this year. 2.5 Sports Complex Task Force update — C/Torres and Chair/Grundy C/Torres reported that the Task Force completed its draft report and forwarded it to staff for presentation to the City Council. 2.6 City Birthday Party Committee update — VC/Lyons. VC/Lyons reiterated that the birthday party was wonderful and staff and volunteers did a great job. 2.7 Parks Report — PMS/Jordan PMS/Jordan asked other Commissioners to schedule their park walkthroughs at their earliest convenience. 3. OLD BUSINESS: 3.1 Consideration for Policy Regarding Use of City Equipment by Community Groups and Private Organizations — RMSIArevalo. • Deposit for rental for replacement due to damage beyond normal wear and tear. • Staff would be responsible for checking the condition of equipment upon its return. • Private User Category should not be pursued. • Equipment should remain in or near the City of Diamond Bar. RMSIArevalo reported that since this policy was drafted, staff had received a request to rent carnival, fall fun and Snowfest games. Staff recommends game rental for each of the 12 games at a rate of $10 each with a refundable deposit per game and a replacement value of $50 per game be included as part of the policy and that the game rental policy together with the above proposed policies be forwarded to the City Council for adoption. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 8 P&R COMMISSION -Chair/Grundy pointed out the following typographical errors: 1) Equipment Request Form calling for "refundable deposit' actually contains the values for the replacement value. 2) Reword the section on equipment availability to read: "The City of Diamond Bar makes available equipment to the community based on non-profit. " C/Torres offered that the equipment condition verification read: "equipment verification upon check-out and check-in." He further recommended that staff should h ave t he p erson c hecking i n t he a quipment s ign t o v erify staffs comments regarding condition of the equipment. VC/Lyons asked what "too far away" from D.B. would be and who would decide what was "too far away?" Discussion ensued with no final determination except to say that staff would decide. C/Torres moved, C/Liang seconded, to recommend approval to the City Council. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. 4. NEW BUSINESS: 4.1 Subcommittee Appointments of Commissioners. Staff recommends appointment of two Commissioners to each of the following subcommittees: a. User Group Subcommittee — C/Liang and Chair/Grundy b. City Birthday Party Subcommittee — C/Chang, VC/Lyons 4.2 Establishment of Ad hoc Committee to Review Park and Athletic Facility Use Policy — C/Torres and ClChang. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Liang congratulated staff on a great Easter Egg Hunt, City Birthday Party and the Diamond Bar Center grand opening dinner. He expressed concern about kids getting tripped on the security lines. He thanked PMS/Jordan for his assistance with the orchids at the City Birthday Party. VC/Lyons thanked C/Liang for providing the orchids. She complimented PMS/Jordan because she had never seen the Sycamore Canyon Park field look so good. Unfortunately however, they encountered a lot of Poison Oak on the trail. ClChang said she was approached by a resident who asked if the City had ever considered constructing a dog park? CSD/Rose responded that yes, the City had discussed the possibility at the request of another resident and the proposal was low priority due to limited resources and the desire to serve the youth and residents first. There are dog parks in the region. ClChang congratulated the City on a fine Easter Egg Hunt and Birthday Party. C/Torres felt the City sponsored track meet held at Walnut High School was excellent. He suggested the Commission discuss the possibility of a City provided volleyball program for grade school. He read an email from Jennifer Chu emailed APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 9 P&R COMMISSION him asking if the City had programs for developmentally and physically disabled children. RSII/West said staff planned to attend the June 0, Leadership Strategies for Inclusive Recreation seminar. Chair/Grundy congratulated the City on its wonderful Birthday Party. He personally thanked t he C ommunity S ervices D epartment, V C/Lyons a nd C/Liang for their contributions. He thanked Wen Chang for funding the additional summer concert. ADJOURNMENT: Upon motion by VC/Lyons, seconded by C/Chang and there being no further business before the Parks & Recreation Commission, Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 9:27 p.m. Attest: CITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION HEARING BOARD ROOM OF S.C.A.Q.M.D./THE GOVERNMENT CENTER 21865 Copley Drive APRIL 29, CALL TO Chairman Grundy called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. in the SCAQMD/Government Center Building Hearing Board Room, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, California 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Liang led the Pledge of Allegiance. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Chairman Dave Grundy, Vice Chairman Nancy Lyons, and Commissioners Ling - Ling Chang, Benny Liang and Marty Torres. Staff: Bob Rose, Director of Community Services; Anthony Jordan, Parks & Maintenance Supervisor; Teresa Arevalo, Senior Management Analyst; Sara West Recreation Supervisor II and Marisa Somenzi, Administrative Assistant. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None Offered. CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented in the agenda. 1. CONSENT CALENDAR 1.1 Regular Meeting Minutes for March 25, 2004. C/Torres moved, VC/Lyons seconded, to approve the March 25, 2004 minutes as presented. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. 1.2 Approval of Minutes of April 8, 2004 Special Meeting. C/Wang moved, VC/Lyons seconded, to approve the April 8, 2004 Special Meeting minutes as presented. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 2 P&R COMMISSION The Commission concurred with VC/Lyons' recommendation to have Chair/Grundy also sign the letter. CSD/Rose reported that staff recommended recognition of Round Table Pizza as Business of the Month by the City Council. The business has tentatively been scheduled for an August presentation. 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS 2.1 Youth Master Plan - CSD/Rose The steering committee met last Friday to develop recommendations for the implementation of the Youth Master Plan. The document will be completed after the Healthy Kids Survey taken two years ago is updated. CSD/Rose introduced Pam Wooldridge, Research Network, Ltd. Ms. Wooldridge stated that she was included in the consulting team for the Youth Master Plan. Her responsibility was to design, implement and analyze the random sample telephone survey. Her firm developed the questionnaire in cooperation with the steering committee and task force volunteers. Once the questionnaire was approved by the steering committee and staff interviewing commenced in early December and was completed shortly thereafter with a written report to the City. Chair/Grundy explained that the Commission had raised concerns regarding the survey. Specifically, he was called for the survey and encountered an interviewer who had a problem with English and difficulty reading the questions. He found that his answers were repeated back incorrectly and he had to re -repeat his answer on several occasions. In addition, the interviewer misrepresented the length of the survey. All of these issues left him feeling uncomfortable with the survey and felt that others who encountered the same issues may have not completed the survey. He asked how many people did not complete the survey to which Ms. Wooldridge responded she could get the information but did not have Chair/Grundy asked if Ms. Wooldridge had statistics from other surveys and Ms. Wooldridge responded "absolutely." Ms. Wooldridge indicated to Chair/Grundy that Research Network targeted and completed 450 interviews. Chair/Grundy asked if Ms. Wooldridge had statistics regarding the demographic of the person who abandoned the call as well as, the demographic of the replacement call? Ms. Wooldridge explained that surveys were based on random telephone numbers and the demography of the respondents is monitored to make sure that it mirrored the community-atlarge via the census data. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION Chair/Grundy felt the survey was too long and toward the end of the survey the questions were more complex and wondered if people might have rushed through the questions at the end. Was there a method of measuring whether people were beginning to give random answers? Ms. Wooldridge said she could look to see if the first hundred surveys were measurably different from the second hundred and so forth. She has never experienced that kind of situation. She subcontracts all data collection and specifically does so because there are professional data - collection facilities which conduct these types of survey programs 24/7 and are beneficial because they have professionally trained interviewing staff. Secondly, the datacollection service as Computer Aided Telephone interviewing so that the selection of the telephone number and processing of the questionnaire is handled at the computer so the interviewer conducts the survey live allowing the interview to be consistent from interviewer to interviewer maintaining additional interviewer quality. The data collection group she used in this instance is the same firm she has used for the past seven plus years on many different projects. It is a local southern California firm with the head office in Brea and have English and non-English speaking interviewers. In the case of this project more than a third of the community were of Asian decent and 15-20 percent were Hispanic. In those cases she likes to have interviewers available who can address diverse speaking situations. When she received complaints regarding the interviewers she contacted the datacollection firm. At that point 208 interviews had been completed and of that number there were 50-60 that were completed by non-native English speaking interviewers and removed those interviewers from the pool and completed the process with only native English-speaking interviewers. C/Chang said she was concerned about whether the City's large population non English-speaking Asians were fairly represented in the survey. Ms. Wooldridge responded to VC/Lyons that the interview was supposed to be about 15 minutes in length. VC/Lyons reiterated that the Commission would like to know how many surveys were abandoned. She felt it was a long survey, especially for people with small children and wondered if the surveys for that group might not have been completed. Ms. Wooldridge agreed that 15 minutes could be a long time but it took 15 minutes to ask the full compliment of questions. In any interview there were groups of people who, based on their answers, received a questionnaire that was shorter. In addition, the order of questions was routinely rotated in order to avoid bias. Her experience had been that her consultants would alert her if people were C/Torres asked if there was current science behind a 15 -minute long survey? Ms. Wooldridge felt C/Torres' concern was valid. She monitors the outcomes of the interviews very closely on a regular basis and had found that 10-15 minutes was a typically fair I ength o f time for a n interview. Two factors contributed to the success of the survey: 1) the interviewee was told up front that this was something being done for their city government and 2) this was about their community and its youth and APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 4 P&R COMMISSION -provide feedback to the city. C/Torres asked how statistical significance was measured? What was a good ratio of calls to completion? Ms. Wooldridge responded that generally, 10-12:1 ratio is acceptable. For 400 to 600 interviews, 4000 to 6000 telephone numbers would be pulled and processed. Telephone numbers were not pulled from the telephone directory because there were many unlisted numbers. The numbers were randomly selected by using an area prefix and the last four numbers were then randomly generated. When calls were generated to businesses, answering machines, modems the interviewer weeded those out. In this case 450 households were interviewed which generated a 4.7% error range on the random data. In other words, if every household in D.B. were interviewed the results should not vary by more than plus or minus 5 percentage points. C/Torres said he would like statistics regarding the point of termination. Ms. Wooldridge explained that the time she was given by the consultant was 15 minutes at the outset. She had not looked at the data to see if information was available based on when exactly the interview was terminated. C/Torres took exception with the sequencing of questions. Ms. Wooldridge responded that the science dealt with trying not to introduce any sequencing bias by the order of the questions. Ms. Wooldridge responded to C/Liang that the survey was conducted in early December. C/Liang said he believed that during that period of the year families were always very busy and he wondered how a 15 -minute interview could be effective. Chair/Grady said that the Youth Master Plan would be used to plan the City's recreation activities for years to come. Anything that would negatively or falsely affect the outcome of the survey would skew the recommendations and ultimately, the overall plan. The Commission needed data that provided a comfort level on which to base those long - Ms. Wooldridge explained that these kinds of surveys do not operate in a vacuum and are accompanied by public workshops, outreach to user groups and community leaders. The telephone survey results were paired up against what was heard from the community in those other arenas. If the telephone survey and outreach programs surface oddities or flew in the face of another public outreach block of input it was cause for concern and should be explored. In this instance, that was done. CSD/Rose confirmed that several public workshops had been held and more were scheduled. These opportunities offered public input and consultants always compared the data. C/Torres felt that nothing said this evening gave the Commissioners a warm feeling about the validity of the data and the Commission's concern was that when the City was paying for this type of service there should be a high degree of confidence in those services. Mrs. Wooldridge responded that she APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 5 P&R COMMISSION had explained to the Commission that there was a high degree of confidence in the data based on her 30 -years of service. She was sorry that she had not been able to alleviate the Commissioners' concerns and she hoped that the data on the disposition report of the interviews would assist the Commission in becoming more comfortable with the data. VC/Lyons asked if there was a breakdown according to age of children in the households? Ms. Woodridge responded that the information was contained in the report. 2.2 Recreation Program Report - RSII/West C/Chang asked why C/Chang decided to donate funds for one additional "Concerts in the Park" concert? RSII/West explained that C/Chang offered to donate the funds during the Council meeting. CSD/Rose explained that the Council voted to.add a concert if a donor paid the cost. During the discussion C/Chang offered to donate the $2400. Ultimately, Council approved a motion to add the concert only if a donor could be found to pay the cost of the concert. Chair/Grundy proposed the Commission write a thank you to CITorres felt men's softball could be eliminated. CSD/Rose indicated that RS/Wright suggested a Sunday co-ed program that was included in next year's budget. The Wednesday night adult league no longer Chair/Grundy asked on average how many showed up to play table tennis. RSII/West guessed that about 25 players participated during the course of an evening. RSII/West confirmed to Chair/Grundy that 126 members of the Youth Track Meet out of the 188 registered participants were moving on to the next level. RSII/West responded to VC/Lyons that the Diamond Bar Center was not designed to allow cooking and that such classes would have to be booked at CalPoly Pomona. VC/Lyons wanted to know the deadline for fall classes because she wanted to schedule a "Read Together Diamond Bar"cooking class. She asked how registration for summer day camp was proceeding. VC/Lyons felt the Diamond Bar Center computer program was excellent. She thought the City Birthday Party was a very, very good event and understood it was very challenging because of the rain. Everyone had a good attitude and staff was to be commended for staying with the program. She liked the new layout. CSD/Rose explained that when the Diamond Bar Center was designed, it was intended to have cooking available for classes and not for other uses. The intent was to use "Small ware" that could be used to heat without flame and the plan had not yet been implemented. RSII/West would look into the matter and report back to the Commission. APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 6 P&R COMMISSION 2.3 Diamond Bar Community Foundation Oral Report - C/Torres. C/Torres reported that during this month's meeting new members were given a general overview of the Foundation. The Board was working to define its mission and goals for fundraising. The three areas under consideration for fundraising possibilities were 1) arts, 2) sports and recreation and 3) social and cultural diversity. There was also discussion about changing the bylaws to make it easier to reach a quorum and provide operational changes that would aid in the efficiency of the 2.4 C.I.P. Program Report -CSD/Rose a. Diamond Bar Center CSD/Rose reported that the Center had already exceeded revenue goals of $170,000 for the year prompting an increase in fees and revenue goals to $315,000 for 2004/05 Fiscal Year. He reported that the City recently hired Bryan Petroff from Brea as its new Parks & Maintenance Supervisor to be in charge of the Diamond In response to C/Chang, CSD/Rose indicated that seniors could use Dial -a -Cab at a cost of 50 cents each direction. There was an effort afoot to get transit companies to place the Center on their routes and that accordingly, the roadway and turning channels were designed to accommodate full-length buses. b. Trail Development at Sycamore Canyon Park c. Peterson and Pantera Park Improvements CSD/Rose reported that he, CM/Lowry and DCM/DeStefano met last week and discussed Phase III improvements that included the Tot Lot, retaining wall replacement, access from the lower level to the upper level, patio area and portable building improvements. The discussion centered on the projects currently in the works and the limited resources that could be directed to those projects. As the City continues to grow, either hiring new management staff or redirection of resources must occur. As a result, staff looked at the possibility of moving some of the programs to the YMCA, for instance, for administration and moving the portable building to the Sunset Crossing location and leaving Sycamore Canyon Park in its natural setting. If that happened, the other improvements such as the Tot Lot, Patio area and retaining wall would be completed. At some point in the future when the City has the resources to construct a more suitable building, it could be constructed as a nature center, for instance, with classrooms and other amenities originally contemplated. CSD/Rose further reported that staff is talking with the Walnut Valley Unified School District about the possibility of using APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 7 P&R COMMISSION their storage yard instead of the back of Sycamore Canyon Park as the City's Storage Yard. Long term, if Caltrans vacated their facility on Golden Springs Drive the City would move its storage items to that facility. C/Chang asked why political signs were stored in the unit at Sycamore Canyon Park. CSD/Rose responded that Code Enforcement takes down illegally placed signs and store them at the park for a period of time or until candidates retrieve them. CSD/Rose responded to C/Torres that the City is offering day camp this year. 2.5 Sports Complex Task Force update - C/Torres and Chair/Grundy C/Torres reported that the Task Force completed its draft report and forwarded it to staff for presentation to the City Council. 2.6 City Birthday Party Committee update - VC/Lyons. VC/Lyons reiterated that the birthday party was wonderful and staff and volunteers did a great job. 2.7 Parks Report - PMS/Jordan PMS/Jordan asked other Commissioners to schedule their park walkthroughs at their earliest convenience. 3. OLD BUSINESS: 3.1 Consideration for Policy Regarding Use of City Equipment by Community Groups and Private Organizations - RMS/Arevalo. Deposit for rental for replacement due to damage beyond normal wear and tear. Staff would be responsible for checking the condition of equipment upon its return. Private User Category should not be pursued. . Equipment should remain in or near the City of Diamond Bar. RMS/Arevalo reported that since this policy was drafted, staff had received a request to rent carnival, fall fun and Snowfest games. Staff recommends game rental for each of the 12 games at a rate of $10 each with a refundable deposit per game and a replacement value of $50 per game be included as part of the policy and that the game rental policy together with the above proposed policies be forwarded to the City APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 8 P&R COMMISSION Chair/Grundy pointed out the following typographical errors. 1) Equipment Request Form calling for "refundable deposit" actually contains the values for the replacement value. 2) Reword the section on equipment availability to read: "The City of Diamond Bar makes available equipment to the community based on non-profit. " C/Torres offered that the equipment condition verification read: "equipment verification upon check-out and check-in." He further recommended that staff should h ave t he person checking i n the a quipment s ign t o verify staffs comments regarding condition of the equipment. VC/Lyons asked what "too far away" from D.B. would be and who would decide what was "too far away?" Discussion ensued with no C/Torres moved, C/Liang seconded, to recommend approval to the City Council. Without objection, the motion was so ordered. 4. NEW BUSINESS: 4.1 Subcommittee Appointments of Commissioners. Staff recommends appointment of two Commissioners to each of the following subcommittees: a. User Group Subcommittee - C/Liang and Chair/Grundy b. City Birthday Party Subcommittee - C/Chang, VC/Lyons 4.2 Establishment of Ad hoc Committee to Review Park and Athletic Facility Use Policy - C/Torres and C/Chang. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Liang congratulated staff on a great Easter Egg Hunt, City Birthday Party and the Diamond Bar Center grand opening dinner. He expressed concern about kids getting tripped on the security lines. He thanked PMS/Jordan for his assistance with the orchids at the City Birthday Party. VC/Lyons thanked C/Liang for providing the orchids. She complimented PMS/Jordan because she had never seen the Sycamore Canyon Park field look so good. Unfortunately however, they encountered a lot of Poison Oak on the C/Chang said she was approached by a resident who asked if the City had ever considered constructing a dog park? CSD/Rose responded that yes, the City had discussed the possibility at the request of another resident and the proposal was low priority due to limited resources and the desire to serve the youth and residents first. There are dog parks in the region. C/Chang congratulated the City on a fine Easter Egg Hunt and Birthday Party. C/Torres felt the City sponsored track meet held at Walnut High School was excellent. He suggested the Commission discuss the possibility of a City provided volleyball program for grade school. He read an email from Jennifer Chu emailed APRIL 29, 2004 PAGE 9 P&R COMMISSION him asking if the City had programs for developmentally and physically disabled children. RSII/West said staff planned to attend the June 4th Leadership Strategies for Inclusive Recreation seminar. Chair/Grundy congratulated the City on its wonderful Birthday Party. He personally thanked the C ommunity Services D epartment, V C/Lyons and C/Liang for their contributions. He thanked Wen Chang for funding the ADJOURNMENT: Upon motion by VC/Lyons, seconded by C/Chang and there being no further business before the Parks & Recreation Commission, Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 9:27 p.m. Submitted, retary Attes a (Chairman, ve G