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Home My WebLink About03/24/2016 PRC MinutesCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION DIAMOND BAR CITY HALL - THE WINDMILL ROOM 21810 COPLEY DRIVE, DIAMOND BAR, CA 91765 MARCH 24, 2016 CALL TO ORDER: Chairwoman Hsieh called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. in the City Hall Windmill Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Michael Tempongko led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioners Dave Grundy, Lew Herndon, Kim Hsieh, Benny Liang, Manisha Sulakhe Staff Present: Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Anthony Jordan, Parks and Maintenance Superintendent; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Mickey McKitrick, Recreation Specialist, and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Coordinator. ADMINISTRATION OF OATH OF OFFICE FOR PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSIONERS —Administered by Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk PRESENTATION OF 2016 YOUTH BASKETBALL SPORTSMANSHIP AWARDS — RS/McKitrick RECESS: Chair/Hsieh recessed the meeting at 7:16 p.m. RECONVENE: Chair/Hsieh reconvened the meeting at 7:25 p.m. SELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR OF THE PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION: C/Liang nominated C/Grundy to serve as Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission. C/Hsieh seconded the nomination. With no further nominations offered, C/Grundy was unanimously elected to serve as Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission by the following Roll Call vote: Grundy Yes Herndon Yes Hsieh Yes Liang Yes Sulakhe Yes C/Herndon nominated C/Sulakhe to serve as Vice Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Commission. C/Liang seconded the nomination. With no further nominations offered, C/Sulakhe was unanimously elected to serve as Vice Chairperson MARCH 24, 2016 PAGE 2 P&R COMMISSION of the Parks and Recreation Commission by the following Roll Call vote: Chair/Grundy Yes Herndon Yes Hsieh Yes Liang Yes Sulakhe Yes MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented by CSD/Rose 1. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.1 Approval of Minutes for the February 25, 2016 Regular Meeting. C/Herndon moved, C/Hsieh seconded, to approve the Minutes of the February 25, 2016 regular meeting as presented. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS: Herndon, Hsieh, Liang, Chair Grundy NOES: COMMISSIONERS: None ABSTAIN: COMMISSIONERS: VC/Sulakhe ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS: None 1.2 Received and filed updated Parks and Recreation Commission Handbook. 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2.1 Recreation Program Update — RS/Murphey RS/Murphey responded to VC/Sulakhe that the senior workshops are free and well-received. C/Herndon asked how many attendees were non-residents and RS/Murphey said she believed that approximately 20 percent of the participants were non-residents. This year the City is offering a longer enrollment period for resident -priority enrollment. Chair/Grundy asked if the flag football team that was encroaching was part of the allocation and RS/McKitrick responded that they were not allocated field time this year. They were allocated field time a couple of years ago but they decided they did not need it and for the past two years have told their teams to go out anywhere they could find field space. Chair/Grundy asked if they have been informed that what they were doing was interfering with other group's allocations. RS/McKitrick said that initially they were told they would not be allowed to be on any of the fields MARCH 24, 2016 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION until the City had their insurance on file and because they did not comply, a few of the teams were kicked off of the fields. Once the insurance was submitted it again became a problem because they were encroaching. However, he has not heard anything for a couple of weeks so he believes the situation is improving. One of the members of the girls softball group has kids in the flag football program and some of the girls softball teams were allowing that flag football team to practice on their field and word spread that there was a spot at Pantera Park for flag football practice so several teams started showing up, which is when girls softball called staff. They were okay with one team but once five teams showed up they became a bit frustrated. Chair/Grundy asked if it was okay for the girls' softball team to extend their use of the field to another group and RS/McKitrick responded that the girls' softball team was asked to let staff know when that happens so the Field Attendants know what is happening. Staff is in favor of allowing various programs to work together to get the kids on the fields since there are an insufficient number of fields to go around in town. 2.1.1 PowerPoint Presentation on Youth Basketball — RS/McKitrick C/Herndon asked if there was sufficient floor space for programs and RS/McKitrick responded yes for games and for practice more floor space would be useful. 2.2 Parks Report — PMS/Jordan 2.2.1 Power Point Presentation on Sycamore Canyon Park — PMS/Jordan C/Liang asked if there were homeless people staying in the City's parks and PMS/Jordan said that from time to time staff sees folks coming through that have the appearance of being homeless and they probably are. In terms of their visibility and impacts on the parks it is very minimal. There are people who hang out in the park throughout the day, many of whom will have knapsacks but typically at some point during the day they disappear and does not know where they go. The bag he showed could possibly be an indicator of what is happening but such incidents are few and far between. If people are camping out they are doing a very good job of disguising their activities because there is nothing that stands out. C/Herndon said that one morning he heard the Sheriff's helicopter hovering over his house and obviously something was going on in the park. When he went out to retrieve his morning paper he saw five police cars in his driveway and apparently, someone across the canyon saw what they thought was someone burying a body and it was apparently a homeless person with a sleeping bag. MARCH 24, 2016 PAGE 4 P&R COMMISSION C/Herndon asked if staff was concerned about the squirrels and their destruction of some of the facilities. Many years ago there was a Bubonic Plague in that park. PMS/Jordan said that staff is absolutely concerned about that issue. The LA County Department of Health sends inspectors out to audit the parks from time to time and what they do is literally walk up and down the slopes and count active burrows. If they feel the population is too high they will contact him and let him know that staff needs to step up eradication efforts to minimize the population. They do not want the squirrels wiped out completely but keep them at a controlled level. During the past several years he has not been contacted by LA County regarding any reduction of squirrel population. The undermining of the slopes, bench drains and v -ditches is always a concern and staff tries to backfill those areas as much as possible. 2.3 CIP Projects — CSD/Rose A. Design of Heritage Park Community Center Improvements - B. Pantera Park Trail & Steep Canyon Trail — Plans have been approved and the design team is sending the plans for approval by Public Works after which the project will go out to bid. This item is expected to be completed sometime in the fall of 2016. C/Herndon asked if the Commission would again be involved in the Larkstone Park design and CSD/Rose responded that the design has been completed, the plans have gone through one round of plan check and is waiting for them to come back from the design team. If the Commission would like to see the design he would be happy to bring that item back at the next meeting and C/Herndon said he would appreciate that. 2.4 List of pending Commission requests — none 3. OLD BUSINESS: None 4. NEW BUSINESS: None 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Liang welcomed the new Commissioner and thanked staff for their very interesting presentations. C/Herndon welcomed VC/Sulakhe and thanked C/Hsieh for serving as Chairperson and congratulated Chair/Grundy and VC/Sulkhe on their appointments. Last Sunday the Diamond Bar Community Foundation had its 1 K/5K Fun Run. The City was very involved in the setup and helped sponsor the event for which the Foundation was very grateful. About 150 runners participated from the very young on up. Everyone seemed to have a very good MARCH 24, 2016 PAGE 5 P&R time and the weather was cool. It was a very worthwhile event the Foundation hopes to have as an annual event going forward. C/Hsieh thanked staff for their great reports and she loves that children come to visit the Commission. She welcomed VC/Sulakhe to the "family." Chair/Grundy welcomed VC/Sulakhe to the Commission and thanked outgoing Chair/Hsieh and VC/Herndon for their service and leadership during the past year. He thanked staff for the wonderful reports. The Power Point presentations have been very helpful to the Commission. ADJOURNMENT: With no one objecting and no further business before the Parks and Recreation Commission, Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 8:32 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 28 day of April 12016, bmitted, ,SECRETARY