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Park Board Minutes 2008 12-04-08 Aftft Yorkville Parks & Recreation Department Administration and Recreation Office 201 IN. Hydraulic St Yorkville, IL 60560 6305534357 Park Board Agenda Thursday, December 4, 2008 7:00 p.m. - Park Board Meeting Administration and Recreation Office Call to Order: Chris Rollins called the meeting to order at 8:30 pm Roll Call: Chris Rollins-Yes, Ken Koch-Yes, Debbie Horaz-Yes and Vickie Coveny-Yes (arrived 8:30 pm) Introduction of Guests, City Officials and Staff: Gary Golinski, Ward 2 Alderman Robert Allen, Ward 1 Alderman Director of Parks and Recreation - David Mogle Superintendent of Recreation - Sue Swithin Public Comment: Alderman Bob Allen brought up the former Lion's pool and stated that it is an eye sore to those in the community. He said that he would ultimately like to see the city preserve the space. Allen's idea was to seek private donations to have it renovated and turned over to city hands. Dave Mogle gave Alderman Allen a history on the property. He said the problem is the YMCA and the Lions thought they had a buyer and did the city a courtesy by giving them an option to buy. The cost of pulling the swimming pool out was around $200,000. Mogle said he got back to the YMCA and the council felt it was moving too fast. It had been up for sale after multiple buyers had fallen through on it. Rollins said that he was in favor of Allen seeking private donations for this. Allen said he was not acting as an agent of the city but as a private identity in seeking these private donations. He also noted that this property was not in his ward. Presentations: None Approval of Minutes: Minutes - Regular Park Board Meeting - November 13, 2008 Chris Rollins asked for motion to approve the regular Park Board Meeting minutes from November 13, 2008 as submitted. Ken Koch made the motion and Vickie Coveny seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. 1 Bills Review: Cash Analysis and Bill List Dave Mogle brought up the Code Blue Memo. He said that the City Council at Tuesday's meeting said that the memo explained the donation from the Sperling Foundation had been a generous one. He said the issue is we originally thought the Sperling Foundation was going to pay the vendor, Interlink Telecommunications Inc., Deb Horas' company. He said Deb's company did this as a community service and took care of the equipment and installation. Mogle noted the foundation originally approached Horaz and she facilitated the purchase. However the attorney for the foundation recommended they pay the city because it would release them from future liability associated with the equipment. The amount he said was $8,822.00. Mogle reported that the city had specific procedures; that anything over $5,000 needed to have a competitive quote. He said that the issue now is that the money is in the City's hands and therefore asked for a waiver of procedure. He said that anything over $5000 was a council procedure. Mogle asked for the council to waive the procedure. Chris Rollins asked for a unanimous consent, Deb Horaz abstaining, for Dave to take the public equipment purchase waiver to City Council. The board unanimously agreed. Rollins asked for a motion to approve the cash analysis and bills list as submitted with the exceptions of invoices, 112008 and 112008A, from Interlink Communications to be approved on the next bills list. Ken Koch made the motion and Deb Horaz seconded the motion. The motion was approved by roll call vote: Chris Rollins-Yes, Ken Koch-Yes, Debbie Horaz-Yes and Vickie Coveny-Yes Old Business: Park Naming Requests* Chris Rollins noted that we talked about this last meeting and wanted to talk about the requests the Park Board had made. Guest Alderman Bob Allen noted that many parks were unnamed and felt that perhaps there are citizens that don't come forward with park name ideas because they haven't lived most of their lives in Yorkville. He made some suggestions and noted reasons behind his suggestions per the policy. Allen would like to recognize those who have contributed to the city of Yorkville, who have been active and have been great examples. Dave Mogle said that Dorothy Olson, one of Allen's requested individuals, is a unique person in that she was a teacher who has lived to 105 years old. Rollins agreed that Olson was worthy of some type of recognition. Mogle said she was special and there might not be many teachers who live to be that old that serves in Yorkville as long as she had. Rollins agreed that none of the names presented by Alderman Allen were out of the realm of consideration to having a park named after them. Rollins said that the one thing that prompted a lot of the conversation was how we get these suggestions fleshed out. He agreed that it would prompt us to know that a person lived to 105 2 and if he/she lived in Yorkville for all or most of their life. What comes out of that is some refinement of the policy. He said that we would like to know more about the individuals. Ken wanted to know if all then names submitted were people who actually lived in Yorkville. Deb noted that the policy does not state that a park named after someone necessarily has to live in the city; but it does say they had to make a contribution towards the city. Rollins felt there has to be a vetting process and there are no real criteria on excluding someone. He noted there are a lot of people worthy of recognition especially educators in the community. Rollins also noted that we are in no hurry to name parks. He said clearly we have a policy however it needed alteration. Mogle said he added some of the suggestions from the last meeting into the policy. He went over the policy and noted changes were highlighted and he went over those. Mogle said that he was very appreciative of Alderman Allen for taking on the challenge of getting some of these parks named. Mogle said he was willing to research the names submitted by Allen. Mogle also noted that the names Allen submitted were accompanied by a letter of permission, of the person listed, with a letter of permission to have a park named after them. Rollins wanted to know what considering applications meant and that should be spelled out in the policy. Sue Swithin brought up that fact that the board would like more information on an individual. They would like to be able to be presented or read a history on the person. She said they could put a sample packet together so others could see what the board would like to see. Swithin also brought up the benefits of a themed park and how it gets more depth. She noted that as soon as you have a themed park such as a teacher's park and then you name a single park after a teacher you face scrutiny and people would ask questions. Rollins wanted a revision in the policy. He would like three letters of recommendations so the board had some idea of whom they are considering. Mogle said he would contact the individuals Alderman Allen submitted and revise the policy before the next meeting. FY08 109 Midyear Budget Revisions Dave Mogle passed out a revised budget and said the staff had been working on completion of six-month budget revisions. He said further adjustments were certain to be made this week in anticipation of Park Board and City Council review. He said it would come back for action and discussion in January. Mogle went over the big changes on each of the budget revision reports due to the lack of revenues that they had experienced. He said that the park and recreation had cut out about $126,000 in expenses in the budget. He said it was very difficult, 3 however they did not have to cut personnel; they focused on cutting operating expenses instead. Rollins asked about the land cash fund and how confident Mogle and staff were that they were going to collect land cash. Mogle explained why they would be getting the reimbursements but said they would not come before the end of the fiscal year. He said they had three outstanding grants. Rollins stated that Parks and recreation were going to use land cash to balance the land cash deficit. He said as long as we think we are going to get that money then that is a hopeful thing. However as uncertain as to its time frame causes for concern that we could not put ourselves in a position to rely on land cash for something else. He expressed his concern on how we could not extend ourselves even deeper in the hole. Mogle then brought up the fact that salaries were being paid out of land cash. Rollins said that there had been previous discussions by the Board in the past about the limited uses of land cash and the orthodoxy of the board agreed that the land cash history and ordinance are clear and that the reason in collecting that money was to provide parks in the community. He said they had design issues and needed someone to design the parks. When they got to the idea of hiring a park designer in house we had an opportunity to save money in paying a salary then outside services for the designs. He said that some portion legitimately falls under the category of land cash expenses. He said that we'd have to break that down park- by-park and how many hours the park planner was putting into each park. If the City wanted the Park Designer to take on other responsibilities yet the position was paid solely out of land cash then they were really clouding the issue. He was concerned if we were ever audited over the way land cash was used we could be accused of collecting the money under false pretense for the idea it was being used exclusively for parks and recreation. Rollins said they had already revised the projections on what they were going to take in on land cash, and do know that it is a variable scale thing they can not be using it to pay for essential services. He said that if the persons rendering their services were paid out of land cash they would have to follow the logic of the system; that is their services would cease to be available if land cash ceases to be available and that is not going to work. Rollins felt that land cash is fairly restrictive and it is highly variable on the amount of land cash we could be given at any time. He felt that it should not be used to pay for professionals that we need. Rollins did not want to have to explain how we spent our land cash. Land cash shouldn't be thought of as revenue to be tapped into, he said. Mogle said that he'd go to the Mayor to let her know that there are some strong concerns over the land cash funds especially for salaries. REC Center Report & Capital Improvement Quotes* Dave Mogle said that a REC Center Report was a direct request from the Administration Committee. He said Sue had worked very hard putting together a 4 report, and the data is still being analyzed. He handed out the data and asked the board to look at it and to forward questions to him. He noted that the top sheet was a list of what the Administration Committee wanted answered and the report also answers questions on what kind of progress they had made. Sue talked about how she put together her report and answered the board's questions. She said they were competitive to the market in their club prices and what they had to offer. Rollins wanted to be kept updated on the changing information and information being added. The board said they would like to see a quarterly report. There was unanimous consent for Mogle to first take the report to the Mayor and then onto the Administration Committee. New Business: 2008 Concession Report Sue said that Tim put this report together. She said a lot of things that were at Beecher are now at Bridge. Rollins said, over all the report was good and they do pretty well with our concessions for not being a professional concessions. The board did not have any major concern or questions. Employee Wellness Program at REC Center* Turned tape two over Dave Mogle said that they were hoping to do an employee benefit program that would allow city employees to utilize and participate in an employee wellness program through the REC Center. He said that the staff was looking into whether such a program would have a positive impact on city health insurance premiums. Mogle wanted to bring it to the Board before he took it to the council. Rollins said that it would be great if we could get a reduction on insurance premiums, but people were going to have to keep that in mind when they look at the finals for the REC Center and that it may make a contribution in saving the city money in other ways. The Board did not feel that a city employee's full membership should be waived however they thought a coupon could be offered. Sue said they had to look into the legalities of that. Raintree Letter of Credit/Park B Punch List* Dave Mogle said that the letter of Credit for Unit 1 of the Raintree Subdivision is set to expire December 11, 2008. The developer has yet to complete a punch list that was provided in early 2008 and wishes to pay an amount to the City that satisfies the cost for the work. Staff has reviewed the proposed amount and believes it adequately fulfills the developer's obligation. Mogle needed the board's approval for the amount to be paid. Rollins asked for a unanimous consent to have this inspection memorandum be passed. The board unanimously agreed. 5 Reports: Director Report 1. Dave Mogle said that Chris would be awarded a ten-year award Tuesday in the City Council Meeting. 2. Mogle noted that the Mayor informed the council members that she had received a communication from the Forest Preserve District. It said they are in agreement with a cash reimbursement to the city and the provision of the city requested easement under certain stipulations. But they have given no written confirmation of land for active Recreation use. Parks Report None Recreation Report None Additional Business: Chris Rollins brought up a grant program that he had heard about through the American Association of Dermatologists. They are giving out $8000 per grant to build shelters in parks to keep people out of the sun. Dave Mogle said that they would look into it and find out what we needed to do to get a shelter funded through their association. Rollins said an $8,000 grant is a very generous grant. Adjournment: Chris Rollins asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 11:15 pm. Deb Horaz made the motion and Vickie Covney seconded the motion. Next meeting: December 18, 2008 (Note that December Park Board Meetings are on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays in December) *Items needing Board approval or recommendation Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Jamie Cheatham 6