Public Hearing to Consider Adoption of Resolution Amending Master Fee Resolution No. 12191 to Add and Revise Recreation and Park Fees. (Recreation and Parks 280)
gym fields that are already reserved. So they implement throughout the year as as new bookings come up. So this recommendation comes before you. It was everything you see before you was recommended by the Recreation and Parks Commission. It was put together after looking at other comparable recreation programs in nearby cities, as well as, in some cases, local comparisons in Alameda. And it's also really considering the balance between budgets and attempting to keep affordability as well for a community. So for some quick background, some high level challenges that we're always often facing regarding that impact fees, as you know, the aluminum minimum wage increase from two $15 on July 1st 20 or will increase to 15 on July 2020. It's currently 1315 hour thanks to council. The budget includes an increase to the general fund transfer into the rec fund in part to offset some of those minimum wage increase impacts. The assumption, though, was that it was a partial subsidies subsidizing and that the rest of the difference would be made up an increase of fees. LAPD has over 150 part time staff, which is more than 90% of the city's part time workforce. So the minimum wage and fee, the minimum wage and impacted are our budget. And generally that is primarily in the programs of youth, teens and aquatics, which are all heavy in part time staff. We also have overall increasing staff costs and facilities and direct costs, janitorial and other contractual. We also have increasing overhead costs that now exceeds well over 25%, which is administrative staff office, as well as our cost allocation and our internal service fund fees, which are what are that we pay for other city services, whether it's facility improvements , facility maintenance, other city internal services? And are those internal fund charges increased for us last year from 860,000 to this year, 1.4 million. So that's a really big difference that we're trying to work with to then find ways to have a balanced recreation fund. So as I mentioned, we compare with neighboring cities. It's included in your packet that comparison cities like San Leandro, Emeryville, Fremont, Union City. We also do local comparisons, for example, with Girls Inc for our afterschool programs and then also with some of the large rental facilities with the auto club. And there's also some gym comparisons. We also have we always make sure and that was a focus this year is that nonresidents are paying at least 15 to 20% higher fees. We feel that it's important to really value our residents and ensure they're paying significantly lower fees. We do our fees based on a what I call the LAPD cost recovery model. What this triangle represents is really the top of the triangle is the higher cost, the higher fee programs that are expected to have a net profit that really are individual benefit things that people have a choice to do. People can choose to sign up for adult softball or adult volleyball or specialty camps, or to rent the old club or a large picnic area for a birthday party. The group benefit in the middle is generally covering its cost or making a small net profit. Those are things that are kind of our core recreation services in terms of summer camps, afterschool programs, tiny tots, things that benefit quite a few people, and we want to keep them affordable. And then there's the high community benefit at the bottom, which are all of our free or low cost programs. We have free parks and playgrounds, free summer baseball, free and low cost programs at Mastic. I'm proud to say that Empties really is one of the few remaining recreation departments. It offers absolutely free programing to elementary school age youth at six parks every day after school in five parks all day in the summer. We are offering free drop in. Anybody can come hang out with us and hang out with the leader for an activity at no cost in these days. It's really unique and unusual. I think something special that really happens because of the support of the community in this council last year, five years. We've also had the Free Park Baseball program with over 250 kids participating annually thanks to the sport of the Elks. And then we also have scholarships for all of our youth programs. Also, we have ensured that every single park where there's picnic rentals, there's we hold one aside as non-removable. So there's always at least one free first come, first serve picnic area. So overall what this triangles representing that we do have some fees that are higher for those high benefit and the net profit of those helps offset the high community benefit for the programs that are free or low cost. In reverse in regards to the fees that are being revised increased for 2020. We're increasing the field for Alameda youth organizations to $6 an hour. It's been going up and up a dollar an hour a year for the past several years after a significant fee restructuring in 2013. We're increasing recommending increasing the Alameda Point gym for Alameda organizations and schools to four practices to $35 an hour for games to $40 an hour and for tournaments for $45 an hour. We've not increased the gym fees since 2013, but since then, staff costs, admin costs, contractual costs, janitorial. Everything I've mentioned earlier has been increasing. We separated this year. The game and the tournament costs from a fee cost structure from the from the practice, because there is a higher impact, there's higher number of people coming, which is a larger impact on the facility, higher janitorial costs, more toilet paper, that kind of thing. It's also not uncommon. It's quite common actually for cities, including our own school district in their rental structures when there's a revenue generating activity to have a higher fee structure for that activity. So for example, the Alameda Unified School District, our high schools charge $40 an hour for their high school gym use, plus custodial costs, and it's $90 an hour plus custodial costs if you are doing a revenue generating activity like a tournament. We also want to make sure practices and games stayed lower because really that's the core of youth sports in our opinion. Really, the value is to make sure kids are playing and we see tournaments as more of an optional activity. I also have heard recently a lot of comparison in terms of the gym versus the field fees because on first flush it looks very different. So I want to give you a quick breakdown. So when if an organization like the soccer club decides to do a tournament at one of our fields, there are a dish or even a game. There are additional fees. So it's not just the $6 an hour. There's also $25 an hour for lights. There's $40 an hour for game prep. So our staff is going out and lining and prepping the field. It's $40 a game for that. Sometimes they'll even have us come out twice a day to line it in the middle of a tournament, and then it's $250 per day for a tournament. So if, again, a group like Alameda Soccer comes out and decides to do a one day tournament, we'll call it an eight hour tournament at a field. If you take those costs of $6 an hour, plus the game prep, $40 game prep plus the $250, it actually I amortize it out to about to $42.25 per hour. So it's just a different type of fee structure. And yeah, so it's just different how the fee is structured. We also have increased our rentals specifically in our focus really this year was on nonresident rates, so we increased nonresident rates for our picnics and for our club. We also added a Saturday 15% surcharge. So what that is, is it's essentially our Saturdays. The club are booked out for a year. We're currently booked out to September 20, 2020, but we really are going to be trying to encourage people to try a Friday night, try Sunday afternoon, and that really maximizes our capacity and rental ability at the club. We also added set up fees for the garden because people want to have their wedding out in the garden. We didn't have a setup fee for that and we made some changes such as deleting. We used to say setup fee was only for 150 people or more, but people found the loophole and said, Well , it's actually our events, 140 people and now I don't have to pay the fee. And they actually had 150 plus at the event. Right. So we just started really looking at some of those details like that. I want to be clear that on rentals we kept the Alameda resident for Picnic and Club the same. We also increased our youth program fees for afterschool summer camp day camp. And again, this is to help us offset really to offset our part time minimum wage costs. We had a higher increase for our group swim lessons and that really was because we have waitlists that are teed up on those. And it we're trying to add more, but we're also trying to build a new city aquatic center, which would help a lot with that demand, but with our current facilities were very limited. However, we also again looked at other comparables and our costs, even with the new rate, is half that of Aqua Aquatic and still a good $10 per lesson under even Harbor Bay Club. So we really looked at local compare and comparisons for that. In terms of new fees for 2020. There's two rooms at the gym ones. They're about 750 ish square feet. And we recently cleaned them out. They used to be exercise rooms for the Navy. They've been sitting vacant, unused for four years. And so we cleaned them out. We're looking to give them a fresh coat of paint, some flooring, and then we can use that not only for if someone wants to use it for a tournament as an add on, as a side space, but more specifically also for our PD classes. But also we've had interest from martial arts groups, dance groups, because there's mirrors on all the walls to potentially do long term rentals as well. For that, we also are adding an electricity use for inflatables for picnics. This actually I feel like falls under the Carp Climate Action Resiliency Plan because if I want to go rent Sweeney Park, say, and bring a jumper. What I currently do is pay $85 to the jumper company for a rental that's a gas powered rental, and now it's spewing gas out, fumes out and and and the subsequent pollution . So what we're trying to do is to be piloted at Franklin Park. We created a lockbox with an electrical outlet that we then can open for people so they can instead plug in their inflatable. They pay us $20 to help us recoup the electrical costs they're still saving money from. Normally they would have to pay for the generator, which they now don't have to. And it's a cleaner way to run this program. So we piloted it at Franklin and we're looking at it at a number of other parks, and then we have some other things, such as adding a security deposit for equipment. We have PaaS tables, chairs, things like that, that sometimes local Alameda nonprofits want to borrow. And so this is simply a security deposit. We're still doing it at no charge to the local organizations. We only do it for Alameda nonprofits. But we just want to make sure if it gets damaged, we have a way to to offset that. We're also adding marketing discounts, which we haven't done before, and we just want to have the flexibility to be able to implement these. So whether it's a Earlybird, 10% off, say we're advertising for camp, that helps us know our numbers and know how to staff if we know better what our registration is earlier in the season or bring a friend, vouchers, things like that to really encourage more registration. So with that, I'm open to any questions. I counsel any questions about the staff report. Councilman Brody. Thank you. Just a few. Maybe we can go back to page four. So on the gym, what do we charge now? Oops. Too far. It's currently $30 per hour. $30. Okay. So. I mean, if you have a tournament, you pretty much have to book the whole gym, right? I mean, all four courts. That's what they do. Yeah. If someone holds a camp or something like that, we used to have an all facility fee. Now we're doing it per court. So provides more flexibility for us to maximize the space. So someone could rent two courts or three courts instead of the whole facility, and then we could rent out the other court. Okay. So that 15 that's going up from 30 to 45, which is like a 50% increase, right? Yeah, right. Okay. So and then if you're doing an all you have to do all four courts, that's going from 120 to 180. Right. So that that's $60, right? Correct. Okay. So and then on the. I appreciate the explanation on the soccer field. So you said that was an average of 40 to 25 an hour. Right. For a tournament. And how much is that going up? It's just a dollar. Right. Okay. All right. So we're they've. Been doing incremental increases, which we haven't done on the gym. Okay. And do you know where they were on the soccer fields like six years ago, where. When I started in 2012, they were at $500 per season for as much time as they wanted. Okay. And now and now it's a set fee of $6 per hour. So the problem with the structure before not only in being way too low, it also meant that someone, an organization like soccer club, that you could use a ton of fields and so they would amortize out. I did the math back in the time this was seven years ago to like $0.50 an hour. But then you had a group like lacrosse that that only used a little bit of field, and so they were like $20 an hour. So it was really unfair system in that way. So do we really use a lot more toilet paper at a tournament to justify a 50% increase? I mean. Well, it's certainly not just toilet paper. It's also the all of the overhead increasing costs of our budget. So, I mean, what additional services do we provide at tournaments that we don't provide, say, at games when someone's renting out the whole gym? Or practice. Yeah. It's just a heavier use of the facility. But we don't have any additional like personnel cost or. No, we're not. Adding security car or any of that stuff. Okay. And do we know, like the breakdown of the youth basketball between like boys and girls? I don't have that information directly in front of me. We abide by the Fair Play Act. And so the way we schedule, we schedule to ensure all of the girls are scheduled first. So we have up to 50% girls. If we don't reach 50% girls because we didn't have enough requests for it, then we'll start filling in the rest. And if suddenly we lost like all of those some of these nonprofits that provide an opportunity for young girls to play basketball, I mean, you think they would have an opportunity to play or what do you think would happen? I know that's kind of hypothetical speculation, but would they just not play where they go to Oakland? I mean, what would happen? I don't know. They could play at the high schools. They. That's so hypothetical. It's a bit hard for me to answer. But we don't really have organized basketball until you get to high school. I think that's my understanding. Right. There's the Alameda Education Foundation does a middle school basketball as well. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions about the staff report before we go to public comment? Councilmember Vela. Um, Director, you had mentioned in your presentation that there's plans for updates to the Alameda Point Gym. Can you comment on when those updates are are going to be happening? Yes, I've been working with public works on the restroom, adding a restroom that's a pre-fabricated restroom on the exterior of the gym with three of each gender and additional toilets on the other side for the skate park in public. We're in the middle of design now and I just met with them today. So hoping to move that forward as quickly as possible and keep. We talking about like a year from now. I hope not. I'd like it to be sooner than that with us within the year. Absolutely. In terms of getting a plan approved or. No, in terms of construction, we're we're in the middle of design. And in terms of the floors. Mm hmm. On the courts. Do we have any plans for improving or, you know, fixing those? We actually been starting to get quotes a couple of years ago. They were as low as 65,000 and they've been inching up. So we are currently trying to find ways to to fund that. The recreation fund doesn't have the capacity to fund capital projects like that. That's really operating. You know, these are operating costs versus the capital costs. So we're trying to find a way to fund that. We recognize the need for the flooring redo. Okay. And what's the what do we it's you said it's gone up. So it's gone up to it's getting closer to 100,000. But it's none of that is none of those capital improvements are funded by these proposed fee increases. They're not. These are for operational costs. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Thanks. Director Woolsey. Let's go to our public speakers. How many do we have? We have two speakers. Okay. Sorry. Speakers. When you're called, you'll each have up to 3 minutes to speak. Marion Carter and Tracy Jensen. Okay, Miss Carter, you're up first. And if I could ask you to please not approach the Council, but to go to the city clerk and she will distribute whatever whatever materials you got there. Thank you. I probably wasn't. Going to put it on the other. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and all the council people. My name is Marianne Carter, reside at 408 Fairhaven Road. I've been a resident of Alameda for over 19 years. I love this town. I love living here. I also love. Helping youth do sports here. I've been a part of the Alameda Youth Basketball Board for 12 years. I've been a coach and a referee for that group. I've been a part of the Alameda Vipers Basketball Club for ten years. I'm on the board. I've been a coach and I'm now director of the entire operation. Those are both nonprofit organizations. I'm here today to speak. About the proposed gym rental fees for Alameda Point. I love Alameda Point. As do many of my. Coaches and players. We're very invested in it. We spend a. Lot of time there. I've never seen Director Amy at the gym in the ten years that I've been there. She may be there, but not during the evening for practices, and I haven't seen. Her at a tournament. It's it's an asset, but it's starting to be in really bad shape. I have pictures on my phone. From this weekend's. Restrooms that were not tended to, and I'm happy to show those to you. But that's really ugly in the water and the urine was draining. Down the drain. So those are not the responsibility of the people who are running the gym. Allow me to. Vipers. Before Alameda Vipers. No one played basketball from a public school off the island. Until they were in high school. So part of. The reason we formed it is I'm from. Indiana. I love basketball, I want people to play it. And we gave kids an opportunity who wanted to play basketball. To get on a team and go play in Oakland, go across the bridge, toughen up and come back as. A result of that. I think indirectly, at least. Alameda High School men's. Basketball. Team won the NorCal championship. With 66%. Of the team. Having played for the Alameda Vipers. And three of the starters on the Alameda Vipers. In addition to that, every high school here now has some Alameda Viper players. And they are in demand. Three girls from. Saint Joe were on the cover of a magazine recently. Those three girls came through the Alameda Viper program before they went to high school. I'm not here to say don't increase the fees, but I am here to say let's. Be reasonable about the increase in the. Fees. These fees are going to hit the Alameda Vipers program very hard. Now we are talking about tournaments, but the Alameda Viper program. Produces a lot of other things. Let me get to this. The tournament income. That we receive is in. Your thing. It's on page five. We make 300 to $400 a tournament. That's it. That's all we make. We put that to scholarships. Without that, we will not be able to fund 20 to 30% of our kids to be on scholarship. The other thing is the comparisons are incorrect and those are also on page six. And I. Apologize, I had some other. Points, but I'm out of time. Thank you. You had 25 seconds. But I did. Yeah. Oh, I thought I keep talking. Okay, 24 seconds. I'll get back to this. I just ask that the fees not be increased that much. They can be increased over time. It's just a big burden to hit us all at once with that fees. We like I said, we'll go from making a little bit on the tournaments. And yes, I know money comes in, but guess what? We pay referees the most of anybody. We pay Alameda minimum wage. Some people who put on those tournaments, they don't pay that. And we want to keep coach card. Thank you. Our next speaker is Traci Jensen. To the evening. Mayors Ashcroft and members of the council. My name is Tracy Johnson. And like Coach Carter, I consider myself an advocate for our youth in Alameda, although with much less patience. And I'm not a coach, but I am also on the board of the Omni Youth Basketball Association. And what I wanted to point out to you is I read the resolution and part of the resolution and one of the where I says the Alameda Recreation and Park District strives to offer high quality recreation programing. That is recreation programing. And that is certainly my experience here in Alameda that programs allow me to parks and rec have benefited myself and my family and many families in alameda. I i alameda has it's also true and it's not in the resolution. But allow me to have as as Coach Carter mentioned, a tremendous, often overlooked resource, which is our nonprofit youth sports organization, that majority of these youth sports organizations, including lacrosse, is represented here. Soccer club that that I see someone from the soccer club here as well. There are these flag football across country, including the soccer club and AYP have been founded in the last 30 years and up until the 1980s, most field and court activities were provided for to kids in Alameda for free at through Alameda Parks and Rec Department. So that's something to be considered. And I and I wanted you to know and I think you all do know that historically and a councilmember district of the city news sports organizations have worked in partnership as in 2009, when the city worked with the Army, the soccer club, to address the inequity in allocation of soccer fields to non Alameda organizations. And John, our vice mayor worked closely on on that initiative. So these partnerships, in my opinion, are what makes me the best place in the world to raise a family. And what I would say is, rather than instead of considering nonprofit volunteer youth leagues to be fee generators, as is provided in the staff report , that you maintain the fees or at least increase them just slightly in order to avoid the increased cost to youth and families. As Coach Carter mentioned that many, many families have the opportunity to see the variety of parks and gyms in Alameda only when their child plays in youth league. Those parents and their children will grow up to love our open space, as I did when I played softball at Lincoln Cruzi or in other fields through PD. And finally, I want to also address another subject, but I want to commend the Council for your adoption of the Vision Zero Policy to address pedestrian and bicycle safety. And when I was 16, a few years ago, I survived a skull fracture after being hit by a truck on Island Drive in Alameda. I survived thanks to the immediate response from FDA paramedics and the excellent care I received at Army Hospital. Seeing the recent number of traffic versus bicycle incidents brings back that experience to me, and I applaud your commitment to appropriate traffic solutions. Our community will recognize the hard work on this road to ensure they remain bikeable and. Make you happy. All right. I'm no further public speakers, no further. So I'm closing public comment and opening it up to council discussion. Who's going first? I'll go. Councilmember Ody So thank you, Madam Mayor, and thanks, Coach Carter, and thanks, Tracy, for coming out. I did have a chance to meet with Coach Carter yesterday. Right. So. I'm okay with this except for the issue of the gym fees. And I am concerned because I think it does impact our non-profits really significantly when you bump a fee up for a tournament by 50%. So I would propose that we, you know, keep them all the same or at least keep the tournament. What is it now, like, around $40 an hour or $35 an hour instead of bumping it all the way up to $45 an hour. And the reason is this, you know, these these nonprofits operate on a very thin margin. And they Coach Carter said, especially for the Vipers, if they make any money at all, it goes to scholarships. And what a scholarships do. They help people, kids that may not otherwise be able to play play basketball. So I realize not everyone's going to be I'm going to date myself here, Sheryl Miller. But, you know, we probably have some girl that's growing up that wouldn't be able to play if she didn't get a scholarship, you know, or she wouldn't be able to play if, you know, because her family can't afford it. So and if groups like the Vipers go away, then she'll have no option to play. So those are the things that worry me. And I think that it was telling to see the impact of the fee on the financial statements of the tournament. And those things just won't happen then. So that's the thing that concerns me and that for, you know, what to me is a small amount to the city is a big amount to some of these non-profits. And there's a whole list of them in here. I mean, you could you could go through them. And I'm glad we heard from two more. And there was another email we got earlier today from another gentleman who let me just try to from Max Langford, you know, and he puts on a camp and it's pretty low cost camp. He doesn't charge that much. And, you know, it it helps out youth Alameda youth and you know this type of of increase would make his camp almost cost prohibitive would put it at the range of you know, 4 to $500, which is what the Warriors charge, according to him. So his he's not competing with the gold standard of basketball camps and the Golden State Warriors. He's trying to provide opportunity to kids that might not otherwise have an opportunity. So I think we can do better for our nonprofits. We can do better for our young people, you know, better for our girls who want to play basketball by, you know, minimizing these fees, not reducing them so high. You know, my personal preference is, you know, we keep the gym fee at 140 for the total gym, which is, what, 75, 70, 35. But if any of my colleagues would prefer something more gradual, I mean, I'd be open to that. But, you know, I just think it's a big chunk to bite off for our nonprofits. So we got in line. Councilman Rudy, so. Well, thank you very much for the presentation. It seems as though perhaps this year, more than ever since we've been having these presentations, there seems to be a heightened discussion around them, largely because I think to use the phrase, you know, frankly, the economic and financial chickens are coming home to roost. And what I mean by that is when you increase the minimum wage to $15, uh, a were the responsibility that cities ought to do when you increase the minimum wage to $15, when you have a large amount of your general fund budget going towards public safety and not as much that leaves so little room for services like Alameda Parks and RECs. So what that means is. Our Parks and Rec Department has to deal with these increasing costs on the one hand and dwindling amount of money available to it. On the other hand. And so how do you make that up? Unfortunately, you make it up by, you know, these user fees. And I think if we're going to have a discussion about the Alameda Point gym, I think we need to look at this systematically because we won't be we wouldn't be addressing the underlying issue as to why we're here in the first place. Because we're here in the first place. That economic chicken is coming home to roost because there is there are these larger financial policy discussions that are kind of the backdrop against which this whole issue about the fees perhaps being too high for Alameda Point, Jim, are occurring. So I would recommend that we continue with that. We support the recommendation put forward by our director because believe you me, it's not like she wants to raise fees. You know, if she had if she had her druthers, she wouldn't do that or her staff wouldn't do that. That's not what they're here for. But unfortunately. Some people are feeling the brunt of these fee increases. So I would recommend that we go move forward with the recommendation from staff with regard to the fees. And if we want to have a larger conversation about, you know, how we deal with cost increases as a result of policy decisions or how we distribute our expenses, general fund expenses, again, as a result of policy decisions. That's a decision that's a discussion that we ought to have, because out of that discussion, we can then say, how much more are we to be funding APD? You know, at the end of the day, I would love to have APD funded bet. Like, you know, back in the days when Tracy Jensen and I were a part of our PDS in the seventies and the eighties, but every year, you know, whether it's Mayor, Bizzaro Mayor or Beverly Johnson or Mayor Mary Gilmore or Spenser or or now Mayor Maryland as the Ashcraft, you know, we're forced to make these kinds of tough decisions as to where do we find the money to provide for these great, you know, neighborhood park services. And unfortunately, in this day and age, you know, directors like Amy Woolridge are forced to look at look look out for increased fees . Thank you. Councilmember de SA Just going down the line if I may. Vice Mayor Not quite. So I have a couple of questions. I don't think they'll be surprising, but I wanted to wait until we had the speakers before I asked them. I did want to thank Director Aldridge from for taking some time to talk to me about this issue. Also, I just, uh, I listened to the Rec and park commission meeting and I just wanted to give them kudos as well. It was a good conversation. I think they they actually found some came to some compromises already for us on this. But I appreciated not just the recommendation that they made, but actually some of the direction they gave for future consideration. So, uh, you know, I well, one question is, and it almost gets a little bit too Councilmember de SACS point, but do we have a policy for how we determine what we're charging for a facility in terms of. Cost to maintain it versus what we know, how much we're trying to capture back through fees, etc., at this point in time. Right. I mean, we're generally generally trying. It depends on the facility. If it's picnic or club, then we're trying to actually back to the triangle make a profit to then offset the free parks and playgrounds programs for these facilities. We're trying more to break even. There might be a small net profit, but really it's to help offset. Not just our direct costs for the facility attendant who's there and the janitorial costs, but the staff who are doing the scheduling, the staff who are overseeing the projects, the every you know, the office, the fees we have to transfer the departments, all of that. So it's really all of the admin. And so our goal is to get to 100% cost recovery on these types of. Programs and all programs, whether it be soccer or. These titles. Yeah, thank you. In terms of fields and gym rentals. And I think that could actually be an interesting conversation at some point in time to bring back to to us, because there may be places where we want to toy around with that a little bit in terms of providing direction to the to the Commission for the Future discussion. When we talked, I had suggested maybe we look at what what might a more smooth ride. So so you know, what I've heard is not don't raise anything what I've heard is the one year jump is is killing us. And I know that we've gone through some issues whereby we had to rescind our bar fees a few years ago, etc.. So I know I know that that, you know, there were six years or so where we didn't actually increase our gym fees and that that's a problem we had. We had that conversation around rent control, right? Sometimes if you're not ever and then you go to a big one, it has an impact on on folks. So I was curious, you know, Councilmember Ortiz suggested that we just kind of keep it where it is and whatever else. What would the for for staff, what would the cost in making that decision? But my my question really is, is there a way for us to smooth out this current proposal, 44 knowing that you had asked for, I think 60% so, so smooth out the 44% and kind of identify how we're going to move forward so that we catch up to where we want to be. But also, don't, you know, maybe go up quite so fast in the first year, right. Understood. So I think there's a couple options. One is to bring the tournament fee down to the same as the gave game fee to practices at 35, you know, games and tournaments at 40. Another is to do what you're indicating Vice Mayor Knox White is to amortize across several years. I looked at options for that. We could, for example, we could, but I would tend to do them with both get practice and games tournaments and just again, keep game tournament on the same fee structure. And in 2022 practices at 35 game tournaments at 38, 21 to 37, at practice 44 game tournament, 22 to 38 for practice and 45 for game tournament. So that's a way to more slowly ramp up. Right. Okay. And from the from a budget standpoint, would there be a concern about, you know, obviously that means you gonna have a hole at some point in time. Do is that mean we're going to you know we have we this year we expanded how much money we're giving for parks. Right. We dipped into the general fund and were giving maintenance funds for the first time ever, etc.. Right. Just so people know, we're we're not starving parks, but they're always looking for money. Right. Would that are we going to start eating into that maintenance fund? Are we going to know the maintenance fund is a cap? So it's a totally different fund. And that maintenance fund is for more of the capital projects. Capital maintenance projects it will potentially eat into. And I'll just be being I'll just end up being creative with the budget and we're always very careful in how we expend our funds. So really being careful in that the rec fund is already in a net deficit for this year, almost $100,000. So it's something we're already looking at this year, all of our staff and trying to see what we can do to make that net zero by the end of the year instead by not by reducing our expenditures . So and really that net deficit is due to this really significant increase we experienced in our transfer out to other funds. So it's it's a it's a balancing act that we're trying to find. But so it's it's hard to say the exact dollar amount that it will put us behind, but I think that this could be a good way to go. Okay. And then just lastly, and I know we can't go there tonight exactly. But at the rec and park, there was a conversation around partnerships. So some organizations are called rec partners and they get a lower fee, etc., you know, and nobody's asked me to ask you this, right? So Miriam might be like, don't do that. But we have a lot. But it does seem that the Vipers actually provide some junior basketball time, etc., that is not available anywhere else. Right. They're the only ones who are really doing that. And there might be some opportunities for us to look at making them partners for some of those projects that would allow them to drop some of their costs, other places to kind of offset some of the increases that we're going to be asking them to make over the years for the tournament and whatever else. You know, not everything they do has to be a partnership. I'm not sure how we determine partners, but I just I think if we can be creative with that as well, I think it would be a worthwhile thing. Yeah. Understood. Thank you. Has Mirabella. I think I heard one of my colleagues say that he opposes the minimum wage or that the minimum wage is somehow causing all of this. And I think that there's a number of factors that went into it that were not necessarily related to the minimum wage. Namely, the fact that we didn't increase for many, many years and now we're trying to play catch up all of a sudden. I do think, you know, it's a it's a big increase to two level levy at one time. I do think ramping up as Director Aldridge proposed makes sense. But I also think that increasing the costs to use the facility without improving the facility is problematic. And I you know, my husband plays, you know, and has played in the league out there. And I was out there when I was pregnant and I literally had to get in my car and drive somewhere else to go pee. As pregnant women have to go to the restroom quite often because the restrooms were out of order and frankly, I didn't want to have to wade through what was there in order to even see if there was something that was working and that that's just not acceptable. And I know that we have problems out there, but I think that we need to as we have the fees increasing, we need to lay out a plan for making sure that the facility is as nice as our fields, as nice as are other facilities. And I think the Council needs to be working on that with our parks director to make sure it goes hand in hand. I like the vice mayors, I suppose. Well, I guess you could say about finding a way to partner. I was going to say, I know Mike, my colleague, referenced a different female basketball player. I was going to say not every girl is going to grow up to be Lisa Leslie or Sue Bird. But but I certainly think that we have a lot of talent here on Island, and that talent will continue to grow if we nurture it. And part of nurturing it is making sure that we're partnering and making sure things our programs are accessible and also making sure that our facilities are usable. The other thing that I think could be helpful out there is there is no real concessions area. And that is something if we are thinking of increasing the fees, having some sort of concession area, whether it be outside of the facility and then we limit, we can still say you can't bring food in or something like that. And when we're looking at some of these exterior updates to the building that we also try to see if we can build in ways for our partners to fundraise at the facility. And I think we could also find ways to use that in our in our favor, and that might help us bridge the gap. So I'm willing to move forward on this tonight, with the exception of I think there was a proposal put out or supposedly put out there about ramping up, and I would be in favor of that. In the merits to like to speak. Thanks, everyone, for your comments. And, you know, my colleagues have said a lot of what I was thinking. Some things that stand out to me is that part of the problem we have with the steep increase in the gym fee is the fees, as has been stated, haven't been increased since 2013. So I would be extremely reluctant to support not doing any fee increase this year. I do think council member Vella makes a good point that and I do know the condition of the gym a little bit. It's amazing my kids now 28, but my daughter used to play actually in the United Methodist Church basketball team and they had their practices in their games and a lot of their tournaments there. And yeah, the restrooms weren't too great back then and I'm sure they haven't improved with time. So I'm glad to hear about these plans to do the ones outside. But I, I just don't think we we can't kid ourselves in saying that we want to do all these things but not increase the fees. And I also I appreciate that the vice mayor actually listened to the recreation part commission meeting. I didn't. I know our Recreation and Park Commission. They're a really competent, thoughtful group. And they unanimously approved this and, you know, with some some modifications. So I always like to respect and give great deference to the recommendations of our boards and commissions because they put a lot of thought and time and effort into it before they come to us. I a and I don't know. Accounts Director Wooldridge, if you even know what the impact, I mean, it troubles me to hear that the recreation fund is already $100,000 in in arrears. Know it has a deficit of $800,000. So that's certainly going to grow. I could. And then the other thing I just want to throw out is I think and I think, you know, the Vipers are doing a great job. I think youth sports are so important. And I think in some ways they're even more important for girls just because historically girls have had fewer opportunities. And it's just such great preparation for going out into life and trying to level the playing field literally and figuratively as you move into the working world. So we want to encourage that, but we also have needs to meet as a city. But I do think there may be possibilities to help the Vipers with some scholarship opportunities and not seen from the city. But just as I sit here, I'm kind of formulating some ideas about people. I'd like to talk to you. I will connect with you later, Coach Carter. So the I really like the recommendations that have come to us. I would be willing to entertain the idea of ramping up a little more slowly, but not to have no increase in the the gym fees. And again, the there also is a comparison of other facilities around the area. So what I'm sorry, I'm just pulling my notes back up again that I think. Vice Mayor, you were saying. Uh hmm. What? So, are you saying a smaller incremental raise? Yeah. So from my standpoint, we could either we could have direct or Reuters. I couldn't I couldn't. Come up with. Quote, your proposed up. The other thing would be we we approve all the fees except this one and ask her to bring back the the the phased proposal on consent at our next meeting. I you know, we could just kind of continue that that way everybody would have a chance to look at it. And you could do the phase if you wanted to. You could do the phase now. Right. Can you speak more into your microphone? So can you, if you wanted to, you could do the phase two. Now, if Director Woolridge has won that she's come. To do you. So so let me just get a sense of if we were to, to, uh, propose that, would we have a majority that I guess you want to see what the specific phasing is, but. Okay. I think so. So. So then yeah. Can you take a minute and tell us what that might look like or do you need. Absolutely. I'll tell you my proposal, then you can tweak it from there. So I'll start with the practice fee, 20, 20, 35, which is what was already proposed 21, 37 and 2238. About can you do that again? You were doing years, right? Sorry, 20, 20. 20, 2035. Which is what's. Proposed. 35 for games. Right. In general. Practice. Practice. Sorry. For a practice OC 2020 137. 2022, $38. Four games tournaments. 2020. $38. 2021 $40 and 2020 245. And again, I'm open to any suggestions. What do you think, counsel? Can I. Counselor? Rudy. So I thank you for for that quick math. So right now we're just thinking of 2020 and the practice is going to 35, right? So correct. I mean, today we would only be approving I assume you would only be approving 2020 fees. So but I would take this as guidance to next year's fees. Okay. And then your proposal is to sink the league in the tournament at the same number, correct. And do 38, 40, 45. I mean, I think that works for me. I just want to add one quick comment, and I think my colleague, Ms.. Isabella talked about it as well. I mean, nobody here was against raising the fees. I think that even the Vipers agreed that there was some need to raise the fees and, you know, the 32, 35 and we did do the minimum wage funding through the budget. So the difference, there was no minimum wage impact of making the tournament fee 45 versus the practice 35. So to say that that difference was due to minimum wage I think is not quite accurate. So that's why I make sure that I clear the record on that one. Okay. Any other comments? Oh, the city attorney would like to comment. We're always happy to hear from you. The city the city manager and I have been talking a bit about this. So because the fees tonight, our agenda this is 2020 fees as Director Wooldridge have said, any fees beyond 2020 we would have to take as direction instead of adoption. As fees beyond 2020. Yes, always. Always good when our titles match, right. Yes. Understood. So we can we can vote on the 2020 fee schedule and you can take it as direction going forward to come back to us at, you know, in the future. But this would at least get you through what you what you need to get your fees set up so you can start doing your summer programing and all that. Yeah. And it gives a clear path for the community and sets expectations. Okay. Can I make a motion? Okay. Yes, I'll entertain a motion. So I'll move to approve the item. With the adjustments for 2020 that director Woolverton spelled. Out just for the gym fees. Correct. For the for the fees. And just remind us that we gave you direction for the future. If we balk at it next year. Let's get it seconded and then we'll have discussions. Okay. Seconded by Councilmember. Right. Where did you have it? Well, I'm not sure why we can't just do all the fees. Plus this. Yeah, we. Did. We did. Just. That with the exception of. The. Placement, whatever. Substitution. Okay. Adjusting the 2022. All right. Very good. All right. We've had a motion. We have a second. All in favor. That sounds unanimous to me. Right? Okay. Thank you, everyone. Counsel, we are going to take an eight minute break. Can you be back at ten? Ten because we have a couple more items still to cover. But you doing really well and I appreciate it. Thank you. Are you ready for us? I missed you, city manager. You wanted to join the party? Right. We're. We're going to get started because it is 1030. Remind me how many items to work with. Two more regular items. And then two or four. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So now we are moving on to where are we? Madam Clerk, which is introduction of ordinance authorizing the city manager or his designee to execute an amendment to the lease with Pacific shops for the Tidelands property located along Clements Street between Aluminum Marina Drive and William Street, generally known as Alameda Marina. Right. City. Me Mayor and City Council member. Wait a minute. Yes. Councilor. Yes. As it was craft, since this item would require four votes, do you want to flip the two items? Since Councilmember Vela will be coming back. I think we. We could we could do that. She will be coming back, but she might want to hear the discussion. I'm sorry, Miss Makana. Sorry. Don't go far. All right. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, so then. Matt. Matt and clear? Yes. Introduction of ordinance. Amending the municipal code by amending various provisions of section three, dash 61 transient occupancy tax of does Division nine, taxes of Article two, taxation of Chapter two, Finance and taxation clarifying and restating hosting platforms. Responsibility to collect and remit transient occupancy taxes.