Parks & Rec. Commission Meets Thursday

FULL AGENDA THURSDAY EVENING
The Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission, under the leadership of new Chairman Brett Eckles,  meets again on Thursday, March 24, 2016 beginning at 6:00 in City Council Chambers and will tackle what looks like a full agenda, HERE.

FAIRVIEW ENVIRONMENTAL WORKSHOP
Right off the top Interim Recreation Manager Justin Martin (replacing the departed Travis Karlen, who decamped to an opportunity with the City of Irvine) will present a recommendation for a new instructional class proposal, HERE.  This is a four-week instructional class held at Fairview Park and focuses on the aspects of nature and human interrelationships.  It will be offered and facilitated by the Institute for Conservation, Research and Education (ICRE).  According to the proposal, that organization will cover all costs associated with this four consecutive Saturday morning programs, estimated at $3910.00.  The program will be available for 10-25 participants, with no cost to them.  I can't let this pass without observing that there is currently a signature-gathering exercise being conducted by residents hoping to qualify an initiative to protect Fairview Park from future development.

OUTDOOR MEETING SPACE
Next up, HERE,  is the consideration of the plant palette for the proposed City Hall Outdoor Meeting Space that has been approved as part of the re-purposing of the old Print Shop on the first floor of City Hall, behind the City Council Chambers.  This area is presently a walkway behind City Hall.  The plan is to include the area as an extension of the new conference/meeting room(s) that will fill the Print Shop space.  Read the staff report for details.  Click on the image to enlarge.

TREE REMOVAL REQUESTS
The commission will consider four separate tree removal requests.  Click on the addresses below to reach the individual staff reports for each.  The staff is recommending denial of the requests in each case.

3140 Jefferson Avenue

1881 Maui Circle

1883 Maui Circle

216 Flower Street

RECREATION MANAGER'S REPORT
These items will be followed by the Recreation Manager's Report, for which no staff report is available.  The commission meets next on April 28, 2016.

Feeney/Perry To Lead Sr. Commission, Karlen Quits

AN INTERESTING MEETING, FOR SURE
Well, the sparsely-attended Costa Mesa Senior Commission meeting this morning at the Costa Mesa Senior Center was full of interesting surprises.  Let's lead off with the two biggies.

NEW OFFICERS ELECTED
First, Ernie Feeney was nominated to retain her post as Chair of the Commission and Ann Perry was nominated to become Vice Chair.  Both were approved by the commission unanimously.

KARLEN LEAVES FOR IRVINE
The biggest news, however, came near the end of the meeting when Recreation Manager Travis Karlen announced that he had resigned and would be leaving the City of Costa Mesa on March 17th.  He's moving on to greener pastures with the City of Irvine and will be heavily involved in their Recreation organization in the evolution of the Great Park project.  This is one of those career opportunities that just cannot be passed up. 

LESS THAN TWO YEARS
Karlen has been with the City of Costa Mesa since July of 2014, when he replaced the departed Bob Knapp as Recreation Manager.  I've had a chance to get to know him just a little and to watch him in action.  It seems to me he has been a very effective manager in the Recreation organization and will certainly be missed.

MARTIN TO BE INTERIM MANAGER
He introduced Justin Martin, who has been with the city just over a year, as the Interim Recreation Manager.  It is presumed that The City will do a normal search for the Karlen vacancy.  I've also watched Martin in action over the past several months and Karlen is leaving his organization in good hands - even if it might be temporary.  I presume Martin will be in the running for the job on a permanent basis.

BUS REPORT
Back to the agenda.... Senior Center Program Administrator Yvette Aguilar presented the staff report on the Bus Reservation issue.  She provided a brief history of the issue and covered the statistics included in the staff report.  In a nutshell, since the satisfaction level appears to be quite high - 97% - and the one complaint that made up that 3% was from one incident with one individual, the commission agreed to leave the program as-is for now.  Staff recommended a review in a year.  Stella Adkins indicated she preferred a six-month review.  Karlen indicated that they were monitoring the program closely and would immediately respond to any kind of problems so a shorter review period probably wasn't necessary.  Chair Feeney asked for a summary statistical report in six-months and agreed to a full review again in a year.  The commissioners agreed on a 7-0 vote.

SIGN LANGUAGE CLASS APPROVED - PROCESS TO BE EVALUATED
The second item was the proposal for a new class - a 6-week Sign Language class.  Most of the commissioners seemed to be just fine with it - until Public Comments.  At that time Mariann Ross Chappell, the applicant for the Sign Language class, stepped to the podium and complained that she had actually applied to teach two classes - the Sign Language class and an E-Bay class.  She said she was told by a staffer that they were going to give their current computer class contractor a chance for that class first, and she thought it was discrimination.  She asked for the Sign Language class to be set aside until both applications could be heard.  As you might expect, this generated a significant discussion among the staff and commissioners.   The upshot of this process was that the Sign Language class was approved and the staff would revisit the process on the other issue and come back to the commission at their next meeting.

FEENEY WANTS "GOALS AND OBJECTIVES"
Chair Feeney then conducted her discussion on Goals and Objectives.  She hearkened back to the days of City Manager Allan Roeder, who would gather council members following each election cycle in an open meeting and ask each to define their most pressing issue.  According to Feeney, this process produced a roster of issues that the council would then prioritize to provide a road map for their actions downstream.  She wanted to consider a similar process for the Senior Commission.

COMMISSIONERS AGREE - MEETING TO BE SCHEDULED
The commissioners addressed this issue and it was generally agreed that it's a good idea.  They resolved to try to dedicate one meeting to this process.  There were discussions of a totally separate special meeting, but scheduling issues might to be a stumbling block, both from a staff and commissioner standpoint.  The staff will evaluate this issue and will likely schedule such an event in the near future, maybe as soon as May.  Commissioner John McGlinn offered to take a leadership role in this process.  Assistant CEO Tammy LeTourneau suggested this was more properly guided by staff members, but would welcome McGlinn's expertise and support.

CAPTAIN MANLEY ON LIVESCAN
At the beginning of her report to the commission, Aguilar introduced Costa Mesa Police Captain Mark Manley, who spoke to the commission and audience about volunteer fingerprinting.  He advised that each volunteer and/or city employee must under go a LiveScan process - the gathering electronically of fingerprint information - which is then submitted to the United States Department of Justice.  Apparently, in some cases with elderly folks, the definition on fingerprints is insufficient to get an accurate reading.  Manley said the DOJ is supposed to advise the individual of that failure so they can re-submit.  If it happens twice, then the DOJ will do a "manual" background check on the person.  The issue of transportation to Police Headquarters for the test, and the scheduling of the tests, was discussed.  Possible solutions are to call for an appointment and schedule transportation.  It is NOT possible to bring the apparatus to the Senior Center.  There was also a discussion of scheduling a block of time for many individuals if the need is there, then transport them to and from the CMPD for the testing.  Feeney suggested this kind of approach be considered and advertised in The Chronicle.

 SUMMARY OF AGUILAR'S REPORT
 Aguilar continued on with her report.  Here's a thumbnail version of that report:

• A new skylight was installed and sun room flooring was replaced in January.
• The Grand Hall will be closed 3/28-4/1 to replace the flooring.
• Membership renewal forms were distributed.  So far, 620 renewal forms have been received back.  There are currently 1,764 seniors on the mailing list, of which 1,311 are Costa Mesa residents.
• The Albert Dixon Foundation contributed $17,500 for Senior Center Programs, of which $15,000 was earmarked for electronic/technology devises and $2,500 to pay the current MELT instructor.  Four (4) Ipads and four (4) tablets have been purchased and a Tech Talk Clinic will be held on March 18 from 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
• Additionally, the Albert Dixon Foundation donated another $50,000 to Senior Serv, which provides nutrition services to the Senior Center.
• She gave a brief summary of past recent events and of upcoming events, all of which are covered in The Chronicle.
• She asked for members interested in participating in the Costa Mesa Community Run to sign up.
• She provided a summary of upcoming Presentations/Seminars, each of which is covered in The Chronicle.
• An Emergency Action Plan/Fire Drill will be held on April 29th.
• The Senior Advisory Committee (SAC) will meet on the first Monday of each month at 12:30 p.m.
• The staff is currently working to expand the Volunteer Program.  There were 437.0 volunteer hours in January and 314.75 in February.
• There were 750.75 Programmed hours in January and 745.25 in February.  There were 5,180 visitors to the Center in January and 5,159 in February.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
During Commissioner Comments the following comments/observations were made:

• Kirk Bauermeister congratulated the staff on excellent reports.
• Stella Adkins asked if a pull-out calendar could be included in The Chronicle.  Aguilar advised that there is a calendar available at the front desk and Karlen advised that it's a budget issue, but they would consider it.
• Janet Krochman suggested that the calendar be made available electronically for those with computer skills.
• Ann Perry observed that many school sites have solar panels in parking lots and wondered if that's something that could be considered for the Senior Center Parking lot.  Karlen said he'd forward the suggestion to Public Services.
• Sue Healey, addressing the Bus Report, expressed concern about the reliability of service from a private company and suggested we consider using City Employees.  She said she was looking forward to the Goals and Objectives meeting.  She thanked Karlen for his service and wished him well.  She thanked the SAC committee, all of whom were among those 8 members of the public present at this meeting.
• John McGlinn thanked Karlen.  He observed to Aguilar that "you're getting better and better every day".  He, too, is looking forward to the Goals and Objectives meeting.
• Chair Feeney observed how beautiful The Chronicle is getting, and said, "it sure hasn't peaked yet."  She asked for copies of the minutes of the SAC meetings for the commissioners.  She thanked Karlen and welcomed Martin, then adjourned to the next meeting in May.

Eckles and Graham To Lead Parks Commission

NEW LEADERSHIP
A half-dozen residents attended as the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission met Thursday evening for what I thought would be a short meeting - it wasn't - and elected Vice Chairman Brett Eckles as the new Chairman and long-time commissioner Bob Graham as Vice Chair.  Commissioner Don Harper was absent for the second meeting in the row.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
During Public Comments both Kim Hendricks and Cindy Black spoke about the latest initiative for which signatures are being circulated.  A group called the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance has launched this effort and will be gathering signatures at Fairview Park, and elsewhere, each weekend.  Hendricks displayed a new shirt with the logo of the group which apparently can be purchased for $20.00 and Black presented a slide announcing the signature-gathering effort for this weekend.

Beth Refakes reminded us again of the Eggstravaganza - the collection of candies, toys and plastic Easter Eggs in which they will be place for the Easter Egg Hunt for the children of our adopted Marine group, the 1/5 at Camp Pendleton.  Collections of toys, small, individually-wrapped candies and plastic eggs will continue until March 18 and may be deposited in the footlocker in the City Hall lobby.  Those wishing to donate cash instead can email Dan Baker at City Hall, or call him at 714-754-5156.

Skateboard enthusiast Rocky Evans once again showed up to plead with the commissioners to find a way to extend the hours at the Volcom Skate Park and also to seriously consider a second skate park for the city. 

Jay Humphrey congratulated the new officers and thanked the outgoing Chairman Kim Pederson for his leadership this past year.  He also referred to the Fairview Park initiative, indicating that the acquisition of Talbert Nature Preserve would NOT be prohibited by the initiative.

THE NEW LIBRARY PLAN UPDATE
Next up was the presentation by Architect Steve Johnson of Johnson Favaro, the firm working on the project that will replace the existing Neighborhood Community Center at Lions Park with a brand, new two-story library and convert the existing round Donald Dungan Branch Library into a community meeting venue.

LOTS OF INFORMATION
Johnson showed us several dozen slides demonstrating the various steps and iterations of this project.  Presuming all continues as planned, the project will proceed beginning next year and be completed in 2020.  The existing NCC will be demolished and the new library building built nearby.  Then the rest of the project will commence - including the re-skinning and re-configuration of the old Dungan building and the creation of re-configured parking and new park space.

LOSING MEETING SPACE
According to the plans, we will loose a couple thousand feet of meeting room space, but their analysis says that won't be a problem if we utilize it better.  We were told that every time they do a new library facility the use quadruples.  Commissioner Byron de Arakal asked if that growth was sustained beyond the original launch and was told that use tailed off slightly, but not much.  de Arakal was concerned that we were only adding one parking space while theoretically increasing the use.

"ONLY" $34.5 MILLION!
We will pick up an additional acre of park space onsite, plus add one (1) additional parking space.  And this little project will only cost us $34.5 million!  He did not discuss the financial elements of this plan with the commissioners, but apparently did make a presentation to the Finance Advisory Committee and, according to folks who heard that presentation, a few of the committee members were not thrilled with the cost nor the plans.

JUST A FEW SLIDES
Lucky you, I only included a few of Johnson's slides, but my understanding is that his entire package will be available on the city web site.  One of the nifty features of the plan, shown above, is a food concession outside the buildings, but contiguous to one of them.  It is presumed this would be a coffee/take-out food dispensary.  If you want to see all of the presentation, check out the streaming video on the city web site or on CMTV.

LIAISON APPOINTMENTS
The final business item on the agenda was the appointment of liaison members to two committees.  The results of that selection process resulted in Byron de Arakal retaining his role as primary liaison to the Newport Mesa Unified School District, with Chairman Brett Eckles chosen as his alternate.  Bob Graham was retained as the liaison for the Fairview Park Citizen's Advisory Committee, with member Kim Pederson chosen as alternate.  Before the selection for that committee was completed Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia was asked how long the committee will remain dormant, to which he replied "Until the Parks Master Plan is completed."  That is a date-uncertain right now.

DROUGHT PROBLEMS AND MORE
Maintenance Services Manager Bruce Hartley provided us with a lengthy description of the impact of the drought on our urban forest.  He also told us of the recent accomplishments by his group, and of the pending and current projects.

LOSING TREES FASTER THAN WE CAN REPLACE
Regarding the drought, he told us that we are seeing a net loss in trees - we're losing them faster than we can replace them.  During the discussion he disclosed that there is no longer a source for reclaimed water - that their supplier prefers to dump it back into the aquifer rather than sell it for use on plants.

OUTSOURCING STRIKES AGAIN!
Perhaps the most interesting part of his presentation was the disclosure of a Request For Proposals for the outsourcing most of his organization that's in the works!  Right now his group is diminished from 31 positions to 21, and of those, 8 will be exempt - two people who remove graffiti and six people who will oversee the outsourced work.  The remaining thirteen individuals are being, or will be, absorbed into other city positions.  Hartley told me NOBODY will lose their jobs due to this outsourcing.  Apparently this arrangement was negotiated with the Costa Mesa City Employee Association.

AWARD-WINNING TEAM
During his brief Recreation Manager's Report Travis Karlen told us that he and his staff will be attending a conference in Long Beach next month at which they will receive an award for their "Ranch Program".

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
During Commissioner Comments Pederson said he was looking forward to the completion of the update of the Master Plan.  He also reminded us of the opening of youth sports season this weekend - little league baseball starts Saturday and soccer begins the following weekend.

Graham told us he still thought we should name the pools in Fairview Park - like the Great Lakes are named - and proceeded to present an "educational" experience for us using overhead slides showing how the Great Lakes work.

de Arakal was concerned about the net loss of trees and the unavailability of grey water.  He also opined that he wanted to get the Fairview Park Citizen's Advisory Committee back to work soon.

Chairman Eckles also mentioned the youth sports events and asked about including school kids in a future meeting.  Recreation Manager Travis Karlen told us that there's a "Youth In Government" program in the works.

The meeting ended at 8:20 p.m., adjourned until the next meeting on Thursday, March 24th.

Parks & Rec. Commission Wrap-up

 SPARSELY-ATTENDED FIRST MEETING OF THE YEAR
The Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission met last night, Thursday, for their first meeting of the year.  As I wrote about earlier, the agenda was not a big one, but there was some good information to be gleaned.  Commissioner Don Harper was absent.  Approximately fifteen (15) members of the public attended, but there was never more than 12 in the audience at one time.

MARINE EASTER EGG HUNT DONATIONS
Beth Refakes reminded us all that the Military Affairs Team is gathering small individually-wrapped candies and small toys that can be placed in plastic Easter Eggs for the children of the currently-deployed 1/5 Marines out of Camp Pendleton.  There will be a foot locker in the City Hall lobby for donations.  There are three age groups - 0-2, 3-5 and 6 and over.

PROTECTING FAIRVIEW PARK
Cindy Black advised the commission and the dozen of us in the audience that petitions are being circulated for the initiative launched by the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance, to protect Fairview Park from certain types of developments.  You can read more about the initiative on their website, HERE.

ENHANCING THE SKATE PARK
Rocky Evans stepped up again to request more hours at the community Skate Park, another Skate Park and/or enhancements to the current one.  He observed that it is consistently heavily-used.

CULTURAL ARTS
Recreation Supervisor Justin Martin made a presentation on the activities of the Cultural Arts Committee.  He outlined the many art-related opportunities in the City.  Among the highlights of his presentation was a review and images of the ArtVenture event, which was attended by a reported 1,300 people.

TREE REMOVAL
Next up was the Tree Removal request at 2743 Gannett Drive.  Commissioner Bob Graham recused himself since this is in his neighborhood.  Maintenance Services Manager Bruce Hartley provided the staff report and recommended denial of the removal of the tree.  The applicant was not in attendance - odd, since you'd think he might want to plead his case.  When the vote was taken to deny the request - on a 3-0 vote -  Commissioner Byron de Arakal followed up with a request for the staff to do an exploratory patch where the tree roots are clearly lifting the recently paved roadway and use their own judgement once the roots are exposed as to whether removing the roots to save road damage would result in a severely weakened tree.  If so, the option would be to remove and replace it.

FIELD REPORT AND FUAP CHANGES

Next up was Recreation Manager Travis Karlen's 2015 Fall Field Audit Report and recommendations for amendments to the Field Use and Allocation Policy (FUAP).  Karlen discussed the several adult groups that have been denied fields because they didn't meet the correct residency percentages.  And, they discussed Friday Night Lights and their drop from group 3 user status to group 6, which results in limited field use in the Fall of 2016.  Karlen emphasized the improved data collection and presented an audit timeline.  There was also a discussion of the difficulty staff members had getting cooperation by some user groups - some were described as "defiant" -  and the inability to get residency numbers verified by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District because of the extreme workload it would place on their staff.  The staff recommended lowering the existing minimum local residency requirement for Group 6 users from 25% to 10% because the higher standard eliminated all but one Group 6 user.  After all was said and done, it was agreed that, while not perfect, this was an excellent first step in fairly managing the scarce field resources.

GRATEFUL FOR STATS
During Public Comments on this issue  Anna Vrska, a member of the now-dormant Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee and strong critic of the lack of accurate statistics on actual field use, was almost giddy when she expressed her appreciation to the staff for this process.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS PILLORIED
Brent Wood, who coaches youth sports teams, addressed the issue of Friday Night Lights, expressing the opinion that he was happy they will be punished for what he described as "cheating and lying" by the leadership of that group, and suggested penalties should be stronger - like 5 years of no field use.  He said the behavior by that group casts a shadow on all the groups.  During the discussion Karlen affirmed that the Matt Lienart Flag Football group now participates as So. Cal. Elite, a non-profit organization.  The commission voted, 4-0, to receive and file the report.

FAIRVIEW PARK REPORT
Next came the discussion of the Fairview Park Annual Report, presented by Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia.  He began with a discussion of the Ryperian Wetlands project, telling the commissioners how the water features had become clogged with non-native plants which kept the water from flowing properly.  He showed slides depicting the "before" and "after", following the clean out by a contractor who specializes in such projects.  The debris removed is currently stacked for drying before being removed from the park.  Mejia told the commission that an annual maintenance program will be followed to ensure the Wetlands functions as designed, and that it will cost $40-50,000 per year.

VERNAL POOLS
There was a discussion of the vernal pools and the commission was advised that there is no timeline for a response from US Fish and Wildlife as to what is to happen next on that issue.  Mejia cited staffing issues at USFW.

OCME
Regarding the Orange County Model Engineers, Mejia said no major projects are planned by that group this year, but they continue to provide free rides each month.

LIGHTS
Chairman Kim Pederson asked about the lighting project and was advised that it is still in the environmental stage.

FLO'S VERNAL POOL PHOTOS
During Public Comments Flo Martin addressed the subject of the vernal pools, and presented hot-off-the-presses photos - taken that day, of the site of the vernal pools which had been defiled by the now-infamous decomposed granite trail - a road, actually.  She showed images - some are shown below - that reflected the current conditions, with cut barrier ropes, bent fence posts and paths being gouged through one of the pool locations.  When asked about the status of more permanent barriers, Mejia said they will be double strand steel cables with posts every 20 feet, but that they will not keep vandals and others out of the pools.  Greater use of signage and more awareness by Park Rangers will help.

HOW OFTEN
Cindy Black asked about how frequently these types of reports are issued and was told annually, and had been for ten years.

TRAIL VIOLATES MASTER PLAN
Kim Hendricks advised the commission that the planned multipurpose trail - a road - violates the Fairview Park Master Plan and should not be undertaken.

NEED BIGGER MAPS
Jay Humphrey, commenting on the newly-refreshed riparian ponds, tongue-in-cheek observed that former mayor Donn Hall's Costa Mesa Marina is finally a fact.  He also observed that the maps currently in use are just too small - the type is almost unreadable.  He also observed that the planned lights in the parking lot are unnecessary, since Fairview Park, and all other Costa Mesa Parks, are dawn-to-dusk parks, requiring no lighting.

CHEAPER, BETTER SOLUTION TO TRAIL
Resident Andy Campbell, a geologist who works for a water district, addressed the planned trail, indicating that ADA will permit a grade in excess of 5% if resting places are included along the way.  He cited 5 areas of 10-15 square feet, level, with a bench, that could be accomplished for about $100,000 instead of spending more than $1 million on the planned trail.  He also later cited the extreme excavation that would be necessary to accomplish the proposed plan.

HANDS OFF THE TRAIL
Debbie Koken spoke to that issue, and said to leave the trail alone.

KEEP THE PARK NATURAL
Anna Vrska also thanked the staff for their great work, then advised that we should do a better job of protecting the vernal pools, that lighting in the Westside parking lot was unnecessary and such actions as the extreme trail is what caused the Fairview Park Protection initiative to be launched.  She also observed that 90% of the people who addressed the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee felt the park should be kept natural.

AGENCIES ARE TOUGH
De Arakal observed that the many agencies with which the City must deal on Fairview Park issues are very strict and won't permit violations of established rules.

THANKING FLO
Commissioner Bob Graham complimented Flo Martin for her use of photos.  Graham, himself, tries to do that, too.  His photographic prowess is meager, by the way.

FENCES
Much discussion revolved around the vernal pool situation.  The type of fencing was discussed, and it was observed that chain link fencing would not be appropriate.

Eventually the commission voted to accept the report, 4-0.

OTHER PARKS
Mejia was up again with his Parks Project Manager report.  He skipped anything to do with Fairview Park, since it had been thoroughly flogged already.  He spoke about Smallwood park, Harbor Boulevard Trail Improvements, the Feasibility Studies for lighting sports fields at School District Sites, the update on the City's General Plan and that the Open Space and Recreation element will be updated, too.  Public workshops are being scheduled for March.

VERNAL POOLS AND ADA AT TEWINKLE PARK
He told us that a consultant is working on the delineation of the vernal pools in Fairview Park, and that ADA requirements in TeWinkle Park are being addressed.

BARK PARK AND ARTIFICIAL TURF AT JACK HAMMETT
He spoke about the current renovations at the Costa Mesa Bark Park and that the renovation of Fields 1 and 2 at the Jack Hammett Sports Fields with artificial turf should be underway soon.  He observed that it will make them much more usable due to the lack of maintenance issues.

NEWPORT BOULEVARD LANDSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS
He spoke of the Newport Boulevard Landscape Improvements, which will run along the frontage from Bristol Street to 19th Street.

2ND SKATE PARK STUDY
He also discussed the funding approval for this fiscal year for a feasibility study about the possible need for a second skate park.

MORE COMMENTS
Cindy Black addressed the problems with the proposed trail/road in Fairview Park again.  Kim Hendricks denied the need for lights in the parking lot.  Andy Campbell said he has volunteers that would help with the application of dirt to make the baseball field at Smallwood park more usable.

RECREATION MANAGER'S REPORT
Travis Karlen gave his Recreation Manager's Report.  He observed that the Recreation Division had received an award recently.  He complimented AYSO 97 for their successful season under the temporary lights at Back Bay School - a complaint-free season.

COMMISSIONERS COMMENTS - BALAERIC CENTER
De Arakal addressed the recent Liaison meeting between the City and the School District, during which the possible acquisition of the Balearic Center from the School District was moved forward.  The district has acquired an appraisal and now committee work is underway.

SMALLWOOD PARK AND CM UNITED GOLF
Vice Chair Brett Eckles observed that new features might be needed at the current skate park, and that he would pass on the discussion of Smallwood Park to Harper since that's one of his parks.  He also mentioned the Costa Mesa United Golf Tournament last week, citing its success.

THANKS
Graham had nothing to add but thanks to the staff and the attendees.

AND THANKS, AGAIN
Chairman Pederson added his thanks to those who attended and spoke, then adjourned until the next meeting on February 25, 2016.