Portland Parks Board — 2026-06-09
Supplied caption transcript; not independently audio-verified.
Names, figures and speaker changes may contain caption errors.
Bracketed M/J/A numbers identify passages in source order, not timestamps.
August material covers the regular meeting, not the later retreat.

[J0001] Ally
[J0002] here.
[J0003] Matt
[J0004] present.
[J0005] Adrien, I think she's not. I don't see her. Corbin
[J0006] here.
[J0007] Sabrina is absent. Swin here. Patty.
[J0008] Oh, you said Patty.
[J0009] Yeah, Patty. Sorry. [laughter]
[J0010] Um, I don't see Bill.
[J0011] Alison, you Myra is in transit. Oh, I see. Um, Sally, did he did he not quite Tommy?
[J0012] Oh, they'll just join
[J0013] present if not technically here.
[J0014] Thank you, John. Jacob
[J0015] here.
[J0016] Andre
[J0017] here.
[J0018] And Jessica's absent this evening. So, we have no report from parks today or the parks found that
[J0019] we do. Oh, uh, we don't. Okay. Um, great. Do we have anyone from public comment? Should attendees? Let's just talk.
[J0020] Hey, everyone. Sorry, I jumped on a little late.
[J0021] Hey, Bill.
[J0022] Hey, Bale. All right. No public comment. Okay, then we are gonna skip right to general announcements and I am going to kick it to Jacob and Matt for a batch up. Hey S.
[J0023] Yeah, 10,000 foot top down. We had that hot got the letter out the door. Then we had good contact across all of city council. I think we were only missing a couple of offices which means that we met with almost everybody. So, thank you to everybody who helped with that effort. We also had three people testify before city council on our efforts. Um the long and short of it is that we did not of course get everything that we asked for, but we got some of it. There's been some clawback to put money back into the parks budget. Um the rubber will really meet the road, I think, or or to use a different idiom, our last best chance maybe to get more back is tomorrow um at the city council hearing because there's a another set of amendments trying to return a much more substantial amount of money to the parks budget. Um, but what we've seen at council so far was a lot of 66 deadlock. So that's that's TBD. I do not think we have anybody signed up to give testimony tomorrow. So if anyone has some bandwidth tomorrow to wait in a hearing room for a long time to give a two-minute speech, that would be very helpful.
[J0024] Or you can do it online.
[J0025] You can also do it online.
[J0026] Yeah, I'm I'm I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be able to do it, but it will depend entirely on how capriccious my boss is feeling. That cover about all of it, Matt?
[J0027] Yeah. And you know, I looked at the the testimony list of testimony list order. It wasn't very long as of yesterday. So, I'm just looking now to see. So, if you did want to go in person, it may not actually be such a long
[J0028] Yeah, I saw that, too.
[J0029] You saw that, too? Yeah, it's pretty short. It was like six yesterday. Let me see. We're at about uh five people right now.
[J0030] Okay. Well, that's a lot better than I was blessed was the other day. Yeah. No, just uh thank you for folks that leaned into the the outreach. Um may not have gotten everything, but we got some stuff and I think we also really made a big uh start on developing that's really important towards capital funding. I think this is also the first time that like I've ran a advocacy effort with this group of people before. So I think we also ironed out a lot of the kinks and found a workflow that was good that will work for us going forwards on this and I think that we'll only get more effective from here.
[J0031] Thank you both for all of your leadership on that. It was huge. Um any questions for Jacob on the budget process?
[J0032] Okay.
[J0033] Can I make one note? Yeah, there is someone in the lobby that I see an attendee that is watching. If you would like to give public comment since we are running a little bit ahead, please raise your hand. If not, I will just assume that you are just a viewer Mark. Okay, I will assume you are a viewer. Thank you.
[J0034] Okay. Um we have two board members for whom this will be their last board meeting. So um want to give a really big thank you. Start with Dr. Corbin. Um Dr. for Corbin and I joined at the same time and immediately uh Corbin was a force always so present at board meetings always uh both knowledgeable and a lot of questions and um took on co-chair along with uh Alana and then uh Far and put in so much time and effort and has so much love and um just obvious passion for the park system and just want to give a lot of appreciation Corbin for all of the hard work. So, thank you very much.
[J0035] Thank you.
[J0036] Thank you.
[J0037] Did you want to say anything, Corbin, before you go?
[J0038] Of course. I always have things to say, and hopefully this won't just be the area that I'll be responding to, but I want to um really give a shout out to a lot of the staff people um at um um PPR. Um, thank you Michelle for supporting the efforts of the board. You you were super helpful when I was uh the the board chair as well as there's a lot of folks that I've been able to work with over the last 5 years. I'm thinking like Malcolm Hoover, Maya, Carolyn, a whole bunch of folks that I met in the work that that I've done. And I want to thank you so much for the colleagues along the way. I still I'll still be in Portland. So hopefully we can get a a beverage, whether that's a coffee or something else at some point in time. But I I want to leave with um some thoughts around why I came to the park system. Public parks, public spaces have always been so important to me as a lowincome first generation um parents are immigrants and realizing so much of the reason why I'm where I am was like free museums, the recreation center as a latch kid. Um, and for me, the fight to keep public parks public is going to be something that I'm constantly going to um, fight for. And I'm hoping that when we are talking about sustainability around the park system that it's not just sustaining services because services can be privatized but s but but really making sure that we have a sustainable public park system in which everybody can enjoy in the different ways and the diverse ways that they want to and wish for. So with that, I'm just going to leave that on on the table and I just want to thank you so much for being colleagues and it's been a wild ride these last five years and I'm hoping it's not as bumpy moving forward. So thank you.
[J0039] Thank you.
[J0040] Thank you, Corbin.
[J0041] And Sabrina is not here, correct?
[J0042] All right. Um, well, a big thank you to Sabrina, too. Uh, for folks who are newer, I don't know if folks know, Sabrina was a parks employee before she was a board member. So, I feel like, um, uh, Sabrina brought so much knowledge both internally and then as a board member to the board and always asked such poignant questions, had great leadership on community engagement, working group. Um, so just uh Sabrina, if you're watching the recording, which you know might be like that's that's a stretch, but [laughter] really really appreciate all of your work on the parks board. I think Sabrina's also five years, right?
[J0043] I was just going to say how many years is
[J0044] so both Corbin and Sabrina are leaving one year before their term ended. However, both of them served partial terms and Corbin did some extra credit serving on the Abe Park and Wilson pool naming committee before they were renamed to IDW Wells and Ishi Wu Park. So, I think both of them really put in their time as two term board members in my heart.
[J0045] Michelle is there.
[J0046] I do have cutting board. I did let Corbin know. I'm going to go drop it off for Corbin tomorrow.
[J0047] Yay. But I'm I'm mailing a cutting board to Sabrina as well.
[J0048] I have a mountain full of grading right now because we are in the thick of finals week.
[J0049] Yeah.
[J0050] All right. Um and with that, uh saying goodbye to a past chair. Uh we are now going to vote on our future chair. So, um I did not write up the language on uh does anyone um but I will simply say uh Jacob has been he's only been on for one year and came on with such vigor and excitement and ability to lead even just at his first retreat uh training folks on advocacy. So really excited about him and his willingness to step up and Matt. Right.
[J0051] Yes. I because this is only going to be my second year on the parks board and I'm very aware that there's a lot that I don't know. I asked Matt be graciously agreeing to uh repraise his role as the vice chair so that I can benefit that we can all benefit from his experience.
[J0052] Yeah. So we will be voting today on Jacob as chair and Matt as vice chair. Do either of you want to say anything before we move forward in that more official process? just that I'm looking forward to it a lot and I want to have, you know, an open dialogue about what people think is working on the board, not working on the board, and where we want to go.
[J0053] I understand. Um,
[J0054] done that. [laughter]
[J0055] Yeah. All right. Uh, does anyone We'll start with the chair position. Does anyone want to make a motion?
[J0056] I'll make a motion to approve. Jacob, is that you, Sally?
[J0057] Anyone want to second? take this chair.
[J0058] Are you gonna bring the gabble back?
[J0059] You can't. It wasn't for me. But
[J0060] really a nice sound.
[J0061] It's actually uh the uh it was made for this by the woodworkers at Portland Park. So there's some wood symbol. So
[J0062] yeah,
[J0063] I didn't feel like I could wield it in a way that didn't make me feel ironic, so I did not. But
[J0064] it's it's beautiful. It's a beautiful view.
[J0065] Yeah. So beautiful.
[J0066] Um any discussion? All right. All in favor of voting in Jacob as the new chair. Hands are raised. Great. All right. Any nos? Those people don't say no. All right, Jacob Carson, you are officially board chair as
[J0067] uh I go on the record as having abstained. [laughter]
[J0068] Yes.
[J0069] Yeah, I did the same. It's awkward. Um and now uh do uh does anyone want to make a motion to have Matt continue to serve as vice chair?
[J0070] I'll make a motion.
[J0071] Thank you. Would we have a second?
[J0072] I will second.
[J0073] Thank you, Tommy. Uh any discussion? Okay. All in favor of Matt as continuing his wonderful tenure as vice chair.
[J0074] We'll note Matt, you're abstaining.
[J0075] Yeah, abstaining as well.
[J0076] And Jacob.
[J0077] Sure.
[J0078] All right. Thank you everyone.
[J0079] Were there any nos? I'm guessing.
[J0080] Yeah.
[J0081] All right.
[J0082] We have new board leadership. So, yay. All right. Uh, now we are one more voting thing. We're going to move on uh to approve the May minute.
[J0083] Do you mind if me adding just cuz Jacob made the decision this afternoon? Um, thank you so much for your responses to the poll for the um board retreat coming in August. Pretty high votes for Friday, August 14th. So, please mark your calendars. Friday, August 14th, we will be doing and it doesn't if you can't come in person, that's fine. You can join in virtually. I know understand it is a Friday and I know there's some people that marked that they couldn't come. So, I also understand if you can't attend um just the votes for Friday the 14th were pretty high and that is a date that Jacob can attend and we wanted to prioritize Jacob's ability to lead the retreat.
[J0084] Is that all day or is that like
[J0085] It's all day. It's like 9 to 3:30.
[J0086] And I should have asked any other general announcements. We have that one now. Anyone else have any general announcements they want to add?
[J0087] Just clarifying that the vote for the new chair, he was assuming that position at the next meeting.
[J0088] Yes.
[J0089] Just for the record.
[J0090] Yes.
[J0091] Because it might seem a little weird.
[J0092] Yes. I I This is
[J0093] I won't be having a drink, but I'm very excited. [laughter]
[J0094] This is my final meeting as chair, but not my final. I have um another year as a board member. So I will be here and as helpful as I can.
[J0095] I will send a calendar invite to everyone but I just wanted folks to save the date now that we know.
[J0096] Um question for um director or Michelle I saw that the grand opening or the ribbon cutting for um Darcel Plaza is going to be next week. Can you share that out? And it's an opportunity for folks to attend. It's in your announcements. Okay. So
[J0097] they're going to be there next week. I was down there this week.
[J0098] I know. I walked by this morning. I'm like, what?
[J0099] People are there every day like you over there? You over there.
[J0100] Like a little deadline to get people.
[J0101] Speakers are coming so they better be ready.
[J0102] And um also making me think about lead time. you all might want or need to be available to come to some of these events so we can keep talking about what works best for you there.
[J0103] That would be great to have more.
[J0104] Okay. Um, so we are going to now vote on the May meeting minutes. If you weren't present, please abstain. But do I have a motion to accept May meeting minutes?
[J0105] So moved.
[J0106] Jacob, do I have a second?
[J0107] Second.
[J0108] Thank you. I know it's an unexciting one. Um I'm sorry who made the motion?
[J0109] Uh Jacob and then Andre.
[J0110] Okay. Um and any discussion before we stay?
[J0111] Uh all in favor of approving approving the May meeting minutes with Sally.
[J0112] You got that correction, Michelle?
[J0113] Yes. Sorry. I've
[J0114] Bill's abstaining as well.
[J0115] Oh yes. Thank you, Bill.
[J0116] Any other abstensions?
[J0117] Any may vote.
[J0118] We're good.
[J0119] Uh now we will pass it to uh Director Schnansky for the director's report. Okay, Michelle, you have my slide.
[J0120] Pulling it up right now. Um and when I'm done, I'm gonna out for a minute and come right back. No, come on in. Oh, come on in. And I think wherever you like. Welcome. And maybe before that slide, I will um offer my own gratitude to Dr. Corbin um and Sabrina in abstentia. I'll maybe share it with her directly um for your service and your engagement. I have been so um struck by particularly your depth of attention and depth of investment in the success and the health and um the impact of this body and I think it's so essential that we you stay centered on that um so that this is a really meaningful place for you to be um and by the clarity of your perspective and your interest and you shared some of it in your comments and I think it's um it is so valuable for people to come in with that clarity as a guide through these conversations. Um I share your wish for calm waters and I I also share the observation that um you really have gone above and beyond in your years. They they're they count as extra. Thank you also Ally and Matt for your leadership on the board. This is a a day of uh significant transitions and just a lot of gratitude for people stepping in and stepping up and stepping into other roles. I'm so happy. Uh Corbin, I know that you and Sabrina will be part of the parks family for as long as you are in Portland and I thank you in advance for that. And now we'll do my slide. You can see there's a lot going on with budget. I've previously had key budget dates over on the right bundled up, but because we're in the home stretch and they're they're coming up, I wanted to list them specifically here tomorrow. And I have a few a few moments with council that have passed. They had the approved budget hearings in May where some of you participated. You did great. Thank you. Your engagement uh whatever the message, your engagement is um valued and important. So most of the action uh as is typical was in those hearings. Although tomorrow at Thursday there will be additional amendments they'll be um talking about. Since those May dates, we've been to council with a couple of urban forestry items related to commission appointments and heritage trees. That went great. We were at two different committees and then both were um unanimously approved to go to council and then happily approved by council. We um mostly watched didn't participate in a council conversation June 10th about potential amendments they might bring. That's not the right date. When did that happen? That was also June 3rd. Forgive me. Um oh, I didn't even list that. I'm tangled up. Well, that's a bonus item that you get to hear about. So uh picking up with where we are now on the left there, June 10 tomorrow and Thursday if needed will be final deliberation and amendment to the budget. Then it passes to a second reading which means conversation is done and there can be no more changes. So this week is is the end. Um the formal vote will be next week. Um, and then the last kind of council touch that I thought was significant for you all, uh, because you have been tracking it. I didn't even put the See, this is hot off the press and it's been a very busy day and I apologize. The last item is regarding Colombia pool. So, we have now in hand uh a third party assessment of what it would cost in part to reopen that facility as an outdoor seasonal pool. Um, you recall it was on track for demolition. Uh, city leaders pushed pause on that so that we could explore options to preserve it as a pool a little more deeply. So, it's been on pause. We have um completed this assessment. Just uh as of a couple weeks ago, we got the report. Uh we're now ready to talk with city leadership about what it's telling us and and hear what they'd like to do with that information. In the meantime, since last fall, we have been taking steps to kind of keep rain from getting into the building and dry out what's already wet just to slow. We can't prevent, but we can slow down the continued deterioration. So, we'll keep doing that until we have direction about next steps. Over on the right and to your question, our cell 15 plaza will have its ribbon cutting next Thursday. Um,
[J0121] do you know what time?
[J0122] No matter what. Michelle knows what time.
[J0123] It's late morning. 11.
[J0124] Yeah.
[J0125] And then there will be uh a fun party a couple weeks or or the following week put on by the programming partner, Clean and Safe. Uh they really know how to do a party. So if that's what you're into, we'll make sure you have that date and time as well. It's the spectacular spectacular. But if you want to hit the ribbon cutting, we would love to see you next week. Also, next week earlier, we are starting or we're doing maybe it's a oneshot um onboarding with the 25 levy oversight committee. The 2025 levy oversight committee. We have a great group of people who Sarah can share more about if that's wanted here and we're really excited to get them on board. We recently uh hired the organization did our chief equity officer Latricia Tilman who's been uh in the scene and around in leadership roles for a long time including uh over at Multma County. Uh we're thrilled to have her and she's in conversation with Amanda already. I have a coffee with her coming up soon and just so happy to welcome her experience and expertise to our city family. A couple more. The shuttle, the shuttle to end all shuttles. So excited for this one. It the first uh ride is Friday and it will be running and she's a former parks board member. That's right. All the greats pass through this body. Um so kickoff starts Friday. You recall that it's uh East Portland of Forest Park and the points surrounding and then back. Um, I hope that you will have a chance to catch it and enjoy time and catch it back. Um, I hope to do that, too. Finally, you have um, for as long as many of you have probably been on the board, you've been hearing in some fashion about the natural resources work the city's been doing. It's had different names. It's had different kind of thrusts and leadership structures over time. More recently, most recently, in the public works service area, we have, as you know, an assigned lead, Annie Vonberg, helping take it to the next phase. It began with pretty clear direction, as you recall, around structural changes and as as conversations continue. um the possibility that we could maybe be more impactful through other channels that are more around coordinate operational coordination and policy alignment and like regulatory um not integration but just visibility and coordination across teams that that could actually be the the lowhanging high impact fruit. So, um, the update here is not about where that project is landing and what's immediately next, but to say that conversation is still happening, um, toward a potential pivot is too big a word, but we're just kind of continuing to dial in the focus. Um, and it's possible that it will be a little bit less oriented around new structure and a little bit more like down in the day-to-day operational space. Um, and that's really being led by staff experts as I think it should be. There are so many more I think notable events. Um, but when I was looking at my calendar and trying to list them, it was overwhelming. We also have Delta Park Pow-Wow coming up starting on Junth. We have uh summer free-for-all kicking off. We have uh milk carton boat races at the end of the month with the Rose Courts. There's so much really wonderful stuff. If you don't feel sufficiently uh informed or signed up for those things, please let us know. I'm sure that we have a good protocol to get all that information to you, but I want to make sure you can be in as many places as you want. And I think you probably know this. There's so much council interest in these events. So, it also is a great place just to be seen uh and represent the board if you have interest in time.
[J0126] Excuse me.
[J0127] And that punctuates my report.
[J0128] A little bit of a follow-up question. um chief equity officer, but her her focus is only on Fox Citywide.
[J0129] And then will she be able to have the opportunity to share with us the approach of under her leadership? How is that going to be um evolved or developed in in the lens of the office? What does that mean?
[J0130] Um well, Amanda and we can certainly bring updates back from the work and there may be a chance to connect with her directly at some point. She's got a lot of ground to make.
[J0131] Um generally speaking, and this position also oversees the office of equity and human rights. Um, this is one of the realignment projects underway, but it is um it is complex and it is on a little bit slower timeline to give the chief equity officer time to settle and get familiar and figure out what the shape and scope and timeline for that stream of realignment work should be. Um, collaboratively, I understand, with uh equity leaders in bureaus um and presumably council as well. Is is this
[J0132] a lot of learning?
[J0133] Is this the topic that's under that um challenging situation set up by the federal government or somehow we realign when you say
[J0134] realignment is not related to that but of course that hangs over everything.
[J0135] Yeah. and our the chief equity officer will be is meant to be a city kind of standard center and um creating you know there will be some structural changes and um I assume coming out of that realignment conversation and sort of the keeper of um priorities and ways of being and um shared understandings of work. So as that continues to unroll and be part of our life, that person will absolutely be in a lead role helping us understand what it means and how to make good sense of it and continue to be successful with our values.
[J0136] Um Matt then Corbin and anyone else who has questions knows if you have questions for Director Schmi. I keep want to call you Dr. Schmzy. I'm not sure.
[J0137] There's one doctor in this room [clears throat] as far as I know and it's not me.
[J0138] Thank you Dr. Schnansky. Um, so in our land use infrastructure working group meeting last month, we had a great not great, but we had a very comprehensive presentation from Lauren about all the capital projects that are being deferred. Um, and I guess I'm just really frustrated seeing, you know, that last item there about capital expenditures to reopen a seasonal outdoor pool in the context of, well, we don't have the capital funds to do that because part because council voted to cause STC charges. So I wonder if that is at all in their their mind that cognitive diss not wanting to make hard choices but uh to move forward projects but not wanting to make the choices to actually fund them.
[J0139] Well hard choices are hard at point taken and I will say it just briefly I know we've got a lot to get to tonight. It's a kind of pointalist world they live in. you know, this question comes to them, this crisis comes to them, takes a really long time to be able to intuitively understand and feel how those dots are connected, particularly with something like this. Um we did have a conversation with our executive leadership CFO DCA recently about different threads of conversation that we're having with them on the capital side SDC moratorium impact and deferrals some like needs that are cropping up somewhat unexpectedly um the levy small amount for capital um investment and how to bring them a conversation they can understand that helps them understand all of those things as a piece.
[J0140] So I I would put that under the heading work in progress.
[J0141] Uh Corbin and then Jacob. So, I'm dovetailing off of uh I believe what Suen um started regarding the chief um equity officer and I guess my question revolves around healthy parks healthy Portland and whether there's an ad hoc committee around reconfiguring that to I guess gel with these new standards of not using certain language because of the current administration. C can you lay out what that process is going to look like and who are you pulling from to um I guess have those indicators of what what is considered to be equitable park access at this time or in the future.
[J0142] Yeah, I have a a partial thought, but I want to make sure you have a complete response. I see you in the chat, Amanda. I wonder if you're able to speak to where that kind of review might fall in the queue. I know we're going in a a sequence that's um sort of being told to us um and how the chief equity officer might be part of that and separately like any any freestanding thoughts about how we might best approach it.
[J0143] We have Amanda, can you scroll through Are you here, Amanda?
[J0144] Unmute.
[J0145] Oh, she's talking.
[J0146] I was like, "No, everything's falling apart." But it's just an unmute button. Um, no, I thank you for the question. I think it's a really important question. Um, I think it's where we've been at in the swirl of what's been going on with the city. I think what we've been trying to do in our strategic planning and our building of systems and our thinking about budget um development, budget proposals has been to figure out different ways to center and integrate healthy parks, healthy Portland, think about what it looks like moving forward. So that's something that we've been doing internally within the bureau um and working really closely with Sarah and her team to continue to think about outcomes and metrics and what that looks looks like. In terms of the equity officer coming on board, um we've already had multiple conversations. She's been, you know, as Sonia mentioned, doing a a meet and greet with folks. She's meeting with our uh equity and inclusion team tomorrow, joining our staff meeting to continue to to deepen and build those relationships. Um I've shared with her our equity strategy for parks, um which has uh healthy parks, healthy Portland as the underlying framework and have given her a copy of Healthy Parks, Healthy Portland. And so she's already had all of those touch points um and has invited me to uh support her to continue to think about uh what the planning looks like for the realignment process. So I feel like we have a lot of different touch points um and she's familiar with healthy parks healthy Portland and also um being a former parks board member I think has a lot of history and interest in that space and so we don't have anything mapped out yet. We're in the beginning stages of thinking about how to support her and her office in thinking about a citywide realignment and what that looks like for the city. But um I'm confident that we'll there will be many opportunities to integrate the different strategic plans that live within the bureaus. Um we just have to figure out how to do that in a comprehensive way. Um and we'll bring that back to this group as we as we roll that out. If I can follow up really quickly, are you pulling from folks that do EJ work as part of this process to find ways to integrate more just outcomes based on these policy proposals or or or plans that that you're doing or moving or possibly moving forward with
[J0147] because there's one, you know, equity and equality are not necess necessarily the same thing. Right.
[J0148] Right.
[J0149] And I understand that it takes the community to say what a just outcome is, but how are how is it being thought about of having more just more um just sustainable outcomes for community members? And if if you don't have an answer to that right now, that's fine. Um, but I think it's a line of thinking that I think we need to wrestle with within our park system. Otherwise, we get more of the same with uh particular dominant uh cultural understandings of what parks what parks are right now versus what they could be for a more, you know, diverse group um living in Portland.
[J0150] Yeah. Um, I don't have a specific answer on that because we're still in early planning stages. I will say where we're at is figuring out as a city what is the performance what are the performance objectives and standards for the city and not just parks at this point. I think we all have those different um outcomes objectives and the most recent conversation I had with the um new equity officer was thinking about the threads of engagement both internal and external. So, we're just in very very early stages of mapping out what that process is going to look like citywide.
[J0151] And the reason why I say this, but parks are just very different than other departments. And
[J0152] uh there's a pro procedural justice like just practices, right? That
[J0153] um and then there's the focus on outcomes and what we want our parks to look like and and be for our diverse population. And I would just really love to see either EJ scholars, people do that are practitioners as part of the long-term conversation so that doesn't get lost to bureaucracy and having these sort of mechanical indicators that may not uh translate to change experiences on the ground.
[J0154] Great. Yeah, thank you for the feedback on that. Um I'll definitely continue to engage with this group as the engagement plan for um the equity realignment continues to emerge and also what the role of uh what that looks like in terms of supporting um bureau level uh outcome strategies and practices.
[J0155] Thank you. I appreciate that.
[J0156] Jacob,
[J0157] you had mentioned in the in your report that there was a third party assessment done but I don't think you gave the topline figure for how much it would cost. Is that slide that you're able to share?
[J0158] Uh there are three options basically occupancy permit hold your breath um like immediate and don't count on it lasting long and then like you're kind of 2030 recapiz generation of swimmers. Um the I don't have final documents so I want to be careful. Um, but it is in the general range that we had been previewing with the the largest numbers in the 30 $40 million area maybe on the high end of that and lowest numbers close to 10.
[J0159] And can you remind us the overall number that the new facility would cost?
[J0160] 94.
[J0161] North Portland. Yeah.
[J0162] Yeah. 9,200. Okay. And those um those are nearly done and will be posted and available. We made sure that the contractor knew we be broadly distributing what they provided to us.
[J0163] Oh, so it's instead of doing north or Oh, it's it's in addition.
[J0164] You're just comparing.
[J0165] Okay. Sorry. Yeah.
[J0166] Okay.
[J0167] Well, those are questions.
[J0168] Okay.
[J0169] Right.
[J0170] Right.
[J0171] All right. Any other questions? We don't have uh Jessica's here, so we're a little more flexible with time. So, if there are no more questions, move on to a working group of
[J0172] Maybe just a little little follow. Um I hear you, Dr. Corbin, and I'm keenly um interested in topic of equity and um uh I don't know if it's um okay or not. Can we invite your equity officer to maybe show a few minutes of exchange at our retreat? um because parks is so different from the other bureaus and since she was also a board member uh and it's at the very beginning of kind of planning things out um it seems like it's a good opportunity to make that engagement but maybe that's not
[J0173] do we have our retreat agenda yet or are we working on it working.
[J0174] Yeah.
[J0175] So, are you gonna do a draft and send us so we can
[J0176] It's been 30 minutes. What do you mean? [laughter]
[J0177] She was everything ready.
[J0178] It's a little mean that we give the new chair over and then ask them to set a retreat. It's a little mean. I thought that last year. It just is, but that's how we do it. So,
[J0179] yeah.
[J0180] Going out as soon as we can get it together.
[J0181] Step [laughter] on it. It's a good thing that there's no July meeting, right? It provides a little space for that.
[J0182] I hear working groups. That's bad.
[J0183] Just kidding.
[J0184] All right.
[J0185] Um, uh, working group updates. Uh, board affairs is really just, um, uh, working at kind of this meeting, which was a bit of a hybrid in terms of our presentations as well as thinking of leadership transition and whatnot. So um not much to report there. I'll pass it to Suent.
[J0186] Can I ask a question?
[J0187] Oh yeah.
[J0188] In terms of um border treat planning and are there ideas behind it and what's the incentives or or rough idea for an agenda? I mean how is that being
[J0189] Can I share one thing that's been discussed please?
[J0190] So one of the things that's been discussed in a longer conversation is uh future like the financial future of parks. And so that wasn't intended to be a one-off that we had at our last meeting. that it intended to be a string of learning and action and how we are. Uh it was kind of the first meeting we had was really just the setting the stage and then we had talked about the retreat and in the fall also continuing and uh it being a pretty significant piece of advocacy that the parks board works on long term considering this is something that's going to be in front of council and council be considering. So uh I don't know what the full retreat will entail. Can I can I add to it? So just typically format wise so you have an idea the first half of the retreat will be a regular board meeting and then retreat part we often think about something strategic or something more longterm. Whether we do that long-term funding discussion in the board portion or the retreat portion it doesn't matter. I also wanted to add that we're still chugging away as much we can as far as the advisory enhancement advisory body enhancement project goes. They still plan on requiring the advisory bodies create a work plan. Whether that template is ready or not, I think we can use the sustainable long-term funding as kind of a jumping off point to start creating a work plan and seeing how we can
[J0191] Yeah. I mean, I I asked because I think that the retreat would be a really great spot for us to as a board put our minds together as to what we actually want to like put our hands on and dive into and create that work plan. Sure. And so, I mean, we talked about this a little bit and maybe the one of us will share this in one of our working groups. I can't remember community or recreation, but like is there a way that we could each bring from our working groups a topic or two topics that we really want to like explore? And so, what does that look like to over the next year to really dive in on? So, I guess I just ask where and how is the retreat being thought of um and what are the opportunities to provide, you know, feedback or suggest or think through that because I think that has been really something that we've struggled with over the past year is having like a a vision and a work plan. And so, if we can use that time, I think that makes the most sense to really kick us off moving forward. So, that would just be what I request.
[J0192] Yeah, I think that's a lovely idea. I really like the idea of having the working groups share like, hey, here are two things that we would like to um get information from parks on over the next year during our meetings so that we're we're soliciting information from a little bit more as opposed to just getting um presentations as they get developed and as as events.
[J0193] I was going to go a step further than that to say like information for what, right? Like what is it that we want to work on and what do we want to achieve? like what is the question that we want to really explore and ask and answer. So I think that we've been really hearing a lot of you know information but is there a way that we can use the retreat to say here are like the topic areas or the key questions that we really want to explore and dive into as working groups over the next year. So this is like how we can focus and you know really narrow in on what information we want to get. So the more we can put some sideboards and put some direction around the board and our work plan at that retreat, I think that will be beneficial for us as we move forward just so we can have some tangible things to to leave with.
[J0194] Um I see Dr. Corbin's hand, but um if it's on retreat, I would say that's not technically an action item today and I want to make sure we get to everything. No, no, but I do wonder about uh if you have input on the retreat emailing Jacob and sharing that information. So, and so he has it in an organized like he has it in one spot because I do see that
[J0195] just question that's not related but um we we're losing two people. Are we gaining are we looking for two people to fill or no?
[J0196] We're not we don't need you. We still have more than enough board members to be able to make it. And uh I think everyone was excited not to do a search this year because it's a lot of capacity and there's already been a lot of capacity in terms of the budget. So
[J0197] we typically recruit in around March.
[J0198] And we were full in March, right? Is that what
[J0199] Yeah. And my assumption is that it'll be a recruitment next year.
[J0200] Yes.
[J0201] Sure. That makes sense.
[J0202] Uh Corbin, is it on the retreat or something related to the working group?
[J0203] It's a little bit of both. It's it's advice when thinking about how you want to organize. I think it's really important to find that mic to the mayor and city council. And I hope you can follow through and seeing if the public works committee is that place cuz you're talking about the all of the labor and time that has been put into speaking to council members on separate bases and cha checking, you know, chasing them down and and everything that all the work that people have put in. It's going to burn the board out if we're going to do this every so often. And so what does it look like to have a mic and have an open line of communication to city council and to to the mayor through a body like the public works committee. Um I just want y'all to think about that as you move forward.
[J0204] All right. Thank you. All right. Uh let's move on to land use infrastructure. Suette.
[J0205] Yeah. Um, first of all, thank thanks to uh Tommy. He's always very diligent in in taking notes and I would encourage you to um read uh what's been kind of distill um there still quite a bit to um tackle. But then the big uh topics really discussed was um um there it was on one agenda but it was uh put um to a later date uh pocket park idea. Um and then uh the big topic is um vandalism uh of um public art on the parks area as well as benches. And uh it was actually quite a lot of um very um technical um discussion about what kind of ventures how are they being um kind of um selected and then the community neighborhood um neighbors were also having a say on this. So it gets uh pretty pretty involved uh including the um emergency management office involved. So um they're not just little benches. They have a lot of stakes uh with different players. So please read the the notes that Tommy had prepared for us. Um and then we talked about the capital project SDC which um defer um um pending approval uh which Matt mentioned a little bit. Uh again it gets very technical about the amount um the millions of dollars and how they are being um um made available or not. Um and then um we um we then talked about a little bit of um Steelbridge which actually uh there was a very well attended um community engagement second round and um uh they voting from three to two and then from two to one and then I think very soon we know which one will be uh the preferred uh version and for next month. Um our next meeting it's on June 23rd. It's going to be our last meeting and then a topic will be um I mean about the neighborhood study uh that um Green and Brett will be mentioning and then policy for park bench uh removal. So, if those are some of the topics you would like to um sit in, um you're welcome to come on um June 23rd, 8 a.m. [laughter] drink coffee.
[J0206] All right. Uh Adrian, do you want to give the uh sustainability update?
[J0207] Yeah. Uh happy to. Um so, a couple again, the notes are there if you want to see all the topics. Uh we also talked about where what the budget status was at that point in time uh with Clauddio and probably you know one of the highlights I know that's um uh was talked about a little earlier one of the highlights uh was the return uh or reinstitution of a lot of positions that are in permitting and tree protection um as well as some other you know restored funding to parks and wreck that was a bit smaller and as you know it's not a done deal yet but it's getting close to to a done deal. Um and of you know of course it's a big distraction for everyone and so that relates to moving forward sustainable funding. some of that in a sense has had to wait because um of the the attention for several months being paid to budget and cuts and that type of thing. Um, so on the sustainable funding side, what we talked about that I think is relevant to the larger board is some key areas where we're going to need input. And we started to talk about that at the financial sustainability workg group. Um, in particular, what are we financial what are we modeling? Okay, so what are the scenarios? And so there's going to be a scenario that's uh no additional funding. There'll be a scenario maintaining current funding and then a scenario of achieving goals from uh you know the new parks vision. Uh one thing that was brought up is that achieving goals is sort of in the eye of the beholder. You could have certain levels of that, right? So you could have a a sort of a passing grade or you could have a best-in-class um and particularly in built assets what what will our vision be so we started talking about those but um it's I think it's a really important area to bring back to the full board. Um so those are the two things that I'll highlight uh now and uh yeah look forward to discussing it further.
[J0208] Thank you. Uh Allison, you want to give your update?
[J0209] Yes, thank you. Um just want to start out by saying that Dr. Corbin is on or has been on our working group. Um and just want to say Dr. Corbin that your presence will truly be missed. Thank you for being so engaged and informed and such an impactful invo impactful voice, excuse me, um on this committee and the board overall and for contributing to the shaping of this working group. So, thanks for everything. Um at the May meeting, the culture nature recreation working group had the pleasure of speaking with Jamie Sandness as a follow-up to the project connect presentation that was given at the April board meeting. In the face of some rather impactful cuts um to the budget and kind of preparing for a reduced capacity from that group, the Project Connect team was seeking strategic guidance and recommendations on how to say no to invitations from the community for the outreach team to attend their events to provide information about PPR programs, services, and specifically the access discount. Um so through our conversation um the working group suggested focusing on the smaller community events that have a deeper impact those that actually provide technical support for registering for programs and the access discount and less focus on the larger events where the focus is more on branding and general presence. Um, so when a decline is necessary, it would be great to direct folks to online resources and to partners that are qualified to help with these things. Um, so several of the ideas that or a few of the ideas that we discussed were around training the trainer, training community partners to do more of this technical assistance on their own. Um, and partnerships with other entities that work with underserved communities. um and looking to organizations like Portland public schools working through connections to PTAs, counselors, teachers, and so forth. Um so that was a great conversation with Jamie. Um our next meeting is going to be on Friday, June 26th, and this is shifted out a week uh from June 19th in observance of Junth holiday. um our topic at our next meeting. I've been working with Maximo on this and I actually just saw an email come through from Maximo to confirm um but we'd like to get some more information about um kind of data collection and um community input. And I saw in the director's monthly report for April that was provided in the March board meeting packet um that there was a neighborhood park study um done in collaboration with a consultant Eco Northwest um a study on how the presence of parks impacts or does not impact gentrification increase to rents, housing values, displacement and so forth. Um, so that piqued my interest and is in alignment with our working group's focus on culture in the form of accessibility. Um, so we'll be welcoming some folks to share more information about the neighborhood park study and answer questions from the working group about that. So, thank you Maximo for your help with that. I can't see you on the video, but I saw you walk past, so I know you're there. Thanks for your help. Um, yeah, and always an open invitation uh to folks to join on Friday, Friday the 26th at 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
[J0210] Thank you. Um, and Sabrina isn't here. Does anyone from community engagement want to give a brief update?
[J0211] I was on that and I think I sent you my notes, but I can't remember what it was about at that point.
[J0212] If there's nothing in addition to the notes, you can always leave it there. Um, yeah. Okay. Uh we are about four minutes early. Are the folks from convention interested in starting a little bit early?
[J0213] Oh, great. Yeah, sure.
[J0214] We're very excited to have folks from PC to be able and if you want to pull up a chair and go ahead the table, you're more than welcome to go.
[J0215] You have a question about it. I think it says leading out on that. She's no longer on her board.
[J0216] Yeah.
[J0217] What's gonna happen with that group?
[J0218] It'll need a new chair. It'll need a new person in charge. Um which uh historically
[J0219] so historically that has either um usually that's worked out within the members. Uh but if not then the chair can step in and ask folks to lead as it's um but usually it is kind of worked out within. Can we get a new list of all the group working groups and who's in it because there's been a lot of shifting and some of the invites of the old people so we can get that shaked out. I don't know that would be
[J0220] I have a roster
[J0221] and when they each are
[J0222] like the when in the month each half like when the meetings happen.
[J0223] Oh, I can send out when the meetings happen as well. Cool. I I have a roster of what when everyone's terms are and how that shakes out. Then I have a and it shows what groups you're in. And so if I'm inaccurate, please update me because I know with the new folks, especially when you were shopping around. I think we were sending people out and I miss I made assumptions of who was in what group, but I could be wrong. So I can send it out after this
[J0224] and that way we can see where there's a lean. Some groups are a little lean.
[J0225] Yeah, we have two people leading community engagement with Corbett and Sabrina. So that proved my
[J0226] So I think there's just to list.
[J0227] All right. Okay.
[J0228] Now I will officially pass it again. Um and Michelle is online.
[J0229] I do have the presentation. I can share the PDF
[J0230] and then you can just let me know when to move on to the next slide.
[J0231] Thank you. Sure.
[J0232] Well, thank you uh members of the parks Portland park board. Uh we uh greatly appreciate you giving us some time on your busy agenda to share the exciting things that are happening at the Pittik mansion. Uh my name is Jeff Condid. I am the current president of the uh board of the Pitic Mansion Society and my chief job here tonight is to introduce Paula Gangatai who is our uh chief executive officer and she'll be doing the presentation. Uh I know Paula joined us about four years ago and she's brought uh innovation and change to the mansion as we try to bring it into the 21st century. Uh I her very impressive resume I understand is in your materials. But there's one thing I want to brag about her about. Uh last month the American Alliance of Museums awarded her their distinguished service award in recognition of her three-year career across the [snorts] country and in the federal government. Uh the AAM is the largest organization for museum professionals in the world and the distinguished service award is their highest honor. So uh we're very pleased and proud for Paula and uh very glad she's uh leading us into our new era at the page. So with that, I'll turn it over to Paula.
[J0233] Um I will uh echo the same uh sentiment that uh Jeff shared. Um thank you for having us. The last time um I spoke to a parks uh to the parks board was in I think June 2022 when I had just started at Bid Mansion. Um so and it was I think we were coming out of COVID so it was a Zoom meeting but um but I was happy in July we had the entire parks board actually come to the mansion for the opening of our Black and Oregon um exhibition. So, and so you all are welcome again uh to come anytime. We would love to show you around. It's the same thing. How many of you have been there recently? Because oftentimes we hear 15 years ago, 10 years ago,
[J0234] you know. So, is that sort of the case? Yeah, you have to come back.
[J0235] Okay. [laughter] You really have to come back. So, I'm going to give you a quick run through of um what we've been doing since 2022. After, as you know, uh the pandemic um impacted many organizations. Um but specifically for museums that were very heavily dependent on gated admission, it became an existential, you know, issue. Uh I was at the federal government when I was very saddened to hear the Portland Children's Museum, which was really an exemplar. I used to have them on national panels uh because they had the preschool you know and all that you know go away. So uh that kind of a thing uh was definitely happening. But before I begin the formal presentation and I'll go over it quickly um I want to start with a personal story and that's very important because we are trying to make pit mansion relevant um you know so that people can connect rather than just come and see a beautifully decorated house enjoy the view and leave. Uh we are trying to that relevance is is very important and it's part of the new vision. Um, my daughter, my only daughter, uh, lives here. She moved here in 2018. They got married in 2019. And like most visitors to Portland, uh, when we came to visit them, uh, in December of 2019, she said, "We'll take you to a place from where you see a beautiful view." So, uh, we came and as most of the, uh, visitors do, uh, we took a picture, uh, with Puk Mansion in the back. I still have that. It was December. It was cold. We were wearing our coats, even though I'm from Michigan. Um, and as we were leaving, she said, "Mom, by the way, this is a museum." And I said, "Okay." You know, and we left. And, uh, nothing outside really um said what it was about, you know, like there were there were like some of those um uh, you know, signs that we have there. Uh, but somehow it I didn't connect to it. Um fast forward um in 2021 um I was interviewing for other positions and then she announced that they were expecting the first baby. So I said okay Portland you know here I come. Um and I coincidentally found found found mansion and what really attracted me to the mansion is um the potential it had and the potential that had not been tapped. And so, you know, in talking with the board, I said, I do have the lens of what, you know, nearly 15,000 historic house museums are doing. Are you ready for change because we can really transform this place, make it irrelevant? And they were excited and that's how uh the journey began. So, I wanted to sort of share that personal story of how you know something in it I I connected with it. And that's the very important thing as we are the board and I are planning on our strategic planning. uh the next chapter of pedock mansion uh that's what we want to sort of provide that holistic view not just a cold building uh you know and looking at the past how can those stories uh you know help you change so um quick if you can help me uh uh slide so what is pit 2.0 uh it's basically the dynamic vision for pitic pansen which will lead to the transformation of the historic house uh museum or the landmark and define its next chapter. It is like I mentioned rooted in relevance, revitalization and re reimagination and we want to be that relevant cultural destination that inspires all to shape the present and the future with lessons from the past. There are these stories of resilience you know that the mansion personifies the even Henry Pituk's story from rags to riches like how did he become you know uh the successful entrepreneur so that's what we definitely you know want to sort of take forward and um next slide um and the core focus areas of pit 2.0 is infrastructure improvement because again being a very small historic house museums with limited funding uh we as you all know are not a line item in the city's budget so it is now managed by fit mansion society and so the infrastructure improvements were very much needed the point of sales system the accounting system we had a 7-year-old server that was dying uh you know our staff didn't have you know good furniture you know ergonomically you know important furniture. We were running out of space. So that was one. Community engagement, that's where we saw the biggest opportunity of many untapped partnerships. Um you know, and the impact that we could make. Historic preservation. Um you know, as you all know, the city um you know, restored it, bought it, restored it, took 15 months, but that was way back in 1964. Uh since then, no major um capital improvements have been done. And as we know 100-y old buildings, you know, they just don't, you know, sit every year. It's becoming more and more expensive. We'll talk about that. Collection stewardship, all the furniture, the decorative art, everything that you see see there were put together by the Britic Mansion Society way back in 1960, you know, 64 60 between 64 and ' 65ish. So um uh the collection stewardship is very important and uh it is a challenge because we are not uh we don't have climate control. So everything is without uh you know air conditioning and when the heat rises as as it has been um even to restore and to preserve the art that is in the mansion is a challenge and of course I was very uh particular about financial sustainability because um you know just our business model was 92% dependent on gated admission which is a scary model for any nonprofit uh very little grants or you know private support it was very heavily and if you depend on gated admission then you really don't have anything to work on in terms of growth that was important. Thank you. So the we said you know what the mansion has been there people say yeah we were there 25 years ago 15 years ago uh but you know we need to really um have even the Portland community rediscover pit mansion and so we started with this mission next slide and uh so the first thing that we did is we expanded the to the pit campus rather than just the mansion uh we as you know we have two buildings um and um the gate lodge or the um estate keeper home was mostly kept um locked or it would be open only on occasional um on only occasionally because they just didn't have the staffing or a plan how to keep it open. So we wanted to give people a deeper experience connect and also juxtapose history how did the estate keeper live versus the the folks who lived in the mansion and we wanted to tell that bigger story. So uh it took us nearly 6 months to sort of you know get it into the campus. We reopened the admissions bay uh because that had been closed during uh the pandemic and uh this starting this year or starting in in November uh we are now also doing events uh proactively on the front lawn which is such a such a big asset that was totally underutilized. Um so uh one thing we found is how do you bring repeat visitors right if you have been there once you only bring people to you know when you have guests in town uh or you know you come during the Christmas celebration so we started uh pit connections is a is a new annual exhibit series and it is uh basically we host we curate and host two exhibitions per year one is called bita under bitter cultural connections that's where we are uh partnering ing with the local communities and we are sharing the stories of marginalized communities. This is Kalapulian land was with the indigenous artist you know black in Oregon was with the black pioneers uh you know group curated an exhibition on the Chinese and the Jewish immigrants. So that is you know and it was a commitment that uh Ped Mansion had made even before I came on board and we said we're going to continue doing that because it's not just about the family and you know the the elegance and the class but who are the others if we are saying that it's about Portland history who are the other contributors to Portland history and the second thing again because this doesn't happen with many other historic houses um there are so many interdicciplinary themes that Peter mansion can leverage art architecture uh you culture, nature. So the summer season when we get the maximum out of town visitors, we have started doing exhibitions um on uh on artists. Uh and again there has to be that uh Oregon connection, some sort of a connection with the pit family and things like that. So we've done seven eight exhibitions in four years and we're very proud of that and people like that very private setting. Next um one and um what we found is like so we don't have a big collection of art but we have um very uh supportive um private collectors uh who have been actually loaning us art uh to do the exhibitions. The Elijah Barkas we had 63 pieces of art that had not seen the light of the day. Those were exhibited and it really took our visitorship like nearly you know 11% that year. So this one, the life and art of Harry W. Um Portland Art Museum has u multiple uh of his painting. He was an artist who uh started the art school in Portland. But again being a big organization and the processes they have, we could not borrow art from the Portland Art Museum, but we have five private collectors who loaned us 35 pieces of art and we said we're going to do it. So you know, we are we're being very entrepreneurial and sort of tapping on um on partnerships. Next slide. Um, so while we are doing the changing exhibitions, it was very evident that we needed to change the storytelling in the mansion. When you enter the mansion, it you are greeted with a panel that says here's Henry Pitk. He was a successful uh publisher of the Oregonian. Where is his life story where he started with no money in his pocket? How did he go up? So we are so this is a uh a project which is in its third year and we are going to reopen the mansions interpretation by 2027. Uh thankfully this is being funded by uh one of the family uh members who's been very generous and it will tell broaden the story of Henry Pitt. It'll highlight the contributions of Georgiana Pitk to Portland history. Uh you know I was always intrigued when I saw the portrait. I'm like, besides being the wife of Henry Ford, Henry No, sorry, Henry Ford. I came from the Henry Ford Museum. Sorry, it keeps coming back. Henry Pitter. Um, what did she do? She was a social activist and you know, she started the first daycare in uh in Portland, uh, the fruit and flour daycare. Where are why are we not telling, you know, those stories? She was the founding member of the Rose Festival. Uh so you know so we're going to be telling that story including stories of the other family members that pitex only lived in the house for like five years before both of them passed away. Uh so who were the others who were also integral part of the Portland you know community. Uh we will also shed light on bit contemporaries like the failing the cooches the corbits you know there were many families uh whose stories are not being told. Um and then we also want to um tell the stories of the builders and workers of pit mansion. We actually had an exhibition like who built it, their stories untold. Uh we also want to highlight the city of Portland parks and pit mansion society. When a visitor comes in, they have no clue who's running the museum, who's maintaining the grounds. So that story needs to be that whole public private partnership needs to be explicit. So uh we have a researcher who's has done the research over 3 years and we're going to be you know completely redoing uh redo the exhibition. Hopefully if we get enough funds we'll also add some audio tours outside and inside that can tell the history you know much better. Thank you. Um home for the holidays. This has been uh a tradition since 1964. We have the first picture of the Christmas at the mansion. uh my staff say, "Oh, it's not a good picture. It's a rickety Christmas tree." I'm like, "That tells us where we were, right?" So, there should be a coffee table book on how Christmas or the holidays have changed. And again, to make it more inclusive, we uh made it home for the holidays uh so that it's not just Christmas. And uh it goes on for 8 weeks uh from November to January. And this year the theme is holidays from around the world. So, uh if you haven't been, you know, come and visit us. it it's really really beautiful and again this will allow us to um address the changing demographics of Portland. Um you know there are so many ethnic groups uh who traditionally don't even come to the beta mansion during the holidays. So if we have the Chinese New Year a room decorated with that with Kwanza with uh you know and all of that still maintaining uh some of the um other traditions I think that'll be really interesting slide. um we were not renting um the mansion for anything. We did our own parties and um with that financial sustainability it was very important for us to diversify you know the revenues. So um we have just started doing that and you know it's going to take uh time and effort you know for it to uh for for that particular program to grow. So if you want to have like a small meeting on the third floor, we have like a little room uh right there. And uh of course uh we had some really good uh some events, some pilot events last year. Okay. And uh the thorns had a photo shoot, you know, at the mansion. Uh so we allow photo shoot uh filming on the grounds and inside and uh you know the rather let's keep going. Uh so wedding receptions and corporate parties like I said we have just vilated a few um that's where we are running into Sonia knows about this we are running into some challenges because our license agreement uh expires in March so we are not able to book weddings and all that you know beyond March and as you know people try to plan ahead so that's that's a a challenge I'll mention in the end that's where we need a little bit of a more efficiency with our um with our planning and communication with parks Uh next slide please. Uh major donor cultivation like I mentioned to you our business model was 92 versus 8. Uh we did not uh write grants. If somebody gave us a big check, we took it. But we are definitely being very proactive. Um my background is I've been a funer at the federal level. So uh you know we are really we really have to do that. Um, one thing I love about Portland is, uh, if people believe in what you are doing and it's going to make an impact, I can have a coffee table. I can have a meeting at a barista for one and a half hours and come away with a nice check. So, so people are, you know, um, doing that and they have very generously supported the PC 2.0 vision, uh, up till now uh, and, you know, we are going to, uh, continue our commitment with them. Okay. uh volunteer recruitment and training. Our volunteers are a small and mighty group. We always recognize the garden volunteers as well who do a fantastic job with our horiculturist. Um and we did this event uh we do it every year. Our volunteers contribute close to $100,000 every year. Uh they give tours, you know, they're helping with school um school tours and all of that. So that's a big component of how we are able to run our operations. And uh we are we expanded the behind the scene and architecture tours and again those have become very popular nearly 40% attendance growth you know for tours um even in the last uh one and a half years. Uh we uh started a program called inspiring the next generation of museum professionals. uh we funded this from our own operational funds um giving different college students from Portland as well as from outside uh experience on how you know um what happens in a museum so from different different roles and that was a very enriching experience uh you know for them okay uh so again big infrastructure and technology upgrades like I mentioned one thing that I would like to highlight to you we were having uh regular breakins in the mansion and our um security system was very dated and was not functioning. And uh one time we had somebody in the mansion for one and a half hours and they just took 50 pieces of china and they broke and and the police could not you know come till like 3 hours or so. So we really had to work uh with parks and I was able to get funding from a private um donor uh but parks also expedited you know the processes the permit processes. So we have a much better system. Uh some of the some of those issues have not uh have not resolved yet. They are still happening but the response time is is much much better. So again that's again where we are trying to bring resources from private funding also to it. Next slide. Um our board is I would say 70% new and again when you have a vision uh a forwardlooking vision you really need to bring in board members. We had we our governance committee completely redid the criteria, amped up the recruitment and we have a very dynamic group of board members um who actually are contributing from um you know from historic not only just historic preservation but from u marketing government relations um horiculture um and you know diversity and inclusion uh from from various different fields. So, it's a very robust board and I'm very fortunate that we have Jeff as our chairperson and uh you know the board is uh engaged now in the strategic planning and rebranding of the mansion. [clears throat] So, building trust, respect and support. Sonia, there you are. That was my first meeting with you last year uh when you had just stepped into the role. Uh um uh councelor Clark has been very supportive and excited about what we are doing. uh Priya Dhanapal deputy administrator you know came and spoke at our um uh holiday openhouse for members and volunteers um so we want to continue doing that when I had joined the the mansion um I was told Paula it's not that we did not have a good relationship or a bad relationship with the city of Portland parks we just do not did not nurture a relationship and I said well that's going to change right because we cannot have a public private partnership without you transparency, communication and trust and that has been a big part and uh you know thanks to everyone who has you know shown us that support slide. Um uh so now we are at a point where all of these things that we were doing inside we wanted to start like a second season because summer is the peak time right when you have these beautiful grounds and we were not doing anything. So, this was just a concept. Music on the lawn, mini art fair, pop-up exhibits, and um it took us, don't mind me saying this, it's a fact. It took us 10 and a half months to negotiate with the city parks to allow us to start using the front lawn. So, that's those are some of the challenges, you know, we faced, but last November it happened and we are piloting some of the programs. So once we got that green signal uh with the permitting process and all that next slide uh we were ready to roll. So we said we will roll um you know pit's a second season of summer programs. Next slide. Uh for the first time we participated in the Portland Rose Festival. So we just concluded three weeks. If you haven't been to the mansion please do come. The house is fully decorated with a rose centric decor. It's looking gorgeous you know. Um so uh we are very lucky we have some volunteers who are you know helping us we participated in the in some of the activities and we'll take it to sort of the next level uh next uh next year. Okay. Um inaugural Mother's Day tea. We did a tea on the terrace and it got sold out the the day I think it opened. So thankfully it was a beautiful you know day and uh we had a morning and an evening session. Uh we gave tours to those who came and it was just a delightful uh delightful event and we definitely are now ready to expand it. Next slide. Uh inaugural happy hours on the terrace. If you're looking for something to do after work and you want to have a relaxing winding down time, we are partnering with wineries, distilleries, and breweries. and 5:30 to 7:00 uh you can come and hang out on our terrace and also we have volunteers who will give you a tour and share you know vignettes so we just started and these are happening on Thursday evenings and they will go on through end of August so do stop by okay um fun um we wanted to do we wanted to attract the familyfriendly audience you know we wanted to attract the family audiences so our next exhibition which is getting installed as we speak, opens on June 15th and it's called Pets of Portland. How did Portland get the reputation of being one of the most pet bed friendly cities, right? So, there's this whole connection, history, fun, and along with this exhibition because it's a prime time for um you know, for um u when kids are out of school, there'll be a pet fair on the front lawn with fun activities. So again uh there's a author who's coming to talk about a museum of dogs. Um so again we are we are trying to tap those uh this things. Okay, next one. I'm almost there. Um new educational tours and summer camps. Let's keep going. Uh weekend programs for children and families. This is the first time the Washington Park Shuttle is going to bring people to the Pit Mansion on Fridays and Saturdays. So we are thrilled that that we were never part of the uh organizations you know that Washington part chocolate group mansion was never part of that. So now um you know that's wonderful. So we are lining up our staff and volunteers to have these activities which always you know kids enjoy uh on the terrace. Okay almost done. Uh with doing all of that we um recognize that not everyone can afford the admission fee that we have. Uh this is a program I had started or actually nurtured at the federal government um where museums offer uh free or reduced admission to people with EBT cards. So PC mansion was not part and of course it coming in we said we need to be part of that. So now we are offering admission to folks with EBT card for $5 a person versus $16. So it is a you know um quite a quite a big discount and we hope that you know these will be utilized. Let's keep going. Almost there. So the most critical priority I mentioned preservation of the buildings. The we are still using the 114y old galvanized plumbing system that can break any time. It will not only disrupt operations, it will result in much increased expense for the city because the city owns the buildings, right? Um, I've been able to get $200,000 from a donor, but we need city's support to get that project moving. We've been trying to communicate since March. You know, this money is in hand, needs to be used. We need to you know move move the processes and because if we don't some of the critical needs like you know the roofing some of the tiles are missing uh the two uh windows that you see in the garage um uh fell off or were ready to fall off they've been removed by um the parks the carpentry department but we have have we have had them boarded for two years now. So these are the the process efficiency is something which we are you know we we request um city to consider because again we can do so much but we need you know that kind of support. Let's keep going almost done. So why care for Bedic Mansion? It is the only mansion standing. You know coincidentally many of the famous and extravagant homes of Portland's founding families no longer exist. They're either they were either torn down or lost to disasters. Those that do exist often remain vacant. They're occupied, you know, as a private home or they serve as a location for commercial, you know, businesses. Pitk is the only mansion, the house remaining. It's a unique site in which you can actually step into history. It's not just a modern museum with artifacts, you know, you can actually step into history and it tells the stories of Portland. So it is something we're very fortunate you know that the city saved from demolition. People are shocked when they hear and it was a community partnership but it's time now after 60 years when we together need to mobilize the community. We are trying to do that with you know private support but we also need you know the city's support you know to to do that. So my last uh slide is support experiencing Portland's history through the lens of pure adventure. You know we always tell people come and experience but we really need to preserve it for it to be you know offering that that experience. Sorry I went a little over.
[J0236] That's okay. Um we only have three minutes for questions uh because we have uh Portland alliance here also give a presentation. So heavy hitters. Yeah. Um, so I mean you talk a lot about like the barriers in the process. What are the biggest hang-ups right now? And maybe it's a question to for both you and for the parks is like what is prohibiting you from moving forward with all these things? Like
[J0237] we need we need sit down communication and we need to move it. Like I said last time it took 10 and a half months but then it moved you know very fast in two weeks.
[J0238] Is it permitting or what is it exactly? So there are three issues that we have brought brought forth that need to be four issues actually that need to be addressed and um you know we have forwarded them to the counselors they they have shared it with um you know I Sonia knows about it number one issue is extension of our license agreement we cannot operate year by year by year it is very difficult for us to operate that way so we've asked for a fiveyear uh you know license with what we have Number two is we want to uh address the plumbing issue ASAP before it something really disastrous happened. We have procured the money. We will raise the remaining you know we are asking for support and ease of permitting process so that that work can begin like I said since March that has that hasn't happened
[J0239] funding support for that in addition to
[J0240] we did ask for funding support you know for that because like I said there's we are never never been a line item right
[J0241] but and I we are not asking for millions of dollars
[J0242] okay
[J0243] you know our whole we have set a goal for preservation that will address the roofing the plumbing some of the select windows to be a million dollar. So we have raised $200,000. We were asking from for some support either to match that 200 because the private donors are telling us if the city is not putting in anything why should we why should we give you know you don't even own the buildings but like I said I was able to leverage you know this person to say let's take a leap of faith you know to do that but along with the funding support which is again very nominal in the scope of everything is the ease of the permitting process so that the work can begin
[J0244] because come so That is one and the third issue is security uh of the mansion you know so that's where uh there are some gaps we are doing our best and uh you know uh to address but that that is you know another one so
[J0245] we have shared the letter and other things but we need to really have that conversation and get moving these three issues
[J0246] that's helpful thank you
[J0247] and with that I'm going to say thank you so much for the very
[J0248] thank you for giving us your timely appreciate Thanks so much.
[J0249] And do you come and visit? Yes. You know, fun things are going on, right?
[J0250] Thank you so much.
[J0251] Thank you.
[J0252] Yeah.
[J0253] Thank you. Thank you for forwarding the slides. Of
[J0254] course, Paula. Thank you.
[J0255] And now we're going to make a quick swift to the Portland parks lines, please. Oh, we can leave the chair so they can
[J0256] Oh, sorry.
[J0257] Thank you.
[J0258] Yes.
[J0259] Oh, thank you.
[J0260] We have two folks here. And then we have back at it again, Aaron Zolenoff. Hi, Aaron. Hi, [screaming]
[J0261] Erin's the former board member for those who may not know.
[J0262] Okay,
[J0263] could you please water while we're
[J0264] I'll take purple
[J0265] purple water?
[J0266] Bless you.
[J0267] Pomegranate.
[J0268] Thank you guys and welcome. And the floor is yours.
[J0269] Is Michelle moving this box? Yep.
[J0270] Uh, thanks for having us. I'm Pat Frozic in the Portland Parks Alliance and former member and chair at the parks board. My, uh, term expired in June of 2020. So, I lived through the 2019 what we then thought was an existential budget gap of $6 million. Didn't know how bad it could get. Um, we managed to bridge that gap thankfully, but that's when Sarah started her good work that I hope we're going to continue on financial sustainability. So, the alliance is an informal coalition of parks advocates from every district in the city. We currently have 100 participants from 49 organizations. We started in June of 2024 with half dozen to a dozen folks who were concerned about what we saw and continue to see as three serious threats to the viability of the park system. a looming budget deficit of really existential proportions that begins the 2020 levy, a burgeoning deferred maintenance uh backlog that continues to grow and a significant deterioration in the relationship between PPNR and Friends of and other volunteer groups. um by word of mouth. Basically, we quickly discovered there were a lot of other folks already involved in the park system that really were concerned about the same things but hadn't had a forum to talk about them or to get them addressed. So, we discovered there was a vacuum and a lot of people wanted to fill that vacuum and that really fueled our growth to as I say now 100 participants. Our coalition includes people with very different viewpoints about a lot of different things. But we do agree on the urgent need to educate the public and elected officials about and to advocate for three things. Short next next Thanks short and long-term plan for reducing the deferred maintenance backlog. getting long-term fiscal sustainability plan for the bureau and improving the relationships between parks and volunteer groups. We focus on the park system, not on individual parks. And we try to be very disciplined about keeping focus to those three things we agree with because we got to coalition that may have different views on different subjects. So, we really try to be disciplined about that. Next slide. We're not a formal organization. We don't we're not incorporated. We don't have employees, members, bylaws, elected officers. We operate by consensus. Uh we have a leadership group made up of uh me, Jim Schillin who is here, uh Erin who's on the screen. So Paula Grimace, also a parks board alums. We have a lot of parks alums. Kit Hawkins, Jonathan Nicholas, and Lyn Felton, and Suzanne Bishop convenes our meetings. Uh we usually meet uh monthly on the first Friday of the month. Uh the meetings are hybrid. We send weekly newsletters to all participants summarizing parks related news for the week. And we have a friends subgroup that meets separately on a quarterly basis to share concerns and expertise and resources. At our meetings, we're often joined by parks experts and elected officials, including Sonia, who has been nice enough to come several times. Chris Silk talked to us about uh capital maintenance backlog asset management, Casey Jones from the city auditor's office, Olivia Clark, and Siri who was a former director of Zero. We are meeting this Friday. And I know we've already extended an invitation to the chair and vice chair, but you are all invited to come uh at 9:00, but it's also on Zoom. We can send you links. Uh Sonia and Sarah will be joining us to talk about financial sustainability plan. So there are some common interests there. Next slide. some things that just some examples of what we do and have done. We do a lot of counselor education and advocacy including tours, parks in each district and individual meetings with uh counselors and city administrators. We successfully on the margins at least advocated for capital maintenance allocation in the new levy. We wanted a lot more than we got but at least we got something. Uh we have advocated for an increased um allocation to capital maintenance in this year's budget with we don't think much success this year unfortunately but we will um we will keep advocating for that uh with the parks foundation we're working with a group the community engagement group in the bureau made up Kelly Torres June Bass and Megan Dirks to try to identify and remove and mitigate some of the friction points points between parks and volunteer groups. And we do a lot of research and analysis that informs our advocacy, education, and partnership work. We have some handouts on many of these things that I brought, but I think there are so many people on Zoom. Michelle, if I can just email them to you, then you can get them distributed. People don't have to walk out a lot of paper. um we do generate a lot of research and analysis. A lot of us are retired so therefore have times don't have time to do these things don't have real jobs. Uh and I think to the extent that that work is useful in any of the working groups or what the parks board is doing we are happy to share them. Uh and next slide for two 2026 and 27 our objectives are to continue to advocate for increased funding for deferred capital maintenance. Uh Jim is going to be talking about the capital maintenance problem in some detail in just a minute. But I think it's important to stress at the out outset that we believe capital maintenance is fundamental to access. They are the same issue. If you don't have a swimming pool, you can't have swimming lessons. If you don't have a community center, you can't have a fitness class or senior classes. If you don't have playground equipment that's safe, you can't have an actual playground. So, it often gets I think unfortunately raised as an eitheror. Either you have programming or you have capital maintenance. I think that's false choice that is not useful way of thinking about the problem. Uh we also are advocating for a developable sustainable funding model for Portland on an at parks bureau on a accelerated schedule and we will continue to work to improve the partnerships between PPNR and friends and volunteer groups. So that
[J0271] yeah thank you. Uh by way of introduction I'm Jim Shalin and I worked for parks for 29 and a quarter years. Uh so I'm one of some of you anyway and um everything from I was hired as a gardener before we had horiculturist which is a title inflation we had gardeners and then I was a district foreman person for person and then I went to the natural resources world and uh ended up with city nature. Um but anyway, I had a lovely career with parks and uh enjoyed a a variety of positions. Happy to be a parkie. Uh but about the capital maintenance program uh problem, here it is. Um the number keeps going up. So 7 747 billion was an estimate when we started working on this. It's probably higher now. I don't know what the number is. Point is, it's a big number. And then the one in five assets that could fail the next 15 years is part of the story that we all should be concerned about. So next slide please. What is capital maintenance? Um a project costing more than 10,000 that repairs or replaces an existing capital asset. Examples are there. Replacing a roof, renovating a restroom, replacing play equipment. These are just examples. installing more energy efficient heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. Uh resurfacing all kinds of things, pathways, parking lots, tennis courts, basketball courts. Restoring a landscape, uh whether it's a cultural landscape, a formal landscape, or whether it's a natural area that's part of Capital Nations. Next slide, please. And how to think about it. I came up with the idea of showing a glacier from 1914 and 2009 to show just to make the point that it's a slow process generally and it's just caused by wear and tear. People love our parks. They love them to death in some cases. I live close to Lauraurst. I see that with the landscape. Uh I just kind of cringe when I see it. uh we may not notice because it's so slow and gradual as things approach failure but it is real and to some extent it is predictable. Uh we have a Portland parks I I'm going to say we sorry I can't help but Portland parks we have this uh rating system that I think is pretty good for tracking condition of assets over time. Next slide. [cough] [clears throat] Oh okay. Once in a while things happen fast and in January a year two years ago now um the MC the Mount Taber picnic shelter went down in one one storm incident next and then sometimes entire sets of assets fail unpredictably. Who knew that you couldn't hang a hammock on a a parks lampost and have a problem? Well, it was a problem and then Parks found out that it was going to cost him a lot for the settlement and that there were lots of lamp posts around the system that needed to be fixed and I think parks is still working on that. I don't know status of the lamp post
[J0272] project. I think the lamp posts are done but we are still paying for it.
[J0273] Okay. Washington.
[J0274] Uh so when that happened, by the way, um every other capital asset project basically got pushed back. So that was a big line cutter for us. So that's it's just you know somebody cuts in line how annoying that is. Well, how can you plan to do something on a on a serious uh level when some we have interruptions like this? But it happens hopefully not frequently. Next, uh, this is more typical. And, uh, so there's a tennis court. Boy, we did, we had a field day taking photographs of, uh, tennis courts because they're they all look like this. I don't know. Uh, it seems to me anyway. Uh, we all we all know about Columbia Pool. Um, next there's more. Another tennis court. Surprise, surprise. West Morland Park. Another slide, please. Uh, I took these this uh Cresston Park restroom. That was the first restroom that I went in to see what kind of condition it was in. And there it was. I didn't need to go any further. There's another tennis court. Pathways look like this frequently. Uh, the picture of Crescent Pathway on the left. Next slide. And then in the natural areas, you don't think of natural areas of having a lot of uh built assets, but they do have very important ones like trail bridges, for example. Next, here's Pioneer Courthouse Square, 42 years old. I remember when it opened. And so the middle slide is an intentional uh wreck, but now the intentional wreck is degrading as well. Next slide. And then in 9-year-old Luitit View Park, there's also issues with playground equipment there. So, this is this is kind of the bread and butter of Capitol um maintenance that needs to happen that needs our attention and that's why we're working on. So we brought these pictures and this slide show to all four sets of uh city councilors uh and you know we we did tours showed them some of these things but we also brought this slide presentation to them featuring the parks that were in their district. Next slide please. Um again we have parks h has a well-designed capital in its project list. Um It's organized by any way you want to organize it by park, by district, by type of project and more. And some estimated costs. It's broadly considered good system. And Chris Silki is the person who's uh managing that in parts. Uh that's a person you should get to know better if you want to investigate this system. Next slide. This is what it looks like. So if you're an Excel geek, um you're going to have a field day here. It's got a data filter and everything. You could sort by by the what needs to happen at at Clinton Park or how many backflow preventors we need to replace systemwide if you're interested. Next, please. And this is just to illustrate how the problem grows if it's not attended to. So the blue line's an inflation line. The rest of the growth is just reflecting the continual erosion of assets that need attention. So the long the message here is the longer you wait the worse it gets next. So, I asked Chris, I didn't ask him um I asked Chris Silki. I didn't ask him to advocate for us, but I we wanted to know how much to ask for when we went to council this last budget round. And so, he gave us a number of 10 uh doubling the amount from general fund from 10 to 5 to 10. And then we got actually a higher number from another person that we asked in parts. So, that's what we but we ran with this. We we did we we thought that the system that you have is credible and that it would made it made a credible assoc. Next slide. But we also asked Chris how how much money would it take to not just arrest the problem but to start making progress on it over time so that it would become less over the years. and he estimated 15. Um that was an older estimate and you'll see later that we're asking for more than that in the future but go ahead that's we wanted to make credible house so we relied on on the system. Next slide. Uh this just shows the um order of magnitude of the problem that we have versus uh what the what the asks are. So if we were on the far right, if we asked for 20 million, uh, looks kind of puny compared to what
[J0275] what the problem actually is. So highlighted in red, that was our ask this round. And so we went to bat for Portland Parks. The alliance went to bat for it and wanted to see another three million added to the capital maintenance budget. We don't believe that we were successful. Uh, but we're going to keep trying. We're not in this just for one round and in fact next year we'd rather ask for 20 million. Don't know what the city's fiscal situation is going to be like exactly next year but we're here to like advocate for this priority force. Next slide please. Here are some u major um capital maintenance issues. Um old buildings. You'll you'll see a theme after these first three slides. Uh, we know that well this building is old. It's unreinforced masonry. How much money do you want to throw at that to make that viable? That's an open question that I think Parks is going to have to address at some point. Next slide. Another building uh in the Woodstock Community Center. Uh, another former fire station. Um, but it has a 2 million as u estimated 2 million worth of uh capital maintenance that's deferred. Next slide. Another fire station built in 1912. Um the good news there is that uh the community music center uh program is actively trying the board there volunteer board is actively trying to find another place to go um because they there was no way that that tower could be stabilized um efficiently. So they have the usual we've probably all seen them around Portland u unreinforced masonry sign outside. Next slide. So, we're done with fire stations for a moment. Now, it's a school that we have. And this is the Molda School that opened in 1923. It's now the art center. It's been the art center for a long time since 1980, apparently. And it's got a $21 million capital. Next. So now I want to transition to u what we all want to see which is a sustainable Portland parks and recreation which is sustainable funding base and uh there was a lot of good work done. Sarah was involved in a lot of that and in n at November 26, 2019 there was a report or there was a work work session that I would uh ask that you actually go back to and review so you kind of see where what the choices were at the time and and how things have progressed. Uh but I think it's fair to say that no significant actions were taken at that time to really put us on a path of sustainability. So we went with another levy instead. Next slide. So, uh, we also are working with, uh, a concerned citizens group and a Virginia Elabby is part of that and, uh, she's a retired government analyst or budget person and boy does she do numbers. It's amazing what she can do. Um we believe with her and that other group that the two uh the project in where it left off in 2019 remains a viable roadmap for fiscal sustainability in the future. And uh we will be talking about that at our next meeting which is on Friday at 9 that you've already been invited to. Next slide please. So the way that would the way it would have to work we think is something similar to this. Um yeah more money is needed but also the allocation needs to uh change a little bit and uh be increased in capital maintenance. Uh so we're showing kind of a different ideal there and that's a that's just a snapshot picture of what we think would be a helpful uh reallocation of resources which also means more resources. Next slide. So we're even it appears to us that we're with the levy that we're possibly even more operation centric than we were. Uh Jenny's estimate is the chair is now 80%. And capital maintenance is still in the single digits.
[J0276] Next.
[J0277] So, uh is Aaron here?
[J0278] I am here. Hi, Jim.
[J0279] Hi.
[J0280] Um well, thank you. Hi, everybody. I'm Aaron. Those of you that don't know me, I'm a former parks board member. I spent six years on the parks board and termed off last June. So, fairly recent, but not recent enough to know everybody. And I'm pretty easy because I got this one slide. So, we're almost done. But first, I just want to um acknowledge that Pat and Jim, thank you both. There were was a ton of information just provided to you all. I recognize that. But it's also a kind of sample for you all of what this group, this informal group, Portland Parks Alliance, has available. um the level of information, the detail of information. So I think one of our hopes, it's it's maybe not directly outlined here, is to be a resource for the parks board. You have resources, but I think one of the things to note is that few things. One is that essentially like Jim pointed out, I think a way to think about it is that if the deferred maintenance issue isn't resolved, we're kind of heading toward a cliff, right? So instead of putting things against each other, is it service or is it deferred maintenance, you have to think of it as eventually if there's not a place to do the service, then there's not an ability to do the service at all. So these things have to be thought of holistically. The Portland Parks Alliance itself has a very narrow focus. I know from being on the parks board that the focus is much more broad. The kind of task at hand is much more broad. So you you learn so much information. Um but for Portland Parks Alliance, our um our purpose is very narrow. It's districtwide. So we're not focused on any particular park or any particular district. Instead, we're looking at this holistically. And just to re reiterate what Pat said earlier, it's essentially three focus areas. The first is addressing the deferred maintenance backlog. The second is financial sustainability for parks. And the third is good relationships between um parks bureau and partner organizations that work in parks or are parks adjacent. So that's kind of the three focuses of the parks alliance. Um so we are very engaged in kind of direct advocacy meeting with counselors um meeting directly with decision makers etc. And I think what we're what we want here so I know from being on the parks board a lot of times that what what you are doing in a in a meeting is receiving a lot of information but maybe not having a direct ask. And so my hope was to end this with really having a direct ask of the Portland B parks board to consider which is essentially the first is Portland Parks Alliance has uh monthly um hybrid meetings. They typically happen, correct me if I'm wrong, Jim and Pat, I think they're typically on the first Friday of the month. This month is a little different. We're meeting on this Friday. Um, at the meetings there's typically either an elected official, uh, people involved in parks, and we have a direct kind of agenda, uh, with, again, I think Pat might have mentioned this, I think that Portland Parks Alliance is about 90 or so different, uh, representatives, um, on it. And so that's the first is to kind of see if we can connect that way so that we can have, you know, um, integration there. But the second is really I think what we're asking for is where there are areas where we overlap in what our strategic goals are. So those are our three goals. They're very clear and they're actually very basic. Um if Portland Parks board has a desire to overlap in advocacy, our hope is to grow uh long-term uh you know it might not happen next year. We might not solve the $747 million deferred maintenance backlog. I think we recognize that. But how can we work to together uh to amplify our voices? And so I think that's where the second ask is, which is essentially where can we partner in advocacy, the parks board and parks alliance and any other groups really that are interested in addressing some of these big issues that you just heard about right now. Um, and I'm going to end it there. I think uh I don't know. Oh, we're pretty close to time, but hopefully there's some time for questions.
[J0281] Yeah, we have four minutes. So, I see um sorry, we're cutting it close. There's two 30 minute presentation. So, I see Suen and then Adrian.
[J0282] I know. Thank you again. Um you came to the land use infrastructure um work group. Really appreciate it. Um, I know you as an entity organization advocacy, you went directly talk to the city council and um, city hall and with all that really in their face messages, what came out of that effort? Because it it seems like there's kind of little men on deaf ears. they hear you. But what are some of the tricks that you thought I think we got the door open a little bit?
[J0283] I could try.
[J0284] Okay. Um well, first of all, they know we're watching. Um and so I think that's very important if you're an elected official. So, um, there's budget season is still not over really quite and there were a lot of amendments made and so we were watching those very carefully. I think there's real value in that and there's real value in the education piece. I mean, they don't know what's going on in park, busy people. And I think realistically with the fiscal situation that the city is in right now, our expectations were to ask. We didn't ask. We knew we weren't going to get. How optimistic were we that we were going to get a big bucket of money? And [clears throat] you know, it's tough this year. It's really tough. Might be tough next year, too. We're going to keep trying. they can get money for motor center. So maybe we just ship that over
[J0285] capital maintenance, you know, just spend it over here.
[J0286] I think just one other thing I think the other thing we got that Sonia has pointed out to us really before we started advocating, nobody talked about deferred maintenance. It wasn't even in the room, let alone on the table. Now it does come up. They at least do talk about it. Acknowledge it's a problem. It is slow progress, but there is some.
[J0287] And if the city does do a city-wide bond measure of some sort to address the capital problem, we want to be in the game.
[J0288] Um, we have one minute left. So, Adrian, do you want to give like a very fast question and we'll see if we can get a very fast answer.
[J0289] Yeah, very fast. Uh, thank you so much. Uh, thanks Erin and all of you. Uh we absolutely so I chair the financial sustainability group and so I just want to invite you to come to that group. You're going to be hearing um from Sarah I it sounds like and so you'll know what we're up to in sort of the second round of this and the kind of advocacy that you're doing is absolutely just what we're going to need. Um and uh so you know we hope to partner with you and the uh the parks foundation uh and figure out how to do that most effectively. Love what you're doing with actually getting down into the weeds with the commissioners in their districts with you know soon to fail sites. Um and of course you know a lot more work needs to be done. So um yeah look look forward to it. Adrienne Feldstein.
[J0290] All [laughter] right.
[J0291] All right. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And
[J0292] thank you.
[J0293] Thank you.
[J0294] Well, thanks for inviting us.
[J0295] We'll send the link out via email um to the board.
[J0296] Friday.
[J0297] Can you send a link to the meeting on Friday as well?
[J0298] Yes, we can do that.
[J0299] Thank you, Erin. Good to see you.
[J0300] All right. And we are adjourned. Thank you very much. I didn't ask about public comment, Michelle. Just making sure we did not I forgot to ask because we were in it.
[J0301] The previous attendee was here before when we asked for public comment. So I think
[J0302] then we are ajourned.
[J0303] Thank you everybody.
[J0304] Thanks everyone. See you.
[J0305] Take care folks. saying that it could