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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks and Recreation - 01/13/1997 kl 1997 I JANUARY 13 i MINUTES Parks, Recreation & Natural � Resources Commission I CITY OF EDEN PRAIRIE AGENDA SPECIAL MEETING PARKS,RECREATION&NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MONDAY,JANUARY 13, 1997 7:00 P.M.,CITY CENTER 8080 MITCHELL ROAD HERITAGE ROOM Il COMMISSION MEMBERS: Claire Hilgcman, Chair; Bruce Bowman, Richard Brown, Donald Jacobson,Vicki Koenig,David Kracum,John Wilson 7 STUDENT MEMBERS: Jennifer Frcemyer,Melody Hasse COMMISSION STAFF: Robert A. Lambert, Stuart A. Fox, Bob Lanzi, Laurie Helling,Lyndcll Frcy,Elycc Kastigar,Joel Klutc,Julic Hoeft SCHOOL DISTRICT STAFF: Steve Schultz,Cheryl Bridges ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION& TEAM REPRESENTATIVES: Drew Barticy,Ed Lippert,John Focht,Noel Kempfert,Mike Loats, Skip Prcusse,Cathy Gallagcr-Grccn, Maggie Asby, Dan Dcsaulnicrs, Brad Hewitt, Ken Bombcn,John Krohn, Mark Davis,Tad Houck,Jon Mostrom,Pat Thompson,Sia �• Rahimi,Bob Kershaw,Rob Gozlo 1. CALL TO ORDER I1. INTRODUCTIONS Ill. BACKGROUND DISCUSSION-Bob Lambert IV. REVIEW OF DRAFT POLICY & RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGES, ADDITIONS,CORRECTIONS V. SET NEXT MEETING DATE FOR DISCUSSION .s VI. ADJOURNMENT i I APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE PARKS,RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MONDAY,JANUARY 13, 1997 7:00 P.M.CITY CENTER 8080 MITCHELL ROAD HERITAGE ROOM 2 COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Claire Hilgcman, Chair; Bruce Bowman, Richard Brown, Don Jacobson,Vicki Koenig,John Wilson, COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: David Kracum COMMISSION STAFF: Robert Lambert, Director of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources;Stuart Fox,Manager of Parks and Natural Resources, Laurie Helling, Manager of Recreation Services; Lyndell Frey, Recreation Supervisor; Bob Lanzi,Recreation Supervisor,Julie Hoeft,Aquatics Supervisor;Joel Klute,Ice Arena and Concessions Coordinator 1. ROI,I.CAI,I, The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chair, Claire Hilgcman. Commission member David Kracum was excused. All other rr,c.,i'ucrs were present. II. INTRODUCTIONS I-lilgeman introduced the members of the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission and welcomed representatives from the various athletic associations.. Ill. BACKGROUND DISCUSSION Hilgeman requested Lambert to give background on the meeting agenda and describe the purpose of the meeting. Lambert referred to the December 10, 1996 memorandum and the need to have a more definitive policy regarding priority usage for facilities and developing standards for how often various teams are allowed to use public facilities. He also referred to the need to eventually charge a fee for secondary seasons and perhaps for maintenance during the regular season. Lambcrt then referred to the memorandum dated January 6 that was sent to all associations as a draft format for establishing priorities for use of City facilities. Lambert explained that he expected recommendations for change,additions to or corrections to this proposal,and further stated that he would"play the devil's advocate" throughout the meeting to request associations to justify or provide rationale for recommended changes on priorities,standards,etc. 1 M .S `t i i Larnbert then handed out a rnemorandwn dated January 13, 1997 that spelled out a proposed policy establishing guidelines for priority use of public facilities. This proposed policy was based on a similar policy established by the City of St.Louis Park in 1995. IV. REVIEW OF DRAFT POLICY AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGES ADDITIONS,CORRECTIONS Lambert reviewed the January 13 memorandum and requested input from association representatives regarding the general policy statement described in that memorandum. Following review of that memorandum, there was a lengthy discussion from many individuals in attendance questioning the language in each of the eight written guidclincs. The only changes to the eight guidelines were as follows: No.5 the change would be to insert the word"or"to read trained and/or certified. No. 8 to put a period after the word participation in the last sentence, and strike the remaining portion of that sentence. During this discussion,the greatest debate centered around number 4 "The election of the organization's governing body is to be a process which is open to all program participants." While some of the organizations have certain qualifications that individuals must meet ,f to be qualified to run for a position on the Board of Directors,other organizations have 4 qualifications for individuals to be able to vote on any issue dealing with the organization. The City staff indicated that the intent of item number four was to encourage all organizations to have a process in which parents of all program participants would be able to vote on qualified Board members,if they were Eden Prairie residents and paid the entry fee for their children to participate in the program. The major concern of a number of individuals was that many of these organizations have taken 20 years to develop polices, rules,bylaws,etc.that seem to work pretty well. They do not want to take the chance to have few disgruntled parents able to destroy an organization that has taken that long to build. Lambert then reviewed the priorities as outlined in t)te January 6 memorandum. The consensus of the group was to change priority three to the following:Youth teams(18 and under)that sire members of non profit organizations that have the following guaranteed the their bylaws: • 95%Eden Prairie residents. (Eden Prairie residents arc defined as children who live in Eden Prairie or who go to school in Eden Prairie.) • Association or Club is a non profit organization. • The Association or Club must talc a financial statement or bank statement with the City that will be made public upon request. • Association is open to till Eden Prairie residents. 2 1 ; I ' All board meetings are publicized and open to the public,with parents of participants able to vote on board members. • The organization must have an open process for parents to discuss concerns or recommend changes to the organization. • Teams playing(luring the designated"primary season." The group agreed that any non residents should be charged a non resident fee that would be paid to the City by the organization. The priority listed as number V was eliminated,therefore,priority VI in the memorandum became number V,etc.through the rest of the priorities. The new priority VI was changed to read as follow: Youth organizations with 95%Eden Prairie residents in which the non profit organization does not meet one or more of the criteria spelled out in Priority 111. Teams that meet more of the criteria will receive a higher priority than other teams at the same level during the designated primary season. Under Priority Vlll(which is the new Priority VII)will read as follows:Non profit teams or organizations that have 759/0 or more Eden Prairie residents during the designated primary season. Under the old Priority IX(the new Priority Vlll)will read as follows:Non profit adult teams or organizations that have 75%or more Eden Prairie residents during the designated primary season. Under Priority X (which is the new Priority IX) will read as follows: Priority III teams during secondary season. A fee for a secondary season will be charged to cover direct City costs to offer this program. Under Priority XI (which is the new Priority X)will read as follows: Priority IV teams during the secondary season. A fee for secondary use will be charged to cover direct costs to the City to offer this program. r' The concerns that still were unresolved at the end of this discussion were as follows: The I'-oxjct Swim Club,which serves over 250 Eden Prairie residents,is perbaps 80-85% Eden Prairie residents, This swim club pays the City over$20,000 for pool time each year and does not turn away any Eden Prairie residents. It offers children from adjacent communities that do not have swim clubs the opportunity to swim competitively. Swimmers are paying the City for the use of the pool through swim club rental fees,which is a benefit to the City as long as Eden Prairie children arc not being turned away due to lack of facilities. The I-oxjcts Swim Club wanted to be assured that a club serving 250 Eden Prairie children would not be bumped from pool time by a smaller swim club that may serve a f dozen Eden Prairie children even though that swim club may be 100%Eden Prairie children, 3 Staff indicated that they agreed with the general concerns of the Foxjets and would try to develop language that assured Eden Prairie residents that the club providing the most service and benefit to the community retained a higher priority usage. The Eden Prairie Soccer Association and the Eden Prairie Baseball Association expressed concern over the proposed fees fora secondary season. They both expressed a concern that the City would price them out of the ability to provide this program. They reminded City staff that these Athletic Associations are positive experiences for children and provide wholesome outdoor activities which may save one or more of those children from turning to drugs,vandalism,etc. Another representative from the Football association suggested that perhaps we offer children too many choices in Eden Prairie. He guessed that as many as 30%of the kids playing fall football arc also playing hockey,soccer or baseball during the fall and when he grew up he never had any organized athletics and didn't feel he had to turn to vandalism. Fie also suggested that perhaps it was better for some kids to learn how to organize their own pickup games than believing they had to have a coach and uniforms in order to learn how to play together with other children in their spare time. Ken Bomben of the Soccer Association suggested that if we required"certified"coaches for their in-house soccer program,they would lose probably two-thirds of their volunteers. Lambert suggested that all athletic associations should be concerned about who they are allowing to coach the children in this community. He explained that the "certification" simply meant to provide material to coaches that explained the values they should be r teaching,what to do in case of injury,and provide those coaches with information on their own liability,the liability of association and perhaps the liability of the City. He suggested that this certification requirement could be required in stages. For example,the first year, we might require one of the coaches on each team to be certified and that all coaches have read the information handed out to them and signed an agreement that they had read the material. Perhaps over a four year period,there could eventually be a requirement to have coaches attend a one to two hour seminar that would cover the basics. Don Jacobson discussed the Boy Scouts of America risk Management Program for informing Scout leaders how to reduce the possibility of facing sexual assault charges. tic indicated that youth coaches should be given some basic information in order to make sure they don't face those stone kinds of problems. The Soccer Club has already adopted draft guidelines that states things they must do to avoid those situations. At the end of the meeting Lambert indicated there was not time to begin the discussions on f' standards and requested representatives from each of the associations to send recommendations to the City for standards on the number of uses per week they believe would be necessary to run their program. He indicated those uses per week could be broken down into age groups,preferably no more than two age groups. fie gave the example of 12 and older may have a certain number of uses per week required,and I 1 and under may have a different number of uses per week. He also indicated that travel teams may have more uses per week required than in-house teams. One use per week would be considered a one and one half hour period from approximately the third week in May until the first week of August in order to try to schedule two uses on a field. If this is not feasible,please provide rational on why it is not feasible. Staff requested that the associations provide the rationale fix their requests and to give reasonable conservative requests for these standards. I 4 i Lambert indicated that the discussion would continue at the next regular Commission I meeting, which will be held on February 3,at 7:00 p.m.,in the City Council Chambers. Prior to that meeting,he would forward a copy of the unapproved minutes of this meeting, as well as the drafted changes to the policy and proposed standards as suggested by representatives from the various associations and City staff. Lambert thanked all representatives that attended the meeting and looked forward to I continuing at the February 3 meeting. The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:30 p.m. {� The following individuals representing organizations were in attendance: 9 :i Cassic Christensen,DAT West(Dolphin Aquatic Team) Ken Sorensen,DAT West Cheryl Bridge,Community Education—School District 272 Noel Kempfcrt,Eden Prairie Girl's Basketball Association Dan Desaulniers,Eden Prairie Football Association Dan McDonald,Eden Prairie Baseball Club Bruce Belfance,Eden Prairie Soccer Association Ken Bomben,Eden Prairie Soccer Association Harry Bongard,Eden Prairie Over 35 Baseball Jeffrey Schuh,Eden Prairie Baseball Association Drew Bartley,Eden Prairie Baseball Association Ed Lippert,Eden Prairie Baseball Association and Fall Classic League J ?,Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club Tom Bicrman,Eden Prairie Soccer Club Jon Mostrom,Eden Prairie Wresting Club Robert Gozlo,The Star Soccer Club Mark Davis,Foxjcts Swim Club Denisc Munson,Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club Kelly Komula,DAT Swimming Marcie Weisner,DAT Swimming Christie Riggs,DAT Swimming Joslyn Riggs,DAT Swimming Rick Guidarclli,Eden Prairie Baseball Club Steve Schultz,School District 272 Organizations not represented: Girl'Softball Association Girl's Volleyball Association Eden Prairie Hockey Association 5