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Commission outlines priorities: communications, youth outreach, site visits and permit review
Summary
The Community Services Commission discussed and began prioritizing topics for the 2025 work plan, including a communications strategy, youth outreach, site/facility visits and a review of field-use permit policies. Staff agreed to work offline with the chair to synthesize the commission’s list and return a prioritized draft at the next meeting.
The Community Services Commission on March 10 spent its main agenda item compiling candidate priorities for inclusion in a 2025 work plan meant to align with the city council’s goals.
"City council priorities for 2025 were approved on 02/19/2025, and we must ensure that the commission works in harmony with these goals," Deputy Director Melissa Snyder told the commission as staff introduced suggested topic areas. Commissioners broadly agreed and added items ranging from communications improvements to site visits and policy reviews.
Commissioners proposed a set of high-level priorities to include: a communications strategy with youth-focused outreach (including digital forms and school-based outreach), forming or reactivating youth/senior subcommittees or leveraging the current youth commissioner to increase youth engagement, scheduled site visits and an "adopt a park" concept so commissioners can monitor city facilities, a targeted review of field-use permits and equity of facility allocations, volunteer recruitment for large events, and more systematic budget and KPI reporting for department programs.
Several commissioners noted ongoing large projects — the parks comprehensive plan, the library/community center site plan (the "Library Park Campus"), and golf-course planning — and recommended focusing commission energy where it supplements staff outreach for those multi-year efforts. Commissioner suggestions included asking the parks consultant to treat skate-park safety and youth learning features as part of the parks plan and composing a skater-centric meeting if the consultant’s scope allows.
Commissioners also discussed using existing events (farmer’s market, concerts, festivals) and registration systems to request post-event surveys so staff can get broader community feedback about items such as the July 4 celebration. Several commissioners asked for more financial transparency and suggested a future packet with the community services department’s portion of the budget broken down by program and line item; staff agreed to present a draft departmental budget and explained the city’s fund-accounting approach.
The commission did not adopt a final work plan at the meeting. Chair Samuels proposed meeting offline with staff to synthesize the notes and return a recommended, prioritized list at the next commission meeting for formal adoption. Melissa Snyder and Community Services Director Lucy (last name not specified in the transcript) both agreed to help compile and present the draft.
Commissioners asked staff to ensure the work plan aligns with council priorities (governance and community engagement directives), and to include measurable items such as KPIs, quarterly financial reports for enterprise programs and an outreach strategy that reaches younger residents through school channels and social media.
