City staff outlined operational and budget considerations Monday related to extending ballfield lighting hours at city parks, and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board discussed pilot programs, user-group accountability and technical options.

Superintendent Reynolds said the city has remote-control capability to monitor lights and water systems but stretching field lighting beyond current schedules would increase costs because usage can push the city into higher utility "tiers." "Well, if we wanna leave things on longer, everything with me is budget," Reynolds said, noting the department must calculate the projected energy use and the effect on annual utility charges before recommending a policy change.

Rivera said staff are not dismissing the idea and plan to pilot summer "Park After Dark" events — starting with perhaps two events a month — where lights may stay on later or additional lighting could be supplied to evaluate community demand. Staff also described an existing on-call number and a remote-control arrangement (via the lighting contractor) that allows user groups or staff to turn lights off when events end.

Board members raised measures to hold reserving user groups accountable when fields are unused; staff said they are auditing reservations, contacting groups that leave lights on and educating users about the off-call process. Reynolds noted some parks already have LED fixtures with dark-sky shielding (Cypress) while others have older metal-halide fixtures that cause more glare and community complaints.

On technical alternatives, a board member proposed generators; Reynolds said the generators needed would be large ("600 amp" switchgear), require routine testing and maintenance and add capital and operating costs. Rivera said current solar installations offset usage but do not store energy; battery storage would be needed to run lighting independent of the grid and would increase complexity and cost.

No policy change was adopted. The board asked staff to return with budget estimates, LED upgrade options and pilot-program details for future consideration.