City Council on 2022-06-14 6:00 PM - CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER Meeting Time: 06-14-22 18:00
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City Council on 2022-06-14 6:00 PM -
CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER
06-14-22
18:00
59 11 8 0 0
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Overall Sentiment
City Council on 2022-06-14 6:00 PM - CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER 06-14-22 18:00
Agenda Name Comments Support Oppose Neutral
J.1. 22-4316 For eComments and Emails Received from the Public 11 8 0 0 Sentiments for All Agenda Items
The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown.
Overall Sentiment
Agenda Item: eComments for J.1. 22-4316 For eComments and Emails Received from the Public Overall Sentiment
Wendy Rudick
Location:
Submitted At: 6:17pm 06-14-22
Thanks very much for your advocacy on behalf of the ever growing Redondo Beach Pickleball Community. I would like to request that you continue to support our struggles to receive dedicated pickleball courts in Redondo Beach, specifically at Aviation Park open field.
Last Council Meeting a City Council motion completely ignored the recommendations of a $15,000 professional feasibility study. The motion set forth by Council, almost guarantees fail of the temporary courts, because two of the three parks, were not recommended in the study due to previous noise complaints. A waste of taxpayer money.
Please City Council raise a new motion and approve new Capital Improvement funds to construct this Pickleball Facility at Aviation Park during the upcoming June 14 and June 21 Council budget meetings.
Thanks very much for your support,
Sincerely,
Wendy Rudick and Joe Leibfried
Redondo Beach Residents
District 5
Karen Aguilar
Location:
Submitted At: 4:40pm 06-14-22
As a member of our huge and ever growing pickleball community, I am in support of pickleball courts being built in Redondo Beach. Pickleball is played by people of all ages and athletic experiences. It’s even more than just great exercise, it’s a social game that brings people together. What other sport can you just show up for open play by yourself and rotate through games with people of all ages. Or you can reserve a court and play with your own group.
Pickleball would be a great investment for Redondo Beach through tournaments which would draw large numbers of people as both players and spectators. Pickleball would definitely be an asset for Redondo Beach. Please vote in favor of pickleball courts at the Aviation location.
Kerry Smith
Location:
Submitted At: 2:13pm 06-14-22
I am requesting that City Council please place the staffing issue for the City's After School REC program as a high priority item on an agenda for this month or next. As mother of three who is trying to return to work (having taken a career break to raise them), I am heavily reliant on affordable and flexible childcare options such as the REC program to make this possible. This program once offered places for 100 children, and now only offers 30, leaving a gap of 70 and therefore affecting a possible 70 families. As a single income family, we struggle each month, and my return to work is needed in order for my family to continue to live in this area. At the moment it is impossible to find reasonable childcare, making a return to work for me very hard. Any income earned would need to be spent solely on childcare, making working non purposeful in supporting my family. I ask the City Council to examine the program and to support the families in the area by increasing the number of childcare spaces available.
Kelley Mayeda
Location:
Submitted At: 2:01pm 06-14-22
Dedicated Pickleball Facility:
To: Mayor Brand, Todd Loewenstein, Zein Obagi, Nils Nehrenheim, Christian Horvath and Laura Emdee (and Cameron Harding):
Permanent pickleball courts are basically a no-brainer at this time. Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America and has increased by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Redondo Beach is a big city and needs permanent and dedicated courts which will be used at all hours of the day once built. To me, Aviation Park seems the most advantageous because it is a “Sports” park….makes a lot of sense for courts to be built there….not to mention a convenient place for the Aerospace employees to join in. How great it would be to run a couple of laps around the track for warm up before playing some great pickleball!!! My family has 3 generations of pickleball players…it keeps my 87 year old mother moving and provides a great activity for her, me and my adult children to play together. The grandchildren already love holding paddles and swiping at pickleball!!! It’s rare that a multi-generation family can play an active sport together.
In the meantime, it is very easy to temporarily tape one tennis court at Alta Vista to make 4 pickleball courts with movable nets. This way, the court could be used for a dual purpose…..and 16 people can play pickleball on one tennis court!!! Makes sense monetarily. Give us one court on either end of the courts…doesn’t have to be in the middle. If pickleball players don’t utilize the court, it can still be used for tennis.
In summary, please consider:
1. Permanent dedicated courts at Aviation Park (my 1st choice), Marina Complex (my 2nd choice)
2. Temporary taping of 4 courts at Alta Vista until permanent courts are established
3. Not spending money on painting lines at Franklin and/or Perry Parks. As stated by a councilmember, there is already play going on there.
Thanks so much,
Kelley Mayeda (my family lives in District 5)
Sarah Shaholli
Location:
Submitted At: 10:58am 06-14-22
The purpose of this eComment is to request that the staffing issues affecting the City's afterschool REC program are triaged as high priority and be included as a critical item on the upcoming or next month's agenda. Redondo Beach residents rely on our city council to prioritize issues directly affecting the well-being of our community, which directly encompasses the issue of REC staffing and the need to significantly expand the volume of children that are accepted into the program moving forward.
As set forth below, this issue also not only impacts families with school-aged children, but the Redondo Beach community as a whole. Greater policy attention to ensuring the REC program is amply staffed to accommodate more student participation is warranted for many reasons:
1. The afterschool REC program promotes the development and learning of our children and fosters further connections with their peers in a safe and supervised environment. This program is beneficial to students' social development and provides the opportunity for them to make additional connections with their school peers in a non-academic environment that is still within the school system.
2. The afterschool REC program is a critical element of ensuring stability of the economic infrastructure, and mitigates socioeconomic and other types of inequalities that would be exacerbated by a lack of access to affordable childcare options.
3. The afterschool REC program promotes the self-sufficiency of families, including promoting full-time parental employment and other contributions to the community. Working families depend on local, affordable childcare to sustain employment and allow for ongoing contributions to ensure a functioning community.
4. While there are other afterschool care options such as CDC, there has been recent indication that CDC will move to a lottery system for the 2023-2024 class year, which further exacerbates the need for alternative flexible and more affordable options like REC.
Based on the above, I respectfully request that this issue is prioritized on the agenda for the benefit of Redondo Beach families and the community as a whole.
Sarah Shaholli
Samantha White
Location:
Submitted At: 7:05pm 06-13-22
I am respectfully requesting that City Council makes staffing the Afterschool Rec Program for the 2022/23 school year a TOP PRIORITY IMMEDIATELY.
Currently, AS LITTLE AS 3% OF THE STUDENT POPULATION PER SCHOOL ARE BEING SUPPORTED WITH AFTER SCHOOL CHILD CARE BY THE CITY.
While the rest of the world including RBUSD has opened up (and companies are expecting their employees to come back into the office) Rec has not been able to gain ANY additional staff. I ask the city council to please explore creative solutions toward staffing the Rec program as our neighboring cities and other companies have done to combat this universal staffing issue. This community is made up of many families with two working parents and/or single parents.
In the city's proposed 2022/23 Budget, Redondo Beach anticipates an influx of revenue from its residents:
- General Tax Fund: Increase of $3.4M YOY
- Property Tax Revenue: Increase 5% YOY
- Sales Tax Revenue: Increase 8.5% YOY
I request that you utilize some of this increase of funding towards supporting the families of this city.
Child care is an essential need for our community and needs to be addressed.
Respectfully,
Samantha White
Olivia McLaughlin
Location:
Submitted At: 4:41pm 06-13-22
I am requesting that City Council please place the staffing issue for the City's After School REC program as a high priority item on an agenda for this month or next. Pre-covid, parents were greatly supported with flexible and reasonable after-school care options by both the REC program and CDC within our schools. It was understandable that both these programs had to make changes when the pandemic hit in March 2020, but now 2 years later, these programs, especially REC, remain limited in capacity due to staffing issues. I would like to request that the city work alongside RBUSD to support the working parents of our community to look into all possible options to help recruit and retain staff for the REC program to increase capacity back to pre-covid levels.
Thank you.
Page Sacks
Location:
Submitted At: 4:24pm 06-13-22
I am requesting that City Council please place the staffing issue for the City's After School REC program as a high priority item on an agenda for this month or next. While nationwide we are facing a hiring crisis, businesses have had to adapt to changing needs from prospective employees, including higher living wages and other benefits, and it's time for City Council to examine this on a local level especially as it pertains to the City's REC program. Working parents in the city have had to endure many challenges when it comes to childcare since March 2020 and while other childcare providers have seemingly come back to full participation, the City's REC program is still operating at less than half of pre-pandemic enrollment. Please explore all possible options to recruit and retain employees so that you can increase capacity for the City's REC after-school program at elementary schools so that working parents can rest assured their children have a safe place to go. Thank you.
Kate Korman-Sooper
Location:
Submitted At: 11:22am 06-13-22
I'm requesting that City Council please place the staffing issue for the City's REC program as a high priority item on an agenda for this month or next. This is an ongoing issue that has not been addressed over the past three years. It absolutely deserves City Council's full attention, as it involves working parents and children citywide. A program that once was able to provide before and after care for 100 Redondo kids per elementary site now only provides care for 30. This is absolutely unacceptable for next year, now that parents have fully returned to work outside the home. While staffing is an issue nationwide, we need to look at how we can hire more qualified candidates as quickly as possible. We need to explore stronger and more aggressive recruitment efforts, make sure that wages are competitive with surrounding cities (I'm told they are NOT), and make sure our drug testing of potential candidates is legal. (There was an issue about whether marijuana is something that could legally be tested for, dependent on whether they are considered a Federal employee?) Perhaps the City needs to partner with RBUSD to make sure their kids are not stranded and left without after school care. Right now many parents are being left with only unaffordable or unfeasible childcare options, and this needs to be changed ASAP. Thank you.
Kate Korman-Sooper
Rec and Parks Commissioner
Jackie Glenn
Location:
Submitted At: 11:22am 06-13-22
I would like to express my concern over the staffing issues with the after-school Rec program on the RBUSD elementary school campuses. My family depends on afterschool care so that I can work. This entire past school year the program struggled to get staff to take more than 30 kids, which puts at least 70 kids out of a place to go, considering the program normally takes around 100. It was somewhat understandable in the first part of the school year as COVID guidelines were in effect but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to not get in the entire school year. When they announced that the fall will be restricted to the same numbers I was floored. I do understand that COVID changed everything here so I am hoping the City Council can help the Rec program adapt as well. As a sole parent working full-time, I am desperate for help.
Braley Klatt
Location:
Submitted At: 6:51pm 06-11-22
I am writing the board to express my frustration with the REC program that is run at the elementary school sites.
Once a program for 100 students per school site now only allows 30 students per site. We have patiently waited for a year for staffing issues to be addressed. This excuse is not cutting it anymore. My call to action is that the city council work with the Parks and Rec depot address the “inability “ to hire additional staff. It is my belief (and a large number of other families) that the REC needs to reassess how they hire, and what they can offer. The city is simply not meeting the needs of the families in this town. It is my opinion that our concerns have not bee adequately address throughout the school year. During this time, many families are having to return back to the office and or both parents are having to be present in the work force. Having the city support the importance of offering childcare for the school age families is of importance and should be something the council addresses before the school year begins. Simply saying that staff cannot be hired is not cutting it anymore.
One suggestion would be to offer either jobs or internships to high school students. Internships for those who are interested in going into teaching or child development would be beneficial to the students futures and enhance their resume. Another option is to hire staff from the high school. Redondo Union has wonderful students who baby sit as their after school or weekend jobs. These responsible students should be given a chance to help make a positive impact on the city.
Thank you for your time.