Minutes - 02-13-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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DISCUSSION OF REMAINING ADDITIONAL TOPICS FROM RETREAT AS THE BOARD a. Soccer Facilities Recreation and Parks Director Bob Jones spoke about soccer facilities. He said that there were three recommendations that came from the task force. The discussion emphasized working more closely with the school systems and identifying larger parcels of land for future school sites and additional soccer fields. He said that one of our Recreation and Parks Advisory Board members is working with one of the local soccer associations in discussing the possibilities of future funding for soccer fields. The Recreation and Parks Advisory Council is also emphasizing the importance of future park sites and soccer fields. Commissioner Jacobs asked how much of the demand for soccer was driven by residents of the southern part of Orange County and Bob Jones said about 80%. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 22 and the establishment of a coordinated group and asked if anything has been done to bring the groups together. Bob Jones said that there have not been any formal discussions. Commissioner Jacobs said that he received an email from someone about securing a soccer field. He thought that the soccer task force would create an entity, but so far no entity has been formed. He thinks that we should encourage a group to get the soccer organizations meeting on some kind of regular basis that would represent the balance between private interests and the public investment. He said that we have identified the issues but we have not nudged this into being. Commissioner Gordon made comments about page three, Soccer Symposium Task Force Follow Up RecommendationlNext Steps. Regarding #1, She said that she thought that the sport was not supported by adequate public fields and she thought that the County was going to correct this. She would not agree with the County providing the fields and then the soccer organizations taking them over. Commissioner Gordon made reference to item #2 and said that she envisioned that this activity would go through the Recreation and Parks Department. She does not agree with having a separate, self-standing agency financed by taxpayers that would control soccer. She thinks that it would be better to have an entity that looked at a matrix of sports. She does not think the group should be financed by the taxpayers. Commissioner Jacobs said that he did not think that the task force report vision was to turn over public fields to private organizations or to fund a private organization with public money. He said that the idea was to leverage some private funds to create improvements on basic facilities that the public would provide. Commissioner Carey disagreed with Commissioner Jacobs. He did not see turning public facilities over to private groups as a logical development. He agrees that we should try to capitalize on the energy and interest of the people interested in soccer. Commissioner Brown asked several clarifying questions, which were answered satisfactorily by Bob Jones. Commissioner Brown said that it sounds like the next step is to organize the proposed soccer group. She asked which organizations would be involved in the group. Bob Jones said that any soccer organization could be included. Commissioner Jacobs said that the last subcommittee report, attachment G on page 22, dealt specifically with inter-league cooperation. He said that the committee was told by several of the organizations that there is money waiting. He made reference to attachment E on page 18 and said that there was a subcommittee that was set specifically to work on access issues. Most of the recommendations relate to the way in which to proceed. He said that the soccer task farce also talked about scholarships and found out that the Hispanic soccer league in Orange County had been disbanded because they could not get facilities and had been playing in Durham. He said that it would be clear that we would change the demographics if we could bring the Hispanic community back into the Orange County soccer community. He said that there was a recognition by the private organizations, as evidenced by the report on the last page of the soccer task force report, that if the