The Olympia Metropolitan Park District Board (OMPD), consisting of the city council members, approved appointments of three members to the district's citizen advisory committee.
At Tuesday's OMPD meeting, the board appointed Jamie Milletary. It reappointed James Reddick and Jamie Gerken to the advisory committee based on recommendations from the Community Livability and Public Safety Committee.
According to Parks Planning and Maintenance Director Sylvana Niehuser, Milletary, who has a master's degree in public administration from Evergreen State College, has lived in Olympia for five years and owns a business.
Niehuser added that Reddick and Gerken have served on the committee since its inception.
The board also unanimously approved the OMPD committee's work plan for 2024. The plan outlines reviewing the district's compliance report prepared by the Olympia Finance Department. They will seek public comments in the following months.
The parks maintenance director added that the committee will finalize the compliance report to be presented to the board and the city council in the fall. They will also review the 2025 preliminary budget.
"They will make sure that the budget we are presenting also complies with the interlocal agreement,” Niehuser said. “That is what is on their work plan for this coming year."
The advisory committee, whose role is to advise the OMPD board on funding compliance regarding the interlocal agreement between the city and the Metropolitan Parks District, has two meetings this year. The first one will be on Wednesday, May 1.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, former Councilmember Karen Messmer thanked voters for approving tax measures in 2004 and 2006 that provided dedicated funding to the parks district. She noted that both measures passed with margins of 57% and 60%, demonstrating the public's willingness to tax themselves for parks and recreation amenities.
"We should celebrate and acknowledge that our community cares a lot about parks, trails, open space, and parks programs. And we should be thanking the voters for taxing themselves twice to do this," Messmer concluded.
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KarenM
Two corrections -
The voted measures were in 2004 and 2015.
I don't consider parks and trails 'amenities' and I don't think I used that word. Parks, trails and open space are very important public infrastructure. We need outdoor space and recreation facilities for our physical and mental health.
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