If you read Item #40 on the council agenda, you will see the council is requesting to take some power away from the Parks Board;
(e) To review and make recommendations to the mayor and city council on any matters affecting
the establishment, improvement, maintenance, and regulation of the parks, including any
proposed revisions to this chapter 95. The issues shall be submitted to the board for
recommendation prior to official action; and
(f) Advise and assist the parks and recreation director relative to parks and recreation; .and
(g) Nothing in chapter 95 shall prohibit city council official action governing the use of the city’s public parks.
While this is a great first move by the city council, it will take a while to ban alcohol in the park. This is the 1st reading, and they can’t approve it until a second reading, then there is a 20 day waiting period before it takes affect, then the 1st & 2nd reading process starts all over for banning the alcohol. I still believe this could be done by an executive order by the mayor, but he seems to want to wash his hands of the situation. Drove by about 5 PM last night at Van Eps. Several people were ‘napping’ in the park. Actually it looked like a civil war battlefield.
Speaking of the Parks Board, I see long time member Mark Millage is being replaced;
Mark Steinborn; Parks and Recreation Board Appointed for a term from July 2014 through July 2019 (to replace Mark Millage).