Speakers urge more grant writing, cultural staffing as Gillett Park work advances

Jose Ozzie, speaking during public comment, recounted the history of Gillett Park and urged the city to pursue external grants and to hire qualified grant writers and a cultural-arts director to better compete for available funding for park improvements.

"We could easily get millions, especially because we're low income," Ozzie said, pointing to cultural-affairs grant opportunities he said the city has not pursued in recent years. He urged the council to restore specialized staffing in parks and recreation and to leverage philanthropic and foundation support to sustain programming rather than relying solely on local budget allocations.

Additional commenters and council members raised the need for grant-writing capacity for parks and summer programming. The council accepted the input and moved on to agenda items; no staffing hire or specific grant award was approved at the meeting.