Honour Charlie Cuzzetto Beaconsfield Park

Very good. Thank you. I think it is consistent, but... We'll look into that. Any other comments? Seeing none, then I will thank the General Manager for his report. We have three motions on notice this evening. Let's get to the real business here. The first is titled Honouring Charlie Cusetto Beaconsfield Park Community Legacy. That motion was moved by Commissioner Hare. Thank you, Commissioner Hare. Is there a seconder for that motion? Commissioner Verdi. I see. Commissioner Hare, would you please introduce your motion, which is now on the screen, and people can see it there.

Here you go. Thank you. Good evening, Chair, Commissioners, and staff. Tonight, I am proud to move this motion honoring Charlie Cozzetto and his extraordinary legacy at Beaconsfield Park and across Vancouver Parks and Recreation System. When I first began working on the Beaconsfield Park motion, Charlie never once boasted about his own accomplishments. He never asked for recognition. He never led with his titles. his awards, or his incredible amount of work he had done for this city. In fact, what moved me most was hearing the speech written by his brother, Joe, at Charlie's Celebration of Life.

It reminded me that Charlie's legacy is not only about soccer, recreation, or one park. It's about a lifetime of quiet service, humility, and commitment to community. Charlie gave more than four decades of professional service to Vancouver's parks and recreation systems and more than 50 years of volunteering service to our community. That is a lifetime of collaboration. He worked across so many Vancouver neighbourhoods and community centres, including Hastings, Renfrew, Mount Pleasant, Fraser Creek, Kensington, Point Grey, Britannia and Jericho. If anyone understood the heart of Vancouver's neighbourhoods, it was Charlie. But what stands out more is how humble he has always been. Charlie did not do this work for attention. He did not do it for praise. He showed up year after year for families, athletes, volunteers, parks, recreation, and community. This motion is about recognizing Charlie during his lifetime while he can feel the appreciation of the community he helped build. It is also about reminding future generations that our parks, fields, and community spaces did not just appear on their own. It was shaped by people like Charlie and by so many others like him. who gave selflessly to her home called Vancouver. Beaconsfield Park is more than a park project. It is about community legacy. Charlie helped advance that legacy, and I believe it is fitting that Parkport formally acknowledge his contribution and ask staff to report back with options to commemorate His name with the Beaconsfield Park project, including the possible naming of the new turf field and his honour, consistent with park board naming policies. At a time when Charlie is facing significant health challenges, I believe it is both timely and appropriate that we act with gratitude, respect and urgency. I respectfully ask my colleagues to second and support this motion. And thank you so much. And thank you to the staff and directors and our fellow commissioners, because we do selflessly sit here, even though we sometimes disagree, to help and better our homes, our home that we call Vancouver. We're all here selflessly, and we do want a better Vancouver tomorrow, just like Charlie does. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner here, for a very warm acknowledgement of the contributions of Charlie Guzzetto, which is deeply appreciated by the Park Board and by the city and by the national and international futsal and soccer field communities. Do commissioners have any questions they would like to ask the commissioner? I see some questions from Commissioner Jensen we'll start with.

Thank you. Thank you so much for the introduction to the motion. Just wanting to know if staff have raised any sort of concerns with the motion that commissioners should be aware of in advance of considering this motion.

Thank you so much. None that I'm aware of. I did consult with the GM as well, and he was well aware of my intentions. But again, I want to emphasize, Charlie and his family never, ever pressured me or came to me and said, this needs to be. He's the most humble man. At the end of the day, he worked for the park board. And as far as I know, but through the chair, we can always ask our GM as well if there's any concerns otherwise. We don't need to. Okay, thank you.

We're good with that.

Okay, yeah. Thank you.

Commissioner Christensen?

You say in the motion consistent with park board naming policies, can you tell me which policy you're referencing?

Our naming, right now we're also... The community itself has already contributed money towards Beaconsfield. And with that, I am considering it also leaving it up to the GM plus staff to work with the families to come up with a naming policy. It doesn't have to be the field itself. When I spoke to the GM, GM Jackson himself, he said that he'll work with the community and the family as well to find out what would be appropriate.

Okay, so you're not referencing a specific park board policy?

No, I'm not. Okay. Is that an issue with you?

I'm just raising the fact that our commemoration policy is currently underway and in work. And there's a draft one that's come out, and I just wanted to make sure if it was consistent with that or not.

I'm not, but I'm introducing a motion to actually celebrate someone who's almost dying. And the numbers, I don't know if it's days or weeks.

I'm just flagging that you say consistent with the naming process.

I know, but it's days or weeks. I don't know when he might pass away, but he's alive right now, and I would like to celebrate his life and the work that he's done. which also represents the work that everybody else does with the city of Vancouver, amongst other staff members. That's great, thanks. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioners. Any other questions for the mover? No, then thank you, Commissioner Hare, for presenting this so ably and competently. And now we'll move to comments from the commissioners. comments to the motion Commissioner Verde please go ahead

I think Charlie has been an advocate for soccer and providing access to soccer both locally and internationally. And he's been a part of this organization. So I think this motion is very fitting. And it's coming in a timely manner when we're moving to put a turf field at Beaconsfield. So I will be supporting this to honor the contributions of Charlie and the great field that's coming along. So I will be supporting this motion.

Thank you. Commissioner Jensen.

Thank you so much. Interestingly enough on the... The weekend I was considering our work coming up here this Monday and went to a park and was actually sitting and reading, looking at our motions here. And the park that I was in, I kind of was thinking, like, have we done this before? Answering kind of your question of, you know, how do we rightfully acknowledge people? And then I realized I was in a park called Emory Barnes Park. And I just did some Googling and I was like... while we're in a park, a park board park named after a person. So this is not something that is new to the park board. And then researching that this was a famous footballer themselves. And so for me, it was just like, well, I can close the page on this. This is an easy recommendation. I, for one, think it's imperative for elected bodies like ourselves to acknowledge the contributions that Vancouverites make to our community. The selfless sacrifice that so many do to make our city beautiful, to make it more liveable, to make it more friendly, to make children or provide children the opportunities that they might not otherwise have. So again, this is like such an easy motion for me to approve. And the only thing that's outstanding is, you know, I would like, you know, hopefully that this passes tonight. And I would like that potentially that mayor and city could look at providing a proclamation in the upcoming days or weeks that would coincide with what we're doing today. I think that, you know, when we look at the accomplishments you know, what we're going to do today hopefully is a small step forward. But, you know, just like in football, there is no such thing as a small step. Every step is towards a common goal. And so tonight I will happily approve this, and hopefully we can take another step forward with the city and mayor after this. So thank you.

Thank you. Any other commissioners? Commissioner Christensen, please go ahead.

Thanks. I'll start by saying that I will be supporting this. I think the language in the motion, I think, addresses some of my concerns in terms of how it will be approached. I do just want to take a moment to note that we do have a commemoration guidelines that are coming, and I think that those are well overdue and should be, hopefully we can expedite those. Really, my concern is that when you look at the names of parks around Our city, I don't think that they are necessarily representative of the diversity in the city that we do have. I think they're, if you look at sort of the ethnicity and gender of the names across our parks, tend to skew that are not representative of our city. And I think that we should be... you know, aiming to increase the diversity in the naming that we see to recognize people of underrepresented groups. So I would like to see our cremation framework moved up and that we can move to naming our parks.

Of course I'm supporting this. I just wanted to... ask through the chair because Charlie's brother is here. I don't know, this might be unusual during park board procedures, but is it possible that Joe that's here can say a few words as well? I mean, again, he did not request this motion. It's on my own accord, but is this out of order or can he?

Thank you very much for speaking to the Park Board tonight in honour of your brother. uh commissioners i have would just like to um conclude with some thoughts uh before we vote on this um i did meet with uh charlie yesterday he is super shy guy and very appreciative of this honor um but he said first so many other volunteers in the system are are equally deserving he insisted Although when he tells the stories of being a volunteer at the international futsal level and the international FIFA, he's traveled to 49 different countries as a volunteer doing the necessary behind the work scenes. to keep those organizations running. And now I do need to say that regarding the field name at Beaconsfield, he did make it very clear to me, and perhaps staff could take notice of this, that he did think the name should be retained as Beaconsfield for that particular field. Although he did... said that there are certainly other ways to recognize you there. And he thought he would maybe be more comfortable with a different way of being recognized. And staff is invited by this motion to consider those recognition measures at Beaconsfield Park. So in honor of...

Charlie and family who's here and family and friends that are watching. Charlie, we know you will enjoy every minute of the FIFA World Cup, which is on our doorstep in a matter of weeks, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do. And with that, I'll call the commissioners to vote. All in favour of the motion, please raise your hand. I see unanimous support from your elected park board, and we thank the commissioner for bringing the motion. It passes.