Dear City Council, I am a 15-year MP resident, and former Olympic trials swimmer and I have spent my life in swimming pools across the USA, Europe, Australia, and Latin America. When I moved from Miami to Menlo Park in 2008 I needed to find a place where my kids could learn to swim and love the sport and my research pointed me in the direction of Burgess pool in Menlo Park. As many users have pointed out, Burgess is one of the best-run facilities not only in the Bay Area but among the ones I have used around the world. Many pools have great operators and some have great communities, but it is extremely difficult to find one that combines both and this is what we have in Menlo Park. The sense of community, quality of Staff, and ability to be flexible during hard times such as COVID make the current operator the best option to continue running the swim programs. My kids learned how to swim here and eventually decided to join the swim team, and got their first jobs at the pool. Some of their best friends are from the Menlo Swim community. I also love the connection with different generations at the pool - we swimmers love to connect - and I have friends from the different Burgess programs ranging from 28 to 94 years old. This is possible because of the amazing interaction and care that all the staff at the pool have and the care they place in every relationship. After reading the other proposals, Solo and Swim Swam do not meet the criteria set forth by the City Council in the RFP. They either do not meet the hours and minimum program requirements and do not know the community ( Swim Swam) or have no experience managing a pool and building a community ( Solo). They both naively assume that they will be able to hire, build and attract the same caliber of Staff as we are used to having with the current provider. It is unclear which systems they will use to manage the client base and personal data, and any change will cause major disruption to current programming, and operation and will likely result in a massive downgrade in high standards the pool currently operates. Please keep the current operator and partner with them to keep improving and accommodating the emerging needs of our community. Thank you Rafael de la Vega Oak Ave