Transcripts For SFGTV Recreation And Park Commission 11917 2

And take any secondary conversations outside so that the meeting proceeds efficiently as possible. If you would like to speak on any items today, please fill out a blue card. It is not required, but it is helpful. Unless announced by the president , each person will have 3 minutes for Public Comment. Ch if there is an item that you are interested in that is not on the agenda you can speak during general Public Comment. In order to allow equal time for all, neither the commission nor staff will respond to any questions during Public Comment. The commission may ask questions of staff after Public Comment is closed. Last, if the fire alarm is to activate, you must exit using any exit. The elevators will not be available for use. If you need assistance, please go directly across the hall from us in the mens restroom. There is a security box and press it and security will answer and let them know where you are and they will assist you. We are on item 2, the president s report. Item 11 and recreation and Parks Department budget. It is a discussion only item. Not an action item. Commissioner . Thank you, i will be brief. Its clear to me as we enter the new year and tomorrows weekend celebrations in washington, i think the recreation and Parks Department is going to be challenged. There is some indication that the city can lose as much as a billion dollars in funds because of our city status. We have serious concerns about the future of the endangered species act and the work were doing to protect endangered species. There may be a result of the causes and that will affect us in everything we do. While i am of the opinion of the majority and the americans dont agree with this, nor did they vote that way, the system we have did put in place this administration and did seem determine to make some of these changes. I guess my message to everybody is while we are a sanctuary city, make the parks a sanctuary and that may bring about the sad cuts. With that, that concludes my report. Is there anyone who would like to make a Public Comment under the president s report . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Now to item 3, general managers report. To your remarks, i will only say amen. Im going to start this year with a sad melancholy note unfortunately. I want to take a second to honor two members of our parks and recreation family who we lost. Lou who passed away monday night due to a heart attack. She has been a gardener since 2001. She started her recreation and parks position with urban forestry and then the nursery. I saw her a few months ago. She had a passion for plants and an avid member and volunteer for many plant societies, the york society, and several others. She inspired many people on the plant knowledge and she became very invaluable. She will be remembered by all. I had the honor of participating in the staff driven event and there may have been 150 staff people there. It was a really lovely and special event and a reminder of the fact that we are a professional family. It was heartwarming during a sad occasion like that to remember her in her honor. Also jason mccardey who was an instructor who worked in the Enrichment Program in the fall in 2014 and various sites in the city. She had a masters and was a very passionate artist and very active in the community. Sadly he was one of the victims of last years oakland warehouse fire, the ghost fire. Especially with ms. Greenberg who is here who worked with jason at saint marys, he would bring his own equipment to teach to children. He created pingpong tournaments and always ready to dive in with conversations with these young middle schoolers. He talked a lot about his time at recreation and parks. He said she was the one for her because the way jason interacted with her little brother because of his experience with adhd. He learned to deal with all kinds of kids at his job. Before i move on to other news, i would respectfully ask for a motion to adjourn todays meeting in memory of their lives. Indeed. Some other news, this weekend we held several days to honor Martin Luther king jr. We did a day of service of humanity for habitat and turning soil for preparation and at ocean beach as part of the National Golden Recreation Area we did a clean up project. It was great to see so many people coming out to celebrate the honor and the spirit not just for Martin Luther king jr. But what that day means to so many of us. Verma compost. Come learn with us this saturday. I assume weather permitting. Between 13 00 p. M. At the golden Park Community garden. Stewardship education program. The event includes games, food and much activities for students. It is a free event. We will also be hosting a series of city job fest in the next several weeks. We will be out with several other city agencies hiring at the recs center on january 21st, Hamilton Recreation Center february 8th, and mission from february 7th. Along with the u. S. Post office, the Human Services agency through its jobs now program which is a great way to get people in the workforce to get them in some experience, sheriffs departments and Fire Department and many other organizations. There will be resources and applications. The job site hours 10 00 a. M. To 4 00 p. M. On january 28th, at the eco center at Harrington Park we will be hosting our green agers event and a celebration of the 5th anniversary. As you know, green agers is our Youth Leadership program to kids going to school in the southeastern neighborhood to get active in learning and its through open parks and open spaces and work with staff and use parks and open spaces for projects. Next saturdays event includes a keynote address by myra rodgers. And you will hear an update in a little bit. Its to discuss the budget for fiscal year 1819. Well be talking about the budget instructions and how to interact with proposition b. And february 2nd, from hamilton center, and the jolie recs center. And well discuss how it applies to our budget priorities. Our streetscape opening was for saturday, but was changed to february 4th. P some of you were at the Ground Breaking last year as part of the San Francisco Public Transportation authority, sf mta, this project is really a first in San Francisco. It converts two lanes of vehicle traffic at maclaren park into a permanent bike pathway and for pedestrians. And following the ribbon cutting, the staff will host a workshop with residents to discuss additional future improvements in maclaren park. Lastly, the california parks and Recreation Society will have its program with creating a Community Award excellence this coming march. Every summer as you know for several years, be more than 50 teams join us at the camp for our outdoor experience with several city departments and other agencies to allow children to get out of the city and experience nature. Cprs is awarded excellence in the Outstanding Achievement in the design and communication and Community Improvement programming. And this is a community and improvement and programming award. I would like to thank the entire recreation staff for their continued improvement. Lastly for this month in part, we showed the skateboard piece of this which is how we ended in 2016 and show a little bit more of a wellrounded look at this amazing park opening from december. This is this is an awesome day. So, this is a very special place. That concludes the general managers report. Commissioner low . I also wanted to thank staff particularly Lorraine Dan Ford and jackie for putting such a nice event together for Martin Luther king jr. It was a great gathering of staff and volunteers and the community. Really inspiring speeches and it was just very inspirational to go to such a nice event. I want to thank them for creating such an event and bringing the community together. Is there any Public Comment under the general managers report . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Now we are open to Public Comment. The public is welcome to make any comments. Public comment. I have one. Public speaker good morning, my name is hashimoto. Im from japantown. In april we are celebrating our Cherry Blossom festival. So what you are seeing here now is the entry to the japan center west mall. This is the most popular building in the mall. There is a lot of traffic at the mall. You see the broken tiles at the entrance of the mall. There are more pictures here, the conditions of the tile. Another one here, and the japantown community expressed our concern to the District Supervisor and the staff from recreation and Parks Department. Following that, the day after they placed all of these cones up there. Its like the Obstacle Course going in and out of that mall and i see people stumble over them. Thankfully no one has tripped and fallen yet. I wanted to bring this to your commission. I want to thank commissioner bonilla and harrison for going to the facility and want to get the assessment. I have am the owner of the garage and i understand the assessment is being reviewed at this time. I want to bring this to your attention. Our Cherry Blossom festival is coming up and its in april and will be visited by over 200,000 people. This is a great concern for all of us. Thank you. Is there any other Public Comment under general Public Comment . Being none, this item is closed. We are now on item 5, the consent calendar. Is there anyone who like to make Public Comment under the consent calendar . Being none, Public Comment is closed. Commissioners, we need a motion. So moved. Second. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . So moved. We are now on item 6. The election of officers. Commissioner buell, would you like me to . I would appreciate if you would handle the affairs of this item. Okay. Commissioners, let me just quickly tell you the process. I am going to ask for a motion and a second to open the nominations for president. Then you will vote on it and we will actually have the nomination. So moved. Okay. Let me finish the process. I will close the nomination and you will actually vote and well do the same thing for vicepresident. We have a motion and second for opening the nomination. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . Great, the nominations are now open for president. I see commissioner low, you have your mike on or your request to speak. Thank you. Following the current president s opening remarks, im with hi. And i would like to see his tenure continue for at least another year. Its been great to have the leadership of mr. Buell as president. Hes head of the parks and open space and facilities for all san franciscans. It is my honor to second that nomination. Okay. With that, the nominations are now closed. We are now voting on the nomination of commissioner mark buell for the office of president. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . Congratulations, president buell. [ applause ]. We are now going to the election of vicepresident. I need a motion and second. So moved. Second. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . Thank you, the nominations are now open for vicepresident commissioner harrison, i see your . It would be my honor to nominate commissioner low for vicepresident. Do we have a second . Nominations are now closed. The position for nominating commissioner low as vicepresident. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . Congratulations. [ applause ] hold on. I messed up. Before, i have to retract everything. Give me one second. I need to know if there is any Public Comment on this . Being none. Lets take the vote again for president and vicepresident. I dont want you to get in unofficially. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . For commissioner buell . Okay. Commissioner low, vicepresident. Aye. Now its official. My apologies. Many the last time im going to hand it over to you margaret. Thank you very much. Let me briefly say that i consider it a true honor and privilege to serve as president. I will genuinely tell you that this commission has some of the best members of any commission in the city. I think the department is running well with its good position and management and staff. I thank each and everyone of you and i look forward to working with commissioner low as vicepresident. Thank you. I also want to echo those remarks, i think the commission and the department is a Great Partnership and we really see our mission to make sure that all parks and open space are available for all san franciscans even during this difficult time. I continue to look forward to work with staff and commissioners to continue to keep parks and recreation and open spaces available. Now item 7. San francisco zoo good morning, congratulations, vicepresident buell and low. I want to echo what you said about the department. It really is an honor to work with such a dedicated team. Thank you. P its been a good year so far with the San Francisco. Everything is running great and it was an incredibly strong month with 35 in just 1 month over projections. We were very happy to see that. So after a very successful december and january with rain, but now we are into happy zoo year to surround yourselves with animals. But with the Holiday Weekend Martin Luther king jr. It was a very successful weekend. We had a nice break from the wet weather with nearly 15,000 people over the weekend. That was an 8 increase in projected for the entire weekend. Again, im happy to see these trends with attendance being up. We now move into the luna ar new year. The year of the rooster. January 28th and 29, well have folk dance performances and kids can find fun facts about the animals and chinese calendar and you can go to the family farm to see the roosters. If you were born in the year of the rooster, you get complimentary admission. We continue with our stock program. Which is stand and take our pledge. We continue to have a strong voice in this. Just recently we were thrilled to hear about the ban that china has now that will go into effect by the end of 2017 which will close down the largest ivory market. Several thousand of people have already taken the pledge. You can do it at the park or online. Ch i spoke about our polar bear uulu. She turned 36 years old. If you turn 36 this year, you can come out and have a frozen cake. Its very exciting. Zoo lights in december it was a success. We did 25 fewer days this year to try to tighten up the event. But we greatly enhanced and increased the revenues and the attendance this year in an even shorter period. The revenue with an increase of 36 . We didnt get rained out. The zoo has so many wonderful and dedicated volunteers. One of them is maryann hail. You probably have seen most of the photography we show you is by maryann. She is there everyday taking photographs. And she was recognized by this magazine. This is an incredible photo of the new infant. I want to say congratulations to maryann and recognize the incredible work she does. We have a few new faces. This is or bird. Come out to see him if you have not. Hes incredible and still growing. The colors on his face are absolutely incredible. And to the far right we have the male condor. The other new face is freckles. We are going to be talking about him and hopefully you will see in the social media and the news as well. This is a very rare penguin who has joined the colony. He looks like a dalmatian. He is spotted. Hes perfectly healthy but he has a hes notal albino, but he has an augmentation of the skin. He is white with a black poke a dot. In february we have our valentines promotion of will you be mine. They are sending love to all that come visit him. Hes about 55 years old we believe and going strong. We also on the 15th opened up registration for the summer camps for spring and summer. We attract thousands of kids during the camps. Those will open up online. If you have any kids or know of kids, just have them come on out. Its a great program. To end with a lighter note as i did last month as well. A little fun fact since its the year of the rooster. Did you know there are more chickens on the planet that any other birds. There were more than 19 billion chickens worldwide. Thats good news for the roosters. Exactly and for the cows. And we do have a rooster out in the childrens zoo. Cmon out and visit us. That concludes my report, thank you. Ch is there any Public Comment on this item . Being none, Public Comment is closed. We are now on item 8. Community Opportunity Fund for renovation and burial removal project in increase to contract amount. Good morning, commissioners. Im the project manager in the recreation capital division. The item before you today is a discussion and possible action to amend the construction contract with minerva construction for the community Opportunity Fund courts renovation and the burial project to increase the contract amount from 388,000 to an amount not to exceed 695,324. An increase which is greater than 10 over the already approved contract amount. The project is fully funded. This project honors the Strategic P