yes on c commonality. -- no on d. >> the increments they used to determine a contribution are smaller >> is a bogus argument. people claymore during bad times and not so much in good times. it is sensitive to workers that make -- police and fire and up paying more. it was done with a thorough analysis of different employee organizations in the city. >> thank you so much, mr. paulson. for information about this and other ballot measures, go to the san francisco league of women voters website at sfvotes.com. early voting is available at

city hall monday through friday city hall monday through friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. oh, my! haa ha ha! ha hha ha! [snortg]

>> commissioner buell. >> here. >> commissioner lee. >> here. >> commissioner harrison and bonilla have excused absences. >> i want to announce that item three will be heard after item 9. item fiveb will be removed from the consent calendar and heard on the general calendar. >> a few little reminders. if you could please turn off any electronic sounding devices, and

we would please ask that you take in the secondary conversations outside in order for the meeting to proceed as soon as possible. if you would like to make general public comments, that's for items not on the agenda. last, please address your comments to the commission during public comment on the items in order to allow equal time for all. neither the commission nor staff will respond to questions during public comment the. commission may ask questions after public comment is close. we are on item two, which is the president's report. commissioner buell: thank you very much. i will be brief. i want to congratulate the san francisco parks trust.

they have their annual gala at golden gate park and it was a huge success. i congratulate the staff and volunteers and those who helped make it a success. having said that, their name is now the san francisco park alliance. they have merged with the neighborhood park council, which i think is a positive step. i congratulate them on that. they have a new executive director. i am pleased they are off to a good start. they also have a new president of board, rose mary cameron, someone steeped in good part policies -- park policies. we had a nice reopening of the suberie beerman park.

congratulations to the staff and everyone who worked on that. i remind folks that we have the schwab cup at harding park. i know there's a lot of volunteers and staff who have done a great job to make that happen. having a pga event on a public course is always challenging. the real credit to the staff that they have been able to put that golf course in first-class condition. finally, perhaps because i have been reminded of it by the ethics commission, we have a sunshine ordinance. it speaks to that everything be transparent, both at the commission and staff level, as we conduct the business of the city. i am reminding the commissioners that we should be current and trained on what our

retention of documents and e- mails are. i'm lucky i can even do e-mail. the ethics commission reminded me that i should keep my e- mail's as they relate to public policy. i will do that. i would ask that you have some formal training and get back to us with a report on that. with that, let us proceed with the agenda. excuse me, commissioner lee has an announcement. commissioner lee: one announcement. the richmond playground basketball courts will be open on monday. i wanted to thank the debgeneral manager and don and dan for the

great work that they did. the richmond basketball courts needed a great deal of work. they did a great job. they will be available for play on monday. president buell: thank you. that concludes our report. >> is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the general managers' report -- i mean, the president's report. i apologize. >> catherine howard, a golden gate park alliance. i would like to thank president buell for the reminder on sunshine. there have been some incidents regarding that. if people are interested, they can contact us and we will send them some more background information. goldengatepreservation.org. you can address us there.

thank you. >> on your report of reopening my park, it is ferry park, not sue beerman. it's a disaster. the lights go on and on. you know it was criticized and i will go into that later. thank you. >> is there anyone else? >> i am co-chair of south park improvement. we have embarked on a grass- roots effort to master plan the park. we raise money privately. we have been working with the department of rec and park on

this. we have done several meetings. now we have maintained david fletcher to help us continue our reach and develop a master plan, so we would have a budget and we would know how to pursue francgs large and small. we're also working with the planning department. as you well know, south park is surrounded by a street. in reconditioning the park, we are also hoping to bring together the better streets programs and traffic calming. i'm letting you know that we are doing this so when we come back with preliminary plans, you will know we have started. president buell: thank you very much. >> is there anyone who wants to comment on the president's report? this is not the general public comment. ok. public comment is closed on this

item. president buell: i am going to make a little announcement. we are checking in by telephone with people. we have an issue on the calendar that is of some importance to the disabled community. they have a telephone connection for those who could not be here. they are given the privileges and rights given to anyone in the audience. we will go through and ask if there's anyone by telephone today that would like to participate in that part of the process. >> ok, we also have to ask that everyone please take a seat. if there are no seats available, we ask you to step outside until seats become available. >> we're going to item four, general public comment, up to 15 minutes. items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission and do not appear on the agenda.

with respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. ernestine white and catherine howard. >> good morning, everyone. subject -- ribbon cutting for the renovation of ferry park. this was the worst disaster ever. despicable display in this regard. my feelings and my supporters -- my speakers -- the virtues of sue bierman, who had no connection to the park whatsoever. i've been through this a million times. we should have been praised to the heavens giving you the gift of ferry park. the ongoing lies must stop. it's well known that i created

ferrt park before corruption won. your statement was grossly misstated. the jurisdictional transfer from jpw, the city agency, to rec and park. no money was involved. it's the most valuable land in the city. you all destroyed it, as evidenced not only by my past criticism, but john king's article stating all the criticisms and titled, "a wasted opportunity." noelle rea outreach. no supervision. this could have been avoided.

talk about wasted funds. $37,000. inadequate lighting costing $200,000. where are your ethics? missing in action. corruption and greed must not succeed. the people are no fools. they know what's going on. >> catherine howard? >> good morning, commissioners. you will see from the ink that my printer has a problem. i think i have enough just for the commissioners. this is our regular report on the bluegrass festival that was held september through october 2. i will slip right over to the photos. they are the most fun. i think this festival gets better every year in terms of

controlling damage to the park. there's a ways to go, but we're getting there. if you look at the picture with the cars, last year, stwith cars parked over the tree roots. it was clear this time. there were some areas still where there were cars parked next to trees, but it was much less. the next is the cypress street at speedway meadow. it is still the main traffic pass. can we please do something about that stree. the next page is bicycles. i like that. there were great, a creative -- great, creative bike racks.

landscape protection. straw on the hillside slope protected it from erosion. unfortunately, we had rain durter the festival. this damage can be prevented by plywood being put down first. the most serious thing i noticed is kind of secretary to landscape protection, but has long term implications. the use of alcohol was totally unregulated. there were people selling alcohol. there were probably underage drinkers. there were beer bottles and packages all over the park for days. i do not have pictures of that. i do have reports from the community there were trash piles. i think we have a health hazard.

i think we have a park problem. when we are talking about youth drinking, this is not the healthy and safe parks we are always talking about. lastly, there was also a great deal of smoking. that's also forbidden in our parks. i know we cannot prevent everything. there were people smoking under the neeucalyptus trees. i saw very little police presence. it was heaviest when the mayor was there speaking. compared to the other festivals, i hardly saw anyone -- i think we need to think about this. all in all, the protection of the park is much better than it has been in past years. thank you very much. president buell: thank you. is there other public testimony? i will also ask staff -- if they

could give up their seats to people standing here or outside in the corridor. if you have an item later in the calendar, i would appreciate you giving up your seat. >> is there anyone else who would like to make general public comment? president buell: i have a comment. any recommendations on how to limit or better supervise the alcohol intake would be welcomed. i do not know what the solution is, but let us know your thoughts on that. thank you. >> ok, i just wanted to make sure there's no one else who wants to make general public comment. ok. general public comment is closed. we are on item 5, the consent

calendar. we are removing 5b from the consent calendar. it will be heard on the general calendar. is there anyone who wants to make public comment on the consent calendar? president buell: someone raised their hands. >> please come forward, if you would like to make public comment on the consent calendar, but not balboa. public comment is closed on item 5. president buell: moved and seconded. >> we are now on item 5 b. balboa park improvements -- a word of construction contract. >> commissioners. in the capital planning

director. this item is the continuing from our last capital committee meeting. due to an inadvertent mistake with the agenda item, we are back to let you know we would like to proceed for the balboa park project. that project will include an expanded playground, improved pathway system and complete renovation of the tennis courts, as well as fencing improvements and other improvements that will improve the use of the park. >> we do have public comment on this. christine? >> hello. in an exchange student from germany. i would like to comment on the balboa park improvement. i think these improvements are a

good idea for the people who live in the city, but i do not understand why this project took such a long time. is started in 2009. in 2010, rec and park approve plans for balboa park. i know it took time to get the people's ideas together, but i do not think that takes one or two years. why does it take such a long time? why is it difficult to accept the money and start? one possible action in the paper [inaudible] why don't you take the money? [laughter] president buell: welcome to san francisco. [laughter] thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is

closed. commissioners, do we have a motion? >> moved. second. president buell: all those in favor? thank you very much. >> we are now on items 6, the san francisco zoo. >> good morning, commissioners. i m vice-president of marketing at the zoo. our attendance for the first 18 days of october is 29,936 visitors. it is over budget by 18. 8%. the actual admissions revenue is above budget by $23,000.