it was not recreation come it was some bizarre pronunciation. i have no trouble understanding what she was saying, it was just all that accents were put on the wrong syllable. just for your information, evidently is possible to use the word pier with three syllables. i do not know if anything can be done by that. i do not know how trustworthy the statistics will be. two things really bothered me. number one, one of the questions i was asked was the acquisition of waterfront property using bond money. i was sort of taken aback, and obviously she was not a person i could discuss policy with, but i said i would give this really low priority come only because it is my understanding it would be illegal to use on monday for acquisition.

in thinking about that, i realized may be spending bond money needs to be specified in the bond, and did you could do anything that is voted on. i do not know that. the other thing that really floored me, is the bond will benefit all neighborhood parks. i took great exception to the fact that it is all neighborhood parks. it might benefit parks in all neighborhoods. it might benefit -- i do not know how the freeze could be better. i have nightmare visions of going back to 2000 where we promised everything to everybody come in the first six projects in mind were a static. 19 projects of which are were involved in. to were put through hell. please, let's not repeat that

mistake. i hope i am preaching to the choir. anyone else that would like to make comments under the general managers' report? cnnseeing none, public comment s closed. next is general public comment up to 15 minutes. with respect to agenda items, or opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. >> good morning, commissioners. also, the general manager. i wanted to take this opportunity. i have two concerns that i wanted to bring to your attention. one, if there is a missed opportunity for class's -- a lot

of glasses got cancelled for the winter session. there was a mistake that happened. it says winter 2011. a lot of people think that is the old brochure. there was definitely a mistake, because it should say 2012. winter 2011 would have been 10 days. that is nothing. it should really be three months of glasses, and it should have said winter 2012 on it. in the future we have to make sure we're talking about the future. i wanted to call that to your attention. the second thing is i am on the advisory committee for the san francisco mta, you know, the transportation department.

one of their big focuses is talking about bicycles and biking. they're really interested in having a new map. there are maps from private companies that put on their own maps, but that is really a conflict of interest. what i really wanting, and what my committee is one thing is for a new mac -- this one is very old and out of date, but it relates to the whole city. i really want to put together biking trails and green areas in the parks throughout the city, people can go to places to get exercise and experience the outdoors. the people in the mta, our committee has been trying to contact different people within the recreation department, and we have had a hard time contacting anybody.

we have been trying for a month. in we're really trying to offer our help to help your department and work together so we can develop a good map that will be mutually beneficial. thank you. wanted to bring those things to your attention. have a good day. >> thank you. >> kelly what. -- watts. >> you have to speak and let them know. >> this past november this commission received a report from the planning department, which contained medical data on materials used in san francisco synthetic fields.

the report showed it contains over 400 different chemicals including lead. a chemicals appear in chemicals known to cause cancer. this material was added to the california list of substances known to cause cancer based on the findings of the world health organization. more and more cities are banning this material. new york's park department has a system that works this and they chose to be in this material. the unified school district has a serious budget crisis, and they also banned this material, stating you should never equate economics with help, and the help of our students is more important than any other issue. despite this information, this commission is considering authorize rpd to consider -- continue spreading this material in san francisco. well over 2,000 tons in golden

gate park, as well as over 2500 in the sunset. the parks commission and management were not selected by the people of san francisco. the general public is virtually powerless by the decisions made here, yet citizens will suffer for years to come. the people of san francisco are independent on officials here to assert their power and responsibility into wisely addressed the cancer risks. on a personal note, i think it would be a fantastic and truly meaningful way to honor mr. hellman's legacy and family to show respect for those we lost to this disease. i e-mailed this commission the hand of that speaks to this issue. i would like to add the key words, respiratory morbidity, acute toxicity, lead poisoning, archery poisoning bladder

cancer, liver tumors, and that the sale marks. -- messythosilioma. >> anyone else that would like to make general public comment? if there is, if you could come forward please. >> general public comment is closed. item #5, election of officers. we will first elected president for this year. i will need a motion and second to open the nomination for president. >> thank you. i now need a nomination or nominations for the office of president. >> i would like to nominate mark buelle for president. any other nominations? i need a motion and second to

close nomination. >> move to close. >> second. >> and a bvote? it is unanimous. we are now going to office of vice-president. we need a motion and second to open the nomination. >i need a nomination. >> i would like to move my good friend and colleague, tom harrison, the nominated and voted our vice president. >> and the other nominations? if not, i need a motion and second to close. >> so moved. to go second. >> all those in favor of commissioner tom harrison as vice president please say aye. any opposed? motion carried unanimously.

congratulations to both of you. [applause] >> let me make a few comments now. first of all, i am flattered and honored and i want to thank my fellow commissioners. i genuinely enjoy the work in the come moderate -- come moderate over, my fellow commissioners. comradery. i want to thank commissioner bonita for leading the effort. i think it has made a real issue in the quality of life on the commission. i want to thank commissioners lee and levitan for chairing the officers committee.

i think is more work that we've made real progress on that commission as well. to commissioner martin, i want to thank you for attending to the zoo. that is the meeting that is farthest removed from us, but it is always interesting. if you ever want to go to those meetings and see a dedicated staff the cares very bad about what they do, i recommend them. commissioner martin, i know you were very supportive of having more community meetings, so you can take certain pride in having that happen. i appreciate that very much. having said all that, where are we? commissioner harrison, the vice chairman, vice president. he stands in for me, in goes to many things that he might not otherwise want to go to.

he spends a lot of time going to the meetings for me and distiller vice president. i am very thankful for that. where are we headed? we're headed once again into the 8 year of budget cuts. that continues to put an enormous challenge on everyone. i want to say that i continue to be extremely impressed with the staff and leadership in this department. i do not think the public appreciates how much staff has to go to night meetings, weekend event, and cetera. i am always impressed with the dedication and professionalism of the staff. i take my hat off to you. and to the secretary of the commission, i would not get my job done if she did not do her job very well. i think on behalf of all of the commissioners, we thank you for being dedicated, and being very

efficient in making sure we look good up here, so thank you very much. where are we headed? we're headed to more budget cuts. the only other comment that i would make is i would hope to try to make as a paperless commission and move to ipads. we would not be chopping trees down, and there will be a small economic disaster, because there will not be the messenger services. with that, i think you all for the vote of confidence and look forward to another good year. thank you. >> any public comment on this item? cnn, public comment is closed. we are now on item 6, the san francisco zoo. >> first, congratulations

president and vice president, and thank you for your kind comments. we want to acknowledge our friend that is very good to the zoo. she renovated the carroll and made substantial improvements elsewhere. the oldest living black rhino in the world is named after her, ellie. a quick update on the attendants. both december and january have been fantastic. we have had the highest attendance ever in the history. actual attendance was over 54,000, while we budgeted just 20,000. we were over 60 percent signed on budgets for december. through january 16 we had over 41,000 victors -- visitors when we were just budgeting 21,000. we are over 9.78 percent signed.

i know you have all heard of banana sam. i want to give you a pribrief update. we discovered a breach in the squirrel monkey exhibit. a breach of the gate by the zoo's australian walkabout, whenever most benign areas of the zoo, but also dark. the police arrived on the scene once we discovered the breach. they examined the exhibit will stop continued to sweeps. once it was determined the monkey was not on site, at the police left collecting what evidence they could find. we then issued a press release offering $5,000. that was offered by an award member. the following saturday evening police received a call that someone had a monkey in a backpack. the police department picked up the animal.

it was returned to our vet hospital where it was examined. he was hungry and trembling but in good health. the police investigation remains open. bananas and remains in quarantine. -- but the enougbanana sam reman quarantine. if all goes well, he should be backed by february. nonetheless, this premeditated criminal act that can be difficult at best and impossible at worst to prevent. on behalf of the zoo community, i think everyone for their concerted efforts to make sure he returned safely. on a related note, at the request of a lot of members, he has been made part of this to adopt an animal program. proceeds for the sale of adopt an animal will go to his and others' care and in richmond.

for $50 they will receive a certificate, and the manufacturer also made a banana sam stuffy. for you, i leave this. last, i wanted to report this to celebrity, jack hanna, visits on sunday at 1:30. he is the director of the columbus zoo. he is an international conservation is. he also has his own television show. he is coming to talk about animal well this initiative anti some of the animals that are rescued. his shows are family-friendly. i encourage all ages to come. the proceeds from that evening will be for the care of the zoo animals. i think him for the gift he is giving us. there is more information on this news websites. -- the zoo's website. >> when they picked up the

animal, was it with someone? >> the police are not telling even be that. i understand they have someone who called it in that was a young male. there is concerned there was also an inside job by either as to volunteer or employee. they continue to come to the zoo and review the records. it is an unfortunate occurrence, but thankfully someone did the right thing at the end. >> thank you very much. all is well that ends well. >> anyone that like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are now -- now on number seven, recreation and park department budget for fiscal year 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.

it is the budget. [laughter] thank you. >> 1 cup of coffee. not bad. [laughter] >> ok. good morning commissioners. i am here this morning with the first of three presentations before the department submits its budget to the mayor's office. i will start this morning of a summary of the budget instructions we received from the mayor's office, and then give you an overview of the key revenue and expenditures to give you some context for the budget decisions that are to come. let me pause a minute and put up my presentation.

this year for the first time the city is going to prepare a two- year budget for the general fund at the department. this means the budget we submit to the mayor's office actually has to balance the 2013--- 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. the mayor's office is projecting a 21 to $62.7 million city-wide deficit. for the following year, $375.3 million deficit. >> why/ >> what are the causes of the deficit? the second year they are seeing fairly significant benefit increases. i think that is a significant impact there. as you know, the major must

close the budget before he submits to the board of supervisors. to help close the gap of the mayor has issued budget instructions to all city-funded departments. the mayor's office has asked departments to reduce general funds support by 5% in fiscal year -- in both fiscal years to absorb all revenue corrections and absorb all non-salary cost increases. as you can see on this slide, the 5% reduction is being pulled to $1.6 million. for next fiscal year i am anticipating revenue correction in the amount of $600,000, and non-salary cost increases in the amount of approximately $900,000. in addition, the 2013 budget will reflect a change to the

management structure of the park patrol division as we tried to improve accountability and effectiveness of the unit, and we will need to absorb the cost of that change in next year's budget. altogether we are looking at a budget reduction right now about $3.3 million, and $2.5 million for the following year. these figures will absolutely changed over the next six weeks as we receive more up-to-date information about work orders in particular, and also on revenue figures. so the one that revenue issue i am working on right now is around parking garage revenue. i have been talking to mta. they told me they do believe budget to budget parking revenue will drop in the coming fiscal year. i am waiting for them to complete analysis on what the

reasons for that are, and what the amount is they will give me to budget for the new fiscal year. the budget instructions also are requesting the budget is a 2.5% contingency proposal to the mayor's office, which is equal to almost $800,000, and finally, the budget instructions are requesting departments to reduce general fund positions by 1%, which is equal to about six fte's. as we work through the process of balancing our budget, we will refer to the seven budget and balancing principles to guide of the trade decisions. as you will recall, we develop these principles in collaboration with the rec and park's that, community stakeholders, and you. just to remind people,

principles are as follow. to preserve and promote our mission by creating a financially-sustainable apartment. to protect our ability to provide clean, safe, fun, and well-maintained parks. to preserve our responsibility as environmental stewards. to protect our mission to provide healthy recreational choices, providing low-cost recreational opportunities and insuring the ability to pay is never a barrier to protect the state -- participation. to work with the community to enhance opportunities to support the department. to preserve our citizens capital investment by identifying dedicated funding for ongoing maintenance, and to invest in user-friendly systems that improve access and finance service delivery come in to train and support our staff. >working in the context of these

principles, we are reviewing revenue and expenditure deductions. the department's total budget in the current fiscal year is $127.8 million, and of this, $119.4 million funds are operating budget. the department has three primary sources of revenue. our revenue budget at its most fundamental level can bring -- can be broken into three components. general fund, subsidy in saving. revenue from the open space funds. and earned revenue. in the current fiscal years you could see the breakdown of these budget is 30% of the general fund, 30 percent signed by open space, and 40 percent signed by earned revenue. -- 30% by open space and 40% by current revenue.

property tax continues to show growth in the city thankfully, despite difficult economic times. we have received 37.5 million in the open space funding in fiscal year 2011. that on up to $38.9 million. we were actually going to do better than that amount in the current fiscal year. the department also benefits from a charter provision that allows us to keep any year in general fund savings, and in the past two years we have supported the next year's budget with a savings. last year in the amount of $5.6 million, and the current year in the amount of $4.4 million. we also receive a subsidy from the city's general fund, which in the past two years harris remained approximately the same. -- past two years has remained approximately the same.

we benefit enormously from the property resources that fall under our jurisdiction. in the current year we turned over $50 million to support operations, which i think is pretty phenomenal. these resources include four parking rogegarages, candlestick park, the teagarden come in many more. these are parks department has earned revenue for for generations. we have improved programming in the past five months or so. the first one supports the general fund budget. the gulf fund is a special fund, as is the marine a fund come in the other category includes support we received from other departments, such as the p.u.c. for services we provide, as well as get funding.

-- gift funding. as we face significant general fund challenges in the past several years, we have focused on generating additional fund revenue to meet the challenges. the enormous work we have been doing at the department have that really paid off, and this slide demonstrates the general fund revenue has been increasing since 2008-2009, and is between fiscal year 2011-2012 we added 1.2 million to the budget. this has come in big ways and small waves. everything from outside plan to break rentals -- outside land to bike rentals. i have slides that illustrate how we allocate our resources. the department spends half of operating budget maintaining

parks. this includes gardners, custodians, urban foresters, and integrated pest management staff, among others. the nextthe next two largest are delivery of rec programming in our recreation and swimming pools at 27%. and it the maintenance of all our facilities by our structure maintenance yard, approximately 12%. we allocate 6% of the budget to administration, which would include the general manager, finance and accounting, human resources, purchasing, partnerships, and property management, and it 3% of the budget supports park safety with our patrol staffing. the two remaining slices of the plate include the marionette yacht harbor and is due and planning services.