i came in as a gardener and worked with the turf crew. i manage approximately 7,000 acres and i supervise 75 to 85 people under my direct supervision. i am responsible for eight parks more or less. every day that i stepped out, i feel so fortunate and very lucky to work for an organization with so many different properties. each one is its own gem. harding park is one of the gems of the city. opened in the 1930's. cypress trees and rolling hills. a very well designed golf course. we've had a very successful presidents cup. the amount of spectators that it

drawls, everyone from around the world -- seeing the course on television and the quality of work -- it is very impressive to me that we can do that on the public level. i have an extremely dedicated crew that worked with me. there's not a moment that i'm not proud of everything i see out there and all the hard work. i am very honored to receive an award. i feel very fortunate to have people that will go above and beyond. it is due to their hard work and their efforts that they put on ain on a day-to-day basis. [applause] >> hi, everybody. i'm the general manager of san francisco's recreation and park department. it's my incredible pleasure and honor to introduce you are mfac

award winner, steve, ste castil. >> i would like to thank spur and mfac. thank you for this honor. being selected to receive such a prestigious award is such a great honor, but i think even greater considering all the top candidates. when i graduated from uc-davis, i learned the theory of being a manager. i needed something to show the reality but i quickly learned the best way to acquire these skills was to watch and work with senior managers in the rec and park department. i've been fortunate to work with ree outstanding managers. they were instrumental in my growth as a manager. i thank them. another ingredient needed to be

a successful manager is to have a great team. my supervisory team -- may have been instrumental in the golf and turf operations by completing tasks to the highest standards possible of any group of people i've ever seen. i would also like to thank the gardening staff, the teamsters, the operating engineers, everyone who makes my operation possible, even down to the local vendors and everyone that keeps my organization running. thank you. as you all know, san francisco has hosted premier events, the charles schwab cup, the recent nfc championship games. these events put san francisco on a national stage. every employee, supervisor stepped up and made both events extremely successful. it was transparent to the

attendees and the television viewers that there was a third team out there. that was the recreation and parks department. it is extremely proud of my team. add to this one of the most beautiful park systems in the world. i am extremely lucky. lastly, i want to thank my parents and my wife, vivian, and my two daughters, jennifer and some of the, for their love and support. thank you. [applause] >> steve castile. [applause] >> i started working for the

public works department 15 years ago. we are like a family. it is a very close-knit group. i think, because of that, we get the best out of people. one of the problems we encountered in the city was we were not able to pay our vendors and contractors. people were entering data inconsistently. documents were always getting lost. payments were not going out. the numbers do not add up. everything has to flow horizontal and vertical leap. we created several modules to make it easier for contractors to attach the documents in a standardized format. we do not have to go deeper anymore. i don't have a formal education in i.t., however, i have deployed some systems when i was

working for the industry, and i brought in young, energetic staff to help. we implemented this. it took three months. people knew when they were going to get paid. i think we have a happy contractor community. >> these system improvements have really it increased service to our clients and reduced costs and really improved the bidding environment for our contractors. it's remarkable what she has done. >> been a public service -- being a public servant is a good thing. i love my job. i would never exchange it for anything else in the world. [applause] [applause]

>> i am from the department of public works. i have the honor of introducing jocelyn quintos. i will just a real quick, jocelyn works very hard. through her work, a lot of contracts and a lot of work that she does -- she has brought new systems that have saved a lot of tand time and allowed us to give contracts and make payments very fast. please meet jocelyn. [applause] >> first of all, i just want to thank spur and mfac for giving me this honor. i've never really won an award. it does feel like you won the oscars. it's different when you are standing here. i do not even have a written

speech. i will speak from the heart. today is a very important day for me and my family because this happens to be my father's death anniversary. i want to dedicate this to my father. my mom flew in tonight. my brother, who works for bart. [applause] i have my nephew, who is here tonight. i want him to see me so he can follow my footsteps sunday to give back to the community. with me here are my managers and supervisors. i also have my longtime friend, jamie, who has been here. i see my former boss here. i have been nominated so many times. it really feels like you won an

oscar. lastly, i wanted to thank my husband, who has been not just a husband to me, but he has been my chauffeur -- [laughter] mike coy cook, personal photographer, and no. 1 critic. i know i forgot so many people tonight. you know who you are. if i can give more to the city, i will. thank you. [applause] >> they have extra photographers that travel with them. let's hear it one more time for jocelyn and her family. thank you very much. [applause]

>> i graduated from the university of california berkeley with a degree in civil engineering. i started with the department of public works in 1984. in 2003, i was asked to come to san francisco public utilities commission to take the meat on the program. i'm responsible for all the large capital projects for water, waste water, and power. it's about $12 billion of capital projects. we have a lot of projects. our water system improvement program, 80 products that span seven counties. we have a staff of about 400 city employees and about 500 consultants. puc is really embracing technology. we wanted to make sure we really had a system that would elevate all issues so we could address

them in a timely manner. as you know, time is money. we have a construction management information system. it is a great tool to help us address construction and make it successful, as it is today. cmis is one of the first major tools we put in place. the next one is the san francisco online invoicing, where we are now working with the contractor and consultant to have them submit their invoices online. we are also working on electronic bidding systems. another way we can reduce the paperwork and all the other issues tied with the procurements. i live in san francisco. i am a rate-payer. i really care about the way we spend our money. systems like this that will allow transparency, clarity, accountability, and efficiency -- i think systems like this need to be applied to all parts of the city.

we really strive to lead and embraced technology so we can be ahead of the game. [applause] >> we are spending $15 million per week just on our water system. that does not happen without incredibly good management, personnel management and i.t. systems to make it work. harlan kelly is responsible for all of that. [applause] >> good afternoon. first, i would like to thank spur and mfac for this prestigious award. also, ed harrington for nominating me. also, a special thanks to my family. mason, kelly, tray, my wife,

naomi, my sister joy, and my mother-in-law. they have been supporting me for a long time. behind this individual all board, there's a team of people that are responsible for making things happen. just for a moment, i want the puc to raise their hand and give a shout. we have a lot of folks who really committed in making the systems wwork. again, we have billions of dollars that we are entrusted with delivering in a timely way, which needs to be within budget. systems like this will really elevate and make it really transparent that we are delivering these programs in a very conscious and deliberate way so we can save the

ratepayers' money. with that, i just want to thank you guys for this award. thank you. [applause] [applause] >> if you are a consultant or you work for a company that does work for the puc, raise your hand. that's about half the room. thank you, harlan kelly. >> it does not matter just where you're going to go. it matters how you're going to get there. our team came together in 2008 and we started looking at procuring something to navigate us away from paper-based to on- line filing. >> we collect the majority of the city's revenue. all of those payments were made

by piper until we undertook this project. we asked the team -- how do we modernize how we do our work and provide better customer service of the same time? that made for a lot of work in our office. >> the team is an interesting combination of talents and personalities. we have a lot of people who stepped up and became real leaders for the project. >> i've been working for the city for almost 20 years now. i've seen data entry, a paper form scanning, to online filing. we made it easier for the taxpayer to file. we were able to save a lot of money. >> the amount of support in this organization around change and each other is really incredible. you have senior managers who were just so open to the learning process. it makes the process so much

easier. it is such a pleasure to go through. >> we have seen a reduction in paper that has been dramatic. we have converted nearly 100% of all of our paper filings to online filings. this work is critical to the city and county of san francisco. they delivered. they made it work. they succeeded tremendously. it has benefited the city and taxpayers. >> everything we do tgoes to scale. it speaks volumes to what we have to do every day. >> i live in san francisco. i walk down our streets. i take our buses. i make use of the resources here. knowing that the work that i do contributes to everything around me is very fulfilling. [applause] [applause] >> hi, everyone. in the city treasurer in san

francisco. it's my honor to introduce to you the team that brought the treasured tax collector's office to the 21st century. the municipal tax automation team, darrell ascano, tajel shah, and rebecca villareal- mayer, come on up. [applause] >> i've been anointed to speak for us. jose has asked me to use my outside voice. we are so lucky. very rarely in your life to you get a blank canvas with leadership to tell you to find problems and solve them. i want to thank our leadership for doing that and giving us not only the opportunity to make change, but also to really make mistakes. i think that's a rare thing, to be able to make mistakes in this environment and continue to proceed and be successful. i mean it when we say -- what we end up doing is so different.

we work to scale every day. we invite the people that we serve every day. thank you to the nominees. to our leadership, thank you. thank you to all the winners and to all the people we get to work with and serve. thanks. [applause] >> let's hear it for the tax team. [applause] >> parking is a universal

quality of life issue. it touches on so many different parts of the transportation system. we were looking for ways to make parking easier and more convenient. >> in the beginning, we looked at parking throw san francisco, and her desire to price parking based on demand is how it started. >> for 70 years, we've used flat meter rates and short time limits. that did not always work so well. it did not make it easier to find a parking space. sf park has two main components. the whole point is to get them off the road quickly. and to create more of an spaces. we're doing the man-responsive pricing. we're obligated to find the lowest rate possible. generally, most of the time, there is one space available on every block. >> anything that allows muni to

move more smoothly throughout the city is a great thing. if you manage parking effectively, then you've got fewer people circling around. it not only benefits folks that are parking, but it benefits folks riding muni, as well. continuously monitoring occupancy. that's what we used to make our android and iphone apps. it's open to everyone. lots of people can help get that information out there for the broader social benefit possible. the first city in the world to have that kind of data available. >> other cities can take elements of sfpark and implement it in the cities. los angeles is working on it. berkeley is working on a project. washington, d.c. is, too. cities are looking at parking

management differently than the have in the past. >> later this year, we are gathering all the data we need to evaluate rigorously all our expectations of how this can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, congestion, improve transit speed, reliability, reduc. [applause] >> good evening. i'm the director of transportation. for me, this is not the academy awards. this is the all-star game. the folks sitting over here are truly the all stars of the city. i've had an opportunity to work with ed, harlan, and jocelyn. behalf of all of us. we are also very lucky to have a bunch of people from sfmta, many of them are here.

my job is to introduce the awardees. please join me and give a hand for jay primus, george reynolds, steven lee, and lorraine fuqua. >> thank you. this is a tremendous honor. it really does feel fabulous to be recognized. one of the relief fund things about this project is that it is just complex enough and just big enough that it is truly a case where hundreds of people were required to really get it off the ground. there's really nothing -- that's the kind of thing we dream about. working shoulder to shoulder with that many people to make something happen. it has never happened before. what a pleasure. unfortunately, the mfac award is limited to four people.

we are up here representing an entire team. some of that court team is here tonight, including lauren, alex, lisa foster, hank wilson, lesley, jason lee, and brendan monaghan. [applause] those are some of the folks -- those are just some of the folks that really made sfpark happen. i hope you have a chance tonight to meet and congratulate them. these incredibly dedicated, hard-working people. i also want to especially acknowledged the tma'mta's cfo. [applause] without her vision and strength, we almost certainly would not be here tonight to celebrate sfpark alongside these other

achievements. thank you. thank you for this honor. [applause] >> let's hear it for the sfpark team. [applause] >> that ends the awards, but the bar is open. let's give one big round of applause for our sponsors, our award winners, and all of our friends and family. see you next time for the 33rd annual.

>> feel like it really is a community. they are not the same thing, but it really does feel like there's that kind of a five. everybody is there to enjoy a literary reading. >> the best lit in san francisco. friendly, free, and you might

get fed. ♪ [applause] >> this san francisco ryther created the radar reading series in 2003. she was inspired when she first moved to this city in the early 1990's and discover the wild west atmosphere of open mi it's ic in the mission. >> although there were these open mics every night of the week, they were super macho. people writing poems about being jerks. beatty their chest onstage. >> she was energized by the scene and proved up with other girls who wanted their voices to be heard. touring the country and sharing

gen-x 7 as a. her mainstream reputation grew with her novel. theses san francisco public library took notice and asked her if she would begin carrying a monthly reading series based on her community. >> a lot of the raiders that i work with our like underground writers. they're just coming at publishing and at being a writer from this underground way. coming in to the library is awesome. very good for the library to show this writing community that they are welcome. at first, people were like, you want me to read at the library, really? things like that. >> as a documentary, there are interviews -- [inaudible] >> radar readings are focused on

clear culture. strayed all others might write about gay authors. gay authors might write about universal experiences. the host creates a welcoming environment for everybody. there is no cultural barrier to entry. >> the demographic of people who come will match the demographic of the reader. it is very simple. if we want more people of color, you book more people of color. you want more women, your book more women. kind of like that. it gets mixed up a little bit. in general, we kind of have a core group of people who come every month. their ages and very. we definitely have some folks who are straight. >> the loyal audience has

allowed michelle to take more chances with the monthly lineup. established authors bring in an older audience. younker authors bring in their friends from the community who might be bringing in an older author. >> raider has provided a stage for more than 400 writers. it ranges from fiction to academics stories to academic stories this service the underground of queer fell, history, or culture. >> and there are so many different literary circles in san francisco. i have been programming this reading series for nine years. and i still have a huge list on my computer of people i need to carry into this. >> the supportive audience has allowed michele to try new experiment this year, the radar book