>> [roll call]

>> good morning. daises the recreation and park commission meeting of april 19, 2012. we have been long calendar today and would ask that you turn off all of a truck devices. we would please ask that you take any secondary conversations outside in order for the meeting to proceed as efficiently as possible. if you would like to speak on any item today, please complete these blue cards. we will call your name for the items you have requested to speak on. please address your comments to the item being heard. if you want to speak under general public comment, item four, continued on item 14. please address your comments to the commission during public comment on items in order to allow as.

commissioner buell: thank you. the proceed with the calendar. >> item two. presidents reports. commissioner buell: i am going to forgo the president's report which should be a relief to everybody. i would like to call item seven out of order because we have some distinguished visitors and time restraints on their time. could recall item 7? >> item 7. mccoppin square. >> good morning, commissioners, and general manager. i am with the recreation and parks department partnership and resource development division. i am here today to recommend that you approve the permanent installation of a plaque in honor of fallen officer bryan tuvera in mccoppin square,

approve the wording and site location, and accept a gift in place of a commemorative plaque valued at approximately $9,600 from the san francisco police officers association. as i stated in my staff report, in 2006, san francisco unfortunately lost a very talented and dedicated police officer, brian tuvera. the police officers association has worked with carmen chu's office, the recreation and park department operations staff and capital division staff, and the community, to honor the officer. today, supervisor chu is with us come as is the officer spearheading the effort, and some members of the police officers association who knew bryan. the specific wording and design of the plaque is in my packet, as is the same location.

-- site location. this is a picture of the terrible police station located directly across the street from mccoppin square. that is where bryan was stationed. this x marks the location where the plaque has requested to be installed. i would like to give the opportunity, if this is the appropriate time, for members from the police officers association and for supervisor chu to speak on behalf of this item. commissioner buell: please. >> is there any public comment on this? commissioner buell: i think we will invite supervisor chu. welcome. >> thank you, president, commissioners. i want to thank you for

considering this item. i am here to speak in support of this moral. as staff spoke to or earlier, bryan tuvera was killed in the line of duty in 2006. he was very well respected and popular. his fellow officers miss him dearly. every december, dozens of sunset district residents come together, as well as friends from all over the city, to remember bryan and his contribution to the san francisco police department. at the committee meetings we had for the planning of the renovations of mccoppin square, one of the ideas that came to the four was the idea of honoring bryan. that was something that was strongly supported by residents and residentthose who rememberes ultimate sacrifice. we wanted to recreate a

reflective garden across from the police station. a place where the community could gathered to remember the officer, but also where officers from across the street could gathered to remember bryan's memory. now the community has come together to install a memorial plaque so that everyone can remember him. i hope that you will hear the words of the police officers today. though the this is a strong supporter within the community. i want to thank philip ginsburg and your staff for following up on with the community wanted. i hope that you will be considering -- consideration of this -- i hope you will support this. this will be a great thing. commissioner buell: thank you, supervisor. >> good morning, commissioners, directors. i am the nine supervising captain for the san francisco police apartment. in 2006, the police station

received a phone call from the capt. that said that bryan had been shot. i am a native son of san francisco and i live in the district just a few blocks from mccoppin square. i responded to the scene and took over the command post. we have been looking for the suspect for several months. bryan spotted the individual in the area of 25th and kirk and pursued him into a closed area where he did not have site of the suspect. he was gunned down in a broad -- he was gunned down. pacific to me deeply not just because of the circumstances of what happened, but because of bryan. i know when they go through things like this, we always talk about heroism, but not all police officers who died in the line of duty do so with heroism

attached to their death. and bribery. that is what we have here. we have an officer who died with bribery and heroism. that is why we have pursued this. -- bravery and heroism. i am a community member. i send my kids to public school in the city. i live a couple of blocks from the park. my wife says that if i ever decided to leave, i would be doing so with my next life. she loves this city. it would be great to have this plaque in a park that i am going to be going to for many years. i think the same goes for the other community members in the district, the people that are cooperating, nurses, public schools, people in the community, and i know that we have robust support for this now, but i just want to sum this up by thanking mr. ginsberg.

i know you support this from the beginning. thank you for that. supervisor chu, i do not want to embarrass you, but when she says time and again -- that was the case before she got there, but when she got there, immediately, we met in a cafe and it was full throttle from there. that is why we are here. i am going to turn it over to two of bryan's classmates that will be able to talk about who is we are honoring here. >> good morning, commissioners. thank you for giving us the a opportunity to speak about bryan tuvera this morning. i want to share a story, to put more of a human face on him. i want to thank the public for showing up.

it is great to see a full house for this important hearing. i consider myself a friend of bryan tuvera. he was my classmates and i have the honor of working with him in i want to share a brief story with you this morning that goes all the way back to the days of our academy in 2002 when i first met brian. as i think that, i almost always think of bryan as having a smile on his face appeared his quick wit and humor became apparent to all of us shortly after the cat we started. often during a class break, a smaller gathering would form around bryan as he revealed recruits with yet another humorous yarn. he always had this reputation. this was great for our class.

it built morale, camaraderie, and it launched our law enforcement career is on a high note. as part of the academy testing and evaluation process, police recruits engaged in simulations. during a simulation, as directors set up a scenario and you go through the scenario as a police officer to the valley with your performance. to do this, they broke the glass down into three squads. brian, myself, and body would go through these simulations together each time we had a simulation day. it just so happened that bobby wanted to go first to get it over with. i think bryan and i were just fine with that. while bobby was going through his for simulation, bryan and i were on the sidelines waiting for a return. i remember we were waiting to our return and bryan wanted to go next and i would be last. there came a second when bryan

looked at me and said, dana, i am scared. if you know bryan, he has a baby face, and he looked like he was fresh out of a school. we talked a little bit and went over the scenario. he was fine. surely after that, by the finished and bryan was ready to go. in this to say, bryan past his simulation with flying colors. little did i realize that on that day the wheels had already been set in motion for bryan to become a hero of our great city. as much a hero as milk or mosconi. bravery is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. on that fateful night, in december, i do not know if bryan was scared, but i do know

he was brave. we honor people by remembering them and speaking of them and i am honored to be speaking with you about bryan this morning. one day we will be gone and it is my wish that his legacy will continue to be told so that future citizens of san francisco will know the sacrifice and dedication to service that bryan gave to this great city. thank you. commissioner buell: thank you. >> good morning, commissioners. my name is scott, i am a surgeon in the police department. just a little bit about bryan. i do not want to make it too long. i will be to the point. . everyone knows bryan was a great guy. everybody loved bryan. he was a classmate, a friend of

mine. to this day, i still see his family. but on that night, what he did was unbelievable. he went after a guy. this guy was waiting for him. it is really unfortunate to lose such a great guy like that. everybody loved him. i really appreciate you guys considering this plaque. i think it would be great for him, the police officers, and for his family. thank you. commissioner buell: thank you. >> good morning. i, too, like scott and boehner, was a classmate of bryan tuvera. i had the luck to be the actual vice-president in the platoon of my academy class. a lot of guys would come up to

me to talk about their concerns about their future in the department. i knew bryan well, spoke to him, had good times with him. once you graduate from the academy, our careers would take us to separate divisions, companies, and i did not get a chance to see bryan much during that time, but i did remember that fateful night, i was working. i remember looking at the computer when the emergency call went out. when i looked at the call, i was at the southern police station, and i could see the print out of all the officers involved in the incident. five out of the six officers were my classmates. when i heard an officer was down, of course, not just a classmate, but my heart dropped. unfortunately, it was bryan. even though bryan is not with

us, he will always be remembered. thank you very much. commissioner buell: thank you >> is there any public comment on this item? being none, public comment is closed. commissioner buell: commissioners? commissioner levitan: i just want to commend the police officers in general, for putting this forward and allowing us to honor such a hero i think my colleague has a comment, but at a corporate time, i would like to approve staff recommendation for this. commissioner buell: commissioner lee? commissioner lee: working with capt. stamford, when he was the captain at the richmond station and i was the chair of the richmond community police advisory board. as soon as he found out i was on the rec and park commission, he

said what our record to do about that black? it has been several years since we first heard about this. under the tenure of president martin, who started this conversation, i am just really pleased and privileged to have heard the testimony today. i want to thank supervisor chu for her work in making this happen and our general manager, of course, i want to congratulate him for making it happen. this is a very important message to send to young people in the city, who will play in the park, and who will see this park in perpetuity and think, who was bryan tuvera and what did he give to this city? this is a great story for the next generation of san franciscans. thank you. commissioner buell: with that, i

think commissioner levitan has made a motion. commissioner martin have seconded the motion. it is unanimous. thank you very much. [applause] >> we are now on item three. general manager's report. >> good morning, commissioners. tough transition. a few short announcements. this weekend is earth day weekend and we are having to partner with a number of different community organizations to celebrate our earth and bring attention to efforts to conserve our natural resources and to give something back this saturday, we will be partner with the fall of organizations to host volunteer cleanup days in our parks. we will be with habitat for humanity at hilltop park. we will be with the friends of

dolores park at dolores park. we will be with hands on bay area, rei, pg&e, and others at 26. we will also be at a community clean team event with the mayor, the part of public works, the part of the environment, and numerous other community organizations at union plaza. i think we are also going to be at our own park for their own event and clean up on ringleader policy. those interested in joining us can go to our volunteer page and sign up. i encourage everyone to get their hands dirty on earth day. on monday, 3:00 p.m., i have great pleasure of joining the mayor and the consular of japan who will be planting a cherry blossom tree in the japanese tea garden. it is one of 18 donated trees from our friends in japan. the tree will be planted in the

tea garden and there will also be a tree planting in union square, with the remainder planted in meadows throughout the park to celebrate the initiative from japan of giving us the cherry blossom tree. on may 12, we invite everyone to the palace of fine arts theater to laugh out loud for rec and park. something we should all be doing more of. a laugh out loud, the event benefiting rec and park's programs for children on the office of spectrum. as we have reported in this commission on a few different occasions, rec and park provides incredible programming for children with autism. we are proud of the opportunities we are present -- providing for duke of all abilities. this is a fund-raiser to benefit cancer and other year-long programs that benefit kids with autism.

there will be a comedy lineup that will be sure to have the rolling in the aisles. log on to our website to purchase your tickets today. camp registration is under way and off to a booming start. our summer program registration for the entire family begins on may 12. log on to sfparkrec.org to find out our offerings. a couple of quick updates. i want to thank everyone who came out to sharon meadow. there were about 10,000 people that came out on saturday april 7 to enjoy our third annual spring extravaganza family event. a huge round of applause and thank you to all the men and women from the san francisco police department who competed against our rec and park staff in a new recipe-part rib cookoff

contest. the competition was fierce, but in the end, the community relations police department came out on top. our friends at park station one the desert competition with an incredible bacon brittle. rec and park won the prize for the best side dish and taraval took home the people's choice awards. i want to thank everyone who participated, including mission station, no. station, the folks on brian, chief sur, a few of you were there participating as judges. it was a happy day. there were games, crafts, rides for the kids. really a terrific day. you will hear about the shortly, but for the past three months, staff has hosted 30 community meetings across the city to lay the groundwork for potential bond measures. staff have been meeting with residents to