selected. the group award is being awarded to our nursery staff. george began his career in 2007. his company has continued the tradition of providing quality

plans for the entire recreation and parks department. the nurturing provides excellent plant materials for the entire department. various city hall offices and most cities special events. they prepare special cultivation for the shakespearean garden. the materials can range from large to 1 gallon shrubs. and george has developed a very special oil mix. they have renovated the irrigation system. the nursery has a whole group of their own volunteers and worse of volunteer groups.

our botanical garden and director says the work of his crew as being an outstanding providing the tools for all exhibits. they've let also been using plants which are water smart. the nursery was awarded the group award. thank you. [applause]

[applause] >> a couple more items and then we will be done. this morning and last wednesday, i joined our patrol on extended early patrol of gordon -- -- golden gate park. we had two very unfortunate incidents in the first week of july and we have work to do. over the last three years, in

partnership with the department of public health, the recreation department and the san francisco police department, we are accounted every morning making contact with illegal campers. since january alone, we have contacted over 1000 illegal campers. we have seen the population in the park reduce dramatically. because of the seasonal uptick during the summer months in which many of the people were in our parks are not san francisco residents but are passing through, we are working very closely with the san francisco police department. there will be some extended our region the park to make sure that everyone including our

homeless population feels safe in the park. both stations will be increasing patrols during their swing shift in the evening. the rec and park department and the s.f. pd will be starting an evening patrol through some of the known spots where there is illegal camping. we are continuing to do all we can to address the problem and i wanted to update you on that. nycomed thi wanted the chance tt focus as we look back over the past 12 months over some of the things we have all accomplished and that our staff, our community, and this commission

has worked together in very unique and extraordinary times with the budget. despite a setting in which we remain to wonder partners short a in which the standards suggest we should be and the climate in which we are 60 custodian's short on where we need to be and where we have about 30 park patrol officers, despite a climate of about $1.7 billion and maintenance fees in our system, our parks course by the comptroller had never been higher. they reached 91% which was an all-time high. our closeout rate was at 82%. our playground report card

average, we received a grade of a be up from a c plus. this year, we received an award of excellence for our park maintenance and audit program. with respect to recreation, we spent this year coming up with a new recreation model that helped us not only conquered our budget problems but end up in a place where we will deliver more program hours and we have done in previous years and i really want to celebrate our staff and the labor organization to their commitment for a partnership process.

our family accounts have been increased by 37% this year. we signed up 3000 new families in our family account system. our scholarships' tripled in the fiscal year from 729 families receiving the funds to 2355 families. we have a new online reservation system implemented this year. we just gave out $110,000 worth of scholarships for summer programming covering over 1200 blocks. every youth living in public housing can enroll in the program. this year, with respect to volunteers, we will beat last

year's record numbers. with respect to permanence and reservations, we have a new on- line system as of january. all photographs to be part of a new web site. this year, we saw the opening of the facilities at the lincoln playground. the hamilton red center, the conservatory, a blend of vista park, and campbell playground. we have four applications in with the state of california for brand-new park renovations for we have less for a total of

$20 million. we have three projects. we have a key city projects under way. this is going through the environmental impact process. if you have not been out there, i encourage you to go there. thanks to the voters, we have our trails, restrooms, and i'm very pleased at the last commission meeting that you approved. our community can apply for over $5 million worth of grants. on the finance and administration, we have a $12.4 million problem that we were able to solve.

we are pledging $8 billion in new revenue. we did have cuts and they were real. we had a 20% reduction in the cost of new workers compensation. we will be debuting our new web site in august. on the resources side, we gave ourselves a very ambitious goal. we have a bike rentals. we had peter pan. we had outside landscapers coming. we had a free concert. we had the world cup. we had barcelona, one of the greatest soccer clubs and the

world. we have received $500,000 in new tiffs for our operating cost -- philanthropic thigifts for our operating costs. that concludes our general managers report. >> thank you. >> is to any public comment on the general managers' report? th>> i would like to bring in te chair of -- >> good afternoon, the commissioners. on july 6th, we met and we had a well attended meeting.

i would like to thank -- for coming in and talking to us. i am here to present a resolution which we passed unanimously on july 6th. "we were informed in the initial phases and consulted as a developed and presented the final draft, we suggest the proposal by the recreation and parks department. i was glad that we could support this. thank you. >> thank you for a much. -- very much. >> is to any public comment under the general managers'

report? public comment is closed. we are now on item number four, general public comment which is up to 15 minutes. with respect to agenda items, your opportunity will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. do we have anyone that would like to make general public comment? >> this section is 15 minutes for any item that is on the agenda. >> seeing none, the general public, disclosed. we are on item number five, the

consent calendar. is there anyone who would like to comment on 5 b. public comment disclosed. >> moved and seconded. >> we are now on item 5 a, the san francisco temple guard mystery and center for sustainable gardening, proposition 84 application. >> connect and income the commissioners. i served the department as a director of the conservatory of flowers and also over the nurturing. on want to congratulate george and his crew for the award.

i'm also the director of the san francisco botanical garden. it is my understanding that the resolution that we ask you to review and hopefully support was pulled from the consent calendar for the purpose of amending. i would like to bring two points of clarification. one is that on the staff report on the section for opposition, while it was a general comment that there has been no opposition to this project, which is our new nursery, we did want to say there has been opposition voiced to the project in general and of the sierra club in particular. they have been opposed to the project for various reasons as have individuals within the community for a variety of different reasons. the other thing that needed to be cleared up was that this was

originally imposed on the agenda for july 1st and if you do agree to support this resolution for the botanical garden society some middle to the california department of parks and recreation, the proper date for the resolution would be today's date, july 15th. those are the key points of clarification i would like to make. >> is there public comment? please come forward. >> my comments are based on this development. this is a large scale development. this is two and a half acres, 100,000 square feet of development.

i just want to point out about following the golden gate master plan and also with the botanical society master plan. that is where some attention needs to be placed at this time. these things were looked at last week in 2008 in terms of the presentation and also to the commission. the context building in this particular area has changed. the needs and the demands have changed. basically, what i'm seeing is a differentiation between having a greenhouse and what they are calling the head house, this is not follow the master plan.

if you will build something in there, the original plan called for developing an estimate on the entrance which would have a new cafe, a new educational outreach. what i am seeing is spending money that is supposed to go for education but this is actually buildings. there is a differentiation there. if you are going to develop this, then do it with consideration and bring it to where the people will come which is in the front and not in the back. >> thank you. >> capt. income commissioners. i don't understand how this is under proposition 84 which has

been titled "safe drinking water, water quality, and supply, flood control, river and coastal protection bond act." one thing that has not been mentioned is when there are major problems with the botanical gardens in incredibly polluted water. that is not being addressed by this request. the $7 million is for the new palace that we want to build in the northwest corner of the botanical gardens. this is not a water issue. there is a water issued in the the town of garden. that is not being addressed here. >> thank you. is to any additional public comment on this item?

public comment disclosed -- is closed. >> can you give us a briefing on this? >> i cannot speak to the reasoning behind the california parks and recreation departments definition of some of their funding categories but when it was brought to our attention that these are available to some of our new centers, we had conversations with the representatives of that funding source and they encouraged us by the description and nature of our project to submit an application. the definition that was just to find in terms of water quality,

i did not dispute that. i cannot really speak for the state's definition of some of the funding categories they would except -- accept. should the project be fully funded and realize, it would be a gift in place to the department and that is why part of their criteria was making sure the governing board supported our not-for-profit partners. >> commissioner buell: we receia letter from sierra club talking about public profit -- public process. what sort of public process had you had? i know this has been around for a while. >> we have had public meetings at the county fair building, and it has been presented here before, although it was a

different exact body of commissioners, but it has been presented conceptually. it has also been through the design phase one and two at the arts commission, so there has been numerous public opportunities for the project to be heard and responded to. commissioner sullivan: i think the opposition to this project is largely around -- concerned about putting buildings in the park. none of us want to fill the park with condos or buildings, but i think we need to look at this holistic we, and putting a building in the botanical garden that is related to its mission that will increase the efficiency and the ability of the gardners to fulfill the mission, and when you look at a holistic way, this is an improvement to the botanical garden and not anything that would be an impediment.

>> thank you. any other comment? is there a motion to approve? it has been moved and seconded. all those in favor? opposed? hearing none, thank you. >> thank you. >> we are on item 6, which is the san francisco zoo. >> happy 1-year anniversary, general manager. good afternoon, president buell and commissioners. i am president of the san francisco zoo. staff and i wanted to thank you for your condolences and our reach after tony the siberian tiger's death. all animal that's a difficult, but tony had been with us for 17 years. however, the cards, the flowers, and one woman pose a tattoo actually helped return a smile

to our face -- one woman's tattoo. our summer is here, and the zoo is swarming with kids. we have over 851 young campers running around the zoo this week in orange t-shirts, 50 teenagers teaching them and making sure they are safe and fun. there are 136 pre-teen nature trailers. commissioner buell: x. he's me for interrupting. cell phones are really not permitted during the hearing. >> thank you. we also have 90 jr. zoologist. they are the teen volunteers who help mentor the nature trailers, and we have 29 teen volunteers who are our conservation terrorist threats at the zoo. i invite you to visit these kids. this week and is also the annual take our festival. children under 14 who bring in a teddy bear will be admitted free. this gives us a wonderful chance

to highlight the zoo's bears programs, and we will also have the bernstein bears and quarter rory here to sell the g to help celebrate the weekend -- corduroy here to help celebrate week appeared all guests to bring in a thank-you card will receive a discount on admissions and have a chance to meet their favorite zookeeper's in behind- the-scenes talks and other special events. also, you may have seen the banners around the city. the barn owl, which is drawn by one of our elementary school age kids -- that was part of the zoo's wild about art and science program, which was a collaboration with san francisco unified school district. this kicks off our kids will campaign where kids will have free admission during the month of august along with a paying adult. this campaign is under the board of directors as well as fisher- price, who is sponsoring play at the zoo we can. as far as exhibit at it, thanks to a gift from a marin county

family, we will be able to open a portion of the south american rain forest exhibit this september. the newly opened area will feature the 0's 11 anaconda. the south american paris and frogs as well as an indoor topical area to encourage connections with children. thanks also to gifts, we are now planning to build another phase of construction, which will include a flood of floor exhibit as well as an area for risky squirrel monkeys. programming for the exhibit will focus on the negative effects of the illegal animal trade that plague south america. lastly, the zoo's attendants in may, which is above projection, and i thought actually i could take a break and grieve for a moment. unfortunately, june's attendance has come in below expectations, and overall, this summer's attendance is looking lower. our west portal business papers are reporting a 20% decline in their business, cut by the slow

west portal rail project. this combined with the closure of the southbound traffic on highway, is making access to these two very difficult this summer. we are trying to explore alternative transportation methods for visitors as well as employee very cat -- various types of signage, as well as discounts, some of which you have just heard. thankfully, we will be closing this fiscal year with a positive balance, and now, i have finished my report. commissioner buell: thank you. questions? i was going to ask one question first, and that was it is my recollection that the early months of this year were not as good, either due to bad weather. in aggregate, are we running behind? >> we are likely to disclose our fiscal year as well. we were 3.4% decline on attendance this fiscal year.

in the aggregate, when people do come to the zoo, they are spending more, so thankfully, our per capita are up, and also saw a return of corporate giving and foundation support. commissioner buell: 90. >> is there any public comment on this item? -- commissioner buell: thank you. >> while some of you were getting sworn that -- at -- and a sari, sworn in. [laughter] -- i'm sorry, sworn in. i apologize. seriously, i did have a dilemma this morning. i could have gone to bed or been part of the media preview for the canadair festival, and i picked the teddy bear festival, and i can tell you i learned things -- the teddy bear festival. i learned things -- first of all, it was just incredible. but