the recreation and park commission continues to plan, develop, and direct golden gate park with its mechanized transportation in the music on course. did you ever ask san francisco to vote on this? nope. because you're a dictatorship. i talked to all of the guards down there. president buell: thank you very much. no, the chair -- >> i have a minute and a half. i have no respect for you. 10 years ago, you said you were going to close the stables and reopen them in the quickest time possible and you have not done one manhattan to even enhance

the equestrian use of golden gate park. we are coming after you. if you have not seen the litigation team that is going to get together and sue you for your complete biased towards the community, who supposedly, it says it is the most diverse community. you are a dictatorship and you plead to mr. gavin newsom. you have abused the community that use that park. if you are making decisions about what type of people will go on those trails and you're putting motorized transportation in there. go to hell. go to hell, you people. >> is there anyone else that

will like to comment? public comment is closed. commissioner levitan: i have a question. [chime] my time is up. [laughter] the first is, why do these vehicles have to go on the pathway? >> one of the wonderful things about them going on the pathway is that it allows people with disabilities to experience areas of the parts that cannot otherwise get to. the route to brings us to the very west end of the park which is very hard to get to unless you have a mechanized mode of transportation for folks that are either elderly or young. i should not say that, elderly or disabled.

the other reason is because it allows us to experience parts of the park better not on the main route. lots of people make it to the japanese tea gardens. very few people make it to the redwood forests and. -- forest. >commissioner levitan: i don't think that is what the purpose of the vehicle is, but it will become the most popular thing on angel island? what if we become victims of our own success? >> we would monitor this very closely. we will modify the route interferes with the ability to -- if it interferes with the ability for people to be at the

park. we got 13 million users so it is a small percentage of the user's as far as we know. we would monitor people's experiences on trails and would be very receptive. commissioner levitan: i am sort of stuck, but ok. commissioner harrison: on that monitoring, would we use the park patrol to do that much during can't be cautionary about riding on the path when there is a lot of pedestrians or an event going on.

there might be not enough room for the pedestrians that our park patrol can sort of monitor. and have some alternative routes. >> absolutely. commissioner harrison: if there tends to be the next six months, if there is a lot of violations, we would get some feedback. commissioner bonilla: i just wanted to ask, in terms of storing the equipment by the music concourse, which are the options in terms of where we could distort the equipment?

or where we could operate? i guess it will be the main staging area. >> it is not an area where there are already five other storage containers. in the dedicated area, it will be dedicated. commissioner harrison: that is what you have -- commissioner bonilla: that is what you have to end up doing, correct? you have to create space? so we would be adding more containers, in other words. >> correct. president buell: i have a few myself. i remain sensitive to the discussion about a master plan for the concourse area. i of think we have achieved what we want to do there, so i want

to remind everybody that i think those are valid points. i am the proud owner of a certificate. i had the experience of being very well trained in the went on some narrow paths and that was able to approach people from behind, acknowledge them and we have figured out how to pass safely. they only go 6 miles an hour. something that did not get mentioned, everybody is in communication with the leader of the group. you get some direction and some guidance as to where you're going, what is coming up, and crossing motorized pathways. there are some legitimate concerns about hobbies paths -- these paths. baby carts, elderly,

handicapped. only a year from now, we get a report back to the commission from the operator and from the staff about the experience. and any comments from the public that we get based on real situations would be interested in that report. i find it interesting that you go to parts of the party would not go to a do get some factual historical information. it is quite a pleasant experience and i would support it. commissioner bonilla: one question that i wanted to ask. chris mentioned he envisioned perhaps there would be other operators coming in and there

will be this proliferation of segways. would it be just the ones that we permit him to be allowed their, or what controls will there be to make sure there would not be any other operators coming in and legalizing the space there. >> only ones that we permit. we will notify park staff to look for the edification as operators are passing. i also imagine the tour company would be on the lookout for renegade saiegway operators. commissioner bonilla: we will do everything we can to remove the ones that we operate, correct? president buell: i would entertain a motion.

it has been moved and seconded. all those in favor? i have one opposed, commissioner levitan. >> item number 12, the parks department budget. >> good afternoon, commissioners. the 2011-2012 budget season has already begun. the mayor's office issued budget instructions a couple of weeks ago. they are projecting a general fund deficit for fiscal year a 11-12 in the amount of almost $380 million. no problem. that deficit must be closed by the time the mayor's office submits their budget to the board of supervisors on june 1.

the budget instruction to that end has 3 parts. they are acting to submit a budget reduction equal to 10% of general fund support. for rec and park, 6.4 million dollars. 2.5% in the current fiscal year. they're asking for us to give a plan for that right now. in the third piece of the instructions they are asking us to submit a proposal on paper. as always, we have to absorb any

cost increases that we are looking at 411-12 as well as any changes to revenues. the total amount that i am projecting we will have to close in order to submit a balanced budget hall on february 21 is almost $6.8 million. i want to emphasize that it is very early in this process, so these numbers will change both for the department and for the mayor's office. we are making some initial projections about what the cost increases are going to be, work orders, benefits. we will certainly know more about it through the course of january and february. the mayor's office is cautioning that there is a lot of uncertainty around the budget numbers. there is a lot going on with the

state budget. the governor has reopened conversations with the legislature about closing the state deficit that will undoubtedly -- the city continues to experience continued economic weakness. and we are in the middle of a male role transition. we don't know who the new mayor is going to be. this year in particular, there is a number of factors that remain unknown about the budget. in addition, if they see any significant changes in general fund revenue, they would come back and revise the targets that they have given us. the department is proposing to meet the $660,000 midyear budget reduction with salary savings. i intend to submit that to the

budget office of december 21. the base reduction target, if they accept the salary savings proposal, then the about we have to reduce the budget by goes from 2.6 $4 million to 1.9 $8 million which is certainly hellhole -- $2.64 million to $1.98 million which is certainly helpful. i expect we would have no fewer than we had last year for community meetings. we will have extensive meetings with staff and we will be back in front of the commission multiple times before we bring you our final budget proposal

for approval at the second meeting in february. i feel very confident that we will be really focusing on revenue ideas. we would very much like to avoid having impact on our staff and we will have all of those conversations with the community stakeholders and with you. today, and informational item, i am more than happy to answer questions. >> i just wanted to underscore a few points about behalf -- about the budget where we are. it is fair to say that we are in a moderately better position than we were last year. the number is obviously smaller.

that is also because we have a shrinking general fund. the choices for us get more difficult. through the good work and discipline and by staff management, we're able to meet our initial budget target. these are basically savings from the prior year that we are projecting based on the current staffing patterns and the current hiring patterns. we are able to meet this initial target without any direct cuts in service, which is good news. we're very proud of the work we have done to achieve that. the challenging news is that the salary savings -- we are using the hours now. i think that is worth

remembering as we go through the conversation. as we go forward, the choices for us have become a little bit more difficult. it is worth noting that which remain in many areas of service with extreme shortages, quite frankly. we went through a very extensive reorganization on the recreation side, and we're very inclined and feel like it is important for the program to take root. we're not focusing on further reductions to the recreation side of we can avoid it at this point. we don't have this figured out yet, and the numbers are a little bit better than last year. it is important to visit the conversation of working together

with our very passionate stakeholders. of identifying sustainable sources of revenue, increased reliance on a shrinking general fund source creates instability and tension because of scarcity and some of the difficult choices that we have. in the coming year, we will work to continue to become more self- reliant to the greatest extent we can. we will continue the conversation we have been having with our partners and we thank them for the leadership. a round and round, for their continued advocacy on behalf of the parts. we need to work together to come up with a different solution that supports our parks. it is one of the reasons we keep being confronted with

challenging decisions we have to make. commissioner levitan: point of clarification, with salary savings, that brings us down to 1.7, or does it wipe out the 2- point whatever number it was? >> $2.64 million now, it will take us to $2 million. commissioner levitan: it would be premature for us to start articulating publicly where we would be looking to find that? >> i don't think we are in any way prepared to have that conversation. >> and there is a type of i think is worth >> that number is reduced. and it is not the worst case

scenario. i have tried to be conservative in my estimates for cost increases. i have gotten some feedback from the budget office around some of the biggest work orders. i feel it is very early to know and i think the numbers are likely to get bigger, possibly. >> we have a starting point of what to expect? >> is there any public comment on this item? >> a couple of points. it was a good way to center the conversation around the budget to have the department developed the budget principles. we know that they are tough ones. but at least we have a starting point. from the perspective of the neighborhood parks council, a lot of our work will be an

external and will ensure that whoever stepped in get elected subsequently. the board of supervisors understand the value of our parks and have taken cut after cut, and had a certain point, you can't keep it together with band-aids anymore. the parts or public spaces, they are free. i am preaching to the choir, but we are going to be focusing on efforts to make sure and elected officials are not only educated, but are really committed to sustaining the parks and recreation centers. as people continue to need additional support when they are in transition between jobs and they need affordable child care or they're having p class is cut -- pe classes cut, it falls to the park and wrecked apartment -- and rec

department. we had more than 1400 people respond to the 47 questions. not everyone answered every question, but is taking more time to analyze the data. there is a lot about people's preferences and where they like to see the budget. i am committing to getting this draft to the department before the end of the year so we can also have a survey in january that talks about where users are helpful and where we can sustain the department. the other thing i want to say is that we are committed to finding sustainable revenue for the department and working to figure out what that means. depending of the handout from the general fund that keeps getting smaller and smaller, it is not working.

the communication and the ability to work with one another, those things become very difficult. >> is there any other public comment on this item? we are out item 13, at general public comment continued. i have two cards. would you like to speak? >> this is my first time here. president buell: welcome. >> i'm hans art. i have a small business in the district, i have an auto repair shop. i am talking about the proposed park at 17th and fulsom. i represented the businesses

around the park. we urge you to not move forward to acquire this until you get a little input from my very practical colleagues. our first concern is that if you look at the photos that we distributed earlier, we visualize all those cars moving on to the street and they would take up about a linear mile and a half of curved space and that is where our employees have the park for 10 hours every day. there are some second issues i gathered talking with the folks down there and they are issues that you might -- a lot of people get romantic when they think about the park, and i can relate because i have spent the last 62 years there and i love it. there are a hundred businesses within a one-block radius.

it is like a little enclave, there is the coffee shop, comcast, and everything in between. one of the secondary concerns that we have is the opposite of pacific heights. outside that circle, sro's and a lot of people that come to get drunk, take drugs, or prostitution. the night is brilliantly lit and patrolled by the california police. you may find yourself with a brand-new park that is in trouble in the second year of existence. it will have to be cleaned the lot. one of the other issues is that there are not really any kids there. it is mostly businesses and and

really concentrated. once you get a block or two away, you have other parts. and a couple blocks out at twenty first and the full sum -- and fulsom. president buell: i will ask the general manager to ask -- make an appointment to go out and look at the law. just to get a sense of it. if you give our clerk the information, we will coordinate a trip out there to see it. >> anyone else that would like to speak under general public comment? general public comment is

closed. item 14. commissioners? a public comment? public comment is closed. item 15. any public comment? public comment is closed. communications? public comment is closed. 17 is adjournment. president buell: we adjourn the meeting respectfully in honor of oscar jiminez. >> happy holidays. president buell: that concludes 2010.