president chiu: good afternoon, welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, april 26, 2011. could you please call the roll. >> supervisor avalos. avalos present. campos present. president chu. chu present. chu present. cone, present. elsbernd present. farrell present. supervisor kim. kim present. mar present. mirkarimi present. weener present. all members are present. president chiu: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join me in the pledge of allegiance?

colleagues, you should have copies of the march 22, 2011, board meeting minutes. could i have a motion to approve those minutes? without objection, those minutes will be approved. madam clerk, are there any communications? >> i have no communications today. president chiu: could you read our consent agenda. >> items one and two, comprise the consent agenda. these items will be acted upon by a single roll call vote unless a member requests discussion. the matter should be removed and considered separately. president chiu: would anyone like to discuss any of these items? roll call votes on items one and two. >> chu aye. cohen aye. elsbernd aye. farrell aye. kim aye. mar aye.

mirkarimi aye. wiener aye. avalos aye. campos aye. chu aye. there are 11 ayes. president chiu: the ordinances are passed and the resolution adopted. item three. >> resolution opposing the golden gate national recreation areas preferred offleash policy. supervisor wiener: thank you. initially i do have an amendment of the whole which we have distributed and i distributed a red line version this morning and so i will move that the resolution be amended per my amendments. i do understand that there may be an additional amendment but i would ask that we adopt this amendment and i can do my comments now or wait until after

we -- let me just speak to it. so, colleagues, as you'll recall, two weeks ago this came before the board and after we had a very lengthy hearing where we heard about the proposed dog policy, about the impacts on city parks and equally importantly about the impacts on residents of san francisco who rely on ggnra properties for recreation for themselves and for their dogs. in the two weeks since that hearing and since this resolution was first considered and continued we have, rec and park and the mayor's as of and myself have been in communication with the ggnra. i believe as a result of this resolution, as a result of the hearing, as a result of this board actually escalating this

issue and making clear that there is a serious concern here, ggnra has come to the table and i am grateful that ggnra has been willing to do that, either has -- there has been ongoing dialogue and going forward i believe there will be dish process to make sure there is additional public comment and i hope that ggnra acknowledges that this policy, this proposal, has gone too far. it dramatically, dramatically restricts access for offleash dogs from what currently exists. and in addition it has a compliance-based management approach that if you read it, if you look at how it will play out, i believe there is a serious risk that after a number of years dogs will be banned completely from significant parts of ggnra. it's an automatic escalation in penalty if there isn't

sufficient compliance with the plan. so this is not a good plan. i am very happy that ggnra and i believe ggnra will consider changes to it, but as of it stow -- but as it now stands it is a bad plan for san francisco. so the resolution puts us on record opposing the current proposal and it's very specific that we're not opposing any conceivable change to access at ggnra. we're going on record if we pass this opposing the current proposal asking ggnra to change it and i've also added language in, specifically acknowledging ggnra's dialogue with the city and really giving credit where credit is due. that ggnra is dialoguing with us, with the public, attended the land and use committee hearing and we specifically called that out.

so, colleagues, i ask for your support but at the moment ask for your support in adopting the amendment of the whole. president chiu: superviser wiener has made a motion seconded by superviser avalos. can we take that without objection? why don't we continue discussion on the amendment. avalos. supervisor avalos: the discussion's on the amendment or -- president chiu: the discussion on the amendments and the underlying topic. supervisor avalos: thank you, president chu. i would like to thank superviser wiener for taking lode leadership on this issue and holding the hearing and conducting dialogue with the ggnra. i used to work at the ggnra as a member of the san francisco conservation corps. i did some of the trail work there on ggnra property. i'm pretty familiar with that

and it's quite a diamond that we have here in san francisco available to us. i'm also a dog lover. i don't have a dog in my house but we have dogs on my block and there are always dogs running around. i go to fort fundson. i take my kids down to the beach, go down the stairs often and dogs are around and we enjoy their presence. a lot of people maybe don't feel the same way but we've enjoyed the presence of dogs at there. white house what's really been -- what's really been hard and difficult about this discussion, we have environmentalists and dog owners and dog owners which include environmentalists kind of pitted against each other and it's really been hard to have a real good dialogue at times about it because the tensions are really high and i really look at it in the broader context. we have the context of the federal government about with two weeks ago cut $40 billion from the national budget and we

know that the national park service across the country has been cut dramatically as well. so we don't have the ability, the national park service and their arm at ggnra, don't have the ability to do the enforcement work that they needed to to be able to protect the natural habitats and what comes out of it is a plan like this that i believe is unsupportable. it does not work for san francisco residents, it doesn't really look at the impact of their policy on ggnra property, the impact on the parks here in san francisco. i think it's a flawed policy and one that really should go back. so i really do appreciate the leadership, the leadership you have taken, superviser wiener, and i'm going to be voting in support with you of your resolution. thank you. supervisor farrell: thanks. i assume you'll be supporting supervisor wiener in his

resolution. i'll thank him for his leadership on this. i will just say, a large part of my memory in san francisco is growing up walking my dog along christi field and now representing that area that is obviously still a big part of where people walk their dogs and recreate with their dogs. and as someone who, a large part of these areas will be affected by the plan, i do support supervisor wiener's efforts to bring the ggnra to the table and have met with them as well and do believe that this resolution has brought them to the table and thanked them for their efforts and thanked mayor lee's office for being a part of this as well. obviously we live very close to the national park and we don't live on an island here in san francisco. and we live very close to federal land and in district two where i represent, we have the ggnra and the trust to handle with and having good relationships with them is very, very important. i think there have been a number of approaches here. some people have wanted to barn

storm the building and protest against and other people have sought to negotiate and to work with the ggnra and i think both approaches have their place. i've been part of the latter and will continue to do so and work to hopefully find a resolution that makes everyone happy with this. thank you. president chiu: supervisor elledberned. supervisor elsbernd: thank you, mr. president. first let me start by thanking supervisor wiener for recognizing that the initial resolution he introduced didn't meet the mark and that we needed a couple more weeks. and i appreciate his efforts to begin to turn the dial just a little bit. that said, i don't believe the amendment he's offered does enough. and let me just articulate why. first and foremost, i think the resolution fails to recognize and fails to appreciate all of

the voices involved in this issue. there are a number of advocacy groups, a number of individuals, a number of people who have spent years on this issue and the resolution, even with the potential amendment, frankly is completely one-sided towards one group of people who have participated in the issue. and it completely ignores the voices of many other folks. you know, without question there's the environmental issue. but there's also a group of people who we haven't heard from in this forum, but i've heard from. i hear from a group of people who consistently tell me they're intimidated by fort funston. it used to be a place they'd go but now they don't feel comfortable going there anymore. we don't hear from those folks. but those folks should have a voice here too. and the resolution even with the

amendment i don't believe adequately expresses their views. and another part of the resolution, be again, even as amended that i believe falls flat, is it fails to recognize the role and responsibility of the rec and park department. rec and park department, we are saying that what the n.p.s. is putting forward will impact our park facilities. do you know what? rec and park department needs to step forward. they need to step forward and do in a sense a census. they need to tell us what's going on in their dog play areas. they need to tell us what's going on in their parks. but they haven't done that. the amendment that i am offering i believe is more comprehensive and encourages a complete dialogue and urges the rec and park department to step up and do a little bit of that and respond in an adequate manner to the complete n.p.s. document. and i think there's an

additional piece here that needs to be mentioned, kind of flying under the radar but i think is very important. the n.p.s. is a very important partner with san francisco on a number of issues. not least of which is perhaps one of the biggest events that will come to san francisco over the next few years and that's the americas cup. a great deal of what's going to happen in and around the americas cup will happen on n.p.s. lands. quite frankly, if i were in the shoes of the n.p.s. and i saw a resolution from this board of supervisors saying we oppose the work you've done over the last six years and we're passing this resolution in one month's time, we're giving you one public hearing to testify and thanks very much but we're still opposed, you know what? i'd take a look at the board of supervisors, i'd take a look at the city and say, i've been playing along, but maybe i'm not going to play along so nicely on americas cup issues. not saying that's what they do but if i were in their shoes i'd definitely be considering that this isn't the way partners work

together. and i think the amendment i'm offering, which absolutely recognizes that we have concerns about the impacts of what the n.p.s. is proposing for our park lands, it does say that, but recognizes we need a collaborative effort in figuring out this solution. that's what i've heard everybody say. we want to improve our dialogue, we want collaboration. well, when you straightline say we are opposed, it doesn't really say we're working collaboratively. whereas a resolution that says, hey, we've got concerns but we want to bring in the city department that works on this issue, we want to talk together, we want to work this out, that strikes me as improving the dialogue, that strikes me as a little more collaborative tone. and i think the amendment i'm offering is one that achieves what everyone's trying to achieve but does it in a way that isn't frankly a slap in the face to a equal government partner. president chiu: so supervisor elsbernd has offered an

amendment. is there a second to the amendment? seconded by supervisor mirkarimi. let's continue to supervisor mar. supervisor mar: thank you. i appreciate supervisor elledberned's effort to make sure that ggnra is not boxed in by kind of our local perspective on different issues. but i'm speaking in support of supervisor wiener's amendment and to acknowledge supervisor avalos' efforts as well kind of in this effort to create ongoing dialogue. i strongly support supervisor wiener's efforts because i do believe it's in the interest of creating ongoing dialogue that's respectful. to local communities and local voice in broad sweeping national policies that are proposed by the ggnra. i also wanted to say that i see mr. lions in the audience nant land use committee hearing that we had a few weeks ago, i know it was a very spirited but also at times divisive hearing and my hope is that with supervisor

wiener's efforts, we're trying to create that ongoing dialogue on a broader level and i too want constructive relationship as we discuss the americas cup process, but i think the local voice is critical in this one. like mr. lyons and the audio bond society and other groups that are in support of the ggnra policy, i also want to protect the habitat and endangered species but in the land use committee, i think after repeated efforts to ask for data on are the dogs really the reason why the snowy leopard or other endangered species are being threatened and i didn't get very clear data from either the ggnra or the different environmental groups but i want to work with you to enforce the existing policies and i think supervisor wiener's effort is one that is a strong statement of strong local voice and that's why i'm supportive of it. and hope to move forward working with superintendent dean as the americas cup discussions go, but

also as we protect critical species and endangered wildlife as well. thank you. president chiu: supervisor wiener. supervisor wiener: thank you. and i just want to acknowledge think a appreciate supervisor elsbernd's desire that we have collaborative relationship with the ggnra and i just want to be clear that i don't think both are mutually exclusive. when you have a partnership with another organization or another governmental entity, you can be very collaborative with that person and still -- or that entity a -- and still say when you think that that entity is doing something that is wrong. they're not inconsistent. and in fact the language of this resolution makes very clear that we can intend to continue to work with the ggnra and frankly before this resolution was introduced there was a very different dynamic in terms of ggnra's willingness to collaborate with the city. so i think this has been a very

productive process and i have every confidence that we're all grown ups and everyone's going to continue to work well together after tonight. thank you. president chiu: thank you, mr. chair. first of all, i want to thank superviser elsbernd and wiener for your consideration of these issues here and obviously at the end of the day we have to balance the different interests that we have. from my perspective, i do think that while i have issues with supervisor wiener's initial resolution, i think that the amendments that he has offered really do help to emphasize the fact that, first of all, while there may be a lot of issues with the currently proposed plan , this leaves room for future ongoing dialogue between ggnra. i think that the amendments clearly lay out that we recognize and welcome additional

engagement, consultation, public dialogue and we all hope that it leads to an improved plan that meets the needs of all the various stakeholders that are here. that is where i think we should go and i think that the resolution now supports that and this is why i will be supporting supervisor wiener's amendment but understanding that we do have issues that we need to resolve with our families, with the environmental community and with the broader san francisco community. supervisor mirkarimi. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, mr. president. i'm a huge dog lover, grew up with dogs. ours passed away not that long ago and i miss him. i hope one day we can introduce our son to a dog and so he grows up with the same joy that i did when i grew up throughout my life. i appreciate very much supervisor wiene