♪ ♪ >> ♪ oh, lord don't keep me waiting ♪ >> believe it or not, that was just august. [laughter] thank you to jaime hopper. that was me in a dunk tank.

the first few shots of that video was outsideland. it was headlined by phish, arctic fire, and muse. it was a complete sellout. the festival has received nothing but rave reviews from the media, with everyone from the huffington's post to " rolling stone." this was the first appearance by a sitting mayor, showing how much outsidelands has become such a part of the city of fabric. it has become a celebration san francisco's san food culture. more than 3000 local vineyards were featured in the winelands

tent. almost 14,000 people were from the four zip codes that bordered the park, showing the appeal is not only for out-of-towners, but for our part neighbors. the economic impact on the city has grown. this year the event created an estimated 4500 jobs with 75% of all attendees from outside of the city, hotels and other businesses saw an uptick from the event. recreation and parks department staff, and the mayor's department, and many other agencies worked extremely close together. this work began immediately after last year's event and continued through the day yesterday as crews finish clearing the field. with all but the last few pieces of equipment removed from the park, the area is once again open for park users.

as in years past, there was a community out line for presidepeople to call in commen. we did see a decrease in some complaints. notably, responding to community complaints, sound technicians made real changes to the sound system. the results are best seen in the reduction of complaints on sunday, where there were only 47 calls, compared to 143 the day before. this, despite the fact that sunday was the night before the first day of school -- a schedule that was unfortunate, but created after outsidelands had been scheduled. lastly, commissioners, before i bring up alan scott from another planet to offer his perspective on the event, i want to share with you what perhaps is the best news of the festival, certainly if you are the recreation and parks department. this year marks the first

occasion that it will pay the department outside rent and the department will be receiving over $1 million this year. it's over $400,000 more than the minimal rent. additionally, another planet dedicated ticket sales from sunday night's show at the independent, a venue they own, to the department, and they are donating an additional $20,000 of funding from that event. i want to thank my staff, who worked tirelessly with another planet to ensure that the event was successful and that are park is well supported. i also want to think another planet. they have been a terrific partner. they have gone above and beyond the call of duty. one example is their investment in maps and platforms all around the field this year to help

preserve the fields for soccer season and they have made a tremendous difference in the condition of the venue. without further ado, i would like to welcome up alan scott, who wants to make a few brief remarks. sharon, are you coming up? ok. >> thank you commissioners. i think phil has said it all. we are very thrilled at another planet. it's very difficult and it takes time to build an event of this caliber that's not only a local festival but internationally renowned. this year, in our fourth year,

we feel it has been a watershed year. we have hit our stride, especially after the last couple of years with the economic downturn and attendance and that was less than ideal for us. it is important to note that when we started this festival in 2008, there were five north american festivals that began that year. one in denver, michigan, new york city, british columbia, and i'm forgetting the other one. we are the only one that still stands at this time. it's very difficult to put a festival on of this caliber. working with rec and park and the city has been -- ajoy might be too strong of word, but it has been a great partnership. san francisco's outside lands is not just a music festival, but

it is a celebration of san francisco and northern california. the music has always been a rich part of san francisco's history. 25% of the bands that performs at the festival are local bands. the other 75% of artists are internationally renowned dance. this year we had phish, muse, john fogarty from credence clearwater revival, and badu. we also celebrate san francisco's food culture. we are probably one of the only festivals in the country and maybe the world that all of the food vendors except for one our local restaurants.

it is really showing the diversity and the excellence of our food culture here in san francisco. in addition, we have over 30 wineries from northern california. wine is an integral part of the fabric of northern california and we celebrate that with our linwine lands. we added mclaren pass this year, where we had food trucks. we added a whole area with chocolate confections. i'm not sure how to say that. we just want to say thank you very much to the city and to rec and park. we are thrilled and we are honored to be able to give $1.4 million to san francisco's rec

and park this year. thank you. commissioner buell: thank you. commissioner lee? commissioner lee: i have a question. i have heard from a number of members from the advisory board and i have made our general manager aware of some of the e- mails and phone calls i've received. with regards to the hot line that you have set up, a number of members complained about calling the hot line and not getting through, or talking with a representative of the hot line and not getting any kind of response in terms of the noise level. i'm just wondering. when you receive calls to the hot line, how are those calls recorded? how do you respond to them? >> when people call into the hot

line -- we are bilingual, as well, so that we can answer questions from non english speakers. we take everyone's phone number down. we take their name and their address. we record their complaint or their comment. some people are asking for directions or asking questions. if it is the parking issue, we direct that to a parking patrol officer. we have officers on two sides of the park. in terms of sound, we log where they are. we send a ranger into the neighborhoods, which record the dismal level. after saturday evening, we get together and locate where these

complaints are coming in and see if they are a concentrated area. at that point, we will go out into the neighborhoods and take a listen. then we will make adjustments to the sound, to the speaker's that are on the stages. in advance, it's difficult to tell. different weather conditions given different variable conditions on housand houshow sl travel. we did it on saturday morning and saturday evening. as he noted, the calls were significantly different. >> park patrol was in operation. alan has described our response exactly right. in 2008, we took ambient sound level readings in many sites around the northern and southern printers of the park to have an

ambient reading for comparison of what the normal sound level is in those areas. we were able to compare that, as well. we will be looking at that in the future, as well. it is an art rather than a science in terms of sound in an open-air environment. commissioner lee: my question is really about the response. when people call in, do they get some sort of response? >> of course. we are diligent in advertising this number. as you know, we advertise in "richmond review" and others. we do a resident mailer to 18,000 people in the richmond and sunset district. we also have information on our web site in multiple languages. commissioner lee: that said, i do commend you on the festival.

i'm glad you added friday. last year, we did not have friday. from what i observed, it went well, particularly on sunday. i did notice it was quieter. i lived not far from the festival site. i did note the difference in the sound level. i would urge you next year, as we move forward, perhaps expand the hot line to also include a twitter application. i have heard from a number of people that when they report the sound, you know, it's usually within a set. they want to be able to capture where the problem occurred. that may be helpful for next year. >> thank you.

>> we will use all of the data and all of the neighborhood concerns and complaints about when the complaint came in and at what stage is it is in for the planning for next year. commissioner buell: thank you. >> my last item, mr. president, if you would indulge me, was a little bit of a recap. it will be brief. we are now two months into fiscal year 2011-2012 and i did want to put a bow on fiscal year 2010-2011 and revisit the seven goals of our department and what we did to meet those goals. are you cued up there? monitor, please. just a reminder of our mission statement. i think it is important for us to keep it in mind.

foster the well-being of san francisco's diverse community by maintaining the parks and providing enriching recreational activities. our department does all of its planning from year to year on seven core goals, which is to strive for continuous improvement. they are improving the quality of our parks. improving recreational choices. improving our financial capacity or financial sustainability. improving our environmental stewardship. improving our administrative efficiencies. with respect to improving the quality of our parks, parks cores maintained a level of 91%. i am pleased to report that are lowest performing areas -- scores increased by 6% 3 overall, been in the 90% range, especially given our staffing shortage, is a reflection of how

hard our staff are working to keep our park clean with limited resources and how successful some of our partnerships have been treat our apprenticeship program has been very successful. our volunteer program has been very successful. some of our other neighborhood programs are working. the structural maintenance yard completed 13,851 maintenance work orders last year. this is an increase of 639 from last year. we fixed everything from graffiti, broken water fountains, leaking roofs, swimming pools, irrigation lines, and broken toilets. our 311 closeout rate remains at 90%. we are closing out 90% of all calls or concerns that come in. we continue to respond to all urban and forestry emergencies

within 48 hours and graffiti reports within 48 hours. during the past year we implemented the first gardeners apprenticeship program. they have been working on various sophistication and improvement projects throughout the city, including in golden gate park, mclaren park and delores park, to name a few. we relied on 130 hours of volunteer time. our on going partnerships with the san francisco police department is also helping us keep our park clean to we partnered with local schools and san francisco general hospital to create a moremural to discourage graffiti. a proposed state pakate park atn

gate park. with respect to our recreational choices, we've talked a lot about this. we put a lot of focus and energy into our recreational activity and is paying off. we've increased the number of registered hours by 13%, providing more than 76,000 hours of programming to the public. we also had a significant increase of 20% in the total number of program registrations, meaning we have gone -- this year we were at 48,851. 16,000 alone in our summer camps this year. we've also gotten off the one- size-fits-all programming and we created new and creative programs to the public with significant input. recreation is not one size fits all. we have skateboarding, fishing,

serving, kayaking, rock climbing, and biking. we have increased our aquatics programs. we provided programming for l gbtq youth and young adults. we have talked a little bit about our scholarship program. to ensure the program's remain accessible to everyone, we expanded our youth scholarship program by granting over $500 ,000 in programming. this is an increase of 144% from last year. we have talked a lot about -- this commission has been very involved in supporting our efforts to create a financially sustainable partnedepartment.

our food concessions. significantly, we've had an 18% increase in program registration revenue, adding another $ 4 400,000 to help support our programs. we were able to submit a budget that for the first time in a decade included no layoffs, no service cuts, and no fee increases. our public-private partnerships are also contributing to our success.

they help provide broadbased support and a sustainable financial model. i am very proud of our partnership units. this year they generated $932,000 in phalanger before our operating programs. that is significant. to put that in context, one year ago, the same team generated $141,000 and philanthropic support. we have quadrupled the number in 12 months. some of the gifts we received were a generous gift from coca- cola. we got a gift to help with the golden gate park irrigation of great britain mercedes-benz donated $15,000 for our youth scholarship program. we got a gift from the u.s. soccer foundation for mission

soccer field lighting. improving our environmental stewardship. we are committed to being stored of our parks -- being stewards of our parks in many ways. we implemented and they are being installed as we speak, dual recycling in golden gate park. we have continued efforts to reintroduce the mission blue butterfly to twin peaks. also, a dedicated by calling in golden gate park. our department was recently the recipient of an award from the department of the environment for these efforts. the department has recognized the water resources conservation pre in partnering with th.

we have partnered with the puc to reduce water at 12 of the most water-consuming parks. leed silver certification. we've begun using a variety of alternative fuel, including electric power and compressed natural gas in our vehicles three we have a green. machine -- we have a green steam machine. we have talked a little bit about our efforts with respect to green wheat. the department excels in green waste diversion at a rate of 96%. we have partnered to denigrate compost giveaway program. san francisco was recently named

the most sustainable city in north america after an extensive study by siemens. the area where the city was ranked first was in its commitment to zero waste. rec and park contributes to that effort by partnering with the department of environment. our department has improved management of waste and eliminated 50% of our dumpsters in the late marced area. with respect to our efforts of fostering community loyalty, rec and park hosted a number of city family events. we are up to fight even spurrier. we have annual free events in our parks. we took advantage of world cup

madness and offered free women's world cup viewing. numerous other smaller community events. we provided 55,000 permits for a variety of events and free community space is provided to the public every week for meetings and other events. the department continues to work on its communications strategies. we've implemented a variety of social media tools to improve communication with the public, including a weekly e-newsletter, regular facebook and put your updates, and we've begun micro- blogging about what is happening in some of our neighborhood parks. as you are aware, staff has held

numerous community meetings on capital projects, budget, and other issues. we have open office hours every month with community members. our permit office installed a state-of-the-art telephone system to reduce waiting times. we have partnered with a variety of youth-serving agencies to offer teenagers and young adults the opportunity to work alongside rec and park professionals. we offered school-age children and teenagers hands-on bond hearing and learning at our parks. with respect to capital, we continue to renovate and replace many of our outdated facilities. we broke ground or opened 13 new facilities in the past year across the city, including the chinese rec center, the marina

at iraq arbor, michigan playground -- the marina harbor, and mission playground. phase 2 projects are all in the design process. 140th birthday of golden gate park. fountains, gardens, ball fields, and even trash cans are getting a facelift. the planning team oversaw the completion of the north beach library and secured prop 84 grants. bonn programs are under way. last is our commitment to our own administrative deficiencies. as we reported previously, our staff has achieved a $370,000

reduction in workers' comp savings in the last 12 months. we did a very detailed custodian service analysis. custodians were reallocated to better meet needs. we are just beginning a reorganization of our aquatics program that will ensure more and better service to the public. it has been a very full fiscal year 2010-2011. we are looking forward to a fabulous 2011-2012. a very big shout out and thank you to the rec and park staff. i can tell you without a doubt that this is the hardest working, most dedicated staff. that concludes the general managers' report. commissioner buell: for being

so brief, thank you. [laughter] [applause] i want to acecho the general gratitude. i've come to the conclusion that every resident has a different view. on balance and in total, i think the staff deserves an extra round of applause. [applause] commissioner lee? commissioner lee: i second everything commissioner buell said. i want to know to the work our capital staff, don and dan -- i took a tour of the sunset rec center a couple days