>> commissioner buell. >> here. >> commissioner lee. >> here. >> commissioner harrison and bonilla have excused absences. >> i want to announce that item three will be heard after item 9. item fiveb will be removed from the consent calendar and heard on the general calendar. >> a few little reminders. if you could please turn off any electronic sounding devices, and we would please ask that you take in the secondary conversations outside in order

for the meeting to proceed as soon as possible. if you would like to make general public comments, that's for items not on the agenda. last, please address your comments to the commission during public comment on the items in order to allow equal time for all. neither the commission nor staff will respond to questions during public comment the. commission may ask questions after public comment is close. we are on item two, which is the president's report. commissioner buell: thank you very much. i will be brief. i want to congratulate the san francisco parks trust. they have their annual gala at

golden gate park and it was a huge success. i congratulate the staff and volunteers and those who helped make it a success. having said that, their name is now the san francisco park alliance. they have merged with the neighborhood park council, which i think is a positive step. i congratulate them on that. they have a new executive director. i am pleased they are off to a good start. they also have a new president of board, rose mary cameron, someone steeped in good part policies -- park policies. we had a nice reopening of the suberie beerman park. congratulations to the staff and everyone who worked on that.

i remind folks that we have the schwab cup at harding park. i know there's a lot of volunteers and staff who have done a great job to make that happen. having a pga event on a public course is always challenging. the real credit to the staff that they have been able to put that golf course in first-class condition. finally, perhaps because i have been reminded of it by the ethics commission, we have a sunshine ordinance. it speaks to that everything be transparent, both at the commission and staff level, as we conduct the business of the city. i am reminding the commissioners that we should be current and trained on what our retention of documents and e- mails are.

i'm lucky i can even do e-mail. the ethics commission reminded me that i should keep my e- mail's as they relate to public policy. i will do that. i would ask that you have some formal training and get back to us with a report on that. with that, let us proceed with the agenda. excuse me, commissioner lee has an announcement. commissioner lee: one announcement. the richmond playground basketball courts will be open on monday. i wanted to thank the debgeneral manager and don and dan for the great work that they did. the richmond basketball courts needed a great deal of work. they did a great job.

they will be available for play on monday. president buell: thank you. that concludes our report. >> is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the general managers' report -- i mean, the president's report. i apologize. >> catherine howard, a golden gate park alliance. i would like to thank president buell for the reminder on sunshine. there have been some incidents regarding that. if people are interested, they can contact us and we will send them some more background information. goldengatepreservation.org. you can address us there. thank you. >> on your report of reopening

my park, it is ferry park, not sue beerman. it's a disaster. the lights go on and on. you know it was criticized and i will go into that later. thank you. >> is there anyone else? >> i am co-chair of south park improvement. we have embarked on a grass- roots effort to master plan the park. we raise money privately. we have been working with the department of rec and park on this. we have done several meetings. now we have maintained david

fletcher to help us continue our reach and develop a master plan, so we would have a budget and we would know how to pursue francgs large and small. we're also working with the planning department. as you well know, south park is surrounded by a street. in reconditioning the park, we are also hoping to bring together the better streets programs and traffic calming. i'm letting you know that we are doing this so when we come back with preliminary plans, you will know we have started. president buell: thank you very much. >> is there anyone who wants to comment on the president's report? this is not the general public comment. ok. public comment is closed on this item. president buell: i am going to make a little announcement.

we are checking in by telephone with people. we have an issue on the calendar that is of some importance to the disabled community. they have a telephone connection for those who could not be here. they are given the privileges and rights given to anyone in the audience. we will go through and ask if there's anyone by telephone today that would like to participate in that part of the process. >> ok, we also have to ask that everyone please take a seat. if there are no seats available, we ask you to step outside until seats become available. >> we're going to item four, general public comment, up to 15 minutes. items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission and do not appear on the agenda. with respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the

meeting. ernestine white and catherine howard. >> good morning, everyone. subject -- ribbon cutting for the renovation of ferry park. this was the worst disaster ever. despicable display in this regard. my feelings and my supporters -- my speakers -- the virtues of sue bierman, who had no connection to the park whatsoever. i've been through this a million times. we should have been praised to the heavens giving you the gift of ferry park. the ongoing lies must stop. it's well known that i created ferrt park before corruption won.

your statement was grossly misstated. the jurisdictional transfer from jpw, the city agency, to rec and park. no money was involved. it's the most valuable land in the city. you all destroyed it, as evidenced not only by my past criticism, but john king's article stating all the criticisms and titled, "a wasted opportunity." noelle rea outreach. no supervision. this could have been avoided. talk about wasted funds. $37,000.

inadequate lighting costing $200,000. where are your ethics? missing in action. corruption and greed must not succeed. the people are no fools. they know what's going on. >> catherine howard? >> good morning, commissioners. you will see from the ink that my printer has a problem. i think i have enough just for the commissioners. this is our regular report on the bluegrass festival that was held september through october 2. i will slip right over to the photos. they are the most fun. i think this festival gets better every year in terms of controlling damage to the park. there's a ways to go, but we're getting there.

if you look at the picture with the cars, last year, stwith cars parked over the tree roots. it was clear this time. there were some areas still where there were cars parked next to trees, but it was much less. the next is the cypress street at speedway meadow. it is still the main traffic pass. can we please do something about that stree. the next page is bicycles. i like that. there were great, a creative -- great, creative bike racks. landscape protection.

straw on the hillside slope protected it from erosion. unfortunately, we had rain durter the festival. this damage can be prevented by plywood being put down first. the most serious thing i noticed is kind of secretary to landscape protection, but has long term implications. the use of alcohol was totally unregulated. there were people selling alcohol. there were probably underage drinkers. there were beer bottles and packages all over the park for days. i do not have pictures of that. i do have reports from the community there were trash piles. i think we have a health hazard. i think we have a park problem. when we are talking about youth drinking, this is not the

healthy and safe parks we are always talking about. lastly, there was also a great deal of smoking. that's also forbidden in our parks. i know we cannot prevent everything. there were people smoking under the neeucalyptus trees. i saw very little police presence. it was heaviest when the mayor was there speaking. compared to the other festivals, i hardly saw anyone -- i think we need to think about this. all in all, the protection of the than it has been in past years. thank you very much. president buell: thank you. is there other public testimony? i will also ask staff -- if they could give up their seats to people standing here or outside

in the corridor. if you have an item later in the calendar, i would appreciate you giving up your seat. >> is there anyone else who would like to make general public comment? president buell: i have a comment. any recommendations on how to limit or better supervise the alcohol intake would be welcomed. i do not know what the solution is, but let us know your thoughts on that. thank you. >> ok, i just wanted to make sure there's no one else who wants to make general public comment. ok. general public comment is closed. we are on item 5, the consent calendar. we are removing 5b from the consent calendar. it will be heard on the general

calendar. is there anyone who wants to make public comment on the consent calendar? president buell: someone raised their hands. >> please come forward, if you would like to make public comment on the consent calendar, but not balboa. public comment is closed on item 5. president buell: moved and seconded. >> we are now on item 5 b. balboa park improvements -- a word of construction contract. >> commissioners. in the capital planning director. this item is the continuing from our last capital committee meeting.

due to an inadvertent mistake with the agenda item, we are back to let you know we would like to proceed for the balboa park project. that project will include an expanded playground, improved pathway system and complete renovation of the tennis courts, as well as fencing improvements and other improvements that will improve the use of the park. >> we do have public comment on this. christine? >> hello. in an exchange student from germany. i would like to comment on the balboa park improvement. i think these improvements are a good idea for the people who live in the city, but i do not

understand why this project took such a long time. is started in 2009. in 2010, rec and park approve plans for balboa park. i know it took time to get the people's ideas together, but i do not think that takes one or two years. why does it take such a long time? why is it difficult to accept the money and start? one possible action in the paper [inaudible] why don't you take the money? [laughter] president buell: welcome to san francisco. [laughter] thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, do we have a motion?

>> moved. second. president buell: all those in favor? thank you very much. >> we are now on items 6, the san francisco zoo. >> good morning, commissioners. i m vice-president of marketing at the zoo. our attendance for the first 18 days of october is 29,936 visitors. it is over budget by 18. 8%. the actual admissions revenue is above budget by $23,000. admissions revenue is below budget by 14,000 eight hundred 3830, but we are catching up.

we have our annual build a zoo coming up. we put in a hay maze. we had to compete with the event in the park. we brought in a maze. i want to take a minute to comment on an event that occurred on sunday, october 9. it was our first ever zootober fest. it was put together and managed by our service systems associates. it began in the late afternoon and there was music throughout the zoo. one of our board members -- he is known as eddie o. he played. he was our headliner in the tent. a lot of bands and food

stations. personally, it was the most fun i've had in the zoo the whole time in there. we had 1500 people attend. we will certainly do it again next year. we are playing around with the date. we will open a up to the general public. if you could not make it this year, come next year. we will remind you. we got six new penguins from the monterey bay aquarium. they were part of a rescue operation out of brazil. they went to monterey aquarium for a special exhibit and now they came our way. they are on 40. -- are on quarantine. they will go on exhibit in two weeks. our flock will grow larger. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> is there anyone who would like to make a comment on item #6?

seeing none, public comment is closed and we are now on items 7, the chinese recreation center. president buell: thank you. i introduced this item at committee, so i would like to make some brief comments. before i introduce this item, i would like to let everyone know how we will proceed. after i introduced it, i will ask the family to speak. following that, we will have the united states and then commissioner comments. i am truly honored to introduce this item. on september 1, mayor lee announced he was requesting to name the chinese recreation center the betty ann ong chinese recreation center in honor of betty ann ong, a native san franciscan.

one of the planes, as most people know, did the world trade center on september 11. mayor requested this to not only celebrate her life, but to honor her heroism and make future generations aware of her bravel andrery and the lessons learned on september 11. she was born the youngest of four children. she attended jean parker elementary school, george washington high school, and city college at san francisco. betty ann ong grew up in chinatown and the chinese recreation center was her playground. on september 11, 2001, betty ann ong, an american airlines flight attendant, called the reservation office. for 23 minutes, she relayed information, including the seat locations of the terrorists,

which helped law authorities identified them. she was calm, professional, and in control throughout those 23 minutes. the commission has received over 3700 signatures supporting this. that is 3700 signatures. this naming is also supported by senator dianne feinstein, nancy pelosi, reverend fong, the executive director of the chinese historic society of america. to request to name the chinese recreation center the betty ann ong chinese recreation center of san francisco meet our guidelines. her extraordinary terrorism made a significant contribution, not only to the -- her extraordinary heroism made a significant contribution, not only to the

city, but to the country. on september 11201,2001, she became an example of heroism. i cannot say enough about how important i think this is to the chinese community, to san francisco, and to the rest of the country to honor betty ann ong. i'm going to ask harry ong and gloria ong to speak before we proceed with public testimony. >> good morning. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. commissioners, president buell, mr. martin, david lee, general

manager, mr. ginsburg. i am the brother of betty ann ong. my family and i would like to take this opportunity to thank the park and recreation center. supporters who are here and in attendance, those who are unable to attend, petition signers, and all citizens of this great nation at large. we urge you to support the renaming of the recreation center. the ong family would be extremely honored to have the chinese recreation center renamed the betty ann ong recreation center. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> gloria or cathy, would you

like to speak? >> good morning. i am the older sister of betty ann ong. i live in bakersfield, california. it's a real honor to be here today. i want to thank you all for your consideration in renaming the chinese recreation center to the betty ann ong recreation center. i would also like to thank all of the supporters that we have had and to everybody for being here. i can still remember growing up in san francisco chinatown and playing at the chinese recreation center very clearly. the playground was a very important part of our childhood. we got great direction and

participated in a lot of activities there. i really do feel that renaming the recreation center not only honors betty, but also the citizens who live in the chinatown community, and also for the san francisco community, as well as our nation, since betty is a national hero. thank you for considering the renaming. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> gloria, did you want to speak? >> once again, my name is gloria. i am the middle child to the ong family. i wanted to thank everybody. and to