important work of the police would be very important violence prevention work -- with the very importance violence prevention work we're doing on the ground. so, public safety is something we will keep pushing on. we are trying to create a definition of community policing the recognizes that policing should change depending on the neighborhood, but also have key components throughout the city. we talk about community policing without no -- knowing what it means. another challenge is transportation. as the city, you are defined by how well your public transportation works or how well it does not work. even though we have had improvements in muni, i think we have to do a lot better. and i think there are issues in terms of the services that are provided, the reliability of the system. i think the ridership is rightly

frustrated they have been asked to pay more for less. i do not think that is right. we have focused on the operational and management fees. we tried to make public transportation acceptable to people. i have worked with the other supervisors to provide -- other supervisors supervisor mirkarimi and mayor lee. this allows us to make an investment in public education, but also a long-term investment in public transportation, because as young people from an early age to use the system, the public transportation system, they are going to be committed to public transportation for years to come. >> do you feel additional issues that are facing your district -- that there are additional issues

that are facing your district that are unique to your district that you have not mentioned? supervisor campos: there are issues that come up, whether you're talking about the mission, bernal heights, portola. one of the issues we have worked on in bernal heights is the issue of protecting a mural around the public library, which is an issue that raise a lot of other things. it led to a larger discussion in terms of who we are as a community. some people wanted to preserve the mural. others wanted to get rid of the mural. and we believe in a dialogue. so we brought together in mediation everyone so we could come to an understanding of what our common ground was and to see if we could agree on certain basic things, and we were able to come up with a solution that

makes sense for the entire community. in a sense, it reflected larger issues that are impacting the city as a whole. so, there are issues like that that would require a knowledge of the neighborhood, and knowledge of what is happening on the ground, and knowing the difference is of how all bernal heights may look at an issue vis a vis the mission or portola. as a supervisor, i do have to be able to balance managing citywide issues, which is very important, but at the same time, focusing on the specific needs of your neighborhood. that is really important to us. one of the things we need to prioritize is that making sure we focus on the nuts and bolts of government. a lot of the calls we get involved fixing alights,

replacing a pothole. i think it is really important to make sure we get those things right and we try to work very closely with the city agency to make sure government is responsive. if we do not do those things right, those little things, which are big things in life of a neighborhood. >> how you reconcile the needs of your district with the needs of the city? supervisor campos: i think it is possible to do that. even though we have these great districtwide elections, i think district election still allow you to deal with larger issues. we feel that we certainly have demonstrated that as a board. individual supervisors have demonstrated that. one of the pieces of legislation we worked on last year that we are very proud of is the health services master plan, which is

legislation that for the first time has a city like san francisco thinking about the health needs of the city of seoul. -- cities as all whole. it is good for us to know what the health care needs of the city are going to be in the next couple of years or long term. so, making sure those who do planning and other things, that we think strategically about the need citywide and also neighborhood by neighborhood. and we were able to do that and pass that legislation as a district-elected supervisors, even though this is legislation that impacts the entire city in the future of health care in san francisco for many years to come. i think it is possible to do both. it is definitely possible. >> let's talk about budgets. the city is faced with tough

budget decisions. including where to make cuts and whether or not to increase taxes. how will he make these tough choices -- will you make these tough choices? supervisor campos: the budget is the most important policy document that the city can pass. it reflects the priorities of city government. i believe we have to be creative in how we look at the issue of the budget. it is important for me that certain things happen. i think that public safety has to be a priority in the budget, the public safety cannot be compromised to save a few dollars. but i think the public safety goes beyond funding the police department and the fire department, as important as that is. it includes funding violence prevention programs, after- school programs so someone has -- and people have something to

do after school, funding our department for recreational opportunities for young people during the summer or after school. if you do not do that, that will have implications on public safety. the safety has to be protected, because if we do not do that, we are creating more problems that will be even more costly in the long run. i think that we have to think about it in a very strategic way. i think it is important to protect the safety net. i think we have to find efficiencies in terms of where we can do things better. i think the issue of overtime is something we have to continue to monitor and make sure we reduce overtime costs as much as possible. but i also believe that there is only so much that you can cut in terms of balancing this budget. that you have to think of creative ways, innovative ways to inject revenue into the system.

and i think we need to think about options, and is a conversation we need to have with all of the stakeholders. we've been cutting and cutting and cutting for the last few years. i always say, you know, it has gotten to a point where we have cut the fat, cut the muscle, and we're now putting the bomb. how deep can you go? -- and were now cutting at the bone. we are not going to cut our way out of this budget challenge. we are also not going to tax our way out of it either. there has to be a balanced approach that recognizes you have to do more with what you have and to have to inject revenue into the system. >> you mentioned public safety as a key issue. let's talk about that and the issue of crime in your district. what has happened with the

issue of crime? supervisor campos: we have been lucky that over the last couple of years we have seen crime go down in the city. in march, we have seen a number of shootings in the mission especially. which are very alarming. we have an increase in gang activity in that neighborhood. i think we have to be very proactive about this. that means we have to increase police resources so people understand we're not going to tolerate violent crime. there is no excuse for someone shooting someone else. at the same time, we also have to think about long-term, with our strategy for preventing some of this crime. when it comes to gang activity, there are things you can do on

the ground to change the lives of some of these gang people, those who do want to make a better life for themselves. i think for some of them, if you give them opportunities, they can really turn their lives around. i think it is important to engage the community. you have to make sure that you create an atmosphere where people feel safe, and to feel safe, they have to feel like they are in partnership with the police department. i give a lot of credit to our current chief for reaching out to the community and to merely -- mayor lee. that is where community policing comes in. having officers on the ground, who were not afraid to get out of the patrol car and walked down the street and interact with the merchants, the residents.

having that visibility is important. but there are other strategies. as a former police commissioner, i realize that something as basic as the lighting in the street can make a difference. doing that is something we have to do. public safety transcends what happens to individual neighborhoods on the ground. you ought to focus on muni. people have to feel safe on our buses. you have to have strategies around that. it is a complicated issue. it is something we have to focus on. if public safety does not work, nothing else works. >> let's talk about transportation and muni. is there enough new need service? supervisor campos: one of the things we did last year, and i was very proud to push for that, was to restore some of the service that -- service cuts

that were made. new emitted & service cut across the board -- muni made a 10% service cut across the board, which was very significant. here we are. we are paying more and we are getting less. so we worked with the county transportation authority to help restore at least half of those spots, so about 6% was restored. that is not enough. we need to do more. we need to do more to ensure the system is as reliable as possible. i do think we have to focus on best practices and how the agency is managed. it is an $800 million operation, and one of the things we started last year is be called for a management audit. the management audit looks at how the agency is being run, whether or not it is following

best practices. it is bringing common sense into the operations in the city agency, and muni actually has not had a management audit in almost 15 years. that is a long time for an operation of $800 million to go without a management audit. we're now going to the second phase of the audits, which is going to come out very shortly because we do want to look the best practices. i think we also need to look at our investment in the system. part of the problem is a lack of reliability in what we have, whether it is our bosses, what happens -- buses, what happens at some of the stations, the repair areas. there is a sense we are not investing enough capital into the system, which is why, you know, we have trains on the

rail. it is important to make the investment. san francisco should have the best public transportation system in the world. and we don't right now. we have the choice of making it better and that will continue to be a big priority for us. >> we are almost out of time, but are there any other issues you would like to talk about during your term as a supervisor? supervisor campos: we are introducing a charter amendment, because one of the things we have seen is our trash collection contract has not been re-bid for almost 80 years, and i not think that is the best practice. the company that currently does it does a really good job, but there is nothing wrong with injecting competition. we want to make sure the ratepayer in san francisco does the best deal possible, the best

service possible, and competition allows us to return that. >> thank you, for joining us today. we've been talking to supervisor of david campos of district 9. watch for the next episode when we will be back. >> 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 new