1% in both years. it is still unclear in talking to the mayor's office exactly what they mean by this instruction, but i'm sure more information will be forthcoming in the next several months. the mayor asked departments to prioritize core operating functions, minimize service impact, and pursue solutions such as revenue options, administrative efficiencies, and program or function consolidation. he is strongly encouraging the department to foster community engagement during the budget development which, for the recreation and park department, will not be a challenge at all. we make a really significant effort to interact with the community, our staff stakeholders when developing our budget. the budget assumption that the mayor's office is working with are likely to change over the next six months as we see the

results of the state and federal budget processes. all but two of the city's labor contracts are open for negotiation this spring, so there are 27 collective bargaining agreements, and the outcome of those negotiations will have a significant impact one way or another on the $263 million budget deficit. our budget is due on february 21 to the mayor's office, and we will begin to meet with staff, stakeholders, the community in january to solicit input on our budget proposals. we will be in front of this commission on january 19 and again twice in february to make the budget presentation, and then we will ask for your approval of our budget's

mission at the second full commission meeting in february. i am more than happy to answer questions. >> is there any public comment on this? commissioner buell: margaret, we're not quite done. we have a video. a product of our work force by one, started out in our san francisco state internships. she has done an amazing job. she put together about 60 in the last two years. we have a great partnership now with sfgovtv where a lot of events and activities are being shown. it is another great way to push out all of the fantastic things we do. let it rip. >> thank you.

>> when this project is done, you will see the sports park that is going to be renovated, the great landscaping improvements. >> 5 4 3 2 1 ! happy holidays, everybody!

>> i'm not sure why, but it is freezing for some reason. >> you are welcome. >> commissioners, on behalf of our staff, we want to wish you all a very happy holiday and joy is an exciting new year and thank you for all your support. commissioner buell: the same to you and all the staff. please convey that. public comment, go ahead. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are now on item 12, general public comment continued. is there anyone who wishes to

make general public comments? seeing none, and 12 is close. we're on item 13, commissioner matters. >> can i say one thing? i just want to say that i went to the tree lighting briefly -- i could not stay for the actual writing of the tree, but i can only imagine the amount of staff time it took to put that together. if you remember on the roof of the emporium at christmas time, you see rights, and i had that same sense at maclaren lodge. what made me so happy was to see so many children and families, and those are our kids, our families, san franciscans who are raising their kids here, and we do that for them. i just want to commend you, and i want to thank you very much. commissioner lee: i want to echo what commissioner levitan

said. tom harrison also went to the employee holiday party earlier this week and had a great time, and it was very rewarding to talk to the employees and how excited they are, particularly under the general managers leadership, all the praise is that his employees keep upon him at this very happy event. i have one item for commissioners matters to consider. a number of people in chinatown come to me about an idea to build a stage. maybe the general manager has heard about this. at the portsmouth square mezzanine area. they often have events there, and each time, organizers have

to actually read a stage to be put in. the idea would be perhaps to build a stage akin to what the japanese tea garden has done. where it would be a permanent structure, fixture in the plaza, and that when events happen, they can use that stage, as opposed to constructing it every single time. anyway, i would offer that up for future consideration. commissioner buell: thank you. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are on item 14, new business agenda setting. is there any public comment? public comment is closed. item 15, communication. is there any public comment? public comment is closed. item 16 is adjournment. commissioner buell: all those in

favor? >> aye. commissioner buell: happy holidays, everybody.

>> good evening, everyone. my name is filled in the third, the director of your parks department. my job can be challenging at times, but on and that light tonight, i feel like the luckiest guy in the world to be here, to support families in the event like this is truly fantastic. this is the greatest city in the world, the greatest parks department. thank you for joining us. 82 years ago, uncle john mclaren, our first park superintendent started the tradition of minding a mile- long of live trees at, to where

he lived at the time. behind you is the official entry of san francisco, and it is called uncle john's tree. it is a monterey cypress that is 131 years old. it is over 100 feet tall. it has over 700 lights. it took 8 rec and park tree toppers to light this up. let's give a big round of applause honoring john mclaren, who would be 160 today. 82 years later, our staff has continued the tradition, and i want to thank all of the park staff, recreation staff, tree toppers, electricians,

structural maintenance crew. everyone had a plan in -- hand in planning this tonight. i want to make sure that everyone is applauded for the great job that they had done. [applause] i also want to thank the city family who is here tonight. mayor ed lee. we will hear from him in a second. members of the board of supervisors, including supervisor farrell, supervisor elsbernd, supervisor wiener, i think supervisor mar is trying to park. supervisor mirkarimi is supposed to be here. i want to thank our fire chief joanne hayes white for being here today. i want to thank our police chief. our treasurer, jose cisneros

our rec and park commissioners. [applause] ana and reid, fiona ma. i also want to thank quickly our entertainers for the evening. we have had some incredible entertainment. the golden gate band. the hoover middle school jazz band. the birchen high-school drum corps. the young people music theater company. the george washington high school marching band. the brunos. press, circus -- presscot

circus. i also want to thank our co-host for the evening, the newly formed parks alliance. the parks department cannot do it alone. the alliance has really become our best friend. i want to recognize their board chair. our executive director matt o'grady will come up to say a few words. >> thank you so much. the parks alliance is the new kid on the block. a brand-new organization, and yet, a very familiar organization, because we come from the san francisco parks trust and from the neighborhood council.

these two organizations got together and realize they can do so much more by combining forces to make this park system the best open space system in the world for san francisco. i wanted to give you a couple of samples of some of the great partnerships we have built to make these parks so fabulous and gray in san francisco. the first partnership is with none other than the parks and recreation department. it is called the gear up program, where we have been tried to buy resources for our part centers citywide. that program has raised, from your generosity, more than $300,000 or reparations centers across the city. bravo and thank you for your generosity. i want to mention another partnership we have had running through the san francisco parks alliance.

take another look at this enormous, beautiful tree. trees like this do not get that way on their own. it started from a tiny seed, and it grew to this beautiful majesty because of the love, care, and feeding and care that was provided to victory over the last 130 years by our gardeners and arborists. every tree in every part in san francisco, every plant, the landscaping that makes our parks so beautiful, they are that beautiful because of the gardeners, landscape architects, and other professionals of the park staff that care for them every day and night, 365 days a year. where do our gardeners come from? i see a lot of young people

here. some of you might be interested in learning how we can nurture them to make them so beautiful for us. we have a partnership with union local 261, who developed an apprenticeship program to teach young people how to be the best gardeners in the world so they could join the staff of the recreation and parks department and provide a future for parks and gardeners here in the city. thank you to you, 261, and the other partners that have been so great with us. i want to form another new partnership here with all of you. you may not know this, but today is a very special person's birthday today. some of you may not know this, but i got my start as a musician, as a conductor. i have not done it in quite awhile, but i will conduct all

of you to sing happy birthday to none other than our own phil ginsburg, who is 45 today. please join me. >> ♪ happy birthday to you have a birthday to you happy birthday, dear phil happy birthday to you ♪ [applause] >> thank you. all i want for my birthday is 50 more gardeners. all right. let's bring up our parks champion. he is everywhere in the parks system. he is playing ping pong in the square, playing ball, in golden gate park, he is everywhere.

ladies and gentlemen, our mayor, ed lee. >> thank you. i thought all you want it was her two front teeth? thank you very much for coming. it is wonderful to see so many families here together. this is the season where we celebrate with our family and kids. i cannot think of any place more wonderful to be than this 130- year cyprus to share with you the lighting of this wonderful tree. i want to thank our department representatives, city official family, elected officials. i also want to let you know, i came here last year. we saw painted on the side of this train, the world series chickenshit emblem. this year, we have our san

francisco fire engine. -- championship emblem. a wonderful tribute to our fire department. i want to thank the chief for coming here tonight, for helping us with the toy drive, and for bringing a special guest. santa is here tonight, a special guest from our fire department. he is coming. i also want to let you know, in addition to tonight, on the weekend of december 17, 18, rec and park, city hall, all of our city officials, want to welcome you to the civic center. we are going to have a snow village, snow for all of you to

play in. come in on saturday and sunday, the 17th and 18th. then on the 18th, we will open city hall, and you can take pictures with your family. city hall will be open from 11:00 until 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. please come in to join us for the holiday season. thank you. with that, are we ready? everybody stand up. how about a countdown beginning with 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[applause] happy holidays, everybody. >> if you listen very carefully, you are going to hear coming down the streets -- i think santa is coming, mr. mayor. i think he is coming. there is a lot of traffic out there, but he is on the way.

>> this is one of the museum's longest art interest groups. it was founded by art lovers who wanted the museum to reflect new directions in contemporary art. it has been focused on artists in this region with an eye toward emerging artists. ♪ it is often at the early stage of their career, often the first major presentation of their work in a museum. it is very competitive. only a few artists per year receive the award. it is to showcase their work to have a gallery and publication dedicated to their work. ♪

i have been working with them on the last two years on the award and the exhibitions. the book looks at the full scope of the awards they have sponsored. ♪ it has been important to understand the different shifts within the award program and how that is nearing what else is going on in the bay area. -- how that is mirror beiing wht else is going on in the bay area. ♪ there are artists from different generations sometimes approaching the same theme or subject matter in different ways. they're artists looking at the history of landscape and later artists that are unsettling the history and looking at the

history of conquests of nature. ♪ artists speak of what it means to have their work scene. often you are in the studio and do not have a sense of who is really seeing your work. seeing your own work at the institution have gone to for many years and has an international audience is getting the word out to a much larger community. ♪ >> i tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. i feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my

way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuing them. there are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. kindred spirits, so to speak. there is a circus company that i have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. i use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. a lot of the work is content- based, has a strong narrative. the dancers have more of a theatrical feel. i think we are best known for our specific work. in the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related

to the african-american experience, here in the united states. i had heard of marcus shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. we were brought together by the equal justice society specifically for this project. we were charged with beginning work. marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the death penalty, our experiences with people who had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. pulling our information. beyond that, we did our own research. to create a picture that resonated with humanity. it is the shape of a house.

in this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. i thought that was an interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. what is home for these people? the home is their cell. people talk a lot about noise -- very noisy in prisons. that is interesting to me. looking at the communication level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here? [singing]

i think both of us really believe the death penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. the list is as long as my arm -- about several others. we feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can help people frame it for a conversation.

president goh: welcome to the december 14, 2011, meeting of the board of appeals in. the presiding officer this evening is president goh. joining her