much every labor union in the city, i think, except for police and fire, is open for negotiation. certainly, the mayor's office has an expectation and target of reduced salary and fringe benefits that they would get out of those negotiations, concessions from the union. when that will end up being is anyone's guess, at this point. commissioner bonilla: best case scenario, if we are generating these types of revenues, we may have an opportunity to utilize revenues in other areas needed within the department. that we'd be the best case scenario. -- would be the best case scenario. commissioner buell: mr. ginsburg. >>, to continue to send my

thanks to cady, who does such a wonderful job looking at the commission's finances, given the climate. there is a department head meeting going on right now about the city's budget. because you're in this commission meeting presented our budget, they know we are not here. the message the mayor is conveying his although the city it is certainly happy the six- month report indicated positive news, structural challenges certainly remain for the city. it is the mayor's office boss expectation that we continue to manage the budget, which is why it is before you today. for the second year in a row, we will have no layoffs and no program reductions. i think that is a credit to the tough decisions that you as a commission have been making to offset some of the general fund cuts we have had to experience with earn revenues.

so on behalf of not just staff, but those who use our services, think you for your leadership in helping us maintain services. while we are at a moment of certainly less bad news and we have had in the past, it is important to note a big piece of our budget challenge this year was better than expected news out of candlestick. it is important for us to remember, as we look ahead, the department, commission, and city will have to grapple with a very serious hole in this department's budget, if and when the niners stop playing at candlestick. it is something that we have to keep in mind under a two-year budget cycle. potentially, we have to begin the discussion next year.

there will be up and downs and we will continue to keep updated, but we have some good news, we were making the right decision to create programmatic sustainability in our department, but we need for public investment in our parks, and we need to continue to be as efficient as we can and think about ways to support the department through earn revenue strategies. commissioner buell: commissioner harrison. commissioner harrison: by way of an explanation for my concern, i think we should be cautious and controlled on any hiring of new staff, at the same time, having our staff several furlough days, non-paid work time. these are things we have to keep in mind when doing any future hiring of staff. commissioner buell: commissioner

bonilla. commissioner bonilla: for all of us who manage budgets, and we are always looking at cost savings, looking and generating new in come to operate our programs, think it should always be said and done. even if we have a balanced budget before us, and we are not going to be experiencing any cuts in salaries, so on, we should always continue to look at efficiencies. everything that we do, i think, we should always look at, -- any

program we operate, whether it is being operated efficiently or not. efficiencies will always go a long way to put us in a situation where we are not constantly depending on generating revenue. i just want to keep at the forefront, that we always need to continue to do work on efficiencies, in terms of operating our programs. >> we do have public comment. matt o'grady. >> good morning, commissioners. executive director of the park's alliance.

with all due respect to phil and katie and the fine would have done in presenting the budget to you, especially with a creative approach they have taken to minimize the pain and service reductions that would be associated, san francisco parks alliances opposed to making any cuts to the general fund allocation to the rec and parks department in the first place. here is why. you all know that over the last six years, allocation to the rec and parks department from the city general fund has been cut by 26%. it now makes up less than 2% of the total general fund for the city. over the same six years, that has grown by 22%. the result of that has -- we are digging ourselves into a whole. the analysis recently published in the report identified the recreation and parks department

is now running a product offering deficit of about $35 million a year in order to sustain the care that we need an. new data we have to present to you is, in a recently completed a report with the parks alliance, we learned 91% of likely voters in san francisco strongly believe the parks are very important to their quality of life in san francisco. we also learned 80% of voters want to see the city put more resources into our parks systems, not less. further cuts to the recreation and parks department budget are running against the will of the voters. for six years and beyond, we have been digging ourselves into

a $30 million-plus whole. the first thing you do when you find yourself in a whole is to stop digging. we believe the city should cease its cuts to the general fund allocation to the recreation and parks department. thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment? >> good afternoon, commissioners. dwindling members of the public. i hope you appreciate you are preaching to an empty audience here. i have been coming to recreation and park commission meetings for over 20 years. prior to your political occupation of this city, they were always packed, always a good place to be. right now, listening to katie

petrucione, it is like listening to bernie madoff making a plea to shareholders. it is a disgusting. the way she talks with her squeaky little voice, talking about all the stuff-- commissioner buell: if you cannot be applied in your presentation is not appreciated. >> horse stalls generating $50 a month and you are telling you are doing everything to save the parks? you are just like the captain of that ship. the ship is grounded. it is going under and you are having lunch. wake up. get into reality. you cannot continue this method of politics of ignoring san francisco's culture, recreational activities, going on with your political act like

nothing has happened. do not buy anything in san francisco, do not visit san francisco. do not set foot in san francisco, because it has a career of the government. it is a great place to bring your wife for her birthday if she wants to get shot in the face. it is a great place to get your family murdered if you want to drive around the city, but you cannot touch a horse unless you go to the zoo. and you cannot even touch them. how long do you think you can go on with this type of ruining our recreation and parks to permit and pulling the people? bernie madoff got caught. it is only a matter of time. thank you very much. >> is there anyone else who like closed. commissioner buell: this matter is now in the hands of the

commission. can i entertain a motion? moved and seconded. all those in favor? hearing none, it is unanimous. >> for the record, katie, we love your voice. >> i will work on dropping my register. >> we are now on item 11, and general public comment. is there anyone who would like to comment that did not comment earlier? being none, public comment is closed. item 12. commissioner's matters. commissioner buell: commissioners do not matter. >> any public comment? being none, public comment is closed. item 13 is new business agenda study. any public comment? commissioners? 14 is communications. is there any public comment? being none, public comment is closed. 15 is adjournment.

commissioner buell: commissioner lee, commissioner lee: i wanted to adjourn this meeting in memory of may louis, a longtime patron, a supporter of the community. you can read her obituary in "the chronicle." over 50 years of support. she was very helpful with the portsmouth gracia, donating to -- garage, donating to athletics around the city, especially in chinatown, the rebuilding of the chinatown recreation center, which is under way as we speak, --

unfortunately she will not be here to see the opening. i just wanted to adjourn in her memory. we are very grateful for the years of service that she has provided this community. commissioner buell: let the record so reflect. second to that motion? moved and seconded. unanimous. >> so thank you. i want to welcome everyone to a very exciting announcement

around a pilot project we are kicking off today. and i also want to welcome everyone to one of the most parking challenged neighborhoods in san francisco, russian hill. i think it is well known that i do not own a car for good reason. but one thing i do want to mention is i used to live on russian hill. i actually did own a car for six months. it was a miserable experience. not just the cost of car ownership and gas and insurance and repairs, but every single night i had to spend half an hour looking for parking and when i didn't do a good job of parking, sfmta provided me with a ticket. so it was a very exciting moment when about two years ago, then city add vater -- administrator ed lee and i had a conversation with the c.e.o. of car share about what we could do to expand car share in the neighborhood that is incredibly defense and that does not have the parking lots and the garages where city car share and zip car often put

their cars. we know we have very challenged streets when it comes to transits. everyone who rides a car, anyone who tries to take a bus, tries to catch a cab knows the challenges we have in these very dense neighborhoods. so the thought of expanding car sharing, which you will hear often takes anywhere from 10 to 15 cars off the streets, was something that we wanted to try here on russian hill. my office worked with several russian hill neighborhood associations to suggest places on our streets for car sharing to become a reality. i want to thank mayor lee for his commitment literally now almost two years ago to work with my office, the sfmta, city administrator's office to really figure out how we can roll out this new and exciting pilot project. and you're going to hear more about these details but the thing i will say in conclusion is with the city family coming together, we're going to provide another transit option for all of san francisco to hopefully

bring us closer to our vision of a transit first city. with that i would like to welcome mayor lee to russian hill and welcome mayor lee has been a champion for car sharing and obviously making sure we have a transit first city. and i would like to invite him to say a few words. >> good morning. thank you, president chiu. yes, it was over two years ago where we began this conversation. but it also began with our own city fleet. and we were talking with city car share and zip car about how we can share vehicles and reduce carbon emissions and all of those great goals that mayor gavin newsome had announced that we wanted to really do enthusiastically. so if you see right in front of city hall the example that we gave everybody, the green car showcase, that began with our effort to signal that we were willing to even give up city parking spaces. you know how valuable city parking spaces are, we have wars

within city government around who's parking spaces those are. but to signal a big culture change, one that we felt was important to our future of the city in reducing cars, we made it our own goal to reduce our own city fleet and begin with that commitment first. so we did it, we did it with everybody's cooperation, m.t.a., city administrator as well as our purchaser to create that green car showcase. but we also realize there are many parts of the city as david mentioned that don't have ready access to public garages. so it was for us a challenge but one that we were very enthusiastic to try to pilot with city car share, and that is to get it into our most congested residential areas, like russian hill and the area. so this is one of at least five spots that are happening and in fact around this area we're

going to begin here first because we have a lot of residential support for this as well. and i look forward to the other six spots that we have already identified, have been under planning discussions with our city administrator, with our m.t.a., bring in a neighborhood where i live in glen park and also bay view, also dog patch, those areas as well as the outer sunset and inner sunset. those areas as well where we can really benefit from car sharing. i got educated really quickly over 2 1/2 years ago about a culture change in sharing cars. and while i know in this city we're trying to retain families and i know david is still single, so he's going tible for while to get without a car. once you get married, david and one there's that first child, then the pressure of having a vehicle becomes a very big reality. and to have alternatives do that, and i think in reality terms, it's not so much just that first vehicle, really it's

to prevent families from having to think about a second vehicle when they live in these residential tight areas. to use muni as much as possible. this is where we want to go. and i think we have a great partner to begin with in city car share because as a nonprofit, they know and they really have been working with us closely, not only with our own fleet but now the exposure to residential areas. i can't wait to get car sharing into even public housing. because you have seen some of the large parking areas near public housing and to be able to use that space to car share for our low-income residents and make sure they don't feel the pressures to have to not only buy a car to get around the city to their jobs but also to repair their cars on those very valuable open spaces that we have. that's going to be i think a big culture change as well. i'm a big fan of this and i have been gratified in working with

david chiu on this incredible experiment that i think is going to prove very successful. and the great thing about it is that the inertia is coming from residents themselves. they're willing to offer up very positive way their own spaces they have been competing for every single night to be able to use car sharing as a philosophy. i think that will come into very good practice, as has been with our own city fleet. i want to congratulate david for working with city government and all of the agencies here and also with city car share to have a great partner in doing this. >> thank you, mayor lee, and thank you for a way in mentioning my marital status in a way that will stress out my mother. i also want to echo one thing mayor lee just said, for folks who have to own cars in san francisco, they may ask what is the benefit of on street car sharing for them.

for every car we put on the street, we are taking every car off the street. we're making it easier for everyone to find parking spaces. i also want to mention in the past couple years there are a number of initiatives in the car-sharing space in san francisco. i required new developments to update the car sharing responses they have in their garages and spaces so again we can expand this throughout the city. one incredible partner in this effort has been our san francisco m.t.a. and i want to invite up ed risken, who has been a champion of many modes of transit but particularly car sharing, to say a few words today. ed? >> thank you, president chew -- chiu, mr. mayor. very glad to be here as the city's transportation director leading the agency that's charged with implementing the transit first policy. we see car sharing as very integral to making transit first work here in san francisco. transit first is about making it

convenient and accessible and attractive for people to live in san francisco without a car. certainly without a second car. and there are times while we want people to be able to ride and want to ride muni or to get around by bike or by foot or grab i cab when they need one, there are times when you need a car. speaking of someone who has no car and is married and has kids, it's doable in san francisco because car sharing fills that gap. car sharing is what makes it possible to live in san francisco without owning your own car. so we see it as very much integral to the transit-first policy and as president chiu mentioned, we see it as part of our parking solution. we're not taking away parking spaces by making them available for car share. we are adding parking capacity to the city by making spaces available to car share, because those 10 or 15 people who are going to be using this one car behind us are not going to be bringing their own cars to the

neighborhood to park, to compete for same spaces and be circling around creating pollution and congestion that fouls our air and slows our transit. so it's really a win-win solution. it's great for parking. it's great for implementing transit first. we're very proud to be working with the mayor, board president, city administrator's office to make this happen. we will be working with all of the partners here, city car share as well as neighborhoods to evaluate this over the next six months and like the mayor, we're very optimistic that it will be successful. thank you all for the leadership and support. it's a great day for transit first. >> so it's my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, who after our then city administrator became our interim mayor. it fell upon her shoulders to actually figure out how to implement the details of this pilot program are interim city administrator amy brown. >> thank you, president chiu and mr. mayor.

yes, i inherited a really great idea and had lots of help from our fleet director tom fang and deputy city administrator and working with the staff of the sfmta to implement it. very exciting day to see it come to fruition. one of the things that makes us so great to work for san francisco is we're not afraid to do bold or innovative things. i will share with you we put together a pilot with five spaces city wide that we were going to move forward. when it got to public hearings, when it got to the board, rather than have people react negatively do it, they reacted very positively. they said five spaces actually weren't enough. so we ended up being able to add six more spaces to the pilot program. so people wanted to go more big and more bold. and our leaders wanted to do that. and that makes it exciting every day to come in and to have those new ideas when they're so well received. so i think this is going to be a

great success. i think just the initial response to it with people saying what about my neighborhood, let's try it out in my neighborhood. it's very positive and i really look forward to seeing this rolled out beyond the pilot city wide and for a long time to come. so thank you all very much. >> our time speaker who helps to run the organization that is managing the fleet of city car share is laura haber. i do want to though take a moment to pull out my own city car share key flop with this piece of plastic and two minutes either on a phone or on a computer, you can actually access any of the cars in the entire fleet the city car share has. zip share also has a similar arrangement. with that i would like to invite up laura, who's here on behalf of rick hutchison. rick and c.e.o. of zip car actually met with mayor lee and i two years ago to kick off the discussion around this pilot project and we very much want to thank city car share for being a

great partner with the city. >> thank you, president chiu, mr. mayor. i am laura haber, director of marketing/planning for city car share. as was just alluded to, i'm here on behalf of rick hutchison who sends his regrets. as mentioned, this program is two years in the making. rick is the c.e.o. and now presenting at the international car association in montreal as we speak. car share is being promoted worldwide. just so you know, not just here in san francisco. i want to thank again mr. mayor, president chiu for the early vision and leadership in this program and sfmta and city administrator's office, who's been a pleasure to work with operationally. we're very excited about the launch of this pilot program for a number of reasons, not the recent of which raises profile of car sharing. one of the aspects is making it more visible in the community with the very prime locations and congested neighborhoods and also makes it more accessible for people because many of our

what we call pods, which are where cars are located or private garages or public garages and they're not as visible to the community. in these dense neighborhoods, car sharing does a couple things. number one, it puts people into a shared diesel experience and they rely more on other public forms of transportation, walking, biking, which is all to the good, more liveable and environmentally conscious city. alone last year, our members saved 40 million to 60 million pounds of co 2, which is astonishing given we have about 14,000 members, roughly over 9,000 here in san francisco alone, and we have a fleet of about 350 cars. so if you do the math, you realize that we can serve a lot of people with a lot fewer cars in san francisco and everyone is quite happy to get around. i think the neighbors and neighborhoods will be happy as well because one of the other benefits of car sharing, besides the environmental benefit, is an economic benefit both to the individual because they save about $700 a month on car-related expenses. most people don't realize that's

what you pay if you add up gas maintenance, registration, when you share a car for an hor or half day, you don't pay for gas, you don't pay for maintenance and don't pay for insurance. we have one of the best insurance programs in the country. so with that i would like to say this pilot program is something we're studying that's been mentioned. we want to make sure it's effective for the neighborhood, effective for users and we will look at the user experience and one of the last things again with the vitality of the neighborhoods is all of the extra money not being spent on your car limit can be spent by walking around the local merchant. not to leave that out of the equation. so that in mind, i would like to demonstrate i also have a handy electronic key fob and i can show you how it works. i'm a recent convert. i recently gave up my own car and never been happier. this is practically free compared to what i was paying for my car. and i have a pod and everything else is included. i will get around to the other side and show you how it works. the other thing i will tell you,

it takes as mentioned a few minutes to make a reservation online or on the phone. you get in and return it to the same location. it's that simple. member shd fees are nominal or annual or monthly, depending on your needs. here i go. >> i can drive away but i totally don't need to do that.