require you to come back. thank you. >> thank you. supervisor chu: our next department is the war memorial. we have beth murray. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the director of the war memorial department. thank you for letting us come before you today on our budget. we would also like to thank the mayor's office for their help in putting the budget together this year. as you know, the war memorial and performing arts center department, which lives across the street from you, consists of the opera house, veterans building, bayview symphony hall, rehearsal hall, in the adjacent ground. in our president facilities, we provide over 900 performances each year to san franciscans and visitors to san francisco, with an annual attendance of approximately 1.3 persons. we have expenses, educational

programs that are carried out by the licensees of the performing arts center, including the san francisco symphony's program which does provide a concert experience to every child in k-5 said the unified school district each year. the next few years at the war memorial department going to be very difficult years, in particular our veterans building seismic upgrade. i have provided a package to you. unfortunately does not fit on the overhead and i do not have the memory stick, so i will just go through it. our budget is basically a maintenance budget for fiscal 2012-2013. you will start seeing dramatic changes in our budget in fiscal 2013-2014, and that is due to the planned closure of the veteran's building on july 1,

2013 for a two-year construction period. our earned revenues from the theater in green room located in the veteran's building will disappear for those two fiscal years. we will have similar decreases as we will not be providing services. supervisor chu: thank you. supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: i am glad you're discussing about the veterans building. i am a a little bit concerned about the relocation plan for the veterans program, these services provided for san francisco and bay area veterans. what is the plan to relocate them? >> we are presently working with the real estate division on the relocation of both our offices, the war memorial department offices, and for the space for the american legion post, their office and meeting room sapce. s -- paspace.

we have been in consultation with the mayor's office and real estate department on the relocation. we do not have a definitive location for either our offices or the american legion post at this time. supervisor cohen: what is the timeline? when you need to be out of the building? >> june 30, 2013, so a year from now. the real estate division advised us that the wanted to work with us starting a year off from that timeline so they could more accurately identify properties which may be available as relocation. supervisor cohen: will the american legion post be able to, i guess, once construction is complete, will they be able to come back to the building? >> yes, there is 23,000 square feet that is allocated exclusively to the san francisco american legion post for their office and meeting rooms space

when we return. supervisor cohen: i am glad to hear that, because that is a priority for me as we see more and more veterans coming back from service overseas, coming back to san francisco and the greater bay area. it is important that we continue to provide support for the veterans to get reactivated, to stay connected to the services in the service providers that we have available to them. so you're telling me that in the foreseeable future, you do anticipate them coming back, they will not be displaced. >> absolutely not. their trust beneficiaries under the war memorial trust, and they are entitled to occupy space in the veteran's building that is needed for their social and for their work purposes. supervisor cohen: ok, what is the amount of space they are occupying now? he mentioned they will have 23,000 feet. >> they have approximately

30,000 square feet right now. supervisor cohen: what is that a loss of -- >> of about 7000 square feet. supervisor cohen: is there any way to recover them? >> right now, as you may know, if you come over to the veteran's building and look at the various spaces that are allocated, there are a number of very large meeting rooms. one is as large as this room. there are actually nine large meeting rooms. the meetings of the american legion post and related veterans organizations have changed a great deal over the years. currently, meetings range, most of the meetings have 15 to 25 persons. at present, the utilization of the meeting rooms is 7% of capacity. so on approximately 40% of the days in the year, none of the meeting rooms are used. so the usages of changed.

what we have tried to do in our plans for the veterans' organizations is to provide better, improved meeting room space. it does reduce the meeting rooms from nine to seven, and it does reduce the size of some of the reed -- meeting rooms, which at this time the volume of space exceeds a need. so it is a better utilization of space. we have also tried to create an arrangement under the new plan whereby we will have shared space. so there will not be spaces that will be unused for 150 days a year but can be used by other occupants in the veterans building. for example, a meeting by the art commission, a meeting of the war memorial, and meetings of veterans' organizations. so we can have maximum utilization. supervisor cohen: i want to make sure i heard you correctly. there is a net loss of revenue that they meeting space

is not utilized -- >> no, the veterans' organization pays no rent. supervisor cohen: ok. thank you, madam chair. supervisor chu: thank you very much. continue. >> of khaybar-1 to review our efforts on the veteran's building seismic upgrade -- ok, i wanted to review our efforts on the veteran's building seismic upgrades. it started in july 2011. we are completing the 100% in design development by june 30 of this year. we will complete the construction document phase and permit bid and award by june 30, 2013. this next year is going to be critical in scheduling, coordinating, and implementing to move out of building occupants and contents by june 2013. and in coordinating the relocation of our to mark -- our

department's offices as well as the office and meeting room spaces for the american legion post. in the next fiscal year, we will also be completing the transition of our manual booking processes to artifacts online data base system. this is a huge transition for our department, and it will hopefully, in the long run, result in some cost-savings. during the next two years while the veteran's building is closed, we will continue, of course, our scheduling, booking, and coordinating. projected 403 performances in those facilities, and and national 483 rehearsal place. another project coming up is the san francisco veterans memorial project. this is a privately funded project, and the funding goal of $2.5 million was reached last

month. we will be completing the design development phase at the end of this year, in commending construction in june 2013. the targeted dedication date is november 11, 2013. i have also provided you an outline of the project scope of the veteran's building seismic upgrade improvements project. this includes a number of every areas of funding. in particular, the city will be providing $132 million total project costs and certificates of participation which has previously come to this board of supervisors for the seismic upgrade portion of the project, facility preservation, accessibility, code-mandated a grades, and water piping. the war memorial department will be providing an additional $6.3 million for additional improvements. that includes upgrades to the

veterans' meeting room and office facilities, expansion of the theatre backstage support spaces, and a green room, which are our rental facilities. the san francisco opera will be making an investment of $15 million to complete improvements on the fourth floor, including building two new event rehearsal spaces that will be used by the opera for a portion of the year, and the war memorial will make those spaces available to arts groups for the balance of the year. as previously mentioned at this hearing, the san francisco arts commission is targeted to relocate its functions to the war memorial, as well. i would note that using the job creation estimation methodology that is used by the pack -- by the capital planning committee, it is estimated that 850 private

sector jobs will be created from the veteran's building project. i have also provided to you a schedule, a high level schedule of the veterans building project that does, again, reiterate that we will close in july 2013 for a two-year time span. i also wanted to touch on our language access program. we are a tear two department under the language access ordinance. we have participated in the annual training and opened an account with the language line, the preferred provider for interpretation services, and we do announce that in our public areas. we do have quite a diverse staff. the war memorial administrative staff, with employees who are able to speak and read spanish, cantonese, mandarin, tag olague,

and they're prepared and do on a regular basis to assist in our operations. so that is my presentation. if you have any questions, i would be happy to answer them. supervisor chu: thank you very much. no questions from the committee. mr. rose, is there anything you would add? >> i have nothing to add, no recommendations. supervisor chu: thank you very much. no recommendations at this time. supervisor kim? supervisor kim: this is not a budgetary request, but it would be great to have a schedule of when the different departments and offices and departments are moving out of the war memorial. >> we're working on that now, and as soon as it is available, we will have that for you. supervisor kim: that would be great. we have been fielding questions

about when move-out is happening, so would like to be able to provide that information. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. there are no recommendations. thank you. we will not be requiring you to come back next week. thank you. ok, colleagues, we have recreation and parks department next. what i would like to do is after the recreation and parks presentation, i would like us to go in our break, and then we'll come back and continue the remainder of the agenda items. with that, we have filled ginsberg for recreation and parks. i would like to address items number three and four as part of the presentation, the legislation that follows your budget. item three, a golf course provision and fees. item four, professional tennis lesson rates. >> thank you. we will go through our budget presentation. then katy will what this through the two legislative items of that is ok.

supervisor chu: you can do your presentation. then if she wants to speak to those items, that is good. >> terrific. thank you, supervisors. ripleys to be about to present our 2012-2013 budget -- we are pleased to be able to present our budget. this is after some pretty tough years, and this is a much healthier and happier budget, we're pleased to report. these are our proposed budgets for 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. we have an operating budget and a capital budget. the capital budget fluctuates greatly depending upon resources in a given year. supervisor chu: that if we could go to the slide. the projector is not showing up.

>> as we have noted in previous times we were here, we have basically three primary buckets of revenue that we rely on. general fund subsidies. general fund support through the open space fun. and current revenue. approximately a third of rec and park budget is in revenue, including revenue from candlestick park, recreation programming, permits and facility rentals, parking garages, golf, the yacht harbor, and the remainder of the budget is funded through general fund and open space. we fundamentally balance the 2012-2013 budget using revenues, including growth in 49ers revenue, growth in recreation programming, permit usage in outside lanes. people are living in using their parts more than ever. that actually is healthy for the

department's financial losses in the ability. we have a couple of notes here. based on a revenue solution, we had a $200,000 increase in revenue had harding, and that is based on the proposed fee increase and fluctuating pricing schedule that we will talk about. prior year savings is revenue from the 49ers signed 2011-2012. in the subsequent appeal, recreation programming growth has been fantastic, following a dark day for the department a few years back when a number of recreation staff had to be laid off. we were able to reorganize and reinvent our recreation delivery model in partnership with our sciu represented staff. we're at a place in our public recreation is thriving in san francisco, and we're very excited about it. people are using our programs.

the more that use our programs, the more revenue we generate, and more programs we can offer. it has been a healthy cycle. we expect additional revenue from visits to our main attractions such as the japanese tea gardens. we have revenue dedicated from our long-term lease at the garage, which is moved to golden gate, and we will rely on some prior-year savings. you asked us to know where we see emerging revenues drink for the next two years. again, i would highlight and for recreation model and continued strength from our permits, concessions, and special events. people are enjoying being in our parks in using our parks and going to concerts' and eating in our parks, and that is using -- that is working well for us. areas of concern include the fact that the 49ers are almost certainly going to vacate the stadium in the next three years, and there will be significant

revenue losses in our parking garages. parking garage revenue is down about $11.5 million. supervisor chu: supervisor kim? supervisor kim: bringing up at candlestick park, and i know this is a difficult discussion because we are sad about the loss of the forty-niners, but has the discussion been started on the long-term future of candlestick park? any ideas what we might do with it? are we going to use it for other uses or are we constrained to their land use uses? >> the site is actually part of the hunters point shipyard, formally known as the hunters point shipyard redevelopment area. i think that under the terms of the redevelopment agreement, candlestick reverts to that project at the point in which the 49ers vacate.

once the 49ers vacate, we think it would be in the city's best interest for that space to be turned over to the project and be converted to a future uses as quickly as possible. we will continue to do the best we can to protect the asset and to try to activate the space as much as possible. we do have some other uses there. we have some soccer games coming to candlestick this summer. we have an antique fair. we will try to keep the space healthy, pending the projects, pending when the project takes the site over. you asked for an overview on the expenditure side of the budget of approximately 60% of the

budget funds staff. the next largest slice covers services we buy from other departments. workers' compensation, attorney, power, water, that sort of thing. the remainder of our budget funds capital commitments, materials, supplies, and large functions such as the zoo and the harding park clubhouse. materials and supplies always seems to be a big issue when budget time comes. materials and supplies, it sounds administrative, but is at the heart of what we do. when you think about our primary work force, our gardeners need tools, and they need grass seed. our recreation program is actually need materials and supplies to offer robust recreational programming. our structural maintenance staff is on the full yards in our shop. it takes care of our shops and

facilities. sprinkler heads, plumbing, irrigation. these things are fundamentally important to us. supervisor avalos: maybe it is time to actually comment. i live right next to mclaren park and another park. in the past several years, there have been tremendous improvements there. i know we have seen a slide in staffing levels. certainly, there are people during the gardening work and maintenance work, and they are very stretched for their time. i am not sure if it is because i live right next to the park that i get to see it that way, but it is actually something a lot to remark on. i have mentioned it before that it is very well-maintained along the edges and within the

borders. it is very impressive. mclaren park is another issue because there are a lot more things to attend to in the park, but i have seen improvements there as well. so i just wanted to say that before we move to other aspects on the budget while you're on your discussion of maintenance. >> thank you. we are incredibly proud of our staff. this is a department that does more with less. isaf takes a lot of pride in their work and it shows. thank you -- my staff takes a lot of pride in the work in the shows. thank you for recognizing that. to highlight some of our operating budget initiatives, i talked about this last year and as a pleased to report we fully implemented an aquatics organization which will improve accountability of pools. we're using these strengths from our recreation model and adopting them to our aquatics division. we have full-time managers or coordinators that are swimming pools, and we have a much more flexible mix of staff that does

live guarding and swimming lessons. it has enabled us to actually offer more hours of service. as opposed to having a certain number of staff at a swimming pool in the middle of the day when it is scarcely used. we have more flexibility were written staff up in the mornings, evenings, and weekends when our swimming pools are most active. we have been able to increase our swimming pool hours as a result. we are reinvesting $300,000 this year of our new additional recreation revenue to create an additional recreation program hours. again, our recreation programs have been incredibly popular. many programs that very long waiting lists. so we are taking some of the good news we have gone from our recreation organization, and we are reinvesting it back into the departments so we can continue to offer more quality programs. i want to take this opportunity to point out that one of the things we're most proud about as a department is our fundamental principle that nobody in our

department has denied access services based on ability to pay. when i started in the department about 3 1/2 years ago, going into my fourth year now, we subsidized about $80,000 worth of programs, recreation programs, through our scholarship fund. this year we are up to $700,000. we have basically given $700,000 worth of scholarships to make sure nobody is denied access to our programs because of an inability to pay. we have a custodian as-needed program. it has been fundamentally critical. we have been able to manage to make sure that the rest rooms are open when they're supposed to be and closed when they're supposed to be. we're very proud about that. supervisor chu: quickly on that point, in terms of your as- needed pool to deal with problems that may emerge for

your custodial staff, do have something that is similar for the gardener program? supervisor avalos spoke to some of the maintenance successes, but in my district, on the converse, we have seen a decline in services, mostly because, from my understanding, we have the evidence is, people who are away. we do not have partners to maintain that the land. so we have seen grass that is severely overthrown, trash developing all of those areas, especially for some of the newly renovated parts. do you have something similar to your as-needed to still be all -- custodial part to deal with these issues? >> we do not. we have 13 gardiner sadr on some form of long-term leave -- we have 13 gardeners that are on long-term leave. we do not have the ability to back-fill.

we estimate we're probably 50 to 60 gardeners short based on our acreage. we have 13 people on long-term leave, it requires us to spread the resources pretty thin. again as-needed pool for gardeners is something we like to see. it would be helpful to make sure particular sections are managed while someone is on leave. supervisor chu: supervisor wiener? supervisor wiener: thank you. same issue. i know sort of the decimation of the rec and park gardening staff of the last number of years has had a huge impact on the department's ability to maintain our park properties. i mean, it is amazing what the department has been able to do given the lack of staffing. i am very interested in trying

to find the funding to add in maybe five as-needed gardener staff. can you talk about what that would enable the department to do? >> it would be five as-needed positions. roughly two and a half full fte's we could use to cover a lot of those vacancies. if there is a long-term absence, for example, in district four, along the great highway, i do not have the same number -- we equitably assign our permanent gardening staff among our park service areas which are a blend of supervisorial district. we have six service areas and golden gate park is its own, and we have natural areas. what it would do is it would allow us to cover a park when a gardener was out for relief of

time, and that would be extraordinarily helpful. supervisor wiener: shifting over to park patrol. another has been a lot of discussion lately, including this week, about some of the vandalism that has been happening on our park properties, but there are other issues as well. we constantly hear from people about, you know, that the rules are not being followed in some parks and situations where there is not enough of a response from the department. and i know that the park patrol stuff is pretty depleted. can you talk about what the current situation is with park patrol and what that means? i know so many have to be at candlestick or in golden gate park. in terms of our neighborhood parks, what that really means with current staffing levels. >> there is a little bit of good news, as the mayor noted last week at the board, which is this

year we actually did get through a civil service process and were able to fill some long standing vacancies. we are in the process of filling two more positions. but even at full staff, our park patrol operates 24 hours a day/seven days a week. and even a full complement of staff, we have enough resources to essentially cover candlestick and two positions in the field at any one time. for example, at night, when we probably have three park patrol officers typically on duty, assuming we do not have absenteeism or somebody on long- term leave and we try to manage our overtime at very carefully, we have somebody assigned to candlestick to keep an eye on the facility. we have a park patrol officer in golden gate park. and one part patrol officer for everywhere else. look, i have said this before, nothing good happens in our