for on an ongoing basis? >> that is correct. >> okay. i may differ on this one, but i actually would not include that as a priority for me. if we are talking about one-time savings supporting from another as an ongoing expense, that just doesn't fit. but also i think in terms of a third position at the youth commission, there are existing two positions or two full level staff in order to support the youth commission. i know that there is a large need in term of being able to get policy or to have people and have the engagement of students and that tasectiontion a lot of efforts. but i also recognize that within our own clerk's office we have a huge amount of needs to do more things like being able to digitize our records, something that we have been woefully behind in. * takes so, if it were my priority, i would not use your salary savings to actually pay for an ongoing position, a third position in the youth commission. personally, i would rather see that money actually go towards getting more ahead of our

digitization programs. and, so, that's my own preference. i think that that may be a different opinion among different supervisors and i'm not sure we're going to have a definitive direction for you on that one. supervisor avalos, any comment? >> i would support the position to be included. i think the work of the youth commission, deepening the voice and strengthening the voice of the young people, play a key role, this is a good position to make that happen. i think all too often we make decisions that don't really incorporate a lot of input from young people and this is key for making that happen. so, i would like to -- at least have it before us that we can see what we're talking about in terms of cost. >> so, madam chair, if i could, may i ask for the permission to fund the position from my salary savings for this current yearv, placing the full salary in the draft budget, for the board then to determine the efficacy of the position in june with some measurements and we will show you in advance to

get your approval on. and then come june if the position does not hold as much value as you would expected it to, that salary could be removed from the department's budget. >> that is a problem i see. once you hire someone, it is very hard and very difficult to actually not -- to say that you're going to terminate that position. >> we can hire them with the expectation that this is a pilot program to be determined by the board. >> right. i guess the other question that it raises for me is what metrics are we using to say what the value of that extra employee would be for this purpose. and, so, not kind of understanding what those metrics would be would be hard. would it be the number of engagements that they have, the number of additional legislation that they put out? there is not really -- and i think people will value that in a very subjective way. so, i just don't think that you're going to get direction, unified direction from this

committee on this item because i truly believe that in a place where we have scarce resources to deal with all the money issues that we have, that currently being able to have two members support youth commission is a good place to be, knowing that we have the possibility to help with digitization of our records that go back so many years that we are woefully behind in. so, you know, personally, i can't, i can't agree that that's the best thing to do, hire someone and say we'll keep you on, maybe we won't. i don't think that's the best [speaker not understood]. so, i think you may have to go back and speak with the majority of the members of the board and just get your feel from those conversations. >> thank you, supervisor chu. >> just a question. are we looking to get additional support to do the digitization of our files? is that something that you

could actually have here before us as a recommendation? you're looking for additional funding for it? you only do that within your existing budget? >> every year the last five years i have brought the issue of digitization before the committee [speaker not understood]. last year's budget i received approval from the committee and the board to hire a position to start the process. and what we have is a position that we utilized previously for it services is actually going to assist us as well. so, we'll have two in-house positions to help us with this, which will be just a part of the it's duties. we will be bringing a proposal to the board in the next year to do that digitizing the board's records. madam chair, i appreciate you bringing that up as i didn't mention it today, but we are on track to bring a proposal to the board to do that. probably -- possibly in june or the following year.

>> is that a project of a certain duration in time or one we expect to be permanent -- >> i understand the puc has 10 years ago started digitizing their records and they are at the precipice of doing that work. we have 2000 boxes in storage. i'm not sure how that compares to the puc's load, but i cannot at this point put a time frame around how long it will take us until we investigate how much time it takes to digitize our records. >> okay, thank you. does that provide the information that you need to move forward? >> it does. thank you very much. >> okay. and then do you need to prepare a file -- >> yes. thank you for bringing it up. clerk young has already done the research for me. he's pulled out a motion, the original motion that it took to competitively bid these services. we are going to amend it together. we'll show it to you and to

you, supervisor avalos, before submitting it to the board on tuesday [speaker not understood] and adopt without reference to the committee. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. with that, can we file this item? >> [speaker not understood]. >> sorry. why don't we open this item up for public comment. are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item? >> no one here but us chickens. >> seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you very much. and can we entertain a motion to file this item? okay. we have a motion to file the item with the direction to the clerk to prepare an item for the adoption without committee reference that reflects the conversation we've had today. and we can do that without objection. thank you. do we have any other items before us? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> thank you. we are adjourned. [adjourned]

>> all right, good evening, everybody, who wants to see a

tree lit? >> happy holidays, welcome to fabulous mcclarin lodge here in golden gate park. my name is phil ginsberg and i am the general manager of your san francisco recreation and park department and i want to welcome you all to the 83rd annual tree lighting. happy holidays for you all. the trust for public land as mr. mayor knows recently named your park the number one park system in the entire united states of america. [ applause ] >> we were also just named as a finalist to host this cool international parks conference in 2015 in which we are going to be welcoming cities from all over the country to learn how we do it here in san francisco. and then, just last month, and a big thank you to all of you,

san francisco voters approved proposition b. the cleanest safe neighborhood parks fund which allows us to renovate and juvinate your parks. 83 years ago, uncle john mcclarin and if you go in the gm office you can see a picture of him. started the tradition of lighting this mile-long stretch of trees started and ending here in front of the lodge where he lived for a number of years. so this, this is san francisco official holiday tree right behind us, uncle john's tree. it is a cyrus that is more than 100 years old closer to 130 years old and tonight it sports over 550 christmas holiday lights.

>> so i really want to give a big shout out to the rec and parks staff that has continued the tradition and i want to thank all of them and single out a few, bob pelosio who organized tonight's event. and i also want to single out loranie bamford whose team put this on and our entire recreation staff. and i want to thank our tree topers who get all the way to the top of this big tree to hang all of its lights. i want to thank our electricians who make sure that the lights go on and i want to thank all of the crews and there are so many people that have a hand in planning the for tonight and give a big shout

out for the hardest working team your rec and parks department staff. [ applause ] >> so we got a lot of special people here tonight, and i really want to single out a few who may or may not be here, i want to thank the rec and park commission, commission vice president tom harrison is here. [ applause ] commissioner page erata is here, glora buna is here and commissioner levatin is here and commissioner allan lowe is here and martin is here and give a shout out to mark who could not be here. and i saw supervisor mark ferrell and his entire family in the house and give him a shout out for him. i want to give... let's give a big special thanks to scott weiner for all. he was out campaigning for the

bond every night. thank you scott. [ applause ] >> i saw tom ewy the director of the department of building inspection who is here and i want to thank him and i want to thank the san francisco parks alliance who is here and the trust for public lands and most of all, i want to thank all of you, all of you for helping make this happen. [ applause ] >> oh, yeah. it is his last official tree lighting as a supervisor. where is he? come on up. yeah, we have already forgotten up here, you have got to come up. a big... our loudest, loudest round of applause for supervisor sean elsbern and his son michael who is here. look at this guy who just showed up in the left-hand part of the stage, our former mayor willie brown who is here. [ applause ]

all right. now, would you... thank you. so now, i want to introduce the city's park champion and chief and of course he shares our vision for making our parks, better cleaner, safer and more fun. he also loves to be in our parks and loves sports and he loves to play and pretty darn good at a game of ping-pong among other activities let's give a big san francisco welcome to our mayor, mayor ed lee. >> thank you, phil. how about another round of applause for phil. >> i am so happy to join you with the supervisors and sean thank you again for all of those wonderful years that you have served the city thank you

very much for being here. to all of the other supervisors, scott weiner and mark ferrel, thank you for your leadership on infrastructure and open space and parks and on supporting families in this city and to the hardest, most effective commission rec and park commission, thank you very much. all of your leadership there. but there is many other people to thank, we have got a lot of things to be thankful for this year. i mean it is not just prop b, we have so many other things that compliment proposition b and our open space, we have a renewed commitment to build infrastructure and see that supports a lot more things because the most thankful things that we have, i think, are the very people that are standing to my sides and in front of me. these are the folks that we are most thankful for because they give us purpose, and focus for this city and where we need to take it.

that is why we build more parks and we invest in our open space. it is for all of these children and the families. i also want to thank all of the sponsors i know three of them are big sports sponsors in the city. and the reflected by the toy train that you see on the side. you will see the caboose, led by golden state warriors. followed by the 49ers. [ applause ] and then two-time world series champions, san francisco giants. [ applause ] >> they give us all of this inspiration and i know that we are looking at some of future players on these teams right here in front of us. so thank you everybody. if i may, during these happy times, when we are thankful for the things that we have and giving thanks for it, please remember the victims that

continue to suffer on the east coast. and they are having a hard time it is very cold over there do anything that you can to help them. there are fellow citizens, they all wish that they could be here tonight. i am absolutely sure of that because everything is working pretty well in san francisco thanks to people like phil and all of the people that work hard especially the parents and the parks alliance and all of you neighbors out here, you help us make the city run really well. so i am thankful for all of you and all of the people that think together for the benefit of the city, so congratulations and have a wonderful holiday. and thank you mayor brown for being here tonight and to join all of us. kids, happy holidays. all right. >> thank you, mr. mayor. so, a couple of other shout outs, our music concourse commissioner is here. [ applause ] and katie from the arts

commission here and supervisor cohen just showed up in santa's sleigh and so speaking of there is a read jeep cherokee on conservatory drive, so if you have a red jeep cherokee you want to move your car. >> also want to thank whole foods for sponsoring tonight's event and so now mr. mayor and i am going to welcome you your predecessor mayor brown and i would like you both to lead us in the count down, are are we ready to turn the lights on? >> the lights only are electricians are literally at the north pole and they can't

flip the switch unless there was a joke about the candle stick. they can only flip the switch from the north pole as we really, really hear them. so before i turn it over to mayor lee and mayor brown to do the count down, i need to hear as loud as you could possibly scream, are you ready to turn the lights on? they said that they heard a dull roar but they could not hear it up at the north pole. one more time. are you ready to turn the lights on? [ cheers ] >> they heard that. all right, mr. mayors all you. >> okay. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[ cheers ] >> it worked. >> i want to learn more about it. >> social networking and e-mail. >> i want to know how to use it. ♪ ♪

♪ >> divisional divide is a divide between those with access to use digital tools and those who don't. >> with young people, having computers and i just don't know. they're doing it fast. so, i want to know. >> not knowing how to navigate the internet or at a loss of what to do. >> we don't have a computer. >> we're a nonprofit that unites organizations and volunteers to transform lies through literacy. our big problem right now is the broadband opportunity program. a federally funded project through the department of aging. so, we're working in 26 locations. our volunteers are trained to be tutors and trainers, offering everything from basic

classes all the way to genealogy and job search. >> to me computers, knowing how to use it. >> i think it's really important to everybody and possibly especially seniors to get enough of these skills to stay in touch. >> it's been fun. with seniors, to get them out of their homes. >> so they can connect with their family members. or their family members. >> [speaking in spanish].

>> so, what we focus on is transferring skills from volunteer to learner to help them get onto facebook, find housing in crisis, be able to connect with friends and family. >> i decided to teach what i learn and it made me want to give back. i discovered that seniors do a lot of review. >> i am a beginner, so, little by little i learn. i learn a lot now. >> if you get the basics, you can learn it. it's simple. it's easy. once you know it. and that's what i want to learn, how to make my life easier and more knowledgeable with the computer. >> so, what we need right now are more people who speak languages other than english or

in addition to english who can give their time during the day and who care deeply ideally about helping to close the divide. >> it's a humbling experience. it's something simple to ask in our daily life, but to someone that doesn't know and to help somebody gain that experience in any way is awesome. >> [speaking in spanish]. >> no matter how tired or cranky or whatever i might feel, when i walk into this place i always walk out feeling great. >> if you feel comfortable using computers and you have patience, we want you on our team. >> would you show me how to type? >> [speaking in spanish]. >> will you help me learn more?

>> welcome to the beautiful historic tea gardens, the oldest in the united states. this provides visitors from around the world to enjoy the natural beauty, harmony and tranquility

of the park in the heart of golden gate park. >> as you can see the garden has a wide variety of plants here, almost a hundred species from japan and china and bamboo and native plants. >> they're trimmed to a human scale so you relate to them on a human level. >> this is one of my favorite sections and you can see the goarnlrous maples by the bamboo back drop and especially beautiful in the fall when the leaves start changing colors. just around the corner from maple lane this little garden is called a zen garden, a dry landscape garden and constructed here in 1953. this was originally designed by zen monks for the ground. their main

purpose was to create a trairchg tranquil setting for the monks. this is no ordinary bridge. it's made of redwood, oak and cedar. the high arch style makes it easy to pass under. the newly refurbished tea house is in the center of the gard scpen a great place to eat and chill as you take in the view of the garden. if you wish you can experience the rich cultural tradition that celebrates the preparation of green tea or matcha and your host dressed in the ceremony will demonstrate how to clean the utensils and receive and drink tea with ancient japanese

customs. the art of the tea ceremony once available only to priests and nobility is completely accessible to you here in the house at the japanese tea garden. located just across from the tea garden is the awesome segue tours there are two ways to use a scooter to venture through golden gate park. tour or a rental in the company of a guard that can whiz you through the park tour and see the conservatory of flowers. >> so much fun. woo. >> segways on a echo way to see gold park. check it out and

stop by after your tour of the tea garden. it's a great way to play in the park. this way you can chill in the japanese garden go to the tea house and then segway here at golden gate park.