that is coming to us will hurt the youth because the summer programs are also working inside the gardens and the youth. if you have a 17-year-old that's, you know, really her first time or his first time working inside of a garden and they want to go into the apprenticeship program within the next year to gain the experience to help the leaders in the city to help take care of our parks. because as you know, with a principle disships, with appreciation it can be sustainable. please look out for us. we need you all. thank you. >> thank you. good afternoon, everyone. my name is jackie flynn. i'm the executive director of the [speaker not understood]. from what i heard today there is no doubt rec and park has amazing facilities. they have prided themselves on maintaining these facilities. i work in the bayview.

i work to prepare young adults and san francisco residents for their first-time entry, but also reentry into the workforce, to maintain sustainable families in strong communities of color in the city. and as vanessa was saying, green agers is a great program that i recently recruited 11 district youth to participate in this year. it is an environmental leadership program that peek's their interest to our open space. in programs like that as well as the [inaudible]. in creating hope and pride for residents that come from low-income communities in the city, each apprentice that is [inaudible] complete a three-year program. and we all know that can be difficult for working families and those that already struggle to make ends meet. our founders, [speaker not understood] as well as [speaker not understood] forged a relationship between labor and communities of color. so, it is definitely a little

concerning when we are called by the laborers to [inaudible]. but i [inaudible] have understanding and supporting the efforts to a resolution to keep these parks as beautiful as they are, but also keep those workers that keep them beautiful. we're strong supporters of the laborers, also continuing the gardening program. and we feel that every apprentice who completes the program, which means [inaudible] the success and excellence shall receive full-time positions with the department. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. more cards. lucas tobin. colin schmidt. angela bailey. kim mitchell. and john rowley. thank you, supervisors.

my name is neil butcher. i live in the richmond. good to see you, supervisor mar, again. i'm a native san franciscan and i've been using parks all my life. and i can tell you it's been a lot of change in these parks, particularly in the last several years. and [inaudible]. apprenticeship program, but i think i have seen some of their results. a friend of mine, jeff gordon [inaudible]. but i believe he's already sent it to you, so, i'll spare you that. but i just want to speak in [inaudible]. the other day i was driving across cross over drive [inaudible]. and [inaudible]. i was stuck in traffic as you always are on cross over. it was remarkable to me. i kind of stopped and i looked

over and i was like, dabtionverctiontion, ~ dang, this looks great out here. this is the western end of the park which is the most neglected [inaudible]. so, i get that. but it doesn't have to look [inaudible]. particularly along the drive. i think it looks great now. and then one other thing in terms of specifically phil ginsberg. he showed up at a ymca board -- richmond ymca board the other night. really remarkable example of partnership, in my mind. it was late in the evening. he didn't have to be there. but he just showed up to say that he wanted to be a partner with another organization that's important to at least supervisor mar's district. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. next speaker, please. hello. i work for park and rec and also

varsity baseball coach for june high school. park and rec 20 years, retired. as you well know. the park system how well they've improved. i've just been offered a lot of support by the staff that i work for. and i've seen the great things that we do here in san francisco for the kids and the community. and that's why i'm here to offer my support for our staff and for park and rec as a whole. that's it. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to speak. my name is angela bailey. i also work for america [speaker not understood]. this year phil ginsberg has been [inaudible]. [inaudible].

looks out for users first and foremost. i think the department, police chief, fire chief, or members of the local community have been classified or he has, as an incredible public servant. his equity and enthusiasm for the san francisco residents he serves will definitely leave a lasting legacy for all users and opportunities for every family and kid to come. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. good afternoon, supervisors. [inaudible]. with san francisco recreation and parks and also seiu member. and i had the honor of being part of the labor management [inaudible]. organize our recreation services a few years back. and i saw firsthand in those meetings and in those planning sessions that ginsberg and our other management's dedication to saving as many jobs as possible and in saving recreation in san francisco.

and as a result of that process, we are absolutely going in the right direction. we are providing best practices [inaudible]. for the first time in my 23 plus years at recreation and parks. i can actually -- i actually can encourage people to apply for jobs here in the recreation field. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. hi, supervisors. my name is mike ross, san francisco resident for my whole life. and i've been with the department for 22, 23 plus years. i love this department, love my job. proud to have the management that we have, definitely taken us out of some dark times and taken us to very bright times. i feel supported. my supervisor is always there for me. and i feel like i'm well supported and i love the direction the department is going.

so, whatever you can do to support us, be the for us because we'll be there for you. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is ken mitchell. i work in the visitacion valley area and i'd just like to say i'm really happy at which way the direction the department is going. that's an under served neighborhood and at this point with our new supervisors and everybody coming on staff trying to figure what we're going to do with all the violence over there, our department has stepped up and did a lot of different things in that neighborhood. i am so happy to be a part of recreation and park department. and i heard [inaudible] we go through a lot of training now since we reorganized. and we're doing a lot of things to make sure everyone that is part of the staff is up to par so we don't get subpar training, subpar programs [inaudible]. if you're going to pay something, we want to have the best. so, i know we really [inaudible].

i'm behind the supervisors. i'm behind our staff. [inaudible]. but it is very important that we understand that we take our time to make a lot of these things happen. i want everybody to have a job. i work in the area where low-income -- we're under served. so, it's a lot of people. i do want to have [inaudible]. permanent like i did. so, my whole point for speakving is speak ~ speaking is just saying we're not adequate in staff or don't have the right training. we're working towards all of that. and i think the staff we have here is working really hard. [inaudible]. we have full time in the city which is very hard for the staff to do. and now [inaudible]. more people waiting on the waiting list to be in our program. i think that's very gig. that tells a big store any itself. so, i do support everything that we're doing. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good afternoon, supervisors. joshua arce with bright line. i think that the hearing that's

been an hour and 45 minutes actually could be distilled because we got off on all kind of different issues. talked about the staff and the leadership and the [inaudible] that's really i think a side issue to the whole fund amount 58 purpose of the hearing that you called, supervisor, which is the apprenticeship program. if you parse through the department, the good stuff that they're doing, you know, the kind of view of the folks that are running the department and all those things which i think is fine, you have the question of the [inaudible]. the apprenticeship program is this, and the union, the laborers say it's this. and there's [inaudible]. it can't be great and it can't be on the verge of essentially undermining to the point of extinguishing the program. there's clearly some big problem and i think that you look at where we go from here.

i mean, there's clearly a lot of unanswered questions. what are the -- what's going to happen to the apprentices that [inaudible]. there's a big issue that we started to learn with respect to contracting out when the serve is he are contracted out. it's not at union scale. [inaudible]. ~ services because it's definitely a problem [inaudible]. sitting here today, i got [inaudible] we heard an hour from the department. i would have loved to hear an hour from the union. but, again, if we're to parse it, i think you disstill the issues, there is a real problem with respect [inaudible]. talking about the apprenticeship program, the landmark, landscaping, apprenticeship program [inaudible]. there is clearly a problem. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. and anyone else who would like

to comment, please line up in front of the tv set by the window. thank you. i think we're going to use the overhead, is that right? we can use the mic next to the computer. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is john [speaker not understood], i'm a member of 261, district 5 resident [inaudible]. 261 [inaudible]. i serve as field foreman and supervisor. i also do all the administration of the program. [inaudible]. liaison in between city college, the state, both departments, the union [inaudible].

and the mayor's office of workforce and economic development. we are a state certified program and co-founder with [speaker not understood],. the union's job is to apprentice workers. ~ [speaker not understood]. so, we need to do something about this. it what over four years ago at this point. [speaker not understood] local 261, need to go about doing this. all the partners, all the players who made it happen. we launched in december of 2010 with 10 gardeners at rec and park. to date we've hired 22 at rec and park. presently 11 are employed. of the 22 total hires, five have promoted to gardner. five were released for not performing, and one resigned. over 70% of our hires are local , budgeted.

60% are women and people of color. we are 100% professional. we're 100% business. we are a zero tolerance for gaming the system. as evidence the by our 22% release rate. [speaker not understood] in scope and location, we work in parks, open space, golf, [speaker not understood], bowling greens just to name a few. we build trails, install plant material, metals, we are heavily involved in stewarding golden gate park with a strong focus -- >> john, that was your time. i have to say a couple more things. >> for the apprenticeship program? i will let you continue. okay, thank you. it is with a strong focus on legacy, people like john

[speaker not understood] that we try to live up to. no job is too big for us. we take on any and all projects. restoration, have restored over 60,000 square feet, correction, of the [speaker not understood] hall. thousands of feet of trail built and maintained. examples of interior greenbelt of 17th and stanyan with [speaker not understood] park two sites along [speaker not understood]. we are prepared harding tpc golf course for the schwab cup, that was a six-month assignment. in addition to really big jobs, when there's a fire to be put out, the department calls apprenticeship. as exampled by the great highway when supervisor carmen chu's office, homeless. we specialize in transforming dead space. we activate huge areas, we have huge community involvement and outreach.

we're working with volunteers. we wear a uniform that i wear every day. [speaker not understood]. we have promoted five incredible individuals who are some of the department's best gardeners. we also have another 11 -- >> can you wrap up? i have to go. half a sec, half a minute. all of these 62 individuals are truly interchangeable, which is the biggest gift to operations. what the program needs is three things. more apprentices, field captains to assist in supervision, and trucks that dump that can handle the weight we throw into them. we are not reinventing the wheel, we are using the wheel. thank you. >> actually i wanted to ask him a question. i really appreciate the blog and the letter that you sent to us. and i know that in the letter you say that we have to stop gaming ways that some people are gaming the system. and i think one of the local

261 leader mentioned that there's nepotism and crone iism. i wonder if you can go into a little more detail about that. i'd rather not get into that political discussion at this time. ~ i'm more than willing to discuss that -- >> >> gaming the system, if you can explain it so i understand it better, it would really help me. okay. for example, i would just defer to how long have you been involved with the city, supervisor mar? there's a lot of game going on. >> just answer the question, mr. early. what are you talking about? i'm talking about, um, special deals. i'm talking about direct dealing. i'm talking about certain classifications, certain trades are treated better than other trades. i could write you a novel. >> i'm just giving you a little

bit more time to explain it. i'd rather not [speaker not understood]. visit us at the blog. [laughter] >> thank you. >> okay. next speaker, please. i think my timing is really good. [speaker not understood] morgan. i'm with friends of the park in the richmond district. i started it 15 years ago with my daughter rosa when i was 18. i have been through -- i have been through jewel, elizabeth, yome and you know i'm usually here to complain. i am here to tell you that i think phil is doing a fabulous job, especially given what he has to work with. i would also like to state after listening to this gentleman speak this is precisely the problem. i was reminded of the demonstration out front. and i want to thank all of our gardeners. you guys have a really, really tough job, okay.

(applause) and we want our gardeners to be well trained and we want them to work hard and be accountable. we need our gardeners. i'm telling those gardeners they do not need the leadership of that person who just spoke and i don't even know his name, okay. i trust phil to do his job. and we actually love you gardeners. come to roshambo park on 26th and california and we'll do a workday. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good evening, supervisors. my name is ramon hernandez from local 261 and i work with over 4,000 members in the city and county of san francisco. i just want to -- i hear they go back and forth, back and forth. the park and rec director

[speaker not understood]. let's fix this problem and let's get it over. let's fix this problem, please. thank you. >> mr. hernandez, can i ask the question i asked mr. early who can't talk about it, but could you just go into a little more detail explaining what the cronyism and the ne advertise many is and gaming the system? i'm just trying to understand that. like how they hire the individuals. the way they hire the individuals i'm very unhappy. you see the [speaker not understood] we have outside. we're here for a reason. they can be bigger than that. the reason we did that, because the way to be hired are gardens. [speaker not understood] go through the hoops to fix all these problems to go forward with the apprenticeship and get the best of the best that the city and county of san francisco and residents. the way they've been picking up the guys, [speaker not

understood] they're not even apprentices. that's pre-apprentices. and we're working for those apprentices on dpw, with the mayor. we hire the pre-apprentices for the pre-apprentices, we are together to, to select and pick and choose those individuals that want to be the good for the city. that's what we ask to be done on the park and rec side, too. i say maybe some 75% san francisco residents will hire 99% of the residents and we have the training, we offer the training together with park and rec to make it happen. so, unfortunately we see it doesn't happen and we haven't seen all these patterns going back [speaker not understood] instead of going forward. let's fix the problem. thank you. >> next speaker, please.

good afternoon, supervisors. my name is oscar grande. i'm an organizer with people organizing for he can no, ma'am economic [speaker not understood] rights. [speaker not understood] parks really has saved my life. i'm familiar with all the parks in my neighborhood from excelsior to the mission. and, you know, similar to supervisor avalos's comment, the quality of the parks are just, just great, especially now that i have an eye as a father. when you're a kid, you really don't care, you know. and i also know that i come from the union family and i know union and great parks go together and go hand in hand. i think we're here to support that you continue and push this conversation and dialogue between whatever discrepancy problems are happening between the laborers and rec and park management. that push this conversation.

this seems like this is an easy fix. the framework is there. the talent is here in the audience. the know-how. we're going to have to get together to come up with fixes. i heard from sprayers some of the young brothers who came up here who work on rec and park from the program side. they're from the neighborhood, they know the neighborhood, they can connect with the kids. that's exactly what we want to see with the maintenance and the gardening program. we want to see locals, folks of color, people that are having a hard time in this economy because we know what's happening in the city with the hyper gentrification and disparity of income and this one sided economic development that the city is pushing. this is one way that we can get our families to continue thriving and putting down roots in the city. ~ so, i support, i support you to continue this conversation and come up with some fixes and bring these sides together. thank you very much. >> thank you. any other members of the public who would like to comment?

please come forward. and seeing none come forward, we'll close public comment. so, in this hearing, i actually appreciate the comments of the last speaker, oscar grande, about the city and its one sided development. we have to look at what i talked about in my inauguration speech. not just talk, about implement programs that specifically bring people up from communities that have less opportunities, make sure we can apply -- provide more opportunity in specific ways, with measurable that we can actually see the difference we're making with our policies. without that, with the city on a run away pathway towards focusing on the downtown, you know, part of san francisco, the developments happening in the central part of the city, we leave out neighborhoods where we have higher unemployment, where we have

generations of san franciscans live there looking for the pathway into local jobs. rec and park with the apprenticeship program can provide that. actually has a blueprint for doing that. it looks good on paper, but i'm really surprised to see that the laborers and the rec and park department are not seeing eye to eye on how this program should work. and actually, very surprises me greatly because i have actually done numerous pieces of legislation. i've done numerous hearings involving the rec and park department. i've actually challenged rec and park department on many of its practices, on many of its fees, and programs. always, i feel like i've been on the losing side of many of those discussions. [speaker not understood] the side the laborers were working closely with rec and park department on the common vision. but it's not happening right now. and actually i kind of think it's important that there is that connection, that relationship for the people who are providing a great service to not just the people of san

francisco, but also to make sure the rec and park department is running effectively. and the gardeners are part of that, the apprenticeship program is a vital part of that and to me it makes sense that we figure out how to or rec and park department and the laborer's union 21 can figure out how to get on the same page and to, to bridge this gap, this divide that's between the two. and i'd like to see that we can have, you know, report back at some point, maybe perhaps in the budget process when rec and park comes before us, that we can actually hear what the progress of that is. that to me makes a lot of sense. and i believe that we owe it to the people of san francisco that this is actually harmonized, that this gets worked out. so, mr. ginsberg, i'd like to hear your thoughts on that last comment and we can close out our hearing. thank you. >> supervisor, we have had and hope to continue to have a

great partnership with 261. i think even throughout some disagreements or concerns with each other about how the apprenticeship program is being administered in some of its detail, one, the communication has been open. ~ lines of communication have been open and it will continue to be open. i believe 261 and rec and park share two very important points. i think both the state of the organization and the department are 100% commit today doing what is in the best interest of the public and in making sure that our parks are clean and safe and that our recreation facilities are welcoming. [multiple voices] >> not about how great the parks are, but how are you actually going to figure out this relationship with your vital part of your workforce? that seems to be a big problem right now. we wouldn't have this room packed with people, we wouldn't have a rally here in front if it wasn't ape problem. how are we going to work it out? >> that's exactly what i was answering, supervisor.

if you let me finish the com. one is i think we have some common interests. and the second common interest i think that we have is in developing and recruiting and making sure that we've got the best workforce within the department. and, so, we will continue to try to work through these issues. >> i'm not interested in hearing how you're going to try. i'm interested in hearing what you're going to do. what are with you going to do to make sure you help bridge this [speaker not understood] happening right now with the union? >> so, as i said, we can continue to sit down and talk to 261. we're happy to have the department of human resource toes participate in that process if that will help. what i heard from this hearing is that local 261 wants apprentices hired as full-time gardeners. the answer to that is yes. i've heard local 261 says that we want equipment and materials and supplies. and the answer to that is all of our staff want equipment and materials and supplies. and we try to provide all of our staff with as much materials and supplies and equipment as we have.

so, we are already working together on the next class of apprentices. we've worked together on changing civil service rules to make sure ensure apprentices to be placed as full-time -- >> the next time you communicate with leadership of 261? >> in the back of the room. [speaker not understood]. okay. so, after this hearing. >> thank you. so, thank you for the [speaker not understood]. thank you to the staff for being here, director callahan. colleagues, i'd like to request that we continue this hearing to the call of the chair and we can bring it back, hear a report back during the budget process. if we can just line up when rec and park comes before us and i think we will be able to have a quick discussion and see how the progress is and we can file [speaker not understood]. >> i think we can do that, supervisor wiener. do you have a comment first? >> yes. thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank everyone who came out today.

and i hope that the department and local 261 will be able to work out their differences. i think we've seen a terrific partnership between, between department and the union on fairly different issues. i think it's been a healthy relationship. and i'm confident that folks will be able to work it out and support the apprenticeship program and support the department and get back on track. and i understood from the union leadership that there are some specific issues that they talk about and i'm sure that they will do that. i do just want to i think second the comments earlier from supervisor mar about making what sounds to me like fairly reckless accusations of ne nepotism or whatever else about the department and declining to actually back up those accusations.