there because the botanical garden society, funded by the society and we very much appreciate the cooperation that we have from the city and from the parks and recreation to help make the garden as good as it can be and better and world-class. some of the trees that are there were not there when my children were tiny. i bring my grandchildren there to see them, and something like the handkerchief tree, which is a beautiful tree with tiny flowers with branchs that float like a hand kerchief in the wind along with other plans in the cloud forest collection because of work done by the botanical garden society. morning aspect talked about is the library and justed yesterday in the garden i spoke with a young woman who was

visiting the garden for many years and takes classes at city college and studies at the garden. up with other aspect cooperation of the agreement and cooperation with the city are the many opportunities for volunteers. there are hundreds and hundreds of volunteers there. these volunteers have an opportunity to have an engagement with their community, something that enriches their lives and enriches the lives of san franciscans who visit there and enjoy the benefits. so i urge you to support this lease agreement. >> thank you. >> joseph, lawrence, barry- [speaker not understood] . >> good morning commissioners,

i am here to speak? support of the new lease and management agreement between the department of recreation and park and the botanical garden society. the new agreement will replace the initial agreement, which was implemented in 2002. by way of introduction, i am dr. joe -- i serve as a life member of the board of the botanical garden society and serve as an adult docent and children docent and my wife and i are the circle of strybing contributors. the garden became a major focus of my community service before, but especially after my retirement in 2003. by the time i became a -- or about the time i became a board member, the society became concerned that since the beginning of the private-public partnership we had no written agreement establishing the parameters of our working

partnership, which would layout the specific responsibilities of each partner. we worked hard and long with the help of pro bono legal counsel, and with the department to establish the first memorandum of agreement implemented in 2002. i think the experience that both partis have gained in our working relationships since then has provided an excellent background for the formulation of the lease and management agreement before you today. in my opinion after reviewing the major points of the agreement, the document seems to me reasonable, practical, comprehensive and lays out clearly the responsibility of both parties. if adopted the agreement would help facilitate the continued development of botanical garden into an evening more effective institution than today. the san francisco botanical

garden has earned an international reputation of serving well the people of san francisco, the bay ar, and beyond, with its collections of plant and it's programs. by adopting the agreement, the commission will affirm the intent of the community of supporters of the garden to continue to educate children and adults of the area, in this critical relationship of people and the world of plants. not only now, but in the future. thank you. >> thank you. >> lawrence. >> good morning, commissioners, my name is lawrence pitts, i am a 44-year resident of san francisco and

profession of neurosurgery. things that struck me very on the fragrance garden with many plants with lovely smells and braille signs so poorly-sighted people can enjoy that part of garden and wandering through the garden one day, young german visitor wanted to see a rare plant and took him over to the chain link fence that is covered with the species. it's a remarkable place. it's a living museum. and it requires ongoing support as a museum has to do. the extraordinary partnership with rec and park that has supported the botanical garden with the society, providing major resources for education, for maintenance of plants, for addition of new plants and for

around the world. it's just an essential partnership that needs to continue and the new lease and management agreet will support that and i hope that the commission supports that as well. thank you. >> thank you. [ reading speakers' names ] >> thank you. my name is barry galvin, third generation san franciscan and i have a son and granddaughter who were born here, a real believer in san francisco. i have also been the chair of the docents. and i look upon many volunteers and the docents as the real boots on on the ground. we are the face that people see when they come into the garden and i think having the

cooperation between the city, the botanical garden society makes it a very special place. i have visited many botanical garden in many other parts of the world and i think we do a superjob in represent the garden and i think this cooperation speaks to the city and i would ask you to support this agreement. >> next speaker. >> good morning. i think it's still good morning. >> it is. >> and i follow barry as the

docent council chair and you will find docents in the garden every single day of the year, regardless of holidays and the weather. we are there. and we are working of course as you know with children, as well as with adults. and we are there to help people enjoy the garden, to enjoy it's benefits. we are there to help them understand how plants grow, how plants thrive? what the conservation ethic of the garden is? both within san francisco, within california, and of course, within the whole world. and we are there to share our knowledge, and our responsibility for the garden. and we want to see that flourish. i want to be sure ththe

botanical garden is well-cared through, through a flourishing future and as we often joke at the garden, a flourishing future well beyond our lifetimes. we see this garden as stretching into the years of our children, our grandchildren and our great grand children. thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> next speak, do we have monica or helen here, please? >> good morning. i am helen mckenna and i am a science educator and i was thinking on my way here this morning i have been a science educator in san francisco for 50 years. i taught in the san francisco unified school district and san francisco state and for the last six years i have been teaching at the garden. at the garden i am a volunteer.

at other places i was paid. so i do it out of love for what i call "a scientific institution." i think that garden doesn't really convey a role in the community. we are a repository of 8,000 plants. we have a staff, 4-6 curators who catalog the plants and who label those plants. we have the only garden map geopositioning map of plants and i think i have mentioned before you can go online, any one, any citizen in the world can go online and see our plants with photographs and names. they are all located by bed. this is a scientific institution. this is, if you will, a living collection. and i think we have a responsibility as a society to preserve this collection, along with our book collection. we have over 8,000 volumes of

are open to all people who come into our library. and we actually lend them to children who come in. so i think the society has been responsible for creating a scientific institution just as venible and just as important as our neighbor the academy of science. i appreciate the opportunity you have given us to create such an institute in partnership with the city and i believe that the society is the best steward of that legacy. thank you. >> thank you. >> if there is anyone else who would like to speak, just come forward and speak. come on up. anyone else? yes, just line up. she is going to speak and you can follow her. >> thank you. my name is joann taylor. i am a docent for the past 16 years. but my connection started many years before. first, growing up in the

sunset, next to golden gate park and later as a member of the society. i have watched the garden that has grown ever better. based on my experience with the previous agreement, i feel that the new agreement will provide a tangible structure and a meeting point, so both the city and the society can continue to function well in support of this amazing botanical garden and arboretum. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker and if there is anyone else, could you please line up by the door? thank you. >> good morning, commissioners. >> good morning. >> my name is barbara campanoli and i am a retired san francisco police officer of

30 years and i am in my third year as a docent at the san francisco botanical garden society and i take the little ones on tours exploring the gardens and it's a blast. i am having the best time ever. and i want to thank helen mckenna, who was my instructor. i was able to take affordable botany classes through the botanical garden society. so that i could learn a little bit about pollenation and the hard work that those icky bugs do to create this amazing place called the botanical garden arboretum. it's fabulous. i just encourage you to vote for this 30-year lease. so i can keep playing with them. i love it. thank you. >> thank you. >> okay. is there any other public

comment? being none, public comment is closed. >> i'm sure we get some commissioners to weigh in on this. i want to make some preemptive comments to frame this. i read the letter from dennis and i this there are good points in in it and i wish they would have come to committee and worked them out before coming here, because i think they have merit. i don't believe at a rec and park commission meeting that we can work out all the detail and get all the answers to all the issues in a constructionive way. so what i want to suggest is to get comments from commissioners, but to end up in a place where we give those comments to the staff and the staff and the society weigh in on all of them. because as i say, i think there are some good ones and i will say that i think the name is an important one and it ought to

stay as the strybing arboretum and historically as it has always been. i think serving the public with that language has merit as well and i also think that regularly scheduled food trucks and no advertising on vending machines is good ones, but as i say, this is not the place to try and do that, but with my can send our recommendations to the board of supervisors, when they consider this. so with that, i would like to start with commissioner low. >> i read dennis' letter as well and i want to address a couple of items. isn't the name of the tenant the san francisco botanical

garden at strybing arboretum. is there any naming issues at the actual botanical gardens? >> in terms of? >> using that name? because that name is throughout the lease. >> yes, there is no intention to change the name of the arboretum. >> and then looking at the assignment and subletting clause it's pretty broad and it includes anybody using the gardens other than itself. it requires the consent of the general manager and it's sole and absolute discretion and wouldn't that include the concerns of cell phone towers? food trucks? vending machines and other concessions? >> yes. >> so maybe the way to address

those points is to say that the general manager has the discretion to withhold its consent to those uses. those are my only points and i think that covers most of the issues in dennis' letter to us regarding use. because i think it is captured in the assignment and subletting clause. i'm leaving probably my colleague to address hours of operation and fees, but i think with respect to the concerns for other uses of the premises, we do capture in the assignment and subletting clause. >> commissioner harrison. >> i was looking at the amount of money received there was $1.3 million, nick?

and then that the department derives $750,000 out of that $103 million and aside from collecting those fees there is $550,000 left, where does that go? >> the total revenue was $1.3 million and the remaining $1.3 million minus $750,000 are both operating expenses and initial capital investment to build the kiosks and get the program up and running. >> so it just going back -- any excess funds going back into the garden? >> the fee issue itself isn't before you today, but the way

that this has worked as you recall, this happened during a time of profound budget challenges from which we are not completely out of. >> right. >> that the $250,000 that has gone to the department each year essentially pays for three of the 11 gardeners that are there. there is a -- and then the society pays for the 11th. so now we have basically subsidized through this program four of the 11 gardeners. and as you recall, if i can just sort of provide some context as to why we did this, is that the 55 acres has 11 gardeners and this location requires an intense amount of care and nurture and maintenance. and we were looking for some strategies to help subsidize the costs of that, so that we can continue to operate many other parts of the city and other facilities. >> i think the essence of the answer to commissioner

harron were some capital start-up costs that had to be put in effect in order to capture those fees and that is why it looks like a large number initially. >> correct. >> also, there is $250,000 here that goes to the arboretum society for outreach and stuff. who did the outreach before we started collecting these fees? >> the $250,000 that -- so the way this would work in the future and again, this is in the lease and the fee it'll will be before the board. the way this would work is that first costs are reimbursed from the revenue that comes from in from the fee. operating costs are reimbursed. second the department gets the $250,000 to substance subsidize the three gardener and grant or give $250,000 to the society to subsidize the

in-kind services and we're basically helping to subsidize the programming at garden, which we this is important and after that the remaining money goes to deferred maintenance. so we have money for costs, money for staff, money for youth programming. money for maintenance. >> so let me get this straight. if the fee itself then relieves -- these fees that we pay to the gardening, to support the gardening staff and their activities and relieves the department from putting that out of our regular general fund? >> the programming -- no, it basically helps the society provide the programming without the revenue there wouldn't be the programming or the programming would have to be curtailed. so the second $250,000 that goes to the society or the money that goes

to the society is going to subsidize the youth programs and activities. >> commissioner levitan. >> i am just echoing what some of my colleagues already have said and i expect that we'll work on this and staff will work on this before it gets to the board, just on name especially. you know, to make sure that we're totally consistent in this lease, and that we are clear about the location of the strybing arboretum to make sure that is included correctly. and the subleasing, because cell towers are not an option and i want to make sure that we're really, really clear when we work that out. thank you. >> seeing no other questions from commissioners, i want to ask the general manager then to work with the society and the staff and put together a

response to the recommendations in the letter that can go to the board of supervisors recommending that changes be done there rather than here. >> okay. >> with that, can i entertain a motion. >> move to approve. >> second. >> moved and seconded. all those in favor? >> aye. >> thank you very much. >> we are now on item 12. state grant lack merced boat launching facility improvemented. >> good morning commissioners, my name is toni moran the grant manager for the planning and capital improvement division and the item before you is a grant for lake merced launching improvements and this particular report is requesting four actions from the commission related to the grant. first action is to adopt a

resolution to retroactively apply for a $500,000 grant from the department of boating waterways, for improvements to the public boat launch at lake merced. the second action is a resolution -- >> we have something on the overhead. >> thank you. yes. this is the area where the project is located in lake merced on the north lake. the second action is a resolution authorizing the general manager to enter into a grant agreement with the department of boating waterways for the scope of work. the third action is to direct the staff to move forward with design and environmental review for the project and the fourth action is to recommend to the board of supervisors to accept and expend the grant. so on the overhead you see the project location. it is in lake merced. it is the public boat launch on the north lake. currently the facility is quite old and in bad shape.

jim is providing some photos here. this is jim wheeler the recreation manager for aquatics and leisure services and he will provide photos from time to time. a little background on this. in 2012 the recreation and park staff met with the department of boating and waterways to discuss potential funding opportunitis to improve this public boat launch. the department of boating waterways has a unique program where they come out to the site before they allow you to apply for their grant funding. they will come out and look at the site and do topography, maps and try to determine the best location. and types of improvements for your boating facility. so they met with us back in december, and then later in december, they approached staff asking us to submit an application for $500,000 for some department of

boinrant funds. it just so happens that at this time, it was towards the end of the year and there was $500,000 that needed to be allocated before the end of the year. so we went ahead and moved forward with the application to make improvements to this particular facility. in march our department was notified that we were awarded the $500,000. the scope of work that was in that grant application involves demolishing this facility, demolishing the old dock and constructing a new low-board doke and improvement to the access road, and installation of ada parking so the design is included in the staff report it's attachment 3. the total project cost is $621,000. at the

time of the report we had the $500,000 grant and identified funding sources for the costs that we identified in the project budget. those funding sources are the costco funds and funds from the mayor's office of disability. part of the grant program requires that the commission certify that before we initiate construction of the project, that we have secured all the funding needed to complete the project. and so that is why we are sharing information about the two additional funding sources. at this time, i would like to ask -- if you have questions, jim miller can come up and discuss a little bit about the current condition of the ramp or provide more information on the scope of work.

>> do we have public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners. >> moved. >> seconded. >> all those in favor? >> aye. >> thank you. >> would you like to go to the general manager's report? >> i think i would like to hear what he has to say. >> thank you, commissioners. i will try to be brief -- sorry. >> i was just going to say we're on the general manager's report, go ahead, phil. >> we have a couple of items for people waiting patiently and if you could just hang with me for a few moments. i am sorry i was late i was an event for the san francisco police league at harding and they were honoring supervisor elsbernd and i was there with a number of people honoring sean and the course is looking great. i told them cart path only, not allowed to drive on the fairways. and our rec and park team is jo

for the return of the schwab cup in october. eye going to start with golf and tell you a story that you may or may not have seen of the first tee of san francisco, the mentoring youth that partner with. rayon griffin, a student at apg middle school won a national video contest sponsored by wells fargo and his winning video he talked about how important the first tee has been for him and the lessons he has learned about life through the game of golf and he had the opportunity to play with professional golfer ricky fowler during a pro-am event at the wells fargo championship two weeks ago and this 13-year-old completely undaunted by playing with a professional golfer and stepped up to the first tee and ripped

a shot and went on to break 1 00 for the round, becoming an instant hit for the spectators and media. this got national and international exposure and i thought it was worth noting and we're very proud of our relationship with the first tee and this first story shares. >> i had the golf channel on accidentally and saw the whole thing. >> accidentally. [ laughter ] >> last week the california coastal commission voted unanimously to uphold the project at the west wednesday of golden gate park and perhaps the most vetted soccer field in u.s. history and the vote means that the renovation project can move forward. i wanted to thank you all for your pati i