mike cohill, thank you very much. and this is a special one for somebody who has been working pretty hard, ken rich. (applause) ...

>> this is the meeting of the recreation. >> call role. >> commissioner boner. >> harrison. >> present. >> and commissioner levoton does have an exkugsed absence. if you could turn off any electronic sounding devices that could go off, we would ask that you take any secondary conversations outside in order for the meeting to provide as efficiently as possible. if you would like to speak on an item today, we would ask that you complete a blue card and get it to me. each person will have three minutes on public comment on each item unless otherwise announced by the president of the commission. and if there is an item of interest today that is not on the agenda, you would speak

under general public comment and that is item 4 and then continue again at item 11. last if you would please address your comments to the commission during public comment on items and in order to allow equal time for all neither the commission or staff will respond to any questions during public comment. the commission may ask questions of staff after public comment is closed. and with with that, we are on item 2, which is the president's report. >> thank you. very briefly. it is with mixed feelings that i announce that commissioner larry martin has resigned from the commission. i think the stated reason was just probably that he's getting old as we are all. that was larry. >> i'm not that old. >> larry was pointed the

commission in the year 2000 so he served 13 years on the recreation park and he was on the commission. he'll enjoy full retirement now and in august i hope we'll present him with thanks and recognition to his recreation and parks dement. a couple of weeks ago we had a dedication at the new marina at the yacht harbor and they gave us $27 million for that project and there were other funders but that was the bulk of it, and i just wanted to acknowledge staff, phil, i thank everybody on it. it was a long haul. lots of community meetings and input and in the end it came out better ha i think anybody ex -- it came out

better than neb expected and it looks beautiful. and he want to thank katie and anna and mary hopkins for all the work they did to make that a reality. and lastly, i see that this saturday at 10:00 we're going to dedicate sue bareman park so i want to say it's an appropriate recognition of a woman who gave to the planning commission and many others and the board of supervisors but 10:00 saturday we'll be dedicating that facility. that concludes my report. >> is there any public comment under the president's report. seeing none. we're on the general manager's report. >> good morning commissioners. i have items for you today. i want to wish you a happy park and recreation month. it's national park and recreation month. the board passed a

resolution declaring the month of july of recreations and park of san francisco. i want to highlight events from the month. at the board of supervisors hearing that that resolution was passed the board recognized 47 teachers that participated in this stewart program. we were thrilled to present these educator with certified of an appreciation and thank them for their great work. our volunteer division and our gardeners to cultivate the next generation. a big shout out to kimberly keefr who run the team for the recreation and park department. last week we sell bralted the yacht harbor and it was a fantastic

event. other upcoming events, also as commissioner brul noted, park play ground, we should coordinate these things before we get up here. >> it was saying twice. >> saturday july 20, this is a big -- we had a lot of support from this from the water front community who really drove this project. of san francisco parks alliance has been an important person in adding a program. on august 3rd we get to cut a ribbon on the cabrille la park play ground. so the -- all of your work and leadership on the 2008 and 2012 is here. we've received our 4th quarter park maintenance -- our park

score is 91.24 percent. a one percent increase over last time. and our rating for the year three quarters up from last year. we abtamed our goal and it has been nearly three years since someone had below that in our parks. speaking of parks, in partnership with the labors local 261 and this commission we're getting ready to host the william hall awards next thursday. this allow us to -- and to recognize 13 of our colleagues for their specific achievements throughout the past year. we'll celebrate the graduation of our first class of gardener a pren tis. please join us. i wanted to give you a quick

update on summer camps. we're halfway through the summer and so overall on the recreation side of the house our initial reports on our registration numbers reflects how popular our summer camps have been and what a great job our staff is doing. we've had 14,481 registrations and that's an 11 percent increase since last summer. we're at 89 over capacity. that's great. that means our programs are full and that's what we want and we're being sufficient with our funds. we awarded 4,000 scholarships. at a price tag at $80,000 worth of scholarships so everyone gets an opportunity to play with us this summer. i think it's worth noting that we've hired 250 of the city's youth this summer working with us as

assistant camp counselors through our partnership with the department of youth and they've been around for 50 years. to wrap up this summer, we'll host a play date on july 31st. it's one of our four family friendly events. city youth will be treated to a day of sports and carnival rides and summer fun. you are all invited to attend july 31st. so, the giants are struggling a little bit. but the san francisco youth baseball league is nine under all star team and the pony title at the super regionals in brentwood california this past weekend and they now advance to the west zone championships in southern california beginning this saturday. this is the first time in more than 15 years that a san francisco pony league team has advanced this far in the tournament sequence and we want to wish them the

best as they continue their quest to be the best in the west. when their season runs out, maybe we'll bring a couple of our all stars here to celebrate with them. on a serious note, i do want to take a moment to commend our meter staff for the great job they're doing, but for being great neighbors to our friends to camp tawanga. on july 3rd, camp tawanga experienced a defb treating accident. they had a tree fall in the middle their campground. it claimed the life of one of their counselors and injured four other people. there was an amazing response be the park service, local emergency management, but our staff was involved too. our staff was right on the phone with tawanga and we cooked

breakfast for the camp the next morning and offered a variety of other assistance so i want to commend larry mcmisby and i had the great for tune of being there. we hosted -- we hosted a regional neighbor or regional partner meetinging we call them. this is our first time hosting it and it was 40 people for lunch and representatives of the national park service and the us forest service. all of the local camps in the area and the directors of twanga was there and the nature bridge were there. our friends from ever green up the road were there. and it's such a smart thing to do. the importance of having relationships up there, you know, couldn't be emphasized more by what

happened at twanga and knowing who to call. i was impressed with the job that our staff did in hosting this luncheon and building relationships with our regional partners. some great budget news. the board of supervisors on tuesday passed the 2013-14 budget on first reading and i am so thrilled to report that it includes add back funding for the department to open and program some extra recreation facilities. one extra facility in each district. we've worked with the supervisors to identify where the need is and it has to match where we've got programic need but we'll program eight clubhouses five-days a week, 20 hours a week. we will be -- we have funding to open two

recreation centers one additional day a week. and extend the mission pool season, that's our only outdoor poor from six months to nine months a year and we'll have a date for that shortly. we have a new wreck specialist to manage our program. it has been a long road. i don't think we're out of the woods yet, but this is fantastic news. this is on top of what was already a very strong budget that added two new gardener apprentise program. and adding a custodian to the park. and additional funding for projects such as the keys our track which was funded. and improvement and replacement of

pumps and other irrigation through the system. the mayor was supportive in this budget and we're appreciative. all of that capital stuff, the a pren tis and everything i mentioned was in the mayor's 13-14 budget and i think it's a testify to the leadership of this commission and the hard work of staff and the passion of this city's advocates that this recreation add back happen and we're thrilled. we would deliver programs and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week if we can do it. we're not there yet and we still have challenges so i don't want to suggest we're out the woods but this is for the first time in four years we're talking about opening things, not closing them. and it's just incredible news. >> a little bit more good news. thanks to the good hard work

of staff this past week, we received two -- three significant grants. a habitat grant of $130,000 which is going to support the development of our creeks to peace connecting glen canyon to trail peeks. it's repairs of handrails, decommissioning of social trails and implementation of hazardous tree removal. and another grand of $250 to support the bike park phase one which is multi use bike trails for riders. you approved the concept plan for the bike park several months ago. we've had great advocates that have worked and achieved a community fund grant and we have successfully done our part by achieving this grant to make this project a reality. and then lastly on the good news,

commissioner low, you mentioned that chevrolet had given all star mvp a new car and they're giving us field renovation. we begin work tomorrow on a field renovation at baseball field in the sunset. you've accepted this grant in june. the project is a grant from the local baseball non profit fbbr and funned through chevrolet. the project is not as valuable as mr. rivera's car. then the san francisco giants received a similar award from chevrolet. and have chosen to award the grant to the recreation park department to do repairs s on james park ground. they selected it as a ben fishary.

some great results and we'll bring that grant back to you in august. at the end of the fiscal year, i want to thank the staff who recently retired. we've had a hurt of retirements and we're going to honor one in particular raymond coats, jeff kollin, john, and park supervisor, devita and carlene rock wood. and ty. cota and veterinarian gail, they're off to enjoy the pleasures of not working. and we wish them all the best and we're thankful to them and

their careers. we're please today have one retiry. and thank you for his 26 years of service. he has been instrumental in the successful outside lands festival in golden gate park. there has been discussions about naming it the germet. i'm not sure it's going to happen but we're trying. i've had just a great pleasure of knowing hue over the last four years and i like to say, hey you and he laughs at my dumb jokes and we go there. hue has been one of recreation and parks finest. he's devoted to land stewart ship, but he has understood the complexity of managing golden gate park. there's a lot of demands on the park and the responsibility of balancing its

echo logical stewart ship with the public quest for activities and fund events is a tricky one for a gardener and hue, you have done it with grace and a plum you and you -- i like to ask staff to be our ambassadors out in the field and hue has been an ambassador for this department and i'm sad and no one asked me permission for you to retire so i'm not over this but we don't want to celebrate you today and we have a certificate and want you to come up and say a quick word or two. >> i need to sit down.

>> i want to thank everyone in the recreation and park department for making my job easy. i want to thank you guys for doing what you do in the political arena to make my job work. he want to thank my boss for doing what he does, beating the bushes, keeping us all honest, moving it forward. it has been difficult these past couple of years as we all know and i think you guys have done a super job of feeding us so we can get our job done. so i want to thank you for making my job easier. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> this month marks recreation and parks employee recognition and i like to bring up ken gee to announce the winner of this

quarter. >> hi, good morning commissioners and general manager. my name is ken gee and i'm the director for the recreation and park department. i'm proud to be here to introduce christopher campbell as the recipient. christopher began his career as a gardener with the recreation and parks dement in 1996. after being a gardener for over 17 years he was appointed as a parks supervisor this past february. christopher was nominated by waen, the superintendent and for his achievements, sharp park is a sensitive area containing threatened and endangered species and the city is obligated to project. in addition to federal over sight

on ongoing activities at sharp park are highly scrutinized by the department. in order to improve the site, the sea wall which protects wet lands and habitat for the california red fog and the san francisco gardeners, they had to be replaced. in addition to be sensitive in terms of environmental protection and public interaction, this project was constrained by funding and timing. christopher and his areas had two weeks to clear approximately three quarter mile area of sharp park. the crew had to clear the vegetation and monitor the vegetation for the snakes and the frogs. interact with the public and make sure the contractors installed the fence with 30 conservation measures

and the objectives of the project. christopher managed the construction and documented there if project and received training from the california red legged frog and qualified as a monitor. as our activities perform outside requires monitoring, his expertise is required. they saved $20,000. on behalf of the san francisco recreation dement we thank christopher for his dedication and look forward to his continued success. >> come up. we're going to give you a certificate. i'm going to be more concise. you're an incredibly talented individual. you're a joy to work with and your role in this department is a grille and

we're lucky to have you on board. >> thank you very much phil. >> speak into this mike. >> thank you phil. i appreciate that. i wanted to thank the commission and the department for recognizing the importance of wild life as well as recreationals in our park systems. and thank you for recommending me for this award and pushing the 3422 park section supervisors forward and making that happen. and i'd like to take the opportunity to thank lisa, my friend and i've worked with her for the last year and i understand that she recognizes my abilities and allowed me to advance in my field. thank you very much lisa. and i like to acknowledge the rest of the natural areas program staff for all that they bring forward. i

think we're only as good as people we're around and i'm happy to come to work everyday. i love my job and love working for the department and the leadership that the department has well. thank you very much. >> now we get to a treat in honor of national recreation month. it's a produesers cut. it's not quite finished yet but we're so excited about it.

it's a best of department that we decided to let this very intimate gathering and those of us watching at home take a -- just a look at a rough cut of the best of rpd. ♪ as you go

down this familiar road. just know you're not alone. because i'm going to make this place your home. ♪