types of appeals because the fees are slightly different depending on the type of appeal and i know that there is an request on the board to have us look at reducing the filing fees and i am in discussions with the mayor's office on that and they did not want to make that adjustment. but they are looking at doing it possibly in the next budget cycle and they wanted to have more time to study our fee structure and come up with a foundation for a new proposal and that topic is on the table. >> is there a consideration? >> i don't have any dollar amounts that they are looking at and i think that one of the goals here that we have talked about is try to level them out more and so there is not as much disparity between the amount that a person needs to pay for a filing an appeal of a zoning administrator, determination as opposed to a building permit. >> okay. >> on the expenditure side there is a chart on page 11 that shows you how the board

operating budget is extended and the vast majority as is typical for us is spent on the salaries and fringe benefits of our staff that covers 72 percent of the budget and the services of other departments represents 19 percent of our budget and that largely goes to the city attorney's office and also the department of technology, and their staff provides not only coverage of these board meetings on tv, but also support to us in the office for our data base and other technical needs. the remaining budget to rent and phones and the services of outside vendors which is primarily the folks who provide us with the address for the neighborhood notification and also the interpreters that you will see and the folks that deliver the packet and the remaining two percent that just covers the materials and supplies and i will say that the vast majority goes to the

post-age for the neighborhood mailing. >> you did not want to do a graph of how many dinners you had to provide. >> i guess that i could add that. >> and i was not going to bring that up, madam president. >> very sensitive, she is very careful about it. >> we will give you $20. >> we try to keep the expenses down as much as possible and we came in under budget, 9.2 percent, this year. and so a savings of nearly $90,000. and the savings were found in a variety of areas, and a large chunk was from our decision to use the department of technology for the support of our data base instead of going outside of the cities to a private company. and we also had some reduced spending on our city attorney costs and that was about 14 percent less than budgeted. and a little bit of savings on the sfgtv and it is hard to predict where we will fall and how many hours we will have meetings and so we tend to budget more comfortable for that and then typically not

use the entire budget. >> so actually, sourcing out is what would be more expensive than using the city and county? >> for that particular item, yes. because the data base was developed by the department of technology it would, and it was much more cost effective than to use them for support. >> at the first that is basically an hourly charge if you will? >> it is just like working with a private firm, we are paid by the --. >> billable hours? >> yes, exactly. so, with the revenue surplus and the expenditure savings we ended the year with $210,595, left over. and as you may recall, last year, there was a deferred credit account set up for the board a a rainy day fund and so that money will go into that fund and it is something that can be used in future years if we find ourselves in worse economic times where our revenue is not coming in as projected and we will be able

to use that money instead of going to the city for a general fundal indication. since our sources are passive, we cannot generate how many people are going to get permits or how many people want to file appeals, it is helpful to have that. >> by having a surplus, does that effect what we can request from the city for the fiscal year. >> it is actually a fund that is set aside and it is not considered for us to use when we are generating our next year budget projections so it will not reduce the rates or the fees and it is kept as a rainy day fund in case we have past years and you will see in the chart in the report that looks at the past ten years of on page 11 of the total budget, and you can see that there have been years when you know, we have not made the revenue that we have needed for the operating expenses. >> i remember discussing this last year and that is actually

very prudent and smart. sxhe. other than the things that i have covered the report has a few other items, our performance measure and things that every department has to have to help to measure the performance from year to year and two unique measures and one that looks at how often a board decides cases in 75 days of filing and the other one looks at how often the staff releases decisions been 15 days of the final action and we exceeded both of those goals in the reporting year. and the report also covers staffing and we did for the have any changes to our structure or our staff members and we are lucky to have a team of folks who are staying in place for now and i am actually very pleased to report that this year the clerks finished a really huge job, scanning all of the board's decisions that were issued since the board's inception in 1932 and it has taken a few years to get through all of them, there are more than 30,000 files scanned. >> were you on that bortd, frank?

>> yes, sir >> and these are available in our office and if the people come to ask about the prior cases but they are available in the planning department data base, if someone is going research, they can see the special decisions that effect that property from the board. >> and actually was there, and i know that it does not regard, and it is not regarding revenue, but it was regarding the decision making of the board on how i think that you mentioned we were the most, and we voted together, more often, last year. and was that or would that be in the annual report as well? >> i don't have that information, and how many decision decisions were you man maous verses divided? it will be interesting to look at but i have not and i will make a note of that. >> but there are three appendix in the report and one that gives the detail on the board's jurisdiction and the appeal process and the one that gives detail on the cases heard and a litigation up date and so you

can see three new lawsuits that were filed and the five cases that were resolved and all of the pending cases that are being handled for us by the city attorney's office. and there is actually just one last item that i want to mention that is kind of hidden in this report that is on page 2, where it says, what date commissioner fung joined the board. >> i saw that actually. >> and that was almost ten years ago to the day and so i wanted to say happy tenth anniversary, commissioner fung and i know that you served briefly before then and i am amazed and i appreciate your tenure on this board. >> thank you. >> and when i looked at that, it is wrong. >> it is in the city records. >> and so you will have to give me, >> it shows it, 6 months. >> yeah, that is when i was looking at that, i was shocked that it said --. >> you are saying that the report is wrong. >> it says january 88 to june 88. >> it is 84 to 88. >> yeah i was kind of wondering

about that. are they making one visit or did they miss the prior visits. >> down there. >> the one in the footnote. >> got it. >> okay, well i will correct that. >> i thought that it was a test with that commissioners, do you have any other questions i am happy to answer them. >> actually i want to say, congratulations, and you do an awesome job as a director of this board. >> thank you. >> and that is our next topic. >> okay. >> step ahead. >> sorry. >> and i would also commend the director and staff, on the report, it, and every year t has gotten better and i noticed that the graphics have changed, and the graphic format and it is quite clear. and so, i found the report to be clearly written, and quite important. >> i agree, especially with someone who is new, and it is very easy to read and very helpful.

>> you are a good tech. >> great. >> and i thought that i echo all of that and even though i ask a question of something that was on the next page and i have looked at it and forgotten and i think that it is comprehensive and i agree that someone picking this up will be a good sense of what this organization does. >> great. >> and because it is not clear to most people. >> and it is nice and i have had the interactions with the office myself and everyone is very professional, and the fact that we have had no change over, and kutos, to mr. pachako sitting with his back against me. >> pleasure. >> and i need to ask for the public comment. even though we have only a quasi public person here and with that commissioners, is there a motion? >> yes, so moved. >> okay. >> okay. >> if you could call the roll, please? >> we have a motion from commissioner honda, to adopt

the department alan youal report for fiscal year 2013, 2014. on that motion to adopt, commissioner fung. >> aye. >> vice president is absent, president lazarus? >> aye. >> commissioner wilson >> aye. >> thank you. >> the vote is 4-0, and this departmental report is adopted. thank you. >> okay. and so the next item commissioners is a possible closed session, first in open session the board needs to vote on whether to hold a closed session. --. >> and then when we closed the closed session we come back in open session and we make a motion as to whether or not we report. >>; is that correct?. >> that is correct. >> and i will be here to company back and do that with you and there should be a time also to ask for the public comment on the closed session, which so i don't know if you want to first. >> i would like to make a motion to go into closed

session to discuss a personnel matter. >> >> okay, we have a motion from the president. >> okay. >> before we take the roll, let's see if there is any public comment on this motion. >> okay. no public comment? >> okay. >> thank you. >> we have a motion from the president to enter a closed session for a public employee appraisal, on that motion, commissioner fung. >> aye. >> vice president is absent, and commissioner honda? >> aye. >> commissioner wilson? >> aye. >> thank you, the vote is 4-0, and the >> we are in open session and we are in item seven and i think that the next item to consider is whether there is any motion to disclose or any or all of what was discussed in the closed session. >> and i would recommend and

move that we do not disclose, what was discussed in closed session. but i would commend the director for a great job. and we thank you for assisting us in doing our job. >> okay. >> and is there any public comment on that motion? >> okay. seeing none, >> one last comment,. there is, that the president of the board will be writing up something that will go into the personnel file. >> okay. >> we have a motion from commissioner fung to not disclose the contents of the closed session. on that motion, to not disclose the vice president is absent, president lazarus? >> aye. >> commissioner honda. >> aye. >> and wilson. >> aye. >> four to 0 to not disclose the contents of this closed session, thank you.

>> commissioners there is no further business this evening. >> we are adjourned. i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. i give a lot of tours through the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's

a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in this 317 acres.

the park, as a general rule, is heavily used in the mornings and the evenings. one of the favorite places is up by the upper reservoir because dogs get to go swim. it's extremely popular. many fights in the city, as you know, about dogs in parks. we have 317 acres and god knows there's plenty of room for both of us. man and his best friend. early in the morning people before they go to work will walk their dogs or go on a jog themselves with their dogs. joggers love the park, there's 7 miles of hiking trails and there's off trail paths that hikers can take. all the recreational areas are heavily used on weekends. we have the group picnic area which should accommodate 200 people, tennis courts are full. it also has 3 playground areas.

the ampitheater was built in 1972. it was the home of the first blues festival. given the fact that jerry garcia used to play in this park, he was from this neighborhood, everybody knows his reputation. we thought what a great thing it would be to have an ampitheater named after jerry garcia. that is a name that has panache. it brings people from all over the bay area to the ampitheater. the calls that come in, we'd like to do a concert at the jerry garcia ampitheater and we do everything we can to accommodate them and help them because it gets people into the park. people like a lot of color and that's what they call a park. other people don't. you have to try to reconcile all those different points of view. what should a park look like and what should it have?

should it be manicured, should it be nice little cobblestones around all of the paths and like that. the biggest objective of course is getting people into the park to appreciate open space. whatever that's going to take to make them happy, to get them there, that's the main goal. if it takes a planter with flowers and stuff like that, fine. you know, so what? people need to get away from that urban rush and noise and this is a perfect place to do it. feedback is always amazement. they don't believe that it's in san francisco. we have visitors who will say, i never knew this was here and i'm a native san franciscoan. they wonder how long it's been here. when i tell them next year we'll get to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the park week. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the san francisco.

the reporter: has many opportunities to get out and placing play a 4 thousand acres of play rec and park has a place win the high sincerely the place to remove user from the upper life and transform into one of mother nachdz place go into the rec and park camp mather located one hundred and 80 square miles from the bay bridge past the oakland bridge and on and on camp mather the city owned sierra nevada camping facility is outings outside the gate of yosemite park it dates back before the area became is a

popular vacation it i sites it was home to indians who made the camp where the coral now stands up and artifacts are found sometimes arrest this was the tree that the native people calm for the ac accordions that had a high food value the acorns were fatally off the trees in september but they would come up prosecute the foothills and were recipe the same as the people that came to camp camp is celebrating it's 90th year and the indians were up here for 4 thousand we see every day of them in the grinding rocks around the camp we have about 15 grinding sites in came so it was a major summer report

area for the 92 hawks. >> through there are signs that prosperity were in the area it was not until the early part of the century with the 76 began the construction of damn in helpfully a say mill was billed open the left hand of the math for the construction by which lake was used to float logs needed for the project at the same time the yosemite park and company used the other side of the camp to house tourists interesting in seeing the national park and the constructions of damn when the u son damn was completed many of the facilities were not needed then the city of san francisco

donated the property it was named camp mather the first director it was named after him tuesday morning away amongst the pine the giant sequoia is the giants inventories first name if our title is camp means there's going to be dirt and bugs and so long as you can get past that part this place it pretty awesome i see i see. >> with a little taste of freedom from the city life you can soak up the country life

with swimming and volley ball and swimming and horseback riding there you go buddy. >> we do offer and really good amount of programming and give a sample p of san francisco rec and park department has to offer hopefully we've been here 90 years my camp name is falcon i'm a recession he leader i've been leading the bill clinton and anarchy and have had sometimes arts and crafts

a lot of our guests have been coming for many years and have almost glutin up, up here he activity or children activity or parent activity here at camp mather you are experiencing as a family without having to get into a car and drive somewhere fill your day with with what can to back fun at the majestic life the essence of camp mather

one thing a that's been interesting i think as it evolves there's no representation here oh, there's no representation so all the adults are engine i you know disconnected so there's more connection the adults and parents are really friendly but i think in our modern culture i you know everyone's is used to be on their phones and people are eager to engagement and talk they don't have their social media so here they are at camp mather how are i doing. >> how are you doing it has over one hundred hundred cabins those rustic structures gives camp mather the old

atmosphere that enhances the total wilderness experience and old woolen dressers and poaches and rug i do lay out people want to decorate the front of thaifr their cabins and front poefrnz their living room is outside in this awesome environment they're not inviting their guests inside where the berms are people get creative with the latin-american and the bull frogs start the trees grow and camp mather is seen in a different light we're approaching dinner time in the construction of the hetch hetchy damn the yosemite park built jackson diane hauling hall

to serve the guests it does was it dbe does best service s serve the food. >> i'm the executive chef i served over 15 hundred meals a day for the camp mather folks breakfasts are pancakes and french toast and skranld eggs and hash brown's our meal formulate is we have roost lion it's reflecting of the audience we have people love our meals and love the idea they can pick up a meal and do worry about doing the

dishes can have a great time at camp mather after camp people indulge themselves everyone racks go in a place that's crisis that i air after the crackinging of a campfire a campfire. >> the evening is kept up with a tenant show a longed tradition it features music i tried this trick and - this talent show is famous for traditional things but we have new things

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the first 7, 8, 9 being on stage and being embarrassed and doing random things >> unlike my anothers twinkling stars are an unforcible memory ♪ ♪ ♪ admission to camp mather is through a lottery it includes meals and camp programs remember all applicant registration on line into a lottery and have a rec and park department family account to register registration typically begins the first week of january

and ends the first week in february this hey sierra oasis is a great place to enjoy lifeiest outside of the hustle and bustle and kickback and enjoy and a half >> everything is so huge and beautiful. >> the children grew up her playing around and riding their bites e bicycles it's a great place to let the children see what's outside of the city common experience is a this unique camp when you get lost in the high sierra wilderness camp

mather is waiting and we look forward to city manager's office you here soon ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>