>> commissioner? >> >> okay. this is a meeting with the recreation and parks. please call the roll. >> commissioner low, commissioner bonilla, commissioner harrison, way, and commissioner low does have an excused absence. just a reminder, that everyone please turn off any electronic devices and take any conversations outside in order for the meeting to proceed as much as possible. if you would like to speak today we would request that you fill out a blue card and hand it to me. i will call them in the order they are received. we will have three 3 minutes for public comment on each item. if there is an item not on the agenda but does follow under

the jurisdiction under the recreation and parks, you will comment under public comment, that is item 4 and continued on item 12. as a rider, when -- rhymeder reminder, when you do have public comment, do it to the commission and the staff may not respond or they may ask staff to respond. with that. we are on item 2. the president's report. >> thank you, i will be brief. let me announce that the december meeting will be canceled. the january 15th, capital and operations meeting is also canceled. there will be a full commission meeting in january. now i have the pleasure of

presenting and bear with me while i read this. to has -- habitat for humanity in san francisco which has made an outstanding contribution by contributing over 3,000 volunteer hours and more than 3,000 volunteers in the city's southeast neighborhood. in a dense urban environment, habitat has come to realize that healthy communities is comprised with more dwelling and shared public assets. habitat for humanity in greater san francisco launched it's hilltop park on october 11, th, and part of the mission to provide families stable

futures through affordable home ownership and revitalization in our parks. habitat san francisco has supported a volunteer in kind donation of $92, 190. 00 for public spaces and participated in refurbishing baseball fields and enabling uses by many teams. it has performed vital maintenance to the playground making it more enjoyable and safer for kids. as many recreation and park volunteer supported rpt water conservation efforts by installing ground water that is retained by the loss of water. in observance of the national and

public lands day, habitat celebrated it's thriving partnership with community based organizations. working in close collaboration with staff and park services, habitat for humanity greater san francisco has exceeded in generating exceptional outcomes within a vibrate -- vibrant and deserving community. we thank you and look forward to our continued success to improve our public park spaces. and we have some representative today and we have a plaque to present to you today. please come forward. [ applause ]

>> we are please to have

sarah and chief officer and chief executive officer and i believe sarah is going to make some comments. >> thank you, i just first wanted to say a great thank you to president buell and the entire commission for this recognition. we really appreciate it. the partnership with recreation and parks is important to our revitalization program to not only support our habitat homeowners but to the larger community and to having healthy communities is important like the community guards. we -- gardens. we are excited to have such a valued partner and we would like to call out a few people. phil, robert

watkins, beverly, david burnett, rich boyd and eric hills and their garden team and really just we canning -- welcoming our volunteers and engaging in serves -- serves that we work. thank you once again. >> thanks very much. [ applause ] >> okay. what's next? >> >> is there any public comment under the president's report? >> okay. this item is closed we are on item 3, the general manager's report. >> good morning, first i will start with some recognition. first on our water usage, despite this rain that we have received this week we

are still mindful and will continue to do all we can to conserve natural and valuable resources. it has just released it's report and the numbers reflect all what staff has done to report our ouj. from -- usage. from january to october of this year down 19.3 percent. for the month of october, this year last year we are down 33 percent and total consumption from september to october of this year is down 11 percent. i really want to thank my operations staff danny kern, alvarez and all the field staff that are out there everyday. we have taken this very very seriously. my priority team that have prioritized

water conservation. and many many in our parks is really old and very very difficult to manage. and i'm just really pleased by the effort of our staff and what we've been able to contribute to the mayor and the general manager's report. last week with the hope of finding a long term tenant and partner at this historic site. the department will be hosting a bid december 1st a 2 :00 p.m. and february 2, 2:00 p.m., february 5, 10 '10 a.m.. in the meantime, the rfpc document can be found in our

website and i would like to thank dana and costello for all of their work in the preparing for this process. all right. the holidays are upon us. friday, please join us at our 15th annual turkey cook off competition. this friday night at the newly renovated boat house at lake merced. this is one of my favorite events and my foodie wife's favorite events. it's an iron chef cook off for against staff and one another for cooking and best dessert and best cooking. we in invite everybody to come by and enjoy food and live entertainment and a great start to your holiday

celebration. a great thanks to jeannie who made this a great event. a week later because thanksgiving is late this year, we are having our 85th annual holiday tree lighting thursday night at golden gate park featuring live sledding, snow area, cookie factory, carnival rides and a visit from santa and we have operation dream and the san francisco police department. if you come please consider bringing a new unwrapped toy that will go to a child in need and we'll have barrels throughout at the event.

bow decker park. the much anticipated opening of bow decker playground will be open with be nearing completion on a project that is transforming tenderloin neighborhood park for an amazing beautiful park. the opening event on december 10th will feature a ribbon cutting ceremony with all of our partners. this is the third park to be renovated with tpl including hayes valley playground and balboa park in 2012. ppl has done a number of renovations in our city as well. last announcement, two acknowledgements. winter registration. it is amazing how quickly the fall season has come and

almost gone. now it time to get ready for winter. registration for popular winter programs begin saturday at 10 :00 a.m. online and 13 sites around the city with hundreds of classes and sites for everyone in the neighborhood. we have art classes, martial arts classes and classes for seniors and yoga for adults. log on to our winter catalog today. two very special acknowledgements. the first, i would like to bring up rudy corpse from united play. if you have folks with you please have them join me at the mic. today we are really honored to be able to present a certificate of appreciation to our great

community partner united play. it's founder and leader rabbi ruby corpus for improving the lives of city youth particularly for those that go to school in south of market neighborhoods. this is the 20th anniversary. for the past 20 years up has played a role in reducing violence in the community and community service and employment programs and they are partner new newly formed collaborative and council and incredible advocate for really the robust rejuvination and vitality at gene friend rec's center and the park. up is everywhere. they come to volunteer at events and they come to giant sweep events and are just a real

tremendous inspiration and great partner. on behalf of the recreation and parks deposition -- department, and entire san francisco we would like to congratulate them on their 20th anniversary and all they have date -- done for our kids in our city. congratulations. [ applause ]

>> good morning, everybody. good morning, president. someone who is very supportive in our community, thank you, allen. thank you for the recognition. anytime we do the work that we do, we do what we do because we love what we do. it's not a job, it's my life. anytime you get some recognition, it feels good. thank you. i want to say you always come through and you've always been very supportive and very, vrt we ask for something, a request, you came through, even though you couldn't you were honest and told us why. we love it for

keeping it true to one million and thank you for the love for the city and the love you have for our community. you are doing a good job, brother. thank you for always supporting us. bless you guys. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> all right. it is now time for a rather special and surprise employee quarterly recognition. we do this four times a year. ken, would you like to do the honors because i highly doubt the person receiving this may not have any idea. >> she actually might know. good morning, i'm the recreation and parks human resource director. i'm proud today to introduce elt on

pon. gentlemen of -- as the award recipient of our quarterly employee recognition program. elt on was nominated by his colleagues based on how he executed his responsibilities. elt on has held many roles. in his current he's responsible for his social media work, public openings, general manager's report, a self-taught graphic artist who is able to make signs and logos and while simultaneously communitying the overall purposes of organization. anyone who knows his work knows how creative his and talented he

is. elt on is able to craft amazing visual graphics with words and with the right tone and sentiment. he maintains great relationship with staff and is a team player who is willing to help his colleagues. his supervisor says he's creative and does great at his job and always willing to take on new responsibilities with a smile. i want to add a little bit before bringing elt on up here. i'm so overjoyed and it's probably long over due elt on that you receive this special recognition. this is a special one from me because elt on is in addition to being within of my most favorite people, he's my music --

when i talk, he and i got to know each other very well. we have a really unique and special vibe. i think he under how i like to communicate and he does such an amazing job with it. and the other thing that i would like to comment elt on that nobody knows is that he's got incredible skills, visual skills, arts skills and most important he's a gym rat. he lost his sports and he's part of our recreation and parks system. you can tell by the way he performs his job everyday. >> thank you for this recognition. i do my job everyday because i love it

and i love the people i work with. so thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you. for all he does, he's much more brief in his comments. [ laughter ]

elt on, if we may, the video of the month which is a special holiday treat. so can i say more about how great elt on is? the computer works effortlessly at his finger tips.

>> i would say we move on but i'm going to let him sweat for just a few seconds because the video is good. all right. if we can pull it back. it was a special thanksgiving montage from the recreation and parks. if we can pull it up, we'll show it up later. but that concludes the general manager's report. >> is there anyone who would like to make a comment under the general manager's report? >> being none, public comment is closed. now we'll go to general public comment. i have linda. >> do you want to know people know this is 15 minutes of the program and there will be another opportunity for general comment? >> >> yes. as commissioner

buell just said we are limited to 15 minutes for item 4. we have item 12 for anyone else who would like to speak. >> good morning, i'm here to wear the hats for friends of camp mather. i wanted to give you a report of a very successful september 20th celebration of the 90th celebration of camp mather. as you know honored the brave campers who saved from the rim fire. i would like to say thank you and it went quite a bit above it's value. that was an incredible gift to us. we also wish to thank the department for