absence. so with that, just a couple little reminders, first of all happy new year to everyone. this is our first meeting of 2015 as a reminder we ask that everyone turn off any sound-producing devices, so that they do not go off during the meeting. and that you take any secondary conversations outside. you will have commissioner buell three minutes? >> three minutes. >> you will have three minutes for public comment on

each item. if you would like to make comment on an item that is not on the agenda, that is item 4, and it will be continued again at item 14, as we only allow 15 minutes under item 4. last, please remember to address your comments to the commission during public comment on all items in order to allow equal time for all, neither the commission, nor staff will respond to any questions during public comment. the commission may ask questions of staff after public comment is closed. so with that, we will get started. we are on item -- sorry about that. >> 2. >> item 2, thank you, president's report. >> thank you. this is a pleasant responsibility i have. we've been collaborating with someone here today, so i want to welcome melvina hill to the

meeting, and i will -- you will get the gist of our collaboration. we're not here today to honor melvina, but we are here today as the san francisco recreation and parks commission to honor kenneth pratt. [ applause ] kenneth is an outstanding volunteer, who has generously donated between 400 and 600 hours of his time and energy each year since 1993. add those up and it's a lot of work. to our city recreation program. since 1996 ken has served as basketball, track and field coach for the recreation and park girls' athletics program. helping to ensure that all youth have an opportunity to discover the world of sports and get out and play. he is exceptional in his ability to motivate young people to develop their talents

to their full potential, leading fitness programs at bodeker park and he has taught first aid and photography in department's latchkey program and served as a ment. in generously sharinghis time and talent, coach ken is an outstanding mentor for youth. when not sharing his talent at the recreation and park department, coach ken serves as the head of delegation for the san francisco branch of special olympics. on behalf of the recreation and parks commission, we thank you for your efforts and look forward to our continued success working together to provide meaningful, enriching experiences for san francisco's youth. [ applause ]

[ applause ] >> i know this is a bit of a surprise for you, and melvina tricked you. >> yes, [laughter ] >> but we'll give you a minute to compose yourself and i know the general manager is quite sorry he couldn't be here and he is the state of the city address. on behalf of the general manager and department, i wanted to personally thank you seeing you in action at eugene

friend, it's a treat to sigh get this honor and personally as someone who has benefited from having great athletic coaches in my life i can only say how lucky the youth were to have an opportunity to play with you. >> to the commissioners and employees once again my wife fooled me again. [laughter ] it's been going on for a long time and i guess it's going to continue. i would just like to thank you. this is a complete surprise. i do what i do because i enjoy it. i enjoy being around the kids. i can't participate athletickal as far as competition anymore so you know what they say? when you can't do, you coach. it's been a pleasure working with the girls in the basketball program and years with special olympics. i just -- this is just what i do. i just continue to do it. so

in short, thank you very much for this unexpected honor and just continue to do what i do. thank you. >> thank you very much. [ applause ] >> i should let you all know that for ken's award you don't have to suffer siting through the whole rec and park commission meeting and if you like you can look at any time. >> is there anyone who would like to make public comment on this item? being none, public comment is closed. we are going to be moving the general manager's report until later in the meeting as sarah noted he is at the state of the city. so we will be calling that out of order not quite sure where yet, but later in

the meeting. so with that, we are on item 4 which is general public comment up to 15 minutes. and this item may be continued to item 14. at this time members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject-matter jurisdiction and i do have cards and i will call out the names. subject-matter jurisdiction of the commission and that do not appear on the agenda. with respect to the agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. so i do have four cards, susan guerrehard, kelly watts and richard rothman, in my order, please. >> good morning, commissioners. i want to talk about coit tower. although i don't live in north beach, i am very interested in coit tower and i

have been to a couple of the meetings about the concession issue of where to put the food kiosk now and to me the most important thing is that i want the vendor to succeed. and the way the contract now is with the elevator fee and no other revenue, he is not making money. i want to really him to succeed. i think they are really good people and terry is really trying out there. and so i hope when this matter comes either in february or march, and i don't think there is going to be unanimous community decision, because nobody is going like wherever they put it, and so i hope the commission will just bite bullet and pick one site and let's move on. when cassandra told me it's going to at least take a year

after the board of supervisors approves it, you know? so i think we need to get moving on this issue and i hope the commission will take action when it comes before. and the other issue is about, you know, coit tower has always had so much controversy from before it was built, the murals, and now the drones up there. and you know, to me coit tower is really special. i live near golden gate park and i'm used to having sections of the park closed for the outside lands and the races through the park. but coit tower is really special. i just read a quote saying, "coit tower is probably most wonderful museum in san francisco." and i don't think it should be closed for commercial use, and i just hope that maybe the commission can ask the staff to have a report on this, and we can see that

this doesn't happen again. because coit tower is really a very special place, and it should be open as much as possible. thank you. >> thank you. >> before we go to the next speaker, we do need everyone to take a seat, please. there are plenty of seats, if you could please take a seat. thank you. powerpoint? sfgtv? >> it's on. >> test -- since 2008 this commission has known that over 25% of tire chrome infill is listed as known to cause cancer by the state of california.

as you also know the tire chrome that this commission has authorized for years contained hundreds of chemicals and an alarming list of cancer cases associated is being compiled nationally. i sadly have to report that this list has grown considerably since you are last updated. the list significantly know includes identical twin sisters twins who did almost everything together except that the soccer playing twin who was regularly exposed to tire chrome has contracted cancer twice. while her identical twin cheerleader sister, who was not exposed has shown no sign of cancer and, in fact serves as her bone marrow donor. this is medically significant. despite scientific research that has been submited for years from the public, as well as toxicity medical specialists this commission and the rpd continue to rely on

questionable reports and the same questionable reports were the basis of the finds and the levee mp and d. the oohoh acknowledged that the 2010 report was "not comprehensive and did not indicate a clean bill of health." currently a bill is being introduced into the california state senate that calls for a reliable study. the u.s. epa now lists over 30 chemicals found in tire chrome which the epa finds to be cancer-causing target compounds. i believe that we all agree this commission needs to alter its course of action. i also believe that we would agree that we need to publicly address these new developments. the commission and rpd should take a stand, i believe, and

speak up and restate its current position with regard to the use of the toxic chemical. i think we agree doing otherwise would be irresponsible to do the least and risk endangering the citizens of san francisco. thank you. >> next speaker. >> again, could we please get everyone to take a seat who is not speaking on this item? there are seats over here go ahead. >> hi. i am also speaking on the beach -- i'm a soccer coach and soccer player and soccer mom and i'm taking a few minutes away from my work to comment on the inprogress construction at the formerly glass facility where i was happily playing and coaching until last fall, with

we removed the levee. i fear the city entrenched -- while other cities are looking to protect against the carcinogenic effects. the previous commenter talked about the senator jerry hill who representing san mateo and santa clara counties introducing the legislation to ask for a moratorium on the chrome fields until better health studies can be put in place. i looked at the studies myself and look at individual chemicals, there weren't any long-term studies and that was disconcerting to me as a mom and player. meanwhile los angeles unified school district and new york city have initiated ban on the

chrome rubber with worris with other forms of cancers in players. so to me this seems like the perfect time to consider putting grass back in along with special gopher protections with the other hard scaping amenities going in to make it better. i have firsthand experience with the fields and i have my own fears about the particular products being used which i have been told are similar to levee. last year my team was playing in mini levee and i couldn't play after i developed chemical sensitivity to that particular field and i continue coaching my girls' team there all fall and when the new york times reporter came by to do the story that ended up on the blog. he did interview me and i stated to him that the girls i was coaching were asking for three and four times as many water break because of the heat of the surface and reporting headaches. it was strange it was a direct

comparison moving in beach chalet with the grass over to mini levee. i play on other artificial surf fields, and it's a thicker surface, et cetera. kind of different, maybe improved soccer experience in that sense, but much more chemical smell. thank you for listening to me and i hope that we have a moment to reconsider how we go forward on the beach chalet. >> thank you. >> next speaker, staff, if you can please find a seat, anyone else, if you can please be seated. there are plenty of seats over here. >> good morning commissioners, katherine howard and i have a handout for you, i'm with sf ocean edge for over five years we fought the beach chalet soccer project and as part of that we were assured over and over again that the existing

trees would be protected on the site. first of all for those who have not been out to the fields if you want to see sort of what i call brazilian rainforest rape of the earth, because it's tearing up the toil soil and we have film on youtube at www.sfoceanedge.org to see what happened to parkland. the documents are the constructions and this is the tree protection as a landscape architect every project has this. it's extremely important and should be followed because the department has said they are going to protect the trees that are out there. however, none of these things have been followed. it says "provide protection for existing landscape planting, to remain including, but are not

limited to trees shrubs and ground cover." all trees shall be enclosed by fencing on the work site where tree protection zone is located within 10' of the limit of work prior to demolition, grubbing or grading. on the next page, temporary protection shall be kept in play for the duration of the project, maintained during construction and temporarily relocated as required by the progress of the construction. it also requires 6" of organic mull, cover over exiting grade within the fencing. when you go out there you will see mature trees and there is nothing between them and these -- i mean these machines are as big as this room going up and do you know the field and there is nothing between the equipment and the trees that the department said it wasn'ted wanted to save.

i have been to a lot of construction sites and contractors hate protecting trees and hate to do this stuff. it slows them down and costs them many, but this is our park and we need to protect the trees that are there, we were promised and it will be a benefit to the project when it's completed. i hope you ask the determine to do this. thank you. >> thank you.

my daughter was the first and only girl who played for lowell soccer and was on the cover of "soccer world." my son-in-law is a ten-time champ and my grandson plays soccer. and is serious about it. i also have a daughter that is a third grade spanish bilingual teacher and i think i said this before last year, stage iii pertonial cancer and a health condition that makes it more active. the studies that were done, that you were led to believe were accurate were limited. one study and i read many of

them, and i'm educating myself about this, because i care. i care about the kids in this city. and i know how hard it is with public-private partnerships to plan and operate programs. but i can tell you this, that the study -- one of the studies that was used and i think they are universally felt to be flawed was based on a child playing 30 hours over a period of time. i think it was a year -- don't quote me on that, but my grandson was a volunteer last year, one of my grandsons. another one. and played as a volunteer helping other kids on it. and the family with the condition -- that makes -- there are chemical sensitivitis to it. there are now wider and wider and greater understanding about how no one thing causes cancer, but you know? sandra has become a leader in this and has been designated woman of the year by "women

magazine." and as we're finding out more it would be great to partner with the city and the community to look at the hill bill. one last thing, my bus stop at mission high school was garfield park and there is no bathroom there. i as a grandparent was told by kids it was the bushes, starbucks or mcdonalds and i don't think that is right. thank you for your time and service. >> thank you. >> okay we're at time for general public comment. it is continued again at item 14, if you did not have the opportunity to speak under item 4. we're now on item 5 the consent calendar. is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the consent calendar? being none, commissioners, we need a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> moved and seconded. all those in favor, say aye? >> aye. >> so moved. >> we're now on item 6, the san francisco zoo.

>> thank you. good morning commissioners. my name is joe fitting the vice president of conservation and education and i'm standing in the steed of tanya peterson the executive director, who is also with the mayor. and we do have a powerpoint. okay. here we go. what a great month at the san francisco zoo, if you would -- you know, our attendance is always dictated by weather. there was some seasonally large rainfalls in december, but there were also some great days. as you can see we're actually over budget in attendance;

which is exciting as the zoo light, as you can see, this is our third year to do this wonderful event. it's a holiday event at night and we light part of zoo up and bring in reindeer, santa claus and snow and featuring our new playground. can you see that we exceeded budget by almost 9,000 people, but what is really cool, almost 800 police/fire department representatives got in free. and you can also see our zoo camp attendance was really good. we had almost 130 kids attend this holiday camp. year-to-date you can see we're over budget by almost 60,000 visitors. so the zoo is still held in high value for our families in san francisco. we'll continue to stimulate our visitors and familis and engage their minds and bodies and we're bringing in a traveling ropes course that will drop

into our pachyderm building and will be an interior course that designed for course. it's for 4-year-olds to 14 years old. it's going to be a lot of fun and it comes this weekend. this it will be here through the winter months all way through june. so come on out if you have kids and check it out. it will be a lot of fun. here we are -- i want to kara celebrate uulu the oldest polar bear in captivity in the united states. we have two polar bears both are senior citizens. uulu is 34 years old, and then pica is 32 years old. so i just wanted to point out that san francisco's commitment to the animals' wellness is really important and these again are senior citizens. so if you come out there, you might see

them a little bit slower as they get older. our next slide is celebrating the return of a really important animal this. is a snow leopard and it was an animal born at the san francisco zoo 16 years ago, i believe. and is returning now to become part of the breeding program at the san francisco zoo. snow leopards are critically endangered animal. they are found in the himalayas and the san francisco zoo is committed to snow leopard conservation. we work with the snow leopard conservancy on bringing forward information and knowledge about this very, very important animal. next slide, a red panda. we continue to grow our red panda collection, because with my do have breeding recommendation. red pandas are an intriguing little critter. again, also from india and the himalayas area.

this particular animal will eventually breed and again, it's an important species and listed by the iuc as a threatened species and we want to bring as much awareness about the flight of these animal as we can. our hermit crabs. one agenda of the san francisco zoo is to talk about biodiversity. in 40 years we have lost 50% of the plants and animals on this planet. so we need to talk about all animals. and this is a classic example. this is an animal that is sold in pet shops and most people don't realize, but this animal lives 20-30 years and these are, in fact, rescued animals and they are actually a social group. so we will take in more of these animals and again, talk about this intriguing crab that has taken the step from being a water animal to becoming part land animal. so

this is an interesting transition, showing you how animals evolve to live on land. again our hermit crabs. lastly this is really kind of a serious conversation. this is eli, eli is also an extremely old animal at the san francisco zoo. let me pull the -- eli is 34 years old. she made an important contribution to the critically endangered species. eli has 14 offspring, 15 grandkids and 6 great grandkids and two great-great grandkids. the zoo is proud of this work with the black rhino species and, in fact the san francisco zoo has two of the five living species of rhinos. we have an asian rhino and black rhino and we have two of the five represented in our collection. what i would like to talk to you about is ab 96.

the san francisco zoo would like to express its support of assembly bill 96. you may be aware in 1977 a bill was passed to limit the trade and purchasing of ivory, but there was a big loophole and this ab 96 is going to try to close that loophole. it was introduced last week. the goal of the bill is to help save elephants and rhinos from extinction by banning the sale and possession with intent to sell elephant ivory and rhino horns. the bill gets its name from the 1996 global elephant campaign in which an average of 18 elephants are being slaughtered. the u.s. is the second largest importer of ivory and much of