building confidence for successful career. it's a very important thing to myself, i am very interested in seeing the success of this program. i think it's important for these young people to be given the right direction in a career path offered career path. mr. president, i know that we have public comment and after at the appropriate time, i would like to make this motion. >> thank you, commissioner. let's move to public comment. >> okay. dan dillon, chris, joan valentine and linda. >> i am here on behalf of the pga tour an tpc manages harden park and we're about what? six weeks away from harden park being showcased to the entire world when the top 64 golfers in the world come to play in

the cadillac match play championship for $10 million in purse. more than 200 countries will be able to view the tournament on television. the course right now is in magnificent shape. i hope you will all come out and see it and the place has never been better and part of that is because of our partnership with the rec and park department and the laborers and teamsters who do the work on the course. so we're here today to fully endorse this resolution, we think this is a great opportunity for people to enter into programs that would teach them perhaps the skills necessary to have a career in golf course maintenance and golf course management. so we think it's a fantastic program and urge you to endorse and supportle program. thank you. >> thank you. >> chris. >> good morning president buell and commissioners, phil ginsburg, i'm one of the

trustees for the laborer's community training foundation and here on behalf of several private employers, such as webcor, and others. these type of workforce opportunities for training really are what the private employer needs to create the workforce of the future. these are our harvards and our stanfords and the young men and women who will come and take part in the training process at gleneagles will one day, if we are lucky and the golf course doesn't take them will be working on the buildings that we're looking to build around the city and around the region. they will be strongly advocate that you support this and we're very touched by the partnerships that come out of this process and really feel that every step of the way the private employers are working with the city and the union to make sure that their future workforce has great opportunities like this to find a healthy way to get into our

industry. thank you. >> thank you. >> joan, then linda and i have david de la torre, jeff armstrong and michael karlin go ahead. >> i'm joan and i'm a retired gardener from the recreation and park department and also a co-founder of the assistant gardener apprentice program. that program is partnered with the department of public works and recreation and park department, along with local 261, it's a program that has helped to lay a foundation form foryoung men and women on a career path, but we need to do more and the pre-apprenticeship program that we have the resolution before you is important to continue to bridge that socioeconomic gap that seems to be widening over the years. the foundiation has been laid, but we need to keep it going.

i urge the commissioners to adopt the resolution to reaffirm the support of the job-training academy gleneagles training and please name it mario de la torre. when i came into the rec and park in the 1970s, we were the first women to take the test. it was through a mentoring program and tom harrison was one of them at harden golf course and able to explain to small group of newly-hired gardeners how to run a lot of equipment out there. it was through his wonderful patience and support, kindness, that i learned a lot at that time at a very young age of 24. i would like to see that kind of mentoring continue. i think this resolution, this job-training program is really a wonderful thing and we should really support it. thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good morning again. linda. this time i would like to speak in favor of support of the academy, job-training academy. as a long time volunteer in mclaren park we know the value of gardening and the training that is necessary for this particular job. we support the golf course and the experimental program and we hope desperately this can be expanded to other areas of mclaren park, as well as other parks in san francisco. this feels like a win-win for our city and for the workers. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. david, jeff, michael carlin, commissioner arsed. >> good morning commissioners. david de la torre, local 261. and on behalf of my father i

want to thank you everybody present in support of this resolution. commissioner tom harrison opened up with being one of the fortunate ones under the mentorship of my father. i got to say, i too, have been fortunate to be mentored by my father. i had a certain indoctoration into the labor movement. as a previous board member of the bbc. we used to meet monthly on a saturday at the village what they call the village. the board consisted of some of the residents, and the stories that they used to tell as far as the bloodshed and the violence within that community which made it a despondent community with such potential.

it was not even newsworthy and that is what bothered me the most. i would heard this, but not on the news, and that is due to the lack of opportunities out there in the community. i am the current chair of the phillip institute center and through our efforts in the highly skilled workforce development and the opportunities that we're opening up, it gives a sense of pride and not only ownership, but value, worth, self-worth, for the youth that we are mentoring and pushing through these programs. at the end of it they have a skillset that will help them get into -- whether it be the private or the public sector -- careers. now as mario de la torre's son

who came here with limited opportunity and more importantly the unions and laborers who helped to organize -- and offered -- organized and offered training. one of them being english as a second language, which helped to further our members' careers. and so on behalf of my father, i am here to encourage you to support this resolution. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good morning commissioners, my name is jeff armstrong and i'm the director of the northern california laborers apprentice program and here to speak in favor of the training academy. the laborers and the city of san francisco have had

many joint labor-management apprenticeship programs that are successful and this is the next step in the next evolution in getting young men and women trained and getting them the economic opportunities that so often comes with the training. appreciate your support. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker, michael, commissioner arse and if there is anyone who would like to speak, if you could move forward so we know you are interested. >> i'm michael carlin the deputy general manager and chief executive officer for the public utilities commission and i'm here today to report out on march 10th our commission took the same resolution and passed it unanimously. why did we do that? wewy did it because we saw it as another opportunity for us to develop a workforce for the future. we are already investing in many activities developing what we would consider to be utility

workers for the future and this is just another tool in our toolbox. we have apprenticeship program for stationary engineers and would like to see other programs for other classifications as well. we would support that you pass the resolution today and i would be glad to answer any questions. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good morning commissioners. joshua arse, i am honored to serve as president of the san francisco commission on the environment. i want to thank you for everything that you are doing here today. commissioners, commissioner harrison, president buell, love the orange tie. it's a popular color today. [laughter ] >> not by extent. accident. >> we're very excited at the environment department about this because this helps

synthesize what the community is all about. you take gleneagles and their team and take the business sector and take the environment and then you have something truly incredible, something so pep. you have sustainability. sustainability of communities and apart from just the ability to work with community members, i see folks from the phillip randolph institution are here and obviously the laborers and partners from the building trades coming to do this and working with your general manager and our department is really excited because there is something that we haven't talked about a lot today, but i wanted to put out. there we have the chance not just to move the community workforce agenda, but the environmental agenda and the environmental conservation and stewardship agenda. we voted to endorse this proposal at the environment commission for all of the reasons stated, but also because we have the chance to

work with the puc, your shop, the environment to do a couple of really important environmental pilot ideas of sustainable golf and bring down the amount of water used in the association of golf and pesticides. when we do is track pesticide usage is one of the programs that we have. when there are golf events we often see because of the requirements around the pga, in terms of what golf courses are required to look like, to be camera-ready, tiger woods-ready all of these different components we see pesticide usage spike just a little bit. so at our department, what we are looking forward to doing with rec and park, with partis in this program, in this groundbreaking effort at the mario de la torre job-training center at gleneagles we can pilot new ways to demonstrate

to the pga you can have camera-ready golf, pga-ready golf, tournament-ready golf and bring down the amount of pesticides required. with the community workforce this will set the stage for golf around the country couldn't support it more. thank you. >> next speaker and again for the folks that just came in, if you want to speak on this item, if you could just move up to this table. if you don't, don't worry about it. go ahead. >> good morning commissioner buell, president buell, commissioners, general manager ginsburg, i want to lend my voice to the speakers who came before me and associate myself with the comments made before me. i know of mario de la torre's legacy and his work is at every level of government today and beyond.

and i can't think of a better and more worthy naming for this academy. i can't tell you how proud i am to be associated with this endeavor. i did not get into the leased at gleneagles ten years ago to change livers. i did it to save a golf course that i played at when i was young that afforded me accessible golf as a recreation. through programs like the first tee, we have hosted thousands of young children from the surrounding neighborhoods to have their first green grass experience at gleneagles and i have seen in the last eight years people turning into some pretty good golfers, but more importantly, these young people turn into very good people with great skills in dealing with all the teachers of the first tee. and i believe that this training academy is going offer the same type of opportunity for thousands of people within the community to have career paths in and around the types of work that happen at golf

courses, landscaping, ipm, aboro culture light building construction trades. this will be something after i am done with this project at gleneagles it will be among top of my list of accomplishments in san francisco and i hope it's up there with yours as well department point of view. i'm really looking forward to it. it's an exciting time and things at gleneagles are moving along briskly and comments are the best we have heard in terms of conditions and despite the drought, we expect that to continue. with the academy launching shortly we expect to add another great reason for us to be proud that we are doing this project on behalf of all of san francisco. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> emilio. >> good morning, mr. president. members of the commission. director ginsburg. my name is emilio cruz, the

assistant general manager of infrastructure for the puc and associated with this endeavor being on the committee. i will say that i love working at the puc not only because of all the work that we do that is important for the environment, but the focus that we have on community and the work that we do. i'm responsible for the $9 billion capital program, $7 billion of which will be spent right here in san francisco on our wastewater program. it would not only be a failure, but a complete shame if in investing $7 billion in san francisco that we don't create opportunities and jobs for our local residents to support our local communities. so that end, it doesn't happen by itself. i often in the circles here, the expression that a rising tide floats all boats, that doesn't work if your boat has a hole in it or if you are anchored down. the reality is that a good economy does float boats, but we have to make sure that everybody's boat is sail-ready.

we have to make sure that everybody has the opportunities. we will generate many, many jobs as we invest these billions of dollars, but if we don't take the time now to make our community ready to take advantage of the jobs we as a city have failed. i'm here to voice my support for the program and any such program that gets our community prepared to take advantage to participate in this growing economy. thank you. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to speak? would you like to speak? come on up. >> good afternoon. my name is desheila nixon and i'm the chair of local 261 labor public employee committee and here to support the effort that the laborers are putting forth with the city and county of san francisco to create pre-apprenticeship at gleneagles. this is something that is missing from the components that we currently have in place.

we don't have a way to reach out to people that don't understand what "horticulture" is people already know what this opportunity is and to have the opportunity to reach out to individuals who don't understand what "horticulture" is, i think gleneagles is the perfect place for us to start with having pre-apprenticeship. thank you. >> thank you. >> any other speakers? come on up. >> good morning. my name is laura flynn an outreach specialist at phillip randolph institute. we represent youth and programs that create more opportunities for them. thank you. >> thank you. >> come on up if you want to speak. perfect. thank you. >> hi. my name is ramona carlie from the a. phillip randolph

institute and apr is in support of the job-training academy at greneagle and apr stands for growth. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. good morning >> my name is dolores and i'm from the a. phillip randolph and apr stand for opportunity and in support job-training academy. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> hi, my name is mars yellin thompson from a. phillip randolph institute. we are supportive of keeping gleneagle going and jobs going also. i'm in the training at gleneagles apr stands for careers. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please.

>> hello. my name is charles thompson, from the apr. >> can i get you to speak into the mic a little more? >> okay. >> thank you. >> i'm here in support of gleneagle. apr stands for community. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> hi my name is curt grime and i'm the program manager for the a. fillim randolph apr is a community-based organization that works with familyed withs sunnydale and all of san francisco housing authority locations we see gleneagle as a perfect seting for career development in multiple ways. in addition to skill development, course itself is centered at an inspirational location.

fabulous views there. last summer some of our kids had the opportunity to learn how to swing a golf club for the first time. they were introduced to math and physics concepts by simply hitting a ball off the green. we applaud your efforts, we supported the mario de la torre training academy at the gleneagles golf course. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to speak? >> good morning commissioners, brightline defense project and you have heard me talk about gleneagle nasts in the past and of course, i want to talk generally with the

environmental justice theme and the environment commission for instance has been able to allay some of the concerns around pesticide and water usage. when you have a golf course like this, something that is affordable and creates social and economic opportunities for the southeast sector of the city, that makes such a program invaluable, i hope you support it. thank you. >> thank you.. >> anyone else? vince. >> good morning commissioners and good morning general manager ginsburg, i think it's important note a few things. no. 1 it's not just about the laborers, but about the unions and trades to work on something and develop something together that benefits the community. so there are two things happening here. we'ring asking to launch an academy, but also targeting a particular community, jobs now workers. what we want to do is link folks to private work

opportunities. director mentioned that earlier and in terms of creating career pathways that don't right now exist , it's one thing to give a man a job or a fish and it's not thing to give them a career or teach them to fish and that is what we proposed to do with your help. i'm always honored to speak before this commission because this commission has accomplished the most, whether you are talking about hank, or talking about the fields or talking about prop b, whether you are talking about the arboretum, and that is made this commission -- in my mind it's the pinnacle of this movement because we have everybody on board talking about the san francisco housing authority, the department of the environment, et cetera. let's not just check the box and say we support it. let's make sure that every time we see a budget, what is in that budget for apprenticeship?

what is in the budget for pre-apprenticeship? that is what we're asking the commission to do to continue the move the conversation forward. because we really aim to change lives. we really aim to change the community. well really aim to change this land. we want to look at harden park golf course, the no. 1 public golf course, thank you, phil, maintained by the laborers and trades. we want to look at the course and gleneagles in the southeast side of san francisco, which often times is underserved and underrepresented and undervalued and underappreciated. we're going to take that course together through our collective efforts and we're going make that the no. 1 private/public course nine-hole in the country. that is our goal, but we need your help to work on that. i appreciate very, very much that you would hear us all today. i know margaret -- are you going to make a report? i don't know, oh, tom did. so i'm asking to you please support this resolution. please go down this road

together with us, with the other city departments and please always be a friend to labor, organized labor and the community workforce. thank you very much. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on this item? being none, public comment is closed. commissioner buell. >> mr. ginsburg. >> thank you, commissioners. i will throw my hat in the ring. it's tough to follow brother courtney at the mic, but i will give it a shot. we're very proud to support this. it touch on some very cornerstone themed for our department and frankly our city that have been talked about today. i will try to summarize them. first is workforce development. obviously, there is probably no more important theme in our city right now than making sure that the people who live here, that the communities had a

professional development opportunities and as was said we want to not just give a job, but a career path. with 261 and internally with our organization, we have done some great work with our apprenticeship program and the captain program and there is really a workforce pipeline in park maintenance that is terrific. where this summer we'll recognize 300 kids into our system and into our programs like the teen outdoor experience. there are many who will end up working for recreation and park for a career, but the piece missing as was mentioned today is the job-ready entry level aspect of what we do we're very proud that we bring in hundreds of people every year for entry-level work, but as discussed today, folks are coming in without the proper development and skill development that they need to succeed with us or after they finish their service with us and these are limited-term

appointments. we want to make sure whether it's a job in city government or in the private sector, this program accomplishes all of that and we're very proud of. it the second key theme for our agency is partnership. we talk about this all the time at our commission and at our agency that we can't do it alone and we need partners. that is how this country's best park system has been built through partnerships. this one has just tremendous, tremendous community partners whether it's 261 or apri or brightline defense, fellow agency partners, d.o.e., puc, dpw, the pga tour and in labor, the building trades and 261, which really deserves a lot of credit for leading effort and all of our private sector developers, too. this has got all of the aspects of partnership that really is sort of the theme of our agency and makes us successful. lastly, it touches on a really

important recreational activity, golf. and making sure that our golf courses continue to thrive and this they are environmental sustainable is really important. and, in fact, today, our ipm linda alvarez is traveling up to sacramento with a couple of members of our staff who are receiving from cal/epa and the department of pesticide regulation and ipm innovator award for our organic use of pest management and management and techniques. many of those are being applied to our golf courses, so we need to provide this recreational activity. because it is fabulous and accessible, particularly in the southeastern part of town and we need to do it with less water and more organic techniques and this program

touches on all of these and for those reasons has department's support. >> thank you. seeing no other comments from commissionersly make a comment and ask commissioner harrison to make the motion. i was impressed by the wide display of support not only for the program, but for naming the academy after mario de la torre. i think mario's family should be very proud of that and it represents the best of all of us. secondly, i would like to say thanks to our very well-read secretary. i was made aware that today's new york times has three independent stories that support what we are doing today. in the industry and government need to train more workers credentials not diplomas are what count for many job openings and public and private investment in job training is needed. that is all in today's new york time and we're on the cutting

each other because of all you do. thank you, commission harrison. >> i would move that the commission adopts the resolution no, ma'am the gleneagles job-training academy the mario de la torre training academy at gleneagles golf course. >> second. >> it's been moved and second. all those in favor, say aye? >> aye. >> unanimous. thank you very much. [ applause ] did we get mr. courtney's name for the? record? i don't think he introduced himself -- we'll give a few minutes for the room to clear for those who don't want to endure the rest of the meeting.