a notice from the dad let the life i live speak for me and let's have a cup of coffee and talk about it. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> please silent all cell phones and electronic devices so it doesn't go off during the meeting. we have general public comment which is item four and

then again item 9. if you would like to comment on an item that falls under the jurisdiction of the recreation and park commission but is not on the calendar and as a reminder when you make public comment and you can make public comment on every item and commissioner buell three minutes for each? >> three minutes. >> and when you make public comment please direct the comments to the commission and they won't answer but after they may have staff to respond. we're changing the agenda today and item 9 is before eight and six, 7, 9 and eight and with that we are on item two which is the president's report. >> thank you. very briefly i just want to congratulate the

general manager and all the staff that participated in putting on greater and greener. i think we had close to a thousand people from around the country and someone told me 22 countries were represented and i went to all -- at least the social events and some of the substantive things and i got a lot of positive feedback from people. they genuinely enjoyed it as as i did and hats off to everyone that made that happen and i am sure we will hear more from phil and that concludes my report. >> anyone to make public comment under the president's report? seeing none public comment is now closed and now we're under item 3 the general manager's report. >> there we go. good morning commissioners. i will get to greater and greener in a second but as you walked in this morning no doubt in civic

center plaza one of your parks you noticed quite a colorful temporary art exhibit happening. it's one of taiwan's most acclaimed artists young yee who brings his sculptures to san francisco and "fancy carnival" and ongoing through may 7. the curator and the project manager for the installation is cathy su and it's an exhibit of large scale vividly colored animals and open to the public and across the plaza on the eastern front and the exhibition will happening during the lpga swinging squirts tournament that takes place next week and as you recall you approved this a while back and great to see them come to life and gives a whimsical

color and we're thrilled to see it up. commissioner buell thank you for the comments about greater and greener and this is a highlight for the agency in the last five years and it was terrific and meaning full and nice to be part of something largeer and that something larger are all of the cities from nearly 40 states, 22 different countries as commissioner buell pointed out that have urban park systems and really the under writing theme of that conference was urban parks matterd and we learned about that in so many ways, and we're actually a little melancholy that it's over. it was really thrilling and truly an honor to host. i want to take a moment to tell you how proud i am of our staff and host committee and pitched in to put our best foot forward and how

great the department it and we lead workshops and tours and seven sessions and we had the commission president who did a wonderful job of moderating four big city mayors and they seemed all to have enjoyed themselves during the panel discussion so he moderated it with a dear dest touch but back to the staff. i want to start with kimberly kieffer and her volunteer staff for the work to plan and coordinate the event and also recognize on her staff is marianne, brenda, david, jack, will and tracy and becca and senior staff was involved too and lead a bunch of different panels. sara, connie, ryan,

carla from the public affairs team and recognize deb tolman. you will see some of her work in a second and did the open conference video which is spectacular and diane and other staff from the properties division and operation danny and the staff and danny i know lead -- were on very interesting panels. and also our administrative and finance division, lisa abigail and staff from partnerships and our own martha mc carter for the assistance in the conference and the wonderful stacy white. probably the biggest legacy from

this conference the lasting gift is the collaboration and relationship building that happened over the course of two years of planning with our other open space agencies. we were the host -- we were the lead agency but we were part of a host city effort that included the california academy of sciences and i really want to thank in particular tom foley and chi quan for opening the facilities and the open space district and the national recreation area and park service and signal out frank moore and mr. dean and howard levit who pored his heart and soul into things happen and i am told lead one of the tours over the we could where i got the most feedback. howard took people on a bike tour across fisherman's wharf and across to the presidio and he pushed them well and it

was a work out and managed quite a few hills and things that you don't see in places bike topeka. the golden gate conservancy and i mentioned greg but signal out denise shay from the conservancy that was involved in it. our port of san francisco monique moyer, carol bach and from the parks alliance and -- sf state and professor alvarez who is teaching a course at san francisco state and rumored as part of the academic requirement with the class volunteering at the conference and your students gave great feedback and said it was one of the best things they did surg the semester. san francisco travel, the parks foundation and elizabeth goldstein and a former member and the presidio trust and

thanks to the others who assisted and of course the trust for public land which was out there in force. the people -- locals most involved were jennifer and phil and these relationships are going to benefit open space for a very long time to come. so with the conference behind us our focus now shifts to summer which believe it or not is right around the corner. summer day camp registration has been open for a couple of weeks and with a little time to go the numbers are indicating great numbers and the learn to swim programs and focused on working with kids who actually don't know how to swim and we actually have adults in some of the classes as well but primarily youth based. drowning is the second leading cause of death in want communities of color and this is important and

we are offering 220 classes and have 2500 registered so far and 63 frs full and of those registered 932 people have registered on scholarship totaling about 37% of the total registrations received so pretty terrific. our remaining summer camps we have over 10,400 registrations to dates and they're 77% full. our target is actually 70% so we exceed our targeted and we have awarded almost 2500 scholarships totaling half a million dollars just for this summer, about 25% of the total registrations that our summer camp programs are scholarship based. in anticipation of the busy summer we are targeted to hire approximately 500 summer employees to support camp mather, our day camps and

aquatic and recreation program. our work recreation program is the youth hiring program which is special and has many qualified applicants who were invited to interviews and resulted in 222 vowg -- youth opportunities and introduces were conducted for 125 employees and the rest done this weekend and to date 70% of those have offered the employment and getting in the pipeline and ready to work with us this summer and they're actively selecting the rest of the positions and i want to give a shout out to our staff and we do a lot of hiring as most do and with a small staff under our leadership has done a heerk

herculean effort with this. everybody loves a pop up in this town and now we have one. we have our echo pop up at delores park and we have been focused on making sure as delores park reopens following the $20 million of investment that it opens to healthier park use and more responsible stewardship of the site and generates over 7-gallons of trash every weekend. an analysis of the waste shows that at least 65% is compostable or recyclable so to support park users getting the trash out of the park and into the proper recycling and compost streams we are partnering with recology, with support from supervisor scott wiener and the department of public works and piloting a pop up at delores park and open from noon to 8:00 p.m. on saturdays sundays and holidays for the initial

period and accept the compost and recycling and there will be staff and volunteers on hand to help users separate containers into separate bins for recycling compost and trash and there will be a little environmental education to boot. this is an important step towards a greener and cleaner delores park as we open the first phase of the park this summer. bud day -- check out the -- bug day and check out the creepy crawlers and celebrate everything is science and games and more this saturday and admissions free and nominal cost for some of the activities and visit our website. i have attended bug day in the past and you will be amazed how many people will be at the randall

this weekend. it's one of the very best family friendly events and not just hosted in the agency but throughout the city. in honor of earth day we invite everyone to join us and gear up for dancing and a echo free festival and bay view shines has something for the whole family and rock climbing and zumba and art and chances to win prizes. lastly as the commission chair is aware the catalytic match event at tpc harding is just around the corner and if you're a golf fan and even if you're not a golf fan i cannot encourage you enough to join us for match play at tpc harding from april 27 to may 3 and watch

the top 64 players from match play competition from one of the top courses in the country and this is truly going to be an extraordinary event and the first time that the format resembles what our soccer loving fans in san francisco know to be a world cup format and you are guaranteed to see the top golfers face off against each other at least for three days before the elimination rounds 96 place and 96 one-on-one matches happening over the five days and it's going to be thrilling and i want to single out our golf and turf team. as you know what makes us proud about the parch with pga

and harding and they bring great golf and manage the front of the house at this amazing asset but it is our very own staff that has this golf course in the top condition it's in and i really want to commend on anna alvarez and kevin steele and kevin and the entire golf team and local 261 for all of their partnership and work and support in making this golf course the absolute gem that it is. so speaking of acknowledging staff i do want to take a minute and i am so delighted to recognize today kevin wol an. kevin runs our integrated pest management program. let's give kevin a hand. [applause] so let me set a little context kevin before we bring you up here. we have 220 parks and 4,000 acres of park land to

oversee in our urban environment. it requires innovation, creativity, dedication and a dest touch in the system and eradicating pests in the environment and bug day and this report is not lost on me. on march 19 of this year the san francisco recreation and park department's integrated pest management specialist kevin wolan accepted an innovative award from the department of pesticide regulation for our agency's unique prevention and eradication techniques. highlights include pioneering compost and eradicate pests and in partnership with the california department of fish and wildlife our team has been integral with

the invasive lily frog at golden gate park and managing the ph level -- maybe i shouldn't say simply because i know it's a complicated task. for those that worked at a pool and adjusting the ph seems -- in partnership with the department of the environment facility facilitating a pest free environment and it's worth noting and it's purely organic and using a vacuum and roach predators. and i won't begin to know what that is. in addition to his substantive skill i don't know there is another person in the organization who better exemplifies the positive spirit, the resilience, and just

customer service, the joy, the leadership that kevin does on a day-to-day basis and i really am incredibly thrilled so i am wondering if you will join me up here as we present a certificate of appreciation and recognition and mr. president you too. actually ana would like to say something so why don't you say something and then we will bring kevin up. >> thank you so much and hello commissioners. it gives me great pleasure in joining the director in recognizing kevin and he is one of the good people of rec and park by far. the one element i would like you to take with you and remembering kevin's vork and kevin as an individual he's an internal educator and while he is doing the field work he is actually working on what

-- the actual work out in the grounds. then he cleans up and speaks to our regulatory agencies and cleans up again and speaks beautiful to our residents of san francisco in a very candid and also caring manner to be able to gain cooperation and understanding. at times it's difficult because everybody would like to jump in and say let's save everything that is green and everything that is alive when in fact we do have pests that are actually having difficult impacts on our lands and we do have plant material that are not the best. they actually creating negative impact on the beautiful landscapes so kevin is able to balance all of that and he has solicited and has been extremely successful in soliciting and gaining the cooperation of the gardeners of the public and the regulatory agencies and he does it beautifully. i remember one

day, and he does the whole administration for rec and park in terms of our relationship with the department of agriculture. he can tell you how many recommendations have been written in one year and where they are in a given moment's notice and i remember we were doing administrative function and i really needed him there and he comes running and he is wearing this odd looking suit. i said "where are you coming from kevin?" i was under the [inaudible] and blah, blah, blah and educating me on the pest and they jumped on me and i did my best not to take a step back because i needed to be there with him and i said kevin this is an important meeting but you need to take care of yourself and wash up. [inaudible] absolutely. that's how committed he is, so thank you for the opportunity to recognize him. >> thank you anna. why don't you come up kev and i know

let's give him a big round of applause. [applause] >> [inaudible] >> thank you very much for those very kind words. i appreciate that, and i feel like i'm part of a team that works hard to maintain the parks throughout san francisco. i'm very proud to be part of the natural resources team that not only keeps the parks beautiful to play in but a healthy

environment for wildlife and what else can i say? i enjoy my job very much. i am one of the lucky few that can say that and some people may think it's a dirty job sometimes but i think it's a way to go out and occasionally take out frustrations on pests. maybe that's i didn't am smiling off the time and thanks a lot and i appreciate the opportunity to serve the public in the way that i do. >> thank you kevin. [applause] >> all right. to conclude the general manager's report we thought we would take one last look back at greater and greener. this was the video that welcomed over a thousand people from around the world on monday morning when the conference officially opened at 830, and while elden is cuing up i am actually remiss in thanking this commission for just being so supportive of this conference and for showing up.

commissioners were at every day and every evening event and makes a difference to my staff and me personally and made a difference to see just how much we were involved in it. that energy was noticed by the conference participants so thank you commissioners. very, very much. >> this is san francisco, the city by the bay. you must ride the cable cars. the cable cars -- >> hold on. you're going to have to start it over. >> cable cars. >> how about you -- >> you're going to have to start that over.

>> sfgtv -- >> this is san francisco, the city by the bay. festival -- >> so you would be pleased to note that didn't happen at the conference. it went smoothly. >> where am i? okay. we may do that. we will come back to

it. >> commissioners we will have to come back to it. that's too bad. >> i know we're going to lose commissioner mcdonnell and commissioner low in an hour and a half and i would like to move on and see that when we can so can we move to the next item. >> so is there -- they're on the way up but is there any public comment under the general manager's report? seeing none this item is closed. we're now on item four general public comment up to 15 minutes. we have three cards. [calling speaker names] in any order please. >> good morning commissioners. >> good morning. >> good morning margaret and general manager ginsburg, commissioner mcdonnell, president buell. >> good morning. >> good to see you. i am

shirlee moore and here from the candlestick neighborhood community and we have been busy. we have been working on candlestick park stadium and we're moving on and trying to mitigate the dust but we're here about the landscaping in gilman park. we're concerned about the landscaping and the developers only including gilman. we have gilman park that is there in need of repair and need of some attention. we are in talks with the liin regard developers, their senior project manager of the landscape team and working with the rec and park to bring gilman park along in the landscape development, and to perhaps do some upgrades in the park because we know that there

was an award given to upgrade the playground equipment but there wasn't any money to improve the park so there is an old bathroom structure that is on the park grounds that has been there over 20 years and it's in badly need of repair. we would like to see the developers throw in and help rehab that facility so that the public can have that to use as a bathroom. we would also like to see them expand up on their landscape offerings so we -- i reached out to mr. marvin yee who working on the upgrade and made with occi and they talked about the gilman agreeing but we want to further that including gilman park and the community and the landscape plan, so the

developer is also moving numerous trees up on jamestown and in the area and we will also talk to dpw about the tree and the tree selection going forward, so we are asking you to partner with us in these discussions and i have reached out to dawn kamalanathan and a few others in rec and park and spoke to mr. watkins so we're trying to open the discussion on landscaping so we ask you to consider that and i'm going to leave a map of the master landscape plan of the developers and those doing tree removal. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. come on up. >> hi. i am julie barber also from the candlestick park neighborhood community and i want to talk about what our concern is here and what we're doing. our primary -- and we

have spoken to benar about this and the people that we have spoken to and theresa that oversees the landscaping and sean walker who does the community outreach and they agree with where we're coming from and we're looking for coalition building and to work together but the primary concern is that we're dealing with a neighborhood that is very important to the rich culture of the city. right. we don't want to lose that and we don't want it to -- the last thing we want is for the shiny new development to come in with everything beautiful and looking perfect and you just cross the wrong side of the street and it's like oh no don't let the kids walk down the street and needs to be a contiguous plan and when they move into it and it's not a lenar development dubai view hill and i want the kids in the community to b