>> can i ask a question. i need to hear an example of how that would work because i'm picturing a pregnant women that's creating a danger to people around here. you're saying you don't want a tazer to be used, but you're saying a club could be used. >> commissioner ong hing: no. i'm saying in thosition situations where she's creating a danger to other people, then, it could be used. [ inaudible ] >> commissioner ong hing: short of that circumstance. >> commissioner hirsch: so isn't that the case now? that's the policy that we're about to adopt now? hing hi >> commissioner ong hing: no. the policy is something they might consider, but it's not a mandate that they use it. >> commissioner dejesus: second the motion. >> president turman: it's not a motion. >> commissioner dejesus: i'm sorry. second the amendment. >> president turman: we're going to take a straw poll on that. all in favor of -- generally take a straw poll on whether or

not we would be interested in -- substitute in the language that commissioner ong hing has suggested for the -- a special consideration as it relates to vulnerable populations? let me just see a show of hands if you would be interested in adding that language in. okay. all right. so next, director henderson. >> i just wanted to clarify, again, on that training. i think there's a misunderstanding in the 1(b) section. >> president turman: i'm sorry. we're voting here. [ inaudible ] >> president turman: all right. commissioners, any -- any -- any comments from commissioners? >> commissioner hirsch: yes. i'm still hearing from the dpa that our language does not include 40 hours of c.i.t. training. that includes only the field

tactics training which is 20 hours. i'm voting on this with the representation and the belief that it's 40. >> president turman: and that was the representation that i got at the -- at the stakeholders group, and that's what i specifically said should be included. what is -- what is the position of the department? >> the department -- the department does not object to the 40-hour training. who can argue with more training? >> president turman: you what? >> who can argue with more training. we can't object to that. >> president turman: so the training now the 40-hour training and the 20-hour training. >> commissioner, i don't believe it spells it out. >> president turman: it doesn't say 40 and 20, but the two trainings, i understand, are 40 hours and 20 hours. is that correct? >> that is correct. it doesn't state that. >> president turman: it doesn't state the number of hours, but that's what they are, is that correct? >> that's what they will be, yes. >> president turman: do we need it to specifically say 40

and 20. >> commissioner hirsch: no, that's what they are. >> president turman: all right. >> commissioner dejesus: 'cause when i asked that question, i was told they were only going to do the 20 hours c.i.t. training. >> president turman: there are two trainings. one's a 40 hour, and one's a 20 hour. all right. any other commissioner comments? director henderson. you had a button on. >> it was. it was about the training that you just clarified on that issue. 40 hours for c.i.t. >> president turman: all right. i have a -- i have the motion to approve dgo 5.02 and appendix(a) to that dgo as revised specifically through the amendment process of this commission. based on the straw vote.

before we go on thto that, i de an amendment. we have no duty to meet and confer with the p.o.a. on this, so that language is struck out. what the department has to do is them, but this commission has no duty to send this to the -- to the p.o.a., and i don't -- you know, what the department does is what the department does, but i don't have to approve -- i don't need the p.o.a.'s permission, and i have -- there's state law that says i don't -- case law on this, so i am not approving a measure that says the p.o.a. has to meet and confer on. what the department has to do, what they -- the agreements they've made, that's on them. there's no agreement by this commission to do that. so that part, struck out. do you accept that amendment? >> commissioner hirsch: i second it. >> if it's legal, yes.

>> president turman: do you want me to call -- do you want me to call mr. crew up here and read the -- >> no. i don't. city policy -- >> president turman: the department can do what the department has to do. i'm telling you what the commission has to do. we don't have to send anything. >> you're the chair. thank you. >> president turman: all right. do you accept the amendment? >> i accept it if it's -- as i said, under legal terms. >> president turman: mr. crew, do you have the case citation? >> no. >> president turman: i want the record to be clear. >> thank you, commissioner. i don't have the case on me. it's san jose police association. you have a copy filed by the aclu and the bar association. there was recently a leigh agu california cities case file

that says this was decades of cases. >> president turman: thank you so much. so is it accepted? >> accepted to me. >> president turman: commissioner, is the amendment accepted? >> i accept it. >> president turman: all right. thank you. >> should we strike that? >> president turman: roll call vote? [ inaudible ] >> president turman: okay. do we need a roll call vote? roll call vote. >> clerk: on the motion to approve dgo 5.02 and the appendix as revised by discussions and based on the straw vote as taken by the

commissioners -- [ roll call. ] >> clerk: the motion passes, 6-1 with commissioner hing in the disent. >> we are done. >> president turman: okay. secretary kilshaw, comments to the commission. >> report on recent police department activities including weekly events, major crime

trends and announcements. >> commission, i'm going to keep this very brief. >> good. >> basically, i will start with our crime statistics, and we're -- this is as of march 14th. good news to report in terms of how we are starting out compared to this time last year. we're 31% down in shootings, or shooting victims. we are -- sorry. wrong numbers. strike that. strike the -- let me make a correction. we are 8% down in homicides -- i mean, 27% down in homicides.

we have eight this year, as opposed to 11 last year. we're up 1% slightly on assaults, and we're up slightly in terms of human trafficking cases reports, six opposed to two last year. property crimes we're down 33 is, burglaries down on motor vehicle thefts. we're up slightly 2.4% on arson and larceny thefts. i'd also like to say with significant effort and collaboration on our auto burglary effort, we're actually 18% down year to date on auto burglaries. that's encouraging news, considering the past year of how we ended up in that category. special events, we had the student protest today that went well with no problems reported. this coming saturday, there's a st. patrick's day event, and a traffic safety operation with the ots grant, and that's

actually happening tonight and on the 22nd and 28th, and that'll focus on bicycle pedestrian safety. this past week, we had our town hall and our most recently officer involved shooting. a lot of comments and passion from the community. we'll take those comments, and that definitely will be many of the things that we heard from the community will be considered in terms of the policies and the issues that were raised. and it was a very, very well attended event with over 200 people, and we appreciate that the community was there to speak and let us hear from them, so that concludes my report. >> president turman: any questions for the chief? >> i'm going to report, i went to the sametu.

>> president turman: all right. next. >> clerk: item eight, dpa director's report. report on recent dpa activities and announcements. >> several announcements -- no, i don't. i don't. my candidacy or pending candidacy has gone to the board today. it'll be referred again next week. in that time, my new investigators have come on board. i'm excited about them. they were here for tonight's meeting for the first time, coming to a police commission. >> and they ran away. >> they were here for a long time. welcome to police commission, mbpa. i also have my chief of staff is here, thank you so much for your work. some of the other investigators were here tonight, too, in case anyone has any information for the dpa or complaints to make with my office, we are here and

present. that's it. >> president turman: thank you. director henderson. any questions for director henderson? director henderson, i was unable to attend the rules committee meeting because i was -- this afternoon, but i heard some reports, and if anyone has not had a chance to read the six-month report from the dpa, i urge them to do so. you have made tremendous strides since taking the office. i wish i could have been there to support you. i did send someone to speak on my behalf. thank you for the tremendous work that you and everyone in your office has been doing on behalf of us. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> president turman: next item. >> clerk: item 1-c, reports, commission president's report, commissioners' report. >> president turman: okay. i just had one small report. i just want to get this out.

we will not be voting on item three. we will not be taking up item three, and i'm not about to make a political statement of any sort, but i do want to say this. i have heard some reports as of late from different news media and other folks. we as commission sat together and chose smart, progressive reforming independent minded chief who is doing a fabulous job. he stepped out and made a decision that was tough to make. his decision is not reflective of a lack of care of officers or the people of san francisco. it is about judgment, it is about diligence, it is about overall care for this department and this community.

i cannot thank you enough for the year-plus service that you have given the city and county of san francisco. i cannot thank you enough for all the things you do. now as plainly seen tonight, you and i don't always agree, and they should hear some of those, you know, regular meetings you and i have. they would really be shocked to hear that you and i don't agree, but what i do agree with is your ability to make informed decisions to standup and take the head, to do what is right, to call it out when you think something's wrong, and that's what makes you a great chief, and that's what makes me hope that you are in san francisco for a very, very long time. thank you for your service. [applause]. >> president turman: there'll be no clapping. all right. >> i'd like to thank the commission for that. i thank you for the entire

commission. i definitely -- i and the department appreciate what you do, as well, and your support, so thank you. >> president turman: commissioner dejesus. >> commissioner dejesus: so i want to echo. i want to thank you, commissioner turman for also being brave and letting the public know what we're doing here, rather than the hyperbole that has been put out in the public. but i was your representative. i did go to the monday night meeting in the mission, and it was the first time that the public heard that 99 shots were fired by ten officers into this trunk of the car, but what was very disturbing to the neighborhood was it was a two-door, and so there was a teenage girl in the back seat, so she did exactly as instructed. put her hands up, but couldn't get out. she was sitting in the back seat when 99 shots were fired,

and the mother was there and the teenagers were appalled that no one helped her get out of the car. they were taken aback by how quickly things happened, the shouting, shouting show your hands or i'm going to shoot you. no deescalation. they were really pointing out our own policy and saying wh e where's deescalation. they were very, very upset, but some of the things they said is, you know, we cannot heal from the trauma if you continue to inflict trauma in our community, and it's like every time we're getting to a point where we're changing policy, we're working with the community, we're trying to be collaborative, the scab gets pulled off, so there was a lot of hurt, a lot of anger, a lot of shock about how this thing went down. people testified that their homes were shot, windows were

broken. mothers had kids hiding in the bathtub because of the number of bullets that went down, the destruction of property in the middle of a very highly congested mission district. so they wanted to know, you know, thiey criticized us, the criticized dpa, and how do we ensure that the use of force policy is really being enforced, and how is it being enforced? the community policing dgo, and they went through it, and part of the thing is the community's willing to help train the deescalation, who could have helped, who could have translated sooner if that was the issue. i have to tell you it was very emotional. there was a lot of great comments that were made, a lot of insight that were made, and those are the things that we need to hear.

that's my report. >> president turman: thank you, commissioner. any other commissioner reports? thank you. next line item, please. >> clerk: item 1-d, commission announcements and scheduling of items identified for consideration at future meetings, action. >> president turman: commissioners, any items we need to schedule? okay. >> clerk: and just for members of the public, the next commission meeting westbound next wednesday, march 21st here at city hall in room 400 beginning at 5:30 p.m. >> actually, commissioner dejesus brought up something very important that we need to make an announcement. as you know, we have a police commission staff, we have sergeant ware, we have sergeant

kilshaw, but officer ryan jones of our office are proud to announce that he and his wife are the proud parent of justgen rye justgen -- justin ryan jones. congratulations, and i'm sure you're home watching us today. >> president turman: with that, public comment on items, i'm going to call it 1-a through d. seeing none, public comment is now closed. all right. next line item, please. >> clerk: item four, general public comment. the public is now welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not appear on tonight's agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction. speakers hard address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual

commissioners and dpa or police personnel. neither police or dpa personnel nor commissioners are required to respond to questions presented by the public, but may provide a brief response. individual commissioners and police and dpa personnel should refrain however from entering into any debates or discussion with speakers during public comment. please limit your comments to two minutes. >> president turman: all right. understanding that it has been a long night, and we have pulled our hair out, and we have gone through this policy several times, is there any public -- general public comment on items not on the agenda? >> tom gilberti. 99 bullets is a lot. it reminds me of mario woods with their five officers in that position with their guns drawn that we don't want to see anymore. i hope we can work on that. i hope we can work on that.

the police are -- have a -- have a tough time. we just -- on the television within the last few days, we had a jaywalker who was killed. that rubs off on everybody. that's tough. i live in south beach ma reari apartments, and there was an episode today at south beach marina apartments. somebody was pulled in by the police. from what i understand, there were, like, 60 officers surrounding a gentleman who was trying to hide from the police. i didn't hear about it. first i heard about it was in the elevator coming down to coming here. and this supposedly happen around noon. i heard the helicopter, and then, i heard a siren. i heard nothing else. so in that regard, if that happened, if that's true,

congratulations for the police for not causing more of an alarm and causing more -- creating a situation that's more tense. i agree on -- on the tazers. >> president turman: tazers have already been discussed. move on. >> we need -- we need better. we need better. i would like to see how many -- deaths from tazers are going to happen. >> president turman: sir. >> and i would like to compare that with the number of deaths that we have when we had the keratoid procedure. we have made a -- we have made a mistake. thank you. >> president turman: thank you. any further public comment? okay. seeing none, public comment is now closed. secretary kilshaw.

>> clerk: adjournment. >> president turman: it comes about an hour and a half earlier than i anticipated. >> i move to adjourn. >> second. >> president turman: all in favor? thank you, ladies and gentlemen. this meeting is now adjourned. >> they tend to come up here and drive right up to the vehicle and in and out of their car and into the victim's vehicle, i would say from 10-15 seconds is all it takes to break into a car

and they're gone. yeah, we get a lot of break-ins in the area. we try to -- >> i just want to say goodbye. thank you. >> sometimes that's all it takes. >> i never leave anything in my car. >> we let them know there's been a lot of vehicle break-ins in this area specifically, they target this area, rental cars or vehicles with visible items. >> this is just warning about vehicle break-ins. take a look at it. >> if we can get them to take it with them, take it out of the cars, it helps.

>> the office of controllers whistle blower program is how city employees and recipient sound the alarm an fraud address wait in city government charitable complaints results in investigation that improves the efficiency of city government that. >> you can below the what if anything, by assess though the club program website arrest call

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blower protections please seek www. ♪ >> supervisor jeff sheehy and i represent district eight, the castro, diamond heights. ♪ ♪ for me i think district eight is different than other districts because of the castro, right? that is really the birth place of lgbtq civil rights movement in san francisco. it's historic for that reason. it's a great district because it's very diverse. you have booming night life in the castro, a lot of families, we have an amazing array of

parks, rock climbing wall in glen canyon is super cool. it was the first facility with a rock climbing wall. the book stores are treasures, charlie's corner is unique. >> charlie's corner is a children's book store but so much more, community space where care takers and children come together over storytelling, books, it's a gathering center. i am charlotte and we are at charlie's corner on the corner of castro and 24th. the type of books we carry at charlie's corner range from prenatal to young adult, 18. we have musical books, art books, all built around children of course. history, nonfiction, we have a

wonderful picture book section. >> i love going to charlie's corner, number one, because you can find a whole range of books. my kid loves to read books. >> i always envisioned a space like this, surrounded by children's books and storytelling. we offer storytelling four times a day. we do curate well, we do a lot of time reading, researching, beyond the story time, it's going back to picking out a book, helping someone find the perfect book, unwrapping it and sending it off. there are people from all over the world and that's what i find so exciting. you see that every day in our story times. it's literally a melting pot. >> more and more families come into the district, whether it's the castro, strollers every

where in the valley and tons and tons of kids in glen park now, with the canyon and a great library. >> i describe it as this village, i tell people i live in a town but i work in a village. >> one thing i really think is great about this district, it's a safe district, it's a clean district, it's great for kids, it's great for families and has a bit of wild life in it, too. >> i look forward to watching these kids in this neighborhood grow up and new kids come in and meeting new people from all over the world because that's what we're all about. ♪ ♪ >> ok, i'm going to hop around like this, it is cold in here. that's dirt.

this is a ground breaking. there is a big banner and if you've been involved in the project, you know that the banner has been up for a long time. it says the future of the neighborhood starts here. at long, long, long, long, long last, the future of the neighborhood starts here. applause line. [applause] 116 years after this building opened, 116 years. we are on the precipice of just an amazing transformation of this space. commissioner, can you -- this is just recent history back in the day when, i don't know what we were doing here, but trying to keep the thing still standing. so that in i think it was 2002

or 2003, mayor brown and then recreation and park general manager, elizabeth goldstein and i'm not who was running mta at the time -- dan? michael burns. so we were able to transform -- well, this property was given to the recreation and park department and, boy, were we happy to get it, sort of. [laughter]. it's what i would call a fixer upper. and it has taken the last 16 or 17 years of sweat and desire and push and pull and push and pull. and leadership, which you're going to hear from today. and community leadership to get to where we are today. this really genuinely is the

little project that could. and so here we are, it's just a joyous moment. mark buell, who is not here today. here's our mayor, but i meant to go over here to the commissioner. mark buell is president of the rec and park commission, and says it takes a village. this takes an entire city to pull this project off. and there are so many people to acknowledge and thank. i'm going to that and then turn the microphone over to our mayor. there are a lot of people who have had some skin in the game here. let me read off the beginning of a list. obviously, let's start with the late mayor ed lee. who was here for -- [applause] our current mayor mark farrell who has been a park champion from the get go and helped make

stuff happen. representing assemblyman phil ting. he delivered a total of $6.5 million of state funding, including $3.5 million for this project. our recreation and park vice president allan lowe, who has given this project all kinds of leadership at city hall. we have representatives from the performing arts workshop here today. the community arts stabilization trust. you're going to hear from them. todd. joachim and amy, thank you, thank you, thank you. equity community builders who did the financing and historic preservation financing. officially the most complicated project in recreation and park department history. it makes the soccer fields seem

like a cake walk. the san francisco community investment fund, sf, todd wearing two hats there, for the new market credit financing. darling design. former district 11 supervisor john ablows. let's give him a round of applause. your district 11 supervisor, safai. the head of the arts commission, tom dekaty. department of public works, rob bot construction. i don't know if she's here, but our city attorney, she earned whatever she billed to this project, which was a lot, adira

tailor. and two special people that i want to take an extra second to thank. there is a lot of other names i'm going to fill in over time. i want to thank two members of my own team. reama. and then nicole. come here, step up. this woman right here. [applause] she started this project -- where is dan weaver -- working for friends of the geneva car barn. i stole her which made them -- you guys very upset. but you know, sometimes you can bang on the door from the outside and it takes somebody with nicole's talent to make it happen from the inside. this project does not happen without nicole abele. more thank yous to come, but let

me turn over the microphone. the guy behind me has been all over the city, parks, parks, parks, there is other stuff to do, but all he cares about is parks, parks, parks, parks. mayor mark farrell. >> i think phil took care of the thanks, but let's give a round for phil ginsburg, our general manager. thank you, phil. and to the entire rec and park staff, thank you for all the work you've done on the project. to assembly member phil ting, i know we're here in large part because of his efforts and want to thank supervisor safai. this was something he talked about when he was running for office. we talked about it in the board of supervisors. such an amazing advocate for the

neighborhood. it was about 5-6 years ago that as a district 2 supervisor, weaver came to our office enough that we came here and went on a tour of this place a number of years ago. and so this has been an issue and project that because of the advocacy of so many of you has been in the forefront of peoples' minds. who here is a neighbor? give yourself a round of applause. this is grassroots, built from the neighborhood, with a lot of support. but to cass and all the people making this work. i want to say thank you for everything you've done to get us to where we are. i'm curious about what is buried under the ground, looks suspicious to me. but this is phase one. advocacy does not stop in terms of the entire project, but thank you all for the work you've done, the leadership behind me. but really for the neighbors.

and you know, continue to make sure that everybody knew this was a priority for you and what this will do for the neighborhood for years and generations to come is incredibly exciting. proud to be here today. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> so before i bring up the next speaker, i also want to give a big shoutout to beth ruebenstein who has supported this project wearing a variety of hats. thank you, beth. so, this project has benefitted from the great leadership of two district 11 supervisors, but i am very, very proud to bring up the current district 11 supervisor, whom frankly we could not have asked for more from. he's helped power up our balboa park pool, scored funding for a dog play area, he just joined us last week at the opening of the geneva community garden down the

street. which is amazing. he participated in the planning and design conversation to make the playground better. he was there to celebrate the bike project. this guy really fights for district 11 communities and parks and green space. ladies and gentlemen, supervisor safai. >> all right. i'm going to take a minute to give a little bit of history. when i first was involved in this project, it went back to the geneva car barn, that's what we called it at the time, with marion harris, dan weaver, some of the folks and we met for hours and hours and hours. and every time we'd have an opportunity -- and steve courier -- and every time we had an opportunity, and sharon, i

know i'm going to forget someone, linda, linda lighthizer who won't height lighthizer back then. and she would say you don't want to get involved, you do want to get involved, you don't want to. but every opportunity dan weaver had, no matter who was in the mayor's office or the general manager was, he said i want to bring folks down to the car barn and we have to do a tour. and we have this amazing asset and resource in our community. it's one of only two historic buildings in our district. balboa high school and the car barn. because of the tenacity of that man and all the people i named and folks in the community, we're standing here now with phase onefully funded. let's give it up for phase one!

[applause] and then we had an angel investor from the state assembly who knows his assembly district very well. and as he said, he was the parks champion of 2017. and that was assemblyman phil ting who came in with $3 million. and our former supervisor who was able to go through the outside of the budget process and push really hard and got the attention of his colleagues on the board, and with the tenacity of beth ruebenstein and we got an add back for this. take the advocacy of dan weaver, assemblyman phil tinge and then the leadership of the wonderful parks and rec manager, phil ginsburg. and phil pulled it all together. i can tell you my first week in office, i was standing there and i met tom and he said the people

that you need that is going help bring this project to whole and bring it to fruition is cass. and i was like, what do you mean, what is cass? i've never heard of it? there you are tom. and we engaged them. phil is not exaggerating. the amount of time and effort and energy with the tax credit and the new market tax credit and the historic tax credit and all that to be said, the financing and the layers that go into this project are tremendous. so rheem, nicole, phil ginsburg. he took this on as a baby. one of his projects that he has a lot of children, but he was not going to let this go until we got it done. and the wonderful city attorney taylor and all of them got together and were able to bring this to fruition. now, cass is charged with helping lead the effort for phase two, so we're excited

about having them involved. excited to have moism, steve oliver and their entire team. this is not just a building. this is a place where we believe it will be the premiere performing arts facility in the entire city and county of san francisco. [applause] so performing arts workshop is going to work with all of the different people in the arts community. and i want to recognize a special guest, david, from the conservatory of music. he's standing in the back. they have committed to be an initial partner here working with the performing arts workshop. and that is also as a result of reverend brown's leadership. so david, give a wave back there. thank you for coming out today. [applause] conservatory of music is going to be a big part of this, along

with performing arts workshop. we're so happy that district 11 is no longer treated like the forgotten part of san francisco, but a rising tiger in the city. and thank you to our mayor for supporting us. [applause] >> a couple of other quick shout outs as i see people in the room. equity community builders, john clawson in the back, here's the genius of the tax credits. and then john is pointing at his colleague, kim nash. kim, john, thank you very much. supervisor safai used the word tenacious to describe dan.

i'm going to describe another, that is amy cohn who helped to make this project happen. i got to introduce rheem and nicole, but i see kara and koch who helped to run the capital program that is responsible for building these amazing parts. we talked about assemblyman ting who couldn't be here today, parks mvp of 2017, so accepting the award on behalf of assemblyman ting is his aid alex walker! >> thank you, phil. good morning, everyone. it's great seeing so many friends and neighbors here today. my name is alex water, here on behalf of phil ting. i want to say myself personally, i've been a neighbor of the project, at mission terrace, i've been a neighbor here 7 and a half years and it makes me so

proud to see this coming to fruition. i know we had a lot of people to thank, because so many people with the hands in our project. i want to recognize the surrounding community leaders. al harris here from the omi and thinking about all of the children and the people this is going to serve, i see joel from the outer mission merchants and residents association. i see mel from the excelsior district. and you know, we're also going to be seeing across the street, housing built by mission housing. so it's great to see a transit hub building here. as mentioned earlier, we were proud to get $3.5 million in the budget to help get the first

phase started. on his behalf i want to say thank you. one more shoutout, i see genesis is here, from david chiu's office. and a connection with david chiu's office, a shoutout to judson, who is the chief of staff, but used to work for sandoval and it goes all the way back. so it's so great to see years and years of work by dan weaver, so many people come to fruition. we were so proud to get a little bit of money to get things kick started, so happy to see the process. thank you for having me, thanks to phil, the commission, the supervisor and the mayor, great to be here today. can't wait to see the first phase when it opens up. thank you, all. >> thank you, alex, a couple more shoutouts from the design

here is what takes your breath away. from darling design, we have josh, able and nicole here. can you raise your hands? thank you, josh. and by the way, the design, much of it it was in-kind contribution to the project which makes it even more special. thank you, josh. and alex mentioned mission housing across the street. sam moss is here? sam is not here. never mind that. i was told sam was here. moving along, so i have lots and lots of bosses. last count 890,000, but within that, i have this boss and then i have seven bosses on the recreation and park commission. i also have 11 on the board of supervisors and lots of others. but the -- it is really a pleasure to work with the rec

and park commission. they are the people's voice and that's a really important thing in parks. but there is very much a shared mission of trying to steward what is the best park system in the united states of america. and it is a great joy to work with the vice president of the commission who blocks and cheers for parks like the best of them. my pleasure to bring up allan lowe. >> thanks, phil. just wanted to tell you this morning i was sitting on my kitchen room table trying to think of something inspirational, motivational about patience and waiting. and i just said screw it, let's just build it. speaking of patience and waiting, i really want to acknowledge dan weaver and the friends of the geneva car barn.

that was a long community advocacy. it's gone longer than my marriage and louder than my wife. glad to have this happen. i want to acknowledge all the civic leaders, in particular the late mayor ed lee, who really wanted to put this into execution. and the mayor's office and their staff. joachim, when i first joined the commission told me about the geneva car barn and i said, i don't know where that is. i want to thank the tax credit investors, the financing to make this possible. a big shutout to the department staff who pulled this together. our general manager who held our hand and explained to us what --

inside tax credit investor joke. but thank you. rec and park, we have the saying let's get out and play. when this opens up, i think we're going to have to change that to go to the power house and create. thank you. [applause] >> all right. so, the city folks have done their thing. now we're going to transition to community past, present and future. so i'm first going to bring up the chief on the project, tenacious, but dan, it is truly an honor given the length of the journey to invite you to speak. you all know him, ladies and gentlemen, dan weaver. [applause]

>> thanks, everybody. i'm just the face of a board that has been from the beginning together with us and we've been working and moving and dealing with whatever happens. by order of a rival here, al harris. [applause] if i say your name, would you raise your hand if you're back there still? alex? over here? neil ballard. tom? over here. mel flores. sharon everhart.

i'd also like to acknowledge two of our former board members. one of whom has moved on, or both of whom who moved on. steve courier. and supervisor safai was on our board. and one more acknowledgment here before i say a few words about the history of the project. marry harris at the district 11 council was always ready. [applause] and also advocating for this project. even when i wasn't there, she was working on it. lots of times. thank you, mary. let me go back to the beginning how this all happened. one more person. christie. who took over when al adams left

the school and has been carrying on as well as he was carrying on in the beginning. they provide us with all kinds of meeting rooms and classrooms and offices over the years. that's a great contribution to on organization trying to put together a space. let me go back to -- actually this sign is historic. it was put together by muni. in the year after they stopped trying to demolish the buildings. in 1989 to be exact, this complex was red-tagged. muni pursued a 10-year process which resulted in an eir, saying

there are bricks that might fall from this brick structure. and therefore someone might get hurt, so the buildings have to be demolished. we persuaded them, or explained to them at historic preservation advisory committee that we could repair the bricks and the building wouldn't fall apart and it wouldn't hurt anybody. and we could use it for a community center. it took until january of 1999, when mayor brown issued an order to muni to stop their efforts. and work with us to fix the building. in 2001, this being san francisco, muni proposed and

carried out a neighborhood celebration for the 100th anniversary of the geneva car barn. so in 2002, the nonprofit friends of the geneva office building and power house was formed. in 2003, we partnered with rec park informally, because rec park didn't own the building then. we worked with the two agencies a little bit. and muni readily agreed to give it up for $1. so it was a bargain. [laughter] in 2004, we started working on the project.

the office building over there was stabilized, with a new roof. this one wasn't stabilized at the time, it didn't need a new roof, but now it does. >> this is why we want to move -- >> yes. that's true. [laughter] the 2012 parks bond was the perfect opportunity to get this thing funded. it didn't happen because of the bureaucratic situation our organization was in. we couldn't participate in it. so that opportunity went away. 2015, the arts commission and oewd jumped in again to try to move the project forward. the proposal was to do it in phases. this is phase i. we're celebrating the ground

breaking of the beginning -- or the phase i effort. i want to thank, acknowledge mary murphy from gibson dunn, architecture services by aidan darling design. we've already met. [applause] >> finally, the message of this message is phase i, great as it is provides only 3,000 square feet and one room. we also need phase ii, which is that side over there, with i has 17,000 square feet, many rooms and spaces of different