>> president buell: please call the roll. >> clerk: [roll call] this is the recreation and park commission meeting of december 17, 2020. please note that due to the covid-19 health emergency, and to protect the board members, the city employees and the public, that the meeting rooms at city hall are closed. however, the commissioners are participating in this meeting remotely at the same extent as if physically present. we ask listeners to turn down your televisions and/or computers while listening on the phone. we ask for your patience if we experience any technical issues. public comment will be available for each item on the agenda. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak.

comments are opportunities to speak during the public comment period and are available via phone by calling 1-(415)-655-0001. and the access code today is 146 860 8421. when you hear the agenda item that you would like to comment on, dial star, 3, to be added to the queue to speak. you will be lined up in the system in the order you dialed star, 3. while you are waiting, the system will be silent. and the system will notify you when you are in line and waiting. all callers remain on mute until their line is open. and everyone must account for the time delays and the speaking discrepancies between the live covering and streaming. you may submit public comment in either of the following ways, email

recpark.commission@sfgov.org. if you submit by email it's included in the legislative file as part of the matter. and subject via the u.s. postal service to san francisco recreation and park commission 501 stanion street, san francisco, california, 94117. please note that this commission meeting is recorded and will be available on sfgov-tv.org. we are now on item two, the president's report. >> president buell: thank you. i will be brief, but to tell you that i so enjoyed the william hammond hall awards this last week. and i simply wanted to congratulate all of the staff that put the work into making those awards happen, and to vince courtney and to larry mazzola and kat anderson for participating in presenting those awards. to phil and the staff. and i particularly want to call out ashley summers for really making that event on zoom and in

these challenging times a very heartwarming and pleasant experience. so, thank you all -- all who participated. with that, i know that there's lots to cover today. and i'm going to include my report, thank you. >> clerk: okay. is there any public comment on the president's report? as a reminder, if you are here to comment on this item please dial star, 3. there will be a time for general public comments. paul, is there anyone on the line? >> there's only one other person dialed in and i do no they do ne their hand raised. >> clerk: we are now on item 3, general manager's report. >> thank you, ashley, good morning, commissioners. we have a few items for you and then some special recognition at the end of our report. let me start with a covid upda

update. some san francisco recreation park features are closed or restricted under a stay-at-home order that went into effect sunday, december 6th. san francisco joined counties across the bay area to impose rather significant restrictions across the region in an effort to mitigate the current surge in covid-19 cases. the city's case rate and hospitalizations have continued to increase rather significantly since early november and prompted san francisco to take further actions. frankly, today the entire bay area hospital region joined san francisco and a few other counties that did this earlier because the region's hospital capacity rate has dipped below 15%. park features that closed under this order include all skateparks and, unfortunately, the san francisco zoo. park activities that can continue but with new restrictions include small -- well, small outdoor gatherings,

meaning two people. golf, tennis, pickle ball and botchy and volunteer groups. so we can still operate but with additional restrictions under the tier and the most important thing is that there are supposed to be no gatherings. the -- to that end, the department of of public health updated its stay-at-home order to allow two individuals from two different households to spend time together outdoors and masked and physically distanced and to participate in certain outdoor activities with safety protocols in place. this is an evolving concern and while there's very good news in that, the vaccine arrived in san francisco, we still do have a long way to go. and we are in it now, we are seeing the impacts of -- in case spikes and in the reproductive rate of the virus because of thanksgiving travel. san franciscans are urged not to travel during the winter

holidays and if you do travel, there is going to be a required quarantine for people. so we're really in this now and we have to remain quite diligent. one bit of good news with respect to all of this new round of restrictions is that while playgrounds were originally closed as part of the december 6th stay-at-home order, they have now reopened after an amendment that closed them. this is really good for kids and families and, frankly, furthers our commitment to equity. because playgrounds are the most equitable and democratic form of recreation that we've got and while some families have the capacity and means to register their kids in out of school time programs and/or, you know, grab a mountain bike and head someplace, in certain neighborhoods, particularly

neighborhoods without a lot of open space, playgrounds are the only thing that some families have. and we are very excited and thrilled. there was a lot of advocacy from san francisco families and advocacy from this department, there was advocacy up and down the state to reopen them. so we really want to thank the governor and the mayor for making a decision based on both science and equity. and prioritizing the well-being of families. and i also really want to thank the department of public health which gets this, without a doubt, and they've had to make so many difficult decisions on the fly. but with the state order revised we are allowed to keep playgrounds open. but you can visit but only with members of your own household. everyone over 2 must wear a mask at all times and must practice social distancing and must comply with the adapted capacity limits that we now have in our play spaces. this is not a time to schedule

play dates or meet others at a playground. all of our playgrounds have a restroom or hand sanitizing stations and we just asked san francisco families to do their part to keep everyone safe and to keep these play spaces open. for more information, you can visit our playground safety page at sfriskandpark.org. and speaking of adaptations of amenities in our parks, as you all know the golden gate park's 150th year and while it's not the celebration that we had hoped and planned for we have been able to do a number of things within the construct of the health order to create specialness in the park. which means that it's as busy as it's ever been, for the holidays, while unable to have a formal tree lighting ceremony for maybe the first time in the tree lighting's five-year history, our uncle john's tree is lit. and we are very pleased to share

the light exhibit that is in peacock meadow in golden gate park. it's a public art installation. it's open to visit with no tickets or reservations required, but only with members of your own household and everyone must wear a mask at all times and practice social distancing. it is really a remarkable, whimsical light exhibit that you can enjoy and just get a little bit of a taste of the holidays. it's outdoors and spread over an acre of open space and we have ambassadors on-site after sundown to ensure social distancing. lights turn off at 8:30 to make sure that everyone can leave and get home safely in compliance with the 10:00 p.m. curfew. we have rangers present on-site and it may go dark for short periods of time to prevent overcrowding. we want everybody to see it, and

while we remain in the purple tier, if it seems crowded, delay your visit. the exhibit will be around to the end of february and maybe longer and it will always be free. consider visiting when the covid-19 surge has subsided. it is -- it is special and it is joyful, but, again, we ask san franciscans to do their part, to keep us all safe. and, by the way, it's not the only exhibit that has lighting in the park. so go see something else. golden gate park is now illuminated than ever with new and old from uncle john's career and the mclaren lodge and to the band shell, and we have mentioned entwine and there's the conservatory of flowers. so there's lots of things that you can explore safely with your own household to experience just a little bit of safe holiday joy. commissioner buell noted the successful william happenedond d -- hammond hall awards that happened this week. i want to extend my thanks to

all of our partners and the staff and the commission secretary for organizing a really successful event under trying circumstances. the 12 awardees are truly exceptional, and we're very, very, very proud of them. this year's award winners are josé alvarez, mofai bastidas, daniel deragodas, and jessica clock, and robert mckinney, nick olgerson, who i saw in the park earlier. and jeff tom and vincent webster. congratulations to all of our award winners. these achievements are a testament to the work that they are doing in our parks every day. and we're very grateful. registration is now open, the winter virtual recreation club. while things have not yet returned to normal we're

offering a number of virtual online programs for youth and adults this winter, including programminprogramming with the d the sharon arts studio, and golden gate park senior center and the young people musical theatre company. to register and to view classes visit the website, and i want to take a second to celebrate our recreation division who is just doing it all under the great leadership of lauer even danford, and not just emergency child care but offering learning hubs and doing virtual programming. it's really quite impressive. all right, we have a special guest in our midst. he's wearing a san francisco recreation and park department hat. he is none other than the wonderful, terrific, amazing chuck holmes. and i'm a bit melancholy about

the mix of sadness and gratitude that we're honoring chuck today. this fall chuck stepped down as president and chief executive officer of the ymca director of san francisco that he held since 2004. he led the y to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities by enriching the lives of all people in spirit, mind and body. he did this through programs and services for over 183,000 children and adults in the 14 major branches of the y and san francisco san mateo counties and over 120 other off-site program locations, including several rec and park sites. including bodecker park, and allis-chalmers playground, and the newly amazingly renovated margaret hayward playground. in normal times these sites have provided homes to ymca programming and to teach kids to swim. and today the y and r.p.d. are

working together on the front lines of the covid response, providing community hubs. and at argon playground and at margaret hayward playground. and i want to take a second -- i know that jamie is on the call. chuck's successor, who is already stepped up and will just continue chuck's amazing legacy as a close partner and friend of the recreation and parks department. and i'm sure that he may say a word or two before we're done here. working together at our clubhouses and pools, chuck has always emphasized the importance of nature and the outdoors in children's lives, knowing that time -- >> hi, julia. >> good morning. >> if we could all stay on mute. knowing that -- >> no -- >> clerk: hello, if you could mute yourself if you're on the call. >> in any event, in addition to working together our clubhouses

and pools, i do see the last name collins there -- chuck -- chuck is always emphasized the importance of nature in the outdoors and in children's lives, knowing that the time has helped to us become our healthiest and best selves. in 2016, together with the presidio trust and the recreation and park department, we co-founded the san francisco children and nature collaborative through the national league of cities connecting children to nature initiative, to move forward our shared vision of equity and nature connection for children and youth in san francisco, building support for collective impact with over 30 san francisco organizations. and a very apt simple mission statement that every single san francisco child deserves a nature-based experience every single day. chuck has led the y in becoming a leader in fostering connections to nature through programming and early childhood and after-school programs, field

trips, to the parks and the ocean. and the y ranger summer program in partnership with the national parks where 50% of youth come from our highest needs and most underserved neighborhoods. and the outdoor leadership program at camp jones gulch that has community awareness and wonder through backpacking and other outdoor adventires. we are part of a national cohort of cities really focused on equitable nature access and we, chuck, in your honor, the national team leadership from c.c.n. offered the following words. on behalf of the cccn national team we want to thank chuck for his leadership and vision to connect children to more nature. and cities connecting children to nature relies on the city leadership and community leaders who help to realize these possibilities. we thank him for being a voice for the movement, the local and national stage, to inspire the city collaboration across the

u.s. that's from andrew moore, the director of youth and young adult connections for national league of cities and monica, who is the engagement for the children in nature network to recognize your accomplishments, chuck -- and let me stop here and add a non-resume reflection -- chuck, for 10 years i've had the pleasure to work closely with you and to learn from you. you have -- you've in many respects been a rabbi for me and you have offered guidance, perspective, and you have contributed so much to my own professional development, and i'm grateful, and you are just such a kind and a caring soul. and i just love the work that we've been able to do together over the last 10 years. you are a true friend and you are a true friend of the recreation and park department. so to recognize your accomplishments we have a little

present for you. i hope that everyone can see this. what we have for chuck is that we have an amazing nature kit for you, otherwise called nature in a box, put together by our very own children in nature coordinator maria darona. and the commission also -- also issued a proclamation for serving our parks and community. and this box here, chuck, it's not just for you. we know how proud of a grandpop you are, and so our hope is that you share this with your loving family and to help to connect your own family with all of the parks and nature that you love. and so on behalf of the recreation and park department, on behalf of the san francisco children and nature collaborative, we are just -- we couldn't be more grateful for your leadership in our city.

we love you. and with that, i'm going to turn it over to others who might want to say a brief word to you, or turn the mike over t mike mic o. >> president buell: let me take a moment to say that i have had the pleasure of working with chuck in the past across many frontiers in san francisco, in politics and (indiscernible) and when i think of chuck, i think of the word integrity. i say that because i've seen him stand up against odds to express the right views of justice and particularly social justice. so i want to add my congratulations. and i would say the other observation is that he's married to a remarkable woman, and i think that shows very good taste on his part. and so, chuck, congratulations for what you've done.

>> i would like to adda this is jamie -- the (indiscernible) and a proud legacy of chuck collins. you have unpacked something specific about his vast and impressive legacy and the ability to connect to youth and to lift up youth voices. not just lift them up but hear them, see them and connect them to nature and the environment and the changing world around us. chuck is not done. this is an honor, an important honor, but he's still vibrant and he'll continue to push the envelope of social justice for all of us for years to come. so, chuck, thank you for your legacy. and thank you for what you're doing. and i look forward to what is next with you working together. >> we shouldn't belabor this -- >> it's not your turn yet, sorry. you got to indulge us another minute.

[laughter] just want to add to the kind of, frankly, reverence of the amazing legacy, chuck, that you have created in the bay area. and the frame that i hold where you are concerned is truth to power. that you have always stood in a place of rightness. and equity and access. centering in particular but not only young people with their voices, their role, their agency, and the agency of people of color even more broadly. and so i certainly have for a long, long time looked to, looked up to, and have learned from all that you have meant to our community. so i certainly personally thank you and also i am confident that you are not done yet. so i'll look forward to the

third or fourth quarter that you still have to play. and look forward to the ways of continuing to learn and lead alongside you. so, thank you so much. >> thanks chuck. this is alan doyle. and i want to say and i want to thank you for your leadership on completing the chinatown ymca. that is a great asset for the community. that project languished for almost 20 years. it was your leadership that got that project built, fundraised and financed and up and running. so i do want to give a special thanks for your contributions to chinatown and the asian-american communities. i guess that i'll see you more on the slopes or maybe at a presidio y spin class or body pump. >> so let me take off my hat to all of you.

and really say thank you. you know, alan, you know, when we were little boys in san francisco in 1940s, this town was a different town. it was segregated. but the place that the collins boys could go from the western edition from the philmore and feel that we were in another world with chinatown. and we were always welcomed in every single restaurant. we always had wonderful -- wonderful sense of belonging. and so when i came to the y and had an opportunity to do something in honor of who i became as a person in this chinese-american community, it was a no-brainer. it was hard work, but it was really genuine in my own feelings about what this city is really founded on and the relationships that we've all carried now for multiple generations. you know, mark, i am lucky. there's a lot -- i don't know

what is causing that -- but there's a hissing going on -- you know, mark, you and paula have really shared a wonderful legacy. and, you know, the work that you have done i think is something that lasts now for generations. and those generations of families that really need access, equitable access to the out of doors is what you and paula have crafted. and what work is going forward. you know, eric, you know, we have been on a long journey and it hasn't stopped and thank you for those really kind and wonderful words. also, you know, ashley, thanks for making sure that we were prepared in advance. i really respect what an agency secretary is all about. every week, you know, we take our grandsons to the zoo. every week he yearns to go to

the academy of science in the middle of golden gate park. when he was a baby he played at clay park every day. he became an outdoor child in mid san francisco, which is an urban city. and he was really gifted by the remarkable resources of rec and park. and also of the collaborations that we have across this city to become a little boy who is deeply entrenched in nature. he feels this every day. you know, the zoo kits and the maps, all of these things, he knows the names of animals at the zoo and he's only 3 years old. and so he is an example of what can happen when children have persistent, consistent and safe and equitable access to our out of doors. they bloom in a different way. thinking about the work that you did in building the park, amid, you know, the challenges of the tenderloin. or rebuilding margaret hayward

in the western edition. you know, places where equity and justice really meet populations and children really can have safe futures because rec and park is there and making sure that they are there in the places where kids are learning. the amazing work that you are leading with maria sew in the department of children and youth and their families with the mayor's office and jenny lam in putting up these community hubs. it's a tour-de-force. it's really looking where resources meet equity and children are learning every single day because of what we're doing collectively, you know, as city governments, and also as community-based organizations to address this escaping equity gap that we have in learning. that rec and park is there. and building on these years of relationships, you know, i am really confident that this is

not just an intervention, but i think that this is, you know, a next step in education of our children in communities, where they're connected with resources in their communities and they don't have to travel so broadly and not have that time and attention to learn. you know, the tennis center. you know, i had a great opportunity to sit on the selection panel and seeing how rec and park works inside, you know, to ensure that we're taking these resources, you know, the staff attention to detail, i feel that as a commissioner also that we never tell our staff that they're doing enough work. they have become essential workers in this. and they have about seconded into the covid response teams and every day there are front line workers right this minute who are making sure that our communities are held safe. i know this, again, because the work at rec and park, and then you have to go down to the command center and do the work

there. and looking at what you're doing in the southeast section of san francisco in the parks alliance, you know, that wonderful necklace of resources that will be a foundation of our city and what we have here in the northwest part of the city -- or the northeast part of the city. you know, it's really that kind of capital project -- karen had the ecocenter and getting deep into the community there. and when i was first the c.e.o. of the y, my dear friend chip rich took me, you know, to many ward centers. and back then it was a safe haven right in the middle of that very delicate community. and it was rec and park that really rebuilt that and really built it on principles of equity and justice. you know, so that children are held safe in places where they can live and learn and become, you know, into their highest

potential. i see this all of the time. and i see the opportunities -- tonight we'll light the virtual christmas tree in bodecker park. what it means for you to have to sometimes fight through the system in order for kids to be safe right now learning and being, you know, their really best. you know, what's remarkable of this story, the lack of violence, the fact that families can engage and children can really, again, you know, feel confident and safe in learning in places that really are in their communities. you know, the city is connecting children with nature, and the work that we've been doing, you know, with phil's leadership and june fraser's leadership and the absolutely young maria darona, you know, it's seminal work because it's connecting, you know, on a national and really global framework the importance

of this work. one of the things that we know is that it should be here and always, education should be here, and access to nature should be inherent. but all of these have systemic barriers that prevent a child and the family and the communities from partaking in that, but rec/park has taken leadership in every single one of those that you mentioned. we have -- for every child in san francisco, it's only five minutes to some place in nature that they can partake. that may be a geographical distance but one of the things that you're doing is removing all of the structural barriers. you're making that really happen. so our children's health is going to be better. you're going to help to overcome the trauma of this time and the adversity that kids are experiencing because nature as we know is a special vitamin. and you are the best part of

this city of giving vitamins to children in nature. you're an amazing group of people. and your staff is phenomenal. your leadership is remarkable. and my dear mentioned friends, phil ginsburg, i would walk across the sahara desert if there was a drop of water, and i would follow phil. you know, and watching what he did in philadelphia and in pennsylvania, i know that we're not supposed to talk about that stuff, but phil really walked the talk. and he is a person of great leadership and a real tribute to this entire city, this nation and to the world. and so whatever gifts come to me, they're given by other people. they're from my ability to connect with other people, and i see the leverage in the partnership and collaboration and that type of friendship that

people-to-people really ultimately makes a difference. the pride every day in my life is my grandson. i watch him grow and live and thrive because of you. >> wow, thank you, chuck. thank you, thank you, thank you. to wrap this up, commissioners, as you know that chuck for you we usually conclude the general manager's report with a short video of things that are happening in our park system. or something topical. today we conclude the general manager's report with a short video in your honor. so if, barry, ashley or sarah or ryan, if one of you could queue it up, i would appreciate it. (♪)

(♪) [music playing] chuck, we love you so much and we thank you and

we wait for i think as commissioner macdonald noted the third quarter. >> if i could say one thing -- i just looked at the people that are on here and i'm really blown away by my staff. thank you. >> well done, chuck. well done. thank you, thank you. >> mr. president, that concludes the general manager's report. thank you very much. >> president buell: thank you. >> clerk: all right, is there any public comment on the general manager's report. and as a reminder you need to press star, 3, to get in the line to speak. paul, is there anyone on the line for the general manager's report? >> there are five people dialed in. but no one has their hand raised at this time. >> clerk: okay, thank you. seeing no public comment, public comment is now closed. we are now on item 4, general

public comment. up to 15 minutes. this item will be continued to item 10. 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 of the commission and that do not appear on the agenda. with respect to agenda items, you will have opportunity to address the commission when the item is reached in the meeting. if you are here to speak during general public comment, please press star, 3, to get in the queue to speak. paul, is there anyone with their hand raised? >> there is one, and i will unmute them. >> clerk: okay, and, caller, please state your name when you begin to speak. >> caller: hello, my name is richard rothman and i want to follow up my comments that i made at the operations committee meeting in reference to the -- i didn't want to imply that it's always a traffic jam there. it's probably just the commute

hours. and on the weekends. and if the v.a. starts having their people come back to work there, the staff, they use that roadway quite a bit. so i look forward to working on that. and the other thing they wanted to talk about is the concourse authority. i don't know if the commissioners know but supervisor fewer sponsored legislation or sponsored a working group to come up with a plan of how everybody could use the golden gate park if we closed the park. and we had a first meeting last monday and i must say that i found it very, very encouraging. and i think that we all want to work together. one of the main concerns is the concourse authority, and i found out this week that rec and park can set the rates in the garage.

so i hope that after we come up with -- we'll probably be finished in march of actually meeting -- that we could come back to the commission with some fair ways to make it equitable for everybody to park in the park, especially the people who need to park in the free zone. so we'll look forward to having this conversation, i don't know, probably in march or april. thank you. >> thank you, richard. >> clerk: thank you, caller. paul, is there anyone else with their hand raised. please press star, 3, to raise your hand to speak during general public comment. >> that was the only raised hand, ashley. >> clerk: thank you. seeing no further public comment, public comment is now closed. we are now on item 5, consent calendar. commissioners, are there any items that you would like

removed from consent today? no? >> president buell: doesn't look like it. >> clerk: okay. is there any public comment on the consent calendar? as a reminder, to please press star 3 to raise your hand to comment on the consent calendar. >> there's still five callers on the call but zero hands raised. >> clerk: all right, seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. commissioners? >> if the chair would entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar. >> so moved. >> second. >> president buell: moved and seconded. all those in favor? thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you. we are now on item 6, san francisco zoo.

>> hello this is the c.f.o. at the zoo. our report for december is basically that we're closed again. the latest mandate took effect on december 7th and that's in effect to at least january 4th. so nothing going on at the zoo other than taking care of our animals and maintaining the grounds. that's my report. >> clerk: okay, thank you. any public comment on item 6, the san francisco zoo? >> i do see one hand raised, ashley. >> clerk: okay. thank you. caller, please state your name when you begin speaking. >> caller: i'm sorry, i'm not making a comment about the zoo. it's just general comment. >> clerk: okay, that's item 10 so if you stick around for a little bit longer, item 10 is general comment. >> caller: thank you. thank you.

>> clerk: okay, seeing no further comments, public comment is now closed. we are now on item 7, covid-19 adjustments to leases and concessions. >> hi, commissioners, the director of property and permits. i'm going to try to share my screen. it's spinning. okay. the screen we want to share is -- i believe that you're seeing the big screen with just the first slide on it, can you confirm? >> clerk: yes. >> okay, excellent. thank you. so let's see -- how i move this -- okay, so the agenda item is a discussion and a possible action

to authorize the general manager to modify existing leases, concession agreements and operating agreements in light of tenant financial hardships posed -- caused by the covid-19 pandemic and to recommend that the board of supervisors adopt an ordinance granting the general manager such authority with respect to those leases where modifications are subject to board approval. before i start into the meat of the presentation, i want to give you all just a little bit of background on leases and concessions. i know that we have some new commissioners and i'm going to be able to do this quickly, but i think that it's just good to review what we have and why we have them before we go into the specifics. so a little bit -- the background on leases and concessions, what are our goals? our goals increase public amenities for our parks, having professional operators to run and serve our facilities. generate revenues to help with the department's budget. and then we have agreements for

the use of our clubhouses with community-serving partners that provide additional amenities to the public. what tools do we have? we have leases, we have concessions, we have one-year permits, we have operating agreements and we have partner agreements. all of those different tools we use to make this work. and so i'm going to run through quickly the different types of leases that we have, and which ones we have, and a quick like fly through of our leasing and we'll cover these subjects as we go through. the first one is iconic properties. probably the most iconic property that we have is the tower. a concessionaire [broken audio] and the next one is the tea

garden update [broken audio] where you can have tea and things like that. [broken audio] i'll talk about it a bit later. and we have the [broken audio] which have been closed generally since march. and then we have restaurants, cafés and kiosks. oh, you can't hear me. hmm. >> now we can hear you now. >> clerk: it was spotty for like the last slide but now it's fine. >> okay, do you want me to go back or are we okay? >> president buell: i think that we're okay. you can keep going. >> okay. and then we have restaurants and cafés and kiosks. we have the beach chalet and park chalet, back to pick-up only, it's the only option available. and they had outdoor dining for a month and a half or two months and they had done renovations inside, so we never got inside open.

and we have the café spaces at union square, closed since march, and we need to find a new tenant for that spaik. and we have the boathouse café which reopened but it was open for a variety of different options, but now pick-up only. and the bi-right café at the civic center is closed. and if you go for a run on the waterfront you can pick up your donuts at the end. and we also have a lot of different food kiosks, from toad trucks and they have been open and continue to be open to provide food to those visiting our parks. other park amenities that we have that enhance the visitors' experiences at parks -- the carousel has been closed under the health order since march. and park wide bicycles, we reopened in may, and people have been able to rent bikes and enjoy being in parks. i'm sure that all of those people are from the same household in that picture.

and the segway tours are opened with limited ability to have that happen. and the boat rentals -- so the café that we talked about with the boats, you could rent a boat and you can rent a boat for outdoor entertainment. and normally we have holiday ice drinks anrinks and this year the none. we made a decision in august that in the end turned out to be a good decision. we would have been able to open briefly and then have to shut down. so none of the ice rinks. our golf courses -- they've been very adaptive. and we're open for twosomes and open for foursomes and open for outdoor dining and then open for indoor dining and now back to twosomes and no dining, and just pick up food. so we have hardy and linking and eagles, golden gate and sharp. we have waterfront clubs and other amenities on the waterfront. we have the wonderful golden

gate yacht club in st. francis who run ways to access the -- access the waterfront. those actually -- these clubs have continued to pay rent. and the dolphin and south end rowing clubs. and the gas house cove in the marina. so you can still get gas for your boat, that is open and one of our concessions. and then we have a number of clubhouse concessions, ranging from elderly services to chinatown community development, to a number of almost all preschool early childhood related and many with the ymca. and let's talk about the meat of the matter, the covid-19 pandemic, which has caused abrupt and serious impacts on the operations of our local economy and businesses. the small businesses, which are in our parks, have all suffered. and they have experienced

significant deficits and hardships due to required closures, limitations on operations, and lower customer demand due to lack of tourists. in march 2020, we had to take interim action because of the health order. the state of emergency was declared, including a shelter hainplace. and our tenants were notified immediately to close operations unless they met certain limits. limited exceptions. i want to give a shout out to my team who are all on this phone call who have worked tirelessly to both close and open everyone up. [reading of names] and i couldn't have done -- we couldn't have done this without everyone pitching in. and tenants were informed that they were eligible to delay payment of rent initially from march 17-april 30th because we all thought that it would be over by then. that was later extended through december 31. this came -- it was based on a directive that we had from the

city administrator's office. and this allowed us time to work with tenants and to assess the impact and to figure out what the best solutions were, which is why it's taking us this long to get to you. we took some interim actions to get things reopened. as shelter in place started to allow certain businesses and our staff worked with our health officers and the concessions to find ways to get open. and they started food pick-ups and boat rentals and golf and the use of the docks by the swimming clubs from outdoors. many, many tenants were concerned about the ability to make minimum rent payments and we agreed to waive them and accept percentage rent. i'll talk more about that in a minute. so what are we proposing to the commission? we are proposing that you authorize the general manager to food few leases and similar agreements to address covid-19 impacts through rent waivers and forbearance. this gives the department the

flexibility in the long term by enabling it to retain our tenants who are able to continue operating while they regain the ability to pay rent on a current basis. rather than the department calling them into default and trying to fill vacancies during an economic downturn. it's clearly the sensible way for us to move forward. we have a number of conditions before we agree to lease amendments. and it only applies to forgiving rent, with one exception, coit tower that i'll talk about in a minute. and the general manager has to determine that they have suffered financial hardship due to covid-19. and that this will enhance the stability of the department's operations. we also are confirming that they did not have p.p.p. loans that could have enabled them to make rent. in fact, we have had some tenants who had them and they have used those loans to make rent payment.

so let's talk about the type of rent. and before that i want to give a background on how most of our leases work. most of our leases are with people who provide a service. and the way that the leases are framed, there's something called the minimum annual -- or minimum base rent or the minimum annual guarantee. so they promise to pay us x -- the higher of x or a percent of their revenues. and the base has been set to kind of -- it varies, but, you know, to reflect something that we can both budget for and the minimum level of operations. the types of waivers -- and then we have some leases where it's a regular monthly rent. the type of rent waivers that we're looking at for the typical mag -- we call it a mag -- is the waiver of the mag that the percentage rent has still to be paid and that's how we got people opened quickly. and the other waivers are waiver

of monthly rent while the facility is closed, if they have really no ability to make those payments. in a few cases i'll talk about we are waiving the percentage rent and then we have a special coit tower approval. so back to the mag waiver that i talked about, a classic example is the japanese teahouse and gift shop concession. they have a mag of $261,000 a year and then they have a percent of the gross sales they pay and it varies based on the type of item they're selling. they were closed from march 17-july 28th. and we're proposing to waive that mag. they opened on july 29th, and actually have met mag rent for august and september for a total of over $48,000. but ensuring that they didn't have to pay it if they didn't need it really gave them confidence to move forward, and with these further limitations, they're still open but back to being very limited. we have done similar waivers for beach chalet, and the boathouse,

bike rentals, segway rentals and all of our food kiosks and getting those food kiosks open was important. and so then we also have the structure of a waiver of a monthly rent. and these are almost all of our clubhouses and the palace of fine arts theatre. and so we have waived certain clubhouses, for instance, the nursery school, they don't -- they can't really reopen until sfsud resumes in-person learning. we have a few of these similar situations where we're waiving their monthly rent. the palace of fine arts theatre, ashley got a p.p.p. loan and they paid for six months and that went out. where we have waived percentage rent and it's complicated. the way that it's been exclusively with our golf course operator it's the way that lincoln and sharp work, they go

and they make tee times and collect the revenues for playing golf, and all of that money sweeps directly to us. the only they make money is off of concessions. so food concessions, and then renting out clubs and golf carts. with the limitations that they've had on food concessions -- >> main menu. press star 6 to mute your own line. press star pound to hear the number of participants. >> can you guys still hear me? can you all hear me? >> yes. >> okay. so in this case they came to us and said with our limited operations that we can't make enough money off of these items to cover the cost of opening the golf courses. so we agreed to waive the food and beverage concessions, our percentage on those, which in each case in a typical year is

about $85,000. of course this year it would be way, way less because of the limitations on their ability to -- to open those facilities. so we are proposing to waive that mag rent. and the other is coit tower, and the way that the coit tower lease works is they collect the elevator revenue, they keep 10%, and give us 90%. for those of you who are on the commission way back we did a big economic analysis of what it really costs them to run the facility. if the -- right now, well, we're a long ways from opening the elevator because of restrictiony can't generate similar revenue they just can't cover the expense of opening coit tower or monitoring the murals and monitoring the people coming into the building. so we need to be able to reduce their percentage rent.

so instead of giving us 90%, they will give us a lower percentage until the revenues come up. and we will be working with them on what the appropriate number is as we get to a point where the health order would allow it. so that's the waiver of the percentage rent for them. and the other piece that we have is they were unable to make -- well, everybody else is current and they were unable to make the february 2020 rent payment because they typically make that payment at the end of march and they had no march revenues. so we are deferring that rent until nine months after coit tower elevator is able to be open with no health order restrictions. and then the last piece is this lease is scheduled to expire in march 2022. and we will be asking the board to extend the lease for three years and not put it out to a new r.f.p. to give them a chance to recover from the covid-19 closures. and also as many of you know that the food kiosks that took a

long time to open and to also recover their investment in that. so that is a special coit tower approval. so we will be taking to the board after we get approval here. the leases for approval. some of them -- they were approved by the board and accordingly they have to approve this waiver, but the other piece is that any lease modification which these waivers are considered typically must incorporate any default contracting requirements in the admin or environmental codes that were enacted prior to the modification of the lease, but after we entered into it. so periodically new things go into the admin code what we're doing here is similar to other city agencies, and we are asking the board for authority not to have to add in those provisions, but just waive the rent payments on the lease. and so the financial impact --

obviously, the temporary loss of revenues has been significant. we have been closely monitoring that with our director of finance to ensure that the department's budget takes into account the impact. the estimates fiscal year 2021 loss is $2.1 million plus the loss of admissions at coit of $1.1 million. i know that our director of finance is planning to talk to you about this prior budget and future budgets i think at the next commission meeting. our recommendation is to approve the waivers and adjustments that i've described. and recommend that the board of supervisors adopt an ordinance granting the general manager such authority with respect to leases in the future. we believe that this is important for small businesses who operate in our parks and having this flexibility because covid keeps changing. we have things open and now they're closed. so it's very much a moving target.

thank you. (please stand by) >> i think you should invite allison cummings, rec and park

staff and the p.u.c. staff to come and give a presentation and talk about this issue, also, the towers should not reopen until the water issue is settled. the tank should be emptied and not used any more. there is an alternative to a smaller tank or i am not sure of the right term. all of the water needed to go to the second floor. i think the tanks need to be drained. who knows what else is going to happen? this is going to cost a lot of money, something the city doesn't have. it is not the end of the world, but, you know, the most important thing is protecting the murals. take the water out could help.

thank you. anyone else with a hand raised? >> that was the only one. >> thank you. no further public comment. public comment is now closed. >> commissioner low, did you have a comment about this? >> yes, what we are being asked to approve, is this for modifications that are already in agreement or is it for future modifications? >> well, we have waived the payment of rent. we have deferred the payment of the rent. this is formally waiving the rent payment. under the directive put out in the emergency, we deferred payment of the rent requirements. we have spent a lot of time with the city attorney on this. we have to officially amend the

leases to waive the amounts. now you need to add new provisions. that is why we are coming to you now. yes, we started to get them open we said don't worry about the payments. we deferred and asked people to pay the percentage. >> these are deals that were already reached with the tenants? >> basically. >> subject to execution of lease amendments? >> yes. >> the only thing i would comment on is that i think it is fine in response to the pandemic of covid-19 and certainly small businesses have just been decimated by the economical amity. i think emergency response is necessary. i do think there should be maybe

a reporting back to the operations committee just to give the operations committee an update as to the deals that were struck and entered into. >> commissioner low, it was such a fluid situation that getting our orals around where we are was hard. >> i am not criticizing anything that you did because certainly in an emergency it calls for extraordinary measures. i am not criticizing you. don't get me wrong, not at all. once you enter into a deal on these lease amendments to report back to operations committee to update the commission as to what deals were struck. that is all. there is a much bigger question about how to make, you know,

leasing more efficient. i don't think we have to see subleases. that is for the general manager to and proof. that is a different discussion than what is agendized. any comments or questions? >> hearing none, seeing none, the chair entertains a motion to approve. >> if i could amend. so moved with reporting on what lease amendments have been entered into to the operations committee, just a report. >> second to that motion. >> second. >> moved and seconded. all in favor. aye. >> thank you so much. thank you, commissioner for the observation. >> thank you. we are now on item 8.

900innes avenue. india basin. contract award. >> good morning, commissioners, san francisco recreation and park capital division. i will share my screen. it is a pleasure to be here. item 8 is discussion and possible action to award a construction contract in an amount not to exceed $7,099,700 for the 900 innes contract 16641. going quickly through some background for the new commissioners as well as all of you. the project is consistent with

department's strategic plant. strategies 1, 2, 3, 4 to inspire public space, play, investment and stewardship. for some history. in 2014, the department acquired the 900 innes site for the park to fill the gap in the bay trail network. it is a spectacular location with existing parks and open spaces. for history. the 900 inness was home to european my grates. between 1875 and the 1930s they constructed allow bottom boatboat boats question gral toe bay. over time the schooners became obsolete with growth of

automobile industry. 900 inness remained an operating boatyard constructing and repairing vessels into the early 2000. that legacy of boat building and repair led to contain nation of ground surface. that left contaminated sites resulting in higher level of environmental health burden in the community. since 2014 with the basin waterfront study and design ideas we have been engaging the community to understand the needs for recreation, amenities, programs and in general how the collective open spaces could serve as beacon for place making, capacity building. out of that process resulted a waterfront park design with the

blend of active recreation including basketball courts, playgrounds, boat launches and open spaces to gather and celebrate on lob lawns and decks. it will increase access to nature while increasing habitat value and honoring the rich history of the bayview hunters point neighborhood. in august 2018 it was approved for the parks and ad adopted the findings associated with environmental review. prior to any park redevelopment phase, the cleanup of the 900 boatyard site is the first milestone stage of work. the remedial action plan for the site is approved by the water board, search offing as the lead oversight agency of the work. approved remedy is compatible with the future use of the site as public park and offers the

highest level of health protection as the entire surface will be scraped and backfilled to support the future park grades. for further details the up land areas will be excavated and new clean backfill imported to eliminate any chemical exposure pathways for future users. all contaminated timber, like those associated with the fence posts and march reason rails will be removed and disposedded of. the rails will be preserved, metal and restored for i corporation to the future park design. some of the other activities will remove any dump debris and remnant parts. the tide dal areas dredged had pete and clean sediment imported to help support the future

restoration marsh planting in the seconded phase. finally, the cottage will undergo hazardous building materials abatement prior to full restoration. secretary of interior standards and the second phase of work. it has receivedness permits from state and federal agencies army corp of engineers and the water board. now this remediation is supported by a number of state and federal funding partners. to date we received $7 million in public grant funding for the cleanup with the largest contribution from the san francisco bay restoration authority of $5 million and federal of $2 million. additional funding for remediation from the state of california controller's office. we can say this project has been truly partnership with the community working with apri, trust for public hand and san

francisco parks alliance. since 2014 with the waterfront study, the project team and partners worked and will continue to work together to do something unprecedented for the city to develop the park under an equitable development plan to inspire stewardship and support place making. in terms of bidding, rec and park supported by public works advertised the bid on june 15th and held four pre-bid meetings. they received bids september 23. the request for relief was submitted there after accompanied under penalty of perjury indicating clerical error. in consultation with the office of contract administration all bids rejected. it was readvertised november 13 with a job walk on november 17

and bids opening on december 2. total of three bids received. tabulation is attached for reference. rubicon builders of san francisco was determined to be the lowest responsible bidder with a bill of $709,970. remediation is to begin in spring 2021 and ramp-up to be underway in june 1 when the environmental and water seasonal work windows open. with that, staff recommends the commission award to rubicon builders. that concludes my staff report. i am available for questions if you have any. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> if anyone is here to speak on item 8, please press star, 3, to be added to the cue to speak.

>> hello. my name is jill fox. i am here to speak on the environmental cleanup. i live on innes avenue across from the park. i have been speaking on behalf of acquiring and making this land to a park since 1999. i am very happy to see that this is moving forward. i would just ask that we have very clear signage or information given to me to share with the neighbors during environmental cleanup so that we can easily contact someone if we see something a.m.i. ss during

public comment or if there are problems. before the pandemic during the six years rec and park owned the land we have had trouble getting ahold of the right people to contact when there was graffiti and break-ins and problems on the land. i just want to say that i am very happy this is happening. we are moving forward. please give us a clear way to communicate with the company that is doing the cleanup so that we can make sure the neighbors are all safe and everyone feels really positive about this latest action. thank you. >> next caller. state your name. >> good morning, commissioners.

eric. i am a community organizer with the trust for public land. we believe everyone deserves a high-quality park within a 10 minute walk from their home. we are grateful for the partnership to transform the local parks and the communities that are making it in the city. the trust for public land is proud to work with bayview-hunters point community and partner organizations in this project since 2015. in this process we have. [indiscernable] to create a community with trees in the neighborhood and restore hall three habitat. this project represents a down payment on the continued needs investment in parks and open spaces that are directly tied to the public health and well-being

of bayview-hunters point community. they have faced decades of environmental ineckteens. community health is intensified by covid-19. with that said we are thrilled that after a competitive birding process the contractor was selected for the project. this opportunity to hire locallal loins with the equitable development plan by the local leaders representing the broad work force of the neighborhood. this project will strengthen the hunters point community and avoid the gentrification for park sites. without this investment to the local community. the remediation of this is in the equitable development plan

to ensure healthy conditions. we would like to share our support for the remediation and urge the commission to approve the remediation contract. thank you for your time. >> thank you. anyone else with a hand raised? >> no, just those two. >> in you further public comment. >> i would like to make a comment. so sorry. >> okay. is this jackie? >> this is jackie. >> okay. you are in the meeting. most of the public comment is coming from the call in numbers. that is why paul didn't see you there. you can speak. palm put up a two minute timer, please. >> thank you so much.

good afternoon everyone. i am jackie flynn executive director of the institute of san francisco. apri. i wear another very important hat on this project as the equitable development plan manager. i am here to really thank the rec and parks department charlene and omar have been tremendous support. i don't think the staff get enough credit for the work they do. i want to applaud them for every day work and commitment to the excellence of parks and open spaces and general manager ginsburg, you are a visionary. i am one of many organizations leading the conversation with the community. this community has been one that suffered injustices for decades. we are unpacking the diverse and

unique layers while building a future park that looks pretty in every as secretary. i appreciate the thorough process the project delivery team has committed to listen to the community, hire local low for craftsmen and women in the neighborhood. we see this contract awarded the great effort and first step to committing to building an equitable park. there is still so much work to do to complete this park, we look forward to that as a model for other major cities that want to make meaningful changes to the historic timeline of their city and ours. we are also in very much support of this contract award and would like to continue to see that commitment moving forward.

thank you. >> thank you for your comments. there is another speaker with their hand raisedded on the call in line. please state your name. >> hello. i am richard fong. i want to make a few comments. i had a conversation with charlene. i like very much the title is going to be preserved and a learning activity for the youngsters in the neighborhood. i will keep it short like they said to do. it is going to be moved pretty good and everything else seems to be in the right order. the building, shoreline. when they have the kayaks in there how will they know about

the tidal pool? how much will they retain and take away from it? that is all i have to say. thank you. good-bye. >> thank you. anyone else on the line? >> that was the last raised hand on the call. >> thank you. commissioners. >> any comments or questions? seeing none, the chair would entertain a motion to approve. >> so moved. >> seconded. >> all those in favor. aye. thank you so much. >> thank you. we are now on item 9. racial equity action plan. >> good morning. i am lorraine ban ford superintendent of recreation and community services and employees

working hard to create a shared understanding of the important role that we as civil servants play in creating a shared understanding of the importance of promoting practices and policies that are racially equitable in our organization. i wanted to say that some of the words from the previous presentation resonated. remediation and restoration. that is what this group of employees known as dice members. diverse and inclusion committee on equity. we have been working for the last three years to really make a difference in the organization. this three areas of focus. hiring and promotion, resource allocation and access to services. what we would like to do is present a draft of racial equity

action plan to help us operationalize all that we have been talking about and discussing. we had meetings and presentations and trainings internally with city employees in our department to get the information to get a focus how we as the department can do better. one of the things i learned over the years to understand a thing whether it is a problem challenge or group, it is important to get the history of it. part of what we learned through dice. individuaindividual civil serva. it was government decisions deciding who could vote, who could marry whom, where people might live. we weren't immune from being

engaged in that nonsense. to share more about history i will turn it over to sarah, director of policy and public affairs division. >> thank you. good morning, commissioners. i have been working with this team on the chapter of the racial equity plan about the history of racism in our industry and why it matters. the process of inning the roots of systematic racism is fundamental to dismantling systematic racism. the fob derf the center for race and democracy at the university of texas explains this in the research i have done explains it best. his words. if you are going to dismental systemic racism you have to understand the pipeline and why and how it keeps reproducing inequality and marginal session,

poverty and racial segregation. so in this section of the report we examine the impact of racism on parks and recreation. to start, the location and distribution of parks and open spaces, design, quality, management and our evaluation of success or failure are infused with the racist history that places the white experience not only primary but superio. by way of example the national park system was created as a way for people to escape cities during the industrial revolution. that park system was created by removing indigenous people from their lands and creating refuges for white people to get away from cities which we were becoming at the same time

increasingly black and brown. our department running the urban park system we must acknowledge that for years parks and recreation were domain of white, wealthy and those who had significant leisure time. this is true in the conservation movement as well. no more telling example of the big getted roots than the movements the godfather who we have a daily reminder of his looming presence in this industry across the bridge. while he is considered father o simty and founding member much see ara club he called first people dirty and lazy. he believed from the founding grew a system and movement that

not excluded people of color but dismissed experiences. today we see a through line to the foundational principles in who visits and works in national parks. over 100 years after john mirrors founding only 23% of another another park people are color, 79% of employees white as of july 2020. more diverse than parking or recreation there is a history of bias, too. from swimming pools to hiking and camping. segregated recreation had a lasting significance on social strat fiction. perhaps this is seen in aquatics. because of racist and exclusionary policies at public pools. black children are less likely

to learn to swim and three times more likely to die of drowning than white children. this pattern of segregation in recreation runs not just through aquatics but in tennis and other forms of recreation. they are perceived as the domain of private clubs excluding people. this is rampant in public recreation until the 1964 civil rights act desegregated the municipal facilities. the racism didn't disappear and segregation did not magically disappear and took a more insidious form in the form of disinvestment, privatization of recreation, people moving away. in many cases in inner cities the complete closing of public facilities. we have this stories of christian cooper and too many

others to show that these roots still pervade our industry. it is really important for us to examine those foundations so we can move on and really have a systematic way of trying to approach this. thank you. >> thank you, sarah. >> a little rough in the sequencing here. i am going to finish this slide and just acknowledge that i am uncomfortable presentation sarah

provided has living legacies today. even though we are subject as the city and county of san francisco to equal opportunity rules, we are stuck in the workplace policies, prohibitions of harassment as well as state apfederal laws, of course. these things are deep in us, centuries old. one of the in addition to doing that research about the history, we also are using a central and fundamental source of information for our racial equity plan two different medi mediums of employees do that. one was employee focus group. invitation was sent to everyone through staff connections. really fun newsletter that is

informative and has gone a long way to connecting people who get their e-mail. invitation too participate. it was curated for diversity. diversity in race, age, tenure for the department, and had guided discussions. in total there were 27 participants. it was small. it was an hour of time talking and listening. i want to combine that with we conducted our first ever racial climate survey focused on the race of employees. some of the questions were personal about your own

perception, your own comfort, your own knowledge. applied to the work team, department and the city as a whole. from these two forums of feedback, there were real alignments, repeated aligned requests from staff. some of those were. mentoring black, indigenous, people of color staff. developing a volunteer staff mentoring program to help people integrate to our culture, to their job, feeling connected. as a form of support. there was also, you know, repeated requests to learn more about equity. to spend work time on it. this is particularly true for members of -- the people in our organization who have

volunteered on their time. iit is unpaid time. they have to do their job as well to participate in learning and teaching these concepts. there was a request to keep pushing for more diverse hiring with new and different ways, evaluating mqs, panels, and there was one final theme that emerged that certainly anyone who is engaged in communication with our staff has confronted before. depending how you count, 65% of our staff at a minimum do not have screen time as part of their job. they do not have access to city-provided hardware, phone, tablet, computer. nor an element of the job

description that allows time on the screen. if you include all of our temporary seasonal part-time employees that number goes up to 85%. do not have screen time. in an era when more and more is going digital, we invested on rpdu, teaching and learning module on intramet. we revised that. hr forms, performance evaluation forms are all digital. when you think about that disparity of access, there is a real racial element to that as well because most of those people who do not have access to screen time are in the entry level classes, which as you will see, we took the history, looked at the legacy of that.

what employees were says, and then we added that to some analysis about our work force when is what ariana will take us through. next slide. >> these are examples of statistics we were able to gain from data points in the hr database. i have been working closely with taylor on these efforts to be involved in equity efforts with groups and workshops. most importantly, working with hr data. generally, they are examples of the data points to inform our roots and equity efforts. we have been able to attain

these by developing dashboards that compare the labor market, gender, race statistics how we look across the department compared to bay area as well. here this is just a representation of the overall look at demographic representation. gender representation in the department. here is another example of entry level employees looking -- our first layer. direct service, front line community facing individuals compared to the employees. how we really were able to develop the analysis with the tool of the equity dashboard to take into consideration the level of autonomy, responsibility, reports, pay grade and organized the department in different layers

and look at the demographic representation of each one. really informed us on where we might be improving and comparing statistics from previous years past. these tools have been important to making our decisions as data informed as possible and to echo what lower rain and sarah mentioned, the history to take into consideration the numbers and figures and how we can be best and adquately informed to make decisions moving forward. most importantly, it is really important to get the data points and focus groups rather than just statistical analysis. we want to hear quality of data, feedback in person and those were over six different periods or weeks.

it has been enlightening and informative and helpful to understand trends. where we might be needing to look into, consider, and hoping into how can we make sure the data informed as possible moving forward with equity efforts? as important as the history that we have to consider about san francisco, what does that history, how is it embedded in figures like the pool analysis with the drowning rates? that is all i have to say. antonio. >> thanks. i am antonio from the acquisition section in human

resources. the racial equity action plan consists of these seven focus areas that are on your screen. human resources staff has been working diligently with the support of other staff such as lorraine from recreation, sarah and our racial equity leads as well. as we have worked towards the final implementation portion of the plan we have used the following framework. first is being forward looking. we want to make sure we celebrate the programs we already have implemented. we also understand we need to continue to make improvements upon those programs and initiatives as well as make progress in other areas using the data that she just mentioned in a way that is sustainable for many years to come. second is attain ability. we want to be progress over and

visionary in our approach. we want to be realistic of the resourceses we expect to have as we continue to work on this plan over the next few years. just briefly, i would like to hype light some of the deliverables you are likely to see when the plan is published. first is using what we know about inequities in our job classes to develop classification specific outreach plans that focus on fostering relationships with nontraditional outlets likely to produce more applicants for job opportunities. increasing communication between the lower and upper level staff, due to development of department-wide mentorship program. third, exploring equitable alternatives to discipline air reactions such as peer to peer mediation.

four. professional developments opportunities with employees. finally, expanding the knowledge of diversity, equity inclusion and belonging by leveraging di ce and development of the racial equity library for self-guided learning. these are what we hope to accomplish with support of our leadership. i will hand it over to lamonte bishop for the next step in the journey. >> thank you. we are now at the next step in moving the plan forward. first, december 31st, our reap is to be submitted to the office of racial equity. we are not going to wait until that is filed for us to begin strategies and actions to move our job forward.

at this time we will be rearranging the hr assignments for support for actions. we formalize the dice. action leads will continue to advocate for new positions through our budget process and on june 30, 2021 we will receive our report card from ore and we will begin phase two of our template. it has been shared. this is a two-phase process. first phase of the process is focused on internal reflection. phase two will be reflection to make sure that we are being proactive and being -- we are working to ensure we are addressing issues in the community and the people we

serve. in conclusion, we want to thank the commissioners to update you on the racial equity action plan. staff will complete the template and produce the first of what we hope is never ending oversight and focus on racial equity within the department. next level of government's duty and obligation to be fair in all dealings. we want to make sure our policy really does affect the public. we know bad policies can have effects for generations to come. this document is just the beginning, not even beginning but important milestone in the journey understand the effect and correct harms. work that began decades an go with civil rights and will continue in the future. racial action plan document will be submitted on december 31st, 2020 to the office of racial equity. we are working on walking our

talk now. we are starting these projects despite reduced budgets and pushing ahead on the work that is part of the public record. our work plans will go forward on the website. with that our presentation is complete. our staff is here to take questions on what was presented. we also invite you to think about the last chapter, chapter 7 dealing with boards and commissions. we welcome your discussion on these important issues as they come into commission operations and activities. thank you. >> thank you. just as a reminder if you are here to speak on item the, bless star, 3, to raise your hands to be put in the queue to speak. anyone on the line for this

item? >> there are callers on the line and one hand raised. >> please state your name before speaking. >> hello. i am edna zing. from the omi. my concern was that three or four years ago there was a plan about diversity in the program. i am wondering what happened to that plan and how is it different than what you are planning now? >> thank you,edna.

normally we don't respond to questions as they are asked. i might ask the general manager if there is a response forkedna on that issue? >> thank you. hi,edna. a couple closing reflections. in specific answer to the question what i think she is referring to in 2016 when proposition b was on the ballot. equity plan was mandated for a lot of external programming and services. that remains in full effect. all of our external equity work including the equity zones and metric and programming like our scholarship programming, some of the community hub work we are doing now and the india basin with the equitable planning

process, what this is a response to the creation of the office of racial equity. a city-wide effort to coordinate at department level and internal and external focuses on equity. the report is broken into two phases. second phase is external. this is actually on our own internal work. what this document actually does is similar to whattedna was alluding to to create a strategic plan for racial equity. with specific initiatives transparent and measurable. some we have been doing. the first phase is focused on the department's internal work as the team mentioned recruitments, hiring, retention and discipline and training.

the internal work is on training and development and culture is very important. it is hard. it requires us to acknowledge that systematic racism exists in these rules and policies and in our history and culture. as i think lamonte noted and this is the beginning of journey, particularly on internal work. we are learning as we go. what i thought i would offer is my own perspective and vision for this internal phase. that is for us to have an organization in which access to employment, training, development, opportunities and representation access to the highest level of leadership in the organization is as available to our black and brown and indigenous staff as white staff in every occupation in our department from field staff to it staff, project managers and

capital division to executive team. as you heard today from the team to do this, we have to listen and understand experiences. we need to have honest conversations about race. we have to collect and analyze data and initiatives which dismantle existing barriers and equitable opportunities for all. we would love to have a little discussion or have you guys have a discussion, the commission about how we can strengthen equity from the perch of this commission and other boards. we hope to get into that a little bit.

i want to thank the members of the team working on this report and all of the racial equity leaders. we are having a lot of conversations and learning in our department. that is an important step of the journey. a special thanks to lorraine doing this work loc work long be office. founded our group a few years ago. i want to say thank you to commissioner mcdonald who offered his own perspective on the importance of the endeavor and challenges to the group and leadership team. to return to the comment, in the coming year after the internal phase we will submit phase two focusing on external work where we have made more progress

because of the. [ inaudible ] proposition b. >> before i turn it over to commissioners. is there anyone else with a hand raised to comment on this item? >> one hand popped up. >> please state your name before speaking. >> i am paul. i am a san francisco resident. i wanted to say that it seems like you guys have been very introspective about this and that is very valuable and you are approach anything the same way and i support it. i wantedded to lend some possible thought as to the impact that the organization is having on its community as being

another source of something that might be deserving of introspection. from my perspective as a resident i feel like the parks and rec community and the permit process in general associated with that indeed working in entertainment, i feel it is extremely racist and classist. i am frustrated with the city's interaction with their various producers, and i think they produced an exclusionary environment. i think given the structure they have created they can't help to. they have demanded inordinate sums of money for anyone that wants entertainment in the parks. that means the resourceses that are our parks are only available

to the people with extra sums of wealth. to be able to use a piece of the park now requires fencing and security guards and telling everybody to go away when it really doesn't have to be that way exempting the city's racism permit process with giving out access to the parks. when i see the endemic city corruption, i think that one of the places that really should be examined is how it impacts race and culture in our city. what i think that the policy of racism from the parks and rec department have caused is that the communities that are poor and of color are gathering in the streets for sideshows rather than gathering in the park. is that on purpose. >> thank you.

your time is expired. we appreciate your comments. >> paul, is there anyone else with a hand raised on the line? >> yes, one hand popped up. >> please state your name before speaking, caller. >> i am francisco. i have been listening to this deliberation. i have one question that i want the park and reccommissioners to study and that is title 6. i think this talk about racial equity has not been done well.

you haven't consulted epthe advocates and many people who really understand the real meaning of equity. give money to some people so that they have access to the money. are you really telling me in san francisco when it comes to our parks that we have equity? let alone talk about racial equity? how we treat our children when it comes to the soccer field, how we have removed natural grass and substituted with artificial grass. do we really have the concerns of our children?

i am asking you to study title 6 before we make any adjudication on this notion of racial equity, which is really not been thought out clearly. when it comes t comes to accouny and transparency. i have been following your action for a long, long time. >> thank you. >> no further public comment, public comment is closed. commissioners. >> i believe this is an information item. questions or comments from the commission? >> yes, i have a question of

taylor. this is commissioner hallisy. thank you and lorraine and phil anand lamonte and the team for e presentation to me last week. this morning you mentioned the forms put together. were those forums did you put together did they just involve employees of rpd? >> yes, commissioner. as diverse as possible working group of rec and park staff. >> very good. i am wondering, and loraine, in discussion with you, you talked about your own experience with training in the bay area. i just want to know if you think

with your background now in meeting all of these people in your role that are in other city agencies if rpd might volunteer to host and moderate a discussion on racial equity and invite all of the representatives, especially those in the position of hiring for other city departments, whether fire, police, water, whatever. also to have a recent hiree talk about their experience, positiontive, negative, challenges they faced. you may be doing this already, lorraine. having said that i believe many of the city agencies could learn from you and the rec and parks department. i am putting it out there to see

if that is something that may be on your own you are doing when you are getting your training or if it is something that might serve all of the city agencies. maybe rpg can pick up a nugget or two and many can learn from what you are doing as well. >> thank you. that is a really good suggestion. [please stand by]

-- that the equity plan calls for which is kind of the role and space and posture, frankly, that the boards and the commissions can play in this. and so i will offer some thoughts that -- let me say, not just my own, but commissioner hallisy and i had a wonderful conversation about this. and so between us we'll lift those up. and i would begin though by just saying -- acknowledging really the extraordinary work and commitment of the staff to this body of work, in particular from my view as evidenced by a willingness to sit in the uncomfortable place of understanding who we are and

where we are and how we got here. james balwin said that its face nothing can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced. and the phases of this work, again, as someone who leads and trains in this space is awareness, acceptance, and then action. and so, again, appreciating the staff's willingness to become aware and hold and own the realities of our history in what has led us here both in terms of the interpersonal, all the way in which this department, as great as it is today, has evolved. and the opportunity then that we have to not only kind of create this plan -- i feel like that a question that is important in this regard that there's value

and importance in creating a plan however, if said plans are not implemented, if there is not a commitment to the long-term work of both in terms of learning and shifting and changing of both perspective and posture and practice, then, you know, the plan isn't worth much. not at all suggesting that is the case here, but just to call that out because for me that was the impetus of -- of this question. and just to submit that, quite frankly, what she also represents in that question is an unfortunate experience of black, indigenous and people of color communities. that there's been these moments throughout kind of history, both past and present, when there's a declared moment of clarity and commitment and then it's unfulfilled. and so, again, just to cement the importance of the long-term

commitment to what i often refer to as a journey. and so, lastly, i say then and then i'll call on my colleague, actually, because he captured some notes from our discussion. we talked about some potential ways in which the commission can hold and embody this work and the role that we can play in supporting the staff team and shifting some of our -- literally some of our activities to be community facing so that we're not only talking about community, but we're actually talking with community. and so, commissioner hallisy, do you want to share kind of where we landed. at least as a point of view. >> commissioner hallisy: certainly, commissioner. one of the items and all of the communication that i received and read was about annual commission meetings that would target certain groups, certain

areas of the city, and in my opinion i -- and i believe that commissioner macdonald agrees with me, it's not enough. and i -- i'm thinking that we should take our show on the road, so to speak. maybe once per quarter we go to a specific racial community/group location to hear directly from local residents on issues that they experience in our p.d. programs, and access to facilities, etc., say, one per quarter at four different locations. and i think that if we did it this way we would get on top of this and we would reach more people, more quickly. >> thank you, commissioner.

any other comments? >> one other item -- sorry, go ahead. >> go ahead, you can finish commissioner mcdonnell. >> commissioner mcdonnell: i was going to say that i would also welcome and encourage us as a commission to think about the training opportunities for us as a commission and -- and then kind of embark upon that -- that journey as well. and, you know, whether that is learning modules that we do individually. another might be one that we do together as a collective as another potential path. and then i would also love to see kind of cement this -- the importance of this issue in the form of what i would kind of call or name as an equity moment in each of our meetings and just

to be clear, i mean, it's a moment of highlighting both the space itself, it could be a moment of celebration of a success. it actually also could be a moment where we're highlighting a current challenge that we're facing and we're willing to kind of eyes wide open name it and grapple together with how do we address this. we now understand it better and how to address it. so that's another element they would like to lift up. >> i appreciate that, commissioner. we've had discussions on how to frame that and i think that it is worthwhile to explore. commissioner jupiter-jones did you have a comment? >> commissioner jupiter-jones: yeah, i just wanted to echo, first, just gratitude for the department and the staff. i also was able to get a briefing last week on all of this. and really i'm just honored and excited to be a part of this work and to really, i mean, it's been said before but it is -- yeah, it's motivating to me to

hear that we're starting from this place of real authentic, honest, reflection of the history of how we got to where we are. and i think that gives me hope and optimism because as people have said this is a heavy load. this isn't just one plan and one meeting and one discussion, this is -- if we're trying to battle, you know, centuries of systemic racism, it's going to take a while for us to build systems of anti-racism. and so i just want to say, you know, to express my gratitude for everyone and especially the staff who i do believe too has been doing this work even before it was kind of mandated from the city. and that's important to recognize. and then all these -- all of the suggestions, both that i've heard from commissioner hallisy and missioner mcdonnell about ways that the commission can be

involved in this i totally support. because both of those are an idea for kind of outreach, versus expecting everyone to come to us and also us going out and also moments of equity, like building those into the meeting, those are systems, right, that ensures this is a continuing discussion of something that will be at the forefront of the commission always, as it should be. so i'm excited to continue this work for a long time. and thank you to everyone who has been working so hard on it. it makes me very proud to represent this department. >> president buell: thank you, commissioner. any other comments or questions? well, i might say as a wrap up to this particular item that i would not want to see these suggestions get lost in the suggestion box. and ask staff to consider how they view implementing these -- and in particular the two wishes

that i think that have a lot of merit. one is that our being able -- and i'll throw this to ashley as well -- be able to conduct meetings in the community and to have the ability to notice those in advance so that everybody can participate on all of the issues that we face, not just in those communities where we'll be physically. and i think that commissioner mcdonnell's suggestion that we have some way of reporting, whether it's every meeting or on a scheduled basis, but not to let it drop, both the positive and the negative aspects of the actions of the department and the perceptions of the community on the issues. so i just ask that the staff get back to all of the commission on these suggestions. with that, that was an information item and i very much appreciate all of the staff efforts. lorraine that was really a very

educational and informative presentation and i thank everybody that made it possible. with that, ashley, i think that we'll move on. >> clerk: thank you. we're on item 10, general public comment. at this time the members of the public who were not able to address the commission on item 4, may address the commission on items that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the recreation and park commission and that do not appear on the agenda if you are here to make a comment during general public comment, please press star, 3, to raise your hand. paul, can you let me know if there's anyone in the queue? >> there were two, but we're down to one just now. >> clerk: okay, great. so, caller, please state your name before speaking. >> caller: edna james again. i just want to make a general comment about the -- i know the

item of racial equity did come up, but one item that i did miss was that i hope that you consider in terms of racial equity -- disability. and i mean seniors and people with disabilities as you address racial equity in this plan and in future plans. thank you. >> president buell: thank you, edna. >> clerk: thank you. paul, i want to confirm that there's no one else with their hand raised? >> there's one additional. >> clerk: there is, okay, great. caller, please state your name before speaking. >> caller: hello. my name is richard fong. i'm trying to get a follow-up on the palace of fine arts update on how the private moneys and so forth are coming up for whatever is needed to commence on to

stage 2? i believe the person to get in touch is dan birkenfelt, and if we can outreach from the rec and park department, through the fine arts foundations, maybe we can get updated on what's going on. i have been waiting for that topic for a long time. thank you. >> president buell: thank you, richard. >> clerk: paul notified me that there's another caller. so, caller, please state your name before speaking. >> caller: hello, my name is paul. and i am calling again to -- or commenting again roughry in the same line to ask the city for people to be outside in the parks. specifically i know that it's a long-standing practice to try to make money on all of these events, pro-cluin except for thy

being able to do so. and with the danger with indoor production and all of these long-standing communities destroyed by the city regulations, like the rec department, acknowledge the presence of the pandemic and to start to permit people to gather outside. i'm sure that's a health department concern for gathering, but as we open the city we want to see that emerge, hopefully before the indoor one. i hope that the parks and rec department doesn't continue to only commit the wealthiest among us to have access and to gather and to have music in the parks. i think that it is ridiculous that it's only certain hours and that it does create this unhealthy environment indoors that is owned exclusively by alcohol purveyors. so we should be able to gather outside and gather in our parks at all hours with music and that

they answer now. and doing so means protests, then that is what it is, but i hope that the park and recs department hope to find a realm way to embrace music in our city again. >> president buell: thank you. >> clerk: thank you. i have been notified that there's another commenter. so, caller, please state your name before speaking. >> caller: so, commissioners, again my name is francisco. so first and foremost according to the brown act you don't need to announce your name. so the secretaries have to be begin that orientation. we are not mandated to say our name. okay? so having said that, i represent the first people of san francisco. and it's a very sensitive issue when everybody is not involved

in the deliberations. as one of the commissioners was saying in a general way, we need to go there, there, there, just like the commissions used to do. but the rec and park as such ahows our children and our youth and our beloved elders and those with compromised health and do not play a very important role post this pandemic. so we have to think outside the box. we need to go out, so people go to the park, people congregate. we need good leadership and we're not getting good leadership from our mayor. she goes to the french laundry and breaks the rules. and she doesn't apologize

immediately. she takes her time. all of those silly things that stupid (indiscernible) do, and the spineless that we have in san francisco. and as i said, i have been following this for 40 years. in 40 years i should have learned a lot about park and rec. so there's a lot of discrimination given to people of privilege and so forth. and i'm not saying all of the commissioners are racist, but i'm saying fine-tune your conscience. go to a better place with your heart in the right place. thank you very much. >> president buell: thank you very much. >> clerk: okay, seeing no further public comment, public comment is now closed. we're now on item 11, commissioners' matters. commissioners, do you have

anything that you would like to bring forward? okay. any public comment on commissioners' matters, please press star, 3, to be added to the queue to speak. seeing none, public comment is closed. and we're on item 12, new business/agenda setting. commissioners, is there anything that you would like to bring up? okay. is there any public comment on new business? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are now on item 13, communications. is there any public comment from this item? okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> i have a quick question. not to belabor it at all, but what is supposed to happen on item 13, communications? i have never quite understood.

>> clerk: yeah. that's a good question. so generally we list any communications that we've received on items that are not listed on the agenda. so it's an opportunity for the public to comment on any of those and ask for any of them from us. most of the time it's email, sometimes it's physical mail. and i believe that you all can have a discussion or ask questions about any of those items as well. >> great, thank you. thank you. >> clerk: you're welcome. we are now on item 14 adjournment. >> president buell: commissioner mcdonnell, you have a motion on adjournment. >> commissioner mcdonnell: i would be honored, sir, thank you, to move that we close today's commission meeting in honor of a well-beloved woman, twee newman.

i think that it's particularly fitting in the context and backdrop of our discussion around racial equity. twee, vietnamese immigrant to our city, family from laos. grew up in costa meca, and came to san francisco with a passion to teach and got her master's at san francisco state in education. and she and her husband shawn conley created what was called san francisco skate club. but in point of fact it was more than a skate club. certainly, skating was the theme that drew young people into this community and this orbit that twee and shawn created. it quickly became a space of community of supportive young people, a knitting club, filmmaking club, homework club, cooking club, art club, living

club. and it was an amazing space and community that she and shawn led for years. and, sadly, after a long battle with stomach cancer, twee passed away. 41 years old. and we had -- there was a wonderful gathering to celebrate twee's life this past saturday out at ocean beach, hosted by our good rec and park department friend, and to look across the sand and to see the families and the young people, some of whom would declare that i wouldn't have graduated high school or i never would have made it to college, i never would have stayed connected to my family. as a matter of fact, in many ways twee and the skateboard club was my family. it was really, really wonderful to experience and it certainly

is heartbreaking to lose twee. she embodied what i believe is the -- kind of the heart of a steward of community and of san francisco in particular. i often have described that twee lived her life with a smile. she was infectious in her love for life, her embracing of people, certainly, embracing of these young people. and so, again, i would just move that we close in honor of twee, and while we will miss her presence, may her legacy of love of people and commitment to service live on through all of us. thank you. >> president buell: thank you very much, commissioner. is there a second to that motion? >> second. >> president buell: moved and seconded. all those in favor? >> aye. >> president buell: so moved and i wish you all a very happy holiday season and hopefully a prosperous and connected new

year. . >> you're watching coping with covid-19 with chris manners. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. today, my guest is phil ginsburg. he's the director of the san francisco rec and parks, and he's a national rec and park

ranger. thank you for being here. >> hi, chris. thank you for having me. >> i've heard you have an exciting new exhibit that features social distancing and is outside, so it's safer. can you tell us a little bit about it? >> the golden gate 50 anniversary wasn't the celebration that we hoped for, but when life deals you lemons, you hope to make lemonade, and we tried to engage people in the park in different ways. behind me is what we did. it's a public exhibit which has transformed peacock meadows into ann enchanted forest of other worldly shapes and

lights. it's to close out golden gate park's 150 years and to allow people to have outdoors socially distant fun. >> great. and what are the hours, and when can people go see it, and are there access for wheelchairs and strollers? >> well, it will run until february 27, and the ways are wheelchair accessible. it will close in time to make the city's curfew. we're not supposed to be gathering. we're not supposed to be celebrating out there, unfortunately. it is a beautiful exhibit and is one that can be seen from the sidewalk or you can wander

into the meadow, but we ask that people be really mindful of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. the most important thing for us is to be safe and healthy. do not show up with other households. come and see it, get a little taste of the holidays and leave so other people can enjoy it. if it's too crowded, comeback because it's going to be around for a while. >> how long does it take to walk around the exhibit? >> well, you could be there for five minutes or 15 minutes or longer if it's not crowded. it's about in an acre of meadow, but it's very visible even from a fully accessible sidewalk. you'll get a sense of it.

basically, there are sculpted trees, and it's gorgeous. i got an opportunity to visit it over the weekend. the conservatory of flowers is there, and then, we have our amazing spreckels temple of music which was recently renovated and lit up in lights. >> i have information that it was created by a local artist. what can you tell us about it?

>> well, it's a new concept, but the lights were previously installed in a park in toronto and also in las vegas. the installation has been paid for through private donations to the golden gate park's san francisco 150 campaign. it reflects a culture steeped in science and history and culture. >> i can't wait to visit it. safely, of course. >> wear masks, distance, sanitize, and don't gather. >> well, thank you for coming on the show today, mr. ginsburg. i appreciate the time you've given us today. >> thank you, and thank you for giving so much attention to golden gate park which has been

so wonderful for us during covid and deserves a lot of extra love and attention on its 150 an remembniversary. >> and that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more information shortly. thank you for watching coping with

>> everything is done in-house. i think it is done. i have always been passionate about gelato. every single slaver has its own recipe. we have our own -- we move on from there. so you have every time a unique experience because that slaver is the flavored we want to make. union street is unique because of the neighbors and the location itself. the people that live around here i love to see when the street is full of people. it is a little bit of italy that is happening around you can walk around and enjoy shopping with gelato in your hand. this is the move we are happy to provide to the people.

i always love union street because it's not like another commercial street where you have big chains. here you have the neighbors. there is a lot of stories and the neighborhoods are essential. people have -- they enjoy having their daily or weekly gelato. i love this street itself. >> we created a move of an area where we will be visiting. we want to make sure that the area has the gelato that you like. what we give back as a shop owner is creating an ambient lifestyle. if you do it in your area and if you like it, then you can do it on the streets you like.

>> good afternoon, everyone. today in san francisco we have 20,976 cases of covid-19. 173 people in a hospital. and sadly, 176 people have died from this virus. while san francisco's death rate remains very low, that is far too many families that will be celebrating the holiday this is year with a recent loss and heavy hearts. my thoughts go out to all the families and to everyone who has lost someone to covid this year. now, we have been in this current stay at home order for two weeks now. and while our cases are still high, we have some data that shows people in san francisco