Commission room at city hall is now closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely at the same extent as if they were physically present. We ask for your palm beachsinger and we may experience some issues. Public comment will be available for each item on the agenda. Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak. Comments or opportunities to speak are available via phone by calling 8774029756 or 6366513142. The access code is 5713184. When you are connected, dial 1 and then 0 to be added to the queue to speak. You will be lined up in the system in the order you dial 1 and 0. The slm notify when you are in line and waiting. All callers will remain on mute until their line is open. Everyone must account for the time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. We suggest listeners on the phone turn down your televisions or web browsers while youre listening on the phone. If, for any reason, the queue drops or the system drops a call, you are more than welcome to email the commission at recspark. Commission sfgov. Org. Alternatively, if you are not on the call but still wish to submit comments or questions, again, recpark. Commission sfgov. Org. You may also submit comments via written in writing to the s. F. Recreation and Parks Commission to our office and know that it is being record and will be available on sfgov tv right now. We are now on the president s report, item two thank you, stacey. This is certainly an historic time and i believe the first time that the commission has tried to entertain having a meeting by telephone but we are up to the task and i congratulate all the commissioners for being present today. I want to just make one comment that, in these challenging times, i think we can all be particularly proud of the leadership of the city, starting with the mayor and the very early and Decisive Action that she took to provide the guidelines and the rules for orderly conducting of business and, at the same time, having everyone in residence and trying to be six feet apart from everyone. Having said that, i want to particularly congratulate the rec and Park Department staff for rising to the occasion and add to the leadership of the department because i think that theyve been working tirelessly with the city, many of these projects dont fall necessarily within the responsibility of the department, but it shows the flexibility and the ability to respond to these issues as they arise. So, with that, that concludes my report. And i will turn it back over to secretary. Thank you, commissioner buell. Were now in Public Comment. Please dial 1 and then 0 to be added to the queue to speak. You will have two minutes to comment. Operator you have five questions remaining. Hello, caller. Please state your name first. Caller hello. My name is nancy buson. And your comment . Caller yes. Thank you, commissioners. As someone who lives in San Francisco and loves our parks, im asking recreation and Parks Department to prioritize carfree spaces in Golden Gate Park and in parks citywide starting now and expanding immediately after the shelter in place order is lifted. [inaudible] a. Ms. Buson, you can actually make that comment on item four, general Public Comment because that is something that is not on the agenda. Yes. Thank you very much. Operator you have eight questions remaining. I think, stacey, you are going to have to remind people that this is not general Public Comment, but youre asking for comments on the president report. I will do that. For anyone that is currently in the queue, we are now on item 2, the president s report. If you want to respond or comment or have questions on any item that is not on the agenda, you will have time to comment on items 4 and item 8. So, again, comment right now is only on the president s report. Is there someone on the line . I think we can move on, stacey. Yeah. Operator you have five questions remaining. So if you want to get off the queue and do not want to comment on the president s report, dial 10 and you will be put back in the queue far later time. Ok . For a later time, ok . Operator you have two questions remaining. Hello, caller. You have two minutes. How can i help you . I think there are technical difficulties here. Waiting to comment on the report. Ok. Thank you. Operator you have three questions remaining. Hello, caller. Please state your name first. Operator you have two questions remaining. For anyone currently in the queue, were going to go on ahead operator you have one question remaining. Sounds like a good idea, stacey. [laughter] yes. Were going to go ahead and move on. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Ok. Hearing no further operator you have zero questions remaining. Hearing no further callers, Public Comment is now closed on item two. Were now on item three, the general managers report. Good morning, commissioners. Can everybody hear me . Yep. Yes. Good morning. Hi. Good morning. I wanted to take some time today to thank you for your continueded leadership through this ongoing emergency and also to obviously wish you and your families continued health and safety as our city meets this challenge headon. Obviously as president buell noted, no one could have foreseen the widespread and profound effects that covid19 has had on our daily lives and on our park system. And while we have been in communication about with each other about the developments around the virus and its effect on our parks, i wanted to share with you an update on where our department stands. To date, the following facilities are closed pursuant to the Current Health alert, which is effective, i believe, until may 4. Those facilities and park features include sport courts, which include all basketball, tennis and pickleball courts, picnic areas, which include barbecue areas, playgrounds, Outdoor Fitness courts, our golf courses, swimming pools, enclosed dog parks, archery ranges, skate board parks, south Sunset Mission playground, garfield and franklin athletic fields. Twin peaks boulevard, twin peaks road, coit tower, parking lots at ocean beach, marina green and little marina greens. Golden gate park ornamental gardens, including the botanical gardens, conservatory of flowers and japanese garden. [inaudible] facilities including anglers lodge, the lawn bowling club, disc golf, carousel and [inaudible] boat house. In addition all the regular recreation program, permits, Community Meetings and volunteer event have been suspended and we continue to evaluate other programs and events as the situation evolves and as we get further guidance from the health department. Construction on many nonessential Capital Projects has also been suspended, although were pleased to note that some projects that meet essential criteria have been allowed to continue and including the Chalmers Playground project, which is very close to completion and garfield pool, geneva car barn, which is close to completion, the golden gate tennis project, Margaret Haywood park playground project, West Portal Playground project, the marina sea wall project and the [inaudible] security project. Many, many, many other Capital Projects in our system have been suspended until we get guidance from our Public Health officials that it is ok to pursue it. Im very pleased to note that all other parks and open spaces are currently open, in which we have ample signage encouraging behaviors around social distancing, group play, the sharing of equipment and, indeed over the last three weeks, your recreation and Park Department has designed, produced and distributed nearly 1,000 signs to offer people safe guidance on how to use these spaces which remain open. I do want to note that the availability of parks teachers and certain spaces in our parks continues to evolve with Public Health guidance. Parks are no doubt playing an incredibly Important Role in this health order as i think you noted, president buell, they are the space not just in San Francisco, but regionally, statewide and nationally where people have been exempted from shelter place orders and have been permitted to get outside and connect with nature and get some exercise. Indeed, parks urban parks may never have been more important than they are now. There is there are ongoing conversations with Public Health officials, about future Health Orders and well keep the commission updated as the guidance we receive changes. I do want to remind everybody, again, that while parks are playing an Important Role, we play a supporting role. This is a Health Pandemic and we follow our guidance and take our leadership from public from our mayor and from our Public Health experts. And in this response, we are one city and there is one City Response and we have guidance from our Public Health experts and elected leadership and we will do what is asked of us, whatever is asked of us. To that end, i want to highlight one thing that was asked about very early on, which was to create an Emergency Child Care Program for families of Health Care Workers and Disaster Service workers and other First Responders. This program has been quite valuable in the citys ability to continue to deliver health care services. As you know, our schools are closed throughout the end of the year and child care has truly become an issue for many frontline and First Responders and were very pleased to be offering this service. In partnership with the department of children, youth and family, the office of Early Childhood education, the department of Public Health, the department of Human Resources and the department of emergency management, the citys emergency Child Program is now in its fifth week. The office of early care and education is focused on our 2 to 5 population, which requires slightly more different licensing requirements. But at over 28 facilities around the city, your recreation and Park Department and its staff essentially on over a weekend converted our Recreation Centers into emergency child care operations. We are also partnering with a number of c. D. O. S who are also providing emergency child care for the k8 population. Classs will not resume for the remainder of the school year, the program will continue to operate until june and we ensure that many of our facilities can now support Distance Learning initiatives and i really want to thank christine naff not just for making sure that this First Virtual meeting was successful, but for working with her team, our team and the Citys Department of technology to ensure that we can accommodate Distance Learning at many of our facilities. Were working very closely with the partners that i mentioned, were receiving feedback from the department of Public Health and all private hospitals and, to be clear, our spaces are open for any health care worker, public or private, in the city of San Francisco and any and all activated Disaster Service workers. And First Responders. At the request of certain hospitals and our department of Public Health, we have early child care facilities opening as early as 6 00 a. M. And closing as late as 7 30 p. M. To accommodate a variety of different 12hour hospital shifts. We are receiving really good feedback from participants in the program. We have approximately were averaging approximately 200 enrollees in our k8 program each week. We had another approximately 100 to 150 enrollees in the c. D. O. Program and nearly 200 enrollees in the early care program. Parents did respond to a recent survey that we distributed in our own facilities and they were very positive, offer aed very positive readings about that, facility cleanliness, activities, safety and meals with our organized and distributed through our [inaudible] families. Nearly 93 of our respondents gave the program a favorable grade. I wanted to share one comment, one parent said, quote, this has been a lifesaver for me. My work has been allconsuming with covid19 and this has allowed me to serve my unit and my patients with peace of mind. The program has actually received attention across the country because of the boldness of our citys actions, which you alluded to and because the School District shut down quite, quite early. We were the first major city to operate emergency child care operation and now several cities have followed and have looked to our program as a model in their own coronavirus response. Now Health Care Workers and First Responders have bourn the brunt of the fight so far. Our employees across the board, including our custodians, our guardians and laborers and structural maintenance staff, of course our recreation staff to whom i just referred and our administrative staff and domestic Operation Center have all stepped up to help and support our communities in this time of need. Really the key to the Child Care Program success has been the amazing staff. It has been incredible and i need to take a moment to say without our custodial staff, the rest of this all shuts down. If we dont have custodians coming to work each day, and coming to often difficult environments to keep our facilities clean and safe, to keep our restaurants open, im not sure we would be operating a park system today. So, they really desefrk our gratitude and a thanks. Our park rangers have done a remarkable job, not just working to keep our parks safe, but they have also been involve in the education and outreach about safety of our parks, encouraging people to follow the guidance of our Public Health officials. Theyve often had to engage our and work with our inhouse population to ensure that they are safe and following Public Health guidance and that the spaces around them are safe. And theyve had to ensure that our infrastructure, which includes our land and our buildings r safe and protected. As you know that many of our buildings, some of which are in remote locations, are now empty. In short, and our gardeners have been out there and structural maintenance staff have been out there, in short this is a moment when our city and people around the country are truly understanding that parks are essential services and our workers are indeed essential. And you should be so proud of our staff and their response to this. Our attendance has been extraordinary, commissioners. And im really so very proud of our department. In addition to just providing continuity of operation, weve had heavy equipment Truck Drivers delivering masks to all city agencies and driving in r. V. Vehicles used for shelter. Our Property Management staff has been working at the Emergency Operations center to make Spaces Available for Food Distribution points, for shelter, if needed. Weve had our Communications Staff involved in the citys joint Information Center efforts. We have staff helping to stand up in emergency volunteer operations. In total, more than 450 of our employees have been activated as Disaster Service workers in the last month. It has been a great effort and im proud to work alongside these men and women each and every day with a proper six feet of distancing, of course. One of the interesting activities ive been involved in, i participate in two weekly calls with fellow park professionals. The first call happens on fridays and it has been hosted by the National Recreation of park associations and i am essentially on a panel with the directors of parks from new york city, miami, denver, seattle, chicago, los angeles, portland and, over time, many, many, many other park directors from across the country are participating and we share best practices, we share implementation questions. We forecast, you know, what might be happening two to three weeks to come and it has been a really valuable experience, not just in getting a better appreciation for whats happening in cities across the country, but, you know, weve also been able to proudly share our own best practices. Once a week, i participate in a call with our