Good morning.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the March 6th regular meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I'm Supervisor Jackie Fielder, Chair of the Committee joined by Supervisor Sauter and Supervisor Cheryl.

The committee clerk is Monique Creighton.

Our thanks to Sue Enos of SFGov TV for staffing this meeting.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes.

Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

When your item of interest comes up in public comment is called, please line up to speak on your right.

Alternatively, you may submit public public comment in writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to the government audit oversight committee clerk at M-O-N-I-U-U E.

C-R A Y T-O-N at SFgov.org.

If you can submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file.

You may also send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall.

Number one, Dr.

Carleton, be good to the place.

Room 244, San Francisco, California 94102.

If you have documents you would like to be included as part of the file, please submit them to me before the end of the meeting.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent any interruptions to today's proceedings.

Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors Agenda of March 18th, 2025, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

Please call item number one.

Yes, item number one is a resolution authorizing the mayor, officers, and employees of the Office of the Mayor and officers and employees of the recreation and park department to solicit donations for the renovation of Embarcadero Plaza and Sioux Beerman Parks from individuals, nonprofits, private organizations, grant makers, and foundations for six months, effective upon approval of this resolution, notwithstanding the behested payment ordinance.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And Ms.

Brans, Miss Lisa Branson, Director of Partnerships at the Wreck and Parks Department will be presenting on this item.

Thank you for being here, Ms.

Branston.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Fielder.

Good morning, Supervisor Sautter and Supervisor Cheryl.

I'm Lisa Branston.

I'm the director of partnerships at the Recreation and Park Department.

And as the clerk mentioned, I'm here today to ask you to approve a resolution that grants certain members of the mayor's office and rec park staff a six-month waiver of the behested payments ordinance so that we can assist with fundraising for the public-private partnership to renovate and reimagine embarcadero Plaza and Sioux Bierman Park.

So I know some of you have seen this presentation last week, but I'll move quickly with a little bit of background on how we got here and why this project is so important.

Let's see.

Okay.

So embarcadero Plaza was um originally envisioned as a European-style plaza that would punctuate the end of Market Street and serve as a buffer from the overwhelming view and noise of the embarcadero freeway behind.

The sunken plaza created a bowl that gathered people at the end of Market Street, and the fountain served to block the sound and view of the freeway beyond.

Oops.

Let's see.

So that's some some historical photos.

And then now the city finds itself in a moment where both the plaza's infrastructure and design have outlived their useful lives.

The plaza's infrastructure is in disrepair.

The brick paving is considered at the end of its useful life.

And the department estimates that it would cost millions to repair.

And the Valencourt Fountain would cost an estimated 10 million dollars to update and repair.

And even were the department to just fix the space, it would still bring us back to a design that is completely out of context with the disappearance of the embarcadero freeway.

The demolishing of the freeway opened up the eastern edge of San Francisco to the stunning light views and business activity along the waterfront.

And all of a sudden, the design of the plaza served the exact opposite purpose of what was needed in the 70s.

Instead of blocking and stopping people, the city is now in need of a plaza that connects the downtown core to the ferry terminal and the ferry building rather than blocking those elements.

And then visitor data shows why this project is so critical right now.

As you can see from this slide, both the ferry building and the park across the streets suffered dramatic drops in usage due to COVID.

But while the usage at the ferry building is rebounding, recovery has been much slower at the uninviting parks across the street.

This makes a lot of sense when you are in the space just to get to the plaza from the ferry building and even more so to get across it.

You are faced with the backside of the fountain and climbing up and down through grade changes.

Thus, department staff were thrilled when BXP came to us with a proposal to renovate the parks.

So the idea is to turn the space into an integrated active space that serves both the local neighborhood and visitors from across the city and everywhere.