Rec and Park tells supervisors it has completed 21 of 69 audit tasks; staffing, systems and fees remain under review

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee heard a status report from the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department on its progress implementing a budget analyst management audit and agreed to revisit remaining items early next year.

"We have actually completed 21 of them," said Yomi Agumbiari, general manager of the Recreation and Park Department, describing the department's work on 69 recommendations the audit prioritized for the first nine months. Agumbiari told the committee the department had focused on reorganizations and on implementing a set of business systems to improve asset, program and project management.

Agumbiari outlined three core systems: a GIS and asset database used to build a staffing model, CLASS for recreation management and registration, and Impact (with COMET for facility condition assessments) for capital project tracking. "The model projects an additional resource requirement of about 227 gardeners and 47 custodians to maintain the city's neighborhood and regional parks, at the Prop C standards," Agumbiari said.

Department operations director Denny Curran said the department has convened a custodial task force and plans to reallocate existing custodial staff by facility while it completes a building-footprint custodial analysis. Agumbiari said the department had hired a director of partnerships and property management, Margot Schaub, to coordinate property and fundraising work.

Supervisors pressed on concrete next steps. "There's no reason under the sun that you should not require [Sharp Park] to take credit cards," Supervisor Aaron Peskin said, criticizing a month-to-month, cash-only arrangement at Sharp Park and urging immediate action rather than waiting for system-wide standardization. Agumbiari replied that golf operations are being folded into CLASS and that the department is studying options to standardize payments and registrations.

The department also outlined capital and facility work. Agumbiari said COMET assessments, conducted by a contractor, will determine deferred maintenance costs for Camp Mather and other sites; she cautioned an assessment is needed before the department can estimate repair costs, which "could be a $5,000,000 problem or a $100,000,000 problem." The department said it is coordinating with ProSAC on project-selection criteria for a potential Rec and Park bond slated in the citywide capital plan for June 2008.

Budget analyst Stefan Campbell told the committee the department has implemented some recommendations but that "there's still a lot to be done" and recommended more detailed staffing presentations during the budget cycle so the council can assess the fiscal impact of proposed positions. Campbell also said the department's proposed changes to permit fees appear to be held up by a planned citywide review and that the audit found no established timeline for that citywide coordination.

During public comment, Farbaut Piersman of Local 21 urged scrutiny of labor impacts from the capital division reorganization and warned the union will watch for layoffs or contracting out. Resident Ernestine Weiss urged restoration of park patrols and said parks in her area feel unsafe: "We don't feel safe in our parks," she said.

After discussion, the committee agreed to continue the matter to the call of the chair and asked Rec and Park to return with a status report in January or early February addressing outstanding items and Impact implementation. No formal votes on policy or budget were taken at the hearing.

The committee's follow-up request sets a near-term review point for staffing numbers, implementation milestones for CLASS, Impact and COMET, and clarification of the timeline for any citywide coordination of permit and event fees.