September 8, 2011

1. Call to Order and Roll Call
5:35 PM

Present Commissioners: Susanna Russo, Philip Gerrie, Jack Aldridge – DVM, Sally Stephens, Ryan Young, John Denny – SFPD, Lisa Wayne – Rec & Park

Absent Commissioners: Geneva Page, Pam Hemphill, Vicki Guldbech – ACC

2. General Public

No public comment

3. Approval of Draft Minutes for the August 11, 2011 Meeting

No commission nor public comment

Minutes approved unanimously

4. Chairperson’s report and opening remarks

A) Update on Joint Zoo Oversight Committee

Comr. Stephens – JZ did not meet in August. They did meet in July. They will meet on September 22 at 5PM at the zoo. At the July meeting there was a capital project update. They are trying to raise $10 million over 3 years. They have, so far, $3.5 million and $2.5 million in active asks. They are raising the money for three exhibits. 1. The habitat for squirrel monkeys rescued from a lab in Stanford. It is an all-male colony of 20. They have had problems socializing them because they were lab animals. Because they are all the same sex they get along better than if they were mixed. They will have both public and private areas. Their new home is being designed to be arboreal as they are tree-dwellers. This is the first phase of the 2. South American Tropical Aviary Renovation which they are currently working on. That is costing $3-4 million. It is an aviary now. It will be like an immersion in a rain forest and educate about tropical deforestation as well as the illegal pet trade. 3. The North American Gateway similar to the African Savanna.
There was no mention of an update to the bear grottos. There was support on the Committee that something should be done as soon as possible. An audience member suggested that once the elderly polar bears die that the ageing grottos be torn out and expand the grizzly area. The zoo was receptive to that idea. In the aviary the plan is for docents to give talks as well as at some exhibits being able to push a button for multi-media information. There was concern about the animals being subject to constant ongoing audio. Another suggestion that birds for the aviary be acquired from rescues as much as possible. Was contacted by a member of the public about a sore on the rhino hip area. The concern was it was due to not oiling the skin down enough. Contacted Dr. Spinelli , veterinarian appointed to JZ, and the zoo. Was told that it was due to rubbing a gate when she charged through. There was concern expressed that the female rhino was unhappy being kept in the smaller section of the rhino exhibit which is in the back. The front section has a depression area for water. The concern was she might fall into the depression and hurt herself. She will be monitored to make sure she is treated okay.

Comr. Gerrie – Is there a tour planned for Commissioners and JZ?

Comr. Stephens – Unsure. The tour includes new exhibits and new animals acquired. September was planned as a possible time but it not confirmed yet.

Comr. Gerrie – Have the zoo critics been attending?

Comr. Stephens – They have come to most meetings.

Comr. Gerrie – Excited to hear about expanding the grizzly exhibit.

Comr. Stephens – It is still very tentative but they didn’t reject it out of hand.

Comr. Gerrie – The concern was the current space was adequate when they were young but not big enough as adults.

No public comment

5. New Business

A) Discussion only about ways to make it easier to contact Commission members.

Comr. Stephens – Last month Comr. Hemphill expressed concern that the public doesn’t have an easier way to contact Commissioners. We have voice mail, US mail, and the public can come to meetings. Contacted the webmaster about setting up contact via email. They said all email inboxes are charged to a department so they need permission to set one up. The question is who will pay for us? Perception is that ACC should do it since our Commission has oversight of ACC, which we do not. We only advise the Board of Supervisors. Webmaster suggested contacting the Board to see what their policy was for advisory Commissions on setting up emails. Haven’t heard back yet. ACC sent a request to GSA to set up an email through ACC. There’s nothing definite yet. Was advised that if a Commissioner does Commission business through their private account they need to retain a copy of that email. You have to print them out. You can’t just store them on your email server.

Comr. Aldridge – If a member of the public contacts me about Commission business I should print that email out to save?

Comr. Stephens – Probably not but you might want to be safe. This isn’t clear, since we are a Commission with no real powers. If I email to just you and not to a quorum of Commissioners you don’t need to save it. If you have been asked by this Commission to take some action to contact someone on behalf of the Commission you should keep a copy of that. Any letters sent to the Commission are retained and not thrown out.

Comr. Young – Is the intent to have a dialogue over email with the public or just receive potential agenda items?

Comr. Aldridge – The concern was that we were not visible enough. We should be more able to be contacted. We should get more response.

Comr. Stephens – The concern was that people may have an issue for us but are not able to contact us.

Comr. Young – We could set up a g-mail account. Then that e-mail could be bounced to all the Commissioners.

Comr. Stephens – You still get into the need for record retention. Any correspondence that came in would need to be saved. It makes sense to have it be a City email account.

Comr. Gerrie – City employees have email accounts with the first and last name followed by sfgov.org. Employees have that email in whatever department they are in. Can’t we have the same?

Comr. Stephens – No, because we are not City employees. The webmaster wrote and said they do not have the authority to create email addresses. ACC would have to approve the request and would have to work through their departmental administrator at GSA to implement this process because each department is charged annually based on the number of email boxes that are active. Once the email is created the addresses can be easily added to the website.

Comr. Gerrie – I wonder what the charge would be? It couldn’t be that much. Do you know how many other advisory Commissions are in the City?

Comr. Stephens – Many. The response from the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors has been if they do something for us they will have to do for all the Commissions.

Comr. Young – There are two separate issues. One, should individual Commissioners have separate sfgov email addresses for correspondence and, two, should the Commission have a single email address that would go to all the Commisssioners?

Comr. Aldridge – Is there something we can do on our own that would not generate a cost that could get promoted on the website? Could we have a Facebook or Twitter presence?

Comr. Stephens – Not sure but we could find out.

Comr. Young – Would be able to help with that.

No public comment

Comr. Stephens – We will explore this further.

6. General Public Comment

James Yorck – Does anyone know why ACC has not published their incoming and outgoing stats?

Comr. Gerrie – Understand it takes them some time to publish.

James Yorck – Another problem, which they have not fixed, is the stats combining of wild and smalls mixed together.

Comr. Gerrie –Their computer system does not have a system that separates types of animals into groupings that are sensible.

James Yorck – Can I go down there to inquire?

Comr. Gerrie – Cannot speak for ACC.

James Yorck – Is there a public record of ACC stats?

Comr. Young - Have seen stats listed on their website but unsure how up to date they are.

Comr. Stephens – You can call them up and ask. However they may not have them yet.

James Yorck – Last year at this time they did have the stats.

Public comment closed

7 & 8 Calendar items and task allotments

No Commission nor public comment

Adjournment 6:25 PM

Respectfully submitted by
Philip Gerrie
Commission Secretary