Minutes Meeting of March 15, 2000
Meeting called to order at 5:45 pm.
Members present: Tim Frahm, Richard Izmerian, Tom Forest, Wade Leschyn, Jerry Hearn, Carrol Ann Hodges Ann Moser, Mary Paglieri, Peggy Becket.
Keith Mangold absent.

Temp. Secretary Appointment: Wade will be secretary again. November 17 minutes accepted. Carol Ann moved, Jerry seconded. Peggy and Ann abstained as they were not present at this meeting. Minutes accepted. February 16 Minutes reviewed and acceptance deferred to April meeting.

Changes to Agenda: add Dr. Jerry Smith Proposal presentation, Airport Expansion, and Human Race.

Public Comment: none

Wade made the chairperson report: Agenda needs to be distributed on time. Wade will create a public email list through www.onelist.com to facilitate better public access to electronic communications. Group emails will pass through this mechanism as opposed to individually maintained email distribution lists. This way the distribution list will be standardized, and people can make their own choices as to whether they wish to subscribe or not, and the list will be open to the public. Minutes and agenda’s currently posted on Wade’s web site will also be moved from Wade’s private web site to a county server. Wade to discuss and arrange with assistance from Gary Lockman. Mary Burns informed Wade that committee meetings, including subcommittee meetings should be held in public places with prior public notification. This is especially important if the topic under discussion will lead to an action or decision that will be acted on by the committee. Caroll Ann said that the Brown act allows for a meeting of less than a quorum without conforming to public access and public notice requirements. Peggy Becket also commented about public discussion and public access regarding meetings and email discussions, and conforming with the limitation on meetings attended by less than a quorum. Tim suggested that we establish a policy limiting subcommittee membership to less than a quorum so we are not subject to Brown act regulations. Gary will check on clarification of Brown Act issues. Agenda should be received 10 days prior to meeting to allow for proper public posting. There was discussion on what happens to the corrected minutes, corrections are currently noted in a corrected or final minutes copy, which is the copy posted on Wade’s web site. There was some discussion on other ways to handle this, including filing an official copy of the corrected minutes with the Park Division secretary or noting changes in the minutes of the current minutes.

Staff Report: Gary Lockman - Earth Day coming up on April 22. Is the committee or are any committee members planning any activities? No. County is hiring for park aid positions this summer, wages range from $9.22 to $10.22 per hour. Basic requirements are: 18 years old and having a California drivers license. Part time and full time positions are available. Budget, salary and cost increases will be absorbed into the budget, but so far nothing new is added, including the Park Planner position. All and all it is a status quo. Three additional ranger positions will probably not be approved.

State propositions 12 & 13 both passed, so planning can begin for a whole myriad of projects which are now enabled. County needs to start evaluating desired projects and opportunities for matching funding. The Project Planner position is one of the top staff position priorities.

RFP for the Coyote Point plan is up for solicitation of a new contractor. Commission did a preliminary review of about $60 million in project plans and updates to maintenance plans.

Mary Burns would like to take a long term approach to soliciting new public participation to the planning of priorities for potential capital projects which are enabled by Props 11 & 12.

Let the commission know that a modified version of the kelp issue will be forwarded back to them.

Old Business

Tim Frahm reported on a streams subcommittee meeting of 4 members. They reviewed Dr. Jerry Smith’s project. The basic issue is to collect data on whether flashboards used for water diversion and agriculture issues enhance or detract from the survivability of fish in the stream system. The flashboards are operated under permits from the State Department of Agriculture. Guest Chris Fisher presented the project application named Steelhead Use of Seasonal Reservoirs on Arroyo Leon. It covers both salmonid and red legged frog habitat. April & May is a critical time for salmonid fingerlings. Lakes can be fabulously productive areas for fingerlings if water quality and food issues are right. 80% of Pescadero creek fingerlings in 1996 were produced in the Pescadero creek lagoon. If NMFS wants to remove these barriers, this might be the worst thing for fish habitat. Dr. Smith’s project is student run. It requests $5,700 to cover field assistant time. There is already a $2,000 grant from SFSU to buy equipment.

Peggy asked a process question as to whether we can vote on this project application without it having been announced on an agenda distributed 10 days prior to the meeting. This is uncertain, but the streams subcommittee did not inform Wade that a project application was coming before the committee, so it would not have been on the agenda in any case. Wade said it is imperative that members of the committee, including the subcommittee chairs, discuss agenda items with him ahead of time.

Approval of this request will be on next months agenda. To give Dr. Smith an idea on how the project proposal was received a straw poll of the committee was taken and everyone commenting expressed support for this project. Jerry said he would be willing to shepherd this through the Park Commission but someone else needs to do the paperwork. Richard appointed.

The Committee Workplan was discussed. The subcommittee on the future meeting announced in February for March 8 was canceled. subcommittee will try to meet second Wednesday in April at 7 pm. at a location to be determined. Ann, Mary P. and possibly Keith are interested in being part of the subcommittee. Upcoming items to be discussed is creating a calendar for the committee for the year as to what sort of things come our way cyclically that we need to be aware of. Plugging into the priorities of the Park Department by watching what is being proposed and funded as the department goes through the budgeting process going on now and due for a milestone next month at the Park Commission meeting.

Agenda items to be included in next month’s agenda will be an action item on Dr. Hill’s project application. Tim Frahm will carry the responsibility on this.

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Master Plan: Wade asked Gary for clarification concerning the County position concerning fishing at Fitzgerald. Gary said the County is attempting to set up a mechanism to gather baseline data concerning fishing impacts before a recommendation for classification be considered. The current state legislation has 104 different classifications for public lands, designated in one form or another as special areas. The State is working to bring these 104 areas into a much smaller number of categories that different areas can be lumped into that will have some kind of commonality or categorization as to what can an cannot be done there. The county does not have a position at this time.

Edgewood Park Implementation Plan - Gary said that the County is working with the Edgewoood friends group to see if we can finish the implementation plan or hire an outside consultant.

Coyote Point Master Plan - The RFP is out -

San Francisco Watershed - Gary said the rumor is that the City of San Francisco is interested in making a ridge trail work. Jerry told the committee that Supervisor Rich Gordon wrote a personal letter to Hillary Gitelman in the Environmental Review office of the San Francisco Planning Department suggesting that the Peninsula Watershed Management Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report does not sufficiently address the issue of routine and emergency water releases of water over the dams in the watershed and mitigation barriers to spawning salmonids.down stream flow. Jerry passed around a copy of the letter. Tim said we should address a letter to Supervisor Gordon thanking him for writing this letter. Wade will write the thank you letter. Jerry will send Wade a copy of the letter to Hillary Gitelman..

Mountain Lions - Mary P. passed out a draft brochure on Mountain Lions that she prepared following a formal letter of request from Gary. Committee members were surprised that Gary had seemingly assigned work directly to Mary bypassing the Committee. Tim, Richard and Wade all raised issues concerning this process flow. Comment was unanimous that staff needs to submit requests to the entire committee, or through the chair, and not assign work directly to a subcommittee or individual. Gary says Wade was cced on the letter to Mary. Wade has not seen the cc. Gary said he will forward a copy of the letter to Wade, and future requests from him will be directed to the entire committee or the chair. Mary expressed some frustration and confusion over what she can now work on. Wade said she could continue this time as she has, as if Gary’s request had gone through the proper channels, but that she should keep the wildlife subcommittee and the committee at large involved and informed of her activities. Mary said she will call a meeting of the wildlife subcommittee next month to review the draft brochure with them. Date, time and location of this meeting to be announced later.

New Business
Richard commented on the SFO airport runway expansion, he passed out material from a March 4 meeting at College of San Mateo. Sam Hertzberg has also commented.

Richard is running in the “Human Race” May 13. He has materials and pledge forms.

Mary P. said she was a guest speaker at the Bonnie Bray Retirement Home. She spoke about coyotes, skunks and mountain lions.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm

Respectfully submitted:
Wade Leschyn, acting secretary.