The Urbanist #501 - March 2011 - What is Good Government in the New Reality?

Page 1

o

03.11

SPUR

ranIs


03.11

LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Good Government in a time of austerity

Gabriel Metcalf is SPUR's executive director

2 Urbanist> March 2011

This issue of the Urbanist commemorates one of my favorite things we do each year, which is the Good Government Awards for management excellence. This is the only citywide awards program for exemplary management in the city's public sector. Managers are nominated by their department heads and are reviewed by a panel that includes City staff and members of MFAC, Over nearly three decades, this event has honored hundreds of nominees and winners, of whom many have gone on to become department heads, As you can read on page 8, this year we are recognizing three individuals and two teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. These are some of the people, usually un-heralded, who make San Francisco work. They exemplify the best of City government and we are proud to honor their commitment and service. We also introduce our new Good Government Policy Director, Corey Marshall, who shares his thoughts on how to approach the City budget beginning on page 4, We've got our work cut out for us this year, as the City's good government organization, Caught between declining tax revenues and exploding costs, San Francisco, like virtually every city in the country, is faced with serious cuts - to services, to employee compensation, or both. The dip in tax revenues is almost certainly temporary, because we will climb out of the recession. The increase in pension and especially in health costs is only going to get worse, unless fairly drastic action is taken, Pension and health-care costs have escalated more than 172 percent in the past decade, and nearly 65 percent in the past five years alone, totaling more than $820 million in the current fiscal year. And the trend line is only moving upwards. No one wants to be the one to say that people need to have less money in their retirement or pay more for their health care, While City workers certainly have better benefits than most of their private-sector counterparts, no one in City government is getting rich, and we are talking about a workforce filled with idealistic and dedicated people. If there can be such a thing as "progressive budget hawks," then I suppose that's how I would describe at least a part of SPUR. We believe deeply in the mission of local government as a force for good, and we believe it needs to be generously funded to provide

Our urbanist values teach us that we need public transit, public parks, public education, public safety and the other core services we organize through our local government. We at SPUR are going to do our best to find a way for these services to not only survive intact, but to grow and expand over time. high levels of public service. On the other hand, we want the money we pay as taxes to be used carefully to achieve maximum public value. This is not a low-tax city, which is OK, so long as we are providing real value for the amount of money we give our public sector. Reader, for several years you have watched us wrestle with the issue of how to reform employee benefits in a way that is fair, and unfortunately, we are far from finished, There is more than one "right answer," perhaps, more than one way to bring the cost of government in line with the available money while being fair to City employees. But no one is going to be happy with the inevitable trade-offs and compromises, Our urbanist values teach us that we need public transit, public parks, public education, public safety and the other core services we organize through our local government. We at SPUR are going to do our best to find a way for these services to not only survive intact, but to grow and expand over time, so that we can make this city the best possible place it can be. We're in a difficult moment, but the problems are too important not to solve. •


March 2011 What we're doing

SAVE CALTRAIN Caltrain faces an immediate budget deficit of $30 million - nearly one-third of its budget - and has threatened major service cuts. Although this rail system is one of the most efficient parts of the Bay Area transit infrastructure, it lacks a dedicated funding stream and relies on annual payments from the SF Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA), Samtrans and Valley Transit Authority (VTA). Caltrain has increased ridership by one-third since 2000, doubled revenue and kept the increase in operating costs below inflation. Given the importance of Caltrain as an armature for future regional growth and mobility (and the corridor for the future highspeed rail system), SPUR has convened a working group to identify solutions to provide Caltrain with a sustainable long-term funding source. Interested in supporting Caltrain? Email: transportation@spur.org. SAN FRANCISCO'S JOB GROWTH STAGNATES As unemployment remains high and housing prices struggle to recover in the Bay Area, what are the prospects for city revenues? What industries are thriving, and which appear to be trailing? City Controller Ben Rosenfield and newly minted SPUR Good Government Director Corey Marshall welcomed local experts, elected officials and others at City Hall on February

18 for the Annual Economic Briefing. City budget staff and experts analyzed regional economic trends and projections for the city's major revenue streams, and examined how the recession has disparately affected economies throughout the region. San Francisco was among the last Bay Area cities to enter the recession and our housing prices have stabilized. However, San Francisco continues to lag behind the region in job growth in most

sectors. Meanwhile, San Jose's job growth is strong across multiple sectors including technology and electronics manufacturing, professional services, tourism and hospitality,

WHERE 00 HOUSING GROWTH TARGETS COME FROM, ANYWAY? SPUR Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky has been appointed to the Sustainable Communities Strategy Housing Methodology Committee. This committee helps guide the development of regional housing-needs targets for jurisdictions across the Bay Area. Technical, yes - but also very important. For more information go to: onebayarea. org/housing.htm.

SAN FRANCISCO HOUSING ELEMENT BEGINS ADOPTION PROCESS Draft III of the San Francisco Housing Element has been released and is making its way through the adoption process. The Housing Element is part of San Francisco's General Plan, the document that provides policy guidance for housing growth in San Francisco. Updated every five years in accordance with state law, this round of the Housing Element has been in development for two years and counting. SPUR has provided substantial input into the document, consistently advocating for increased housing near transit. While the Housing Element does contain policies that support new housing

projects where households can easily rely on sustainable transportation modes, the recent draft also adds policy support for maintaining housing densities as they are. For more information on the Housing Element, go to: housingelement2009.sfplanning org/.

TREASURE ISLAND MOVES FORWARD TO PLANNING COMMISSION Plans for Treasure Island are moving forward to the Planning Commission in March. SPUR has long been a supporter of this plan, which contemplates the creation of 8,000 units of housing, 30 percent of which will be affordable. In addition, the plan will create up to 450,000 square feet of retail space, rehabilitate and re-open the existing historic structures, create 300 acres of open space, add new ferry service, and enhance Muni and AC Transit service to and from the island. SPUR is particularly supportive of the way in which the proposed new development is clustered around the new ferry terminal, as opposed to dispersed across the island. Interested in lending your support to this important project? Contact Sarah Karlinsky at skarlinsky@spur.org. For more information, go to: bit.ly/ sftreasureisland . •

Urbanist> March 2011 3


ANALYSIS

I by Corey Marshall

Good Government Deficit Costs of City government are rising while revenues are stagnating. Revenues Meanwhile, our need for core services has not decreased. What Pension Reform began as a national recession may have triggered a rare moment Core Services

of opportunity to deal with the causes of our structural deficit. So what is the way forward?

Defining Good Government in the New Reality How can San Francisco deliver core City services in an era of finite resources? Corey Marshall is SPUR's good government policy director.

1 San Francisco Controller's Office reports, City and County of San Francisco Employee Benefits, Executive Information System extract of Financial Accounting and Management Information System data (Feb. 17, 2011); FY 201O-ll Six-Month Budget Status Report (Feb. 9, 20t 1); Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, FY 2000-2010.

4 Urbanist> March 20ll

First the bad news: City revenues are falling, costs for the health and pension benefits of retired public employees are exploding, and experts disagree on whether an end to the current recession is anywhere in sight. The City is embarking on its fourth consecutive budget process requiring reductions of nearly half a billion dollars per year. As if this weren't enough, Governor Jerry Brown's proposals for the state budget could dramatically change the very relationship between state and local governments, shifting services (and costs) to the counties and cities. And the good news? What has begun as a national recession may have triggered a rare moment of opportunity to deal with the causes of our structural deficit. There is an opportunity to correct past mistakes, reinforce core services and to put San Francisco back on the right path. It is time for everyone to acknowledge that it is not merely the national recession that has caused our current budget crisis and reduced funding for city services. Instead, both falling revenues and escalating costs lie at the root of this budget crisis. We cannot afford the government we have. It is not sufficient to merely balance costs and revenues for one fiscal year. Rather, we must change the core structure of our City budget.

DECREASING REVENUES, INCREASING COSTS The recent recession has had an enormous negative impact on City revenues. Sales tax receipts are down more than 10 percent since 2008. Business taxes have declined more than 8 percent

since 2008. Hotel tax revenues - a bellwether for tourist activity and other business activity - are down more than 10 percent since 2008. Property tax revenues are projected to be down by nearly 4 percent for fiscal year 2010-11, the first decline this decade in a revenue source that has grown more than 120 percent since 2001. As if this perfect storm were not enough, the financial challenges of the state have repeatedly affected City funding in recent years. While a number of one-time solutions and borrowing have been used to bridge the state deficit including federal stimulus funds, redirection of funds designated for local public transportation, and widespread worker furloughs - more recent discussions have centered on permanent, structural changes such as eliminating local redevelopment agencies. While some of these revenues may soon recover to previous levels, any gains would be virtually erased by the growing cost of retired public employees' health care and pension benefits the City is obliged to pay, now more than $820 million per year. 1 Pension and health-care costs have escalated more than 172 percent in the past decade, and nearly 65 percent in the past five years alone. For years, the City's pension system reported that it was "over-funded" due to higherthan-projected investment returns, leading the City to underfund annual pension contributions. The money was then redirected to start or fund existing programs that everyone is now loath to eliminate. But the combination of a sudden and severe drop in asset values, longer life spans and modest


pension increases has resulted in the City having to significantly increase annual payments to the pension plan. Retiree health-care costs, meanwhile, continue to present a challenge for the City. San Francisco Proposition B (2008) created a two-tier structure for funding retiree health care. The current unfunded health-care liability (which includes all future payments for City employees and retirees) for the largest group of employees - those hired before January 9, 2009 - currently sits at $4.3 billion and continues to be completely unfunded. 2 These benefits are funded on a "pay as you go" basis, meaning that the cost of these benefits is paid as they come due each year. Retiree health benefits for the second tier of employees - those hired after January 9, 2009 are prefunded through a combination of employee and employer contributions. Benefits for this group of employees are expected to be fully funded through these combined contributions and will not alter the unfunded liability for the other tier. Since 2008, the Government Accounting Standards Board - an independent organization on which state and local governments rely to set accounting and reporting practices - has required municipal governments to report the costs of their health-care benefits for retired employees, but does not require funding for these future costs. Pensions

must be reported under a separate requirement. While the City began reporting these liabilities in 2008, actual health-care costs have been climbing for quite some time. Health-care costs for current and retired employees combined have increased 147 percent over the last decade - and nearly 43 percent just in the past five years. Meanwhile the number of City employees has declined more than six percent since 200l,3 The combined cost of all employee benefits has risen from $408 million in FY 2000-01 to $978 million in FY 2010-11. We need to begin driving these costs down to sustainable levels while being sensitive to the fact that City employees have already agreed to wage concessions multiple times in the last ten years. In November 2010, SPUR gave its reluctant endorsement to a pension reform measure, Proposition B. SPUR's support was ambivalent because the measure had some serious downsides, but nevertheless we believed that something like Prop. B was necessary to begin getting costs under control. Prop. B would have saved the City around $120 million per year starting in fiscal year 201314 by increasing the contribution required from employees toward the cost of their pension and health care. It was defeated at the ballot, sending all of us back to the drawing board for reform ideas. SPUR pledged to be more proactive in coming up with solutions this time around and, indeed, that is

1 Memorandum

to Mayor Gavin Newsom from Controller Ben Rosenfield, Dec. 15, 2DlD, "Report on Retiree (PostemploymenU Medical Benefit Costs." 3 San Francisco Controller's Office reports, City and County of San Francisco Employee Benefits, Executive Information System extract of Financial Accounting and Management Information System (Feb. 17.2011).

Since 2001, combined pension and health-care contributions from the City budget have increased to more than $820 million per year, an increase of more than 172 percent.

HOW MUCH ARE WE SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE AND PENSIONS? CITY EXPENDITURES IN FISCAL YEARS 2000-01 TO 2010-11 $1,000,000,000 Total Pension Costs

II II

800, 000, 000 tJ)

Q::

S ...J 0

Health Benefits Cost for Active Workers Health Benefits Cost for Retired Workers

600, 000, 000

c

~ I-

tJ)

0

(,)

400,000,000

200,000, 000

O....-_......._-..J.J 2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

FISCAL YEAR END

Source: San Francisco Employee Benefits, Executive Information System, extract of Financial Accounting and Management Information System data, Feb. 17, 2011.

Urbanist> March 2011 5


one of my major responsibilities this year as SPUR's good government policy director. We are talking t6 anyone who will listen, from labor leaders to advocates for public services. We are open to many kinds of solutions, as we think everyone should be. There is more than one way to reform San Francisco's pension and health-care systems, and it is very important to us to find a way that feels as fair as possible to City workers. Some big ideas are in circulation: 1. For higher-paid City employees, create a mix of "defined benefit" and "defined contribution" pension plans. The idea here is that the taxpayers would give City workers a traditional public sector guaranteed pension up to some dollar amount: say, $100,000 in salary. Above that amount, the pension would switch to something more like what non-profits and businesses give - a program in which the City contributes to employee retirement plans, with incentives for employees to contribute to their own plans as well. 2. Raise the retirement age to 65 to match the age when Medicare kicks in. City public-safety employees now can retire as early as age 55, and all other City employees can retire at age 62. But The largest modern life expectancy projections predict that City budget retirees will collect their benefits for many years, categories fund and projections for pension fund earnings suggest public safety; that earnings will not keep pace with benefit transportation, obligations. A compounding factor is that younger utilities and public works; retirees represent greater health-care costs for the and public City because these retirees are not yet eligible for health. HealthMedicare. Gradually raising the retirement age for care and pension full benefits to 65 for employees not in the publiccosts are rising at rates that may safety field would do a lot to reduce the costs of retiree health care while also recognizing that most impact funding people continue to lead active, productive lives past for critical programs. that point.

3. Establish a cap on the amount of salary that can be used to calculate pension earnings. The IRS caps maximum pension earnings at $245,000 a year. Proposals include reducing that limit to $200,000 or $135,000. 4. Increase baseline pension determination to average either three or five years of earnings and mitigate effects of "pension spiking." In pension spiking, an employee boosts his or her earnings by some combination of promotion, special pay, and other retention or training incentives that inflate pension earnings. These increases artificially inflate employee earnings for the final years of employment. But because pension benefits are calculated based on the employee's earnings in this period, this also boosts the benefits the City must pay for the entire duration that former employee receives a City pension. Increasing the period over which earnings are averaged - and pension benefits determined - will help to provide a more accurate reflection of earnings. A related reform would be to limit the categories of earnings included in baseline benefit calculation to base pay, rather than including overtime, comp time and bonus pay. 5. Increase pension contributions of publicsafety employees or modify their pension formula to more closely match other City employees. Police officers and firefighters may retire at 55 and collect 90 percent of their final-year earnings. Other City employees have a higher retirement age and lower benefits: 75 percent at 62 years. There is room to recognize the special contributions and risks that public-safety employees make, while still ratcheting down these benefits somewhat in the interest of fairness and the long-term financial viability of the pension system.

HOW DO WE SPEND OUR MONEY? SAN FRANCISCO SERVICES AS APERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL BUDGET General Administration and Finance 8%

Cultural Institutions and Parks 4%

Public Health 20%

General City Responsibility

7%

Note: Percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding. Source: City/County of San Francisco Annual Budget Ordinance, FY 2010-11.

6 Urbanist> March 2011


There are a number of legal questions related to making changes to benefit plans for current employees and retirees. All of these complex problems require thoughtful well-analyzed solutions, which SPUR wants to facilitate and support.

THE WAY FORWARD The good news is that the City has a robust finance and accounting operation as well as an active audit and management-review function, and it consistently receives awards for exemplary performance in financial and performance reporting. In recent years the City has analyzed and provided valuable recommendations on a variety of topics that could yield dramatic impact - including analyses of public transportation, the management of City relationships with nonprofit service providers, and ways to improve the provision of police services. In many ways this provides an excellent foundation on which to build and strengthen the City organization. What else can the City do to better prepare for the future?

1. Confront the cost of known, unfunded liabilities. Bringing out all known liabilities is an important first step to truly balance the budget. The City's retiree health-care liability was largely unknown and unreported until required by the Government Accounting Standards Board. Enumerating the $4.3 billion liability has enabled a meaningful public discourse about how to address retirement-related liabilities, and how to limit the impact of ongoing pension responsibilities without jeopardizing high-priority services.

2. Reinforce financial stability via long-term planning. Thanks to Proposition A (2009), a budget reform measure, the City is in the process of defining a five-year financial plan that will help to clarify program needs and available revenue sources. Multiyear budgeting helps to identify longterm structural budget problems early so they can be addressed in the process. On the revenue side, many agencies already are actively investigating revenue opportunities that can supplement existing funds or replace those that have disappeared.

3. Aggressively pursue revenue diversification strategies. Given the heavy subsidies many departments receive from the City's General Fund - of which more than 20 percent in turn consists of federal and state subsidies -the current trends of declining federal and state funding indicate that diversification of departments' funding sources would be extremely beneficial. Some departments will have the opportunity to generate revenue to keep up service levels through philanthropy, fees for service or other creative methods. This won't be an across-the-board solution, but if used carefully and

selectively it could benefit some departments that directly interact with the public.

4. Define measurable outcomes for City services. While many City programs carry with them an implicit understanding of their goals, being able to measure the outcome of programs is critical-for general oversight and accountability. Though not all outcomes lend themselves readily to measurement, there must be some means by which to gauge whether programs are working. Arguably, the most critical component of determining a program budget should be how much funding is required to achieve the program objectives. The City should develop explicit prioritization for programs whose outcomes can be measured.

5. Define program priorities to balance the budget rather than simply imposing across-theboard cuts. The easy way out of an imbalance between income and expenses is to cut all functions equally, but almost always the better way is to make some explicit decisions about where to invest and where to cut. This is, of course, easier said than done in a public budgeting process.

6. Develop a long-term labor strategy that results in more balanced negotiations. Over and over, the City has agreed to wages and benefits that it mayor may not be able to afford, only to subsequently be confronted with an economic downturn that makes negotiated labor contracts untenable. Over the last decade, the City has on multiple occasions had to implement workforce reductions and re-open contracts to ask City employees to "give back" some amount of wages or benefits. This is terrible for morale, as well as budget planning. While it is true that public-sector unions may often negotiate with elected officials who have little incentive to strike a "hard bargain," the City cannot keep making deals that are financially unsustainable. There needs to be a way of moving the labor-management culture into more of a shared problem-solving effort, perhaps similar to the spirit in which union leaders and senior City management are now working on solutions to pension and health costs. Taken independently, these principles have the potential to better prepare and position the City for success, whether conditions improve or finances remain constrained. In fact, they can help the City to expand its capacity through collaboration rather than through additional employees. Together, these have the potential to improve services, program effectiveness and access through a combination of improved transparency, service capacity and operational focus. We must confront these challenges in a way that reinforces our priorities and strengthens the services in a sustainable way. _ Urbanist> March 2011 7


31st Annual Good Government Awards

Monday

spur.org/ggawards

March 21, 2011 5:30 PM

MFAC is a project of the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association, and has been at the service of each San Francisco Mayor since its establishment over 30 years ago by Mayor George Moscone and the esteemed Richard Blum. MFAC serves as the coordinating body for many efforts to help government work better. The Good Government Awards celebrate the accomplishments of outstanding public servants who, when faced with extraordinary fiscal pressure, have found creative ways to serve the City of San Francisco with distinction and excellence. Awardees are managers in City agencies who have taken innovative approaches to good government, and who have made an impact on our City, Please join us in recognizing this year's awardees, highlighted in the following pages.

Thank you to our generous sponsors (Partial sponsor list as of 2/22/77) CHAIR

ADVOCATE

Michael Walker

A:COM

President, U.S. Bank Northern California

[!!jbank.

ANONYMOUS

Blum~ Capital

. . Pacific Gas and ~~

Electric Company·

STEWARD Academy of Art University' Bank of the West· KPMG LLP • PB • Recology • San Francisco International Airport· Wells Fargo & Co.

HONORARY AWARDS COMMITTEE

PARTNER

The Honorable Edwin M. Lee

Arup North America Ltd.• Catholic Healthcare West· Forest City Development· Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP • Jacobs' Jones Hall' macys.com • Municipal Transportation Agency' San Francisco Waterfront Partners, LLC • Seifel Consulting, Inc.

The Honorable Gavin Newsom The Honorable Willie L. Brown, Jr. The Honorable Frank Jordan The Honorable Art Agnos The Honorable Dianne Feinstein Mrs. Gina Moscone

SUPPORTER AGS, Inc.• Andy & Sara Barnes' Emerald Fund, Inc.• Hathaway Dinwiddie' Anne Halsted & Wells Whitney' MJM Management Group' Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP • San Francisco Public Utilities Commission· Westfield San Francisco Centre

Sponsorship & Tickets ($85) available online at spur.org/ggawards

8 Urbanist> March 2011


GOOD GOVERNMENT AWARD WINNERS

DR. SUSAN FERNYAK Deputy Health Officer and Director, Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Department of Public Health

Juggling a portfolio that includes management of infectious disease emergencies, the City's Bioterrorism Program, one-on-one clinical care and a number of things in between, Dr. Susan Fernyak has an extremely difficult job. As Deputy Health Officer and Director, she manages a staff of more than 50 clinicians and analysts and an annual budget of $7 million. Dr. Mitch Katz, director of the Department of Public Health (DPH), notes, "Whether in staffing or how to deal with a rabid bat exposure, [Dr. FernyakJ brings tremendous common sense to the decisions she must make." Her "common sense" stood out recently as she recommended against school closures during the HINI flu outbreak. "Every county around us was [closingJ," explains Fernyak. "We'd just been out there very early saying ... the disease is mild, and you're not gaining anything except keeping kids away." Fernyak brought together public health officials from across the Bay Area to support her position that mandatory closings would only disrupt the lives of students and parents. Ultimately, the decision helped inform state and national policy regarding school closures to contain the epidemic and kept HINI cases per capita in San Francisco lower than in other localities. Fernyak's team was also able to communicate directly with those most at risk, minimizing any potential fear or panic that may have resulted.

The HINI flu also provided a testing ground for Fernyak's ground breaking Infectious Disease Emergency Response (IDER) plan. The 2008 plan provides the city with a structured response and decision-making framework in the event of large outbreaks, including a Point of Dispensing plan to facilitate expedited distribution of antibiotics and immunizations. While HINI was not as severe in retrospect, the IDER plan provided the city with an approach to handle the prospective pandemic. DPH and Fernyak implemented a vigorous vaccination program for HINl, sponsoring 27 public clinics in one month and vaccinating more than 18,000 people. Thanks to her work, San Francisco has the capacity to treat 1.2 million people within 32 hours. In addition to managing daily priorities and planning for emergencies, Fernyak works with community-based organizations such as San Francisco's Hep B Free campaign and others to generate public awareness. She has coordinated activities with Safeway, Kaiser Permanente and San Francisco Unified School District. Fernyak is grateful not only to serve the public, but also to do so in a city with such progressive values. At every turn, she is keenly aware that what she does "touches potentially every single person in San Francisco."

Urbanist> March 2011 9


GOOD GOVERNMENT AWARD WINNERS

CAPITAL PLANNING PROGRAM STAFF Brian Benson Business Analyst. Fran Breeding Senior Administrative Analyst Brian Strong Director, Adam Van de Water Principal Administrative Analyst General Services Agency . Before the Capital Plan existed, if the mayor or a supervisor wanted to know what infrastructure projects were underway, they'd have to call every City department manager, who would manually shuffle through files and submit dozens of Excel spreadsheets over the course of weeks. Contrast that with 2009, when federal stimulus funds became available for shovel-ready projects. The Capital Planning Program (CPP) team responded within days, utilizing its centralized system that tracks capital improvements. The team's swift response resulted in federal funds for Doyle Drive, street repaving and numerous lighting upgrades, among others. The CPP was born out of the extensive work of SPUR and others in 2004, resulting in the 2005 legislation creating a lO-year Capital Plan to address planning and financing of capital projects in San Francisco. Among the key tools is an application that tracks investment priorities for City facilities, including replacement of roofs, boilers and other systems within City-owned buildings. In addition to prioritizing capital improvements and forecasting infrastructure needs, the CPP also identifies revenue to address these needs. The CPP conducted significant pre-ballot planning to facilitate passage of three consecutive bond measures totaling nearly $1.5 billion. Voters overwhelmingly approved the Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks bond (with 71 percent of the vote), the San

10 Urbanist> March 2011

Francisco General Hospital bond (84 percent) and the Earthquake Safety bond (79 percent). Exemplary communication has proven to be a vital part of the CPP's success. With development of ONESF and the program's website, www.onesanfrancisco.org, staff is educating the public on the importance of a central infrastructure plan. Brian Strong understands the necessity for clear public outreach. "ONESF is trying to bring some consensus to all the different fiefdoms .... We need to have a functional hospital before we bicker about some of the details." And San Franciscans aren't the only ones who are interested - representatives from Seattle and Austin are exploring the CPP's best practices to implement in their own municipalities. The CPP team has impacted numerous city projects and initiatives. In his nomination of the team, then-City Administrator Ed Lee counted no less than 13 significant outcomes, including increasing the General Fund investments for capital improvements by 29 percent and stabilizing the City's credit rating by demonstrating sound and transparent policies for long-term debt. As the CPP looks ahead, Brian Strong sounds a note of caution. "[The city is] definitely much better off than five or 10 years ago ... but we still have a long way to go."


GOOD GOVERNMENT AWARD WINNERS

CHERYL NASHIR Associate Deputy Director, Revenue and Management Development San Francisco Airport Commission

When you next enjoy a delicious, organic meal at SFO that tastes more like it came from the Ferry Building, you might have Cheryl Nashir to thank. "I describe my job as the mall manager of SFO," Nashir says. It's an apt description for the supervisor of a team that develops and manages commercial revenue for the airport. That task includes attracting and retaining retail tenants such as food and beverage proprietors, and vendors providing luggage carts rental cars, and even the mini-spas that help rejuvenate weary travelers. All that property translates into revenue for the City as well as for SFO In fact, after joining SFO in 2006, Nashir's work to maximize rents through new leases and new types of locations for retail stores helped increase revenue by $19.3 million (24 percent). In FY 2010-11, SFO expects to receive $98.7 million from commercial services, with nearly $24 million of that going to the City's General Fund. To increase retail sales, Nashir worked strategically with commercial tenants at SFO, developing guidelines for better storefront designs and helping tenants improve merchandise offerings. Simultaneously, she completed 15 separate business negotiations resulting in considerable savings for the airport. Amid all this, Nashir motivates her team to think big and picture the traveler's perspective. After all, her job is customer service. "While [passengers]

are here," she says, "I want them to be comfortable and relaxed." Recently, Nashir led the space-planning and concessions program development for SFO's renovation of Terminal 2. Typically, large development planning is performed by consultants, but Nashir decided that her staff might enjoy leading the project, saying, "I'll delight in their delight when they see what they've done." Such an engaged management style is, perhaps, one reason why job satisfaction ratings have increased dramatically for her group - from 66 percent to 81 percent. Some of the changes Nashir has envisioned will premiere in the new Terminal 2, but she notes that, coming at the height of the recession, the timing for seeking commercial tenants for the renovated terminal was very challenging. But her efforts have paid off: SFO received 69 proposals for 16 leases that comprise Terminal 2's new food/beverage/retail program and will generate $41.5 million in gross sales annually. Nashir constantly strives to keep SFO on the cutting edge, exploring new ways to enrich both the airport environment and increase revenue. She takes inspiration from airports in Europe and Asia, and would like to bring different retail concepts, lounges, VIP services and maybe even sleeping rooms to SFO someday. "We want it to be the coolest airport in North America."

Urbanist> March 2011 11


GOOD GOVERNMENT AWARD WINNERS

DANA KETCHAM Manager, Permits and Reservations Recreation and Parks Department

Dana Ketcham says it all started when her children participated in the city's baseball and soccer leagues. "I wanted to help and, before you knew it, I was running it," she says. After getting involved in the recreation programs that utilized the city's playing fields, Ketcham became frustrated when she noticed there were kids the City wasn't successfully serving. After inquiring with the City, she learned it was due to lack of space in the fields. That put Ketcham on a mission to address the capacity problem of the athletic fields. Walking all 103 of the city's sports grounds and creating an inventory, complete with dimensions and amenities, she catalogued the fields that were candidates for additional capacity and renovation. She also surveyed users and facilitated public meetings to develop a season-by-season plan and an online reservation and permit system, all while still a volunteer. Net result: 35,000 additional hours of field playtime. Two years into this labor of love, noting Ketcham's ability to solve an "intractable problem," the Recreation and Parks Department offered her a paid position. She jumped at the opportunity. "You're trying to change the way a river ran," she says. "If you move it just for a little bit, it'll just go right back to the way it was before." Ketcham now supervises a 15-person team managing over 57,000 different permits - races, music and arts performances, walks, cultural celebrations,

12 Urbanist> March 2011

weddings - for the city's 225-plus parks and 103 athletic fields. On any given day, her team can be negotiating a festival in Golden Gate Park and accepting reservations for picnic tables. After starting her paid position, Ketcham completely reengineered and modernized the Permits and Reservations operations. Previously, "all reservations were kept in big calendar books," she explains. "If you wanted to book Civic Center, there was a book labeled 'Civic Center,' and you ... had to decipher the handwriting of the person who had written what was there." These systems are now completely automated and online. Subsequently, Ketcham led a staff reorganization to optimize efficiency and customer service, and built a website to improve public access. The changes have resulted in improved transparency, access and service delivery accountability, which have had a direct effect on revenue. Permit fees have increased from $3.5 million to $4.5 million. As a leader, Ketcham manages from the middle, positioning her own workspace in the center of her staff and cultivating an intense loyalty among her employees. Her focus, however, continues to be on quality service. In his nomination, Department Head Phil Ginsburg noted, "Dana is the consummate public servant. ... Her single motivation is the public good."


GOOD GOVERNMENT AWARD WINNERS

JOBS NOW MANAGEMENT TEAM Dave Curto Director of Contracts, Tony Lugo Program Director Leo Sauceda Manager, Jim Whelly Manager Human Services Agency If words like "nimble" and "innovative" sound like shorthand to describe a San Francisco start-up, think again. In just over one month, the Human Services Agency's Jobs Now team created a program that put 4,127 San Francisco residents back on the job rolls in record time. Tucked into the federal stimulus was a provision to provide employment support to unemployed parents, with $5 billion set aside nationwide. Employers could receive 100 percent of a worker's salary for hiring a person with at least one minor child either in CalWorks or with a family income less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That presented a monumental opportunity. The City tasked several divisions of the Human Services Agency (HSA) with developing the infrastructure to promote and manage the program. The initial goal was to get 1,000 people back to work. What does it take to implement a program to screen 22,000 people for potential employment? "An entire village," says Tony Lugo, program director for HSA Workforce Development Services. Lugo, who manages 119 employees, had to develop a road map for the project in the absence of federal implementation guidelines. Lugo and his colleagues, Jim Whelly, Dave Curto and Leo Sauceda - with more than 50 years of combined experience in public service - developed a program that demanded close coordination among numerous departments

and prioritized Jobs Now applicants. "We were working hand-in-hand, everybody just rolled up their sleeves .... I've never seen something like this before." The speed of Jobs Now applicant processing - from initial contact to job descriptions, signed contracts and bringing new workers into the system - demanded streamlined coordination, clear communication and decisive action. Sauceda, manager of examinations and operations at the HSA, notes, "We established a close relationship with the Department of Human Resources. They'd see 'Jobs Now' and they'd fast-track it." In addition to promoting and managing the Jobs Now program for private employers, the team hired 750 Jobs Now employees to work for the City itself. Because the eligibility criteria was so broad, the City was able to hire workers in more than 30 departments, many with years of work experience. In the end, San Francisco and Los Angeles were the only counties in California to take advantage of the program before funding expired in September 2010. While Congress did not ultimately renew funding for the program, the team remains hopeful that others might benefit from Jobs Now innovations, and is working with a San Francisco foundation to develop a replicable model of the program going forward.

Urbanist> March 2011 13


1

03 .11

!INSIDE SPUR

New faces at SPUR

Corey Marshall is SPUR's good government policy director. In this role, he is responsible for promoting an effective, well-managed public sector and nurturing a climate of civic engagement throughout the Bay Area. This includes research and advocacy, policy development, and engaging SPUR members and partners to provide strategic pro-bono consulting assistance to help improve the efficiency, effectiveness and governance of local government. Prior to joining SPUR, Corey worked in and around local government for more than ten years. His experience with the City and County of San Francisco included work with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), the Controller, San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), and Department of Public Works (DPW); and on issues related to local, regional and national funding and policy, strategic planning and business improvement initiatives. Before working for the City, Corey was a public-sector management consultant with Accenture; mayoral fellow in the office of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley; and a campaign consultant in San Francisco. Corey earned his master's in public policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

14 Urbanist> March 2011

Gretchen Hilyard is the public programming manager at SPUR, where she oversees all of the public programs and exhibitions at the SPUR Urban Center and assists with planning special donor group events. Prior to joining SPUR, Gretchen worked as a historic preservation consultant for Page & Turnbull, where she contributed to the San Francisco historic neighborhood surveys, the Treasure Island Design for Development and other planning and research projects. Gretchen has also worked for the National Park Service's Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation and is the current president of the Northern California Chapter of Docomomo US Gretchen earned a master's degree in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where she wrote a thesis on campus planning and its role in Kevin Roche's Wesleyan Center for the Arts in Middletown, Conn. She earned a bachelor's degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia. In her free time, Gretchen enjoys yoga, sewing and culinary experimentation, and is often found exploring the sights and sounds of San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods and parks.


Will Adams is a native of the Peninsula, growing up in the San Mateo area. Will graduated from Santa Clara University in 2008 with a B.S. in political science, with an emphasis in political philosophy and a minor in religious studies. He loves to travel and has spent extensive time abroad, including three months in Australia studying international relations. Will is an avid snowboarder and lived in Tahoe after graduating from college. He also builds fixed-gear bikes from scratch and loves to work out as much as possible.

Christina Fukumoto recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a major in architecture and a minor in sustainable design. She spent last summer walking, biking and traveling by bus and train through some of Europe's most sustainable cities, studying European planning, design and management practices and discussing their applicability to U.S. urban areas. At SPUR she is looking forward to learning more about our own wonderful city.

~."

• -Y

'-=

Will Heywood is currently finishing up his final semester at San Francisco State University, where he is receiving a B.A. in urban studies and planning, with a minor in geography. His areas of interest in the field of urban planning are sprawl repair and land-use politics. Will hopes to someday enter a graduate program in urban planning in either the Bay Area or back home in Southern California. When he is not at SPUR or studying hard, you may see Will and friends riding on their skateboards being chased out of a schoolyard, empty parking lot or office complex by one of San Francisco's many private security guards.

Cygridh Rooney received a B.S. in interior design from San Francisco State University and is now pursuing a B.A. in urban studies and planning with a minor in geography from SFSU. She plans to further her education by obtaining a master's in urban design. Her interests include urban transportation, economic development and urban design issues. She would like to travel the world and gain insight first-hand on the many urban issues that exist globally. Eventually she would like to be part of the movement to renovate Detroit's built environment.

Alexis Smith is passionate about housing, urban design and nurturing urban neighborhoods that people of all income levels can call "home." She is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley's Master of City Planning program, and is also a registered architect with a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. Before moving to California, she worked for several years as a designer of affordable housing in Washington, D.C. After arriving on the West Coast in 2008, she began a quest to see all of the country's national parks - 12 down, 46 to gol

Stephen Tu is a transportation policy intern at SPUR. Prior to joining SPUR, Stephen was a campaign staffer for the successful reelection of Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-ll). It was one of the closest congressional races in 2010 and one of two competitive House contests in California. When not at SPUR, Stephen is a co-director for a summer camp developing leadership and communication skills in Taiwanese-American youth in the Bay Area. Stephen received a B.S. in biology from the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He peoplewatches on BART during his commute from the East Bay.

Urbanist> March 2011

15


URBAN

Five painterly vistas from Kaiser Center Roof Garden

FIELD NOTES An additive archive of cultural landscapes and observations compiled by SPUR members and friends, Send your ideas to Urban Field Notes editor Ruth Keffer at editor@spur,org,

Caseworker: Mitchell Schwarzer

CASE STUDY #36

In the 1920s, European architects proposed a new city. The chaos of industrial civilization would be redeemed by a stupendous landscape of skyscraper towers rising out of a park-like setting. Nature would ameliorate the tall buildings, adorning their abrupt and jarring artificiality with dewy grass and leafy canopies. Alas, in American cities, crisscrossed by grids and streets and their streams of vehicles and pedestrians, this dream of architecture rising directly from nature was all but impossible. Then, in 1959, the new Kaiser Center complex at the edge of downtown Oakland came up with a solution. Atop a five-story parking garage that abutted a 28-story office tower, landscape architects Osmundson & Staley erected a bucolic perch for skyscraper observation. Visitors originally entered the garden from the top floor of the White House department store. Now, they walk through the parking garage and ascend an elevator to experience the startling sight of trees rooted in building; trees rising atop the concrete slab that underlies the breadth of the three-and-a-half-acre garden. Six inches of soil are all that separate the garden from a four-inch layer of aggregate rock, and then the slab. Here and there mounds extend the soil a few precious feet to allow for shrubs, and trees like olives, magnolias, and holly oaks. On gray walkways, I lope around green lawns and a dark amoeboid pool. Raising my eyes, I see the rectilinear towers, but I read them not as volumes containing innumerable, invisible worker drones. My sight today is painterly, and so the Kaiser Tower and the later Ordway Building (1970) flatten into framed pictures in the sky that track its atmospheres and luminosities. Mitchell Schwarzer is professor of visual studies at California College of the Arts. He is the author of "Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area: History and Guide" (200n and numerous other writings, 16 Urbanist> March 2011

I

Walkway. A path winds through the shade of bamboo and groupings of birds of paradise,


Ordway Building. Designed by Chuck Bassett of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the 28-story tower is sheathed in anodized aluminum and features an H-shaped plan that doubles the number of corner offices. At 404 feet in height, it is Oakland's tallest building.

Aerial view. The biomorphic shapes of the pool and lawns follow the precedent of Thomas Church's groundbreaking Donnell Garden (1948) in Sonoma. Here, five stories in the air, the landscape architects massed vegetation along the perimeter in order to encourage garden-level views up toward the office towers. Photo courtesy Kaiser Corporation.

Ordway Building (detail). Spandrel panels bend and reflect shadows. A grid of windows captures clouds gliding through the sky. And like the ga rden's tree canopy, those panels and windows flutter in flashes of sunlight.

Kaiser Tower. The principal volume of the 390-foot tower, designed by Welton Beckett, gently curves in harmony with the lake beyond. Its solid ends are clad in pre-cast panels of dolomite. The tower is enlivened here by a gingko tree in autumnal glory. Urbanist> March 2011

17


URBAN DRIFT RURAL RAIL RUN BY FARMERS Across Canada, railroads are closing branch lines in order to increase their profit margins by focusing on more profitable lines. At the same time, local grain elevators are closing and farmers need to transport their crops by truck to large centralized facilities on mainline railroads. Farmers in the Battle River area of Alberta have reversed this trend by joining together to buy their own rail line and a locomotive to transport their goods directly and avoid the terminal operators. By selling shares in the company, the farmers who founded the Battle River Railroad cooperatively own the company. The financial risk has been minimal, because the rails themselves are probably worth more than the $5 million (CAD) paid for the line to former owner CN. Participating farmers are saving $800-900 per carload over what they were paying before, and they are all part owners of Canada's newest shortline (80 km) railroad. "Farmers take back rural rail line," Dave Cooper, The Montreal Gazette 12/31/2010

BIRD BROADCASTS FOR HAPPINESS R. Rex Paris, mayor of Lancaster, Calif., has an idea to improve public well-being in town that strikes many as unconventional. He recently proposed playing birdsong on the main street, alluding to scientific research that suggests that listening to birds can make people happier. While cheaper than many other urban improvement schemes, the plan has met with some skepticism, as the mayor has proposed a variety 18 Urbanist> March 2011

of other unconventional schemes that have not come to fruition, including requiring all city staff to learn Mandarin in a bid to lure more Chinese businesses. "Lancaster Mayor Wants to Broadcast Bird Songs," CNBC.com, 01/27/2011.

CUBAN TRANSPORT DOESN'T DELIVER Cubans rely on public transportation for most of their daily needs, yet buses often don't arrive and passengers are forced to pool together and take expensive private taxis. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba lost its biggest source of funding and plans for a metro were put on hold. In its place were large trucks pulling containers for people called "camels," named for the vehicles' distinctive humps. In the past few years, a trade deal with China brought hundreds of new modern buses to the country and people thought things would improve. Unfortunately, without a dedicated source of funding, the new buses have already become overcrowded and are falling into disrepair. The inability of people to freely move around the country is a self-defeating cycle that will be hard to escape without larger economic reforms. "A country literally immobilized,' Yoani Sanchez, The Huftington Post, 01/30/2010.

NEW YORK CITY'S NEW "ZONING ILLUSTRATED" New York has rezoned huge parts of the city since 2002. These changes have included increasing density requirements, encouraging grocery stores to open in residential neighborhoods, and requiring bicycle parking in new buildings.

But reading the city's 1,500-page zoning resolution would be a challenge for anyone, especially members of the public unfamiliar with the jargon in planning documents. Amanda Burden, the planning commissioner, has pushed for the development of a guidebook to help make zoning comprehensible. The 168-page book is heavily illustrated and captioned in order to explain to city residents what you are and aren't allowed to build. With its cartoon-like illustrations of each zoning designation, Burden says the book goes beyond identifying uses for specific parcels, and could help activists and residents shape their neighborhoods. While the book won't cover every element of the code, it is a good start to unravelling the complexities of a difficult subject, and could make zoning "fun to read." "A New City Handbook Demystities Zoning,' Fred A. Bernstein, The New York Times, 02/03/2011.

citynew5 from around the globe

SHANGHAI REDEVELOPS TO SUBDUE SPRAWL In the first month of 2011, China went about clearing the site of last year's World Expo in Shanghai. Five of the pavilions will be retained but the rest of the area will be redeveloped into a dense mixed-use neighborhood with new parks that will bring development to the city's core after years of focus on the periphery. It is also designed to tie the older Pudi part of the city to the newer Puxi. Mayor Han Zheng is promoting the plan as the city aims to reduce energy use by 16 percent by 2016. China has 600 million urban residents today, which will grow to over 1 billion by 2030. It is hoped that the redevelopment of the Expo site will provide a blueprint for growth. 'Taming Shanghai's Sprawl," Bill Powell, Time 02/03/2011.

"


SPUR Board of Directors Co-Chairs

Board Members

Janis Mackenzie

Andy Barnes

Carl Anthony

John Madden

Linda Jo Fitz

David Baker

Jacinta McCann

Fred Blackwell

John McNulty

Chris Block

Chris Meany

Co-Vice Chairs

PROGRAM COMMITTEES Ballot Analysis

Amanda

Linda Jo Fitz

Ezra Mersey Mary Murphy

Disaster Planning Jacinta McCann

Bill Rosetti

Michaela Cassidy

Paul Okamoto

Lydia Tan

Charmaine Curtis

Brad Paul

Dick Morten

Gia Daniller-Katz

Chris Poland

Chris Poland

Oscar De La Torre

Teresa Rea

Housing

Tomiquia Moss

Shelley Doran

Wade Rose

Oz Erickson

Victor Seeto

Treasurer

Norman Fang

Elizabeth (Libby)

Bob Gamble

David Friedman

Seilel

Gillian Gillett

Chi-Hsin Shao

Immediate

Chris Gruwell

Raphael Sperry

Past Co-Chair

Anne Halsted

Bill Stotler

Ezra Mersey

Project Review Charmaine Curtis Mary Beth Sanders Reuben Schwartz Sustainable

Dave Hartley

Stuart Sunshine

Development

Michael Teitz

Paul Okamoto

Chris Iglesias

Will Travis

Bry Sarte

Laurie Johnson

Jeff Tumlin

Co-Chairs

Ken Kirkey

Steve VetteI

Michael Alexander

Travis Kiyota

Debra Walker

Advisory Council

Paul Sed way

Patricia Klitgaard

Brooks Walker, III

Florence Kong

Cynthia Wilusz-

Rik Kunnath Ellen Lou

Lovell

Hoenigrnan Eph Hirsh Peter Winkelstein

Transportatron Emilio Cruz Anthony Bruzzone TASK FORCES Climate Adaptation Will Travis

Finance Bob Gamble Human Resources

Regional Planning

Lydia Tan

Larry Burnett Libby Seilel

Lydia Tan

Mary Huss

Tom Hart

Executive

Peter Mezey

Larry Burnett

Byron Rhett

Bill Stotler

Andy Barnes

Margo Bradish

Kelly Dearman

Emilio Cruz

Facility Rental

Doyle Drive

Lee Blitch

Secretary

Downtown Transit Center

Bob Gamble

Mary McCue

V. Fei Tsen

Welcome to our new members!

Chairs and committees

OPERATING COMMITTEES Audit Peter Mezey

Eileen Ash Joe Bamberg

Jerry Barclay David Bates Adrien Baudrimont Steven Bowles Ryan Carney Jessica Coleman Kevin Cottrell Masume Dana

Jessica Davenport Amy DiCarlantonio Darin Dinsmore

Membership

Sebastien DuBois Shaun E!lis Lesley Ewing James Famolare Julia Fasick David Fiore Jennifer Franco Clare Friel

Bill Stotler Investment Ann Lazarus Major Donors

Julie Germain

Linda Jo Fitz

Jack Gold Kimis Haddadan

Development

Anne Halsted

Building Management Larry Burnett Business Membership Tom Hart Terry Micheau Capital Campaign Chris Meany

Danielle Murray

Ross Nakasone Jessica Neff Doug Overman Jessica Partch Colin Piper Damir Romano Priskich Meghen Quinn Al Ramadan Annabelle Reber Marcus Rector Eric Ridenour Nadia Secreto Geoff Sharp Jess Sheldon Jay Sholl James SIlliman Janya Swartzman Lisa Taylor Elizabeth Turnbloom

Christian John Dauer

Individual

Board

Lee Blitch

Emma Marchant Duane Martinez David Masenten Mary McDonald Parker McNulty amelia mendez Zahra Mojlahedi Sarah Moore lucien Muir

INDIVIDUALS John Abell Fiona Akins German W. Aparicio Cynthia Armour

Laura Hall Roger L. Hall

Planned Giving

Mark Hamilton

Michaela Cassidy

Erin Hansen Jennifer HefHn Patrick Heryford

Silver SPUR Dave Hartley Patricia Klitgaard

Kit Wang

Hans-Christoph Haenlein

Gabriel Ho Elizabeth Hoehnke

Chloe Weiller Walker Wright Josh Zerkel Natasha Zuhur BUSINESSES

Urban Mapping, Inc. Vanir Construction Management

David Hoffer Tegan Holly Inge Horton Mad Hunter

Young Urbanists Gwyneth Borden Gia Daniller

Glen Jones Kevin Kahn Tanya Kaplow Matthew Kruczlnicki Mary Kuhn Bobifer Lake Anna LaRue Lauren Lee James Leventhal

Urbanist> March 2011

19


JainS PUR tad ay!

The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association

is a member-supported nonprofit organization. We rely on your support to promote good planning and good government through research, education and advocacy. Find out more at spur.org/join.

o

OSPUR

m

SAN FRANCISCO PLANNING + URBAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Nonprofit Org. US Postage PAID Permit # 4118 San Francisco, CA

RETURN SERVICE REQuiSTED

.."

Z Z

Q Q

o o o

654 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105-4015 tel. 415.781.8726 fax 415.781.7291

Q

o

< m :::0

info@spur.org www.spur.org

Z

3: m Z

Time-dated material

~

e~634-MO

Z ~

I

SPUR Staff

Exhibit opening!

Local Code: Real Estates an exhibit by Nicholas de Monchaux March 1S-April 20, 2011 spur.org/exhibits

Tickets and sponsorships available!

2011 Good Government Awards March 21, 2011 at San Francisco City Hall spur.org/ggawards

SPUR main number

415.781.8726 Accountant Terri Chang x128 tchang@spur.org Publications Assistant Mary Davis x126 mdavis@spur.org Urban Center Director Diane Filippi x110 dfilippi@spur.org Executive Assista nV Board Liaison Virginia Grandi x117 vgrandi@spuLorg Public Realm and Urban Design Program Manager Benjamin Grant x119 bgrant@spur.org Sponsorships and Special Events Manager Kelly Hardesty x120 khardesty@spuLorg

This newsletter is printed on New Leaf Reincarnation paper: 100% recycled fiber and 50% post-consumer waste.

Public Programming Manager Gretchen Hilyard x122 ghilyard@spur.org Public Programming Intern Heather Jones x122 publicprogramming@ spuLorg Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky x129 skarlinsky@spur,org

Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf x113 gmetcalf@spuLorg Urban Center Event Manager Sue Meylan x130 smeylan@spuLorg Research and Volunteer Coordinator Jordan Salinger x136 jsalinger@spuLorg

Development Director Arnie LaUerman x1l5 alatterman@spur.org

Sustainable Development Policy Director Laura Tam x137 Itam@spuLorg

Development Associate Rachel Leonard x1l6 rleonard@spur.org

Regional Planning Director Egon Terplan x131 eterplan@spuLorg

Administrative Director Lawrence Li x134 lIi@spuLorg Good Government Policy Director Corey Marshall x125 cmarshall@spur.org

m Z

m

~

:::0

m

Âť r ~

-<

.'


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.