CITY & COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO PORT COMMISSION MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING NOVEMBER 14, 2006 1. CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL Commission President Ann Lazarus called the meeting to order tat 2:10 p.m. The following Commissioners were present: Ann Lazarus, Kimberly Brandon, Rodney Fong and Michael Hardeman. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - October 24, 2006 ACTION: Commissioner Brandon moved approval; Commissioner Hardeman seconded the motion. All of the Commissioners were in favor; the minutes of the October 24, 2006 were adopted. 3. EXECUTIVE A. Executive Director’s Report: Executive Director Monique Moyer reported the following: • Deputy Director of Real Estate: Ms. Moyer introduced Susan Reynolds, the new Deputy Director of Real Estate. She joined the Port on November 6, 2006. Susan has a long history in the San Francisco area. She came from the Mayor’s Office where she spent the last 8 years working with small businesses on various programs and products offered by the Mayor’s Office of Community Development. Previous to that, she spent a long career in commercial banking, also with a heavy focus on community reinvestment. Given that the Port is primarily populated by small businesses as our tenants and our constituents. Susan is a perfect fit at the Port as part of the Senior Management team. • Piers 1½, 3 & 5 Grand Opening: The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Piers 1½, 3 and 5 development will be held on November 15, 2006. She had the opportunity to tour the facilities today including the $97 per square foot office which is unbelievably fabulous but is not part of the public tour tomorrow. It has magnificent views. There is a tremendous amount of public access, a very good Port walk with some historical photographs. Thanks to Kirk Bennett and others who insisted on these types of accoutrement and it has come together unbelievably well. She encouraged everyone to come and congratulated Simon Snellgrove and his team and CalSTRS who made a significant investment in the project. • Water Transit Authority’s Lease at Pier 9: After much haggling and wrangling, the Port has come to an agreement with the Water Transit Authority with the Pier M11142006.doc -1- 9 space. It is going to be a great place for their headquarters. With the passage of both Regional Measure 2 and the Infrastructure bonds, they will have a bit of money we hope to spend in the ferry building area. It would be great to have WTA close by and be part of our community. She congratulated the Real Estate staff: Phil Williamson, Vicky Lee and Rich Rovetti as well as others who worked on getting that transaction together. We look forward to welcoming WTA to the waterfront. • Crab Season: Tomorrow is the opening for the crab season. Negotiations are going on with respect to the appropriate pricing. Fish and Game has taken an active role in San Francisco. Unfortunately, yesterday they debarred one of the fishermen permanently for violating safety measures. They are taking their responsibility very seriously, walking the wharf and doing surprise visits at the Port and around the bay. We are looking forward to a very successful season and a bounty of crab. • Commendation for Kirk Bennett on his retirement. Today is Kirk Bennett’s last official Port Commission meeting. Kirk has been walking very happily around the Port now for the last two weeks while his colleagues have been walking with more and more of a burden. Kirk is one of the smartest people that she’s ever had the pleasure to work with. He’s unbelievably talented in the area of computing values. Computing values are sometime mathematical and sometime intrinsic. He seems to have a fantastic grasp on that. He is a walking encyclopedia of information both public sector and private sector as it relates to the region. He is one of her favorite people to argue because he is so knowledgeable. She has invariably learned quite a bit from him every time they get into a healthy debate. The day that he impressed her the most was the day that they appeared before the Board of Supervisors on behalf of the Piers 27-31 project. She got a sense of what it might be like to visit the lions in Roman time. Kirk handled himself with complete poise and without any animosity despite the fact that his 5-6 years of work was being challenged in the most outrageous way, according to some of the rhetoric that was used. She was impressed that he was able to handle himself and represent the Port as courteously, professionally and knowledgeably as he did. For that, she’s internally grateful and hoped that all is ingratiated to him as we are. We will definitely miss him. Hopefully, we will be calling him, emailing him, text messaging or whatever takes to get answers to some of those questions that can’t be written down. Commissioner Lazarus commented that staff does such a wonderful job of finding just the right words to honor the individuals. Commissioner Lazarus read, for the record, the proclamation for Kirk Bennett: Whereas, Kirk Bennett’s debut at the Port took place in 1993, when he was hired to be the Property Manager for Fisherman’s Wharf; and Whereas, with great skill, aplomb, earnestness and wit, Kirk Bennett came to know every Port fish processor, fisherman, restaurant, recreational water M11142006.doc -2- enthusiasts, historic ship exhibit, shop, office, and neighboring citizen that together share a deep love for Fisherman’s Wharf; and Whereas, through those relationships, Kirk Bennett has established a deep respect among all parties that prevails because of his dedication to ensuring that everyone is treated fairly and is heard, which fosters cooperation and, when needed, compromise to achieve the good for all; and Whereas, in addition to Fisherman’s Wharf, those skills have served the Port well in other capacities, when Kirk Bennett oversaw the entire Port Real Estate Division, and later in 1998 when he became Assistant Deputy Director of Development in the Port’s Planning and Development Division; and Whereas, Kirk Bennett’s deep knowledge of real estate development and finance has been instrumental during an extraordinary period for San Francisco’s waterfront, in its rebirth as a vital public edge to a world-renown city; and Whereas, Kirk Bennett has played direct roles in the successful negotiation and development of the Ferry Building Historic Rehabilitation; Pier 1, the Port’s headquarters; Piers 1½, 3 and 5 which will open this year; and Phase One of the Bryant Street Pier Project; and current negotiations to develop The Exploratorium at Piers 15-17; and the Piers 27-31 Mixed-Use Recreation project; and Whereas, the variety, complexity and high challenge posed by each of these projects under his watch, as well as several other major efforts that were not realized, the International Women’s Museum and Embarcadero Hotel, have made Kirk Bennett one of the country’s foremost experts on public-private development; and Whereas, as testament to his dedication and professionalism, Kirk Bennett has demonstrated that even when he has been forced to step into deep and murky political waters, he emerges with the cleanest of shoes, earning an even deeper respect from all parties involved; Whereas, throughout, Kirk Bennett has accomplished all these great things in his own “style,” amazing us further with things like: • His ability to do pro forma math in his head • His undying loyalty to his trusty, 20-year old HP 12C calculator, to compute the answers to those few problems he is unable to solve on his own • The charming and quaint way in which he schedules his meetings – by pencil on a piece of paper • His unique edits, using ancient hieroglyphics, which ultimately reveal (that is, if April Shaw is around to decipher) wise, insightful comments and lucid analysis; and M11142006.doc -3- Whereas, it is with great happiness for him and sadness for us that Kirk Bennett, a trusted colleague and mentor, and great public servant to the people of San Francisco, will retire from the Port; and now Therefore be it resolved, that on behalf of its staff and Port tenants and businesses, and together with his many friends in the community, the Port Commission expresses its deepest thanks and appreciation to Kirk Bennett for spending the last 13 years of his 40-year career serving with extraordinary distinction and honor the Port and City and County and County of San Francisco; and Be it further resolved that the San Francisco Port Commission sends its best wishes and congratulations to Kirk Bennett as he embarks on an exciting next chapter filled with travel, hiking in the woods, Grampahood, family and new discoveries. Kirk Bennett extended his thanks to the Port Commission who has given him the opportunity over the past 13 years to work on some of the most exciting real estate in the world and some of the most interesting people in the world. He has spent most of his career in the private sectors but very gratifying as a public servant to help in the revitalization of Fisherman’s Wharf and to the marvelous transformation of the waterfront. He thanked the Port Commission, Director Monique Moyer for the support and the guidance and the debate. We’ve had important issues of moving the Port forward. He appreciated the support. He had the privilege of serving on the Board of Governors with new Commissioner Rodney Fong for many years at the Fisherman’s Wharf Merchants Association and watched as he made a tremendous impact on the future of the Fisherman’s Wharf.