Sharp Park Stilll at Risk / SF Supervisors Budget-setting Update / Please Write Letters and E-Mails to SF Supervisors and Mayor

Public Golf Alliance Members,

The Board of Supervisors' 5-member Budget Committee on July 1 voted to recommend an additional $40.3 Million in mostly social services spending to the 2010-11 and 2011-12 San Francisco budget, beyond the Recommended $6.5 Billion budget presented June 1 by Mayor Newsom.  The vote was by a 4-1 margin:  Supervisors Avalos, Mirkarimi, Campos, and Maxwell voted in favor; Supervisor Elsbernd was the sole "no" vote. 
The Budget Committee on July 1 identified funding sources for $32.9 Million of the proposed additions, leaving a $7.4 Million shortfall; the Committee directed the Controller's Office to study the matter, and come back with recommendations for closing the $7.4 Million gap at the Budget Committee's next meeting, Wednesday, July 14, 1:30 p.m.
At that July 14 meeting, the Committee will vote on its final recommendations to the Full Board, which will meet July 20 for the "first reading" to consider the 2010-11 and 2011-12 budget; a required "second reading" will be held at the Full Board's July 27 meeting, at which the Board will take its final vote to set the budget, which must be finalized by July 31.  (For more details, see the links to the 7/2 SF Chron story, and for video and transcript of the July 1 Budget Committee meeting, see the SF Gov.TV link, below.)
What all of this means is that Sharp Park Golf Course remains at risk.  The same cast of golf-haters and radicals continues to call for closure of the course, on the pretenses that Sharp "loses money" and "kills frogs and snakes".  Both of these pretenses were discredited and disproved--and were overwhelmingly rejected by the Rec & Park Commission and the Park, Recreation & Open Space Advisory Committee--in 2009 over the course of the Rec & Park Department's six-month Sharp Park Study. 
We ask Golf Alliance members--especially San Francisco residents--to continue your spirited defense of Sharp Park Golf Course by writing letters and e-mails to the Supervisors and Mayor Newsom.  It is important that they continue to receive letters and e-mails through the end of the budget-setting procedure, July 31, 2010.  See the form letter and e-mail, below.  Please send us copies of your letters and e-mails, together with copies of any responses that you receive.


1.  SF Chron story, 7/2  :  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/02/BACB1E7M5G.DTL
2.  Link to SF Gov. TV:  http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/TranscriptViewer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=10310
  Thanks for your work to SAVE SHARP PARK GOLF COURSE.  We must keep up the fight!
-- Richard Harris 
         San Francisco Public Golf Alliance          220 Montgomery St., #303          San Francisco, CA. 94104
            415-392-5431, ext. 203
================================= Form Letter Below ============================================


1.  FORM LETTER TO MAYOR NEWSOM AND SUPERVISORS:
<<...>> 2.  E-MAIL THE SUPERVISORS:  [use the form below, and then add 1-2 paragraphs of your personal reasons to Save Sharp]:  
To:  'david.chiu@sfgov.org'; 'eric.l.mar@sfgov.org'; 'michela.alioto-pier@sfgov.org'; 'carmen.chu@sfgov.org'; 'ross.mirkarimi@sfgov.org'; 'chris.daly@sfgov.org'; 'Sean.elsbernd@sfgov.org'; 'bevan.dufty@sfgov.org'; 'david.campos@sfgov.org'; 'sophie.maxwell@sfgov.org'; 'board.of.supervisors@sfgov.org'
Cc:  info@sfpublicgolf.com
Subject:  SAVE SHARP PARK GOLF COURSE
Dear Mayor Newsom and Supervisors,
      I am a San Francisco resident, and I urge you to keep the Sharp Park Golf open.
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