This is an excerpt of a supplemental newsletter from the office of Supervisor Carmen Chu, released Aug. 3. In this issue: San Francisco city budget; cell phone scams; get ready for Outside Lands; surfing contest coming to Ocean Beach

San Francisco passes city budget for fiscal year 2011-2012

Following unanimous approval by the Board of Supervisors, I joined my colleagues and Mayor Ed Lee as he signed the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget for our city on July 26. After several months’ worth of meetings with community organizations, advocates, the labor community and city department staff, our city was able to produce a balanced $6.83 billion budget that protected vital city services. The FY11-12 budget includes funding for a new police academy class, support for small businesses, children and family programs, and critical health and human services.

With an initial budget shortfall of $380 million in January, Mayor Edwin Lee worked with members of the Board of Supervisors, city departments, and the community to close the deficit. The Budget Committee, in concert with the Office of the Budget and Legislative Analyst, identified over $14 million in additional savings from city departments. Coupled with an improving economy that resulted in additional sales tax revenue, the Budget Committee was able to make $17.5 million in adjustments. Though the budget signing ceremony signaled the end of the budget season, there is still much to do including identifying long term solutions for our city’s infrastructure needs, managing escalating costs to health and pension contributions, and assessing and addressing the impacts of state budget decisions on our local budget.

I am proud of the level of collaboration exhibited during this budget process, and am honored to serve as Chair of the Budget Committee as we continue to work together to ensure the City’s financial foundation is strong.

Beware of cell phone scams

It has come to our attention that residents in our community have been victims of several cell phone intermediary shops. Many of the cases brought to the attention of the Taraval Police Station have been similar in nature, and while there are many good, neighborhood-serving stores, we hope to provide some tips to you to ensure that you are protected from fraud.

First and foremost, whenever in doubt about a plan, customers should contact the telephone company directly. Consumers should watch out for a few red flags. For example, customers need to be careful if a cell phone shop is aggressively pushing customers to open more lines and numbers than you originally wanted. In the cases brought to the police station, customers were routinely asked by the phone shops to open five lines even though it was much more than people needed. Customers should also be cautious when they are required to bring unopened cell phones back to the store as a condition of a contract. It is possible that the store is using your account to order phones which they later re-sell.

Another red flag is when the shop sells customers a one-year phone plan in exchange for a free or heavily subsidized phone. Most cell phone plans have two-year minimums with an early termination fee if the service is canceled before two years. In these situations, it is advisable to check with the phone service provider directly to verify. In the cases reported to the police, customers who signed up for multiple phone lines and who tried to terminate their contract after a year ended up paying early termination fees for each phone line.

In other cases, customers were offered hundreds of dollars in rebates after several months and even up to a year after beginning cell phone service. Many customers have had trouble collecting these “rebates”, and at least a few shops have closed without ever providing customers their “rebates”. Keep in mind that most rebates offered to customers by the actual cell phone service provider are one-time in nature and usually is a rebate applied toward the cost of the phone. Again, it may be good to check in with the service provider directly.

Ultimately, we hope that customers are diligent with checking the details of any contract before signing up for service. Always, we encourage you to check with your cell phone service provider if you have any questions regarding the details of your plan or any rebates being offered. If you are or believe that you may be a victim of a cell phone intermediary shop, yo­­u can ask to have it recorded as a police report at your local police station. The Taraval Police Station can be reached at: (415) 759-3100. You can also contact our office at (415) 554-7460 or chustaff@sfgov.org.

Outside Lands returns Aug. 12-14

The fourth annual Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival returns to Golden Gate Park on Friday, August 12 through Sunday, August 14^th.  This event benefits Golden Gate Park with a considerable portion of ticket sales going directly to the Recreation & Parks Department.

In past years, Another Planet Entertainment and the Recreation and Parks Department have worked to mitigate the impact of the event in our neighborhoods.

Again, a Community Hotline will be in place so the appropriate agency can respond to any issues encountered during the festival.  The hotline number is 415-379-9063 and is available from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on the festival days.

To help alleviate vehicle congestion in the neighborhoods, patrons are strongly encouraged to take MUNI, private shuttles, bike or walk. There will be two dedicated tow trucks and a Parking Control Officer on each side of the Park to quickly respond to any blocked driveways or other parking issues related to the Festival.  Rec & Park has printed signs alerting attendees not to block driveways, and they are available to residents at the front desk of the McLaren Lodge.

Park Access

To ensure public safety, the following Park locations will be closed as follows:

Polo Field – Due to renovation of the Polo Field, load-in will begin two days earlier than in the past to properly protect and preserve the integrity of the field grade.  All of the Polo Field facilities will be closed to the public from Wed. Aug. 3 at 8:00am through Thursday Aug. 18 at 12:00pm.

Speedway and Lindley Meadows – The fencing in Speedway and Lindley Meadows will go up on Monday, Aug. 8 at 8:00am. There will be large breaks in the fence to allow public access to Lindley Meadow until Tuesday, Aug. 9 at 6:00am.  Lindley Meadow will open back up to the public on Monday, Aug. 15 at 8:00pm and Speedway Meadow will open on Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 8:00am.

Lloyd and Metson Lakes – will be closed Aug 12 – 14.  Spreckles Lake and the Dog Run will be closed to vehicles Aug 12 – 14.

Road Closures

The following entrances will be closed to the public from Aug 11th^th at 8:00pm through Aug 14^th at 11:00pm:

For more information about the festival, visit www.SFOutsideLands.com/311

Major surf event coming to Ocean Beach

For the first time ever, the Rip Curl Pro Search Contest will happen “somewhere” and some time in San Francisco.  Like many major surf events, the Rip Curl Pro Search is planned for a window of time but the waves determine the exact dates.   The contest depends on optimum surf conditions and organizers make the decision each morning, so there is no set schedule or structure for spectators to follow.  The expectation is that there will be a 5 day competition sometime between November 1 and 12.

The Rip Curl Pro Search is the only event on the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Tour with a floating license, allowing it to move to a new location each year, much like the Super Bowl. As one of the most anticipated and exciting contests in professional surfing, the greatest surfers in the world always look forward to the next Rip Curl Pro Search – “Somewhere.”

This event goes to areas that are highly secretive & often environmentally sensitive, so Rip Curl prefers to use the caption “Somewhere” when talking about the location prior to the official announcement. Currently the plan is to have the event near stair case 20 at Ocean Beach, but surf conditions and/or sand bars could necessitate a move to a secondary site at Kelly’s Cove/Stair case 1.  The sponsors of the event will have a better idea of the exact location a few weeks prior to the event.

The ASP has crowned surfing’s undisputed world champions since 1976. The ASP World Tour consists of 11 events in 7 regions including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Hawaii, North America and South America. The Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco is Stop 10 of 11, so it is quite possible that ASP World Champion will be crowned right here in San Francisco.  For more information, visit www.aspworldtour.com

Read the full supplement here.