The head of the SF Rec and Park Department Phil Ginsburg announced his departure Monday, amid controversies over the car-free Great Highway and the finances of the SF Park Alliance, though it appears he just got a better-paying job.
At about 11 am Monday morning, the SF Rec and Park Department sent out a very newsworthy email. But the subject line of the email didn’t sound very newsworthy at all, it just said “Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg Named President of the Resources Legacy Fund,” a reference to Rec and Park general manager Phil Ginsburg. But the bomb was buried in the second sentence of the email, which said that “Ginsburg will leave the City at the end of the year.”
Or as the Chronicle puts it more bluntly, Phil Ginsburg just announced he’s resigning. Though he has a pretty impressive tenure, lasting 16 years on the job after then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed him in 2009.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the people of San Francisco as their parks director,” Ginsburg said in that press release. “I am proud of the safe, clean, joyous, and equitable park system we have built over the last 16 years. It’s hard to say goodbye to something you love, but I am confident that San Francisco’s parks will continue to bring joy and respite to our beautiful city — now get out and play!”
Mayor Daniel Lurie is certainly saying nice things about Ginsburg on the way out.
“I'm grateful to Phil Ginsburg for his 25 years of service to our city and 16 years of leadership at the Recreation and Park Department,” Lurie added in the same press release. “Phil has worked tirelessly to improve our city’s public spaces, and I want to thank him for his unending commitment to San Francisco.”
Though still, we’ve got to speculate on why Ginsburg is leaving now, as Mayor Lurie has certainly overseen a top-level staff purge during his eight months in office. The recent Joel Engardio recall over the car-free Great Highway highlighted that Lurie was opposed to the car-free transition, while Ginsburg had been a big champion of car-free park spaces. So there may have been some philosophical differences there.
The bigger issue may have been the financial implosion of the SF Parks Alliance, which is not the same as the SF Rec and Park Department, and was just an affiliated nonprofit. But the $3.8 million in other groups’ money disappeared from that nonprofit on Ginsburg's watch, and there have certainly been questions about what Ginsburg knew and when he knew it.
But Rec and Park Commission president Kat Anderson told the Chronicle that “1,000% no,” Ginsburg did not resign over the SF Parks Commission dumpster fire, a scandal that still probably has plenty more fallout coming. She used curiously similar wording in telling Mission Local that “It’s 1,000% his decision,” to leave the department.
And it could just be money. Mission Local reports that Ginsburg’s new position at the very well-resourced Resources Legacy Fund pays $512,796 annually, Ginsburg’s current job pays $372,573 a year.
And Phil Ginsburg enjoyed a sensationally long 16-year term in office. The parks are popular, and Ginsburg’s predecessor was something of an embarrassment with sexual harassment allegations and string of projects that opened late and went over budget. Ginsburg lasted 16 years on the job, and generally, that's a sign that you’ve been doing something right.
Sidebar: The official name is the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, it would seem, including in today's press release. HOWEVER, the department's website, its official logo, much of its signage, and its Instagram Account, call it San Francisco Recreation and Parks, plural, and many people in the city call it "Rec & Parks" because that seems to make more sense. It would be swell if an incoming general manager could please resolve this inconsistency, because it has annoyed local print editors, and us, for decades.
Image: San Francisco Recreation and Park Department via Facebook
