The dog ate it
Golden Gate Park group refuses to release records

By Shadi Rahimi

Secrecy and rumors of hidden agendas have aroused dog advocates' suspicions that the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is using a tainted process to determine if off-leash recreation will be allowed in San Francisco parks run by the federal government.

Off-leash advocates spent two weeks in June counting more than 8,000 public comments in 27 binders at park headquarters. Roughly 86.5 percent of those who commented support off-leash recreation, said Steve Cockrell, president of Citydogs. But because the GGNRA – an agency that oversees lands owned by the National Park Service – has denied all requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act to reveal the methodology it will use to analyze the comments, off-leash advocates argue the agency's final decision may not reflect the public's interests.

What remains a mystery is exactly why the GGNRA has waged a war with off-leash advocates. Rich Weideman, GGNRA public affairs officer, said the agency is concerned about public safety, but also acknowledged it doesn't have statistical data on off-leash dog bites in parks or any record of safety incidents that would support a ban on off-leash recreation.

Off-leash advocates claim the agency just wants to eliminate off-leash recreation, and they cite biased data collection as proof. Ken Ayers, San Francisco Dog Owner Group representative to the Off-leash Stakeholder Task Force, says the text of the GGNRA survey made an argument against off-leash recreation by mentioning Diane Whipple's death. In addition, notice of the survey was not posted at critical off-leash areas.

Others complain that the GGNRA will count out-of-state comments submitted via e-mail forms individually but plan to condense the 10,000 petition signatures from San Francisco residents into just four documents. GGNRA spokesperson Chris Powell said the agency is "looking at the content of the responses not the quantity," but even without the 10,000 petition signatures, dog advocate tallies show there would still be overwhelming support for off-leash recreation.

The GGNRA contends that the FOIA doesn't require information used in a decision-making process to be released until after a decision has been made. But the San Francisco Board of Supervisors seemed to favor the spirit of the FOIA in a resolution it passed Aug. 12 urging the agency to make the information public.

Cockrell said advocacy groups plan to contact committees in Washington, D.C., to gather support for a fair and open process. "I think it's great the Board of Supervisors passed the resolution asking the park service to be more responsive and stop acting like a foreign government in our city," he said. "This resolution will carry weight in Washington, maybe now the agency will open up the process to avoid another black eye."

For more information e-mail Citydogs at citydogs@hotmail.com.