Company Profile
Presidio Trust
Company Overview
The Presidio is a unique place. The Presidio is part of the largest urban national park in the United States, situated in one of the densest and most diverse and innovative cities in the country. The Presidio is part of an international biosphere reserve, is where San Francisco began in 1776, is a National Historic Landmark District, and is a former military post transformed into a park.
The Presidio offers the magnificent beauty and historic sites that one expects from a national park, plus art, culture, and recreational resources not traditionally found in such a setting. It is also unusual in that, having rehabilitated many of the buildings created by the military, the Presidio is now home to 3,000 residents and 200+ organizations and non-profit organizations.
The Presidio Trust is a unique federal agency. In our founding legislation, the Presidio Trust was charged with operating the park without taxpayer support. We earn funds through leasing homes and workspaces and operating hotels, a golf course, and venues; those funds are then used to operate and maintain the park and our programs.
Company History
The Presidio Trust is a federal employer, and all Trust employees are federal employees. Trust employment policies and procedures are, however, somewhat different from most federal agencies. The Presidio Trust Act gives the Trust more authority to establish its own human resources policies and procedures. Employment with the Trust is in the excepted service, rather than the competitive service. Under the Trust's establishing legislation, the Trust is authorized to appoint, compensate, and terminate employees without regard to the provisions of Title 5 or other laws related to the appointment, compensation, and termination of federal employees. The Presidio Trust pays its employees based upon a pay banding system and does not have general schedule (GS) or wage grade (WG) positions.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
The Presidio Trust is an innovative federal agency created to save the Presidio and transform it for a new national purpose.
Until 2013, the future of the Presidio was uncertain. Long the Army's premier west coast installation, the Presidio's strategic significance began to decline in the late 20th century. In 1972, legislation creating the new Golden Gate National Recreation Area in Northern California indicated that the Presidio would join that park should the Army choose to depart the post. In 1989, as the Cold War drew to an end, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission deemed the Presidio to be excess to the military's needs. The U.S. Army left in 1994 and, as anticipated, the Presidio was turned over to the National Park Service.
The costs and management challenges of converting a military post to public use were significant. In 1996 Congress, in a demonstration of innovative thinking and bipartisan collaboration, created the Presidio Trust and transferred jurisdiction of 80 percent of the Presidio to this new federal agency (the National Park Service manages the 300 coastal acres).
The Trust was given a mandate to preserve the areas of the Presidio under its jurisdiction and attract non-federal resources to the park to ensure that it would ultimately be sustained without direct annual taxpayer support. If the Trust failed to achieve this mandate, the law directed that the Presidio would be sold as excess federal property.
In 2013, the Presidio reached a crucial milestone by becoming financially self-sufficient. It is a achievement that, along with the Trust's record of accomplishment in revitalizing and repurposing this place, proves that the multi-sector approach to saving the Presidio succeeded. Most important, it means that the Presidio is protected as a public place that delivers new benefits to the American people.
The Presidio Trust, considered in 1996 to be an experiment in the stewardship of a treasured American place, is today viewed as an innovation that works.
Benefits
The Trust provides the following benefits to eligible employees:
Alternative Work Schedules
Benefits Conversion at Termination
Bereavement Leave
Credit Union Eligibility
Dental Insurance
Family and Medical Leave
Federal Employees Retirement System
Flexible Spending Plan (IRS Section 125)
Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan
Federal Holidays
Jury Duty Leave
Leave without Pay
Life Insurance
Long-Term Disability
Military Leave
Personal Leave
Federal Thrift Savings Plan
Short-Term Disability
Sick Leave Benefits
Training
Vacation (annual leave) Benefits
Vision Care Insurance