Transcripts For SFGTV Fire Commission 20240713

Item 2. General Public Comment. Members of the public may address the commission for up on to three minutes on any matter within the commissions jurisdiction and does not appear on the agenda. Speakers shall address their remarks to the commissioners as a whole. Commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with the speaker. The lack of a response does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during Public Comment. Thank you, madam secretary. Is there any member of the public that would like to speak . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item, please. Item 3. Approval of minutes. Discussion and possible action to approve the Meeting Minutes from february 12, 2020. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment regarding the minutes of our last meeting . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Fellow commissioners, what say you . I move to approve. Thank you. Is there a second . Yes, second. Thank you. We have a motion by commissioner cleveland and second buy Vice President feinstein. All in favor please signify by saying aye. Thank you. Item 4 presentation from the San Francisco fire in Safety Education. Presentation by firefighter dwayne eckerdt in connection with the sffisp. A Program Providing Important Safety Information to School Children in San Francisco. Thank you. Please come forward. Good evening. We all know you are very busy. This will be very brief this evening. Our team is in front of you we represent the Fire Department and the foundation to create an Amazing Program called the firefighters in Safety Education program. We are here to introduce the new commissioners and to give the annual update. We will tell you four things. We will tell you what the program is, who we are, how it works, and why we are doing it. First of all, what is sffise . It is a program that delivers a 30 minute presentation from local firefighters to our locallen melocalchildren in edu. Like i said, it is between the foundation and the San Francisco Fire Department. It takes a lot of work to pull it off. We do it every year. Who are we . I am the lieutenant at truck four. I have been in the Fire Department since 2004 and Foundation Volunteer since 2005. I run the San Francisco firefighters and Safety Education Program Since 20102011 school year. I train other Fire Departments throughout the state of california in this curriculum. This is scott. He works for the foundation. He is the sf partner and liaison between the Fire Department and the foundation. He trains Fire Departments across the state. Patrick is here next to me, also, a fire fighter truck 7. He has been in the Department Since 2011. He has been volunteering since 2012. He is the lead presenter. He has done more presentations than any other presenter and most school years does more than all presenters combined. Next year with any luck, he will take over the program from me. He is the face of sffise moving forward. He trains different Fire Departments up and down the state. On my far left is elliott reynolds, head intern. He manages, recruits and trains and is liaison for the three volunteer interns. He does scheduling, volunteers time as an aspiring firefighter working fulltime and going to the San Francisco college fire academy. He just bragged that he hosted a fundraiser for us and delivered enough funds for a box for every single station in our city. All 44 stations have the brandnew box thanks to him. We are excited to have him managing the team of interns. We have currently three interns. They are tasked with scheduling, communicating with schools, pick up and delivery of the boxes and preand post tests which you will learn about in a second. The other part of the team are volunteer presenters. Of course, we couldnt deliver any of this unless we had people to deliver the information in the schools. Our volunteer presenters we have 49 volunteers that present in the schools across the city in every neighborhood in San Francisco. The chief office in the administration. We have a lot of support from the chiefs office. If we didnt we couldnt operate in the schools. Sylvia does the firefighter details and a lot of general orders and administrative duties and liaison for the Fire Department and the Burn Foundation. Without the chiefs support we couldnt do this. It is a big team. We do a lot of good. I told you i would tell you how it works. It is simply a program where we detail schools that have previously been contacted by the intern team and scheduled. We detail a fire fighter in uniform to go to the school to deliver a 30 minute presentation. For k through 3 and 30 minutes for 4, 5, 6. Same key points, a little different style. Firefighters are asked to take a box with them. It has 12 items in it. It is a script and outline. Just in case the firefighters are nervous they can essentially just read right off the script. The presentation that when we do the trainings we let them know if you are nervous for the first two times read it off the script. No problem with that. I will take you there 30 minutes. The veteran presenters like patrick are accompanying the newer presenters until they get the feel of the good presentation. Then the firefighter simply delivers the message to the Elementary School kids. They have turnouts, clean uniforms, a prop box and go deliver the message. They are either at the station already or intern Team Delivers them. They also deliver a preand post test to get the metrics how the kids are learning and if they are learning the information. Without a lot of slides and data, it works well and the kids learn a lot. Examples of the key points. Stop, drop, roll. Stay low some smoke. Cool the burn, dial 911, dont hide. 4, 5, 6 graders get consequences of playing with matches and home escape plans. The kids get a visit from the fire engine as well. As soon as the presentation is over the fire engine comes to concrete the concepts we are trying to teach them. It is also really exciting for them to see the crew of firefighters and fire engine. The idea for us is the kids are taking the information home and sharing with brothers, sisters, grandparents, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles. Not only are we reaching kids and families and communities. This is all free. We dont charge for any of this stuff. We want to make sure children have the information to pass on to families and communities because our mission as firefighters and the Burn Foundation missions is to reduce burns and fatalities. We are doing an excellent job in our community. Why sffise . In 2001 there was no public educator provision for burp prevention and burn prevention and fire prevention. A firefighter krieger contacted the Burn Foundation to say we can make this program great. That continued and in 2010 and 2011, i took the program over. Since then we are educating between 7,000 to 15,000 kids every Single School year in this program. The program under goes professional educator reviews, grade level appropriate net, nfpa tracts. We have master educators pourover to make sure it is appropriate. We go through to make sure it is accurate, uptodate and appropriate. The information is 100 reliable. So much so in 2015, San Francisco Unified School District mandated this would be taught in allen men tree schools in San Francisco. We are in all of the Elementary Schools in San Francisco. We are able to deliver the program. It helps the community. As firefighters we stick to our mission to serve. As i said, we have 49 enrolled volunteers. I would like patrick to talk about the firefighters side of it and shed light on what the firefighter experience is for those volunteers. Good evening. The fireman doing the presentation is one of the few things where we get nothing but positive feedback. Often times dealing with the public we get less than positive response to the attempt to resist. This is a fun opportunity to really take in a lot of love. During my time helping with this program across the state, i have seen attempts to use fire cadets or nonfirefighters to present the information and it doesnt seem to have the same effect. When we walk in in our uniform with our gear, especially being in San Francisco where the kids see us on the street. I have had firefighter patrick call to me and kids on the sidewalk and in grocery stores. There is something powerful when the child knows we are a fire fighter presenting the information. They take it seriously and retain it. That is the best part. We have volunteers at every firehouse, prop kits in every firehouse. It is a smooth and easy transition for the firefighter, one or two presentations a year and two hours out of the day and you get a big reward back. We appreciate your report. Elliott, our lead intern. Hello, commissioners. They filled you in my role pretty well. I will be short and sweet. I have been with the program for three years. We have had amazing growth in those three years. I want to thank you all forgiving us the cubicle at headquarters which is a huge help. We have three volunteers besides me who do if work. Scheduler and two logistics guys that Work Together to get it done. Last semester we reached 2755 students. Usually the fall semester is slower so for the spring semester, we have reached out to 51 schools and have scheduled 11 schools. Our numbers should be on track with the higher end of the usual goal. We are still doing our best to continue to add schools to the list, both public, private and alternative schools as well. Thank you. I am sure you would like to hear from scott as well as far as the Burn Foundation side of this. Good evening, commissioners. The Burn Foundation works with burn survivors throughout the state of california. Our goal is to put ourselves out of business. These guys are platinum standard of getting into schools and teaching prevention. The testing they talked about is testing not only what they learn year after year but how much they retain. We are incredibly successful in this an appreciate the effort fr being the front line forgetting the prevention method to the students of San Francisco. Thank you. That is the four teams we promised to tell you what the program is, who we are, why it works and how it works. We want to say thank you again to the administration and Fire Commission for continued support. We look forward to continue to educate San Francisco children, and we look forward to another great year and more education. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your presentation. Is there any Public Comment . Public comment is closed. I will go to my fellow commissioners. Beginning with the chief of the department. She is not a commissioner but her name is up there. I can defer to my other commissioners if they would like to go first. First of all, hello, my friends, hello. Thank you so much. It is great to see you guys here. Thank you so much for the work you guys do. I know you dont get paid for this and you do this because you feel like it is really important work. Thank you. You are not just the Gold Standard for our department. Thanks and we will be happy to continue supporting you. I know sylvia is a great Contact Person for you. Thank you for everything, all you do. Thank you, chief. Commissioner cleveland. Thank you, madam president. I would like to echo the chiefs comments. You guys are doing terrific work that serves the citizens of the city by educating children on fire safety. I would like to offer my thanks. Keep up the good work. A couple questions. You talk about the 12 item in the prop box. What are they . It is essentially the 12 items relate to each key point we have as far as stop, drop and roll, cool a burn, dial 911, highfive a fire fighter to give the kids a visual representation and keep the presenters on track. If we lay out a smoke detector, smoke alarm. Who has seen one of these. They can see it. Do you see one in this room right now. It is to solid fithe knowledge. There is a teddy bear and telephone for dialing 911, a blanket and stop, drop and roll sign. Whawhat is the prop box. A box full of props. I was hoping you would bring it in. We will bring you one. We will do the whole presentation for you. I wanted to ask you. Do you video . I think it would be something important to put on television on our government channel. Yes, absolutely. I am only stuttering i am in the video. I cant imagine what that would be like on the government channel. We have training videos and the full presentation. That is one of the resources we offer the firefighter volunteers in Safety Education. Com we have outlines and scripts and videos broken down by chapter. Any firefighter with a presentation can go and watch the entire presentation from somebody that has done it many, many times, myself and firefighter patrick. We are on there doing each and every chapter. They can look to see that is the stop, drop and roll. It is half a hour. The entirety. Have you given that to sfgovtv . No. Then you should. We can, absolutely. They need to run that education for everyone out there that watches television. If they cant. They dont have children in school they can still learn about keeping themselves safe from getting burned. It would be very important to get a broader audience to what you are doing for the children. Thank you you. Testing. Do the kids get tested after the half hour . They do. The idea we need to know how much they are learning. If this is effective or not we give them a pretest which the intern Team Delivers to the school. It is five questions. What do you use to cool a burn, ice cream . There are examples. Then we match that up with the posttest which they receive within 24 hours after we have dubour presentation have done our presentation. We try to get the same schools captured and can tell if they are learning more on the pretest year after year. What things are more difficult . Often times we find this one question lots of kids are getting wrong on the pre. They are not getting it wrong on the post. We know that is important. Our cool the burn question. What do you use to cool the burn . Ice cube, cool water and icecream cone. A lot of kids put ice. We mention that we dont want you to use ice. This is why. We want you to use cool water. Posttest. 90 get it right. We are teaching them and the repeated exposure shows over time they learn more and more. Why dont you use ice . We dont use ice because ice is so cold that frozen water sticks to burn skin. When you pull it off, it might pulloff your skin. Are these presentations done in spanish or chinese . Yes, these presentations are done every year in spanish and chinese. We just finished two spanish presentations last week in the mission. We have printed materials in i think 11 languages, scott. Updated seven languages. We are looking to expand to as many as possible, probably the goal is 20. This is a fantastic program. Keep up the good work. Thank you for all the hours and time that you have put into this. The fact that you are educating our youth throughout the city in fire safety is a huge contribution. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you very much, madam president. First of all, lieutenant, you started this program in 2010, 10 years . I just want to recognize that commitment and thank you for that. Firefighter pat. I have seen you as well. Thank you very much for your service and participation. Elliott reynolds, intern, three years. Thank you very much for that. Scott, i didnt catch your last name. Wertz. In terms of association. What is your role at the foundation . So am the Northern California regional manager. My initial interaction with the foundation was as a survivor. I was burned in 2013, and i was greeted by the foundation while still in the hospital where i got to see the positive effects and meet other burn survivors. I came on as a volunteer and as Fulltime Position representing Northern California in prevention and survivor services. I am glad you share that with us. I want to thank all of you for your service. Commissioner cleveland asked the questions i was going to ask in terms of language which makes so much sense in terms of the children you are trying to approach. Half an hour curriculum. How does that work . The instructor allows you to come in at a certain time or how does that work . When we call the schools or when we schedule the schools, it is 30 minute curriculum to cover the points and 30 minutes for 4 through 6. It is different. The curriculum and script is written based on at tension span for Elementary School kids to keep at 30 minutes. That answers one of the questions that it is targeted for elementary children. Absolutely. I want to ask as well. Is there q a, questions and answers by the students after the presentation . Yes, and we train the new presenters to leave time for questions. We pick an equal number. It looks like we have time for four questions. Two boys and two girls. Two questions. It depends on the timing. Generally the presenter sticks to the script and there is time for at least four questions. They are generally good questions. laughter . I assumed in the sense of the target population of elementary so part of the thinks is that with the presentation i am assuming the children are enthusiastic about the presentation and ask questions as well which tells me there is more engagement in the presentation. It is extremely interactive. It is based on the call and response model. Every question i ask or any volunteer presenters ask we are giving the answers. Which way does smoke go, boys and girls. We expect them to answer. The seven key points have interaction. We invite kids to do stop, drop and roll with us. [please stand by] when you go to these schools, is it both private and public . Do the Catholic Schools and other schools get an opportunity . Absolutely. No restrictions in terms of the schools . No, its just the elementary age. So preschools, we tend to steer away from and junior high, high school, those are separate programs we dont have curriculum for, so Elementary Students and any school in San Francisco, absolutely. I am very, very impressed. Im very proud, because you are an extension of us out there in the community. And in terms of the effect of the numbers and positive interaction, i just think its a wonderful program. And i wish you the best and the continuance of this. Lieutenant, what are you going to be doing after you leave this position . You were talking about turning it over . Yes. Ill still be really involved. Okay. [laughter] ill still be doing quite a bit. So as far as im concerned, firefighter has done so much work for the Burn Foundation. Its only natural to pass it on. I think he can give new energy and life with it also and im looking forward to seeing what he can do with it. I believe in succession plans, it just enlarges the group as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, chief. Madame president , thank you. Thank you. Commissioner rodriguez. I want to commend you on your time, your dedication. Im sure its a lot of time in trying to make sure that what you are doing is effective. My union actually does a Golf Tournament, a charitable Golf Tournament with the alisa foundation. I never knew there was any preventing. Usually the money we raise goes for a camp for the kids that are going through burns. Champion. Yeah. But like you were saying, prevention really is at the heart of everything if you can do that. So once again, i think its really important. Im trying to remember back when i was in school, but i dont know if i went through anything like that. But once again, thank you very much. You are welcome. To be fair, for the new commissioners i know the veteran commissioners and Administration Knows this but the Burn Foundation was actually started because a little girl, alisa ann was caught in a Backyard Barbecue fire. Her and her brother were caught on fire. She did not survive because she ran around, this was in 1972. She didnt know about stop drop and roll. Her brother was tackled and rolled out and thats how stop drop and roll was developed. And i think i can speak easily for these guys as well. And thats why we are doing this, because we dont want kids to get burned and killed because they dont know what to do. So its important for us to continue this message on a volunteer basis. Its free, its all of our time. Im sure you knew as a kid but somebody had to have taught you, so we are trying to pay that forward. Anything else, commissioner rodriguez . Okay. Thank you. Vice president feinstein. I just want to reiterate what my fellow commissioners have said, what a great program, and really commend you all for developing it, taking it out there, reaching so many people, i was just i was absolutely stunned by hearing the numbers. And i wish when i had been a young child that i had been the beneficiary of this. And im not so young anymore, but i would always put ice on a burn, and that will never happen again. So you can reach others as well. With regard to sfgov, skip sfgov and go right for youtube. Your presentation should go on youtube. There are all these fire presentations there. This is more important than all of them. Really want to commend you on it. Its such a public service. And i know it takes of your time and your spirit and everything else. But its a very great gift you are giving. So thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, madame Vice President. And thank you for your presentation. It was wonderful. I dont know, lieutenant eckerdt, if you remembered our former president andrea evans . Yes. Yes, because when you first did a presentation for us, i think i was Vice President at that time, and we asked are you doing it in all the schools and it was like no, we havent been able to do that. And so it was then president evans, and a number of people on the school board who got together and said, oh, this definitely should be in every classroom. So commissioners do have an impact. A very positive impact on things as we become aware of them. And now to hear the numbers, they are fantastic. Just fantastic. So very happy about that. You had just a couple of questions. If you are the president of a p. T. A. , and you have watched this presentation, what should you do to get this program in your school . Thats a great question. Call the Burn Foundation immediately. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So any time we do this presentation, we never have to ask twice. We always get to do it again, all the administrators and students respond really positively to it. So absolutely, the Burn Foundation is always available. And of course me as well. You can always call myself or firefighter reyes. Well make sure it happens for sure. Very good. Well, i think you are doing such a fantastic job. And the props box, all of that, thank you very much for making sure that every station has its own prop box instead of, you know, where has that thing, i cant find it, do you have one at your station, can i swing by. So its wonderful that every station has the problem box. Then i wanted to also ask about the annual relay. I didnt hear anything about that, and i think it would be wonderful for people to know. Yes. So the Burn Foundation does an incredible amount of stuff, even within San Francisco, this just is the tip of the iceberg. This is what we are really, really proud of. One of the events that we do is the burn relay, thats the peninsula burn relay, specifically that one goes from moffet field and we start at moffet field with one fire engine, and then relay to each fire station or city up elcamino all the way to here driving in with up to 20 fire engines. Laos year was a dwindling year last year was a smaller year because of teams being away on strike teams, but its something we are proud of. Its quite a feat seeing all the fire engines coming down mission street. The people of San Francisco come out expecting this and are just so excited to see fire engines from as far as moffet field, we have classic fire engines, private fire engines, we have people that come from around the state to see this. And thats all collecting money that goes into prevention, that goes into survivor services, that goes into all our programs that really happen throughout the state of california and Northern California. Very good. Thank you. I think its very important to know that the foundation and the Department Work so well together and have been working so well together over the years and that the foundation is a nonprofit and they do have events that you can attend and support the cause. I know that Vice President feinstein says she always uses the ice cube on her burns. But also a lot of people use butter. Which is just as bad. Like let me cook my skin. I mean no, thats not a good idea. So i just wanted to mention that. Do not use butter if you have a burn. And getting to citizens when they are very young is so important. And the message, high five a firefighter, dont hide, that is incredibly important, because the first time a child sees a firefighter in full gear, their instinct is to hide. But if they see you in their classroom in a place they feel comfortable and you are imparting information to them, it changes everything, changes everything when you go in and they hear your voice and see you, they wont be afraid, they will go towards you instead of hiding under their bed or in the closet. So thank you very much for all of your hard work. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments, commissioners . Okay. Madame secretary, can you call up the next item . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Keep it up. Item 5, chief of departments report, report from chief of defendant, jeanine nicholson, on current issues, activities, events within the Department Since the Fire Commission meeting on february 12, 2020, including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other Government Agencies and the public. And report from administration, deputy chief jose velo, on the administrative divisions, fleet and facility status and updates, finance, support services and training within the department. Greetings, commissioners. Staff, everybody else. This is my report since our last Commission Meeting. First of all, i want to say we have a firebug in the room. Our new commissioner rodriguez went to station 5 for a ride along. And caught a working fire and a few other things. And thank you, chief, for taking good care of him. So somebody else is going to ask you to come to their station, because they think you are their lucky charm. Anyways, so we interviewed, before the last Commission Meeting, we started interviewing for the office of department physician. We did conduct our final interview since the last meeting. And i believe that may be on the schedule for later tonight as well. I met with the newlyformed office of Racial Equity members, and they have, something came out of the board of supervisors about that and sort of the mandates. So we are working with them on our plan. Labor management meeting, we had one of those as well recently, and we talked a significant amount about the budget and how we can Work Together to advocate for the department. Weve also been having inhouse budget prep meetings with director and other members of the command staff, including chief tong and others to really get our numbers and our story in order. I am going to speak with the mayor on friday about it. I also went to mayors Monthly Department head meeting. And she talked a little bit about the budget but mostly about the coronavirus. As you may know, the city declared a state of emergency on the coronavirus, not because there are additional cases in the city or anything, but because the mayor needs to do that in order for other departments to have flexibility, whether its recalling Disaster Service workers or having people do things they would otherwise not normally do in their position and work hours they wouldnt normally work, as well as expedite contracts. So thats sort of the power of a state of emergency. I attended a citywide Leadership Development forum panel with mcfadden and colfax from dph and the department of aging and disability. I attended a Capital Budget discussion meeting at city hall talking about Major Projects such as our fire stations, our fire station rebuilds, remodels. We met with santa clara civil grand jury came up to meet with us to discuss recruitment and retaining female firefighters. With the assistance of a lot of our folks led by chief velo, we have set up recruit panel interviews. So what we are doing instead of me just picking folks off the list to be in the department, we are involving members of our department. So there are 30 members involved in ten panels, three people on a panel. We have a wide range of people, race, gender, and time in the department and what they do in the department. And they will be having those interviews starting next week for the next two weeks. We are hoping to have a class sometime after the beginning of the fiscal year. I met with dph and some other departments about we had an executive briefing on w. P. C. , whole person care, which is something that has come out of the department of health for dealing with a lot of our really challenged folks on the street. Some of them are housed but a lot of them are on the street, who may have dual diagnoses and early severe Mental Illness or physical illness. And we are collaborating with them on that. And our e. M. S. 6 is the best model for them that they want to use. So we are advocating for more resources in our budget for that, because we are pulled in other directions other than what our e. M. S. 6 medicine does, and we are happy to do it, we just need the resources. I met briefly with the Chaplain Committee to launch the process of putting together a chaplainsy program. As you may know, we have had father greene for the last i dont know how many decades. Has it been 30 something years . He has been our own chaplain, and we have worn him down. And so we are looking at what the police do. The police have chaplains from every denomination and to sort of spread the wealth and the weight. So we formed a Chaplain Committee, and they have begun their work, because as you may know, father greene will be retiring in june. I attended the united fire Service Breakfast the other day, and they are working on recruitment and mentoring program as well as several other things. And as you may know, the 126 graduation is this friday, 9 00 a. M. At the Scottish Rite Center on 19th street, and i will see you all there i hope. And that concludes my report. Thank you, chief nicholson. Is there any Public Comment on the chiefs report . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And i will go to commissioner cleveland. Thank you, madame president and thank you chief for your report. It was comprehensive and brief, as always. And i appreciate it. Quick question. You mentioned something about the e. M. S. 6 model be pulled in a different direction and to can you elaborate about what that means and why additional funding is necessary . Yeah. So as you may or may not know, e. M. S. 6 is a program we have been running for im not sure how many years now, but it has been an impactful and Effective Program in terms of getting support and services for folks that call 911 the most and who have the most challenging mental and physical illnesses. And it has been very successful in terms of hooking people up with services and getting folks off the street and into the care and even back to their family in ohio. We had one person. So its very effective, and i believe the rest of the city, a lot of city departments have seen how effective it is. And so if you dont have to reinvent the wheel, why reinvent the wheel . And so we are being we have our own list of folks under e. M. S. 6 in terms of patients that we connect with and contact. And whole person care, which came out of the department of Public Health and h. S. H. , homelessness and Supportive Housing department, has a whole other list of folks that they are targeting. So we are being asked to help with that as well. And so while we absolutely are we think the whole Person Care Program is really effective as well, and we would like to support it. So we just need more resources to do that. How does the Fire Department interact with this . Im not quite sure what we are doing here with the whole person housing or whatever it is called. Whole person care. What does that mean . I could have our e. M. S. 6 talk to you about it, but it is a way to its very similar to e. M. S. 6 what we do already. Its just being done with several other departments that, because they have seen how effective this can be, and its also sort of the Gold Standard across the country in terms of whole person care in terms of what they are doing. So it is they work intensively one on one with people. It sounds resource intensive. They work one on one with folks to gain their trust, to get them the care they need, to get them going to their appointments, to get them on the list for housing, to get them shelter, all that kind of stuff. So its medical, its social. Very labor intensive, i imagine. Yeah, absolutely. And takes a lot of manpower, person power to do that, and what you are saying is we need to staff up in our e. M. S. 6 program in order to do this, correct . Yes, in order to do our own work in e. M. S. 6 we need resources as well as when we are being pulled in other directs, because we have such a it has such a great impact. So i sat in for that meeting the other day. And with other department heads. Yeah. Its a real crisis we are facing on our streets. Theres no question about that. Its a very real crisis every single day. I drive through the tenderloin to come here to these meetings, and i see people on the streets and sidewalks Walking Around in a daze every single time. And its heart breaking. Its absolutely heart breaking. That we have this kind of destitution on our streets. In order to deal with it we are going to need a lot more money into our e. M. S. 6 program. So im wondering what did you ask for in the budget for next year . I am going to speak with the mayor on friday about it. And i will have more details for you next week. But yeah, we are asking for more resources for that program. All right. For sure. Thank you, chief. Youre welcome. Thats all my questions. Thank you, commissioner cleveland. Does any other commissioner have any questions . Okay. I hope this question doesnt put you on the spot, chief, but bring it. [laughter] well, all right. [laughter] is there any redundancy regarding what we have with e. M. S. 6 and this new program, which is what did you call it . Whole person care . So the only redundancy i would say is that we have a list of our clients on e. M. S. 6, and they have a specific list of 237 people for whole person care. The only redundancy is on their list, they have 17 of the same people that we have on our list. So thats the only redundancy. So, yeah. All right. Thank you. And can you talk a little more about the office of racial equality . The office of Racial Equity, i should have come prepared. But i can get you the what came out of the board of supervisors this past year. Sandra fewer was one of the originators of the document that passed. Ill get it to you. Its very short document. You can see their timelines for us to come up with plans and meet certain priorities. So this office is up and running . Yes, it has two people in it right now. Okay. All right. So well be hearing more about it in general. Yes. Literally just started in the last month or so. Very good. Thank you. And thank you for the explanation on the state of emergency that the mayor has declared so that people dont think its something other than what it is. Giving the department flexibility to respond to the coronavirus. All right. Thank you. And now we have another report coming up. Welcome, chief velo. Good evening president , Vice President , commissioners, chief, maureen. Deputy chief jose velo, administration. This is my report for the month of january. A lot going on down in city hall. So this is my report for january for the new commissioners i want to explain something how it works. Im the second report, therefore my information is given from the previous month. So some information is outdated in time. But ive been doing the presentation that has newer components since we last met, so keep you up to date on things that are going on. But the actual report has all the information that my bureaus and divisions did in the month of january. So ill get started. I will start with my training division. As the chief mentioned our academy is going to graduate this friday. With 48 recruits. The largest class in the history of the Fire Department. During the month of january, they received training, fire control, which is going through a burn box and experiencing fires. You experience that. When we had the event. They completed specific curriculum. And they also and you will see in the video that we will present to them, active shooter training. Thats one that we added to the academy. And actually p. D. Comes with us and we Work Together and do those together. The recruits went through those with p. D. Like they would in a real incident. Those are pictures from the academy. Inservice training is our folks that we have a separate Division Within training that train our current firefighters out there. They do a lot of different topics through the year. We do a lot of those as well. We have a new module starting on monday that includes tactical Decision Making and live burns. So we talk about tactics and again they go through the evolutions. To train the size of our department it takes a long time to go through it. So the more reps we can do with them, the better they get the skills. You go to a fire on your first watch but thats an issue. We need to put them through the repetitions and make sure they get the heat and smoke they do on a regular basis. This month we had a drill. So we had companies in the middle of the night to respond to an emergency. And we do that about three or four times a year. We have a committee that organizes this. We sometimes work with transbay too. We work with them to prepare for drills when there are no trains running. So that happens in january too. Nert continues to train. As you recall from the last meeting, we lost a Senior Member of nert. This is the picture when his widow received the award for that. And thank you for that support. The nert is also doing c. P. R. Training. And this month we did a ham operator class for our operators, our incident report specialists. Critical that we have that. Every battalion house does have an a. C. S. Radio in the station. In case all communications fail, thats another backup system for us. So having more of our support specialists trained in this, they can receive information, will help the disaster plan function better. So this month the members from the department trained on that. Nert received an award for the Group Application they used to recall their members in case of an emergency. They received an award for that. Some of the commissioners have heard this before, we have a program called listos. We did another series this month of four pleases, and we did a train the trainer. It is an abbreviation part of nert, basic skills for the spanish community. We go to the community and teach them basic skills to help themselves. It is not the full nert curriculum. I actually participated and was an instructor for a few years. And the community comes, they bring the children to the training, they bring food and do a potluck and share that and they learn basic skills to help themselves in case of a major event. Its really successful. We have more members of the department trained on that. Our chief of health, safety and wellness has been busy this month. We hosted a cancer cohort study. We have some folks from Berkeley University that came in and tried to capture some firefighters, and looking for specific members, arson investigators and female firefighters. They are going to follow them through the years and see what the effects of carcinogens and other issues of health in the department. So we can recruit folks from the department and enroll into the program. We are looking forward to the reports. We are hosting a Critical Incident Response Teams class which is going to be supported by commissioners Burn Foundation. Members that took last years peer support training are going to be trained for this and in case of a major event where we need more than four members, they can help the stress unit in case of a serious event with numerous people that would be affected so they can come and be on call to come to that, so we are doing that this month too. We are hosting a Suicide Prevention class, coming up in the next month in two days. We are working with our arson unit to come up with some equipment that it can use. As you know, when the fire is out, theres still a lot of smoke in the air, and they are one of the parts of the fire service that are affected a lot by cancer. So we are researching what equipment can we give them to protect them but yet able to do their job on the scene. So we are working with that. Chief parks attended the deescalation training. Thats the training i spoke on last Commission Meeting where now we are going to bring into the department some folks from 49 and then folks from the field too. Ive been having members from not only chief parks training and e. M. S. Training go to these classes, and p. D. Has been gracious to let us participate. We are going to bring the curriculum together and make it customized for our department. We have been working with a new grant writer to get health and finance grants. So she is engaged with our grant writer. As you can see from the picture, thats toby. We are going to have regular business now from therapy dogs coming to the stations. One of the things hes done with our Training Staff is, and i spoke to you a few meetings ago that we are analyzing the injury data of our department. We recognize 24 of our injuries in the department have relationship with apparatus, ambulances or trucks. And many are strains of ankles and so forth. So they put together a video we shared with the department called three points of contact. Its basically you have to have three points of contact when you enter or dismount an apparatus to save you from injuries. Sometimes we are not careful and the streets are not always the best, so we can have issues. So we really focus on identifying the injuries coming up with programs and educational things that we can tell our members how to prepare and analyze that. So its been a good start for her to come up. Support services, extremely busy as always. On the report you have all the information. 35 are new floating stations. On the left you have the what ce from china. Construction has started on that. So its moving along quite nicely. Last month they closed 484 facility requests, which is when an officer of the station reports through our system that something is wrong with the station that needs to be repaired. They put it into the system. And we close that number last month. We have been trying to make sure that d. P. W. And all the folks that come to the stations are on top of things and closing it in. So station 10 had an issue with the sewer and we had to complete a system overhaul for that. If youve been there before, lots of big trees there. When they have rain they flooded so we had to do an overhaul for that. Continuing to work on generators. The working projects have been completed. Not that we have had much rain lately, but its great. And we completed the window projects for three stations. One of the projects we had is our security grant Access Program that we have our cars that we can access the stations instead of using keys. So every member has a card and they can access the stations. So thats been completed as well. Proud to show you this picture of station 43 where they have brand new apparatus doors as an example of the work that support services is doing, going in with the vendors. On the left is the old doors. On the right is the new doors. They are proud of them. I visited them today. They wanted to make sure i thank the chief and support services for the new doors. They love them. Support services went to the factory in louisiana to perform the inspection on the first of the five trucks. As we have talked before, the process we do is make sure the first truck that is built is built exactly how we want it. They had issues and have been corrected. The next phase will be to drive the truck from louisiana to here. And thats just a road trip, make sure everything goes well and make sure we run around the city, we go through all the station, make sure theres no angles and so forth. And after we are satisfied with the way it is, we order five more now that everything is done, its a much faster process. But it takes a while to get the first one done. So thats what we are doing. The six engines on order under the preconstruction phase, they are going through the process of the same process. And then the bids are close. They are in the review process and we have members from the department and shops that are going to go and review the two bids that came in. And b. O. E. Received the new generation of batteryoperated rescue tools. And they are in the process of inventorying them and deploying them to all the stations. Thats great. I always close with some Community Outreach our office does. Lieutenant baxter, we had recruitment with career info sessions, we had members of the community that are candidates that get information. Our Mission High School program has been very successful. We want to keep up with it. We also have, every month, different district safety fairs, and the president of the board of supervisors came to that one this time around. We continue to do Coastal Safety tips that we send information around the coastline to make sure the folks are safe over there. And just to finish our report, i want to thank commissioners nakajo and president covington for coming to us to celebrate the chinese new year. It was a great event as you recall. Im happy to answer any questions. My report is comprehensive. I wanted to give you the highlights for yourselves. Thank you very much. Great. Is there any Public Comment on chief velos report . Okay. Public comment is closed. And i will go to commissioner cleveland. Thank you, madame president. And thank you, chief velo, for your report. A couple of questions. Listos which is a spanish Training Program in fire safety, correct . Yes. Who is it addressed to . Where is it performed . What do you teach . So we took its a statewide program from the office of the governor. It started in l. A. We adopted it a few years back. It focuses on the spanish community. We have done it in churches, we have done it in the d. O. T. Its a light version of nert, so its not so many hours. Its four sessions, two hours each. And some of the same skills we teach at nert we teach to them. Its taught in spanish. So we have members of the department that are bilingual and go and help them out. Ive done it in the past before and it was very satisfying to do it. Its usually at night, so after the workday they can do it. We allow them to bring their children because many dont have an opportunity to have childcare. And they bring meals too because its time for them to have dinner. The last 20, 30 minutes they share a meal and we share a meal, and they can have it there. How many of these classes do you put on . Last year there was four. It depends on if we get engagement for the community but last month there were four. And we also did a train the trainer class, so we added more members of the department that can train the classes. If theres a church or Community Group that wants to have it put on, would they contact you . They contact nert. We have members of the department, yeah. That number is online . Available to the public . Yes. I think its a great program. I want to make sure we are advertising it enough. You talk about the Suicide Prevention class. That i assume is for firefighters, correct . Thats for the members of the department . Thats correct. And its a tragic statistic that last year more firefighters died from suicide than in fears. It is a trend thats been going on. The fire service and also in the Police Departments around the country. The situation is Mental Health crisis affecting all professions. So we give them tools, obviously ptsd and ptsi is something our members experience on a regular basis, and it affects them too. So we want to give them toolses, coworkers that can tools and coworkers that can recognize symptoms. The key parts of that, is that something you could present . Its presented by a third party. Chief parks has been reaching out to different entities that can give training for our members. So i can have chief parks come in and give a preview. I think it would be educational, not only for us as a commission but certainly for the public at large. So is it a video presentation . Is it something they can it starts next month, so i can give you a report. I think the statistics say this is an important program. Not only for our firefighters but quite frankly for the general public as well. Correct. So i would like to give it a little airtime if we could. You talk about a fitness grant. What is a fitness grant . I think i need one. Me too. We are looking for grants. Years ago we got a grant that we were able to purchase equipment, weights. We are looking at anything we can get. There are a lot of grants out there, and thats a fantastic way, to have a grant writer and reaching out to her to be able to get any equipment or programs, even trainers that can come to the firehouses too. So thats where we are engaging chief parks with a grant writer in order to get something. Very good. Is station 49 on schedule to be opened in, what, november . December. December . So thats still on schedule. It is still on schedule. It looks beautiful. They even have the sign already at station 49 in the building already. Any new progress on the new Training Facility in terms of location . Has anything happened there . Not yet. I hope we have a clear path for how we want to, where we want to have it and all the details. The commissioners are a little frustrated by the progress on this. We are working diligently on it. So, yes, we are. Nothing to share with the commission yet . Not right now, no. We are on it. One thing i can share is that we have a weekly meetings with the Controllers Office in regards to what we need in the Training Facility, whatever it happens to be. So they are engaging us on what props we need, what kind of buildings. A study was done, we are updating the study, making sure the information meets all the standards for the state fire marshal. So those conversations are going on on a regular basis to make sure. It just seems like its taking a long time. And its frustrating for you guys as well as for us. But thank you. Keep us posted. Thank you, madame president. Thank you. Commissioner nakajo. Thank you very much, madame president. Chief velo, as you remarked, a very comprehensive report. I dont have any major questions except for one, again, as i traditionally go through the reports, and i did notice a cover page in terms of the divisions. Nicholas payne, the airport division, chief avi, the ability for us to look at fire auxiliary reserves, the nert report, and again how effective foils are. Ive been paying attention to the recruitment roars that come out, fire and reports that come out with chief parks. The Environmental Occupational Health and safety with boone and appreciate the physicians report. And i know that this evening we are going to do some work on that. The investigation report, but more importantly, the results of the report from captain. Research and planning. Captain nuker. Its important we pronounce names properly. I always need help in that. Chief support services, chief dewitt, and theres been a lot going on. So i appreciate your hard work within that, being on top of it. And as i just paged through in terms of being able to look at Human Resources and such, very, very comprehensive. I thank you very much for highlighting the details. The only question that i have, and perhaps we might be able to get some comments from chief, is that with this virus, we understand theres less activity in terms of the airport, and i dont know what that means. I know that what we see on the tv screens and newspapers is less travelers or airports in terms of dynamics, and i just wanted to hear if theres any kind of increase in terms of obviously the health issue with the virus thats going on and how that affects us within the department. Good evening, commissioners. Assistant deputy chief. As far as the airport and receiving visitors, its continued all flights to china at this time. Also the c. D. C. Are the ones that are handling the passengers as they arrive. And if they are being checked with a thermal scan as far as whether or not they have a temperature. They also check their passports in customs to see whether or not they have traveled through mainland china, and if they are, they are checkedd to make sure they are not ill, and they also continue to check passengers whose passports have traveling through mainland china. Okay, chief. And from your observation, is there a decrease in terms of travel and travelers . Oh, significantly. Yes. Okay. Because they have stopped the flights to mainland china. Okay. And then again the Ripple Effect upon the concessioners and retail folks. Theres been a reduction in passengers, so therefore a reduction in the revenue of the airport con sessions. And we are still doing the bicycle medics . Yes, sir. Okay. I just wanted to get reinforced within that beyond whats on the tv and newspapers. Thank you, chief. Youre welcome. The c. D. C. Has hired extra personnel to hire the passengers that are coming on flights that derive in mainland china, but they have discontinued flights. Thank you for that reinforcement. And again, we all are, but you are particularly, and the members of the department, on the frontline. And so, again, it just reinforces all the information for us, the commissioners, in terms of whats going on in the world and how it affects us here in San Francisco. Thank you, chief. Youre welcome. Thank you, chief velo. Thank you very much, madame president. Thank you, commissioner nakajo. Commissioner rodriguez. Thank you, madame president. Kind of want to thank you for your report. So ive only heard a couple times of cancer causing, and yesterday i was onsite of a fire, so could you elaborate what it is that you are looking at . And im sure if you are having the same problem here, its nationwide or worldwide, right . So what does that entail . And what you are looking at . How much time do you have . Cancer is a major issue in the fire service. Carcinogens are everywhere, and when we go to fires, even though we wear sebas, the smoke particles are in the air. Even when the fire is out. When you clean up the scene of the fire, just moving the dirt, the smoke, i mean the ashes lift up to the air and that would bring in the particulates. So the Fire Department is aware of cancer. It has been on the front lines of studies for cancer prevention. We started last year a policy where after fire, we make sure we wash so we dont bring the ash to the firehouses. We are aggressive on what we are doing with this. Arson investigators come in after the firefighters are almost finished with the fire, and then they are Walking Around the same situation. They dont wear the protective gear because they have to dig into the fire. So they are also exposed, and its been proven that their site of the house in the fire service has a higher rate of cancer because of that. So we are looking at masks or something that is not so cumbersome so they can still operate. And we are looking at things they can give to them. And they are providing information for us too. But cancer in general in the fire service is a huge problem for us. So we are looking at all angles to attack this. And whether its policies, make sure we wear we wear the protective gear all the time, air the scene out before we start working on removing the burnt elements. So different approaches to this issue. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner rodriguez. Okay, chief velo. Thank you for your report. I just have a couple of quick questions for you. Lets see. Oh, on page 3, you mention a video, three points of contact. Can you please forward that video to the Commission Secretary so that all of the commissioners will have a chance to look at it . Thank you. And i also have on page 4 it seems that we have a good supply of vehicles for the extraction exercises. What do you mean . On page 4, it says auto extraction. Education. Yes, we do have we were able to get vehicles from different entities. So we can practice our skills. On saturdays we have a regularlyscheduled drill on saturdays that we can bring the troops are there to do that. Thats very important. And i tell you, its, the whole auto extraction is when i had to do it, i was like oh my goodness, thank goodness somebody was pointing, now you do this, now you do this. And then the car is basically disassembled, and you can exget out the person. I thought it would be easier. Theres science to it. So do we thank these entities that give us these old cars to use in the exercises . Do we thank them, of course . Yes. But is it more than a handshake . Do they get a letter . Good evening, president. Chief. Deputy chief, division of training. Its part of a contract we have with auto return who does the to youing for the city that they towing for the city that they have cars for us. It seems they have quite a few available, and thats very helpful to us. I also had one other question. Lets see. A very quick one. Oh, on page 6, you mention the job corp. , 25 students took a tour of the Training Facility. Are you aware of how many students from job corps maybe gone into the academy . I can find out for you. That would be a very good thing to know. I dont have any other questions at this time. So thanks again for your report. Thank you. Madame secretary. Item 6, commission report. Report on Commission Activities since last meeting on february 12, 2020. Thank you. Commissioners, what have you been up to that you would like to share . [laughter] commissioner rodriguez. I guess, you know, youre tired of hearing me say this, but im the new kid on the block. And im still learning. Ive already shared with a number of you that growing up, you watch a Fire Department, you watch what goes on, and you really never really know. You just kind of take it for granted that it works. But coming to this position, im starting to learn that theres a lot of parts that make it work. The thing about a fire is the same for me. You watch stuff on tv, and you really never know. It happens, and firemen put it out. So yesterday when i went to station 5, and we went out, first we went to well, it wasnt a false alar, i guess somebody set alarm, i guess somebody set off a fire detecter. And the chief asked me to go to fourth and fulton. And i have to say, chief, because i stood next to him the whole time, and there was so many moving parts. And he explained what everybody was doing. And everybody, for as many firemen and women that were there, they all knew what they were doing. There was just no, not wasted motion, but i mean and i used to work in the construction, and you would have 100 people working, and sometimes they didnt know what they were doing. They were just kind of but there yesterday, i was really amazed. And then when it got to a certain point, he said do you want to go inside the building and look . And he already showed me how you were talking about cleaning the air. They had her drawing the stuff out. And then we went inside, and the extent of the fire was just, i couldnt believe it. But it just shows how well the Fire Department works when its run right, at least for me. I mean, it was the first time ive seen it, and i was very impressed. And there was a sad part about it too, they had someone there when the lady who lived there showed up and seeing what had happened to her home, she broke down, but there were people that came around her right away. And i guess the other part you never see was one of your firemen had a heart attack. , but the people there knew what to do, and they took them to the hospital. And from what i understand he had a couple extent stents p. Its a learning process. I want to commend you for what i saw yesterday. Because without the people in charge running it the right way, i guess it could be chaos. So thank you again. Thank you, commissioner rodriguez. Commissioner nakajo. Thank you very much, madame president , colleagues. I just wanted to, chief nicholson, i just wanted to report that i have been working with the black firefighters, particularly with the program that they are trying to create in terms of a Mentorship Program for young youth. And i just wanted to report that i think im going to be approached in terms of needing support and assistance in terms of concepts of working to create empowerment with these thing members who are going to be a part of this program. It escapes me what the name of the program was. Opportunities for all. Thank you very much, chief nicholson. I wanted to report to president covington and to the colleagues and to the department that that work is now being processed to where hopefully theres some activity behind it. Thank you very much, madame president. Very good. Thank you. And commissioner cleveland. Thank you, madame president. Just wanted to report to my fellow commissioners that we did have interviews with the candidates for the position for the department. And we will continue those discussions later this evening. But it was dr. Ye, chief velo, chief nicholson and myself that were involved in the interviews with the physician candidates. The other thing is the guardians of the city, we had a discussion, and i participated on phone with the group, and i think well have a letter of agreement that olivia is putting together that will bind the two organizations together in a more proper format so we know who is responsible for what. And i think thats going to be a really big step in the direction. So thats my report. Very good. Thank you. I think that everyone is doing wonderful work. Commissioners are very involved. And the life of the department, its not a nine to five department or an eight to five department. And i appreciate you all getting out there and mixing and learning and contributing. So thank you all very much. Madame secretary. Oh, sorry, is there any Public Comment on the comments of the commissioners . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Item 7, agenda for next and future Fire Commission meetings. What do we have so far as possibilities, madame secretary . Lieutenant baxter is scheduled to do a presentation on outreach efforts. And we received an email from the City Attorney regarding a closed session settlement to discuss. All right. Great. Well, those are things that will go on the agenda for next time. Are there any other suggestions . Concerns, comments . Okay. None at this time. Thank you. Public comment on future agenda items . Okay, Public Comment is closed. Item 8, Public Comment on item 9. Public comment on all matters pertaining to item 9 below including Public Comment on whether to hold item 9b in closed session. Thank you. Commissioners. I make a motion that we go into closed session regarding this Public Employee appointment. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment . Is there any Public Comment . Public comment is closed. Second . Second. Second from Vice President feinstein. And all in favor of going into closed session at this time please signify by saying we are live. We are back in open session. The time is 8 24. Item 11, vote to elect whether to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session. Thank you. I need a motion. I make a motion we do not disclose our discussions made in private in closed session today. Is there a second . Second. Thank you. Thats a nondisclosure. Madame secretary, is there anything else . Item 12, adjournment. Okay. Thank you. Before we adjourn, before i entertain a motion to adjourn, i would like to adjourn this evenings meeting in honor of the two firefighters that were killed in the line of duty. They were captain ramon and firefighter patrik jones. So moved, madame chair. Thank you. Second. And all in favor of adjournment . Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much. [please stand by] were here to raise awareness and money and fork for a good accuse. We have this incredible gift probably the widest range of restaurant and count ii destines in any district in the city right here in the mission intricate why dont we capture that to support the mission youths going to college thats for the food for thought. We didnt have a signature font for our orientation thats a 40yearold organization. Mission graduates have helped me to develop special as an individual theyve helped me figure out and provide the tools for me that i need i feel successful in life their core above emission and goal is in line with our values. The ferraris yes, we made 48 thousand they were on top of that its a nobrainer for us. Were in and fifth year and be able to expand out and tonight is your ungrammatical truck food for thought. Food truck for thought is an opportunity to eat from a variety of different vendor that are supporting the mission graduates by coming and representing at the parks were giving a prude of our to give people the opportunity to get an education. People come back and can you tell me and enjoy our food. All the vendor are xooment a portion of their precedes the money is going back in whats the best thing to do in terms of moving the needle for the folks we thought Higher Education is the tool to move young people. Im also a College Student i go to berkley and 90 percent of our folks are staying in college thats 40 percent hire than the afternoon. Im politically to clemdz and ucla. Just knowing were giving back to the community. Especially the Spanish Speaking population it hits home. People get hungry why not eat and give