Transcripts For SFGTV Fire Commission 20240712

Item. Comments will be made in the order that they are received. When the moderator announces that Public Comment is being made, press starthree to enter the queue. When prompted, callers will have the standard three minutes to provide comment. Ensure you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, and turnoff any t. V. S or radios around you. Clerk item 1, roll call. [roll call] clerk general Public Comment. Members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any item within the commissions jurisdiction that does not appear to the agenda. Speakers may address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or personnel. Commissioners are not to engage in conversation or debate with a speaker. Lack of response does not necessarily indicate agreement with Public Comment. Commissioner covington thank you, madam speaker. Are there any public speakers that would like to comment at this time . Clerk there operator there are no Public Commenters. Commissioner covington okay. Public comment is closed. Next item, please. Clerk approval of the minutes of the meeting of july 8, 2020. So moved. Second. Commissioner covington okay. Is there any Public Comment . Operator let me check. There is no Public Comment. Commissioner covington okay. Public comment is closed. [roll call] clerk the motion is unanimous. Commissioner covington okay. The next set of minutes, please. Clerk minutes from regular meeting on july 22, 2020. Commissioner covington is there any Public Comments on the minutes from the meeting on july 22 . Clerk there is no Public Comment. Commissioner covington thank you. Ill entertain a motion. So moved. [inaudible] ill second. Commissioner covington okay. [roll call] clerk the motion is unanimous. And minutes from the special meeting on july 29, 2020. Commissioner covington is there any Public Comment . Clerk there is no Public Comment. Commissioner covington okay. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve . So moved. Second. [roll call] commissioner covington the motion is unanimous. Next item, please. Clerk item 4, chief of departments report. Thank you. Good morning, president covington and commissioners. This is my report for todays Commission Meeting. Just a brief covid19 update. The we have had 15 positives, and we currently have five in quarantine. Two members were hospitalized and have been released but are not back to work yet, but were hoping to get that under control. Since weve not had father green, weve had several priests step up to be interim available for us on an interim basis for a couple of months until we get that program up and running. Budget update. So with we have hearings this friday, the 14th, and then on the 20th. Were meeting with the Budget Committee board of supervisors. So far, i have met with supervisors walton, fewer, and ronen to discuss the budget, and, you know, there are some significant cuts in this years budget, but, you know, my biggest thing is i do not want operations to be impacted, and so that is what weve been going with. Weve also been talking, you know, about our Frontline Services and how we really stepped up during covid, you know, and our hope is that the budget that we submit to the board of supes will be approved, but time will tell. The mayor did add in the budget 2 million for a Critical Response team funding, which is similar to e. M. S. 6, but it is it is were going to be working with a department of Public Health advanced Health Care Practitioner and a peer support individual, someone who has either experienced homelessness or addiction, and we are going to address Behavioral Health issues on the street, so ill keep you all updated on that, as well, and we will have simon pang at our Budget Hearing to talk about this program on friday and on the following week. And there was an article in the chronicle yesterday, as well. I dont know if you how that, but it was about our community paramedics. Very good article. There is an Economic Task force committee that is led by assessor carmen chu, and i have assigned fire marshal dicoscio to sit on that committee and discuss how the city can reopen safely. And where we fall in that is to ensure that we have safe access and enough access to all buildings and streets and and dan dicoscio and his team have been working hard on that. Weve also been asked to look at it from a lens of equity to make sure that all businesses, especially Small Businesses have the assistance that they need to open. You know, thus far, i believe weve lost 300 Small Businesses in the city of San Francisco. We met with myself and cd2 and cd3 met with Los Sombreros and we continue to meet with groups. Weve been doing our station visits again, covid safely, of course, but, you know, in the last week, ive got to station 11, 12, 14, and 15, and i have one more to do, and the rest of the command staff is also stepping up and doing theirs, so i thank them for that. And then, there was a hearing held at the government audit and Oversight Committee discussing recruitment and hiring in our department, and and definitely talking about, you know, looking at it through the lens of equity and you know, and i also want us to look at that through our promotional process, which is why we want to we are working towards instituting inhouse training and classes for everyone who want to promote. They can get access to them here. We are still a ways away from completing that, but we are moving forward, and i want it to be in place after were gone, so and then, you know, in that government audit and Oversight Committee, i also spoke to our Testing National Testing Network and some other things that we might be able to change moving forward. Of course, those things cost money, but and i also spoke with e. M. S. Corps, and i spoke to supervisor walton on this, and im hoping that he can take the lead on this and get it funded for us. Weve got all the pieces in place ready to go; we just need the funding. And that can be sort of a pipeline into the Fire Department, into e. M. S. For sure. We do have several members, several people who went through the e. M. S. Corps in the east bay in our department now. And then, i attended the e. M. S. Bumpup academy and then an event with supervisor walton, where his fraternity donated some n95 masks to the Fire Department and to seiu nurses. And last, i just want to talk a little bit about mutual aid. Our Mutual Aid Program has about 220 volunteers that train for wildfires. Its a volunteer program, and they sign up to be available during the fire season, and they need to commit to a 15day deployment if necessary. We respond to requests from nine bay area counties or emergency fire services. And chief mello and chief baker are our two point contacts in this. Theyve been involved in a lot of our wildlands program. So we own five engines that we bought from caloes, and we use them to respond to fires. We also have a program, o. E. S. 1, that we staff when requested by o. E. S. This year, were going to be able to host three type 6 engines, which are basically mini pumpers. So o. E. S. , like i said, is allowing us to host them. So we will have three mini pumpers, type 6 available. We can use them in the city, but when we are asked to, we will be staffing them and sending them on a deployment, as well. We are reimbursed for costs associated with under the california mutual aid system, and mark corso knows all about that. But for personnel that we deploy and then a personnel that we need to cover those folks here. And there are some real covid plans that have been developed for our fire plans this year, and that includes measures in base camps, feeding units, sleeping accommodations, and our crews will follow our own Covid Protocols when deployed. And that concludes my report. Commissioner covington okay, chief nicholson. Thank you very much. Is there any Public Comment on the chiefs report . Clerk there is no Public Comment. Commissioner covington okay. Public comment is closed, and ill go to my fellow commissioners. Is there a question . Okay. Vice president feinstein . Yes, let me find the chief. Did i lose her . No, i have six minutes, six minutes before i need to go. The members that tested covid positive, and you said there were 15 plus five and quarantine and two members hospitalized. Where were they assigned . Are we talking about firefighters, you know, folks from e. M. S. , just to get an idea of what were looking at . Yeah. Initially, we had some folks from e. M. S. 6 who were staffing a particular site that were infected, but most everyone else is from the fire side of things, and when i say five people are in quarantine, that doesnt necessarily mean that theyre covid positive. Theyre just in quarantine because they may have been exposed. Thank you for that clarification. Youre welcome. Commissioner covington were there any other questions . Commissioner cleaveland . Commissioner cleaveland, youre muted. Commissioner cleaveland all right. Can you hear me now . Commissioner covington yes. Commissioner cleaveland one thing you talked about, chief, the National Testing for recruits. If we get rid of that, well have to develop our own, is that correct . Correct, and thats what we used to do. M. T. N. Was brought in as a costsaving measure. It was not brought in because commissioner cleaveland sure. So that is the best thing for San Francisco, yeah. Commissioner cleaveland is that better than just coaching recruits on tests before they take the test . Is there any way to have Training Classes for the recruits before they have to take their tests . In other words, giving them some idea what was going to be asked on the who is going to be asked on the test so they can learn whatever they have to learn. Yeah. There was a little bit of background noise, so im not sure what you said, but let me address what i think you said. Were looking at all sorts of alternatives, and we currently have a Racial Equity officer and a Racial Equity Action Committee, so were looking at these issues and sort of how we can best commissioner cleaveland and make the jump. I get it. Thank you. Yeah. Commissioner Covington Commission commissioner nakajo . President nakajo thank you, commissioner nakajo majority of times our citizens call the Police Department, and now, the Police Department has a protocol, as well. Im not going to say to not properly respond because i know now that theres different priorities, so i find it real interesting that they formalized this team because they seem to be more effective. But it is a result on the leadership and a core that we established in e. M. S. Team 6. I think that reflects our work that were doing, salvaging e. M. S. 6. As a social worker, it becomes the services of the various agencies, the Fire Department to the department of Public Health, that were taking the definition of services to our public citizens in San Francisco still to the point of where were trying to save and rescue our citizens, and its much more of a Behavioral Healthmental Health System that were forming. I dont think we realized that in terms of where were going, to get some folks relief frequent fliers, we called them i just think its really important for the city and county, in the budget process, as well, particularly the Fire Department and e. M. S. 6. Thank you very much, chief, and thank you, very much, madam president. Commissioner covington thank you, commissioner nakajo. Chief nicholson, i will hold my questions until later. I know you have to go to the mayors meeting of the department heads, so thank you. If you do have questions about mutual aid, chief velo can certainly speak to them, but i am going to mute myself and make myself go black, and i will be back. Commissioner covington okay. That was the chief of the departments report. Is there any Public Comment on the chiefs report . Clerk lets see. Theres no Public Comment. Commissioner covington okay. Thank you. So then, we will go to chief wyrsch. Good morning, madam president covington, Vice President feinstein, commissioner cleaveland, commissioner imagi commissioner nakajo. Clerk actually, can we go back to Public Comment . I do see a hand raised here. Commissioner covington okay. Thank you, chief wyrsch, for holding on this. Caller, can you hear me . Yes, i can hear you. My name is francisco dacosta. How are you, commissioners . Commissioner covington mr. Dacosta, im fine. Mr. Dacosta, you have three minutes. Thank you. I was listening to several meetings yesterday, and they were talking about the Homeless People and people that were suffering on our streets, the relative department that deals with the homeless folks was not present for the meeting. And we constituents of San Francisco appreciate when the Police Department and the Fire Department have to go and deal with the situation because its an emergency situation. But commissioners, we have reached a stage where so many people are slowly dying on the streets of San Francisco. Its faster than you can think, and it would help if we can address the situation as crimes against humanity. Because those of us who lived here in the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, until today, know that for the majority of the time, we did not see so many tents, so many Homeless People on the streets of San Francisco. But what is important to note is that a lot of those who are on the streets of San Francisco today are middle class families. Some, father, mother, and children, and we have to do a needs assessment. The Police Department, the Fire Department, the City Attorney, the Controllers Office, and you know, commissioners, some of you all know i participate in these meetings so i can address the concerns on my block. So i want to thank you all very much. I havent attended in a long time, but i used to attend your meetings a long time ago. Please, on behalf of the people, do your best. Thank you very much. Commissioner covington thank you, mr. Dacosta. Are there any other members of the public that would like to comment at this time . Clerk there are no other members of the public. Commissioner covington okay. Thank you. Then Public Comment is closed, and we will go to chief wyrsch. Deputy chief wyrsch good morning, again. I want to say thank you to marina and theresa for their assistance. This is my Operations Report for july. Can everybody see that . No. Commissioner covington i dont see anything i mean, i see you, but i dont see the report. Lets see here. I actually dont see chief wyrsch other than hes grayed out and pushed in in a little bubble. I might have to get jose in here. Chief velo . [inaudible] excellent. Deputy chief wyrsch there we go. Commissioner covington there we are. Thank you. Deputy chief wyrsch ill get this down before i retire. So we had six greater alarms in july. The first [inaudible] deputy chief wyrsch there were no injuries. This fire is still under investigation. This was chief broadbecks fire. This was a fire in the restaurant. They were utilizing the roof as part of the restaurant, as you see here. That was a fire that was attacked on the exterior first and then a second alarm was pulled because we had an interior attack and exposures on the bravo and delta side. All companies did an excellent job. The second fire here was a third alarm. This was a third alarm at 1917 hours on the 10th. This is assistant chief r rex hales fire. This fire was at 1927 washington. They reported heavy fire on the second floor, so a third alarm was struck. Fire did damage to three buildings. The strategy was very aggressive. Again, it was a very heavy volume of fires, and the companies did an excellent job at keeping this a third alarm. It could have easily gone to a greater alarm. All right. Our third greater alarm was a second alarm, and this was on the 10, at 3745 spruce. This fire is also under investigation. This was an offensive interior attack. All companies extinguished the fire rapidly. A second alarm was pulled, though, because of an exposure issue and rescue issues. Companies did a very good job. Our fourth fire was a second alarm at 1931 hours at 1233 third street across lincoln. This fire is also investigation. This was assistant chief bob postells fire. This was a fire in a renovation. It started to extend into the delta building, and so a second alarm was requested. And were going to go to our fifth alarm, our fifth greater alarm of the month. I have some impressive photos if you have not seen them already. This was one of the most rapidly rapid extending fires that ive witnessed in my career. I got there on a second alarm, and fire moved from building to building with rapid succession. This was initially called in by a civilian as a small outside fire. It was quickly upgraded to a large fire. The Companies Found a massive fire in the interior of the building. There was a tremendous amount of power lines, pg e high vo voltage power lines on geary and 13. So the erie and 13th. So the companies that were near the power line had to withdraw back, take up a defensive mode, and we had to get out of the collapse area and possible collapse of the power lines. Videos, just to give you a good idea. Obviously, this rapidly increased to a third alarm, a fourth alarm, and then, a fifth alarm was eventually pulled. Everything was deployed that we had. We exceeded the domestic fire hydrants initially, so we went to the High Pressure system. We used all three zones of the High Pressure system, which is the jones street and ashbury street and then twin peaks. Ill show you a timeline here thats pretty impressive of the fire. Companies worked firelessly again on one of the fast tirelessly again on one of the fastest spreading fires that ive ever seen. This fire is also under investigation, and here are the Companies Involved in this fire, which are included in the report. And then last, we have our sixth fire, greater alarm. That was a second alarm on 2233 powell. As you can see there, this was a shingled building so the fire spread rapidly. There was no injuries. Again, its under investigation. We believe it started in the carport, in the bravo side, and it spread from the second and third floor very rapidly. They did a very good job at keeping this as a second alarm and keeping it from spreading to the other buildings. Again, another offensive attack that started from the interior to the exterior until extinguishment. That leaves us also, we had 20 other structure fires that i didnt include in this. We had many encampment fires. We had many wildfires that ill touch on at the end of my report for the month of july. We had one surf rescue. We had four cliff rescues, which ill talk about at the end of my report, and we had five bay rescues. We also had a strike team that went out on the 22nd to northern california, team 361, that went to the hogg fire as a type of strike team. And then, on the 27th, they were reassigned to the adams fire, and then, they came home. Everybody came back safe. That turns me to my e. M. S. Update, from sandra tom. I have all the information and data that are inside the report. Notably, Narcan Administration did go up from last month, but its still lower than earlier in the year, but i wanted to focus a little on what the commissioner nakajo was also speaking about on e. M. S. 6 and how theyve been focusing on the covid19 and interacting with the public. Theyve been spending their time on the streets. Theyve been in the sober center, and participating in Sobering Center 16, which is now site 42. They check in on symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and covid19, and they also handle behavior and negotiate with anybody that tries to leave, and theyre doing a tremendous job. Theyve also been riding with the Nurse Practitioner from San Francisco d. P. H. , and they screen people experiencing homelessness for covid19 and also evaluating those with medical complaints who are staying at the more than 30 shelters that we have in hotels and quarantines throughout the city, so our hats off to them for the great job that theyre doing. Bureau prevention and investigation from dan dicozio. His team was been focusing on the Fire Prevention, has been working with all the city agencies. We have, again, the slow streets, preferred spaces, the transit lanes, of which i give an example of on fell street between baker and shrader. Weve been working as quickly as possible, and hes doing that while still completing their normal operations as youve seen in the report prior to. His Fire Investigation team, like i said, weve been keeping them so many right now with all the greater alarms, and they also work on the encampment fires and the vehicle fires, so a very good job by his whole team. Thank you. The Airport Division now is, quite obviously, assistant deputy chief mark thompson. He has a list of daily activities. Hes been hitting the ground running with a lot of new situations down there, obviously, but the business is picking up with the more flights, more people traveling. He had a total of 209 dispatches in the month of july, and 95 medic dispatches. Hes been moving forward with the training and also securing equipment. Heres a picture of our new a. R. F. Rescue apparatus. Its one of three thats going to be delivered. Its massive, and after covid, i suggest we all go down there and take a look at it because its a very impressive apparatus. Homeland security, assistant deputy chief cochran is unfortunately unable to be here because of an injury, so our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to him for getting well quick. One of things that he does besides whats listed in the report is the many inspections throughout the city. So he visited with his team, the lake merced pump station. Its a very important station. Its staffed 247. It gives the city half the water that we drink and consume and use, but its also important to us in Homeland Security because if there is an earthquake. Earthquake, we can draw into lake merced. Very goo merced and pump to sunset and sutro. Between the hours of 8 00 and 8 00 the next day on the 5th, we had 528 logged runs, just from the fourth of july. So thats a 58 increase over known logged volume. There was 84 excuse me, 85 outside fires that i didnt include in the beginning of my report just from the fourth of july. They actually logged 110 fires because on the way to some of those fires, they put out other small fires. So incredibly busy night, and they did a great job. I want to give a shoutout also to the sheriffs department. As you see, here is a flight pattern that they worked that night. They went throughout the day. We communicated well with them, and they gave us a lot of intel, and so a lot of times, we didnt have to double dispatch to a single incident. Heres a flight time of the fireworks going on, which is impressive. Thank you very much to the sheriffs department. Heres also just a little bit of footage, as you see. Theres the chiefs at batallion 10. They had to actually drive through fireworks to get to fires. It was a very, very busy night. Everybody put the fires out quickly. Nothing rose to a second alarm on that night. The drone, we had our maiden voyage. As you see lieutenant fogel right here. Hes been helping us out. Hes the first licensed pilot to use the drone. We used it it right after the fifth alarm. Hes been helping advance in the program, and as you see here, we were able to use a heat sensing thermal imaging camera above the fifth alarm fire. So as you see in this picture, this is after this is fire a fire watch. In the upper part, you can see where theres a fire engine, and in the middle, theres a hot spot. Obviously, we were there five days because the hot spots, a lot of them were covered by corrugated steel or walls. So we stayed there and put them out, and were working hard to get members back into the drone school. Madam president asked me for a cliff and water accident prevention update in my last meeting. We have here shows the number of incidents throughout the year. We have 18 cliff incidents to date right now, and 20 surf and bay incidents. This was specifically we talked about the current awareness and what we do to prevent especially the cliff rescue. Quite often, lieutenant baxter has been very involved in this since he became the p. I. O. He conducts the safety fairs twice a year. He provides leaflets and handouts to all the companies and goes to all the different sites at busy times of the year and hands them out for awareness. We also use the search and rescue k9s out there. We also work with the National Park service and the coast guard. He does a lot on twitter and youtube, trying to get the messages out. Theres a couple of links at the bottom of the screen of the Public Service announcement that we use. Here are some of the signs that the National Park uses. Obviously, we are not allowed we have our hands tied as far as using our home signs. We can only do something on the City Property. Heres another thing what happens to them throughout the year. So they do get vandalized. We do try to get them replaced or repaired so people have the signs that they need. What were going to try to do is do signage on the City Property before you go into the National Parks area. One of the biggest problems we have is pets. So people take their pets, and people take them off a leash, and they go running, and they either fall or go off the side of the cliff, and then, thats when people go after them, and thats when theres an issue. Were going to continue working with them as an agency to educate as much as possible. So lieutenant baxter is going to continue with the social media and safety fairs. He is setting up weekly notifications in many, many languages so it gets the message, reaches everybody thats using that area. So were maintaining a Good Relationship with the park service, and were going to continue to do that. And that is my presentation, and i am open for any questions. Commissioner covington thank you, chief wyrsch. Very good presentation, very comprehensive, and theres a lot going on. Deputy chief wyrsch yeah. Commissioner covington do we have any Public Comment for chief wyrschs report . Clerk there is no Public Comment. Commissioner covington okay. Public comment is closed, and ill go to my fellow commissioners. Lets see. Ill go back to my view, beginning with madam Vice President. I have no no questions, thank you. Commissioner covington okay. Thank you. Commissioner nakajo . Commissioner nakajo thank you very much, madam president. Thank you very much, chief wyrsch. I wanted to compliment you as well as all of the various departments and units that are part of this makeup of your report. Every time i pick up your report, it seems to be a little bit thicker and heavier and more comprehensive. I think thats a very, very good thing in terms of us, the commissioners, in terms of us being exposed. I wanted to also thank you and ill just go through quickly my notes here how appreciative and comprehensive it is in the description. Were greatly benefited to have your years of experience and perspective in the report in terms of the fires and alarms, whether its a second alarm, a third alarm, a fourth alarm or even fifth alarm, what goes on with our membership in order to deal with various fires and also in terms of the particular jargon that you use. I think its beneficial for us as commissioners to know what you use, and it is for the public. I appreciate all of the photos that you use, and i appreciate today not only the photos but the videos to show us a little more of what goes on. The Fire Commission has the prerogative to report to fires, and i know that commissioner feinstein as well as president covington on many locations have responded to fires in our neighborhoods firsthand to see whats going on with that. I wanted to move to the e. M. S. Reports and the reference to deputy chief toms report, which is getting more comprehensive with more information. I wanted to, again, stress how important it is to get home addresses to give us an idea. I particularly like, on page 19, the layout of her report, as well. The section of challenges on page 19. On page 20, the titles of successes and highlights, and it does give us an idea of whats occurring in our city in terms of emergency services. Page 24, when it has a chart and a graphic in terms of possible covid19 encounters, and also, the other information that you showed, the e. M. S. 6 going out on the frontlines. I feel that since we got a jump on this program, that our e. M. S. 6 are really the directors, so to speak, with a familiarity of dealing with the public. I just really think thats important. I again thank you for the reference, and chief dicascio, in terms of the reference and investigation. I particularly liked this reference on page 34 that talked about the existing layouts in terms of city streets and how that affects the department. We made references to what we call the inherited responsibility now, and its categorical, but i also want to make a comment when i go around San Francisco, how innovative the restauranteurs are. Its amazing the innovation and entrepreneurization of restaurants in San Francisco. Every time i go by, it seems to be a better design in terms of serving the customers. On the airport, on page 39, i appreciate the information. [inaudible] commissioner nakajo it really gives a profound information in terms of how big that apparatus is when you can see it on a trailer that hauls it into the airport, and i think it is a great idea, that once were in a safer place, we need to go and visit that. With chief cochran, i also wish him well, but its great to hear about the drone and the result of the drone as recently as the fifth alarm fire, especially when you see the enormity of tasks, and were pleased how were taking advantage of that almost immediately. I want to make a reference on page 44, page 45. I particularly like the section on the science because i do recall Vice President feinstein making remarks in terms of the citizens that are out there in the parks and the rescues that have to occur, and the question on signage has always come up, as well, and it helps to really be able to look at that in terms of photos, and what conditions they are, and what kind of information were giving to the public. [please stand by] such heavy and our High Pressure system goes to three divisions. Jones street, ashbury and twin peaks. Twin peaks does not get utilized a tremendous amount. We used all the water and pressure we could have. But by having so many of those, as you saw in the time line photos, so many ladder pipes used, such a heavy volume of water it requires coordination with the water department. Weve had an excellent rapport with them. Weve been drilling with them and several times so far in the year and have scheduled drills coming up with them and only because of them do we tell them our needs and the pressure and they make the right calls on the radio and open up the necessary tanks. They turned them down initially and after the 06 quake they approved it and built it and master mind and put it together. Its intricate but also extremely simple as well. It was brilliant and well utilize it. Do you think our water supply at this point is adequate to deal with additional fires similar to what weve had this past july . We have other options and way to draft and kick in other pumping stations such as the station i brought up that chief cochran visited we can add to our water system. Commissioner how many class 5 fires can you handle at one time . I think we can handle anything thrown at us. Obviously, were going to have to separate our sources and we wont have as Many Companies there. Well have to do it in a different way. Well have to set up our plan of attack. Our defensive attack a little bit differently. I would consider this last fifth alarm fire an aggressive defensive attack. We did enter a lot of the buildings and were able to save a lot of the building. On massive fires wed have to start making decisions where to make a stand in certain areas. This one we were able to save a lot of the buildings in that area we may not have been able to save if we were more thinly spread out. Our last question, what happened to deputy chief cochran . He was injured. Somebody was moving a multivessel and the water pressure hit him on the side of the head with great force and knocked him to his knees. We had to form him into the balance but it knocked him to his knees and he has a knee injury theyre looking into right now. We wish him well on behalf of all the commissioners. Im sure hes watching. Thank you, commissioner cleaveland. Thank you for your report, chief wyrsch and chief cochran if you are indeed listening, godspeed. I hope everything turns out all right four. I had a question for you. I had a question about the fifth alarm. I thought we only went to four alarms. Is this a new system . No, we have five alarms. We dont have sixth alarms. Okay. Is there any similarly between these alarms, these incidents . I mean, out of the blue we have so many five alarms. Thats amazing. Every now and then but what was it six in a month . Sixth grade alarm but only one fifth alarm and mostly second alarm and third alarm and then a fifth alarm. Its rare to get a fifth alarm. Its been a long time since weve had one. I believe mission bay was the last fifth alarm we had. Its kind of hard and people always ask if theres a specific fire season and when youre busy. In my almost 31 years things happen in streaks like a baseball team. Things come in streaks and thats probably the only thing i can explain. We do think with the possibility of some of these businesses because theyre shut down maybe theres a possibility the fires can grow before they get noticed. Less people on the street. Sometimes they might be longer before somebody actually calls them in. Theyre all things we look at and take into account. Other than that, things really are streaky in the Fire Department. I think we didnt have a greater alarm for the First Six Months of my report so i was feeling cheated because i didnt have anything to talk about. Now you have everything to talk about. Okay. Things are not especially dry but things have been windy. Its incredible. Its whipping through constantly and wonder if that could be a factor but theres no way of knowing that, right . Wind is not our friend when we fight a fire. It accelerates it and makes it more difficult. Wind driven fires on Diamond Peaks are difficult. Wind is not our friend. Okay. Thank you for that explanation. Im very pleased to see a drone and finally we had a Drone Academy and then and just sto see that in the air. Im glad its moving forward and well be further along with more pilot tests if not for covid. Training got put on hold. Were doing some internal training right now with a lieutenant and chief cochran too. More training will be conducted. How many people are waiting . Five are awaiting their graduation certificates. I believe they have to do one more test and thats what was put on hold. I see. The lieutenant is the only official drone pilot we have at this moment. So there will be fully certified in a month or five months . How long . We have to wait until the drone school that opens up on treasure island. Thats the official licensing we can get. We need the official license we have a commitment from lieutenant foggel. He lives close and anytime we need it he can respond. Very good. The Drones Program is fabulous to see. Regarding to the vandalism of the sign leading to the cliff, do we well, i can talk to you about that offline. I think theres some solutions i may be able to provide for that. Thank you. Were trying to put signs leaving the national so that would be good for some help. Great. People think its not going to happen to them and next thing you know theyre at the bottom of the cliff. Im sure selfies arent helping either. No. And people not watching where theyre going because theyre trying to get their best profiles. Okay. Im not going to close this item because were awaiting the chief of the department because i didnt get a chance to ask clarifying questions so well go on to the next item but well shuffle back to this. Okay. Item 5, budget overview by mark corso. Thank you. Ill ask for Public Comment after your presentation. Sounds good. Thank you, good morning. Madame president , everyone. Im mark corso to give a brief overview in regards to our budget. Give me one moment to share my screen here. Everybody see that . The mayor submitted her balanced budget to the board of supervisors on july 31st. Its an update from our submission in february with revised instructions as a result of the covid pandemic. We will give an overview of the revised instructions. Theres a revised target of approximately 15 in the two fiscal years and we have Economic Impacts from the pandemic that needed to be addressed and significant issues as part of the department were strongly encouraged to do a comprehensive budget look. The size of the deficit was quite alarming so departments were told to look closely at what kind of savings can be absorbed as we move forward. Before we get into our budget specifically i wanted to give a brief highlevel summary. The mayor wants to present their budget and should be balanced for the board. As an update in july there was approximately 1. 6 billion deficit anticipated over the next two budget years and the way it was solved was through different avenues. Use of reserves ever since the last recession the city has rainy day funds and set up additional refunds to put money on the side for the specific types of Economic Issues and so the Mayors Office made use of some of that funding, not all of it. In addition theres assumptions with regard to upcoming ballot measure and the Educational Fund from the state incorporating that in an ongoing basis. Theres some assumptions there will be waste deferrals with unions and that assumption could change if there are changes but that will be incorporated into the budget. City wide spending strategies and efficiency that incorporate changes and departmethings absom departments and there was costs associated with covid as well as other city investments. Well talk to specifics in an a little bit. But there was an article discussing some of the citys anticipated covid expenditures in the next two years. A lot of that is anticipated to be reimbursed. There still a significant i believe about 93 million a year at least in the first year and city general fund that needs to support those expenditures for covid. Obviously, theres a lot of uncertainty included in this part of that is related to the Economic Uncertainty due to the Public Comment is closed pandemic and depending on how that turns out and on the health and economic side things may change. Well be monitoring that very closely. And this budget process and next one will pick up in a couple months and it will be a chance to reevaluate and it will be something we closely monitor. Giving a highlevel overview on the next two slides. Structurally our budget remains identical to how its been in the past. We have support from the airport and port and various revenues but for the most part reliant on general fund funding to fund our Front Line Emergency operations well talk about in a sec. This is a highlevel overview. Our budget went down and this is essentially our baseline the chief mentioned the desire not impact front line operations and we were successful in that. Operationally, our budget rolled ore and there were changes here and there mainly around the defensive structure and heres an overall highlevel summary. Salary and benefits are our biggest cost driver mainly to support Front Line Emergency services in our department. Thats been the way for years and continue to do so there. Operatio [background noise] flexibility on changing that which is not the intention of the department but goes to show how much limited flexibility we have on the other limited funding. You talk about equipment, etcetera, were stringent in the level we receive. We balanced last years budget and the direct reductions are impacting Front Line Service impact. For ems or Fire Prevention but the impact of the departmental infrastructure we made Great Strides in the past few years for equipment and fleet plan and precovid we were looking to discuss with the Mayors Office expanding that but with the budget reductions and economic realities of where we are the city that were hoping the economics are temporary and can continue investing in the infrastructure further but well reevaluate that at the next budget process. Uncertainty is the theme. And so thats for the expenditure side and also revenues. Ill talk about ours and how theyre impacted in a moment. Overall for budget reduction. The table on the left shows reductions that were made to our budget in order to close out last fiscal year. The city was looking at a 250 million deficit between the months of march and june it needed to solve for. For the Fire Department that meant some reductions in infrastructure costs. Facilities, capital, fleet, equipment, things like that were reevaluated and there were reductions made to our budget. And Going Forward the next two years given the size of the city deficit there were additional ones i mentioned. First one is the postponement of fire fighter academy. With the support of the commission and board and Mayors Office made Great Strides in hiring in the past eight years now with the plan and additional Grant Funding we were able to procure. We are in a healthier place from a staffing perspective to meet our minimum Staffing Levels and something we dont want to continue indefinitely but given the circumstances it was something it could be absorbed and relying on current staffing. It represents a big chunk of savings. In addition there would be some reductions to Training Staff and a need for academy training. Theres still a lot of in Service Training and theres eight of handson training that needs to be done. Well try to make that work and support our Training Staff as much as we can. There were reductions to ems equipment in defibrillators and other equipment that was reduced. We had Fire Prevention reduced from overtime and not filling vacant positions. Theres no Public Assembly and things like public gatherings have slowed down and were expecting a decrease of revenue and in addition we were appressed for equipment and for underground storage tank maintenance and we reduced and had overtime allocation reduced as a result of shelter in place and some covid restrictions and our coordinator is work the state as far as curriculum for Online Training but until some regulations is relaxed theres a limit to what you can learn online. Were weight waiting to see what guidance we as far as future meetings and things like that and what well be working with and monitoring over the next year. Just briefly on the revenue, i mentioned Fire Prevention. Were monitoring that and seeing how economic recovery continues and part of that depends on whats been allowed for public gatherings and special event. Work the fire marshal on monitoring that in the next year. Ems revenues, weve seen a decrease due to covid and so that has a corresponding reduction in billing and revenues received. Its started to increase and slowly get back but that something well be monitoring as well. And then Public Safety sales tax the department is not responsible specifically but showing what the citys impact. This is state funding that comes in we get approximately [indiscernible] and anticipating a reduction of over 10 . Thats significant not just for our funding but different state programs, etcetera, as the state deals with its own budgetary issues. As a mentioned, theres a lot of assumptions based in. Theres a lot of uncertainty on the health side and economic recovery side. Well be monitoring that as well as the city obviously over the next year as we prepare for the next budget round. The chief mentioned what ems6 is doing due to Covid Response. Theres a variety of resources the department is fulfilling due to Covid Response and tracking that as much as possible and working with the Controllers Office for potential reimbursement for those or for salaries [indiscernible]. While most of that is enhancements to the budget and one main one the chief alluded to earlier is the 2 million allocation in each fiscal year with the joint process with uph the Mental Health initiative and the city is looking to expand this Program Based on potential revenue from prop c which was passed two years ago and hanging in litigation as well as business tax measure later on thats going on the ballot in november. The idea is some of that funding will fund further expansion of the program and other initiatives as well. So overalltime line, july 31st well present the budget to the board and this is the first year obviously theyre all virtual. Im happy to pass along the hearing information to maureen to pass along to all of you. We have our first hearing on august 14th, this friday where well have an opportunity to give an overview of the department, highlight a few areas that have been requested by the board specifically pertaining to Racial Equity and vulnerable populations. Well give a presentation on that. Working with the budget analysts in the next week or so we anticipate get draft recommendations refductions in the next couple days and well work with them until the second hearing august 20th, next thursday. More to come on that. Well have Public Comment and be the final deliberations in late august for any reductions that were heard or agreed to during the committee to reallocate the funding. And late september the full budget goes to the board for a full vote and anticipated it will ab proved on the 29 be approved on the 29th wedge with the mayor signing off and well keep the commission aware of any updates to the schedule. With that im free to answer any questions anybody may have. Thank you very much, mr. Corso. Any comments on mr. Corsos report . Nick, would you like to make Public Comment . Caller hello . No, no Public Comment. Thank you. Ill go to my fellow commissioners starting with Vice President feinstein. Thank you for your report and i very much appreciate the slides which were helpful and illustrative. It seems to me like its going to be a wait and see game for the next couple of weeks. We may have missed something and with Fire Prevention and that would be real tragedy but were not the only department thats confronting this. I recognize that and i think this week will be telling. Thank you, Vice President feinstein. Commissioner nakajo. Thank you, madame president and director corso for your report. I know that in terms of reductions, can you speak a little bit in terms of how you arrived at those reductions. And im assuming that all the Department Components participated within their own analysis of their unit in terms of recommending [indiscernible] how does that work. Can you share a little bit, director corso . Sure, working with the chief they mentioned the goal was to impact Front Line Services on the fire and medical side and think everybody shared that. There was some guidance from the Mayors Office they would be looking specifically at a lot of the onetime costs or nonpersonnel costs for materials and supplies and Capital Equipment and things like that there was significant reduction city wide to the capital plan. There were significant reductions to the citys i. T. Plan. A lot of those things in order to avoid more impactful cuts as far as personnel so thats how things were addressed city wide. Internally we looked at what we had as far as where weve come as far as staffing, equipment and those kinds of areas and looked at what potential variety of reductions that could potentially come into play and weighing their budgetary impact to operational impacts as well. Obviously, not happy to be reducing any of these things. Theyre all very important pieces of our departmental budget. But at the end of the day nord in order to meet budget requests there were things that were addressed. And i know you know my longevity with the commission and department and i remember the days when we had directors on reduction of budget and it was pretty much as you can understand the analysis and recommendation from the top down and Administrative Office identified what areas to reduce and such. I know that weve gotten to a point by which each department chief has something to say about that because it impacts them obviously. When i see something from the fire marshal or see things from ems and such, my question point blank is every one of our chiefs all have [indiscernible] what theyre recommendings as reduced funding that equates to their impact on unit as well. We didnt have as full a conversation about that given the complex time frame of everything. That was something we werent able to do but we did discuss with department heads, for example, i met with the fire marshal and discussed what projections would be next year as far as activity for the bureau and how to reallocate resources and things like that. There were other reductions that were imposed so to speak with regards to a lot of the kwigs equipment and things like that. To varying degrees, we werent able to have a full budget process in the month or so given the complex time frame but there was active discussion amongst Division Heads on potential impacts and implication. Each one of these suggestions obviously impact various units in the department putting a hold on academic class or the fire academy is a major suggestion as well as other suggestions. Last question, in terms of our instruction of our reductions, correct me if im wrong, were we instructed to go through a 10 cut and with the recommendation of our reductions, how close are we to that suggested reduction . Correct, there was a for all departments a 10 reduction with a 5 contingency and a 15 reduction in the second year and by the end of the day the way it worked out when youre incorporating revenue losses and things we met the 10 threshold in the first year. We did not meet the 15 in the second year. Okay. So the 10 is in terms of coming into compliance with this year. Im assuming theres going to be some projection on how well deal with this 50 ive been hearing through the grapevine the various grapevines of San Francisco next year the following years budget scenario is through the rumor mill a far greater reduction in revenue compared to this year. Do you care to comment on that . I think its definitely possible. Part of it is dependent on how the rest of the year works out. Though this budget is two years its very fluid and well be starting in late november, early december the next years budget process where well have a few more months of information as far as the Economic Impacts to it but were essentially going to be working through a new budget process in a few months. That will be when that second year were looking at here is addressed for starting july 1, 2021. Commissioner thank you, very much, director corso. I appreciate your answers and appreciate the members of the department particularly the chiefs that have participated in support of this terrible situation were in in terms of reduction of dollars and reduction of services and programs. Thank you, madame president. Thank you, commissioner nakajo. Commissioner cleaveland. Thank you, madame president and thank you mark on the report. Its well defined. I have a couple questions. When talk about reducing the Capital Projects within the department, can you give examples of what that means . What are we deferring . We have some maintenance funding and there were reductions made. We have ongoing maintenance thats not covering and we have day to day things that pop up and the fact that people live and work in our stations. We are extremely limited in the funding we have in general but as a result there were, for example, in the upcoming two years, last year we were allocated 400,000 for fuel tank monitoring and licensing and that was reduced. In the past weve had reductions on previous projects for hvac and things that are useful to us and reduced through the budget process. Its a concern to us. We have very limited funding in a good year. We have remaining funding from [laughter] year to be rolled over from last year will be rolled over and we will have to reevaluate planning. Theres never been any effort, i guess, to get donations from neighborhood groups or anything to maintain their local fire house to make sure it has what it needs . Has there been a call out to the general public or could we do that to get additional contributions to the Fire Department to maintain our fire houses . To the first question, not to my knowledge theres not been a concerted organized effort to Gather Community involvement to pay for that. The second question i dont know the extend that we would be able to advocate for that but something we can look into for sure. Just wondered. I wondered how or grant coordinator is doing . Very well. Ur grant coordinator is doing . Very well. Theres federal programs that have opened up we were just awarded a ppe grant hopefully presented at the next meeting and other applications we have pending. Shes also been working closely with a number of foundations on very specific departmental programming and general ones too. Theres been some good lead work done. I have a question. Youre anticipating a 4. 3 million reduction in Fire Prevention and perhaps deputy chief ocasio can give an update how he did that. Are folks reassigned to other parts of the department . That seems like a significant reduction in Fire Prevention. How is he able to accomplish that . Through the chair to our fire marshal. Well, we havent done it yet. What we have here we look at our projected revenue will be down about 5 million. All of our resources, most of our activity is based on collection of fees. So the cuts being proposed are in line with the projected loss in revenue. So what we have to do is prioritize. To give you numbers now our operational permits are 20 of what we normally would be. Thats significantly lower. The reason for that is both of our permits have to do with Public Assembly. That will be coming back once things start getting back to normal. Our plan review sections were about 50 of what we normally would get and would see. Our field inspections for Construction Activity are about 100 where we normally are and part of that is because a lot of the projects and heres a concern the fees are frontloaded for construction project. Where you may pay for inspection activity that action will take place in the following fiscal year youre paying for it up front. We have to be mindful of that. That say is a concern. The division is made up of two bureaus of investigation and Fire Prevention. If we set aside Fire Investigation and then look at the cut of 4 million plus theres a huge cut which is significant. Given the projected revenue of 5 million loss of revenue it is what it is is what im trying to say. Well have to prioritize. We have inspections we are required to conduct annually and that includes high rise, schools, r1s, r2s, etcetera. Thats not an option. That will be a priority. Well have to continue those. Other priorities are fire complaints, hearings for safety concerns. The construction may take longer to get to some construction inspections. And the other thing is theres i number of inspection activities we do not collect fees for and they have to do with shared space and significant resources addressing all those proposals which are not accounted for in collecting revenue. Again, it will be about prioritizing and its reality our revenue is down by that much and well have to make it work. How much of a hiccup have you experienced on moving the new building on Mission Street . Youre talking about the onestop shop . Right. I think the big change there was we were trying to transition to electronic plan review to 100 if possible if we could. We had hiccups there. Were still receiving plans electronically for the larger projects but over the counter well go back to receiving instate pay for plans. Were working that out with the Building Department as you probably know. That is the bulk of our activity anyway. With the covid guidelines and interfacing with the public is a challenge. Thats a process were working through. Just on the overall reduction for Fire Prevention a big chunk over that 1 million is for overtime not normally personnel. On a normal year we spend about 3 million in overtime expenditures and thats afterhours inspections or special events, things like that. And so that has dropped dramatically given the lack of activity and special events and those kinds of things. That has been anticipated in the revenue and expenditure side. Its not strictly all personnel related in that reduction. Have their been problems with dbi has that impacted your division . Yes, it has. Dbi and i dont want to be critical of dbi, they have a difficult task in jobs. They handle the intake of all the plans. Thats where we had our challenges with electronic submittals. Thats been part of the challenge. What we have done is weve identified so in the queue because of the bottleneck or the challenge of electronic plan review, we are going to assign personnel to help with the Quality Control check routing process where normally it would be handle on dbi side where fire only permits. That will speed up our fireonly applications while dbi and we work through the rest of the hiccups. Thank you very much. Last question, you dont anticipate layoffs in Fire Prevention, do you . No, we have some vacancies now were holding the positions. We have approximately 10 vacancies. Thats all my thats all my questions. Thank you. Fire marshal . Im back. Sorry. Thought i was off the hook. Really . Okay. You said there are 10 vacancies of a staff of how many . We have about 52 inspectors and officers on top of that. We had a number of retirements and so part of the vacancies were from retirements and also some of those retirements were officer positions. So you move up somebody to fill the vacant officer position and then that leaves a void at the inspector position. Thats how we got to 10. Now those positions are frozen . As far as i know theyve been frozen. I dont think theyve been eliminated. I believe they were on hold and i believe at least two of my talks with mark as revenue pick up, we can revisit those positions. Very good. I was also wondering about the 20 reduction was that in revenue or in budgeting. I was referring to the chart mark corso put up approximately 4 million plus. Thats roughly 20 of 20 million. So i just did a quick run of the numbers and with the understanding that our revenue is projected to decline by 5 million. The bulk goes to resources and personnel. Some goes to overtime but still leaves 3 million plus for person he will roughly. Personnel roughly. Commissioner events have gone away for the time being hopefully next year people with party like its 1999 and well have people out because everything will be safe and the revenue will go through the roof. Thats my hope. Mine as well. Ill let you go now. Mr. Corso was going to pick up something you said . No, at the end of last year we had staffing moving around. Hes filled his officer position. Were going to take a look at and evaluate staff and continually doing it through the course of the year based on activity, based on how revenues are looking as well. Hopefully there to increase the number of positions and back fill positions as things pick up. Commissioner thank you. Can you give the dates and times of the Budget Hearings throughout the process Going Forward . Can you give those dates and times to our Commission Secretary and shell distribute that information to all the commissioners. Absolutely. Usually, one or two of us would go down to city college and assist in the gallie. But that wont be possible so we can at least tune in when the hearings take place to be kept up to date on whats going on. Absolutely. Thank you. Commissioner madame president excuse me. Ill get back to you, can you wait just a moment. I will. Commissioner i want to first of all thank the mayor for her ability to make sure we dont have a reduction in current staff. I know those associations are very tense and important and an appreciate her efforts in making sure we have not been so adversely impacted. I was very fearful layoffs may be on the table and im glad they were not in the offing as some cities are having to deal with. Were very fortunate the mayor has really made sure that the Police Department and the Fire Department maintain the staff that we have. Thats a very good thing. I wanted to circle back to commissioner cleavelands soliciting neighbors throughout the city. Commissioner cleaveland you always talked about friends of the Fire Department and thats not something the Fire Department can set up. It has to be a totally separate entity. If you are still interested in that sort of thing now is a really good time to set up a friends of the Fire Department because it does have to be its own entity and even though we need money were not allowed to solicit of neighbors of the fire houses. Commissioner nakajo and then to you, Vice President feinstein. Commissioner thank you, president covington. Mine is a statement. Mr. Corso, when i asked the question in terms of the recommendations in cuts i think you recited this year the reduction weve made the 10 recommended spending cuts from the city is that accurate . Correct. For me, colleagues, and for the department its a major i dont even know if its the word, accomplishment. We took a position i believe last year. I dont know about the Previous Year but we did enact no cuts. As we go into this year no one knew what was going into covid19 and the pandemic and the part of the 10 cut [indiscernible] and in the background for myself in terms of the Fire Department and im not [indiscernible] [background noise]. [background noise] and our abilities has been shown. The fivealarm fire and how the department handled it is a clear indication [background noise] im wondering since were in the doom day scenario of deficit with the city and county, is there any ability at all during the process to advocate for some revenues or some concept of being able to help with the Revenue Source other than that and i dont know if in the process and any entity beyond that that would give the Fire Department more support in terms of fiscal work and a reference in terms of safe space and what i keep referring to as inherited work the bureau of Fire Prevention has to do another contributing factor that takes hours for the department. Im saying with all the attributes and what we do, is there any [indiscernible] of still being a good soldier and submitting a 10 cut any opportunity at all at some point to ask for more enhancement of revenues . Is there anything to that scenario, director corso . I would say, commissioner, over the next few weeks the only avenue is the advac through the board for additional project or fund. We have received some in the past and will continue to in the process. Anything related to fees or things like that would need to be both a policy call and going through the supervisors and codified in the fire code or some legislative code. Thats a longer term process and that could be started when we start the next budget process but were also trying to track a lot of those you mentioned and the chief mentioned the Fire Prevention resources that have been assigned to the streets. Were tracking that to the fullest extent possible to show if asked at a later date for further reductions, we have a number of resources were outputting through city wide coordinated efforts were not getting reimbursed for. We want to make that clear to the Mayors Office or what have you about all the initiatives and theres still costs associated for departments that must absorb those responsibilities. I appreciate that with the safe streets and such. I dont want to take the scenario were good guys and doing the best we can to help the city. The work we put in and were not charging basically theres something to me thats a Revenue Source. We ought to be paid for what we do. In the 11 districts of San Francisco how would that work with San Francisco fire departme department, ie, has participation in all segments of San Francisco is is there a formula where depending upon the supervisor each supervisor can try to prioritize some funding for example, supervisor peskin and north beach and we responded to programs and he understand the importance and i. E. A supervisor cant we ask for add backs singularly aas a district or im in the sure whats going to play out because its new for everybody. In the past theres been an allocation for specific projects but at the same time there could be funding that would generally impact the department. And there were specific areas but things implemented across the department. There are avenues depending on the will of the supervisors. If theres a project thats specific we can attribute funding to but more broader projects there would have to be greement agreement on spending and they have to negotiate to divvy up whatever funding remains. Commissioner i appreciate that. Im looking at various sources to look at. Afterall after all the Fire Department responsibility has grown and benefits from our prevention and ems and its applicable to me to every district in San Francisco. Again, if the importance is there perhaps the supervisors in various districts would be able to think about it. I talk about this because its city love cityrelated revenue. I heard commissioner cleavelands idea of asking citizens to support out and its an open idea but what concerns me is businesses and organizations and our department are suffering from both ends. Were suffering from a Revenue Source or lack of Revenue Source as in the department of prevention not only suffering from a reduction a percentage source of revenue but also being mandated because thats the way it is with a cut within our own department. Were getting hit from both sides and i feel for our department but i also know the same scenarios and i think San Francisco people are generous and at some point or another if we ask for support but i want to be sensitive to the plight of our citizenry right now that everybodys having a hell of a time trying to survive or maintain their job or putting food on the table. Friends of the Fire Department would be something to explore and i want to be sensitive to our citizens in terms of how much they can give. Commissioner there was a lot of walking up and down the halls at city hall. All right. Vice president feinstein you have something . Im good, thank you. Okay. Welcome back, chief nicholson. [background noise] you mentioned the chronicle about the [indiscernible] change. I wanted to ask you a littto ta about the study. My computer cuts in and out sometimes. Is this the suddeny on study on the antibodies . Yeah. We had few people with antibodies. We had three members of our department. I think we did upwards of 1400 members were tested. [background noise] theres something going on near your place, h huh, president . Commissioner yes. I lost my train of thought. What weve been doing has been impactful and effective in terms of keeping our members virus free. Good news is were keeping members safe. Commissioner very good. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who was involved [indiscernible] and from the San Francisco Fire Department dr. Jennifer brokov, Nurse Practitioner Stephanie Phelps and arlene nunez. I wanted to thank everybody for participation and were moving the needle on how to deal with covid. And what youve been using to make decisions Going Forward can you tell about that Going Forward and what that would look like for you and how youll determine whether or not its working. I spoke about it when i was interviewing back in the day but we need to address equity on all sorts of levels. From those in the department and want to promote and classes they have access to take because you may have someone who is a single parent or is taking care of an aging parent and they cant go and take a class up in sacramento or wherever whereas you have somebody single, no kids and can go take classes wherever. So we want to be able to bring classes in to the Fire Department we think would den fit people in terms of something were working on and our first class is going to be a leadership and management class were starting off with. And we last over half the African American population in the city in the past years and we have not done a great job of recruitment process for people. Folks take the ntn, the National Testing network which has disparate impacts on different folks, communities. And the National Testing network is everybody from somebody in georgia to new york to sacramento. And other folks will tell you this as well i was talking to a captain and she said if i had to have an emt license i would not have been able to come into the department back then because she was working three jobs and juggling a lot of stuff. Theres that type of equity thing. And what were seeing in ems nationwide as well as here is a real lack of diversity. And theres recruitment and outreach and we need it take a deep look at that. We wont be having any classes for the next couple of years most likely. And the office of Racial Equity has set up some mandates and we are working through those and we have a Racial Equity officer and Action Committee and the like. Were taking a lot of steps in terms of addressing equity. Thank you for that information. If you could provide the Commission Secretary the and i know a lot of people have retired and theres 12 committees, arent there . Chief phillip can speak to that. [background noise] the number of committees we cover. That would be helpful because in the past we did get a list of all the committees and the names of the committee members. I have some followup questions but we have a guest today and should get to him at some point. Are there any followup questions from any of the commissioners . Well see if there are questions from the public. Ill check. Commissioner thank you. There are no Public Comments. Commissioner thank you very much. Could you please call the next item. Item 6, presentation from the asian firefighters association, john choy president of the association to provide an overview. Good morning. Can you hear is the not yes. Good morning commissioners. Im president of the asian firefighters association. Thank you for putting us on todays agenda and giving us an opportunity to introduce ourselves to the commission. I believe the last time we were together was the chinese new years one month before shelter in place. Its good to see everyone safe and healthy. I was born and raised in china town and 27 year veteran of the firefighter with the bulk of my time in station 1 and currently an Administrative Officer for chief nicholson. Our mission is to create and maintain equality of opportunity for asians and other minorities within the fire Service Throughout San Francisco. We have programs to maintain hiring for asians in fire service. Were dedicated to working with other organizations to improve the quality of life for minority members of our community. We remain alert and aware of conditions of justice the afa is made up of emts, mayor paramedics and inspectors. Were dedicated professional have a special connection to the Asian American community in the city. In the month of march we staffed the china town ymca and the china blossom and parade spans two weekends in april and there youll find us selling our famous korean barbecue and actively recruiting a career in firefighters. In may we speak at various career days at schools in the city and youll find us at a recruiting table at the street fair talking about Fire Fighting careers. The filipino fest cal festival and parade is also in august and were there to represent and march parade. September is dragon boat race season in oakland and our championship boat is always proudly representing the Fire Department. In october we [indiscernible] for a fund raiser. Thanksgiving giving the asa is always at [indiscernible] and we have a restaurant in japan town. You can see the asa tries its best to be out and about and to recruit Asian Americans and share our enthusiasm for our profession. You never know, you can inspire any young person to become a fire fighter just by marching in a parade and planting the seed. Its also a chance to serve and give back to our community and have fun at the same time. Im a Firm Believer in having some fun all at the same time. In regards to recruiting the afa has three members part of the departments core community. Community outreach and education. Were also part of the employee united groups. 495 local 798 this Diverse Group of representatives of the Veterans Association and the black firefighters association, United Fire Service Women we meet to discuss vital topics the latest of which is diversity in the department and hows it maintained. Ive always been a Firm Believer the Fire Department should reflect the city citizens. How a days its up to us its up to us to continue. Asa does this by volunteering and actively recruit at various street fairs i mentioned earlier. When i was growing up in china town there was a fire in an Apartment Building next door. None of the Fire Fighters were Asian Americans. I was a cd. Kid. I didnt know it was an opportunity someone like me could take not until i met someone at a recruiting table at the himachi street fair in 1990. I filled out a card and in 1993 i became a San Francisco firefighter. Best decision i have made. Thank you. Commissioner thank you very much. Is there any Public Comment . There is no Public Comment. Commissioner okay. Public comment is closed. Ill go to Vice President feinstein. Commissioner i wanted to thank you for that. That is a great San Francisco story. A great traditional story. It should inspire many to realize the sffd offers opportunities and career path for people. We just need to reach the right people. Its important. Commissioner thank you. Well go to commissioner noe nakajo. There were lots of festivals and parades. Well go to you. And all im appreciate of the community. In terms of it lieutenant choy thank you for your presentation. I also wanted to thank you for your leadership you are providing for the asa and thank you for your years of service in the Fire Department and youre a man that grew up in china town and went to a local high school and gathered recruitment and part of our product today. Im pleased about that. I also wanted to make it known to fellow commissioners afa is part of what we have within the department. I think its really important yourself and younger firefighters men and women carry the tradition along. I also truly enjoy and appreciate the philosophy of communitybased and all the remarks and references you made in terms of our community not just our Asian American pacificislander community but the association of all the communities in San Francisco and how we can work together. And ive never done so much zoom in my life but i made a reference to a College Group i spoke to and asked them how life was about shelter in place. Do they remember how things were before covid19. I asked them whens the last time you held somebodys hand or when you gave a hug or the last time you gave a kiss. The last time i remember all those being together was at the china town parade hanging together with the families and some of the best interaction at the banquets you provide as well. Those memories will stay with me forever as well as the remembrance of all the interactions of San Francisco. Thats the beauty of being involved with all of our groups is we are San Francisco. Thank you, lieutenant choy. Madame president. Commissioner thank you, commissioner nakajo. Commissioner cleaveland. Commissioner thank you for the overview. [indiscernible] 798 always comes up to cosponsor the boat. Commissioner so they make periodic contributions to you . Do you have other outside donations from other businesses and groups. Do they make donations to the Employee Group . They do not and we have never approached anyone for that. Commissioner im not sure if youre even allowed to accept them are you or would you be . So you are registered then with the irs. So people could donate to your organization and get a tax benefit . Yes. Theres an avenue right there for additional income to the Department Going directly in. Commissioner lieutenant choy thank you for coming on such short notice. I know you just got the call late last week. I appreciate you coming. And just the list shared with us every month there are events that the asian firefighters support. Theyre having a good time. That is very much in evidence at all the events. I appreciate the asian firefighters for their largesse and their Wonderful Services they provide to the city and county of San Francisco as a group of volunteers who are sharing so much history and culture and can always be relied upon to show up and volunteer and do the work. Thank you very much for that. Chief nicholson, did you want to Say Something . Commissioner its a pleasure to work with him and hes on the heartbeat of the department and of the asian firefighters association. I do appreciate everything that you do. Commissioner lieutenant choy im going embarrass you. Ill give you a heads up i hope its not what i think it might be. Commissioner it probably is. During the chinese year year festivities and the parade there were several of us who were able to see in front of the grand stand lieutenant choy doing a fred astaire routine he is quite an accomplished tap dancer. Is that what you were think ig was going to say . Thinking i was going to say . Yes. Commissioner all he needed was a tuxedo and ginger rodgers and we could have sold a lot of tickets. Thank you for that. I wonder if he gives lessons on the side. Commissioner very cool. Im sure they applauded. Firemen all they do is tease each other okay, madame secretary, next item, please. Ill move the ball back up here. Something happened. We have item 7 the report on items since last meeting. Commissioner is there anyone who wants to report out . Okay. Only thing i have to report as you are all aware of our regular Commission Meetings when we were at city hall the president and Vice President would get together with the chief of the department for half an hour or so before. We had been meeting remotely and hadnt had a chance to meet. Last friday and the chief of the department that would us we caught up and got more information on what it is the chief of the department is hadnting and that sort of thing. Well continue to at least have well have meetings twice a month remotely. I see Vice President feinstein wants to Say Something. Reiterating what you said, yes. Commissioner i guess thats the end of the commission reports. So any Public Comment . Let me check. There is no Public Comment. Commissioner thank you. Public comment is closed. Item 8 agenda for next future meetings and agenda. Commissioner nows a time to suggest any topics near and dear to your heart. I would say i think its clear well need a budget update from mr. Corso. That will come in due course but thats going to be extremely important especially in two weeks i think. If you can clarify that. We would anticipate being rapped up theoretically by last friday initially and the addbacks will be going on probably after the next Commission Meeting but im happy to give an update as to any information we have to that point. How do i say this nicely, do you think youll have information to relay . Will we be at a point in the process then . Everybody is saying three weeks from yesterday is what i keep hearing. And will we have any concrete information in two weeks . If so i would like us to hear it as a commission. If not ill leave it to the president to the scope of report. We anticipate having some information and whether its something i can speak to chief nicholson as part of her overview would be something id be happy to see how it proceeds. Commissioner thats fine with me. Thats a big focus. Thank you. Commissioner great. I want to thank commissioner cleaveland to suggest we have representation from different Employee Groups. I think it gives especially the new commissioners a chance to have a fuller idea of what it is the members of the department do both on the job and Employee Groups. I believe next time around well have los bombaros. The morning of september 9th. We dont have anybody set up for the august 24th meeting. Commissioner look forward to more presentations, commissioners and everyone else. All right. Madame secretary. Item 9, adjournment. Commissioner ill entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Commissioner do we have a second . I see Vice President feinstein has raised her hand. Yes, i second. Commissioner and i agree with adjourn at this time. Thank you. Commissioner we are adjourned at 11 37. Thank you, everyone. Clerk we motshe is joined Vice President darryl honda, commissioner rick swig, and commissioner eduardo santacana. Also present is deputy City Attorney brad russey who will provide the board with any legal advice. We will also be joined by representatives from the city departments that have cases before the