Transcripts For SFGTV Fire Commission 81016 20160817 : compa

Now. Fire Commission Regular meeting wednesday, august 10, 2016, the times is 9 oclock item one roll call commissioner president Francee Covington commissioner Vice President Ken Cleaveland commissioner Stephen Nakajo has been excused commissioner Michael Hardeman chief of department chief joanne hayeswhite here. Item 2 general Public Comment at this time, members of the public may address the commission to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission except agenda items. With respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when commissioners not to enter into debate or communication the lack of commissioners doesnt in the necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during Public Comment. Thank you madam president excuse me any Public Comment . Would like to address the commission on a matter not before us today all right. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Item 3. Approval of the minutes from the regular meeting july 13, 2016. Thank you will there any members of the public that would like to comment on the minutes as submitted . Okay seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And my fellow commissioners, i did make small changes but none of a substantive notch move to approve madam president. Id like to thank all in favor, say i. I. Thank you. The minutes are approved. Item 4 briefly on jerpd analysis of the San Francisco Fire Department briefly by policy fellow paula and emily murase on the status of women on the status of women in the San Francisco Fire Department. Welcome dr. Murase. Thank you, very much. Commissioner president covington and good morning, commissioners and chief joanne hayeswhite so legend to be here i want to recognize the leadership of commission and the Fire Department for really asking what you can do to improve that is a hallmark of leadership we this is not a got you situation they came to us in 2011 and 2013 in january 2015 m announced in the state of city address to look at Public Safety not just first safety but all of the Public Safety and some of the challenges that women in those fields in employment face were lucky to have ethically shes received her masters and spent a year in corona trade and promotion and been with us since january of this year focused on that project as one of the policy fellows so i will let her go through it is 10 slides if you have any questions, well be happy to answer them at the conclusion of the presentation thank you, again for your leadership. Good morning, commissioners thank you, again, for giving me the opportunity to brent our gender ever nontraditional occasions in the workforce im elizabeth and i was a Public Policy fellow at the time, status of women he ran the analysis under the guidelines and provisions of the workplace and legislative director. Can we go to the overhead there we go. Okay to give you a quick background it is analyzing the Employment Practices of observing the discrimination against women last year as mentioned mayor ed lee that provide tied the field of Public Safety Information Technology and skills to woman at the state of city address and comprehensively women to have great job opportunity that are cultural thought as ideal options for women it is critical to make sure that women have the opportunities to color and remove any barriers for women entering the field and Fire Department we bring our findings and first review the gender from 2011 2014 that were connected from the Fire Department and go into the information in 2016. In 2011 kims recorded to conduct the study in the drop of the women applicant so after comparing the rates and genders several groups of women received equal if for the higher scores than their ethic nights 60 percent is africanamerican women and no shows ti percent have passed and so the biggest reason for those h the low turn outs for the lack of the exam information and required to sign up for the exams during Business Hours and several occasions of the data changes those were thought to potentially have strong applicant for men and women and allow the civil rights to change the came to create the diversities of the exam those were constructive for those two o who had another. Can i ask you to slow down just a bit. I can you have a lot. Inc. But you dont have to go so fast laughter . Okay. In 2014 the Fire Department have responded to the recruitment exam by allowing the option of taking the exam online and stated to be expanded as well as in terms of did they mention issues the Fire Department responded and working closely with the Fire Department on methods for the Fire Department had assured paid sick leave and was available for state and local laws including the transgender firefighters in 2016 our purpose to evaluate Pedestrian Safety and reviewed the demographic report from the department of Human Resources and the equal excitement from the years 2005 to 2016 and calculated the utilization to compare the females and city workforce to the available workforce in the lash market this is important it benchmarks the women in the population and whether or not other continuous for city jobs are created equally and finally we contributed the cooperation in Senior Management or krumentd to gain barriers interviews 40 women in Public Safety the biggest information were in the fire and chief and Fire Department the next slide ill go through to highlight the proximate the San Francisco Fire Department actually has the highest presentation of women in the Fire Department that is comparable to the new york Fire Department a similar environment and demand and one percent of women in Fire Department in has 200 and 44 women out of many officer positions whereas new york has 52 women out of roughly 10 thousand plus and los angeles has 53 and chicago one and 59 firefighters going back to the other slide i want to compare in 2007 the San Francisco Police Department ravaged 7 out of 14 cities for women sworn officers compared to the other Public Safety departments and San Francisco San Francisco Fire Department is a london breed Public Safety department, however, in the labor force analysis we found in San Francisco only 58 percent utility shut up not fire prospective for the potential female firefighters and enforcement workers there is more potential for women to be employed in Public Safety in the Fire Department before you i talk about the low percentage of fire i want to acknowledge the Fire Department towards the firefighters in the last thirty years one in 1987 women were entering police and Fire Department and have described feeling you unwelcomed and looks like what it is to be a woman firefighter and as mentioned rare to have women on the same shift and hardly any females in Officers Training cadets are here and current women firefighters have expressed how there are two or three other women firefighters on the field at the same time as well as on the female Public Safety officers in addition several females achieving position of leadership within the traditional mostly Public Safety departments and kinlz and chief williams and so there is evidence of a great increase of female visibility the biggest highlight from 2016 the difficulty 2, 3, 4 recruitment a low number of women depends on the physical ability the firefighters required a highlevel of physical fitness for the job and seems to be a large barrier to entry on state note expressed the gender identification in the past not anymore the other informants had not had sdrimthsdz by the capitulated due to a their size or other female traits and finally for a recommendation following the gender analysis in 2011, the Fire Department made measurements to improve the transparency including the option to take the test online and several resources online resources that the pla to see what they entail to share assure that people are prepared and be strategy in reaching the veterans and women that have the cable skills there is a higher chance of popping that big barrier and definitely the Fire Department should change the stereotype so women can pursue Public Safety jobs and women and firefighters theyre important to tuff role models and break the cultures in the pipeline thirdly, in in addition to the mandatory training at the higher level of the Fire Department should include nor internal diversities for the trust and transparency regardless of transgender and finally odd Childcare Services are recommended overall due to the nature of the police and fire and other departments whereas weve expressed the Fire Department the police and sheriffs will be helpful for those two dont have the option and thats all i have to present. Thank you for allowing us this time and dr. Murase and i will be here thank you dr. Murase at this time i want to call for Public Comment. Are there any members of the public that would like to Say Something regarding the gender analysis of women in the nontraditional jobs seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Ill go to my fellow commissioners beginning with commissioner Vice President cleaveland. Thank you, president and thank you dr. Murase and ms. Adjoining for your report it was very, very interesting he am delighted to know that San Francisco is the leading large Fire Department in gender quality we are doing well as it is and happy to here that some of the questions why do you think that new york and los angeles and chicago are so bad recruiting and bringing in women into the Fire Department. laughter do you have any idea. Ill take a stab i think San Francisco values reflect strong commitment we are the only dependent on women in the country serving the strongest status of women in the country demonstrates that San Francisco makes it a priority to have staff people who can focus on those issues i think under the commissioners leadership the chiefs leadership thats bang a culture change within the department about the exclusivity we were seeing the gains from that that the communities are not ill encourage the commissioners and chief to share this with our colleagues and others. You appreciate that and shocked quite frankly it cities like new york are so underrepresented and women under represented in their Fire Departments it is hard to believe really recruitment we can do better you said we have a small candidate pipeline chases our recommendations. I havent are horde a recruitment unit maybe there are theres programs not like the team so perhaps not a huge team but some kind of dedicated effort to reach out to specific women the veterans and athletes just pubically trying to gage the whole women population. I mean would you recommend not a recruitment director and we can have that person actually interface with womens groups i will hope you can provide a list of organizations that we can reach out to as a Fire Department and tell them about the opportunity to be a firefighter or arrest paramedic in the San Francisco Fire Department those recommendations and list of organizations will be helpful to us yes. I know that our system is corrective in this area but 25r9 for example, of softball leagues and veterans recruiting where women are but as safe way where women go to we would like to work with our recruitment director on brainstorming additional ways to outreach i think this issue the more information that gets out there what is expected the opportunity to practice to become physically fit singularly. Yes. But understanding the process altogether would be helpful and would be happy to help get out the information for instance, the number of africanamerican women that took the test pass it at high rates we want to encourage them to get through to that point in the process rather than women tend to selfdoubt maybe not the right person but get people confidence to move on those exams. We welcome working with you dr. Murase and the commission on the status of women in order to make your department of ever more welcoming to women. One last question on the odd hour Chapter Services is there any recommendations on that or is anything the department can do to cosmic that. It is a citywide issue im told during world war ii men were off at war there was twentyfour hour childcare and brought the children off and felt it is high Quality Childcare weve done it before we should be able to do it again not only the Fire Department but the Probation Department a citywide issue just a couple of bodies the office of pro Child Education we need to raise this issue and love for San Francisco to be one of the top cities for childcare. I can imagine about the Sheriffs Department and the Fire Department and the Police Department we couldnt come up with a Childcare Service thank you. Thank you commissioner Vice President cleaveland and chief joanne hayeswhite thank you commissioner president covington i wanted to personally say thank you diagraming it is a pleasure to have you as a colleague introduce our years together i think youve been a presenter on the status of women and admire the work and our sensitivity and guidance also to eagle you have a Bright Future thank you for putting this presentation together and look forward to any further idea you have the commission should know we working closely with the deputy on the status of women and also our fire group has been a great help in recruitment and thats the only other point i want to say we have a recruitment person in budget i and go with what commissioner Vice President cleaveland so on behalf of the department thank you and one other point i wanted to bring up we continue to be helpful for other departments not only in the United States the f m y their members and leadership multiple times on retention and then last week and this week i know that deputy chief williams have worked with colleague ive known throughout the year from australia regarding increasing women in the fire service not judge nationally but internationally weve continuing to talk about what our best practices are and encourage a workforce as resist of the community thank you. Thank you commissioner hardeman thank you, madam chair and dr. Murase and ms. Yanking thank you for the presentation i want to say pat myself on the back but commissioner nakajo is not here but was involved in the commission with the chief those that came before the commissioners really laid the foundation and did all the work our job to say to Carry Forward i had the same difficulties in recruitment and re tension and as being in charge of a union for many years i know that how difficult it is especially recruiting women into affiliated jobs main reasons is childcare from mire union i was working a tremendous amount of overtime you cant get overtime for 6 we had children that was extremely