[gavel] >> good amonger, the meeting will come to order. this is the january 29, 2024, rules of committee mooting. i'm supervisor ronen chair of the committee. our clerk is victor and. and i would like to thank sf gov. tv for your. mr. clerk do you have any announcements? >> clerk: when public comment is called, please line up to the right. you may submit comment in writing, email them to myself at bitc. if submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisor and included as

part of the file. you may also send written comment to city hall. please make sure to silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. items acted upon today are expected to appear on board of supervisors agenda on february 26, 2024, unless otherwise stated. that completes mia nouns 789s. >> thank you, can you please read item number 1. >> clerk: yes, item number 1 is the site of new library branch of ocean view merced heights ingle had noted side and plan instruction of a new library branch serving the neighborhoods at any alternate

location except as required bit review process, or other applicable laws. just to note that there is a request that this matter be sent out to the bos meeting of january 30, 2024. >> and i'm going to turn this over to supervisor safai. >> thank you, chair. thank you for getting this on the agenda so quickly because, a lot of time has been wasted on this particular issue, i'm sorry. about my voice, but lost my voice yesterday at the game, watching the niners. so let's just say, go niners to begin the game, that's what i'm calling this the game. okay, so as you may recall, i asked mayor breed in question time on december the 129ing, if she would support the library

in 100 yasaba in district 11 which the administration had identified five years as the best option in the neighborhood and to be honest i was not sure how she would respond and i was taken a back when i heard her response, the mayor said, she wouldn't commit to any new site and made reference to funds available to renovate the existing library. she claimed we don't have the budget for a new library and that the site had traffic and pedestrian safety issues and there was no consensus in district 11, community. all of which is not true. so colleagues if you will indulge me for a moment since we don't have a long presentation and commentators, i want to set something straight. the current library at 343 was spear headed by mayor willie brown.

they came together with mayor brown and his administration ask for help to add positive investment to the corridor and lakeview. the community was dealing with a rash of shootings and young people were dying in the streets in the ocean view neighborhood and i see people in the audience nodding their head and they identified this site as one that was particular concern, where the library actually stands today, the current library. the community wanted replace something negative with something positive and what is more positive than a library in a neighborhood that is under served. mayor brown listened and help sphere head the instruction of the library. that's what mayors do, they find a way to get things done for them. the ocean view library branch

did its branch and help bring traffic to the area and helped serve as a catalyst for a safer community. but the library is the smallest neighborhood library in the entire city and county in san francisco and it's past time that we get a new one for the community. fast forward to 2018, the library had set aside money. but the community made it clear, they wanted a real fully functioning larger library branch. so the renovation money that the mayor mentioned was for that particular effort. but that six years past time and we've moved on and we've had extensive community input and community meeting along with multiple departments put ining dig effort to come up with selection of the site that the community stands behind.

so they did an analysis of multiple location that's could be the future home of the future library. parcel d, or 100 arasaba was the best that met the criteria for the site. we will hear from public works today. at the time, there were concerns raised by some community members about traffic and pedestrian safety, we worked to conduct traffic studies at the location in order to identify way to see make the site more pedestrian friendly and to install traffic common changes to alter traffic behavior along brotherhood way. i have a letter from director tumlin, that states funding planning and implementation can

be fully independent of any adjacent land use changes including sighting of the san francisco branch at this location. those studies are still under way and i have spoken with director of the who said she is ready to fund short-term improvement for pedestrian safety. we're waiting for the mta to submit their application for funding and i'm in conversation with director tumlin for that. the cost of library was 47 million dollars. according to then library cfo heather greene. identified at 25.5 million dollars gap for the ocean view library. there was and 35 million dollars there in the library fund and we went to work.

colleagues as you may recall, we all worked tirelessly past review of the renovation, in april 18, 2022 a letter to the library commission he identified that the budgeeter for the new library branch would be funded by the renewal of the library preservation fund. that's why i was the lead sponsor at the renew of the supervisors. so the 47 million dollars price tag in 2020, has undoubtedly gone up a bit. but we have the money a year ago to start the library, it was fully funlded according to estimate that's were provided and as every one knows including colleagues here and others, we never start projects in the city. and and we never wait to start projects in the city until we have full funding.

if we have 75 more funding we begin the work, the soft cost, the architecture and all the other work putting a bid package together for constructions. and so i have a correspondence from director, and of course, prior to this budget cycle we were working with city liberian and public works director as well as the city attorney's office to discover the transfer of land as of september 2022, and i ofk responded for michael lambert that states he recently met with director short to discuss the property transfer, public works is researching what they've done in the past for effectuating transfers and city owned property. however, by june of 23, all the conversation of transfer halted and public hearings in june, 16, 2023, and june 22, 2023, the library refused to commit

to the brother waste site as they had put money funding for. and then, with regard to putting money in reserve, we did not want allow waste of resources and put the balance of funding on reserve until there was more clarity. so i'm just going to end folks with saying, that what changed between september 22, and 2023 was that the mayor, unfortunately stepped in and pushed the liberian to look for alternative sites. going against the will of the community and the work that we had done to lay the groundwork for an extensive and neighborhood reasonable serving library. that would go from the smallest to the largest library.

so rather than wasting anymore time, city resources and confusing the community, that's why i introduced this piece of legislation today. we wasted enough time, i know that there is members of the community that have said that this is one of the things that they want to see get done as, as a centerpiece of the work that they've done and dedicate today san francisco before, before they move on to the next world and i don't want to die, i think that's a negative way to look at it. but i know people have said in meetings, i know i want to see this get done before i die. so the vision for a larger replacement branch aligns well with san francisco's declared emphasis on racial equity that this brand would serve a historic under served community, under resources community and it has strong political senses, fund sufficient and enough to advance the construction of this library. and that was a quote from the

cfo of the library at the time, so i could not have said it better myself. thank you for sponsoring this and thank you super ronen for sponsoring this and set the record straight. and as this legislation moves forward, i know that we have strong consensus in the community for this library. and when i say community, i say those that have been working and fighting in district 11. i know that there may be some concern from neighbors that are not part of the district 11 community and i respect that. but at the same time, this has to be a conversation driven by those fighting in the community for years. so, that's about it. i don't want to waste anymore taxpayer money on looking for alternative locations. and i think this is the time that we pass this legislation and move forward. and we continue and i look forward to working with the mayor and the community on this

and seeing this project move forward. i think we're going to go now real quickly to dbw, so that they can just give us a short presentation on how the site selection was done. do you guys have a presentation? or here just to answer questions. maybe i'll just ask you a couple of questions before we go to public comment. can you talk us through about a little bit about the concept design and how the site was actually chosen and what process you went through? i know you looked at 5 locations along brotherhood way. >> good morning, supervisors, i'm andy i'm from san francisco public works, i'm an architect, this is julia she is our bureau manager. we've been working with the community and with the library since 2018 on looking at a new

branch for ocean view. it started out with the feasibility study of the three branch libraries that were not part of the improvement bond and that was oceanview, china town and mission libraries. they originally budgeted 8 million dollars to renovate the oceanview library which was built in the--the bond program was around 2000 and that library was a new brlg. building, once we got into the process, we heard from the community many of which are here that were at this meeting that they wanted a larger branch that renovating the larger branch would not be sufficient. the library took that heart and ramped up their fund anding committed to a new library.

at the time, we we wanted to do the project on city owned land. and public open space is city owned land that through a permit would work for a library. supervisor safai you were part of that, as well as our director of public works at the time in looking at the sites. and then we did a feasibility study in 2019 that evaluated the sites on way that would have--and we established criteria, this is that report. we established the cry tier for option 2, and that is the history of the proter hood

waste site. one of the drivers was that it was city owned land. >> i'm going to have the clerk put that on the screen. you can look, the two out of the five options but maybe you can talk about the decision making. it was closer to randall street than other sites that we looked at. it was a less sleep sites, there were numerous sites back on that open space that would require walking up steeper hill, so this was seen as closer, the m train makes a turn down near by. >> yes, it's a block and a half

from the train. and >> and there is a bus right there and it's a gateway to the location of the neighborhood. >> i just want to add, out of all the other green space, cross the street, you have dog park, you have an area where a lot of seniors use the flat area, south of wherewith it says brotherhood and north where it says alameda, they use that for ti chi and you say synergy. >> there is a sisterhood garden, a dog park, there is a potential for synergy with other future partnerships that may happen in the same location.

but during that, that study, concerns were raised. and the library reached out to mt a to address the concerns to look at one of the initiaters for that. >> great, i think you've covered everything. if there is any questions, i'll call you back up. chair, i'll just end with saying, i think we public works put significant time and effort ta and mta put in effort and we do have the ability to make some short-term and long term improvement and i do think that is important. but it is also important to note that it's a block from the m-line, it's a block from the bus line and we do have the ability to engage and inter

account and have some cok tiffity with some of the uses. so if it's okay with you, can we go to public comment? unless you have anything to say. >> mr. clerk, can we open this up to public comment? >> clerk: yes, anybody wishing to speak, line up at this time and approach the podium. >> good morning, do you want me to start? >> i'm liz, and we are part of the omi collaborative. we have 6 aging, i work for the

aging division, we have four programs within that neighborhood. we would love to see a larger library to be able to host events, presentations and activities for inter generational activities, part of our, our client, the goal for our clients is to prevent isolation. so it's getting them out to our programs, we have a senior center and i think that would be, it's always wonderful fit when you plan and zoo how beneficial inter generational activities can be. and we're part of the, like i said, we're part of the i'm here representing part of the omi community collaborative. we all work together, we all do different services and we're happy to be part of it.

>> speaker: hello there, two months ago, i was fired up because i went to a meeting about increased funding and services. and now two months later, we were told that there is no money for both but yet, we have money for projects and being locked into a certain plan. putting a library in a green belt by people who game they're an environmentalist. so i think, we should reconsider the whole idea. but you're going to put a new library, you build on a community that is already there. there is no reason for this library possible built in a new area, chopping down trees and creating a traffic more of a nightmare, spending two million dollars on altering traffic restructure.

while we have people scrounging for food in the city and fentanyl crisis, this is what we're spending millions on. thanks. >> speaker: my name is anne marie noic, i'm not important except that i vote and i pay taxed and born avenue avenuians. soif a lot of personal investment in making you're communities drive. i'm part of a community center that has book club. during covid the community center got flooded the and oceanview library said, come and meet here. and we were able to continue that book club for senior citizens, a mixed group that

was able to have conversations, it's become from 3 people who hesitated with showing up with covid to 12 people. but the room was full. there was a person that came for another event and came to our room because she thought it must be up here because that's where everybody here. the library branch was already crowded. we need a new place, we have the property, we have the site identified, we have the plans in place, we have the funding, we need to make sure to provide impotus to build this library now, because the community is growing, there are more families in it and there is diverse community that can be served and as a result we can make san francisco a better place, starting with a

forgotten neighborhood like ours. thank you. >> speaker: hello, thank you foreseeing us today. my name is renard, i'm the founder of youth first and the president of invest blafjt i'm also a community resident in district 11. so i was a part of along with somebody else said it in the gallery, a the first library that was built, by willy brown who supported us. and everything that was said was true, we built that library because we needed something to bring positivity to our neighborhood. so we've out grown that library. i run youth programs, we use the library every wednesday, we have to go in shifts with our children, because the library is not big enough. so we go in wednesday because

one day the daycare that is across the street, went on a tuesday, we go on a tuesday. the field trip was canceled because it could not hold us all. we should not have to take shifts for our children to learn and grow. our neighborhood is under served, everywhere you look. we don't have a lot of place to see put a library but people were talking about this and that and we get all that as community members. we built a whole new neighborhood, homes that are not affordable hoer san franciscans, but we build a whole neighborhood. but we cannot build a labor refor our kids to learn where one day they can sit in the seats that you're sitting in. we have to find finances to keep our society going and we learn at libraries, we have to have access and opportunity for all. we need equity in our district,

we need a library. thank you. >> speaker: supervisor, david oskin from the east side. people realize what a ridiculous site this is for a library, most what i heard is we need a library, right. but i have not heard about this terrible location. it's not central located, it's on an expressway, for god's sakes, what are you thinking? and you want to cut trees, are we still in the 1950s here. and you look at 5 sites. and it sounds like you've already decided, right, all three of you have decided, so

so much for public input. is that what you're really about? one message for all supervisors looking at the bigger picture, quit paving over open space. quit cutting trees in parks, quit building buildings in green belts. this, this is so 1950s. and as has been pointed out, to get the library. by the way, are you listening or looking on your ipad?

to cross, it uses five different cross walks. this library would be an attractive nuisance, people coming from the crossroads living center, would be in danger. >> clerk: thank you. are there any additional speakers on this matter? if there are any additional speakers, if you can line up at this time, it would be appreciated. >> speaker: good morning, supervisors i'm president of all my neighborhoods in action, native san franciscan and 50 years homeowner in lakeview omi. i am here to ask for your support for supervisor's ordinance to support the

library at the brotherhood site, it would help keep costs down and allow for community events and outdoor space for classroom and family activities. as you know, we have this small library and smallest school age children with two elementary schools at that site. the library is a valuable resource and hopefully also, will be a cooling center during a heat wave. the longer we wait, the more this library is going to cost. we have looked at multiple locations, but this is the best site for children'srrance, outdoor children's activity, a modern library connected to outdoor space and community does not want a church nonprofit library combination that does not work for us. please vote for the brotherhood

with traffic and safety improvements. we tried to do our part by voting for prop f for libraries. this saturday, my husband and i had a chance to go to the open spouse at the oceanview library, there is a couple of dozen people and it was packed, it was, this was no room. there is no room for a whole classrooms to come, you have to come, it has to come in stages. and i hope you support this ordinance for our community and our children. we don't even have a bookstore. >> next speaker. >> my name is eric, i live near

by the library frequently. i'm with merced triangle neighborhood association, i'm on the executive board. and i think my main concern is traffic. i have many concerns, and i agree with the need for the new library, it's very restricted right now. this is one of the toughest intersection sxz one of the most highly trafficked. it seems like we're putting the library right in a hotspot and it does not make sense to me. especially when we have possibilities that would be right there at the m-line. there is a street, that has a long history that is zoned commercial and has easy access for the m-line.

so, that seems like a pedestrian friendly site where as putting it on this major expressway, to me is at least very concerning. >> hello i'm len rogers and of course you've already made up your mind regarding this project, could you keep quiet. anyway, what i would like to say regarding this project is that, the church, pilgrim community search and their leity support the search site. the idea of have thing

earthquake fall organic soils and on a green belt, you know, is, to say easily a bad idea. sagmore street, 45 miles the traffic comes down that particular street, different times of the year. the sun blinds the drivers and they cannot see. and this is where the children are going to be crossing the street. however the site has two wonderful handicap ramps 20 feet away from where the library and the it book and the church would be located.

transportation food. and music for their residents. and they need to, a shot in the arm in order to have that become a better place for the community. and, that, you know, a dog park is not synergy okay. we have to have other numerous places that do have coffee shops. >> clerk: speaker time has elapsed. >> speaker: hi, my name is andy rice i'm a de i agree with the last couple of speakers what they said, but i would like to add that, the site at the on the green belt, there is two reasons that i'm against this site. one is i really don't want to see the green belt disappear.

and the other is that, the it's not accessible to a lot of us who live in the neighborhood. it's, it's not a steep hill but it's a hill down to the area, it's a hill back to the area to where we all live. i would like to see it where people can have it for sk sesable. --accessible. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, are there any other speakers? i believe there are no additional speakers on this matter. >> seeing none, public comment is now closed. supervisor walton. >> thank you so much chair ronen. i just have a few comments, the first thing i want to say s libraries are extremely important to communities and particularly to families and communities without means.

this is how a lot of people receive access to knowledge, a lot of people receive access to technology. this is a space where people get to meet, and community building, education for young people, spaces for seniors to meet. and the good thing about public libraries is they belong to every one. and the resource that's they provide and opportunities that they provide, if there is ever a cost, most certainly is fordable. --affordable. and to have a site identified in this city where land is scarce for opportunities like this. this is something that important and something that i cannot ignore because there has been resourced already committed. and for my stand point, i would never tell a community that

their opinion is not important. that their opinion about where something should go particularly isolated communities, communities that have not received certain level of equity over the years, and that's part of the problem when people don't listen to our communities of color, isolated communities that speak up for themselves, there is always somebody telling them what it is. and there is a first time for everything. so many people suffer from digital divide, and in some cases, the only place where people can receive the technological opportunities that some people have and the privilege of their own home, a

lot of communities don't have that. and again, hearing from dpw, knowing that there was a process of input, of having conversation wz members of the community, we can't say that they don't deserve that they want something that is so precious to the community. i didn't plan on anything saying to thed, because i thought this hearing from the communities, listening to the input from the department, having conversations i thought this was something that, really made sense to push forward on. but i did want to let everybody know where i stand and why i stand in this space. so thank you chair ronen and thank you supervisor safai for bringing this to rules today. >> thank you, supervisor walton, i'm going to end with a few words, is that okay? >> absolutely, go ahead.

>> so i want to say for the record, for this particular phase of the library, there is been five years of community process, okay. multiple community input, by some of the architects have been deeply involved in the process. i think that's a important concern. i literally i was just texting with the head of the director of mta and head of transportation authority, they literally have money right now, they're waiting for the application to put to do some immediate pedestrian safety issues, some of the longer term ideas would be configuration of

ways there that would slow the traffic down further. that would be more input. but i cannot emphasize enough and you heard from a youth servicing program, and seniors that are book club, people have to wait outside to get into the library right now. we can't serve our community with this library. if we could, we would have gone for the renovation, but we're talking about 9,000 square feet. it's going to be over 20,000 square feet, 25,000, it will literally serve an area. but some of the southeast part of san francisco.

and, by the way, for those of you afraid of having people come into the neighborhood, that's okay, we will accommodate. we will use the trains, we will use pedestrians, we will use alternative forms of transportation, there will be a little bit of parking onsite, there will be a drop off area. and supervisor walton and i joke about this a lot, we have planted about 3000 trees since 2011, i'm okay with giving up a couple of trees for a neighborhood library, in this instance. and i think green space should be shaken, i'm one of those people. that's what i think is important to note.

and the last thing saying, the idea of colocating, that sounds like years and years down the road. that's more waiting for more funding. the library preservation fund can only be used for libraries. that money can't be taken and used for any of the other ills that we have in san francisco that were identified. this money by voter mandate and renewed by voter mandate with only be used to build and serve libraries. so we have 35 million dollars there that we will identify new and if they sell the location of the current library that will go towards this library so. we have a lot of things in motion to build this neighborhood library, so colleagues i ask for your support today. thank you chair ronen on this agenda and i think it's a committee report. >> i would like to make a

motion to forward this to the full body as a recommendation. >> thank you and before i ask for a vote, i just wanted to add my two cents which is, when there is a five-year long community process, to move the ball after that process has gone through, just does not make sense to me. and as it is, it takes so long to accomplish these major neighborhood infrastructure needs and i see libraries as infrastructure to start all over again, would just be so disappointing in every way shape or form. with that, can we have a roll call vote on the item. >> clerk: yes on the motion to recommend the matter to the board as committee report, vice chair walton. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> clerk: chair ronen.

>> aye. >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> that passes unanimously. mr. clerk, do you have any additional items on the agenda? >> clerk: there are no additional items on the agenda. >> the meeting is adjourned.

meter. >> hello, i'm captain tom the coordinator for the san francisco fire department. this oversight is the three and 4 anniversary of loma linda earthquake i want to go over a few things to help you preparation building a supply kit and supply kit does is not have to be put together all at once take your time on the website have a list of recommendation and have enough food and water to feed your family through three to 5 days and purchase the fire extinguisher if you have an extinguisher at hand will stop a small fire from being a by fire it is simple to use check the

gage make sure it is charged and then repeat the word task task stand for pull to pin aim the novel and screws the trigger and successes to the because of fire the last recommendation to look at the gas meter electrical gas lines cause fires in the loma linda earthquake and we want to show you how to turn off the gay only turn off if you hear gas or hear hissing and coordinator nathan will demonstrate how to turn that off. >> with a whenever i'm going to turn it over one quarter turn. so in on holler orientation in turn off our gays meter don't

turn it back on get a service call fromtelevision.

>> in 1948 swensen's ice cream used to make ice cream in the navy and decided to open up an ice cream shop it it takes time for the parent to put money down and diane one of the managers at zen citizen in arena hills open and serve old-fashioned ice cream. >> over 20 years. >> yeah. >> had my own business i was a firefighter and came in- in

1969 her dad had ice cream and left here still the owner but shortly after um, in here became the inc. maker the manager and lead and branded the store from day to day and in the late 90s- was obvious choice he sold it to him and he called us up one night and said i'm going to sell the ice cream store what you you talking about diane came and looked at the store and something we want to do and had a history of her dad here and growing up here at the ice cream store we decided to take that

business on. >> and have it in the family i didn't want to sell it. >> to keep it here in san francisco. >> and (unintelligible). >> share worked there and worked with all the people and a lot of customers come in. >> a round hill in the adjoining areas loved neither ice cream shop in this area and support russia hills and have clean up day and give them free ice cream because that is those are the people that keep us the opportunity to stick around here four so many years next generations have been coming her 20 er thirty or 40 years and we have the ingredients something it sold and, you know, her dad

said to treat the customers right and people will keep on coming back and 75 or 74 years, you know, that is quite an accomplishment i think of it as our first 75 years and like to see that, you know, going into the future um, that ice cream shop will be around used to be 4 hundred in the united states and all gone equipment for that one that is the first and last we're proud of that we're still standing and people people are you tell people it's been around in 50 years and don't plan on

>> i'm alice king this is my husband shawn kim and we other ordinance of joe's ice cream in san francisco. joe's ice cream in rich mondistrict since 1959 and we are proud to be registered a san francisco legacy business since

2017. and we offer more than 50 flavors of homemade ice cream. and delicious home style burgers, sandwiches, hot dog, salad and more. we have a lot of different ice cream flavors both classic, long forgotten but classic and asian flavor inspired flavor like 3 red bean and black and now we also brought the korean i'm from korea. korean coffee krooem. we mix our traditional and trendy flavors all together. shawn and i are the first generation of the immigrants here in san francisco. so as immigrants, we have a special connection to this diverse community, san francisco richmond district. so we made this place our home.

that is where we are trying to build our business as a place where everybody can feel welcome like we felt when we first came here what really makes fisher or joe's ice cream we have been growing together with our community. so we support our local schools throughout the fundraiser. we provide job opportunity for high school, i hire them every year. built a beautiful parklet outside funded by donations from over 200 neighbors and friends and i think this really shows how joe's ice cream and our community like lives together. so -- you see our mission is to serve as a fun community hub in san francisco and richmond district. so, i hope that we can stay this

way for many years. television. >> (music). >> my name is vet at a original artist based in san francisco. >> i love it i love it i've never seen something else and we see how the people see which is happening and what is going on. kind of cool i wanted to be part of that. >> i saw it 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes you yeah. >> so we have you - yeah. i

started going when i was young but not the type of kid would get food but this is something i really have been progressing on a talent from like other artists. >> this is amazing. >> this is so good yeah, it is so good like the artists. >> i love it. >> what a great project. >> part of the part for have i grants. >> yeah. i love it. >> i serve in for 2 two years now and i really am fortunate to live in a place for art. >> an effort creating places it serve san francisco soul and

that makes them want to see this place; right? with the experience of art in san jose experience in from the get-go sometimes our environmentalist has created tests but we have an opportunity for that and have artists in the storefront part of project you can walk in and experience and hoping we'll be there for a long time. >> this is the first farther easy way of going to spaces i didn't know how it is really cool it would be and we're forced to be in the moment when we're test and creating something really cool. >> makes us feel good. >> as far (unintelligible)

done all temporary and took them down i like the temporary aspect base (unintelligible) (microphone distorted) not permanent can enjoy it. >>

please stand by for the san francisco fire commission meeting of january 24, 2024. >> our webex is down on the main computer. i have it on the lap top. if there is public comment i will have to put my microphone up to the laptop.

this is fire commission regular meeting january 24, 2024. the time is 511:00ism the meeting is held in person. members of the public may atepd the meeting to observe and provide public comment at it physical meetin location or by calling 415-655-0001 and using meeting id, 24939835777. the password is 1234. members of the public may address the commission up to 3 minutes per item. please insure you are in a quite location, speak clourly and turn off background sounds. wait for the item you like to address to be called. press star 3 to be added to the queue. callers will hear silence will waiting to speak. operator will unmute you. you may also watch live at

www.sfgovtv.org. item 1, roll call. president nakajo, present. vice president morgan, present. commissioner feinstein, present. commissioner fraser, present. commissioner collins, present. chief of department jeanine nicholson, present. president nakajo will read the land acknowledge. >> thank you madam secretary. the san francisco fire commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. madam secretary.

>> item 2, general public comment. members may address the commission for up to 3 minutes on any matter within the commission jurisdiction and not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address remarks to the commission as a whole and not individual commissioners jore personnel. commissioners will not enter into debate. the lack of response does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> madam secretary, any member of the public wish to comment at this time? >> i do not anybody approaching the podium and there is nobody on the public comment line. >> thank you. public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> item 3, approval of the minutes.

discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes from january 10, 2024. >> thank you very much madam secretary. any public comment on this item? >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> public comment is closed. commissioners, any questions or comments on this? it is an action item colleagues. >> i move we approve the minutes. >> thank you very much commissioner fraser. >> i second. >> thank you very much vice president morgan. [roll call] >> the motion passes 3 with two recusals. item 4, chief of department report. department from chief of department jeanine nicholson on

current issues activities and events in the fire department since the commission meeting on january 10, 2024 including budget academy special events communication and outreach to other government agencies and the public. report from shayne kaialoa on administrative divisions fleet and facility status updates finance support service and homeland security. >> thank you very much madam secretary. good evening. >> good evening president nakajo, vice president morgan, commissioner feinstein, commissioner fraser, commissioner collins. [indiscernible] my name is jeanine nicholson your san francisco fire chief and this is my report since our last fire commission meeting on january 10. i want to thank commissioner collins for joining us at the martin luther king, jr. march on monday the 15th and much

appreciated to have you there. we had a very good turn-out from our department, and that all went very well, so thank you for your presence there. much appreciated. on the 16th, cd, 2, 3, 4 and myself addressed the 133 recruit class on treasure island. 58 recruits strong, in the second week now. more to follow on that. we also had monthly labor management meeting with local 798 and good conversation and we have a good relationship, which i think is super important for the department to run more efficiently and effectively. we also have been having multiple meetings internally regarding the budget and i know

director corso has been working really hard on it and as has his team and we'll hear from him later. i have been to multiple policy meetings with other city departments and department heads on street conditions, as well as the drug market accountability center and the city is really making good progress and i don't know if you listen to 106.9, there was a interview today with multiple business owners in the tenderloin who spoke about how happy they are with the progress being made d our community paramedics are a part of all of that, so strong work to them. chief simon pang and i met with department of public health. grant colfax and dr. cumins on

the collaborative work we do out on the streets with our community paramedics and how to improve and looking at data and metrics and talk toog our people and i'm just proud of the work we are doing. chief mike and i mike mullen from support services visited station 17 on monday and station 16 this morning and we are going to station 18 also this week, so we are getting out there to speak to people about all sorts things from safe driving to the budget and to any issues they may be having or concerns they may be having. i thought it was good-we were there over a hour so folks were really engaged. it was really good. and then had our first retreat,

cd2, cd3, cd4 and director corso and myself yesterday. we had 4 retreats. the first one we spoke about priorities, the second we focused on succession planning, the third, communications and this last one we went over the first three meetings and we also spoke about workflow and data, and how we use those specifically use data to tell our story and improve and we are working on putting systems in place to institutionalize policy and procedures and we will see again the rules and regs come before you tonight as part of that, but we are getting work product from the committees, so that is all getting formalized by cd2, 3 and 4 and director corso. in order to really push a culture of ownership and responsibility even more so and you know, we can always improve

and that's what we strive to do, and by putting so many things in place, those are our goals for the year basically, to do many of those things. and i'll let chief luttropp speak to you about the rules and regs but i like to thank you commissioner feinstein for your kind words today that you sent me and thank the rest of the commissioners for coming to headquarters today toic a knowledge the 89th class, 30 year anversity today, so thank you so much and here's to another 30 years. not in the department, but you know what i mean. so, but thank you, and last but certainly not least a very happy birthday to president nakajo today. thank you. >> thank you very much chief. we'll do public comment on the chief's report at this--

>> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> public comment is closed. commissioners, questions or comments for cd1 at this point? commissioner fraser. >> thank you for your work chief. just one question, the station meetings, are they are town hall with you and other leaders with folks in the stations? is that how it-- >> so, since i began 4 and a half all most 5 years ago we instituted a policy of each of the command staff members getting out to several station every few months to keep up the communication between the field and administration, and so we used to do it alone, but i just--we have switched it up a little bit, so we are--many of us are going out in pairs to stations and we all just sit down and they are welcome to ask any questions they like

certainly, or give us any suggestions and just have a open mind of communication and we try to inform them of what we are doing. what the administration is doing for the department and how we advocate for them and all the hard work going on, just so they know a little bit about what's going on. >> very interesting for both parties attending and certainly worthwhile. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much commissioner fraser. vice president morgan. >> thanks for the report chief. congratulations on 30 year. you go another 30, right? >> oh, yeah. >> you will be the next joe biden. [laughter] that was just a joke. i was interested in the demonstration you are going to

have lake merced. can you give a brief description of what that will be like? >> yes, so we have gotten a new hose tender, and we got money from assembly member ting, secured us a million dollars as well as the city gave us some money to purchase 3 hose tenders. basically it is a above ground hydrant system for when pipes fail, and so will still have a source of water to bring to a fire in a neighborhood or area that is impacted by broken pipes and failure of the hydrant system, so it will be some of that and just a demonstration of what the hose tenders are capable of. they are capable of a lot more then the ones that we have that are probable 35, 40, even more

years old. but we always like to have redundancies in our systems, and we have the low pressure hydrants, high pressure hydrants and we have this above ground hydrant system. we invited all the electeds and some will be there and some are unable to come, but it is also a big deal for the west side of the city where they are putting in-they are lying pipe right now to be a auxiliary water supply. it is cobenefit system. it will mostly be used for potable water by the puc, but there is also a ability for us to use water from lake merced and other sources if we need to in the event of a disaster, because they don't have the

high pressure hydrants on the west side of the city. >> that's a little ways out, right? the high pressure infrastructure? >> the auxiliary infrastructure, yes. the infrastructure isn't actually connected to our high pressure system, which is the 3 tanks in the ashbury and twin peaks. it isn't connected to that so they can't call it part of the high pressure system, but it is a auxiliary-it can function as a auxiliary water supply system. it will be able to, but it is very expensive and the main use for the system that is going in will be potable. >> the other topic was one of these reports about the healthy streets operation center and tenderloin joint field

operations incident commander position, how is that going or should i ask chief tong or chief fang that? >> i don't have update ont that, but we have for the past several years provided the incident commander, one of the paramedic captains that has run the show for the joint field operations or healthy street operation center and it is basically go around to folks living on the streets and we offer services and it's a multiple department program, including police, public health, hsh, public works and one of our community paramedic captains oversees the whole thing, so [indiscernible] >> sounds like a good deal. that's all i got. thank you chief. >> thank you very much vice president morgan. commissioner feinstein.

>> thank you. congratulations on your 30 anniversary. i was there in spirit, and i am not dpoe going to wish upon you another 30 years. 30 years of life, but something you enjoy doing, besides being chief. i had just one question or really one comment. i was reading through these miscellaneous attachments we received and about the displaced resident information card. that is a terrific idea. i dont know where it came from or how it came to be, but i just really-i mean, it is one of those things that you want to say, why didn't we think of that sooner. it really really something that

whoever came up with should be proud of. that is number one. number two, when you are talking about the hose tenders and not having the high pressure hydrants out on the west side of town, give me a example if you can of what kind-what degree of incident would be necessary before this system would be deployed? >> if you remember the 1989 earthquake which i'm sure you do in the marina district you saw us have to use the fire boat to pump water into hose lines, because all the hydrant-all the pipes failed in that area, so it would really be a catastrophic failure of the pipes and thus impacting

the hydrant system. it also could be a fire that is literally takes up a entire city block, where the amount of water coming from the domestic water supply system is not enough and that we need more capacity, so we could utilize it then as well. >> this is going to be a good improvement. hopefully it never gets used. thank you. thank you mr. president. >> thank you very much commissioner. commissioner collins is there a comment or question at this time? thank you very much commissioner. again, congratulation chief for your 30 years and your colleagues in the department. what was nice about today's reception is your colleagues and partners and department was there and i really enjoyed each of you in terms of your comments, so thank you for that. i also wanted to comment and i really believe in the retreat and i know that you reported

the command staff retreat you had and segments you had so i wanted to comment and i think that is a really good tool. thank you very much chief. at this point, we have i believe cd3 ready to present. thank you very much chief nicholson. good evening chief kaialoa. at this point, please present. >> good evening president nakajo, vice prez [indiscernible] shayne kaialoa, deputy chief administration for san francisco department and this is my report for november, december, 2023. we begin with diversity equity inclusion office under direction of shawn buford who attended regular meeting with city racial equity leaders to

discuss policy, share ideas, discuss initiatives and to insure we are in line with the mayor's initiatives and guiding those throughout the organization and our initiatives. also participated in the dream keeper initiative and workshops and met with the racial equity career development and community outreach committees. chief buford will be acting as liaison work wg committee chair and cochairs for those committees. as chief nicholson discussed earlier, we have [indiscernible] drive the organization forward. we made adjustments to those committees having the assistant chiefs move out of the role of the chair and cochair and move into the executive committee lowing for growth in our chief officer, battalion chief and now along with captains and chair and cochair of the committee to develop their skills, drive timelines, goals

to be met, and chief buford will be a liaison to those committees-he just had a meeting discussing the work and priorities and action plans for those committees, specifically to the ones i speak of in the racial equity action committee to review and revise the react and redevelop our next action plan for the react. he also is discussing with the career development work group and developing lateral and horizontal guides to promotion, to making things [indiscernible] how to become a surf rescue person and develop a document that gives a clear pathway to all our members and all ranks of the fire department. also, chief buford and

lieutenant anderson are working with message s and partners through our partnership with sfgov. we want to better tell our story, advice folks what this department does and how we provide value to the citizens and the visitors of san francisco. we identified four videos we like to work on and the very first is recruitment with a angle to athletics. also ems, and the third-let me think about this for a moment. we are also highlighting all the divisions within our fire department to educate the public what each one of our divisions is doing and now directly effects them. those will be able to be broken down, not just shown on sfgov and able to use the footage and push to our own website to have

a broader reach and break down into smaller videos we can push to our pio through social media to capture another larger group. during the month of november and december, [indiscernible] also completed the 133 academy on-boarding process, with coordination with our office of employee health, isb and chief nicholson. it is a enormous job to get those folks through that on-boarding process. i should mention hr as well. chief buford also presented at both the h3 level 3 and h2 academies discussing what his office does and how it supports the fields and how specifically how it supports the academy. chief buford is heavily involved with [indiscernible] at the academy level to assist

with any of her needs with the academy. lieutenant anderson on december 7 attended the mission high fire ems dual enrollment program. what you see here is the training taught by truck 11. this is vehicle extrication. i think you heard me speak about this program before, but it gives a eye to the fire service and ems and provides the students with some insight on what it is that the fire service does and create a pathway to the san francisco fire department. december 18, lu ieutenant anderson, one of the hardest working folks in the fire department, in his picture he is presenting to the san francisco conservation corps developing a relationship and a pathway for those folks.

discussing the san francisco fire department what we do in suppression and ems. this partnership also lead to i believe 7 or 9 and sorry, i'll get that specific number for you. a small cohort where these folks were brought to treasure island training facility. they were taught s130 and s190 by chief [indiscernible] battalion chief at battalion 6. in this training they get to learn about wild land fire fighting, something the san francisco fire department also does. discussing wild lands fire dehavior at basic level and fire fighting tactics in the wild land interface. before i move on, i also want to discuss lieutenant anderson's work-there is so much he does and part of it is

recruitment and lieutenant anderson is out constantly with core and other folks in core recruiting at a very high pace. he utilizes social platforms to deliver messages, because he's the one man show, he is innovative and so he utilizes students to provide information to the folks where folks have a date where they can jump online, understand what the san francisco fire department does, how our hiring process works, and beyond that lieutenant anderson is in constant contact with folks assisting them through our process. it goes well above and beyond what is required to assist folks through the process of being hired in the fire department, and so i just wanted to point that out. on top of that, he works with

our it department and developing a recruitment on-boarding database. thanks to [indiscernible] and dt and that is proving so efficient. it allows lieutenant anderson to the folks in the database and follow them throughout the process so we constantly check back and insure they have the information they need to be successful. health and safety. battalion chief alba. during the month of november and december, chief alba, conducted facility dog handler interviews. the selection was nicolas brady from ems who is now working in the department of emergency management, and he will be receiving k-9 trooper hopefully in january, but we'll update

you when trooper gets here. this will be a great addition for emergency management and the fire department. we know the stressers that come with working at dem and being a 911 dispatcher, so no only will this assist our fire department but assist our partners at dem. a initiative chief alba, has been working on is [indiscernible] also known as pfas free turnouts. pfas is a forever chemical so when it is in your blood it never leaves. it is found all over in many materials, but it is also found in turnouts. there has been a large discussion on this subject at every level in the fire service from the federal to the state and so it's important that we look for pfas and where it

effects as firefighters as you know, we are in contact with many carcinogens and chemicals that are cancer causing, pfas is one, and so we partnered with isf, with five other cities. we will be doing the fire decks and line. it will be a 90 day wear test where we will be really looking for that the ability to move in those turnouts and more importantly is how much heat our firefighters are holding with this new turnout. we are looking at all those aspects and more to see how we like to move forward. early in turnouts and manufactures are not making, so these two are and we'll be testing those. because of the discussion and

because of chief alba and all his work, we've put chief alba in fire scope at the health and safety committee. fire scope is a board of stakeholders from federal agencies, state agencies, local and volunteer nfpa, oshaa. chief nicholson sits on the board of fire scope and other members on fire scope and thought it appropriate chief alba be involve in the convarsations at that level and bring information back to san francisco and initiatives to help keep our members safe. another one of-can you go back one, sorry? too fast. double click. another one of chief alba's initiatives is the removal of

undercarriage cleaning in our fire apparatus. we-this is a tradition and a long tradition in the fire department. it happens a three times a year. over day our members are checking the apparatus, checking the house, insuring the equipment is working. on triannual this is deeper clean in all areas, one of those is the undercarriage. if you look at some of those pictures, you see the diesel particulate and other chemicals coming off of the undercarriage. diesel particulates are known carcinogen and cancer causing. this was a difficult decision to make, but not so difficult. we value our tradition. we do. 100 percent. but we must do what is best for our members and so that undercarriage cleaning was removed from triangial.

not to say we won't ever do it. they will have weekly inspection and if it comes to a point where the undercarriage needs to be cleaned, they will be doing them with the controls in place of suit and 95 and gloves and eye wear to insure the members are safe when they need to take care of the undercarriage, but just enormous accomplishment and chief alba constantly looking over our health. another initiative was the scott safety and all star equipment gave the arson bureau newly purchased power air purifying respirators. this was a initiative driven by chief alba. when you think about a fire and see pictures when chief luttropp is speaking and shows when the fires are burning

[indiscernible] based on the firefighter fitness level and the work being done, but fully incapsulated breathing clean air . layer,b when the fire is out. it has been somewhat ventilated. our fire investigators go to find origin and cause. without breather apparatus. for 15 hours through the scene looking for the origin and cause without breathing apparatus. they now have breathing apparatus and it gives them a longer time to be in that environment and be protected fully so they are breathing clean air while they are working. under behavioral health, under captain burin, 58 contacts for assistance in the month of december and delivered 2 hour

training to 133 academy recruit and family. this is just another move and not just taking care of our firefighters, but taking care of their family and so i like to thank chief mo, she's in the room for allowing the bhu to come in during family orientation. we spoke of the importance of family orientations to have the folks understand what their loved ones are about to go to, but this moves into behavioral health side of things to have the families understand what the behavioral health unit does, why it exist and how it could help not just the individual but the families as they go through the academy and beyond the academy when they work for this fire department and be able to give the family

members resources before our recruits even start the academy, so if they recognize they are struggling or maybe the family is struggling because it is difficult time when your folks are in the academy and it effects not just the individual but the family, that they have resources they can go to if they need help. captain burin also working with grant writer shiloh for trauma risk management training. this is new to the fire service and it trains the behavioral health unit how to identify ptsd, ptsdi and how to provide resources for that. i know the office of employee health, dr. brocaw, nurse practitioner phillips developed a news letter of the three

viruses developing, and giving strategies such as vaccination hand washing and masking. performed 15 new hire screens for 133 fire and ems academy, 3 probation exams and over 50 return to work evaluation performed in december while standing up covid vaccine at station 49. beyond that the team at office of employee health is constantly looking for initiatives to get our folks healthy and back to work and so they also attend a labor workers comp meeting looking at the data of injuries, the length of our folks being off and listening and shares ideas and developing initiatives. one thing brought up as we speak about ptsd and ptsdi is

how to better serve the folks that are suffering from ptsd. when a person is medically given the diagnosis of ptsd and then moving into a how they prove they have ptsd and how do we track and say where it is coming from developing initiatives of how we track it in hr and keep it secure, those are early discussions they are having among many others that come out of that meeting, so they are doing far beyond what is on the slide. we have 4 candidates for dr. brocaw's replacement.

under investigative services, captain little continues to do our random testing program. he completed the 133 background investigations and is completing multiple courses in our microsoft suite. he's also sending our breathalizers for calibration. we have one out now and when that comes back we'll send another and then the third-this is not something we have to do, but something we do do, because it is absolutely important that we can validate any test we give. i feel i had something else for captain weddle. assistant chief mike mullen, deputy chief mike mullen in support service had a total 149 request for service initiated during the month of december and [indiscernible] completed and closed out.

this is all while on top of managing is hvac and heating and boiling issues. the last i counted is between 13 and 15. it isn't something i can probably do in this report in the timely manner. you can see it in your report the amount of work assistant deputy chief mullen is doing. m on top of the fleet management and accountability where our money is going and insuring that we are receiving what we need based on our funds being spent.

they come out, they want to see what are we burning, how much of it are we burning, how many particulates are sent into the atmosphere and how long the burn lasts. chief miller also conducted

multiple design meetings with stakeholders such as chief mo, deputy chief luttropp and others in the design process of the new training facility. the master plan was selected by chief nicholson, which is a important milestone and represents a general location of the primary structures on the site. through those months of november and december, we were visited by the 132 academy when they ran their 10 miles in the last week coming to headquarters and ending up at dot. we were happy to meet them that day and to support them through their run. this is the longest run of the academy and first time they have come by headquators and nice to see the academy. chief nicholson gave the badge pin to 132 academy november 17.

this is truck 19 and the class picture in front of the facility. november 21, they distributed hot chocolate candy canes and cookies at saint anthonys. carved turkeys, thanksgiving event and november 22 graduated 12 new emt's. november 23 helped canturicy carving for help self-for the elderly. november 20, chief nicholson spoke at the tree lighting caremony and congratulated firefighter chris irven for protector of the year. we also participated in the winter walk at union square and there is another one.

[indiscernible] sf firefighter toy program at the saint francis hotel, and sally who you saw in the last meeting was honored at the basketball game december 11 and that picture on the left is my hyping the crowd up. [laughter] thank you and happy to take any questions. >> thank you very much chief. at this point we'll take public comment off cd3 report. >> there is nobody approaching the podium, and nobody on our public comment line. >> public comment is closed. commissioners, at this point any questions or comments for chief kaialoa? commissioner feinstein. >> good evening chief kaialoa. you have been busy. i have some random questions that will kind of go from one

area to another. i share your concerns and i'm really happy to hear about pfas and with furniture now being made with carcinogenic cushions and coverings and frames, the last thing our firefighters need is to be wearing carcinogenic turnout gear, so i have seen in a couple stations the washing process and hanging them up and separately from people, but that's not going to undo things, so i really think that is a very important area arena to explore.

thank you for doing that. i just had to know because i wasn't sure, what is [indiscernible] >> i know- >> will you say it for me? >> i hate to try. >> what is that project? >> i don't know enough about it. let me get with chief alba. i did see it and i'll discuss with him and report back to you. >> okay, just curious as to what it was and what it was intended to do. >> yep. >> moving over now to--one of our favorite topics, fire station 7. >> yes. >> okay. my understanding with fire station 7 was to be included in the current bond that was used to construct the new 35, is

that correct? >> what? >> that station 7 was initially included in the same bond that was used to build the new 35. >> to build the new fire training facility. if i may, through the president. >> help me here. >> yes. that is correct. it was initially--it is in dire need of replacement and it was in the-on the list of things to do, yes and with this bond however, the entire bond is being used for the fire training facility. i'm having high level conversations with several people in high level positions in city hall, because this is

not meeting our need, and we have a great need for facility remodels and rebuilds, and the program that is being utilized right now that we are mandated to utilize is not serving our great need, so those conversations are underway. i have spoken with commissioner collins about it as well, but will keep you apprised and let you know of progress on that. it is- >> it is important. >> it is important and frustrating for us because we know the need, we see the need, we all worked in these stations and it isn't just station 7. there are multitude of other stations that need work, seismic work, some need to be completely redone, so there is a great need out there and our

need is not currently being met, so more to follow. >> alright. thank you. i'm all most done. everybody please indulge me. how much have we spent so far on the new training facility? >> i'll have chief miller come up and brief you on what we spent. >> [indiscernible] >> miller, assistant depy chief. the current responding for the fire training facility is approximately $4 million at this point. there are a number other incumbered funds because we

have engaged a architect and the contract is over 12 million dlr, but the expenditure so far through the 10 weeks of conspt design are limited. we haven't started any correction, but there have been a number of vendors engaged for the planning purposes and the evaluation of the soils, civil engineering activities and like i said, we are most of the way through concept design, so looking forward to getting our first estimate back and seeing how realistic the ideas are as far as fitting thin budget which is allowed. >> very good. thank you. good. moving along, that is very good. last question. i promise. i note the-under the potable emergency firefighter water system, that the project estimates per mile of pipe

instillation have gone from $15 million to $43 million. [indiscernible] [multiple speakers] >> yes, i can speak to that briefly. >> thank you. >> if you want more detail we can certainly get it from chief miller again. so, yes, we were quite shocked at that as well, and that was the initial estimate by the puc and it was clearly under-estimated, so we were quite shocked as well. not happy about it. >> any remedy? >> not that i see, no. we are-again, we have to work with who we have to work with

within city government, and yeah--i believe is it 60/40 we are paying for this system? 60 percent fire department is paying for 40 percent puc and again, it is mostly going to be used for potable. it will obviously be used in significant emergencies by us, but it is primarily another more potable system for them. cobenefit they call it. cobenefit. >> a cobenefit. >> uh-huh. >> i learn something new every day. thank you chief and thank you chief kaialoa. i yield. thank you mr. president. >> did you have a question as well? okay. commissioner collins and then i'll ask my question. go ahead, please. >> thank you for that very

thorough report chief kaialoa. in the dei section, i was wondering what you see as your biggest challenge going forward? it looks like a lot of emphasis is in placed on recruitment and that's going well. what about after you get people here and part of the department and-- >> it is going well, but we still need to work on recruitment. there is much work to be done still, in recruit ment. we'll continue those efforts. one challenge we see is career development, and insuring that what we do in career development is fair and

equitable throughout. what we are ready to meet those challenges and we have chief buford who is excellent, and has the connections and has the training and meeting regularly with racial equity leaders to develop initiatives to meet the challenges. >> great. that's good to hear. keep going forward. switching topics, i'm thinking about the neg legible seismic safety of some of our fire houses. i know that it is unacceptable for many public buildings to not meet seismic standards. i'm wondering if whatever laws, regulations cover schools and other government buildings could be extended to our fire

houses? eme i'm wondering if in this current cry for more housing development in our city and conversion of office to housing and other uses we could also point out when those areas are going to be serviced by fire houses that are substandard and might be at risk, seismically and in other ways to take care of this development? in other words, we are part of a neighborhood safety envelope, and i am not sure that developers of this kind of housing or office or conversion have a eye to the infrastructure that supports them. i wonder if that's a argument

that we could make? in general. >> i'm happy to sit down and talk with you further about this. what i would say is that a lot of the new buildings have new fire safety codes and regulations within them, which is likely to reduce the need for fire protection from us, but there still will be more people that we need to help if there is some kind of fire and obviously through medical services. >> believe me, i understand. i built those buildings. >> we know you did. >> smile at the fire marshal, but there is always a incident where the fire department is called. >> always. >> without fail. >> yes. >> so we are part of the neighborhood infrastructure and i wonder if that's realized as these projects are being

approved? a thought. >> thank you. >> i have many since our conversation, most of which i will not repeat now, about my brain is churning, including third party estimates for some of the costs that keep escalating, and not relying on one source of estimating when at the outset of a project and then at appropriate intervals. maybe having outside eyes look at it to verify could be a good idea. >> yes. i know chief mullen spoke about that in a meeting we were in earlier this week, so i know there are efforts being made towards certain projects, roofing projects, et cetera, so yes. >> great. >> thank you for that. >> thank you. >> thank you very much commissioner collins.

commissioner fraser. >> thank you. thank you for your report chief kaialoa. really interesting. also interested in the pfas. you say in the notes it is a actual study other cities are participating around the country so terrific. i'm imagining they study the effectiveness or fete fit and feel. are they doing anything biological in the study? >> not yet in the trial wear. we are hoping they begin after the trial wear. i confirmed that with chief alba, this morning. >> maybe that is second phase or biological measurements. that would be good. what i understand about the [indiscernible] whatever it comes from broccoli, cabbage and brusal sprouts. it is more a supplement then a chemical.

that's all. >> thank you very much. >> eat your brusal sprouts. >> vice president morgan. >> when can we get the brock shots? [laughter] >> coming to you, sir. i know chief alba is working on it. >> great. commissioner feinstein spoke on one of the items that caught my eye as well with the infrastructure of the water pipes per mile went from $15 million to $43 million and i'm like, wow. what happened there? oh, well. i notice in the maintenance we are doing it is very costly. it is usually heaters and water boilers i was noticing on the various stations around the city and it is like you know,

little under a million dollars. i dont know if that is a year, but one time pending you know what i mean? budget talks are coming up. we get electric heaters in there. [laughter] just trying to be creative here, you know what i mean? yeah, this is-they just caught my eye. i know the pipefitters are pretty pricy. i know some of the buildings are older and once they get them fixed it is a done deal so that's a good thing. >> it is costly work and chief mullen is very on top of the financials and insuring what we are being charged is correct. >> right. >> and fighting back if we have issue. >> also, going back to under

carriage, you are cleaning your trucks that clean? >> very important time during triennial. there is a lot of pride in the station and how the apparatus and station is kept, not just for the fire station, it is for the public and so part of that is the under carriage and it is beautiful when it is done, but we know there is carcinogens. not that it wont happen anymore, but when it does, we want our people protected. >> that's good. you can see safety potential safety violations or hazards shall i say. when you are talking about the under carriage elimination of under carriage, you are talking about the materials that you use to clean the under carriage, the elemination of that? >> what the weekly inspections they are on top of it while

they are inspecting other areas the apparatus and if it is noted the under carriage needs to be cleaned it will happen before triennial. what the proper ppe. >> okay. and then you answered one of my questions. i said what is trooper, so that is new service. >> that is our new k-9. >> alright. welcome to the family trooper. >> yellow lab. >> thank you for this great report. a lot of information in here and thank you for your report chief kaialoa. >> thank you very much vice president morgan. thank you for your report, for your comprehensive report. thank you chief for chiming in with information. as you can tell, with a full body of commission the expertise that are up here with the kind of questions that they

ask as well so thank you very much for your comprehensive report, chief. madam secretary. >> item 5, revision to rules and regulations revising 2302 assumption of command. chief luttropp to present the revision of rules and regulations article 23, deputy chief of ems and community paramedicine, section 2303. assumption of command. >> good evening. >> good evening chief, go ahead. >> i do want to clean up confusion about this item. this is actually a informational item. going back to september when you approved our rules and regulations i wanted to present the finished product, the clean version of the document so you have it before you and i did

put one at each of your desk. there is no substantive changes to the document and i thank you for the efforts you put into driving it to this point and we expect issuance to the field this week and i just wanted to thank you and i did want to thank-you heard his name a lot, chief mullen before he took on the task of support service, but tremendous amount of work into the rules and regulations so want to pass that on. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much chief. as a update in terms of this particular report, thank you for your 99 page--hold on for a moment, chief. [multiple speakers] any commission comment beyond the chief update. it isn't a action item, it is information item colleagues. thank you very much chief. >> thank you.

>> noted, it is in the record. >> item 6, fire department operating budget fiscal year 24-25 and 25-26. discussion presentation from mark corso deputy director finance planning on the san francisco fire department operating department for commission review and discussion. discussion of sffd base budget and budget structure as well as issues and priorities. >> thank you very much madam secretary. good evening director corso. >> good evening. mark corso, finance and planning here to continue discussion on the department budget continuing from last commission meeting and as we move forward through this year's process. last meeting we reviewed the city's fiscal picture and the budget instructions given to departments from the mayor's office. this meeting we'll get into the department budget more from the structure and make up of the

budget to also the challenges and priorities we have going forward. just a brief overview of highlights from the last meeting, as we discussed there, we received some of the information from the city joint report that outlined the city's fiscal outlook for the next few years. as part of that we do a 2 year rolling budget process and city is projecting $800 million deficit over the next 2 years of the budget process. the fiscal year 24-25 budget and 25-26. that will be the period we will be negotiating during the process. as a result of that large deficit, departments were requested to propose ongoing reductions to their reliance on the general fund equivalent to 10 percent in each year along with 5 percent contingency and for the fire department that equates to $12.2 million for the 10 percent and $6.12

million for 5 percent. just to note, there's a number structural issues the city needs to address during the process. if all departments somehow gave their 10 percent in each year and 5 percent contingency, that is a little over half of the overall deficit so there a number of moving pieces. labor negotiations are ongoing. all other city departments so there is a few other areas that are up in the air. briefly want to touch on the timeline. this is back to the normal cadence interrupted briefly by covid but back to the normal timeline, september budget instructions are released. early in 2024, we are work wg the controller and mayor office on in february the city will release the 6 month report of the current fiscal year. if there are impacts in that

report that will impact the process those will be noted but generally that is restricted to the current fiscal year. february 21 is the mandated date for budget submittal to the mayor and controller office from all city departments. over the next few months after that submittal the joint report is updated with additional information both on the expenditure and revenue side and in addition the 6 month report becomes 9 month report for the current fiscal year. june 1 is the mandated date for the mayor to submit a balanced budget to the board of supervisors. during the last 2 weeks of june is generally we have our budget hearings in front of budget and finance at the board and then as a result of those hearings, the final budget is negotiated among the supervisors and signed off by the mayor and that usually happens late july or early august.

commissioner the timeline for the department here, last meeting we went over instructions budget instructions and overview of the process. we'll get into tonight's meeting more discussion specifically pertaining to the department budget and then potentially at the next meeting on february 14 we would have a final proposal submitted to the commission for review before our submittal date on the 21. if needed, occasionally in the past it happened where we need a special meeting that could be held the timeline of february 15-20 and as mentioned again, the 21 is the date for our departmental submittal. following up on the last meeting, here is the items for discussion tonight. just high level overview budget summary of our budget and structure of the budget. the sources, revenues where we

get our funding from. uses expenses where the money is going to. what type of things we are spending on and how is the budget broken down in that regard and where and what areaerize the different budget aspects of our overall budget. and then just discussion of the base budget, whautis it base budget and how does it relate to what we are talking about going forward and also start the discussion--you hear in all the reports every commission meeting from the chiefs, what are the challenges. we have a number of them and they come to light all throughout the year, about also get highlighted during this process, so we will get into that a little bit in more detail. at the highest level, our budget we are considering is the 24-25 budget and 25-26 budget and the second year last year's process becomes the first year as it is rolling budget. overall, our budget is about $530 million. we are very heavily reliant on

the general fund. approximately $366 million this year and so whether there is changes directly or indirectly to that budget where the city is gets reduction in overall revenues that may not specifically relate to fire, there is a impact as there is just overall competition for the limited dollars across the city so we have some challenges. we do have some revenues and do pursue federal opportunities and othericide funding sources, but for the most part we are predominantly funded by the general fund. here is a high level summary what we call funds. the different big aspects of the department budget. we have the airport, hundred percent funded by the airport. that equates to $36 million in the upcoming year. our general operating fund. when we talk about the budget this is what we are referring to. this covers operations, administration, support

service, prevention, investigation, nert, all those areas, training, general day to day operation frz the department. that is rolled up into that number there. the annual fund and in toing fund are generally project based where we have smaller projects either one time allocations or ongoing. those are much smaller in nature where some capital allocations would be included in our continuing fund. things like that. we also have a work order fund where we are providing services for other departments. we do get reimbursed for those services, so we are looking mainly at port of san francisco. we are funding fire prevention services there in addition to fire boat services and fire employees and we build the port and recover those costs directly to our budget but they are tracked separatery and technical transfers. overall you see adding up, but predominantly it is our day to day budget we are talking

about. here is a very high level summary of where those monies are going. by what type of expenditure. we are predominantly not changing. there isn't a lot of changes proposedcurrently in the budget and rolling from year to year. we are about 90 percent salaries and benefits, 90 percent personnel cost and as we see on the next slide, that is mainly dedicated to front line operational staff so the majority of where the funds go and a lot hof the minimum staffing requirements response time mandates dictate how many people we have on duty, how many apparatus going out at one time so flexibility wise we are very limited when we talk about personnel. otherwise, a lot of these what we talk about personnel meeting prop s and staffing requirements, all these other areas directly support those efforts so whether you are

talking about fuel, medical supplies, apparatus, cap ital work, all these other areas are very much relied upon to fund the front line operations of our department, so we will talk in the next slide, but our flexibility is extremely limited, even for the things not technically in prop f or other minimum staffing requirements. all the other infrastructure in the department supports it. here you see overview operationally where the budget is allocated and you see the red piece of the pie is front line operation that include fire suppression and ems. we have broken out all the other areas that directly support operations, administration, support service, as well as our other areas such as radio, ems6 community paramedicine, training et cetera. i guess the main message from

the previous two slides is that the majority of our budget is allocated to personnel costs that drcktly support front line emergency medical fire suppression and community paramedicine operations. so, as part of your documentation, you received a packet that is a summary of what we call our base budget so there are three budget years essentially in here. one is current year, which is approved and vetted last year then the two base budgets for the next two years. this includes a base budget is essentially what we haveas far as what is turned over to the department to make adjustments. this includes all known health and benefit rates, all known salary mou cost impacts, any work orders with other departments, any contractual adjustments, anything known at the time of it budget being approvaled is then what we are allowed to modify off and when

we talk about reductions or additional revenue that is working off the base budget. what exactly is included in our base budget? we maintain in our base budget our front line ems community paramedicine and fire suppression staffing level and staffing at all stations we have today. the base budget includes as we have in the current year and in the past few years, 2h2 firefighter academy each fiscal year along with h3 paramedic academies to maintain current staffing levels. it isn't proposing additional staffing to those divisions, but helps maintain those staffing levels and then there are allocations for equipment and capital projects approved last year in the process but those will get reevaluated every year even though it is 2 year budget. what are our challenges? i don't think any of these are

of surprise to any of the commissioners, but we'll talk through them a bit and get more discussion with them. there are a number of outside especially this year budget process we have election year. mou negotiations. the overall status of the economy are outside factors that may influence not just department budget but city budget, so those are a lot of unknowns as we enter this year. right now a lot of the projections from the city do not include recession. whether that comes to fruition or not, those impacts are not included, so only worsen the outlook economically if that was to occur. for the department as i mentioned our limited flexibility with staffing. we dont have like other departments the ability to move people around as needed, because we have to have and maintain minimum staffing levels which means if we move somebody we need to back-fill which cost overtime, so we don't have a lot of flexibility with staffing.

we have a lot of our personnel cost making up the vast majority of our budget. not a lot of flexibility elsewhere so a lot of the for example you saw about 30 something million for work orders but a lot is due to workers comp and other areas we cant really eliminate or get rid of, so we work with efficiency there but nothing to the scale of what is requested for the department. so, for the overall level of reduction that are being requested about $12.2 million, we are looking to find any efficiencies boat operational and fiscal to relate to that, but in realty, something that full full amount of that would definitely reach into impacting front line operation and emergency staffing, so that is obviously a huge challenge for us and we have communicated that and will continue to communicate that to the mayor office over the next 3, 4 months and they are well aware of our challenges there.

where are we in the process? as i mentioned, we are having internal discussion on priorities and challenges and needs. just because we are in an economic downturn, doesn't mean our needs have magically disappeared, so it is a challenge to weigh those needs along with potential budget reductions, so we are obviously taking a good look at all the aspects of the department. we are continuing staffing analysis with projected hires, new hires and retirements and overall staffing levels look like. we are looking at our facility and equipment allocations for our projected limited funds over the next few years and how we make the most of the money allocated. we are looking at revenues across the board. ems, fire prevention revenue. not necessary looking to propose additional fees but other revenue opportunities that may come across.

even though our budget is submitted on february 21, we will be in very detailed discussions with the mayor's office over the next few months up until june 1 release of the budget. with that, happy to answer any questions. >> thank you very much director corso. we'll do public comment off director corso's report. >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> thank you. public comment is closed. commissioners, at this point any questions, comments for director corso? vice president morgan. thank you. >> thanks for your report. great report mr. corso. as far as the negotiations with local 798, is that contract up pretty soon? excuse my ignorance, but i wasn't--when is that due?

>> police and fire are not up this year. it is all the other labor that is-local 21- >> all the other-i believe every other union then police and fire. police and fire did negotiations last year and all the other unions are up this year. >> okay. when will that be up or particular ly the one that effects us, local 798? when will they be renegotiating? >> that is 3 year contract and this is the first year so another couple years out. >> just looking for a year so it makes sense. thank you, sir. >> absolutely. >> thank you vice president morgan. commissioner fraser. >> thank you for your report director corso. >> thank you. >> i have one question if you can say a few words on the high

level budget the expenditures part, the work orders being the third highest number on that page, $37 million. >> yes. >> could you just say a little about that please? >> absolutely. we have a few very large work orders. i'll look at specifically the upcoming budget year. you mentioned the one in the current year. about 17 and a half million dollar is the workers compensation work order. we don't have worker comp insurance, we have division of department of human resources that handles all the working comp claims and we get billed and work with them on that. that budget has gone up during covid and still seeing impact of that as that goes forward. we had a large jump in claims, but we are obviously i think chief kaialoa mentioned our regular meetings with dhr to try to improve that process from getting people back to work and navigating the various

complexities of the process so that is huge chunk, all most half. we have $6.7 million from central shops which is what we use for maintenance of the vehicles. we are working with shops to issue having a aging fleet is you have more and more issues. justification additional nab nob we have another about 6 $6 and half million for the main work order with department of technology for it infrastructure across the department and that is a city wide allocation that broken up by the number of personnel in the department. these work orders are not held against so if there is a increase [indiscernible] it is a large piece and very limited flexibility we have with that.

>> the $17 million and 6.7, those are services for buying from the city of san francisco? >> the entire amount for work orders is all from various other departments. >> all of it. okay. >> yeah. >> thank you. >> thank you commissioner fraser. at this point, thank you very much director corso. our next meeting is february 24 bring action-excuse me, february 14. when are you bringing this item? >> it is february >> next meeting february 14 you will bring the budget item to be approved? >> yes. we haven't fully developed our proposal but imagine it will be in line with previous years where we are not able to meet that target reduction without impacting staffing and i don't think that is something the chief and department will recommend, but we will provide additional information well in advance of the meeting. >> thank you very much for that

statement. >> you said it is possible we have another meeting before the next meeting to answer any questions? >> special meeting will be most likely after that meeting. >> after the next meeting. >> if you have other questions happy to talk off-line. >> just wanted to verify that. >> thank you very much director corso. madam secretary. >> item 7, commission president's report and update. report and update from fire commission president stephen nakajo on guardians of the city including expend which of the willman trust fund and communication with supervisors stefani's office regarding payroll deduction legislation. >> thank you very much. colleagues this is just a update information. it was written in agenda to enable to talk about guardians of the city in terms of our

relationship with the fire commission and then separately to that is possible ordinance that supervisor stefani is going to sponsor, so let me narrate this information as a carry-over item to the next officers and the commissioner will be taking up. just as a point of information, guardians of the city are not just the fire department. guardians of the city is sheriff and police department. historical organization. very often when we talk about gotc we think of the fire relationship component of that, but i wanted to make that clarity, because gotc has been around in terms of the city and county for quite a long time doing very events with us the fire department. point of information, we had 150 anniversary. as a point of request for proposal, out of the wellman fund we the fire commission

have oversight on gotc came to us for a request of $146.500. again, this is the base notes of my information for a proposal that was written in terms of rigs, repairs, because at the time for the 150 we had multiple events and one of them was a parade concept. in terms of that time, 2015 to this present day, as your commissioner i want you to be informed i have been try toog have multiple meetings with gotc in termoffs the board members and have and been doing continuous communication because basically the goal for us the fire commission is close our books with the wellman fund in terms of 146 [indiscernible] to this day, gotc submitted various amounts of record keeping for us or receipts or accountabilities.

we communicated through our department request for simple spreadsheet in terms of the accountability of the 146-500, so i'm informing you that that has been done through various formats and as recently as the meeting november 2, gotc of the fire component, i recognize that, sent us a 10 page report that basically we had to decipher,b which is difficult and challenging. bottom line, i saw some accountabilities in terms of 146-500. rest assured personally speaking that was accounted for, but the issue became a $6 thousand balance and $6 thousand balance there was discrepancy of gotc can take those remaining funds and respond it as is, as a donation and there was dialogue from the department in terms of that, but whatever it was, if there was a different allocation for that $6 thousand balance that

they would come from the commission to request that difference. i particularly at the meeting november didn't have difficulty if that expended in that direction, but i wanted to know exactly what it was. through my research and such in terms of official information, but october 20 our department through chief mullens sent a memo to gotc about removing antiques rigs at treasure island. something in terms of our compliance, we know we have to abandon the island and so what i understand is the remaining balance, which was the $6 thousand was used to remove those rigs. to the opponent of them coming to us and asking us for permission, it is a mute point. it is already occurred. i pretty much accepted in my personal opinion that the 146-500 is accounted for once we get a good spreadsheet that

can reinforce that and once i understand or we the commission know that $6 thousand was used to remove the rigs at ti, i can accept it as well. at this particular point, i wanted the commissioners to know as we carry over that we are trying to close the books. i feel there is accountability of that. again, i think gotc has done a great support system one our 150 and that organization is made of sheriffs and police as well. i wanted to let you know from this point moving forward and hopefully all other submittals of information documentation will be forthwidth. i'll pause, take a breath because supervisor stefani, use the terminology of her good intention and will is thinking-i use that word because it isn't official of an ordinance she will support in terms of supporting gotc as a

body. that would be a separate ordinance, has nothing to do with the fire commission, accept for information. that ordinance talks to and i check very strongly with the legislative aid of supervisor stefani legislative aid [indiscernible] to at least convey to the commissioners that the intention of that ordinance is it to give a optional donation by the city employee because at one point the information the combined charitable donations that were annual apparently has been done away with. it isn't moved to formality and the legislative aid i asked if he can meet with the various commissioners to explain the intention of the supervisors, but i wanted to put this all to

bed and closeier as i finish off my term as president and just let you the colleagues of this commission know that we are trying to put closeier on the gotc and wellman and separate is supervisor stefani ordinance and gotc and supervisor stefani. with that, that is information briefing and eel polk move on. thank you very much colleague s for your support. it will be a carry-over item so among you all. madam secretary, do i need to take public comment off my update report? >> yes, you do. >> i will call for public comment of the president's update. >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> alright. public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> item 8, election of officer.

discussion and possible action. item a, nomination and election of commission president. >> alright colleagues. thank you very much. it is a action item. it is discussion and at this point, i guess we'll go through the motion first. madam secretary, then ask for public comment and then take the vote. >> correct. >> colleagues, may i-the floor is open for nominee of the president of the fire commission. commissioner fraser. >> yes. i would like to nominate someone. first of all, i want to thank you for your leadership, your mentorship and stewardship of our group and of me personally as a newer commissioner and i'm just so pleased i got to serve with you in that capacity. i learned a lot from you and i thank you. that's a lot of ships including your cruise ship and now your

gotc ship. thank you for everything president nakajo. i want to nominate my fellow commissioner morgan for president of the fire commission. somebody who we all know is even, steady, is kind and a leader we would be grateful to follow, so i nominate morgan for president. >> there is the nomination to nominate the vice president morgan for the presidency. >> i second the motion. >> commissioner feinstein. thank you very much for that second as well. >> and i third it. [laughter] >> commissioner collins, thank you very much for that as well. i'm just can going to before we call for the question and vice president morgan, are you willing to serve in that capacity vice president morgan? >> yes, i accept and i like to thank the commission for your support and your nomination and confidence in me and with your help we can get through this

thing. can't do it without you guys. >> thank you very much. call for the question. [roll call] >> the motion is is unanimous. >> thank you. >> next meeting we can switch. >> item b, nomination and election of commission vice president. sorry, we never took public comment on the president election. >> thank you for that correction. can we get public comment on the president's nomination election? >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> public comment is closed. >> item b, nomination and

election of commission vise president. >> thank you very much. the floor is open for vice president of the fire commission. >> yes, i would like to nominate to serve as our next vice president, commissioner fraser. i just like to say a few words if i might. with leave of the chair, i do want to thank you president nakajo. you have been a tireless worker and i think as everybody in this room know, but maybe not the 5 or 10 people watching on webex, you have been on this commission 17 years, and in addition to that for more years have served as just an amazing civic leader, and you really

need to be recognized that for the many things you have done for the community at large as well as the fire community, and really want to thank you for your guidance and i repeat what commissioner fraser said, but you just really have been there for all of us and i know there's a saying but i'll get it wrong. television-telephone, telefirefighter or ask commissioner nakajo. that you just need to add that on there. thank you. thank you for your service. now turning to the right and marcy fraser is really amazing

woman. as a retired er nurse at general, she was always on the cutting edge and hearing the stories that come out volunteered to work on the very first hiv/aids ward, which if memory serves was ward 5b, but i may have that wrong. always worked the toughest job, and continued on since she retired to still remain a service to those in need in the community and i just think it is remarkable because she's really helped us. she really understands ems component and can pronounce the drug i can't pronounce and knows what is in it and just

brings a level of excellence and knowledge that this commission is responsible to oversee, but sometimes very hard to figure out. aside from that, she is just a absolute delight to work with. always willing to share her knowledge and really a thoughtful hard working wonderful person, and you have taken on this mantle without any hesitation and you have gone for it, so i would like to nominate you to be the commission next vice president. >> thank you very much commissioner feinstein. we need a second colleagues on

this nomination motion. commissioner collins. >> i second with great enthusiasm. >> thank you very much commissioner collins. commissioner--let me ask the question madam secretary, are you willing to serve as vice president commissioner fraser? >> yes, i will. [roll call] photography motion unanimous. >> thank you very much. congratulations. [applause] madam secretary. >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> item 9, adjournment. >> before we adjourn, i wanted to publicly acknowledge and

thank the secretary of the commission for the support to the commission and the whole commission and to you chief nicholson and command staff. thank you very much for all your support. this meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned]

>> you are watching san francisco rising. a special guest today. >> i am chris and you are watching san francisco rising. focused on rebuilding and reimagining our city. our guest is the director of financial justice in the san francisco office of treasure to talk about how the city has taken a national lead in this effort and how the program is comlishing the goals. welcome to the show. >> thanks so much for having me. >> thank you for being here. can we start by talking about the financial justice project in a broad sense. when did the initiative start and what is the intent?

>> sure. it launched in 2016. since then we take a hard look at fines, fees, tickets, financial penalties hitting people with low incomes and especially people of color really hard. it is our job to assess and reform these fines and fees. >> do you have any comments for people financially stressed? >> yes. the financial justice project was started in response pop community outcry about the heavy toll of fines and fees. when people struggling face an unexpected penalty beyond ability to pay they face a bigger punishment than originally intended. a spiral of consequences set in. a small problem grows bigger. for example the traffic ticket

this is california are hundreds of dollars, most expensive in the nation. a few years back we heard tens of thousands in san francisco had driver's licenses suspended not for dangerous driving but because they couldn't afford to pay traffic tickets or miss traffic court date. if they lose the license they have a hard time keeping their job and lose it. that is confirmed by research. we make it much harder for people to pay or meet financial obligations. it is way too extreme of penalty for the crime of not being able to pay. we were also hearing about thousands of people who were getting cars towed. they couldn't pay $500 to get them back and were losing their cars. at the time we hand people a bill when they got out of jail to pay thousands in fees we charged up to $35 per day to rent electronic ankle monitor,

$1,800 upfront to pay for three years of monthly $50 probation fees. people getting out of jail can't pay these. they need to get back on their feet. we weren't collecting much on them. it wasn't clear what we were accomplishing other than a world of pain on people. we were charging mothers and grandmothers hundreds of dollars in phone call fee to accept calls from the san francisco jail. we heard from black and brown women struggling to make terrible choices do. i pay rent or accept this call from my incarcerated son. the list goes on and on. so much of this looked like lose-lose for government and people. these penalties were high pain, hitting people hard, low gain. not bringing in much revenue. there had to be a better way.

>> it is important not to punish people financially there. are issues to address. >> sure. there are three core principles that drive our work. first, we believe we should be able to hold people accountable without putting them in financial distress. second you should not pay a bigger penalty because your wallet is thinner. $300 hits doctors and daycare workers differently. they can get in a tailspin, they lose the license. we dig them in a hole they can't get out of. these need to be proportioned to people's incomes. third. we should not balance the budget on the backs of the poorest people in the city. >> financial justice project was

launched in 2016. can you talk about the accomplishments? >> sure sometimes it is to base a fine on the ability to pay. consequences proportional to the offense and the person. other times if the fee's job is to recoupe costs primarily on low-income people. we recommend elimination. other times we recommend a different accountability that does not require a money payment. here are a few examples. we have implemented many sliding scale discounts for low-income people who get towed or have parking tickets they cannot afford. you pay a penalty according to income. people with low incomes pay less. we also became the first city in the nation to stop suspending people's licenses when they could not pay traffic tickets. we focused on ways to make it

easier for people to pay through payment plans, sliding discounts and eliminating add on fees to jack up prices of tickets. this reform is the law of the land in california. it has spread to 23 other states. we also stopped handing people a bill when they get out of jail and eliminated fees charged to people in criminal justice system. they have been punished in a lot of ways. gone to jail, under supervision, the collection rate on the fees was so low we weren't bringing in much revenue. the probation fee collection rate was 9%.