>> good morning everyone! good morning, good morning! so, normally when we gather on these stairs at there department of emergency management, it is not for great news, okay? sometimes we are up here talking about stuff going down for other things about warning people, but today we are here and so thrilled to celebrate and so we will get into why we're here, but mostly it is to celebrate the ribbon cutting of new 911 dispatch operation center. [applause] i will turn it over to my boss,

the woman that helped guide us here and for whom i'm so proud to work, mayor london breed. [applause] >> thank you mary ellen carol and thank you to all our 911 dispatchers and so many people who work in this building every single day answering over 3,000 calls, every single week. more importantly, during sometimes the most stressful times in peoples lives. we know the people who work in this facility are key to our emergency response, and deserve to have a facility that works better for them. today, we are so proud to announce that this facility has been renovated on time and on budget-- [applause] --thanks to the leadership of mary ellen carol, as well as the

department of public works! carla short! because they know how i get when we start going over budget. but, today is one of those days to celebrate. a renovated facility that expands the capacity because we know how desperately our city still needs more 911 dispatchers, so please apply. we also know there is need for appropriate training space and more importantly, when our dispatchers and the people who work here need a break, they should have a decent break room, in order to refresh and to get back into the trenches to do the important work necessary to respond to emergencies all over the city. last week we celebrated dispatcher appreciation week in san francisco is, like we do every single year, and i want to thank the board of supervisors for recognizing so many amazing dispatchers who answer the call every single time. you know, we are lucky that we

have people who are patient, that are kind,b that are understanding and in fact, this community works together as a family to lift one another up, because even after those calls end, there are still sometimes things that stick to you and you need support from the people around you to help get through it. today is especially because we have made the needs of the people who work here every day front and center by rehabilitating this space and making it a better working environment. that's why we are here today, to celebrate this extraordinary milestone and again, i want to thank so many of the folks, including our general contractor, as well as the department of technology and others who had to be very creative in getting this done as quickly as possible, because we know how important these calls are every single day for the people of san francisco. with that, i want to turn it

over to the folks who helped lead the effort and express my appreciation to public works and director of the department, carla short. [applause] >> thank you mayor breed. good morning everyone. i'm so excited to be here representing public works, the team that helped deliver these critical improvements on behalf of the them and the people of san francisco. as the mayor said, the 911 dispatch center is a critical nerve center that never sleeps. acting as the connective tissue between dispatchers, first responders, public safety and the communities we serve. because the 911 dispatch center is 24/7 operation, the work was not without logistical challenges. my project team is nodding over here. the project team cruck workers and 911 dispatchers worked together to make sure the project advance said without hindering the critical function of the

911 operation. i want to thank the project team lead by lisa zou, they are over here. [applause] delivering projects like these that benefit all who live work and visit here is a privilege. showcase resiliency public safety and our people. thank you for the opportunity to say a few words and like to bring back mary ellen carol who championed this project and dispatcher team from the start. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. before i get fl into the details i know it isn't women history month anymore, but i think it should be every month. i would like to point out a few things, mayor london breed, director of emergency management, the director of public works, the lead project

manager, lisa zoa for dpw, the lead team for project management for dem, lisa emanuel-rachel emanuel, lisa and tory burns. all women lead. [applause] all women lead on time and on budget because that's how we do it. alright. so, this really is a pivotal moment for us. this has been a long time in the planning. i again want to thank you mayor breed for your leadership and your support in bringing us here, but also you unwavering support for public safety. as you can see, we have our public safety leadership partners here and so grateful to chief scott, chief nicholson isn't here, but her deputy chief is here and of course

sheriff miyamoto who i believe is behind me. yes. definitely want to thank the 2020 earthquake safety and emergency response bond that is supported this project and supported by the board of supervisors and the mayor and the taxpayers. this space is a modern space. the technology was upgraded. we needed to upgrade our technology to be ready for the next generation 911 for our newcombputed aided dispatch system which is joint with public safety and department of technology and to be able to bring the tech naul we need to best serve the resident and visitors of the city. i already did the project team and as the mayor said, last week was

dispatcher appreciation week and so i just like to take a moment to recognize a few people who were recognized last week. bill--dispatcher of the year. [applause] you will hear from him next. valerie tucker, who was here recognized for her really exalismary ems call. [applause] and dorian lock or call him d lock, dispatcher of the year. [applause] being a 911 dispatcher is not easy and that's a understatement. their days are filled with challenges and the emotional stress of the crisis they respond to, yet this team

and i have been with the city doing emergency work for my whole career over 20years, i have never met a more dedicated group of people in my life. these are people that go above and beyond every single day, and i am just so thrilled to be able to give them the tools that they need, a more-a beautiful work space to work, and absolutely more comfort and as the mayor said, spaces for they can go when they get that call that is so impactful that really any one of us would send us on leave for probably several months and they take 5 minutes, maybe 15 and are back on the phone. so, i also-saying that, it is a very reward ing career and they wouldn't be here if they didn't love it, so guess what? we are hiring. the base salary for a 911

dispatcher is $106 thousand. that doesn't include overtime and that is the first of 6 steps. in addiction, we have taken a lot of measures this year to make the process to become a dispatcher and the process of going through the hiring a lot easier and shorter and so we are hopeful people will look at the job, consider this public service job that you can really build a life on and be a part of this beautiful community of san francisco. so, with that, i would like to turn it over to our dispatcher of the year and he can tell you the real deal and that is bill hackenthal. [applause] >> thank you mary ellen. so far our soft open is going well. there is a few kinks but we love the new space. we have been compressed to a

small space, hot and cold at the same time. very loud and very difficult to work in, but we made it through. i want to thank everyone who made it possible to get back in our room on time. i also want to give you perspective. some of the people, the most senior dispatchers working here started at the hall of justice. they took over police calls, only calls for police department. our job evolved now to where we are taking police, fire and medical calls every day. we have been in this building since 2001. our job is continuing to evolve to the point now where we are also dispatching for the fire department. the paramedics team. street crisis unit. upstair is fantastic. it is modern, new, ugnomic

furniture. comfort and lots of natural light. as mary ellen said, we have a challenging job every day and very grateful to our administration and city leaders who understand that we do our job best when we are well equipped. the room upstairs lays a strong foundation for the coming technological upgrades of our cad system and 911 phone system upgrade. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you bill. and now we will take a few questions if anyone has questions for us.

>> [indiscernible] >> yes. yes, we have to come back into it in a phased approach. again, we never stop operations from the time we started this work, but we are now everybody is upstairs on the floor and working through all the normal things that happen when you move into a new place with very complicated technology, so yes, we are answering your calls from there. >> [indiscernible] >> yes. this remodel was built for the future, so it is built for us to expand. it is built to accommodate. for instance, we don't center the new cad system yet, we have the space to put the cad system in and so it is designed for the future, so we are hoping that we get another 20 years out of this remodel, at least.

>> [indiscernible] >> right. so, we have been very open about not meeting those standards for the last probably year or so, but that is all about our staffing and so i'm very happy to say that for the first time we are going to have the biggest class we had since covid, and we anticipate that our subsequent-we are all most not quite filling it, but very very close and the subsequent classes we are very confident we are filling to the maximum, so we are hoping that in the next probably within the next year or two, you will be seeing a lot better statistics on those calls, yes. the call metrics. sure, we have-we currently are down about 30 plus positions within

the department, and like i said, we have three classes in the next six months that will be coming on-board, but it takes all most two years to get a fully fully trained dispatcher off the floor. they go through a academy and then come on to do field training to answer calls then they can answer calls, then they have to learn police radio and then fire, so as we see these classes get out of training and get on the floor, you will see us having additional bodies both to answer calls initially, but then be fully fledged dispatchers. >> [indiscernible] >> a lot of overtime. a lot of mandatory overtime and really that's-to be honest that is how we have been able to do it, which really speaks

to the how hard this job has been the last couple years. alright. thank you. book. thank you. >> (music). >> my name is orlando i'm the owner and operator of sf pizza. >> pizza is my expansion

growing up i loved pizza and loved to cook and been in corporate banking jobs my that whole life wanted to own a pizza or and moved to san francisco 45 years ago and couldn't find pizza i like so one day of saving and trying to figure out what i would like to do to fulfill my dream and to literally must be that i went out on my own toes an interesting things skills i again have to working on the slight changes to find the right product and came up with something i enjoy and continue it. so the positive important thing in years and years and years of trying to get it where i like it is for the sauce i use a unique sauce to bring out the

flavors have to mats and capital improvement plan any and using use a high quality of cheese the products work together more important to me have a high quality of pizza and made with love and what i try to keep it to be a comfortable foods or food and that's what i try to over and offers so having a really bus illegal day in the community and rile appeal to me and that's what i was trying to accomplish i have thought when i got into pizza the main thing if i can, make a great cheese pizza he can do anything like growing up that's what i brought to to

and now called san francisco >> hello happy asian-american pacific islander month. my name is milet and i'm with parangal. we're a dance company out of california. the term parangal means tribute and this means tribute not only to our heritage but the indigenous people of the philippines. >> hi my name is kim. >> i'm jake dominguez. >> and today we'll be presenting dances from yacan and dance called tamsac.

>> we're playing for a tomahi learned from of the aharsa family. >> and the tumachic and the showing movement from the arms, are all learned from the hadas families, salma, thank you. >> salamas. [music]

>> hello i'm jonathan mercado and we're going to be be

dancing up next, from the southern part of the philippines. our culture are salmonal with influences of work from papa laqid and mahala family. it's a festival dance done mainly for celebrations like weddings, birthdays, so but the true, the true root is precolonial prehis lamic. it will be one on the phone and one on playing the tambul. and those are traditional used for sagan in calina.

>> hello again, i'm milet and this next dance you will see is from the taboli people, south

cotobato in southern philippines. the dance is tal malatic and it's during the festival called moony moon. the ladies will be performing traditional taboli movement and the men will be performing a warrior dance. >> for many of us growing up in the filipino we developed a hunger not just to learn our culture but our passion. and the great work about our work is we center our work around working with the culture barriers from the indigenous communities that we represent. it's not what we would call authentic, but we do add our artistic elements to our performances with the approval and trust and guidance of the culture barriers. for me this is important because growing up in america, you start to wonder and develop

this thirst to know who you are and to be able to understand this and practice this and, teach the younger communities about our culture, it's more than just a sense of pride, it speaks to the joy that we feel in sharing the fluidity and richness of our philippine culture. [native music]

>> para la familia, we want to say happy asian pacific islanders month, and we also

want to say maluai!