>> 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. >> alright everyone. it was a long flight. about 11 hours. hi, i'm san francisco mayor london breed and it is definitely great to be home. me and a contingent of folks from san francisco just got back from being in china for the past week.

it included members of the san francisco airport, people who were part of sf travel, the bay area council, the san francisco chamber of commerce. there were so many business leaders and folks who participated in our desire to promote business opportunities, tourism, and of course what everyone is truly excited about, pandas. we were truly successful in our trip. we had numerous meetings with government officials, with airlines and with business leaders. we held a business forum of people who have interest in not only doing business in san francisco, but investing in san francisco. we as i mentioned earlier, signed an agreement to bring pandas to san francisco, and we are aggressively moving towards entering into the appropriate agreements that would allow

us to move in that direction. so, what we set out to accomplish on this trip, i think we did that, and of course, there's plenty of other things we need to do. a lot of follow through, a lot of paperwork and we are excited and hopeful what this means for san francisco's future. overall, i think especially with regards to the pandas that everyone is so excited about, it represents so much joy. i had a chance to go to the shanghai wildlife park and it was the first time i actually saw a panda in person, and it was amazing. it was amazing to see them walk, to eat, to sit up, to pick up things with their hands and to look directly at us as they were eating as if they were wondering why we were looking at them while they were trying to eat, so it

was a really cool experience and we are looking forward to making this realty for san francisco and putting thin work to get it done. with that, i'm willing to take a few questions. i will say that my favorite favorite part was definitely watching the panda eat for the first time and seeing a panda for the first time live and how close she was to us and staired right as us while she was eating as if she wanted to have a conversation. it was an amazing thing to witness. we expect a pair of pandas and they are hopefully anticipated to come as soon as we are able to raise the resources, do all the permitting, continue to work with the wildlife and

conservation group to facilitate all the paperwork. we had engineers and folks in san francisco facilitating and working with our architect and working with the zoo, because we still need to build out the location where the pandas will be. we need to make sure that we are prepared to receive them so when they do come to san francisco, their environment, their food, their support will allow for them to be healthy and to thrive, so there is still a process and hopefully we will be able to welcome the pandas here as early as some time beginning of next year, but there is still a process and depending on all the other issues or delays that may come up and the build-out and work we need to do at the zoo, we are keeping our fingers crossed, but we'll move as quickly as we can to

make it happen. >> [indiscernible] >> so, we as i mentioned we were the airport members of the airport team joined us on this trip and we met with a number of air lines, including shinjen and air china to talk about increasing the number of flights. we before the pandemic had about 50 flights per week here in san francisco from china, from asia and we have increased that number since the pandemic to about 20 and about a third of the flights coming into the u.s. from china actually come through san francisco. we know that there is a real demand. we heard it from tour operators who said we want more flights. we heard from people who said, we want to come to san francisco. the flights are a little

expensive but we want to come to san francisco. you have people who have relatives and connections and relationships. you have tourists who want to come to our city. you have people who want to do business. many of our business leaders in shanghai expressed interest. they talked specifically about the one flight they knew they could count on that comes to san francisco and a strong desire to have more in order to get back and forth a little bit more--in a bit more rapid speed, so we are hopeful that we are able to deliver on that. we had a lot of canversations and san francisco international airport offers great incentives for air lines who want to do business here. we know there is high demand, especially because we see flights from other countries that are exceeding pre-pandemic levels so we know the demand is there because the amount of flights that actually come into

san francisco international airport as well, so real possibilities and we are going to continue to work on making sure that we make the possibility a reality. >> [indiscernible] >> so, we don't have a cost estimate just yet on the pandas. the work that we have to do in terms of the architectural design, cost estimates of the build-out, of the appropriate staff and food and all that would entail, so we are in early stages preparing the analysis for what it will cost and going through the permitting process. as far as safety concerns, we

of course want to insure that the pandas are thriving and healthy and safe and will work closely with wildlife conversation team to insure we do what is appropriate to insure the safety, security of the pandas and we'll continue to work with the zoo to meet those needs. >> [indiscernible] >> well, we think that with increased flights, with business opportunities, with pandas and all that we are talking about, the economic opportunities for san francisco can be significant and just to put into perspective, we are not pre-pandemic levels for flights comes in from china, but already last year we saw over $633 million in economic impact to the city

just from tourist who came from china to our city, so we want to make sure we open up that door for folks to visit and folks to have experiences in our city. we excited about tourism and people are excited and i was well received in china. a lot said they love san francisco and look forward coming back to san francisco. they have pandas there so the excitement was just san francisco, but i think the panda excitement will be for a lot of people here in the united states. >> [indiscernible] >> well, that wasn't really a conversation that came up with anyone. it was really the thing that people talked about mostly--first of all, they said i love-constantly, i love san francisco. the flights are really expensive, but i want to come to san francisco. san francisco is a beautiful city and

they talked about different experiences. there was a lot of excitement and desire, so the interest is there, the excitement is there. people want to come, but the flights and the need to move quickly around visas is also a important part of getting more tourists here to san francisco, but the desires are definitely there. >> [indiscernible] >> yeah. so, our delegation had a opportunity to go to fondu university and have conversations there but we had a number of conversations with friends group which is part of the sister committee as a way to develop the possibility of student being supported and going to china from san francisco as early as this summer, so we are already having conversations about that, and they are looking at san francisco as a way to do

the student to students exchange, more so then anything else. >> [indiscernible] >> well, the university was more interested in the student exchange component of our students coming to san francisco-i mean their student comes to san francisco and our students going there, so that was more of what they were interested in. >> [indiscernible] >> yes. >> [indiscernible] >> well, i was extremely impressed with their electric vehicle and their electric vehicle infrastructure, as well as i had a chance to take the high speed rail. i did that before when i went to china in 2013, it was a great trip. they said it was faster, brut

but i thought it was fast the first time i took it. so, it was really a great experience. and, the excitement around the number of automated things that they are using, technology and how they are using technology. there seems to be a very interest in technology and connections around technology in san francisco and manufacturing and so those conversations with the bay area council and the san francisco chamber of commerce were had. we had a forum and we learned about a number of items and things that they developed and there is similar items here in the united states as well, so it was great to hear them talk about the environment and the planting of trees, increasing the number of parks and open space, and having conversations around san francisco's climate action plan and the desire to

be green house gas free, similar to san francisco. there were a lot of great green conversations going on, which is exciting to hear. alright. thank you. [applause]

>> morning everybody. welcome to it april 23 meeting of the san francisco county transportation authority board. i serve as chair of the board. the vice chair and supervisor melgar. i want to thank megan and the clerk yvette lopez jessop. will you please call the roll? >> yes, commissioner chan,