energized, and i would like the bar association to vote because you never get enough people to vote, so please vote and let the public know who is best qualified and best represents what the district attorney is all about. >> i want to thank the league and the bar for providing this opportunity. this has been a very professional environment, and i really appreciate it. i have over 30 years of experience in working directly with communities on the street and in their homes to make communities and cities safer appeared as police chief, homicide dropped nearly in half when i was here. when i became district attorney in january, i continue that trajectory by moving immediately to reduce the backlog in homicide. thanks to some of those efforts, today, we enjoy nearly 90% conviction rate in homicide, but i know from firsthand experience that making the city save is not just about making arrests and prosecutions.

it is about gaining trust in the community and making their lives better. that is why i created neighborhood courts that differ low-level offenders away from prison while entering the take responsibility for their crimes and their victims are made whole. we have neighborhood courts now it bayview and mission and other states will continue until we have their programs citywide. that is also why i have taken victim services directly into our community so victims such as the elderly and those who have suffered from domestic violence receive the services they need without having to travel to the hall of justice. that is also why i have bargained with the bayview ymca to help kids stay in school and earned their diplomas and why i am working with ninth graders to head off truancy and provide other possibilities for young kids. i am also proud to say that i have very significant endorsements, beginning with pamela harris, the former d.a., are of the entire pool of people

and people she knew very well, came to support me and wholeheartedly support me in this endeavor. i have the support of dianne feinstein, our senator appeared our former mayor and now a lieutenant governor gavin newsom. i have the support of the shares association, the police officers association, and

>> director of emergency management here in san francisco. it's a flows welcome you here today to commemorate our community celebration since loama created us. i think all of you here in the audience if you were anywhere in the bay area 22 years ago, have stories tell us about the earth shaking. i, myself, had a 4-year-old son who came running into the house to tell us mommy, mommy, the earth is moving. i was watching the early baseball game and hadn't even felt it. so it shows where my mind was anyway, i think we're going to learn today the whole approach to disaster recovery. we all know about preparedness and the initial recovery phases, but really we're talking about resiliency and

how quickly we bounced back after this big one. we have lots of dignitaries in the audience today, our keynote speaker from fema. nancy ward who is our region nine fema director. we have cal e.m.a. here, mike dayton and his staff. chief greg sir and they brought their whole command staff. we have many nert scroll teers. nert was a group that came about from 9/11 i mean -- shows where my mind is. from loma prieta. we have a lot prepared for you and i want to welcome our two

chiefs up. joanne, would you like to start with a few words and then chief greg sir after that? >> thank you, anne, for the kind introductions. it was amazing 22 years ago this city in the bay area region experienced the loma prieta earthquake. i was not yet in the fire department. it was about five months before i joined and like anne alluded to, if anyone lived here, they remember where they were. >> i was at a high school when it happened and all of us remember the frightening moments and the aftermath of loma prieta. and it's always fitting when we celebrate an anniversary to take a minute not only to commemorate that but to next on the importance of how the

community needs to step up and assist the paid professionals, if you will. the san francisco fire departments, our respective departments are adequately resourced for any given day for emergencies here in san francisco. as you know, though, that all goes out the window for a large-scale disaster be it man made or not. that's why we always talk about preparedness. the more prepared we are, the quicker we'll be able to respond and the more efficient the recovery is. that's important to partner witho agencies as well as with our community partners. i think our deputy and nancy ward representing region nine of fema and mike dayton, acting secretary for cal ema, very experienced people to talk about the importance of preparedness, the response and then the recovery. and to follow up with a panel

of experts, it will also be very interesting. i'd also like to pay particular acknowledgement to the department of emergency management for all they do for our city when it comes to putting all our pieces together and departments together. under mayor lee we've worked collectively and collaboratively and there are a number of department heads i would like to thank for your being here. just on saturday there were five neighborhoods. i didn't get to all five. but there were five who all held neighborhood emergency response drills representing over 60 neighborhoods, and the nert program which the fire department is so proud of was in response to loma prieta. about 21 years ago nert became a program, because what we saw during loma prieta was that we had a very willing community but what we didn't have was a

trained and well-prepared community. so we had them take courses to talk about utility shutoff and fire safety as well as first aid. and so we are also here to obviously sell the nert program to the community as well. and participate in today's discussion. with that, instead of having anne come back up, i'm proud to introduce the next speaker, also a native san from sis can and our police chief, chief sir. [applause] >> good morning. as the police chief said, i'm sort of the new baby police chief. i was here 22 years ago as well. i was just up the street in

narcotics at the time and we were actually making an arrest in buchanan and when our boss told us we were supposed to come back to the station immediately after the earthquake we thought we were going to get to watch the game. we had no idea being native san francisco ans, we commented quote-unquote, hey, that was a good one. so it was quite a -- an experience and sort of set the tone for what's come over the next 22 years. our strategy here in san francisco now with anne at the helm at d.e.m. and her predecessors and mayor lee and his predecessors and joanne and myself and our pred cesars as we prepare for every disaster that happens around the world as if it happened here. so if you think of what's happened over the last 22 years

beginning with loma prieta and arm geten and y2k, we'ved that world series three times. one we liked. we prepared for floods with katrina and all the problems that come with water and on and on and on. we even prepared for tsunamis in a city of hills. so we really want to be as prepared as we can be. we are committed and dedicated to being as prepared as any city in the country. and i think someone once defined preparedness as the amount of time it takes to get the necessary personnel and resources in place to recover from any calamity. and here in san francisco we are absolutely committed to having that period of time as short as possible. his time before becoming mayor, mayor lee was actually the chair of the recovery body to engage public-private partnerships, get infrastructure to be more

quickly restored, and i know the p.u.c. is absolutely light years in front of where they were years ago with regard to layers of re dunden as i to make sure we have water and we just had fleet week last year where the military assured us the dal is a nation process via reverse osmosis is capable of making sure we have water to drink here. with that said, we'll get on with the program and keep working hard to keep san francisco prepared. [applause] >> thank you chief sir, and hayes white, thank you both very much. we are filming today's sim pose yum, and it will be on resilient s.f.org, so if you miss part of it or you just want to share it with friends, please go there. it should be up tomorrow.

i also wanted to say i forgot to mention the american red cross who are here today. s.f. card. we have lots of community partners here today. salvation army. we just have so many partners in the community, and that's really what it's about when you're talking about the recovery and resilience as i effort to include the whole community and include our neighbors, our businesses and our non-profit agencies. so with that, it's my great pleasure to introduce mike dayton, who is acting secretary of cal e.m.a. here in california. we work very closely with cal e.m.a. and do so many partnership things. we could not have the success we have in san francisco without such a supportive agency in sacramento. so mike? [applause]

>> well, thank you, anne, for that kind introduction. i'd like to thank you, too, for your partnership, your creativity and your team, so i'd like to give you a round of applause for your hard work and your staff in pulling this all in together, today. [applause] >> so it really is an honor to be here today to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the loma prieta earthquake that broke lives, homes and businesses, the loma prieta earthquake changed the landscape of this beautiful city, but more importantly, it brought out the best in all of us. in the midst of chaos, uncertainty and even death, neighbors looked after one another and helped each other turn off gas lines and shared water and food with each other and assisted the elderly and

people with special needs. the fire department battled multiple fires on multiple fronts. the police department ensured order in the hardest-hit parts of the city. thousands of emergency responders from across the state provided assistance through our mutual aid system. the american red cross provided assistance and raised money to help the survivors. we mourn the losses in the whole community and the community came together to recover and rebuild. during the rerecover phase we looked for how we could be better prepared and promised those we lost that we would be better prepared. since the loma prieta earthquake we have made great strides. we rebuilt the city stronger, and great strides in retro fits

especially on the bay bridge and new buildings. and the catastrophic plan under nancy's leadership and the partnership with fema, we've enhanced some warnings and made a concerted effort to focus on personal preparedness and get message out residents really need to help take care of themselves and others. so i am pleased to be part of the legacy and want to thank all of you for your hard work, time and effort to help others. so thank you. [applause] >> a little transition work here. jim? >> thank you. thank you mike for joining us

today to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the loma prieta earthquake. i'd also like to thank our community partners and those supporting our event. kqed served the people of north erin california and offer many different experiences and viewpoints, promote inclusiveness and respect human dignity. we are proud to have them as a partner today and in the preparedness. that the time i'd like to ask donald jauron, executive vice president to spruce our speaker for the day. in 2006 was the recipient for the award for excellence in professional the development please welcome to the podium, don dernum. >> thank you. thank you for that. 22 years ago today i was in northern india, and days after

this i followed the newspaper headlines following -- describing the earthquake in san francisco and it took several days before the scale and magnitude of that earthquake came to bear resemblens to what we know as the truth. i'm proud represent kqed. it's our obligation to be on the air with both television and radio if disaster should strike. 1989 we sent engineers to the tower where through creative and imaginative circuitry and satellite and cell phone sources we broadcasted needed information throughout san francisco and the bay. for the future, we are building an emergency operation center at our radio transmission site

where we'll create a live studio coordinated with others to share resources and space as needed. it has equipment to transmit from our sister station in zprement our local transition site is down. we invite all of you to help us plan so we can better prepare for the next disaster. you may have recently met kqed staff as they distributed more than 1,000 emergency kits. and the california seismic safety commission. it's worth knowing our kqed website has information and prevention we're doing in schools.

richard serino is the deputy administrator of fema. he was appointed in twine. in the two years since he's worked with the director to improve fema's capacity to prepare for, protect against, respond to and recover from and mitigate all hazards. his break through position after 35 years experience. he served as chief of boston e.m.s. and assistant director of the boston health commission. he has served as an interim manager. and for all of boston's major planned events including the boston marathon and the 2004 democratic national convention. no word yet of the boston red sox world series. as a consultant, -- [laughter] >> as a consultant to the

pentagon and the defense department he served on the 9/11 after action team to assess medical consequence medical policy and procedures. more recently, rich was on the ground at the site of the devastating tornadoes in the coast and joplin, missouri and rich, thank you for speaking with us and strengthening our communities today. [applause] >> good morning. >> what's this about the red sox? we've had two world series in the last 10 years. graduations -- congratulations on yours, but we're with you unfortunately this year in the world series, observing. 22 years ago as you heard, i

have been in d.c. in fema for the last two years, but 22 years ago i was in boston. and we usually don't get earthquakes in boston, and saw the images on tv. because there was another game some of us were watching. the response to the earthquake from the east coast about as far away from here as you can get was impressive. watching a lot of images on the and reading a lot about it was really impressive. but to me, what was more impressive is the work that happened after the response. not the emergency, the first few days, the countless lives people saved. but the recovery.

and how the recovery was done. we talk about whole community. that's something we've talked about. for two years, we had to call it whole community because when craig, the administrator and i go around talking about response and recovery, that it can't just be government. it can't be the federal government. although federal government brings lots of resources to bear. we can bring department of defenses, h.h.s. if necessary. we can also bring a big paycheck every once in a while. $9 million for loma prieta. we can do that. the state as part of the team can bring a real lot. they do on response. they do on recovery. and to support the local

government. and the local governments, to me, are key. because they are to support the survivors. that's what it's all about. supporting the survivors. my congressman from back in boston. not currently, but was for years, a guy by the name of tip o'neal. he used to say our politics are local. and i firmly believe that, but all disasters are local as well. and it's important to remember that. and it's important to remember that as each incident happens, people who are at the local level, the city level know that. sometimes just once in a while, some of the feds might forget that. but it's important to remind people of that. so if you look and you have federal government with all sorts or local and state government. very impressive team.

very impressive team. can do a lot. but by no means, the team. about this much is government. can do a lot, should do a lot. but needs to bring in the private sector. as we heard not a new concept near san francisco. wasn't a new concept in boston. but let me tell you for a lot of places that is a new concept. to bring in the private sector as a key member of the team. what they can bring to the table, what they have brought to the table and what they will bring to the table. i was a little surprised when i got to fema and the first major incident that i had the opportunity to experience tpwhuzz haiti and it was an unusual response to fema. we usually don't respond out of the country. and we did. and i was in the national response coordination center. and craig is off at the white

house doing stuff, so they had pow would you and said where is the private sector folks? it's, like, they are not here. what do you mean they are not here? they were not part of our team in the nrcc. i was shocked. it would be an understatement to say i was shocked. we fixed that in a few months where as now we have a private sector representative not only during time of disaster but full-time. we have a detail person there. somebody from target then rotated to somebody from big lots then to somebody with the building trades then one of the company's building management companies now we have somebody from verizon and they come and spend three months working for fema then rotate every three months to another country but are in every one of our

briefings and when we activate the people who used to be assign there had from the other companies, they now come back when we activate. so we had five private sector representatives that don't just represent their company but across the board. when we had a representative from target, she was able to get all of our businesses, 25 largest businesses, target, wal-mart, home depot, etc. and we put them on a g.i.s. map across the country to show us what stores are open and closed. why is that important for us to know? i'm not going to sit here and talk the whole time by the way. why is that important? we did this for the first time with the last winter we had the storm that went from new mexico to new england and affected 100

million people in this country. so it's important to know which stores are open and closed narrow resources. 12k0 if the stores are open or closed, if they are going to be closed, are they closed for a day? in new england they were just closed for a day a lot of them because they had literally 60 feet of snow so they would shovel off the roof and be open the next day. in the midwest they were open for a -- they were closed for a week or two weeks. but why were they closed? this would give us the information. if they were closed because roads for blocked maybe we should prioritize opening those roads. if it was because they were without power, we should prioritize them getting power after the hospitals and safety people because guess what, the wal-marts of the world, the stop and shop or supermarkets of the world, they feed people

every day. they do it much better than we will ever. we should not be, as we have for years opening up points of distributions in parking lots of buildings, of supermarkets. we should be working with them hand in hand to know are they open or closed? and if they are closed, what do we do to open them? so they become part of a team and not everybody opening and operating in their own silos. by doing that we'll be able to take care of the public in general and more importantly, help serve the people who need it most. the people who are going to need our help more than anybody else. the people who don't have the opportunity to have 72 hours worth of food. the people who don't have the opportunity to go to a hotel. the people who don't have access to transportation. so we can focus our efforts on

those folks. that's what we as not only government as a responsible private sector and faith-based community and those need to do. so as we look at who else is a key part of that team, it's the faith-based community. it's the voluntary agencies, the red cross, the salvation army. earlier i was introduced to the gentleman from the salvation army and i was told what good work they do. ok. well, that's not a shock to me. it's like i go back to the good work they do in the middle of a fire in the middle of a cold night in new england 34 years ago where the first time i encountered in getting that hot cup of soup or hot chocolate for myself, but more for myself, but more importantly, is they work to