on the patient. and we do this for every single person who is injured. we bring all the resources there. we can to make sure we can save as many people as we can each day. the reality and sadness is we may save many, but we can't save everyone. over the years i have seen massive increase in the fire power witnesses before you today. these guns are more powerful and destruction are profound. from ak-47s, other assault-style weapons, hand gun, extended clips, hollow point bullets, black talon weapons, bullets and other things like that, i've seen them and the work that -- the problems they cause each day. the larger weapons create absolute devastation in the victims. when they strike a victim, it's like a bomb going off. i struggle with all the dedicated team members to save their lives as it's real a a battle against life and death. sometimes they have overwhelming mortal wounds and

i cannot save them. we save a lot, but we can't save everyone. they have massive chest, abdominal, leg, head wounds that become -- that are the consequences of these large weapons in froth of you. -- front of you. they are the victims, but their families that are also injured when or have problems after the shooting. when a victim dies it leaves a hole in the family. they can't ever forget the devastated mothers, father's, sisters, brothers, that are struggling with loss. the way of a mother is unique sound as she screams, my baby is dead, my baby is dead. * wail it is a terrible sound, i wish i would have to never hear it again. part of the process of making sure these lethal weapons are off the street. if we save the patient, they have to deal with many operations, icu care, post tau matt he -- posttraumatic

stress. head injuries, disfiguring operations and long-term care and many, many other serious problems. we cannot forget the physical scars, but there's also emotional scars after they are injured. at san francisco general hospital a number of gunshot wounds has declined in recent years. in 2007 we cared for 381 shooting victims in our emergency department. 2011, the last year we have data on, that number is now 182 shooting victims. while this is a substantial drop, i submit to you that one is too many. these numbers represent the patients who are transported to the hospital, not the victims who died at the scene or do not come in for care. many people are killed from homicides, but suicide taking one's life with weapons is much more common in the united states. it is a silent killer since more than twice as many people die of suicide than homicide

historically in the united states. there is an hep dim i can of violent crime committed with guns and is a serious public health problem that we must confront head on. * it is incidents like this past week bring these terrible crimes out in the public, but the reality is people are killed every day in this country with weapons that permanently change the lives of the families that they are with. in conclusion, i would like to thank the mayor for inviting me out to stand with supervisor cohen, police chief sur, to support sensible gun control. the trauma center stands ready to care for victims. any initiative that can reduce guns in my opinion will make the streets and the cities and counties -- cities like san francisco a much safer place to live. i thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you, doctor. today we're focused on

ammunition and immediate interruption in the behavior that law enforcement advises us and sees every day that leads to more violence. in the weeks and months to come, the board and the mayor's office will be introducing both more ideas and legislation and resolutions to support federal and state efforts in the same direction. at the same time, we'll also be introducing through our budget support for an ongoing organizing in our community to support nonlaw enforcement efforts to reduce violence, whether it's education, social services, housing, none of that escapes us as to their link in efforts to reduce violence in our society. with that i want to thank everybody for coming today. and i would ask everyone in san francisco, if not the whole region and the state, to please join us in a national moment of silence that will occur tomorrow morning east coast time, it will be 9:30 a.m., and

here in san francisco it will be 6:30 a.m. for a national moment of silence to remember all the victims in sandy hook. of course, at the same time, remember all the victims at our own locally it victims of gun violence. and before and after this moment of silence we will be active doing the things we need to do to reduce violence in our city. thank you. >> good afternoon. this is our disaster council meeting of october 26. thank you all for coming. welcome to our emergency operations center. as you know we generally meet at city hall but today is a very

special day that you will learn about as we unfold our agenda and thank you again for coming. i'm going to turn the table over to mayor lee who is going to give some opening remarks. >> thank you. good afternoon everyone and welcome to our turk street emergency operations center. first of all i want to thank everybody. anybody wearing orange gets a special treat in my eyes today. anyway we're still celebrating and i never knew that wearing orange and the giants and sports will be so closely connected to what we do in emergency management but it is and it is for good reason because our city's success is really dependent upon inviting thousands more people here to enjoy our resources here in the city, to tax us a little bit on it, but this is what we do as a great international city. all of you have a very

distinct role in all of this and it's my pleasure to begin telling you how proud i am and the months of september and particularly october have all been full of great events, and numerous events, and sometimes on schedules that while we had mentally took note they would be on the similar weekends, we were of course needing to really communicate with each other, and make sure we did all the things in the background that no one ever sees and talks to each other to make sure things happen smoothly, and i want to give big kudos to ed risin and all the others in transportation and advising people to take public transportation and emphasize that in all of our major international and worldwide and world seize of events that happened in the city. >> >> whether it's america's cup or fleet week or some incredible

music on the bluegrass side of the city as well as just neighborhood events that we continue to invite we shined very well because we did do the right emphasis and we encouraged all of the public safety departments to work well ahead of this, and i want to thank them for constantly keeping me and many of you on the sf alert program and texting us and making sure we were assured that the critical departments were working together just in case and it's always about just in case. right herald? the red cross knows this more than anyone and it's about being prepared and again i want to give great kudos to all the public safety divisions of the city from the police and fire to the paramedics working behind the scenes and people out on the streets from dwp and to

building inspection and you have to inspect some of the structures that go up whether it's putting on a bmx bike or skate board and allowing a hill of dirt to become controversy in front of city hall. i didn't know that. to our public works area that make sure that we are doing everything right on the streets and accounting for both pedestrian and the various traffic modes that we have. it's all being under the bright umbrella of dm and that's why we are here to today to make sure people continue this as the world series hasn't ended yet but let's say we are doing other plans as well that will complement what i hope is the wonderful conclusion of these games and speaking of that i know the world series will be talked about in more detail and

it's in front of us. we have a viewing opportunity at civic center for potentially i think this sunday and hopefully people who want to and would like to share in the enthusiasm of our team will come down to civic center and basicked around in orange as the twilight occurs and the viewing of the game happens. otherwise i think everyone going to be at their favorite watering holes and dinner places when this all happens. obviously the police are working very hard as well and not only focused on the series but they have to be focused on certain parts of our communities that oftentimes flare up and i commend them and the district that was part of the shootings and

curtail that pattern and follow up with the agencies and the community base agencies and the youth and violence prevention agencies that deanna is heading up in our office and paul and the others working hard at doing this, but again we ask for everybody's help. if you really are concerned or see anything that we need to get done please let us know possible public and private side. i also want to complement our private sector. i was there at the building operations, owners, manager's association just yesterday and when we called out for san francisco orange pride week gosh we got a lot of volunteers and that enthese yusm has helped and even larry baer said "i can't believe the number of buildings and the opera hall and the ferry building and the private

buildings and coit tower and voluntarily celebrated with us, so that is incredible unity in the city. moving to another topic because we will cover these later i wanted to make sure i mentioned that within these last few months through the cooperation of our city administrator naomi kelly we have appointed a manager of the caps program, and of course that is the community action plan for seismic safety. it is a plan we wanted to make sure that was lead by someone who can immediately get on the ground and figure out all of the things that we need to do to make sure the soft story buildings which are the most important focus that we have to have for the next seismic event and starts with that planning with all of us, so i wanted to make sure to introduce and congratulate patrick otiline who has come

aboard to take care of this incredible responsibility. patrick, thank you very much for being here today. [applause] i will note that currently the caps program is lodged under city mmptdor's office and a conversation i had when i was city administrator and we wanted to put it at a place, but it is there for now, but with patrick's help we will make sure that program flourishes at the right place and with all the different resources that we have to have along with my commitment we will have appropriate legislation in due time when we are ready when placed out before the voters what we require but we will do that in collaboration and not talking out because it is expensive and we know lives are at stake and we have to do it the right way and have a program that will work for everybody. now, i

also want to say to you that there has been a person certainly in my own career as a public servant that has been impactful. i met rear admiral john banoff in 89 after the earthquake. he was still with the navy. helped us tremendously with a aircraft carrier and the work in recovery, and in 1992 mayor jordan sought to seek his leadership and have him head up what is today our dem but at that time it was the office of emergency services so for five years i got to work with admiral bit off and lead the effort at oes but at the

time that we really required some strong leadership because it was shortly after the 101 california shootings that we realized very clearly different agencies within the city had to speak more deliberately with each other, had to have systems and communications and culture built around much more collaboration, particularly with communication. well, that spawned this particular building, and its housing of not only the emergency management, but its physical location of our 911 emergency dispatch system which is right upstairs, and that was started on and under the leadership of admiral bit dlf off. it was concluded very well. he then went on to what i say was parallel to me because i thought i was having the best job of my life of purchaser and we all got a different call and he went to the school district

and we had fun with the most difficult assignments we could get, and if you ever work with the school district, and i know the school district is here it's a hard job, but it's one that he focused on with respect to their assets, their property, their role in emergency management and has faithfully well represented them for all these years and i think it was later, earlier last year you sought that big "r" admiral to retire and i know you're here with your wife maureen. thank you very much for being here. i would lieg to commend the admiral for all your years, for the critical years and being a friend to us because you have always been very approachable. for those that work in civic life for years

appreciate the people that have a complete open door, don't wall themselves off because of their expertise and know that we all need to be educateed in the different roles and you have been doing that and you have been a friend to me when i was learning to expand our roles and whether it was dpw or the human rights commission you have been a great friend to the city, so with they would like you to come forward and receive due recognition with a special proclamation and as you come forward and due to his wonderful history here not only will we present this proclamation in our appreciation but we would like to announce in concert with our dm staff and crew and all of

you here we are dedicating the naming of this operation's center to be rear admiral john bitoff the emergency operations center for the city and county of san francisco. [applause] . >> well, thank you very much very much mayor. it's a pleasure working with you. you're a consummate servant and it's a great pleasure working with the great people that

manage this city and i thought it would be worth while if i could just take a couple of minutes, and i have the mayor's permission to make a couple of remarks and to tell you that i first set foot on this spot the day after the 1989 lo preaida earth yaik. mayor jordan -- mayor agnose called me and said "i need help". i said "i will do whatever i can". he said "can you meet with me and i have a laundry list of things" and absolutely where do you want to meet? i am at the command center on turk street. i asked what the cross streets are. you know the bridge is down. can i land my helicopter there?

yeah and lee got the police to clear the park. >> >> i came in here. the mayor was waiting for me and he took me down in the basement of the fire department communication's center to what was the fire department was the bedroom for the firefighters in the 911 -- in their 911 -- in their portion of the 911. i couldn't believe it. they moved beds aside, and they had butcher paper on the wall and i will never forget this. there was a consiewl general talking long distance on one of the out going lines and nobody could get him off the phone. people were coming in off the streets. it was terrible. i could not believe that a great city like this did

not have a proper command center. as i walked a way with the mayor i said something that i later regretted. someone asked me "what did you think?" and i said "i felt like i just came out of a mississippi sheriff's office". it was grim, grim. and there is a lesson in that. issue careful what you wish for and be careful what criticize and who you criticize because you maybe wearing it. i responded to the mayor's request. we eventually had marine corps personnel and

conducting recovery and rescue and we rescued all kinds of people from the collapsed freeway and we brought an aircraft carrier in here and took the heat off of the city and took 500 homeless people on the aircraft carrier for a week. it was a wonderful exercise in taking care of the more fragile among us. anyway fast forward three and a half years newly elected mayor he asks me to be the director of emergency services and i really didn't want to do it because of what i have seen and he went to my house and my wife wanted to. >> >> live in san francisco so my goose was cooked. i took over the job and i planned to return to the east coast. there was one staff member, no vehicles,

no money, no nothing, and through the good efforts of a director of public works at the time they built seismically configured foundations and they brought in double wides and built the interim emergency command center which is the community building over there and that was where we were. no furniture, no telephones, no nothing. i came the first day and ask where is the command center? it's in construction. it's that area in the park and you have one employee. she's not really yours. she was the mayor's pir, public relations person, and she's been -- apparently that was siberia for seem for people

from the mayor's office so anyway -- i mean you have to tell it like said mr. mayor. when you take a job like this you get all kinds of advice from people. i wish i got more help than i got advice and one of the pieces of advice said got said "you want to get rid of her immediately. she's a pain in the stern sheets. she's rude. and she uses bad words" , so i met her and i immediately liked her, and i immediately admired her. i have enough experience and i don't give a dam about the packaging. i want to know what is inside. this woman was so smart. she helped me so much to navigate the board of supervisors. you have to

realize now coming out of the navy and into san francisco politics is like coming out of a convent. you know it is. it was not easy, and so -- that woman helped me. she knew the clerk of the board. she knew the president of the board. she knew everyone. she knew how to write the memos and we became fast friends and that's when -- in fact she just wanted to get enough time to retire and get health benefits and i liked her so much i had a party for her in my home. anne kronberg was there and head of the mayor's office on criminal justice, and her name was eileen maloney. she was terrific. assistant police chief by the name of frank reid tried to dissuade me from taking the job. "don't

take it and two weeks later if something happens they will blame you" but i like to take on jobs. well, he kind of felt sorry for me, and i had no vehicles, nothing, no employees. the door bell rang and there is a police officer outside and the chief sent these keys. you have a unmarked police car until you get a vehicle. well, i paid them back. three weeks later i was driving down venice and left on to broadway and the radio went on and strong arm robbery in pacific heights and woman assaulted and bag stolen and identified the car and two individuals and proceeding north on lawenna. gee, i am going in that direction. i have a naval

aif eightor's eye and incredible eye sight and wouldn't you know it there is the vehicle coming straight towards me and the traffic was slow and could reach out and touch and i made a u turn and i got on the roo. the director of radio services had a call sign at the time and close to the police chiefs. i got on and called in and there was a pregnant pause. and they said "who are you sir?" and i said "i'm the director of emergency services" a "are you a police officer?" "no, i'm not" and do you have a gun? no, i don't. "you should be careful and

don't approach that car" and "need help and he's making a left" and by the time we got to geary black and whites were all over the place and apprehended the person and i got a call from alex faigen who was the later the police chief. he was a friend of mine. he said "well, admiral do we have to give you credit for an assisted arrest" and i said "you bet your life too and i also want a sf tv star" and anyway those small things happen. i paid the police department and the city back. we put this together with a group of volunteerses, the original command center. the wonderful volunteers that exist in san francisco. not people advising you but people coming here doing stuff and they represented the great cross

section of san francisco. had two retired school teachers who came to this temporary building everyday for five years, and provided administrative assistance. they were wonderful. one of them was mary louise green. dave ebberly -- you haven't heard that name. he was the guy bouncing around and i found out he was the volunteer driver of the emergency vehicle that we had which was parked in a fire house at the other end of the city and get a call at 2:00 o'clock in the morning and get in that vehicle, and i later learned -- i'm sorry dave. i didn't understand at the time. it was manual transmission