practice that we've adopted. it didn't come out of thin air. it came out of the consent decree to prevent cheating which is apart of the exam and the answer key. we don't want to change that. the experts say don't change that. if we change it, we're going to spend time talk beginning security violations and so and so gave the answers to mb. we don't want that. we've had that. we really don't want to change that. we have made the change years ago that led to, i think, the misunderstanding associated with that case that has been referenced in that the -- that has been reported on. but the -- >> what's the internal process to change something? any exam. any testing. >> we just decide to change it if it has a legal implication, we would talk to the legal

department. we might say, for example, in the sheriff's department, we found a new video exam that's a good way to assess integrity. >> the testing process belongs to dhr. i will say that we continue to search for improved testing mechanism. we believe we are been doing it correctly and it's natural that those who hasn't been successful is going to disagree with that. i'm sorry for that, but it's our job to look for better mechanisms and we're still doing that. >> thank you. >> i want -- one of our plans -- i'm reminded, to go back to the succession planning question that you asks, we always are a

list available. it's going to address our ability more quickly and we'll have a list that we'll move to and fill positions. the other part is -- there were no fire exam administrations, so there were acting assignments that people weren't allowed to take. they were given assignments based on sinority. they're challenging that process and that's their right and we respect that right. we feel like we've done a fair process and if someone disagrees and if we believe we haven't, we'll change it. it's a fluid process and we're always looking for new tools and i challenge my team to do a national search

and look -- we're doing -- >> how many people are on this team? >> on our public safety team? john. >> five. >> are they public safety experts. >> examination experts. that's independent of our miscellaneous examination team. >> who would be testing for things like custodian. >> got it. >> do you have anything else from your presentation. >> yes. >> we have a list for the chair of the organizations that were contacted. >> you can continue your presentation. >> thank you. i want to just discuss a couple of points that were made. i think that the -- i want to point out that savings

that were -- that the savings -- there have been no grieve answers to i don't know how you save money. >> what's the lawsuit about? >> that is in process. we have not paid money. so i think it's pretty con jekt you'll that they'll be money saves. nationally, we've done a better job than, i think, of any other fire department and our testing program, we produce job related test that conform to state and national standards which my team and i are proud of. they feel like they've been under the gun and i want to on commend them

because they're devoted. and they spent their careers putting together exams that are fair and i want to recognize them. my final point -- i have a concern that the report was released to the press before it was released publicly and released to the responding department. >> do you know who did that? >> i don't know. i raised my concern with the budget and legislative analysis but i was concerned about that. we was told that the report had been made public. >> it hasn't been received by the members of the board of supervisors and it was only received by dhr and the the fire department in draft form. >> we received it. as you can tell from my presentation, we were working hard to get changes. we did not provide it to anyone speaker: somebody possibly in those departments might have or even, i guess, your imply that the

budget and legislation department -- i want to be clear because i didn't receive a report when the information came out. it clearly came from a department and that's a real problem. >> it didn't come from our department. i can verify that. there's a limited number of people were able to see it working with me on the response. there wasn't a request from the department for that. we didn't receive a copy of the final. >> thank you. >> and i want to say thank you for your presentation and thank you for taking the tough questions. this is a hard subject to talk about. i have concerned and we look at the numbers and we talk about the numbers. this is what we're supposed to do. when i was a commissioner, there was another african and there's five

commissioners examine two african american s the fire department commission and at the time of the first recruitment class in a long time, there were no african american men and as far as i'm concerned, that's completely unacceptable. we can talk about how well we're doing, but the truth of the matter, from my perspective and looking at the list, and i'm seeing our organization the list as someone who received information from the fire department and throughout my ten years on the -- as a director, i don't recall seeing anyone from the city of the city other than announcements about opportunities for housing and opportunities for jobs potentially with the police department. but i don't recall seeing any announcements other than what i have received as a commissioner from the department. i'm not sure whether or not this is --

i have this laundry list of organizations. if they were outreached to, this is a great outreach. we're headed in the right direction and looking at the testing. but i'm concerned -- in the department, it's 30 percent and i know we can't legally address issues of where people live, but there are people who live out of the state of california that work for the department and we have some that live in san francisco san francisco. why are we not giving kids who graduate from our high schools in san francisco apart of our organization. and those who know how to speak a language with removing the

barriers for those who come to san francisco san francisco. i'm putting that out there. we have too many folks who work for the department who do not live in san francisco and we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can do support allowing folks who live in these neighborhoods to work at their local fire house. that should be something that we're doing as a city. thank you for your presentation. >> i have two more things to talk about. two things that you dispute in the recommendation. this is recommendation 3.2 and it states you should insure that the job announcements is selection criteria the extent possible, the relative way to these criterias should be clearly stated in the job announcement. i'm talking about secondary cry -- criteria and you should

use that secondary criteria. my question -- you say you disagree and say the criterias are ready and that the -- the already published secondary criteria, so my question is what is the secondary criteria. what's the language? >> we haven't applied -- drafted the secondary criteria, but we'll take into consideration the comments for the need to emphasis that language is a plus. >> so if it's not drafted yet, how do you disagree from the recommendation. >> the way we read the recommendation, when the chief is hiring, that the hiring -- you can only hire

on specific criterias which were already published. my example about language abilities. you say, now we need someone who speaks russian, but i didn't put that in the secondary criteria. >> it's some of the same language that you see on any application that you apply for within the city. if the language isn't drafted for the the fire department, what have you used in the past, so prior to the 2009 exam >> i don't have that with me. >> stand up, john. >> this is our director of recruitment. >> thank you for coming, mr. crouse. just to rephrase my question. you know about secondary criteria so the director disagree with the recommendation so what is the current language now in

>> in the 2009? >> correct. >> i think the fire chief can address that. >> are you done with -- >> no, i have one more but i want the question. >> the question for the 2009 process, it's a valid drivers license or high school or ged, age 19 older examine prior to selection, you are to have an emt, california valid certificate and successful completion of the c-pack which is the candidate for the an ill sees test. >> as a result of this hearing, i would imagine there's going to be changes. we'll be looking and watching. one last question, you disagree with recommendation 4.1 and that states the

director should review test development and you spoke about this. there's a deep concern that goes back decades that -- for cheating for an exam. my question is, how do you account for the department inability to allow if there are any other problems that the test -- so you take the test, right, and as the test is being given, the key is also being developed simultaneously as they're taking the exam. there's certain bugs or unintended consequences that these questions may ask. how do we account for this? >> what happens and john will correct me if i misstate.

before we finalize the list, we would eliminate questions. we have so many question items. >> how many? how long do the test usually take? >> of course, it depends on the test. i'm sorry, i'm john crouse, dhr. it depends on the examination that we administer, but typically there may be hundreds of scoring elements in the examination, sometimes thousands of scoring elements when you factor in ever looking at the scores or the ratings of multiple raters, so did that answer your question. >> no, it doesn't. >> how do we adjust for -- >> how do you adjust for any problems with the test in advance of the administration of the test? >> we have -- we convene

groups, we call them subject experts to relevant the examination and we have a separate group involved in the development of the answer key and we try to make that group as representative as possible. so they're the one -- >> representative by -- expertise, race, age. >> their level. they're betting the test material and determining if it's appropriate or not. if it's not, we don't include it. >> what if one say it's appropriate and two say it's inappropriate. >> if they can't agree, we should throw it out. but generally we try to get consensus from everyone on an answer. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> are you done? >> i'm done. >> i will note that we will

make sure that the ability to speak -- although we cannot target anything based on race or resident even in our recruitment or in our materials, we certainly can talk about the skills and that -- for example, language skills that are valued and help someone maintain a position and we'll include that in our terms and i commit to doing what we have done in police as well which is to host numerous recruitments which can be -- >> at high schools speaker: they probably would have to come to our center because of the computers. >> any high school who want to bring folks over, we would love it. >> chief, i don't know the exact name. there is a high school that meets on third street. what is this called? >> the fire safety youth

academy that are young people. some have graduated from college. a lot are young and in high school, but some are applied and have been unsuccessful to getting in. this is a great way we can support and supports looks like volunteering our time and not only being knowledgeable about the -- i'll save that budget conversation for my friend. >> thank you. >> thank you. chair breed and members of the committee. i need to respond and i want to make it clear, we were consistent with the office standards. we didn't release this report to the

media and we spoke to no one in the media, although i know that charge has been made several times. >> we did provide a draft report to the department before it was released. >> that's apart of our bidding and control. >> thank you. >> good morning, chair breeds and soup riser tang and supervisor cohen. >> just to piggy back on that topic, i want to be clear that i believe there was no information provided to the press. and i think it's interested to note it was made a public document to director's callahan's point. it was made a public document and we received it 24 hours after it was made a final report and public department. we did have the draft report, but the final department which was

reported on the 13th when it was released, neither the department had the document in hand. >> well, somebody's department did and it is what it is at this point and mrs. callihan brought it up that she didn't appreciate it, but none of us appreciate a report being put out before we received it. the draft which i didn't receive was close to what the final report stated and i think that each department needs to basically go back to folks who had access to this report to make sure they're doing what they need to to make sure it's an inappropriate. >> the final report is far department from the draft reports we received. given the good work and collaboration feedback we provided to the budget an list is far

different in terms of the first draft. the subsequent draft, somewhat similar, but the similar draft. >> good morning to the chair of the committee. supervisor breed and tang and i know supervisor chiu will return. i'd like to acknowledge the good work of the budge analyst. there are elements having to do with the use of staffing requirements and overtime, and i joked with the budget analyst and i wondering if your boss looked at it because it is a $5 million infusion into our budget. i'll refer to that before i go to budget and finance committee later this year when it comes to staffing. i thought

amanda and hampton did a good job. i like to acknowledge my staff, specifically they're here today. my chief financial officer, i know supervisor breed, you're familiar with him having served as a fire chief. he handled the staffing and overtime piece as well as my hr director and manager, jesus who handled the recruitment. i'm joined by deputy chief and ray. i like to thank very particularly the staff of the department of human resources. i can tell you we do work well with them. the director and i meet regularly. during business hours, after business hours, whatever it takes to manage the department. i consider her a well regarded and respected colleague and have gotten a lot of advice from her as well as her staff who

has years and years of expertise. finally, i'd like to acknowledge the presence of the director jennifer johnston who we appear before them. they have to take a look at the exams and we have to look at the secondary criteria. i like to acknowledge mayor lee because if it wasn't for mayor lee and his staff, they've been extremely proactive in prioritizing public safety. we're headed in the right direction with the hiring plan. as an example, approximately ten years ago, we had over 1700 fte's and we dropped to a low of 1350, 1360. i think the budget

analyst talked about 1390. as of today, we have 1452 and that's because we were grateful that we graduated 42 recruits in december and brought in another 48 on this tuesday morning and i think the other thing is that relevant, i know supervisor breed, you had asked -- page 14 of the analyst report, it talks of the academy demographics and i wanted to respond directly to one of the questions that you asked during amanda's presentation. the numbers across the top, those were entries into the academy. we try to make sure every person is successful, but that doesn't always happen. those numbers reflect upon entry. but i know you had a specific request regarding asians in the last class which is 115. they graduated on december 15. let me bring your attention to the

115 academy three asian male, two asian females that started. ha we graduate -- what we graduated was four. we did lose one asian female that was released. let me make clear that the budget analyst didn't have, if you look at the lower chart, just to let you know, if you want to do a line of the 116 academy which is 48 people and 85 percent male and 15 percent female. if i'm going down to give you the results for 116. we have 45 percent caucasian males. that's 19. 19 percent african american, six males, 21 percent hispanic or nine. 13 percent asian. specific

islander, that's six. and i believe one in the philippino category. two percent. again, we're proud of the efforts that the department has made in working with our employee groups. and that came up earlier to. the employees are addition to local 798 and we meet with them on issues. we talk about recruitment, retention, what's happen nothing the department. we consider them our partners and just as important, we have employee groups and we have four active groups and we have the firefighters association -- we have the black fors association and the asian for association and finally we have los banbarios who represent the hispanic firefighters. it has been repeated that we haven't had this recruitment since 20 009

and we're looking forward to working with dhr. we appreciate the work that everyone did on this audit. we had a lot of our folks working very diligently to provide lots and lots of information that you see in this information and that's in addition to their day job. this was a lot of work. but it's important work. and i just wanted to set the tone that obviously we're into improving all that we can every single day, but i also want to give a little bit of reality check from my perspective. i'm 24 years in the department and ten years of chief as of last week, and i can tell you and i asked for this this morning, i'm proud, even in the last ten years and certainly in the last 24 years. this is a post consent environment and you heard earlier from the budget analyst, amanda and her office is the goal of

the consent decree was 10 percent minority and 10 women. that consent decree ended in 1997. it was my goal before i was chief that i was very proud of the department. made huge strides. there was a concern in the post decree environment that those numbers might shrink. i'm glad of the work that has been done within the department and can more improvements can be made, yes. i have to tell you, there has been no shortage of occasion. i have been asked to go out to speak about -- it's very ironic, recruit, diversity. i get questions, how do you do this? this is from large jurisdictions, like chicago, boston, new york,

dallas. we're in the top three, not just in women, but in all ethnicity's and in culture. in 2004 which was six years past the stipulated order, we had 43 percent minorities and 13 percent women. ten years later, we have 16 percent women. it's 15.7. i don't want that to be discounted because the fire service is unique and very rich in history and tradition and when i visit outside of our department, most departments do not look like our department. and we should all be proud of that. i'm proud of the fact that i never considered a career in the fire service growing up. i was always fascinated by the red engines and trucks that road by, but no one looked like me. now, our greatest recruitment

tool is our own members so we rely on them. could it be enhanced if we had a specific recruitment unit on or around the time we're recruiting, yes. we did have that. i used to be a recruiter and there was time coming that was provided. we had a recruitment staff that was a budget. we don't are that anymore. i'll hope that you'll consider the recommendations that the auditors make because it comes down to dollars and cents. we're starting to see more of a shift and it makes sense to evaluate that. we have seen a shrinkage in civilian and uniform staff. we have been hampered and it has talked about in the audit, we agree. we used

to have strategic planning and research unit. all of that has gone a wau because we had to make changes because of the budget. what you'll see is request for more personnel during the the budget related to the emergency operations -- emergency medical services related to the operating development. we he asked for resources and we couldn't get it and we understand there are competing interest. it's not just about the fire department, but many of these recommendations do require money. and i'm incorporating it all in my comments. i had specific remarks but i think i'm hitting all the topics, and i'm happy to answer more questions. with staffing, we would love to have more people within our department, but it's very difficult. as you see,