staff hasn't been trained, ems, yet through promotions they're charged with supervise are paramedic staff. on that's why -- that particular statement was cause for concern. you're telling me they all have an ems certificate which is different from what this statement says. >> having an emt certificate is significant. it means you have that life support skill and ability sdmrchlt it's for the department since 1989. >> there's less than five percent who don't have the ems certificate. the paramedic that has a higher level of training,

they're being supervised by people that don't are that same level of training. in the ems division, there's a paramedic supervisor and chief, and there are paramedics overseeing their colleagues who are paramedics and yeah. i can read verbatim a statement they wrote. the ambulance personnel do receive the support from h 33 captains. they're all paramedics trained. is it the captain who has the responsible of personnel. station 49, the status work location is also staffed. i did okay. >> okay. thank you, chief. >> so i'm going to allow

supervisor chiu to we are question and we'll open up to public comment. the planning will be achieved supervisor had to leave and what your thoughts are. hopefully we see you. but how does this succession happen up and down the department. so certainly, one of the many role of the fire chief is make sure we're looking forward. we have been challenged for that. when you stepped out of the room, i talked about

a loss of resources both uniform to take analytical looks at what our department is going to look at 2025. >> certainly we would love to have and we'll ask for the restoration to address the issues in the audit. >> so you're saying you'll be able to do this in short order.

>> given the situation we're in, we have to do strategic planning and succession planning and more planning with what little budget we have, so i do appreciate the constraints and thinking of how we can be supportive but the fact of the matter is i don't see the picture changing that much and the fact that we've been able to get the fire academy classes, that's where we want to spend new dollars but again, what i hope doesn't happen when i read in this report that are despite recommendations over the past ten years, the fire department didn't have strategic plans. whatever we can do, that would be helpful. >> supervisor tang. >> last chief, before i open up to public comment. there's some changes in the department that

need to be addressed and there's a command staff responsible for assisting you in making sure those issues are addressed properly. i'd like to see -- i reviewed your response and reviewed hr response, but i like to see a clear plan. i like to see a clear plan as to how we're going to address these particular issue regardless of whether or not we dispute them. there's a clear issue and i'd like to see us figure out and not always attach dollars to the solution, but this is what our plans are for succession and strategic planning. this is what we recommend to get to that point, this is how much we would need in order to do it effectively for years to come and this is what we're asking the board to provide us with and let us open the dialogue up with clear

solutions of what it would take to get us to a point where we can support the department because we do have some challenges. we do have some concerns and i realize in one of the things that dr. keller mentioned, 200-something folks are happy because they were able to promote --

>> what that means in going into the neighborhoods and making sure we're being fair about the recruitment process because if we're going to look at changes and the way we make it xabl to the public, the recruitment process is an ongoing thing and there are, like, for example, this list of a lot of great organization that's we have is definitely a great tool to start with, but what can we do to enhance the outreach efforts in those particular areas for recruitment for opportunities to allow folks the opportunity to take this new testing mechanism, so based on the things that the department is already planning to do, what are we doing to look at the report objectively and not necessary whether we agree or not, address what the issues are of the report, the corrective action of the report so that we're

clear about the policy, we're clear about adding additional information or secondary criteria or what have you as it relate to the job announcement. what i'm looking for is how are we going to make the changes necessary to make things better. based on the challenges, the department created this testing mechanism, i get that, but there's other issues that relates to that so we can make sure the opportunity for working in the department is able to me. it's mg that i want to see that we're doing a little bit more aggressive outreach in that particular regard as well as making the necessary changes to ems and a couple of the other things. i know we look at other departments and

what they're doing, but we as san francisco should be setting the trends. >> i they we are. >> but i see the opportunities to get better, so i do appreciate that the efforts are being made, but at the same time, the lawsuits and other things that we deal with as members of the board, they're difficult to take because that means less money that we have less available for the things you need to do. in my mind, i'm thinking let's try to make it the best it can be and let's make sure we're clear and we have everything we need in place and we're improving on those things on a regular basis to get to where we need to as a department and as a city to again when you're coming to us and saying, i need $5 million for x, y, z, we're saying --

>> the budget analyst asked. >> you're saying $11 million for ems based on my question and the response and based on what we need to do as a city to really provide the level of ems services in a way with equipment and we know that -- i don't know if you received your five new ambulances but it's clear we need new equipment in that area and we need to make sure we have enough staffing in order to address the issues not just locally in response times but to get to the 80 percent required by the state. there's a lot of challenges and need and i want to make sure we're moving in that direction and we need to develop a plan to get us to where we need to go, so that's what i'm looking for. >> thank you. >> okay. now, we're going to open it up to public comment. are there any members of the public

that wish to speak or comment? come on. >> good afternoon, i think. commissioners, i mean supervisors. thank you for allowing me to speak here. i know my time is limited, but -- >> you want to tell us who you are. >> yes. my name is kevin smith and i'm president of the san francisco black firefighters and i hold the rank as a chief in the san francisco fire department. as i said, i like to comment on the audit. i want to thank the committee for conducting the audit and the team that put it together. i think it highlighted several issues that be improved on. i want to improve on how the fire department conducts business and how they do recruitment and testing.

just to touch on recruitment, our organization has noted that recruitment needs to be targeted so we can get a diverse pool, you you have to start young and get the candidates when they're young, when they're in school and have them build up because this is a career that you need to prepare for. in regard to testing, there's problems with testing. we firmly believe and i think it was proved in court, you know, even though that was an age discrimination case before the judge can allow an award, they had to prove that the test was invalid. we need to use best practices. there's some problems with the answer key being developed at the aim time. but there's other ways conducting a test. we do

think we have some answers or in suggestions for the dhr, fire department to conduct exam in the future and i would look forward to haring those dialogues. >> it would be helpful if you share that would be helpful. >> any other members of the public who would like to peak. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name jerry cooper. i like to thank the board and the budget analyst office for bringing to light the problems in the fire department. i like to keen in

on one area which we discussed already which was the prevision of the emergency services to you're community and citizens here in san francisco. as we were discussing, the fire department is able to serve 72 percent of ambulance request. 43 out of our total fire stations have a paramedic within their community in san francisco on their fire apparatus. as we were discussing earlier and in audit report, over 9,000 calls to date have been logged without an ambulance that's been able to be sent at the time of the emergency. granted, most of those calls did have a firefighter ems or firefighter on that emergency. our department today is under funded, under staffed and under equipped to handle our current

volume and the volume going forward for emergency medical care and fire request. if woor looking at fire practices, we must put together a plan to address this shortage that continues to occur day after day. thank you. >> thank you. any other members of the public would like to make public comment. speak now or forever hold your peace. with that, public comment is closed. again, thank you all so much for being here today. i know this was a very hard conversation to have and we will continue this dialogue. this is extremely important to our city and as a former member of the commission, i know this was a hard commission, but i've never seen more dedicated men and women in this city work harder to save lives and to do all the things that they do throughout our city to protect

folks in san francisco. i truly feel safe being in their hands and i do want to make sure that we're continuously doing all we can to make the department the best department in the entire country. and so with that, we are looking forward to hearing the recommendations of what's to come around changes to the department and we're looking forward to hearing recommendations from the various groups and the challenges they face and we'll continue to have this dialogue to move the didn't forward and making sure their voices are heard. is there is a move to continue. >> this item is moved. >> madam clerk, any further business. >> no further business. >> okay. this meeting is a your honored. djourned. thank

you very much.