respectfully ask that some of that address information be reducted. what we did in 09, we highlighted four things in terms of outreach for 2009. we specifically can't target recruitment. we produced and distributed the recruitment materials to the constituents. i know you were the director and if you're indicating you didn't receive that information, we need to look at that. we published the firefighter job opportunity through the job outreach and we advertised and we're our best recruitment tool, the firefighter process, the general order progress and generate those to give information to their friends and local communities. i think we can be proud again of -- it

hasn't been easy. we had 5200 people on the list and we hired 150 off the list. early remarks, it's a diverse work force but we look forward to the future with the continuance testing model that dhr has described. and we agree that having the dhr because they are the subject matter expert overseeing the testing, and we'll work on that. just to let you know, i know we're hearing concern and i'm hearing it, but most of the way the test are conducted, there's consent decree and the focus was on diverse -- diversity. it was

implemented in the decree. that's worth noting. as wells the participation of the test consultant and experts during the test process. it's not a redesign and maybe we need to look at redesign, but those came from the consent decree. a couple of more comments with switching to the strategic planning. we agree to the strategic planning is important. we've been really reduced and you'll see or those of who -- you'll see -- our fire commission will see our budget calls for the restoration. we're in the business of responding day-to-day, but one of the frustrations i have is not doing forward planning. we don't have those resources and we're taking care of the day-to-day business and we need

to be more forward. that's a weakness and limitation that we need to focus on. >> do you -- excuse me. do you know the cost of doing strategic planning for the department would be because it mentions both the d hr and the department mentioned lack of resources to do that planning but i want to have a clear understanding of what dollar amount we're talking about? >> we're going to ask for one -- for that position to be restored that's with $200,000 for a position with benefits for us. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> just a couple of slight disagreements with the conclusion drown by the audit on the succession and the overtime piece. i said that

overtime is less expensive than straight time. and our overtime is approximately in the mid -- 15, to 16 percent. urban jurisdictions throughout the country, most of them, that's low. it's usually between 23 percent on over time, but i'm all for reducing overtime if we can get more bodies in and i know the only barrier there is the cost. but we think that's a good idea. and i think it was referred to a little bit, i'm happy to discuss and i don't need to get into it because it was talked about. the overtime control and caps. we did work with labor very much so with dhr. there's a 633 cap on overtime and given the nature of how we run the organizations structurally, that wasn't working for us and so there was no cap. most fire departments don't have an overtime cap. we think it's high, but we think it was a big deal that we

were able to collectively with director callihan to agree with an 1100 hour cap and the fact that we're bringing that staffing back in terms of the new hires is great because for a long period of time, we didn't have the ability to hire. so for example, 43 hired and graduated in december, we're hoping for another 48 coming out in may. the trajectory of retiring is 30 percent. we're headed in the right direction and that concludes my response. again, we're appreciative of the work, but i continue to be very proud of all the efforts that we've achieved. you have my commitment that if there's anything that we can do differently, we will, you i would encourage you as you

know, as well as i do, you go to any fire station and or you look on any rid and you should be proud because it's a diverse group of people and it was different ten years ago. so, thank you very much. >> thank you chief. i just want to also acknowledge that we have, in the audience today, tom oconner and i see kevin from the black fire department. colleagues, are there any questions for the chief? >> supervisor cohen. >> i want to again, refer to back to the audit, to the key finding. chief, there's a recommendation that was made -- it's recommendation 1.3 and states the fire chief

will insure that recruitment has been clarified within dhr and the fire department. and your response is that you guys are clear? micky has also indicated that. so i'm going to ask the same question, what does this policy outline? >> so -- supervisor cohen, we're looking forward to beginning recruiting. the last recruitment was around 2009. we're challenged financially. we have a zero budget for recruitment, so we would like to consider enhancing that, but short of that, we try to make it work. sometimes that does not work to our advantage. but we have full intentions to work closely

with dhr and outreach to various groups and we would appreciate any input you have that was provided related to recruitment. in the past, we have posted notices at gyms, at churches and different neighborhood groups to get the word out. we've relied on our members to either through the employee group process or our members to reach out to people that they think would be a good fit to be a good firefighter or emt within the fire department. >> what is the police department's budget for recruitment? >> i do not know. >> okay. >> director, callihan, do you know what the fire department's budget. >> i don't know the budget, but they have assigned staff to work on it within the program.

>> thank you. that somewhat answers my question. you don't need a budget to do recruitment or maybe you need to look within the budget that you do have, prioritize it and work with what you have. there's another point that i want to ask you -- is there a representative from the fire commission that's here? >> no, there's not. >> no. all right. i'm going to ask you questions about the commission. >> i'll meet with them later. >> my question is, the park commission has gone on record to disagree with recommendation 1.4 which is that the fire commission should insure that all public meetings are recorded and archieved and the fire department says that the

meetings are reported verbatim and available to the public. i'm wondering if you as the leader of the department would be open to exploring conversations to have fire commission meetings here in city hall? >> i would have no objection to that. i do think there is some relevant and appreciation from the fire commission related to logistics if you will. i know it's an expense and i would not like to are it in my budget as well as it being filmed. i have no objections. the odds are it doesn't always happen and it was cited or it was at the commissioner meeting. the president of the fire commission was at ate meeting and supervisor breed who may have been a commissioner in september

2010 during the explosion. we activated and we were able to activate it that much quicker. we went upstairs examine fired up our department operation center and got to work pause we he did respond to that emergency. i think that's a very good illustration of one of the benefits having them done at san francisco head quarters. it was seamless for us getting on that incident. i would say i think that's relevant, but i'm not saying that i'm oppose to having it here although there's an expense. >> i want to express it televised and to insure a certain level of transparency the way police commission as well as police commission is being televised. i reached out to the building management for them to look at a way to incorporate the fire department

into the rotation of space. the fire commission is a charter commission and will take precedent over the other commissions. we can talk about budget because there will be a cost associated. and we can figure that out. and i would agree, it's seamless to have someone to have your meetings and then to go up and activate, but i'm sure there's someone in the head quarters that would be there -- that you can make a phone call to get things moving should there be another major emergency. and you are correct, our department did excellent job responding to a lot of regional challenges, the rim fire, but just regionally, we're big to the other bay area counties so thank you for bringing that to the attention.

i'm going to let -- i think supervisor chiu has a few. >> i had a couple of issues that i want to talk about so we can move on in the interest of time. i think the issue of ems is the most alarming part of this particular report because over 76 percent of the calls or service were for emergency calls and less than 24 percent is for fire and the staffing level is the opposite. you have 23 percent that are ems and 77 percent are you appreciation. i think that the department is consistently under valued and we're experiencing many challenges in that particular area, so it's

not surprising to me that -- excuse me he -- the calls have decreased. i'm not sure if they know what it means. when someone calls 911 because someone is having an emergency, the pay hent is left to hope someone gets there in time. this happened in 2013. this happened 274 times in ten months so that's eight times each day. eight times a day, we don't have an ambulance available to help people when they make those calls. so what are callers being told from the medic is

how long is the response time in these situations. and from my understanding, with my conversations with ems personnel is that sometimes patients have to wait 20, 30, and sometimes 40 minutes. why are we letting this happen? how could we consider this safe service to the city of san francisco if we can't help these people. what if we have an incident like an earthquake or terrorist attack, so i'm trying to get an understanding, there's a clear discrepancy with ems services and the volume of the call and i have listened to those calls over the radios and amazed at home paramedic calls are needed throughout san francisco and i don't feel the department reflects that and i wanted to give you an opportunity, chief, to explain to me what's happening

in that regard. >> supervisor breed, thank you for that question. the calls respond to are medical related, but most of the medical calls, you get a whole bunch of resources from the department. we adopted in 1997 with the merger of the paramedic. and that's the way to go in an urban setting. having said that, when there is someone that calls 9 11 we're disstached ambulances. i think it was under stated in the audit in terms of the cross over amount of times -- firefighters

just aren't fighting firing. you're gleten yins and trucks whether it's a car accident. that's medical. but you need the resources. so i don't want to down play the amount of cross that exist related to ems and fire. probably for a larger discussion and maybe an especially rat -- in 2008, the state of california had indicated that they thought the san francisco exclusive operating area, the way we provided medical services had changed in manner and scope. since that time, i have and the department has always been in the position that it has not changed. unfortunately in 2008, a decision was made by the state that the eoa would be suspended if you will and so then it created a lot of

uncertainty. we weren't able to staff up because of the loss of that eoa. fortunately we've lobby and worked hard to get that exclusive operating area back. but in order to do so, we're try to go get to the level of returning to an 80 percent share of the market if you will, 80 percent firefighter and ems response, 20 percent private. there's two private ambulance companies that's operated in the city. that requires -- it has been estimated 10 and $12 million. that's something we have had open discussions with, with many of your colleagues as well as the mayor's budget office and that's a budget issue that will come up. frankly it is a policy decision that the mayor needs to make and we've had multiple meetings, we haven't sat with him, but i've talk to the

mayor's budget director because she's responsible for the city's budget. in order to get back to that level and to reinvest, if you will, in personnel and equipment, and training of the ems division, which is an equal partner, let me state that clear, i've heard real da recognize tory remarks and i consider the ems department as important and they should work hand in hand with the operation side. that will require a large investment to get back to where we need to go. >> another question. i know this is really cheesy, but i watch chicago fire and i noticed that their ambulances and their fire stations and i know that we don't -- >> that causes a lot of problems if you watch that show.

>> i was just wondering why that isn't the case here in the city? >> great question. so 1997 like i talked about that, that was the merger and we've had stops and starts. at one point the ambulances were housed in the fire stations working 24 hour shifts and we found it to be attendable. our engine trucks are busy, but when you go on a medical call, they're longer. we were finding it wasn't a sustainable model. and the 24 hour shift, we were seeing clinical errors because our members were fatigue and we saw demeanor issues and we saw from a resource perspective, we in did studies that there

are some peek times. so we looked at peek period and we decided that we would go back to the former dph model and do ten hour shifts and it has worked better because we utilize peek staffing and we have more ambulances in the times we know we're going to be busier and we have the ability to be flexible on the post locations. but adding to some flexibility. >> so the other thing i wanted to ask about is why is the command staff for the ems division, they have no ems experience or training. it's in the report that that's the case, so i wanted to get some clarity on that. >> not the case. we have an assistant deputy chief that

oversees the ems did i rigs and he's a medic. and we have supervisors that's medic. >> and they all have ems training. >> everyone in the department since 1989 including myself, it's a requirement to maintain an emt certificate. everyone has a certificate from 1989 forward. so they are paramedic licenses examine referring back to this eoa and the restoration of resources, we have asked for a greater level supervision for paramedic trained individuals to be apart of that exclusive operating area, supplement if you will. >> for clarity because there was a lot in this report. i vaguely remember seeing that wasn't in the case in the report, but your response was saying -- >> off the top when asking me

the question, and if you can give me a page, i'm happy to look at it on the fly. i do vaguely recall that, but we do have paramedic up advisers, rescue captains as well as an assistant deputy chief who is paramedic trained. >> where did they get that information if tharz not accurate? or maybe they can look and respond to us later. do you want to respond now or wait? >> well, thank you chair breed. we're flipping through the report to find the exact reference that you're referring to. we do point out in the report that one of our concerns is that there are fewer

promotional -- for paramedic staffs. that's a statement we got from the fire department, so we'll find that reference and send that to you following the meeting. speaker: repeat that. >> within the existing command structure, there's a limits number that have paramedic training. >> okay. >> so but that doesn't necessary hee directly relate -- that doesn't necessarily relate to the over sight as it relates to the ems division of the department? >> that's just the command staff in general. >> correct, there's an ems chief. >> i'm sorry, i read it to mean that potentially the command staff that oversees that division didn't have the proper training but what you're saying is overall the command staff doesn't have paramedic training in particular and i specifically said ems training which

chief, can i explain if there's a difference and if that's actually accurate, please? >> sure. my cfo jogged my division. we are an ems did i rigs and he has a higher level of training and he's a pair met. he has approximately 250 and 350 paramedics. they have to have a paramedic license. there's eight excludeing me. one, appropriately over the ems division and i have a chief that maintains a license and my chief at the airport is a paramedic. everyone on the command staff has the emt certification.

>> because it says -- >> what page? >> it's in there, executive summary on eight, which is biii. fwl thank you. >> in the last paragraph, it just says a total of 38 and this is from the budget and legislative analyst, a total of 38 command 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