. >> chair breed, vice-chair tang i'm the cfo of the sheriff's department and joined by chief deputy and others. the sheriff was unable to attend today due to illness and he sends his regrets. i would like to begin by thanking the members of civil grand jury for all of their hard work and their focus on the sheriff's department. they brought up a lot of great recommendations that we think will move all of us forward in our shared goal of protecting the safety of the public. also, i would like to note that while the civil grand jury's only required to look at the

custody function and prior audits have focused solely on the custody function, we are a full-service law enforcement agency and we provide penalopy of services that fall under the rubric. for example, we provide public security at a number of city departments, in addition, we have staff out in the field, who are looking for people who have outstanding warrants and a k-9 unit that conducts bomb and drug sniffing activities. so we take a look at those functions and provide their insight in those areas as well. the civil grand jury focused -- findings focused on four areas and i will respond to each of those areas one at a time. the first one -- the first finding and recommendations

related to disability. the first recommendation was that the sheriff's department should follow city policy for limited time temporary disability attainments and we found this requires further amion analysis. i think the challenge is that interdepartmental collaboration and interjurisdictional collaboration is really challenging and time-consuming process. it takes the corporation of our department with workers' compensation, with state retirement, as well as city reisolated storm and you can imagine the process. and this is not a problem that is unique to the sheriff's department, and is, in fact, shared by most city departments. so we would certainly welcome participating in the citywide solution to this problem. in addition, and i will go into

this in greater detail in the next slide, we definitely agree that disability is reducing the number of staff that is able to work on a daily basis and driving up our overtime costs. the second recommendation was actually directed to the board of supervisors and that was that they ask the budget and legislative analyst to conduct review of workers' compensation payments and relationship between workers' compensation and overtime and we would work the input op this issue. the third recommendation is that we should review safety programs with work development and we found this recommendation requires further analysis. we have already conducted an analysis of the first six months of 2014 workers' compensation injuries and compared those to '12-13 and already taken that analysis and

moved to make changes to our training program and to work with our facilities staff to take corrective action to move the department forward. in addition, we are going to reach out to the workers' compensation staff to review our findings with them, and come up with some next-steps that we'll continue to move our department forward. in the fourth recommendation this area, the department should communicate with workers' compensation to review ongoing status of outstanding claims. we have a very close relationship with workers' compensation, and have worked very closely with the team and we would like to continue to do so. so in this vein, we're going to set up quarterly regular meetings with workers' compensation and addition we'll reach out to the cc sf retirement to set up regular meetings as well. so i want to spend a minute talking about the impact of long-term disability on the department. and to be honest it's really one of the primary drivers of

overtime, which is one of the primary drivers of the department's financial condition. we took a look at the first three full pay periods of this fiscal year, and looked at the number of hours that had been worked for both paid and unpaid disability and projected that forward to the end of the fiscal year. if the department meets its -- stays within its overtime budget, by the end of the year, 38% of the hours of overtime worked will have been worked due to people who are out on disability. and that equates to $3.6 million. out of an overtime budget of $9.5 million, you can see that is quite significant. and if you take those hours and equate them into fte, by the end of the year we'll have 25 fte hours and that is really quite a significant flush. number and to drive this number home, this program has been

worsening with time if you compare the same three pay periods to last fiscal year 3300 hours more have been worked -- have not been worked due to disability than '13-14 and if you project that out to the end of the year, that is $1.5 million. so we agree this is an incredibly challenging department that is a problem that is facing our department and in our '15-16 budget we'll be seeking to correct this problem by looking for funding for 25 additional sheriff's deputies to back fill the staff that are unlikely to return. moving on to the second area of inquiry which was the custody function with regard to transfer of custody, and shared custody? the first recommendation was that the

department review and update policy for conducting daily activities, planning and preparing for emergencies every two years. we do regularly update our policies, and, in fact the b scc, which is sort of the keeper of title 15 reviews this every two years and our last review, which was conducted, july, 2013 found that we meet or exceed all of the title 15 requirements. and we will continue to review our policies every two years and continue to update them as operational needs dictate. the second recommendation was that the department should review and update procedures for staffing of inmates, housed in the general wards of san francisco germ. general. if an inmate has either medical or psychological conditions that require hospitalization, they can be housed in what is

staffed by deputies. if there are only two people in that ward, they then go to general beds within the general ward of san francisco general and staffed on 1:1 basis by our deputy sheriffs. so we have reviewed our policy in relation to staffing this area and as i have just articulated, we have clarified our policy. recommendation 2c is that the department should clarify procedures for transfering inmates -- again to provide a little bit of context. what might happen is that prior to being booked an inmate would be found to have a medical condition, for example a laceration that would have to be stitched. they would be transferred to

san francisco general and then booked into custody. but since the civil grand jury did its audit we have already updated this policy in july of 2014 and we'll be moving to implement a policy where all of the ins and outs of these kinds of individuals are tracked. that will be implemented by october, 2014. and final recommendation in this area, the department should establish procedures for transporting intoxicated inmate or inmates that need minor medic idealing care. to provide context if you are not familiar with jail operations when someone is arrest and brought to county jail 1 for book, the very first step is that they are reviewed by triage nurse and that nurse states if they have any medical or psychological needs that need to be attended prior to

being booked into jails. we worked closely with dph to follow their directives with regards how to handle inmates who either have medical or psychological conditions prior to being booked. the third area of inquiry was inmate orientation. again, to provide you some context, when an inmate is first booked into the jail, they are placed into what is called the classification pod. where they are hold for 72 hours, and the classification team reviews criminalgenic profile to determine risks prior to placing them into one of the long-term housing areas of the jail. in those classification pods, both civilian and sworn task members are given oral

orientation and give orientation guides. inmates in a specialized pod that housing inmates returned from state jails, people are given special orientation to familiarize them with the activities of the reentry pod because the procedures are slightly different there. we consistently update this operations manual as orientation manual as operationational conditions change and currently in the process of this review. pursuant to the second recommendation we're working with the five key charter schools he educational staff to make sure it's appropriate for the reading levels of the inmates who are housed in our jails. the final air of inquiry was in regards to a policy area that is near and dear to the

sheriff's heart and policies. they recommended that the five key charter schools is the nation's first in-jail charter school and nationally recognized organization that helps inmates get their ged as they are incarcerated. it has a five-member board, that encompasses all three of the critical elements of the criminal justice system.

and we found that this recommendation requires further analysis, because we would like to spend a little bit more time thinking about how an advisory committee would interact with the existing board of the five keys charter schools? and in working with steve good, who heads the five key charter school, we're really wanting to focus on including more academic professionals and getting their input in a formal policy advisory way. so in the coming months we'll be conducting an analysis, to determine the best way to implement this recommendation. >> can we pause for a moment? i have a quick question. currently the curriculum is not set by academic professionals >> it's a ged equivalent program, which is -- there are national educational standards but if we were to add

additional advisory elements to the board itself or create an advisory committee, we think that is the policy area that would -- that could most benefit from additional attention. because we have already covered the sworn, the reentry, and then formally incarcerated. >> thank you. >> and the last recommendation in this area is that the department should conduct further outreach into the community to incorporate job opportunities for the graduates of the five keys charter school. so the way that we would like to do this is by increasing the department's vocational offerings and opportunities. in the last budget cycle we provided two innovative programs, neither of which were funded and we're going to present again in the '15-16 budget cycle and we would love the board's support for those two items. the first is vocational city build pod and the concept is

that we would partner with the labors communitis and training foundation to provide an 8-week in-custody training program that results in inmates getting real useful construction skills that they can apply when they leave the jails. and to link that training with both getting formal certifications in construction and with post employment opportunities. over the last year we had meetings with four entities who expressed interest in support of the concept. so in the coming months we'll continue to flush out your budget proposal and anticipate submitting a request for funds in '15-16. the second is for a post custody cafe, and here what we would like to do is partner with a non-profit, that has experience in running social

enterprises. start with an in-custody training program, that will provide inmates with skills in the hospitality arena and which will result in a job readiness certificate. following participation in that program, we would like to see them graduate from the jails and enter a post-custody training program, where they are getting skills barista, skills and baking skills and career training and then transition them into collaborative efforts with a non-profit partner, utilizing that school and would like the cafe to be in it the sheriff's department building that focuses on services for women. so that they could move from training in-custody to training out of custody, to real linkages with jobs. our next steps here are to tight-end a find a community

partner to collaborate with us. so this concludes my review of the findings and recommendations. i would be happy to answer questions. >> we have no questions at this time. >> thank you. >> is there a representative from the department of human resources to respond to components? okay. come forward, please. >> good afternoon. chair greed, commissioner tang, i'm susan guard and this is my colleague peggy sugerman. >> thank you. >> would you like to address -- would you like us to address the issues in the report? >> yes, please. >> great. so one of the findings from the report states that more than 50 deputies are present ly out on disability

and this results in overtime costs and additional workload for the staff. we agree with the findings and would like to make clarifications and like to specifically address recommendation 1c and recommendation 1d and then talk a little bit more about the parameters and the issues related to long-term disability and folks out on workers' compensation. >> okay. >> so recommendation 1c states that the sheriff's department should review its safety program with the workforce development division and analyze the cause of the worker injuris and update safety program for both staff and inmates. so instead of the workforce development division, the workers' compensation division which is peggy's department, is very well-suited to work ith with the sheriff's

department on safety programs for staff and inmates. we're in close relation to them and further analyze the cause of worker injuris and proactively assist the sheriff's department with this analysis. the workers' compensation division -- neither the workers' compensation division, nor the office of economic and workforce development have expertise in inmate health and safety to provide further assistance to the sheriff's department in those areas, but certainly with relation to worker health and safety, we are ready and willing to collaborate more closely with the sheriff's department on those. so then in regards to recommendation 1d, over the last year, the dhr workers' compensation division has revamped its claims team for the sheriff's department, and has implemented a close communications process. the dhr workers' compensation team communicates on a weekly

basis with the assigned staff at the sheriff's department, to review the ongoing status of outstanding claims. and we regularly conduct claims reviews with the sheriff's department. so that we can ensure claims are brought to closure as quickly as possible. so we believe strongly in this recommendation and we feel that we are currently implementing this. so those are the two recommendations in which dhr is mentioned specifically, but we would like to talk just a little bit more about recommendation 1a. that recommendation states that the city's policy for limited time temporary disability payments should be followed for the sheriff's department and thereby eventually moving to closure of those claims. therefore, opening the positions up for new-hires. so as a little bit of background, whether which employees are unable to perform their duties while recovering from injury they get a temporary total

disability. so the time is governed by state workers' compensation law and medical opinion. the state code section "offprovides employees with full salary for one year in the event that they are unable to do their job while they are recovering. in addition to that, all workers get 104 weeks. so there is another year of temporary disability benefits that are available to public safety employees beyond that one year. so as such deputies could receive that. as the sheriff's department alluded to there is a challenge in terms of connecting the permanent disability benefits with the retirement benefits and peggy is certainly more of an expert than i, but i will simply say once a worker is

found permanently disabled and they are not able to return to their job, they go to the retirement department to get industrial retirement, but they have to basically retry their case in front of retirement board again. so that challenge of moving from permanent disability and workers' compensation to a place of industrial disability where that position is open, is one that is challenging, and can take a considerable period of time. so while the city seeks to influence legislation related to workers' compensation, these laws are beyond the control of the workers' compensation division at this time. and i will just add, right now, there is a bill on the governor's desk, which if he signs will give public safety officers an additional year of full salary offwork should they have a workers' compensation claim that prevents them from working as they recover. so

this that case they go to three years' of disability pay under the california workers' compensation laws. so where we can, what we do about this problem? we have these laws that provide these periods for our disabled workers and we believe that we can help the sheriff's department and all city departments focus on prompt and effective medical treatment for their workers and early return to work. so what we can look at the ways in which we can bring employees back to work on modified duty, so at least those positions aren't open while we're paying full salary and we have worked with the sheriff's department to help lower its ttd costs by bringing employees back to work on modified duty for longer period as they recover from their injuries. finally, we would like to chime in and say in recommendation 1b it says the board of supervisors should request an audit conducted by the budget and legislative

analysts, and we would certainly like to participate in that. it might be difficult for us to cross-reference all of the payments, but we certainly could put the costs of the workers' compensation, temporary disability payments together with some of the overtime costs and help to do an analysis of that data. now i would like peggy to add anything. >> before you move on, supervisor tang as a question. >> thank you, i don't know if this question is for the hr or sheriff's deputy, but have you noticed any sort of trends in the types of injuris? because it sounds like here that preventative measures have to be taken to warn people about certain injuries that you can incur on the job is again the solution given and constraint on state and federal laws. i was curious if there are any trends that you notice? >> in looking at trends for all injuries within the city, not just for the sheriff's

department, and have started implementing semi-annual reports to the major departments that show their claims and trends and nature of injury trends and, in fact, i was just talking about chief gorewood about this earlier today. we are both kind of independently looking at what is going on there and what we are seeing, which was a little bit surprising was that altercation-related injuris are actually not a primary driver at this point in time and we're going to assess the types of injuris that they have and work with them to help to see what can be done to help prevent them. >> good afternoon. >> kathy gorewood for the sheriff's department and to addition to the statistics of workers' compensation claims. last year we did notice the trend and one of the trends was that deputies were getting hurt responding to calls for assistance to fights in the jails and things happening

within our county jail system. so we modified our training program. so this year what we have seen is a decrease there that, because we have changed our train program. we are lookinging alooking at what is causing the injuris and have a meeting scheduled next week to modify our training program to reduce those injuries. so we constantly look at that and evaluate the programs. previously our return to work program was 90 days and an employee would come back for a period of 90 days while still recovering and seeking treatment. in an effort to reduce those payments we have extended that to 180 days and now employees can come back to work for a longer period of time. thank you. >> thank you. >> any other questions? >> no, we're good the questions. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you for your presentation. before we open up to public testimony, is there any response from the civil grand jury regarding what they have heard from the sheriff's department, as well as dhr? >> just briefly regarding the community involvement in the charter schools and adult education programs, i think our intention was to have more community involvement in the vocational programs, and not so much in the five keys charter school. because we understand that the western association accredits the ged program and that san francisco unified school district gives the charter for the high school graduation program. so it's more the vocational work and i hear that that is what is being developed and very pleased to hear that.

and with regard to injury and illness, i think as a jury, what we really did speak to, we just don't want people being hur on the job and we understand it's a dangerous job and unfortunately people will be hurt, but we believe that the curt culture of safety is something that is important, not just for the sheriff's department, but throughout the city. >> thank you for that clarification. at this time, i will open it up for public testimony. we have earnest patterson. >> madame chairperson, and supervisor tang, i'm ernestine patterson and i was a member of the board from which this

report comes, the grand jury. because money is very important, much more important than it used to be and very scarce and nobody wants to put out court and jail costs unless they have to, if you have to avoid buying too much comcast, avoid spending too much time visiting gambling casinos and drinking and drugs and i realize it's your money and you are an adult and you don't want to be told what to do, but the truth is that everybody wants to tell you how to spend your money. so what should you spend it for? something for a place to stay, something to eat, something to wear, a little bit for medicine and some leftover for your loved ones. so what do i advise? many some money to be put out for basic media, are and tv to tell people how to avoid going to court and jail, it's no fun and they don't need your help

anyway. >> thank you. next speaker, please. are there any other members of the public who would like to give public testimony at this time? seeing none, public testimony is closed [ . [ gavel ] >> so this item is in the hands of the board. i want to thank everyone for bringing forth thorough report and i will read into the record specifically what the [tpao-eupld/]ing is that more than 50 deps are presently out on long-term disability and their positions are being held, preventing the hire of new deputies. this results in serious overtime costs and additional responsibilities and workload for staff. the city has a policy of limiting