police department and fire department is essential for the city and the men and women you lead whether it be the response times we're talking about last year or serving new communities. i want to make sure it's a priority from my perspective that we fully staff and have a plan to fully staff the fire department as you see fit and others see fit in the department so look forward to that discussion when you come back and so forth whether it's before or after the mayor's budget and have that discussion and talk about long-term planning and it's essential for the residents and everyone would support that. supervisor wiener. >> thank you. i have a few comments. first the last point you made i am sort of surprised to hear there is no wi-fi in any fire department facility. >> so a member can come in and surf on their own personnel computer if they want to -- >> right they have to use their data to do that. >> correct.

>> i guess maybe this is more a question to the mayor's budget office. you may not know but in terms of facilities and wi-fi we purportedly have it in this building and it's horrible and just like the market street wi-fi is horrible and so many of the city provided wi-fi networks are in inadequate and at least we have it and it works sometimes and i guess more of a question for d tbut a broader question. i mean city facilities -- we should have free wi-fi everywhere but particularly in city facilities. if we can't put it in our own facilities how do we roll it out to the whole city? i don't know if you can comment on that. sorry to put you on the spot. >> i think that's why i am here. thank you for the

question. as i think the cao talked about last week dt and coit put together a connectivity plan that is part of the plan adopted by the board this week. the first issue is connectivity of the city buildings and the first priority is the fire stations. the fire chief and i just spoke about this issue yesterday and she raised concerns about the timing and the speed with which we're actually making progress on this issue so it's an important one that i am following up on as well. >> i appreciate it. what is the timing proposed for the fire stations? >> i don't have that information in front of me but i am happy to walk through that piece with you. >> yeah. >> i know it's on his radar but to your point. >> yeah, i like him and i think it's very good and he's

new and inherited a problematic situation that i know he's trying to fix and it's i don't want to repeat some of the frustration that i expressed at the full board when we adopted the plan about the fact we're not laying conduit in the street before we cover them up and the wi-fi -- publicly available wi-fi and doesn't work and it's not going up quickly at all and when it does go up it may or may not work and we're the -- i mean this is -- we're right next to silicon valley. i don't want to sound -- well, okay. moving away from wi-fi and it to the fire department. first i want to thank you chief and the members of the department for -- and i do this every year and i can't say thank you enough. since i have taken office there

have been a number of fires in my district. when you're not in this role either at the fire department or the board or the mayor's office you don't necessarily reals how many fires are -- realize how many fires are in the city and we have so much wood frame construction in the city. there's a lot of fires and the fire department has been done a beautiful job getting there quickly and containing the fires and putting them out and when i look at recent fires at 87th and lore lore or other areas and the department did a fantastic job and thank you to you and your staff. >> >> i think there has been progress made in the coordination around street design and at times a tense several year period but i think it's actually been a healthy process because the departments i think have been working more

closely together and gaining deeper understandings of the needs and constraints of the other departments so i want to thank the fire department for participating in that process. and so with that said do you -- excuse me, where do you see in terms of the staffing of the department and getting it where it needs to be how long do you realistically think that's going to take so we get where we need to be? and i know because of the use of mandatory overtime there is times when you're under staffed but you have enough hours but how many years do you think it will take? >> i think for a number of years we didn't hire with retirements and that put us in the hole but that changed since 2012. i would say we're on track and again it's dependent on the number of retirements.

we are seeing when i first came in at 1990 and people would work past 55 and retire and we are seeing a trend they're not waiting or working as long and not maxing out. we can make projections but i think with the public safety hiring plan that the mayor has proposed we should be on track hopefully earlier than 2018 than the police department and maybe the 16, 17 time frame and we are contemplating asking for another class in january but we're working with the mayor's office on that analysis but i think we're close. through the 1971 that the police use we look at it differently. we have a minimum staffing of 306 which represents the daily personnel in suppression that must be on duty and we use overtime to assist in that requirement but we're relying less as we staff

up so i would say in the next two -- i would say 24, 36 months we should be where we want to be. >> do you think once we hit that point and with the challenges around paramedic staffing in particular that we will see a restoration of paramedics and for example -- i am bad with the station numbers and in my district and hawthorn street that station no longer has a paramedic sign and that's the recent information. >> correct. station 24. >> so do you anticipate restoring some of the paramedics who were removed from stations? >> we do so what you're referring to which is an important issue is the staffing of an als or advanced life staff with the engine and most of the calls a bls provider is very much essential and usually their skills and training can do what we need them to do. we would

like too store i think we -- restore and i think we took three awares and did an analysis with response times and i think we're down to 27 but get up to the 30, 32 range and restore a paramedic there and a a couple other stations as well. >> thank you. >> supervisor yee. >> thank you chief hayes white. in regards to hiring or staffing i guess my question is really about recruitment and how are we doing in regards to -- it's almost the same question i asked chief suhr in terms of getting as many residents an opportunity to be part of this fire department, and i keep on

hearing stories of people living in different states coming in and working for a few days and going back home and it may not be a concern but for emergency purposes where you need everybody on board and they might not be on duty and all of of a sudden they're not in the bay area and it's a big concern for me and other people they know. what are we doing differently that can actually strengthen our ability to our people that are closer to san francisco or in san francisco? >> thank you for the question and i do always feel it's value added to have someone that lives the bay area, maybe not the city. i know when we do rl drills and -- recall drills and do them annually and we have

robust procedures and not have everybody come back at one time but respond in a manageable way if you will, so a couple things. what i am hearing is proximity. although we cannot dictate where someone lives. it's against the law. we did make modifications to the schedule several years ago. i think about seven, eight years ago where employees could no longer necessarily string together a long period of time where they could have someone work with them and trade back with a trade. we still have that business practice but it is limited so that would in my mind encourage someone to live closer to maybe where they had been in previous years. i think the last time we checked we had 34% of the uniform work force live here in the city with a large percentage of the other living in the greater bay area -- the nine bay area counties and some live outside the limits but

it's not as many -- more than i would like but not as many as you would think and on the recruitment piece i appreciate the question. last year we asked for a single function person in uniform just to deal with recruitment and there was a position funded and although i think the tide maybe turning and i find the value of having a person. they have a recruitment unit. we have a few people trying to piece things together >> >> and we're proud of being one of the most diverse departments in the country.

and i think when the federal consent decree went away there was concern there would be back sliding and our numbers in terms of recruitment and retention has remained robust. we have 52% of the department is minority and women and we have a very representative work force. we want to continue that and we're in the process of working closely with the department of human resources particularly and a continuous testing process. the police department has been thrilled with their process. we are a little behind them not yet to see the full results of this. >> >> and hr is on board and diversity is a key and i am committed to it.

>> i am just curious. maybe you already have this but the police department for instance seems like there's a logical pathway from high school to young adults for the cadet program and what is it? generations program or the summer program they have. i don't know if you have it or whether or not it can be created so there is more exposure to your department by young people. >> right. we don't have a cadet program and we talked to the department of human reebz about it. i think it's an opportunity to expose youth to what a career in fire service would look like and we are looking at but don't have a funding source and we have a reserve program and they do great works and show up and they have the light blue uniforms and

do exterior existence for us. it's a diverse group of people and have to be over 21 for that and the black firefighters association does have a youth cadet program that is funded through their organization but supported by us in terms of resources and equipment and opportunities. >> >> >> and i know the chief -- [inaudible] it would probably be in the same range but i can get that information for you. we haven't gotten to that level of

detail. >> and whether we can get to the details and whether you're supportive of that. >> i am supportive of youth having an opportunity to learn about a career in the fire service and we can fast track if you like. >> i would love it and i believe in such a concept. >> one of the things which i can talk to chief suhr about is possibly their cadet program maybe having a module in which there might be an opportunity on orient to the fire service and the sheriff's department and something we thought of as well but we will come up with a few options for you. >> thank you. >> i just have one more slide. supervisor mar real quick and then get to your last slide. >> i am supportive of youth programs and local tracks to

local hiring as much as possible and you mentioned 52% of women and people of color. what the percentage of women in the force and just generally of african-american, latino -- >> sure. i have that and 15% of women in the uniform work force and we're proud of that because you have phoenix and seattle might be close in double digits but you look at boston and new york and chicago and there's less than 1% in the uniform work force still so we're proud of that and then a quick run down of african-american males 8%, female 2%, hispanic males 14, 3% female asian and i have the

other numbers listed. >> and the low from 2012 and down to 1300 firefighters jumping up probably 150 or up to the current at about 1500. do we have data on those new hires like what the demographics of the new hires have been in if we're making progress to diversify with more of a gender balance and even the ethic balance. that would be helpful to know and one other question that i asked ms. hicks about language access needs. are you hiring bilingual, multor the first time it's part of the criteria for applicants to have a secondary language. you should know that we have a number of -- i don't have it off the top of my head.

we have spanish speaking and cantonese speaking individuals in the department and uniform members and some with tag log and russian speakers but primarily russian and chinese and cantonese. >> i know as we have our language access report we will have more of the reports that come forward through the office of immigrant affairs and civic engagement soon but i was going to make a point about chief suhr's chart about overtime and it looks like it's creeping up -- the costs are creeping up in the police department even though the number of officers has increased significantly. i am wondering if you have an you know date on the overtime -- >> update as your seeing the increased levels and i assume we will have less overtime but i don't see anything from the slides -- [inaudible] >> it's a great question. i believe we are having a

reduction in the overtime and have mark address it further. >> good afternoon supervisor. to that point absolutely. the more personnel we're able to bring on board the lower our overtime would be. however there are other factors to consider. for example station four which opened for us and that is additional staffing commitment on a daily basis. >> (paused).

>> we're teaming up with the red cross. this is a recent agreed to program with the red cross being able to provide smoke detectors to outreach to the citizens. they have the ability to go in and install them and have a home escape plan and we think it will save lives and looking forward to that partnership and continue the work which we did for 10 years with the burn foundation and we

have members that don't get paid and volunteer and passionate about what they can do. they go into the schools provide safety education and provide it in spanish and cantonese and proud of that program and partnered with the unified school district. we have two programs related to kids that have asthma in hopes they don't miss school and have a better understanding of the disease and we have that and that has been positively received and our members are dedicated going on to continue the outreach and educate the public. that concludes my presentation. thank you. >> thank you very much. colleagues any questions for the chief before she steps down? okay. thank you very much. thank you for your presentation and for all the other fire department folks here. last but not certainly least we have our department of emergency management. thank you anne for

waiting. >> good afternoon supervisors, chair farrell, members of the budget and finance committee. it's a pleasure to be here today . i am anne kronen berg executive director of department of emergency management. we have prepared a few very brief slides for you today in our presentation. you will see just four slides because -- >> wow. >> right, i thought being the last one to present it's something you would appreciate. we did take the what we were asked by -- or at least what we thought this hearing was about which was focusing specifically on response times and so i'm not talking about our whole department but just in that one area. >> we will appreciate that. thank you very much. you realize the shorter the slides the bigger the budget gets.

>> awesome. i like that. >> just kidding. >> our mission is to lead the city in planning preparedness, communication and response and recovery for daily emergencies, large scale city wide events and major disasters. the department is the vital link in the emergency communication between the public and the first responders and key coordination to stakeholders and residents and visitors. functionally we're comprised of three operating divisions, the division of emergency communications and that's what we will be focusing on today, division of emergency services, and our administration division. in addition to that dem serves as the bay area fiscal agent for all homeland security grants that come into the bay area so we have our staff urban area security initiative here in my

area. regarding the state of the city's public safety services. 911 center falls underneath our emergency communications and unlike the last three presenters i asked my deputy director in charge of 911 to go over the statistics there because it's rob and he's behinds and got a hand on the issues we're facing and develop a long-term solution to deal with them so i'm going to turn it over to rob. i thank anthony our budget analyst from the mayor's office and of course kate howard who has been supportive of us and our controller ben rosenfeld and i

will turn it over. >> this slide shows the call volume but in the last four years we have seen what is now up to a month over month, about 40% increase in call volume. to go into that a little more detail the second slide tries to show the monthly call volume and this is adjusted for seasonal differences and differences in length of time so this is attempting to show consistent, so that's the individual bars and then there's a line that shows our service call volume as increased one of our challenges is making sure that we are able to answer 911 calls in a timely manner and

our service goal is to answer 90% of 911 calls in 10 seconds or less. we fell below that goal. we are now coming back towards it and one of the challenges is we've done that through use of a lot of overtime and i will be back shortly on a supplemental request for overtime, but we are also ramping up our hiring. we've done three classes. we seated three classes in the last a little over a year period and unfortunately it takes about nine months when a class is seated to actually when the hire is available for doing dispatch, so there's a little bit of a lag time so we will continue to use a fair amount of overtime in the meantime but this has been a challenge. another effect of this we have a second service standard and half of the call volume is non emergency police and non emergency wait times

have increased significantly as we have shifted resources to make sure that we answer 911 calls in a timely fashion. that is rebounding but they're a lower priority than zeroing 911 calls. >> >> i wanted to briefly touch on -- >> sorry supervisor yee. >> yeah, thanks. the line that is under the red line that is going up and down what does that represent? >> yes. that you use the right hand percentages. that is our service goal, so that's the red line is at 90% which is our service goal and the blue line underneath that is our actual performance so we dip down to the current month we're about

84% answering 84% of 911 calls in 10 seconds or less. >> thank you. >> just a translation what we're at the goal the average wait is three and a half seconds. this month it's 5.2 seconds so on average that is not significant delay in reaching help. it does translate to nobody exists in the average who exist in peaks and valley so that's why we have our focus. just a few other things that i wanted to touch on -- >> mr. chairman. >> supervisor mar. >> i just wanted to ask rob who do you contribute the increase in the cal volume from 2010 to now and what called the huge increase over the five year

period? >> i believe there are a couple of reasons going into that and i highlighted a few of them on this next slide. we are actually through the mayor's office we've had a couple of data experts volunteer their service at no cost to the department or the city to crunch some of our data and to help tease that out, but the work i did before the volunteers came on board. there are changes in phone use as people go from land lines to flip phones and smartphones you will notice on the smartphone it's easy to hit the emergency button and a lot of people's pockets hit that emergency contact button and are percentage of accidental dials have increased significantly. our policy for accidental dials even if you hear on the line somebody muffled sound -- we've all had an accidental dial i

imagine we will call that person back, try to reach them. if there was any source of concern on the other line, if we heard any shouts or noise we will contact the carrier and try to go locate that person and take action but even if we don't have a reason for concern we will call them back and often go to voice mail and leave a major an -- message and that takes time and that is one factor. another factor is more repeated calls on lower priority incidents. as chief suhr testified earlier as the number of police officers hasn't kept up with issues it takes longer to respond to some priorities and low priorities where it's just taking a report and we have more people calling back asking