footing on the building's perimeter. and they placed continuous footing at the elevator pit last month. they have realized a slight delay, but they believe that they will be able to catch up with that delay on the back end of the project. station 16, they've completed the first and second floor -- concrete pour. next they are moving on to the roof which will also be concrete. they are, unfortunately, still behind schedule. but they continue to move forward. captain mcpartland and i met with d.p.w. and the estimator to determine -- to eve see the project and determine when we could establish a completion date. we also attended a community

meeting regarding the status of station 35. members from d.p.w. and the designers were also in attendance to answer any questions raised by the public. all of these projects continue to move forward and are on track. during this reporting period, he is now present but chief rivera and b.o.e. staff were back in new orleans -- actually, they were in the suburbs of new orleans to review the aerial truck specs and we accept receiving our first truck in one year followed by two more trucks four to six months later. we also received five new fire prevention vehicles and five new battalion chief vehicles. they're all delivered and currently at the shops being outfitted and equipped. as mentioned in my previous report, we received eight engines, seven are currently in service and one remaining to

complete their service prior to being returned to the field. under the division of training, as the chief mentioned, the recruit academy are in their 12th week and they have -- their last test is friday and their final test, their state test, will be given next week on friday. under e.m.s., in addition to their ongoing paramedic and e.m.t. recertifications, they continue to provide online training for our members and in addition to the six month and one-year testing of our probationary field members and assist with the 123rd academy with their training and return to duty e.m.s. training for members. [phone ringing] as the chief mentioned under nirt, we conducted the city-wide nirt drill next month and is continuing her neighborhood training in

addition to specialized and advanced training in presentations with community outreach. under fire reserves, the fire reserves continue their weekly battalion-based training and members during this two-month period volunteered 290 hours at various community event. those include the silver spur ceremony for commissioner nattagio, fleet week, the toy program, fund raisers, the safety fair battalion nine as well as the city-wide nirt drill. lastly, i'd like at this time to announce that this will be my final fire commission meeting effective end of the month. i will be retiring. with 30 years of service with the city and county of san francisco, 27 1/2 with the fire department. and i'd also like to take this time to thank each of you commissioners for supporting me as deputy chief of operations and assistant deputy chief of

division and training. it's been an adventure. it has been very rewarding. i've enjoyed working with each of you. each of you have a different style, by appreciate your support and encouragment towards me. also i'd like to thank the chief again for your support and confidence in me. in my role as chief of training, first of all. and also deputy chief of administration. it's been great being a part of the command staff. [voice breaking] and i appreciate -- this guy right here. [laughter] i refer to him as my big little brother. thanks. i needed that. he helps me out, as you can see. he is very supportive. he accepted me right away and we get along very well. we support each other. we play off each other. we fight. we argue.

we come back and laugh and hug and it's been great. and i also like to acknowledge my administrative staff for all of their support. they're all doing a great job. they make me look well. they answer those questions for me immediately. and i just want to say to the audience, especially the members behind me, stay focused, prepare yourself, so when that opportunity presents itself, you're ready. and continue, once you get the badge, don't take it for granted. continue to be the best example of this departments as you can be. thank you. [applause] happy to answer any questions. [applause] >> thank you.

thank you. >> chief williams, we are going to miss you. absolutely. thank you so much for your service. before we get into questions, i just wanted to say that. >> thank you. >> you've been a role model for many in the department and you'll continue to be someone that we with respect and think of and remember and wish were still here. so i hope you enjoy your retirement. >> thank you. >> you had some questions, vice president? >> thank you very much, president cleveland. thank you very much, chief williams, for your comprehensive report. since you have announced your retirement, i feel that i should take it easy on you a little bit. [laughter] >> she is still on the payroll. [laughter] >> yeah. i understand it. but part of the report that we've had over the years is the

report that this commissioner, as you take this department very serious and at any one point i've always been table ask questions and the great thing about yourself is asking those questions to pick up the phone, to text you, because you always do respond as well. i don't want to get emotional as well. but i am so happy for you. in terms of your retirement announcement. and thank you so much for serving this fire department and serving the city and county of san francisco as well. i know that we'll see each other in our post-fire life but i'm so delighted of your retirement and retirement announcement. best of luck to you, your family and to your loved ones. thank you, chief. >> thank you, vice president. chief, you had some comments. >> thank you, president cleaveland. i wanted to wish you the best in your retirement. can't express how proud i amount of you.

we didn't know one other in 1990 but became immediate friends and supporters. we both had challenging paths. yours i would say is even more difficult than mine at times and to be able to appoint you, along the line, to deputy chief over training and then to deputy chief, was really gratifying to me. you deserved each one of your appointments throughout your amazing career. because you have some very unique qualities of being able to lead by example. to always be respectful of people. and as one of commissioners just said, be a true role model for so many people. so, i wish you the best. 28 years, fearly 28 years with this department and then 30 years with the city. you will do well and i know i expressed yesterday at the staff meeting when deputy chief williams officially announced your retirement at tend of the

month, that it was fot an easy -- it was never an easy academy, but many of us would, on fridays, be able to have a carefree weekend, at least to blow off a little steam and before getting started and hitting the books to get together. none of us -- there might have been one or two, but there were no women in the department at the time that had children. i had no children at the time. and so when many of us would getting to briefly on a friday evening, chief williams couldn't go because she had a 3-year-old boy and 5-year-old boy. and that on top of a very challenging division of training was something that i really admired in you and think you had a great career here. but you've also been an incredible mother to your two boys who i know you're proud of. one is a member of the oakland police department and one becomes a member of the oakland police department next month. i think they learned a lot from you. >> they should have got into

fire. [laughter] >> they're very proud and they're following in your footsteps of public safety and service to the community. so, i wish you well. the three of us did work very well as a team. the two of you are similar in many ways, but you're also very different. and that was a great blend for me. we had a lot of serious times together. we helped each other through some tough times. but then we had a lot of fun as well. and i think that blend made it work. so congratulations. very, very proud of you and wish you nothing but the best. >> thank you, chief. commissioner cuddington. >> i know you're scared. [laughter] >> oh. what can i say? you just have such affection for you and the way you comport yourself and the fabulous job that you do and everyone says that you are a role model.

you know, role models are not just for people who are younger or the same age. but i can have a role model, too. and so you're one of mine as well. >> thank you. >> so, i know that you have a gorgeous grandson. you'll be spending more time with him. and when you told me that your two sons were going to the oakland p.d., i was like what's their phone numbers? [laughter] i need to call them up and say they made a mistake. they need to come over here. i wish you the best. i've been retired for nine years and i love it like a person and you will, too. all right. i'll talk to you later. >> that is good news for both of us, i guess. >> thank you, commissioner cuddington. commissioner hareman?

>> thank you, mr. president. i remember when you first received your appointment. and you're very approachable, outgoing person. and like ed lee. that doesn't mean that you are a pushover. you know, i've seen over the years how efficient you are at your job. and hopefully i brought my 2-year-old for a couple of weeks ago. [please stand by] it is

possible that we will have four different mayors as part of this process if this thing is

approved in june, right? so i'm not sure how that affects this process, but it needs to be stated. i think you need to anticipate that that may be -- how that affects you, you need to understand that. our current mayor is also a former fire commissioner, as i understand it, so there's also that that i wanted to put out there as a possibility. one of the things that i want to understand because i don't like being put in the position every year to where the mayor is coming to understand -- whoever the mayor is is coming to us and saying hey, we want a reduction of staff and then, along with the police department, these life safety departments with probably the most department -- most important departments in the city. they're the ones that save lives. i don't like being put in the position every year, which is

understandable, but they're telling us to find ways to reduce staff, find ways to, you know, reduce your budget. and i'm wondering every time i see your presentations, i'm wondering if there's anything that the department could be doing to protect against that every year. it's -- in my opinion, it's coming up with the best arguments when approached by the mayor's office, and it's also understanding -- fully understanding where our resources are going, and the chief and i had several discussions at which you've been a part of on department resources and tracking resources in this department, and specifically, on the issue of -- which i'd like more information on, is the issue of the station 49 and the -- the paramedics. that was a station at -- or not a station, but a job that -- originally 20 years ago, exactly 20 years ago, was done

by the department of health. and the department of health has today a budget of $2.3 billion, and they are anticipated from most recent reports to be almost $700 million in deficit. just from the department of hea health, that's almost $3 million. our budget is about $380 million. so i want to ask you, chief, when the department gave us station 49 and all of the paramedics, did -- was -- did our budget reflect that, and it reflected that over the years? there are now neighborhoods that exit that didn't exist when i was growing up in the city. so has our growth been reflected in our budget on an

annual basis? and when we received station 49, did we receive also a massive increase in our budget. did we justify a big increase in our budget, and if we didn't, we should be saying that. the department of health is important, but there are also, as we see with ems 6, there are new programs here in san francisco that are being developed that in my opinion -- and i love ems 6. i think it needs to grow, but it's a program that we also inherited because another department -- i'm not picking out any particular department, but other departments in this city weren't doing the job they should have been doing, so now, we're doing these jobs, and i think we should be doing this job, but does our budget reflect it? so i'd like more analysis around that particular issue because i don't want to go back to the mayor's office and ever have to hear that we have to

reduce our budget. also on the issue of resources, where are our resources being spent? are there outliers on our resources? the homeless in san francisco or that population is an outlier. we're going to see that in the next few quarters, i anticipate, because we're now doing a better job of trying to understand where resources should be going, but these are questions we need to be asking in the new year, so when the mayor asks us to reduce or budget, we can say well, mr. mayor, madam mayor, whoever it is, we're now doing homeless -- we're doing some type of homeless outreach or our services are now, you know, expanding in all of these different ways. i don't know but just in the recent -- and maybe it's just

this time of year, but there's been a lot of calls related to pg&e. so maybe it's annual. i'm not sure if it's just this time of year that this happens. i don't know. but what are these outliers? are we using this information and are we building the best budgets when it comes to budget time? i'd like more information on the station 49 hander and how it's reflected in our budget, and how it's reflected in their budget, as well. i appreciate the job that you do, mr. corso. i don't know how the city could possibly be in a deficit given the place in our economy is

with our unemployment at 4.1%. i can only imagine the problems we're going to have when we hit that downturn, because winter is coming. >> absolutely. thank you for your comments, and you touched on a lot of things, so if i'm missing anything, please let me know. to answer your question, i don't think we can get out of being asked for reductions up front. i think those are general instructions to all city departments. howeve however, in the past, what we have done and the commission has advocates we are in need of additional funding versus a reduction to any services. so what we have done in the past is if we have savings and revenues or something to account for a portion of our reduction, we've put those on the table, but we also say we don't feel we can absorb any further reductions, and these are the reasons why.

we've laid those out as part of our budget submission. so i think it's an ongoing conversation can the mayor's office, and they kind of emphasized this, that even department submitted what their target reduction was, that still wouldn't address the entire deficit problem that's being proposed. so it's an ongoing conversation with the mayor offi's office, we discussed those kind of things. so that's a discussion that we'll continue to have past the february deadline. with regards to station 49, i think it was trrd -- i don't have any information on the budget back then, but station 49, what that ambulance service looked like at that time is significantly different than what it looks like now, because those ambulances went into fire stations. the number of ambulances, the number of calls was dramatically less than what we have now. especially in recent years,

we've had dramatic increases in staff. so outside of the inflation, just the department and ems the department has now as compared to what it had originally was far greater than what the original amount was. and that's something we're continuing to work with, as we haven't seen call volumes slow down at all, we continue to work with the mayor office in response to that, in order to provide an adequate response time. we need to be properly resources from an ems perspective. >> and if i could mention quickly, that's an excellent point, but whether ems was a part of the department of health or the department, that growth would have been there any way. so if it was still in the department of health, that would be in the department of health budget, and i want to make sure that we have received that growth as well because we have taken on this -- and i believe that obviously, we -- it's natural. it makes sense that we would

have that. but i want to make sure we get the budget that reflects that growth. >> and then, just in general, we do look at, and part of the budget committee, part of their work is to service different areas of the department. we try to get as diverse a group a possible so we have all ranks, all divisions, and we do a needs assessment and we look at some of the data providing on those specific items as far as additional funding requests to the mayor's office as part of our overall budget. did i hit on -- >> yes. >> okay. >> thank you. commissioner covington?

>> thank you, mr. president. i will yield the floor to the chief of the department. chief, did you still want to speak? >> at 11:15, i do have to part, but i'll seek to continue because i know there's another item i'm meeting with the police chief, the sheriff, and our new mayor. i just wanted to pretty much echo what mark -- what mr. corse had said. we really would alienate a lot of people if there was -- i'd love it to be that way, personally. everybody else in the public safety must reduce their operating budgets. in a field of 55, 60 departmen departments, i think that's a request that they're going to make across the board. however, it's, to your point, the ability to craft a very good justification. we have in many cases, during

many difficult years, with the assistance of the commission, to say we get it. however, this is why we feel we can't reduce or why we need more in some cases. you're absolutely right. it predated me as chief, but it was july 1st, 1997 that we took over the formerly paramedic division and entered them into our department, and there was good reason for that. along the way, there was somaics and pains people say did we inherit this huge monster, and i would say we inherit that was rightfully placed in the fire department. at best, there were eight to 12 ambulances during their peak period in the 90's, which to me is very surprising.

we struggle with having sometimes 25 and 26 at peak periods, so we've done a lot more. it would be interesting to take a look at the analysis in terms of what the budget was then, but i can tell you the budget was not that much. we're applying so many more resources, but to do that analysis, that would be very helpful. i'm a native san francisco, native neighborhoods, candlestick point will be a great addition, but an exciting point to this city's history. i think the work for us begins now, and it'll be extra challenging with some executive leadership changes over the course of the next, you know, few weeks to june to -- to july -- excuse me, january of 2020. but all the while, i think our justification will be the same no matter who is sitting in the executive seat, in that public safety should matter, should be

prioritized, and we -- we will have a justification to back up our arguments. that's all i wanted to add. thank you. >> thank you, chief. commissioner covington. >> thank you, mr. president. mr. corse, i'm sorry you have to be the messenger of this bad news. i'm feeling quite nervous about a number of, i'm sorry you hav to be the messenger of this bad news. i'm feeling quite nervous about a number o, i'm sorry you have to be the messenger of this bad news. i'm feeling quite nervous about a number of things. this proposed deficit of $709 million for the city, that is incredible, considering that we are currently in boom times. i hate to say it, but i really feel that, you know, the economic downturn can be expected and that a recession

really looms large in all of our lives. i -- we're on borrowed time, just like with earthquakes. if we don't have one today, that means we're one day closer to having one. this -- we've had quite a -- quite a good run economically, and thank goodness for the obama administration and janet yellin and everyone who worked so hard to make sure that the finances of the country were go good. but we can't -- excuse me. we can't continue this rate of growth, so there has to be some contraction in the market, and i'm concerned about there being the requisite contraction in the san francisco fire department and its budget.

so here comes my familiar drum about the general fund. we cannot, as a department, continue to depend solely upon the general fund. everybody goes to the general fund. when you have a request for a 2.5% reduction in each year, a cumulative 5% in the second year of our budget, we need to tap into outside resources. any budget that comes to us, you know, presented by you, mr. corso -- i'm not frustrated with you in any way. i'm just frustrated with this coming up year after year, and we're doing the same thing. we're handling our business the exact same way. we need to be able to go to foundations and go to branchs

of the federal government to tap into funds that are being offered. we don't have the grant writers that i keep talking about. this, to me, is a priority. this is a priority. i -- any budget that comes to me, as we sit here, as commissioners, i have to see that as a protected category. a new category but a protected category. there's home hand security funds, there are health funds. there are all kinds of funds that are available. there are foundations that have so much money related to public safety, related to all of these things, and we're still not doing our due diligence to make sure that that is something that we're at least in competition for. we're not in the game at all.

it's very frustrating for me to have to say this over and over again. i really suspect that with the downturn in the economy, it's not going to be a 5% reduction that's being requested. i think that is the starting point, knowing what little i know about finances. i think that is the starting point. i think that is a conservative number, that it could be 10%, and then, we're left flat footed. i know that you agree with me, so please don't take what i was saying as an attack on you. it's not an attack on you, but we have got to work smarter. and you know, we have brilliant people in the department. we could -- we can do better, and we must do better.

so i also had a question about the budget committee. who -- actually, this is a question for the president of the commission. which commissioners currently serve on the budget committee? >> i do, and -- i don't know. vice president nakajo? >> okay. so it's currently the president and the vice president, because i thought commissioner hardeman was on it at one point, at well. >> no. i chose not to be on it over the years. i'm very fortunate. >> okay. >> okay. >> this is something we both

feel is important, as well, commissioner covington, so we share your concerns. >> thank you. >> that we don't have a grant writer in the department. i know the police department has probably two or three. >> they have a staff of grant writers. they have three grant writers in the police department. >> so it is a priority, mr. corso. >> and i daresay they're not smarter than we are. let's get with it. >> i think mr. corso's got the message. >> and also, mr. president, to you, you have mentioned a number of times about the need for friends of the san francisco fire department, and rumor has it, sir, that you will be retired. >> wow. thank you for your suggestion. >> got more time for us. more time. >> you're more than welcome from my suggestion. >> there's certainly a lot of money in the private sector

that could be tapped to support our department. >> well, every time you have mentioned the friends of the fire department, i supported it. >> we did have one years ago, but it disbanded, but it's something that should be researched a little bit more, yeah, how we could reestablish that nonprofit entity. >> well, the nonprofit entity would have to be totally separate from the department. it would have to be a 501(c) 3, but i have always bought, since you first joined the commission, you have brought that idea up, and i have always thought that it was an excellent idea. >> well, the planning department has one, and a very successful one. it raises a lot of money each year to basically be used for training purposes for unbudgeted expenses of the department personnel going to conferences and seminars and

whatnot, so it's a good thing. >> the members of the department would love that, just love that. >> park and rec has one, as well. that's very true. all right. >> well, thank you very much, and mr. corso, i look forward to working with you on the budget. >> certainly. you too. >> write that grant writer in. thank you, commissioner covington. vice president nakajo. >> thank you very much, president cleaveland. thank you very much director corso. i appreciate this process because this process is what we've been working with since i've been here. i know that there's concerns on maybe modifying or changing the process. again, i appreciate it because you have always been able to walk us through the process, and with these timelines and with these instructions, so

when i see a deficit number and in terms of your presentation, the projected deficit that was referred to was 88 million fiscal year 18-19. excuse me? do i have this wrong? can you explain this a little bit more about projected deficit over the next two fiscal years, and we're talking about san francisco's projected deficit, correct, on page 7? >> absolutely. so as part of the joint report, the controller's office, mayor's office, and the budget office looked at projected deficits for the next five years, and assuming nothing changes, they stack on each other going outward. so in 18-19, which is the first year, an $88 million deficit, and in the second