>> clerk: this is a reminder to silence all electronic devices. san francisco fire commission regular meeting december 13, 2017, and the time is 9:02. [ roll call. ]

>> clerk: announcements. the next fire commission meeting will not on january 10th, 2018 in city hall in room 416. the fire commission will resume their usual meeting schedule in 2018 consisting of the second and fourth wednesdays of the month. item three, general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any matter within the commission's jurisdiction and does not appear on the agenda. speaker shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with the speaker. the last of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> clerk: item 4, approval of

the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve meeting minutes on november 8th, 2017 and december 1st, 2017. >> thank you. is there any public comment on those minutes? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, what is your pleasure? [ inaudible ] >> move by commissioner hardeman, do i have a second? >> second. >> second from vice president nakajo. all approving? all in opposition? >> clerk: environmental health and safety. director anthony boone to provide overview of duties, current findings and expectations for 2018. >> welcome, mr. boone.

>> thank you. >> good morning, everyone. good morning commissioners, chief. thank you for having me this morning. first, let me say it's an honor and a privilege to be part of the department and provide an overview of environmental health and safety for the department. i think the over arching philosophy that i bring to the department is to use all my skills and resources and knowledge to make an inherently dangerous job safer, if that makes any sense. i was talking with chief hayes-white yesterday about firefighters are not at a fire scene at all days, all times, but safety is a 24/7 job, so

paying attention to things in the fire house and even off-the-job safety is critical to maintaining a healthy firefighting force, so it is my over that the overarching philosophy is that the culture of safety is infused in the members of the department as well as the civilian employees of the department. as far as duties go, you probably surmise my duties as an environmental health and safety professional, and the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of workplace hazards. that's kind of an overarching description of what a fire safety professional does. there are a lot of different things that come to the table. i've spent the first six months -- it's been exactly six months since i've been here,

trying to acclimate myself to department function, getting to know the nomenclature of what firefighters talk about. for example, knowing what a box is, knowing what a grader alarm is. understanding the different divisions, the separation of suppression to support services to ems to homeland security to investigation and prevention, so getting to understand how that works, and then, really, just understanding the rank and file from the chief of department all the way to the assistant department chiefs, to the assistant chiefs, the batallion chiefs, the captains, so what i did was i spent a lot of time acclimating myself to that, as well. i've visited approximately one quarter of the fire stations so far, introducing myself and what i bring to the table to members of the department and being able to answer questions.

one of the biggest things that i've done since i've been here is from an environmental side, i brought our underground storage tanks and reporting system into compliance with the state, and i think that's probably the biggest success so far up to date. i've spent a lot of time reading health and safety policies and assessing those health and safety policies to see how they can be made more robust to be improved so again, the members of the department can function and also maintain cal-osha and epa compliance, and that's what i've done so far. going forward, i had a couple of bullet points that i'd like to read, and then, i'll talk about them if you have any questions. looking forward to 2018, continue assessment of policies and procedures and trying to

upgrade them so that they're in up-to-date status for the department, so i wrote this as to assess and provide tools to improve as necessary the culture of safety awareness around the job of firefighting in all phases. again, from prevention to suppression, investigation, recovery, with the purpose of reducing injuries as best we can. once again, assessing fire department safety programs for cal-osha compliance, and updating them as necessary. also, developing -- providing -- developing and providing health and safety training that is not only cal-osha compliant, but i think would also enhance the safety of the members of the department. also, to provide environmental health and safety support within the framework of the

department's fire-year strategic plan and act as a health and safety resource to the fire department, again, in any phase that i can support to make the job a little bit safer. and then, finally, kind of a cat catchall to provide whatever the department needs from me in the realm of fire safety, so that's what i hope to do going forward. and with the chief's cooperation and all the deputy chiefs and assistant chiefs, assistant deputy chiefs, i believe we can make this job inherently safer than it has been, even though it's not bad in the sense that it's not safe, it's just that it's an inherently dangerous job, and i'd like to do my part to make it even safer. so that is what i do, and that is what i bring to the table, and i'll entertain any questions.

>> thank you. is there any public comment on this presentation? seeing none, commissioners? commissioner veronese? >> thank you, commissioner. i would just like to say anthony has been a welcome addition to our staff in the field of fire safety and prevention, fire safety is all of our jobs, but to have a single point of contact and someone ultimately responsible for making recommendations and take i a look at each and every one of our facilities, our equipment and being that liaison, he's done a great job and off to a wonderful start and done quite a bit in six months, so thank you. >> thank you, chief. >> commissioner? >> good morning. >> good morning. >> how about now?

>> yes. >> okay. thank you. so what are the metrics that you are using to identify whether or not the job of a firefighter is safe? >> that's a good question. my initial metrics would be to take a look at the osha recordable injury rate for the department overall. i'm starting to compliile data from cal-osha injury logs to see -- and do an analysis to see where the major injuries are outside of the long-term, short-term injuries, that kind of information, so those are the metrics that are commonly used in evaluating safety in reducing the osha recordable injury rate. >> what -- i heard you say physical injury. are -- when you say physical injury, what -- what is cal-osha looking for?

they're looking for -- by way of example, are they looking for broken bones, they're looking for ways that people hurt themselves physically? is there anything else that is part of the types of injuries they're looking for that you can just further describe? >> there is some things in the cal-osha regulations about -- about stress, about -- there's actually a law on the books about workplace violence, and the ems personnel are part of that -- that regulation because they're first-line responders, and there's a reporting system. and at this point, cal-osha's really just tabulating data on workplace violence, but there is an analysis on workplace violence, and cal-osha does talk a little bit about stress, but there is no compliance with

regulatory stress management. >> how are you measuring whether or not an individual has sustained a stress injury? >> that remains to be seen. i don't have that in my purview at this point. that may be something that will happen down the road, but i don't have that data to support to answer that question at this time. >> okay. and how about other physical ailments? what other physical ailments other than -- let me just give you an example. i'll cut to the chase here. what about cancer? are you monitoring the cancer rate in the department? >> not -- personally, not yet, but what impart of is part of the health and safety, and i will put my part when the health and safety committee requeens. there's a lot of research and data that's out there already, and i've taken that data and i've reviewed a little bit of that external data. there's a large study that

involved -- i believe it's new york city fire department, chicago fire department, and los angeles fire department. i've taken those operations and look at how things are done. i haven't made any commitment to the chief or any recommendations to the chief as far as cancer, but that's the long-term goal, to try to reduce that incident rate, as well. >> but as we sit here today -- i know you just started this job, and i'm excited about the opportunity that you bring to this field within the department, so i -- please don't take my questions as challenging you. >> i don't. >> challenging what you've done, but instead, challenging where we can go as a 21st century department. >> right. >> so as this day, do we have any idea of the cancer rate within active members of the department? >> i would probably defer that to the health and safety committee chair. i believe that's deputy chief

colin beene. >> yes, or department physician. >> yes, or department 3 hysician, as well. >> but you're the health and safety guy of the department, right? >> that is correct. >> i look forward to working with you in the future because the health and safety of everyone in this room is important. i want to work with you to figure that out. >> i'm in agreement with you. >> and not just figure out cancer generally, if there's a specific type of cancer, whether it's lung cancer, whether it's -- whatever type of cancer it is, let's figure out what type of cancer if it exists within the department, and i know it's a big issue because poa -- not poa.

the 798 just spent $100,000, their cancer presentation -- their people just spent $100,000 to test the people that just came back from the north bay fires, so this is an issue that's dear. we need to figure out what data points are out there. if they're not out there, we need to, in my opinion, drill down and get to the bottom of it. i see chief colin beene standing up. maybe he wants to say something on this issue. >> commissioner, we do discuss it at great lengths in the health and safety committee. the health and safety committee is a joint group of union members, staff members, firefighters, and also, we do a lot of work with the san francisco firefighters cancer foundation, so we look at everything: all the documentation that comes in. what i'm being told by tony

stephani, who oversees the cancer foundation, what we're doing in regards to firefighting this time is leading the nation. i can get you that information at another meeting, but tony is new. he is coming on board and will be that point person for the department, but we've got a very aggressive group in our work with the union and the cancer foundation. i think what you're -- what you're asking. >> yeah, no, absolutely. and as i mentioned, i'm not challenging tony. i'm encouraging him to get more information. and i understand what you're saying about how we're doing probably better than most departments, but he see what a lot of departments are doing on stress, and it's actually pretty path particulaetic. not to be too critical.

back on cancer, i would like to know the statistics not only within the department, but the statistics of the firefighters that have retired. we have to be sure that we're not putting them in a position to be sick once they're in their twilight years, where they're enjoying time with their families. i would expect by this time next year that the department has an answer for this, and not only has an answer for this, but has a program, an active program where we are meeting a much higher expectation, where we're doing things. i know the department was -- spent some time -- i spent some time at station 49. i saw the new washing machines. >> yeah. >> we're doing things to get the chemicals out of the uniforms. maybe we're doing it already, and maybe it exists, but i'd like to see getting a new program of mitigating the cancer risk.

not only now but for the future generation, the past generation of firefighters sfl absolutely, and i do think i can get you some of that from the cancer foundation, because they do track the retirees, so i think i can get you that information. >> yeah. and then, on the stress issue, one in four firefighters have some sort of measure, by all the studies that i've read, some sort of measure of ptsd. this job is a very serious job. we see things that we can't were you n unsee or the firefighters see some things that they can't unsee. the stress thing is something that's been very important to me, and i think everybody in this room. i know we're losing john christie to potential retirement midnext year, and we have just hired on dan nazareta

to facilitate additional stress treatment in that unit, but i would like to know how many firefighters are suffering from ptsd. as i told the chief previously, if we are -- if we don't know it, we can't manage it, aeasurf we can't measure it, we can't manage it. i think that's it for me. i have really high expectations for you. i think you can probably feel that, and i look forward to working with you and the rest of the department on these important issues, these people want to know that we're taking care of them in a very

proactive and small way, too, so thank you for your efforts and we've got a lot of work to do, indeed, all of us. >> thank you, commissioner. >> thank you commissioner veronese. vice president nakajo? >> thank you. just a couple of questions of clarification. >> yes. >> you made some reference to compliance with our underwater storage tanks? >> underground storage tanks. >> you want to get a bit more specific with what that is? are we talking about citrons, or what are we talking about? >> no. we're talking about fuel storage and gasoline storage. several fire stations have tanks that are under the ground to provide fuel, diesel to the emergency generators and to the engines and trucks and the epa requires certain things. if those tanks are above a

certain galamount, then, you have to have a program how you're going to manage it to prevent leaking of that -- that fuel or fuel oil into the soil, so you have to manage that, and you have to report how you're going to respond if there's a leak, how you're going to monitor the tanks and things of that nature. and as california is going -- has gone to an on-line reporting system, and so there's something called secer the california environmental reporting system, so i went to check off several things in boxes to make sure those are in compliance. the tanks are not monitored, they're inspected, things of that nature. like gas stations. when you see gas stations, they have to be compliant with these

regulations. >> all right. in terms of our stations, how many stations would you say have these underground -- >> approximately 16. >> okay. like, station five? >> station five. >> so when station five is rebuilt, that tank would be rebuilt in that station, as well? >> i believe that's the plan, yes. >> okay. i see chief rivera nodding his head, so thank you very much. also, when you find issues that need to be corrected and such, safety issues and such, how do you logistically convey that? is that working with the department or in classroom training? how do you do that? >> well, there's a couple of things at this point, and that's something that i've actually tried to figure out how to work that, so the way i've done it and i've responded to a couple of inquiries, if you will, to a couple of stations, and what i've done is done an inspection, done an

investigation. made my -- evaluated, make my recommendations, and i forward that to assistant deputy chief rivera, who would then forward it to deputy chief williams and get it back to the assistant chief of the -- the division chief and then get it back to the batallion chief or through that station, so through that chain of command that they can input and make those recommendations, make those changes if necessary. >> that's an education of the members of that particular station for something that needs to be improved? >> correct, and i would -- and if members of the station have particular questions from me, an example being station -- the treasure island training facility, they had specific questions for me, and i answered them directly. >> yeah. >> to give them satisfactory answers and move forward from there. >> okay. mr. boone, is there some kind of system of follow up that you make in terms of the in compliance? >> simple phone calls, and then, i'll go back and inspect

the facility. if there's something i said, this should be changed, my recommendation was this be changed or -- if something is actually out of compliance or can lead to a health and safety incident, thin i would -- i kind of take a little bit more drastic measures, but if it's about something that can be improved that's already sort of in compliance, then, i'll just make a recommendation. but if there's a problem, so to speak, i will follow up with a phone call or a visit to the station. >> thank you, mr. boone. your presentation is very helpful. as well as i think it's a great idea that you are visiting our stations, and i just think that's a good idea. thank you, mr. president. >> thank you commissioner. >> thank you, mr. vice president. commissioner covington. >> thank you, mr. president. welcome again, mr. boone. >> thank you, ma'am. >> you began your presentation by going into what it is that you're doing for the department. i know you've been on the job

for six months, but can you refresh our memories regarding where you came from? i know you came from the department of health, but what your responsibilities were previously. >> yes, i can do that. i came to -- i'm still technically with the department of public health. i just moved from an industrial hygienist position to this position. the first six months of the year, i was at laguna honda hospital whereas an industrial hygienist, same thing, provide industrial hygiene, ergonomic evaluations. i'm an asbestos contractor supervisor so i did a lot of asbestos stuff. i did -- helped laguna honda with the hospital incident command system. i'm ics 300, 400 trained.

>> i'm sorry. what is ics? >> incident command system, so i'm -- i'm emergency response trained. my background -- a lot of my background is in emergency response and hazardous materials. prior to coming to the city, i worked as the environmental health and safety manager for a metal managing plant called materion corporation, and one of the things that we looked at was we -- at materion, we manufactured parts out of beryllium, and long-term beryllium analysis is something that we did in the ten years that i was there, so i'm very familiar with looking at cancer and beryllium, they're not the same, but they have a similar pattern. chronic beryllium disease is a respiratory illness that affects one in five people on the planet. you have to be allergic to it.

that's too much information, but cancer and chronic beryllium disease follow the same type of longitudinal statistical research analysis. i did a lot of that at materion and hyper, as well. i come from a background of navy nuclear power, so i've got -- i've got a combination. my degree is in public health, so i've got a combination of all environmental health, safety, public health. as a matter of fact in college, i did a lot of my research on ptsd. my brother was at ground zero on 9/11, so that affected me personally. not only was it my brother, but it was my home. i'm originally from new york city, and they used one of my airplanes when i was working for united, so i have some background in that. so i have a broad bouackgroundn

a lot of phases of environmental health and safety. >> okay. thank you for that comprehensive outlook in your background. my two felly commissioners before me covered a lot of territory. i had questions related to that, and i appreciate your responses to their questions. what is the biggest challenge that you have found so far? >> that's a good question. i think the biggest challenge for me is -- is understanding the culture of -- of the department. i'm not a firefighter, so i don't live in a house 24/7, so trying to understand what -- assess what that culture is surrounding safety, and how do we make it more robust, and that's probably going -- going to involve a lot more talking

to other stations. so i've only talked -- like i said, i've only talked to about ten or 11. and i'll say most of them -- all of them were very receptive to me being there, but i want to get a fall, broader perspective of what is expected, what firefighters think about health and safety, so that challenge is still in front of me. to find out exactly what, overall, they think about how the department protects them and how they are protected, because like i said, i don't know that anybody wakes up in the morning and says to myself, i can't wait to break my leg at work today. who does that? nobody does that. but they run into buildings that are burning when everybody else is running out, so how can you run into a burning building and not have safety on your mind, other than just a fire?

there's more things in that building other than burning structures, right? so how do you constantly -- how do you step off a truck -- how do you step off an engine without breaking your ankle, because if you break your ankle stepping off the vehicle, that's one less person to fight the fire. so is that on your mind? i haven't assessed that fully, so i think that's the biggest challenge to me so far, is understanding what that mentality is of fighting a fire. >> well, i fully understand that it's a steep learning curve. when i was appointed to commissi commission, one of the first things i did was took a course at city cluj, the introduction to the fire science, and every tuesday and thursday morning, i was there at city college. assistant chief, now assistant chief jiratovak was my

instructor. i never missed a class, and i learned the nomenclature. it's not just about diagrams and that sort of thing, so there are sources available. i don't know if -- you know, if you would be able to take one of those classes, but there may be other courses in the fire academy that -- excuse me, in the fire science curriculum of that will help you fill in some of those gaps, because there is a lot of give and take, and the textbook is exhaustive. it covers a lot of things. so i -- i admire you going into -- into this and understanding, you know, what to look at and where the gaps may be in your knowledge, so

people within the department really want the same thing you want. >> absolutely. >> without question, they want to be safe. >> correct. >> they've come to work whole, and they want to return home whole. >> exactly. >> and so knowing that you are the guy to help them do that and help them do that well will make you very, very popular on campus. >> thank you. thank you. i actually have an associate's degree in fire science in 1993 from city college, so i have to go dust off my books. >> yes, it's changed a little bit. >> yes. it's changed a little bit. >> i'm sure sewer and firefighting has changed a lot in 25 years. >> it's a lot different. any way, i could go on, but thank you very much. >> you're very welcome. >> thank you, commissioner covington. commissioner hardeman. >> thank you, mr. president.

yeah, i'd like to call you tony, but i think mr. boone. >> tony's fine. mr. boone is my dad. >> any way, good comments by fellow commissioners, but my concern is these wildfires, and particularly, like the fire up in the north bay, which is not just vegetation burning. >> correct. >> which you understand and everybody involved in firefighting understands what you're dealing with. >> right. >> as far as chemicals and stu stuff. but what happened in the north bay is every imaginable type of carcinogenic burning in houses and structures and businesses that really exposed -- exposed a lot of firefighters to unusual chemicals that they're not normally expected to have on a wildfire.

they're trained to -- like, we only have 10% of the department -- less than that -- trained. i would hope that that number would increase because with the amount of wild fires, particularly down in southern california now. i don't know how many the chief has decided to send down there, but i know we've sent some. are those repeat performers who might have been just last month up in the north bay. how much exposure do we want our limited number of people to have? i'm very concerned with that. not to put a damper on the chief doing her job, which is to have mutual aid throughout the bay area and the state, but to protect those firefighters that will go if called. >> right. >> if the chief sends them, they're going. and i think our job as commissioners and yours, our wonderful new position we have that's been created to have you aboard, responsibility to make sure that is monitored.

it's terrific, like what chief alioto veronese said, people are monitoring who's been involved in wildfires, testing them. the only thing is i hope those folks would have been tested say a year or two ago, and you could have some comparative doing at this point. i would hope they have a way of analyzing the degree of any problems. i was on the leukemia board for -- i think it was kgo radio 24 hour marathon fundraiser in san francisco, so you're familiar with kgo, going to city college, and for 30 years, i was involved with that, so i have a lot of familiarity with cancer. and it's one of those things that just when we find a cure, or if, it's going to be -- it's

got millions of dollars raised every year, and it just seems like it's baby steps all the time. so any way, just wanted to -- very happy you're aboard. very happy for the mayor, the board of supervisors, who turned this commission around. we had our troubles a few years ago, and all the fingers were pointed at the chief and the commissioners not doing their job, and the finger pointing was correct, and we sat down with mayor lee, and he was -- that big smile he always has, huh-uh. sat with that -- when we sat regarding the chief and regarding the condition of the fire department, he sat there pointing fingers at the commissioners. he expected more out of us, and there was no smiling in that office. that big smile you see out in the street, no. no. he expected the commissioners to do their job. and he turned it around.

you're an example, and he turned it around, and the funds were available, and the remarkable turnaround in this department over the last few years. probably no department in the country can -- has the turnaround that we've had, especially increased staff and equipment, etcetera. etcetera. any way, welcome aboard. i hope i didn't bore you or your time with your comments. i think all of us agree, anything we can do to help you. sounds like you're on the right direct. i -- congratulations. we appreciate you're on board -- oh, on your time. i see retired firefighter michael leary out there. lieutenant, is that where you're retired at, mike? you're up in santa rosa. any damage to your family's property from the fires?

[ inaudible ] >> great. great. thank you. we won the city championship basketball 8th grade. mike was his side, and i was shorter than him in the 8th grade. all right. thank you. sorry to take your time. thank you very much. >> thank you, commissioner hardeman. always entertaining. commissioner veronese, i had a follow up. >> i did. commissioner hardeman, you always have a way of putting things in perspective. >> well, you know what the audience always says? they like the entertainment i bring. i said, isn't it boring? they say no, you bring things up. >> you definitely bring it to a

level of detail we need to appreciate. like, where we've come from, and as i mentioned with mayor lee, i wasn't around for that, but you guys, i understand did some amazing work before me, and that's certainly part of his legacy. so he honors you, i'm sure, and i honor the work this commission did before i came he here. on the issue of forest fires, i briefly mentioned it earlier, but commissioner hardeman nailed it. i think that our forest wildland fires are no longer just forest wildland fires. >> that is correct. >> when i looked at what happened in the north bay, and i spent a lot of time up there 'cause i have a home up there, i saw that when our firefighters get called to a scene here in san francisco, they have one building that's on fire. sometimes it's two and three, but those are rare. up there in the north bay, i think there were thousands of buildings on fire, and they

went up there initially to -- it was a wildland fire. that program, as i understand it, is a ten-day program, and it would be great if we did some evaluation around that specific program because they are no longer wild land fires, they're now wild land urban fires. the fact that we are growing out into our wildland, so it would be great if the department -- i see the good doctor in the stands back there. it would be great if the department did some analysis around that particular program and decided within itself whether or not it's appropriate to make some adjustments to that program to make sure that our firefighters aren't getting exposed to the chemicals that they're being exposed to today in these wildland-urban fires. so i look forward to that analysis being done and the results that come from that. so thank you, mr. boone. i really appreciate, and i honor your past and everything

that you've done. it's nice to see a fresh perspective from outside the department come in. i know you worked at the department of health. i know that's a great department. a lot of funding down there, a lot of good work that they're doing. and when i came into this department, i made a decision that i wanted to learn more about the culture, too. and i was really surprised at how open the firefighters have been to inviting me in to learn more about their culture. i've had a few lunches at some of the fire stations with some of the commissioners here. i encourage you to do that because that's where you get a sense of what's going on and some of the patterns, and if you're lucky enough, maybe you can spend a night or two to understand truly. at some point in my life, i'd like to actually do that, too. >> absolutely. i have to put my hands on it to see what's going on so i can make the changes that i believe can be made. >> right.

all the people honor that. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> thank you, commissioner veronese. and thank you, mr. boone. we all welcome you to the department. you've been six months on the job. i have one question, and that deals with the training program. can you give us a description, 25 words or less, of the training program and what you take from station to station. >> 25 words or less? mostly around the areas of ergonomics, hazard communication. there's a couple other things that i'm skipping on, but they mostly center around ergonomics, hazard communication. machine safety, taking a look at a couple of machines that can be improved when they're in the firehouse, that kind of thing. hvac, but the training centers around the cal-osha compliance

stuff in the areas of ergonomics, hazard safety, asbestos awareness. >> if you could put that together and share it when you come back to the commission. maybe put it in a presentation, safety issues to be concerned about and what to watch for. >> oh, actually, the two keys that i'm working on right now, i apologize, respiratory protection and injury and illness prevention. >> i know you're also the osha inspectors for these various fire houses, so sometimes they welcome you and sometimes they're probably a little uneasy when you come and visit. >> i'd actually be the one that would have a cal-osha inspector in the how'use, so that's kindf my goal. >> so when you write them up, they make some changes right then and there. >> make sure cal-osha doesn't come in.

>> welcome back. >> thank you. >> glad you're here. >> madam secretary, next item. >> clerk: item 6, chief of department's report, chief of department, joanne white, on things that have been happening in the department since november #th, 2017, including meeting and outreach to other agencies including the public, and the report from administration, deputy chief raemona williams, on the department's training within the department, and update on status of draft drone policy. >> thank you, madam secretary. good morning. >> good morning, press cleaveland. commissioners. this is my report since our last meeting that was held on november 8th. i wanted to start off my comments by echoing president cleaveland, your remarks regarding our mayor. very devastating news yesterday

when we learned that he passed away so suddenly. it was a real honor for me to work with him and for him. we were colleagues when he was a department head, and then, he became city administrator and then mayor and really got to know him over the last many years, and i had great respect and admiration how he led. he always led with respect and dignity, and he always respected people even those who had different opinions. he was one of the lawyers in his early days when he worked for the asian law caucus, and he was really a champion for equality. and one of the things he said was if it wasn't for me, you'd never have had this opportunity, and he was right. he's one of the attorneys that sued this department to make this the diverse department

that it is, and i really appreciate that. and i would frequently remind me of that and his pride for having a department that really reflects our community. he was a huge champion for public safety. like you said, if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have really been able to get off track -- back on track, i should say. under his leadership, we had the hiring plan come to fruition. it was extended -- it started in 2012, and extended through 2020. our fleet program that you all helped shape and advocate for, that became a reality, so we will miss his advocacy, but know he would want us to keep moving forward. and i personally would like to acknowledge the crews that responded to assist mayor lee monday evening. our crews, medic unit, engine 15, and our rescue captain took very good care of him, and

transferred him to an incredible staff at san francisco general hospital. i personally witnessed 2.5 hours to make the mayor better, and none of us got the outium that we were hoping for. and it was emotional. it was heroic, the staff at san francisco general was working to their highest level, and my prayers go out to the mayor wife, anita, and his daughters, brianna and tania. the daughters were able to fly in from l.a. yesterday morning, and so everyone's grieving. everyone's a little bit down today, and they will be for weeks to come, but i try and remember just the great memories of how well he led this city and just what a good person he was. so i would ask, and you probably will do so, that you adjourn today's meeting in his memory and his honor. thank you for that.

>> commissioner hardeman, to answer your questions not on the agenda, but it is something that has happened since the last meeting, so for the commission secretary, i think it's our agenda. we do have 30 members deployed to the southern california wild fires. they're all at the thomas fire, i believe. early last week, we deployed a total of 22 down to southern california. they were redeployed to the thomas fire several days later. and then on sunday, we were asked for two more engines. our oes state assigned rig, and we sent a front line rig, engine seven. so two more engines joined up with, i believe an engine from santa clara and an engine from san bernardino, to make five. all engines are doing well. the daily chief of operations

gets a daily report on their assignment and their well-being, as well, so i'm glad they were able to assist down there. my understanding is most of the fires have been pretty well contained and managed with the exception of the thomas fire, which is still very challenging at this time. you will hear in the -- in item following, item 6, from mr. corso regarding the budget instructions that we received. we are well into our second quarter and managing our 17-18 budget really well, and you'll hear more again about our budget instructions and the timeline related to submittal of our budget by february 21st, and we'll have a series of meetings, i'm sure, that we will ask for items to be placed on related to the budget, and we will requeen the budget committee. with regards to our academies, the 123rd class is in its fifth

week with 55 members. things are going well. dot is working hard. there will be a february 5th graduation. it's an evening versus a morning versus lodge sticks. usually for a winter graduation, we have it indoors, and arch bishop reardon high school has allowed us to use their facility. out of the four members -- the numbers were reduced from 54 to 50 due to one resignation and three removals for performance, and i know commissioner covington always asks for the breakdown. we're in our 12th week. i believe we have one more week of testing this friday, and then, there's a state test the following week, so basically two more evaluations. we are gearing up for selections for the 124th

academy, which will begin in march, and we'll begin on working on selections inform are that class in the coming weeks and months. we also have an h-3 level one which is an entry level emt class which starts on january 29th, and i'd like to acknowledge not only chief columbini, but chief holfstra. at this time we have a class of 36 to begin that academy, and then, just a summary of events since our last academy. many of us participated with the mayor in the veteran's day parade on november 12th, which is always i know one of our favorite parades to participate in as we thank those that have served our country. november 13th, i attended an ongoing 911 improvement task force meeting which i'm a member of. there is some good news. we've done some shoring up of resources at the 911 center,

hiring of more dispatchers and call takers. they are seeing some improvement in the answering of the 911 calls. their threshold is they like to have a 911 call answered within nine seconds in the 90th percentile, and they're showing great progress. we have a meeting once a month to monitor that progress. also, we agreed to meet in the new year with the puc regarding the water supply system and how puc is performing at partners in managing the system for us. on december -- on november 1414 14th, there was a department head meeting on reform, and chief scott gave an update on the police reform measures they're looking at. on the 15th, i was delighted to attend a luncheon on your

behalf, president cleaveland. he received an honor from your employer of 22.5 years, boma. it was a great lunch, attended by many, including our mayor, and many dignitiaries to applaud you for your efforts and just your overall contributions that you've made to the city and county, so i wanted to officially congratulate you again, on your retirement which i believe is at the end of this month, and tell you we really appreciate having you on your commission for all the great work you've given us. >> more time to focus on the department. >> exactly, exactly, so congratulations on that in getting that award from boma. and then, that evening, all of you were able to join us -- we had a lovely meritorious ceremony for some incredible sacrifices that members make in

the course of their duties. the deputies and i attended the firefighter toy program opening lunch on november 16th. we stopped by to say hello, and we're all big supporters of that program, as well, to make sure that everyone has a happy holiday and we all know that a small gift can go a long way in a child's life to make the holiday brighter. there was a nert citywide drill that had been rescheduled due to the north bay fires that i attended, as well as chief columbini. captain of the air guard continued to do great work. there were several hundred people there at eager middle school at 9:00 on a saturday morning. also like to acknowledge that weekend on sunday the 19th, our very own assistant chief deputy jeff columbini had the

opportunity to attend that, as well. that was also very well attended, and it was nice to see jeff honored in such a special way by your high school. on the 20th of november , i participated in a turkey give away. being that it was thanksgiving that week with mayor lee and police chief bill scott. also attended on the 21st, the multicultural breakfast, where nancy pelosi spoke. we also had a labor management meeting that day. the day before thanksgiving, on the 22nd, the mayor and the

police chief and i made the rounds at three events that day: salvation army, we carved some turkeys in the morning. the three of us served meals at the glide memorial lunch, and we finished up the day carving turkeys at st. anthony's. it's always something we looked forward to doing every year. on the 24th of november , chief scott and i participated in the tree lighting, where we accepted the tree on behalf of the city. on the 29th, i still have my program. vice president nakajo, and i know president cleaveland was there, as well, attend a lunch in your honor, and a few other people as well, but it was a silver spur that you've received for all the efforts you've done for the community and in your life, so congratulations to you on receiving that very special award. it was an enjoyable event to

attend. also attended a safety fair at city college of san francisco. i'd like to acknowledge our pio, jonathan baxter for putting that together, as well as other safety fairs. when i mentioned at the hospital the other night, great support to what was happening, but particularly great support to me was that deputy chief gonzalez and jonathan baxter, because it was a difficult night, and to have you there at the hospital to help me and skbr jonathan, as well, was very much appreciated. related to city college, had several hundred people wrap up to pick up several hundred fire detectors. we had participation from the neighborhood fire houses, so it was about a fewour or five hou event. it was very well received, and i know the board of trustees at the city college also were appreciative of that.

a lot of activity since we haven't had a meeting in a month. this is going longer than usual, but on the 3rd of december, i attended an event where we received a few thousand dollars from the golden gate yacht club. captain dustin wynn puts this together every year, whereby the yacht club puts toys together for the toy program. i attended an event at the indonesina consulate general's, and it was his final good-byes. there was a department head meeting last week on budget instructions. about an hour later, the financial officers and our director of finance received

the same news regarding a request for budget reductions, which you'll hear the next item. also wanted to acknowledge, paramedic dan azzaretta was a recipient of the california emsa award for i believe paramedic of the year. i attended briefly, chief vannett stayed for the whole event, and i'd like to congratulate dan on receiving that award. we've met with dpw on december 7th to get an update on all the easter projects, so station five, station 16, chief williams will address it. adf, which is our ambulance deployment facility. we like to have regular updates to make sure that they're keeping up on the timelines and so forth. and i feel pretty good about everything. we do have a significant delay in station 16, which you will hear a little bit