many stations will that add? >> i believe that's for all of the stations that have multiple companies in them. specifically. so if you're in a single company station and you get a dispatch, you know who it's for because there's only one company there. station seven there are multiple companies, crews can see who it is for and the details. those have been reviewed favorably. >> we have an agreement that we'll replace the fleet and increase our personnel through 2020. but there's been no discussions about rolling that over and continuing that agreement. correct? >> correct. >> when do we start those discussions? >> that would probably be with the next administration. we can't really address that, even that final year of it for the equipment plan is beyond the two year budget we're looking at here. we haven't reached that.

i believe we'll probably bring it up with the mayor's office with this round of budget discussions to keep it on the radar both for hiring and equipment. i think the goal is to catch up and then develop a sustainability plan going forward. that depends on funding but we'll continue discussions with the playmayor's office. >> thank you. madam secretary, will you call the next item? >> are we taking a vote on this? >> do we need a vote on this? >> to approve? >> if we need to vote so be it. do i have a motion to approve the report. >> commissioner covington. >> thank you. i will yield to a question before voting. >> i have a question. what exactly are we voting on, to approve the budget or voting

to -- >> approve it before it goes to the board. >> before it goes to the capital planning committee and the it before the committee on information technology. yeah. >> so we're voting on two budgets. >> and the fleet as well before the mayor's office. >> three budgets. >> three budget proposals. >> are you comfortable doing that? >> i just wanted clarity on what we were doing. >> commissioner covington. >> thank you mr. president. mr. corso can you point out the three in the terms of the paperwork. >> for the department's capital budget, department requesting 33 and 15 million for the capital

budget. for information technology, 1.25 million sca 1.25 million and the fleet department, 36 million. >> thank you. i would like to move this item that we approve the budget as submitted by mr. corso and the rest of the staff. >> do i have a second? second from commissioner hardeman. all in favor? aye. unanimous. >> report on current issues, activities, events in the

department from chief hayes-white including special events, communication and outreach to government agencies and public and report from operations. chief mark gonzalez on emergency medical services, bureau of fire prevention and investigation and airport division. >> good morning chief. >> good morning president cleaveland, commissioners. happy new year. i hope the holidays went well, congratulations president cleaveland on your retirement and birthday as well. before i start my report, i did want to introduce and welcome our new deputy chief of administration, janine nicholson and as you know, chief ramona williams retired on

december 29th and i promoted chief nicholson to her new role, she left battalion one working as a battalion chief, 24 years of service with the department and started downtown january 2nd. she's off to a great start and being well supported by the divisions who report to her. i wanted to give her the opportunity to say hello and she will have her first report on the 24th. >> welcome chief nicholson and congratulations. >> thank you commissioners and thank you chief hayes-white. i'm honored and humbled to serve in this position. and i would like to thank deputy chief mark gonzalez for helping to ease the transition and my deputy chiefs who have been wonderful in passing information on to me. i have met most of you, not all

of you. thank you for all the work that you do. i do look forward to carrying out the mission and vision of our department. while i have hit the ground running, i appreciate your patience with me while i grow into this role. just a couple of things i want to add from some of the things said earlier, someone asked about the station 49 update from dpw, our ambulance ems facility. dpw will give the commission an update on february 14th. so you know that. and just about the new ambulances, commissioner covington, if you can just visualize, if you have seen a king american or private ambulance or printer vehicle, that's what the vehicles look like, they're i believe 40% cheaper than what we currently have. they do get better mileage and

they also meet our -- the mayor's vision zero program. you have much better -- the chief can atest, she drove one. you have much better visibility and tend to get in fewer accidents. i just wanted to give you a heads-up about that and i look forward to working with you all. thank you. >> thank you. congratulations. >> thank you. so you heard at length mr. corso related to the budget. we are midway through this fiscal year as you know and we're on track for revenue and expenditures. good work to our division of fi fire. in the coming meetings which i know we'll talk about future agendas, there will be a budget item in each one and i know we

contemplated a special meeting if needed i believe for february 20th prior to the submission of the budget which is in the third week of february, i believe the 21st it has to be submitted. related to our division of training, our 123rd class is in week 16 out of 20. we started with 54 recruits and we have 47 we anticipate to be graduating on february 8th. and then we are working towards selecting 54 members for the 124th academy that starts march 26th. 42 of the members off the htnta list and 12 from the station 49 into the academy, two weeks after the start date of march

26th to join the academy. i want to acknowledge staff for dedicated work they do each and every day training new recruits, the future of the fire department here in the city. also like to acknowledge hr and department of physicians office, they have been very busy because we'll begin entree level emt class. we'll have 36 emt's are anticipated to start on january 29th in their academy. and the final selection process, we've had many people go through interviews, backgrounds with our department physician. i wanted to recap on our last meeting december 13th, my activities and the activities of the chief's office on the 14th, 15th and 16th of december i

participated in three different toy program events, one with the hotel council, one with st. mary's medical center, both entities made some financial contributions to the san francisco firefighters local toy program and i think many people in the audience may have participated or attended a basketball tournament. it's a great place to have a basketball game where we played. we had our basketball team from the san francisco fire department. versus toy program volunteers and mr. flaherty i think helped organize it, it was to bring the incumbent firefighters together with some of the toy volunteers, the cause is great to contribute money to the toy program.

i left at half time. score board stopped working. i will say -- (laughter) to the toy volunteer credit, they had never played together as a team and our team is very, very good. i think the incumbents may have prevailed toward the end but not quite sure. many of us paid final respects to mayor lee here and to his great public service here in the city and county of san francisco and many of us pledged -- i know i had a pre-meeting with president and vice president of the commission and i think all of us had the same sentiment, carrying on his legacy and the

work he wanted to see through at least through his term, through the end of 2019. i think we're all committed to that legacy. december 19th, the deputies and i participated in a labor management meeting, we do that monthly as you know. there was a department head meeting that day. on the 20th of december, it was timely actually, there was a policy group workshop and basically those of us who oversee departments that would come together in the event of an emergency. the scenario was an earthquake. acting mayor breed participated with us and we sort of went through the play book if you will of roles and different scenarios, decisions that might need to be made in a large earthquake here. it was a table top exercise, mostly discussion based but felt

that was timely given what occurred on january 4th with the earthquake we had here. it was a good dry run. on december 31st new year's eve, everyone stepped up and did a great job to make sure it was a safe holiday for everyone to celebrate. there was a great fireworks show. a lot of members participated in not only working extra hours but coming up with the plan to ensure the safety. i'd like to acknowledge assistant deputy chief who took the lead in the event action plan. deputy chief gonzalez was at his office and we had many other folks roaming around the city. i was able to visit the department of emergency management as well to thank everyone that was giving up their holiday to ensure a safe night. earlier that night and i wanted

to acknowledge chief tony revere, december 31st the little sisters of the poor at st. anne's home, they have a new year's eve event, a party and dance, and the chief is very light on his feet and had many dance partners that night. we were joined by battalion 7 and engine 31, the joy you bring to the elderly residents is the gift we get when we attend. i wanted to thank you for that. we rang in the new year with them at 8:00 and that was enjoyable. thank you tony for that. on the 8th i designated chief

mark gonzalez to sit at the table with the negotiations with local 798 with their contract due to expire. those negotiations are underway and there will be several meetings between now and mid-may regarding that contract. as eluded to earlier, we are looking forward to the pilot program, it is very much a pilot program, as it relates to the new style ambulances, certainly that our members give us constructive feedback. i was able to drive it myself and i think one of the things you talked about commissioner hardeman, the amount of time spent in the ambulance, it is important to have a comfortable ride and seat. unlike the firefighters, by and large they're working out of their vehicle between 10-12 hour shifts. so the front part of the

ambulance is a much better improvement over the current configuration. to be determined regarding the back of the ambulance, which is smaller than our ambulances that we're currently using. ems and sports services have put together a great plan to have teams of two partners sort of test drive and put these vehicles in service related to code two and code three emergencies. i think we're off to a good start. i'm casually optimistic the crews will be enthusiastic about them. change is difficult, i get it, but i think commissioner covington's idea is a great one, i'm a visual person too, to get in the vehicle and compare them side by side i think is a great idea. i don't know if that requires for the commission secretary a special meeting to note that four or five of you together or

you can do it separately at station 49. whatever works best for you. we're excited about it. and deputy chief nicholson's point, they're environmentally friendly and better gas mileage and navigating through the streets moring more maneuverab. we did have the earthquake, with minimal damage. i think between the hour following the earthquake, which came in the 2:00 hour, typically there are 30 calls and there were over 130 over that hour. we had a spike in building alarm calls, i believe there was a gas leak, they were all managed and no injuries were associated with the earthquake. that morning there was a press conference that acting mayor breed called regarding -- it's always a perfect opportunity following seismic opportunity to

put the message out about being prepared, to have a plan. as we know emergency services will be slower than usual when we have a higher call volume. i participated in that press conference and as well later that morning a vision zero press conference related to not necessarily celebrating but acknowledging that there were fewer traffic fatalities in 2017 since there have been since they tracked it, i believe it was 20, an all time low. i think everyone who spoke myself included acknowledged one is too many. having engines that are more in alignment with vision zero goals and bance ambulances, i think is doing our part to embrace the vision zero goals. we had our first meeting of the budget committee on january 4th, appreciate vice president nakajo

participating. and at that meeting we discussed where we are at, mark corso gave the budgets. we talked about our priority list we have come up with in previous years which i anticipate to go out again to committee members to get refreshed. some have been funded in previous years but we'll come to you at subsequent meetings to discuss thoughts and get feedback prior to budget submittal next month. on the 9th, just yesterday, the deputy chiefs and i met with one of our employee groups, rescue. lgbtq employee group, to just engage, talk about some of the issues they wanted to discuss and just update where the department is, goals for 2018,

so forth. on january 15th, monday is a holiday but many of us will be in the martin luther king march starting at 11:00 a.m. at the cal tran station and this follows the meeting on the 24th but on the 26th, if anyone is interested, station five and you'll get at the next meeting deputy chief nicholson's report where she'll talk about work with the puc, some of us are meeting with them on awss issues, different options. i believe there's a hearing for awss- -- president cleaveland, your concerns and points. but on the 26th station five will have the topping off ceremony, basically when the steel has -- the steel

completion of the project. that's our division two house. many of us will be there at 1:00 p.m. we'll provide you further detail. it's something that department of public works does with the contractor. but we have been invited as well. it's a milestone if you will related to the project. at the next meeting you'll get an update on where we're at with station five, 16, 35, the adf, all that will come in that report. that concludes my report. i wanted to ask for consideration at the end of the meeting, we had two members pass away since the last commission meeting. chief aid, he retired after 28 years of service passed away

december 19th, 2017. and more recently, we had battalion chief bill corel, he passed away january 6th, 2018. that concludes my report. >> appreciate it. any public comment on the chief's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner veronese. >> quickly i wanted to welcome you to the job. you have big shoes to fill. i don't know you, but i look forward to working with you and you have a great support system here. congratulations and welcome to the job. >> is that it? >> that's it. >> commissioner covington. >> thank you mr. president. chief nicholson, i also would

like to welcome you. it's been a pleasure to interact with you in the times we have met previously in the field. i'm glad you're here. now chief hayes-white, did you give us a breakdown of how many people are in the current class? >> there are 47 that we anticipate graduating on february 8th. thursday 6:00 p.m. >> that's at reardon? >> correct. >> thank you. and also the topping off ceremony, you said is at 1:00 p.m. at station five. >> correct, on january 26th. >> okay. great. so chief, i know we talked briefly during another portion

of this meeting regarding the chief's residence, can you tell us about the things you feel need to be addressed this the chief's residence? >> certainly. if you need greater detail, i'll defer, but basically it's an older residence. it's beautiful but aging residence. i would say at some point it's in need of electrical and plumbing work. significant. over the course of many years the maintenance similar to our stations which we prioritize there's been maintenance. we have done some work, more aesthetic work for the neighbors, including full exterior paint job. i think many of you have been inside, we're happy to show it

to you again, but i would say deferred maintenance overtime, the building is in need of some modification. it's to be determined, i think what vice president nakajo put out there, open to discussion. there were department heads that had been allowed to stay there in the earlier parts of when i became the chief. there were some issues because many had problems with electrical and plumbing issues, that sort of thing. i don't want to say it's unique but only about 33% of us live in the city. would i envision that a successor of mine may make use of the residence? yes. but it is something that has come under scrutiny in terms of allowing someone to live in a residence, sort of is it something that needs to be declared, an additional benefit if you will that i think will be looked at if someone moves back in to the residence, whether

there's an off-set to the salary or rent agreement. but that would be somewhat down the road. i feel at least at this point, i'm sort of the caretaker if you will. or just to make sure that the building that is a part of our -- in our profile if you will, is maintained and it is maintain. ed. i would say down the line it would need renovation. >> do you have a process in mind as to how to get to that point? >> one of the processes is we have asked for funding through the capital planning. so it remains on the radar if you will. so that would be one of the ways to address what you're asking. >> well, it's very important that the official residence of the chief of the fire department

is brought up to snuff. as you know, an empty house is not a happy house. so for 15 years now, the house has been vacant essentially, except during the daytime when there's meetings and that sort of thing. the official residence has sten substantial grounds maintained by rec and park still? >> as long as i have been chief it has not been maintained by rec and park. i would say for at least 20 years. when the chief had -- >> has it been maintained by anyone? >> yes. yes. we have had some of our own members and department of public works go in to maintain and trim

and so forth foilage and vegetation. it's not maintained by park and rec like it used to be. and it was managed and maintained also by the h-10 support specialist assigned to the chief of the department which i do not have. periodically -- we make sure we maintain it but not regularly to the extent it used to be. >> that's too bad. in my mind i assumed that rec and park continued to maintain the grounds at least. >> i think it's been since the mid 90s they have not. maybe late 90s. >> so interior and exterior tender loving care. >> yes. >> okay. our chief -- to my fellow commissioners, our current chief has been chief of the department

for 15 years, she is still a fairly young woman, but at some point, you know, there will be a new chief. and we have to prepare for that and we have to pay attention to these things. i know it's something that is near and dear to the guardians of the city, that this property be maintained. i know there will be preservations and now that the commission president is retired and thinking about forming a friends of the san francisco fire department, this could be one of their agenda items or action items i should say. >> thank you. commissioner hardeman. >> first of all, i would like to also welcome chief nicholson.

heard good things about you in a short time you have been in office. people stating how you've requested meetings and with different folks and they appreciate that. you seem very approachable which is property. welcome to being one of the top people in the wonderful fire department. congratulations on your decent to great position and look forward to working with you. and chief, good appointment and you always give us your schedule and what you did. you don't have to do all that, most of what you report on you volunteer and it's appreciated that you attend all these things

and they're not a requirement of the job but you choose to do it because of your personality and how you are. i for one really appreciate what you do. interesting how commissioner veronese was describing the 1.3 million to update the chief's house. i think i said this before, but my wife and my home we bought it in '78, we put more in than we paid for and just maintaining and remodelling and adding square footage, it's expensive. i bet if you had to put a number, i bet several hundred thousand dollars for that residence and property was cleaned up a little, probably $100,000 a year to rent that.

i would wager. i'm not an expert but what property goes for in the city, i wouldn't be surprised. you're living in your private residence, has made it easy for everyone to forego the responsibility we really have to keep the property maintained. so you're correct, nobody can have a job forever, any of us. so eventually somebody may want to move in to that property. we might have to get on with a couple of things like the roof and another thing that sort of mandatory might be the sidewalk out in front because that does need repaired. you never want somebody tripping in front. that can be a nuisance for the city, somebody tripping and

falling. glad to hear we have at least 47 graduating. looking forward to that. you did a great job, fire department, at mayor lee's variety of events and i know the friday december 15th when they had the public able to come in, i did go in the evening and stuck around until after 8:00 when they brought the coffin out and the fire department was very well represented, the police department with the motorcycles and sheriff's department, at that time i think there was more of them than of the general public, they had all left. but it was very well done, should be proud how we sent our mayor out. i know i talked about at the last meeting how he was so upset

and serious in the condition of the department before he made all these changes a couple years ago. but i do want to say, i wanted to say that's the only time i was ever with him when he didn't smile and wasn't happy. i don't want anybody to think he was always upset when he met with the commission, he was upset things weren't going well for the fire department. he wanted to take responsibility. i did state at the last meeting and i started thinking, maybe it sounded like he was a mean guy or something. he was a perfect gentleman and wonderful man, always in a good mood but that was one time that he didn't smile much. that was it. thank you. >> thank you commissioner hardeman. vice president nakajo. >> thank you president

cleaveland and thank you chief for your report. i also at this time wanted to welcome chief nicholson, welcome to the department. i've had a little interaction with you when i went to do ride-alongs and i felt good at that time and feel really great about your opportunities and i like the term grow into the position. i think that's an excellent perspective working with the command force and department, i think we're going to benefit. and look forward to working with you chief. the other thing i want to say chief hayes-white, i'm very happy that the department is going to be meeting with dpw over the subject matter of awss, for the members of the public who came to talk about that today. i think it's important for us to be active in terms of some kind of a solution. i don't know quite candidly,

just my opinion, if those kinds of costs or expenses of awas are something that the fire budget can handle. i think maybe there's a discussion that might have to occur on a bigger level, bond or other resource. this is huge, huge project. we're talking the sunset and richmond district. i just wanted to comment on that as well. thank you very much. >> thank you vice president nakajo. just a couple of questions, first welcome chief nicholson, we're happy to have you in your new position and look forward to working with you. do we have an nert organizer in every neighborhood of the city? >> we have very good coverage. i don't know if i could say every single neighborhood, but we have cluster -- i would say

probably not every neighborhood but definitely every battalion and every super district. i don't know exactly -- i'm sure that's a good trivia question. commissioner hardeman may know the answer. how many neighborhoods. we have 10 battalions. >> would we have nert around every fire station? >> yes. every battalion station. i will get the number of active nert clusters we have. it's more than 10. it's less than i would say every neighborhood. >> i think it would be important to have each firehouse help organize emergency response team and coordinate with the nert division if you want to call it that. i would like to put that on the future agenda. >> i was going to suggest --

it's important to have civilians educated in how to respond if we can have it organized through each of the firehouses, that pretty much covers each area of the city. >> it has been a few years since presenting before the commission. i know commissioner covington has gone through the nert training. we can set that for a future agenda item. no problem. >> you're involved in the firefighter negotiations of the city in the current contract. >> yes. which is typical. his role is to be at the table as a subject matter expert. the negotiation between 798 and

department of resources. related to feesability of proposal. >> it becomes part of the budget, too. i just wanted to make sure we had representation in the discussions with the city and dhr, the city firefighters union. thank you very much. commissioner hardeman, did you have a final question? >> cancel. >> thank you very much. chief gonzalez, welcome. >> good morning president cleaveland, commissioners, deputy chief gonzalez operations. the operations with the san francisco fire department two month operations, for the calendar year 2017 we had 22 greater alarm fires, 20 were

second alarm one was a third and one was a fourth. during two months six greater alarms. i'll mention a bit on each. first november 3rd, 1206, mason between washington and jackson. four story type five cause of the fire was accidental. fire started on the ground floor laundromat, it spread to the four story hotel, via the interior stairwell. people on fire scapes, many people coming down where a lot of the smoke was going up. crews were very aggressive, engine 41, lieutenant, good officer. they were able to stop the vertical spread of the fire to the attic and maintain control of the stairwell and were able to keep it out of the attic and limit heavy damage to the first two floors. the majority of the damage was in the stairways and hallways

and laundromat. no major injuries to civilians and firefighters. and supervisor peskin was on scene and witnessed what our firefighters did. the second alarm was november 29th at 1007 shotwell. assistant chief was in charge of that one. aggressive fire and quickly put it out in the main fire building, however the fire had already extended to the delta exposure as well as the three story type -- three story bravo exposure but they minimallized the damage. the third was november 30th, seeing the fire from driving in, what this was, 10 story type one, made of concrete. usually those fires stay within

the unit, but the commander of the fire made the right call, the second alarm, there were many elderly individuals at the residence. that was a concern. they put the fire out pretty quickly. the fourth second alarm was on november 30th. i got additional information that is not in the report from deputy chief nicholson, she was there as battalion chief, assistant chief burke was the incident commander. this was a fire story residential with 79 units. two injuries and two people displaced. it was deep in the building on the fourth floor, but the fourth and fifth were heavily charred with smoke. they eventually knocked the fire, they did a good job and two rescues off the fourth floor

performed by truck one. and the 5 was eddie street on december 23rd, this was basically a flew fire but a lot of the floors were charred with smoke. the third through fifth -- second through fourth were charred. they had to find the fire and most of the fire building was vacant. but they didn't know that so they did the extension search, they did a great job with that fire. and the final one christmas day at prospect avenue at 12:55 at night. no injuries, six people were displaced. when engine 32 arrived, the building was fully involved. downed wires, causing electrical

hazard. they knocked the fire down and evacuated the three buildings before the arrival of the chief. this fire went well as well. no major injuries. other notable incidents on november 15th a surf rescue, one adult male pulled from the water. cpr was initiated, pulse was brought back on scene, the victim is recovering as of december 1st. on november 16th, a driver lost control of her car filled with nine canines and rolled back into a house. the driver and child were taken to hospital with non life threatening injuries and the the victim was a dog walker. there are pictures later in the report of that incident. on november 19th an adult male was rescued after being trapped

under a bar train. crews rescued and provided care and transport, he's in critical. i'm sure rescue squad one was part of this. although it's not noted in my report. i wanted to mention firefighter sarah koe, i worked with her and i want to say congratulations on her retirement. she was one very aggressive very competent firefighter and she will be missed. on november 23rd, fire boat three rescued an adult male at pier 39, evaluated and taken to hospital to address his psychological needs. on december 7th, at 4:26 a.m. battalion six truck 11 responded to 301 on reported co alarm on the upper unit of two story residential building.

battalion chief noted that the occupants felt ill and immediately evacuated the unit. battalion six tried to make contact with the people below, no one answered the door. b.c. crane made a great call, forcible injury. luckily they did. unfortunately there was one male who succumbed to the co but one female was okay. feel good story on december 7th first alarm on 31st avenue, there were two children and four adults displaced at this fire. the two children were treated on scene for smoke exposure. during overhall, a christmas tree with burnt gifts were noticed and collaboration with

the fire department toy collaboration, they delivered toys to the 3-year-old twins. the family was in tears, they feared the holidays were ruined. good job. on december 8th red alert bus overturned on 101 south, we used our multi casualty care bus for the walking wounded. 29 victims were treated with serious to minor injuries and no fatalities. december 14th, the sea lion attacked one male with serious injuries and then another sea lion attacked a male and a serious wound. don't go swimming in the bay any time soon. i wonder if the male who we took

out of the water aggravated the sea lions. not sure. i'm not swimming out there any time soon. on december 23rd bart first alarm initiated bart operations protocol for fire attack. the department worked well to contain the fire and resumed bart services. no injuries. social media responses we have gotten, referring to car fire, quick work by sffd. another so nice of them to help us out. we needed it. and regarding the southern california fire, mandatory evacuations, it was scary. thank to god we're okay. the sffd firefighters were amazing to us. from a southern california resident. i would like to say

congratulations to two members. on november 18th canine angus, that dog was a search k-9 for us. he served san francisco for five years and had combined service of nine years with fema and paramedic dan razeneda. our outreach is ongoing on multiple fronts, proud of that prevention, recruitment and i want to remind the public to sign up for emergency notifications texting alert sf to 888-777. on to ems, i want to thank all

the bureaus and ducivisions, assisted with the mayor lee funeral service, very sad about the mayor but they did a good job at the city hall, fire prevention, setting up the truck and ems, etc cetera. new year's eve as the chief mentioned, a pretty sedated new year's eve but we were ready. the quick response vehicles, the idea behind that, to have a couple vehicles staffed with a paramedic and emt in the downtown area where we're most busy any night, they take some of the weight off of services, respond to medical services, a

patient declined transport against medical advice, which is paperwork. they can take evales. they actually saved a life that night as well, they were first on scene. i would like to memorialize that going forward once we get the plan approved by the local emsa. i like -- two sprinter ambulances, i used to work for local team 83, driving a bob tail that is fully loaded, you feel top heavy, that's what i would equate. i have driven the older ambulances and that's what it would feel like to me in some respects. i drove the newer ambulance like the chief did, it is compact, it feels tight. it's made by mercedes. it's a great ambulance. we have the opportunity now with the pilot program, it's a

generic model, the two we have, they get to ride in the ambulances and make whatever modifications they think they need to to the back and front. and maybe we can specs those out, it would be even better, not only the smaller profile and smaller cost, the safety features, the harness in the back, you can actually do work. very impressive. i'm impressed by them. i hope this is the way we go in the future. attached to my report is ems six stats as well as division of fire prevention and investigation. permits, outreach. as well as inspections. and so, one thing i like to mention at the end of the investigation, both fire marshal and i are a bit concerned that the open fire investigation

reports are going up, but he has tasked assistant chief pruitt to be hands on. also attached is my november -- the airport sffd division, december we didn't get, we'll attach it to the next report. and that concludes my report and i'm available for any questions. >> thank you chief gonzalez. is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner veronese. >> i understand from reports chief that within the last two months there have been testing of our members that fought in the fires up in napa to the extent that the information is available. i would like to get some information on of course without

specific individual information but information on whether or not anything has arisen from the tests we should be noting. i think it's pretty clear these forest fires are turning into urban fires and perhaps maybe there's some forward planning we can do, maybe changing policies or at least looking at our policy as we staff those things going forward. it would be great to get more information on that in the future. >> absolutely. i'll try to gather the data for you. >> and the qrv's you mentioned, is there -- i'm sure there is, i would like to maybe see some of it, is there any data behind the need for the qrv's, in other words, i know i spoke with you briefly before the commission, you mentioned there are a certain number of calls that do come in where perhaps it's better suited to not have an ambulance respond because they are als or for a particular

reason, has the department done any sort of study or put together data to really justify -- i'm sure it's out there. i would like to see how big of a need the qrv thing -- it could be a huge need, a small need, if we're not studying it, it's something that -- >> i would have to talk to see the data sets to collect. i can say from experience, a lot of calls we do go on, people are just crying out for help. it's not necessarily a medical call. especially in that area. you -- our ambulances get depleted in those areas quickly when posted in those areas. i would say the engines are overworked, some with 40-50 runs a day and that's wear and tear on the apparatus and the employees. so as far as data sets, i can collect them but i can say just from the initial and that night,

it was a success. and that was a busier night than usual but they have busy nights like that throughout the year. we used to have a blst ambulance that could take care of code two calls. we don't have that in the system now and the system doesn't allow that. if we went back to that, the state would have to approve it and eoa would have to be modified and that wouldn't be easy to do. that would be one way to keep the code units in service but that would take a long time. i think the qrv's we can implement pretty quick. it would cost a bit with personnel but save money on the other side and improve patient care to more emergent needs and keeping the fire for response. >> and reduce fire times as well

potentially. >> it would improve first-in response times. we are right there, they want us to be there for four and a half minutes, we're right around five minutes. if we had qrv's in that area where a lot of the calls are, they would get there because they're there and the other units would be in service to get to the same area but more calls in that area. as far as data stats, i think i can gather them. >> great. i imagine being from the field and having people out there that experience this every day, they know just by using the qrv's they know they work and they're very useful. i wonder if there are data points behind it that could really open our eyes to how bad do we really need these things out there or not. it would be interesting to see it. >> what was interesting that night, too, i was listening, as

the chief mentioned i was in the office, the qrv's were seeing calls as developed, they were on sixth street and dealing with paperwork and had another call and were able to take care of that. they were saving resources for code three response. >> a different type of unit with a different mission is the ems 6 unit, i know with have started over the last month or so being better about tracking the type of calls that the department is receiving. especially trying to understand fully the impact of homeless related calls on the department. i would be interested in seeing especially in once we get better numbers on what the resources, on how the department's resources are being taxed by homeless without homes, it would be interesting to see if it

would warrant perhaps an expansion of the ems 6 unit or for that matter, some other ideas on how we can better service that population which ultimately affects response times and everything we do. >> we do plan and the chief may be able to add to it, we're going to add to the program already because we have the funds to do that. we plan to implement it soon. the plan is to overlap the hours they work now. i think it was going to be 8:00 to 8:00 and 12:00 to 12:00. two units out there based on personnel that day. i think qrv's are working hand in hand with them as well. they would be out there,

encountering the individuals that need the help. ems 6 doesn't respond code three per se but they do help with the work load, especially with repeat callers. it takes the calls out of the system. >> thank you chief. >> thank you commissioner veronese. commissioner hardeman. >> thank you mr. president. as usual, chief gonzalez, very extensive report. >> i wanted to mention with the chief says i know you know because you were on the championship team with the bouncy floor. >> i would never have brought that up again. (laughter) actually reardon is -- lieutenant o'leary here last month was on the