happen and the patients will have a chance to get the best possible surgery they can, at least at a shared cost. thank you. >> i have a question. i saw printout where it showed united health care and blue shield, you had the option of a scalpel or laser. but now dennis, according to dennis, that option was not available to him. laser was not available even though he went to united health care. is that correct? [please stand by]

>> because when i talked to the people who do the billing, they don't even have a code for blue shield for laser surgery. they only pay for basic surgeon surgery. and the final thing, a surgeon operating on your eyes, the reimbursement from united health care, my provider, $760

to the surgeon pereye. now, when you think about that, you only have two eyes, and you only have one chance. our members deserve the best that can possibly be given to them or at least a chance to get it with maybe a cost sharing plan. anything to give them an opportunity. i was lucky enough to be able to get all that, but there are a lot people out there who need cataract surgery who can't get that. and when you have a chance to take somebody and never have to wear glasses again, because they can stick a lens in there that's behalf the basic lens -- and yet, if you want that, you have to bear all the cost of it. cataract surgery, i imagine the insurance companies are making a fortune on it. >> so you can't even get the basic -- >> you get the basic. >> with addition of the --

>> my example: basic surgery, fine. $2500 pereye, you get laser. anywhere from 1200 to $2300 more, you can get the best lenses out there available, so where you never have to wear glasses again. basic cataract surgery, they stick a lens in there, when you go back you get corrective lenses and get whatever is in that lens. they can take a person and give them perfect eye sight or close to it, but what we get, we get basic surgery, and your glasses will make it better. that's it. >> yeah. >> thank you. >> commissioner, i wish to add something. i have something in common with

mr. krueger because i also had my cataract surgery last month -- oh, actually in january . now, i can see the corruption in san francisco more clearly as a result. now really, we should get the best possible surgery. these are our senior years, we need all the faculties that we can have, whether it's hearing, whether it's vision, and we should have the best possible surgery, and it should be of the highest quality. i am really benefiting from the surgery in the right eye. i'm going to have it done next month, after income tax, and i'm sure i'll be a beneficiary of this. but we really have to have the highest quality. i think it's imperative, especially since these are our gold golden years, so please consider what mr. krueger said. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> are there any other public

comments? seeing and hearing none, let's -- could we all the next item? >> item 11, discussion item, opportunity to place items on future agenda. >> the items from the board for the next agenda? there being none, any public comment? hearing and seeing none, could we go to the next item. >> item 12, discussion item. opportunity for the public to comment on any matters within the board's jurisdiction. >> last chance for any public comment. there being none, i now call this meeting adjourned.

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>> san francisco city clinic provides a broad range of sexual health services from stephanie tran medical director at san francisco city clinic. we are here to provide easy access to conference of low-cost culturally sensitive sexual health services and to everyone who walks through our door. so we providestd checkups, diagnosis and treatment. we also provide hiv screening we provide hiv treatment for people living with hiv and are uninsured and then we hope them health benefits and rage into conference of primary care. we also provide both pre-nd post exposure prophylactics for hiv prevention we also provide a range of women's reproductive

health services including contraception, emergency contraception. sometimes known as plan b. pap smears and [inaudible]. we are was entirely [inaudible]people will come as soon as were open even a little before opening. weight buries a lip it could be the first person here at your in and out within a few minutes. there are some days we do have a pretty considerable weight. in general, people can just walk right in and register with her front desk seen that day. >> my name is yvonne piper on the nurse practitioner here at sf city clinic. he was the first time i came to city clinic was a little intimidated. the first time i got treated for [inaudible]. i walked up to the redline and was greeted with a warm welcome i'm chad redden and anna client of city clinic >> even has had an std clinic since all the way back to 1911. at that time, the clinic was founded to provide std diagnosis treatment for sex workers. there's been a big increase in std rates after the

earthquake and the fire a lot of people were homeless and there were more sex work and were homeless sex workers. there were some public health experts who are pretty progressive for their time thought that by providing std diagnosis and treatmentsex workers that we might be able to get a handle on std rates in san francisco. >> when you're at the clinic you're going to wait with whoever else is able to register at the front desk first. after you register your seat in the waiting room and wait to be seen. after you are called you come to the back and meet with a healthcare provider can we determine what kind of testing to do, what samples to collect what medication somebody might need. plus prophylactics is an hiv prevention method highly effective it involves folks taking a daily pill to prevent hiv. recommended both by the cdc, center for disease control and prevention, as well as fight

sf dph, two individuals clients were elevated risk for hiv. >> i actually was in the project here when i first started here it was in trials. i'm currently on prep. i do prep through city clinic. you know i get my tests read here regularly and i highly recommend prep >> a lot of patients inclined to think that there's no way they could afford to pay for prep. we really encourage people to come in and talk to one of our prep navigators. we find that we can help almost everyone find a way to access prep so it's affordable for them. >> if you times we do have opponents would be on thursday morning. we have two different clinics going on at that time. when is women's health services. people can make an appointment either by calling them a dropping in or emailing us for that. we also have an hiv care clinic that happens on that morning as well also by appointment only. he was city clinic has been like home to me. i been coming here since 2011. my name iskim troy,

client of city clinic. when i first learned i was hiv positive i do not know what it was. i felt my life would be just ending there but all the support they gave me and all the information i need to know was very helpful. so i [inaudible] hiv care with their health >> about a quarter of our patients are women. the rest, 75% are men and about half of the men who come here are gay men or other men who have sex with men. a small percent about 1% of our clients, identify as transgender. >> we ask at the front for $25 fee for services but we don't turn anyone away for funds. we also work with outside it's going out so any amount people can pay we will be happy to accept. >> i get casted for a pap smear and i also informed the

contraceptive method. accessibility to the clinic was very easy. you can just walk in and talk to a registration staff. i feel i'm taken care of and i'm been supportive. >> all the information were collecting here is kept confidential. so this means we can't release your information without your explicit permission get a lot of folks are concerned especially come to a sexual health clinic unless you have signed a document that told us exactly who can receive your information, we can give it to anybody outside of our clinic. >> trance men and women face really significant levels of discrimination and stigma in their daily lives. and in healthcare. hiv and std rates in san francisco are particularly and strikingly high were trans women. so we really try to make city clinic a place that strands-friendly trance competent and

trans-welcoming >> everyone from the front desk to behind our amazement there are completely knowledgeable. they are friendly good for me being a sex worker, i've gone through a lot of difficult different different medical practice and sometimes they weren't competent and were not friendly good they kind of made me feel like they slapped me on the hands but living the sex life that i do. i have been coming here for seven years. when i come here i know they my services are going to be met. to be confidential but i don't have to worry about anyone looking at me or making me feel less >> a visit with a clinician come take anywhere from 10 minutes if you have a straightforward concern, to over an hour if something goes on that needs a little bit more help. we have some testing with you on site. so all of our samples we collect here. including blood draws. we sent to the lab from here so people will need to go elsewhere to get their specimens collect. then we have a few test we do run on site. so those would be

pregnancy test, hiv rapid test, and hepatitis b rapid test. people get those results the same day of their visit. >> i think it's important for transgender, gender neutral people to understand this is the most confidence, the most comfortable and the most knowledgeable place that you can come to. >> on-site we have condoms as well as depo-provera which is also known as [inaudible] shot. we can prescribe other forms of contraception. pills, a patch and rain. we provide pap smears to women who are uninsured in san francisco residents or, to women who are enrolled in a state-funded program called family pack. pap smears are the recommendation-recommended screening test for monitoring for early signs of cervical cancer. we do have a fair amount of our own stuff the day of his we can try to get answers for folks while they

are here. whenever we have that as an option we like to do that obviously to get some diagnosed and treated on the same day as we can. >> in terms of how many people were able to see in a day, we say roughly 100 people.if people are very brief and straightforward visits, we can sternly see 100, maybe a little more. we might be understaffed that they would have a little complicated visits we might not see as many folks. so if we reach our target number of 100 patients early in the day we may close our doors early for droppings. to my best advice to be senior is get here early.we do have a website but it's sf city clinic.working there's a wealth of information on the website but our hours and our location. as well as a kind of kind of information about stds, hiv,there's a lot of information for providers on our list as well. >> patients are always welcome to call the clinic for there's a lot of information for providers on our list as well. >> patients are always welcome to call the clinic for 15, 40 75500. the phones answered during hours for clients to questions. >>

this is a reminder to silence all electronic devices. fire commission meeting february 28th. the time is 5:02 p.m. roll call. (roll call).

item two. general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for three minutes on any matter within the jurisdiction and not on the agenda. they shall address to not individual commissioners or personnel. commissioners are not to enter debate or discussion with the speaker. lack every response did not necessarily constitute greet with or support of statements made during public comment. >> is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item 3. approve of minutes and action t approve the meeting minutes february 14, 2018. >> is there any public comment on february 14th meeting

minutes? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners what is your pleasure? >> so move, mr. chair. >> do i have a second? >> second, mr. president. >> all in favor of adopting the minutes as presented. >> item four chief of department report. report on current issues and activities and event since the fire commission meeting on february 14, 2018-inch concluding budget, special events communications, outreach to other government agencies and report from administration, deputy chief nicholson, report on administrative division, finance, support services, home land security and training within the department. >> adam secretary please note

commissioner veronese has joined us. >> this is my report since the last meeting on february 14th. as you know, thank you president cleaveland for cosigning the letter with me. we submitted the budget on february 21st. i appreciate the efforts and support of the commission. we were asking for 2.5% reduction in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. we were not able to meet that given a whole host of issues including increasing call volume and expenses to provide the service on a daily basis. we submitted the additional fte as directed for a grant writer. we look forward to continuing to engage in discussions with

mayor's budget overs. he needs to sub met the budget by june 1st. there will be back and forth discussions. i want to let you know on march 8th at 3:00 p.m. we have a time slot for members of our department including the budget committee to meet with the mayor's budget director before she goes out on leave and the invitation is open for any two of the commissioners that you deem appropriate to attend and participate in as well. that again is march 8th at 3:00 p.m. in relation to academies, we have an age 3 level one academy ongoing graduating on march 9th, 3:00 p.m. john adams campus. we entry the emts into our department to work shifts at station 49. we did have a recent graduation

of 123rd academy this month. we are in the process of selections for the 124th academy underway march 26th and that will become prosed of 54 members. 42 off the list and 12 from station 49. then to summarize since the last meeting, what we have been involved in. last week on a well deserved few days off the deputy chief and i met with local 78 as part of the monthly labor management meeting. on the 22nd prepared for the public safety hearing today which deputy chief participated in. had to do with the department of technology as related to the red call boxes and some have been out of service so we can provide

additional information on that if you want. we had a meeting with the recently appointed director of technology as well as the city administrator to prepare for the presentation today. on the 23rd last friday, deputy chief nicholson and i attended at the request and invitation of the agent firefighters association the coalition of asian-american government employees. the fire department was well represented. we wanted to show appreciation for those who support that event and purchases a table. on saturday the 24th i participated in opening day of the san francisco youth baseball league. baseball season for the boys and girls participating in baseball. we partner when i say we the flame partners with park and

rec, recreation and parks and the mayor and myself threw out the first pitch. they do a great job overseeing the flame program to make sure the kids that participate have a great experience. that evening, many of us attended the chinese new years parade for the five commissioners. it is the one commissioner hardy man hate to ement. your son was inducted into the hall of fame at his high school. congratulations to your son and thank you for participating with us. i would like to acknowledge the asian firefighters for putting that together. it was enjoyable. later i attended the celebration of black american history event

held at the marriott. that was a very well attended and enjoyable evening. one of my colleagues. the general manager of the public commission was recognized for his service to the city. he was happy to represent the department at that event. i did want to note that president cleaveland for your consideration for adjournment we -- a number of us attended the funeral service for the retired firefighter her man wyrsch. he retired in 1997 after 30 years. he had two son this is the department. one is currently active. at station 36, battalion two and

retired son. there were a number of us that attended the service on monday. the firefighter passed away on february 14th. we want to thank him for his years of service to the fire department and acknowledge his sons that contributed. upcoming the st. patrick's day parade next month on march 17th. all members and commissioners are invited to attend. thank you vice president for bringing to my attention spur, a wonderful organization recently acknowledged the fine work of the vice president last year. this yes, we have put in on several occasions and honorable mentions. one of the featured award es comes from the fire department for the good government awards. he is not here tonight but i know you have met him.

up sung he row very competent and that is i was delighted to nominate him and he was selected and the director helped me with write up. silt i it is basically a few ciy employees selected every year. he is going into this category that like i said is highly coveted and very well deserving. we are very proud of him. he does a great job for our department and troubleshooting across the other departments that we work with regularly including the department of emergency management and the controllers office as well. congratulations. we will attend to support him on march 21st. that concludes my report. >> thank you, chief.

is there any public comment on the chief's report? seeing none public comment is closed. commissioners. i don't see any name up here. commissioner covington. >> thank you, mr. president and thank you, chief, for your report. i would also like to add my thanks to the asian firefighters for hosting a wonderful banquet every year and thank you to the reserves and the cadets and other volunteers, many of whom are here with us this evening. it was a wonderful time. thank you. >> any other commissioners? okay. i just one question for the chief. we have the emt graduation on friday, a week from friday, and the question is how many new emt recruits are we bringing in in

the next class? when does that start? >> we selected 36. how many are graduating? >> how many recruiting for the next class? >> also between the range of 30 to 36. i believe our hiring goals are one class per fiscal year. i believe we have one scheduled for the early part of 2019. between 30 to 36. i need to nail down the number. we selected 36. i believe at least win has crossed my desk as not completed. in the 35 range nor next year. >> one emt class per year? >> correct. then in the next foreseeable couple of fiscal years. >> july l we could have one later this year, correct? >> we could. i think we are scheduled for january. 2019. we are targeting one every

fiscal year in the foreseeable couple of fiscal years. >> thank you, chief. seeing no further questions. we will move on to chief nicholson's report. welcome. >> i have missed you all. good evening, chief, and i would like to wish you a happy birthday. everybody knows it is the chief's birthday. [applause.] >> i'm older than you buy a few months. >> you are older by three mont months. all right. let's get the party started. let's talk about the division of training first. sadly, for us as you know the chief has retired. we have received applications for his position and we will

likely conduct interviews early next week. we are moving with that. on ti and at the dot on 19th and fulsome they are testing probationary firefighters and ems personnel. the live burn module is underway under the guidance of our new captain. he is running that and interacting with operations to get a handle on some of the further training needs going forward. he can further develop that training on treasure island. speaking of training, we have moved in conxboxes, shipping containers to trailer island from behind station 9 as we are clearing outback there, and those are also going to be used in the future for live burn training. we will be utilizing some funds from our california firefighters

joint apprentice committee. we get funds from them for the training that we do. we are going to use some of those for two new forcible entry props and to customize the live fire training and to send the staff to the memo park to undergo training to teach this class, operate the modules safely and effectively. this is important training because we have fewer fires. we need to be able to conduct this for everyone. we also conducted training with m un i on the light rail checks. safety lifting operations. when ever they bring a new model out we need to go through the training with them to make sure we can safely lift those cars in case somebody becomes eptrapped. -- entrapped. >> there were over 20 trainings

and presentations this month. fiery serves donated 332 hours of time in drills and other events. we appreciate that. thank you fire reserves. the assistant chief is working at the airport on live fire training for new members. she is looking at moffitt field to get that done. they are working with the academy of art to begin a partnership with video program to assist with training videos and psas and the like. we look forward to what that can result in. now for just some dry numbers from the investigative services borough. i don't know how to spruce it up for you. all background investigations completed for the 124th class

and for some alternates as well. 61 people in total. random drug and alcohol tests. 83 done all negative. three post accident testing all negative. the as assignment office continues to work diligently on a lot of projects, payroll and others. we just recently came out with a new general order for a hazardous materials and rescue squad relief pool list. this is going to better meet our operational needs. to keep people from having to travel across the see. we have people who are certified in everything that hazmat and the rescue squad needs at those stations so we have enough personnel. when i came in 24 years ago we were still using carbon paper. i want to let you know that. for trades and all sorts of

other things. we are just about ready to make all our trades between firefighters electronic. we are doing away with paper, saving trees and facilitating that work flow. the lieutenant eligible list is out not adopted yet. once it is adopted we will be selects members for permanent and acting positions to ease up on our daily details as well. support services. i will get into the health and safety portion. dpw issued a notice to proceed in order to i stall the remain -- install the remaining nine wash extractors. these were the most expensive stations to do. they were all put together in one notice and, you know, they

had plumbing issues and electrical issues. we have notice to proceed on that. that is great. i brought the chief and our health and safety crew along with me to the foundation meeting last week. we were talking about our tpe contract, and we are going to exclude car sin o genic and toxic chemicals. the chief reported to the cancer prevention foundation what we have been doing as administration to lower cancer risks, including things like using plant based renewable diesel fuel, electric and battery powered tools. we eliminate additional exhaust at drills and on scene. it was a really good meeting,

and i know we appreciate what the cancer prevention foundation has been doing for years. they are aware what we are doing to reduce cancer rates. i also spoke with adam wood from the union about the testing that they did on the members who went up north to the fires. there were 179 people total tested, not just from san francisco but from multiple departments deployed to that fire. they have completed the initial testing for heavy metals. then they will triage samples of the people based on who was deployed the longest. who had the most exposure. then they will do further testing on those people of additional chemicals and they hope to have those ready in may. they are happy to would very much like to come and present to

the commission their findings, if you would like that. station 16 due to be completed in september of 2018 and station 5 is delayed until december of 2018. that is due to unforeseen circumstances soil analysis and other things. the adf you had an update on. our latest update is demolition permit we just received today so we can go forward in april. we met with the arts commission to -- we have been working with a talented artist who was going to do the work for the adf, but it didn't speak to us. she was not a local artist. it was too abstract for us. as firefighters we are grounded in reality and practicality.

we worked with the arts commission and they are going to open it back up to people who had initially submitted their work. they are going to pick several more artists for us to choose from, taking into account what we presented to them in terms of what we would like to see. our first pilot program ambulance is in service. it was at the parade the other night. each week the vehicle will be evaluated by a different crew to get a lot of feedback from numerous members at station 49. we can dial in if it is going to work and if so how. working with the child land committee, we are looking to purchase five new rigs from the state to upgrade our fleet. ems6. close to many of your hearts, i

know. we have added ems 6:00 a.m. that member works 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. four days each week and deals with not some of the overflow but a lot of administrative tasks that were not getting met and interfacing with other groups in the city. that will improve efficiency and enable us to help more people on the street. the boe continues to work behind station 9 removing the conxboxes to treasure island and organizing the equipment. april or may for the adf. homeland security the chief has gotten started with several items. he finalized the memorandum of agreement with the u.s. coast guard. we went out to have an emergency ops drill.

he has been working with department of emergency management on the continuity of emergency plan. he is working on getting an incident management team up and running again. for prolonged disaster scenarios. ly start train there is as well. start with table top drills. he and chief rivera met inva in valejo with local 79 station 16 in regard to the dive boat and all parties are working with the manufacturer to make sure the boat works for us. it is due august, september. i don't want to give you a date ahead of time and have it not come true. that concludes my report. i am happy to take any

questions. >> thank you, chief. any public comment on the deputy chief's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner hardeman. >> thank you, mr. president. thanks for the very busy report. i don't know if this would be you or somebody like the chief but the artcle in the paper regarding the mutual aid in wildfires and requests for extra resources, we have now considered the standard for mutual aid in all states in the united states, california has, and now with a disastrous last year, any comments that you would think?

i know there was like a few hundred engines short of the request, but i don't know if there was little better communication if they would have got a few hundred more. most localities were concerned about coverage for their own. i don't know how interesting that was for you or if you paid attention or if you want to have somebody else talk about it. curious what further information you might have to share with us or where th the money would come from. >> i think this is becomes and will continue to be a problem for california as we see the northern california fires, southern california fires. at a certain point there are a finite number of resources.

cal fire is looking at alternatives to address a problem that is only going to grow. no easy answers at this point. i know each jurisdiction does the best that they can to assist for a mutual aid request. we have done our best. at a certain point i think there was a finite number of engines. i know division iii here is the chief was deployed that first night with the northern california wildfires. it is up to you to give a comment. we can get back. tom, mark. >> i think that night we did well when we knew we had to send somebody. tom and i spoke that night. he called me anticipating that we had to go. as far as statewide resources, i mean it is challenging for the

cities, municipalities that go to help cal fire. i think cal fire needs help from the state. it is more challenging as we go forward if the weather patterns continue the way they do. tom is our wild land official. i will let him speak on it as well. >> i think the bottom line is the economic downturn of 2008 to 2012 depleted a lot of departments recovering. you put that together with the increased request for additional resources. in 2003 the state put 1,000 fire engines on the road in 24 hours. the estimate is now 400 or 500 teams. on the morning of october 9th, there was a request for 60 strike teams or 300 engine also. only 120 or 140. to your point a lot of departments have to cover the

how many turf. they don't have the number of personnel to meet the needs. the $100 million would be for what we have done many years ago in days of red flag or high fire conditions to redeploy resources. currently there was not pockets to dip into for the resources. this would allow for in southern california there is a staging and in northern california there is one in williams. when you have critical fire conditions to pre-deploy and make the finances available for that to happen. there are a lot of hurdles to overcome financially for that to happen. >> we had nine deployed in northern california in the first few hours. nine joins. >> we put nine then another two or three after that. for region two, 16 counties, 10 years ago we would be able to

put 35 strike team on the road in a short amount of time. on most days it is 18, 19, 20. we are 50% where we were 7, 8, , 9, 10 years ago. >> thank you. any further questions? >> that is exactly why i asked the question. the article went into how you described it. that is a disaster when you think about 12 or 15 years ago we could put twice as many rigs. that gives us more of a reasoning to want to support this. thanks, chief. >> thank you, commissioner. commissioner covington. >> just to follow up on commissioner hardeman's question regarding mutual aid.

what steps need to be taken to get to the previous number of $100 million that would cover predeployment and staging and other needs? is it the united fire chiefs of california that lobby, is it our elected officials statewide, the officials we reelect in san francisco to go to sacramento? is it lobbying the governor? how do we access this money? how do we as citizens make it part of the state budget? >> so it is a combination. i it is on the california metro chief association. it is something we have discussed as sort of our ability to lobby to the extent that more

resources need to be funneled in that direction. then there is the cal chief's professional, california firefighters, there is local unions, ultimately it is a decision at the state level in the governor's office for funding towards cal fire. >> it is the governor's office and assembly person or state senator can introduce a bill asking the funds be earmarked? >> correct. >> i think this is an item, a single subject item for our next agenda so we can drill down and get more information about this and so that our fellow citizens and the city and county of san francisco are better informed because these requests for mutual aid do come up. they come in the most dire and

drastic circumstances. the san francisco fire department, its members want to be able to respond, but you know our resources are not infinite. the resources of other departments are not infinite. we have to make sure that when others call upon the department that we are able to respond and when we are in need, every day we are closer to the next earthquake if we haven't had it today. this is a concern for us as well. you know, we have been very active in terms of coming to the aid of others throughout the state, but our time will come as well. >> i will comment on what you just said, commissioner. >> who are you? >> deputy chief of operations. >> we are better prepared as the

city to send out more equipped engines. we have made a concerted effort to get that accomplished over the last couple years. we were able to send 12 engines at the last disaster up north. the rest of the state needs help covering the state and the region as well. i wanted you to hear that as backup. >> the moneys would not come directly to the departments. it would be in the bank account for being able to as we do now allow the office of emergency services to have the fund available to reimburse the departments. >> it would be a reimbursements basis. >> if we send out resources we know we would be reimbursed. this would allow a funding source. >> how much of that money would

go to calfire? none? all would go to individual departments in the state? >> as they request resources they would be paid for their response. >> those departments are individual municipalities and what about the overall state of california fire. >> in general it is not to buy additional fire engines or personnel. it is to have money nor reimbursement. >> all right. thank you, chief, for that clarification. >> you are up chief nicholson. unless you also need him as backup. i'm good. >> great. i thought you might be. now, i had a question regarding the tabulation of the forensic

material from the people who were deployed th to the north b. you have that information and people are able to look at that information and then what happens to it? >> i apologize if i was not clear. 179 people were tested, a small group of those 179 people, i'm not sure if it was 20 or 30, were not deployed to the fires. those are the comparison or control group. everybody else was at the fires in the north bay. people from all different departments. i think we are 65 people from san francisco fire tested in this group. they took samples from all of those people. they have tested them for heavy

metals thus far. i do not have the results of those. i think they are close to if they have not already started notifying people about those findings. then what the people running the study are doing is triage the people. they had to answer questionnaires and fill out forms and find out, triage by who spent the most time exposed at these fires? they are going to take those people. i am not sure how many of 1779 to do -- 179 to do further testing for the nonmetal toxins. all sorts of other stuff they could have in their system. that is what is due to be out in may. i don't currently have any results of anything.

>> okay. thank you very much. >> you are welcome. >> no other questions. >> thank you, commissioner covington. commissioner. >> chief, following up on the commissioner's last question. in regards to when the results do come out, does the department have some sort of plan of action or does it anticipate looking at this information to see how it should respond in the way of changing policies or making recommendations to the commission for changing policies or to the chief? what is anticipated? do you anticipate getting the results and doing something with them? >> yes, we are very interested in the results just like we are interested in the results from the breast cancer study that we are still waiting on, and i think that will definitely help to drive policy not just for us

but for other departments as well. because there have been so few studies done and i don't know how many wild land studies have been done or if this is the first or second one, but we will definitely be looking at those results and determining posse changes, perhaps operational changes, who knows? we need to see the results before we decide to do something. >> i see how these wild land fires are turning into urban fires at the north bay fire did. we are burning more than wood and trees these days in the wild land fires we will sending the firefighters to. beyond those fires, the department zoo any test -- do any testing of members from exposure to urban fires in the

city? >> no. did we do a study? we did a study a few years back, did we? >> we did draw blood samples in conjunction with the san francisco firefighters carnser prevention foundation. not on a regular basis. >> was there policy or anything learn from those results? >> i think -- i can't speak specifically though toes results. i -- those results. we have updated the respiratory protection policy in an effort to keep employees as safe as possible given that they work around the toxic environment every day at work. >> we have definitely changed things over the past few years. we have gas indicators that we use in post fires that we have

our chiefs check to make sure people can remove the scvas. we have change our respiratory protection policy. we are definitely doing things and other things we are doing apthat we have done in terms of the wash extractors. when i came in it was like, kid, rub your coat up against the charred wood so you look like you have done something. you know, i don't think i washed my gear for the first 10 years i was in. we have made changes. we are continuing to make changes. we will absolutely be looking at the results of this study and of the study of our firefighters, and i think that will not just change policy but also lead scientists to sort of hone in on

what further studies need to be done. >> i am curious from the north bay fires would. >> we can have the cancer prevention foundation do that. >> on the issue of the hand out in the packet i'm not sure if it is this item or another. it is distribution list for the work group and committee assignment. are you familiar with what i'm talking about? can you tell me what these work groups are? what the purpose behind the work groups are? there is a hazmat committee, mutual aid. what are these people doing in these committees? >> they work on projects, policies, it is really, really important for us to get feedback and intel from the field, not just from downtown in terms of

driving policies or looking at new technologies, things like that. we have i don't know how many workers. we just came out with that list a couple weeks ago. >> the purpose of this so i'm understanding correctly is kind of a bomb up approach to get -- bottom up approach to get information from the troops to affect, modify? >> absolutely. our mutual aid committee, they are the ones that go to the deploy to the wildfires. they are on the ground. they know what has to happen, what equipment we need, they know we work in conjunction. we are working with them to get five more wild land rigs. health and safety committee, you know, when we reconvene that meeting we will be working more