>> this is a reminder to silence all electronic device. our commission meeting wednesday april 25, 2018 and the time ask 5:01. [gavel] [roll call]

item 2 general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on my matter within the commission's jurisdiction and does not appear on the agenda. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statement. >> is there any public comment. >> clerk: item three. >> any public comment on the

april 11th meeting minutes. seeing none public comment is closed. all in favor. it's unanimous. >> item 4. chief of department's report report from the chief of department, joanne heys-white. [reading agenda item 4] >> good evening. >> good evening president cleveland and members of the

fire commission. there is a meeting tomorrow before the budget and finance committee although we have not been asked to participate or attend even though it relates to public safety. we had presented before in march after we submitted our budget and so at this time per the chair, supe supervisor cohen wel await further present in the month of june after major submits his balanced budget. we are scheduled to go before the budget and finance committee on june 15 and either june 21 or june 22 with a final date if we have that resolution of june 25, and for the public, there is an opportunity for public comment at budget and finance on jun june 18. regarding of division of training 124th class is in their 5th week, 54 member.

we had one resignation due to injury and return to station 49 and we were able to quickly bring up to speed someone else at station 49 and not too much time elapse. we are still back at 54 at this time in the 5th week. preparations will begin for the selection process for the 125th class in the coming week. i will ask department of human resources to refresh the national testing the work list some time in may and i believe it will capture everyone that has taken the test and will appear on the eligible list through testing period april 28, the last of this month. i pulled the list and typically do so every five or sixth months prior to selection of a new class.

with regards to activities since our meeting on the 11th, on the 13th i participated in a press conference related to street smarts, it was a ribbon cutting designed for elementary age students championed by my distribute supervisor norman ye. it was not in his district, but the significance is where supe supervisor ye attended elementary school. basically it's a mock-up of a real city street in san francisco that children can pass through and know about the appropriate street signals and know what they need to do and

look both ways, designed to look exactly like a city street. it's pretty unique and i think the students will be thrilled to use it. it will be a roving piece of equipment that needs some set up and breakdown, but i think it's very valuable, so a um in of us from the city police department, department of public working were there where the children to cut the ribbon and have the children go through it and there is lots of excitement and there is a great visual way to learn about street safety. that afternoon on the 13th, i was unable to go, but deputy chief received recognition from the department o college. deputy chief zanoff as well as nickelson represented the

department at the lion's club where they acknowledged a number of our employees that saturday night, so i wanted to thank you that and representing the department. on the 16th a budget chair meeting chaired by deputy director corso to talk about what is happening in our budget to review priorities and i believe there will be an ask, although we had a lot of good dialogue at that meeting of each individual member to prioritize any items we might be asked for a budget to continue to advocate for, so there is a number of items that we have been discussing and we will provide you with an update once we have that information. on the 17th was our monthly labor management meeting with local 798. 18th was a busy day.

thank you vice president nakajo for joining us to commemorate the -- years of the earthquake. we gave the hydrant a spray as we do every year to commemorate how it was functioning and saved a great part of that district in the city, 112 years ago. also attended a funeral that day for and i conic san franciscan, mr. leonard stephanelli. also i wanted to acknowledge the hard work that everyone did in our department to put on a mobile command unit tour. very impressive in lot a on the 18th where we had the command vehicles from the airport, the

police department, fire department, the sheriff and then other neighboring agencies, we had participation of caloes as well. it was very well received and had a lot of people from the public. we had a recruitment booth set up. i saw a number of college students there handing out information about our department. that evening i evening i represe department at hotel heros, a big event in the hotel world. it is their academy awards if you will. i represented the department and provided an award to i believe it was the unsung hero award, but i don't exactly remember because it was a long day for me, and it's always very well

received. i think the members that work in the hotel, the whole uniform thing resonates that we all wear uniforms so i get asked every year to participate and that year it happened to fall on the 18th and i didn't want to say no. the 19th was an earth daybreak fast that i attended and then we had the nert on the 21st at james lake middle school. also to our nert volunteers we had a couple hundred people there on a nice early saturday morning. i was dressed down but impressed by the two full uniforms of the deputy chief. thank you for being there. also dressed down showed up casual, maybe 15 minutes into the drill.

appreciate it after it hit a long week last week and deputy chief gonzales was there last week as well. it's all about teamwork. as you know we have 24 hour schedules and i appreciate everyone jumping in as they need to and everyone certainly helps out and participates and that is very much appreciated. the following day, so it was a busy weekend, a lot of weekend event. the cherl cherry blossom parades enjoyable. appreciate the participation of commissioner covington appreciate your participation as well. that was a fun event and always

appreciated. thanks to the command staff for attending and. s afirefighters aswell. finally, this week i participated, we have a delegation from cork, ireland in town and there was a gathering here at city hall on monday as well as lgbt signing with san francisco and cork city related to lgbt initiatives that i attended because i thought it would be probability and brought ms. scalin with me for that. that concludes any activity since the last meeting. >> president cleaveland: thank you. any questions for the chief? commissioner covington? >> commissioner covington: ,

chief, i guess it was a tupel of meetings ago we were given a chart of the numerous committees that are operating within the department on various things, is there a committee i know that you and the senior deputies meet with the union, but are there any union meetings at the lower levels? >> i think there is someone from the executive board on every committee, but particularly by the book i think there needs to be a union representation or health and safety committee, but my understanding is there is someone representing local 178 on every committee. >> commissioner covington: i wasn't aware of that, so i'm glad i did answer the question. that covers quite a few base.

can you give us an update regarding the two new captains for arson? >> yes, so they are getting underway in their role. one is a liaison working closely with municipal transportation agency and one with all the housing and development projects, so at some point through the president. i know the fire marshal would be happy to provide greater detail on that, or we could actually if so desired by the commission have the captains appear at an uupcoming meeting to talk about their new role. they are hitting the ground running but they are just getting going on them as well. we think it is value-added for the department because now we have dedicated members there will be a more consistent application of all that is happening in our ever-changing

city. >> commissioner covington: it would be good to have them come and give a brief presentation and also if the captain in charge of arson could attend that meeting as well. i think it would be good. >> sorry at the top of your question did you ask about ars arson? >> commissioner covington: yes. >> two new captains in bureau of fire prevention. the division of the fire marshal is division of four marshall and prevention, so it gets confused. specifically for prevention related issues and infrastructure issues and new development as well as road transit issue.

> >> commissioner covington: thank you. >> i did also want to acknowledge deputy chief gonzales and -- they are taking a lead in negotiations underway with the department of resources and local 798. we act as sort of a very third interested party to provide subject matter expertise on any items pertinent to the mou that deal operationally that maybe dhr needs some guidanc guidancen addition to their day jobs they have been working hard, including today and all that week on the negotiation process and that should be wrapped up very soon. >> commissioner covington: very good. loyal thank you. >> when you have future meetings at the mayor's office in regards

to the budget, where have the -- rather is the full-time hire that the commission requested still on the table? >> still on the table. we should know before but the mayor will submit a balanced budget june 1. we have not heard back one way or the other. i'm thinking optimistically. >> so when the mayor submits his budget that is when we will find out whether or not that is in there? how does it work? >> probably right before then. we will be continuing to pursue it and ask, so we will find out before the public does. >> is there a statutory deadline by which the union and city has to finalize their negotiations?

>> may 15. >> you said the next class that's coming in, i think what the people at home don't see is at every fire commission meeting we have a group of young individuals aspiring to be in the fire department that show up in the seats out there. there is probably about 50 of them and they are all dressed in suits and you can't see them at home, but some of them come as far as modest toe for these meetings, so we hope to dee keep your entertained for those that come this far. do you take into consideration the participation of people that come to these meetings in your decision as to who you choose? is that how you get to know people as opposed to just looking at them one dimensionally in their applications and the papers they

submit, and then additionally, do you consider the service of the reserves as well in how you choose people to be in the next class? is there a set number of people that you take from the reserves every class? how does that work? >> so i would say yes and yes are the quick short answer. there is no set number of reserve. it is a factor in the totality of factors as is participation, attending meetings and showing the desire to volunteer at different programs we support, so there is no specific mix of percentages but it is certainly looked at as recognized. >> you probably don't have this number off the top of your head, but could you at some point get it to me, do you know how many people have applied for the next class that are in reserves

currently or is that application time even a factor right now? >> we could get that for you. there is thousands of people just so that you know on the eel jill list. a lot of people in this room show up to a lot of different things and tha, but i don't wano discourage someone that may have a job or distance that recolludes them from applying. this is a factor. it would be unfair to say if someone does not come to a meeting that they are not going to be considered for hire, so it's a factor. i would say it weighs in as part of secondary criteria. >> so is there an application process or is it you choose off

the list? >> eligible list from which i choose from. >> okay. thanks chief. >> sure. i will get you that number on number of reserves that are currently on the eligible list. i will have it next month. >> president cleaveland: canned. commissioner h ardeman. thank you for your hard work. ththose who want to be here aret sitting at home watching tv, so you get to learn about the fire department you want to be part

of, so the attendance is good for you if not necessarily for the chief's picking you. -- removing some of the restrictions for incarcerated people to be eligible for many jobs that have licenses which are millions of jobs right now, then very minor offenses preclude people from applying to be a firefighter -- i find that would bthatthey are exclusionede

rest of their life after making one stupid mistake, a minor thing, maybe a good person that just made a mistake, so that would be interesting to follow that and i'm sure people like yourselves would be involved in some sort of process with david chu and other. there is some ineligible people and so many on probation in san francisco that can't apply for these jobs that are good decent people. that would be a nice thing to see and how you found time to go to -- funeral is beyond me, you were so busy that day. that was very nice of you. he was a guy that rose up from pauly high school to go in the

garbage business and ended up at 32 being head of the garbage at san francisco and was the chief person in the united states for advances equipment for garbage pick up for waste management and ecology now, so that was very nice to show that respect to his family who is wonderful people, and like you say it would be good to close the meeting in his name, mr. president. len stephanalli. >> president cleaveland: just a couple question. you had an injury in the class, put that person back into the ems department. what happened what was the injury? >> so i have to be careful about sharing medical information

publicly. nothing life threatening. i can say musculoskeletal. he is going to be fine, but did not feel that he could continue based on his injury. we would consider him down the line perhaps if that is something he was interested in. >> how many people are on the list? >> 2500, 3000. the last list i had looked at was those who tested in october of last year, i know we pulled it in november. this list will be refreshed and maybe the same will be on it. it captures those through apri

april 28. >> president cleaveland: this is the last date that you can retest if you wanted to? >> correct for consideration. >> president cleaveland: people who want to be in the fire department you have to retest this month. >> for the 125th class. >> president cleaveland: if you want to raise your grade so to speak. thank you. chief nicholson come on up. >> greetings, here is my report. let's begin with the administrative division.

the office conducted 60 permanent physicals in multiple lengths and 41 return to work evaluations investigative services bureau, 72 drug and alcohol tests all negative. the assignment office, the 121st class has completed probation and were assigned. moving on to support services, all of our wash extractors to decontaminate ppe have been put in place in our stations and we will also have them in rebuilds of stations 5 and 16 and station 35 when that comes around. there were 136 facility requests in march. the bureau of equipment handled

35 field and equipment repairs as well as hundreds of other requestions for equipment and service needs and responded to several working fire. i don't know if you have heard about the moose boat. it's coming in september. capable of fire fighting and has a dallas platform, chemical and radio logical detection on it and we are developing training schedules for personnel and i will get you all a nice photo of it because i know that commissioner covington likes to see things. we have ordered six new engines from ferrara. they are on order. station 35, we had a

construction meeting as you know station 35 we are going to be getting a new station there. we had a construction meeting with bcbc, the port and ourselves to work on finalizing the design and we will have a follow-up meeting responding to their comments on june 11. the ambulance deployment facility, so we had a meeting with perspective artists that were chosen to do the art work on the gates and they had their walk through of the site and although dpw is the project manager for our facilities being built, we want to be more directly involved in the artist selection process, so we have inserted ourselves into that process and we will have more of a voice moving forward. then also with the adf good news, we got the permit for demolition and abatement was

issued today, so they can begin that behind station nine of the structures that are there, the earliest they can begin may 11. station 16 still on track for september 11 completion and station 5 on track for december 28 completion. the latest at station 5 is the installation of underground utilities and there is framing going on in the second and third floors and rough plumbing and electrical as well. training division, 121st class first week is completed. deputy chief soder went to two fires in march and also the 8th avenue fire this weekend. 600 hours of hands on training to over 200 member.

under special projects, we are collaborating with academy of art university. i may have mentioned this the last time with their film production classes and we have a couple of projects going on with them right now. k9 operations, hotel safety public service announcement and aquatic re res queue. they will make videos for us that we will utilize for training or public safety announcement. we appreciate the partnership and look forward to what we can do together. ems and in-service training over 9,000 hours of training. that includes online training but as well as classroom training. the fire reserves 359 drills and

greater alarms in volunteer in march. nert was on fire in march . command vehicle rally, chief cochran and lieutenant baxter big props to them and the lion's club i went to most of the members of the fire department that were recognized were recognized for their response to the ups shooting last year, so it was a nice event for them. for homeland security, as you know all the command and administrative staff work hard and chief cochran is absolutely no exception. he is involved in multiple projects and he interfaces with numerous agencies, local, state,

federal, and international, and he is a results oriented person, so i know he is next up on the list, so i will let him talk about homeland security and that will conclude my report. >> president cleaveland: thank you chief nicholson. seeing none. commissioner hardemann. >> commissioner hardeman: how similar is that to one that is now in service at the airport. >> it's very similar, but this one has a se bring capabilities as well. i brought photos for you all and they are mock-ups that i can get to you.

>> commissioner hardeman: where the fire boats are now? >> that is still to be emerging determined. we are working with on that plan right now and activity pursuing that right now. >> president cleaveland: chief nicholson, can you put that on the overhead and show the public. >> very nice.

>> the fire department will have a new friend at the port. victor matches has been appointed. will be a nice ally. >> when does he start? >> he just started. >> great. >> he will be excellent addition to the pool. >> i served on the public utilities submission with him in the early 90s and he has been on a number of commissions, so thank you for your report. you are very busy. thank you. >> commissioner veronese: we had a three-alarm fire last week and

as i recall there was one department injury, if you could give us the status on that? >> sure, the fire was around 10:00 p.m. on saturday night the 21st 8th avenue, one civilian fatality and we had a member transported, treated and released and he is doing fine. >> chief, your had mentioned actually, what i will do is i will reserve my -- no, i will do it here. the department does a lot obviously every day, and chief gonzales gives us the quarterly or monthly report, is it month monthly? probably at the next meeting, but there is a lot that the

department obviously does and you and i were speaking earlier and i mentioned to you one of my best friends had a severe heart attack on friday afternoon, and engine 2 saved his life pretty much. they had arrived and done cpr and i believe it was medic unit 85. >> engine 2, medic 85. >> at some point i would love to acknowledge them once i learn more about exactly who was there. he had a severe heart attack and he is doing extremely well and actually stood up today for the first time. it made me think for someone like that who has such an event and for the medics and the firefighters that show up and actually treat him, they get to the hospital and basically hand off to the hospital personnel and don't often hear about what happens later, so i'm wondering

if there is a way, and i'm thinking out loud here. this is a long the line of the stress unit thing and peer support thing if it's helpful for the members of the department to get further information about what happens to patients, especially the ones they save, if that information is helpful to the members of the department in the way of marrole or in the way of you know how they deal with their stress, so i know i'm just thinking out loud, so if there is a way to capture that information especially the good news to we can transport it back to those on those calls, if it's helpful, i imagine it would be but if it is and there is a way, i would like to incorporate that type of

information into the stress units conversations that we are going to be doing in the future. >> may be some hipaa issues with it as well. >> sometimes people find it helpful, i know i do oh but other times people are like it's what we do and we deliver to the hospital and that is all they want to know. what has worked out well, when we have a willing patient, particularly someone in a life threatening situation, we have been in touch with them either they have contacted us or we contact them and it's works well, reunification time where the members will come to

headquarters and the person reresponded to will reunite but there has to be willingness on both sides. >> i'm asking the question to put it out there and it could be a bad or idea idea but if we are not asking the questions we are not getting the answer. in this circumstance he is extremely interested in meeting the people who saved his life. >> in that case we would set it up. thanks a lot. >> thank you. >> thank you for your report chief nicholson. you called it the moose boat, you said it has crnbi

capabilities. >> chemical, raid logical, nuclear, biological -- capabilities. i got this through a grant. >> homeland security grant? >> yes. >> we applied for that grant? >> yes. >> somebody sat down and wrote that grant? >> correct. >> that is why i keep asking for grant writers because we need these opportunities from elsewhere. you may have read recently that a lot of homeland security funding and equipment, particularly military style equipment is not being requested by municipalities these days because the citizens are upset about the militarization of their local police departments, so some of that money is not

going to be spend and we would be the happy recipients of my money that is out there. so i am again banging the grant writer drum. that sounds very exciting and it doesn't have a name yet? >> no, it does not. >> chief hayes-white, is there going to be a official krisening of this boat? >> to be determined. for boats, fire boats they haven't had names in the past. >> i wasn't necessarily lobbying for a name for the report i was curious if there was going to be an official unveiling and ceremony and things of that nature.

station 5 is well underway, and can you talk a little bit about stations 16 and 35 which you mentioned in your report? >> i will let the chief of support services do that. >> good evening. chief and commissioner. in regards to station 35, we are currently in the process of getting all the requirement approvals to move forward. we do have a basic design, but -- will be working on a final design build as part of the rfp. we have many with many neighborhood groups, community groups, and even i guess elected

officials and everybody seems to be very much in favor of this needed essential facility and i think we are just fine tuning and going through the process of getting every approval as we move forward. >> the thought is that there will be prefabrications someplace else, perhaps china? >> correct. >> but assembled here in san francisco? >> that is correct. the float portion or the base of the facility is going to be built in china, which is the largest facility in the world for building this type of struck which are. it will then be shippe shipped o treasure island and peer one, and then once it reaches there,

local electricians, plumbers will build the facility at treasure aland once at a substantial completion, it will be floated over to pee pier 22 d where it will reside. we will incorporate a lot of union labor to construct the new facility. >> music to my ear. more jobs for everyone. thank you chief. did you want to talk about 16? >> yes, absolutely. station 16 we are moving right along. we had a few major milestones and we were able to get the roof completed and water sealed a few weeks ago which was major because it allows the contractors of different trades to continue to work inside of the facility.

the majority of the commissioner covington has been poured and the framing is done. plumbing and electrical is going in and we are still on schedule. i think that is about it. it looks really good and i know the members are really excited to get back into the facility, so we are getting really close and i think we are almost there. we are in the home stretch i would say. >> great, i will have to give you a call and arrange a walk through. i would like to see it in it's current form. thank you very much chief rive rivera. i think chief nicholson though are all of my questions for you at this time. >> thank you commissionerner. >> if you wanted to get involved

for the people at home watching on television to get involved with the fire reserves, how would they do that? is there an application process or someone they would talk with or meet with to become involved with the fire reserve. >> chief, can you take that one? >> yes, can you restate we had a working fire in progress. >> how would the fire reserves work. >> they work under chief. we have about 50 active reserves and they meet every thursday night and do training at 19th and holsom under the direction under one of the lieutenant.

annually they do recruitment but it depends on the ebb and flow. we hire a number of reserves into the department so there will be a number of openings. typically it is the month of july that they would do the interview, but i'm not sure if he has any updated information. >> he said to me that when it gets depleted they will open it up for application. >> i know that you do have to be an sf resident. >> is there a cost to participate? >> generally no. there may be some small costs for flashlights and that kind of thing. we supply the personal protective equipment and the training but then we have an ad hoc dues structure but it's

nominal. >> to get on the list you would need to contact the division of training? >> correct. >> that is good enough to know. thank you very much. madam secretary would you call the next item. >> item 5. [reading item] >> good evening mr. president and commissioner. mike cochrane homeland security. i want to cover the known ones and i can go into details on each one. the main thing is disaster planning, homeland security, covers special operations, special events, parades,

dignitary visits, grant management, and we also oversee the stress unit, our northern california regional california center lieutenant and the k9 unit. also we are we are developing continuity of management plan for the mayor's office and emergency support functions the over all emergency city wide support plan and still responding to, working fires when called upon. would you like me to go through each? >> president cleaveland: just give us quick cliff notes on each of the areas and anything that's particularly happening that's current that you think would be of interest. >> updating your annual and making sure all our addresses

are out there and emergency response districts are correct and the maps and working within the department of emergency management to make sure they know that probably in the first 24 hour operational period, the chief of the fire department will be running the operation. we want to make sure our language is clear across the board of what we call things and when we produce the final manual it's updated appropriate. things change and communications have changed and we are just updating it. our manual is solid but needs some updates and communication wise that is a big thing in disaster. homeland security participate with the -- this is f.b.i., dm, department of defense, biological.

how we would respond regio regi, how to pre- vent and how to recover from it. so that is ongoing. special operations would tie into this where is the best equipment to find and protect our personnel and secure it and how would we get that equipment funded through possibly grant. special events or large parades and any other large event the city would have and dignitaries come in from all over the world. they like a plan before they get here. work with the secret service and give them a plan of our closest locations for the department to assist these people. we are currently working on our -- mobile command rally, working

on that so we can communicate regionally. indiscernible. each city agency has to look at it's disaster manual b, how would we respond, who is in charge to keep the city functioning. we will give the chief updates as those come in. k9 units work on the -- team and we continue to keep them involved. they do a lot of city events and possibly get them another dog and the stress units i believe is very important. my own family has used it, so i meet with them monthly and see

their needs also. >> president cleaveland: very good. any public comment on the chief's report? seeing no public comment is closed. commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: thank you for your very first report at the podium. >> thank you. >> commissioner covington: i wanted to get an update on the drone policy. >> there is four agencies in the city that comes from the committee on information technology. there is the pilot program, the puc, park and rec, the fire the department and the port. they were in the initial pilot program. i am only aware of the puc

flying drones to check out the waterway. i have done research from smaller departments to larger departments and seeing how they handle that internally, and that is as far as i have gotten on it. i know you mentioned before if it saves one life. i get that part of it and there are things we are happy to do internally and possibly get that grant funded down th the road. there is internal issue. i have researched and i have been looking into them. >> what is the process for us to be cleared to have drone in the department. >> a while ago i asked does that get extended and they told me it

could be extended. >> okay does the chief of the department need to make a formal request for that? how do we move forward from the paper and the meeting stage to actually having the members of the department who are trained to be able to look after our interest as they relate to drones because common citizens have them and at the large fires they show up and ask the chief of the department if they can be of service, but they are not trained in fire fighting, so the chief of the department has to decline the offer, so i'm just trying to get from you how we get to yes. >> that's going to be for the chief of the department, but i was told that you cannot fly drones, it's a safety issue. i have been told it's illegal to

fly that over our fire. if the chief of department requests, i will follow through with it. >> commissioner covington: you understand that it's illegal to fly drones over fires? >> if you don't have a flight plan. >> >> commissioner covington: defin itely, that is why the chief of the department declines because these are average citizens that are doing that. so i will go to the chief of the department. >> we have a draft policy we are looking at but my understanding it needs to be reviewed by the city attorney's office and the information technology needs to make sure it's i in sync and haa republiccability foapplicabilitt

in terms of maintenance and we are not quite there yet. >> commissioner veronese has signaled me that he is eager to >> commissioner veronese: comern er, this is a policy that has been in my in-box for a couple of months now. i used to ow chief francisco, and now i owe chief cochrane my revisions that i believe are applicable. we are going to have to go to -- on it because there are some things that are going to have to be changed or we are going to have issues with it and one of those is being able to put a light on them and being able to fly them at night.

the policy does not allow for flight at night and if we need to save lives along the cliff at night and these are going to be useful to us we need to be able tofully them at night. if we are flying them at light we need to see where these things are and those are two issues that need to be addressed but in chief cochrane's defense i owe him that policy and we will get that to him and then to the city attorney and to -- and back here for the vote. >> commissioner covington: thank you for that update. i know it's something that you have been very interested in moving forward. i think it's essential even though the nighttime visibility using lights might be a bit of a

hiccup, i would recommend that perhaps you go forward with daytime. every day that we don't have an earthquake we are one day closer to one and we need to have eyes in the sky that we are responsible. it's very important to me that we move forward more quickly. >> if i could just comment on that. i see the applicability. there were plans in place working with dem this large scale throughout the city we would most likely not be using drones but helicopters but for lesser emergencies to use during the day, that would be something we would be looking at.