you can sign up online or call. you'll have the peace of mind knowing you're doing your part in your household to help the environment. . >> we'll start with the pledge. [pledge of allegiance] >> thank you. >> this is a reminder to silence all electronic devices. fire commission regular meeting wednesday, june 27, and the time is 5:02. item 1, roll call.

[roll call] >> clerk: item 2, general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minute on any matter in the commission's jurisdiction and does not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole or not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with a speaker. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >>commissioner cleaveland: is there any public comment? please come forward.

state your name, please. >> hello. yeah, honorable commissioners, my name is paul kim, and i am a union representative for ifpte local 21. we represent civilian fire inspectors and fire engineers. the reason i'm speaking to you today is on behalf of a member, mark mau, a fire protection engineer who was recently let go by the department. he started with the city in march of last year, but because of civil service exempt rules in our system, he was asked to repeat probation even after a year of service. because of that he was not afforded due process rights when he was investigator over an incident of alleged harassment. mark has been an exemplary worker, a supportive co-workers to his colleagues. we have collected 57 signatures from his co-workers, and we ask

the commission to re-review this case and reinstate mr. mau. i also invite his fellow co-workers to speak on his behalf. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you. do we have additional public comment? please come forward. state your name, please. >> good evening. my name is janice chung. good evening, president, commissioners, chief. thank you for the opportunity to speak today. i was born and raced -- raised in san francisco, and i'm proud to serve as one of the civilian fire protection engineers for the san francisco fire department. i stand before you today with the utmost respect and a sincere plea on behalf of mark mau. as a first born american to a first generation immigrant family and also being an engineer myself, i saw when and why misunderstandings could have taken place as a result of social cues and cultural cues.

in some parts of the world, it is common practice to give gifts, money, sometimes even to officials and authorities. here in the united states, it's not only illegal, you could lose your job and then some. engineer mau clearly understood this when he received what he perceived to receiving a gift. -- in this case, mark's children were -- [inaudible] >> and to receive a gift directly from the source could be considered even priceless. how could you repay and gift thanks for a gift -- give thanks for a gift so precious? of course mark could not accept that. in asian customs and etiquette, you don't send a text or post-it on twitter and

facebook. the greatest gesture of respect and politeness in our customs is to show faith, do it in person. for mark, he drew upon his roots, he took the time outside of his workday to correct what he felt to be a potential quid pro quo. as much as he wanted to keep the gift, he decided to return it. why would he want to risk his primary source of income and pension that supports his family and children? would it then be reasonable to understand the genesis behind his actions and the honor and sake of his family for his children's future and well-being? i hope you will take this opportunity to consider that in such a culturally diverse city as san francisco is, that all the various perspectives that could be taken regarding this situation with engineer mau. please consider that his intentions are respectful, that

his integrity solid, and his core values to be fully aligned with the san francisco fire department. thank you very much for your time. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you. any additional public comment? please come forward. >> good evening, commission. my name is victor lubek. i'm a co-worker with jeffrey mau. i would like to support him. i'd like to speak to him as a family man. jeffrey mau, when i first met him, you could tell right away that he's very straightforward, very conscientious, mild mannered. we'd always connect in casual conversation, talking about our families. we both have daughters -- i have a daughter, and our conversations would revolve around things that we did, activities that we did with our families, with our daughters.

so i just wanted to -- i just want to say that mark is -- you know, he's punctual, he's a hard worker, and he's very straightforward. and i've worked 20 years in the fire department, 20 years as a carpenter, met a lot of different people, characters, and to attest that mark is a very genuine, honest person. thank you very much. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. do i have additional public comment? please come forward. state your name. >> hello. my name is john corbett. i'm a fire protection engineer for the city of san francisco fire department. i've worked for the fire department for approximately 12 years, and in my time there, i have worked at plan check and now at the airport. so i'm up here to support mark.

and when i first met mark, he was working as an engineer for a company, and it was on the other side of the table, as we call it. and he was very professional and responded well to my comments, and he was easy to work with. and his character was very quiet and calm, and, you know, i encouraged him to seek the job with the san francisco fire department, and he did ultimately take the test and obtain the job. and so i feel that he was a very good addition to our plan check team, and i'd just like to say that i don't know what happened, but i'm sure it was a very difficult situation for him. and as a -- when i went to work for the city of san francisco,

it was a -- quite a change. i had worked in private industry for 20 years, and there was a lot of different new things that i had to learn. and i'm still learning them, but as you see, i'm still here. i'd like to request to be able to read a statement by a colleague of mine, also works for the san francisco fire department, if that would be okay. >>commissioner cleaveland: go ahead. >> okay. okay. my name is sagiv wiseshai, engineer with the san francisco fire department for the last 11 years. i have known mark as a fire sprinkler designer for siemens for the last 11 years and as a fire department engineer since 2017, and with the plan check department since march 2018. mark is a very professional

fire sprinkler designer and has knowledge in fire protection system code and design. he has been a great addition to our plan check team, always very polite, respectful, and trying to learn new things. from my experience with him as i was training him for the over-the-counter service, he was always professional with our customers, always polite and very straight and serious with his interaction with our customers. mark is a family man. during his interview for the fire protection engineer position for the san francisco port, he was asked by captain ken coughland, what is the thing that you are most proud of in your life, and he answered my two daughters. >>commissioner cleaveland: we'll grant you one additional minute, but please wrap up in one minute. >> he was just trying to fix

something he thought was wrong, and he just got himself into a misfortunate bigger problem by trying to return the gift. i'm convinced he meant no harm, and i highly ask you to reconsider the unfortunate circumstances and maybe find a less harsh way to treat mark. respectfully. thank you. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. is there additional public comment? please come forward. state your name. >> my name is tom haney. i've been with the san francisco fire department for 25 years. currently i'm aligned as a lieutenant -- assigned as a lieutenant in the plan check division of the fire department. as such i'm a co-worker of mark mau. i'm reading a statement from a co-worker who could not be here this afternoon. i'm fred stump. i have 47 years of engineering

experience. i feel that mark was not treated fire fairly by sffd or h.r. and was terminated without getting to tell his side of the story. mark took it upon himself to try to correct the perceived conflict of interest. it is a shame that this person took it the wrong way. from my working with him he was very respectful of everyone he interacts with, both in the public and sffd. i feel this was a learning moment but not a termination offense. i feel this was too harsh. mark deserves better and should be given another chance. sffd is missing out on a grate "politico"y. he tries to do the best for the sffd and the citizens of the county and city of san francisco. at the time, our plan check backlog is very large, and losing an engineer like mark makes the situation worse. sffd needs mark to help clear the backlog and provide excellent service to the city. i'd like to thank the

commissioners and chief tonight. is it possible -- there's dozens of signatures of mark's co-workers, can we submit that to the committee? okay. thank you. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. is there any additional public comment? come forward, please. state your name. >> good evening, president, commissioners, and fire chief. i'm carolyn prim. i'm been with the fire department for 26 years, also currently assigned at plan check. i've had the opportunity to work with mark, and just wanted to have you ponder for a moment that losing one's job is a very serious experience. i have had that happen to myself many years ago before i actually emigrated to this country. it was an unjust firing, and

just wanted to let you know that as an immigrant, sometimes, you can be misunderstood. and it's no bearing on the person's character, it's just differences in culture. i'd like to take the opportunity -- i have this statement from mark's wife that i would like to read to you. hi. my name is lima. i wish i could be here today. mark is my first love, and we have known each other for 21 years. we love each other and our two girls. he is a loving husband and father. he spends all his spare time with our family. he takes our kids to art and dance classes, visiting museums, hiking, playing soccer

with them during weekends and takes us to different places for family vacations. he sets a good example for the kids, and we all love him. we are with him. at this point, i would like to yield the next comment to mark, and i hope that our presence here has a bearing on perhaps an appeal to the decision that was made, and thank you for listening. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. do i have a comment -- another commenter? welcome. >> good evening, commissioner. good evening, everyone. good evening, chief. my name is mark mau, and i'm very thankful to see so much

help from my colleagues from my union representatives, and my friends who take their time to be here for me tonight. thank you very much. i am a fire protection engineer. i love my job. i enjoy working for san francisco fire department and making sure our homes and buildings are safe. i believe in honesty, integrity, and doing what is right. i want to set an example as a father for my children who look up to me. i love my wife. i would never do anything to hurt her and my daughters. i wish to categorically state that i have never made any attempt to misrepresent or say my name was someone else's.

it would bring dishonor to my name and who i am. at work, i have always stood for doing the right thing. if i wasn't sure about something during a peer review, i would research the code to analyze it to ensure my conclusion would be proper. this is the same way i have applied my methodologies in life. i will read and analyze before making a decision. english is not my first language. i apologize for any language or culture barrier that could have complicated this issue. i'm very sorry for any misunderstanding this could have caused. i hope you will reconsider my case, and i look forward to coming back to work here.

thank you very much. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you. is there any further public comment? please come forward. state your name. >> my name is astora irving, and i am here to address mrs. hayes, the commissioners, and her employees. i have looked at your resume, mrs. hayes, and you have a very extensive resume. i am here to alarm you about your fire department and other e.m.s. it seems like someone has me on their radar. they know my going as well as my coming. i cannot step out of my house without one of your fire

departments, whether it is an ambulance or a transportational vehicle, fire department vehicle always coming after me, stalking me, using their alarms. i have wrote you and e-mailed you, oh, several times from 2015, and i have not e-mailed you anymore -- i think i e-mailed you '15, '16, and '17. never got back any response from you. i've read your resume. i also read some of the comments that your fellow peers are saying about you. they're saying that you overlook things. you don't take things very seriously, you're not running a good department. i want to know why is it -- and i know that you work for -- you worked with homeland security. i used to work with the v.a.,

and since i've left that department -- i have not worked there since 2011, and since 2012, i have had nothing but your fire department, police departments, every official transportation department follow me. in the beginning, i did not take it very seriously. i just thought maybe i'm paranoid or something. but then, i started taking notes down, dates, times, locations. someone came in my house and took that information, but i still have the information. i'm here to talk to you about that. i am not a common criminal, and if i am, they should come and arrest me. i'm tired of your vehicles, i'm tired of everything that is coming at me from your fire department. i understand that you have an extensive system at your command, at your beck and call, at your disposal.

you can dispatch whoever it is, but i do know that i am tired of being your scapegoat. i don't have anything against anyone in san francisco, and i don't think that your department has any reason to come after me. i don't like it, and i intend to do something about it, and today is the first time. i came down here last year -- >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. >> just a second, sir. i'm going to be finished in a few minutes, because it's concerning me. i came down here last year, and i did not know how to come to the podium, but i'm here now, and i'm telling you, i'm tired of it, and you need to do something about it. they're at your beck and call and at your disposal, and someone has me on their radar. not only that, they're using devices in my home. i don't like that at all. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. thank you. >> thank you.

>>commissioner cleaveland: any further public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. [ gavel ]. >>commissioner cleaveland: madam secretary, would you call the next item. >> clerk: item 3, approval of the minutes, discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes of june 13, 2018. >>commissioner cleaveland: any public comment on the june 13th minutes? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, pleasure? >> so moved, mr. president. >>commissioner cleaveland: moved by commissioner hardeman. >> second. >>commissioner cleaveland: seconded by commissioner veronese. all in favor of adopting the minutes at passed? thank you. next item. >> clerk: item 4, presentation from the merit advisory board. members of the nert advisory board to make presentation. >>commissioner cleaveland: welcome. [inaudible]

>> i'm the program coordinator for nert. nerd is the neighborhood emergency response -- nert is the neighborhood emergency response team. it is our response to any san francisco resident to become a responder and become prepared for a disaster that occurs here. we have a very involved cadre of volunteers, and it's my pleasure to introduce to you now my advisory board chair and they will give a presentation of some of our highlights this year. >>commissioner cleaveland: please do. welcome. >> we do have a powerpoint. can you help me to display -- >> secretary ionin >> clerk: can we go to the overhead? there we go. >> good evening, president cleaveland, commissioners,

chief hayes-white and distinguished guests. i am gabe harris. i am a volunteer for nert for the past 13 years. i also serve as the volunteer for san francisco's volunteer dispatch program. two years ago, we the advisory board appeared before you for the first time ever to talk about the nert program, so we're honored to be back. thank you for allowing us the opportunity. i'm joined by my fellow advisory board members, and one of our members could not join us today. so 28 years and still going strong. nert program continues to be free to residents, continues to be taught by an amazing group of san francisco firefighters,

and is still the only hands on training of basic and advanced preparedness skills to anyone living or working in san francisco. we are grateful for the continued support of the fire commission, chief hayes-white, and the fire department. i'd like to direct you to the powerpoint. this is the second slide, it says nert coverage. so to-date, there have been over 29,000 residents who have taken the training. we use regroup as our main way of communicating to all the volunteers, so currently, there are over 11,000 members that we reach through regroup. there is a map there that -- of the city that shows how much coverage in terms of nert's -- the areas in pink are those areas that currently do not have a nert coordinator, so basically we have 40 of 55

neighborhoods covered by a nert coordinator. this year, we had eight new coordinators join us. there are some areas as noted here, tenderloin, north beach, knob hill and western addition, which do not have a coordinator, so that is something that we're working on. >> can we go back to the -- there we go. >> sorry? >> we have to go back. we're on the wrong slide. >> okay. so we're good with the nert coverage? >> we are, yeah. >> okay. the next slide says nert activities. so sf ready is a two-hour personal preparedness workshop that is offered throughout the year throughout the city. for those that cannot take the full training, we want to give everyone education and tips of what they can do to prepare themselves, their family, their homes.

it does talk about nert, and hopefully that is the stepping stone to take the full nert training. the basic training, as you may know, consists of approximately 20 hours of hands on training, again, taught by firefighting instructors, usually split up over six different sessions, each one covering a different topic from light search and rescue to fire suppression, triage, and so on. advanced training. once they take the training and get their certification, which is good for two years, we encourage all of the participants to continue to take extra drills, classes, workshops that are offered throughout the year. and of course, we have our two citywide drills, one in april and one in october, where we take over a school and do a full setup of setting up staging areas and doing all the procedures that we've done in training. and i know many of you have come and seen them hands on.

it's really a great opportunity for nerts to not only work with their neighbors but to refresh their skills. and then also throughout the year, outreach. we do tabling events, street fairs within these different neighborhoods to attract more people to take it and to get them aware. with all of that, there are some things that we need -- that we have challenges with is retention. when you have over 29,000 people that have taken the training, how do you keep all of those people involved? and then, neighborhood team building, to be able to -- the time needed to support the teams and the coordinators, that's a challenge, as well. if you go to the next slide, the volunteer participation, just a comparison between last year and this year, the blue line represents the number of people that have took training last year, and the green line represents so far this year. as you can see, in every month,

there's been more people taking the initial training than last year. big jumps in march, april, huge. june, huge, as well. the last pair is research. so as i said, once you take the training, your certification is good for two years. in order to renew your certification, you just need to retake the last two classes, 5 and 6. so clearly, you can see a big jump this year, between january -june of how many more people recertified this year than last. and now i'm going to turn it over to my colleague, lulu, to cover the summary of accomplishments and so forth. thank you so much. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you. >> good evening. thank you for having me. i wanted to talk about some of the accomplishments for this year with the neighborhood emergency response team. we have finally gotten the public health foundation partnership complete for our

501 501(c)3, which is very exciting, and we also have some money coming in from members of our nert community. we worked a really long time for that, and we're proud it's come through, and we're full steam ahead now for fund raising. we had 17 full nert training sessions this year, which was a lot, and we could only pull that off through the hard work of the nert office, and it was a great help to have that baby trembler at the beginning of this year which got our numbers up for taking new classes, so that was helpful, as well. also, the medical reserve course deployed members to the napa and sonoma counties to help the fire survivors there, which was great assistance we could provide for mutual aid and great practice for our medical reserve teams. nert teams in district 7 and 10

received supervisorial grants to support caches for their neighborhood teams. pop up tents and generators and all of these things that are very expensive when you're trying to gather and be ready and support the fire department in the event of an emergency, so they did some great work there and got some great equipment together. also, this year, new is training. so our training used to be sort of throughout each month, and you know, on tuesdays or wednesdays or thursdays, but what we've done this year is we've designated every third saturday of the month as nert training day. so that has been great to get more participation in our advanced training, and it's also allowed us to have more face time with all of the

neighborhoods and all the nert nakeds and teaming getting to see one other and drilling together at the department of training, so that's been fantastic, as well. we have a lot of momentum this year, as you see, and to keep that going, we need to increase support for our neighborhood team buildings. so we talked about earlier that we've got new neighborhood coordinators, eight new this year, which is great, and we're continuing that momentum. we have setup a new process to get coordinators in and support them, but we need to increase the support for them; give them ideas of when to meet, what to do when they meet, support the questions that they have coming in from their team members, as well. we need to update the student materials. education is always growing and expanding, and you can always refine and add more information and statistics and such as you

get them. and we're also working on increasing the instructor pool within the sf fire department. so as always, there's good stuff, and there's stuff that we need help on. gary touched on two of those earlier, which is the increased support for the neighborhood team building. retention is a big thing that we've always had some struggle with. we got a lot of people in the door and keeping them engaged in the neighborhood and getting them to recertify on time is a struggle with any organization this big that has credentials you have to meet to stay involved. so we need to do that, of course. better coordination with city and county to increase awareness and marketing and -- of and participation within nert, so we really need the help from you all and city hall, etcetera, to make sure that people are becoming aware

and getting trained and coming to us. a big problem that we have in the nert office is that we are still operating with pen and paper, essentially. so we need to bring the technology within that department up to modern standards. we spend a lot of time processing paperwork and getting people into the system, etcetera, and that time could be better spent by our nert office by strategizing, major outreach, etcetera. so technology is a major hurdle which we need to address and overcome in the nert office. and of course, as we said before, there's still a need for more staff to support this process. you've seen the numbers of how many people are trained. you know that there are -- what did we say?

55 neighborhood coordinators, so if you take all of those people, and even if you funnel them through 55 neighborhood coordinators, you can imagine the amount of requests that are going to captain articeros and the nert office and all the paperwork because we're not up to speed technology wise. so we continue to come before you and ask for additional support in the nert office. we made it farther in the budget plan than we had the previous year before, but when that comes around again, we'll be reaching out to you again to help us support this additional staff in the office. and that concludes our presentation today. we're happy to take any questions that you might have. thank you. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much. i see our chief would like to make a comment here. chief hayes-white? >> commissioner hayes-white:

thank you. i did want to make a comment, and that is a huge appreciation and acknowledgement of my support for a wonderful program. it wouldn't work without the dedicated leadership of then lieutenant articeros who i got to hand pick many years ago in 2004 to lead the team, and recently -- not that recently, but she was promoted to captain, so very proud of that. and i can attest to the advisory board, very dedicated. they're all volunteers. they spend a lot of time, they have such enthusiasm and dedication to this program. they really make it work in conjunction with the department members that are the trainers, and it's a joy to meet with them. we try to meet quarterly. they have great ideas and bring something to the table, and really appreciate your efforts and thank you for what you do to make our program work. thank you. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you, chief.

commissioner veronese, you had a comment? >> commissioner veronese: not sure if you answered it, but someone from nert, if you could standup. maybe captain. captain, what type of emergencies do these individuals respond to? >> so all our -- all our original plan was to respond to the earthquake. the training came into existence in 1990 directly after 1989. and locally here in san francisco, the oil spill and the heat wave have been the two emergencies that our volunteers have lent support to. but we have a trained cadre that can respond out of the area, so we supported the firefighters in wild land and santa rosa. >> so it's mainly civilian support. is it civilian support of department resources or is it civilian support -- >> so it's really twofold.

it's to train people to the level that they can relieve the burden on the fire department for the need to respond to certain things, and so in that partnership, anyone that takes care of themselves is one less person that the fire department needs to get to, particularly because if people aren't aware of it, they might go to the emergency room, say, for a little broken finger, which is a big deal on one day and not a big deal on an earthquake. so in that sense, our volunteers are really trained to support each other and take care of each other and address problems locally. and then, locally, the volunteers that stay involved, the command center that they will setup in each neighborhood is a resource for the batallion chief, and they're making situation reports and awareness and making note of areas that are cleared after the emergency and fall right into our fire department's emergency response plan in that sense. so the -- the goal is twofold in our training, and our volunteers that stay involved do a better job of also

supporting the fire department. >> commissioner veronese: and so when there is an incident, do those -- i'm sure there's some sort of managerial structure. >> yeah. that's really focused on the work that i do when there's not an emergency, but the structure's decentralized when the emergency occurs, and our volunteers are trained using incident command system. so each neighborhood team has a task force leader, and that leader would be tasked with responding to the batallion chief at the station. understanding that that batallion chief is overwhelmed, we have additional volunteers that are placed in each batallion that are the liaison and can collect the information and keep a status board or answer phones for the batallion chief. >> commissioner veronese: is this just a fire department thing? i remember the police department had a similar program -- maybe it's the same program. i'm not sure. >> yeah. so based on our years of success with nert, the police

did start a program called alert, auxiliary law enforcement response team. the structure is slightly different in that volunteers will respond to a single location and be assigned to -- to their tasks. our program is based on fema's cert program, community emergency response team, so that's what our curriculum is drawn from. and our volunteers will have a role, whether or not directed. >> commissioner veronese: got it. well, thank you for your presentation. are you is -- is the nert program a 501(c) 3, did i hear you say that? >> oh, no, that's not great. we gained agreement with a 501(c) 3 partner so that he with do projects in addition to the basic nert. what it allows us to do, for instance, our inner sunset team made a very good partnership with the inner sunset neighborhood association who wanted to gift them some money, and it allows us a way for that

team to augment -- we struggle with providing resources for retention, but if they're able to secure their own money and the recipient -- i mean, the donor can get the 501(c) 3 benefit, they worked on the project of ham radios for their team and getting litters and a few other things to support their cache with donations that they secured on their own. >> there are organizations, and i can talk to you about this offline because i setup a 501(c) 3 last year that give extreme discounts to other 501(c) 3's, and that's in all sorts of technology -- computers, software, whatever. all the big companies in san francisco pay into this. you should definitely look into that. i heard that computers and resources weren't a problem. you should look into that. i know that all the big tech companies in san francisco use it as a method of giving. >> wonderful. i will say that the salesforce license is taken, as far as the

501(c) 3, but if you have something else, that's wonderful. being able to track somebody with a reminder, getting people to recertify, those are all kinds of things that can be automated with the right tools, and i understand they exist. >> commissioner veronese: i also understand you have two very distinguished members of the nert team. i won't point them out, but there's two distinguished members. >> well, maybe i'd like to point them out. commissioner covington was a distinguished member of our nert team. and our commission secretary, maureen is also a recent graduate of the nert training program out at sf state. [applause] >> commissioner hayes-white: thank you very much. [applaus [applause] >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you, commissioner veronese. commissioner and nert graduate,

covington? >> that was cum laude, i'd like to point out. no, just kidding. well, it was really quite a wonderful thing to attend the nert sessions. i learned so much. i felt very capable after taking the classes, and i think that everyone should be encouraged to do as much as you can to get the information that you need to help your neighbors. i mean, we left in san francisco because we love san francisco. we love our neighbors. of course we love our families, and we love our pets, and nert gives you the skills that you need to be able to do that without saying okay, i've got this first aid kit, now what? i've never used it before. but nert goes into such

wonderful detail, and it's hands on. i mean, you look at the big board, you look at video clips, but it is hands on. you know, how to triage, how to make decisions. it's just very, very important. so captain articeros, it's actually so important, that i strongly suggested that our commission secretary take the course so that she could help us in the event that there's an earthquake while we're having the meeting, and she passed with flying colors. >> clerk: i'm running out. >> commissioner covington: you're running out? okay. well, don't run into captain articeros. so captain, how are you getting the word out about the nert program? >> well, currently our

graduates are the biggest champions of getting the word out. we have a limited facebook page. i won't get into that, but they locked me out. i'm looking into that. we use twitter. we use the platform called next door. we have a fire department account that can reach residents living in san francisco and of the 500,000 people that are on that platform, i believe about 250,000 follow the fire department and get our messages. and then, we partner with organizations, we had a training at the art college, and they did outreach as well as us doing outreach, so any of our hosts also do outreach regarding that. we sometimes get coverage. we got a new story earlier this year because our trainings were all sold out in a sense. they're free. and the story wasn't, i can't believe you're not meeting the need, and we flipped that to we

can't believe it's full. >> commissioner covington: very good. do you get any free advertising, anything of that nature? >> organically, but we have not gotten a p.s.a. run or anything of that nature. i guess in the nature of full disclosure, marketing is not my strong point or training, and so trying to tie into somebody with better expertise in that would be a better way to go about that, but looking for any resources that could run free advertising, that would be wonderful. >> commissioner covington: and do you have any presence on sfgov tv? >> we may need to reup them, but we did have snippets of our sessions running on sf gov tv.

we still live in earthquake country. shutting off the gas is still relevant, so if they're still running those old pieces, then we do. >> commissioner covington: i haven't seen them in quite sometime, so perhaps it warrants a conversation with the director of sfgov tv. >> yes. i'm happy to reach out to them and just see if they still have them available. we paid them to put those pieces together, so if they need to be updated, i know there's some cost incurred with that. >> commissioner covington: thank you. do we still have any in the department? >> through our division of training, we have some resources. they're limited, though. >> commissioner covington: okay. >> one thing i wanted to mention, we have in the past, we cycle between presentation training and nert. we avail ourselves of free space in the voter information pamphlet and fire presentation.

we've reached out to them and they've given us some space. >> and i did get a study done by a startup recently that kind of did a deep dive into our success and where our challenges lie, and so those are some of the ways that those challenges did, and they did the work pro bono for us. so one of the things that i'm cautious of is advertising to the level that we can meet the need, but we want to grow the -- the resource that is nert, but we also have to have things in place so that we can grow the resource. i think i may have maxed with the staff that we have to support additional growth in the program. i mean, we are -- like gang busters, i do not want to turn anyone away or make it sound like we are stopping, but we need to grow our source of additional instructors in the

fire department. we need to grow those support teams so when we get this flood of graduates from our outreach support efforts, not only they get base training, but they stay involved, and we can support that in a really professional way. >> commissioner covington: so who does your staffing currently? >> currently, i am an f.t.e. over the nert program, and we do have a part-time staff person through a homeland security grant that has, knock on wood, been renewed each year through uazi. and her position is part-time supporting the security operations and part-time at management supporting those operations. we accept also modified duty firefighters to support, but it has been a challenge to find someone who's on modified duty for the length of time needed to train them up and have them

be valuable -- have somebody that pops in for two weeks or one week is not really productive in the office and knock on wood again, we don't have a lot of long-term injured firefighters that can be placed in that position, but i did just complete having a woman who's modified pregnant, and she's been a very big help in the office. >> commissioner covington: all right. do you ever use interns from the various colleges? >> i have not tapped into the internship. i just did have one intern who's a firefighter's daughter, delightful, and has given some support in the office, but i've not had a steady professional intern in the sense that you refer to. >> commissioner covington: okay. and so my last question, because i love nert so much, is, you know, for those people who are watching us on sfgov

tv, could you just give a short overview on what the classes cover? >> yes, i will. our nert training is an invitation to your preparedness, readiness, and response, so class number one, we offer the personal preparedness aspect of it. what do you personally do to be ready for a large emergency. that specifically includes having some supplies and a personal plan. and then, our second session, we live in a gas fed city, so we cover utilities, gas, water, electricity. we talk about what to do if you're in the room when a small fire starts and how to use the fire extinguishers, and what hazardous materials and terrorist threats are around us every day. >> but you also have practice sessions in turning off the gas and that sort of thing. >> yes, absolutely. we take each of the steps of the training, and then, in conclusion, we do hands on practice for those skills.

a third session is the triage. that's a medical decision making when you have more injured people than rescuers, so we teach our volunteers a decision making process to help support what our e.m.t.'s and firefighters will be doing in the field when there are many, many injured people and we must find the most critical. and then, some basic life saving steps in stopping bleeding and that sort of thing. next, it's critical damage, how to rescue somebody under debris that may be trapped under the building, and how to use leverage to raise that up. and then should carries with a chair and a blanket to get that person out should you rescue them. our fifth training goes directly to the emergency response team. it's teaching the command system and how to run a command center in your neighborhood that incident faces with our batallion chief. and then our sixth session is the hands on practice of the

triage, the search and rescue, putting a fire out. in some senses, it's the fun one, but it really is a culmination of the commitment that a volunteer has made for 20 hours of training, and our firefighters are really great instructors. they bring a real lightness to a serious subject, and they really are engaging, and i encourage people. i call it a free fun, and our firefighters teach it. >> commissioner covington: yes. the firefighters are excellent instructors, and then, you get a wardrobe. you get a wonderful helmet. >> you do. i have some wardrobe demonstration. yes, we provide a -- a helmet, a vest, and some work gloves. they're accoutrements to help identify our volunteers, and then also to identify the team and really build that team

spirit, so thank you. >> commissioner covington: thank you very much. >> i appreciate it. >> commissioner covington: keep up the good work. thank you. >> indeed. thank you. >> captain, thank you so much for your comprehensive presentation. if you could, indulge the commissioners, mark, and the rest of your guests that you introduced, if you could come and so we could see who you are and get a little personal about this since you're all here and perhaps you could introduce yourselves and tell us what neighborhoods you are. please don't be shy. the microphone is here for you, and i'm one of these commissioners that likes to hear a first name, last name, 'cause i always misspell everybody's last name. so if you could remain up there. are you wearing your jacket? no, you're not wearing your jacket. i was looking at that vest --

no, well, that's all right, too. >> your vest. >> because i wanted to see what that really looks like. this is a little different. this isn't show and tell, but if you could, please, lulu. >> lulu. i live in the sunset, been in nert for eight years. i'm on the advisory board. i am the coordinator for park side, outer parkside, sunset, outer sunset, and central sunset and also disaster core. >> okay. that's great. that's exactly what i want to hear. please. >> i'm gary pegaris. i live in south beach, which is by the baseball stadium. i'm the coordinator for south beach, mission bay, and rincon hill. i've been in nert since 2006, and a coordinator since 2009, and also the chair of the

advisory board. >> thank you, gary. >> good evening, commissioners, chief. nathan karkoski, k-a-r-k-o-s-k-i. have been in nert for a little over ten years. i got involved when i moved here from the midwest and was researching about earthquake country. was the coordinator for the north beach neighborhood for quite sometime and am now a cocoordinator in the nopa neighborhood, and also serve on the advisory board. thank you four your attention today. >> hello. i'm linda ingraham. i've been in nert for about 11 years and one of the disaster core volunteers. >> okay. thank you very much, linda. >> hello. i'm sarah merrill, and i recently just completed the nert class, so i got really excited about it, and i'm in

the richmond district. i'm a coordinator there, and on october 20, i work at s st. ignatius college prep, so we're going to host the city's disaster prep drill, so i'm really excited about that. i'm just trying to spread the word to my colleagues and trying to request to my landlord to get the foundation secured, and it happened. so that was pretty cool. so i feel really safe now. and so just doing little things that are quite big things in the event, and i have two small children, so they're really excited, and they're constantly talk about when a disaster happens, like, where would you go. so thank you. >> sarah, can i see what the back of that little jersey looks like?

can you swing a little bit? okay. >> there you go. >> thank you. thank you. >> hello. my name is lisa dunmeyer. i've been in nert for a little over seven years. i live in south of market, and i'm the nert coordinator for the south of market as well as an advisory board member. i first learned about nert in 2009, and it was terrifying. it's a pleasure to volunteer with such an amazing group of people, and i really look forward to providing the captain with additional staffing support because we're ready to grow. there's a huge demand. we need some support in the office to take it to the next level, so thank you so much for your time. >> hi. i'm gris. i was in south beach under the capable coordination of gary pegaris. i'm a little bit temporarily

exciting, but i keep going to the advisory board, and i keep going to the deployments with disaster core when it happen. so i'm happy to be here and honored to have the attention of the finest city, finest fire department. the last name? yes p-e-d e.g. r-i r-i-l m-a-r-t-i-n. >> i recently became the neighborhood coordinator for hayes valley, lower haight. there is about 175 people who have been trained in that neighborhood, and i would be responsible for coordinating our deployment in the event of a major disaster, and i want to second that any resources that

you could direct to the nert program office for additional training and resources would be greatly appreciated by my neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you very much. if you could remain a little bit. you don't got to tuck in that corner. you can come on back over here. it's just general comments. i think the commissioners have asked their questions, which are excellent. nate, you came from the midwest? >> that's correct. >> what part of the midwest? >> born and raised in the city of milwaukee. >> okay. and in milwaukee, do they have such a body at nert in milwaukee? >> they do not have a standing core of civilian volunteers as such. >> okay. in terms of the years of origin, i'm assuming it's from '89 or loma prieta. and again, i'm not a real good arithmetic person, but how long now? [inaudible] >> and being at candlestick pa