sustainable future . >> san francisco streets and puffs make up 25 percent of cities e city's land area more than all the parks combined they're far two wide and have large flight area the pavement to parks is to test the variants by ininexpensive changing did new open spaces the city made up of streets in you think about the potential of

having this space for a purpose it is demands for the best for bikes and families to gather. >> through a collaborative effort with the department we the public works and the municipal transportation agency pavement to parks is bringing initiative ideas to our streets. >> so the face of the street is the core of our program we have in the public right-of-way meaning streets that can have areas perpetrated for something else. >> i'm here with john francis pavement to parks manager and this parklet on van ness street first of all, what is a parklet and part of pavement to parks program basically an expense of the walk in a public realm for people to hang anti nor a urban acceptable

space for people to use. >> parklets sponsors have to apply to be considered for the program but they come to us you know saying we want to do this and create a new space on our street it is a community driven program. >> the program goes beyond just parklets vacant lots and other spaces are converted we're here at playland on 43 this is place is cool with loots things to do and plenty of space to play so we came up with that idea to revitalizations this underutilized yard by going to the community and what they said want to see here we saw that everybody wants to see everything to we want this to be a space for everyone.

>> yeah. >> we partnered with the pavement to parks program and so we had the contract for building 236 blot community garden it start with a lot of jacuzzi hammers and bulldozer and now the point we're planting trees and flowers we have basketball courts there is so much to do here. >> there's a very full program that they simply joy that and meet the community and friends and about be about the lighter side of city people are more engaged not just the customers. >> with the help of community pavement to parks is reimagining the potential of our student streets if you want more information visit them as the

pavement to parks or contact pavement to parks at sfgovtv.org >> i view san francisco almost as a sibling or a parent or something. i just love the city. i love everything about it. when i'm away from it, i miss it like a person. i grew up in san francisco kind of all over the city. we had pretty much the run of the city 'cause we lived pretty close to polk street, and so we would -- in the summer, we'd all all the way down to aquatic park, and we'd walk down to the library, to the kids' center. in those days, the city was

safe and nobody worried about us running around. i went to high school in spring valley. it was over the hill from chinatown. it was kind of fun to experience being in a minority, which most white people don't get to experience that often. everything was just really within walking distance, so it make it really fun. when i was a teenager, we didn't have a lot of money. we could go to sam wong's and get super -- soup for $1. my parents came here and were drawn to the beatnik culture. they wanted to meet all of the writers who were so famous at the time, but my mother had some serious mental illness issues, and i don't think my father were really aware of that, and those didn't really become evident until i was

about five, i guess, and my marriage blew up, and my mother took me all over the world. most of those ad ventures ended up bad because they would end up hospitalized. when i was about six i guess, my mother took me to japan, and that was a very interesting trip where we went over with a boyfriend of hers, and he was working there. i remember the open sewers and gigantic frogs that lived in the sewers and things like that. mostly i remember the smells very intensely, but i loved japan. it was wonderful. toward the end. my mother had a breakdown, and that was the cycle. we would go somewhere, stay for a certain amount of months, a year, period of time, and she would inevitably have a breakdown. we always came back to san francisco which i guess came me some sense of continuity and that was what kept me sort of stable. my mother hated to fly, so she

would always make us take ships places, so on this particular occasion when i was, i think, 12, we were on this ship getting ready to go through the panama canal, and she had a breakdown on the ship. so she was put in the brig, and i was left to wander the ship until we got to fluorfluora few days later, where we had a distant -- florida a few days later, where we had a distant cousin who came and got us. i think i always knew i was a writer on some level, but i kind of stopped when i became a cop. i used to write short stories, and i thought someday i'm going to write a book about all these ad ventures that my mother took me on. when i became a cop, i found i turned off parts of my brain. i found i had to learn to

conform, which was not anything i'd really been taught but felt very safe to me. i think i was drawn to police work because after coming from such chaos, it seemed like a very organized, but stable environment. and even though things happening, it felt like putting order on chaos and that felt very safe to me. my girlfriend and i were sitting in ve 150d uvio's bar, and i looked out the window and i saw a police car, and there was a woman who looked like me driving the car. for a moment, i thought i was me. and i turned to my friend and i said, i think i'm supposed to do this. i saw myself driving in this car. as a child, we never thought of police work as a possibility for women because there weren't any until the mid70's, so i had only even begun to notice there were women doing this job. when i saw here, it seemed like

this is what i was meant to do. one of my bosses as ben johnson's had been a cop, and he -- i said, i have this weird idea that i should do this. he said, i think you'd be good. the department was forced to hire us, and because of all of the posters, and the big recruitment drive, we were under the impression that they were glad to have us, but in reality, most of the men did not want the women there. so the big challenge was constantly feeling like you had to prove yourself and feeling like if you did not do a good job, you were letting down your entire gender. finally took an inspector's test and passed that and then went down to the hall of justice and worked different investigations for the rest of my career, which was fun. i just felt sort of buried alive in all of these cases, these unsolved mysteries that

there were just so many of them, and some of them, i didn't know if we'd ever be able to solve, so my boss was able to get me out of the unit. he transferred me out, and a couple of weeks later, i found out i had breast cancer. my intuition that the job was killing me. i ended up leaving, and by then, i had 28 years or the years in, i think. the writing thing really became intense when i was going through treatment for cancer because i felt like there were so many parts that my kids didn't know. they didn't know my story, they didn't know why i had a relationship with my mother, why we had no family to speak of. it just poured out of me. i gave it to a friend who is an editor, and she said i think this would be publishable and i think people would be interested in this. i am so lucky to live here. i am so grateful to my parents who decided to move to the city. i am so grateful they did. that it never

>> 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. cut. >> we are here to celebrate the opening of this community garden. a place that used to look a lot darker and today is sun is shining and it's beautiful and it's been completely redone and been a gathering place for this community. >> i have been waiting for this garden for 3 decades. that is not a joke. i live in an apartment building three floors up and i have potted plants and have dreamt the whole time i have lived there to have some ability to build

this dirt. >> let me tell you handout you -- how to build a community garden. you start with a really good idea and add community support from echo media and levis and take management and water and sun and this is what we have. this is great. it's about environment and stewardship. it's also for the -- we implemented several practices in our successes of the site. that is made up of the pockets like wool but they are made of recycled plastic bottles. i don't know how they do it. >> there is acres and acres

of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily through golden community garden. we have it right in the middle of [roll call] >> clerk: item 2, general public comment. members of the public may address the commission on any matter within the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address their comments to the commission as a whole. 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. >> is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> clerk: item three, approval of the minutes, discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes of august 8, 2018. >>commissioner cleaveland: is there any public comment on the minutes? none, public comment is closed. commissioners, what is your pleasure? >> so moved, mr. chair. >>commissioner cleaveland: moved by commissioner hardeman. is there a second? >> second, mr. president. >>commissioner cleaveland: seconded by vice president nakajo. all in favor? next. >> clerk: item four, chief of department's request for leave with pay of three days,

september 19 through september 21, 2018 to attend the national prior protection association's 2018 urban fire forum in quincy, massachusetts. discussion and possible action to approve chief of department's request with pay for three days to attend the national fire protection fire association's 2018 urban fire forum in quincy, massachusetts. the national fire protection agency will cover the expense of travel, meals, and lodging. no fire department funds will be used for this trip. deputy chief mark gonzales will be acting chief of the department in her absence. >>commissioner cleaveland: public comment on this? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, what is your pleasure? >> moved. >> so moved by commissioner hardeman. do we have a comment? >> i do. >>commissioner cleaveland: commissioner covington, your

comment, please. >> chief hayes-white, could you tell us about this forum coming up. >> sure. i participated in 2007, and have been asked to participate every third year after that and have been unable to do so given some obligations at home and at work, and so was asked once again this year to participate. it's basically a gathering of metro department large urban fire departments chiefs to discuss emerging issues, to discuss the role of the national fire protection association. it's basically their opportunity -- they're funding the trip -- to hear from some of the larger city chiefs to hear about how we feel they're doing and to just kind of have brainstorming sessions on different issues. i know last year, the theme was sort of peer support came up. this year, as we've included

for you, you can see some of the topics that will be discussed and some of the lectures that we're going to be receiving, as well, such as fire dynamics update. this is particular to finding on basement fires, fire attack, fire exposure, decon, and training, as well as several other updates, threat assessments, maintaining school safety during active shooter events. so typically, what they do is incidents that have occurred during the year are discussed at some -- some sort of the high level emergency incidents, a group thing, so it's a few days to get together with some colleagues and peers to discuss what our procedures are and how we can further the -- the industry along. >> commissioner covington: all right. well, thank you for that information. it sounds like a great conference. i'm second this item. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you, commissioner covington. all in favor, say aye.

it's unanimous. thank you. madam secretary. >> clerk: item five, chief of department's report, report from chief of department joanne hayes-white including budget, academy, special events, communications, and outreach to other government agencies and the public and report from administration, deputy chief jeanine nicholson, report on administrative division's fleet and facility status, including an update on the chief's residents, finances, support services, homeland security, and training within the department. >> good evening, chief. >> good evening, president cleaveland, members of the fire commission. this is the report since the last meeting, which was provided to you by deputy chief gonzales who was acting chief of department. related to the budget, we continue to finalize the close out of the 2018 budget and we are in the beginning or first quarter of our recently

approved city budget, so things are looking good at this time. we are in the process of conducting interviews for some open civilian positions, and that would also include beginning the process for the grant writer position. and let's see...next item regarding academy, as you know, we graduated a class of 49. thank you for those commissioners that were able to attend the graduation at reardon on august 10. i think you'll see a pattern of the members of the community that we're serving, most of them with fire and/or e.m.s. backgrounds, so that was -- that was great to add to our employment pool. 125th class has not been selected. the class has been moved for an early 2019. we're looking at somewhere in the month of january .

that class will be comprised of 55 members, 43 members off the list and 12 members coming from station 49 like we've done in the past. i imagine i will call for a refreshed list probably next month that will reflect those that have taken the examination through the month of july and begin selections back -- some backgrounds and interviewing in the month of october. we will have what we call a bump up academy which is comprised of members that are h-3-1 paramedics and e.m.t.'s joined by a group of h-2 firefighters that also have their paramedic licenses. they will go through our in-house training program and become h-3 level three's --

paramedics. we are anticipating a class of 30. the breakdown will be 20 h-3 level one paramedics and 20 firefighters moving to paramedics. we're going to do that in the early part of the fall, so i believe next month is when we're scheduled for that. and then later in the fall, late october, early november , we anticipate hiring a class of entry level e.m.t.'s, and -- 24. i did want to let you know it's been a busy wild land season once again. i know we have in division today the assistant chief who i'd like to acknowledge for his coordination. he's keeping very busy both on duty and off duty, doing a very good job assembling strike teams when they were requested by the state -- they are requested by the state. we as you know had deployed a strike team originally end of last month -- i believe it was july 26 down to the cranston fine in san bernardino.

they were redeployed -- they were redeployed up to the mendocino complex fire where they remained until august 8 and came back. we still have an o.e.s. rig, which is an officer and three members at the mendocino complex fire. at one point, we had about 35 members because in addition to the strike team. we had also deployed two engines and a strike team leader that combined together to form a full strike team with other agencies. they are all back with the exception of the o.e.s. rig. and then just yesterday we deployed another strike team, so that would be five engines comprised of four members, an officer and three, so 20, plus two other members, a strike team leader and strike team leader assistant to the mill creek fire in humboldt county, so at this time we have 26 members deployed, four still at the mendocino complex, and 22

deployed to the mill creek. so great job, chief velo, and i know he's tight with his trusty incident support specialist, jana, so thank you for all your work on tracking those -- those members. just to let you know, i think we've reported before, they check in daily. the strike team leader will check in daily to let us know how the leaders are doing. typically they're on the line for a 24 hour period and then they get a 24-hour break, but that doesn't always happen, so we appreciate their efforts and always hoping, you know, for no injuries and safety. they have a good strike team leader, and they're well trained in wild land firefighting. chief nicholson will be able to give more information, but we did receive a request last

night for a member from task force three being deployed and that's a specialty unit. that's our k-9 unit, so we sent ed martinez and his k-9 with task force three to hawaii this morning in anticipation of hurricane lane, and we -- that's a request that we received, and he was deployed earlier this morning, is that correct? i believe chief nicholson will confirm that. okay. thank you. related to events since the last meeting on august 8, i did want to thank the commissioners, the department, and particularly four members from my staff who assisted, and i think wouldn't have been possible without them, in receiving the award that i did from the international association of fire chiefs. my assistant, kelley alf, mindy tallmadge, who kept it under wraps for a few months because

there was a nomination for consideration for selection of the award, and they -- it was a lot of effort on their part to submit what needed to be submitted, and it was reviewed by a peer panel and then to get selected was very much a great honor for me, so thank you, also, the commission for allowing me the time to attend the banquet and the ceremony. i was able to attend with my three boys, and my brother and sister-in-law came. it was a very special three days. my brother and sister-in-law came. thank you very much for that. flew back the night of the 9. had the graduation on the 10th. after the graduation, i was able to go -- still haven't gone to the top, the opening of the transit center, which is phenomenal. i would suggest and highly recommend anyone to visit that center that's now open. great work being done, and a lot of ramp up by the bureau of fire prevention to get that

center open and safe to the public, so i wanted to thank the chief and his staff because they spent a lot of hours working with the developer and the contractor and -- on that -- on that particular project. let's see...on the 15th, attended a retirement event for the long-time city employee, over 33 years, one of my colleagues, ann kronenberg who officially retired on the 10th. that was a party for her on the 15th and we had great representation. i was able to make it by, as well as deputy chief gonzales. we had assistant deputy chief mike cochran, andy zanoff, and we had pat darcy, he works up at the 911 center, and i believe division three was there that night, as well, and jana was there, too. the next day, the chief rivera, chief nicholson, and mark corso

and i met with the assistant city administrator to discuss where we're at in terms of our easter projects and that is a continued work in progress as they work to close a gap so what they're anticipating to be is more money for a project that is nearing completion, and that's the traffic company. it's not our project, it's the police department's project, but it was looked at in totality. so that will continue to be a discussion point related to possible movement of some funds to complete that project, and i'll have more information on that as time goes on. we also had the opportunity -- so we've celebrated ann kronenberg who was a pleasure to work with. mayor breed moved quickly and named her replacement. it's mary ellen carroll, who i've worked with and look forward to working with in an even closer capacity. she had begun her career with

the department of public health, then went to the controller's office and for the last seven years has over seen disaster operations and planning for the p.u.c., so i think she's a great candidate, great selection, and myself and some of the command staff met with the two deputies, assistant deputy chief cochran and i met with her to offer our full support and give her an overview of how we operate and look forward to that relationship, which will be strengthened. on the 19th, which was last sunday -- and i was joined by commissioner alioto veronese, also had a couple of the assistant chiefs there, chief rivera and chief cochran, there was a great event that started a few years back. we were partnering with other fire agencies and it's all for awareness of cancer and cancer prevention in the fire service. there's a bike ride that starts

in sausalito and ends in los angeles. every year for the last few years, they -- they -- what they do is they honor members that have died of cancer, and so this year's honorees from san francisco were hermann worsh and mark grishon. it was an informal but touching ceremony. commissioner, i appreciate you coming out for that. i think you were over in sausalito, as well, so great work being done there to spread the word about the high prevalence of cancer in the fire service. on the 21st, yesterday, chief nicholson and i, and mark corso, we brought him into answer some of the agenda items, we had a local meeting -- monthly meeting with local 798 to review any outstanding issues and come together, and you know make

some decisions and solutions and just to update them on what's happening, so that is our monthly meeting. and yet afternoon, i was part of a department head meeting, discussing mayor breed's -- her office called the meeting related to housing issues and how each of the agencies has an integral role and has to sign off, but how we can even more closely work together. one of the things we've done i think that's worked really well is we've been able to assign a single point of contact and that's acting captain michael patz from the bureau of fire prevention, and it was acknowledged during the meeting that it's been really stream lined and it's been really well received by the other agencies, so all that's really good. coming up, i know we have a stair climb on september 8 to spread awareness of the prevalence of ptsd in our -- in our lives and in our workplace.

then, there's the police fire mass on september 9. and then, of course, on 9-11, we will do what we've done every chief, to do a commemmoration of 9-11-2001. to be determined on the 8th, i'm going to try to make the morning, but i go out of town in tahoe. that's a weekend, unfortunately that i will be away but it's a family -- a niece is getting married. so i just wanted to conclude my report with that. >> 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 names up there. vice president nakajo? >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, president cleaveland.

thank you very much, chief, for your report. a few items i just wanted to note, and then i think, based onme on comments, i don't know how many questions chief, but first i wanted to congratulate you on your award on the international association of fire chiefs. i was hoping you could give us a little feedback how it went last weekend at the dinner in dallas so we could share in the good fortune. chief, could you help us a little out on that? >> sure. so i flew out to dallas on august 7, which was a tuesday, and it's a conference that i've attended in the past. not on a regular basis. it's an annual conference. it's called f.r.i. it is an acronym. it's chief officers, not necessarily just chiefs of the department, but chiefs, officers or those that are at

an officer level, aspiring to be chief, attended by approximately 2500 to 3,000 people, and there's workshops over the course of the three days. so on wednesday, the -- basically, it was -- i had met with some of my colleagues. i was able to thank three of my peers who had nominated me, and i met -- they picked two chiefs of the year every year, so i was a career fire chief, and my counterpart was a volunteer fire chief from a county in -- near baltimore, maryland. his name was herbert loesch. there was an awards banquet that night, where we were honored and asked to say a few words. so that was very moving. and then, the next morning, we were up early and in our seats at the convention center by 7:30, and the awards ceremony started at 8:00 a.m.

and it was no speaking role that morning, it was just receiving the award. it was -- there was a beautiful sort of trophy like award that i was given, as well as a ring. and so that's an headquarters. kind of like the giants or the warriors trophy, it'll be in my office if anyone wants to come and take a look. thank you. i think it was a -- i had a great time, and it was a great trip. >> commissioner nakajo: also chief that you're going to go to the fire national protection association was always part of this commission, and i know you know that. commissioner hardeman has always been a strong supporter of you, the chief's department, going throughout the nation and sharing what we have here in san francisco, so i wanted to congratulate you on that by getting feedback. my second question is i know you reported that the 125 class is coming up, and that out of

there, we'll still have the formula of -- did you say 12 out of station 49? >> yes. >> commissioner nakajo: and i know that's been going on for a long time, because for me, it brings back the concepts that when we adopted the h-3 and cross training of e.m.t.'s and paramedics in the department, we talked for a long time about cross training. it's really graduatifying that you're looking at a bump up class in the fall that's part of that h-3 bump up. i just think that's really important because that's how we keep things going. i don't know of many departments that one can enter an h-8, sent to the e.m.t., have an in-house development in terms of paramedic and still sent to an h-3 if those possibilities are afforded the members. i just think that's real important, commissioners. because for me, commissioners,

i have longevity on this commission, it's a promise that we made, and i'd like to keep it. i also want to note on my next item, i appreciate it, and i know the commission does, our current activities with the strike teams. i know it started last year when we had the santa rosa fires, and it just continues. i think last year, this commission asked chief zaragosa to come back and give some feedback in terms of the actuals. i'd like to request that if the chief would be able to come up and give some narrations in terms of what we see on tv, but there's a lot of fires and there's a lot of jurisdictions for us to hear how far our teams are going and to pay attention to all our friends and relatives in lau. it's a big deal, un -- in hawaii. it's a big deal. the city and county of san

francisco needs to know that, as well, so at some future arrangement, chief hayes-white, if we can get that going. >> commissioner hayes-white: sure. >> commissioner nakajo: the other thing was, i think i hit all of my particular areas at this time. thank you, mr. president. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you, mr. vice president. commissioner covington? >> commissioner covington: thank you, mr. president. thank you for your report, chief hayes-white. you missed the last meeting, of course, because you were away, and my fellow commissioners heaped much praise on your head in absentia, so i was waiting until you were actually present to congratulate you, so congratulation on -- congratulations on that wonderful award, and yes, i will be stopping by your office to take a look at it. >> commissioner hayes-white: thank you. >> commissioner covington: you're welcome. i think it's fantastic that all of your sons were there to be able to see their mother vetted

and honored. it's very special, and i think i have an idea of what this year's photo will be on the christmas greeting, so i look forward to seeing that. i just have a couple of questions for you, chief. the policy recommendations from the mayor's summit, you and senior staff, i suppose, are putting together the response to the request from the mayor's office, and that's due on the 28, is it? >> commissioner hayes-white: correct. >> commissioner covington: all right. and how will you be sharing that with the commission? >> commissioner hayes-white: so i anticipate submitting it by the deadline, hopefully, on the 27th. we're just compiling for the final pieces of it, and i'm happy to share a copy with each of the commissioners via the commission secretary. >> commissioner covington: that would be very good. i look forward to that, and commissioners, i think that the

chief's response will help inform our discussions again at our upcoming retreat. it's in september. so the final budget was signed on august 1, is that correct? >> commissioner hayes-white: correct. >> commissioner covington: okay. and what was the final figure for the department? in the 400 million range, but i'm going to look to mark corso, is that about right? 400 million, give or take, but that's pretty much a solid estimate. >> commissioner covington: and this is new territory for us, is it not? have we ever reached 400 million before? >> commissioner hayes-white: no. so in comparison to about 383 last year. >> commissioner covington: well, it's wonderful that all of these cranes are out and about in the city so that we can get the money that we need for fleet and new hires and all of that. i believe that chief gonzales, two weeks ago, said that the

person who was being interviewed for the grant writer position, that that person had been tendered an offer. is that correct or no? >> commissioner hayes-white: chief nicholson will respond. >> deputy chief nicholson. so i misspoke last time. we have two 18-23 positions that are open. one had been open from someone who retired, and one is the new one that was funded. so the retired person is the -- that's the person that we have interviewed for and tendered an offered to. >> commissioner covington: so it's not the grant writing position. >> no, but that person certainly does have some grant writing skills, as well, but it will also be under director

corso, mark corso, but it was not the position that was requested this past year. does that make sense? >> commissioner covington: yes, it does. thank you for that clarification, and having two people with grant writing experience is wonderful. if you could, please, share that posting, the description of the assignments, as well as the required backgrounds with the commission, that would be helpful. thank you. and let's see...i also had a question regarding -- oh, september 11. chief, had you previously planned on unveiling the remnant from the world trade center on the 11th? >> commissioner hayes-white: yes, that was the thought, and i'm not sure if we're quite there yet. but to be determined. it most likely will be delayed. >> commissioner covington: okay. all right. thank you.

>> commissioner hayes-white: we'll let you know that. >> commissioner covington: okay. i had it on my calendar, but i'll just pencil it in. >> commissioner hayes-white: i'll get back to you. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you, commissioner covington. commissioner hardeman. >> commissioner hardeman: thank you, mr. president. you heard we did all congratulate you when you were gone, but it's nice to hear it was such a big crowd, and you're so good or bad or whatever you want to say about not traveling. you allow your staff and other members in the department to travel, but you are pretty much a stay at home for whatever reason over the years. i do know when i was working, one of the things i enjoyed was traveling and adding a day here and a day there to at least, and you never do that. so as commissioner alioto veronese said last month, i hope she gets a little r&r.

but you don't take advantage of that travel, and that's your decision, and that's how you choose to operate. t the -- i wants to comment on the graduating class, 124 graduating class that all this audience aspire to do, maybe, in the 125th. the video was fantastic. i loved the video. good training department. got to show the -- everybody working hard, and a lot of the humor and the fun that went into it, but mostly the hard work and the dedication, and it was nice to hear the comments of the graduates about their respect for their instructors, and how they said they know

they went above and beyond just to make sure that -- to not get enough demerits to get knocked out of the class. it's very easy. i've heard if you're walking across, you get a call from your girlfriend, and you're walking across the plaza, and you're supposed to be running, you get demerits. little things like that can get you knocked out. you have to pay attention, so that was good to hear. it was very, very wonderful. that was maybe my favorite graduating because of the video, we got to see how everybody felt, so that was great. chief vela is like zaragosa and the others that take the lead on sending a strike team to the

fires. i'm glad to hear that you assigned all those. it's sad. we closed the last meeting in memory of the firefighters that lost their lives, and we have an additional four. i'm sure we'll close our meeting in memory of the additional four. i'm sure our president has already decided to do that, so that's sad news. the largest fire in the state in history, and we've been helping, and we haven't heard any complaints that you haven't assigned enough people to go around, so good job, and good job to all those who are serving, trying to help knock these things out. thank you. >>commissioner cleaveland: thank you, commission hardeman. commissioner veronese? >> commissioner veronese: an update on -- i understand that you're going to be giving a report to the mayor's office.

is there -- is there a piece of that report that deals with her policy on housing? >> commissioner hayes-white: yes, but we were not asked to respond to that, but i have the document which i believe is a public document. that is something that they did not ask us to respond to. >> commissioner veronese: okay. >> commissioner hayes-white: the component related -- public safety transition teams report specific to the fire department and the recommendations. >> commissioner veronese: and so the department -- the fire prevention department who has a hand in on permits was not asked to be a part of that analysis on housing? >> commissioner hayes-white: no. >> commissioner veronese: are we experiencing delays in plan checks within that department or i understand that the department is doing some hiring there to makeup for some -- is it atrition? >> commissioner hayes-white: it's a combination of staffing

as well as just the heavy volume related to the plan check process and the number -- the volume of permits coming in, so we are challenged in that area, but the chief and his staff have assured me that they're taking measures to try and work through any backlog that there might be, but it is a work in progress. one of the things under the chief's leadership that i think that has worked really well is the pairing of an h-4 fire inspector who has the knowledge, skills, and ability and has been a firefighter with the expertise of a fire protection engineer. we have -- we've had that, but under this fire marshal, we have increased that, and that works really well, that pairing, to be able to kind of have a more stream lined process by which to get those permits approved. >> commissioner veronese: i know you mentioned earlier, the other departments, you have a

single point of contact that you initiated, and the other departments were happy about that. my concern that -- not my concern, but my question is, i understand the other departments are happy about that, but have we reached out to determine -- as i mentioned in past meetings -- whether or not the -- the stakeholders, the people who were actually doing the building in san francisco, whether or not they -- they are happy with the fire department? i've never heard issues in the past about the fire department being a problem. i have of other departments in the city being a problem in that area. but have we reached out to those constituencies to see if they are happy because they're the ones that ultimately are fulfilling the mayor's promise for housing, not the planning department. the planning department and fire department are pretty much there to do permitting and compliance, so i'm wondering if

the stakeholders believe that we are doing a good job and that we are learning, you know, from what they have to say. >> commissioner hayes-white: so i think that in terms of the two most recent positions that we've designated, one to sort of work on the housing process with the other agencies, i would say not only is it the other agencies that are pleased, but i think, ultimately, the end product is that things are getting through more smoothly so that to your point, the developer, the contractor, they're seeing sort of the fruits of not just us, but everyone kind of having someone specialized in paying specific attention to that particular issue. another example would be, little off topic, but we now have a single point of contact for any projects we're working with m.t.a., street progress, making sure we have adequate turnarounds and so forth.

still part of ongoing support process, but now we have chief chad laws continuing to advocate for what we need to in terms of fire code and regulations, but again, sort of a single point of contact. that single point of contact on the plan check basis would be our assistant fire marshal, tyrone pruitt, who actually his office is over at 1660 mission, and that i would say out of the three that i've mentioned would be the most challenging at this time. as commissioner covington mentioned, the cranes and the heavy stream of projects

>> commissioner hayes-white: you can drive by and take a look. it was a little compromise on each side, but you can drive

by. >> commissioner veronese: and our trucks have access to the buildings? >> commissioner hayes-white: we're satisfied. we didn't get exactly what we wanted, but we can make it work, and i feel from an operational perspective, we can make it work. i'd say it ended up being a win-win. it took a while, but i feel about it. >> commissioner veronese: thanks, chief. oh, and on the wild land fires. when was it -- i know you recently issued a general order in regards to wild land fires. this was about two to three weeks ago, i believe. when was the last time we actually took a look at it and actually looked at the research behind it to update whether or not -- or what other departments were doing in this area because wild lands have changed over the years. they're moving into cities, as we know, and towns. was this update that we did in the last two to three weeks, was that an update done for a particular reason or was that

an update that was done through a bunch of research because times have changed and we're being dynamic about our policy? i'm just trying to get a sense of why we of questions?

>> no. >> commissioner veronese: i promise you won't regret coming to this meeting. you've got that look on your face like, iri degree this. >> commissioner hayes-white: i had to come, too. >> commissioner veronese: thank you, chief, for coming. you, by the way, did an outstanding job at the fire, as i witnessed, in north beach a couple of weeks ago. you did a fantastic job, and i wanted to acknowledge you for that.