bay and we have approximately 125 clients. our building size that we manages about five units. >> and you are probably very familiar with how petitions work >> absolutely. >> okay. how do you assess and document the value of the work you are doing as necessary and critical to the life and safety of the tenants? >> it depends on the petition, but it's typically the work is documented by getting multiple bids for the work so you can have a comparison of the work work that is being done in making sure that the contractors who are bidding on it are giving you their assessments are typically the lower builder darth vader is accepted and all the work is documented by getting create copies of invoices and copies of cancelled checks to make sure the money that is spent is according to the original contract and work is not being inflated unnecessarily.

>> that is good to know. is very typical limit of time that tenants have two endure disruptive construction. >> the amount of time that a construction project takes is typically regulated by how long the permit lasts and the owner can go ahead and get additional permits if it is necessary to extend the time on the original permit. >> again, to the nature of the past, can you -- have you been keeping up with the operations and maintenance of the reforms that were passed here at the board of supervisors class. >> absolutely. >> do you understand why the legislation was passed? >> absolutely. >> okay. based on the trends of what's happening in the larger rent-controlled buildings in the city, i assumed you -- some of

the clients that you have now, are they, do they own rent-controlled buildings because. >> most of them, yes. >> okay. so, i'm just wondering, how do you assist your clients with tasks? since you have already dealt in these types of cases, how do you do that in terms of assisting your clients? >> i have two different groups of clients. i've clients who manage their own buildings or who have other property managers and i have my own clients. for my own clients whose building i manage, i have also managed the construction work. i know the project firsthand because i've supervised it and i have coordinated the work with the contractors and the tenants and all of that work. for my outside clients, i typically start by reviewing all of their paperwork and i

actually prepare reports for my clients to let them know the calculation of what kind of a rent increase they could be certified for, and i tell them how good the paperwork is and give them an assessment of whether they need to give me more paperwork before i am capable of bringing a capital improvement petition before the rent board. i do a lot of work on the front and to make sure the petitions that i submit will be acceptable to the staff at the rent board and will not need to be appealed >> in regards to your clients, i assume you have lots of clients. >> probably around 125. >> have any of them been in front of the rent board? >> i actually took a look at the minutes of the rent board commission meetings over the course of the year, i recognized one case in a building that i actually wasn't managing at the

time that the case came before the board. a building he took over in july and the tenant was in front of the rent board on an appeal in april and may. >> okay. i'm just assuming you probably read this stuff. have you read the california government code requirements? they are similar -- there are similar restrictions that would prohibit you from both operating a business that maximizes passed benefits for clients before the rent board and serving on the same sort of body. >> i was not aware of that. >> let me read it to you. at least the relevant part. the officer or employee shall not perform any work, service or consult for compensation outside of his or her local agency employment.

any part of the efforts will be subject to approval by any other officer, employee, board or commission of his or her employed body. it goes on and there is a different part. and employees outside employment activity or enterprise may be prohibited if it involves the performance of an act other than his or her capacity as a local agency officer or employee, which may later be subject to directly or indirectly to the control inspection review, audit and enforcement of any other officer or employee or agency by which he or she is employed. it seems what is implied is because of the nature of the work, there may be conflict there. >> i have not reviewed that part

of the code. i am not an attorney. i would need to review that more closely and come to my own decision. i was not aware that could be a possible impediment. >> deputy city attorney? i don't know if you were following, i am questioning whether the nature of his business, with there be a conflict of interest in serving on the rent board,. >> deputy city attorney john given her. i have not spoken directly with the appointee. i don't know anymore about his business other than what i have read in the pocket and the discussion today. i can't stay, with any certainty , i am not sure what

code section you are reading, supervisor yee, it sounded related to the statement of incompatible activities that the ethics commission has adopted. every city department, board and commission has a statement of incompatible activities which is basically a conflict of interest law that applies only to that department or commissioner board the rent board has a statement of incompatible activities and among other things, is generally described outside activities that are incompatible with service on the rent board. i have not analysed this particular situation. i don't know enough about the facts. i'm happy to do that before -- following this meeting.

>> what i am citing as a california government code, 1126 >> right. section 1126 is not a self-executing conflict law. but several years after 1126 was adopted at the state level, the voters adopted a local law that required the ethics commission to create the statements of incompatible activity. there are about 35 of them right now in the city. they are all available on the ethics commission trash out website. there is a statement for the city attorney's office in a statement of activity for the board of supervisors in a statement for the rent board. generally, the statement of income possible incompatible activities as they could not engage with an activity that impair your ability to do your official job.

by way of example, the city attorney attorney's statement of activity is prohibited -- prohibiting me as one of the attorneys to advise the department of elections from contributing to any local candidate or office in san francisco. the rent board's statement of incompatible activity has a general statement about materially impairing an outside activity that impairs your duties. it also has a couple of specific restrictions. no officer or employee, which would include a member of the rent board may receive a fee or any other enumeration for information or advice about pending rent board cases. and no officer or employee may receive a fee or other renumeration for scheduling a hearing or decision in a rent board case or appeal.

i do not know enough about this particular business, but happy to discuss after this hearing and ultimately the decision about whether an activity violates a statement of incompatible activities is in the discretion of the ethics commission. >> i appreciate your explanation >> i'm a little concerned. it seems that in terms of the knowledge base, as a person that would go to the rent board, you have the knowledge. i'm not questioning that. what i am questioning is is a -- duchess or a grey area where there is a conflict or not? i would like to get more clarification at some point. >> once again. i am not an attorney. i can't really interpret the code, but from his comments, i

don't see what i'm doing is using my expertise to bring a case and file a petition at the rent board on behalf of a client is being much different than what an attorney would do in representing a client in helping them through a mediation or to even file a petition, which some attorneys do as part of their work for their clients, and two of our four land florid commissioners are attorneys and i know that several tenant commissioners are also attorneys and it seems that from my experience and experienced -- attending the recent meetings and one this year, the static practice is they recuse themselves from cases in which they are involved. and the nonvoting will step in to participate in those cases and i would think that would be very much the same situation for me, where if a crate -- case that i have brought for a client before the rent board, if it were on appeal and being hurt by

the commission, i would then recuse myself from that decision and let the other commissioners debate it. >> we will come back to questions after we open it up for public comment. thank you. if you just wait you will come back you can come back up. >> good evening. i am the executive director of rebuilding together san francisco. we do home repairs for income qualified families, seniors and people with disabilities so they can continue to live safely in their own homes. jj has been on our board for just about six years now. he has volunteered with us for a

number of years prior to that and i am here to support his nomination to the rent stabilization board. i think in my time working with jj, he has presented himself as someone who really cares about keeping san franciscans in their homes and really looking at ways that we can sustain and provide stable housing for both renters and homeowners in san francisco through the home repair program. he has been a really great champion for our work over the last six years and i think that he is really committed to san francisco and keeping people in their homes in san francisco. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good evening. i am a san francisco landlord. i set as a rent board commissioner for 17 years. i've had a good bit of experience and how the process works. i am here to support the nomination and the appointment of jj as the rent board

commissioner. you will be a fantastic commissioner. he is experienced, he is committed, he is involved in a number of community activities and supervisor yee's questions, if you checked with the rent board staff, you will find that over the years, a well-established practice for the dealing with conflicts of interest for all the commissioners of the board. you may be interested to know that all four of the tenant commissioners at the san francisco rent board are attorneys. many of them practice in front of the rent board or practice representing tenants san francisco and there is an established practice that if there is a case at the rent board that comes up in appeal, that they or their firm was involved in, they recuse themselves. as i am sure you will agree, what is gravy for the goose is gravy for the gander.

if this policy applies to tenant commissioners, it should also equally apply to landlord commissioners and it does. i don't see that as an impediment to mr panzer being nominated to this position. he is willing, ready and able to serve and i would urge you to pass out his nomination. thank you. >> good evening, supervisors. i am with this san francisco apartment association. i'm here to speak in support of panzer as a landlord commissioner on the rent board. i have known jj for probably 15 years and i think he will do an outstanding job representing small and large landlords in the city of san francisco. i also agree with mr murphy's statement about the rent board and how it functions. being front of that body for over 25 years, i find that commissioners from time to time, have to recuse themselves as items that they are related to before the body and they operate

in an ethical and fair manner from any judge everything that i can see. thank you for your time and please pass his commission appointment to the full board. >> good late afternoon, supervisors. my name is rosa maria. i am the program manager for the tenderloin health and clinics enforcement program. i have been there for about the last five years. i am also a tenderloin resident for heart the last five years and this is my last week in the tenderloin. over the last five years, our program has assisted in council tenants and understanding various kinds of rent increases due to rent passes that landlords file. we also have seen the negative and burdensome impacts of these

increases on tenants and therefore i am here today as tenants and enclosing my starch including myself. we have a few concerns on the appointment. this is not due to him being a landlord are running a property management company. is rather to the proponent of his business that prepares and assist landlords with filing a variety of rent increase pass-through his. he has a direct financial stake in decisions that he was tasked to adjudicate over. we believe this is a huge concern to consider when evaluating his appointment, and i know we have talked about him recusing himself. these are concerns that i would like to bring forward to today. this is all due respect to mr panzer. thank you. >> thank you. last speaker.

>> good evening. i am from the affordable housing alliance. representing tenants for all of these years, we believe that one of the most important jobs for us is to protect the integrity of the rent board, along with that,, we found ourselves working with landlord loops on aspects of that from time to time. we thought the rent board should not be elected. we thought it a compass endorsed the composition shouldn't change i don't have a problem with mr panzer. i'm not personally familiar with him, but i do think that someone needs to look out for him and make sure that the incompatible activities law is not something that he is being set up to be in violation of. the wording in the state law, at first blush would seem to appear , on the local policies

are just implementing that. this is not a conflict of interest analysis. it is a different kind of analysis. but the heart of the matter is, if you are engaged in a business providing a service with a direct result of that service are reviewed by the commission which you are on, that is viewed as an incompatible activity and i am treading gingerly here because historically, the landlord his advocacy groups have selected their candidates and they have selected there is. i think that is helping the integrity of the board. i would just caution everyone that they should do the analysis , and it sounds like mr panzer was not alerted to this by the mayor's office, i think he may well have to give up that business to be on this. i would recommend that it be looked at sooner rather than later. you probably should have been looked at earlier. it is awkward to bring it up in this setting.

but i think the nature of his business and the exact wording of the state law and the rent board, and is not just the supervision -- >> hello. good evening. i am a staff member of the san francisco apartment association. i want to speak in favour of the appointment of jj. i also manage the same program that rosa maria mentioned. the code enforcement outreach program. i have done so for about eight years. we try to make sure maintenance requests are made in rental buildings. i have to say i have never had a case in a real management company building. i think that speaks to the way in which they manage their properties. the other thing i wanted to mention --

>> will try to make sure maintenance requests are made, in rental buildings. i have to say i have never had a case and a real management company building. i think that speaks to the way in which they manage their properties. the other thing i wanted to mention, the rent board commission does not deny or approve pass-through his. that is not what the rent board does. please consider that further. >> good evening. i'm here with the coalition for

better housing. we certainly support the nomination and the approval of mr panzer to the rent board. one thing that is confusing me is as was discussed before, mr panzer's job is to help property owners obey the law. his job is to help them to do what's right and he does this very well. it is not for them to get away with something. this to make sure that they do cross their teas and stop their eyes. he is very good at that. you can tell by how the people have spoken about his nature, that he is somebody who cares about san franciscans and that he cares about the city and cares about this process. so we cannot enter into this with an idea that somehow jj won't be cognizant of being recused in those instances where

he would be. and i would point out again that the rent board commissioners, many of whom, on both sides of the aisle are attorneys, do the exact same thing. that they help their tenants or their clients to meet the latter of the law or to make sure they get what they need at the rent board. i really don't understand this conflict as it's been discussed. because it seems to me that if that was the case, there would be no rent board. by reason, the rent board has two tenants, two landlord his representatives, and the neutral , which is the person who listens to both sides after the argument and often decides that. i think we need to be careful about not making jj a lightning

rod for people's discussions on pass-through his. that is not his job. his job is to help landlords obey the law. thank you.

>> the question we should explore is the details of his business. >> supervisor yee, do you have an additional question? >> my line is question is nothing personal. i hope you understand that. and just so that -- i'm look at these documents and i'm not -- a lot of it is i'm an attorney.

this raises some questions for me. i read from the california one. this is from the statement of incompatible activities from the residential rent board itself. i don't know if you are familiar with that one. there's a paragraph there that triggers my concern. no employee may engage in outside activity regardless of whether the activity is compensated, that is subject to the control inspection and review audit or enforcement of the department. in addition to any activity permitted pursuant to the sub section c, nothing in this subsection prohibits the following activities. appearing before ones' own department or commission or on behalf of ones self. filing or otherwise pursuing claims against the city on his own behalf. running for city elective office

or making a public records disclosure pursuing of the sunshine ordinance. unless noted in this section or b, an advance written determination sunday sub sections c concludes that such activities are not incompatible and the following activities are expressly prohibited by this section and i could keep on reading. this goes on like that. i think you seem to understand the laws. i don't wanted to hold up this process but statement, at the i want to have a discussion or have the city attorney look at this issue before this item comes to the full board. i would like to make a motion to send this out of committee with no recommendation to the full board. >> before that, supervisor

stephanie had a comment. you want to move on that motion? she had a comment. is that ok? >> rescind the motion. >> amend it to either -- the motion would need to be amended to either a paragraph or reject. >> it's approve or reject? >> yes. >> before we move on that can supervisor stefani. i mean i'm happy to look into this further but number one, i failed to see the conflict. i find his comments pervasive in terms of not deciding on these issues. if you were to have a case in which you were involved, and you might be able to then enrich yourself, based on a decision you might make, then my understanding would be you would absolutely probably recuse yourself and i just don't

seem -- i don't know where the conflict is. it just seems to me if there were a client of his that were to come before the rent board, it would be obvious. because he engages in this type of activity doesn't necessarily mean, as a landlord, he would actually be someone that could not sit on the rent board. i'm happy to look into it further. for me, at the outset, i don't see the problem. >> thank you for those comments. i guess what i'm asking is just to send it out of committee with no recommendation. people can get -- i'd like to get more information. it doesn't mean i won't support it at the end of the day. >> i think that's fair and these are valid questions. i appreciate you bringing them up. i think we certainly always want to avoid any conflict of interest. what i heard from deputy city attorney is they're going to investigate and if it were to

come out, this would be a direct conflict, then essentially we would have to -- if it's at the board, we would then -- what would happen at the board? we would reject or withdraw the nomination? >> ultimately -- the board's only option, the only action the board can formally take to reject would be a motion to reject the nomination requiring eight votes. anything else and mr. panzer's appointment stands. after meeting with mr. panze r and from the mayor's office, i can report back to the board on december 4th or 11th, whatever day this item comes back to the board. >> it needs two readings? >> just one.

the law that we're discussing and that supervisor yee is mentioning, the statement of incompatible activities, doesn't prohibit mr. panzer from serving on the rent board. the question is, whether, if he serves on the rent board and also engages in a business, that may be incompatible with his rent board duties, could he potentially face fines from the ethic's commission? and so that is -- considering whether he may have that type of conflict, we will discuss it with mr. panzer and the board can make a choice. >> i guess what i'm saying -- you are going to let us know one way or the other. no? >> i will let you know what our analysis is. >> that's what i mean, your analysis, you will give an a recommendation, right?

so in that recommendation it says we believe he will be ok, then we would proceed. if you say we believe there's a strong potential for fines coming from the ethic's commission based on inco inpat , he could withdraw his application. >> all of those are options. >> ok. who would have thought the last item of the day would be so complicated. so you are fine with sending it forward and we wait on the recommendations from the city attorney? that's ok? ok. so i think the options that we have in front of us is either approve or reject. we make a motion to -- >> i did. >> make a motion to approve and send it to the full board. >> i believe the motion would be to amend the motion to delete the word reject from the motion and refer it to the board of

supervisors with recommendation or without? >> without. >> refer that motion to the board without recommendations. >> with a motion is to forward it to the full board without recommendation. >> as we often do. can we do that? >> yes. we'll amend it to remove the word rejecting and we'll ford i- forward it to the full board without recommendations pending the city's attorney advice. >> without objection. thank you mr. panzer. anymore items before us today? >> one moment. that completes the agenda for today.

candlelig . >> i am mohamed nuru, director of public works, city and county of san francisco. i want to thank everyone for coming out today. today is a very special day. we are going to celebrate the

ground breaking of our ambulance deployment facility. how about a big hand for just a new facility. [applause] >> i want to start by saying thank you to the voters because in 2016, the bond was passed, the public health and safety bond in the range of $350 million, and as part of that bond, $50 million was dedicated to build this new facility. and this new facility will replace the old facility, and many of you know what the old facility look like. but the new facility will be four stories, will house the city's fleet, will be able to provide training, will be able to provide a place where the paramedics and firefighters can really use to respond to the people of san francisco. you know, the people of san francisco have been passing

these bonds because they have faith in us being able to deliver these projects, and we will deliver these projects on time and on budget as we have done in many of our projects. but today's very, very special because this facility is very, very important in the infrastructure to support our city. and with that said, there are quite a number of people. we will thank them as we go through the various speakers, but i will begin by thanking our mayor, london breed, for all the leadership that she has brought to the city and especially just making sure that every day people can enjoy beautiful san francisco. welcome, mayor london breed. >> the hon. london breed: thank you. good morning, everybody. i am so excited to be here today because this project is a long time coming, and i want to thank especially many of our paramedics who have waited so patiently for a facility that adequately meets the needs and the challenges that they deal

with every single day, and i know that many of them are here today and they are excited and looking forward to this project, which we know will be completed in hopefully 24 months, on time, and on budget because we understand how important it is. the ability to respond quickly in an emergency situation in san francisco is one of our primary functions. and i'm proud to say that 90% of the calls that we get are being responded to in ten minutes or less, which is the national standard. the fire department has put a lot of work into getting us here as just a few years ago, many of us know, we were struggling with meeting that standard. back in 2014, we learned that due to a steep increase in the number of 911 calls, we were not meeting our ambulance goals in a timely manner.

as supervisor at the time, i worked with our late mayor, ed lee, and we secured more than $47 million to invest in the fire department, which i was really proud of and thankful to mayor ed lee for his commitment. that money was invested in not only hiring more e.m.t.s and paramedics, but hiring more firefighters and t911 dispatchers. i also made sure that went towards investing in new ambulances and fire trucks, investing in new infrastructures and facilities. and in the past four years, we have definitely seen an improvement in our response time. the new facility will have the room to restock more than one ambulance at a time. i know the folks that do this job are really excited about that. it will also include a kitchen,

training room, dining rooms, and lockers so our first responders are rested and ready for any emergency. and of course, most importantly, it will be seismically sound. all of these qualities will improve our emergency response time and help us with our first responders, help them do their very best job for the residents of our city. and i want to really thank so many people who brought us here today. tom o'connor and local 798, as well as the patient of our paramedics who serve our city all over san francisco with patients and treatment of the people they serve. i want to thank our fire chief for all the work that she's done in helping to lead this department and really focus on the necessary improvements and things that we need to do in order to make public safety or

top priority. and i am just really excited because this was a promise made years ago, and now, this is a promise as a city that we're keeping, and it will definitely allow us to respond to emergencies in a more timely manner so that we can keep all residents of our city safe. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] >> chair nuru: thank you, mayor. and now we'll hear from our district supervisor. this part of san francisco, we have standing right behind fire station number 9, but many of the city projects that have been coming to this neighborhood really improving the quality of life. just down on gerald, we have the new crime lab, we have the new shops there. p.u.c.'s building a facility down on evans. and the change is really good. so malia, welcome.

>> president cohen: thank you. good morning. first of all, i want to take a moment on a somber note to say thank you to the first responders who are putting their lives on the lineup and down california. i know our own san francisco fire department often goes on the road to offer stance to neighboring counties, and i just want to say thank you. i also want to recognize the e.m.t. drivers that are driving the ambulances and responding to emergencies and unfortunately sometimes non-emergencies, but that's another conversation. i just want to say thank you. i feel like you can never say thank you enough, and i know that this department is very near and dear to the mayor's heart, mayor breed, as a former fire commissioner, is that right? so i also want to recognize all the people that volunteer their time to serve san francisco, the fire commissioners that are here, thank you very much. and of course, the department of public works, where would we

be without the department of public works? my heart is just overflowing, as i stand before you, winding out my ten years on the san francisco board of supervisors, i am excited, and i'd like to formerly introduce you to supervisor-elect shamann walton, who's here. you should rest assured that he's thoughtful in his approach to policy as well as many social justice issues. i want to, again, recognize that in july of 2014, we learned that only 76% of ambulances were on-scene within ten minutes of life threatening emergency medical calls. and since learning this, i can tell you that i've personally had to call on an ambulance for one of my family members that became ill. and i mentioned this to the chief at the time, but i will mention it publicly, the

service was impeccable. kindness, generosity, and thoughtfulness, professionalism all the way through. i'm grateful. yeah, shout out to the fire department. and as the mayor mentioned, there is a ten-minute national standard. as san franciscans, we can say that we can be doing better, don't you agree? san francisco's seven square miles. we can get this in a little bit faster fashion, and i think that community and city leaders came together to establish a working group to assist us with troubleshooting and most importantly to discover ways that we could improve. and since the establishment of this group, the ambulance response time has improved more than 25%, and i am so happy to hear this -- excuse me, more than 26%. and what we have done is we've been able to maintain a high average of about 90% since 2017, and you know, i think we're going to only increase

our response time from this as we move forward. and the new ambulance deployment facility comes as a fulfilled promise that i believe we as electeds have made to the overall san francisco community when ed lee was still with us. and he committed to funding more e.m.t.s, more paramedics, firefighters and of course the important 911 dispatchers, in addition to the equipment, in addition to the vehicles. these people are needed to carrie ocare carry out the heroic effort. we're putting out $47 million -- as the chair of the budget committee, that's a lot. mohamed is also reminding me, it's plus interest. it is close to 50 million, but we won't quibble about that.

i'm proud we are hosting this in this part of san francisco, a community that's shareholdering a lot of the responsibilities. it's important that we build in the fabric of our city the infrastructure that we need so that we can continue to be successful. and i will leave on this note, and i just want to again say thank you to all of the men and the women that dedicated their life to assisting us and being a first responder. i'm forever grateful. thank you. [applause] >> chair nuru: and now we'll hear from the president of the fire commission, mr. ken cleaveland. >> president cleaveland: thank you, mohamed, and thank you to our next member of the board of equalization, so congratulations, malia, on that. good morning. everyone, it's a pleasure to be representing the fire commissions. i have a couple of commissioners i'd like to recognize.

michael hardeman and commissioner francee covington. it's been a long time coming to get this from planning to where we are today. i know some of my fellow commissioners have been on the commission up to 24 years, and it's been a discussion all that time. how can we improve our e.m.s. because that's obviously one of the biggest facility -- one of the biggest services that we provide to the city's residents and visitors, so it's a really proud moment for us today on the commission, for the fire department, and certainly for the department of public works to get this launched, and so i'm very proud to say congratulations on getting it done. congratulations again as mohamed said earlier to the voters. thank you for passing the bond that made this possible, and we're going to need another bond down the road so we can have another new training

facility, so let's get that word out. so thank you very much, and i'm pleased the rain has held out. >> chair nuru: thank you. thank you. and now, a good friend of mine, good partner with public works, not just today's event, but many of the improvements to many of the fire stations and police facilities all over the city, welcome our chief, joanne hayes-white. >> commissioner hayes-white: thank you, mohamed. good morning, everyone. thanks for being here. as president cleaveland said, we're blessed with good weather. i don't know for longer, so my remarks will be brief. we're all very excited to be here today to envision what will be a state-of-the-art ambulance deployment facility. i'm very proud to mayor breed for her vision and leadership. as was alluded before, mayor

lee, who was a champion of this facility. certainly president malia cohen, also keeping us on our toes in terms of response times, and making sure the whole city is served, especially her district, and congratulate is the supervisor elect shamann walton. i would say thank you to all the commissioners, the two that aren't here, in addition to president cleaveland and commissioners hardeman and covington are commissioner joe alioto veronese, as well as commissioner steven nakajo. thank you to the commission. certainly my commission is here, mark gonzalez, jean nicholson lieutenant t nicholson, lieutenant tom murphy in the back.

section chief tony malloy, thank you very much for all the hard work. this is a facility that's very unique, nearly one of its kind in the state of california. we're building without a whole lot of blueprint or other facilities to look at. so that's why it took a lot of time and attention to detail to make this facility the great facility that it will be and that our members so deserve. public works, i will say i do consider director nuru a partner of mine. we come together. we have two other projects hopefully looking forward to being delivered soon, hopefully, before i retire. i know it's a top of your priority list as it is yours. thanks, mohamed. brian dahl also helped with this today. we brought good weather.

also we look forward to holding accountable the contractors. i heard they're going to be off to a good start, s.j.amoroso. we also look forward to -- we had to work with the stararts commission, and that was an interesting process, but also a very educational process for us. i think we're most grateful, and i say we're grateful to the public that in 2016, envision saw the need for this facility, so it goes without saying it's the city voters that got it to where we're at. and before i save the best part for last, and that's our members, i do want to acknowledge we have p.d. presence, mike redmon, thanks for being here. under mayor breed's leadership, there's an expectation that we

don't just work and fulfill our responsibility, but that it's it's cross collaboration. mostly, i'm thrilled to be here because of our members. the hard working men and women of the san francisco fire department. when i became chief in 2004, there was much needed reconfiguration. the fire department left d.p.h. there was a lot of stops and rt starts, we learned a lot, we reconfigured over and over. the facility you're currently in at 1415 evans has done a good job for us, but it's not nearly what you need, and we really appreciate as mayor breed said, your patience, your

dedication, your hard work. every day, you put your uniform on. the workplace isn't great. i will look forward in retirement coming back when we cut the ribbon on this facility. i want to know that we placed a high emphasis on your health, your well-being, and your safety. not to mention the public is going to be better served. it's going to be a much more efficient model. so thank you for being here celebrating with us. i believe we have our department chapman lalain, ande we break ground, we'll ask the father to give a blessing. >> chair nuru: thank you. so if the commissioners, mayor, board president, if we would come over to where the shovels are, i will hand the mic to the chaplain, and in two years, we will be back here enjoying the new facility. >> i'd just like to ask a great favor of you if we could have a

moment of silence for one of our paramedics, mike kirk, who died the day before yesterday, and hopefully we can remember him and his family. thank you. we're very proud of our e.m.s. division and of our fire rescue division, and we know those men and women constantly give of themselves, especially those who are in need of medical attention. so we ask for a blessing on all of them, a blessing on all those who are in need, and we ask that this new facility would help them in the performance of their duties. amen. >> amen. >> chair nuru: thank you very much. and we're going to count from five to zero and then just a little thing right there. all right. five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]