targeted to the type of cancer the individual has, and save them the one-size-fits-all chemotherapy that is continually used for various forms of cancer through the studies that we have had, it has opened the eyes of the profession to the point where cultural changes are now coming into play. firefighters now realize that probably one of the most dangerous times during this is during the overhaul process when all these chemicals put off gas and there are a lot of chemicals , and if you are to ask a chemist if these chemicals synergistically work and to become a more toxic when they are combined the way they are, they are not able to answer the question. is extremely important that firefighters protect themselves during the overhaul process. i know some chiefs in san francisco have thought about

ways to prevent these exposures and have put into practice on a couple of occasions where after basic overhaul is done, they would put a company for fire watch, and not let anybody back into the building until the next morning for an oncoming crew where that crew could go in and complete overhaul and be faced with particulate matter, and notch the offgassing that occurs for these chemicals. i know that chief nicholson has worked on standard operating procedures for decontamination. it is extremely important and when we talk about standard operating procedures, the individuals i have talked with that look into this closely say they should not be standard operating procedures. they should be mandatory operating procedures. these are things that have to be done and have to be done by everybody. there's a lot of pride, and a tremendous amount of tradition in our profession. when i entered the department in

1974, we did our best to emulate the men from the second world war that were on the job that did not wear the equipment. at that time, they were kept in a black suitcase in the jockey box of cab engine companies, and on the tool shelves of trucks. they were not worn. until 1985 when it was mandatory that we had to wear these. still, they were not utilized, and all the way up until the two thousands, when i was on the job , they were not utilized at all during the overhaul process. basically because they are cumbersome. they are hard to work with and once a fire was knocked, even though the rooms were still full of smoke and toxic gases, these things were thrown off the back and firefighters went to work during the overhaul process. to answer your question, is a department doing everything it can, i believe they are at this point.

is not something that changes overnight. but it has to be uniform throughout the department. the division chiefs, the battalion chiefs, the company captains and lieutenants have to know and have to follow mandatory operating procedures for these firefighters as well as following decontamination processes that are being put in place to better protect the men and women of our city. >> i understands understand that there are other departments in the united states such as boston that has a state-of-the-art decontamination policy, as well as a decontamination unit. this is a unit that comes out to every fire and has a process by which certain procedures are met they are mandatory. we don't have that do we have this apartment costly no. >> okay. and the evidence is clear, in your opinion from the studies

that you have seen of these no space toxins are coming from skin exposure to skin and long exposure to these fires, especially, post- fire when they break down the building to remove the building of the charred remains. correct costly not correct. >> okay. what i would like to know, is perhaps may beat we could invite representatives from the boston fire department out here to give a presentation to the commission i will find a way to funds that. if it is an issue, i will fund it myself. but invites them out here to show us what they are doing. i want to see what the people who are doing the state-of-the-art procedures are doing because i think we owe that to the members of our department his. from what i heard from your presentation, is we are getting exposed from both the fire retardant in furniture, as well as the smoke from the fires, and

my follow-up question is, if there is fire retardant and furniture, i imagine there's also fire retardant and turnouts i saw a study on channel five several months ago that came out that a lady went around and started cutting out pieces of turnouts and submitting them for these chemicals and found that almost 90% of them had that. have we studied whether or not these turnouts have these chemicals in them cost. >> as. >> do they cost. >> yes. >> that is a problem. >> one of the problems. correct. >> okay. so we need to be -- in my opinion, we need to be doing better and you are the experts. you are studying this stuff. you have the passion behind this stuff. we are not expert. on it comes to this stuff, we are a bunch of laypeople. we may be professionals and what we do on a daily basis but we are a bunch of lay people at this. we are going to rely on you to give us the information, and we need to be doing better. we need to be doing better at this.

>> the foundation would be happy to forward the information we have from these studies. >> so as long as i am on this commission, one of my next efforts will be to create a state-of-the-art decontamination unit. we need to do that, and that will be something i would be happy to work with you on and to the chief and all the other members and anyone who wants to work on this. we need to do better than boston because i think our members deserve it. in that respect, i look forward to working with you. i know in march you have a gala. my mother and i are on the host committee for that gala. so i hope all the commissioners get an invitation and help raise money for that. look at this. right on cue. [laughter] >> i was invited by one of the

members he was starting this gala to be a host on this. as well as my wife and mother. i would hope that each member -- i already have one. each member comes and to the numbers of the public, how do they find you on the internet if they want to donate to your foundation cost. >> donations can be made through our website. they are the initials of our foundation. >> okay. is a great opportunity, when you see people driving -- when you drive up to sonoma, or up to butte county these days, you see all these people that say, you know, thank you, firefighters. this is a great opportunity to get messages out to the public. instead of saying thank you, to actually do things.

these members of our department, we sent four strike teams -- 40 members up to butte. >> we sent one strike team, but we sent 40 members to butte and 12 down to southern california. >> so you are a great opportunity for the public to thank you as opposed to say thank you. let's not forget about the firefighters that fought this fire. thank you for the presentation. this will not be the last of you , hopefully this was not a bad experience. but we need to do more, and you are a critical part of that period i look forward to working with you. >> thank you. >> thank you. commissioner covington? >> thank you mr president. thank you so much for the presentation. we hear of these things and bits and pieces, and is very good to have a complete overview of the

challenges that the members of the department face on a daily basis. i really want to thank you for that. you did mention that the firefighters local 798 initially gave $100,000 so that the foundation could be founded, as it were. what are your other sources of grants and income? >> the other main source of income for the foundation is to combine charities for the firefighters in san francisco. we have the opportunity to donate whatever amount we would like from checks. they have -- that can pick whatever foundation or nonprofit they would like and i'm happy to say that the combined charity campaign just about as just about lounged down and we have a little over $50,000 that is being donated by the firefighters themselves this

year, for next year. >> but all employees are able to contribute? >> yes. >> everyone who works for the city and county of san francisco >> yes. they have the opportunity to choose whichever nonprofit they like. >> to do any outreach to the general population of people who work for the city? >> we have not. >> i see. his a $50,000. that is consistent year to year. >> it ranges. this is the highest we have ever received from firefighters. >> good. it is a good amount. >> yet. >> any grants? >> we did. a doctor from u.c. berkeley wrote a 106 page grant proposal for the california breast cancer foundation for our biomonitoring state that is currently in place that grant was accepted and funded for $600,000. it was also -- local 798

contributed $20,000 a year towards background and our foundation contributed an extra $10,000 a year towards background. they have also received an increase, we are at the point where it is fairly close to a $1 million grant for ongoing studying with the biomonitoring steps that they are taking to come to a conclusion. the only drawback to this type of study is the sample size. even though we do have a large group of female firefighters in any major metropolitan city in the united states working with approximately 100, 160-170 women who are still considered small sample size when you're doing these types of studies. that sample size has been compared to the same numbers of

office workers. >> and the grant goes to which organization? >> pardon me? >> the grant goes to which organization? >> which organization? >> which organization received the grant? what is the title of that organization. >> the grant is monitored by the california breast cancer foundation, and it is run by the principal investigator through u.c. berkeley. that money is spent according to the way the study pans out. we have -- what position is he? one of the scientists at ucsf that is doing the targeted analysis.

we get a report where money is being sent and spent. >> okay. thank you. i would like to call someone from our department staff on the civilian side. we have occupational hygienists that have been with us for about a year and a half. can you come up and give us some ideas as to what it is that the department is doing well, and where future needs might like? >> good morning, commissioners. tony boone. i am an industrial hygienist. i believe he hits the nail on the head with the policy. we are working feverishly to get this policy but it has to be spread universally so the

process to get over some of the traditions of the fire department have to be put in place using and developing pieces of decontamination and de- conning at the fire scenes. so work with the health and safety committee to get that policy in writing and get it in place and proved so it can be universally applied across each and every department or each and every station. when they go to the fire scene. >> i know that we have had in the budget for the last few years, the extractors. >> correct. >> so that has been a wonderful way of making sure that the offgassing and all of that is isolated from the port doors

part of the firehouse where people live and eat and that sort of thing. can you talk a little bit about that? >> i believe that the chief would be more qualified to talk about the extractors. >> then i will be calling you back for something else. >> okay slash good morning again sorry. i am the assistant deputy chief, tony rivera. and riggs guards to the exhaust extractors, we currently have extractors and every one of our firehouses pick the purpose of it is to diverge the exhaust from the vehicle during start up and back in it when the vehicle comes back and crews come back for my call. unfortunately, the flaw in the design is that the exhaust gas is actually put into the environment. so for example, once our crews are on the scene, if there is an

auto extrication or if they are pumping for four hours at a greater alarm, that exhaust is still being exposed to our members pick what we did at the bureau of equipment, we looked at some alternatives and we found out that there are some aftermarket devices. we have, for example, we have mobile air one, which is located up on olympia way, and also engine three, which is our busiest engine that have this device installed. what it does is it is a commercial version of a catalytic converter, and it actually scribes any unburnt emissions, and oakland currently uses them, santa clara, san jose , unified school district uses them, and it is a way to get an added level of protection for firefighters.

not only in the firehouse, but on the scene of an incident. we have had excellent results. we worked with the department of environment and also with the central shops. we did a before and after testing on both of these rigs and the mobile air had a 64% reduction in particulate matter after the addition of this filter system. engine three had such a significance reduction that the person -- the technician who actually completed the test was so shocked. he had never seen anything like it. i really think it is because, in 2015, san francisco fire converted to renewable diesel. it is not only there new renewable diesel, but it is also the filtration system. and tony boone was also involved

in these tests. we have had such great results. we are now looking at possibly grant funding. placing this filter on each one of our vehicles. a real rough estimate was about 700 and $74,000 to do our current fleet. we have incorporated the change into all of our new and current vehicles on order. all of our new engines and trucks will have this filtration system installed. and then the 774,000 would cover our current fleet. i think we have been really trying our best internally on looking at what other departments do and reaching out and being really collaborative and including other city agencies also in some of the changes. while i think the exhaust extractor is an excellent starting point, i can now, his

technology moves forward, we need to incorporate this technology into -- not only into our vehicles, but even a lot of our firefighting tools. i hope that answers your question. >> okay. that's good. >> yes, it does. thank you very much. i want people to be cognizant of the fact that this is a serious problem and it is get -- getting serious attention. there is a lot to being done, even though a lot of people may not be aware of that and working so closely with the foundation, i think that -- i know, that i for one am hopeful that change is afoot, and people will be safer. so i'm just cognizant of the time. i will ask my other questions a little later. thank you.

>> thank you commissioner covington. i see our chief would like to say something. would you like to say something before or after the president his remarks? >> sure, just briefly. i wanted to applaud the efforts of our retired captain captain tony stephani on the san francisco fire fighters cancer prevention foundation. as commissioner covington said, work is being done, but there could be more work and more funding and more studies. chief rivera and his staff have done a phenomenal job in those efforts and that includes switching over to renewable diesel completely in 2015. many of our gas powered tools are now electric tools, cordless , to be mindful of the continued exposure exposures that our members face. with the funding for our rig, we have more up to date apparatus

that have more stringent emission standards. that is all good work. i did want to indicate we do have an overhaul policy that went into effect in 2016. and that is still in place and i'm understanding that the decompression policy catch which we did not have is complete -- close to completion -- complacent. and the wash extractors have been grant funded. certainly helpful in trying to minimize the continued exposure that members have. on an annual basis, we try to help out with some of the testing that is done, use of our facilities, i believe $10,000 roughly a year bit towards broader testing. that is more towards a question that the commissioner had to. we do what we can to assist. at times, i know we want to do a biomonitoring study. we did place members working days on stealth to collect some

of that data and so forth. i consider it a partnership. i think tony does as well. it is a three-way partnership between the union, the cancer prevention foundation and the department. our members are our greatest assets and resources and we want to protect them and keep them safe in the workplace. that is all i have. >> thank you, chief. vice president? >> thank you. i want to thank you as well for coming, but for also providing leadership within the course of your service, as well as your illness and your recovery. i think it is so important in terms of the support system that you have established. i want to thank you but also serving the 98 and all of the units that you've talked about. because without that team working and building an education awareness, we would not get where we are trying to get. i just want to ask the

commissioner to appreciate and thank you for that. >> thank you. >> i don't have anything to contribute here, you are doing a fantastic job. this history is very nice for us to hang onto. it is well done. you brought up tony salto. there was a legend. he was an active firefighter. i worked with him in the labor council but he is retired. he dragged us all over to his home in excelsior. he was really an amazing guy for the health plan and he was right up there. he was number 1 in making sure the benefits were given out properly. thank you for all you do. it's amazing how the worst thing that can happen to you is the best thing that may happen to the department in some respects

in quite a while because of all your accomplishments and leadership. thank you for stepping forward like you did do. you are quite a guy. thank you. >> thank you. thank you president stephani of the foundation for making the prep -- foundation today. i had a couple of quick questions. one, he mentions you have a knack -- and antioxidants that is now available as an antidote to, if you will, can you explain that a little bit, and how is it administered, et cetera? >> it is and antioxidants that can be bought in any health food store. as far as explaining the physiology of how this works at the cellular level, i should have brought the report with me or had a doctor, was one of the researchers here to explain how

it works. because i cannot tell you, to be truth you -- truthful, how it works at a cellular level. even though they did find, and they use this particular product in a couple of different ways, almost like a double-blind type of situation where they use human cell models, they still want to do more investigative work, and they have to know the right amount that is going to be needed, and how it will be assimilated in the body. >> so that is not known at this point? they take it as pills, i assume a pill capsule. >> what the doctors were mentioning would be very simple to put it in some type of hydrating drink that a firefighter would be able to use after working a fire. but i think we are a little bit a ways from that yes. there is still more investigative work on their ends that they have to do.

than they will have to put this to work with volunteers in the fire service and somehow see how it is working. i'm not sure how that all happens. but we need to see if it will be something that will benefit our profession. >> it is a work in progress, so to speak. we think it will be an antidote, perhaps, but we are not sure. we don't know what the dosage should be, how it should be administered, how long we should take it, et cetera et cetera to offset those bad gases. >> the firefighters that are sitting in the room right here right now, i would not say to go out and buy it take 1,000 milligrams of it a day, first of all, we want to make sure that the product is a pure product, and we want to know that the right dosage is being met and be sure it will do what it says. >> there is no recommendation at this point? >> not this points.

correct. >> okay. the other point was, in dealing with the woodland fires, which are now urban fires and all of the dangers that firefighters are facing in those situations, you said that it has not approved something. what is the i.r.b., and what is that? >> and institutional review board approval to put a study in place. in other words, we have to protect the individual that we are drawing blood and urine from everything has to fall within the rules of an i.r.b. in order for it to become a legitimate study. i.r.b. his are not something that are given out overnight. they have to be reviewed by a panel at any major university, whether it be u.c. berkeley, stamford, or wherever. what the purpose of our initial blood draw from the firefighters last year at that particular

configuration, was to move in the direction where we could have an i.r.b., and emergency i.r.b. in place where we could go to work immediately and to be able to draw blood and urine samples and be able to have those analysed rapidly. the drawback from the study last year is we did not receive samples from the firefighters until they were back in quarters for 2-3 weeks pick some of those chemicals would already have dissipated. some of the soluble ones would have not. but the advantage of what happens with the camp fire is samples were given approximately 12 days into the configuration and these were firefighters that were there from day one. i received a text message while i was sitting earlier from one of the principal investigators that will be in this study with

a worrying reports that they were not happy with the way the samples were collected at the medical centre because they weren't frozen immediately, and then shipped to ucsf. they were refrigerated. but on a conference call the other day, some of the other people that are involved in these studies from the state did not seem to be concerns that they weren't frozen immediately. this is something that will have to be figured out fairly soon. but for this i.r.b., ill take a period of time. it could be a month or longer. >> this is with ucsf? >> correct. and is in the labs right now with a doctor who is the woman who is in charge of the samples right now. and hopefully the i.r.b. will be put into place rapidly. firefighters want to know if

they are walking into a doctor's office and they will get their reports back in one week like they do for a regular blood work test but that is not the way it occurs with these types of studies. >> )-right-parenthesis on the turnout does turn out codes, you said they are currently treated with a fire retardant that is toxic. are there alternative turnout coats on the market out there that the fire department could purchase and use in lieu of the ones we are currently using? >> i believe chief rivera and chief nicholson have both looked into that and to tell you the truth, they would probably be joseph chief rivera might be better to answer that than the position i am in right now. >> okay. chief rivera, welcome back. >> good morning. i would say that we have -- the fire department support services division has been working with the cancer foundation. so the current turnouts that were just awarded to honeywell for san francisco fire

department do you have the pfo a that we are all talking about. they are sealed within the environment itself and what we do is we have an annual testing that is required for all firefighters to turn and their equipment, for them to be tested that is one of the test that occurs during the annual test by the vendor. if any of the interior or moisture barrier of the turnout is found to be in a condition where there could be some type of seepage or leakage or exposure to the member, that garment is immediately taken out of service. the member is then given -- issued a new replacement piece. the other thing is, a firefighter, who has also been working on this project with us, he is in direct communication with honeywell, looking at

possible alternatives for this moisture barrier in future contracts with the san francisco fire department. we support that completely. currently, we have to purchase all of our turnouts based on the standards. the standard requires that a moisture barrier qualification -- >> what is the standard? >> we have had it a while but as tony stated, as we are now finding out, a lot of these -- of the moisture barrier is meant to keep our firefighters dry so there coats are not extra heavy and they are not carrying that extra water up and down. but possibly that could be -- we are using chemicals to respond to that. now we are finding out these chemicals are not that great for us. i think the more we talk about it and deal with the manufacturer's, there may be

changed in the future. and then to answer the question, there are no turnouts currently made that do not have those chemicals. it is very challenging for us. we did meet with support services and the cancer foundation prior to putting our specification together, and we did a lot of research and reached out to a lot of manufacturer's, even the material, the suppliers to the turnout companies and they all are under the same restriction where they have to add these chemicals. i think we are absolutely open to change. these are like my friends. i want the best for our firefighters. >> you are saying that honeywell has -- >> honeywell has opened up their engineering department to the cancer foundation, and is

looking at alternatives that may be out there. we are not sure. >> but there is no product on the market? >> there is no product that currently meets the moisture barrier requirement at this time but technology is always changing and it is a possibility >> i assume in your request for the budget next year that you will be putting in that $775,000 to get all the rigs fitted with a commercial catalytic converter >> yes or. within my division, we have been working on a presentation. i have been keeping mark corso involved in it because it is a maintenance issue and it is also a funding issue. i do have a presentation that i was going to show to the full command staff and get all of their support before we move forward. it came up today. i will let them --

>> it sounds like a priority item. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you again for your presentations this morning. this is certainly an issue that goes to the heart of all of what we do here on the commission. making the lives a little better for firefighters down the road. this is an issue that we will not forget about. i appreciate that. >> just before closing, i would like to mention one thing. the standard that tony was talking about, you have to remember there are members of the chemical industry that set -- sit on this board. so sometimes -- >> conflict of interest perhaps. >> exactly. i will leave you with that. >> thank you again. >> my pleasure. >> certainly. commissioner covington had a follow-up question. >> thank you very much. on this, can you please make sure that our commission

secretary has your powerpoint. we were furiously taking notes appear. if she could distribute your powerpoint, that would be great. thank you. >> thank you very much. madam secretary, i would like to table item seven, the drone policy update in deference to time, since we have a number of items we have to go into closed session on. lets table that for our next meeting, and i would like you to call item eight please. >> item eight. commission report. report on commission activity since the last meeting on november 28th, 2018. >> is there any public comment on this item? see none, public comment is closed. anything to report? >> mr president, not so much to report, i just want to make a request to commissioners that

when you do put together your priority list of your findings, that perhaps the item of awss importance throughout the richmond and sunset district, might find a place within that report as an important program for this department concentration for the coming years and at this point moving forward. thank you. >> thank you. >> very quickly, just to recognize the anniversary of mayor lee's death this year. and to recognize the sad way to end his life. he didn't get to retire. he was one of the greatest san franciscans, even though he came from seattle.

he turned out to be one of the greatest san franciscans. all of us have our compliments about him. i just want to say we left his recognition a little early to come up to the meeting, but we did pay her respects while we were down there. thank you. >> thank you. see no further comment, would you call the next item? >> item nine, agenda for next and future commission meetings? >> his or any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? commissioner covington? >> thank you. yet again, we need to talk about the training facility. the training facility, the training facility. thank you. >> thank you. >> yes. at some point in the future, i

would like to discuss institutionalizing the relationship between the department on the reserves at the youth academy, as well as the city college. it appears to me to have -- there is a relationship there and it appears to me as though it is not connected. i think there should be some sort of connection between the departments people who are reserves and should get some sort of priority to the members of the department. so i'm looking into ways, i have -- as i have discussed with you prior activist institutionalize that in a more formal way so that there is a more clear path to becoming a sick firefighter in san francisco. >> i think we need to get the input to the city attorney and the civil servants people. once we get eyes on that, we can move forward on that. >> i understand the wheels are in motion as well. >> station 49, the presentation on that that was given to us several weeks ago, i want to

make sure that we make it clear to the arts commission that changes need to be made to that gate. removing the nazi technology from its it. i have drafted a letter that i can share with you, or send myself. either way, whether it is on the camp half -- behalf of the commissioner myself, it is something that we need to make clear to the arts department as well as i think it would it be appropriate to invite that artist down to station 49, and down to station nine there. is it that junkyard dogs because there is a lot of character down there. there is a loss of their own drawings and characters that they have associated with them. i think it would be appropriate to take the symbology that is currently planned for it and the needles in that kind of stuff. because you would not want it on the front door of your own home and take it off the fence.

>> you're asking for another presentation on the gate art class. >> i think -- i'm not an artist, but i would like may be perhaps sending an invitation to the individual to go down there and get some influence from the members who are down there who will be living there. this is the front door of somebody's home. i think it is appropriate to have those people speak to that individual kick so there is that may be we can invite him down for a lunch or something. i'm happy to go with. and then finally, on the drone policy, i know you have tabled this, but i want to make it clear that no policy will have my approval that requires, or does not allow for lights on the drone. nor will a policy have my approval that does not allow for night operations, or for that matter, for -- or rather

requires us to get permission from any other city agency to use drones to save somebody's life. >> thank you. >> can i just buzz in? a quick response. and the deputy chief is ready and able and willing to get up to the microphone. i believe she spoke with the arts commission. i would like to ask you to share your news, if that's okay. >> okay absolutely. >> good morning, commissioners. in regards to the arts commission, after the last commission meeting -- after the commission meeting where we had the artist and all that i can knowledge he came up, i had a meeting with a couple of members from the arts commission and i sat down with them and had the printout of all that stuff that we talked about, and directed

them that changes needed to be made. they said absolutely. no problem. i also directed them to ensure that the artist had another go around down there and that he got a ride along with a rescue captain. we are on it. >> great. nice work. thank you for that. >> thank you, chief nicholson. vice president? >> thank you mr president. confirmation that our next january meeting, on the ninth, we will have commission elections to add in a firm -- is not an affirmative class. >> that is an affirmative. >> thank you. >> i too am interested in this drone policy. we have been inquiring about it for a few years now. and to see it something put in writing finally and documented,

is almost -- the document is almost ten pages long. i'm sure that she has spent a lot of time on this and we are looking forward to his explanation about how this will work. i am pretty excited about this. thanks. >> thank you. thank you very much. please call the next item. >> item ten is correspondence received since last commission meeting, unsigned letter from the united employee's group. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? i thank you all read the letter. simply a letter stating some of the desired qualities for the next chief. we appreciate that input. would you call item 11, please? >> item 11 is public comment on item 12. public comment and all items pertaining to item 12 below

including public comment on whether to hold item 12 b. and c. in closed session. >> is any public comment on this item? we have to go into closed session. if there is any questions on that, speak now. not seeing anyone, public comment is closed.

>> we have a motion to not disclose. do i have a second? all in favor of not disclosing our conversations in closed session? >> aye. >> thank you. >> this meeting is adjourned at 12:00 pm. >> i am adjourning this meeting in honor of our late mayor ed lee who died one year ago today. this meeting is adjourned. thank you.

>> when i look at an old neon sign that's working or not working, i feel the family business that was in there. >> since 2009, citywide, sf shines, has supported businesses and sites like the ones that receive new neon signs. >> you know, sf shines is doing an amazing job to bring back

the lighting and the neon glow of san francisco. >> sf shines is such an amazing program, and i can't think of another program in another city that gives matching gunned funds to store owners, mom and pop owners, and if they've got a neon sign, they've really got a great way to advertise their business. >> this is a continuation of the sf shines program. >> focusing other neon signs is relatively new to us. of the seven neon signs, we've invested about $145,000. >> a good quality sign costs more, but it lasts infinitily longer. as opposed to lasting five years, a good neon sign will last 15 to 20 years.

>> in san francisco, the majority of neon signs are for mom-and-pop businesses. in order to be able to restore these signs, i think it gives back to your community. >> part of the project has to do with prioritizing certain signs in the neighborhood based on their aesthetics, based on their current signs, and base on the history. in the time that we've been here, we've seen a number of signs restored just on eddy street. >> there are a number of signs in the tenderloin and many more that are waiting or wanting to be restored. i have worked with randall and al, and we've mapped out every single one of them and rated them as to how much work they would need to get restored. that information is passed onto sf shines, and they are going to rank it. so if they have x budget for a year, they can say all right,

we're going to pick these five, and they're putting together clusters, so they build on top of what's already there. >> a cluster of neon signs is sort of, i guess, like a cluster of grapes. when you see them on a corner or on a block, it lights up the neighborhood and creates an ambient glow. if you havy got two of three of them, you've created an atmosphere that's almost like a movie set. >> some of the hotel, we've already invested in to get those neon signs for people to enjoy at night include the elk hotel, jefferson hotel, the verona, not to mention some we've done in chinatown, as well as the city's portal neighborhood. >> we got the fund to restore it. it took five months, and the biggest challenge was it was completely infested with

pigeons. once we got it clean, it came out beautiful. >> neon signs are often equated with film noir, and the noir genre as seen through the hollywood lens basically depicted despair and concentration. >> you would go downtown and see the most recent humphrey bogart film filled with neon in the background. and you'd see that on market street, and as market street got seedier and seedier and fewer people continued to go down, that was what happened to all the neon strips of light. >> the film nori might start with the light filled with neon

signs, and end with a scene with a single neon sign blinking and missing a few letters. >> one of my favorite scenes, orson welles is chasing ririt rita hayworth with neon signs in the background. >> i think what the office of economic and workforce development is very excited with is that we'll be able to see more neon signs in a concentrated way lit up at night for visitors and most especially residents. the first coin laundry, the elm hotel, the western hotel are ones that we want to focus on in the year ahead. >> neon signs are so iconic to

certain neighborhoods like the hara, like the nightcap. we want to save as many historic and legacy neon signs in san francisco, and so do they. we bring the expertise, and they bring the means to actually get the job done. >> people in tenderloin get really excited as they see the signs relit. as you're driving through the tenderloin or the city, it pretty much tells you something exciting is happening here. >> knee an was created to make the night more friendly and advertise businesses. it's a great way of supporting and helping local businesses. >> there's so many ways to improve public safety. the standard way is having more eyes on the street, but there's other culturally significant ways to do that, and one those ways is lighting up the streets. but what better way and special way to do that is by having old, historic neon signs

lighting up our streets at night and casting away our shadows. >> when i see things coming back to life, it's like remembering how things were. it's remembering the hotel or the market that went to work seven days a week to raise their money or to provide a service, and it just -- it just -- it just

>> providing excellent customer service to each other so that we can succeed together. because we're a small division

out here, and we're separated from the rest of the p.u.c., a lot of people wear a lot of different hats. everyone is really adept not just at their own job assigned to them, but really understanding how their job relates to the other functions, and then, how they can work together with other functions in the organization to solve those problems and meet our core mission. >> we procure, track, and store materials and supplies for the project here. our real goal is to provide the best materials, services and supplies to the 250 people that work here at hetch hetchy, and turn, that supports everyone here in the city. i have a very small, but very efficient and effective team. we really focus hard on doing things right, and then focus on doing the right thing, that benefits everyone. >> the accounting team has several different functions. what happens is because we're so remote out here, we have small groups of people that

have to do what the equivalent are of many people in the city. out here, our accounting team handles everything. they love it, they know it inside out, they cherish it, they do their best to make the system work at its most efficient. they work for ways to improve it all the time, and that's really an amazing thing. this is really unique because it's everybody across the board. they're invested it, and they do their best for it. >> they're a pretty dynamic team, actually. the warehouse team guys, and the gals over in accounting work very well together. i'm typically in engineering, so i don't work with them all day on an every day basis. so when i do, they've included me in their team and treated me as part of the family. it's pretty amazing. >> this team really

understanding the mission of the organization and our responsibilities to deliver water and power, and the team also understands that in order to do that, we have a commitment to each other, so we're all committed to the success of the organization, and that means providing excellent customer service to each other so that we can succeed-wal

[ gavel ]. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the san francisco public utilities commission. it is december 11, 1:30 in the afternoon. madam secretary, will you please read the roll. [roll call] >> clerk: we have a quorum. >> with respect to public comment today, it's not really something i like to do, limit public comment.