city representatives, our our emergency operation centers, we have community based organizations and private sector partners. that's an area we're looking to expand, not only for response, but for recovery. so, the city is also embarking on a recovery planning process right now. city administrator and i are co-chairing that initiative because you know, recovery really starts at the beginning, right when the response happens, and so our connection to our private sector partners and our community based folks, you know, the city has 30,000 employees and number of buildings and assets, but the city of san francisco is everyone. so one of the things that is important for me is that as we think of response and recovery, we're thinking of the whole community and not just government and what we can do, but how do we engage everyone

here to be part of the response and also the recovery. >> okay, thank you. they were supposed to have a strike or whatever this morning, but it's going eastbound out of there, a dozen people are still waiting, there's probably 50 or 60 this morning. that leads me to believe that a lot of people are taking streetcars, which they normally would use other transportation. that is an example of how many people are using it. that was pretty amazing. so, when commissioner veronese and i toured, it was quite educational. that was when you first came on the commission, i think. yeah, so the big problem then was that there was a training

program and people were leaving for a higher paid job in the bay area. has that been -- it's been satisfied where if they sign up and commit to training, they have to commitme for a certain amount of time? >> you can leave if it doesn't work out, but things have been pretty steady, i would say, since i've been there. you know, part of it is that we have -- you know, we're going to have 50% of our staff, dispatch staff having under five years. we have a lot of new dispatchers on the team. there's positives to that and also challenges. it means we need increase -- we need to pay more attention to supervision, so we have less experienced dispatchers and training. although i will say that we do

dispatcher of the month and we do accommodations all the time, and we seen some amazing, io iowa -- amazing work by our rookie dispatchers. there is the new group that's coming in or just started on monday, our new academy class is just an amazing group of people. over half of them are native from san francisco. i thought that was interesting, and coming from a lot of backgrounds. i feel very optimistic about where we're going and you know, our ability to both encourage people to consider this field as a very worthy worthwhile, hard but rewarding career and also to be able to support -- and to me the most important thing, and that will keep people in those

seats is being able to support them in their jobs. so that marieans training, recognition, and appreciate the fire department coming in and you're all welcome there, you know, whenever you like to come. they are not on the street, you know, they're just on the phone, and any contact they have with their partners in uniform, who they are working with and for is so appreciated. so i encourage folks to come whenever you can. >> thank you, i was very impressed with the attitude that everybody had over there, and how smooth operation it seemed from an outside perspective. thank you. >> yeah, they're a great group of people. >> the fire people seemed to know what they were doing especially. >> of course. [laughter] >> thank you. >> commissioner veronese. >> i had a quick question, you remind

reminded me of this. you have a small department compared to our, and it can get bad there because of the job. i'm curious, you don't have to say now, but if i know that our department is putting together what we're creating, what should be or could be a state of the art stress unit, but i'm curious to what you guys are doing. when you lose three our four people to stress, it's a big deal number-wise to you. i'm curious if you could share that information with us. we can learn from what you guys are doing and maybe some member of our stress unit can get together with your stress person, or the person that's dealing with it on your end and they can collaborate, because i'm sure they both have a lot to learn from each other. >> we would love to do that. >> thank you. >> thank you very much commissioner, thank you very much director, and anyone in the public that wishes to have a career in terms of a 3-1-1 dispatcher, we encourage you and thank you for your public service as well.

thank you very much. >> thank you so much for having us. >> madam secretary. >> item 5, chief of department report. report from chief of department on current issues, activities, and events within the department since the fire commission meeting on april 24th, 2019, including budget academy, essential events, communications, and outreach to other agencies in the public and reports from operations, deputy chief, report on overall field operations, including alarm fires, medical services, bureau of fire and investigation, and airport division. >> thank you madam secretary. chief nicholson, followed by deputy chief victor. >> thank you and good morning again commissioners. here's my virgin report, my virgin tour report as chief of

department. as you know, i've been in office for 46 hours, i think we're looking at now. so i first want to welcome deputy chief victor, deputy chief jose, and deputy chief sandy to the command staff and thank former assistant deputy chief for the transition. it's been invaluable, so thank you very much. excuse me, we have hit the ground running, as you may or may not know. he has been in the office for the last couple of weeks, and transitioning with former deputy chief gonzales. i have to say that it only use to be assistant deputy chief cochrane that beats me to the office in the morning.

now we're going to have some competition. that bodes well and speaks well to this command staff on how hard they work, and i'm really looking forward to seeing what we can do, what we can do together. i know there's, you know, quite a learning curve for all of us, but we are all passionate about the department and we are moving forward and i'm really excited about it and excited to work with the commission as well. a couple things that we're doing, we will be putting together a schedule to send our command staff out to stations and that includes myself, sort of the change in shift in the morning or whatever works for the command staff, but i think that's a good time to go out, just to open up a conversation,

so the field knows who we are, so we're hearing directly from the field. i am all about communication, so i think this is a good way to start it off. so, we'll be coming up with that in the next couple of weeks, that schedule. so there's that, and we're also, right now, the next four weeks, i am, as you know, heavily focused on the budget and i -- we're having another internal meeting this week, and then i'm going to give the final presentation to the mayor's budget office on friday. we'll be working with them over the next four weeks to really solidify this budget.

easter 2020 went through the capital plan and now it's in front of the board of supervisors, and it's the plan to be at the hearing on june 6th. the port m.o.u., after i don't know how many years, but some time in the 1950s was the last time we had an m.o.u. with the port. we finally come up with an agreement with the port, and it's going before the port commission on the 14th of may and i would like to suggest that we have jamie hurley from the port to present here to the commission on may 22nd, if that would work for you all. i think that would be really helpful. so you all are on the same page that we are with the port.

i was really glad to have mary ellen here, we are really, really looking forward to doing some serious work, more serious work with her. i know chief cochrane has been heavily involved with the disaster preparedness, and we're doing more each day with that. the chiefs will be working on the incident management team, which we will need in place when we do have the big one, not if, it's when. then also, i met with the new head of the department of public health, dr. colfax. he is also all on board with disaster planning and operations because d.p.h. will play a large

role in patient care afterwards and i also had some really good conversations with him on, on the healthy streets operation center and how we can partner to assist with the homelessness and opioid crisis that is on our streets. i like to call sort of what i want us to do, e.m.s. prevention. we do such a good job with fire prevention and i think we can get out there in front of some things, particularly with some of the population on the street, and do some community para medicine out there to get people into services. so i think that's some of the directions we're going in, in the department, disaster prep for our entire department and with other departments. then you know, looking at e.m.s.

and our call volume and what we can do to help the mayor meet, meet the priorities of this administration, in terms of homelessness and opioid use. last, but not least, thank you all for attending the swearing in ceremony the other day. it was really a wonderful experience for myself and my family. i'm really heartened by all the support that i have gotten. we just want to keep this train rolling along, so we're back to work. thank you. >> thank you very much chief nicholson. at this point i'll call for public comment on chief nicholson's report. any member of the public that wish to give public comment, please approach the podium at this point. seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, would you like to

give a question or a comment with chief nicholson's report or would you like to wait? vice president covington. >> thank you mr. president and thank you chief nicholson on your maiden voyage. >> probably a better term, i apologize. >> no need to apologize at all. i would like for you to take this opportunity to introduce your second and third, to you know, the people who are tuning in, if you could do that. >> very well, yes, the deputy chief of operations is victor. if you could stand up. he will be giving a report right after mine. and deputy chief of administration, jose, he is taking over my old position. i left the seat warm for him

though. and assistant deputy chief sandy, of e.m.s. >> thank you very much. >> thank you and i'm excited to work with all of them and like i said, we gotten off to a running start. >> excellent, i think it was a good transition, very smooth. i look forward to working with everyone. >> thank you very much vice president covington. at this particular point, we will proceed with deputy chief victor's report from operation. chief, welcome. >> thank you president nakajo, commissioners. first i like to thank chief nicholson for appointing me her deputy chief of operations,

thank you. i like to -- >> thank for saying yes. it would have been trouble if you hadn't. >> i had to sleep on it. also, i wanted to take a chance to thank former chief of the department joanne, herself and the commission at a time in my career where i need add lot of support and help, they were there for me 100%. for that, i have my unconditional loyalty to both you and to her, and i want to thank you all. also, i want to thank deputy chief of operations mark gonzales who has helped me in my transition, and at lot of my former c.d.1, 2, and 3 who reached out to me. thank you. we had several fires in april, but because of our quick response and aggressivics ting wishment, there were no major injuri

injuries to report on those. i like to quickly state that on april 19th, i was on my very last call and i was dispointed because it was just a building alarm. i didn't want to end my career that way. when i went to the building alarm, it was 7 floors of water pouring out of this building. it turned into a water evacuation, and that turned into an arson. someone taped all the extinguishers down. i had to call the police department, and then we had seven floors of water coming through the lobby. i called another truck to assist us. after that, we discovered someone had knocked off a sprinkler head on the ninth floor, so we knew this was deliberate. the squad with their great investigative work, through a video found the man that ran out

of the apartment, followed him through different cameras, and he gone up to the ninth floor, took a chair and knocked off the sprinkler head, so now it's flooding from the ninth floor, so we watched the video to the current time and we learned that the suspect had gone to the roof and we realized he was still on the roof. we sent the police department, the arson squad up to the roof and found he was dangling from the ninth floor. so they pulled him over the edge and saved his life. this is an example that something that shows in a report that is a building alarm shows up to be major. not everything is shown here. for my operations report, also the p.i.o., we have continued positive social media responses, and our outreach as director carol has stated. i want to remind the public to

sign up via alert s.f. and for all the public watching on tv, again, with the materials available oven our website, on sffire.org, and also on our website, the information on the bonds is posted, and as director carol said, we teamed up with the 9-1-1 campaign, we're working in conjunction with them. on 4/26, we had a good e.m.s. call. e.m.s. captain sloan assisted a man with some pets and secure housing. it's another good e.m.s. story from the downtown navigation center. my slide show here, we are

working with mission high school. the new mission high school e.m.s. program is going to start next semester. the students get a college credit towards the fire and e.m.s. classes while learning valuable skills to further their fire and e.m.s. careers. we're also having a class at the district 6 safety fair. we also have some ocean safety material that we're handing out, the coastal crews in our departments are handing out them to the public and delivering them to the hotels for the visitors. these include tsunami, ocean safety tips, and coastal and cliff safety awareness. these are also available on our website. we have three new members

promoted from e.m.t.s to paramedics. i want to congratulate them. we work with the volunteers, they're very supportive to us, and we are also creating opportunities for them and the city to promote their ability to become future firefighters. it's been a great relationship. we had an inner agency day at s.f.o. airport. this is our third annual. it's hosted by the u.s. coast guard. this was a big success and it's an opportunity for us to understand what the u.s. coast guard does, and we had eight agencies that were there and for us to understand how each of us interact with each other and to learn about each other. that's another success you want to continue. here's just an example truck 12 put on for the neighborhood.

this is a very concerning type building. it's a below grade building and these are one of our biggest challenges. here's an example, we are lucky to have access from a street below. again, it's a building under construction, so it's a major concern. we're definitely aware of all these buildings and constantly training. i'm sure most of you are there but we had our 1906 commandment day, and this is always a big success, everybody loves going out there. we again are doing our wild land training. this picture is practicing some shelter deployment. this is part of our annual research. it's the first wave of three

days of training. we have a second wave coming on may 20th to 22nd and it's to prepare our members for deployment. engine 13, save this man's life. he stopped by san francisco headquarters to say thank you. this is always extremely rewarding for us in the field, and an emotional event, but as a positive, and sometimes we don't know the end result. this is a welcome and emotional event. here, this is multiple agencies getting together. this is the united school district, the fire department, and city college. we're working together on juvenile fire and e.m.s. program curriculums and we're moving forward with that.

here's the honorable mayor at the district 3 fair. i just like to get a chance right now to acknowledge and thank mayor breed for the assistance in the construction of her flagship firehouse station number 5, which you all saw, which is amazing. i'm very proud of that and she helped us strengthen the resill yans -- resilience of the firehouse. it's amazing if you haven't seen it. may 20th to may 23rd, it's a multi-agency event. there's more information on the website for anyone that wants to go. we have a young adults day at john o'connell high school, and i believe that's on wednesday. also going back to i missed inviting you, we have a drill that's going to be going on, on

friday at the ocean, the big rescue drill and we'll get the information to you if you're interested in coming. it will be a multi-agency ocean rescue drill. i like to post all of our social media for the public to see and especially our s.f. fire site, it's been a huge success. included in my report is our e.m.s. commission report. i like to thank andy for all the work that he's done and welcome sandy. they're available for any clarification on this report. i also want to give kudos to cochrane, they have done amazing hard work and action to getting all our plans out to the field. they done a great job on 4/20,

and that's been a huge help to us. every time we come to work, they click on it and see everything that's happening in their area. it's been a huge help. healthy streets operation center, we continue to work with them. that's another one of our e.m.s. 6 attributes. for commissioner veronese, we included the identifiable home address report. >> i like that, that's a good idea. >> i'm trying to decipher everything here. >> you added the totals, i appreciate that. >> the totals are here, 37% with no identifiable addresses, i have to rename this report, i think. sometimes we have to be aware that a lot of these are repeat patients, something to think about. for our e.m.s. 6 report, we have some notable statistics.

if you notice on this chart, our top three callers in the month of march, our top caller called 22 times. we have that down to 6 in april. the second highest caller was 21 calls in march, down to 8. and our third highest caller, 19 calls in march, down to 2. i think that it's a very successful program we're working on with e.m.s. 6, they referred 124 patients they offer support to. we neconnected with 49 of them. 49 of them were either sent to a shelter, program, or service to help them in their need. so great job by e.m.s. 6. so fire marshal put it together a comprehensive report here, he's available for clarification for the fire prevention and investigation update.

i just like to commend that the fire prevention continues to do a good job with our community outreach presentations. they did six total presentations in april. there is also continuous training with the high-rise fire drills and they have many cautions they gone through this month, so kudos to them. michael continues to do great work. he has chosen many large community development projects he's working on. captain at the bureau of fire investigation, her backlog is down again still, it's down to 43, open active reports, and there if you notice, there was an arrest on april 30th. it was at 7:10, that's the rescue we made at the last call.

so he was arrested. work

with the police and you know, try to eliminate -- they want me to do airlines you know, with the department. i'm trying to get into that because it's really important for the nation. i have a rescue meeting in the capitol for the congress. [indiscernible - low volume] >> thank you. >> thank you very much.

any other member of the public wish to give public comment at this time? seeing none, public comment is closed. vice president covington. >> thank you mr. president and thank you chief for your report, so you asked for suggestions. i suggest you keep up the good work. >> i appreciate that, thank you very much. >> thank you very much vice president covington. commissi commissioner veronese. >> chief, first of all i want to congratulate you on your position. >> thank you. >> the second i heard you were appointed and chief vila was appointed, i may have called her to let her know how happy i know that happened, because it sends the right message with your history with the department. i know you don't like accolades, but you're getting it right now. congratulations on your position chief, and thank you for doing

this, and to the city an county of san francisco, chief vila as well. this guy is there at all the big fires, and the city is in a safe place. i'm really pleased with these two departments. sandy, i know don't owe as well, but i look forward to spending more time with you and getting to know you during my tenure on this commission. your first year is in the can. >> thank you. commissioner hardeman. >> yes, congratulations chief. you guys have a contagious smile and that's great. it makes you look approachable, which is extremely important for being up front for the fire department. that's good to see. i was once accused that i smile too much, so i think i have that accidental thing about me that i

do smile and i am a happy person. you guys look the same. i do like to continue the graphics as you know how the report is and what we like. i know you haven't sat through many meetings, you're out in the field. you know we like the graphics and for the public, if you went through the details, it would take three hours. thank you. the rescue drill friday you were talking about. >> there's an ocean drill that's coming on friday at ocean beach. i believe it's at 10:00. 10:00. and we will send you a flyer, it just came out this morning, so i didn't have time to include it in the report. >> how long will that last? >> it will be a long one. yeah, there's a media event afterwards. i assume it's going to be at least a couple hours.

i will give you all the information >> thank you for that. the other thing, this is sort of on the chief's comment about e seeing chief cochrane, which sounds like he's going to stick around. we've been fortunate that we have some great homeland security people, and they're talented people. i hope you're not there at 5:00 in the afternoon, if you're there at 5:00 in the morning. i heard you're one of the top people we have in the department from someone i respected very much in a luncheon where you were being honored. the accolades he gave you that day, i hope in my eulogy, i can get that from everybody there. i hope you don't work yourself to death. that's the only bad thing i would say, so the chief might have to tell you to go home

sometimes. any way, welcome aboard. >> i was lucky to have mike cochrane on my crew and my favorite thing he told me was i'm in your hip pocket l.t. he's been in my hip pocket at headquarters at all time. >> i'm glad to hear it. thank you. >> thank you very much commissioner hardeman. i don't have any particular questions, i just wanted to give you a comment as well. chief, i appreciate this presentation. i used to work comprehensive a lot, but this is a comprehensive report. also in terms of your cautiousness to various units underneath this report is very important. i like the proactive approach of putting out information so this commission can see affects such as the m.s.6 and the frequent flier, and how that affects the number of calls. those points of operation is

very important. i wanted to thank you for that. great choice chief nicholson. i wanted to congratulate chief ellis as well. welcome aboard chief. it's good to see you, and we expect good things from y'all. thank you very much chief. >> i appreciate it. thank you very much. >> madam secretary. >> item 6. >> commissioners at the point, commissioners report, commissioner hardeman. >> yes, i wrote myself a note here. okay, yes, station 5, yes chief, that was all that chiefs that were there. it was a wonderful day. it took a while to get done, but what a beautiful facility.

touring that, when i first came on the commission many years ago, and it was a difficult spot. the wait room was as big as a small bathroom, and to see all the nice amenities, the rooftop also, and the outside cooking facility that was done, so to reduce smoke and just a fantastic figure and very nicely done in the ceremony. it was extremely professional and wonderful. i went to ryan who firefighter jeff ryan, i don't know if you know him, but he was in my son's wedding so he's very close with my family. she had an 18 year battle with cancer, very sad. she fought through it for many years. natur naturally, congratulations chief, it was spectacular.

you're brief, which is good. you tried to put a lot of things into brief comments, so you didn't stand up there all day and brag about yourselves. everybody else has done that already. congratulations, well deserved, and just to -- i think just to say this on the record because it's passed, when asking the city attorney who i can talk to about the new chief, he said anybody you want. so i probably would talk to 50 or 60 firefighters and it was maybe more. i don't know. i didn't keep notes or a log. it was a mental log and it's amazing how many people wanted you to be the next chief. i was very surprised that it was that. so you weren't just someone that was picked out of a hat.

i went to a bunch of parties for the retiring chief, and it's been a very interesting few weeks and chief, i wish you luck and know you have the support of the commissioners. >> thank you very much commissioner hardeman, vice president covington. thank you again, yes, i would certainly echo commissioner hardeman's statement that you have the support of the commission. i was really very happy to be there at the swearing in and to see so many members of the department turn out for your swearing in, and it was a love fest. it was very, very nice. i appreciate -- no, no drugs, no narcan needed that day.

it was a moving experience to you know hear your sister talk about your youth and to see your mom there, it was all very, very nice. i want to thank all the members of the department that attended. you can see them on the balconies, very good, very good transition to a new administration. i'm also very happy to hear you say that you and your team will be visiting the fire stations and engaging members of the department and conversation regarding the future of the department. so, i definitely support that. your comments during the swearing in were very candid and i would encourage everyone who

watches, you know, sfgov tv to take a look at the swearing in. it would give people, first of all, a good sense of your trademark sense of humor, but also more details about your background, particularly your overco overcoming of your cancer diagnosis and coming back to work and now being chief of the department. it's very good. then station 5, station 5, that is just a beautiful station. it was worth the wait, i think that coming in on budget, even though it was over the length of time that had been projected. i think it's just a spectacular

firehouse. i want to thank d.p.w. and the architects and everyone that worked on the project for delivers such a fine facility to us. that's it. >> thank you very much vice president covington. at this point, i just wanted to give comment as well. commissioner hardeman, vice president covington, commissioner veronese, we all attended that beautiful swearing in ceremony. i was really taken by the grand scale of the ceremony as well, being a san franciscan. thank you very much for that. the night before, chief's retirement at the irish cultural center, attended by 700 supporters and friends. that was a grand event as well,

deserving to the chief, but equally deserving to chief nicholson. a beautiful smooth transition as you start your new era as the chief of the san francisco fire department. i wanted to congratulate you on that as well. i didn't attend station 5's ribbon cutting, but will be looking forward to that. next time i will ask on how that implementation of operation is occurring, because i know that's occurring presently and we'll see how that goes. it seems that it will be very positive. having said that, madam secretary, next item please. >> public comment on that? >> many member of the public wish to give public comment on that report? madam? >> yes, i do want to coordinate with the progresses on this

issue. i appreciate, you know, all the work. calling for doctor, he's one of my advisors that i do get in contact with on this issue. any way, you know it will be more successful. >> thank you very much ma'am. any member of the public wish to give public comment? public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> item 7, agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> commissioners, in terms of next agenda items, i do believe there's been a request for a port update. madam secretary, for the next commission meeting, i believe the request is for -- correct me if i'm wrong, for jamie hurley.

>> jamie h.u.r.l.e.y. on the report. >> if we can get a report next commission meeting, and, as well as madam secretary, we'll be having an update in terms of the rules of administrative appeals by the city attorney. >> i'm assuming that we're going to continue item number 9 to the next meeting and we will also have another closed session deliberation. >> all right. i'm going to ask for public comment on this item. commissioner veronese. >> thank you mr. president. there are two items i'm currently tracking. i know that the commission passed a resolution, i believe it was back in october about the peer support unit and the peer support unit has been meeting regularly. i have been a part of this discussion and they're coming up

with some good stuff. i'm not tracking this for the next meeting or the next, but in the next month and a half to two months, i would love with the permission of the chief, to have the department report on the progress from the peer support unit, so we as a commission know. i know that the report was due 100 days from the department, and it's clearly taking longer and it's important work. i love to get an update to the commission so that you all know what's been happening on an issue that we have voted on. second issue as important, we received a report presentation from the fire cancer prevention people, if not a month ago, several months ago. i believe it is important that the department or perhaps the commission act on this particular issue. we have heard from the presenter, i believe it was tony

at the time, who told us that our p.p.e.s have cancer causing chemicals in them. to the extent they are commercially available, i would like the department to take a look at the contract for the p.p.e.s, and to determine a plan of attack on how we can, if possible, rid the p.p.e.s of cancer causing chemicals. that's something that's certainly worth looking into. that's the second item and that's it. thank you. >> thanks very much, dually noted. we will confer with chief nicholson in terms of that update on the peer group, as well as your issue in terms of the p.p.e. having said that, madam secretary. i'll ask for public comment on that.

madam? >> the p.p.e.s have been already discussed on the radio station, and this is where the department comes in, trying to overcome the united states of america's liberty that, that had made. [indiscernible - low volume] >> for a republican to build those, it has been approved by congress, and i've been waiting for a long time to be able to reconstruct newer ways of trying to prevent the water flow and the houses and the safety issues that do occur on different ways

of hindering our process. with success, thank you. >> thank you very much. any other member of the public wish to give public comment at this time? public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> item 8, correspondence received, e-mail dated 4/23/19 from danielle. >> on this item, any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, any questions or comments? seeing none, madam secretary. >> item 9, discussion on actions to the appeals process. >> i understand that the presentation will be moved to the next commission meeting if possible. >> that is correct. >> thank you very much.

any public comment on this item that's listed? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? thank you very much. madam secretary. >> item 10, public comment on item 11. public comment on all matters pertaining to item 11 below, including public comment on whether to hold item 11b and c in closed session. >> members of the public, is there any public comment on item 10, which is that we will go into possible closed session regarding personnel matters. any member of the public wish to give a public comment at this time? madam. >> yeah, my name is sylvia again. i don't have any agendas on item 11 or 12, but i would like --

[indiscernible - low volume] >> item 11 and 12, and i appreciate being here and trying to get more success in what we have been missing. i think it's one reason why it's been denied for a long time and discrimination because of the things that we have not been pronounced in the past, and our detours in success in our world that we haven't been doing at all and people that are standing on the street. this is, you know, when denied for too long and this is putting a big effort in going that place for different ways of ideas. >> thank you very much madam. any member of the public wish to give public comment?

seeing none, public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> possible closed session regarding personnel matters, vote on whether to conduct items 11b and c in closed session. >> commissioners, we need a motion and second to move to closed session. may i have a motion and second moved by commissioner veronese and second please. >> second. >> second by vice president covington. members of the general public, we will go to close session and we

(music) >> herb theatre,open rehearsal. listen to the rehearsal. i think it is fun for them, they see our work process, our discussions, the decisions we make. it is good for us. we kind of behavior little bit when we have people in the audience. msk

(music) >> we are rehearsing for our most expensive tour; plus two concerts here. we are proud that the growth of the orchestra, and how it is expanded and it is being accepted. my ambition when i came on as music director here -- it was evident we needed absolutely excellent work. also evident to me that i thought everyone should know that. this was my purpose. and after we opened, which was a spectacular opening concert about five weeks after that the economy completely crashed. my plan -- and i'm absolutely dogmatic about my plans --were delayed

slightly. i would say that in this very difficult timefor the arts and everyone, especially the arts, it's phenomenal how new century has grown where many unfortunate organizations have stopped. during this period we got ourselves on national radio presence; we started touring, releasing cds, a dvd. we continue to tour. reputation grows and grows and grows and it has never stopped going forward. msk(music) >> the bay area knows the orchestra. you maybe take things for granted a little bit. that is simply not the case will go on the road. the audiences go crazy.

they don't see vitality like this on stage. we are capable of conveying joy when we play. msk(music) >> any performance that we do, that a program, that will be something on the program that you haven't heard before. string orchestra repertoire is pretty small. i used to be boxed into small repertoire. i kept constantly looking for new repertoire and commissioning new arrangements. if you look at the first of the program you have very early, young vibrant mendelson; fabulous opener and then you have this fabulous concerto written for us in the orchestra. is our gift.

msk(music) >> and then you have strauss, extraordinary piece. the most challenging of all. string orchestra work. 23 solo instrument, no violin section, now viola section; everybody is responsible for their part in this piece. the challenge is something that i felt not only that we could do , absolutely could do, but i wanted to show off. i can't tell you how aware i am of the audience. not only what i hear but their vibes, so strong. i have been doing this for a long time.

i kind of make them feel what i want them to feel. there is nobody in that audience or anywhere that is not going to know that particular song by the fourth note. and that is our encore on tour. by the way. i am proud to play it, we are from san francisco. we are going to play that piece

>> the meeting will now come to order. the welcome to the may 10t may 10th regular meeting of the joint city school district and city college select committee. i'm supervisor h arc neainey. our clerk is alyssa somera. this is the very first inaugural meeting of this