ed. if it's this bad with the trees still here, what will it be like when the trees are gone or replaced with desid use other trees. the climate crisis and wild fairs this needs to change again. from the release of the initial ficus removal criteria, the city paid arbor pro to do the assessment. they have this criteria. and it was still a different decision. earlier this year, 39 trees were posted for removal. we do appreciate the public works changing in direction to remove less of those trees. but since then the city of san francisco declared a climate crisis. we don't feel the appropriate urgency is given attention to the trees being removed. in light

of the rule book being changed four times in the past five-years it's time to change it again. we need to reprioritize mature trees to sequester as much carbon as possible. replacement trees have to be evergreen. when the trees have already dropped their leaves. these replacements absolutely have to be evergreen. the city of san francisco needs to realize its tree protocol subject to climate change and take action or we won't be in a position to recover. >> ma'am, thank you. next. >> welcome. >> hi. my name is brook armstrong. i had a business in hayes valley for ten years. i've been in san francisco for almost 40. i have an issue of trust with the dpw. my business is

on franklin street. and they just took down two large beautiful trees last week without notice. it's frustrating because two years ago they took down another tree in front of my building without notice and it remains a hole in the ground. so for two years they have not replaced that tree. so i feel dubious about what they are saying. it's frustrating. the other thing is it does feel this is a reactivity issue rather than a proactive issue. it doesn't seem to me any of the trees is an immediate emergency situation. and yet we are sort of mowing them down. i get that what the previous speaker said was it's an efficiency issue a financial efficiency issue. but then, you know efficient for tuna as opposed

to pole catching the fish. so in my neighborhood you can mow down the trees that might be a problem at some point but it makes the neighborhood unlivable and it affects my business. so rather than creating sort of a toxic unlivable waste land, i would prefer that we not replace them all at once. replace as we go. they're also a couple of dead trees on lily street that have not been replaced and i bet they haven't been included in the numbers. finally, just you guys work in this area, we live or work in this area. hayes valley has a massive carbon and co2 emission. we have oak traffic, we have franklin traffic the freeway onramp and we have cars that are sitting basically in a grid emitting co2. >> thank you. what's your address on franklin street that has the holes in the ground? >> 45 franklin. we have three big

holes. >> okay. thank you. >> i didn't have to use ac before and now i do. climate change. >> thank you. >> good evening. i'm here today to urge the board to slow, prune and save the removal of trees. i actually live in mission not hayes valley but i'm very concerned about the lack of a macro approach on these issues. and in particular the wholesale removal of trees without where there should be an approach that maybe phases the removal of trees to allow the community, neighborhood and ecosystem to adapt and for the replacement foliage to come in more slowly. i also wanted to show a picture if i can get the overhead so this is across the street from where i live. ten days ago, that was a beautiful ficus tree that looked perfectly fine to me and provided shade, cooling and privacy for my neighbors. ten days later that's what it looks

like. this was taken yesterday morning. but i can assure you that this morning that's exactly what that tree looks like. so unless the projects are truly adequately supported with funding and staff to provide not only replanting three months out but the immediate removal i mean this is a hazard and a blight on my street now. and in an era where climate change is really rapidly changing not only our global climate but the city, we are experiencing more and more frequent super heating events, those super heating events will kill people. there is going to be greater air-conditioning and cooling loading that will result from the removal of trees that are providing shade as well as the lack of the carbon sequestering. it is a mitigation problem and a community issue. so please slow down the tree removals. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >> if you could give the speaker card.

thank you. >> and welcome. >> hi. i'm really nervous. this is the first time i'm doing this. but i love my tree. it is like a pet to me as well. and i actually just moved to hayes valley. my name is ellie. i live at 508 octavia street. i wanted to show my tree. so i don't know if you can really see but that's my living room. it's my safe haven and that's my tree well giant tree outside. and i heavily rely on this to chill out. i will tell you why. let's see here. my old home downtown was on a street with replacements to old growth trees. they mostly died, never groomed were peed on. then turned to

garbage cans. in august 2018 i was attacked by a mentally ill homeless person while living, while leaving the san francisco at 7:00 a.m. on wednesday. in december 2018 i had to close my little shop on hyde street due to mentally ill and criminal people coming in and harassing my place of business. i really needed a safe haven. in february i completed six months of treatment for ptsd. in june, 2019 my partner relocated for a job and i was unable to join him. so i'm truly alone. this tree really protects me. it gives me privacy. it gives me quiet and chill time that i need to heal. so mine is a little more selfish. i really agree with the environmental and everything. but i

thought i would bring something a little different. so thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> familiar faces speaking next. welcome. >> too familiar. >> someone has to keep us company here. come on. >> can i have the overhead please? let me get this. i guess you can see that on your screen. my name is lance carnes. i'm here to uphold the appeals. i read mr. buck's brief. he described how they surveyed areas and rescued ficus by reclassifying them from remove to prune. so here's

the picture of a 288 key map areas. they surveyed three. and they said well it's probably the same for the whole city. i don't think that's significant sample. on the next slide here. changed 34 percent to prune. in hayes valley, 21 trees slated for removal, 20 are rated prune. citywide, you probably can't read, but citywide, it's 85 percent were changed from prune to remove. the other question i had, and i think some of you also had is how many ficus trees over the last five plus years, i sent a request

to buff and asked that question, i got back one little report. and it turns out because of a major flaw in the way buf records tree data there's no way to determine trims for ficus or any other species. this last slide here is these are the top ten street trees rated by priority removal. and i'm wondering if buf is looking at these. here's ficus about in the middle here. 653 trees 773 -- total. and about one in three fail. >> your time is up. >> would you please conclude and summarize your finding? >> summarize my findings?

>> yep. what's your point?. >> i think by focusing too much on ficus trees they are missing dangerous street trees. for example. >> overhead please. >> i'm sorry. >> overhead. >> sorry. it went away. so buf is missing other dangerous street trees. and i'm wondering if buf is not seeing the forest for the trees. i urge the board to uphold the hayes valley removal appeals and all ficus removal appeals till buf can provide accurate and consistent data, demonstrate agreement with the city's tree survey and give residents confidence that buf's actions are for the neighborhood's benefit. >> thank you. >> thank you. we will now move onto rebuttal. you have three minutes.

>> i'll try to keep it short. i mostly sit in the back of these hearings and feel really sad. i think we are all on the same side here. we are all living on the same planet. i look at this from a climate perspective as a community health perspective. and if i haven't been clear regarding the bureau of urban forestry, i have a lot of respect for carla and the shop that she runs. she has a tough job. she doesn't have enough resource to do it yet she has to stand up here and defend it. i think the people that should be defending it are the people that aren't putting enough money where it needs to go. speaking of money, i've heard a lot of talk about liability. i think any of us could figure out quickly how much money we spend on injuries that the city causes

to or cars to people that live here. if we were concerned about viability, if we were concerned about the health of our citizens, instead of spending millions and millions of dollars every time something goes wrong around this city, we could spend a few million more in putting together a healthy canopy that would ensure the health of people and our ecosystem. it may not seem like much. i'm going to be back here in a couple months talking about trees on 24th street. it shouldn't take people standing up over and over and over again banging for us to do the right thing. and we know what the right thing is. there's a lot that urban forestry cannot control. there are some things that they can control. and i would again respectfully request those things be considered so when they are mentioned here, phased removals, treating trees that are evergreen

maximum carbon sequestering that support our ecosystem and putting pressure on people that hold the pursestrings to do better because carla can't keep coming back to this. chris can't keep coming back here. i agree. this is a tremendous investment of their time. so take that to the higher-ups. take that to the people that have the ability to change this. make the changes that we need. thanks. >> thank you. >> may i ask a question? for this specific case given that we are talking about this specific case and not denying anything that you have said, we take it seriously and we take it deeply into our souls. what is your specific recommendation with regard to this project in consideration of what is

going on and that is there are some trees that could fall down on cars. i was there the day that the big ficus fell down on the car on octavia. that was exciting. you know, i'm not taking it lightly. but give us your opinion on specifically what would you do in this case? i read your brief. but i would like to hear given the situational analysis, what would you suggest that our findings should be? >> well, i think public works spokesperson rachael said it best when she said that a tree should only come down if it's a hazard, if it's an imminent threat. so we've got some great arborists on our city's team here. can they look at what is an imminent threat? i spent a lot of

time looking at trees with carla and chris all over this city. and i appreciate their time. i think the problem is we are still looking at trees as a how can we reduce our liability. the problem is we need to redefine what our liability is. our liability is our future of this planet. that's our liability. so what is an imminent threat? what is a hazard tree? those should come out. it's not a hazard. >> so your recommendation for this specific project is that trees in that area that are identified as imminent threats should be aggressively managed and all other trees should retain the status quo with appropriate pruning and certainly not being torn down? >> to all extent possible yes. >> just wanted to capture your thought.

>> right. which would then necessarily i think roll into looking at trees removing trees on a case by case. i understand why we have the key map in place. i get it. it's because they're trying to catch up. >> you answered your commission. >> you're right. any other questions? >> no. thanks very much. >> we are going to see you again in a couple weeks anyway. >> hopefully not. >> thank you. >> not going to bet against that. >> you have three minutes. >> okay. i wanted to respond specifically to your question, ms. lazarus about the use of external consultants. arbor pro's contract with the city was appendix b of my brief. i didn't put the whole contract because it was 28 pages. but in the first paragraph it describes what their mandate was. it was not simply to do a census and count the trees. it was to make specific recommendations

regarding management. and it is still perplexing to myself and the other members of hayes valley why the city would spend half a million dollars to professionals get their recommendations and then ignore them. that just doesn't make sense. i also want to talk a little bit about the idea of replacement. actually let me grab -- as someone mentioned earlier it takes about ten to 20 years for a replacement tree to grow to a size where it is performing significant carbon sequestering. somebody left their papers here. so in this picture you see the parking meter next to the tree, for about the first two years

that's about the diameter of a replacement tree. i planted a new tree in front of my house when an acacia tree failed. and after six years it's still not anywhere near as big as the trees we are talking about cutting down. so we need to be clear that we are not really talking about replacing the trees. we are talking about planting new trees. but that doesn't equal replacing what we are losing. also, i think it was carla mentioned they've planted 37 new trees. i haven't seen that many but i believe here. but i have seen several newly-planted trees that are dead. i've seen one tree that's had three different trees planted in it because they keep dying. so what i would prefer is to consistent with what josh is saying choose like five of the worst trees remove those and then

show us that the replacement and care for the new trees is actually working before cutting down more trees. and hayes valley, like 98 percent of our trees are ficus trees. so they might only be seven percent of the city but in our neighborhood, almost every teresa -- tree is a. where is the data? >> we will hear from bureau of urban forestry. mr. buck, you will have six minutes. >> you don't have to use all six. [laughter] >> good evening. chris buck, urban forestry. i want to thank everyone for their time this

evening. just to go back to the survey again. a couple of data points that there's amazing benefits to having the census. so one of them is locations of trees that have caused sidewalk damage. that's how we are organizing our approach to repairing sidewalks. so that information is there. that valuable information we are using that to orchestrate and coordinate our approach to reprayering sidewalks that's been -- repairing sidewalks. the survey identified potential planting sites. so i know there's this desire to sort of question what we are doing with that material with the information which was stated repeatedly we understand the situation they have with the ficus greater than the consultant. at a lot of these hearings sometimes there's a parade of counterarguments where arborists. we don't have

that this evening for what that is worth. but i wanted to talk about the survey. it's incredible information. unfortunately, we don't agree with the recommendations on ficus. so that's primarily it. we respectfully hear the feedback that the community came to us with. that's why we scaled back 11 trees. it's challenging. these trees look healthy. i get it. i have friends that live in the neighborhood. they are like, really? but again different sites we remove four trees out of eight at an elementary school. one of the four trees that i think is smaller and should be okay fails and injures someone. so we wish the trees were dead. and i think a lot of the other trees we are removing across the city, people don't think twice about it because they are dead. any layperson would go that's clearly removable. that's easy. but ficus they stand out. so we are

here respectfully to see where we go from here. thank you. >> bless your soul chris. for not taking the six minutes. thank you. >> i have a few questions for you. in regards to the comment made of okay, i understand the balance of wanting to protect the public health and not wanting to have it on your conscience if someone has been injured because of a tree you knew might not be in good shape and you didn't do anything and where does that leave you and the and the city and the member of the public who is been injured. but i wonder if it might be possible to sharpen your pruning sheers and go back and look at the trees and see if you could identify some that are a more imminent threat that might be less than the 28 you've identified that could be removed. and what you might consider to be a reasonable time to assess the experimental pruning you are also planning to see if that might be appropriate for more of those trees. so not to necessarily

delay perhaps to delay the project as proposed but to see if it can be done in stages to a level where you would feel comfortable that it's not going to harm anybody to the degree that you can think that. so what might you think you would find if you were to do something like that? >> i mean we anticipated that question. we really have received that question received it from the public. we received that question at our public works hearing. and we did that prior to our public works hearing. so we really feel like we've done that. and that's a challenge. the public is -- we understand where they are with this. we understand climate emergency. >> but you think the 28 that's kind of where you feel is. >> i do. >> the best offer? >> we really wanted it to come to with that. >> and then do you feel that there might be additional assessment of perhaps adding additional

trees? so is it possible, do you have budget, would you be able to identify locations to go beyond replanting the 28 but to replace with additional trees which again would be small to begin with but would eventually grow to have more canopy in the area? >> that's definitely part of the conversation. however we have to look at equity across the city. so there are other scenarios. so folks that would be willing to take trees and water them, you know, we want to say yes. but we also have to be equitable citywide. southeast area of the city doesn't have as many trees as we do in the centre of the city. we also understand there's a lot of environmental mitigations with traffic and off roads on octavia boulevard. so sometimes that happens organically. i would love to state we can go above and beyond. we have an urban forest plan that calls for in-fill plants. we are using the census data we have from the survey to identify

that. but i think we would have to be careful in terms of overcommitting to what we can do. but that's certainly a consideration for any of these sites where there's been a large for lack of a better word large removal. >> lastly, for the species selection, are there evergreen species that you would recommend that are compatible with our climate and kind of other goals in terms of planting trees that are compatible here? >> yes. and with hayes valley neighborhood association there's a desire among many to see evergreens. there's also strong desire in the community to look at other factors. there's a lot of different things the trees provide. carbon sequestering is not the only one. that's difficult. i want to be up front about that. but there is a robust discussion that's taken place. >> do you think that will result in a variety like some will be evergreen and some will be other desires that people have? >> correct. and one reason for that

sometimes is also the presence of high voltage lines. we have some ficus trees right now that are clearly in conflict. and we want to plant the right tree in the right place. there's a number of moving pieces in that. but we are fully engaged with the neighborhood association. and there are evergreen species in the matrix. >> thank you. >> i have one more follow-up. one of the speakers, might have been one of the appellants mentioned the minimum 24-inch box. is that something you can promise? or is that dependent on the individual planting? >> so we can definitely commit to the 24-inch box. that is the size of replacement trees that public works typically plants. friends of the urban forest have used 15-gallon sized trees because they use a lot of volunteer labor and it's easier to plant for trees with volunteers with a smaller

size. 15-gallon sized trees tend to be more prone to vandalism. that's why we have the screens to protect the young trees so yes, 24-inch box trees we can commit to. that's not a problem. we have funding for that. >> i think that was in your brief. >> correct. >> i think we are in a lose/lose situation. i don't see a win/win situation here. what i heard the solutions don't touch the trees except in a threat. and there was a complaint that your department was putting efficiently first as part of a plan and i would go for that efficiency and that's why i look at that neighborhood equality issue. let's not treat one neighborhood any better than the other. and i don't think it's possible

and i think it's a lose/lose situation. i don't have a solution for you. but i still -- but in the spirit of the imminent threat what i see is an imminent threat not only are the ficus trees that may be falling down, but the imminent threat that of not filling in holes in existing, where trees previously existed and doing grievous harm to our environment. and if i were you, i would be -- i would certainly be diligent about those imminent threats and taking care of that through pruning. but i would be placing my priority in filling empty tree basins with new trees first instead of moving forward and tearing down trees, which is why i don't think i'm going to support this or

what are your thoughts about saying listen can we take care of the imminent threats and postpone this project in the mass it is contemplated and first fill in the tree basins around the city. and i harken back to how many tree basins are there in northeast? 46? yeah. >> [off mic] >> yeah. i would be focusing my time on the 3,000 instead of taking down more trees. this is what i have a hard time understanding, especially with it's not a criticism the track record that you have about getting your job done. and i know that there are hurdles and things that

you can't overcome funding, et cetera. i'm trying hard not to be critical of your department. i'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. but is there a way to postpone this project to its fullest extent in consideration of filling in tree basins with more greenery that will mitigate the environmental impact or be proactive against mitigating the environmental impact of tearing down all these trees? that's a question. >> i hear you on the question. and really for us and carla emphasized it but we should reemphasize it in 50 years of neglect or zero commitment to maintain the urban forest, public works maintained one-third of the street trees and five years ago we were relinquishing the trees we did maintain and the public was outraged about that. and the

public voted to have us maintain trees. the challenge for us is that we are actually funded to maintain trees. we wish we absolutely would love to plant every empty basin first. it would make our jobs easier to be able to come in and say like peter pan we fought for you and planted these trees first. unfortunately what we have funding for is to maintain the existing trees. and we have the funding to maintain existing trees. we have to do that. there's a mandate to deliver on how many trees we are going to maintain every year so that we can prune every tree every three to five years. and so much of our work right now is just pruning. we are pruning so many more trees. >> i understand. but to be argumentative i know, i know because a supervisor told me, that you receive funding to fill tree basins in north beach and you have not used that money to do that.

>> well so actually to correct you commissioner, we are planting those. we are planting those around north beach. we are actively planting them. we've planted a number of them. so we are doing that. we are actively planting those sites with that funding. and i do have to point out, two-thirds of street trees, that means two-thirds of these empty basins were the responsibility of the property owner until july 1 of 2017. we wish we could just plant all those trees first. we have to maintain the trees. and we wish we didn't have to start with removal. but it's just where we are. so i completely hear your feedback. >> can you use your time and your funding better by postponing this project and taking care of the deficiencies and deferred maintenance in other areas of the city? that's probably the key question that i have to move forward with supporting or not supporting.

>> i don't think i can answer that question. >> carla can you answer that question? . >> i think the answer is there are the deficiencies in every district. we have to address them as we move through the city. and we took a hard look at these trees. we went back and took a hard look to see which ones do we think need to be addressed height right away. if you were there for the failure of the tree you can see how dramatic that can be. it's not just about liability it's about being responsible stewards of the urban forest so no, i don't think we can. the funding for planting and the funding for maintenance are two separate pots of money. so we have to move through the city doing maintenance. we are working on the planting with the money that we are getting. and just as chris noted we have been planting in north beach and that money only came in july of this year. it was in this year's budget. so i think the answer is we

are doing the best we can we are being as systematic as we can but there are deficient isys in every -- deficiencies in every district. and we have to address them as we move through the city. >> thank you. >> thank you. this matter is submitted. >> sure i will. what the h eck. being on this board is a great privilege. tree stewards, probably the number one case we get. my friends give me a hard time like you're the tree gray good-bye. i'm like yeah great. i'm very supportive. i learned so much from carla. and this particular case i'm kind of with what the public said, that the trees should come down

under imminent threat. i think that having a teresa liability no matter what. when you ensure a property if you have a large tree on your property you assume that liability. so if it falls on your prodded, you'll get a claim. if it falls on your neighbor's property, your insurance company pays out. it's an assumed liability. in this particular case i'm not willing to support the trees coming down. >> we haven't heard from you tonight. you've been very quiet this evening. >> a novel i really love is all the king's men by robert pen mohr. at the beginning of that novel the beginning of stark's political career happens because he's a a city bureaucrat who opposes the

building of a play structure on the grounds he believes the contractor isn't responsible. a while later the play structure fails and a child is injured i think multiple children are injured if i remember right. so all of a sudden willie stark is popular and that's the beginning of his political career. but that's literature. it's not real life. and yet, we have before us city bureaucrats who are trying to do a responsible job with which they are tasked who said certain trees needed to come down. and in the interim while this has been going on one of them failed. i think that is kind of a remarkable fact about this case. and i don't see any reason to grant the appeal. i think the bureau of urban forestry is doing the best they can. i think they have established that these trees are a threat. they are not any tree. not

the background risk of any tree. sure any any tree could fail just like any bus could crash. if you knew the bus had a flat tire you wouldn't let it go out on the road. the bureau of urban forestry is saying these trees have a flat tire and shouldn't be driven. and that's why i would not support the appeal. >> i think that he makes very good points that i would be persuaded to not support the appeal. i do wonder about the unsettled nature of the replacement trees and just how the plan of replacing in three months would take place if the replacement trees haven't been decided. and i don't want to protract that decision but if it's being made with community, which is great it's not going to be fast to be made. so i'm wondering if there is a plan of not starting the removal until that's decided or kind of how that order of

operations goes. i would want to make sure some way that we can have a condition to ensure the removal doesn't begin until the replacement trees have been identified and are part of the plan. >> i would support that approach. >> i guess i think it's a no-win situation. i like that solution a lot. it forces buf to have a plan. and for moving forward until every i is dotted and every t is crossed or at least the key components to that because until if you start cutting tomorrow, we approve it, you start cutting tomorrow and you haven't figured out what the replacement trees are don't know where they are coming from, we are going to have more empty holes in the ground. so i would support that which commissioner tanner suggested. and that would be a good condition. and that would force,

i think a more prudent direction and more organized process. >> i'll make the appeal to grant the motion to grant the appeal on the condition that the replacement tree species are selected before any removal begins. >> so do you want a replacement plan or replacement trees? you want to have a replacement plan in place? >> yes. >> that would include species selection and other things. so i mean do you want this plan prior to granting the appeal? continue this and come back? >> do you want to come back to us? like the library? >> i trust the department. the department is they're a non-revenue generating system, part of

our city. >> don't need to return to the board. >> so what about the 24-inch box size? would you like that a condition as well? >> yes. >> okay. on what basis? >> on the basis that this is in line with the department's intentions. for the public. >> what was the last part? >> make it transparent for the public. this is what the department said it wants to do and now it's in writing for everybody. >> okay. so we have a motion from commissioner tanner to grant the appeals and uphold the order on the condition that it be revised to require the replacement trees to be in 24-inch box size and on the condition that the removal not begin until a replacement tree plan is in place which includes a species of the trees on the basis that this is in line with the department's intentions and is transparent to the public. on this

motion. [roll call] that motion carries. 5-0. >> good job. >> this concludes the hearing. >> thank you. -

>> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> this is a reminder to silence all electronic devices. fire commission regular meeting october 23, 2019. and the time is 5:03. item 1 roll call. [roll call]

item 2 general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any matter within the commission's jurisdiction and not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission and as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with a speaker. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> if there's any member of the public that wishes to make public comment, please approach the podium. is there any member of the public

that wishes to give public comment at this time? seeing none public comment is closed. madame secretary. >> item 4 i'm sorry item 3 approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes of october 9 2019. >> thank you very much. is there any public comment at this time on item 3, approval of the minutes. please approach the podium. if not public comment is closed. commissioners. >> i move to approve, mr. president. >> second. >> so moved by commissioner cleveland, seconded by vice president covington. call for the question, all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> thank you very much. madame secretary. >> item 4 certificate of appreciation presentation. san francisco fire department to present certificate of appreciation to dino

medardo rosso for donating time to teach spanish to san francisco fire department to enable our first responders to continue to carry out the department's mission of serving all san franciscans and waldorf school for donating classroom space to that members of the sffd can learn spanish, thereby enabling our first responders to continue to carry out the department's mission of serving all san franciscans. >> thank you president, vice president and commissioners. chief of department nicholson. if i could have dino could you come up to the podium for us? is there a someone from the waldorf school? a representative? just come on up to the podium. i just want to say thank you so much. we appreciate your time, we appreciate

your space. and in helping us be better at our jobs and be able to serve everyone in this city. and so i'm going to come down there and give you certificates of appreciation to both of you. and if either of you would like to speak, we can do that, and if we want to take a picture, we'll do that. so again, thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you so much. >> what's your name? >> andrea. >> pleasure to meet you. [off mic]

>> thank you for having us here. i wanted to thank los bombeross for sponsoring me. i wanted to thank my colleagues at waldorf where we teach spanish, they gave us a classroom over the summer. i would like to thank ingleside for offering us space to teach our classes. i would like to thank lieutenant baxter for being the champion for this program. we met a few years ago and he was trying to accomplish the same goal. i ran into him, and we just sort of -- he helped me make this happen. he's been instrumental in this whole process. there are already some really great language tools that first responders

use when connecting with the community. one of which is there are hand held devices you can plug into arabic or cannot cantonese there are interpreters there are trainings. so this is an additional that first responders have in their tool belts to be able to give a one on one direct assessment. i think it's important that have that personal connection. an interesting number here is that 13 percent of households in san francisco are non-english speaking. it is a fairly high number. 21 percent of those are spanish only. so i would like to again just really thank all of these first responders, firefighters, cops emts, emergency personnel, they have volunteered their time to come and learn with me. this is not something that they were obliged to

do. this is something that they thought was necessary in order to do their jobs better. they came to it. i wanted to talk a little bit about the progress of the students. i wanted to mention that beyond just learning simple phrases they've learned how to actually engage and conjugate verbs and have meaningful conversations with people they are finding on a regular basis in general. the last point i want to make is that this really does have a positive kind of bearing on the way that we are perceived by the community, by "we,"i mean you. i think it improved community relations when first responders are making a concerted effort to reach out to those that they serve by learning a language which as an adult is really hard to do. so i really commend everyone that's involved in this process. so is there anything that you would like

to say? she is my colleague. she also works with me on this program. >> it's great to have meaningful collaboration between school and between the city and also that may we continue to build bridges not only with each other but all the members of the community. >> can we do a photo? >> sure, yeah. why not? [applause] >> come on up here. >> sure. [off mic] >> thank you. [off mic]

>> thank you so much. really great to meet you. great job. thank you so much. commissioners are going to -- thank you. >> a pleasure. >> so i just stand here? >> absolutely. >> mr. rosso? >> yes sir.

>> first of all as an order of business i'm going to ask for public comment and then the commissioners will comment as well. is there any members of the public that wish to give comment on this item? seeing none public comment is closed. commissioners. commissioner cleveland. >> thank you, mr. president. and thank you for being here and thank you for what you are doing. when i became a commissioner on the fire commission, one of the things that i thought was super important was the people we bring into our department be multilingual that we have as many languages spoken in the department as are represented on our streets. and having this program, you know, for people who are already in the department, already on the streets working every day is so critically important. so i just wanted to say muchas gracias. >> [speaking spanish] >> we appreciate the work you are

doing to help our department be more culturally relevant and competent on the street. mr. baxter has done a great job getting the word out about fire prevention and it's been a breath of fresh air to have that kind of exposure to the city. so thank you and keep up the good work. >> [speaking spanish]. >> thank you very much. very, very nice of you to do this. and the waldorf school, when i was on the board of the foundation the waldorf school was at fort mason and this kind of involvement is very much in line with the waldorf philosophy. so i'm not surprised that the classes were held at the waldorf school. it's very very good to see this

collaboration. and of course i echo everything that my fellow commissioner cleveland just said. for a while i toyed with the idea of going to those classes, because i -- but you know, we do fight fires. thank goodness for the city that we don't fight fires. it's such a wonderful thing to have people in their off time go to something that can help the citizenry even more. it really points to how giving the members of our department are. and it's very nice to see you highlighted. so thank you. >> thank you very much, vice president covington. commissioner hardeman. >> yes. since you are not officers, i can call you by your first name. thank you for what you do. great words of

wisdom. i think you make a few bucks on the side if you can find a russian orthodox. >> russian orthodox priest. >> sure. very kind of you to do that. terrific. i didn't know it was even happening. so that's terrific. we should probably. >> spread the word. >> not only to find somebody close by that would do it in chinese, not you particularly but that's a great thing you are doing. >> absolutely. >> if i can also just reiterate again our thanks to you. and i also want to give a shoutout to captain jack hart from ingleside pd who also gave us space. to thank you very much, captain. we appreciate you. [applause] >> thank you very much. i also wanted to echo some comments. this is one

of the more beautiful exciting, happy occasions being a commissioner with this department. it's not unusual because the department and city and county with its citizens and its public, we have also long strived to have relationships. it's not very often these kind of relationships happen with this kind of activity. part of this longevity that i have was part of the consent agreement and part of that was representation of diverse members of our community in the fire department. equally in terms of that, with the percentage of members of our public that don't speak english as their first language i've learned over the years that if you are in trouble or need some help, it's reassuring when you can hear a firefighter or fire woman or paramedic or person of our department come to you and have some language familiar if i, just to kind of engage and feel some comfort zone. i'm quite proud

of this whole program. i appreciate lieutenant baxter, thank you so much for the police department and the support that you have within that. in terms of the remarks by vice president covington, i too was thinking at one point of showing up for some classroom activities only because for so long, and i get so tired of saying this that i want to learn spanish as well, only because our members of our community everywhere i go, members of the spanish-speaking. so for me to be able to engage a little bit beyond, you know [speaking spanish] something to have some relationship, it's just really important. and i am very happy that waldorf is part of this as well. just thank you so much for your dedication and for this work. and good things will occur from this. and thank

you for the start of that. i appreciate it. [applause] >> any comments? >> no, just thank you to all of you and thanks to the fire department and police department for working together to make this kind of happen. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. gracias. >> such an honor to be here on behalf of waldorf. thank you. >> thank you very much. madame secretary. >> item 5 chief of department's report. report from chief of department jeanine nicholson on current issues, activities and events within the department since fire commission meeting on october 9, 2019 including budget, academies special events communication and outreach to other government agencies and the public. >> thank you very much, madame secretary. good evening chief nicholson. >> good evening again. thank you president nakajo, vice president

covington, commissioners good to have you here. i'll start off with our academy. i know chief velo is giving his report, he'll give you more detail. but we did start the members of station 49 in our suppression academy this week. so we are going full bore now. and you will get further information from chief velo. on the 11th, myself and several of my staff, including chief tom met with the san francisco general hospital foundation. and we went through pes psych emergency services and talked to them about how we work together and sort of what their capacity is and how we can work better together. and we talked also