>> closed session including public comment on items a seven. vote whether to hold item eight in closed session. >> is there any public comment online item eight moving into -- line item seven, moving into closed session? no public comment. vote on whether or not to move into closed session? >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> before we go into closed session, i would like to vote on

whether to invoke the attorney and client privilege for those items as well. >> is there a motion? >> so moved. >> item nine, vote to elect whether to disclose what was discussed in closed session. >> aye. >> is anyone for adjournment? >> aye. >> can i have a motion and a second, please? >> second. >> aye. [laughter]

[pledge of allegiance] >> clerk: this is a reminder to silence all electronic devices. fire commission regular meeting wednesday, december 11, 2019, and the time is 9:01. roll call. [roll call] >> clerk: 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 does not appear on the agenda.

speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or personnel. commissioners are not to comment on comments by the speaker. the lack of comment does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, madam secretary. at this time, is there any member of the public that wishes to give public comment? if any member of the public wishes to give public comment, please approach the podium at this time. seeing that there's no one from the public who wishes to give public comment, public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> clerk: item 3, approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the november 30, 2019 meeting minutes.

>> president nakajo: thank you, madam secretary. on the item, item 3, approval of the minutes, is there any public comment on this item? seeing none from the public, public comment at this point is closed. commissioners? >> commissioner verones . >> commissioner hardeman: so moved, mr. president. >> commissioner veronese: second. >> president nakajo: there is a motion by commissioner hardeman, second by commissioner veronese. the minutes are approved. [gavel]. >> president nakajo: madam secretary. item 4, fire director's report.

>> president nakajo: thank you very much, madam secretary. on item 4, as tradition, chief of the department will report first, and then deputy chief will report second. good morning, chief nicholson. >> good morning, mr. president, commissioners, maureen, command staff, and that includes the folks not in uniform, by the way. chief jeanine nicholson. this is my report since november 13. it's going to be a minute longer than it usually is because we have a few more things than we did. november 15, i set up a meeting with the head of d.e.m., mary ellen car ellen carroll, and the head of p.d., chief scott, to

collaborate on issues, whether it's dispatch, training, and other challenges and opportunities that we can work on together. so we are going to be having quarterly meetings where we can, you know, work on things together. the retirement ceremony, thank you to the commissioners for coming to that. about 40 people, and it was very well received by those that came. they were very appreciative. on the 19th of november, we had labor management. things are moving along there. on the 21st, i attended, as well as i believe c.d. 2 and c.d. 3 went to the toys opening event at the newhall hall, 798 hall, so they had a big open day event that i stopped by

that evening. that evening, there was an american legion annual 456 annual awards. three firefighters were awarded for a rescue that they made of an elderly woman off her balcony and another for all his community service. we did the bump up badge pinning at treasure island. approximately -- is it 15? 16 members bumped up to paramedic. on the 25th, we started -- well, i guess we didn't start, but we continued our budget preparation meetings, and we're really trying to distill down our priorities, and we also had

a meeting yesterday, myself and mark corso and chief velo and olivia scanlon, and we believe we're getting direction from mayor breed next week, so we'll keep you posted on that. the command staff participated in a turkey carving event at the salvation army, and that was -- that was good fun. we beat the police. we carved more turkeys than they did, so strong work, command staff. and then, on the thanksgiving, i was with the mayor at glide, carving turkey and then self-help for the elderly in the afternoon. the nob hill firefighter association gave an award as they do each year, and this

year, it was raymond ng from station 41. he is as conscientious as they come, so it was really nice to give him that award. several of us were at s.f.o. the other day where a $40,000 check was presented to tony stefani for the s.f.o. work for the charity golf tournament, so that was super generous to that foundation. i spoke at the hotel council lunch and toy drive on the 6th. on the 7th, santa claus visited station 49, as did i. and then, just for some updates, the firefighter youth

academy funds that we were talking about have been transferred, so that's good to go. then speaking with a couple of employee groups about the opportunities for all and expanding that, this past year, we had three high school kids working at station 49 and one working at nert during the summer, so we're looking to see if we can expand that. we have other places to expand that next year. yesterday, i met with chief tangerlini and a physician and some staff from ucsf to talk about doing research, doing training, and -- and the ability for our members, particularly our paramedics and e.m.t.s to get feedback on calls that they went on, which would be a great learning tool. we released a social media

policy, which i want to thank chief wyrsch and chief velo for working on that. it was a big deal to get that out, so we are happy to make adjustments if need be, but we really needed to get that out. as you already may know, doctor terrazas resigned, and we will be advertising that position hopefully within the next week. we just need the commission's need back on the job announcement as we sent to you, so i'll make sure to send it again if you don't have it because technically the commission is responsible for overseeing that. and then, father greene, just

to put this on your calendar, his farewell party is june 20 at moscone center. there will be a few people in attendance, but there will also be a smaller luncheon that i think i'm going to attend. >> commissioner hardeman: do you mean january 6? >> june. >> commissioner hardeman: june. >> we're giving you some time because this is an important day. this is important because this man has been so good to us for so many years, but there'll also be a luncheon. and then, i just want to say, i sat down with a member who was -- one of our members who was diagnosed with brain cancer. last week, i sat down with him. he's been going through treatment. he's gone through radiation and chemo, and he has three small kids, and he's also a veteran. and while i want to wish

everyone a happy and healthy holiday season, i'd like us all to take a moment out of our days and, you know, think a good thought or say a prayer or, you know, reach out to someone who's going through a difficult time, and that concludes my report for today. thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, chief nicholson. at this time, i will ask for public comment on chief nicholson's report. any member of the public wishes to give public comment at this point, please approach the podium? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, any questions or comments for the chief? commissioner hardeman? >> commissioner hardeman: yeah -- yes, president nakajo, just real quick. i'm glad to see, chief, that you're doing the hardest part of the job, which is taking your time away and having to go to all the ceremonial -- but for the general public and

support of the fire department may be the most department because having the fire chief round is always a good thing. i know it's hard on you. you'd rather be doing a lot of other things -- >> it's part of the job i signed up for. >> commissioner hardeman: thank you for your service. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner hardeman. madam secretary, could you please note that commissioner cleaveland that's joined us for -- has joined us for a full quorum. commissioners? vice president covington, please. >> commissioner covington: thank you, mr. president. thank you, chief, for prompting all of us to continue to fight the good fight and keep the member of the department who has brain cancer in our minds as well as other people who may be in need, so thank you for that. you've been very, very busy, and i just wanted to remark

that i thought that the retirement ceremony was joyful and just a good time, you know? it was like old home week, you know, people returning to headquarters and looking so well rested in their retirement, and to meet some of their family members. i think it's wonderful that we have this event every other year, and so it's a good tradition for us to have. the toys -- excuse me. the toy events that have been happening all-around town, since we have a lot of people who watch our meetings on sfgovtv, are there particular places that you can point out that people might be able to bring toys, you know, because they're just beginning to do their christmas shopping? is there a drop-off point? >> so i don't have a list. 798 would have that.

if anybody else knows -- >> commissioner covington: it can be any fire house? >> it can be at any fire house -- >> commissioner covington: can it be at any fire house? >> absolutely. it can be at any fire house, but there are events at city hall, as well. >> commissioner covington: well, for those of you out there, please go to your local fire house and give a toy for kids. we would appreciate that. all right. and let's see...a lot of commendations for everyone at the department. a congratulations to everyone in that for their part work this past month. and the new department physician, we understand that job has been posted. >> not yet. >> commissioner covington: not yet? so the job will be posted very

soon, and we will have someone very, very good coming in to take dr. terrazas' place after his resignation. and june 20 for father greene, yes. that's a nice long notice, and moscone center, i agree with you, it's probably going to be full, and i'm surprised it's not being held at the chase center. i thank you for your report, chief. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, vice president covington. at this point, if there's no other commissioners, i'm just going to ask the question, chief nicholson, you made a comment in terms of the comment for job description. we have that description in our packet. you're asking for comments and questions by commissioners.

in terms of this, is there a suggested due date that the commissioners should respond back to you so we can get this process post inded? >> we'd love to get it this week, if possible, yeah. we want to get it right, but we're also looking forward to any possibilities. >> president nakajo: okay. so my question then, and my request to the commissioners is please review this job description as requested by the chief. if there's some feedback that you can give the chief by friday of this week, it would be timely. and then, just in terms of a comment, since the physician's office has been vacant, what is the process of operation at this time and how is it going with that?

concern over losing any type of responsibility. >> yeah. if i could have someone come up and just explain the process. >> president nakajo: thank you, chief. i know we have a capable nurse that's within the department, but just trying not to lose any momentum or responsibility to the membership services, doctor. >> absolutely. good morning, president nakajo, chief. as you mentioned, we are -- we're currently focusing on making sure there's no interruption of service. stephanie phelps, nurse practitioner, is continuing to see members. additionally, we are referring people out if there's more complex needs, so there's currently being met. i have a strong belief, and i've communicated that to the chief as well as chief ajello, that that's communicated, and we have a robust physicians'

office that can support the department, so i think a job description for the department would be very, very helpful. i'm currently serving as the assistant physician for supervisor phelps, and then we have the san francisco general occupational health to refer patients as well as some of the outside occupational health clinics. >> president nakajo: thank you very much for that update, doctor. again, thank you for talking about not losing any of the services that we renders within that point of information. it is the responsibility and the jurisdiction of this commission on the physicians department, as well as we talked to the chief on the requirements of the candidates. we have a great opportunity at

this point. thank you for that comment, as well. at this point, i don't have any other questions for you, chief nicholson. commissioner alioto veronese? >> commissioner veronese: thank you, commissioner. i apologize for the late jump-in, but i wasn't going to say anything, but i think this is really important. this is a position that we all know is critical to this department. it'll be interesting to see over this time period of new hire how impacted this office is with -- with the physician missing, but doctor, as we spoke before, it's really important that we're not clinicians up here, we're not doctors. our knowledge base is limited as to exactly what this department needs, so your input is also greatly appreciated in the job application description. it's really important. i'm curious, mr. president, to what our ability is to actually recruit specific people as

opposed to -- for such a critical position as opposed to just taking from a list of the willing who apply. i know that i've served on commissions before where we've put together a task force of sorts -- i'm not saying it's needed -- but to actually go out and recruit other people perhaps away from other departments or other jobs. this is a critical job to this department, to the mission of the department to take care of its own people, so i think we should be doing everything possible in the fastest way possible to get somebody in this position, so that's all i have to say to that. >> president nakajo: thank you very much for that comment, and i'm going to ask the chief of the department to respond to your question and concern, which is duly noted. commissioner -- chief nicholson, would you like to respond to the commissioner? >> so respond to the -- >> president nakajo: the question on the robust recruitment and can we -- >> yeah. so we've had a lot of inquiry already from people, and we've had some referrals already, so

we're actually feeling pretty good right now, and -- but yeah, we will -- we're looking at that internally in terms of where to post it, as we did with the grant writer, and so we're hoping to post-it in the next week. >> president nakajo: commissioner, any other comments in terms of -- >> commissioner veronese: well, in terms of referrals, that's great. it's a small community of doctors here in san francisco, so anybody we can refer, recruit, to get them into this process would be great, and we know the department's going to be working hard on it, but outside of our own resources, people in this world, it would be great to get the word out to them, a great job and a great department. a lot of good stuff to be done here. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner alioto

veronese. thank you very much, chief nicholson. at this time, can we call up chief velo for his report? >> good morning president, vice president, commissioners. this is my october 19 report. seems the holiday schedule has kind of, you know, thrown things -- so i will report in for november and december on my jo january reports, so i wasn't here for the last meeting, so it's been a while. groups and committees, continue to attend many meetings and committees. i want to show you the report, and it's right after the fleet data page i put for you, a sample of one of the committees that's working on a project, the work group.

i put the charter of the work group in that report. just an example of how professional this looks, how dedicated these folks are to make sure all the responsibilities that they're working on align with our plan. it's on page 34 and 35 of your report -- and 36. just an example of how they are working, organizing what they're working on, how they're going to review -- >> president nakajo: chief velo, are you going to be putting that report up on the screen? >> no, it's just the three pages of the report. i'm meeting with the accident committee, reviewing the accident policy. it's been a long time since we reviewed that. i attended the meeting of the behavioral health committee, as well, too, and also policies

and procedures where we're advising our rules and regulations, so we're working on that, as well. working with the chief on staff 2020, working on what's coming up for staff next year, and training that's coming up. we turn in all the fire requirements, e.m.s. requirements, priorities, and go from there. i wasn't at the last meetings. i was at a labor and management committee at the state controller's office and the state association of firefighters. what it does, the apprentice program, it gives money back to the department. so every year, first year member's year on the job, we

get $2.25 an hour back. also, social media was a big topic. conference on that, so that was very helpful to be there. timely conversation, president nakajo, about the interim plan with officials yesterday, and just like dr. ng expressed, we're moving forward. we have a department of occupational health at san francisco general that will see patients, so we have that going forward, too. i attended a health check presentation at u.c. davis. u.c. davis fire department has been very progressive health check in how they're doing it. they have a company that they use to do scans, and they do it every year. they have an agreement with their local that all the information, it's personal to individuals, and they have to go to the doctor, to their own private physician, and the department will get aggregate data to analyze the information

that the department has, then they can push that through programs in the department. we're looking at that process if it works for us. right now, contra caosta and u.c. davis are the only departments that do it. we're just looking at options for us to bring back the health check, and we have another meeting coming up in january with our labor department for that group, too. i met with the i.s.o. inspector and insurance inspector that rates us on several things. we're again rated number one, so a class 1 rating for our department. the information has come back before we had some things to do, to cleanup and bring it back to the inspector.

and once we're done with that, we take that to the chief and the mayor. once we're done, we expect to be a class 1 again, which is good because if you are a class 1, your insurance rates go down for the city. -- we a [inaudible] >> -- kind of management -- approach management, timeline management. and one of the two projects that we're working on right now is our revision of our s.o.p.s and manuals that we're working on, next year to have then revised and completed. we have several other projects that we're working on. basically, we want this person to come in, work at headquarters, work on projects versus just fire house stuff,

learn how to work on the management side of things and then come back and have a more rounded background when they promote to higher positions and come out to the command staff, so it's good thing for the chief to bring those positions back here. as you know, we have a 26 academy. we have 51 recruits remaining. one of them failed the m.s. portion of it. two resigned due to injury, and two have failed on efficiencies. one of them returned to station 49, so we're down from 51 to 46. last month, on october 2, in service training. we had rope rescue and confined service classes.

this week, we're having pg&e members come in and help us understand pg&e, pacific gas and electric and understand their equipment, and our citizens, too, and then, we put them through training. i know we saw you last time, we had the yearly drill in october, but we also delivered another -- it was the four-session all in spanish to the community. it's a lite -- i call it lite version of nert. many families bring their kids because they don't have a way to baby-sit, so they learn life skills, shut off electric, water, fire extinguisher, something they can definitely use in their community and help each other.

so that was the last one that we held at divisional training. bureau of division and planning, they had a vacancy list on november 7. and along with that and the new tours, we'll be moving around mid-january, and now we're going through the vacation selection process. and this is the first time i report on this, so the new health and safety wellness chief, who's here. i included that report -- her report on the -- my report, and i will be doing that from now on, so you have information on what the chief is working on and the department is working on. some information from her. we're able to identify some training for our members, and we have one that's going in january to a week-long class how to deal with these issues so we can make the case for

increasing our staff in this unit. we identify -- the last report i showed you -- the stats of injuries that we had. some of the stats we had were stepping up the apparatus, so we're working on proper techniques to step off on the apparatus for fewer injuries. we're working with sfpd with deescalation training. it's a program that they have, and then, we're going to have context with them. they give us the training, and we're going to adapt to our members. we have concerns about violence to our members in the field, especially at station 49, so they have some issues. so we identified some techniques that we can probably use to deescalate the situation, zso we're going to o forward with that, training of

40 hours, bring them back, create a curriculum for us that's specially for our folks, and station 49, too. we're working with the spca for animal visits at the fire house, and i think the first visit is tomorrow at 4:30. we're going to have animal companion visits at station 49 and go from there. spca, yeah. support services, you won't recognize it, station 35, but all the piles are removed there. everything is to be on track.

station 49, latest pictures of 49, we have a concrete floor on the fourth floor. all interior walls and exterior framing have been completed and actually we're working on the ducts on the first floor and second floor, and it's moving right along to schedule in anticipation of completion next winter, next fall. apparatus updates. the host and specs have been completed. currently, o.c.a., they're supposed to go out to bid this month. hopefully, that's the case and they go out to bid and start getting some vendors that start the bids. we have some engines that have been ordered in the preconstruction process. we're identifying some things that the staff eidentified tha had to be corrected. once we get that, we're good to go. mobile air, we finally -- the vendor finally found a chassis

that will work for them, so it's peterbilt, so now we're moving forward on the motors, too. on december 17, we have a demonstration for all electric engines on the d.o.t. technology is always -- we're always looking at new technology to see if it meets our needs. if not, but we have a vendor coming in december 17 to show us. and last month, station 17 received their brand-new engine. they were very happy to see that, so my first meeting here, i provided you with the stats of our apparatus, and i included on your report on page -- let's see...page 33, 34, and 35 -- 34, an updated chart with our apparatus. so i have the pie charts here,

and what you see here is that we're moving forward, we get new rigs. we're still behind, and we're asking for those updates in the budget. we have five hose extenders there, and a light unit, and a p.c.o. unit. we're looking at different models for that, and we're looking at having the fleet become more green, yellow, than red. so this is an update from last time, but i'm going to continue bringing this to you every six months, the update on the fleet and the status. here you have, a pie chart, all apparatus engines and trucks. obviously, we have a need mormore trucks, so that will make -- need for more trucks so that will make our comments and numbers much better.

we continue to work with high schools, learning all kinds of skills. we hope that program is a model that we can incorporate into other schools in the district and make a way to come into the department with some preexperience with that, too. very excited about that. international high school and also at three rivers in october, but we had a booth there, too. chief mentioned the turkey carving that we did -- and yes, we did, we beat p.d. on that by a lot. and then -- true, that's true, commissioners. we're used to the kitchen. also, we had a -- chief and i visited the troops and then went to the kincade fire. it was good to support our

neighbors to the north and it was interesting to be there in the camp with members not just in the state but out of state, as well, too. this finishes my report. chief cochran is going to give you an update. if you have any questions or you want to wait until after the drone update, up to you. >> president nakajo: commissioners, i think we'll take that update at this particular point, and then, we can ask our questions. chief cochran, welcome. good morning to you. >> good morning, mr. president, commissioners, chief nicholson. chief cochran, on the drone update, the work begins operationally on training. we want to get the most members trained to cover the city on a day-to-day basis. the general order went out on november 1 looking for members of the department that want to become pilots that aren't on

specialized groups. we've got 14 members approved by the deputy. now we've got to find a training program and a school. we've identified one, the costs associated with it. make sure they're a city vendor, awaiting approval with that. now we've submitted the fire service drone. o.c.a. kicked it back and said you can't give a specific model number, you have to write your own specs. internally, m.i.s. helped me, we got those specs written, and as of today, the drone is not posted on o.c.a. yet. that's the latest update, but we're moving forward. >> president nakajo: all right. thank you very much, chief c cochran. we're going to forward -- you still have your report to go through, chief velo. i'm going to ask for public comment, but if you could both remain so the members can ask

questions on that as well as chief velo's report. at this point, i'm going to ask if there's any public comment on the public report from chief velo. seeing no public comments, i'm going to ask the commissioners if they have any comments or questions. commissioner alioto veronese? >> commissioner veronese: chief, on the drone stuff, you identified a drone you want to purchase, and it is currently being posted with the city agency that requested bids for these things? how does this work? yes. this is from mark corso who's been coaching me on this. because it's been grant funded, and researched far and wide, the specific drone we want, lights, cameras, batteries, we submitted a specific model. apparently it has to be, i'll say vanilla, just the specs,

and then, it does go to open bid. i'm not exactly sure how many days, so we had to rewrite the specs and resubmit, and it's not posted as of this morning. so basically, people -- it's like a request for proposal you're putting out, basically for people to submit -- drone companies to come in and say yeah, we have this drone, and this is what it costs. is that the idea? and how long does it take? because that sounds like an entirely new process as opposed to a single source process, this is the type of drone we need, which is sounds like what you did. these are the specifications, this is the drone we want -- it looks like mr. corso -- >> yes, sir. i'm going to have to refer to c.f.o. on that. >> absolutely. good morning, commissioners.

mark corso, finance and planning. due to it being a department of homeland security grant, we can't single source it out. as chief cochran had mentioned, we had thoroughly reviewed the specs to make sure we had everything we need, but we are turning it over today. it will be posted -- it's not like construction or r.f.p. vendors can sell drones with their model and their pricing, and can be rather -- pretty straightforward. we want to ensure in our specifications that the equipment that's being submitted meets our needs, and so that's why it's taken a little longer for a thorough review of the specs. >> commissioner veronese: once it's submitted -- do we anticipate purchasing a drone in the next few months? six months? a year? >> oh, yes.

the next few months. it's a fairly straightforward. there's very minor contracting or anything like that that's required, so it's a pretty straightforward commodity purchase there. >> commissioner veronese: assuming they're a city vendor. >> correct. >> commissioner veronese: if they're not a city vendor, there's a process to make them a scity vendor? >> absolutely. a they're given an amount of time to say if you're interested in pursuing this process, you have an opportunity to become a city vendor, and if not, we're going to move on. >> commissioner veronese: thank you. and then on the training courses, you've identified 14 individuals that have been approved to take this course. is this a course that's going to happen in the next month? two months? six months? a year? >> so actually, we have identified a school that is in treasure island that can do

that. so within the next month, we expect to start training these folks. >> commissioner veronese: so how long is the course? >> so it's to prepare for the f.a.a. course, it's two days. 16 hours of study and then homework. then you get sent to the local airport to get your f.a.a. license. two more days of flying because we want people to practice. that's daytime flights, nighttime flights and a specialized course which they have to pass, then they're licensed. >> commissioner veronese: okay. so putting these two processes together, are we going to have a drone flying in this department by the end of january? >> first quarter of next year for sure. >> commissioner veronese: first quarter of next year. okay. thank you, chief cochran. >> thank you, sir. >> commissioner veronese: i had

a question in regards to the mobile health care unit that's been deployed in the tenderloin by the haight-ashbury free clinic. have we seen that has affected in a positive way our call volumes or our response times? we know that that's an affected model? >> i'll refer to dr. ng for that one. >> hello again. so the units that you're referring to, commissioner remember owe nie veronese is the healthright 360. they're not currently receiving volume from the 911 system, so we're not -- for instance, 911 ambulance are not delivering patients to this clinic, so it doesn't have that sort of an

impact. on the other hand, their mission, as i understand it, is to provide better access for primary care, so that's another access for patients in that area who don't have access to another clinic that they can go to. if that would prevent a person from requiring 911 services, that would be a benefit to us. but to answer your question, we don't strictly monitor the influence of that particular unit. specifically anecdotally, i don't think we're seeing an impact on that. it's not for patients that are seeking emergency access, it's to provide non-911 services to people. >> commissioner veronese: thank you. you brought up an interesting point. i'd be curious to know how many of our calls require a hospital vist visit as opposed to -- you know, you require a hospital visit, and then, those calls

that should require some sort of a physician but not an ambulance ride, for example, and you think this type of clinic could serve those types of people. i'm wondering if the department is looking at those numbers and determining whether or not a mobile health care unit like this would be useful to the department, especially now that we're getting into budget cycles and stuff. and it seems to me as though the mayor's office -- i'm just hallucinating on this, but the mayor's office and the budget office would look favorably on doing something like this. now i'm going to say this is not our job, but like e.m.s. 6, if we can create units that help us down the line, then maybe this is something we should be looking at. but we can't answer that question until we know whether or not this type of service

will positively affect the type of service that we provide to the citizens of san francisco. so maybe there's still some questions to be answered on that, but i do think it's something we should look at and be prepared during this budget cycle to perhaps ask for money for or for that matter, if we don't do that, and we know it's going to positively help us and provide services to the city, then maybe this is something we should be asking the department to step up to the plate and actually do. so -- >> if i can respond, i agree. i think it's a concept definitely worthy of exploration. i think it's also good that we're developing a need that can be met and it's compatible with our mission and also an operational and regulatory environment, but indeed, if it's something that can help the patients that we serve, it's definitely worth exploring. >> commissioner veronese: well, i ask the department to be

ready to answer those questions before we get into the budget cycle, but as soon as possible so we don't find ourselves in a position of providing those services, which we do already, in an unfunded way, which we already do, which is causing more stress to those in station 49. so thank you. >> president nakajo: chief nicholson, so you had input on a couple of things? >> yes. so this is definitely something that we've been talking out, looking into on the budget and all that. i've had quite a few conversations with the doctor and a couple of chiefs about the model that we could use out there. so i've asked the doctor to do a couple of ride alongs with

chief pang to see if there's -- looking at are there other ways to address this, what's effective and what's not? i know it's been effective to have psych nurses riding along with e.m.s. 6, psych nurses from d.p.h., so i know that's been done. i also know we're having a community paramedicine class either in january or february. once our test captain list comes out, we're going to have people take that class, and they will be part of this -- you know, this program, whatever kind of expansion we're going to do, and yeah. i mean, we've thought about, is it -- would it be successful to have -- to bring, you know, one of our sprinters out to turk and taylor and set up shop with, you know, a physician, social worker, like -- i don't know. so we're -- we're looking at

all sorts of different ways to address it, and it is top priority, so -- >> commissioner veronese: thank you, chief, for working on that. chief, if you could address -- i know the sirens went offline, and there was some social media about it. are those offline for the next two years while they're working on that? there's going to be no siren system for the next two years? >> that is correct. they're technology from i want to say the 50's, and basically anybody could hack into them at any time is what we found over the past year or two -- what the d.e.m. found, and so they needed to be -- they need to be upgraded and taken offline, so yes. there's 100 and -- i can't remember how many of them, 120 of them or something like that, so yes, they all need to be

upgraded. >> commissioner veronese: and if you could reassure the public, which is true, there's other technologies that we're using where in there's some sort of emergency where those would be deployed, that they'll get notice. >> absolutely, there are. there's sf alert, there's push notification on other people's phones, and there is a way for the city to -- to push out notifications like they do now with -- with flooding in different areas or the like, so -- >> commissioner veronese: okay. thank you, chief. appreciate it. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner alioto veronese. that concludes your questions at this point. commissioner hardeman? >> commissioner hardeman: yeah, real quick, president nakajo, i read that article in the paper that commissioner veronese is referring to. that article existed because

glide could no longer staff in their facility what we're doing in the mobile unit right now, so that's why that facility exists. but it sounds like they're doing very, very minor stuff. didn't seem like there was any narcan being administered or anything like that. they referred to it as minor cuts, things like that. it seems like a very insignificant number of people that have been served, at least elicited in the papers. it seems like it would be a very nice thing to have in san francisco -- not criticizing it, but just repeating what i read in the article. it was a good article. it's nice to see people being helped if they needed. i only turned the mic onto

thank you again because pie charts and graphics and photos are, you know, like 10,000 words or a thousand words, like you say so, especially in your report. so thank you. >> thank you, commissioner hardeman. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner hardeman. commissioner covington? >> commissioner covington: thank you very much, chief. your report is very organized. i do appreciate the organization of the report. it's very good to see this. i just had some questions regarding the ageing fleet of the department. i guess that wrote be on page 33, the page that's not numbered. >> mm-hmm. yep. >> commissioner covington: so i see that this is all broken-down into apparatus that

is one to five years old, five to 15 years old, 15 to 25 years, and more than 25 years. how do you prioritize what needs to be replaced? because a long time we had a fleet plan, and then, we didn't have a fleet plan, and we need funding for that, but these numbers are still high. >> it's still high. it's going to take us a while to get from the hole we were a few years ago. a plan was drafted last year, and we're following the plan. we're still behind. it's going to take some funding

from city hall and supervisors to help us get to where we are, so we're going to advocate for that in the next budget cycle. we're drafting a new plan to make sure our needs are met. one of the things that's going to help us is the hostings that's coming in. those are just specialized units are used rarely infrequently. we might not need a whole unit or truck. it might be a trailer that we can attach to a pick up truck. so we're looking at things that are in the market that are more cost efficient, more effective for us. >> commissioner covington: before you leave the hose tenders, there are five hose tenders here, one, two, three, four, five. >> yes, mm-hmm. >> commissioner covington: so five hose tenders, i have heard from the chief of the department and other people that we need six hose tenders,

but at the same time, i've heard that we have no place to put them if we get new hose tenders. so is there something else that needs to happen in order for these hose tenders to be deployed? >> so some of these hose tenders will replace ones that we have right now. other ones will go into relief. we're having meetings to learn exactly where we're going to put them. >> commissioner covington: that was what i was thinking exactly, with the space crunch. we as commissioners, we --

[inaudible] >> commissioner covington: and i also wanted to ask about the mass casualty. is that the mass casualty bus or what is that? >> so we have two mass casualty units and two mass casualty buses. >> commissioner covington: okay. so this is the unit or one of the