quit attempt. >> what happens to residents of supportive housing right now if they don't want to smoke or be around second half hand smoke? >> so we did actually come up with those issues. i think they're in the minority because most of the people who are living there are smokers. i think participant management stafproperty managementstaff tho minimize the second-hand smoke drift. but i think you have to also look at it from the perspective of someone who hasn't had a home in a long time. and for them, the issue, whether you're a smoker and you have a

policy or you're a nonsmoker and you have a policy is that you have a home and that is their priority to maintain it. pai(please stand by).

this is especially benefiting children, senior as and people with health issues like asthma. as we heard from the u.s. surgeon general's report, no safe level of exposure to drifting secondhand smoke and also sadly that the home where our children remain most exposed. residents tell us that smoke easily drifts between the units. over the years, ive received many calls and emails from san francisco residents who are telling me how much they're suffering from breathing in their neighbor's drifting tobacco and marijuana smoke. and how little recourse they have in real life to improve the situation. the most difficult calls i get from parents whose young children are getting sick firsthand seniors whose health is seriously compromised from the drifting smoke. it's only one resident who is smoking in the building and

their smoke is creating a constant health threat for many of the other neighbors. most callers have tried talking with their neighbors or landlord or h.o.a. and they're trying their best to have a healthier living situation, but they can't find relief or recourse on their own. they simply want to breathe clean air at home and it's time that the board of supervisors consider taking action to help residents have this basic health. as we all know, the housing situation in san francisco is very challenging. and it means that most people don't have the means to up and move to escape the smoke. even if they did, there's no guarantee the next place they move to would be even better. we want all san franciscans to have a healthy living environment. san francisco would be in good company. i brought a list of the 56 other communities in california that have 100% smoke-free multi-unit housing. [bell dings] >> thank you. next speaker.

>> good morning, board of supervisors. my name is marykemp. wewe are especially concerned about secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing and we encourage you to consider policies that will protect residents from the dangers of secondhand smoke. exposure to secondhand smoke has killed more than 2.5 million non-smokers since 1964, according to the 2014 report from the u.s. surgeon general, who has also declared there's no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing is especially troubling. smoke can and does transfer between units, seeping under doorways and through cracks. everyone deserves to breathe clean air, whether they can afford to rent or buy. best practices support that any policy be made effective for

new, as well as existing multi-housing residences, both rented and owner-occupied. adoption of such a policy protects our children, since more than a quarter of people living in multi-unit housing are under the age of 18. and the home is a primary source of secondhand smoke for children. in addition to significant health benefits for residents, smoke-free policies would save california multi-unit housing property owners 18-point $1 million in renovation expenses each year. thank you for continuing to consider a strong smoke-free policies that work toward a healthier community. smoke-free spaces help former smoker quit and from ever starting. we encourage you to make the health of san francisco residents a priority and join the numerous communities throughout california who adopt ed comprehensive social media policy -- smoke-free

policies. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is kalen kelly. i'm a program director with bay area community resources. i would like to shed some light on how the residual impacts of secondhand smoke, specifically in concentrated residents of people of color, not only compounded issues of environmental justice, but have also caused generational health concerns regarding the most vulnerable community members in areas like valley and the hill. and especially baby hunters point. it's no secret that areas such as hunters point and visitation valley have had disproportionate environmental concerns, leading to high rates of asthma and many other health hazards. what some people don't consider, these health issues are impacting generations of residents and people of color residing in these areas. consider this. according to the san francisco department of health's 2018 report on african-american health, it was found that due to social, economic, and environmental burdens, the life

expectancy for african-americans is the lowest of all ethnicities in san francisco. and when it comes to asthma in african-americans in san francisco, the report found that the condition asthma, amongst african-americans, is exacerbated by mold, pollution and tobacco smoke. generationally speak, according to the centers for disease control and preventions website, in general during 2013 and 2014, secondhand smoke exposure was found in 61% of african-american children age 3 to 11. it was found in 53% of african-american adolescence from age 12 to 19 and 45% of african-american adults among the age of 20. secondhand smoke presents a particular health risk to communities of color and so we do ask you to advocate and consider multi-unit housing to

prevent -- [bell dings] >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is bob gordon. please consider the story of a fellow san franciscan. he now lives in district 8, supervisor mandelman's district, as do i. he live an unit rented out on airbnb for 30 days at a time. every month brings a new set of temporary tenants downstairs. many of these airbnb guests would smoke. and their smoke would enter upstairs through his kitchen windows, which was his only source of fresh air. even if he closed the windows completely, the smoke would still enter the unit. not only was the smoke a nuisance, it was leading to physical symptoms. he had no real control over this

harmful smoke coming inside his unit, other than to plead with the airbnb guests to stop harming him. some of the downstairs guests listened to his pleas for fresh air. others did not. the smoke problem persisted, until this fellow san franciscan was able to move, not an easy feat in this town that's so expensive for housing. health comes first. and all of our housing must be safe from the dangers of drifting smoke. for seniors, for youth, for people with h.i.v., for people with asthma and heart conditions, for everybody. berkeley, another city with rent control, has an ordinance protecting people from such harmful drifting smoke. san francisco would do well to follow berkeley's lead. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi. i'm here with my organization.

a personal thing that really matters to me. we are kids from the '60s, all of my family is. and out of all of my siblings, four of us have asthma. and my parents didn't know better, so they were heavy smokers. and i know what secondhand smoke does to you, you know, because it happened to me. and i just wanted to say that if you can really help the newer generations to be, you know, free from those problems. respiratory issues are so scary, you know. i cannot even tell you how many times i went to the emergency thinking that i was going to die. and so if you can help and

change this and maybe even apply it farther, because i live on san bruno avenue. it's one of those very heavy traffic places. and a lot of smokers. and they are outside the street smoking all the time. you know, outside of the street, even i can feel it on the second floor. [bell dings] please, if you can do it for the units, you know, where people live, it can even get bigger than that. thank you. >> thank you. are there any other members of the public who would like to speak on this item before i close public comment? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [gavel] supervisor walton? >> thank you, president yee, for calling this hearing today. i want to ucsf and the

department of public health for presenting today. just one thing i just want to say is that nobody should ever be forced to inhale secondhand smoke. you should never be in a position where you have to be around secondhand smoke. and you don't have an opportunity to get away, and particularly if you're in your own household. so i do appreciate this hearing and i do appreciate president yee bringing this forward, because that's important. as you know, we have a lot of fights against big tobacco and keeping people safe and out of harm's way from secondhand smoke. and i just do want to reiterate the fact that it is our job to put policies in place to make sure that people don't have to be forced to be around any kind of secondhand smoke. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor walton. president yee. >> supervisor yee: yeah. i want to thank the speakers that came today and really at least educated myself. and also the people that made

public comments. i appreciate your comments and wanting to address this issue. and, you know, it's really troubling what i heard also today. because i grew up in a triplex. we call them flats in san francisco. and everybody smoked. and even when the people were smoking downstairs, even when the windows were open, the smoke would go through the floor. never thought about it when i was younger. and maybe because i was -- i had the opportunity to buy my own home, single family home. and my kids were growing up. and, of course, there was no smokers around my household. so i didn't think about it i thought all of these laws that we passed in the last few

decades, that everybody would have an environment where they wouldn't have to worry about secondhand smoke in their own homes. and then when these issues were brought up to me more recently, are you kidding me. even when my father -- when he was 89, i had to -- well, i moved him into my home. and he was a smoker. i said, you know, i really want to move you into my home. you need help. but you can't smoke in my house. you know, he's -- he probably had been smoking for like almost 80 years. and lo and behold he not -- he didn't say anything. he just stopped. and, you know, once he moved in. people can stop. and so part of me is -- like i think supervisor walton, i believe we can do better than this in the city. i mean, why in the world would -- any of you have kids or older

adults that you take care of, why would you expose them to secondhand smoke? and yeah you have almost no right in a multi-unit household. and, as you know, we're creating more and more of these multi-unit households, because we're making it easier to add those a.d.u.s. so i'm looking forward to -- i have already made a statement earlier in one of our board meetings that i will look at legislation to see what we can do about this. and i'm hoping that some of my colleagues will join me in supporting this legislation that will, you know, basically keep our -- not only our children and these seniors, but also the regular adults healthy in the city. so thank you very much. >> thank you, president yee. supervisor walton. >> supervisor walton: just for the record, i do want to say

that one thing that does concern me, as we get ready to shape policy, is that we are very careful of how we deal with enforcement, with policies around ensuring that people don't have to inhale secondhand smoke. because i can see a speculator, i can see our predatory property owners doing everything they can to use laws to promote evictions. and so i definitely want to make sure that we're careful about how we address that and deal with that. because i do not want to encourage negative interaction between property owners and tenants. and so when we do shape policy, we must take that into account, because there are landlords and property owners out there that would love to create something that would help them push towards more evictions. >> thank you, supervisor walton. president yee, are you all right with us filing this hearing? >> supervisor yee:. >> i'll move that we have the

hearing heard and filed. and we can take that without objection. thank you, president yee. >> thank you. >> mr. clerk, please call our next item. >> clerk: agenda item number,. including positions created as part of the police department's civil zannation plan, in order to understand how long it takes to fill vacancies and ascertain ways to improve or prioritize hiring these urgent positions. >> vice chair stefani, this is your hearing. >> i called this after an issue about new civilian classifications within the police department. as you look more deeply into the issue, we discovered greater structural and environmental challenges, that impact how the san francisco police department, fire department and the department of public health are able to fill the ranks.

the reason they deserve special ascension is because these are dedicated public servants who intervene when the rest of us are often in crisis. they are our first responders, emergency medical professionals, police officers, firefighters, nurses and clinicians. when our residents are injured or in danger, these are the people who come to our rescue. as a government, one of our core functions is to keep our fellow citizens safe. that should be obvious. filling these positions ensures that we meet that. so. these positions are absolutely critical to make sure that we are fulfilling that responsibility. and we can't do that with ongoing or chronic vacancies among our police, e.m.t. or nursing staff. we can't function as a city if we can't respond to emergencies with the speed and urgency required. the low unemployment rate and high cost of living make recruitment and retention very difficult. for all of these positions, but especially for our police department.

rent is higher, commutes are longer and working in a large complicated city is much harder than in some of our quieter suburbs. but it's our job, as policymakers to respond to these environmental factors and find solutions. this committee is tasked with understanding the public safety landscape in this city. and we need a mechanism to receive reporting on what the demand for public health and safety services is in this city. and how well we are meeting that demand. i intend to ask our department of human resources to work with other departments here to find a way to give us consistent, clear, ongoing reporting for how we're meeting our public health and safety hiring goals. we need to adjust to the new hiring environment and reform our own processes, so these vacancies can be filled as quickly as possible. and with that i'd like to invite our guest from d.h.r. to start us off and then we'll hear from the fire department, our chief janeen nicholson.

hi, sister. and deputy police chief greg yee and michael brown from the department of human resources. oh, kate howard. hello there. >> good afternoon, supervisors. hate howard from the department of human resources. chair mandelman, members of the committee, it's my pleasure to be here with my colleague, as well as the director of employment servicesser steve ponder, the director of classification and compensation for the city. and dave johnson, who is the manager of our public safety recruitment team at d.h.r. i'm here to present briefly on the city's hiring process for critical public safety positions. and my understanding is that our colleagues from the police department, fire department, and public health department will present, in more detail, about the specific opportunities and challenges associated with

rerouteing and retaining those positions. we use fair and equitable to practices to support and retain highly qualified organize -- workforce. we're unique in needing to hire and retain public safety and first responder, as part of our -- as part of that workforce. briefly before i go into detail on the public safety positions, i'd like to answer a question that i know has come up regarding the creation of new classifications. so this slide is really intended to describe very briefly how we establish new classifications at d.h.r. a job classification essentially describes the duty and the scope of work for each job in the city. and currently there are about 1,100 job classifications that

d.h.r. is responsible for maintaining. as you can tell, that really reflects the diversity and the complexity of the kinds of work that we have. so in order to create a new job class 1:00 finish, it's a collaborative process, the set of classifications and departments. departments typically will identify a need and work with d.h.r. to refine the specific job duties and scope of work. we would consider factors like minimum qualifications, desirable qualifications, special conditions, things like the ability to speak spanish or another language. and then we would work with labor to finalize that new job specification. our goal is really to write those specifications in a way that they are clear, that they don't overlap, but that they're not too rigid and allow departments to have the ability to complete their work, as they

need to. i think this came up in the context of some work we did with the police department, to create a new background, personnel technician. so that's just an overview of how we approach the creation of classifications. the rest of my presentation will briefly highlight the processes that d.h.r. owns, associated with hiring of police officers and firefighters. so these are the positions that we'll cover today. police officers and then for the fire department the process that i describe is similar for firefighters, emts and e.m.t. paramedics. the health department will cover the work around registered nurses and other critical positions that they're intending to fill.

i wanted to -- to start off with on police officers, i wanted to just highlight for you some of the work we have done over the last several years to really bring down the time to hire and to move people through the process more quickly. i think the takeaway from this slide is essentially that before 2013, it took between five and six months to go through the initial screening process, in order to get on a list to be able to be considered to go through the rest of the police background and then to move forward to the academy. so five to six months in just d.h.r.s part. over the last several years, due to some changes that we've made, that i'll highlight on the next slide, we've essentially been able to move what were sequential processes into parallel, so that you can complete the physical ability test and the oral exam on the same timeline. you don't have to do one before the other. so that's cut the time to -- that folks are in our process in

half. in addition, before 2014 we would create an eligible list. so we would run people through a series of exams. we would create a list and that list would be valid for two years. and people wouldn't have an opportunity to get on to a list, other than every two years. what we're doing now is essentially continuous testing, so any time someone is interested in taking a position with the police department as a police officer, they're able to take the exam and move quickly into that next step. get on the list within approximately three months. so the next slide shows you the way the process works now. and this is a partnership between d.h.r. and the police department. as you can see, the first step is that an interested police officer candidate would submit their application and register with the national testing network. this is a vendor that we use,

that has contracts with public safety departments across the country. and they conduct the initial judgment-based test. it's the first screening for folks who are interested in becoming a police officer. that exam is given one time a month in san francisco. and they can take the test at any local testing center. they can take it at our test center, which is 1740 caesar chavez in the dog patch. within 30 days of taking that exam, the candidate needs to schedule their physical ability test and their oral interview with the san francisco police department. and while that scoring is taking place, candidates are placed on a tentative eligible list. that list is published within two weeks and provided to the police department. once all of the scores are in, those individuals names are confirmed and sent to the police

department. and they own the process from there. essentially this process takes approximately two to three months. and one of the other i think innovations here is that folks have the ability, if they're not successful in one of the elements of the exam, they're able to retest and continue to try to be successful to get on to the list. i would note that the police department has done some significant work trying to improve their process through some lean process improvements, in partnership with other departments. and that d.h.r. has a regular, collaborative recruitment meeting with our staff and with the police department staff, to ensure that the process is working smoothly and to try to identify other improvements that we can make. on the firefighters' side, the process is similar.

candidates submit their application to n.t.n. again not to the fire department. they take their test. and then are required to submit their valid california e.m.t. certification and any other testing that's required by the state. once the scoring has been completed, we've got the certifications from the state e.m.t. certifications, as well as their test scores. the fire department requests their eligible list to be refreshed, in advance of any upcoming academies that are scheduled. folks are listed on the tentative eligible list and after three days, it's adopted. and that information is sent to fire department human resources for their next steps. i think the main difference between police and firefighter hiring process is that the

physical ability test happens at a later stage in the firefighter process. it happens earlier for police officer candidates. both exams are given on a continuous basis and both lists are adopted on a continuous basis. and that means that new individuals can be added any time to that list. and so there's always a refreshed pool of candidates, who are interested in becoming firefighters or police officers. a couple of highlights of things that we have done in partnership with our public safety departments, to try to expedite the hiring processes. we started off the conversation with our discussion about new job classifications. and so we did create a position 1251 background investigator. so that's a new civilianized position, whereby the police department no longer needs to use foreign officers to do

background investigations of potential police recruits. we've also made several improvements to the hiring process, which i have highlighted, including our partnership with n.t.n., so that the exam can be given more frequently, a continuous list, so the pool of candidates who are interested is always available. and then creating a parallel track for the process, rather than a sequential track. we also have in our departments, in particular and police can talk more about this, several folks who are doing recruitment work, that do targeted recruiting in other cities and communities to try to bring qualified candidates into the mix. we also provide fee waivers for individuals for whom the cost of taking the exam is prohibitive. we are able to provide them with a fee waiver, so they don't have to pay to take the exam, to try

to qualify to become a police officer or firefighter. and then finally we've done some work with the health department in the past around nurse hiring and doing some job fairs there. as i mentioned, these are ongoing partnerships with fire department, police department and the health department. and we look forward to continuing to improve our processes with them. finally, i'll just mention, as you know and as supervisor stefani highlighted, we are in a very competitive job market at the moment, given the low unemployment, given the challenges that public safety employees face in doing their jobs. they're very challenging roles for folks. and so we're in a competitive market. however, we do continue to provide very competitive salaries for all of our

employees. as well as competitive benefit packages. i think one of the places where we're continuing -- where we're going to continue to do more work is in terms of targeted recruitment. given the labor market we have to work even harder to encourage people to take on these challenging roles and for them to understand what kinds of salary and benefits come along with that. as well as to understand what the process is to qualify to become a police officer, firefighter or nurse with the city. that's important not just to have filled positions, but also to maintain and enhance the diversity of our workforce, so we're able to meet the needs of our diversity community. with that i'm happy to answer any questions. as i mentioned, this is really a brief overview of the portion of the process that d.h.r. controls. i know that the other departments will talk a little bit about what they do, once they get eligible lists from us.

>> supervisor walton. walton railroad thank you -- >> supervisor walton: thank you so much. do we know the breakdown of how many individuals in the fire department and the police department are san francisco residents? >> are you asking how many of our current employees -- we do have that information. i don't have it with me. i'm happy to provide it. >> supervisor walton: and maybe this -- i'll wait until i hear from the police department. thank you. >> happy to provide that information to you, to your office. >> thank you, miss howard. i don't have any questions. you answered the questions that i did have. i'm really happy to hear that you're focusing on recruitment. and i think that there also has to be a focus on retention as well. so with that i think we'll call up chief nicholson.

>> not to rush anyone at all, some of us are turning into pumpkins at 1:00. there's some desire -- >> i can speak quickly. >> okay. >> don't you worry. >> thank you, chief. >> i am an emergency responder after all. [laughter] thank you for this opportunity today. chair and supervisors, it's a pleasure to be here. janeen nicholson, chief of the san francisco fire department. with me i have my director of finance mark corso.

so, as you know, with prior support from the board of supervisors and the mayor's office, we have seen a successful implementation of hiring firefighters, entry-level firefighters. we are also working on improving our e.m.s. -- hiring of emts and paramedics. i'm happy to talk to you about that a little bit in more detail offline. obviously given the budget and hiring environment challenges, we have had various issues with filling and retaining other job classifications, both uniform and civilian. but let's talk about e.m.s. because that's really where things are really -- have really changed over the past several years. we know that our city is growing. we've had an increase in call volume. since 2015, the fire department has sign -- has seen a 14% increase in call volume, with no

new additional resources on our ambulances. and that has had a huge impact. so it's had an impact on our members, in terms of burnout, post-traumatic stress and the like and also the conditions we see on the street with a lot of people suffering behavioral health issues and other issues. we're having more challenging patients. our members are being assaulted more often, more frequently. and, you know, it's -- the entire system is also really, really backed up from call taking to the hospital. so it's a systemic problem as well. so in e.m.s. or station 49 as we call it, we have been forced to rely on more overtime and per diem resources. and even those are not always available. on average, on a daily basis, we are unable to staff five

ambulances. so that's -- that's pretty significant. and we've seen what's, you know, what's happened with that. it leads to burnout. it leads to longer response times and the like. now there is a shortage of e.m.s. personnel, e.m.t.s and paramedics, including in the bay area, but nationwide. but i think with the right recruiting strategy and some other programs, that we're going to put into place, including an e.m.s. core that i have spoken with supervisor walton about, i think that we can definitely attract people. but as you know the nature of the job has changed, with our opioid crisis, we've all seen the articles in the last couple of days that our overdoses went from 90 last year to 234 this year. and then additional threats, active shooter, we didn't have

that a few years back. we have to do that for training. and then the repeat callers. repeat callers -- and again the behavioral health callers. and what i can say is 80% of our medical calls -- 80% of our overall calls are medical. and of that 35% of those are from people with an unknown address. so it's really -- it's been a very challenging environment for our people. and especially with a lack of additional resources. now let's move on to fire prevention. we also have difficulty in attracting fire protection engineers. it's a very specialized job. and there's a very limited pool of qualified individuals region wide. it's smaller than like an electrical engineer or mechanical engineer pool. and and we also have competition

with our opportunities, due to our cost of living. that's our disadvantage. and then they're also unable to earn overtime, due to the classification that they're in. because we're unable to get enough of them, they have to work more than their regular hours. so there's that. and these positions are really critical in terms of our housing crisis, right. and i know the fire marshal has been doing his best. and they've really made some wonderful strides. but that is definitely an issue for us. and then in our civilian workforce i.t. positions. we know all of the competition we have with corporations and private businesses, in terms of being able to fill our i.t.-related positions. i think that's facing other city departments as well.

and then a lack of resources has led to delays in filling numerous civilian positions. and what i would say to that is we used to have our own exam unit. it was absorbed into d.h.r. and they do a great job for us. but there's a lot of work. and we are unable to really hold our own civilian testing processes. and so then typically we will have to wait on another department's list. so that has led to some delays for us as well. so those are our challenges right now. and i'm happy to answer any questions, as is director corso. i don't want you to turn into pumpkins. >> thank you. supervisor walton. >> supervisor walton: just two questions. chief, thank you so much. one, what's the history around why your civilian hiring was absorbed under d.h.r.? >> i don't know. does anybody else know? do you guys know? >> supervisor walton: well, what i was going to say, because i know we talk a lot about

pathways, both with the fire department and the police department. so i have questions. i'll talk to both departments separately for the sake of time. we can talk about getting that information. but then the second question, i had a great learning experience participating in fire ops and really got a chance to see, of course, not to the level of what firefighters actually see every day. but some of the amazing work that you do as firefighters and really appreciate you. but i am a little bit disheartened that i did not get any active shooter training. >> we can hook you up. no problem. we've got you. >> supervisor walton: thank you, chief. thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: i'm hoping that changes at some point. real quick. you mentioned that on a given day, you're unable to staff five ambulances, is that correct? >> that's the average. >> supervisor stefani: i remember one day, when we had the heat wave, you and i were

discussing this. can you talk about the consequences of having unfilled ambulances and what can happen and how quickly we need to react to this and solve this problem. >> sure. so in say a heat wave or something else, we tend to run a lot more calls, because our at-risk population, whether on the street or in their homes, elderly, really feel the impact from heat. and so our ambulances are very busy. the hospitals are very busy. we will have delayed response times for our ambulances. and we've also had to -- we've also had the local emsa has brought in strike teams from outside of our county to cover our city for us. and that also -- that's happened three times in the last year. so we really -- we really are in need of some resources. we take great pride in our city

and i don't want to have anybody else have to take care of us. >> supervisor stefani: now best to address the issue of the overdose deaths doubling in the city? i mean, it's -- it's almost an impossible thing to do, given the staffing you have right now. i don't understand what the capacity -- how we address that issue, just with e.m.s. i mean, there's other ways to deal with that issue. but through your department. >> yeah. so great question. i just came from the healthy streets operation center meeting. and they're changing the structure of it a little bit. but we need to expand our community paramedicine. that what has worked. they've been extremely successful in not just our opioid epidemic, but getting people off the streets, getting them into services. they tend to trust us more than some others. and they trust -- they also trust the hot team, so we work with the hot team. but we've only been able to reach 13% of our frequent

callers. so we have a list of people that use 911 on a greater basis than most anybody else. and we've only been able to reach 13% of them. we really need to expand community paramedicine. it's been proven to work. >> supervisor stefani: thank you. i don't have any further questions, unless my colleagues do. great. thank you. >> thank you so much for your time. appreciate it. >> supervisor stefani: can we hear from the police department. >> good morning, supervisors. how are you today? greg yee deputy chief of the police department. pleasure for me to be here today

to express our challenges that we face in the law enforcement community. first challenge was the computer. anyways. you know, the san francisco police department is actively recruiting members to become one of san francisco's finest. and as we look at traditional recruitment efforts, we're all still looking at nontraditional. and looking at this list that's up on the board there, you know, our boot camps -- boot camps are really designed to help members or applicants be prepared physically and mentally for the physical agility test that they will face. so we in the police department bring the boot camps into the

neighborhoods of san francisco. so we're bringing training, we're bringing workshops to the communities. so it makes it more accessible for them. our hiring workshops, our recruitment unit does a fantastic job in preparing applicants on a monthly basis to sign up, get to go through the physical agility tests. get the exposure to the wall, how many push-ups they need to do, how many sit-ups they need to do. so they're prepared to take the test and be successful. our recruitment unit also conducts oral board mocks, mock oral boards, where we bring in the applicants who sign up. say, haney, this is what an oral board looks like. these are questions thattual be faced. this is how you should dress. just really the social skills and the interview skills they need to be successful. we help prepare applicants for these stages of the hiring

process. our nontraditional are becoming traditional recruitment efforts. but we're reaching to the peace core, we're looking for people who have the sense of service. and we just published a full-page ad and an article in the peace corps magazine, looking for individuals we traditionally didn't seek in the applicant pool. we're looking at university sports programs, who people who are fit, have an education, who are used to working in teams. because coming into the police department you are working in teams, you're not working alone. we're looking at sociology majors, we're looking at business major. we have veered from a focus of criminal justice majors. we're looking at people -- police officers coming into san francisco or in general are dealing with the sea of humanity, it's not just law enforcement. it's meeting people where they are in the streets to address

whatever concerns, whatever services they need. and it's not always law enforcement. we're also looking at different organizations to market the police department. what's our brand, how are we marketing our selves and looking at recruitment specialists to help promote what we have in san francisco. what we can offer police officers in san francisco. that other agencies can't. and it goes into our recruitment challenges. it's just the cost of living. many police officers don't live in san francisco any more because of cost of living. competitive salaries between the whole region, with smaller agencies in the east bay, north bay, with one-fourth the call volume they have on a daily basis, it makes it more attractive for some members to want to be police officers in smaller communities. but not only are we competing against law enforcement, we're also competing with the global job market, where people have

choices now. where people can make the decision, haney, i want to be -- i don't need to be a police officer to make x dollars, i can work for google or some other private company. the dot com of 2008, we became a default for people, haney, you know, i'm out of a job. let's become -- let me become a police officer. we don't have that luxury right now. and then we also have a shift in -- a generational shift in careers. people, you know, are deciding they don't want to go into public service. and, you know, the applicant pool there is smaller than it used to be. and throughout the years it's just slowly declining. as the population declines, the police department still has its requirements to test higher and conduct background investigations on applicants. so those are some of the recruitment efforts and some of our challenges. as i move to the next slide.

like i mentioned, you know, kate howard and the fire chief, you know, working with d.h.r., you know, that's -- that's one of the best things we can do is just streamline our processes. but in addition to streamlining our processes with d.h.r., we are taking upon ourselves to focus on women and underrepresented groups within san francisco and communities throughout the state, and even the nation, to draw and recruit people to become police officers in san francisco. the streamlining of the process, like the continuous hiring, the -- excuse me, the continual testing and having the oral and the physical agility testing run parallel. i mean, those are time savers that really help us hire police officers. but the process. how do we always improve. that's something that we need to do all the time. is how can we be doing better in

recruitment, hiring, our backgrounding process. and particularly our retention. we cannot recruit our selves out of our shortage of police officers. we need to retain the members that we have now. and like i mentioned before, we do have, you know, competitive -- we do have competitive salaries and benefits. but benefits and salaries are not everything that keeps people here. their quality of life, the commute, driving over two bridges every day to come to work, facing that traffic. it's a challenge for members in our public safety community to come here. but we also try to focus on what we can offer them. and what do we do as an organization, as a city, to ensure that our members have complete job satisfaction. they feel valued in the organization and that they're making a contribution. but also how are we caring for

our members through health and wellness. because as chief nicholson mentioned, you know, there is a lot of things that our officers see and our firefighters see every day. but who are you we caring for them to ensure that they are mentally, physically able to take care of themselves, to provide that service that the community expects. so really focus for us in the police department is how are we going to take care of our members, show that they care. and as a city family, showing that all of our public safety -- our first responders are cared for and appreciated for what they do every day. for them to put on this uniform every day, to give 1000% to a total stranger, for them to do that, we want them to want to do it, not that they need to do it. and how do we inspire and maintain their passion of what drew them to this noble profession of serving others.

as kate mentioned, there is a process. there is -- our recruitment efforts that we have and then we'll go through the d.h.r. streamline process. that's two to three months, as kate mentioned. but for us the background investigations is probably the biggest block of time. one of the biggest blocks, three to nine months. and because the state of california has requirements for the extensive background investigation for police officers or law enforcement officers in the state of california, we need to comply with that. and it's an extensive background, that includes a medical evaluation, a psychological, a polygraph. and it also goes into financials. so we really go into a lot of aspects of a person's life to become a police officer within the state of california. and a lot of times many people aren't able to pass the

backgrounds because of their lifestyle, their choices. so after the background process, we are able to put people into the police academy. we have one of the -- we have the longest police academy in the state of california, with over 1220 hours of instruction. we have the longest at 34 weeks. and through a 34-week program, there's another 17 to 23 weeks of field training, where they apply what they've learned into the street. and then after that there's a 12-month probationary period for police officers. so there is significant time that it takes. and our academy is longer because we train to state's expectations. we train to the city's expectations and we train to the diversity of the city, where we have more training courses on de-escalation, procedural justice than some other academies do within the state.

and with that training we also, if you will shoot ourselves in the foot, we train our members and they get the experience within the city and county of san francisco. and other smaller agencies, c.r. officers as seasoned veterans, that they can lateral into their organizations and take the training that we provide our officers to their benefit within their organization, without having to expense those costs of that initial training. so we train our officers very well, which is appealing to other offices within the state. for that 64% of our police recruits pass the academy. once they get into the field training program, 82% of them complete the field training program. and then officers who have -- up to five years of service, 97% of them stay. and based on their staffing and employment, we're look at why. what is the why? why are people staying.

with zero to five years in, you're talking about a young adult who doesn't have a family, who is single and they can work shift work, they can work off hours, they can do a lot of things. but as people grow, they settle, start a family, other things come into play. now that long commute at 21 years old with no family becomes different and difficult for them as they are trying to raise their families three, four counties away. so those are some of the challenges that we face. and, you know, as we continue to fill our vacancies, which is a fluid number, we want to make sure we fill those vacancies with the right individual, who understands the diversity of this city, understands the values that this city and this department have. so we are selective of who we choose to be one of san francisco's finest. you know, our crime rate is down for violent crime. but as any organization, we can always use more police officers. because as we focus on one area of crime fighting, other areas

may not get that same level of attention, such as our property crimes, where we see auto burglaries and property crimes rising in san francisco. the environmentals -- like we said it's difficult to compete with the global economy right now. and where people have choices. and it really takes a one-on-one effort to really recruit and touch a person's emotions to say, do you want to be a public servant. and with that i will take any questions. >> supervisor stefani: thank you so much. i do have a few questions. i want to be quick. do you know how many officer vacancies we have currently? >> that's a fluid number. i don't have that exact number. >> supervisor stefani: okay. i know we've had trouble in the past actually filling our academy classes. can you tell us how many spaces are left unfilled in the last one? >> ideally the state of california allows us to fill 55 members. that's the maximum number of members we can fill. you know, back in 2014 to 2017,

when we had an aggressive hiring plan, we were filling the classes with 55. but at this time we may be filling half those classes. and a lot of that is based on the applicant pool. people have choices of whether they want to be a police officer in san francisco, san bruno, red redwood city, in the state. we're competing. and as we have continual hiring process -- we announce when we're going to hire police officers, other agencies looking at our schedule and selecting individuals prior to our start. so they're getting us. they're pulling candidates from us, knowing that if our academy starts in june, they're going to make a job offer in april. so it's difficult. >> supervisor stefani: have we we looked at ways to prevent that, in term of signing commitments. i don't know the legality of that. i know there's incentives, sticks might not be the way to do it. i know there are incentives for people to stay, so that they aren't poached by others.

>> those are things we look at. we look at lateral signing bonuses to bring people over. but i think really we as a city just really need to highlight what we offer. we offer many other assignments that some agencies don't have, such as the mounded unit, motorcycles, a marine unit, which has drawn members from other agencies to san francisco, because they want to serve on a maritime assignment, which there aren't too many. full-time tactical unit. if you want to be on a full-time tactical unit, you come to san francisco. in other agencies, it's a part-time ancillary duty you don't do full time. how do we promote not only the benefits and the specialties can offer, but also how do we care for our members. >> supervisor stefani: i know we're discussing police staffing at the full board on february 25th. i have a lot of other questions. i know my colleagues want to ask them.

and we're on time limit. so i will allow you, supervisor walton. >> supervisor walton: thank you. just one question for now. what is the cadet program standing in terms of recruitment? >> the cadet program, you have college students. so we have the san francisco law enforcement cadets through high school. and then there's the san francisco police cadet program. so while in college, you can work within the police department. and this is like the feeder to the police department. so it's a matter of engaging, continuing to engage with the cadets as they work through various assignments from the police department and prepare them for a career in law enforcement. so we still do have that. it is a feeder to full-time police officers. >> supervisor walton: when you get a chance, can you give us the data in terms of our participants who participate as cadets, that actually become police officers. or actually even work for the

police department. >> yes. i will get that. >> supervisor stefani: i think that's it for now. thank you. >> all right. thank you. >> supervisor stefani: mr. brown. and i know this is only your second or third month on the job. i'm already hearing wonderful things. no pressure. >> you know, i can always come back. i think you are hard pressed for time right now. i can go ahead through my presentation. hopefully it will be quick.

so i just wanted to let you know that you may have seep my face before. but i used to be the director for the civil service commission. and i recently went back to the department of public health. and i had been working there from '92 to 2015. so i have some familiarity with some of the things that are going on. but as you began your presentation for this item, i noticed that you are focusing on the nursing positions. and so i will fill you in with some information that may not be in this presentation. that may be helpful. but i also wanted to include in my presentation, as you will see, the behavior health clinicians. because i think that's also important public safety issue for the city as well. so there's some changes that have occurred in 2019, which i think is going to affect us going forward. and hopefully in a positive way. and our top priorities are going to be hiring registered nurses and behavioral health

clinicians. we have a new director of public health grant colfax. a new director of human resources, myself, michael brown and new chief executive at the hospital. i have from my first two months being there, i have identified some problems, which we're working on, that were a result from the previous administration the hiring processes are not working. hiring time might still remain to be excessive and complain of inadequate h.r. staffing to support. so those are the things i'm work well. we have a budget and trying to do something about that as well. when we talk about -- i skipped something here. what is our next slide? it's not showing up. it is, okay. let me just talk about briefly the behavior health clinician positions and i'll get back to the nursing a little bit later.

there has been identified 51 or 52 positions that we're looking at to fill for mental health clinicians. i don't know where we are in the process. i think they're just now identified. but those are just the kind of clinician positions. also the ancillary positions that are going along with that as well, which will be a different number. as you see in the slide, there are a number of classifications. i don't have how many would be in each one of those classifications. but we also want to talk about this last one, which is currently recurrenting for behavioral health center director and also for mental health san francisco director. they may be one in the same possibly. they may also be two different positions. those are going to be important positions we're looking for for that. for the nursing positions -- >> what's the denominator? 52 vacant out out of how many? >> total number i do dirk nowit. that's what's identified as prioritized for filling right

now. there may be other monies coming into the city, even hiring more staff. i don't know what legislation would be coming forward from the state, for instance, for funding for mental health programs. >> it's just hard to know in a vacuum whether 52 is okay number, a terrible number or, you know, how it fits into however big -- however many behavioral health clinical positions are vacant out of some -- my suspicion is we probably have -- i think we've heard high vacancies. but i'm not sure. but i don't know. >> i think you are going to have further meetings to talk more about the programs as well. and there will be somebody coming from the department that can probably give you more information on that. in the nursing -- from the nursing contracts, we had mandates that came out of the last negotiated session that ended if 2019. and we had come up with, i'm

skipping down to additional hires, where converted three p103s to 2320s in the e.d., emergency department. we've also added two 2320s in the e.d., in addition to our budget for that. street medicine is something that i think the umbrella of ambulatory care, which is more like a central office, not necessarily at zuckerberg. we have converted two p103s to create two r.n.s for that. float pool. we created a float pool at zuckerberg. and we're also creating a float pool of r.n.s at laguna honda hospital. we've added another 2420 positions at zuckerberg. my understanding there is currently identified 75 positions, r.n. positions for zuckerberg that are not filled. and i want to caution, understanding about the number. because there's 18 specialties.

it doesn't mean that an r.n. is an r.n. there may be recruitment problems in terms of hiring people the specialty areas. we're going to be working on filling those vacancies as soon as possible. i am also in contact with the department of human resources on streamlining the process. so as i talked about inefficiencies and some of the things that were in the way, one of the things i did in 2015, i worked with the department of public health to give them the ability to refresh the list on a continual list and hire in a timely manner. as i am back now in the department, it didn't -- for some reason the information of how to do it didn't get transferred correctly. it's now like a backlog of how to do this. we're working to streamline the process and working with d.h.r. and getting a commitment from the nursing department to also

fund a recruiter, a full-time recruiter for nursing positions as well. and i think that's my quick five-minute presentation. if you have any questions, i can try to answer. >> supervisor mandelman: supervisor walton. >> supervisor walton: one quick question. i see the slide for identified problems. i don't see one for identified solutions. >> because we are still working on it. i'm still meeting with d.h.r. first, i've only been there for two months. so i'm identifying what the problems are, before i can talk about what the solutions are. and it won't be a magic wand where i just come in and say stop and do this. i want to understand why we did something before i make a change. because there may be a reason why we're doing something. if we're going to fix it, how do we fix it so it works. >> supervisor walton: this is definitely not just on you. this is a concern that's been ongoing for a while. and so hopefully from a timeline perspective, we get some

responses pretty quickly. but thank you so much for your work. >> supervisor mandelman: supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: i'm going to hold my questions. mr. brown, thank you for the presentation. i know you've been on the job two months. i know what's that like when i became the county clerk. i did not know really what i was doing. but i had to turn the department around. and a lot of things needed to change and that tikes -- takes time. i want to thank again human resources, fire and public health for coming and presenting today. this is such an important subject. as we head into the next budget season, we need to be aware of the tremendous need for these public health and safety positions. and we can't just make cuts because these departments have ongoing vacancies, as we've heard from the departments. they're often indicative of larger environmental challenges. and that's the reason why we have the vacancies, not because we don't need the positions.

and i think, too, going forward i will be working with d.h.r. and the departments on is an alert mechanism for policymakers. so when we know like when supervisor walton just mentioned about what was going on at d.p.h. before you came along to fix it. you know, how can we be alerted to that going forward, if that should happen again. i know it won't happen under your watch. but not just in d.h.r., but in other departments, too. so let's see. what else? i think what i want to do, chair mandelman, is continue this to the call of the chair. and come back at another time and see where we're at. i know the departments are all working on recruitment and retention and streamlining the hiring processes for, like we said nurses and a lot of positions under d.p.h. so if we can do that, i would greatly appreciate it. and thank you everyone for coming today. >> supervisor mandelman: are there any members of the public

who would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [gavel] mr. bano, were you presenting? no. then i will -- then i will make a motion that we continue this to the call of the chair. we can take that without objection. [gavel] and, mr. clerk, any other items before us today. >> clerk: there is no further business. >> supervisor mandelman: then we are adjournedded. 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 with liberty and justice for all. >> commissioner, i'd like to take roll. >> yes, please. [ roll call ]. >> you have a quorum. you also have with us chief william scott of the san francisco police department and paul henderson. >> thank you, everybody. this is the january 15, 2020, meeting of the police commission. we do have a heavy schedule

tonight, so we will have two minutes for public comment. i'm going to change slightly the agenda order. i'll ask the chief to give his report first, and then we will call line item 2 next before we move on to the d.p.a. report. so with that, i turn it over to you, chief. >> thank you, president, vice president, commission, and executive director henderson. i start off today's report with a summary of our crime trends for the week. as of january 13, our overall crimes are down 21% year to date. and i just want to remind everybody we are very early in the year, so these percentages usually change pretty drastically through the year. with that our total property crimes are down 23%. we've continued to have fewer

reported incidents in all categories, with the exception of arson which has increased 22% year to date. our burglaries are down 31% and our auto burglaries are down 21% when compared to 2019. when compared to year 2017, we're down 38%. our total violent crimes are down. specifically drivewaysing homicides, we had no homicides this past week, and a total of one for 2019. that represents a 20% increase. that is suspects being identified, arrested, and charges being filed. overall, i would like to report that our homicide clearance, our

uniform crime reporting homicide rate for 2019 is 71%, which is a good thing for us. we look forward to hopefully putting more cases to closure for the families of homicide victims in 2020. looking at our gun violence, we are down 60% over 2019. we had no shootings during the past week. there have been two shooting incidents year to date resulting in two victims of gun violence, one fatal, one non-fatal. since it's so early in the year, i won't report on the year to date trends for the past five years, but i will say that we are showing a decrease over this time this point of the year for the past five years, but it's very early. we want to keep working with the community and make sure we keep homicides reduced and in check.

in terms of our general case updates, a couple of significant series that are happening right now that i'd like to report to the commission and the public. a robbery detail conducted an investigation into a series of cellphone robberies occurring in the area of poke and hays and hays and larken in december. following the incident on december 20, our motorcycle solo officers detained two 15-year-old suspects in connection with the robberies. the suspects were cited. the two juveniles and two additional juveniles were responsible for all the robberies. there were search warrants issued and four suspects were taken into custody. we've had school robberies as

well. the school at st. laguna has been burglarized. computers have been taken and the school has been burglarized. we have been working hard to bring these cases to resolution. we have some good evidence we have been able to uncover, and hopefully we'll have a suspect identified in this in my report to the commission as this case progresses. also in the news over the past few days has been a pretty significant robbery/home invasion that occurred on hannover street. this occurred on january 8, 2020, at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon. over $30,000 was taken in the robbery before all the subjects fled from the residence. video was captured of the crime. based on video evidence, our

investigators executed a search warrant and arrested five of the multiple suspects that were connected with this case. things from the home invasion were located, including an ar-15 rifle with an extended magazine. next, we focused on reducing traffic fatalities. our vision zero is a big part of that. we have had one traffic fatality year to date, and that was a single-vehicle accident that occurred since the beginning of the year. the department will be presenting our safe streets presentation on february 5 with a lot more details on last year's breakdown, as well as what we have year to date. 456 traffic citations have been issued by officers for the week of january 6 through 12, focused

on vision zero, focused on the five violations. i'm sorry, 69% of those 456 were focus on the five violations. our vision zero team issued 102 citations, with 99 of those focused on the five violations being cited. that's the 97% of the citations were focus on the five violations. as i said, there was one major traffic collision that ended in a fatality that ended on january 12 of 2020 at 1:30 in the morning near bayshore and sun sunnydale. a person was riding on the side cars and lost his balance and

fell under the train. the operator was unaware that the victim had been run over. a tragic situation. so i just want to remind the public, we've had several of these incidents involving l.v.r.s and people either stumbling and falling and getting struck by trains. but please obey the signals and the crossing signals for the train tracks and pay attention to your surroundings. that goes a long way in terms of improving traffic safety in our city. also to address traffic safety, our officers are increasing efforts to increase bicycle safety. last year there were 29 fatalities, compared to 23 traffic fatalities in 2018. that represented a 26% increase.

we're committed to our overall goal of vision zero over the past three years. several areas have been identified with a significant number of pedestrian and bicycle-related collisions. in our effort to prevent collisions, additional officers have been dispatched to focus on the focus on the five, speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop at stop sign and red lights, and failing to stop or yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. now, mind you enforcement sometimes equals education. it takes enforcement and education and good engineering to reduce our traffic fatalities to zero and we're working with the m.t.a. to make sure we're part of that zero vision goal of traffic fatalities by 2024.

we had the warriors home this week. they have four home games this week. they played dallas last night. they play denver tomorrow night, orlando, and utah. also, there is a concert with chance the rapper on january 17. so far operations in and around the chase center has been very smooth. we've been able to work out some of our traffic concerns. although there is congestion, many people are taking public transportation to alleviation the traffic congestion. so that's been a good thing for the city. other large events in the city include j.p. morgan who was in town for the annual healthcare conference. we also have a number of martin luther king junior activities

this week. we have a larger event and march on the 20th starting at the caltrain station at 4th and king. members of our command staff as well as our police department will be participating in that march and we invite the public to attend as well. the annual women's mar will be saturday, the 18th. it is usually a well-attended event. it will start at the civic center and will go to the embarcadero center. the 49ers are playing this weekend. we hope we will be victorious. we will be deployed if the 49ers win as well. i want to report on our overtime status. we are about halfway through the fiscal year and currently we are

6% over our budget in general overtime. several unfunded areas have caused us to be over budget. we are and will continue to try to reel this in, but i want to report on what some of those events were. we responded to a mutual aid request at the kinkaid fire. that was a little over a $300,000 expense. now, that will be reimbursed at some point, but it does cause our overtime costs to go up. also, hospital watches, which is an issue that we struggle with constantly when individuals are arrested and they require medical attention and that medical attention is prolonged, our officers have to stand watch at the hospital to make sure that the person in custody is basically safe and that the

medical staff is safe. approximately $380,000 to date has been spent on hospital watches and that expense is expected to be $800,000 by the end of the year. our hospital at zuckerberg z.f. general does not have a jail ward, so that requires additional pressure on the department to stand watch over the arrestees when they're in the hospital. we'll work with sheriff miomoto and the department of public health on that issue. we hope to actually mitigate that in the coming year so hoping we can reduce that expense. also public records act request, approximately $143,000 has been spent year to date, and that is expected to exceed $300,000 by the end of the year to handle the new transparency laws that

deal with body warrant camera releases. we are still awaiting the nine civilian positions that have been approved to be filled. we do believe once those positions are filled -- we're in the process of filling them as we report to the commission. we hope that will mitigate and reduce our overtime costs. also our academy training classes needed a greater level of course instruction, mainly remediation. we are attempting to retain the candidates in the academy that we have worked so hard to get in the academy. a lot of remediation and that takes time to do remedial work. our goal is to retain candidates so we can get them on the streets to police our city. $250,000 in academy overtime is budgeted, but we expect those costs to be around $500,000 by the end of this year.

lastly, the buffin settlement, to comply with the terms of that settlement, the department will left $620,000 that was left unfunded in the november 2019 supplemental ordinance. so we have to absorb those costs. then the last thing, our targeted proactive investigations which have resulted in good crime reductions have come at somewhat an additional expense, some unanticipated in our overtime. so again, practices and policies to make sure we manage our overtime appropriately and look for ways to mitigate or reduce our overtime costs. hopefully we can do that by the end of this fiscal year with six months left to get back in line with our fiscal budget. so that is for this portion of the chief's report, if the commission has any questions. >> thank you, chief. i want to clarify something.

when you're talking about expenditures year to date, that's a fiscal year june, june to june? >> yes, sir. >> thank you, chief. there was a lot in that update, and i obviously won't get to all of it, but i have some questions. you mentioned the disturbing trend in school burglaries. can you -- someone has good taste in music out there. >> great song, but please keep that off. >> anyway, you mentioned the disturbing trend in school burglaries. can you tell us both -- obviously there are things you could convey, but where the department is in terms of making arrests. having that many critical

supplies in electronics being stolen was, i'm sure, crippling for these commissioners. >> yes, a couple of strategies that we employed. we actually put surveillance on i mentioned one of the schools that has been burglarized multiple times. we had surveillance units on that. it didn't yield an arrest, but we did uncover a potential suspect that we believe was casing the location. we were able to identify that person. also, there has actually been evidence that we uncovered that has led to the identity of one of the suspects. he is not in custody at this point, so that's ongoing. but a good piece of forensic evidence and that could be a big step in terms of solving several

of these. there is other evidence that we are awaiting forensic results to come back to the scene. also working with the schools. we've done surveillance and put extra patrols in the area, particularly for the schools which have been hit multiple times, particularly two of them. we're going to continue to employ those. we don't see this as a growing trend. at least one of the schools, the people responsible did quite a bit of work to get in the school. quite elaborate in terms of the he testified earlier they took to get into the school. that was one of the bigger hits where 30 computers were taken. we're going to continue to work and i hope we will have one case where we have solid evidence and we have a resolution in that in the near future. we've identified the suspect. we just have to identify the person. >> in terms of trying to recover

after computers get stolen, do you know if any of these schools have ways for the public to donate or attempt to help or are they being assisted in any way of trying to recover? >> that i'm not sure of and i can follow up. in terms of that, a lot of work has been done in collaboration with the district attorney's office. earlier the district attorney's office had a joint press office with the d.a.'s office, several entities including the sfpd. there was a lot of property recovered from operations. some of that property has yet to be identified. there was a lot of computers there. we're hoping that some of those computers are in that lot of property -- several lots of property that have been recovered. we haven't identified the owners of all of those pieces of property yet. also working that angle, the fencing operations, we're hoping to do more work with the

district attorney and others to identify additional fencing operations because that's how we recover a lot of the property. in my opinion, when you steel in that volume, you're usually looking to unload it. we're hoping it will turn up through these fencing operations. we've had some success, but definitely more work to be done. >> if you can find out if there's a way to don't. everyone cares about our schools in our city and i'm sure everyone would want to help as much as they can. my second question is about the home invasion. you mentioned there was an arrest. has that person been charged? are there additional charges to follow? it doesn't sound like it was a one-man job? >> it was not. the juniarrest was a day or two.

it was multiple individuals involved in that arrest. according to some of the reports we've gotten, that same group of individuals have done the same thing in other cities in the bay area. we're going to join forces with some of those other departments and see if we can work together on these cases. >> if you could follow up about a charging decision and additional arrests. >> will do. >> commissioner hamisaki. >> chief, i wanted to touch on the press conference that happened last week with the u.s. attorney's office involving the philmore shooting that happened i believe last year. i had some concerns and some of these concerns have come up before this commission about the department's work with various federal agencies and some of the issues with the recent

settlement that was in the paper regarding the racial -- the targeting of racial minorities by d.e.a. agents and them essentially dragging sfpd into this. so the report that came out of this police commission -- and again, you know, i thought you did a fine job. but the u.s. attorney decided to turn the moment into a political stunt and started slamming our city for being a sanctuary city. that gives me a lot of pause and we're going to have to reconsider the degree to which this department is going to work with these departments if they can't as a law enforcement agency respect our local laws, our policies, and our city. and i thought it was extremely disrespectful of the u.s. attorney to do that with you there present. i thought the department got used like a prop to push the trump administration's agenda.

i'll be very clear that if anything like this happens again or continues, i'm going to push to terminate relations with the federal government because this is cheap politics and taking advantage of what otherwise -- you know, i have no qualms with working together with other agencies. but when you start attacking our city like that, you've lost your right to speak in that forum and with our department. i thought that was disturbing and i hope i don't see that again. >> i have a couple things on the budget. you were talking about long medical -- having prolonged medical. i can't remember if there was a program in place or one where the shrferiffs would take over

those watches for us. where are you with that in terms of negotiating with the sheriff's department. if you're at the hospital, they can already do that. the second thing is i remember doing arraignments down at the hospital. when you say there is no jail ward there, that was a little bit disconcerting. do they not have one anymore or what? >> there is a jail ward with i think four or somewhere around four beds. it's not staffed with the nurses and medical personnel that it needs. so it's basically not operable right now. i know we've had discussions with d.p.h. on that and also with the sheriffs. so that's been an ongoing discussion. and with sheriff miomoto that will continue. they faced some shortages as

well, they, the sheriff's department, and as i understood it they were trying to staff the jail. it put them in a bad position. it comes down to us working together and trying to get the funding. that's the three departments, public health, the police department, and the sheriff's department. hopefully we can come up with a better solution. until that time, the burden is falling on the police department. to answer your question, yes, i've been in conversations for over a year with the sheriff's department on how we can come up with a better solution. we're going to continue that. i know in this budget cycle we're going to have some discussions about that and hopefully we can come up with a better solution. >> i have two more questions. the $143,000 for the record request. and i know we're going to have a budget presentation tonight. i'm assuming you're going to put the in the budget that under the law we're mandated to provide

these records. so this is a good time to put in for the budget what we anticipate the needs will be. >> yes, ma'am, and our ultimate hope is that we complete the process to get the civilians hired which will alleviate that overtime. but until then we have to comply with the law. i believe we are making some good progress. we have some people in the pipeline to get them hired going through backgrounds. we don't want to have to use overtime funds on that if we don't have to, but we'll do what we have to to comply with the law. >> i have some concerns that my colleague had. i read this article and it was very confusing to me. so you know, the newspaper, you can't rely on everything that sits in the newspaper. the way it appeared was that there was this gang case that was very serious. the it appears, the way i read the article, is our department referred it to the department of

justice to take the case and they're now charging the death penalty. if i read that correctly, i am concerned because this is way before tessa boudine was the district attorney. i think at that conference they were announcing the death penalty for these individuals. and i just didn't know if that was the policy of the department. i mean, what is the purview of the department in terms of -- you're the arresting agency and we have a charging agency and i didn't understand if that was part of the policy to ask the department of justice to take over cases. that's something we can't discuss right here, but i would like to put it on the agenda. i would like to get more information on that. i would like to talk to the attorney if that is a policy issue if you want the department stepping in in terms of the charging agency or if we rely on our own agency.

>> i know it's not an agenda item, just to clarify. i don't know what publication you read, but what the u.s. attorney said what the maximum penalty is the death penalty. they didn't say they were pursuing the death penalty, but that was the maximum exposure. >> but did our department refer to the u.s. attorney rather than the district attorney? that was my major concern? >> in this case we have relationships and partnerships with our federal partners and we did take that case to the district attorney for both the arrest on the homicide and other arnltion which were not followed by the district attorney. so we did ask our federal partners to take a look at that case on federal charges. so that's what happened. and i would just like to say this in terms of the public safety of our city. i mean, this case as you all know from the press conference

involves a shoot-out in the middle of the philmore in which unsuspecting people were spot, one paralyzed for the rest of his life and one of the individuals involved in that shoot-out was shot and killed unfortunately as well. i think it's incumbent on us -- and i'm going to say my role -- >> i'm sorry, i found it. >> we're literally watching it live. >> my role and the department's role is nonpolitical. what we want is public safety for our city. that was a very, very unfortunate and unnecessary incident. so it is in my opinion not in our best interest to turn away from activities to hold those people involved and that incident accountable for their actions. we had nothing to do with the sanctuary city ordinances of our

city. that was not even a part of this investigation. what we like to see is when people shoot up the streets that there is some accountability. the other things that came in, i can't control what other people said in the press conference, but i do know we have healthy and working and productive relationships with the federal agencies and we need those to protect the public safety of our city. politics aside, and i know we have to deal with the political aspects of it, but it's really about protecting the city and people in our city. i guess that's what we're there for. >> i guess was it political or not. >> not from our perspective. not from our viewpoint. >> yes, i heard that. >> i want to respond. i know it's not agendaized. having been the state core prosecutor and then federal prosecutor because of the cooperation between our federal

prosecutors, we have to put the rhetoric aside. the f.d.a. bring things to the table to keep this city safe. they have different tools and different agents available to them and they have resources. the bottom line is i don't think this commission has any power to say we're not going to work with federal thoroughs. when it comes to protecting this city from violent criminals, there is no better agency to jump in than the f.b.i. and the attorney's office. i worked with attorney anderson not once but twice. he's honorable, ethical, hard-working, and i have full faith and confidence in him. it will be where the federal government supplements and works with local law enforcement. we would put this city at risk if we didn't. >> just one point of clarification because i

supervised the organized crime section so i know how cases are charged. all of these types of cases start out as seeking the death penalty and the u.s. attorney's office is not seeking the death penalty. the way it's charged is it's death eligible. all murder cases get charged that way and then the attorney general of the united states makes the ultimate decision to seek death. i have never sought death, the u.s. attorney's office has not sought death in several decades. i don't know what this office is planning to do, but that is not what the press conference stated and that's how it works. >> it said death penalty. >> all murder cases are death penalty. >> it's not a murder case. >> it's a rico case resulting in murder. they all begin as death eligible and the office either seeks the

death penalty from the attorney's office or it does not. just a point of clarification, if anyone thought this was a death case, it is not. that is a decision that makes by -- >> they're exposed to the penalty. >> i would join the call to agendaize this because i really have concerns. i don't think it's fair to attack the acting district attorney and former commission president and suggest that she was able to do her job or wasn't acting in the interests of this city or acting in the interests to protect this city from violent crime. i'll know -- a very close friend of mine was friends with the young man that was shot and paralyzed. i counseled them throughout the this process, including the criminal process in san francisco. so i know a little bit about the case. you know, it's -- i -- if we're

going to try to control or tell our local district attorney how they should or shouldn't do their job by running to the feds every time we disagree with a decision, that undermines the integrity of this department and the work we do and our district attorney and our city. so i think we need to talk a little bit -- it's a policy issue as has been pointed out. i think we need to have a longer discussion about this. >> what is the agenda item? how do you want to articulate that? >> let us know. vice president. >> i want to agree with the chief in, first of all, there are different statutes entirely governing federal and state charges. it's not as though they're the same thing. what needs to be proved is different from another charge. that is a decision the

individual officers would make. we cannot be making blanket cherry-picking statements that we're not going to work with the f.b.i. that people get killed and shot, especially poor black and brown people in the city getting shot. black and brown people, especially black women are 65 times more likely to be victims of crime. i will work with whoever we need to work with to ensure when terrible things happen to black and brown people someone cares. >> i'm going to stop this particular conversation for the time when we actually calendar it. is there a commissioner that has something they want to discuss. >> i wanted to discuss your question about what to agendaize. that could be the criteria for going to the federal government and asking them to charge these -- >> [ overlapping speakers ] --

>> we just had a settlement based on targeting black and brown people and arresting them pm. >> why don't you work on this and submit it to the staff and we'll get it on the agenda, rather than just trying to cobble together something now. >> i wanted to make sure i did echo some of the same sentiments my fellow commissioners had. i want to agendaize this and look forward to that discussion. i just had a quick question to the $330,000 for those folks we sent out on the fires. what's the general reimbursement time when we send folks out? >> it varies. a lot of it has to do with our administrative prowess, if you will. if we do our paperwork the right way, it's a much quicker process. we've gotten much better at that

because we've had the experience over the last couple of years. i know our financial team is in the room. if i could get patrick leon to answer that question. >> we've already submitted our claim reimbursement. in terms of timeline, it kind of depends. once we submit our reimbursement package it goes to the county and they review it and fima has to review it and all that process takes time. for the last fire that we had, it took until the next fiscal year for us to receive reimbursement. on our side of things, we've already closed a loop. now it's up to sonoma county to go through our claim process. >> chief, with respect to the nine positions that you're waiting for for 1421 and the

p.r.a. stuff, i know when you presented before the commission, was it november or december, you said the nine positions were still in the process of being filled. it sounds like they still haven't been filled. i know it takes a long time, but if you could give us an e.t.a. as to when some were one of these positions would be filled so it gives the community a sense of how many people will be working on these type of requests. >> yes, if it's okay with the commission, i'll get an update on each one of those positions, where we are in the process, and i can report back for the next week -- next commission hearing. >> thank you, chief. next item. we're going to item ... >> line item 4, overview of the

report on the police department's staffing study will be put over to a future commission meeting. >> that was at the request of the department relying on the board of supervisors, i believe. >> correct. >> yes, chief. >> i'm sorry, we also have a report for quarterly 6228 report at the second part -- >> i just want to skip that for a moment. i'll come back to it. >> so it's line item 2. discussion and possible action to adopt a resolution for effective response to homelessness and complaints regarding presence of homeless people, discussion and possible action. >> thank you. this is a resolution that came out of a meeting that was held in october of last year with coalition on homelessness executive director jennifer fre freedenbach, myself, and the

other member. that was having to do with a response to homeless complaints in san francisco. so we met, ms. freedenbach drafted a resolution. i worked on it a little bit. it was approved by all three of us. it's now on the agenda for discussion and approval. i would welcome ms. freedenbach, if you have anything you would like to say, i'm thinking positive, but negative too if you want. [ laughter ]. >> really, you think i'm negative? >> no, i don't. >> jennifer freedenbach, executive director of the coalition on homelessness. really, really pleased to be standing here and really grateful for the thoughtful work of president hersh and the other commissioners for bringing this forward. this was also to add a follow up from the presentation we did several months ago on the healthy streets operations center.

so, you know, i just want to point out, i'll be relatively brief, but tonight we have thousands and thousands of souls out there that literally have nowhere to go. our shelters are full. sthrr about 900 people waiting tonight for a shelter bed and housing, while we're talking about thousands and thousands of people waiting to no avail. we stopped tracking turn-away years ago. but what we do know is there are 4,000 people out there that have a mental health issue that's serious, a substance abuse issue, that's homeless that is not inside care. that portion only makes up a third of our population. our homeless population went up 32%. it's much worse in oakland and sacramento. but 32% is a lot. we've got rising rents, flat incomes, shredded safety net,

divestment from housing at the federal and state level. all of this has left us in this situation. i want to point this out because the response, local governments struggling with not having the tax base that the federal government enjoys, but continuing to shoulder that neglect from the federal government have been turning to the police to manage this humanitarian catastrophe that exists. we're police officers, highly trained, weapons, tactical responses, you know, all these different things. we are relying on police officers to manage what is in essence a social program. i think it's important to point this out to contextualize this whole situation. this response is neither effective, humane, appropriate. now it's not even legal. it's been recognized by researchers, courts, advocates, policy bodies, homelessness

themselves. the scoring tool deducts points in the federal grant if it is not decriminalized. it is suggested working with homeless folks, neighbors, with social workers over a period of time, placing them in permanent housing if no housing exists, a temporary location that leads to housing. the department of justice issued an amicus brief, calling encampment removal cruel and unusual punishment and the 9th circuit agreed with them. this came up because the supreme court did not take the case, so the decision stood. september 4, 2018, the 9th circuit courts confirmed that the states may not criminalize conduct that is unavoidable consequence of being homeless. namely sitting or sleeping on the streets when there are more

homeless people than there are shelter beds. disability, religious beliefs, and other restrictions must be taken into account. this has to be recognized as unavoidable conduct. to punish that conduct is akin to punishing a person's homeless status. speaking briefly about ineffective response. in 2016, you guys might be familiar with this, the budget legislative analyst one of the main goals stated was to preserve public space in the city. however, the number of homeless individuals considered to be unsheltered has increased, limiting the effectiveness of quality of life laws. at the time of the report, police officers were dispatched to incidents related to quality of life crimes at an annual cost of $18.5 million so that the

b.l.a. recommended that the board of supervisors implement recommending a new strategy that address these issues that shifts responsibility of quality of life incidents from the police department to other agencies, such as the department of homelessness and housing. since then the numbers of homeless people has skyrocketed, but so has the number of hours the police have committed to responding to homelessness. back then we had 23 officers devoted to homelessness. today we have over 80. this takes police away from other activities and response time. i mean, all of this has a lot of effect when you're talking about budget and whatnot. yet, still homelessness is rising. based on a study we did with the u.c. of berkeley in 2016, we found that the respon