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>> all right.are we okay? okay? we're good. >> chairwoman: good morning, everyone. welcome to the january 27, 2020, meeting of the rules committee. i'm supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee, to my right is supervisor stefani and we're joined today by supervisor aaron peskin. and i would like to thank those at s.f. gov. for staffing this meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> yes.

please silence your cell phones and all electronic equipment. completed speaker cards and copies of any documents to be included as parts of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will be on the february 4th supervisors agenda. item number one is to name the rotenda on the second floor of the city hall in memory of bart devanthal. >> chairwoman: we have ar city attorney here, and would you like to say some words? >> thank you, madam chair. i will be brief. but to chair ronan and supervisors stefani, mar, and peskin, i very much appreciate the opportunity to come and support of the ordinance that you are considering today. i couldn't help but notice that, you know, it is not

often that you get 11 members of the board of supervisors all on one side, but it is great to see that in addition to supervisor peskin's legislation, there is unanimous support for this ordinance. and i think that that just speaks volumes about who buck deventhal was. in the three months since his passing, it has been a melancholy time in the city attorney's office because he was not just our colleague and incredible mentor, but an incredible friend and teacher to everybody in the attorney general's city atts office, most noticeably, me. i can't tell you how much i learned from him during my 18 years in office. as i briefly read the findings about who buck was, that are in the reamble to this legislation, i think there are a great many others who feel the same way

about who buck was. countless other city officers, employees, departments, and city-related agencies had the benefit of having buck's wisdom imparted to them. but, quite frankly, his legacy goes much beyond the formal teaching and training that he provided to all of us. it was who he was as a person. and the integrity of and the good nature and the personhood that buck embodied that i hope all of us take an incredible lesson from. i'm sure you've heard me, when i talked a little bit at the board of supervisors, when you're meeting was adjourned in his honour, and then at the memorial office, when service, wheni talked bow who k

was, and how all of us in the city attorney's office learned to conduct ourselves in doing the people's business. i would just like to say one final thing, and that is: i read a little bit at that board of supervisors' meeting from the ode that buck wrote, praising what this building stood for. when it was initially closed. and i think you'll recall that i talked a little bit about how he said that buildings need times to age so that ghosts and characters have the opportunity to inhabit the walls of the building. and that he very much looked forward to the day that city hall opened again, so he would have the opportunity to go home. well, the legislation that you are considering today, i think, is a fitting tribute to give him an

address in what will be his immortal home. and having the rotunda that sits between the executive branch and the legislative branch, sort of being the bridge to maybe mediate the disputes that happen in the future between the executive and the legislative branches of government, i think is the perfect address for buck's new home. i applaud you, all of you, for designating that area of city hall as the place where he will always reside, not just in this spirit, but in his lessons that he imparts to all of us an that are here now and those of us who did the people's work in the future. so thank you so much for considering this legislation. i hope it has this committee's unanimous support, which i don't have any doubt that it will, because i know that

you all treasure buck as much as we did. thank you, supervisors, we very much appreciate. >> chairwoman: thank you very much. supervisor peskin, do you have any to say? >> thank you for those words. i think what he said and what is set forth in the ordinance says it all. as was previously indicated, there are two tiny changes at page two, which i would love if the committee would move as an amendment, namely the addition of an a apostrophe, and the insertion of the word "california" in the last paragraph on page two. and, finally, i just want to say two things: it is rare to do a naming by ordinance. we generally do it by resolution, but we thought it fitting that this rise to the level of an ordinance of who buck was in his half a century of service to ten mayors, 93

members of the board of supervisors and countless departments. and the actual original red line i just provided to deputy city attorney pearson, and would like city attorney herrera do what he probably has never do before, to affix his name, actual name, to an ordinance. >> chairwoman: all right. supervisor stefani? >> thank you. i wanted to comment when supervisor peskin asked me whether or not i would co-sponsor this, it was, considers, a no-brainer. and what you said, city attorney, about the rotunda, made me think about my time and the city attorney's office because so many people get married there, and we had a hashtag, love lives here, and it is about what happens in that rotunda, and how many marriages and same-sex marriages, and it

is such a beautiful place, and it is fitting because buck was all about love. he loved this building. he loved public service. he loved others. he loved his jofnlt he job. he loved adventure. so for us to name the rotunda after buck, i can't think of anything more fitting. and i want to thank supervisor peskin for leading the way on this. >> chairwoman: thank you so much. well, with that, i'd be happy to make the motel to iincorporate the changes. and that's without objection. without objection, those changes are made. anybody want to make a motion to move this forward with positive recommendation? >> yes. i would like to move this to the full board with positive recommendation. >> chairwoman: without objection, that motion passes. thank you so much. mr. clerk, can you please read item number two -- oh, i didn't do public comment, did i? >> nope.

yes, you did not. >> chairwoman: i move to rescind the vote on item number one. without objection, that motion passes unanimously. item number one, i'd now like to call public comment. if any member of the public wishes to speak, now is the time. seeing -- yes, please come forward. >> ooh, from the south end. >> good morning. thank you very much for doing this. i knew buck a bit from swimming in the bay. he's a pretty cool guy. thank you. >> chairwoman: any other public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. sorry about that. supervisor stefani? >> yes. i'd like to move item number one naming the row rotunda in city hall for buck deventhal, without objection. >> chairwoman: that passes unanimously. mr. clerk, can you now

read item number two. >> an ordinance repealing 38-17, and 38-09, to update the hotel conversion ordinance. >> chairwoman: supervisor peskin. >> thank you, madam chair, and colleagues. this piece of legislation has been bouncing around for quite some time. it is no secret that it is subject to litigation. this is one very small change recommended by the city attorney on page 26, section 7, the addition of a severability clause. i commend it to you and would like you to incorporate that language that is before each mr. of this body. >> chairwoman: great. any comment or questions? no? any member of the public wish to speak, please come

forward. >> thank you very much, chair ronan and supervisors. my name is ryan patterson, representing the san francisco s.r.l. hotel coalition and numerous other business owners in the city. i want to first thank you for your attention to this. this is something that we've been engaged with the city on for several years now. we have to object because we did not receive any notice of this particular hearing this morning, or this ordinance. these owners are largely hard-working family businesses, many of them immigrant families, who can't just show up at the drop of a hat when we receive a matter of hours' notice. in fact, one of our clients was in touch with the supervisor on thursday about the lack of notice

in these hearings, and it was not mentioned. so we would encourage the committee to grant a continuance so that we have time to fully vet this, and so that our members -- our clients can participate. we also object on the basis that this ordinance would violate the court's order in case cpf1515656, which invalidated the 2017and 2019 ordinances. this seeks to roll those back and make new ordinances. the city should comply with the court order and repeal the previous invalid ordinances, and then, and only then, consider any changes to the new law. [buzzer] >> and it should be studied. this would limit short-term rentals at

s.r.o. hotels, and shifting occupancy in the city and in the region. again, that must be studied. it does not qualify for any new cross-examination. the hearinconstruction.it is alf the california coastal act -- [buzzer] >> thank you very much. >> chairwoman: any other public comment on this item? seeing none, the public comment is closed. just to address the noticing issues, could the city attorney or the clerk please go over what the notice for this ordinance was? >> it is my understanding there was no special noticing. >> riley: for this item. it was posted on line, 72 hours prior to meeting, posted at the library and on our website and outside our office.

>> chairwoman: and maybe to the sponsor, when was this introduced? >> i can look it up on legistar, but let me say the following thing: this is properly noticed. seqea has been properly noticed. the parties areably are ably notified. administrative code amendments do not go to the planning question, so that is respectfully a spurius argument. >> chairwoman: i'm looking at the city attorney, who is nodding her head in agreement. supervisor mar? >> thank you, chair ronan. yeah, i just had some additional questions on this. last week i actually --

this legislation was brought to my attention by a party who is a hotel owner, and he was expressing that they haven't really had -- his family and the other family-owned hotel owners really hadn't had adequate time to review and provide input on this legislation, so i just, you know, wanted to get you to respond to that a little more. it seems like there might be a misunderstanding about what the legislation is really doing? >> i think as to the party that you're referring to, mr. patel, when we actually held a hearing on the amortization, i believe at this committee, i expressed what i think some of the affected

parties, particularly those who are engaged in litigation against the city, needed to hear, which is, that we can make these changes and the doors open for negotiations, particularly insofar as it is still before the court, but we actually not only held numerous hearings, as chair ronan or member on the original legislation, we subsequently had a hearing where we took no action around the issue of amortization, and in that hearing, i very specifically said the door was open to have these conversations, and i welcome them. >> and so thank you, supervisor peskin. deputy city attorney pearson. can you just respond to the -- i guess the concern, i think, from some of the parties that own hotels, that there hasn't been adequate opportunity for them to

provide input? >> as you heard from the clerk, notice has been given consistent with the brown act. it has been posted online, outside the clerk's office, and posted at the library. i think it has been posted consistent with how the clerk posts. what the clerk has done is consistent with their standard practice. >> and to the earlier question, which i've now looked up, this was introduced on december 10thof 2019. today, of course, is january the 27th of 2020, and the planning department communicated to the supervisors on january 21st, that they was categorically exempt under sequence. >> chairwoman: okay. perfect. okay, is there -- well, first, can i take a motion

to amend the legislation that is laid out by supervisor peskin? >> so moved. >> chairwoman: i take that without objection. without objection, the legislation is amended. and now does anybody have a motion on the underlying ordinance? >> yes. i'd like to move this to the full board with positive recommendation. as amended. >> chairwoman: without objection, that motion passes unanimously. >> the matter is recommended as amended. >> chairwoman: mayor >> chairwoman: mr. clerk, can you please read item number three. >> i know we took public comment from mr. patterson, but i didn't know if there was another public comment -- >> chairwoman: there wasn't. >> thank you. item number three is a hearing to consider appointing one member, ending april 18th, 2020, to the advisory committee.

>> chairwoman: great. is mr. grant here? hi. please come on forward. good morning. >> good morning. >> chairwoman: we just wanted to hear anything you would like to share with us on sharing with the committee? >> yes. i've been on the committee for a bit of time. i think it has given me a little bit of perspective. i still think about -- well, we hear about things that happen, and we hear about fatalities, and i really seem to carry them with me. i still think about diana suldan who died in on february 13th. i'm working on a couple of recommendations with the committee. one to ask that the city -- the city does a really great job of capital piewssments. improvements. money leads to shovels on the ground and things like that, but i think it would be helpful if capital improvement projects would have a reference to

education components associated with those improvements. for example, what kind of education component do we have going with that? additionally, i'm so hopeful about market street. i think it is one of the great things that is going to happen. but other than that, the city is a tough place to ride a bike. it's, you know -- great capital improvements are happening, but it doesn't feel safer. and that's not just me saying that. so one of the things that seemed to be happening is that there are a lot of t.n.c. parking and parking in the bike lane. think about possibly coming up with a way that the companies themselves could pay a part of the fines. part of the reason why i say that is because i have a colleague, a friend, who

works for one of the t.n.c.s, and he says they have a lot more information that we might understand. and i've read that they're hyperaccurate maps, so there is a tremendous amount of information out there. so perhaps some of that responsibility could shift to the t.n.c.s because a lot of these drivers are just kind of getting by. that might impact or have an effect on the level of enforcement that is going on. because there isn't necessarily that much enforcement going on. it might be, hey -- it could bankrupt these guys, or something like that. anyways, that's what i'm trying to do. and i'm also aware of what is happening in our district. i'm going to be requesting a ladder crosswalk at jones and columbus because that's where a lot of the taxis go. they go up jones street to get over to golden gate

and then get over to the 280. if you have any questions, though, i'd like to try and answer them. >> chairwoman: supervisor peskin? >> i just want to say that mr. grant has served well. i first nominated him in 2016 and renominated him in 2018 and commend him to the committee. >> thank you. >> chairwoman: thank you so much for your willingness to serve. >> one last thing: i have a four--month-old son, and i'm hopeful we can take him biking through the city. that's part of the motivation to make it a better place. >> chairwoman: thank you so much. as the mother of a 7-year-old who bikes with her father throughout the city, i very much appreciate that. thank you. is there any member of the public who wishes to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. is there a motion?

>> sure. so, yeah, i would move that we recommend appointment of mark grant to seat three on the bicycle advisory committee. >> chairwoman: and without objection, that motion passes unanimously. congratulations. thank you so much. mr. clerk, can you please read item number four. >> item number four sa hearing to appoint one member to the small business commission. >> chairwoman: i say marianne sasooas. good morning. how are you? >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for having me. yeah, i'm up for reappointment. i've been on the small business commission four years. it has been an honor and a

pleasure. i made it a more pro-active body, and i'd like to say that we've started some policy initiatives out of our body that i think are precedent for how the city can better engage and do economic impact reports on how small businesses will be affected for future legislation. i have great working relationships right now with supervisor fewer's office and supervisor wal walton's office in particular, as we're working really hard on the tobacco license mitigation group, which i think is a great model for kind of looking at the strea streamlining and transition support for businesses that want to retire, but we want to keep those kinds of businesses in the city. so i think there is a lot of momentum that i would like to keep pushing forward, and, yeah, i'm looking forward to the next four years, if you

will grant it to me. and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> i don't have any questions, but i just wanted to appreciate you for your work. i think you are an incredible advocate for small businesses and have gone out of your way to understand sometimes competing priorities and really do your job, which is to advocate for small businesses, and those really tough decisions that have to be made. >> thank you. >> chairwoman: i'm really excited about your reappointment and of your willingness to continue to do this work because you're really talented at it. >> thank you. i appreciate that. >> chairwoman: we'll open this up for public comment. >> thank you. >> chairwoman: is there any member of the public who wishes to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. i would like to make a motion to move marianne

sasonnas to seat one with positive recommendation. without re objection, that motion passes unanimously. congratulations. mr. clerk, can you call item number five. >> it is an or ordinance to enter into contract with health care g.p.o., suppliers and contributors without requiring competitive bidding and without approval of the city purchaser. >> chairwoman: we have greg wagner here from the department public health. >> good morning. thank you for considering this ordinance. some brief background. we have had, since 1997, a provision in the adman code that allows us to join group purchasing organizations, g.p.o. for short.

it is an entity that is in certain industries, but common in the health care industry, which essentially allows hospitals and health systems to pool their purchasing power and negotiate collectively favorable rates for things like medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. so the entity that we're a part of, which is now called visiant, goes out and conducts competitive bids, negotiates with vendors, and secures a rate that is a benefit to its member organizations. so there is a competitive process that is associated with these purchases. it is outside of our normal purchasing processes under the adman code, and that's the purpose of the original ordinance. what we're bringing to you today is a revision from time to time over the life of this ordinance, we take a look at it and review it

and make sure we're in compliance with it. if there are changes needed, to reflect the changes in the health care industry. and we've brought you a set of these today. i'll briefly outline it. i'll let you know we've been working with the attorney general'cityattorney'sd o.c.a., and everybody is supportive of the changes we're proposing here. so a couple of the items that we're proposing to clean up in this ordinance. first, the ordinance specifics the name of a g.p.o., which is university health care consortium. a few years back, the ownership structure of this g.p.o g.p.o. changed and it is now called visiant, and we're proposing to remove that name and make it a more generic health care g.p.o. title. and it just says g.p.o.,

and we want to clarify it to be health care g.p.o., so it specifics we're talking about health care g.p.o.s for this purpose only. thirdly, this -- we're proposing to change the ordinance to allow us to, if it is favorable to the department, to enter into multiple g.p.o.s as a member. we don't have immediate plans to do that, but it could give us potentially the advantage of if there are certain things we can purchase through another g.p.o., we could have multiple members which would allow us to maximize our pricing. finally, there is another change that clarifies our existing practice, and a long-standing practice, where we have -- we use distributors that are purchasing things from multiple vendors and then distributing those to ourselves and other g.p.o. members, and we're clarifying the language to essentially say that explicitly, that we, in

certain cases, are purchasing, rather than directing through the vendor, through a distributor who is accessing those favorable rates that the g.p.o. is row videing is providing. to make sure we're very explicit an unambiguous about our current practice and its authority under the adman code. i think all of these changes are kind of clarifying the language so that it is consistent with existing practice. this is a huge benefit in terms of price and efficiency for the department of public health, and i would appreciate your support. and i'm happy to entertain any questions or thoughts from the committee. >> i have one question: if the governor is successful in having the state of california create generic drugs, the proposal that is before us, would that change this in any way? >> i think it would change

our ability to procure pharmaceuticals and the price we would able to pr procure pharmaceuticals. there are still cases where we -- there are specialty drugs we would not be able to purchase as generics. we are always favorable looking for generics wherever we can because we do get a favorable pricing. the other thing that factors into this is we have an authority called 340d pricing where we get highly discounted pricing by virtual of our status as a safety net provider. that is more favorable than we could get through any other means. in the cases where we can't use 340b, generics are certainly favorable. >> chairwoman: thank you so much. we'll now open this item

up for public comment. any member of the public wish to comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> i would like to forward this item to the full board with positive recommendations. >> chairwoman: without objection, that motion passes unanimously. mr. clerk, are there any other items? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> chairwoman: the meeting is adjourned. thank you.

>> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here

in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar.

we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. >> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a

circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. i hope people shop locally. [ ♪ ] is -- >> our united states constitution requires every ten years that america counts every human being in the united states, which is incredibly important for many reasons. it's important for preliminary representation because if -- political representation because if we under count california, we get less representatives in congress. it's important for san francisco because if we don't have all of the people in our city, if we don't have all of the folks in california, california and san francisco stand to lose billions of dollars in funding.

>> it's really important to the city of san francisco that the federal government gets the count right, so we've created count sf to motivate all -- sf count to motivate all citizens to participate in the census. >> for the immigrant community, a lot of people aren't sure whether they should take part, whether this is something for u.s. citizens or whether it's

something for anybody who's in the yunited states, and it is something for everybody. census counts the entire population. >> we've given out $2 million to over 30 community-based organizations to help people do the census in the communities where they live and work. we've also partnered with the public libraries here in the city and also the public schools to make sure there are informational materials to make sure the folks do the census at those sites, as well, and we've initiated a campaign to motivate the citizens and make sure they participate in census 2020. because of the language issues that many chinese community and families experience, there is a lot of mistrust in the federal government and whether their private information will be

kept private and confidential. >> so it's really important that communities like bayview-hunters point participate because in the past, they've been under counted, so what that means is that funding that should have gone to these communities, it wasn't enough. >> we're going to help educate people in the tenderloin, the multicultural residents of the tenderloin. you know, any one of our given blocks, there's 35 different languages spoken, so we are the original u.n. of san francisco. so it's -- our job is to educate people and be able to familiarize themselves on doing this census. >> you go on-line and do the census. it's available in 13 languages, and you don't need anything. it's based on household. you put in your address and answer nine simple questions.

how many people are in your household, do you rent, and your information. your name, your age, your race, your gender. >> everybody is $2,000 in funding for our child care, housing, food stamps, and medical care. >> all of the residents in the city and county of san francisco need to be counted in census 2020. if you're not counted, then your community is underrepresented and will be underserved.

>> my name is holly i'm been in enterprise software training for 10 years that expired film and art and voice-over week work and all kinds of work. >> i'm jane a program director for the state of california i have the privilege of working on special technology projects for the depth of the technology a passion for helping people and a passion for doing work that makes a difference and makes me feel good at night and i think

about what i did today and helping every single person in the city as. >> a technology professional a need for more women and more women in leadership roles the diversity and the leadership pipeline is an area that needs a little bit of love. >> a lot of love. >> a whole lost love. >> i'll contribute for the change for women's equality by showing up and demonstrating that the face of success schizophrenia came come in a variety of corresponds. >> they're a lot of roadblocks for san francisco when it comes to our proposition and finding a play for information that has how to start and grow management so we started to build the san

francisco business portal not just consults or the taxpayers and voters they're actually customers we are the government serving the consumers in our neighborhood i point to at least one best that i personally touched with one way or another and makes me feel good about the projects like the business portal and in embarking on this new exciting journey of finding better and efficient ways to deliver services to san franciscans i sit through a lot of senior management meetings i'm the only woman in the room i know that our c i o is tried to recruit for women and a male dominated environment. >> i've felt unbounded and

inspired to pursue a lot of things over time i recognize to be cricked in ways i didn't anticipate you know i've followed the calling but now put me in a position to spend most of my time doing things i love this is the whole point; right? you ought to feel inspired in our work and found opportunities to have you're work put you in service for others and happy doing what you're spending so much time. >> my father was a journalist lift and my mom a teacher when we finally decided to give up their lives because of me and now i actually get to serve the city and county of san francisco it makes me feel really, really good not this didn't happen

overnight i've worked my entire life to get to this point and much more to learn and i have a lot of changes ahead. >> really think about what moves you what you're pat's about and trust that you are sufficient and enough where you are to begin and then is her that you are being tenacious about getting to the next place in the evolution but by all means start with you are and

>> welcome, everyone. and thank you so much for coming and i am claire farley and the director and a senior advisor for mayor breed and tony newman, and today we are gathered on this historic day to open up san francisco's first trans home for transand non-conforming adults in san francisco. [applause] and it's such an honor to work for a city that continues to celebrate but also to do the work to make sure that our community gets housed. without housing, without housing we will not be able to help our communities thrive. every one of us need to come together to be a part of this solution and st. james and larkin street are doing that today. thank you. [applause] so first we have honored guests with us today and i'll turn it over to her.

and mayor breed has led the effort and she made $2.3 million investment into transhome which includes this opening today which is going to be 13 folks housed and 55 folks to receive subsidies for folks who are low income and she spearheaded with the community and the office and tony and we're so honored to have a mayor that continues to commit and really work to make sure that everyone in this city can thrive. so please welcome mayor breed. >> mayor london breed: thank you for joining us on this historic day. when i first became mayor in san francisco and met with the folks in my office, many of the department heads, i made it clear that equity would be at the top of our agenda in everything that we do.

we need to change the culture of san francisco and not just talk about the problems that exist, but actually to make the kinds of investments that will deliver real results. and it comes from my own experience of growing up in san francisco in the african american community, living in poverty, and waiting for something to be done. we know what the data says, but we don't always make the right investments that ensure the results that are going to change the lives of the people that we want to serve. and so when i met with the trans-advisory committee and we talked about the challenges that continue to persist around the opportunities for grants and the arts community and opportunities for housing and opportunities for programs and other services, the discriminatory practices that exist with job opportunities that they seek, the challenges with our homeless population and learning that people who are part of our transcommunity are 18 times more

likely to experience homelessness than anyone else in this city, i knew that it was important to not only listen and hear what they had to say, but to invest ar resources in tryino make sure that we can change what those challenges are for the better. and so i'm so grateful to be standing here with claire farley who is the director of the office of transgender initiatives for san francisco, because she has brought so many people together and to come up with incredible solutions. and is the reason why we have invested in this past year's budget, thanks to the supervisor of this district and others, supervisor peskin, $2.3 million for this initiative of trans-home s.f. and this is one of the first, most incredible projects that we are cutting the ribbon on today that will provide safe affordable housing for people who are experiencing

homelessness. and so it is so great to be here today. and i really want to thank tony newman because tony newman -- [applause] and she's a force and is committed to this work and she has hit the ball rolling with staffing up and working with folks in the community and making it clear what was needed, which makes it easier to provide the funding right to the places where we know that it's needed the most -- rental subsidies and wraparound support and services and making sure that we have the right people in place to get the job done so that we can get people off the streets and to get them into housing. so thank you so much to tony and the work that you do, to the mayor's office on housing and community development, and to the coalition, to larkin street and youth services and especially to the san francisco

transadvisory committee who i have mentioned before the work that they continue to do to make sure that we call attention to all of the inequities and the various city departments as it relates to funding and how it needs to change to make an impact on the lives of people who are a part of this amazing community and a true important part of san francisco. so i want to thank... (♪) (♪)

>> our young people, as well as reaching the thousand new shelter beds which is such an accomplishment and thank you so much for your leadership to make that goal happen. also i want to recognize our commissioners who are in the house today as well as our department heads, dr. colfax from the d.p.h. and others, leadership at mohcd for their

support and really making sure that these programs get funded and that there's equity continuing throughout the work. and as well i want to welcome the district supervisor aaron peskin. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you. i think that everything has been said but not everybody has said it. in addition to our d.p.h. director grant colfax i want to acknowledge and to thank the director of our department of building inspection, tom hooey. thank you to larkin street and thank you to st. jerusalem's and to the office of transinitiative incentives and the mayor's office of housing and community development. i am here to give a district 3 welcome. and let me just say that we are delighted, we were delighted to

appropriate the funds, and i could not be more proud that this is the first facility and it is located here in district 3. which has a very proud, long lgbtq history from the black cat down the street to polk street on the other side, this is where it all began in san francisco. and we are profoundly aware that homelessness is acutely an lgbtq issue. and today we are taking a large step in addressing it and in solving it. welcome to district 3, to the 13 individuals, i will register you to vote the second you move in. [laughter]. [applause] >> thank you, so much, supervisor, and thank supervisor mandelman and supervisor haney, they were not able to join us but their teams are here and so

thank you so much for your efforts. before i introduce tony i wanted to recognize the anonymous building owner of this property who is renting this space to us and he and his partner are committed to making sure that transhome is a success and that we continue to work to make sure that our communities are housed in the city. and without having such a strong and supportive and inclusive manager of this building, we would not be here today. so let's please give he him a hd and thank them for their support. [applause] so now it's my honor to introduce tony newman, she's the director of st. james infirmary and i would like to say that i helped to kind of create the idea, and now she's the mother of the project. so please welcome the mother of trans-home, toni newman. [applause] >> welcome, everybody. i'm just so excited to be here

today and i want to thank all of the partners here, hugo from the mayor's office of housing. and we have open house and we have larkin who have been very supportive. and larkin is so supportive to me and st. james and the navigating team of matthew payden and jesse and camden, that have been working day and night to make this available for you. we're excited that st. james can be a leader with larkin. and larkin has been leading the youth for many years. and they have taught us how to do this. and i want to thank my board of directors for coming and i have four board of directors and two will be speaking and now i introduce akira jackson did she's here. she's a sponsor and she's been fighting for housing but i don't think that she's here, so jesse santos is going to come up and to introduce our first resident moving into the house this week. jesse, and jane, please come up right now. >> good morning, everyone.

thank you for being here and this is a dream for us, for the trans-gender community. i will introduce jane, the resident in our house and she's a beautiful woman. [applause] >> hi, i am jane cordova and i was born in central mexico and i came here when i was 16 years old and i grew up in l.a. and eventually made my way to san francisco, which is i live here for 10 years. and i went to new york and we stayed there for another 10 years and i'm very happy to be back in this city where our community has the most resources and i'm very happy to be here and to have a place finally to call home. thank you. [applause] >> i'd like to call up joquaim

and jane, come on up. [applause] hi, thank you for coming, i'm joaquin ramora and i'm here where i proudly serve as a board member and as an advocate for harm reduction and transsupport in the greater bay area. thanks to mayor breed and our trans-home and everyone else who helped to make this project come together. today we can celebrate that our trans-home is a step in the right direction for the city of san francisco. this ensures that transgender people have an opportunity to become successful in our society. stable housing is fundamental to creating access to resources for survival. our trans-home will provide this foundation to create a support system for those living on the margins within our city. excuse me. members of our community are constantly faced with unjust incarceration and poverty and

constitutional and emotional violence. some encounter even more severe consequences and our transgender sisters of color are experiencing hate crimes and murders on a daily basis and this goes unnoticed. the society must understand discrimination based on race and gender presentation. we must continue with this momentum and inspire more programs for the needs of our community. it's our due diligence as transpeople to ensure that the issues are confronted and change. we need companies and foundation and government to commit to advocating for transgender causes. our trans-home will provide the opportunity to not only recover and survive but to thrive and survive the power members to become leaders and role models. and protecting our community members and we are shifting the narrative away from being defined by our margins and barriers towards being defined by successes and positive impacts on the world. the housing crisis in the bay area has become recognized as an

ongoing issue and despite this we're continuing to demonstrate that there's ways to empower and to support our communities with pride. i feel proud to know that san francisco is a place of historical resistance and refuge for people of all walks of life and that we continue that resistance by uplifting our marginalized communities. thank you. [applause] >> i'd like to take a second to acknowledge akira jackson who is unable to be here today. i'd like to thank her leadership, without her we wouldn't be here today. and st. james is honored to be part of this project connecting folks. -- thank you -- connecting folks with the services and homes that our community needs. we look forward to continue to fight for the rights of our community. thank you. [applause] >> well, thank you all so much. and now we're going to move the podium and cut the ribbon.

one, two, three,. [applause] thank you all so much. (♪) (♪) [inaudible] pledge allegiance to the flag of

the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> thinks the reminder to silence all electronic devices. san francisco regular fire commission meeting, wednesday, january 22, 2020, 502. roll call. president present. covington present. cleaveland present. feinstein present. rodriguez present. and chief of department, jeanine nicholson present. 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 department personnel. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> thank you very much, madame secretary. welcome. please identify yourself, thank you. >> i'm nancy. a community activist, a 55-year resident of the city and part of the open space. i'm happy to welcome new commissioners feinstein and rodriguez to the fire commission to augment those to protecting our lives and property. i wish to remind all the commissioners that the city charter empowers you with

specific powers and duties you shall perform. for me, your most important duties and powers are that you formulate, evaluate and approve goals, objectives and programs and set policies consistent with the overall objectives of the city and county as established by the mayor and the board of supervisors through the adoption of city legislation, unquote. and that you, quote, conduct investigations into any aspect of government operations within your jurisdiction through the power of inquiry. and can make recommendations to the mayor or board of supervisors, unquote. you're also authorized to hold hearings and to take testimony. the charter is clear that, quote, each shall deal with the administrative matters solely through the department head or her dezzing that it deems neceo

provide for the efficiency of the department, unquote. you may be already familiar with the charter's requirements of the fire commission, but they are so important that they bear repeating. we, the members of the public, come to you with our concerns and requests because we believe that you will be informed by our comments and that you can take action on issues that concern you, too. this commission shall set policies, goals and plans. you do not have to wait for departmental requests or presentations to set policy. you can act as you see fit in response to the current needs you see. you can conduct investigations and hearings to give you objective information on public concerns. i look forward to participating in your commission meetings to bring another point of view, the public's point of view.

to your work, welcome. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. mr. dudier, welcome, happy new year. >> thank you, president nakajo. good afternoon, i'm retired assistant deputy chief with 32 years of service and 40 years of service to the city of san francisco. as a private citizen i want to welcome commissioners feinstein and rodriguez to the fire-fighting community. those of us who are advocates are heartened to have you here to become an important part of the solution to the ever present challenges of the sffd in carrying out its mission, the preservation of life and property. the particular problem of combating post earthquake fires when faced with the city's inadequate water supplies was addressed in depth by the civil grand jury in a 2013 report, act

now, before it is too late. the need for the city wide expansion of the auxiliary water supply known as the awss has been recognized for many decades but has remained unresolved and continued postponement of this expansion will result in the destruction of half the city following the next bay area earthquake. appropriately, the two most essential conclusions of the civil grand jury report are one the hydrant system must be expandle ed to all neighborhoods and time is of the essence. it will be understood that in the absence of the water supply, will suffer catastrophic loss,

including the loss of human life. our most vulnerable san francisco residents, children, the elderly and the physically disadvantaged are most likely to die before rescues can be made. unfortunately, although the tax rates are equal throughout the city, at the present time, fire protection is not. this afternoon i'm providing to each of you a packet of information from the material i have previously shared with the fire commission to reflect the recent developments with the post earthquake issue. and as background information for the two new commissioners. on topic of the vital survival of the city of san francisco which is the obligation of all safety employees. i wish to welcome commissioners feinstein and rodriguez and thank you for taking on the task of overseeing sffd and the lives

and property of the residents of san francisco. >> thank you very much. any other member of the public wishes to give public comment at this time? please approach the podium. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> secretary: item 3. approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes of january 8, 2020. >> president nakajo: at this time we'll take public comment on the approval of the minutes. any member of the public wishes to give public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? thank you very much, commissioner cleaveland. we have approval of the motion from commission cleaveland. >> second. >> thank you vice president, we have a second. call for the question, all in favor say aye. any opposed? thank you very much, commissioners. >> item 4, fire department operating budget fiscal years

2020-2021 and 2021-2022. presentation from mark corso, deputy director of finance and planning on the fire department's operating budget for commission review and discussion. >> president nakajo: thank you very much. director corso, welcome. >> good evening, welcome to the two new commissioners. good evening, chief. mark corso, finance and planning to give overview of the budget documentation included in the packets as well as start the discussion a little bit and push the discussion a little further for the department's upcoming budget process. if i could go to the slides. in your packets was a high-level summary of the department budget, a lot of figures, not a lot of narrative. i wanted to give an overview of what that is and where we are as far as the budget process.

a review -- i would like to go over briefly last meeting we discussed the budget instructions from the mayor's office, so review of the instructions and the current year budget that were funded, overview of the base budget, the challenges we're facing as a department related to the budget, some updates and the priorities and then open it up for discussion and questions. so as part of the instructions from the mayor's office, he's a brief overview. the city is projecting $420 million deficit over the next two years. this is larger than the same time in previous years so there is additional instructions relayed to departments. the request from the mayors office the reduction in the amount of 3.5% in both budget years of the department's general fund support and for the department that is equivalent to $2.7 million in the first year and 5.4 million cumulative in

the second. the mayor's office has requested they do not make enhancements, non-salary items or ftes and any additional enhancements would align with the mayor's priorities, housing, homelessness, equity, clean and safe streets and the employees that help support the initiatives. at the end of the day given the large deficits, the budget must be balanced and submitted to the board by june 1st. >> here is an overview of the timeline as far as the budget, the department, with the commission as well as the city. so have a discussion and update here at the meeting today. budget discussion potential approval on the 12th of february, budgets are due to the mayor's office on february 21. the mayor then needs to submit balanced budget to the board by june 1 and then in june, july, departmental budget hearings at the board of supervisors financial committee and in july,

the budget is considered at the full board for approval. i mentioned that the last meeting there is new budget legislation passed by the board and signed off by the mayor related to budget transparency, so just as brief update, the current structure we have in place with the commission and the public discourse and discussion at the commission meetings is enough to meet the requirements of that legislation, so no further issues from the department side. wanted to highlight some of the initiatives funded in the current year budget from the player's office. there was a continuation of the hiring plan. we have one academy which is currently in process and graduating in february for h2 firefighters as part of the continuation of the hiring plan. previous this year, we had one backfill academy for paramedics. that was completed. so we've upgraded the e.m.s. 6 management position.

we have assigned additional and we have a large community paramedicine training scheduled to start later this month. i believe it's six weeks. for health and wellness, we have filled the newly created chief position of the department, that is filled by chief parks. she is in charge of a number of new health and safety initiatives under way for the department. on the fire prevention side, we've hired additional fire inspectors to account for the increase in demand for services, related to plan check and plan review. we filled the assistant fire marshal position as part of the reorganization of the fire prevention headed by the fire marshal and we've created a special housing unit for the bureau that has been success nfl the work they've done. they've been tasked with streamlining the process for adu, for affordable housing, for large community developments and we've received great reviews from the city partners and city.

we we allocated a number of items, engines and trucks to replace the current stock that is old. we have some on order and are in process of ordering additional units. those are currently out to bid by oca and the bidding for that should close in the next few weeks. what is our base budget? the base budget is what is presented to the department to work off of from the mayor's office. since the city budget process is a two-year rolling process, what was approved last year as the second year becomes first year of this process. it was what was approved, salary, rates, that are known or changed since the passing of the last budget. no additional enhancements are added during this phase. and i just wanted to highlight over the past few years, the change in the department's base

budget. as you see, we've had gradual increases over the years, that's not necessarily to say the scope of services has changed or expanded to correspond to those increases, but that also takes into account increases due to labor, costs, benefit costs, et cetera that are borne by the department. so this table kind of breaks that down into further detail comparing the current year to the two base budgets we're looking at for fiscal year 21 and 22. we're funded with the $150 million that is funded through the support of revenues, e.m.s. revenue, state funds, the public safety tax, the funding of the airport to support functions for those departments and a variety of miscellaneous projects, revenues, et cetera. for the current fiscal year, we're looking at $427 million actual budget. that's in the operational budget

this year. that increases slightly to 433 at the initial stage of the mayor's phase and 433 in both years. so looking overall at the budget and challenges, one of the department's goals in the budget is to maintain currently funded initiatives while addressing funding needs and priorities and this -- to do this in light of requested reductions in the mayor's office. those two things are at odds with each other and there are a number of needs that the department has that have not been funded that the department would like to address. part of the limited budget flexibility we have, the large dominant majority of the budget is made up of salary and benefits that we don't have much flexibility on, so that limits the flexibility we have to work with the remaining funds. in addition to that, the overall request for service, both in the scope of services, the type of

services we provided, as well as a number of calls and incidents we have, have both increased over the past few years and continue to do so. that's a major challenge in light of budget reductions. so highlight that point, here's a look at call volume over the last five calendar years. we're experiencing -- we were experiencing continued growth and that kind of plateaued in 2018, but last year, 2019, again we saw a material increase, over 3%, and over the past five years that's increase of 24% that is very material for the department and when we're asked to maintain the resources wildfire and the amount of services we have provide, that is a challenge day to day. so as you know, chief nicholson was sworn in may of last year and from the budget perspective, that was late in the mayor's budget process, so this is her first full process to communicate her priorities

throughout the course of the budget process to the mayor's office. so given the increases and call volume, as well as the increases in the scope of services we're providing, the department does not anticipate being able to meet the target reductions in line with those requested by the mayor's office, so the department is requesting the support of the commission to address these additional areas as far as budget priorities beyond the scope of services that we're providing now. i just wanted to highlight some of the priority areas that the department has identified. the first is operational staffing for both e.m.s. and fire suppression. so a main priority of the chief is increased frontline e.m.s. ambulance personnel to account for increased call volume i mentioned, additional training and other issues. additional personnel for e.m.s. 6, the paramedicine efforts of the city to expand the reach of the program and establish

contacts with additional people we're not able to reach given the resources we have. in addition, the restoration of sports specialists. i know labor feels strongly, as the department does, this is a priority. and we're also looking at enhanced additional staffing for the bureau and fire investigation. on the health and wellness need, the department would like this add personnel to support department members. we have two members that support the entire department in the peer support and they're overwhelmed and deal with a lot and do a lot for the department. it's much appreciated, but they need additional resources. the department would like to add personnel. part of the initiative would be to offer additional trainings to members as well as other people interested in assisting the peer support unit, being able to be additional resources for department members in need.

and the department is looking to expand its other health programs, expanding that and improving those programs. on the equipment side, the goal of the department is to expand the fleet equipment plan. so fiscal year 20-21 represents the last year of the five-year equipment plan agreed during mayor lee's term. we made great improvements in improving the quality of the fleet and this would be extension of that for additional years. that will assist with planning. assist with actual ordering. when we know we have a dedicated source of fund for purchasing additional equipment. this would allow us to update frontline apparatus as well as outdated support fleet.

but there is lot of other support units, and special units that are in need of replacement as well. this is not just for frontline operations, but also helps support the department's capability for a response to a disaster, where if we have additional members coming in, or resources available, they have functioning equipment and apparatus they can use in their response. and then the last category is training. so the department's requesting supplemental training for both fire suppression and e.m.s. staff, including emphasis on ambulance staff training, both for existing training and additional necessary training initiatives that are required. right now, we don't have the flexibility given the staffing levels we have for ambulances to pull people off ambulances and give them the proper training needed. so allowing flexibility so we can offer training for the department. in addition, we wanted to

incorporate initiatives into the regular annual training program and curriculum and that would include incident management training, leadership academies for members on promote lists to prepare them for new responsibilities and overall officer development. so kind of where we are as far as the overall budget, we're continuing to meet with division heads. we're finalizing details of the priorities as far as the individual requests to the mayor's office in preparation for discussions with them over the next few months. and are in the process of updating staffing models and revenue and feed projections, including taking a look, as we do every year, hiring plan and projected retirements. and then working with the mayor area office that m.o.u. impacts are incorporated into the budget. so with that, i'd like to open to it any questions.

>> president nakajo: thank you very much, director corso. at this time, we will ask for public comment on your report, item 4, fire department operation budget. is there any member of the public that wishes to give public comment, please approach the podium. >> nancy. i'm a longtime government fiscal analyst. that means i follow the money and understand the details of the city's budget. i wish to have my comments on the budget that relate to both the operating budget that you're looking at today and the capital budget approved at the previous meeting. i am asking president nakajo to please request mr. corso to respond to my concerns and questions at the end of my comments.

the issue i have concerns the source and timing of money to funding the 20 hose tenders that were recommended in the 2019 civil grand jury report. hose tenders are the specialized apparatus designed for pumping and transporting large volumes of water from any sort and are recognized worldwide for their ability to successfully move large amounts of water to a fire at high pressures and volumes of fire-fighting. the board of supervisors official response to the civil grand jury report that was sent to presiding judge wong state thad funding for the first five hose tenders are in the current budget and that the remaining 15 hose tenders will be dependent on appropriation actions in the future. it seems to me that we have to

be ever mindful of how this bifurcation of funding is going to be implemented. my first question, did you get the full $5 million for the five hose tenders at $1 million apiece that is supposed to be in the current year budget? i don't see it on page 9. is the unspent money going to be carried forward? how? i would like to see it in the budget if there is leftover money this year, because we're not buying all five hose tenders this year. i would like to suggest that the budget next year is reduced for capital outlay by $2.7 million, but there is no explanation, so i would hope we could hear more about why that reduction is happening. and my other question is, where is the $15 million to complete the funding for all 20 hose tenders? the capital plan budget approved on january 8 does not list any hose tenders to be put into the

capital plan. as we all know, if it's not in the capital plan, it can't be done. so we have to plan for it, put it in and start looking for the money, but we're supposed to have 20 hose tenders according to what we sent judge wong. thank you very much for your attention. and i look forward to clarifications. thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you. any other member of the public wishes to give public comment at this time? seeing none, public comment is closed. i'm going to open it up for questions or comments from the commissioners. and at some point, i will ask the chief of the department in terms some information that might be related to what the speaker was referring to. but i will first open it up to the commissioners in terms of questions or comments. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, mr. president. i appreciate the comments from the public on that issue of the hose tenders.

obviously, making sure that the entire city is covered for fire protection in an earthquake, in a complication, is a matter of utmost importance to all of us, including every one of us here on the commission. so i know that we are budgeting it as prudently as we can, given the other concerns and issues and costs within the department. but i will defer, really, to our c.f.o. to go into greater detail as to where those funds are and where they will be in the future. my personal questions are, start with, you talked about the e.m.s. 6, you talked about a community paramedicine training program. that was a six-week program. can you give us detail on what the paramedicine training program is. >> sure, i'll give you the cliff's note and then refer to chief tong. when we launched e.m.s. 6 a few years ago, all members involved

with the program went through something similar, a multi-week community paramedicine training and that allowed them to participate in the e.m.s. 6 program. over time, as we've expanded the pool, we found we need to do another round of the training so that's what we're going to be offering to those members and they can participate in the pilot program as e.m.s. 6. >> commissioner cleaveland: any feedback yet as to how well it was presented? how valuable it was? what was missing, et cetera, et cetera? >> i think the first round -- the second iteration will begin, i believe, next week? >> on the 10th. >> february 10th, pardon me. and is i think it's been very well received and educational and helpful in the duties of that role, for sure. >> commissioner cleaveland: good. obviously, on terms of operational staffing, our e.m.s. 6 program is one of the most

important programs i think we have out there in the day-to-day service to our community. and do you anticipate additional funding for the e.m.s. program this coming year and what will that mean? >> let me turn on my microphone. good evening, commissioners. good evening, everyone. in terms of e.m.s. 6, yes, we're definitely looking at that right now. we do want to expand the program because it is one that works so well and it is in line with the mayor's priorities. >> you bet. >> so yes, we're just working out the details of it, but we've had plenty of conversations with the department of homelessness and other departments. >> commissioner cleaveland: as of yet, we don't have a firm dollar figure? >> no, we will have that for you, though, before you approve the budget.

but we are in process on that. >> commissioner cleaveland: that was my question for the next one on equipment, in terms of fleet and equipment plan, what was our per year cost allocation they're requesting? >> that we are requesting? so we're requesting a significant amount based on the backlog that we had. so we've done great job and thank the board and the commission and the mayor for their support as we implemented this multiyear equipment plan. it's done a great job to raise the health of the fleet, but we have so many years to go because there were so many years we weren't funded for anything. we'll be bringing a request to make up for a lot of the backlog that we have. and it's in line with the still current, i guess, commission resolution as far as the vehicle replacement plan, so it dictates a number of apparatus to be

asked for and requested per year, as well as additional units that haven't been allocated, so it is material -- i believe last year's request was $55 million in fleet to catch us up. we weren't funded for that whole thing, but we're advocating to take care of the relief fleet we have. >> commissioner cleaveland: our commission priorities for the past several years has been staffing and equipment. staffing and equipment. because we went through many years of decline, basically, not adding new personnel and not adding new equipment to the department. so we have a lot of catchup to do. >> absolutely. >> commissioner cleaveland: in terms of the training, i wanted to know what the additional costs are. do you have an estimate in your mind what the additional costs for the training will be for the supplemental training, as you called it for fire suppression and e.m.s.? >> i don't have it off the top of my head.

there are factors to it. the training is additional personnel so we have the ability to take people out of the ambulance service to give them training and then there is classes and depending on the number of people, some of the leadership academy courses, it depends on the number of people we're looking at. so we'll have that part of the request, but we're still working on those numbers. >> it's important for personnel to have the cross training as well as firefighters, so i appreciate that. and to be clear on that -- >> that is currently done, but this will be enhancement of that. >> commissioner cleaveland: right. that's all my questions. thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you commissioner cleaveland. vice president covington. >> vice president covington: thank you, mr. president. mr. corso, thank you for your update and laying out our budget and our budget challenges and i want to thank members of the

public for speaking on these budgetary matters. i have somewhat of a thorny question to ask you. on page 3, in -- in view of the fact that the city is projecting approximately $420 million deficit over the next two fiscal years, along with the fact that the mayor's office, budget office, has requested that we reduce our budget, but yet, and still, we're asking for many more positions. so do you have a narrative that corresponds to us being able to justify these new positions? i know that they are all necessary. but we do need a narrative that

goes with this. so that we can convince the legislative branch of government of our needs. >> yes, absolutely. so i think that a lot of it is focused around both increased call volume and increased scope of services we're providing. we have -- we're putting together business cases for each of the justifications, but we'll have and will be working with the mayor's office over the next few months. we made them aware of the issues, but they've requested a lot of data, so we're putting that together and putting together the justifications to work with them on that. >> vice president covington: i know we can justify these things, but it's daunting year after year to be asked to cut when -- [laughter] -- when we don't what we need already. so all right. i look forward to seeing more

background information so that not just me, but all of the commissioners can be very helpful in the lobbying effort and the, you know, get the money effort. >> absolutely. commission has been very helpful and hands-on and it's much appreciated by the department. >> vice president covington: thank you. on page 5, can you give us more detail under e.m.s. 6, it says filled upgrade of e.m.s. 6 management physician, which position was that? >> there was an h33 rescue captain assigned to e.m.s. 6, that was the program manager, however, that scope has increased dramatically as it's worked with not only city partner departments but at the state level and other agencies and it's expanded into a much larger program manager position. so in the budget process we had requested and approved for an upgrade to h43 section chief and

that has been filled. >> vice president covington: h43 section chief? >> correct. >> vice president covington: was it the same person who had the person as rescue captain? >> yes. >> vice president covington: and who is that person? >> simon pang. >> vice president covington: thank you. we have our new safety chief which is always wonderful. just as an additional question, i think at this point it would be helpful for you and for the chief of the department to give us an updated orring chart. that has the title and that would be helpful for the new commissioners.

we keep talking about the positions, but it's hard to know who they're reporting to and i think that would help quite a bit. in terms of the flow of information. >> absolutely. >> vice president covington: under equipment on page 6, how much was allocated to for engine and truck? >> i believe we were allocated $6.7 million for engines and trucks, so we're in the process of ordering one additional truck and five additional engines. >> vice president covington: so we will have spent down that money? >> so we will have earmarked it, because it takes so long for the -- we won't actually spend it for another year or so by the time everything is delivered, but it will be set aside for those purchases. >> all of these are traditional? >> the most recent purchases we've had, there are a number of

changes to make it efficient, for size, but for members as well and it's part of the current multiyear contract we have in place for both engines and trucks. >> vice president covington: thank you. i've gotten a lot of good feedback from members of the department regarding the new trucks. and engines. i had another question. regarding the hose tenders, we currently have five on order? >> so they're into the on order yet. we were allocated funding, $4 million in the mayor's budget and another $1 million from the state which is at the board next week for approval. so that's a total of 5 we were allocated. currently the specifications for them are out to bid, so anybody interested in looking at those, they're on the city website. that process closes in the next few weeks, at which time we'll evaluate the proposals leading into negotiating a contract, at which time we would be able to

purchase them. >> vice president covington: how long will it take for actual delivery? >> i think that's still is to be determined, so i think for our engines, it's about a year. i think these are a little different vehicles than that, but i would imagine a little less than that, but we're still working with the vendors. we would be working closely with the vendors in stream lining that and getting them in use. >> vice president covington: we have a physical place for the hose tenders, because some members of the department when it came to number 20, if we did get 20, we wouldn't have space for them, but for this initial five there is a place to house them? >> yes. i'll defer to the chief. >> i can speak that, yes. there will be a place to house all five of them. and part of that has to do with, we will be opening our facility

and the old ambulance deployment facility will house some of the relief trucks we have in stations and we can place hose tenders in specific stations where they're most needed. >> vice president covington: thank you, chief. i'll have a couple of questions regarding this when you give your report then. i'll hold off until then. thank you again, mr. corso. >> president nakajo: thank you vice president covington. commissioner rodriguez? >> commissioner rodriguez: thank you for your report. i was actually able to follow it pretty good. but the one thing i didn't understand, you mentioned 80 years. out of curiosity what was that in reference to? >> that was in reference to we set up a dedicated staff of fire prevention employees that are allocated to dealing with a lot of the housing projects and the fire marshal can speak to it, but adu, affordable housing,

some of the community projects and that's their focus, reviewing those types of projects. >> commissioner rodriguez: i know what they are, i didn't know if there was an action being taken. i know there is ordinances that are in the works that would exclude certain things. and i was just wondering if the fire department was dealing with that. >> i'll defer to the chief on it. >> good evening. fire marshal chief. yes, we have -- we created a separate section to deal with priorities of the city, dealing with the affordable housing, adu, large development projects, et cetera. so we had to make a decision at the time to fast-track the projects, streamline them let's say, and we had two options. we could put them in the queue and move them ahead of the line, or send them off on a separate path, track, and that's the choice we made and it's been

successful at this point. yeah, the whole intent there is for consistency and to streamline the pro-certification that's why we have the same selective group reviewing the same type of applications over and over, and it's been very successful. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, commission rodriguez. at this point, director corso, thank you very much for this comprehensive report. i thought that it was timely in the sense that it's a discussion of every item, but also with the fact that we have two new commissioners, this budget overview by the department gives the parameters of the department based on, again, budgetary definitions of that as well. in terms of page 11, fiscal year 20-21, 21-22, just looking for

clarification. in terms of total incidents by the calendar year, you quoted 24%. is that 24% increase overall with all incidents that this department deals with? >> correct. yes. >> president nakajo: okay. >> total. >> president nakajo: which is a total increase in terms of what we formed last year for myself in my mind, it's another justification in terms of increased volume, increased work, increased demand by the public of san francisco, and then we as a department, what we need to respond to that on the back side, on page 12, you put departmental budget priorities, operation staffing, e.m.s., suppression, health and welfare, equipment, training. again, i think it's a good list and it's just, again, a reinforcement that these are the

department budgetary priorities in terms of going into this fiscal budget. >> yes. >> president nakajo: okay. and again i know that a lot of the narrative will come out again. at this point i thank you for your xren hence report. -- comprehensive report. thank you on the hose tenders questions and sounds like you'll be asking questions. public comment is exactly that, public comment. it's not so much of a forum in terms of questions and answer, but out of respect to the speaker, from the public, we gave some information in terms of some of the questions that were posed. and there were many questions posed in terms of the hose tenders. chief, i'm going to ask at this particular point, now or when you do your chief's report, perhaps now since director corso is there, is there anything you want to add as far as information on the hose tenders

beyond what we understand? i want to be clear, that we have five that is ordered. but the original request and the earnest effort of this department in terms of the recognition of the whole tender, chief, would you like to comment? >> so we did request 20 in last year's budget, we were given five. even if we had gotten the 20, it's a tall order for a company to come through with all of those in timely manner and for us to find a place for them. so we do, as mark corso said, it is out to bid right now. so, unfortunately, you know, the process takes a long time in the city. we had to get the specs just right, the specifications just right because of the layout of our city and the challenges in our city. so that took back and forth with central shops who we work with

on our vehicles. but -- and then we're not sure, in terms of how long it will take for us to get them, but we want to get the first one and see how efficient and effective it is and if we need to make any tweaks, we will, but, yeah, we're very excited about getting them. it's been a long time coming. and it has been something that we've -- that i certainly have seen as a need. so i'm really glad that we were able to secure that funding and move forward with this process. >> president nakajo: thank you very much for that update, again, commissioners, we all know, members of the public, the process in terms of the budgetary process, it's a matter of advocacy from the mayor's office all the way to the board of supervisors and it comes to the bottom line of votes and approval. . i know it's been a huge challenge for us within the department. i want to reinforce the importance of this commission

and department in the realization that it's supposed to have in the city and county. i wanted to remark on that auto out of respect to the speaker from the public as well. secretary -- excuse me, i did call for the public comment from the commissioners. thank you very much, director corso. >> item 5, chief of department report. report from chief of department jeani jeanine nicholson since the meeting on january 8, 2020, including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other government agencies in the public and report from administration, deputy chief velo on administration divisions, fleet and facility status and updates, finance, support services and training within the department.

>> >> president nakajo: thank you. our tradition, commissioners, we have the chief's report, but the chief of the department goes first. and then depending on the presentation tonight, the report will come from administration chief velo who turned in two months of report. chief nicholson. >> greetings commissioners, command staff and everyone else in attendance. this is my report since our last commission meeting. but first of all, i would like to welcome our new commissioners. we are really excited and happy to have you here. and look forward to doing some great work with you. so thank you for that. we're super happy. thanks for being here and being willing to take on this task. in terms of an org chart, we're

in the final stages of updating it, so we'll have that in the coming week for you. and i agree. i like to see that visual of it. it makes things make more sense. so a lot of things right now are budget, budget, budget, as we've heard. we've hit the ground running in terms of contacting the powers that be at city hall. we've spoken with the mayor's budget office and gave them a heads-up what our needs are and what we're looking at in terms of efficiencies from within and sort of the steps that we've already taken on those efficiencies. we haven't gone in great detail, but generally speaking, i can tell you about in the paramedicine, it is a highly successful program. and we met with the director of the homeless department to speak

with him about getting some resources from him for e.m.s. 6. because as many of you know, 80% of our call volume is medical and of that, 35% of that 80% is unnamed address. so we're really doing -- we're doing the work out there, we're on the front line and we need more resources. and because it's been so successful, we've gotten a lot of support from other departments in terms of pushing this forward. so we had the narrative for that. for sure. we also we've had increase in call volume as you saw in director corso's presentation. 3% over the last year. and quite a bit over the last five years. and it's been five years since we added any e.m.s. resources other than a few more members of

our e.m.s. 6 crew. so we've had no new personnel for the ambulances. and we've seen sort of the issues with that and we're unable to fill quite a few shifts each day, five shifts a day pretty much. so we have the story, we have the narrative, we have the data. and we -- we're already speaking with lots of folks at city hall, aides to the supervisors as well as the mayor's budget office. we had a meeting with -- i had a meeting with our training staff and e.m.s. staff again to talk about efficiencies from within. sort of how we can tighten up some things and really look to new policies in place. we're putting together a committee, new policies within e.m.s. which will help us do that. and we're also looking at a more

comprehensive training. we know the police department takes their officers out of the field for two weeks to give them training. and so, we would like to be able to train our members, especially our e.m.s., the folks on the ambulances. because so many of the calls that they are doing are related to homelessness. it can -- they don't get a chance to practice their high-level skills all the time we want to get them that training. it's imperative we get them that training. wi -- they do a great job out there. that's one of the programs we're going to be talking about. let's see. e.m.s. 6 resources budget. the community paramedicine as

well. talking about expanding. not just expanding e.m.s., but also looking at chief pang is looking at community paramedicine models, street intervention teams and the like with advanced practitioners from d.p.h. and possibly a hot team worker. so they've been doing a little bit of trying things out there and seeing how impactful it is. so that is happening as well. we're also looking as director corso said, as all sorts of other asks in our budget, training not just for e.m.s., but for our suppression side. and it's really important to me that we have a comprehensive succession plan in place from the bottom to the top. and that will include leadership

and management training, officer training and we also, you know, this is the long-term plan. it's going to take more than a year to put together. so you know, i don't know that i'll be around for the total fruition of this plan, but we're working diligently to put some things in place. so this department can carry on and with all the knowledge that everyone in the department currently possesses, passing that on and it's also part of our strategic plan, if you read that, i don't know. so those are some of the asks. as well as we're looking at other asks for suppression in terms of our incident support specialist that moved from the department, i don't know how long that was, 10, 15 years ago, so we're looking at that as well.

and in terms of the -- we had a mayor's department head meeting. and she -- the instruction she gave us to were the cuts, obviously, which we will be certainly bringing our narrative and data to the table about. and her priorities were housing, homelessness, clean and safe streets, the health and well-being of the workers, and equity. and so those, we are in line with all of those things in terms of our asks, so... let's see. okay, so we have also been speaking with cheryl davis of the human rights commission on opportunities for all program that the mayor put in place last year. and how we can -- we had four members -- four people from that. four students from that last year. and we're working on to the

summer in terms of how we can expand or grow that to give some youngsters some opportunities and some exposure to the fire service. and we are also looking at -- i'm not sure if i've spoken to all of you, but we want e.m.s. corps to the city. you can google it is. it is a program they've had in the east bay. and in l.a. it's been put in am place. it takes at-risk inner city young men and puts them in a total wraparound program, of not just getting their emt license, but trauma counseling, life skills, stipend, so we're working with human rights

commission and to put that -- and a nonprofit to put that in place. so we're hoping to get it off the ground this year to start with 10 or 15 young men in the first class. and then perhaps after that, if that is successful, we'd like do it for young women. they don't like to mix the two because of some of the trauma counseling and that kind of stuff, it's just not a good -- it was not a good fit. they tried that once and decided the way to go was separate. so -- but you can look that up. it's a successful program. they would be putting all the infrastructure in place here in the city for us and we'd probably be doing it in district 10, in bayview hunters point. let's see. we met with our labor friends, local 798 and we discussed -- we talked about budget and we have a lot of the same priorities, so

i think we can really sing the same song, which is really great. let's see, the 127th class. we are looking at our numbers for our next class. we still have the 126th class in and they'll be graduating in february, but we're looking to the next fiscal year for the next h2 suppression class, so firefighter class. instead of having the large classes of 54 people, we're looking to having smaller classes to get some more hands-on and i think it would be good for everyone if smaller class sizes, you know how that goes. so we're looking at that. and we also will need to look at, sort of our attrition numbers, how many people are retiring?

do we need 54 people? if we do, i prefer to do it in two classes. we're looking at that as well. [please stand by]

>> we are continuing our visits to the fire stations. there are six stations i am going to. for the new commissioners, when we started, we instituted myself and other chiefs who went around to every single station. one of us needed to be at all the stations to start a conversation with members from the field because i think it's

really important to not get out of touch with the folks from the field and we have continued that by having the entire command staff. one month i go to stations one through six, support services, then i go through seven through 11 and the like and we rotate in another three or four months. it has been really helpful getting ideas from folks and also just communicating. folks want to know what is going on in what we are doing. so i think it has been a really good thing. command staff, thank you for doing that. that concludes my report. >> thank you very much, chief nicholson. at this point, we will call for public comment. does any member of the public wish to give public comment? please approach the podium. seen none, public comment is closed. commissioners, comments or

questions? commissioner cleveland? >> thank you. i have to turn my microphone on here. thank you for your report, comprehensive as always. i certainly want to commend you and your deputies were visiting all of the fire stations throughout the city and getting the input from the rank and file it's super important. it is a communication link that is vital and sometimes it's not there. i really applaud the fact that you are doing that continuously and will maintain that throughout your tenure as chief. i had a question. i really am excited about the e.m.s. core program you mentioned and i would like to know if the funding will be in the budget or are we getting grants from this -- for this from somewhere? >> we are currently working with the human rights commission on getting the funding for it and,

yeah, that is where it will start. i have no doubt we will be able to get the funding for it. we have a lot of support from supervisor walton. a lot of business members in district 10, as well as the human rights commission and the office of economic and workforce development. this is right up in terms of i know what our mayor would love to see his kids from the city being able to be exposed to what it's like and be given an opportunity basically. >> i think it is very exciting. we want to recruit more people who live in the city to become future firefighters and future paramedics and future e.m.t.s. kudos on that program. on the 1,207th class that you are anticipating being smaller, how small were you anticipating

it being and will have any budget impact or somewhere we can cut a few dollars out of the budget? >> it depends. if we have two classes, it will be more expensive -- >> you will try out to classes but smaller? >> yes. >> if we do have two classes, i don't know if we will need two classes is what i am saying. because of the attrition right -- rate. we had plenty of people retire last year. it has really died down this year. thirty at the most i would imagine. when i came in it was a class of 24 and we were always scrambling to get enough hands on. i think 30 would be the max. again we have to look at the numbers, and do we need two classes or not? i don't know. we might not. we have done so much hiring in

the past few years. >> you mentioned in your report that we sometimes don't have enough ambulance people to man our ambulances. will we have a special class or an additional class for e.m.t.s or paramedics? >> that is part of our budgetary proposal. >> that concerns me, obviously that we don't have the people to make sure -- >> we have used a lot of money on overtime this year for e.m.s. as well. so we have a good argument, a good narrative, good data to show the need. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> thank you very much. vice president covington? >> thank you, mr. president. thank you, chief, for your report. think -- things are looking very

good. i think it's wonderful that you are continuing to go to the houses. it is important for people to be able to talk to the person in charge in a conversational setting. i know they feed you very well when you go, too. [laughter] >> what are you saying here? >> it doesn't show. [laughter] you know, to have a candid conversation with folks in the department i think is much appreciated by not just the members of the department, but by the commissioners as well. thank you for that. regarding the smaller class size for incoming classes, i was the one who really pushed for there to be more members of the incoming classes and that's how we got to the 54 because so many

people were leaving the department. in addition to a lot of people who are washing out. so when we actually graduated a class, there were not as many people there as we really needed , and i think having smaller class sizes is always a wonderful thing so that you can get that one-on-one time with the instructors and you are not stressing out about being able to have access to equipment and all of those things. i am glad to know that we are on that road. i also wanted to ask you about the new facility, you know, we have been calling it the deployment this and that, moving

up a thing, and when are we going to settle on a name like station 49 would be a good name. >> station 49 i agree is a great nine -- name. it's listed by the abs by d.p.w. the new station 49. >> when will we finalize that so that people who graduated from the old station 49 will know that the new facility will still have that name grandfathered? >> chief tom will get the message going in regards to station 49 for us. >> okay. thank you. do we have a tentative date as to the opening of the facility? please come to the microphone. introduce yourself to our new commissioners. [laughter]. >> hi, commissioners.

i am don dewitt, support services. it is slated to be late fall of 2020 completion. >> wonderful. it is pretty much on track. >> it is. it is a great project. it is moving right along. >> all right. we will be parking some hose tenders there, is that is what is going to happen? >> no, i think with the hose tenders, we would like to strategically place them throughout the city in neighbourhoods where they would be most needed, and take some of our relief pieces that are currently in our fire stations and put them at the old station 49, so just swap them. >> i thought i heard you say new facilities for some reason. if there is an emergency somewhere. [laughter]. >> pardon me for that.

i thought my phone was off and i did turn it off. i will just speak loudly. i am wondering about the nucor. i think it's wonderful what you were saying that it is going to be young men. i thought -- [laughter] -- i will be all over this and then you said you will try it out. so how long do you think it will be before young women? if everything goes perfectly well, which, you know, of course, we hope it will, how long will it be before young women will also have a parallel program? >> i mean i would like to do it as soon as possible, you know, i'm all about getting women into e.m.s. and our department for

starters. it will just depends on funding, but we do have, you know, we are working with the gentleman who founded e.m.s. core, and so he has been given -- he has been great and they will come here and set it up. everything should be in place. we, of course, will have lessons learned with the young men, and i am not sure what we will have to work out in terms of what will be different for the young women, but i would like to do it as soon as possible. i can't give you a date, but i am an advocate of sooner rather than later. >> and it is my feeling also sooner rather than later because if you are a young woman of color in the city, you also need to know that there are jobs that are interesting and can lead to

your independence. that is very, very important. as we know with the dissolution of marriages in the united states of america being at least 50%, that young women need to have a way to support themselves and their progeny. it's it is very, very important. >> i couldn't agree more. >> thank you very much, chief. >> thank you very much. at this particular point, i don't have any other questions. i will ask for public comment on chief nicholson's report. is a new member of the public wish to give public comment? please approach the podium. seeing then, public comment is closed. we will proceed with the report from the administration and the deputy chief. as appointive information to the new commissioners, next commission meeting we will have a report from the deputy chief

on operations. you are aware that we get the best of command as they give their reports and chief, you have two lengthy presentations. please proceed. >> good afternoon, commissioners yes, i have two reports as you will recall from our schedule. we had two alternate meetings. my reports include the november report and the december report. they are labelled to some beer and january because that is when i gave my report after the fact. you have those reports that i provided to you. and what has been done is i will to highlight of those reports and send them to you in a presentation format. continuing to work with the workers and committees.

we have been getting really good products from them. whether it is a revision of bulletins for high-rise, whether it's suggestions for track processes, all those things are working well. our members are very engaged in this process and taking ownership and what the future of the department looks like. that has been working really well. we have been working with the chief parks and finalizing the m.o.u. we discussed the fact that we wanted to have an agreement with spca to bring emotional companions to stations and after major tragic events. we got the details and we did have a visit from one of the dogs at station 49. we finally got details from that and should be assigned within the next week or so. we also put together an equity e-mail for recruiting members to form a group to recruit chapters for the next phase of our department. it will be a great loss for our

department. chief nicholson has expressed desire to expand to be not just catholic but other denominations and have not just one individual and the whole department to have more similar to what the police department is doing so they can work with members. this will increase the number and be able to support all denominations that our members have. we are working on that. we had volunteers already working on this project. talking to what the chiefest talked about the recruitment, we also are looking at revising the way we higher our next candidates for academies and how is that done? we are looking at different processes. i met with a chief in alameda county in -- and they have members who select panels. we are looking at that more to see if it will work for us and we are in the process of coming up with a product that will guide us to involve our members and hiring the next members of

the department which is important. we're looking at the logistics for that. tomorrow i will meet with the chief from another county to talk about the priorities for health check and health wellness for the department. they implemented a new program to assess an overall health wellness check over -- every year. i want to see how that model is working and what issues they have and make sure it they have them all worked out. as you recall, that was the issue that stops the health check a few years ago. we have a meeting set up for next monday with labor and worker's comp. and meeting together for all these issues so we can move forward with what we believe is good for the members we are bringing in and make sure members are tested every year. as you recall, we had the completion of the i.s.o. it came back.

there was a submittal of reports we are a class one department. i inspected the chains and we reported spending. what this does is classifies us as a class one, the highest meeting for the department. that is what insurance companies used to lower the rates for our homeowners, and therefore,, the higher the ranking, the lower the insurance. the lower number is 10, which is very rare, and we are a class one. tuesday was the first day for our special projects officer, and already we have given him enough work for a year and a half in one day. division that the chief had, as many members of the field want to start working with management projects and learn about project management, working with personnel and other agencies and succession planning and bringing back after a while they will come back to the field to get some skills earned. there's a lot of projects that we are working on and having an

extra hand to help us out is going to be very useful. that is the vision that the chief has for this position to be able to help with that. i am meeting with the chief and the c.f.o. corso. and i'm visiting stations. i visited station 41 and got good feedback and got information back to them on the same day about questions they had. it is very important to keep that communication open. in regards to our class that is currently in the academy, we have 48 recruits remaining out of the 56. not all of them finished. so we have a situation -- and attrition of eight this time. we have completed testing in this week they are doing finalizing training. they will finish the state test next week. we hope all of them pass and we finish with 48. i hope to see you all february 28th. that is incorrect, it's 9:00

a.m., not 10:00 a.m. correct that. the previous class completed a six-month test and they moved to their second assignment. for those who are new in the commission, firefighters to six months on engine and six-month on track. so they get the skills before they are finished probation. so this last class move to the next rotation, whether it was engine or truck depends on where they were. our in-service training staff completed a training module. they did live burn which consisted of metal boxes that we burned. commissioner covington went through that not so long ago in full gear. we hone our skills are firefighters in a real-life environments. nineteen members got the hours of training they needed for that we also held a class which is higher level incident command

systems for members of the the inc. the airport is not far behind doing drills. this month they held a drill which is a high-level drill they do every year that would involve operations. they train all the time, but this is one that they are required to do. they do it more often than f.a.a. requires. we continue to train our community. we're doing this in the stations , but also for the classes. at the airport they also help. i want to mention this individual, peter mcelroy who passed away recently. he was a volunteer since 2007. he was nominated for an award, the power networks award. before we were able to notify him, he passed away from a stroke. his wife will receive the award on january 29th at 5:00 p.m. at city hall. i wanted to mention that because

he was an extremely powerful member of the communities. he won the award for leadership. it was a loss for our community and the department and the city. our planning bureau completed the vacancy awards moving personnel from one spot to another. vacation bid station 49, and other members from the 1,205th academy. our health and wellness chief -- we are working on a project that the mayor put emphasis on which is de-escalation training. we are doing this -- we are learning and going to the sfpd academy. our instructors are going there and learning de-escalation from the p.d. side. we are bringing back what we can implement on the e.m.s. side first because they're the ones who happen to have the most contact with members and happen to happened to be also in situations where de-escalation

may be needed. our goal is for the second half of 2020, bring it to e.m.s. and first half of 2021, bring it forward again. they're class is a 40 hour class we need to bring it down a little bit. our class will be reduced in time and size. right now they are scheduled to go there and train for us. we rot resiliency training to station 49. due to the lack of staffing on members of 49, they do suffer from higher stress levels and other members of the department and we want to give them the tools to deal with that and cope with that. we are bringing in that and bringing it to the future of the department, too. chief parks also rolled in the department and they are on a study from university about safety culture for the departments. we are one and the few -- one of the few in country that is doing

it. they gave us a study on how the department safety culture is and what kind of information we can get from that to improve our programs. there is training at the national fire academy in maryland. there is a cancer study that is happening this week. it is a specific focus group of female firefighters, instructors and arson investigators who are the focus group that the study wanted to follow to see what the effects of our profession has. as we know, cancer has a high rate for us, what they want to focus on the groups that you will see enrolled in our department. here is our visit from toby which is the animal companion who came to visit. there was more tobe time than most people. support services, an update on station 35. this is the floating part of the station that was loaded into a ship and is on its way here.

the wood has come -- it will arrive on january 28th. that is the plan for that. that is moving along well. station 49, i visited station 49 and it's one of the sides of the building where the panels are going in. this is the interior, which is completed. everything is completed in november of 19. i visited a few weeks ago and it is looking really good. progress has been made to the point where you had to work on the case for the station. that is moving along well. like was mentioned before, they went out to bid and we had a minimum where the vendors come and ask questions about the process on the bid. that is moving along well. there were too many questions about it. in the preconstruction phase we have six engines and they are moving along very well too. we have received six chief vehicles being outfitted with

all the lights and equipment and radios that they need to go in the back of the box. we are working on that. we placed an order for a new generous risk tools which are battery operated, much later, and work very well for us. and just to finish like i always do with my report, some of the community events we have been participating in. we continue to have spanish first responders which was very successful last year. we expanded it to other bay area departments as well. we've made that offer to other regional departments to come in and take this class. individuals volunteer their time to come in and help us out. it is very helpful. it is tremendous. very good focus on the mission high school mentoring program and fire science program that we have done there. it will be a good model for us. sorry, it is a little slow today

mentoring day. members of the department sat down with kids in the program, telling them what they need to do to become members of the fire service. that was really connecting all the dots after this. we have some members from the department teaching and talking to those high school kids. we do have safety fares which are very well received. this is november, and then we had station 49 where they are reaching out to careers in and youth groups. that is also another. the chief was at this event. they did a great event for a girls camp this year. there was a lot of attendance. and a lot of kids and members and women were there too. and just to finish my report, we have a great day on monday with martin luther king day and the parade and the events that were there. again, comprehensive reports. i'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

>> thank you very much. i will call for public comment on your report. if any member of the public wishes to give public comment at this time, please approach the podium. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> thank you, mr. president. and thank you for your excellent report. i had a number of questions beginning with the recruitment and hiring process in alameda county that we are looking at as a model for us to adopt. can you give us any detail? >> one of the money that we are looking at, that is the one that i mentioned, they have panels and members of the department. each member will have a member of the panel. the interview candidates. they will make recommendations

to the chief of the department for the final interview. it's a filtering process where members are included in that. they have several questions being given by the administration. then they will ask those questions and make recommendations for the final chief's interview for that. >> they still have to go through a written test? >> they have to be part of the test. >> they have to be on the list and score relatively high to be selected. >> absolutely. >> they still go through d.h.r. >> correct. >> okay. dealing with contra costa's health check process, what do they do in contra costa county? >> it comes in and sets up shop in their department. they do a one day -- for example, the engine company will go up to six hours and do cancer screening, cardio screening, they do all kinds of tests in one location, and they come out. what they have done with them is the results are given to the members to share with private physicians and then the department gets raw data back to us to tell us the general health

status of the department. they make sure it's done. they set up shop in one of the facilities. i will see it tomorrow. they go through all these steps and they do this. >> i know confidentiality is a big deal there and it's very important. is a much of a budget impact in contra costa on having that type of health check process done? >> i don't know how their budget is. i will have to talk to them about that. we have money in the budget and we are asking in the new budget to have the capability of doing this. our goal is to do it every other year for now and when the budget is able to increase, to do it every year. we are going to that goal. we haven't done it in a long time. i think it's really important. it is part of prevention and keeping our firefighters and paramedics healthy which is as much important as it is to heal them once they are hurt. >> absolutely. >> hopefully able to be much of

a budget impact. >> i also believe we will have cost savings when the work comes down the other side. >> exactly. that special projects officer position that was created, is that a direct report to you? >> yes. >> so what have you given that person to do that he will take another year to do? >> first project was -- [indiscernible] -- and get a comprehensive five-year plan for replacement. as the c.f.o. says they aspire for 2021. we need to get updated. we are working -- he will be working with the committee chairs on revising all of our sop his and manuals. as the committees are working on this progress, you will work on the project that the chief mentioned about opportunities for all. he will be part of the liaison for that and channel that. it has only been two days and we already have three projects that

can last for a year. there is a lot of things i will give to him. >> you talked about de-escalation training and i think that is obviously very important with the police. are we using psychology? what are we using -- what is this de-escalation training for firefighters, particularly paramedics and e.m.t.s that are on the street every day? what does that really mean? >> we will look at and have my e.m.s. training staff attend the training that p.d. does and what they are tasked to do is bring back aspects of that training that one applied to our folks on -- in the field. i can tell you what it entails. i'm sure psychology, proper techniques and body language and so forth, but i couldn't tell you. i don't think all of the things that p.d. applies will apply to us, but i know some of them will and that was the mayor's

directive that we had to engage our folks with. >> i think the commission, i would like to know what it means or entails. i had a question on the future of the chief's residents. do you have any adapter for use plans or what is the plan for utilizing our chief resident -- residence. >> we are using it and we have repurposed it for right now. we have our pier support unit working out of there. what we need is a wealthy donor to do all the repairs for us. and needs seismic upgrades.

>> i think that is on the very low and. it is hard for me to put $2 million into a building when we have so many other needs. on the other hand, it is of such historic significance to us. it is why we have to look outside the box and find another way. >> are you saying you don't want to move into it? >> i do want to when -- move into it. it needs a little bit of help right now, but i would absolutely love to live there. >> good to know. >> it has historic significance. we can't even know. the chief is here and he and his

father has experience in that home. his father was chief chief of department a few years ago. i know he has a special place in his heart for that place as well >> speaking for myself, i would love to see you in the chief's residents. >> i would love to as well. it will take some outside the box solutions in terms of finding it. >> it sounds like a good fundraising program and opportunity there. i agree. chief, you mentioned the spanish training program for firefighters. i think that is great and i would like to see this expanded to chinese as well so we can train our firefighters in chinese and spanish so we can meet the needs of a growing segment of our residents. i think that is a really good idea and i hope you can expand

those programs. >> we will try. >> and then my final question is dealing with grant writers. is that person on board? are they doing good stuff? are we getting some potential grants? are we applying for grants? do you have any intel? >> i met with her this week. it is understanding where the grants have been in the past. i sent her e-mails every day about things that i see and the opportunities. it's definitely getting an idea of what has gone on. what can we apply again, how can we apply it, what kind of things she has her plate full, for sure >> perhaps we can get a grant for the chief's residents. thank you so much. >> thank you very much is there

any other comments or questions? >> thank you. i think the de-escalation training is an excellent idea. whose idea was this? chief nicholson's? great. i think it's a good way to keep the members of the department in this. a lot of people feel so disrespected all the time, so they have these hairtrigger tempers and you really want to know how not to set them off because you are there to help them and we are faced with so many different situations of

that as many tools as we can possibly have in the toolbox to keep everybody safe. so how long is the training for that? >> it is yet to be determined. >> we at least have a full week. we don't have the same equipment that they use. it will be much more condensed than that. what i can also say is the de-escalation training came out of when the mayor came to station 49 to meet with the members and we asked those who had been assaulted in the line of duty to stand up. she was astonished at how many folks stood up. >> it's a very dangerous job. >> we talked about it there and she mentioned it to me several times when i met with her. >> wonderful. as a former fire commissioner,

it is much more up on the learning curve then a lot of our legislators would be. i'm glad she supports this and endeavour wholeheartedly. i wondered about -- i wondered about their spanish language seminars. are they going to be doing those soon again? >> they already started. >> they started a new cycle. >> and you met the instructor here. we are sponsoring him to be able to get a free class to anyone

and now we expanded it to the bay area departments. >> wonderful. she he was a very nice young man was good to see him. and the representative from other towns and schools. they used to be out of fort mason but it is okay. it is wonderful work. i'm hoping that the asian firefighters will help us with expanding the program. it's very important. thank you. >> thank you very much, vice president covington. at this particular point, thank you very much, chief, for your comprehensive report covering three months. i appreciate it. i just want to make some reference to our new commissioners and the learning

orientation that the commission and that we are here always learn about. colleagues, the division and the administration reports. and when the chief comes up here with the division of operation, it really gives a comprehensive exposure into working with that department. today we had the privilege of the finance director with the budgetary issues. for myself, in terms of this report with the chief's report, i generally page myself to the report december 2019 because every component of the report has the various divisions within the department and there is always a name associated with it as well. it really helps for me to be able to get a comprehensive look at the department and when you do something like this, you never want to miss anybody, but division of training in terms of

the assistant assistant deputy chief who is here. there is a section in their of the division of training for the m.s. academy with nicholas pain and what is great as we have a page in here that talks about the fire department fire auxiliary reserve. we have a report that is comprehensive from the chief from the airport division. what is great about that is the reports are here, but also pectorals are here as well. she is not here tonight, but the captain is here. there is a section in terms of recruitment with the battalion chief at the parks. it just gives a comprehensive exposure. we even had the investigation service bureau report. we have e.m.s. again with the deputy chief sandy tong.

we have an assignment report by the captain. i appreciate the report in terms of the division of the administration because there is the identification of human resources with marianne. and these are all members of the department. i didn't want to leave anybody out so i went into the second report in january. i want -- i wanted to make sure didn't miss them and also our department applicant in terms of funding and how they got scanned in this year. and of course,, chief cocker this year as well. just again in terms of the exposure. we have our deputy chiefs here

and also in terms of the remarks of your dad who was chief as well. it is really important that we were able to see all of it and for myself, to see fleet management with captain serrano. i just really appreciate all of the work with all of the identification and the members of the department. i just wanted to acknowledge that to the rest of the commission as well. thank you very much for your comprehensive report. >> thank you. >> item six, commission report. commission on activities since the last meeting on january 8th , 2020. >> all right. there is some reporting that should be had at this point. i don't know. excuse me, vice president covington? >> thank you, mr. president. i attended the swearing in of our two new commissioners and it was just a lovely time because,

you know, family members were there. so many people from jay town showed up for commissioners who have reupped for another four years. that was wonderful and wonderful to meet the new commissioners and to mix and mingle with them. the commissioner had a large family contingent. i had to tease him that the only person that was missing is the four luggage member of the family because she has red hair. congratulations to all three of you. we look forward to working with you. >> thank you very much. thank you very much for your attendance and your support. great pleasure to welcome you,

commissioner feinstein. thank you for this endeavour. it's just a real to have this team and line it up within the commission. i also wanted to thank the mayor of san francisco for the reappointment of myself to continue the work that we are doing within the department as well. i just really am grateful for that opportunity. as a point of report, i attended the census with chief nicholson. and as appointive information, i attended the general meeting of the asian firefighters that are preparing for the chinatown parade that i believe is on february the 8th. that is a ground event here in san francisco that all the commissioners are welcome to attend as well. at this point, commissioners, i would also like to take this opportunity to express wholeheartedly our appreciation for all of the hard work and dedication to commissioner

michael hardeman who served as commissioner of the city for so long in terms of earnest endeavours and really being a true fan in lower oakland. i also want to remark my appreciation to the commissioner for joseph for his contribution within the department as well. at some point, perhaps in february with the officers, whoever the president is within this commission, perhaps we can entertain a certificate of appreciation to commissioner hardeman if they are able to join us in the february meeting. that would be something that i think would really be a wonderful gesture in terms of our appreciation for their service. at this point, did i call for public comment? >> not yet.

>> i'm calling for public comments. please approach the podium. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item seven, fire commission election of officers. discussion of possible action, nomination and election of commission president. >> thank you very much. at this particular point, it is the time for a motion in terms of the next president of the fire commission and commissioners, i would like to make that nomination and i would sincerely make it an honor for myself and for the rest of the commission that are here to nominate the vice president of the commission, francine covington, to the president of this next year. it goes without saying that your dedication, your hard work and your devotion to this department i think it's an honor in terms of this department and in terms

of how much responsibility you take within that. within that, i would like to nominate vice president francine covington to president of the fire commission. >> i second that motion. >> thank you very much. there is a second on the motion as i have presented the first motion. is there any other nomination at this point? >> move the nomination. >> thank you very much. we have a motion seconded and we have no more nominations at this point. i will call for the question. all in favor of francine covington being the president of the san francisco fire commission say aye? >> aye. >> anyone opposed? none. thank you very much for your support. congratulations. [applause] thank you. >> i will take public comment.

>> don't say such a thing. i am very grateful for your show of support for me for this position. my love of the fire department grows daily for its members and the work that is done is very important that we impact everybody who is in san francisco and whether they live here or they are visiting and we have an energetic new team going to bat for the department. so that is always very good both on the farm side, the civilian side and citizen volunteers that are known as commissioners. so thank you all very much. >> thank you very much. thank you for reminding me of asking the question of acceptance and thank you for

that gesture. is there a comment from the commissioners on this nomination at this time? if there is not, i will move on to commissioner cleveland. >> i just wanted to amplify my admiration for commissioner covington who is now my president. having worked with her for a little over six years since i was appointed. her thoroughness and knowledge about the department, her heart is always in everything she speaks and so it will be a pleasure to work with her as her president because i know when she is involved with an issue, it really does come from her heart. congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. i will ask for public comment on this item. seeing none, public comment is closed. madam secretary, would you like to narrate the b. section?

>> nomination and election of commission vice president. >> at this particular point, i am recognizing him. >> it is my pleasure and honor to nominate catherine feinstein to be the commission vice president this year. i have known her for a number of years and have respected and watched her career over the years. she is a judge, so she brings a lot of good level temperament to the position. it will be a pleasure to work with her. i would like to nominate her to serve as the commission vice president. >> thank you very much. is there a second? >> second. >> thank you very much. thank you for that. is there any other nomination at this point? >> i move the nominations be

closed. >> thank you very much for that. at this particular point, we need to call for the question in terms of election of commissioner feinstein to the commission president. all in favor say aye. >> aye. thank you very much. thank you very much, commissioner. would you like to say something? >> i would. thank you, fellow commissioners for your confidence in me. i realize i have not said a word during this meeting but i have yet to be -- i will hit a week as a commissioner tomorrow, actually. i do hope that i can bring my background, which is a little different perhaps than others as a judge. i am a former police commissioner for first

responders, those who go towards that which normal people might go away from, have just tremendous respect in my heart and they have my gratitude and it is a real honor to be able to serve in this capacity. i home hoping that i will be able to bring my past experience and work with my fellow commissioners which i will delight in and achieve and everybody else to help bring the department along at a time when the demand is up and resources seem to be down and i want to help be an advocate for the working men and women, regardless of which division

battalion, i am still learning that. people are serving. that is what i hope to do. i am truly honored by your confidence in me. thank you. >> thank you very much, commissioner. vice president covington? >> thank you. i really welcome you and thank you so much for taking on this responsibility for being vice president. i know that you will do a superduper job. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. does that affirm that the vice president elect is accepting the position? thank you very much. i will take public comment at this point. would any member of the public wish to give public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item h., agenda for next

future and fire commission meetings. >> what do we do have on our document knowing that the vice president elect will be president? his anything in terms of this for the next february meeting? >> we do have another budget presentation and i'm waiting for someone to get back to us and if we are going to do the certificate to commissioner hardeman and others, and then p.i.o. baxter, i don't think he is scheduled for the next meeting, but he is scheduled for the meeting in march. >> thank you for that information and is always the prerogative of the president. in terms of the certificate of appreciation, i know we need to still confirm the appearance of the commissioners if they can make it. is there anything that you would remark in terms of agenda items?

>> the drone program. just an update would be great. >> okay. is that a question posed to the chief of the department? >> no, i don't know if she's a single mom or whatever but we will see what her schedule is. we will see. >> thank you for that commission -- that question. >> if i may request if we can adjourn the meeting and honor of peter. that would be a nice gesture. >> okay. commissioners, at this point, madam secretary?

>> we need public comment on agenda eight. >> i am asking for public comment on item number eight. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item nine, adjournment. >> before we adjourn again, in terms of the request of adjourning in honor of chief nicholson, can you verbalize that honor in terms of adjournment? we just recognize his service to the city with the program and all the volunteer hours that he put in and dedication that he showed. >> thank you very much. ladies and gentlemen, this

>> good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. or good afternoon, rather. and we're glad to show you a picture of how our city did this past year on public safety. in particular our crime numbers, our crime statistics. we have a lot of good news to announce and we're going to share with you the good news and some of the challenges and strategies that we have ahead

for this year 2020. but i want to begin by welcoming our mayor here, mayor london breed. she's been incredibly supportive of the men and women of our police department, and the work that we're doing to make our city safer. so wowght further adieu i'd like to introduce mayor london breed. >> mayor london breed: thank you, thank you, chief and to the command staff that are joining us here today as well as all of the members of the san francisco police department who serve our city every single day. i think that they do an amazing job. and it's one that needs to be acknowledged and today we want to talk about some of the great work they've been able to do over the past year that has gotten our city to a better place. but i do want to take it back just a little bit because i always talk about growing up in the city to give people a perspective of how things used to be. and where we are now.

and many of you know that the community that i grew up in was very challenging community and there was a lot of violence. and, sadly, a lot of loss of life to gun violence in particular. when we think about what used to happen in the 1980s and the early 1990s and how things escalated and the number of homicides that happened all over the city, especially in neighborhoods that are in the western edition and in the mission, the fact that we are at an all-time low in homicides in our city is absolutely incredible. 41 homicides, of course, are 41 too many. but the fact is that this is the lowest number of homicides that we've seen since 1961. it is unbelievable, but we didn't get there by accident. we worked hard to achieve the

success that we've been able to achieve. ultimately we want to ensure public safety of all residents of san francisco, and that involves, yes, police presence, but it also involves working together with the community. and so during the time when i worked in the community at the african american art and culture complex, in fact, many of the command staff served as the captain of a northern police station, including the captain mcgekrin and captain ann maddox who are now deputy chiefs for this department. we worked together on those issues to try and to address not only the public safety challenge, but also how do we do more to serve the community and to give back so that that never happens in the first place. and it's a very well-rounded approach and it's very necessary and we are seeing the results in the numbers that i know that the

chief is going to talk about later on today. it does take a lot of hard work, it does -- as they say, take a village. and it does require a relationship with our police officers. and i will say that what i do appreciate about san francisco police department in comparison to any other department in this country is how hard they work to develop relationships with the community. and oftentimes it's not always acknowledged for things they do to go above and beyond which builds the bridge necessary in order to cop keep the communitis safe, not just around the challenges of what we deal with with violent crimes, but we know that san francisco's largest challenge is homelessness. and we have many officers often times who are the first to encounter people out on the streets. what you don't hear about is when they're spending their own money to pay for hotel rooms or

socks or food or a number of other things, when they are providing services which are outside of the scope of what their responsibilities are. they care about the work that they do to keep the public safe. they care about the people of san francisco. and they have a responsibility, of course, to ensure all residents are safe. but they are compassionate. they work hard. and many of the policies that we put into place here in san francisco, including our policies around deescalation and anti-bias training and a number of other things have really set the stage for so many other departments all over this country to follow. and so i am proud of the work that they have done and they'll continue to do for the residents of this city. it is getting us to a better place as we can see with the statistics. but i know that these statistics don't matter when, sadly, you or your family are a victim of violence or any other crime that

exists, which is why we're working hard every single day to ensure that this department is fully staffed. and that continues to be a challenge. but the fact is that we are not fully staffed. and when we are being asked for support for beat officers and more traffic control officers and other things, you know, we don't always have the capacity to meet the need. and i am definitely committed to continuing to fund more police academy classes and to work harder on recruitment efforts, but this is going to be necessary providing additional officers, especially as the officers retire. it's going to be critical to the success of the future of this city and in keeping people safe. and we have added beat officers where we know that they're

needed and the things to help to deal with the challenges that we know that a growing city like san francisco has. and we also are aware -- we're not naive -- that there is definitely more that we need to do and can do to ensure safety for all of us. so i'm grateful and to the men and women of the department for everything that they have done to get us to this point. i know that working together we will be able to improve upon these numbers for next year and with that i'd like to take this opportunity to ask the chief to come back to the podium and to talk more in detail about where we are with our statistics here in san francisco as it relates to violence and property crime. thank you. >> mayor, thank you.

okay, again, i want to emphasize the mayor's leadership and how important it is to have a city leader that really takes a stand on public safety that she does. so thank you again, mayor, for your leadership and for your support. as i said we're pleased with the way that our statistics trended in 2019, particularly with violent crime. the mayor mentioned our homicide rate being the lowest since 1961. but as most of you probably know, there's a monthly report that provides a snapshot of where we are at any point in time, month-to-month. and you can see on the poster board that we have to my right, your left, highlights from our year end 2019 report. and what it will show you is that homicides which are down 11% as the mayor said, 41 homicides, the lowest since 1961, and the rates down 15%. and robberies and aggravated assaults each dropped 4%. all of this is thanks to the

hard work of the men and women of the san francisco police department which includes our investigation bureau and the units and our plainclothes officers and our foot beat officers and also in partnership with many diverse communities that we serve around our city. our officers put themselves at great risk protecting the people of our city, oftentimes without recognition. and i want to thank them publicly today for the work that they do. none of this could be accomplished without the work of the men and women of the san francisco police department. violent crime is always going to be a top priority. and we think that what you see from our statistics is that we're making steady progress to reduce violent crime in our city. as i said 41 homicide says the lowest since 1961, but to illustrate the point even more emphatically, since 2017 our city had a steady decrease in violent crime as we have shifted

resources to impact the areas of the city, of our city that are impacted the most. now this is at the same time that we had tremendous challenges with property crime as well. and as you will hear in a minute we have reduced property crime this past year and we're pleased with the two-year reduction and car break-ins. but the mayor illustrated this and i'll reemphasize this, when you are a victim of a violent crime really the stats and the statistics really don't matter when it happens to you. and we understand that. and that's why building relationships are so important. that's why our strategies focus on prevention, rather than reaction. and that's why we work so hard to deter these crimes before they happen. we want you to know that for the people of san francisco that we will do everything that we can to prevent you from being a victim of crime. at any event that you are, our job is to solve the crime, to catch the perpetrators so that

person can be held to account for what he or she might have done. in that regard, you know, we've had a number of high-profile cases in 2019, and we have solved many of them. and now it's up to the criminal justice system and our jury system that we believe in and our court system to take it from there. but i want to reemphasize when those crime does occur, we will do everything in our power to solve these crimes and to bring these individuals to justice. and we have done just that. we don't solve them all. we work to solve them all. but we are going to work very hard to make sure that people who can commit crimes in our city are held to answer. with that our homicide rate this past year was 71% deterrence, which is a good thing for us because we do believe that not everybody is committing homicides in our city. there's a small amount of people. and we could solve these crimes and get those people off of our streets, it will make our city

safer. we want to be more visible. we want to have more officers on the street. we know that when officers are present, people think twice before they commit crimes. so it's really important and we had a non-profit or an academic researcher that came in and to study our foot beat strategies and what they told us is that there was significant reductions in both larceny and assaults when we deployed foot beats and we upped our foot beats in late 2017. we continue that strategy and we want that to continue. and that's why it's so important that we're able to recruit and get the finest in our police department to fill our ranks so we can continue these strategies and make them more robust. with that, we are boosting our policing efforts. we all know in 2017 that we took a stand in the u.n. plaza area and we put out a mobile command post there.

and we increased our foot beat patrol there is, and it made a difference. we'll continue that with our mid-market foot beats and thanks to mayor breed and her emphasis on community policing with the men and the women that i'll introduce in a minute, our leadership teams, we'll further increase our foot patrols and focus continually on the mid-market area. i talked to many people, business owners, residents and visitors, who have told me personally they have noticed a difference when our officers are out there. that's why we need our officers out there and we need them engaged and to do the job of preventing and deterring crime. this will also support our deployment to other issues that we have to respond to throughout the downtown area to make the place safer for all to enjoy. the next thing that i want to talk about is education. which is a key part of our crime prevention efforts and we've had our smart campaign for a number

of years now, a couple years now, anyway. and we really do believe that that made a difference. but i want to go into detail on how that came about. and we'll have the chief there along the wall and we had many campaigns to reduce property crimes but the point is, number one, it was a collaborative effort. when it was assigned the deputy chief was captain lazar and with the community members it came from the community and we all helped to foster that but it came from the community. what we intend to do with that message is to be vigilant and be resilient. don't leave your property to make it easy for somebody to make you a victim. lock your doors and don't leave things visible in your car, because you have more of a likelihood of being a victim of property crime. those public education campaigns work, they're effective and we have to do them to work in partnership with our community. this is a community effort, a

drop in property crime is a collaborative effort and we have to have that continue. next i want to talk about our gun-related violence. as we know the majority of the homicides in the city traditionally have been firearm related. in 2018 -- or 2017, actually, under the leadership of the then commander greg mccapern we had a crime gun investigation center with. that our focus is really on two things -- first of all, identifying those guns that are used repeatedly in crimes in our city, not only in our city but in the region. and the second is to identifying the individuals that use those guns so that we can hold them to account for their crimes. last year our crimes gun investigation center led to the seizure of 96 firearms, not 96 in total but 96 from this investigation center. some of which you see on the table to my right. these include unregistered machine guns, short billed

rifles and silencers, and their efforts helped to bring about 90 federal and state arrests and indictments and generated over 300 leads to multiple firearm incidents. this has been a game changer in terms of building strong cases to get people who are willing to use firearms against another human being off of our streets which in turn makes our city safer. now this is a key component of our strategic plan and our strategic initiatives which emphasize the collaboration with other city agencies and community members. in october we also hosted our first gun violence summit which is led by our director of crime strategies director tiffany sutton who is also to my left. in that summit we sat down with the community members to reduce strategies and to reduce gun violence, particularly in the bay view direct that is hard hit by gun violence. each district has specific challenges and we have to be nimble and to work with community-based organizations and community members to address

our strategies to each neighborhood across our city. our crime strategy division, they're really doing the work of crunching the data and providing officers with the feedback on how to deploy resources to best meet the needs of our city. ultimately we want to do all that we can to improve our responsiveness and to make our city a safer city. we have a lot more work ahead, we know that. it's been said, and the mayor said it, and i said it and you will hear us say time and time again, one homicide is too many and we know that we have challenges, but with that we intend to work with the community, we intend to continue to reinvent ourselves and to make the adjustments that we need to make in order to make our city the safest city that we can make. with that i thank you for joining us today. mayor breed is on a very tight schedule and we'll take a few questions and she'll have to depart in a moment but we're glad to answer a few questions before she has to depart. thank you.

>> (indiscernible) how many do you need? >> we want to put them in the streets and our charter number is 1,971 and we're about a hundred away but let me explain a bit of detail and that number does include our airport and it doesn't include other issues that have to keep the officers off the street so we're about a hundred away and we're doing to recruit and to put the people in the academy and to get them on the streets because that's where they're going to go and and the bodies are needed and the officers are needed in the streets and so that's where we plan to put them. >> (indiscernible). >> i know that in previous years we saw something less than 2% of the break-ins. >> if you are talking about car break-ins, that is hovering

around 2% and that's a difficult crime to solve. however, what we have done in the last couple years and we have said this publicly is that we try to focus on those crews and individuals who we know are prolific and i think that our officers do a good job of that and we track who we arrest and we also track when they get out and if we get evidence or receive evidence that those individuals are involved in further car break-ins we try to devise strategies to kept tiewfer them -- capture them again. but the numbers are important in terms of holding people to account. but here's another thing that we all need to try to remember. ultimately, you know, our leaders and our city and in our state and our voters have decided how they want to see things play out in terms of incarceration. the prison population is way too big and everybody has been working to reduce that, including our city leaders, so

we have to be strategic and focused on those people that are doing most harm to our city and that's what we try to do and that's what we'll continue to do and we have had success with that so we'll continue that strategy and, you know, even if we were to solve 100% of those crimes, if we're having 25,000, 26,000 car break-ins every year and some are repeat offenders, we know that, we don't have the space in our jails for that type of population. so we have to think past just arresting people. that's why prevention is so important and the backside of what type of programs they get involved in is so important. and the mayor's programs and the jobs for all and those things to keep people out of harm's way in the beginning, they all come together and they are presenting a strategy. so we need to support that.

>> (indiscernible) the practices going forward and looking towards 2020, in other words, working with them. >> number one, it tells us where we need to focus and we always assess what is working and not working. for instance, we made it definite to michael's question about the enforcement strategies a few years ago, we were arresting a lot of people. but the part that was missing is that we didn't complement that with the presence and the foot beat presence that we know that works. so now we're trying to balance that and when we look back at 2019 and see what works and what we need to work on, we'll make those assessments again but it's the balance of the enforcement side and the preventative side and making sure as much as we can that we focus on the preventative side. that's our job, really to prevent crimes from happening in the first place. so we'll continue to do that and to focus on that. >> a follow-up.

looking forward then, and working with the new district attorney, how does that work in templeterms of making sure thate arrests that you make are then prosecuted? >> well, a few things that we have to do -- and i want to -- i want to, you know, to call out and thank my leadership team and our leadership team, and the assistant chief mosher and mcchecker rercen. and we're all on the same page, we need to provide the best cases that we can provide the district attorney so that his prosecutors -- when it's appropriate to charge these cases can charge these cases. we have to stay focused on our jobs, our job is not to prosecute cases but to -- when those crimes do occur we do our investigation thoroughly and we make sure that we get the evidence there and we give the district attorney and his team the good cases to prosecute. and we need to be open to new ideas.

we have to be open to new ideas. and there's been a call for changes in the criminal justice system. and we're one piece of that system but we have to be open to strategies that hold people to account but past that as i said, what next. what happens after they do their jailtime, are they going to come back to our city and be assets and good for our city, or come back and victimize people and harm our city? so there's a lot that goes into that and it's not just about policing and we have to support those programs that help us to do that. and equity is an issue in policing and we have to be equitable with how we approach our jobs and all of that matters. so it's a lot to look at and very complex but we're up to the test and we're going to continue to push on. >> getting back to auto burglaries. you have talked about

prevention. is there more that could be done there, particularly with people from out of town and rent cars and go to places where tourists go. >> there is, and we're questioning -- questioning that and i know that when the mayor was on the board of supervisors they crafted legislation for the rental car companies to make it less obvious by the markings and that on the rental cars. they are big steps in the right direction and we can't control what happens outside of our city and county but we have been working with the rental car companies on safety messaging. you will see the park smart campaign, posted in the rental cars, and the offices, those things help. working with our consular officers so when they have their constituents coming in from their respective countries that the message is consistent about prevention. people come here to visit our city and their cars get broken

into or their luggage is stolen and their passports and all of their papers are gone, that's a big problem for people. so we have to spread that message anyway that we can and those things are continuing. we're always looking to improve them and to evolve in that regard. but there is more -- always more that can be done. >> a couple more questions or one more question and then smaller groups. >> chief... (indiscernible) this is a national emergency with the break-ins. (indiscernible). >> for car break-ins, there is not a whole lot of -- well, as far as i know there's not any federal prosecutions directly related to car break-ins. and some of the side issues that come from car break-ins and guns are stolen and that type of thing, sometimes it's appropriate to pursue federal --

pursue those relationships with our federal partners to hold to account those type of violations and somebody gets caught with a gun and they're they're a convicted felon and those issues, that it could be appropriate to pursue federal charges on those. which car break-ins, many times that happen. and we will pursue federal charges when it's appropriate to do so, when we want to use every opportunity, every resource and every partnership to make our city a safer city. (♪) (♪)