advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. you never know what door is going to open next. you really don't. [cheers and [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 meeting is adjourned.

>> chair ronen: good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. welcome to february 10, 2020 meeting of the rules committee. i am supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. seated to my right is rules committee vice chair catherine stefani, and seated to my left is supervisor gordon an mamar. i'd like to thank sfgovtv for airing the meeting. do you have any