i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. . >> this is a reminder to silence all electronic devices. fire commission regular meeting february 6, 2020 and the time is

50 3:00 p.m. february 26. item one, roll call. (roll call). >> item 2. general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up on 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 commissioners as a whole. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with the speaker. the lack of a response does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> thank you, madam secretary. is there any member of the

public that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 3. approval of minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes from february 12, 2020. >> thank you. is there any public comment regarding the minutes of our last meeting? seeing none, public comment is closed. fellow commissioners, what say you? >> i move to approve. >> thank you. >> is there a second? >> yes, second. >> thank you. we have a motion by commissioner cleveland and second buy vice president feinstein. all in favor please signify by saying aye. thank you. >> item 4 presentation from the

san francisco fire in safety education. presentation by firefighter dwayne eckerdt in connection with the sffisp. a program providing important safety information to school children in san francisco. >> thank you. please come forward. >> good evening. we all know you are very busy. this will be very brief this evening. our team is in front of you we represent the fire department and the foundation to create an amazing program called the firefighters in safety education program. we are here to introduce the new commissioners and to give the

annual update. we will tell you four things. we will tell you what the program is, who we are, how it works, and why we are doing it. first of all, what is sffise? it is a program that delivers a 30 minute presentation from local firefighters to our locallen melocalchildren in edu. like i said, it is between the foundation and the san francisco fire department. it takes a lot of work to pull it off. we do it every year. who are we? i am the lieutenant at truck four. i have been in the fire department since 2004 and foundation volunteer since 2005.

i run the san francisco firefighters and safety education program since 2010-2011 school year. i train other fire departments throughout the state of california in this curriculum. this is scott. he works for the foundation. he is the sf partner and liaison between the fire department and the foundation. he trains fire departments across the state. patrick is here next to me, also, a fire fighter truck 7. he has been in the department since 2011. he has been volunteering since 2012. he is the lead presenter. he has done more presentations than any other presenter and most school years does more than all presenters combined. next year with any luck, he will take over the program from me. he is the face of sffise moving forward. he trains different fire departments up and down the

state. on my far left is elliott reynolds, head intern. he manages, recruits and trains and is liaison for the three volunteer interns. he does scheduling, volunteers time as an aspiring firefighter working full-time and going to the san francisco college fire academy. he just bragged that he hosted a fundraiser for us and delivered enough funds for a box for every single station in our city. all 44 stations have the brand-new box thanks to him. we are excited to have him managing the team of interns. we have currently three interns. they are tasked with scheduling, communicating with schools, pick up and delivery of the boxes and

preand post tests which you will learn about in a second. the other part of the team are volunteer presenters. of course, we couldn't deliver any of this unless we had people to deliver the information in the schools. our volunteer presenters we have 49 volunteers that present in the schools across the city in every neighborhood in san francisco. the chief office in the administration. we have a lot of support from the chief's office. if we didn't we couldn't operate in the schools. sylvia does the firefighter details and a lot of general orders and administrative duties and liaison for the fire department and the burn foundation. without the chief's support we couldn't do this. it is a big team. we do a lot of good. i told you i would tell you how it works. it is simply a program where we

detail schools that have previously been contacted by the intern team and scheduled. we detail a fire fighter in uniform to go to the school to deliver a 30 minute presentation. for k through 3 and 30 minutes for 4, 5, 6. same key points, a little different style. firefighters are asked to take a box with them. it has 12 items in it. it is a script and outline. just in case the firefighters are nervous they can essentially just read right off the script. the presentation that when we do the trainings we let them know if you are nervous for the first two times read it off the script. no problem with that. i will take you there 30 minutes. the veteran presenters like patrick are accompanying the newer presenters until they get the feel of the good presentation.

then the firefighter simply delivers the message to the elementary school kids. they have turnouts, clean uniforms, a prop box and go deliver the message. they are either at the station already or intern team delivers them. they also deliver a preand post test to get the metrics how the kids are learning and if they are learning the information. without a lot of slides and data, it works well and the kids learn a lot. examples of the key points. stop, drop, roll. stay low some smoke. cool the burn, dial 911, don't hide. 4, 5, 6 graders get consequences of playing with matches and home escape plans. the kids get a visit from the fire engine as well. as soon as the presentation is

over the fire engine comes to concrete the concepts we are trying to teach them. it is also really exciting for them to see the crew of firefighters and fire engine. the idea for us is the kids are taking the information home and sharing with brothers, sisters, grandparents, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles. not only are we reaching kids and families and communities. this is all free. we don't charge for any of this stuff. we want to make sure children have the information to pass on to families and communities because our mission as firefighters and the burn foundation mission's is to reduce burns and fatalities. we are doing an excellent job in our community. why sffise? in 2001 there was no public educator provision for burp

prevention and -- burn prevention and fire prevention. a firefighter krieger contacted the burn foundation to say we can make this program great. that continued and in 2010 and 2011, i took the program over. since then we are educating between 7,000 to 15,000 kids every single school year in this program. the program under goes professional educator reviews, grade level appropriate net, nfpa tracts. we have master educators pourover to make sure it is appropriate. we go through to make sure it is accurate, up-to-date and appropriate. the information is 100% reliable. so much so in 2015, san francisco unified school district mandated this would be

taught in allen men tree schools in san francisco. we are -- in all of the elementary schools in san francisco. we are able to deliver the program. it helps the community. as firefighters we stick to our mission to serve. as i said, we have 49 enrolled volunteers. i would like patrick to talk about the firefighter's side of it and shed light on what the firefighter experience is for those volunteers. >> good evening. the fireman doing the presentation is one of the few things where we get nothing but positive feedback. often times dealing with the public we get less than positive response to the attempt to resist. this is a fun opportunity to really take in a lot of love. during my time helping with this program across the state, i have

seen attempts to use fire cadets or nonfirefighters to present the information and it doesn't seem to have the same effect. when we walk in in our uniform with our gear, especially being in san francisco where the kids see us on the street. i have had firefighter patrick call to me and kids on the sidewalk and in grocery stores. there is something powerful when the child knows we are a fire fighter presenting the information. they take it seriously and retain it. that is the best part. we have volunteers at every firehouse, prop kits in every firehouse. it is a smooth and easy transition for the firefighter, one or two presentations a year and two hours out of the day and you get a big reward back. we appreciate your report. elliott, our lead intern.

>> hello, commissioners. they filled you in my role pretty well. i will be short and sweet. i have been with the program for three years. we have had amazing growth in those three years. i want to thank you all forgiving us the cubicle at headquarters which is a huge help. we have three volunteers besides me who do if work. scheduler and two logistics guys that work together to get it done. last semester we reached 2755 students. usually the fall semester is slower so for the spring semester, we have reached out to 51 schools and have scheduled 11 schools. our numbers should be on track with the higher end of the usual goal. we are still doing our best to

continue to add schools to the list, both public, private and alternative schools as well. thank you. >> i am sure you would like to hear from scott as well as far as the burn foundation side of this. >> good evening, commissioners. the burn foundation works with burn survivors throughout the state of california. our goal is to put ourselves out of business. these guys are platinum standard of getting into schools and teaching prevention. the testing they talked about is testing not only what they learn year after year but how much they retain. we are incredibly successful in this an appreciate the effort fr being the front line forgetting the prevention method to the

students of san francisco. thank you. >> that is the four teams we promised to tell you what the program is, who we are, why it works and how it works. we want to say thank you again to the administration and fire commission for continued support. we look forward to continue to educate san francisco children, and we look forward to another great year and more education. thank you very much. >> thank you very much for your presentation. is there any public comment? public comment is closed. i will go to my fellow commissioners. beginning with the chief of the department. she is not a commissioner but her name is up there. >> i can defer to my other commissioners if they would like to go first. first of all, hello, my friends,

hello. thank you so much. it is great to see you guys here. thank you so much for the work you guys do. i know you don't get paid for this and you do this because you feel like it is really important work. thank you. you are not just the gold standard for our department. thanks and we will be happy to continue supporting you. i know sylvia is a great contact person for you. thank you for everything, all you do. >> thank you, chief. commissioner cleveland. >> thank you, madam president. i would like to echo the chief's comments. you guys are doing terrific work that serves the citizens of the city by educating children on fire safety. i would like to offer my thanks.

keep up the good work. a couple questions. you talk about the 12 item in the prop box. what are they? >> it is essentially the 12 items relate to each key point we have as far as stop, drop and roll, cool a burn, dial 911, high-five a fire fighter to give the kids a visual representation and keep the presenters on track. if we lay out a smoke detector, smoke alarm. who has seen one of these. they can see it. do you see one in this room right now. it is to solid fithe knowledge. there is a teddy bear and telephone for dialing 911, a blanket and stop, drop and roll sign. >> whawhat is the prop box. >> a box full of props. >> i was hoping you would bring it in. >> we will bring you one.

we will do the whole presentation for you. >> i wanted to ask you. do you video? i think it would be something important to put on television on our government channel. >> yes, absolutely. i am only stuttering i am in the video. i can't imagine what that would be like on the government channel. we have training videos and the full presentation. that is one of the resources we offer the firefighter volunteers in safety education.com we have outlines and scripts and videos broken down by chapter. any firefighter with a presentation can go and watch the entire presentation from somebody that has done it many, many times, myself and

firefighter patrick. we are on there doing each and every chapter. they can look to see that is the stop, drop and roll. >> it is half a hour. >> the entirety. >> have you given that to sfgovtv? >> no. >> then you should. >> we can, absolutely. they need to run that education for everyone out there that watches television. if they can't. they don't have children in school they can still learn about keeping themselves safe from getting burned. it would be very important to get a broader audience to what you are doing for the children. >> thank you you. >> testing. do the kids get tested after the half hour? >> they do. the idea we need to know how much they are learning. if this is effective or not we give them a pretest which the

intern team delivers to the school. it is five questions. what do you use to cool a burn, ice cream? there are examples. then we match that up with the post-test which they receive within 24 hours after we have dubour presentation -- have done our presentation. we try to get the same schools captured and can tell if they are learning more on the pre-test year after year. >> what things are more difficult? >> often times we find this one question lots of kids are getting wrong on the pre. they are not getting it wrong on the post. we know that is important. our cool the burn question. what do you use to cool the burn? ice cube, cool water and ice-cream cone. a lot of kids put ice. we mention that we don't want you to use ice. this is why. we want you to use cool water.

post-test. 90% get it right. we are teaching them and the repeated exposure shows over time they learn more and more. >> why don't you use ice? >> we don't use ice because ice is so cold that frozen water sticks to burn skin. when you pull it off, it might pull-off your skin. >> are these presentations done in spanish or chinese? >> yes, these presentations are done every year in spanish and chinese. we just finished two spanish presentations last week in the mission. we have printed materials in i think 11 languages, scott. >> updated seven languages. we are looking to expand to as many as possible, probably the goal is 20. >> this is a fantastic program. keep up the good work. thank you for all the hours and time that you have put into

this. the fact that you are educating our youth throughout the city in fire safety is a huge contribution. thank you for that. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> thank you very much, madam president. first of all, lieutenant, you started this program in 2010, 10 years? i just want to recognize that commitment and thank you for that. firefighter pat. i have seen you as well. thank you very much for your service and participation. elliott reynolds, intern, three years. thank you very much for that. scott, i didn't catch your last name.

wertz. >> in terms of association. what is your role at the foundation? >> so am the northern california regional manager. my initial interaction with the foundation was as a survivor. i was burned in 2013, and i was greeted by the foundation while still in the hospital where i got to see the positive effects and meet other burn survivors. i came on as a volunteer and as full-time position representing northern california in prevention and survivor services. >> i am glad you share that with us. i want to thank all of you for your service. commissioner cleveland asked the questions i was going to ask in

terms of language which makes so much sense in terms of the children you are trying to approach. half an hour curriculum. how does that work? the instructor allows you to come in at a certain time or how does that work? >> when we call the schools or when we schedule the schools, it is 30 minute curriculum to cover the points and 30 minutes for 4 through 6. it is different. the curriculum and script is written based on at tension span for elementary school kids to keep at 30 minutes. >> that answers one of the questions that it is targeted for elementary children. >> absolutely. >> i want to ask as well. is there q&a, questions and answers by the students after the presentation? >> yes, and we train the new

presenters to leave time for questions. we pick an equal number. it looks like we have time for four questions. two boys and two girls. two questions. it depends on the timing. generally the presenter sticks to the script and there is time for at least four questions. they are generally good questions. (laughter). >> i assumed in the sense of the target population of elementary so part of the thinks is that with the presentation i am assuming the children are enthusiastic about the presentation and ask questions as well which tells me there is more engagement in the presentation. >> it is extremely interactive. it is based on the call and response model. every question i ask or any volunteer presenters ask we are giving the answers. which way does smoke go, boys

and girls. we expect them to answer. the seven key points have interaction. we invite kids to do stop, drop and roll with us. [please stand by]

>> when you go to these schools, is it both private and public? do the catholic schools and other schools get an opportunity? >> absolutely. >> no restrictions in terms of the schools? >> no, it's just the elementary age. so preschools, we tend to steer away from and junior high, high school, those are separate programs we don't have curriculum for, so elementary students and any school in san francisco, absolutely. >> i am very, very impressed. i'm very proud, because you are an extension of us out there in the community. and in terms of the effect of the numbers and positive interaction, i just think it's a wonderful program. and i wish you the best and the continuance of this. lieutenant, what are you going to be doing after you leave this position? you were talking about turning it over? >> yes.

i'll still be really involved. >> okay. [laughter] i'll still be doing quite a bit. so as far as i'm concerned, firefighter has done so much work for the burn foundation. it's only natural to pass it on. i think he can give new energy and life with it also and i'm looking forward to seeing what he can do with it. >> i believe in succession plans, it just enlarges the group as well. thank you very much. thank you, chief. madame president, thank you. >> thank you. commissioner rodriguez. >> i want to commend you on your time, your dedication. i'm sure it's a lot of time in trying to make sure that what you are doing is effective. my union actually does a golf

tournament, a charitable golf tournament with the alisa foundation. i never knew there was any preventing. usually the money we raise goes for a camp for the kids that are going through burns. >> champion. >> yeah. but like you were saying, prevention really is at the heart of everything if you can do that. so once again, i think it's really important. i'm trying to remember back when i was in school, but i don't know if i went through anything like that. but once again, thank you very much. >> you are welcome. to be fair, for the new commissioners i know the veteran commissioners and administration knows this but the burn foundation was actually started because a little girl, alisa ann was caught in a backyard barbecue fire. her and her brother were caught on fire. she did not survive because she ran around, this was in 1972.

she didn't know about stop drop and roll. her brother was tackled and rolled out and that's how stop drop and roll was developed. and i think i can speak easily for these guys as well. and that's why we are doing this, because we don't want kids to get burned and killed because they don't know what to do. so it's important for us to continue this message on a volunteer basis. it's free, it's all of our time. i'm sure you knew as a kid but somebody had to have taught you, so we are trying to pay that forward. >> anything else, commissioner rodriguez? okay. thank you. vice president feinstein. >> i just want to reiterate what my fellow commissioners have said, what a great program, and really commend you all for developing it, taking it out there, reaching so many people,

i was just -- i was absolutely stunned by hearing the numbers. and i wish when i had been a young child that i had been the beneficiary of this. and i'm not so young anymore, but i would always put ice on a burn, and that will never happen again. so you can reach others as well. with regard to sfgov, skip sfgov and go right for youtube. your presentation should go on youtube. there are all these fire presentations there. this is more important than all of them. really want to commend you on it. it's such a public service. and i know it takes of your time and your spirit and everything else. but it's a very great gift you are giving. so thank you all. >> thank you.

>> thank you, madame vice president. and thank you for your presentation. it was wonderful. i don't know, lieutenant eckerdt, if you remembered our former president andrea evans? >> yes. >> yes, because when you first did a presentation for us, i think i was vice president at that time, and we asked are you doing it in all the schools and it was like no, we haven't been able to do that. and so it was then president evans, and a number of people on the school board who got together and said, oh, this definitely should be in every classroom. so commissioners do have an impact. a very positive impact on things as we become aware of them.

and now to hear the numbers, they are fantastic. just fantastic. so very happy about that. you had just a couple of questions. if you are the president of a p.t.a., and you have watched this presentation, what should you do to get this program in your school? >> that's a great question. call the burn foundation immediately. >> okay. >> yeah, absolutely. so any time we do this presentation, we never have to ask twice. we always get to do it again, all the administrators and students respond really positively to it. so absolutely, the burn foundation is always available. and of course me as well. you can always call myself or firefighter reyes. we'll make sure it happens for sure. >> very good. well, i think you are doing such a fantastic job.

and the props box, all of that, thank you very much for making sure that every station has its own prop box instead of, you know, where has that thing, i can't find it, do you have one at your station, can i swing by. so it's wonderful that every station has the problem box. then i wanted to also ask about the annual relay. i didn't hear anything about that, and i think it would be wonderful for people to know. >> yes. so the burn foundation does an incredible amount of stuff, even within san francisco, this just is the tip of the iceberg. this is what we are really, really proud of. one of the events that we do is the burn relay, that's the peninsula burn relay, specifically that one goes from

moffet field and we start at moffet field with one fire engine, and then relay to each fire station or city up elcamino all the way to here driving in with up to 20 fire engines. laos year was a dwindling year -- last year was a smaller year because of teams being away on strike teams, but it's something we are proud of. it's quite a feat seeing all the fire engines coming down mission street. the people of san francisco come out expecting this and are just so excited to see fire engines from as far as moffet field, we have classic fire engines, private fire engines, we have people that come from around the state to see this. and that's all collecting money that goes into prevention, that goes into survivor services, that goes into all our programs

that really happen throughout the state of california and northern california. >> very good. thank you. i think it's very important to know that the foundation and the department work so well together and have been working so well together over the years and that the foundation is a nonprofit and they do have events that you can attend and support the cause. i know that vice president feinstein says she always uses the ice cube on her burns. but also a lot of people use butter. which is just as bad. like let me cook my skin. i mean no, that's not a good idea. so i just wanted to mention that. do not use butter if you have a

burn. and getting to citizens when they are very young is so important. and the message, high five a firefighter, don't hide, that is incredibly important, because the first time a child sees a firefighter in full gear, their instinct is to hide. but if they see you in their classroom in a place they feel comfortable and you are imparting information to them, it changes everything, changes everything when you go in and they hear your voice and see you, they won't be afraid, they will go towards you instead of hiding under their bed or in the closet. so thank you very much for all of your hard work. >> thank you. >> thank you. any other comments, commissioners? okay. madame secretary, can you call up the next item? >> thank you.

>> thank you. >> thank you. >> keep it up. >> item 5, chief of department's report, report from chief of defendant, jeanine nicholson, on current issues, activities, events within the department since the fire commission meeting on february 12, 2020, including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other government agencies and the public. and report from administration, deputy chief jose velo, on the administrative divisions, fleet and facility status and updates, finance, support services and training within the department. >> greetings, commissioners. staff, everybody else. this is my report since our last commission meeting. first of all, i want to say we have a firebug in the room. our new commissioner rodriguez went to station 5 for a ride

along. and caught a working fire and a few other things. and thank you, chief, for taking good care of him. so somebody else is going to ask you to come to their station, because they think you are their lucky charm. anyways, so we interviewed, before the last commission meeting, we started interviewing for the office of department physician. we did conduct our final interview since the last meeting. and i believe that may be on the schedule for later tonight as well. i met with the newly-formed office of racial equity members, and they have, something came out of the board of supervisors about that and sort of the mandates. so we are working with them on

our plan. labor management meeting, we had one of those as well recently, and we talked a significant amount about the budget and how we can work together to advocate for the department. we've also been having in-house budget prep meetings with director and other members of the command staff, including chief tong and others to really get our numbers and our story in order. i am going to speak with the mayor on friday about it. i also went to mayor's monthly department head meeting. and she talked a little bit about the budget but mostly about the coronavirus. as you may know, the city declared a state of emergency on the coronavirus, not because there are additional cases in the city or anything, but

because the mayor needs to do that in order for other departments to have flexibility, whether it's recalling disaster service workers or having people do things they would otherwise not normally do in their position and work hours they wouldn't normally work, as well as expedite contracts. so that's sort of the power of a state of emergency. i attended a citywide leadership development forum panel with mcfadden and colfax from dph and the department of aging and disability. i attended a capital budget discussion meeting at city hall talking about major projects such as our fire stations, our fire station rebuilds, remodels. we met with santa clara civil

grand jury came up to meet with us to discuss recruitment and retaining female firefighters. with the assistance of a lot of our folks led by chief velo, we have set up recruit panel interviews. so what we are doing instead of me just picking folks off the list to be in the department, we are involving members of our department. so there are 30 members involved in ten panels, three people on a panel. we have a wide range of people, race, gender, and time in the department and what they do in the department. and they will be having those interviews starting next week for the next two weeks. we are hoping to have a class sometime after the beginning of the fiscal year.

i met with dph and some other departments about -- we had an executive briefing on w.p.c., whole person care, which is something that has come out of the department of health for dealing with a lot of our really challenged folks on the street. some of them are housed but a lot of them are on the street, who may have dual diagnoses and early severe mental illness or physical illness. and we are collaborating with them on that. and our e.m.s. 6 is the best model for them that they want to use. so we are advocating for more resources in our budget for that, because we are pulled in

other directions other than what our e.m.s. 6 medicine does, and we are happy to do it, we just need the resources. i met briefly with the chaplain committee to launch the process of putting together a chaplainsy program. as you may know, we have had father greene for the last i don't know how many decades. has it been 30 something years? he has been our own chaplain, and we have worn him down. and so we are looking at what the police do. the police have chaplains from every denomination and to sort of spread the wealth and the weight. so we formed a chaplain committee, and they have begun their work, because as you may know, father greene will be retiring in june.

i attended the united fire service breakfast the other day, and they are working on recruitment and mentoring program as well as several other things. and as you may know, the 126 graduation is this friday, 9:00 a.m. at the scottish rite center on 19th street, and i will see you all there i hope. and that concludes my report. >> thank you, chief nicholson. is there any public comment on the chief's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. and i will go to commissioner cleveland. >> thank you, madame president and thank you chief for your report. it was comprehensive and brief, as always. and i appreciate it. quick question. you mentioned something about the e.m.s. 6 model be pulled in

a different direction and to -- can you elaborate about what that means and why additional funding is necessary? >> yeah. so as you may or may not know, e.m.s. 6 is a program we have been running for i'm not sure how many years now, but it has been an impactful and effective program in terms of getting support and services for folks that call 911 the most and who have the most challenging mental and physical illnesses. and it has been very successful in terms of hooking people up with services and getting folks off the street and into the care and even back to their family in ohio. we had one person. so it's very effective, and i believe the rest of the city, a lot of city departments have seen how effective it is.

and so if you don't have to reinvent the wheel, why reinvent the wheel? and so we are being -- we have our own list of folks under e.m.s. 6 in terms of patients that we connect with and contact. and whole person care, which came out of the department of public health and h.s.h., homelessness and supportive housing department, has a whole other list of folks that they are targeting. so we are being asked to help with that as well. and so while we absolutely are -- we think the whole person care program is really effective as well, and we would like to support it. so we just need more resources to do that. >> how does the fire department interact with this? i'm not quite sure what we are

doing here with the whole person housing or whatever it is called. >> whole person care. >> what does that mean? >> i could have our e.m.s. 6 talk to you about it, but it is a way to -- it's very similar to e.m.s. 6 what we do already. it's just being done with several other departments that, because they have seen how effective this can be, and it's also sort of the gold standard across the country in terms of whole person care in terms of what they are doing. so it is -- they work intensively one on one with people. >> it sounds resource intensive. >> they work one on one with folks to gain their trust, to get them the care they need, to get them going to their

appointments, to get them on the list for housing, to get them shelter, all that kind of stuff. so it's medical, it's social. >> very labor intensive, i imagine. >> yeah, absolutely. >> and takes a lot of manpower, person power to do that, and what you are saying is we need to staff up in our e.m.s. 6 program in order to do this, correct? >> yes, in order to do our own work in e.m.s. 6 we need resources as well as when we are being pulled in other directs, because we have such a -- it has such a great impact. so i sat in for that meeting the other day. and with other department heads. yeah. >> it's a real crisis we are facing on our streets. there's no question about that. it's a very real crisis every single day. i drive through the tenderloin to come here to these meetings, and i see people on the streets and sidewalks walking around in

a daze every single time. and it's heart breaking. it's absolutely heart breaking. that we have this kind of destitution on our streets. in order to deal with it we are going to need a lot more money into our e.m.s. 6 program. so i'm wondering what did you ask for in the budget for next year? >> i am going to speak with the mayor on friday about it. and i will have more details for you next week. but yeah, we are asking for more resources for that program. >> all right. >> for sure. >> thank you, chief. >> you're welcome. >> that's all my questions. >> thank you, commissioner cleveland. does any other commissioner have any questions? okay. i hope this question doesn't put you on the spot, chief, but -- >> bring it. [laughter] >> well, all right. [laughter]

is there any redundancy regarding what we have with e.m.s. 6 and this new program, which is -- what did you call it? whole person care? >> so the only redundancy i would say is that we have a list of our clients on e.m.s. 6, and they have a specific list of 237 people for whole person care. the only redundancy is on their list, they have 17 of the same people that we have on our list. so that's the only redundancy. so, yeah. >> all right. thank you. and can you talk a little more about the office of racial equality? >> the office of racial equity, i should have come prepared. but i can get you the what came

out of the board of supervisors this past year. sandra fewer was one of the originators of the document that passed. i'll get it to you. it's very short document. you can see their timelines for us to come up with plans and meet certain priorities. >> so this office is up and running? >> yes, it has two people in it right now. >> okay. all right. so we'll be hearing more about it in general. >> yes. literally just started in the last month or so. >> very good. thank you. and thank you for the explanation on the state of emergency that the mayor has declared so that people don't think it's something other than what it is. giving the department flexibility to respond to the coronavirus. all right.

thank you. and now we have another report coming up. welcome, chief velo. >> good evening president, vice president, commissioners, chief, maureen. deputy chief jose velo, administration. this is my report for the month of january. a lot going on down in city hall. so this is my report for january for the new commissioners i want to explain something how it works. i'm the second report, therefore my information is given from the previous month. so some information is outdated in time. but i've been doing the presentation that has newer components since we last met, so keep you up to date on things that are going on. but the actual report has all the information that my bureaus and divisions did in the month of january. so i'll get started. i will start with my training division. as the chief mentioned our

academy is going to graduate this friday. with 48 recruits. the largest class in the history of the fire department. during the month of january, they received training, fire control, which is going through a burn box and experiencing fires. you experience that. when we had the event. they completed specific curriculum. and they also -- and you will see in the video that we will present to them, active shooter training. that's one that we added to the academy. and actually p.d. comes with us and we work together and do those together. the recruits went through those with p.d. like they would in a real incident. those are pictures from the academy. in-service training is our folks that we have a separate division within training that train our current firefighters out there.

they do a lot of different topics through the year. we do a lot of those as well. we have a new module starting on monday that includes tactical decision making and live burns. so we talk about tactics and again they go through the evolutions. to train the size of our department it takes a long time to go through it. so the more reps we can do with them, the better they get the skills. you go to a fire on your first watch but that's an issue. we need to put them through the repetitions and make sure they get the heat and smoke they do on a regular basis. this month we had a drill. so we had companies in the middle of the night to respond to an emergency. and we do that about three or four times a year. we have a committee that organizes this. we sometimes work with transbay too. we work with them to prepare for

drills when there are no trains running. so that happens in january too. nert continues to train. as you recall from the last meeting, we lost a senior member of nert. this is the picture when his widow received the award for that. and thank you for that support. the nert is also doing c.p.r. training. and this month we did a ham operator class for our operators, our incident report specialists. critical that we have that. every battalion house does have an a.c.s. radio in the station. in case all communications fail, that's another backup system for us. so having more of our support specialists trained in this, they can receive information, will help the disaster plan function better. so this month the members from

the department trained on that. nert received an award for the group application they used to recall their members in case of an emergency. they received an award for that. some of the commissioners have heard this before, we have a program called listos. we did another series this month of four pleases, and we did a train the trainer. it is an abbreviation part of nert, basic skills for the spanish community. we go to the community and teach them basic skills to help themselves. it is not the full nert curriculum. i actually participated and was an instructor for a few years. and the community comes, they bring the children to the training, they bring food and do a potluck and share that and they learn basic skills to help themselves in case of a major event. it's really successful. we have more members of the department trained on that.

our chief of health, safety and wellness has been busy this month. we hosted a cancer cohort study. we have some folks from berkeley university that came in and tried to capture some firefighters, and looking for specific members, arson investigators and female firefighters. they are going to follow them through the years and see what the effects of carcinogens and other issues of health in the department. so we can recruit folks from the department and enroll into the program. we are looking forward to the reports. we are hosting a critical incident response teams class which is going to be supported by commissioner's burn foundation. members that took last year's peer support training are going to be trained for this and in case of a major event where we need more than four members, they can help the stress unit in case of a serious event with numerous people that would be

affected so they can come and be on call to come to that, so we are doing that this month too. we are hosting a suicide prevention class, coming up in the next month in two days. we are working with our arson unit to come up with some equipment that it can use. as you know, when the fire is out, there's still a lot of smoke in the air, and they are one of the parts of the fire service that are affected a lot by cancer. so we are researching what equipment can we give them to protect them but yet able to do their job on the scene. so we are working with that. chief parks attended the deescalation training. that's the training i spoke on last commission meeting where now we are going to bring into the department some folks from 49 and then folks from the field too. i've been having members from not only chief parks training and e.m.s. training go to these classes, and p.d. has been

gracious to let us participate. we are going to bring the curriculum together and make it customized for our department. we have been working with a new grant writer to get health and finance grants. so she is engaged with our grant writer. as you can see from the picture, that's toby. we are going to have regular business now from therapy dogs coming to the stations. one of the things he's done with our training staff is, and i spoke to you a few meetings ago that we are analyzing the injury data of our department. we recognize 24% of our injuries in the department have relationship with apparatus, ambulances or trucks. and many are strains of ankles and so forth. so they put together a video we shared with the department called three points of contact. it's basically you have to have three points of contact when you enter or dismount an apparatus to save you from injuries. sometimes we are not careful and the streets are not always the best, so we can have issues.

so we really focus on identifying the injuries coming up with programs and educational things that we can tell our members how to prepare and analyze that. so it's been a good start for her to come up. support services, extremely busy as always. on the report you have all the information. 35 are new floating stations. on the left you have the what ce from china. construction has started on that. so it's moving along quite nicely. last month they closed 484 facility requests, which is when an officer of the station reports through our system that something is wrong with the station that needs to be repaired. they put it into the system. and we close that number last month. we have been trying to make sure that d.p.w. and all the folks that come to the stations are on top of things and closing it in.

so station 10 had an issue with the sewer and we had to complete a system overhaul for that. if you've been there before, lots of big trees there. when they have rain they flooded so we had to do an overhaul for that. continuing to work on generators. the working projects have been completed. not that we have had much rain lately, but it's great. and we completed the window projects for three stations. one of the projects we had is our security grant access program that we have our cars that we can access the stations instead of using keys. so every member has a card and they can access the stations. so that's been completed as well. proud to show you this picture of station 43 where they have brand new apparatus doors as an example of the work that support services is doing, going in with the vendors. on the left is the old doors. on the right is the new doors. they are proud of them.

i visited them today. they wanted to make sure i thank the chief and support services for the new doors. they love them. support services went to the factory in louisiana to perform the inspection on the first of the five trucks. as we have talked before, the process we do is make sure the first truck that is built is built exactly how we want it. they had issues and have been corrected. the next phase will be to drive the truck from louisiana to here. and that's just a road trip, make sure everything goes well and make sure we run around the city, we go through all the station, make sure there's no angles and so forth. and after we are satisfied with the way it is, we order five more now that everything is done, it's a much faster process. but it takes a while to get the first one done. so that's what we are doing. the six engines on order under the preconstruction phase, they are going through the process of the same process. and then the bids are close.

they are in the review process and we have members from the department and shops that are going to go and review the two bids that came in. and b.o.e. received the new generation of battery-operated rescue tools. and they are in the process of inventorying them and deploying them to all the stations. that's great. i always close with some community outreach our office does. lieutenant baxter, we had recruitment with career info sessions, we had members of the community that are candidates that get information. our mission high school program has been very successful. we want to keep up with it. we also have, every month, different district safety fairs, and the president of the board of supervisors came to that one this time around. we continue to do coastal safety tips that we send information

around the coastline to make sure the folks are safe over there. and just to finish our report, i want to thank commissioners nakajo and president covington for coming to us to celebrate the chinese new year. it was a great event as you recall. i'm happy to answer any questions. my report is comprehensive. i wanted to give you the highlights for yourselves. >> thank you very much. great. is there any public comment on chief velo's report? okay. public comment is closed. and i will go to commissioner cleveland. >> thank you, madame president. and thank you, chief velo, for your report. a couple of questions. listos which is a spanish training program in fire safety, correct? >> yes. >> who is it addressed to? where is it performed? what do you teach? >> so we took -- it's a

statewide program from the office of the governor. it started in l.a. we adopted it a few years back. it focuses on the spanish community. we have done it in churches, we have done it in the d.o.t. it's a light version of nert, so it's not so many hours. it's four sessions, two hours each. and some of the same skills we teach at nert we teach to them. it's taught in spanish. so we have members of the department that are bilingual and go and help them out. i've done it in the past before and it was very satisfying to do it. it's usually at night, so after the workday they can do it. we allow them to bring their children because many don't have an opportunity to have childcare. and they bring meals too because it's time for them to have dinner. the last 20, 30 minutes they share a meal and we share a meal, and they can have it there. >> how many of these classes do you put on? >> last year there was four. it depends on if we get engagement for the community but

last month there were four. and we also did a train the trainer class, so we added more members of the department that can train the classes. >> if there's a church or community group that wants to have it put on, would they contact you? >> they contact nert. we have members of the department, yeah. >> that number is online? available to the public? >> yes. >> i think it's a great program. i want to make sure we are advertising it enough. you talk about the suicide prevention class. that i assume is for firefighters, correct? that's for the members of the department? >> that's correct. and it's a tragic statistic that last year more firefighters died from suicide than in fears. it is a trend that's been going on. the fire service and also in the police departments around the country. the situation is mental health crisis affecting all professions. so we give them tools, obviously ptsd and ptsi is something our

members experience on a regular basis, and it affects them too. so we want to give them toolses, coworkers that can -- tools and coworkers that can recognize symptoms. >> the key parts of that, is that something you could present? >> it's presented by a third party. chief parks has been reaching out to different entities that can give training for our members. so i can have chief parks come in and give a preview. >> i think it would be educational, not only for us as a commission but certainly for the public at large. so is it a video presentation? is it something they can -- >> it starts next month, so i can give you a report. >> i think the statistics say this is an important program. not only for our firefighters but quite frankly for the general public as well. >> correct. >> so i would like to give it a little airtime if we could. you talk about a fitness grant. what is a fitness grant?

i think i need one. >> me too. we are looking for grants. years ago we got a grant that we were able to purchase equipment, weights. we are looking at anything we can get. there are a lot of grants out there, and that's a fantastic way, to have a grant writer and reaching out to her to be able to get any equipment or programs, even trainers that can come to the firehouses too. so that's where we are engaging chief parks with a grant writer in order to get something. >> very good. is station 49 on schedule to be opened in, what, november? >> december. >> december? so that's still on schedule. >> it is still on schedule. it looks beautiful. they even have the sign already at station 49 in the building already. >> any new progress on the new training facility in terms of location? has anything happened there? >> not yet.

>> i hope we have a clear path for how we want to, where we want to have it and all the details. the commissioners are a little frustrated by the progress on this. >> we are working diligently on it. so, yes, we are. >> nothing to share with the commission yet? >> not right now, no. we are on it. >> one thing i can share is that we have a weekly meetings with the controller's office in regards to what we need in the training facility, whatever it happens to be. so they are engaging us on what props we need, what kind of buildings. a study was done, we are updating the study, making sure the information meets all the standards for the state fire marshal. so those conversations are going on on a regular basis to make sure. >> it just seems like it's taking a long time. and it's frustrating for you guys as well as for us. but thank you. keep us posted. thank you, madame president. >> thank you.

commissioner nakajo. >> thank you very much, madame president. chief velo, as you remarked, a very comprehensive report. i don't have any major questions except for one, again, as i traditionally go through the reports, and i did notice a cover page in terms of the divisions. nicholas payne, the airport division, chief avi, the ability for us to look at fire auxiliary reserves, the nert report, and again how effective foils are. i've been paying attention to the recruitment roars that come out, fire and -- reports that come out with chief parks. the environmental occupational health and safety with boone and

appreciate the physician's report. and i know that this evening we are going to do some work on that. the investigation report, but more importantly, the results of the report from captain. research and planning. captain nuker. it's important we pronounce names properly. i always need help in that. chief support services, chief dewitt, and there's been a lot going on. so i appreciate your hard work within that, being on top of it. and as i just paged through in terms of being able to look at human resources and such, very, very comprehensive. i thank you very much for highlighting the details. the only question that i have, and perhaps we might be able to

get some comments from chief, is that with this virus, we understand there's less activity in terms of the airport, and i don't know what that means. i know that what we see on the tv screens and newspapers is less travelers or airports in terms of dynamics, and i just wanted to hear if there's any kind of increase in terms of obviously the health issue with the virus that's going on and how that affects us within the department. >> good evening, commissioners. assistant deputy chief. as far as the airport and receiving visitors, it's continued all flights to china at this time. also the c.d.c. are the ones that are handling the passengers as they arrive. and if they are being checked with a thermal scan as far as

whether or not they have a temperature. they also check their passports in customs to see whether or not they have traveled through mainland china, and if they are, they are checkedd to make sure they are not ill, and they also continue to check passengers whose passports have traveling through mainland china. >> okay, chief. and from your observation, is there a decrease in terms of travel and travelers? >> oh, significantly. yes. >> okay. >> because they have stopped the flights to mainland china. >> okay. and then again the ripple effect upon the concessioners and retail folks. >> there's been a reduction in passengers, so therefore a reduction in the revenue of the airport con sessions. >> and we are still doing the bicycle medics? >> yes, sir. >> okay. i just wanted to get reinforced within that beyond what's on the tv and newspapers. thank you, chief.

>> you're welcome. the c.d.c. has hired extra personnel to hire the passengers that are coming on flights that derive in mainland china, but they have discontinued flights. >> thank you for that reinforcement. and again, we all are, but you are particularly, and the members of the department, on the frontline. and so, again, it just reinforces all the information for us, the commissioners, in terms of what's going on in the world and how it affects us here in san francisco. thank you, chief. >> you're welcome. >> thank you, chief velo. >> thank you very much, madame president. >> thank you, commissioner nakajo. commissioner rodriguez. >> thank you, madame president. kind of want to thank you for your report. so i've only heard a couple times of cancer causing, and yesterday i was on-site of a fire, so could you elaborate

what it is that you are looking at? and i'm sure if you are having the same problem here, it's nationwide or worldwide, right? so what does that entail? and what you are looking at? >> how much time do you have? cancer is a major issue in the fire service. carcinogens are everywhere, and when we go to fires, even though we wear sebas, the smoke particles are in the air. even when the fire is out. when you clean up the scene of the fire, just moving the dirt, the smoke, i mean the ashes lift up to the air and that would bring in the particulates. so the fire department is aware of cancer. it has been on the front lines of studies for cancer prevention. we started last year a policy where after fire, we make sure we wash so we don't bring the

ash to the firehouses. we are aggressive on what we are doing with this. arson investigators come in after the firefighters are almost finished with the fire, and then they are walking around the same situation. they don't wear the protective gear because they have to dig into the fire. so they are also exposed, and it's been proven that their site of the house in the fire service has a higher rate of cancer because of that. so we are looking at masks or something that is not so cumbersome so they can still operate. and we are looking at things they can give to them. and they are providing information for us too. but cancer in general in the fire service is a huge problem for us. so we are looking at all angles to attack this. and whether it's policies, make sure we wear we wear the protective gear all the time, air the scene out before we start working on removing the burnt elements.

so different approaches to this issue. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner rodriguez. okay, chief velo. thank you for your report. i just have a couple of quick questions for you. let's see. oh, on page 3, you mention a video, three points of contact. can you please forward that video to the commission secretary so that all of the commissioners will have a chance to look at it? thank you. and i also have on page 4 it seems that we have a good supply of vehicles for the extraction exercises. >> what do you mean? >> on page 4, it says auto extraction. >> education.

yes, we do have -- we were able to get vehicles from different entities. so we can practice our skills. on saturdays we have a regularly-scheduled drill on saturdays that we can bring the troops are there to do that. >> that's very important. and i tell you, it's, the whole auto extraction is -- when i had to do it, i was like oh my goodness, thank goodness somebody was pointing, now you do this, now you do this. and then the car is basically disassembled, and you can exget out the person. i thought it would be easier. >> there's science to it. >> so do we thank these entities that give us these old cars to

use in the exercises? >> do we thank them, of course? >> yes. but is it more than a handshake? do they get a letter? >> good evening, president. chief. deputy chief, division of training. it's part of a contract we have with auto return who does the to youing for the city that they -- towing for the city that they have cars for us. >> it seems they have quite a few available, and that's very helpful to us. i also had one other question. let's see. a very quick one. oh, on page 6, you mention the job corp., 25 students took a tour of the training facility. are you aware of how many

students from job corps maybe gone into the academy? >> i can find out for you. >> that would be a very good thing to know. i don't have any other questions at this time. so thanks again for your report. >> thank you. >> madame secretary. >> item 6, commission report. report on commission activities since last meeting on february 12, 2020. >> thank you. commissioners, what have you been up to that you would like to share? [laughter] commissioner rodriguez. >> i guess, you know, you're tired of hearing me say this, but i'm the new kid on the block. and i'm still learning. i've already shared with a number of you that growing up,

you watch a fire department, you watch what goes on, and you really never really know. you just kind of take it for granted that it works. but coming to this position, i'm starting to learn that there's a lot of parts that make it work. the thing about a fire is the same for me. you watch stuff on tv, and you really never know. it happens, and firemen put it out. so yesterday when i went to station 5, and we went out, first we went to -- well, it wasn't a false alar, i guess somebody set -- alarm, i guess somebody set off a fire detecter. and the chief asked me to go to fourth and fulton. and i have to say, chief, because i stood next to him the whole time, and there was so many moving parts. and he explained what everybody

was doing. and everybody, for as many firemen and women that were there, they all knew what they were doing. there was just no, not wasted motion, but i mean -- and i used to work in the construction, and you would have 100 people working, and sometimes they didn't know what they were doing. they were just kind of -- but there yesterday, i was really amazed. and then when it got to a certain point, he said do you want to go inside the building and look? and he already showed me how you were talking about cleaning the air. they had her drawing the stuff out. and then we went inside, and the extent of the fire was just, i couldn't believe it. but it just shows how well the fire department works when it's run right, at least for me. i mean, it was the first time i've seen it, and i was very

impressed. and there was a sad part about it too, they had someone there when the lady who lived there showed up and seeing what had happened to her home, she broke down, but there were people that came around her right away. and i guess the other part you never see was one of your firemen had a heart attack. , but the people there knew what to do, and they took them to the hospital. and from what i understand he had a couple extent -- stents p. it's a learning process. i want to commend you for what i saw yesterday. because without the people in charge running it the right way, i guess it could be chaos. so thank you again. >> thank you, commissioner rodriguez. commissioner nakajo. >> thank you very much, madame president, colleagues. i just wanted to, chief nicholson, i just wanted to report that i have been working

with the black firefighters, particularly with the program that they are trying to create in terms of a mentorship program for young youth. and i just wanted to report that i think i'm going to be approached in terms of needing support and assistance in terms of concepts of working to create empowerment with these thing members who are going to be a part of this program. it escapes me what the name of the program was. opportunities for all. thank you very much, chief nicholson. i wanted to report to president covington and to the colleagues and to the department that that work is now being processed to where hopefully there's some activity behind it. thank you very much, madame president. >> very good. thank you. and commissioner cleveland. >> thank you, madame president. just wanted to report to my fellow commissioners that we did

have interviews with the candidates for the position for the department. and we will continue those discussions later this evening. but it was dr. ye, chief velo, chief nicholson and myself that were involved in the interviews with the physician candidates. the other thing is the guardians of the city, we had a discussion, and i participated on phone with the group, and i think we'll have a letter of agreement that olivia is putting together that will bind the two organizations together in a more proper format so we know who is responsible for what. and i think that's going to be a really big step in the direction. so that's my report. >> very good. thank you. i think that everyone is doing wonderful work.

commissioners are very involved. and the life of the department, it's not a nine to five department or an eight to five department. and i appreciate you all getting out there and mixing and learning and contributing. so thank you all very much. madame secretary. oh, sorry, is there any public comment on the comments of the commissioners? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item 7, agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> what do we have so far as possibilities, madame secretary? >> lieutenant baxter is scheduled to do a presentation on outreach efforts. and we received an e-mail from the city attorney regarding a closed session settlement to discuss. >> all right. great. well, those are things that will

go on the agenda for next time. are there any other suggestions? concerns, comments? okay. none at this time. thank you. public comment on future agenda items? okay, public comment is closed. >> item 8, public comment on item 9. public comment on all matters pertaining to item 9 below including public comment on whether to hold item 9b in closed session. >> thank you. commissioners. >> i make a motion that we go into closed session regarding this public employee appointment. >> thank you. >> is there any public comment? >> is there any public comment? public comment is closed. second? >> second. >> second from vice president

feinstein. and all in favor of going into closed session at this time please signify by saying >> we are live. we are back in open session. the time is 8:24. item 11, vote to elect whether to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session. >> thank you. i need a motion. >> i make a motion we do not disclose our discussions made in private in closed session today. >> is there a second? >> second. >> thank you. that's a nondisclosure. madame secretary, is there anything else? >> item 12, adjournment. >> okay. thank you. before we adjourn, before i entertain a motion to adjourn, i would like to adjourn this

evening's meeting in honor of the two firefighters that were killed in the line of duty. they were captain ramon and firefighter patrik jones. >> so moved, madame chair. >> thank you. >> second. >> and all in favor of adjournment? >> aye. >> we are adjourned. thank you all very much. [please stand by]

today we are going to talk about fire safety. we are here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco. it's a wonderful display. a little house in the urban center exhibition center that shows what it's like in a home in san francisco after an earthquake. one of the major issues that we are going to face after earthquakes are fire hazard. we are happy to have

the fire marshall join us today. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> we talk about the san francisco earthquake that was a fire that mostly devastated the city. how do we avoid that kind of problem. how can we reduce fire hazard? >> the construction was a lot different. we don't expect what we had then. we want to make sure with the gas heaters that the gas is shut off. >> if you shut it off you are going to have no hot water or heat. be careful not to shut it off unless you smell gas. >> absolutely because once you do shut it off you should have the utility company come in and turn it back on. here is a mock up of a gas hear

the on a house. where would we find the gas meter? >> it should be in your garage. everyone should be familiar with where the gas meter is. >> one of the tools is a wrench, a crescent wrench. >> yes. the crescent wrench is good and this is a perfect example of how to have it so you can loosen it up and use it when you need it. >> okay. let's go inside to talk about fire safety. many of the issues here relate to fire, for example, we have a little smoke detector and i see you brought one here, a carbon monoxide smoke detector.

>> this is a combination of smoke and carbon monoxide detector. they are required in single homes now and in apartment buildings. if gas appliance is not burning properly this will alert you before the fumes buildup and will affect you negatively. >> this is a battery powered? >> this is a battery powered and it has a 10 year battery life. a lot of times you may have one or the other. if you put in just a carbon monoxide detector, it's important to have one of these too. every house should have a fire extinguisher, yes. >> one thing people expect to do when the power goes out after an earthquake about using

candles. what would you recommend? >> if you have a battery operated candle would be better to use. this kind of a candle, you wouldn't want it in an area where it can cause a fire or aftershock that it doesn't rollover. you definitely want to have this in a non-combustible surface. >> now, here we have our stove. after a significant earthquake we expect that we may have gas disrupted and so without gas in your home, how are you going to cook? >> well, i wouldn't recommend cooking inside of the house. you have to go outside and use a portable stove or something else.

>> so it wouldn't be safe to use your fireplace to cook? >> not at first. you should check it by a professional first. >> outside should be a safe place to cook as long as you stay away from buildings and doors and windows. >> yes. that will be fine. >> here we have some alternative cooking areas. >> you can barbecue and if you have a regular propane bark could barbecue. >> thank you for joining us. and thanks for this terrific space that you have in this exhibition space and thanks for

helping san francisco stay >> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to

vote. i never saw any female firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in 1990, some things opened up. i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting. a woman recruited me at the gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in

this position. i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire

years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through. the firefighters knew, they understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i

know what we need. i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15. i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. she is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my

fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure.

we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of

the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little 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 [♪]eers and >> i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldn't just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [♪]

>> i would say i am a multidimensional artist. i came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. i always have an interest in public art. i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. you shouldn't just be something in museums. i love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. public art is art with a job to do. it is a place where the architecture meets the public. where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. we commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material.

it is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and recreation centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. colette test on a number of those projects for its. one of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. >> mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. you need to use a tool, nippers,

as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. i glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [♪] >> we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. so we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually.

[♪] >> my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful. and also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. so one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [♪]

>> there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. during the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. there was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. it is a little bird. the relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city

an exciting place. [♪] >> after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the below-market rate program. i got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [♪] >> the current lottery program began in 2016. but there have been lot rows that have happened for affordable housing in the city for much longer than that. it was -- there was no standard practice. for non-profit organizations

that were providing affordable housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city we've been monitoring for some time since 1992. we did it with something like this. where people were given circus tickets. we game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. at the same time, we started electronic applications systems. called dalia. the lottery is completely free. you can apply two ways. you can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. if you a plo apply online, it wl take five minutes. you can make it easier creating an account. to get to dalia, you log on to

housing.sfgov.org. >> i have lived in san francisco for almost 42 years. i was born here in the hayes valley. >> i applied for the san francisco affordable housing lottery three times. >> since 2016, we've had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. if you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. >> for some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. there is a digital divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. so we began providing digital

assistance for folks to go in and get help. >> along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and there's also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a first-time home buyer workshop and a one-on-one counseling session with the housing councilor. >> sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldn't be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. they still might get a value for an available, affordable housing unit. >> we have a variety of lottery programs. the four that you will most often see are what we call c.o.p., the certificate of preference program, the dthp

which is the displaced penance housing preference program. the neighborhood resident housing program and the live worth preference. >> i moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. the neighborhood preference program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in san francisco. >> the next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. you have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. all city sponsored affordable

housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. every week there's a listing on dalia. something that people can apply for. >> it's a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. let's say the lottery has happened. several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. and how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. >> this particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. in my mind, i was like how am i going to win this? i did and when you get that notice that you won, it's like at first, it's surreal and you don't believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. >> some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. they have key less entry now. they have a court yard where they play movies during the

weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. >> mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. we will start construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. >> we also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. and life happens to people. people move. so we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. >> best thing about working for the affordable housing program is that we know that we're making a difference and we actually see that difference on a day-to-day basis. >> being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, it's a wonderful experience. >> it's a long process to get through.

well worth it when you get to the other side. i could not be happier. [♪]

>> supervisor walton: thank you so much for being here. we are here uniting communities together. we are going to start this conversation off this afternoon with a prayer from reverend birch and from reverend norman fong. >> let us bow our heads in word

of prayer. thank you for allowing us to be in this day. father god, we would ask that you strengthen us, and give us strength. you know what's going on in the midst of our communities, and we ask that you give us the strength to endure. we can't do it without you. we ask that you touch every one, every one that was damaged by violence. touch them, oh, god, in a mighty special way. we ask that in jesus' name, amen. >> it you to turn to the person to your left and right and say you're beautiful. all of you are beautiful because we're here to stand in solidarity. life is ugly, and sometime bad

stuff happens. but i'm blessed to be here. just say a few words, repeat after me. peace. pause. shalom. we are gathered here to stand firm on peace, beauty, and solidarity. we plray especially for the chw family, and what i've heard is residents gave them cans. [inaudible] >> but we're here for unity today. >> you've got to get the story right. >> okay. that's how it is, but we can't treat seniors that way.

but any way, peace and unity. that's why we're here. >> supervisor walton: so thank you, reverend burch, and thank you, reverend fong. as you can see, there's community tension. what i want everybody to know is that it's not about the politicians that are here today, it's not about the "v.i.p.s" that are here today, but it's about this community and bringing everyone together, particularly when we have obstacles to overcome as a community. we are about uniting, about uniting, we are not about division. i do have an official statement that i want to read on behalf of my office here as the supervisor of district 10, and then, we will hear from our

illustrious mayor. first, i want to apologize to the chow family for what happened on this site. we do not tolerate bullying of any kind as an office and as a community. o opressed communities oppressing people is not right. the way we heal is by building relationships between communities of trust and love. teach people of all cultures to love and respect each other, regardless of any differences. we have to let everyone know that the dreams we have for our families and our children cannot, should not, and will not be at the expense of

another community's children. as i stand at the location of recent shootings right here in our community, as i stand in the community where we recently suffered from a murder on friday, we are working to stop all violence in our community. we are also at the scene of a horrific incident that has occurred in my community and in my district. we do not tolerate the mistreatment on our elt ders and on people of other cultures. -- el de -- elders and on people of other cultures. people are going to try to drive a wedge between the black community and the asian community. but we offer peace, we offer

unity, we offer education about each other, and why we all belong here together. there has been some actions taken by sfpd to address this heinous act. the victim now is connected to services, which is very important so we can provide the support and comforts him and his family needs. our office has already finalized our community violence plan for the entire district 10 with information -- yes. [applause] >> supervisor walton: with information on how to prevent violence, how to bring communities together, and focus on needed resources to keep our communities safe. and to make sure that our community safety plan and the

resolution safety plan pass unanimously -- passed unanimously by this board of supervisors of is achieved. we are working closely with the human rights commission to start closely convening with the black and asian communities, and we will do everything to prevent any type of violence and bullying in our neighborhoods. we call for community unity and solidarity at this time, not the division that people want to promote. because in san francisco, we bring people together, we build bridges, and we bridge the gap that divides. with that said, i want to thank you for being here as we have a community conversation to show solidarity, and i want to bring up our mayor, london breed. [applause]

>> the hon. london breed: so first of all, let me just start by saying that i'm so grateful to see all of you out here. many of you know that i grew up in san francisco, i grew up in fillmore, and my grandmother raised me in public housing. during that time, we all know the violence and the hurt and the frustration and the neglect that existed with the african american community still exists today. so as your mayor, as the first african american woman to be mayor, i know that's not enough for the african american community, and i want to thank supervisor walton for his leadership in bringing us all together, but also in leading the conversations around racial equity and how we began through reparation to really address the injustices that have been inflicted upon the african americans in san francisco. we know --

[applause] >> the hon. london breed: to be clear, we know that it's not enough. we know we have to do more, and we have to make sure that we are investing specifically in the african american communities. this is not about data and statistics because we know disproportionately african americans represent less than 6% of the population in this city but over 30% of the homeless population, 30% of the people involved in the criminal justice system. we have lost too many friends and family members to gun violence. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: so we are not ignoring that. that is something that is near and dear to my heart as someone who has lost so many family members and friends to not only the violence of what happened in my community but people who have been displaced from this city. and the fact is i can't even believe i'm mayor right now

with such a such a small african american population. and part of the reason why i'm mayor is because my community made sure i was elected. when i visit the chinese community in chinatown and the richmond and other places, i'm embraced li embraced like i'm their sister. i immediameet with the folks i community just like i do over here with kathy davis and others, and i'm treated with so much love and respect. i can't help -- but when i see any elderly person, i don't care what race they are, i can't help but think about my grandmother, and how i never

want anyone to treat my grandmother the way that i saw an elderly person treated. we are better than that. we are better than that. regardless of the challenges that i know that we continue to face, we are better than that. in fact, the video and comments were sent to me by a lot of african americans saying we need to do something about this. i appreciate the fact that there are different sides to different stories, but we can be better, we can do better as a community. it is going to require us to be

better. i don't want to lose one more person, not one more person, not one more person, so let's demonstrate that we're better than this by figuring out a way to come together, by putting aside our differences, and by showing genuine love to one another. it's hard, i know it's hard. i know it's hard because you know what? [inaudible] >> we all should be family. >> the hon. london breed: yeah. >> that's all we have to do, but everybody wants turf up on

the hill. you jealous because you got a car or you jealous because of a young lady or a young man. it's time to stop. >> the hon. london breed: it's time to stop, and i want to thank you. it is time to stop. you guys have a great supervisor in shamann walter -- walter? walton. as a mayor who understands and who has lived in challenging conditions, i understand it. this is our opportunity to change it, but i need us to come together more than ever before, and we need it. we need commitment in this community.

it is about this community making sure that we know what to do for you. we need to do a better job for you of making sure this community is not forgotten. that's my commitment to you. i'm in city hall fighting every single day for this community. i don't apologize fighting for this community when others have neglected this community. i will fight every single day for this community whether you are showing up at city hall or not. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: so just know that i am here as a supporter, as a friend, as someone who cares about this city, as someone who can't even still believe i have the honor to serve in this capacity to ask for unity, to ask us to make sure that we are teaching our kids to be better than

that, that we are holding them accountable and not be afraid to hold them accountable. because mama fay whooped me. we didn't disrespect or talk back to our elders. we're better than this, so let's do better. thank you. [applause] >> supervisor walton: thank you so much, madam mayor. we also have representatives here from our state legislature that want to speak and let you know that we are in support of community solidarity. the showing of leadership that has come out today should be a reflection of how much we are concerned about our entire community. i want to bring upsta state senator scott wiener and

assembly member david chiu. >> first, i want to thank supervisor walton for convening this community gathering today. he does a tremendous job for the community and it's a real honor to call him a friend and a colleague, so thank you, supervisor. you know, when i watched that video, i think i had same reaction we all did. all of us are going to be elders one day, and we have to treat our elders with respect, and that isn't always happening in san francisco right now. we've seen some of the incidents in viz valley, in chinatown and other areas where elders are being abused and victimized, and we need to all

rally and make very clear that that is always, always unacceptable. i also just want to say that here in san francisco, this city is in some ways, like, the ultimate melting pot in the american melting pot. we are from everywhere. people who born here, people who came here from other places, from all across our city, diversity, that's our strength. we all have to work together to coexist and embrace each other and focus on our diversity and strength, and that means embracing all communities. so you have my support, and i know we're going to move to a better place, so thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. thank you so much for being part of community, part of unity, and part of love. first of all, to mr. chow, the victim, our hearts, all of our

hearts go out to you. we stand with you during this time period. i speak today both as an elected official but also as a resident of the bayview. i live seven minutes from here. this community is a beautiful community that reflects the diversity of the world. the last time that i played with my son, it was at hill top park on a sunday. if you come here on a weekend, you will see white children playing with black children playing with latino kids playing with asian kid, and that's what it's about. all of us live in san francisco because we are a beacon to the rest of the world how we treat each other when it comes to diversity. i first came to this city 28 years ago to work for a civic

organization rooted in the chinese community. i say i wouldn't be in my position but for the advances made by the african american community in fighting for all of our rights. i just want to say, thank you for being part of this, thank you for being part of the love and unity. we need to make sure that what we saw in that video never happens again. we need to say no more, no more. because as our good mayor said, we are better than that, we are better than that, we are united, we are united in love, we are united in a belief in our common humanity. thank you very much. [applause] >> supervisor walton: thank you, senator wiener. thank you, assembly member chiu. a lot of my colleagues are standing here in solidarity. we have supervisor hillary ronen, supervisor sandra fewer,

supervisor aaron peskin, supervisor ahsha safai, and we are led by our illustrious president of the board of supervisors who is going to come up and speak on behalf of the entire board of supervisors, president norman yee. [applause] >> president yee: thank you, supervisor walton. there is something to be said when we have elected from all spectrums come to this community, and we are united. if these electeds, my partners and so forth can be united, a community can be united. now, my heart goes out to mr. chow, but my heart goes out to the community. the community needs to express themselves in saying this is not acceptable. we are a community of many people, and nothing is going to break us apart. you have to have a strong community.

one of the things -- i'm going to use a metaphor real quickly my father taught me that anybody probably knows what a chop stick is, and probably anybody can break a chop stick. but if you put a bundle of chop sticks together, you can't break it. that's what the community needs to do, come together. there are a lot of people here saying no more, and we need to listen to that. we need to listen to that, and we need to do things to support that. so thank you for being out here, and thank you, supervisor walton, for listen beiing and g a leader. >> supervisor walton: thank you. [applause] >> supervisor walton: i do want to acknowledge our district attorney, chesa boudin. thank you for being here. he's not running around saying lock people up, but let's give

people in desolate communities better choices so they can make better decisions in life, so i want to thank him for making those decisions from the district attorney's office. i now want to bring up our chief of police, mr. william scott. [applaus [applause] >> thank you. what we saw on that video was horrific. let's make no mistake about it. we heard not just from san franciscans, but from people all over the country. a couple of things about this city. that video and what you saw does not represent this city. what you see here represents our city. we are a community. the sfpd is a part of that community. we have a job to do, and our job is to investigate, to bring people to justice, and then let the district attorney do his job. we've made an arrest in this

case. [applause] >> and our investigators are out right now, looking for a second person who we believe we will have arrested in the very near future. the arrest charges are robbery, hate crime, elder abuse, and a probation violation. now, i will say, our criminal justice system, you're innocent until proven guilty, so we'll let that process play forward, but what i want everybody out here to know, and i'll repeat the mayor and every elected official that's spoken, is we don't tolerate this type of behavior in our city. we shouldn't, we won't, and we don't. so let's not let it take a video for us to come together. there's many other people in this city -- supervisor walton spoke about the homicide on that friday. we're working just as hard on that incident -- we didn't see

a whole lot of cameras there, but that person belonged to somebody, too. so let's not let a video be the cause of us to come together and work together. this is san francisco. we are a community, and we always will be. the reason that we're able to make the progress on this case that we have is because the community came together with us to identify the person, the victim of that case. that came from the community. that's where the strength is. it's not any individual up here, it's not the sfpd. the strength is in all of us. so thank you. let's stay together, and let's make progress. thank you. [applause] >> supervisor walton: we now want to bring up the director of sf safe, who works to provide the things we need to

make sure our communities are safe. khaira. >> well, everybody knows i really don't like a whole lot of media in speaking, but i do want to recognize that i've worked in bayview and hunters point for over 20 years. even though my office is on 815, this is home. i've had numerous programs here in bayview, but i do want to say i'm not -- i'm -- i'm unapologetic, as well, like the mayor said. but i'm unapologetic to be black, and i'm proud to service a community of people that look like me. and i'm encouraged and feel the support from the mayor's office and shamann's office for being able to implement this safety plan. one thing in this safety plan is having the accountability of community safety coaches, to be

able to ensure that all the people behind me, including myself, and doing the right thing for everything. when the shooting occurred here, when there were over 70 rounds of bullets piercing through cars, that's no wayt fr young people to live. i'm talking to the media, when you get alerts, come and talk to the media or the school kids the day after a shooting. talk to the cops and everybody else that has to work and endure these situations every day. so i do -- i welcome everybody to come and see me at 850 every day. i'll be happy to bring you guys around and to bring you to talk

to people that are here every day that wouldn't normally talk to me, but trust me enough and what i'm doing to be a part of this community. [applause] >> supervisor walton: some of you have been given a peace pledge, and we're going to recite it in a little while. we didn't come up here just to talk to people without making sure that there's some actions we're going to take and some commitments that we're going to get from our entire community. now that i'd like to bring up someone that i've known for years, one of our long-standing directors here in san francisco. she works on a daily basis with young people, with bringing people together, the executive

director of the youth center, sarah wong. [applause] >> we had established our bayview office in 2010, and i think reverend fong actually remember the reason we started that office is because of another elderly abuse incident that happened in bayview, and there's still more work to do. for the past ten years, we've been working hard to come into the community, to fill the community with peace, unity, and also educating the young people to bring up their voice and advocating for change. we stand very, very firm with all the community, with our mayor, and also from all the elected officials to bring that together. so i really want to take this opportunity to thank -- to have

this speaking engagement, to tell people that we are grateful to be in the community and want to help the community move forward. michael is the one working next to me. he's actually the one working closely with the family. there will be a long process, not only through working through trauma, but bringing the family through this incident. we will be working hard with the family and also sfpd to help them out, and i really want to ask for the family, to give them some space. they are still in very, very major panic and concern. they do not have access to television or on-line internet. all they know is they saw over 20,000 people looking for them for some reason, so they really panicked. so please give them some space.

i know a lot of people would like to donate. we'll update you on how you can support the family. so thank you for that. and here, our mission is, number one, we want to be a violence free community, so thank you. [applause] >> supervisor walton: we are now going to bring up youth commissioner ron jones, district 10 youth commissioner. we're going to bring up from chinese progressive association of san francisco joyce lam, and we're going to bring up one of our residents, miss janice smith. >> i'm the district 10 youth

commissioner. there's another youth commissioner here, too. where'd crystal go? when crystal comes up, she's a youth commissioner. any way, i'm here to take a pledge, but before i do -- >> speak louder. >> i want to mention a piece that i feel like hasn't been mentioned. using social media as a tool to do harm is still hurtful. that's not acceptable, either. we need to make sure that when we come together as a community, we do it, like, wholeheartedly, and we do it across all things that we can connect with. that includes school, social media, and anywhere you encounter people. including the park, i heard mentioned. so let's not hurt other young people outside that day just

because they happened to be in the neighborhood when something bad happened. with that, i pledge to support cross cultural education wherever i can, and i'm definitely going to push on the elected officials out here to make sure that there is accountability systems in place and everybody does think that they have a voice. [applause] >> hi, everyone. this is joyce lam from the chinese progressive association. what we saw, an elderly man doing what he can to support his family being bullied and hurt in his very own neighborhood should make you angry. it should really upset you, and it should really make all of us ask, what can we all do in this moment to take action and stop elderly abuse, to heal racial

tension, and to say together we are bigger and stronger than individual bullies? [speaking chinese language] >> and we know that whether it is on camera or not, incidents like this happen because of ideas held in our communities about each other, because we're hearing faulse narratives that we are more different than the same. [speaking chinese language] >> so today, i, we, all of us, we pledge to standup to prejudice and to bullying. let's start listening to each other. let's start to heal and to

support those being harmed from injustice. it's going to take all of us fighting for those who have been harmed in every possible way, and so the long-term, building an understanding of trust between our communities, and it will start today. thank you. [applause] >> i, janice smith, am a resident right here. and i stand today -- i'm saddened by what i saw, but also, i'm saddened about it took that to get the press conference up here because there are way more serious actions that need to be looked at. but we all are a community, and i pray and hope we do come together, because like with the shootings, the killings, like they mentioned, like the young man, mike, that was murdered last friday. we need a press conference for

his mom. and also, when people see shootings, there are witnesses, they don't come forward. my heart is saddened for the old man. it could have been my grandmother, my grandfather, your grandmother, my mom. i do feel sadness for the community, don't get me wrong. so my pledge is, i pledge to live violence free, violence free and help others have a violence free. let's come together. let's come together. [applause] >> supervisor walton: so we've heard from communities today, we've heard from some of our elected leaders.

i also want to acknowledge our sheriff, paul miamoto, is here, as well. thank you so much for being here, sheriff. [applause] >> supervisor walton: i want everyone to recite this pledge, but as we recite the pledge, i want you to look down the street. i want you to see this community, my community. i want to make an ask of everyone out here, that we don't just come to the top of the hill when incidents happen that highlight some of the negativities, that we come to these beautiful communities and see how people are living, get to learn about each individual, their families, their lifestyle. and that goes for the black folks that live here, that goes for our asian community, that goes for our latino community. that goes for our entire

communities right now specific to bayview and district 10. with that said, i would love everybody to repeat after me. i pledge to live violence free, help others live violence free, support cross cultural education, standup to elder abuse, prejudices, and bullying. unite our communities. i pledge and i will promote peace in my community. none of this means anything -- no, i'm sorry. great. none of this means nothing, none of this means anything if

we are not able to recognize -- recognize these are the children and say, our babies, when we refer to other people's children. our babies. until we get to the point where we say our children, our children. until we get to the point where we say our elders, our elders. not your babies, not your children, not your elders. our babies, our children, and our elders. when we look at everybody's children the same and say that's one of mine, i want to make sure that they are protected through life, and that's receiving everything they can to be successful. with that said, thank you for coming into the community. we are all going to work together to keep communities safe. we made a pledge, let's do it all together. thank you so much for being here. [applause]

>> it did take a village. i was really lucky when i was 14 years old to get an internship. the difference that it made for me is i had a job, but there were other people who didn't have a job, who, unfortunately, needed money. and they were shown to commit illegal acts to get money. that is what i want to prevent. [♪] today we are here to officially kick off the first class of opportunities for all.

[applause]. >> opportunities for all is a program that mayor breed launched in october of 2018. it really was a vision of mayor breed to get to all of the young people in san francisco, but with an intention to focus on young people that have typically not being able to access opportunities such as internships or work-based learning opportunities. >> money should never be a barrier to your ability to succeed in life and that is what this program is about. >> there's always these conversations about young people not being prepared and not having experience for work and if they don't get an opportunity to work, then they cannot gain the experience that they need. this is really about investing in the future talent pool and getting them the experience that they need. >> it is good for everyone because down the road we will need future mechanics, future pilots, future bankers, future whatever they may be in any industry. this is the pipe on we need to work with. we need to start developing

talent, getting people excited about careers, opening up those pathways and frankly giving opportunities out there that would normally not be presented. [♪] >> the way that it is organized is there are different points of entry and different ways of engagement for the young person and potential employers. young people can work in cohorts or in groups and that's really for people that have maybe never had job experience or who are still trying to figure out what they want to do and they can explore. and in the same way, it is open for employers to say, you know what, i don't think we are ready to host an intern year-round are all summer, but that they can open up their doors and do site visits or tours or panels or conversations. and then it runs all the way up to the opportunity for young people to have long-term employment, and work on a project and be part of the employee base. >> something new, to get new experience and meet people and

then you are getting paid for it you are getting paid for doing that. it is really cool. >> i starting next week, i will be a freshman. [cheers and applause] two of the things i appreciate about this program was the amazing mentorship in the job experience that i had. i am grateful for this opportunity. thank you. >> something i learned at airbnb is how to network and how important it is to network because it is not only what you know, but also who you know to get far in life. >> during this program, i learned basic coding languages, had a had to identify the main components and how to network on a corporate level. it is also helping me accumulate my skills all be going towards my college tuition where i will pursue a major in computer science. >> for myself, being that i am an actual residential realtor, it was great. if anybody wants to buy a house,

let me know. whenever. [applause] it is good. i got you. it was really cool to see the commercial side and think about the process of developing property and different things that i can explore. opportunities for all was a great opportunity for all. >> we were aiming to have 1,000 young people register and we had over 2,000 people register and we were able to place about between 50 and did. we are still getting the final numbers of that. >> over several weeks, we were able to have students participate in investment banking they were able to work with our team, or technology team, our engineering 20 we also gave them lessons around the industry, around financial literacy. >> there are 32,000 young people ages 16 and 24 living in san francisco. and imagine if we can create an opera skin it just opportunity

for all program for every young person that lives in public housing, affordable housing, low income communities. it is all up to you to make that happen. >> we have had really great response from employers and they have been talking about it with other employers, so we have had a lot of interest for next year to have people sign on. we are starting to figure out how to stay connected to those young people and to get prepared to make sure we can get all 2400 or so that registered. we want to give them placement and what it looks like if they get more. >> let's be honest, there is always a shortage of good talent in any industry, and so this is a real great career path. >> for potential sponsors who might be interested in supporting opportunities for all , there is an opportunity to make a difference in our city. this is a really thriving, booming economy, but not for everyone. this is a way to make sure that everyone gets to benefit from the great place that san francisco is and that we are

building pathways for folks to be able to stay here and that they feel like they will belong. >> just do it. sign up for it. [♪] [♪] >> working with kids, they keep you young. they keep you on your tones -- on your toes. >> teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. >> ready? go. [♪]

>> we really wanted to find a way to support women entrepreneurs in particular in san francisco. it was very important for the mayor, as well as the safety support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. >> three, two, one! >> because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the small business development center. i thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. they really give back to the

neighborhood. they are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. >> when molly -- molly first told us about the grant because she works with small businesses. she has been a tremendous help for us here. she brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated, and need to be up-to-date and redone totally. >> hands in front. recite the creed. >> my oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. it instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. we think it is great. the moves are fantastic. the women both are great teachers. >> what is the next one? >> my son goes to fd k. he has been attending for about two years now. they also have a summer program,

and last summer was our first year participating in it. they took the kids everywhere around san francisco. this year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. >> he has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. i think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. >> i met d'andrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out -- he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. he decided to reopen this location after he moved. initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a

uniform. my business partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new -- nursing school so you can take over. and she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before -- for a month before she came through. she was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. i was struggling a little bit. and she has been here. one thing led to another and now we are co-owners. you think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. >> the self-defence class is a new thing that we are doing.

we started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. there's a difference between self-defence and doing a karate class. we didn't want them to do an actual karate class. we wanted to learn the fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. then i was approached by my old high school. one -- once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. my old biology teacher is now the principle. she approached us into doing a self-defence class. the girls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls.

they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what? >> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this program for a little over a year all women entrepreneurs. it is an extraordinary benefit for us. we have had the mayor's office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work.

it has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. >> we hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids' lives outside of just learning karate. having self-confidence, having discipline, learning to know when it's okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. these are the values we want the kids to take away from this. not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. we want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. [♪]