elect to disclose on 7-10, friday -- [roll call] >> clerk: vice president taylor, you have five yeses. >> vice president taylor: great. and for the record, a couple of items on the closed session agenda will be continued because the closed session went longer than we anticipated. the personnel exception and body worn camera item will be

heard next week. >> clerk: all right. line item 9, adjournment. >> commissioner hamasak >> so moved. >> second. >> clerk: all right. on the motion to adjourn -- [roll call] >> clerk: you have five yeses. >> vice president taylor: all right. thank you. good night. fire commission

regular meeting wednesday, july 8, at 9:02 a.m. this is a remote meeting. this meeting is held by web ex pursuant to the governor's executive order 2920 and the fifth and 16th supplements declaring the existence of a local emergency. during the coronavirus disease, emergency fire commission's regular meeting room at city hall is closed and the meeting of the fire commission will convene remotely. you can watch this meeting live at sfgovtv.org or to join the meeting as attendee, please go to the agenda posted on the fire

commission website. you can also call in at the number 1-408-418-9388 and use the access code (146)540-8840. item 1. roll call. president covington. >> present. >> vice president feinstein. >> present. >> commissioner nakajo. >> present. >> commissioner cleaveland. >> present. >> commissioner rodriguez. >> present. >> chief of department jeanine nicholson. >> present.

>> item 2. general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any matter within the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. address remarks not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with the speaker. lack every response by commissioners or personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> any public comment at this time? >> callers if you would like to comment push star three. there is no public comment right now. >> public comment is closed. >> next item, please. >> approval of the minutes from the regular meeting on june 24,

2020. >> is there any public comment on the minutes from our last meeting? >> no public comment. >> public comment is closed. next item, please. >> is there a motion. >> is there a motion for acceptance? >> i move to approve. >> the thank you, commissioner cleaveland. >> second? >> second by vice president feinstein. >> i will approve the minutes as well. >> commissioner nakajo. >> affirmative. >> commissioner rodriguez. >> i approve. >> it is unanimous. >> item 4. update and status from the department of real estate pertaining to station 13. director of real estate for the

city and county to provide update and status on station 13. i will pass the ball. >> good morning, president covington. >> good morning. >> thank you for this opportunity. i greatly appreciate is time and opportunity to brief you on the latest update for the project which involves development of a new fire station 13 in partnership with related companies. at this time i would like to, one, apologize that i am before the budget and finance committee this morning at 9:30 a.m. my time with you is limited. i believe it is sufficient for me to be able to provide this briefing and answer your questions. i would at this time like to share a powerpoint presentation.

can you see that screen? >> yes. >> that works like 50% of the time. first, i will walk you briefly through the legislative history for those who may be unfamiliar, have a background what this project is about and provide you with the latest updates. legislative history. we started in june of 2017 when the board passed a resolution authorizing the use of 530 sam son for the development of affordable housing in district 3. from there in may of 2018 the resolution you see authorized the solicitation of the presentation for proposals for

development of market rate housing and new fire station with the revenues to be dedicated to affordable housing at 772 pacific avenue, which is the current location of the new asia restaurant. this is significant in that market rate housing will be at the 530 sam son street site and affordable housing would be off site at 772. moving on. we went in may of 2019 to have a resolution that conditionally approved the cpea, which is a condition property exchange agreement, to facilitate a new high rise development and fair station at no cost to the city. related companies were the winning proposer for the r.f.p. the reason that is the property

exchange agreement is because the current fire station sits on the corner lot and in the new configuration the fire station would it is mi mid block. max will show you in a moment where the locations are. moving forward to something that you may not have been aware of and moving to our current changes, the project since it was first proposed has been redesigned to better meet the needs of the fire department and to anticipate the new demands of the marketplace. these changes were substantial enough to warrant us going back to the board of supervisors to get new condition approvals which was done. i will walk you there what those changes entail. changes from the original proposed cpea. first, fire station has been increased from 19266 square feet

to 20,300 square feet. the developer has opted to swap out 35 condos for 40,000 square feet of office anticipating tomorrow's market and demand. third, we added a voluntary fee of $1.6 million to be paid by the developer. we have added an additional apparat bay. these changes increase the delivery cost by $31.2 million from original $25 million approximately. that cost increase will be borne by the developer. i will walk you through in more detail each of the changes. how those design changes affect

the fee structure. prior proposal included a job housing linkage fee and in lieu fee. those are related to condos again because the developer opted to pay the in lieu as opposed to building affordable housing on site. by changing the condos to office the switch to linkage fee would result in less fee revenue for the city. to offset that reduction in fee revenue, the developer agreed to an additional voluntary fee $1.6 million which basically keeps the city whole because of the switch from condo to office. on the cost increases, again, the developer agreed to cover the increase in cost for

delivery of first class next generation fire station that is $5.7 million to be borne by the developer. the fees allocated to 772 pacific avenue for the affordable housing project will exceed $5.9 million. this is not only sufficient to cover the fiscal gap projected for this project, it exceeds is $4 million originally budgeted for the project. again, the increase in cost and these fees for affordable housing come at no fiscal impact to the city. key point on the condition agreement. the condition property exchange agreement is subject to board and mayoral approval post post-seequa. it will deliver new and

functional fire station. at no cost to the city. again, with the construction cost of about $31.2 million. we try to structure the fee and cost allocation such that if related is able to bring the project inefficiently, they are incentivized to do so and will see the cost savings. right now the budget is $31.2 million. if they can bring the fire station in at less than that, they see those cost savings, however, if there is a windfall, then the city gets to participate and that participation starts at the $25.5 million, which was the original budgeted cost. between 25 and 31, those cost

savings below 25, the city would get that additional revenue. we thought it was a fairway to incentivize to bring the project in on budget and on time. at the same time if there is an unexpected windfall, the city gets to participate. other key points. i think i have touched upon job linkage fee. i will skip to the transfer development rights, tdr. this project will require tdr to move forward. this purchase from the city will result in additional $3 million to the general fund. i have to caveat this. that has not been approved by the board of supervisors. that approval is winding its way

to the board now. it would be tdr associated with preservation of city hall if the board approved the tdr and if related by the tdr from the city in the anticipated amount, then we will see that $3 million. if some of those things don't happen, that $3 million may be less orde or zero. the project is subject to prevailing wage and the other city requirements with regards to contracting. the city requirements apply to the entire project, not just the fire station. so the hotel and office project will pay prevailing wage and be in full compliance with all city policies relating to local

hiring. our next steps. the developer is increasing, as i said before, financial participation at a time when the property value of the city has declined. the related has been a valuable partner in this project. changes to the dpea presented to budget and finance on may 20 and received unanimous positive recommendation, then heard by the board of supervisors on jun. the project would next proceed with entitlement if cequa approval is obtained we expect permitting in 2021-2021 after final agreement of the documents. construction will begin in early

2022. we expect project completion by the end be of 2023. right now i want to give you a few visuals to orient you to the project within the city. if you are looking on the left, you see the rose block. that is the current location of the fire station 13. the blackouts line block shows the new location in the mid block from an aerial context. you can see the development pad of the new fire station located mid block and the surrounding building. more close up view from the neighborhood context, you can see washington street, sam son, and the development block. this is across section stack.

the fire station is depicted in the rose or pink color. you can see fire station parking with hotel parking above. when you hit the street level, you can see the fire station block. we have restaurants, gym is located in green. that is a private project. office instead of condos in the mid stack. then the hotel rooms above and unique hotel lobby which instead of being located on the ground floor is located at the top of the stack. this is across section from sam son street. in the lower left you can see the fire station and the four bays. you can see the tower above it. you can see how the tower is over a portion of the fire

station. we believe that these design changes benefit the city by delivering a better product to the fire department. the design changes were made at insistence of the fire department especially with addition of the fourth bay to meet the demands and needs of the fire department. these benefit the developer by developing a project that is better suited to tomorrow's marketplace, specifically, the swap of the office for condo. the fire department command staff has been involved closely every step of the way and is very pleased with these changes. this concludes my presentation. i am available to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you very much.

president covington, i have a couple of questions. >> excuse me, vice president feinstein. can i call for public comment first, please. is there any public comment? >> there is no public comment. >> thank you. public comment is closed. vice president feinstein. >> mr. penick,i have a couple of questions regarding the exclusions underlying this project. you are assuming or related is assuming that we are going to have a smashing condo market and tremendous desire for office space within two years when we have horrendous vacancy rates.

thank goodness rents are coming down because so many people are departing the city. i want to know what happens to all of this if your economic assumptions underlying it don't come to pass. what is the plan then? does the city still get new station 13 without hotel and condos and ek what happens? >> those are all excellent questions. i would take them in two-parts. your question of what happens. it goes to risk. i would like to talk about the risk on the city side and the risk on the develo developer's . >> first off, the city's exchange, which is needed for

the project is conditional. we will not be handing over the deed for the city property until we have a fire station that we are satisfied with. in the interim, there will be a ground lease to allow for the developer to demmedicallish the existing -- demolish the existing fire station and build the project. the city's risk is very fully min mull in the sense that this project is built with no city funds. the developer on the other side takes the risk of cost escalation, building a project that will return a profit in the marketplace. they have already started making those analyses in light of both changing in market and covid. that is in part why there was a

change from the condos to the office. the developer has decided that office is a better bet than condos. again, that is a risk that they are taking. they are taking that risk that at some point in the future people will start going back to gyms, back to hotels, and that there will be a need for office space. if there is a catastrophic failure on the part of the developer, we have recourse. there is a risk on our part there, but the success of a completed project, that risk is completely on the developer. once the project is built, we will have a new fire station. it is somewhat immaterial to the city whether or not the tower project is financially successful. i hope that answers your question. >> thank you.

i believe it does. i am having a doomsday scenario in my mind here in that, you know, i don't know -- i don't know what i read. i don't know that our economy is going to come bouncing back by the end of 2023. maybe, maybe not. condos, maybe, maybe not. office, maybe, maybe not. my real concern i understand the city doesn't have any skin in the game in terms of money and getting the fire station built, but our we guaranteed to get the fire station regardless what happens to the hotel and condos and office space? is that a guarantee for us?

i know related is one of the biggest developers in the country. am i right? >> that's correct. >> they can absorb a lot of problems. can we? >> that is a good question. we were talking about doomsday scenarios. let's look at those in two timeframes. related is a large company. they can absorb a lot of loss and carry projects that other developers can't. related has already put real money into this project because they bought the adjacent lot. they have already put real money into this project. they have an incentive to move forward to recoupe that investment to see a return on it. if times are tight, i don't see this project being first one

they want to jettison because that would be a loss of those front costs. if we have a project that is built in 2023 but the economy is still in a downturn or maybe even worse we are still in some form of shelter-in-place, the loss of profitability of the tower project is a risk that is solely with related. at that point in time the fire station will be built. it will be in use and the city is really divorced from related as to what happens to their project. i think that the doomsday scenario you are concerned with is what happens before project completion. what if the project never starts or what if the project pauses

halfway through? >> yes. >> we have the normal remedies that we put in all of our contracts with regards to joint construction projects. we have a surety that is -- in other words the project is bonded against failure on the part of the developer or the general contract or. if we are talking about a worse case scenario where instead of some workout to extend the timing on the construction schedule we are talking about a complete breakup, we have all of the legal remedies the city attorney normally puts in our contracts as well as resort to the surety. i do not in any way, shape or form seeing us have to go that route. those legal protections are in the document.

>> that is important. thank you for answering my question. >> thank you, vice president feinstein. i am looking at the time. would you be able to return after your meeting? i don't know how long your meeting will last. >> i don't know. i am item sixty budge budge -- m six that is on the agenda. >> i have questions and other commissioners have questions. >> i probably have to cut this in 10 minutes. >> okay. please be aware of the timeframe. >> president covington may i speak? >> yes, commissioner rodriguez. >> thank you for your report. quick question. you mentioned condos, hotel rooms. let me know how many condos and hotel rooms and how many floors

the tower is going to be? >> let me go back to the powerpoint presentation. here is the current stack. there was originally proposed to be 35 condos. as i indicated the developer has opted to swap those 35 condos for 40,000 square foot of office which you see in the blue. i don't have a number for the number of hotel rooms, but you can see here that we are talking

about nine floors of hotel rooms. i think that the configuration of the size and the number of hotel rooms may still be there but i don't have that number here and i apologize. you can see the gym covers two and a half floors. a half floor here and two full floors here. this again in the rows of pink is the fire station. i think there was another component to your question. >> how many floors the building would be. >> okay. this shows the 16 floors in the

tower and four floors for the fire station. >> that is good. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner rodriguez. commissioner cleveland. >> no questions. >> commissioner nakajo. >> my question -- thank you very much for your presentation. my question is more of an operation question. thank you, vice president feinstein for the scenarios. while this building is moving forward and there is a demolition timeline, where does station 13 relocate, for how long a period do they relocate? that is what i am interested during the duration of the demolition and construction.

how long is that going to take? how long are the men and women going to be out and where are they going to be out to make sure that geographical area is covered? maybe that is a department question, madam president. >> mr. penick, your response, then we can go to the chief of the department. >> i can speak of the construction timeline. i will defer to the department as to the relocation. right now the -- we anticipate if we receive approval permitting will take to 2022. demolition early 2022. occupancy 2023, 18 months to two years. all of 2022 and all of 2023.

the functionality for the fire station 13 would below indicated i -- would then rele relocate, i would defer to the fire department. >> i know the chief has a meeting with the mayor. >> she had to leave for the department head meeting. >> if there are no more questions for mr. penick, then i will thank him and he can rush off to his meeting. i will hold my question for the chief of the department to answer as well when she finishes her report then we can follow up with her. thank you again, mr. penick.

>> thank you. have a great day. >> item 5. chief of department report. report from chief nicholson on current issues and activities and event goes with in the department since the fire commission meeting on june 24, 2020, including budged, academics, special events, communications and outreach to other government agencies and the public and the report from operations deputy chief. emergency medical services, bureau of fire prevention and investigation homeland security and airport division. >> great. i think we are in this case going to flip the order. we will start with chief wyrsch to give the chief of the

department enough time to get back with us. welcome, chief wyrsch. >> good morning. thank you. i am assuming i have the ball passed to me. >> good morning. i even practiced this this morning. let me know when you have it. >> i am trying to get it to you. hold on.

>> i am trying to move up in my life here. >> you are at the very bottom. >> i feel that way. [laughter]

>> my report will be boring without my powerpoint.

>> change role to presenter to give him the ball. that will work to give anyone else host duties later. >> you have the ball. run with it. >> all right. good morning again. i am deputy chief of operations victor wyrsch. this is my operations report for the month of june. greater alarm report. one second alarm on the island. you can see it in the picture on the 20th at 1439 hours on treasure island road. there were no injuries. the fire's othe fire's origin wn

campment. it was a brush fire on the hillside. it appears to have begun at the bottom and worked the way up. all units performed well and we also got a chance to implement the fire boat, which stopped the fire from spreading from below where we had a hard time getting to. another time in the month where the fire boat was imperative. no structures were lost. while we are on the fire boat. i will briefly talk about their important role at pier 45 as they do at a lot of fires and water rescues. we have three fire boats. we utilized fire boat three, the st. francis first. then one, the phoenix at the fire on pier 45. the other boat we utilized was

sf moose boat. that is staffed by members of station 16. it says it is a sea burn. it has forward looking infrared cameras to pick up heat sources such as people in the water. see burn is chemical radio logical and radiation tracker on it. the fire boats there are so many benefits to the fire boats. first of all, since they are in the bay they supply end less water for us. they can act as pumping station to our supplies on land and augment our systems. we can take hose lines directly off them and do above ground hydrant system and use the

monitors to hit from the water to land and also other boats. you can see on the bottom right hand be picture the fire on the top. is moose boat is the boat on the bottom right-hand corner. opposite is fire boat three. st. francis. saint francis was just unbelievably imperative to saving this boat, they did an amazing job. we sent you an e-mail. if you got a chance to see the video upper right hand corner saving history jeremiah o'brien. it explains what they did that night which was impressive. when i got there, the fire boat three pulled up to the bow where i was and i was very concerned. i was talking to one of the members of the jeremiah o'brien.

we were sure everybody got off. he explained where the fuel tanks were. i thought for sure the walls were going to collapse and we were going to lose the boat and it may drift off. the pilot and engineer and lieutenant and the members of engine 35 came in, and i thought they were going to ram between the boat and the dock. they came in and gently just kissed the pier. i looked up there was a deluge of water off the boat it was like niagara falls. with so much water on the boat and perfectly aimed those lines to the crews on the boat, it was very, very leaving, to say the least. that gave me a chance to go to the other end of the pier. i saw a very huge over

100-gallon tank of fuel, gas tank and 55-gallon drums up against the warehouse. i called them back over to that side. they went from bow to stern back and forth throughout the morning. again, the amount of water that came off it and knowing it wasn't less was very leaving. they did a great job. they were so close i could talk to them. the officer of the boat i could do face-to-face right in the boat to discuss where we wanted to hit the lines, monitors and still protect the firefighters on the other end of the building, firefighters on the boat. i had a huge concern underneath the pier burning. i have been to fires before where underneath the pier gets going and, of course, the integrity of the pier is lost and i have to retrieve

everything off the pier. they lowered the skiff off the fire boat and two members went off and checked under the pier to make sure it was safe. it is like a building. if it is not safe to be above, it is not safe to be under. knowing everything was structurally sound underneath we could still continue our attack. they did a phenomenal job. i want thank them enough. engine 35 officer was gary ultenburg. they did a great job. it is because of them that boat was saved. i knew when the nylon mooring lines, none had burnt that we were safe. kudos to all of them. also, in the month of june we had 26 first alarms.

plus nine grass fires and 14 more encampment fires. i will play a little video here. we have had a tremendous amount ofen campment fires and grass fires into june and july. here is the fire at 1736 lasalle. it was 25 people displaced from this fire. this was a first alarm. we had good footage i would like to show you. busy month, also, for high angle cliff rescues. we saved nine people and one dog. bay rescues we had three bay rescues and saved three people. we had surf rescue incident, and we were able to save 10 people on onetic incident we had five young kids that we had saved. we pulled out all five.

two were critical, but all ended up surviving. to the ems division. i like to put a little time besides what was in my report. i would like to give kudos to the covid response. ems6 and rc6 was big. rc5 were designed specifically to respond to covid calls. they were taken out of the field from their administrative jobs and training jobs and dedicated to the needs for ppe doing encounter exposure reporting and training and testing and safety. they responded almost only to covid positive calls. those members that need a shout

out rescue captain tibbits, bailey, pender gas, co-vits, joshua smith and christopher bond on rc5. 1727 encounters resulting in 825 runs. also, bottom there at the dph liaison at the city and county of san francisco eoc at moscone center, four rescue captains helping this go smoothly. kavanaugh, malloy and tibbits. thank you to them. we also in the month of june went down. 146 narcan administrations. that is down from may which was 212. we had a high this year in march of 238. that has gone down.

bureau of fire prevention investigation. i gave you fire marshal's comprehensive report. i also the four major things we are working on that do not create revenue. safe sleeping sites, making sure the public and people that need to use the safe sleeping sites have a good area away for us to respond in and out safely. there is a phenomenal job at that. shared spaces trying to get businesses up and running during this pandemic. doing it in a safe way where we are able to respond to calls with gurneys or walking fire escapes, trapdoors, entrances, and so far he is doing a tremendous job. also working hard on slow streets and making sure they do not affect our response time.

everybody is pushing for more and more slow streets. we need to make sure we still are able to respond in an efficient manner. newest is transit only lanes to be approved. >> we will see if there is more traffic. we are watching that closely. he is doing a great job. >> airport division. again i would like to welcome adc mark johnson. he has been doing a tremendous amount of training working on getting the fire department at sfo to be coordinated and have one mission. we met several times. that is working very well. actually on 6/17sfo had a wild

land fire on airport way. welcome, mark. he is on this meeting. division of homeland security. lieutenant baxter and chief cochran are involved in public education videos that can be seen at youtube if you want to look at those. fourth of july preparation massive. we were planning for the worst. we pretty much got the worst. we put a lot of additional resources. we saw the need for it. we put four mini pumpers we staffed for the 24 hour period with two people on each one, which we had not done before. we had tactical emergency medical paramedics that can go with pd if necessary. we had an extra engine we

staffed and put in battalion 10. we had an extra rescue captain chris bond who helped us out. we put an extra incident support specialist with battalion 10. there was so much going on. that was a good call for the fire department. the homeland security chief was riding along with battalion 10. we had a plane the sheriff's department used for three hours to help us out in three different calls where we got a lot of calls from different areas. we were double dispatching calls to a single fire and they were able to tell from the air it was just one fire. they did help us out. hopefully we have use of them in the future. during that period i know it is part of my july report. so you know we had 528 runs in a

24 hour period. we average usually 300 to 4 0 runs each day. -- 300 to 400 runs per day. we had 85 working fires that came from dispatch. we had over 110 fires that we have logged down what we call on the 214 forms so they do what they call on view. as we come back from the fire apparats put two or three fires out on one call. we have over 110 fires. i would like to one thing i can oversee as well is dispatch for the radio dem. thank you, pat darcy for two and a half years of dedicated field. we have appointed matt canon. that was his dappism pretty much.

he started that month and did a phenomenal job. we had to change tactics, the way we dispatch on the fly on the run and he was able to do it. thank you, chief canon. homeland is working to support safe demonstrations. this is mission high school. we have to respond inside these incidents. we did so also with usually rescue captain bond and the police department eoc. thank you. we have been using our fdoc at headquarters here on a daily basis. every day now. it is phenomenal. we worked out kinks and use it every day for ieps, eoc, field operations and do a lot of projects. that is working flawlessly. homeland is working with testing

site evaluations and quarantine site management. we are assisting deputy chief fellow with the after action report for covid-19. sadly and lastly, father green. we had a very emotional day on the 29th. father green turned in his radio and pager. it was a very difficult and emotional day. we are happy for him in his retirement. after he turned them in, he went outside and we had battalion three waiting for him as you will see here shortly to give him a sendoff. he is a shy man, but we clapped for him and social distance hugged and it was very difficult. he is the foundation of our fire

department for 37 years. for 37 years he is never going to be forgotten. he has been married to us, baptized us, buried us, generations of the fire department. he is there in good times and bad. he was the stress unit until he formed the stress unit. he would give confessions on the apparatus floor. there is nothing he didn't do. he is always there for us, part of our family, eats at the stations. i can't say enough. i know that when the time is right and we are able to have a big party and function, i am hoping you all can attend. he has had a difficult retirement. he had a place to live and things got screwed up because of covid.

recently the fire department has been helping him pack and we have needed many firefighters to help him pack up. he is a collector of items, let's say. anyway, i want to wish him the best. we love him. hopefully he can rest and relax and enjoy his retirement. with that, that is the end of my presentation. i am open for any questions. >> thank you, chief wyrsch. collective items and friends. okay. is there any public comment on the report? >> no public comment. >> thank you. public comment is closed. i will go to my fellow commissioners. beginning with commissioner feinstein -- excuse me vice president feinstein. >> i have no questions.

thank you. >> commissioner nakajo. >> thank you very much, madam president. thank you for your comprehensive report. i want to remark that i appreciate the dedication in terms of the photo and also the remarks in terms of father greene. i think that 37 years of service is something that is really quite astonishing. i think it is really respectful and a great honor in terms of being able to have a working relationship for father greene. i want to wish him the best as well. i wanted to ask a couple questions of clarification. before i do that, i wanted to welcome chief johnson to your

position at the airport. i know that chief johnson is online here. i would like to congratulate you within that proportion as well, chief johnson. >> thank you, commissioner. i am grateful for my new role at the airport and i look forward to working with the commission. i met most of the commissioners with the exception of commissioner feinstein and i look forward to meeting her as well. >> i look forward to it, too. >> i am a big fan of your mother. i met her when i was younger and my mother worked at city hall. tell her hello for us. >> it is a small town. good luck to you. >> thank you very much. i wanted to ask you, chief, that report had to do with the fourth

of july. i know it will probably be more in terms of your next report. a report specialist. i want to ask about the incident support specialist, what does that support do? >> incident support specialist referred to as an operator before. he is the eyes and ears of the chief. a lot of people think they just drive. they are imperative being the eyes and ears of the chief when they go in the building. we should have them for everyone of our battalions. now we just have them in three battalions and two divisions. [please stand by]

-- and information on our phones in terms of related announcements from the department. and i know that in your slide show today you talked about some of the duties that we're doing that may not come on the screen very often. but i got an explanation. because one of the things that came up was the concept of shared space and it had information terms of shared space between california and pacific. you're basically talking about the shared space in terms of the petition and the various restaurants. is that what we're talking about? >> that is correct. that is correct. we have to try to do it in a safe way. and we still have to be able to respond for medicals and/or fires, if necessary. and we have to be able to move

tables out of the way, if necessary. hopefully we can do it in a way we don't have to move tables or block entrances to streets or alleys. so it's a difficult balance to have enough space for the restaurant to flourish. and yet still have the fire department be able to respond quickly and safely. >> okay. and i was just curious about that. because it came up on our text. but also is that a new inherited responsibility by the fire department, in terms of this coordination? >> yes, it is. yes, it is. and so we did a blanketed approval and afterward we just had the fire marshal set aside certain guidelines and we have to go back and ensure that those guidelineguidelines are being f. so it will get into the heaters

and outside gas and there will be a lot more inspections as this goes. but initially we're pushed to get as many of these restaurants opened as quickly as possible. to get -- to help the businesses of the city. >> okay. thank you for that clarification. because i was wondering again where does it get housed in terms of oversight. and i think you gave me that information by talking about the fire marshal or fire prevention i guess. that's their area of responsibility. and while we're talking about this, is the chief online with this meeting this morning? >> i believe he is. >> goo good morning, commission. david here. >> okay. the president and chief wyrsch. i want to ask a question of chief dicasio. since we're talking about the shared spaces, part of what i call a new responsibility. but in general, chief, the

department of -- permits were one of the largest workloads that we had within the department and it came through this report. there's quite a bit of activity has occurred. i just wanted to get todayback from you in terms of this awe climate that we have with shelter-in-place and these adjustments, as to what the workload now looks like in terms of department of prevention and permits. because on one hand i'm not sure if constructions or developments are still occurring. but i know there's new shared responsibilities. if you could comment, chief, the workloads. >> yes, absolutely, commissioner. our three main areas that we contract and kind of give some indication of volume and business activity would be our planned review at plan check, which we're at about 44% this same time last year. our d.p.i. inspections, which is

our district inspections for construction activity. and we are on that -- we're at 70% of what we normally are from last year. and our biggest hit is the operational permits, which would be permitting of special events and social gatherings, those types of things. obviously that's way down. we're about 10% there. so what we've done is we've kind of reallocated our resources, our personnel to focus on the slow streets program, the shared space, the safe sleeping sites, transit-only, et cetera. that's where our greatest activity is at this time. we review each and every permit application. and we work with d.p.w. for the shared space permits and our district inspectors follow up and it's an ongoing challenge.

>> okay. i appreciate it very much. i guess part of the workload has to do with the system of san francisco going into the various phases. i think we're still in phase 2d. and i know that we've god -- we've got -- [indiscernible] how the workload is going on and how that affects the president, the shelter-in-place, trying to return to some kind of normality. thank you, chief. thank you, madam president. >> thank you, chief. >> thank you, commissioner nakajo. >> thank you, madam chair. a couple of questions, chief wyrsch. thank you for your report. on the fourth of july evening, did we have any serious injuries from people using fireworks in

the city, ostensibly illegally. but did we have any serious injuries? >> well, yes. yes, we did have one u.n. child de-- young child deceaseds, as you probably know. i don't have the detailed breakdown of the exact injuries. but we did have some firework injuries. i don't know if a.d.c. tom has those stats with her. our e.m.s. calls were extremely high as well. i can add that for you. since it was in july, if you don't mind, i can give you the exact number of medicals we had as well from my july report. >> well, i know it was certainly a very challenging evening and challenging day, challenging holiday, in fact for the entire department. so i commend you on this one and the e.m.s. in particular for their service on that trying time. you didn't mention anything about the drones program. is there anything -- any new

news about the drone project? >> yeah. i can refer to a.d.c. cochran. we have been making headway on that. he has the latest. i think i see him walking over there. >> good morning, chief. good morning. good morning, commissioners. >> good morning, chief cochran, welcome. >> the question on the drones. we have nine pilot sites right now. we originally had 15 signed up for the drone school. it got put on hold because of the covid-19 pandemic. so it's slowly moving forward. homeland security gets the grants and basically under special operations right now. but i am assisting them. we just got a jurisdictional cola. that was approved by the f.a.a., that gives us the right to fly in the city and county san francisco air space. we want to thank mark, because we passed phase one of the surveillance coordinates 107.19.

city and county of san francisco, staffed by board of supervisors and still has to go in front of the board of supervisors for final approval. but we're moving forward. >> well, i know the drone footage, if you will, from pier 45 fire was certainly very instructive i think. and it's a good example of the good use that we could put to documenting these kinds of major fires that we may have. in fact, assisting in rescuing people off of cliffs and what not as well. i hope we can get that up as quickly as possible, because every day is a day lost. so thank you for that. thank you for the report and that's all of my questions, madam chair. >> okay. thank you. commissioner cleveland. the commissioners that have already had a chance to speak, do you now have a question for

chief cochran? no. okay. thank you. commissioner rodriguez. >> oh, i'm sorry. >> did you say did you have one? >> i actually had a question for chief wyrsch that was brought up through other commissioners' questions. but i can defer for that or however you'd like to proceed. >> let me go to commissioner rodriguez first and then circle back with you. >> terrific. >> okay. thank you. commissioner rodriguez. >> no, i just want to thank chief wyrsch. i have no questions at this time. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> vice president feinstein. >> chief wyrsch, i didn't realize that we would be talking about july 4th. i should have from your materials at this meeting, since

we were talking about june. but for some reason i have been in the city every july 4th since i can remember. and i have never experienced from -- i will say 3:30 in the afternoon until 1:30 in the morning, it was as if we were being bombed. it was -- it was brutal. and i think i'm -- i'm not actually at all surprised by the numbers or perhaps i'm surprised that they were so low. really what i want to do is thank you and thank those that worked that night and that day. and, yes, they organized things, how the response went.

because it was -- it was just bizarre. it was very, very unlike any other july 4th that i'm used to. i'm used to the fogged ones where you hear the booms but don't see anything. i mean, i could see, you know, lights going off and as i said, it was -- it must have just really was something. and i really want to thank everybody who, you know, did -- you guys do what you do best. >> thank you. >> i really want to acknowledge everybody who had, what do i say, the good luck of working that evening. [laughter] >> well, thank you. yeah. we had two division chiefs, the two assistant chiefs. and they handled things wonderfully, because most of our

calls were in the battalion 10 area. and they did a good job. we almost went to the 10-1, which is our modified response. instead they kept a cool head and just started relocating certain apparatuses over to that side of the city and they made phone calls and talked to our new battalion chief up at communications. and decided to do single-unit dispatches instead of dispatching the chief and engine and mini pumper. and we just split it up everything was single dispatches. otherwise we wouldn't have been able to handle the workload and all of our units would have been on that side of the city. they adapted and overcame and came up with a tremendous plan. and it worked well. i thank them all. >> no, thank you. >> thank you. thank you, vice president feinstein. yes, chief wyrsch, the dynamic deployment is amazing and very, very helpful. so thank you for your report.

i just had a couple of questions. i'll be brief. cliff rescues. can you tell us what is being put in place so that we can reduce the number of cliff incidents? because it's over and over again every month, there are people who are falling off the cliff or their dog runs and then they go get the dog and they're both stranded. the two-footed individual and the four-footed individual are out there. and then the fire department has to come and rescue them. what happened to cats and trees? [laughter] those were the good old days. what kind of discussions are being held so that we can do better signage or whatever needs to be done to reduce these cliff rescues? >> so we have been working on

signage and public outreach, which are probably two of our only pre-incident deterrents that we can have. lieutenant baxter can probably touch on that. he's really good on the public outreach. i've been pushing signage and doing what we can. i know on some of the busier days, we've been sending companies out there and talking to people even and discussing it before they go out there. but again dogs tend to run off and people tend to run and try to get their dogs. and they get stuck. that happens a lot of times. and other people just aren't sign readers i guess. so, you know, but we have been trying. we have been doing public outreach and we are working on more signage. >> okay. you-- during your next report, n you give us a more robust report on what's been going on. >> you bet.

>> the discussions that you're having and with whom. >> okay. >> okay. thank you for that. and let's see. >> president covington, can i add to your question to the chief? >> can i finish my? >> oh, i'm sorry. sorry. >> no, i was done with that. not done. so i wanted to ask about the decrease in the frequency of narcan use. is there anything that you can point to that would result in a decrease? >> well, normally our increase -- when we have a massive increase or a massive decrease, that's usually the strain of the drug that's being distributed. >> oh! i see. >> sometimes we get a very strong strain and they're not used to it and they use too much. and then so this must be a lighter strain. that would be my number one

answer of why there's a decrease. >> that's logical. that makes sentence for sure. all right. again you talk a little bit more about rc5 and the covid-only calls. >> yes. so we decided to put that unit in when we were having a very difficult time with p.p.e. so when we didn't have enough n95 mask, didn't have enough gowns. we were afraid that if we distribute them all to all of the companies, that they might not be used correctly or, you know, enough times. so what we did was we had rc5 do an exchange program. and then also the fact that the reporting was going to take a lot of time, so we wanted to get the ambulances and engines back in service, so the rc5 would go to every covid call and they

would handle the reporting, as well as prosecutin transferring. they were also there to oversee to make sure the fit testing was done well with the masks and everybody was using the proper p.p.e. so they really put themselves out there, because basically they went on every covid call in the city that they were able to. so they had the most exposure and that's why i wanted to acknowledge then. we only had them out there for a period of time until covid started slowing down. we didn't have so much of a p.p.e. issue. and the companies were better, quicker at reporting their exposure in counterreports. so they were imperative part of this operation during covid. >> good. >> we have them ready to go at the push of a button if there's a spike or a reason for them to come back. then they're ready to come back and we'd use the same members who are trained already. >> well, it's very good to have

that back-up. it makes a tremendous difference in terms of time and also in terms of people's preparedness. so that's a very, very good model. >> thank you. >> and i also wanted to ask you about the sheriff's helicopter. >> it was a small drone. >> pardon? >> it was actually a small plane. it was doing fly-overs. >> okay. so if we had the drones, we would not have had to depend upon the sheriff's department? >> we could have used the drones. it may have gotten hit by some of the fireworks, i don't know if it gets high enough. that would definitely be an option for us for next year. >> okay. the fireworks were -- just unrelenting this year. it was like pre-fourth of july forever. and then all night long

practically. so yes, let's be prepared with the drones next year. >> okay. >> okay. well, let's see. i think i had one more question. but i can ask the chief of the department that question now that she has returned. welcome back, chief. and let's see. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. vice president feinstein, you had a follow-up question? >> well, it's a question that perhaps can be addressed in the future. and my question is whether this commission or the command staff or the mayor's office or somebody can do something about the fact that going back to these cliff rescues, you've got federal property, you've got state property. you've got rec and park

property. you know, signs are battered. you know, not necessarily in the best locations. and it may sound like something that -- because people that aren't going to follow signs, aren't going to follow signs. and that's also why they find themselves down at the bottom of the cliff. but i'm just -- if there's something, as we go along through the issues that we're discussing about the cliff rescues, that we could do either individually or collectively, i hope chief nicholson is now back. so i'll direct it to both you. it just -- ask us. you know, use us, so to speak. because it's -- it's not -- it's a grim situation. and i, you know, it's like

july 4th. you sometimes don't know what's wrong with people. but that was my comment. and my coffer. >> yes. >> thank you. >> chief nicholson, just before you arrived, i asked chief wyrsch the next time he presents to the commission to please give us a robust report regarding the efforts to reduce the number of cliff rescues. okay. all right. so now that the chief of the department has returned, we will hear her report. >> good morning, president covington, vice president feinstein, commissioners. command staff, sister maureen. chief jeanine nicholson. apologies. i had to leave for the mayor's department head meeting, where we definitely talked about a few

different things. covid always on everyone's mind. and how that's impacting the budget and the like. i don't know what has been talked about already. so i'll just go down my list of items that i have. maureen, i don't know if you spoke about it being rex steiner's birthday? [laughter] >> i have not. >> i think we should call for public comment on -- [laughter] >> theresa rexsteiner's birthday today. happy birthday. >> she's the voice everyone hears, who tells us whether or not there is the person who would like to talk during public comment. go ahead, chief. >> thank you. and i don't know if you all have had an opportunity to meet our new a.d.c. at the airport mark johnson.

but he is here and on -- hi, mark. and we're happy to have him working hard down there for us. so welcome, mark. july 4th i went out and about in my buggy and had a ground, you know, from the ground up look at things. and i'm super, super proud of all of our members. they really stepped up and handled so much and so much at the same time. i mean, there were multiple fires going on at the same time. and we were bringing units in from all over the city. and then, of course, we had the tragic, tragic shooting of jace young and our members responded to that and did their jobs. and did the best they could for that little boy. and so it's a tragedy for our members as well.

i know some of them are really deeply impacted by it. so in terms of healthy streets operation center and sort of the tenderloin issues that we've been having around homelessness in the city. e.m.s. has been instrumental in getting those 500 people off the streets into housing over the last several weeks or so. you know, we've been told that the city could not have done it without e.m.s. 6. and this is why i've been jumping up and down and screaming about e.m.s. 6 for so long, because they are so impactful. they also -- when e.m.s. 6 was deployed to the tenderloin to help house folks, they were able to jump in during an overdose

and save somebody's life, as well as during a multiple shooting. they were first on scene. and so they really have done a great job for us. and if you have driven around the t.l. of late, you can definitely see that we have made an impact on people's lives. i am currently holding a meeting with my command staff weekly. it's typically wednesday morning at 9:00-ish. so this is our meeting today. and we're talking about everything covid, budget, and general standard, you know, operations and administration. and because we do need to continue to adjust to the changing situation in our city. things are changing on a daily basis, whether it's, you know, supervisors want to open up

streets for slow streets or restaurants to, you know, take over the parking areas. so there are so many different things going on that we have to -- have to, you know, speak about from our perspective of public safety and fire and e.m.s. access. and so we are doing that very well with other -- with other city departments, all the while knowing that public safety, our members' safety and access for e.m.s. and fire is imperative. so i want to thank -- i know chief wyrsch and chief cochran have been working on that. we are in regular dialogue with local 798. we have a meeting with them every two weeks. one is our regular labor

management meeting and the other is just keeping the communication flowing meeting. so we have good communication going there. in terms of our covid-19 update, we have one confirmed positive and we are awaiting on the second test for another individual. i have not heard back the results of that second test. but we are still cleaning our stations and ordering supplies and preparing for a surge response. we're reminding everyone of the face covering policy and, you know, really can't thank the doctor's office enough for spearheading so much of the covid response, in terms of, you know, contact tracing and notifications and the like. we participated in antibody testing, i did and unfortunately

i have not had covid. i know that sounds weird. i do not have the antibodies for covid. neither does c.d.2 or c.d.3. i'm sorry that i'm releasing personal medical information on the air for you guys. >> hipaaa. >> we had very, very, very low -- i don't know the finals. but we were having less than 1% of our staff was testing positive for antibodies. and way less than 1%. so i don't have those final numbers. but we'll get them for you when we have them. we've been working with our partners at human rights commission and the racial equity to try to push for the projects that i had in the pipeline before covid-19 hit, especially

e.m.s. corps. by i have spoken to you all about and we're still pushing for that. as well as the sort of in-house training for everyone. so the chief will push towards that. all the while obviously there are budget constraints. really significant budget constraints. but i also know that equity is one of the mayor's -- is the mayor's priority. so we have -- there's been a change in the emergency operations center model, because we're looking at, you know, year and a half, who knows, maybe two-year timeframe. the emergency operations center has been running at the center. it's been a citywide operation. and they have moved it into a unified command with d.p.h.,

human services, and d.e.m. at the head of it. and we will still be involved in it. and it is called the covid command center. so if we have some of our members working down there and some folks that were specifically asked for, because we've been told they are the best of the best. and that's what -- that's who they want down there running things. pardon my phone. we're getting a message about something. let's see what it is. okay. e.m.s. 6. i talked about that a little bit. and i talked about thanking the fire marshal's office for slow streets. and as you may know, father

greene -- i imagine chief wyrsch went over there. but father greene has ridden off into the sunset. and we do have a committee actively working on -- there is no replacing him. but we also want more folks to be involved in our chaplain project, as we know that not everyone is catholic or everyone feels comfortable around certain people. so we are expanding our search and looking for a multitude of different denominations and backgrounds. and i was suppose to be out of town today and i'm really glad i'm not, for the fire scope conference. it's going to be held via zoom tomorrow all day. so that's where i will be tomorrow. and that concludes my report at this time.

>> okay, thank you, chief nicholson. commissioners, do you have questions for the chief? all right. i had a couple of questions. did you want me to call on you one by one? why don't i do that. vice president feinstein, do you have questions for the chief? >> i do not. thank you. >> okay. thank you. commissioner nakajo? >> thank you, madam president. chief nicholson, the only question that i have was while we had the presentation of station 13, i asked a question of where would the members of station 13 be relocated during the time of -- when it comes to evacuating the building and demolition starts. i found out that the duration of the project, which is about a year, just wanted to find out

where the members of 13 would be operating out of. >> thanks for the question, commissioner nakajo. and this is something that we have been discussing internally. it's really tricky in terms of where to place the folks from 13. and so we are not -- we are in conversation about it. we're not making any decisions today, because as you can see, the city is changing day by day. so we make these decisions based on where there is space in another fire station, on call volume, and some other things. so it's going to be tricky. but we're putting our heads together and we're really going to have to make that final decision when we are closer to the actual moving-date, closer to the demolition. i can't give you an absolute

answer of where we're going yet. but we know it -- it is extremely important to us operationally, as well as just from a morale perspective where folks -- where we put those rigs. >> thank you very much, chief. thank you, madam president. >> okay. thank you. commissioner nakajo. commissioner cleveland. >> no questions, madam president. thank you. >> thank you. and commissioner rodriguez? >> no questions at this time. thank you. >> all right. thank you, sir. i have a question. during mr. penic's presentation, he made reference to -- let me get this right -- to first-class, next-generation tire station. so, chief nicholson, what does that mean exactly?

[laughter] >> i'm going to have chief velo take this, since he is much more involved in the project than i am. >> okay. thank you. welcome, chief velo. >> good morning president, vice president, chief of the department, maureen and theresa, happy birthday. i've been very involved in this project since i took officer on c.d.3. one of the things i've been working with the department of real estate and public works is get the latest, most updated techniques and construction techniques for fire stations. sound improvement is one of them we need to have. make sure that the building next door will not disturb our firefighters. we took the model from station 5, which has been a successful model and just translated into a station 13, the future. every year techniques come out for ventilation, for exhaust of fumes from the station. so we're going to adapt every single, the most updated technique for that construction into station 13. that's our goal. initially on the project, there was four stories included in the

mechanical room story. we're able to negotiate an additional story with the mechanical room in the fourth floor and four stories. we went back and forth with the developer. and make sure that our firefighters will be comfortable, they're able to be functional and have a good station to respond to. as you heard from mr. andrico that the additional of the fourth bay. we want to make sure that our station had the capabilities and apparatus. as you know they have the co2 unit there, too. we pushed really hard to get that additional bay, to meet our needs and future needs for the department. and with the growth of the area, too. that's what we're talking about. and first-class fire station. we believe we're going to get a really nice station for our members and the department and the city we serve. >> okay. very good. and the parking -- there was a mention of park. is that for the members of the department? >> yes. as you know, public buildings do

not provide parking for employees. however, this is a private partnership and we're able to negotiate parking for our members. it's very difficult to park. so they have parking built for their owners and the office building, we secured one whole floor of the building for our parking. in addition to have some storage space for special apparatus there, too. more vehicles and as well as equipment. in addition to the station 13 is one of the key facilities that the department has for secure locations when we have dignitaries that come to visit. 13 becomes one of the secure facilities and we need to have a special parking for, you know, secret service or whoever is there, they can use it. that's why we secure that, too. so we're lucky that being a private partnership, we're able to get the parking for our members. >> very, very good. well, i think that's going to be an extremely popular station. [laughter]

a lot of people will be wanting to work there. okay. thank you. those are all of the questions that i had at this time. did i ask for public comment? >> clerk: not yet. >> is there any public comment on chief wyrsch's report and the chief of the department's report? >> clerk: there is no public comment. >> okay. thank you, birthday girl. [laughter] >> thank you. >> all right. next item, please. >> item number 6, presentation on the san francisco fire department's community outreach and education efforts. public information officer lieutenant jonathan baxter to present an overview of the department's community outreach and education efforts. >> good morning, maureen. can you give me the ball, please? >> yep.

okey-doke. >> great. can you all see that? >> yes. >> perfect. fire commission, members of the command staff, san francisco fire, viewers, welcome. and thank you for having me today. my name is jonathan baxter, i'm lieutenant of the san francisco fire department, homeland security operations and public information offices. i'd like to start off with some thanks to a couple of members who have always been there to assist in moving this position forward. that would be lieutenant anderson, inspector tony, inspector darryl stone, who just recently retired, paramedic daniel mctee and deputy chief

of operations nick wyrsch and a.d.c. cochrane. thank you for supporting the efforts of this position and helping us progressively move forward. a little bit about myself. as i stated before, i have a history enrich indeed public safety, starting at the age of 14, going through numerous venues in the fire, paramedicine and law enforcement fields, which all attribute to my ability to provide adequate information safely and efficiently to the public we serve and the department that i hold my position within. i have a number of certifications, but more importantly under those certifications, i have life experiences, which again assists me in my abilities to provide the right information to the right people at the right time as it goes with both public information, as well as the adjunct community outreach and community education, which

without that component, would not be able to basically be fruitful in public information and our department image. here's a quick overview of the over 71 positions and programs that i currently oversee. the slide limited me to 30, so that's what we have right here. most notably, however, is the social media policy that myself and tom full from the union started back in 2016, which was passed recently and put into effect to assist our department. the department's website reconfigure ration, which i'm happy to state, has a new website here shortly. and as chief wyrsch mentioned, the videos in his report, our new safety videos, which live on youtube, will also have a dedicated page for the public to go to, based off of topic and language, which includes languages, not limited to but some highlights, japanese,

spanish, chinese, english and vietnamese to name a few. these provide public safety messages to the public that we serve on a daily basis. social media plays an important role in this position. being honest as i was back in 2015 when i first started, hi no idea about social media, nor did i hold any social media accounts. so we built our system from scratch. we currently have almost 25,000 members on our twitter feed. over 100,000 members on our facebook page. over 250,000 viewers on our citizens' app page. and our instagram which is more just kind of great pictures of what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. not necessarily newsworthy. 15,000 viewers. what does that mean for the department? it allows that we can expand our image, our message and control the topic moving forward from a

given incident or given, you know, training drill or something that we're doing within the department that we really want to expand on. we want the public to know that we're their neighbors and we're all in this together. and without them we would not be here. so really satisfie satisfied wih ourselves, our neighbors, our community members abroad. media relations and interviews. again another very important component. i was extremely frightened when i sitter started this position from that aspect. speaking in front of the camera, giving information. what if the information is wrong, what the information i don't know. how do i respond to that? how do i trust somebody in the media? that was all based off of gaining respect, gaining partnerships, understanding each other and coming to an agreement within a given incident on what media to push out. we really tried the fruits of that during the pier 45 fire, where we had zero incidents of rogue, you know, using the word

judiciously, reporters going into the fire scene to gain and/or capture footage, with them adding danger and makes us have to divert resources to protect those individuals. zero. they listen to us, they went to our staging area. and they trusted that we would give them the information, as it became available. and we delivered. that would not have happened without previously established partnerships. the department communications. again very important to relay all of the information i just stated to our department members. and, finally, external relationships. d.e.m., national weather service, homeland security, police department, c.b.o. community groups, just to name a few. over the last almost five years, we have made numerous partnerships, face-to-face contacts, meetings, lunches, coffee breaks with everybody from community groups of five people to a community group of thousands, including government

agencies alike. and you bond in those relationships and you form an understanding of the needs of those specific groups. the ability to provide services from the department to meet those needs and then we can address those effectively through operations and administration. what are the expectations that we have? how are we going to be transparent while respecting privacy? how do we get information out fast to google and how do we not overshare? these are a few items that we have to consider when we're doing public information and community education. speaking of incidents such as that and being able to communicate the right info to the right people at the right time. how do i explain this? this is the picture of the geary street explosion. people are willing to be scared. and is my neighborhood going to burn down. is my grandparent, who lives in that building, are they okay?

these are real questions that we got. and do we go on the air and tell everybody evacuate, evacuate immediately with nowhere to go. no, we can't do that. so again with the prearranged and established relationships and the ability to work with great media partners that we have in the bay area, we're able to get the right information about the incident for the right people, which is our community members, at the right time, which is humbling during these incidents. the public information officer, which is myself, works directly for the chief of operations. and why is that? when we're looking at operational needs, we have dynamic, fluid incidents that we have to address. we have issues throughout the city that affect our operational responses. you have to be able to connect the information at a given time. this starts with community education. it starts with community outreach. and it builds upon that platform

into public information and operational deliveries. what do we use to give some of that information out with? we use facebook, twitter, instagram, periscope, citizens' app. just to name a few. these are all items that a number of individuals follow. these are all items where we can deliver a canned message or a really specific message for an actual emergency or to deliver safety messages, i know we have the topic of cliff rescues, signage. we are one of very few agencies that, for a lack of terms, blast that information out on a weekly basis to really promote and it's a needed to know before you go. we have beautiful coastal regions. commissioner covington was asking about the signage. we want people to come visit them and we want them to be safe. these are some of the examples

and use that specific one that we use these platforms for. this is an example of our facebook page that we have, which again is more of a delivery mode for public comment, for people to share their experiences with our department, to see exactly what we're doing. we can also hold meetings on that, if needed, with facetime live. being clear with clarity, being able to speak at the drop of a dime on a given incident. earlier i said, you know, certificate of courses. but certifications don't mean anything unless you have a life experience. and are able to provide somebody with very clear and concise information, right when you're asked that question, for the multitude of incidents from hazmats to shootings to wildfires to burns. that calms the public.

they have reassurance that your department knows what they're doing. and we have to be able to deliver that. again on the drop of a dime. be honest, be balanced. anticipating the needs-to-know. the incident is dynamic and the frequent updates will come as we learn more. again use the pier 45 example. we delivered what we preach. specificity. getting the right information to the right people at the right time. we can go into everything that's written down here. but the basic notion here is no matter who you are, you have the right to know what's going on and we have the obligation to get that information for one purpose, to make sure that you are safe, that you feel safe and that you know your public servants are there to keep you safe. community outreach. recruitment and education. when i started in this position

in november of 2015, i was asked simply to be the public information officer. i quickly realized that we had no avenue, nor position to deliver community education, community outreach. so my position, under my direction, started district safety fairs, started information distribution through different avenues, the c.b.o., internal/external. preparation of items for the public, intercommunity relations. i mean, the list goes on. what we have now is a robust system under the public information officer to deliver, to figure out what needs to be delivered and to go back and delve into what needs to be pushed out for the future for a multitude of topics such as cliff rescues, oven fires, fireworks, all of these items are evolving. they're dynamic. but the basic information is

always the same and we can push that out in a standard format and then adjust it to meet the needs as they come. free language program for first responders and health care professionals. something we came up with as well. being able to communicate to the public is extremely important. but for the entire department. unfortunately our amazing spanish teacher, who has been teaching our department for free basically for the last three years, due to covid-19, lost his job at the school district. his landlord is kicking him out for lack of being able to pay the next couple of months. he's struggling. but true to his nature, he is still providing us with free zoom classes and he's -- he's putting an emphasis on spanish. he's also doing a couple of people with chinese. and this is a program that

benefits have shown, members who are involved in this program text me and say, john, i was just on this call and i knew what they were asking me. and i was able to speak back to them. how amazing is that. that's what the public needs and wants. that's what i would want for my family, if it was my emergency that i was going to. law enforcement response to fires for police is a program that we have, it devolves on how to keep everybody safe. the full spectrum. learningi. c.s. learning not to block a fire hydrant, learning not to block the roadway. since we've started this program, we've seen a decrease of these incidents. we've seen an increase of our ability to communicate and that relates to the service to the community that we've sworn to protect. grants and new initiatives. we luckily now have grant writers.

but when i started, we didn't have grant writers. we started off with an overview of a number of items that i needed for my position. i come from the general fund. i don't have a budget. but i needed speakers. i needed a camera, i needed a multitude of items. so over the last four and a half years, i personally have been able to deliver over $450,000 to the department in items such as portable speakers, cameras, ipads, and we have an additional $50,000 worth of grant funding equipment that should be coming to us soon, as that goes through its process. that will deliver more to provide not only public education assistance to the public, but community education. you noticed at the beginning of covid-19, we had the outreach box. that is a box that has a computer, a screen, a projector, a generator that's electric, that runs for 18 hours. not impacted the individual's

using it. we were able to use that and actually print out materials in different languages for people that came up. we have two of those, that's included in the money we were able to secure and provide the right information to the right people at the right time. assessing the needs of your agency. why do we need a p.i.o.? this question comes up a lot. and it's not just in san francisco. it's across -- it's across the nation. one of the positions in the public safety agency to be cut across the nation is the p.i.o. or liaison officer. and the trends are changing now. because now we have social media. we have facebook. we have twitter. just to name a few. people no longer think it's a luxury to get information, they demand it. we are demanding it. we have to deliver. we have to deliver it in a professional. how many p.i.o.s are needed?

basically these are questions i receive from members of this commission in the past. you know, it's all dependent on the needs of the department. to push this to a level that's efficient. these are also going to be constrained by budget confinements and other items that are along with that. currently we have one p.i.o., which is myself. it is a lot of work. but we're lucky to have a dedicated command staff, as well as the department that helps carry the load to make sure that we are delivering and again i think we do a great job. is the p.i.o. able to be split? we put somebody on an engine and have them work as a p.i.o.? is in orange county they tried to do that starting at the beginning of the year, putting the p.i.o.s back on shift.

within a few months, they put them back into full-time positions. there's a lot of back-end workload that goes along with this. but there's also the necessities and response relayed to that. what worked and what didn't work? a lot of things that work and didn't work. we adjust off of what works and we make them better. this position fully requires a level head. you get complaints at all hours of the day. you get speculative remarks from the members of the public, you really have to be able to actually address those, so you're not making the department look bad, you're not making yourself look bad. and you're delivering the information that people are requesting. challenges with constant media information requests. again, you know, i have no idea how my son did it so fast on one

cell phone. but getting the information out to the right people at the right time is imperative. and we make it happen. could we do better at it with more personnel? absolutely. we are super lucky to have the staff in the department that really helps carry that load. making sure everybody is heard, accountability, transparency, preventing false reporting. huge on that. i had somebody from abc mention to us, during the fourth of july, how great they think we are with being so transparent. that speaks words for our department. how do we get the tools that we need? we're creative, creating a team. i think i hit on that earlier. i'm going to keep this on time and questions and discussions. that's my report. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, lieutenant baxter, for your

report. is there any public comment? >> clerk: there is public comment. >> all right. >> clerk: happy birthday to me. speaker, you have three minute. >> hello. can everyone hear me? >> yes. >> yeah, my name is lieutenant elias. i'm a 20-year veteran of the department. i'm currently assigned to engine and truck 19, which does respond to the cliff rescues you were talking about quite a bit. but i'm here today just to speak on lieutenant baxter and his position. [ please stand by ]

>> jonathan is the one with the idea working with the spanish speaking instructor to teach first responders. firefighters have told me i wish i could remember high school spanish a little more. jonathan, it needs to be a full-time position. there is a lot of behind the scenes. he did touch on what he does on

a tailly basis, and him being at headquarters in touch with the command staff and chief officers, that needs to happen. in the day and age we live in, everything is social media. we know that print is behind the times already, and jonathan does get that info out very quickly. the citizens of san francisco have the right to know what is going on with ourselves, the department and what we would like them to know during several, for example, jonathan has advised me several times for fourth of july fireworks, christmas dec decorations, outdr fires. jonathan is an asset to the department, and i think his position needs to stay.

he is doing a great job at it. that is all i have. >> thank you very much. >> we have another caller. you have three minutes. >> thank you. >> hello, commissioners, i am a public safety specialist for pacific gas and electric. i wanted to indicate my responsibility is the agency rep. between san francisco police and fire departments. my background is 40 years in law enforcement. i was with pg&e six years and

san francisco fire for the last three years. [ inaudible ] >> can you speak louder, please. [ inaudible ] >> he is breaking up. >> can you hear me? speaker, can you hear me? you are breaking up. >> i think we lost him. [ inaudible ]

>> is there a way to communicate with him? >> he is still on the line. it is not very good. i stopped his time if we can get him back. >> is that better? >> that is much better. now you went away again. >> can you ask him to use a a

landline? >> this is covid-19 at its best. i am the public safety specialist for pacific gas and electric in san francisco area. my background is 40 years in law enforcement. part of my job with police chief and p.i.o. for for the agency. i am the rep for the department of emergency management. i met many of the critical incidents in san francisco and work closely with mr. baxter. he is very tied into our p.i.o.s. i just want to reemphasize.

[ inaudible ] this position is critical. he has done an excellent job as has your fire department. that is all i wanted to say. just to mention how valuable it is. thank you very much. >> thank you. any other speakers? >> no. >> okay. thank you. public comment is closed. i will go to fellow commissioners beginning with vice president feinstein. >> i have no questions or comments. thank you. >> commissioner nakajo.

>> thank you very much for this presentation. with the slides and photos as well. did you say that you had been in this position for five years? lieutenant baxter? >> sir, i started in november of 2015. i have been in this position for four years and six months. >> i just wanted to get reinforcement on that. i am one of the commissioners in this position for a period of time. i say that because in terms of public information officer or how we deal with it has never been more consistent, more professional in these last five years since you have joined this

particular position as part of the slide show and your presentation comprehensive shows the growth of the office or your position. i appreciate your presentation in terms of how comprehensive it talks about the importance of communication and the relationships between the media stations and the city and county. bottom line for me as commissioner but also as citizen of san francisco is information. we all can acknowledge that things have changed to the point of newspapers and print. i have one point or another folks used to listen to the radio as i used to. now we are moving to social media where there is instant information occurring. for us at the department to have it controlled and professionally delivered with considerations, i

think, is a tremendous asset. i want to acknowledge you in terms of the great job you have done for me the information is crucial as you pointed out. basically, good information for me calms the nerves and anticipates anxiety and more importantly, provides for us as public citizens the ongoing occurrences that have occurred. for us and for myself you are the face of the department. every time you do come on or there is an incident and the expectation is that i am amazed at how many incidents and different kinds of circumstances that your face appears as the public information officer always in uniform with helmets and gear and turnout coats. it is that steady professional delivery that you give that is

really very impressive and important. i also wanted to acknowledge the two speakers that came on with language base as well. the spanish speaking class and information sharing in terms of the american community and chinese. bottom line information is information. in this diversity how best to get that out there to the citizens with relation to the department and media is so important. i as commissioner support the full-time position of public information officer and the importance of that. i wanted to give you acknowledgment in terms of all of your contribution and your professional presence and thank you for that dedication and hard work and the response. thank you, madam president. >> thank you. commissioner cleaveland. >> thank you, madam president. i would like to echo

commissioner nakajo's comment and commend lieutenant baxter for putting together a first class public relations and education program. in 2014 i wondered about the outreach we had to the community. what kind of education we were giving to citizens of this city on fire safety. there was not much of an answer at that point. when lieutenant baxter was deployed to be our p.i.o., things changed almost overnight. i can tell you that the image of the department, if you will, has been enhanced many, many times over by the educational outreach programs that he has put together and by his consistent and professional delivery of information about fires and other incidents that involve the

fire department and sharing that in a professional way with the public. i commend you on your efforts and your team and you have remade the image of our department and the city in a most positive way. thank you. that is all my comments. >> thank you, commissioner cleaveland. commissioner rodriguez. >> it has all been said. i would echo what commissioner nakajo and commissioner cleaveland said. thank you very much. >> thanthank you, lieutenant bar for your presentation. it is very good. it was comprehensive, and i think you are doing a terrific job. it is not just public relations. it is also a safety when

lieutenant baxter is out there and the chief of the department is handling a major event, major fire like the pier 5 fire, he is between all of the people who have questions of the chief and want to speak with her now, now, now. he stands between them and the chief and they can be assured their questions will be answered in due course rather than the chief of the department saying i can't talk to you right now, i am a little busy. people don't seem to understand that. it is i wanted to point out more than public relations. there is a safety component to having an informed p.i.o. on the scene whenever things happen. any last questions?

thank you again for your presentation, lieutenant baxter. the language classes should continue and if there is anyway we can find some kind every numeration or stipend for the gentleman who is so very generous with his time, that would be very nice if we could do that. thank you. next item, please, madam secretary. >> item 7. commission report. report on commission activities since last meeting on june 24, 2020. >> thank you. commissioners, what have you been up to? i think they have all been

self-quarantining, staying in place. i have nothing to report. anyone? >> not at this time at this meeting. >> madam president. can you make remark, please. >> i hope it is appropriate. i did want to acknowledge that this coming friday is graduation for some of our h1s and i believe the vice president will represent us and the commission. i wanted to thank the vice president for that. i am not sure if the rest of the commissioners are going to be there. i will not be able to join. i wanted to acknowledge the importance of the commission being there on such a prestigious event such as graduation. thank you very much, vice president feinstein. thank you, madam president. >> thank you, and it is my

pleasure and honor. >> can i say something real quick? >> thank you for attending, vice president feinstein. commissioner rodriguez. >> i will be attending. i have been to treasure island a number of times. hopefully there will be directions. you can get lost on that island really easy. >> yes, you can. >> we will make sure you have a map. >> my apologizes to commissioner rodriguez for not acknowledging him. it is the same joy as part of the commission our colleagues are representing us. thank you. >> i also would like to say thank you for that commissioner rodriguez we will have two represents there. that is very, very good. next item, please.

>> any public comment on commission reports? >> item 8. agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> madam vice president, any suggestions? >> not at this time. thank you, president covington. >> commissioner nakajo. >> i believe, madam president, one of our colleagues or you made suggestions in terms of affinity groups rotating into presentations and giving us updates. at some point when it is appropriately scheduled among those members i will look forward to their update presentation. >> thank you, commissioner

nakajo. it was commissioner cleaveland who suggested that and we will begin putting them in rotation. i will consult with commissioner cleaveland whether or not he has a particular order that he would like to have the presentations to us. i think commissioner rodriguez has something to add. >> no, i didn't. >> commissioner cleveland? did you have something. >> thank you. on the order -- i don't have preference in terms of the order of employee groups reporting to the commission, however, i do belief we should wait until budgeting is complete done and whatever it is approved before we start that process.

it is more important to focus on the budget right now. the only other thing i would like to see on a future agenda would be update on the gardens of the city and the status between them and the department and the status of the antique vehicles that they have and we have and what is going on with that whole issue. >> you would like that to be a separate agenda item or should it come under the chief of the department's report? >> well, because i referred to the chief. i think it is important to hear from gotc as well. >> then a separate agenda item then. i know that the head of the airport division is here today, mark johnson. i want to welcome him. i would like to have him give us

an overview of what is going on at the airport at our next meeting. >> yes, madam president. >> thank you. that is the only agenda item i have at the moment. is there any public comment or suggestions from members of the public as to what you would like to have agendized? >> there is no public comment. >> thank you. seeing that there is no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 9. adjournment. >> i will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> i move to adjourn. >> thank you. all in favor. do we need a roll call vote for adjournment?

>> yes. >> i say yes. >> who seconded that motion? >> i am happy to second it. >> commissioner nakajo. >> aye. >> commissioner rodriguez. >> aye. >> unanimous. >> thank you all very, very much. have a wonderful day, be safe out there. we are hereby adjourned.

>> today's special guest is claudia dume.

>> hi. today, my guest is claudia gorham. she's the deputy managing director of the real estate dri division at the city and county of san francisco, and she's my special guest. thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> i know that your department is the department for managing and renting properties, and also cleaning for the city. how has your department been preparing for the crisis? >> well, because our citizens are sheltering in place and our buildings are closed to the general public, a substantial amount of city staff and city departments are still open and operating and doing city businesses. so we still have to do the cleaning and engineering on the portfolio and things that need

to be service. and the other thing is all our workers are disaster service workers, so we have been providing the emergency operations center with various staffing needs such as drivers of trucks and accounting staff to assist them in this crisis. >> have you obtained additional space for the city to use during this crisis? >> yes. the crisis has actually required numerous transactions, and so we help basically the department of public health, the department of human services, and the department of homelessness determine where they can put the services that they need. so, for example, if they need a testing site or if they need a building -- a vacant building to put supplies or if they need to put some trucks, we will help them locate that office building or that property based on their factors that they need. we will then contact the

landlord or the property owner of the space or the building owner decides they want, and then, we negotiate the terms that they need, whether it's a permit or a lease, we'll help the city attorney draft that agreement. >> nice. so can you talk about how some of our iconic buildings, such address the palace of -- such as the palace of fine arts, has been repurposed during the pandemic? >> certainly. the city needs as much space as it can use during this pandemic, and the department had to relocate to moscone south convention center so that we could do social distancing as required by both the city and the state. we have hundreds and hundreds of staff people working on this covid-19 crisis. all of the department of public health and the departments of

homelessness and human services, including several other hundred people, they need several different sites. they need testing centers, they need shelters for the homeless, those with the covid-19 virus, those who need a place to stay after they get out of the hospital. so we've been assisting them with places to stay. you mentioned the palace of fine arts. it has over 100,000 square feet of space. it could it -- we were going to use it as a shelter, but now, we're going to use it for different needs. we're going to negotiate a different lease so that the city can use it for this crisis. we're using the bill graham civic auditorium and tfor the

deployment of ambulances. the fire department needed additional supplies, so we're using it for that service. >> that's great. i also understand you have a staff of custodians, electricians, janitors and other support workers. how are they helping the city? >> we could not be more thankful for our civic and engineering staff under our real estate division. they have been working 24-7 since this crisis began, not only doing their daily responsibilities to keep the public buildings open and operating for the city staff continuing to go into the office but also because once the crisis started, several memos came down as to additional cleanings and how to do disinfecting, and we have to do the c.d.c.s recommendation does. so not only do they do --

recommendations. so not only do they do their regular cleaning, they are also doing deep cleaning and disinfecting in places like the public safety building and the haul of justice. but they're also going in and doing a deep cleaning and disinfecting after we had a suspected case or a confirmed case of a person having the coronavirus. so they're going in and doing this every night since this started. our workers are continuing as laborers to make the buildings safe and secure and maintained. and however we help or however we can help the e.o.c., we do that. >> well, thanks for coming on the show, claudia. i'd like to thank you and your entire team on behalf of all the residents of san francisco for all the work you continue to do. >> thank you very much. it's been a pleasure. >> that's it for this episode.

we'll be back with another pandemic-related episode shortly. this is coping with covid-19. i'm chris mathers. thanks for watching. . >> president yee: good afternoon and welcome to the july 7, 2020 meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. madam clerk, will you please call the roll. >> clerk: thank you, mr. president. [roll call]