mayoral proclamation declaring an emergency. through the emergency, the city hall is closed, and meetings of the fire commission will be hold remotely. you can watch remotely at www.sfgovtv.org or join by phone by calling in. members of the community will have the opportunity to participate during public comment. [inaudible] >> clerk: somebody's making a lot of noise. >> sorry. probably me. >> clerk: the public is asked to wait for an agenda item before making a comment on that

item. comments will be made in the order that they are received. when the moderator announces that public comment is being made, press star-three to enter the queue. when prompted, callers will have the standard three minutes to provide comment. ensure you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, and turnoff any t.v.s or radios around you. >> clerk: item 1, roll call. [roll call]

>> clerk: general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any item within the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear to the agenda. speakers may address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or personnel. commissioners are not to engage in conversation or debate with a speaker. lack of response does not necessarily indicate agreement with public comment. >> commissioner covington: thank you, madam speaker. are there any public speakers that would like to comment at this time?

>> clerk: there >> operator: there are no public commenters. >> commissioner covington: okay. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: approval of the minutes of the meeting of july 8, 2020. >> so moved. >> second. >> commissioner covington: okay. is there any public comment? >> operator: let me check. there is no public comment. >> commissioner covington: okay. public comment is closed. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion is unanimous. >> commissioner covington: okay. the next set of minutes, please. >> clerk: minutes from regular meeting on july 22, 2020. >> commissioner covington: is there any public comments on the minutes from the meeting on july 22?

>> clerk: there is no public comment. >> commissioner covington: thank you. i'll entertain a motion. >> so moved. [inaudible] >> i'll second. >> commissioner covington: okay. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion is unanimous. and minutes from the special meeting on july 29, 2020. >> commissioner covington: is there any public comment? >> clerk: there is no public comment. >> commissioner covington: okay. thank you. is there a motion to approve? >> so moved. >> second.

[roll call] >> commissioner covington: the motion is unanimous. next item, please. >> clerk: item 4, chief of department's report. >> thank you. good morning, president covington and commissioners. this is my report for today's commission meeting. just a brief covid-19 update.

the -- we have had 15 positives, and we currently have five in quarantine. two members were hospitalized and have been released but are not back to work yet, but we're hoping to get that under control. since we've not had father green, we've had several priests step up to be interim -- available for us on an interim basis for a couple of months until we get that program up and running.

budget update. so with -- we have hearings this friday, the 14th, and then on the 20th. we're meeting with the budget committee board of supervisors. so far, i have met with supervisors walton, fewer, and ronen to discuss the budget, and, you know, there are some significant cuts in this year's budget, but, you know, my biggest thing is i do not want operations to be impacted, and so that is what we've been going with. we've also been talking, you know, about our frontline services and how we really stepped up during covid, you know, and our hope is that the budget that we submit to the board of supes will be approved, but time will tell. the mayor did add in the budget

$2 million for a critical response team funding, which is similar to e.m.s. 6, but it is -- it is -- we're going to be working with a department of public health advanced health care practitioner and a peer support individual, someone who has either experienced homelessness or addiction, and we are going to address behavioral health issues on the street, so i'll keep you all updated on that, as well, and we will have simon pang at our budget hearing to talk about this program on friday and on the following week. and there was an article in the chronicle yesterday, as well. i don't know if you how that, but it was about our community paramedics. very good article. there is an economic task force committee that is led by

assessor carmen chu, and i have assigned fire marshal dicoscio to sit on that committee and discuss how the city can reopen safely. and where we fall in that is to ensure that we have safe access and enough access to all buildings and streets and -- and dan dicoscio and his team have been working hard on that. we've also been asked to look at it from a lens of equity to make sure that all businesses, especially small businesses have the assistance that they need to open. you know, thus far, i believe we've lost 300 small businesses in the city of san francisco. we met with -- myself and cd-2

and cd-3 met with los sombreros and we continue to meet with groups. we've been doing our station visits again, covid safely, of course, but, you know, in the last week, i've got to station 11, 12, 14, and 15, and i have one more to do, and the rest of the command staff is also stepping up and doing theirs, so i thank them for that. and then, there was a hearing held at the government audit and oversight committee discussing recruitment and hiring in our department, and -- and definitely talking about, you know, looking at it through the lens of equity and -- you know, and i also want us to look at that through our promotional process, which is why we want to -- we are

working towards instituting in-house training and classes for everyone who want to promote. they can get access to them here. we are still a ways away from completing that, but we are moving forward, and i want it to be in place after we're gone, so -- and then, you know, in that government audit and oversight committee, i also spoke to our testing -- national testing network and some other things that we might be able to change moving forward. of course, those things cost money, but -- and i also spoke with e.m.s. corps, and i spoke to supervisor walton on this, and i'm hoping that he can take

the lead on this and get it funded for us. we've got all the pieces in place ready to go; we just need the funding. and that can be sort of a pipeline into the fire department, into e.m.s. for sure. we do have several members, several people who went through the e.m.s. corps in the east bay in our department now. and then, i attended the e.m.s. bump-up academy and then an event with supervisor walton, where his fraternity donated some n95 masks to the fire department and to seiu nurses. and last, i just want to talk a little bit about mutual aid. our mutual aid program has about 220 volunteers that train

for wildfires. it's a volunteer program, and they sign up to be available during the fire season, and they need to commit to a 15-day deployment if necessary. we respond to requests from nine bay area counties or emergency fire services. and chief mello and chief baker are our two point contacts in this. they've been involved in a lot of our wildlands program. so we own five engines that we bought from cal-oes, and we use them to respond to fires. we also have a program, o.e.s.-1, that we staff when requested by o.e.s.

this year, we're going to be able to host three type 6 engines, which are basically mini pumpers. so o.e.s., like i said, is allowing us to host them. so we will have three mini pumpers, type 6 available. we can use them in the city, but when we are asked to, we will be staffing them and sending them on a deployment, as well. we are reimbursed for costs associated with -- under the california mutual aid system, and mark corso knows all about that. but for personnel that we deploy and then a personnel that we need to cover those folks here. and there are some real covid plans that have been developed for our fire plans this year, and that includes measures in

base camps, feeding units, sleeping accommodations, and our crews will follow our own covid protocols when deployed. and that concludes my report. >> commissioner covington: okay, chief nicholson. thank you very much. is there any public comment on the chief's report? >> clerk: there is no public comment. >> commissioner covington: okay. public comment is closed, and i'll go to my fellow commissioners. is there a question? okay. vice president feinstein? >> yes, let me find the chief. did i lose her? >> no, i have six minutes, six minutes before i need to go. >> the members that tested covid positive, and you said

there were 15 plus five and quarantine and two members hospitalized. where were they assigned? are we talking about firefighters, you know, folks from e.m.s., just to get an idea of what we're looking at? >> yeah. initially, we had some folks from e.m.s. 6 who were staffing a particular site that were infected, but most everyone else is from the fire side of things, and when i say five people are in quarantine, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're covid positive. they're just in quarantine because they may have been exposed. >> thank you for that clarification. >> you're welcome. >> commissioner covington: were there any other questions? commissioner cleaveland?

commissioner cleaveland, you're muted. >> commissioner cleaveland: all right. can you hear me now? >> commissioner covington: yes. >> commissioner cleaveland: one thing you talked about, chief, the national testing for recruits. if we get rid of that, we'll have to develop our own, is that correct? >> correct, and that's what we used to do. m.t.n. was brought in as a cost-saving measure. it was not brought in because -- >> commissioner cleaveland: sure. >> so that is the best thing for san francisco, yeah. >> commissioner cleaveland: is that better than just coaching recruits on tests before they take the test? is there any way to have

training classes for the recruits before they have to take their tests? in other words, giving them some idea what was going to be asked on the -- who is going to be asked on the test so they can learn whatever they have to learn. >> yeah. there was a little bit of background noise, so i'm not sure what you said, but let me address what i think you said. we're looking at all sorts of alternatives, and we currently have a racial equity officer and a racial equity action committee, so we're looking at these issues and sort of how we can best -- >> commissioner cleaveland: and make the jump. i get it. thank you. >> yeah. >> commissioner covington: commission commissioner nakajo?

>> president nakajo: thank you, >> commissioner nakajo:

majority of times our citizens call the police department, and now, the police department has a protocol, as well. i'm not going to say to not properly respond because i know now that there's different priorities, so i find it real interesting that they formalized this team because they seem to be more effective. but it is a result on the leadership and a core that we established in e.m.s. team 6. i think that reflects our work that we're doing, salvaging e.m.s. 6. as a social worker, it becomes the services of the various agencies, the fire department to the department of public health, that we're taking the definition of services to our public citizens in san francisco still to the point of where we're trying to save and

rescue our citizens, and it's much more of a behavioral health-mental health system that we're forming. i don't think we realized that in terms of where we're going, to get some folks relief -- frequent fliers, we called them -- i just think it's really important for the city and county, in the budget process, as well, particularly the fire department and e.m.s. 6. thank you very much, chief, and thank you, very much, madam president. >> commissioner covington: thank you, commissioner nakajo. chief nicholson, i will hold my questions until later. i know you have to go to the mayor's meeting of the department heads, so -- >> thank you.

if you do have questions about mutual aid, chief velo can certainly speak to them, but i am going to mute myself and make myself go black, and i will be back. >> commissioner covington: okay. that was the chief of the department's report. is there any public comment on the chief's report? >> clerk: let's see...there's no public comment. >> commissioner covington: okay. thank you. so then, we will go to chief wyrsch. >> good morning, madam president covington, vice president feinstein, commissioner cleaveland, commissioner imagi

commissioner nakajo. >> clerk: actually, can we go back to public comment? i do see a hand raised here. >> commissioner covington: okay. thank you, chief wyrsch, for holding on this. caller, can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you. my name is francisco dacosta. how are you, commissioners? >> commissioner covington: mr. dacosta, i'm fine. mr. dacosta, you have three minutes. >> thank you. i was listening to several meetings yesterday, and they were talking about the homeless people and people that were suffering on our streets, the relative department that deals with the homeless folks was not present for the meeting. and we constituents of san

francisco appreciate when the police department and the fire department have to go and deal with the situation because it's an emergency situation. but commissioners, we have reached a stage where so many people are slowly dying on the streets of san francisco. it's faster than you can think, and it would help if we can address the situation as crimes against humanity. because those of us who lived here in the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, until today, know that for the majority of the time, we did not see so many tents, so many homeless people on the streets of san francisco. but what is important to note is that a lot of those who are on the streets of san francisco today are middle class

families. some, father, mother, and children, and we have to do a needs assessment. the police department, the fire department, the city attorney, the controller's office, and you know, commissioners, some of you all know i participate in these meetings so i can address the concerns on my block. so i want to thank you all very much. i haven't attended in a long time, but i used to attend your meetings a long time ago. please, on behalf of the people, do your best. thank you very much. >> commissioner covington: thank you, mr. dacosta. are there any other members of the public that would like to comment at this time? >> clerk: there are no other members of the public. >> commissioner covington: okay. thank you. then public comment is closed, and we will go to chief wyrsch.

>> deputy chief wyrsch: good morning, again. i want to say thank you to marina and theresa for their assistance. this is my operations report for july. can everybody see that? >> no. >> commissioner covington: i don't see anything -- i mean, i see you, but i don't see the report. >> let's see here. >> i actually don't see chief wyrsch other than he's grayed out and pushed in in a little bubble. i might have to get jose in here.

chief velo? [inaudible] >> excellent. >> deputy chief wyrsch: there we go. >> commissioner covington: there we are. thank you. >> deputy chief wyrsch: i'll get this down before i retire. so we had six greater alarms in july. the first -- [inaudible] >> deputy chief wyrsch: there were no injuries. this fire is still under investigation. this was chief broadbeck's

fire. this was a fire in the restaurant. they were utilizing the roof as part of the restaurant, as you see here. that was a fire that was attacked on the exterior first and then a second alarm was pulled because we had an interior attack and exposures on the bravo and delta side. all companies did an excellent job. the second fire here was a third alarm. this was a third alarm at 1917 hours on the 10th. this is assistant chief r rex hale's fire. this fire was at 1927 washington. they reported heavy fire on the second floor, so a third alarm

was struck. fire did damage to three buildings. the strategy was very aggressive. again, it was a very heavy volume of fires, and the companies did an excellent job at keeping this a third alarm. it could have easily gone to a greater alarm. all right. our third greater alarm was a second alarm, and this was on the 10, at 3745 spruce. this fire is also under investigation. this was an offensive interior attack. all companies extinguished the fire rapidly. a second alarm was pulled, though, because of an exposure issue and rescue issues. companies did a very good job.

our fourth fire was a second alarm at 1931 hours at 1233 third street across lincoln. this fire is also investigation. this was assistant chief bob postell's fire. this was a fire in a renovation. it started to extend into the delta building, and so a second alarm was requested. and we're going to go to our fifth alarm, our fifth greater alarm of the month. i have some impressive photos if you have not seen them already. this was one of the most rapidly rapid extending fires that i've witnessed in my career. i got there on a second alarm, and fire moved from building to

building with rapid succession. this was initially called in by a civilian as a small outside fire. it was quickly upgraded to a large fire. the companies found a massive fire in the interior of the building. there was a tremendous amount of power lines, pg&e high vo voltage power lines on geary and 13. so the -- erie and 13th. so the companies that were near the power line had to withdraw back, take up a defensive mode, and we had to get out of the

collapse area and possible collapse of the power lines. videos, just to give you a good idea. obviously, this rapidly increased to a third alarm, a fourth alarm, and then, a fifth alarm was eventually pulled. everything was deployed that we had. we exceeded the domestic fire hydrants initially, so we went to the high pressure system. we used all three zones of the high pressure system, which is the jones street and ashbury street and then twin peaks. i'll show you a timeline here that's pretty impressive of the fire. companies worked firelessly again on one of the fast --

tirelessly again on one of the fastest spreading fires that i've ever seen. this fire is also under investigation, and here are the companies involved in this fire, which are included in the report. and then last, we have our sixth fire, greater alarm. that was a second alarm on 2233 powell. as you can see there, this was a shingled building so the fire spread rapidly. there was no injuries. again, it's under investigation. we believe it started in the carport, in the bravo side, and it spread from the second and third floor very rapidly. they did a very good job at keeping this as a second alarm and keeping it from spreading to the other buildings. again, another offensive attack that started from the interior to the exterior until extinguishment. that leaves us -- also, we had

20 other structure fires that i didn't include in this. we had many encampment fires. we had many wildfires that i'll touch on at the end of my report for the month of july. we had one surf rescue. we had four cliff rescues, which i'll talk about at the end of my report, and we had five bay rescues. we also had a strike team that went out on the 22nd to northern california, team 361, that went to the hogg fire as a type of strike team. and then, on the 27th, they were reassigned to the adams fire, and then, they came home. everybody came back safe. that turns me to my e.m.s.

update, from sandra tom. i have all the information and data that are inside the report. notably, narcan administration did go up from last month, but it's still lower than earlier in the year, but i wanted to focus a little on what the commissioner nakajo was also speaking about on e.m.s. 6 and how they've been focusing on the covid-19 and interacting with the public. they've been spending their time on the streets. they've been in the sober center, and participating in sobering center 16, which is now site 42. they check in on symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and covid-19, and they also handle

behavior and negotiate with anybody that tries to leave, and they're doing a tremendous job. they've also been riding with the nurse practitioner from san francisco d.p.h., and they screen people experiencing homelessness for covid-19 and also evaluating those with medical complaints who are staying at the more than 30 shelters that we have in hotels and quarantines throughout the city, so our hat's off to them for the great job that they're doing. bureau prevention and investigation from dan dicozio. his team was been focusing on the fire prevention, has been working with all the city agencies. we have, again, the slow streets, preferred spaces, the transit lanes, of which i give an example of on fell street

between baker and shrader. we've been working as quickly as possible, and he's doing that while still completing their normal operations as you've seen in the report prior to. his fire investigation team, like i said, we've been keeping them so many right now with all the greater alarms, and they also work on the encampment fires and the vehicle fires, so a very good job by his whole team. thank you. the airport division now is, quite obviously, assistant deputy chief mark thompson. he has a list of daily activities. he's been hitting the ground running with a lot of new situations down there, obviously, but the business is picking up with the more flights, more people traveling. he had a total of 209 dispatches in the month of

july, and 95 medic dispatches. he's been moving forward with the training and also securing equipment. here's a picture of our new a.r.f. rescue apparatus. it's one of three that's going to be delivered. it's massive, and after covid, i suggest we all go down there and take a look at it because it's a very impressive apparatus. homeland security, assistant deputy chief cochran is unfortunately unable to be here because of an injury, so our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to him for getting well quick. one of things that he does besides what's listed in the report is the many inspections throughout the city. so he visited with his team, the lake merced pump station. it's a very important station. it's staffed 24-7. it gives the city half the

water that we drink and consume and use, but it's also important to us in homeland security because if there is an earthquake. -- earthquake, we can draw into lake merced. very goo -- merced and pump to sunset and sutro. between the hours of 8:00 and 8:00 the next day on the 5th, we had 528 logged runs, just from the fourth of july. so that's a 58% increase over known logged volume. there was 84 -- excuse me, 85 outside fires that i didn't include in the beginning of my report just from the fourth of july. they actually logged 110 fires because on the way to some of those fires, they put out other

small fires. so incredibly busy night, and they did a great job. i want to give a shoutout also to the sheriff's department. as you see, here is a flight pattern that they worked that night. they went throughout the day. we communicated well with them, and they gave us a lot of intel, and so a lot of times, we didn't have to double dispatch to a single incident. here's a flight time of the fireworks going on, which is impressive. thank you very much to the sheriff's department. here's also just a little bit of footage, as you see. there's the chiefs at batallion 10. they had to actually drive through fireworks to get to fires. it was a very, very busy night.

everybody put the fires out quickly. nothing rose to a second alarm on that night. the drone, we had our maiden voyage. as you see lieutenant fogel right here. he's been helping us out. he's the first licensed pilot to use the drone. we used it it right after the fifth alarm. he's been helping advance in the program, and as you see here, we were able to use a heat sensing thermal imaging camera above the fifth alarm fire. so as you see in this picture, this is after -- this is fire a fire watch. in the upper part, you can see where there's a fire engine, and in the middle, there's a hot spot. obviously, we were there five days because the hot spots, a lot of them were covered by

corrugated steel or walls. so we stayed there and put them out, and we're working hard to get members back into the drone school. madam president asked me for a cliff and water accident prevention update in my last meeting. we have -- here shows the number of incidents throughout the year. we have 18 cliff incidents to date right now, and 20 surf and bay incidents. this was specifically -- we talked about the current awareness and what we do to prevent especially the cliff rescue. quite often, lieutenant baxter has been very involved in this since he became the p.i.o. he conducts the safety fairs twice a year. he provides leaflets and

handouts to all the companies and goes to all the different sites at busy times of the year and hands them out for awareness. we also use the search and rescue k9s out there. we also work with the national park service and the coast guard. he does a lot on twitter and youtube, trying to get the messages out. there's a couple of links at the bottom of the screen of the public service announcement that we use. here are some of the signs that the national park uses. obviously, we are not allowed -- we have our hands tied as far as using our home signs. we can only do something on the city property. here's another thing what happens to them throughout the year. so they do get vandalized. we do try to get them replaced or repaired so people have the signs that they need. what we're going to try to do

is do signage on the city property before you go into the national parks area. one of the biggest problems we have is pets. so people take their pets, and people take them off a leash, and they go running, and they either fall or go off the side of the cliff, and then, that's when people go after them, and that's when there's an issue. we're going to continue working with them as an agency to educate as much as possible. so lieutenant baxter is going to continue with the social media and safety fairs. he is setting up weekly notifications in many, many languages so it gets the message, reaches everybody that's using that area. so we're maintaining a good relationship with the park service, and we're going to

continue to do that. and that is my presentation, and i am open for any questions. >> commissioner covington: thank you, chief wyrsch. very good presentation, very comprehensive, and there's a lot going on. >> deputy chief wyrsch: yeah. >> commissioner covington: do we have any public comment for chief wyrsch's report? >> clerk: there is no public comment. >> commissioner covington: okay. public comment is closed, and i'll go to my fellow commissioners. let's see...i'll go back to my view, beginning with madam vice president. >> i have no -- no questions, thank you. >> commissioner covington: okay. thank you. commissioner nakajo? >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, madam president. thank you very much, chief wyrsch. i wanted to compliment you as well as all of the various departments and units that are part of this makeup of your

report. every time i pick up your report, it seems to be a little bit thicker and heavier and more comprehensive. i think that's a very, very good thing in terms of us, the commissioners, in terms of us being exposed. i wanted to also thank you -- and i'll just go through quickly my notes here -- how appreciative and comprehensive it is in the description. we're greatly benefited to have your years of experience and perspective in the report in terms of the fires and alarms, whether it's a second alarm, a third alarm, a fourth alarm or even fifth alarm, what goes on with our membership in order to deal with various fires and also in terms of the particular jargon that you use.

i think it's beneficial for us as commissioners to know what you use, and it is for the public. i appreciate all of the photos that you use, and i appreciate today not only the photos but the videos to show us a little more of what goes on. the fire commission has the prerogative to report to fires, and i know that commissioner feinstein as well as president covington on many locations have responded to fires in our neighborhoods firsthand to see what's going on with that. i wanted to move to the e.m.s. reports and the reference to deputy chief tom's report, which is getting more comprehensive with more information. i wanted to, again, stress how

important it is to get home addresses to give us an idea. i particularly like, on page 19, the layout of her report, as well. the section of challenges on page 19. on page 20, the titles of successes and highlights, and it does give us an idea of what's occurring in our city in terms of emergency services. page 24, when it has a chart and a graphic in terms of possible covid-19 encounters, and also, the other information that you showed, the e.m.s. 6

going out on the frontlines. i feel that since we got a jump on this program, that our e.m.s. 6 are really the directors, so to speak, with a familiarity of dealing with the public. i just really think that's important. i again thank you for the reference, and chief dicascio, in terms of the reference and investigation. i particularly liked this reference on page 34 that talked about the existing layouts in terms of city streets and how that affects the department. we made references to what we call the inherited responsibility now, and it's categorical, but i also want to make a comment when i go around

san francisco, how innovative the restauranteurs are. it's amazing the innovation and entrepreneurization of restaurants in san francisco. every time i go by, it seems to be a better design in terms of serving the customers. on the airport, on page 39, i appreciate the information. [inaudible] >> commissioner nakajo: it really gives a profound information in terms of how big that apparatus is when you can see it on a trailer that hauls it into the airport, and i think it is a great idea, that once we're in a safer place, we

need to go and visit that. with chief cochran, i also wish him well, but it's great to hear about the drone and the result of the drone as recently as the fifth alarm fire, especially when you see the enormity of tasks, and we're pleased how we're taking advantage of that almost immediately. i want to make a reference on page 44, page 45. i particularly like the section on the science because i do recall vice president feinstein making remarks in terms of the citizens that are out there in the parks and the rescues that

have to occur, and the question on signage has always come up, as well, and it helps to really be able to look at that in terms of photos, and what conditions they are, and what kind of information we're giving to the public. [please stand by]

such heavy

and our high pressure system goes to three divisions. jones street, ashbury and twin peaks. twin peaks does not get utilized a tremendous amount. we used all the water and pressure we could have. but by having so many of those, as you saw in the time line photos, so many ladder pipes used, such a heavy volume of water it requires coordination with the water department. we've had an excellent rapport with them. we've been drilling with them and several times so far in the year and have scheduled drills coming up with them and only because of them do we tell them our needs and the pressure and they make the right calls on the radio and open up the necessary tanks.

they turned them down initially and after the '06 quake they approved it and built it and master mind and put it together. it's intricate but also extremely simple as well. it was brilliant and we'll utilize it. >> do you think our water supply at this point is adequate to deal with additional fires similar to what we've had this past july? >> we have other options and way to draft and kick in other pumping stations such as the station i brought up that chief cochran visited we can add to our water system. >> commissioner: how many class 5 fires can you handle at one

time? >> i think we can handle anything thrown at us. obviously, we're going to have to separate our sources and we won't have as many companies there. we'll have to do it in a different way. we'll have to set up our plan of attack. our defensive attack a little bit differently. i would consider this last fifth alarm fire an aggressive defensive attack. we did enter a lot of the buildings and were able to save a lot of the building. on massive fires we'd have to start making decisions where to make a stand in certain areas. this one we were able to save a lot of the buildings in that area we may not have been able to save if we were more thinly spread out. >> our last question, what happened to deputy chief cochran? >> he was injured.

somebody was moving a multivessel and the water pressure hit him on the side of the head with great force and knocked him to his knees. we had to form him into the balance but it knocked him to his knees and he has a knee injury they're looking into right now. we wish him well on behalf of all the commissioners. i'm sure he's watching. >> thank you, commissioner cleaveland. thank you for your report, chief wyrsch and chief cochran if you are indeed listening, godspeed. i hope everything turns out all right four. i had a question -- for you. i had a question about the fifth alarm.

i thought we only went to four alarms. is this a new system? >> no, we have five alarms. we don't have sixth alarms. >> okay. is there any similarly between these alarms, these incidents? i mean, out of the blue we have so many five alarms. that's amazing. every now and then but what was it six in a month? >> sixth grade alarm but only one fifth alarm and mostly second alarm and third alarm and then a fifth alarm. it's rare to get a fifth alarm. it's been a long time since we've had one.

i believe mission bay was the last fifth alarm we had. it's kind of hard and people always ask if there's a specific fire season and when you're busy. in my almost 31 years things happen in streaks like a baseball team. things come in streaks and that's probably the only thing i can explain. we do think with the possibility of some of these businesses because they're shut down maybe there's a possibility the fires can grow before they get noticed. less people on the street. sometimes they might be longer before somebody actually calls them in. they're all things we look at and take into account. other than that, things really are streaky in the fire department. i think we didn't have a greater alarm for the first six months of my report so i was feeling cheated because i didn't have anything to talk about.

>> now you have everything to talk about. okay. things are not especially dry but things have been windy. it's incredible. it's whipping through constantly and wonder if that could be a factor but there's no way of knowing that, right? >> wind is not our friend when we fight a fire. it accelerates it and makes it more difficult. wind driven fires on diamond peaks are difficult. wind is not our friend. >> okay.

thank you for that explanation. i'm very pleased to see a drone and finally we had a drone academy and then and just sto see that in the air. >> i'm glad it's moving forward and we'll be further along with more pilot tests if not for covid. training got put on hold. we're doing some internal training right now with a lieutenant and chief cochran too. more training will be conducted. how many people are waiting?

>> five are awaiting their graduation certificates. i believe they have to do one more test and that's what was put on hold. >> i see. >> the lieutenant is the only official drone pilot we have at this moment. >> so there will be fully certified in a month or five months? how long? >> we have to wait until the drone school that opens up on treasure island. that's the official licensing we can get. we need the official license we have a commitment from lieutenant foggel. he lives close and anytime we need it he can respond. >> very good.

>> the drones program is fabulous to see. regarding to the vandalism of the sign leading to the cliff, do we -- well, i can talk to you about that off-line. i think there's some solutions i may be able to provide for that. >> thank you. >> we're trying to put signs leaving the national so that would be good for some help. >> great. people think it's not going to happen to them and next thing you know they're at the bottom of the cliff.

>> i'm sure selfies aren't helping either. >> no. and people not watching where they're going because they're trying to get their best profiles. okay. i'm not going to close this item because we're awaiting the chief of the department because i didn't get a chance to ask clarifying questions so we'll go on to the next item but we'll shuffle back to this. >> okay. item 5, budget overview by mark corso. >> thank you. i'll ask for public comment after your presentation. >> sounds good. thank you, good morning. madame president, everyone. i'm mark corso to give a brief

overview in regards to our budget. give me one moment to share my screen here. everybody see that? >> the mayor submitted her balanced budget to the board of supervisors on july 31st. it's an update from our submission in february with revised instructions as a result of the covid pandemic. we will give an overview of the revised instructions. there's a revised target of approximately 15% in the two fiscal years and we have economic impacts from the pandemic that needed to be addressed and significant issues as part of the department we're

strongly encouraged to do a comprehensive budget look. the size of the deficit was quite alarming so departments were told to look closely at what kind of savings can be absorbed as we move forward. before we get into our budget specifically i wanted to give a brief high-level summary. the mayor wants to present their budget and should be balanced for the board. as an update in july there was approximately $1.6 billion deficit anticipated over the next two budget years and the way it was solved was through different avenues. use of reserves ever since the last recession the city has rainy day funds and set up additional refunds to put money on the side for the specific

types of economic issues and so the mayor's office made use of some of that funding, not all of it. in addition there's assumptions with regard to upcoming ballot measure and the educational fund from the state incorporating that in an ongoing basis. there's some assumptions there will be waste deferrals with unions and that assumption could change if there are changes but that will be incorporated into the budget. city wide spending strategies and efficiency that incorporate changes and departmethings absom departments and there was costs associated with covid as well as other city investments. we'll talk to specifics in an a little bit. but there was an article discussing some of the city's

anticipated covid expenditures in the next two years. a lot of that is anticipated to be reimbursed. there still a significant -- i believe about $93 million a year at least in the first year and city general fund that needs to support those expenditures for covid. obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty included in this part of that is related to the economic uncertainty due to the public comment is closed -- pandemic and depending on how that turns out and on the health and economic side things may change. we'll be monitoring that very closely. and this budget process and next one will pick up in a couple months and it will be a chance to re-evaluate and it will be something we closely monitor. giving a high-level overview on the next two slides. structurally our budget remains identical to how it's been in

the past. we have support from the airport and port and various revenues but for the most part reliant on general fund funding to fund our front line emergency operations we'll talk about in a sec. this is a high-level overview. our budget went down and this is essentially our baseline the chief mentioned the desire not impact front line operations and we were successful in that. operationally, our budget rolled ore and there were changes here and there mainly around the defensive structure and here's an overall high-level summary. salary and benefits are our biggest cost driver mainly to

support front line emergency services in our department. that's been the way for years and continue to do so there. operatio [background noise] -- flexibility on changing that which is not the intention of the department but goes to show how much limited flexibility we have on the other limited funding. you talk about equipment, etcetera, we're stringent in the level we receive. we balanced last year's budget and the direct reductions are

impacting front line service impact. for ems or fire prevention but the impact of the departmental infrastructure we made great strides in the past few years for equipment and fleet plan and pre-covid we were looking to discuss with the mayor's office expanding that but with the budget reductions and economic realities of where we are the city that -- we're hoping the economics are temporary and can continue investing in the infrastructure further but we'll re-evaluate that at the next budget process. uncertainty is the theme. and so that's for the expenditure side and also revenues. i'll talk about ours and how they're impacted in a moment. overall for budget reduction. the table on the left shows reductions that were made to our

budget in order to close out last fiscal year. the city was looking at a $250 million deficit between the months of march and june it needed to solve for. for the fire department that meant some reductions in infrastructure costs. facilities, capital, fleet, equipment, things like that were re-evaluated and there were reductions made to our budget. and going forward the next two years given the size of the city deficit there were additional ones i mentioned. first one is the postponement of fire fighter academy. with the support of the commission and board and mayor's office made great strides in hiring in the past eight years now with the plan and additional grant funding we were able to procure. we are in a healthier place from a staffing perspective to meet

our minimum staffing levels and something we don't want to continue indefinitely but given the circumstances it was something it could be absorbed and relying on current staffing. it represents a big chunk of savings. in addition there would be some reductions to training staff and a need for academy training. there's still a lot of in service training and there's eight of hands-on training that needs to be done. we'll try to make that work and support our training staff as

much as we can. there were reductions to ems equipment in defibrillators and other equipment that was reduced. we had fire prevention reduced from overtime and not filling vacant positions. there's no public assembly and things like public gatherings have slowed down and we're expecting a decrease of revenue and in addition we were appressed for equipment and for

underground storage tank maintenance and we reduced and had overtime allocation reduced as a result of shelter in place and some covid restrictions and our coordinator is work the state as far as curriculum for online training but until some regulations is relaxed there's a limit to what you can learn online. we're weight -- waiting to see what guidance we as far as future meetings and things like that and what we'll be working with and monitoring over the next year. just briefly on the revenue, i mentioned fire prevention. we're monitoring that and seeing how economic recovery continues and part of that depends on

what's been allowed for public gatherings and special event. work the fire marshal on monitoring that in the next year. ems revenues, we've seen a decrease due to covid and so that has a corresponding reduction in billing and revenues received. it's started to increase and slowly get back but that something we'll be monitoring as well. and then public safety sales tax the department is not responsible specifically but showing what the city's impact. this is state funding that comes in we get approximately [indiscernible] and anticipating a reduction of over 10%. that's significant not just for our funding but different state programs, etcetera, as the state deals with its own budgetary issues. as a mentioned, there's a lot of assumptions based in. there's a lot of uncertainty on the health side and economic recovery side.

we'll be monitoring that as well as the city obviously over the next year as we prepare for the next budget round. the chief mentioned what ems6 is doing due to covid response. there's a variety of resources the department is fulfilling due to covid response and tracking that as much as possible and working with the controller's office for potential reimbursement for those or for salaries [indiscernible]. while most of that is enhancements to the budget and one main one the chief alluded to earlier is the $2 million allocation in each fiscal year with the joint process with uph the mental health initiative and the city is looking to expand

this program based on potential revenue from prop c which was passed two years ago and hanging in litigation as well as business tax measure later on that's going on the ballot in november. the idea is some of that funding will fund further expansion of the program and other initiatives as well. so overall-time line, july 31st we'll present the budget to the board and this is the first year obviously they're all virtual. i'm happy to pass along the hearing information to maureen to pass along to all of you. we have our first hearing on august 14th, this friday where we'll have an opportunity to give an overview of the department, highlight a few areas that have been requested by the board specifically pertaining to racial equity and vulnerable populations.

we'll give a presentation on that. working with the budget analysts in the next week or so we anticipate get draft recommendations refductions in the next couple days and we'll work with them until the second hearing august 20th, next thursday. more to come on that. we'll have public comment and be the final deliberations in late august for any reductions that were heard or agreed to during the committee to re-allocate the funding. and late september the full budget goes to the board for a full vote and anticipated it will ab proved on the 29 -- be approved on the 29th wedge --

with the mayor signing off and we'll keep the commission aware of any updates to the schedule. with that i'm free to answer any questions anybody may have. >> thank you very much, mr. corso. any comments on mr. corso's report? >> nick, would you like to make public comment? >> caller: hello? >> no, no public comment. >> thank you. i'll go to my fellow commissioners starting with vice president feinstein. >> thank you for your report and i very much appreciate the slides which were helpful and illustrative. it seems to me like it's going

to be a wait and see game for the next couple of weeks. we may have missed something and with fire prevention and that would be real tragedy but we're not the only department that's confronting this. i recognize that and i think this week will be telling. >> thank you, vice president

feinstein. commissioner nakajo. >> thank you, madame president and director corso for your report. i know that in terms of reductions, can you speak a little bit in terms of how you arrived at those reductions. and i'm assuming that all the department components participated within their own analysis of their unit in terms of recommending [indiscernible] how does that work. can you share a little bit, director corso? >> sure, working with the chief they mentioned the goal was to impact front line services on the fire and medical side and think everybody shared that. there was some guidance from the mayor's office they would be looking specifically at a lot of the one-time costs or non-personnel costs for materials and supplies and

capital equipment and things like that there was significant reduction city wide to the capital plan. there were significant reductions to the city's i.t. plan. a lot of those things in order to avoid more impactful cuts as far as personnel so that's how things were addressed city wide. internally we looked at what we had as far as where we've come as far as staffing, equipment and those kinds of areas and looked at what potential variety of reductions that could potentially come into play and weighing their budgetary impact to operational impacts as well. obviously, not happy to be reducing any of these things. they're all very important pieces of our departmental budget.but at the end of the day nord -- in order to meet budget requests there were things that

were addressed. >> and i know you know my longevity with the commission and department and i remember the days when we had directors on reduction of budget and it was pretty much as you can understand the analysis and recommendation from the top down and administrative office identified what areas to reduce and such. i know that we've gotten to a point by which each department chief has something to say about that because it impacts them obviously. when i see something from the fire marshal or see things from ems and such, my question point blank is every one of our chiefs all have [indiscernible] what they're recommendings as reduced funding that equates to their impact on unit as well.

>> we didn't have as full a conversation about that given the complex time frame of everything. that was something we weren't able to do but we did discuss with department heads, for example, i met with the fire marshal and discussed what projections would be next year as far as activity for the bureau and how to re-allocate resources and things like that. there were other reductions that were imposed so to speak with regards to a lot of the kwigs equipment and things like that. to varying degrees, we weren't able to have a full budget process in the month or so given the complex time frame but there was active discussion amongst division heads on potential impacts and implication. >> each one of these suggestions obviously impact various units

in the department putting a hold on academic class or the fire academy is a major suggestion as well as other suggestions. last question, in terms of our instruction of our reductions, correct me if i'm wrong, were we instructed to go through a 10% cut and with the recommendation of our reductions, how close are we to that suggested reduction? >> correct, there was a for all departments a 10% reduction with a 5% contingency and a 15% reduction in the second year and by the end of the day the way it worked out when you're incorporating revenue losses and things we met the 10% threshold in the first year. we did not meet the 15% in the

second year. >> okay. so the 10% is in terms of coming into compliance with this year. i'm assuming there's going to be some projection on how we'll deal with this 50% i've been hearing through the grapevine the various grapevines of san francisco next year the following year's budget scenario is through the rumor mill a far greater reduction in revenue compared to this year. do you care to comment on that? >> i think it's definitely possible. part of it is dependent on how the rest of the year works out. though this budget is two years it's very fluid and we'll be starting in late november, early december the next year's budget process where we'll have a few more months of information as far as the economic impacts to it but we're essentially going to be working through a new budget process in a few months. that will be when that second year we're looking at here is addressed for starting july 1,

2021. >> commissioner: thank you, very much, director corso. i appreciate your answers and appreciate the members of the department particularly the chiefs that have participated in support of this terrible situation we're in in terms of reduction of dollars and reduction of services and programs. thank you, madame president. >> thank you, commissioner nakajo. commissioner cleaveland. >> thank you, madame president and thank you mark on the report. it's well defined. i have a couple questions. when talk about reducing the capital projects within the department, can you give examples of what that means? what are we deferring? >> we have some maintenance funding and there were

reductions made. we have ongoing maintenance that's not covering and we have day to day things that pop up and the fact that people live and work in our stations. we are extremely limited in the funding we have in general but as a result there were, for example, in the upcoming two years, last year we were allocated $400,000 for fuel tank monitoring and licensing and that was reduced. in the past we've had reductions on previous projects for hvac and things that are useful to us and reduced through the budget process. it's a concern to us. we have very limited funding in a good year. we have remaining funding from [laughter] year to be rolled over -- from last year will be rolled over

and we will have to re-evaluate planning. >> there's never been any effort, i guess, to get donations from neighborhood groups or anything to maintain their local fire house to make sure it has what it needs? has there been a call out to the general public or could we do that to get additional contributions to the fire department to maintain our fire houses? >> to the first question, not to my knowledge there's not been a concerted organized effort to gather community involvement to pay for that. the second question i don't know the extend that we would be able to advocate for that but something we can look into for sure. >> just wondered. i wondered how or grant coordinator is doing? >> very well.ur grant

coordinator is doing? >> very well. there's federal programs that have opened up we were just awarded a ppe grant hopefully presented at the next meeting and other applications we have pending. she's also been working closely with a number of foundations on very specific departmental programming and general ones too. there's been some good lead work done. >> i have a question. you're anticipating a $4.3 million reduction in fire prevention and perhaps deputy chief ocasio can give an update how he did that. are folks reassigned to other parts of the department? that seems like a significant reduction in fire prevention.

how is he able to accomplish that? >> through the chair to our fire marshal. >> well, we haven't done it yet. what we have here we look at our projected revenue will be down about $5 million. all of our resources, most of our activity is based on collection of fees. so the cuts being proposed are in line with the projected loss in revenue. so what we have to do is prioritize. to give you numbers now our operational permits are 20% of what we normally would be. that's significantly lower. the reason for that is both of our permits have to do with public assembly. that will be coming back once things start getting back to

normal. our plan review sections we're about 50% of what we normally would get and would see. our field inspections for construction activity are about 100% where we normally are and part of that is because a lot of the projects and here's a concern the fees are front-loaded for construction project. where you may pay for inspection activity that action will take place in the following fiscal year you're paying for it up front. we have to be mindful of that. that say -- is a concern. the division is made up of two bureaus of investigation and fire prevention. if we set aside fire investigation and then look at the cut of $4 million plus there's a huge cut which is

significant. given the projected revenue of $5 million loss of revenue it is what it is is what i'm trying to say. we'll have to prioritize. we have inspections we are required to conduct annually and that includes high rise, schools, r1s, r2s, etcetera. that's not an option. that will be a priority. we'll have to continue those. other priorities are fire complaints, hearings for safety concerns. the construction may take longer to get to some construction inspections. and the other thing is there's i number of inspection activities we do not collect fees for and they have to do with shared space and significant resources addressing all those proposals which are not accounted for in collecting

revenue. again, it will be about prioritizing and it's reality our revenue is down by that much and we'll have to make it work. >> how much of a hiccup have you experienced on moving the new building on mission street? >> you're talking about the one-stop shop? >> right. >> i think the big change there was we were trying to transition to electronic plan review to 100% if possible if we could. we had hiccups there. we're still receiving plans electronically for the larger projects but over the counter we'll go back to receiving in-state pay for plans. we're working that out with the building department as you probably know. that is the bulk of our activity anyway.

with the covid guidelines and interfacing with the public is a challenge. that's a process we're working through. >> just on the overall reduction for fire prevention a big chunk over that $1 million is for overtime not normally personnel. on a normal year we spend about $3 million in overtime expenditures and that's after-hours inspections or special events, things like that. and so that has dropped dramatically given the lack of activity and special events and those kinds of things. that has been anticipated in the revenue and expenditure side. it's not strictly all personnel related in that reduction. >> have their been problems with

dbi has that impacted your division? >> yes, it has. dbi and i don't want to be critical of dbi, they have a difficult task in jobs. they handle the intake of all the plans. that's where we had our challenges with electronic submittals. that's been part of the challenge. what we have done is we've identified so in the queue because of the bottleneck or the challenge of electronic plan review, we are going to assign personnel to help with the quality control check routing process where normally it would be handle on dbi side where fire only permits. that will speed up our fire-only applications while dbi and we work through the rest of the hiccups. >> thank you very much.

last question, you don't anticipate layoffs in fire prevention, do you? >> no, we have some vacancies now we're holding the positions. we have approximately 10 vacancies. that's all my -- >> that's all my questions. thank you. >> fire marshal? >> i'm back. sorry. thought i was off the hook. >> really? okay. you said there are 10 vacancies of a staff of how many?

we have about 52 inspectors and officers on top of that. we had a number of retirements and so part of the vacancies were from retirements and also some of those retirements were officer positions. so you move up somebody to fill the vacant officer position and then that leaves a void at the inspector position. that's how we got to 10. >> now those positions are frozen? >> as far as i know they've been frozen. i don't think they've been eliminated. i believe they were on hold and i believe at least two of my talks with mark as revenue pick up, we can revisit those positions. >> very good. i was also wondering about the

20% reduction was that in revenue or in budgeting. >> i was referring to the chart mark corso put up approximately $4 million plus. that's roughly 20% of $20 million. so i just did a quick run of the numbers and with the understanding that our revenue is projected to decline by $5 million. the bulk goes to resources and personnel. some goes to overtime but still leaves $3 million plus for person he will roughly. -- personnel roughly. >> commissioner: events have gone away for the time being

hopefully next year people with party like it's 1999 and we'll have people out because everything will be safe and the revenue will go through the roof. that's my hope. >> mine as well. >> i'll let you go now. >> mr. corso was going to pick up something you said? >> no, at the end of last year we had staffing moving around. he's filled his officer position. we're going to take a look at and evaluate staff and continually doing it through the course of the year based on activity, based on how revenues are looking as well. hopefully there to increase the

number of positions and back fill positions as things pick up. >> commissioner: thank you. can you give the dates and times of the budget hearings throughout the process going forward? can you give those dates and times to our commission secretary and she'll distribute that information to all the commissioners. >> absolutely. >> usually, one or two of us would go down to city college and assist in the gallie. but that won't be possible so we can at least tune in when the hearings take place to be kept up to date on what's going on. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> commissioner: madame president -- >> excuse me. i'll get back to you, can you

wait just a moment. >> i will. >> commissioner: i want to first of all thank the mayor for her ability to make sure we don't have a reduction in current staff. i know those associations are very tense and important and an appreciate her efforts in making sure we have not been so adversely impacted. i was very fearful layoffs may be on the table and i'm glad they were not in the offing as some cities are having to deal with. we're very fortunate the mayor has really made sure that the police department and the fire department maintain the staff that we have. that's a very good thing.

i wanted to circle back to commissioner cleaveland's soliciting neighbors throughout the city. commissioner cleaveland you always talked about friends of the fire department and that's not something the fire department can set up. it has to be a totally separate entity. if you are still interested in that sort of thing now is a really good time to set up a friends of the fire department because it does have to be its own entity and even though we need money we're not allowed to solicit of neighbors of the fire houses.

commissioner nakajo and then to you, vice president feinstein. >> >> commissioner: thank you, president covington. mine is a statement. mr. corso, when i asked the question in terms of the recommendations in cuts i think you recited this year the reduction we've made the 10% recommended spending cuts from the city is that accurate? >> correct. for me, colleagues, and for the department it's a major -- i don't even know if it's the word, accomplishment. we took a position i believe

last year. i don't know about the previous year but we did enact no cuts. as we go into this year no one knew what was going into covid-19 and the pandemic and the part of the 10% cut [indiscernible] and in the background for myself in terms of the fire department and i'm not [indiscernible] [background noise] .

[background noise] and our abilities has been shown. the five-alarm fire and how the department handled it is a clear indication [background noise] i'm wondering since we're in the

doom day scenario of deficit with the city and county, is there any ability at all during the process to advocate for some revenues or some concept of being able to help with the revenue source other than that and i don't know if in the process and any entity beyond that that would give the fire department more support in terms of fiscal work and a reference in terms of safe space and what i keep referring to as inherited work the bureau of fire prevention has to do another contributing factor that takes hours for the department. i'm saying with all the attributes and what we do, is there any [indiscernible] of still being a good soldier and submitting a

10% cut any opportunity at all at some point to ask for more enhancement of revenues? is there anything to that scenario, director corso? >> i would say, commissioner, over the next few weeks the only avenue is the advac through the board for additional project or fund. we have received some in the past and will continue to in the process. anything related to fees or things like that would need to be both a policy call and going through the supervisors and codified in the fire code or some legislative code. that's a longer term process and that could be started when we start the next budget process but we're also trying to track a lot of those -- you mentioned and the chief mentioned the fire prevention resources that have been assigned to the streets. we're tracking that to the

fullest extent possible to show if asked at a later date for further reductions, we have a number of resources we're outputting through city wide coordinated efforts we're not getting reimbursed for. we want to make that clear to the mayor's office or what have you about all the initiatives and there's still costs associated for departments that must absorb those responsibilities. >> i appreciate that with the safe streets and such. i don't want to take the scenario we're good guys and doing the best we can to help the city. the work we put in and we're not charging basically there's something to me that's a revenue source. we ought to be paid for what we do.

in the 11 districts of san francisco how would that work with san francisco fire departme department, ie, has participation in all segments of san francisco is is there a formula where depending upon the supervisor each supervisor can try to prioritize some funding for example, supervisor peskin and north beach and we responded to programs and he understand the importance and i.e. a supervisor can't we ask for add backs singularly aas a district

or -- >> i'm in the sure what's going to play out because it's new for everybody. in the past there's been an allocation for specific projects but at the same time there could be funding that would generally impact the department. and there were specific areas but things implemented across the department. there are avenues depending on the will of the supervisors. if there's a project that's specific we can attribute funding to but more broader projects there would have to be greement -- agreement on spending and they have to negotiate to divvy up whatever funding remains.

>> commissioner: i appreciate that. i'm looking at various sources to look at. afterall -- after all the fire department responsibility has grown and benefits from our prevention and ems and it's applicable to me to every district in san francisco. again, if the importance is there perhaps the supervisors in various districts would be able to think about it. i talk about this because it's city love -- city-related revenue. i heard commissioner cleaveland's idea of asking citizens to support out and it's an open idea but what concerns me is businesses and organizations and our department are suffering from both ends. we're suffering from a revenue source or lack of revenue source as in the department of prevention not only suffering

from a reduction a percentage source of revenue but also being mandated because that's the way it is with a cut within our own department. we're getting hit from both sides and i feel for our department but i also know the same scenarios and i think san francisco people are generous and at some point or another if we ask for support but i want to be sensitive to the plight of our citizenry right now that everybody's having a hell of a time trying to survive or maintain their job or putting food on the table. friends of the fire department would be something to explore and i want to be sensitive to our citizens in terms of how much they can give.

>> commissioner: there was a lot of walking up and down the halls at city hall. all right. vice president feinstein you have something? >> i'm good, thank you. >> okay. welcome back, chief nicholson.

[background noise] >> you mentioned the chronicle about the [indiscernible] change. i wanted to ask you a littto ta about the study. >> my computer cuts in and out sometimes.

is this the suddeny on -- study on the antibodies? >> yeah. >> we had few people with antibodies. we had three members of our department. i think we did upwards of 1400 members were tested. [background noise] there's something going on near your place, h huh, president? >> commissioner: yes. >> i lost my train of thought. what we've been doing has been impactful and effective in terms of keeping our members virus free.

good news is we're keeping members safe. >> commissioner: very good. i wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who was involved [indiscernible] and from the san francisco fire department dr. jennifer brokov, nurse practitioner stephanie phelps and arlene nunez. i wanted to thank everybody for participation and we're moving the needle on how to deal with

covid. and what you've been using to make decisions going forward can you tell about that going forward and what that would look like for you and how you'll determine whether or not it's working. >> i spoke about it when i was interviewing back in the day but we need to address equity on all sorts of levels. from those in the department and want to promote and classes they have access to take because you may have someone who is a single parent or is taking care of an aging parent and they can't go

and take a class up in sacramento or wherever whereas you have somebody single, no kids and can go take classes wherever. so we want to be able to bring classes in to the fire department we think would den fit people in terms of something we're working on and our first class is going to be a leadership and management class we're starting off with. and we last over half the african american population in the city in the past years and we have not done a great job of

recruitment process for people. folks take the ntn, the national testing network which has disparate impacts on different folks, communities. and the national testing network is everybody from somebody in georgia to new york to sacramento. and other folks will tell you this as well i was talking to a captain and she said if i had to have an emt license i would not have been able to come into the department back then because she was working three jobs and

juggling a lot of stuff. there's that type of equity thing. and what we're seeing in ems nationwide as well as here is a real lack of diversity. and there's recruitment and outreach and we need it take a deep look at that. we won't be having any classes for the next couple of years most likely. and the office of racial equity has set up some mandates and we are working through those and we have a racial equity officer and action committee and the like. we're taking a lot of steps in

terms of addressing equity. >> thank you for that information. if you could provide the commission secretary the and i know a lot of people have retired and there's 12 committees, aren't there? >> chief phillip can speak to that. >> [background noise] the number of committees we

cover. >> that would be helpful because in the past we did get a list of all the committees and the names of the committee members. i have some follow-up questions but we have a guest today and should get to him at some point. are there any follow-up questions from any of the commissioners? we'll see if there are questions from the public. >> i'll check. >> commissioner: thank you.

>> there are no public comments. >> commissioner: thank you very much. could you please call the next item. >> item 6, presentation from the asian firefighters association, john choy president of the association to provide an overview. >> good morning. can you hear is the not yes. >> good morning commissioners. i'm president of the asian firefighters association. thank you for putting us on today's agenda and giving us an opportunity to introduce ourselves to the commission. i believe the last time we were together was the chinese new year's one month before shelter in place.

it's good to see everyone safe and healthy. i was born and raised in china town and 27 year veteran of the firefighter with the bulk of my time in station 1 and currently an administrative officer for chief nicholson. our mission is to create and maintain equality of opportunity for asians and other minorities within the fire service throughout san francisco. we have programs to maintain hiring for asians in fire service. we're dedicated to working with other organizations to improve the quality of life for minority members of our community. we remain alert and aware of conditions of justice the afa is

made up of emts, mayor -- paramedics and inspectors. we're dedicated professional have a special connection to the asian american community in the city. in the month of march we staffed the china town ymca and the china blossom and parade spans two weekends in april and there you'll find us selling our famous korean barbecue and actively recruiting a career in firefighters. in may we speak at various career days at schools in the

city and you'll find us at a recruiting table at the street fair talking about fire fighting careers. the filipino fest cal -- festival and parade is also in august and we're there to represent and march parade. september is dragon boat race season in oakland and our championship boat is always proudly representing the fire department. in october we [indiscernible] for a fund raiser. thanksgiving giving the asa is always at

[indiscernible] and we have a restaurant in japan town. you can see the asa tries its best to be out and about and to recruit asian americans and share our enthusiasm for our profession. you never know, you can inspire any young person to become a fire fighter just by marching in a parade and planting the seed. it's also a chance to serve and give back to our community and have fun at the same time. i'm a firm believer in having some fun all at the same time. in regards to recruiting the afa has three members part of the department's core community. community outreach and

education. we're also part of the employee united groups. 495 local 798 this diverse group of representatives of the veterans association and the black firefighters association, united fire service women we meet to discuss vital topics the latest of which is diversity in the department and how's it maintained. i've always been a firm believer the fire department should reflect the city citizens. how a days it's up to us it's up to us to continue. asa does this by volunteering and actively recruit at various street fairs i mentioned

earlier. when i was growing up in china town there was a fire in an apartment building next door. none of the fire fighters were asian americans. i was a cd. -- kid. i didn't know it was an opportunity someone like me could take not until i met someone at a recruiting table at the himachi street fair in 1990. i filled out a card and in 1993 i became a san francisco firefighter. best decision i have made. thank you. >> commissioner: thank you very much. is there any public comment? >> there is no public comment.

>> commissioner: okay. public comment is closed. i'll go to vice president feinstein. >> commissioner: i wanted to thank you for that. that is a great san francisco story. a great traditional story. it should inspire many to realize the sffd offers opportunities and career path for people. we just need to reach the right

people. it's important. >> commissioner: thank you. we'll go to commissioner noe -- nakajo. there were lots of festivals and parades. we'll go to you. and all -- >> i'm appreciate of the community. in terms of it lieutenant choy thank you for your presentation. i also wanted to thank you for your leadership you are providing for the asa and thank you for your years of service in

the fire department and you're a man that grew up in china town and went to a local high school and gathered recruitment and part of our product today. i'm pleased about that. i also wanted to make it known to fellow commissioners afa is part of what we have within the department. i think it's really important

yourself and younger firefighters men and women carry the tradition along. i also truly enjoy and appreciate the philosophy of community-based and all the remarks and references you made in terms of our community not just our asian american pacific-islander community but the association of all the communities in san francisco and how we can work together. and i've never done so much zoom in my life but i made a reference to a college group i spoke to and asked them how life was about shelter in place. do they remember how things were before covid-19. i asked them when's the last time you held somebody's hand or when you gave a hug or the last

time you gave a kiss. the last time i remember all those being together was at the china town parade hanging together with the families and some of the best interaction at the banquets you provide as well. those memories will stay with me forever as well as the remembrance of all the interactions of san francisco. that's the beauty of being involved with all of our groups is we are san francisco. thank you, lieutenant choy. madame president. >> commissioner: thank you, commissioner nakajo. commissioner cleaveland. >> commissioner: thank you for

the overview. [indiscernible] >> 798 always comes up to co-sponsor the boat. >> commissioner: so they make periodic contributions to you? >> do you have other outside

donations from other businesses and groups. do they make donations to the employee group? >> they do not and we have never approached anyone for that. >> commissioner: i'm not sure if you're even allowed to accept them are you or would you be? >> so you are registered then with the irs. so people could donate to your organization and get a tax benefit? >> yes. >> there's an avenue right there

for additional income to the department going directly in. >> commissioner: lieutenant choy thank you for coming on such short notice. i know you just got the call late last week. i appreciate you coming. and just the list shared with us every month there are events that the asian firefighters support. they're having a good time.

that is very much in evidence at all the events. i appreciate the asian firefighters for their largesse and their wonderful services they provide to the city and county of san francisco as a group of volunteers who are sharing so much history and culture and can always be relied upon to show up and volunteer and do the work. thank you very much for that. chief nicholson, did you want to say something? >> commissioner: it's a pleasure

to work with him and he's on the heartbeat of the department and of the asian firefighters association. i do appreciate everything that you do. >> commissioner: lieutenant choy i'm going embarrass you. i'll give you a heads up -- >> i hope it's not what i think it might be. >> commissioner: it probably is. during the chinese year year festivities and the parade there were several of us who were able to see in front of the grand stand lieutenant choy doing a

fred astaire routine he is quite an accomplished tap dancer. is that what you were think ig was going to say? -- thinking i was going to say? >> yes. >> commissioner: all he needed was a tuxedo and ginger rodgers and we could have sold a lot of tickets. thank you for that. >> i wonder if he gives lessons on the side. >> commissioner: very cool. i'm sure they applauded.

firemen all they do is tease each other okay, madame secretary, next item, please. >> i'll move the ball back up here. something happened. we have item 7 the report on items since last meeting. >> commissioner: is there anyone who wants to report out? okay. only thing i have to report as you are all aware of our regular commission meetings when we were at city hall the president and vice president would get together with the chief of the department for half an hour or so before.

we had been meeting remotely and hadn't had a chance to meet. last friday and the chief of the department that would us we caught up and got more information on what it is the chief of the department is hadn'ting and that sort of thing. we'll continue to at least have we'll have meetings twice a month remotely. i see vice president feinstein wants to say something. >> reiterating what you said, yes.

>> commissioner: i guess that's the end of the commission reports. so any public comment? >> let me check. there is no public comment. >> commissioner: thank you. public comment is closed. >> item 8 agenda for next future meetings and agenda. >> commissioner: now's a time to suggest any topics near and dear to your heart. >> i would say i think it's clear we'll need a budget update from mr. corso. that will come in due course but that's going to be extremely important especially in two weeks i think.

if you can clarify that. >> we would anticipate being rapped up theoretically by last friday initially and the add-backs will be going on probably after the next commission meeting but i'm happy to give an update as to any information we have to that point. >> how do i say this nicely, do you think you'll have information to relay? will we be at a point in the process then? everybody is saying three weeks from yesterday is what i keep hearing. and will we have any concrete information in two weeks? if so i would like us to hear it

as a commission. if not i'll leave it to the president to the scope of report. >> we anticipate having some information and whether it's something i can speak to chief nicholson as part of her overview would be something i'd be happy to see how it proceeds. >> commissioner: that's fine with me. that's a big focus. >> thank you. >> commissioner: great. i want to thank commissioner cleaveland to suggest we have representation from different employee groups. i think it gives especially the new commissioners a chance to have a fuller idea of what it is the members of the department do both on the job and employee groups.

i believe next time around we'll have los bombaros. >> the morning of september 9th. we don't have anybody set up for the august 24th meeting. >> commissioner: look forward to more presentations, commissioners and everyone else. all right. madame secretary. >> item 9, adjournment. >> commissioner: i'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> so moved. >> commissioner: do we have a second? i see vice president feinstein has raised her hand. >> yes, i second. >> commissioner: and i agree with adjourn at this time. >> thank you.

>> commissioner: we are adjourned at 11:37. thank you, everyone.

>>. >> clerk: we motshe is joined vice president darryl honda, commissioner rick swig, and commissioner eduardo santacana. also present is deputy city attorney brad russey who will provide the board with any legal advice. we will also be joined by representatives from the city departments that have cases before the