the people that perpetrate the hatred. there has to be a high level of accountability so that people are treated as human beings and respected for what we bring to the table and to be valued for who we are. thank you. >> clerk: thank you very much for your comments. could we get the next caller, please. >> i am a member of local 21. i was wrongfully terminated last week and it all happened because i went to e.e.o. for expressing

frustration and anger after being targeted by management. i was punitively selected for an assignment to drive testing patients to a testing centers. i was selected for this after a disagreement. apparently the acting city and county engineer was not aware or did not care that blacks are disproportionately affected like this. i was threatened with punishment if i did not accept the next assignment, even though i gave the form exempting me because i am a part of a vulnerable population. i spoke to my e.e.o. rep and

discussed that case. later the same day i was hit with a cease and desist order, placed on paid leave, and removed from employment. e.e.o. commentary played a major role in my dismissal, due to their bias on my words of frustration. the e.e.o. rep called me the first week of october to let me know that his supervisor was let go and they were going to -- >> clerk: speaker, your time is up. thank you very much for your

comments. could we have the next caller, please. >> i am a member of the black employees alliance. i'm disappointed with the d.h.r. director dancing around the topic of racism, even though their laundry has been aired in public. i'm hoping to an inspector general would be appointed to investigate d.h.r. and the e.e.o. system and look at

autonomy in the pay equity s eq discipline suspension, terminations, and medical releases of black and brown employees throughout the city, in addition to opening past e.e.o. cases without findings. >> clerk: could you connect us to the next caller, please. >> can you hear me? >> yes, we can. please begin. caller, are you still there? >> can you hear me? >> yes, we can.

please begin. >> hello -- okay. i want to thank all of the board of supervisors. this continues to be one of the most important issues we face. san francisco has been at the forefront of pushing the barriers and the discrimination specifically with black employees. the statistics show that we are more harmed than any other group and the lowest paid.

what we also know is we have already raised these issues and were able through our activities were able to push to have the office of race and equity established. so what we want to see now is a change and see all the departments come together to address the real realities. we know that sick times, vacation time, attendance, and the policies are used in a punitive way. there are reports required at laguna honda where there is expected abuse.

this policy is being used at laguna honda to penalize employees even when they have done nothing. this needs to be looked into -- >> clerk: thank you for your comments. >> i am an sciu member. i want to thank the supervisors. i want to thank all of you for having this hearing which is important with the city.

i just want to basically follow up and make some comments on what the director was saying as far as the exam process and everything else pertaining to. one thing i want the supervisors to pay attention to, depending on which classification and department you are, there's not always a set example or question. i know specifically for my classification or in my department that management actually goes and actually comes up with the question. depending on what type of specialty it is, management is the one that's asked to come up with the testing. that is a problem when management is creating a test and the majority of management

is not diverse. management represented the majority of employees. they are the lowest paid members. d.h.r. had a big hand for keeping us down before the pandemic. we are not even at the level of most people living in san francisco. we were denied promotion. we had to come to the board of supervisors to try to get the promotions that were actually already promised to us. i just hope the --

>> clerk: next caller. >> i am a black woman that works for the department. i would like to thank the supervisors for bringing this issue and bringing awareness to the concerns and these issues. i am also in support of the black employee alliance. we need the tangibles and the demands listed specifically in the letter. we need a supervisor to focus on racist bias and racism [indiscernible] -- this person

should focus on the departments where there are racially bad actor acto actors [indiscernible] terminations and medical releases. the inspector general should or could also lead efforts on the following examples. one important one would be to abolish the d.h.r., e.e.o. system -- [indiscernible] --.

>> clerk: could we have the next caller. >> my name is marco reed, an employee at the san francisco m.c.a. i want to bring us back to some of the points around apprenticeships, pathways, and pipelines. m.c.a. has embarked on an aggressive program to bring to light some of the things that were brought out in the plan and also some of the basic diversity issues that we've been struggling with for years.

jeffry tomlin has been trying to work out practical ways forward on these issues. i welcome the support and i welcome the mayor's support in making these programs happen. i have been a city worker for over 30 years. there are a number of ways we can move this forward. i can tell you that we are in the forefront in san francisco in the apprenticeships and

pipelines, but we need to implement these things to all city departments, not just at d.h.r. and m.p.a., but all city departments. if we can get all the city [indiscernible] -- >> clerk: thank you for your comments. >> can you hear me? my name is sheryl taylor and i work for the utilities commission. i would like to thank all of the supervisors as well as the office of racial equity and the human rights commission for bringing and keeping the issue of anti-black racism to the

fore. i would like to support and align and encourage you to implement some of the requests from the black employee alliance, one of which is to appoint a city-wide inspector general and have this person report to the mayor and be outside of the city process to the extent possible. i would like you to reopen the complaints during the tenure of the previous director due to the mishandling and abuse in the e.e.o. i am a data point, educated at stanford and m.i.t., financial professional with nearly 25 years' experience, and here i am having filed an e.e.o. complaint against the city.

i thank you for your attention and cede my time back. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. coo, could we have the next caller. >> can you hear me? >> clerk: yes. >> thank you so much for your presentation [indiscernible] -- i am a black employee at the department of homelessness and supportive housing. i am a member of the black employee alliance, also a racial equity officer and someone who currently continues to deal with anti-black racism. i would like to share a quote of the center of what we are dealing with right now.

"it appears that my worst fears have been realized. we have made progress in everything, yet nothing has changed." i want to acknowledge all of the different presentations from the different departments, but i want to say before i list the demands sent that if we aren't willing to name what this is, anti-black racism and that it permeates through individuals and leads to systemic anti-black racism and that is not going to be something that we can just meet about, that we have a serious problem. we have a lot of work to do and i don't know how many people are prepared to do that. one of the demands that is important to d.e.a. that we examine all the civil service

list lists [indiscernible] there was a black female who ranked number one for a position last year, yet d.h.r., its employment services director chose a white male who ranked below her -- >> clerk: thank you for your comments. >> i want to say about what the previous caller was saying about nigel being passed over and a white male was selected to fill that position. in another position there was something called adrian kind.

she had a master's degree and passed over for a promotion. they took a white male who was in the classification of a 1310 who was below her and promoted him over her. in the case of two other black female females, both with the city, they were exempted from the process to go through the competitive process for the h.r. director position. another employee at public health was passed over for director of public health. even when we're qualified, we have capable, competent, well-polished and well-educated people at the city of san francisco, there is still racial bias. it's not that we're doing

anything wrong, it's that we're not conforming to the anti-black bias. the waif in which we're viewed when walking into those rooms needs to change. it's not that we have to change job qualifications because we're not monolithic. we come in all shades and levels of experience and education. that needs to be validated, recognized, and appreciated. right now it's not -- >> clerk: mr. coo, can you put

through the next caller. >> hi, i was the only black accountant in my department. i am constantly singled out for discipline i believe because i am black. i have filed two official complaints of racial discrimination and as a result of these complaints i had no confidence my complaints are being taken seriously. as a black employee, i felt my own recourse was to seek outside

outside of the system, which is why i needed to hire an outside counsel. this has cost me confidence in e.e.o. and h.r. i am in support of hiring an outside investigator. i want to thank you -- >> clerk: next caller. >> can you hear me? >> clerk: yes. >> i'm also a local 21 member. i want to echo the requests of local 21 about what should be done about the e.e.o. situation.

i think it's horrific. if our black and brown colleagues can't show up to work, then no one can. with my experience [indiscernible] -- we had an ombudsperson who issued a report. the results have not been issued. with the requests today, i hope that you really implement these and take them seriously. the costs of not doing it are greater than the costs of doing it. if we say it would be too hard or expensive, then how can we show up for our communities when we can't do this in our own four

walls. thank you for your time. >> clerk: thank you very much for your comments. could we have the next caller please. >> good afternoon. i am the president of local 21. i am a construction specialist at p.u.c. i am here because i myself have been a victim of discrimination and bullying and i am aware that many in my chapter will ask and other people of color have experienced the same. we are very discouraged to learn about the loss of faith in the e.e.o. and h.r. due to the bad practices. even more discouraged to learn that the system of justice that we rely on is no justice at all. i am here to support the black

employ alliance and to call for the following. create and implement clear and transparent e.e.o. investigations, policies, and practices across all departments. an investigation of e.e.o. and h.r., a credible and external investigator that is not part of the system in order to restore our workers' trust and faith. and lastly a temporary freeze on e.e.o.'s activities on making determinations until such time as the investigation of e.e.o. has been concluded. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you very much for your call and your comments. mr. coo, could you connect us to the next caller, please.

>> i want to raise an issue that is directly impacting a lot of black and brown workers in the city. the broader of supervisors had approved a cost of living adjustment for city non-profit workers in the shelters and also people who are working in the welfare to work programs and workers covered under the minimum compensation ordinance. that wage raise has not been implemented. this is -- you know, it does a wage raise which is barely keeping up with inflation in the bay area. it's a tragedy that some of the lowest wage workers in the city

are not seeing an increase that basically helps them keep up with the rate of inflation. thank you, supervisors. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. could we get the next caller, please. is there a caller on the line? if you've just heard from the system that your line has been unmuted, this is your opportunity to make a comment. >> hi, this is -- >> clerk: go ahead. you're connected.

is there a caller on the line? >> yes. can you hear me? >> clerk: yes. >> this is -- >> clerk: ms. rutherford, you had two minutes and each speaker only enjoys two minutes to speak. we need to keep it equitable for all in the process. thank you for your participation. could we get the next caller, please. >> can you hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can. >> i'm calling on behalf and in support of the black employees' alliance. i want to discuss about the issues that black and brown people face. i used to work in a public utilities commission. there was problems there and in

all the city-wide agencies, particularly in d.h.r. areas there needs to be some accountability that i want to discuss is pretty much the hiring and promotion inequities, payment and training inequities, pay inequities, and many others. i experienced that and also participated in recruitment of black and brown employees with a previous caller. i think this should be some type of independent investigation outside of the d.h.r. and e.e.o. and some of these department agencies because they're part of the problem and not part of the solution. they need to contact former

employees who were unlawfully and wrongfully terminated. there needs to be some support with the black employees' alliance to work with them to fix the ongoing issues that hampers the problem in the city-wide system for black employees. there needs to be some accountability and transparency along with the department heads and also some transparency providing public documents to the sunshine ordinance task force. i know the city has been unwilling to provide information so the employees can present their case of discrimination -- >> clerk: thank you very much for your comment. could we have the next caller,

please. >> hello, can you hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can. >> i want to thank the supervisors to listen to us again. i am jessica brown, a current member serving with d.h.a. and i wanted to continue on what previous callers said our demands are and not only looking at the examination of all the exams, but also detaining a racial audit for the s.f. and d.h.r. practices and policies, ensuring that we do a benefit burden analysis. also doing a roll out of a 360°

racial survey twice per year with a two-hour feedback to hear from employees to tie into recommendations for the department of racial equity outcomes and a 360° feedback for employees. and also a reinstatement of all employees who have lost their jobs due to these inequities. as a new employee to the city, i witnessed black employees, their testimony of the ill treatment and criminal treatment and experiences that they have been facing from the city. i think it's time to stop asking

what are the issues and start moving to the action because we have been gracefully transparent and at risk of our own employment to come to you all -- >> clerk: could you connect us to the next caller. >> we recently saw an admission from an employee that implicate the director of equal opportunity saying the director told the employee there would be no finding in a discrimination complaint submitted by a black female employee before the investigation occurred. in addition, several other h.r. professionals from various departments from across the city

say they have been told repeatedly to change language in harassment and discrimination complaints before they're accepted and yet the e.e.o. director still remains in her position today. how is this possible? ? this is systemic and cultural. new leadership needs to be instituted across the city, particularly at d.h.r. where these problems need to be addressed consistently. this is organized assault against the black employees in the city of san francisco. if nothing is done to resolve these issues, there will be class-action lawsuits taken by employees that they should not have to go through and this is so unfortunate. there needs to be change. please --

>> clerk: thank you very much for your comments. could we have the next caller, plea please. >> i am a member of e.e.a. and i want to back up what jessica brown said, which was brilliant. i have experienced four years of discrimination in the department and it's been really difficult to see the compromise e.e.o. and d.h.r. have had. so i fully support what is being asked because i want the city to be using its resources to correct discriminatory and damaging practices to employees

and other people of color. i don't want it prioritizing to protect the liability of the city, but to reconstruct the system to hold everyone to account and be treated with respect and to be able to support your community. i want us to reach our communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by systemic racism. so please, please back up and support the propositions that e.e.a. have. >> clerk: thank you very much for your comments. mr. coo, could we have the next caller, please.

is there a caller on the line. >> clerk: mr. chair, that completes the queue. >> thank you so much, operations and mr. clerk. public comment is closed. i want to thank all of the callers who spoke out during public comment and also particularly thank the black employs' alliance and local 21 for all of your advocacy on these really urgent issues. i thank you for your leadership in calling for this hearing today and for introducing this

resolution. supervisor walton, you have some remarks and would you like to make the motion. >> thank you so much, chair mar. if director eisen is here, i have one question before my remarks and the motion. >> yes. >> thank you so much. i do just now have one question. a lot of issues and concerns were raised in the course of the hearing during the course of public comment. something just dawned on me. i don't know how many other department heads are around, but i would be interested if you took the management exam and if the other department heads had to take that exam. >> i'm going to go back and check. i believe that i did. as i recall -- i'm not sure if it was in place at the time i came back to the city, but i'll

check. i believe that we were experiencing so many complaints about our management ranks and the inconsistencies out there about people being promoted who were perhaps good in their occupation, their professional occupation, but really were failing at managers, that was the point at which h.r. developed the test for anyone who was there to be a manager [indiscernible] supervising others and so on. it's been years and i don't exactly remember. when i was hired back in the city, i was hired in a charter-exempt position defined in the charter. >> it would be good to know how many managers have [indiscernible] -- that would be

good information to have. >> happy to look at it. >> thank you. i do want to again thank chair mar [indiscernible] for having this hearing today. i know it took us a lot to get here, but this is very important and we see a lot of great information. i also want to thank our departmental leaders and employees who presented and called in as well as labor leadership. [indiscernible] -- this is something that we need to make reforms and take immediate action on. i know we've had several hearings and talked a little bit about a timeline.

i know everyone is worried about making sure that we have action and i will jump into that because we are here for action. we want to see true changes and true reforms. we have heard so many recommendations from affected employees, other city managers. supervisor peskin and i requested another hearing to receive recommendations and to reform the equal opportunity office here in san francisco. just to note, that's why we didn't have a lot of specific conversations about the e.e.o. office here in san francisco because we will be having this hearing. and a review of the best

practices with e.e.o. offices, including core functions of the e.e.o. in overall city structures and general oversight. we are also requesting the department of human resource, budget, and legislative analysis and office of controller to present. so we will be digging in and coming with recommended changes for moving forward. i also requested three pieces of legislation from the city's tawrn's office. one to create working groups for african-americans on city employment which will be appointed by the board of supervisors and the mayor, to create legislation to mandate the department of human resources to work with the -- on all cases, create an independent

investigate to look at the claims. we will see work coming forward in terms of those areas of legislation, keeping in mind what recommendations have been brought forth. our main goal is to ensure that all e.e.o. complaints are properly investigated with adequate support and that all of our employees are treated equitably here in san francisco. this is something that's been long overdue. i want to thank everyone for participating in the hearing. more importantly, i want to thank my colleagues and leadership and folks to work together on tangible solutions. chair mar, i would love it if we could continue this hearing to the call of the chair, i definitely want to keep this open and make sure we do our due diligence to come up with strategies. this is something we need to do

again. >> i just have one for the director. there are a lot of people called on the need to have outside investigators or in some places an outside analysis of what's happening in the city. is that something that you have done or considered? what role do sort of third party investigators or analysts have in this work? >> are you talking about e.e.o. claims? claims -- formal filed claims of discrimination or are you talking more generally?

i can certainly do my best to speak to that issue. >> we're going to have a separate hearing about it as i understand it. the city as an employer has a duty to fully and fairly investigate any claim of discrimination, of harassment, and any claim of unlawful activity under our city pail or under law. we're going to continue that duty by charter is vested in the director. the director has to sign off on all findings and cause corrective actions to be taken. we are going to continue that work. i understand based on the comments i heard here and elsewhere there are concerns about the efficacy and how well

we do it and whether there are some glaring structural and resource problems and the board is continuing with deliberations. we will [indiscernible] fully and fairly and to discharge our duties. we from time to time will use outside investigators. that is based on circumstances of it being quite extensive and is something we could incorporate more outside work. for now we do have an excellent -- in the city and in our delegated e.e.o. units in

d.h. and at the airport and i agree with the comments from local 21, it's a small group with a big charge. we will consider any options we have to improve our work. >> thank you. and i also want to thank everyone who presented and supervisor walton and chair mar, and especially the black employees' alliance and all the folks who called in and were really a cause of a lot of the conversation here today. we will remain committed and look forward to seeing progress.

>> clerk: thank you, supervisor haney. moving to close, this is an important hearing. supervisor walton, you made a motion to continue the hearing to the call of the chair. what's your preference for item number 3, the resolution affirming the board of supervisors' commitment to advance the racial equity in city and county programs and policies? >> [indiscernible] -- >> mr. clerk, can you please call roll. >> clerk: we have the roll of the two items separately. the first about the hearing

being continued to the call of the chair. [ roll call ]. >> clerk: there are three ayes. then we have a motion that agenda item 3 be recommended to the board of supervisors. [ roll call ]. >> thank you, mr. clerk. is there any further business? >> clerk: there is no further business before the committee. >> we are adjourned. thanks, everyone.

>> commissioner rodrigue >> clerk: the time is 9:02. this is the remote meeting via video and teleconferencing. this meeting is being held by webex pursuant to the mayoral proclamation. city hall is closed, and meetings of the fire commission will convene remotely. you may watch this meeting at www.sfgovtv.org. or you may participate by phone by dialing 1-415-655-0001, then using the access code

146-699-4 146-699-4326. members of the public will be able to participate via public comment. comments will be addressed in the order they are received. when the moderator announced that they are taking public comment, members of the public can comment by pressing star, three to enter the queue. when prompting, callers will have the standard three minutes to provide public comment. ensure you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, and turnoff any t.v.s or radios around you. [inaudible] >> clerk: item 1, roll call. [roll call]

>> clerk: item 2, general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any matter in the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. speakers must address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual comments or department personnel. the lack of a comment by commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute support of remarks made during public comment. >> president covington: thank you, madam secretary. is there any public comment? any member of the public want to speak? >> clerk: there is nobody on the public comment line.

>> president covington: okay, thank you. i do need to change -- chief parks came in as an attendee, so i'm changing her to a panelist. >> president covington: okay. >> clerk: okay. so there is no public comment. item 3, approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve meeting minutes from september 23, 2020. >> president covington: okay. thank you. is there any public comment on this matter? >> clerk: i will check. there is nobody on the public comment line. >> president covington: great. fellow commissioners, the minutes of our last meeting? >> commissioner cleaveland: madam president, i move to approve. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner cleaveland.

is there a second? >> commissioner feinstein: i will second. >> president covington: thank you, vice president feinstein. i also move -- roll call for t minutes. >> clerk: on the approval of the minutes -- [roll call] >> clerk: the vote is unanimous. item 4, chief of department's report. report from chief of department, jeanine nicholson. report on current issues, activities, and events within the department since the fire commission meeting on september 23, 2020, including budget, academies, special events, communications, and outreach to other government agencies and the public. report from operations, deputy

chief victor wyrsch. report on overall field operations, including greater alarm fires, emergency medical services, bureau of fire prevention and investigation, homeland security, and airport division. >> president covington: good morning, chief nicholson. [inaudible]. >> as we know last week, october 7, it's hard to believe it's been a week, we lost a brother, a member of our fire department, jason cortez. so apologies to you that i am not my usual upbeat self today, but it is a somber time for us, as you know, we are also -- the department is, you know, mourning, grieving, in

disbelief, and we are in the midst of arranging a funeral service and memorial service for our brother, and we are also in the midst of reaching out and helping the family and reaching out to our members who are the most impacted by this. [inaudible] >> it was an accident, and there's still more -- a little more to be done in terms of investigatory stuff and follow up, but from our initial investigation, that is what we have found. you know, and i'm really proud of this department and of everyone in it who has just kept moving forward and showing up to work and doing their job because they understand the importance of their work. and i also, unfortunately, have

seen -- you know, this isn't the job that make suggest. i've been here for our command staff, as many people can attest to. right now, loike i said, we ar figuring out all the details for the services in the midst of the covid restrictions and restrictions that we have with the current health orders in the city. so, you know, it's going to look different, the services, than services have in the past, and it's going to be much smaller. and we're not sure how many folks from outside of the family will actually be able to attend, so we're working on that with the families, and we

are working on prioritizing people within the department who are most directly impacted, those who were there with him today, those who were there with jason on wednesday, and those who prepared him in the aftermath, as well as, you know, he was a member of station 49 for eight years, and so he has a lot of history there, as well as being in the suppression side for five years. you know, i can say that everything else in my report today can wait for another two weeks, as we are focused on jason's wife, patty, sons jackson and grayson, his feathr

bill, and stepmother nellie, his brothers at station 49 and members of station 7 who jumped right in there to assist with the horrific accident. and i just want to give a shout out, as well, to everyone who has stepped up to help logistics wise. they have stepped up big time to really start organizing and working with the union and some other scity agencies to get stuff done, as well as some folks on the funeral committee. pat rabbit, ian christian, and jim o'connell, as well as local

7 # 798. floyd rollins went out and picked up the family that day without hesitation. got patty and the kids, and i know we're all grateful for that. so like i said, the rest of my report does not -- can wait. it just doesn't seem that -- you know, that necessary right now. and so i'm sorry to bring down the whole meeting, but this is reality for us right now, and we're just pulling together to get through this. so with that, i will conclude my report for today. thank you. >> president covington: thank you very much, chief nicholson, and thank you for mentioning all of the people who are

banding together to -- you know, to make sure that a member of the department and -- is given due respect and honor, and that everyone is taking care of the family. i've also asked chief wyrsch to read the letter that was sent out from station 3. chief wyrsch? >> may i just add one thing, president covington? >> yes. >> chief [inaudible] at the airport really stepped up and met the family -- met the family at the airport with the officers there, and he escorted them up to [inaudible] and literally escorted them all over town with the utmost

respect. so thanks to him, and thanks to chief wong for handling all of the emotional plans at station 49. >> president covington: yes. i also want to thank everybody -- everyone in the department who went to s.f. general right away to give a good salute on the way to the examiner's office, so thank you, everybody, for being who you are. chief wyrsch, are you -- >> deputy chief wyrsch: madam president, i'd like to do that at the end of my report out of emotion, if that's okay. >> president covington: that would be fine. >> deputy chief wyrsch: i have a slide that goes along with it. >> president covington: thank

you. you may proceed, sir. >> deputy chief wyrsch: we're good to go with my presentation, then? >> clerk: yes, you have the ball. there you go. . >> deputy chief wyrsch: all right. good morning, president covington, vice president feinstein, commissioners, chief nicholson, this is my operations report for the month of september. [inaudible] are you seeing the whole screen or parts of screen? >> president covington: whole screen. >> all right. wonderful. the fire we had was at 173 shipley. this was chief reubenstein's

fire. 100% wood structure. it was an exposed roof and three-story lot line. with heavy smoke and fire, 3 was called immediately. when chief reubenstein arrived, he called another alarm for another station, and we called another station eventually, as well. very aggressive, very proud of all the companies working.

we also had 16 [inaudible] alarms during the month of september. i want to give a shoutout to everybody involved in the mutual aid. i won't get into the details because i know that chief velo has been [inaudible] and my hat's off to everybody who worked so hard to backfill in the city. we also had two day rescues and cliff rescues in the city. there was a rescue at 30 otis, and similar recommending several companies, several individuals for citation involving someone who was trapped on a 300 feet crane, skyscraper crane, and the amount of effort and safety

that was done, again, the [inaudible] we all recognize this day. we've been telling people about it. we've had a lot of rescues with cars over cliffs during the month. al also, we celebrated september 11, remembrance day, a little different, something that we hope will never happen again. the divisional chief, chief fong, is here if you have any questions of him. we did a mutual aid to st st. helena hospital. again, my hat kazz off to the

the -- hat's off to the division. [inaudible] e.m.s. has been a priority and functioning with the highest of [inaudible] the p.i.o. report, i'd just like to give a shout out to jonathan baxter. lieutenant baxter has been doing an incredible amount of interviews, keeping the public informed, and i want to thank him for that. he also -- i know this has been a concern the past months, but the coastal safety outreach, we've had some events, but we're handing out information there. fire marshall decoscio, he did

a report through the fire marshal program, but he and his team have been working extremely hard to get this city open to businesses, open -- by having street closures, slow streets, we're trying to figure out parklets, even though it's not under our jurisdiction, to make sure that any excess be granted [inaudible] be taken care of, so thank you, fire marshal decoscio. the airport commission, f.d.c. johnson has been working very hard over there. always good to see them supporting the o.e.s.

firefighters, future firefighters coming into s.f.o., and wonderful, them helping the family. the third [inaudible] again, homeland security [inaudible] and stepping in some big shoes and doing a great job. and josh smith has been helping her. all of our friends -- michael cochran is in rehab, as you know, but the phone is never far from him. we send our prayers. art cisneros as instrumental in the [inaudible] and continuing

with the help of that transition. we have our two new search k9s, cassie and jack, send over from homeland security. i'd like to read a letter that station 3 has written. members of the sffd, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who have been there for us as we deal with the loss of our brother, jason cortez. those of you that showed up at sfgh, lined the procession to the medical examiner's office, stepping in to fill in for regular members so they could go home and process what happened that day, and local

798, who had been exceedingly supportive, all of the space stations who had volunteered to cook for free, down to all of the individual members who have reached out to the station, and to the three members individually, we thank you for your sentiments, support, and effort. as we all know, there's more to come, and patty, jackson, grayson, bill, nellie, sonia, and greg will need support from all of us going forward. so please keep jason's family in your thoughts and prayers, and we thank you all for being there for us in this incredible trying time. sincerely, captain cordero. i'd like to thank the station, as well. every station is a family. it's amazing how close and tight they are, and [inaudible]

every single day with reaching out to those involved, and staying together as a family, spending an incredible amount of time together. so my thanks to them. that is the end of my report. >> president covington: thank you, chief wyrsch. thank you very much for reading the letter. it's very important for everyone in the city to know how the members of the department pull together in times like this because it is a family. >> deputy chief wyrsch: absolutely. >> president covington: so thank you. are there any public comment

[inaudible] >> when you do conduct these investigations, and we get the findings, are we, the commission, ever apprised of

that or is there any accounting for the investigations that are done at different fires? >> yes, once they finish the report, if there's any fire report that the commission is interested in or a company would like to see, we can forward that for you. >> last time, i mentioned something about fires at homeless places, and i heard there was. is there an increase when you decide there's arson going on or, yeah, is it intentional or is it an accident; if anything is changing? >> deputy chief wyrsch: so because of the encampment fires right now, we require the arson team to go out and inspect every single one, make sure it

isn't foul play. a lot of the times, it's cooking or those types of activities, so we're extremely busy. we're trying to streamline report writing from them because any time they have to write an arson report, it's extremely time-consuming. we're trying to streamline that. that being said, in the past, we never reported that because they were uncommon. now that we have one, an officer is called out with arson, as well. the fact that we're tracking a whole lot better, but also, all of those are thoroughly investigated. >> thank you. and then, i had other questions, but i guess they

would be -- should i ask decoscio on it or later on? >> deputy chief wyrsch: sure, decoscio is on the line. >> on [inaudible] there was a reference to a speaker ordinance, and the line was blank. and then, there was that one, and i can ask you about the other two. >> deputy chief wyrsch: no, i know he's on here. >> no, i see him. >> yes, good morning, chief. can i ask where you're

referencing? >> it was on page 25, where i'm looking at right now. >> deputy chief wyrsch: dan, that would be under your inspections completed in september 2020, three lines down, under sprinkler ordinance. >> yes. what you have here is a list of all the inspections that we conduct, and there's a code for each inspection. when inspectors go out and conduct an inspection, they enter a code, and that's how we track the data. sprinkler ordinance, it's mostly to do with s.r.o.s. it's nothing new with the sprinkler ordinance. >> yeah. it was back in 2000 or something. the other question i have is

2007, fire alarms open and closed. i probably should have asked this report, but there was in the report something about false fire alarms, something about how many times the fire department has to respond to them, alarms that are false, and obviously, in concerns with the budget and trying to address things like this, and then, it said open and closed, and what is that? >> yes. those are complaints that we receive, and if there's merit to it, we issue a violation on it until the condition is corrected. there's a number of ways you can close -- it's a complaint, and how we address the complaint. if it's open, it's ongoing, and if it's closed, it's been

addressed. it can be a violation on-site or an administrative violation, which goes down to a hearing. >> so false aremalarms, what cs those? >> most alarms don't issue and go into evacuation falsely where they're not intended to. so most often, devices perform as they should, a smoke detector or heat detector, etc. it could be due to cooking, could be due to steam, etc. it's a false alarm that is not necessarily associated with a fire, but the fire alarm responded most of the time as it should, so i think we should clarify that. after three, if we have a system that's -- we're repeatedly responding to our building, after the third one,

we start charging the owner for that until we conduct a correct the condition. sometimes, it may be new devices, etc. there's a whole course of action that we can take, but after the third time, we start charging. >> okay. and the last question, i have is all around the city, there's outdoor eating facilities all over the city, and after what happened in san jose, there was no eating permit. i assume every time you go to one of those to make sure that it's up to whatever code it has to follow, that's because permits were taken out on those? >> that's correct. so we work side by side with

d.p.w. on this. they share the information on the permits they have issued, approximately 700 to date. we have the inspectors go out and inspect their commercial areas and take note of any items that need to be corrected. we have a running spreadsheet that we share with d.p.w. twice a week, tuesdays and thursdays, with companies that we have inspected with violations that need to be corrected. >> so if there was a complaint, it would go -- i would -- let's say that someone went out there, and i -- let's say myself was saying, i wonder if they pulled the permit? who would you check if there was a permit pulled out? >> so d.p.w. is the lead agency

on the permit, so they would have a list of all of the permits. i would like to add, when we do a survey, our district supervisors have intimate knowledge of our districts, so if we find one, we notify d.p.w. >> okay. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner gonzales. i think we'll go to commissioner cleaveland. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, president covington. i was very shocked and saddened by the loss of jason cortez.

this tragedy brings to mind how important each of our members of the fire department are to each other as well as to the department at large, so i just wanted to personally express my condolences to his family and to the personnel involved in this horrific accident and wish them a speedy recovery from this tragedy as best i can. i had a quick question, a couple of quick questions for our fire marshal. you mentioned a junior fire marshal program, and i just wanted to get a little more detail on just what that meant and who's involved. and the arson report that commissioner rodriguez brought up, i, too, have brought this up in the past, and once

they're available, that they can be presented to the fire commission so we can keep track of human arson incidents are happening -- track of how many arson incidents are happening. we never know what's happening with these fires in terms of the final result, so i'd like these shared with the fire commission on a regular basis. and my last question is what are the fees for these parklets? is it based upon each parking space, and if so, what is the amount that restaurants and others are charged to utilize those public spaces? chief decoscio? >> yes, commissioner. just unmuting here. i'll do this in reverse order, and if i leave something out, let me know. the fees, we, the fire

department do not collect fees. this is something that's issued by d.p.w. we do, however, track our time and keep a list of hours that we spend on shared space, slow streets, etc., everything to do with the covid emergency response to cities in its handling, so we do track all of them, but we do not charge. >> commissioner cleaveland: do you charge that expense back to d.p.w.? >> we do not. we do not. >> commissioner cleaveland: do you have any idea -- do you have any idea -- excuse me? do you have any idea, chief decoscio, what td.p.w. is charging for these parking spaces? >> i do not. >> commissioner cleaveland: okay. please continue. >> okay. the next question was...arson,

oh, arson investigation. we cannot -- once the arson investigation is complete and the report is completed, that's public information, so anybody can request that information. we have not had active reports where we issue a report to the commission on our findings, but we can do that. we are very active on our submission. sometimes, we run into challenges where it's an open investigation and issues where it could compromise the investigation. so can we try not to do that a have it out in public where it's an open investigation. happy to have private conversations, though, on an open investigation that is not ripe for public consumption, and so whatever direction the commission would like to go,

we're fine with that. >> commissioner cleaveland: would there be an easy way for you to share public reports that are a matter of public record? is there an easy way for you to share those final reports with the commission and an easy adjustable format that you wouldn't have to put a lot of time into? >> we could. we could. it depends on how much detail you're looking for in those reports. >> commissioner cleaveland: go ahead. >> no, go ahead. >> commissioner cleaveland: it's just in those reports, i'd love to hear what the causes are. are these arsons? are these random acts? are they coordinated arsons? so just what's the impact on us from a cost standpoint, and things of that nature, and is it a big issue or is it a little issue? so i guess that's what i'm really trying to establish here. >> so arson, definition of that

for fire investigation is basically it's a fire that is purposely lit in a place where you should not light a fire. so as far as what was your intent to destroy -- we determine was it lit in a place that should not have been lit, and that would be categorized as incendiary. there has been an increase in homeless fires. we used to track them. we used to track them in special offsite fires. we created a separate category

to track them, and therefore, if you look at past reports to current reports, it shows a dramatic increase, but again, those used to be lumped in with special outside fires. we've looked at the causes of those fires, and if you look at the percentage of, like, incendiary fires, we've had more fires, and the rate of those that can be identified ad incendiary has been relatively consistent. so i don't know if that helps you in any way, but we can provide more details if you like. >> commissioner cleaveland: well, i think it's important that if you discover that a fire's been deliberately said, i guess that information gets shared with the police department or with the district attorney's office, and so the

people that are responsible, they can be identified or prosecuted. i understand that most of the homeless fires are probably totally unexpected or whatever, that they weren't done on purpose. but in cases of where fires are deliberately set, if we can identify a person or persons who did that, they should be prosecuted. so my question is, how do you do that, and do you pass that onto the d.a.s office, etc. >> you are correct. we are part of the police department. if we find that fire to be incendiary, they open up their own investigation and present that to the d.a. they create as much information

as possible, share it with the d.a. d.a., it's up to them to take the next step if it warrants further action. >> commissioner cleaveland: do you know if we have any current arson cases pending at the d.a.s office? >> i do not have those numbers. i do not. i know the numbers basically with the p.d., what files they have open, what cases they have open, but actually, cases with the d.a., i can look into that for you. >> commissioner cleaveland: appreciate that. and last thing was the junior fire marshals program. >> john baxter, our p.i.o., is involved in that, so he can speak to more detail of that. >> commissioner cleaveland: so this is a program that goes outside of your program. >> absolutely.

>> commissioner cleaveland: it goes to the general public and it's kind of how to get involved in your department with a fire marshal. it sounds like a great program, and it would be nice for you to share those details with us at a future date. >> thank you so much. >> commissioner cleaveland: these are all my questions. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. chief of the department nicholson? >> thank you, president covington. if i just may, commissioner cleaveland, mark corso, who is our money guru, does apply for 75% reimbursement of all covid activity that we perform. it doesn't mean that we get reimbursed, but we apply for that. and in terms of what our fire [inaudible] is thinking about with shared spaces and the

like, you know, initially, when things shutdown, you know, the fire marshal had left sections to do, etc., but now, their work has ramped up even more because of shared spaces and all these types of things. so he and his crew are working overtime to get this stuff done. they're working at 150%, and also, we need to be mindful that we all need to get to the city right now and support all businesses. the city is waiving some of those fees because small businesses are really hurting, and we want them to get back on their feet for the benefit of these folks, the community, the city, the general fund, and all of that. so the shared spaces, i believe, permits are free until december 31, and we are

working, as fire marshal decoscio said, with the ones with the [inaudible]. that means that the fire department has to step up, as well, and do a little extra work. so thank you, president covington. >> president covington: thank you, chief. let's see. i will go to commissioner nakajo. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you, madam president. i, as well as the other commissioners, wanted to send my deepest condolences to jason cortez' family, to the members of station three, and the

membership of the department. [inaudible] i have a couple of questions for you, chief wyrsch, and then, i have a question for chief tong and, again, fire marshal decascio. first question, lieutenant baxter won an award. can you share that with us and with the public? >> deputy chief wyrsch: unfortunately, i don't have that with me, but i will make sure that you get a copy. i apologize. i should have included that in there, as well. he's doing phenomenal work nonstop, around the clock.

i speak with him many times a day. he's been working tirelessly to keep the public informed and still continues to work on the programs that he's involved in. i should have included that, but i will make sure that gets included in the next report. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, chief wyrsch. i usually look for it in the materials when i am present pr but that's the [inaudible] administratively, as well. my question next is to chief tong on her report, referencing page 17. chief tong, you on?

>> yes. good morning, commissioners. >> commissioner nakajo: on page 17, in the action of challenges, it talks about finding appropriate spaces [inaudible] with cognitive impairment, psychiatric illness is becoming difficult. it talks about the fact that hearing progress has slowed for conservatorship. in many cases, they're being continued until 2021. my concern is [inaudible] backlog and few openings for placement and admissions is reserved for only the most acute and high-risk client. my question is with this backlog and few openings, how does that affect our services out of e.m.s. 6 or our

paramedic core in terms of trying to deal with clients and cases out there in the field? >> thank you, commissioner nakajo. [inaudible] chief andy tong of e.m.s. chief simon pang i think will be able to answer that better next month in his report of e.m.s. 6. but they continue to go out and deal with the clientele that they are aware of. they just have to work with them that much harder, try to get them with the kinds of services, whether it's placement in a safe site, you know, so that they can be better watched, you know, or if they refuse, then they just have to make additional contacts with them as much as they can. i think it's been a challenge for, you know, just not only during covid, but also because those sites that people can,

you know, be at or in terms of them being able to access the right kinds of services makes it much more difficult for them, and they just have to have more contact with these folks to make sure that they stay safe and they are getting the services that they can provide. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. thank you very much, chief tong. my second question is [inaudible] at the bottom of the page, it talks about transports to, and i just wanted to get a verification of information that sometimes, according to this chart [inaudible] it's 96%. [inaudible] bernal campus at 12.72%, and the third was 8.72. is there a reason for st. francis memorial to have that

high of a commitment is there a reason for that to be so high to st. francis and then to mission bernal? >> generally, it's the location of the patient. a lot of the more frequent users tend to be in the tenderloin area or the mission, so that's generally where they'll go if they don't have a hospital preference. they aju they'll just go to the closest facility. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. and is that the same in bernal heights or the mission? >> that's correct. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. i didn't want to assume anything in the mission, with st. francis being the closest facility. thank you, chief tong. my next question would be for chief decascio. thank you, chief, for all of your work. part of this was answered by chief nicholson [inaudible]

when it comes to parklets or shared space that the permits have to come out of d.p.w. and there's a whole set of regulations with that. chief nicholson gave the answers that i thought there was a limitation to the certificates or permit, and the permits are currently being run until december 31. and then, there's a 25% ability of restaurants to take in some clients. there's been some talk, even in my community, that those who build the parklets or shared space are talking about maintaining it through the winter, which is a whole different set of problems because of the winter weather and the rain. some folks now are concerned with putting more money in the shared space parklet because of

the longer period of time, and they're talking about maintaining those parklets and outside shared space as they try to maintain their volume in the restaurant. i just want a comment from you, chief fire marshal, that have you heard the same things in terms of these shared space parklets going beyond the expiration date of december 31 and going farther beyond that? how does that affect our department? i know we're in a shared state with the city. i know there's a wish that they want to maintain these park lets [inaudibl -- parklets. could you give me a number of that, chief?

i don't want to speculate. >> yes, commissioner nakajo, thank you for that question. so the numbers that we've received from d.p.w., the lead agency, and just so we're all on the same page on this, d.p.w. is the lead agency because these structures are out in the public right-of-way. if it was on private property, d.p.w. would not be the lead agency. so typically, on the sidewalk, it's d.p.w. anything in the middle of the street would be up to the parking spots. it's m.t.a. so we have identified approximately 700 permits issued by d.p.w. as far as this program evolving to more of a permanent status, i think -- well, two things. number one, we have to ensure that we will have reasonable access to the building, to the structures, and a lot of these -- the ones we're having problems with that we have

identified ad urgent are those where it's questionable where we're going to have fees of access to ground ladder operations. so that is our focus right now. as far as this program evolving, i think the biggest concern would be are they expanding the structures? are they putting roofs on them? what's the height of them? are they stringing them side by side the whole length of a block? these are things we haven't really seen yet, and we'd like to see -- you know, meet with d.p.w. and better understand, f if they're going to expand the program, what kind of things looking forward as they're building up these parking lots to a greater extent. originally, the shared spaces program was intended for barricades, chairs, tables, and it's evolved to platforms and vertical, and as you know, the winter is coming upon us.

that's all aour radar. we're having discussions, and our concern is fire department access. we will not compromise in our opinion or be allowed to sit by where we don't have access. it is on the radar with the expect of if the program is expanded, what does that look like and how [inaudible] does this program get, but right now, i don't have that. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much for that information, fire marshal. again, i've seen varieties. i've seen folks -- i don't know where they get them, but they've used the police barricades -- barricade metals as a separation. they don't look very attract

ti ti -- attractive, but some folks have done that. and then, i know in my area of town, japantown, the bureaucratic system is very tough. i've seen folks use loading dock platforms, wood platforms, that they've conducted and created and painted, but i've seen more fancy parklet shared space, now with their creations, and now, i've seen heater lamps, as well. and again, my question was -- i know we all want to support small businesses, but i want to make sure that [inaudible]

thank you very much, fire marshal, chief decascio, and president covington. zb . >> commissioner nakajo, i can answer that. [inaudible] in social media, so i'll read a short brief. lieutenant jonathan baxter has served as communication affairs and media relations officer since 2016 and grew his position to a renowned facility [inaudible] he created surf and tsunami education warning program for the city's popular beaches. baxter developed a law enforcement response to fires when he started the [inaudible]

and in 2019, outreach efforts [inaudible]. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, chief wyrsch, for the acknowledgement of lieutenant baxter. very well deserved, as well. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner nakajo. all right. let's see -- oh, we need to go to vice president feinstein. >> commissioner feinstein: there we go. good morning, all, and thank you, madam president. i just wanted to take one moment, and i know we all feel the same way to different degrees, but just to express my personal heartfelt condolences

to the cortez family. it's got to be the worst nightmare that any family can possibly imagine or deal with. their lives will never be the same. i know those close to him will never be the same, and the department will never be the same. and, you know, i appreciate all the effort that is going in to honor him for his service and commemorate him in the appropriate and safeway, so just extend my deepest sympathies. i sort of feel a little bit, as you expressed, chief nicholson,

i have my packet of material with its red tabs on it. and i do hate to let chief wyrsch offline [inaudible] maybe you'll know the answer. maybe you won't. we'll see. it'll be a test, but i wanted to -- really, i thank commissioner nakajo. i'm trying to find you on my stream here, but thank you. i had the exact same one issue that i don't want to postpone with the same issue you just brought up about the conservatorships, and i'm looking for chief tong. there you go. there's chief tong. knowing a little bit about the

conservatorship proceedings from the probate division, i -- this is seeming a little bit backwards to me. it is in fact true, it's a civil proceeding, and they have been pushed way into 2021. but just as, let's say, domestic violence restraining orders or those kinds of things have been moving ahead the whole time and have been dealt with timely, you know, we have in this city such stringent requirements, it's shocking to me that anybody qualified but so much must be expended upon a single individual before the public guardian or family member or whomever is allowed to file. but it just seems contrary to my logic that with backed --

that, with backed up cases, there are more cases coming into the system. i'm not asking you to address that now, but if you can, for our next meeting or if simon pang has any -- i'm not sure who would have the information. that may be something that the department would like to take a position on in terms of, you know, getting these folks the help they need. you know, to be conserved is -- you know, really, it's for the sickest of the sick and those who need the most help, and i'd love to see us be as proactive as possible in terms of moving the cases along if there's

anything we can do. so i'd make that request for the next meeting or when you're able to fulfill that request. >> absolutely, vice president. we'll get on that. chief simon pang will be making a presentation at the november meeting, so i'll definitely have him include that. >> commissioner feinstein: all right. great. that would be excellent, and i think everything else that i was -- i tagged here, i just feel can wait till the next meeting. and if we need to call chief wyrsch back to at it, ddress i will do so. thank you. i'm sure you're looking forward to it. thank you. >> president covington: thank you, vice president feinstein. i don't have any questions at this time. is there any public comment, madam secretary? >> clerk: there is nobody on

the public comment line. >> president covington: all right. thank you. we have guests, so please introduce los bomberos. >> clerk: presentation from los bomberos de san francisco, an sffd employee group. mariano elias, president of los bomberos de san francisco to provide an overview of their sffd employee organization. and we have robert lopez. >> president covington: good morning. >> my name is robert lopez. good morning to madam president covington. i met you years ago. i don't know if you remember me. >> president covington: yes. >> also, the commissioners, command staff [inaudible] c.d.

2 wyrsch, c.d. 3 [inaudible] it's exactly a week ago firefighter cortez had the accident at 1007. i don't know why i landed on that, but i thought i should be sensitive. first time addressing the fire commissi commission. a little nervous, so please bear with me. mariano elias, our president, could not present today. he's in a class. i work at 911, and i did receive the call for jason when it first came in. it was partisan in the units, the response, so when i just -- i'm a little sensitive right

now. los bomberos formed in 1980. it was to have more inclusion for the latino and hispanic members in fact fire department. our organization is based on recruitment, promotion, and detention. we have approximately 100 paying members. we work closely with chief baraca. during covid, it's kind of difficult. we're doing at least a class that was spear headed years ago by now homeland security a.d.c. erica [inaudible] she actually started that, and c.d. 3 at the time, velo assisted that with us, to. in the listos class, it's like

nert. we're doing this on-line now, and it's something new. took a class -- actually taught a class two weeks ago on-line. it's totally different than being there present. what we do is we help the latino hispanic community to assist the fire department in any natural disasters. earthquakes, fires, any floods, and it's simple, what we do. we teach simple first aid. we also teach them how to turnoff the gas, use fire extinguishers, mitigate hazards, and we help them in emergency preparedness, how to set themselves up three to fife days if they can't get any help. the class has been successful thanks to erica [inaudible]. she came to us, los bomberos, and we took it over with that. we teach the class because we love helping the community. i grew up in the inner mission,

and i speak fluent spanish, and so do a lot of other members, too. we also assist in bilanguaingu translation. we have an introduction class that teaches fire science to kids, and also, our members are talking to unified school district for scholarships. we train with equipment that

w was -- we go to nicaragua and train with equipment that was donated to the community. we assist in career day and helped toy program. we have a latin santa, and every year, we go to schools or whatever jill assists with. we have a latin santa, and hopefully, we can do that this year. i think it would be something that the kids would enjoy. in short, we all have a -- in short, we're just alliance between the fire department and spanish speaking community. that's what we do, at the end. any questions?

i can't hear you. i'm sorry. there you go. >> president covington: you can hear me now? >> yes, ma'am. there you go. >> president covington: okay. i wanted to, before you tuturn over to the other commissioners, ask you to talk about the kind of assistance that you've received from the department as a whole, particularly with regards to the outreach of the los bomberos in nicaragua. >> what we do is we take turnouts, chain saws, anything that they can give us, we ship to nicaragua and assist. without them, we wouldn't have this nicaragua trip.

we had recognition from nicaragua and other trips. nicara nicaragua, i was born in nicaragua. it's one of the poorest nations in central america, lower. besides equipment, we take clothes and help the community. it's a camaraderie when you're a firefighter. when you go to another country. they look at you as you're brothers. it doesn't matter -- and sisters. so it's -- you know, we have a relationship that's like no other. we actually helped with -- we had people come up from mexico.

we have a storage shelter, and we donate to them. without them, yeah, our nicaragua trip would not be possible. >> president covington: thank you for adding that. i will go to my fellow commissioners, beginning with commissioner rodriguez. >> commissioner rodriguez: thank you. so congratulations on los bomberos. i was born here. i am a first generation, but my father was born in texas, and my mother was born in puerto rico. growing up, every latin i saw on t.v. was a bandit. to see groups -- and like you said, it's important to note that anybody is invited to join, but it's nice to see

where young adults or young kids can see programs that they can identify with for their future, so i wanted to commend you on that. they said something there about recruitment. let me back up one more step first. i was in the trades for 37 years, and we used to go to job fairs, to high schools, to colleges to show them what we had to offer, so a lot of times when kids were getting out of school, they would have different avenues, and they could see by example that they could -- something that they could go into. so when you say recruitment, does that include that or is that recruitment in your department? >> well, recruitment in the department, we try to educate people who want to be firefighters, what we do in general. a lot of times, we do it

through the carnivale and chief roberts. my first merit badge as a boy scout was a firefighter merit badge, and that was station 7 in 1983. i went back. so i ended up [inaudible] in college -- sorry about that. i don't know what's going on. i apologize here. going to college, when i -- i didn't know what i was doing. i wish i would have been with the fire department before i was 30, but going to my question, kids want to join the fire department. i have been part of writing volunteers who assist us, and packaging of the fire department that goes to

nicaragua, and i will -- well, many of us do, and i have wrote several letters of recommendation, trying to get a fire department. so we recruit through the fire department, through chief barraca, and through the mission high school program because many kids don't know they have another avenue, that they can join the fire department. los listos has offered me opportunities, parents say, for my son or daughter. how can they join? so i give them information, and i sit with them, and i meet them personally. i tell them what they have to do right out of programs, e.m.t., programs that they have to have, t.m.t. mariano does the same.

i know the vice president left a message with us, the same. so we all get together and try to get more latino, hispanic firefighters in the department. so this is why we started it, essentially, to assist with the community. i hope i answered your questions. >> commissioner rodriguez: no, you did very well. thank you for helping the community and thank you for the work that you do. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner rodriguez. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, madam president, and thank you very much to firefighter lopez for your report on the los bomberos program. i think it's one of the oldest firefighter groups, created in 1980, and it's certainly been one of the most effective. really, a model group, so i just wanted to commend you and

every group of the los bomberos. keep up the good work. what you're doing is representing the department and the city on an international basis in the best possible light. thank you for the hours and the volunteering that you put into the program. >> thank you [inaudible] this is something that's near and dear to our hearts. we're trying to get youth off the streets, and it makes me feel that we have to give back to the community, and this is a perfect way to assist. >> commissioner cleaveland: what you're doing is a model program, and i just want to commend you, so thank you. >> thank you. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. excuse me. commissioner nakajo? >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, madam president.

thank you very much for your presentation. is it firefighter lopez or what is your rank? >> president covington: lieutenant. >> lieutenant. i'm currently the lieutenant at 911 dispatch. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. i apologize for not stating your rank. well deserved. appreciate where you are in terms of 911. i also wanted to extend my pride and thanks to los bomberos all the way from my first recognition of their work. i appreciate very much that you talk about your mission statement and in terms of where you're at.

i also wanted to let you know that i enjoyed your philosophy of giving back to the community. [inaudible] and didn't have much direction, particularly not through any fault of my mother, but my father passed away when i was very, very young, but enforcement, being a role model, and now being a senior, i know the gaps between myself and my generational [inaudible] so what i describe as the youngbloods, men and women that are coming up, and how much they need to know our

history and our traditions. so i just wanted to thank you for that. i also am saddened because i know that you had a spanish class that folks were sponsoring. i know that that instructor was, i believe, laid off or dismissed from that program, so that's the reason that spanish class is no longer existing. is that correct, lieutenant lopez? >> yes, it's no longer active. we tried to continue it, but [inaudible]. >> commissioner nakajo: i understand, and we had the pleasure of meeting that instructor, and how dynamic he was, as well. a person of color, speaking a

secondary language. i know how important it is for our memory kberz bers to go ou community. if you had the ability to speak mandarin or spanish or tagalog, how important it is to give members of the community the relief that that help is there. so i applaud you for your effort. please continue your work to be associated with the department and also with your work with los bomberos. congratulations to your membership, and thank you. >> thank you. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner nakajo. vice president feinstein? >> commissioner feinstein: i'm going to be echoing, lieutenant lopez, what everybody else has said. thank you for being a leader in

this organization. one thing that just becomes more and more clear, i am, too, a native san franciscan is our department needs to look like our community and be part of our communities. and toward that in, showing young people what their work could be like and what their life could be like and stressing the importance of the work is really an important function. i don't know how you get all of this equipment around down to nicaragua, but i commend you for it, and i did not know the department was donating the equipment. i've learned a lot there today. and, you know, my hat is off to

the department for doing that, and los bomberos for the work that they're doing, seeking the diversity at this time. again, i'm sorry for your loss, and know that we're, to the extent whatever commissioners can do, you know, we're -- we're here to support you and the organization and the members of your organization. so i thank you. thank you very, very much and for taking the time to be here today. >> president covington: thank you, vice president -- thank you, madam vice president. all right. so lieutenant lopez. >> hi, madam president, yes? >> president covington: yes.

thank you very much for attending the meeting today. i wanted to maintain our agenda for the day. even though we're hurting, i wanted to have some semblance of a normalcy for us and our department, and i appreciate you making the effort. i know it's hard in these -- in these situations to kind of get your mind on something else, and so i know it took a lot for you to be here. i appreciate that, and i'm sure that the members of the department and los bomberos really appreciate your being here and sharing a lot of the good things that people in the

department do and that our member who passed away last week was an active member of los bomberos? >> yes. >> president covington: so it is fitting for you to be here. >> we -- we -- i mean, we donated a big chunk to the cause, you know, moneywise. we're trying to assist the family in any way that we can. actually, when it hit happen, it hit hard at 1007, when i started speaking. i'm sorry. >> president covington: no apology needed for that. >> i was at 911 when the call came in. i contacted c.d. 1, chief nicholson, immediately when it happened, and then, of course, the rest is just history. so it hits us hard, but it'll

hit us hard with any firefighter, god forbid, that it happens. i'm listening to the first commission meeting first time, and what it entails. now i know, you know, and thank you for having me. i'm not a -- i like to talk one by one person. public speaking person is not what i do, but it's the best that i can do. >> president covington: well i wanted to echo what everyone else said about the organization. it's very important for people to share your story. you know, you didn't come into the department until you were 30. so a lot of people may think that oh, you know, you have to be fresh out of high school or fresh out of college to be considered for the department, so you're a good example, a very good example of all of the things that are possible in the world. you know, that there are so

many paths that people can take to be successful in their lives, to be self-sufficient in their lives, to be admired in their careers. so people can look to you and say oh, okay. i can see light. so thank you. and the listos class, you're trying to do that remotely? >> yes, we are doing that remotely. >> president covington: one of the great things about the listos class is the food? >> well, one of the great things about the community is they bring their food own. >> president covington: that's what i know. >> we have a big meal, and it

looks like it's back at the fire house. there are specialty food because not only do we have people from nicaragua, latin america, mexico, but other places. it makes it fun, and it grows. there are not just firefighters, but there are others that joined us. you know, we had 50 people [inaudible] and we're teaching the class. of course we don't have the food, but at things progress, you know, next year, hopefully, get better and bigger. i always take a negative with a positive, so some negative comes, out of bad comes good, right? so we're having 50 people in

this class now. can you imagine, another 56? our class is usually only 15 to 20, maybe. this gets around, this zoom that we're taking, we're doing, next year, everybody is going to know about these classes, and the classes are going to be much bigger. >> president covington: wonderful. >> yeah. these zoom classes could reach out to so many people, and eventually, it'll reach out back to us next year by now we're having classes in person. so we'll have probably, hopefully, an auditorium of people teaching. we teach it at the d.o.c. the department assists us with everything. i'd like to thank a.d.c. erica [inaudible] she spearheaded

this years ago. c.d. 3 velo at that time was chief of training, and he played a big role. [inaudible] losing you. >> president covington: okay. now we can hear you again. we can't hear you again. well, thank you, and it's good to know that the numbers have increased. and even when we go back to whatever the new normal will be, the classes on-line would still be helpful because a lot of people with small children are able to attend from home. i know we have just a few more minutes, perhaps, but chief art

[inaudible] has something to add to that, since he's been mentioned several times in your presentation. >> thank you so much. hi, chief of department and madam president and the commissioners. thank you for the opportunity to speak today in your meeting? i am so appreciative of the shoutout on the presentation of listos. it is a heartfelt effort on the part of [inaudible] to the community, a welcome expansion to the nert program to reach the spanish speaking community. we have done so for the [inaudible] and a partnership that addresses our residents that we were not reaching at the time. it is a partnership with santa

barbara county and with state trainers. it is through them that we were able to make the shift to the on-line version, so huge shoutout to listos california and coalition for supporting us with -- during covid to be able to continue the delivery. and of course roberto brings his heart to every presentation that he makes, and i gave him the highest praise for his teaching style and for his connection with the community members as he participates himself in those programs, so thank you for the opportunity to speak about it. really a treasure. >> president covington: thank you, chief articeros. madam secretary?

>> clerk: i am checking the public call-in line? >> president covington: okay. chief nicholson, did you want to make a comment? >> thank you, madam president. robert, thank you, my brother. we go way back. thank you for notifying me last week. thank you for sort of the heart you put into everything you do. we appreciate you up at radio, and i think the dispatchers office is forgotten, but we are not going to forget you, and we understand [inaudible] for you guys, as well. it's been a pleasure working with all of you guys from los bomberos. just thank you for everything. that's it. >> president covington: thank you, chief nicholson. madam secretary, can you call the next item, please. >> clerk: item 7, resolution

2020-02. discussion and possible action regarding proposed resolution 2020-02, recommending that the board of supervisors authorize the san francisco fire department to accept and expend fiscal year 2019 assistance to firefighters grant program funding in the amount of 636,363.64 from the federal emergency management agency for the purchase of mini pumpers. >> president covington: hello, mr. corso. how are you? >> good morning, madam president. doing well. good morning, madam vice president, commissioners, chief and staff. mark corso to present on the next item, which is a grant from fem onto purchase four replacement mini pumpers.

this is [inaudible] what are mini pumpers? refer to the deputies for more detailed explanation, but in general, they're a smaller firefighter apparatus, smaller than a fire engine, more like the chassis of a pick up truck with equipment on there used to access smaller areas that a truck or engine may not be easily accessible to, like a wildfire sponsor areas in the city that we do not have access to. we have four, but they are quite old, so we were allocated funding from fema to do so. we are very fortunate that we are allocated this funding. happy to answer any questions. there's a small matching requirement that we will be absorbing in our budget.

i'm happy to answer any questions, but before i do that, i know there's been requests of for our new grant writer, shilo, to be present at the meetings. so i'm going to give her an opportunity to introduce herself. i want to thank president covington. she sat on our interview panel last fall in december, november of last year. we were able to hire shilo. she started in january of this year, and then, everything got flipped upside down with covid, obviously. but she's been a great asset to the department. she's done a great job since she's been here. obviously, the fundraising grants, those programs themselves have shifted dramatically through covid. i think a lot of the dynamic of the industry has changed quite a bit, but we've been very successful recently on some grants, and she's continuing to look at exploring, you know,

funding sources that we really haven't kind of tried to attempt in the past. so she's been a great assess and will continue to do work. but i wanted to give her a few minutes to introduce herself and answer any questions that the commission may have. shilo? >> thank you, mr. corso. my name is shilo caho. mark, i think, gave a great introduction. i have nothing more to say about myself -- i'm just kidding. i'm very appreciative to have the opportunity to join the department, and as mark said, i started in january. i've been learning about the department, about the [inaudible] diverse work that the programs and services that are provided to the community of san francisco. as a native san franciscan, i don't think i was completely

aware of all the wonderful services and programs that are provided, so i'm extremely appreciative of the work that's being done and also the opportunity to be here to support that work in any way that i can. in my time that i've been here, which has been very short, i have just been working under mark's wonderful direct and guidance to really maintain the current docket of public funding that has already been established, to maintain that and strengthen that, and also to develop new relationships with communities, family, and corporate communications, and strengthen or expand any relationships that may have been cultivated in the past. but really trying to establish relationships with the

department and not with specific people so that those relationships can continue throughout the future for the department. i think that's about it for my introduction. i don't know if you have any questions for me. >> president covington: thank you very much, and thank you, mr. corso. i will ask the commission secretary if there are any members of the public that would like to chime in on this particular topic. >> clerk: there is nobody on the public call-in line. >> president covington: okay. thank you. well, i will go to my fellow commissioners. this time, i will begin with commissioner cleaveland because i know he had some possible questions for our grant writer. commissioner cleaveland?

>> commissioner cleaveland: thank you very much, madam president, and congratulations, shilo, on your position. it's a position we've needed for sometime within the department, and i see and feel that you're going to be keenly successful as a grant writer for our department, and i'm very appreciative of you being on board. i'd also like to thank mark for bringing forth this resolution. i don't really have any further questions, madam president, but i guess i'll go on record as making a motion to support the resolution. did you want to have it read into the record, madam president? >> president covington: i don't think that we need to have it read, but if you feel so, then -- >> commissioner cleaveland: no, i don't feel so. i would just like to make a motion that we approve this resolution, and again,

congratulations, shilo, on being hired as our grant writer, and i look forward to more reports from you in the future. >> thank you. >> commissioner cleaveland: and thank you, mark. thank you, mark. >> thank you. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. commissioner rodriguez? >> commissioner rodriguez: so, well, it's nice to meet you, shilo, even if it is on webex. but any way, i'd just like to say thank you to mark and to shilo for what they're doing. i mentioned before, that my wife is a director of a nonprofit. i belonged to a union for 37 years, and -- how do i say this? that grant money is usually there, but if you don't go after it, you don't get it, right? >> exactly. >> commissioner rodriguez: i'm new on the commission, but it's good to see that the fire

department is involved in this, and from what we got, this one from fema, and the other one that we got, just shows that it bears fruits. and congratulations again. you do the good work. >> thank you. >> president covington: thank you. commissioner rodriguez, would you like to second the motion? >> commissioner rodriguez: i would definitely like to second the motion. >> president covington: thank you very much. commissioner nakajo? >> commissioner nakajo: thank you, president covington. i would like to thank mr. corso for his hard work, and i would like to welcome miss -- how do i say your last name? >> caho. >> commissioner nakajo: miss caho to our team, and well tom -- welcome to the san francisco fire department. i'll vote in concurrence of the

resolution. >> president covington: vice president feinstein? >> commissioner feinstein: i'll follow everybody's comments. congratulations to shilo, and thank you to mr. corso for recognizing the need, president covington, and everyone that participated in the interview committee. and i'm just going to say i think that commissioner rodriguez hit the nail right on the head. there's money out there, but if you don't go and try to get it, you're not going to get it. and know that you're a very welcome member of the department, and i look forward to watching your continues success as it benefits everybody's continued success. so thank you for taking on the challenge, and good choice, mr. corso. >> thank you. >> president covington: thank you, vice president feinstein.

and are you voting for the approval of the dollars? >> commissioner feinstein: yes, madam president. >> president covington: all right. madam secretary, before i forget, i am voting for the moneys. >> clerk: okay. the motion is unanimous. >> president covington: okay. mr. corso, i wanted to thank you for your presentation, and i also wanted to ask you if there are any plans to have a grant committee within the organization? >> correct, yes. this has been brought up previously, and i think we have kind of an informal committee currently, where we're doing outreach. for example, we had our recent [inaudible] where we're reaching out to the various committee heads and departments

for grant projects. but i think it would be helpful to have a mercnism where we could vet -- people could submit projects and we could vet them ahead of time so we'd have a budget that would be -- mechanism where we could vet -- people could submit projects and we could vet them ahead of time so we'd have a budget that we could draw from when we needed it. having something more formal with a more kind of process for submitting and vetting projects on the timeline. everything got delayed with covid, but definitely it's something that i'm working with shilo, looking to implement in the future. >> president covington: thank you. i think it's essential to have such a committee, and i think the sooner the better, because the more people you have in your brain trust, the better,

and that way, people who are responsible for various portfolios within the department can discuss among themselves within a group as to what funding is most needed and what to go after and who has the contracts. and without a formal process, i think we may miss out on a lot of opportunities, and i would want that to happen at all. so thank you -- and these mini pumpers are expensive. they're, like, $160,000 each. >> correct. >> president covington: that's not peanuts. >> yeah. we had some difficulty getting them through the regular budget process, too. we have very limited equipment

money overall, so we've obviously prioritized frontline vehicles and ambulances, but they're not frontline responding vehicles, and they get neglected, but we were able to secure them in this regard. >> president covington: well, thank you for your edification. could you please send out some photographs of a mini pumper? >> absolutely. >> president covington: so this motion is passed unanimously, and madam secretary, please call the next item -- oh, and thank you, miss caho. >> thank you very much. >> president covington: good to see you again. >> nice to see you. >> clerk: okay. item 8, commission report. report on commission activities

since last meeting on september 23, 2020. >> president covington: my fellow commissioners, is there something to report? i'll call you one by one, and you can decline to speak if you want to. commissioner rodriguez? >> commissioner rodriguez: just been home. nothing to report. >> president covington: okay. in your safe space. that's a good idea. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: nothing to report, madam chair. >> president covington: okay. thank you, chair. commissioner nakajo? >> commissioner nakajo: madam president, nothing at this particular time. thank you. >> president covington: thank you. and vice president feinstein? >> commissioner feinstein: nothing to report. >> president covington: all right. thank you, all. i have nothing to report, either. that's it. we're just staying close to home, trying to keep safe.

>> clerk: there is nobody on the public call-in line. >> president covington: okay. thank you, madam secretary. next item, please. >> clerk: item 9, agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> president covington: commissioner rodriguez, anything near and dear to your heart that you would like to see on the agenda? >> commissioner rodriguez: not right now, the questions i had actually referred to another meeting, and they were all answered today, so i'm okay right now. >> president covington: hmm, very good. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, madam president. have we heard from all the employee groups yet? >> president covington: no, we haven't. we've got a few remaining, so yes, we will be -- i think next up, is it women in the -- no,

next week is the black firefighters association, and then the november meeting will be the fire service women. >> president covington: okay. >> clerk: and i believe the december will be the rescue. >> commissioner cleaveland: cool. i think it's very important for us to understand the employee groups within the department and to understand their outreach efforts and their contributions, so i'm glad to hear from the los bomberos and look forward to hearing from all the others. thank you. >> president covington: yes, as do i. thank you. vice president feinstein? >> commissioner feinstein: [inaudible] and i don't know if this is appropriate for the future to add to an agenda or not. i really do hate to increase the workload for chief tong in any way because she definitely has her happeneds full, and i

apologize, but i really would like to get some further information on the -- hands full, and i apologize, but i really would like to get some further information on the conservatorship issue. i don't know if i need to make a request or if it can be calendared on the agenda. and if i can be of any help in terms of research or anything, i'm happy to do that. >> president covington: okay. thank you. [inaudible] >> clerk: listed in chief tong's report. >> president covington: could you please repeat that? you're breaking up, chief nicholson. that's why we're having problems hearing you. >> okay. can you hear me now? >> president covington: yes, that's better. >> thank you, madam president.

i believe that the conservatorship can be addressed by chief simon pang in his report. i'm sure that he does that. >> commissioner feinstein: thank you. very good. however works best and, you know, without increasing somebody's reporting workload would be fine by me. that's it for me. >> president covington: thank you very much. all right. madam secretary. >> clerk: i believe commissioner nakajo had something to say. it's a computer that's making all that background noise, by the way. >> commissioner nakajo:o ha i t have anything to say. looking forward to the [inaudible]. >> president covington: okay. thank you. commissioner nakajo. all right. we are going to be adjourning, but before we do, i want to

adjourn this meeting in honor of firefighter paramedic jason cortez, who has left us way too soon. we know that being a firefighter is an inherently dangerous job. family members know that, our larger community knows this, as well. but when it happens to one of our members, it impacts all of us. all of our hearts hurt, and we wish the best for the family, the families of blood and the families of badges.

he will be sorely missed, and i will entertain a motion to adjourn in honor of him. >> commissioner cleaveland: i make that motion, madam president. >> commissioner feinstein: and i'll second that. >> president covington: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. thank you, president feinstein. >> >>[music] >> i came in with her

impression of what i thought it was good >> what i knew about auditing with the irs spears i actually knew nothing about auditing >> in my mind it was purely financial. with people that audited the pain no one wants to deal with it >> now i see a lot of time explaining auditing is not just about taxes. >> oftentimes most students believe that auditing is only financial whereas when they come into a government environment we do much more than financial audits. we do operational audits that were looking at the operations of the department for economy and efficiency and effectiveness. >> when i hire an intern some of the things that i am looking for first of all is is this individual agile and flexible because i am our environment is so fast-paced and where are switching from project to project depending on what's going on in the government at any given time. >> primarily i didn't with

audits on utilities management across city departments. >> citywide this ods management audit was also been assisting with housing authority audit program >> the homelessness audit >> the it functions >> [inaudible] >> were starting any water on the department of public housing environment allows >> i also assist with the [inaudible] program. >> then additionally i really enjoyed having staff who have some critical thinking skills. because i believe the basis of auditing is not do you know how to audit, but to have critical thinking skills [inaudible] >> [inaudible] even though i've only been here for short time our quick in-depth analysis and research >> analytical skills there's a

lot of taking enlargement of information a compacting it a very concise report because we've a big focus on [inaudible] if you're transmitting this information to the audience you need him to be able to understand it. >> so i work with the sparrow program primarily. broadway stan abused [inaudible] they prepare me for full-time employment because i knew i could not to challenge myself in order to be an auditor. >> at the [inaudible] we are a content feedback and communication and they pointed out areas where i need to grow. >> one of the things i like about working at [inaudible] is that they actually give you quite a bit of autonomy i feel like kevin sage trusted me. >> the environment really [inaudible] to everyone feeling super collaborative and wanting to get to know one another. which i think at the end of the date is a better work environment and gives you a better workflow. >> i believe that a really is

a great experience because it provides an opportunity to have a better understanding of how government works. >> i think what i've learned so far is that every audit is unique everyday. different learning opportunities. >> the recordation we make in on its i can honestly go home at the end of the day and zack and treated [inaudible] in a better way. >> even of not familiar with what auditing is you should deftly find out. it's been really really awesome he was it turns out there's a whole world of auditing that i cannot open file oriented performance and [inaudible] and that's an exciting. audit is a lot broader than i ever knew before. >>

>> and the city of san francisco would like your assistance, the board meeting is now called to order. due to covid-19 health emergency

and given the public health recommendations issued by the city and county of the san francisco public health, and governor newsome, and the restrictions on the teleconference. we will be virtually with all members and staff participating today via teleconference. and to ensure the safety of the board, the staff, and the members of the public. now public notice for this meeting and on the web page we ask the public to participate remotely by writing to the board or leaving a voicemail message. for all comments received in advance of the meeting we have received and we appreciate these comments. while technology allows us to hold these meetings via teleconference, it may not be as seamless as it would like to be. there will be gaps in some airtime, staff -- at times the staff transitions between the speakers and the callers. know that we are doing the best that we possibly can and we ask for your understanding and

patience as we are all learning this new way of working together. a reminder to the board members to mute themselves to minimize the background noise. board members will have to remember to unmute themselves to comment. again, we're going to ask everyone to be patient as we make these adjustments. madam secretary, roll call, please. >> clerk: [roll call] we do have

a quorum. president bridges? number two, communications. due to the covid-19 health emergency and t due to the covid-19 health emergency and to protect the board members, and the employees and the public, the system is closed. however, members will be participating in a meeting remotely. this precaution is taken pursuant to the local state, and federal orders directives and orders. the board members will attend via video conference and the meeting will be to the same extent as they are physically present. public comments are available on each item on this agenda on channel 26 and sfgov-tv.org and

we are streaming the number across the screen. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. comments are opportunities to speak during public comment period and are available via phone, by calling 415-655-0001, and access 4165792433. and then pound and pound again. when connected you will hear the meeting discussion, and you will be muted and in listen mode only. when your item comes up, press star, 3, to be added to the queue. and call from a quiet location and speak clearly and slowly and turn down your tv or radio. alternatively you may submit public comment in either of the following ways. email to public commentat

sfgov-tv.org. and public comment lines 415-487-7220. and public comment via email or by recording it will be included as part of the official file. president bridges? >> okay. at this time the board will be going into closed session. the board will begin with general public comment for no earlier than 2:00 p.m. we'll take public comment and we're going into closed session at this time. madam secretary, please open up the phone lines for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 1-(415)-655-0001. access code 1465792433.

and then pound, and then pound again. if you haven't already done so, press star, 3, to line up to speak. the system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. please state your names and make your comments. you will have the standard two minutes to provide your comments. moderator, do we have any callers on the line? >> madam secretary, there are no callers on the line. >> thank you. hearing no callers, public comment is now closed. president bridges? >> commissioners, please join me in closed session in this meeting now. thank you very

[roll call] fbz

. >> clerk: we have a quorum. >> motion is in order to vote whether to disclose the discussion held in closed session under san francisco administrative code section 67.12-a. commissioners, may i have a motion whether to disclose or not to disclose? >> i'll make a motion not to disclose. >> second. >> second. it has been moved by commissioner casciato and seconded by commissioner driscoll. at this time, we'll take public comment.

[inaudible] >> please press star, three to be added to the queue. if you are already on hold, please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. moderator, are there any callers on the line? >> operator: madam secretary, there are no callers on the line. >> clerk: thank you. hearing no calls, public comment is now closed. president bridges? >> thank you, madam secretary. again, it is moved by commissioner casciato and seconded by commissioner driscoll that we not discuss the matters held in closed session. madam secretary, a roll call vote, please. [roll call]

>> clerk: you have four yeses. motion passes. president bridges? >> thank you, madam secretary. next item, please. >> clerk: item number 6, general public comment. >> commissioners, i received one public comment. in the september board meeting, you agreed to invest $300 million into an investment called alanis.

it's in mostly european securities. our pension fund is over diversefied, high risk, high cost, low liquidity investment. to quote warren buffet, wise diversefication is only warranted if investors do not understand what they're doing. that's the end of his public comment. >> thank you, mr. hughes, for submitting that comment. madam secretary, please open the phone lines for general public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to provide public comment should call 415-655-0001, access code

146-579-2423, then pound, and pound again. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussion but mutes and in listening mode only. when your item comes up, dial star, three to be added to the speaker line. best practices had to calling from a quiet location, speak slowly and clearly, and keep your microphone muted. madam operator, do we have any callers on the line? >> operator: madam secretary, we have no callers on the line. >> clerk: thank you. madam pra madam president, we have no public callers on the line. >> thank you. madam second, next item,

please. >> clerk: item 5, approval of the minutes of the september 9, 2020 retirement board meeting. may i have a motion? >> so moved. >> may i have a second. >> yeah. >> second. >> it has been moved by commissioner chiu and seconded by commissioner casciato that we adopt the minutes from the september 9, 2020 retirement board meeting. we'll take public comment at this time. >> please press star, three to be added to the queue at this time [inaudible] moderator, are there any callers on the line? >> operator: madam secretary, there are no callers on the line. >> clerk: thank you. hearing no callers, public

comment is closed. president bridges? >> thank you, madam secretary. roll call vote, please. [roll call] if . >> clerk: by a unanimous vote, the motion passes. president bridges? item number 6, action item, consent calendar. >> consent calendar. let's [inaudible]. >> i'd just like to ask about item number 6-e. >> 6-e, commissioner casciano?

>> yes. >> yes. that would be what would be exhibited in the board packet, and also, they could present an oral presentation of the conference, also, if they wanted to at this point. >> okay. so we're just moving it from the back end to the -- you know, what we've gotten is, in the last couple months, just moved it from the back end to the front end of the agenda, correct? >> no. the comments -- the good of the

order comments are still at the end of the meeting. this is just for approved -- it used to be approved travel and attendance at conferences, but the board policy requires that a board member present, you know, a review of the agenda. so this does not replace the good of the order. the good of the order -- >> no, i didn't mean that. i didn't mean good of the order at all. we used to have it the back end -- we used to have the copy of the form, and that'll be included in this item 6-e? >> yes, that's correct. >> so the form will be included, and when we make a motion for the minutes, if anybody wanted to make a motion regarding the minutes, this is where they do it? >> that's absolutely correct. >> okay. i'll make a motion to approve

it. >> commissioner casciato, to approve the consent calendar? >> that's correct. >> okay. >> second. >> okay. we have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. public comment, please. [inaudible]. >> operator: madam secretary, we have no callers on the line. >> clerk: public comment is

closed. president bridges? >> yes. roll call vote, madam secretary. [roll call] >> clerk: we have four yeses. motion passes. president bridges? >> thank you, madam secretary. next item, please. >> clerk: item number 7, discussion item, annual esg update. >> thank you, madam secretary.

at this time, mr. coaker, i'll let you make the introductions of the members that will be presenting the usg updates. >> thank you, president bridges. [inaudible] collaborating with others on esg initiatives, and hiring a director of esg investing. andrew collins was hired in such a position a few months later, and andrew was tasked with building a fact-based data driven, research-intense approach dedicated to carbon related investment reps, and he has been doing so sense. we hired ann, who was hired a

few months ago. there is a series of six recommendations. five are action items, and one is an update. recent initiatives have included staff making an ambition, staying in ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050, and that we'll have an annual update and strategic review every five years. we'll ask kurt to provide additional context, and then, we'll turn it over to andrew. >> thank you. we hired andrew about 2.5 years ago, and i don't know that we intended to have six items presented at one board meeting. so the consequence, andrew has

a lot of work to be done leading up to the october board meeting. i do want to acknowledge the vost amount of work that he did and that adrian did. adrian only joined six weeks ago. i do encourage everyone to read these. we have six different topics. the discussions here are quite thorough. we have one discussion item, five action items. we'll begin with our annual esg update, which will provide a little bit of sfers update in the e.s.g. space and then provide the three pillars of our e.s.g. program, which are ownership, investments, an area that i think we've made extraordinary progress in across all asset classes at sfers, and then finally,

discussion of our collaboration efforts with the public at large. we'll then turn to four action items that both have been our targeted divestment companies which have included tobacco companies, sudan, oil and coal, and we'll end with an update on our climate action plan and actions forward. so andrew, i'll turn program o

year. and just want to start out, i guess, with a few comments and observations about what's happened more broadly in the e.s.g. discipline in the last year. like everything, it's been an interesting and hectic year between the economic impacts and volatility in the markets due to covid, and the shutdown, the massive social movements calling attention to issues of

systemic racism and inequity, and then, more recently, the wildfires in california and throughout the state, all of these things really intersect with a lot of the e.s.g. themes that we look at in the investment process. and given everything, if i had to look at one theme of the year to highlight, i think it would be the social pillar, the s within e.s.g. has certainly gotten a lot more focus from companies and investors over the last year. i think over a decade, decade and a half of a lot of focus on environmental issues and certainly corporate governance, as we think about worker welfare in the light of expectations around being an essential worker, certainly, employee pay, benefits, issues

of diversity and inclusion in the workforce, corporate culture, i think these things have come into much clearer view for a lot of corporations and investors over the last year. and really, instead of turning away from any e.s.g., the efforts, i think we've seen everybody lean into them and realizing even during a period of stress and market stress. these issues are really important. this continues to come up with our managers, as well, as we talk about it with them. at the same time, you know, climate has still been a big -- a big theme for the year, and the year actually started, interestingly, with a letter to c.e.o.s, where we talked about funding due to climate risk, and how that will affect investments in the economy over

the long-term, and black rock, as one example, given their size and an assess manager, black rock updated its voting policies around climate risk. these are meaningful steps that -- that have occurred over this period. and, you know, corporate actions have also progressed a lot in terms of climate change. you've seen a ton of companies making net-zero commitments by 2050, and these are not just companies that have minimal environmental impact, these are companies like shell and b.p., the largest corporations in the u.s. like dominion have made commitments around the upcoming carbon neutral, and greenhouse gas emissions neutral. microsoft went so far as to say

that they're going to invest $1 billion to negate their carbon footprint that they've ever invested in the company. i think the social factors have become more and more important. so i'll -- i'll start here with just a reminder of our, you know, e.s.g. beliefs, and a bit of history of our e.s.g. policy. our core belief is that e.s.g. factors can and do influence outcomes in nearly every investment that we wake, but how they do so is typically w nuanced in each case.

we really take what i'd say a principled approach to e.s.g. considerations and not a prescriptive approach to e.s.g. we began the effort quite sometime ago in 1988, when we first had our social investment policies that's evolved a lot to an e.s.g. policy that kurt described has these three pillars of active ownership where we think about influencing public equity outcomes in our portfolio management, voting our proxies, we integrate e.s.g. considerations into oush manager selection process, and our ongoing relationships with those managers and then e.s.g. collaboration and information, where we work with other stakeholders in the financial community, certainly with our

wi beneficiaries to communicate with e.s.g. i'll provide a little bit of an overview of what we've done in 2020. i'll skip over these slides for now, but it's a history of e.s.g. over the last 20 years, if folks want to take a look at that at some point. 2020 here -- and i'll try to make this screen a bit bigger here so folks can see it. hopefully, that's a bit better. for 2020, i really want to highlight, i guess, four things, four focus areas from the last year. one, bill mentioned we announced the ambition that the trust become net-zero by 2050.

this was, you know, an important step in really expanding our view of climt risk among publicly traded oil and gas classes and -- climate risk among publicly traded oil and gas classes and thinking about climate risk that goes much further than just thinking about our exposure to oil and gas companies. two, we continue to support and expand our engagement on climate risk, where we acted either as a lead engager or even in a supporting role with over 20 companies -- oil and gas companies, utilities companies, where we, you know, sat down with those companies, provided input that shapes policies around decarbonization targets, enhanced transparency

around e.s.g. practices. third, we'd like to highlight that we continued to prioritize board diversity, and that was thr through our voting efforts and engagement. we voted against the chair of nominating government committees of roughly 3,000 companies that had fewer than 20% women on the board, and we voted against entire boards where there were no women on the board this year. so those were updates to our voting policy. we continued our engagement efforts through a 30% coalition, and, you know, i think those were very successful in the four companies that we engaged with

through those efforts, and we were really asking, you know, those companies, you know, two main things. one was to think about actually adding additional women to their board and then second was to ask them to think about updating their corporate charters to actually implement things like the winnie rule, which commits them to not commit to adding additional women to their board but considering a diverse search and looking for diverse candidates when doing that search. next, and looking forward a bit, we've joined a partnership with three other california pensions: calstrs, calpers, and

lucera. this is a reminder that our efforts are not focused just on gender but on race and ethnicity as we engage with companies, and that's part of our corporate and governance belief, workforces that are reflective of society at large tend to perform better over the longer term. and the fourth area to really talk a bit about is our e.s.g. investment management pillar. we really deepened our e.s.g. engagement with our own external managers, and this is across asset classes. so not only are we conducting e.s.g. due diligence when we make a new recommendation to invest, but we really have to take a step back on some of our core relationships in the private equity allocation and the absolute return program and have sent questionnaires and

engaged in conversation with those managers around their own e.s.g. integration practices, and i think have had some really, really productive conversations there, where we've learned a lot. they've asked for input, and we've learned about how they're shaping their e.s.g. program going forward. we also have, in our public equity program and fixed income program, we've begun a deep dive in engaging with our managers around climate risk, and that's part of our net-zero by 2050 ambition. a starting point there is we send a details questionnaire around climate risk and then had deep dive conversation around that. again, a lot of really constructive learnings from those engagement efforts, partneri partnering -- the e.s.g. teams partnering with the investment

teams. so we'll turn to slide 7 here now, talk a little bit more about other active ownership activities that i didn't just touch on. progress over the last year, you know, started with an update to our learning guidelines. remember where i said we strengthened our voting requirements around board diversity, but other shareholder proposals related to human capital, gender pay gap proposals that come to shareholder votes, and we took another way that we look at remuneration packages and really revised some of those core aspects to plant a stake in the ground where we believe there should be proper remuneration for proper performance by companies and

c.e.o.s. so with respect to that, we ended up voting against 22% pay on [inaudible] proposals, we're continuing to scrutinize excessive executive compensation that's not linked with performance. in terms of engagement activities, i mentioned those we had with climate risk, with oil and gas companies. we've also engaged some retailers like dick's sporting goods and walmart on firearm retail practices through a partnership that we have with calstrs and other active asset

managers. those have been really productive, as well, to think about how do you responsibly and safely participate in retail of firearms? and then, we also had a, you know, several other conversations throughout the year. things ranging from sitting down with pork and beef processing company to talk about their covid response and worker health and safety, sitting down with a big three audio o automaker to think about their services there, professional lobbying firm around professional lobbying and disclosures. and those are things that we'll do if they arrive if there are particular votes coming up if there's opportunities to partner with other investors on

those efforts. we'll now move onto the second pillar here, e.s.g. investment. to some degree, this is the core of our e.s.g. program, supporting the investment teams due diligence ongoing monitoring of our investment manager relationships. as i said, we've really strengthened that, not only at the due diligence phase, but also, as we think about ongoing relationships that we have with managers, where we may invest fund after funds, and have tried to engage and build relationships around e.s.g. to learn what those practices are and form, you know, our own

views of their investment approach and style. [please stand by]

so some of that is just the overall efficiency from and then revenue growth occurring in the overall economy, but we've decarbonized faster. why is that so? a couple of things are going on. one is that we are underweight to the most carbon intensive sectors, and you can see this in the chart on the right. the darker lines are our portfolio weight and then the dotted lines are the index weight. so the utilities, materials and energy sector. so we are underweight to sews te sectors, so that's improves our carbon weight.

some of the most carbon efficient sectors. so those two factors that underweight and overweight contribute significantly to our reduced carbon footprint. the second thing was at the board's direction we invested $1 billion of our equity portfolio to two sectors that had reduced carbon footprints versus their benchmarks. that's the goldman sachs strategy and the global equity strategy, both of those have resulted in additional carbon intensity reductions against our benchmark. one thing interestingly that we looked at this year was actually, you know, any short positions we had in our public equity portfolio and the carbon footprint associated with that part of the portfolio. and not by design, but as it turns out, our portfolio is

overweight, the portfolio is overweight, and this is in aggregate, right, to high carbon sectors, like utilities and materials, and then even within other sectors, there are greater short positions in more carbon intensive companies, and that's true in the real estate sector, it's true in the technology sector. so this is, you know, further reducing our exposure to carbon risk, if you want to think of it that way, through those positions. if we look beyond the public equity and fixed income portfolio, we're really limited by data. but one thing we've tried to do in the report is show from a sector perspective our allocation to the three most carbon intensive sectors, and in aggregate, if we look at our overall, the overall sfers

portfolio and compare that to a 70/30 portfolio, we are significantly underweight utilities and materials and have [indiscernible] sustained energy exposure. if you think of using assumptions and averages, we would have a much lower aggregate footprint, most likely in the absence of data which doesn't exist to just think about exposure there. every project we do, we look at our investment exclusions that we've put in place since 1998 with tobacco and we've works with msci to license some customized indices so we can have some sort of model on what impact those may have on planned

returns and risks since we put those in place. basically what we do is we licence an index that excludes the companies that we've excluded. we compare that to the generic msci index and we assume that any gains or losses were reinvested with, you know, the same allocation that we had to each asset class. over time, you know, our portfolios shifted, of course, over those many years for different reasons. so this relies on some assumptions to get a good sense of, as we said, a positive or negative impact. as you can see, in aggregate it's been negative. that's been really driven just by tobacco exclusion that we've had in place since 1998 that was, you know, sometimes

positive, sometimes negative, but really just due to compounding effects, mostly that in aggregate has cost about $88 million over that time period. in aggregate, the other exclusions can be said to be negligible or contributed positively. we have assumed over the last year, you know, a negligible but positive interaction from all of those exclusions that you can see in that final column year over year impact fy-19 to 20. the chart just shows sort of the volatility of those relative returns look like over time, and you can see that they're in different time periods they contribute in different ways. (one moment please).

-- we continue to be very engaged with series, they coordinate the climate 100 initiative and the carbon asset working group we participate. i've mentioned the 30% coalition and the council of institutional investors is a long-time membership that we've maintained and we participate in their events and take advantage of their resources. as well, i've also mentioned the principles for responsivelyian firearms industry. -- civilian firearms industry.

we continue to do transparent and conduct esg reporting through presentations like this, publishing materials, updating earlier in the year or, you know, later if you think about -- our next report on our proxy voting and shareholder activities and we did a policy refresh, as you all recall, last fall and the beginning of this year on the esg policy and the proxy voting guidelines, and then built out the esg section or reference in the investment policy statement as well. so i will close there, put my first slide up here. but that's the update, program update. i'm happy to answer any questions there dive in. as you know, this is not a

voting item. >> commissioner: thanks, andrew. did you have anything to add to that? >> commissioner: maybe just one or two questions. the platform that andrew just described has become a valuable working tool for institutional investors around the country. in addition, as andrew described, in each of our investment recommendations now for quite some time we've been including an esg assessment in every recommendation, and also over time we've seen the volume and the depth of that assessment has also increased [indiscernible]. so you will have seen those now

for probably the better part of a year. thank you. >> i would like to ask a question of andrew. >> please. [indiscernible]. >> andrew, how would you describe how the state of esg is -- you know, we've gone through periods where there's been a lot of activism, but where would you say that -- the movement has grown to or settled at right now and moving forward are we making good progress? are we on good lines? are we in conflict? will we have any conflicts or will we have more collaboration moving forward here? >> yeah, i think -- i would say more of the latter. it's a great, great question.

but certainly i think, you know, particularly last year where i think investor expectations and corporate expectations are around a lot of esg practices, those social factors that i mentioned but also the climate action you're seeing, sort of in the absence of any regulation, shows a lot of alignment with, you know, investor views and corporate views and actions. so it has been highly collaborative. again, there have been fewer shareholder proposals introduced at public companies over the last year, and a lot of this is actually, you know, due to the fact that companies are willing to engage with investors constructively in order to address esg concerns, which is really good to see. we've also seen an explosion of esg efforts outside of the public equity and fixed income asset classes.

so, you know, the private equity industry is doing a lot to address esg factors in their own portfolios, but also looking internally at their own firms and talking about, you know, how to think about esg risks, opportunities there, in the way that they run their own firms. so i would say, you know, a lot more work to do on a lot of challenging issues, but very constructive, in my view. >> thank you. yesterday i had the opportunity to be able to watch for about an hour and 21 minutes the apple rollout, apple's rollout of their new products. and one of the things i was impressed with is that they focused on their new buildings, apple campuses and their production lines that they were carbon neutral, they said,

we're -- one point was 450 tons of carbon monoxide, the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars or more. they made some points about what products they're using to produce their phones, et cetera. so i was pretty impressed. do you think that's -- would you say that's a common thing? is that special to apple, or is that a common thing for some of the other companies? >> with the hesitation of sort of commenting on whether a company is a leader or not, i think -- i will say that there are a set of companies that are sort of taking -- leading efforts to integrate these considerations into product design and building management and workforce management. i think, you know, as i sort of alluded to, the tech industry has really planted a stake in the ground. many of the largest tech

companies have made commitments around carbon neutrality, and that includes their products, their supply chains, their own building operations, and we've seen this i think, you know, in response to a couple of things: one is their own employees and wanting to be a good corporate citizen to attract and maintain the best employees, as more and more employees care about these issues and the corporations that they work for and, two, that the customer base, you know, customers have access to more and better data on this, they care about it, they're willing to make purchasing decisions around esg-related issues. and then third is just, you know, resource constraints. you know, a company like apple relies on a lot of, you know, materials from that can be

resource constrained and still operating efficiently using recycling, securing access to materials like cobalt that have esg [indiscernible] is important for them. >> thank you. adrian? >> commissioners, you have questions for andrew on the update on esg? >> just a quick question from me, and that is whether, andrew, you've been presenting in front of other audiences at all about what the sfers esg portfolio looks like and what we've been doing? >> yes. i do present to, you know, peer

paragraph how it's actually groundbreaking in many respects compared to other pension plans and i think those kinds of things are important just to make sure that we put that message out there. >> certainly. yeah, i'm happy to, if you have ideas on that, i'm happy to take that input. >> andrew, i want you to know, i've sent this document to all five of my advisors as examples of what a well-managed plan does with esg. it's a very well-done document. >> that's great. andrew, i wanted to ask, and it's good to see that the 22 different [indiscernible] because i notice something that [indiscernible] for the last five or six years and i know it's been a huge component of the push. has there been resistance, though, on that front?

because it moves but it moves slowly. but i'm not sure what's happening there. >> there have not -- you know, there continues to be a pretty low rate of [indiscernible] for executive compensation, and i think it's been perhaps less of an investor focus area over the last several years. i think what will be interesting to think about is, you know, going forward into this 2021 proxy season is executive compensation in light of, you know, covid and layoffs and restructuring, and i think, you know, you will see probably pushback from investors around compensation that seems -- you know, may be in line with performance over the past year period, but also, you know,