ready to go and be occupied and the people can get into the facility to serve them and serve the community. . >> clerk: fire commission meeting may 26, 2021, and the time is 5:03. this meeting is being held via teleconferencing. this meeting is being held via webex. during the coronavirus disease

emergency, the fire commission's regular meeting room at city hall is closed and remote fire commission meetings will convene remotely. you may watch remotely at www.sfgovtv.org, and to participate via phone call 415-655-0001 and use access code 187-603-1257. members of the public will have the opportunity to participant via public comment. comments will be addressed in the order they are received. when the moderator announces that they are taking public comment, members of the public can raise their hand by pressing star, three and you will be queued. callers will hear silence when

waiting for your turn to speak. then operator will unmute you. the callers will have the standard three minutes to provide comment. ensure you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, and turnoff any radios or t.v.s around you. item one, 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 within the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with a speaker. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> president feinstein: all right. madam secretary, do we have any public comment?

>> clerk: we do not have -- let me see. we do not have any public comment. >> president feinstein: all right. then public comment will be closed. please call the next item. >> clerk: item three, approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve meeting minutes of the regular meeting of may 12, 2021. >> president feinstein: all right. any proposed modifications to the draft minutes? [inaudible] >> president feinstein: i'm hearing something faintly, but maybe that's just me. i can't quite hear it. am i missing something? madam secretary? >> clerk: did you want to make

a comment? >> commissioner covington: this is still commissioner covington on the line. >> clerk: did you wish to make any changes to the minutes? >> commissioner covington: not at all. i'll move the minutes. >> commissioner cleaveland: second. >> president feinstein: thank you. commissioner cleaveland accepted the second. >> clerk: i'll do a roll call vote. [roll call] >> clerk: it's unanimous. >> president feinstein: thank you. >> clerk: item four, chief of department's report. report from chief of department, jeanine nicholson, on current issues, activities, and events within the department since the fire commission meeting on may 12, 2021, including budget, academies, special events,

communications, and outreach to other government agencies and the public, and report from administration, deputy chief jose velo on the administrative division, fleet and facility status and updates, finance, support services, and training within the department. >> president feinstein: chief. >> thank you. good evening, president feinstein, commissioners, command staff. chief jeanine nicholson. let me acknowledge that deputy chief mark [inaudible] is not here tonight. sitting in is deputy chief thompson tonight. thank you, deputy chief thompson. let me start with some important dating coming up. on memorial day, i will be

headed up to lincoln to speak at a memorial for firefighter steven brantley, who died a few weeks ago. memorial day is the day that we lost two firefighters two years ago at 133 berkeley way. all of you should have received an invitation to a ceremony we will be having at station 26. we will be doing things that day. at 9:00 a.m., we will be having an announcement date on our radio. all our units and all our stations to ring the chaplain's bell and have a few moments of

silence, and we have drills for that day that are related to this fire incident. june 15, you will also, commissioners, receive an invitation to the unveiling of [inaudible] jason cortez' name at headquarters. his family will be present. we've been in touch with his wife, and they will be here. it will not be a huge crowd, but we will have folks from station three and some others, but it won't be -- won't be a giant crowd. june 23 may be the ribbon cutting, although it may have changed, for the annual ambulance ceremony.

that may not even be the right date is what i'm hearing, so more to follow on that, but the e.m.s. is currently working out of the new station 49, the new a.b.f. graduation for our recruit class is scheduled for june 25. it will be at the scottish rites temple, and you will receive an invite to that, as well. this friday, i will be attending, with captain brent peoples, the city e.m.t. graduation, and that is a program that i've talked about several of bringing city kids in -- ad-risk city kids and giving them wrap-around services as well as an e.m.t. class and the opportunity to get their e.m.t. class, and then, some of them will be

coming to work with us as interns, paid internship on the ambulance, to more to follow on that, but that graduation is coming up this friday. june is pride month. on june 7, the mayor is going to be holding a ceremony raising the pride flag at city hall, and i will be attending that. and we're working on a video to send to our members celebrating diversity in the department, and this past week, i met with clair farley, who is the director of the office of transgender initiatives, to discuss ways in which we can work together. it was a really productive meeting, and i look forward to working with her in the future, and happy pride month, everybody, really soon.

i want to thank everyone for putting out a newsletter up there. the doctor and staff are doing a great job, and it's really appreciated. on may 25, i met with the black firefighters association to ensure the success of our recruits. we're talking about doing some mentorship and some other things, and our recruitment process, as well. right now, for i believe it's three days this week, we have many of our own firefighters, a diverse group of firefighters who are speaking with applicants for the h.q. position similar to what happened last year, and they

will be passing those recommendations onto my office. we will be having another class in august, hopefully 36, but still to be determined. we also are looking at having an em.t. class -- upcoming e.m.t. class between 20 and 25 members. we have so many new programs that we are working on, and, you know, and our call volume continues to rise, so we really need more graduates in the class of 25. okay. that's great. okay. so here's some really good news. yesterday, the board of supervisors passed the option to purchase agreements for the

prior training facility property site at terrell avenue. that will take several years with ceqa, so we went with the option with the lease to purchase. if the port piece of property falls through, we can just walk

away from this lease agreement, but i have high hopes, and it should be approximately seven or eight acres overall that we will be looking at getting, and i'll continue to keep you updated on this, but it is moving along, and it is going to take some time, but i am really proud of all the folks that have worked so hard on this, some who are here and some who aren't here. and then, we are in the final weeks of working on the mayor's budget. i will be going to that event, and once it's introduced to the

mayor, it goes before the board of supervisors for discussion and presentation. right now, we are scheduled to present to the board on june 17, and then, a week later, on june 24, and in june, director corso can present what will be presented to the board of supervisors, and i will be reaching out to many of the supervisors in the coming weeks. as you know, we are initially asked to cut 7.5% and an additional 2.5%, and that is no longer the case. we will, at the very least, remain whole, but we do have some additions in the budget that i'm hoping we will get through the board of supervisors for stuff that we really, really need. so more to follow on that, and

that is all i have on that right now. thank you very much. >> clerk: you're on mute. >> cannot hear you. >> clerk: we've unmuted you. >> president feinstein: i'm muted. was i okay? >> clerk: yeah. >> president feinstein: it's chief velo. he muted me -- just kidding. anybody have any questions -- i have a question for the chief, but does any other commissioner have a question for the chief? vice president rodriguez? good evening. >> commissioner rodriguez: good evening. chief, thank you for the report. a lot of tough coming up, and exciting. this is really simple. i think it was just a typo, but you know the resolution on page 4, for the property, it said

there at the very bottom of page 4, whereas the option agreement the city will pay the owner $15,000 beginning june 1 until may 31, i think that should be flopped around or something. i don't know -- i don't think it's written in stone. >> yeah, may 31, 2022 is what it should say. >> okay. i thought i -- >> thank you for that, and yes, i will get that to them. >> commissioner rodriguez: okay. thank you for your report. >> president feinstein: very keen eye, vice president. thank you. >> clerk: he has keen eyes. >> president feinstein: he has keen eyes. any other questions for the chief? commissioner nakajo?

>> commissioner nakajo: thank you, president feinstein, and thank you, chief nicholson, for your report. you mentioned that there was going to be another class. could you please share what the timeline is on that, please? >> yes. that should be in august. >> commissioner nakajo: is that something that's going to happen or is that projected? >> mark corso, can you speak to that? director corso? >> thank you, chief. good evening, commissioners. yes, so that is anticipated to occur in august. part of that group of employees is a piece of the s.a.f.e.r. grant that we were recently awarded. due to social distancing rules, we weren't allowed to expand the size of the academy. that's why we were at approximately 25 people, i

believe. so we were funded for 36 employees, so those remaining employees will be part of this coming h.d.o. academy. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, director corso. one more question through you, madam president. chief of department, you mentioned how you were going to do and your members of recruitment, sounds like the individual members in the stations are doing that. did we or don't we have a recruitment coordinator, or how does this work? >> so the work that has worked, that position is not currently filled, and we are looking at the racial equity action plan in terms of how to grow that out, and we've asked for some things in the budget, so we're -- it's a work in progress, and right now, what's happening is we have our members in groups of three,

as -- if you like panels, and they are meeting with prospective future firefighters with applicants, and they meet with them, and, you know, ask them some questions, have a conversation, and then, they recommend to my office if they believe that person would be a good fit as a firefighter. now i want you to know that these -- these panels are extremely diverse, both culturally, racially, and gender wise, so it is a good cross section of the department, and we did this last time, as well, and you can see, you know, this last class, we've got 23 out of 25 who's made it through, and it's a really good group of folks, and

i think we got really good candidates this way, and -- and a very diverse group of candidates, as well. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. thank you very much, chief. so i begin to comprehend that we're still doing two men on our level, and that the recruitment coordinator position is still yet to be filled, so i'm assuming -- [inaudible] >> commissioner nakajo: that's all that i have at this point. thank you, chief nicholson. >> thank you. >> president feinstein: any other commissioners with any questions? ah, thank you, commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: thank you, madam president. i was finally able to get into the live meeting, a real person. i don't have any questions, but

i just want to, again, send appreciation to the team that put the deal together for the new training facility. we have been on pins and needles for years, wondering, you know, after our eviction from treasure island, where the training facility would be, so it is a tremendous relief, and i hope that all of the remaining negotiations go along swimmingly, so thank everyone for that. no questions for the chief. you're muted, madam president. >> president feinstein: thank you. thank you kindly. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: madam president, thank you. chief, good to see you this afternoon. quick question on the recruitment. are we still doing national testing to create any kind of

list? do we -- are we working off an existing list? what's going on with that testing program? >> yeah, that testing program is constantly happening, and what happens is we determine a date that we want to pull the list, and then we get all those candidates off of that -- also off of that list, and that's how we begin. but we also are having conversations with the public safety testing unit about switching to a different test because my understanding, the n.t.m., it's nationwide, and it does have an impact on certain people, specifically, black,

african american, and women, so we are looking to switch to -- of course i can't remember the initials now? sctc? sctc? yeah, we're looking to switch to sctc, which is california based and does not have that disparate impact, so we're meeting with the sctc testing team inside d.h.r. now. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you. no more questions, madam president. thank you. >> president feinstein: thank you. i have a couple of questions for the chief, but if there are any other commissioners that wish to ask questions. i'm scanning my screen here for hands, and i'm not seeing any, so chief i'm going to go ahead. two quick questions here. one is regarding the training center, and i really do want to

commend all of those who worked on this, because boy, what an act of labor that was to secure the property, to go through what needed to be gone through, what lays ahead. i really need to commend you for a great situation. as everyone knows, san francisco doesn't have a lot of land. has a lot of buildings, a lot of things to catch fire. we've got a lot of emergency medical situations, but land, we don't have, so securing this really is going to be phenomenal, especially given the time and what its intended use is, so that's my comment.

my question is this: when i look at the property, from what i've seen, it appears that the port portion of the property, it's, like, a weird triangle, you know, on one side. i don't think it's on carroll avenue. anybody feel free to jump in and correct me, but there's, like, a triangle that i can't much is useful for much to the port, and i'm not sure what their opinions are or feelings are about this property or what it could possibly be used for, given its strange shape and location. that's question one. do you have any knowledge about that or thoughts about it -- or does anybody else? i don't mean to just put it on

you, chief. >> thank you, president feinstein. yes, it is a strange set up there with that triangular piece of property. we do need it for the training center to be effective, and frankly, i don't believe the port would be using it for anything. i mean, they haven't been, so i feel like this is a win-win for everyone. you know, we get that property, and obviously, they have to report to the state lands commission. it can't just be given to us, and they have to go through the legislature. all of those ducks are in a row. it's being set up to make it that way. but i don't think there's

really any access to it, either. >> president feinstein: i would ask that if you would come forward and if the commission in the future can be of any assistance. i do know what the process is for using -- not using, but acquiring or utilizing, i should say, port property, and if the commission can be of any assistance, i think that -- i'm just speaking for myself, but also for my fellow commissioners, i understand why you need that one triangle out of the parcel, and i hope you would come forward and ask us if you need any help with that because the process is brutal, and i know that, and probably unnecessarily so, but it is.

and, you know, you -- i think we probably would all agree that this is a necessity, and we would all be willing to go to bat for the department if that's necessary. >> yes, thank you very much. as i said, we've got all our ducks in a row, and we are expediting this process with ceqa as well as, you know, state lands and the state legislature. we're getting it added to an omnibus bill. so we're dealing with so many different entities, but we are managing to juggle them all, and, you know, we've had a great partner in the department of real estate.

enrico pena and elaine forbes and everybody have put their heart into this. we are expediting this because we only have a year to get that done, and typically, it would take much longer than that, and typically, we are expecting to get that done in less than a year. >> president feinstein: if i can just follow up with one question, chief, do you believe that all the obstacles -- and i'm using that word carefully but accurately, i think, that obtaining and utilizing the property as part of the port training center has at least been identified, and have the obstacles that need to be overcome pursuant to you've got state land. i don't know if you've got

bcdc, what -- i know this is along the old yosemite slough. i don't know if you've got it figured out or you've got a strategy to deal with each of them. that piece of property cannot be of any use to the port whatsoever, so to me, it's selling a car without tires or without wheels, but i want to make sure that if there's anything we can do, we do that as a commission. >> thank you, president feinstein. we are squared away and dialed in, and we know exactly the steps we need to take.

we've identified the potential obstacles and we've been really proactive in speaking with folks at the state, at state lands commission, the lobbyists, i mean everybody. we've spoken to everybody and identified all the potential obstacles, and yeah. we have a good strategy moving forward, and it has, you know, begun to be implemented, and really, ceqa is the biggest hurdle. but we've already submitted that paperwork, so the planning department is working on it, and they know it is a priority for us, so all -- all systems are go right now, and if we come into any troubles or challenges with anything, i will be reaching out to you if there is anything that you all can do for us.

. >> president feinstein: please do, please do, because we stand ready to assist. all right. i think we're looking at my agenda here. probably should have done this first -- oh. >> clerk: i'm here. >> president feinstein: sorry. i'm looking at a number of you. i apologize. and we did not take public comment on this. that was my fault, not the -- >> clerk: it's okay. we're still on the same item number, so there is nobody on the call-in line. >> president feinstein: lucky for me because i would have messed it up otherwise. okay. so public comment will be closed, and if we can have the next item, please. >> clerk: and that would be report from administration, deputy chief jose velo.

>> good evening, president feinstein, vice president rodriguez. vice chief velo, and this is my report that highlights the events happening in april and some other events, too. let's start with the training division. extremely busy in the training division. we have secured many opportunities for our members to train, and due to the uwase funding, many trainings were free to our members.

[inaudible] taught by one of our members, and next week, we're holding one class on the firefighter federal rights, so we've been very proactive to get all the training classes that we have. the interest is definitely there, so we continue to do that. on the 27 academy, as you know, 35 recruits remain. week 16 out of 20, and we're very confident that they'll complete the academy on june 25. what we do now as we complete the training for the sffd training and protocols, there is state training that the firefighters need to be certified by the state fire marshal right now. wildlife training, survival training, and that's what's

going on at this time. there's some pictures of recruits doing p.t. we also had a day where we had pg&e's emergency response and how do we do that? we had a propane tank exploded there and how do we deal with that? we have a new prop in the bottom right picture. it's actually a prop that we can assemble, dissemble any time. the next thing is practicing on a roof without being on a real roof before we go into a building and prothat, so that's also on folsom street.

we practiced the engine class, which is the class for a [inaudible] to take an engine on a job. they're back practicing skills, and they're very happy to be able to do that, especially with the new academy. they're there. commissioner feinstein, you almost made it to this. occasionally, we get some structures that members of the public will offer to us for demo before their remodelling purposes, and through the real estate department and us, we were able to sign agreements that we can use it, practicing our skills. in this case, we're practicing

our ventilation skills, and securing a victim from the roof, so it's very helpful to do it on actual structures, so i want to commend them to that and the training team, the effort that they did to put this together. our effort continues to do drills, focus on some medical training, c.p.r. training, critical care transport training so they continue to do the required drills. this is the time of year, even though wild land fire season has started, we have almost 200 folks that are trained to go on [inaudible] deployments. so every year, they are required to go to this annual training. we put them in different parts of the city, mclaren park, and we put them through things that they have to do.

we go on engine six training, and this is our main vehicle that will be used for wild land training. this was provided free by the assistant in order to assist the state in times of need, so there is continuous weekly training for those folks. there's a required training that they have to have. and this month, also, this happens to be the month that we also do the drills for the season. it's our serve rescue training, and in addition, we also have i.c.s. rescue training, which includes the chief officers inside and outside, how to rescue the incidents from a highly, highly risky evolution from the water here or on ocean beach. recently, we had a transbay two training. [inaudible] weekends in a row.

we do it in the middle of the night on a saturday and sunday morning, do a transbay training drill, where we simulate an incident with the transbay two and the b.a.r.t. train, and last year, the chief of oakland was able to attend on the other end, so we communicate with each other and know exactly what to do in the case of our events. so we never stop training. this is our life, and we do it all the time. hazmat. all members that are hazmat certified, they have to go to training every year, and you can see the uniforms that they wear that protect them from any incidents. so you can see that it's been an extremely busy month. our nert teams -- if you recall, april 24 was nert appreciation week, and we're

very appreciative for the nert volunteers and all the work that they do. this is just an example of the tremendous work that all these folks are doing. even [inaudible] notice of when vaccinations were coming to the island. whether it's earthquake or any hazard, they come and help out all the time. chief parks from the wild land division has been extremely busy. some of the topics that he's focusing on, peer support training, community health and safety meetings. we do an occupational health and safety roundtable meeting we hold on a monthly basis. we do some osha updates and just being extremely busy. in addition, working with the doctor's office on many things,

you're going to see a slide that chief nicholson and director's office put together. we [inaudible] supporting the vaccinations and also crisis response teams are responding to those who need vaccinated. we go to them instead of them coming to us. director's office, the vaccination centers. 87% of members are vaccinated, so it's creeping up. in april, we had no new cases.

after hour, our division chief conduct tests, and they all tested negative, too. chief with has been very busy. most of the requests were for plumbing again. that's an issue that we have, again, with our old plumbing,

but we also completed 169 service orders, so we're really streamlining the process. station 49 update, but as you heard from the chief, the folks from 49 already moved in may 10. we'll have a final ribbon cutting in mid-june. station 35, president feinstein, i wanted to let you know about this. so the electrical work has started. we have six bolts that have been connected for the pg&e connection to go into the p.u.c. connection to go into station 35, so that work is on going. there's only one bolt that's on what's called the pothole stage. that's digging in and looking at what's in there.

[inaudible] and some of the other perspectives on the station, so it's going to be a beautiful building, and we're looking forward to that. the captain has been extremely busy. we have finalized the mutual buggy layer. there was a delay on the chassis to arrive, and now we're looking at mid point inspection of the vehicle in june. there was a delay at the factory for luciana ferrara, and so we're waiting for those

to come. we're asking if it goes beyond the year, make sure we get the extended warrant. we'll push for that, obviously, and we have some cargo plans that have been submitted to us here for review. i want to commend captain chris vaughn and the folks at space station 16, lieutenant [inaudible] has been working on this and travelled to seattle to make sure that this vehicle was appropriate for us, and it was transported either today or tomorrow and will provide tomorrow. as you recall, we have a study that's in the draft stage and final draft submitted to the board of supes on the visibility of the water station on the pump side. we have several exercises with

p.u.c. basically creating a water scenario. what interactions between fire and p.u.c. to address any of the issues that may happen, like 89 where the mains broke? it's really good we continue to do those, and we have people coming in from the fields. major incident, we're going to have to [inaudible] if we have one, chief connor can not be [inaudible] and the role that we established with chief connor on major, major events go to the water department's operations center to forward operations there. and with that, we continue to update our protocols with those two agencies. and i want to finish our report to remind everybody about e.m.s. week, and i want to

remind everyone of the hard work of station 49 and the hard work of all the stations that we have. it's just one week, but command staff appreciation them all year. this year has been really, really challenging for all of them, and it's put a strain on them, not just physically, but mentally, and i want to conclude my report with that. so if you have any questions, i'm happy to answer them. >> president feinstein: commissioners? i see commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: madam president, thank you, chief velo, for your report. very comprehensive and as

usual, appreciated. i have a question that could be directed to chief dewitt because it's going to deal with facility maintenance issues. i wonder if we as a department could put deadlines on when a project needs to be completed, like a plumbing project that we're waiting for labor. i see it hear, fire station 28 waiting for labor from d.p.w. can't we tell the public works department that it needs to be completed within a month or two weeks, some kind of deadline, so that if it doesn't get done by them within a certain amount of time, we will go out and get a qualified bid from a qualified contractor already registered with the city? >> so i will ask chief dewitt,

but on station 49, that work has already been completed, so that's good news. we have to go first to d.p.w. and if they don't have labor, then, we go to that. we have to go through this process. chief dewitt? >> a.d.c. support services dawn dewitt. yes, commissioner cleaveland. we actually are working pretty closely with d.p.w. i have no complaints with plumbing. their turnaround time has been very good with us. the communication has been excellent. they've really stepped up their communication. the station 21 work, we did have a timeline. they actually finished early, and then because they were underbid, they were able to replace more of the lines than just the one sewer main, so we have a lot of the laterals

replaced. [inaudible] is different. they don't have the availability, so we've been working closely with them and if they can't finish a project in an appropriate timeline, they are releasing work so we can go out and get outside bits. i'm asking that we get quotes for work so we don't get a surprise bill at the end of a project for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars without having anticipated that. we go through the list each month, and if they just can't get to that, they are readily releasing work for the few outside vendors that we have to complete some projects, so that pretty is moving pretty well right now. >> i'm very glad to hear that, cleve dewitt, very glad. our firefighters and paramedics don't have to live with toilets that don't work or plumbing

back ups for undue lengths of time, so that's good news. i'm delighted to hear that public works is working with us instead of against us. >> yeah, the emergencying repairs are always dealt with very timely. they come out after hours. they will set aside work. any kind of sewage work, they come out immediately, so happy with that. >> commissioner cleaveland: good to know. i noticed on the hvac, you said a quote was denied for fire station 17 on a turnout drying home heater. what does that mean when you deny a quote? >> so they had -- so this one room in the station where members hang their turnout coats to dry, and historically, it's sometimes been the boiler room. it's not very common that we have drying rooms. the drying heater is an obsolete heater. it's gas, so looking to replace

that for the amount of money that they'd quoted us, i'd like to see if there's an electrical option that we can do for less money. and it made sense to include that portion in an entire package, rather than just one piece at a time as they had been doing, so i just want to see if there are other alternatives that don't cost as much as one small heater that we could use a space heater with a fan rather than using $10,000 to replace a heater to use in one room. >> commissioner cleaveland: so how does that work? >> so they use space heaters. in the past, they've used space heaters. in the boiler room, traditionally, that's when we

used to hang our turnouts to dry. >> commissioner cleaveland: i was amused to read your pest station record, station 26, having to abate raccoons from a housing generator. >> they're everywhere. >> commissioner cleaveland: that was very funny. i imagine rats or mice, but raccoons? that's interesting. under -- >> president feinstein: commissioner cleaveland, i have lots of them around here. any time. >> commissioner cleaveland: not in my backyard. any way, dealing with painting the red curb at fire station number nine, you put in a request of how long does it take them to come out and paint -- put some red paint on the curb? >> that one is done, so it was

within a week or so. they were quick with that one. >> commissioner cleaveland: okay. work pending, so it's been done. good. >> yes, sir. >> commissioner cleaveland: all right. 'cause i was going to say, let's get some red paint and give it to the firefighters and have them do it themselves. move a lot faster. dealing with the fleet management logistics report from captain serrano, the host tender bid is complete, but it's in a protest phase. what does that mean? >> so commissioner, there were two manufacturers that bid. it was awarded to one of them, and the other one protested, basically saying that the terms of the bid -- it's just a tactic of competition. we're very confident that

that's not going to go anywhere, and the prevailing bid will be the winning bid, but this is a process that we have to go through. >> commissioner cleaveland: it holds up the process is what you're saying. >> unfortunately, yeah, but we don't think it's going to be too long. >> commissioner cleaveland: you talk about new ambulance specs and researching some multiple options, what kind of ambulance specs are we looking at for our department? >> so right now, we have a van chassis. basically, a box put inside a van, and we are changing brakes on that more frequently, much more than anything else. in the past, there's been some cracks to the [inaudible] itself, too, and the chassis. so what other agencies have is a truck chassis. it's a truck chassis with a box

mounted on it [inaudible] and we're looking at what options we have for that. that's the two options that we have for ambulances, a van chassis -- it's amazing how fast those brakes go on a van than we can save much more money and time being out of service on a truck chassis when they're out of service. >> commissioner cleaveland: i'm delighted, chief, that you have the paramedics and e.m.t.s that drive the ambulances in this conversation and how we created the next generation, if you will, of ambulances. [inaudible] >> -- but we also have drivers on the engines that drive the specs for future engines, too, so absolutely very important. >> commissioner cleaveland:

last question, and is dealing with the awss system. and we received a letter that -- this week from one individual that talked about using salt water for an emergency through the awss system, and my question is, i know that it is damaging to use salt water as opposed to fresh water, but if we do use salt water, we can flush the system out, correct, and still use the awss system in the future. it's not ruined by using salt water, is that correct? >> that statement is correct, and we indeed use salt water drawn from the bay. this particular process that you're talking about is what we've been working with chief [inaudible] on and will be presented to the board of supervisors by june 30. it's a study of whether it's

feasible, financially or otherwise, for pump stations. [inaudible] presented to the board. so it's required by the grand jury report, and it's being done, and chief o'connor, you may add something to it, but as you'll recall from his presentation last time, it's extremely [inaudible] but just the cost of it is not really practical. chief o'connor? >> commissioner cleaveland: all right. chief, thank you very much for your response, and madam president, that's all my questions. >> president feinstein: thank you very much. any -- ah, vice president rodriguez, please. thank you. >> commissioner rodriguez: chief velo, thank you for your report. i've got a question. i think i brought this up last

month, regarding the emergency firefighting water system. you know, there's some work being done on claren street over by the ballpark, and there's another on vicente street, but this one says firefighting water system will be installed as a change order. and reading change orders all my life, change orders cost money. i'm just wondering, if this was being done already, why is it -- if we knew the work is happening, why was it all of a sudden the -- why was it put in as a change order? >> thank you, vice president, for your question. i will tell you that the work that's being done for the

[inaudible] system is actually done by p.u.c., so this is -- you're talking about the vicente pipeline? >> commissioner rodriguez: correct. >> i'm not sure where it happened, but it's not coming from us, it's coming from p.u.c. chief, you want to add something to it? >> sure. [inaudible] so instead of digging the street up twice, we started putting piping down for the new efws system going forward, so it's actually a cost saving system if there was one. >> commissioner rodriguez: i didn't know there was one. that's it for me. >> president feinstein: that's news to you, isn't it, vice president?

>> commissioner rodriguez: yeah. i've never heard that before. >> president feinstein: do any of the other commissioners -- right now, i'm just -- my computer skills are limited. i can only see commissioner cleaveland and commissioner rodriguez and a few members of the command staff. >> commissioner covington: madam president, i would like to say something. >> president feinstein: okay. commissioner covington, thank you. you popped up. thank you. >> commissioner covington: thank you. okay. so thanks for the report. things are moving right along, which is always nice to know. chief velo, i wanted you to give us a little bit more about the fleet disorders work that's being done and the shift work and how that impacts people, and then, i also saw that there was a meeting and video interview about sleep, so can

you give us some more information about that? >> thank you for your question, commissioner covington. absolutely. as you'll recall, one of the goals of the administration with the new doctor is just focus on some health and wellness issues for the members, and she's been working really hard to identify some of those issues that can affect basically the health and -- of our members. >> commissioner covington: dr. brokaw. >> yes, dr. brokaw. so through this, all the q&a and webinars, she contacted a doctor that specialized in sleep disorders. i don't want to ruin the video that you're going to be sent in the next few days, but she sent all the questions to a doctor to answer all of these issues. what it is is shift work, 24-hours work disrupts your sleep rhythms, and how you can

do that. and also, those folks that have sleep apnea, what can they do to help themselves and adjust to that 24-hour shift. so it's about 35 minutes of q&a from the doctor to chief parks, so we're really thankful that she's reaching out to other areas, not just focusing on just getting back to work issues but health and wellness issues, working with chief parks, identifying education, what can we do to help them out, and information is always valuable for our board members, so that's basically what that's about, commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: okay. because that's good because good sleep or sleep in general impacts everyone's quality of life. anyone who's ever had a newborn

knows about that. sleep deprivation is not fun, so i'm glad to see the emphasis on this, and you say that we will be receiving a video? >> yes. i'm working with chief parks and chief [inaudible] who put together a video on how to deliver it. we also have an internal video process that we're doing, and you can actually load it up on your phone and play it, so you'll be seeing in the next couple of days a link from the doctor for the video. so we can't enjoy the disruptions from the 24-hour shift or a call in the middle of the night, but we can recover from that disruption. >> commissioner covington: yeah. that's better than each

individual doing what they think might be helpful. okay. i will stop there, chief velo. >> thanks. >> commissioner covington: thank you, chief velo. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner covington. further questions from any of the commissioners? madam secretary, you'll let me know if i'm missing anything. i have a big jose velo, and a few small people, but no commissioners. >> clerk: okay. nobody's raising their hand, and there's nobody on the public call-in line. >> president feinstein: well, there you go, and now i have a small chief velo there, and we're going to close public comment, and i think we are ready to move onto the next item. madam secretary, thank you. >> clerk: item five, commission report. report on commission activities since last meeting of may 12,

2021. >> president feinstein: all right. commissioners -- wait, first. do i need public comment first, madam secretary? >> clerk: there is no one on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: also, how would they know what they did? but any way, i'll continue on. commissioners, do any of you have anything to report? i'm sorry, maureen, i can see commissioner rodriguez and commissioner covington and not my fellow commissioners. >> clerk: commissioner nakajo has his hand up. >> president feinstein: okay. commissioner nakajo, with my apologies, and i'm not sure why i couldn't see your hand up. please. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you, madam president. i'm not sure if i'm coming through clearly, but i have a question through to the

commission secretary -- >> commissioner covington: commissioner nakajo, could you speak up, please? >> commissioner nakajo: i'm having problems with my microphone and the whole connection piece. can you hear me in. >> commissioner covington: oh, i see. you're faint, but we can hear you. >> commissioner nakajo: you're breaking up, as well. >> president feinstein: i'm sorry, i can't. it's -- for some reason, it seems to be very interrupted. i don't know if i'm the only person. i'll leave it to my fellow commissioners, but i can't hear -- i can't hear it cogently. [inaudible] >> clerk: it sounds like he's talking underwater. >> commissioner covington: we've lost video, too.

oh, there he is. >> president feinstein: oh, there he is, good. we see you, commissioner nakajo. >> commissioner nakajo: still have a problem with the video. so if you can hear me, i'll ask my question, if not, i'll forgo. >> commissioner covington: i can hear you. >> president feinstein: i can hear you, to. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. basically, what i was asking, commission secretary, is there any word on when we would return to the office? >> clerk: no, there is not. from what i understand, it's probably going to be more towards the end of the year. >> commissioner nakajo: [inaudible] fortunate to be able to connect to the meeting, but i've been experiencing lots of problems with connections as you all have. thank you. >> if i may, madam president, i believe it is planned for

september for meetings to go back to city hall if all goes well, but i can get you more information on that. >> president feinstein: thank you. it's much appreciated. i realize things are still in flux, but to the extend that you still have information, chief, and can share it with us, i think that'll be helpful for everybody's planning purposes. >> president feinstein: am i missing any other commissioners that wish to report on their activity? >> clerk: no, nobody has their hand up. >> president feinstein: okay. i do. now i do. i -- i -- i did have the opportunity to do a couple of things, and i'll work backwards here. i -- i, in golden gate park

yesterday, was able to see for the first time, the 6 engine yesterday and training with the captain and working, you know, the hydrants. yeah, i've only seen those vehicles, you know, in pictures and what-have-you, but they were out there and in training, and it was impressive, so i was pleased to stumble upon them and of course inserted myself immediately for a tutorial and learned how they differ from regular equipment, so it was very helpful to me. i really appreciated it, so i wanted to just comment upon that. i also hope to attend the -- a

search training this weekend. i know it's more than search and rescue friday, but i'm looking forward to that since i've been a person that's really -- it surprises me the number of surf rescues that we get. it just knocks my socks off, so surf rescue, i'm looking forward to be able to attend that training. and i had one question. perhaps it's not fair to you,

chief, but i wonder, from based on what was included in your report on the vaccination rate of the members, if we're going to become maskless, so to speak, on june 15, is there any concern about those members that have not been vaccinated, and do we have any idea why they're hesitating to get vaccinated? the rest of us are clamoring, clamoring, clamoring, and we have members of the department that are exposed more significantly than any of us are, and they're not getting vaccinated. do you have any thoughts on that that you can share? >> so thank you, president. we're going to follow city d.p.h. guidelines which follows

california d.p.h. guidelines, and also, we have cal-osha to deal with. so cal-osha is not forcing vaccinations yet, but they're not lifting the mask mandates yet. so once we get the guidelines from the city, we're going to see what we're going to get. in answering the question about why members aren't getting vaccinated, it's a personal choice. as you have heard maybe, from santa clara county, it's a different county, but they're asking for the [inaudible] there yet, and my understanding is that city d.p.h. is not going to that yet, from what i

understand, so we'll keep track of that and let you know. >> president feinstein: and one more thing. the vaccination rate is concerning. it's low enough that it's concerning. can the department, in and of itself, institute a mask mandate within the station? >> that's a good question. we'll have to rely, again, on public health, to give us some guidance on that, too. at this time, we have approximately 242 members that are not vaccinated and they said they will not get vaccinated. we can err on the side of health in order to protect our members and cal-osha mandates that, we'll have to abide by that until otherwise told, but other than that, we cannot risk

the lives of our members, but other than that, we have to follow our guidelines. >> president feinstein: okay. i understand. thank you for that. that is all i have. do we have further comments, madam secretary? >> clerk: i don't see anybody waving or have their hands up. >> president feinstein: thank you. okay. so we may call the next item. >> clerk: item six, agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> president feinstein: all right. again, madam secretary, i'm not quite sure why -- i do have this on grid mode -- ah, i see commissioner covington and commissioner -- [inaudible] >> commissioner covington: thank you, madam president. okay. thank you, madam president. i know that we were able to

have the head of m.t.a. and some key staff members come to our -- i guess it was our last meeting or the meeting before last, and i guess a number of us didn't get a chance to ask questions and to give input into slow streets specifically, and i do believe the head of m.t.a. intimated that he would be, you know, happy to come back at another time since we had run out of time. so i don't want too much time to pass before we issue another invitation to come, and we will be more mindful of the time that he is able to spend with us next time around. >> president feinstein: all right. thank you. thank you. >> commissioner covington: thank you. >> president feinstein: and,

again -- >> clerk: commissioner rodriguez has his hand up. >> president feinstein: thank you. commissioner rodriguez, please. >> commissioner rodriguez: i agree with commissioner covington. i think we're all aware that there was a lot of people that didn't call in that did send letters in that were really concerned about the slow streets, and i feel that a lot of us are also, especially -- found it very interesting about the one about the great highway, so i would like another presentation or just a chance to ask more questions, and then, at that point, the commission -- you know, maybe the commission would write a letter or do something, if we agree, to the board of supervisors.

i'm sure the chief has, given the fire department's opinion on this, but i think it's important that the commission also voices their opinion on this, so i agree with commissioner covington. the other one that i would like to bring up is, you know, i guess assistant deputy chief fire marshall, what is this, kenneth coughland, so it would be nice to arrange where he -- he? yeah, it's a he -- that he would come before the commission to introduce himself, and we could ask him some questions regarding his thoughts or qualifications -- not his qualifications, but his thoughts on the position, so that's my point.

>> president feinstein: thank you, vice president rodriguez. any further -- ah, commissioner nakajo. >> commissioner nakajo: thank you very much, madam president. i want to be careful because this is an item that talked about future fire commission meetings, and we're dialoguing a little bit in terms of a concern i had, also. i wanted to affirm commissioner covington's remarks as well as commissioner rodriguez when it comes to the dialogue of slow streets or permanent slow streets. i don't want to take from the commission or myself because it's hard to advocate for our positions and what we do, and

for example, what d.p.a. may be doing or m.t.a. may be doing, and i don't want to perceive it -- i'm going to choose my words carefully -- in terms of what they're trying to accomplish, but we do have our mission, as well. and clearly, for myself, what i understood in terms of m.t.a. and staff that came with the director, in terms of what they're trying to establish, i heard a lot of that, and i think we tried to reiterate what our principles and points were, so i'd really like to have it agendized when it's appropriate because i began to think in the afterthought, like many of you, is realizing we have a clash of conflict or permanent. slow streets is slow streets, permanent. i don't want to be critical, but also, our fire department has our mission, which is to

get to our community during a fire emergency or situation. i appreciate the public calling in, but like the vice president pointed out, we didn't have a chance to get a lot of it in, as well. i just want to make sure that as the director of m.t.a. says, they're cooperating with us, and i somewhat felt that, but i felt that our points and emphasis -- i don't want to say not listened to, because he said that he listened to all departments and officers, but i just want to make sure that what we're concerned about is taken into consideration. i felt at one point or another, this is the way it's done, this is m.t.a.s way, and we're going to have to adjust. now, i'm paraphrasing, and i

may get in trouble with that, and in the context of the commission, i'll stop. >> president feinstein: no, you know, please, commissioner nakajo, and unless there's other commissioners that wish to comment, i do wish to comment because i agree with you. and does anybody else wish to comment on it, on the slow streets presentation with m.t.a.? yeah, commissioner nakajo. >> clerk: i'm not sure we can actually get into that under this agenda item. >> commissioner nakajo: that's what i was referring to. i wanted to be careful we didn't agendize that. >> clerk: i don't any we can have a robust discussion at this point. >> commissioner nakajo: i was following the suggestion of what can be taken off the agenda -- >> president feinstein: okay. okay. then let me ask this. you know, we've gotten out, and i've read in the paper today, there's now slow streets and the proposal that there be

permanent shared spaces, and i know that falls under a different department, but poses sort of the same issue -- you know, i'm sure everybody read that, in seattle, there was, you know, what is bound to happen, which is somebody at night, you know, making a turn or not making a turn and smashing into one of these shared spaces where people are dining. and narrowing our streets is not helpful when you're in a city of narrow streets, and i just, i want to know if that should be something that we invite m.t.a. or if that's d.p.w., i think, and to also

ask our fire marshal, before he leaves us, if he could give us some numbers and perhaps express some concerns. are you there, fire marshal dicosio, or did you leave us? oh, hello. >> hello, president feinstein. absolutely. be happy to have this conversation at the next meeting. >> clerk: unfortunately, the next meeting, we have deliberations, a closed session, so i don't know if we'll have room to add something this robust on our next meeting, but probably the second meeting in june. >> president feinstein: well, i think that we can take that off the agenda at a later time and figure that out. and i'm sorry, commissioner nakajo.

i do see your hand. i didn't mean to not recognize you. thank you. >> commissioner nakajo: yeah. thank you, madam president. i want to be respectful to all of us, but this item right now we're talking about, putting this on the subject matter item, and right now, i think we're getting into some robust discussions that i don't think is probably -- it's not properly agendized. i don't want to be an item killer, but i don't know how far you want to take it, and i am getting uncomfortable with how far this discussion is going. >> president feinstein: i just want to get it agendized and slow spaces and streets, as well. [inaudible] >> commissioner nakajo: -- to

affirm that i would like to see it itemized, as well, or whatever is proper protocol at this time. whenever it's agendized, we can have a robust discussion. i would point that out respectfully. >> president feinstein: i'm too robust, commissioner nakajo. all right. >> clerk: and there's nobody on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: okay. then public comment shall be closed. and -- oh, okay. never mind. save it. next item, please. >> clerk: item 7, adjournment. >> president feinstein: well, i don't -- i don't want to get into a robust discussion, either, but does anybody have a motion?

>> commissioner cleaveland: i move to adjourn. >> commissioner covington: i move to -- okay. i second. >> president feinstein: okay. commissioner cleaveland is moving, and commissioner covington is seconding, if i understand correctly. >> clerk: correct. >> president feinstein: roll call vote, madam secretary. [roll call] >> clerk: this meeting is adjourned at 6:30. going placen

san francisco anymore. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: oh, hello. oh, my goodness. sorry to keep everybody waiting. i'm not used to going places in san francisco anymore. i sit at a computer all day, and i'm on zoom calls. i'm, like, wait a minute, this is in person? i want to thank you all for joining us. i'm mayor london breed, and i'm joined by several supervisors. i see supervisor catherine

stefani and supervisor myrna melgar, as well. we have many folks that are part of the fabric of san francisco, and the reason why we're here with so many amazing women is because we know that since this pandemic began, women have really had a serious challenge. it's not bad enough that women in fact make about 80% to the dollar that men make, and african women more in the 60%, and latino women more about 50% on the dollar. it's not bad enough that we're not paid as much, but because there were challenges with child care, challenges to school, access to transitions and new and rewarding opportunities in the work industry, women have suffered really during this pandemic, and so it is so important to me that when looking at our economic recovery as san

francisco began to reopen, that we can look at ways of supporting and invest in san francisco. now today, we have some really big announcements. now it's been hard, but two thirds of san franciscans have been vaccinated. as we begin to reopen, we want to keep people safe, and we are hopeful, jennie lam, that we are going to get the schools open this fall because i don't know about you, but i'm sure that many of the parents are ready to see their children go back to school. now what we're announcing today is going to be really incredible, and it has a lot to do with so many women expressing concerns about leaving one industry to go work in the other. if they were working in the hospitality industry, it's, like, this is the sector that i'm working in, but the hospitality industry was devastated during the pandemic, so how do we provide ways for people to shift? so part of the announcement

today is focusing on getting people prepared to shift from various industries in san francisco. so we're announcing 300 opportunities that will help women in the hospitality sector, in the construction sector, in the tech sector, and a number of industries where whatever we choose to do, because we know we are women and we are fierce, we can jump on those opportunities. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: but it's not just about an opportunity, it's about what do you do with your children when you're trying to work? and so child care plays an important role, but here's the challenge we've had in san francisco. we have resources sometimes for the very low-income women, although we may not have a sufficient number of slots. and then, there's those women that just are right over the threshold where they don't necessarily qualify, but they face challenges in child care.

so we are announcing today that not only are we offering more slots for our very low-income women that need help with their child care, but the moderate income, as well. 800 new slots for child care because you know mothers, they work hard, but they need a break. i don't know if you remember when you were a kid and how many problems you gave to your parents, but i was a handful to my grandmother. so i understand when she was, like, go ahead. she can go. take her. i need a break. well, it's not just about a break. it's about the learning loss, it's about having an opportunity to play with other children, it's about having a well rounded childhood and making sure that our child care centers are funded, our educators are funded in a specific way that we're able to provide some sense of normalcy after having such a tough year, so today is really about making sure that women are uplifted

and supported; that we continue to breakdown these barriers as we head down the road of recovery. yes, san francisco is a major city, a dense city, with many, many challenges, but you know what? this is a challenge that we have to consistently work on. it should not be an issue for women, but it is an issue for women in san francisco and in the country. with that, the person that is going to lead this effort, a mom herself -- as a matter of fact, i was on meetings with her as she was dealing with distance learning with her child. we are so excited to have as our new executive director of the office of economic and workforce development, kay solfus [applause] >> good morning. so as i stand here, day seven -- day six in this new job for the city i love, i am

very aware that i stand here on the shoulders of generations of women in my family, mostly single mothers in my family. and as i raise my children, my s.f. born children, my two daughters, one of woman is intellectual -- one of whom is intellectually and physically disabled, i realize i wouldn't be standing here being able to contribute to our city were it not for the incredible schools that have supported my kids and the child care, especially for my younger daughter, especially in the early years when many child care facilities didn't know how to handle someone with intellectual disabilities. rec and park stepped in, ggrc stepped in, and i'm able to do what i do as a direct by-product of being a woman and being supported in this life.

i grew up as the daughter of another single mom in buffalo, new york, and she was not supported in the same way. she was always struggling to make ends meet, out of work, trying to figure out how to borrow neighbors to help care for my brother and i, and so i'm also aware of the unnecessary struggles women are put through trying to balance all that they do. so as i stand here today, thank you, mayor breed, thank you, my team at oewd, thank you, everyone standing behind me. i can't be more proud to have this be one of the first initiatives launched under my helm, and i commit to you and to this city that this is the first and it will not be the last, and that women and their children and their families are a key part of our economic recovery plan, a key part of equity in this city, and a key part of our future, and you have my commitment to lead the

way. thank you. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, kate. and now, we have serina marie, who is a health care academy graduate with home bridge. [applause] >> good morning. i would like to thank mayor breed and health care academy -- thank you -- health care academy and all those who put this wonderful event together. i would like to share with you my story. my name is serina maria, and i am a care supervisor at home bridge. several years ago, i knew i wantsed -- wanted to be in the health care field, and home bridge gave me the opportunity in hiring me as a health care provider. during my time at home bridge, i wanted to grow in the field,

so i decided to participate in their career advancement program, which is a collaboration of the health care academy and home bridge. through this training, i was able to gain the skill and opportunities needed for advancement in home bridge. in the training program, not only did i learn the technical skills of the job, but i also learned the interpersonal skills that have helped me not only support my clients and home care providers but also helped me in my every day personal life. shortly after completing the program, i was able to advance into a mentorship role supporting new providers coming into our organization. eventually, i was promoted to care supervisor, which is my current position. these advancement opportunities helped me to support my family, especially during the pandemic.

this experience has also contributed to my ability to support home care providers i supervise who provide critical care for some of our most vulnerable members of our community, contributing to the safe reopening of our city, as well. once again, i would like to thank the health care academy and home bridge for creating advancement opportunities through effective training programs. my hope is that more woen will be able to benefit from collaborative programs like these through the mayor's initiative. thank you so much. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and at this time, i want to introduce members of the board of supervisors myrna melgar and catherine stefani.

>> supervisor melgar: thank you, mayor breed. i am so grateful for your position in centering economic recovery on women's needs. i, along with supervisor stefani, worked on a resolution earlier this year asking our city to do just that, and i'm so grateful that the mayor has responded. thank you, mayor. for women, we cannot go back to the way it was before the pandemic. we need to make progress, and to make progress on social and economic issues, we need to make sure that women have the tools that they need to succeed and that children have their needs met, and so i think that this is a great step, and i look forward to more in the future. supervisor? >> supervisor stefani: thank you, supervisor, and thank you to mayor breed for gathering all of these incredible women today and for basically walking the walk. she knows exactly how to respond when there's a need that's unmet, and to do what she's doing for mothers that need child care, to lift

mothers up, to lift working mothers up is exactly what we need in response to this pandemic. i am so proud to be a part of the board of supervisors and women that actually show up for women. i am so excited that we have kate sophis leading the office of workforce development. there's a saying, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, and we are at the table. so thank you, mayor breed, and thank you to all the women here today. >> the hon. london breed: well, women in this city are definitely at the table, and we're running things. yes to women everywhere. you know, i just really appreciate these two amazing women on the board of supervisors. sadly, many of you heard about the tragedy that occurred in san jose, and our hearts go out to the families of the people who lost their lives in the tragedy, and the mayor, sam

liccardo, who i already reached out to. i want to thank supervisor stefani for her role in gun legislation in this city. i want to thank myrna, who's considered basically a freshman supervisor but who already has hit the ground running and made her mark around children and support. we made some announcements as we began to wind down this budget process, these women have been advocating for processes that will benefit the people of san francisco, and i really appreciate their partnership in this effort. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: all right. next up, we have tracey liss, who is the executive director of frandaya. am i saying that right? >> you were close. >> the hon. london breed: tell me how to say it.

>> frandaja. >> the hon. london breed: oh, frandaja. >> thank you. this initiative is the perfect extension and next step for what's needed. every year, we get families who call who do not qualify. they don't make little enough money -- like anyone wants to make less money, right? especially our moms, our single moms. they don't make enough to qualify, and so we don't have anything to help them. we did fight for some scholarship programs so they could come to our center, and it still wasn't enough. i don't know if you know, the fee for a single-family with several kids, it's one fee. so even if they're paying the highest cost, it's still $600 a month for three kids, and then, they don't qualify anymore. they go on the track, they get

the promotion for career advancement, and then, they don't qualify. now you're looking at about $2,000 per month per child. who can jump from $600 to $6,000 a month out of their pocket for care? it's been an impossible task. we saw in the pandemic how important child care, schools, and meeting the needs for children was for working families, and this initiative is prime to help us recover in a way that we haven't seen before. 800 slots for moderate to middle-income families is an amazing thing, and we're so honored to be a part of it. it's a natural next step for us, and we're looking forward to working with those families, to working with the city and all of the leaders of san francisco, including mayor breed, to make this happen. we're committed with the office of early care and education, the mayor's office to have successful opportunities, quality care for kids, and to help families achieve both

economic and educational success as we move forward. this is a good day. it is a beautiful day in san francisco, and it's an amazing day for women. thank you so much. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and yes, it's an amazing day for women, and i can't necessarily call out all of the women here, but all of the people here who are almost faceless are women who are leaders in various capacity in the city. they make this work happen. ingrid mesquita with the office of early childhood education. thank you for all of your advocacy. we have women from the human rights commission. i see sharon lai from m.t.a. i know other women from the commission on the status of women are here with us, as well as the a. philip randolph institute. jackie, thank you so much for

all of you do. this represents an amazing coalition of leaders in san francisco who are doing the hard work on the ground, women from all parts of san francisco. the way we address the challenges around equity, and we bring our city back stronger than ever is when we come together and we make sure that resources are not a barrier to the success and opportunities that we all deserve in life, and so that's what this is about. today is just one step further in that direction. i'm looking forward to seeing the city come alive again, and i'm looking forward to seeing this city continue and finally lift up those who too often have been left behind. this is another great opportunity, so thank you all so much for joining us here today. [applause]

my name is doctor ellen moffett, i am an assistant medical examiner for the city and county of san francisco. i perform autopsy, review medical records and write reports. also integrate other sorts of testing data to determine cause and manner of death.

i have been here at this facility since i moved here in november, and previous to that at the old facility. i was worried when we moved here that because this building is so much larger that i wouldn't see people every day. i would miss my personal interactions with the other employees, but that hasn't been the case. this building is very nice. we have lovely autopsy tables and i do get to go upstairs and down stairs several times a day to see everyone else i work with. we have a bond like any other group of employees that work for a specific agency in san francisco. we work closely on each case to determine the best cause of death, and we also interact with family members of the diseased. that brings us closer together also. >> i am an investigator two at the office of the chief until examiner in san francisco.

as an investigator here i investigate all manners of death that come through our jurisdiction. i go to the field interview police officers, detectives, family members, physicians, anyone who might be involved with the death. additionally i take any property with the deceased individual and take care and custody of that. i maintain the chain and custody for court purposes if that becomes an issue later and notify next of kin and make any additional follow up phone callsness with that particular death. i am dealing with people at the worst possible time in their lives delivering the worst news they could get. i work with the family to help them through the grieving process. >> i am ricky moore, a clerk at the san francisco medical examiner's office. i assist the pathology and toxicology and investigative

team around work close with the families, loved ones and funeral establishment. >> i started at the old facility. the building was old, vintage. we had issues with plumbing and things like that. i had a tiny desk. i feet very happy to be here in the new digs where i actually have room to do my work. >> i am sue pairing, the toxicologist supervisor. we test for alcohol, drugs and poisons and biological substances. i oversee all of the lab operations. the forensic operation here we perform the toxicology testing for the human performance and the case in the city of san francisco. we collect evidence at the scene. a woman was killed after a

robbery homicide, and the dna collected from the zip ties she was bound with ended up being a cold hit to the suspect. that was the only investigative link collecting the scene to the suspect. it is nice to get the feedback. we do a lot of work and you don't hear the result. once in a while you heard it had an impact on somebody. you can bring justice to what happened. we are able to take what we due to the next level. many of our counterparts in other states, cities or countries don't have the resources and don't have the beautiful building and the equipmentness to really advance what we are doing. >> sometimes we go to court. whoever is on call may be called out of the office to go to various portions of the city to investigate suspicious deaths. we do whatever we can to get our

job done. >> when we think that a case has a natural cause of death and it turns out to be another natural cause of death. unexpected findings are fun. >> i have a prior background in law enforcement. i was a police officer for 8 years. i handled homicides and suicides. i had been around death investigation type scenes. as a police officer we only handled minimal components then it was turned over to the coroner or the detective division. i am intrigued with those types of calls. i wondered why someone died. i have an extremely supportive family. older children say, mom, how was your day. i can give minor details and i have an amazing spouse always

willing to listen to any and all details of my day. without that it would be really hard to deal with the negative components of this job. >> being i am a native of san francisco and grew up in the community. i come across that a lot where i may know a loved one coming from the back way or a loved one seeking answers for their deceased. there are a lot of cases where i may feel affected by it. if from is a child involved or things like that. i try to not bring it home and not let it affect me. when i tell people i work at the medical examiners office. what do you do? the autopsy? i deal with the enough and -- with the administrative and the families. >> most of the time work here is

very enjoyable. >> after i started working with dead people, i had just gotten married and one night i woke up in a cold sweat. i thought there was somebody dead? my bed. i rolled over and poked the body. sure enough, it was my husband who grumbled and went back to sleep. this job does have lingering effects. in terms of why did you want to go into this? i loved science growing up but i didn't want to be a doctor and didn't want to be a pharmacist. the more i learned about forensics how interested i was of the perfect combination between applied science and criminal justice. if you are interested in finding out the facts and truth seeking to find out what happened, anybody interested in that has a place in this field.

>> being a woman we just need to go for it and don't let anyone fail you, you can't be. >> with regard to this position in comparison to crime dramas out there, i would say there might be some minor correlations. let's face it, we aren't hollywood, we are real world. yes we collect evidence. we want to preserve that. we are not scanning fingerprints in the field like a hollywood television show. >> families say thank you for what you do, for me that is extremely fulfilling. somebody has to do my job. if i can make a situation that is really negative for someone more positive, then i feel like i am doing the right thing for the city of san francisco.

>> you're watching "coping with covid-19" with chris manners. today's special guest is katie birdbaum. >> hi, i'm chris manners and you're watching "coping with covid-19." my guest is katie birdbalm. she's here today to talk about san francisco city programs which transforms city streets into car-free spaces. the program's beginning to start up again. ms. birdbalm, welcome to the show. >> thank you, chris, i'm excited to be here. >> before we get into the details, can you give us a brief overview of how it works. >> yeah. it's san francisco's open streets program and it was founded in 2008 as a mayoral initiative under mayor gavin newsome the now governor.

the climate change equity program. to be able to transform our streets. the community spaces allow communities historically underserved and suffer from higher rates of preventable diseases can be connected to healthy eating, active living activities and really connect to the rest of the city as well and so that's how we got started in 2008. >> i know that some small scale events started up again in april. could you police man where they were. how they managed safety and what they managed to do? >> yeah. absolutely. we still are in the waning days of the pandemic. we're there, so we do have some safety protocols in place. but we really were able to bring back sunday streets this april. we celebrated the opening of a

biking and walking path in the bayview indian basin shoreline. we were able to offer fitness classes and things like that as well as covid-19 testing. along the water front and a way for people to basically celebrate our new walking and biking path and be able to get outside and exercise while still being totally safe in terms of covid compliance and plenty of social distancing and ability to control who and where you're around. >> that's great. what can we look forward to in may? i've heard there's going to be new ways to celebrate carnival and cinco de mayo. >> yeah. so one thing we've been partnering with san francisco and carnival. there are a lot of large festivals. they've had to change some of

their programming to compliance needs and the health and safety needs of our community, but that does not stop the fabulous spirit of carnival coming to san francisco. but we're going to continue our partnership this year and they're going to continue a health and wellness fair. so they're able to access the critical covid-19 resources and also be able to experience some beautiful cultural performances in a safe, compliant format. we're able to do that with them again this year, so we're really excited to bring that program back out and we're helping offer some fitness classes around their health and safety fairs. that's going to be a beautiful way to celebrate spring and celebrate the culture that san francisco is known for around the world and then also with that, we're going to be doing a bike ride with them on cinco de mayo, so helping support the

latino taskforce food hub and they're organizing a bike ride and active living. we're going to be supporting that and riding out with carnival on cinco de mayo. >> that's cool. we haven't talked about walkway weekends yet. is that an ongoing event? >> yeah, so walkway weekend is one of the anchor sites for this year. so, you know, as part of covid compliance, we're not able to do big events, but we're doing a lot of smaller activation city rides and walkway weekends in chinatown is one of our anchor sites throughout the year. so we were able to access grant avenue car-free, that's from california to washington car-free every saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and it's full with kind of the beautiful culture and art that is chinatown all the time.

kind of a fun way to experience that with plenty of extra room in the street. also, as little extra room for us to have things like a lion dance. there's an exhibition that's there every saturday. we're also going to be offering some fitness classes as well as other cultural programming as we're allowed to do it as things open up. >> these events take a lot of planning. i require a variety of resources to get off the ground. i know you work closely with the sfmta and the department of public health to organize them, but could you talk a little bit about the partnerships that make the sunday streets program possible and explain why they're so important? >> yeah. absolutely. sunday streets really at its core, you know, i work for a nonprofit called "livable city" and we hold the city streets program and at the center of it, it's been a partnership program. so they're transforming miles anywhere from 1 to 4 miles of city streets into car-free

community spaces filling those with community groups, nonprofits, business activities and just kind of unique san francisco treasures wanting to bring their specialness to the streets. it really has always been a partnership program. it's quite literally magic when all of these streets can transform within just a couple of, you know, we end up doing it in about 30 to 45 minutes where we transform 1 to 4 miles of streets into car-free community spaces. every city agency supports it as well as hundreds of community partners. it's a whole family of partners that are stepping forward to make sure that that space and that opportunity is being offered to the community in san francisco. >> could you talk about the four concepts of sunday streets. i understand you have something in the planning stages for october and, do you think our residents will be ready for large events by then? >> well, we do have something

brewing for october and very much, you know, to answer your question, are people going to be ready to be together and in crowds again? that is part of our strategy for the rides together season as we are starting now with small, like i said, very small comfortable, safe format with not that many people at it, so people can start getting used to being out and about again, right and that it is an activity that can be safe and enjoyable and really just start getting their feet wet in that type of community activity. so the hope is that, you know, we are able to throughout the spring and summer and into the early parts of the fall really get people used to being again in community again for ability for us to be able to come back in full force, sometime in the late fall. so we're looking at october is what we're looking at and the hopes is that we can actually

create miles of streets for us to come out and celebrate in. you know, we're obviously going to be watching the public health directives and as they unfold and follow them and make sure we're keeping all the community members safe and we'll make adjustments as needed. but the way things are trending right now, we should be able to be out together by the fall in a way that looks and feels a lot more like it used to for sunday streets. >> i'm really excited to see the city open up again and what you're doing with the sunday streets program is promising. and i want to thank you for coming on the show today. this has been really encouraging. >> thank you, chris. we're excited to see everybody out in the streets sometime when it's safe. >> thanks again. that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more updates shortly. you've been watching "coping with covid-19." for sfgov tv,

i'm chris manners. thanks for watching. >> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and

adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a

queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we

characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people

really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of

need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to care for

parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the prospective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits before i

started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand

into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. >> restaurants will be open for take out only, but nonessential stores, like bars and gyms, will close effective midnight

tonight. [♪♪♪] >> my name is sharky laguana. i am a small business owner. i own a company called vandigo van rentals. it rents vans to the music industry. i am also a member of the small business commission as appointed by mayor breed in 2019. i am a musician and have worked as a professional musician and recording artist in the 90s. [♪♪♪] >> we came up in san francisco, so i've played at most of the

live venues as a performer, and, of course, i've seen hundreds of shows over the years, and i care very, very deeply about live entertainment. in fact, when i joined the commission, i said that i was going to make a particular effort to pay attention to the arts and entertainment and make sure that those small businesses receive the level of attention that i think they deserve. >> this is a constantly and rapidly changing situation, and we are working hard to be aggressive to flatten the curve to disrupt the spread of covid-19. >> when the pandemic hit, it was crystal clear to me that this was devastating to the music industry because live venues had to completely shutdown. there was no way for them to open for even a single day or

in limited capacity. that hit me emotionally as an artist and hit me professionally, as well as a small business that caters to artists, so i was very deeply concerned about what the city could do to help the entertainment committee. we knew we needed somebody to introduce some kind of legislation to get the ball rolling, and so we just started texting supervisor haney, just harassing him, saying we need to do something, we need to do something. he said i know we need to do something, but what do we do? we eventually settled on this idea that there would be an independent venue recovery fund. >> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection, this resolution is passed unanimously. >> and we were concerned for

these small mom-and-pop businesses that contribute so much to our arts community. >> we are an extremely small venue that has the capacity to do extremely small shows. most of our staff has been working for us for over ten years. there's very little turnover in the staff, so it felt like family. sharky with the small business commission was crucial in pestering supervisor haney and others to really keep our industry top of mind. we closed down on march 13 of 2020 when we heard that there was an order to do so by the mayor, and we had to call that show in the middle of the

night. they were in the middle of their sound check, and i had to call the venue and say, we need to cancel the show tonight. >> the fund is for our live music and entertainment venues, and in its first round, it will offer grants of at least $10,000 to qualifying venues. these are venues that offer a signature amount of live entertainment programming before the pandemic and are committed to reopening and offering live entertainment spaces after the pandemic. >> it's going to, you know, just stave off the bleeding for a moment. it's the city contributing to helping make sure these venues are around, to continue to be part of the economic recovery for our city. >> when you think about the venues for events in the city, we're talking about all of

them. some have been able to come back adaptively over the last year and have been able to be shape shifters in this pandemic, and that's exciting to see, but i'm really looking forward to the day when events and venues can reopen and help drive the recovery here in san francisco. >> they have done a study that says for every dollar of ticket sales done in this city, $12 goes to neighboring businesses. from all of our vendors to the restaurants that are next to our ven sues and just so many other things that you can think of, all of which have been so negatively affected by covid. for this industry to fail is unthinkable on so many levels. it's unheard of, like, san francisco without its music scene would be a terribly

dismal place. >> i don't know that this needs to be arrest -- that there needs to be art welfare for artists. we just need to live and pay for our food, and things will take care of themselves. i think that that's not the given situation. what san francisco could do that they don't seem to do very much is really do something to support these clubs and venues that have all of these different artists performing in them. actually, i think precovid, it was, you know, don't have a warehouse party and don't do a gig. don't go outside, and don't do this. there was a lot of don't, don't, don't, and after the pandemic, they realized we're a big industry, and we bring a lot of money into this city, so they need to encourage and hope these venues. and then, you know, as far as people like me, it would be nice if you didn't only get

encouraged for only singing opera or playing violin. [♪♪♪] >> entertainment is a huge part of what is going to make this city bounce back, and we're going to need to have live music coming back, and comedy, and drag shows and everything under the sun that is fun and creative in order to get smiles back on our faces and in order to get the city moving again. [♪♪♪] >> venues serve a really vital function in society. there aren't many places where people from any walk of life, race, religion, sexuality can come together in the same room and experience joy, right? experience love, experience

anything that what makes us human, community, our connective tissues between different souls. if we were to lose this, lose this situation, you're going to lose this very vital piece of society, and just coming out of the pandemic, you know, it's going to help us recover socially? well, yeah, because we need to be in the same room with a bunch of people, and then help people across the country recover financially. >> san francisco art recovery fund, amazing. it opened yesterday on april 21. applications are open through may 5. we're encouraging everyone in the coalition to apply. there's very clear information on what's eligible, but that's basically been what our coalition has been advocating for from the beginning. you know, everyone's been supportive, and they've all been hugely integral to this program getting off the ground. you know, we found our champion

with supervisor matt haney from district six who introduced this legislation and pushed this into law. mayor breed dedicated $1.5 million this fund, and then supervisor haney matched that, so there's $3 million in this fund. this is a huge moment for our coalition. it's what we've been fighting for all along. >> one of the challenges of our business is staying on top of all the opportunities as they come back. at the office of oewd, office of economic and workforce development, if you need to speak to somebody, you can find people who can help you navigate any of the available programs and resources. >> a lot of blind optimism has kept us afloat, you know, and there's been a lot of reason for despair, but this is what keeps me in the business, and this is what keeps me fighting,

you know, and continuing to advocate, is that we need this and this is part of our life's blood as much as oxygen and food is. don't lose heart. look at there for all the various grants that are available to you. some of them might be very slow to unrao, and it might seem like too -- unroll, and it might seem like it's too late, but people are going to fight to keep their beloved venues open, and as a band, you're going to be okay.

>> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi.

so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling

here with puoillo del mar. we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful murals.

>> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local people will spend their money as well. i hope people shop locally.

>> this is may 26th meeting of the budget and finance committee. the meeting will come to order. i am matt haney, the chair of the finance committee and joined by the committee member mar, and i believe safai will join us shortly. our clerk -- and we thank mendosa from sfgov-tv for broadcasting this meeting. madam clerk, any announcements? >> clerk: due to the covid-19 health emergency, the board of supervisors legislative chamber and committee room are closed, however, the members are participating in the meeting remotely. this precaution is taken pursuant to the local and the state and federal orders and declarations and orders. it's video conference and