>> this is july 14, 2021. the time is 9:01 a.m. this meeting is being held will by web ex pursuant to the governor's executive order declaring the existence of a local emergency. during the coronavirus the fire commission regular meeting city hall is closed. meetings will be remote. you may watch live at www.sfgovtv.org. to participate by phone, please dial 415-655-0001. use access code (146)033-8952. members of the public have opportunities to participate during public comment. the public is asked to wait the particular agenda item before making comment on that item. comments are addressed in the

order received. when the moderator announces the commission is taking public comment, members of the public press star 3. you will be queued. you will hear silence when waiting to speak. operator will unmute you. when prompted callers have three minutes to provide comment. please ensure that you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, turnoff any tv or radio around you. item 1. roll call. president feinstein. >> present. >> commissioner nakajo. >> commissioner covington. >> present. >> commissioner cleaveland. >> present.

>> chief of department jeanine nicholson. >> present. >> madam secretary, any public comment? >> let me check. there is nobody on the public comment line. >> the start of this meeting, we will close public comment. i did want to insert that we have two new members of our regular commission meeting. i want to welcome the new fire marshal and our new chief of the department david brown. we really welcome your presence here. i know you are going to find the meeting interesting and beneficial as you move forward.

welcome to our twice each month wednesday get together here. >> thank you. >> i am going to give item -- skip item 3. the chief just had a meeting in city hall she informed me of. she needs to get there. i will ask exercising my prerogative if the chief is prepared to report at this time. >> yes, i am, madam president. greetings everyone. chief jeanine nicholson. president feinstein, commissioner covington, cleveland the, command staff and sister, greetings. i do not have a whole lot to

report, which isn't a bad thing a couple things that do stand out. all of the wildfires throughout the state we have had members deployed. we also received several type 6 engines from the state this year for us to deploy in. a couple weeks ago we had members going up to what was called the lava fire. they were diverted to the salt fire. they were there for quite some time. just as they were going to be let go from there they were diverted to the beck worth fire which is significant right now. i am happy to say those folks have just been changed out as of yesterday. today those folks will come back. we have members up there.

11 as far as i understand. we have another member serving in another capacity on an incident management team at another incident. it is happening again. no big surprise, and we have answered the call. of course, we always need to keep in mind our own staffing in the city itself. that is our number one priority. we want to lend a hand to our neighbors and to our partners in the state. there is that. some good news. we started an h3 level one e.m.t. class on monday of 22 members.

that is the first of what i believe will be several h3 level one classes. we are going to expand, number one, community paramedicine reach. number two, we were allocated some additional ambulance staffing in this year's upcoming budget that has yet to be signed by the mayor. we are fairly confident in that. still moving forward we will be able to report on that budget once it gets signed by the mayor, which should be early august, to give you an official report. then we are starting an h2 class of 40 people in early august. i can't remember the exact date, but those folks are going

through their health check and background and the like right now. looking forward to both of those things. obviously, we graduated that class last month that you were at, and those folks have begun working at their stations. things are going well thus far. i also just want to touch on response times, which i think my staff is an able to speak to later, but i just want to put my two cents in about our response times and the trend we are seeing. not a huge spike, but a general increase over the last three years since 2019. we are having ongoing meetings with the m.t.a.

we are happy to bring m.t.a. back to speak to the commission as well probably in august. we still need to do a little more back and forthwith them, and i also know there are some slow streets going away now and some that have been extended, and then as you may have seen in the news this morning that the board of supervisors approved the park lets. while they are very important to the small business community, we also have been doing our due diligence on those as we still need to get access to buildings, we still need to get in and get on these buildings.

they still need to meet fire code. these park lets are not -- we are talking about future shared spaces is what i should call them, not park lets but future shared spaces. the fire marshal can speak to more of that in terms of what the requirements in the code are in terms of that, but suffice to say i am concerned about our response times. gradually creeping up and, you know, we all have suspicions in terms of what it is about. all of the changes that have happened in the city over the past several years, the bike lanes which take away lanes for vehicles, the bulb outs, speed

humps and speed bumps. all of those things we believe, i believe, are likely what is impacting our response time. again, we are digging into it and meeting with the m.t.a. and we will be happy to bring them back probably in late august or early september is what i am thinking. with that, that concludes my report. i still have about 15 minutes that i can stick around. >> there is nobody on the public comment line. >> public comment will be closed. i want to real quickly before i

turn it over to my fellow commissioners to ask two questions unrelated. is the h2 class going to be of its previous size? i know we had a smaller class or two because of covid. i am wondering if the august class will be back to where we were before. >> thank you, president feinstein. it will not be back to where we were -- well, where we were before is sort of open for interpretation. the classes have been as large as 54 in prior administrations. this class will be 40 students, which will still be manageable for our division of training to get folks enough hands on because they will -- the chief

can speak more to this, but they will be able to break them into two groups and 20 folks to the engine and 20 at the truck side and then they switch and have many of the other classes in there together. 40 is what we are going with for this next class. the last class was 25. we graduated 23. we are really seeing the need. i would love to put more people in the class because we are seeing the need for more staffing. we had quite a few retirements this past year. i believe over the past fiscal year we had 93 retirements. some civilians. i don't have that number in

front of me, but 23 does not seek qual90. we -- equal 90. we need to continue to hire. we are also promoting people so we really do need to continue to hire. i know we have another class in january. >> erica, second quick question. with regard to the speed bumps, i have heard and if you wish to defer to the chief, i understand or whomever would know. i understand the speed bumps are causing damage to our engines and trucks. the engines go out with 500 gallons of water, however much that weighs. you can try to dodge around some

of these, but with all of the double parking you can't always do it. i understand that equipment, the engines are being damaged by the speed bumps which are increasing every day. they are putting new ones in. also, the trucks have really had the equipment that also when they, you know, go over the bumps even at the speed limit, there can be real damage. i am wondering is that a rumor or true? whoever wishes to take the question i would appreciate your best thoughts. >> president feinstein, i will speak to it a little bit and defer to chief dewitt in terms of damages. now, i know that these speed humps certainly slow us down. we cannot go over them at the

same speed as a normal street. they can cause damage. if it is that causing damage or the street causing damage, i am not certain. you know, our vehicles do have to slow down to go over them to avoid them. chief dewitt, do you have any intel on whether it is breaking springs? do we know if the speed humps are doing that? can you speak to that, please? >> good morning. we have seen a increase in shock absorbers for the engine. if the speed bumps are the cause we don't know. there is a pattern where the companies respond more frequently on the streets with the speed humps. that is where we see the damage. the fleet manager is speaking

the supervisors in various districts to take them on ride alongs to show the impact on our engines. part of the issue is speed humps there are no reflectors. you will becoming down the street in the middle of the night and not know the speed hump is there if they are not familiar with the area. they are going 25 miles per hour and it is too fast. it seems to be a correlation. i don't if that is a causation. >> can we get more information if we have information relevant to that. i miss the speed humps sometimes during the day because there is no marking, there is no warning. i have tried to drive within the speed limit, but there you go. i can only imagine if i am

driving a piece of heavy equipment, which fortunately i don't, but if there is any information forthcoming, it would be great to have and anything the commission can do about it. >> i will see what i can compile for you. >> thank you. fellow, commissioners, commissioner cleaveland. >> good morning president and chief and command staff. one quick question as we go into this fire season. how many of our staff are trained for wildfire fighting? do we have a number? do we know approximately how many members of our department are trained in wildfire? >> i believe it is over 200. i don't know if the chief, do

you have that number? >> i would ask the chief companr that current number? >> i am sorry, one more time. >> how many folks are wild land trained? >> over 230 individuals. >> fantastic. good to know. that was my question. thank you, chief. >> any comments further? commissioner covington. >> thank you, madam president. good morning, chief. >> good morning. >> i didn't get a chance to finish the article on the

chronicle this morning regarding the making the park lifts permanent. i would like to know what going forward what is the process of the owners of the park lift interacting with the fire department to get approval for safety? >> i am going to turn this to fire marshal coughlin to speak to this process. >> thank you, commissioners. the shared spaces or park lets are changing the name to shared spaces. we play a back role. we are working on guidelines right now with the planning department. the actual legislation itself, as you know, once approved by the board of supervisors after coming out of land use committee

last night. we play a role on giving the planning department what our expectations regarding the access to the building behind it. how tall can it be? what is maybe flying over the sidewalk between the building and the shared space. how much space we need to carry the ladder from the truck to the sidewalk. we are working on the guidelines back and forth. round one was released two or three weeks ago. i am waiting for planning department to release round two of the guidelines. we explained what we need and how we operate. we hope that shows up in the guidelines. nor to follow. we also do part of the legislation is they require or are asking for additional inspections, regular inspections. we have personnel to go out there to ensure the shared

spaces maintain access for the suppression numbers. >> i suppose the new information will include the number of inspections or the frequency of inspections as we go forward. >> correct. our legislation. i think there was a misunderstanding. everybody thought it was to be every two weeks. they request bi-monthly inspection of each shared space once they are permanent. it is quite a ways down the line. december 31st the small businesses need to put an application in to convert from temporary covid shared space to permanent one to happen early next year. at that point it becomes effective we will be doing by-monthly inspections. >> since this is a new process,

of course, buildings are inspected on the basis that everyone knows about. do we have enough people power for these bi-monthly inspections since this is something new? >> i hope so. we don't know how many are going permanent. that is the problem now. currently we would assign by-monthly inspections while you are out in your districts we separate inspectors construction inspectors by district. in their area they would be assigned. we could handle it. obviously, we could always use more personnel to do these inspections. i believe we have the people to go out there and re-in these. once three establish they look at things that changed or maybe they decided on having somebody

else do it that may be wouldn't be part of the original guidelines. we are looking out for things like that. >> that makes sense. in terms of trying to hit a target number how many might want to remain permanent, i would choose the number at 75% because this has been quite a boone to a lot of businesses. they have been able to expand their footprint and the number of people they are able to serve, and i don't think they will want to, you know, go back to the old days when they had to accommodate people in a small traditional space. the park lift owners are very excited. the brick and mortar stores not so much. i would make that number high as

opposed to conservative. is there anything else you want to say about the park lets? thank goodness we haven't had any fires in them that i am aware of. that is a very good thing. >> you have seen in the paper. there have been a few accidents. luckily nobody is in them. we brought forth the suggestion of fiscal barrier. we are working with planning and the department coming up with the guidelines of how to protect them and setbacks so you are not right up against it. >> very busy on fast streets like golf. i think everyone's heart is at ease thinking about there being some beefing up of the separation and the safety measures. anyway, our city is changing by

leaps and grounds. thank you and congratulations on your first meeting. >> nothing more, madam president. >> thank you, commissioner covington. commissioner nakajo. >> i will do a time check with the chief. i know she needs to exit. i think what i am going to do, chief, is parlay my questions on the shared space over to the fire marshal when it comes to his participation and continue my questions with him. thank you very much, madam president. >> thank you, commissioner nakajo. >> i will step out now. i will try to keep you all on my ipad while i am in route to the meeting. i won't be able to answer

questions while driving. >> don't worry. eyes on the road. don't forget your parka. >> thank you. >> thanks for being here. can we now return going back to item 3. the minutes. i don't want to overlook that. >> item 3. approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the regular meeting minutes from the june 23, 2021 meeting. there is nobody on the public comment line. >> then public comment will be closed. any comment the commissioners? >> i move to approve, madam president. >> second? >> second. >> thank you, commissioner nakajo. we have a motion and second.

>> president feinstein. >> adopt. >> commissioner covington. >> yes. >> the motion the unanimous. they are approved. >> thank you. we will continue with item 4. report from operations deputy chief bryan rubenstein. report on overall field operations, including greater alarm fires, emergency medical services, bureau of fire prevention and investigation, homeland security, and the airport division. >> good morning, chief rubenstein. >> good morning. i am trying to pick the correct screen here. hello.

thank you, chief and staff and secretary. i am deputy chief of operations for the san francisco fire department this. is the june 21 report. a lot of activity for our public information sector. we had a big celebration for juneteenth. we had a car parade which was a good time. we were able to celebrate back to its home after all debris was cleared from the fire. red cross is back up and running in person. they have been conducting business over the phone through the pandemic. now they are responding to scenes and right back up to

speed. they are very helpful this month. in the month of june we had two significant fires. they were out there helping. there is awareness for cancer with the police we participated in. we have in the left-hand corner one of our an assistant chiefs that also participated. we had a lot of remembrances over the month. we unveiled jason's name on the memorial wall. we had firefighter's service and the tenth year anniversary verse. on the brighter side. united fire service women hosted

career academy. the kids came out and were given all sorts of insights to what the job might be. everybody had a good time. thank you for coming, commissioners, we had a great graduation. the ceremony went well. a lot of good speakers. i would like to call out president feinstein who spoke. your speech was great and a lot of people told me you get the note there. this is our hope. they are in fact in the field making a difference. a lot of work over the month of june. we are continuing training here, the division of training, new drill for sand pipe operations.

any firefighters with interest reach out. i will get you over there. live fire training starts at 11:00. companies out there drilling. you can see the pipe operations with several companies involved. we are working with partners on coastal drills. as always, a lot of interesting incidents in june. significant fire on van ness, major gas leak. we had continuing problem of fires on the freeway encampment a fire somebody was living in that went up. this is another one on the sidewalk. this is a fire in a salvage yard. when a fire gets in to a condition like that, it is

dangerous. not hard to break a leg. we had two very significant events. this was the second alarm on market street, 90 unit structure. you can see the quantity of smoke on the market street side. similar amount of smoke on the back side. highly compartmentalized building required tremendous overhaul to remove the walls to get where the fire was traveling along the plumbing line. it took many hours. great job. we had a fire on dublin. they are moving a skylight to ventilate. it wasn't necessary to cut a

hole in this case. it was a natural opening that saved trouble for the homeowner. you can see the hose going out. this is the supply company in front of you. they are charging that line. it is an attack line in place. you will see the driver, one of our great drivers rapidly attacking the supply. 500 gallons into that line then it is a race to get connected to the hydrant to get the supply to maintain that supply. great job. the other major fire was on leavenworth. this was a multi-unit building. 20 plus rescued. 15 evaluated.

many transported. you can see the fire in the top of the central staircase. occupants on third and fourth floor were not able to get down the stairs. they were rescued. some of the more disabled folks had to be brought back in on the lower floors because they couldn't manage the wires. this is the roof as they get up there to go to work. here you are seeing the fourth floor. remember the stair the third to fourth and second to third were compromised by fire. a lot of rescue. no fatalities. quite a lot of displaced people. we had the red cross and treatment triage area was set up to manage and treat and

transport the patients. a working fire on monteray. you can see on the left to work from to the right side. from a different perspective you can see them go over the roof and the entire time you can see it is a difficult situation with respect to the smoke. also notice that even though the smoke is coming out with a lot of energy it is immediately pushed over the top. there is a wind element to a lot of fires. you can see the trees on the left side buffeted by the wined that had tremendous impact on the fire. great job by the crews. we were discatched to the lava

fire. in route the salt fire broke out. our companies were re-routed to that area. you can see these are new engines. you may not have seen these before. they are type 6 from the state. not unlike our 361 which is an oes engine owned by the state but staffed by us. we sent three of them up. they got right to work on the salt fire. working side-by-side with the crew fighting the fire on the east side of 5. then a goody ployment. you can see the fire behavior in the early days of the fire. amount of embers there and the fuels are receptive. most of the em bers are landing

and causing the fire. they were working on this incident until it was scaling down a little bit as they were preparing to demobilize they were transferred to the other incident where they are working days now doing structural protection. it is very busy. we just rotated crews after two weeks. i have reason to believe with the fire season ramping out that crew might be out for two weeks as well. >> a tree fell down and took out the side of the deck there on the picture on the left. for our ems division, community of paramedicine is out there may being a difference in the community. we get reports on them every day and it is making a difference. big news is the opening of 49.

i would like to thank everybody for celebrating. the mayor spoke and our supervisors. >> five, four, three, two, one. >> bricks and mortar. building is up and running. it is great. it is so much useful space in there. it is a real boom. fire prevention as noted welcome ken coughlin. he has been at the bureau over 16 years with 23 years experience in the fire department. as you noticed from your questions already, he is well involved. i expect you will have more questions for him. same is true the san francisco international airport.

chief dave brown's classmate. 23 years in the department. he has been down at the airport for over 18 years. he understands how it works. we are working together to see the high level of service they are accustomed to. you can see picture the air. sing any can't incident -- significant incident was the multiple vehicle fire. you can see the energy up there. on the bucket is chris. that was his last fire. for homeland security, chief brown has been busy with a full schedule of meetings and starting to ramp-up with planning for fleet week this coming october. it is a lot of fun if you haven't checked it out. we have a big presence there.

you will hear more about it in the weeks to come. >> a little bit about our fourth of july. we had good people in place. chief thompson. he was able to help us out by taking an extra shift on the fourth of july and brings a lot of experience. it was the most fireworks he had ever seen. we are seeing larger groups as well. we were fortunate to have fewer fires come out of it. i credit that to the whole group, colder moisture climate. we did have the mission district go out of control with massive crowds and massive amounts of

illegal fireworks. vehicles were blocking blocks. civilians were standing on the street at close range. i am not aware of any significant injury that because they got lucky. very dangerous. twenty-fourth and harrison was the worst. the small number of bad actors in the large crowd start to take advantage of the chaos and drag trash cans and anything flammable and started a bonfire in the intersection. we were well prepared. we had additional resources. we had pumpers, police teams crewed up with resources available to do enforce protection if we needed to force our way into the situation. the fires weren't threatening

structures. they didn't go in with force and move people out. once the crowds started to taper off, firefighters were able to go up and distinguish the fires. one of the smart things they did is put the fires out a little forward because when you wet the fires down they produce a lot of heavy smoke on the ground level to help disperse the folks, too. that was the result. we had people throwing bottles mostly at the police. we didn't have any real bad interactions with fire that have been reported to me. we were able to up staff the ems through a lot of work. the chief got out there and got recruiting. i can say we were able to avoid

any delay this is transport. that was a win for us. looking back, the numbers are similar. the average daily calls for the mower down a little bit this month from three years ago. from last year people were returning to town they were up. we 436 -- 360 in 2020. 376 in 21. for the fourth 395 in 2020. 396 in 2021. that was a blessing because of the cold weather and wet grass. not counted in those are dozens of fires that fire engines and trucks are driving by that are

put out with extinguisher and doesn't get reported. we had three working fires that are related to the date. one was early in the morning, electrical fire that had nothing to do with it. the other two were fireworks related. one on kirkwood at 3:00 a.m. on the fifth. the person who reported the fire said it was setoff by fireworks in the neighborhood. another one at 8:15 on the fifth. there were giant piles of discarded fireworks in the area. we are confident there were people using an old wooden for

that. it took resources and time to tear out the planks to get to where the fire was underneath. no occupancy there. that is on the bright side. that concludes my report for june of 2021. thank you everybody. >> thank you, chief rubenstein very much. busy month, busy month. madam secretary. we do have a public comment. i will turn on my timer here. >> callly three minutes. >> commissioners i am francisco dekosta. i am listening to your

deliberations and want to bring a few things to your attention. in recent years the quality of life in san francisco has degraded. we have to be very careful when we encourage open spaces and we do not be stripped with standards when it comes to the fireworks. we know our buildings back-to-back if there is a fire or several fires on a block the entire block can get burned. we know this. so we in san francisco have to be very careful how we encourage or talk about so-called open

spaces with frail structures just like sticks. we cannot encourage those. on many of our streets the so-called open spaces impede the fire trucks. who is responsible for that? what is the mission of the san francisco fire department? i would say the fire department should advice the planning department, the board of supervisors and our mayor who talks on both sides of her mouth. not too many people in san francisco respect her so i have dealt with the fire department for many years. i played a major role in providing the training at the presidio. the older firefighters know me

very well. the last fire chief was my very good friend. i could speak to her directly when it came to the e.m.t.s and stuff like that. commissioners, our city used to be a first class city. no more. we admire our firefighters, our essential workers. we should not put them in harm's way. our leaders who are the commissioners must be educated on issues. have the data to make the right type of decisions. thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> this is no further public comment. >> public comment shall be closed. >> we are going to turn to the commissioners. i would like and maybe it is off the gentlemen's last comment to read a post that i saw on next door yesterday. i don't know what the situation is, obviously, i don't know the facts. i think it is very important that this at least we find out as much about it as we can. i ask my fellow commissioners to bear with me. it is entitle slow streets injuring fire trucks. a couple of days ago i watched as

fire trucks responded to a house fire on page street. one large truck came from the masonic and pulled in front of the burning house. another truck came down central but was unable to turn left on on page because of the slow street barrier. the truck had to turn-in the opposite direction and someone jumped off the truck and ran behind in order to guide the large fire truck as it backed up to thread itself between the car parked at the curb and the slow street barricade in the middle of the street. that took a couple of minutes. fortunately, the fire was not a large one, but can you imagine how precious a couple of minutes

every response time could me if the fire was -- could mean if the fire was larger. another truck came up central but couldn't make the turn on on page either. i think that is enough. the post does go on. my question presents itself clearly enough from the first paragraph. people are beginning to erect more permanent barriers at the slow streets at the intersections. i am not going to say it is a fire fighter's job to go out and sledgehammer down a cinderblock wall or something else, and i don't know, chifferobe been stein, if you can provide any -- chief, if you can provide any

information on what this neighbor, this women was commenting on. unfortunately she doesn't give the date when this happened. she said a couple days ago. it appeared as a post yesterday. any information you could offer, i think, would be beneficial because, frankly, the gentleman making public comment has a legitimate point. fire commissioners and also for the command staff when circumstances are unsafe, it is up to us to say something, be it politically popular or correct or not. then we suffer the consequences of being politically incorrect, but this was concerning to me especially because it involved

two large pieces of equipment, both hindered in their access. if you can offer anything, chief, that would be appreciated. >> i do, madam president. i haven't spoken to that person. they are talking about an incident on july 10th on the 1400 block of page. we spoke to responders there. they were frustrated. it is difficult enough to get to fires timely. they had to choose alternate routes knowing this was a slow street. some did have to go around the block. the large truck that they are describing appears to me to have been a fire engine which is going to be required to back in to provide the supply. it may not have been the

obstruction itself, but that being said, you then have to do to doa way to get around the barricade. they took pictures for me. there are materials stacked at the intersections that are illegal and some would be time consuming. there is a stack of slate. i am reaching out to d.p.w. to clear those out. that should be done in short order. it is a concern to the chief and to this administration that we are seeing a slow increase in our response times. the chief mentioned in her comments. in the last three year 30 second increase in the time to get basic life support and e.m.t. to

the bedside. 32 second for paramedics. transport unit is 40 seconds. it is enormous amount of time. for 30 years i have been going down the fire poles because the stairs were taking too long. any delay is a problem there. are a lot of contributing factors. slow streets, traffic coming. as described in previous meetings, the intent of the traffic calms is to slow traffic down. that slows our response down. that is what it is designed to do. we are watching it very closely and working with the mayor's office and m.t.a. fire marshall is engaged with that closely.

they are working with the m.t.a. to monitor the times. there are a lot of different factors involved. this was fortunately not a significant incident. i would say no delay in the overall response because of the slow street. >> thank you, chief. other commissioners. questions for chief rubenstein? i can only see four pictures. i can't see. >> commissioner cleaveland and commissioner nakajo. >> thank you, commissioner nakajo, please. >> thank you, madam president.

i am going to adhere to fellow comments. commissioner cleaveland was faster than i. i would like to graciously commissioner cleaveland, please. >> i apologize. i can only see four pictures on the top of my screen. i don't know if there have a way to return to grid here. that is my problem. i appreciate that. i apologize, commissioner cleaveland because i can't see you. >> thank you, madam of the. thank you, commissioner nakajo. two questions for chifferobe been stein. thank you for your report

excellent as always. quick question. have any firefighters, to your knowledge, been assaulted in the line of duty? >> personally assaulted? >> we track that very closely. [please stand by]

. >> the governor put it in a way i don't think lawyers will permit again. there are ways we are obligated to help within the short term in the regional bay area. we have to remember, they're calling because they're on fire. we're highly motivated to answer that call. we are currently set up to have 17 people and a single engine type 1 which is four people. so there would be 24 people we

would be sending out at a time in normal circumstances. this is looking like a terrible season. we are below those levels now, we just have 11 out. and the impact of those people being gone does translate into sometimes a person not being permitted to go home and being forced to work mandatory overtime. thank goodness we have the class of 40 coming in. as quick as we can convince them to do another class, we'll do another class. >> one final question, the street crisis response teams, i noticed that we are going to i guess deploy one in this month that will be 24-hour coverage -- that will allow 24-hour

coverage. we have a maximum of six street crisis response teams. am i correct? and what is the goal to get nine maybe or a dozen over the next year or two pending funding of course. >> i'm going to ask the chief to answer that question. >> good morning commissioners. thank you commissioner cleaveland for the question. we have the six crt unit going on duty, it looks like july 26th. that will be a night unit. we'll have 24-hour coverage and five during the kind of daytime into some of the evening and one overnight that will be city-wide. the five geographically located and response to specific geographic areas and then the

7th unit in the late hours will be city-wide. we do have in the next budget, the mayor's proposed an additional unit, a seventh unit we hope to get on board by the end of the year. >> okay. i'm sure we could use more. >> yes. >> thank you very much. that's all my questions madam president. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner nakajo. >> thank you ma'am. thank you chief rubenstein for your comprehensive report. it seems that as you do your report, as time goes on, my concentration level beyond reading this whole report is much stronger by your skill as a lack of better description,

video, slide producer. you must be very versed at home movies with family on vacation. you seem to put a clear picture for us commissioners who can't respond to the field. so in terms of working fires, it is excellent. other than that, i'm watching tv and watching it beyond me, wanting to get in my car and get out there. but when you describe the working fire and you talk about the other working fire it helps greatly chief when the visuals are there with your narrative. from the perspective of a commissioner and member of the public, if someone didn't know and watched your report, the comprehension comes through. i just wanted to tell you and

compliment you and please keep it up for us who may not be able to respond. i'm going to go quickly through your report as always and as always, i have certain components i like to address and some questions i might have for the fire marshal and references. but chief rubenstein, on the report which is on page 4, comprehensive -- page 5 and page 6, if you read this, it gives you the whole idea of the terms of systems june 2021, everything that happened within the department. chief rubenstein, who puts together this report? is it lieutenant baxter that puts this together? >> like everything good that comes out of headquarters, it's

a team effort commissioner. these are something of a journal for lieutenant baxter who has a great relationship with all the other city agencies and always answering my calls 24-hours a day, and i assure you when i say 24-hours a day, he's always there. >> thank you for that. if there's a body in there that hasn't been mentioned, i like to know because this is a heck of a lot of work. for myself, if i had to do this, oh my lord, it would take months and days. i'm going to move on to chief tong's report. i think you have the same packet.

looking at page 15. let me know when you get there chief. >> i'm here commissioner nakajo. >> i really enjoyed this page and commissioner cleaveland asked questions as well, in this page, when it says srrt team response areas for members of the public, it has down here identification of regions, tenderloin, mission, bayview, water, front, chinatown, north beach, richmond, city wide overview and the hours and launch dates are there that reinforces what commissioner cleaveland was asking as well. for me, when i can see over and over what we're supposed to be having in terms of operational, it is tough sometimes because you may see the words like street crisis respond team, scrt, but when you see it repeatedly in description and if you look at the back page chief and you have a map there, color

coded in terms of what the relationship with the service time area, it just really reinforces for this commissioner what is going on. i really appreciate that and want to call that out. moving forward in terms of page 22, i don't have any particular questions or comments. that's the success page. the challenge page and highlights page. i always enjoy reading your success stories and although it is a lot of reading here, when you start to describe some of the manage programs, manage alcohol program, map, another acronym that needs some comprehension, it greatly impresses me in terms of what we do for the public and the

members of san francisco. often times i don't think maybe the city and county see how much care and support we do here. i just wanted to say that. and also in challenges as well, i see in there again what i have been eyeballing, this administrative burden session. at this point, at the last line it says ems senior data analysis person in the upcoming budget cycle and that's something that i needed to see or wanted to see. and i know that the director is knowledgeable about that as well. the more help we can get the better it is. then at the bottom of the page, highlights, written street overdose response team. there are so many teams and so many comprehensions, it helps when it is described as a highlight on page 22 and moves forward. what i picked up on page 24 at

the bottom requested reasons for the public, it has in there categories and there's a number there that says 50%. one of the remarks i wanted to make chief rubenstein, was that when you gave your report on the fourth of july, i think it alarmed all of us, particularly myself as well that the fourth of july, which is supposed to be a celebration period of time now seems to be an acute level of mayhem for lack of better description. when i start to hear terminology like commissioner cleaveland, members of the public in terms of putting out fires, providing services to the public and the term is non assaulted, a big red

flag goes up and it goes higher reinforced again by commissioner cleaveland in terms of the concern and needs to be brought up, i need to hear it with if rest of the commission on dangers and assault to members and quite frankly to the police department as well. it alarms me a little bit. i want to be careful here, each one of us love and are sensitive to our neighborhoods but when it is brought up, the immediate thing that comes to my mind, trying to recognize who the district supervisor is. i'm not trying to call out the district supervisor but i'm saying it is obvious with public comment, there's got to be some work done during this fourth of july period. it's not getting to be a celebration of our country's independence and freedoms. it is getting to be a level of physical, emotional -- to me it

is complicated. i'll be more interested in how we prevent these types of activities from this point moving forward and as a member of the public, this commission is listening, this commission does act. this commission has responsibility to work together with all of the parties to be able to do something about that. i just wanted to make that comment to you chief rubenstein in terms of what is able to be called out in terms of that as well. at this point, i just want to move over to the fire marshal. welcome as well. when you do come back and report on shared space, i know that's

the terminology, could you bring back information in terms of what i know is in the paper, but i know there's supposed to be a cost to the retailers or restaurants. i know there's supposed to be somewhat of a diameter. i heard something like $3,000 per parking square and i heard something about a waiver for three years. i need to have all of this -- i think the commission does as well, just so now even in san francisco when i hear something that says permanent, i begin to ask does permanent mean permanent. it passed by a unanimous vote by the board of supervisors, is that correct? >> yes, it is. >> that's a political reality we have to deal with, but part of

that is what shared space does and how it affects us and the discussion earlier about slow streets and such. i would like to get involved with that as well as fellow commissioners. we hear it clearly and have dialogue and to me it doesn't just sound like mta when it comes to removing blockages on certain streets. i heard dpw. i know fire marshal your jurisdiction in working areas are department relationship, the fire department, i just wish that politically or whatever it means that we have a little bit more clot to our concerns. i just wanted to say that and welcome you. other than that, i didn't have anything particular and i'm going to move on to the airport. i'm almost concluded madam

secretary. assistant deputy chief david brown, welcome to the fire commission. it sounds like everyone started to travel on the fourth of july. can you comment in terms of activity at the airport. i know the numbers are up and all that. >> thank you very much. madam president and madam secretary and commissioners, my name is david brown. to answer your question, numbers are up. we have been experiencing high as almost 46,000. the average is about 40,000. we anticipate being up to regular numbers of 50,000 of passengers going through security screening by august.

>> thank you. my final question, in terms of what's coming up and i know that we were talking about and there was a slide about point of information for the commission, free week active or last year it was a combination or i don't know if there was any activity, the blue angel event. could you share with us police chief? >> yes. appreciate the question. chief of department, hello commissioners this morning. it is almost all in person. ships will be arriving and it will be a full week with sailors on the ground and highlights will be the ship tours are returning, the blue angels will

fly. and the fire department will be participating in cooperative exercises in search and rescue techniques and fire fighting techniques and orientation to the fighter boat. those are our primary reach into the event. and they'll establish -- other disaster capabilities of the navy and we would look to have fire prevention booth during fire prevention week as well. >> thank you for the update. when is that calendar sequence. i saw that slide and there were a lot of activities. do you think we could get a copy of the slide in terms of activities? when is this occurring? >> it is generally the first week in october.

i will provide you exact dates on the calendar at the august meeting. i will provide you that information after the meeting with the committee. >> one last question chief. is the fire boat and pier by that point in october going to be operational? >> i'll answer. that is the goal. we're hoping for september. you know, it really just depends on the point of connection, the electrical connection. they're still looking on folsom to find a point of connection. >> thank you very much. >> thank you commissioner nakajo. >> may i respond to a couple of -- >> of course.

>> thank you for the opportunity and thank you for your kind praise about the videos. i really enjoy the opportunity in the public setting to get the information out there and thank you. as far as what we can and have been doing about the fireworks and direction it has been going in our community, we have been ramping the psa's every year with other departments in the city. we're not reaching some of these groups. in fact, some of our firefighters have participated in identifying folks selling fireworks and turning that information over and it resulted in some arrests and collection of materials but it's growing faster than we're able to deal with. chief brown working with all of our partners, we have a lot of good coordination. but these are the things i think

we're able to do and the rest of it is policy makers and police matter. but i don't want you to think there's nothing we are able to do we haven't been trying to do. we see what you see. this is our community, too and it's not good. we're just doing everything we can. >> thank you. any further questions for chief rubenstein or command staff. yes, commissioner covington please. >> thank you for your report chief rubenstein. it was very comprehensive as usual and the visuals are much appreciated. i just wanted to say thank you to the president for reading

that post that was on nextdoor. this is very concerning. any time someone writes they have seen with their own eyes how these placed on most streets have to be physically removed so that firefighters can get the space they need to do the job they love, which is saving life and saving property. i have seen on these streets so much furniture and other things. it is becoming the case that slow streets means slowing down

emergency vehicles, not just the fire department. it ask some sort of mass shooting, how are the police officers going to be able to get to people quickly and get them out of harm's way quickly. i don't think there's enough discussion about these true, true obstacles at our highest levels of government. some of my friends, i have two friends who live on slow streets and they said the fireworks wouldn't stop. well into july 5th, the wee hours of the morning, they couldn't sleep, dogs barking because there's no cars going along, you can have a mass gathering on a so-called slow street that turns into a

dangerous street. and the public nuisance. in addition to that, one of my friends mentioned that on his block, there's a problem with the theft of converters. there's no traffic on the street and no eyes on the street and so that's where the robbers go. it's incredible the way the city is being challenged by these changes. and unintended consequences. there is a question i have. we know the response times are slowing down, but in a case like the one mentioned by our

president, when does the clock stop? does the clock stop in terms of how long it has taken for the response, does it stop when you are on the other side of the barrier because you are on the block. or does it stop when equipment and personnel are actually deployed? i really would like to have those numbers be very accurate. very accurate so we know it is when you are able to put the wet stuff on the red stuff. as opposed to when firefighters are almost there. we really need accurate, accurate down to the second

information on this so we can share it with the powers that be. is that possible? >> we will -- we will look into it madam commissioner. there's nobody that isn't already tasked that could be put toward recording that but we can look into it. >> okay. how do you get the information if no one is tasked? >> so i'm getting the on scene time which is hitting a button and i can look because we have vehicle locaters i can see on a map what time people get there. the difference between that and moving a barrier and getting the aerial up and doing those things, i think that's your question, we'll look into it. >> okay. i don't want to give you more work since you are doing the on

scene time, can you expand the definition of the on scene? so that it starts when you feel, you know, whoever is in charge on the scene, whenever you are actually able to begin unloading and fighting the fire. >> the officers on the scene will do it, everybody else will hit a button on the rig and do what they need to do to go to work. >> okay. perhaps we can chat off line because as i said, i would like for everyone to have the information but i also don't want to overburden people in this process.

>> i understand. i think the data we have is really good. >> okay. all right. if you could dig a little deeper in that, that would be great. i also wanted to thank all of the members, the 300 plus members of the department who have signed up and have completed a wildland fire training. and they are ready to go and ready to be deployed. this is very important. i am amazed that we still sometimes refer to this as fire season. this never really ends. this is our new normal. it's fire season all year long. wildland fires is very, very

challenging for everyone. including those people who love to have wonderful vistas outside their windows in these places and no one has really told them how dangerous these locations can be in very, very dry conditions. so, again, i want to thank the members of the department who have stepped up to help all over the state of california. thank you. that's all madam president. >> thank you commissioner covington. i just had a couple -- sorry chief rubenstein, i had a couple follow-up questions that came from my fellow commissioners' questions. i should probably know this but i don't. if you are wildlands trained and

certified, must you go when called? >> thank you for your question. excellent question and some fire departments in the bay area, that is the case, members will be sent out in san francisco. we have a sufficiency and it is a volunteer service. >> i see. so you put -- you receive a call that mutual aid is needed and you put out a call for folks to answer up and then they hopefully answer up. >> every day regardless of the request, we take volunteers and build the list. they are on the list and should we get a request, they respond. >> i see. all right. thank you for clarifying that. the other comment or question

that i had which goes back to the shared spaces. i find it a bit interesting that you have shared spaces if people have a large frontage, they get a big shared space. if you happen to be a narrow long -- your frontage of your restaurant is 25 feet, you don't get anything because it's not worth having one cubical or whatever we call it set up in front of that one person who happens the get the very narrow restaurant. and then in addition to that and particularly you can see it in the north beach area, you've got double parkers picking up food or looking for a place to pick

up food. you have delivery trucks are -- they just stop, even if there's a place to pull over. i don't know whether that is something that we need to discuss with chief scott and the police department, which i know we have mta, but the police department can absolutely write a citation for somebody that does that. between that and all the wires that i would imagine an aerial truck is going to need to get over, not under, but over, it just -- it is concerning. i think some of my fellow commissioners have shared the same concern. and just because they're

popular, doesn't mean they're safe. it's of concern. >> yes, we share your concern. >> what can we do? >> i'll hand it over to the fire marshal. we have requirements to maintain loading zones. >> thank you chief rubenstein. president feinstein, you mentioned a couple of things. one about the size of the spacing, that was worked out in the legislation. the minimum size, one parking space which is approximately 20 feet wide. you are correct if you have a large historic front, you can get two spaces.

for those with a small store front, you can get a letter from your neighbor or getting approval to use that space. so you can go up to 40 feet, i think that's what they're limited to. some you see now are 60 or 80 feet, those will not be permitted with the new program. as the parking spaces, we're asking for those to be brought in to bring our ladders by and get to the building. so it won't actually be 40 feet. it is probably around 34-46 feet would be the maximum size. we had brought up, even during this temporary program regarding the double parking, we agreed you can take away parking places, deliveries have to be made, people are going to stop, you have a lot of doordash happening and we have asked for an increased enforcement and i think that can be a contributing factor when you talk about

response times, not only the streets but the double parking playing a big issue. we have constantly asked for increased enforcement of that. you mentioned wires and things giving away to the shared spaces, we're addressing that with the guidelines. it's not actually in the legislation. how all the agencies can agree upon what should be allowed for the shared space. whether it is a roof or wires going over from that to the building. openings within that 30 feet or 20 feet so we can actually get through. that is still being worked out and we are well aware of all of the problems and we're addressing that. you just won't see it in the legislation. i would ask to bring up about the waiving of the fees. that is done at the city and that is waiving through 2023 i believe is what they're looking to do for the small businesses.

we are listed as a core agency which is great, the original draft we were not. now we're a core agency because it affects the fire department obviously. we do have a stake in it and a say and we're working with the other agencies, mta and dpw, i think there was discussion last night talking about who should be the lead agency on this. obviously the permitting agency is dpw but i believe it's planning will be running the program. we are addressing all the issues you brought up. >> thank you. that was a very comprehensive answer and i really appreciate it. and also just pinpoints everything that we need to pay attention to. i thank you for being on top of

it. and all the other members of the department for being on top of it. i've never spent so much time looking at wires and you start to see things a little differently than before i had this exposure. i thank everybody. the whole command staff for the education they have given me, but then they have also given me an increased level of concern over safety things i didn't give a lot of thought to before. commissioner covington. can't hear you. >> i echo your comments and

your, you know, your compliments to everyone. i just wanted to say that i am so happy to hear that now the fire department is listed as a core agency, which we did not have before. we did not have that designation before and it was a mystery to me as to why not. so to all of the people who twisted arms, you know, hope you didn't threaten anybody, but anyway, you got the job done and i'm glad. thank you. the city is going to be much safer. >> just a quick clarification question regarding the fees. all fees are waived through '22,

does that mean that all fire inspection fees are also waived? we can't charge for any of the inspections. >> that is correct. the fees being collected are not for fire department. they do not go to our agency. they are being collected by planning or dpw collecting it for the permit. we're a core agency in enforcement but we're not a core agency -- we're not receiving money for any of these. this is an added duty that we have to ensure the safety. >> thank you. >> and i'm sorry, if i might follow up on commissioner cleaveland's comment now, did you get more money from the general funds to cover the lost revenue? everything i see you laughing. everything is getting waived.

i understand and i appreciate the hardship that people have had to deal with. but, you know, you can't waive every cost that comes with having a business in the city or living in the city. you know, i would like them to waive parking tickets, i would be very happy with that. but where's the money coming from? i don't know if that should be directed at the fire marshal or at mr. torso who has been extremely quiet today. >> when the misunderstanding was happening, we did analysis to find out how many people we would need to be able to maintain that.

that kind of frequency came out to be somewhere around six or eight people. earlier in the program, there was discussion about prior to the budget, i gave chief some information, i believe it was four extra people to be able to manage the program without certain parameters. >> we have the commitment from the mayor's office, they recognize the issue obviously,

the entity of fire prevention in general is fee recovery and supports itself. we will be analyzing the need for additional resources as far as the levels of it. was just talking yesterday about staffing levels as well. we will ensure we are appropriately staffed and there are some mechanisms to receive additional revenues through the tax records office for certain programs. we are communicating this and our needs to the mayor's office for sure. >> thank you. i see no further hands. all right. madam secretary. >> okay. item 5 commission report. report on commission activities since the last meeting on

june 23rd, 2021. >> anybody? i will say i think that in terms of the commission activities, chief rubenstein did a very good job showing many activities that the commission did attend and did attend in full, you know, sadly some was happy and some not so happy. i guess that's life. >> clerk: there's nobody on the public comment line. >> public comment is closed and

so is the item. >> item 6 agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> i have one matter that i want to move forward on and -- let me grab this here. i think down the road, it has been a little tough to accomplish certain things but at some point we need to take a look at our own resolution which is 2009-03 that establishes required submissions and reports to see what really makes sense here. we don't have a lot of resources at the commission's disposal in terms of completing all of the

reports and what is specified and when it is specified would be a full time job for more than one person. i did want to proceed ahead although it's a little out of order and begin the process of performance evaluations. i'm looking towards sort of doing it a little differently and am going to appoint commissioner nakajo to begin the process of completing the commission secretary's performance evaluations and maybe hearing his call for assistance because i'm not sure any of this is a one person job,

i'm going to take the lead on the department's position. i'm going to need assistance i'm sure in doing that. more to follow as fire people like to say on this. at least i wanted to get that out there, that we're going to move forward and i'm going to be speaking with the city attorney and of course this is just very preliminary to really look at the resolution. it's 21 years-old -- i'm sorry. 19 years-old and -- 13 years-old. and it doesn't necessarily fit with us so much anymore. so we'll take a look at it and,

again, more to follow if we come up with anything. commissioner cleaveland. >> i think also we'll have to review the chief at some point. >> yes, i agree. i agree. further -- anything? yes? >> one additional question and that is to our secretary, do you have other items on the docket that we need to or want to consider for future commission meetings? >> well, we do need to do a resolution on the equity plan. >> all right. and we can discuss off line if we have what we need to be able

to do that and get that scheduled as soon as we do. >> okay. thank you madam president. >> thank you. further comments from anybody? all right. >> commissioner covington has -- >> i'm sorry, i didn't see your hand. please. >> that's okay. thank you. do you have any idea as to -- just following up on commissioner cleaveland's question, do you have any idea when we will be doing the review of the chief of the department? any time frame? >> i don't at this time. we'll get back to everybody when we have -- we're awaiting a full commission and apparently that is coming sooner rather

than later. so, i just want to wait because i've been waiting and i just want to make sure in fairness, we have a full commission. >> okay. i do appreciate that. but i do want to remind long-term commissioners that after commissioner evans resigned from the commission, i was president and i went a whole year without a fifth commissioner. i think everyone remembers that. so -- i hope it's going to be a short time this time around. >> i am assured as of yesterday it's imminent. i do not know the definition of imminent. so -- >> okay.

>> coming to theaters near you. >> all right. we will keep our fingers crossed. >> okay. me, too. all right. i think that closes out item number 5. >> there's nobody on the public comment line. >> forgot that part. thank you madam secretary. and we have taken care of -- then i believe of our agenda. >> item 7 is adjournment. >> i move madam president. >> second. >> and president feinstein, how do you vote? >> i vote to adjourn. >> commissioner nakajo? >> i vote to adjourn. thank you all. >> adjourned at 10:50. >> thank you all for everything you are working through under

trying and challenging circumstances on so many different levels. and i hope you convey the commission thanks to those reporting to you. it has just been -- it continues to be another tough year for all the reasons we discussed and more. thank you all very, very much. >> absolutely. thank you and thank everybody. -

>> our united states constitution requires every ten years that america counts every human being in the united states, which is incredibly important for many reasons. it's important for preliminary representation because if -- political representation because if we under count california, we get less representatives in congress. it's important for san francisco because if we don't have all of the people in our city, if we don't have all of

the folks in california, california and san francisco stand to lose billions of dollars in funding. >> it's really important to the city of san francisco that the federal government gets the count right, so we've created count sf to motivate all -- sf count to motivate all citizens to participate in the census. >> for the immigrant community, a lot of people aren't sure

whether they should take part, whether this is something for u.s. citizens or whether it's something for anybody who's in the united states, and it is something for everybody. census counts the entire population. >> we've given out $2 million to over 30 community-based organizations to help people do the census in the communities where they live and work. we've also partnered with the public libraries here in the city and also the public schools to make sure there are informational materials to make sure the folks do the census at those sites, as well, and we've initiated a campaign to motivate the citizens and make sure they participate in census 2020. because of the language issues that many chinese community and families experience, there is a lot of mistrust in the federal

government and whether their private information will be kept private and confidential. >> so it's really important that communities like bayview-hunters point participate because in the past, they've been under counted, so what that means is that funding that should have gone to these communities, it wasn't enough. >> we're going to help educate people in the tenderloin, the multicultural residents of the tenderloin. you know, any one of our given blocks, there's 35 different languages spoken, so we are the original u.n. of san francisco. so it's -- our job is to educate people and be able to familiarize themselves on doing this census. >> you go on-line and do the census. it's available in 13 languages,

and you don't need anything. it's based on household. you put in your address and answer nine simple questions. how many people are in your household, do you rent, and your information. your name, your age, your race, your gender. >> everybody is $2,000 in funding for our child care, housing, food stamps, and medical care. >> all of the residents in the city and county of san francisco need to be counted in census 2020. if you're not counted, then your community is underrepresented and will be underserved.