>> july 28th, 2021 and the time is 5:00. this meeting is being held by webex, pursuant to the governor executive orders declaring the existence of a local emergency. during the covid-19 emergency, the regular meeting room at city hall is closed and meetings will convene remotely. you may watch live. to participate during public comment, please dial

1-425-655-0001. and use access code 146 949 4364. members of the public will have opportunities to participate during public comment. the public is asked to wait for a particular agenda item before making a comment on that item. comments will be addressed in the order they received when the moderate era nounses that the commission is taking public comment, members of the public can raise their hands by pressing star 3 and you will be queued. callers will hear silence when waiting for your turn to speak. operator will unmute you. when prompted, callers will have the standard three minutes to provide comments. ensure you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, and turn off any tvs or radios around you. role call.

>> clerk: [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 the 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. there's no one on the public comment line. >> public comment will be

closed. >> clerk: item 3. approval of minutes. discussion and possibility action to approve the july 14th, 2021 meeting minutes. >> president feinstein: do we have any public comment, madam secretary? >> clerk: no one is on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: public comment shall be closed. any questions or discussions from my fellow commissioners? i'm seeing none. >> thank you. ok. commissioner cleavland. >> i'm sorry. i did miss hear you. ok, is there a second? commissioner nakajo, we will

take roll call. >> clerk: [roll call] the motion is unanimous. the minutes are approved. item 4, chief of the department's report from chief of department to on current issues, activities and events within the department since the fire commission meeting on july 14th, 2021 including budget, academies, special efforts, communications and outreach to other government agencies of the public, and reports from administration deputy chief jose vello on the administrative division, fleet and facility, status and updates, finance support services and training within the department. >> president feinstein: chief nickolson, we'll start with you

first. >> thank you. thank you, madam president. commissioners, commissioner nakajo, president feinstein and staff and jeannine nickolson, chief of the department. here is my report. for the last two weeks. as you are aware, the delta variant of covid-19 is starting to see a spike in infections in san francisco. we are still appealing to those of our members who haven't been vaccinated to get vaccinated. our very -- we're doing all that we can to get people vaccinated. however, the department of human resources issued a vaccination policy for city employees and

the first thing that has to be done is employees need to enter their vaccination status, on the employee portal, that's due tomorrow, close of business. at some point, we're still waiting to hear from the city attorney in terms of all of our members needing to be vaccinated. now or once the fda a proves the vaccine. so, the city is mandating it for certain positions and we're trying get clarity on that from d.h.r. more to follow on that. we're also recommending that people wear their masks again indoors as this is just really infectious, the delta variant is and we have had some folks ex

down with covid in the last couple of weeks and only one of them was not vaccinated and that person ended up in the hospital. several of them were vaccinated and several others were not. the ones that were vaccinated, are not having major problems. there are the break-through cases of the delta variant. on monday, august 2nd, the 128th firefighting academy begins and i look forward to going over the t.i. and greeting all of them and it will be 42 new recruits and the chief is going to be excused in a moment becauser holding a session for the recruits and their families

this evening and he and people are there to speak with all of them and their families. thank you for doing that, chief. i would be there if i could. i'll be there monday. on monday, august 2nd, the kids from city emt begin their internships in the department. so as you recall, city e.m.t. was something i wanted to make happen when i first came on board here and it's take not a while but with perseverance and a lot of teamwork, the first cad ray of kids they started with 15 and 13 finished the program over at city e.m.t. which includes academic help, mental health stuff, trauma counseling, life coaching,

health and wellness, just all sorts of wrap-around services as well as e.m.t. classes and support to get their national registry e.m.t. we have spoken with quite a few of those recruits, not recruits, sorry, quite a few of those city e.m.t. graduates and we are starting with five of them in the department on monday morning. they will still be particular a civilianemployee but they wile working on the ambulances, where they will be paid and we want them

yesterday, you may or may not have heard, the board of supervisors did their final, final approval of the budget and all we need to wait for is the mayor to sign it and make it official on august 1st. and when that happens, mark courseo will report out on our approved budget at the next commission meeting. i don't want to jinx anything, let's wait until our mayor signs it but we increased the budget by quite a bit and again, still more work to do but grateful to

everyone who worked really hard on it. and that is all i have for right now. so, thank you, commissioners, and i'm happy to take any questions. >> president feinstein: thank you, chief nickolson. any questions from members of the commission? yes. commissioner, i see you first so you go first. >> thank you, very much, madam president. chief nickolson, thank you very much for your report. i basically don't have a question but wanted to make an emphasis. part of the docket package tonight in terms of chief vellos report, there's a section with wellness with chief parks and the physicians report and in there is a news letter by the physicians' office o and then i read thoroughly the memo from new vaccine and face-covering

policies from the department and county of san francisco department of human resources and in your report, you answered my questions in a sense that wih this rise in terms of the delta, and in terms of what is going on, you addressed the questions that i had in terms of is there a mandate or not in terms of city employees concerning our fire department members, when it comes down to taking the vaccine and i also read the flyer that talked about individuals' choices of members on spiritual or religious or health requirements so i think you did answer my question in the sense of trying to move the department as quickly as possible to those members who are not vaccinated without violating certain aspects of exemption to get

vaccinated. in terms of the protection for the rest of our department and our members in the general public. i just wanted to verify that comment and thank you for that report and update. that was one of my questions. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner, nakajo. so commissioner, yes, there will be a mandate. it's coming down the road for all of our members to be vaccinated. we're just trying to determine if it is now or in the coming 10 weeks or if it's going to be once the f.d.a. a proves the vaccine but the mandate is coming for sure. right now, the mandate is to enter their vaccination status, yes or no.

>> president feinstein: do you have a follow-up question commissioner? >> i do not madam president. thank you, chief, for that confirmation as well. thank you. >> president feinstein: any other commissioners have questions on this topic for the chief? commissioner covington. >> thank you, madam president. good evening, chief. >> good evening. good evening, commissioner covington. >> so, chief, can you give us the numbers? currently how many members of the department are unvaccinated? >> do you have those numbers chief parks? >> you've given us the numbers in the past so i thought you might have them handy? >> i know there's some people that have sort of.

>> commissioners jose from administration and we have from the doctor office 75% have been vaccinated and that's what we have so far. and as of this morning, for the demands from the city to update their status we have 72% update their status on the city portal which is what we all had to do. those the numbers of this morning? >> so 72%. >> 72% have updated their status which would be yes or no and our records show the 75% have been vaccinated. >> all right. thank you. is there any particular cluster of concern that they have expressed that leads them not to have taken their shots so far?

that's a question for the chief? >> thank you, commission covington. no, nothing. we've heard bits and pieces of stories but nothing that i could say with certainty is the reason why people are saying no to it. so, again, the mandate is coming and we're just waiting direction from d.h.r. >> ok. all right. thank you for that. i really do want to commend you on the program, launching the program for these young people and it's important step for the department and it's an important step for young people who may not have previously in the past even considered a career in the fire service or becoming a medic

so this is really, really wonderful and i'm hoping that all of them have been vaccinated. >> i do not know the answer to that question. what i can tell you right now is the city's d.h.r. has said moving forward from here we will be permitted to make it a prior to anybody getting hired they have to have it. >> y. i have read that in the local news. and is there going to be a second class of these young citizens? they are currently working on applications for the next kadri of city employees. >> how many are you expecting to

be part of the second class? >> it's likely to be around 16. >> ok. i think that's a good number. that way they can get individual attention. i look forward to meeting them at some point, when things are such that we can shake hands with each other. i don't have any other questions at this time. thank you. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner covington. questions from any of the other commissioners? i'm not seeing any -- commissioner cleveland. >> thank you for bringing our inner-city youth into the fire

department. it's a great program and i look forward to it being successful and being replicated over and over again. i also want to commend the chief for elevating simon pang to our deputy chief for para medicine which is pretty cool and brice peoples is our new assistant deputy chief for diversity, equity and inclusion so those are two big-deal promotion this is my mind and i wanted to com end the chief for doing that. >> thank you commissioner cleveland. neither one of them could be here tonight or i would have put them on the spot. it is a big deal and especially to add staff to the positions to the command staff. so, thank you for that and yes, this is just the first for city e.m.t. and the first five kids so you know how it goes commissioner cleaveland, the

first car that is model of a particular vehicle, you know, you've got to tweak it and change some things so we're always looking to improve all of it. so we have -- thank you, very much. >> president feinstein: thank you commissioner cleaveland. i think we've heard from everybody. i don't know whether to rack this question to chief nickolson or chief velo. the 75% vaccination rate is lower than what i have read and i rely on the "san francisco chronicle," that is lower than the population of san francisco. that's a lower vaccination rate.

and my question becomes, i don't know who is vaccinated and who is not vaccinated, what their assignments are or are not their assignment. my question is if i'm a person who perhaps i'm fully vaccinated, and i need the fire department's assistance, i need their e.m.t. and their paramedic and i need what have you, how do i know, given the delta variant and whether the other variant is here or not, i don't know, you would know. the last thing i would want to have happen and have an emergency in my home and have someone who was not vaccinated respond. and i mean, it really is distressing to me and concerning

to me unless people have a particular -- i'm not interested in their politics but unless they have a medical reason and i understand that they don't have to get vaccinated until the f.d.a. is approved the vaccination and why would they not, i need to understand that. because rather than seek help from the san francisco fire department. >> madam president, i can speak to that. we still have all of our members wearing all their p.p.e. on any calls where we go into anyone's home. so that is the failsafe right now. and like i said, we are still working on getting more people

vaccinated and it will be a requirement sooner rather than later. so, everyone wears their p.p.e. and folks that either are not vaccinated or have not entered their stats in the employee portal, as of tomorrow, close of business, must wear a mask all the time in the fire house as well. so, i can't give you people's reasons. i think there are many different reasons and we just need to keep moving forward and when we get this directive, from our city attorney and from d.h.r., we will push forward. >> president feinstein: i'm sorry, chief, and i don't mean to put you on the spot or chief velo on the spot, i really don't, the rate of vaccination is lower than the general population of san francisco.

which i understand to be 82%. you can tell me that 82% is incorrect and i accept that. here we have first responders who not only are maybe exposing others, they're exposing themselves. p.p.e. or no p.p.e. and it doesn't instill a lot of confidence and i know the understand and the f.d.a. understands what is going on with the vaccine but you are a first responder help me understand, why wouldn't you get vaccinated? unless you have a particular

health condition? i don't understand. >> if i may, madam president, we have had 75% of people report that they have been vaccinated. it may actually be higher. we don't know and that is why we are pushing to get everyone vaccination status on the employee portal. so it may be higher than 75%, i don't know. what i do know, many of our folks don't live in the city live outside the city and so i don't know -- i don't know why. there are multitude of reasons and to get folks to get vaccinated and we can't right now force them to.

i don't know, you know, we could get into all sorts of psychology about people not want to go do it or politics and getting it from our former city. >> president feinstein: let me ask you this last question, is there a consequence for those who aren't vaccinated? >> there will be. it's city wide policy so d.h.r. is taking the lead on there but there will be. >> president feinstein: thank you shall kindly. any further question? i see no hands. all right. >> there's no one on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: thank you, madam secretary. public comment is closed.

moving on. >> chief velo with the wall. >> good evening, president, chief, commissioners, command staff, again, deputy administration. as i've done in the past, i'll present with a presentation that highlights some of the things on the report and also some of the things that happens since the report and especially on the current situation of the department so with your permission i'll share my presentation. >> thank you. >> are you able to see it? >> yes, sir, i can see it. >> thank you, very much. >> it's my report for the month of june and you have my report that was given to you and i'm going to also include in this report, we're going to be doing it every commission report our mutual aid updates. the fire season is in full effect and we have members

already committed and we have 22 members right now deployed in the fight that we have in the state with the fire conditions that we have so, three of our type 6 engines were deployed to the salt fire. they have not come back since then. we've been rotating different fires. after that, our engine 361 was sent to the fire in oregon. we have now also members after that so far that went to the backwards complex fire and from that fire had been deployed to the dixie fire on the brew cannon region area north on paradise years ago and they're currently working the lines right now and they've been very busy and now we have a second team, this is the status and we

have engine 361 and the update on the dixie fire and again as of yesterday, 208,000 acres and 23% contained and if you think this fire season is going fast and strong, it is. these are the numbers on cal fire responses that have compared to the same time last year and increase of 257% compared to the same time last year so, no doubt the drought and all the effects are going on are making a big effect on us and our department continues to respond to this and we will keep you updated throughout the fire season, myself and where our folks are and what are they doing and what kind of fires they're fighting. on the training side from my division, we completed and thank you for those who attended the 127th academy and it was a great event. the folks are in the field working there shift now.

the first assignment is engine and truck and they rotate for six months until they complete the one-year probation time. it was a great event and i think you all enjoyed that happy event. it starts on monday tonight and like chief said we have orientation, family night. the reason we also had a pre tower event last saturday and for about six hours, the recruits that were able to do it were able to come in and start getting ideas of what is going to happen in the academy and tap some of the equipment we will use in the academy and they're given a full orientation. tonight's event is an orientation about what will happen and also getting the families involved and aware to support our recruits. as you recall from the graduation and recruits talk about the support from the families. it's important they have that. this is the first time we've

done family night in a long time. we want to make sure the families understand their support is needed for the next 20 weeks. they'll graduate on december 23rd, 2021 and 42 recruits seven coming from station 49. this time the chief has implemented a new model where in the past the recruits were on station 49 will come two weeks later and we'll connen straight on the e.m.s. training for two weeks. we incorporate that e.m.s. training throughout the whole academy and we feel this is a better model and we incorporate those recruits from 49 to be together from the beginning and we think we'll have better results from that too. so we're looking forward to that and looking forward to day one on monday. and on the in service training side, we do drills. i just want to show you this picture because the training staff at treasure island has done a fantastic job building their own props. they build props and this prop in the picture sim late and so

they built they can penetrate that and look for fire that we will find in many residents so we're trying to do it and they're doing a fantastic knob they do highrise training drills and we incorporate that into the drills so when we do fires, the responses that and they continue to go out and do some training for them and of course they're doing continued drills but you see drills that they work with partners in the county as well too and they continue to do a

lot of work, working with doctor offices and they have observe a conferences where they had to respond to some allegations that we have and work with them together and we are working on a program for a membersttd and sit their primary care physician and we wanto implement that and we're working on that. also, we're able ton a grant. it's a company that trains membndhey've done successfully in boston ander agencies where they come and do the trainer and appears fitness trainers and talk about fitness, nutrition, over all wel so this ishappening in