>> january 12, 2022, the time is 9:01. this meeting is being held by webex pursuant to the government executive orders and proclamation declaring the existence of a local emergency. the fire commission regular meeting room at city hall is closed and meetings of the fire commission will convene remotely. you may watch live at www.sfgovtv.org and to participate during public comment by phone, please call 1-415-655-0001. use access code, 2488 289 4687. members of the public will have opportunity 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 are received. the moderator announces that the commission is taking public comment, members of the public can raise their hand by pressing star 3. then 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 comment. ensure you're in a quiet location, speak clearly and turn off any t.v.s or radios around you. item 1. roll call. president? >> president feinstein: present. >> vice president nakajo: present. >> commissioner covington: present. >> commissioner cleaveland: present. >> commissioner morgan: present. and chief of department.

>> chief nicholson: present. >> and the president will cite the land acknowledgement. >> i will indeed. the san francisco fire commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors,

elders and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> i am, too. resolution 2022-01. resolution making findings to allow teleconference meetings under california government code section 54953e. >> president feinstein: and do we have any public comment, madame secretary? >> there is nobody on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: all right. public comment will be closed. and we can move on. >> is there a motion to adopt? >> so moved. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. is there a second? thank you. >> i'll do a roll call vote.

>> president feinstein: aye. >> vice president nakajo: aye. >> commissioner morgan: aye. it's unanimous. adopted resolution 2022-01. >> item 3. general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any matter within the commission jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. they may 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. a lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or statements made during public comment. and there is nobody on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: all right. public comment shall be closed. thank you. >> item 4, public comment on item 5. public comment on all matters

pertaining to item 5 below, including public comment on whether to hold items 5b, 5c, and 5d in closed session. >> president feinstein: do we have any public comment on item 4? >> there is nobody on our public comment line. >> president feinstein: all right. public comment will be closed. >> item 5. possible closed session regarding labor negotiations and personnel matter. 5a, vote on whether to conduct 5b, c and d in closed session. the commission may hear item 5b in closed session pursuant to government code section 54957.6 and administrative code section 67.10c and items 5c and d in closed session pursuant to government code section 54957b and administrative code section

67.10b. >> president feinstein: all right. do we have a motion to hold these matters in closed session? >> so moved. >> president feinstein: it was commissioner -- yes, commissioner covington, thank you. is there a second? >> second, madame president. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. we have a motion and a second. >> okay and president feinstein, how do you vote >> president feinstein: i vote to hold the items in closed session. >> vice president nakajo: i vote aye to hold in closed session. >> commissioner morgan: yes, i vote aye as well to hold both in closed session. >> motion is unanimous and we'll go into closed session at 9:08. if i can ask open session to report any action in closed session as specified in section

54957 and san francisco administrative code, 67.12b4. the time is 11:30. >> president feinstein: all right. very good. and is there anything to report? >> good morning. do you want me to go ahead, commissioner? >> yes, okay. >> good morning, commissioners, city attorney's office. on items 5b and c, there is nothing to report. on item 5d, the commission by unanimous vote upheld the three charge rule violations and 10-day suspension. >> president feinstein: thank you.

all right. okay. we'll go on to item 5c, 2, vote to elect whether to disclose any or all discussions held in closed section as specified in san francisco administrative code certification 67.12a. >> president feinstein: all right. do i have a motion from a fellow commissioner? >> so moved, madame president. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. and i believe also commissioner covington? >> commissioner covington: second. >> is that motion to not disclose? >> president feinstein: yes. >> i will take a roll call vote. president feinstein, how do you vote? >> president feinstein: not to vote. >> vice president nakajo: i vote not to disclose. >> commissioner morgan: the same, not to disclose. >> the motion is unanimous.

item 6, approval of the minutes. motion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes from the regular meeting on december 8, 2021. and there is nobody on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: all right then. public comment will be closed. any comments or amendments from my fellow commissioners? i'm not seeing any hands. is there motion? >> i move to approve the minutes. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner cleaveland, is there a second? >> i second. this is commissioner morgan. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner. been moved and seconded. >> president feinstein, how do you vote? >> president feinstein: to adopt the minutes. >> vice president nakajo: to

adopt the minutes. >> commissioner covington: to adopt. >> the motion is unanimous. and approval of the minutes from the special meeting on december 15, 2021. and there is nobody on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: thank you. and public comment will be closed. any questions or discussions from my fellow commissioners on the minutes from december 15? and i'm not seeing any hands go up. so is there a motion? >> so moved to approve, madame president. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner cleaveland. is there a second? >> yes, i second. commissioner morgan. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner morgan. it's been moved and seconded.

>> president feinstein: i vote to adopt. >> vice president nakajo: to adopt. >> commissioner covington: to adopt. the motion is unanimous. item 7, chief of department's report. report from chief of department jeanine nicholson on activities and issues within the department since the fire commission meeting on december 8, 2021, including budget, academies and special events, communications and outreach and report from operations from deputy chief robert postel on field operations, including greater alarms fire, emergency medical services, bureau of fire prevention and investigation, homeland security, airport division and presentation from fire marshal ken cofflin. >> greetings, president,

commissioners, command staff. this is my report for january 12th. i attended the mayor's department head meeting this morning and do not have to miss the rest of today's meeting because of that. as you know, i go to it once a month during our commission meeting. lots of talk of covid and omicron on that meeting. and, you know, getting the city up and running. but first before i would like to welcome chief robert postel and chief o'connor to the command staff. you'll be hearing from chief postel today in his report. i just wanted to welcome both of them to the command staff and thank them for jumping on this

train. sometimes moving slowly, you know, but thank them for their dedication to this department. so the holiday season as you know was a little crazy with the omicron spread. and we are still experiencing impact from that. we have what looks to be just over 100 members out with covid right now. we were up to 140, 150 members. and so we're still using mandatory overtime and our members are working a lot. and i want to thank each and every one of them for their dedication and hard work and i know we all signed up for good and bad and it's really challenging right now. and i just want to thank them for hanging in there. you may have seen there was a press conference this past

weekend about our staffing and basically to alert the public of the sort of additional stress on the 911 system from our call-takers and dispatchers at 911 to our own ems crews. and we definitely have seen an increase call volume on some days. typically we see 330, 340, maybe 350 calls a day. we've been seeing over 400 on three separate days within the past week. and, you know, we are also having staffing issues due to covid. so the press conference was basically, you know, please avoid calling 911 unless you have a life-threatening emergency. don't call 911 for a covid test or, you know, because we were seeing -- anecdotally, we were

seeing quite a bit of that, but, you know, most cases, knock on wood, of this omicron has been milder and not life-threatening. and can be treated at home. so, we had that press conference this weekend and it seemed to do us some good for a day or two, but now we're back up at pretty high call volume again. we also have made the booster shot convenient and available to all of our members. we're having booster clinics every day this week and next week at station 49. that's the division of training. as we know, data can show that the boosters are providing another layer of protection that, you know, can prevent serious illness. i'd like to speak to -- what else? so, academies.

as you know, we had an academy graduate on the 23rd of december and they went right to work on the 24th. and we are starting another h2 academy on tuesday, the 18th of approximately 50. 5-0. we currently have an h3 level one academy in. emts who are set to graduate at the end of next week. so those will be new bodies for the ambulance. but we also have some other internal classes going on. we have a bump-up class for emt to paramedic. and after this h3 level 1 class graduates, we will be hiring an h3 level 2 class. so typically, we only hire emts, when they come off the street, but now we're going to be hiring people as paramedics, because many, many, many of the emts

that we hired off the streets are actually paramedics and have their paramedic licenses. so we're going to be doing a combination of h3 level 1 classes and h3 level 2 classes in the future. just makes more sense. so there is that. we're gearing up for more training. i know the chief is. i also want to mention that we have -- and we'll have to change this in the script -- that we have moved training under operations and homeland security under administration. to better align sort of what we're doing out in the field with how we're training and our homeland security often deals with a lot of sort of administrative plans and the like. so, we have taken that step for

right now. and also working diligently with mark corso and with others on our budget, which i know you will hear about today as well. and that concludes my report for right now. >> president feinstein: all right then. any public comment? >> there is nobody on the public comment line. >> president feinstein: all right. public comment shall be closed. commissioners, any questions for the chief? yes, commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: thank you, madame president. welcome back, chief. i just have a couple of quick

questions. is there any reason why sunday has become such an active day? >> sorry, why sunday has become such an active day in terms of call volume? >> commissioner covington: yes, call volume. >> chief nicholson: i don't know. we've seen other days in the last five or six days that are also really high call volume, so we're looking at the data, tracking it, but i don't have any sort of answer i can give you in terms of reasoning why. >> commissioner covington: okay. because you emphasized sunday. you didn't mention other days, so i was wondering if something -- if there was something this particular that was happening to cause the rise. okay. and about the paramedics who can now come into the department as paramedics. that sounds like a great idea.

what about the people who were hired previously as emts even though they had their paramedic licenses? have they also been boosted up? >> great question, commissioner covington. yes, we wanted to ensure that we gave every single one of them an opportunity to take the bump-up class, to get -- to work as a paramedic in our system. and so we have given and are in the process of giving them that opportunity. we have a class of 12 in right now. so, you know, the caveat being they have to pass the class. so -- >> commissioner covington: how many people are eligible for bump-up? do you have that figure? >> chief nicholson: i do not. chief colon, do you have that figure? >> good morning, commissioners. this is deputy chief commissioner tong. we have about 30 more or so

folks we can bump up right now. and some will include people who didn't pass the first time and will need to repeat. then we have new employees as well. and we will continue to have these e.m.s. advancement academies regularly, just in case we hire people as emts, they go to paramedic school and they want to bump up. so we'll still continue to do this, but outstanding, we maybe have around 30 folks that still need to or want to bump up. >> commissioner covington: that's great. and will the classes always be 10 at a time? >> that's really dependent on staffing. you know, right now, because our levels are little bit lower, we're trying not to have too large of a class so we don't impact the regular staff. >> commissioner covington: and how long is the duration of classes in terms of weeks? >> it's a three-week program.

>> commissioner covington: well, congratulations to all of those folks who, you know, were advanced enough to have the foresight that one day this would happen. >> absolutely. >> commissioner covington: yes, since they already have their paramedic licenses, it's good for us to acknowledge that. i don't have any other questions at this time. >> president feinstein: thank you, commissioner covington. >> commissioner cleaveland: just a quick question for the chief. this surge that is happening in the 911 calls, is it coming from basically the same sources as in the past? or is it an increase in our frequent flyer calls, or is it coming mainly from the tenderloin? what is the source of this surge if you can identify it? >> chief nicholson: so it's not

from one particular place. i think that there are a lot of people out there that are stressed out about omicron and whether they have it or not. i know in addition, you know, the hospitals, including san francisco general have seen an uptick in people complaining about covid symptoms. so we've seen a lot of code 2 calls which are not necessarily emergent, but, no, it's not coming from one particular neighborhood or another. so -- and, you know, in addition, we are going to continue to see our call volume rise as the city eventually gets back to normal. and, you know, we've seen that over the past few months as well, the call volume going back up. so there has been, i think, three out of the last seven days where we had this surge and

there doesn't seem to be any particular thing that we can pin it on. >> thank you. >> president feinstein: questions from -- vice president nakajo? >> vice president nakajo: i wanted to get a point of clarification in your report. i do believe that you said there is changes. did you say that training is part of operation now? and homeland security was changed as well? could you please clarify that, please? >> chief nicholson: thank you. yes, we are putting training under operations and part of the reason for that is we want to make sure that what they're doing in the field is what they're teaching at the tower and what they're teaching at the tower is what they're doing in

the field. so, they have a direct line of communication now. and we put homeland security under administration because much of their job is administrative. >> okay. thank you, chief. one more clarification question. is ems remaining within operation? >> chief nicholson: ems is currently under operations, yes. >> vice president nakajo: thank you very much. thank you, madame president. >> president feinstein: thank you, vice president nakajo. any further questions from commissioners? i have one, chief, for you. and i think this is sort of troubling and vexing to a lot of people and if it extends beyond the fire department, so i don't mean to put you in a difficult position. i understand the need to cut down nonemergency 911 calls,

because 911 is for emergencies. there seems, though, city-wide to be a real lack of guidance to people as to what they are to do if they are ill. and i know that for a variety of reasons i've been in -- visited a number of health facilities in the past 10 days and you can't -- and talked to people, friends and colleagues and what have you, good luck getting an appointment in person at kaiser or sutter or ucsf or dignity. and there doesn't seem -- i understand why there has been this call surge, because people don't know what to do. when you call, you sit on the phone for an hour to try to get an appointment for a telehealth

appointment and not -- you know -- i understand the need to reserve resources for really ill people, beds for people coming into the e.r. with true, you know, medical emergencies, not -- not perhaps, you know, symptoms that may or may not be covid symptoms, but it doesn't feel to me that the facilities of san francisco -- not that they're city facilities per se -- are stepping up to the plate to make it easy for people to avoid calling 911. >> chief nicholson: president feinstein, what i can say is that clearly this whole covid thing is a fluid situation and just as we are having staffing issues, the hospitals and

everywhere else is having significant staffing issues. i know that san francisco general last week they had over 400 people off with covid and the guidance from osha has changed to try to accommodate some of that, but in terms of, you know, whether to quarantine or not, how long to quarantine, et cetera, but there are staffing issues everywhere, at every single hospital. there is staffing issues at the schools. so people aren't going to work because they have their kids at home. i mean, it's just -- and omicron is coming through here like nobody's business and, you know, it should be -- it should leave as fast as it ascended. so we're looking at really, you

know, hopefully this week and next week will be the top of it. and then it will really decline rapidly is what we're hoping for. so, yeah, i'm sure there is -- there are issues at hospitals and elsewhere, because of omicron and how quickly it has spread. >> president feinstein: okay. can you give any advice -- and i'm not trying to make you the health officer of the city, because being fire chief is enough of a job and you don't need that burden put upon you, but how are people to be advised? how can they be seen by somebody? you know, so that they don't call 911. that seems to be what is missing in all the messages that are going out. what do you do if you're ill and it isn't a heart attack or a

stroke or something, you know, that really does warrant 911, but you're ill and you can't get anywhere. can you offer any guidance? if you're not comfortable doing that, i understand. because it's not within your realm, but everybody is just saying don't call 911, don't call 911, but, you know, what if you need medical care? >> chief nicholson: so, president, yeah, it's not in my purview to tell people what to do. what i've done for myself, i had symptoms and i stayed home and treated my own symptoms. i did not need a physician or anything else, but i can't speak to what other people would do, but, you know, fortunately, i was able to treat and quarantine myself at home. >> president feinstein: but

that's for potential covid symptoms. for other kinds of care, people can't access it. they just can't. >> chief nicholson: again, it's really not in my purview or wheelhouse or, you know, in terms of controlling what the health care system is doing or staffing or not staffing. >> president feinstein: all right. fair enough. fair enough. okay. any other commissioners? i'm looking for any hands that might pop up. not seeing any. and thank you, chief, very much for your report. i know we are going to be moving on to chief postel's report and i wanted to welcome him to his

first official commission meeting in his new role. and, you know, congratulations. we're really looking forward to your leadership and beginning with your report today. so, welcome, sir. and thank you for stepping up to the plate and assuming that responsibility. i was fortunate enough to watch up at -- you at a fire and i think you taught me a lot and i look forward to learning more. so, you know, all the best to you. and welcome. >> and i just want -- i can't remember if we called for public comment, but there is nobody on the public comment line for the chief's report. >> president feinstein: well, that's good, since i didn't call for it. so public comment will be closed. what can i say?

>> okay. thank you, president feinstein for the kind words. good morning, president feinstein, vice president nakajo, all the commissioners, my name is bob postel, i'll be the deputy chief of operations here for the foreseeable future. i'm looking forward to working with the commission and the command staff who continue all the good work that we do in the fire department every day. and hopefully, contribute enough to make things better before this is over with. chief, thank you very much for having the faith in me and giving me this opportunity. it's very humbling and it's a big job. i hope i can live up to the expectations. i'll tell you a little something about me before we get going. i think all of you know me. some know me more than others. i'm a fourth generation firefighter. this is my family. it's all i've ever known.

next to my wife and children, this is something i love more than anything else in the world. and i intend to leave it better than i found it. i have over 30 years of service, almost 31 in march. my entire career has been in the busiest most challenging companies we have. lieutenant, captain, rescue 1, engine 36, chief of battalion 2 and for the last 10 plus years i've been in division 2. my goal is to bring continuity to operations. not just between the divisions but between the airport, fire prevention, everybody who works for me, i want to have continuity there and i think it's fair to the people who are working for us to have an expectation to know what everybody is going to expect from them. the chief spoke about the

division training moving under operations and homeland security moving back to administration. in order to effect positive change and facilitate this operational continuity, it makes perfect sense to have training operating directly under operations. i'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with adc kyle to accomplish this and many more things. so, again, that's a little bit about me. and i want to thank everybody for hearing me out on that, for the opportunity. now to report. there were two alarm fires in the previous month period. first one, december 11, at 5:15 in the morning, 335 barneveld. this was a warehouse, it was fully involved. it was called in by one of the medic units, medic 76 was returning to station 49 when they on viewed it.

once it was determined that the roof structure had become involved in fire and presented a significant collapse hazard, assistant chief baker was the ic. the second alarm was on december 13 at 22:53, at 3520 17th street. the four story building with construction ongoing throughout the building. the top floor was open studs. lent itself to rapid fire advancement. upon arrival, there was fire present on the third floor, the fourth floor and through the roof. that was the reason for the quick second alarm. efficient house leads. resulted in a quick knock down of the fire and there was no

exposures. we're continuing to remain engaged in his role, playing a big part in the messaging with some of the covid things that are going on as well as other social media stuff for the fire department. in his report, he lists all the significant incidents and that's a good summary of everything that occurred during this operational period. baxter has requested to return to his lieutenant position in the field, so general orders have been issued and we're looking for applicants to find his replacement as we speak. ems positions. i think chief already alluded to some of this stuff. they're currently training a class of emts. currently there are 39234 the class. they're expected to graduate january 21st. the three bump-up academies are ongoing. there will be more of them to come in january, february and

march. level 2 class is scheduled for february and another class for the end of march. two section chiefs have been added to the staff, one for operations and one for administration. both are working under simon pang. the paramedicine division has highlighted some of their success stories on how the different factions are working together to help some of the clientele and those are included in the narratives in your report. as the chief spoke to, the overall call volume for ems has been getting above normal in the last several days. up in the 400-call range. there is increased number of medic calls, backed up with covid and the staffing shortages have led to longer than desired delays for ambulances. as the chief mentioned, there

was a public announcement made asking the public to refrain from using the 911 system for nonemergency services. i think the chief discussed that pretty well there. i won't go into that. fire prevention. our field suppression units complete 100% of the inspections by the end of '21 which is a huge accomplishment for them. it takes a lot of time. and the busiest companies are usually the companies with the most inspections to get done, so it's an additional burden on them. i'm proud of them for getting that done. fire prevention continues to work with the mayor's office and get more of the affordable housing units into the system. a.d.c. coughlin will be presenting a detailed report to you at the end of my report on

the slow streets and shared spaces as requested. at the airport, i'm going to be meeting with adc brown this thursday. it's an introductory meeting and part of me becoming acquainted with the airport personnel i've been working with as well as operations. the airport conducted their medic interviews and have selected candidates. adc brown has worked for the assignment office to provide adequate staffing at the airport for next year. we have a number of unassigned firefighters and paramedics going down there. for the next year. and we also have the -- [indiscernible] assigned to airport division. there were no major incidents during this last operational period. and finally, homeland security. adc brown continues her good work on acquiring grants to

supplement our training and equipment needs. she's worked with the fema task force to select two handlers and pair k-9, captain miller with a new k-9. he worked hard for the planned events, which significant ones were cancelled, but she also provided liaison and the operations center on new year's eve to keep us informed. she's played an integral role around the covid and helping to develop the departmental policies and all this covid stuff we've been dealing with. that's my report, commissioners. i hope that was sufficient. >> president feinstein: thank you. excellent. all right. and do we have any public comment for chief postel? >> there is nobody on our public

comment line. >> president feinstein: oh, chief postel, it must be your first official meeting. public comment is closed. commissioners? i see commissioner cleaveland. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, madame president. and congratulations, chief postel, on your advancement to deputy chief here. >> thank you. >> commissioner cleaveland: look forward to working with you and congratulations. as i read through this report, i always am drawn to the emergency services report. i think that's probably the most stressed piece of the city government in our city at any one time during the day or night. i'm always in awe of how they are always working 24-7 to keep us healthy, keep us safe, keep

us from dying. and it's an arduous task, so my comments and my questions are going to revolve around the ems report. you have on page 18 mentioned that this tentative date for the academy starts in mid february, is that still on track as you know it? >> level 2, let me refer to my notes here. mid february, yes. you may have a specific date for that? >> thanks, chief postel, yes, we are slated to start on february 22nd. it's an eight-week academy fyi. >> commissioner cleaveland: 2, 2, 22. okay. you talked about two people in

the h3l academy failed for didactic reasons, didactic portion. what does that mean they failed their didactic portion of the academy? >> that is the classroom portion, so we have two portions. one is classroom where they do the written tests, the skills exams, so during that portion, that's what we consider the didactic and then they go out into their field. >> commissioner cleaveland: so the classroom portion was taking test in the classroom? >> correct. >> commissioner cleaveland: the street response team, do we currently have a 24-7 coverage for the street crisis response teams?

24-7 coverage? >> yes, through the chief, yes we do. and in you want more specifics, chief pang can address them, but, yes, we have 24-7 coverage for street crisis response teams. >> commissioner cleaveland: and currently we have i guess, what, six crisis response teams, is that correct? >> yes. >> commissioner cleaveland: and how many are designated during the evening hours >> we have one right now. >> commissioner cleaveland: just one. is that designated in the tenderloin area probably? >> city-wide now because they're the only ones. >> commissioner cleaveland: wow. well, they're a busy bunch i bet ya. how many on average -- on an average day out of the 300 or so calls that you receive are calls

to sros in the city? >> i don't specifically have that breakdown. and, you know, there are a lot of sros in the city. i'm not even sure if we have a specific list of all of them to be able to compare. >> commissioner cleaveland: still the issue at night is you have -- you pick up somebody, they're having a crisis on the street, but you don't have any place to take them, correct? >> yes. >> commissioner cleaveland: so, how are we dealing with that? how are we -- i know the ems people can't do anything about it, but it has to be bumped upstairs so to speak, so where are those discussions? >> i'll either let -- >> commissioner cleaveland: our capacity if you will to take people off the streets? >> i'll refer that to chief pang. >> thank you for the question,

commissioner. so, to address the nighttime response, we do only have one unit at night, so the thing is at night is when there is the least amount of resources available. and there are no extended hours of intake for these resources. so even though there may be a great need at night, it makes no sense for us to put an additional unit up at night because there is really not a lot of resources to bring people to. there are many discussions that are at the mayor's level and d.p.h. leadership and department of homelessness and supportive housing about programs -- expanding programs and getting extended hours of intake. one thing i do know is that

although if every single person on the street that needed treatment were to suddenly say i want treatment, there wouldn't be enough placements for everybody. however, there are openings in most substance use and mental health treatment programs. so, it's the difficulty of everything that the city has to offer is voluntary and we have to wait until people are ready for change. and you just have to be ready -- you have to be there when that person is ready for change and have that magical moment, and it's very difficult. >> it's a small percentage of people that will avail themselves of trying to get off whatever they're on, correct? >> that is correct. it's very, very challenging work. and -- >> commissioner cleaveland: that's one of the reasons i'm so in awe and all of us on the

commission, are so in awe of what you and your members of the ems division do on a daily basis, so -- do you know by any chance in terms of the overdoses, the drug overdoses we've had in the city, are the majority of those occurring at night? or are they occurring during the day? or just pretty much spread out evenly? do we know? >> we do know, but i do not have it at my finger tips now. i can provide that to you within the hour if you would like. >> commissioner cleaveland: it would be nice to know. if we're not able to have the street crisis response teams, or the drug overdose response teams working when the major number of overdoses are happening, i guess, we need to put those together. we need to pair those together, if you will.

then on page 26 you had a major reduction in the 911 utilization by the frequent flyer group i assume, 46% in november and 52% decline in december. to what do you ascribe that reduction in -- by the ems group? >> these are the top 20 most frequent utilizers in the city. and our decrease in utilization is usually very good. it usually ranges between 30 and 50%. and this is just the hard work and persistence of our members on our team, that, you know, just -- will meet people on the street and strenuously advocate to get them off the street. >> i got that message from the

written dialogue here, that it's really a strenuous advocacy if you will to get treated and i allowed applaud them. the street wellness team is proposalinged to start this month. is that on track too happen? >> yes, it is. we're going to have one team start on monday, january 24th. on page 27, it talks about the agencies to provide support to serve the members in the community who require court-mandated treatment and medication. where are these people conserved? in their own residences? >> that's correct.

these are community conservatorships. >> commissioner cleaveland: i noticed on page 28, under the successes, you said since 2018 this client had 366 interactions with the ems 6 program as well as 357 ambulance engagements and transports. i just find that kind of information stunning. i mean, absolutely stunning that somebody would call, you know, would use the system that much. it just boggles my mind. >> to be clear, this individual does not own a phone. people are calling on this person's behalf. >> wow. wow. and then we had to find somebody to pay for his treatment, it looks like, from what i can read

in this note here. further down the page, you talk about the plant was later confirmed to have connected with a care team. this is a different -- and received important interventions. crucial to their overall health and well-being. can you define what important interventions are? >> yes, this person was very -- is very sick individual that needed medical care. and needed follow-up care. and we made sure that they had medical care -- to either go out and meet this person where he was staying, or escorted him to

medical care. this is an example of our willingness to help out other city providers for people that are just falling through the cracks. this person has had contact with emergency services in the past, but not to the level that would have been brought to our attention, but we certainly wanted to help out because it was the right thing to do and also because if we don't help out, this person could become a frequent user who is dependent on emergency services. >> commissioner cleaveland: on page 29, you talk about long-acting injectables. lais by psychiatric medication. what is that and what is the long-term or short-term effect? >> there are two prescribed, antipsychotics and if you have an injection that lasts for 30

days. it's much more helpful for someone who is having a chaotic lifestyle, who otherwise would have to take a pill every day. you know, they're probably going to lose that medication and you can't expect them to take medication in a reliable way, so a monthly injection is definitely helpful. >> commissioner cleaveland: further down the page on 29, the individual had 25 fire department transports in 26 days. 25 transports in 36 days from being exited out of the medical respite environment to when he was admitted to the hospital. what was -- what were the calls for? i mean, he was -- there were 25 calls for him over 36 days. what were they? i mean --

>> this person really shouldn't have been released to the community. they couldn't take care of their daily -- acts of daily living. very disruptive behavior. often incontinent. so not only were providers at local shelters calling because they didn't have the resources to handle this person's needs, but also community members calling if she see this person in dis-- if they see this person in distress on the street. so it was because of strenuous advocacy that brought everybody together to say this person should never have been released from the hospital and he needs to go back. >> commissioner cleaveland: wow. i notice where you talk about the challenges, administrative and technical overhead continue to place restraints on the ems mission as members are

consistently taken off of task. have you made recommendations, chief pang, in terms of ways that we can make the administrative burden less onerous on our ems staff? and are there better ways we can use technology to make the reporting easier, faster and i suppose, you know, more -- more -- what's the word -- well organized with all the other reports that go in? i mean, are you making those kind of recommendations? and if so, how are we moving forward to acquire technology that will help all of our ems paramedics and emts function more quickly and easily? >> so we've made big headway on this -- in this issue. first of all, one of the things

that take our time are that we are involved in many, many case conferences and multidisciplinary meetings and so just attending the meetings takes a lot of time. meaning that our people have to get off the street instead of actively engaging people, they're in a meeting, which we have to go to those meetings because we're sharing information about individuals and trying to come up with patient care plan. so i don't really see how we could change that aspect. however, just yesterday we've -- we have hired -- we went through the selection process and we hired someone for our cqi position. and we also reassigned a firefighter, nick oxford who

just completed a masters of health, so we detailed him over to immediately help us. and that was just this week. monday was his first day. i anticipate that immediately, you know, giving us a lot of extra, you know -- he's going to be very helpful to us. >> commissioner cleaveland: that's excellent news. that's excellent news, chief pang. excellent news. on page 30, you said the community paramedic position at flight 42 map will sunset with no current staff to program. exactly what is that? and why are we discontinuing it? >> so, in 2020, when there was a covid outbreak at the center, there were 17 individuals there that had to be put into isolation and quarantine.

many of them were frequent 911 users, so what we did was we took over a shelter-in-place site and we put those individuals there. and because the health department was so stressed for their own personal issues, they asked for community paramedics to go there and help out. and we've been providing staff there for probably close to 18 months. and we've been very successful in keeping people who normally would be using our ems services at a very high rate, we decreased their utilization by over 90%. so we've been very successful there. and the last budget cycle, the health department was going to cover the cost of our members there, but they've changed their model and they are going to be hiring behavioral technicians in lieu of our community paramedics, so we've exited our

members at the start of the year. >> commissioner cleaveland: how do you feel about that? >> president feinstein: good question. >> well, they haven't hired any behavioral technicians yet. and there have been -- there have been times when because we had staffing issues over the last 18 months that we had to -- we didn't have anybody there. and to me it was notable that a lot of people left the program when our members left. so i think our members are very, very good at redirecting folks, deescalating folks and we've had one member, sharon mahoney, who has gone out of her way to lead poetry classes and art works and outings. and it's kept a group of people there. it is a shelter-in-place site. they're not allowed to leave.

it is difficult to be expected to stay in one place for a month at a time. but our members have done it. so we'll have to see how it goes with us not being there. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you for that. on page 31 at the top, it's a police request reports, in november there were only 16 and then you had it reversed. i believe december should have been 15 and 78 nos. >> yes, that was inverted. >> commissioner cleaveland: that was the reverse. inadvertent reverse. moving down the page, under november, you say the crew was -- success, crew was called for assistance from an engine and an ambulance. now i get frequently asked why engines as well as ambulances

respond to medical emergencies, why we send both an engine and an ambulance when it seems like all that is needed is an ambulance? can you explain why we do that? >> yes. for a lot of the call codes, if it's determined that it could be emergent or life-threatening, we want as many personnel there as possible. there are more engines than ambulances that are geographically situated through the city. so often an engine can get there first. also, not all of our ambulances have two paramedics on board and we would like to have two paramedics on the scene of a life-threatening emergency. the engine contributes one paramedic and the ambulance the other. so it's very common we'll have both an engine and an ambulance responding to life-threatening calls.

>> commissioner cleaveland: very good, thank you. you've been talking about -- i don't know how you say this -- who provides that? are we providing that? >> we are not at this time. it's dupe buprenorphine. and currently what we do is either ask the emergency room physician to prescribe it. they're reluctant to do it unless they have follow-up care and we're the ones who deliver the follow-up care. either that, or we have a number of street medicine, which is a health department team and we have a nurse practitioner on board that prescribes it. it would have to come from a walgreens or a pharmacy. we will escort the person to the pharmacy to get it for them. now, we are working on getting local optional scope so that our

community paramedics can administer buprenorphine ourselves. currently that application is at the state level. it was our local that approved it and sent it to the state three days ago. and so we'll have to see what the turnaround time is. >> commissioner cleaveland: but we expect we'll get state authorization, correct? >> we do. contra costa county is already doing this as part of a pilot project and we are using the exact same model. so we should get permission to do this. >> commissioner cleaveland: does this, does it work on all opioids? >> yes, it does. this is -- it is treatment. it is -- it binds to opioid receptor sites more readily than

fentanyl or heroin, but the high that someone gets is not as debilitating. >> commissioner cleaveland: on page 32 -- thank you. on page 32, you talk about december, the bottom of page, that you had -- you coordinated this bystander was given i guess narcan was engaged on the scene and coordinated with the substance use navigator. what is that? >> many of the hospitals have hired substance navigators. essentially someone who is -- their job is to make sure that the individual in the e.r. or on the floors if they get admitted, that coordinates care. [please stand by] [please stand by]

-- you guys are on the front lines every single day and i would dare say even one single

day out of -- our emts and paramedics are doing on the streets of san francisco, it would be worthy -- worthy of its own stand-alone documentary. with that said, i want to thank you for your service, chief mang and chief tom and everyone at ems division that i see as the toughest jobs every day that we provide as services to our citizens in this city. thank you. that's all of my questions, madam president, thank you. >> vice president feinstein: thank you, and thank you for your comments, commissioner cleveland. do other commissioners have any questions or comments for -- either the chief or chief -- tang or i don't want to call her

sandy -- chief tom. i have -- i'm sorry, i know that it's late. i know that we've been meeting for a long time, but i have one question, and i'm not sure to whom i should direct it. and i don't mean to buck the chain of command here, but whoever can answer it, i'd appreciate it being answered. and this is just within my wheelhouse. how is the relationship with the courts when it comes to conservatorships, because what i have seen is that very few conservatorships have been designated and that's an understatement of people that need to be conserved in this city and yet nobody likes to do

it. and i'm just curious from your perspective, and if you're not comfortable because you -- it's fine, i understand. but -- but what is your perception of, you know, the involvement of court-ordered conservatorships here, do they help you? do they make a difference? should we as a commission be pushing for more of them? whoever wants to take the question, you know, i defer to, but, i mean, that seems to be what the direction we need to go in here. voluntary or involuntary? because our streets are what they are and, you know, we may choose to do something as a commission. we may not, but i just would like your input on that.

and, chief tom, it may go to you. >> i'm going to pass the buck and hand it over to chief pang. >> president finestein: oh, chief, it's your lucky day. >> president finestein, thank you for the question. so i'll only imperfectly answer this question because i don't know any judges or personally myself, but all i can say is that the process is very arduous. we have to spend months compiling cases and data and reaching out to various psychiatrist physicians, the, conserveetor's office. and a few weeks ago someone got conserved rapidly, in a week and we're all asking ourselves, how did this happen? let's follow this model.

it's a very confusing process to me. and also there are some cases where we've had people that were conserved but were still put out on the street because there seems to be no right place for this person's needs. so it's a very complicated thing they couldn't possibly give you a satisfactory answer today. except that, you know, once we have identified someone that we think really cannot survive on their own, we -- we do what we can. and we involve every city agency that we can and we work closely with the conservetor's office and we support with the shows of support because we want to have a good relationship with them. we want to help them and then we bring someone that we think that really cannot survive on their own. you know, we -- we submit names to them so we can, you know, ask

them for their input. >> president finestein: and let me clarify please, chief. are you talking about the public guardian's office? >> no, we do work with the public guardian's office sometimes, but usually it's the office of the conservetor because most of the people that we're dealing with it's a result of mental health. >> president finestein: if i may follow up with one what i hope last question -- are they turning you down in terms of filing petitions with the court? or is the court saying, no, you don't have enough to conserve this person? >> i think most of our difficulties would be that we don't bring thing to the judge, the office of the conservator does, and so our difficulty is

how do we have a sufficient case to to persuade the office of the conservator to bring something forward. and when it goes before a judge, sometimes they have us there as an expert witness, and sometimes they don't. but i can't speak what happens once it goes to a judge. that's kind of beyond me. >> president finestein: have you been asked to appear in court and testify? >> yes. >> and you have done so? >> yes. >> were you successful in achieving your goal? >> in a number of cases, yes. i guess that we have, but oftentimes there have been multiple appearances before the judge. >> president finestein: yeah, thank you. that's my wheelhouse, so if i

can help, i'm going to. and i thank you. thank you, and thank you for taking the time. because there's just -- i agree with commissioner cleveland that there's no, um, you know, it's just so obvious by my definition. and that it takes all of this time from all of these people to do that which is humane for other human beings who can't care for themselves is just distressing to me. so i can only operate in my little pie section, you know, here. but, you know, i -- i do think that there are things that can be done. and i really thank you for -- for, you know, hanging in there and it's incredibly frustrating and i know that, and thank you

for your honesty and thank you for your hard work and the same for chief pang and everyone in your division. thank you. >> thank you for the support. >> president finestein: okay, do we have chief -- we have let you off early -- i mean, easy on your first meeting. don't worry, we'll fix it. we'll take care of you. don't worry. all right. [indiscernible] i'm sorry, i didn't hear whoever spoke. sorry, was that you, madam secretary? >> clerk: well, it was the chief and i. vice president nakajo has his hand up. >> president finestein: i apologize, vice president, i didn't see you. i'm sorry. >> commissioner nakajo: thank

you, madam president and chief thank you for your comprehensive report as well as your references. i want to congratulate you and thank you for stepping up. we have a relationship through the longevity of our division as well. and i'm going to just say it and i had the honor of knowing your father as the chief of the department. it goes without saying in terms of your fourth generation of your family in terms of the relationship with the fire department and your 31 years in terms of service, i truly appreciate that. and, again, at the same time i wanted to congratulate chief o'connor in terms of his stepping up and also ascending. what that gives me and gives my colleagues and myself are those years of experience and expertise within the department and i know, chief o'connor, you

know how we do and operate within this commission with the questions that we ask. and as you can tell through this session now going on four hours and still having the fire marshal still to present with director corso, and still going into a closed session, how much we give as well with the department as well as with the commissioners. with myself, in terms of your division and responsibility, pbi and sfo, and hs, for me, the ems also is part of the paramedic division as well. and in terms of commissioner cleveland's questions and such, i'm going to refrain from many of my questions. commissioner cleveland has asked many of them or remarked, with the length of time and with the comprehension in terms of what was delivered.

i just want to say both to you, chief, and to chief o'connor and to the chief of the department that this commission and myself particularly as well, we appreciate all of the information. the good information, the bad information, that information. going into this new year, which definitely feels a little bit like last year in some cases, part of the frustration for myself was to the amount of communication and information that comes to our table. at one point or another chief o'connor will represent, but station 35 or the kinds of situations that we're in, it becomes very disheartening for myself with the lack of information in terms of coming up to the commissioners so that we can be knowledgeable. for me basically the more information that we have, the better it is. and that's just basically because the better information we have, the more information that we have, becomes proactive

within us, the commissioners, in terms what we can do to work together collectively within the department. so i just wanted to say that. ems, paramedic division, reports are like 20 pages. for me, when it comes to administration also, the support services. so there's a lot on the table, and we do definitely appreciate it, but i'm really going to be interested because the accountability and the information and your experiences are going to be able to let us commissioners know what's going on. and i'm not particularly fond of situations when we hit crisis mode, you know, or we're in a situation where we're finger pointing or people are pointing fingers at us. i know that as a commission that we need to be unified and collective in terms of our information and our efforts and i just want to say that clearly you can tell also chief bostell and o'connor that we

commissioners have a situation where oftentimes we ask for individual presentations, and the fire marshal will come up and director corso comes up or any other division chief that comes up. and for me particularly it's because i like to hear from the chiefs directly, not seeing that your report is not comprehensive, but sometimes you'd like to hear the nitty-gritty directly from the division chief in terms of their perspectives as well. so i wanted to just say that as we move forward in the new year and feel very good about both of you, particularly yourself, bostell -- division chief, excuse me, and chief o'connor, and in terms of where we're moving. so with that i'm going to refrain from my questions and i look forward to working together collectively and i am concluded at this particular point, madam president. >> president finestein: thank you, mr. vice president. any further comments, commissioner covington, yes, ma'am. >> commissioner covington: thank

you, madam president. i just wanted to give a shout out to the two new deputies. i think that they're wonderful choices and i know that both of them to be fine upstanding members of the department. and i want to congratulate the chief of the department on her selecting them. that's it. >> president finestein: thank you, thank you, commissioner covington. any questions? okay. i believe that we are going to move on to the very patient fire marshal's report. and welcome to your new position. and am i right, madam secretary? >> clerk: that is correct. and i have passed the ball to fire marshal coplan.

>> president finestein:and he probably knows how to use it so that's really impressive. welcome, thank you. >> thank you, commissioners, madam staff, and i'll do my best to share my screen and to go through the presentation regarding shared spaces and slow streets. >> president finestein: thank you. >> let's see how this works. >> can you see my screen? >> president feinstein: no, we can't. i'll try something else here. one second.

>> so anything, anyone, can we see this presentation yet? >> president feinstein: not yet >> oh, wait a second here, let me try this. >> clerk: there we go, yep, we got it. >> okay. i hit share twice, i just found out. anyway, thank you for letting me go ahead and do this presentation. i know that we're a little -- we wanted to do this a little bit earlier, but thank you for the extra time as things have been very fluid in regards to covid. and speaking of covid, both of these programs, both shared spaces and slow streets, are

because of covid and because of what it's done to our businesses and our community. so first i wanted to start off and let you know regarding shared spaces. here's a map showing how many there are, and where they are in san francisco. there have been a little over 2,028 shared spaces applications from businesses. and these businesses are not just restaurants, but it could be retail or other types of businesses that move from the store out towards the street or on the sidewalk. of those 2,000, mta approved around 1,500 and there were some denials and some partial approvals. of those, starting with the fire department or our district inspectors, we're visiting 1,100 of these on a biweekly basis. and just because someone pulled

a permit doesn't mean that they built something at that time. currently there are approximately 750 restaurants operating curbside. of those 1,100 and now we're down to focusing on those 750 shared space restaurants. and when we had shared spaces, what is this? really a program from economic recovery task force that was allowing the merchants to use the sidewalk as part of the program, full and partial streets. and we'll talk about those differences. and public spaces to use for pick-up or actually outside dining. as you can see here, this is the current statistics that sfmta puts on the website showing how many you get -- you know, 56 permits for parking lane pick-up and those are dwindling down, whereas, sidewalks plus parking lane dining as you can see the 367, bus 371, averages about

750. so this information is on the website and anyone can look at it anytime to see what the status is. and as this program progressed the media definitely has picked up on it. everything started first when -- in may when the mayor said that restaurants can't take over the sidewalks and the neighborhood groups and the newspapers started talking about what was happening in their neighborhood and what could happen, and what was going on for a while and people said, well, what could it be? and as you can see down there, the supervisors finally decided that we want to keep these -- or some form of these outdoor dining shared spaces permanent. and that was back in july. and to give you a time frame of how this program has developed and is developing as we speak,

on march 15th, when governor newsome ordered all bars closed for reduced capacity that, left most of the restaurants in san francisco wondering, well, how are they going to operate? will they have to close down for good and are they going out of business? and may 26th, shared spaces, the official temporary shared spaces program launched in an effort to help businesses to survive covid. at that time we all expected that it would go away sooner than it did. and it would be ended by december 31st. as the program started ramping up, the bureau of fire prevention noticed more of these shared spaces in place, and we began our own program. that's when i stated that we did biweekly inspections and by august we were doing biweekly inspections and trying to keep up with those who didn't have permits. every time we went out there,

something was built. december came around, covid continued to rage on, and then the program was extended through june 30th, 2021. and we were keeping our fingers crossed that things would go back to normal. come march, the mayor introduced legislation to the board of supervisors, deciding to make the shared spaces program permanent. there were a lot of positive comments and feelings from the community, feeling that this should become a permanent program, and give businesses the opportunity to use the space and to continue on with social distancing and even beyond. so the board of supervisors passed the legislation to say that by january 1st, that the permanent program would start and that's when the applications would come in, and by june 30th -- by july 1st, sorry, the

permanent shared spaces would all be in place. so after legislation was passed by august 26th, both the program had launched and some enforcement started taking place, or some different type of enforcement. i'll get into that. december 14th, the board of supervisors, supervisor peskin introduced additional legislation that extended this temporary-to-permanent diversion and changed it to -- or it is proposed -- excuse me -- it's proposed to change it to april 1st, 2023. and that is due to the omicron variant, just blasting through the city. and the ability to have businesses to change over by july 1st. it seemed like a

it seemed like a very difficult and far-fetched idea. so that right now is in the board of supervisors consideration. changing dates from july 1st to april 1,2023. just to go over some types of shared spaces, when you hear shared spaces, it does include sidewalks and open lots. you can see the parking lane is taking over in the street while leaving the sidewalk open. and the closures of roadways, not typically 24/7, it's certain dates and certain times. and then open lots, as you can see there, you have them using parking lots and some use open spaces next to them but that was all part of the program. so i talked about roadway shared spaces. this is the current list updated as of actually last week. this is what the community groups are promoting closing

these particular streets, melinsia street and hay fally and over jesse, so they've requested a permit through the program for those particular times on there when they can close down and people can go in street while still providing the fire department access. they would monitor vehicles accessing that space. at the same time, small single businesses were also allowed to apply for a street closure based on their businesses -- their business or businesses. i didn't -- these are some of the streets that are closed. but it's because the business agreed to take on the requirements that are imposed, whether it be manning or allowing local traffic, etc. these do expire, and currently many of these are up for -- or

application again for reissuance. since omicron is going, the program will continue on for a little while longer. the type of park lets that we really focus on or that we can see very much, those are the ones taking up the parking lane or the curbside parking. there are three types of them. there's the public parklet that used to be called the parklet program and these are structures meant for everybody and not specific to a business that is actually in front of it. it's a public open space at all times, fully accessible, and there is not supposed to be commercial activity. and you get coffee down the street and you walk down there and it's a little park. there's the commercial parklet and the movable commercial parklet. that is that fixed structure that is typically with a roof. you can tell that it is constructed and it's not going

anywhere, it's there 24/7, the business is sponsoring it and maintaining it in front of their business and adjacent to their neighbors. and movable commercial parklet is a space that during certain hours the business maybe has a brunch and they put up tables and put barriers up and after the shift is over or when they are closed, everything goes away, and the space reverts bacg zone or a parking space. so those are the three shared spaces. as part of the program, there's a couplity railingses as we all try to work through it. the fiber department is working with mta and ptw and other groups to ensure that what they are applying for and what they build is compliant for everybody with accessibility and for fire and emergency access. so these are some takes from the current guidelines.

ideally, as you can see there, we want to be able to provide access for the fire department when we pull up, can we see the building, can we get there, can we get our ladders from the trucks on to the sidewalks and ladder the buildings. so these are step-by-step specifics to let the applicant know what their plan should look like. and in these guidelines the fire department has added specific language to assist our suppression personnel. as you can see the three-foot-wide gaps that will allow our personnel to actually go from the street to the sidewalk directly. and kind of mimicking if you have two parked vehicles on how we could still get to the street. due to other reasons, disability, we have to -- they are removable so people don't wander or inadvertently walk

into the street. and it goes on, when a roof can be allowed and when it can't, dependent on the sidewalk, and overhead structures. all of this is to avoid problems with fire ground operations. that's going to allow our people to work as quickly as possible upon arrival. and that includes everything from talking about overhead cables when you see the string lights about how those shall be mounted and the use of heaters, and spacing and overall safety for these, for these are becoming permanent structures. here's some examples of some of those that are less compliant that won't be part of the permit program that will still need some adjustment. some of it being that while you still see gaps there, some still have a roof and some areas can

make it difficult for us to carry a ladder through. and others are through mta, dealing with day lighting if you look in the bottom line, how that is adjacent with the sign and requirements that mta is asking for that is not fire department related. whereas, you look at these and you can see how easily the building is seen behind it and that we have free access and there's the full width of the sidewalk and many without any rooftops or canopies over the structures. and now we're moving into the slow street program and the slow street program is also another covid-related program. there are approximately about 25 slow streets left as you can see from the map there, and everything with the blue line is current slow streets. going both east/west and north/south.

and what are slow streets? what was the intent of the slow street? they're designed to limit traffic through certain residential neighbors to allow people to social distance by using foot and bicycle. and they were actually to prioritize the walking and the biking. as you know when covid first hit, people were required to stay home, and to be able to get out and to get to their street and their neighborhood, ride bikes and see some sun, do some exercise, that's what the intent was. so once the emergency declaration is over, all of the slow streets are to go away from the declaration of the end of the emergency. so the first 13 here, all of the ones in black, i'd say all of these, that's when they supposedly were being converted

to the post there on the right with the signage. and all of that can be run over by a fire department vehicle without damaging the engine tracker or the apparatus. that is the streets they focus on upgrading them. as you can see with 20th street, and i'll give you some background on that. mta is working on relocating that street or removing it, whereas the ones in red, golden gate shopwell and, and 8th street will be in a category of its own currently. so here's the other 13 locations that are currently slow streets and mariposa street is close to being removed. and you can see the other -- for those that don't have a signage, you can see what they actually

have up instead, different type of barricade. and the fire department access and allows local traffic to remind people that this is not really a thru street. and they have a post-pandemic program. again if you go to sfmta's website and you type in slow streets, this is all clearly spelled out and it gives you a chance to see what is going on. and sanchez street is almost finished and the implementation, i'm not sure where they are according to the website. and it's not complete. and first they did outreach and the authorization and working with other city eamghtses, including the fire department, and going to the community regarding design and implementation and its permanence is coming up very soon. same thing with shopwell. it's on the same plan of becoming permanent. the url is at the top there, and

type in slow street san francisco and it will give you more information. for the other two, golden gate and lake street, they're in the community outreach phase, so you can sign up on the website and say, hey, let me know when you have a meeting and provide information and they're asking the community on striping and other considerations and so they're in the design phase and that is not included yet. and so if have any questions, you can get the information from sfmta. i want to present that it's still part of the pandemic program. it is not a permanent program. it's letting you know what the project status is. as you can see it's 2022 plus, and they are working on getting data collection and considering how a new pilot program for page 3. so that one is not complete, like i said, but it is elevated

at this time. and that includes my presentation and i can see if i can get out of here. >> president feinstein: thank you for the presentation. i know that i have a few questions. so please let -- i will let my other commissioners, if they have questions to go ahead, but i definitely have questions about this. so anybody wish to go first or

would you like me to go first and then you can follow up? do you want to, use the covington pen. that's my suggestion. if you have questions, or comments, or i'll go and you can follow up. okay. are you ready? >> ready. >> president feinstein: there you go. i mean, i -- first, i want to talk about shared spaces. and some of them seem to be built very well, and i don't know if they're in conformance with what the rules are. i see them on very narrow streets that have not just -- are they into the parking places, but i -- you know, there

are wires up above from muni and there are wires, i don't know, from pg&e and they're just wires. now, i'm not a firefighter so i don't know suppression. i know what the difference is on ladders, you know, on why our trucks carry wood ladders. excuse me -- our engines have wood ladders and our trucks but our trucks have metal ladders and those wires pose a big danger. and, you know, in many of them, what seems unfair to me is that you have somebody who has a one store front restaurant and they seem able to only build a one storefront shared space to serve food. and other people who have a much broader storefront, and they're able to basically to conduct their -- you know, most of their business outside.

and that doesn't seem particularly fair to me. that's number one. number two is, i see lots of shared spaces. and i don't -- you know, i'm still learning about firefighting and suppression, where there's no -- i mean, i don't know how a hose would get to a stand pipe. you know, they've built solid -- maybe taking seven or eight parking places. now i'm not complaining about the parking, i'm complaining about the -- the amount of space that is taken. which is one thing. and i guess that i have -- i have two other -- that's my comment. my two other questions are, are roofs allowed or not allowed on these things? because i see both -- i see both aluminum roofs and i see plat --

i can call them plastic, maybe there's something other than plastic, but they look like plastic to me. and what's the difference and the danger factor between those two things. >> thank you for your questions, president finestein. so, first, when it comes to the wires, yes, there are many wires. so in the guidelines, dpw does explain or inquire a distance, because typically the roofs on these structures, which are permanent and which are allowed, discourage because of how they can create some issues. but they are permitted. there are some guidelines about how high you can build the roof typically it's supposed to be 10 feet, if it's with wires above and the structure cannot be higher than nine feet. but they're giving those dimentions accordingly.

-- dimensions accordingly. and the wires that affect us are installed by the business for the structure itself. typically they are lights, a string of light from the building over to a post on the -- on the shared space, whether it be for lights, string lights, or heteros. heaters. we work with many businesses to clear those in front of the sidewalk space that would affect our ladder into the building. >> president feinstein: so let me ask you this, are they required to get a permit to install those lights? >> no. they should be -- should have -- well, these are plugged directly into an outlet. and so the outlets are on the outside of the building. so if for some reason they didn't have an outlet out of the building, then dbi's electrical division would have to permit that and to do an inspection. >> president feinstein: is that happening? >> is that happening?

honestly, i do not know. it's not part of our purview and we do not look for permits for the outside of the building. >> president feinstein: what do you call them, the exterior heaters that give up, you know, a flame on the top -- i just don't know what you call them. >> those are heaters and we just use general term the lpg or propane, gas heaters. >> president feinstein: is that okay? >> so the program does include the ability for them -- for businesses to apply for lpg permit for the use of heaters. so for those businesses that apply, we took their information, a site plan, went out to those businesses, and to show them safety guidelines and how to use these and where they can be used. we've informed them they are not

to be used underneath a rooftop or an awning and you will typically see them right next to the structure, like, on the tree well side of the sidewalk. the idea being that you still get heat but you're not underneath a fixed structure. >> president feinstein: so if you have a roof, whatever it is made out of, you can't have a heater underneath the roof? am i correct? >> correct. either whether it's plastic or wood or metal or any other material. >> president feinstein: okay, thank you. that helps me. and the second question that i had is when you referenced data collection on page 3. what does that mean, data collection? i think that you're trying to go to your -- >> i'm sorry, i'm looking -- >> president feinstein: or you're just ignoring me. i'm kidding.

i'm kidding you. it's late, and i'm trying to lighten things up here. i'm not doing a good job. >> oh, sfmta tracks all of this, permits get canceled and renewed, changed out, having disclosure on what's happening with the shared spaces. ultimately, you know, you'll have a permanent program and it will -- this information will be available to let you know how many permanent shared spaces are out there. >> president feinstein: shared spaces or safe streets, i'm sorry. i think that i -- i am sorry -- maybe i misunderstood you or -- >> you want the slow streets part? >> president feinstein: well, because i know, you know, near where i live the neighbors have erected -- i don't know what you call it -- it's not brick, but it's like those -- might as well

be -- fences -- not fences -- you know, have erected permanent structures that block access to their street. not completely, but one lane of their street. i don't know how wide a fire truck is. i don't know how wide an ambulance is. i don't know how wide an engine is. and i don't know if they can make that turn or not. and especially with everybody parking wherever they want to park, because they can't find parking legally, i don't know if -- you know, i don't know. i mean, i guess that maybe i'm really trying to get at here is, number one, what you mean by data collection on page 3, that was my direct question. also i would like to know have there been any -- you know, have there been any accidents?

have there been any collisions? have there been anything like that, that we should probably know about with regard to both shared spaces and slow streets? >> okay. so two different lines here. >> president feinstein: you are correct. we call it a compound question. >> i'll take the first part and answer that one. so when you talk about erecting things in the street, no, those are not permitted. we have noticed them, and as our inspectors go around we report them over to pdw for them to remove from streets as we find them. anybody who sees them should call 311 and they will get forwarded through dpw and dpw will go out and remove them. there's not supposed to be anything in the streets. no part of the program, other than the road closed to thru traffic or the knock down post, those are the only items to

remain in the street, in the roadway. otherwise, it's supposed to be free for the fire department access. when you talk about the size of the rigs, they're approximately nine feet wide and we need half of the street to get over, when it comes to turning, it depends where that sign -- we do understand that things get moved, and we do our best to contact or work with our sister agency to get those things corrected. but welcome to -- and your second question regarding shared spaces. can you remind me again? >> president feinstein: well, i mean, i'm -- i mean, i think that you -- you've answered my question about, you know, what kind of roofs are allowed. and i'm presuming that you're enforcing whatever openings that need to be there to reach a stand pipe or something like

that. >> yes. yes, so it's about -- it's about two things. one, can we see where that stand pipe is, and locate that stand pipe and get a hose from our engine to the stand pipe and that's what we have been doing for the last 18 months is working with businesses. some changes do occur. so the business gets an idea to go ahead and add on or to make a modification, we work with them to ensure that we can operate an emergency operations from the fire ground. so we're working with the business community to ensure that we have access to them. >> president feinstein: do they cooperate? do they comply? >> they comply? yes, they do, sometimes it takes multiple visits. there's a lot of education with this program. unfortunately, when the program started in may of 2020, there wasn't enough information that

went out there and the idea was to get these businesses and throw them a lifeline and let's open up some space out there so they can serve customers and continue their business, and as things were erected, we started noticing that this -- some things were going to make it a little bit harder for every agency, everything from what's underneath the shared space to fire department access to accessibility. so all agencies have been working with these businesses. sometimes it takes a little bit longer. there's been quite a bit of an investment in many of these structures. and it takes quite a bit of money to go ahead and to modify the structures. any situation that is -- what we call severe or priority, that gets handled immediately and other ones we work with those businesses. we have everything from, a, it doesn't have an address so we need help. that's a different priority to, hey, we just can't get to this building and we have worked past

that at this point. you did mention one other thing and i wanted to answer for you. regarding storefronts and you say it's not fair. i wanted to say that is run by mta, and the current program or the pandemic program did allow some people or businesses to have five parking places and some do not. part of the new program is that they're reducing it -- they're currently reducing it down to two or three spaces but, yes, it is restricted to your business front and then there's a percentage of, is that parking space less than 50% in front of your neighbors, or if it's in front of your neighbor, do you have permission and receive a letter to go ahead. and those are documentation that you submitted with your application. >> president feinstein: and are people submitting applications or just, risking these structures? >> as i said mta had over 2,000 applications and so for the temporary program, everybody had an application at this point. and the permanent program, as

they start to find out, those will start trickling in. and depending on the compliance state, whether it's july 1st of this year or march or april of 2023. >> president feinstein: but that i'm not following. i'm sorry. >> the permanent compliance date with legislation is july 1st of this year. so it may have until then to -- to move towards the permanent program, and put an application in and modify their structure, but due to omicron, there was some legislation that was proposed to extend that date to april 2023. to assist those businesses as we don't know how long we'll be in this wave. >> president feinstein: so saying that there's going to be a two-year extension for them to submit permanent applications because of omicron? >> not anymore. it's been introduced to the board of supervisors, it's not passed. it's about nine months, actually. instead of july 1st this year it

would be april 1st. of 2023. next year. >> president feinstein: well, april of 2023, yes? >> yes. >> president feinstein: okay. well, mark curso can tell you how bad my math is, my math is bad but that's a significant amount of time. i mean, that's more than a year it's a year and a half basically. >> well, no -- they just moved the completion date from july 1st, that hasn't happened yet. >> president feinstein: of this year? >> of this year to april of next year. adding nine months on to it. >> president feinstein: okay. and the purpose of that is? >> to allow businesses to get through this current wave and allow them to apply for the program. that's the intent. >> president feinstein: okay. all right. and my last question is when you -- you referenced page 3, and you talked about data

collection, what kind of data and who is collecting it and what does this mean? >> that's sfmta, off of their website and saying what they're trying to do. they are trying to get -- before they suggest a slow street, they gather data regarding traffic patterns in the area, what's the flow on the side streets, what was the flow previously on stra that street and how is it affecting the neighborhood and the traffic flow. so that's their data. >> president feinstein: i see. >> so that's all mta. >> president feinstein: okay. thank you. and thank you for my fellow commissioners for indulging me. and needing to launch into this and i turn it over to others. questions, comments? yes, commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: okay, thank you. thank you very much for your

comments, fire marshal. and congratulations on your new position. my questions concern the impact of response times of these closed streets and they have called them slow streets but they're actually no-go streets. there's no traffic in the streets to go slowly. but i know that your predecessor was concerned about response times, especially given the fact that we have not returned to really any kind of semblance of normal in terms of the number of people who are on the roads. a lot of people are still working from home. so have you noticed any increase in response times as a result of these street closures?

>> we have noticed a response time. and there's different programs. there's some other changes and we're working with sfmta to gather additional information to find out, you know, what may be causing the response times to increase. so we're not quite sure with slow streets. as these slow streets are removed from the program and, again, you know, the mayor is set to be removed shortly and there's a few other slow streets and we're watching response times in those areas and see if they have improved or not. that's the only way that we can do it. remove the slow streets and let's see if it's helping out, but we are not positive that it is slow streets. there could be other factors involved, but, yes, it may be one of the factors that are

slowing us down a little bit. >> commissioner covington: i think that it has to be on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the streets that is supposed slow street and the adjaysent streets. i can tell you because page street is closed, oak street has been adversely impacted by page street being closed. the level of traffic has increased. and i see -- as i'm walking around, i see that the emergency vehicles are having -- particularly the ambulances and the paramedics -- are having difficulty getting down the street. i hear the fire sirens and the people have no place to move. the traffic is so heavy on the

street. so just from my observance on oak street and the closure of page street's impact, it has definitely slowed down response times. and since i've been on the commission for quite some time now, i do run into members of the department who are out and about, you know, they may be shopping for food or, you know, just cleaning the house and cleaning the fire house. and i will walk in and i'll say hi. and i really encourage all of my commissioners to get out and to just chat with people. and i can tell you that people in the department are very concerned with these slow streets. because they have to go around about in order to to get to

where the calls are being placed from? and i have seen that on the great highway that some people walking or biking or complaining about the fire trucks going down, which, i don't know, that to me is amazing. that people would say that we don't want emergency vehicles on the highway. anyway, if you have some comments related to my comments that would be great. >> i will say, as you mentioned the great highway, when our fire department engines go down there, all slow streets are open to emergency vehicles. our members in the field are

concerned sometimes driving down them because of people going into the street and tend to use alternate routes. again, this is a pandemic program. other than the four approved slow streets for the permanent program. so of those 26 or 25, only four are slated to be part of the permanent program. so hopefully as we move out of this emergency declaration, that those slow streets will be removed over that four-month period at the conclusion of the pandemic. >> all right, well, i have to just say that on one occasion that when i was talking to a member of the department, they were bemoaning the slow streets and have seen some plans from

mta, and said, wait a minute, these plans are very, very detailed. how long have you guys been working on this. and the answer was, we've been working on this for seven years we've been planning this for seven years. so now it would be nine years since we have been in lockdown for two. -- two years. so i -- i understand your reticence to even remotely complain about another department. i would just say please, please, please, just keep a really sharp eye on this. and when we no longer have -- and who knows how long it will

be until we're no longer captive to covid and other variants, when people get back into their cars, i think that it's going to be a hot mess, because not everyone is driving now. people are working from home remotely. so we have to be looking to the future. what is it going to be like when and plan for that. that is my comment. >> may i have for one moment, commissioner covington? >> commissioner covington: yes, of course. >> there is a third-party coming in to look at some of that data can you speak about that? they're coming in to look at our data and the sfmta's data. can you speak to that, please?

>> correct, thank you, chief. so i was going to mention that. so we're doing a joint study and working with sfmta, who we have a kickoff -- i want to say either tomorrow or next week, who are -- is going to be reviewing our data, our gps data, our response data, along with additional data from sfmta regarding projects, slow streets, street changes, things like that, to look for the cause and effect of differential -- or changes in our response times. so we hope to have that within 90 days after they start the project. so we're shooting and we're keeping our fingers crossed. some time in april, to have some data so that can help to guide us into seeing how each one of these programs affects our suppression number response and

from there we can use that data to work with our sister agencies to make appropriate changes. >> commissioner covington: all right. and who is going to make the final determination as to impact and timelines? >> go ahead. >> commissioner covington: i'm sorry, i thought that you said something. >> oh, okay. well, impact -- two agencies working together are going to look -- or evaluate that information. and there's also a piece of that that will allow them to go further. additionally, a study is going to look and the response times city-wide and then they're going to focus on i believe the great highway area and the tenderloin and the mission i believe that are three selected areas. i'd have to review that. and so fine-tuning and looking at those areas and see how each one of those -- it is all

different on those, and in the mission district with slow streets and closed shared streets or the narrowing and the reductions of lanes, so we're going to look at it together as a city family, and make some suggestions and changes. and i'll give an example that they're working with us on is as they do -- what they call a quick build street change on south van ness, and they are going to -- or are about to put in a signal interrupters that you may see in suburbia when the fire engine comes up and it changes the light green for us. and we're going to evaluate that and see what kind of positive changes. and then if we do receive the change that we're expecting, mta will work with us to add more of those in different locations throughout the city to speed up our response times. so we're working together on that. a lot of that will be -- a lot

of information, the information will come from that report. so that's why we're waiting for that before we can -- >> commissioner covington: do you feel that we have enough information as a department regarding what response times were pre-covid? to what they are now as well as forward thinking in terms of what future impacts might be? >> we do have data, various gps and response data, that is tracked as part of this, and by using that data we can see trends and how things have crept up over time. and then so if things improve, we'll also watch the response times decrease at the same time so, yes, i feel that we have data. it's a problem that we are just not sure what is causing it is some of the changes in the city that as you know that many

traffic patterns and street designs have changed over the years. >> yes. all right, we have been in this meeting -- these meetings for quite some time. so i'll definitely follow-up with you and thank you chief of the department for asking -- to highlight the information with the joint effort. so with that i'm going to stop, because we have so much more business to look into today. >> president feinstein: i warned everybody, but, yes, we do. thank you, commissioner covington. any further questions from commissioners to chief coffin? yes, commissioner nakajo. >> vice president nakajo: thank you very much, madam president, and thank you very much, fire

marshal and thank you for your patience and your comprehensive report. i just have comments. i get it in terms of the pandemic and covid-related. i understand shared spaces in terms of the restaurants. i understand the importance of that for economic vitality for them. i just want to make sure and it sounds like that any shared space falls into our compliances. i also concern myself with the length of the pace that various shared spaces take up, but i also understand that it's an mta jurisdiction. my other comment is that, again, covid-related pandemic, i understand that the concept of slow streets and do share the same kinds of concerns that my fellow commissioners, particularly commissioner covington talks about, in terms of allowing our vehicles to respond. and i would also be interested

in terms of the response time and what kinds of detrimental effects it has in terms of time, allowance of our vehicles within those various streets. so i just wanted to be able to say that as well and my final remark is that obviously and clearly thank you for the chief of the departments to talk about the joint study, the importance of our working with mta is going to be -- to be the utmost. so, again, from the get-go, before this pandemic in terms of streets and curvatures and corners, it always affected the department. so i just want to make sure that our dialogue with mta and the hierarchy of that is free and clear and that our concerns are taken into consideration with enforcement. thank you, fire marshal. thank you, madam president. >> president feinstein: thank you vice president nakajo, i

appreciate it. i have one last question for the chief, to go back to whatever position he previously had. but my question is, have we had any -- not supposed to call them crashes -- have we had any accidents with regard to shared spaces or slow streets? with our -- with what the fire department rigs, so to speak? >> i'm not privy to all of the accidents. i do remember early on in the program one of our -- i believe that it was one of our trucks, i would say bumped into -- because i don't think -- otherwise it would have made the news because it was a major accident, but bumped into a structure and did some damage to that. other than that i have not heard

of anything. there have been some citizen run-ins with some of the shared spaces. i've not heard any typically, the ones that i have heard about are done typically late at night. and that's a partial destruction or partial damage to the structure itself. >> president feinstein: and would you receive those reports routinely or not? >> i do not, i would not receive them at all. >> president feinstein: that's important to know, i'm glad that i asked the question, thank you all right. i think that chief coffin gets a break there. all right, thank you, sir, very much for your report. okay. >> clerk: are we moving on to item 8? >> president feinstein: yes, and i'm going to ask this question

-- just by virtue of how long -- and this is why i took a lot off the agenda today because i knew that it would be an agenda like this. and for those of you new to the command staff, it's not always like this. and i defer to the chief and to mr. corso who sat here since 9:00 a.m., what is the timing on the city's budget instructions for the next fiscal year? >> president finestein, i think that director corso can speak more to that, but what i can say is that the budget was -- is to be spoken about in several of

our commission meetings to comply with -- i'm not sure what it is -- the transparency, so that the public has access to see what's going on with our budget. mark, can you speak more to that? >> president feinstein: thank you, mr. corso. and i am sorry, i apologize. >> not a problem. thank you, chief, thank you, madam president. mark korso, finance planning. to the chief's point there is trans pairensy legislation with the number of public meetings but we still have sufficient coverage for our -- for our purposes to meet that -- those requirements of the legislation with our two subsequent meetings so that's not an issue today. today's item is more informational on the budget instructions that we were provided by the mayor's office and an overview but that can be deferred to the next meeting and there's no -- >> president feinstein: no violation? >> no. >> president feinstein: all right. i'm going to make -- make an

executive proposal here and unless i hear objections i'm going to seek to defer mr. korso's presentation to our next meeting. but i would like to know if there are any objections from my fellow commissioners. and if you have an objection, please raise your hand. well, mr. korso, i hope that this was a wonderfully educational long morning meeting for you. and i thank you for your patience and understanding. we will put you on the next agenda. promise. but i am just going to -- i'm going to take you off of today's agenda. it's been a long day. so i appreciate your understanding. and i think that my fellow commissioners do too. >> no problem. >> president feinstein: all right, thank you.

>> clerk: item 9, fire commission election of officers discussion and possible action and nomination and election of commission president. >> president feinstein: all right, do we have any public comment? >> clerk: there is nobody on our public comment line. >> president feinstein: all right, public comment will be closed. entertaining nominations for commission president first. yes, commissioner cleveland. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, madam president. and you have been the president for the past year, the most tumultuous year, and you led us very, very ably through all of these adjudications due to vaccine requirements and etc., and so i would like to nominate you for another term as president to continue the good work that you have led us

through this past year into the next year, into this year, through this year. so i would like to nominate you as our president for 2022. >> president feinstein: all right, you are very kind, commissioner cleveland. other nominations? >> i second that nomination. commissioner morgan. >> president feinstein: commissioner morgan, thank you. all right. it's been moved and seconded. >> clerk: let's call a vote. >> president feinst >> do you accept the nomination? >> president feinstein: i accept the nomination. >> clerk: okay, thank you. but usually the secretary asks you. except as you look at you like

this. [laughter]. >> she didn't do it, so i did it. >> president feinstein: you're not drinking as much water as i am. looking for punishment. there you go. [laughter] i accept the nomination. >> clerk: [roll call vote] president finestein remains the president of the san francisco fire commission for the 2022 upcoming year. >> president feinstein: thank you, my colleagues. i need to thank my colleagues. it's been a rough year. and i have not been perfect. i've been very far from it.

and i thank everybody for their confidence in me and -- and, you know, i struggle through the same things, all of us that are struggling through now. so the vote of confidence really means more to me than -- than in some ways the presidency of the commission. and thank you. thank you. >> clerk: okay, item b. item b, nomination and election of commission vice president. >> president feinstein: all right, and do we have any public comment on that? >> clerk: there is nobody on our public comment line. >> president feinstein: so glad everybody is paying attention. all right, we'll close public comment. nominations, please.

>> i would like to -- this is amie, commissioner morgan. i would like to renominate vice president nakajo for the election. >> president feinstein: all right. vice president nakajo. >> i would gladly second that. >> president feinstein: and seconded by commissioner cleveland. now, vice president nakajo, would you accept the nomination? >> vice president nakajo: madam president and fellow colleagues, i accept the nomination. thank you. >> president feinstein: thank you. >> clerk: [roll call vote] vice president nakajo is our

vice president again for -- >> president feinstein: i'm sorry, did we get a vote from commissioner morgan? >> clerk: he moved it. >> president feinstein: thank you, sorry. my mistake. thank you. >> clerk: and it's unanimous. >> president feinstein: what a lovely way to be. thank you all. and i really have to thank my fellow commissioners and the command staff for all they have done through, you know, yet another difficult year. and let's just hope that this next year we start to see some sunlight over the horizon when it comes to the things that we've been dealing with. and for all of you who have hung in there, i can just only say thank you. so thank you.

all right. >> clerk: item 10. discussion regarding agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> president feinstein: all right. i'm willing to accept anything, recognizing that we may have a very difficult meeting in two weeks too. so, you know, i do have a list of those issues that have been brought up. and i have no issue about putting them on an agenda other than to me that it's sort of feels in terms of administratively like we've been in an emergency mode in terms of getting through certain things. but anybody that wants something to go on the list, it will get heard and it will get heard as soon as we can get to it before

2:00 in the afternoon. what can i say? yes, commissioner cleveland. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, madam president. i think that it's on the list to have a report from the guardians of the city. and on their plans for the future, if you will, and their strategic plan and their plans to raise money. it's not an urgent matter, obviously, things such as the budget must come before, but some time in the future in coordination with their leadership, let's have a report from them. >> president feinstein: i appreciate your patience because i know that you've asked for it at more than one meeting. you know, it's really a matter -- i ended up taking things off of this agenda, worried that we would go past our allotted time. but it's there, and it will get heard, and i will put it on the

agenda as soon as possible. that i promise. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you. >> president feinstein: anyone else have items they wish to have considered for future agendas? >> clerk: i think it was brought up for the nert advisory board to have them to come and to present? >> president feinstein: okay. i will -- i will put that also on the list. i just think that we need to know how the next bit of time is going to go here. and -- but, of course, it will get heard. i just can't promise it for the next meeting. and we really just need to see how things evolve. where is, commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: thank you, madam president. it may not be for the next meeting but at some point soon, i would like to have either

mr. korso or someone from his team to go over the -- trying to see which truck that was, sorry someone from his team give us an update on how we are doing in terms of philanthropy and all of the items that are not just national or state moneys, but how our development program is going. >> president feinstein: well, in fairness, commissioner covington, i need to let you know that there was to be a report from the grants committee on today's agenda, and i did remove it because we just had too much stuff. i mean, we just had too many

things to get through today. >> commissioner covington: okay >> president feinstein: and it's definitely on the list. i think we also do need -- and mr. korso, please correct me if you disagree with me -- we need to, you know, hear from you on the budget process. and if that should be at the next meeting in two weeks, we can -- we can -- you know, discuss that i think offline in terms of scheduling. but, you know, commissioner covington has been patient. she did ask for it, it was on the initial draft agenda, but i knew that this was going to be this kind of meeting. and i tried to take off that which i could take off without impinging upon us moving forward. >> commissioner covington: it's very understandable.

we also haven't proper lie done the performance -- properly done the performance evaluations, the position or the chief of department. >> president feinstein: again, correct. and i think that we can figure -- i'll do my best. that's all i can say. i mean, i kind of cautioned everybody that this would be a long meeting, i hope, and, you know, we will -- we will get to that. so let's keep that on the list. and, you know, i don't want everybody having to be here for six hour meetings. and this was one of them. and that is not my intent going forward. so i want to try to balance things as they -- as they come up. this just happened to be a

particularly difficult meeting, and no, chief, you can't laugh at me. you're not allowed. ah-ha. but, yes, that needs to remain on the list. and i will put everything on as often as i possibly can. sorry, commissioner covington, i can't quite see your pen. ah, there we go. got it. thank you. >> commissioner covington: surely. well, regarding the performance review of the chief of the department, a lot of that is done, you know, independently. there is paperwork that we have to fill out and there are conversations that are had.

and it's really not an open meeting kind of subject. >> clerk: it still has to be agendized though. >> commissioner covington: yes, but we have to -- each individual commissioner has to have the paperwork to fill out in advance of the agenda. >> president feinstein: so i appreciate that and i appreciate your help and i'm just going to do -- i'm going to do my best and try to figure out these hearings and case management conferences. you know, and, you know, if we need to have a special meeting, we may need to have a special meeting. to discuss all of this. so i apologize. i really apologize for the -- i knew that it would be long. i didn't know that it would be this long. i apologize to everybody who is

giving of their time and their days to do this. you know, we just have a lot on our plate right now. but your point is well taken, commissioner covington, and it's not being disregarded. it's just a matter of logistics and figuring things out. so i thank everybody for their patience as i feel my way along here. >> clerk: we can move on to item 11. which is adjournment. >> president feinstein: i love item 11. yes, i want to move on to item 11. >> clerk: that would be adjournment. >> president feinstein: so moved. okay. >> thank you. >> clerk: do i have a second? >> second, mr. morgan. >> clerk: all in favor? >> aye. >> clerk: it's unanimous.

adjourned at 1:58. >> president feinstein: all right.

>> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department, ladies and gentlemen, let's

welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to vote. i never saw any female firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in 1990, some things opened up. i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting. a woman recruited me at the

gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in this position. i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer

kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through. the firefighters knew, they understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open

relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i know what we need. i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15. i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. she is easy to approach and is

concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper

work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure. we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through.

it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. you never know what door is going to open next. you really don't.

[cheers and

[♪♪♪]rs and >> i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldn't just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [♪♪♪] >> i would say i am a

multidimensional artist. i came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. i always have an interest in public art. i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. you shouldn't just be something in museums. i love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. public art is art with a job to do. it is a place where the architecture meets the public. where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. we commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material. it is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood.

those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and recreation centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. colette test on a number of those projects for its. one of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. >> mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. you need to use a tool, nippers, as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly.

i glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [♪♪♪] >> we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. so we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually. [♪♪♪] >> my theme was chinese heights

because i find them very beautiful. and also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. so one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [♪♪♪] >> there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me.

during the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. there was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. it is a little bird. the relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city an exciting place. [♪♪♪]

>> chair haney: i am joined by supervisors safai and gordon mar. i want to thank sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. mr. clerk do you have any announcements? >> yes, the minutes will reflect committee members participated through video conference to the same extent as though physically present. public access is essential and invites participation in the following ways. public comment on each item on the agenda channel 26, 78, 99 and sfgovtv. streaming the call-in number on