>> -- the regular meeting march 9, 2022. and the time is 9:07. this meeting will be in held in person at the location listed on the agenda as authorized by california government code section 54953e and mayor breed's supplement to the february 25, 2020 emergency proclamation is possible that some members of the san francisco fire commission may attend this meeting remotely. and in that event those members will participate and vote by video. member of the public may attend the meeting to observe and provide public comment at the physical meeting location listed on the agenda. or online.

and at the posted agenda link. instructions for providing remote public comment are if you want to join the meeting, use the link for attendees on the posted agenda or you may watch live at sfgov tv.org. to participate sfgovtv.org. to participate by phone, call 415-655-0001. the public is asked to wait for the particular agenda item before making a comment on that oi tem. comments will be addressed in the order they are received. when the moderator announces that the commission is taking public comment, members of the

public can raise that you are hand by pressing star three and you will be queued. operator will unmute you. and when prompted, callers will have the standard three minutes to provide comment. please insure you are in a quiet location, speak clearly, and turn off any tvs or radios around you. and item 1, roll call. president feinstein. >> present. >> vice president nakago. >> comment. >> a commissioner covington. >> present. >> a commissioner morgan and chief of the department nicholson. >> present. >> the president feinstein will now read the land acknowledgment.

[reading of the land acknowledgment] >> item two, resolution 2022-05.

resolution making findings to allow teleconference meetings under california government code section 54953e. >> madam secretary, do we have any public comment? >> i believe there is. >> caller, would you like to make public comment on item two? >> caller: yes. public comment. >> on item two. this is the resolution 2022-05. >> i beg your pardon. i will talk to you later. thank you. >> any further public comment? >> there is somebody but they

can't be unmuted. >> public comment will be closed. any questions or discussion from the commissioners? >> is there a motion please? [inaudible] >> pull the microphone forward. >> okay. i heard the motion by commissioner covington. is there a second? >> commissioner morgan, i will second that motion. >> thank you, commissioner morgan. it's been moved and seconded. roll call vote. [roll call on item 2]

the motion is unanimous. the resolution has been adopted. item 3, again public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to 3 minutes on any matter within the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with a speaker. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. caller two, would you like to make general public comment?

>> caller: thank you very much. good morning. this is david osgood with the ren con center tenants association and we have a health and safety issue involving possibly hundreds of people. and we're kind of escalating this to the commission because unfortunately staff has not been particularly responsive so far. as you may know, ren con center is a large complex taking up an entire block in soma. we are the basic problem here is that management of this complex on a pretty regular basis is instructing residents to ignore fire alarms. ren con senter is a mixed use complex with offices, shops and hundreds of apartments in

multiple buildings. somebody is always remodelling and that often involves retesting the alarm system in their small space instead of instructing people in and around that small space and repeated to the full complex and 22 stories, two buildings, to ignore all fire alarms. the thing is most people don't hear the testing. the actual testing is limited to a small area. so telling people on the other side of the complex 22 floors up to ignore any alarms, here is the very dangerous proposition. this is often done on an open-ended basis so hundreds of people go about their business

all day and do the impression they should ignore any fire alarm they hear. it is hard enough to get people to take fire alarms seriously and management ignoring the alarms only makes the process less effective. the fire department needs to implement procedures to make sure all alarm testing is only done in a very limited, controlled and professional manner. and which is not the case here. instructions to ignore the testing is limited to those who do the testing and the testing should be a very short period of time and an all clear should be received immediately. there is no constructive reason to instruct people to ignore alarm testing that they aren't going to hear. let me be clear that they are not objecting to the testing of the alarms in the areas that we

inhabit and we actually welcome that and object to the dangerous and unnecessary and open-ended instructions -- >> sir, your time is up. >> could i get a contact person to address this with? thank you. >> thank you. i am going to ask if the chief of the department can follow up in terms of referring perhaps to the fire marshal this matter because it is a health and safety issue. and people shouldn't be ignoring alarms. you never know. is the chief able to handle that? >> yes, madam president. >> thank you. thank you kindly. all right.

>> next speaker. hello? >> caller, would you like to make public comment. hello, caller. >> caller: no, thank you. >> would you like to make public comment? he muted himself. that is it for public comment. i don't believe there is anybody in the room. all right. then public comment shall be closed. >> item 4, approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes from the special meeting on february 22, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. >> is there any public comment on this item, madam secretary?

>> caller, would you like to make public comment on the minutes? >> hello, caller. >> there is no public comment. >> all right. public comment will be closed. on the minutes for the special meeting february 22. >> any comments or questions from any of the commissioners? >> can you see me, madam president? >> i cannot, commissioner covington -- there is your hand. i see you. okay. >> hi. and i move that we accept the minutes as written. >> thank you for the motion. is there a second? >> yes, i second that, commissioner morgan. >> thank you, commissioner morgan. >> and moved and seconded.

and president fine sign, how do you vote? >> to adopt. >> vice president? >> to adopt. >> the special meeting of february 22, 2022, meeting minutes have been adopted by unanimous vote. and the minutes from the regular meeting on february 23, 2022. >> do we have any public comment on that item? >> i see no hands raised. >> all right. public comment will be closed and any questions, comments from my fellow commissioners? >> all right. seeing none, am i missing something? all right. >> i will move the item. >> thank you, commissioner

covington. >> is there a second? >> yes, i second that, commissioner morgan. >> thank you, commissioner morgan. it's been moved and seconded. >> president feinstein, how do you vote? >> i vote to abstain as i was excused from that meeting. i don't think it's appropriate for me to vote on the minutes. >> vice president nakago, how do you vote? >> i vote to approve and adopt. >> the motion passes unanimously. >> item five, chief of department's report. report from chief of department nicholson on current issues, activities and events within the department since the fire commission meeting on february 23, 2022, including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other government agencies in the public and report from operations and deputy chief

robert postel on overall field operations including greater arm fires and bureau of fire prevention investigation, training within the department, and airport division. >> good morning, president feinstein, vice president nakago, commissioners covington, morgan, and command staff. chief nicholson. this is my report since the last commission meeting. and first to acknowledge one of the city attorneys is here today and thank him for the work he does for this department. you are appreciated for being a workhorse for us, so thank you. tomorrow as you may be with the station 35 and the floating fire boat station and i look forward to seeing you all there.

in the department we have total 14 total people off and only one of those is covid positive, four in quarantine and nine off for longer than 30 days. again, we are down to 14 which is much improved from the 150 plus we had a few months ago. in terms of budget, next week the board of supervisors will hear our supplemental item. so that includes the over $14 million that we put forward, the the mayor put ward and we are confident we will have the board's support and it is going to address budget overruns due to covid.

talk about community paramedic decision and the street wellness team began at the end of january and is from what i am told the most effective street team in the city in terms of connections and they are just responding really, really effectively and if you have questions about that later, you can certainly ask and bring chief pang up to speak to that. and in fact, we will have chief pang speak to that after you, chief postel. this week i swore in the hr level i class and which is our emts on the ambulance. we have a bump up class from folks who go from emt to

paramedics and a new class of just paramedics for the ems division. i want to thank chief tong for their hard work. in addition, i am in the middle of the hiring process for the 130th academy which should start in may. and we are looking at 50 or a little bit more. some letters should go out this week and some more may trickle out to ours next week for alternates. and that is moving forward. and i just want to thank my staff as well as all the members of the department for all their diligent, hard work and welcome back to in-person even though i can only still only see your

eyes. welcome back to in-person. it is pretty exciting. it's been two years since we have been here. and finally, i asked, madam president, if we could close the meeting in honor of robert moser and brendan ward at the end of the meeting. these are two retired firefighters who were really important people in this department and i attended their funerals over the past week and a half. in addition, at 10:30 i will be leaving to go to the mayor's state of the city address. and chief postel will take over up here. and that completes my report for right now. >> all right. thank you very much, chief. do we have any public comment?

>> caller, do you want to make public comment on the chief's report? >> there is no public comment. >> all right. public comment will be closed. i believe we are ready to move on to chief postel's report. >> good morning, president feinstein, vice president, commissioners. bob postel, chief of operations.

this is my report for february of 2022. during the month of february there were several significant incidents that occurred and we had 16 working fires, three greater alarms. the first greater alarm was on february 3 and it was a second alarm at 3036 16th street that started on the exterior of the building involving homeless materials. that fire spread to the building and into the building and ran up the walls and across the floor joists. the report came in as the outside fire and single engine dispatch and eventually a second alarm. and 24 people were displaced and assistant chief was the commander and crews did an excellent job with very challenging situations and evacuating people from the building and forcing doors as well as tracking down the fire

running in the void spaces and the walls and ceilings and they did a great job there. the second greater alarm was a third alarm and still on february 12 that was 324 10th avenue and extended into the bravo and delta building with three buildings total involved in the fire and fire in the attic space and the fire building and the light wells between the buildings. and 10 people were displayed in this incident. assistant chief mike thompson was the incident commander and this was a very challenging fire with fire in the walls and multiple buildings and wood frame buildings and did a good job to contain it to the extent they did. and the fire occurred the next day was an alarm and this was a top floor fire and got in the attic space upon the arrival. got into the delta building and the building to the right as you look at it. and crews were aggressive and

quickly contains the large amount of the floor to the spread to the attic and exposure building. two units were severely implemented from below suffering water damage. 12 units total in that one were impacted. there were a couple of significant fires that want to highlight the first one was on february 23 and engine 32 was dispatched to a vegetation homeless encampment and behind the bart station. engine 32 members were alerted to homeless people who were under a metal grate below the freeway overpass where that fire had gotten in. there was heavy smoke in there. and they special called a truck and battalion chief to rescue the people and remove the grate and rescued three homeless people living in the overpass and a fourth person deep inside that they were unable to get to.

recognizing that they were going into an enclosed, confined space, the battalion chief quickly realized this was a confined space entry which triggers all sorts of league requirements at the incident. rescue two and division three were called to the scene and conducted a fine space industry and able to locate the fourth victim deep inside the cavern for lack of a better word and brought that person out and unfortunately, that person didn't survive. and dangerous, high risk low frequency event that the rescue squads are specialized and trained for. and it is a great job by the crews on scene recognizing this unique concern. and the last fire i want to highlight on 1212 church street. and this came in early in the morning around the change of shift. and units arrive on scene to find a woman trapped hanging out

the window at the second floor. and the apartments and courtyards are behind metal fences and wood fences and access is difficult to get to these. engine five, truck five know this area well and were able to breach the fences, jump fences, get ladders to the rear of the building and get ladders to that second floor window and rescue not only the one woman hanging out but two other people coming out and hanging out the window. at the same time they were able to lead a large line through the fences and attack the fire on the ground floor and contain the fire while crews went above and located a fourth victim who they brought down the interior stairs. and the fourth victim succumbed to smoke inhalation and we were unable to revive him but the other three were rescued. the assistant chief was on his way to work when he saw the smoke and pulled over, got out of the personal vehicle, jumped several fences and made his way

to the back aid identified what we needed to get to the victims and directed crews who did an outstanding job and civilian clothes off duty with coordinating that rescue and played a big role in saving the three lives. hats off to him. and ken yee was the assistant chief who is the commander incident right down the street from change five. because of change of shift, we had numerous extra people on each rig, so great job by everybody. those are the significant fire incidents we had during the month. and call volume is returning to normal following the outbreak and a few days here and there with the 300 call per day level. most of the time now. and the increase of staffing due to the influx is drastically reduced and the medics to follow calls and that's been a huge

improvement for crews in the field to deliver that rapid medical care for people when it is needed. the h3 level 2 class started on february 22. this is the first h3 level two class which is paramedics, not emts that we have hired since 2010. there are 19 member and will have an even bigger impact on response teams. we are working a higher community medicine with the impacts of the homeless crisis in the city. chief pang is give you an update and a couple of highlights from the report. right now they have a cohort of volunteers collected to begin training in april for community paramedicine commission to expand that program. and we talked about the ability for paramedics to issue

voluntary households and 5150 for a lack of a better prescription. there is delays on that and april will be aboptimistic time to do that. and reduce with the top 20 users of the system by 35% and frees up the resources to other medical calls that are still occurring. there are a couple of case studies highlighted in the report describing how they go about doing business. street crisis response team is continuing to make in-roads on people experience mental health crises and three success stories highlighted in the report with regards to the street crisis and the street crisis response team collaborated by the individual to get them placed into the

mental health hold and return to the treatment facilities and shows how the different units come to a common goal and a nice story with the overdose response teams continue to work to reduce overdose deaths, educate users, try and connect them with services. year to date overdose deaths don't seem to be changing year to year and i am sure the program will have the impact and the street wellness response team as the chief mentioned is having a tremendous impact and still in the pilot phase. and all reports are very impactful. that is it for ems. bureau of fire investigation and prevention. put out a general order and expected to be administered and

list will be posted in august. and continuing to work on a study with a firm to analyze response teams and the impact of the different changes in the street landscape on those response time. right now we are meeting every other week and this is going to be a three to four month study and scheduled a ride along for one of the people in march. and prevention continues with the plan check and inspections and everything else and they continue to work with mta to street design changes to the extent possible. and at the airport no major incidents during the month, thank god. and they conduct the continued training for the members including hazmat is a private firm that does this training and

prepare for a red cap drill which i believe is taking place tomorrow. i am going to sit in on that and that is a strong lead for them at the airport. and training conducted for the sfo medics and photos included in the report and showing the hazmat refresher training that took place at the airport. the division of training is 129th class, recruit class, in the sixth week. so far two members resign and two members release for exceeding the number of allowed deficiencies. going to meet with a few others that may be struggling and see what we can do to make sure they stay engaged and do everything we can to get them through. and they offer remedial training and additional training and is

emphasized to take advantage of this at every opportunity. and service continues to provide the ti and offsite locations when they become available. and include photos with a drill that was conducted and sunnydale housing projects and 42 members to train outside of the facilities and practice hose leads, ventilation using tools in a more realistic environment. for training for in service, i have the assistant chiefs working with the division chief of training to develop an h40 battalion chiefs academy for all of the new h40 and h20 lieutenant academy as you are aware. and assistant chief has taken a lead to develop the h10 support specialist class. and a nonservice critical position and that will be given in late april.

and we want to thank support services to meet the logistical needs and ongoing with the division of training and in particular of the 130th class coming which will be overlapping with the 129th and there is a lot of need for additional locker rooms and portable restrooms and tables, chairs and all that sort of stuff for the classroom. that is it. that concludes my report for february. >> thank you. thank you, chief posteastboundingl. do we have any public comment, madam secretary? >> there is nobody with their hand up on the public comment line. >> all right. then public comment will be -- hold on. >> maybe. >> okay. >> caller, would you like to make public comment? caller?

okay. nobody on the public comment line. >> all right. public comment will be closed. >> i have a couple of questions for chief postel and i will defer to my fellow commissioners should they have questions. >> yes. there is somebody in the room for public comment. >> okay. >> chief of department has a question. >> madam president, would you like to hear from chief pang first? about the community paramedicine, or would you like to hear from him afterwards?

>> i think we should hear from chief pang afterwards. >> no, i will take that back. i think we should hear from him now and hold any questions or comments so that we can determine if there is any public comment. i understand that he will be speaking under chief postel. so why don't we proceed and my apologies for overlooking that. >> a president feinstein, vice president, commissioners, chief nicholson, command staff, secretary, i am at the abc of community paramedicine simon

pang. i don't have prepared remarks. i am prepared to answer questions and will give a brief overview of how we got to this point. we have four community paramedic programs and the first is ems six engages people who use our services a lot. and we learned from that and now with street wellness response team, we want to use the same skills and expertise that we use on ems six and to everybody in the public that may have need. the other community paramedics programs are important and doing good work. the specialization work is necessary. it is similar to how we have engines and trucks and hazmat and rescue. it makes sense that we have a

unique team that specializes on the specific need. i want to point out that all the member on the teams can work on any of the unique programs and are trained equivalently. street overdose we recognize that more than half of the people that were dying of overdose in our city had been in our fire department or ambulances at least once prior to time of their death. so it makes sense to us that we find a way to sper -- to intervene. and ged medication assisted treatment. street crisis response team is serving as an alternative to people in the acute behavioral crisis. and street wellness is initially funded as alternative to police and check on well being. and very, very large police code with many different types of

incidents lumped into it. so we have decided to pilot the program for the first six months. and in the following manner. we are going to self-assign to calls for persons down for unknown medicals which are police requests for ambulances. in addition to that we anticipate doing a lot of on views and on view is when we walk upon someone and recognize they need to be checked on. given the commitment to the city for now to have our one street wellness team attached to the tenderloin joint field operations every day to assist with that endeavor. and so if you look at our statistics, most of the calls right now are on views. and depending on the week between 60 and 80 percent are on

views and the rest being 911 related. just last week our one team had approximately 12 encounters per day. that's and that is very ambitious. that is a lot of self-initiative and 25% of those incidents resulted in us taking someone in our van n a non-emergency manner to an appropriate resource such as a shelter, a clinic or treatment program. only about 2% -- excuse me, let me look at my notes. about 5% of our encounters last week resulted in an ambulance transport toward e.r. and we feel that is a success, too, because if we walk upon someone and realize they need assistance of a doctor, then we have done our job and we've recognized that and gotten them there. so i feel that the street wellness response team has a tremendous potential to reduce

unnecessary er visits, to reduce our ambulance call volume, and i am looking forward to having our remaining four teams implemented in late june. and i am happy to answer any questions. >> commissioner morgan. well, you already answered one of my questions about the on views. what is on view? we answered that. so these community programs sound really great and anything that can give the police a break especially on 911 calls, and get a positive result even if it's just three out of 300, that is a success. you know what i mean? if we can get them to the proper accommodations and some help, i

consider that a success. even though it's less than 1 #%. but that is all i have for right now. thank you for your report. i really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner morgan. >> further questions for -- directed through chief postel. any questions? yes? >> vice president nakago. >> thank you very much, madam president. i have some questions for chief postel and working virtually and i believe chief pang is up now. so maybe part of my questions to chief postel's reports were questions that i was going to direct at chief pang. >> i don't see any problem with proceeding that way. >> all right.

proceeding with chief pang first, and then going to chief postel. >> if chief pang is still up there and willing, that is how i think we can proceed. >> thank you, madam president. i will try and proceed that way and ask my questions of chief pang. this is our first experience going virtual with also folks that are live in the hearing room. so from our advantage being virtual is somewhat of a disadvantage in the sense that we are not able to look straight at you. chief pang, i am going to direct some questions to you. are you still there? >> go ahead, commissioner. i am ready to answer. >> thank you. >> thank you very much for your report and thank you very much, chief postel and chief nicholson for having chief pang do a verbal report as well.

and a verbal narrative as well, it does help. i am on page 18 of your report and community paramedic and monthly fire commissioner report. and are you there with me, chief pang? >> and mr. president, yes, i am. >> on the first paragraph, community paramedic highlights and because the public can't see this material, you talk about training cohort scheduled to begin on april 18. you also talk that ems hopes to have 25 students for this cohort and 15 for funded community paramedics and yet unfilled and 10 for vacation and once trained and to continue the new members will be staffing a second street overdose response team. a 7th street crisis response

team. and is that 14 or a 4? >> that is four more. we have been funded for a total of five. >> okay. and to complete the implementation will be operational. and as you have grown this, i want to get clear in my mind with the commissioners' terminology because this is under the community paramedic report. i know it is in the that categorical so we have references of the programs being called wellness team, crisis teams, and i am trying to find out exactly how to identify the teams. i know they are listed as the ems6th street wellness response team. and do you have any way to

clarify for me how to identify these and how to identify the different units? >> thank you for the question. the way i prefer to refer to them is by ems 6, street overdose and street crisis. i am trying to steer away from the acronyms but they are out there. and so some people may refer to them as skirt or skort, but i prefer street wellness. >> commissioner: i needed to hear that because it is confusing at that point and what i am hearing to have it identified and the following street crisis and street overdose and crisis. is that what i am hearing? in terms of all the units which are now quite a bit of personnel, who supervises all these units?

>> our command instructor is myself and beneath me i have two section chiefs. section chief of operations is april sloan and doing a fantastic job and we have a section chief of administration michael mason who is in charge of planning cqi and policy and data analysis. and beneath them, each team has captains that oversee the committee paramedics. >> i appreciate that structure as we grow and more personnel, what comes to me is what is the infrastructure support and the command level structure. and so part of that is that i can't keep asking the questions in terms of the overall responsibility, but i am also very pleased to hear that you mention that your support comes from what is the proper title on

sloan and mason. what is their title? >> they are section chiefs. april sloan is section chief of operations and michael mason is section chief of administration. and they directly respond to you? >> that is correct. >> and the structure is the captains below them in terms of the overall supervision and quality members. all right. thank you for that. i am going to move on. i am still on 18. and second to the end paragraph. and commissioner morgan talked about the success stories because of the various numbers and in this paragraph you talk about this month's multiple individuals encountered throughout the various areas of engagement and four to five individuals were assisted with 211 shelters and assisted into

noncongregate shelter and 56 to various points of shelter. and i very u much like the numbers like commissioner morgan and in charge of the numbers and each number that you have out here are important and significant. but also for me is where the clients get to be handed off to and as i read your reports and with the payabling 22 and the third paragraph of challenge and starts off with me.

following that and goes to extremely limiting and you talk about narratives and the shelters perhaps on a monday through friday 9:30 to 1600 hours and weekend placements are not available. do you want to talk more about the shelter? because i appreciate that it doesn't numbers on weeknights and the clients are still there. do you want to comment for me in term of how to deal with that? >> thank you for bringing that up and i have an important update about that. first of all, the city is still using the process developed through covid to distribute shelter. and covid really upset the apple cart and changed things around

-- it is distributed in a centralized way and i believe the number one priority are hospitals for shelter placements and after that it's individuals who are at shelter in place hotels who are exiting. the city made a determination they don't want to let the people back into the community and give them and first a priority for congregate shelter and after that it is the homeless average team combined with community paramedicine. and we have been lucky because they've been very willing to accommodate us. and even though our shelter placement are small, we have quite a sizable -- we have a good prioritization in the city. and just last week there was a development with the green light and department of homelessness

and implement 24-hour intake seven days a week for shelter. and this is something the department of homeless and supportive housing has wanted to do themselves which is why because of many the staffing and we had an update last week and it was going forward and happen soon and as of this morning i don't have any updates the toll you where you are in the timeline and hopefully happen in the next few weeks. >> thank you for that update. that is really encouraging for me and the city and counties with the departments that are involved and now working in terms of our needs meeting the needs of pedestrian and homeless and whether this is mental health and alternative sites

because in my opinion as the commissioner and the department through the street crisis teams is the main issuance of crimes and to refer back and the framework and expressed that and pleased to do that. before i let you go, two more things that i wanted to say. with the lots of energy and on newspapers and tv and news column, there is an expose and

that series and the public needs to know more of what we need to do. i wanted to thank you for that as well. and i do have some thins for chief when it is appropriate. and one question with this department of training. >> let me inclear sky if other commissioners have questions for chief pang.

>> good morning, chief pang. and thank you, chief. good morning and thank you for your report. very good as always. i have a very broad, general question and that is for people who hold a position similar to yours, is there alling an organization for all of you? and how often do you meet? and if a strategy is being devised because the challenges are not unique to san francisco. this is a national challenge and

will be helpful for the global view. >> i think think of four that we have been in contact with. the one that is the name i remember is the national co-responders consortium. and there are others that are with a law enforcement and in contact and participating with the groups and many of them have

used our team as templates for best practices and this sort of work. is there any discussion about visiting president biden? and getting a national strategy? i hear over and over again from the people saying that other big cities are having the same challenge. we have so many people who come here and the resources are finite.

this is a concern that we want to provide and i appreciate any updates to regard a national response by the people at your level. which is the boots on the ground. >> i will remare that with the next report. >> so in that case, and are other commissioners interested in is that? >> yes.

we will make it a party. and i wanted to know about something that my fellow commissioner nakago touched upon and that is the 14 implementation in june. can you tell us a little bit more about that? >> sure. well, our cadence of implementation is very much aligned with the staffing and training at station 49. so as before, when we started street crisis, we are not staffing any new community paramedic programs until we have pre-filled the ambulance ranks because we select from our ambulance division. so we're waiting on the latest

class and when we have enough people that we can safely implement these new community programs without hurting the ambulance staffing, we will do it. and i think we are planning on june 24. >> thank you. being mindful of time, i will stop there. >> thank you. >> all right. thank you. are there any further questions for chief pang? >> i am not seeing hand raised. chief pang, thank you very much. and for work that you are doing.

>> let's return please if we might to chief postel. i have a question for the chief. so if to go ahead, i am still and probably forever will be learning the language of suppression. i do read your reports and of course, pay great attention to the greater alarm reports. and just directing your attention to the fire alarm on february 12 on 10th avenue which

seems to be really quite a fire. when i looked at the last page, it took well over an hour for it to be under control. it involved three buildings. i think i could understand most of the description. i sometimes don't know the technical terms of what is related in these summaries. and i have and i need to be corrected if i am wrong. my understanding is that a truck is typically staffed with one officer and four firefighters. is that correct? >> correct. and in this case so is that so that the officer and one

firefighter can work as a pair and other two firefighters can work as a pair in a group situation like this? that is correct and the primary responsibility is to lead the hose line and put water on the fire that is responsible for everything that supports the engine and leading that fire out. they need to conduct horizontal ventilation and forcible entry and checking for extension within the building and search and rescue if we don't have a rescue squad handy. depending on the incident and what other truck companies may be available, it is not uncommon to split their view and send two people to an interior team or forcible industry team or an exposure building or two or

three people to a roof to work together and in addition to that, a 50-foot ladder that requires six people to raise and weighs 370 pound. so they need the personnel to accomplish all these different tasks. >> let me ask you a question and in your report this case mentioned -- this incident mentions the truck 14 only had three members on the roof. and given four firefighters are normal with an officer and with only three members, let me just ask you bluntly, were you running short that day? i noticed it was a saturday afternoon.

and a holiday weekend for some. i am just curious if there was a personnel shortage. >> they were not running short that day. they were working on other tasks. >> when you say other tasks, what -- i'm sorry. what do you mean? so they had three members assigned to the roof to conduct vertical ventilation. the first truck company on the first alarm there. the officer or the chief and typically what happens is to assist with opening schools and the fire expands and grows

either vertically to the top floor into other buildings, we will send greater alarm truck companies to the roof to assist them as necessary. so this is because initially they had a lot of fire in places and things to get done and weren't able to dedicate the entire crew to the roof due to other pressing issues. >> i misunderstood you prefer and were located elsewhere. but now i understand. and i appreciate that explanation. i will keep trying to learn. that is my only question. >> thank you. >> anybody else wish to follow up on any other items from chief postel's report?

>> vice president nakago. >> thank you, madam president. thank you very much, chief postel for your comprehensive report. and i wanted to let you know that i know from the gitgo that your report had tasks and organizational unit tasks with ems, dpi, sfo, dot. and i want to let you know that i appreciate that. and for myself previously, i always had to find extra paper and divide it up whether i wanted to know how much i appreciate that as well as the rest of the commissioners. chief, my question is on the greater alarms. on the front page and the second alarm. who write this is report up of the second alarm on the second

page or the third? who writes these up? >> we asked the commander or incident chief to submit an incident report with the challenges and the incident in general and we include their narrative in the report so that you get a first hand report from the incident commander exactly how things presented and played out. >> thank you for that. and these are good write-ups and good descriptive write-ups and as the commissioner has been around and eager to read this report and is detailed enough to the point where it is a really good, well written summary narrative. i want that to be acknowledged as a piece of information, but also in the packet and the president referred to the detail

incident report of how many trucks and what time and etc. the two pieces really feel the description on that third alarm, chief. i am on the fourth paragraph and i don't know if you are with me. and it says radio communication. that the photograph going out was good and the communication back was relaid on numerous occasions to other people's radios and the radio training discussions at dec with the new system is needed. do you want to talk about that for the commissioners and for myself in terms of that issue. >> sure.

thank you, commissioner. in september we transition from an analog radio system to a digital radio system. city wide. and there's been a lot of issues with the new digital radio system, particularly the repeated tactical channels. it is made communications difficult to say the least on the ground and we are working with motorola to find a solution. and they reviewed our system and basically what we were given and the determination was made that repeated or trunked tactical channels don't provide and the exact words were if you want clear, reliable communications, you need to use direct channels. so because of that, chief cannon

along with chief sortie developed a plan to transition us from the repeated channels which we had used in the past to a direct channel which was put in place and this monday we put this system in place and we moved away from that old style and are back on direct tactical channels and that should solve the past majority of the communications issues. that is moving forward. >> that is implemented now for, what, recently, a couple of weeks now? that is with the direct tactical channels and with a multitude of fire that are reporting. >> can you keep the commissioners abreast of how this is going? >> i am on page three and the working fires and to the

descriptions and the greater alarms and so even if terms of one alarm and one or three alarms and all that differentiates to working fires and now with this report. so for myself it is clearer and more comprehensive. that working fire is homeless related, but is a pretty unusual situation of homeless being sheltered so how do you describe that? can you comment on that, chief? >> it is a unique incident and is not the first time this has happened.

i remember the first time i encountered this in 1991 or 1992. we have been dealing with it for quite a while. and no matter what caltrans has done to secure the areas, people seem to find a way to get in there and obviously it provides shelter from the weather and the problem is they are in a confined space of essentially a tunnel or a vault. and legally we're required to follow certain obligations that are set forth by osha when it comes to the confined spaces with regards to entry. so we have to approach it a little bit differently. if we see somebody and can visibly make a rescue, we can get in there and are free to do so. but when it comes to search for potential victims, we have to evaluate the survivability profile of the victim in there and how long they have been in there and how much smoke exposed to and in this case it was determined that nobody could survive what they had been

exposed to for the 10 or 15 minutes they had been in there prior to our arrival. therefore, we can't put our people in that grave situation without following precautions with air monitoring and ventilation and we have specially trained people in the squads who hand it will confined spaces. it is an ongoing issue and we are aware of it and dealt with it in the past and not a lot of times but i can think of maybe half a dozen, 31 years that we have been to like this. so it is something that we're aware of and we are on the lookout for. >> thank you for that description because for me it became kind of alarming in the sense that this happens not that -- i don't think it has happened in the past and mixed in with homelessness and shelt arenaed whose jurisdiction is that under? is that cal trans? and the narrative that you can talks about a lot of decision making that has to occur.

>> that would be state property, yes. >> sounds like a very challenging incident that occurred and i appreciate the members in terms of dealing with this as well. and the incident at 12 church street is my last question. and a strong description on page 4. i know that neighborhood because it is kind of my neighborhood as well. and the building fire and among the references with the chief being not on duty and being able to assist or identify, i think that is outstanding. and the building and fire building has descriptions on page four, paragraph 2, 3, 4, 5. i just circled things like 7 foot high spike metal security fence. second paragraph, after that,

talks about fortified metal security gate. and a little bit down it talks about second floor window bars. i just wanted -- and the thing that is really outstanding to me is with the challenges what is written is how the department members dealt with it and to me it is the amount of time and also a shift change and you talked about members on the shift change that assisted this as well. can you support that a little bit, chief? >> sure. so typically we change shifts at 8:00 in the morning and people start arriving to work at 6:30 or so. and there is an overlap. between that 6:30 time frame and about 8:30 in the morning you usually have sometimes double the amount of people that you need in the fire house. and firefighters being

firefighters, they want to go to fires and help people when it happens. so when a box comes in at the shift change, a lot of rigs will go out the door instead of being an engine 1 and 3, they might be 2 and 5 and six and everybody will joufrp on and go and assist in every way they can. in the case because of the time of day, we had lots of extra bodies to help and we are able to get the rescue done and making the hose lead and played a rouge role in rescuing those three people. >> thank you, chief, for that. it sound like from chief sortie to members coming off the shift and when the members worp off the shift and were they in full and protective gear? >> they take the ppe and respond like they are on duty. we have a limited number of suva packs and take the scbas and the

other people on the exterior are throwing ladders, cutting fences, using tools and gaining access. there is plenty of work to go around to something like this. >> that is what came out with this prescription is how much work there was. and also i wanted to acknowledge with the commission as well the members and chief sortie and we jumped in there and assisted because i don't think that without their assistance that we would have got in there as soon as -- sooner than late we are all the challenges. that is all my comments and questions, madam president. thank you very much. thank you very much, chief postel, for your comprehensive report. >> thank you, commissioner. >> thank you, vice president nakago and if there are no further questions or comments from the commissioners, i just really do want to thank you and also acknowledge quality of the write-ups contained in this

report because they really do give some sense of how challenging and difficult and almost unable to be anticipated circumstances that come up and that will show work at its finalist that apply to all the tabs in that report. and this month i really have the greater alarms and agree with vice president nakago were really written up with great detail and as i said, we are all still learning the language of

suppression. >> madam president? >> i cannot see you, commissioner covington, so thank you for speaking up. >> madam president, i would like to ask the chief of the department a question. >> certainly. >> madam chief, can you talk about confined rescue and the linkage between confined rescue and the fact we do not have a height limit in the department? i think it would be important for our fellow citizens to know that. commissioner covington, you want to know more about confined space rescue and any height

restrictions in our department. defined space rescue can vary from really narrow, tight place that we have to get to. to something that is a little bigger and we go in with teams and we always have another team on the outside ready ready to respond. i don't think that really plays a role in it for height limit. >> would you agree, chief postel? >> anybody can with trained in confined space rescue. >> right. i only ask the question so that we can recruit because some people may think i am too short or too light weight and if you

think you can do the job, you have the possibility of getting the job as a firefighter. >> that is correct. >> that is my motivation for the question. >> very good. understood. awe thank you. >> and if i may, i have to take leave to go to the mayor's state of the city address. chief postel, i will ask you to come up here. >> thank you, chief nicholson. >> thanks, chief. >> president feinstein, i would like to thank the assistant chiefs who wrote the narratives. they do an excellent job with the incidents on a daily basis and they are the ones providing you with that detailed information and they are critical in the information.

>> the department seats there if you would, sir, please. we will move on. on to item 6. sfsd's grants and donation presentation and overview. sfsd finance and planning to provide the presentation on efforts related to grants and donations for the fire department. >> good morning. with the grant writer, and we are here to give a brief update on grants and donations for the firefighter. and shiloh started in january of

2020 and she was a great addition to the department. as everybody knows a few month after her hire, kind of everything in the world changed. there's been a number of initiatives and grant and donation related that we have been working on that have been delayed with covid obviously. as all the departmental functions for covid and all resources have been kind of dedicated to the department's operational response there. and in addition to that part of it, the focus of many donors has shifted over the past couple of years. there is a number of rules and regulations internally in the city that have changed over the past coup of years regarding donations related to some events that have been going on. so as things recover and we get back to normal, normal business becomes a little bit more normal and like being in city hall. we wanted to take the opportunity to give an overview of what we have been up to. what we're currently working on and what the plans are going forward. with that, you may have been

participating in a past meeting and i want to give an opportunity for her introduce herself and walk you through a brief presentation and we are happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. >> hi. can you hear me? >> thank you. >> we can and welcome. >> thank you for having me here. and the acting chief and the snapshot overview of the work we have done in 2021 and 2022. and included the grants and

especially with the community and private and corporate foundations in the area. and identify for you the challenges that we have faced and the resources and the strategies that we're working on. so between 2020 and 2022, we were able to raise some good amounts of money i think and between 2019 and 2020, we raised a little over 1.3 million in grant funding.

right now we have submitted the following grant -- i don't know if the thing is covering it. most of the grants are either federal or state and we are in the process of submitting several private foundation grants in the next coming mostly sunny skies months. these are a snapshot of donations and in kind and cash and these are reported calendar year. and i thought it was important to just show the donation estnation value for 2020 which really highlights how the community really wrapped around the department in terms of donating things like mask, ppe, cleaners, hand sanitizer, face

masks, gloves, shields, some technology was also donated. but our cash donations seem consistent around the 10,000 mark, a little bit lower. and around 15,000 has been the average for normal times for in-kind donations and that are things, services or stuff that is tangible, not actual cash. >> oh, i'm sorry. one more thing on that slide. and just so everyone is also aware, we did not solicit any of the in-kind donations that happened in 2020. and when we received donations, we had a protocol and process

which includes capturing information on the disclosure form to adhere to the san francisco sunshine ordinance and thank donors with an acknowledgment and post the names in accordance to that ordinance on our website. this is a slide to talk about the goal of the work that we're doing in the department. we are really trying to capture funding that can supplement our the funding from the general funding from the city through federal, state, and private funding sources and the way that we have identified the work is to really think about and created categories based on the divisions and units that already

exist in the department. and based on the needs in the units and we have looked into the various funders that provide funding in the areas. and typically that is health and wellness for members and staff. community paramedicine and is one of the areas that we're looking at. and we look at funding for fire suppression apparatus and equipment and ppe. and also ems and emergency medical services overall broadly apparatus and ppe and things that are needed there. and a lot of the work that we do involves research and identification and vetting of vetting of potential funders to provide us with lists and foundations and from there we

have to do a lot of grant research to figure out to align with the work they are doing. and also in the process of starting a grant committee. to help us better identify and prioritize the actual critical needs currently for the department as well as in the future. between 2020 and 2022, we were able to identify 2006 potential funders that are identified as family, community, or corporate foundations that are aligned with the department's needs. out of those foundations, 163 that we were able to have -- what is the word i am looking for? sorry. 602 were contacted and made phone calls and emailed them and

we set up the remote meetings and 163 actual responded and said they were interested in possibly funding one of our future needs. and they were interested in only funding publicly facing programs and anything serving the community directly. 12 identified and interested in funding programs and services for departmental members and staff that are the programs that work with diversity and health and safety specifically mental health supports and i think that's it.

and this is a list of specific funders that have taken a strong interest in the work that you are doing. and we're moving forward with them to try to develop stronger relationships so that we can be funded. the philanthropy partners are interested in the ems programs, particularly any kind of work that expressed interest in the community paramedicine and funded a project with the diversity, equity and inclusion work work. and expressed interest in dei work and the genentech foundation is interested in funding the youth programs. and also interested in our dei

work and the ymca bayview hunter's point is a potential partner and to leverage their credibility to help us seek some funding in the future. and the challenges, well, we look at them and to grow, improve, and better perform. and they are here. and the first challenges were covid itself. it changed the landscape of how we were able to reach potential funders. fundraising as a real sector really relies on building relationships with a lot of in-person and we adapted to cold calling and if this crisis continues, we will be able to do this work i think successfully.

the trends also shifted as a result of covid. with more fire suppression and previously shifted to specific wild land funding for the fires that occurred, and a lot of that funding was predesignated to rural geographic areas and that was a challenge that we faced. and the other trends were shifts for mental health funding and some shifts in our favor for overdose funding and things like that. but covid shifted the funding trends so that instead of having competitive grant application processes and funders were making large donations to other

community foundations for distribution of fund or to government agencies that distributed funds according to whatever the disaster significance was in that area. and also staffing time and capacity, is just me and mark really. so we have been looking at while we're doing the work and involved in it, trying to have the ability to still do the grant research and to still be able to contact the funders. to keep all of those plates sort of spinning. and we have been able to access some man and woman power from interns through usf and also we have recently started to incorporate folks that are on light duty. so we hope to be able to find more people and time and energy to put forward for this work.

and this came up recently and funders changing the competitive public grant funding programs shifted because i think they have given to the public entities and during covid to not allow us to participate to the funding and application process and specifically because we are a government entity and reviewing that challenge and some of the suggestions from the foundations themselves to partner to partner with another nonprofit organization and we are in the process of trying to identify an appropriate partner for that kind of application process. and recently we started the grant committee which was really

exciting because with this group we can prioritize what are the critical and vital needs now that need funding. and what we can forecast for the future needs. obviously with disaster work, it can be hard. hopefully we can put some research and data to use and come up with applications to help us in the future. and the funding trend we are seeing health and racial equity funding trends continue and there seem to be more and more mental health and overdose fundings coming down through federal and state sources. the covid relief packages are really decreasing. what we're seeing is more covid research funding available, but not not emergency service

related. a lot of vaccination distribution and things like that which we're not necessarily a part of. wildland and fire suppression funds have tended to focus on more rural areas and like i mentioned before and funding being predesignated and we are not able to pitch for that. and we continue to look for the funding opportunities. and we have expanded the use on virus resources and trainings and in this current year formed the grant committee and which we're very excited about and using the foundation center and i think it's called candid now is a great resource that allows us to pull lists of hundreds of giving foundation that we then get to vet and research and potentially turn into relationships. we have implemented an internal

grant request process and management system to insure that we're applying for needs that are real and true. and that the folks that are doing the work are able to access the funds they need to be able to have the tools and resources to do their jobs well. and that's working out well. and also being able to manage our grant reports and make sure that we're spending down our funds. and all those things are taken into consideration. we are also working to develop grant applications with partner agencies and over the last year is very exciting and a lot of funders have been interested in collaborative grants and submitting those. and we also attended, i myself with numerous webinars and

bidding conferences. i took a fema fundamentals grant management course. and i am continuing to participate in grant writing sem nascar and workshops to improve my skills and keep ahead of the trends out there. i think that's it. i did pretty fast. >> that was a very, very fine report. thank you. and first let me inquire is there any public comment? >> there are no members, i believe, of the public in the room. and -- there is no hands raised for public comment. >> all right. then public comment shall be closed. and my fellow commissioners, any questions or comments.

>> commissioner covington. i am not seeing you as an overview. do you wish to direct the question or comment? commissioner morgan please. >> i'm sorry. my mic was off. you didn't hear me. it happens to all of us. >> i had a question on the kault cultivating relationships and ymca and bayview and elaborate on that more. and that partnership was really spearheaded by chief people's hair who is in charge with the department. and it's really and is a partnership in which we are looking at expanding the pathways to being able to have a diverse and equitable and inclusive department.

and to offer work force development programs and we have been in talks with them about how can we incorporate different courses, different opportunities for use, particularly i think it's ages -- trying to think of the 18 to 24, so it's a range of youth. and to get them to think about the fire department as a fire department career path. and they work really with youth that are in the process and beginning process of seeking employment and help with resume building and do help with getting kids registered into community college and do skills building. and help with math skills, reading skills, things like that. we wanted to come in there and

let these youth know this is a possibility. and in tern communities and people aren't aware this is a possibility for him as a career. and that is opening up the career path to make sure that they are aware. and they know the process to be able once they are there and qualified. and this is how you get here. and it is not a higher level work force program. and these kids would not be able to go to the ymca program and then be qualified or eligible to apply for the fire department but it's a pathway that we're trying to build. >> vice president, nakago please.

>> thank you, madam president. >> i wanted to ask a coup of questions and i also wanted to comment and i wanted to start off, am i -- i want to make sure i say your name correctly. and first name is shiloh. >> thank you for that. >> and you are now a member of the department and how long have you been with us? >> and in january 2020. >> i have been baptized by covid and the department. here i am.

force >> and the comprehensive in the handout certainly helped as well. and i have to acknowledge in the terms of grants and writing in terms of the department and fellow commissioner and is a champion for the department to have a grant writer and we are fortunate to have mr. corso as the finance director. and to be able to now have you standing in front of us because as you did this report to me, i use the word comprehensive whether it came down to like this. and a good feeling and on what the department is or in terms of the needs and that is the feeling that i got.

i liked the idea and you are welcome and i like the idea that with this identification and being with the department in terms of our needs have identified that through the department and categorical needs. and in your presentation in terms of what the department needs sounds like someone that has some understanding of positive and that comes out to the grants and talked about it and in terms of services and

emergency medical services, homeless, and dealing with mental health issues and with the presentation and the direct service providers for all of these vary crisis oriented issues in the city. and that is just not the department's issue and is city and county's issue and state and otherwise. it is important for me to be able to hear and take something like the ems6 and the street crisis and bill of health and job and work force and be able to define on the other side of it and grants and foundations. and i appreciate that number that you threw out there in terms of how many foundations and grants and what they are interested in and i have a question in regards to that. and what comes over and you reinforce it is you are only a

staff of two. and director and yourself and my note is -- i appreciate the grant research. and the potential grants and foundations and in the department and the grants and foundations and takes a cultivation or the marketing, if you will, and to nurture the relationship in terms of who you are writing for and the san francisco fire department and i don't think it could be anything more finer than the san francisco fire department in terms of our needs that we want to go. and we mention about public funding and departmental funding and denser through that and in some ways. and what i thought i heard you say is looking at avenues from a 501c3 as a fiscal agency.

you can kind of tell i have this nonprofit kind of a background and deal with money and trying to find ways to find resources. is that what i am picking up? you identify foundations that differentiate between wanting to fund the city department versus a 501c3? >> and part and with your experience i am sure you know we have really have to find foundations that align, right? and so when we have these lists of 600 or some foundations, the information that we get is from the tax information. and that is not necessarily accurate or detailed. so we have to really make sure that they align with our work. and that we're going to be good partners and takes a lot of time to identify that and to build that and build the relationships with those folks.

and fortunately or unfortunately, some of those foundations have established programs that some of them are public and competitive and they include allowing public entities to apply for that funding. and some of them don't allow public entities to apply. and then a lot of them are privately preparing and donating in the community. so they have invitation only application processes. those are the ones we are really trying to cultivate because that is a relationship and we can't get in the door without knowing with who to build that rapport with. and i think your question is really talking about the 501c3 part. and that is where a lot of how we circumvented that and the partner grants that we have been

pursuing are with other nonprofit entities and that is one way that we are able to as a collaborative unit access community funds in that way. and there have been a lot of changes in the city in terms of how we solicit, process, and accept and acknowledge donations and grants over the last year. and so we're a little apprehensive about just getting into an agreement with another 501c3 and fiscal sponsor and pass through agency and don't want to create really continuing to talk about who would be a great partner if that is something we need to do. and that is something we will be talking about in the grants committee. and i am open and all open to hearing any suggestions or more information if you have that.

>> what is nice is that it gives you options in terms of the various foundations with the work that we do as a requirement to have those kind of potential relationships with the 501c3. and is purely a fiscal -- depending on the relationship and relate and trust. and again, there is always verbalization and the department should create the own wing of the 501c3 as a receiver. i think that reference and the bayview hunter's point and ymca relationship and other nonprofit relationships and kind of gives us an opportunity with the grant and the size of the dollars and that might be alarms within the needs of the department and is also about community engagement which is a little different level and the public service organizations.

and office gives and my last question in-kind donations and this is a pretty good respectable chunk of dollars donated by the community. and those donations and with the goodness of folks and dollars and materials. and solicited and receiving donations from folks that are generally regionally affiliated with this, so there is some sort of affiliation whether they are residents and they appreciate the work of the department. and received several in honor of retired members and other events like that. nobody in the department has been soliciting the donations. and a testament to the work that

2020 and covid and significant increase in our in-kind donations and the local community really wrapped around the department. i wanted to highlight that because it was -- when i started to calculate it and my mind was sort of blown on how much we received. >> and that is remarkable. that is a large number. to me that identifies a humbling experience of the support and generosity of folks in san francisco and look at the san francisco fire department as that kind of giving during covid and times of need. folks who want to band together with services and questions and comments and thank you very much. and my questions and comments.

>> thank you, mr. vice president. and do other members of the commission have questions or comments? >> yes, indeed, madam president. >> thank you. thank you, commissioner covington please. >> thank you very much for your comment and report. [inaudible] -- i'm sorry. and i want to thank you for being agile during these trying times. we have to be able to meet the moment as they say.

rather than sitting down and hoping things will improve. going out and knocking on doors and making phone calls and i know you didn't knock on doors during covid but really being open to trying something new because this is a new position and as you said, you joined us just as things began to fall apart. and it's very good to know that you are reaching out and you and mr. corso are reaching out to those entities that might be able to support us in our need. we have gotten all kind of donations from citizens including jet skis that were needed. and any host of things. and one family donated i think

it was three jet skis. and i do want to point out and not feel lonesome in your endeavors and we are kind of low in numbers because it's just you and mr. corso and supervising and advising but the police department has four. 1, 2, 3, 4 grant people. so i know that your load is heavy and i appreciate the grace with which you handle all the challenges. and thank you for your report. >> i finished madam president any further comment or questions.

and i am not seeing any hands up. so let us inquire and please, madam secretary, if there is any public comment. >> there is no public comment. >> all right. public comment will be closed. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> item 7. agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> all right. and do we have any public comment on that item? >> there is no public comment. >> all right. public comment will be closed and to turn to my fellow commissioners for any suggested items for future agendas.

and i am not seeing any hands up. so let me just assure you that items are coming. and we will be having full agendas moving forward. and get to rest and be ready. and i think that concludes that item. i want to make sure an email had come in from our fire marshal regarding supervisor peskin's amendment to the fire code. that they would like to present or get that on that agenda sooner rather than later regarding the automatic sprinkler requirements for the high-rise buildings.

>> let me -- i was unaware of the email. but i will take a look at it. if it is appropriate, we will put it on our next agenda. >> very good. >> okay. item 8. adjournment. >> so moved. >> thank you. moved by commissioner covington. is there a second? >> i second it. >> seconded by commissioner morgan. in honor of the many years of service by robert moser and brendan ward. who have served with distinction and for a number of years at

various assignments and sadly, had their retirement cut somewhat short by their passing. we will adjourn in their memory and also giving to the families our heart felt thanks for the service they provided a ul of us in san francisco. >> we have a motion and a second. >> i vote to adjourn. off thank you. i vote to adjourn. this meeting is adjourned at 1109. >> thank you, everybody.

madam mayor, commissioners, u.s. coast guard, chief scott, mission high school. [cheers and applause] welcome to the new home of the legendary phoenix the guardian, the st. francis, your new fireboat station 35. [cheers and applause] this is only one of two floating fire stations in the entire world. it is a clear symbol of our enginuity and our importance we place on the resilience of this

city. my name is carmen chiu and i serve as san francisco administrator. one of the responsibilities of my job is to make sure we continue to plan for the investments we need in our infrastructure. whether it is our public hospitals, our utilities, our fire stations or this station right behind you. we know that when the time calls when there is an emergency, we are better off as a city when we make these investments. and so i want to thank all of you for being here today to celebrate in this wonderful and momentus day. i want to thank all of the voters in san francisco who have made possible investments like this. we know we couldn't do it without them. and, of course, we could not do it without our mayor, a person who formerly served as a commissioner of the fire commission and now our mayor, she understands firsthand the importance of supporting our

first responders and public safety. mayor breed. >> thank you, carmen. and i've got to say it's great to be here with each and every one of you. this has been a long time coming, chief. in fact, when i served on the fire commission, i had a few specific goals and tom o'connor was the head of local 798 and he asked for a lot of stuff at the time. on a regular basis. but there were a few things that peaked my interest. number one, station 49 and we got it done. and number two, station 35. and we finally got it done. and i am so excited and happy for the success of this project because the voters of san francisco, they understand that when we come to them and ask

for financial support of the sea wall, those don't seem like they're really exciting topics to talk about when you start talking about utilities and under ground and all of these things, you don't always see the nuts and bolts of infrastructure, but the voters understand the need to invest in public safety because the former station as we know was built after the 1906 earthquake in 1915. the city we know in 1906 after the earthquake, neighborhoods burned to the ground and we didn't have sufficient support in terms of our infrastructure to help deal with those challenges and we didn't just shrink and say oh, well and throw up our hands, we built. and we built that station in 1915 and it served its purpose well. but now, as our city begins to grow, there's a need for

something new. because this fire station, in fact, the phoenix, the guardian, and what's the other one named? the st. francis. those boats are the ones when there is a fire like there was down at the pier at pier 45 i believe, our trucks couldn't necessarily get to every corner of that fire, but you know what, are the phoenix was there. and the fact is when there is an emergency on the water, yes, we are fortunate to be close to the coast guard, but we are usually the first on the scene to help save lives, to help protect the water. to protect our city along the bay. that's why this is so significant. this is going to be a game-changer for public safety and i can't be more proud and

grateful to the men and women of the fire department who 24/7 at station 35 continue to put their lives on the line. yes, it's cool to be on the boat all day having a good time and being out here in the water, but let me tell you, when it's windy, it's nothing to play with. when it's a need out there on the waters, it is really challenging the would, that they do and so i appreciate not just the fire department, but the department of public works for being the lead on finally getting this project done and it was not easy, carla. it was not easy. chief, but we got it done. i'm looking at these two ladies and the third lady here elaine forbes and her port commissioners kim brandon and others, they were like well, we don't know if we want to give you guys this property or not for free. they didn't want to give it to

us for free, but we got it done. and here we are because we all work together. we worked together because we understood the bigger picture and the significance of what this means not just for the city but for the port and everything that exists here. and on top of that, an art installation to remind us of our history of what's important because we can't forget the past, we can't forget the challenges of what existed in the city along the bay, we have to remind people of that so they understand the importance of this infrastructure and the need to continue to build in san francisco. we have a growing population, but at the end of the day, we know chief scott, chief nicholson, our firefighters, our police officers and our other safety personnel, our

paramedics, we know that they will be there for us. and as we begin to re-open after two very challenging years of a global pandemic that none of us saw coming, i'm hopeful, i'm hopeful that the next generation, the folks from mission high school that we are doing the work to lay the foundation so that these young people growing up in our city, learning about what it means to serve and protect the residents of san francisco. i am hopeful that we do our jobs in building a pipeline so that they become the men and the women that you see here today. that's what san francisco is all about. opening the doors to opportunity building, evolving, and making things stronger and today as we celebrate the opening of station 35, we are

reminded of that hope more than ever. so we appreciate you all coming here today and we look forward to cutting the ribbon and getting this station open. thank you all so much. >> thank you, mayor breed. you're always a tough act to follow. and thank you sister m.c. car men chiu. i want to say a special thank you to the voters again who voted for this bond but we couldn't do it without you, but greetings and salutations to everyone here. elected and department heads, our fire commission, port commission, i am your fire chief, jeanine nicholson. now, we love our old fire house, don't we? we love that old fire house and the history and the memories it contains.

all of us have at least one story about working there. some of us many more. but she's been so good to us over the years, but she's tired. she is tired. so she's still going to be in service with our fire engine, but we are really excited to be making new memories and new history with our new floating fire station. our members live in our building we want to ensure there is the proper environment for them so they can do their jobs to the best of their ability. i want to say thank you to everyone who worked on this project from and contractors on down to every person swinging a hammer, putting in a floor, putting in electrical.

thank you for your diligence and your care in getting this done. much appreciated. also to walter hood for the incredible artwork that brings our history forward. i also want to give a quick shout out to the man with the hair, tony rivera who had a big part of this back in the day. thanks for being here, tony. so in our history from well before loma prietta, our fire boats have been really important is and now we've seen a call for services in the bay whether it be fire or people in the water. and this station will enable our members to continue to bring the best service to the people in san francisco because that's what the san francisco fire department does.

that's what we're here for. we are here for you. so this station will serve the bay, the water, as well as the streets because we have our fire engine here, engine 35. so as always, we stand ready to help wherever we are needed. i know that about all of you. every single one of you in uniform over there and thank you. to the members of great station 305 this is your baby now and i know you will take care of her. thank you again everyone and if you have not been inside, it is pretty amazing. you need to get a tour. it wants me to quit my job as a chief and demote myself back down to the caption and have my last year through there.

not going anywhere right now all right. and now i would like to introduce my sister partner at public works. it's all you know. >> thank you, sister chief nicholson. good morning everyone. i too want to take a moment to thank the voters as everyone has said, we could not do these projects without your support. we have the ferry building, the bay bridge, the beautiful bay, and now we have a new iconic image to add to that postcard, the new fireboat floating behind us. as carmen said, this fireboat is what makes san francisco a world class city.

our ongoing strategic commitment to strengthen our resiliency. you have all heard this project was no easy under taking. it needed the approval of no fewer than nine regulatory agencies. anyone who has worked with a regulatory agency knows that's not easy. at the local state and federal level. it was built on two different continents and constructed during the peak of a pandemic that affected both supply chains and labor. and yet despite these challenges, here we are today to celebrate this tremendous achievement. i do want to take a moment to publicly acknowledge the team from public works that helped deliver this beautiful project. our city architect run alameda, charles, project manager, pona ray, sean o'brien, kelly griffin. their dedication was crucial to

ushering this project through to the end. and this was a designed build project with private partners. so a quick thank you to ska, swinerton, power engineering, lift tech and ghd and all the men and women in the construction trade who built it. i also want to thank mayor breed, city administrator chiu and our partners at the fire department. sister chief nicholson. together, we are one city working collaboratively to create a better stronger city to serve san francisco today and into the future. one last plug for the beautiful piece of artwork, it is so amazing. it has the history. it's shaped like the bow of a ship and i want to acknowledge ralph remmington here from the art commission and allow me to introduce our executive director of the port, elaine

forbes. thank you. >> thank you, carla. i am elaine forbes, the port breshgt and the first thing i want to say to the mayor is we didn't do it for free. it wasn't exactly a free agreement. yes. but we so enjoyed working with the fire department to see this through. the phoenix actually was the port of san francisco's vessel. our state harbor of engineers saw importance to bring fire protection from the water way back when the fire department took over. we gave the phoenix for $1. so that was a very kind and since that point we've had an excellent relationship with the fire department protecting our piers and commissioner brandon is here with me today and she will remember we've had many fires. pier 45, pier 29, and pier 48 and that's just in recent memory and these fireboats were here to protect us. and now i'd like to say a few

words to the students at mission high. we have an existential threat of sea level rise and your generation is going to deal with it even more than we are. the leaders here today are being innovative. so she'll be here to stand the test of time and we at the port under the leadership of march breed are working on our seawall and city assessor carmen chiu is going to make sure that we get it done over time, but it's a generational investment and i want you all to hear that today because we are preparing you to take it on and this harbor will be changing and will be resilient and strong. all the thank yous were given already. i don't want to repeat them because you know them. but i do want to say thank you again, we're honored to be here and get us to the ribbon cutting and the tour of the facility. thank you so much. [ applause ] and i turn it over to assessor

carmen chiu. >> thank you very much, elaine. with that, i want to thank all of our honored guests for being here today. i think all of us are ready to go cut the ribbon, right? that doesn't sound enthusiastic. are we ready? all right. i want to make sure, of course, to recognize the folks who are here before we head over. of course, commissioners thank you for being here. chief scott thank you for being here. remmington, director of arts commission. why don't we head over to the port. >> can you help me count? >> five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]

>> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry

-- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless

of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to

not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that.

at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my

own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining

weight and wasn't sure, so i went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the prospective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult

with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits before i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience,

and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about

certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary.

>> mayor breed: i am san francisco mayor london breed. welcome to the state of the city address. [applause] >> mayor breed: i am happy to have all of you here today. it is really great to be outdoors in person. the mask mandates, vaccine mandates are all gone. if you take pictures answer post. make sure you put disclaime