>> february 22, 2023, and the time is 5:00 p.m. this meeting is being held in person, as authorized by california government code section 54953e and the mayor and mayor breed's 45th supplement to her february 25th, 2020, emergency proclamation. it is possible that members of the san francisco fire commission may attend this meeting remotely. and in that event, members will participate and vote by video. members of the public may attend the meeting to observe and provide public comment at the physical meeting location or online at the link on the posted agenda which you may access by logging on to the fire commission website. to

participate during public comment, please call 415-655-0001 and use access code 24933335958. members. public comment can -- members of the public can participate during public comment. and you're asking to wait for the agenda item before making a comment on that item. comments will be addressed in the order received. when the moderator a nounses that the commission is taking public comment, members of the public can raise their hand by pressing star three and you'll be queued. callers will hear silence when waiting for your turn to speak. operator will unmute you. when prompted, callers will have the standard three minutes to provide comment. please ensure you're in a quiet location, speak clearly and turn off any tv's or radios around you. item one, roll call.

[roll call] commissioner feinstein has been excused. [roll call] >> and chief of department, jeanine nicholson? >> present. >> president nakajo will read the land acknowledgement. >> thank you, madam secretary. the san francisco fire commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place,

as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> thank you. item -- item two, general public comment. members of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes on any matter within the commission's jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not to enter into debate or discussion with a speaker. the lack of a response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. if you would like to make public comment, please press star

three. >> madam secretary, is there any member of the public who wish to give public comment? >> there's nobody on the public comment comment line with their hand raised and nobody approaching the podium. >> all right. thank you very much, madam secretary. public comment is closed. >> item three, approval of the minutes, discussion and possible action to approve the regular meeting minutes from february 8, 2023. >> madam secretary, is there any member of the public who wish to give public comment? >> there is nobody on the public comment line with their hand raised. and nobody approaching the podium. >> public comment is closed. [gavel] commissioners or discussion from the commissioners on the minutes? seeing none. we're going to need a motion. >> i would like to make a motion to approve the minutes of the february 8th. >> thank you very much, vice-president morgan. we need a second, please.

>> i'll second. >> thank you very much, commissioner fraser. [roll call] >> the motion is unanimous. >> item four, chief of department's report. report from chief of department, jeanine nicholson report on current issues, activities, and events within the department since the fire commission meeting on february 8, 2023, including budget, academies, special events, communications, and outreach to other government agencies and the public. >> deputy chief tom o'connor on the administrative divisions, fleet and facilities status and updates, finance, support services, and homeland security. >> madam secretary, i welcome chief nicholson. do we take public comment before the chief's report, madam secretary, or is that after? >> after she prepares her report. >> thank you for the clarification, welcome, chief

nicholson. >> thank you, nakajo and fraser. >> thank you everyone who is here from the safety and wellness part of our department. welcome to you all as well. it has been a jam packed couple of weeks. i attended the mayor's state of the city address. i also attended an event with assistant deputy chief buford in china town. it was a nod celebration for our former speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. we had a black history month recognition meeting in room 201 of city hall, with the mayor, with director davis from human rights commission. as well

as carol license from hr and josh arcy from owd and our 9910 graduates from our city emt program and we even had one there who has been hired full time, danielle ferguson and she'll full tile time emt and several more in the firefighter academy and five more people in our h3 level one emt academy so the mayor wanted to meet with them and just speak about her support for the program and her lived experience and it's a nice opportunity for the young people to meet with the mayor and be acknowledged for where they are at. after that event, i hopped

over to the board of supervisors meeting with assistant deputy chief burford and recognized by safai as part of black history month for everything he has accomplished and done for the city and for the department. he was, he used to live in that district and so, supervisor safai wanted to recognize him. that was really nice event at the board of supervisors. i attended with fire marshal cough land and the property owners with residents of san francisco. they had concerned with fire alarms and all of their responsibilities and costs and timeframes and farmer cost land

did a great job explaining it and they were grateful for that interaction. we did have the fire and explosion on 22nd avenue, as you all saw. so i think the world saw. and i'm just so, um, proud of all the members of the department that prepared for and responded to that incident. and we just, our folks did an incredible job and the residents of that neighborhood were incredibly grateful to us. supervisor ingardio from district four had a meeting with the residents of that block of 22nd avenue and had the director of the dem, maryland carol there, police were there, dbi were there. the city assessor was there and

myself, he did not allow any cameras or media into the meeting. they had to wait until after the meeting was over, so the neighbors could really talk about what they needed to speak about and time and again i heard it from every person that i spoke to there, how grateful they were for what the fire department did and how amazed they were, so just a testament to the people we have working for us. and those residents were very appreciative of that meeting, for that meeting. i had my monthly meeting with mayor london breed. we did discussions about the budget and the budget was submitted yesterday by director corso to the mayor's budget office and so now we begin more discussions with them in terms of what direction

things will take with our budget. but so far, so far so good. and i know that director corso will be back for another meeting to answer any of your questions and concerns. but he has also been involved in mou negotiations this week, so he's got a lot on his plate right now. lieutenant governor -- local 798 union invited her for lunch and tour station 49 and station 7. and so, she met with quite a few people at the union meeting and then at station 49 where i got to greet her and speak with her and talked a lot about sort of how the san francisco fire department is really on the cutting edge of community para medicine and how we approach things in this city and looking at legislation to

specifically ab assembly bill 1854 passed a couple of years ago which will sunset the end of next year so she was with the president of california firefighters and some of our 798 union and just really listened and asked a lot of really great questions of our people, so and then i know she went to station 7 afterwards and i believe, commissioner do independence have been to station 7, so i think that was important for her to see as well. i addressed, we started the -- an h3 level two class, number nine, a paramedic academy this week. i got to speak to those young people this week. and i know we will have an emt or h3 level one academy coming up in another month or so. yesterday was a thrill

because we had live fire with two of our commissioners there and i know president koja stopped by as well, but i know chief o'connor will talk about that a little bit in his presentation, but it was wonderful to have both of you out there and to really get your feet wet, so so speak, i know your feet didn't get wet, you know what i mean and get to go into the burn room and do all of that and go back in the ambulance, all of that. i think that was really, thank you for doing that. thank you. today, with the commission, with president nakajo and commissioner fraser, we met with supervisor preston, supervisor ronen and supervisor peskin about some of the challenges within our department and i think they were three good meetings and i'll be meeting with other members of the budget committee with chief o'connor in

the coming months as well and then, if you all noticed, there's a little (indiscernible) over the weekend around cap street barricades and the way they were put in place. and so, i had a good meeting with supervisor ronen today. i've spoken to the mayor's office about it and our concerns about these barricades are not just -- they are theoretical and they are real, so we're working on a better solution to that but for right now, we're going to have to improvise and so i continue to have conversations with the mayor's office about this and with supervisor ronen's office and i know president rollins of 798 is doing the same, so i

think we will get to, we have gotten to a better place and i think that will continue. and that concludes my report for today. >> thank you very much, chief. at this time, is there any member of the public that wish to give public comment. >> there's nobody on the public comment line. and nobody approaching the podium. >> thank you very much, madam secretary. public comment is closed at this time. commissioners, any comments, questions to the chief at this point? commissioner collins? >> so, regarding cap street and you say you'll have to improvise in the meantime, how long do you -- you seem to indicate it might move forward as you would want it to move forward, how long do you think that will take? >> so, i don't know that it will move forward exactly the way we want it to move forward. if we had anything to say about it,

there would be no barricades and there would be a different kind of presence there on the street to deal with some of the criminal activity. but in discussions, yesterday, we had a meeting to talk about an alternative solution and we're supposed to follow up with the mta or mta supposed to follow up with us by the end of the week. they were talking about a six-week turn around but we're changing to change that. i understand the needs of the people living on cap street and having challenging that have become and and i told them i wouldn't be a good fire chief if i didn't express all of our concerns with barricading the street and all of the challenges that that can lead to in terms

of safety of the residents, response times, safety of our firefighters, et cetera, et cetera. so, yeah. we will know more at the end of the week. >> thank you, commissioner collins. commissioner fraser. >> thank you for your report, chief. what everyone has said about the barricades, i have one question you said about your report about the communication about the barriers going up. and i think my question is, how were and when were you informed that the barricades were going up. in other words, before they went up or another time? >> we approached a type 3 barricade which was the barricade that was up there that had, you know, sandbags on it to hold it and we could get out and remove it. on saturday, i got a call, i can't remember from whom

or who it came from first, if it was chief pastel with a photo of the concrete barricades on cap street, so i immediately went out and made multiple phone calls to find out what happened and, you know, expressed ever grave concern, so i wasn't notified until it happened and that was some of the problem and so, that side of it has been addressed. >> thank you very much. vice-president morgan. >> yes. let me turn my mic on. i was wondering, obviously, you know how we feel about the street being blocked. are we going to get some kind of

alliance from the police department? how do they feel about the street being blocked >> yes, that's who we are working with now to get them involved because i think that's really the critical challenge there and i know the supervisor would like that as well, so yes. we are, i spoke to chief scott yesterday and i know chief spoken to chief lazar but that to me is the fix but the residents and the supervisor have grown incredibly frustrated because of the crime and all sorts of stuff going on that street and we know cap street had challenges for decades, but i guess it has gotten a lot worse. so we're working with the police department and as you know, they have their own

staffing challenges as it were. >> right. >> and so i think that is some of the problem and that is really labor intensive for them to do what they need to do there you we have asked for that to happen. >> right. that's good. i don't want to point the finger or blame any particular party or anyone. it just seems obvious that public safety should come first, you know, besides the optics of how it's looking, you know, over there and i don't know. to me it's like a no-brainer, you know, but someone would think, well, because of all the traffic and the trucks blocking traffic too, maybe that's their rational. i don't know, do you know what i mean, but i think public safety should come first and anything you need us to do just ask. >> thank you. >> we'll be glad --

>> i appreciate it. >> i also want to say great job over there in the sunset at 20th avenue where the -- >> 22nd avenue >> 22nd avenue where the house blew up. poor neighbors. >> yeah. >> yeah. the man responsible was arrested and i guess he's been released on an ankle monitor now, so his wife was killed in the explosion. >> yeah, that's unfortunate. >> uh-huh. >> some of the neighbors are kind of unhoused right now, i heard, i think. >> yes, it did display a number of people and i know there's been good community support for them. i met with the residents from either side of the house that exploded and they expressed their gratitude and it impacted homes on the street and blowing out windows and doors and some

people wouldn't get their garage open and some windows blown out and glass over the street from the homes. i'm surprised it didn't do more damage than it but that's testament to our folks. >> thank you, vice-president morgan. >> chief, before we move onto the cd3 report, could you please keep us, the commissioners abreast as to the progress of corporation in terms of the (indiscernible) situation, with the integration as the police department as well. as you heard from the commissioners, we can all understand the frustration and the terrible situations that are occurring in supervisor ronen's district and the neighbors on cap but as you have heard, in terms of public safety, in terms of, as we all

know, some kind of emergency medical and for myself and i think you heard from the commission, who makes -- makes these decisions without letting us know or the fire department being aware. this is going to hinder response time with the concrete barrier of that size. it's like commonsense of some coordination, otherwise, then the members of that street are in jeopardy for how long it's going to take. thank you for that, chief. madam secretary. yes, please. >> thank you, president. and yes, in terms of response times, that's just one aspect of it. as you know when we fight fires, we need to come from both ends of the street because we have so many resources because we live in a densely packed environment, we need to come from both sides

of the street, both ends of the street and so that would really, really, it's like working on a dead end street. and the same goes for our ems folks getting in and out of a one, you know, having to turn around and so it's just, it creates a lot of problems with response times but with our actual response itself, so thank you. >> thank you, chief. >> with that, madam secretary. >> thank you very much, chief o'connor. good evening. >> good evening, commissioners. president nakajo and morgan, commissioner fraser and cop independence. chief nicholson, i'm deputy chief of administration and this is my report for 2023. if we can get the screen up. there we go. under our homeland security vision, with the assistant deputy erica brown, we saw a busy january. we had the

citywide storm activation of our emergency operation center on january 4th through the 10 with the storms that came in. and the san francisco fire chief (indiscernible) the operations chief role, you can see darius in the left photo and right, we have matt canyon from the department of emergency management and assistance chief rabbit assisting. january 16th, we had the homeland security division help plan the martin luther king day march. you can see a turn out from the command staff and the san francisco firefighters black firefighters association where we marched in unison. on the diversity, equity and inclusion, the division with the assistant deputy shawn bouffard by supervisor safai for his contributions to safety and labor over the years. district 11 is where sean grew up as a child so it was -- you can see

chief nicholson and supervisor safai and walton in the photo. next, we have the city job fairs had their last job fair this saturday, excuse me, two saturdays ago, february 4th. this is 20 city departments having a booth at the fair and each one gives a presentation every half how about how to navigate the city job application website. think a fourth and final and this is an effort by city departments to reach out to the community and get those to san francisco into good city jobs and mid class jobs so we're participating in that. we had our san francisco recruitment table. we can see lieutenant anderson on the left and president of the asian firefighters working together to reach out to san franciscans. under health, safety and wellness division, and battalion chief alba. january was firefighter cancer month. we had

a prevision checklist and those in the tells to show them the important things they need to do before and after a fire. we distributed from the fire service and causing -- on the good news, we had lieutenant do incarter and newest facility -- you can see clifford on the bottom right with members with a smile on their faces. and office of employee health with dr. braccord and six promotions and we had ten return to duty examines ask back on street with our ocean mandated screening for hearing and tuberculosis. we had 750 members tested and the screening will continue into the month. and here is our ever

present covid chart and you can see we're dwindling down. things are improving. under our investigative services bureau with captain laura, we had 35 members selected and tested and all results negative and we had alcohol and drug test administers and both results negative. all of our breath diezers returned to the field. and isb is working with julie to add components to the background process for our new candidates during outreach and recruiting. under support services with ramon, poor ramon or chief sarono had a nightmare rain. it was a result of rain and flooding and our old groups can't handle for rainfall. the service orders were completed and roofs fixed but it was a

challenging month for the chief much we saw the conversion of our mta mini bans and one transport van for para medicine and delivered and the clothing depot is ahead of our supply issues and we had all outfitted for the academy. we're speaking around during the recruitment process and sizing them up and ordering ahead of time, so it's keeping us ahead of the curve there. under newest chief, assistant deputy lucia with earth quake safety and nj response bond, we had our focus scope work where we had a maintenance crane. this is used at station 35 and development by generator maintenance plan. since we have offloaded the work from support services, we can get ahead of the curve instead of catching up when things break. chief lucia is instrumental on that. the public health bond, we had the final

art installation at the (indiscernible) facility in station nine and as well as some final installation of flashing for the parking lot at ambulance deployment facility. regarding our emergency fire fighting water service, we had ongoing of -- the public utilities commission and we had a review of ongoing project for the new officer and we're in development at two more five inch hoses and they arrive to show the supervisors what we have in store with them with the new hosts comes in. under our fire training facility project, we had a modified meeting calendar with the department of public works and tourist station five and 49 for the project manager and show them what can grow right and phase ii program meeting with the department of public work and architectural firm, russ cruisen barry and a site visit in texas and tarrant

and training. under our field wood section on january 22nd we had a visit by one-year-old (indiscernible) and his parents to meet the teen who saved his life after investing fentanyl and you can see chief nicholson with the father and two boys. this is an a managing story because you -- this is an amazing story because you don't have a diagnosis with fentanyl with a one-year-old and the staff delivered life saving intervention, so sina is alive and well thanks to our team ask we had our lunar parade february 4th. it was fantastic for members of the community and the community as a whole and you can see on the far left photo, we had supervisor scott wiener and chief nicholson, i believe that's chief, supervisor mandelman, chief scott, i believe that's supervisor chan

behind the shoulder, supervisor safai is on the far right, supervisor stefani. great turn out and support from our elected family. chief nicholson and members of the black firefighters association participated in labor and community breakfast for the federal holiday honoring martin luther king and we had our fire drill with collins and fraser. and you can see our entrance techniques and how we get to the fire immediately and in the center was a demonstration of how fast a living room lights up and we had a medical demonstration and (indiscernible) and you can see on the bottom photo. next we have a video, if we can click on that with our two commissioner in the burn room. >> we're going to take this down and it's going to put the heat in this.

>> okay. you can see how (indiscernible). next slide, please. oops. getting warmer. >> click on the video, we have chief nicholson and pastel with

commissioner fraser. [playing video] >> the other three members....they go on the roof. >> was notable by this final slide is the picture on the far right where we see the meteor i can rise of commissioner fraser from commissioner chief of department with the white helmet and white pants. congratulations, commissioner fraser. we look forward to working together. [laughter] and that commissioners, is my report for january of 2023. >> thank you very, very much, chief o'connor. do a member of the public wish to give public comment. >> there's nobody on the public comment line and nobody approaching the podium. >> thank you, madam city secretary. i'm sure there's comments from the commissioners

at this point. commissioners, anything to ask, deputy chief. commissioner fraser? >> did you call me chief, i'm sorry, what did you say? >> i stand corrected. >> no. i hardly know what to say about our day yesterday. it was enlightening. it was challenging. the gear, i just developed a completely different appreciation or enhanced appreciation for what our, all of you do everyday. and just some gratitude for the time that the staff spent with us, you know, in great detail explaining things and also helping me put on my new chief outfit, which was, you know, heavier than i anticipated, so it was a terrific day. i think it's a mandatory thing for commissioners. i know other people have done it and will be doing it and just thank you so much, all of you.

>> thank you very much. commissioner collins. >> i want to join the thanks. the people, the firefighters that helped us were so patient. that was really appreciated. it reminded me of being a little kid trying to get all that stuff on in the snow. no, this boot, no, that hat. but to be -- it's a new appreciation for space and how much space is needed to, i mean, the cap street thing is so upsetting because a lot -- i've watched those lines go in and the trucks and you can't feed that through, as you know. through an inaccessible space, so thank you very much for giving us, you can hereby it, you can read about it, and you can watch it on the screen but when you're there, you get another sense of that space

needs to do your jobs and how quickly fire spread, just so many things that you probably, you know, have known forever that we're just learning so thank you very much for letting us see and participate a little bit. >> thank you very much, commissioner collins. vice-president morgan. >> i'm mad i missed it. i enjoyed the pictures. all that heavy gear. how did you like the boots? >> well, you know, i thought i might follow our last year's chief up the ladder and i made it one-story. i had to rethink that. no, i understand why ever fire house has a little gym in it, i get it. i get it. so.... >> yeah. >> it was really just an

incredible experience, learning experience. >> hopefully, i can make the next one, chief. >> you have to, armie. >> i have the boots but i can't get them off. [laughter] i can get them on but they won't come off. like a kid. somebody help me get these boots off but they lock onto my ankle but they are great boots. i'll get them dusty or dirty one of these days, pretty soon. >> terrific. >> thank you for your report. >> thank you, vice-president morgan. i'm sure the staff will make sure your boots will fit and -- there's a date for you and commissioner feinstein. commissioners, as a fellow colleague with the department, thank you chief nicholson and o'connor and chief patel's department, it's wonderful to have both commissioners to come

and do this live demonstration drill and you can see it on video itself but until you put on the boots and coats and try to breathe with the mask, you don't know. but it's similar to commissioner nicholson and i'm glad you had your extra boot and pants so members can do that. many of our members of our department is your size and that's what they deal with in terms of what the job calls for. i'm not just saying that, but all the tells who respond. thank you for doing that. thank you chief o'connor for your report. >> thank you. >> i'm excited about this next presentation, so -- madam secretary. >> item five. presentation from health, safety and wellness division, battalion chief matt alba to provide an overview of the health, safety, and wellness division. >> welcome, you'll introduce

your colleagues. please proceed. >> good evening, fire commissioners, chief of department nicholson, and good evening to all command staff. thank you for, to the fire commission for extending this invitation and making, to make a presentation to you about our behavior health unit. my name is matthew alba and i have the honor of being battalion chief overseeing our departments, health, safety and wellness program. i have with me, heather, acting captain of the bhu, jan green, bhu navigator and you have noticed our dog handlers, lieutenant christina gibbs and lieutenant carter with clifford and we have a third facility dog, lieutenant catherine alba with marly who is unable to be here due to

childcare issues. >> next slide. >> the an agenda for today's presentation, i'll give you a brief history of the ffda, acting captain buron will give you an overview and plans for future expansion. bhu navigator jan green will explain our current state of affairs. in 1967, a group was formed ask they were called the posse and they helped members strugglings -- struggling with addiction. general order 844 was issued and the stress unit was formed by chief of department ed sips. our

department chaplin, father john green was instrumental in its creation. the sffd had three stress unit navigators in 1987. it's important to remember that the sffd was responding to approximately 45,000 calls, emergency calls, now we respond to approximately 145,000. in 2019, the position of health, and safety and wellness was created and our first peer team was established and acting, heather, now captain heather burino will give you an overview of the bhs and staffing structure and plans for future expansion. >> thank you, chief alba. i'm acting captain heather, been in the department and finished my 25th year and got a nice little

thing in the mail. made me excited. what is the behavior health unit, you might be asking? simply, it's a program that should encompass all behavior health needs around members. we have five overlapping segments that make up the sffd behavior health unit. we have bhu navigators and peer support team, critical incident response team. we have our facility dogs and chaplain program. i would like to start with the peer navigator. peer navigator and this is the backbone of our program since it was formalized in the mid 80s and the mav gators provided confidential assistance and support to sworn civilian, recruit and retired members. 1400 active members and 1700

retired members. our peer support navigators run debriefing and diffusing and assist in conflict mediation and community kate with and refer members to the eap, the employee assistance program. catastrophic illness program and they are really a vital resource for our sffd members in assessing benefits and services. our navigator are currently helping to develop and support programs within our unit to professionally respond to traumatic events that impact our members, such as line of duty deaths and multi casual incidents and we have acronyms in our department. we respond to violent or upsetting calls. another arm is our peer support team. using peer support training as a strategy for identifying intervening behavior

and psychological issues is now widely recognized in our first responder community. peer support is based on a notion that those of us who have overcome the impact of stressful and traumatic events are qualified to assist others dealing with the similar experiences. the san francisco fire department, peer support team which started in 2019 by a health safety, tasha parks, currently we have 54 members who have completed the formal training and though our team is in its infancy, we have a gold double number of peer support members in 2023. plans are in motion to develop and implement an in-house peer support training program. there are four main advantages to creating a strong peer support program here in san francisco. one of the first is it provides training in the identification of risk factors for behavior and mental health problems of our members

and early detection can save jobs and can save lives. it's proven to reduce stigma, by encouraging conversations surrounding mental health around the dinner table, in the fire houses and trying to not normalize trauma and adverse reactions to the stresses of our job. it also can create an environment where people feel comfortable approaching one another. they can serve to early intervention by referring -- and add care as needed. critical incident response team, it's a team made up of peer support members that have taken additional training and we have 26sert members, each assigned to a team with a team leader and that allows for 24-hour response to assistant critical incident by providing support, debriefing for members, dispatchers and

family. a critical incident is what it sounds. critical incident is defined as an event which is outside the normal human experience. for us, that normal human experience may be different than your normal human experience. but examples for us, i've mentioned online duty leagues are big and multiple shootings and nci's and member and family -- family suicide and death. the purpose of our facility dogs is to help critical incidents to socialize with members lowering their stress levels and the dogs and handlers may deploy to scenes and visit stations to help members decompress. this is, lieutenant catherine and marlly, so she's our first peer facility dog and all you have to do, i don't know if you got to experience it yet, but all you have to do is have them walk in

the room and everyone is like, oh, sadie. exactly. [laughter] so, they do their job, we're proud and happy to welcome carter and his guy clifford. so lastly, the chaplin c program, father green retired a few years ago and it really left a hole in our department. father green was with our members, with the sffd for over 40 years and he was roven into the fabric of our department. it doesn't matter if he were a catholic or atheist and father green got you talking. he was a big part of solidifying the stress team in 1986, so we recognize that whole but we're educating ourself, we're crafting a list with a goal of developing a chaplin c

program that maybe a team of 6 to 8 competent multi denominational individuals and it's an important section of our peer support model and we are, as we say in the business, more to follow. in the fire department, we love org charts, organizational charts because it's how we work. and so this is the current configuration of our behavior health unit starting with chief, battalion chief matt alba and the position was just advertised for behavior health unit captain and we have a committee that oversees the thing and two behavior health peer navigators and i have gone through the rest of it. so, next slide. i'm using these org charts because this is the future. what you're looking at right now is an illustration of the growth we want for the

behavior health unit. we envision, we envision developing a bhu team that's cohesive and supportive, that encourages learning and able to adapt to behavior challenges of our members. so how do we do this? well, i think we can do this by educating our new firefighters and their families but cultivating a robust network of culturally competent coalitions and doing the debriefing and defusing and supporting members who have experienced violent incidents in the workplace. by developing and providing wellness workshops. and with the assistance of a strong peer support team, our behavioral health unit will be able to (indiscernible) on the trends and needs of our members. this chart shows that. and i'm happy to talk about it with anyone as you'd like, but now i would like navigator jennifer green time to

give a rundown on the current and state of affairs on our members, thank you. >> thank you, heather. commissioners, chief, thank you. my name is jennifer green. i'm a paramedic for the san francisco fire department, currently serving in the behavior health unit. the things that are currently affecting our tells is mandatory over time staffing issues that have become normalized over the years and covid. we have seen, like chief matt alba said, the increase in staffing or increase in call volume. we also have many members that are new to our profession that have less than seven years in the field. so we have quite a young department that i have seen in my experience. we serve a lot of tells who have issues with addiction services and getting them to treatment and things

like that. we also help with people who have experienced violence incidents over the course of the past several years as we have seen with a lot of members who are asian, who have experienced a lot of hate crimes happening throughout the city so we work with people to get them to counseling, to get them the help they need to work through the violent incidents that they have experiences as paramedics and firefighters and emt's do in the city of san francisco. we have seen divisions within the department due to mandatory vaccine issues that have come up and we've had an increase in polarized department because of that. and you know, we're trying to work through that mistrust of one another. and we're here to get people the counseling they need after difficult incidents and something we responded to in december was the homicide of two children on navy road. we worked with sfpd, the department of

emergency management dispatch services and we did a debriefing with our members, pd, and the dispatchers to come together and talk about how did we work through that call emotionally, how difficult that call was, and to get people eventually the resources they needed afterwards so i host many debriefings around a lot of different calls, whether they are things that enter the news stratosphere or smaller scale incidents that affect our members, so we're always looking out for signs and symptoms of post traumatic stress and compassion fatigue and things of that nature. thank you.

>> the demands of the job, a coupled with increased mandatory over time shifts, and under the shadow of a global pandemic have created situations that leads the sffd in critical need of additional staffing for the behavior health unit. the importance of this call to action was recognized last year by the board of supervisors with the creation of the bhu captain position. we ask for your support in helping us meet this current challenge. in order for the bhu to grow and be sustained, the time is now. thank you for allowing us to make this presentation to you. >> thank you all very much, battalion chief alba. captain baron and paramedic green. can

you stay there for a second while we ask the commissioners if there's questions or comments on your comprehensive report. i'll ask for public comment at this time. >> there's nobody on the public comment line and nobody approaching the podium. >> public comment is closed. commissioners, any questions or comments to the presentation at this time? commissioner fraser. >> i guess i'll go first, thank you very much. thank you so much for your presentation, for the slides, for the information you shared with us. the funniest thing, you know, i'm a retired nurse and worked in an intense environment and not like yours but some overlap and while we were sitting here a picture popped up on my phone and i don't know how the things work but my colleagues who died and i don't know how that could happen unless you have a secret way to message to my phone. but what --

the line of duty death and the amount of suicide and drug alcohol, disease that you're working with, i cannot emphasize how much i support what you're doing, how important that i not only believe but i know it is and i'm happy to see that so many people are participating and that your program is growing so congratulations on that. and then i have a couple of questions briefly. what is the different or special training for a navigator in the bhu and how many or what percentage may be of members participate in the services that you are providing and coordinating. >> so in order to be a navigator, it's important to be trained in critical incident train and to be keen on when to enact debriefing for individuals

and still have training and awareness of suicide or anybody in the fire service or public safety in this country. so, that is the majority of the training for navigator and then peer support and sert members take peer support trains and members take peer support training -- >> can i add to that. i also they do a lot -- >> do you want to go to the microphone, captain? >> the navigators, i think jen is being humble. a big part of what they could is addiction services and getting people into the programs that they need if that's what they need. they do a lot of reaching out to clinicians and helping make that

connection. a navigator is what that word is of, they are not a counselor but they are people that's embedded in our department that are comfortable talking with people. they are almost listening and navigating them to the services that our department and our city and their insurance, our private employee insurance has and so it's navigating people if need be to higher services and it's constant, but it's a good question of, did you have the answer for percentage of people, yeah? >> i don't have numbers about how many people we serve because each debriefing requires a different set of numbers because people are there depending on how many people responded to a call. we're currently working on increasing our amount of statistics about contracts that aggregate data with how many

people we serve per year. >> i know that's probably not the most important thing. i know it's not the most important thing you're doing but i think it's important in terms of your future planning and grant funding, it could be available separate that i think it's important to know that for overall planning and for the future. anyway. congratulations. i just think it's a wonderful thing you're doing and so important. we got you. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. any other questions or comments from the commissioners? commissioner collins. >> so what an incredible program and glad it's in place and growing and if you had to summarize the support you need at this time, what would that be? >> it would be the addition of three bhu navigators. we

currently have two. and to function properly, we would need five. commissioner collins, any other questions or comments at this time? vice-president morgan. >> yes, i think this is a great, great program. it's, you know, anything -- is it jennifer, you spoke of trust. i think that was an honest point, do you know what i mean. that could be a huge barrier for someone trying to reach out for help. it's great that you guys are there and trying to initiate this thing and be a safety net for people, you know, especially with addiction and god knows what goes on in people's family

or personal life and they got to do the balancing act when they go to work so to have someone to reach out to is a great thing and i'm glad we're dealing with this more with the topic of mental health because before, it used to be that beautiful and we don't -- it used to be taboo and we don't talk about it. wish you all the best and support you guys and i love sadie and all the dogs. i haven't seen sadie in a year but i remembered her name and i still have problems remembering everybody's name but i remember sadie, do you know what i mean. that's the celebrity right there, so that's all i've got. yeah. good to have you guys here tonight. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> can i just add, part of the idea of the five navigators that we're asking for is so that we can diversify, grow our behavior

health unit but also that diversity is important to us and when you come to trust and when we're talking about trust, a lot of times i will, even though i work with everybody and every type of age, race, sexual orientation, and when i need someone to trust, i may go to someone that looks like me. we don't have behavior health -- we're actively working with chief buford and going to our affinity groups and asking for them to put up names that we can train so we're actively looking at that because i do believe commissioner morgan, that trust and comfort is a huge part of this. and we understand the necessity of that dei lens on there. so i just wanted to mention that. >> thank you very much. did you want to make a comment at this point >> yes, please, if i may, thank

you. president nakajo. i just want to thank the three of you for being here and presenting and thank our two dog handlers and our canines, but yeah. when i came onboard, as the chief, i requested from the board of supervisors and the mayor's office and assistant deputy chief of health, safety and wellness because i knew the challenges that we have seen with cancer, with behavior health, with all sorts of things and so, we weren't able to get an assistant deputy chief much we get a battalion chief and last year, we were given the authority for a captain's position but not the funding so, we finally advertised for the captain's position and we're just going to figure it out and in terms of, you know, the work

that jennifer and heather and matt do, especially jennifer on the ground, thank you. you do so much and you're very humble about it but you do so much for so many people and i know, i know it's a lot. so i would love to hire three more bhu navigators but of course, we're being asked to cut in this year's budget, so we need to look at sort of creative ways to make this happen and so, you have my commitment that we're going to do that. look at creative ways to see what we can do to add to our behavior health unit. >> thank you very much, chief of the department. when i was first exposed to your hang out a little bit --

[laughter] >> of course. we can do that. when i was first exposed to you, chief alba and (indiscernible) at the aha luncheon, i was impressed with the program in the sense of how far it has grown and structured, very structured. but i just love your enthusiasm and your passion, your commitment. you also seem like three folks i wouldn't mind having a chitchat with which is important in terms of how giving you are as individuals through this unit. what i picked up was reinforcement that our department is young. five years, a whole bunch. men and women. and i also realize that you're in the department but you're a culture as well and our culture has changed over the many years

that i hung out as well but i think it's important to hear, as you talk about peer group but comprehensive tools and traits to be able to handle and that covers the gamete because our city makes up that. we know what mental health is and what the need is, so again i think it's timely and i was excited to talk to you because this is cd3, chief o'connor through chief nicholson that we had this presentation. i wanted to action no the dog handlers and dogs. i'll get it one day and i know it's sadie, at least one of them. clifford, here we go. commissioners, sadie and clifford and just wanted to acknowledge them as well. thank you very much for your presentation. >> thank you for having us. >> madam secretary.

>> madam secretary? >> item 6, public comment on item 7, public comment on all matters pertaining to items 7b below, including public comment on whether to hold items 7b in closed session. >> madam secretary, is there any member of the public wishing to do public comment on item 7. >> nobody on our public comment line and nobody approaching the podium. >> public comment is closed. madam secretary. [gavel] >> item 7, possible closed session regarding unlitigated claim, vote on whether to conduct items 7(b) in closed session [action] the commission may hear item 7(b) in closed session pursuant to government code section 54957(b) and administrative code section 67.10(b). >> thank you, madam secretary. commissioners, i need a motion. >> i would like to make a motion to have closed session. >> thank you very much, vice-president morgan. >> i'll second. >> thank you very much,

commissioner fraser. >> madam secretary. [roll call] >> the motion is unanimous. we'll go in closed session at 6:08 p.m. >> ladies and gentlemen, i need you to vacate this chamber >> item 8, report on any action taken in closed session. >> there's nothing to report. item 9, vote to elect cl to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session as specified in san francisco administrative code section 67.12a. >> commissioners, is there a

motion? >> i would like to make a motion that we keep this in closed session. >> thank you, vice-president morgan. >> i'll second. >> thank you very much, commissioner. >> sorry. [roll call] >> the motion is unanimous. item 10, adjournment. >> commissioners? >> i like to make a motion. >> thank you, vice-president morgan. >> second. >> collins seconds the motion. thank you very much. >> i vote aye. [roll call] >> is meeting is adjourned at 6:18.

>> my name is tiffany cobb and i

work for the san francisco fire department. i was raised by a single parent. i grew up with a very strong work ethic mental ity. i would like to compare it to a bar back and anticipated the needs and the call. you will provide the needs and complete the call. >> the favorite part of the job is when i can actually connect

with a patient and utilize your people skills as a human being. sometimes it's not a medical need. they just want someone to talk to, someone to listen to and want to be seen as a person and want to be recognized and see them as they are. those are my important calls. i remember being a seven or nine year old girl and never seen anyone like me in a fire engine and that gave me hope that i can do that. there are people like me that can do that job. sometimes people need to feel nurtured and feel safe. i feel like i can bring that to my patients. >> you maybe feel afraid. just

try it out. that's what i did. just never give up. i was told no. i failed the fire academy. i'm still here and i never quit. just learn from your mistakes and never give up on yourself. i'm in station 49. eventually i would like to utilize my skills as a fire paramedic and hopefully become an officer some day. >> for san francisco, i said this in my interview, it's like the new york of the west coast. it has everything i wanted to be a part of. it has ems and has a rich history and blue collar history which i absolutely love. i want to be a part of that.

today we are going to talk about fire safety. we are here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco. it's a wonderful display. a little house in the urban center exhibition center that shows what it's like in a home in san francisco after an earthquake. one of the major issues that we are going to face after earthquakes are fire hazard. we are happy to have the fire marshall join us today. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> we talk about the san

francisco earthquake that was a fire that mostly devastated the city. how do we avoid that kind of problem. how can we reduce fire hazard? >> the construction was a lot different. we don't expect what we had then. we want to make sure with the gas heaters that the gas is shut off. >> if you shut it off you are going to have no hot water or heat. be careful not to shut it off unless you smell gas. >> absolutely because once you do shut it off you should have the utility company come in and turn it back on. here is a mock up of a gas hear the on a house. where would we find the gas meter? >> it should be in your garage.

everyone should be familiar with where the gas meter is. >> one of the tools is a wrench, a crescent wrench. >> yes. the crescent wrench is good and this is a perfect example of how to have it so you can loosen it up and use it when you need it. >> okay. let's go inside to talk about fire safety. many of the issues here relate to fire, for example, we have a little smoke detector and i see you brought one here, a carbon monoxide smoke detector. >> this is a combination of smoke and carbon monoxide detector. they are required in single homes now and in

apartment buildings. if gas appliance is not burning properly this will alert you before the fumes buildup and will affect you negatively. >> this is a battery powered? >> this is a battery powered and it has a 10 year battery life. a lot of times you may have one or the other. if you put in just a carbon monoxide detector, it's important to have one of these too. every house should have a fire extinguisher, yes. >> one thing people expect to do when the power goes out after an earthquake about using candles. what would you recommend? >> if you have a battery operated candle would be better

to use. this kind of a candle, you wouldn't want it in an area where it can cause a fire or aftershock that it doesn't rollover. you definitely want to have this in a non-combustible surface. >> now, here we have our stove. after a significant earthquake we expect that we may have gas disrupted and so without gas in your home, how are you going to cook? >> well, i wouldn't recommend cooking inside of the house. you have to go outside and use a portable stove or something else. >> so it wouldn't be safe to

use your fireplace to cook? >> not at first. you should check it by a professional first. >> outside should be a safe place to cook as long as you stay away from buildings and doors and windows. >> yes. that will be fine. >> here we have some alternative cooking areas. >> you can barbecue and if you have a regular propane bark could barbecue. >> thank you for joining us. and thanks for this terrific space that you have in this exhibition space and thanks for helping san francisco stay safe. >> i personally love the mega

jobs. i think they're a lot of fun. i like being part of a build that is bigger than myself and outlast me and make a mark on a landscape or industry. ♪♪♪ we do a lot of the big sexy jobs, the stacked towers, transit center, a lot of the note worthy projects. i'm second generation construction. my dad was in it and for me it just felt right. i was about 16 when i first started drafting home plans for people and working my way through college. in college i became a project engineer on the job, replacing others who were there previously and took over for them. the transit center project is about a million square feet.

the entire floor is for commuter buses to come in and drop off, there will be five and a half acre city park accessible to everyone. it has an amputheater and water marsh that will filter it through to use it for landscaping. bay area council is big here in the area, and they have a gender equity group. i love going to the workshops. it's where i met jessica. >> we hit it off, we were both in the same field and the only two women in the same. >> through that friendship did we discover that our projects are interrelated. >> the projects provide the power from san jose to san

francisco and end in the trans bay terminal where amanda was in charge of construction. >> without her project basically i have a fancy bus stop. she has headed up the women's network and i do, too. we have exchanged a lot of ideas on how to get groups to work together. it's been a good partnership for us. >> women can play leadership role in this field. >> i tell him that the schedule is behind, his work is crappy. he starts dropping f-bombs and i say if you're going to talk to me like that, the meeting is over. so these are the challenges that we face over and over again. the reality, okay, but it is getting better i think. >> it has been great to bond

with other women in the field. we lack diversity and so we have to support each other and change the culture a bit so more women see it as a great field that they can succeed in. >> what drew me in, i could use more of my mind than my body to get the work done. >> it's important for women to network with each other, especially in construction. the percentage of women and men in construction is so different. it's hard to feel a part of something and you feel alone. >> it's fun to play a leadership role in an important project, this is important for the transportation of the entire peninsula. >> to have that person -- of women coming into construction, returning to construction from family leave and creating the network of women that can rely on each other. >> women are the main source of income in your household.

show of hands. >> people are very charmed with the idea of the reverse role, that there's a dad at home instead of a mom. you won't have gender equity in the office until it's at home. >> whatever you do, be the best you can be. don't say i can't do it, you can excel and do whatever you want. just put your mind into it.

today it is friday, february 17th and it ask 9:33 a.m. >> secretary fuller call the role. >> good morning. respond with here or present. segal. >> commissioner post. >> here. >> commissioner woolford. >> present. >> commissioner zoubi. >> present. >> with 4 members present we have forum for public works commission. due to the covid-19 health emergency and recommendations issued by the san francisco d. public health and the emergency orders of the govern and mayor concerning sia