>> start with the pledge of allegiance. i call this meeting to order. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> madam secretary, please call the meeting to order. >> meeting called to order at 901 a.m. agenda, this meeting will be held in person at the location listed above. members of the public may attend the meeting to observe and provide public comment at the physical meeting location listed above or calling into the number below. instructions for providing remote public comment by phone are below.

public comment call in is 415-655-0001. meeting id, 24975203486. insure you are in a quite location, speak clearly and turn off background sounds, television, phones, radios, wait for the item you would like to address to be called. when prompted, press star 3 to be added to the queue. the system will notify you when you are in line. callers will hear silence when waiting for your turn to speak. operator will unmute. when prompted, callers will have standard three minutes to provide comment. you may also watch live at www.sfgovtv.org. item 1, roll

call. [roll call] >> thank you, i'll read the ramaytush oholone land acknowledgment at this time. 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. madam secretary. >> item 2, general public comment. >> madam secretary, any member of the public that wishes to give public comment at this time? >> there is no public comment-oh, excuse me. >> please approach the podium. announce your- >> good morning. my name is sierous hall, a resident of district 7. good morning. perhaps more relevant then where i live is i walk bike and ride muni to get around the city and over the past 11 years i have become all too particular with the

vehicle violence that plagues san francisco and united states as a whole. today i ask the fire department send a represent toov the the sfmta board when safe plans are for approval for feedback and plans can be discussed. the fire department is in the business of saving lives but over it last year it is clear the fire department plays a sig cont role perpetuated unsafe street design in the city. refrain from sfmta staff and leadership has become more common. we can't build safe roads and streetss because the fire department says they need to be designed such inherently unsafe to pedestrian bikers and other active transportation users. at last week's sfmta board meeting various versions were invoked by director tomlen and

sfmta staff. three times batting back questions from frustrated and vexed board why designs are teped dealing with dangerous roads and streets. e-mail and one on one conversations we hear sf fire department is (indiscernible) despite standard practice in safer countries with lower death and no epidemic of out of control fire. san francisco streets have proven bad designs killing 38 people last year, yet there is never a fire department representative when safe street projects degraded due to departmental feedback are presented to the board. instead staff carry the fire department water. looking at the history of this commission meetings i see no discussion of vision zero this year. i can find no published plans for the next steps the fire department is taking to help reach vision zero. the last fire department strategic plan from

2017 three years after the city adopted vision zero in 2014 does not contain the term, vision zero. the fire department does not show unin the 2021 vision zero strategic action plan. the department is mising inaction. this must change. the department needs a clear strategic operational plan designed in coordination of other agencies and safe street advocates laying how the department adjust street design that protect rather then expose users. the fire department should clearly be involved in those designs. we need streets that allow emergency vehicles to reach their destinations in a timely fashion. we all agree on that. but that involvement can not be more of the same. the fire department must be a active public participating agency committed to vision zero. thank you. >> thank you very much. if your name mr. hall? thank you mr. hall. any other members who wish to comment? at this time both physically

or virtually? >> i do not see other public comment president. >> thank you very much. public comment is closed. at this point, please mark madam secretary our arrival of commissioner feinstein at 907. at the prerogative of the chair i will after approval of the minutes, the next item, item 4 which is presentation of fire science and fire academy program at city college will be moved as the chief of the department needs to attended the mayor meeting and will have the chief of department report first and then we'll have the city college presentation. madam secretary, can we continue with the approval of the minutes? >> item 3, approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve meeting minutes from regular meeting on march 22, 2023. >> thank you madam secretary. any member of the public that wish to give public comment at this time in approval of the

minutes? no one in the chambers, anyone on virtual madam secretary? >> no, there st. not. >> thank you very much. approval of the minutes. may i have a motion please from the commissioners? >> i so move, mr. president. >> thank you very much commissioner feinstein. second, please. >> i second that. >> thank you very much vice president morgan. madam secretary. >> item 4- >> i have to call the vote for myself and commissioner fraser so i vote yes and commissioner fraser needs to be called on this. >> thank you very much moved and seconded. thank you very much. i will move the item of the chief department up madam secretary. chief nicholson, by remote,b welcome, recollect good morning. >> greetings and salutations and thank you for accommodating me. again, as you

know the mayor has her department head meeting every second wednesday in the morning. today i am down at the ferry building. greetings president vice president morgan, commissioner feinstein and commissioner fraser and command staff and cathy thank you for stepping in for maureen today. >> you're welcome, chief. >> so, overthe last couple week s, i had numerous events and meetings, so i'll just go over broadly what i have attended. with assistant deputy chief shawn brewford we met with cheryl davis from human rights commission and racial equity to give a update on the dei work

and any direction they may have for us. they are quite pleased with the fire department up to this point. so, that's good news. i went to also with shawn brewford to the san francisco firefighter youth academy family aappreciation lunch put on by the black firefighter association. they have youth academy they run and they wanted to thank everyone for the support so the mayor was attendance, supervisor walton, the office of economic workforce development, city emt. it was really nice event and they are doing really good work with the youth academy. last month was women's month and i attended several events. (indiscernible) had a conference and i was on a panel with other-with

law enforcement leaders from the bay area and that was a all day event, well attended. the san francisco police department had a women's luncheon and i was able to speak at that as well. there were women from police department, sheriff department, dpt, women from all other city government. it was a nice event. i greeted the h3 level 1 class of emt's that started a couple weeks ago, and i'm also proud to say we have 6 young people from our city emt program that are in that class, which is exactly what we wanted to see moving forward was young people from city emt granted an opportunity. mostly over the

past couple weeks i have been in meet and greets with possible-with candidates for the 132 class. today there will be a letter going out to many of those people asking if they are interested in this next class or if they like to differ to the 133 class and i believe there will be letters going out acknowledging people-thanking them for their interest and letting them know they will not move on at this time. tonight simon pang, assistant deputy chief simon pang will get a good government award at city hall. it is in the north court at 5:30 p.m. big deal. a city wide award that is given out to people who have-to folks that

work for the city and good work they have done so he is honored for his work with community paramedicine and alternatives to policing, et cetera. i know that retired captain jimmy connors is here to present today and i'm sorry that i am missing you today. as some may know, he was my first probationary boss back in 1994, so jim sorry i can't be there and thank you as always for your partnership with us and much appreciate it. finally, i know that many commissioners had challenges with form 700, and some of the ethics training that they had to conduct, so we have opened up a

conversation with folks from ethics and some others, the mayor's office to try to fix that situation and make it smoother for all of our commissioners to be able to do that required work. and then just asking if we can please close the meeting today in memory of two firefighters that died chicago fire department two days in a row. they had two deaths and if we could just close the meeting in honor of them, and that is all i have for today. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. at this point i know you need to go to the mayor's office. [microphone not on] let me take public comment. any public comment

(indiscernible) ? anyone virtually madam secretary? >> no, i do not see any virtual public comment requests. >> thank you. public comment is closed [unable to hear speaker. microphone not on] >> not really, just thank you for all your support chief and i'll let you be on your way. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you chief for your report. i just like to say that we don't have a problem with our ethics, but we had a problem with our ethics training, and it is a very bulky cumbersome system and frustrating for a lot of us. as far as i know, our ethics are all still good. [laughter] >> that thank you for that perspective. >> thank you for the reinforcement commissioner fraser. if no other

questions on this, we'll see you later chief. good luck in your meeting and your advocacy and work for the department. >> thank you very much. >> we'll move on to cd2 report. madam secretary, would you like to read that? >> report from operations deputy chief robert postal. report on overall field operations including greater alarm fire, bureau of fire prevention and investigation, training within it department and airport division. >> can you hold on for a second, chief? i think i jumped the gun because i was trying to accommodate the guests from city college and if you don't mind that, they think very much that cooperation and support. former captain connors, at this point i'll call the item up and return the item afterwards. the item of chief postelreport. >> presentation on the fire science and fire

academy program at city college of san francisco. retired captain jim connors and staff to provide an overview of the fire science and fire academy program at city college of san francisco. >> thank you very much. welcome and good morning former captain jim connors. also would like you to introduce your guest this morning as well and i thought it is so important for us as the commission and general public to have this opportunity and update on this great program, fire science and fire academy. >> thank you commissioner and thank you commissioners. thank you chief posteland command staff allowing us time to talk about the city college fire program. i like to introduce before we go through the presentation dr. (indiscernible) dean of john adam campus and dean of school of health and john in charge of

instructional service agreement and strong workforce programs. >> i want to thank you all for your partnership. it has been wonderful as we have gone through. i think that this is the fourth time i've come to present in front of you, and that shows the strength and the continued longevity of our program, and we hope to continue to grow it as we just put an addendum on our isa for additional certificate. as we continue to grow and move it forward, i hope to always be coming to give you good news. thank you. >> thank you, i want to echo the thanks. i work more behind the scenes on the program to make sure the students get registered and the

invoices get paid and records all kept so want to echo everyones thanks and grateful for the partnership. >> thank you very much. captain connors. dr., you folks can sit in the front row if you want to until the opportunity for commission to ask questions or comment. >> again, thank you for your time. there is a series of slides we will go through that reflect our program, and right now in our instructional service agreement there are three parts, one is what we call fire science 110, basic fire academy for the h2 firefighters. fire science 108 which is one year of field fire work experience when

they go out to the field after 20 or 21 week training academy and like just mentioned our newest addendum to the instructional service agreement, which has to do with the company officer certificate program and i'll comment on that a little more later. our program offers different degrees and certificates. we have a associate in fire science, two year program. we have a certificate of fire protection which also those courses-we have a company officer certificate. a firefighter 1 certificate for our fire academy at city college and then a homeland security certificate. the required courses for the 2 year degree is fire science tive 50. a course on fire prevention. a

course on fire equipment and systems in buildings for example. we have a course on wild land fire control, which is very important obviously in today's society. and a course on firefighter safety. these core courses, plus there is a course on fire behavioral those courses are set by the california fire technology director association, which is a advocacy group with state fire training and represent the community colleges in the state with fire programs so we have a curriculum that is available at any community college in the state and the course numbers might be different, but the content of the courses are the same throughout the state. and there is a couple electives that are part of that, so a student could take either emt

or what is called fire science 17, emergency services responder. obviously we urge them to take emt, so they are well prepared when they test or apply for different fire departments, hopefully san francisco. because the emt classes get impacted, we offer alternative to that accepted by state fire training. and for our fire academy we have prerequisites. again, either the emergency service responder or preferably emt. introduction to fire science so they have a general understanding what is going on in the field of fire fighting. the wild land class, rescue practice class and a public safety conditioning class. when we started the fire academy in 2008 we saw early on despite best efforts some studsant didn't get the message and they were not in the best physical condition so we worked with the pe department at the

time dan hayes the brother of former chief joanne hayes white and developed a specific program to address physical conditioning. we also developed a course fire science 62 rescue practice to improve the skills that are required with rescue tools, knots ropes and things and since we implemented those two courses our problems went away so that was a big improvement. students that come out of our fire academy also receive a certification from state fire training. they receive a hazardous material first responder operation certificate. they get firefighter safety and survival, confined space awareness and certain incident command system courses that are required by state fire training. and the last piece we have in there is a course called, s190,

introduction to wild land fire dehavior. one thing that we are most proud of at city college is our new fire training tower that was completed last year. it was built during covid, and this was a $3 million plus project that bond money was used for and some funds from strong workforce programs. this allows us to teach 90 percent of what is required to be a firefighter 1 certified student at the john adams campus which is at hayes and masonic. the other 10 percent of training occurs at san francisco fire department facilities, south san francisco fire department facility main training tower and cal fire in san mateo so this is a huge improvement and on the second semester of fully utilizing it and still making sure everything works properly. the one thing we dont do there

is live fire training. we are dead center in the middle of a residential neighborhood and made a decision early on that we would-because san francisco and south san francisco fire departments allow us to use their facilities we would take advantage of their offer to do live fire training at their facility and it was a plus with the neighbors because we had zero opposition with the neighbors and proactive making sure there was a lot of outreach and we'll continue that with programs at the end of the year around earthquake activities, so we'll keep our positive relationship with the neighbors. and we have a apparatus shed we park one of our fire engines in. our fire engines are deinated the one in the picture was donated by fausher city fire department and just received another engine in the last couple weeks donated by the south san francisco fire department. it is a huge plus for our programs. and then we have to

have this equipment to meet state fire training firefighter 1 and 2 standards. so, there is a two types of programs state fire training has. one an accreded regional training program, the community college piece and that is what we have. the emphasis is firefighter 1 training and now include firefighter 2 training to improve qualifications of students when they go out to apply for jobs. the other type of training is what is called, accredited local academy and those are government agencies such as san francisco fire department is is a recognized ala academy. the content the core curriculum for both programs is the same, the difference san francisco adds a lot more to the curriculum with things- (indiscernible) wood ladders and other training activities that

increase the length of the academy. these are the two type of programs approved by state fire training and certified and we both go through a certification process every 5 years. but, the main point is that we both have a core curriculum that is approved by state fire training. and there is comment about a new addendum to the instructional service agreement we have. there is a course certificate program from state fire training called the company officer certificate that we have at city college also. our content mirrors state fire training and there are 5 pieces to that. one is a human resource management general administration fire inspection and prevention, all risk and wild land, and a student can take all 5 of these courses and get a certificate

as a company officer and we are working with the division of training and chief (indiscernible) to put that into effect based upon our most recent conversations towards the end of this year and that will be used for various purposes that i'll let chief kyle talk to the commission about if he chooses today. we are very proud of the diversity of our students. this picture is from a couple years ago from one of our academy classes. this class is reflective of hires made into san francisco fire department and other agencies, including the seattle fire department. we are very proud of the fact we had a lot of students hired into san francisco, but as well as many other fire departments throughout the state and throughout the country. we have students that work in career fire departments in austin texas, new york city, so

that was really a big plus when one of the students was hired in the fdny. we have a work experience program. our work experience program is constructed so that once a student complete our fire academy, and a emt, they can apply to work in the student work experience program that places them in a fire station in the city for one 10 hour shift a week. they don't work 24 hour shifts, they are not allowed to pgo into burning buildings, allowed to respond to medical calls and participate in all training activities. this program is very successful and it's-the fire houses get a early read on how our students are and they see how qualified they are. we also support the fire department in many activities and we also support fire department related organizations, such as

cancer program and so this just a picture of some students that helped out at the last fundraiser for the cancer program. we are very proud of the diversity that our program has and how we work to assist in the diversity of the fire department and these are just some examples of former students that work at various stations throughout the city. one of the other things we are very proud of is our faculty represents many bay area and are state fire departments. we don't just have instructors that are in the san francisco fire department, so we have south san francisco fire department, berkeley, oakland, san jose, cal fire, alameda county, mountain view and redwood city and the personnel in our faculty range from firefighters to firefighter paramedics, lieutenant captain and in the case of redwood city

their chief ray (indiscernible) is one of our firefighters. it presents a broad spectrum of experience toour students. you have the contact information if you need to get a hold of any of us at any time. and that's our presentation and we would be happy to answer any questions. >> that -thank you very much for the presentation and update. at this point i'll ask for public comment first on the presentation and then have the commissioners ask questions or comments mpt madam secretary, any member of the public wish to comment on this item? >> no, i do not see any public comment. >> see, no member in the chamber as well, public comment is closed. commissioners, at this point, comments

or questions to jim connors or the team? >> yes. thank you for your report mr. connors. i was looking at some of the prerequisites. basically i are guess my main question, what is the usual candidate you would receive for these classes? someone with experience and like a volunteer and firefighter. not someone just out of high school that is curious? >> our student population is probably 60 percent serious about getting hired in the fire service. 20 percent they think they want to get hired in the fire service, and then all honesty the other 20 percent are trying to figure at age 18 or 19 what they want to do in life. but we have a good core of students that are interested in the fire service.

>> great. i like the part where it is parallel with the state training which gives a little flexibility to seek careers all over california, which is good. can you elaborate on that? >> before 2019 the fire service and community colleges were like oil and water. we just did not mix in our curriculums, so the state fire office and state training adopted a blew rf print called 2020 and a goal was to increase the professionism of education required to get into fire service and so in 2019, they developed a common core curriculum that apply to training programs at community colleges as well as accredited local academy through government agencies. in the bay area not only is san francisco an ala, so

is berkeley, oakland, free mont, san jose and our area. the step fire training took in 2019 was unprecedented to have the core curriculum. >> that's great. i think it is a great program and they are learning from the best, retirees like you and think it is a great thing. think it is a model that might catch on throughout california with the other community colleges and city colleges and think it is a great idea. thank you for the presentation. >> thank you. commissioner fraser. >> thank you so much for your presentation and congratulations on the successful placements that you are making right out of the program and the incredsable diversity in your classes. i love that you have added wild fire and i notice also haz mat and that seems to be

something firefighters all over the place are having to deal with more and more and more with all our forever chemicals every place. it is very concerning. just a question. the percentage of people who enter the academy and complete it? it is probably not hundred percent, but maybe it is. >> at city college our success rate is about 99 percent. all our tests as well as chief can speak to this, our tests, we are given what is required by state fire training, and before 2019, we developed our own test forms so in 2008 when we first started we had our own test forms. 2015 the state supplied the forms and now they supply the test you have to test to for the community colleges and for the government departments they can add to that minimum required. but they

supply the forms. there are stringent test security and both for the students and faculty and for what they will be tested on. one of the statistics we were able to develop with local fire service people is that since 2008, 21 percent of the hires into san francisco have been city college at san francisco fire academy graduates. some students have gotten lucky and just taken fire science courses and got hired because they scored well on entrance test, but our goal is make sure we have qualified fire academy graduates. we like to be higher then 21 percent, that is a good solid number. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very

much. >> i have one last com. comment. when i was talking about our faculty they work with state fire training and state fire training when they develop new curriculums are looking to have fire service personnel in their curriculum development. one of our faculty who is also retired assistant deputy chief from san francisco, notified yesterday he will be on a new state fire training development committee for arson, and so that is a big deal and we are proud of that. they will meet different times over the next year and that development will be approved by the state fire marshal office and state fire service. to have our folks and retired members of the department working at the state level is really big. >> thank you very much. i have a few comments and

questions. first of all, i'm a former graduate of city college. i had the privilege of being a class mate with jim connors and my education was so robust, entered city college of san francisco while other colleagues went through other higher educational formats. i am from the breed didn't know what to do or where togo so city college afforded me that time. i just say that because i remember spending a lot of time in the arts building gazing, observing (indiscernible) mural, and just looking at that and trying to find my place. i just tell you this is the way i am, but i appreciate city college. >> thank you. >> i also captain connors if you can come back up and

perhaps you can answer this as well. i just need a little history because i know it is really important for us to have this presentation update of city college fire program to the commissioners. we just recently signed an agreement in terms of our future working collaboration. how old is the fire science course at the college at this point? >> it has a very long history. jim, it is from the 19- >> it actually goes back to the 1960. i entered the fire department 1975 along with many other applicants at that time we took fire science courses at city college, and former fire department chief ed fips was a instructor at that time and but it would go back to late 1950. >> i say that because again, as a former student of city,

(indiscernible) you always observe what city college presents and part in those days back in the day were police classes, police officer classes and some form of fire courses. what i'm interested because oof the long history, 1960 is how much that program has changed in terms of the students that sign up for these classes. talking about the fire sciences. i'm interested in the demographics. in my mind when i was at college, i dont know what kind of folks were attracted to being a fire science courses-i remember a lot of males. i don't remember women. i don't remember too much minorities but can you speak in terms ramification ramification i look at the numbers of what the classes reflect. in the presentation you talk about the diversity of san francisco. i'm interested how the (indiscernible) format and curriculum is comprehensive. there

is degrees now that are involved with that. could you speak to that, please? >> one reason why we want degrees is because we want to help students go forward with their life journey, soon degrees will be important going up in rank, and we wanted to be forward thinking and jim has been amazing and doing all this. we have tremendously diverse faculty and because we have women teaching and people that have also been out in the field, ray iverson was one of our speakers during black history month. it just-we want to-in every way showcase that no matter who you are a career in fire science is for you, and

jim is forward thinking how best to meet our students where they are and shortened the classes so they are not 17 and a half week for mat, they are 16 week format. trying to meet students where they are. some are 8 weeks, we have online and in person offerings. we are trying to make sure that the modalities no matter who the students are we have a modality that fits. jim, would you like to add more? >> some things we do to address diversity in our students population is we work closely with the pe department, we work closely with women studies, we work closely now with lgbtq plus department to make sure that we have good representation of other ethnic groups and other student populations and that worked out well. one side note

is that we in our administration of justice curriculum we just developed a new policing certificate that is focused on lgbtq plus curriculums, and some administration of justice courses and fire students can take that as well. we actively recruit students from other departments at city college. we try and make sure that the numbers that we have are going to represent continued growth and improvement in the fire service as they leave city college. for example, if they are hired by san francisco fire department. i will be honest in that we struggle to have better numbers with women students but we work hard with with and why we work with the pe department and women studies program. >> okay. that helps a lot, because again there is a comprehensive program with degrees and i would think that

again city college if there is a student interested that might be the course line to find out indeed if this is a course you wish to pursue as a career. part of that too is the ems paramedics, which is a huge component of the fireman now, and i'm interested in that because that doesn't necessarily represent just one gender, as well as interest of folks of diversity as well. it is a career move to me, so the relationship of city college to our department training and such and also just as point of information, how many jurisdiction in the 9 bay area counties has a fire science course beyond city college? i see csm? >> csm does. there is a south bay regional consortium which represent different community colleges in the south bay that don't have resources to have their own fire programs right now. santa rosa has

one. napa had one, not sure if they still have one now. they are going through changes up there in the curriculum programs. los (indiscernible) and east bay have fire programs. chibo has a developing fire program so they are around but we can say with a lot of pride that our program in santa rosa, csm and south bay and chibo has been around probably since the 40's and were instrumental helping us start our program. very good neighbor policy. those are the key programs in the bay area. >> thank you for that, because again i'm familiar with chibo, csm run in our wheel house as well. you answered a lot of questions. some think all the courses are (indiscernible) but that isn't true. it is john adams as well. >> right. ourfire academy program is john adams campus. all the other courses i talked

about here are taught mainly at the ocean campus, but we are starting to move more courses to john adams campus also. before covid we had a presence at mission campus, but due to a number of reasonss we had to reprioritize which campuses we put our courses at and there is one other program we have that is providing outreach to young students and trying to address our diversity and that's a program we have aligned with san francisco unified school district, and it is two courses we teach at mission high school introduction to fire science and fire prevention,b and lieutenant anderson is one of the main play ers in the curriculum for that program and that's-the concept of reaching a tipping point, it took a while to get to a tipping point. we are over that now. it turned out to be a very successful program. >> okay. i appreciate you bringing this up because in my mind in terms of

longevity, exposer i to the department and growth historically as well, i know about mission campus. high school-i have seen the students. i know about the successes of the emt programs by firefighters. i know that there's some kind of connection, dean, if you will, if a student from the high school that is-the emt program represents community based as well. talking coverage as it move tuesday the community college and it next step will be the fire reserves and then our department. that's the kind of path that i look at in terms of how we get the interest. my biggest question is san francisco police department are 4 to 5, 600

members down. the fire service is the same and i asked what that meant and they said the public interest-the police department is police department, again respectful in terms of the work they do, i know how difficult it is for them at this point. i want to hear the numbers at city college and how that reflects is there a trend difference in there because to me public service is important priority in terms of what-i don't care what student you are, in terms of the service to our city and what we do in our communities. >> we do have robust program at galileo and mission for emt, ems, 100a, 100b class. the students complete that in their senior year and then they bridge over to us in the summer, and take emt 100 and

get their ems certification. at that point they will go out to an emergency response company, and begin to have a viable employment. they can also take their state wide certifications at that time. we prepare them for the state wide certifications. this is part of our growing diversity. we also have the partnership with the emt program that is down in the hunters point area, and we are always looking for ways to engage students and get them interested in these careers that are serving the public, because we are all getting older and we need these people to be there to help us as we continue to age.

our paramedic and emt program is in a different department from jim's department, but there are always looking for new ways to outreach and to try to connect in. they are currently working with the san francisco fire department to look at another way to increase our institutional service agreement with these classes to partner even further. >> alright. thank you very much dean, thank you very much captain connors. >> i have one comment. you talked about the police department and their difficulty in filling vacancies. fortunately in san francisco fire department we have full recruit classes and so that works very well. i know it is

difficult to get the numbers to fill the classes base said on conversations with member s of the department. as far as our enrollment is concerned, covid definitely took a hit on enrollment in most community colleges and specific to say fire programs. we are all struggling to get back to the numbers of student enrollment we had before. it was something that was unheard of where you would find fire departments not having vacancies filled with qualified applicants, but there is a trend now in the fire service where they are not able to get enough qualified candidates to fill their vacant positions. some people i talk to think that is a result of covid. people staying home, losing momentum, lazyness factored that entered into this and maybe a generational change. >> interesting. thank you very much. at this point, thank you very much dean,

captain connors. any other comments? commissioner feinstein, please. >> i'm not sure who best to direct this to, but i only know about the budget challenges city college is facing from what i read in the newspaper, so i'm not primed on all of that. eme i'm wondering if it is having any kind of negative impact or impact what so ever on your program? >> no, it is not. one thing that we have gotten is city college is really proud that we were audited this year and we have a clean adit report. there were no findings, and- >> excellent! >> yes. >> congratulations! >> thank you. our budget is balanced and unfortunately that never gets in the paper.

>> certainly true. >> so, currently we are not in financial problems. we are now moving more money into our fiscal plant, which previously due to how our budget was spent we were not able to upkeep our facilities to the levels we would want them to be upkept to and now they are becoming line items in the budget because our budget is now healthy. we are hoping it will stay in a healthy phase as we continue to grow the college back to pre-pandemic levels; but all community colleges throughout california have seen a greater then 20 percent drop in enrollment. >> so, with that, unfortunately when you don't have

the students, there are classes we can no longer offer because the students are not taking them, and we have to be good fiscal monitors of the public's money and use the money we are given by our taxpayers to try and benefit as many students as possible, so sometimes the choices are not ones that everybody would like, but when they dive into the weeds it is the ones they realize they need. is that a good way of putting p? >> yes, good way of putting it and i got to really complement you all on maintaining your fiscal health during these challenging times, and you need to be proud of that as well as all the academic achievements you are helping your

students attain, because i do know that enrollment is down and don't know enough about the city-or the community college system state wide to know, but the fact this program is so healthy and so well run and so comprehensive and willing to adjust and adapt and expand, it just really makes i think all of us very proud, so thank you. >> thank you, and we couldn't adjust, adapt and really try and think outside the box without the wonderful faculty that we have working with us. they look at the changing population, and jim and his faculty have adapted to the changing dynamics of this population. >> well, you should all be congratulated, so thank you.

thank you for the service. >> thank you very much. thank you very much dean. thank you very much captain connors. madam secretary, i think we'll continue our item at this point, which would be the presentation by deputy chief. >> report from operations deputy chief robert postel. report on overall field operations including greater alarm fires, bureau of fire prevention and investigation, training within the department and airport division. >> welcome chief. thank you very much for your patience. >> good morning. great job this morning. this is my report for march of 2023. i like to start out by thanking vice president morgan and commissioner feinstein

to go through a live fire training at treasure island march 27. we had a number of companies out there. we were able to demonstrate what our operations are and all the things that have to come together in a very short period of time for us to deal with a active fire. i think you each got to spend a little time in the burn room, see a flash over demonstration andition commissioner morgan decided he was going to climb the aerial so hopped on it and ran up the aerial. at which point commissioner feinstein decided i wasn't able to do that anymore, so she dared me to clime the aerial so i had to prove her wrong and i fallowed his steps up the aerial so thank you all for coming out and- >> (indiscernible) >> thank you very much for coming out there. it meant a lot to the rank and file people in the field who see you come out there and take the time to understand what our

challenges are. i hope it was as beneficial to you as it was for us. during the month of march, we had 20 working fires, 9 water rescues and one cliff ris cue. four greater alarm in the month of march and i provided detailed narrative written by each incident commanders for each incident and i vetted them to shorten them up for you guys. the first alarm was march 3. it was 1618 hours, 2143 pine street the fire was started by roofers working on the roof of the abuilding to the right. the fire building itself was a 4 story balloon frame constructed victorian building. the fire got in the walls and traveled quickly up the western exterior wall into the attic space. this building had a very large attic, about 6 feet deep or so and on top of

that the top floor had 12 foot high ceils for access for the crews was really difficult. this fire had a lot of headway and it was the aggressive work and coordination of those interior crews to be able to get those ceilings open and ladders to the attic space and contain that fire basically to the front half of the attic that prevented that thing from taking the entire top floor off the building. the same time we had crews on the adjacent roofs and they were able to peel the siding off and get hose lines from the exterior by peeling the siding off, so this had potential to become a very very big incident and it is because of the work of those crews that we are able to save that old victorian and it will be restored and put back to its original state.

(indiscernible) he was the incident commander. couple days later, on march 5 at 857 a.m., 626 40th avenue. this was a stove with a garage and two flats above it. the fire quickly flashed in the kitchen and are consumed majority of the second floor before we arrived. crews arriving on scene had heavy fire showing from both front windows on the second floor blown out to the street as well as fire showing from the third floor. the fire traveled vertically up the light well from the kitchen to the floor above was not occupied and didsant have a lot of furnishing so not a big fire load up there. the first battalion chief on the scene recognized not only the amount of fire and fire building itself, but the potential for spread to exposure of

request of second alarm right away deployed two hose lines to the second floor fire, the third went to the third floor, and got lines into the exposure building quickly, and there were no injuries on this one. they did have a live electrical wire drop from the building in front of the fire building that we had to be careful of, but they were able to work around that and again, just outstanding work by everybody. a lot of fire, a lot of challenge, and they made it seem just routine. battalion chief creeger was (indiscernible) bill (indiscernible) the incident commander. the next fire occurred march 17 at 252 in the morning. this was 959 powell street. this was a 4 story wood frame apartment building. the fire started on the third floor of the 4 story

apartment building. fire quickly spread to the 4th floor and attic space via the light well. engine 2, engine 41 first oen the scene. they lead lines made aggressive attack, truck 2 went straight to the roof recognizing there was going to have to be a lot of vertical ventilation done and they got to the roof right away, meanwhile truck 13 before going inside noticed there was a female civilian stranded on the third floor fire escape and so they quickly laddered the fire escape. went up, rescued that woman, brought her down to safety before going inside and assisting with fire. at the same time rescue 1 conducted interior search of it building for additional occupants t. is 3 a.m. everybody apartment is occupied at that time of day, so they know there is

good potential they will find people so while searching the 4th floor without a hose line, which you often do on the squad, two firefighters from rescue 1 located a elderly woman trapped on the 4th floor and overcome by smoke. firefighters brought the woman to safety and treated by medics on the scene and fine today. as firefighters and particularly people on the rescue squad, we look and say it is routine thing, that is what we do, just doing our job, but when you look at it objective even where i sit now having spent a lot of time on the rescue squad, this is nothing short of horoic. they search above the fire without a hose line and because of the professionalism and understanding woo ehave the squad searching above and have to maintain the means of egress and protect the stairwell for

them, it is the coordination and all that stuff that comes together that allows them to make these rescues and save those lives, so again, if it were not for the actions of these people, that womaned withant be here today. truly heroic and if you ask them, they will tell you they were just doing their job. fast moving well advanced fire upon arrival and didn't go beyond second alarm and it is a testament to the job everybody did there. assistant chief ken yee was the ic and seems to get a lot of these and leadership and coordination plays a huge role in the success of the incidents and the testament to the assistant chiefs in the field to contain these things so hats off to everybody there. the next fire occurred march 27. this was at about 11 p.m., 2310 hours. this was 470 bay shore. assistant

chief (indiscernible) here today was the ic. this incident was a fire in a large commercial structure, and additionally initially according to the reports i have, the fire appeared to have started extoorier of the building in the rear not uncommon these days with the homeless people. we went to the fire in the rear and are attacked what was apparent there. but due to the thorough investigation and actions of everybody on the scene it was discovered this fire started on the interior of this large warehouse type structure and fortunately later determined the area the fire started was separated by concrete wall which prevented this fire from extending to the rest of the warehouse. had it extended you have a huge fire load and there was a (indiscernible) carpets, wood floors, lots of things are going to burn quickly and burn hot. the

reason that this fire became a second alarm was the potential that the situation presented. again, i talk about the importance of incident commander and understanding the situation they have at hand and managing these resources. you got a large warehouse and you have a heavy fire load of flammable contents, the flooring materials, and these buildings are built with tilt up concrete wall, light weight truss type constructions and the way these trusses are, they span the width of the buildings and designed to only support the roof structure, and if you compromise any of these trusses by fire, they fail quickly. it is incredible dangerous for our people to be on the roof. if there is fire involvement we cant be on it and can't be underneath it. collapses in the buildings happen quickly and catastrophically so chief (indiscernible) recognized the potential that this incident

presented and she recognized that if this did get into the roof structure, we were going to be there for hours and this was going to become a defensive operation. we were able to get extinguish the fire before it got to the roof structure, the potential was there and again the understanding everybody has on the scene of what that hazard is that made this another ordinary event that didn't development into something that was either a tragedy or more then needed to be. hats off there. that's the summary of the 4 great alarms we had this month. the bureau fire prevention. one main thing the bureau fire prevention is involved in besides building inspections, high rise inspections, the plan check and permitting and all that stuff, is we play active role in working with the mta,

dpw, muni on all the different changes happening in our city, so they have a variety of committees that deal with all of the street changes that are happening. there is transit advisory safety committee, the street design advisory team, there is the study that we are partnered with mta on studying the effects of different traffic calming measures that happened and the impact on our ability to respond to incidents. captain flores, that is his main job is work with emt and we are engaged in everything and at early level as we can be, to make sure that the safety of the people in the buildings and our ability to access them isn't compromised during these street design changes, so it is a

big role what goes on in fire prevention. another big part of what goes on in fire prevention is there is a big push in the city through the directive towards increasing housing and chief coughlen and his team have people dedicated to it and set the standard and bar for the city how to quickly and efficiently process permitting, work with other agencies to get these affordable housing low income housing, all the different developments, accessory dwelling units they are starting to put in the rear subdividing lots and put them in the rear, all of those things require fire code involve: fire prevention has a voice because not only are we concerned about the safety of the people in the units, but concerned about the firefighters when they respond to that. his team has done a outstanding job trying to move those city priorities forward as well, so hats off

to them. 4710, fire investigation unit, they respond, they investigate all greater alarm fires, cause and origin, any fire with a serious injury or death, suspicious auto fires, so during the month and the reports they do are very long and involved and they are designed to have to stand up to scrutiny in a court, so during the month of march, they investigated 12 structure fires, 6 vehicle fires and 10 other fire incidents that month. i mention the (indiscernible) study doing with mta, that has resumed. the next meeting we will have will be april 26 so next month i can give you a better update on where we are with that study. unfortunately i got a report we made no progress on capp street. the concrete k rails are

still in place, the balereds are ordered but no estimated date for the instillation of those, so that fire hazard remains and our ability to access that street from both ends of the block is still hampered. at the airport, chief darcie continues the excellent work he's doing down there. there has been a dramatic change in the moral and attitudes of the people that work at the airport and renewed engagement and people are eager to work and get volunteers and this is a product of chief darcie's leadership and the team he surrounded him self with so doing a great job. in the report you see the meetings they attend to on site, off site. everybody is involved in these meetings, the training officer, ems captains, battalion chief. everything is

for preparation of disaster which we hope never comes and they do a great job. responding to (indiscernible) had one significant incident, they had a vehicle fire in enclosed garage on a upper floor, so they handled that professionally without any issues and there was nuther more to report on that one. division training, again i like to thank chief (indiscernible) and staff putting on the live fire training for the commission both times. our 131 class is completed 11 weeks of their training. 7 of the tests week, i believe this is the last week of testing and so far we haven't lost anybody to deficiencies. we got a couple that are close, but we have not lost anyone yet and i mention that because there is a ongoing focus by chief kyle with the assistance of chief (indiscernible) to really examine the training program out there and how we train people, how we award

deficiencies and ways to improve the success of the people in there and i think that that focus and those changes made are paying div dnds in this class and i want to thank chief (indiscernible) and chief kyle for really taking that on and the people in this class should think thank them as well because probably a few wouldn't make it if wasn't for that so thanks to you guys. so far tested on all the ladders , the 50 foot ladder, house feed (indiscernible) completed the auto extraication. active shooter training. they are well well well on their way to finishing up all of their training and they are doing well. in service training continues to develop props. upcoming academy in may on

truck company operations. so, san francisco building construction unique. it is not like anywhere else in the state and really anywhere else in the country, and because of that, there are unique tools and unique tactics we use when we attack a fire in a building. the way we take the buildings apart, the way we understand how fire travels through the buildings, the truck is responsible, the engine is responsible putting the water on the fire and fire out, the truck is responsible for everything else. the ventilation, helping with the surge, opening the walls and ceilings, exposing the fire so they play a big role and the fewer fires you have, the less time to develop the skills so we have three oof the most senior battalion chiefs, have put this curriculum together and look forward seeing what they have to develop to deliver to our members and so that what we learned during our careers can be passed on to

the next generation and we can continue to do the job the way we do it. our fire reserves continue training every thursday night and they had a great turnout at the saint patrick's day parade. showed a lot of pride and proud to see them there, so that was nice to see. finally, i will take a liberty and mention a piece of fire department history. on march 27, 1923, my grandfather oscar postelentered the fire department and since that day my family served continuously a hundred years, my grandfather, my fatherer in 1964 and i in 1991 uninterrupted a hundred years and as far as i can tell we are the only father son grandson uninterrupted lineage for hundred years in history of the fire department, so something i am

incredibly proud of. we are all honored to serve this great city. on the side note, my great father started in 1907 on my mom's side so go back further but the hundred year continuous service unique. i think it stands alone in the history of the fire department so ypted i are wanted to put that in the record and this concludes my report for march. >> thank you very much chief postel. at this important any member of the public wish to give public comment? madam secretary, could you check virtually as well? >> no, i do not see any public comment requests. >> alright. public comment is closed. commissioners, questions, comments for cd2? vice president morgan. >> thank you for your report chief postel, and i just want to say thank you guys

for that live fire training and thank you chief-made it back in one piece, so grateful. [laughter] gives me a whole new perspective of what you guys go through on a daily basis and just that much more respect i have for you guys. just amazing what you guys put yourselves the predicaments you put yourselves in to save other people. the citizens of the city. you guys are great heroes . the burn room was interested and oxygen tank. i think i was developing a phobia there with the mask and everything. i was hyperventilating. i said that stuff isn't easy. it takes practice, so you guys are under

paid, no doubt. [laughter] just amazing. i had fun that day. great training. a good perspective and i just want to thank you chief for your family legacy and hundred years of service to this department and city and i commend you and thanks for your service. >> thank you. >> the city is lucky to center have you. >> thank you. >> i just want to say thank tuesday the to the battalion chiefs on the fires. you had a busy month in march. we are doing a good job on all these fires. i was going to save citizens along the way. just great work. the one fire that happen ed on bay shore, want there a major fire down there home depot?

>> lowes had a fire. somebody set a bunch of cars on fire in the parking garage there and appeared to be more then it was when we got there. >> just want to say thanks for the great job you guys did. i guess station 42 was involved too? >> yep. >> by my dad's house. thank you for your report. keep up the great work. thank you. that's all i got. >> thank you very much vice president morgan. commissioner feinstein. >> i will echo a little bit of what commissioner morgan just said and first of all, congratulate the postel family on a hundred years of service and maybe there will be another postel.

>> never know. >> you never know, that's right. with the academy program at city college that we just learned about, there is opportunity for daughters and sons, so you never know. but thank you and congratulations. it is really quite an achievement. now, that being said, having gone through the live burn, i personally think-a couple things. i have to just comment on. first of all, thank you for being there, thank you for arranging it. chief, your staff too. i didn't expect the number of responders to come

what it took to go through the process and demonstrations for us-- i have to say whatever the first part, which is the room all set up with furniture. i learned things that i had no idea--now i know what you all mean when you say, the smell of that fire. the smell of fire. and the ash and i can honesty say it was a day and a half before i got my voice back just from standing there. i can also say that being in the turn outs and those boots and once the scott pack went on i felt not just like a mummy but want sure i was going to be able to make it up the stairs to where we needed to be. it was

wonderful to have a first hand experience and look what the firefighters go through every day. it only took me 10 minutes to put on the clothes and 10 minutes to put off them and know your goal is a minute or less for your firefighters, so i found-everything was a experience. the live burn room is not something i need to repeat, but i'm glad that i can-i'm glad i did it. it is really hot and it uncomfortable and then it starts coming over your head and you say no, i can't come over my head! it was something. as was

the demonstration of the burn that we just observed, and watching the ladders being used on the roof and the way they were deployed was really very educational for us, and it showed the complexity of fire fighting, and it is so much more complex. every time i do anything i come out having learned something even from the greater alarm reports you come out learning something. now, about the aerial ladder, i just happen to think that i think i exercise the best judgment. i was offered a harness. i was offered a rope, i was offered somebody to go up with me, and i looked at that thing and i said, do i really want

to do this? because i was convinced it was going to collapse to the ground, and i wasn't going to be on it, so i apologize for not accepting that offer. i do commend and admire my fellow commissioner vice president morgan, because he hesitated, but he did it. i also say to our cd2, he ran up that thing, and it was only because i received a tip from one of his classmates i believe who said, all you have to do is dare him, and if you dire dare him, he's going to go and he ran up and ran down and there was just a little sweat on his forehead when he came back, but it was really one of the

better experiences i had and i know it was a tremendous amount of trouble and to put it all together and the truck companies and engine companies and everybody. all it does is increase my admiration for the work everybody does. i'm echoing commissioner morgan and i apologize for that, but i really do want to commend everybody for what they've done. it was an experience. may not be repeated, but it was a really worthwhile experience, so thank you. thank you for all that. turning to something a little different. with regard to division of fire prevention and investigation and again, all i know is what i read in the paper and there is a plan to convert 11 thousand

buildings from commercial to residential,b and that there is debate about whether or not these units need windows for egress purposes and access purposes. i understand some cities have or a city and don't know which one have created these units also interior units without any windows, which from what i read is not only dangerous for fire fighting, but really bad for mental health,b and i don't know if that's part of what's discussed or not discussed or to what extent the fire department gets input into the appropriateness of converting some of these buildings. >> you want to give a update where we are at with that? >> good morning. >> good morning.

fire marshal. that is still in the planning phase. we are working with dbi and city agencies to set parameters because taking a existing building doing a change of use wont fit into modeled new code, so none is decided on yet, it is discussed. we have not been approached on interior units. they have to meet light and ventilation requirements, which is part of the building department, it isn't part of the fire department. it is our willingness to accept existing elevators, new elevators have to have stretcher requirements so you get people out. new construction will not allow fire escapes. but the plan is to allow the existing fire escapes you use for example, 8 story commercial building office building with a fire escape is still allow that as a

secondary exit. rise and run on the stairs. older buildings. you walkedane building different then the 7/11 rise now that is now construction so still working through the process what that will be and it will be a joint bulletin or code from dbi and fire to give a roadmap for those willing to do the conversion. >> and buildings have been targets, is that correct? because they gave a number of units and assuming the number of units is based on the selection of buildings having been made? >> the city is still looking into the. the land use transportation committee had a hearing on it last week. they eye balled up to 30 million square feet. they classified a, b and c buildings and the immediate one the number came out around 4700 units.

immediate, meaning could meet certain parameters that would not be extreme because they are trying to balance cost and who is willing to actually do these developments and who has the funds to what can be done. there another program which is the affordable housing for all, that's the 8 year 80 thousand unit plan, that is whole another program that is still being worked outand wont come out until july, but this office to residential commercial or office to residential conversion is what we are working on as a committee with the city. >> understood. thank you. thank you for that added information. >> commissioner fraser. >> thank you. when i first got appointed to the fire commission, i felt like it was an honor and responsibility and

after your report i feel even more deeply, so thank you for your report. congratulations, i got a little whispy when you mentioned hundred years of family service, that is something to be incredibly proud of and qu glad you shared that with us today. the live fire demonstration, much has been said. i don't need to add anything else, accept i couldn't bet my boots off by my is lf. >> me neither. >> okay, good. i learned a lot today about the fire fighting challenges. i didn't know the rescue squad doesn't have a hose with them. that was helpful for me to learn. when they are searching for victims inside. so, that is a very heroic thing to do, plus coordination for their safety. i think the big fire on bay shore was the old floor craft,

was it not? >> yes. >> when it came across my phone i didn't know it was still in business or not but i thought that could burn for days if it was still in operation, but that isn't what happened. >> they put it out. >> exactly! the thing about-i have a question about cliff rescues because there were not a lot in february and march, but i already know this month there have been numerous cliff rescues and there was a term used in a article i read in the chronicle that called it a high angle cliff rescue. could you say a little about what that is? >> basically high angle and low angle rescue, low angle is something you could walk yourself aassisted without risk of falling a long way down. high angle is something where maybe people scamper along a cliff side and can get

there but if they fall there is a risk of a long fall and for the rescuers if somebody gets hurt down there we need the rescuers tied on ropes. two different ways of going about rescuing people. most rescues there is a component of both. you may go through low angle area to get to the cliff to get to the person, haul them up and walk them across less steep ground to get them back. especially at the lands end area out there, there is a lot of high angle rescue. >> i spend a fair amount of time in that part of our city, because it is a very beautiful and i see people constantly scampering past the signs and yes they gave me a badge recently and i want to whip it out and say get off the cliff. i know that's not what it is for, but it is very tempting and know we will see as the weather gets better and wild

flowers are tempting people out there we will see a lot more cliff rescues unfortunately. i'm amazing how and are wonder how many fire deerment pas thin country do cliff rescues, water rescues and 120year old wood frame building fire suppression and rescuess on inside. it is a very unique- >> nobody does what we do. >> that's what i thought. exactly what i thought. >> even jim connors was proud of the fdny, they dont do what we do. >> no, they don't have the geography we have. i do walk a lot in san francisco, and i just two days ago walked past the intersection of capp and 18th street where the cement the k rails which are now sadly junk heaps, graffiti laden, trash piles. they look awful. they just look terrible. i don't know what we can

do about it. i don't know if it is working. i like to hear-not from you, but from who ever is monitoring those, the effectiveness if at all. they are certainly making a mess of the street. >> the ballards have been ordered and scheduled to get installed just know the timeframe. they said 6 weeks about a month ago. >> so they are here to stay for now? okay. okay. it is just a shame, because they really have not-they just attracted a terrible mess and people that have businesses on that block or the corners are stuck with a lot of ugliness in front of their front doors. anyway, also thank you for teaching me and sure others about how warehouses are constructed with the trusses. giant warehouse fires on the news

around the country and the middle falls in and now it is much more-i understand that better thanks to your explanation. not only that, but the danger for people to run in and try to put out those fires, how difficult that is. anyway, it was a great report. i really appreciate it and you and all of you so thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much commissioner fraser. thank you very much chief for your comprehensive report. i got a couple comments. i got some questions for the fire marshal. let me get my comments out first. i want to congratulate you and your family. that is a big deal. my culture it is about generation and traditions and to be part of this

with yourself and your active participation. i loved being on the cutting edge, so to me being part of the fire department is part of that. i made some comment about public service or someone said something about generational gap. there is disinterest in public service and we have to do something about it. that is just my feelings. i want to congratulate you and your family and father, particularly grandfather and legacy and the hundred year continuing service. >> thank you. >> impressive. at this point as well i wanted to congratulate chief pang for his good government award. i think that's significant. of course in terms of what your recognition is or what you represent, in terms of paramedicine, medicine and the fire department, so i wanted to say that as well. to

the commissioners, commissioner vice president morgan, commissioner feinstein, commissioner fraser, commissioner collins isn't here but think this is the first commission everyone got one strip in terms of the experience of the burn room, the turnout helmets- >> (indiscernible) >> well, you got a stripe. i have been around with the commission-the first commission i know everyone has got that stripe, which brings the whole perspective with it as well. back in the day when i first came up with vice president morgan i did jump up on the ladder. i did orientation at station 3 and captain jimmy lee at the time retired now thought it would be amusing-not amusing but dared the commissioner to go up so the commissioner went up there on the top and all a sudden i could hear them talking and they are

bouncing the commissioner off the ladder swinging to the right and left. great experience. and you have lunch and dinner and get to serve with the department. i wanted to thank you commissioners for doing that, because now it is just like everything is solid within the privilege of being a fire commissioner. that is what i wanted to say. my question for the fire marshal if you could come back up fire marshal. i got somewhere between page 20 and 21, but there is a section in there that talks about crews and just out of curiosity because in my neighborhood every time i walk around there is a car that has no driver, and i just want to know about it because the other day it was like, do i go in the intersection or is the car going to go, but there was nobody in there to communicate but i thought it was

communicating but thinking i was there or not, so can you give us a update? i know it isn't full licensed operational in san francisco, but where is it at with that, please? >> so, bureau fire prevention working with the city av committee so we dont have a say in the crews. we are kept up to date and informed. theya apply with department of transportation or dmv and they agree to work with the city to inform of their stepsism i believe the latest approval permit license, not sure what we'll call it allows them to go through the whole city. they have gone through steps through the years. a lot during covid where they were doing districts, parts of town, middle of the night, going driverless 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. people part of the

program their latest one allows them to go throughout the whole city, actually if they choose they can actually go 24 hours a day. we are working with chief postel members in the field to get feedback when we have incidents and we have run into incidents and that is where they are lacking on information. most of the crews and all the autonomous vehicles state they have gone over a million mile jz if you can do that in san francisco you can do that anywhere and hence why pretty big test city. i believe phoenix or a arizona community has autonomous vehicles also. so, yes, they can drive around the city. they are approved. we as a city provide feedback to the puc asking for certain restrictions. we asked them to slow down because we still don't know or the fire department doesn't know how

many vehicles they can place on the street at one time. is it 2 or 3 around there, is it 10 or 20 and what are the steps? a lot of that is confidential or information to keep close that they don't share with us, but we keep documenting. as i receive things from chief postel (indiscernible) the mediator or person between the two agencies, . if you see them, they are licensed and believe picking up people only part of them program but we still find issues with double parking, problems with fire scenes not knowing what to do when they see caution tape, fire hose, lights and that will be steps for them. we are not happy with those steps but that

is where they are at. >> are thank you for the update because i'm talking again as a citizen that is walking across the street and there is a crew there and this is anywhere from 8 p.m. to something like 2 p.m. in the afternoon and ain't nobody in there. i dont know if it is demonstration still or whatever, operational, whatever, but like i said for me personally, i didn't want to jump into the cross walk because i wasn't sure this machine was going to stop. but it did and then i kind of messed around and went for it and see if it jerked or whatever, but i'm just saying--safety. of course chief postel operational when it comes to that so i wanted to a update. thank you for that. >> may i make a comment on that? >> sure, commissioner fraser. >> glad you brought that up, because i tried to give feedback to the puc, which is what i was told who is the oversight and they

directed me to dmv, so i wrote them a note, but there are three companies and they have a big warehouse over by the spca off 16th street between harrison and florida, and i see them every morning. there are woox, there is wamo and crews and they come out-way more then 10 vehicles and they just fan out all over the place, and i was crossing my street, which is a residential street. i don't know go go to the corning so crossing the street in the middle of the block and it happened twice, it came around the corner and didn't see me, i guess because i wasn't in a cross walk or don't know why and i had to jump out of the way of getting hit, twice. so, i'm not sure where else we can give feedback besides the puc or dmv but know they

are causing problems for the fire department and certainly for private citizens. >> thank you very much. noted. i think for us as well, i'm not done yet. thank you. two more items. one generic was commissioner feinstein asked about it in terms of the permit process and when you came up and talked about the numbers that are i say are approved plan of developing housing on a-there is number thrown out, 4 thousand or 5 thousand units within a period of time, but a overall projection. these are big numbers. to me impact with the department, my question would be, can our staff handle this increase of work load? >> currently if it all came in right now, it would be

very difficult to handle that and that's why work wg our budget is to insure that we have the staffing to be prepared for this influx as both adu's, the additional housing for all, that is the programs you can build ibyour backyard and office so all the programs are hitting at the same time, and the problem is we don't know which builders or which developers are going to sign on to these programs, but we are trying to be prepared for it and part of the conversation when it comes to the rules. for example, the housing for all program, where they building in the back yards we are working with planning and mayor office of housing on access so make sure if you build something in the back the suppression members can get to the back and that is ongoing conversations. are we ready today? no, but we

will and start ramping up accordingly once we know these programs are moving forward. i believe on the office conversion there is a one application and pleev believe the warfield building on market street and everything else is projections for what can be converted based on some preliminary designs or ideas behind it. that number hasn't been finalized yet. >> it is a lot to take in. if you understand if you follow the housing elements, california mandates the city and county of san francisco, there is a magic number, the number is so big, i cant say it. i'm talking about realistic. when i ask you about these numbers, i'm asking like when is this coming online? because i know it will have a big impact on us because we are part of the cooperating partners that want to be able to accomplish this but

want to be realistic to the work load and when this happens and i see a number like 4700 units which rounds out to 5 and in the housing element it is a period of time but i wanted to be able to hear my question and concern. >> i say latter partf the year is when things would all be finalized and beepeen for development. july, august, september is when we are really expected to start hopefully applications and plans will be submitted. >> various range from the developers to the contractors as well in terms of bidding for these various- >> yes. that's part of the problem. it is unknowns now that they are trying to work out or what is going to spur these developers to want to do these conversions or developments. >> i don't want to be a deterrent for what

everybody wants to accomplish, i just want to make sure we need the fire department are able to handle it and if there is a need there has to be cost attributed to that we need to be able to accomplish these kinds of permit process. that is just my take on it, so i just wanted to bring that on the scope. the other thing chief postel no development at capp street at all. to move to the portable barriers from the concrete there now. this period of time it is troublesum. >> the original ballards we approved and agreed upon were not available in a reasonable amount of time so they found another vendor that makes something similar, contacted them, we agreed to allow those. they ordered them and

6 to 8 weeks of delivery and instillation after that. as far as i know, they told us they have been ordered and at the top of the queue to get installed when they get here, but we haven't had a update on- >> okay, so now the concrete barriers are still there? >> they are still there. >> this is troublesome. commissioners are concerned as well. i ink the this is universal. i go from commission meeting to commission meeting, that is 2 week s and a month so thinking the residents-i know what it is supposed to accomplish as commissioner fraser alluded to. the effect of what you want accomplished. we all know what is going on, my question is, how about the residents if there is a fire or emergency if our people can get in, so i understand concrete is concrete and tough to move it, but thank you for your update on that. i just wanted to comment for myself and sure for the commissioners how concerning that is. last

question fire marshal, could you give a little of update because i know that we are at the point where the shared space parklets there is a due date where there will be permanently instilled with cost to the person that wants it down to limitation of 2. is that timeline i understand in april when that is supposed to go from temporary permanent? >> there has been a up couple extensions from the program. the latest one was to you have to have application in by april 1 or supposed to take down your units. the board roontly passed extension up to 180 days if you apply within 60 days of that date you have 180 days at that point which comes to i believe september 1. you have to either remove your shared space or turn in an application. per the mta, they stated they received

over 700 applications. as of a couple weeks ago they were waiting to up to 70 more could apply they are waiting on, and what that is doing is giving those people until september 1 to install a new permanent one that meets the current guidelines or take it down. the expectations are realistic expectations of the fires expectations is at most 500-probably losing another 2 or 300 of these temporary instillation. you are correct, it is 2 spaces, there may be exceptions where there are 3 spaces, but at that point they have to come into full compliance. mta has the applications, they are vetting them first with-dpw is reviewing and mta figures out the parking places, dpw works with design and give

it to staffing who makes sure the design meets our requirements or access and once we approve it they have to build it and i have to send people out to inspect to make sure it is built per plans and nothing changes. i stated previously that ordinance we are supposed to go and verify these are maintained. we talk to staffing, that is lot of extra steps along the way, but hopefully by september 1 is when you should see the these permanent ones that are compliant and the temporary ones are supposed to be taken down. >> i appreciate that update, september 1. thank you very much. that is the extent of my questions. thank you very much chief postel. i know we have report from cd4. thank you for your patience madam secretary. >> report from ems and community paramedicine deputy chief sandra tong. report on

the ems and community paramedicine divisions. >> chief tong, thank you for your patience. >> good morning. chief postel, congratulations on your family hundred year of service. great legacy. assistant deputy chief sandy tong. this is my report for march 2023. for the ems report, assistant deputy chief call volume stayed the same over the last couple months, average 356 calls a day. it is pretty good number. it is keeping our crews busy, but they are not overly taxed which is good and that is in

part because there are more units in the system. our market share this last month was about 75 percent and that is pretty consistent what it has been the last couple months. it continues to stabilize. it has gone down since the introduction of the bls ambulance pilot project next november but hoping to ramp it up more. we are looking at our own bls tier and seeing if that is something we can do. we continued inservice paramedic training that completed march 31. this was 4 hour class mandatesed for all paramedics to get updated on policy and protocols. a device they learned how to use is the (indiscernible) you see one of the members getting them ready for the ambulances. this going to help facilitate the safe transport of infants and children and get up to hundred pounds. we have another device that will address

babies so now we will be able to put them securely in our ambulances on a gurney and secure them for safe transport. two things i want to highlight this month are the contribution of some of our members in the community. this is something that when we have been looking at hiring new employees, not only are we looking for folks that are going to be great employees, be clinically competent but want them to have a sense of commune service and some members have demonstrated this. one of them i think chief o'connor mentioned the last meeting is carlos martinez. we hired him last april and he is president of the (indiscernible) kids foundation. this is a organization that originally found ed by his grandparents and they focus on 4

areas nutrition, education health and sports so they provide food baskets, scholarships and sports and music equipment to el salvador. in the last month in february, he lead a medical mission of 70 volunteers. five were our own fire department ems members, paramedic (indiscernible) and many of those were recently hired. they treated all most 3 thousand patients, gave away a thousand pairs of grasses, extraicated 32 teeth and wrote all most 12 thousand prescriptions and one day saw over 850 patients so incredible effort and we are really proud of having carlos on our team. in 2020 he won the jefferson award for his work with the foundation. and then another group of our new

hires, paramedic nicolas nob [calling out names] san francisco life line program similar to the vile of life where key get access to a patient health information and this is in the resident home and so this is a kit they created that they are working on non profit status 5 o1c3 but it is two sided health card that provide health information for first responders that include demographic information, medical ist hadry, the language they speak, emergency contact information and hospital of choice. and then on the other side of this, also includes a little translation card that we can use to help try and identify what their chief complaint is while trying to wait for translator. these cards are going to be placed in resident homes and these teams and additional members of our department are going out to community events to

help residents learn how to utilize this kit so they help them fill out the information, they tell where to put it in their homes and then when we respond we can then know to look for them. this is something that is a growing business and we are looking forward work wg them. the department is aware of this so trying to get the word out for the members to make sure to look for this. in community paramedicine from simon pang, may 4 we completed the successful reconfiguration of the street wellness and street crisis teams to now our street crisis response teams. there is a lot of backgroupd and preparation we had to do in order to coordinate this collaboration with multiple agencies and now we are one team of community paramedic, emt and peer support worker and so so far in the that

first month looks like no negative impacts to the 911 responses, operations or ability to provide service connections and follow-up. next month we'll have more of the metrics for you but so far everything is increased in terms of the number of responses, 5150 and calls for service that result in engagements. we also had the second cp lecture series. it was a presentation and question and answer by emily cohen, the department of homelessness and supportive housing deputy director of communications and legislative affairs. see was able to provide additional overview what is happening on the state of homelessness in the city, what they are try toog do to address and how we can help with that effort. since 20 percent of all our transports are for those who are unhoused, it was a really good opportunity for us to learn more about what they

do. chief april slone also helped initiate the first monthly meeting of team paid by department of emergency management to focus on the users of the multiple street teams, all providing services and help us create a framework so we share data and health information so this is something that we have always had a challenge with having everyone be able to understand and be able to par ticipate and access and discuss what is happening with a common client so this is a really big first step in able to better coordinate together and able to serve the trajectory of somebody's care. and then just little summary, ems6 continues to engage their top 20 utilizes 911 and consistently decreasing that use by 60

percent. last month we increased the number of 5150 placed from 28 to 39 this last month and continued to start bupo mor 15 for those experiences overdose,opeioid with draw and it is something we think will increase the number of folks that be able to provide because all the paramedics have been trained and will get the drug to the ambulances so when we have a opportunity to take somebody out of a overdose of opioid we can then offer that and get that started. and that is my report. i want to say congratulations again to chief simon pang. we are look forward honoring him tonight at the good governance award. thank you. >> thank you very much chief tong. at this point we'll ask for public comment off chief tong's report. madam

secretary, there is no public comment virtually or in present? >> no, i do not see request for public comment. >> public comment is closed on this report. comments or questions from the commissioners to chief tong? >> i'll be fast. thank you for your report. i was really impressed by the emt martinez and the volunteer work they did. the kids, that is a good humanitarian thing to do to bring those people help and doctors and some have never seen doctors before in their life and it is a feel good story. >> yes. >> a lot of pleasure out of that. >> thank you. >> i commend you guys work in that and keep up the great work in that, and i also

want to congratulate chief pang for his award he'll receive and that's about all i got. other then that, thank you for your report chief tong and keep up the great work. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner fraser. >> thank you chief tong so much, great to hear you and congratulations chief pang. terrific and well deserved. i just couple questions on your figures here. you said 20 percent of the transports are unhoused or homeless people. is that 20 percent of what number? the calls per day or? >> yes. in general there is a report here on page 10 and this talks about the incidents and number of people who identify-we get this

information from the patient records report and so any patient contact we identify whether or not if we can whether or not a person is experiencing homelessness or not so that is the data from that. >> i think we dont have that. >> it is not in- >> no, want in there. >> sorry. >> so, that's is interesting. i was trying to get a context around the number. i think the card is wonderful idea as someone who was a visiting nurse. that can save time but life. >> yes. >> really good project. and is there in the written report since i dont have it in front of me, the number of 5150 did you mention that? >> yes , that is in the cp report. i am not sure what report you have, but page 13 of

my report-sorry, not 15. page 15. the last page. >> that is in the month? >> yes. in the ems and cp reports. this one. >> could you repeat the number again? >> we did 39 i believe this month. >> 39. >> compared to 28 last month. >> good. also, i just want to piggy back on to commissioner morgan, on the volunteer work. wonderful thing. we were talking about public service and how important that is and engendering that in other people and this is the thing, it isn't only at work, it is in your off time. it is addicting and a wonderful thing. >> we are happy to have these members with us. >> thank you so much. >> commissioner

feinstein. >> i'm going to echo everything that has been said by my fellow commissioners and seems like the combination of sort into nob (indiscernible) program, it makes sense and it will better utilize the right resources to respond to the right kinds of calls, so i just wanted to say i was really impressed how quickly that all came together because we just learned about it- >> few months aago. >> yeah, and it seems to be up and running. i want to take the opportunity to thank you for your report and to congratulate chief pang on his award. well deserved, well earned. he has been in the trenches battling through these bureaucracies and still has a

smile on his face, so hes polk very deserving of the award and congratulations. >> thank you commissioner. thank you very much chief tong. i also want to echo from the commissioners the appreciation of the volunteer efforts in the community. particularly the life line and endorsement of the department in terms of getting this information to the firefighters and members from the seniors in the community. i appreciate also that you have your community paramedic speakers and interesting to me to hear about depapartment of homeless service, because again our relationship that we service our clients in terms of what their needs are falls into that parameter of housing, so i appreciate that. was that well attended chief? >> we had definitely-not sure the numbers, but a

number of our community paramedics and emt also attendeded. >> okay. i also wanted to appreciate that you in your-just so you know that what you show in your presentation and what our packet is off a little bit. sometimes so the information is why they ask as well. may not be part of it as well. i appreciate the numbers that you put with the paramedicine in terms of service numbers, the 264 numbers and such to make sure that-i see that more so in the reconfiguration of not being off service, that is the terminology of what we have been using in terms of our service providing, so i wanted to be able to have a chance to see that. i want to make sure we work at a good operational framework as we did

that whole transformation so that was my comment. >> great. thank you. >> okay, chief tong. i think that's all we have. >> thank you. madam secretary. >> item 6, adjournment. >> before we do adjournment i want to appreciate our commission secretary cathy for stepping in today. greatly appreciate it. i want to adjourn this meeting on behalf of fire commission to the chicago fire department to their two members who passed. thank you very much. this meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned]