. >> you're muted, ken. >> commissioner cleaveland: sorry.an you hear me now, madam president? >> president covington:um h. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, commander tillman, for your report. you say you have 152 members of your department. how many of those are members of the black firefighters association? >> 110. >> commissioner cleaveland: 110. do they have to pay dues? >> yes, sir. >> commissioner cleaveland: how much are they? >> well, every group pays dues. whether you're in asian firefighters, hispanic, los bomberos, you pay dues. but we're the only one with a building, and we have to upkeep the facilities. under my presidency, that's been kind of the big thing for me. new paint job, new back stairs. we have rot, new bathroom. just making it more presentable to not only the youth that use that building, but to the neighborhood. now we have a big firefighter on the building, and other firefighters from other departments come by to take a picture because it's about two stories, so yeah, it's awesome. our dues are a little bit les

>> that is a good question, commissioner cleaveland. i don't have that number off the top of my head. this is a point of contention. i have gone and those often times are very contentious spots to secure. it is very expensive to provide long-term care for patients with psychiatric illness. it is very difficult to kind of maintain. let me work in getting those numbers back to you. i also know for the past few years there is a lot of threat and decrease of those. ems6 utilizes new and unique san francisco resources like psychiatric urgent care centers and trying to integrate with the system is a challenge. to answer your question in terms of long-term beds, that is definitely an issue and something we have been under resourced for. >> i certainly hope again that may be this bond we just passed will put money toward that and perhaps with the new administration in washington in the near future, we will see some federal dollars come to the city, not only this city but many u.s. cities around the country facing this burgeoning mental illness

>> that is a good question, commissioner cleaveland. i don't have that number off the top of my head. this is a point of contention. i have gone and those often times are very contentious spots to secure. it is very expensive to provide long-term care for patients with psychiatric illness. it is very difficult to kind of maintain. let me work in getting those numbers back to you. i also know for the past few years there is a lot of threat and decrease of those. ems6 utilizes new and unique san francisco resources like psychiatric urgent care centers and trying to integrate with the system is a challenge. to answer your question in terms of long-term beds, that is definitely an issue and something we have been under resourced for. >> i certainly hope again that may be this bond we just passed will put money toward that and perhaps with the new administration in washington in the near future, we will see some federal dollars come to the city, not only this city but many u.s. cities around the country facing this burgeoning mental illness

>> so thank you for the question commissioner cleaveland.o, this -- you know, i brought this idea to a couple of people in the department and outside of the department and they started to run with this. so it is a non-profit, as well as the original founder of e.m.s. core that is doing the recruiting and they will be doing the teaching and all of this in the community. so it's folks within the community and i have nothing to do with choosing the people that get in. it is done by this non-profit and member of the community. >> chief, are we seeking to recruit city residents or is it open to anyone that the non-profit occurs whether they live in the city or santa clara county. >> we're looking at district 10. i know they are talking about district 5 as well. the class right now is going to be located in district 10. >> okay, and their emphasis is trying to recruit city residents? >> correct. yes, that is correct. >> good, good, good. okay. one final thing for you chief or chief billo, are we going to do away with the national testing system an