Transcripts For SFGTV Fire Commission 2817 20170213

San francisco Fire Commission regular meeting wednesday february 8, 2017 and the time is 9 03 a. M. Roll call. President cleaveland. Present. Vice president nakajo. Present. Commissioner hardeman. I am here. Commissioner covington. Present. Chief of department joanne hayeswhite. Here. Item 2 general Public Comment. Members of the public may address the commission up to three minutes on any matter within the jurisdiction and does not appear on the agenda. Speakers shall address the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or to personnel and commissioners are not to enter do discussion or debate with a speaker. The lack of a statement doesnt support or not with any Public Comment. Is there any Public Comment . Seeing none Public Comment is closed. Item 3 approval of the minutes. Discussion and possible action to approve Meeting Minutes of january 25, 2017 regular meeting. Is there comment on the minutes . Commissioners what is your pleasure . So moved, the minute mr. Chair. Do i have a second . Second. Thank you. For both the regular and special . Do you want to do it separately . Separately. Okay. All in favor of approving the minutes. Aye. Minutes for the january 25, 2017 minutes any Public Comment . None. Public comment is closed. Do i have a motion. Motion. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Item 4 draft operating budget for fiscal year of 20172018 20182019 discussion and possible action to adopt the Fire Departments operating budget for fiscal years 20162017 20172018 20162019. Good morning. Good morning president cleaveland, commissioners. Give me one moment to pull up the slide show. Okay. There we go. Okay. Good morning. I wanted to go over and present on the departments Budget Proposal for the 1718 and 1819 years. There was a budget book in your packetd and i will briefly go over that, get into the details and answer any questions that may come up. So i wanted to do excuse me. A little brief overview on the instructions and timelines from the Mayors Office that has been touched on previous meetings and a overview of. The review of the budget document before you, some of the changes in the budget, the departments proposal, and then open up for any discussion you may have. So heres a brief review of the timeline. Here we are on the eighth of february for potential action on the budget and due on the 21st and june 1 is when the mayors budget is due to the board of supervisors. We have departmental hearings during june and the board considers the budget overall in july. Excuse me. Just brief review of the budget instructions. These are stemming from the citys five year Financial Plan update back in december. The city over the next two years is looking at after overall defit of 400 mundz and increasing in the out years. Departments have been requesting to reduce the general fund support by 3 in each year so cumulative 6 in the second jeer and for the department thoopts 1. 7 in the next year and no new punishes as part of the Budget Proposals. So a little summary of the budget. So last year is the two year budget. Last year approved the second year, fiscal year 1718 during that process. That has been essentially rolled over for the first year of this budget process so any adjustments prirchl rates and valerie rates and work orders updated those have been roll overd and. It includes assumptions for the hiring plan over the next few year as well as the equipment plan funded in last years budget process so the numbers will change in the book over the next couple of weeks. We have a couple of weeks until submission and adjustments to the staffing models and technical adjustments but nothing material in scope other than what has been presented to you before. So briefly going over some of the changes and the appropriation on page in your budget book on page i will touch on briefly on some of the appropriation changes. You will see there is a large change on page 16 of 82 of your budget document. Theres some changes in salaries, frirchl bchs. A lot that of is driven by mou requirements and changes and negotiated rates in addition to some of the fringe rates that have been incorporated into the Budget System and including retirement and Health Benefit changes et cetera. You will see a increase in regular salaries and decrease in over time and part of the departments hiring over the years as we see increase the staffing we will see the over time reduce and the regular salaries increase and in addition a lot of the non salary work orders theyre negotiated during the mayors portion of the budget and not in our departments budget. Jumping brief leave to the revenues if you look at page nine of 82 thats an overall revenue summary. We are looking altsome potential increases to Fire Prevention revenues as well as ems mainly on that side due to call victim. There were increases incorp volume. There were increases in the volume and we did that and anticipated that in the next two years as well and increased ems revenue. Fire prevention as well and looking at current year activities. We anticipated a small increase and we didnt raise fees last year and were looking at it due to salaries and benefits over the last two years to recover the cost. Ems are triggered with the increase and baked into the legislation that establishes the establish to charge. Overall highlighting some of the changes you will see by kind of division or subject area on page 21 of 82 in your book theres kind of break out by division. I will start with administration and support services. Thats essentially an annualization of current positions that were funded in the current year as well as wage increases incorporated into the budget and also mandatory fringe benefit changes. In addition there were work orders approved last year in the budget. Those increases that are known are included in the departments budget. Excuse me. For Fire Prevention were maintaining current Staffing Levels. Thats consistent with some of the initiatives that the fire marshal has proposed in the current year in regards to realignment of the complaint section as well as some of the outreach and that it continuation of the dbi funded positions so we have an inspector and investigator that we assigned to outreach as well as additional staffing to deal with some of the implementation of some of the new legislation from the board. In addition the increase part of that is due to annualization for a fiscal year and we adjusted over time to account for activity on the revenues and expenditure side. We have increases due to mou and the benefit range rates. Theyre incorporated into the staff. Annualization of new positions and battalion five that has been done for the fiscal year and reduction in over time and increase in the staff were seeing and continuing the fleet and Equipment Program that was approved last year in the budget and in addition a few of the new positions at the airport are annualized as well and h28 approved for staffing and in the process and may have been announced for training at the airport as well. In addition some of the one time projects removed last year and 800,000 allocated for the preplan so to speak on the dpsems facility as part of the health bond and a one time allocation. In addition a lot of the it and Capital Project budgets were nltd finalized and going through the vetting process again in the current year and related to some of the bond work there is quality and furniture and that added after additional conversations ins the Mayors Office. So overall with regards to the proposal as i mentioned we are looking at a 1. 7 Million Dollars request for reductions. Together so far we have approximately 705,000 of that offsetting from revenues as i mentioned, ems and Fire Prevention revenues. However, the department the belief is the additional cuts to that for the operational issues in light of what has been discussed at previous meeting and the increase in call volume and i will get into that a little bit in addition there is limit the flexibility from the operational perspective and other areas of the budget. Thank you. Sorry. I am under the weather. We have limited staffing and mou requirements and the lack of non expenditure side and there are additional strains on that due to the call volume but limited overall of the budget and a very small percentage. So the Department Also proposing to continue to work closely with the mayors Budget Office and staff over the months in advance of the mayors budget submittal on june 1. The committee will continue to meet to address priorities, potential for cost savings and in addition justifications for current funding for the department as well as other initiatives. As the chief mentioned at the last Commission Meeting the reconvening of the ambulance work group citywide and look at ems resources and do analysis of staffing and other resources on the ems side Going Forward. Just briefly i wanted to highlight again as kind of the overall theme that as we looked at the bottoming and operations the main thing that sticks out is the increased call volume and since the late fall a large spike over what we projected and were looking at addressing that. The ems work group will do a good job at looking at nexts with response but call volume is a huge driver of our operations obviously and continuing to see increases in that given reduction requests and resources that we currently have were trying to resolve any issues outstanding from that. So with that i would like to open any questions or discussion that you have. Thank you. Thank you mr. Corso. Is there any Public Comment on this item . Seeing none Public Comment is closed. Commissioners discussion . Questions . Commissioner covington. Thank you mr. President. Thank you for your presentation mr. Corso. I have a couple of quick questions to begin with. I am wondering about on page 16 utilities excuse me. Could you define utilities . In general . Let me find that specific in general that is for if i could find it real quick. Usually its for things such as electricity, sewer a lot is broken out into work orders but let me pull that specific line up. So we pay pg e directly for correct. We pay the Water Department for sewer and wastewater through a separate work order which is a separate line item here. This is in general for let me find that real quick. This is a lot for Treasure Island as well. They have a little different structure through tida so thats in general for station utilities not covered with work orders through other departments. Okay. So what is our pg e bill . Because i noticed this line item in the budget is constant. Its 74,000. Correct so part of is a lot of the utility rates are negotiated over the next months in the budget, want by our office but the Mayors Office on a total citywide allocation and depending on each individual departments perspective that is what the budget will be and adjusted at the Mayors Office level. Okay. So do you have a figure for our pg e bill . I do not off the top of my head but i can get one. Okay. I am interested because i think in the last Commission Meeting i asked about solar panels for fire houses, and i did get a very informative email from chief rivero giving me some ideas but i think this is something that we probably need to have a presentation on at some point. Solar panels or you know Something Else to assist us with these budgets, so i dont know what the pg e bill is. I dont know how high it goes, and that information would be helpful in our conversation, so i would request of our president that we have Mohammed Nuru chat about green roofs opposed to solar roofs so we can have more information of. We have to just as you do with your own Family Budget you have to look at how you can save money. I mean 74,000 for instance is not a lot of money, but if you save that ten times youre talking about a real chunk of change, so Going Forward i think we need to look at everything and examine all possibilities. Absolutely. We have tried as much as we can on smaller scale working with the puc on Energy Efficiency and for example boilers or lights, things like that. Obviously in the big picture theyre small items but if you apply to all of the locations they can add up for sure. We have a lot of property, and you know and in family homes people arent there all day long, you know 24 hours a day, but the San Francisco Fire Department is in our fire houses 24 hours a day, the lights are on literally, so we should look at that, and i also wanted to know a little bit about on page nine the medical cannabis dispensary. Yes. Okay. So the projection is for the projection is for 880, yes. Yes. So in general i dont think its that frequent and i could probably defer to the fire marshal for a little more of an explanation. We do get a few requests every year for informations related to that. Inspections related to that. Obviously the revenue is small so its infrequent but there are occasions were requested to do inspections at facilities. Okay. So its just inspection of the property . Correct. We wouldnt be charged with any of the like the business permitting or anything like that. Its part of the normal fire as far as code and safety. Its a referral from another department for fire saipt. So its on a referral basis . Correct. Okay. I will hold my other questions until other commissioners have a chance mr. President. Thank you commissioner covington. Commissioner hardeman. Thank you mr. Chair. As usual mr. Corso a very efficient i know just plugging in numbers in some respects but in other respects its each one of these little lines and there are hundreds of them that have a number that youre responsible for. You do a great job in your analysis and your recommendations. Thank you. So in the funding for any staff positions related to the Fire Department that are i assume are just staff we wouldnt have to worry about if there is any cuts, and im not talking about the sanctuary city cuts. I am talking about the other funding sources. How many of those are in jeopardy . Are you referring like the new hiring or the academies that were projecting or in general . I am talking about the employees, some of the staff people that have significant jobs for us that are part of Homeland Security money oh on the federal side . Yes. I think a lot of that is unknown at this time. We are currently funded and we have applied for so were funded and applied for the next round of funding and i believe there is another round coming up in a few months. I dont think its anything currently allocated. That would be an issue and in the future years Going Forward the potential we wouldnt be able to apply or receive federal funding so currently we are essentially funded for three, two and a half federal positions. We have the Homeland Security director. We have an information sharing position and we have a planner that assists with nert and the department of emergency management. Theyre funded by federal Homeland Security grants so those would be the three positions. In addition theres a number of equipment and other awards that we received that could potentially be in jeopardy, but i think a lot of that is still unknown both within the department obviously but citywide or federally as well. Theres been a lot of talk what the administration would want to do in certain instances and talk about what they could do as far as pulling federal funding. I think there is confusion around what is allowable and in addition the uncertainty surrounding the implications of actually implementing those policies so i guess thats a long way of saying theres a lot of uncertainty surrounding that but currently were funded for three positions with federal grants. Thank you. And theyre very important positions as we all know absolutely. Anybody that works in the Fire Department knows how hard they work and how valuable they are. The savings on overtime is terrific. Thats remarkable number and that will go into the new staffing for the additional classes. Would that be used this year for the additional employees, i guess the new h 2. S or covered by other funds . Our staffing model overall and we have a minimum level so we know what to fill every year and because of budget reductions we didnt hire as much so we relied on overtime and that increase and the relative salaries decrease because of the redecrease in staff and were going the other way and Building Back the staff in anticipation of retirements of course but were restoring the staffing and adding to the overall net staffing and reduces the need for overtime. Very good. I see youre soaking wet like me. I took the streetcar down and couldnt see and it was so wet and i see you wiping yourself and 45 minutes ago and i am still soaking wet. The volume on the increased volume for primarily engines and ambulances as were so good about giving us these graphs. As commissioners we love. The sky rocketing the last four years so thats basically a multiple of each year, so it goes up 5 this last year based on the year before and went up so many percent and the year before so you know were looking at for our chiefs that are responsible for directing the departments like chief myers with the ambulances the effects of just pyramiding of more and more does there come a point where were trying to reach the goals of on time is just absolutely impossibility because you cant go 100 miles on 95 miles of gas. I mean it doesnt happen, thank you so much how do we deal with that to give you know the mayor has to understand we cant do a 3 budget cut on a 5 volume increase. That really is more than 5 and the year before and the year before and the year before and each year that number keeps shooting up, and we dont have anymore ambulances and we dont have any more engines. Absolutely. Thats the theme that came up. The Budget Committee met talking about our budget and talking to Division Heads thats the core issue were dealing with and we totally i do want to say were extremely appreciative of what the Mayors Office has allocated over the years and were absolutely working with them Going Forward but i think the issue were struggling with internally there are reduction requests here but on the other side we provide a core service to the city and the demand continues to increase and how do we balance that . I think in regards from a operational perspective the ems and ambulance work group is looking at that a bit. There are a number of issues that relate to it. Its not just Fire Department specific so thats why theres a number of partners from Public Health and the hospitals and a lot of factors that go into patient care and response and those issues will addressed and brought up and analyzed at the work group level. Did you want to check in now on this subject not you but the chief and wants to answer chief. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you president cleaveland. I just wanted to add youre absolutely right. Thats why we feel that we need to convey to the Mayors Office in order to continue the level of service were providing over the course over the last years we see a constant increase. Its not surprising and our population in the city is 863,000, nearly 864,000 residents so with the increase we have seen the increase in call volume so i think its an excellent observation. Its something we will discuss at the ems Work Group Meeting on monday. Thank you. Thank you mr. Corso. I knew you would give a great answer and not to put you on the spot and to get it on the Public Record and anybody watching or listening or the supervisors watching and the mayor has a different situation when dealing with the Fire Department because it you know life health and safety of all the residents and the visitors. It cant just be considered 3 cut and thats the way it goes, so i think trying to help the mayor that its out there that this department has a little different problem. Thank you. I asked you a couple of meetings ago about the Square Footage about the chiefs residence and you sent it out us to 3415 square feet and all the you broke down all the expenses that related to keeping that in good shape which are very expensive, but thats something we have to maybe have to deal with at some point what to do because this question has been going on as long as i have been on the commission and every year we keep putting it off so at this point it has to come and find the money to fix it or whatever. Lets see. The one item and i think you brought this up last year also because its one of the commissioners asked about the 30 plus million for electrical. Thats a huge number. Thats like the biggest number. It encompasses a bunch of items but i hope the safety on the electrical we can get into. I know some of the items that might be related to tech hightech or something but hopefully we take care of the anything that might be a safety issue on the electrical. Thats just my comment. Absolutely. I think just in general overall the electrical infrastructure at our stations is quite old and out dated e spill given the current demands on it for equipment, for systems because of the age of our facilities and as were doing work at our stations as a result of the bond were updating and addressing the issues but as things pop up during the year we fix them with the funding that we have to that extent but overall the infrastructure doesnt support the demands for electrical for the familiarities. Thank you for what you do and delighted for representing the Fire Department and the chief with the people that make the final decision. Keep up the good attitude. Thank you. Thank you commissioner hardeman. Commissioner nakajo. Thank you. I had the opportunity to review the budget booklet. In terms of page seven and eight of 82 it has the organizational chart of the department. My question to you is again just for reinforcement what is the total number of the personnel within the San Francisco Fire Department . Uniform and civilian . Yes. I believe its approximately 1650. Yeah. I would say thats about 75 civilian staff and the remainder are uniform. Can i confirm that but its what i have off of the top of my head. 75 civilian and how many uniform . 1575. Okay. What percentage of personnel is part of this budget . Overall . So thats one of our constraints given the minimum Staffing Levels. Its about 91 overall budget goes to salaries and benefits for perm and then theres personnel and portions and workers comp and larger ticket items and the cost of doing business that goes into that so the amount of flexibility we have is rather small. What the percentage for that flexibility . I would say for example for our a lot of our materials and supplies, things of that nature its probably between five and 7 . Okay. And capital is separate from this annual budget . Im sorry . Capital is straight from this annual separate from the budget . Yes but what is in last year is included so if you look at page 18 and 19 of your booklet you will see a section labeled annual projects and continuing projects at the bottom of page 18. In general you will see the two line items for facility and maintenance and renewals. Those are the Capital Budget projects and approved last year in the two year budget process so we have some Capital Funding allocated to us but overall the entire process even thee it was a two year budget each year its reviewed again so even though it was allocated last year in the process its not necessarily what were allocated this year in the process. Okay. But that separate capital line item has been granted previously . Yes, it was approved and the details are on page for example on if you look at page 37 and 38 it gives a little bit of detail on our Facility Maintenance and renewal projects that were allocated so last year in the budget it was the 1617 fiscal year budget and approved the budget for 1617 and 1718 and we reviewing the 1718 budget and 1819 budget and there were projects approved and on page 38 you see exhaust extractor and other projects and allocated in that previous budget but as part of the annual process they will be reviewed again. Okay. But in terms of the discussion are the dollars intact, the capital dollars as part of this budget in. I think so. There is some discussion with the financial difficultes and what the budget is looking at and citywide and not departmental but looked at for savings and a discussion that will continue with the Mayors Office overall and even though they have been allocated and we will advocate for them and obviously we will but they will be reviewed in the overall balances of the citys budget. In terms of the departments budget director corso what is your feeling on those items for us to remain pretty much intact or is there room for some i think the departments request would be to remain intact. We have a number of facility issues and that is done comprehensively on the easter bond and things pop up daily where were looking at general maintenance and hvac repairs and theyre crucial to the normal every day operations and mentioned from a health and safety perspective exhauster repair and critical to our members. Okay. You said we have a goal of 9. 5 left out of the 7. 5 . Correct. In terms of the 7. 5 you talked about that being part of savings and revenue income in. Revenue. So that is revenue for the entire amount and part is ems revenue and the remainder Fire Prevention revenue. Okay. Which leads me to as i review this line by line and looked at page 11, 12, 13 before i began to realize as i looked at these various items in the spirit of trying to identify revenue if revenue identification is part of the goals to offset i didnt know how it was going to work. I know how it worked previously and sometimes when we identify revenue savings that works against us. Do you know what i am talking about mr. Corso when i make that reference . No. I dont. You can explain that a bit. When we have revenue savings and increase revenues or savings and go into our general fund and my interpretation that is part of the 3 cut. Is that accurate or not . So the goal of the 3 is reduce the departments or any departments dependency on the general support and there are two ways and one reduce cost in some matter and the second is add and supplement the revenue from the city through additional revenues and i wouldnt say it hinders us per se but another way to offset some of the citys departments dependence on general fund support. Okay with that explanation and thats qhai was hoping for. What i did as i reviewed the revenue income page 10, 11 as i went down various items commissioner covington mentioned the line of medical cannabis dispensary fees. I see other City Property rentals, intergovernmental revenue states, charges for service, and i side notes and the simple thinking i know there is thing with the cannabis fees but being a layperson on the commission with fiscal with the recent change of laws with the medical cannabis if we the department are involved in some aspect of that my point of view was to increase our charge. If theres a minimum amount of work that is required with that thats one thing but if there are other aspects that the department can investigate to increase our revenues, increase charges, i didnt know again whether or not those were feasible. Other City Property rentals page ten of 82 line 39899 and talks about the department receives revenues from mobile phone companies that have installed transmission towers on department property. I know in some years being on this commission that was controversial in some ways because by puttin antennas and with the members of the station and it was a popular Revenue Source so again my point of view when i see items like that medical cannabis and the property and Public Safety sales, tax allocation the department receives a portion of the citys sales tax revenue and allocated for Public Safety purposes to support this operation and as it goes down in terms of page 11 other government changes, false alarm response fees, preapplication, i decided instead of going line by line since its pretty much pretty similar page 11, page 12, page 13 the question that came to my mind is how realistic is it and i am presenting to you as a question and perhaps you want to ask the fire marshal and look at these areas and increasing our fees. At the point of view many departments are increasing their fees but i didnt know whether that was increase of fees that we pass along is realistic and i wanted to hear something about how feasible is that in this climate presently in terms of economics and construction and development . Because all of these pages, 11, 12, 13 i marked Construction Costs but my notes on every level is look into, possibilities to increase, possibilities to increase but again i stopped in terms of trying to ask this question through you director corso. Yes, so i would say the general comment to fees were not allowed to recoup more than the cost of providing the services so every year we look at that. Last year we were able to absorb some of the into the fees and with the additional benefit and salary increases we have requested about 4 increase to our fees for specifically speaking Fire Prevention and the level of activity obviously is something that the city is looking at projection wise. I think we have seen a lot of the growth over the last few years level off. To say its still strong but the growth has leveled off on that so we look at what we have in the current year and what were projecting Going Forward to arrive at those level of activities and specifically to the cannabis i think thats something studied citywide. As far as the implication on it i anticipate were involved in the conversations Going Forward but anticipate the frequency increasing as more and more come on line with changes in legislation so that is as the fire marshal mentioned its kind of a referral basis and were referred by another department to do an inspection. All right. I recognize being an amateur with good spirit and i am nickel and diming this to get to that amount but every cent helps in some aspect but again i am trying to be real conscious as to that and fear of a pass along increase and what that does to contractors or et cetera. You have given me that answer. I started to proceed on page 14, page 15 but it hits the categorical and insurance revenue, ambulance billing, contractual adjustments, the same question came about. How realistically is it for us at this particular point to increase particular fees in ambulance or that particular area which is separate from separate from prevention for sure. We do the same on the ambulance side and cover the fees to provide ems services citywide. As i mentioned previously there is a cpi medical increase built into the legislation that increases our fees every year. Its a little different on the ambulance side as compared to the prevention size because in general we get paid by prevention up front and in order to do the work we need to be paid for that work where on the ems side its reimbursement basis and for example for medicare or medical no matter how much you raise the fees youre not increasing the revenues youre bringing in and the fee increase affects private insurance but not medicare or medical and when talking about federal uncertainty is changes to the Affordable Care act and how does that change the insurance demographics of the population that were picking up . Were working a lot of people are obviously with potential changes in projecting that out and what does it actually mean to our population and does it mean less insured people . Does it mean the payer mix is different . So those things are discussed kind of on a higher level but thats the main difference between Fire Prevention and the ems fees. All right. Director corso im glad that were having this discussion and the public is aware of the in terms of fees whether its medicare or medical there is a limitation of increase. In terms of Fire Prevention you made a statement were not allowed on certain categoricals to increase. Why is that . Its not were not allowed to increase. Were not allowed to recover more than what our costs are providing the service essentially profiting from the service provided. With that there are additional costs that are not part of its not just salary and benefits of the people. Its materials and supplies. Its the vehicle replacement. Its our administrative staff so all the additional costs are wrapped into those fees to essentially show the total cost of providing service. Thank you. Its interesting that again part of this discussion in terms of budget is that were reducing over time and the over time as a result of personnel that we have. There used to be an argument it was cheaper for us to do over time than have personnel. Do you recall that statement . I do and i would say thats technically true but i think you get into operational issues and i think one of the things we had that were obviously getting out is mandatory over time, any impacts from that, and so with the additional staff were reducing that departments dependency on over time. All right. I was of the mind if more personnel would help reduce over time particularly since mandatory over time is a hardship within the members and budgetary and to the membership so for me to reinforced a concept of having an ample work force to be able to counter that so i wanted to get a little feedback on that and you did do that. Mr. President i am going to stop at this particular point. If there are other questions from the commissioners so i can regroup with my notes. Thank you mr. Vice president. Mr. Corso i have a few questions. Can you define exactly what is premium pay . So there a number of premiums and incentives beyond the member salary rate would be. For example there is premiums for commissi Hazardous Materials and working at certain locations and incentives as far as training and education and holiday pay and working out in the mou and paid on top of what the members base salary is. So premium pay is in the mous. Correct. And its time and a half. Its percentage base so the members work holidays and dont get paid extra for working the holiday but overall there is a six and a half percent premium attached that members can take or time coming. Thank you. The overtime i am glad to see its going to down significantly. What constitutes the bulk of the eefer time . Is it ems, Fire Prevention services . Is it Fire Suppression services . Where is the over time . Its mainly concentrated on the minimum staffing requirements so for engines, trucks there is a portion obviously for the ambulance tier and there is a small portion for prevention, other units, fire investigation, et cetera, but the large bulk comes from staffing and Fire Suppression and ems. So this is prop f. Yes. And based about 2004 Staffing Levels. Correct. I believe around that time so we have increased the staffing since then. We opened up a new station at mission bay and station 51 in the presidio and that increased but we still have a mandated number of shifts we need to fill and the less people we have the more we need over time. Of course. But right now were shifting the other way as we hire staff. How do you determine the minimum Staffing Levels of new stations . How do you do that . A lot is on the surrounding area and the development and high rises versus open space. It depends on the already existing resources that exist around that area. We look at Response Times and projections how quickly current units could get there, where it needs to go, so theres a lot of data looked in preparation of development. Who makes those decisions . The department. We work closely with the Mayors Office and also on the planning side, a lot of the work done by chief rivero and other chiefs and development and fire safety as well as responsibilities are taken into account as part of the development. So you use a 1104 baseline and look at the surrounding areas and determine whether it needs to be boosted . So that baseline is for day to bay operations. It doesnt necessarily have a baseline of anything new development wise, how you would staff that. Its was a snapshot in time and that would be the minimum staffing and as we supplement we add to that but it doesnt necessarily serve us it doesnt give a lot of data as far as what we project for a new development because there are so many factors visited. What i am getting at there is flexibility in that. And commissioner nakajo mentioned that and a lot goes to operations and staffing and 91 of the budget is personnel related. Correct, so staffing that and make sure we meet minimal staffing thats where the majority of expenditures go. Specialized services and what is that for . Its a variety of things such as we have our medical director contract. We have health check, our work with cpmc, a variety of Contractual Services that the city doesnt provide and we supplement resources in order to allocate funding to it. On workers comp you have 9 million promo proposed spent and then the next year and who pays those costs . Do we pay our own workers comp . I thought workers comp is paid by the state . The city has its own division and were self insured and dont have insurance so to speak so we pay our costs and the budget comes from the department based on past history and projection of issues et cetera and funded through the city. For the department it shows up in the department of Human Resources workers comp division. How do we monitor our workers comp cost . And claims . So we do not have a workers comp unit per se in the department so we hr works closely with the department of Human Resources. They have policies and procedures in place for those issues and they process all the claims. When we have a member and a potential workers comp claim and get them set up and the paperwork but dhr administers the program. If we could reduce the Workers Comp Program by a Million Dollars and we would be there and meeting the mayors budget reductions. Absolutely and depends on the number of people and the issues they may have. Some are kind of ongoing issues so it would be yeah, thats true. Its a little more difficult yeah. Easier said than done. Question. Who pays us . I know the airport pays for our Fire Department services. Is there any other agency or any other group out there thats paying for our services . Absolutely. So when were talking about the reductions its based off the general fund support which is a Different Number than the overall budget because we get paid for the airport and staffing and by the port of San Francisco for fire boat staffing and maintenance there. Theres also a number of revenues we received from the state. Theres a big line item for Public Safety sale little tax so thats a portion of the sales tax that isal indicated to Public Safety and thats for police and fire and sheriff as well. Other than outside of our revenues and smaller grants for Homeland Security, for staffing of those positions the majority is from the general fund through city tax revenue et cetera. Okay. Commissioners i think we have a deadline here that we have to meet. We have to submit this by february 21. Our next meeting is february 22 that i believe so we need to discuss what were going to do with our proposed budget today. I know that mr. Corso has prepared a letter that we will send to the Mayors Office outlining our position on the proposed budget, and the proposed requested reductions, so i think we need to have a discussion about whether we want to send the letter, the draft letter, which i believe each of you should have received a copy from mr. Corso of a letter stating our position, so with that in mind do we want to have some more conversation commissioners . Commissioner covington. Thank you president cleaveland. First of all i would like to move that we accept the San Francisco Fire Department fiscal years 201718 and 201819 operating budget and i will wait for a second on that and then i will ask for a motion on the letter. Do we have a second . [inaudible] [off mic] thank you commissioners. Thank you. Do we want to vote on it at this time . Do we want to have discussion first . I thought we have been discussing it. Any other Vice President nakajo. Thank you. Director corso as we move towards on adoption of the question and theres a letter that were talking about jointly as we have previously from the commission and the administration the bulk of the letter states that were going to be working within this next time frame approximately two weeks to come to the figure of total compliance. Is that not the spirit of the letter and the intention . So first of all i wanted to be clear thats just proposed language for a letter for example an example what has been presented in the past if the commission chooses to submit a letter i am happy to work with you on ironing out the language there. I have not sent to two of the commissioners and part the general discussion and not finalized so that is absolutely a work that can be sorted out over the next couple weeks before the submission. I dont think the intent was to work with the Mayors Office over the next weeks but over the months closely with the Mayors Office prior to their submittal of the budget by the first of june so there will be work done over the next couple of weeks as i mentioned reviewing our staffing numbers et cetera but as far as getting into some of the details on potential cost savings that would be kind of a longer process over the next months. All right. Point of clarification so in terms of this particular Commission Meeting with this budget youre looking for approval of the budget . Correct. Essentially approval of what the department is proposing even though were short of the recommended reduction and essentially the word from the department that we will work very closely internally and with the Mayors Office over the next months on outstanding issues related to the budget. All right. Thank you very much for that comment. I know we the commission and the department are very appreciative of the mayor and the staff for the department and grateful for that support and realizing the call volume increase. Thank you and one city the population of city and county of San Francisco at this time and commissioner hardeman talking about increased population that denotes increased call volume and at some Commission Meetings down the road we will talk what the ems ambulances respond to because they respond but there is discussion in terms of the clients out there, the frequent fliers et cetera that take up some time and whether or not we are able to work towards a poz in terms of serving all members of the public with that. Thank you very much for this opportunity to ask that question mr. President , commissioner covington thank you. Thank you mr. Vice president and i share your sentiments. Chief hayeswhite. Thank you president cleaveland. Thank you president cleaveland. I would also like to acknowledge director corso for putting together an excellent report. Hes been working hard with the Budget Committee. What was put together as a draft is similar the past and i echo your sentiments about being team players and being appreciative of our good working relationship with the Mayors Office. Having said that given the realities of the call volume and the population increase we want to commit to making sure we can provide the same level of service. We have ideas about revenue and we do think we can at least come part way of the what were being asked, but at this time at least given the climate i feel its irresponsible to offer further reductions given the fact that were working harder than we ever worked before so we will commit to continuing the dialogue. We have in the past. We have worked collaboratively to get our hiring plan rock solid as well as our fleet plan and we really think that the momentum is in our favor but to shrink back at this time is irresponsible to recommend doing, but recognizing that Everyone Needs to roll up their sleeves and get the work done and live within their means but we will commit to continuing having that discussion and conversation. Thank you chief. With that said mr. Corso thank you. Commissioners we have a motion on the floor. Are soy . [inaudible] [off mic] do we have Public Comment . No Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Do we want to go ahead and approve this draft budget and then work with the chief and with mr. Corso on a letter to the mayor stating our position . [inaudible] [off mic] we have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye . Aye. Its unanimous. And the budget as presented so you need to have a letter stating that that we will work with mr. Corso and the chief and we will circulate it to all the commissioners so we can formally state our position on this budget to the Mayors Office. Do you want a second motion on that . Not on the agenda. Not on the agenda. Okay. All right. We will work on it. All right. Any further discussion on this . Vice president nakajo. I just want to make sure that commissioner covington is good with us working on the letter internally . Oh most certainly. I think the letter is vital to our needs Going Forward. I am of the same mind as well. Thank you very much mr. President , commissioners thank you. Thank you. Madam secretary. Item 5 chief of departments report. Report on Current Issues activities and events within the Department Since the Fire Commission meeting of january 25, 2017 including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other Government Agencies and the public. And report from operations on overall Field Operations including greater alarm fires, emergency medical services, bureau of Fire Prevention and investigation and Airport Division and update on h23 classification. Good morning again president cleaveland, commissioners. This is my report since our last meeting of january 25 regarding the budget. You just heard regarding as were moving forward and we appreciate your interest and your support, and the fact that i know our Budget Committee last week president cleaveland you couldnt be there but Vice President nakajo was there and thats really important. Were in the third year with the Budget Committee, and that has worked out really well for us. For the current fiscal year were on track for revenues and expenditures and the Budget Committee met last week on january 31. Regarding academies, the 121st academy is in the 11th week and anticipated graduation date is april 14 and at Riordan High School in the morning and we are on track for a start of our 122nd academy on april 24. We did ask for a new eligible list which were reviewing at this time. I believe all members on that list have been recently asked to complete a survey for secondary criteria. We have a number of alternates that worked through the process last time that will go through updated toxicology testing and so forth and those members will be also considered in part of the 122nd class. In addition we will be in the next week or so casting a wider net to invite more members off of the list to background. In regard to h23 classification academy and the ems academy theyre due to graduate and in session and graduate february 24. There is 26 members in that class. We started with 30 and down to 36. We also have some ha per deem paramedics and cross over to full time ems and paramedics h3 level twos that process begins next week on february 13. Regarding special Events Communications and outreach myself and the deputies attended the mayor of the state of the city address on january 26. Also with the four new supervisors that have come into office typically what i will do is i understand send a letter to each of them asking for a sit down to get to know one another and provide an overview of the mission of the Fire Department and we did that for the new supervisors and net with supervisor sheehy and when scott wiener became state senator. That meeting went well and interested in our mission, our statistics call volume and so forth so we look forward to working with him and meeting the other three new supervisors. On saturday the 20th i attended at portsmouths scbair the Chinese New Year kick off with the chief and a number of leaders and department heads. On the 31st and you will hear more about this at a presentation i believe you have the agenda for the 22nd and hear directly from director hey and i had the opportunity with the deputies to meet with the ten members of the department that went through 154 hour frs Community Paramedicine program which was very well received and its sort of value added that were working with partners at department of Public Health regarding a certain population that we respond to that dont necessarily need 911 services but receive more services in tune with their needs and dr. Hay spearheaded that with conjunction of Department Department of Public Health and we presented the certificates to the members and theyre very dedicated. Its basically a calling because youre working with you know a population in the city that as Vice President nakajo said frequent users of the system that might be better served in another arena if you will, so i will let dr. Hay get into that on the 22nd in his presentation because that has been a year in the making and we have a year worth of data, so and you will hear from chief gonzales that all of our ems employees will go through eight hours of training in addition to their Current Training related to our work for the Sobering Center and the department of Public Health. On february 3 deputy chief williams and i attended black History Month celebration here at city hall in the rotunda. I know commissioner covington was there as well. And on just yesterday a number of us met with the department of Human Resources at our request to review the promotional exam schedule, talk about different ideas that we have to make sure were on the same page and streamlined approach so that we have so we make sure we can and convey to our employees what the schedule is going to be, so they can have an opportunity to make their plans if theyre interested in taking a promotional examination so that was very well received and we got good information and we asked for a few things for them to consider. On the 11th as you know we will be participating with Asian Firefighters Association in the Chinese New Years parade and meeting at 430 at second and market to participate in that parade which is always enjoyable and i am hearing its going to be dry on saturday so thats good and on the 13th of february its already been brought up the reconvening of the ems work group to look at the good work that all of the stakeholders had come together with a couple of years ago when we were noticing that increase call volume and Response Times getting to a point where we were concerned. Its important to note even with the increased call volume we have some specific challenges but very close on to the 90 percentile, the ten minutes for the transport unit for the month of july which you know was very busy given a lot of different parameters and weather issues and good to convene and trends were seeing so we can be responsive in the months and years to come and that concludes my report at this time. Thank you chief. Do we want to have questions of the chief now or do we want to go on to our next report . Okay. Lets have the operations do we have any Public Comment on the chiefs report . Seeing none Public Comment is closed. Chief gonzales lets have your operations report. Good morning president breed and commissioners, good morning chief. Deputy chief mark gonzales. This is the Operations Department for january. I give my apologies to you the Commission Im sorry i didnt give the report last week of the flu bug hit our office hard. Within this period there was 13 working fires and second alarms and january 5 and on clear don. Initially came into something burning and engine 20 was the first to respond and see smoke in the area and the trees. Upon approval on the culdesac it was a burn tire and found a victim on the second floor andress cued the victim. Engine 12 assisted and and in the back bedroom and evolved and other divisions were on the scene. [inaudible] assigned to delta exposure to heavy smoke from the address. Therefore precautionary was struck and see heavy fire in the back of the building. Division two reported on the channel to the companies on scene. During the incident a report was made that a firefighters leg was punctured and not injured and made a call for the danger and use extreme caution in the area. They did a good job at the fire. The next was a greater alarm and january 13 on fulton street. There were two firefighters injured minor burns. The cause of the fire was insiddary with a subsequent arrest. Engine 31 reported in route to smoke and working fire and fire from the basement. 31 lead quarter line to the basement and attacked the fire. I would say interior aggressive attack by the crews under difficult conditions in the basement prevented budget to the upper flows and the delta. A coordinated attack was key to the success and moderate damage and to the delta exterior siding. The 30 greater alarm was on january 22 at cabrillo across the 15th. There were no injuries and the cause was accidental and with the commander chief burke behind me. 31 was first on scene and determined to be a working fire on the top floor. First hose line went to the fire. There was concern that the fire may have been below engine 31 so the second line was deployed below and third to the rear yard area and ignited between the delta exposure and the building and ventilation was done by a roof cut and good work by the crews. The first alarm crews kept this to minimal damage. On the Community Outreach i would like to thank the pio, our suppression companies out in the field, our Prevention Bureau and trained division including recruitment and nert. Our outreach has been phenomenal and surf cliff and safety messages and Fire Prevention tips. I would like to remind the public they can go to sf fire. Org or follow us on twitter and remind to sign up for emergency notifications and texting us to 888777. During we had had wet weather and safety meanls due to the storm and a lot of good information went out in january. On january 142 naked adults were rescues from below the cliff house and sffd worked well with the coast guard and the park service and treated for minor injuries and provided with temporary clothing and clothing and blankets. On january 4 the crews i would say a phenomenal great technical rescue and the male got trapped between the bart platform and car. They used the air bags to facilitate the release of the victim and simultaneously the paramedics had to follow policy so the victim had every chance to survive and survived and semi conscious and he did succumb from the injuries later that evening but i want to commend the crews. They did a great job. January 5 rescue below the cliff house and worked with coast guard and both ams have were unrelated and had minor injuries. On january 7 crews responded to a alarm resulting in two adults being rescue with smoke inhill laigz. On january 8 the dive team responded to city of alameda and oakland fire for a submerged vehicle and water rescue. Our crews worked well with others and the adult victim succumbed because of the incident and there were high wind storms you remember. We responded to trees down and many rescues. Large scaffolding collapsed on market and searched for victims. No am victims remember located and worked mitigating it safely. Market street was closed for the event though i would say for a good period of time. First alarm fire on january 21 on blythe dale. The canine was rescued and made the family happy in light of losing their possessions so valuable to you most . Loved ones and pets. Next a bart rescue and a successful rescue. This victim had non life threatening injuries and made it under the platform before the car got into the station. January 26 we hosted members of the tokyo fire service and nert and Community Outreach. Prevention education on january 3 we gave out a lot of smoke alarms, Carbon Dioxide detectors at the eent. We have been working with the city agencies. Theyre currently trying to publish a handout and sent to Translation Services to be done in multiple licenses. As the chief mentioned and the call volume went up and january stayed the same trend. I would like to mention this month were at 89. 29 meeting the ten minutes so were are right there and this month we are under the ten minute threshold and the call volume is not going down so we are addressing what we can internally to streamline what we do. We are making it more ready rigs as we say so ambulance crews and waiting for an ambulance come in and shouldnt have to wait and get in and go. Were making easy for the h8 to call in for shifts and make themselves available. Before it was cumbersome and were addressing that. Business hours. I mean they started at 6 00 a. M. Close to four, 5 00 p. M. Well theres other hours in the day and during the other days of the day from 5 00 a. M. To 6 00 p. M. We want the rescue captains to work with them and hire aggressively if needed. If theyre seeing trends of whatever is happening that night hire as much as you can and trying to make that capability more feasible to use. As the chief mentioned the bump up academy and the h academy is in progress and we work with the 911 Provider Committee on 911 system and analysis and deployment discussions. The ms division continues to work with dpw and assistant chief rivero and myself and cd3 and the chief and assistant chief and scale on the ambulance delivery process. Its been challenging but i think we will have a good facility. I am thankful for the voters to give uslet money to build that facility. As the chief mentioned the ms division is training all of the transport paramedics for the alternate destination pilot and requires eight hours of training. Once that transport paramedic received the training they can go to the center and a outlet for the patients that we encounter on the street. Nine of the ambulances have been received and three in service and the rest are outfitted and joined shortly and the and the first step to get this done. We strongly believe this is a administrative advisory position. Thats our take on it. We just want the classification done. We are committed to working with all parties including 798. Division of Fire Prevention investigation including in the report and list of permits and plan checkup date. Some i would like to highlight a few am whys in plan check. The Warriors Arena is under check and close to approval and moscone and other projects are under review and the subway and pipe review and 1. 7 miles of type. On the task and transportation update. Turk Street Project and mta withdraw the proposal. We made it clear that the muni over head wires are challenging for the operators to begin with so if you can find the prais we can operate a away from the requires and impossible to get where we need to go. Our truck operators are very its an art to sometimes and shots they get at some of the fires and how did they get the aerial up there . They canvass the area, look at the buildings and ladder the building if we have to. They do it constantly. People think theyre driving around but theyre looking at the area and respond to alarms theyre always case tg out and when it comes to the protected bike lanes i understand it but to make it more difficult for us to operate at fires is not the answer so were trying to work we are working well with nt a and i think theyre taking some of the suggestions to heart. The second is to market and herman and i think assistant chief burke and others went out with mta and brought one of the trucks out there. I think it was enlightening to see the actual truck there and get an aerial up so hopefully more of these projects will go forward but in conjunction with our fire operations in mind. Also include in my report is a bureau of fire investigation. At this time we have 108 open fire investigative reports. Bfi responded to 21 incidents in january rngs, seven structure requires and one homeless fire and other fires and had consults with chiefs of origin and cause and two arrests made and attached to the San Francisco International Airport update and that concludes my report. Thanks chief gonzales. Is there any Public Comment on chief gonzales report . Seeing none Public Comment is closed. Commissioners. Vice president nakajo. Thank you very much chief gonzales for your comprehensive report. Thank you chief hayeswhite. I just have a couple of comments on your report. You talked about moving forward with the h23s. We have been talk about this for quite a while from the commission level, from the department level. I believe that all of us in the commission i will speak for myself, very much support movement on this position. I think its crucial and essential particularly where were at in terms of call volume but also because its a budgeted item as well and with the atmosphere of what is occurring the last thing that would be a negative for this department we do not fill that position and get some operation [inaudible] so i just wanted to remark the importance of that and keep us up to deet with that and hopefully there will be some movement with that. I also wanted to get e enforcement tha reinforcement chief hayeswhite that the work group is reconvening. Correct. And here at city hall. We have a good representation of representatives present and working toward the issues of Response Time and cal volume . Correct. We invited the stakeholders and notifying local 798, the private providers, the controllers office, the Mayors Office and i believe someone from ems Officers Association as well as the paramedic association. Okay thank you chief. I am looking forward to that meeting. I also at this time wanted to remark that im going to be looking forward as the rest of the commissioners to our february 24th update on one Year Anniversary of ems6 and dr. Yay with the discussion about call volume and how we can best utilize our resources and try to make good with the increased population as well. Definitely will be looking forward to that. In terms of the airport report i understand now that we are occupying our new airport station and at some point chief gonzales i am assuming that the commissioners would be able to go out to the new station and be able to take a view and a tour of what the facilities are at that station. Absolutely sir. You can go down there anytime but i believe assistant deputy chief kas llanos is planning a grand opening and invite the commissioners and staff to it. Do you have a date for that . [inaudible] [off mic] thank you very much chief. I am looking forward to that as well. And then finally in terms of a request at some point chief gonzales, chief hayeswhite i would like to do a ride along at station 49 at the socalled off hours. I am getting older but i wouldnt mind a 6 00 p. M. To midnight to 7 00 a. M. Shift looks like and what is occurring out there in the streets of San Francisco. Any night you want. All right. I will coordinate with your office. Okay. Thank you mr. President. Thank you Vice President nakajo. Commissioner hardeman. Thank you mr. Chair. Chief hayeswhite and chief gonzales good reports. Thank you. I am glad to hear that chief you have effort to deal with frequent callers or users of the system is given special attention and you have ten people that specialize in that that is fantastic because when you analyze how often the system is used for people that just are using it over and over with not lifethreatening in some cases its good that youre taken that challenge and dealt with it. Good to hear all your classes are on schedule and we still have 52. Hopefully they graduate on good friday. Thats easy day for us and not a lot of things scheduled and i looked at my calendar and good thats a day that shouldnt be too tough. Thanks for the report thanks chief newman and [inaudible] and burke for the great job and the alarm fires. Nice that you took care of those in good fashion and your report indicated how they did and keep to two alarms is great and calling for two alarms is good when any question existed. That was good. The two burned firefighters they all okay back to work. I believe they are back to work. Okay good. So that was something they could deal with without extensive time off. Good. Congratulations on the 89 for the ambulances. Chief myers you must be feeling good. I know when commissioner nakajo and i took a tour of the ambulance it was extremely depressing because we heard from the staff and broken down old torn up ambulance how they break down daily and it was a real morale problem to see we have the six new ones going and the three new coming in and i dont know if it increased efficiency but good for morale and the people that use the ambulances and homes practically for part of the day. Absolutely. Thats refreshing. Sort of defeats our complaint about the increased volume but it just so happens things are going good they go bad its harder more obstacles. Seems like youre able to get away from problems. Thats terrific news. You answered a question about the airport. That would be fun to see the grand opening on the new modern fire house. I know the one we have down on mission bay on third street is the most incredible building. I think you did a great job on that so if the station in at the airport looks anything like that that would be good. On your time i am also bringing this up i talked to fire marshal dekaz io chief gonzales and i dont think we ever had the port fire marshal make a presentation to us on the amount of duties that they have, so the chief the fire marshal said it would be fine so getting the fire marshal, the port to do a presentation on his it was which are extensive i think would be informative for the commission so at your call of staff that is included in my report. Have the fire marshal come over from the port and have a presentation. Absolutely. When we dont have a busy meeting that would be nice to do. You got it. Used to do a report to us at the Port Commission but seeing that hes not on staff and necessarily it would be good. You have all the brass here but dont see the fire marshal from the report. Thats it. Great reports. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you commissioner hardeman. Commissioner covington. Thank you mr. President. Yes, chief gonzales i omitted something important in the respect. I forgot to mention and battalion five opened up on the 14th and happy about that and three battalion chiefs into that station on grove and baker. They have responded to the single alarms and greater alarms and great to have and division two mentioned that numerous times to me and thank you for getting that battalion back. Excellent. Thats good to have them back. Its been a long time so i am glad everyone is settling in nicely. Chief gonzales could you tell us more about on page four the incident on bart on january 4 . So what i understand is somehow we got pinned between the bart car and just the platform. I mean youre talking about much space so our rescue squad, engine seven, truck seven, battalion six charry crane, our medic units did a good job to stabilize them and do what they could and got the car apart to extricate him and unfortunately he succumbed that night but they did a good job on the scene. And the air bags have enough force to push the train to tilt it . It was enough to tilt it away from the platform to extricate the victim. Very good. And for january 8 at 700 market you said the scaffolding was 12 stories tall . That was an approximation. I didnt have have it in front of me. We had a alarm there years ago and it was under remodel and ten, 12 stories, around there. And it collapsed due to high winds. Okay. Thats what i was thinking. Thank you for that. And i am glad to see that under your prevention and education subject matter you have excuse me the materials that are going to be produced in multiple languages. I believe i asked about that at our last meeting and i see as of this date we have material in english, spanish and chinese and we currently have a multiple page Public Safety handout that has been sent to Translation Services to be printed in english, spanish, tagalog, chinese and russian. Yes, maam. So thats fantastic. Thank you. I am very happy to see that so how do people go about getting these materials if they would like to have them at sceern centers or people that speak these languages gather . Were going to do outreach to the communities, different battalions. Battalion seven there is a huge russian and number one huge asian community. Wherever they are we will be there. We had a fire safety in battalion one recently for instance and i am sure that material was there in the languages. All of the languages are there for everybody but we try to target it and like i said the outreach is aggressive. The pio is working hand and hand with prevention as well as the recruitment as well as nert as well as training and theyre really getting out there so as far as a plan and getting we plan on doing it perpetually and not just this year or next year. Its a ongoing growing phenomenon. I would include the churches in the outreach for sure. Churches . Yes please. Because theres a number of russian language churches that are outside of what be considered russian neighborhood and the same with the filipino community. Okay. And then i see on page eight the transportation advisory staff committee. I am glad to know that things are moving along and that were working more closely with mta regarding these obstructions that can sometimes go up and hamper the ability of members of the department i think it helps through the chief we met with director reiskin last month and made it clear it is collaborative and i think both departments are willing to Work Together. Very good, and i wanted to just read this letter. I know that you were trying to be brief in your presentation, but on page 6 for my fellow commissioners this is under the heading the following or summary responses that we got on social media and this one is from jesse. My wife was home alone with our nine month old of two flights of twisty stairs. My wife fell while walking baby. Luckily our baby is fine however my wife broke three bones in her ankle. The firefighters immediately on the scene helped her calm down by insuring our baby was okay. One even washed a bottle to feed the baby. I believe they were from station 23. Paramedics jenn shirr caaha and Aaron Thruston were incredible and got my wife down stairs and helped me over the course of an hour transporting her. My wife said she was sad to see them go and hung with them a bit longer smiley face. As the recipient of my wifes hysterical phone call after the injury the gratitude and relief i felt knowing that the sffd was taking good care of her and our baby is too deep for words. Thank you so much so i wanted to share that with everyone. Thank you commissioner. Thank you. Thank you commissioner covington. I was also going to recognize those kudos to our department and i think theyre well deserved and just one example of many every day where were helping san franciscans. A couple of questions for you. You can describe what the crush syndrome is when you have to employ the crush syndrome . Well, before you start taking the victim out they have to be injected with potassium what is it called . [inaudible] [off mic] sodium bicarb so paramedics come on up. Chief myers come on up. Jeff myers ems chief. Crush syndrome is generally occurs over time. Individuals that are inpinched upon by heavy rocks like in u sar, urban search and rescue, structure like the bart train and compresses the tissues and organs and build up high amounts of acid and over time develop conditions which has secondary effects of deterioration of muscle and they go into conditions of different things. The big issue you want to maintain Blood Pressure so you give them fluid toss elevate and it creates a dam effect so if you suddenly reduce the pressure the Blood Pressure drops out and can be catastrophic and give medications for heart rhythms of the build up of the elect tro lights and most patients if treated properly do well. Some have longer term problems with renal failure and liver failure et cetera. Thank you chief. I think its key to confirm you want to make sure to the extent you can you try and intervene because once you remove whatever is pinning them down then like you said the patient can really suffer very delicate situation. And quickly and may appear to be conscious and speaking but once you remove the item things can really deteriorate. And this person stuck between the bart train and the platform ultimately died. Is that correct . Later that night in the er, yes, but they got him there. Thank you chief myers. Sure. The cliff rescue theres been a number of rescues behind the cliff house or around there and the caves. Is there proper signage out there to warn people . Whats the reason were having so many rescues there . There is signage out there and can always be improved. People have died here. Dont go there. Who is responsible for the signage. National park service generally. Perhaps we should just contact them and have a look at what signage out there and maybe we need more signage and its happening too frequently and rescuing people off the cliffs. 32 needs to be enhancement of our warnings. We Work Together with them as far as the surf rescue and ocean beach they put more signage out there. I remember [inaudible] was out there battalion seven suggested put more markers and when youreicallying from the cell phone and give directions to where were going. Sometimes there is delay finding the people but yeah i agree improved signage can always be attained. And Early Warning system that we could put out there. Anyway the rescue dive two the two dive team you sent to alameda and oakland do they dont have dive teams . Were only one in the region and we get called often i wouldnt say often but get called to different areas. There is a golden area to get to the item and possibly save them. We put that into consideration before we send the units and we have a dive policy that we wrote up and get it streamlined and quickly as possible and give the victims the best chance of survival and they got there pretty quick. They have to make a decision whether they respond with the boat to the equipment or traffic conditions permit or close enough to the shore they might drive there in this instance they drove there off of the coast and they got there quick. Are we the only jurisdiction that has a dive team . I would say 24 7 within the area i would say yes. So we really have a responsibility for the bay area and dive teams and responses to vehicles going into the water. I agree. Look at Sonoma County and the flooding and what not so if they have a vehicle go into the river up there, the Russian River we would send a dive team there. Russian river . I doubt we would go that far. I am just asking. And within that time of the golden hour we would never get there. Okay. I would like to for dropped and i would like to thank you for reducing the number of outstanding investigations. I wanted to ask you about the als. How many stations have advanced life support personnel of station there and what is our process for increasing the number of als at each fire station or at least one at each station . So the process of increasing our level three and the firefighters paramedics and if theyre on the engine that is considered als they come from h3 level two, station 39 and they get into the 49 and they get into the academy and pass that they go out on probation. On the engine time for six months that engine will be als and do the truck time but their rank is h3 level three and utilize them as a resource. As far as how many engines we try to average we are averaging 32. On top of that we do have i would say up to 34 to 35 per day because we have probationary members on those staffing them as other als stations in other engines. I appreciate the efforts to het the h23 position posted and i support Vice President nakajo and my fellow commissioners urgency getting the h23 position posted and filled so i think we all share the need and i know that theres concerns out there but they have been addressed time and time again, and i believe its time to move forward with that so i believe i speak for the entire commission. We feel that the h23 program is super important. Its an important to give our emts a ladder of advancement and opportunity for administrative opportunities and ladder of advancement frankly and we support you as a commission to move forward with that posting. Copy that. Thank you. Thats all my questions. Excuse me. Commissioner covington. Thank you very much. Yes, you do have my support concerning the h23s. Thank you. Weve had so many meetings about this. Its really time to get the ball rolling, and i was remiss in my comments earlier about outreach to the churches. I forgot the sin gods and please good that as well. Temp ems, synagogues you god it. Thank you commissioner covington. Vice rice. Thank you very much mr. President. Chief gonzales i really appreciate you did include an update on battalion five. We fought hard for that Department Wise totally. It was much needed but i think the justification of how we utilize battalion five and the incidents they report to is going to be real important from this point moving forward. I just really appreciate that and would appreciate any update or consistent reporting on the activities of battalion five. Thank you chief. You got it which are. Thank you Vice President nakajo. And thank you for your report. Executive secretary would you call the next item. Item 6 resolution 20171, discussion and possible action regarding proposed resolution 201701 that the San Francisco Fire Department that the San Francisco Fire Department require all members uniformed and civilian take the biennial harassment prevention training. Thank you madam secretary. Is there any Public Comment on this resolution . Seeing no Public Comment Public Comment is closed. Commissioners what is your pleasure . [inaudible] [off mic] commissioner covington. Okay. Thank you very much mr. President. This i am really happy to see this resolution come forward. As you know before and during ms. But dln shons presentation and make sure all members of the department go through the training. I think its important for the culture of the department and it is part of our Due Diligence to make sure that this happens so i am very happy to see this resolution and i would like to move this item. Thank you commissioner covington. Do i have a second . Second. And i would request that the Commission Secretary read it into the record. Madam secretary please read the resolution into the record. Resolution 201701 resolution recommending that the San Francisco Fire Department require that all members uniformed and civilian take the biennial harassment prevention training whereas the san rephrase Fire Commission up holds the citys policies regarding discrimination and harassment and retaliation free work place and Sexual Harassment and the Fire Commission supports the biennial harassment prevention training for supervisors and compliance with the california state law ab1825 and whereas the San Francisco Fire Commission believes it would be valuable for the Fire Department to administer the training module to iewl all Department Employees a regular basis and whereas the San Francisco Fire Commission deems it important to the Fire Department to administer the citys harassment prevention training module to entry level uniform and new hire civilian employees during the probation period now be resolved that the Fire Commission of the city and county of San Francisco hereby exercises its authority under the San Francisco administrative code section 2 a. 90 to rule as follows. One, that beginning with the 121st fire academy the Fire Department will administer the harassment training training train module during the probation period and two that the success completion of the harassment prevention training module is a requirement to pass probation for these same employees and three that the training module is part of the probationary handbook for entry level uniformed employees. Four, the Fire Department supervisors will be required to take the citys 2017 harassment Prevention Training Program in accordance with the citywide compliance schedule for California Law ab1825 and five, that the next scheduled Department Wide harassment prevention training for all Fire Department employees will be in 2019 to coincide with the citywide compliance schedule for the california state law ab1825. Thank you madam secretary. We have a motion on the floor to adopt this and support it. May i have s. Yes and i have a comment. Commissioner hardeman. Thank you mr. Chair. I was talking to director of training, the chief i dont see him here after the last meeting how this would work for his scheduling at academy, and so i am glad to see this is not going to be something that has to be done during the academy because theres just no time but they have a whole year to go online during work hours when there might be down time and you could always check in and work halfhour on it and if you have a call and go on and its doesnt have to be done at the academy and all of the stations understand that the new h2 has to do this and thats all and make it clear its on record it has to be done while theyre employed. They dont have to do it on their own time and not at the fire academy. That was just a clarification. Like i said i dont see the chief here but just i know he would be happy to hear that. Thank you commissioner hardeman. All in favor say aye. Aye. The vote is unanimous madam secretary. Item 7 communications emails from James Corrigan dated january 22, 23, 24, 30, and february 1, 2017 and email from Christopher Wisniewski dated january 28, 2017. Is there any Public Comment on the communications . Seeing none Public Comment is closed. Commissioners any questions or comments . Commissioner hardeman. Thank you. Yeah, i just i arrived early. It took 26 minutes when i left the door and upstairs here, pretty fast ride here this morning on the streetcar so i was able to read i talked to everybody in line which was so i dont have to stay after but anyway the interesting part was asking them i asked where they went to high school, where theyre from. Where . And all bay area and local. Its interesting the lengths they went to get here. Peoples summer staying in tahoe and came down last night. One person from sacramento this morning and stockton and from the north bay and a real mix of local people all with tremendous talents and also eager and educated and sorry to see we had to take some out of the room this morning because there is no place to sit which is sort of the usual so we do appreciate you attending, your interest and hopefully many of you are in the next class so thank you for participating. Thanks for coming down on a brutal morning. Didnt slow them down. You can tell they have the gumption and storm and rain doesnt bother them. Thank you commissioner hardeman. I certainly share the sentiments and all of the commissioners share the sentiments. Any further questions, comments . Comments . . Madam secretary. They were moved to an over flow room in room 400. We commend them for sitting in room 400. Theyre in room 400 with a big screen tv. [inaudible] [off mic] [laughter] hopefully they have some popcorn. Item 8 agenda for next Fire Commission meeting on february 22, 2017. Vice president nakajo. Thank you mr. President. Madam secretary could i have a clarification on what is the agenda for february 22 at this time . We have an ems six update. Thank you. [inaudible] okay. Thats all at the moment. Thank you madam secretary. At the discretion of the chief at some point i would like to have a request from the emergency Communication Unit if we can, an update as to what is occurring at that unit just to share of information chief hayeswhite at your discretion of date and coordination with ems, not ems, the emergency communication level, excuse me. Thank you. Thank you. Chief hayeswhite. Thank you president cleaveland. I have not had a chance to speak to chief gonzales or dr. Yay regarding the presentation. I know that the doctor is planning on presenting on the 22nd. I got something yesterday that was a request by one of the members of ems6 rescue captain simon pang. I know he wanted to be here for the presentation and hes unable to be here so i could go either way. Dr. Yay did you want to weigh in on that . [inaudible] [off mic] i am prepared to [inaudible] however it would be [inaudible] [off mic] march 22nd. And i defer to the commission. I know captain pang as well as captain bassett theyre integral parts of the team and it just sort of reinforces their passion about this program that hes asked that you would consider deferring until hes able to be here so a. M. Or p. M. Meeting i dont think would make a difference so at your call. I think speaking for the commission i think we will defer it until we have everyone involved in the program that can speak to it so we will move it to march to the date best suited for the biggest attendance from the ems6 program. Thank you president cleaveland. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Commissioner hardeman. Yes thank you mr. Chair. I already mentioned this about the port fire marshal at the call of staff when the chief feels appropriate and do a report on the new fire boat and the station 35 how thats going, all of that at once so thank you chief. Thank you commissioner hardeman. Commissioner covington. I had no comment. I am sorry. Your name was up. Its rare you dont have a comment. A ghost in the machine. Okay. Well thank you very much. Madam secretary next item. Item 9 adjournment. So moved. Do we have a second . [inaudible] [off mic] thank you. Any Public Comment . Who seconded . Commissioner hardeman. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned. [gavel] i want to thank dr. Ehrlich. I also want to thank San Francisco General Hospital for hosting this event and for start by saying we are here because at this facility one out of two patients is the victim of a traffic crash. As we often do at gatherings of survivors and families of crash victims, i asked that we begin by observing a moment of silence in memory of the 88 people who lost their lives to traffic incidents on the streets of San Francisco and san jose this past year. And the hundreds who died in recent years. A moment of silence. [moment of silence] every 18 hours a child, a parent, a grandparent, a husband, a wife, or a friend is severely injured or killed on our city streets. These are tragedies that are completely preventable candidate you will hear from family members of these victims. Now we are here because San Francisco has the highest number of collisions per capita in california. Speed is the leading cause of fatal and serious traffic crashes. Speed kills. If you are hit by a car at 20 miles an hour, 1190 chance of surviving. If that car is going 40 mi. h were chance drops to 10 . San francisco and san jose have both adopted a policy of vision zero. Which i strongly supported was on the board of supervisors. A policy that reflects our collective commitment to bringing traffic fidelitys down to exactly 0. Not 20, not 10, but zero. The work is not done. For years weve known about one solution that is proven. Automaticautomated Speed Enforcement or ase. Automated Speed Enforcement is given city to pluto to magically reduce speeding and fatal traffic incident in over 140 communities around our country the facts are the facts the numbers are the numbers. Portland, new york, denver, a 30 drop in speeding. Maryland, it 59 drop. In washington dc, a city with similar density as ours, an 82 drop in speeding. A 70 reduction in fatalities per but despite these dramatic results california has not yet allowed ase. Today, i am announcing with our community the introduction of the safe streets act of 2017, 80 342. To them, and a fiveyear Pilot Program for the two cities of San Francisco and san jose. To bring proven safety improvements to our streets, to address drivers who disregard safety, by driving over 10 mi. h above a speed limits. Speed grotto [inaudible] due to speeding since the data shows that 70 of fatal and severe traffic collisions occur on the handle