Meeting regarding the status of station 35. Members from d. P. W. And the designers were also in attendance to answer any questions raised by the public. All of these projects continue to move forward and are on track. During this reporting period, he is now present but chief rivera and b. O. E. Staff were back in new orleans actually, they were in the suburbs of new orleans to review the aerial truck specs and we accept receiving our first truck in one year followed by two more trucks four to six months later. We also received five new Fire Prevention vehicles and five new battalion chief vehicles. Theyre all delivered and currently at the shops being outfitted and equipped. As mentioned in my previous report, we received eight engines, seven are currently in service and one remaining to complete their Service Prior to being returned to the field. Under the division of training, as the chief mentioned, the recruit academy are in their 12th week and they have their last test is friday and their final test, their state test, will be given next week on friday. Under e. M. S. , in addition to their ongoing paramedic and e. M. T. Recertifications, they continue to provide Online Training for our members and in addition to the six month and oneyear testing of our probationary field members and assist with the 123rd academy with their training and return to duty e. M. S. Training for members. [phone ringing] as the chief mentioned under nirt, we conducted the citywide nirt drill next month and is continuing her neighborhood training in addition to specialized and advanced training in presentations with community outreach. Under fire reserves, the fire reserves continue their weekly battalionbased training and members during this twomonth period volunteered 290 hours at various community event. Those include the silver spur ceremony for commissioner nattagio, fleet week, the toy program, fund raisers, the safety fair battalion nine as well as the citywide nirt drill. Lastly, id like at this time to announce that this will be my final Fire Commission meeting effective end of the month. I will be retiring. With 30 years of service with the city and county of San Francisco, 27 1 2 with the Fire Department. And id also like to take this time to thank each of you commissioners for supporting me as deputy chief of operations and assistant deputy chief of division and training. Its been an adventure. It has been very rewarding. Ive enjoyed working with each of you. Each of you have a different style, by appreciate your support and encouragment towards me. Also id like to thank the chief again for your support and confidence in me. In my role as chief of training, first of all. And also deputy chief of administration. Its been great being a part of the command staff. [voice breaking] and i appreciate this guy right here. [laughter] i refer to him as my big little brother. Thanks. I needed that. He helps me out, as you can see. He is very supportive. He accepted me right away and we get along very well. We support each other. We play off each other. We fight. We argue. We come back and laugh and hug and its been great. And i also like to acknowledge my administrative staff for all of their support. Theyre all doing a great job. They make me look well. They answer those questions for me immediately. And i just want to say to the audience, especially the members behind me, stay focused, prepare yourself, so when that opportunity presents itself, youre ready. And continue, once you get the badge, dont take it for granted. Continue to be the best example of this departments as you can be. Thank you. [applause] happy to answer any questions. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Chief williams, we are going to miss you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your service. Before we get into questions, i just wanted to say that. Thank you. Youve been a role model for many in the department and youll continue to be someone that we with respect and think of and remember and wish were still here. So i hope you enjoy your retirement. Thank you. You had some questions, Vice President . Thank you very much, president cleveland. Thank you very much, chief williams, for your comprehensive report. Since you have announced your retirement, i feel that i should take it easy on you a little bit. [laughter] she is still on the payroll. [laughter] yeah. I understand it. But part of the report that weve had over the years is the report that this commissioner, as you take this department very serious and at any one point ive always been table ask questions and the great thing about yourself is asking those questions to pick up the phone, to text you, because you always do respond as well. I dont want to get emotional as well. But i am so happy for you. In terms of your retirement announcement. And thank you so much for serving this Fire Department and serving the city and county of San Francisco as well. I know that well see each other in our postfire life but im so delighted of your retirement and retirement announcement. Best of luck to you, your family and to your loved ones. Thank you, chief. Thank you, Vice President. Chief, you had some comments. Thank you, president cleaveland. I wanted to wish you the best in your retirement. Cant express how proud i amount of you. We didnt know one other in 1990 but became immediate friends and supporters. We both had challenging paths. Yours i would say is even more difficult than mine at times and to be able to appoint you, along the line, to deputy chief over training and then to deputy chief, was really gratifying to me. You deserved each one of your appointments throughout your amazing career. Because you have some very unique qualities of being able to lead by example. To always be respectful of people. And as one of commissioners just said, be a true role model for so many people. So, i wish you the best. 28 years, fearly 28 years with this department and then 30 years with the city. You will do well and i know i expressed yesterday at the staff meeting when deputy chief williams officially announced your retirement at tend of the month, that it was fot an easy it was never an easy academy, but many of us would, on fridays, be able to have a carefree weekend, at least to blow off a little steam and before Getting Started and hitting the books to get together. None of us there might have been one or two, but there were no women in the department at the time that had children. I had no children at the time. And so when many of us would getting to briefly on a friday evening, chief williams couldnt go because she had a 3yearold boy and 5yearold boy. And that on top of a very challenging division of training was something that i really admired in you and think you had a great career here. But youve also been an incredible mother to your two boys who i know youre proud of. One is a member of the Oakland Police department and one becomes a member of the Oakland PoliceDepartment Next month. I think they learned a lot from you. They should have got into fire. [laughter] theyre very proud and theyre following in your footsteps of Public Safety and service to the community. So, i wish you well. The three of us did work very well as a team. The two of you are similar in many ways, but youre also very different. And that was a great blend for me. We had a lot of serious times together. We helped each other through some tough times. But then we had a lot of fun as well. And i think that blend made it work. So congratulations. Very, very proud of you and wish you nothing but the best. Thank you, chief. Commissioner cuddington. I know youre scared. [laughter] oh. What can i say . You just have such affection for you and the way you comport yourself and the fabulous job that you do and everyone says that you are a role model. You know, role models are not just for people who are younger or the same age. But i can have a role model, too. And so youre one of mine as well. Thank you. So, i know that you have a gorgeous grandson. Youll be spending more time with him. And when you told me that your two sons were going to the oakland p. D. , i was like whats their phone numbers . [laughter] i need to call them up and say they made a mistake. They need to come over here. I wish you the best. Ive been retired for nine years and i love it like a person and you will, too. All right. Ill talk to you later. That is good news for both of us, i guess. Thank you, commissioner cuddington. Commissioner hareman . Thank you, mr. President. I remember when you first received your appointment. And youre very approachable, outgoing person. And like ed lee. That doesnt mean that you are a pushover. You know, ive seen over the years how efficient you are at your job. And hopefully i brought my 2yearold for a couple of weeks ago. [please stand by] it is possible that we will have four different mayors as part of this process if this thing is approved in june, right . So im not sure how that affects this process, but it needs to be stated. I think you need to anticipate that that may be how that affects you, you need to understand that. Our current mayor is also a former Fire Commissioner, as i understand it, so theres also that that i wanted to put out there as a possibility. One of the things that i want to understand because i dont like being put in the position every year to where the mayor is coming to understand whoever the mayor is is coming to us and saying hey, we want a reduction of staff and then, along with the Police Department, these life safety departments with probably the most department most important departments in the city. Theyre the ones that save lives. I dont like being put in the position every year, which is understandable, but theyre telling us to find ways to reduce staff, find ways to, you know, reduce your budget. And im wondering every time i see your presentations, im wondering if theres anything that the department could be doing to protect against that every year. Its in my opinion, its coming up with the best arguments when approached by the Mayors Office, and its also understanding fully understanding where our resources are going, and the chief and i had several discussions at which youve been a part of on Department Resources and tracking resources in this department, and specifically, on the issue of which id like more information on, is the issue of the station 49 and the the paramedics. That was a station at or not a station, but a job that originally 20 years ago, exactly 20 years ago, was done by the department of health. And the department of health has today a budget of 2. 3 billion, and they are anticipated from most recent reports to be almost 700 million in deficit. Just from the department of hea health, thats almost 3 million. Our budget is about 380 million. So i want to ask you, chief, when the Department Gave us station 49 and all of the paramedics, did was did our budget reflect that, and it reflected that over the years . There are now neighborhoods that exit that didnt exist when i was growing up in the city. So has our growth been reflected in our budget on an annual basis . And when we received station 49, did we receive also a massive increase in our budget. Did we justify a big increase in our budget, and if we didnt, we should be saying that. The department of health is important, but there are also, as we see with ems 6, there are new programs here in San Francisco that are being developed that in my opinion and i love ems 6. I think it needs to grow, but its a program that we also inherited because another Department Im not picking out any particular department, but other departments in this city werent doing the job they should have been doing, so now, were doing these jobs, and i think we should be doing this job, but does our budget reflect it . So id like more analysis around that particular issue because i dont want to go back to the Mayors Office and ever have to hear that we have to reduce our budget. Also on the issue of resources, where are our resources being spent . Are there outliers on our resources . The homeless in San Francisco or that population is an outlier. Were going to see that in the next few quarters, i anticipate, because were now doing a better job of trying to understand where resources should be going, but these are questions we need to be asking in the new year, so when the mayor asks us to reduce or budget, we can say well, mr. Mayor, madam mayor, whoever it is, were now doing homeless were doing some type of Homeless Outreach or our services are now, you know, expanding in all of these different ways. I dont know but just in the recent and maybe its just this time of year, but theres been a lot of calls related to pg e. So maybe its annual. Im not sure if its just this time of year that this happens. I dont know. But what are these outliers . Are we using this information and are we building the best budgets when it comes to budget time . Id like more information on the station 49 hander and how its reflected in our budget, and how its reflected in their budget, as well. I appreciate the job that you do, mr. Corso. I dont know how the city could possibly be in a deficit given the place in our economy is with our unemployment at 4. 1 . I can only imagine the problems were going to have when we hit that downturn, because winter is coming. Absolutely. Thank you for your comments, and you touched on a lot of things, so if im missing anything, please let me know. To answer your question, i dont think we can get out of being asked for reductions up front. I think those are general instructions to all city departments. Howeve however, in the past, what we have done and the commission has advocates we are in need of additional funding versus a reduction to any services. So what we have done in the past is if we have savings and revenues or something to account for a portion of our reduction, weve put those on the table, but we also say we dont feel we can absorb any further reductions, and these are the reasons why. Weve laid those out as part of our budget submission. So i think its an ongoing conversation can the Mayors Office, and they kind of emphasized this, that Even Department submitted what their target reduction was, that still wouldnt address the entire deficit problem thats being proposed. So its an ongoing conversation with the mayor offis office, we discussed those kind of things. So thats a discussion that well continue to have past the february deadline. With regards to station 49, i think it was trrd i dont have any information on the budget back then, but station 49, what that Ambulance Service looked like at that time is significantly different than what it looks like now, because those ambulances went into fire stations. The number of ambulances, the number of calls was dramatically less than what we have now. Especially in recent years, weve had dramatic increases in staff. So outside of the inflation, just the department and ems the department has now as compared to what it had originally was far greater than what the original amount was. And thats something were continuing to work with, as we havent seen call volumes slow down at all, we continue to work with the mayor office in response to that, in order to provide an adequate response time. We need to be properly resources from an ems perspective. And if i could mention quickly, thats an excellent point, but whether ems was a part of the department of health or the department, that growth would have been there any way. So if it was still in the department of health, that would be in the department of health budget, and i want to make sure that we have received that growth as well because we have taken on this and i believe that obviously, we its natural. It makes sense that we would have that. But i want to make sure we get the budget that reflects that growth. And then, just in general, we do look at, and part of the Budget Committee, part of their work is to Service Different areas of the department. We try to get as diverse a group a possible so we have all ranks, all divisions, and we do a Needs Assessment and we look at some of the data providing on those specific items as far as additional funding requests to the Mayors Office as part of our overall budget. Did i hit on yes. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner covington . Thank you, mr. President. I will yield the floor to the chief of the department. Chief, did you still want to speak . At 11 15, i do have to part, but ill seek to continue because i know theres another item im meeting with the police chief, the sheriff, and our new mayor. I just wanted to pretty much echo what mark what mr. Corse had said. We really would alienate a lot of people if there was id love it to be that way, personally. Everybody else in the Public Safety must reduce their operating budgets. In a field of 55, 60 departmen departments, i think thats a request that theyre going to make across the board. However, its, to your point, the ability to craft a very good justification. We have in many cases, during many difficult years, with the assistance of the commission, to say we get it. However, this is why we feel we cant reduce or why we need more in some cases. Youre absolutely right. It predated me as chief, but it was july 1st, 1997 that we took over the formerly Paramedic Division and entered them into our department, and there was good reason for that. Along the way, there was somaics and pains people say did we inherit this huge monster, and i would say we inherit that was rightfully placed in the Fire Department. At best, there were eight to 12 ambulances during their peak period in the 90s, which to me is very surprising. We struggle with having sometimes 25 and 26 at peak periods, so weve done a lot more. It would be interesting to take a look at the analysis in terms of what the budget was then, but i can tell