for the record, could we reflect that commissioner joe veronese joined us. >> commissioner veronese: i call request for approval of the minute. [agenda item read] >> president nakajo: we believe we have the deputy director of public works charles higueras. at this point welcome to the commission meeting mr. higueras. >> good afternoon president nakajo and commissioners. i'm charles higueras. i'm with public works. i'm the bond program manager for the earthquake safety and emergency response bond programs 2010 and 2014. we're very happy to be here. we will be offering you this presentation. it's been the product of a great collaborative with the fire department throughout. i hope that it will be evident to you a we go through this report. we'll switch to the next slide. i'm going to take this first slade. i'm going to ask matt to take it over. the catalyst for this project is in large part departure interest treasure island. to the development and anticipated for the island. we have met with title or the treasure island development authority and secured from them the affirmation, they

we were by commissioner veronese. it was nice it see so many members of the department turn out and honorees that received white helmets and to meet them was very good. people were very excited to see the photograph that he took. very talented man. lot of us miss him very much. i knew him in another context and also met him again when i joined the fire commission. it was a really wonderful evening. we need these opportunities to get together and just to have a good time. i know the retirement of our current chief of the department, we will be gathering once again with music and fanfare and all of that. i look forward to it. thank you all very much. >> president nakajo: thank you. commissioner veronese. >> commissioner veronese: you want to thank the individuals who participated in the pier support on tuesday. thank you chief for that. it was a fruitful meeting. i think we're slowly making progress. i think that in the next two or three months we should have pretty good outline what a good pier support unit should look

[applause] >> commissioner vernoses -- veronese, cleaeland -- we are joined by both of our captains. and all of the members. thank you. [applause] >> they were very patient during the time this is under construction, in this area did not lose any of the members. we just redistributed and we are able to keep up with the response time. everyone is really glad that they are back here. this is our largest station. it houses an engine, which is an officer and three members, and a truck which is an officer in four members. it has room for growth. it also has our division house, and the city itself, and the fire department is divided into two divisions. this is division two, and the other division is 19th and folsom. during the workweek, or 24/7, the city is bifurcated in those division chiefs. we have michael in division today. [applause] >> they oversee the strategy, tactics, and operations for the city under the direction of the deputy chief of operations. it's 21,000 plus square feet. i still haven't visited it entirely since it has been completed. our members just moved in on monday. t

>> yes. >> okay. >> thank you commissioner verone veronese. all right, he said welcome to san francisco. all right. this is hard for me to wrap my head around, why only 4% are fire related. is it that there are actual fires, but not to the fire department? >> i think it's to the good work of your fire prevention team. it's just the number of incidents. >> of actual fires. >> that are coming in, there is a higher percentage of medical related calls. >> 16%. >> yeah. >> so adding those two together because we're medical and fire, that's only 20% of the calls. >> that's right. >> okay. all right, thank you for that clarification. the ability to communicate with people in 170 different languages, you said there's a state contract for that? >> yes. >> can you tell us a little bit more about that? >> sure there's basically only two options for the translation type services within san francisco, so we use the contract we have is voyance and the way it works is that we are a prioritize -- our -- their services are prioritized for us. essentially the w

commissioner veronese. >> thank you mr. president. there are two items i'm currently tracking. i know that the commission passed a resolution, i believe it was back in october about the peer support unit and the peer support unit has been meeting regularly. i have been a part of this discussion and they're coming up with some good stuff. i'm not tracking this for the next meeting or the next, but in the next month and a half to two months, i would love with the permission of the chief, to have the department report on the progress from the peer support unit, so we as a commission know. i know that the report was due 100 days from the department, and it's clearly taking longer and it's important work. i love to get an update to the commission so that you all know what's been happening on an issue that we have voted on. second issue as important, we received a report presentation from the fire cancer prevention people, if not a month ago, several months ago. i believe it is important that the department or perhaps the commission act on this particular issue. we have heard from th

so, when commissioner veronese and i toured, it was quite educational. that was when you first came on the commission, i think. yeah, so the big problem then was that there was a training program and people were leaving for a higher paid job in the bay area. has that been -- it's been satisfied where if they sign up and commit to training, they have to commitme for a certain amount of time? >> you can leave if it doesn't work out, but things have been pretty steady, i would say, since i've been there. you know, part of it is that we have -- you know, we're going to have 50% of our staff, dispatch staff having under five years. we have a lot of new dispatchers on the team. there's positives to that and also challenges. it means we need increase -- we need to pay more attention to supervision, so we have less experienced dispatchers and training. although i will say that we do dispatcher of the month and we do accommodations all the time, and we seen some amazing, io iowa -- amazing work by our rookie dispatchers. there is the new group that's coming in or

commissioner veronese? >> commissioner veronese: i remember i went along on a ride along with you, and i don't know if you remember this, but roc rocco utilized us, and i got to interact with him and he answered a couple questions. after my ride along, i professed my love for this program. i have a statement, and it's not directed at you, but at other departments. i strongly believe that this program exists because other departments are failing us. with that, i strongly believe that you're doing god's work. a couple of questions. i know we had some new hires coming out of the last budget, and that just goes to show the good job that you're doing. i'm curious as to why each of the hires are captains. i wouldn't be doing my job if i didn't ask the obviously question that why everybody that's being hired into this program is a captain person? >> i can answer that and then i'll hand it over to chief pang. one of the important design aspects is we need people to ask as supervisors when they arrive on scene with

thank you, commissioner veronese. one of the things that we've learned is it's about the multiagency coordination. i do not think that at this time that that's an overriding need for us to independently do something. i would emphasize and assure you that it is something that we do undertake. it is something that we undertake with our partners in collaboration because of all the reasons that are sort of specified. we'll definitely take it up if we have issues that need to be addressed. thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you very much. we have other commissioners. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: yes. i'd like to pick up on commissioner veronese's comments on the mentally ill. what percentage of your clients are mentally ill people versus addicted people and whatnot? >> i was looking at our internal data, and frankly, we don't have any internal data that measures what percentage of -- of the individuals that are homeless. i'd say it's very high. >> and what i would -- we don't have an exact number

commissioner veronese? >> commissioner veronese: thank you for your report. you did mention that there's an 1 11% increase over the past month, but in the last year, it's almost a 300% increase. i know that i mentioned this before, but now that we have this information, what are we doing with it? did we notify the department of health so that they know what's going on? i just want to make sure we're making the best use of this information. so i just want to make sure that that's happening. and then, if you could -- and i saw this morning, there was a -- a press release by the mayor's office, that they've reached an agreement with the board of supervisors on the comprehensive mental health agreement, and i'm just curious for a future meeting as to what the fire department's participation in that would be? >> i can speak to that, yeah. do you want it right now. >> commissioner veronese: if you don't have it -- skb >> i can't remembe >> yeah. in the mayor's meeting, we had the doctor speak, and i spoke with the doctor afterwards, and i said he was going to get -

veronese: just on commission activities. we had the fire department hosted a pier support training. there were about 30 members. the training was put on by the international association of firefighters. my foundation, the national first responders paid for it. it was a great program. i stopped in the very beginning of the program to say hello. sat through an hour of it. it's a great program being offered. i look forward to doing as many of these as we can. there were three or four different departments from all over the bay area that jumped in on it. which is great. there's more money there to keep doing these things. i hope that the department we'll do some in southern california as well. i look forward to the department and other departments contributing to it and with their people. i was really pleased to see it was a good show. we'll keep doing them as long as people show up to them. the credit goes to the thousands of contributors that contributed to the fund and everything that- everybody that was part of that. thank y

. >> thank you very much, commissioner veronese. commissioner cleveland? >> my comments will be tame in relation to our previous commissioner's comments. the wellness checkup program that you are going to institute, is that going to be mandatory so each member of the fire department is going toff a wellness checkup annually in the future? >> that is the goal, commissioner. we feel strongly that we've had conversations with the members involve and our philosophy is if we start going to the program the more we get out and the more folks we get there. >> you'll gain is what you are saying so it will start out as voluntarily and then it will mandatory. as it was previously but wasn't complied with with. those workgroups you put together, how many different workgroups do you have? would you say 20. >> between 15 and 20, yeah. >> the key ones would you say are the top three key ones? >> the disaster committee is one of them. we have several ems workers too leadership and ems groups. we have mutual aid, apparatus equipment action review committee rules and regula

>> commissioner veronese: no. i understand this chart is probably as a result of something i asked for, and a lot of times when you start collecting information, it's not entirely accurate because you're pulling in from different places, and you have to work on those statistics, so sure, chief, let's get together and talk about that because i know that staffing is an important issue, and i'd like to learn more about it and really make sure that we get these numbers down accurately so we can use these numbers to report to people that need to know so that we can then begin a strategy to get these numbers down to -- so that there's no red on this piece of paper, assuming that they're fully accurate. okay. great. thanks, chief. we'll revisit this. chief, in regards to the drones, i wasn't going to let you get away with that. when -- and it is acknowledged that you took all the glory away from being able to announce that this is actually done, you know -- chief, i acknowledge that week after week, he gets up here and t

commissioner veronese, do you have any questions? >> commissioner veronese: yes, i have a couple questions from mr. corso. mr. corso, how did you get this grant? how did this come about? >> so this is a grant through fema that comes up every year, and we submitted our application. this is how we funded our new fireboat in the past, our new rescue fire and dive boat. this is an annual grant that the department regularly applies for. >> commissioner veronese: okay. so this is something that we know comes up every year and the department applies for it. >> correct. >> commissioner veronese: i'm wondering if we have a grant writer, if ten of these come up. do you think we'll have a grant writer by the end of the year at least. >> by the end of the year, that's our goal. >> commissioner veronese: and so i know that there are marine drones that exist, as well. are we looking at those capablities? >> at this point, no. i think to chief wyrsch's point, we want to nail down our program with this pilot and see all the impacts on training and d

commissioner veronese. >> commissioner veronese: chief, that picture of you is priceless. i'm not going to ask who you were on the phone with. >> with the chief. >> commissioner veronese: okay. that's a great picture to be used at another moment. getting to this narcan, july to september 2019, thank you, thank you. this is great information, and it shows that from july of 2018 to september, we've more than doubled in narcan administration, and it appears to be some sort of a spike in april -- straike that. it goes in april from may to 181, a huge spike. i don't know what's going on on the streets, but clearly, something happened at the end of may that could cause that to -- would cause that to spike, and i'm not sure if the department of health has this information but if they don't, we should probably give it to them because it paints a picture of what's going on in the streets, and it would be great to know what the strategy is because these numbers have gone up. it's gone up to 214 from then. is this something that we see once this strain -- is it fentanyl or opioid str

i appreciate that. >> sure. >> thank you very much, commissioner veronese. commissioner cleveland, please. >> thank you, mr. president. i would like to echo commissioner veronese's comments regarding the training of our people in terms of what are the injuries out there and how are they being injured. the more information we gather and the more data we have, the better prepared we are to instruct them on whatnot what not to do. and you need to add ptsd as a type of injury our members get. i would like to commend you for setting up with i assume lieutenant baxter's health fairs. i think that's incredibly important for our members. i appreciate the station visits that you and the chief are doing and the other brass reaching out to the rank-and-file on a regular basis just means a lot to them, more than you probably realize yourself. i appreciate it personally as commissioner. and one question, you talked about the mission high school ems program. what would it take to add a high school, another high school in town to ems training program? >> so what's happenin

veronese? >> commissioner veronese: can we see the -- >> yes, i will get it to you. >> commissioner veronese: then as far as the chase center is concerned, i'm sure you've run all the scenarios of having different events stacked on top of that one event, right, because you have the baseball stadium there, you have rush hour traffic, you've got, you know, god knows what other you know street closures happening on the weekend there. have you looked at the calendar and kind of run worst-case scenario of what that would be like? >> chief nicholson: yes, we have, absolutely. >> commissioner veronese: i have another thing and i forgot to write it down so i forgot it. i just remembered. in regards to the ongoing discussions you've had with the department of health on the ambulances sitting on hospitals, those are still ongoing? any progress there since our last meeting? >> chief nicholson: so we are gathering data around the time on task stuff and time at the hospital that we were talking about, but m

i see commissioner veronese's name on the docket. >> commissioner veronese: on the drone thing. give us who, what, why it was denied. who denied it and what is the impact much that? >> basically, i think this was started by supervisor peskin in the issue of surveillance, stopping pd and fire department from hashtag the surveillance camera for privacy issues. because of that we had to answer to the mayor and the city on every camera that we have in the department, for security reasons like we have in our drug cabinets that we keep at station 49 even to the cameras on the new apparatus backing up. we had to list every camera in the department. we requested a grandfather clause for this. there is a new privacy issue with the public. now we are asking for a variance and we have to wait for the city attorney's answer. we are up for any assistance that you have. >> there is a new law that was passed that requires us to report every camera including a backup camera on a vehicle that doesn't record? >> we had to list every camera the department has in operation on a vehicle or at a loca

commissioner veronese. >> commissioner veronese: chief, i don't know when you walked back in from the meeting. you were meeting with the mayor's office. if you caught some of the public comment tonight. can you comment on some of the challenges that the department is facing and reassure the public this is a concern of ours that we are taking seriously. i know if your last budget we ask for 20 hose tenders and we got five hose tenders. i think, frankly speaking, the biggest downfall for the members of the public, the biggest downfall with the san francisco fire department is our ability to adapt and to get the job done in any case of an emergency. now, i know everybody looks at us as though we do a very good job and we do a very good job. that is because we adapt. it is not because we necessarily have the best technology. it is a 100% testament to the staff and the experience they have. that being said when you look at the pictures what happened up in santa rosa with the neighborhoods devastated, the 1906 earthquake is unfortunately too far of a memory for the city and the people makin

we have a motion by vice president kovington and seconded by commissioner veronese. all those in favor? opposed? none. congratulations. madame secretary. >> item 7, commission report. report on commission activities since last meeting on august 28, 2019. >> president nakajo: commissioners, i don't know if you have any items. the only item i would like to remind us all, we have a date for the retirement, which is going to be scheduled for i believe november 18, which is a monday, over at headquarters. we're looking at a 4:00 start. the letters have been sent out. we'll find out who will attend, but that date is november 18. any other comments in terms of the commission reports at this point? commissioner? >> commissioner veronese: yes, i wanted to thank you, president nakajo, remiss in not thanking you for coming to the event on saturday and representing the commission. i appreciate you and thank you for that. >> thank you very much. i would like to acknowledge you, commissioner veronese, for all of the hard work and the success of that staircase event. i hit the stai