commissioner alioto veronese? >> commissioner veronese: i understand we're going to be using paramedic larry to retirement, which is a bummer. he's a great guy and he's done a great service for this city. i just want to thank you, chief, for coming up with that program -- under your administration, certainly. it's a great program that we now have paramedics on bikes in the airport. it made me feel more secure in that airport because it's kind of siloed out there in its own little world. great job on that. larry's a great guy. really made me feel and my family feel good about having those paramedics in there. >> president nakajo: thank you very much. commission vice president covington? >> commissioner covington: thank you, mr. president. i just want to say that last week, we had a very reference and acknowledge our commission secretary, marie comfrey who really worked very, very hard on that retirement to make it as nice as it was. it is a great thing to see members come in and actually smile when they go out, as

commissioner alioto veronese? >> commissioner veronese: thank you, commissioner. i apologize for the late jump-in, but i wasn't going to say anything, but i think this is really important. this is a position that we all know is critical to this department. it'll be interesting to see over this time period of new hire how impacted this office is with -- with the physician missing, but doctor, as we spoke before, it's really important that we're not clinicians up here, we're not doctors. our knowledge base is limited as to exactly what this department needs, so your input is also greatly appreciated in the job application description. it's really important. i'm curious, mr. president, to what our ability is to actually recruit specific people as opposed to -- for such a critical position as opposed to just taking from a list of the willing who apply. i know that i've served on commissions before where we've put together a task force of sorts -- i'm not saying it's needed -- but to actually go out and recruit other people perhaps away from other departments or other

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 -

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: 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

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

commissioner veronese has d us. are there any other commentr questions other than that? did l chief velo already? >> no, we did not. >> report from administration, y chief jose velo on the administe divisions, fleet and facility ss and updates, finance, support services, and training within te department. >> thank you very much, madame secretary. and good evening pre, vice president, commissioners. [speaking spanish] >> there we go. >> this is my report for the mof october. like i've done in the t few meetings, i have a comprehee report for you. i'm going to bry go over some of the highlights e report. and i'm happy to answery questions at the end. so some oe personal projects i'm working om continuing to attend meetings tt the feedback to give the administration's view and visior the work that's going on. aattea workgroup that came up with goo, positive ideas that we are goino dial down a little more. the war supply committee. every time i n opportunity i attend the meetini attended this monday's very pose meeting with 798 on health chece have a really good ideas of wha

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

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

. >> commissioner veronese: i am trying to understand. when a member comes into your office is he coming to get a checkup or concerned about his job? >> well, the most common context in which we are going to see a member is in the context of return to duty. you know, 90 to 95% of the time it is going to be an uncomplicated process. the member wants to come back to duty. there is no reason why they can't come back to duty and so we facilitate that. >> so the percentage of your time is spent on return to duty and what percentage would you call that? is it 90% of your job is return to duty calls? >> i would say more like 75 80% just because of the fact that the end probationary candidate exams occur throughout the year. >> how much of your job is preventative care? >> since we are not involved in the actual care of individual members technically speaking, it is minimal. however every time we see a member for an examination for a return to duty, we talk about prevention. >> why is preventative care minimal using your own words as part of the

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: 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

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

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

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

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

veronese: in regard to the doctor's appearance here on the 28th. i would suggest that we converse with the city attorney on this. it would be unusual to conduct positive employee evaluation in a public forum. i do not know it is appropriate. it may or may not be. . >> v.p. covington: just for him to come and give a presentation on his department that he oversees. his evaluation will happen the following meeting, in closed session. . >> comm. veronese: that is an important clarification. i appreciate that. i don't wanted to seem like an employee evaluation. we are asking him questions and being critical in a public forum. i don't think that is appropriate, if we do it all. i am thankful for that information. i did not know there was a follow-up meeting where we could actually have cause two appropriate back-and-forth. . >> president nakajo: the reason why we instituted that appearance by the doctor is because of the favor of the commissioners in terms of asking questions, see the good dr. and having him respond. the presentation by the doctor is in

i appreciate there's an update to the drone program that commissioner veronese asked for, so i appreciate that being part of your report. >> chief nicholson: thank you, president nakajo, commissioners, maureen. so the command staff and i, as i told you the -- at -- at the previous commission meeting, deputy chief velo and myself and deputy chief wyrsch have been visiting the fire stations as well as having a town hall at station 49. we're continuing to do that, and we're getting good feedback, good communications with everyone, and as they say, sometimes the best ideas happen over a cup of coffee and we're really getting some good ideas and some good conversations have begun. so we're getting some really good ideas from the stations and once we get that, we'll setup a plan for command staff to go to all of the stations. members have until june 17 to apply for the committee and work groups that we are going to be reorganizing and reestablishing. we've had several committees and work groups over the years, and not all of them have been active. and what we would like to see -- basically, the

[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