Fire Commission - December 11, 2019

 

 

The Video can be viewed by clicking this link:  https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=180&clip_id=3…

 

President Nakajo called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.

 

1. ROLL CALL

 

Commission President Stephen Nakajo Present

Commission Vice President Francee Covington Present

Commissioner Michael Hardeman Present

Commissioner Ken Cleaveland Present

Commissioner Joe Alioto Veronese Present

 

Chief of Department Jeanine R. Nicholson Present

 

Victor Wyrsch Deputy Chief -- Operations

Jose Velo Deputy Chief -- Administration

 

Sandy Tong EMS

Dan DeCossio Bureau of Fire Prevention

Khai Ali Airport Division

Dawn DeWitt Support Services

Michael Cochrane Homeland Security

Joel Sato Training Division

Natasha Parks Health, Safety, and Wellness

 

Assistant Chiefs

Lori Kalos Division 2

Brook Baker Division 3

 

Staff

Mark Corso Deputy Director of Finance

 

2. PUBLIC COMMENT

 

There was no public comment.

 

3. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES [Discussion and possible action]

Discussion and possible action to approve meeting minutes.

 

• Minutes from Regular Meeting on November 13, 2019.

 

Commissioner Hardeman Moved to approve the above meeting Minutes.  Commissioner Veronese Seconded.  Motion to approve the above Minutes was unanimous.

 

There was no public comment.

 

6 CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT’S REPORT [Discussion]

REPORT FROM CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT, JEANINE NICHOLSON

Report on current issues, activities and events within the Department since the Fire Commission meeting on November 13, 2019, including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other government agencies and the public.  

 

Chief Nicholson reported on activities since her last report.

 

Below are some of the events and meetings, she attended during the reporting period:

 

• November 15th – Meeting with Department Head of DEM, Mary Ellen Carroll and Chief Bill Scott of SFPD to collaborate and troubleshoot on issues, pertaining to dispatch, operations, training and other challenges and opportunities that they can work on together.

• November 18th – attended the retirement ceremony.

• November 21st – attended the Local 798 Toy Drive opening event.

• November 21st – attended the American Legion 456 Police and Fire annual awards event where Battalion Chief Cercos, Lieutenant Rosser, Firefighter Edelman, and Kirk Forbes received awards for outstanding work.

• November 22nd – attended the EMT to Paramedic bump up pinning ceremony.

• November 25th – continued budget preparation meetings.

• Thanksgiving week she participated in a turkey carving event at the Salvation Army and served breakfast and carved turkey at Glide as well as Self Help for the Elderly.

• The Nob Hill Association award ceremony where firefighter Raymond Ng from Engine 41 was acknowledged as firefighter of the year.

• Ceremony at SFO where a $40,000.00 check was presented to Tony Stefani for the Cancer prevention Foundation work by the SFO charity golf tournament.

• Spoke at the Hotel Council lunch and toy drive.

 

She mentioned that she, Chief Tangherlini met with a physician from UCSF to talk about doing research, training and the ability for the members, particularly the paramedics and EMTs to get feedback on calls they responded to, as she thinks it would a great learning tool.  She added that the Department released a social media policy and she thanked Chief Wyrsch and Chief Velo for working on that.  She announced that Dr. Terrazas has resigned and the Department will be advertising for that position soon.  She also announced that the retirement/farewell party for Dr. Green has been scheduled for June 20, 2020, at Moscone Center.

 

Commissioner Hardeman thanked Chief Nicholson for attending so many events.

 

VPC thanked the Chief for her report and for promoting that everyone continues to fight the good fight and to keep the member of the Department who has brain cancer in our minds, as well as other people who may be in need.  She remarked how she thought the retirement ceremony was a joyful event and that it was like old home week.  She announced that the toy drive is happening all around town and confirmed that all stations are accepting toys.  She congratulated all the members who received commendations.

 

President Nakajo briefly discussed the current situation in the Physician’s Office and confirmed that the office will continue to operate with nurse practitioner Stephanie Phelps and with the help of Dr. Yeh, who will stand in until the physician’s position is filled.  Dr. Yeh confirmed that there will be no interruption of services as they also have the ability to refer people out.

 

Commissioner Veronese expressed his feelings on how important it is to get the right person to fill the physician’s position as it’s a critical job to the department and to the mission of the department to take care of its own people.

 

There was no public comment.

 

REPORT FROM ADMINISTRATION, DEPUTY CHIEF JOSE VELO

Report on the Administrative Divisions, Fleet and Facility status and updates, Finance, Support Services, and Training within the Department and an update on the Drone Program.

 

Chief Velo reported on events in October 2019.  He highlighted points of interest on the attached report:  https://sf-fire.org/sites/default/files/COMMISSION/Fire%20Commission%20…

 

He talked about the progress of all the workgroups.  He mentioned that he attended the California Joint Apprentice Committee Conference and that they give funds back to the Department for training purposes, so every hour of training a new member in the Department in the first three years on the job, the department gets $2.25 back to invest in training.  Chief Velo explained that they had a visit from the Insurance Service Officer Inspector, who rates the department based on several factors; apparatus, training, water supply, and the Department was rated the highest possible rating of number 1.  He announced that Captain Brice Peoples was selected as the new special projects officer.  He mentioned that in-service training for the month included rope rescue and confined space rescue classes and they are currently completing the module of PG&E and live burn emergencies.  He added that NERT has been very busy.  He touched on the Bureau of Research and Planning, Health, Safety and Wellness Division, and the MOU with the SPCA for companion animal visits through the firehouses and Station 49.

 

Chief Cochrane gave an update on the Drone Program by stating it is moving forward.  Operationally, they want to try to et the most members training to cover the city on a day to day bases and they issued a general order looking for members of the Department that want to become pilots and that aren’t on specialized apparatus and approved 14 interested members.  He added that the next step is to find a training program and school and approval from OCA.

 

The following questions and answers took place:

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Chief Cochrane, on the drone stuff, so you identified a drone that you want to purchase, and it is currently being posted with the city agency that requests bids for these things?  How does this work?  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Yes, sir.  So this is per Mark Corso who has been coaching me up.  So because it's grant-funded, and we went researched far and wide the specific drone we want, lights, cameras, dual batteries, we submitted a specific model.  Apparently, it has to be, I'll say vanilla, just the specs.  And then it does go to open bid.  I'm not sure exactly how many days.  So we had to rewrite the specs and resubmit.  And it's not posted as of this morning.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  And what is the -- so basically, people -- it's like a request for proposal you're putting out for people to submit drone companies to come in and say, yeah, we have this drone and this is what it costs?  Is that kind of the idea?  And how long is that process going to take?  Because that sounds like an entirely new process, as opposed to doing like an exemption, like a single source exemption type thing and saying, no, no, no.  This is the drone that we need, which is what it seems like you originally did.  This is the one that meets our specifications.  This is the one we want.  There are no other drones out there.  It looks like Mr. Corso -- 

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Yes, sir.  I understand.  I'm going to have to refer to the CFO on that if you don't mind.

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  I know that these city processes for purchasing can be --

 

DEPUTY DIRECTOR CORSO:  Absolutely.  Good morning, Commissioners.  Mark Corso, Finance and Planning.  Yes.  Due to the funding source being a federal Homeland Security grant, we cannot specify a sole source for this.  So we do have to bid it out.  This would be a little different if we're just talking about our general budget, operating budget.  But we have as Chief Cochrane had mentioned, we have thoroughly reviewed the specs.  We want to make sure that we're getting everything that we need.  But we will be turning that over to OCA later today.  They will post it.  It won't be for -- it's not a very -- it's not like a construction RFP or anything like that.  Vendors that sell drones can submit a bid with their model and their pricing.  And then it's -- can be rather pretty straightforward.  We just want to ensure in our specifications that the equipment that's being submitted meets our needs, and so that's why it's taking a little longer for a thorough review of the specs.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Once it's submitted, I mean, so give us a timeline.  Do we anticipate purchasing a drone within the next month, six months, a year?  

 

DEPUTY DIRECTOR CORSO:  Oh, absolutely.  It would be in the next few weeks we would anticipate it.  It would be generally a pretty straightforward process assuming that whoever submitted the selected bid was a city vendor, they could issue a purchase order.  There's not a lot -- there's very minor contracting, anything like that, that's required, so it's a pretty straightforward commodity purchase there.

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Assuming they are a city vendor?  

 

DEPUTY DIRECTOR CORSO:  Correct.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  If they're not a city vendor, then there's a process to making them a city vendor?  

 

DEPUTY DIRECTOR CORSO:  Correct.  Vendors then have an amount of time to become a city, compliant vendor.  And if they choose not to, then the city purchasing office would go to the next vendor.  They -- it wouldn't be a case where we're waiting eight months for a vendor to become compliant.  They're given an amount of time to say if you're interested in pursuing this purchase, you have an opportunity to become a city vendor.  If not, then we would move on.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  And then -- thank you, Mr. Corso.  And then on the training side, you've identified the courses.  14 individuals have been preapproved to take this course.  Is this a course that is going to happen in the next month, two months, six months, a year?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  So we've identified a school, which just happens to be in Treasure Island, that does that.  So when we have the drone, we can then start training our folks.  So within the next month, we expect to start training those folks.   

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  So how long is the course?  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  So it's to prepare for the FAA test.  So there are two days, 16 hours of study, plus homework.  Then you get sent to the -- a local airport to get your FAA license.  Two more days of flying, because we want people to practice because we only have one coming out of the gate.  So that's daytime flights, nighttime flights, and a -- and a specialized course, which they have to pass.  Then they're licensed.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Okay.  So putting these two processes together, are we going to have a drone flying in this department by the end of January?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  First quarter of next year, for sure.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  First quarter of next year?  Okay.  Thank you, Chief Cochrane.  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Thank you, sir.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  I had a question regarding the Mobile Healthcare Unit that's been deployed in the Tenderloin by the Haight-Ashbury free clinic.  Have we seen that that has affected our, in a positive way, our call volumes or our response times?  Do we know that that's an effective model?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  I'll refer to Dr. Yeh for that one.  

 

DR. YEH:  Hello again.  So, the unit that you're referring to, Commissioner Veronese, is the HealthRIGHT 360 mobile clinic.  And HealthRIGHT 360 has been up and running similar clinics for some time.  They're not currently receiving volume from the 9-1-1 system, so we are not -- for instance,    9-1-1 ambulances are not, you know, delivering patients to this clinic.  So it doesn't have that sort of impact.  On the other hand, their mission, as I understand it, is to provide better access to primary care.  So that's a good thing for patients in that area who maybe don't have access to another clinic that they can go to.  And if that were to prevent a person from requiring 9-1-1 services, that would be a benefit to us.  But to directly answer your question, we don't strictly monitor the influence of that particular unit.  I would say anecdotally, I don't think that we're seeing a drastic impact on volume due to that.  On the other hand, their mission, again, is not to receive patients from the 9-1-1 system.  It's rather to provide primary care access, or non 9-1-1 services to people.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  So, thank you, Doctor.  I appreciate that.  So it brings up an interesting point, though, because not all of our calls -- and I'd be curious as to how the percentage of our calls require a hospital visit.  As opposed to, you know, you have calls that, you know, will require a hospital visit.  And then there are calls that should require some sort of physician but not, you know, an ambulance ride --

 

DR. YEH:  Right.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  -- by way of example.  And so you would think that this kind of mobile clinic could serve those types of people.  And I'm wondering if the Department is looking at those numbers and determining whether or not a mobile healthcare unit like this would be useful to the Department, especially now that we're getting into budget cycles and stuff.  And it seems to me as though the Mayor's office, and I'm just hallucinating on this one, but the Mayor's office and the Board of Supervisors would look favorably on something like this, the city doing something like this.  Now, I'm going to preface this by saying this is not our job.  Our job is emergency medical response.  But along with EMS-6, if we can create units, as long as there's a budget for it and it's funded, if we can create units that -- that help us down the line, then maybe this is something we should be looking at.  But we can't answer that question until we know whether or not this is going to be -- this type of service will positively affect the service that we -- that we provide to the citizens of San Francisco.  So maybe there's still some questions to be answered on that, but I do think that it's something we should look at and be prepared during this budget cycle to, perhaps, ask for money for.  Or for that matter, if we don't do that and we know that it's going to positively help us and provide services to the city, then maybe this is something we should be asking the Department of Health to step up to the plate and actually do.  

 

DR. YEH:  If I could respond, I agree.  I think it's definitely a concept that's worthy of further exploration.  I think it is also important, as you mentioned, to make sure that we are developing something that addresses a need that is unmet.  And that is also is compatible with kind of our mission and our both regulatory and operational environment so we can provide those services.  But to your point, yes, indeed.  If it's something that can help the patients that we take care of, absolutely that's something that's worth exploring.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Well, I asked the Department, if at all possible, to be ready to answer those questions before we get into this budget cycle, and it may have already started, but as soon as possible so that -- so that we can budget for that so that we don't find ourselves in a position of actually providing these services, which we kind of do already, in an unfunded type of way, which is what's happening and just causing more stress to Station 49 and everybody out there working.  So, that's my ask.  Thank you, Doctor.  I appreciate your input.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Chief Nicholson, you had input into terms of this as well?  

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  Yeah.  So a couple of things.  This is definitely something that we've been talking about looking into adding to the budget, all that.  And I've had conversations, quite a few with Dr. Yeh, with Chief Tong, with Chief Pang, about sort of what other model we can use out there.  And so I actually asked Dr. Yeh to do a couple of, you know, a ride-along with Chief Pang to sort of see if there's, you know, sort of looking at are there other ways to address this?  What's effective?  What's not?  I know it's been really effective to have psych nurses riding along with EMS-6, psych nurses from DPH.  So that has been done.  And I also know we are having a community paramedicine class either in January or February.  Once our rescue captain test list comes out, we're going to have people take that class, and they will be part of this -- this, you know, this program, this -- whatever kind of expansion we're going to do.  And, yeah.  I mean, we've thought about is it -- is it -- would it be successful to have -- to bring, you know, one of our sprinters out to Turk and Taylor and set up shop with, you know, a physician, a social worker?  Like, I don't know.  So we're looking at all sorts of different ways to address it, and it is a top priority.   

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Thank you, Chief, for being forward-thinking on that.  Chief, if you could address the issue of the -- I know the sirens went offline.  We received e-mails about that and there have been some media behind it.  Are those offline for the next two years while they're being upgraded?  So there's going to be no siren system for the next two years?  

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  That is correct.  They are technology from like, I want to say the 50's, and basically, anybody could hack into them at any time is what we found over the past year or two, what the DEM found.  And so they needed to be -- they need to be upgraded and taken offline.  So, yes, there's a hundred and I can't remember how many of them.  120 of them or something like that.  And so, yes.  They all need to be upgraded.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  And if you could reassure the public, which I'm sure this is true, that there are other technologies that we're currently using in other ways that in case there was some sort of emergency wherein those would have been deployed, that they will get notice?  

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  Absolutely, there are.  Yeah.  There's SF alert, there are push notifications on people's phones.  There's a way for the city to push out notifications like they do now with flooding in different areas or the like.  

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Okay.  Thank you, Chief.  Appreciate it.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Thank you very much, Commissioner Alioto Veronese.  That concludes your questions at this point.  Commissioner Hardeman?  

 

COMMISSIONER HARDEMAN:  Yeah.  Real quick.  President Nakajo, I read that article in the paper that Commissioner Alioto Veronese's referring to.  And it -- that mobile unit, I guess, exists because Glide no longer could staff in their facility were doing the same thing they're doing in the mobile unit now.  So that's why that facility exists.  But sounds like they're doing very minor, minor stuff.  Not really -- didn't seem like any Narcan was being administered or anything serious.  They refer to it as minor cuts and things like that.  So, and it seemed like a very insignificant number of people that have been served, at least the way they listed it in the paper.  But anyway, I agree, it would be a nice thing to have for San Francisco.  And I'm not criticizing it.  I'm just sort of trying to reiterate what I read in the paper, which is I didn't know much about it until that article.  But it was a good article.  It's nice to see people being helped that need it that wouldn't be going to a doctor, probably, otherwise if it wasn't for that unit, yeah, or to an emergency facility.  I only turned the mic on to thank you again, because pie charts and graphics and photos are, you know, like 10,000 words, or a thousand words, whatever they say.  So I appreciate that, especially in your report.  Thanks, Chief Velo.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Thank you.  

 

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Thank you, Mr. President.  Chief Velo, thank you for your report.  It's very comprehensive.  I do appreciate the organization of the report, and it's good to see this.  I just had some questions regarding the aging fleet of the Department.  I guess that would be on page 33.  So, I see that this is all broken down into apparatus that is one to five years old, six to 10 years, 11 to 15 years, 15 to 25, and more than 25 years.  So how do you prioritize what needs to be replaced?  Because we, for a long time, did not have a fleet plan, fleet update plan.  Then we had one, and then we were able to get, you know, quite a lot of funding for that.  But these numbers are still high.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  They're still high, and they're still -- it's going take us a while to get from the hole we were years ago.  The plan expires this year, so that's why we're drafting a new plan for coming up for next year.  And we're following the plan.  If you look at the 10 years below, that's NFPA guidelines for an apparatus to be in service, 10 or more to 15 will be in relief pieces.  And 15 or more should be just, you know, extreme case.  So we're still behind.  We're working on that.  Six engines and five trucks are going to help a long way.  It's going to take some funding from City Hall and supervisors to help us get to where we are.  So we're going to advocate for that in the next budget cycle and continue with the -- with drafting the new plan to make sure our needs are met.  One other thing that's going to help us out is on the black side, the 25 and older, the hose tenders we're getting this year is going to move all those away from the black.  They will be brand new hose tenders coming in, so that will help immensely on that.  And those are just specialized units.  The light unit and the PC unit are used rarely, infrequently, and we need to be more efficient on what we buy.  We might not need a whole truck or engine to be a light unit.  There might be a trailer that we can attach to a pickup truck to go.  So those are the things we're looking at, modernizing it, what's out there in the market nowadays, like more efficient, more cost-effective for us.   

So we're looking at those things too.  In regards to the other ones --

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Well, before you leave the hose tenders, so there are five hose tenders --here?  One, two, three, four, five.  Yes?  Okay.  So five hose tenders.  Have I heard from the Chief of the Department and other people that we need six hose tenders.  But at the same time, I've heard from people that we have no place to put them if we get new hose tenders.  So is there something else that needs to happen in order for these hose tenders to be deployed?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Well, some of these hose tenders will replace the ones we have right now, so there will be a place for that.  The other ones will go into relief if we need them.  We're operationally having meetings right now to look exactly where we're going put them based on space.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  That's always going to be the issue.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  -- a space crunch.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  There is.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  There is.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  So, you know, we as commissioners, we are always willing to lobby for the Department, you know?  It's like give us money.  Alms for the Department.  But we don't want to be put in a position of really pushing for something and there's no place to put it if we get it.  So I just want to be frank about that.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  I appreciate that.  And also, keep in mind too, when the new ADF facility opens up, that's going to free some space at Station 49 currently, which will be the BOE.  So we have some room there for the apparatus.  So it's a process.  And as you know, it's really hard to get space in the city for apparatus.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Yes.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  So we're looking at every single space that we can get to use that, and that will help us a lot when next fall when we got the new facility open and we can release some of the space that currently is just 49 for the medic units, and use that for apparatus at Station 49, the current (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the future BOE.  So --

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Oh.  Well, that's good to know.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yeah.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  So, this 25 year plus will no longer exist?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  No.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Take it off the page.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  We'll take it off.  Yeah.  Most of them.  Yeah.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  All right.  I also wanted to ask about the mass casualty.  Is that the mass casualty bus or what is that?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  So we have two mass casualty units.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Yes.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  And two mass casualty busses.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  So this is the unit or one of the busses?  Which one?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  The MCU -- yeah.  The MCU is one of the units.  Yeah.  Which is at Station, I think it's Station 39.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Above that MCU, two steps, you have mass cas.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Correct.  We have two of those vehicles.  One of them is at 39.  The other one, I forgot where it is, but those are the two vehicles we're talking about, mass casualty and MCU.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  Are both represented here?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yeah.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  So I have some concern about that -- because just about every day on the news, there's a mass casualty someplace in the United States.  It's really quite distressing.  So, what is the plan to update these units?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  One thing I will say to those units because they're not used all the time.  We use them for drills mostly when we have a major event.  They're still in great shape.

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  They're still in good shape?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  They're functioning properly.  Yeah.  If you look at them, they don't look like they're 13 years old.  They actually look pretty good.  But, yeah, we had to prioritize what is a more used apparatus?  The engine company, the truck company.  Those are the highest needs right now.  And as we add, and we had discussions yesterday, the Chief mentioned, we're also including a special apparatus every year that we can replace and have the cycle so we can replace them.  We have to always put priority on the engine and truck that they use every day for every function.  And as the budget allows and the money allows from City Hall, we can incorporate other apparatus that we see here on the list that we need to update.  So that's -- we're working on and working with the Chief and Mark Corso and make sure that all those apparatus identify.  And we have some already that we're going to put in the request.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  All right.  What you have outlined is a logical plan.  Okay?  I -- and I agree with the plan.  So when the plan is put on paper in January, I suppose?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Oh, in January?  No.  It's a work in progress.  We're going to work, and expires in June, so we have until then to come up with a plan for that, so --We have a plan for the budget and what we're going to ask for, but the fleet replacement plan, we're working on that as an update to the one that expires in June.  So --

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  All right.  So it expires in June.   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Uh-huh.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  And the plan would be in place in maybe April?  May?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  For sure.  

 

PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  So the push for new monies, it's going to begin fairly soon, though?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yes.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  Well, thank you for that response.  Then I had another question regarding -- oh.  The drone.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  So, Chief Cochrane?  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Good morning again.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Good morning.  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Chief Cochrane.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Good morning.  Thank you for your steadfastness on this.  And it's amazing to me that things take years.  You know, the most obvious needs, in order for them to be met, it takes years.  So on the upside, for the second drone, things will go much more quickly.

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  That's the plan, Commissioner.  Yes, ma'am.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  Well, I'm hoping for that second drone because this has been a very steep learning curve for us to get that first drone in the air.  And I think that we will all feel much better and also feel a sense of accomplishment when it takes its maiden voyage.  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Absolutely.  

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  Well, thank you.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Thank you very much.  Commissioner, at this point, if there are any other questions, I'll ask my question and comment.  Thank you very much.  Chief Cochrane, in terms of the drone, you were talking about identifying 14 candidates that were designated for training.  My question back to you in terms of operation and concept with what we have, is 14 members or is that number sufficient in terms of what you're trying to establish?  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Well, we'd obviously like more interest but it's starting out as a program.  Hopefully, it will catch on, but for us, it's like a TEMS medic or a K-9 handler.  If they're available that day, they get on the Chief's list.  And, obviously, we're going to want to know more as time progresses, but we have to start somewhere.  

So I think that's a good number right now.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  So in terms of just some information, I imagine that it's a position that would be titled as a drone, quote, unquote, "Specialist," or how would that operate?  Would that member be on duty during the course of tour duty, tour time, depending upon circumstance?  

Could you explain a little bit some process, if you have some process?  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  I'd have to refer to the deputy on that, sir.

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  Yeah.  I'm curious as to how we're going to get there since we're getting close.  And we're getting close to operation.  Chief Velo, did you want to respond?

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yeah.  We're having discussions with the Deputy of Operations.  And the concept will be that seeing as we have the K-9 handler listed on the Chief's list every day --we'll have some designated drone operator every day on duty that the chiefs can refer to and call for the operation.  We're still having discussions about where to locate that drone.  We're thinking somewhere n the western side of the city for the cliff rescues that we have there would be a good location.  We haven't finished that yet.  But definitely will be something that will be listed every day.  And having 14 will allow us to have at least one on duty every single day that can respond as called by a chief officer that needs it for the specific incident, and then used drone for that operation.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  Where would that supervision come out of?  Will that be Department Chief of Operations So that would be Chief Wyrsch -- in terms of coordination?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yeah.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  I think that's enough information that we can feel good about moving forward to the next step.  I'm already at some point in the implementational phase, and as soon as we can have that in some kind of working order.  Thank you very much, Chief Cochrane.  

 

CHIEF COCHRANE:  Yup.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Chief Velo, in terms of your particular report, there are certain things that came out.  One of the things that came out was what I call a newer picture of the new EMS station.

 

CHIEF VELO:  Uh-huh.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  I guess we identify it as Station -- what's the -- what's the label of the station?  Is it 49 still or --

 

CHIEF VELO:  Station 49.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  An in terms of Station 49 and in terms of that picture, where are we at in terms of implementation of that program, operation of utilization?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  So it's scheduled to open November of next year, 2020.  And we're still on schedule.  We're still moving forward.  Everything is working well.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  And then the reference in terms of what the Vice President asked in terms of rigs or trucks of parking, you mentioned the availability of old Station 49.  Just a point of clarification, is old Station 49 within our Fire Department jurisdiction still?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  That's correct.  So the plan for that facility is to become the new BOE.  They have to have some upgrades to it, and then we can have some apparatus and our BOE personnel there too.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Yeah.  You must have some perception because that was my next question as we talked about trucks and engines.  And as we talk about not a total replacement of it, perhaps parts replacement, which would mean to me if anyone in the Department visited where the current Bureau of Equipment is --it's small and old.  So in terms of that transition to the old Station 49, that helps me visualize larger rooms, more capacity.  It doesn't change the personnel numbers there, but it changes the atmosphere in terms of -- 

 

CHIEF VELO:  And we still plan to keep old BOE at 25th Street, but now we're adding that capacity of the new BOE facility, old 49 for apparatus.  We're, you know, we have a lot of plans.  The clothing depot is still going to be there.  Our SCBA can be there too.  So a lot of things that we can plan for that facility to help us.  And space is the key.  We're doing to have much more space to have apparatus there properly plugged in and make sure everything's going to be in good shape there.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  And you're going to -- and that's -- your reference to old Station 49, which will be the future Bureau of Equipment?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yup.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Just to keep on going, what happens to the old building of equipment that's stations off the freeway?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  So that one will still be in work -- that's the place where tools are fixed.  Little things happen there.  So that -- we still plan to use that building.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Okay.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Eventually, that building is -- has to be retrofitted and used, but until we have funds for that from bonds or whatever, we need to keep it.  So and we need that space.  We actually need that space.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  And that is all in the jurisdiction of Support Services?  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Correct.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  All right.  Thank you very much for that.  I also wanted to remark that the picture that you showed about the NERT training.  The picture with the mothers and the children.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yeah.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  That makes total sense to me.  If we really want to, indeed, community participation.  And if mothers are going to come, the whole object is what are you going do with your kids?

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yeah.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  And if the Fire Department, and I love that picture, it seemed of a welcoming nature just beyond NERT, you know, education trickles down to the kids as well.  But I know that we, our department is -- our mission statement is in terms of suppression prevention, medical EMS, but I know that even in terms of the services we talk about with  EMS-6, we're encompassing ourselves into needs of families in San Francisco.  And, again, Chief, to see that kind of picture with the mothers there, I know that the mothers are there with their kids.  I know they're concentrating.  And I don't know if you throw a snack in there somewhere or a toy for the kids.

 

CHIEF VELO:  I would say that the concept also includes them bringing potluck meals.  So every family brings a meal and will share it with each other.  Our firefighters will bring a meal too.  So the community is helping each other and they have -- because it's normally at dinner time when they come, so we have dinner with them.  

They bring meals, and we all share the meal --

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  All right.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  -- and the breaks we have, so --

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  I like that.  I like that.  That's what I call community relationships.  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yup.  Yeah.  

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  A long time, departments took years to build that rapport with the neighborhood.  That's what NERT represents to me as well.  Thank you very much for your report, your comprehensive report, Chief.

 

There was no Public Comment.

 

5. AMEND FIRE COMMISSION MEETING CALENDAR 2020 [Discussion and possible action]

Discussion and possible action to amend the 2020 Calendar to reflect a change of date and room number from November 11, 2020 (Veteran's Holiday) to Tuesday, November 10, 2020, in Room 408 at City Hall and adopt the amended 2020 Fire Commission Regular Meeting calendar. 

 

Commissioner Cleaveland Moved to approve the amended 2020 Fire Commission Meeting Calendar.  Commissioner Hardeman Seconded.  Motion to approve was unanimous. 

 

There was no public comment.

 

6. COMMISSION REPORT [Discussion]

Report on Commission activities since last meeting on November 13, 2019.

 

Commissioner Veronese stated he was recently at the Airport and ran into Paramedic Larry who will be retiring soon and that he's a great guy and has done a great service to City.  He thanked the Chief for coming up with the bike medic program.

 

Vice President Covington stated over the past week she has participated in the interview process of the Grant Writer and a candidate was selected enthusiastically and unanimously and will be starting that position in January of 2020.

 

President Nakajo acknowledged Commission Secretary Conefrey for all her work on the retirement ceremony.

 

Commission Hardeman announced that he ran into retired Chiefs’ Mark Gonzales and Raemona Williams at the 49er game and that they both look younger since they retired.

 

There was no public comment.

 

9. AGENDA FOR NEXT AND FUTURE FIRE COMMISSION MEETINGS [Discussion]

Discussion regarding agenda for next and future Fire Commission meetings.

 

• SFFISE Presentation

• Election of Officers for 1/22/20 meeting

 

There was no public comment.

 

8. PUBLIC COMMENT ON ITEM  9

Public comment on all matters pertaining to Items 9(b), below, including public comment on whether to hold Items 9(b), in closed session. 

 

There was no public comment.

 

9. POSSIBLE CLOSED SESSION REGARDING PERSONNEL MATTERS AND EXISTING PRE-LITIGATION

 

a. VOTE ON WHETHER TO CONDUCT ITEMS 9(b), IN CLOSED SESSION [Action]

 

The Commission may hear Item 11(b) regarding existing pre-litigation in closed session if it votes to invoke the attorney client privilege (Government Code § 54956.9; Administrative Code § 67.10(d))

 

Commissioner Hardeman made a motion to conduct item 9(b) in Closed Session.  Commissioner Cleaveland seconded, and the motion was unanimously approved.

 

The Commission went into closed session at 10:25 a.m.

 

b. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – EXISTING LITIGATION. Conference with legal counsel to discuss existing litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(a), (c), (d), and Administrative Code Section 67.10(d)(1) and possible recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for settlement approval or to take other action.  [Action item]

 

Existing Litigation:

Barsotti v. City and County of San Francisco 

San Francisco Superior Court No.:  CGC-14-537224

 

10. REPORT ON ANY ACTION TAKEN IN CLOSED SESSION [Discussion and possible action] as specified in California Government Code Section 54957.1(a) and San Francisco Administrative Code section 67.12(b).

 

11. VOTE TO ELECT WHETHER TO DISCLOSE ANY OR ALL DISCUSSIONS HELD IN CLOSED SESSION, as specified in San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.12(a).   [Action]

 

The Commission reconvened in Open Session at 10:50 a.m. 

 

Commissioner Cleaveland Moved not to disclose discussions held in Closed Session.  Vice President Covington Seconded.  The motion was unanimous. 

 

12. ADJOURNMENT President Nakajo adjourned the meeting at 10:50 a.m.