Fire Commission - October 23, 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 5:00 p.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 Arrived at 5:27    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 Dawn DeWitt Support Services Michael Cochran Homeland Security Joel Sato Training Division   Assistant Chiefs  Lorrie Kalos Division 2 Steven Bokura Division 3   Staff  Mark Corso Deputy Director of Finance Olivia Scanlon Communications and Outreach 

 

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 October 9, 2019. 

 

Commissioner Cleaveland Moved to approve the above meeting Minutes.  Vice President Covington Seconded.  Motion to approve the above Minutes was unanimous with Commissioners that were present. (Nakajo, Hardeman, Covington, Cleaveland) 

 

 

There was no public comment. 

 

4. CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION PRESENTATION [Discussion] San Francisco Fire Department to present Certificate of Appreciation to Dino Medardo Rosso for donating time to teach Spanish to SFFD Members, thereby enabling our First Responders to continue to carry out the Department’s mission of serving All San Franciscans and San Francisco Waldorf School for donating classroom space so that members of the SFFD can learn Spanish, thereby enabling out First Responders to continue to carry out the Department’s mission of serving All San Franciscans.  

 

Chief Nicholson presented the Certificates to Mr. Rosso on behalf of himself, and Andrea on behalf of the Waldorf School.  Chief Nicholson thanked them and told them that they appreciate their time and with helping the Department do a better job of being able to serve everybody in the city.  Mr. Rosso thanked the Department for the acknowledgment and as well as the Los Bomberos for sponsoring him to do the work.  He also thanked Ingleside Police Station for continuing to offer them spade to hold their weekly classes and Lt. Baxter for being the champion for the program.  He explained how his program is to provide great language tools that first responders use when connecting with the community.  Andrea stated that it’s great to have a meaningful collaboration between the school and the city and she hopes to continue to build bridges, not only with each other but with all members of the city and the community. 

 

Commissioner Cleaveland thanked them for what they are doing and mentioned that when he became a commissioner, one of the things that he thought was super important was that the members that the Department hires should be multi-lingual, and that they have as many languages spoken in the Department as are represented on the streets and having this program is critically important.  He also acknowledged Lt. Baxter for the marvelous job he’s doing of getting the word out about this program. 

 

VPC thanked them for bringing this program to the members and mentioned that when she was on the Board at fort Mason Foundation the Waldorf School was at Fort Mason and that this kind of involvement is very much in line with the Waldorf philosophy. 

 

Commissioner Hardman thanked them both for what they do and suggested that the Department find someone that could teach Chinese, Mandarin, and Cantonese. 

 

President Nakajo thanked them and mentioned that it was one of the more beautiful exciting happy occasions of being a commissioner and with the Department as it's not unusual to strive and have relationships with the citizens of the City and County of San Francisco.  He added that very often, these kinds of relationships happen with this kind of activity.  Part of the longevity that he had was part of the consent decree and part of that was a representation of diverse members of our community in the Fire Department.  But equally, in terms of that, with the percentage of members of the public that do not speak English as their first language, he's learned over the years that if you are in trouble or if you need some help, it's reassuring when you can hear a firefighter or a paramedic or member of the department come to you and have some language familiarity just to kind of engage and to feel some comfort zone.   

 

He acknowledged his appreciation to Los Bomberos, Lieutenant Baxter and the Police Department. 

 

5. 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 October 9, 2019, including budget, academies, special events, communications and outreach to other government agencies and the public. 

 

Chief Nicholson’s report covered events and activities since the last meeting on October 9, 2019.  Regarding academies, she mentioned that 12 members of Station 49 started in the suppression academy this week.  On October 11, 2019, she and several of her staff, including Chief Tong and Chief Tangherlini met with the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation to discuss Psych Emergency Services and how they can better work together and collaborate on EMS Prevention on treating people that don’t necessarily need a hospital or an emergency room.  Other events she attended included a meeting with Dr. Yeh about community paramedicine, a meeting with Local 798 to discuss all sorts of issues, and an EMNS labormanagement meeting.  She went to the community health needs assessment breakfast, the welcome kickoff for the International Association of Firefighters Human Relations Committee Conference, the Great Shakeout at Rosa Parks School, where she thanked Vice President Covington for also attending and the Loma Prieta event that was held in the Marina Green and she was happy to see retired member Jerry Shannon also there.  She also mentioned that she attended the 30-year NERT drill anniversary. 

 

The following questions and answers were presented: 

 

COMMISSIONER CLEAVELAND:  Chief, you mentioned that you are having conversations with Local 798 regarding EMS and some of the initiatives that you are going to be putting together.  Can you elaborate without divulging any confidences a little bit on what some of these initiatives might be with Local 798? 

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  We are working with them and looking at the entire system and how it impacts.  They're concerned with the members, as I am as well, but I'm also concerned about being able to carry out our mission effectively, and some of that does include making sure our members are squared away.  So, again, we're looking at the entire system from the time of the call that comes into dispatch to response time, to on-scene time, to the time it takes us to get to the hospital.  We know, traffic is getting worse. And so we're using all these sorts of data and statistics to really drill down on our case in terms of what our resource ask will be.  And it's been a helpful collaboration in hearing what, they're hearing from their member.  We are going out to the stations and talking to folks, but we want to figure out how we can make sure we have a resilient workforce at Station 49.   COMMISSIONER CLEAVELAND:  Do you see this impact in the MOU or augments to the MOU?   

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  No.  This would be if we determined that we actually do need more resources, it would be an ask in the budget.  And so we just want to dial down on all the data, all the details so if and when we do go to ask, we are solid and we know exactly,   COMMISSIONER CLEAVELAND:  Just to the controller together?   

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  Yeah, exactly. 

 

 

 

 

REPORT FROM ADMINISTRATION, DEPUTY CHIEF JOSE VELO Report on the Administrative Divisions, Fleet and Facility status and updates, Finance, Support Services, Homeland Security, Training within the Department. 

 

Chief Velo’s report covered the Month of September. He highlighted some of the incidents contained in the attached comprehensive report.  

 

Chief Velo touched on some of the highlights of his report which included continue to attend meeting with workgroups and committees to get the feedback to the administration’s view and vision of the work that is going, he attended a career truck workgroup which came up with really good positive ideas that they are going to dial down, the Water Supply Committee, the Action Review Committee, the Mutual Aid Committee and a very positive meeting with 798 on Health Check where they discussed good ideas of what the hurdles were in the past and how they are going to move forward.  He mentioned that they are focusing a lot on succession planning management training.  He is also continuing to visit stations where there is a good opportunity to get firsthand information from the members and see what their actual experiences and issues are, and he is getting positive feedback. 

 

Chief Velo touched on Training, NERT, Homeland Security, Research and Planning Bureau, and Support Services, where he was able to announce that the Pier at Station 35 is gone and no more delays for that.  He mentioned that a bid for two jet skis will go out soon and six more engines have been ordered and are in the preconstruction phase.  He touched on the hose tower removals that were not seismically safe.  He stated that Chief Parks has been busy in her new position as the Chief of Health, Safety and Wellness Division.  He thanked Commissioner Veronese and his Foundation for the Peer Support Training Class they sponsored.  He described the injury analysis and data they are collecting to try and reduce injuries.  He also mentioned the Health Fair, where they gave out flu shots, nutritional information and came up with some additional ideas moving forward, such as working with the Cancer Foundation, doing blood pressure testing and diabetes testing.  He touched on the Mission High School EMS program and the NorCal Fire Girls Camp. 

 

The following questions and answers occurred: 

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Can you pull up the chart that had the pie chart?  Is it possible to go back to that?  And while you find it, have we ever done that before?  Have we done this analysis in the past or is this the first time we're doing this?   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Not that I know of.   

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  It's incredible.  I think it's great that you guys are doing this because I love the fact that we're gathering data to figure out what the problems are.  You probably saw this coming, but one of the injuries that I don't see on there that I think is important is post-traumatic stress injury.  And I'm curious as to if it's at all possible at some point in the future to see a chart like this that drills into the type of things that cause that or the type of incidents that the Fire Department responds to that are triggering that type of injury.  And I think that will tell us a lot about how we reactor how the Stress Unit should react to certain calls.  Now, I know it's probably going to be obvious. Right?  It's going to be children dying.  It's going to be stuff like that.  But I think it's worth digging into.  And I'm sure that data is probably out there somewhere already, but I'd be curious to see if the same stuff is happening here in San Francisco.   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Well, I think the Chief mentioned, and I mentioned too is one of the things we're doing is asking the Stress Unit, and now they have a light-duty person assisting them that used to be in the Stress Unit helping them gather this, the information.  As you know, and we talk about this before, a member reporting a PTSD injury on an actual report, it's very rare.  But how many times is the Stress Unit is actually helping those folks out there?  And that's the data we achieve, and I want to make sure that we get.  And also, anonymous, no names, but how many times this or that person, length of time, types of injuries, cause and effect of particular events.  We had a tragic event on Monday where two infants died, eight-month-old.  So we already addressed that.  We want to see what the effects for that is for those folks at Station 19 that went to that.  So absolutely.  It's just hard for members to report that on an injury report.  But we do get into some of that data from the Stress Unit and taking care of that.  So part of our process with them, and we had that meeting the other day, is asking them to provide that and track that information for us so we can have an idea of what we're doing and who are they helping, what are the issues that are coming up.  And again, no names.  Nothing.  Just facts, like you said. 

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Great.  Yeah.  I know that's great.  Thank you, Chief.  I appreciate that.   

 

COMMISSIONER CLEAVELAND:  Thank you, Mr. President.  I'd like to echo Commissioner Veronese's comments regarding the, you know, the training of our people in terms of what are the injuries out there and how are they being injured?  And the more information we gather and the more data we have, the better prepared we are to instruct them on what not to do so they won't become injured.  And I agree you need to add the PTSD to that as a -- as a type of injury --that our members get.  I'd also like to commend you for setting up, along, I assume, with Lieutenant Baxter, health fairs.  I think that's incredibly important for our members.  And I appreciate the station visits that you and the Chief are doing and the other brass, you know, 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 an EMS training program?   

 

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  So what's happening right now is a pilot program.  And so we need to see sort of the success of that.  And this is just one class, one, you know, topic that they're working on this semester.  Next semester is another more EMS involved.  So this is the pilot school.   

 

COMMISSIONER CLEAVELAND:  I didn't realize it was a pilot.  Sorry.   

 

CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT NICHOLSON:  So we really need to sort of see how that works, but there is -- I mean, there's certainly willingness from the school district and City College, so we'll just have to see in the future. 

 

COMMISSIONER CLEAVELAND:  I think it's terrific, so thank you.  Thank you, Chief, for your report.   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Thank you.   

 

COMMISSIONER HARDEMAN:  Thank you, President Nakajo.  As usual, these are great reports.  We love them.  The trouble is with you teaching Spanish, my son was very fortunate when he was in high school at Sacred Heart to -- it was just before he was entering his senior year to go on a trip to school to the University of Salamanca.  And when he came back, I think he got a B plus, which shocked me because they were having a pretty good time over there.  But a 17-year-old, and anyway, so they studied.  They did good.  But he says, "Dad, I didn't learn how to speak Spanish at Sacred Heart." So I guess the Castilian or whatever they teach you over there is a much different language than they learn.  But anyway, that's just a joke.  It was a comment that I'm sure you spoke a lot different Spanish when you came here coming from the country, just as people from London, they come here and probably can't understand us.  Interesting, looking at that pie chart, I look all the years I was involved with accidents and people being injured and health and welfare.  Matter of fact, I'm still a trustee.  I came back from the biggest conference held each year in the United States for medical and pension down in San Diego.  I think the number is like 7 or 8,000 of us that have the annual conference.  And so I do know an awful lot about injuries.  But the back, shoulder, knee, exactly the same as my union if I go over to yours.  I could probably come within an eyelash of the percentages being the same.  And I know when I was a sign painter, I was in the most fantastic shape at 33 when I became -- switched over to become a union rep.  I remember the last thing, getting a -- having a lower back and reaching, lifting.  We did a lot of heavy lifting.  In those days, we had to block and tackle when you're painting signs, not the elect stuff they have now.  I actually rolled them with a computer, practically.  But so sometimes the back injuries are just unavoidable, especially a firefighter reaching around, lifting stuff.  You could actually feel your back going.  I remember just thinking about that one incident.  And everybody in my shop, it's like you took turns whose back was out that week or that month, or some people just had a really bad back and it just almost never ended.  So, yeah, that's an interesting chart.  Some of the other things wouldn't be related to building trades or my union I can see, but specific to this.  Thank you.  I agree with the other commissioners, that's a great chart.  So happy you and the Chief put it together.  Thank you. 

 

CHIEF VELO:  And if I may, Commissioner.  Some of the things that we're identifying too are our lifting of patients.  Station 49, our members were helping a Station 49 unit lift patients.  So those are the things that we can drill them.  Obviously, there are things we can't help, but it goes with the job, the difficult situation where we find ourselves in hallways or whatever in the fires. But where we can, we can address them and give them training and proper techniques and teach them a little bit how do save themselves for injuries.  So that's our goal.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Thank you, Mr. President.  Thank you so much, Chief Velo, for your report.  And I think the graphics are wonderful.  Everything looks great.  It's very, very easy to follow.  I'm looking at your document and I see on page 21, there -- I'm talking about your division report.  There on page 21, there is an injury by rank column, and I see H-2 firefighters by far have the most injuries.  Is that because they are more numerous in the Department or is there something related to that particular position that leads to those numbers? 

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yes, they're the most numerous members of the Department.  And also, they're the ones that are doing most of these trainings and hard work when it comes to fighting fires and lifting objects, heavy objects too.  So not that our members of Station 49 don't, but they are particularly the highest number of members in the Department in H-2 rank.  Yeah. 

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  And the back injuries, again, are being addressed how?   

 

CHIEF VELO:  So now that we have this information, this data, now we can address the training.  So Chief Parks is working with Tony Boone, our occupational health specialist, with Stephanie Phelps, identifying maybe some training videos, some e-mails going to the members addressing proper techniques so we can put that into their hard drive, basically, and just start using those techniques to help themselves.  Education is where we're looking for them to be able to address that and let them know that we have this data, and showing that the data, and then these are the things we can do to help ourselves for that. 

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Well, that's very important because once you have a back injury, you always have a back injury.  It's never gone.  You know, you can accommodate it and you can work with it, but it never actually heals to the point where your back is what it felt like previously.  So I'm sure that those of us of a certain age will remember that when you were working in tandem with someone else on a physical task, people would say, "Put your back into it.  Put your back into it." And that is the exact wrong thing to do.  So maybe the campaign can be called, "Don't put your back into it." Just to let everybody know, you know, to remind everyone that it can lead to a debilitating situation.  So, all right.  And then on page 24, the ESER bond for 2010.  I see that there's an amount of liquidated damages that goes up to 489 thousand dollars.  Do those damages, any part of those damages come to the Department?   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Unfortunately, no.  It goes to Public Works for the cost.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Since it is the bond that resulted in the Department being given that money, again, I'm really trying to understand why that money doesn't then come to us.   

 

CHIEF VELO:  So we had a meeting with them.  Was it three weeks ago with Public Works?  And explained to us that some of those -- they can use for other bond work, and some of it has to go to them to pay for their services, salaries, and so forth that are associated with the work at the station and particular to, so -- 

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  I would like to dig deeper into this with you because this has come to us before.  And I suspect that accumulatively, we may be losing millions of dollars.  And we need the money. 

 

CHIEF VELO:  We do.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Okay.  So that's page 24.  And then on page 25, some time ago when PG&E announced that they would be having these blackouts, I asked how the Department might be impacted.  And so that leads me to the question regarding the emergency generators for Station 14.  Do all of our stations have emergency generators and are they solarpowered or are they powdered by some other means? 

 

CHIEF VELO:  All our stations have generators.  They're powered by diesel engines.  And they can last up to three days in a row without refueling.  And then we have measures in place to if that goes longer, we can refuel them back and keep going.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Right.  So I assume, then, that they are exterior generators?   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Most of them are, some are on roofs.  It depends on the facility.  And some are exterior.  Because they have to have an exhaust system and a fueling system as well. 

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Very good.  And you say three days.  Is that full light, refrigeration, everything?   

 

 

CHIEF VELO:  Everything in the station working for three days, uninterrupted.  That's the level of fuel we have.  And again, many of the stations have fuel pumps.  And we have methods now because of the threat that we have now with the power shutdowns.  Now we have  device methods to refuel those generators, you know, before three days happen, so we are one of the main departments that need to fuel.  So one of the discussions with city agencies, that we need the fuel first.  But we do have ways to get fuel from our stations into the generators if needed. 

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  That makes me feel very comfortable.  I'm wondering if there is a way to find out how many individual homes have generators because there was a huge article in the newspaper just a couple of days ago regarding regular citizens getting these generators for their homes.  Just because there needs to be some kind of information that goes out to the public regarding how these generators can lead to other, other problems.   

 

CHIEF VELO:  Correct.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  Yes.  Okay.  Thank you.  And, let's see.  Page 28, ESER Bond.  I can -- I can skip that.  Due to time, I will skip that one.  So I don't know which page this is, but it's from human resources the H-30 Captain position.  There are all of these positions, and then it says no vice.  And then there's a person's name after that, designation.  What is the definition of vice in this particular context?   

 

CHIEF VELO:  So if a member has either retired or promoted to a higher rank, leaves a vacancy for that particular spot.  So every vacancy, every filled spot, to fill a vacancy, that's how we relate it.  So that person is coming in to replace this person that left that spot open.  So in this case, you'll see Chief Rivera, his official rank, which H-30.  So now we have a new captain taking that spot for per the positions that were authorized by the city.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  And that's why it was confusing to me, because it said Anthony Rivera, and I was like, okay.  Am I missing something?  All right.  So this is -- 

 

CHIEF VELO:  His said rank was captain.  But he was actually acting as an assistant deputy chief.  But official rank.  Yeah.   

 

VICE PRESIDENT COVINGTON:  So, and then the first name is the person who is currently with the Department who replaced him --  

 

CHIEF VELO:  Yes.   

 

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Thank you very much, Vice President Covington.  Commissioner Veronese?   

 

COMMISSIONER VERONESE:  Chief, Commissioner Covington reminding me of something.  On the issue of, you know, in the past, I've said in these meetings that the Department needs to do a better job of advocating for themselves.  And I think that we're leaving millions and millions of dollars on the table by not doing that.  And the Station 16 thing, while that ship may have sailed because that's a contract that we, the city got into years ago, it's a very good example of a half a million dollars that could go to buy an engine, probably even a couple of engines.  Right?  So if we have somebody that in this new administration that is in charge of advocating for the Department when those contracts come up, that would be amazing.  And one of the things you had mentioned earlier is PG&E.  So PG&E is doing these rolling blackouts.  Right?  When these rolling blackouts happen, that's basically them handing off a huge expense to this department.  Right?  These are intentional acts where they decide to shut off the power.  Now, it doesn't -- the last two haven't affected the city and county of San Francisco, but can I tell you, if I was on the -- on the Fire Commission in Sonoma, I would be asking PG&E to pay the Fire Department and all those city services for the damages that are occurring for the expenses that are occurring in -- in the cities because there are increased expenses.  There are additional calls that were going on because people are stuck in elevators.  There are all sorts of stuff that's happening.  And so I think it's important that if PG&E is going to do these rolling blackouts and they are going to decide to intentionally do this, that part of that intention should be that they set aside some money to pay the city for the expenses that it is incurring.  And I think that needs to be a part of those conversations that you're having with PG&E.  It's a reasonable ask.  It's not an unreasonable ask.  These are nonemergency shutoffs.  These are intentional acts that are saving them money down the line because places aren't burning down or whatever reason.  So on the advocacy issue, we need to do a better job.  And at some point, I'd also, maybe in the Chief's report, like to get an update on the ambulances that are sitting on hospitals as well.  I mean, that's another advocacy issue.  We could be charging, and perhaps there's a mechanism to do that.  If there isn't a mechanism, maybe this commission should be asking the Board of Supervisors to come up with one.  But I'm sure if we charge a patient for an ambulance ride, we can charge a hospital for sitting on a hospital, you know, while we're waiting for someone to take the handoff with the patient.  And I just think that in 2020, these are things that we need to be thinking about as a Commission, and super advocating for ourselves, because I can tell you, DPW does a damn good job advocating for themselves.  Right?  They manage somehow to get a half a million dollars out of the Fire Department's hands that are going into their hands for a job that's a Fire Department job.  Maybe we should hire that guy over at DPW because he's doing a bang-up job to come over here and advocate for us.  So I'm hoping in 2020 that -- that we do a better job at this, and that we as a Commission start to see this stuff.  Thanks, Chief.    

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Thank you very much, Commissioner Alioto Veronese.  Chief Velo, very much, thank you for your comprehensive report.  I just have two things.  There was a NERT drill on Saturday, October the 19th at Saint Ignatius.  Did you want to comment on how well that drill went or some remarks in terms of it?   

 

CHIEF VELO:  That's the semi-annual drill they do.  It coincides with both of the earthquakes that we have had in the history in San Francisco.  Very well attended.  Chief Nicholson, Chief Wyrsch, myself, other command staff.  And the director of DM was there as well too. A lot of volunteers were there.  798 provided lunch for the volunteers.  It was a very well attended event.  And also, we were able to almost get a commitment from SI to continue to do this over there.  They were very happy to do it there.  They were very pleased with that. They actually approached us to kind of get the idea of getting NERT into their school and how we can do that, so we're going to meet with them in the future and have ideas there for, but having that relationship with SI and having that large campus, at least to be able to do drills in separate locations and NERT volunteers simulate going from house to house instead of, you know, doing it live.   They have a large campus that we can do that, so it was a great drill.   

 

PRESIDENT NAKAJO:  Thank you very much.  I was very, very pleased to hear that Saint Ignatius offered up their facility knowing how beautiful and how big that campus is.  And so I'm very much appreciative.  The press was very, very impressive.  The papers' articles, pictures.  Pretty much a full page on the backside.  So, again, I wanted to get some feedback on that, and I want to thank all of the NERT volunteers and the members who went out there that day.  The only other remark is I wanted to show our appreciation.  I know jointly from this commission to you, Commissioner Alioto Veronese, for your support to the wellness program, thank you so much for that.   

There was no public comment. 

 

6. COMMISSION REPORT [Discussion] Report on Commission activities since last meeting on September 11, 2019 

 

President Nakajo announced that the retirement ceremony is scheduled for 11/18/19 at 4:00 p.m. at Headquarters.  He also acknowledged the great job Chief Anita Pratley did on her speak at the Marina Green during the Loma Prieta event.  He was very inspired by her comments.  

 

VPC thanked Commissioner Veronese for his ongoing support regarding the Stress Unit and she thinks it's very admirable and that he is quite tenacious in his pursuit of monies and training for the peer support group.  She added that the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Loma Prieta was outstanding and very uplifting.  You would think that it might be a somber event, but actually, we laughed a lot and the Saint Francis fireboat was there.  The mayor did a wonderful job as MC.  Supervisor Stephanie was there as well.  She added that there were people who had previously been in the Department who had time to speak as well and it was absolutely heartwarming.   

 

Commissioner Veronese stated the Fire Department hosted a Peer Support training, and there were about 30 members from the Department and the training was put on by the International Association of Firefighters.  He added that they flew in for the training and his foundation, the National First Responders Fund, paid for it.  He mentioned that it’s a great program and he stopped in at the very beginning of the program to say hello and he looks forward to doing as many of these as possible.   

 

There was no Public Comment. 

 

7. AGENDA FOR NEXT AND FUTURE FIRE COMMISSION MEETINGS [Discussion] Discussion regarding agenda for the next and future regular meetings. 

 • EMS-6 Presentation • Grant Writer update • Closed session settlement 

 

There was no Public Comment. 

 

8. PUBLIC COMMENT ON ITEM 9 Public comment on all matters pertaining to Item 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 

 

a. VOTE ON WHETHER TO CONDUCT ITEMS 9(b) IN CLOSED SESSION [Action] The Commission may hear Item 9 (b) in closed session pursuant to Government Code Section 54957(b) and Administrative Code Section 67.10(b). 

 

Commissioner Cleaveland made a motion to conduct item 9(b) in Closed Session.  Vice President Covington seconded, and the motion was unanimously approved.  (5-0; Nakajo, Hardeman, Cleaveland, Covington, Veronese) 

 

The Commission went into closed session at 6:17 p.m. and cleared the room.    Also present was Deputy City Attorney Cecelia Mangoba. 

 

 

b. CONTINUATION OF DEPARTMENT PHYSICIAN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION [Discussion and possible action] Pursuant to Admin. Code section 67.10(b); Govt. Code section 54957(b), Govt. Code section 54957.1(a)(5), the Commission may hold a closed session to discuss and vote to approve the performance evaluation of Department Physician, Ramon Terrazas 

 

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). 

 

The Commission reconvened in Open Session at 7:01 p.m. 

 

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] 

 

Commissioner Hardeman 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 7:02 p.m.