Welcome to public safety finance and strategic support.

So before we begin, I want to remind the public safety finance and strategic support committee members and members of the public to follow our con code of conduct at meetings.

This includes commenting on a specific agenda item only and addressing the full body.

Public speaker will not engage in a conversation with the chair, council member, or staff.

All members of the public safety, finance, and strategic support committees, staff and the public are expected to refrain from abusive language.

Repeated failure to comply with the code of conduct, which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of this meeting, may result in a removal from this from the meeting.

This meeting of the public safety finance and strategic support committee will now come to order.

Can the cleric office please call the roll?

Councilmember Tordillos.

Here.

Casey.

Here.

Mulcahi absent.

Councilmember Kamei.

Here.

And Duan.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I think on the work plants, we have one item on the consent calendar, which is a bi-monthly financial report for January and February.

Do we have any public comments on that?

No public comment.

Can I please have a motion on the consent calendar?

So moved.

Thank you.

Let's vote.

Motion passes.

Well, thank you very much.

And to item number D1.

Innovation and Technology Project Status Report.

There's a presentation from Collette.

Um Jesse Warriors and Shirley Duan.

Oh, Jung for that matter, sorry.

My bad.

Good afternoon, Chair Dwan, Council members, members of the public.

My name is Calet Tolfik.

I'm the Chief Information Officer and Information Technology Director.

We are here to present the project status update based on the recommendation from the 2019 audit report.

I'm joined by Jesse Juarez, the division manager for the project management office, and Shirley Young, the project manager in his office.

And with that, we get started.

Good afternoon, Chair Duan, Council members and members of the public.

I'm Jesse Warrows, the division manager for the project management office in the IT department.

I'll briefly cover the types of projects we manage.

Our portfolio consists and focuses mainly on large complex initiatives that meet at least one of four criteria.

The projects over $500,000, projects that have and require cross-department collaboration, projects that typically last over a year, and also high profile and/or sensitive projects that are sensitive and high profile to the city.

Across all of these, our role is to ensure projects are delivered efficiently, transparently, and in a way that best serves our residents.

The PMO ensures that city projects are well managed, aligned, and deliver real value to residents.

Better services to the residents from 311 improvements to CRM upgrades.

Our projects directly enhance our residents' access and experience city services.

Cross-department coordination.

Reduced risk to the city.

We identify delays and risks early, preventing cost overruns and minimizing service disruptions.

And finally, modernizing the city.

Key initiatives like the business tax system and learning portal upgrades help modernize infrastructure and keep the city competitive.

Ultimately, the PMO turns strategy into results, delivering better, more reliable services for the residents.

Now I'll turn it over to Shirley.

Good afternoon, Chair Duane, Council members, and members of the public.

My name is Shirley Young, and I am a project manager with the project management office and ITD.

I'm pleased to report that the PMO implemented 11 projects from the last time we reported to this committee.

These projects span across a wide range of IT initiatives which directly benefit city operations and its residents.

For more information, please refer to appendix A in the provided memo.

On this slide title PMO status update, we are showing total active projects led by the PMO and their aggregate budget and on-time success rate.

Twenty-two of 24 of our projects are currently on track or green status, which means they are meeting timeline, budget, and scope requirements.

We have one project with a yellow status.

There were slight delays selecting a vendor.

However, we are back on track and currently laying the groundwork to start the project.

Lastly, we have one project with a red reporting status, which means significant challenges have occurred that impacted the project timeline.

In this case, the path forward involves rebidding for the project.

This slide highlights three major project launches.

First, on the left side, the new business tax system launched in January 2026 replaces an aging platform and supports about 30 million in annual revenue, ensuring reliability and continuity for this critical function.

Second, the CRM for council and mayor's offices has brought 9 out of 11 offices onto a single platform, with the remaining offices on track to move to the new system by the end of the year, moving away from fragmented tools and creating a more consistent responsive experience for constituent communications.

And lastly, on the right, the SJ Learning Portal also launched this year.

It is our first centralized training system offering over 150 courses and helping drive compliance, workforce development, and employer retention.

Together, these projects show how we're modernizing systems, improving service delivery, and investing in our workforce.

I'll now hand it back over to Callan.

Thank you, Shirley.

Our IT strategic plan for 2026 ensures that all our technology investments are directly aligned with City Council priorities and focus on delivering measurable results to our residents.

At the core, our goal is to enhance quality of life in San Jose through innovation, collaboration, and more proactive service delivery.

We're also using data and analytics to promote informed decisions and implement AI in ways that it prioritizes measurable results, privacy, safety, and transparency.

At the same time, cybersecurity remains a top priority as we protect city systems and data.

Finally, we track our progress through performance metrics, dashboards, and customer feedback, ensures the accountability and continuous improvement.

The strategic plan is positioned to effectively respond to City Council priorities through actionable initiatives.

This strategy is then aligned through the IT annual work plan, where prioritize priorities are translated into specific projects, milestones, and measurable outcomes assigned annually to IT managers and staff.

We organize our work focus and focus on five key areas: community engagement, innovation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data, ensuring a holistic approach when addressing city needs.

Throughout, we stay grounded in core principles of equity, effectiveness, and accountability.

Finally, we track progress using performance metrics and dashboards by reporting regularly to city council, and this creates a clear line of sight from strategy to execution, ensuring continuous feedback to enhance services.

Artificial intelligence is a great opportunity to help us improve city services, and we are approaching it in a practical and a responsible way.

We focus on three levels of impact.

First, at the individual level, we are using AI to support staff in their day-to-day work.

This includes drafting memos, summarizing reports, and analyzing data.

The goal is to save time on routine tasks so staff can focus on higher value work that directly serve our community.

Second, at the system level, AI can help automate processes such as invoice processing and help desk.

These are areas where AI can improve speed, accuracy, and consistency.

Third, at the operational level, where more seamless government services can add more value to our residents.

This includes automating parts of 311 requests and supporting permit review processes.

In all areas, AI must be deployed responsibly, ensuring privacy, security, and transparency.

As part of implementing the data, the city's data governance policy adopted last May, we have launched cross-department working groups focusing on data infrastructure, analytics, and data literacy.

These efforts support the three core principles of our data strategy, establishing data as a service, focusing or fostering communities of practice and ensuring ensuring measurable impact.

Collectively, these principles form the foundation for a balanced and effective approach to data management and use.

This foundation also positioned the city to responsibly adopt AI by ensuring we have the right data, right skills, and governance for optimal results.

Our data and AI app scaling programs are built on the foundation of investing our people, process and technology, highlighting the critical role of training staff to drive process improvements through effective and responsible technology technology solutions.

We recently complete the third data up scaling cohort where 21 participants from 10 departments delivered 15 projects.

Also, our AI program is part of a broader citywide AI training effort.

At the foundation level, we have trained over 800 staff through a one-hour baseline program delivered online and in person, and we are on track to train more than 1,000 employees by the end of June.

Recent surveys showed that 85% satisfaction rate where staff felt empowered to use AI to help them perform their daily work efficiently.

Last week, council approved the formation of the Gov AI coalition as a nonprofit corporation, marking a strategic milestone in the city's ongoing commitment to responsible and forward-thinking use of AI in government.

Our Gov AI summits will be hosted again in San Jose and continues to grow, and we hope to see all of you in December.

We are applying AI in a practical way to enhance operations.

The goal is to create a more efficient, predictive and proactive way where system can identify service needs before they are reported by the public.

By detecting concerns early and routing them through our 301 system, the system the city can respond more quickly while maintaining structured and scheduled service delivery, therefore maintaining this uh minimizing disruption and downtime.

And last November, cameras were installed on parking compliance vehicles to detect potholes and illegal dumping, and last month we started a pilot to detect graffiti.

The program is being implemented in phases in partnership with the Department of Transportation and Parks Creation and Neighborhood Services.

This initiative reflects a forward-thinking approach to streamline services and improve customer satisfaction.

This concludes our presentation, and staff is available for questions and feedback.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Do you want any public comments?

There is no public comment.

Okay, I'm going to go to Councilmember Kamei.

I always have questions.

Thank you for the report.

And I guess, you know, as I was looking through it, um, a lot of progress has been made.

So uh thank you for that.

Um the ID IT uh target performance metrics.

One of the things that I was just sort of like wondering about, not being in your industry, is on the customer satisfaction of 70 percent.

I didn't know what to compare it to.

And so I just was wondering like what is industry standards as well as you know, uh is that a good thing, that a good thing, is that uh comparable to other governmental agencies?

I was just curious because as we look at these percentages, the um vacancy rate of 8% is very uh you know common.

They that's very good.

But I just didn't have like a comparator when looking at customer satisfaction Yeah, we looked at different sources, and 70 percent seemed to be the common standard for government in this in in customer surveys and in uh similar services that government agency provide.

So that was the baseline.

We couldn't find like an established standard where one organization said it needs to be 70 or 65 or 80 percent.

But that was the average that we've seen from different agencies comparable to our size.

Yeah.

I guess you know, one of the things that you know I'd keep an eye on this one, is that you know, as we're looking at customer service, not just for your department but citywide, and what is the expectation of the community?

Uh, this is one area that I think we need to be a little bit more sensitive to uh because I think that um even with the SJ 311 uh issues, uh they don't normally see it as a just technology issue because of the departments and and all of that.

But I think that uh to me I was thinking, well, 70 percent, I couldn't tell if that was a good thing, a bad thing, or why isn't it 85?

Why isn't it 90?

Why isn't it you know something else?

So I think that you know, in terms of if you're able to, as you're moving through this in the next year or so, kind of uh uh uh think about you know a little bit more context to it.

So yeah.

But uh with that, um thank you so much for for the presentation and um I'd move acceptance of the status report can I get a second second?

Okay.

We got a motion, and we got a second.

Well, thank you for keeping us uh safe in a sense through the cybersecurity, and I know it's is a difficult task, try to integrate the 311 system where I think we should have a a link.

So that way the responsibility, for example, on capital expressway would go to the county, because it belonged to the county, right?

Health services and so on.

Same thing with the state.

Do we have that capability at this point?

Because a lot of people don't understand what is the responsibility.

Some are they understand some of the responsibilities of the city, but they all understand the responsibility of the county or the state.

And if we can clarify that, then we can be the I guess the the central link that we can help them, even though it's not in our realm.

Thank you for the question.

Uh we are doing this manually today.

So if somebody calls for the county, for example, or or uh reports something, we we give them the information and sometimes we we call on their behalf to report the incident.

What we're trying to do is we build the 311 loss here to be able to scale where we can uh provide that connection to other agencies who have a system of that that we can interface with.

Unfortunately, a lot of the agencies that we deal with don't have a 311 system that can uh absorb the the tickets.

So one of the things we're looking at this year and next year to see if we can offer our 311 system for them to use for for some fee, so that way we can generate some revenue to offset our costs and also provide like a seamless service to constituents within the Bay Area.

But that's something differently, uh, I think of a high value, and also will help us to kind of uh measure how many uh services we provide in the city and how many we can triage to others and keep track of that as we as we as we offer that service to other neighboring cities.

Well, thank you.

I I would imagine you probably work with uh county supervisor Betty Young in order to get some of this funding or program so that way we can integrate together and I think is a huge benefit not only for the citizen of San Jose, but there's our many pockets that belong to the county as well.

I do have a couple more questions.

Um as the city of San Jose become the AI hub, how do we leverage AI to help us to enhance our efficiency or effectiveness and our creativity without being afraid that it's gonna take over some jobs, if you will.

That's a big question out there, right?

And and I know there's a lot of employees out there are having this fear that AI would take away their job, their jobs, and and I would think that AI would be a great tool, an enhancement, and actually in your perspective, would it create more jobs or take away?

It's hard to really predict what's gonna happen.

I think it's gonna do both.

It's gonna create new jobs and it's gonna be potentially impacting others if we if we if they don't get trained and be ready to transform their position to do something different.

And this is really the approach that we're trying to take is get staff ready.

So when when the as the technology advances, they're ready to perform their jobs with the new skills needed to continue to be effective in the market.

Surveys and engagement to kind of get feedback regarding their concerns, their risk, and see how we can learn from that interaction, whether with the community, and we did a lot of community engagement towards a lot of the AI process, especially the cameras that we installed on vehicles, just to make sure that we are in alignment with them, uh, understand the concerns before they become problems, and hopefully we can influence some of the direction strategy and policies to make sure that we were not waiting for something bad to happen, and we are we are approaching it in a more proactive versus reactive approach.

So I I think by by continuing the engagement, the training and the awareness, we are in a better position to mitigate or minimize the impact, and and and hopefully we can drive it where it it leads to more economic development and more uh advancements in in staff careers and the skill sets versus waiting for a detrimental impact on coming from uh outside influence on the city.

Thank you.

I uh I read a private report, it said that AI is going to be able to create 170 million jobs throughout, you know, the United States.

But I don't know if it's true or not, but um I would hope it does.

Um that would help all of us, you know, especially in the city of San Jose here.

Anyway, well, thank you very much for your report and let's vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you so kindly.

Second item today will be police staffing, expenditure and workload audit report.

Uh the presentation um today would be uh with staff attending would be Joe Royce, uh Gitanj Halikar, and Michael O'Connell, umza Kudoy, Paul Joseph, Gina Tabaldi, and Nate Bennett.

Good afternoon.

I'm Joe Royce the Otter.

I'm in the box with Getanjali Mandrakar, uh Michael O'Connell and Del Noza Kodoy Berganova to present our follow-up report on police staffing, expenditures and workload.

Also in the box is Chief Paul Joseph and Deputy Chief Gina Tavaldi.

This report is a follow-up to the city auditors' 2021 audit of police staffing expenditures and workload.

The objective of the 2021 audit was to review and compare the San Jose Police Department staffing spending and calls for service over time, including the allocation of staff by bureau or division and use of overtime.

It had 10 recommendations, including adding more sworn officers in the context of the city's overall budget, improving management of overtime, optimizing deployment of patrol staff by analyzing alternate shift schedules, tracking calls that would be diverted non-sworn staff, and reassessing how community service officers or CSOs are deployed.

At the time of this audit, nine of the ten prior recommendations had been implemented.

We're following up on the 2021 audit as the city council has identified increasing community safety as one of its five focus areas with the long-term goal that San Jose residents live in a community with a responsive emergency services and safe streets and roads.

And in addition, since the previous audit, the department has continued to face staffing challenges and has struggled to meet its goals on responding to calls for service in addition, overtime costs have continued to increase.

In fiscal 24-25, the department's overall expenditures totaled $561 million, an increase from around 459 million in fiscal year 1920, as was reported in the 2021 audit.

Budgeted staffing levels in the San Jose Police Department are lower than they were 20 years ago, particularly among sworn officers.

And recent turnover has led to vacancies and a decline in the number of active sworn officers.

As I mentioned earlier, the city prioritized increasing community safety as one of its five city council focus areas.

And the department has uh, in response, the department has undertaken several staffing and deployment initiatives to improve services, as I'll discuss briefly in later slides.

Reported three findings.

The first finding was that the department is using multiple strategies to improve response times.

Although the police responded to fewer calls for service in recent years, the department continues to struggle to meet its response time goals.

We found in fiscal year 24-25, the average response time for priority one calls was 8.1 minutes exceeding the six-minute target.

And similar to the 2021 audit, calls for service and response times varied across police districts.

The Department has initiated a redistricting effort and piloted other efforts to improve performance, such as piloting combined two-person cars, district wide dispatch in some areas of the city and others.

We do want to note that the current response time calculations include calls downgraded to a lower priority, which may not provide the most accurate indicator of performance.

So increase transparency and improve response time calculations.

And this we have in this finding we have rec uh we recommend excuse me, the police department include outcomes from its redistricting efforts and future focus area reporting and updating response time uh reporting to exclude downgraded calls.

Our second finding is uh the department continues to face staffing challenges and relies on overtime to meet operational needs.

Despite recent efforts to improve hiring and retention, persistent staffing challenges have increased the department's reliance on overtime to meet operational needs.

As I mentioned earlier, well, I didn't mention this part of it.

Although the number of budgeted sworn positions has increased from prior audit, the department had fewer active sworn officers and has seen rising separation rates among recruits and pol and early career officers.

We note that we noted that patrol shifts were routinely staffed on overtime, and overtime accounted for nearly one quarter of all sworn hours worked.

124 sworn staff worked over 1,000 hours of overtime in fiscal year 2425, which raises concerns about sustainability of and officer wellness.

I do want to note that the department has implemented new recruitment initiatives and retention incentives are included in the most recent labor agreement with the San Jose Police Officers Association.

Fiscal year 2425, overtime costs reached $72 million, a 53% increase over five years.

At the time of the audit, overtime hours were frequently spent on follow-up and report writing, often without the required documentation or appropriate supervisory approval.

In February of this year, the Department updated their overtime controls over follow-up and report writing, and ensuring those new controls are followed and monitored for compliance will be important given the increase in costs we've seen in the past few years.

To increase transparency of retention efforts and better management overtime, we recommend that the department augment current reporting with outcomes of current uh hiring and retention efforts and develop a process to monitor compliance with overtime approvals.

Our third finding is that community service officers continue to be a valuable resource for the department.

Since the 2021 audit, the department restructured its CSO program to streamline reporting relationships, improve operational accountability, and better integrate CSOs into patrol operations.

We found that unlike other areas of police operations, the Department does not track performance metrics to assess the CSO program's effectiveness.

We also note that addressing inconsistencies between the duty manual designated CSO dispatchable call types and actual field responses can support more effective deployment.

To further improve the CSO program, we recommend Department develop and track performance metrics for the CSO program and update the CSO dispatchable call list in the duty manual.

I do want to note that the second recommendation is not meant to restrict the types of calls that CSOs may respond to, but just to update the list of call types outlined in the duty manual that are prioritized for CSO response by dispatch.

A separate section of the duty manual describes other types of calls that fall within the duties and responsibilities undertaken by CSOs, and our recommendation is not meant to affect that language.

Overall, there's eight total recommendations.

We want to thank the police department for the time and insight during the audit process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

Paul Joseph, Chief of Police.

I appreciate the hard work of the city auditor and his staff and their collaborative approach to uh looking at all these issues, uh working with us to come up with uh recommendations that were workable and seeing where uh where our progress was on some of these things.

Um we do agree with the recommendations in total, with the one exception that uh Joe mentioned about um we want to align the call types that the CSOs go to without removing any call types that there are currently authorized to go to because we like the operational flexibility there, but that's a very minor uh point.

Um but otherwise we are we are an acceptance of the report as well.

Well, thank you so much for the report.

Do we have any public comments?

There is no public comment.

Okay.

I'll go to council member Kamei.

Thank you so much.

Um I want to thank you for for the report.

These reports are are so critical and and thank you for the um uh what am I thinking of?

Um the uh the um briefing.

Yes.

I have so many of those, it's just sort of like getting a little bit overwhelming.

But yes, the briefing was very helpful, so it answered a lot of questions.

And um, I just want to move the report.

Thank you.

Can I get a second?

Thank you very much.

I just want to say thank you for all the hard work to keep us to be the safest city in the nation.

Even though our staffing in the police department is about a thousand, um I'm hoping someday we'll get it get to at least 1,500, and then we can work towards the the 2,000.

And it's amazing that the same smaller geographical areas, like San Francisco, they have over 2,000 police officers.

And yet we are still the safest city in the nation for 1,000 police officer to include the four years straight in a row, um, 100% solvent on the homicide.

I know there's always room for improvement.

And I know that our police department is one of the most progressive in using less lethal force, being able to understand the needs of multicultural and ethnicity.

Um, and we continue to lead the nation on that.

And um I just want to say thank you again for all your hard work.

And let's uh vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you so much.

The next item is the fire department operation annual report.

Uh the presentation will be Chief Sapian, and Deputy Chief Aaron Feidler.

We got through pretty quickly.

Good afternoon, Chair, Chair Committees, and members of the public.

My name is Aaron Fryler, Deputy Chief of Operations, and I am joined by Fire Chief Robert Sapien.

We are here today to present the fire department's annual operational report with focus on call volume, system demand, and emergency response time performance.

The San Jose Fire Department is a full service all hazards uh fire department serving over 997,000 residents across more than 200 square miles.

Our remission remains constant to protect life, property, and the environment through prevention and response.

That mission is carried out every day across complex involving evolving operational environment and expanding service demand.

As an all hazards department, uh we are responsible to extend well beyond fire suppression.

We provide emerging medical services, technical rescue, hazardous materials response, urban search and rescue, airport fire protection, wild land response, and 911 communications.

Additionally, the fire department participates in statewide mutual aid, federal emergency management agency team responses, multiple service disciplines requiring ongoing training, maintenance of a variety of qualifications, certification, and licenses.

The fire department responds to a developing emergency and disasters across its diverse hazard profile, including San Jose Maneta International Airport, major event venues, hospitals, universities, wildland urban interface, varied commercial and residential structures, structures in fiscal year 2024-2025.

The department responded to over 11,000 calls for service.

For example, in San Jose, we respond to a confirmed structure fire approximately every 60 hours, and on average, we commit about 33 fires to each one of those structure fires.

So while we report 111,000 incidents, the actual operational workload and demand on our resources is significantly higher.

Over the past five years, demand for emergency service has increased by approximately 22 percent, while the city's population has decreased by about 5%.

Historically, call volume track with population growth.

That relationship that relationship no longer holds.

What we are seeing now is a substained demand for fire department resources independent of population.

This sustained demand places continuous pressure on the system, resulting in greater workload, reduced resource availability, and longer response times.

Call volume is not evenly distributed across the city, while the San Jose Fire Department is busy across the entire system.

Demand is heavily concentrated in the urban core, particularly in Battalion 1, which handled over 26,000 incidents this past year.

During peak periods, this demand draws resources from surrounding battalions into our city's core.

That redistribured of resources in other areas increases travel distance for subsequent calls.

This heat map illustrates call density across the city with red indicating the highest concentration of incidents.

What this shows operationally is this substained demand in the core that continuously commits fire department resources.

As units are assigned to incidents, they become unavailable for the next call, forcing responses from more distant locations.

This is where call volume directly impacts travel time and overall response performance.

When we look at call types, the distribution remains constant year over year with no significant shifts.

Emerging medical calls continue to represent the majority of our workload at over 60%.

This consistently tells us that the increase in demand is not driven by one category.

It is a system-wide growth across all incident types.

It is important to note that while fire represents only four fires only represent 4.3% of total incidents.

We are such a busy system.

This represents an average of over 13 fires per day.

Over the past five years, EMS call volume has increased by nearly 20%, while all other call types have also increased by more than 13%.

While EMS demand has stabilized in the last year, it remains at an elevated level.

This sustained volume continues to commit resources for extended durations, particularly when transport delays occur.

The result is reduced unit availability across the system.

The next section focuses on response time performance.

It is one of the most important measures of service delivery to the community.

The goal is to arrive on scene for priority one emergencies within eight minutes, 80% of the time.

This includes alarm processing, which is from receipt of call to dispatch, turnout time, which is from dispatch alert to wheels turning, and travel time, which is time in route to arrival at scene.

The county emergency medical services advanced life support response time standard measures time from notification of responders to arrival on scene.

Minimum performance is eight minutes 90% of the time.

After factoring allowable exemptions, the department met the county standard 10 out of 12 months in fiscal year 24-25.

The primary factor driving the gap in meeting these performance goals is travel time driven by reduced resource availability.

Additionally, the county ambulance provider experienced extended response times and also introduced BLS ambulances into the system.

This resulted in lower resource availability across fire department response network, resulting in lower response time performance.

As shown in this heat map, late responses defined as travel times greater than four minutes are concentrated in the same area with the highest call volume.

Even though these stations are close together in the core, the volume of incidents results in units being unavailable.

This forces uh this forces responses from greater distance, increasing travel time and impacting overall response performance.

To address these challenges, the fire department is advancing several key initiatives focused on improving system performance.

These efforts focus on two things: improving how we deploy resources and ensuring the right resource is sent to the right call from the closest available location.

These include CAD to CAD integration to improve coordination and reduce call processing time, closest unit dispatch to reduce travel distance, community paramedicine and telemedicine to better align resources with patient needs, continued development of fire station 32 and 36 to improve geographical coverage.

Each of these efforts is defined designed to either reduce demand on the system or improve how quickly resources can reach the next emergency.

In closing, the department continues to experience sustained growth in emergency demand.

That demand reduces resources availability, increased travel distance, and directly impacts how quickly we can reach the next resident in need.

We remain focused on improving system performance through strategic investments, operational adjustments, and data-driven decision making.

We appreciate the committee's continued support and are happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for the uh presentation.

Do we have any public comment?

There is no public comment.

Thank you.

Obviously, the fire department is one of my favorite department in the whole world.

And um, but there is some concerning about we're down to 64 percent of meeting the timelines.

And I know that if you were to compare our geographical first due from a particular station, um on the average, I think it's about six six to eight square miles, and some even at 10 square miles.

Am I correct?

And just for an example, the city of Santa Clara is 10 square miles, and it's got 10 fire stations.

And just some of our first due are 10 square miles.

So, in order, let's say, let's say the geographical of station four, they're responding to a medical emergency.

So now we have another call in station four first due, they have to another station to dispatch, meaning all the way from you know um battalion one to come over to cover that first due, which is probably station 30.

And that travel time, especially in traffic hours, would you guesstimate that would probably take 12 minutes?

Uh thank you, council member for the question.

Uh I couldn't give you uh a precise uh time not knowing location of a call, but I can tell you that that is essentially capturing the the syndrome that Chief Fryler described, which is in the busiest areas of town when units are committed, units have to respond from further distances requiring more time uh to arrive on scene.

Yeah, so so I just do a simple math, right?

Most of the time, let's say we we we didn't make that eight minutes.

Let's say round off to eight minutes, and then the travel time from the second due over anywhere within the second due to the the first due is minimum four minutes.

That's without even any type of traffic, I would imagine.

So I appreciate your your your answer.

And how are we doing on um the recruitment and retention?

I I know that according to last year, my understanding that San Jose Fire Department got six hundred thousand dollars towards recruitment.

And out of the three uh six hundred thousand dollar, I believe three hundred thousand dollar went into background check, and the other three hundred thousand dollar into hiring two analysts.

So, Councilmember, that is the next item on the agenda as we have a recruitment uh report.

So if you don't mind, we can take that question then.

Well, okay, we'll wait into the next um report then.

Um I think council member uh today is have a few questions.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, just one quick question.

Uh first, thank you for the report.

Uh you mentioned kind of this decoupling between population trends and call volume.

I'm curious if you divide it into different sorts of calls, if there are any service calls that are more closely tracking population trends, or if it's across the board, everything is up and completely decoupled.

Thank you for that question.

Um seeing the greatest growth in emergency uh medical services.

Uh I believe our analysis uh supports a theory that it is uh in part related to uh an aging community.

Uh there is some analysis in the re in the report uh that does talk about uh the the um age of our community and the um the the percentage of calls uh for individuals that are 50 years or older is is by far the majority of our calls.

So I think we continue to see that.

In addition, um the the real inflection point came uh coincided with COVID, and I think a lot has changed in terms of community expectations and available medical care for our community, and we are ultimately a very reliable safety net for our community.

Uh we arrive whenever we're called, and so I think we're seeing a little bit of behavior change just based on on that inflection point and all the factors related to uh changes in in available medical medical care post-COVID.

Thank you.

Um I do have a couple more questions.

Is uh we know that the baby boomer population is getting older and and they're quite large, and I believe that as the population get older, there will be more call volume towards medical needs.

So we can meet that demand.

Thank you for that question.

I'll I'll add um to that strategy uh uh in as you're aware uh chair in 2018 our residents approved measure T, which was uh in part uh inclusive of recommendations by the department after uh a very comprehensive organizational analysis that that showed that we needed to improve our our service footprint in the city, in other words, densify the the footprint of fire stations so that we could reach our destinations and and keep pace with a rising call volume.

So that is in fact uh a strategy that that we are pursuing still.

Secondly, uh we are looking at some workload management strategies.

Uh you heard from Chief Freiler, one of them, and I'll add a second, the the one that Chief Ryler mentioned is the community community paramedicine strategy, which is intended to engage the community directly to find uh the definitive care pathways that those individual patients require uh because what we're seeing very often is that they cycle through the 911 system, are taken to the emergency departments uh locally and then released, and then they cycle back and use the 911 system again.

And so trying to trying to match them with the appropriate care is important, and that could have some value in our in our aging community.

Uh secondly, uh our emergency medical services agency here locally uh has implemented what is called nurse navigation or or or telemedicine.

Um we are also uh pursuing opportunities to establish um uh uh within our our medical priority dispatch system calls that we could triage over to telemedicine, which can also help us find uh the right place for patients that may not necessarily require a a code three fire engine and uh an ambulance ride to the hospital.

And so there are a variety of of approaches that we're looking to take to to try to deal with this increasing call volume.

Thank you.

Let's um let's say somewhere our economy has gotten a lot better, we're we're out of the deficit.

Chief, do you ever think about uh reimplementing uh med 300 thank you, council member.

Uh I I think given the opportunity to add resources to the city, um, I do have priorities in mind.

Um I do have some span of control issues that I need to address in the organization for better management and uh command and control.

Um certainly we still, believe it or not, have not restored some resources that we lost uh in the Great Recession.

Uh we are still without, as you know, in your council district, engine 33.

We're still without what used to be truck three.

Uh we eliminated the hazardous incident team, which is now a cross-staffed resource.

And so, given new resources, I think I would have to evaluate the needs of the organization foundationally.

Um, so I I could not say that it would be med 30 as the first priority.

But but it is in one of the priority, I would say, not the first.

I I think as we evolve uh programs as I described in in particular community paramedicine.

I I am recognizing that in an expanded service like that that we will need some field oversight, and what that looks like could be similar to that kind of coordination that that Med 30 offered.

So it is certainly in my mind as a future need for the organization.

Thank you.

Uh Deputy Chief Freiler, do you happen to know the numbers to homeless um calls volume, if you will?

I I think last year it was around 11,000.

Yeah, thank you for the question.

Uh we'll have to get back to you on that statistic.

All right, just sent me an email on that.

Thank you so much, and let's vote.

Do we get a motion right?

Do we get a motion?

Can we have a motion then?

Yes.

Thank you.

No other question.

Let's vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh the next um item will be fire department staffing recruitment hiring annual report.

The presentation will be Chief Sapien and Athena Treaty.

Good afternoon.

Again, I am Fire Chief Robert Sapien.

I am now joined by our administrative services deputy director, Athena Treaty.

We will provide a brief presentation on item D4, fire department staffing, recruitment, hiring, and bilingual services.

The fire department organization structure includes the Office of the Fire Chief, five bureaus, including operations, fire prevention, emergency medical services and training, support services, and administrative services, and the fire communications division.

While the fiscal year 2024-2025 operating budget authorized 855.48 positions, including 135.48 civilian positions.

Our report today will focus on sworn positions only.

Three platoons provide 24-hour coverage with six battalions supporting 34 active fire stations and a minimum of 190 personnel on duty daily.

Battalions are single-person resources staffed by battalion chiefs.

Engine companies, truck companies, and the urban search and rescue company are stacked staffed with four personnel, most often including a fire captain, a fire engineer, a firefighter EMT, and a firefighter paramedic.

Operates with three aircraft rescue firefighting trucks and is staffed with excuse me, with six personnel.

That is a fire captain, three fire engineers, firefighter EMT, and a firefighter paramedic.

In fiscal year 2024-2025, sworn vacancies averaged 8.01%.

Generally, vacancies are concentrated at the fire engineer and firefighter ranks as onboarding occurs at the firefighter rank.

Generally, vacancies are concentrated at the fire engineer and firefighter ranks as onboarding occurs at the firefighter rank.

Promotional examinations are conducted regularly to keep pace with attrition.

Qualification for promotions to ranks above firefighter requires special or specified levels of experience, extensive education and training and testing.

The vacancy rate for sworn classifications at the end of 24-25 was 7.36%.

Department Attrition in sworn ranks is primarily driven by retirements.

Approximately 75% over the seven year period shown in this chart.

To keep pace with average annual attrition, the department targets two academies of 25 to 30 with firefighter recruit applicants required to possess either EMT certification or paramedic licenses for qualification.

COVID 19 driven statewide education and training lapses resulted in a statewide paramedic shortage that persists to date.

The department seeks to maintain a maximum of 173 firefighter paramedics and 94 firefighter EMTs.

Attrition and promotion combined with fewer paramedic licensed applicants drove down firefighter paramedic numbers, creating staffing imbalances in the department.

Some relief has been achieved by leveraging paramedic licensed fire captains and fire engineers.

These are known as support paramedics, and applicant numbers have steadily increased over the last two years.

In 2025, the department was able to place seven firefighter EMTs in paramedic training.

These students are expected to be fully licensed in the fall of 2026.

In fiscal year 2024-2025, 72 personnel were authorized.

This equates to about 0.75 firefighters per thousand residents.

Comparatively, the aggregate firefighter per thousand residents of other municipalities, excluding the city of Morgan Hill in the county was 763 to 8,000 852,02 or a.90 to 1,000 ratio.

Oops, sorry.

Engine and truck company staffing levels range from two to four across fire county fire agencies.

The fire department's Bureau of Administrative Services in partnership with the Human Resources Department leads the hiring process for all sworn personnel.

The department's recruitment program is supported by a team of 1.5 full-time equivalent staff and an annual budget of 642,000.

This includes 122,000 in authorized overtime, which allows sworn personnel to participate in annual oral boards as panelists for firefighter recruit and represent the San Jose Fire Department in recruitment and community outreach events.

Firefighter recruits are external recruitments with a rigorous multi-step process and an 18 to 20 week entry-level academy that prepares them for field duty.

The department establishes and maintains eligibility lists for the ranks of fire engineer, fire prevention inspector, arson investigator, fire captain, battalion chief at approximately two-year intervals, depending on the timing and hiring of list of viability.

The department's recruitment goal is to make the most of our marketing and outreach efforts while working with any within limited resources.

To do that, we focus on multi-channel approach, partnering with schools and nonprofit organizations and maintaining a strong presence across social media, our websites, and other advertising platforms.

In fiscal year 24-25, we expanded these efforts through several key programs.

We hosted our sixth annual women's plus boot camp, which brought in over 75 participants ages 16 and older, and we are continuing that momentum with our seventh annual event scheduled for May 14th at the Fire Training Center.

We also continue to support the Fire Explorer Post 888 program in partnership with Learning for Life, giving young adults ages 16 to 18 hands-on training and classroom experience to prepare them for careers in the fire service.

Additionally, as an accredited local academy, we're able to deliver state fire training curriculum in-house with certified instructors, which gives us more flexibility in scheduling and coordination.

Our partnerships also play a key role, including collaboration with South Bay Regional Public Training Consortium, which operates under a joint powers agreement with seven community colleges and the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee, that is a partnership between California Firefighter Professionals and California State Fire Marshall's Office, both which help expand access to quality fire and emergency medical response training opportunities.

Finally, we've maintained strong visibility in the community through active social media engagements and participation in over 90 career fairs and community events throughout the year.

Language access and bilingual services.

In fiscal year 24-25, the fire communications center accessed language and translation services to communicate across 34 different languages and access these services 3,523 times to process emergency calls.

The languages encountered most frequently were Spanish and Vietnamese, representing 84% of the total.

Spanish represented 63%, and Vietnamese represented 21%.

Regarding the fire department's bilingual services, it is the vision of the City of San Jose and the San Jose Fire Department to provide multi-language bilingual capabilities in all services delivered, including emergency medical services, fire suppression, fire prevention, and public education.

To achieve this, the department will strive to have at least one certified bilingual employee, either in the rank of firefighter, firefighter, paramedic, fire engineer, or fire captain on each shift at each fire station.

The department currently has 151 sworn bilingual staff.

Bilingual skills are included as additional competent competencies or desirable qualifications in the firefighter recruit job announcement.

Bilingual certification for recognized languages is compensated at a rate of 2.5% of top step firefighter per pay period.

In fiscal year 24-25, field responders reporting meeting language needs approximately 95% of the time through either fire department bilingual staff present, bystander assistance, police department bilingual staff present, language line services, or through other means.

Thank you.

We are ready if you have any questions.

Thank you for the presentation.

Do we have any public comments?

There was no public comment.

Okay.

Um I'm gonna take my privilege here as I deputy director Athena Treaty.

I I didn't hear the amount of funding that was allocated for recruitment.

Can you repeat that for me, please?

Of course.

Of course.

Um, the total is 642,000, and that's inclusive of both uh 1.5 full-time equivalent staff and non-personal.

And then I believe you broke down how did you use uh $642,000?

Of course.

Uh so for staffing, it's around $300,000.

And for um non uh included in the personal services, we have a hundred about 122,000 for overtime.

And then for non-personal, that totals about 200,000.

Thank you.

And have we reach out to for, for example, is 21% of their services or from the Vietnamese American community.

Have we reached out to the community try to recruit more Vietnamese into our fire department?

Recently in this fiscal year in September, we established a recruitment and outreach representative list.

So we put out a solicitation to department personnel for those who were interested in being a part of those recruitment and outreach efforts.

And we have a total of 36 personnel, of which about I think 20 or so are sworn, and they've identified what type of recruitments they would be interested in.

And so when we do have those opportunities come up or we find them ourselves, we reach out to them and see if they're available.

I know in year 2000, my class had a probably the largest Vietnamese recruitment group.

And then after that, I think we was we didn't get the whole lot of recruitment out of that.

We get sparse one or two here and there throughout the hiring process.

Thank you.

And then we're gonna go to Councilmember Kamei.

Thank you so much, and thank you for the report.

I I think it's really great to continue to reach out into the community to let uh others know what a wonderful career this can be in the event that they haven't even thought about it.

And so I just wanted to appreciate that.

I also um was wondering, I know it's been you know several years, and are you seeing um progress?

I mean, I sort of from afar have seen incremental progress, but I'm just wondering if uh you mentioned that there are two academies a year, and I'm just wondering is there um a reason why we don't have sort of like I don't know, I want to call it open uh uh enrollment when when positions come up or something like that.

I I was just wondering how you know I know that other uh depart other fire departments have sort of a rolling um uh list, and and I know we kind of close the list after two months or something like that.

So I'm just wondering if there are other techniques that perhaps we could use thank you for that question.

Uh I'll I'll try to answer and then Athena will clean it up probably for me.

Um so I I think the the question about how we um I I think the question is about how do we capture candidates and make sure we don't lose them uh right what we do uh now and we've done for some time is is we maintain an ongoing interest list, okay, which is if you identify yourself as being interested in the career, we will make sure that you get every notification of when application periods open.

Okay.

Uh the reason we run the application periods the way we do is that the process is very intensive, and for frankly, expediency and for efficiency reasons batching applicants as we put them through those rigorous steps of testing, backgrounding, interviewing, selecting, right?

All those steps are sort of done require a lot of staff time for each of those processes, and so to be as efficient as we can, we group them together.

We also have found in the past that when there's too much time between that conditional offer where we're we're completing backgrounds and the academy, that the more time goes on, the more we lose candidates to other departments, and so having a nice fresh list with all those completed steps uh ready to go helps us build that final roster for each academy.

Okay, thank you.

You did a nice job.

I don't have anything to add.

Thank you.

Thank you so much with that.

I uh like to move acceptance of the annual report.

Oh, thank you.

I just want to clarify something that the two staffing position and what is those clarification.

Can you give me clarification on the two staffing?

Uh council member, I think are you referring to the two positions that were added in fiscal year 22-23?

Um I believe uh that is 22 23, possibly for the um recruitment.

Okay, yeah, so that was the last time that we had staffing added.

Um one of the positions is a staff specialist position, and that position was uh is dedicated to helping out with our human resources program, and a portion of their responsibilities is supporting recruitment um and more transactional and helping to develop plans, and um this person actually does all of the scheduling for firefighter recruit and has ever all the communication with all applicants.

We also had an analyst position added that is not part of the recruitment, it was added to the employee services side of our programming and supports our public records act request program as well as performance management.

Thank you.

And then for the 122,000 for the overtime.

Uh have we actually how much of that have we used in the last fiscal year?

Or this last one?

So a bit a larger portion of that, about 90, well, I would say about 100,000 of it, supports uh our sworn personnel to serve as panelists for the two oral boards uh for fire to fire recruits that we have we host every year, and then the remainder supports our recruitment efforts.

And so last year we um just take a look here.

We had spent about $10,000 of the 15 that's allocated for our our recruitment efforts.

Okay, and then the non-personnel, 142,000.

Can you just kind of give me a broad spectrum of what is being used for?

A majority, so the the rest of the non-personal is uh to about 200,000.

Um a majority of that's dedicated to our backgrounding services, so backgrounds, polygraphs, psychological services that we utilize for um both of our firefighter recruit as well as our dispatchers.

So that represents about 118,000.

And then the remainder allows us to be able to pay for um entry fees, if you will, for participation in different career fairs and job fairs, um, advertising as well as some giveaways that we have when we do participate in those events.

All right, well, thank you very much.

Any other questions?

No, let's vote.

Motion passes.

All right, now we're going to open forum.

You have any public comments.

Thank you.

We have a few requests to speak.

Batman, Michelle, Martin, Crystal, B and Emma, please.

I'll read the names names again.

I have Batman, Michelle, Martin, Crystal, B, and Emma, please.

Oh, how generous.

Okay.

So I've been out the past week at the site of the jungle encampment, uh, right across the street from Happy Hollow.

Um I'm here speaking for all of the residents that can't make it because they're currently fighting for their property, their pets, their family, and their lives, as the city of San Jose comes in and sweeps them.

Sweeps these people off of their uh out of their you know, self-built homes with a promise of housing that is apparently not going to be fulfilled.

People who were told that they were getting offered housing are now not apparently being offered that, or that offer has been revoked or changed.

And this is all happening while they're having their belongings taken from them while they're being kicked to the street.

This is unacceptable.

And I think we just need to face the facts.

We need to be housing people and have a place for people to go before we decide to kick people to the curb.

And I really hope that we can at some point set up a meeting.

Um I believe Dewan, it's in your district.

Is that correct?

I'm not 100% sure.

Whoever's district it's in, I don't care.

We need to set up a meeting and we need to talk about this because this is unacceptable.

We have to be providing people with an opportunity to find housing, and we need to stop breaking protocol and taking people's belongings when they are already on the list for housing.

They are not supposed to be moved until that promise of housing is fulfilled.

Then you can take their stuff.

But that's not what's happening.

They're shooting first and asking questions later, and that is unacceptable.

I'm gonna say it again.

It is unacceptable.

I'm gonna be out there for the rest of the week, but I expect all of you to get a call and say something about this.

Thank you, next speaker.

Don't let this continue, please.

Hi.

Um last week at City Council, we were here, we met with several of the council members.

Um and council members Duan's closing words to one of our residents was to worry about her own situation.

That resident has been doing everything possible to advocate to get into housing and was told yesterday that she fell through the cracks somehow and will be instead sent to 10th city instead of sent to a tiny home, along with at least 10 other folks.

We believe there's many more who are completely off of the list and or getting sent to 10 city when they already have perfectly habitable homes.

Um so we're here on behalf of those residents.

Um many more wanted to come, like Batman said, but obviously they're moving right now.

Um, and what their request is another resident was told that he's not on the list because even though he texted his caseworker at Path, the caseworker didn't speak Spanish, so she didn't reply to his text in Spanish.

Um, because he sent it in Spanish, because that's the language he speaks.

So we're here on behalf of those many residents who have fallen through the cracks, um, who have asked us to come here today, and to ask you all, first of all, we hope Councilmember Duan and also any other council members who are able will join us after to meet with the two residents who are here today.

Um, and also to urge the city to take action that if there isn't enough housing available and people are needing to go to Tent City, then they can stay where they are until the housing becomes available.

Um, as one of the residents told me directly today, que cumplan la palabra y nos den housing, porque aquí casas de campaña ya tenemos.

Si no alcanzan todos, seria mejor dejarnos aquí y habitar perder todas las cosas.

They should follow their word and give us housing because right now we already have tents.

And if we don't all fit us a housing because it would be better to stay here and avoid losing all of our things, right?

Until there's actually placement for everyone.

Um so with that, I will pass it to the residents, but really hope to be able to speak with um speak with council member Duan and speak with anyone who's able to meet with the residents after this about how things have been happening this week.

Um it's only been two days, and already several folks we've spoken to who've lost everything.

So thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Yeah, I want to represent represent the people from the jungle that we were promised one thing, and we we were all given false hope now.

I was one of the one of the few people that signed first, and uh I was wondering why I haven't got sent up to the training.

So I called, you know, when I was already told, in fact, that you know everything's good, don't worry about it.

You know, we'll start picking you up, we'll take you over there.

As the days go on, I'm watching these people take off.

I'm like, you know what's going on.

Uh so I pushed, I'm pushed to make a phone call.

And uh they were okay.

I gave my name, whatever, and uh, oh your paperwork didn't get sent through.

Like, what do you mean by paperwork sent through?

Like you said, everything is okay.

What's going on?

You know, uh, well, um, I the conversation went with went no way in regards to saying, okay, well, let's push your issue so you can get your tiny home.

They want to send us to this place I never even heard of, Tan City.

And I'm like, well, I want to go somewhere.

I feel like I'm going backwards now, not forwards.

You know, so I was given a lot of false hope.

And now they're uh, you know, they're saying all this, and they'll call Mike and this and that.

I'm not gonna call nobody because it's already seems like it's a done deal.

They're gonna send me this 10 cities and that.

Now I feel like I'm going more backwards.

Is that even cool?

You know?

Uh you know, I'm gonna be pushing to remove all my stuff.

I shouldn't have to move my stuff because uh I don't even know where to put it now.

I don't even know where to put it because they're gonna come with the cops or come with the city or whatever to start bulldozing the place down.

Um I should feel like I have to move at all until they get their act together or get me where they said they were gonna promise me.

Okay.

Or otherwise I'm not gonna move.

I'm not because uh here they push me.

I didn't even want to sign up for the program in the first place.

Because I knew something was gonna fall through the cracks or something, something.

You know, that's how much luck I got out here in the streets.

You know, but I put myself out here in the streets.

But you know, don't say something and just say, okay, sorry.

Whatever.

Thank you, next speaker.

Hi, I'm reading a comment from a resident who was not able to be here right now.

Uh no cumplio lo que estaba diciendo diciendo el muchacho.

Que nos iba a dar el chance de quedar unos días.

Para mí, este is un engaño, una trampa que no me reinventu.

And they took everything, everything, and not even a blanket for one of us.

For me, this is a deception, a trap we don't deserve because we are cooperating with them.

Didn't he give her a slightly dirty look?

It is one of the counties that contributes the most money.

One doesn't arrive because one wants to.

It's because the situation is becoming more difficult.

If we receive good pay, we'll work, but there isn't one.

Can't I he has a family?

He wants to excel.

They think about what he said that people are worse off than before.

Thank you, next speaker.

It doesn't bother me because of the change of clothes I'm wearing.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hi.

Um my name's Kristal from the camp.

Um, I just think it's pretty much unfair how I've honestly I was only there for a few months um at the jungle, and some people that I know that have been there for years, um, somehow didn't manage to get housing.

I mean, I think that's pretty unfair in the fact that they're just not being allowed to stay there.

Um I just think it's I don't know, so something should be done about it, because I don't see how they can just let somebody you know fall through the cracks and not help them and offer housing and at the same time not allow them to stay there.

They I mean I lost a lot of things.

Um I'm staying at the tiny homes out, but I think it's really unfair that you know they're not getting you know, they're not being put, you know, put on the list to do something.

They're just being like forgotten, you know.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Hello again.

So we did meet last week and we had a discussion about all of the ways that uh residents did not know their status in within the tiny homes.

And here we are experiencing the consequences of somebody not knowing whether or not they are moving to a tiny home or they are uh moving to tent city.

This is actually a consequence of the list that we gave to city housing.

We advocated for it because there was so much uh uncertainty, and lo and behold, we found that the uncertainty was clouded around people who did not actually get their uh housing secured.

And today, even as Path was driving around, I was trying to clear things up for other folks.

I was like, Do you know your status for the housing?

Uh, lots of folks were telling me that they didn't.

Do you have a date for moving?

No.

And so uh I asked them to clarify with Path, and I actually watched them as Path was interacting with them, and they kept on being like, No, we have an appointment, no, we have an appointment, no, we cannot answer your questions.

I think you're with it somebody else's list.

I in giving them continuing to give them false hope.

And these what we forget is that as this is happening, Tucker, HCI, and SJPD are literally packing up people's homes, not even uh uh a stone's thrown away.

So these folks are trying to pack and they do not know where they are going.

It is incredibly anxiety inducing, which is why I really want to invite Councilmember Doan, because this is your district, but actually all of you guys to come sit down with us, sit down with the residents and learn what is happening within the city of San Jose.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Hi, I'm hoping that uh you can make kind of heads or tails with this image, but what this image shows is uh a construction tube crew doing saw cuts to bring power to that orange X.

This is at the end of Rosewood Avenue.

But this is exactly where the fire trucks need to back up over this space.

A pole was intended to go there.

Images now lost, but uh this will directly impede the ability for fire trucks to back up into the space that may need to back up over to be able to turn around and get out of these dead end streets.

This is an engineering flaw that I brought to the city two and a half years ago, and have worked with everybody at the top who should have been able to get this thing averted.

It's a last minute issue.

I'd like to talk to the council member after this, but you know, this uh this situation, if these poles go in, it's going to impede the ability of garbage trucks and emergency service vehicles to back up to make their three-point turn easily enough and get out of the dead end streets.

This is an engineering flaw that should have never been approved three and a half years ago whenever the park was engineered, right?

And I shouldn't be having to come here at this last date, last minute, to avert an engineering oversight that the city should have never approved.

So this city still has a chance to prevent this pole from going in and the other two on the other streets.

Back to the committee.

Meeting adjourned,