All right.

Welcome back.

We're gonna resume our council study session on the budget, the proposed budget.

And we were in the midst of the public safety discussion.

And if you're ready, Councilman Condelas, we'll resume with your comments.

Alright, cool.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, so jumping right into it.

I guess obviously wanted to thank the chief for your overview, but I guess my my first line of questions go to the other chief, the fire chief, specifically on the community paramedicine pilot.

And you know, you know, it's it's you know, for me being able to uh lean in and see how we can be nimble and and strategic as a city is obviously something that I think is important, especially when it comes to long-term cost savings.

Um, but you know, one of the questions I have on this on this this program is um what kind of program metrics are we actually looking at with regards to that evaluation that's gonna happen at the conclusion of the pilot.

And I was hoping you could speak on that and see what uh success looks like with this with this uh proposed uh program.

Thank you, council member.

Yes, community paramedicine um is a pilot uh proposed by the department.

Um the funding uh stream is from uh the opioid settlement funds.

Uh what we hope to achieve is uh a variety of uh things that aren't currently achieved through the 911 system.

Uh ultimately uh we look to invest more time in assessing uh patient needs or 911 caller needs, uh, especially in those cases where there are matters such as addiction, um, perhaps uh repeat 911 users who aren't getting the benefit uh that they need through visits to the emergency rooms, um, and uh certainly uh folks who have uh struggles in terms of taking care of themselves and who might be a danger to themselves.

So in terms of metrics that we're looking for, we are going to start with some some very basic um metrics that would include uh our our uh reach.

So, in other words, how many uh of each uh uh uh circumstance are we running into out there in the field?

Uh certainly keeping track of how many times we're able to provide definitive pathways to care, certainly tracking repeat 911 users and seeing if we can reduce those numbers towards you know ultimately getting folks the care that they need.

Um and so that'll be generally the type of metric that we're looking to to capture.

Okay, and then um, you know, I I think um essentially like that diversion of calls from uh from our our police department is is that something that we're also gonna be looking at obviously if somebody's calling 911 for somebody who's has a substance or behavioral health issue challenge.

Uh I mean where how are we gonna be able to to diff differentiate and or divert calls that that are more paramedicine focused as opposed to uh you know uh somebody from with a law enforcement background.

Yeah, uh on the outset as we as we develop the parameters of the pilot, we'll be engaging with with partners, uh especially law enforcement, in terms of uh being able to triage 911 calls and get them on the right pathway.

And so currently there are some 911 calls that are police only responses, but they may have perhaps a mental health aspect or or uh a substance addiction type aspect where there is a uh either a borderline or or actually um you know substantial need for some level of medical care.

And so what we'll be doing on the fire department side is we'll be implementing uh new protocols into our triage system where we will be able to capture those types of calls uh and send the appropriate unit.

In this case, we're we're hoping that that community paramedicine unit would be the appropriate unit so that we can really understand what the patient needs are at that point.

Got it.

Okay.

Um uh like I said, this is an opportunity, and and I just want to make sure that we're uh setting this program up for success to be able to do what we wanted to do and ultimately address some of our you know high utilizer populations that do that uh that utilize the the 911 response system as their de facto healthcare system.

Um and so uh, you know, I I I'm curious to like you know that I I do have uh some um some some concerns that you know it's gonna take a while for us to even ramp this program up I mean we we invested in uh what was it trust a couple years ago it took us you know six months to set that program up for folks to know how to divert or who to properly call and but from this program I know it's gonna be more so our um our dispatchers who are going to be able to um ID based on the call that's coming in to be able to deploy this paramedicine team to be able to address correct yes okay um all right um and then um the the next area that I've I've gotten several concerns from you know we actually had a phone call about this last last week um so that you know this is not the new is is with regards to um the fire station 24's operations and you know I've had a lot of villagers you know older adults who live uh in adjacent neighborhoods to the hillside and they they did express some some some concerns with you know given the limited access and narrow slash steep terrains uh uh by these proposed type three engines and the unintentional negative operational impacts uh uh of the these uh the terrain in my district is especially adjacent to the villages um can you can you speak a little bit to this chief to their concerns yeah so the station 20 proposal or 24 proposal excuse me um uh would place a type three fire engine where currently a type six fire engine exists now both type threes and type sixes are uh configured for wildland firefighting uh you may know the type three uh most familiarly uh as the primary unit that Calfire operates from so it carries uh 500 gallons of water um has a 500 gallon per minute pump has a complement of hose uh has seating for four personnel um the difference as you point out it is it is uh somewhat larger than the type six uh has more capability but is also physically in size larger uh knowing the area around the villages um there uh are no concerns that we have right now relative to access certainly as you move up Quimby Road you have some very steep terrain up there that that neither of those apparatus frankly do well on on the steepest parts of those slopes um but in terms of access uh I think we actually do better uh by way of the capability of the type three apparatus okay okay that I mean that's a reassuring uh I think uh what about the escape slash evacuation escape slash evacuation routes identified in the villages that have the back road up Yerba Buena that's like uh formerly a utility road does that would is that still still the case even for our we should have type three rig?

I'm sorry to interrupt uh we we should have uh access to all of those areas and it it's important to understand that we will still have type six capability responding to larger vegetation fires throughout the city and so if there are areas that we discover either by roads that are washed out or or existing narrow uh tracks that that we will still have the type sixes um the the other truth is that today's type six is a very stout vehicle and the and the road uh the the the wheel uh base is not much different at all than the type three and so they'd be very similar in terms of what what access roads they can travel okay that that's reassuring um and uh lastly so you can you confidently say there's there's gonna be little um chance to a delayed response with this staffing or operational change uh I think the type three is an enhanced service relative to the type six that's my that's my professional uh view on this um in fact uh going back to uh our our previous organizational review that had a standards of cover uh recommendation for station 11 at the villages was to enhance wildfire capabilities there and and this is a uh incremental step in that direction.

Okay, great.

No, thank you.

Thank you for that reassurance.

I look, I was out, I was at um at the villages maybe a month ago with the with the hiking club, uh, that um we were doing some vegetation clearing and uh digging in some steps into this the hill because seniors can't get up these really really steep hills, and so that's one of the primary concerns that I had um uh given given the sensitivities around um you know wildfire risk and you know even the my previous question with the with the previous CSA on on our vegetation vegetation management investments that we're making.

And so I I appreciate you answering my questions, Chief, and uh appreciate uh the work of the CSA in its entirety.

Thank you guys.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let's go now to Councilmember Campos.

Thank you, Mayor, um, and thank you, staff for the presentation.

Um, I appreciate your work in this very important CSA.

And um I do have a few questions and comments about the proposed um expenditure for the AI report writing tool.

One thing that I noticed is that we are um looking at deferring the police training center by two years, and it's roughly um at the same cost as the AI reporting writing tool.

Um, as you may know, the police training center is what is standing in the way of being open, being able to open the South substation, and it is a priority for District 2 and South San Jose residents that we get um access to that substation so that our residents can um you know feel better connected to our police uh department and resources and so I'll start with some comments first because um you know looking at at the AI deployment through the budget process.

Before, as a council, we have an established citywide framework for AI procurement, oversight, accountability, transparency, data governance, and performance evaluation.

I want to better understand the department's rationale around reducing administrative uh burden and overtime pressures because I do understand that this is um why we're we're moving in this direction to free up staff time, and you know the budget actions are difficult to separate from policy when they effectively operationalize new technology frameworks across the city.

Um, I have been made aware that we have an AI policy, and I've asked for it twice from staff and have yet to receive it.

And so before moving forward with operational AI expansion, I am trying to better understand what governance standards currently exist and whether there is a broader citywide AI strategy that's under development and what role council is gonna have in shaping those standards before additional deployment occurs.

And so, um, just asking for more specificity uh and the expected operational benefit of this investment.

How many office hours are projected to be saved and how does that translate into deployable service capacity?

So there's quite a few issues you touched on there.

Uh first of all, let me just say that uh we agree with you.

We would love to have the South Substation open as a functioning substation, and that was what it was intended for when it was built.

It's unfortunately never uh really realized that uh capability.

I would disagree in that the I wouldn't say that the only thing standing in the way of operationalizing the substation is the training center.

Um there's actually more costs associated with it than that, just to transfer all our uh people down there to make that an operating substation, but certainly that is a goal at some point.

Um in terms of the two costs being similar.

Yeah, I would agree that what the cost we're deferring um is similar to the cost of the initial um outlay for the software, but we believe, and and I can't give you exact hours, but we believe that the um software program for the report writing is going to be a money saver like tremendously in the long run.