San Francisco Fire Chief Nicholson Retirement

good afternoon honorable mayor London breed fire Commissioners Board of Supervisors sfd Command Staff and guests I'm Lieutenant Mariano Elias I'm honored that you join us all today for the outstanding career of the 26th fire chief of the San Francisco Fire Department for over 30 years Janine Nicholson and her great service to the citizens of San Francisco is my priv to present to you the honorable mayor London breed who will speak to her accomplishments mayor breed thank you all so much for being here to honor an extraordinary leader an extraordinary public servant who has dedicated her life to the San Francisco Fire Department for over 30 years and who when I asked asked to serve as Chief it is one of my most uh incredible accomplishments to have selected someone who was so beloved in this department and who has worked in every corner of this department in so many capacities uh a paramedic A Firefighter a lieutenant a battalion chief deputy chief you name it she did all the jobs so when you think about someone like that it is rare indeed to have someone serve as Chief who understands intimately all the details of what that entails and so it was such an honor for her to agree to serve but also the work that she did while she served as the chief of this department uh most of the work entailed really challenging times I mean who would have thought that we'd be faced with a once in a hundred-year global pandemic and the fire department was an important part of our response we still had work to do and decisions had to be made and chief Nicholson stepped up to help make those decisions in a way that demonstrated compassion and strength because we know that San Francisco at any given time whether it's a pandemic or earthquake or a fire we know that San Francisco is a major city and needs strong dedicated leadership someone who understands what to do and when to do it and that is Janine Nicholson in a nutshell she knows what to do and when to to do it also I want to express my appreciation for so much of the work that she did and when I say so much of the work um the EMS 6 and what that did to help us deal with crisis on the streets the street crisis response team uh and I see Simon Pang here who helps to lead those efforts San Francisco was the first to do that work and the work that you put in place to establish our street crisis response team and to help pivot to a new kind of response of the challenges that we have faced in San Francisco is something that has been a model to other parts of the country people have duplicated the work that we did here and it happened under Chief Nicholson's leadership I also am so proud of what you have done to diversify and uplift this department through programs like City EMT which we know is a first opportunity for young kids who grow up in San Francisco who want a chance to be part of this department but aren't quite ready and the leadership of the black firefighters I see Antoine Davis here all the work that they have done to help make it possible for the number of students that you have brought into the department has been extraordinary and again a model for the rest of the country to follow I can go on and on about the accomplishments of Chief Nicholson uh working with her was easy and when I say easy we just had our conversations we were pretty much always on the same page and she got the job done uh whether it's working with the Commissioners who are joining us here today we appreciate your leadership as well or the command staff and and the rank and file and other members of the department she was a handson chief she knew the firefighters of this department she knew the paramedics of this department and the work we accomplished to get a number of stations built including finally finally Station 4 9 that is really an incredible clean easy to use user friendly for those who remember what the old station was like this was a real significant change increasing our ambulance Fleet helping to address issues around mandatory overtime you name it the leadership and creativity of the leadership was instrumental in helping move this department forward and keeping it on the right path so I am incredibly grateful for her leadership uh the second woman to serve in this capacity the first LGBT fire chief in this City's history and one of the most extraordinary people as a leader of San Francisco that I have worked with and it is a testament to her leadership that other folks who are joining us here department heads uh members of the public and and other folks who are joining us here today is a testament or leadership of the relationships the bridges that she built in order to accomplish her goals in leading this department I am really going to miss your advice your work your leadership your advocacy and I am so grateful that over the years we have developed a incredible friendship uh Chief Nicholson we are grateful for your service here in San Francisco it has really been my privilege and my honor to serve as mayor with you as the fire chief of this department and you were an incredible partner I am happy for you and your retirement but I know you won't be far away so on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco thank you for your extraordinary service thank you for your extraordinary leadership and congratulations on your retirement y'all G to make me cry sit down there's no crying in the firehouse um wow thank you mayor breed I'm I'm not great at taking that in so uh just give me a moment here um but thank you thank you thank you um greetings everyone I am still your San Francisco Fire Chief Janine Nicholson you ain't getting rid of yet and uh let's just clear up some rumors I am retiring because I have some health issues and that's all I'm going to say about it um there is no forced retirement there none of that baloney is happening I am retiring because I've been telling folks in this department for years to take care of themselves and I have not listen to that advice and so uh my body has finally told me I need to listen to that advice and so that's what I'm doing um so um mayor breed like wow what an opportunity this has been uh what a wild ride it has been Co are you kidding me Apec you kidding me like what else um you know um and uh you know it's been awesome to to work for a a groundbreaking and glass ceiling busting mayor you know um and uh you've been a mentor to me um and a thought partner with me and um I I just we've done so much good stuff for this department um some of which you mentioned um and uh you know so it's been an honor thank you um uh to my fire Commissioners president Morgan vice president Frasier former president and former president uh commissioner Feinstein commissioner nagio you are my kind of people because you don't have to do the work you're doing but you do it because you care and um and that's huge to me you are my kind of people that's all I got to say so thank you for your tutelage your support your like just everything for what you've done for me and for the Department um and then um before I get to my folks I want to thank all of my uh colleagues from across the city that are here Rob smutz thank you for being here on Mary Mary Ellen's uh behalf for the demem Dr the doc Grant kfax from dph thank you brother my other thought partner sister Elaine Forbes from the port thank you my sister for all your support uh my wingman right here Chief Scott right you always be my wingman I'll always be your pilot all right um I got you and uh Wen Torres thank you so much brother for being here appreciate you um and I don't know if I'm missing anybody but I'm really sorry if I'm missing somebody um so uh thank you to the Command Staff that's here um again yall are like the commission like you're not doing this out of ego you're doing it because you care and you're doing it because you want to do the next right thing whether it's building our training center whether it's running our airport or our diversity Equity inclusion office whatever it is you're doing it because you care and y all are my kind of people so um thank you you always have the mission at um at the four and um I'm G try to do this without crying Sandy you've been my wingwoman for five years five years thank you sister couldn't have done it without you um but I appreciate every single one of you there's no crying in baseball all right all right let's carry on um I want to give a shout out to our civilian staff in a in a um uh uh uniform Department it's really hard to be a civilian and um our civilians uh keep us afloat they keep us going and they get uh a lot of grief from some of our folks and um you know they don't get the oh you're a hero um kind of business and so I just want to say thank you um to all of my sort of unsung civilian staff Heroes um jesa Jesus uh Mark um my wing woman Teresa Ludwig who's been my EA for five years like shepherding me and hurting me and politely tapping me on the shoulder and um there was no nagging at all that was great but man she runs a tight ship and that office doesn't function without you sister so thank you um and all the rest of the civilian staff that works here um and then um you know all of the department members whether you're in suppression at the Boe at in EMS or Community paramedicine um at prevention like it takes a village none of us do this alone I didn't get here alone um we don't do this job alone and um we don't do it without the boots on the ground that's for damn sure am I allowed to say damn sorry um anyways um I don't know how I got this lucky I really don't um you know I always say I won the lottery in 1994 when I got my job in the fire department and I did like are you kidding me um and uh and I don't know how I've managed to be the chief for five years I don't know what happened um but I guess I just put my foot on the pedal and and and have been going since then all right who's messing with the lights who's messing with the lights all right well as long as you can see me um no but um you know in 2019 when uh mayor breed swarm me in um I said that uh I loved this department and this city and that's still true um and I vowed to uh work diligently um to move the department forward and I think we collectively have done that I think there have been a lot of really good things that have happened over the past five years um and you know like the mayor said I did make it my business to advocate for this department um it's it it certainly helps coming up through the ranks and knowing what what goes on out there in the field and what yall need and um and uh what it means when you don't have something um so um I I made it my business to advocate for the Department um for everybody uh in city government that didn't necessarily understand what we did um I thought it was not just important to say we need this but here's why we need this like this is what we do oh you do that yeah we do that um and here's what we can't do if we don't have that so um you know and and I figure that if my folks have what they need to do their jobs they're safer and the city's safer frankly and that's just how it goes in public safety um and you know and a lot of times when I said stuff in meetings it wasn't particularly popular um I you know people were not happy with me sometimes but um I think as firefighters and paramedics and EMTs we practical people and we just want to say what's what and get on with the business of doing what needs to be done to take care of business out in the field that's what we do we're doers in this department and we get stuff done um and uh you know like I said a lot of collective work has been done um and there's there's more in process I feel like this uh Command Staff has really empowered um folks in the department to take on some of the work um because who's a better subject matter expert on surf rescue than somebody who is a surf rescue qualified swimmer out at you know a station in the Avenues so help us develop these policies help us figure out what equipment we need um you know uh there's way too much work for all of us to do so um and I feel like that has also continued to grow our culture of ownership and responsibility and it has also helped with succession planning um as you know I'm all about succession planning um and uh because I want this department um to to I don't want to just hand off the keys to somebody and go yeah all right have at it um we we've all had that happen earlier on in our career like right I've had it um and uh it's much easier when when we know what's going on and so the succession planning efforts we've done I think um have really uh you know really served us well and will continue to serve us well frankly um the training center land wow thank you mayor breed for helping us get that that Bond getting that money on that bond for us and then thank you for the extra money you put in the budget to get that piece of land um that we couldn't use bond funds for you know another $7 million I know that was not easy given um sort of budget deficits but we were able to secure over seven acres of land for a training center we don't have a training center we don't have a department so this was huge uh to get that done and it took years it took a ton of people in the city to get it done a ton of advocacy um at the state level as well but we got it done and and now we have uh Chief Miller running the show on that and um it's in good hands it is in good hands we're going to have a great training center and uh I just won't be using it which is a bummer but uh it's going to be a great training center so um you know we've uh not to bore you all to death but I might you know disaster preparedness was a big thing I talked about to the mayor when I was um interviewing and uh Chief artist Saros Brown has really we done so much work on that with um getting Incident Management teams up and running um helping with mutual Aid stuff and um and just uh yeah doing a great job we are more prepared with training and Equipment now for a disaster um than we have been and and that's all I want to do is just keep moving the moving the ne I won't say needle moving the you know what I mean uh forward a little bit um just one foot in front of the other are doing the next right thing um also we we've hired over 640 people in the last five years in a 17 or 1800 member Department uh thank you for that um ability to do that um to grow our EMS which needed to grow to meet the demand in the city and Community paramedicine but also on the suppression side um we were working mandatory overtime all the time it was really it was tough on people and their families um and now we're a young department but you know what our operations are really really tight like really good that fire that uh y'all went to in in July that was sort of the hoarders house how that didn't become a greater alarm I don't know kudos to you Darius lrip and and your AC's that that ran that show seriously um so anyway Staffing right Staffing I'm super proud that we've we've gotten numbers back up don't worry I won't cut into anyone's nap time here almost done just a couple dozen more pages um as the mayor said Community paramedicine right incredible stuff um I think it's misunderstood by some um but it is an alternative to policing um it is innovative it um gets People Help they need and um and it is San Francisco's program has developed under Simon Pang has developed uh the Statewide curriculum for community param medicine in the state like he's got he's got departments from all over the country calling him I don't know how you have time to do your own job Simon but um we'll talk about that later um but uh yeah so like just amazing amazing work um uh addressing sort of the unhoused crisis and the opioid crisis and um and uh all of that you know we also worked on the health and safety of our members um with having a uh a um Matt Alba there you are brother um a health Wellness uh Safety Division because um mental health is is a thing among firefighters and EMTs we see a lot of stuff that nobody else sees um and uh cancer is a big deal as well and so how do we prevent that and so we've been working with um you know to get pasos free turnouts we've got we have doggies now that you can pet to lower your blood pressure which I love um but we have all sorts of other resources too um and you know and we're doing all sorts of other great stuff we're going to have a usar team here like we have needed a usar team here Urban search and rescue team here for a long time and we now are um working with the state on that so like I I won't be here to see it to fruition but it's going to be pretty pretty great when we're able to um to deploy that here or elsewhere um you know to help people like the mayor said we got through covid uh we staffed Apec whenever something needed to be done during these past five years you all just stepped up and did it um and I'm so grateful for that and I'm so proud of that when we needed to staff Apec you you you stood up and did it when we needed to get through Co you staffed the um the operations center you staffed the engines and the trucks and the ambulances when we didn't know what the heck it was and you just went out there and did your jobs and that's what I I just love about this department um but really um one thing I do want to talk about that I spoke to the mayor about when I was um interviewing uh for this position years ago is sort of the diversity equity and inclusion office and initiatives under um under ADC Shan Buford now um I was um really uh really really interested in um doing some things differently in the department in the way we hired I didn't want to be the only person like picking people people um and so we set out and we have um you know panels of firefighters paramedics EMTs that are interviewing folks you're the ones going to be working with these people for the next 30 Years um who do you want to work with you know what the qualities are um and then those names get referred up to me and um I work with Chief Buford and others to to um pick folks that will be a good fit for our department and um it's uh you know I think a lot of that was born out of where I came from I came around during the consent decree um when the department was ordered to diversify and I was fortunate enough to get hired then and um I also am a woman in a man's profession and uh so I see some of the stuff that happens um I've you know uh received or been on the receiving end of some of that stuff and so I I get it um some of the things that need to change um and you know also being um from the lgbtq community um I I have had an insight into discrimination and that has helped me um to better understand all different communities and um and and the other thing is um you know listening to to people who have the lived experience has been super important and so when I wanted to start uh an EMT program I wanted to diversify our EMS ranks and so I um t talked to a woman named Adica Bowden who you know mayor breed knows who was um an assistant Fire Marshal in our department she and I used to teach nert together I said I want to do this I want to diversify EMS it was mostly um white men no offense white men are some of my best friends but um but uh you know I wanted to diversify it because I know it's important to have people showing up to you in your time of need that look like you and so I said I want to do this thing and so she created a program where uh we take in and and for the media that's here listening you should do a story about this because this is a feel-good story this is some of the good stuff that's been happening behind the scenes in my humble opinion um that mayor breed has spearheaded whether it's through opportunities for all or the office of Economic and Workforce Development that Wen used to be uh in charge of um there is some good stuff going on so anyway City EMT it's for um atrisk youth from 18 to 26 and uh that typically is black and brown uh young people and um it brings them in not just for an EMT class but for wraparound Services because we're about Equity we're not just about diversity we're about equity and so some folks didn't have the same experiences I had growing up where they had access to um to a good education they had access to a crime-free neighborhood or whatever it is right and so we wanted to give folks everything that they needed whether it was trauma counseling life coaching um financial literacy whatever to make them um as capable as possible um in succeeding and some of that came from the lived experience of our mayor um I remember mayor you saying you were door Dash before door Dash even existed because you wanted to work at a a internship in City Hall but you weren't getting paid and so you know you still had a hustle and so um you know you listen to stuff like that and you go oh all right so we paid these young people and a hundred of them have graduated from uh City EMT and we've hired 25 of them in our department and they are contributing members of our department uh we didn't change any standards and um it has been uh such a cool program I could talk about it for days but I know uh some folks are getting a little antsy but um but to the media I say do a piece on what some of the black women in this uh City have uh have put together that's Changing Lives 25 people have gotten a step into the middle class in this fire department the other 75 have gone onto other things uh some of them work for other ambulance companies police officer just all sorts of things so that's lifechanging lifechanging and so you know I also just want to say that this has not been all poly Anish as we know the last 5 years has been really really challenging chenging for a lot of us um whether we lost a a family member or um a spouse or whatever it is or one of our own firefighters and um early on we lost Jason Cortez I don't think there's anything harder than losing one of our own and more recently we lost Steven sylvestri and we had Gary and another Steve in between there and others and so it is um it's it's a reality for us but it's really hard on us but it also shows what we're made of when we come together and that has been um yeah that's been super difficult um you know carrying that and uh so thank you for um for doing that with me and um you know we get through it together we carry on because we you know we have to carry on and um just a couple other things um you know I'm here because uh somebody uh like me um uh recruited me back in the day um so if there are people out there that you know look like you or don't look like you tell them we're hiring um and uh we uh we're always hiring and um uh it's this is this is in my humble opinion the greatest job um I ever could have had ever ever ever um so uh couple of last things um you know uh I just want to thank former Chief Joan ha white for seeing the um sort of the potential in me when she selected me as her Deputy Chief of administration and I immediately said no that my friends is called impostor syndrome then I sort of smacked myself across the face and said oh hell yeah um and so uh you know um and she put me sort of on this on this path um so I got lucky to be of service my whole career like who gets to do that to be of service their whole career um and uh you know you know I just wanted to do the next right thing we haven't gotten everything we asked for um and that's how it goes and we get to be adults about it and figure out another way um but uh we do need a fleet replacement plan um that is my Numero Uno um uh we need a fleet replacement plan and um so uh I'm sure somebody will be bugging you about that mayor in the future if not me might be me I don't know um but uh you you know but we have been cared for by this mayor make no mistake about it Training Center we have not had our budget cut once um other departments have sorry if you guys have sorry um but uh you know um we have been we have been cared for in so many ways by this mayor um you know and again I uh just lastly I didn't get here alone ton of support along the way and still in this room to this day um and uh you know I um I put my all into it folks I really did again no crying in baseball um and you know I didn't always get it right but I learned and tried again the next day all right let's see what we can do um and so so you know I feel like my heart was always in the right place and um you know so thank you to everyone in here every EMT paramedic um you know uh uh analyst um what you know executive administrator everybody in every position in this department Ed Che my classmate right there buddy 89th strong brother you're staying longer than I am um but you know everybody um it's been much more than a career as we know it's much more than a career so again thank you to Mayor breed um and uh to my people I know you're going to keep on keeping on and um you know this is your department it's your department whether you got 10 minutes in or 30 years in it's your department so own it um and you know I I have faith in you and trust in you that you're going to do that and um that uh if you remember the oath if you remember our mission statement and act on those you can't go wrong you'll just be able to do the next right thing so thank you very much [Applause] congratulations chief on your [Applause] retirement congratulations chief