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SFFD reports tsunami warning response and flags 15% citywide budget reduction
Summary
Interim Chief Sandra Tong briefed the Fire Commission on department activities including response and after-action work from a recent tsunami warning and informed commissioners that mayoral budget instructions call for an approximate 15% reduction across city departments, prompting concern about service impacts.
Interim Chief Sandra Tong told the Fire Commission on Dec. 11 that the department activated internal coordination and communications after a recent tsunami warning and has completed an after-action review with associated action items.
Tong said the department stood up its Fire Department Operations Center (FDOC), coordinated with the Department of Emergency Management and other agencies, and noted the difficulty of communicating clear, timely information to the public during the incident. "We activated our FDOC...we were also on a Teams phone call...to help coordinate a number of those activities," Tong said during her report.
Tong also told commissioners that the mayor's office had provided budget instructions projecting what she described as a roughly 15% reduction for all departments citywide. "This was a meeting that the finance directors had with the mayor's office...which does look very dire, and so that is going to be something that requested...15% reduction in all departments citywide," she said.
Commissioners asked follow-up questions about the FDOC, the status of citywide outdoor alert speakers (described in the meeting as not operational at this time), and oversight of the department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office after a recent retirement. Commissioner Steven A. Nakasho and others praised the department's outreach, recent academy graduates and community work.
What’s next: Commissioners asked staff for additional details on tsunami communications and the FDOC's near-term upgrades; department staff said follow-up meetings with DEM and other stakeholders are planned and that more budget guidance will follow from the mayor’s office and finance directors.
