Building Inspection Commission
BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)
Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
REGULAR MEETING
City Hall,
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place,
Room 400
March 15, 2004
Adopted April 5, 2004
MINUTES
The regular meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 9:05 a.m. by President Santos.
1. Call to Order and Roll Call - Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified.
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
Rodrigo Santos, President Denise D’Anne, Commissioner
Bobbie Sue Hood, Vice-President Matt Brown, Commissioner
Alfonso Fillon, Commissioner Roy Guinnane, Commissioner
Esther Marks, Commissioner
Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary
D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:
Frank Chiu, Director
Amy Lee, Assistant Director
Ken Harrington, Special Assistant to the Director, excused
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Sonya Harris, Secretary
- President’s Announcements.
a. Report on Mayor Newsom’s appointment of Rudy Nothenberg as Special Monitor
for the Department of Building Inspection.
President Santos said his general comments of two weeks ago were that he supported the move by the Mayor of having made a special appointment and said he looked forward to working with the Monitor to give him any type of assistance that he may require from the BIC. President Santos stated that he understood Mr. Nothenberg would be starting on March 22, 2004. President Santos said that concluded his announcements and called for any public comment on this item.
Ms. Ernestine Weiss said she really wanted to make a statement commending the appointment of Rudy Nothenberg, as she has known him from a long, long time ago when he was President of the M.U.N.I. Commission and he did a terrific job. Ms. Weiss said that Mr. Nothenberg knows all about the area where she lives, the redevelopment at the Golden Gateway Center and he would be very helpful to DBI and the Commission. Ms. Weiss thanked the Commission.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders Association said there are various charges concerning fraud, corruption, undo influence, and malfeasance that were made against the employees of this Department that he presumed included the Commission. Mr. O’Donoghue said at the time the charges were made, they were made on very auspicious occasions such as inauguration day and pre-inauguration so the gravity of those charges were very, very serious. Mr. O’Donoghue said that, in fact the public were promised an investigation and The Residential Builders, subsequently asked that when an investigation occurs and the monitor is appointed, that the monitor be someone with prosecutorial powers coming probably from the U.S. Attorney’s Office or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and that they have subpoena powers. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he is very disappointed that a monitor is appointed who has none of those powers. Mr. O’Donoghue said it seems that someone is being sent who may have partisan ideologies and political differences and in fact said that the Residential Builders are still demanding and requesting, as the employees of this Department should, a full, clear investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office who would bring in an outsider. Mr. O’Donoghue said it appears to him that, in fact, an argument, a statement or a case can be made that the appointment of a person who appears to have bi-partisan politics may be a cover up. Mr. O’Donoghue stated everyone has already seen cover ups in terms of BMW and election fraud and ballot problems out in the Bay View. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that in The Examiner last week there was a cover up by one of the Mayor’s supporters of human life being endangered in the Civic Center Hotel. Mr. O’Donoghue said that there was a fraud that was trying to be perpetrated by more of the Mayor’s supporters
through the Chamber of Commerce and Proposition J, so it’s for this reason that the RBA is requesting an impartial monitor because people’s reputations have been maligned. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he would welcome Matt Gonzalez’ inquiry. Mr. O’Donoghue said the Board of Supervisors shares power on this Commission with the Mayor so the Supervisor’s appointments have also come under blight and for that reason this should be a joint venture and the RBA is not asking for less as Mr. O’Goney or Eric Jay, his political Advisor, seemed to imply last week. Mr. O’Donoghue said the RBA wanted more and this Department and this Commission should actually send a letter demanding a full level as to hearings on this matter and they should be on TV weekly reports. Mr. O’Donoghue thanked the Commission.
Vice-President Hood said she would like to comment that she strongly supported the idea of having a special monitor come into the Department, and said that she is familiar with the use of special masters in construction litigation. Vice-President Hood said very often when you have a very complex set of circumstances as is the case here, it is very helpful to have an unbiased outside person with no connections whatsoever to any of the parties to come in with a staff and powers of subpoena and the ability to get to the bottom of the factual information. Vice-President Hood said that she is a strong admirer of Rudy Nothenberg as well, and has known him since he came to work from the Moscone Administration and for Jerry Brown when Mr. Brown was Governor of California in the mid seventies. Vice-President Hood stated that she knows that Mr. Nothenberg is highly regarded for his ability to look at budgets and his accounting and many aspects of management. Vice-President Hood stated that rumors that have been leveled against the Department of Building Inspection regarding unfavorable treatment or favorable treatment of certain project applicants by expediting the projects of permit expediters while those of ordinary citizens were forced to wait and just vague sort of speculation and gossip. Vice-President Hood said that it bothered her that Mr. Nothenberg planned to be at the Department for about three months and said she wondered how it was going to be possible for him to get into the data that would be necessary to follow up on some of these charges. Vice-President Hood stated that she looked forward to learning more about that, but said that she thought that it really remains to be done on a very factual basis and by a person coming with no political agenda.
Commissioner Marks said that she was speaking up because she felt that the other point of view had to be expressed by the Commission and that is that she thinks all of the Commission knows Rudy Nothenberg as a person with a tremendous range of expertise and integrity and many of the Commissioners complained that the Grand Jury Report was inadequate because the jury members did not have much knowledge of the Building Inspection Commission or its activities and responsibilities. Commissioner Marks stated that Rudy brings that with him because the Department was under him when he was the Chief Administrative Officer. Commissioner Marks said that she was sure that if it takes longer than three months to do his job, Mr. Nothenberg would take longer than three months so she had every confidence that he is the right person to be selected.
President Santos thanked Commissioner Marks and asked if there was any further public comment on Item 2a.
Mr. Randy Shaw, Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, said that he would disagree with Commissioner Marks because this is like putting George Bush in charge of the economy because he’s done it once before. Mr. Shaw said that when someone has failed in their task, and there have been a lot of Chronicle stories just saying that, he did not think Nothenberg was good because of his prior tenure; it’s not simply that, but if he had been successful in the past it would be good to bring him back, but this was a guy who allowed twenty-four illegal appointments to be made on the Code Advisory Committee. Mr. Shaw stated that twenty-four people were illegally serving when this Department was under Rudy Nothenberg. Mr. Shaw said this is a guy who he had to file a lawsuit against for St. Peter’s Housing Committee because Mr. Nothenberg wasn’t enforcing the Housing Code for Latino families in the Mission; this is a guy who subjected the city to numerous lawsuits for failure to enforce the Civil Rights of people with disabilities and Mr. Shaw said that he could go on and on. Mr. Shaw said this is a track record of when white men ruled the world under Rudy Nothenberg in the Bureau of Building Inspection and there was no diversity, no attempt at diversity and so the problem is that Mr. Nothenberg is not really the right person. Mr. Shaw said he thought that the larger question, which continually gets lost and which has been censored by the media, is why aren’t we talking about the public hearing that was held last August at the Board of Supervisors specifically to investigate allegations of favoritism at the Department of Building Inspection. Mr. Shaw said there was a public hearing and at that public hearing the Grand Jury, the Controller, everyone could’ve come, the Grand Jury was there, and they were begged and pleaded by the Supervisors to just give them one address so that they could say this building was treated this way and this building was treated that way and they never could give a single address, and that’s what’s so striking about this. Mr. Shaw stated that all these years and he hears about Walter Wong getting special treatment; it should be easy to prove, just take a Walter Wong permit where he was hired to do a job and look at that 12-unit building and then look at another 12-unit building and see how it was treated differently. Mr. Shaw stated that if it was treated differently there should be punishment and the employees who were doing that should be fired, but there is still no example and that’s why he was asking how does the Department disprove favoritism. Mr. Shaw said what would it take to disprove favoritism and what will it take to get the S.F. Chronicle to write a story saying that they were wrong and there’s no evidence of favoritism. Mr. Shaw said that he did not think that anyone would every see that story and that’s why he thought this whole thing is more of a witch hunt because the reality is these charges have been gone over and over again and there has never been any substance. Mr. Shaw stated that if there was any substance there he didn’t know how Rudy Nothenberg was going to come in and find what he’s looking for. Mr. Shaw said that Mr. Nothenberg could look at what he wants and asked if Mr. Nothenberg would single out one person, Walter Wong, and is that who is being targeted in this investigation. Mr. Shaw said the whole thing when you get right down to it sounds good by bringing in a “Special Monitor”, but the facts as to what this investigation would even consist of is very unclear and very vague. Mr. Shaw said for that reason he thought that what would really be happening was that Mr. Nothenberg will be reviewing what has been written before and coming to the same conclusion as trumpeted on the Chronicle front page that “Nothenberg Finds Favoritism!”
Commissioner Brown said that he had a question for staff, without commenting on Mr. Nothenberg and his qualifications or lack thereof, he was concerned as to how long this would take Mr. Nothenberg to either uncover favoritism or not. Commissioner Brown asked if Mr. Nothenberg would have a staff with him or has the Department been given any literature on the proposed investigation. Commissioner Brown said that he had questions about whom Mr. Nothenberg would be talking to, how long the investigation would take and how many people he would be bringing with him. Director Chiu said that he had heard from the Chief of Staff from the Mayor’s Office and he informed the Director that Mr. Nothenberg is on vacation and won’t be back until March 22nd. Director Chiu said that this is the only information he had been given.
Commissioner Brown said that he would be interested in having Mr. Nothenberg come and talk to the Commission about protocol during the next meeting because it is important that the Commission be informed about the investigation process. Commissioner Brown said that blanket allegations have been made in the newspapers and the Grand Jury Report, but these allegations had no evidence. Commissioner Brown said that nothing was brought out in the Litigation Committee meetings in talking with the Grand Jury and in the Board of Supervisor’s public hearing nothing was brought out again so he would want to see something from Mr. Nothenberg to let the Commission know what is going to be looked at and who is going to be the interviewer and who is going to be interviewed. Commissioner Brown stated that he wanted the BIC to have some input because otherwise it is just allegation upon allegation and the BIC gets a report at the end.
Vice-President Hood said that she would support what Commission Brown had just said. Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson said that Mr. Shaw raised a good point as to how favoritism could be proven. Mr. Hutchinson said that he thought it was disproved by the three separate Civil Grand Juries that have audited the Department, the two years the Controller’s Office spent auditing the Department, and the five years the Chronicle says the Federal Bureau of Investigation audited the Department. Mr. Hutchinson stated that it was important to note that the gentleman that was in charge of the FBI at that time has gone on to serve as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington. Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not think that this was a slipshod investigation or as the Chronicle said he did not think that they didn’t find anything because an ex-City employee says that they changed agents around; this is ludicrous. Mr. Hutchinson said that he spent five hours with the agents from the FBI and they were thorough, professional and they asked for hundred and hundreds of documents, which the Department happily gave them. Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department would now be entertaining Mr. Nothenberg in his retirement. Mr. Hutchinson said that he wanted to know what Mr. Nothenberg could provide and wanted Mr. Nothenberg to walk in and tell the Department what DBI can expect when Mr. Nothenberg is finished and is this the end. Mr. Hutchinson said that this is creating a hostile work environment for DBI employees and the employees are honest and hardworking and enough is enough. Mr. Hutchinson stated that he thought that it is as much an insult to the members of the Department as it is to all of the Commissioners. Mr. Hutchinson said that some of the Commissioners had been on the Commission since the beginning and if there was wrongdoing the Commissioners are intelligent enough to have found it by now. Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not think that Mr. Nothenberg was the right choice and if he does come on board the Department would cooperate. Mr. Hutchinson stated that he really would like to know if he is taking time away from doing the regular work for the citizens of this City to once again gather records that have been looked at hundreds of times and take employees off of their duties what is expected at the end. Mr. Hutchinson said that this was only fair and if there was no wrongdoing found he wanted Mr. Nothenberg on TV saying there is no wrongdoing and he wanted the Chronicle saying there is no wrongdoing, because there is no wrongdoing.
Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to talk about the dimensions of the challenges, as she understood them because as an Architect she has always been interested in the enforcement of the Code. Vice-President Hood said that this Commission is charged with seeing that the Code is enforced and the complaints that she has heard have been things like somebody breaking in line and gets ahead of someone. Vice-President Hood said that in all of her years on the Commission she has never heard a charge that DBI, even for those supposedly favored people, ever waived any Code requirement or permitted a building to be built that did not conform to the Code and that did not have the proper inspections. Vice-President Hood said that is the sort of thing that the Commission is very good at going after, somebody who is disobeying the Building Code, which is the law. Vice-President Hood said that it is much harder to sort of ferret out if somebody breaks in line, but said that Americans are very fair minded and if somebody breaks in line in front of someone at the movie theater that person would be challenged. Vice-President Hood stated that if somebody broke in front of her at the counter she asks why because maybe they haven’t gotten their number or something. Vice-President Hood said that very often it could be perceived that somebody has broken in line because they had been their previously and had to go and secure some other documents so they come back and the Plan Checker let’s them go ahead of the other people because they have already waited in line. Vice-President Hood said that she would ask those people who claim that somebody broke in line in front of them why they didn’t speak up right then and please to speak up in the future. Vice-President Hood said that it would be a good idea to put a sign up down on the counter on Level 1 saying that if a customer thinks that anyone is breaking in line in front of them to call customer services at a certain number because the policy of this Department is to wait your fair turn.
Commissioner Marks said, to bring this to a conclusion, she thought it was in error to think that Mr. Nothenberg was coming into the job assignment assuming that there is wrongdoing. Commissioner Marks said that she thought that he was a fair-minded person and would do a good job. Commissioner Marks stated that she had every confidence that Mr. Nothenberg’s conclusions would be valid.
President Santos said that the Commission would agendize this item for a meeting. Commissioner Brown said that he looked forward to meeting Mr. Nothenberg in the next meeting at the beginning of April and said that it would be beneficial if Mr. Nothenberg could come with a report on what sort of protocol he will be using for his investigation that would keep the Commission informed. Commissioner Brown said that unfortunately he would not be present at the first meeting in April, but would look at the minutes.
Commissioner Fillon said that he wholeheartedly agreed with Mr. Shaw’s comments, especially the last part about where this process will inevitably get the Department, which is most like going to be innuendo of wrongdoing. Commissioner Fillon said that he thought that this was going to go where the other various investigations went before and it is going to go to the Chronicle and it will be another smear campaign against staff with unsubstantiated evidence. Commissioner Fillon said that one person is not going to find more than a Grand Jury, the FBI and the Controller’s Office and that was his opinion. Commissioner Fillon said that he was very concerned about the power that one person can have, unchecked, to go through a Department with almost Gestapo like powers. Commissioner Fillon said that this would have an effect on staff and asked who was watching the person coming in to do this as he has impunity to do anything that he wants. Commissioner Fillon said that he would go along with Commissioner Brown that the BIC needs to be involved in what Mr. Nothenberg is doing and get some sort of feedback so that the BIC is being included in the process somewhat. Commissioner Fillon said that Mr. Nothenberg might not agree to that, but said that it was necessary not only to protect staff, but also to make the process have more believability and to give Mr. Nothenberg’s findings more credibility at the end. Commissioner Fillon said that he had a great deal of respect for this person, but there is a history and this town is all about politics.
Director Chiu said that perhaps the Commission could write a letter to Mr. Nothenberg to ask him to show up at the first meeting in April. President Santos said he would be happy to. Vice-President Hood said that perhaps there should be a special meeting just to deal with this one topic because it is very large. Vice-President Hood said that she did not want Mr. Nothenberg to be working for two weeks without the Commission offering any help and said that she wanted to make all of the prior information available to him and to be very well organized to make this a productive exercise.
- Director’s Reports. [Director Frank Chiu]
a. Report on proposed ordinance to direct DBI to improve its Permit Tracking System.
- Report on proposed ordinance amending the San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code by adding Article V, sections 5.100 to 5.145 to impose registration and disclosure requirements on Permit Consultants as introduced at the Rules Committee.
- Report on proposed ordinance amending the San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code by adding Article V, sections 5.100 to 5.145 to impose registration and disclosure requirements on Permit Consultants as drafted by Permit Consultants and introduced at the Rules Committee.
At this time Sonya Harris, Assistant Secretary took over for Secretary Aherne who had to leave the meeting.
Director Chiu said that 3a was to report on a proposed ordinance directing DBI to improve its permit tracking system. Director Chiu said that at several meetings he announced that not only does DBI have a permit tracking system, but several weeks ago it was launched online so there is a public permit tracking system and complaint tracking system as well. Director Chiu reported that this ordinance was requesting the Department to build upon what is in place and fully enhance the tracking system to make it more efficient and also more in line with the Sunshine Ordinance.
Director Chiu stated that he had drafted a three-year strategic plan on the MIS issue and had just shared that with the Commission’s MIS Committee. Director Chiu said that based on several trips that he and other DBI Management took a few weeks ago to Las Vegas, Clark County and Long Beach, both Amy Lee, himself and Ken Harrington are going to be revisiting DBI’s strategic plan to see what else could be incorporated to make that entire permit processing more efficient. Director Chiu asked Ms. Lee to come forward and address this issue. Director Chiu said that the Supervisors are asking DBI to report back to them every four months to make sure the Department is on target to accomplish these goals and would want that to happen for two years.
Commissioner Guinnane asked Ms. Lee to start off by talking about Long Beach and to compare their system to San Francisco’s system. Assistant Director Lee said that she would talk about that under another item, but said that what was seen and also in Las Vegas, especially in Long Beach with the City and County of Los Angeles, they seem to be substantially advanced in what they are doing with their computer system in the tracking of their permits. Ms. Lee said that Los Angeles has their inspection scheduling online along with via phone. Ms. Lee stated that the Department could prepare a report for the BIC and agendize this for a later meeting. Ms. Lee said that it was important to note during these two visits was that most of the jurisdictions that had advanced computer systems had someone who was technical in nature, for example they had a Structural Engineer’s degree who served in the role for Information Systems (IT). Ms. Lee said that DBI has the IT staff who knew DBI’s program, but had to learn the permit processing, permit issuance issues and the plan checking issues. Ms. Lee said that these other jurisdictions that were advanced in this technology had staff that already knew those issues and knew those information systems. Ms. Lee said that DBI was going to look into how it could adopt some of those personnel issues.
Ms. Lee said that she wanted to step back and talk about the Director’s report on Items a, b and c. Ms. Lee stated that she wanted to clarify that this was the Board’s attempt to address the problems of preferential treatment and allegations of undue influence. Ms. Lee stated that the Board is referring to Permit Expediters as Permit Consultants so the legislation is all relating to Permit Consultants.
Ms. Lee reported that first ordinance is to direct DBI to improve its tracking system and said that she has been with the City for five years and it is very rare that an ordinance is given to a Department to do something programmatically. Ms. Lee referred to the second page of the ordinance and said that the Board wants DBI to consider implementing a system with as little manual intervention as possible so that there would be less potential for mistakes. Ms. Lee said that the Board believes that this would help with tracking permits better to be able to compare if any permits have received favorable treatment or not.
Ms. Lee said that 3b is another ordinance dealing with the Permit Consultant issue and the Board of Supervisors and the City Attorney drafted this. Ms. Lee said that the most important part of 3b is that it is mostly about the Ethics Commission and DBI is not as involved with 3b, but the definition of a Permit Consultant excludes Contractors, Architects and Attorneys and there is some problems with that. Ms. Lee said that Supervisor Gonzales along with some other individuals had raised the fact that if someone were to pick up the permit, such as a mail courier, that person would have to register, but an Architect on the project would not be included in putting their name on the registry. Ms. Lee said that she brought up the point that this would bring about a new industry of professionals that don’t necessarily do a lot with the project, but are brought on because of their expertise with permit expediting. President Santos asked if the Architect of record picked up the permit he wouldn’t be considered a Permit Consultant. Ms. Lee said that was correct, but a private attorney brought up some excellent points about that some couriers will probably be excluded and the Board is thinking about re-including Attorney’s. Ms. Lee said that right now Attorneys, Architects, Engineers and Contractors are excluded in the definition. Ms. Lee stated that it is difficult to differentiate between legal advice versus permit processing advice. Ms. Lee said she encouraged the Board to include people who are not only hired to push permits through, but also to include those people who oppose permits. Ms. Lee said that it would be unfair to exclude those people. President Santos asked if Ms. Lee was suggesting to include someone like a Land-Use Attorney such as Sue Hestor. Ms. Lee stated that she did not know the names of the people, but it should be Attorneys or even individuals who are opposing projects and said that she had heard rumors in the past that people pay others to oppose projects so this ordinance could potentially cover that. Ms. Lee said that there have been several meetings or hearings on this issue and every time there is discussion about the language. Ms. Lee said that at the last meeting Section 3c was introduced that very morning, which is a version drafted by the Permit Consultants. Ms. Lee said that in looking at 3c, and stated that she had raised concerns with the Board; it raises a lot of problems because it puts a lot more burden on the Department as well as the Ethics Commission. Ms. Lee said it requires the Department to do a “first in, first out” policy meaning that the Department would have to prioritize all projects so that those that come in first would be addressed first. Ms. Lee stated that this depends on the complexity of the projects and often incomplete submittals of the applications, first in does not mean first out in DBI.
Vice-President Hood said that she was astounded by what is in all of these Ordinances because first of all in 3a it is treated as though the BIC has not been sitting in meetings talking about Permit Tracking for nine years and is talking about it as if this is some sort of space age technology that cannot be bought at Office Market or Office Max or even in a local Good Boy. Vice-President Hood stated that someone could walk in and buy one of these systems to track permits. Vice-President Hood said that what is intended to be an Ordinance is written more like a report and is not at all definitive, is vague and ambiguous in legal and it is totally inept. Vice-President Hood said that she did not know to what extent DBI has participated in the preparation of this language or who over at the Board of Supervisors has done it, but they appear to be lacking knowledge, both in how permits are processed and how laws need to be written. Vice-President Hood said that if DBI needs a Permit Tracking System, as she thought this Board has had a policy for about nine years, then DBI needs to get it, but this Ordinance is written in such a vague way that it doesn’t necessarily ensure that result. Vice-President Hood stated that moreover, it contains many clauses that are problematic in achieving the goal. Vice-President Hood said that she believed that the people at DBI that have been assigned to work on this have been incompetent for the purpose whether they are good meaning people or are certified under whatever job description or not; they have not been able to do the job. Vice-President Hood said that she hoped DBI had identified people who could do this job because it is done everywhere and there are much more complex systems out there such as the UPS system with a barcode or the barcode that is on every grocery that is bought. Vice-President Hood said that these barcodes tell companies what is in stock and what’s not, when it was ordered and when it is not; it is technology that is just as available as the ink supply that has to be put into a printer. Vice-President Hood stated that she just could not understand why this has not been done.
Vice-President Hood said that she has suggested that the Department get two people from either a large architectural firm and engineering which have good representation in this City and have DBI sit down and have them implement this in the Department. Vice-President Hood said that, with all due respect to Ms. Lee, she believed that the person dealing with this should have familiarity with getting permits. Vice-President Hood said that DBI’s representative to the Board of Supervisors should have had that experience and also the experience of things tracked. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that Ms. Lee should have someone helping her with that.
Vice-President Hood said that 3b was trying to do a comparable legislation for people who are paid more for areas involving, in other words they are hired guns or mercenaries, and there is a lot of difference between that and an architect or an engineer who always has to get every project that they do permitted to show that they can meet the Building Code. Vice-President Hood said that these people are already doing the architectural or structural design or the American’s Disability upgrades so they just have to get a permit as the process related to that. Vice-President Hood said that there are other, what she would call hired guns, and these typically are Attorneys to a very large extent or they are people who advertise themselves openly as what were formerly known as Permit Expediters, but are now discussed now as Permit Consultants. Vice-President Hood stated that the line between those two groups of people, the technical professionals who are preparing this work and the people who come in just to implement the permit process is never going to be black or white, but it certainly could be drawn rather clearly. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that it pointed out a basic problem with this whole approach which is that it is not bad that somebody is providing a service and the Department is going to get in trouble with the California Lawyer’s Association or the Bar because DBI cannot screen out Attorneys who provide assistance in this country in every aspect of life. Vice-President Hood said that to require that those people have to be registered the way people who advocate in front of a Planning Commission and get paid to advocate. Vice-President Hood said that was what was being looked at here, looking at people who get paid to advocate aside from the work that they would be doing otherwise and said that she thought that this could be defined not by profession because profession would not do it; it is irrelevant. Vice-President Hood stated that there could be an Architect who gets paid to work on somebody else’s design to get the permit so professions are not ever going to deal with this issue. Vice-President Hood said that it was the difference between someone who has done the basic work on the document to meet the Code and somebody who comes in purely as an advocate. Vice-President Hood said that the advocates are always going to be the Attorneys because every Attorney is an advocate and it is always going to be as described in the proposed ordinance Permit Consultants, but that term is vague and misleading and is not ever going to be clear. Vice-President Hood said that this legislation is just a mess because it does not define who is being talked about and said the reason she thought that was so hard is because why does it make any difference. Vice-President Hood asked why it would make any difference if the Architect who did the drawing advocates or the person who is standing outside as an Attorney and has done ten cases like this. Vice-President Hood said that the point should be service to the City by having it be fair and service to the project applicants and that is what should be looked at; how is that made fair and not get into these ambiguous descriptions.
Ms. Lee said that she wanted to clarify that she does have permit processing and input inspection’s experience so she has been working with the Board, but 3a was drafted by the City Attorney’s Office with the Board and a draft was provided to DBI’s MIS Manager and she did input some of the comments. Vice-President Hood asked if the person who drafted that could come in and give the BIC a report because she wanted to know why it was written like a report and why would anyone codify that as law. Ms. Lee said that this is something that the Board of Supervisors, especially Supervisor Dufty, as well as other Board members are sponsoring so that is why this is being presented to the BIC just to inform the Commissions that DBI did not take part in what was driving both of these documents. Vice-President Hood stated that she thought that it was the BIC’s duty as a Commission and the Department’s to give input to those people who are initiating this because the BIC and DBI are the experts and want this done properly. Vice-President Hood said that she did not want this mess out there. Ms. Lee said that she mentioned that to the Board that the BIC saw the original version from way back when which has changed substantially from all of the versions so this agenda is just to provide the BIC information just in case the Commissioners did not get a chance to read it and then relay the Commission’s comments back to the Board of Supervisors. Ms. Lee said that with 3a, as she mentioned it before, the City Attorney drafted it with comments from DBI’s MIS Manager and this still a draft. Ms. Lee said that it was her understanding that the Controller had some issues with it, as well as herself, in terms of the language of 3a and lacking specificity.
Ms. Lee said that for 3b, as mentioned before, the Board of Supervisors and in particular Matt Gonzales had issues in terms of what is included in the definition of the Expediters. Ms. Lee stated that she was just raising these issues to the Commissioners so they knew what had gone on in those hearings if they had not been able to watch it on TV.
Ms. Lee said that with Section 3c she wanted to let the Commissioners know that this draft is also out there and after it has been discussed she would bring the BIC’s concerns back to the Board and that was her hope with agendizing this item.
Commissioner Santos asked if this was just for informational purposes. Ms. Lee said that was correct and the Commission is not voting on anything, but this is information and the Director’s report to tell the Commission that these three versions that affect the Department are out there and any concerns would be relayed back. Ms. Lee said that in meeting with the Board of Supervisors all of the issues raised by Commissioner Hood have been echoed repeatedly to all of the Board members so it is really frustrating on both ends that no one is listening to her. Vice-President Hood stated that she would be more than happy to go with Ms. Lee to these meetings. Vice-President Hood stated that she did not want the BIC and the Department to be seen as people throwing up roadblocks, but wanted to be people who are helping them to achieve their goals. Vice-President Hood said that the Commission is absolutely on the same side and wanted a fair and transparent process and she thought that the Commission and the Department could help these people. Vice-President Hood asked Ms. Lee to let her know when the next meeting would be and stated that she would like to attend. Ms. Lee said that the next meeting would be on March 24th at 2:00 p.m. President Santos asked if that was at the Board of Supervisors. Ms. Lee said that it was in the Rules Committee on the second floor. Vice-President Hood asked if the Department ever meets with the BOS aides in advance of the meetings. Ms. Lee said that the Department has asked for this, but the Department has been given very little involvement. Ms. Lee said that the first hearing on this matter was given to the BIC, the very first draft, and the Department was called that day. Ms. Lee said that with section 3c and 3b the Department was given drafts that very morning, in fact, section 3c was given to her two minutes before she was called to speak. Ms. Lee stated that she read it as quickly as she could and tried to put together concerns of the Department being aware of all of the permit processing issues. Ms. Lee said that some, as Vice-President Hood mentioned, some of the Supervisors do not understand all of the issues and the process.
Vice-President Hood said that she had understood, and said that maybe it is somewhere and she is not aware of it, that she had wanted a report from the Department on how the implementation of permit tracking is going, who has the Department called, what systems are being investigated and the technical aspects of this issue. Ms. Lee said that she thought this would be answered in item #7. Ms. Lee said that she would appreciate it if she would be allowed to finish item 3c.
Ms. Lee said that item 3c is the draft written by the Permit Consultants and some of the items, as she mentioned before, are going to be reworked into the Board’s draft. Ms. Lee said of particular concern, was not only the application priority, but it requires several things from the Department on the Ethics Department side. Ms. Lee stated that the Ethics Department is supposed to draft a new Code, although she mentioned that DBI has an existing Code of Professional Conduct, by January 5th; DBI is also supposed to implement a system as listed out in this legislation by January 5th. Ms. Lee said that she has been told by DBI’s MIS Manager Sue Metzger that it is impossible to do. Ms. Lee said that furthermore it provides for discipline on DBI staff and provides a lot of burden in terms of what Department staff can and cannot do. Ms. Lee said that when she raised questions with these provisions given the little time that she had was that often time when she is called by the Mayor’s Office on a complaint and it is addressed as soon as possible because it is a problem complaint, she would be disciplined under this version. Ms. Lee said that 3c was troubling to her as well as it is to the Department and those concerns have been raised. Ms. Lee said that at the end of the last meeting on 3c the Board said that they were going to go back and revisit 3b and 3c and look at the different provisions and provide a new draft and that would be discussed on the March 24th hearing. Ms. Lee said that if there are any additional points that any one of the Commissioners wanted her to bring before the hearing, or said that she would draft a letter for any Commissioner, addressing these versions. Vice-President Hood asked if Ms. Lee could draft a letter and run it by her. Ms. Lee asked if Vice-President Hood could send her any points she wanted to make first because she did not know exactly what Vice-President Hood wanted to address. Vice-President Hood said that she had just made them and Ms. Lee could obtain them from the BIC Secretary from the records and then she would add any additions.
Ms. Lee said that to go back to something Commissioner Guinnane had mentioned, some DBI Management did attend the CALBO Conference and the ICBO Conference in Long Beach and Las Vegas and especially in Long Beach it was really aimed at technology. Ms. Lee said that the City and County of San Francisco have had a lot of resources in terms of money to put into the Department and in particular the MIS system, but the Department did run into some troubles with fraud that no one could control during that time. Ms. Lee said that after that time, this Department purposely halted all expenditures on MIS so that no further monies would be lost. Ms. Lee said that acknowledging that the Department knows that its network and its infrastructure are at least two years behind. Ms. Lee said that the Department is moving forward and the Director is working with Sue Metzger in trying to make sure that DBI is on a platform or a network that will allow for further enhancements. Ms. Lee said that if the Department does not have any Union issues with some City requirements she would like to get a bunch of professionals to come to DBI for six months to work on the enhancement of the system. Ms. Lee stated that she thought that the Department is real close and people think that DBI doesn’t have a system at all or one that doesn’t track permits at all. Ms. Lee said that she wanted to clarify that before the Board that the Department does track permits, but not to the extent of Permit Expediters, etc. Ms. Lee said that she thought that this could be done by just adding another field or a tab on the application form and that could be tracked.
Ms. Lee stated that the Department has to move forward with the bar coding, the hand held devices and inspection scheduling. Ms. Lee said that
Commissioner Guinnane said that Ms. Lee stated that DBI was about two years behind on these issues and said that he thought DBI was actually in the ice age. Commissioner Guinnane stated that there has been a tremendous amount of money spent on DBI’s MIS over the past five years and there is nobody in the Department who has vision. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to find out who the vendor was in Los Angeles and get them up here to look at DBI’s system and evaluate it. Commissioner Guinnane said he wanted to get the system evaluated and also get the employees evaluated. Director Chiu said that the Department planned to bring in a few consultants to look at DBI’s system and then come back and make recommendations. Vice-President Hood said that she thought the Commission was asking for the guy from Long Beach in order to work with a person who has done it right. Ms. Lee said that it was actually Los Angeles as DBI was at a conference in Long Beach, but it was Los Angeles’ system.
Director Chiu said that he wanted to share some of the projects that DBI is working on that other cities have already embarked on. Director Chiu said that DBI is working on a document imaging extension project and said that the Department has started the imaging project already meaning that DBI has documented all permit history and applications, but it has not been launched in the network because of the storage capacity. Director Chiu said that upgrading the network is part of this process. Director Chiu said that the Department wants to expand on a bar coding system to use it to keep track of documents, plans and even inspection personnel. Director Chiu stated that DBI wants to launch a remote access for Inspectors and these plans are in place, but staff just got back from this trip on Saturday and said that he wanted to meet and come back to the BIC with a comprehensive plan to see if the BIC has other ideas.
Commissioner Guinnane asked how long it was going to take and stated that he has been on this Commission for eight years and six years ago he was very concerned about the amount of money being spent on the MIS because there was millions going out the door. Commissioner Guinnane said that as far as he was concerned today, nothing has changed. Director Chiu said that was incorrect because five years ago DBI did bring up the ice age permit tracking system to an Oracle based system. Director Chiu said that the Department is behind because of problems in MIS and all projects were frozen until the Department could step back and take a look at the system and personnel. Director Chiu said that the Department is not far away because the current Oracle based permit tracking system compared with other cities is more comprehensive than other cities. Director Chiu stated that DBI is lagging with a lot of the enhancement features to make the process more efficient, but now want to correct that. Director Chiu said that he did not want it said that the Department has done nothing for the last nine years even though there was money wasted, but DBI is dealing with that and want to now move forward.
Commissioner Marks said that going back to the three items she wanted to say that in terms of 3a obviously the intent of the legislation is to make sure that the permit tracking system is upgraded and in place. Commissioner Marks said that she agreed with Ms. Lee that it is unheard of that there has to be legislation dictating the operations of the Department so she really felt that it would be better for the Board to ask for an update every four months. Commissioner Marks said that was a way that the Board could make sure that the Department does come up to speed instead of writing legislation.
Commissioner Marks said that in terms of b and c she thought that originally the intent was disclosure as is done with lobbyists, disclosure of Permit Expediters or Consultants. Commissioner Marks said that she would hate to see bureaucracy develop where the original intent is not going to be accomplished because it is so cumbersome.
Vice-President Hood said that she had read the ordinances for lobbyists who in fact have to register with the Ethics Commission and it seemed to her that it has worked for a number of years very well. Vice-President Hood stated that everybody just assumes that Attorneys are lobbyists so they don’t have to register, but other people who are not licensed, as Attorneys do have to register. Vice-President Hood said that she would like to get a copy of the lobbyists’ ordinance for all of the BIC members to look at that to see if it could be amended to include all of these other people. Vice-President Hood said that basically that ordinance says that basically if someone is representing a special group or person that needs to be made public. Ms. Lee said that Ginny Vida as well is working on that right now and said that the Board was looking at just expanding on the lobbyists’ legislation. Ms. Lee said that she thought that 3a is about the Board’s frustration with this Department and the allegations of preferential treatment so they felt that this legislation in terms of the ordinance regarding MIS coupled with the Permit Expediter legislation she thought that the Board honestly believes that these two efforts would help with putting some of the concerns that people have about this Department to rest.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders said that obviously the Board is caught down in a quagmire and going into a maze that is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the question that everyone has failed to ask is why did this process and level of inquiry and codifying of intent or whatever begin. Mr. O’Donoghue said that it began from Chronicle headlines because the Chronicle headlines stated unsubstantiated that people through Permit Expediters were getting favored treatment. Mr. O’Donoghue said that in looking at the Chronicle everyone would think that only one Permit Expediter existed in this City, Walter Wong. Mr. O’Donoghue said that as a result of these hearings it is now known that, low and behold, there is a whole plethora of Permit Expediters coming out of the woodwork; Walter Shorenstein has his own very special Permit Expediter, Pat Buscovich. Mr. O’Donoghue said that there are about twenty Permit Expediters out there and they all do work and permit expediting for downtown businesses. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the presumption was that this Department because of alleged favoritism by Permit Expediters was derelict and was biased against the general public. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that that the general public has the biggest Permit Expediter of all created by this Department at the DBI counter, and the Director needs to propound more on this because he sits there silent and lets these allegations go uncontested, but the fact is that 94% of all permits are expedited within forty eight hours without any Expediters at all. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Director needs to send a letter on behalf of this Department correcting the fallacies and lies of the Chronicle because as a result of these lies and a mundane press that refuses right now to offer one level or item of criticism against the existing Mayor this Department’s resources are being totally compounded and aggravated at the Board of Supervisors. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this should be aggressively addressed and the Commission has the authority and the power to challenge anything that comes out in the press and this has not been done. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that maybe the Department needs to hire a Public Relations person that would respond to these misallegations. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he wanted to state for the record that 98% of all permits are processed within thirty days and this is unique in the State of California and of the 2% that are not processed within 30 days most of the RBA members fall into that category. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this so called biased and favoritism that was also improperly alleged against the RBA is non-existent and that is why the RBA wants a monitor with full subpoena powers, not a Rudy Nothenberg, but someone from the Federal Government.
Ms. Spike Kahn of Local 21 said that she wanted to address the problems that Ms. Amy Lee referred to that are being caused by the
Ms. Lee said that she highly agreed with Ms. Kahn’s comments, but her comments with DBI’s MIS and the Union’s issues is that she understands that now with the layoffs from the City any professional service contract especially with IT must go through Civil Service and make sure that any current employees cannot do the work before any department can hire outside consultants. Ms. Lee stated that she is a little frustrated because she would like to supplant the current DBI MIS staff with outside professional services. Vice-President Hood said she did not think that anybody said that, but the Department has been trying to do this for nine years so that is an indication to her, and she did not know the reason whether it is people who belong to Local 21 or Management, but it has not happened. Vice-President Hood said she was not saying that nothing has happened because a customer can go to any person working at DBI and they can look up at the counter on the computer screens the permit history by address. Vice-President Hood said that what she understands is that the public wants to be able to call that up on their own computer screens at their offices or homes. Vice-President Hood stated that as an interim measure the Department should put out the information that anyone can get the information on any permit whether that person is involved or not by just going down to DBI or calling Customer Service on the phone. Director Chiu said that it was launched a few weeks ago that a customer could get the status of any permit online as long as they had the proper address. Vice-President Hood said that something should be sent to the public about this because she was not aware of it and her office is in the business. Vice-President Hood said that signs should be put up in the office and a handout with the directions to the website should be given to customers. Commissioner Guinnane asked what was available online right now. Director Chiu said that right now anyone could look up the permit that was filed with the system or go back and query any permits that the Department has been tracking for the past fifteen years. Director Chiu said the information would show exactly when it was filed, who had it, how long it has been on hold and this was not just for DBI, but for every city agency that has anything to do with that particular permit. Director Chiu stated that the Complaint Tracking has been launched as well and if someone filed a complaint a month ago and that system will tell the customer what the result was. Vice-President Hood said that there should be an announcement sent out about this and it should be sent to every Supervisor, to every Architect and Engineer and a list for neighborhood groups. Director Chiu stated that he intended to talk to the President about doing a press release and said that the Mayor’s Office and the Board of Supervisors were already aware of this. Vice-President Hood said that she would like for Director Chiu to talk about this at the AIA and SEONC because she thought this was a wonderful step. Commissioner Fillon said that it was talked about doing a roll out a couple of weeks ago and the sooner the better. President Santos said that this announcement was made a few weeks ago on TV.
- Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
Ms. Spike Kahn of Local 21 said that she was at the last Commission meeting explaining that there was an outstanding grievance that was pending since July. Ms. Kahn said that she thought that she understood that the BIC directed Director Frank Chiu to work with his attorney and the Union to deal with the issue, but there was no discussion and suddenly on March 10th she received a letter denying the grievance and this would lead to arbitration which is what she thought the BIC was trying to avoid. Ms. Kahn distributed a copy of Director Chiu’s letter to her as well as her letter to the Executive Director of the Department of Human Resources moving this grievance to arbitration. Ms. Kahn said that this reclassification had been going on for a couple of years and Director Chiu had already signed off on the job analysis questionnaire (JAQ), which is the first step for reclassification. Ms. Kahn said that the JAQ actually outlines what that employee does and the Acting MIS Director at the time reviewed it, signed off on it, gave it to Frank who signed off on it and there it sat for the past two years. Mr. Kahn stated that the new DTIS Manager has told the Director that she doesn’t agree with this, but Ms. Kahn said that she has asked since July that all parties sit down and find out where the disagreements are and either the Department is right or the Union is right, but there has been no discussion and she wanted to report this to the Commission. Ms. Kahn said that, one other thing that is off topic, is that Union 21 does review personal service contracts that go before the Civil Service Commission as does the Civil Service Commission to assure that contracting out doesn’t happen by displacing employees from the City and County civil service. Ms. Kahn said that the Union has worked with this Commission and every other single department, other than DBI, to review outside contracts to help facilitate the departments within the City to work together to see if it can’t be done in house then could DTIS do it and if they can’t do it, is an outside contractor justified and nine times out of ten it is. Ms. Kahn said that the 90% of the time when it is justified the
President Santos thanked Ms. Kahn.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that he wanted to go back to the Monitor again as this is a major item. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that when the allegations were made the public as were the RBA members and DBI employees were assured that when the hearings began there would be full information to the public concerning these hearings and their conclusions. Mr. O’Donoghue said that it was the RBA’s recommendation at the time that these hearings be made public and as a matter of fact the RBA pushed for this Commission to go on public TV. Mr. O’Donoghue said that if he remembered, Commissioner Marks was one of the Commissioners in opposition to it. Mr. O’Donoghue said that it was Mac Beth that said stars hide my fires let not light see my dark and deep desires. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this is why there is the Sunshine Ordinance because government work is done behind closed doors and so the way this issue of a Monitor has come through to the public has not been through this Commission, but through headlines in the Chronicle. Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is already this system through the Mayor’s Office, which he has this disagreement with, because the process is wrong where instead of coming before this Commission and sending a representative over here to make the announcement, the Chronicle makes it and allegations then continued. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Mayor last week stated that in fact public complaints have lead to this level of inquiry. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he wanted to know how many public complaints and who are they, as the Mayor does not have to identify them so this is more rumor on rumor. Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is a relative of the Mayor, a Brendan Newsom alleging to be a cousin of the Mayor, who called in and abused DBI employees some weeks ago and, in fact, made racist allegation remarks against Asian people. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this Department needs to be protected against outside interference. Mr. O’Donoghue said that right now there is a DPT fraud that is ongoing and that has been swept under the rug. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the reason that he wants and is requesting a Federal Prosecutor to come in is that when he comes in and finds that this Department has none of the improprieties that have been labeled against it, he wanted the Federal Prosecutor to go to the other departments where the fraud really does exist. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this was the reason he was calling for full, open hearings and whether it is Nothenberg or anyone else, he has no problem with Rudy as he is a nice gentleman, but his actions should also be monitored. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that Mr. Nothenberg should not have the right to come in secret to talk to nine disgruntled employees that he could name, employees who have ambitions to become Director, and because they couldn’t get the job of Director made false accusations and then one becomes a whistle blower to cover up his nefarious dealings on the outside. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that Mr. Nothenberg should not go in secret to the Mayor’s Office, but should come before the public in this TV format and give his reports back out to the community. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this is what he is looking for, fairness in the process and right now the appointment of a Monitor who has alleged bipartisan clouds is evidence enough that his power should be balanced out and this Commission is the only one that can grant this power. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that no one else can and said that the City Attorney has yet to offer a legal opinion and while such a person should come in, the BIC should recognize its authority and should ask the City Attorney for the legal basis by which someone can send in a volunteer from the outside to do a so called investigation that looks like its conclusions will not be objective. Mr. O’Donoghue thanked the Commission.
Commissioner Brown said he wanted to get back to Ms. Kahn’s comments and asked the Director if he thought that there could be a meeting before this issue gets moved to arbitration. Commissioner Brown said that if it turns out that this JAQ was incorrectly signed and now there is a reason why this person can’t be classified then perhaps the Union won’t push for this to go to arbitration, but if it turns out that there are some other issues that exist, he thought that the Department should try to do everything possible to nip this in the bud before expending additional resources. Commissioner Brown asked if a meeting might be helpful in resolving this whole matter. Director Chiu said that, with due respect, he did take time to look at all of the facts, but this is an employee issue so he wished not to discuss this unless it was in a Closed Door Session. Commissioner Brown said that he understood.
Vice-President Hood said that if these letters have already occurred then the matter is already in arbitration. Director Chiu said that he understood that the next step was for him to file his position with the Director of Human Resources and said that is where he believed it belonged.
5. Update on inspection of Golden Gateway Center at the request of tenant. [President Santos & Commissioner Guinnane]
Commissioner Guinnane said that at the last Commission meeting a tenant from the Golden Gateway Center appeared to make a complaint to the BIC. Commissioner Guinnane said that following the meeting he called the Manager and asked him to remedy the problems out there. Commissioner Guinnane stated that last Tuesday there was a meeting set up between himself, President Santos, DBI’s Chief Plumbing Inspector Dennis King, Management and the tenant. Commissioner Guinnane said that they went through all of the halls, the mechanical areas, looked at random units and looked at the lady’s unit to observe any rust in the lines and could not observe anything at all; as a mater of fact, in looking at the complex it seems to be very well maintained and very clean. Commissioner Guinnane reported that he could not find any problems at that particular time unless there is something that happens on a random basis. Commissioner Guinnane said that furthermore, there are seven Commissioners on the BIC and each one of the Commissioners holds a certain seat, for example he holds the Contractor’s seat and President Santos holds the Engineers seat. Commissioner Guinnane said that in the future he would like to see that the Commissioners that handle the tenant’s seat or the owner’s seat could go out and look at some of these units also. Commissioner Guinnane said that there are a lot of issues to cover and this would be the fairest way to have some of the other Commissioners spend their time on these issues.
President Santos asked if the Plumbing Inspector would come forward to make some comments on the rust in the water lines. Dennis King, Chief Plumbing Inspector, said that this has been an ongoing complaint and at times there has been rusty water in Mrs. Weiss’ bathtub spout when the water has turned on, but it would clear up within a minute, or less than a minute. Mr. King said that this was not acceptable to her to have this happen and the Plumbing Inspectors tried to explain to her that there was maintenance work that was going on that was documented by one of the largest major plumbing contractors in California and the United States, Western Plumbing and Heating. Mr. King said that the plumbing company has sent their team out there many times, and their repairmen have done things such as change valves and drained tanks. Mr. King said that Ms. Weiss is at the bottom of the line when service is done because the tanks on the roof and the water drains down and after working on these systems there will be a little bit of sediment for a while. Mr. King stated that he talked to the Manager and had the Manager, at Mr. King’s suggestion, do several things such as pull the pull spout in the unit to make sure the nipple in the tub spout was brass, not galvanized, because galvanized could leave a little bit of residue. Mr. King said that the Manager went ahead and did that; it was a brass nipple so that wasn’t a problem. Mr. King said that he wanted to give a little background on what has gone on in this unit. Mr. King stated that the Manager previously changed a control valve on the return to circulate the return so it would adjust the flow of the return down because they were black cast iron in a copper system. Mr. King said that the Manager granted that they were a little bit rusted up and they were changed, but there was still a little bit of rusty water after that. Mr. King said that he has spoken to the Manager Mr. Alan Anderson many times and anytime the Department has asked that something be done, Mr. Anderson has done it. Mr. King said that he suggested that Mr. Anderson change the strainer assembly that is a 4” pressure reducing valve that was an all brass assembly, but had a black cast iron strainer valve and that was changed out. Mr. King said that the American Water Quality Association that was out at the property to check the water and the water quality is fine. Mr. King said that when DBI was out there on Tuesday the water ran clear immediately and the water in units next door was clear also. Mr. King said that the Department walked around and went to one other unit after that and the water was clear and it is just a matter of when Management does disturb the system to do any work the system has to be purged.
President Santos asked when the rust would most likely appear and would it be on a first water cold run. Mr. King said that it is a single handle-mixing valve so the water is a mixture of both hot and cold so it would be both, but the majority of this water would most likely be coming from the hot water system because the hot water system would create rust quicker than any system.
Vice-President Hood asked if the Department informed the person that made the complaint that if she does see rust to just let this spout run for a minute or two. Mr. King said he did inform the tenant. Vice-President Hood said that this would be purging the system. Mr. King said that she is not happy with having to do that and said that he explained to her that happens when maintenance is done. Mr. King said that it is not lack of maintenance as this building is a very fine building and very well maintained. Mr. King stated that the Department walked through the boiler rooms and the boiler rooms are immaculate. Mr. King said that a couple of years ago DBI suggested that the Center change their single wall heat exchanges out to double wall and they did that; they are doing a fine job on their maintenance. Mr. King said that because Ms. Weiss is at the bottom she does experience a little bit of sediment when they service the system. Mr. King said that the Center might have to go in and clean the tanks out again some time in the future and Ms. Weiss would probably get a little more sediment then, but if she lets it run it will go away. President Santos thanked Mr. King.
Commissioner Marks said that in response to Commissioner Guinnane’s comments that she thought that all of the Commissioners would be happy to go out on site visits and stated that she had gone out with Commissioner Santos and it is very helpful. Commissioner Brown said that he would like to reiterate that and said that, as the tenant representative on this Commission, he is available to go out if staff would let him know when it is appropriate to go out. Commissioner Brown said that he did not want to make it a habit of systematically questioning the Inspector’s good work, but if there is a disputed case said that he would be very happy to go out with Department staff with the tenant’s approval, but said that these are some things that just need to be funneled to him if people want him to go out. Commissioner Brown said that if Department staff wanted him to go out to any site he would be happy to make time in his schedule.
Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to say that she thought it was terrific that so many people on this Commission are willing to go out in response to the public concerns. President Santos asked for any public comment on this issue.
Ms. Ernestine Weiss said that, with all due respect to Dennis King, there is no such thing as a little sediment, in other words you can’t be just a little pregnant; it’s either there or it isn’t there. Ms. Weiss said that it is there and it has been there for a year, on and off. Ms. Weiss stated that she goes through this time and again and Management tells her to flush the water. Ms. Weiss said that she shouldn’t have to be flushing the water every time she goes to try and take a shower; that is unreasonable. Ms. Weiss said that she should be able to get in that shower and have clean water immediately. Ms. Weiss said that she hoped the Commission understood this. Ms. Weiss said that she showed President Santos a letter of the type of stuff that Alan Anderson sends her and said that she has had a barrage of letters of innuendos and lies, cover-ups and Management doesn’t tell her what she wants to know. Ms. Weiss said that the most she has heard is from Dennis King about what Management at the Golden Gateway Center has done. Ms. Weiss said that she has not been informed of anything from Management and all she has done is asked for this information and Ms. Weiss said they then send her a letter telling her that she knew it was being flushed, but other things have been done in the building that she knows nothing about. Ms. Weiss stated that she gets letters that are delivered at
Vice-President Hood said that she would suggest that the next time Ms. Weiss sees rust she should keep a couple of empty plastic containers. Ms. Weiss said no, she keeps a log and keeping samples doesn’t do it because the Water Department when they came out to test her water originally told her that rust would not show up in glass or plastic containers. Ms. Weiss said she tried that and it doesn’t show up so she has been through that. Ms. Weiss said she did that immediately before anyone got on this case because she wanted to show a sample of it, but it doesn’t work.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he was out there last Tuesday with staff and the toilet, the tub, the kitchen faucet and the washbasin were checked and they couldn’t find any rust of any kind. Commissioner Guinnane said that other units that they randomly checked up and down without any guidance from Management were checked and no rust could be found. Commissioner Guinnane asked Ms. Weiss if since last Tuesday she had gotten any rust in the water in her unit. Ms. Weiss said that she hadn’t turned it on because she wants to see what happens in forty days when the Commissioners and the Department comes back to inspect it to see if the rust is going to be visible. Ms. Weiss stated that she was not getting in that shower until she knew that it was absolutely drained of rust. Commissioner Guinnane asked how Ms. Weiss took showers and asked what Management was doing about this. Ms. Weiss said that she had to go out of her building to take showers at her age and in the middle of winter; this is vicious. Commissioner Brown said that he thought that what the Commission was trying to get at is that if there was an inspection done with the Commissioners and Department of Building Inspection staff and they found no rust at that point, but Ms. Weiss still feels that it is necessary to leave the faucets off. Ms. Weiss said that she did not mean to interrupt Commissioner Brown, but said that it doesn’t happen all the time and that is the problem; it is infrequent. Ms. Weiss stated that, in other words the BIC and DBI can be there for an inspection and it won’t show up because it was flushed out the day before. Ms. Weiss said that she presumed that when it was flushed out it was after all these repairs and replacements were made. Commissioner Brown said that he thought the problem was that Ms. Weiss was setting up a circumstance if she doesn’t use the water for over thirty days where she is increasing the risk of sedimentation developing over thirty days and it might be rust or other sedimentation, but said he thought that since there had been inspections done that she let the water run its course. Commissioner Brown said that if Ms. Weiss then has any kind of sedimentation running out then she should let the Department know. Commissioner Brown offered to go out to Ms. Weiss’ unit with no Inspectors to take a look at what is going on. Ms. Weiss asked what Commissioner Brown thought he was going to see. Commissioner Brown said he did not know, but obviously Ms. Weiss is not happy with what anyone else has seen at this point. Ms. Weiss stated that she was not happy. Commissioner Brown said that if she would like another opinion he would go out and do that, but he would not go out there on the thirtieth day. Ms. Weiss said that he could come out at any time. Commissioner Brown asked Ms. Weiss why she wouldn’t run the water then. Ms. Weiss said that she could go to New York for a month on vacation and come back and her water could be clean. Ms. Weiss stated that she has lived at Golden Gateway Center for seventeen years and this has never happened so obviously there is something wrong here, more than has been done period. Ms. Weiss said that letting the water run is not the solution to this and that is the problem. Commissioner Brown said that unfortunately, it sounds like there have been a great number of resources expended to figure out exactly what the problem is and from what the BIC has seen in terms of Senior Staff going out is that the problem has been abated or at least remediated. Commissioner Brown said that what he was trying to do, if Ms. Weiss is saying that this is not a good enough response, then what would be a good enough response and Ms. Weiss is saying that the response that would make her happy is that if she waited thirty days from DBI’s last inspection with Senior Staff and Commissioners present then to go out and inspect after thirty days is going to give her a non-representative indication of exactly what is going on because when faucets or water sits for thirty days there is bound to be some amount of sedimentation that builds up whether that is rust or whatever. Commissioner Brown stated that he thought this was an unfair way to go about experimenting whether or not Ms. Weiss has a problem and the best way to do it would be for Ms. Weiss to continue to use the water and if she sees rust, immediately contact someone. Ms. Weiss asked if she should get in the shower and all of a sudden the rust comes out and she sees the rust; no thank you. Ms. Weiss said that Commissioner Brown wouldn’t do that and that is unfair. Ms. Weiss said that if Management did all that they should have done within thirty days it should be clear and said that she hoped to God it is because she doesn’t enjoy spending her time and asking BIC and DBI staff what has been done and wasting their time going out to the Golden Gateway Center. Ms. Weiss said that she hoped the problem had been conquered. Commissioner Brown said that he appreciated that and to try and move past this he said if Ms. Weiss would like he would be happy to go out and take a look at what is going on and see if there is something that both of them could see that is happening and hopefully that would be another opinion that Ms. Weiss may or may not respect as far as what is going on. Commissioner Brown said that Ms. Weiss was saying that the sediment can’t be seen in glass or plastic and she can’t get it tested so it seems like there is a situation created where there is no solution. Ms. Weiss said that there is a solution, if Management has done all of their homework and done all of the repairs. Commissioner Brown said that everything that the BIC is getting back as responses is that the problem has been abated and if not, at least remediated. Commissioner Brown said that if Ms. Weiss is saying that it is not, then the Commission needs to have some sort of evidence that it is not, but apparently from everything that has happened so far the problem is gone. Ms. Weiss said that she hoped so, but she did not know that. Commissioner Brown said that Ms. Weiss should start using her water again. Ms. Weiss said that using the water is not the solution because if Management had done their homework it should be clear. Ms. Weiss said that the Commissioners are all professionals such as Architects and so forth and they should know darn well… President Santos thanked Ms. Weiss for her comments. Ms. Weiss thanked the Commission and said she really appreciated all of the work the Commission had done and said she wanted Mr. Brown to come out and see for himself that this is not going to happen on the day he will come out and that it is the problem. Commissioner Brown said that he would talk to Ms. Weiss after the meeting.
Commissioner Guinnane asked Chief Plumbing Inspector Dennis King if there were any other residents of this complex of over 1,200+ units complaining about this problem. Mr. King said that there are some 1224 units there and the Department does not have any records of complaints of cloudy or rusty water other than Ms. Weiss’ complaint. Ms. Weiss said that one day when she was showering in one of the other apartments she came across a gentleman going down to her apartment and her head was wrapped in a towel so she asked him to please forgive her for looking the way she did, but told him that she had rust in her water and had to use someone else’s place to shower. Ms. Weiss said that this gentleman told her that he had just come back from a trip from being away two week and he had rust in his water. Ms. Weiss said that the rust is only randomly in a few apartments and that doesn’t prove anything because there are other people in the other buildings that have rust that she knows of and said that she could tell who they are.
Mr. Alan Anderson introduced himself as the Operations Manager for Golden Gateway Center and thanked the Commission for taking time to come out and visit the complex and said that those who did go out could now understand some of the pain that Management has been going through in making attempts to remedy this situation. Mr. Anderson said that Mr. King said it well by saying that Management has tried to cooperate with the City and has done everything that has been requested. Mr. Anderson said that they have been doing it in a professional manner, but one of the difficulties they have had is being able to understand what is happening and be able to respond to it. Mr. Anderson said that nevertheless Management has made every attempt to remedy it and it is quite possible that someone Ms. Weiss met in an elevator that had been away for some time might have had a momentary burst of sediment when they first turned their taps on because Management has been doing multiple items on the system. Mr. Anderson stated that as Inspector King had indicated when this is done it does disrupt and create a little sediment. Mr. Anderson said that this is compounded in Ms. Weiss’ unit because it is at the bottom of the stack so if there is any sediment to be collected it is quite possible that it is more likely to be found there. Mr. Anderson said that this in conjunction with a resident that does not wish to use the tap, which would appear to be the only sole purpose to collect sediment to show that there is a legitimate claim, is a little difficult to understand from Management’s perspective, nevertheless they try to work through that. Mr. Anderson said that Management has done everything that was required of them and this is not the end of it for him, it may be the end of it for the Commission, but now on April 1, 2004 there is another hearing. Mr. Anderson said that this would consume more of the Center’s resources and more of his time at the Rent Board for the same claims. Mr. Anderson said that he would appreciate if the Commission does have a final ruling on this or if the Commission could tell him where he could obtain hearing notes he would appreciate it because he will be consumed by additional time with what appears to be a witch-hunt. Mr. Anderson thanked the Commission for their time. Commissioner Brown said that the BIC would not be making any kind of judgment on the condition of the property as that would come from Department staff. Mr. Anderson said that the Center has had Inspectors out several times and there was, at one time, a Notice that was filed and that Notice was abated, but this has escalated and escalated and Management has done everything that they can. Commissioner Brown said that Mr. Anderson could use any Department reports from staff in the Rent Board hearings, but something coming from the BIC on the final determination of the condition of the property is not really within the Commission’s power. Mr. Anderson said that he wanted to clarify one other thing for the record. Mr. Anderson stated that the perceived threats from the landlord were to call Civil standby if the resident failed to cooperate to allow Management, Contractors and Engineers into the apartment and that was the extent of any perceived threat that Ms. Weiss had. Mr. Anderson thanked the Commission.
6. Presentation by Housing and Urban Health SRO Collaboratives regarding their expenditure of DBI funds for fiscal year 2003-2004.
Ms. Maureen Singleton with Housing and Urban Health Department of Public Health reported that the department currently contracts with the following non-profit organizations that make up the Single Room Occupancy Collaboratives (SRO Collaboratives): Chinatown Community Development Corporation, Mission Housing Development Corporation and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Ms. Singleton stated that the total amount of these three contracts is currently $700,000. Ms. Singleton said that the SRO Collaborative Program is intended to create an effective neighborhood partnership between community-based organizations, hotel residents, building owners and managers, and City departments to provide a comprehensive approach to SRO habitability standards, hotel fire prevention and community stabilization for tenants. Ms. Singleton said that the SRO Collaboratives serve low-income SRO tenants who are at risk of homelessness because of unsafe and unhealthy conditions in SROs and serve these people in many neighborhoods. Ms. Singleton said that 55 to 75% of the SRO Collaborative’s time is spent on Code Enforcement related activities including Housing and Fire Codes and services provided include outreach, housing counseling, tenant stabilization, tenant programs including fire prevention workshops and tenant meetings. Ms. Singleton said that the outreach includes street outreach, door to door outreach and distributing flyers to inform residents of the Collaborative activities, tenant’s rights, Code requirements and contact information for non-profit organizations and City departments. Ms. Singleton said that the Collaboratives also work with building owners to work with them on Code safety and health issues. Ms. Singleton said that the Collaboratives work one on one with tenants to address various matters of concern. Ms. Singleton said that the counselors work with the tenants in resolving their differences with the SRO owners and managers including clarifying what the tenants duties and responsibilities are in settling any matter. Ms. Singleton said that the Collaboratives act as liaisons with different City departments to assist in resolving issues. Ms. Singleton said that with DBI the Collaboratives would inform Inspectors of any violations. Ms. Singleton stated that all three SRO Collaboratives have done extensive work in education with the SRO owners, staff and contractors about the sprinkler ordinance and continue to educate all involved parties. Ms. Singleton said that the SRO Collaboratives have at least one representative on the City’s SRO taskforce and its four sub-committees and they meet once a month to share and problem solve. Ms. Singleton said that so far in fiscal year 2003/2004 the three SRO Collaboratives have provided 23, 517 outreach encounters, 2,440 counseling service encounters and 55 community program services. Ms. Singleton said that based on productivity so far the Collaboratives are on target to provide 47,034 units of outreach, 4,880 units of counseling service and 110 community programs. Ms. Singleton stated that all of these services are provided in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. Ms. Singleton asked for any questions.
Commissioner Guinnane asked how the $700,000 was divided among the three Collaboratives. Ms. Singleton said that Tenderloin Housing gets $200,000; Mission Housing and Chinatown each get $250,000. Vice-President Hood asked how many SRO units are involved among these three representatives. Ms. Singleton said that she did not have a full count right now, but knew that Chinatown has done outreach to 96 with a goal of reaching out to 140 SROs; Mission has worked with over 50 and unfortunately she did not have a number for Tenderloin. Vice-President Hood said that she thought this was a great program and all three of these groups are very highly regarded for maintaining good units and creating stable neighborhoods. Vice-President Hood asked if Ms. Singleton could get the information about the number of SROs that are covered under this program to the BIC.
Commissioner Santos asked what other departments in the City contributed to these Collaboratives. Ms. Singleton stated that previously it was funded through DPH’s General Fund. Commissioner Santos asked if this $700,000 from DBI was the only source of money received at this time. Ms. Singleton said that the individual organizations do have their various own funding sources. Ms. Singleton said this City money is not the only money that these organizations receive to provide these services as these contracts were meant to augment the services that the Collaboratives were already providing. Commissioner Brown asked if this was a line item that was transferred from DPH’s budget a year or two ago to DBI. Assistant Director Lee said that last year there was some transfers from DBI to various General Fund Departments and the Commission had asked DBI to send a letter to the Mayor’s Office asking those departments to come before the Commission to report what those funds were being used for. Ms. Lee said that there is no MOU signed and the Mayor’s Office has said that they are not monitoring these expenditures so today DPH came before the Commission and Planning will be coming in the future. Ms. Lee said that the funds had been allocated in this year’s DBI budget, but at the Commission’s direction DBI has taken funds for other departments out of the budget, but during the budget process they might be reinstituted back into DBI’s budget.
Commissioner Guinnane said that last year $800,000 was allocated to the Department of Public Health and asked if this $700,000 was part of that. Ms. Lee said that it was $700,000 to Public Health. Commissioner Guinnane asked if it was $1.5M. Ms. Lee stated that there were some funds from another account, which were given to DHS because DBI gave DPH and the Department of Human Services some funds so the $1.5 was for $700,000 to the Department of Public Health and $800,000 to DHS. Commissioner Guinnane asked Ms. Lee to look into that because in looking at the $700,000 and $800,000 DBI is at $1.5. Ms. Lee said that was correct and then there was the $2M to Planning. Commissioner Guinnane said that it was $2,350,000 that went to Planning. Ms. Lee said that was correct.
Vice-President Hood said that it seemed to her that this program is involved with Code Enforcement on anticipating problems in advance and solving them before they happen so this is a much more efficient use of the City’s money than after a problem has occurred.
Commissioner Santos said that Ms. Singleton mentioned that the outreach is actually in foreign languages as well and said that he thought this was a good idea. Ms. Lee said that DBI has a current Code Enforcement Outreach Program (CEOP) and the Department funds that for another $300,000. Commissioner Brown said that unlike some of the other monies that were transferred out of DBI funds last year at least these have a very close nexus to what the Inspection Services do and what these groups do to augment those services. Commissioner Brown said that he was not saying that this should be a permanent line item out of DBI, but at least it makes a lot more sense than some of the other items that went out last year as far as the Fire Department and the Planning Department. Commissioner Brown said that he wanted to echo what Commissioner Hood said that this is a good appropriation of City funds where there is actual services and actual augmentation of DBI services. Commissioner Brown stated that these non-profits are able to get into these hotels and get the people that DBI might otherwise not get to in terms of people who won’t open their doors or Code violators themselves. Commissioner Brown said that this program was definitely something that should not be eliminated.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that what really needs to be emphasized here is that these programs are meritorious and good, but the point that obviously has been lost with the press and which this Department will never get the credit for, nor this Commission because it is a positive, is that this Department is undertaking the responsibilities for expenditures that were properly under the jurisdiction of other departments. Mr. O’Donoghue mentioned Planning, the Fire Department, the Department of Electricity, and the Public Health Department. Mr. O’Donoghue said that if this Department was being as poorly run as has been alleged by the Chronicle and by spokesmen for the Mayor’s Office, then how come that this Department is the only single department in the entire City that has taken its resources and subsidized other departments. Mr. O’Donoghue said that obviously one does not need to be a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that the allegations have no merit and this is the kind of the thing that the Department set aside, this $100,000, when it was created. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Department has never been really advertised in the proper fashion and it is the noisy wheel that gets the grease and if you don’t beat your own drum you are not going to get credit for it, especially in this City. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that DBI has failed to put out these great works that have been done as an offshoot against the political witch hunting that has beget this Department since its beginning. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he wanted to remind the Commission that it was known from the very beginning who opposed the creation of this Department, the Chamber of Commerce, SPUR, the Building Trades Council, Rudy Nothenberg and a whole plethora of groups out there that opposed the creation and they never have forgiven the public for voting in this Department which obviously has been very successful. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that those opposing groups are still out there with their knives sharpened ready at all times, intentionally or unintentionally, justifiably or not to try and nail the good reputation of this Department with ill founded and false statement. Mr. O’Donoghue said that it is the obligation of this Commission and staff to educate the public to the true facts; they already know it anyhow as evidenced by the survey that was done some years ago and the positive responses. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this needs to be put on the calendar and said that he wished Management would wake up to the sensitivities of defending the employees and the good reputation of this Department in a positive and aggressive manner. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he should not have to be in front of the Commission doing this and thanked the Commission.
7. Update on MIS Committee meetings. [Commissioner Guinnane & Commissioner Fillon]
Commissioner Guinnane said that at the last Sub-Committee meeting that was held $1.2M in contracts was authorized for future expenditures at the urging and recommendation of Director Chiu and the Acting Manager of the MIS. Commissioner Guinnane said that $500,000 was allocated for new laptops. Commissioner Guinnane said that his concern today was whether the Department should move forward or not based on some of the technology out there. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to hold back to get reports on the two visits, the Las Vegas visit and the San Diego visit to see what their technology is like in order to move forward. Commissioner Guinnane said that he also wanted to know what the Department is doing to search for a permanent MIS Manager as there is a lot of talent and qualified people out there and he wanted to know what was being done as far as a nationwide search.
Director Chiu said that in response to Commissioner Guinnane’s first questions the $496,000 was not for laptops, but for desktops for all DBI personnel. Director Chiu said that the Commission was informed that most of DBI’s desktops are five or six years old and in order to continue launching new technology some of these old desktops would not function well. Director Chiu said that currently there are substantial complaints from DBI personnel that their desktops are frozen or not responding in a timely manner. Director Chiu said that he would be happy to revisit that and perhaps not spend the entire $496,000 and maybe scale it down to half of that, but his concern is that the Department would just be further behind. Director Chiu said regarding DBI’s search for a MIS Manager, at this time there is still a lot of work to be done to rebuild and enhance the infrastructure and there should be a plan to do that. Director Chiu stated that as to the staffing he was concerned about some of the existing staff and said that at this time he would like to continue utilizing DTIS for a while until the networking system is stabilized. Director Chiu said that DBI wanted to take time to bring in an outsider to run the Department because at this time the Department is not experienced in running by itself and this is not the time to run and look for somebody and be stuck with that person forever. Director Chiu stated that he wanted to take his time to do a search.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to calendar this as a Special Meeting to have the entire Commission look at the MIS and would like to get a presentation from DBI’s last trip and the individuals that have set up the system down in
Commissioner Fillon said that the sub-committee actually approved some expenditures and asked the Director to come up with those. Commissioner Fillon said that he thought that the rest of the Commission should know what was authorized. Director Chiu said that the information was attached to the agenda, but wanted to remind the BIC that DBI’s infrastructure is at least five or six years old and the last time anything was touched was back then. Director Chiu said that the Department thought that the imaging system could be launched, but DBI found out that the networking system is so old that it doesn’t have the storage capability to run that program.
Director Chiu reported that item #1 was to replace the core network for $204,007. Director Chiu said that the next item was to replace the three Novell servers at a cost of $208,500 and item #3, as discussed, was to replace some of the desktop systems for $496,000, which Commissioner Guinnane has asked him to revisit. Vice-President Hood asked if that would include the thin screen monitors. Director Chiu said that was correct. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that the Department should never buy one of those big, heavy, deep monitors again because the prices have dropped radically. Vice-President Hood said that her newest mouse is not wired and it is much more ergonomically satisfactory than the old ones that had to be plugged into the computer. Vice-President Hood said that now the keyboard and the mouse do not have to be wired to the computer. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that she was on the MIS Sub-Committee to talk about computers because they are dear to her heart. Commissioner Fillon said that officially it is Commission Guinnane and himself that are on that Committee. Commissioner Fillon said that there could be three Commissioners on it, but that would change the notification requirements and set up of the meetings. Vice-President Hood said that she wished she knew that some of DBI staff was going to Las Vegas and San Diego as she would have been happy to have paid her own way to go on those field trips because she is really interested in seeing systems in other areas that are successful. Director Chiu said that he did intend to send additional technical staff to look at the operations such as plan checking and inspection personnel so perhaps Vice-President Hood could be invited to go. Commissioner Fillon asked if the Commission could finish going through the list of approved items.
Director Chiu said that items #4 was to bring DBI licensing software into compliance and that would cost $150,000; lastly, there is a new program that the Personnel Department wanted to implement for the personnel position control system, which is $41,200. Commissioner Fillon asked what that system was for. Director Chiu said it was for tracking all MIS such as their status and the training program and everything that needs to be tracked regarding personnel issues. Commissioner D’Anne asked if the Department has made any arrangements for any of these replacement items to be disposed of properly, in other words not to be put in a landfill. Director Chiu said that these items would be turned back into the City system and then it is up to them to donate or give them away to other agencies such as schools.
Commissioner Guinnane asked if Director Chiu would come back to the BIC and give a very short timetable as to when the Commission can get a complete handle on the situation in San Diego and when there could be a presentation from the vendor down there. Director Chiu said that on the second week of April he would be happy to go over DBI’s Strategic Plan that would incorporate a lot of the things that were learned at those sessions. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the system that DBI had in place would be compatible with the system in San Diego. Director Chiu said that in talking to all agencies no agencies have the same Permit Tracking System; each agency tailors the system to their own needs. Commissioner Guinnane asked if there was some lead vendor that put the system in place in San Diego; someone that organized, designed and implemented it. Director Chiu said that for a smaller jurisdiction it could almost be bought off the shelf, but this would not work with the City and County of San Francisco because eight or nine years ago DBI tried to do its own upgrade of the Permit Tracking System and the same is true for Los Angeles and Long Beach. Director Chiu said that they all have their own Permit Tracking System and then they have their own staff or an outside contract vendor to come in and learn their system to incorporate what they already have and San Francisco is trying to do the same thing.
Vice-President Hood said that under item #7 there is something about item #3 which is desktop and peripheral replacement and stated that she was not sure where the BIC was with Commissioner Guinnane’s comments. Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to point out that desktops, monitors and printers become outmoded very rapidly and if DBI’s are at least five years old they are dinosaurs. Vice-President Hood stated that the time could be saved in staff time and staff’s ability to respond quickly to getting these permits through and all of these other issues would be vastly improved by having current equipment so she thought that it was important to go ahead and spend that money.
Commissioner Fillon said that both he and Commissioner Guinnane spent a lot of time having these items explained to them and felt that the money should be spent to go ahead with these systems. Commissioner Fillon said that he really wanted the rest of the Commissioners to get a better presentation on this, but wanted to let all of the Commissioners know that Commissioner Guinnane and himself did not authorize these expenditures without really looking into it because these items are needed and are long overdue.
8. Discussion and possible action regarding construction activity at 337 – 28th Avenue. [Commissioner Guinnane]
Commissioner Guinnane said that there were no representatives present from
Director Chiu said that the legal 3-R report that was issued for the property was not on January 13, 2004 but was actually issued some time in 2002 or 2003 when the property was being transferred. Director Chiu said that he agreed that the initial 3-R report that was issued to the property owner was as a three unit building. Director Chiu stated that as the construction developed and staff discovered numerous problems with this particular property, Director Chiu and Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson researched the 3-R records and they also got the 3-R that was issued on January 13, 2004. Director Chiu said that all work has been stopped on this property. Director Chiu said that he had staff go back and look to see what the legal number of dwelling units there were in past DBI records and that is when the January 14th 3-R was issued. Commissioner Guinnane said that if Director Chiu was saying that the 3-R was issued in 2002 there was permit history information on the 3-R showing 2003 and the report numbers are the same. Director Chiu said that the way the current system is there is a control to lock the system so that the system will only spit out who entered the data at the time, so what happened on January 13th when a staff member who is no longer with the 3-R division was asked to get information from the system her name showed up. Director Chiu said that the reason for this is to show who entered the data or who did the report, but the true 3-R report that was issued was back in 2003 or 2002. Director Chiu said that based on the January 14th report the Department found out that there was no permit history or record to show that this property is a three unit building, but is a single family dwelling and that is why the record was changed. Commissioner Guinnane said that he looked at records from the Assessor’s Office and it says something about it being a three unit building, but in looking at the actual MLS the purchaser brought it as a legal two unit building with an in-law. Commissioner Guinnane said that the MLS clearly shows it as two units so obviously there is a big breakdown in the records of the Assessor’s Office and the Planning Department. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he was really troubled about the 3-R reports because these reports cost about $58.00, but if the information is not accurate he did not know why someone would even need one as San Francisco is the only county that requires the 3-R report. Commissioner Guinnane said that he has spoken to Inspector Sweeney about how this building could have gotten so far along without being stopped.
Commissioner Guinnane said that this property was discussed at the last meeting and his position was that it is on 28th Avenue and there are two new buildings being built across the street so it wasn’t in a cul-de-sac or an alleyway where it wouldn’t be seen. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a tremendous amount of work done out there and no inspections have been done at any time. Commissioner Guinnane asked why the construction wasn’t stopped sooner and how the Department planned to remedy the problem.
Senior Inspector Ed Sweeney said that right now there are four Stop Work Notices on the property and it was very difficult to get in because the owners ignored the Inspectors. Mr. Sweeney said that there is an eight-foot fence surrounding the property that is draped with a black mesh that would be used for lead abatement and things of that nature. Mr. Sweeney said that there were three permits for this property; the first one issued April 15, 2003 to update and repair foundation, install foundation bolts, and reinforce the foundation. Mr. Sweeney stated that this was an over he counter permit that was followed up with a revision to approve a permit application to repair and replace wall and floor covering, repair and replace damage to siding or stucco walls and repair rear stairs; that was issued on 5/27/03 for $5,000. Mr. Sweeney reported that finally there was a third permit on July 15, 2003 to repair and replace roof, repair and replace as needed existing decks, and repair and replace garage door. Mr. Sweeney said that the owner did have three permits and the Department was waiting for the owner to call for inspections. Commissioner Guinnane asked what the total amount of the three permits was. Mr. Sweeney said that it was $13,000. Commissioner Guinnane said that obviously the Department has been defrauded here because he went out and looked at the job with President Santos and there is a big addition put on the back and there is a lot of work that has been done out there. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would say that there is about $450,000 spent out there so the Department has been clearly defrauded here. Mr. Sweeney said that he has been holding out on the total amount of the permits simply because it has been sheet rocked and the Inspectors really can’t see what has been done. Mr. Sweeney said that it was his understanding that the permit applicant is preparing to take off the sheet rock so the Department can do a more in-depth study. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would recommend that every piece of sheet rock be taken off and the insulation removed so a thorough inspection can be done. Commissioner Guinnane said that furthermore, this is not a three unit building; this is probably a two unit building. Mr. Sweeney said that the owner has been told to remove all of the sheet rock and the Department is looking at the records to ascertain what the building actually is.
Vice-President Hood asked if this project was approved without checking the number of units in the building. Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson said that the permits did go to the Housing Division to verify the number of units, but the information that existed on the computer showed this to be three units. Mr. Hutchinson said that the information given showed approximately 4,800 square feet for the total square footage of the building, but on a subsequent permit once this became problematic, Mr. Hutchinson went back to Housing and looked a little bit further and could not find the file. Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Housing Inspector refused to sign the third permit and that is how he got more deeply involved to try and find out exactly what was there. Vice-President Hood asked if there was any evidence of foul play in changing the number of units in the computer system. Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department would have to look into that. Mr. Hutchinson said that he had a Planner go into the database to get more information for him and this has since been corrected.
Vice-President Hood asked about when there is a job site that is totally obscured and what the Department’s policy would be in this kind of situation where the Department has not been called in to do an inspection by the owner. Mr. Hutchinson said that Inspector did go by and stated that Mr. Duffy is an excellent Inspector who probably has six hundred jobs along with complaints and everything else and the Inspectors are not construction managers. Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Department requires the owner to call the Department when they need to and Mr. Duffy would have looked and seen that there was a permit on the property figuring that most people are honest. Mr. Hutchison said that as it turns out recently there are about eight cases that the Department is looking at that are potential unlawful demolitions or at least problematic jobs. Vice-President Hood said that as has been discussed at other meetings the project sponsor should have to submit any drawings on the property within the past three years and the serial permits ought to go onto a watch list. Mr. Hutchinson said that he would support that.
Commissioner Guinnane said that in looking at the first permit dated April 15, 2003 actually the problems are a failure on the Department’s fault. Commissioner Guinnane said that the first permit starts off as three family dwellings and obviously they knew that there weren’t three units out there and the estimate on the job card is $3,000 for foundation work and there is no square footage listed of any kind. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a permit issued on May 27, 2003 for $5,000 and again there is no square footage and no drawings. Commissioner Guinnane said on permit number three, July 15, 2003 again the amount of work could not be done for $5,000 and again there is no footage. Mr. Hutchinson said that he agreed wholeheartedly and said that he did not think it was a breakdown with staff, but was a breakdown with the Mangers and said that he would accept responsibility for this. Mr. Hutchinson said that he should get together with his colleague and set checks and balances, which clearly don’t exist.
Commissioner Guinnane said that obviously this owner came down and got the permits, but she didn’t do the work so the Department should find out who the Contractor was in order to make some referrals to the proper agencies regarding the licensees because clearly this is a fraud. Vice-President Hood said that it is very easy to have the licensed person reported to the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Commissioner Guinnane said that the actual MLS lists the property as two units and based on the
square footage that he has come up with it looks like the building is about seventy-one feet long and it looks like a sixteen foot extension has been put on the back on three floors. Commissioner Guinnane said that the owner should produce a sales contract showing what the owner thought she was buying. Vice-President Hood said that the title report should show that. Mr. Hutchinson said that the owner got to his office based on a complaint about the Senior Inspector and the District Inspector saying that they were somehow being unfair in going through the building. Mr. Hutchinson said that the owner offered to produce photographic evidence that the building is the exact configuration that it was so he went out with Senior Inspector Sweeney and District Inspector Joseph Duffy, but when they arrived there was no evidence and the meeting turned into something entirely different. Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department has told the owner that she would have to expose the entire framing of the structure and there are many problems with faulty construction. Mr. Hutchinson said that this was a horror story as far as the construction is concerned. Vice-President Hood asked if the owner would have to tear off the extension if it was done without permit and asked if that was in progress. Mr. Hutchinson stated that work on this job has been stopped for several months now and the Department has asked the owner to come in to ascertain exactly what has happened and ask her to go through the process. Commissioner Fillon asked if there were fines against this property right now. Mr. Hutchinson said that they haven’t been finalized because the owner has not come in with documents that DBI needs. Mr. Hutchinson said that the fines would go against her permit application, which is now for the first time going to show what her intentions are. Vice-President Hood said that she would like to get a copy of the documents to find out who the people were who signed these documents because a three-story building cannot be done without being signed by a licensed Architect or Engineer. Mr. Hutchinson said he would provide that information at the next meeting.
Commissioner Marks said that she thought that the construction, the rear addition, would have to be taken down and asked if that was not correct. Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department gives the owner the opportunity to file to either remove it or attempt to legalize it. Mr. Hutchinson said that the neighbors are very unhappy about what is going on with this property and said that if the owner did try to legalize the work he thought there would be a DR by the neighbors against it.
Commissioner Guinnane said that when he was out at the property the applicants were very agreeable to remove the sheet rock and pay whatever fines were associated with it and do whatever needed to be done. Commissioner Guinnane said that looking at this now this was a fraud from the get go and what they wanted to do was to get the building done, get it covered up and then come along and pay whatever penalty was imposed. Commissioner Guinnane said that suppose the Department penalized the owner $200,000 for a set of flats and now all of a sudden it is a three unit building with a penthouse upstairs. Commissioner Guinnane said that on the market today that would probably sell for $1.2 or $1.3 and even taking away $200,000 the owner is still ahead. Commissioner Guinnane asked who sized all of this and asked how the owner would get a four or three inch meter from the Fire Department without a plan being approved. Vice-President Hood said that they should have to rip out the sprinkler system and reinstall it and that would send a big message because it is $35,000 to connect up to the Water Department. Commissioner Guinnane said that it would cost about $10,000.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about 547 – 43rd Avenue and asked if it was the same applicant that is involved in this job where there were Stop Work Orders. Mr. Hutchinson said that yes it was and stated that the Department has gone back and checked on some other projects and that name appeared on title for another potential unlawful demolition. Mr. Hutchinson said that Department was looking to see if this was a serial offender. Commissioner Guinnane said that there should be some formula by either work or dollar amount where there has to be a contractor of record because it is too easy to get around the owner/builder issue. Vice-President Hood said that the owner/building can only do their own work on a contract of a certain size and this has exceeded that by a great deal. Vice-President Hood said that the Department needs to use all of the laws in California that are available to go after these scofflaws, as these laws were written to protect the public.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he was not blaming the Department for this, but asked what DBI was doing now when there are several permits are applied for in a short period of time. Director Chiu said that recently the Department has seen people taking advantage of an easy process in taking out these over the counter permits so one of the things he has been talking to the Deputy Directors about is allowing someone to get an over the counter permit the first time; and then subsequent permits would not be issued until an Inspector goes to the property to verify the work. Commissioner Guinnane said that it bothered him that there was no square footage on any of these permits and nobody asked any questions. Vice-President Hood said that she could not understand how a permit was issued over the counter on a project that required new foundations. Mr. Hutchinson asked Deputy Director Wong to come forward to speak to this issue. President Santos reminded the Commission that there were still five more items to get to and time was running short. Vice-President Hood said that President Santos would have to stay out of the discussion on this property because he was the Engineer on it.
Deputy Director Wong of Permit Services said that the issues that the Commission had pointed out were certainly things that the Department neededto look at. Mr. Wong said that the quantities are something that he has asked all of the Inspectors and Engineers at the counter to look at. Mr. Wong said that he thought that the applicant was interviewed, but for some reason the information did not get translated onto the permits and that was a problem. Vice-President Hood said that she did not want Mr. Wong to pass the buck on this. Vice-President Hood said that a foundation is a structural thing that has reinforcement in it and it needs a special inspection before the reinforcement is covered up, so it shouldn’t be issued over the counter. Mr. Wong said that the application said that it would be simply putting the bolts in, it did not say “replace foundation”; if the Department sees the words “replace foundation” then plans would be required. Mr. Wong said that in looking at this particular project it was approved over the counter by and Engineer in the office. Vice-President Hood said that with three applications over the past three years she would just have those go to non-over the counter permits. Mr. Wong said that in looking at this particular project there is the intention of doing a much bigger project and the serial permitting is a problem. Mr. Wong said that the policy would have to be changed.
Commissioner Guinnane said that in going back to Vice-President Hood’s comment about President Santos he wanted the record to be clear that President Santos was not the Engineer when these permits were put through, but he was called by the applicant to come out and do an evaluation as an “as built”. Commissioner Guinnane stated that President Santos was not involved in any of the three permits. Vice-President Hood said that the moment President Santos did work on it and any time a Commissioner receives a fee for a project they would have to recuse themselves and leave the room. President Santos said that the latest that the Commission could remain in Room 400 was 12:15 p.m. so the meeting had to move on.
Mr. Leo McFadden from the Building Inspectors Association said that he was speaking in defense of the Building Inspector. Mr. McFadden said that this building was completely shrouded and the rear of addition was not visible from the street. Mr. McFadden stated that there were permits for the siding so when the Inspector checked there were permits on file. Mr. McFadden said that the Inspector had made numerous attempts and even caused delays to the owner and when he did get into the building he issued a Notice of Violation. Mr. McFadden said that for his efforts, the Inspector got a letter of complaint from the owner’s attorney. Mr. McFadden stated that he wanted to say that the Inspector has a very busy district and cannot police every shrouded building in this large district. Mr. McFadden said that this was clearly an attempt to manipulate the permit process, an attempt that failed on the owner’s part. Commissioner Fillon said that if there is an eight or ten-foot wall around a property the Inspectors need to investigate and follow up. Vice-President Hood said that the Commission needs to assist the Inspectors by changing policy so that the Inspectors would not be maligned. Commissioner Guinnane said that he is not trying to bombard the Inspector out there, but in coming from Clement Street down to California Street the netting is clear and there is a whole new side of the buildingthe Inspector should be able to see that there are permits for $13,000 worth of work and know that something is wrong. Mr. McFadden said that the Inspector could not police every single shrouded building because the shrouding is required because of the lead ordinance.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Building Association said that the Commission is attempting to find solutions as they look at the causes of this problem. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the Commission should concentrate on the causes of the problem and let the dialogue on the solutions can wait until it is determined whether or not this person is an egregious scofflaw. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Commission should be isolating this case and it should be remanded right now to both the City Attorney’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office to have parallel investigations. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this property raises a red flag because it has the appearance of a scofflaw that just doesn’t end with a project sponsor, but involves an architect, an engineer and could even involve some people in the Department who might be facilitating these people to get this permit approved. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he thought this Commission was missing this point completely because these scofflaws need to pay the penalties because otherwise what is now going to happen is that the over the counter permits which help about 20,000 people is going to be changed because of scofflaws, so the good are being punished. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this would cause more delays and expense to the average Joe Blow who comes in for a kitchen remodel or some simple process and all of this is going to be upended because of these scofflaws. Mr. O’Donoghue suggested isolating this case and getting it ready for both criminal, civil and the State level of prosecution. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this has become a pattern and this is bringing defamation down on the entire industry. Mr. O’Donoghue asked where was the supine press that should be writing about these cases.
President Santos asked if the Commission would vote on the approval of BIC minutes and said that he would jump to item #12 and #13.
- Review and approval of the minutes of the
Commissioner Fillon made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Guinnane, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 015-004
13. Review and approval of the minutes of the February 2, 2004 meeting.
Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by President Santos, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 016-004
President Santos said that the Commission would now go back to item #9.
9. Discussion and possible action regarding construction activity at
[Commissioner Guinnane]
Commissioner Guinnane said that this item was on the calendar at the last meeting and there was not much public comment on it. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had a chance since then to review the drawings and look at the plans and had gotten some input from some of the neighbors. Commissioner Guinnane said that he got a call from a neighbor at
Deputy Director Wong said that Mr. Tom was supposed to be at the meeting, but had an emergency and could not attend. Mr. Wong said that he would review this with Mr. Tom and said that he knew this was another project with multiple permits coming in so he would have to look at the plans and sit down to sort this out with Mr. Hutchinson. Mr. Wong said that with this project the Department did implement the new procedure that the Commission asked for which was to go and do more notification, so this project has an additional notification process because it was more than 50%. Commissioner Guinnane said that it was 94.5% and in looking at 4133 Irving Street on the same side of the street the same thing was done with that building. Commissioner Guinnane stated that it was a small house that was completely all taken down and it is now two units with an illegal unit in there. Mr. Wong said that there is another permit in process again and that would have to be notified. Commissioner Guinnane said that it was his position that this was a brand new building and is no longer an alteration so the applicant should go through the Planning process for a brand new building. Commissioner Guinnane asked about tracking that Engineer of Record on past jobs or on jobs coming up; is there anything in the Department that could do that. Mr. Wong said that MIS could do a query on that. Vice-President Hood asked if that could be done on DBI’s current system. Mr. Wong said that it could. Commissioner Guinnane said that he wanted to go back and look at other projects that have been approved by this Engineer of Record to see if there is the same history with applications. Vice-President Hood said that further she would like to have a member of the Department, if this turns out to be true, to so notify the relevant licensing board. Mr. Wong said that he would get back to the Commission. Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to reiterate that although the BIC might sound like it is being critical of the Department that is not the intent at all, because the BIC actually thinks that the Department does a fantastic job and because the BIC pushes customer service everyone forgets that there are some people who come into the Department with bad intent. Vice-President Hood said that these people try to use the goodwill of the Department for the wrong ends so the BIC is trying to find a way to recognize those people when they come in, but it is intended to be positive. Vice-President Hood stated that there needs to be a way to catch the bad guys as well as assist the good guys.
Mr. Wong said that he wanted to respond to the question about why this did not come in as a new building because in looking at his notes originally this did come in as a new building. Mr. Wong said that this was on March 1, 2001 to erect a four-story two unit residential building and for some reason it got cancelled. Mr. Wong stated that he believed that the project sponsor mentioned at the last meeting that this was done on the advice of City Planning. Commissioner Guinnane asked what the story count was today. Mr. Wong said that it looked to him like an application for a new four-story two unit building was filed; it was cancelled and then the latest permit was filed for a horizontal and vertical addition on April 2003. Commissioner Guinnane asked what the records showed as a reason for the cancellation. Mr. Wong said that the reason for cancellation says that staff initiated a DR and it was cancelled due to withdrawal of the permit application. Mr. Wong said maybe it went through the Discretionary Review process. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a DR filed and then the application was pulled and then a new application was filed to get around the DR process. Mr. Wong said that he did not know what communication went on between the project sponsor and the Department of City Planning, but apparently City Planning was involved in some decision making. President Santos asked if the project sponsor was in the audience. Mr. Hutchinson said that the application has not been filed yet for a three-story building. Commissioner Guinnane asked if that was a three story including the garage or three stories over the garage. Mr. Hutchinson said that it was for a three story including the garage.
Mr. James Li introduced himself as the Project Sponsor of this address and stated that he was totally shocked by Commissioner Guinnane’s comments about him being the bad guy. Mr. Li said that this project went through a very difficult process because in the beginning he tried to file for a new building application and demolition. Mr. Li said that in going through the Planning process they had not yet notified the neighbor so no DR was ever filed against the new building and demolition permit. Mr. Li said that with the new demolition policy there has to be a soundness report to justify demolishing any of the existing building and Planning did not want to tear down any so called sound structures. Mr. Li said that this existing building originally was only one story with a shoe repair shop in the front and a unit in the back. Mr. Li stated that from the exterior it did not look that bad so he advised his clients to file for an alteration instead because from the beginning it did not seem that this project would fly and would not meet the new demolition criteria. Mr. Li said that on the plan he identified what was to be demolished and what would remain and said that this was very clear on the plan and so far the building is still there. Mr. Li said that no wall has been taken down that is not supposed to be according to the plan. Mr. Li said that in the newest revision he is attempting to remove more wall because of dry rot. Commissioner Guinnane stated that the Commission hears the same story about dry rot all the time and it seems to be an ongoing pattern. Commissioner Guinnane said that if Mr. Li came along and went for a new building permit and did the unsoundness there should have been no reason why Mr. Li couldn’t have come up with a report that this house was completely unsound because it looks like the way things are going the whole house is rotten. Commissioner Guinnane asked how Mr. Li could miss all of that. Mr. Li stated that the building was covered on the exterior by siding and the interior is covered by lathe and plaster. Mr. Li said that he would not know the condition of the framing unless some of the interior plaster or some of the exterior siding was removed.
Vice-President Hood said that she did not buy that argument because she is an Architect and when she goes into a building that has leaks or has evidence of water damage or settlement or just the age of the building it is possible to open up a couple of holes in the building to find out what is going on. Vice-President Hood asked Mr. Li if when he worked on the project did he think that it included an addition to what was there. Mr. Li said that since City Planning changed the policy by requiring a soundness report on all demolitions then he advised his clients to consider an addition/alteration instead of a new building permit. Mr. Li said that he is trying to follow the City procedure. Vice-President Hood asked Mr. Li if he knew that the building was going to be larger than what was there before. Mr. Li said, of course. Vice-President Hood said that under the definition of the Code, that is an addition, whether it is a new building or an old building and when that is called on the building permit it triggers a certain notice by the Department of City Planning and a certain evaluation of the project. Vice-President Hood said that it was her understanding that this was not done on Mr. Li’s project. Mr. Li said that it was done and it was done properly. Mr. Li said that when the permit was first filed City Planning notified the neighbors within a 150-foot radius and when the permit went to the Building Department a second notification was sent out to a 300-foot radius. Commissioner Santos asked if anyone had filed a DR on this. Mr. Li said no one had on the Building notification, but in the Planning process there has been a DR filed by one of the neighbors. Mr. Li said that the owners settled that with the neighbors before it went to a hearing. Commissioner Guinnane asked why Mr. Li did not just file for a new building permit if there was no trouble with the neighbors. Commissioner Guinnane asked if a new building required an automatic DR. Mr. Li said that he did file for a demolition permit before, but they did not think that the building was so bad.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about the foundations and asked how Mr. Li thought that the original foundation with no rebar was going to support this building. Mr. Li said that there is one section of the foundation that looks pretty good and he was suggesting to widen the foundations for the whole load. Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Li could not just dowel into one side of the foundation because the old foundations have no rebar or footing and would not calc out. Mr. Li stated that there are some situations where the foundations are next to the property line and how could he dowel on the other side. Commissioner Guinnane said that you couldn’t so the foundations would have to come out. Vice-President Hood said it means the property needs a new foundation. Vice-President Hood said that when someone is an Engineer and knows the foundation is old and has no rebar they know you can’t beef it up and use it. Mr. Li said that the Commission could ask some other Engineers because it has been done before.
President Santos said that Mr. Li understood that there was go to be some requirements regarding the soundness report and if he wanted to start with a new building he would have to file for a demolition permit. President Santos stated that a demolition automatically triggers a DR and it is a process that demands the creation of a soundness report and appearance before the Planning Commission. President Santos said that in terms of the Planning notification it is almost identical to what Mr. Li has done because there was actually two notifications including the 300-foot radius. President Santos said that with the steps Mr. Li has taken it did not appear to him that Mr. Li purposely tried to bypass anything because the Planning Commission and the Planning Department had an opportunity to review this twice. Vice-President Hood said that this would be assuming the project was represented appropriately so she did not think that President Santos’ statement was quite correct. President Santos said that the issue right now is the set of drawings that Mr. Li developed calls for keeping some of the walls and now it has been discovered that some additional elements need to be taken out because of extensive dry rot. President Santos asked Mr. Li what steps he had taken to put the City back in the loop of having to revise those drawings. Mr. Li said that before he takes down all those walls he tried to file for another application and has had all levels of Inspectors out to the project to try to verify all of those conditions. Commissioner Guinnane said that the Commission was running out of time for this meeting and asked for public testimony on this item.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders said that this was a total fraud and said that he disagreed with Commissioner Santos. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this building was a sound structure and the reason it was pulled from Planning was because the project sponsor knew he could not convince the Planning Department, Commission or staff that this was an unsound structure. Mr. O’Donoghue said that Mr. Li is now claiming that this is unsound. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he had been in the remodeling business for years and if someone is going to do a remodeling job and then apply for a new building to tear it down, it would be no problem on Mr. Li’s part to take the lathe and plaster in the interior off and then he could have brought the proof into the Department that it was an unsound structure. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this did not take any rocket scientist. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this Department has been defrauded and this is another case that should go to the District Attorney and the City Attorney’s Office, right to the top the whole way as it is absolutely the reason that there is this plethora of illegal activity going on with scofflaws. Vice-President Hood said that she couldn’t agree more with that. Vice-President Hood asked if Mr. Li was the same person who worked for the Building Department a number of years ago. Mr. Li said that was correct. Vice-President Hood said that she really did think that the Department should refer this to the District Attorney and the City Attorney’s Office.
The owner of this property said he was a contractor for forty years and did not know what happened as he brought this building about ten years ago to build something for his son. The owner said that the foundation is still there and the building is still there and said that he has been waiting for a new building for eight years and right now and his entire family is living in one room. The owner asked that the Department and the Commission not give him any more problems.
Vice-President Hood said that before the meeting was over she wanted to talk about item # 11c. President Santos agreed to move to that item.
10. Update on property located at 4809 Mission Street. [Deputy Director Hutchinson] (continued)
11 . Review of Communication Items. At this time, the Commission may discuss or take possible action to respond to communication items received since the last meeting.
- Copy of letter dated February 9, 2004 from Deputy Director William Wong to Mr. Christopher Rojahn, Executive Director of Applied Technology Council regarding outstanding invoices for the CAPSS program for October 2002 to April 2003.
Copy of CAPSS final report by ATC 4/05/03. Copy of letter dated February 17, 2004 from Applied Technology Council and reply letter dated March 1, 2004 from Deputy Director William Wong to Mr. Christopher Rojahn of Applied Technology Council.
- Copy of Planning the City’s Future, An Agenda for Change in the San Francisco Department of City Planning and Department of Building Inspection a Joint report from AIA San Francisco and SPUR received from Ms. O’Driscoll of AIA San Francisco.
- Copy of e-mail dated February 5, 2004 from Mr. James Riley to Mayor Gavin Newsom regarding property located at Lake Streetand 17th Avenue and DBI’s handling of Mr. Riley’s complaint.
- Copy of letter dated February 29, 2004 from JoAnna and Leo Mankiewicz to Ms. Judith Boyajian regarding Application Nos. 2002/11/01/0637, 2003/04/04/1524 and 2003/04/04/1518 and Appeal No. 02-225 (hearing held 2/05/04) for work at 189 Farnum Street.
Vice-President Hood said that it was regarding an e-mail to Mayor Gavin Newsom on February 5th that mentioned something that is very illegal and is a specific charge against DBI and her first question was why this was only now coming to the Commission. Vice-President Hood stated that there was an allegation in this through the Mayor’s Office of criminal wrongdoing and said that she would like this letter to be investigated immediately and in the future when any mail comes to DBI she wanted it to be dealt with immediately. Commissioner Guinnane said that he remembered this case very well, as this is a building that is 25 feet off the corner of
Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Commission could continue item #’s 9 and 10 and also 28th Avenue, item #8 for the next meeting. The Commission agreed.
14. Review Commissioner’s Questions and Matters.
a. Inquiries to Staff. At this time, Commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the Commission.
b. Future Meetings/Agendas. At this time, the Commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a Special Meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Building Inspection Commission.
15. Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
There was no time for items # 14 and 15.
16. Adjournment.
Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by President Santos, that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 015-004
The meeting adjourned at 12:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
_______________________
Ann Marie Aherne Commission Secretary
|
SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS |
|
|
Letter to be sent to Mr. Nothenberg regarding attending a BIC meeting regarding protocol for his investigation of DBI. – Commissioners Brown, Hood and Santos |
Pages 4 – 6 |
|
Department to prepare a report about visits to Long Beach and San Diego regarding MIS issues and other jurisdictions computer systems. – Vice-President Hood |
Pages 7 - |
|
Report from DBI about the implementation of Permit Tracking – Vice-President Hood. |
Page 11 |
|
Assistant Director Lee to draft a letter for Vice-President Hood regarding Ordinance from BOS regarding DBI’s Permit Tracking. – Vice-President Hood |
Page 11 |
|
Copy of Lobbyists Legislation to Commissioners. – Vice-President Hood |
Page 13 |
|
Commissioner Brown to make a visit to GoldenGateway |
Page 22 |
|
Ms. Singleton of Housing and Urban Health Department of Public Health to provide Commissioners with information on SRO Collaboratives. – Vice-President Hood |
Pages 23 – 25 |
|
Special Meeting to look at DBI’s MIS issues and vendor reports from visits to San Diego & Las Vegas. – Commissioner Guinnane |
Pages 25 – 28 |
|
Update on the signing of documentation and property located at 337 – 28th Avenue. – Vice-President Hood and Commissioner Guinnane |
Pages 28 - 33 |
|
Department to look into the Engineer of Record for 4109 Irving Street for past projects and possible referring to the proper State Licensing Board. – Vice-President Hood. |
Pages 34 - 38 |